A final thought about the Winlset win:
I love Kate Winslet. I think she's easily one of the finest actresses working over the past decade. I look forward to her every performance. But this particular performance winning her the best actress award encapsulates much of what opens the Oscars to criticism: It's not a revelatory piece of acting (no serious critics' group had her listed among the year's best). The win seemed based on career points, not individual achievement. Throw in that she did a foreign accent and wore alot of old-age make-up -- two utterly irrelevant elements that have contributed to many undeserved Oscars over the years. As for the film in which the performance took place -- it was drab and solemn, the worst stereotype of the Oscar Movie, and one that shamelessly evoked the historical event known to completely blind Oscar voters (a trend so embarrasingly obvious Winslet herself took part in a hilarious Ricky Gervais sketch mocking it).
All that said, let me play Pollaynna here for one moment. I've found something to be glad about.
What could that be? I'm glad that at least she wasn't nominated in the supporting category, as dictated by the campaign and dutifully followed by the Broadcasters, Globes and SAG. Had she been, I have no doubt voters would have chosen -- as they did at SAG -- to concentrate their voting on the second-tier category. Which would have meant that, in addition to the other problems catalogued above, Winslet's win would have also represented both category fraud (a clear lead parading as supporting) and big-star-slumming-in-support. The result of all this: Kate Winslet -- an actress I'd rate as easily among my all-time top five "must win someday" wishes -- would have a win that embraced every single thing that irks me about the Oscars. So, I'm going to try and be grateful that at least the last two elements were missing. And hope that one day she comes up with a performance like Penn's in Milk, that both deserves a win and gets it.
81st Oscars: Actress
-
Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
-
HarryGoldfarb
- Adjunct
- Posts: 1071
- Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 4:50 pm
- Location: Colombia
- Contact:
Maybe it wasn't Kidman's fault. Maybe it was the script that portrayed Woolf this way. I know what you mean, cause actually I've just met some people that don't want to read Mrs Dalloway based on their takes on that film. I, for that matter, loved both The Hours and Kidman's work, considering I don't buy everything a film tells about a character.Uri wrote:After watching The Hours, the danger is that one might conclude, from the way she was portrayed by that Eleonora Duse from Down Under, that Virginia Woolf was a comatose airhead and skip Orlando or To the Lighthouse in the public library. After watching The Reader, it's not out of the question, as we saw, for people to say – Hitler was monstrous villain who victimized millions – Jews, poor uneducated Germans, not to mention good heroic Nazis like Tom Cruise.
Kidman's performance was bad. Winslet's is morally wrong, as well as inadequate.
"If you place an object in a museum, does that make this object a piece of art?" - The Square (2017)
Kate Winslet's a taleeted actress, but she's lousy in The Reader and this is the worst movie ever to give up a Best Actress winner (ever Monsters Ball was not quite as bad).
I wouldn't go so far if only because there is something *in* The Reader that struggles to get out in a way that Monster's Ball cannot muster. But while I'm thrilled for Kate Winslet's moment (and it was quite a moment), she is so better than this. She is better than Halle Berry in Monster's Ball though. Winslet is a very different kind of inconsistent than Halle Berry. Winslet was lacking direction. Berry is just flailing like high school theater tryouts.
Edited By Sabin on 1235463019
"How's the despair?"
Also Marion Cotillard's companion. I was wondering why he was sitting so close and then I remembered this.Big Magilla wrote:Damien wrote:Penelope wrote:By the way, did anybody notice Guillaume Canet sitting right behind Meryl Streep? What a beautiful, beautiful man.
Pen, who is Guillaume Canet?
Actor-writer-director Tell No One, which I just happened to catch the other day. It's in my DVD Report to be posted tomorrow.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19336
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
It's beginning to sound too good to be true, and that may spell "flop" but I want to be optimistic about a film with that kind of pedigree.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
-
FilmFan720
- Emeritus
- Posts: 3650
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
- Location: Illinois
-
FilmFan720
- Emeritus
- Posts: 3650
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
- Location: Illinois
flipp525 wrote:FilmFan720 wrote:flipp525 wrote:Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren, all of whom co-presented the Best Actress Oscar, will all appear in Nine later this year.
And earlier they watched co-star Penelope Cruz win!
Damn, that cast is Oscared up, huh? Day-Lewis, Dench, Cotillard, Kidman, Cruz and Loren -- all Oscar winners.
Plus nominee Kate Hudson, directed by nominee Rob Marshall, written by nominee Michael Tolkin.
Edited By FilmFan720 on 1235408970
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
- Minor Myers, Jr.
- Minor Myers, Jr.
Damn, that cast is Oscared up, huh? Day-Lewis, Dench, Cotillard, Kidman, Cruz and Loren -- all Oscar winners.FilmFan720 wrote:flipp525 wrote:Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren, all of whom co-presented the Best Actress Oscar, will all appear in Nine later this year.
And earlier they watched co-star Penelope Cruz win!
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
By the way, did anybody notice Guillaume Canet sitting right behind Meryl Streep? What a beautiful, beautiful man.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
Odd that Sophia, Marion, Nicole and Penelope could get time away from Rome, but co-star Daniel Day-Lewis could not.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
-
FilmFan720
- Emeritus
- Posts: 3650
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
- Location: Illinois
flipp525 wrote:Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren, all of whom co-presented the Best Actress Oscar, will all appear in Nine later this year.
And earlier they watched co-star Penelope Cruz win!
Edited By FilmFan720 on 1235407555
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
- Minor Myers, Jr.
- Minor Myers, Jr.