Oscar night 2007

BY JOSEPH PLANTA

Monday, 26 February 2007

VANCOUVER - Oscar night: the night Hollywood celebrates blacks (though Jesse Jackson would still dispute that), gays, and Jews, perhaps Ellen DeGeneres's funniest line in her otherwise uneventful, mildly amusing monologue. The roar from the crowd was akin to the reception had for her line about a lesbian wearing pants, surrounded by Jews at the 2001 Emmy's. The daytime talk show host chose to play it safe and relied on her charisma and down-to-earth charm rather than wax satirical or political, or bite with snarky one liners.

The 79th Annual Academy Awards opened with an Errol Morris film starring the well known and not-so known 177 Oscar nominees. Morris's films have been well received in years past, but this one seemed too inside baseball for the general audience watching on television.

That Hollywood is too liberal or too left is a notion not dispelled by this year's Oscarcast, what with the fawning over Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth. Not to mention Michael Mann's film on how America was portrayed on film. It seemed anti-American if anything else. Al Gore's phoney and ill-timed double take after being drowned out by the orchestra when he attempted to amusingly announce he was running in 2008 was lame. His chins flapped as he missed the orchestra's cue.

The musical number starring Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C. Riley was hilarious and a welcome infusion of humour that perhaps DeGeneres had been dissuaded to use. It humoured the audience as well as poked fun at musical numbers as seen in Oscar's past.

The return of paired presenters (Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman; Queen Latifah and John Travolta; Abigail Breslin and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith), who aren't from the same project was welcome. Oscar's witty, uncomfortable banter from years past have come from mismatched duos at the podium.

Chris Connelly's colour commentary backstage before going to each commercial was annoying. His creepily phoney and contrived appearances will surely be fodder for Jason Sudekis on Saturday Night Live.

Philip Seymour Hoffman could have had some work done on his hair prior to taking the stage to present Helen Mirren with the Oscar for her performance in The Queen. With Dame Helen dissing Elizabeth II's hair, will she as has been reported elsewhere still be invited to tea with H.M.? It's been said that the real Queen was pleased with Mirren's performance and so extended an invite.

Forest Whitaker's speech upon accepting the Best Actor trophy seemed unstable and incoherent. His attempt at high minded prattle should have been rethought, especially since he was a lock to win. It was enough to make one wish Peter O'Toole had won.

Martin Scorsese's victory was a remarkable Oscar moment and apt. Perhaps not his best work, but well deserved nonetheless. The appearance of the triumvirate of George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg seemed to seal his fate. With guys like that who had his back, how could he not win?

What was warned to possibly be the longest Oscar telecast in history, wrapped up at 17 minutes after 9.00 Pacific, though it still seemed excessively long as it is. The long film pieces were often tiresome, though the tribute to the films who've won the Best Foreign Language Film over the last fifty years was moving.

The decision to have Clint Eastwood translate Honorary Award recipient Ennio Morricone's speech was not a good one. It was momentum killing and came off as half phoney. They should have let Morricone speak Italian and have subtitles, as they did when in 2000 when Polish director Andrzej Wajda received the same award. Or have an interpreter on stage as did Marlee Matlin, when the deaf actress won an Oscar in 1986.

Jerry Seinfeld's appearance was welcome. The television star's offered his connection to the film industry when he proclaimed he was the subject the documentary, Comedian from a couple of years ago. Not bona fide film credentials, but a connection nonetheless. His routine was nonetheless welcomed by the audience, offering the audience something that they perhaps were missing from Ellen DeGeneres. Could this be Seinfeld auditioning for next year's hosting gig?

DeGeneres was not an unwelcome feature on the telecast. Her vacuuming and contrived off-guard banter are features from her hosting of the Emmy's, and a nice change from the condescension had in years past from the likes of Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, and David Letterman.

Her opening outfit has already been pilloried. Not to mention she had this glazed smile on her face throughout the show that looked like she was rehearsing to be a politician's wife on the campaign trail, or her botox treatments literally froze her in time. She face frozen to look like she was all too happy to be the Oscar host. One correspondent wrote that her maroon velvet pantsuit looked like a lounging outfit. DeGeneres's outfit ran contrary with Oscar's edict for more glamour and chic after years of low-key sombreness after September 11th and the Iraq war.

Each year the producers come up with a theme for the year's telecast. In years past they've chosen to spotlight women in film or comedy in film. This year, the Oscar poster, which you might have seen in theatres throughout the continent featured well-known and or memorable lines from movies. You saw a number of them on screen, background to title cards and such, but they were never explained. Usually Chuck Workman would have cut a film, something akin to the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Quotes series, but the exclusion of such context from producers might have been a collateral damage from the producers trying to tighten the show. It was annoying to see crawling across the screen when Helen Mirren won the Best Actress award, 'Rosebud.'

Had Beyonce Knowles received credit from the Academy as an author of the song, "Listen," from Dreamgirls, one suspects she would have won. She would have campaigned and thus the Academy would have noticed. Her performance last night, at the Grammy's a week or so previous was remarkable and spellbinding. It could be said though that the Academy wanted to honour An Inconvenient Truth with another Oscar, or the triple nominations from the snubbed musical cancelled each other out.

The question everyone is doubtless asking is why Jack Nicholson was without hair. When he and Diane Keaton wandered out to present the Best Picture award, it marked Nicholson's seventh time to present or co-present Oscar's most important award over the last four decades.

Laura Ziskin didn't have Woody Allen up her sleeve as she did in 2002 when she produced the longest Oscar telecast in history this time around. She came in well before expected, and produced a well paced show that looked skimpy and meagre. The musical numbers with James Taylor and Melissa Etheridge were spare, as was the Dreamgirls medley, which looked like American Idol cheap more than something worthy of the Oscars. Debbie Allen would have.

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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE.