Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 9:36AM Season 5 starts now.
The first image of a film and the last line of dialogue.
"Breathe. Live."
Can you guess the movie?
Thanks to all you commenters for guessing. The answer is after the jump.
first and last Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 8:55AM 
Through inertia I was watching CBS this morning (must have been the last station I looked at last night) and I perked up because they were reporting on Banksy's street art spreading around Los Angeles in the buildup to Hollywood's High Holy Night (They didn't call it. But I always have).
So the lead in was this little preamble about stars and campaigns. 'Oscar campaigns. Though it can be embarrassing to beg for votes Oscar winners do' -- I'm paraphrasing. So in the video edit lead in they show Julia Roberts (okay, I get it) and two other super famous made themselves ubiquitous winners (I forget who. sorry) and... Mo'Nique? Really, CBS? Mo'Nique didn't beg for votes, baby!
"First I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance, and not the politics."
Then they had on an "Oscar Expert" (everyone calls themselves that on TV) and he predicted The King's Speech, Firth, Bale and that Leo's going to lose (he didn't settle on who would win instead)... and Annette Bening. I wish people would stop getting our hopes up about the Bening. It's like Billy said in the Spirit Awards comments...
To quote Teri Garr in Tootsie, "I just want my pain now.". That is how I feel about Bening's inevitable defeat at tomorrow's Oscars ceremony.
P.S. I will be blogging and tweeting tonight. Stay tuned.
Banksy, Mo'Nique, Oscars (10) Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 11:30PM As we close out the film year, moments from the 20th minute and 10th second of the films of 2010. Here's Mike Leigh's Another Year.
Mary: Brought you a little present, some thyme. It's nothing much.
Gerry: Lovely.
This is the first of many times we see Mary (Lesley Manville) visiting Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) at home. She always arrives frazzled and they're (almost) always welcoming. It's kind of great that the gift she brings is a homophone for something that she's so worried of running out of. They're all getting on in years.
Such a lovely film. It's up for the Screenplay Oscar. Did it ever make it to a theater near you?
Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 5:41PM Since they aren't airing the show live (it comes on at 10 PM EST) we shan't live-blog -- seriously in this day and age no live airing? Epic stupidity -- but we can share winners and talk about highlights after zee fact late tonight or tomorrow as we just skim through the show.
Jennifer Lawrence and Nicole Kidman, both nominated
Best First Screenplay Lena Durhman Tiny Furniture. Though she's already won the true prize: an HBO pilot deal. Tiny Furniture is quite singular and funny so check it out when you can.
Best Cinematography Matthew Libatique Black Swan. Yay! Single best thing about Black Swan if you ask me. He also won our gold medal.
Best Supporting Actress Dale Dicky in Winter's Bone. She puts the hurt on Lawrence so beautifully.
Best First Feature Aaron Schneider for Get Low. (Scott Cooper won this last year for Crazy Heart. Moral of the story: Find an old grizzly acting legend and you're newbie gold!)
Best Actor James Franco in 127 Hours. I'm so glad Colin Firth wasn't eligible. Firth was good in The King's Speech but so were a lot of people this year.
Best Documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. Mr Brainwash accepts the prize. Apparently goes on and on. Honestly I feel like I'm live blogging blindfolded. I hate tape delay. This is 2011. This is not my childhood with 3 television stations and friends who had something exotic called "cable"
Best Foreign Film The King's Speech. I guess it's too much to ask the masses to vote for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. And the masses can vote on the Spirits if they join. Which is, I think, why it's more like the Oscars than not of late.
Robert Altman Award to Please Give. Yay. It also made our best ensemble nominations. Have you seen it yet?
Cassavettes Awards Daddy Longlegs
Best Supporting Actor John Hawkes for Winter's Bone. It's turning into quite a "Weekend in the Ozarks" here. Is it too much to hope that Jennifer Lawrence wins too? A nice change of pace that'd be. And when there are so many hundreds of awards to win each year, why do they all gotta go to the same things?
Mark Ruffalo tweeted a beautiful congrats to his "opponent" and apparently friend.
John Hawkes is the Man. Congratulations brother. All our days in shitty little theaters back in the day paid off. Blessings!!
And he also snapped a photo of Lisa Cholodenko and her woman Wendy. The Cholodenkos Are All Right. Speaking of...
Best Screenplay Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for The Kids Are All Right
Best Actress Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Director Darren Aronofksy, Black Swan
Best Feature Black Swan
It started as a Winter's Bone evening and then sported a rash that quickly turned into black swan feathers.
And that's it. Now the show is but an afterthought. What strange programming decisions stations make of late. The things that IFC felt were more important to show during the actula awards were The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) and Boondock Saints (2000) which they have undoubtedly shown hundreds of times already.
Stranger still it seems my IFC is not working. Dang. I was really not meant to watch this. I shall dutifully wait to see YouTube videos of Dale Dickey and John Hawkes winning their well deserved prizes.
See also: THE NICOLE KIDMAN SPIRIT SHOW
Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 4:19PM Red Carpet Lineup! I wonder how various countries feel about their awards being referred to as "the _____ Oscars" all the time. It's as if America's 83 year old institution is the only film institution, all others being "spinoffs" or somesuch. I know it's just shorthand but I wonder. The French César Awards for example. How do they feel? And also: why did the César's get started so much later than the Oscars, with France being the birthplace of cinema and all? They didn't start until the mid 70s by which time Oscar was already a middle aged institution.
Polanski at the Césars in 2003 with Adrien Brody | Polanski with Nathalie Baye at the Césars in 2011.
Fast forward to now. Roman Polanski, who was the toast of the show in early 2003 for The Pianist was also a darling of the night in early 2011 for The Ghost Writer, repeating the pattern we've been seeing all awards season: The Ghost Writer is awards bait everywhere but in the U.S.
The Gallic stars came out to celebrate the Césars. Here's a sampling of stars, one American who speaks perfect French, winners, and also a quick layover in Japan. after the jump.
