A Brief Lesson in Coveting from Dr. Hannibal Lecter:
Dr. Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice: He kills women...
Dr. Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir...
Dr. Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Clarice: No. We just...
Dr. Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?
Matthew: Yes! Like the Original Screenplay Oscar! Oh how I covet it! And we all know I watched Oscars Greatest Moments nearly every day! What fond memories!
Dr. Lecter: Memory is all I have, Matthew.
Clarice: Sir, this is an official FBI investigation.
Matthew: Oh please. You're just a trainee.
Dr. Lecter: Jack Crawford sent a trainee to me?
Matthew: Truth.
Clarice: Sir, will you please exit the area, this is an adapted screenplay.
Matthew: I'm going, I'm going... you well scrubbed rube.
Who will take Original Screenplay?
And the nominees are...
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
I shan't even try to thinly veil the fact that I think this award belongs -- hands down -- to Christopher Nolan for Inception. As the category is "Original Screenplay" one (meaning I) often hopes the Academy voters will take the time to recognize the most exceptionally thought out screenplay written directly for the screen.
Often, the original screenplay Oscar is given to the smaller film that will not win picture. Picture winners are from predominantly adapted screenplays -- or adapted screenplays masquerading as original work -- such as The Hurt Locker -- an excellent script written by a journalist embedded with bomb squads in the middle east that Mark Boal freely admits is a rearrangements of actual events. No, they were not published or produced in another fashion and that's what the distinction is. But we can see where I'm coming from.
Otherwise -- looking over the past 10 years of pictures...
Gladiator while original lost screenplay to Almost Famous which won nothing else.
A Beautiful Mind - adapted.
Chicago - adapted.
Return of the King - adapted.
Million Dollar Baby - adapted.
Crash - original and perhaps the most disturbing win of the past 20 years despite Mr. Haggis talents as a writer and subject of great New Yorker articles.
The Departed - adapted.
No Country For Old Men - adapted.
Slumdog Millionaire - adapted.
Hurt Locker - original script based on reality.
Original Screenplay has remained the home of the wildly talented and the otherwise overlooked masters, particularly these past 20 years. Neil Jordan, Cameron Crowe, Sofia Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Jane Campion, Charlie Kaufman, Pedro Almodovar -- and the list goes on.
It is also where some great films have gotten their nod: Fargo, Gosford Park, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Almost Famous (why not mention it twice?), The Usual Suspects, Milk.
So here we find ourselves in a year where a master who is the screenplay nominee equivalent of Randy Newman -- Mr. Mike Leigh -- is yet again nominated. Though none of his actors received a nod and the film didn't click with crowds like his pictures from the past Secrets and Lies, Topsy Turvy, Vera Drake. This just doesn't seem like the year Mr. Leigh will win. He'll either finally make a clean sweep or be handed an honorary award soon.
The Fighter looks like it is going to take both supporting statuettes despite fingers (nationwide) being crossed hoping for other victors. No one is talking about The Fighter's writing in the slightest. Sure, they weren't talking about the writing of The Departed that much either -- but that's because Scorsese gets full credit for everything he does. The Departed actually is fantastic and deserved its adapted script award. It also pulled off what history will deem a sweep of the major awards -- though in the midst of that evening it seemed like a good deal of the trophies were up for grabs. The Fighter is out.
And then there were three!
Is it the small indie that tells the touching story of a lesbian couple, their children, and the sperm donor that shook their happy home. It is, after all, written by a seasoned indie veteran. With Black Swan's lack of script nom, will this be the picture of ladies that takes home an Oscar?
Is it the script that moves so crisply across the tongues of top shelf Aussie and British actors in the film that seems to be poised to snag The Social Network's picture win?
Or has the absolute snub of Christopher Nolan's directing prowess landed him in a position where some weirdo Oscar karma will hand this wildly respected director with a script award -- much like Francis Ford Coppola (who didn't win director until Godfather II, but already had two script trophies in the bag), The Coen Brothers (who waited a decade to win director) and Oliver Stone (who bagged a script award eight years before a director win). Is screenplay where Inception gets the Nolan his deserved industry recognition?
Lest we forget -- the very reason this entire 10 best picture nonsense came to pass was because folks were particularly upset about the fact that The Dark Knight not only went without a best picture nomination but that the Oscars had become a place where films like Knight were simply un-nominate-able. Nolan was also a previous odds on favorite for his first film - Memento. Had he won screenplay then a win now would seem less possible -- especially since, much as it pains me, Inception has no chance at picture.
But the world created! The rules constructed! The moments selected to weave such an intricate tapestry of storytelling -- without a play, novel, or graphic novel as its basis -- is simply remarkable.
In a just world, Nolan wins. The writing awards are often just, rarely snubbing the gifted more than once. In fact, the only person besides Nolan who seems monumentally screwed in this new generation of film making is Paul Thomas Anderson. Yes, Wes Anderson has delivered some gems, as well. But there has been meandering. PTA's originality with Boogie Nights and Magnolia followed by the screenplay he bloomed out of a tiny sliver of an Upton Sinclair story is to be reckoned with. PTA remains the only major film maker to sit down in the midst of our mad present and write a story about how oil and religion will both "fuel" and ruin the United States. Yet he waits for recognition.
Nolan is in the same boat. His is a different world of grandiose epics where a bullet wound springs a man to life and where the labyrinth of the mind -- realistic or not -- is more vital than the clash of grand personas -- he saves that for the Batman pictures.
Can the dream world snuff the King and the indie with a heart? I'll go right out on a limb and say, "Yes."
- Matthew J. McCue
No comments:
Post a Comment