Oscars 2007

Last Sunday I met with some Pittsburgher friends to watch the Oscar parade on television. They decided to bet on the competitors, for each category. We filled the Excel sheet they had prepared (wow!) and we all put 1 $: the first and only prize was a free access to the movie theater. I had actually seen only a half of the movies “in the arena”, so I didn’t bet at all in several minor categories. The only movie I had really enjoyed was Babel, by Alehandro Gonzales Inarritu: so, if you have followed the Oscars, you can imagine which could have been my final ranking. I ended up to be the last one classified out of about 15 people (only 8% of right guesses). Which other possible justifications besides the bed result of Babel? I could comment, paralleling Aesop’s tell “The fox and the grapes”, that I am not really interested in the Oscars – and yes I do really prefer European film festivals! – : in facts, I spent half of the Oscar night playing table tennis in the basement with a couple of other guys.

Shortcuts of my impressions about this Oscar edition: The Departed, by Martin Scorsese, was a fair movie. Good idea, well directed, good rhythm, but the last 10 minutes spoiled the entire picture. And I think it’s a limited movie, lacking of an own weltanschauung, of a more broad meaning or message. I really appreciated the performance of Leo Di Caprio, who unfortunately didn’t win (I generally like Forrest Whitaker, but I didn’t watch “The last king of Scotland). Scorsese is a great director, and he had to get the prize, that’s it! Babel was not very new in his format (and it seemed to me less perfect than “Crash”), but had a human tension and was very well built. Little Miss Sunshine was a very nice little movie, even if I found it kind of slow in some parts. I have not seen Pan’s Labyrinth, by Guillermo Del Toro, which got several prizes as well, and I haven't watched yet An inconvenient truth, by Al Gore. Did you?

Anyway, I really don’t know if you cared about my opinion…if you didn’t, let’s hear yours!