TCM Schedule for Friday, March 25, 2022 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1970s Winners

[Staph]

Day twenty-five of the 31 Days, and we're getting our third day full of the 1970s, including a trio of Best Foreign Language Films. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Dersu Uzala (1975)
2h 21m | Adventure | TV-PG
A Russian explorer brings the Asiatic hunter who saved his life back to civilization.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Maksim Munzuk, Yuriy Solomin, M Bichkov

Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Soviet Union

Akira Kurosawa had hoped to make this film as early as in the 1950's, but he had trouble adapting the story to a Japanese setting, never thinking that one day he would actually be able to film it on location in Russia, and with Russian actors.


9:00 AM -- Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
1h 45m | Comedy
A group of friends fail repeatedly in their efforts to share a dinner.
Director: Luis Buñuel
Cast: Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig

Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- France

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Luis Buñuel (screenplay/story) and Jean-Claude Carrière (collaboration)

The movie includes three of Buñuel's recurring dreams: a dream of being on stage and forgetting his lines, a dream of meeting his dead cousin in the street and following him into a house full of cobwebs, and a dream of waking up to see his dead parents staring at him.


11:00 AM -- Day for Night (1973)
2h | Comedy | TV-14
A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises among the cast and crew.
Director: François Truffaut
Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut

Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- France

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Valentina Cortese, Best Director -- François Truffaut, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard and Suzanne Schiffman

When Nathalie Baye first heard that Billy Wilder asked François Truffaut if he used a real script girl for the part of Joelle, she felt a bit offended as she was trying hard to be a proper actress. Later, she eventually admitted it was the best compliment she could receive.


1:15 PM -- Logan's Run (1975)
1h 58m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-MA
A police officer in the future uncovers the deadly secret behind a society that worships youth.
Director: Michael Anderson
Cast: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter

Winner of a Special Acievement Oscar Award for L.B. Abbott, Glen Robinson and Matthew Yuricich for visual effects

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Ernest Laszlo, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Dale Hennesy and Robert De Vestel

In the original novel, the colors of the Life Clock change every seven years: yellow (birth-6), blue (7-13), red (14-20), red and black on Lastday, and black at 21. According to the audio commentary, the movie changed it to 30 because it wasn't realistic to have a cast with all of the characters under 21.


3:30 PM -- Being There (1979)
2h 10m | Comedy | TV-14
Political pundits mistake an illiterate gardener for a media genius and turn him into a national hero.
Director: Hal Ashby
Cast: Peter Sellers, Shirley Maclaine, Melvyn Douglas

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Melvyn Douglas

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter Sellers

Modern viewers may be confused by the various characters--even the doctors--not immediately understanding that Chance is on the autism spectrum. Autism was horribly misunderstood and widely unknown, even among medical professionals, at the time this film was released. It was so taboo, most parents tried to hide their children's autism, resulting in the public not knowing much about it. A shift through the 1990s and 2000s from seeing autism as a taboo mental illness to current views of autism as neurodivergence (simply a different way of being) helped de-stigmatize autism, which allowed those in the ASD community to open up and educate the public.


6:00 PM -- The Candidate (1972)
1h 49m | Drama | TV-14
A senate candidate's ideals weaken as his position in the polls gets stronger.
Director: Michael Ritchie
Cast: Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, Melvyn Douglas

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Jeremy Larner

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound -- Richard Portman and Gene S. Cantamessa

Robert Redford and Michael Ritchie had recently worked together on Downhill Racer (1969), when they approached Jeremy Larner together wanting to make a movie about "a candidate who sold his soul." According to Larner: "Warners would not have financed the film were not Redford willing to take responsibility for it, and though he did not want the credit, he was a most conscientious producer from beginning to end, and the movie certainly reflects his personality."



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR -- 1970s WINNERS



8:00 PM -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
3h | Musical | TV-G
Before the Russian revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters who have plans of their own.
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Sound -- Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard, and Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- John Williams

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, and Best Picture

Perchik is a student revolutionary from Kiev, who is strident and condescending with the villagers about their apathy towards world events. But it's never explained why he's in their obscure, and remote little village, 400 to 500 miles away. It is possible that he was there hiding from the authorities. He could also have been in the settlements recruiting members for the revolution.


11:15 PM -- All That Jazz (1979)
2h 3m | Adaptation | TV-MA
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
Director: Bob Fosse
Cast: Gary Bayer, Leonard Drum, Jan Flato

Winner of Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Philip Rosenberg, Tony Walton, Edward Stewart and Gary J. Brink, Best Costume Design -- Albert Wolsky, Best Film Editing -- Alan Heim, and Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Ralph Burns

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Roy Scheider, Best Director -- Bob Fosse, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse, Best Cinematography -- Giuseppe Rotunno, and Best Picture

There's a lot of life imitates art here and vice versa. Ann Reinking was Bob Fosse's girlfriend and protégé in 1975, which was the timeframe Fosse documented with this movie. The wife's character was likely based on Gwen Verdon from whom he was separated but had a working relationship. The daughter is based pretty closely on his real daughter, Nicole Fosse, who was a dancer in this period and would go on to star in A Chorus Line (1985), another seminal backstage musical movie. And Gideon is, of course, Fosse himself. (Fosse was pretty open about all this stuff in interviews.)


1:30 AM -- Woodstock: The Director's Cut (1970)
3h 4m | Documentary | TV-MA
The events of the three-day Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held near Bethel, New York in August 1969.
Director: Michael Wadleigh
Cast: Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Features -- Bob Maurice

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound -- Dan Wallin and L.A. Johnson, and Best Film Editing -- Thelma Schoonmaker

The two= and three-panel screen presentations seen throughout much of the movie were innovations born of necessity on the part of its creators and a film editor named Martin Scorsese. With so much footage shot, and the studio's unwillingness to expand the length of the released film's running time, it was decided that a way must be found to maximize the amount of footage that could be used. Because of the wide-screen aspect of the release, it was realized that the multi-panel format could be used most effectively to not only include as much film footage as possible, but to also have concert footage and crowd reaction shots together on the same screen. The filmmakers believed it was important to show the viewing public just what a monumental event the Woodstock festival had unintentionally become. This method also allowed them to show many behind-the-scene activities that showed all the hard work put in by the production staff and crew, another important detail that the concert's producers thought was very important for the public to see as they had always contended that without the efforts of the entire production staff, this event could have easily degenerated into a disaster.


5:30 AM -- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
1h 55m | Comedy | TV-G
When he inherits a fortune, a small-town poet has to deal with the corruption of city life.
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft

Winner of an Oscar for Best Director -- Frank Capra

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD) and Best Picture

This movie marks the entry of the verb doodle (in the sense of absent-minded scribbling) into the English language. The word was coined for the movie by screenwriter Robert Riskin.