MADness—the Blog

The Golden Globes were tonight.  The big winner was Avatar, picking up Best Film (Drama) and Best Director honors for James Cameron.  Perhaps a surprise, since the film had not won top honors with any of the big critics’ groups this season.  But the Hollywood Foreign Press typically has a soft spot for what’s popular at the box office more than what’s popular with critics, and the Avatar phenomenon is something no one has seen before.  Through this weekend, Avatar has taken in $1.6 billion worldwide, The Hurt Locker $16 million.  Not really a surprise after all.

I was pleased to see Jeff Bridges win for Crazy Heart, a film I haven’t yet seen (but will soon).  He’s been one of the great actors over the past four decades.  He’s been nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes before, though he hasn’t won till tonight.  If this is his year, and even if there’s some “career achievement” voting involved, who will complain?

Martin Scorsese, center, with his bodyguards.

The highlight of the show, from my perspective, was Martin Scorsese accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his ”outstanding contribution to the entertainment field.”  He is our greatest living director, a national treasure.  I hope that in the weeks and months ahead I get to say half as much as he said in his three-and-a-half minute acceptance speech.  (He is hereby the first recipient of the Key to the MAD About Movies website.  Anytime he wants, he’s welcome to drop by, have a drink, and let us in on whatever’s on his mind.)

The round-up of tonight’s awards are below, and in case you’re having trouble (like me) keeping up with all the honors handed out this season, other recent awards are listed also.

The Oscar noms are due in a couple of weeks, and the awards will be presented the first Sunday of March.  Everyone in the running is obliged to say, “Awards don’t really matter,” or “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” but don’t you believe them.  The race is on.

Golden Globes
Best Film (Drama):  Avatar
Best Film (Musical/Comedy):  The Hangover
Best Actor (Drama):  Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actor (Musical/Comedy):  Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Best Actress (Drama):  Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Best Actress (Musical/Comedy):  Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Supporting Actor:  Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  James Cameron, Avatar
Best Screenplay:  Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Foreign Language Film:  The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte) (Germany/Austria)
Best Animated Film:  Up

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
Best Film:  The Hurt Locker
Best Actor:  Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Best Actress:  Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Supporting Actor:  Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay:  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Best Foreign Language Film:  Summer Hours (L’heure d’été) (France)
Best Animated Film:  Up

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (Critics’ Choice Awards)
Best Film:  The Hurt Locker
Best Actor:  Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress:  Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia; Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actor:  Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay (Original):  Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Screenplay (Adapted):  Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Foreign Language Film:  Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos) (Spain)
Best Animated Feature:  Up
[Best Kiss:  Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock]

Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
Best Film:  The Hurt Locker
Best Actor:  Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Best Actress:  Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Supporting Actor:  Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay (Original):  Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay (Adapted):  Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Foreign Language Film:  The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte) (Germany/Austria)
Best Animated Feature:  Up

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
Best Film:  The Hurt Locker
Best Actor:  Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress:  Yolande Moreau, Séraphine
Best Supporting Actor:  Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay:  Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Foreign Language Film:  Summer Hours (L’heure d’été) (France)
Best Animation:  Fantastic Mr. Fox

National Board of Review Awards
Best Film:  Up in the Air
Best Actors:  Morgan Freeman, Invictus; George Clooney, Up in the Air
Best Actress:  Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Supporting Actor:  Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Best Supporting Actress:  Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Best Director:  Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Best Screenplay (Original):  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Best Screenplay (Adapted):  Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Foreign Language Film:  A Prophet (Un prophète) (France)
Best Animated Feature:  Up

National Society of Film Critics Awards
Best Film:  The Hurt Locker
Best Actor:  Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Best Actress:  Yolande Moreau, Séraphine
Best Supporting Actors:  Paul Schneider, Bright Star; Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay:  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Best Foreign Language Film:  Summer Hours (L’heure d’été) (France)

New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Best Film:  Up in the Air
Best Actor:  George Clooney, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up in the Air
Best Actress:  Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Supporting Actor:  Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress:  Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Director:  Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Screenplay:  Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche, In the Loop
Best Foreign Film:  Summer Hours (L’heure d’été) (France)
Best Animated Film:  Fantastic Mr. Fox

The award season continues.  Here’s some of what’s still ahead:

January
21:  BAFTA Nominations
23:  Screen Actor Guild Awards
24:  Producers Guild Awards
30:  Directors Guild Awards

February
02:  Academy Award Nominations
20:  Writers Guild Awards
21:  BAFTA Awards

March
05:  Independent Spirit Awards
07:  Academy Awards

I don’t imagine this will get Streep and Bullock disinvited to any Good Morning America appearances.

In other news, another best pic award for The Hurt Locker.  It’s feeling to me like the film of the year come Oscar time.

This post’s title is the title of an article in The Envelope at the L.A. Times on Wednesday.  I read the article in the paper at breakfast, but inexplicably it’s not to be found online.  Perhaps there was an oversight, or perhaps the editors had second thoughts and wished they had killed the dead-tree version too.

Writer Glenn Whipp starts with speculation about the change this year in Oscar rules that will allow ten Best Picture nominations.  Which films will benefit from the extra slots?  Sci-fi films?  Comedies?  Animated films?  So far, he’s on solid (though well-trod) ground.  Then he goes on to write one of the more spectacularly silly sentences you’ll read all Oscar season:

The more intriguing question is whether it will mean more inclusion for Oscar’s most overlooked genre:  movies that appeal to conservatives.

I admit that I never had thought of “movies that appeal to conservatives” as a genre before.  I guess I missed that page at Netflix.  Some of those other “genres” such as foreign films and documentaries must be thankful for all the Best Picture attention they’ve been getting.  It would be an awful feeling to be the “most overlooked.”

Whipp goes on to name a few Oscar contenders that “could be seen as a patriot act” (which is hardly good grammar, but worse, it’s a tip-off to some insidious assumptions he’s making).  He also names some past Best Picture nominees that “could“ (his italics) be considered Red State films (which would then refute his assertion that they are the “most overlooked genre,” but logic is a lot to ask, I suppose).

What bugs me most, however, are those typical, tired assumptions that Whipp makes about what’s conservative—and the implicit assumptions that means for what’s liberal.  It’s bad enough when we have to endure this kind of stupidity on the op-ed page, but why is it now in the movie section too?

Some examples:

Juno.  Why he thinks it’s conservative:  “Teen girl has sex (!), gets pregnant…decides to have baby.  (Yay!)”  What he implies about liberals:  They don’t like babies—they like abortions!  (Baby killers!)

Braveheart.  Why he thinks it’s conservative:  “Freeeeeeeeeeedom!  It’s worth dying for.”  What he implies about liberals:  Wimps!  They deserve to be in chains.

Forrest Gump.  Why he thinks it’s conservative:  “Simple but big-hearted doofus rejects the ’60s, embraces God, country and free enterprise.”  What he implies about liberals:  Those losers just don’t have the “Gump”-tion.

The Lives of Others.  Why he thinks it’s conservative:  “Its indictment of Soviet-era communism.”  What he implies about liberals:  Pinkos who support the Stasi and totalitarian police states.

You get the idea.  Wrong in so many ways.  One thing I can agree with, though:  the title.  The whole article had me in a red state of mind.

I just heard President Obama on the radio describe the Haiti earthquake at “truly heart-wrenching.”  I wouldn’t have even noticed his word choice except that just yesterday I was looking at this very page.

A trivial matter in light of the devastation in Haiti.  If you want to help the Haitian people, who desperately need all the support they can get right now, here’s one option:

Wyclef Jean’s foundation www.Yele.org (or you can text “Yele” to 501501 from your cell phone to make a $5 donation to the Yelé Haiti Earthquake Fund).

MAD Puzzle No. 2 has arrived. 

Where do you find it?  At the Puzzles page, of course.

O-Lan lives!  Luise Rainer was the first to win two acting Oscars, and one of only two actresses (with Katharine Hepburn) to win two consecutively.

I didn’t realize she’s still with us.  She lives in London:

And so she reads, and watches films, and time passes. She bought herself a laptop, ”because it looked lovely’’, but she does not know how to use it. ”When you lose your curiosity, you’re dead,” she says. ”There is so much in the world that one should know, or it would be marvellous to know. And I know nothing. Nothing!’’ She sighs. “My God, one’s life-span is so very short.”

“So very short”…and she’s 100!  Happy Birthday, Luise.

Conan O’Brien:

I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show.

Nicely put, Conan.  NBC, you’ve got a problem:

The Internet has voted, and it’s supporting Conan O’Brien in his struggle against NBC.

The Tonight Show debacle of 2010 is getting more interesting than the battle between Leno and Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson.  I was lucky to grow up with Carson at the desk.  No one has come close to replacing him.  I don’t have strong feelings about O’Brien vs. Leno (I tend to watch Letterman if I’m up at that hour), but it’s sad to see what NBC is doing to the Tonight Show.  They couldn’t have screwed this up more royally.

One personal note:  I made a Tonight Show-themed crossword puzzle that ran in the N.Y. Times last June 1, Conan’s first day, with all five hosts’ names in the grid.  Back in April 2006, I had a puzzle called “The 600 Club” published in the N.Y. Sun.  It had a baseball theme and included the names of all four sluggers (at the time) who had 600 or more home runs (Ruth, Mays, Aaron, and Bonds).  (It also had a diagonal 28-letter theme answer that followed the shape of a baseball diamond.  That felt like a novel idea at the time, though we seem to get one of those every year now.)  The Sun puzzle was out of date 14 months later, after Sammy Sosa returned from his year off and hit number 600.  (Ken Griffey joined the club a year later.  A-Rod is due next.)  It appears that my Tonight Show puzzle will set a new personal record for shortest shelf life.  I can’t say I saw that one coming.

George Clooney accepted his New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actor of 2009, for his work in Up in the Air and Fantastic Mr. Fox, on Monday.

Gracious:

I’m also very aware of the fact that it took me two films to win this award. So I’d like to thank Jeremy Renner…for only doing one film this year.

Biting:

It is a high-water mark for me tonight, because of all the films that I have starred in, this is the first film that your colleague, Rex Reed, hasn’t said that I suck.  Where is he?  I know, I get it, I understand.  When I say suck, you can look it up, it says I suck.  Every one — ‘Michael Clayton,’ ‘Out of Sight,’ ‘Three Kings,’ you go down the list — I suck.

[...]

Now he’s started to soften a little bit. He’s starting to get a little soft in his old age. I want you to know, Rex, wherever you are, you’re over there somewhere, there he is, ah. I want you to know this:  I will not sleep, I will not rest, I will not sleep at my home, [or] at my villa in Italy — Lake Como, Italy.  I will not sleep in my villa in Lake Como, Italy, until you’re happy.

The guy can give a speech.

Eric Rohmer has died.  He was 89.  He was a leading figure of the New Wave, as a critic, a writer, and a director.  He’s probably best known for his ”Six Moral Tales” films, including My Night at Maud’s (1969), Claire’s Knee (1970), and Love in the Afternoon (1972).

In Rohmer’s films, people talked.  They talked a lot.  It’s true that people also talked a lot in films from other directors, such as Joseph Mankiewicz, but the talk was different.  “Talky” films tend to be stagy, or literary, whether intentionally or not.  The talk in a Rohmer film was conversational, intimate, and engaging.

The conversations in Rohmer’s films ranged from the profound to the mundane.  His characters were articulate, yet still had trouble understanding one another, and sometimes themselves.  There was not a lot of action.  But there was suspense.  Rohmer was less interested in what people did than what was on their mind.  His films were about human relationships.  For Rohmer, that was enough.

Scusilo, Signore De Sica.  I realize it’s heresy to say this, but I think you got it wrong.

Kenneth Turan wrote a review of The Bicycle Thiefon Friday.  (It’s about time, Ken.)  Actually, the occasion is the screening of the new print of De Sica’s 1948 classic at Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills.  I was surprised to see the film called The Bicycle Thief, but that’s what Turan called it in the L.A. Times and what Laemmle’s is calling it too.  I’m curious if the translation for the 60th anniversary print has it the same way.

I thought everyone was calling the film Bicycle Thieves now, especially since the Criterion edition a few years ago.  Bicycle Thievesis the “right” title, of course, for anyone translating De Sica’s Italian title Ladri di Biciclette, with both Ladri and Biciclette being plural.  (In the original, Biciclette isn’t capitalized, but when not in Rome, no need to do what the Romans do.)

I first saw it years ago, when people still called it The Bicycle Thief.  Watching the film, I couldn’t help but wonder why that was the title.  There’s a stolen bicycle, of course, but “the bicycle thief” hardly appears.  The story is about Antonio and his family, who no doubt suffer from what the bicycle thief has done.  The title seemed odd.  Then there is that sad and poignant twist at the end, and it seemed to all make sense.  Yes, The Bicycle Thief!  The title was a brilliant stroke, I thought.  How fitting.

The film deserves all the praise it’s received over the years, whatever the title.  It was the number one film of all time on the first of Sight & Sound’s decennial polls.  (Citizen Kanehas been tops ever since.)  I have no problem at all with De Sica’s status as a demigod.  But I don’t think the Bicycle Thieves title works quite as well.  I like the singular.

Maybe De Sica should have just called it Antonio’s Big Adventure.