Friday, March 6, 2009

The Quad Newsletter

Remember I mentioned The Quad, and Elliot Kanbar's email newsletter in an earlier post? He always summarizes what's playing at the theater, and ends the newsletter with an interesting commentary. Here's this weeks offering (and p.s. I think he's right about all of them):

THE LAST WORD (AT LAST) ABOUT THE OSCAR WINNERS. Matt Damon recently remarked that "the only way to judge movies is at least 15 years down the line. You'll be able to see if the films and performances endured, divorced from the heat of the race and the craziness of the costly Oscar campaigns".

The magazine "Entertainment Today" launched an extensive survey asking Academy members: " In the last 15 Oscar races would you vote today for the same performers and films who won then?" Here are some answers including some of my own.

I think it should have been:

RALPH FIENNES ("Schindler's List") over Tommy Lee Jones ("The Fugitive") for Best Supporting Actor. 1993.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN over "Shakespeare In Love" for Best Picture. 1998.

CATE BLANCHETT ("Elizabeth") over Gwyneth Paltrow ("Shakespeare In Love") for Best Actress.1998.

KATE WINSLET ("Sense and Sensibilites") over Mira Sorvino ("Mighty Aphrodite") for Best Supporting Actress. 1995.

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS ("Gangs of New York") over Adrien Brody ("The Pianist") for Best Actor. 2002.

SEAN PENN ("Dead Man Walking") over Nicolas Cage ("Leaving Las Vegas") for Best Actor. 1993.

EDWARD NORTON ("American History") over Roberto Benigni ("Life is Beautiful") for Best Actor. 1998.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. What interests me most about this is how little difference it would make to me WHO won any of the above! Except for the last two; I do think that Sean Penn deserved one, over anyone, for Dead Man Walking, and though I didn't see the Ed Norton movie, I think ANYONE deserved it over the excrable "Life is Sweet" Benigni (he's actually an amazingly talented clown (see Down by Law and Night on Earth), but I HATED that movie!). But, overall - who cares about the Oscars? is my main take-away.

Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn said...

i actually agree on the who cares front, but i do get annoyed when unworthy type stuff gets lauded. i gagged over shakespeare in love and loathed precious paltrow, so to see her build a zillion dollar career on the whole thing, and not see blanchett recognized, annoyed me. blanchett has done fine, but still. it's the icky crassness of it all that bothers me. i thought sean penn was AMAZING in that movie, and agree with you. and benigni...he's always gotten on my nerves. he's like the italian jerry lewis...i just don't get him. maybe i just haven't seen the right stuff. first saw him with an italian boyfriend in gianni stichinno (sp?)...italian boyfriend was rolling, i was looking at my watch.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever seen "Down By Law"? It's a pretty funny movie, and he is very funny in it. For me, anyway - if you don't like him in that one, I'd say you just don't like him!

Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn said...

nope, have not seen down by law, but i'll put it on my netlfix list.