Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

You're a Big Boy Now was given an Oscar qualifying run in L.A. before opening to disastrous reviews in New York in March 1967 but was something of a hit anyway.

It was completely overshadowed by The Graduate which more or less covered the same territory but did it right.

Page's nomination came in a weak year but as I said in my original post, Margaret Leighton should have gotten her spot for 7 Women. If not Leighton, then Shelley Winters for Alfie.

It's hard to believe, but Coppola was given the directorial reins on Finian's Rainbow because of this film.

Thanks for bumping this. A fun read.

You're A Big Boy Now aired on TCM recently, and I watched it since I'm going through Coppola's filmography right now (not in anything close to chronological order, and I probably will not go back in chronological order), and that Page nomination is an all-timer on the "I don't get it" list. Genuinely perplexing.

Genuinely perplexing would be a way to describe the movie too. He said it was inspired by A Hard Day's Night, and you can feel Coppola trying for that (largely unsuccessfully), although Lester's The Knack...and How to Get It was probably at least as much of an influence. Odd movie. Very much the work of a young filmmaker who's trying to figure out what kind of movie he wants to make and wearing his influences right out on his sleeve.

Three years on, I have seen quite a bit from this year, so here are my picks:

1. Vivien Merchant, Alfie
2. Sandy Dennis, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
3. Vanessa Redgrave, Blow-Up
4. Liselotte Pulver, La religieuse
5. Lola Albright, Lord Love a Duck

I've seen all five of these performances.

Sandy Dennis' performance here is powerful, almost overwhelming. She tears into the role in a way that seems uncontrolled at first but eventually reveals itself to be quite clever, honing on on the ways in which Honey plays George & Martha's 'games' and suggesting that she may be a more successful 'player' than she appears. It is a deserved win, and I like that this iconoclastic actress has an Oscar (seems, like Tilda Swinton's win, like one of those blue-moon occurrences when a defiantly un-mainstream talent is embraced by the Academy).

That being said, my favourite of this group is Vivien Merchant's sublime, touching and mysterious performance, the standout from Alfie's large cast. She is only in a few scenes but they shake you to the core, and her control of expression in her final scene is bravura - she cycles through fear, despair, anger, hate and pity subtly, and in just a few seconds.

Geraldine Page's nomination baffles me. She shows up a couple times over the course of the film and shrieks a wee bit, but that's it. She's too controlled an actress to relax enough to bring out the broad comedy this role needs - it's a part far too sidelined by the story to benefit from a calculated actorly treatment. If anyone were to be nominated in this category from YABBN I'd suggest Elizabeth Hartman, who wasn't great but had fun playing against type. She had a few funny scenes and was probably the MVP from Coppola's colourful but awkward experiment.

Jocelyne LaGarde has a relaxed, natural charisma that brings some levity to the overstuffed bore of Hawaii. She basically functions as comic relief, but when she's called on to give a late-game emotional scene she pulls it off admirably. I support the nomination in what looks like a weak year, but this performance is more a case of stars aligning than a work of actorly innovation.

Wendy Hiller left me cold for most of the film. Her on-the-nose attempts at comedy were weirdly curtailed by the script, but if they were given free reign they'd probably have been more obnoxious. She never really registered with me, save for slight annoyance at her early scenes, until her final moment where she is actually very effective, providing backstory for her character and character's relationships through excellent phyiscal and vocal work when every other actor in the film forgot to bother.

I'd rank them like this:

1. Vivien Merchant
2. Sandy Dennis
-
3. Jocelyne LaGarde
4. Wendy Hiller
-
5. Geraldine Page

I haven't seen very much from this year, but apart from the performances already mentioned I really enjoyed Liselotte Pulver's smilingly sinister work in La religieuse.

Damien wrote:

OscarGuy wrote:Wasn't meaning to be provocative, but I guess I saw things differently than everyone else. I'll just go back to not posting anything unless I have to. Safer that way.

Oh, it's no fun being safe. Post away, it may lead to heated exchanges, but that's much better than no exchanges at all!

I agree.

You must say what you feel now without feeling scared. Who cares if others don't agree. As you grow older and you gain experience personal tastes and opinions also change along the way. So much of what I read (via everybody's comments) about films and performances here has made me re-evaluate my own opinions because I get to see a different perspective which I was never able to comprehend at my first viewing of a film or performance years ago.



Edited By Reza on 1279884246

OscarGuy wrote:You mean like every time you belittle someone as being a "Damienite" or that we can't possibly have our own opinion because Damien has spoken? Or when you pick on Magilla for preferring older actresses? And if I had the time to go through every one of your posts, I'm sure I could find even more instances.

And what of those people who don't post their thoughts here, every time you complain about them voting without knowing their reason for voting and simply assume why, you are in essence ridiculing their choices. And that could very well be why some of these people DON'T post? Why post when you'll just point to how wrong they are because they don't share your "factual" opinion about the race.

Why Oscar Guy? Why do you insist? Don't you realize how ridiculous you are becoming? It's not a nice sight, and it makes me feel pity towards you, not even anger (anger is your personal field I guess).

As for those who said nice things about me, thank you. He will hate me even more now, but it's good to know that what I'm doing here and the way I am isn't so impossible to understand.

OscarGuy wrote:Wasn't meaning to be provocative, but I guess I saw things differently than everyone else. I'll just go back to not posting anything unless I have to. Safer that way.

Oh, it's no fun being safe. Post away, it may lead to heated exchanges, but that's much better than no exchanges at all!

Damien wrote:

HarryGoldfarb wrote:If someone calls me retarded cause I just mistook Geraldine Page with Geraldine Chaplin I can laugh about it or I can explain myself or I can excuse myself, etc...

I wouldn't call you retarded, but I did laugh out loud at the thought of Geraldine Page in Dr. Zhivago. :laugh:

Oh Gosh... Indeed... :laugh:

HarryGoldfarb wrote:If someone calls me retarded cause I just mistook Geraldine Page with Geraldine Chaplin I can laugh about it or I can explain myself or I can excuse myself, etc...

I wouldn't call you retarded, but I did laugh out loud at the thought of Geraldine Page in Dr. Zhivago. :laugh:

(I like Geraldine Chaplin a lot, too. I'm even fond of her widely lambasted performance in Nashville.)

ITALIANO wrote:I've given up after Rita Moreno won the 1961 poll. Now I come to this thread for the comments, which are interesting and well-informed; the polls themselves don't mean much anymore.

I have to say I find nothing at all even remotely objectionable or egotistical about this statement -- I even think it was humorous -- and to be honest, Wes, I actually think you were trying to be a provocateur by commenting on it.

I agree with Harry that people need to be less thin-skinned here. What makes this place special in comparison to other film boards is that every regular poster here has a unique voice and sensibility, and being teased about our particular peccadilloes is in its way a celebration of our diversity. Hell, I never knew I had a nun fetish before

dws1982 wrote:I think this must be the lamest argument in the history of the board. Italiano didn't say anything that hasn't been said in some form already. I'm not sure what the big deal is.

At any rate, I would've voted for Sandy Dennis. But since Harry Goldfarb accidentally voted for her even though he wanted to vote for Wendy Hiller, I'll vote for Hiller to offset his mistake. The best description I ever heard of Hiller was that she looks like she drank vinegar for breakfast, and she sure does in A Man For All Seasons.

Thanks!