79 golden awards

The 80th Academy Awards Ceremony took place a week ago, and now it's time to watch a four-minute summary showing the 79 films that were awarded the Oscar® for the Best Picture before the 80th (No Country for Old Men):



For an exhaustive list, I refer you to the Wikipedia entry.

Leap Day (aka 'bissextile day')

Since today is 29 February, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a few words about this day that only occurs once every four years (except on century years that aren't divisible by 400, e.g. 1700 and 2100). Here's the explanation found on Wikipedia:

Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position. (…) A leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday. This is because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period February 29 falls thirteen times on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday; fourteen times on a Friday or Saturday; and fifteen times on a Monday or Wednesday.

Here's the most notable fact that happened exactly four years ago (from Wikipedia):

76th Academy Awards: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins Best Picture and Director awards and nine others for a total of 11 Academy Awards, a tie for the most ever won by a single film, and the largest sweep ever for a single film, having received 11 nominations. Acting honors were as follows: Best Actor: Sean Penn for Mystic River, Best Actress: Charlize Theron for Monster, Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins for Mystic River, Best Supporting Actress: Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain. Sources: (Newsday) (Box Office Mojo) (IMDB)

Fours years have passed! Time flies, as you can see. I can remember this ceremony perfectly, for it was the last one I saw on telly, because after that BeTV refused to broadcast it… (F*ckers.) Anyway, I was very happy for Peter Jackson and his crew, because all of them had done a terrific job with this marvelous The Lord of the Rings trilogy. About one year ago, I posted the introductory spot of the ceremony, which is basically a spoof on all the successful movies of 2003:

I spotted references to (in order of appearance) Last Action Hero, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Terminator, Master and Commander, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mystic River, Seabiscuit, Finding Nemo, Cold Mountain, Monster, Something's Gotta Give, Lost in Translation and The Last Samurai. Could you find more?

While looking up for this video, I found one more fine example of Brokeback Mountain-inspired trailer, this time focusing on the "love relationship" bewteen Billy Crystal and the late Jack Palance. Most bits come from City Slickers and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.

Notice that the boy you see at 01:03 and at the end is actually the eleven-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in Brokeback Mountain with the late Heath Ledger!

When Al meets Robert

Heat is an action film starring two of the most popular movie stars ever: Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Both had already played in the same film, but never appeared in the same scene. Such a weird configuration occurred in The Godfather II (by Francis Ford Coppola): Pacino played Michael Corleone, head of the New York mafia, and DeNiro played his father Vito Corleone/Andolini in several flashback scenes showing his arrival in the Big Apple and his rise to power, acquiring the prominent function of Godfather. (Trivia: ote that DeNiro and Marlon Brando — who portrayed the older Vito Corleone in The Godfather are the only two actors who won an Oscar for playing the same character.)

I don't remember the story of Heat, but at some point the characters played by Pacino and DeNiro meet in a restaurant to talk about something. The point is that this scene was made into a spoof by the same guy who did the brilliant parody of the "Indy meets his father" scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (I refer you to that earlier post). The result of a clever "re-subb" of the scene is a death match to decide who's the best actor:



Five stars!

One of the Best Battles Ever

The Lord of the Rings (yes, the article on Wikipedia is one of the longest I know… can you find longer?) trilogy is among my favourites. I wish I had more time: I could write many things about Sir Christopher Lee, that brilliant actor, and about Sir Ian McKellen, that wonderful actor.

This scene comes from the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring.



Another example of a promise of power…

Their voices are terrific, especially Saruman's!

Howard Shore's music deserved an Oscar®. He got it.

Saruman must have one hell of a heating bill… Silly.

Academy Awards Ceremony Introduction

This is Billy Crystal's introductory video for the Academy Awards Ceremony of March 2004 — during which 11 Oscars were given to The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King.

There's been such an introduction, based on spoofing the most popular films of the previous year, since about 15 years.

Here, there are references to: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Terminator, Master and Commander, Pirates of the Carrabean, The Legend of Seabiscuit, Mystic River, Back to Coldmountain, Monster, (that film with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton), The Last Samurai. If you spot other references, just tell me.



It's a shame they don't broadcast it anymore on BeTV since two years. I was keen on getting up at 3 am to watch the show till 6 o'clock, and then going to school…

And the Oscar® Goes to…

Last night took place in the Kodak Theater of Los Angeles the most important event in the industry of cinema: the Academy Awards Ceremony. Martin Scorsese was—at last!—rewarded for his most recent film, "The Departed", featuring Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio, among others. He was given an Oscar® for being the Best Director and for having made the Best Movie. The statuette was given by a shock trio: Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, maybe the world's best directors ever—and good friends of Scorsese's.

Apart from that, as expected, Forest Whitacker and Helen Mirren were elected Best Actors, and Al Gore (former US Vice-President) was awarded the Oscar for the Best Documentary. The Oscar was given to him by the famous stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld (whom I am a great fan of).

PS. If you click on the title of this message, you'll be redirected on the official Academy Awards website, and you'll get the complete results (nominees and winners).