Anne Francis Stars in Forbidden Planet 1930-2011

Anne Francis with Robbie the Robot in a still
to advertise Forbidden Planet

As Jennie and others noted yesterday the acting world lost Pete Postlethwaite, but the day before we lost one of the stars who warranted her own line in Science Fiction Double Feature the opening song over the titles of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Yes Anne Francis may have starred in Forbidden Planet (1956) but...

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Films: When Men Cry

I see that the BBC has compiled a list of 20 films that make men cry. Sadly it misses out a number of the scenes that get me every time.

The first is the final scene of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun in which a young Jim Graham (Christian Bale) is after being separated from his parents in a different camp through World War II is standing with other children hoping to be reunited with their parents. Jim's mum comes past him and walks right past Jim no recognising him. Enough to make the tears start to well up but then when she does turn back and he finally realises it is his mother the floodgates open.

The next is the film The Power of One. Set in South Africa under apartheid it is the story of young P.K. (Guy Witcher, Simon Fenton and Stephen Dorff) it has several scenes that bring on the tears. One is when the black boxing coach of P.K. called Geel Piet is bludgeoned to death behind a hut while a concert of his fellow prisoners is going on in the background being conducted by P.K.


Later on there is more when his girlfriend the daughter of a National Party leader is killed while teaching English in a township. Plus the final scene when he and his one time black boxing opponent who had saved his life by killing his arch enemy (Daniel Craig) in another township raid set off together to beat the system together.

There is also the film Gattaca. Where Jerome (Jude Law) plays an disabled man whereas Vincent (Ethan Hawke) was conceived naturally without the DNA screening and is therefore an "in-valid" as he does not have the superior DNA. But he does buy Jerome's "valid" DNA to fulfill his dreams of being part of the space exploration programme at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. There are two scenes that bring the tears on, first is when Vincent is finally found out by his valid brother Anton (Loren Dean) who is investigating a murder at Gattaca. They replay their childhood game of chicken but Vincent is not prepared to turn back towards shore. Having to be rescued his brother, Vincent reveals that he won by not saving anything for the swim back.

Again as ever there is also the final scene in which Jerome sends Vincent away on his mission and reveals a stockpile of all the samples he could possibly need in a lifetime. As the rocket is preparing to take off to Saturn's moon Titan with Vincent on board, Jerome eases himself into the incinerator at the apartment and fires it up as the rocket takes off.

Of course another film is Dead Poets Society, maybe this is because of the young poet in me when I first saw this at University. But when Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) takes his life after his father objects to him following his dream and appearing as Puck in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream you cannot help but cry. Then also the final scene when John Keating (Robin Williams) is leaving his classroom in disgrace Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) is the first to stand up in defence of Mr Keating, but is told to sit down, then when he is at the door stands up on his desk saying 'O Captain! My Captain!' followed my many of the others.

I know there are more films that make me cry but these are four that I feel really need to be on that list.

It Was Ladies' Night

As if to honour International Women's Day today two women made history at last night's 82nd Oscars ceremony.

First there was the obvious news as Katryn Bigelow beat off the competition especially ex-husband James Cameron to be the first female recipient of the Best Director award for The Hurt Locker. In what was also only the fifth nomination of a woman in this category Bigelow said, "It's the moment of a lifetime." Through the award season after Cameron's Avatar started well, the Goliath top grossing film of all time started to lose the momentum and the awards to the David lowest budget film ever to win the Best Picture award.

The other first for women was Sandra Bullock, 24 hours earlier she had picked up the Golden Raspberry Award in person (a rarity) for worst actress in All About Steve. No women had ever previously won both a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year. Picking up the Razzie the Oscar Nominee tongue in cheek said, "Thank you for ruining my career with a very bad decision." However, last night she again walked unto the stage this time to pick up her golden man, she joked, "Did I really earn this, or did I wear you all down?"

Here is a full list of the winners from last nights ceremony.

Eight is the BAFTA Number

Nick Hornby's British film adaptation of journalist Lynn Barber's memoir An Education, alongside director James Cameron's Sci-Fi Avatar and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow's direction of Iraq drama The Hurt Locker are going head to head with eight nominations apiece in the BAFTA film nominations. South African sci-fi District 9 gets seven with Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and recession era drama Up In the Air get six apiece.

Avatar has already won the Golden Globe for best film drama while The Hurt Locker won the Screen Critics award, so a good British film thrown into the mix for the British Academy of Film and Television Awards really heats up this category.

All three go head to head to head in only two categories though:

• Best Film (along with Precious and Up in the Air)
• Best Director Lone Scherfig for An Education plus Neill Blomlamp for District 9 and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds

None can do a clean sweep of the 4 major prizes Film, Direction, Acting as none are listed in both acting categories.

Jeremy Renner gets a nod for best leading actor for The Hurt Locker with Jeff Bridges Crazy Heart, George Clooney Up In the Air, Colin Firth A Single Man and Andy Serkis Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Carey Milligan is up in the actress category for An Education against Saoirse Ronan The Lovely Bones, Gabourey Sidibe Precious, Meryl Streep Julie & Julia and Audrey Taytou Coco Before Chanel.

An Education's Alfred Molina is up in the best supporting actor category facing Alec Baldwin It's Complicated, Christian McKay Me And Orson Wells, Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones and Christoph Waltz Inglourious Basterds. Supporting actress is either nowhere or up in the air put will be precious all the same as Anne-Marie Duff and Kirstin Scott Thomas both for Nowhere Boy, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick both for Up in the Air along with Mo'Nique for Precious make up the short list.

For Cinematography Avatar and The Hurt Locker face competition from District 9, Inglorious Basterds and The Road. For editing they face District 9, Inglorious Basterds and Up In the Air. For sound there two again face off along side District 9, Star Trek and Up and in special visual effects replace Up with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

An Education is also up for outstanding British film, adapted screenplay, costume design, make-up & hair. Avatar is in the running for music and production design while The Hurt Locker also features in the original screenplay shortlist.

Hit Me With.....My Precisous...ous...s.s.s

Morning Quickie.

I just couldn't resist using this as the title of a post. Andy Serkis who brought Gollum to life in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is to play Ian Dury back to life in his next role in musical bo-pic Sex, And Drugs and Rock and Roll.

A Now a BAFTA Completely Different

They've finally put the Phyton's into an institution.

Well all right then only one.

Yeah, yeah the one who did all the artwork.

Last night Terry Gilliam was awarded the Fellowhip of the Academy at the BAFTA awards.

He did the customary thanks to his family in a typically different way

"I'm amazed to be humbled by a piece of metal. I'm worried that Bafta will take it away when they realise I'm not who they think I am. Maggie, Holly, Amy and Harry, thank you for letting me make your life a living hell when I'm working. And even worse when I'm not."

Gilliam paid tribute to the the late Heath Ledger who'd won best supporting actor, whom he directed in his last film just before his death, in his acceptance speech

"It would have been nice if Heath had won more awards when he was alive. Heath was a genius, I think there was nothing he could not do.

"We hadn't seen anything from him yet."

And he ended by saying too often the little people are overlooked before extracting a long list of paper from his jacket. But fortunately he only rattled off the name of the Time Bandit's actors from the film of the same name, and thank them for making him feel big.

And now for something completely different.