章節 301: The Embarrassment of Oscar
After The Intouchables was released, it didn't take long for it to become a media darling.
After the movie was released, people were discussing more and more whether this movie could qualify to become popular at this year's Oscars.
This discussion is not without basis: after all, there are not many popular candidates for this year's Oscars. Although this year's blockbusters have continued to sell out, despite the extremely popular blockbuster market, there are not many that can be said to be outstanding movies this year.
It seems that after the advent of technology, people all rushed towards higher-tech technologies and blockbusters with larger investments.
People are willing to shoot fewer movies that can truly reflect the content. Large companies are all worried about falling behind and are focusing on how to make money.
There are fewer and fewer movies that are really willing to think about it.
This situation can be seen from the bleak situation this winter. Usually, winter is the best time to release various movies that want to compete for awards, but there are far fewer such movies this year.
In the winter of this year, it can be said that only three films were released competing for Oscars.
One is naturally The Intouchables, while the other two are Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator.
Million Dollar Baby is Clint Eastwood's new work. This movie is in line with Eastwood's cold style. The story is a bit sad, but it is very touching. It can also be said to be a good movie.
Moreover, the performers in this movie, whether it is Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, or the protagonist Hillary Swank, have been recognized for their acting skills. Their movie has so many top actors participating; this is one of the reasons why it is so popular.
The latter of these two movies is a biopic of Howard Hughes, and it can also be said to be DiCaprio's transformational work - starting from this movie, he also ended his leisurely life this year and began to really take his acting career seriously. This movie is very powerful in terms of investment and cast, and it is one of the most highly regarded movies.
This movie can be said to be the biggest hit this year. Firstly, Howard Hughes is quite a legendary person, and secondly, the background of this story was an era of American movies, and it was also an era that was very popular with audiences. In addition, this movie also has many stars participating, and the lineup is huge, so it is also very popular.
It's just that the structure of this movie is not particularly outstanding. In the movie's second half, it can be said to be a bit loose. Moreover, although the actors in this movie are all good, they are not compared to the others. When evaluating acting skills, DiCaprio's status in people's minds is somewhat worse.
But it's embarrassing, in a sense. These are the only movies that really deserve attention this year, and although these movies are all good at the box office, they are far from real blockbusters. Compared with previous years, when large-scale art films were released every year, this year's situation seems completely different.
Of course, this does not mean that there are no other movies. In addition to these movies, there are several whose names are also relatively popular — for example, Ray, Finding Neverland, and others have also been popular. Both are biographical films, and such themes are inherently more popular. And the story of the musical genius and the author of Peter Pan is also very interesting.
These movies have also received a lot of praise, but compared to the previous three films, none of them are considered favorites to win, only films that can be nominated. However, it has received a lot of recognition in some other aspects.
For example, Ray - although there is nothing particularly outstanding about the movie itself, this biographical movie was released at the end of May; less than two weeks after its release, the protagonist of the movie, Ray Charles, died because of illness. His death made the movie very sad and resonated with more people.
Of course, this movie is not particularly outstanding, so it is unlikely to win an award for Best Picture. However, the star of this movie, Jamie Foxx, was personally appointed by Ray Charles to play himself, and he did show good acting skills when playing this character. When he works hard to win the Oscar for Best Actor, the death of Ray Charles can be regarded as a big bonus.
And the current media propaganda does exactly this. And because of this, there seems to be no controversy about this year's Oscar for Best Actor - the dead are the most important, and this principle is the same everywhere.
This kind of thing happens not once or twice in Hollywood: when a relevant character dies in a movie, with good publicity, people can gain sympathy points.
Ray is an example this time, and another example in the future is Heath Ledger. Although his acting skills are undeniable, it is difficult for him to win awards for acting in superhero movies.
However, he passed away at that time, so the crew immediately said that he died because he was too involved in the filming and could not get out of the character.
They wanted to win sympathy points for him - as for saying that he finished filming Batman, in fact, he also filmed other movies. The cause of death is suspected by many to be drug abuse or even drug overdose. There are rolled-up U.S. dollars at home - those are minor, don't worry about it...
Similarly, Bruce Lee was rumored to have died while practicing martial arts. Using dead people for publicity is not a big deal for this industry.
Everyone knows these things in their hearts. Privately, Levi and Alexander talked about this issue.
"For this year's movies, it can be said that Ray booked the best actor, and Million Dollar Baby booked the best actress. One relies on dead people, and the other relies on the role of the female protagonist. There is no way to compete for these."
In this regard, although on the surface, people expressed some sympathy and condolences when talking about the death of Ray Charles, in private, Alexander and Levi were not so polite when talking about it.
Levi even felt that Alexander was somewhat envious of dead people and felt a little regretful that the characters in his movies did not die...
He could understand this feeling. After all, it was very hard for Alexander to be responsible for public relations and award awards now. Seeing that the other party had such a purely natural advantage would inevitably lead to psychological discomfort, but this idea still seemed a bit strange to him.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Who made him catch up? Sometimes people's luck is always good." Levi couldn't help in this, "Anyway, Jamie Foxx did play the role. It's very good. It's not bad compared to Cuba Gooding Jr., so don't complain."
"I can admit defeat, but it would be awkward to admit defeat like this," Alexander muttered.
In fact, Cuba Gooding Jr. didn't have much hope for the performance award this time. Although he acted well, a black man playing a black man did not amaze everyone.
However, Jeff Bridges, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, has greater hopes than him, which is what Alexander needs to focus on.
"In terms of acting awards, this year we will help Bridges. In terms of directors, we will help you get nominated, but when it comes to winning awards, don't even think about it. As for the Best Picture, we will put more effort into it."
Alexander's said arrangements for the awards this time were similar to what Levi expected. This time, the award for best director still had nothing to do with him. Although he did a good job in the movie this time, and this year's movies are generally sluggish, it is not that easy for someone who has won two awards to win a third time.
"That's it, I think it's okay."
Levi didn't say anything, just smiled and let it go. However, he found that Alexander was not very interested in participating in the film's awards this time.
"That's how it was originally... I even have some doubts now about how important Oscar is."
Alexander also expressed his opinion on this, and Levi immediately knew what he was thinking.
As early as a few years ago, when technology advanced significantly, Levi knew that with the advancement of technology, there would be more and more high-tech movies, and more such movies would be popular, more and more people would follow technology. This trend has already emerged in the past few years, but Oscar has a fig leaf called Lord of the Rings to help them block this problem.
The Lord of the Rings is over this year, and the blockbuster movies are either Spider-Man or Shrek. It is naturally impossible for the Oscars to favor such movies, but not paying attention to them has also caused another embarrassment for the Oscars.
For the participating movies, the combined box office of several movies is not as high as that of a commercial film. Some people have even calculated that no matter how the nominated films are mentioned this year, the box office total will be the lowest since the 1990s - this situation makes those who participate in the film awards really unhappy.
Compared with the glory of the Oscars in previous years, this year's five movies are not as competitive as before. The biography of Ray Charles, the biography of the author of Peter Pan, the biography of Howard Hughes, and the movies made by Levi are all based on real life.
It is amazing that so many movies based on real-life movies have been released in one year. And four of the five nominations are in the biography category. This is almost like treating the Oscars as a review meeting for biographical films.
This situation is very bad, but if one doesn't make a biographical movie, what else can one make? As the box office gap becomes wider and wider, it will definitely be difficult to obtain investment for literary and artistic films. Who will focus their energy on this any more?
The era of blockbusters has arrived, investment in movies has increased, and movie income has also increased. However, for those literary films, this is not necessarily good news. As an award-winning institution, no matter how famous it is, it is impossible for the Oscars to compete with the general trend.
Technological development is a good thing for movies, but it's unclear whether it's good for the Oscars.
For Oscar, now they are facing embarrassment.
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Marcelo Maia
Britanna
Mandy G
Scott DePaepe
Oluwatimileyin Olayemi
Herylle Ian Gloria
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