Its an all-night show here in the UK, I may record it and see it Monday morning over breakfast .....
Slick show, not watching it live means one can speed up the boring bits! Loved the "Everything is Awesome" number, and the clever use of clips in Neil Patrick Harris's opening number, plus Lady Gaga and Julie Andrews ..... Scarlett Johansson ruled the red carpet, and I am generally happy with the results, at least THE IMITATION GAME got best adapted screenplay, and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL scored 4 technical awards. Though again of course several major films (MR TURNER, NIGHTCRAWLER and even PADDINGTON) were snubbed, or ignored, and its fun seeing actors, even you Julianne, turn into dribbling wrecks once they get that award.... If only the artists were prepared to send up the pomposity of being named better than their peers for a year, but they probably feel its their turn to get one (no doubt Cate Blanchett will be launching her next Oscar campaign once CAROL. from Highsmith via Todd Haynes, finally opens). Thankfully its all over for another year, it got rather wearying seeing Eddie gulp his way through another acceptance speech ... but really at four hours or so, it becomes an endurance test and needs to be tightened up, groups of people making speeches gets boring after a while and the emphasis on gowns and jewelry and red carpet posturing somehow lacks gravitas. Just saying ...
A favourite Oscar photo: 1961's Best Actress Sophia Loren presented Gregory Peck with his 1962 Best Actor award, while 1961's Best Actor Maximilian Schell presented the 1962 Best Actress statuette - but winner Anne Bancroft was on Broadway so Joan Crawford had arranged to accept her award if she had won, Bette Davis who had been nominated (for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? with Joan) was left fuming backstage as Joan, not nominated but clutching an Oscar (so what if it was Anne Bancroft's) and looking marvellous, joins the winners .... with Max looking like her hot date for the night!
I am reprinting this 2011 post of mine, with my main alternative Oscar awards ! as today's "Sunday Times" had a list of their top 100 Oscar movies: 50 that won and 50 that did not win anything .... so lets play Alternate Oscars !
Danny Peary’s book ALTERNATE OSCARS has been well thumbed over the years, with its alternative suggestions for best film, actor and actress choices since the Academy Awards began. We all have our own list of Oscar injustices, though one would be hard pressed to list last year's winners, it was a different story though back in the '50s and '60s...
Also, there has only been one tie, in my lifetime, in 1968 with Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand, which seemed entirely appropriate at the time. I have a few more!
Here are my own top 12 alternative choices:
•
1950 –
Bette Davis & Gloria Swanson. Davis and particularly Swanson must have been regarded as old timers back in 1950, thus allowing the new girl [Judy Holliday] to win (as new girls Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly did in '53 and '54, and a decade later those two new Julies), but for me 1950 has to be the year of Bette and Gloria.
SUNSET BOULEVARD and
ALL ABOUT EVE remain imperishable.
•
1954 –
Judy Garland. I like Grace but it seems she won for looking dowdy in a cardigan and glasses.
THE COUNTRY GIRL isn't that revered today,
A STAR IS BORN certainly is - Enough said! In retrospect though we can see that there was no way Garland who was perceived as "difficult" and washed-up could have won then.
[This is the year I came in, seeing movies aged 8 and STAR was one of those first unforgettable choices...] It was of course Brando's year but James Mason as Norman Maine is my winner.
•
1955 – Ernest Borgnine was worthy but how could they ignore
James Dean ?
•
1959 –
Stephen Boyd for Best Supporting Actor for
BEN HUR - his Messala is the black heart of the film and he must have trained as hard as Heston for that chariot race .... We like Hugh Griffiths who won for his arab sheik but he really is comic relief for a few scenes.
Or how about
Jack Lemmon and
Tony Curtis tying for Best Actor for
SOME LIKE IT HOT ?
•
1960 –
Deborah Kerr & Jean Simmons. The two British girls who went to Hollywood and were very big stars indeed. The '50s was their heyday (Kerr did 3 films in 1959 and usually averaged two a year). It would have been the culmination of their great years if the friends and three-time co-stars had tied in 1960, for
THE SUNDOWNERS (Kerr) and
ELMER GANTRY where Simmons was not even nominated (her co-stars Lancaster and Shirley Jones got their awards here). Taylor would still have her 1966 win which she richly deserved.
[Alternatively, Kerr could have won in 1957 for her lovely portrayal of Sister Angela in Huston's HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, and Simmons to win in 1960 for ELMER GANTRY - '57's winner Joanne Woodward, nominated in 1973 could win then - Glenda Jackson didn't need a second oscar (in '73) for a comedy which I had no interest in seeing!]
•
1960 –
Peter Finch. We have to acknowledge Peter Finch's towering performance as Oscar Wilde in the 1960
THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE where he is richly witty and affecting - it's a great performance.
•
1962 –
Lee Remick. All 5 female nominees in 1962 (as in '61) were richly deserving (Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Geraldine Page, Lee Remick and winner Anne Bancroft) , but for me it has to be Lee Remick for her totally brilliant performance as the wife taking to alcoholism in
DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES. Seeing it again lately, it is as affecting as ever.
•
1963 –
Dirk Bogarde & Maurice Ronet. Sidney Poitier won in 1963 - he should have won at some stage (1967 maybe, he had 3 big movies that year), but was this his best role? Dirk Bogarde in
THE SERVANT and Maurice Ronet in
LE FEU FOLLET both re-defined themselves with their mesmerising performances [though of course in the real world these British and French films could not be nominated, but can in my alternate universe]. There's also Burt Lancaster re-defining himself in
THE LEOPARD ....
•
1967 –
Audrey Hepburn. The wrong Hepburn won in 1967! Kate seems to stroll through that Kramer film, whereas Audrey re-defines herself in Donen's
TWO FOR THE ROAD, and was also in
WAIT UNTIL DARK. Of course it was the first time Katharine had been back on screen in years and with Tracy - who knew she would come storming back the next year with the very deserving win for
THE LION IN WINTER? Faye Dunaway's
BONNIE is also a major contender ...
•
1971 –
Dirk Bogarde & Peter Finch. Instead of Gene Hackman this year, I would honour career best performances by Bogarde in
DEATH IN VENICE and Finch in
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, both of which are acting on the grand scale and totally affecting. (Gene could have his for
THE CONVERSATION).
•
1974 –
Faye Dunaway & Ellen Burstyn. Instead of winning for
NETWORK, I would give Faye her win for her endlessly fascinating Evelyn Mulwray in
CHINATOWN, which is as much her film as it is Nicholson's. Ellen has to share it with her...
•
1976 –
Robert De Niro. As I have already honoured Peter Finch twice, I would make the sole winner in 1976 Robert De Niro for his unforgettable Travis Bickle in
TAXI DRIVER.
•
1978 –
Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann. For their astonishing mother and daughter act in Ingmar's
AUTUMN SONATA, one cannot take one's eyes off them during that piano playing scene, a masterclass in screen acting.
•
1980 –
Romy Schneider. For me THE female performance this year is Romy Schneider as the woman who is told she is dying in
DEATH WATCH (
LE MORT EN DIRECT) and her dying days are observed for a television show by Harvey Keitel (with a camera in his brain) as they flee to remote Scotland in this odd sci-fi tale [with Max Von Sydow and Harry Dean Stanton to complete its odd mix of indie and arthouse]. Romy is totally affecting, and would die two years later ...
•
2006 –
Julie Christie. It would have been perfect if Julie had won for her Alzheimers role in AWAY FROM HER, 40+ years after her first win for DARLING in 1965. Only Hepburn could have matched that distance between major wins, but it was not to be ... It looks like Julianne Moore is sure to win this year for her woman succumbing to Alzheimers, with Marion Cotillard (who won in 2006) also nominated again.
•
2012 – Surely any actress would have been embarrassed to have been chosen over
Emmanuele Riva in
AMOUR .....
Some of the Best Picture wins seem incomprehensible now (GOING MY WAY, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) but they were the biggies of their day - even more incomprehensible is no Best Picture awards for CITIZEN KANE, 2001, RAGING BULL, GOODFELLAS or ....
Well thats over for another year, as the 88th Academy Awards finally ends. I was not going to bother this year, but ended up spending the morning (here in the UK) seeing the show unfold. It was a slick show, great idea to have all the endless thank-yous unfold on screen. Not totally predictable either - good to see SPOTLIGHT win best film and original screenplay, and Mark Rylance as Supporting Actor, and Alicia Vikander (looking terrific in that yellow dress) as Best Supporting Actress, though of course she really was the leading lady there. Great too to see those two veterans Ennio Morricone (87) and Quincy Jones together. And there certainly were quite a few black presenters - was the Academy making a point? I am miffed though that CAROL and its director Todd Haynes were not included in the nominations for best film and director - is the Academy homophobic as well as seemingly racist? - think back to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN a decade ago... (below, Haynes with his two muses Blanchett and Julianne Moore, who both did two films with him). 
