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February 25, 2007

Pre Oscar musings from the NYT's Carpetbagger

The New York Times is covering the Oscars via a blog called "The Carpetbagger," and the pre-event article pretty much sums up my thoughts on taking pictures of celebrities at big entertainment spectacles and awards ceremonies. I've only done the Geminis, which is the low-rent Canadian television version of the Emmys, but the article hits home on a number of points, such as the fact that very little actual reporting goes on, and that some people are secretly (or not so secretly) excited at seeing and photographing a bunch of celebs, and some (like the Carpetbagger himself) aren't as blown away by the star power on display.

I fall firmly into the second camp....though I've taken some pictures of celebrities while I've been doing my Metro gig, I found that any sense of nervousness (or for that matter, shame) approaching them for a photo or interview evaporates pretty quickly when it's your job. Doesn't stop me from taking the odd triumphantly nerdy photo, but generally it's just a gig.

Still, I think that's probably why tonight, for the first time in a decade, I'm not going to bother watching the Oscar telecast. Having seen similar pomp and circumstance firsthand, I'm pretty much satisfied to check the results on the net when I get home from dinner with friends. And since Return of the King swept the Oscars when it was nominated, my sense of nerd justice was long ago satisfied.

Still, we've had pretty good comment threads in previous years during the Oscars, so feel free to throw in your rants, raves, praise and derision at this year's Bill Conti-scored mayhem.

14 comment(s) so far (Post your own)

1

On February 25, 2007 6:43 PM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

Yay. Pan's Labyrinth has taken the first two Oscars of the night: art direction and makeup. Nah, take that Chris! Pretty amazing for a low budget movie, rumoured to be below $10M. I'm still frustrated by the showing of the movie Chris and I went to--the picture was annoyingly out-of-focus.

2

On February 25, 2007 9:18 PM, G of T said:

Scorcese! Finally!!!!

3

On February 25, 2007 9:21 PM, G of T said:

Yeah, I totally spelled that wrong.

4

On February 25, 2007 9:30 PM, Warren Frey said:

Just walked in on Scorcese getting his just reward after a multi-decade shafting. I think I pretty much watched this show in the best way possible! I also told my girlfriend that when Coppola, Lucas and Speilberg showed up on stage, I had a total film nerd boner. :)

5

On February 25, 2007 9:39 PM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

Who's this Scorsese guy? Seems like a Woody Allen impersonator.

6

On February 25, 2007 9:39 PM, Chris Burgess said:

Film nerd boner? That's... quite the mental image.

Scorcese winning was a nice thing... The Departed was a very decent show to say the least, although it smacked of a pity/making it up kind of Oscar (though they didn't do it for O'Toole, so maybe that wasn't the case).

Pan's Labyrinth... yeah, I didn't like it. I didn't hate it though. It had a cool, unique style and it was decent. It deserved the artsy awards. My biggest problems were with the writing, as I noted to Jean-Paul after leaving the theatre.

7

On February 25, 2007 9:47 PM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

Wow. Yeah, I forgot just why you disliked Pan's Labyrinth, Chris. I thought the writing was very good and crucial to the success of the film, just as with a typical low budget Doctor Who. Very emotionally powerful and adult ending, as it had to be--the real world is not a fairy tale. I did find it funny how you didn't want to go to the movie, deriding it as a kiddlie movie (i.e. no guns), then critiquing it for being needlessly violent after seeing it.

8

On February 25, 2007 9:53 PM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

Yes, it's nice to see Scorcese and his film, the Departed, win the big awards. Believe it or not, it's the only one of his movies I have ever seen! I thought it was good, but perhaps not Best Picture Oscar good. This is perhaps the first time of actually seen a Best Picture winner before the awards show!

9

On February 25, 2007 10:07 PM, Warren Frey said:

Holy crap, please don't tell me you've seen Goodfellas and not liked it.....that's madness!

10

On February 25, 2007 11:01 PM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

Nope, I've not seen Goodfellas to not like it. ;-)

11

On February 25, 2007 11:22 PM, Chris Burgess said:

I'll see to it he gets some Scorcese stuff to watch in time. =)

Ah, Goodfellas... I don't care how late it is, how edited it is, how fuzzy the TV might be, if I see it on the tube at any time, it's a given I'll be watching it until the end regardless of when I notice it. I can take or leave some of his films (like Raging Bull, or Casino which is essentially Goodfellas Revisited... although the vice torture scene from it is burned in my grey matter) but there are some of his films which I just can't turn away from.

12

On February 25, 2007 11:25 PM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

I get the sense that Scorcese is essential viewing for any red blooded hetero male, not that I aspire to this stereotype. I gather none of these are chick flicks, despite Leo being in many of them! ;-)

13

On February 26, 2007 7:20 AM, Warren Frey said:

I only saw Forest Whitaker acepting his best actor award onwards, but I have to say Whitaker's speech was heartfelt, and it was nice to hear Scorcese finally get to give his acceptance speech too.

But if you want a Scorcese chick flick, Age of Innocence is actually pretty good. Daniel Day Lewis in a role about as far from Bill the Butcher as you can possibly get. :)

14

On February 26, 2007 10:58 AM, Jean-Paul Samson said:

Oh, okay. Then I have seen two Scorcese films: The Departed and Age of Innocence.

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