The 85th
Academy awards again proved what the 84 ceremonies before it had proven in some
or a large amount:- Its not always the best that get awarded, but the best
lobbied. And this is unlikely to change in the near future.
Although back in India where film awards are a
joke that are sponsored by film magazines that are a bigger joke, the Oscars might
seem a whole new level altogether, but the fact remains that each ceremony
makes you question the jury that awards them.
Positive things
first.Seth MacFarlane. Yes, the loud mouthed host comedian who spared no corner
unturned in ridiculing Hollywood and exposing the hypocrisy which always gets
passed off as style. Or his ode to female nudity onscreen, We saw your b**s.
Though it might have got the bleeding hearts enraged, he merely sung
humourously what actress had exposed her assets in what film, a choice she had
consciously made when she signed for the role. Many actresses and actors in
their struggling days resort to acting in raunchy films or videos and then try
to have them swept under the carpet when they find success. If this kind of
double standards can be accepted then its surprising why Seth is attacked for
singing the history of assets display onscreen. It was great to see a host
unbound by any censored straightjacket.
Then there was
Daniel Day Lewis, arguably the finest actor of his generation and certainly the
best method actor ever , receiving his record third Oscar for best actor for
his superb portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. His humble and refreshing
acceptance speech should be a lesson for upstart starlets who have taken
narcissism to their very DNA.
But then, not
everything is just in the Oscars.
Starting with
the snubs. Appalling is the word to describe how Paul Thomas Anderson and Ben
Affleck were not nominated for best director, for The Master and Argo,
respectively. Similar is the exclusion of The Master from best picture
category(while a typical not so novel romantic comedy like Silver Linings
Playbook was nominated heavily) ,maybe not to ruffle the feathers of the
scientologists.Such behavior is not new with the Oscars, which did not even nominate
Jack Nicolson for his role as Frank Costello in The Departed or Lee Emery’s
role of Sgt Hartman in Full Metal Jacket for Supporting Actor nor they deemed necessary to award the works of people
like Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock or Steve
McQueen . This is the Academy which couldn’t find any worthiness in Robert De
Niro’s Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, nor
in the numerous great roles of Paul Newman and Peter O’Toole in more than three
decades, made the great Martin Scorsese wait
for more than thirty years, rejecting his directing efforts in Raging Bull for
Ordinary People, Goodfellas for Dances
with Wolves. When he finally won best director for The Departed, he
sarcastically asked for the envelope to be checked again.
Now the wins,
starting from the Best Director, painfully given to Ang Lee for Life of Pi,
over the much superior work of Steven Spielberg and Michael Haneke for Lincoln
and Amour, respectively. Life of Pi, minus its great visual effects, has very
little left. It reduced Hinduism to an exotic belief and portrayed Indians
speaking nothing more than an irritating accent of English. Ang Lee did not do
enough research to rectify Yan Martel’s biggest mistake- Patel is not a Tamil
surname. But then, this is the Academy which honoured that abominable insult of
India called Slumdog Millionaire not very long ago. And winning the best visual
effects for Life of Pi did not save the vfx studio Rhythm & Hues involved
in it from bankruptcy. When Bill Westenhofer, one of the winners for the visual
effects team brought out their plight in his acceptance speech, his voice was
drowned by increasing the background music and the microphone was shut down.
This is compassion, Hollywood style.
In best actress
category, it will be honest to say that Emanuelle Riva was robbed off her
award. Yes, Jennifer Lawrence is the best young talent in Hollywood today, but she
was nowhere in comparison to Riva in Amour and was clearly overshadowed by
Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, a film, which
certainly did not deserve so many nominations because it is not very different
from the numerous rom coms that have been churned out by the tons. This Academy
Awards saw the return of big studios and the lobbying for this film is one of
the biggest example. Amour was a very serious, more realistic look at old age
and the resulting invalidity. But then, love between people who look good for
the camera will always be promoted more than the faithful love of decades that
has stood the test of time. Hence the end result.
In supporting cast category, Anne Hathaway won
over much better performances, namely from Amy Adams in The Master and Sally Field in Lincoln. Christoph Waltz was
great as King Schultz, but certainly no greater than Tommy Lee Jones’s Thaddeus
Stevens or Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lancaster Dodd.Neither was Django’s
original screenplay better than that of Flight. But this is a world where
Shakespeare in Love beats Saving Private Ryan and Robert Benigni (Life is
Beautiful)beats Edward Norton (American History X) and Chicago beats The
Pianist.
But the real
show was the surprise appearance of First Lady Michelle Obama to award Argo the
best picture. A film about rescuing American citizens from Iran of 1979 getting
its Oscar announced by the US first lady. Clearly, nothing political about it.
Looking at the
trends of the Oscars over the years, there are a few set patterns that can result
in Oscar wins:-
Playing a
historical character,may it be a popular or a controversial figure
Pretty ladies
becoming ugly and unsightly for the role
Playing a
mentally or physically disabled person
A holocaust film.
Playing a role
totally opposed to one’s image.
When everything
fails, play a gay character. Works all the time.
What does the
Academy do when there are not very great performances in a particular year?
Easy. Award it to a fair performance of
some old actor,whos better work
nominated several times earlier and always overlooked (Paul Newman in
Colour of Money, Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart). Sometimes, even that isn’t
necessary (Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side).
Such are the
dubious ways of the glam world. But we will still tune into next years awards
and the next to next years as well, cause, there aint no business like show
business.
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