Shea Cinema: The Best Picture Project
TLDR; Father/Daughter team watch and review all movies nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, starting back in 1927.
Welcome to Shea Cinema, The Best Picture Project!
Join host Sara Shea and her father, William Shea, as they watch and explore every film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Sara and Dad are recreating a project Sara assigned to her high school Film Studies students, which includes contextual historical research, discussing their personal responses to each film, what makes these films important, why these films need to be understood in context, and, finally, did the winner deserve the Oscar?
So grab your popcorn, pull up a chair, sit back and relax, and let's begin Shea Cinema.
Shea Cinema: The Best Picture Project
S6E6: The Sign of the Cross, 1932 BONUS EPISODE!
This is our third bonus episode and our fifth review of the season! We are covering one of Dad's childhood favorites: Cecil B. DeMille's notorious tale of forbidden love and Roman Empire decadence, The Sign of the Cross. With scandalous scenes such as the Dance of the Naked Moon and an over-the-top extravaganza in the Roman Colosseum (naked women! elephants trampling gladiators! lions mauling Christian traitors!), Sara and Dad discuss whether this movie is a hidden treasure or a guilty pleasure.
PLUS, our history timeline includes a perplexing moment where Albert Einstein is...a villain?
Books mentioned by Dad:
- Louvish, Simon. Cecil B. DeMille and the Golden Calf. Faber & Faber, 2007.
- Quirk, Lawrence. The Films of Fredric March. Citadel Press, 1971.
- Boller, Paul. Hollywood Anecdotes. William Morrow & Company, 1987.
Please leave us a review wherever you are listening!
Email us rants as well as raves: sheacinema@gmail.com
You can also find us on Instagram (and now Twitter/X): @sheacinema