I don’t want to talk about Little Women right now, so I thought I would just sum up my thoughts on the Academy Awards Sunday Night. Quite a few of my friends have a huge aversion to the Oscars, citing that they are often out of touch, too timid to make daring choices (Last year’s safe choice of Crash over the more controversial Brokeback Mountain races into mind), which often leads to tame forgettable films winning the top honor (I will never like you Gigi, no matter what the Academy says). But in my opinion, there aren’t many awards shows that reward the viewer for having taken that step of seeking out more challenging films, both old and new.
Watching the montage of Foreign Film honors reminded me of the importance of this art and refreshed me. Thinking back to the first time I saw Z, Rashomon, Nights Of Cabiria, Cinema Paradiso (If there is any film that expresses its love for cinematic art and the lives that revolve around it, it’s this one) I realized what an affirmation I was experiencing in this simple montage. My time was not wasted. During the hours I spent viewing film after film, laughter and tears alike, these were not false emotions that I experienced. I do not watch the Oscars solely to see what will be recognized as the best movie of the year. There is no objective way to do such a thing, what is important is the collage of film history that is thrown together in one room for one night, and if you do your homework you can feel like you’re in the know. You can be closer to the experience than Jack Nicholson sitting front and center with a creepy grin on his face.