Gurus
MCN Originals

The Final Scoreboard

Argo

Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty sit at the top of the Critics Scoreboard for the 2012/3 season.  But on Oscar night the big prize goes to Argo. The final scoreboard is here.

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Gurus o’ Gold: The Final Charts… Top 2 Only (2 of 2)

(Charts, 1 of 2) (Charts, 1 of 2)

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Gurus o’ Gold: The Final Charts… Top 2 Only (1 of 2)

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20W2O: 5 Days To Go (aka The End Is Nigh)

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Gurus o’ Gold: 9 Days From The Big Show

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Cieply Pores Over Seth McFarlane’s “Q Scores”

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20W2O: All Over But The “And The Oscar Goes To”ing

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Gurus o’ Gold: Voting Begins In 2 Days (2 of 2)

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Gurus o’ Gold: Voting Begins In 2 Days (1/2)

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Gurus o’ Gold: 8 Days Before Final Oscar Voting Begins

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20W2O: 27 Days To Oscar – The Racial Thing

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20W2O: 4 Weeks To Go – Quid Pro Quo, Clarice

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Gurus o’ Gold: A Month To Go

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A Keen Take On The Experience Of Watching Zero Dark Thirty

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Globes Gold For Argo, Les Mis; Speeches Highlight Night, Including Day-Lewis And Jodie Foster

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Gurus o’ Gold: Nominations Morning (Page 2 of 2)

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Gurus o’ Gold: Nominations Morning (Page 1 of 2)

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20W2O: “They” – The Oscar Morning Sequel

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Nominations Day

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20 Weeks To Oscar: Nominations Morning – Follow The Voting

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Gurus
20 Weeks to Oscar
LA Times

“Because it had so many different elements to it, it wasn’t the easiest sell in the world, like a lot of big movies are.”
At $571 Million Worldwide, The Most Successful Best Picture Nominee Is Life Of Pi

NY Times

“The idea was not to make an Israeli-Palestinian project. Money came from many different places.”
5 Broken Cameras Co-Directors Find Media Descriptions Of Their Documentary Misleading

Lincoln On “60 Minutes” 11’31 vid; extras

NY Times

“It’s about producers.”
Producers Guild Picks Argo, Sugar Man

guardian

“Not everyone accepts that overexposure is sufficient to destroy evil: some argue that “——” is too robust to be so easily disposed of.”
ThiNkiNg ON DjaNgo‘s LaNguage

“Quvenzhané utters an incredible scream in Beasts, a cry like an elemental force of nature, and if that cry echoes through the Dolby Theater on February 24, it will be a moment for history.”
Ebert Oscars

“Haneke is to be praised and admired for filming—so beautifully and so truthfully—straight down into the abyss, and for inviting us to take a long hard look at what’s there.”
Francine Prose On Amour

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Quote Unquotesee all »

“I have to imagine from Mr. Spielberg’s point of view, the paradigm shift in the 1970s was just the new “normal,” a “halcyon era” from which we are straying in the 21st century–because theatrical exhibition is tenuous (as it has been since the 1940s), the home video market has dried up and people are watching pirated movies on their phone. Spielberg’s coming-of-age era was for him the halcyon period that the 21st century “implosion” will cause to go “crashing into the ground.” But he is wrong. The market for movies is actually diverse and highly segmented–although from the top-down movie industry vantage point and media punditry you would not think this to be true.  Would we really mourn for Mr. Spielberg or ourselves if Lincoln would have been made for cable or had played on public television?  Is it bad for humanity that cable television is creating wonderful, resonant stories in long-form series that people want to watch at home on TV (or streamed onto their computer)? I don’t think so, but it is a paradigm shift and it might affect people’s theatrical moviegoing habits. Televisions in people’s homes have had that effect for seven decades–it is not a new phenomenon. As Art House cinema impresarios we need to focus on what WE can do at our theaters and in our communities. It is not productive for us to fret over what pundits say or about what well-meaning filmmakers like the Stevens–Spielberg and Soderbergh–say. We should fret about what we can do in our communities. What we can do to support filmmakers.”
~ From A Response By Russ Collins, CEO, Michigan Theater – Ann Arbor And Director, Art House Convergence, To Mr. Spielberg

 

“Do not kick me under the table. I hate that. I don’t need you as my ­conscience, my Jewish Jiminy Cricket. Especially do not kick my boots. You know they protect my ankles. Richard Burton had great talent. He’s ruined his great gifts. He’s become a joke with a celebrity wife. Now he just works for money, does the worst shit. And I wasn’t rude. To quote Carl Laemmle, “I gave him an evasive answer. I told him, ‘Go fuck yourself.’ ” In his time, Sam Goldwyn was considered a classy producer because he never deliberately did anything that wasn’t his idea of the best quality goods. I respected him for that. He was an honest merchant. He may have made a bad ­picture, but he didn’t know it was a bad picture. And he was funny. He actually once said to me, in that high voice of his, “Orson, for you I’d write a blanket check.” He said, “With Warner Brothers, a verbal commitment isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” Gregg Toland, who shot so many ­Goldwyn pictures, told me that in Russia, if you didn’t see every actor’s face brilliantly, they had to go back and reshoot it. Sam was the same way. Whenever there wasn’t a bright light on a star’s face for 30 ­seconds, he went nuts: “I’m paying for that face! I want to see the actor!” Long shots, all right, but no shadows.”
Maverick Hollywood Reniassance Man Henry Jaglom Garners Alleged Table Talk From Orson Welles With His Trusty Recorder