STEPHEN SONDHEIM 1930-2021
Musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim has died. Reports were that the great Broadway songwriter died on Friday morning. Many of the remembrances over the weekend have made a point that Sondheim was a big fan of film and I'm happy to remind all that Sondheim guest-directed TFF in 2003. His presentation was a mini-retrospective of the works of Julien Duvivier. The retrospective consisted of three of Duvivier's films: Panique, La Belle Equipe and Carnet Du Bal. Sondheim also presented George Stevens' The More the Merrier for TFF #30.
In terms of his own film involvement, Sondheim was an Oscar winner for Original Song for Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) in 1991. He also was the co-screen writer (with Anthony Hopkins) of the 1973 film The Last of Sheila. Then, of course, there were the adaptations of so many of the musicals that he had been a part of including the upcoming re-imagining of West Side Story from Steven Spielberg.
Sondheim also won a Pulitzer Prize, eight Grammys and eight Tony awards as well as being a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 1993.
As for me, my fascination with Sondheim began with a love affair with the Judy Collins recording of Send in the Clowns. I didn't even know that it was from the musical A Little Night Music at the time. Yet, later that year (1975), my first participation in a college production was as Asst. Prop Master for the production at the University of Oklahoma. Later in life (2010), A Little Night Music also provided what has been the most moving and transfixing moment I have ever experienced in a Broadway theater as I saw Bernadette Peters in her opening night performance sing the song.
Coincidentally, my little community theater here in the Oklahoma panhandle is prepping to do Into the Woods in February. My wife has had that on her wish list to direct for decades and we were to have done it a couple of years back...but then Covid-19 changed the world. It'll be a family affair with my daughter, grandkids and son-in-law joining me as cast members.
The word genius has been overused but in Sondheim's case, it's as close as we can come to finding a single word that can name the thing he was. As it is, genius isn't a big enough word to use but it's what we have.
MTFB UPDATES OSCAR PREDICITONS: PICTURE, DIRECTOR AND ANIMATED, DOCUMENTARY AND INTERNATIONAL FEATURES
Here's the MTFB latest update on predictions for Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, International Feature, Animated Feature and Documentary Feature. These categories were last predicted here on Nov. 15th. As always TFF #48 films are indicate in Bold and the film's previous position is indicated to the right in parentheses.
BEST PICTURE
1) Belfast (1)
2) The Power of the Dog (2)
3) King Richard (4)
4) Dune (5)
5) Licorice Pizza (3)
6) Being the Ricardos (New)
7) West Side Story (7)
8) Nightmare Alley (6)
9) Spencer (9)
10) Don't Look Up (New)
Alternates: The Tragedy of Macbeth and tick, tick...BOOM
BEST DIRECTION
1) Kenneth Branagh/Belfast (1)
2) Jane Campion/The Power of the Dog (2)
3) Denis Villenueve/Dune (3)
4) Paul Thomas Anderson/Licorice Pizza (4)
5) Reinaldo Marcus Green/King Richard (New)
Alternates: Guillermo Del Toro/Nightmare Alley and Steven Spielberg/West Side Story
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
1) The Worst Person in the World/Norway (1)
2) A Hero/Iran (2)
3) Flee/Denmark (3)
4) The Hand of God/Italy (4)
5) Titane/France (5)
Alternates: Drive My Car/Japan and Compartment #6/Finland
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
1) Flee (1)
2) Encanto (2)
3) The Mitchell's vs. the Machines (3)
4) Luca (4)
5) Belle (5)
Alternates: Raya and the Last Dragon and The Summit of the Gods
BEST DOCUMENTARY
1) Flee (1)
2) The Rescue (2)
3) Summer of Soul (3)
4) Procession (5)
5) Ascension (4)
Alternates: Faha Deyi and The Velvet Underground
INDIEWIRE'S INTERNATIONAL SHORT LIST
Indiewire's staff recently compiled a list of 15 films that they suggest are the most likely to be nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar on Feb. 8, 2022. TFF #48 hosted four of the 15 films:
Flee/Denmark
The Hand of God/Italy
A Hero/Iran
Unclenching the Fists/Russia
As you can see above, Flee, The Hand of God and A Hero are all included in my current predictions to be nominated. The Worst Person in the world and Titane, which I have also predicted for nominations are also included in the Indiewire 15.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2
MTFB's Facebook Page
MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays
No comments:
Post a Comment