As per not my want I didn't watch the
Academy Awards. I never do, nor do I even look forward to them and this year read nothing about the nominations. I was so turned off or bored with most of what was on offer I had no interest. And when I saw
Anora winning as predicted - it's hard to miss a headline - I almost felt physically sick. (See my
Dec. 30 post). Instead I spent the evening watching old, and well, classic films, that showcased good stories and good acting. The first was
It's My Turn (Claudia Weill, 1980) with Jill Clayburgh and Michael Douglas. Clayburgh, in her prime, stars as Kate, a college mathematician at odds with the man in her life, Homer, played by the irascible Charles Grodin, and meets ex-pro ball player Ben (Michael
Douglas). It was refreshing to see Clayburgh again. What struck me is her charisma of cuteness undercut by the seriousness of the "nobody's fool" variety. Douglas, dark black hair and beard, looked very young.....The next film was
Frankie and Johnny (Garry Marshall 1991) with Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino, based on the Terrance McNally play. Wow, can these two act! Pfeiffer and Pacino are effortless in this push-pull romance with Frankie's (Pfeiffer) simmering and outright doubt to Johnny's engrossing honesty. I kept thinking: Pacino, an actor's actor, the
Method School, etc. And Pfeiffer ain't so bad herself......The third film (part of
Criterion Channel's New York Love Stories) was
Carol (Todd Haynes 2015). I forgot I'd never seen this when it came out and Cate Blanchett as the title character is currently my fave actress. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel - so you know there's something to it - the film is about an illicit and smoldering attraction in the early 1950s. Blanchett plays opposite Rooney Mara as Therese. This slow-paced and nuanced drama is just right, underlined by Carter Burwell's melancholy score.
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