Favorite Pic of the Day for March 4th

Above:

Women in Love (1969)

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Trophy

Hope you enjoy my annual salute to Oscar, and the nominee's for Best actor and best supporting actor. I have seen quite a few of the films this year my favorites being The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Get Out and I Tonya. I am also hoping to finish Dunkirk and watch The Florida Project if I have time before the awards are given out.

In addition to looking a lot like 'Oscar' in this shot, Daniel Jensen is certainly a prize many would love to win and take home.

Best Supporting Actor:

Plummer in Triple Cross (1966)

Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World

Plummer in The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969)

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Although given his winning streak thus far, I predict Sam Rockwell will take the prize, but my vote goes to Richard Jekins in The Shape of Water.

Richard Jenkins in The Shape of Water

Above: Jenkins in his tighty whities on the set of Friends with Benefits (2011)
Below: Jenkins (far right) in I believe his only sort of 'nude scene' playing dead naked poker in the                   pilot for Six Feet Under

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Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Harrelson with Antonio Banderas in Play it to the Bone (1999)

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Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Rockwell in Lawn Dogs (1997)

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Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project

Great video of Dafoe on stage in The Dance of the Sphinx & the Chimera

Dafoe (l) with William Petersen and John Pankow in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Best Actor in a Motion Picture

Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread

Day-Lewis in Stars And Bars (1988)

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Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out

Kaluuya in Black Mirror

Kaluuya in Black Panther

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Denzel Washington in Roman J. Israel, Esq

Washington in Ricochet (1991)

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Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour

Oldman in The Scarlet Letter (1995)

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Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name

Wrestlemania

You can't do much in a stuffed shirt

Rupert

Alright, let's strip and do it properly

Gudrun

Women In Love:

1970 Academy Award Nominations

Best Director: Ken Russell

Best Actress: Glenda Jackson

Best Adapted Screenplay:  Larry Kramer

Best Cinematography: Billy Williams

'The Wrestling Scene' from 1969's Women In Love is well known to most lovers of the nude male form in cinema. The scene has become a classic as it is one of the first times full frontal male nudity was seen in a major mainstream, Academy Award nominated motion picture. For those who have seen the scene, it is more than just a quick scene, but a long, hot, sweaty scene of two 'straight' male characters fully nude wrestling together.

I had seen images from the scene, and even clips, but it wasn't until TCM recently aired the film that I saw the entire film and understood the full context of scene and how it fit within the story. I must say, I was more than a little drawn to the incredibly sexy Alan Bates who plays Rupert. Bates, with the beard and co-star Oliver Reed (Gudrun) don't appear to hold back anything throughout the scene creating a physical and sexual intensity that I can only assume was quite shocking to many movie goers at the time.

My goal for this post wasn't necessarily to showcase images from the scene, they are easy to find on the net. I wanted to find some 'behind the scenes' type of info about how the scene was shot and anything about how the actors felt about stripping down in front of raging fire and going at it, especially given the time the film was shot. I started to put together some info when I came across an incredible interview with the films cinematographer Billy Williams.

Billy tells the whole story, with some great details, including which actor required a few drinks before filming and which actor kept talking about how his wrestling partner was much more well endowed than he was... Check out the clip below for more and if you haven't seen the scene, I also included it below.

'More than 40 years after Oliver Reed and Alan Bates writhed naked by the fireplace – the first time that many viewers had seen full frontal nudity in British cinemas – it has emerged that Russell was in cahoots with the chief censor, John Trevelyan, to ensure the scene did not have to be cut. He and producer Larry Kramer offered to take Trevelyan out to lunch and keep him involved at every stage of the creative process: eventually, Kramer offered to dim the lighting during the controversial scene after Trevelyan expressed concern that its homosexual overtones be "handled discreetly" and said he was worried about "clearly visible genitals'.

The Guardian

A little more Bates from Woman In Love