The Oscars

[Rob C]

Here we go again: complaints about it being too white, too male-oriented.

Silly me, thinking it was about excellence rather than colour and gender. If it's going to be reorganized to fit "quotas", they might as well close the door and all go home. Frankly, moaning about such matters smells much of sour grape and political cant.

Political correctness had long turned into a disease of the mind.

Rob

[LesPalenik]

Very true. Watching Trump is much more entertaining.

[Robert Roaldi]

Here we go again: complaints about it being too white, too male-oriented.

Silly me, thinking it was about excellence rather than colour and gender. If it's going to be reorganized to fit "quotas", they might as well close the door and all go home. Frankly, moaning about such matters smells much of sour grape and political cant.

Political correctness had long turned into a disease of the mind.

Rob

They're just actors, you know. What they say isn't that important and the number of people listening rounds to zero.

My wife has been associated with a couple of artist groups/clubs, and from she can tell they consist of friends who give each other plaques. So she quit them all. The Hollywood A list is a very small club and they probably want to keep it that way.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Here we go again: complaints about it being too white...

Never heard anyone complaining about basketball and football being too black.

[Rob C]

They're just actors, you know. What they say isn't that important and the number of people listening rounds to zero.

My wife has been associated with a couple of artist groups/clubs, and from she can tell they consist of friends who give each other plaques. So she quit them all. The Hollywood A list is a very small club and they probably want to keep it that way.

Yes, but they, actors, directors etc. get the awards; I think the implied criticism from the media is aimed at the people who do the voting - whoever they may be, and the accusation that they ignore minorities. And that's the problem: why should minorities (within an industry) collect gongs if they fail to beat the competition on the same, broader merits? That would demand a quota system, where a certain number of films featuring minorities would have to be included simply to meet the quota, rather than be listed because of the great quality of the products.

It's either open competition or it's sectioned into colour, race and/or creed, which would indeed be racist, and worse than the status quo, at first glance, but there may indeed be people in the industry who'd prefer their own peer plaudits.

[Rob C]

Never heard anyone complaining about basketball and football being too black.

In Europe, hundreds do just that. Some get caught and banned from attending matches...

But a football match is an unpleasant situation where much dislike is aired. It's what being a team's fan demands of you, or why would you pledge allegiance to a club, probably more seriously even than you might in a wedding?

[Alan Klein]

The Oscars should have a category for best film shot in film. 

[LesPalenik]

Never heard anyone complaining about basketball and football being too black.

Or NHL too Canadian.

[Chris Kern]

Here we go again: complaints about it being too white, too male-oriented.

What about too stereotypically-acted, too dependent on special effects, too obsessed with chasing the mass market―which these days means if a project isn't likely to appeal to an audience in China, it isn't likely to get funded.

My wife and I feel Hollywood has largely deserted us.  Fortunately, Netflix and Amazon, as well as a local "art house" cinema, offer a growing selection of international films.  (The Latin American movie industry, in particular, is making considerable inroads here, even among anglohablantes.)

Silly me, thinking it was about excellence

The Academy Awards?  They've always been about money, as well as the popularity within the industry of the people involved in the production.  Excellence was always incidental.

[Martin Kristiansen]

Couldn’t care less about the Oscars. Haven’t been to the movies in over a decade. I do watch Netflix and Amazon Prime but choose what I want to watch and who gets what at some award ceremony is of no interest to me and has zero impact on what I choose to watch.

[Rob C]

What about too stereotypically-acted, too dependent on special effects, too obsessed with chasing the mass market―which these days means if a project isn't likely to appeal to an audience in China, it isn't likely to get funded.

My wife and I feel Hollywood has largely deserted us.  Fortunately, Netflix and Amazon, as well as a local "art house" cinema, offer a growing selection of international films.  (The Latin American movie industry, in particular, is making considerable inroads here, even among anglohablantes.)

The Academy Awards?  They've always been about money, as well as the popularity within the industry of the people involved in the production.  Excellence was always incidental.

Good points all (but movies are business), but also divorced from my observation of the effects of insidious P.C.

As for going to movies - it's been so long now that I think the last one I saw in a cinema was Thunderball.

Rob

[kers]

I go every month to the movies; But we can choose in Amsterdam from a wealth of small productions.
I think going to a cinema is the best way to experience a movie. At home i like to use the slowmo and repeat to see some scenes better.
From the Oscarlist I have seen Paracite and the Joker. Both i can recommend. The Tarantino Hollywood movie seems OK too.

[Rob C]

I go every month to the movies; But we can choose in Amsterdam from a wealth of small productions.
I think going to a cinema it is the best way to experience a movie. At home i like to use the slowmo and repeat to see some scenes better.
From the Oscarlist I have seen Paracite and the Joker. Both i can recommend. The Tarantino Hollywood movie seems OK too.

Going to a cinema used to be fun, though perhaps not always the best way to watch an entire movie.

My girlfriend insisted we go to see The Student Prince and I believe she actually woke me up at one point. Which was needlessly cruel, I thought. It would have been kinder to let me not realise how time it was awasting.

Rob

[Alan Klein]

My wife and I enjoy going to the movies.  I think the acting, cinematography, directions, and techniques have really improved over the years.  Don;t get me wrong, I still enjoy watching Turner Classic on TV with all the old good movies.  They were great too.  It's just that I think the industry has gotten better at a lot of related techniques.

One issue I have is when the lamp is too low in the theatre and everything looks like it was filmed at night.  It drives me crazy that you get lousy presentation pf great cinematography.  I always complain to the theatre managers and they always do nothing.

The other gripe I have is the popcorn and soda cost more than the price of the movie. Of course, often the popcorn is better than the movie.

[Paulo Bizarro]

This year the selection is quite good: joker, Once upon a Time in H, 1917, excellent acting to boot.

[Alan Klein]

Just saw 1917.  Excellent.  The score helped a lot to add tension and move the theme and picture.

[Ivo_B]

I go every month to the movies; But we can choose in Amsterdam from a wealth of small productions.
I think going to a cinema is the best way to experience a movie. At home i like to use the slowmo and repeat to see some scenes better.
From the Oscarlist I have seen Paracite and the Joker. Both i can recommend. The Tarantino Hollywood movie seems OK too.

What kind of scenes do you play Slowmo? 😳

[kers]

What kind of scenes do you play Slowmo? 😳

Some actions that go very fast, explosions, new films with action are cut faster then you can comprehend. i like to see the scene again and watch only the background for instance.
On my TV i like to see some football scenes in slowmo; for instance a goal , and then i watch the scene a few time from the view of different players.
Yesterday there was a concours hippique on my TV ( jumping horses) and for the first time in my life i watched the horse instead of the rider. It looked very different.

[Peter McLennan]

The Oscars should have a category for best film shot in film. 

Why?  Who cares what it was shot on?  (Unless you're a camera manufacturer)

Besides, I'll bet you a four hundred foot load of Eastman Colour you can't reliably tell what was shot on what.

I can't.  And I shot thousands of those loads.