Venice, Venice, Venice

The lineup for this year's Venice Film Festival (the 66th of its kind) was announced yesterday. It runs from September 2-12, and I'll be attending this year (yay!). All the headlines were for Michael Moore, whose new documentary about the world's economic meltdown, Capitalism: A Love Story will premiere there, and Werner Herzog's "remake" of Bad Lieutenant starring Nicholas Cage will also be shown. An even juicier element is that Abel Ferrara, Lieutenant's original director, who upon hearing of Herzog's version stated that he hoped everyone connected with the film would be "blown up", is bringing his own film Napoli, Napoli, Napoli to the festival.

On a personal note the most appetising of the in-competition films is probably Tom Ford (former creative director of Gucci) debuting with the story of a grieving gay man, played by Colin Firth and co-starring none other than Julianne Moore! John Hillcoat's long-awaited The Road will also be premiering, and films from favourites such as Steven Soderbergh, Jacques Rivette, Claire Denis, Patrice Cherau, and Todd Solondz will feature. George Clooney and Ewan McGregor may be there in support of Clooney's Goodnight and Good Luck co-writer Grant Heslov, who directs the pair in the political comedy The Men Who Stare At Goats, which I assume is pushing for some buzz and a release in time for awards season.

Here is the full lineup:-

Venezia 66
International competition of feature films, presented as world premieres.

36 VUES DU PIC SAINT LOUP - JACQUES RIVETTE
France, 84'
Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto, André Marcon, Jacques Bonnaffé


AHASIN WETEI (BETWEEN TWO WORLDS) - VIMUKHTI JAYASUNDARA
Sri Lanka, 80'
Thusitha Laknath, Kaushalya Fernando, Huang Lu


BAARÌA - GIUSEPPE TORNATORE
Italy, 150'
Francesco Scianna, Margareth Madè, Raoul Bova, Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, Vincenzo Salemme, Monica Bellucci, Laura Chiatti


BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS - WERNER HERZOG
USA, 121'
Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Michael Shannon


CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY - MICHAEL MOORE
USA, 120'
(documentary)


EL MOSAFER (THE TRAVELLER) - AHMED MAHER
Egypt, 125'
Omar Sharif, Cyrine AbdelNour, Khaled El Nabawy


IL GRANDE SOGNO - MICHELE PLACIDO
Italy, 101'
Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca, Luca Argentero, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando


LA DOPPIA ORA - GIUSEPPE CAPOTONDI
Italy, 95'
Ksenia Rappoport, Filippo Timi, Giorgio Colangeli

LEI WANGZI (PRINCE OF TEARS) - YONFAN
China - Taiwan, Hong Kong, 120'
Chih-Wei Fan, Terri Kwan, Joseph Chang, Kenneth Tsang


LEVANON (LEBANON) - SAMUEL MAOZ
Israel, 92'
Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen


LIFE DURING WARTIME - TODD SOLONDZ
USA, 92'
Ciarán Hinds, Emma Hinz, Charlotte Rampling


LO SPAZIO BIANCO - FRANCESCA COMENCINI
Italy, 96'
Margherita Buy, Guido Caprino, Salvatore Cantalupo


LOURDES - JESSICA HAUSNER
Austria, 99'
Sylvie Testud, Léa Seydoux, Bruno Todeschini


MR. NOBODY - JACO VAN DORMAEL
France,
Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley


PERSÉCUTION - PATRICE CHÉREAU
France, 100'
Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean Hugues Anglade, Alex Descas


THE ROAD - JOHN HILLCOAT
USA, 112'
Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall


A SINGLE MAN - TOM FORD
USA, 99'
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode

SOUL KITCHEN - FATIH AKIN
Germany, 99'
Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birol Uenel


SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD - GEORGE ROMERO
USA, 90'
Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Walsh, Devon Bostick, Kathleen Munroe


TETSUO THE BULLET MAN - SHINYA TSUKAMOTO
Japan, 80'
Eric Bossick, Akiko Monou, Shinya Tsukamoto


WHITE MATERIAL - CLAIRE DENIS
France, 100'
Isabelle Huppert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé


YI NGOI (ACCIDENT) - POU-SOI CHEANG
China - Hong Kong, 89'
Louis Koo, Richie Jen, Michelle Ye


ZANAN-E BEDUN-E MARDAN (WOMEN WITHOUT MEN) - SHIRIN NESHAT
Germany, 95'
Pegah Feridon, Shabnam Tolouei, Orsi Tóth, Arita Shahrzad

Out of Competition
Important works by directors already established in past editions of the Festival.



ANNI LUCE - FRANCESCO MASELLI
Italy, 91'
Roberto Herlitzka, Ennio Fantastichini, Valentina Carnelutti, Arnoldo Foà, Lucia Poli


BROOKLYN’S FINEST - ANTOINE FUQUA
USA, 140'
Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin


CHENGDU, WO AI NI (CHENGDU, I LOVE YOU) - FRUIT CHAN, CUI JIAN
China, 78'
Tao Guo, Anya Wu, Weiei Tan


DELHI-6 - MEHRA RAKEYSH OMPRAKASH
India, 110'
Om Puri, Waheeda Rehman, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor


DEV D - ANURAG KASHYAP
India, 144'
Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin


EHKY YA SCHAHRAZAD (SCHEHERAZADE, TELL ME A STORY) - YOUSRY NASRALLAH
Egypt, 135'
Mona Zakki, Mahmoud Hemeda, Hassan El Raddad, Sawsan Badr


GULAAL - ANURAG KASHYAP
India, 140'
K K Menon, Aditya Srivastav, Piyush Mishra, Mahi Gill


THE HOLE - JOE DANTE
USA, 98'
Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett, Natham Gamble, Teri Polo, Bruce Dern


THE INFORMANT! - STEVEN SODERBERGH
USA, 108'
Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale


L’ORO DI CUBA - GIULIANO MONTALDO
Italy, 74'
(Documentary)


THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS - GRANT HESLOV
USA, 90'
George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey


NAPOLI NAPOLI NAPOLI - ABEL FERRARA
Italy, 102'
Luca Lionello, Ernesto Mahieux, Shanyn Leigh, Giuseppe Lanzetta


PROVE PER UNA TRAGEDIA SICILIANA - ROMAN PASKA, JOHN TURTURRO
Italy, 77'
(Documentary)


REC 2 - JAUME BALAGUERÓ, PACO PLAZA
Spain, 85'
Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Andreas Ros Mire, Ariel Casas, Pablo Rosso


SOUTH OF THE BORDER - OLIVER STONE
USA, 102'
(Documentary)


TOY STORY 3-D - JOHN LASSETER
USA, 80'
(Animation)


TOY STORY 2 3-D - JOHN LASSETER, LEE UNKRICH, ASH BRANNON
USA, 94'
(Animation)


VALHALLA RISING - NICOLAS WINDING REFN
Denmark, 90'
Mads Mikkelsen, Alexander Morton, Stewart Porter


YONA YONA PENGUIN - RINTARO
Japan, 87'
(Animation)

Orizzonte
The new trends in world cinema.



1428 - HAIBIN DU
China, 115'
(documentary)


AADMI KI AURAT AUR ANYA KAHANIYA (THE MAN’S WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES) - AMIT DUTTA
India, 78'
Ashok Kumar, Nitin Goel, Shubham Vardhan, Pushpendra Singh


ARMANDO TESTA - POVERO MA MODERNO - PAPPI CORSICATO
Italy, 50'
(documentary)


BLOKADNJE DNEVNIKI (READING BOOK OF BLOCKADE) - ALEKSANDER SOKUROV
Russia, 96'
(documentary)


CHOI VOI (ADRIFT) - THAC CHUYEN BUI
Vietnam, 110'
Yen Hai, Pham Linh-Dan, Khoa Dui


THE DEATH OF PENTHEUS - PHILIP HAAS
USA, 18'

DESERTO ROSA - LUIGI GHIRRI - ELISABETTA SGARBI
Italy, 70'
(documentary)

DOHAWA (BURIED SECRETS) - RAJA AMARI
Tunisia, 91'
Hafsia Herzi, Soundess Belhassen, Wassila Dari

DOU NIU (COW) - HU GUAN
China, 105'
Huang Bo, Yan Ni


ENGKWENTRO - PEPE DIOKNO
Philippines, 60'
Felix Roco, Zyrus Desamparado, Daniel Medrana


FACES OF SEOUL – GINA KIM
USA, 93'

FRANCESCA - BOBBY PAUNESCU
Romania, 96'
Monica Birladeanu, Doru Boguta, Teo Corban

HUGO EN AFRIQUE - STEFANO KNUCHEL
Switzerland, 91'
(documentary)


IL COLORE DELLE PAROLE - MARCO SIMON PUCCIONI
Italy, 70'
(documentary)


INSOLAÇÃO - DANIELA THOMAS, FELIPE HIRSCH
Brazil, 100'
Paulo José, Simone Spoladore, Leonardo Medeiros


IO SONO L'AMORE (I AM LOVE) - LUCA GUADAGNINO
Italy, 120'
Tilda Swinton, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono


KOROTKOYE ZAMYKANIYE (CRUSH) - PETR BUSLOV, ALEXEI GERMAN JR., BORIS KHLEBNIKOV, KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV, IVAN VRYPAYEV
Russia, 95'
Yuriy Chursin, Ivan Dobronravov, Alexei Filimonov, Karolina Grushka, Karim Pakachakov

LA BOHÈME - WERNER HERZOG
Great Britain, 4'

LA DANSE - LE BALLET DE L'OPÉRA DE PARIS - FREDERICK WISEMAN
USA, 159'
(documentary)

MUDANZA - PERE PORTABELLA

Spain, 20'

THE ONE ALL ALONE - FRANK SCHEFFER
Netherlands, 89'
(documentary)


PARAISO (PARADISE) - HECTOR GALVEZ
Peru, 87'
Yiliana Chong


PEPPERMINTA - PIPILOTTI RIST
Switzerland, 80'

REPO CHICK - ALEX COX
USA, 90'
Jaclyn Jonet, Miguel Sandoval, Chloe Webb, Karen Black, Rosanna Arquette


TOTÒ - PETER SCHREINER
Austria, 128'
(documentary)


TOUXI (JUDGE) - JIE LIU
China, 100'
Dahong Ni, Ting Mei, Dao Qi

TRIS DI DONNE & ABITI NUZIALI - VINCENZO TERRACCIANO
Italy, 138'
Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto, Flavio Parenti


VIA DELLA CROCE - SERENA NONO
Italy, 60'
(documentary)


VIAJO PORQUE PRECISO, VOLTO PORQUE TE AMO (I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU) - MARCELO GOMES, KARIM AÏNOUZ
Brazil, 75'
(documentary)


VILLALOBOS - ROMUALD KARMAKAR
Germany, 110'
(documentary)


WAHED-SEFR (ONE-ZERO) - KAMLA ABOU ZEKRI
Egypt, 105'
Elham Shahin, Nelly Karim, Ahmed El Fishawy


WOMEN CENGJING DE WUCHANZHE (ONCE UPON A TIME PROLETARIAN: 12 TALES OF A COUNTRY) - XIAOLU GUO
China, 76'
(documentary)


ZARTE PARASITEN (TENDER PARASITES) - CHRISTIAN BECKER, OLIVER SCHWABE
Germany, 87'
Robert Stadlober, Sylvester Groth, Maja Schöne

Hottest Track: Erik Hassle - Hurtful

Hottest Track: Blake Lewis - Sad Song

Men of the Thirties: 1936

And the Nominees Were:

Gary Cooper - Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Walter Huston - Dodsworth
Paul Muni - The Story of Louis Pasteur
William Powell - My Man Godfrey
Spencer Tracy - San Francisco

And the Winner Was:

Paul Muni - The Story of Louis Pasteur

In this case the result reflects two tried-and-tested ways of winning an Oscar: a) play a famous, real-life person, and b) be nominated enough times to gain "overdue" status. Paul Muni had done both by the time the 1936 awards rolled around and was up against three first-time nominees and a comedic, Best Picture nominee-less William Powell. Plain sailing.

My Ratings (in order of preference):-

**** Gary Cooper in Mr. Deeds Goes To Town

The first of a string of nominations for Cooper, Mr. Deeds is a true display of his penchant for extracting empathy from an audience. His humanism reaches heights in High Noon, where his aging lawman has considerably more wisdom than Deeds, but by my reckoning the younger Cooper is just as valuable. Though the character is a bit too well-rounded and aware of the vicious circle he's dragged into, Cooper never lets you under the skin of Longfellow. He doesn't pin him down as a lucky simpleton, and doesn't really change a great deal from start to finish. It's clever then that he makes Deeds representative of anybody with political power, guilty of taking it for granted and duly pounced upon by the inevitable group that simply don't believe in you. It's a brilliant performance because it counters the spin that Capra's satirising by showing us that there is no saviour, and that the working class everyman is likely to suffer the same fate of the politician with the privileged pedigree.

**** Walter Huston in Dodsworth

Loud, brash, honest, dependable -- they're admittedly not the most exciting adjectives, and so it might not be difficult to surmise why Ruth Chatterton's Fran leaves these characteristics behind for a cosmopolitan life in Europe. Her husband Sam is played with admittedly little variety by Huston, but he manages to capture the perplexity of this retired, business-minded, commonsensical veteran at his wife's actions. Why has she done this? Why has she done this now? Why doesn't she want to be a mother anymore? Why doesn't she want to be a grandmother? Where has this come from? The revelation that he doesn't know his wife half as much as he thought he did comes as a bit of a body blow, and Huston gives the wounded husband a frantic yet assured, grumbly, uncompromising demeanor. The hurt is there but it's beyond this guy to go to pieces, just clean up the damage and move on.

**** William Powell in My Man Godfrey

William Powell is a sly dog. The topsy-turvy politics of My Man Godfrey complicate his performance greatly, introducing Godfrey as a poor man and revealing him as a rich man masquerading as a poor man. To Powell's credit he succeeds at being both, although a repeat viewing might be called for to detect if this plot device is evident in his actions in the film's early stages. He sure seems regal throughout the screwball comedy, maddeningly unwavering when observing the chaos around him, and quietly resentful of the wealthy way of life.

** Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur

The Story of Louis Pasteur is just that, a story, well thought-out with regard to historical overview and plot points, and completely non-threatening as a vehicle. And if the five nominees are judged by how well they know their own film and character's limitations Muni would be up there. But 'reliable' does not excel in my eyes, and Paul Muni's animated, head-scratching robotic dog impersonation grows tiresome quickly. Madness is notoriously synonomous with genius but the madcrack mannerisms of Muni's Pasteur (nodding interminably, itchy-chin syndrome, raised eyebrows) only serve as an admission that this film has nothing to offer but EVENTS and ACTIONS, and doesn't even attempt to delve into Pasteur the man.

* Spencer Tracy in San Francisco

I was hoping to enjoy this film and performance, particularly as in the next couple of profiles I'll be pretty much ripping Spencer Tracy to pieces, but this nomination is one of the most bizarre I have ever come across. Tracy features in about six scenes (probably about fifteen minutes screen-time in all) and in only one of these scenes does he raise his voice. My only guess as to why this happened is that there must have been some kind of media/studio talk of Tracy as the next big thing, because nothing in the film demonstrates any kind of chops, sadly.

The Snubbed

**** Leslie Howard in The Petrified Forest

Howard was snubbed again in 1936, for his screen reprisal of a broadway play. His character in the film, Alan Squier, is the most pseudo-intellectual depressing person. But if you ever wanted to hear someone be intellectual Leslie's your man, and he absoloutely nails the conflicts of a man desperate to matter.

*** Clark Gable in San Francisco

We're back to devilish Clark, and believe me he's fiendish in this one. I read on IMDB trivia that in the more emotional scenes he wouldn't let W.S. Van Dyke film his face. It's probably a wise move for his performance, and the film was already a goner by that point anyway. Much better than Tracy.

Nuns, of the Lusty Variety

Prolific Oscar nominee Meryl Streep, who turned sixty last month, was the last woman to be nominated for portraying a nun. Along with Amy Adams she's the latest in a long line of women to wear the habit, to name but a few: Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary's, Susan Sarandon's victorious turn in Dead Man Walking, and possibly most famously Whoopi Goldberg as showgirl-turned-saint Sister Mary Clarence in the Sister Act series. Deborah Kerr famously played two on-screen nuns, first in Black Narcissus (1947) and secondly opposite Robert Mitchum in Heaven Knows, Mr Allison (1957)(for the latter she received an Oscar nomination and both performances earned her the top prize from the New York Film Critics).

Despite both roles requiring Deborah to express an introspective grapple with the constraints of each nun's commitment to God the two roles require much different work from her. John Huston's Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison initially bothered me rather a lot; Mitchum as a WWII navy Corporal gets washed up on a desert island (presumably somewhere near Japan) where he meets the sole inhabitant, Kerr's Sister Angela. She appears indifferent towards his arrival, perplexed even, yet the following weeks see them engage in what is some heavily intense interaction for people who have just met each other, allbeit in what becomes a quest for survival against Japanese attack. Questions are begged: What was Sister Angela doing before his arrival? Making cups of green tea and playing Patience? How has the solitude affected her? How does she react to no longer being alone?

This is another African Queen, breezy and bright, treading lightly over old ground in the culture clash/missionary propaganda/opposites attract fun of its predecessor, but it is rather maddening that Huston's film seems so unconcerned with its characters adaptation into a wild unknown. Instead we're treated to a kind of moral compromise (one that takes way too long), whereby Allison learns to think carefully and have faith and Angela is encouraged to let loose and pay more attention to what's going on around her. Kerr demonstrates the naivety of Angela with silly Irish broad that articulates either her worrisome distress -- "Ohhhh, Mister Aaaaaalison" -- or the kind of uptight matronly banter she's stripped of by the time the closing credits roll.

The film's killer scene occurs fairly late on, and is the closest thing that Heaven Knows gets to displaying the primal nakedness of the characters' desires and frustrations. Responding to Mitchum's drunken petulance over a draughts game, which is blatantly leading to darker and more sinister advances, Kerr's hesitant mustering of the line "You don't want to play draughts?" is both blackly hilarious and scarily resilient. Despite previously denying any feeling for Allison her desperation to preserve his integrity in her mind is rather astounding, and Kerr completely nails this part of Angela, and in the process helps to make Heaven Knows a much more fluid, natural and worthwhile exercise.

Aside from this scene, Kerr is given an altogether fluffier arc than she was in Black Narcissus (a decade earlier) where Sister Clodagh, and her feelings for the local totty Mr. Dean, are decidedly less lucid. Clodagh (a much more impersonal and mysterious moniker as it is) sums up the relative inpenatrability of the woman herself, who uses her habit as more of a hiding place, a reserved place of judgement. Given a quest to set up a nunnery up in the cloudy peaks of the Himalayas, Clodagh's Mother Superior voices her concerns over whether the young nun is emotionally secure and selfless enough to succeed.

Black Narcissus is gorgeous; eery, mythical, alien, and its estrangement from civilisation re-enforces the idea of this place as independent of 'life', free of context, suspended in time. It is Clodagh's job to stay grounded and remind her nuns that they are still under God's watchful eye, even though she too is becoming more enamoured with the place and less reliant upon religion. Her main focus is upon reforming the "ill" Sister Ruth, who it has presumed has been questioning her commitment to the cause before the journey through the mountains. Told to "spare her some of your own importance... if you can" by the Mother Superior (yes, the film is rather bitchy) you can see Kerr trying to maintain the immovable composure and morality in a way of regressing to a default state of mind. But as familiarity and rigid practice make Clodagh an unpopular figure in the mountains (particularly among a certain man) she has to rethink her methods.

Kerr never really explodes emotively but depicts the bubbling pot through irksome discomfort, and confirms without ever admitting so that she isn't enough of an evolved person to cope with her own desire for freedom, never mind the wandering outlook of her cloaked clan. This reaches a messy head with the elemental Sister Ruth (played fiercely and brilliantly by Kathleen Byron), who seeks to make Clodagh pay for her loosening affections for Mr. Dean, whom she also has an eye for. Ruth is treated as a mental basket case but ends up being the most valuable and emotionally in-touch member of the film, angry of attempts to suppress her, clear in her love for Dean, aware of her leader's hypocrisy and fatefully jealous of it. Kerr is more wise to this than one might first think, and as Narcissus reaches a bitter climax she understands Clodagh's relief at exiting the situation with her authority intact, however compromised her moral position has become.

Heaven Knows Mr. Allison - B-

Deborah Kerr - ***

Black Narcissus - B+

Deborah Kerr - ****

Men of the Thirties: 1935

The Nominees Were:

Clark Gable - Mutiny on the Bounty
Charles Laughton - Mutiny on the Bounty
Victor McLaglen - The Informer
Paul Muni - Black Fury
Franchot Tone - Mutiny on the Bounty

And the Winner Was:

Victor McLaglen - The Informer

The Mutiny on the Bounty guys fairly obviously split votes here, since none of them really stand out as the obvious pick. Paul Muni's write-in nomination for Black Fury meant that he had a lot of fans but was battling against a massive resurgence for John Ford's film. The Informer was a financial failure but virtually everybody with any influence in LA was raving about it. Victor McLaglen's win is partly a product of this and surely because his role is much more of a one-man show than the others.

My Ratings (in order of preference):-

**** Franchot Tone in Mutiny on the Bounty

While caught at the centre of a struggle between a tyrannical Captain and his increasingly concerned first mate, Tone's eager midshipman features a lot less than he ought to and is often left in the shade in favour of the more obvious 'characters' of the piece. Nevertheless, his presence is a valuable one, and as the most grounded character within a very fervently political environment, the honest, loyal remonstrations against mutiny feel integral to the film's ideas about what 'serving' your country really means. Tone charts the arc of his surefire, adaptable Byam in moving from a position of anti-idealism to a much more sceptical outlook on institutional hierarchy, and learns his lesson the hard way.

*** Charles Laughton in Mutiny on the Bounty

Laughton's silliness reached its peak with royalty in 1933 and, while Captain Bligh aboard the Bounty would never purport to be anything other than a stern nobleman, his monstrous actions are a flimsy way of setting up the ethical dilemnas that plague the film's second half. Parts of Laughton's Bligh are successful: he's predictable, emotionally-disposable, only harmful through position, and kind of reminded me of Captain Manwairing in Dad's Army (i.e. laughably hypocritical). Is this enough? Mutiny is let down a tad by its own narrow-minded views about villainry and Laughton does nothing to suggest that Bligh is battling with ethics himself, or indeed considering anything outside of his power-trip duty. In the end he plays up to Lloyd's emphasis on accessibility, the easier option but possibly also a wise one.

*** Victor McLaglen in The Informer

The protestations of innocence by Victor McLaglen's guilty Gypo are far too easily-read for a higher rating here, and honestly the film is less about his character than an examination of culture and community politics. The gentle giant is not quite on the level of Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile, whose character required him to be meek and little else. McLaglen has to process the guilt of Gypo and does so with the kind of bumbling brashness that makes The Informer seem all the more harsher and imposing. Detrimentally, this makes him stick out like a sore thumb and takes away some of the ambiguity that might have richened the production had a patient, introspective Actor took this role on.

** Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty

There's not much wisdom to be seen in Clark Gable, and the plucky humanitarianism of Fletcher Christian strikes up a much different, wholesome Clark to the one that we're accustomed to. It's difficult to believe that Christian's sudden and rather drastic overhaul of the Bounty was borne out of pure empathy, and one considers that the first mate may be impatient in aspiration, deluded even. Gable doesn't really allude to any unknown motivation, and his fatal flaw is toning down his renowned dastardly charisma in favour of a more dull, reluctant 'hero'. Certainly acceptable as an unwilling moral crusader yet strangely vapid when interacting with Laughton, his best work emerging in the quiet moments with Tone.

Nominees Unseen:

Paul Muni - Black Fury

The Snubbed

**** Robert Donat in The 39 Steps

It's incredibly impressive that guys are still using the techniques of Donat as Richard Hannay, one of the original innocents on the run. The 39 Steps is one of Hitchcock's most watchable films and like The Lady Vanishes seems anti-try hard, easy to follow and digest, charming in the most ballsy, unexpected ways. Its caper style often put me off a little but Donat is inspired in these moments, bang-on tonally, effortlessly funny, the perfect 'wrong man'. And yet as a hero he is thoroughly dynamic, sexy in spontanaeity, and one of Hitch's most appealing screen protagonists he alternates from being a 'man's man' and a 'ladies man' with such ease that it's hardly surprising he was a big box-office draw in this period.

Hottest Track: The Maccabees - Can You Give It?