There were so many good questions this week for the Q&A that we had to do this twice. Here are more questions asked of your host Nathaniel, and now answered. Thanks for being engaged readers!
Nicole & Ewan at MTV Movie Awards 2002Since there's been talk of how sweet it would be to see Leo and Kate both win Oscars this year, I've been thinking about recent screen couples that have captured audiences' imaginations in that way, that people would love to see win Oscars at the same time and I couldn't think of any quite on that level. Are there any post-Titanic screen couples you think of as legendary pop culture pairings? -EDWIN
Had Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor ever reteamed post Moulin Rouge! I think they might have become a screen couple like that. The fact that they haven't is a tragedy since we will love them until their dying day. You could argue that Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) qualify. I think if Heath Ledger were still alive this might have happened with him and Jake Gyllenhaal since they're both such tremendous actors and liked each other quite a lot. It would have been fascinating to see them co-star in a second film in a totally different genre.
The Film Experience is 1000% behind today's Hollywood realizing that reteaming stars who had insane chemistry is one of the best traditions of Old Hollywood. It's not only fun for fans, it's also marketable! Wouldn't you be so excited if Kate & Leo made a comedy together in 2018?
What's your favorite performance given by an animal actor? -TYLER
Asta as "Mr Smith" from The Awful Truth (1937) which is my first or second or third* favorite screwball comedy of all time. (It's hard to decide because they're so many great ones)
If it was up to you to decide, would you release the official vote counts from old Oscar ceremonies? Or would that take away the fun of endless speculating? is there a particular race you would want to know the official tally? - MARCELO
The answer and more after the jump...
Don't you love the way Nicole says "Oscah"? (Watching old Oscar clips is so otherworldy sometimes; see Heath Ledger clapping with date Naomi Watts, who starts the standing ovation (!); Julianne looks 12 years younger (um...); Alec Baldwin brought his brother Stephen!
In truth it's only emotionally right and culturally just that they don't release them. Ever. Otherwise it turns a rare honor into a potentially shaming thing -- imagine someone or something awesome getting only a few votes from thousands?!? Or imagine the agony of knowing someone who should have won lost by only a razor thin margin? BUT OF COURSE I WANT TO KNOW. I'm most curious about the numbers in presumably tight races like Best Picture '13 & '72, Best Actress of '50, '88, and '07, Supporting Actress '07 & '88, Supporting Actor '12, and both the Sean Penn years '03 & '08 in Best Actor since he had once-in-a-lifetime performances as rivals.
Given the landscape of the cinema world of 2015, who do YOU think would best personify the year, and therefore present the award for Best Motion Picture in two weeks? - DAN
I'm not sure I can jibe with this question since that's not how I would determine who gave the Best Picture award each year. The awards themselves personify the year in question so the rest of the ceremony should connect the current year of cinema to its past and future (which is why they should look at ascending stars more often than presenter mainstays like, I dunno, Cameron Diaz or Salma Hayek... for the regular awards).
I would determine who presented Best Picture in one of two ways and both involve achieving legend status. It should be an older woman for the next several years to counteract the many years of the Jack Nicholsons and such. Some perfect choices: Meryl Streep, Catherine Deneuve, Shirley Maclaine, Dames Judi & Maggie. I could go on. Or since they moved the Honorary Oscar off the air, they could just have one of those recipients present Best Picture each year. I mean why not give the honor to Spike Lee & Gena Rowlands, you know? People always argue you need a household name... but why are we catering to people who aren't into the mystique and legend of the movies? Serve your loyal audience!
Or, here's a perfect solution: Give the honor to Carrie Fisher, General Leia herself in the year's biggest behemoth Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and her mother Debbie Reynolds who just won an Honorary; that'd serve both your suggestion and the history of cinema function that we believe in here for Best Picture.
If the Oscars for a given year were decided ten years after the fact, do you think Brokeback Mountain would be nearing its Oscar win or would Crash still get the gold? (Is there any film from the 2005 lineup that you think wouldn't have be nominated?) -EVAN
Brokeback Mountain would obviously win the prize and Memoirs of a Geisha wouldn't be stealing its tech prizes, either. In most years the prize winner and some of the nominees would be different if they had ten years to consider it. That said 2005 wasn't a particularly strong year so the Best Picture field might not change all that much. I'd like to think that The New World, Pride & Prejudice, and A History of Violence would fair better now that a decade has passed but people don't seem to talk about any of them that much so maybe not? I still think they're all better than that entire Best Picture field save Brokeback.
What do you think of The Grifters (1990)? I just recently saw it and think it's glorious for its greek tragedy meets pulp fiction style. Hands on Anjelica Huston's second best work (after Morticia of course) and The Bening is such a hoot! - FADHIL
I love The Grifters like crazy (we write about it sometimes) and think it's Anjelica's best onscreen work, period. She would be my Best Actress winner that year with Meryl Streep a close second. Back in 1990 before I was writing about the movies it was in my Best Picture ballot (I started making those as soon as I understood what the Oscars were). People don't realize this but if you look at the navigation bar of this site there's a pull down for "top tens" and you can see different years there.
I recently went through a lot of Kurosawa's filmography and realized I've never heard you discuss him. What do you think of him as a writer/director? Favourites of his work? - MDA
The first one I ever saw was Yojimbo but I remember almost nothing about it. That's true for a few others too which I saw in my first flush of cinephilia. My favorite is currently Ran (1985) but I have to admit that I've never been as gaga as you're supposed to be for either Rashomon (1950) or Seven Samurai (1954). I have a soft spot for Dreams (1990) if only because I first saw it in Japanese with Norwegian subtitles and that was OK since Kurosawa is such a visual god. I'm considering doing either Throne of Blood (1957) or Kagemusha (1980) for Hit Me With Your Best Shot this year since we haven't done a Kurosawa and those are the two I feel worst about not having seen yet.
Since it's an election year I was wondering what is your favorite political film? - TYSON
I am cuckoo crazy for Nashville (1975). I like to steal Nick Davis's quote on that one whenever people bring it up "I want to rub that movie all over me". In some ways the politics are background atmosphere in that movie so if you don't accept that answer I'll take either Reds (1981) for my epic drama or Election (1999) which rules the satiric subgenre.
Is it just me or do this decade's Best Picture winners feel more forgettable than usual? If The Revenant wins this year, could we be in for the worst streak of winners since ... the '80s? -ANDY
As someone who unashamedly loved The Artist (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013) AND Birdman (2014), naturally I don't feel this way. But I understand the frustration as I've had runs like that with Oscar myself. I have given up hope on Spotlight winning this year because I respect it and the other two frontrunners I don't like and it hasn't happened in quite a while that I've disliked a Best Picture winner (Slumdog Millionaire I guess) so it's past time and the winner will be The Big Short or The Revenant.
We know you read other film/tv sites and link to interesting stuff weekly, but do you listen to other performing arts-related podcasts, and if so, what are your favorites? -Pam
I don't so much read other film sites faithfully as "keep an eye on them" though I like certain writers here and there a lot. As for the second half of the question I don't actually listen to podcasts. I know that's weird. I blame this on my lack of a commute because I work from home and I absolutely cannot listen to people talking while doing anything else -- not a multi-tasker in that way. But every once in a while I am reminded they exist and listen to "You Must Remember This" because it's really good.
READERS - YOUR TURN. We' d love to hear
a) which podcasts you consider essential
b) which Oscar contests you'd like to see a vote count on
c) what your favorite political films are (it's a subgenre I haven't really spent a lot of time with)
d) which screen couples post-Titanic you'd argue for as iconic or "could get there with a re-team"