How ofter do you get to see Red Buttons at 40 pretend to be 25?

You can when he won his Oscar for best supporting actor in 1957.  Yes and along with Sayonara, two more to put me closer to 400.

Saynonara (1957) - Marlin Brando and Red Buttons are solders in post WWII Japan who end up falling in love with Japanese women.  This is at a time where it was illegal to marry a Japanese woman as an American and bring her back to the US.  More of a social commentary yet still a good drama.  Brando is in his prime and is great to watch.  Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki won supporting actor and actress awards were great, even though he was a bit too old for the part he was playing.  Get past that and you'll appreciate his acting.

Now I have seen all the films for 1957 so I can now make a final assessment of that year.  The Bridge on the River Kwai was the best picture in a very strong year, somewhat of a rarity of this decade.  Second would be 12 Angry Men, a classic drama with an all star cast.  The rest are in a very tight race, I could call it a three way tie for third but that would be a cop-out.  So Witness for the Prosecution gets third with Tyrone Powers eyebrows and all, Saynonara fourth and Peyton Place fifth.

Mary Poppins (1964) - This was a great movie and my 396th.  I am not a fan of musicals.  I am not into kids movies.  But this film is done so well that you can't not enjoy it.  If you don't, you don't have a soul.  Great special effects for its time, catchy songs but not as good as the sequel Sherry Bobbins.

This puts me at four out of five for this year.  And seeing how two of the films I couldn't stand and the other two are musicals, there is still a chance that I might find Becket the best film.  Otherwise My Fair Lady is still first and Mary Poppins is second.

Midnight In Paris (2011) - Another great Woody Allen film.  I love Woody Allen.  His movies, his books, anything he does.  Even his obscure attempt to do drama in the late 70's and in the 80's, its all good.  An interesting story about a screenwriter in Paris with his fiancee and her family having doubts about his relationship and his work.  He finds himself each night being transported back to Paris in the 1920's and hobnobbing with well know artists and writers of the time.  After a while he wants to stay there because he thinks this is the best time in history to be.  He ends up in the 1890's and a women he is in love with from the 1920's wants to stay in this time era because she thinks it's the best.  And the artists from the 1890's want to be in the Renaissance era.  The moral of the story is that the time you are in now is the best, stop romanticizing about the past, enjoy the now.

As I start to see the rest of the films for 2011, so far the first two have been great.  This is not as good as The Artist but it is in second and will take a lot to move it further down.