Friday, March 4, 2011

Best Picture Closing Montage at the Oscars® /Beethoven's Seventh Symphony




For those who might have missed (or avoided) The Academy Awards (Oscars) Sunday Night, here was the highlight of the ceremonies--a two and a half minute montage of the ten films nominated fro Best Picture. From some reason they now nominate ten films for Best Picture, although this doesn't change the fact that only one or two films have a realistic chance of winning the award.

Of the five of these films I actually saw, the three best in my mind were "True Grit", "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network". The British-themed film, the one where Colin Firth displays a remarkable ability to be a bad public speaker, won the top prize.

Do agents of the mighty British Artistic Empire (BAE) have some dark hold over Academy Voters? OK, likely not, not consider this:

From Wikipedia: "To date, eleven films exclusively financed outside the United States have won Best Picture; all eleven were financed, in part or in whole, by the United Kingdom. Those films were, in chronological order: Hamlet, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Tom Jones, A Man for All Seasons, Oliver!, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Last Emperor, Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech

As it featured one of the most sympathetic of the British monarchs, George VI--who had the throne shoved on him by the actions of his (by royal standards) feckless elder Brother David (Edward VIII)--I wasn't surprised, nor were many of the media analysts.

10 comments:

  1. great post Doug...reminds me I would like to see "True Grit" haven't seen it yet

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  2. If you like Westerns, I don't think you'll be disappointed in this version of "True Grit" Mike.

    I enjoyed every minute of it.

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  3. Ive never been a serous fan of Jeff Bridges...I liked his Dad...not to give away anyones age in "Sea Hunt"
    but from the previews of this current movie (True Grit) I think it will be great.

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  4. Yes, Jeff Bridges has done a lot of good work--if he hadn't won for "Crazy Heart" last year, he would have won playing Rooster Cogburn I think. Good to see him getting this major recognition.

    Yes, "Sea Hunt". I remember that on Saturday afternoon reruns. His father had an equally long career--oddly enough more people remember Lloyd Bridges for his comedy work in "Airplane" it seems now than all the good leading men in television he played and supporting actor work he did in films.

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  5. I did not watch the awards but was pleased to hear that Inside Job got best documentary. I hope that means more people will watch it. I have not seen it yet but have plans to.

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  6. Any film that exposes the shadt dealings of Wall Street in recent years past deserves to be seen. I'm glad it won as well Mary Ellen.

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  7. I really want to see the film "The King's Speech."

    What splendid background music from the wonderful Beethoven.

    Thank you Doug.

    I wish I knew why I don't get alerts for your loadings. I tried changing my settings but it doesn't help.

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  8. I found it a very enjoyable and touching film, Cassandra. How hard it must have been for a man (George VI) who wanted to be left in the shadows with a speech impediment to be thrust to the forefront in the time of Britain's greatest peril.


    Glad you found this blog, despite Multiply's impediments, since I know you a fan of both classical music and good films.

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  9. Indeed, it must have been difficult for someone with a stutter to be thrown in the limelight, but his wife, the Queen had so much patience with him. It must be to do with nerves, because a pharmacist I know had a stutter and when he first got to know me it was painful to watch him struggle. I tried hard not to fill in the words he was searching for. I found that by looking away for a while it was easier for him to regain composure. Now after getting used to me, he rarely shows the speech impediment. In what way the brain is involved in all this I'm not sure.

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  10. Yes, I think if that is the way the future Queen Mother was like as portrayed by Helena Bonham-Carter,then she was exactly the right woman to be by his side.

    I think nerves have a lot to do with it. A good speech therapist has to have a good grounding in how the mind works in times of stress.


    It's good that you help out this pharmacist by being patient and showing empathy. I fear others customers are less so, and this of course just makes it harder for him.

    I find when I'm in a stressful situation I sometimes have a slight stutter with strangers at work on a word that begins with "s" or a "th". It was much more pronounced for me as a kid. I was very lucky as a six-seven year old child to have an in-school program at my elementary school in San Jose.

    A licensed speech therapist, Mrs. Yee, would help me one-on-one to pronounce certain words and gain confidence. She had other kids to work with as well but each student with a problem was given twenty minutes twice a week to deal directly with their specific case.

    Years later, a speech instructor in college pointed out, after I delivered a short oral address, that I must have had an impediment that was corrected at an early age. It amazed me because I myself had half-forgotten the therapy!

    I wonder, with all the cuts in California education, and other states, if such speech programs are even available now in the state school system I attended? It kept me form being the object of fun with many of my fellow students and my impediments are hardly detectable now ,especially when I write. ;-)


    Obviously I've felt a bit of kinship to the present Queen's father.

    This does not mean, however, that I am standing ready to come over to Windsor Castle to reign as a constitutional monarch if further abdications ensue. :-)

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