...I've traveled over half the internet to be here tonight. I couldn't get away sooner because my new film and photo blog was coming in at Blogspot and I had to see about it. That blog is now flowing at two to three posts a week and it's paying me an income of zero dollars a week. I have two others blogging, The Invisible Edge and Cinema Styles and I am one of sixteen blogging in harmony at The Oldest Established Really Important Film Club. So, ladies and gentlemen... if I say I'm a blog man you will agree. I do my own blogging.
I'm a family man- I run a family blog. This is my son and my partner, H.W. Lapper. We offer you the bond of family that very few blog men can understand. I'm fixed like few other blogs in this field. I have a string of posts all ready to go. I can load a screengrab into my photoshop and have a new banner up in a day. I have connections so I can get bad puns for the banner tagline; such things go by friendship in a rush like this. And this is why I can guarantee to start posting again regularly this week now that Christmas is over and I've put up this post to back my word. I assure you, whatever the others promise to do, when it comes to the showdown, they won't be there...
... okay, so I'm exaggerating. Of course they'll be there. We'll all be there. And Oscar will be there, that Golden Boy who throws his weight around Hollywood once a year, starting now and finishing up just weeks before Spring. Last year the man in the picture, Daniel Day-Lewis, took home the Best Actor Oscar and Javier Bardem took home the Supporting Actor Oscar (and don't we all already know who's taking home that award this year?). Here are two other former Best Actor and Supporting Actor winners... when they were boys. And they are?
38 comments:
I'd drink your milkshake, but I'm lactose intolerant.
By the way, that Powell double feature is a two DVD set with intros by Marty Scorsese, and commentary tracks by Ian Christie (Stairway) and Kent Jones (Age), and some other extras. I will finally see There will be Blood this week. I just saw Juno which had a few moments, but a Best Picture nominee?
Boy, the kid in the matador costume looks to me like Glenn Ford, who never won a "Best Actor" Oscar (or any Oscar) though.
I'll guess the kid with his sister is John Gielgud. I can imagine a resemblance and I know Gielgud was Lithuanian, which those costumes could be.
Peter, it's too bad so much of There Will Be Blood has become part of the pop culture now. The milkshake line at the end will be so familiar to you I don't know if you'll be able to see it with fresh eyes. Like practically every "big" film of any given year it divided a lot of people. I thought it was a reckless wonder, equal parts madness and brilliance. It had an ambition to it that doesn't happen with a lot of films these days and I liked that.
Arbo, you've got a great eye (on the second one). That is indeed John Gielgud, with his sister in 1912. The first doesn't look much like the actor it is until you reach his late teens and then, it's him. So I went with the little boy pic instead.
I have no clue about the pictures. But I just wanted to say this....
As someone who saw THERE WILL BE BLOOD seven times in the theatre (yeah...count em), I thought that that was blissfully hysterical.
Forgive me. I AM intense.
If something grabs me, it gets taken to the wall. I don't mind wearing myself out when the brilliance is that glittering and substantial.
BTW, Jonathan, my birthday celebration (for moi - NOT the blog) over at CINEMATIC PASSIONS starts today and continues for the next week. If you're so inclined to drop by, you're always welcome.
Do it up in grand fashion or don't do it at all. That's what I always say.
Happy New Year, Jonathan!
Miranda, I too found There Will Be Blood exhilirating in many ways. I've still only seen it once, in the theatre when it was released, but I'd like to see it again, eventually. I take a long time between viewings, usually a couple of years. Sometimes I'll watch a film twice in a year but more often than not I don't.
And when I have some time later I'd love to stop by and help you celebrate your birthday. Thanks for the invite.
The other picture is of Roberto Benigni.
What other picture?
Oh! You mean the first picture, the one that isn't Gielgud. No, sorry, it's not that Benigni character.
Did I say Roberto Benigni? I meant Ernest Borgnine.
Oh! Ernest Borgnine! Well, that's a whole different story!
No.
Why do I keep saying names other than the one I intend to say! I must be losing it!
I meant to say Adrien Brody.
You're right!
That is the one you meant to say.
And it's wrong.
I know ... I know ... it's Anna Magnani in boy-drag. Or -- I know -- it's Jackie Cooper (actually, that's a serious guess).
I thought it was too bad that two marvelous films like "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men" got put into a sort of competition with each other. They are two very different films ... one controlled and measured, the other, as you said, "a reckless wonder." (a fine turn of phrase, btw) But critics who whine every year that the Oscars don't mean anything pitted them against one another, they counted how many top ten lists had one at the top versus the other, and which one "deserved" best picture. Sickening.
There's something about the set of that "Best Actor" boy face that makes me think... William Holden.
Rick, Jackie was nominated (Skippy) but never won.
As for the two top films of last year, this year doesn't have that. There are no two films this year that have enough consensus that they're pitted against each other. Either that means there are too many good ones this year or not enough. I tend to go with the latter but I haven't seen enough yet to be sure.
Arbo, Holden may have been the golden boy but he's not the one in the pic.
Is that future Best Actor Marlon Brando?
Nope, not Brando.
I think it's time to give it away.
Both pics were scanned by me from the same book. A book on acting. A book on acting on the English stage.
That should do it.
Is it Olivier? Boy, a lot of "Best Actor" winners sure did have cleft chins.
Yes, it's Lord Larry himself. And the book, Great Acting, is a damn good one, giving full profiles of each actor plus a lengthy interview at the end of each bio. If I don't decide to flush this whole blog down the toilet in the next month or two I just might write it up.
If I don't decide to flush this whole blog down the toilet in the next month or two I just might write it up
???
Oh, c'mon, Bill... tell me you haven't thought of doing the same thing. It's the Blogger's Exit Strategy!
I have never thought of doing that! How dare you imply such a thing! I committed to my blog. I made a promise to the world.
I feel like quitting this thing about once or twice a month. I mean as in seriously wanting to quit it, not "oh screw this I'm done" because I get annoyed with something. But lately, it's been once or twice a week. A part of me feels that with the Film Club, I can discuss movies there with no pressure to wrtie about them regularly. Then I can do my stuff at Invisible Edge and continue to work on my movies. I don't know. I'm sure after a couple of weeks I'd be itching to blog about something in the movies again. Maybe I just need to slow down the pace more. But then of course I feel like I'm not providing enough material and the hits go down and... see, this is why once or twice a week I start saying Screw it!
And I would never stop until we had a winner in the Name That Movie contest. But Arbo should win soon.
Stop guessing, everybody (especially you, Arbo)!
Thanks Bill, that joke meant a lot to me. Really, it did. I was just stroking Arbo's ego anyway. He's totally choked on the last three in a row. He burned brightly, but he burned out fast.
No problem, Jonathan. There are many reasons I would never want you to shut down, not the least of which is that, if you did, I don't know where I'd hang out while I was at work.
Well, it's time to go (from work that is). Maybe I'll see about combining my movie/personal blogs. Something like that.
And I'm sick of the pseudonym but I don't want work, where around 85 have already been laid off, connecting me to all-day commenting online. Suckerino.
Your pseudonym kicks your real name's ass. Keep it and ditch the original. Trust me. And sign me...
Arbogast.
"Lapper" is in no way better than my real name. Besides, you're just saying that because your real name is Engelbert so yeah, of course "Arbogast" sounds better. But my last name, as you know, is the last name of a principled, never-give-in-to-commercialism, intense filmmaker (and don't say who it is okay). And one day soon people will be asking him if he's related to me, not the other way around.
And my wife thought the "film grain/freckles" comment was funny. Bastard.
Lapper keeps flirting with this "flushing the blog down the toilet" thing.
Everyone...
Isn't this kind of like a blogger mentioning suicide a lot? Should we maybe have an intervention for Lapper? (Arbogast is probably a good host).
Anyways, I just skimmed these comments, but it seems like a closure of Cinema Styles is a real possibility after all. :(
Jonathan, would you at least make one of those farewell montages before you left us - IF you left us? You know, like a keepsake so we can remember the good times: the genius comments, the number of times Bill said "boobs", low self-esteem, Stephen King & Bilderberg, that one commenter that had 39 blogs about the same thing (what was his name again?).
Geez, Fox, it sounds like you want me to leave. Thanks. Well, I'll just be on my way then.
Goodbye everyone. Cinema Styles is over.
...
Ha, just kidding! Fox, no intervention necessary, I just get tired of doing the same thing that's all. It's why I have to change my banners, I have to re-work the template every three months, I have to start new blogs, oh, once a month at least. Most go away quickly but three have stuck, including of course Cinema Styles.
But I do get restless and I'm not one to hold it in and not let someone know I'm restless. Which is why my boss sometimes has to talk to me about my "engagement" and "attitude" in meetings. Because I HATE THEM and I don't disguise that fact. The people I work with actually like the crap they're doing while I'm just paying my bills.
I know, and you know, and everyone knows, I'll probably never stop Cinema Styles, but occasionally I have to let everyone know I'm kind of restless, and then I feel better.
And my real name really is much better than "Lapper" no matter what Arbo says.
But my last name, as you know, is the last name of a principled, never-give-in-to-commercialism, intense filmmaker
Your name is Phil Joanou?
I deleted your deleted comment. I'm tidy that way.
Your name is Phil Joanou?
Almost, except that none of the letters you used correspond to letters in my name. But other than that...
Should we maybe have an intervention for Lapper? (Arbogast is probably a good host).
I'll make fondue!
And bring plenty of booze. An intervention just isn't an intervention without plenty of booze.
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