In past years I have tended to watch the Academy Awards together with my parents and sometimes my siblings. But especially since it is much later and more awkward to fit with a working schedule (well, not mine, but still . . .) in a European time zone than in the Pacific Standard one, I am stuck following it alone on the internet. So I thought it would be amusing to 'liveblog' it this time, so that no inane observation goes to waste!
1:28 a.m. A rather nice red carpet interview with George Miller, who directed Mad Max: Fury Road. I haven't watched it, though it has been so much praised; but my siblings did, and liked it. The interviewer observed that the original film in the Mad Max series had been shot with a small budget, and that it would not go far nowadays. Budget-wise, Miller said, even arriving in Namibia with the crew and equipment — I think my sister told me that it had been too rainy in Australia to film Mad Max there — would have already taken the $200,000 that were used for the first film. The director was clearly pleased by the question, and ruminated as precisely as he could (with the din and turmoil of the red carpet swelling around him) about the changes in filmmaking in general - smaller cameras are being used now, far more film being shot and then cut by the editors. And, in Mad Max, one of the editors was Mr. Miller's wife.
1:34 a.m. Interviewer's standard question, fired at Saoirse Ronan and Henry Cavill: 'Do you like Germany?' Why I'm watching this: to cringe with second-hand embarrassment.
1:41 a.m. Sacha Baron Cohen was asked The Germany Question again, although thankfully the interviewer had additional questions in reserve. But we learned that he likes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for undisclosed reasons; it wasn't a total waste of time.
1:47 a.m. Interviewer speculates about Emily Blunt's pregnancy. Another wave of embarrassment . . .
1:50 a.m. Charlize Theron hurries up the carpet; the interviewer and her associate speculate that the American television network ABC has 'first dibs' on the most important celebrities. They hope that she will return to the phalanx of reporters from other networks later. 'Fingers crossed,' says the interviewer, crossing her fingers literally, with her middle finger straight in the air. Accidental or not, nobody knows.
1:55 a.m. An interview about Jared Leto's shoes, made by Alessandro Michele of Gucci. 'So, did you fall in love with them right away?' . . .
2:06 a.m. An ABC interview with Leonardo DiCaprio. If I didn't have an irrational dislike for him, born of the Titanic years and never shed, I'm sure I'd be enjoying this more . . .
2:11 a.m. In the advertising break (one of many) I am returning to a cowboy book (The Trail Horde, by Charles Alden Seltzer):
Lawler smiled. "I had an agreement with Jim Lefingwell. We made it early last spring."2:37 a.m. Chris Rock's opening monologue: I guess his argument is that an Oscar nomination isn't a civil right . . . Now he's diagnosing the low-level type of racism that does exist in Hollywood. And saying, "We want opportunity," to relatively un-awkward applause.
"A written agreement?"
"Shucks—no. I never had a written agreement with Lefingwell. Never had to. Jim's word was all I ever wanted from him—all I ever asked for."
2:53 a.m. The Best Adapted Screenplay award is for The Big Short. I guess it was fairly innovative. It did seem like a film I might watch. (Especially since I'm mildly interested in economics and the financial crisis.) To decrease the influence of finance on politics, 'Don't vote for people who take money from weirdo billionaires,' exhorts a writer in his acceptance speech, amongst other things. He probably isn't voting Republican or for Hillary Clinton, since things like her speech at Goldman Sachs have been so contentious recently.
3:15 a.m. After the Best Supporting Actress award, another interlude.
Man and horse were big, capable, strong-willed. They were equipped for life in the grim, wild country that surrounded them. From the slender, powerful limbs of the big bay, to the cartridge-studded belt that encircled the man's middle, with a heavy pistol at the right hip, they seemed to typify the ruggedness of the country, seemed to embody the spirit of the Wild.3:39 a.m. The cinematographer for The Revenant thanks his compadre, Alejandro Iñarritu. Donald Trump must be grumbling right now.
4:01 a.m. Back to social justice: Here is the Economist's article from a statistical perspective about racial underrepresentation at the Oscars between 2007 and 2013: "How racially skewed are the Oscars?". It looks as if Latino Americans were particularly poorly recognized, and so are Asian Americans. But the article points a finger at casting practices and at drama schools with imbalanced pupils and not even at the Academy in particular.
A further excerpt:
"Blacks really are much more under-represented in the director’s chair, where they account for 6% of directors of the top 600 films, according to the Annenberg study. Black women are nearly nonexistent there (two of the 600, Ms DuVernay being one)."4:16 a.m. I, for one, could not imagine playing the violin sitting in a chair wearing a black frock above knee height, with a black choker around my neck, but apparently for Oscars music performances, sacrifices must be made.
4:32 a.m. Mark Rylance (of Wolf Hall) wins for acting as a Soviet spy in Bridge of Spies. I'm quite surprised.
5:00 a.m. The Death Montage.
5:50 a.m. Brie Larson is Best Actress for The Room, and Alejandro Iñarritu is Best Director for The Revenant, but I have not much to say . . .
5:59 a.m. Leonardo DiCaprio has his Oscar. I may have to retreat from civilization to places where objectionable people don't get Oscars. :c)
6:00 a.m. Morgan Freeman's Best Picture award presentation is comforting me a little. His voice really is incredible. Spotlight wins. As one of the producers(?) says, three cheers for investigative journalism (which is one of the subjects of the film).
6:03 a.m. Chris Rock: "I want to invite everyone here to the BET Awards this summer!" and "Black Lives Matter!"
The End
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