Many lowlights this year, as usual, and only two highlights: the best foreign picture to Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida (can one imagine an Oscar to Bresson?) and an honorary trophy to French screenwriter Jean-Paul Carriere (he's 83; perhaps there were no deserving Americans close enough to death) Otherwise, it was the usual unfunny jokes, hideous songs, and cloying self-congratulation. The "tribute" to those who died in 2014 was faster than ever, without even any actual clips, and only Julie Andrews and Shirley Maclaine represented anything of the history of Hollywood, briefly, and Ben Affleck did quote Frank Capra; otherwise there was no mention of any of the great filmmakers.
As far as I'm concerned every Oscar show should include some kind of tribute to D.W. Griffith and others who pioneered the art of film. Aside from the fact that probably few members of this year's audience had ever heard of Griffith it is also likely that the Academy and its mostly anonymous members do not want to call attention to the fact that most movies made today look as though D.W, Griffith never lived (see the Griffith films coming to Film Forum presently).
One of the more obnoxious elements in this year's show was the self-congratulation about the attitude toward race, this from an industry which for many years relegated African-Americans to maids, porters, and servants! There was no mention this year of Hattie McDaniels, Louise Beavers, Stepin Fetchit, or any of the African-Americans who contributed significantly to the industry.
Would it be too much to ask for future Oscar shows to have less emphasis on couture and more on the history of film? Probably.
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