Best Picture and Director 1974

[Mister Tee]

Are we looking at a scenario where Liv Ullmann pulls out a win?

It's conceivable, if only because the '74 race was the sort of free-for-all we so rarely get today -- lots of people were pulling for Rowlands, and Dunaway couldn't be counted out. If you add NY/National Society winner Ullmann -- for a film that was far more beloved than her '76 Face to Face -- the vote could have been divided enough that a passion/critics' pick might slip through. Ullmann, like Loren before her, had done enough American films (albeit bad ones) that she was considered part of the industry, rather than a complete foreign interloper like Adjani in '75, which would also up her chances.

Another thought: If Ullmann was fully in the mix, meaning a stronger best actress slate, UA might have rethought its move-Perrine-to-lead strategy and put her in supporting (as she had been with NY and NBR).

Bergman MIGHT have got the directing nod, but it was Cassavettes' peak year with the Academy, so it's not a sure thing.

Harry and Tonto and Alice were the two semi-surprises in original screenplay, so I suppose either of those might have fallen to Bergman, who was popular with the writers' branch.

[Sabin]

Are we looking at a scenario where Liv Ullmann pulls out a win?

[Big Magilla]

Big Magilla wrote
Best Original Screenplay - over Duddy Kravitz

Duddy Kravitz was adapted.

Of course it was. I actually read it back in the day.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore would probably be the one to go.

[Sabin]

Big Magilla wrote
Best Picture - over either Lenny or The Conversation, not The Towering Inferno which would have been nominated by a different group of voters.

Good point. Based on Lenny's six nominations that probably favors The Conversation not making the cut.

Big Magilla wrote
Best Original Screenplay - over Duddy Kravitz

Duddy Kravitz was adapted.

[Big Magilla]

Scenes from a Marriage opened in Los Angeles in November, 1974, so, yes, it would have been eligible for the 1974 awards had it not been for the anomaly.

Possible Oscar nominations:

Best Picture - over either Lenny or The Conversation, not The Towering Inferno which would have been nominated by a different group of voters.

Best Actress - Ullmann over Carroll.

Best Director - Bergman over either Cassavetes of Fosse.

Best Original Screenplay - over Duddy Kravitz

[Sabin]

Got it. And would Scenes from a Marriage have been eligible for the ceremony honoring the achievements of 1974? I find the eligibility window confusing regarding foreign-language film consideration but unlike other foreign language films but it seems like it had a long enough release period.

Had Scenes from a Marriage been eligible in the 1974 Academy Awards, how would it have done?

Nominations for Liv Ullmann for Best Actress (maybe even a win) and Ingmar Bergman for Best Original Screenplay seem very possible. Probably at the expense of Diahann Carroll (Actress) and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore or Harry and Tonto (Screenplay).

It's hard to know who Bibi Andersson could take the place of for Best Supporting Actress. That race is a truly odd one. Not that the Golden Globes could be taken seriously back then but the only performances in this lineup that had crossover with the Academy were Valentine Cortese (the previous year) and Diane Ladd, with half credit to Madeline Kahn for Young Frankenstein, not Blazing Saddles. Or maybe she just would not have crossed over.

And then how would it have done for Best Picture and Director? By this point, Ingmar Bergman is firmly in the club so perhaps he takes John Cassavetes spot for Best Director. It seems likelier that Scenes from a Marriage bumps off The Conversation than Lenny or The Towering Inferno but if somehow it takes the place of The Towering Inferno, then 1974 gets to be remembered in history as one of the few perfect lineups.

[Big Magilla]

The ineligibility of Scenes from a Marriage was controversial because the TV miniseries from which it was whittled down was first shown on Swedish TV the preceding year where no one outside of that country had the ability to see it.

Oddly enough, when Fanny & Alexander followed the same trajectory 9 years later, it did not suffer the same fate.

[Reza]

The Bergman film was ineligible in all categories across the board which is why there was such a hue and cry over that. It had been first shown on television so was deemed ineligible.

[Sabin]

Quick question now that Scenes from a Marriage is back in the zeitgeist.

Was Scenes from a Marriage eligible in other categories in 1974 or was it just ineligible for Best Foreign-Language Film? I see that it was released in the US in September of 1974. Would it be eligible in other categories in 1974 or would those other nominations come into play the following year? I find the Foreign-Language Film eligibly window confusing.

[Big Magilla]

Interestingly, I re-watched both The Towering Inferno and Lenny in preparation for this week's vote on cinematography.

This may have been the first time since 9/11 that I could bring myself to watch The Towering Inferno, but it's still a tough movie to sit through having had to lead a group down from the fourteenth (really the thirteenth) floor of a much smaller high-rise in what was thankfully an after-hours fire in an office building a year or two after the film was released. It didn't help that after seeing it the other night, the news broke about another high-rise apartment building in Hawaii. The film still holds up, though how it won the cinematography Oscar over Chinatown and the non-nominated Godfather II remains a mystery. More of that on Wednesday.

I watched Lenny on the Twilight Time Blu-ray with the commentary track from Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo on, which was very enlightening.

After winning the Tony for Pippin, the Oscar for Cabaret and the Emmy for Liza with a Z in that order in the same year, Fosse could have made any film he wanted to. He chose Lenny because Lenny Bruce's early life paralleled his own. Fosse was only 12 when his parents put him to work in seedy nightclubs like the ones Lenny Bruce worked in before hitting the big time. He hated the showgirls who constantly groped him. He hated the audiences. He reportedly had writer Julian Barry rewrite his play to make Bruce's early life more like his own. He clashed with Dustin Hoffman who didn't like most of the routines he was given to perform in the early scenes. He also reportedly verbally abused Valarie Perrine to force that performance out of her. If his next film five years later, All That Jazz, was thinly disguised autobiography, this was a more heavily disguised one. All of this made me wonder if Robert Surtees, who was his d.p. on Sweet Charity was really too busy to film Lenny or if he just didn't want to work with Fosse again, and whether that was the case or not, why he recommended his son, Bruce, who was already making a name for himself as Clint Eastwood's preferred d.p., to take his place.

[Greg]

And Mario Puzo was a cowriter for Earthquake.

[Eric]

And then gives her a fluffy white lapdog he found in a collapsed building. Definitely my favorite in the disaster movie cycle.

[Mister Tee]

I'm cool with this as a best editing nominee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHXxHje_Ezc

I'd forgotten how hilarious that film was.

Favorite moment: Marjoe has just tried to rape Victoria Principal; George Kennedy stops it and, to comfort her, says "Earthquakes just bring out the worst in some people"

[Eric]

I'm cool with this as a best editing nominee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHXxHje_Ezc

[OscarGuy]

The Longest Yard and Earthquake aren't surprising as they are heavily edited films, the former a sports film and the latter a disaster pic. Blazing Saddles is the odd one, though. Perhaps the Academy was more friendly to comedies back then than they are now.