Tag: 31Days

31 Days of Oscar TCM Premieres

Turner Classic Movies is once again presenting 31 Days of Oscar, this year organized by nominees and winners in a different category each day. The channel has scheduled a bunch of films that have never graced TCM airwaves before, even venturing into the 21st century, which, in my unpopular opinion, is welcome addition. (This isn’t a new thing for me. I’ve been advocating for Future Classic Movies since 2012.) Most of the Oscar films are in heavy rotation year-round, and, as controversial as it may be, it’s nice to get some variety. Some titles like Gosford Park, The Triplets of Belleville, Far From Heaven, and Lincoln map obviously to classical genres, but all of these deserve a chance. Try one, you might like it. After all, even Wings (1927) was new once. More on the remaining premières after the jump

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31 Days of Oscar: The 48th Academy Awards (1975) by Jack Deth

by Jack Deth

Greetings, all and sundry!

A New Year brings many things. Cold weather. Occasional snow. The Super Bowl. Worries about taxes. And that selection of works from the previous year’s effort in regard to cinematic entertainment known as the Academy Awards. The celebration of the “be all and end all” that is the magic of Tinseltown.

With the toils of 1975 fuzzily reflected in the tastes and perspectives of what felt like the final year of pulling up from the nosedive, ennui and la cafard created by Vietnam. Comedies in abundance. Woody Allen flexing his intellectual muscles with Love And Death on one side. To an off-the-wall New Wave import, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, adapted from the massively popular “audience participation” stage play. Dramas would also score high with Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock, and Antonioni’s The Passenger. Making room for conspiracy thriller Three Days of the Condor by Sidney Pollack. And science fiction taking a roller coaster ride with Bryan Forbes adapting Ira Levin’s high-end The Stepford Wives. To David Cronenberg’s creepy They Came From Within. And the no-budget take on Harlan Ellison’s post-apocalyptic narrative, A Boy And His Dog, filling those more base tastes.

An eclectic year to say the least, with proven masters doing things their own way, while making room for just-starting-out talent, who would be household names in later years, going against established convention. Not an easy year for Academy voters, with a plethora of personal tales, and a noted lack of established musicals and other hugely-budgeted studio “epics” to be whittled down to an easily manageable number.

Jaws-on-boat-470w
The offerings of 1975 would also have a Wild Card, a change to the long-standing paradigm, ramrodded by a young upstart named Stephen Spielberg. Released during the summer and added to the deck of contenders by tremendous reviews and popular demand. An intentionally made and executed “Blockbuster” by the name of Jaws.

Having perused, assembled and critiqued the films brought to the forefront during 1975. I’ve decided to lay out my offering very much as I had done for our hostess Paula a couple of years ago, and present for your approval:

The 48th Academy Awards: Old vs. New. With A Twist!

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