Letters to the Editor
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I agree to a point
"So, I may give the entire exercise a pass next year. It's far less painful just to read the newspaper accounts.
-- Cath1"
I think it is a good platform for artists to reach america. Yeah they rarley steal the show and say anything original. But that's not the platform's fault. It's the winners. :)
If it was me, I woudl take one of those statues and trow it on the ground. breaking it in the name of dead soldiers. How can they do this, with a smile on their faces, when people are dying everyday in a false war for profit. That is the type of things peopel should be doing. Thinking big. :)
I agree. Announce the winners , let them write our speaches and send them out. We can't lose that oppurtunity for artists to have a platform. It may be dull many times over. once and a while it's not. Once in a while it matters. And we must hold it down. If only for that rare insightful glimpse into what it means to be human. RAre but there. Soemtimes it happens.
the gop is trying to destroy hollywood and the movie industry. that is the goal. It is a threat to their clone robot cult. To attack movies and the oscars. To destroy freedom, is nto american. Don;'t fall for the gop's game. Don't allow their discredit and whining to effect you. Think abou tthe big picture. Got to give artists their platform. what they do is their option. It's bigger than the oscars. It's about freedom and art and, like I said, what it means to be human.
Movies are a way to live other lives. To see a good movie is to be in that world. You see, in some cases, an entire life, and it's meaning. for christians, they believe all lives have meaning. We all touch others lives. A movie is that in a fishbowl, controlled for optimum meaning. it does not fufill that promise all times, or even most times. But we cannot get rid of movies. we cannot take away artists platform.
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@-- rufus1133
You got the writer wrong, it's not Stephanie but Cintra Wilson. Stephanie Zacharek is a terrific critic, my first click from IMDB --> External Reviews --> Stephanie at Salon
You also admitted in your second letter that you wrote your first screed without having read the article in question.
So, let's see, writing an entire page-long venomous critique before you even read the column, about the wrong writer, who had nothing to do with the article.
Yeah, I'd say your opinion is worth a lot.
I liked the article. I find the Acadamy Awards show awful, the few times I've tried to watch. I surfed it a little last night. Any production that can make Jon Stewart look awkward has crossed some line of bad that's rarely crossed.
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I LIKE the montages!
This being a significant anniversary (80) it was inevitable that as many past winners as possible would be acknowledged. I would have been sorely disappointed if they weren't. The "Bee" and "Periscope" montages were a JOKE, people! Gee...Oscar tries to get a sense of humor about himself and people STILL complain!
I was delighted that Marion Cotillard won Best Actress. Now perhaps "La Vie En Rose" will go into wide circulation and more people will see it and understand why she won.
Most egregious omission from a thank-you speech: The winners of Best Art Direction from "Sweeney Todd" thanked just about EVERYONE except...Stephen Sondheim!
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Loved the Oscars this year
I went with a friend to watch in a movie theatre here in Toronto, and, maybe it's the whole Canadian thing, but I was really happy with the wins, the speeches, a few articulate, most completely flumoxed (did anyone notice how few references there were to God? Merciful reprieve!).
Daniel Day Lewis deserved his award, and There Will Be Blood ought to have won best film, but that's just my opinion. Happy to see the dark horse win for Tilda Swinton, although I thought that Julie Christie had it coming. Loved Stewart's quick, good natured humour, and especially the heart-warming moment when he had Marketa Irglova come back on stage for her acceptance speech. The theatre roared with good cheer when best actor and best song were awarded. And that's really all I ask from the Oscars, two or three great moments.
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julie christie
apart from the lack of any mention of the unexpected Christie loss - there is no mention of her sole politically explicit yellow ribbon, in protest of gitmo. is she the new vanessa ?
does she join helen mirren as a uniquely fabulous, sassy & compelling 66 year old ?
surely this is worth comment as much as the nicholson chuckle !
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foreigners
Brits and Aussies have been doing well at the oscars for a long time (chariots of fire anyone, Lord of The Rings?). so this nothing new. Note that the Coen Brothers are American, and that their movie is an American movie. Tilda Swinton was playing an American and so was Daniel Day Lewis. Historically there have been so many NON US winners it almost proves the pointlessness of worrying about this kind of crap.
Hollywood has always had lots of people that weren't born in the US. so this is no big deal.
I haven't seen Taxi to the dark side but Sicko and No End in Sight were also critical of the US, and rightly so.
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Any knowledge of irony?
Clearly Cintra has not seen the movie Enchanted, which very self consciously mocks the standard Disney Princess tale. The "anthem ... that had suspiciously happy housewife/sweatshop/totalitarian overtones" was actually an exaggerated satire of songs just like that, which we've heard in Snow White or Mary Poppins and the like. Of course, the Oscar winning song from Once was the stand out in that category, but let's have a little perspective on what the music from Enchanted attempted to accomplish.
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songs
While I agree with Ms. Wilson's take on the musical numbers this year (excepting the performance from Once), it's obvious she hasn't seen Enchanted and had no business trying to put "The Working Song" in a meta-context without understanding its role in the film.
Certainly the three (THREE?!?) Enchanted numbers sucked as they were presented, but in the context of the film they were fine; and I believe "The Working Song" was freakin' brilliant! The reference to vermin wasn't some sort of social commentary, Cintra--she was actually cleaning the apartment with rats, pigeons and cockroaches. The whole thrust of the piece works because of Adams' completely non-ironic turn as an animated princess thrust into real-world New York. Lacking blue-birds and raccoons and bunnies to help her a la Snow White, she makes do with city creatures.
That said, I don't understand at all what Salon sees in Cintra Wilson's annual Oscar piece. If she's not astute enough to be featured on a regular basis why bring her in for her once a year hack-job. It's all venom and snark with no reasoned insight whatsoever. Can we get over it? Rebecca Traister or Stephanie Zacharek are both fabulous writers who can take the bad AND the good as a basis for a piece, know the industry and are often funny to boot.
As a premium member I say, "so long, Cintra Wilson."