It was the 85th Academy Awards last night! The winners were all worthy, Daniel Day Lewis was charming as usual, everyone was impeccably dressed, and the great William Shatner made an extended appearance. We stayed up all night as usual, and (as with every year) we regret it. It’s never quite as fun as we think it’ll be, especially when Steve Martin is absent. Martin was, for us anyway, the standout host of recent Oscar times. Seth Macfarlane was okay, but check out this Martin monologue from the official Oscars YouTube channel:
And with Alec Baldwin on Martin’s third appearance:
Disagree with us? Leave us a comment below!
But if, like us, you’re nostalgic for earlier times, you can see highlights from past ceremonies in the British Pathé archive via this link.
For our 1967 Oscar-nominated Documentary, “See You At The Pillar”, click here
In our opinion, this past year has been a triumph for modern cinema and, as usual, the whole of Hollywood will assemble on 24th February 2013 to celebrate its success.
British Pathé has some footage of earlier ceremonies from the late 1940s, the 1950s, and 1960s. You can view them all here.
The 85th Academy Awards are set to be an exciting celebration and it will be interesting to see who scoops the awards this year. We’ve listed all of the nominees below, with links to their imdb profiles. We’ve also scattered a few stills from our collection. Just click on them to be taken to our list of Oscar films.
We also have an Oscar-nominated film of our own that you can watch. The travelogue “See You At The Pillar” was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short category in 1967. Watch it here.
Best director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
Best actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Best supporting actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert de Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Best supporting actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Best original screenplay
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
John Gatins Flight
Michael Haneke, Amour
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Best adapted screenplay
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
David Magee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Chris Terrio, Argo
Best foreign film
Amour – Austria Kon-Tiki – Norway No – Chile A Royal Affair – Denmark War Witch – Canada
Best documentary
5 Broken Cameras The Gatekeepers How to Survive a Plague The Invisible War Searching for Sugar Man
Best documentary short
Inocente Kings Point Mondays at Racine Open Heart Redemption
Our Oscar-nominated Short Documentary. Click the still to view the film.
Best animation
Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman Frankenweenie: Tim Burton ParaNorman: Sam Fell, Chris Butler The Pirates! Band of Misfits / In an Adventure with Scientists, Peter Lord Wreck it Ralph, Rich Moore
Best cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey Django Unchained, Robert Richardson Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski Skyfall, Roger Deakins
Best editing
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, Silver Linings Playbook
William Goldenberg, Argo
Michael Kahn, Lincoln
Tim Squyres, Life of Pi
Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg, Zero Dark Thirty
Best sound editing
Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn, Argo
Wylie Stateman: Django Unchained
Drew Kunin, Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton, Ron Bartlett, D. M. Hemphill: Life of Pi
Per Hallberg, Karen Baker Landers: Skyfall
Paul N.J. Ottosson, Zero Dark Thirty
Best sound mixing
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin, Life of Pi
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson,
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes, Les Miserables
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson, Skyfall
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins, Lincoln
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia, Argo
Best make up and hair
Julie Hewett, Martin Samuel, Howard Berger: Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Lisa Westcott, Les Miserables
Best original score
Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat, Argo
Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
John Williams, Lincoln
Thomas Newman, Skyfall
Best original song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi
“Skyfall” from Skyfall
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables
Best production design
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer: Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah (Production Design); Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson: Les Miserables
David Gropman, Anna Pinnock: Life of Pi
Rick Carter, Jim Erickson: Lincoln
Best visual effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson, Snow White and the Huntsman
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick, Avengers Assemble
Richard Stammers, Charley Henley, Trevor Wood, Paul Butterworth: Prometheus
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer: Life of Pi
Best costume design
Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado, Les Miserables
Joanna Johnston, Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka, Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood, Snow White and the Huntsman
Best short film (animated)
Adam and Dog Fresh Guacamole Head over Heels Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” Paperman
Best short
Asad Buzkashi Boys Curfew Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Henry
For British Pathé’s news coverage of the Academy Awards, click here
For the Oscar-nominated Documentary, “See You At The Pillar”, click here
Last month we announced the fact that Colin Firth’s new movie ‘The King’s Speech’ was to use British Pathé footage. Well last week the New York Times revealed that the British Pathé clips actually moved Firth, and his director Tom Hooper to tears:
“The filmmakers were helped by a rich trove of recordings and footage of George VI. One, of an address that he gave at the opening of an exhibition in Glasgow in 1938, was so poignant, and the king looked so distressed and so sad, that it made Mr. Firth and Mr. Hooper cry.”
The clip of King George VI that Colin Firth watched can be seen for free in the Pathé News archive here:
I came across this canister of 1970s Hollywood footage (click on image below). The clip shows 1970s shots of people in the neighborhood, spinning signs that say ‘FAMOUS’ etc, and some nice footage of the Hollywood Sign looking pretty rough in the 1970s.
The Hollywood Sign was at its worst in the 1970s. At one point spelling "HuLLYWO D"
I decided to have a rummage for some other Hollywood footage, having been inspired by the Hollywood Sign’s Wikipedia page, and a bit of a Google maps binge looking at Griffiths Park (where the sign is) and how it’s a popular destination of not only tourists, but actress suicides, sexual cruising and illicit affairs. Does British Pathé have any film footage to shine a light on the controversy of California?
I started off with some commercial Hollywood advert newsreels, for holiday adverts weren’t as flat and full of stock footage as they are now, and you often catch glimpses of inside secrets –
"The gateway to the extravagant centre of colour and fantasy that since films were first made has fashioned the standards of our fabulous dreams"
This first Hollywood advert reel has great footage of The Great Race being filmed. Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon stand on an artificial sheet of ice in the studio. We see Joan Crawford’s handprints and some re-enacted Wild West shoot outs.
1960s footage of the Hollywood sign.
This clip above shows helicopter footage of Mount Lee, and shots of the Universal City Sign. It’s a good clip for getting a perception of the landscape, the distances between the Hollwood sign and the mansions of Hollywood.
This San Francisco reel calls itself ‘Hollywood’s Playground’, filming wealthy yachting parties and private beaches. The narrator declares “The most mixed-up seaport that could ever exist”, “Even the oil workers look like actors”. This video goes behind the scenes on rehearsals, and has great clips of an American Football match. “You don’t need to understand the game to get the flavour of it all”.
The English British Pathé narrators in these clips seem passionate about Hollywood, eager and even desperate to convince the viewer that California is the end of the rainbow. Just type in ‘Hollywood’ into www.britishpathe.com and find dozens of clips like this, so full of praise for Holllywood, but slightly unnerving too.The numerous clips of unknown starlets, mystery millionaires, golf buggies, gardners and steak diners. Is there an underlining sense of isolation and artifice beneath these vintage Hollywood clips of the past?
Long before Ronald Reagan became an emblem of 1980s world politics he was a Senator of California, and an actor before that. Reagan’s early years are naturally shadowed by his later prominence, but thankfully British Pathe were there to capture Reagan’s formative years on film.
For example in this clip Ronald Reagan takes Patricia Neal to the Royal Command Film Performance in 1948 and meets the Queen. All of the women wear luscious fur coats, the men have their hair greased back. It’s useful to note the power that celebrity holds over American politics and the importance of building alliances with notable Hollywood figures.
Titled “Election Shocks” this British Pathe reel celebrates Ronald Reagan’s success in the 1966 election – “by a colossal million majority, the candidate is already spoken of as a Presidential candidate for next time”. This clip is also special as a historicak source in that it shows Edward Brooke laughing and waving as he is voted in to represent Massachusetts – “The first negro to win a seat there since the civil war”
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger today, Ronald Reagan became the Senator for California largely on the back of his celebrity and familiarity with the public. Whether this position will act as a middle ground too for Arnie between being an actor and a world leader remains to be seen. Reagan was clearly a presence amongst the American political ranks for a good couple of decades before his appointment as President. He is name-checked here in a video documenting the 1964 election. President Johnson makes a dramatic and enraged speech, and then the Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater makes a speech in a sold out Dodger’s Stadium. It’s interesting to learn that supporters bought tickets to hear Dodger talk.
You may be wondering which other famous figures were captured on camera by British Pathe before they reached the rocky heights of their career peak? To name a varied few – videos of George Orwell, David Dimbleby, Melanie Griffiths, and Arnold Schwarzenegger himself appear in the British Pathe archive.
The V&A’s indulgently stylish exhibition Grace Kelly: Style Icon opens tomorrow and naturally several British Pathé clips will feature. After all, Grace was a popular focus for the British Pathé lens for several decades, from her glamorous silver screen presence of the 1950s all the way through to her notorious marriage to the Prince Rainer III of Monaco.
Dozens of Hollywood actresses have tried in vain to convey the elegance and effortless stardom of Kelly, a gift from God that the V&A’s site refer to as “her cool beauty, subtle sex appeal and professionalism”.
The photo above is taken from a rare holiday video of Grace Kelly in which the star tours a zoo with her children in Monte Carlo. Grace spends some fun time with her children, feeding seals and driving along the beautiful beaches of Monaco.
British Pathé 
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