novelraw Chapter 103 Award Ceremony
Chapter 103 Award Ceremony
Chapter 103 Award Ceremony
"But The Rape of Pear Blossoms didn't do very well at the box office, David."
At the 61st Academy Awards ceremony, Catherine, who was sitting next to David, retorted.
This is the Sacred Heart Auditorium in Los Angeles, the venue for this year's Academy Awards. He is currently sitting with the cast and crew of "The Rape of Pear Blossoms".
"The subject matter is too heavy; once viewers watch it once, they generally won't watch it a second time," David said with a shrug.
In fact, there is another reason that David did not mention: the film itself did not achieve a particularly outstanding level in terms of character development and the design of relationships between characters.
Throughout the film, the main characters are basically the victim and the female lawyer; all other characters can be categorized as NPCs or plot devices.
For a film that prioritizes characters over plot to achieve commercial success, it must have a large enough cast of characters and complex relationships between them. Only in this way can the audience avoid feeling bored and monotonous.
The core characters in "American Beauty" are numerous, including the Lester family of three, the father and son next door, and Angela, the daughter's best friend, making a total of six people.
To cram six main characters into a two-hour film and still manage to develop their personalities and relationships in an orderly manner, maintaining a strong dramatic tension throughout, one has to admire director Sam Mendes as a true genius.
What's even more astonishing is that this was actually his debut film. Unfortunately, it was just a stroke of luck, and he never produced such an excellent work again.
"You sound like you lack confidence, David?"
'
Jodie Foster, sitting in front, turned around and made a joke; she seemed a little nervous.
"I'm just not very confident about the box office. Your performance was excellent, and the judges can see that. Don't be too nervous, Judy."
"Yes, Judy, your acting is excellent. 'The Rape of Pear Blossom' isn't really about romance, so the chances of winning an award are quite high—"
Catherine began whispering to the other person.
Well, it seems that Cathy has learned quite a bit of common sense under her influence. Romance films are indeed not favored by Oscar judges, and she is not wrong to say that.
However, nothing is absolute. Pure romance films do indeed rarely win acting awards. Despite the huge box office success of "Titanic," the actors only received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, and they didn't win either.
However, "The English Patient" won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 69th Academy Awards, which shows that as long as the actors perform well enough, romance films can also win acting awards.
David read "The English Patient" after he became interested in works with delicate emotions after reading "American Beauty".
In terms of viewing experience, the two films gave him similar feelings. He even shed tears by the end of the former, but in terms of script quality alone, the former was inferior.
Who do you think will win Best Original Screenplay this year?
After talking with Judy, Catherine whispered to David again.
"What's wrong? Did you place a bet?"
Casinos in Los Angeles will offer betting on the Oscars before the ceremony, and movie fans might place bets.
"No, what's the point of betting? I'm just asking you to see if you can guess correctly."
"Rain Man".
Without much hesitation, David gave his answer directly. After all, it was last year's global box office champion, so winning Best Original Screenplay shouldn't be a big problem.
He had seen Rain Man; it was a heartwarming and humanistic art film with a slow pace and a simple plot. He never expected it to become the world's highest-grossing film.
It seems that Hollywood commercial films of this era are not yet fully mature. In another year, after entering the 90s, there will be more classic films with popular faces, and there will be more multi-narrative films.
However, he still stubbornly believes that American Beauty does the best job in multi-narrative storytelling.
All the core characters are concentrated in the same middle-class American community. The relationships between the six core characters are completely intertwined. Lester's sexual fantasy object is his daughter's best friend Angela, his wife Caroline's extramarital affair is with a fellow real estate agent, and their neighbor Colonel Fitz is not only Richie's father but also harbors a secret homosexual affection for Lester.
All the conflicts erupted on the same rainy night, with no redundant subplots deviating from the main storyline. Every interaction between the characters directly heightened the dramatic tension, and there was no dull moment throughout the entire performance. No wonder it is hailed as a "textbook example of screenwriting."
C
"Every actor nominated for Best Actor has delivered a performance that redefines our understanding of acting. Each of them poured their entire being into their role, and every nominee here tonight is a winner in themselves."
Leaving aside David's inner thoughts backstage, Michael Douglas on stage had already begun reading his award acceptance speech.
David wasn't particularly interested in these standard platitudes, but because of Catherine, he couldn't help but perk up and listen when he saw that she was the presenter.
Generally speaking, there is a tradition at the Oscars: the Best Actor award is usually presented by the winner of the previous year's Best Actress award, and vice versa.
This is the 61st Academy Awards ceremony, so theoretically, the person presenting the Best Actor award should be Cher, who won Best Actress last year for "Moonstruck".
However, after Alan Carr was appointed as the ceremony producer by the Academy this year, he implemented sweeping reforms to the Oscars.
However, it was later changed back, mainly because the opening of this year's ceremony featured an unknown actress dressed as Snow White alongside the scandal-ridden Rob Lowe, which caused a great deal of controversy and led to it being hailed as "the worst Oscars in history."
C
"These five men didn't just portray characters; they lived as their characters, coexisting with them, and allowing us to see the world from a perspective we've never seen before. There are no losers here tonight; the Oscar for Best Actor goes to—"
The award speeches on stage finally came to an end, and David gradually got used to this strange way of giving awards.
The tradition of awarding the Best Actor award to the Best Actress award from the previous year, or vice versa, is an unwritten custom that has gradually formed, and is not a rule explicitly stipulated by the Academy.
This was done merely to enhance the ceremony's formality and symbolize the continuity and generational change within the film industry; it is not a permanent practice.
There have been several instances in history where this tradition has been broken. In addition to this year's event, there was the 90th Academy Awards in 2018, when Casey Affleck, the previous year's Best Actor winner, had to withdraw due to a sexual harassment scandal, and the award was presented by a female star instead.
The names and works of the five nominees appeared on the big screen: Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man, Tom Hanks for Big, Gene Hackman for Mississippi Burning, Max von Sydow for Pell the Conqueror, and Edward James Ormos for Teacher.