Your Favorite Performances from 1930 to the present

[Swithin]

1975 was a good year for movies.

Donald Sutherland should have been nominated and should have won for his performance as Homer Simpson in The Day of the Locust.

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[Swithin]

Now it's 1974. Let's look at the Academy's choices:

ACTOR

Art Carney - Harry and Tonto
Albert Finney – Murder on the Orient Express
Dustin Hoffman – Lenny
Jack Nicholson – Chinatown
Al Pacino – The Godfather Part II

ACTRESS

Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Diahann Carroll – Claudine
Faye Dunaway – Chinatown
Valerie Perrine – Lenny
Gena Rowlands – A Woman under the Influence

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Fred Astaire – The Towering Inferno
Jeff Bridges – Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Robert DeNiro - The Godfather Part II
Michael V. Gazzo – The Godfather Part II
Lee Strasberg – The Godfather Part II

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Ingrid Bergman - Murder on the Orient Express
Valentina Cortese – Day for Night
Madeline Kahn – Blazing Saddles
Diane Ladd – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Talia Shire – The Godfather Part II

And here are my choices:

ACTOR

Albert Finney, Murder on the Orient Express
Al Pacino, The Godfather, Part II
Jack Nicholson, Chinatown
Gene Hackman, The Conversation
Peter Falk, A Woman Under the Influence

ACTRESS

Dominique Labourier, Celine and Julie Go Boating
Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence
Juliet Berto, Celine and Julie Go Boating
Liv Ullmann, Scenes from a Marriage
Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

SUPPORTING ACTOR

John Cazale, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation
Robert De Niro, The Godfather Part II
John Huston, Chinatown
Lee Strasberg, The Godfather Part II
Richard Widmark, Murder on the Orient Express

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Lauren Bacall, Murder on the Orient Express
Ines Pellegrini, Arabian Nights
Rachel Roberts, Murder on the Orient Express
Aurore Clement, Lacombe, Lucien
Bulle Ogier, Celine and Julie go Boating

And here are my best picture nominees:

Celine and Julie Go Boating
Chinatown
The Conversation
The Godfather Part II
Murder on the Orient Express

So who would win if the Academy had to choose from my nominees. For Actor, Nicholson had a clear edge among the nominees. For Actress, I really think Ullmann would have a shot. This would be her fifth Best Actress nomination in nine years, and people protested when the Academy used a technicality to bar Scenes from a Marriage from contention. As for Supporting Actor, DeNiro wins, and for Supporting Actress Bacall easily beats the three foreign actresses and the Englishwoman to win.

It's nice to see Celine and Julie Go Boating get some love. It's one of my favorite films. Though when it resurfaced at the Film Forum in NYC a few years ago, and I asked a friend to go with me, he replied "NEVER AGAIN!" People have strong feelings about the film.

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fun little aventure/fantasy flick
great cast with Fairbanks having a blast
(O'Hara's goofy costumes kinda distracting though)