Oscar Spotlight: Christopher Nolan
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
You know that kid in high school who was ridiculously talented but a little too genius to be able to fit in with the cool kids? British director Christopher Nolan is the film industry equivalent of that kid.Nolanites will remember only too clearly when his incredible superhero allegory The Dark Knight failed to be nominated for a best picture or best director Oscar in 2009, despite being nominated in eight major categories. Fans created such an outcry over this injustice that the Academy were forced to open up the best picture category to 10 nominees the following year in what is now known as `The Dark Knight effect’. It seemed with the resounding critical and commercial success of Nolan’s mind-bending Inception this year, there was simply no way he or the film could be overlooked.
Well, the Academy got it half right. Although Inception has received the best picture nomination it rightly deserves, as well as nods in seven other categories, Nolan has again been snubbed from the best director list. How is it then, that someone who wrote, produced and directed the most original film of the season, can be utterly and completely ignored in the director category?
That’s a good question. Iconic director Stanley Kubrick, with whom Nolan’s work has been closely compared to, never won an Oscar for best director or best picture despite being behind classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. The reality is the Academy isn’t able to handle the conceptually and intellectually challenging genius of a film such as Inception and a mastermind such as Nolan.I think the best way to end this rant, is in the words of the wise God Damn Batman; "Oscar Nominations and NO nods for Dark Knight Rises?? I DON'T CARE IF IT DOESN'T COME OUT FOR ANOTHER YEAR. I'll remember this, Academy." Amen.
But her Oscar nomination for best achievement in costume design this year has special significance as it marks her eight collaboration with visionary director Tim Burton. She first worked with Burton on his cult hit Edward Scissorhands in 1990 and so began a beautiful, artistic friendship. Atwood has sculpted scissorhands, crafted Gothic get-ups for Sleepy Hollow (above), gone monkey in Planet Of The Apes and added a blood splatter or twelve to gowns for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.
With the hysteria of the Golden Globes starting to die down, the attention now turns to the Ben Hur of Hollywood awards ceremonies - the Oscars. On Wednesday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce this year's nominees and, if the combined results of the Globes and Critics Choice Awards are anything to go by, The Social Network will lead the charge. It will most definitely get nominations across the board in the best film, best director, best original screenplay, and best actor/supporting actor categories. But history has shown us several best picture favourites have fallen on their own sword in past Oscars upsets.
Boxing films have proved to be big winners at the Oscars, which could both work for and against The Fighter. Academy voters are less likely to be confronted by the conceptually challenging themes, like they will with Inception, and The Fighter is a superbly acted underdog tale that is benefited by the indie leanings of director David O.Russell. But where Rocky and Million Dollar Baby have concurred, boxing flicks like Raging Bull and The Hurricane have been knocked out, so it could go either way for Mark Wahlberg's passion project.
Firth is certainly the favourite for the career Oscar and his superb turn in The King's Speech is likely to be unshakable. But two-time Oscar nominee M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) thinks The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg is in with a shot.
The God of Thunder or King George VI with a stammer? That was what it came down to for director Tom Hooper who was tossing up between comic-book movie Thor and period drama The King's Speech as his next project. But with The King's Speech headed for Oscars glory, Hooper definitely made the right decision.
Which makes sense, considering Geoffrey Rush plays an unconventional Australian speech therapist who's called in to help fix the debilitating stammer of King George VI, played by Colin Firth. Hooper himself is half-Australian and says it was his Australian mother who first introduced him to The King's Speech via an underground version on the London theatre scene. The film has come a long way from theatre origins to industry insiders touting it as a red-hot Oscars favourite, with nominations likely across several major categories
But the filmmaker is more enthusiastic about Firth and Rush's chances of winning at the awards, with Helena Bonham Carter even an outside chance for best supporting actress.
Kate 
What I really wanted this Oscar season was a good 
Alas, there was no one. Why 
Pics are from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton who (naturally) had all the Oscar 