Zzzzzz…

I thought that last night’s Academy Awards ceremony was astonishingly (and expensively) dull. It was a little too transparently a three hour infomercial for going to the movie theater. I actually went off to bed before the major awards were presented. In what I saw there were a few bright moments:

  • I found the acceptance speech for Best Foreign Language Film for the Iranian film A Separation genuinely touching.
  • Cirque de Soleil’s astonishing performance which, ironically, undermined their purported theme. There’s nothing as exciting as live performance!
  • Angelina Jolie and the screenwriters for The Descendants. Angelina’s dress had a slit in it all the way up to her hip. She was “working it”, rather clumsily I thought, by sticking her leg out. When she presented the award to the screenwriters for The Descendants they aped her awkward leg-out pose in the funniest unscripted moment of the evening.

These awards had a number of milestones:

  • In accepting his Oscar for Best Original Song Bret McKenzie became the first songwriter to win that award who had also portrayed an elf on the big screen (LOTR).
  • In accepting his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor Christopher Plummer at 82 he became the oldest person to win one of the acting awards (I was pulling for Max Von Sydow, also 82).
  • With only two nominees in the category I don’t ever recall so few nominees for Best Original Song.
  • With its win for Best Picture The Artist became the first silent film to win that award since the very first winner, Wings.
  • In accepting her Oscar for Best Actress Meryl Streep became only the second actress to win three of those awards. She’s closing in on Katharine Hepburn.
  • Speaking of closing in with nine times at bat as MC Billy Crystal is closing in on Bob Hope’s record of eleven outings as master of ceremonies at the Academy Awards.

One last word. What in the world has happened to women’s fashions? Most of the gowns were horribly ill-fitting and unbecoming, succeeding in making wraith-thin women look fat and dumpy or, in the case of Gwyneth Paltrow’s, like patients in a burn ward. The only two that I liked were Melissa Leo’s and Penelope Cruz’s.

Update

I’m not sure where I should have mentioned Jennifer Lopez’s wardrobe malfunction—under highlights, milestones, or the sorry state of women’s fashions. Not only did her dress make her look dumpy but boob tape is supposed to solve a problem (gaping low-cut necklines) not create new ones when attached in the wrong place.

9 comments… add one
  • Icepick Link

    What in the world has happened to women’s fashions?

    Decades of gay men dominating high fashion has taken its toll. They’ve got no deep interest in feminine beauty and the designs increasingly reflect that.

  • Icepick Link

    I’ve said this before, but I think Max von Sydow has had about as varied a career as a screen actor as possible in terms of roles. Antonius Block and Jesus to Ming the Merciless and King Osric! I don’t believe he’s done any musicals but given the 145 titles he’s been in I’ve almost certainly missed something obvious.

  • My update reminds me of a wisecrack that Alfred Hitchcock once made. His movie Lifeboat was shot in an actual lifeboat. The lifeboat was put up on a platform and the cast had to clamber up ladders every day to assume their places in the boat.

    Tallulah Bankhead was notorious for not wearing underwear. You might even say it was her trademark and there’s no graceful , modest way to clamber up a ladder into a lifeboat. On noting Ms. Bankhead’s immodest posture Hitchcock said it put him in a quandary. He didn’t know whether to send for wardrobe, makeup, or hairdressing.

    I’m not sure what the solution for Ms. Lopez’s dress was: wardrobe, makeup, or special effects.

  • sam Link

    “With its win for Best Picture The Artist became the first silent film to win that award since the very first winner, Wings.”

    Still has the very best aerial combat scenes ever filmed.

    “His movie Lifeboat was shot in an actual lifeboat”

    Hitch had a problem there. He always got himself into his movies, but how to do it in Lifeboat? His genius: He’d lost a lot of weight, so he had an advert made for a weight-loss product with his before and after pictures. One of the characters is reading a newspaper and the camera pauses on the ad.

  • Still has the very best aerial combat scenes ever filmed.

    And the most dangerous. Its stars, Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen, did their own flying for the film, despite having only a few hours of training. They took the shots of their own reactions using specially rigged onboard cameras.

    Wellman had been a flyer during WWI and knew his stuff. He wanted the flying to be not just realistic but real and that’s what he got.

  • Drew Link

    Heavens to Mergatroid!

    First a Deliverance-like Alabama three way reference, and now this….

    He didn’t know whether to send for wardrobe, makeup, or hairdressing.

    The world is ending.

  • It’s hard to imagine the confluence of malevolent forces that would be required to make Penelope Cruz look bad.

  • sam Link

    “Wellman had been a flyer during WWI and knew his stuff. He wanted the flying to be not just realistic but real and that’s what he got.”

    Yeah. I read that he hired a bunch of WWI pilots for those scenes.

  • Andy Link

    I’ve never watched the show and wasn’t about to start this year.

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