Joe. My. God Milk wins the Stanley Kramer award
A Room of One's Own shares personal red carpet experiences from the European Film Awards
SciFi remember that awesome short video trying to explain everything that had happened in the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica? It's now updated to include Season 4 before the final episodes air next month. My god that show is a rush. I will miss it when it's gone.
/Film James Gray (We Own the Night, Two Lovers) to direct Brad Pitt in The Lost City of Z
Towleroad Brokeback Mountain censored on Italian TV
Towleroad Twilight dolls. When will the madness end? And if movies are going there why can't I get like a "Kym" doll from Rachel Getting Married? I mean. WHAT ABOUT MY NEEDS?
i09 Plans for the next Bond film. Not very Quantum'y says Daniel Craig
Gold Derby digs into how the voting went down with the NYFCC awards
The Big Picture investigates the AMPAS reversal of the disqualification of The Dark Knight musical score. It may now compete for an Oscar nod. Frankly, though I don't care either way (I can never make sense of the music branch's aesthetics) I don't think Hans Zimmer does himself favors here. His argument for eligibility seems to consist solely of gross generalizations (apparently composers are incapable of lying... wow is that like a nature thing or nurture ~ something learned whilst one plays with orchestras?). Plus the defensive "I'm a good guy. Why would I lie?" is just weird. While I don't doubt that he's a good guy, defending yourself with a 'why would I lie?' is being delusional about the high stakes of Oscar races. MANY people would lie for an Oscar (maybe not Zimmer but still...) and have lied or fibbed if you will about something they themselves considered trivial --and thus 'who cares?'. I mean, one only has to look at the myriad eligibility disputes over the years in, say, Best Song. Or consider the way that certain screenplays in the past have magically forgotten that they come from books or plays when the category got crowded --suddenly they were "original" visions. Let's not even start on 'I'm in every scene of the movie but I'm a supporting character... yes I am!!!' People tell fibs all the time for Oscar consideration. I guess what it comes down to is whether one thinks the rules are meaningful or not --and clearly Zimmer doesn't given that he was attacking the rules during his eligibility argument. Anyway... one thing we can all agree on through all of these "rule" arguments for Oscar each year: The Academy should be diligent about monitoring their rules and make changes if and when the rules become outdated and don't reflect the reality of modern filmmaking. OMG. Ouch. My soapbox just collapsed underneath the weight of me. I think I twisted my ankle. Ouch.[Different opinions on this score situation can be read at Cinema Blend and In Contention]
Posts
9 comments:
I love James Gray, even though I didn't get Two Lovers, but I really really hope he has it in him to work on this kind of enormous scale. And I really hope Brad doesn't pull a Fountain on him.
Speaking of scores, I receieved the 'Slumdog Millionaire' soundtrack in the mail and can't stop listening to it. Yes, I know, I'm treating this film like I did 'Juno' last year (Nat's gonna get real annoyed...), but it's A.R. Rahman!
I wonder what his chances are of pulling off a win against the other big-wigs....?
I'm a little scared right now to type anything that might be perceived as anti-the Dark Knight, but thank you for that rant.
There've been rumors for years that "Hansie Zimmer and his troops" use a uniquely collaborative working method. Now maybe he (and in this case Howard as well) should be considered the origin of the score's vision, just as a film director is the head of a collaborative process. But the Academy should stick its decisions and not buckle to pressure from Hollywood big shots (because we all know that "little shot" filmmakers are never in a position to appeal an eligibility decision like this- they just don't have the clout).
Here is an interesting position from a fan of the score and its composers.
Eh. I love The Dark Knight score and am happy it's considered, but that music branch really pisses me off. If it's not their over-nominating of one thing (John Williams) it's their bizarre rules - how was Babel eligible but There Will Be Blood not. They don't like newcomers, but once they love you, they REALLY love you.
To me, TDK's score is practically editing it's so dedicated to unifying the whole film.
I don't know whether this was caught, but this last week's episode of The Simpsons had a very special guest star.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/12/10/votd-wall-e-on-the-simpsons/
-Matt
And on topics related to this post, if the Academy is going to be reversing decisions they make, why couldn't they have done this last year for Jonny Greenwood?
-Matt
THANK YOU
Nick --i posted that with you in mind. I know you follow Gray and it does seem like quite a departure for him
OMG Laura Bans is an honest to god genius -thanks for that Nat! So so true. It's been five days since I've seen Australia and my initial disappointment has quickly curdled into outright contempt. And Laura gets it all right on the money. (With all the other disasters going on I admit I didn't even stop to think about the stereotype of the cook "Sing Song" - and why are we digging up these stereotypes in 2008 if not to show them for what they are? That's just laziness.)
Post a Comment