The Auteurnament

[donny]

Amer. Beauty dominates. Next battle up shortly.

[donny]

The Auteurnament

4th Edition

Round Two, Battle Ten

Region Three (Sam Mendes, Elia Kazan, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder)

The Mendes/Wilder Section

The Wilder Finals

Sunset Boulevard





Released: 1950

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD, a corrosive black comedy that remains the most memorable assault on the emptiness and vanity of the movie business, stars William Holden as young, down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis. Narrated in flashbacks by the now-deceased scribe, the film unwinds the series of events that left him lying face down in a pool. Unable to sell his most recent chef-d'oeuvre, and in hock up to his eyeballs, Joe stashes his car in the driveway of what appears to be an abandoned mansion on Sunset Boulevard while trying to elude some persistent repo men. Closer inspection reveals the decrepit property to be inhabited by grandiose former silent movie goddess Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and her zombie-like manservant Max (Erich von Stroheim). Upon hearing that he's a writer, the lonely but still wealthy woman offers to pay him generously to stay at the house and work on her "comeback" script on the life of Salome. Although spooked by the people and the surroundings, in desperate straits, Joe takes the job, little suspecting the madness of the netherworld he's entered. Wilder's merciless portrait of the dangers of a profession that trades in fantasy cagily couples the cynical amorality of the never-was with the near-psychotic narcissism of the has-been to reveal the vacuity of wealth and the transience of fame.

Wilder Bytes: - This is the 9th directed film by Wilder.

- The film's dark, shadowy black-and-white film noir cinematography was the work of John F. Seitz. Wilder had worked with him several times before, and trusted his judgment, allowing him the freedom to make his own decisions. Seitz recalled asking Wilder what he required for the pet chimpanzee's funeral scene. Wilder replied, "you know, just your standard monkey funeral shot." For some interior shots Seitz sprinkled dust in front of the camera before filming to suggest "mustiness," a trick he had also used during production of Double Indemnity.

VS

The Apartment





Released: 1960

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT blends his customary harsh cynicism with a humane streak that appears only fleetingly in his films. It stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who curries favor with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for the odd afternoon dalliance. Among them his is his callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), who Baxter eventually learns is using his place to sleep with Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the sweet elevator operator the clerk has loved from afar. When Sheldrake coldly dumps the vulnerable young woman, she tries to commit suicide, but is saved by the intervention of Baxter. As the clerk lovingly nurses the young woman back to health he begins to realize, with the help of epigrammatic neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), exactly how much of a fool he has been. Wilder brilliant depiction of the average American office as a place of brutality, coldness, and alienation conjure up Kafka and Marx. The director seduces the audience into what appears to be an unusually frank sex comedy, but turns the tables in displaying the consequences of the executive's cold indifference. Lemmon and MacLaine both give career performances and MacMurray is memorable as the blandly smiling snake.

Wilder Bytes: - This is the 18th directed film by Wilder.

- Billy Wilder originally thought of the idea for the film after seeing Brief Encounter (1945) and wondering about the plight of a character unseen in that film. Shirley MacLaine was only given forty pages of the script because Wilder didn't want her to know how the story would turn out. She thought it was because the script wasn't finished.

My Vote: The Apartment

[Sculder]

The Apartment

[Justin]

Sunset Boulevard

[IanTheCool]

The Apartment

[IanTheCool]

Also, congrats to the Auteurnament on winning the battle of the battles.

[Dhamon22]

The Apartment

[sniktawt]

The Apartment

[jbailey84]

The Apartment

[The Moose]

The Apartment

[Carnage Escobar]

The Apartment

[wall jumper]

Sunset Boulevard

[ShnizMuffin]

The Apartment

[donny]

Originally Posted by IanTheCool

Also, congrats to the Auteurnament on winning the battle of the battles.

Thank you, Ian.

The Apartment wins. Next battle up shortly.

[donny]

The Auteurnament

4th Edition

Round Two, Battle Eleven

Region Three (Sam Mendes, Elia Kazan, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder)

The Kazan/Welles Section

The Kazan Finals

A Streetcar Named Desire





Released: 1951

Synopsis: Tennessee Williams based his screenplay on Oscar Saul's adaptation of Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a grimy New Orleans project. The story of the fragile sentimentalism of a former prostitute who visits her sister only to be taunted mercilessly by her childish brother-in-law. Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Screeplay. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter), and Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden). The director's cut contains three minutes of previously censored footage.

Kazan Bytes: This is the 7th directed film by Kazan.

- Nine members of the original Broadway cast (Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Richard Garrick, Ann Dere and Edna Thomas) repeated their roles in the film, a highly unusual decision at the time and even today, when original casts of plays are often completely replaced for the film versions. However, Vivien Leigh, who had played Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), was selected to play Blanche du Bois over Jessica Tandy to add "star power" to the picture (Marlon Brando had not yet achieved full stardom in films; he would be billed under Leigh in the film's credits).

VS

On the Waterfront





Released: 1954

Synopsis: Marlon Brando is Terry Malloy, an ex-prize fighter struggling against union corruption along the New York waterfront, in Elia Kazan's film classic. Malloy's battle takes him all the way to the witness stand, where he finds himself testifying against union leaders. The film was Kazan's response to his decision to turn in the names of his Hollywood contemporaries during Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-Communism hearings. Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Malden were all nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscars. Academy Award Nominations: 12. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Marlon Brando, Best Story and Screenplay.

Kazan Bytes: - This is the 10th directed film by Kazan.

- On the Waterfront, being about a heroic mob informer, is widely considered to be Kazan's answer to his critics (including his former friend and collaborator Arthur Miller), showing that there could be nobility in a man who "named names." In the movie, variations of that phrase are repeatedly used by Terry Malloy. The film also repeatedly emphasizes the waterfront's code of "D and D" or "Deaf and Dumb," remaining silent at all costs and not "ratting out" one's friends. In the end, Malloy does just that and his doing so is depicted sympathetically. Miller's response to the movie's message is contained in his own play, A View from the Bridge, which presents a contrasting view of those who inform on others.

My Vote: On the Waterfront

[sniktawt]

On the Waterfront

[The Moose]

On The Waterfront