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Yes her speech contained too much information. Doesn't every mother want to hear her daughter gush to 17 million people how much her unwed pregnant daughter and her fiance love sleeping together? Not.

Considering Miss Portman is very, very visibly pregnant at this point (in case anyone missed the press release which was carried by all the major news outlets), I think it's pretty obvious. Actually, although not the most decorous thing to do, it may have actually been a smart move on her part. I've always thought she had a fairly remote screen personality (probably not helped by the fact that she was buried under pounds and pounds of costuming and make-up for the Star Wars prequels). She has a new movie coming out with Ashton Kutcher which features their characters have lots and lots of sex, so I think the outburst actually has made her much more approachable and perhaps much more believable in the context of her new sex comedy rather than her persona of "Natalie Portman who went to Harvard and who is so much better than you."

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Doesn't every mother want to hear her daughter gush to 17 million people how much her unwed pregnant daughter and her fiance love sleeping together? Not.

I don't see the problem. Why wouldn't a mother want to hear about her grandchild, and that her daughter is excited about finding a life partner? Check the calendar...........last time I looked it is the 21st century.

Yes, she is 29 years old and supports herself. What is the problem?

Some people have different mores. That's all.

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The BAFTA award nominations were announced today. The leader in nominations was The King's Speech. Black Swan received the second most nominations, including for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress for Portman and Best Supporting Actress for Barbara Hershey. (Mila was shut out.) The ceremony is on Feb 13, 2011. I've watched it on the BBC America channel the last two years. I assume it will be carried again this year on that station.

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Didn't want to create a new thread for this . . .

I saw True Grit today. I've never read the source book or seen the original film w/ John Wayne so I had nothing to compare it to walking into the theater. That being said, I enjoyed it very much. There is still life in the Western genre, provided the right elements are there!

Perhaps what I liked most about True Grit is that it avoids the revisionist tendencies which crept into the genre starting in the 1970s. The characters are believable precisely because they do not utter modern sentiments of belief or politically correct dogma. The characters are very funny at times but funny in an era-appropriate way.

The acting is very strong as you would imagine in a movie featuring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and (in a smaller part) Barry Pepper. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is outstanding as the 14-year-old protagonist and she holds her own with Bridges and Damon. The only disappointment to me was Josh Brolin as the villain who sets the train of events in motion. As the villain, he is rather blah (and is upstaged by Barry Pepper as the leader of the gang to which the Brolin character belongs.)

The cinematography is beautiful and and really conveys the majesty of the American frontier.

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Well, Portman won the SAG award last night for "Best Female Actor" for Black Swan. (Whatever happened to the word "Actress" - PC gone crazy?) At this stage, it would be a huge shock if she doesn't win the Oscar. She and ballet's-own Benjamin Millepied will be the 'it couple' of the night. (I always liked Millepied but I never imagined that he'd become an A-list celebrity like this!)

The King's Speech now seems to have surpassed The Social Network as the top pick for Best Film. Ditto Colin Firth for Best Actor (or, as known at the SAGs, "Best Male Actor").

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Well, Portman won the SAG award last night for "Best Female Actor" for Black Swan. (Whatever happened to the word "Actress" - PC gone crazy?)

Many prefer to be called plain "actor" rather than "actress" -- nobody calls female flyers "aviatrixes" any more, and "waitress" is also falling out of use. "Actress" can be more convenient in some contexts, but identifying women simply as actors is increasingly common now, as on the Charlie Rose show, for example. (If your doctor is a woman, she might bristle at the idea that she should really be called a doctress.)

In theory there is really no reason for the Best Actor/Actress categories to be separate, but the practice won't go away any time soon. There aren't as many meaty Oscar-bait roles available to female stars as for their male counterparts, and without the separate category representation of women as film acting award nominees would probably fall. So it's here to stay. "Best Female Actor" sounds a tad cumbersome, but I'm people would get used to it eventually.

Fortunately for Portman, there isn't much competition in the Oscar Best Actress category this year and she looks as close to a sure thing as we usually get. (Which is not to say that her fellow nominees gave bad performances, just that given the way these things go she is the likely choice.)

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Thanks for your review, miliosr. I remember the original "True Grit" as poor and sight unseen I'm sure this new one is an improvement. I would disagree respectfully about many of those revisionist westerns, which paved the way for a new realism in the genre.

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The King's Speech now seems to have surpassed The Social Network as the top pick for Best Film. Ditto Colin Firth for Best Actor (or, as known at the SAGs, "Best Male Actor").

Probably not surprising. The King's Speech also has the advantage of being a European-history based, English-accented period piece which seems to be a type particularly beloved by Academy members which tend to skew older and may not be as familiar with the Facebook phenomenon.

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(If your doctor is a woman, she might bristle at the idea that she should really be called a doctress.)

Doctors aren't qualified to treat this malady but not that one according to their gender however.

In theory there is really no reason for the Best Actor/Actress categories to be separate, but the practice won't go away any time soon.

The practice doubles the fun! :)

Anyhow, no disrespect to Portman, but if the categories were combined, I'd be rooting for Colin Firth.

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Doctors aren't qualified to treat this malady but not that one according to their gender however.

Some used to think they were, actually.

The term was originally "actor" for both sexes and didn't seem to cause any great confusion. I have no particular dog in this fight, merely pointing out that usages are changing, and for a performer to prefer to be called "actor," period is not unusual these days.

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Poetess used to be used - and woman poet, as in the best woman poet of her generation.

Regarding the Academy awards, which I haven't followed in recent years, A. O. Scott wrote a piece about the neglect of world cinema by the Academy:

... worthy films are passed over all the time, but such puzzling and capricious neglect happens so often that it can be taken as a yearly reminder of the American film establishment’s systematic marginalization and misapprehension of much of world cinema.

A Golden Age of Foreign Films, Mostly Unseen

And did Manueol de Oliveira ever receive an acknowledgement from the Academy? How many years has he been making films now? His latest, the charmingly dry and small scaled "The Strange Case of Angelica" (or the strange case of Isaac), has a La Sylphide-like plot [warning: trailer does give away some of the little surprises in the film]:

SYNOPSIS

Isaac is a young photographer living in a boarding house in Régua. In the middle of the night, he receives an urgent call from a wealthy family to come and take the last photograph of their daughter, Angelica, who died just a few days after her wedding.

Arriving at the house of mourning, Isaac gets his first glimpse of Angelica and is overwhelmed by her beauty. As soon as he looks at her through the lens of his camera, the young woman appears to come back to life just for him. Isaac instantly falls in love with her.

From that moment on, Angélica will haunt him night and day, until exhaustion.

*

Nice interview with Edgar Ramirez talking about "Carlos the Jackal", French language but you get a sense of his screen presence and how different the topics of this interview are, how serious and intense, compared to his English language ones.

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The Best Foreign Language Film category has its oddities because films are nominated by country. (There is in addition a strong bias toward movies of European provenance.) No doubt the Academy is remiss in that department but when the Oscars first began there was no recognition of foreign films at all, so baby steps. :)

Nice interview with Edgar Ramirez talking about "Carlos the Jackal", French language but you get a sense of his screen presence and how different the topics of this interview are, how serious and intense, compared to his English language ones.

Thank you for that clip. That's true of many non-English speaking actors - I think of Penelope Cruz, whose presence and affect are quite different and much more powerful in her Spanish-language films.

I don't believe de Oliveira has ever been nominated but cannot say for certain.

Sort of off topic, but I remember when The Motorcycle Diaries was nominated for Best Song (and Best Adapted Screenplay; it wasn't nominated for Foreign Language Film because it was a multinational production and could not be credited to one country). Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana had previously taken the stage to butcher "Al Otro Lado Del Río" and when Jorge Drexler accepted his award he sang a few bars (as if to say, "It goes this way, clowns." Gael Garcia Bernal wouldn't show up at the ceremony because of the treatment of the song.)

As sidwich notes, "The King's Speech" is classic Oscar fodder, good of its kind If You Like That Sort of Thing. I thought "The Social Network" was fearfully overrated but if you think about it there's not much to choose between them, I guess. In other words, I'm finding it hard to care this year. :)

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Well, Portman won the SAG award last night for "Best Female Actor" for Black Swan. (Whatever happened to the word "Actress" - PC gone crazy?)
..."Best Female Actor" sounds a tad cumbersome, but I'm people would get used to it eventually.

....

I certainly hope not. Ladies should be Ladies and Gentlemen gentlemen forevah! :)

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If Portman is drafting her Oscar remarks, *(ref: the SAG and Golden Globes she probably isn't), she should consider emulating, or better yet - quoting the following winners.

Sir Laurence Olivier, April 9, 1979.

Mr. President and Governors of the Academy, Committee Members, fellows, " '. . . my very noble and approved good masters,' " my colleagues, my friends, my fellow-students. In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation's generosity, this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it--the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it--must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment, dazzling me a little, but filling me with warmth and the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow. From the top of this moment, in the solace, in the kindly emotion that is charging my soul and my heart at this moment, I thank you for this great gift which lends me such a very splendid part in this, your glorious occasion. Thank you.

Joe Pesci,

It was my privilege, thank you".

William Holden,

"Thank you."
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I watched the BAFTA awards on BBC America last night. Portman won Best Actress for Black Swan. The director of that film accepted the award on her behalf, saying that due to her pregnancy she was unable to make the trip to London. The King's Speech swept the awards, winning Best Picture, Best British Picture, Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush, and Best Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter. The director of the Social Network won for Best Director.

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The King's Speech is classic awards bait, as sidwich noted earlier, not that I think The Social Network necessarily towers above it. Nice to see that David Fincher, the director of the latter, received recognition for his skill in keeping Sorkin's yackety-yack from getting on your nerves too much.

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What's with all the beige dresses on the red carpet tonight? Kudos to the free thinkers (Penelope Cruz, Sandra Bullock) who showed up in color.

Haven't spotted Millepied yet. If he's there, I'm sure he will angle his way into the camera frame soon enough, though.

Hate, hate, HATE the "men in all black" look. dirac -- make it stop!!!

I never understand Michelle Williams's choices. I get that she wants to move away from Dawson's Creek and be taken seriously as an actress but she always shows up in these overly subtle dresses that make her disappear on the red carpet. That Chanel dress she is wearing would be perfect for the Costume Institute Ball but not so much for the Oscars.

Mila Kunis's dress is a pretty color but it is ill-fitting in front. Jennifer Hudson is rocking the new figure in that orange dress but the hair makes her look like Lt. Uhura on Star Trek. Can't decide if I like Reese Witherspoon's Valley Of the Dolls/Belle du Jour hair.

Probably like 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld the best among the women -- beige but age-appropriate. Refreshing to see an under-18 starlet not going for the bludgeoning sexuality look.

Among the men, nice to see the younger guys like Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield wearing traditional tuxes. They never go out of style gentlemen!!!

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Hate, hate, HATE the "men in all black" look. dirac -- make it stop!!!

Out of my control, alas, although Christian Bale might have looked pretty cool if not for the beard.

Speaking of color, I Speaking of color, I loved Amy Adams and Marisa Tomei, the latter in Charles James. Also liked Kidman in Dior and Blanchett's Givenchy. I agree about Hailee Steinfeld, who looked happy, charming and, as you say, age appropriate. Went back and forth about Scarlett Johansson's cranberry number and decided for it. I decided against Witherspoon's hair. Too much forehead for that look.

cubanmiamiboy, the wins for The King's Speech weren't a surprise, true, but Tom Hooper's win over David Fincher qualifies as an upset. The latter looked grim all evening, for good reason as it turned out.I have no strong feelings either way about Portman's win. It's her best performance as an adult, not a large statement.

The appearance by Kirk Douglas was a ghastly mistake.

I never saw Millepied although I did switch away just before Portman's name was announced, having run out of patience with the "Natalie, you bring to all your performances a unique quality of blah blah blah, plus you never forget your deodorant blah blah" homages that all the acting nominees received. Congrats to both of them, in any case.

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