THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS: OSCAR 2008
As the year slides to a spectacular close, our good and wonderfully reliable friends at EW present a slideshow with the most memorable moments from the 2008 OSCAR telecast.
The worthwhile ones for me were:
MOST UPLIFTING SURPRISE – MARION COTILLARD’S SPEECH
CLASSIEST MOVE – JON STEWART CALLING MARKETA IRGLOVA BACK TO THE PODIUM
MOST GRACIOUS SURE THINGS – DANIEL DAY LEWIS & JAVIER BARDEM
WORST MUSICAL NUMBERS – THE ENCHANTED SONGS
WACKIEST SPEECH – TILDA SWINTON
To hit the gallery, please go here
January 1, 2009 at 8:33 am
AS I’M SURE YOU WOULD EXPECT, my favorite moments, by far, were the wins for FALLING SLOWLY (and Glen and Mar’s lovely speeches) and Marion Cotillard.
January 2, 2009 at 6:47 am
I would expect nothing less from you, my darling k…
As you must have noted in the article, those were the things that made me stand up and cheer as well.
Sometimes they really do get it right…
January 2, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Yes, every once in a while, the Oscars really get it right.
January 2, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Not often enough in my estimation, k.
But it’s blindingly delicious when they hit the correct heights.
OH GOD YES…
January 3, 2009 at 8:29 am
Not even just right, they got it GLORIOUSLY right with Cotillard. I hope this year they get it PERFECTLY right with a Winslet win (or two!).
January 4, 2009 at 10:24 am
Goddess D, Kate is certainly an attractive, talented woman who has all ready done a lot of fine work despite her youthful age. But I have never really connected with her.
However…
I did see THE READER on Tuesday night and I was absolutely floored. I thought she was INCREDIBLE.
So I may be heading closer to your way of thinking. Little by little…
I have my own biases like everyone else. But I am much more fair minded than most. If somebody’s a decent person and they do exceptional work, then it should be rewarded.
Kate definitely took it to the wall…
Review will be up in short order.
January 5, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Oh, the Enchanted songs were horrible, especially live.
January 5, 2009 at 12:23 pm
They definitely were, darling k. I didn’t even have to see ENCHANTED to know that.
I lasted about one minute into the first one and then left the room, continuing to check back consistently so that I wouldn’t miss anything big.
But I can’t bear these female characters that are so perky, upbeat and chipper. I always feel like punching them in the face until they pass out.
Give me the bad girls, the glamour queens and the femme fatales any day. I like unstoppable women with glorious ideas and tons of sex appeal – that know what they want.
That’s more my style.
As in much…
January 5, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I did the same! Those songs were horrible. Maybe I’m biased, but if any film were to get three Original Song nominations, it should have been Once. Those Enchanted songs were just bad. How did it get three? What a waste.
And poor Amy Adams. Her character can only be with Patrick Dempsey after she loses her sparkle.
January 5, 2009 at 1:03 pm
It’s the music branch, k.
Of all the branches (except maybe the Directors), they are the MOST conservative, old school, biased bunch of people that you could ever shake a stick at.
How else do you explain ALL OF THOSE HORRIBLE songs that were nominated over the years??? They pass up great music and cool popular hits to nominate garbage that NO ONE’S EVER HEARD OF.
It’s bad, I’m telling you….
January 5, 2009 at 1:13 pm
That’s why I fully expect Hannah Banana Montana Miley Cyrus to be nominated. Plus, multiple songs from High School Musical, and any other generic crap they can honor. The Oscars are on ABC anyway, maybe all the Disney love will bring them better ratings? Who knows?
I’m expecting them to overlook songs like “Jai Ho” and “Little Person” to make room for Disney. Disney seems to win every year, even when they don’t even deserve to be nominated.
January 5, 2009 at 2:16 pm
You’re HILARIOUS, k.
HANNAH BANANA MONTANA??? LOVE IT.
You do know her dad, Billy Ray, is the Achy Breaky Heart guy…? Oh, figures…
I never pay too much attention to what the Music Branch does until the nominations are out – and even then….
They disqualified JONNY GREENWOOD’S magnificent score from THERE WILL BE BLOOD last year. They did muck about with the songs from ONCE. I was so afraid that GLEN and MARKETA were going to get screwed that I just forgot about it until they finally secured a nod. Then I told myself I wouldn’t think about it again until they won.
I honestly didn’t know if the ACADEMY would have the good sense to give it to them.
BUT THEY DID IT!!!!
The music branch disappoints me so bitterly often enough that I try not to get worked up for nothing. That MICK JAGGER song from the remake of ALFIE (OLD HABITS DIE HARD) was just awesome.
I used to dance around the house to that. I do understand that song. Believe me. I think it won the GOLDEN GLOBE, if I’m not mistaken. The ACADEMY ruled it ineligible.
So it will all probably all go to hell again this year as well.
But I’ll never forget the look on Glen’s face last year. I tape the highlights every year (not the whole thing – it’s too bloody long and boring) and that was just spectacular.
“MAKE ART!!! MAKE ART!!!!”
DAMN, that was so wonderful….
Hope springs eternal and all that stuff…
January 5, 2009 at 2:35 pm
It’s funny… Miley wouldn’t be famous without her dad, and Billy Ray wouldn’t be relevant without Miley…
And oh, Glen and Mar. As a longtime fan of Glen (and Mar), I was really rooting for them both. Glen has paid his dues. He’s been screwed over so many times and when they were almost disqualified I was really worried for them. Not that they wouldn’t win, that didn’t matter, but that it would be a real blow to their reputations. To be disqualified after being nominated? Can you imagine how heartbreaking that would be? You’re essentially branded as a liar and then left out in the cold.
I just remember how pissed Jan Hřebejk was during that whole investigation and rightly so. A major reason FALLING SLOWLY was being investigated was because Hřebejk paid for the studio time for Glen and Mar to record some of the songs they had written for John Carney and in return he would be allowed to use the songs in his film BEAUTY IN TROUBLE. He never paid them directly, he never commissioned any music from them and he was upset at the Academy for casting this shadow over the two of them for upholding what he called a “gentleman’s deal.”
Luckily it all worked out and quality was honored! I just love that Glen got up there and the first thing he said was, “Go raibh maith agaibh!” Both of their speeches were just lovely, real highlights for me. I was so thrilled for them both and for the film.
(And I hated that Greenwood’s score was ineligible. I did love Marianelli’s though… the use of the typewriter in the score throughout the film was very interesting, especially when the ending is revealed… very deserving winner.)
January 5, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Yeah, I LOVED ONCE. I would say that I am quite an admirer of both GLEN and MARKETA. But you’ve seen them live (as THE SWELL SEASON) and know much more about them than I do.
All I know is: I was very upset with all the finagling that was going on that concerned them. Once they got the nod, I knew I would be LIVID if they lost.
But that would only be one of the two million times that I’ve lost patience with the ACADEMY for picking someone that I didn’t want to win over people (or a person) that were FAR MORE deserving.
Happens all the time. If you’re going to watch the telecast, just strap yourself in and pray. Anything can happen and the odds are good that at least some of the individuals that you’re rooting for will be going down in flames.
But I was THRILLED BEYOND MEASURE that they made the correct choice in Glen and Marketa’s case. That was one of the highlights of last year for me – and there were a few, as I recall.
You are correct, k.
I thought Marianelli’s score was superb as well. I worshipped ATONEMENT (my #1 of 2007 – edged out THERE WILL BE BLOOD just by a whisker) and a big part of my passionate full blooded enjoyment was the music.
It was just grand…
January 5, 2009 at 3:02 pm
All I know is that I got out of my seat and danced (or, “danced,” rather) when Marion and FALLING SLOWLY won, because the Academy really got it right. That hasn’t happened in a long time.
January 5, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Well, and I was also psyched because Mar became the first Czech woman to win an Oscar.
January 5, 2009 at 3:32 pm
k, if GLEN and MARKETA hadn’t won, I would have been extremely disappointed.
I was fairly sure that JULIE CHRISTIE was going to win her second OSCAR and I would have been fine with that. JULIE is one of my childhood idoLs. She was wonderful in AWAY FROM HER.
I was reasonably sure that MARION would be nominated. But I thought that that very well might be the end of the line for her.
She had worked in some English language films stateside (her most prominent role at that time was co-starring with RUSSELL in A GOOD YEAR, I believe) but she was not very well known. She was in a French film and the only other woman to ever win in a foreign language motion picture was SOPHIA for TWO WOMEN in 1961. I tried to make my peace with it. MARION’S profile had definitely been raised and she was almost guaranteed better career opportunities and a brighter future because of that OSCAR nomination.
But when MARION’S name was called out, I just hit the roof. I was absolutely astonished at their good taste. She is easily one of the MOST DESERVING female lead ACADEMY AWARD winners of the last 25 years.
Her joy was just palpable. It was a stunning moment. I was so very proud of her.
PLUS DDL won (and he was my first choice – HANDS DOWN) and though I would have preferred him to win for something else, I was incredibly happy for JAVIER.
I was very surprised (and not terribly jazzed) at TILDA’S win. But her speech was so funny and entertaining that it was almost worth it.
Now if we could only recall that Best Picture award. Nothing against the COENS.
But did it REALLY have to be for that….?
January 5, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Seems to me that I heard that about MARKETA, k: that she was the first Czech woman to win.
Don’t you have a Czech background as well…?
January 5, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I’m with you on everything here, including the Best Picture comment.
Nothing against the Coens (The Big Lebowski is one of the funniest movies of all time), but There Will Be Blood was the most deserving film of the lot to take it.
January 5, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Yes, she is the first, and yes, I have a Czech background. It was very exciting when she won.
I really wish there was more of an opening for foreign language performers and films at the Oscars, but they just can’t compete without the studio ad campaigns.
January 5, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Cool. We agree on this as well, k.
I would have cast my vote for ATONEMENT but I would have been tremendously torn. I ADORED THERE WILL BE BLOOD to the degree that they almost tied for my 2007 #1.
If there had been a THERE WILL BE BLOOD victory, I would have been over the moon.
Now THAT would have been something…
January 5, 2009 at 3:58 pm
WOW, k.
Even better for MARKETA. She made history as well. That’s fantastic.
Yeah, it is unfortunate about the whole foreign language thing. The problem is, of course, that the ACADEMY AWARDS are American.
But I think that all of this has opened up tremendously in the last few years. Certainly there are improvements and inroads that can (and should be) made. But it’s much better – and more cosmopolitan – than it was.
January 5, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I think she’s also the youngest winner in a musical category. She was 19!
I’d love for more international films and performers to make it to the Oscar stage. So many deserving films don’t even get a chance.
January 5, 2009 at 4:09 pm
That’s right, k. I had totally forgotten about how young she was. The whole thing is just incredible.
She and Glen must have been shell shocked. But I was just so happy for them both.
Ah, the OSCARS are so bloody political. That aspect can’t ever change, i don’t think. That whole town pulsates to the snap of cold, hard cash. That’s the biggest motivator, unfortunately.
But I do think the international thing will keep on developing, which is encouraging in the extreme…
January 5, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Glen said he felt like a plumber in a flower shop, haha
When you think about the journey of the film… man, I never expected them to even be nominated. They were the underdogs. So thrilled for them.
I HATE the politics behind the Oscars. I ranted about it to Nick earlier this week, actually, haha
January 5, 2009 at 4:25 pm
“…a plumber in a flower shop.”
That’s awesomely amusing, k.
BUT HE WON. No one can ever take that away from him. Look who’s laughing now…
Good for them. They seem like such sweet, decent people – and very, very talented as well, of course.
Well, politics and money go hand in hand, unfortunately. These things go sky high when there’s a little dough at stake. When there’s A LOT OF MONEY, power and peoples’ futures on the line, then it all starts to get a little bit dicey.
People are scared. Careers do determine individuals’ futures and what they’ll be capable of doing later on. Then there are the studios.
It’s all pretty heavy and such a big deal. I guess that’s why all the campaigning (dirty and otherwise) happens.
People are people…and that town can get pretty crazy. It’s all a big game, you know. If you’re going to do anything there, you can’t allow it to get to you.
Just do as much as you can, don’t ever lose your integrity and your honour (as much as you may be tempted to put them aside at times) and just enjoy the ride.
The universe will unfold as it should – whether you like it or not….