Going for an English
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The Oscars were a joke this year. The Queen for best actress and The Departed for best picture? One light and bloodless, the other an emotionally flat remake of the intense, atmospheric and markedly superior Hong Kong original. Who in their right minds wants an Oscar when these are the films they anoint? It’s a race to the bland bottom.
Pan’s Labyrinth, a milestone for Spanish special effects movies, may very well have deserved best cinematography — but The Prestige was also nominated. Setting aside weak scripts, many Bollyflicks kick The Prestige’s ass every which way to Sunday on cinematography. This year’s Eklavya is visually stunning, and not in a saris-in-Switzerland fashion — in a Christopher Doyle - John Woo - Brian De Palma sense.
And Bolly denizens are sitting here crying into their chai when a Canadian flick loses the affirmative action Oscar. Bollyflicks are about as foreign to most of the world as the World Series are international. It would’ve tarnished their reputation to have won in a year that’s a monument to flavorless parochialism.
I like The Queen. It’s political and intelligent. But it’s also emotionally thin. Helen Mirren as much deserves an Oscar for the opposite of acting — being a Brit — as Sandra Bullock deserves one for Speed.
That Forest Whitaker won for playing Idi Amin was this year’s saving grace. The 2007 Academy Awards: not A Good Year.
on Monday, February 26th, 2007, 1:55 pm in Film › 
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i concur, although i loved mirren, but agree with your points..the departed was overrated..
and come on.. JENNIFER HUDSON? wasn’t the movie just a longer version of american idol sans simon cowell?
i didn’t watch the show, but caught the winners online instead.
Your point about Mirren makes no sense — the opposite of acting? Just because she’s a Brit? So a British actress acting as a British figure is not acting? Eh? Makes no sense at all.
Of course its acting!..the question is, can we consider it an “Oscar” worthy?….the assumption being, acting like a Brit when one is shouldn’t be a big deal !!!……anyways, the recent Oscars have been watered down version…
I didn’t think much of Last King of Scotland as well….seemed very superficial. These days, indie movies from India & other countries seem more powerful & moving than the Hollywood productions.
disagree wholeheartedly. please tell me which films you think are worthy?
water was terrible.
Chick pea…when I said Indian movies, I included non-Hindi movies as well. Not sure, if you follow/watch Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada movies. I am not just referring to 2006 movies, but going back in time as well.
If you have chance watch Phaniyamma (Kannada) for starters…..and try some of Amol Palekar directed movies as well.
In Hindi movies - Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah & Om Puri have been part of several great movies. None of them ever get mentioned outside India.
To me M.Blige winning Grammys…while Bombay Jayshree, Subha Mudagal & the likes don’t…tells me all. Grammys & Oscars are popularity contests ..very parochial to USA (the world in itself)…
suraj:
love amol palekar.. met him on an indian airlines flight once 10 years ago, and was estatic (as was my dad), his movie keri was fabulous…
i haven’t tried kannada movies… will do, when i get some time in the future! thanks for the suggestions..
i LOVE smita, shabana, shah and puri.. those are classical actors… mirch masala is one of my faves.. my dad and i were so sad when patil passed.. way too early… has raj babbar done anything since then?
yeah, the oscars overrated.. just like the departed, and everything involving them.. the only 2 deserving wins.. are helen mirren and forrest whitaker.. the rest… (i didn’t waste time watching them..)..are forgettable.
please tell me which films you think are worthy?
For starters, almost all the Satyajit Ray movies, 36 Chworingee Lane, Kagaaaz ka Phool, Pyaasa, Guide, Jagate Raho, Ak Aankh Baraa Haath. Or early Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihilani movies. Ankur’s last scene is probably the most powerful statement about powerless showing their anger, and fear.
Chick pea, just check one of the Satyajit Ray movies, you’ll know. They are Kurosawa class movies.
In fact, except Clint Eastwood (the man is getting bolder in his pursuits by the age), all most all Hollywood directors right now have gone soft, and listless - this includes Scoresee, and Francis Ford Capoola, Ron Howard too. MS masterpiece is not Departed but Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. Maybe, Sofia Capoola has new mojo.
I haven’t seen Venus by Peter O’Toole. But a lot of people thought his deserved an Oscar. They think it is a performance of a lifetime where he is being himself - an actor who is ready to die, but still has the passion for the last hoorah.
NYT, and other thought Letters from Iwo Jima should have won too. I guess Clint Eastwood has been winning them too often, and other need to get some chance too.
Two words. Happy Feet :(
Two more words. Ass clowns.
Pan’s Labyrinth and Children of Men were the biggest upsets. For a while there it looked like Pan might be the clean sweep of the year, until they started giving out oscars to the departed.
Oh, and Monster House fucking deserved that animated movie oscar.
Which scene sucked: the scene where Martin Sheen dies vs. Anthony Wong’s death scene in Infernal Affairs? That’s the one scene that creates a dividing line between those who liked the remake and didn’t.
Any thoughts on Infernal Affairs 2?
hmm..
I thought Jennifer hudson did a great job in “Dream girls”.she acted well, sang well and richly deserved her win..I dont remember to have seen any Indian musical/movie where actor sang their own songs and gave such a powerful perfomance like jennifer hudson..
India has great actors too Naseeruddin shah, shabana azmi..but probably rang de basanti was not the right choice of movie they should have selected as oscar entry, may be sarika and naseeruddin shah movie on gujarat roits” parzania” should have been indian entry. It depends on choice of movies u send for oscars.
I liked ek lavya a lot, cinematography was great, amitabh acted well but not an oscar quality movie. there were a lot of scenes that were wasted. But compared to routine Indian movies, ek lavya is definetely a great one, but not oscar calibre movie.
Water was good but then again water has a lot of wasted scenes too..if the love story between Johny abraham and lisa ray was cut short and there were more scenes of emotional depth and it had better actors like shabana azmi and nandita ( deepa mehta I think originally started the movie with them) water would have had a chance to win an oscar. To me water was a better choice than rang de basanti and I expected water to be in the top five oscar foreign entry movies.
I think Indian directors have to watch out every scene in a three hour movie to make oscar calibre movies but most directors cannot afford to make such movies since they need to meet needs of Indian audience to have some amount of commercial success which includes song and dance routine..I have to admit I love song and dance routine in an indian movie but then those are the scenes that make them loose at oscars.
satyajit rays movies were appreciated at oscars because his movies are great with not many wasted scenes and he is a great director too choosing offbeat realistic topics to make movies.
I thought “Little miss sunshine” was a original movie and liked the actor who played the grandpa role and thought he also deserved his win. Little miss sunshine was cute original realistic script of a disfunctional family trying to make it together.
I did not see queen but from the clips I saw I thought Helen and Forest acted well in the movie clips I watched. The movie Queen doesnot sound to me that interesting to watch but its all about acting how good they do their role that matters to get a best actress or actor award. It doesnot matter how good the film is.
I didnot see “Departed” but just hearing about the storyline and the cast I felt it was a good choice. It has Godfather story line, complicated double faced characters , japanese story adaptation, excellent actors and from CNN review looks like despite the complicated story and characters movie is well made. CNN has a good review on that movie..here is the link
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/06/review.departed/
I can dig a bit of scenery chewing over two hours of stiff upper lip. What a snooze.
Monster House is the first mainstream animated movie I’ve seen that approaches real horror, but Happy Feet, for all its sappy commercialism, is more panoramic. I like the scene where the trawler fills the frame like a Close Encounters UFO, with bass cranked up.
It’s been four years since I’ve seen Infernal Affairs so I can’t remember, and haven’t seen the sequels yet. But the palette and tension are hard to forget. The pipe tapping scene was so much grittier in the original than The Departed’s game of cell phone Battleship.
ah, then you would have liked Mirren in her other role of 2006- In Elizabeth I through HBO films. She and Jeremy Irons were fighting over which parts of the set they could gnaw to pieces. ;)
The Departed seemed like it got the throwaway Oscar, the “whoops, sorry we never gave you anything, Marty” award, if you will.
i stayed true to my roots n watched the filmfare awards that aired last night instead (sony). tht the shiitake.
i agree.. infernal affairs was a classic - esp the music, camera-work, the acting and overall style and flair. the departed was a sad sad copy. but people who hadnt seen infernal affairs liked the departed -makes me feel so sorry for them that they missed such a good movie. anyway.