Wings The First Best Picture Oscar

-


 Wings (1927 US) Silent film following a pilot through WWI. This was just filled with firsts namely the first Oscar for Best Picture. Its pretty neat to watch and see how the movie industry is starting to evolve. This film was pretty expensive for a silent which tended to run like what we refer to as shorts. The general thought was, if we make better silent films audiences will forget about those pesky talkies. They were sooo wrong. But, and that's a big But, its still a stunning piece of history and art. By todays standards its MEH, though. I admit I'm a film purist and just love watching the evolution of film. I just love how pre-code this was. it had a lot going on including nudity and a man and a woman in a bed together. Scandalous. It had several same sex moments including a kiss. Some are saying its the first gay kiss on film and others are saying, "nah man that's just how they rolled back then." It seemed pretty gay kiss to me. Which is not to say its the first because others had done it before, with the same dilemma. Was it gay? So the consensus is a solid we don't know. I loved the aerial footage in this which had a lot of US Air Force planes and pilots involved in the shooting of the scenes. I think the USAF was called something different back then though. I just loved the tracking shots that they hadn't quite mastered yet as the camera operator was struggling to focus. I loved the animation that was hand drawn back then. Each frame painstakingly drawn. One of the main characters got ahold of something in Paris and was tripping balls seeing bubbles everywhere. This film was expensive as tuck and Paramount was none too happy about that as it kept going over budget. Audiences loved it though and it made its money back and then some. Producer Adolph Zukor breathed a sigh of relief as his studio "Paramount" was struggling to keep things going in the middle of such change. The brand new Academy kind of bent over backwards to give an award for this film even though it was older than they would have wanted they found a loophole. Actress Clara Bow accepted the award for Zukor who was off doing Producer stuff like producers do. It just wasn't a big deal back then. I love the parallels between this and Top Gun: Maverick this year. Tubi has it free. The print is pretty good considering its advanced age but fair warning much of the color degraded and most of the film is brown instead of B&W. Tubi has a horrible soundtrack to it so just turn it off and play Pink Floyd or something more appropriate. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
 Entergalactic (2022 US) Based on themes in the music of Kid Kudi this highly stylized animated romance drama also features the songs of Kudi. An Artist moves into a Manhattan apartment and falls in love with his photographer neighbor. Both of them must have been doing good to afford an apartment in Manhattan. The script was solid relationship drama but not particularly stand out. OH but the animation and artwork was just stunning. Every scene was a beautiful tableau that the master of  Mis En Scene, Miyazaki, would be envious of. The artists were particularly adept at movement and color. I thought at first it was rotoscoping a live image because the movement looked so natural, but nope. This was good old fashion talent and no doubt worked off of models. I just loved the color work in this. The soundtrack by Kudi was outstanding and gave the film an extra layer. In fact the animation, color and sound all added to a layered experience to enjoy. Its a Netflix original and should be avail
Read more

9 to 5 -Hot Take

-
Image
 9 to 5 (1980 US) Three female office workers (Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton) kidnap their boss (Dabney Coleman). "Tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition. Yawn and stretch and try to come to life." Face it you sang that when you read that. This Dolly Parton original song was nominated in the Best Song category at the Oscars in 1981. It lost to Fame. Tough year though. "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson was also in the mix. Parton said in a recent documentary that Fonda was asking her about the status of the song for the film so Parton played the song by scraping her acrylic nails together to create the beat and then sang the intro. Then she demonstrated it. Well shoot, if it didn't sound amazing. Didn't know that acrylic nails are the hot new sound. I just love this film. It was not nominated in any other categories but really should have. In the documentary Fonda talked about how the three bonded before the s
Read more

BoxTrolls -Hot Hot Take

-
Image
 BoxTrolls (2014 US) An orphan is raised by creatures living beneath the city of Cheesebridge. When the aristocracy comes for the creatures the boy takes action. Based on the book "Here be Monsters". Laika Studios brings you this dark but relevant story about corruption, entitlement, hypocrisy, and marginalized communities. You will remember Laika from some of their other works such as Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. I like to call the Oregon based studio a "stop motion factory". I have always despised hypocrites and used the word when I was very young, like 4 yo. Adults were well impressed. Not so impressed when I called them one. I just love stop motion. When you are making it, it's like playing with really expensive dolls. When I was a kid my dolls had quite an involved storyline and backstory so this was a very natural evolution. Don't judge me. What is so lovely about these types of films is that the puppets are hand made as is some of the sets.
Read more