A Man for All Seasons: Under Pressure

Robert Shaw and Paul Scofield. Photo: Columbia When it comes to the play ”A Man for all Seasons”, and its 1966 film adaptation, there were historical errors that Thomas More…

One Battle After Another: Anderson’s Anora

Leonardo DiCaprio. Photo: Warner Leonardo DiCaprio once said that turning down Boogie Nights (1997) was the greatest regret of his career. Paul Thomas Anderson, who was just starting out, had…

The Great Ziegfeld

In the 1890s, Florenz Ziegfeld (William Powell) goes to San Francisco, hoping to have a career in show business; later in New York, he comes up with an unbeatable concept.…

Mrs. Miniver: Idyll Interrupted

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Photo: MGM When Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, saw this movie, he was probably both disturbed and impressed. He thought it was an ingenious piece…

Cimarron

One of the earliest Best Picture winners had the look and feel of an epic, depicting a family over several decades, beginning with the Oklahoma land rush in 1889; the…

The Broadway Melody

Two sisters (Anita Page, Bessie Love) try to break through on Broadway, but allow men to come between them. The second film to win the Best Picture Oscar was popular…

Life of Emile Zola: Elephant in the room

Paul Muni and Vladimir Sokoloff. Photo: Warner In the 1930s, biographical films won Best Picture two years in a row. In The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell played the legendary theatrical…

Grand Hotel: Where Nothing Ever Happens

Greta Garbo and John Barrymore. Photo: MGM In the 1930s, the Nazis decided that the Austrian author Vicki Baum’s novels were amoral and had to be banned. By then, Baum…

Going My Way

Father O’Malley (Bing Crosby) arrives at a church in New York City where his unconventional style worries the elder pastor (Barry Fitzgerald). In the 1940s, Leo McCarey focused on message…

Anora: Chasing Vanya

Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison. Photo: Neon The day after watching this film as part of the opening of this year’s Stockholm Film Festival, I was telling a co-worker about…