81 Days With Oscar And Me

Every Academy Award-Winning Movie, Back to Back, Starting With the First

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Entries Tagged as 'Biopic'

Last Emperor, The

October 18th, 2009 · No Comments · 1987, Adaptation, Bernardo Bertolucci, Biopic, Color, Communists, Criterion Collection, Dalai Lama, Drama, Drug Use, Hemdale Film, Last Emperor, Puyi, Tibet

This is an incredibly sad movie. Not sad in the sense of Out of Africa or Terms of Endearment. Rather, sad in a passing-of-an-era sense. From its entry on Wikipedia: The Last Emperor is a biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China…Puyi’s life is depicted from his ascension to the throne […]

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Gandhi

October 13th, 2009 · No Comments · 1982, Ben Kingsley, Bhagavad Gita, Biopic, Color, Columbia Pictures, Drama, Gandhi, John Gielgud, Non-Violent Civil Disobedience, Original Screenplay, Sir Richard Attenborough

No doubt about it, the life of Mahatma Gandhi is inspiring. The death of Mahatma Gandhi (at the hands of an assassin) is a profoundly ironic tragedy, which makes Gandhi a powerful, deeply moving film. I remember when Gandhi was released in 1982. I saw it with a group of friends. One of them, the […]

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Life of Emile Zola, The

August 29th, 2009 · No Comments · 1937, Adaptation, Biopic, Black and White, Composer: Max Steiner, Donald Crisp, Drama, Left-Leaning Politics, Life of Emile Zola, Paul Muni, Warner Bros. Pictures

I approached this movie with three primary questions at the forefront of my mind: 1. Who was Emile Zola? 2. Who was Paul Muni? 3. What is this movie about? To the first, I turn to an entry on Wikipedia: Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, […]

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Great Ziegfeld, The

August 28th, 2009 · 3 Comments · 1936, Biopic, Black and White, Great Ziegfeld, M-G-M Studios, Musical, Original Screenplay, Powell and Loy

When I found out this was a musical of sorts, I was fully prepared to dislike it. (You see, I’m not a big fan of musicals.) The Great Ziegfeld is the semi-autobiographical story pf Florenz “Flo” Ziegfeld (1867 – 1932), the American Broadway “impresario” best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies […]

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