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.

All Episodes

Shea Cinema: The Best Picture Project

S6E7: A Farewell to Arms, 1932

December 28, 2024 • Season 6 • Episode 7

WE ARE BACK!

In our sixth review of the season, we are back on track with an actual Outstanding Production nomination. We dive into A Farewell to Arms, based on Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel (which supposedly had 47 different endings!)

We discuss the film's historical context, character dynamics, the challenges of censorship and adaptation, and the themes of love and war.

Did you know Hemingway had a tiny feud with Mussolini?

We also speculate that this might be the most sexually explicit film we've watched so far...

As always, we have our history timeline, top song of the day, and perhaps a few disagreements along the way.

Books mentioned by Dad:

Boller, Paul. Hollywood Anecdotes. William Morrow & Company, 1987.
McKuen, Rod. Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows. Random House, 1966.
Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. Penguin Random House, 2004.
Wilson, Edmund. “Ernest Hemingway: Bourdon Gauge of Morale.” Edmund Wilson: Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1920s & 30s, edited by Lewis M. Dabney, Library of America, 2007.

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