Very funny watching the ABC news LiveStream for the Oscars Red Carpet tonight (a first for them did I hear?). Those presenters did a great job of broadcasting to the world with almost no interviews. The Mayor of Los Angeles was very very gracious stopping by. Not ingratiating. Just because you have a mic with ABC News emblazoned guarantees you of nothing. Get real boys and girls! A lesson for Hollywood one might concur. Hmmm.. The days of Christine are not dead and gone...sorry for the truth!
A few thoughts before I take my absinthe and dream…yeah I know: past the ‘watershed’ now;) Why no Ken Loach I, Daniel Blake tonight? Why no Werner Herzog Inferno? Great movies and documentaries by the dozen and more are made every year in this world often receiving little to no attention or recognition. The Revolution Won’t Be Televised (2016, Senegal-Rama Thiaw) ought to receive more ‘airplay’. btw- she lost out on much of her funding so went back to her impoverished hometown, asked for enthusiastic would be film makers and trained her entire youngster amateur crew. Puts us all to shame!
The great Ken Jacobs took the subway and recorded the audio of his journey. Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie created a visual algorithm for the sound waves that became a visual sculpture film in and of themselves. Ulysses in the Subway. Life goes on….
Yeh! The Canadians just scored an Oscar 'goal' for Best Sound Editing (ARRIVAL) is that an appropriate term? Anyone remember Red Army? (Distributed by Sony Pictures). Hey: they can't be wrong, now can they! To be clear the latter not former entity. Tant pis.. about time for a break...;)
I'm confused Kimmel. Who actually wins this game? I still don't understand the rules? If, indeed, there are any!
The great Asghar Farhadi won Best Foreign Film for The Salesman. Valid question: why is he even anywhere near great? Just because we feels sympathy that he can't board a plane to the United States anymore. I am sure you know what you are definitely not missing, sir! And yet. And yet. A description of Amerika is AND YET. Asghar Farhadi delves into moral dilemmas. They could be as true of his Iranian hometown as of the Upper East/West/North/South of New York. THAT is why he is great folks. Next football?
Fear, treachery, bloodlust. Thousands of years ago these were the forces that ruled our world. Relax folks. Only the Carrot Days Circus! There’s not a whiff of Hollywood in that intro. Zootopia won Best Animated Feature. New definition of a useful exhilarating rabbit;) OK. I know. What’s wrong with watching Bambi? Or…. Stiff competition in that category with the wondrous Kubo and the Two Strings....next ...
we are now approaching Oscar categories that are beyond any judgement. The talent is nothing short of an avalanche. So I will now curl up with my mouse and watch Dumbo.
May the ship still be sailin' in the 'morrow.
Glad Moonlight won Best Picture. Saying one of its great qualities is of non-agenda sparks an argument. Is Arrival ever agenda’d? Is Manchester by the Sea? Is: are any of those nominated films agenda’d? Discuss. Barry Jenkins last film Medicine for Melancholy (2008) didn’t fare that well. Not wishing to pick on anyone in particular but The Guardian (London) wrote: Sounds promising, right? But the film suffers from a general lack of imagination. The leads are likable, but their conversations rarely rise above the commonplace, and as they wander the more picturesque public areas of the city, the political points are clumsily shoehorned into their blossoming relationship. That wasn’t the movie I saw where the beauty lay in extolling the virtues of one’s racial ancestry yet arguing that one can also get rip tided by that in ever decreasing vicious circles of self-righteousness. Medicine was also exquisitely lensed in sepia tones by James Laxton. Can you love two people at the same time? Can you love both sides of yourself equally? Both colours within yourself?
Moonlight is much the same. One could say it is about this or that. And indeed those ideas all are intrinsic to the film’s tapestry. But it is a film about a moment, perhaps not a turning point in any way, moment of something other than prevailing winds. Moment that is both in time and yet non-linear. Not a moment of any ‘self-realization’ rather a song that when you listen each decade of life means something not different, necessarily. Just something more. Can you forever be in love with someone without actually ever falling in love with them?
The secrets of great filmmaking and Mr. Jenkins was in some fine company last night at the Oscars. There really is no answer to anything. The answer has and will always be there. It is the questions one asks to get there that make or break us as a species.
