Potluck Quote of the Day (10 of 10): Natalie Portman

Tonight's Quote of the Day is from Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman ("V for Vendetta;" "Black Swan;" "Garden State") who was on the cover of the New York Times' T-Magazine (which covers fashion); one of our favorite films with the Israeli-born Portman is "Closer" with Julia Roberts and Jude Law:

"If you're an actress or a musician, everyone thinks you're hot."

http://www.natalieportman.com

http://www.nytimes.com

Our Top Ten Favorite Best Picture Winners: Of Course, The Godfather is Numero Uno

Greetings to our faithful blog readers in Bolivia, Honduras and Malta.....as well as those of you in Warm Springs, Virginia, where there is 15 inches of snow on the ground!


Here is yet another entry to our blog. Today, we look at our ten favorite Best Picture winners as we prepare for Oscar Night in which J.K. Simmons will very likely win a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as a militant, megalomaniac band teacher in "Whiplash."

But, there should be some surprises and some close races. It is reportedly a toss up in the Best Supporting Actress race between Emma Stone ("Birdman"....) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood).

The American broadcast of the Oscars will occur on ABC affiliates across the country, including WCVB-5 Boston and KMGH-7 Denver as well as around the world and even on planet Neptune:)


Here is our top ten:

1. The Godfather. 1972. Francis Ford Coppola

2. Annie Hall. 1977. Woody Allen.

3. Schindler's List. 1993. Steven Spielberg

4. All Quiet on the Western Front. 1930. Lewis Milestone.

5. The Godfather, Part II. 1974. Francis Ford Coppola

6. On the Waterfront. 1954. Elia Kazan.

7. Midnight Cowboy. 1969. John Schlesinger.

8. Lawrence of Arabia. 1962. David Lean.

9. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. 1975. Milos Forman.

10. The French Connection. 1971. William Friedkin.

Honorable Mention: "The Last Emperor," "West Side Story," The Departed," "The Apartment," "12 Years a Slave," Unforgiven," "Ordinary People"......

http://www.oscars.com

http://www.wcvb.com

http://www.thedenverchannel.com

Quote of the Day: Cate Blanchett

Greetings to our blog-readers in Estonia, Thailand and Jordan.

Tonight, in honor of International Women's Day, which has been promoted on LinkedIn via Turkish Airlines as well as a Google Doodle, we are quoting the most recent Oscar winner for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett. The Australian actress, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," won the Academy Award for her title role in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine," The film also featured an excellent performance from Sally Hawkins.

Here is Blanchett's quip:

"Don't you find that work, if you love it, is actually invigorating."

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

http://www.google.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com/

http://www.linkedin.com

We're Back: With Our List of Worst Oscar Winners

Last night, "12 Years a Slave," a remarkable, landmark film directed by Steve McQueen won the Best Picture Oscar (wouldn't it be ironic if he were the one directing the remake of "The Great Escape") and we are in 100-percent agreement with that, but that is NOT always the case; here are our least favorite Oscar-winning films of all time:

1) Titanic (1997; see image one)

2) Gigi (1958)

3) The Sound of Music (1965)

4) Forrest Gump (1994; see image number two)

5) Crash (2004)

6) Rebecca (1940)

7) Around the World in 80 Days (1956; see image number three)

8) How Green Was My Valley (1941)

9) My Fair Lady (1964)

10) The King's Speech (2010)

We're Back: With a List of Our Favorite Oscar-Winning Films

Here are our ten favorite Oscar-winning films:

1) The Godfather (1972; see image one)

2) On the Waterfront (1954)

3) Midnight Cowboy (1969; see image two)

4) Schindler's List (1993)

5) The Apartment (1960)

6) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975; see image three)

7) The French Connection (1971)

8) All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

9) Annie Hall (1977)

10) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

http://www.oscars.go.com

A Quote from Lee Marvin for Veteran's Day

We heard some touching news today: Richard Overton, age 107, was honored by President Barack Obama at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, DC for Veteran's Day.

Today was also Remembrance Day in Canada.

Oscar-winning actor Lee Marvin, a World War II veteran, is buried at the military cemetery, which was shut down a few weeks ago due to the federal government shutdown.

Here is a quote from Marvin:

"I only make movies to finance my fishing."

We have another quote from one of Marvin's co-stars Jimmy Stewart (both were in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a 1962 western directed by John Ford which starred John Wayne).

To see Stweart's quote, go to our sister site:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

The Last 10 Films We've Seen: Reading the Movies

Here are the last ten films we've seen, many of which are based on novels. We will indicate which ones those with an asterisk (*); amazingly enough, "The Deer Hunter" which last three hours and 15 minutes was the filmation of an original screenplay! There are also two Oscar-winning films on the list, they will be marked by an at symbol (@).

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine; I expect there will not be an intellectual examination of the film "The Devil and Max Devilin" with Bill Cosby and Elliot Gould for quite some time (forgive the film connoisseur humor).


Here they are:

1. "Humpday." 2009. dir. Lynn Shelton

2. "Gigi." (pictured top) 1958. dir. Vincente Minelli *@

3. "Pretty Persuasion" 2005. dir. Marcos Siega

4. "The Devil and Max Devilin" (pictured center) 1981. dir. Steven Hilliard Stern.

5. "The Deer Hunter" 1978. dir. Michael Cimino @

6. "The Landlord" 1970. dir. Hal Ashby *

7. "East of Eden" (pictured bottom) 1955. dir. Elia Kazan.*

8. "The Chosen." 1981. dir. Jeremy Kagan *

9. "Far from the Maddening Crowd" 1967. dir. John Schlesinger.*

10. "The Great Gatsby." 2013. dir. Baz Luhrmann

http://www.filmcomment.com

Ten People Who Would Make Better Oscar Hosts Than Seth MacFarlane (satire)

Seth MacFarlane was so exceptionally awful as an Oscars host that we thought we'd make a mock list of who would be better than him. Last night, MacFarlane crossed a clear line by making a reference to Jodie Foster in her Oscar-winning role in "The Accused," a film about a woman who has been raped, in a "We Saw Your Boobs" song.

Alas, our good friends at "The Onion" did something somehow even more dubious when they called Quvenzhane Wallis, the nine-year-old Oscar nominee for "Beasts of the Southern Wild," an unmentionable expletive on Twitter. "The Onion" took the tweet down and apologized.

Here is our list:

1) Paris Hilton (pictured, obviously)

2) Miley Cyrus

3) Kim Kardashian

4) Jimmy Kimmel

5) Toby Keith

6) Bob Costas

7) Howie Mandel

8) Alex Trebek

9) Kristen Stweart

10) Rush Limbaugh

Our Oscar Forecasts: Which Beard Will Win?

Oscars seem to be more about trends and how a film is promoted to members of the Academy more so than what films or actors are genuinely the best in their respective categories.

We came up with the 'which beard will win' line because many are forecasting that either "Argo" or "Lincoln" will win Best Picture.

With that said, we are making the following projections in the eight major categories for Oscar Sunday, and unlike most years, we are projecting several major upsets:

Best Original Screeenplay: Mark Boal "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio "Argo"

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones "Lincoln"

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway "Les Misreables" (pictured)

Best Actor: Bradley Cooper "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best Actress: Jessica Chastain "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Director: Steven Spielberg "Lincoln"

Best Film: "Argo"

The 20 Worst Films to Win an Oscar (in our view)

Yesterday, we listed our 20 favorite Oscar-winning films in the Best Picture category. Today, we look at the worst. We want to acknowledge that "Film Comment" featured a 20 Worst Oscar-Winning Films, but these are own ideas. Although, admittedly, several of the listed below (no pun intended) were on that list as well:


1) "Titanic" (1997, first image)

2) "Forrest Gump" (1994)

3) "Going My Way" (1944)

4. "Rebecca" (1940, amazingly enough, one of Alfred Hitchcock's worst films is the only one which won a Best Picture Oscar)

5. "Around the World in 80 Days" (1957, second image)

6. "Crash" (2005)

7. "Shakespeare in Love" (1998)

8. "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989, third image)

9. "A Man for All Seasons" (1966)

10. "The Sound of Music" (1965)

11. "My Fair Lady" (1964)

12. "Terms of Endearment" (1983)

13. "Braveheart" (1995)

14. "The King's Speech" (2010)

15. "Out of Africa" (1985)

16. "In the Heat of the Night" (1967, this film beat out both "The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde")

17. "How Green Was My Valley (1941)

18. "Rocky" (1976)

19. "Oliver!" (1968)

20. "The English Patient" (1996)

The 20 Best Films to Win Best Picture (in our view)

Here is our list of our 20 favorite films to ever win Best Picture Oscars. The Oscars will be televised on ABC tv here in America on Sunday night. So far, we have seen five of the nine nominated films, so it may be slightly premature to predict the future, but it seems ok to reflect on the past.

We should point out that we have not seen each film that has won Best Picture since "Wings" (one of the films we haven't seen) was named the best film of 1927, but we have seen every winner since 1960:

1. "The Godfather" (1972)

2. "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1932)

3. "The French Connection" (1971; reason for the first image of the French comic book character Obelix from the "Asterix" series)

4. "Midnight Cowboy" (1969)

5. "The Apartment" (1960; reason for the second image of an apartment complex in Chicago)

6. "On the Waterfront" (1954)

7. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975, reason for the third image of a German cuckoo clock)

8. "Annie Hall" (1977)

9. "Schindler's List" (1993)

10. "The Godfather, Part 2" (1974)

11. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

12. "The Last Emperor" (1987)

13. "The Deer Hunter" (1978)

14. "West Side Story" (1961)

15. "Casablanca" (1943)

16, "Unforgiven" (1992)

17. "The Departed" (2006)

18. "From Here to Eternity" (1953)

19. "Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

20. "American Beauty" (1999)

http://www.oscar.go.com

The Best Films of 2012 (in my view)

Yes, it has been a long time since we last blogged, and we have broken many promises. But, Feb. 15th is the traditional date in which we list our 20 favorite films that were released in America from the previous year.

I should point out that this year I am going with films that were released in our market area as opposed to films that came to New York.

There are, as always, many films we have not seen, including the three Ls: "Lincoln," "Life of Pi" and "Les Misreables." 

This year, I am pleased to add that Bilge Ebiri, a fellow Turkish-American who is a New York-based film critic who voted in the "Film Comment" best films of the year survey, and I agree that the Turkish film "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan was the best film of the year. The "Film Comment" survey chose the French film "Holy Motors" as the best film of the year; "The Master" came in second and it was the highest-ranking American film on the list.

Speaking of lists, here is ours:

*-Films that were released after Jan. 1, 2012, in our market.

#-Films which have been nominated for Best Picture Oscar

%-Films ranked in the top 20 of the "Film Comment" survey

1. "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" (Turkey, see second image) %

2. "We Need to Talk About Kevin"*

3. "Jiro:Dreams of Sushi" (documentary; third image)

4. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (first image)

5. "Silver Linings Playbook"#%

6. "Zero Dark Thirty"#%

7. "Argo" #

8. "A Separation" (Iran)*

9. "Django Unchained" #

10. "The Kid with a Bike" (France) %

11. Pina (documentary) *

12. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" #%

13. "The Dark Knight Returns"

14. "Damsels in Distress"

15. "Robot and Frank"

16. "Skyfall"

17. "Arbitrage"

18. "Moonrise Kingdom"%

19. "The Master" %

20. "Haywire"


 http://www.filmlinc.org

Cuneyt Arkin vs. Chuck Norris (6 of 6)_ The Hero and the Terror

We conclude our six-part series which examines who actually won Best Actor Oscars in the years that Turkish cinema icon Cuneyt Arkin and American action movie star Chuck Norris made films which stand out in their filmography.

Of course, the joke here is that Arkin and Norris are not exactly method actors.

Today, we conclude with the Norris vehicle "The Hero and the Terror" (1988); and which actor won that year?

A) Dustin Hoffman

B) Robert Redford

C) Peter Sellers

D) Paul Newman

E) Gene Hackman


The answer to yesterday's question was B) Jon Voight

UPDATE: The answer to this question is A) Dustin Hoffman

Chuck vs. Cuneyt (4 of 6)_ The Octagon

Today, we continue our quiz series with trivia questions regarding American action movie star of yesteryear Chuck Norris, 72 and his Turkish counterpart matinee idol Cuneyt Arkin, 75. For obvious reasons, neither men are kicking butt on screen these days.

For this week's question, we ask which actor won the Best Oscar in 1980 when the Norris vehicle "The Octagon," which I remember was being shown at the Towers Theatre in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., which is alas a shoe store today.

Was the winner?"

A) Robert Deniro

B) Dustin Hoffman

C) John Hurt

D) Jack Nicholson

E) Donald Sutherland


The answer to last week's question was C) George C. Scott

And, good morning to those of you in Dubai where we believe it's now 10:00 a.m., Monday morning.

SIDEBAR: Here are the correct answers to our "Dexter" series:

1) D

2) A

3) C

4) B

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

Dexter Trivia (3 of 4)_ Which Movie Star Loves Dexter?

We continue our look at the 'slightly demented' Showtime series about a serial killer; "Dexter" has just started its seventh season as of Sunday. Note: the pictured image is of a person dressed Jack the Ripper for Halloween.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), at least one major Hollywood star watches the show on a regular basis, but this one in particular is an Academy-Award winner (we are not just including actors who have won Oscars for acting); is the answer?

A) Matt Damon

B) George Clooney

C) Sylvester Stallone

D) Warren Beatty

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin- Missing in Action

Today, we continue with our light-hearted series asking which actor won Best Actor in the years that American action movie star Chuck Norris, who has a bridge named after him in Slovenia_ of all places, or his Turkish counterpart Cuneyt Arkin, who has made over 300 films even though he is semi-retired.

Incidentally, in 1974, Art Carney won Best Actor (see last entry in series) when Cuneyt Arkin made "Once Vatan/My Country First."

We also have an entry to match this one on our other blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Today, we are asking which actor won Best Actor when Norris made "Missing in Action," a mediocre film which actually managed to have three sequels, in 1984; is the answer?

A. Albert Finney

B. F. Murray Abraham

C. Tom Hanks

D. Jeff Bridges

E. Robert Duvall

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com/tr

Quote of the Day- Anthony Hopkins

We conclude our series of quotes from actors who have played real-life American presidents with a comment from the Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins, 74, who played Richard M. Nixon in the Oliver Stone film "Nixon" (1995).

Hopkins is not the only actor from the United Kingdom who has played Nixon on film as Robert Lisden played the president at the center of the Watergate scandal in the cinematic comic book adaptation "Watchmen" (2009).

American actor Frank Langella played Nixon in the exceptional film "Frost/Nixon" (2008); Philip Baker Hall also portrayed him in the Robert Altman film "Secret Honor" (1984).

Nixon has been played in an opera as James Maddalena played him in the opera "Nixon in China," which debuted in Houston, Tex., on Oct. 22, 1987, and the New York Metropolitan Opera debuted the opera last year with the actor reprising his role.

That opera is the subject of an excellent article in Sept. 2012 issue of "Mental Floss," which also said the best time for blogging is 9:30 a.m. Well, it is about that time in Dubai where we are presumably very popular?!

Here is the quote from Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his role as Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer, in the film "Silence of the Lambs" (1991), which made him the first actor to win the Academy Award for playing a murderer. Yes, we forgot about Marlon Brando who played a gangster in "The Godfather" (1972):

"I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand mad men."

PS_ We will start blogging on the 2012 London Olympics tomorrow.

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Remembering Ernest Borgnine

Two years ago I watched the film "The Vikings" (1958), as it was one of the only movies I could think of with three living actors from the golden age of Hollywood: Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine. As of today, Douglas is the only actor from the film who is still alive as Borgnine died at the age of 95.

Borgnine's contemporaries from that era also included the likes Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Lee Marvin, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

Borgnine was also the oldest living Best Actor Oscar winner as he won the award for his title role in the film "Marty" (1955); Borgnine also appeared in the films "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "The Wild Bunch" (1969) and "Escape from New York" (1981).

On his quotes was: "I don't care whether a part is 10 minutes long, or two hours long, and I don't care whether my name is up there on top, either."

Quote of the Day- Roberto Benigni

Today, we continue quoting people associated with the 16 nations competing in the Euro Cup 2012 soccer championships with a quote from Italian comic/actor/director Roberto Benigni ,59, who won a Best Actor Oscar for his role in "Life is Beautiful" (1997), a film that he also directed.

Though his fellow Italian Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) was a legendary actor who won two Golden Globes for Best Actor, Benigni was actually the first Italian to win a Best Actor Oscar.

For our quote, Benigni refers to the late director Frederico Fellini who directed many Mastroianni films including "La Dolce Vita" (1960):

"For me, Fellini was like a watermelon. It is there. A watermelon cannot die."

Quote of the Day/Week__Jennifer Connelly

Today, we continue to quote famous people born in 1970, when I was born, with a quip from the talented and lovely actress Jennifer Connelly who turns 42 on Dec. 12.

Connelly won a Best Supporting Actress for "A Beautiful Mind" (2001). Her other famous roles include "Requiem for a Dream" (2000), "House of Sand and Fog" and "Little Children" (2006).

Connelly has also been an active human rights activist with Amnesty International.

Here is her quote:

"I didn't expect to win the Oscar. You grow up watching the Oscars on tv and you think it happens to famous people. It was very surreal."

SIDEBAR: We thought we'd put 'a teaser" (movie lingo for coming attractions) for next week's entry in this series as we will quoting 'retiring' film director Kevin Smith, who was also born in 1970. Yes, the man who made it big when he was quite young when he directed the independent film "Clerks" (1991) about mischievous convenience store clerks in New Jersey told NPR he will quit making films soon, and focus on side projects.

And, though we won't be able to quote the highly outrageous standup comedian/actress Sarah Silverman, who also turns 42 on Dec. 1, has been quoted for saying the following: "I don't set out to offend or shock, but I also don't do anything to avoid it."