1926 - The Year in Review

Tough year--so many movies I haven't seen from this period. But I have to go with the obvious, though I split on director, simply because the German film is so resplendent to look at! NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are in no way reflective of the choices made by the Oscars.

PICTURE: THE GENERAL (US, Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman)
2nd: Faust (Germany, F.W. Murnau), followed by:
Mother (USSR, Vsevelod I. Pudovkin)
The Lodger (UK, Alfred Hitchcock)
Flesh and the Devil (US, Clarence Brown)

ACTOR: Buster Keaton, THE GENERAL (2nd: Emil Jannings, Faust, followed by: John Barrymore, Don Juan))

ACTRESS: Vera Baranovskaya, MOTHER (2nd: Greta Garbo, Flesh and the Devil, followed by: Camilla Horn, Faust)) 

DIRECTOR: F.W. Murnau, FAUST (2nd: Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, The General, followed by: Vsevelod I. Pudovkin, Mother)



SHORT FILM: MENILMONTANT (France, Dimitri Kirsanoff) (2nd: Emak-Bakia (France, Man Ray) (2nd: Anemic Cinema (France, Marcel Duchamp), followed by: Menilmontant (France, Dimitri Kirsanoff), Film Studie (Germany, Hans Richter), The Town Rat and The Country Rat (France, Wladislaw Starewicz), Mighty Like a Moose (US, Leo McCarey))

SCREENPLAY: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman, Al Boasberg and Charles Smith, THE GENERAL (2nd: Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Hans Kyser and Gerhart Hauptmann, Faust; Eliot Stannard and Alfred Hitchcock, The Lodger)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Carl Hoffmann, FAUST (2nd: Burt Haynes and Dev Jennings, The General, followed by: Anatoli Golovnya, Mother; William H. Daniels, Flesh and the Devil)

ART DIRECTION: FAUST, Don Juan, Mother

COSTUME DESIGN: DON JUAN, The Son of the Sheik, Faust

FILM EDITING: THE GENERAL, Mother, The Lodger

VISUAL EFFECTS: FAUST 


MAKEUP: FAUST

Happy Birthday, Charlie Chaplin!

In celebration of Charlie Chaplin's 122nd birthday on April 16th, here are ten of my favorite Chaplin clips. Of course, his genius needs no explanation other than what you see here:


(from The Circus, 1928; Chaplin did over 200 takes inside the cage with the lion, and never trembles once. My favorite moment: when the dog comes up barking, and Chaplin puts his fingers in his ears as if that'll make the problem go away.)



(The inimitable globe scene, from The Great Dictator, 1940; here Chaplin deftly spoofs the guy that stole his mustache, Adolf Hitler, by playing Hynkel, ruler of Tomania, mad with power as he toys with the Earth.)


(the first part of A Dog's Life, 1918, in which the Tramp teams up with a little thoroughbred mongrel named Scraps. Chaplin's chase scene, with that pit bull hanging onto the Tramp's pants seat no matter what, is the very definition of athletic hilarity.)


(Chaplin's famous table ballet--using forks and rolls--from The Gold Rush, 1925.)


(from Shoulder Arms, 1918; Chaplin as a WWI soldier making all the wrong moves to the tune of "Over There.")


(Chaplin's darkest role was as the murderer of rich women in Monsieur Verdoux, 1947; here's perhaps Chaplin's sharpest dialogue scene, as he discusses death with The Girl, played by Marilyn Nash, and then thinks again about sending her to her own demise.)


(from Modern Times,1936; Chaplin as the put-upon factory worker testing out the new eating machine. I love the Oscar-nominated sound effects here in this famously late-period silent movie!)


(the meeting of two greats: Chaplin and Buster Keaton do a stage performance in what is arguably the filmmakers last major work: Limelight, 1952).


(from The Kid, 1921; the denouement of this magnificent comedy is at once exciting, moving, and funny. It also contains one of the greatest of all screen kisses, between Chaplin and his young co-star Jackie Coogan--that's Uncle Fester to most of you.)


(And, finally and fittingly, from City Lights, 1931, one of the finest endings to any movie, and seriously a tearjerker, even if you've never seen the whole movie. The flower girl--an extraordinary Virginia Cherrill--has regained her sight thanks to Chaplin's Tramp. She has never seen him, and thinks that a rich man helped her. And then she and the Tramp meet. Incredible.)

Again, happy birthday, Charlie! Thanks for the laughs and tears.