ITALIANO wrote:But I know that I will suffer. A lot. And as we get into less recent years, I will suffer even more.
Silver lining: no more cartoons?
Yes but at least cartoons belong to a parallel world - I find it absurd that they can be taken seriously by anyone older than 10, but they are like extraterrestrials to me - I don't know them, I dont understand them, so I can't compare them to "real" movies.
But in the 60s and 70s especially, in these categories some great American and European movies were nominated, and I'm sure that they will lose here. Always.
I repeat: I love that we are doing the Screenplay awards. But I know that I will suffer. A lot. And as we get into less recent years, I will suffer even more. I will not explain why now - it will become more evident in the next weeks.
Anyway - Original is this time a very good selection. No doubts about it. These five movies are so diffeent that it's really difficult to compare them - but they are all well-written, and all, each in its own way, quite original, too. If I had to pick the LEAST deserving, it would probably be Bulltets Over Broadway, which isn't my favorite Woody Allen movie - but I mean, it's STILL a Woody Allen movie, and it has its moments. I know that Pulp Fiction will triumph here - and I must admit that it's an inventively written movie, and as American as an Andy Warhol work. I mean, we will see so many American atrocities win in this category in the next years that complaining when a GOOD American script wins would be wrong, and I won't make this mistake. Pulp Fiction is intelligent. It's also - let me say it - not exactly profound (and intentionally so), but again - it's intelligent. Still, my vote goes, unsurprisingly maybe, to Red, which is both intelligent and profound and (from my point of view a plus) very European. This is a movie with a soul - a Polish soul, and those who know Poland know what I mean. It is accessible, probably more than other Kieslowski movies, but it's also, at times, as intense, as nakedly emotiobal as, say, a Strindberg play (though of course it doesn't have anything to do with Strindberg and, more in general, with Scandinavian cosmic pessimism - it IS the work of a catholic after all). It's probably Kieslowski's best script after A Short Film about Love.
Adapted will be the triumph of another beloved American movie - and script: Forrest Gump. What can I say? It's obviously written by a professional, and clearly with "big box-office" in mind. I will even say that it provides an actor with a very strong leading role. But in general it's just too American, too conservative for my tastes. I mean, it's not like there are many nuch better alternatives, but there's at least one, the one I voted for - Nobody's Fool. There's so much affection, so much understanding, in this screenplay - affection and understanding for the rites and rhythms of small town life, and for characters who arent necessarily young and beautiful anymore, and have never been successful, but are real, feel real. Robert Benton is almost completely forgotten today, and it's true that his work as a writer and as writer-director has been often a compromise between truth and commerce - but he could be VERY good - and perceptive. I will always choose HIS America over Zemeckis' and Roth's America.
Last edited by ITALIANO on Sun Sep 28, 2014 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
1994 was an incredibly rich year for intelligent, well-written screenplays, so much so that it seems like carping to complain about anything that Oscar overlooked. All the same, one should at least recall the three films the Writers Guild nominated that the Academy did not.
They nominated Stephan Elliott's script for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Scott Alexander and Robet Karasnewski's script for Ed Wood in Original over and Three Colors: Red and critics' and Oscar favorite, Pulp Fiction . They also nominated Robin Swicord's script for Little Women over Nobody's Fool in Adapted. Personally I would have nominated Priscilla over fellow Aussies Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson's script for Heavenly Creatures and would have loved to see Ed Wood nominated as well in Original, but not over any of the other nominees. I might have nominated Little Women over The Madness of King George in Adapted, but not over Nobody's Fool.
Choosing winners in both categories is more difficult. I suspect Pulp Fiction will be the overwhelming winner here in Original, so it hardly needs my support. Bullets Over Broadway, the rare Woody Allen movie in which he shares credit with another writer, might be an easy pick in another year, but not this one. Red is brilliantly observed by the two Krysztofs, but it's not my favorite of the Colors - more on that when we get to 1993. My vote goes to the Guild winner, Four Weddings and a Funeral, still one of the best and funniest films ever to come out of Great Britain.
I probably like Forrest Gump more than most here, and although it gets my vote in Adapted, it was a close call between that and the brilliance of Paul Attanasio's literate script for Quiz Show. I'd be happy to see either one win here.
