The 1973 Hollmann Awards (Part One)

Five days late, or thereabouts at least, but here we are: the 1973 Hollmann Awards in 2013, Part One!

Below are the first nine categories; the second half should appear tomorrow. I believe 22 films total are named below, but only one...per category...can win. It took a lot of time to determine the nominees, and some of the winners -- whose names shall be writ in gold -- were only chosen a few hours ago. Excitement!

One quick note before we begin: Inside Oscar contains a program for each of the Academy Awards through 1992. I have used the program from 1973 to present my 18 categories in the exact order of the original Oscar broadcast. Some differences: Makeup, which would not become a category until 1980, is here as the first award; Visual Effects, which was not given this year, takes the place of the Adapted Score category; and in our next entry, Ensemble will take the place of Groucho Marx's Honorary Award.

BEST MAKEUP

The Day of the Jackal 
Pierre Berroyer, makeup
Marc Paris/Barbara Ritchie, hair

The Jackal's hair is always changing -- now sandy, now bleached, now chestnut, now grey. Subtle work in other aspects, such as his sallow look that gets him through security.

The Exorcist

Dick Smith, makeup

Bill Farley, hair

Honestly, it would make it in just for the exhaustion in Ellen Burstyn's face, the aging of Max von Sydow, the flashes of Pazuzu. Oh, all right: possessed Regan is a horrifying, game-changing spectacle that was instantly iconic.

O Lucky Man!
Basil Newall/Paul Rabiger, makeup
Colin Jamison, hair


When your ensemble consists of a handful of people playing various roles, this craft becomes a little important. Talents include dying and styling Rachel Roberts' hair; blacking up Arthur Lowe; Graham Crowden unrecognizable from scene-to-scene; and Helen Mirren.

Papillon
Charles H. Schram, makeup creator


Striking work as characters starve, age, contract illness, and, naturally, lose opportunities for hygiene in the prison work-camps. Natural yet jarring.

Theatre of Blood
George Blackler, makeup

Prosthetics, spirit gum and wigs transform Vincent Price into Richard III, a French chef, a gay hairdresser, a masseur, Shylock, a constable, Achilles, whatever the hell's happening with the Cymbeline segment. Also: Coral Browne gets burned, Diana Rigg mans up.

BEST SOUND

American Graffiti
Walter Murch, montage/re-recordist
James Nelson, editor
Art Rochester, production sound
This movie's all about the sound: the traffic, the drag race, the radio always going at different volumes -- distant when necking, turned-up at the drive-in, and the omnipresent Wolfman Jack, like the voice of God coming over the airwave -- and the shouts and laughter of the local teens at play. It sounds like the last day of Summer.

Cries and Whispers
Tommy Persson/Owe Svensson, sound
Sven Fahlen/Owe Svensson, mixer
The Exorcist may be the horror movie, but Cries and Whispers has the most terrifying soundscape of the year. Not just those hushed, disembodied voices ushering us into each woman's segment, but the raspy breathing and loud, desperate gulps and swallows of the dying sister. Clinking glass, rustling sheets, and even worse -- the silence. Terrifying.

The Day of the Dolphin
Larry Jost, recordist
Richard Portman, re-recordist
They made. A dolphin. Talk.

The Exorcist

Fred J. Brown/Ross Taylor, effects editor

Bob Fine/Gonzalo Gavira/Ron Nagle/Doc Siegel, special effects

Robert Knudson, dubbing mixer

Chris Newman, sound

Several demonic voices writhe out of Regan. The house trembles as the unseen "rats" scramble in the attic. And those machines in the hospital are deafening, devastating. 

Jesus Christ Superstar
Keith Grant/Gordon K. McCallum, re-recordists
Les Wiggins, editor
It just sounds so goddam magnificent. Listen to that transition from the 39 lashes to "Superstar" -- exquisite. Or at the very beginning, the build for "Heaven on Their Minds" is effective and exciting. My absolute favorite thing, though? The priests and pharisees drumming on scaffolding.

BEST EDITING

American Graffiti
Verna Fields/Marcia Lucas
It's just seamless -- four stories, one night, all running fluidly, energetically together. It's the kind of plotless film that could become tedious, were it not for the able hands of these two pros, who expertly weave comedy, character, and action to create a genuine nostalgia trip. Beautiful stuff.

The Exorcist

Norman Gay/Evan Lottman

Editors that know true horror comes from anticipation; they take their time building it, before taking a turn for the chaotic in the more visceral sequences (crucifix scene, final exorcism scene). Human, horrifying.

Goodbye, Uncle Tom
Gualtiero Jacopetti/Franco Prosperi
As a "shockumentary", it of course lingers on the more detestable elements, but there is more than shock value happening here. Every cut hits home the terrible, impossible truths of slavery, driving the horror home with frankness. Yet it still manages to emphasize some dark humor, and, sometimes, poetry.

Sisters
Paul Hirsch
It's not just the use of split-screen, but what he does with each side of it that makes his work stand out as superlative suspense. The old newsreels/dream sequences are perfectly fractured, too, icing on an already decadent cake.

Trick Baby
Peter Parasheles
Anyone that understands comedy, action and drama, and can make it all flow so seamlessly from one to the other, is one worthy of praise. That final scene hits hard.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Cries and Whispers
Maris Vos-Lundh, production designer

There's so much red that it becomes alarming, oppressive. Is it passion, to make up for the rigidity between the sisters? Is it blood, both familial and cancerous? I know I laughed a little when Harriet Andersson remembered her mother in "the red drawing-room" -- as opposed to what, I wondered? It helps to unsettle the nerves, something this film is already good at.

The Exorcist
Bill Malley, production designer
John Robert Lloyd, art director
Jerry Wunderlich, set decorator

From my original entry: "This team also had a hand in staging the effects sequences, building sets that would allow for frosty breath, levitating beds, roomquakes, fissures in the ceiling, etc. They also establish a lived-in home, so that we never forget who is threatened and what is at stake. Bonus points for the vandalism of the Mary statue."

O Lucky Man!
Jocelyn Herbert, production designer
Alan Withy, art director
Harry Cordwell, set decorator

So many structures in this Candide-ian satire are sleek, efficient-looking, and impersonal, be they factories, hospitals, military bases, or business offices. Their uniformity hits the point home, but at least we get breaths of fresh air -- via a seedy secret club and an Eastend tenement. Hm. Fresh air, indeed.

Sleeper
Dale Hennessy, production designer
Gary Moreno, set decorator

The future is here! There's the orb that gets people stoned, the intimidating furniture, the hideaway stashing the 20th-century paraphernalia, the fruit farm!

The Sting

Henry Bumstead, art director

James W. Payne, set decorator

From my original entry: "The only location that feels like a set, is a set. Gotta love the eye that can make an underground betting parlor detailed enough to fool a mark yet bare enough to put up overnight. The attention to period detail is terrific, looks just like any photograph you've seen of the depression (the sandy color palette certainly helps)."

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Danilo Donati

Call me a sucker for period finery, but all that purple and blue and those vestments! Class struggle by way of costuming? It's a beautiful thing.

Cries and Whispers

Marik Vos-Lundh

Poor Kari Sylwan gets the most unflattering housemaid garb. Lovely Liv Ullman is always looking good, with attractive, sensual ensembles of lace, fur, and cleavage. Cold Ingrid Thulin is high-necked and very serious in her frocks. And Harriet Andersson stays in a nightgown, since she so ill.

Jesus Christ Superstar
Yvonne Blake

I've always loved the simplicity of the costumes. It's a strange, groovy 70s sensibility, but it fits in with the bizarre, somehow workable aesthetic Jewison's chosen. I kind of want Judas Iscariot's outfit, but those priest robes aren't too shabby, either.

The Last of Sheila
Joel Schumacher

What do the privileged bigwigs of Hollywood wear when yachting about? Leave it to Joel to find the perfect turtleneck/slack combination for half the men, polo/shorts for Ian McShane, unassuming housewife attire for Joan Hackett, and FABulous FAB for Dyan Cannon and Raquel Welch. Enviable.

Theatre of Blood
Michael Baldwin

Outfitting Vincent Price in one Shakespearean costume after another is certainly praiseworthy enough, but how about Ian Hendry's turtlenecks, Price's cape, Diana Rigg's gowns, and Robert Morley's pink-suit-and-ascot? Wonderful, eye-popping work.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Day of the Jackal
Jean Tournier

The Exorcist

Owen Roizman

Last Tango in Paris
Vittorio Storaro

Mean Streets
Kent Wakeford

Trick Baby
Isidore Mankofsky

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

And Now the Screaming Starts!

Look, surely someone worked on the effects -- ghostly apparitions, disembodied hands, gore effects, etc. I don't know why there's no one credited, but I thought the effects were impressive.

The Exorcist

Marcel Vercoutere

Levitation. Not just people, but beds. And a revolving head. And objects tossed about higgledy-piggledy. And the entire room shakes. And Pazuzu's face appears out of freeking nowhere. It's a masterpiece.

Theatre of Blood
John Stears

Blood everywhere. Everywhere. Not to be confused with makeup effects, the gore effects allow for decapitation, impaling, and electrocution, culminating in a blazing inferno inside a theatre.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Day of the Dolphin

Georges Delerue

Goodbye, Uncle Tom
Riz Ortolani



Robin Hood
George Bruns


Theatre of Blood
Michael J. Lewis


The Way We Were
Marvin Hamlisch

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

American Graffiti
Willard Huyck/Gloria Katz/George Lucas
From my original entry: "It's been six years since high school, but I definitely remember these relationships: the leaps of logic, the lies you'd tell to seem more impressive, the hemming and hawing of going to college, the decision to stick with your gal or keep your options open. Oh, how I remember waxing poetic about some girl I'd seen on the sidewalk (still do, actually). And these women! Confident, funny, fully-realized human beings! I want to date 'em all! It may take place in 1962, but it's a timeless story."

Electra Glide in Blue
Robert Boris
story by Boris/Rupert Hitzig
An episodic cop flick meditating on masculinity and morality. There's a mystery, sure, but that takes a backseat to the character dynamics as a short motorcycle cop works alongside a tall plainclothes detective to solve a murder. The hero is incorruptible, but that doesn't make him boring -- it's a fascinating character, a good cop who prides himself on his morality, but who doesn't always speak up when he sees wrongdoing -- is it fear? Naivete? Ambition? Great characters, great study, great drama.

Goodbye, Uncle Tom

Gualtiero Jacopetti/Franco Prosperi

Maybe one of the most unique films I've ever seen. The screenplay is culled together from multiple sources, but the execution and framework is brazenly original, as a modern-day Italian film crew documents the antebellum South. Characters range from despicable to delusional, and even the filmmakers themselves abuse their status. Surprised by how well it flows, too.

Mean Streets
Mardik Martin/Martin Scorsese
story by Scorsese
The characters are fascinating, especially our protagonist: he may work for his uncle, the big man on the block, but he's still little more than a boy, gallivanting about with his friends, hanging out with the "wrong" people, hiding his relationship for fear of what others will say. There is a real sense of camaraderie and familiarity with this group and the setting. Authentic. That's the word I'm looking for. Everything here is authentic.

Sisters
Brian De Palma/Louise Rose
story by De Palma
Bizarre. But I love it. A mystery that's always moving, but finds time for light moments -- like Olympia Dukakis in the bakery -- that don't take away from the momentum. Kudos for making a psychotic more sympathetic than the heroine, a choice that makes the finale ring true.

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