In Contention

Tag: The Last Temptation of Christ

  • Oscar nominations that made me cheer

    Over the years I have been watching and studying the Oscars in earnest, since about 1974 (age 13).  It has always been a nice surprise when an unexpected actor, director or film made the cut to the final five.  It’s a special kind of high.

    I remember reacting with surprise and genuine happiness when Giancarlo Giannini was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in “Seven Beauties,” but even better was the inclusion of Lina Wertmuller, the film’s director (becoming the first woman ever to receive a designation in the directing category — nd for a foreign language film, no less).  I loved the film, so this put me over the moon, even though Giannini’s nod likely cost John Wayne his nomination for “The Shootist.”

    In 1997 it was Atom Egoyan, nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Sweet Hereafter,” a brilliant study of grief in small town Canada; the L.A. Times named it the best film of the year but up here in Canada, we never expected Oscar attention for Atom and his film.

    I was equally thrilled when Martin Scorsese was rewarded with a nomination for his direction of “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a bold, passionate film made from the heart by one of our greatest directors.

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  • Thrilling Oscar nominees…when the Academy took a chance

    Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of ChristI love it when the Academy steps out and provides us with a genuine shock that is so richly deserved you feel like weeping for joy that they got it…they really got it.

    For all the ranting I do about the Academy’s lack of vision, every so often they pull something out of the air that so defies the odds, so stuns the critics and Oscar forecasters, it is a hearty reminder that these people do love film.

    I think the first time I really stood and cheered a shocking inclusion was Martin Scorsese’s directing nomination for “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a powerful film that it took a great deal of courage to make, and an equal amount for the Academy to acknowledge given the storm of controversy the film faced upon release.

    I remember going to see “Last Temptation” on opening day and asking one of the men picketing the film what he had thought. “Oh I haven’t seen it,” he stated, “my church warned me against it.” It was a clear indication of the power of religion over the masses.

    Two years earlier I championed David Lynch’s being nominated for “Blue Velvet,” a dark and frightening film that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel dissed at every turn. What would have made the year complete would have been a nomination for Dennis Hopper in the film as opposed to his supporting nod for “Hoosiers.”

    In 1998 as I cheered when Canada’s Atom Egoyan found his way to the Best Director list for his haunting “The Sweet Hereafter.”  The film had been named the year’s best by the Los Angeles Times and finished runner-up for Best Picture and Best Director in the New York Film Critics Circle voting. Not only was this a huge accomplishment for Egoyan, a uniquely gifted director, but for Canadian cinema.

    Just last year, Sarah Polley was nominated for her screenplay “Away From Her,” which also earned Julie Christie a nod for best actress. In my opinion Polley should have been a nominee for Best Director as well.

    I guess I wonder today, in this age of super Oscar campaigns, does the Academy really sit up and take notice of the daring work, or should most of the credit rest at the feet of savvy PR pushes?  I have to think, at least in a number of cases, it has to be the Academy.  The aforementioned films did not have the money to spend on any major campaign, of course.

    So that leaves me feeling good about the AMPAS and what they are doing, despite my moaning.  They are still watching and appreciating art in cinema, and the proof shines through form time to time.

    Any bold choices you can think of to celebrate?

  • The 80s yielded one great Best Pic winner: ‘Platoon’

    Ten awards for Best Picture were handed out throughout the 1980s, one of the worst decades for film in history, and I’d wager that only “Platoon,” the Oscar winning giant of 1986, can lay claim to being a great film.

    Oh, that is not to say there were not great films made in the 80s; there were indeed, but nobody went to see them, despite rave reviews. Many of the decade’s very best films were released and abandoned, to be re-discovered on video, at that time a very new addition to the film industry.

    “Raging Bull” ended up being the finest film of the decade, hell one of the five greatest films of all time, yet Oscar did not see it that way. Somehow, Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece lost the Oscar for Best Picture and the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Film to Robert Redford and “Ordinary People” — a well crafted film, but hardly the raw and angry work of the former.

    That same year would see the releases of “The Empire Strikes Back” — a superior film to the first “Star Wars” installment, yet snubbed for a nomination for Best Picture — and Richard Rush’s “The Stunt Man,” which might have been a strong choice for a nomination as well.

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