In the past few days, the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard should be getting busy. On March 10, local time (March 11, Beijing time), the 96th Academy Awards will be held there.
At the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, workers should have finished installing the red carpet aisle. One year I was in Los Angeles, and workers started setting up the stage there more than a month ago.
This Oscar is a big year for the mind. Among the nominations, "Oppenheimer", "Zone of Interest", "Poor Thing" and "Barbie" are all remarkable, and all have concepts worth exploring. In comparison, the confessional narrative of "Killers of the Flower Moon " appears to be quite satisfactory and less eye-catching.
This year's Oscar Best Picture nominees list: "American Novel", "Judgment of the Fall", "Barbie", "Oppenheimer", "Poor Thing", "Past Life", "Zone of Interest", "Stay in School" and "Maestro" "Killers of the Flower Moon", ten films in total.
" Oppenheimer " raises the difficult problems of facing evil fascism and the difficult ethical choices of manufacturing and using atomic bombs. "Zone of Interest" describes how those evil murderers settled their minds and how they used superb psychological techniques to elegantly shield and isolate the gunshots next door and the firelight of the crematorium. "Poor Thing" is more avant-garde and more complex than " Barbie ". It is a dark fairy tale that combines various elements and is difficult to classify. It is a cult female film.
It gives me very complicated feelings. It is a perfect mix of strangeness, violence, confusion, and blackness. It seamlessly blends fun and disgusting. Its absurdist horror is very charming, and its surreal black humor makes us, the audience, not sure how to deal with it. It actually uses the Frankenstein story to talk about women's rights, sex, and political economy. The heroine Bella takes the initiative to enter the brothel to pick up customers. She declares: "We are our own means of production."
Bella is extremely rebellious and free, breaking the stereotyped female image everywhere. This work has a charming absurdist thriller, and its surreal black humor leaves us wondering how to deal with it.
"Poor Thing" is full of dark environments and weird plots. Some comments said that the raincoat symbolizes condoms.
Now let’s talk about my predictions for the Oscars. This prediction also includes my personal expectations. Let’s see how accurate they are.
The Oscar for best picture in my heart is of course "Oppenheimer". The nuclear bomb problem it raised is being answered in the current real world.
Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, is genius, melancholic, naive, and full of idealistic vision of the world.
The best director must be Christopher Nolan. Among the best director nominees this year, the one who can compete with Nolan is Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek director of "Poor Things." If the judges collectively pursue pioneers, seek new ideas, and consider sharing candies to balance and prevent Nolan from winning too many awards, then Lanthimos will be selected for Best Director in the end, and the 10,000 or so Oscar judges will not It's a shame.
Best Director nominees: Justine Trier, "Judgment of the Fall"; Martin Scorsese, "Killers of the Flower Moon"; Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer"; Yorgos Lansmore "Poor Thing" by Jonathan Glazer; "Zone of Interest" by Jonathan Glazer.
But in fact, the Oscars cannot achieve balance. It is a democratic system of auditions and cannot form an overall will for human intervention. In 2001, I predicted that Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" would win both Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film. A friend came to me and asked me, if you said that two major awards would be given to one film, wouldn't they? Are you paying attention to balance? This is a failure to understand the Oscar audition system. The normal state of the Oscars is turbulence in various directions, but there will never be a human-oriented theme will. This is the fundamental difference between the Oscar 10,000 jury audition and the small committee film awards. Sure enough, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won both awards that year.
The best editing is still "Oppenheimer". In 2017, "DUNKIRK" directed by Nolan won the best editing award.I didn't predict it then. In fact, the editor is also the director and screenwriter. When I was filming a TV series, I used to edit the films myself, but then the school leaders stopped me. Movies are born on the editing table, and this editing award is also given to the director. When we watch some films, we will know that the director must be sitting next to the editing table during post-production, such as Wong Kar-wai. "Oppenheimer" is just that, two hearings, cut quickly, jumpyly, clearly and concisely, and cut out a multi-faceted and internally tangled Oppenheimer.
In the Oscar selection, the importance of Best Actress is second only to Best Picture. This year's best actress is either Sister Shitou or a husband-killing female writer. Emma Stone, known as Sister Stone, starred in "Poor Thing"; Sandra Wheeler played a husband-murder suspect in "The Fall". This film has been imported into China and will be released at the end of this month. But I didn't like that story.
Best Actress nominees: Annette Bening, "Ned"; Lily Gladstone, "Killers of the Flower Moon"; Sandra Wheeler, "Judgement Falls"; Carey Mulligan, "The Music Master" "; Emma Stone, "Poor Thing."
I once specifically said in a short video that the best actress should go to Emma Stone. If Sister Stone does not win the best actress, I will give each of the 10,000 Oscar judges a negative review. "Poor Things" is a cult chick flick that's uncomfortable to watch. In terms of performance and theme concepts, both Sister Shitou and the movie itself are groundbreaking and have shocking highlights.
This Frankenstein story calls for feminist consciousness, explores male power, and promotes female subjectivity. Next to the smiling face of "Barbie", Sister Shitou made a weird face. Emma Stone is not only naked here, she has crazy sex, masturbates, works as a prostitute, and plays with the penis of a dead body. However, Bella's various lovemaking and manual self-excitement here are by no means to satisfy men's desire to watch porn. Being able to make sex look like a horror movie is definitely the skill of the director and Emma Stone.
The lead actress in "Killers of the Flower Moon" deserves a big win, and I think she just got the job done.
The heroine of "Killers of the Flower Moon" is the Indian woman Molly played by Lily Gladstone.
Yes, Sandra Wheeler's performance in "The Trial of the Fall" is brilliant, but the story is a falling design. It has a strong sense of fabrication, using an impossible fall to cram in so many topics. I'm always not a big fan of stories where writers, screenwriters, and directors are the protagonists. I always feel like they're narcissistic.
But my prediction is that Sandra Wheeler will be chosen. Not because of "Falling Judgment" for which she was nominated, but because of her wonderful performance in "Profit Zone". Her role and performance in that film far exceeded "Judgment of the Fall". Although the crew of "Zone of Interest" did not give Sandra Wheeler the acting award, the judges will automatically bring her performance here into the selection.
Here, Sandra Wheeler is the wife of Haus, the concentration camp commander. She was proud to be the Queen of Auschwitz. The entire film is a warm and harmonious family life drama. They live a peaceful daily life, swimming, picnicking and growing flowers. Mrs. House will try on a fur coat, where's the carnage? Next to their courtyard wall. From the music and gunshots and screams in the background, and the thick smoke coming out of the chimneys, we know that the murderous plan formulated by the Wannsee Conference is being carried out there. We saw a servant pushing a trolley to fertilize the flowers. What were those gray fertilizers? In this heartwarming, everyday horror film, Sandra Wheeler's concentration camp queen leaves us wondering, where did the fur coat come from? What are those stoves next to her house doing that are burning and smoking day and night?
Sandra Wheeler plays the wife of Auschwitz Commander House in "Zone of Interest". The director did not emphasize where the fur coat came from. She was very satisfied when she tried it on. She even took out an unused lipstick from her pocket and applied it on herself. It should have belonged to the previous owner of the coat.
Best Supporting Actress should be given to Emily Blunt . She played Oppenheimer's wife coldly and explosively. In the end, she looked coldly at Edward Teller, the "father of the hydrogen bomb," and refused to shake his hand. That look is definitely powerful.
Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer's wife in "Oppenheimer".
Best Supporting Actress nominees: Emily Blunt "Oppenheimer"; Danielle Brooks "The Color Purple"; America Ferrera "Barbie"; Jodie Foster "Navy" "Germany"; Damien Joy Randolph, "The Stay-In-School Alliance".
Best Actor is Cillian Murphy. If someone else is selected on March 10, it will be a collective shame for so many Oscar judges and a collective lack of feeling. Performing a close-up in front of Nolan's big camera, another person would have had his facial muscles twitch.
Best Actor nominees: Bradley Cooper "Music Master"; Colman Domingo "Rustin"; Paul Giamatti "Stay in School"; Cillian Moore Fei "Oppenheimer"; Jeffrey White "American Novel".
Best Supporting Actor, very shameful, very unbalanced, it will still be from "Oppenheimer" Robert Downey Jr. , his performance as General Strauss gave Oppenheimer his unobtrusive performance Dig a hole.
Robert Downey Jr. plays General Strauss in "Oppenheimer." Best Supporting Actor Nominations: Sterling K. Brown, "American Novel"; Robert De Niro, "Killers of the Flower Moon"; Robert Downey Jr., "Oppenheimer"; Ryan Gosling, "Barbie"; Mark "Poor Thing" by Ruffalo.
Best Original Screenplay should be blank this year. The nominated films are either trials carefully constructed by the screenwriters' wishful thinking, or, like "May and December", they are consumer-themed stories about old cows eating young grass. I guess the final review was "Judgment of the Fall", or "The Music Master", which was not very popular.
Best adapted screenplay, probably for "Oppenheimer". There is a film that probably won't win the Screenwriting Award, but it's worth mentioning. This film is an unbridled satire on the political correctness of the United States, and ends with an absolutely exaggerated and ironic action comedy. It made me laugh out loud.
For the best photography, I hope it is "Poor Things". Its visual treatment is novel and weird at every turn. It puts forward challenging concepts in terms of sex, women, and artificial humans. But, I guess the judges will pick "Oppenheimer."
Best art direction, I also hope it is "Poor Things". The judge's audition result won't be "Oppenheimer", right? In fact, giving it to "Barbie" is more deserving than giving it to "Oppenheimer." This art director used to be listed as art director in Chinese film credits. I have also seen some movies with the title "art designer" in the subtitles. In fact, this person is very important. Everything that enters the camera, except the human body, is under his control. Visual design, exterior construction, interior scenery, costumes, makeup, props, rain and snow are all his job. Think about how much praise Hu Ge 's clothes have won in the TV series "花花".
Best international film, I hope it is "Zone of Interest", if the judges are serious about watching the film, they should also give it. It is a companion volume to " Wanhu Conference ". That is the doctors in the conference room operating sophisticated killing machines. This "zone of interest" is the family life with flowers blooming outside the high walls of Auschwitz. They're all thrilling, they're all hair-raising horror movies. The conceptual challenge it poses is very hard-core: how do those evil, evil-doing mediocre people settle their own souls.
In "Zone of Interest", the flowers planted by Mrs. House are fertilized with human ashes. What matches this scene is the screams of the people on the other side of the wall.
Best Sound Effect. I have never cared about this award before. This year there is a "Zone of Interest" award, and I will firmly vote for it. I'm worried that most of the judges' artistic sense is not that keen, and the vote will still be given to "Oppenheimer."The sound effects of "Zone of Interest" are absolutely outstanding. It is a play, a director, and a theme. It uses sound to creatively present the evil banality under totalitarianism and writes the heartwarming story of the commander of Auschwitz. Family routine.
Hao Jian
editor-in-chief Chen Lingling
