20-Word Fiction (7/10): Help with Math

Today, we are going with an image of Michael Caine from "Educating Rita" (1983), which was based on a play that we were fortunate enough to see at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC, a few years. Caine lost the Oscars that year to Robert Duvall who won for "Tender Mercies."

Here is today's 20-Word Story of the Day, which we wrote ourselves:

"Suzy wanted help with her algebra homework, so she hired a Yale professor. He didn't know one freaking thing. Pathetic!"

To those of you who are Yale University alumni, this is a work of fiction!

http://www.triadstage.com

Last Ten Films We've Seen: The Other Interview

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Slovakia, Cyprus and Kenya..........as well as those of you in Lewisburg, West Virginia, where we gather there is about 15 inches of snow!

We are posting this list just one day before the Oscars are revealed. In the United States, the Oscars are broadcast on ABC stations, such as WTVD-11 in Raleigh, NC, and KTVX-4 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We originally got this idea from "Film Comment." There is a Dutch connection here as one of the films "Waiter" (pict. top) is from the Netherlands, and another one "Interview," which is not the headline-making film with Seth Rogen and James Franco, but rather a small indy film starring and directed by Steve Buscemi (pict. bottom) that is a remake of a Dutch film made by the late Theo van Gogh who was murdered by a fanatical man of North African heritage in Amsterdam.

We are also using the Japanese flag (pict. center) ironically as the three hour epic docudrama "United Red Army" is actually about a terrorist group made up of far-left college students in Japan during the early 1970s; amazingly enough, they are most known for a terrorist incident in Israel!

Here is our list:


1) Interview. 2007. dir:Steve Buscemi.

2) Kill Your Darlings. 2013. dir:John Krokidas

3) The Impossible. 2012. dir: J.A. Bayana

4) The Past. Iran/France. Aghar Farhadi

5) United Red Army. Japan. 2007. dir: Koji Wakamatsu.

6) Two Days, One Night. France. Belgium/France. 2014 dirs: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

7) Waiter. Netherlands. 2006 dir:Alex van Warmerdam.

8) The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Australia. 1978.  dir: Fred Schepsi

9) Lacombe, Lucien. France. 1977. dir: Louis Malle

10) The Arrangement. 1969. dir: Elia Kazan w/Faye Dunaway and Kirk Douglas

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.abc11.com

http://www.good4utah.com

The Last Ten Films I've Seen: "Ordinary People" is a Christmas Movie?.........no kidding.........

For those unfamiliar with our blog, when we do these lists, we usually go with something that is referred to in the film rather than an image from the film or whatever our list is about.

Hence, the reason for the image of a burrito for "Eating," a photo of Jackie Kennedy for "The House of Yes," in which Parker Posey plays a young woman who thinks she is the former first lady, and the Harvard sweatshirt is for "The Paper Chase," a film which takes place on that Ivy League school's campus. That film won a Best Supporting Oscar for John Houseman.

Seven years later, that same award would go to Timothy Hutton, then only 20 years old for "Ordinary People," the 1980 Best Picture Oscar winner which is perhaps the most depressing Oscar winner ever (ok, so there is also"One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Schindler's List")........

"Mental Floss" featured an online article about how "Ordinary People" is actually a 'Christmas movie' as it indeed takes place in December, but, yeah, it's probably better to watch "A Christmas Story" as a family unit......

Here are the last ten films I've seen; this idea came from the great cinema magazine "Film Comment" (please don't sue us for $2.6 million).........

1) Intimate Lighting (fmr Czechoslavakia. 1965. dir: Ivan Passer)

2) Eating (1990. dir: Henry Jaglom)

3) The House of Yes. (1997. dir: Mark Waters)

4) Starstruck (Australia. 1982. dir: Gillian Armstrong)

5) Amour (Austria. 2012. dir: Michael Haneke)

6) The Theory of Everything. (2014. dir: James Marsh)

7) Elysium. (2013. dir: Neill Blomkamp)

8) Ordinary People (1980. dir: Robert Redford)

9) An Unmarried Woman (1978. dir: Paul Mazursky w/Jill Clayburgh)

10) The Paper Chase (1973. dir: James Bridges)

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Quote of the Day: Marion Cotillard

Though fan boys know her best for being in one of the Batman movies, French actress Marion Cotillard is an Oscar-winning actress who also played a double-amputee (?!) in the acclaimed French film "Rust and Bone."

We are quoting her in honor of International Women's Day:

"I don't think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings."

We're Back: With a List of the Worst Oscar-Nominated Films That Did NOT win Best Picture

Alas, we have not seen "Airport" (1970) nor "Doctor Dolittle" (1966), but we have seen our fair share of films that got Best Picture Oscar winners that were not worthy of those nominations. Of course, since this blog's editor Tilly Gokbudak is a Turkish-American, who gets 'top billing' will probably not be a surprise!

Here we go:

1) Midnight Express (1978, see image one_ it is of oil wrestlers in Edirne, Turkey, close to the Bulgarian border)

2) Hello Dolly! (1969)

3) Love Story (1970, see image two...we actually like the film as a guilty pleasure)

4) Chocolat (2000)

5) Ghost (1990, see image of Casper the Ghost)

6) The Towering Inferno (1974)

7) District 9 (2009)

8) Seabiscuit (2003)

9) The Reader (2008)

10) Miracle on 34th Street (1946)

We're Back: With a List of the Best Oscar-Nominated Films That Did NOT Win Best Picture

Here are ten of our favorite films which were nominated for Best Picture, but didn't win the Academy Award. While researching this, I found out that the late Robert Altman's cinematic masterpiece "The Player" (1992) wasn't even nominated for Best Picture, though the second best film of that year "Unforgiven" (dir. Clint Eastwood) did win that award. Alas, "Unforgiven" doesn't make the cut.

Here we go:

1) Citizen Kane (1941)

2) Dr. Strangelove (1965)

3) The Graduate (1967, see top image)

4) Chinatown (1974)

5) Raging Bull (1980, see middle image)

6) Apocalypse Now! (1979, see bottom image)

7) A Clockwork Orange (1971)

8) The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

9) Sunset Boulevard (1950)

10) Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

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

Yes, Miley Cyrus would probably do a better job as host than Seth MacFarlane did last night; we met her dad country singer Billy Ray Cyrus at the Rockingham County Fair in Harrisonburg, Va., some years ago.

Here is our list:

1) Paris Hilton

2) Miley Cyrus

3) Kim Kardashian

4) Toby Keith

5) Bob Costas

6) Marilyn Manson

7) Glenn Beck

8) Alex Trebek

9) Donald Trump

10) Garrison Keillor

The Worst Films to Win Oscars (in our view)

Last night, we posted an entry about our 20 favorite films to win Best Picture Oscars; tonight, we list the 20 worst Best Oscar winners in our humble opinions:

1) "Titanic" (1997)

2) "Forrest Gump" (1994)

3) "Going My Way" (1944)

4) "Rebecca" (1940)

5) "Around the World in 80 Days" (1957)

6) "Crash" (2005, pictured top)

7) "Shakespeare in Love" (1998, second image)

8) "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989)

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)

17) "How Green Was My Valley" (1941)

18) "Rocky" (1976)

19) "Oliver!" (1968)

20) "The English Patient" (1996)

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

Here is our list of our 20 favorite Best Picture Oscar winners:

1) "The Godfather" (1972)

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

3) "The French Connection" (1971)

4) "Midnight Cowboy" (1969; the first image of Lone Ranger villain Butch Cavendish is used for this reason)

5) "The Apartment" (1960)

6) "On the Waterfront" (1954)

7) "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)

8) "Annie Hall" (1977)

9) "Schindler's List" (1991)

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

11) "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

12) "The Last Emperor" (1987)

13) "The Deer Hunter" (1978; yeah, that's the reason for the second image)

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...the reason for the third image which is a sheep in Turkey)

20) "American Beauty" (1999)

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin (5 of 6)_ An Eye for an Eye

We continue our series of comparisons between Turkish movie star Cuneyt Arkin and American kung fu actor Chuck Norris with a look at which actor won Best Actor Oscars during the years that they made films which were light on plot but heavy on kicks and punches.

Today, we go with the Norris vehicle "An Eye for an Eye" (1981), who actually won the Best Actor for that year; was it?

A) Peter O'Toole

B) Henry Fonda

C) Robert DeNiro

D) Burt Lancaster

E) Tom Conti


The answer to last week's question was A) Robert Duvall.

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.chucknorris.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Ernest Hemingway

Today's quote of the day comes from American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) who once lived in Ketchum, Idaho, where it is apparently at least 100 degrees F, for the third or fourth consecutive day in a row. Hemingway, who penned such classics as "The Old Man and the Sea" and "The Sun Also Rises" also lived in Key West, Florida, and in Cuba, of course, he resided there before the revolution started by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

Hemingway has been in many recent films, most notably Woody Allen's film "Midnight in Paris," where he was played by Corey Stoll, 36, (pictured) whose performance was critically acclaimed, but did not garner an Oscar nomination. Christopher Plummer, 82, won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year for his remarkable performance in "Beginners."

Here is Hemingway's quote:

"I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eights of it under water for every part of it that shows."

SIDEBAR: Since the 2012 London Olympics get underway later this month, we thought we'd mention one of the athletes from North Carolina, one of our states of residence (the other one is not Maine, though we love it up there!). Cullen Jones, 28, from Charlotte and a North Carolina State University alum, will be competing for Team USA in men's swimming. Jones holds the world record in the 50-meter free-style. He won gold during the 2008 Beijing Olympics in a team relay, which included the much-decorated athlete Michael Phelps. Jones was also the first African-American to win gold in swimming.

http://www.hemingwayhouse.com

http://www.gopack.com

http://www.cullenjones.com

Quote of the Day/Week_ Rachel Weisz

Today, we continue quoting famous movie and television stars who were born in 1970, with a quip from Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz, who just turned 42 a week ago on March 7th. She is a mere three days younger than your's truly (Tilly Gokbudak, the managing editor of this blog).

Weisz won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Constant Gardener" (2005). Last year, she secretly wed Daniel Craig, aka the new James Bond. And, for many years, she was in a relationship with film director Darren Aronofsky ("The Wrestler," "Black Swan," the film which won Natalie Portman a Best Actress Oscar) and they share a child together.

Here is the quip from Weisz, which may be more true in her native England than here in America:

"I don't believe your soul mate has to share your politics."

Quote of the Day/Week- Warren Beatty

Today, we conclude our month-long quotes from Oscar-winning film directors with a quote from Warren Beatty, who is better known as an actor.

Beatty won the Oscar over Steven Spielberg ("Raiders of the Lost Ark") who subsequently won a Best Director Oscar for "Schindler's List" for the film "Reds"
(1981).

Beatty, who was established as a rising star in Hollywood, cemented his place in Tinseltown with "Bonnie and Clyde" (1968) which also made him a bona fide international star.

The actor who was also known for his great off-screen affairs with some of the industry's most gorgeous actresses, including the French actress Leslie Caron, made his directorial debut with "Heaven Can Wait" (1978, which he he co-directed with Buck Henry). In the film, which also starred another Beatty flame in Julie Christie, he played an aging quarterback for the the then-Los Angeles Rams.

At the time, many people in the media observed how the character resembled Joe Namath, who had recently retired in 1977 when he was quarterback for the real life L.A. Rams.

Here is Beatty's quite ironic quote:

"For me, the highest level of sexual excitement is in a monogamous relationship."

Quote of the Day/Week- Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci, one of Italy's greatest living directors, is an Academy-Award winner who has also directed the Italian film "The Conformist" (1971) and the highly controversial film "Last Tango in Paris" (1973). He Oscared for "The Last Emperor" (1987).

My friend New York-based film critic Bilge Ebiri has an exceptional profile of Bertolucci in the Australian web journal "Senses of Cinema."

Here is Bertolucci's quip:

"I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns and tanks."

SIDEBAR: We were aware that Greece, obviously a country going through a very hard time right now, had a thriving heavy metal scene with bands like Acid Death, Black Winter and Rotting Christ.

But, there is apparently an all girls punk rock band which formed in Crete called Barbed Wire Dolls. The band is now based in Los Angeles, and they perform in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., at the Horseshoe tomorrow night.

We first heard of the Greek heavy metal bands through the North Carolina State student-run college radio station WKNC (88.1-Raleigh) which airs "Chainsaw Rock" with host Lucreita tonight at midnight.

In Greece's neighboring country of Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country where my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from, heavy metal is also surprisingly popular, and there are local bands, such as Pentagram, which have large followings.

Even more astonishing is the fact that the Israeli-based heavy metal band Orphaned Land is also very popular in Turkey.

Quote of the Day/Week- John Ford

Today, in honor of the Oscars broadcast in late February, we are quoting Oscar-winning film directors, and we start with John Ford (1894-1973). Though he was known primarily for his westerns, none of the record four Oscars that Ford won came from films within that genre. And, only one of those films, "The Quiet Man" (1952) featured his frequnet collaborator John Wayne.

The other three films Ford Oscared for include "The Informer" (1935), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) and "How Green Was My Valley" (1941).

Ironically, Ford did not win for his two most acclaimed films "Stagecoach" (1939) and "The Searchers" (1956). Many film historians also consider his film "How Green Was My Valley" which also won an Oscar for Best Picture to be the most dubious in Oscar history since "Citizen Kane" also came out in 1941. But, Orson Welles, who directed "Citizen Kane" considered Ford to be both a major influence and one of his favorite film directors.

We also highly recommend two BFI books by Ed Buscombe (full disclosure: he taught a class on westerns that I took at Hollins University in Roanoke, Va.) on "The Searchers" and "Stagecoach."

Here is Ford's quip:

"How did I get to Hollywood? By train?"

SIDEBAR: For some reason, both former American Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes and country singer Dolly Parton, who were both subjects of entries on this blog, are among are hot links this week!

Quote of the Moment-John Irving

Today, we continue our quips from famous New Englanders with a quote from novelist/screenwriter John Irving (b. 1942, Exeter, NH). Since Irving is from New Hampshire, this means that we have covered five of the six New England states with quotes on our two blogs. Rhode Island is now the lone exception.

Irving is a bit luckier than most novelist because two of his three most well-known novels "The World According to Garp" (book, 1978; film, 1982), "The Hotel New Hampshire" (book 1981; film 1984) and "The Cider House Rules" (book 1985; film 1999) turned into good film adaptations. Of course, it probably helped that Irving himself either wrote or co-wrote all three screenplays. He actually won an Oscar for best adapation for "The Cider House Rules." Of the three film versions, "The Hotel New Hampshire" with Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster is considered to be the least successful.

Here is Irving's quote:

"Half of my life is an act of revision."

More Oscar Projections....

Yes, we aren't exactly sure why we chose an image from Laurence Olivier's screen performance as "Hamlet" for this entry either, although we are 98 percent certain that he won an as Oscar for the performance in the title role.

Here are the short film categories and our projections....


Documentary (short):

Nominees are "Killing in the Name," "Poster Girl," "Strangers No More," "Sun Come Up" and "The Warriors of Quigang."

Projection: We are pikcing "Strangers No More" over "Killing in the Name" and "Poster Girl." Those three films appear to be the front-runners. "Strangers No More" has a 7.8 rating on the IMDB which just slightly higher than "Killing in the Name," which registers a 7.7.

Animated Film (short):

Nominees are "Day and Night," "The Gruffalo," "Let's Pollute," "The Lost Thing" and "Madasgar: A Journey Diary"

Projection: We strongly feel that "Day and Night" will win this one, but don't sue us if you are holding an Oscar party in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Live Action:

Nominees are "The Confession," "God of Love," "Ne Wewe," "The Crush" and "Wish 143."

Projections: All signs point to the much-acclaimed "Wish 143;" we forgot to write down what the film was about!

Oscars for the Actors (Projections)

Our very first use of images with blog entries (you should those early entries!) featured Natalie Portman in her trademark vegan sandals.

While she may have questionable films on her resume, with performances in "Closer" and "V for Vendetta," Portman has proven herself to be a remarkable actress. And, her performance in "The Black Swan" is a crowning achievement for the 29-year-old though she could lose to Annette Benning who has come oh so close before (including losing out to Hilary Swank in 1999 in spite of Benning's great performance in "American Beauty.).

Should here are our projections for the four acting categories:


BEST ACTOR:

Will win: Colin Firth "The King's Speech." I think Firth is a good actor, but this is an over-praised film. Nevertheless, both the film and Firth have all the momentum right now and the Oscar seems most likely to go to the English actor.

Should win: Jesse Eisenberg. He was simply astonishing as the multi-layered Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, who did indeed prove to be everyone's frenemy rather than their 'friend.'

Silver Medal: Well they don't award second place at the Academy Awards, but James Franco was also quite good in "127 Hours," a film about a young man literally trapped between a rock and a hard place which Franco had to carry all by himself.

BEST ACTRESS:

Will/should: Portman.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Will/should win: Geoffrey Rush. As much as I think the film is getting way too much hype, the Australian actor was simply brilliant in this film.

Who I would vote for: Christian Bale ("The Fighter"). Another remarkable performance which carries the film, and unlike "The King's Speech," Bale's film is actually the better one. And, I am really getting tired of hearing about "The King's Speech."

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Will/should win: Melissa Leo, who also in "The Fighter." She is by no means a lock as her own co-star Amy Adams, also nominated in this category, could potentially upset her. But Leo's own personal narrative of being an overlooked actress for years seems to make her the slight favorite.

For other Oscar projections of mine go to our other blog "The Daily Vampire:"

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Oscar Predictions Teaser

Tomorrow, we are hoping to post some of our Oscar predictions on this blog as well as our sister blog "The Daily Vampire." This is, of course, on the presumption that the rest of the week will be less whacky that today has been so far. But, hey I did find the car keys so I can't complain!

Today, we are featuring an image of an Oscar the Grouch t-shirt with this entry, assuming that the hot-link works! We had an unusual problem last year when we were trying to put up an image of the Bill Griffith comic book character "Zippy the Pinhead" on one of our blogs, but we still love the strip even though it took quite a while to fix that mess!

I actually watched "Sesame Street" as a kid in the 1970s on Blue Ridge Public TV (WBRA) in Roanoke, Va. Alas, these days arch right-wing Republicans are trying to cut PBS and NPR funding as either a measure to cut federal funding or make Bill O'Reilly happy (political bias: We presume the later).

Tonight, WBRA is showing "The Secrets of the Dead" at 10 p.m., which focuses on a 2004 discovery of headless Roman skeleteons in York, England.

And, we also want to wish a happy birthday to former UCLA gymnast and Canadian Olympian Yvonne Tousek. She was part of a team that included standout Olympic gymnassts like Kate Richardson, Kristen Maloney and Jamie Dantzcher. The Bruins are also the current reigning NCAA champs in women's gymnastics. Last night, junior Taunty Frattone score a 9.95 on vault in a win over North Carolina State.

Quote of the Week- Hilary Swank

Perhaps, very few Oscar-winners have started from dire backgrounds like Hilary Swank has, as she grew up in a trailer park in Bellingham, Wash. She is also (to our knowledge) the only cast member of "Beverly Hills 90210" to have won an Oscar. Although to his credit, Luke Perry was very good in the independent drama film "Normal People" with Ashley Judd about a boyfriend/girlfriend bank robbing duo.

Swank won her first Best Actress Oscar for the compelling film "Boys Don't Cry" (1999). Five years later, she won in the same category for her startling performane as a female boxer in "Million Dollar Baby" (2004), which was directed by and co-starred Clint Eastwood.

Here is her quote:

"I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all of this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream."

SIDEBAR: It has been a very long time since we discussed Turkish soccer, but I realize our loyal readers in Paterson, NJ, (which reportedly has the largest Turkish population in America) are getting disappointed with me, and I am a Turkish-American who occasionally eats pork as it is!

So here are the latest results from Week 22 (partial list):

Eskisehirspor 2 Sivasspor 1

Gaziantep 4 Bursa 1

GalataSaray 1 Bucaspor 0

Kayseri 2 Antalya 0

*Fenerbahce 4 Besiktash 2

*-This was a game between two traditional Istanbul rivals. Alex de Souza, 33, (who goes by Alex) a Brazilian soccer star, scored three goals for Fenerbahce in their crucial win.