48 replies to this topic

[MakarovaFan]

Helene, on 25 February 2013 - 05:42 PM, said:

I think Daniel Day Lewis looked fantastic.  Everyone should age like he has.

Amen to that, Helene. DDL has always been handsome, but I think he's never looked more stunning than now.

[Cygnet]

sandik, on 25 February 2013 - 01:55 PM, said:

Jayne, on 25 February 2013 - 01:01 PM, said:

Natalia, on 25 February 2013 - 05:53 AM, said:

"GOLD-FINGAH!!!"  Cheers to Dame Shirley Bassey!

I'm a huge Shirley fan and she did a good job last night.  But if you want to see her really kick it, see her Glastonbury performance:

https://www.youtube....h?v=UT1yUAn0Bv8

Wow.  Just, wow!

Thanks so much for the link -- I had a little festival with some of the other stuff that came up with the video.  She reminded me of Tina Turner, in that she's stayed true to the essential part of her style, but she's still found her way to a contemporary audience.  And lordy, she still has a voice!  Divas are forever, indeed.

Thanks Natalia for the link and thanks to Dame Shirley Bassey who was THE highlight of the entire show.  
With great respect to Adele, it would have been the end of the world for me if Dame Shirley had also sung "Skyfall."  
IMO, the Battle For The Worst "gowns" was a tie:  Naomie Harris and Kristen Stewart. Harris' slit was a bridge too far,
(or should I say 'too high') for me.  We could almost see her woo-woo.  Stewart is the poster-child for why starlets who
are on crutches should stay home and off the red carpet.

[dirac]

cubanmiamiboy, on 24 February 2013 - 10:28 PM, said:

Not funny at all for this viewer.  

I did like the sock puppet version of "Flight."

[Quiggin]

dirac, on 26 February 2013 - 10:38 AM, said:

Not funny at all for this viewer.  

Anthony Lane has a very funny review of the show at the New Yorker, with some nice lines on Shirley Bassey – though I think the shelf life of the piece is very short.

http://www.newyorker...013-oscars.html

In old days for comedians like Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and Billy Crystal there was Hollywood humor and Las Vegas humor – you had a separate set of jokes for each forum, and only occasionally used some of the raunchy Las Vegas stuff for "home viewers." Also there was "stag" humor which was just for men alone, but now is lovingly shared with a general audience.

Seth McFarlane stuff gets by by being done in knowingly bad taste – he knows it's bad but compulsively repeats it, though not without a certain charm. But with our recent history of assassinations and assassination attempts – actual bullets going through heads – why didn't a hush fall over the audience at the "bad taste" Lincoln's head joke. And why is the Los Angeles Gay Men's chorus working with this guy?

[dirac]

It's hard to resist an invite to perform on the Oscar show.

Some of the pre-publicity for this year’s broadcast seemed to say "The Oscars! Not just for women and gay guys any more!" MacFarlane and boob jokes were plainly part of that recipe (and several of the actors named in the song were recruited for the pre-recorded reaction shots, presumably as prophylactic, so to speak, against criticism which was no doubt anticipated). The Gay Men’s Chorus thing was just…weird. What was the joke? "We couldn't care less about your boobs but we got to see them anyway?" Ho, ho, ho.

Thanks for the Lane link, I hadn't seen it. I agree with Lane that Adele, Streisand, and Bassey were the highlights of the night. (Jennifer Hudson got a standing O but I cannot think why – she was well below par.)

[abatt]

I thought Jennifer Hudson sang well.  However, I thought Catherine Zeta Jones' performance was definitely lip synched.  I know she has gotten a number of singing roles, but she can barely sing.  The Tony Award she got a few years ago was a gift.

[Helene]

Christopher d'Amboise wrote in his memoir that NYCB was on tour -- maybe Copenhagen -- and from the Men's dressing room they could see into the Women's dressing room.  He described how one of the more well-endowed women was changing and every man in the dressing room gathered around the window with bated breath to stare at her, gay and straight men alike.  (She then noticed them looking and put a quick end to that.)

[dirac]

Quiggin, on 26 February 2013 - 12:09 PM, said:

In old days for comedians like Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and Billy Crystal there was Hollywood humor and Las Vegas humor – you had a separate set of jokes for each forum, and only occasionally used some of the raunchy Las Vegas stuff for "home viewers." Also there was "stag" humor which was just for men alone, but now is lovingly shared with a general audience.

Seth McFarlane stuff gets by by being done in knowingly bad taste –

Yes, a sort of meta-raunch. You could argue it goes back further than that, to Lenny Bruce taking the kind of jokes that comedians did for each other and performing them for the broader audience.

[sidwich]

Quote

Anne Hathaway's dress was a safer choice, it reminded me of the Audrey Hepburn dress revival from the mid-late 1990's.  I think I still have a bridesmaid's dress in Aubergine in my closet that is pretty similar.  Loved her jewelry.  Given her short hair, why not go Audrey Hepburn on the night when you're a shoe-in to win?  In the stage musical, the role of Fantine doesn't grab your heart as much as Eponine.  But in the movie version it is the reverse.  All credit to Anne's performance for making us love her in that role.  She should have won for the difficult Rachel Getting Married role.  I loved to hate her in that role.  She won for both the Les Miz performance, and also her body of work.

Anne Hathaway is a fine actress, but it's not just her skill that's causing that effect.  Part of the reason for the reverse is because the relative size of the parts was reversed as well.  Fantine doesn't really have a chance to grab your heart in the stage musical; she comes on, she sings "I Dreamed a Dream," and she dies.  The part's almost a cameo.  But when a big, A-list star was cast as Fantine and a no-name West End actress was cast as Eponine, it's not surprising that the part of Fantine is beefed up and the part of Eponine is cut down.

Anne Hathaway also won because she went on a major campaign for the Academy Award.  Out of the actresses up for the award, she campaigned the longest and hardest for it.  Based just on the amount of time she's spent on the talk show circuit, I'm not surprised she won.

The Eponine role was cut down a lot  in the film when Samantha Barks was cast.  Dramatically it makes sense.  Eponine isn't a large role in the Hugo novel.  But I suspect a lot of it is because Barks is the relative no-name in the cast.  The producers had been gunning for Taylor Swift or Scarlett Johansson and I would guess that if either  had been cast, the part would have been at least the size it is in the stage musical.

That being said, i almost cried in gratitude when Samantha Barks came out to sing Eponine's lines in "One Day More."  The quality of the vocals were no contest compared to anybody else on the stage.  (I like Aaron Tveit, but Enroljas really isn't in the sweet spot of his voice.).

[dirac]

Hi, sidwich. Good to hear from you.

[Natalia]

cubanmiamiboy, on 25 February 2013 - 05:28 PM, said:

Natasha...none of your choices matches mine..!!

I couldn't believe it, Cristian! Actually, I liked all of your choices, incl Jane Fonda, but not in my top-top. My problem with Halle's dress was mainly the black/white (jail? zebra?) stripes. If it would have been pure silver or black, it would have made my top 3, even with the shoulder pads.

It's too late to delete Anne Hathaway's pink gown from my list, alas. When I saw it on TV-recap shows the next day, I noticed the tackiness of the pointy darts. Why those darts???

[sandik]

Lindy West, who writes here in Seattle for The Stranger, has a fascinating essay on the Jezebel website about sexist attitudes in the entertainment culture in general and the Oscars broadcast in specific.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Natalia, on 28 February 2013 - 12:21 PM, said:

It's too late to delete Anne Hathaway's pink gown from my list, alas. When I saw it on TV-recap shows the next day, I noticed the tackiness of the pointy darts. Why those darts???

It looked to me like an apron...

[dirac]

sandik, on 28 February 2013 - 02:15 PM, said:

Lindy West, who writes here in Seattle for The Stranger, has a fascinating essay on the Jezebel website about sexist attitudes in the entertainment culture in general and the Oscars broadcast in specific.

Thank you for that link, sandik. As Quiggin noted, the standard defense of MacFarlane is that it’s wink-wink humor. When he says that Maya in Near Dark Thirty is proof that women are clingy obsessional psychos, it’s satire, don’t you know. By me it looks pretty close to what’s presumably being satirized. As West writes, the cumulative effect is stupefying. It’s not that the Oscar broadcast is any stranger to bad taste. This is tastelessness of a different kind.

[Jayne]

I'll leave the sexism aside - I just thought Seth wasn't sharp, or as funny as advertised.  The magic is Billy Crystal and Bob Hope's abilities to ad-lib with zingers that hit the mark, but didn't leave blood.