Classic Film : The CFB Lifetime achievement award!

Taking my cue from Hob's Favourite Film thread, here is the opportunity for us to be President of our own film institute, and present the award to our all-time favourite screen personality. This need not be a performer, as you may feel that a director, or cinematographer has made the greatest contribution to Classic films.Perhaps it is a producer, or writer. The choice is yours, but I ask that you write (however brief) a presentation speech before naming the recipient. Hey, this is the last chance we'll get to indulge in this kind of fluff, so let's go for it, and have some fun.


"For his invaluable contribution to, not only the worldwide promotion of motion pictures, but the artistry of the medium, this gentleman is rightly regarded as one of the founding fathers.He arrived in Hollywood when cinema was still in its infancy, and within a few short years became a household name across the entire globe. His early upbringing helped inspire his most famous screen character, that of the poor, but indefatigable 'little man', fighting social injustice, but maintaining an impish sense of fun, beaten, but unbowed. His belief that comedy is richest when blended with sadness led to some of the finest films of the Silent, and indeed any era. His mastery of performance and direction marked him out as a true genius in a burgeoning industry brimming with innovative filmmakers and well loved performers, and his image is still instantly recognizable a century after his screen debut. His name is a byword for cinema of a bygone era, and his like shall never been seen again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give youCharlie Chaplin."



Ok, CFB judging panel, who's next to receive this coveted CFB prize?





"Barney SloaneThat's my new nameMy old one's a little more Italian."

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger and Jack Cardiff have given us some of the most visually beautiful and imaginative images in film history. They have shown us the power and beauty of Technicolor, and have given us a tour of ways of life that most of us never get to see (ballet, religious orders etc). You have inspired countless filmmakers and cameramen, for that we thank you.

I would also want the prize to go to: Kenji Mizoguchi, David Lean, Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Yasujiro Ozu and John Ford.



Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

No arguments from me as far as The Archers and Mr.Cardiff are concerned.

"Barney SloaneThat's my new nameMy old one's a little more Italian."

Marcello Mastroianni, a man whose looks would have allowed him to coast through a film career nonetheless delivered an impressive array of performances for some of the world's best directors in some of cinema's most renowned films.

jj

A worthy recipient!!!

"Barney SloaneThat's my new nameMy old one's a little more Italian."

Boy oh boy, and people have complained about having to choose just one film on my thread! But.

"For creating some of the most imaginative films of the American cinema, combining in his scripts brilliant flashes of wit, cynicism, sophistication and a deep understanding of the human condition, and in his direction a sure-handedness that elevated his actors to new heights, while more sharply and incisively dissecting the American life and character than any of his contemporaries, and accomplishing all this while not himself being either native-born nor even a native English speaker, with great affection and appreciation, ladies and gentlemen

Mr. Billy Wilder."

I could have given this award (the Sfeebee?) to so many directors Howard Hawks, John Ford, Akira Kurosawa, William Wyler, the list is endless quite aside from innumerable actors, DPs, writers and the rest. But picking just one, I go with Billy.

Michael Powell (who I once had dinner with, many years ago) and Jack Cardiff are superlative choices. Since so many will be overlooked, they put me in mind of a very solid British director who never quite made it to the elevated plane of a David Lean or Mikey Powell and is all too often neglected these days Basil Dearden. But he made some very courageous and breakthrough films for the British cinema in the 50s and 60s.

Hob, Billy Wilder is an excellent choice.As a writer and director he made some of the finest films from the 40's - 60: Ball Of Fire; Double Indemnity: The Apartmentas good as it gets!

Thank you also for the honourable mention of Basil Dearden.I originally posted on here, a few years ago, as basildeardenfan. As much as I love Michael Powell, Robert Hamer and Thorold Dickinson (to name but three), Dearden has always been my favourite. I mentioned him as a prime example of directorial versatility on that particular thread, and am a huge fan of so many of his films- my avatar will attest to that.

"Barney SloaneThat's my new nameMy old one's a little more Italian."

My favorite Wilder films also include Ace in the Hole (among my top five favorite films of all), One Two Three, Witness for the Prosecution, Five Graves to Cairo, Sunset Boulevard, Sabrinathe list goes on and on. Try to see his first movie as a director, the French film Mauvaise Graine (1934), about bored youths in Paris stealing cars for a lark. A really good film, co-starring 17-year-old Danielle Darrieauxabout whom more below!

Yes, I always noted your avatar of Earl Cameron. Just the other day I happened to mention him (and Danielle Darrieux) on another thread as two actors who, God willing, will celebrate their 100th birthdays this year, and saw you made a similar mention of EC just today or yesterday, elsewhere. For several years I've intended to run Sapphire for my classic film group in the summer and with Earl's 100th coming on August 8 (if memory serves) that will provide the perfect occasion.

I recall how Basil Dearden was roundly criticized by British critics when he made The Blue Lamp in 1950, many of them denouncing it with that most damning of all negative sobriquets: "Too American!" But he breathed new life into postwar British cinema. In 2011 (I assume for his centenary, though this was never stated) the Criterion Collection here in the States released a four-film box set called "Basil Dearden's London Underground" featuring four of his breakthrough, socially-aware films: Sapphire, The League of Gentlemen, Victim and All Night Long, the one I wasn't familiar with. All great, of course. The Blue Lamp has never been released here, though I have an R2 disc from the UK. Some critics continue to be very dismissive of him, I think in the main most unjustly.

A New Year's baby, his sad, final legacy was to point out yet again the hazards inherent in driving on the M4!

John Ford

Chosen to represent all the character actors who have added so incredibly much to Classic Films, I have the great honor of presenting to the audience the incomparable Elisha Cook, Junior without whom so many films just would not be the shane errrr, I mean same.





and the audience, as one, leaps to its feet and the hall resounds with thunderous applause.

Fritz Feld.

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Liberty E Pluribus Unum In God We Trust

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