#won art direction

Tess(1979). A strong-willed young peasant girl attracts the affection of two men.

I have complicated feelings for Roman Polanski for all the obvious reasons, but this movie, which Polanski credits as a tribute to his late wife, Sharon Tate, who was murdered by the Manson Family a decade earlier, feels like a graceful, heartfelt and authentic eulogy. The cinematography is sublime, and the story about a woman forced to endure a life she didn’t deserve feels especially relevant.

Men are trash, Polanski included, but this movie really is something special. 8.5/10.

All That Jazz (1979). Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

God, the 52nd Academy Awards had a stacked Best Picture category - Kramer vs Kramer, Apocalypse Now, Norma Rae, Breaking Away and this. All that Jazz ultimately lost out to Kramer v Kramer, which is probably understandable, but to me, this really deserved to take it home. It’s rare after all that a movie can feel both this spectacular and this intimate, this personal and yet this accessible.

It just works on every level and I really loved it a lot. 9/10.