Mar 8, 2010

The 2010 Oscars: the awards behind the awards


BEST RED CARPET EXCHANGE
FORD: "Its about onnection to other people. It's not about money, cars, things—I mean, all of us are fortunate in this world—but it’s really about your connection to other people.”

SEACREST: "Tell me about this suit"

FORD: “It’s a Tom Ford suit."
MOST ELEGANT ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Yet again, Chritsoph Waltz raised the acceptance speech to a minor art form. First, a lovely ad lib "Oscar and Penélope—that's an über bingo!", followed by a speech which floated along on the metaphor of an expedition, with all his collaborators as passengers — a conceit that both allowed him to name-check everyone effortlessly, in record time, while not losing our attention. "I can't begin to thank you enough, but I can start now. Thank you." Both artful and heartful — a very difficult combination to pull off.
BEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Sandra Bullock. To marshall that level of self-deprecation? In the furnace of an Oscar win? Nothing short of incredible.
MOST GRACELESS INNOVATION
The compulsory replacement of "the Oscar goes to..." with "and the winner is..." Presumably in the interests of drama. Yeuch. Only Kate Winslett defied orders: good for her.
CLASSIEST INNOVATION
The communal ego bath for the acting nominees is here to stay, I hope. It works. The Oscars are not a science, they are about feeling the love — who deserves it, who's getting it, why they're getting it, who from etc etc. More importantly it is all about the presence of real emotion on the faces of people we normally pay to fake it. And now here it is, pure and uncut, without the actors and actresses having to wrap their heads around making a speech at the same time.
BEST PRONUNCIATION
Quentin Tarantino stepping through a treacherous field of foreign film nominees with the elegance of Astaire.
BEST TRUTH DISGUISED AS A JOKE DISGUISED AS A TRUTH
"It's a competition between handsome gifted people and sickly mole people!" — Robert Downey Jr.
WORST PRESENTER
Barbara Streisand. Just give the game away why don't you. Same with Sigourney Weaver announcing art Direction. Why both to keep it a secret for months if you're going to blab the winner with your choice of presenters? Yours, Genuinely Mystified of Greenwich Village.
WORST BIT OF PRAM-CHASING
From a crowded field: ABCs description of The Last Station as a romance between "old people"; Alec Baldwin's introduction of "two actresses who probably doesn't know who we are"; Miley Cryus, Zac Ephron and Kristin Stewart pulling the pacifiers out of their mouths to parade around stage, unaided, while Lauren Bacall and Jack Nicholson get shoved onto the recap rustheap. At one point there was a shot of Nichlson standing up to applaud Godfather cinematographer Gordon Willis and I thought: I want to watch that show.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"I already have two of these" — Sandy Powell, costume designer.
MOST INAPPROPRIATE USE OF THEME MUSIC
'Thank Heaven for Little Girls' playing when Carey Mulligan made her entrance.
MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS
Why was Alec Baldwin getting no love from George Clooney? Edward Scissorhands is a horror film? Since when? They got rid of all available fat but kept the interpretative dance numbers? How I have longed for the artistic fusion bringing together the world of IED bomb squads and break-dancing.
BEST MANGLING OF A JOKE THE MORNING AFTER
"During the ceremony, Ben Stiller appeared in Na’vi blueface and tail to present the make-up award, which went to “Star Trek.” (“Avatar” was not nominated in the category.) He sputtered nonsense lines in what mimicked an alien language that had been created for “Avatar,” and said, “That means, ‘This seemed like a better idea at the time.’ ”— New York Times

I guess you had to be there.

6 comments:

  1. I got the feeling that Clooney's no-love reaction was scripted, no?

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  2. That's what my wife said, like Gervais/Carell but unlike those two Clooney was't being addressed at the time, or so I remember....

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  3. 1. Clooney was grumpy all night, I thought.
    2. Another great "horror" film? Chinatown.
    3. My favorite acceptance speech by far was Sandra Bullock's. Funny, tasteful, appropriate, genuine. Worst was Powell's.
    4. Best instantaneous Twitter joke, about the night's most bizarre moment: "OMG it's Lady Kanye!". Can't believe how many people called her that within seconds...
    5. I think Avatar would have been an equally worthy winner, and agree it would have been better for Hollywood if it had been so. That said, if I wasn't already in love, Bigelow would have my heart.
    6. I hate the best-acting ego bath. I get so embarrassed and uncomfortable. My favorite innovation was the way they did the Best Songs, showing how they worked in the movie. They should keep that, and never again allow interpretive dancers anywhere near the place.
    6. I did horribly on my ballot, with only 13 right.

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  4. I got 17; Kate got 16. I'm never going to get better than that, I've decided, except by sheer luck.

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  5. I still stand by Clooney being in on the whole thing.

    What was Sean Penn's comment before presenting?
    Was he insinuating that the best actress was not about to win?

    I got 17 too. Sheer luck.

    If I weren't straight, Bigelow would have my heart too. So beautiful, classy, smart.

    I can't believe you're not all thrilled to pieces about The Hurt Locker over Avatar. Really? Avatar? I was as bored as in Lord of the Rings.

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  6. As I say in the post above, I loved Avatar. I also loved The Hurt Locker. I think the Oscar went to the best film, by a nose. But I can't entirely thrill to The Hurt Locker's victory because of what it says about Hollywood, which seems to have forgotten how to make big consensus hits beloved of both critics and audiences alike. The last film to truly do this, in my view, was Million Dollar Baby. I know that loving indie movies and blowing raspberries at Hollywood is practically compulsory in the blogosphere but I'm too much of a devotee of the craft of popular moviemaking to thrill to that particular fight.

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