Review-O-Sphere

 To see part 1, click here . Toccata and Fugue in D Minor~Leopold Stokowski - Fantasia As the 40s dawned, the 13th Academy Awards heralded some new changes of their own. The Award for Best Screenplay was now divided between the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (winner was The Great McGinty , very meh) and the Oscar for Best Screenplay (winner was The Philadelphia Story , see below) which would eventually morph into the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. In light of a scandal the previous year where a reporter saw the results before they were read, the winners were now disguised in envelopes before they were read aloud. The fact that it took over a decade for envelopes to become a thing is hilarious to me. While 1939 was considered the greatest year for American filmmaking, 1940 was no slouch either, as many classics and revolutionary pictures were released this year as well. A couple important mainstays appeared in the genre-type category. First was The Thief of Bagdad . The ...

  Rebecca Suite~Franz Waxman - Rebecca Today, we’re going to talk about Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was a British filmmaker who was known as the Master of Suspense and, today, is commonly regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived. Unlike Frank Capra’s heart, Ernst Lubitsch’s whimsy, Cecil B. DeMille’s epic touch or Walt Disney’s combination of all three, Hitchcock’s style was known for its thrilling elements and copious amounts of dark humor. At one point he hosted his own TV show called Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1965) wherein he would explain filmmaking techniques to the audience, inviting the moviegoing public in on the tricks of the trade. In an era where films were associated with either the studios or the stars, Hitchcock was one of the very few directors who garnered the same level of respect amongst audiences (before him, it’s very unlikely you’d say, “Let’s go see [insert director]’s new movie!”) The 1950s and 60s in particular were his wheelhouse...