2007 OSCARS

[Katuluu]

Picture: No Country for Old Men

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Actress: Marion Cotillard (La vie En Rose)

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)

Original Screenplay: Juno

Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men

Editing: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Art Direction: Sweeney Todd

Cinematography: No Country for Old Men

Foreign Language Film: The Counterfeiters (Austria)

Animated Film: Persepolis

Documentary: No End in Sight

Costume Design: Sweeney Todd

Make-up: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Oringinal Score: Atonement

Oringinal Song: Once - "Falling Slowly" (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova )

Sound Editing: No Country for Old Men

Sound Mixing: No Country for Old Men

Visual F/X: Transformers

Documentary Short: Sari's Mother

Animated Short: Madam Tutli-Putli

Live-Action Short: Tanghi Argentini

 

 

And if you really want to geek out I participated in an Oscar Roundtable discusson over at Cinema Fusion.

[Katuluu]

Man, not too many surprises. Tilda Swinton winning Best Supporting Actress is probably the biggest, though she was certainly deserving of the award. Though The Golden Compass winning for effects certainly has to be up there as well.

[Team Canada]

Yeah, most of the biggies were exactly as expected.

[RobertR]

Hard to complain much when arguably the most shocking upset is Golden Compass over Transformers for special effects. Pretty much every winner was entirely defensible.

 

Unlike Tilda Swinton's outfit. That was ghastly. I think it replaces Bjork's swan dress as worst in recent memory.

 

The ceremony itself was rather dull without spontaneity. The quick cutoffs of acceptance speeches didn't help matters as people rushing through thank yous is rarely memorable. The only real moment of surprise was Jon Stewart getting Marketa Irglova back out so she could say thank you.

 

The real controversy this year was in the nominations, not the awards. And that was partly due to the depth of the field. I'd throw Sweeney Todd, Zodiac, Once, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford up against most years. Heck, there have been weaker years this decade than Gone Baby Gone, 3:10 to Yuma, The Bourne Ultimatum, Ratatouille, and Persepolis.

 

Edit: Also, no offense to Heath Ledger and his family, but by all rights the last spot in the In Memoriam montage should have gone to Ingmar Bergman, easily the person in the montage that's had the most impact on the history of film.

 

Robert

[pitchleague]

I didn't do so well in picking winners. I only got 9 right. Lost to my wife--again--after she got 13 right. Of course, it was 9-11 entering the final two awards and I had to go with upsets (There Will Be Blood) to beat No Country for Old Men in order to have a chance to tie her. She got them right, I didn't.

 

I did, however, win the mini-contests we had of number of Best Pictures that we've seen (20-19) and dead people we've ever heard of (11-8).

[bjkrautk]

Did I miss it, or did they not set up the 5 Oscar nominees for best picture the way they have in previous years? There also wasn't nearly as much scripted comedy, but that's largely the fault of the Writers' strike.

 

I can't help but notice that - outside of the documentary award - the only real references to Hollywood & politics came from the person selected as host for the event.

 

Any hope for an exciting final nomination pretty much fell by the wayside, IMO, when Ellen Page lost in Best Actress. (Then again, I share Roger Ebert's head v. heart schism with respect to the big award.)

 

I thought that it was funny that Enchanted had 60% of an award category that it didn't win.

[Team Canada]

I like Jon Stewart, but not as Oscar host. He did better than the last time, but I thought Ellen was great last year, and even Steve Martin was better before that..

[SeriesFinale]

The final reel of Atonement is atrociously bad.

Sitting in the theatre I thought it was clumsy at first too, up until the reveal of the information, which was played beautifully. The denouement was fantastic as well.

[RobertR]

I saw Atonement yesterday, prior to the Oscars. Liked it well enough, especially the Dunkirk sequence, although it's nowhere near my top 5 of the year. I'd argue that they spend far too much time at the manor house and not enough with the aftermath. As far as the end goes, whether it works or not really depends on how much you buy into Vanessa Redgrave's performance as someone who beat herself up over the years. Arguably that's the performance that the movie hinges on more than any other.

It's probably ironic that the movie that arguably has the highest brow pedigree is the one that most tries to explain itself to everyone with the ending.

Robert

[SeriesFinale]

That Dunkirk scene alone has me scratching my head how Atonement didn't win art direction

[Katuluu]

As far as the end goes, whether it works or not really depends on how much you buy into Vanessa Redgrave's performance as someone who beat herself up over the years. Arguably that's the performance that the movie hinges on more than any other.

 

I think Robert really nailed the key point about Atonement. And for me I didn't buy the performance at all, in fact, it came across as more of a cop out then anything else.

 

Of course I also hated that stupid haircut. Having characters keep the same hairstyle so the audience can easily recognize them as they age is a huge pet peeve of mine. It always comes off clunky and pulls me out of the film.

[SeriesFinale]

I never even recognized the haircut...they called the character by name within 20 seconds of Redgrave's appearance I think and when they called her an author you knew right away.

 

I agree that Redgrave's performance was passable at best and might've made the movie something really special if it had been stronger. As it stands, I really enjoyed it.

 

Anyway, different strokes.