Berenice Bejo - Tumblr Posts
State Of Mind: "The 2012 Oscars"
So, the Oscars were yesterday, and, considering my blog is at least partially film-based, I feel I should chime in. The ceremony as a whole was kind of bland. Billy Crystal wasn't bad, but he wasn't great either. I think after least year's disaster of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, they just wanted a bit of stability back. In terms of the awards and winners, I have a few qualms.
The first one is for a somewhat minor category. Why didn't "Tree of Life" win Best Cinematography? The film was almost completely cinematography and beautiful images! I just didn't get it.
The second is that I think "Bridesmaids" should have won for Best Screenplay. "Midnight in Paris" is good and all, but it's basically Woody Allen being Woody Allen. "Bridesmaids", on the other hand, is truly original. It takes standard romantic comedy tropes and subverts and deconstructs them. Every usual comedic situation makes sense in context and has real world implications. The relationship between Annie and Lilian is the core of the film, and their interactions are based in how people actually talk. The characters are all well-rounded and well-written. How does the script that served as a milestone in the discussion of women in comedy not win?
My next two gripes might just be interlocked. The first is that I think Berenice Bejo should have won for Best Supporting Actress. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved Octavia Spencer in "The Help". She was funny, moving, and provocative. However, I felt as though I really connected with Berenice. I became emotionally invested in her relationship with Jean Dujardin's character. When she cried, I felt like crying, and, when she laughed, it made me happy. I wanted them together in the end, and I was actually worried that they might not make it. That's a level of involvement that I just didn't feel with Octavia's character, which I think has more to do with the writing than her portrayal.
My biggest complaint is that Viola Davis did not win Best Actress. Again, I absolutely adore Meryl Streep. She is brilliant in pretty much every role she's ever been given, and she deserves every nomination she gets. However, therein lies the problem. She gets tons of nominations because she gets tons of opportunities to show her stuff. Viola Davis is a slightly older black woman. How many good and powerful leading roles are written for women like her? This was the academy's opportunity to give it to someone new, someone who may not get a chance like this again for a long time. It was bad enough that, not so long ago, they passed over Gabourey Sidibe's incredible debut in "Precious", a movie centered almost entirely around black people, to give the Oscar to Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side", the movie about a white family saving the black kid. Instead, they did exactly what they did this year: they nominated the two black female leads for the Supporting and Lead categories, gave it to the Supporting Actress, and then snubbed the Lead Actress. In fact, they would have made history by giving Viola the Oscar. She would have been only the second black woman ever, after Halle Berry, to win the Oscar for Best Leading Actress. Wasn't that reason enough to give her the Oscar? That's not even mentioning the performance itself. It did to me exactly what Berenice's performance did: it made me get invested in the fate of the character. She was flawless, and that final scene (which I won't spoil here) is one of the few movie moments to almost make me cry. Just to be clear, I've never cried at a movie before, so the movie and performances that bring me close to it ("Toy Story 3", "Up", Viola Davis in "The Help", Berenice Bejo in "The Artist") are very impressive to me.
I thought that this was definitely Viola's year. It was their chance to reward a brilliant actress for her amazing role in a very good movie. Instead, they chose the safe nominee. That's probably the best word that I can use to describe this year's Oscars: safe. From the host to the winners, everything was being played safe and simple. Some of the nominees were interesting (Jonah Hill, Melissa McCarthy, and "Bridesmaids"'s screenplay come to mind), but it just felt kind of dull overall. I am disappointed in you, Oscars. Viola will hopefully have her moment, it just wasn't last night.