I had a great time collaborating with Marc Istook, Amy Paffrath and Lindsey Calla on the Yahoo Movies video event:
Oscars Anonymous: True-Life Confession of an Academy Insider
“The Oscars? They’re bullshit!” laughed an eminence gris of the Screen Actors Guild and long-time Academy member. We were sitting opposite each other after a long, hard day of watching and judging movies at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. This white haired, white-grinned, white man north of seventy with the mischievous smirk was kidding, of course.
But not entirely.
Speaking anonymously, Actor X went on to ask (and I paraphrase because there’s nothing more gauche than pulling out your tape recorder at dinner after the red wine has been poured): how can you compare Cate Blanchett’s part in Woody Allen’s updated “Streetcar Named Desire” with Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County?”
What that question told me, in part, was that this actor of television, stage and screen knew his craft and had an independent turn of mind. He’d lived and seen a lot more Hollywood than I ever will. And, following his time at Santa Barbara he will be flying to New York to teach classes at one of Manhattan’s world-renown acting studios.
So, if this charming septuagenarian with the long listing on IMDB hadn’t bought the press machine’s denial that “Blue Jasmine” was a chip off one of Tennessee Williams’ greatest plays – and Blanche Dubois a character that Blanchett had recently played to raves at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York – maybe he was skeptical enough to make his own decisions about what makes an actor good, or great – or even best.
Actor X had an opinion on that, too. The Oscars are another example of how Americans’ obsession with quantifying the best, whether it’s the Super Bowl or hamburgers or performances.
Nor was Actor X checked out or out of touch. As a member of the SBIFF jury watching seventeen films from Latin American and Eastern Europe, he was jazzed by the movie that he and his wife (and fellow juror) had watched that day. He commented that foreign filmmakers were still making movies to realize their individual vision, not succumbing to the commercialism of Hollywood.
One takeaway: Never underestimate the “aging” Academy. There’s a lot of wisdom and experience there, something that I repeatedly come across as I make my way down the red carpet toward Oscar. This idea of senior, or simply experienced, Academy members having an independent turn of mind contradicts the common misconception that the Academy skews old and irrelevant. Is there a possibility that they skew old and wise, even as they invite newer and more diverse members into the elite fold of six thousand odd strong?
Following the jury dinner, the jury members meandered down State Street to the Arlington Theatre, one of a string of vintage movie houses. The night’s Outstanding Director Award Honoring David O. Russell was about to begin.
Later, as SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling interviewed Russell, Durling observed: “David’s style is controlled chaos.” I looked over my shoulder and saw Actor X nodding and laughing. As an Academy member who has worked with Russell, he knows that chaos. And he’s familiar with the unpredictability that defines the members of the Academy as they pick their best in that most American of obsessions.
Cue: Mischievous laugh of experience
Making Lists Gives me ‘Vertigo’
This is the first in a series of original posts that combine memoir and movies, but land strongly on the personal essay end of the spectrum. These intimate, highly subjective pieces will appear under the heading “Ten Movies That Shook My World.” Or Should it be 8 1/2?
Making Lists Gives me Vertigo
Vertigo was probably the last straw, a straw I would have set alight like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, a movie that means so much more to me, and that I’ve watched more than any other. When Sight & Sound’s “Top Fifty Greatest Films of All Time” – a Barnum & Bailey title if ever there was one — came out with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo on top like an intellectual cherry it included one solitary movie directed by a woman: Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman: 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
Mel Brooks could have captured my spit take on camera. That would have been an overreaction shot because I’ve almost (almost) become accustomed to a world where movie list-making is a sport like fantasy baseball. Nearly all these superlative lists reflect a bias toward men, and men trying to impress other men with their taste and intelligence.
Even if we began our fifty-finest list with Hitchcock, who I adore, I would have opted for my favorite, North By Northwest, or Rear Window. Or even Psycho, which viewers tend to remember for the Bates Motel shower scene and the sexually aberrant reveal. I admire its matter-of-fact mature opening in a cheap downtown L.A. hotel room with the adulterous affair of Janet Leigh and John Gavin in the bland light of a midday lunch hour.
All of this is to say that, although I’ve been a film critic for twenty years, and drafted my share of top-ten lists, I’ve always thought it was a bit of a load – but a load that got attention. There is no objective top ten, or fifty, or one hundred films. From what country – what about all the films from Egypt or India or that brilliant censored film from Kazakhstan that never crossed its borders? And films from what decade? And, of course, my personal province: from which gender?
This continued irritant, reading the Top Fifty Greatest Films of All Time (what, no Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep?), or the year-end lists of my colleagues at “The New Yorker” or “New York Magazine,” launched my more intimate, subjective journey. Really, most of us write from this place, but the ability to know one’s own bias, and write from one’s heart, through the lens of a passion for, and knowledge of film, is the province of the great ones, like Andrew Sarris, or Molly Haskell, or B Ruby Rich or David Rooney or Stephen Holden. [Read more…]
Oscarologist Credo – Post 2
A fine bromance? Not!
Never call the race before the Oscar nominations.
Sure, “12 Years a Slave” came out of TIFF13 and Telluride twelve years ahead of the pack but there are any number of movies yet to be seen in America, like “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “The Monuments Men,” and “Foxcatcher” — to name a few.
Steve Pond over at The Wrap has already submitted 5 reasons why “12 Years a Slave” isn’t an Oscar lock. The primary reason is Credo #2: it’s too damn early. As Pond says, it’s a marathon not a sprint. Agreed.
Here are a few examples of movies that pulled out strong and lost the race:
2013: “Zero Dark Thirty” loses to “Argo”
2012: “The Descendants” loses to “The Artist”
2011: “Black Swan” and “The Fighter” lose to “The King’s Speech”
Shakespeare in Like — an upset at the Oscars
Relatively famous upsets: “Crash” trumps “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and “Shakespeare in Love” spikes “Saving Private Ryan” (1998).
Do you have any other famous examples to share to expand this post? Or other Oscarologist Credos for future posts?
Adams on Reel Women: Oscar winner Streep asks, ‘Why don’t they want the money?’
Where the girls are: Rudolph, Wiig, Streep, Stone
Earlier this month, Meryl Streep talked numbers at the Women in Film Lucy & Crystal Awards. To paraphrase her point, there were five movies over five years — “The Help” (2011) “Bridesmaids” (2011), “The Iron Lady” (2011), “Mamma Mia!” (2008), and “The Devil Wears Prada” (2008) — that earned a collective $1.6 billion for Hollywood. True, she starred in three of them, but if they had been cop movies, zombie thrillers, or Westerns, there would be a stream of films trying to cash in on the women’s market. So Streep’s question — “Why don’t studios want the money?” — hangs heavy in the air.
TV Writer Nell Scovell (“Warehouse 13,” “Monk”) had the most straightforward answer: “They want the money but don’t want to give women the power. It’s a conundrum.”
Animator Signe Baumane responded: “I think Hollywood is stuck in the notion that only 21-year-old men go to movies. The New Yorker article on Ben Stiller says that much too. Big studios are like big animals, they can’t adapt to small changes quickly, but small changes accumulate into BIG ones before soon.”
We hope so. In the meantime, where do we stand?
[Related: Adams on Reel Women: Director Lynn Shelton talks Emily Blunt and ‘Mad Men’]
Those five movies are just the tip of the iceberg
If you add in the year’s top grosser, “The Hunger Games,” and the movies from “The Twilight Saga,” that earnings number grows exponentially. Then there’s a surprise hit like “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” which grossed approximately $38 million domestically and $121 million internationally on the backs of Judi Dench and Maggie Smith (anybody who’s watched TV’s “Downton Abbey,” starring Smith as the dowager matriarch who speaks her very sharp mind, wouldn’t be surprised). Add in the gushy Nicholas Sparks drama “The Vow” with Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, and there’s another 2012 film that hosed up $194 million globally, following on other films in the successful Sparks franchise (“The Notebook,” “Dear John”), which have frugal production budgets and easily earn out theatrically. Toss in the female-dominated action franchises like Kate Beckinsale’s “Underworld” ($459 million worldwide) and Milla Jovovich’s “Resident Evil” ($675 million worldwide) and the money grows. You, readers, can probably add more to this list.
One answer: The demographics within Hollywood
When it comes to green-lighting films in Hollywood, women don’t have their hands on the switch — and those who do tend to be part of a male scrum. They made it to the top by assimilating into the male studio culture, not by rebelling against it. On the production side, a San Diego State University study last year found that among writers, directors, editors, cinematographers, producers, and executive producers, the division of labor was 82 percent men and 18 percent women. The disconnect is that the audiences do not reflect that same split. The gap between 18 percent and 51 percent is a red flag. Serving that market has a huge profit potential. Healthy industries should be constantly seeking growth, and this is an underserved market.
Another answer: The power of critics as gatekeepers
The critics function as gatekeepers — telling readers what to see and what to skip. Guess what? Men dominate that arena, too. That’s why we’ve seen Michael Cera lose his virginity so many times in coming-of-age comedies and there were so many inexplicably positive reviews for “The Three Stooges.” A San Diego State study based on 100 newspapers, in 2007, concluded that men dominate movie criticism in a way that echoes male dominance behind the screen. In a study conducted by Martha M. Lauzen at the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, 77 percent of film critics are male. As a female member of the New York Film Critics Circle, which includes newspaper, magazine, and online critics, I’ve always been a fortunate minority. According to our website (www.nyfcc.com), there are 31 members, including the late Andrew Sarris. Of that number, seven (or 23 percent) are female — and that’s considerable growth since I joined the organization in 1995.
One solution: Women, vote with your box-office dollars:
Go see “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” or Streep’s upcoming middle-age marriage comedy, “Hope Springs,” or the cluster of microbudgeted and intensely satisfying movies like Lynn Shelton’s “Your Sister’s Sister”; Sarah Polley’s “Take This Waltz” (opening Friday); or Nancy Savoca’s “Union Square” (opening July 13). If we build the audience, the product will come — and it will come from a variety of sources, small and large.
Another solution: Women, make movies
Meryl Streep joined with director Phyllida Lloyd to make “Mamma Mia!” and “The Iron Lady.” She voted with her box-office clout. This is what Mira Sorvino is doing with “Union Square,” Emily Blunt with “Your Sister’s Sister,” and Drew Barrymore with her underrated movie “Whip It!”
And another solution: Opening-weekend grosses are not king, er, queen
Let’s ignore Hollywood’s obsession with opening-weekend numbers and echo models like that of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” building the female audiences one movie and one weekend at a time. Carla Stockton, editor in chief of Dapt’d, explained: “Women, especially women in the next-up age brackets, are more likely to weigh critics’ reviews, friends’ word of mouth, etc., and they will wait to see the film till it’s been out awhile. Too much focus, it seems, gets placed on opening weekend. So, while the industry is aware that we want films with strong women’s POV, it is intimidated by the pressure of first weekend from delving too deeply into that fountain. I also think we writers must persevere in creating more, better, stronger, more compelling women for stage and screen.”
[Related: ‘To Rome With Love’ star Greta Gerwig is wild about Woody Allen — just read her high school yearbook]
I’m definitely with Carla: We’re listening, and we’re going to be writing, producing, and directing the movies we want to see — and supporting them in print. And when one person speaks out, like Streep did, we’ll rally around her, until our voices are heard.
And there’s some reason for optimism. According to USA Today’s Susan Wloszczyna: “I think much like Snow White, they are slowly waking up to the fact that if you please them, women will show up in hordes, and even for more than one viewing. I was astonished and gratified that ‘Snow White and the Huntsman,’ which is essentially an action film with two female leads, did so well. How often does that happen? And even Pixar finally woke up and smelled the estrogen with “Brave.” There is movement afoot. The female screenwriting ranks have been growing, and now there just needs to be more female directors doing big studio films.”
See the trailer for ‘Brave’:
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