Oscar Results

My streak has been ended. For the past five to six years I have won, maybe a tie somewhere in there, but this year my wife won. Here are some interesting statistics:

92% is the combined correct picks, between us we got 22 out of 24 correct. The two we missed Best Editing and Live Action Short Film;

83% was what my wife got, 20 out of 24;

67% was my score, 16 out of 24.

Here is a breakdown of each category.

Visual Effects
Chris - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Adam - Hugo
Winner - Hugo
Adam - 1
Chris - 0

This is one of the few that I got right that my wife didn't. My guess of Hugo winning the technical awards payed off.

Sound Mixing
Chris - Hugo
Adam - Hugo
Winner - Hugo
Adam - 2
Chris -1

Another of the five technical awards won by Hugo.

Sound Editing
Chris - Hugo
Adam - Hugo
Winner - Hugo
Adam - 3
Chris - 2

Looking pretty smart, ain't I? S-M-R-T!

Cinematography
Chris - Hugo
Adam - Hugo
Winner - Hugo
Adam - 4
Chris - 3

From what I've seen, this is going to be a very enjoyable film to watch.

Makeup
Chris - The Iron Lady
Adam - Albert Nobbs
Winner - The Iron Lady
Adam - 4
Chris - 4

This is one of the first gambles that I made that didn't work out.

Costume Design
Chris - Hugo
Adam - The Artist
Winner - The Artist
Adam - 5
Chris - 4

This gamble paid off, my theory was that The Artist will win most of the categories it's running for.

Art Direction
Chris - Hugo
Adam - The Artist
Winner - Hugo
Adam - 5
Chris - 5

This was a toss up, but one of the many technical ones that Hugo won. I was right on Costume Design, wrong on this one.

Film Editing
Chris - The Artist
Adam - The Artist
Winner - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Adam - 5
Chris - 5

What the? This is one of two that neither of us would have guessed. That includes the two guys who won the award. My only guess is that they wanted this film to get some recognition so this was the one award. They were the same ones who won last year for The Social Network, maybe they are in good with their crowd.

Music Original Song
Chris - The Muppets
Adam - The Muppets
Winner - The Muppets
Adam - 6
Chris - 6

Like I said, who is going to vote against The Muppets. Watching the two nominees my wife commented after they showed the song from Rio that it couldn't lose enough.

Music Original Score
Chris - The Artist
Adam - The Artist
Winner - The Artist
Adam - 7
Chris - 7

No-brainer on this one, it's a silent movie.

Writing Adapted Screenplay
Chris - The Descendants
Adam - The Descendants
Winner - The Descendants
Adam - 8
Chris - 8

I called this one, it was rather obvious. People wanted to recognize the film, this is one award that is commonly used. And I was right, it was the only award the film won all night.

Writing Original Screenplay
Chris - Midnight In Paris
Adam - Midnight In Paris
Winner - Midnight In Paris
Adam - 9
Chris - 9

I was glad to see this since Woody Allen is one of the greatest comedic filmmakers of all time. And of course, he wasn't there.

Short Film Animated
Chris - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Adam - La Luna
Winner - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Adam - 9
Chris - 10

These awards I consider to be the wild cards. There is no real way to know who will win unless you have seen all of the films and are involved in this community. Otherwise it is a pure guess and one I wasn't lucky on.

Short Film Live Action
Chris - Tuba Atlantic
Adam - Raju
Winner - The Shore
Adam - 9
Chris - 10

The only other category that neither of us was able to get right.

Documentary Short Subject
Chris - Saving Face
Adam - Incident in New Baghdad
Winner - Saving Face
Adam - 9
Chris - 11

Maybe I should have researched these a bit, but still they are a lottery and I guessed wrong. I've been lucky in the past, this year it went to my wife.

Best Animated
Chris - Rango
Adam - Rango
Winner - Rango
Adam - 10
Chris - 12

Back in the winning momentum, but still two behind my wife.

Best Documentary
Chris - Undefeated
Adam - Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Winner - Undefeated
Adam - 10
Chris - 13

Now I am in trouble, this is the last of the wild cards and I was 0 for 4, the wife was 3 for 4.

Best Foreign Language
Chris - A Separation
Adam - A Separation
Winner - A Separation
Adam - 11
Chris - 14

Not much of a surprise here. Of course seeing the new Rassmussen polls we should be at war with Iran by the end of the week.

Best Supporting Actress
Chris - Octavia Spencer
Adam - Octavia Spencer
Winner - Octavia Spencer
Adam - 12
Chris - 15

Everyone knew this, if you didn't I would like to sell you a bridge.

Best Supporting Actor
Chris - Christopher Plummer
Adam - Christopher Plummer
Winner - Christopher Plummer
Adam - 13
Chris - 16

Would you like to buy a second bridge?

Best Actress
Chris - Meryl Streep
Adam - Viola Davis
Winner - Meryl Streep
Adam - 13
Chris - 17

This is the empty net goal. I had a feeling that I may be losing and would need a desperate attempt to try and tie or pull ahead at the end.

Best Actor
Chris - Jean Dujardin
Adam - Jean Dujardin
Winner - Jean Dujardin
Adam - 14
Chris - 18

Getting towards the end and it's looking all The Artists from here on.

Best Director
Chris - Michel Hazanavicius
Adam - Michel Hazanavicius
Winner - Michel Hazanavicius
Adam - 15
Chris - 19

The fourth out of five, rather obvious.

Best Picture
Chris - The Artist
Adam - The Artist
Winner - The Artist
Adam - 16
Chris -20

And the 84th best picture is The Artist.

Picks for the 2011 Oscars

Normally my wife and I have our annual death match when it comes to picking the Oscars. This year she printed my ballot with her picks already there. This avoids the controversy many years ago when she looked at my ballot just before they started, erased her picks, copied mine and won. This is why I wouldn't show my picks until a few minutes before the Oscars started and would agree not to change our choices.

So here is what each of us will be rooting for, starting with the lower tier of course.

Visual Effects
Chris - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Adam - Hugo

I have heard that Rise of the Planet of the Apes has amazing effects, but I think Hugo will win all of the technical awards. And you will see that we have picked many of the same films in most categories so I have to differentiate occasionally.

Sound Mixing
Chris - Hugo
Adam - Hugo

As I said on the previous award I am sticking with Hugo.

Sound Editing
Chris - Hugo
Adam - Hugo

Technical award, go with Hugo.

Cinematography
Chris - Hugo
Adam - Hugo

Another technical award, in my opinion, so again I'm going with Hugo.

Makeup
Chris - The Iron Lady
Adam - Albert Nobbs

I can see why The Iron Lady was nominated, Meryl Streep really looks like Margaret Thacher. But Albert Nobbs made Glenn Close look like a man. Only three nominated so one of us is right or we both lose.

Costume Design
Chris - Hugo
Adam - The Artist

This could be a toss up, but I think the Artist will win in almost every category it's nominated in.

Art Direction
Chris - Hugo
Adam - The Artist

At this pace one of us will be way into the lead or both desperately tied.

Film Editing
Chris - The Artist
Adam - The Artist

If you think a movie is going to win best picture, it's probably going to win film editing too.

Music Original Song
Chris - The Muppets
Adam - The Muppets

There were only two songs nominated and one of them is from The Muppets. Who would you vote for?

Music Original Score
Chris - The Artist
Adam - The Artist

If The Artist only wins one award it has to be this one. Hello, it's a silent movie! You have to have a good score.

Writing Adapted Screenplay
Chris - The Descendants
Adam - The Descendants

I think this will be the only award The Descendants will win. It's one of the biggest movies of the year but I think will lose in every other category and people don't want it to go away empty handed.

Writing Original Screenplay
Chris - Midnight In Paris
Adam - Midnight In Paris

Woody Allen is long overdue for another Oscar, and even though he won't be there, the buzz is that he is a shoe in for winning it.

Short Film Animated
Chris - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Adam - La Luna

No idea who will win, just a pure guess. There is no way to know who will win these, these awards are the wild cards. So I picked a different film to try and move ahead.

Short Film Live Action
Chris - Tuba Atlantic
Adam - Raju

I would have picked Tuba Atlantic because the name sounds so cool, so I had to settle for Raju. Again just a blind guess.

Documentary Short Subject
Chris - Saving Face
Adam - Incident in New Baghdad

No research done on this, so my guess is that something involving Iraq should get enough votes.

Best Animated
Chris - Rango
Adam - Rango

In a year with no Pixar films, this one seems to be the one mentioned the most likely to win.

Best Documentary
Chris - Undefeated
Adam - Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Besides having the coolest name of the other nominees, I fell asleep watching the Documentary Channel the other day. Just before I nodded off I saw the director of this movie being asked a question or something. Or did I dream that?

Best Foreign Language
Chris - A Separation
Adam - A Separation

I've heard that this is the one to beat. It's from Iran and seeing how our President will most likely declare war on Iran sometime in September when he is polling behind the Republican nominee, it's a good shot to win.

Best Supporting Actress
Chris - Octavia Spencer
Adam - Octavia Spencer

This is one of the most obvious ones to pick, she has won every award so far.

Best Supporting Actor
Chris - Christopher Plummer
Adam - Christopher Plummer

This is the other most obvious one to pick. I don't think he has ever won before so this will be more of a lifetime achievement award.

Best Actress
Chris - Meryl Streep
Adam - Viola Davis

I could be wrong here, but The Help is a very popular movie and it won't win much besides Best Supporting Actress.

Best Actor
Chris - Jean Dujardin
Adam - Jean Dujardin

The Artist will win the big awards, he won the Golden Globe, and most of all he was terrific.

Best Director
Chris - Michel Hazanavicius
Adam - Michel Hazanavicius

The Artist once again, although I have heard rumors of Martin Scorseese.

Best Picture
Chris - The Artist
Adam - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, just kidding, The Artist

The first time since 1960 a full black and white film will win and the first since 1928 for a silent film to win. That and I have already seen it. And I won't need to reorder my academy award list since it is in alphabetical order. Oh yea, and it's a great movie.

Is it necessary to see a silent film in a THX theater?

Saw The Artist this weekend in the theater that had THX sound. The music was good (translation: loud) but the moments of silence sounded just like silence! Besides going to the wonderful Cornelius 9 theater, got to see a bunch of movies this weekend.

The Artist (2011) - This is a great movie. Done in the style of a classic silent film, it's about an actor who doesn't want to accept that sound is replacing silent movies. It is also a throwback to the classic film era with touches of A Star is Born, Asta from the Thin Man series and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I'm sure there are many others, I'll need to watch it again closer to find more references.

Will this film win best picture? I hope so for a number of reasons. Besides it being the top runner currently and I plan on picking it on my ballot (see this post for an explaination), I hope that it will get people to become more interested in older films from the 1930's and the silent era. That and it would only be the second time that I saw a film that won best picture in the theater before it won, last time 1988.

Cleopatra (1934) -The Cecil B. DeMille epic with Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra. The old story of Julius Ceasar saving the queen after concurring Egypt and then tries to marry her. Just before the wedding he goes to a knife party, but since he is the last to arrive the party goers follow tradition and stab him to death. Mark Anthony, angry that he wasn't invited, blames Cleopatra, wants to kill her, instead falls in love with her, goes back to Egypt and then tries to fight the entire Roman army himself. He comes very close, no not really, and Cleopatra allows her pet snake to bite her. This was told in about an hour and forty minutes, seventeen hours less than the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remake about thirty years later.

A grand film, done well for the time. Today you would have more special effects and more elaborate sets, but enjoyable, much more than the remake. Not as good as It Happened One Night, but good enough to be in the top twelve.

Black Swan (2010) - About every thirty years a film with ballet in the storyline gets nominated (Red Shoes 1948, The Turning Point 1977) so I would get ready in about 2039 for the next ballet film to be nominated. More of a suspense film about a dancer getting the lead role in Swan Lake and her losing her mind trying to get ready for the part. Has elements of American Psycho where you are not sure what is reality or fantasy, but doesn't leave it up to the viewer which in a way weakens the film. Natalie Portman was exceptional and earned the best actress award.

I heard that this film wasn't very good, I would disagree. It wasn't as bad as 127 Hours but not as good as The Kings Speech.

The Lion in the Winter (1968) - A story about a disfunctional family getting together for Christmas. The twist is that it is 1183 and the family is King Henry II's. He allows his wife out of jail to see the King of France and invites his three sons who are all vying for being the next king. Epic style drama, drags a bit, good screenplay and strong acting. Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn who won half best actress, Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton's first film.

Since I have seen all films from 1968 now I can give a final analysis. I saw Oliver when I was a teenager so it's not fresh in my memory as some of the other movies from this year. But seeing how it was a musical and awarded in a socially tough time, I can see why it won. In a tie for second would be The Lion in the Winter since it has epic quality and Rachel Rachel since it was the standard of what would win during the 1970's. Romeo and Juliet is in fourth place because you can't put Shakespeare in last place, and Fanny last.

Viva Villa (1934) - Wallace Berry as Pancho Villa, it doesn't get better than this. Not sure how accurate but he plays the part like he was the John Gotti of Mexico. The story of how he took his bandits and fought in the Mexican Revolution, how he had to flee to Texas and then how he came back to overthrow the government once again.

No comparison to It Happened One Night, but very enjoyable.

The Gay Divorcee (1934) - Whole lotta of 1934 going on this weekend and this is film 375. Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, the cast of regulars, typical story of mistaken identity. And they always find a way to get Fred Astaire to dance, just like a Jim Brown film always found a way to get him to run. Not much on plot but a grand musical that I like to call escape from the failing of the Roosevelt economic policies.

A good film, good enough to be part of the top twelve, not good enough to bump off It Happened One Night.

I wonder how many times did Gene Kelly accidently step on the mouse during rehearsals?

Of course Jerry aka Itchy has had worse from Tom aka Scratchy, so I'm sure he was a professional. Along with Anchors Aweigh I also saw Love is a Many-Splendored Thing and finally getting me back to 75% after adding this years nine movies dropped me down by two percent.

Anchors Aweigh (1945) - A standard light hearted musical done well. Staring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra as two Navy sailors who get a four day pass in Hollywood after earning the Silver Star. Somewhat comical and clever and as someone who really doesn't like musicals, I didn't hate this film. It's not going to make my top 100, but it is a very good film. If you love musicals then this is a film for you.

This lost to The Lost Weekend, no pun intended, and understandable so. Even though it was around the end of WWII, The Lost Weekend is such a powerful movie that few others could beat it. This could have won in the 1950's, but it came out when it did. I've seen three from 1945 and while this sits in third, it is only slightly edged out by Mildred Pierce.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) - A slow moving love story about a half Chinese half English woman who is a doctor in Hong Kong in the late 1940's. Did I mention it was slow? Compared to modern films where there is instant gratification, this film very gradually moves along and tells the story of the heroine falling in love with a American corespondent. Great acting by Jennifer Jones and William Holden, not much beyond that, but they have great chemistry together.

Overall it could have been told in 15 minutes, but the extra 85 minutes allowed some nice cinematography and the theme song played a few times. Not a terrible film, but an above average film. Which is why it is a thousand times better than Marty. So now Marty which was in third place, since I had seen three films from that year, goes to fourth, soon on it's way to last place.

Apparently it's Illegal to impersonate a Gondolier in Italy

And when arrested by all means don't make fun of the police officer. Got around to seeing a few more movies on my list, one of them as the title suggests was Top Hat. Things were tough during Mussolini, wonder if they have eased that restriction?

Top Hat (1935) - Film number 365 was the famous Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musical that featured Cheek to Cheek. Realized that Edward Everett Horton was the narrator for Fractured Fairy Tales on Rocky and Bullwinkle years later after saying to myself, why do I know that voice? The film is basically a dance film that they built a script around. Just as it was described in the Robert Altman film The Player, they take two stars and let the film write itself. The plot is based on mistaken identity, no different than any sitcom, think Three's Company. It's the type of movie that someone would go to in 1935 to forget about the failed economic policies of FDR. Great dancing scenes but the rest of the script has jokes that fall flat and lots of unrealistic conflicts. Otherwise it is a great film if you enjoy grand dance scenes.

Was it the best film of the year, no far from it. But it is a classic.

Libeled Lady (1936) - This is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. And not just funny for 1936, great comedy from very talented actors and actresses and a great script. Staring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, this film is terrific. Its defined as a screwball comedy about a newspaper that publishes a false story about a socialite played by Myrna Loy and the newspaper editor played by Spencer Tracy trying to do damage control. He brings in William Powell to help create a real scandal with Myrna Loy and forces his girlfriend played by Jean Harlow to marry William Powell. The chemistry is great, enjoyable all the way through, really a great film.

Should this film won best picture? As I have posted before, The Great Ziegfeld must have had a powerful emotion over the academy voters. 1936 is the starting point of a great run of excellent years in Hollywood, peaking in 1939. I have now seen eight out of ten films from this year and all of them have been great. I wasn't alive then and so I can only imagine that nothing was going to beat The Great Ziegfeld.

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - From the Agatha Christie play staring Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power and his eyebrows. A murder mystery done from the courtroom setting. Great acting by Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power's eyebrows. But the movie moves like a typical English mystery, about the same speed as my grandmother would drive in the 45 mph lane. A suspenseful film that's good, not the greatest ever, but worth watching.

Could this have beaten The Bridge on the River Kwai, no who are you kidding?