The Siren doesn't have much to say about the Oscars this year. She went to a swell party full of lively, smart, funny people and enjoyed herself.
Bravo for Katherine Bigelow, smashing the glass ceiling. I do wish that in her speech, she had been a little less overwhelmed and a little more like the lady above, costume designer Sandy Powell. Ms Powell, who appears to be about eight feet tall, sashayed on stage wearing a drop-dead high-fashion dress and gave a perfectly poised speech that made it clear she thought she deserved to be up there. I loved that; the Siren doesn't dig false modesty. And Powell also captured the Siren's heart by mentioning all the costume designers who don't do period pieces, and who are ignored year after year by the Academy. Costumes, no matter what the film, are extremely important to an actor's performance, as Louise Brooks could have told you. For the climactic scene in Pandora's Box, G.W. Pabst took her favorite suit and soiled and tore it; she said she went on set feeling "as hopelessly defiled as my clothes." How short-sighted for the Oscars to go, year after year, only to clothes of the past or some imaginary future.
The evening was marred by the decision to move the honorary Oscars to some kind of dinner thing in November. You wanna have a banquet, awesome, go for it, but do not deprive me and others who care about the industry's history of the opportunity to see Roger Corman, Gordon Willis, John Calley and the fabulous Lauren Bacall on the stage during the actual ceremony.
Many people have suggested that the John Hughes tribute took up time that rightfully belonged to the old-timers. Well, the Siren grew up with Hughes' movies and some of them have a permanent place in her heart. They're a part of the Siren's adolescence and so she regards Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink with the kind of nostalgic affection that precludes rational analysis. So it probably was with the people who decided on that whole presentation. It was nice to see Molly Ringwald after all this time.
But the Siren would have deep-sixed that horror montage in a New York minute.
And the Siren also agrees with Glenn Kenny about the death montage. This isn't quantum physics. All you have to do is come up with a reasonably complete list, a nice melancholy piece of music and some good clips. Given that simple formula it is kind of astonishing that this key piece of the evening is so consistently mucked up. Hire the TCM guys, okay? They do a great job year after year and don't try to gild the lily.
On the plus side, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were very funny and I kind of loved the Neal Patrick Harris dance-cum-Sally-Rand tribute. Oprah Winfrey's speech to Gabourey Sidibe was very touching, Sandra Bullock was funny, and bravo to Mo'Nique for her Hattie McDaniel tribute. (The Siren didn't see Precious and won't, as she absolutely does not do child-abuse movies; the Siren just appreciated the sentiments.) Overall it was a fine ceremony that made the minutes fly by like hours, as Addison would have said.
I just really hope the DVR recorded The Oscar.
- Actors and Acting (55)
- Alfred Hitchcock (7)
- Alida Valli (1)
- American Idol Wins Gold During Sweeps Month (1)
- Anecdote of the Week (26)
- Audrey Hepburn (4)
- Ava Gardner (7)
- Baghdad and Boobs (1)
- Barbara Stanwyck (12)
- Basil Rathbone (4)
- Bette Davis (15)
- Billy Wilder (12)
- Blogathons (18)
- Brian Aherne (2)
- But You Cant Quit (1)
- Charles Boyer (5)
- Charles Laughton (10)
- Charlie Chaplin (6)
- Come On Down (1)
- Constance Bennett (10)
- crabby dissent (11)
- Culture-lite. (1)
- Cyd Charisse (4)
- dance on film (8)
- David Hemmings (1)
- David O. Selznick (10)
- Douglas Sirk (9)
- Ernst Lubitsch (10)
- Family Drama Ya Little Maggot (1)
- For the Love of Film (11)
- Foreign Film of the Week (4)
- foreign films (6)
- Frances Farmer (2)
- Frank Borzage (8)
- Fred Astaire (3)
- Fritz Lang (5)
- Gene Kelly (6)
- Gene Tierney (7)
- George Cukor (11)
- George Sanders (11)
- Ginger Rogers (7)
- Gone with the Wind (3)
- Hedy Lamarr (6)
- Howard Hawks (9)
- Humphrey Bogart (4)
- Ida Lupino (8)
- in memoriam (17)
- Ingrid Bergman (4)
- Inkspot today (1)
- IT'S ALIVE (1)
- Jack Cardiff (5)
- Jack Carson (7)
- James Cagney (9)
- James Mason (2)
- James Stewart (4)
- James Wong Howe (10)
- Jean Negulesco (6)
- Jean Simmons (1)
- Jennifer Jones (1)
- Joan Crawford (11)
- Joan Fontaine (18)
- John Barrymore (17)
- John Ford (8)
- John Garfield (8)
- Josef von Sternberg (3)
- Joshua Logan (1)
- Kay Francis (6)
- Kimber's Kraziness (1)
- Lana Turner (3)
- Leslie Caron (2)
- links (2)
- lists (18)
- Little Girl - WOW (1)
- Luise Rainer (2)
- Marilyn Monroe (3)
- Martin Scorsese (1)
- Mary Astor (8)
- Maureen O'Hara (3)
- Max Ophuls (9)
- Merle Oberon (2)
- Michael Curtiz (2)
- Michael Powell (4)
- Miriam Hopkins (1)
- Mitchell Leisen (4)
- Montgomery Clift (2)
- Movie Books (11)
- movies in brief (17)
- movies in depth (34)
- Mr. Uncertain (1)
- Music . I Know (1)
- Musicals (6)
- Myrna Loy (8)
- New York City of the Mind (10)
- Norma Shearer (3)
- Orson Welles (6)
- Oscars (11)
- polite dissent (12)
- Preston Sturges (5)
- Prince Poppycock on America's Got Talent (1)
- Production Code (8)
- Raoul Walsh (1)
- Robert Wise (1)
- Samuel Goldwyn (8)
- Sandra Dee (1)
- Shadows of Russia (9)
- Silent Movies (8)
- Simone Simon (1)
- Step Into an Enchanted World (1)
- Stop Filming Me (1)
- Sweet Home (1)
- Sydney Greenstreet (9)
- TCM (37)
- That Rhymes and that Stands for Pool (1)
- Thoughts on Fatherhood. (1)
- Val Lewton (1)
- Vera Zorina (2)
- Vincente Minnelli (3)
- weblog awards (2)
- William Wellman (7)
- William Wyler (13)
- Writing (1)
- You Can Puke (1)
Followers
Powered by Blogger.
- Unknown
-
▼
2010
(72)
-
▼
March
(10)
- Watching Movies With My Mother
- Anecdote of the Week: "Subversive? With That Sombr...
- Adultery at the Movies; Or, How to Get Rielle Phot...
- Anecdote of the Week: Merle and David Make a Death...
- Merle and Sarah Jane
- Return to Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear...
- The Oscar (1966)
- Oscars 2010: A Brief Commentary
- A Director Out of Wood*
- TCM Alerts: What the Siren Wants to Watch for March
-
▼
March
(10)