{"id":36786,"date":"2024-03-10T05:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=36786"},"modified":"2024-03-20T19:58:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T19:58:20","slug":"the-failures-of-oppenheimer-and-the-ascent-of-the-foreign-film-6-essential-reads-for-the-oscars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-failures-of-oppenheimer-and-the-ascent-of-the-foreign-film-6-essential-reads-for-the-oscars\/","title":{"rendered":"The failures of \u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 and the ascent of the foreign film \u2013 6 essential reads for the\u00a0Oscars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nick Lehr<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because movies are so subjective, with views on the same performances and direction veering wildly from one critic to the next, determining the best of anything \u2013 whether it\u2019s acting, direction or sound design \u2013 can be fraught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that controversy also makes for good drama and suspense \u2013 fitting for a ceremony celebrating the ways in which actors, directors and cinematographers captivate, move and thrill audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So before you tune into Hollywood\u2019s biggest night of the year, here are five recent stories \u2013 and one betting tip \u2013 about the films, fashion and actors who will be featured at this year\u2019s show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Can you want an Oscar too much?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As Michael Schulman, author of \u201cOscar Wars<\/a>,\u201d has written, the Academy Awards are not exactly a \u201cbarometer of artistic merit or worth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, in the months leading up to the Oscars, there\u2019s a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking as studios and producers make the case for why their writers, directors, cinematographers, costume designers and actors should win the top prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the actors will make the case themselves. In recent years, more and more will promote the extent to which they prepared for their roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have heard that Cillian Murphy lost 20 pounds and took up smoking (fake) cigarettes to play nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, or that Bradley Cooper spent six years training in the art of conducting in order to film a key scene as Leonard Bernstein in \u201cMaestro<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anecdotes are supposed to burnish their Oscar credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should they?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, the media loves these kinds of stories, and they can demonstrate a certain type of commitment,\u201d writes Holy Cross theater professor Scott Malia<\/a>. \u201cBut they can also paint actors as pampered and pretentious \u2018artistes\u2019 whose process is self-indulgent. A working actor struggling to pay the bills doesn\u2019t have the luxury of, say, insisting that everyone address them by their character\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The anti-\u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 crowd<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cOppenheimer<\/a>\u201d is the runaway favorite to be named best picture, according to Vegas Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if The Conversation\u2019s coverage of the film is any indication, it doesn\u2019t deserve the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Thorpe<\/a> \u2013 a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego \u2013 explores why J. Robert Oppenheimer, in particular, has become the focus of so much writing on the bomb<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, it\u2019s a lot easier to digest the complexities of science, politics and human suffering through an individual \u2013 \u201ca human-scaled way to talk about an otherwise overwhelming topic,\u201d as Thorpe puts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on the other hand, Thorpe argues that American culture\u2019s \u201cfascination with the man behind the bomb often seems to eclipse the horrific reality of nuclear weapons themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Few new insights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Michigan State University historian Naoko Wake<\/a> also takes issue with what she calls the \u201cinward-looking\u201d nature of \u201cOppenheimer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like so many other films about the bomb, Nolan applies a distinctly Western lens that, in Wake\u2019s view, has become cloudy and cracked from overuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the film\u2019s tension hinges on decisions made by Americans, for Americans, offering \u201cfew, if any, new insights about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their repercussions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if this film is seen purely through the lens of entertainment,\u201d Wake adds, \u201cNolan could have chosen to recognize why the bombs are such a galvanizing subject to begin with: They have done much, much more than make white, middle-class Americans feel anxious or guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir blasts reverberated across the globe,\u201d she continues, \u201ctearing apart not only America\u2019s wartime enemies but also colonized peoples and racial minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Foreign films take center stage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But for all the concern about American perspectives dominating interpretations of history, there\u2019s been a striking shift in the film industry, which has taken a decidedly international turn over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, three non-English language films \u2013 \u201cAnatomy of a Fall,\u201d \u201cPast Lives\u201d and \u201cThe Zone of Interest\u201d \u2013 have been nominated for best picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/a>
Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song wrote and directed \u2018Past Lives,\u2019 which is one of three non-English language films nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards. Mat Hayward\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miami University film studies scholar Kerry Hegarty<\/a> tells the story of how non-English cinema has been gradually folded in the ceremonies \u2013 boxed out at first, eventually given its own category and finally winning best picture in 2020, when \u201cParasite\u201d won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegarty explains how this didn\u2019t happen naturally<\/a>; it took work. State-sponsored programs supporting filmmakers in foreign countries played a big role, as did changes in the demographic makeup of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStreaming distribution has also democratized access to non-English language cinema,\u201d she adds, \u201cwhich was previously limited only to niche audiences in art house theaters in large cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. The guardians of glamour<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the early years of the Academy Awards, what people wore to the event received little attention. In fact, even after televisions landed in millions of living rooms across the U.S., movie fans couldn\u2019t watch the Oscars on TV: The film industry resisted broadcasting the event on the medium it saw as its top competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That all changed once Hollywood ran into some financial trouble in the late 1940s and needed television networks to help pay for the annual event. All of a sudden, how movie stars appeared at the event mattered \u2013 and studios decided that this eccentric coterie needed some corralling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter Edith Head, guardian of glamour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of Southern California fashion scholar Elizabeth Castaldo Lund\u00e9n<\/a> tells the story of how Head \u2013 and, later, Fred Hayman \u2013 maintained boundaries of decorum, while also encouraging stars to showcase the latest luxury trends and attire, turning the event into a dazzling fashion spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. 92 years old, 54 nominations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When 92-year-old composer John Williams strolls up to Hollywood\u2019s Dolby Theatre, he\u2019ll be looking to secure his sixth gold statuette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a while since Williams\u2019 last win \u2013 exactly 30 years, when he won best original score for \u201cSchindler\u2019s List\u201d in 1994. Nonetheless, Williams holds the record for most nominations for a living person, with 54.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Elderly
Composer John Williams will be looking to take home his sixth Academy Award. Williams holds the record for most nominations for a living person, with 54. Shannon Finney\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rice University music professor Arthur Gottschalk<\/a> looks back on Williams\u2019 illustrious career<\/a> and explains how the composer\u2019s suite for \u201cE.T.\u201d burnished his reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was it Williams\u2019 first score to be embraced by concert orchestras, but it also changed the way director Steven Spielberg edited the film, \u201cinverting the normal relationship between director and composer,\u201d Gottschalk writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scoring of the finale,\u201d he continues, \u201cin which protagonist Elliott and his friends help the alien escape captivity, is so effective that Spielberg re-cut the end of the film to match Williams\u2019 music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation\u2019s archives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Lehr<\/a>, Arts + Culture Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Lehr, The Conversation Because movies are so subjective, with views on the same performances and direction veering wildly from one critic to the next, determining the best of anything \u2013 whether it\u2019s acting, direction or sound design \u2013 can be fraught. But that controversy also makes for good drama and suspense \u2013 fitting for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":36787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[15356,11156,11104,15354,15355,2275,839,15352,15351,1409,15349,15350,15353,15357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36863,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36786\/revisions\/36863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}