Academy at war
Two overwhelming presences loomed behind the subdued but still glittery backdrop of Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony. Or maybe three.
The first, of course, was Harvey Weinstein. The Miramax head had 40 nominations, three of the five Best Picture slots and, seemingly, Hollywood in the palm of his hand. He couldn’t lose. The camera caught him hooting hysterically as host Steve Martin joked about eating writers, directors, and actors and decried the unfairness of a studio that campaigned for Oscars by presenting a " really good movie that everyone liked. " He meant Chicago, which seemed well on its way to triumph as it picked up awards for Best Art Direction, Best Make-Up, and Best Supporting Actress — the vastly pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones, not co-star Queen Latifah.
True, the juggernaut hit a bit of a bump when the award for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Ronald Harwood for The Pianist rather than to Bill Condon for Chicago. But the real suspense had to do with the second presence, the ongoing War in Iraq. Chris Cooper, winner for Best Supporting Actor for Adaptation made a modest, heartfelt plea: " In light of all the troubles in this world, I wish us all peace. " In his introduction to " Burn It Blue, " the Best Song nominee from Frida, Mexican hunkette Gael García Bernal claimed that " Frida would be on our side. "
Still, you kept wondering when someone was going to blurt out something really controversial. With Susan Sarandon, Ben Affleck, and Barbara Streisand among the presenters, it seemed the deck was stacked in favor of an outburst. Martin had tried to defuse the tension in his opening monologue with a sequence about movie stars in which he stated, " Some are Democrats . . . " Indeed, many stars were wearing tasteful silver peace pins on their lapels.
Then came the moment some hoped for and others feared: Bowling for Columbine won for Best Documentary. A tuxedo’d Michael Moore led his fellow nominees up to the stage, each of them wearing an old-fashioned peace button. Boos greeted his assertion that " we live in a time when we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. . . . Shame on you, Mr. Bush — shame on you. And any time you got the pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. " The speech was pretty much the same one he’d delivered to a better reception at the Independent Spirit Awards on the beach in Santa Monica the night before.
This was " reality " Michael Moore style: shrill and self-righteous, with Michael at center stage. But the Academy preferred Harvey Weinstein’s old razzle-dazzle. Or did it? That’s when the third presence — or absence — began to manifest itself.
It started when Nicole Kidman won Best Actress for The Hours instead of Renée Zellweger for Chicago. Kidman confronted the apparent absurdity of a ceremony that was periodically interrupted by Peter Jennings and the latest casualty figures; she said she’d come to the ceremony " because art is important, " but she also acknowledged that " since 9/11 there’s been a lot of pain, in terms of families losing people, and now with the war, families losing people. And God bless them. "
Then Adrien Brody, who played Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist, surprised by winning for Best Actor. Chicago main man Richard Gere had not been nominated, so Harvey Weinstein had campaigned for Daniel Day Lewis, from Miramax’s Gangs of New York, and Daniel had been expected to win. After kissing presenter Halle Berry in no uncertain terms ( " I took my shot, " he told the press afterward), Brody noted that his role had made him " very aware of the sadness and the dehumanization of people at times of war. And the repercussions of war. And whatever you believe in, if it’s God or Allah, may he watch over you, and let’s pray for a swift and peaceful resolution. "
Weinstein had also campaigned for Gangs of New York’s Martin Scorsese as Best Director, preferring him to the other two Miramax candidates, Chicago’s Rob Marshall and The Hours’ Stephen Daldry. Would the Academy ignore Harvey and vote for The Pianist’s Roman Polanski, a man who hasn’t set foot in America for nearly 30 years because he’s still under sentence for statutory rape, as Best Director? It would.
So, could The Pianist beat the odds and win the crowning Oscar? Only once before in Academy history had a film won for Best Actor and Best Director and not been named Best Picture. In 1935, Victor McLaglen and John Ford won for The Informer; like The Pianist, their film also took home Best Adapted Screenplay honors. But that year’s Best Picture was Mutiny on the Bounty.
This year, history repeated itself: when the father-and-son team of Kirk and Michael Douglas opened the envelope, we were reminded that Hollywood loves nothing more than to pat itself on the back. Still, the victories for The Pianist and The Hours and Bowling for Columbine made this an Oscar ceremony for serious times and serious art, not just Tinseltown frivolity.
Boston Lyric Opera 2003-2004
The sobering news from Boston’s major performing organizations continued last week with the announcement that Boston Lyric Opera will offer just three productions next season instead of the four it’s done for the past three years. BLO had initially proposed an " Italian Season " comprising Verdi’s Rigoletto, Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, Puccini’s Tosca, and Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte, but last week, in the official season announcement, general director Janice Mancini Del Sesto stated that " based on the current economic and political uncertainties, we have made the decision to return to a three-production season for the short term. We are confident that this decision is the prudent, pro-active, artistically and financially responsible strategy, and is consistent with the company’s mission of ensuring the long-term future of opera in Boston. "
What this means is that the production of L’Italiana in Algeri has been postponed till 2004-2005. Rigoletto (November 5 through 18), Tosca (March 31 through April 13), and Cosí fan tutte (April 28 through May 11) will receive seven performances each. It’s interesting that whereas Boston Ballet decided to offer the same number of productions (five not counting The Nutcracker) but in fewer performances (10 for story ballets, six for rep programs) next season, Boston Lyric Opera is offering fewer productions but maintaining the number of performances each receives. Since in recent years BLO productions have consistently filled the Shubert Theatre, it would hardly make sense for the company to offer fewer performances. And the harsh reality is that since ticket sales don’t begin to cover the cost of presenting an opera (or a ballet, The Nutcracker aside), even a production that’s a box-office success may not be financially feasible. Boston Ballet is able to offer five productions as opposed to the Lyric’s three in part because its Nutcracker makes up for what the rest of the season doesn’t bring in. Had Tchaikovsky composed a fabulously popular holiday opera rather than a ballet, the shoe might be on the other foot.
As for what BLO is offering next season, it’s a conservative line-up that underlines the company’s stated need to retrench. (BLO last did Rigoletto in 1994 and Tosca in 1996; this appears to be its first Cosí.) What’s more, Teatro Lirico d’Europa, which was here last week with Boris Godunov and Madama Butterfly, will be provide some competition for operagoers’ dollars with Don Giovanni at the Emerson Majestic Theatre in September and La traviata and Rigoletto next March. (Lloyd Schwartz’s review of Godunov is on page TK of Arts; Jeffrey Gantz’s review of Butterfly is at www.bostonphoenix.com.) BLO is bringing on a couple of well-known local guest conductors, perhaps in the hope that they’ll boost the box office: the Boston Pops’ Keith Lockhart for Tosca and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra’s Charles Ansbacher for Cosí (BLO music director Stephen Lord will lead Rigoletto). The announced cast for Rigoletto is Gregory Turay as the Duke of Mantua, William Stone as Rigoletto, Dina Kuznetsova as Gilda, and Daniel Borowski as Sparafucile. Tosca will have Marquita Lister in the title role, Jorge Antonio Pita as Cavaradossi, and Gaetan Laperrière as Scarpia; for Cosí, it’s Jennifer Casey Cabot as Fiordiligi, Jossie Pérez (last September’s Carmen on the Common) as Dorabella, John Osborn as Ferrando, Keith Phares as Guglielmo, and Janna Baty as Despina.
New subscriptions will be available in May; prices range from $88 to $450. Single tickets, at $31 to $150, will go on sale September 2. For a BLO season brochure, call (617) 542-6772.
" Inner Bling "
When B.G. rapped about bling bling in the single of the same name back in 1999, he was talking about jewelry ( " Man I got the price of a mansion ’round my neck and wrist " ). The expression became so pervasive that it’s entered the Oxford English Dictionary (shorter edition); it can refer to just about any ostentatious show of well-being. Now the phrase has taken another turn. Michelle Stewart, a 35-year-old woman from Watertown, aims to turn bling bling on its head with a Web site and T-shirt campaign extolling what she calls " Inner Bling. " The Web site, www.InnerBling.com, defines Inner Bling as " personal value that exists inside all people; wealth not derived from material possessions; the light of a person who is conscious of these things. " Inner Bling promotes self over status, people and peace over possessions. Inner Bling offers an alternative to the message of materialism.
Materialism, says Stewart, " is embedded in our culture. It’s not just a hip-hop thing — it goes all the way down to keeping up with the Joneses, having a big house, an SUV. " And she admits to getting caught up in this cultural current. " For a while, I was trying to maintain a lifestyle, trying to gain more. " But she realized that " even though my salary was good, I was spending 40 hours a week doing something I didn’t like. " Stewart, who writes newsletters for a health-care insurer, talks of being unfulfilled and uninspired by her job. Instead of using the money she was earning to buy a car or more expensive clothes, she wanted " to use the money to do something creative. So I put my money into this. All of the campaign is funded with money I’m making at my job. I’m just throwing the idea out there and seeing what happens. "
The Web site, which has been up since December, opens with a page of rap lyrics on the culture of excess and the alternative of looking inwards for fulfillment. ( " It’s not need; it’s greed. A seed that leads to mindless/Acquisition of things, forgetting basic human love and/Kindness. A kind of blindness. You know greed can/Be at the root of violence. . . . " ) The audience is invited to submit its own versions of the rap on the " Flow " section of the site. The T-shirts ($20), which feature variations on a swirling design with the Inner Bling logo, are screen-printed by Artists for Humanity, a Boston-based non-profit that gives inner-city teens apprenticeships in the arts. " And if profits are part of Inner Bling’s future, " Stewart says, then she’ll " donate a percentage to peace and tolerance education in schools. "
For the present, she adds, " it’s about the message and the T-shirts " — but she’s got plenty of ideas for Inner Bling in the incubator stage, including opening an inner-city yoga/mind-body center called Inner Bling aimed at pre-teens and teens. " I like the idea of peace starting with the individual, and maybe planting this little idea of Inner Bling being the cool ‘new’ thing will somehow raise the collective consciousness. More peaceful individuals, more peace. "
