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Academy Award Nominations

Criticals, Current Affairs, Film, Short Cuts

More Oscar Bait!

  Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, director).  Two zanies meet cute, overcome a boatload of wacky complications to find love.  The setup sounds like a plot spun from the delicious mind of a Preston Sturges or Howard Hawks.  Russell, returning to the brand of comedy he minted in such films as Spanking the Monkey…

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Film, Music, My back pages, Vespers

Dory Previn, Lyricist, 1925-2012

  All ten year-old tragedians need a soundtrack.  Mine was the Theme from Valley of the Dolls, that heartbreaking ballad from the film that starred Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate and Patty Duke.  I had no idea that the song was meant to underscore the film heroine’s descent into pill addiction (I thought Parkins, Tate and…

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