Oscars
Local concerns first: having watched and awarded Spielzeugland myself last month when I was in the short film jury, I was thrilled to bits it won for best live action short film. Yay Jochen Freydank! (Also, the name of either movie or director isn't that difficult to pronounce, guys. Sheesh.)
Now, on to the big picture(s):
- Hugh Jackman singing was great fun whenever he did it, but that number with him as Frost and Anne Hathaway as Nixon was the best (and I agree with Shirley MacLaine; she has a good voice and needs to sing more)
- there was an incredible high percentage of British winners this night, am I right or am I right?
- hooray for both the Milk scriptwriter and Sean Penn bringing up Proposition 8; so important to point out the struggle is ongoing, and that people need to act now just as much as they did in Harvey Milk's lifetime
- speaking of the later, when they named Robert de Niro as one of the presenters for best actor I thought for sure it would be Mickey Rourke (because of the Angel Heart connection), so Sean Penn was a surprise after all, and a pleasant one (I so wanted Milk to get more than "just" one Oscar), and he gave a great speech (in its humour and matter-of-fact-ness contrast to Kate Winslet's openly emotional one; they just fit each of their personas, plus Penn's "you commie, homo-loving sons of guns" probably makes it on to icons within a day)
- Kate Winslet was adorable, and looked gorgeous; as someone who first saw her ages ago in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (long before Lord of the Rings made Jackson a household name) and then in Sense and Sensibility, I cheered when she thanked Peter Jackson and Emma Thompson; plus the whistling of her father was perfect; and she remembered to thank Bernhard Schlink (correctly pronounced), the author of the novel her film was based on, which gratifies the, no pun intended, reader in me!
Now, on to the big picture(s):
- Hugh Jackman singing was great fun whenever he did it, but that number with him as Frost and Anne Hathaway as Nixon was the best (and I agree with Shirley MacLaine; she has a good voice and needs to sing more)
- there was an incredible high percentage of British winners this night, am I right or am I right?
- hooray for both the Milk scriptwriter and Sean Penn bringing up Proposition 8; so important to point out the struggle is ongoing, and that people need to act now just as much as they did in Harvey Milk's lifetime
- speaking of the later, when they named Robert de Niro as one of the presenters for best actor I thought for sure it would be Mickey Rourke (because of the Angel Heart connection), so Sean Penn was a surprise after all, and a pleasant one (I so wanted Milk to get more than "just" one Oscar), and he gave a great speech (in its humour and matter-of-fact-ness contrast to Kate Winslet's openly emotional one; they just fit each of their personas, plus Penn's "you commie, homo-loving sons of guns" probably makes it on to icons within a day)
- Kate Winslet was adorable, and looked gorgeous; as someone who first saw her ages ago in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (long before Lord of the Rings made Jackson a household name) and then in Sense and Sensibility, I cheered when she thanked Peter Jackson and Emma Thompson; plus the whistling of her father was perfect; and she remembered to thank Bernhard Schlink (correctly pronounced), the author of the novel her film was based on, which gratifies the, no pun intended, reader in me!