Hollywood & Bollywood (Header): 'Birdman' flies high at 87th Academy Awards

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

'Birdman' flies high at 87th Academy Awards

"Birdman", a satirical tale of an ageing movie star attempting to reinvent himself via Broadway, clinched key honours Sunday night at the 87th Academy Awards, where India had a no show this time.

"Birdman", which was nominated in nine categories, picked up four honours - Best Picture, Best Director (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), Best Writing (Original Screenplay) and Best Cinematography - at the gala, which saw a melange of Hollywood stars come together to celebrate cinema.

Another big winner was "The Grand Budapest Hotel", which tied with "Birdman" for four awards. The Wes Anderson-directorial won Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score)and Production Design.

One of the season's favourites - "Boyhood" - could manage just one Oscar for Patricia Arquette. She secured the Best Supporting Actress award - and delivered a fitting acceptance speech, demanding equal pay for women. In response, veteran actress Meryl Streep stood up and cheered at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.

"The Imitation Game" went back home with only one award for Graham Moore's adapted screenplay. Even "American Sniper" managed just one win - sound editing.

It was Eddie Redmayne's victory for his performance as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory Of Everything" which turned out to be a highlight at the Oscars ceremony. Calling himself "one very very lucky man", he dedicated the award to the film crew and his wife, the Hawking family and to "everyone around the world suffering from ALS".

The best actress title went to Julianne Moore for her portrayal of a woman diagnosed with early onset dementia in "Still Alice".

J.K. Simmons won best supporting actor for his role as a tyrannical music teacher in "Whiplash", which also won for editing and sound mixing at the event, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

"Selma", which depicts the US civil rights struggle, won the best original song for "Glory". John Legend and Common took to the stage to perform the number during the ceremony. While accepting the award, Legend said voting-right restrictions and incarceration rates for black menshowed that there was continuing need for action.

"The struggle for justice is right now," he said, reports guardian.co.uk.

Among the documentary features, it was Laura Poitras's "Citizenfour", on Edward Snowden, which received the golden statuette.

Poland's "Ida" walked away with the accolades in the foreign language film category, to which Indian movie "Liar's Dice" failed to make a cut even as a nomination.

santabanta.com

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I am not dating Alia Bhatt: Varun Dhawan clarifies once and for all

In an interview with the tabloid Mumbai Mirror, Varun Dhawan has unleashed a bombshell by declaring he’ll never date an actress.

But wasn’t he recently linked with his SOTY co-star Alia Bhatt?

“I am not dating Alia,” Varun makes it clear.

And what about the Aashiqui 2 girl Shraddha Kapoor. Isn’t something brewing between Shraddha and him?

“If I say 'We are good friends', it will be misconstrued as 'Boyfriend Girlfriend',” says Varun.

Varun adds that he was amused to hear the rumour of his link-up with Bipasha Basu who is eight years his senior.

“She is quite senior to me. We spoke about the rumour and she said, 'Welcome to the film industry'.”

The youngster is presently busy with dad David Dhawan’s film Main Tera Hero and says, “I shall never date an actress.”

due courtesy to apunkachoice.com

Classical Hollywood cinema

Classical Hollywood cinema or the classical Hollywood narrative,[1] are terms used in film history which designate both a visual and sound style for making motion pictures and a mode of production used in the American film industry between 1927 and 1963. This period is often referred to as the "golden age of Hollywood." An identifiable cinematic form emerged during this period called classical Hollywood style.[2]

Classical style is fundamentally built on the principle of continuity editing or "invisible" style. That is, the camera and the sound recording should never call attention to themselves (as they might in films from earlier periods, other countries or in a modernist or postmodernistwork).

The golden age[edit]

During the golden age of Hollywood, which lasted from the end of the silent era in American cinema in the late 1920s to the early 1960s, films were prolifically issued by the Hollywood studios.[3] The start of the golden age was arguably when The Jazz Singer was released in 1927 and increased box-office profits for films as sound was introduced to feature films. Most Hollywood pictures adhered closely to a genre—Western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture)—and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For instance, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films, Alfred Newman worked at Twentieth Century Fox for twenty years, Cecil B. DeMille's films were almost all made at Paramount, director Henry King's films were mostly made for Twentieth-Century Fox, etc.

After The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, Warner Brothers gained huge success and was able to acquire its own string of movie theatres, after purchasing Stanley Theatres and First National Productions in 1928; MGM had also owned a string of theatres since forming in 1924, known as Loews Theatres, and the Fox film Corporation owned the Fox Theatrestrings as well. Also, RKO, another company that owned theatres, had formed in 1928 from a merger between Keith-Orpheum Theaters and the Radio Corporation of America[3].

RKO formed in response to the monopoly Western Electric's ERPI had over sound in films as well, and began to use sound in films through their own method known as Photophone [5]. Paramount, who already acquired Balaban and Katz in 1926, would answer to the success of Warner Bros. and RKO, and buy a number of theaters in the late 1920s as well, before making their final purchase in 1929, through acquiring all the individual theaters belonging to the Cooperative Box Office, located in Detroit, and dominate the Detroit theaters.[4]

However, filmmaking was still a business and motion picture companies made money by operating under the studio system. The major studios kept thousands of people on salary—actors, producers, directors, writers, stunt men, craftspersons and technicians. And they owned hundreds of theaters in cities and towns across America, theaters that showed their films and that were always in need of fresh material. In 1930, MPDDA President Will Hays also founded the Hays (Production) Code, which followed censorship guidelines and went into effect after government threats of censorship expanded by 1930. [6] However the code was never enforced until 1934, after the new Catholic Church organization TheLegion of Decency—appalled by Mae West's very successful sexual appearances in She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel [7]—threatened a boycott of motion pictures if it did not go into effect [8], and those that didn't obtain a seal of approval from the Production Code Administration had to pay a $25,000 fine and could not profit in the theaters, as the MPDDA owned every theater in the country through the Big Five studios [9].

Throughout the early 1930s, risque films and salacious advertising, became widespread in the short period known as Pre-Code Hollywood. MGM dominated the industry and had the top stars in Hollywood, and was also credited for creating the Hollywood star system altogether[10]. MGM stars included at various times "King of Hollywood" Clark Gable, Joan Fontaine, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gary Cooper, Mary Pickford, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, James Stewart, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Grace Kelly, Gene Kelly, Gloria Stuart, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, John Wayne, Barbara Stanwyck, John Barrymore, Audrey Hepburn and Buster Keaton [11]. Another great achievement of American cinema during this era came throughWalt Disney's animation. In 1937, Disney created the most successful film of its time, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [12].

Many film historians have remarked upon the many great works of cinema that emerged from this period of highly regimented film-making. One reason this was possible is that, with so many films being made, not every one had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors: Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles and often regarded as the greatest film of all time, fits that description. In other cases, strong-willed directors like Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock andFrank Capra battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions. The apogee of the studio system may have been the year 1939, which saw the release of such classics asThe Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again,Young Mr. Lincoln, Wuthering Heights, Only Angels Have Wings,Ninotchka, Babes in Arms, Gunga Din, and The Roaring Twenties. Among the other films from the golden age period that are now considered to be classics: Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, King Kong, Citizen Kane, Swing Time, Some Like It Hot, A Night at the Opera, All About Eve, Mildred Pierce, The Searchers, Breakfast At Tiffany's, North by Northwest, Dinner at Eight, Rebel Without a Cause, Rear Window, Double Indemnity, Mutiny on the Bounty, City Lights,Red River, The Manchurian Candidate, Bringing Up Baby, Singin' in the Rain, To Have and Have Not, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Roman Holiday, Giant and Jezebel.

"Well, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men."

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

'Birdman' flies high at 87th Academy Awards

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