Since I was a kid, the Academy Awards have been my Super Bowl. With only three major televised award shows representing the arts—music (GRAMMY), theater (TONY), and film (OSCAR)—the Academy Awards held the cachet of embodying real, old-fashioned Hollywood glamour. Because I wasn't allowed to stay up to watch The Tonight Show or play hooky from school to watch The Mike Douglas Show, the mere appearance of movie stars on the small screen was still enough of a rarity to make Oscar Night an occasion of near-religious ritual for my sisters and me.
Searchlights scanned the Los Angeles/Santa Monica skies, fans screamed from bleachers, Army Archerd asked industry-centric fluff questions (still preferable to that tedious, "Who are you wearing?" crap), and movie stars—definitely "on" with their scripted casual banter—gave acceptance speeches devoid of laundry-list recitations thanking publicists, agents, and hairstylists. The atmosphere of the broadcast was, by turns, glamorous, cheesy, self-congratulatory, fun, reverent, and phony as hell. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Even in my youth, it was easy to see that artistic achievement was just as likely to win awards as popularity, publicity, cronyism, and industry support (rewarding the big moneymakers). But Oscar's baffling inconsistencies and blatant lapses in taste and common sense all just seemed to fit with my perception of Hollywood and the movies, anyhow. Part pop-culture diversion, part art form, movies and the film industry have always been a captivating contradiction. You'd have to look to politics to find a larger collection of phonies, egomaniacs, and anything-for-a-buck sellouts; yet it's an industry capable of producing some of the most moving, enduring, exhilarating, and life-altering art. Go figure.
I enjoy the pomp, the spectacle, and self-parody (there is no soul more self-serious than the movie star transmogrified into an artist), and I certainly enjoy the ever-present potential for disaster or an unexpectedly touching moment. But my best contemporary Oscar Night experiences have been when my partner and I take advantage of the ghost town atmosphere of Los Angeles on Oscar Day and spend it out and about, DVRing the Oscar telecast for viewing later in the evening when we can fast-forward past the windy acceptance speeches or sound-alike Best Song nominees.
My earliest memory of The Oscars is 1967 when I was nine years old and my family and I watched the 39th Academy Awards in the living room on our huge B&W Console TV set. It was the year Elizabeth Taylor won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It's a year I remember vividly because I had to give a Current Events report on the telecast in front of the class in school the following day. I also remember it for this Las Vegas-y rendering of the theme song from Georgy Girl by Mitzi Gaynor (this is my first time seeing it in color. Thank you, YouTube). I've never missed an Oscar telecast since.
In honor of the 50th Anniversary of my first known exposure to the Academy Awards, I offer my non-essential alternative: The Le Cinema Awards. An obdurately subjective prize of merit awarded exclusively to films, performances, and artistic contributions that failed to garner an Oscar nomination. And so as not to encompass the entire history of cinema from its inception, the only films eligible for consideration for a Le Cinema Award are movies from my personal DVD collection. I haven't included any comments with the films listed, as many have already been written about on this blog (highlighted) or will be in the future. There is no individual "Best" prize awarded; each of the five films entered in each category is granted WINNER status by virtue of inclusion.
AND THE AWARD GOES TO...
Best Picture
Rosemary's Baby (1968) - Roman Polanski
One of the most incisively chilling contemporary horror/suspense films ever made
Eve's Bayou (1997) - Kasi Lemmons
A sensitive, mystical coming-of-age story of extraordinary beauty
What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Peter Bogdanovich
One of funniest films of the '70s. One of the funniest films ever made
Winner's Roster Eve's Bayou 5 What's Up, Doc? 5 Rosemary's Baby 3 New York, New York 3 Two For The Road 2 Barbarella 2 The Joy Luck Club 2 Meet Me In St. Louis 2 On a Clear Day You Can See Forever 2
Do you have a favorite film, performance, or behind-the-scenes artistic contribution that failed to get a much-deserved Academy nod? Would love to hear about it. What's on YOUR list?
Copyright © Ken Anderson 2009 - 2017
