Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 2003

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.)


Best Actress Nominee: 2003

Salma Hayek, Frida
Nicole Kidman, The Hours
Diane Lane, Unfaithful
Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven
Renee Zellweger, Chicago


Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 2003

Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
Queen Latifah, Chicago
Julianne Moore, The Hours
Meryl Streep, Adaptation
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago


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Nicole Kidman wins Best Actress for her role in The Hours.

 
Catherine Zeta-Jones wins Best Supporting Actress for her role in Chicago.

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 See nominees and winners in previous years:  1990199119921993199419951996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002

Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 2002

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.)
Best Actress Nominees: 2002
Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball
Judi Dench, Iris
Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge!
Sissy Spacek, In The Bedroom
Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary
Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 2002
Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
Marisa Tomei, In The Bedroom
Kate Winslet, Iris
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Halle Berry (transcript only) wins Best Actress for her role in Monster’s Ball.
Jennifer Connelly wins Best Supporting Actress for her role in A Beautiful Mind.
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 See nominees and winners in previous years:  1990199119921993199419951996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

Ripley’s Pick: Parks and Recreation Seasons 1 & 2

Two seasons of the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation have already aired, and it returns for a third season on NBC next Thursday, January 20th. If you haven’t yet watched Parks and Recreation, you should really consider it–because it’s the best comedy on network television. (Both seasons are available for streaming on Netflix, all episodes are available on hulu, and you can watch the final episodes from season two on nbc.com. See how much I want you to watch?)

A small-town political satire, shot in the same documentary style as The Office, the show is laugh-out-loud funny, smart, and cuttingly feminist (and we know how rare it is for network TV to even pass the Bechdel Test). To compare it to The Office doesn’t really do it justice, however, as The Office really depends on its one-bit-gag of inept office manager Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) and other caricatures working together.  

Parks and Recreation centers around Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), who is smart and capable, yet who sometimes suffers from grandiose delusions and tragically funny missteps in her position of Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department in Pawnee, Indiana. With her friend Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), intern April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and rest of the crew, Leslie sets out to build a new park in the small town and climb the political ladder.

Leslie Knope is openly feminist and politically ambitious. Her office is decorated with framed photos of female politicos, including Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Janet Reno–along with her mother, who holds a higher political office than she. She struggles to accomplish anything in her bureaucratic position, fit in with the boys’ club of government, and navigate the social world of her small town. The supporting cast is equally good, with nearly all characters fully formed and three-dimensional. One of several great performances is Offerman’s anti-government Ron Swanson, the head of the Parks & Rec department, whose primary goal in his position seems to be the complete privatization and elimination of the department. Equally funny is April the intern, an ironically detached hipster who gradually grows annoyed with her gay boyfriend and comes around to sincerely connecting with her coworkers.

Season One was a short six episodes, while Season Two had twenty-four. At the end of the second season, the government was facing a shutdown due to budget concerns. Season Three (again, premiering next week) begins with the re-opening of the Parks and Recreation department. Here’s a sneak peak at Season Three, featuring guest stars Rob Lowe and Ben Scott. The preview relies heavily on these and other guest stars, and I hope they don’t dominate the series this season, superseding Poehler’s excellent comedic performance.

And here’s a clip from one of my favorite episodes, “Hunting Trip.”

Short Film: The Big Empty

The Big Empty (2005) is a 20-minute film starring Selma Blair and based on Alison Smith’s short story, “The Specialist.” Directed by Lisa Chang and Newton Thomas Sigel, the film appeared in the first issue of  the DVD magazine Wholphin, published by McSweeney’s. 
When I first saw the film, it struck me as beautiful, touching, and very funny–and more substantive than many feature films–and it strikes me the same way now, even after seeing it several times. Watch the entire film here:

Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 1999

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.) 

Best Actress Nominees: 1999

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth
Fernanda Montenegro –  Central Station
Gwyneth Paltrow – Shakespeare in Love
Meryl Streep – One True Thing
Emily Watson – Hilary and Jackie 

Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 1999

Kathy Bates – Primary Colors
Judi Dench – Shakespeare in Love
Brenda Blethyn – Little Voice
Rachel Griffiths – Hilary and Jackie
Lynn Redgrave – Gods and Monsters

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 Gwyneth Paltrow wins Best Actress for her performance in Shakespeare in Love.

Judi Dench (transcript only) wins Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Shakespeare in Love.

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See nominees and winners in previous years: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998

Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 1998

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.)

Best Actress Nominees: 1998

Helena Bonham Carter – The Wings of the Dove
Julie Christie – Afterglow
Judi Dench – Mrs. Brown
Helen Hunt – As Good As It Gets
Kate Winslet – Titanic

Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 1998

Kim Basinger – L.A. Confidential
Joan Cusack – In & Out
Minnie Driver – Good Will Hunting
Julianne Moore – Boogie Nights
Gloria Stuart – Titanic

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Helen Hunt wins Best Actress for her role in As Good As It Gets.

 Kim Basinger wins Best Supporting Actress for her role in L.A. Confidential.

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See nominees and winners in previous years: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997

Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 1996

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.) 

Best Actress Nominees: 1996 

Susan Sarandon – Dead Man Walking

Emma Thompson – Sense and Sensibility
Elisabeth Shue – Leaving Las Vegas
Sharon Stone – Casino
Meryl Streep – The Bridges of Madison County


Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 1996
Mira Sorvino – Mighty Aphrodite
Kathleen Quinlan – Apollo 13
Kate Winslet – Sense and Sensibility
Joan Allen – Nixon
Mare Winningham – Georgia

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Susan Sarandon wins Best Actress for her performance in Dead Man Walking.

Mira Sorvino wins Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite.


See nominees and winners in previous years: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995



Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 1994

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.)

Best Actress Nominees: 1994

Holly Hunter – The Piano

Emma Thompson – The Remains of the Day
Debra Winger – Shadowlands
Stockard Channing – Six Degrees of Separation

Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 1994

Anna Paquin – The Piano
Holly Hunter – The Firm
Rosie Perez – Fearless
Winona Ryder – The Age of Innocence
Emma Thompson – In the Name of the Father
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 Holly Hunter wins Best Actress for her performance in The Piano.
Anna Paquin wins Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Piano.
See nominees and winners in previous years: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993

Quote of the Day: Susan J. Douglas

Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work is Done by Susan J. Douglas

Note: all boldface is my emphasis, not the author’s.

Today, feminist gains, attitudes, and achievements are woven into our cultural fabric. So the female characters created by Shonda Rhimes for Grey’s Anatomy, to choose just one example, reflect a genuine desire to show women as skilled professionals in jobs previously reserved for men. Joss Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer because he embraced feminsim and was tired of seeing all the girls in horror films as victims, instead of possible heroes. But women whose kung fu skills are more awesome than Jackie Chan’s? Or who tell a male coworker (or boss) to his face that he’s less evolved than a junior in high school? This is a level of command-and-control barely enjoyed by four-star generals, let alone the nation’s actual female population.

But the media’s fantasies of power are also the product of another force that has gained considerable momentum since the early and mid-1990s: enlightened sexism. Enlightened sexism is a response, deliberate or not, to the perceived threat of a new gender regime. It insists that women have made plenty of progress because of feminism–indeed, full equality has allegedly been achieved–so now it’s okay, even amusing, to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women. After all these images (think Pussycat Dolls, The Bachelor, Are You Hot?, the hour-and-a-half catfight in Bride Wars) can’t possibly undermine women’s equality at this late date, right? More to the point, enlightened sexism sells the line that it is precisely through women’s calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire, and sexuality that they gain and enjoy true power–power that is fun, that men will not resent, and indeed will embrace. True power here has nothing to do with economic independence or professional achievement (that’s a given): it has to do with getting men to lust after you and other women to envy you. Enlightened sexism is especially targeted to girls and young women and emphasizes that now that they “have it all,” they should focus the bulk of their time and energy on their appearance, pleasing men, being hot, competing with other women, and shopping.

Enlightened sexism is a manufacturing process that is produced, week in and week out, by the media. Its components–anxiety about female achievement; a renewed and amplified objectification of young women’s bodies and faces; the dual exploitation and punishment of female sexuality; the dividing of women against each other by age, race, and class; rampant branding and consumerism–began to swirl around in the early 1990s, consolidating as the dark star it has become in the early twenty-first century. Some, myself included, have referred to this state of affairs and this kind of media mix as “postfeminist.” But I am rejecting this term. It has gotten gummed up by too many conflicting definitions. And besides, this term suggests that somehow feminism is at the root of this when it isn’t–it’s good, old-fashioned, grade-A sexism that reinforces good, old-fashioned, grade-A patriarchy. It’s just much better disguised, in seductive Manolo Blahniks and an Ipex bra.

Susan J. Douglas is the author of Where the Girls Are, The Mommy Myth, and other works of cultural history and criticism. Her work has appeared in The Nation, The Progressive, Ms., The Village Voice, and In These Times. (taken from the jacket cover of Enlightened Sexism)

Ripley’s Pick: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
We’ve all seen the business signs with their unintentionally humorous misspellings, typos, and improper use of that dreaded apostrophe. You don’t, however, need to be a grammar nerd to understand the significance of a single apostrophe in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. It signals that our main character knows something about autonomy, naming, and owning her work as a new detective–as Botswana’s only female detective, in fact. There is a moment, early in the two-hour pilot episode, when viewers must know the episodes to come will be smart, feminist, and funny. Watch this clip, which introduces the show’s cast and Precious Ramotswe’s (played by singer and actress Jill Scott) efforts at naming:

Her fix–painting in the apostrophe–and the group’s reciting of the new name of the business (“The number one ladies apostrophe detective agency!”) tells viewers that this new enterprise isn’t merely an agency of ladies, or for ladies, but that the women of the agency are the agency. You also can’t miss the bit of humor in there–that this detective agency isn’t number one because it’s necessarily the best, but because it’s the first, and only, woman-owned detective agency in Botswana.
This may seem like a lot of attention to a very small point in the show, but it sets a light and funny tone with an undercurrent of seriousness and thoughtfulness for the rest of the series. 
In terms of basic plot structure, there isn’t a lot of groundbreaking material here: each episode brings a series of mysteries that Mme Ramotswe and her quirky secretary and assistant, Grace Makutsi (played by Tony-Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose), use clues, intellect, intuition, and good, old-fashioned pluck to solve. However, unlike most detective shows out there, the women don’t rely on any high-tech crime-fighting devices, and the show’s deployment of justice typically doesn’t involve police, brutality, and/or imprisonment.
This point is, in fact, the most significant deviation from standard whodunit material: the show’s definition of justice just might be a model for what feminist justice looks like. Rather than throwing criminals in the slammer, the women of the show are interested in righting wrongs, in bringing people in broken relationships together to resolve their problems, and, most of all, in revealing truth to those in search of it. In other words, justice without all the violence, vengeance, and sick pleasure of domination. While some of the crimes are more serious than others in the show, the resolutions genuinely address the crime committed.
The show’s setting–and location of its filming–in Gaborone, Botswana cannot be glossed over. Not only is the setting beautiful, not only does it lend authenticity to the show and its characters, but it allows us a window on a society different from the United States (and Britain, where the show originally aired)–but also shows the way we struggle with the same kinds of things. While the show maintains a tone of lightness and comedy throughout, there isn’t an episode that doesn’t nod to a serious topic: Grace cares for her brother, who suffers from AIDS; there are no shortage of orphaned children hanging about; there is constant struggle between tradition and modernity, rural and urban values; Precious struggles with a former abusive relationship; and so on. Western audiences rarely see depictions of African countries that don’t center around war, illness, and extreme poverty. While I would never argue that No. 1 Ladies’ is a flawless series, it’s pretty damn good and definitely worth your time.
Also check out Latoya Peterson’s review of the pilot episode (and the comments section) on Racialicious.

Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Award Nominees

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s awards season. We all know that some awards are better than others, and that the best picture is rarely the best picture (Crash as the 2005 Academy Award winner, for example). 
As flawed as film awards are, however, they are a good way to take our cultural temperature; they provide examples of the kinds of themes we’re interested in as a society and the kinds of performances we value.
Plus, they’re fun to discuss and argue about, and they provide us handy lists of movies to see in the theatre.
Here are a selection of nominees. We’re only including a few categories here, and the list is not all-inclusive. We plan to cover other award nominee lists in future posts. If you think we should cover a particular organization’s nominees and/or winners, please let us know!

Golden Globes (Hollywood Foreign Press Association)

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception  (check out our review here)
The King’s Speech
The Social Network (check out our Roundup here)

Best Performance by an Actress in a  Motion Picture – Drama
Halle Berry – Frankie and Alice
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Alice in Wonderland
Burlesque
The Kids Are All Right
Red
The Tourist

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Anne Hathaway – Love and Other Drugs
Angelina Jolie – The Tourist
Julianne Moore – The Kids Are All Right
Emma Stone – Easy A

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Mila Kunis – Black Swan
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

No women were nominated for Best Director–Motion Picture, though Lisa Cholodenko was nominated (along with her co-writer) for Best Screenplay–Motion Picture. Women, as has become the norm, seem to do better in television categories. See the complete list of Golden Globe nominees here.

Film Independent Spirit Awards (IFC)

Best Feature
127 Hours
Black Swan
Greenberg
The Kids Are All Right
Winter’s Bone

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
Danny Boyle – 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko – The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik – Winter’s Bone
John Cameron Mitchell – Rabbit Hole

Best Screenplay
Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg – The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini – Winter’s Bone
Nicole Holofcener – Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire – Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz – Life During Wartime

Best Female Lead
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig – Greenberg
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Female
Ashley Bell – The Last Exorcism
Dale Dickey – Winter’s Bone
Allison Janney – Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega – Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts – Mother and Child

I think it’s a notable difference that 2 out of the 5 nominees in the directing category are women, and 3 out of the 5 screenplay nominees are women. Click here for the complete list of nominees.

Movie Preview: The Tempest

Director Julie Taymor’s (Across the Universe, Frida) adaptation of the Shakespeare classic The Tempest includes one central deviation from its source material: the central character’s gender has been changed. Prospero is now Prospera, played by the incomparable Helen Mirren. The switch should change a major dynamic in the story–the relationship between Prospero/a and the daughter.

Critics don’t seem to be loving the film thus far, but here’s a nice summation from Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum:

Taymor repositions Shakespeare’s mysterious story of magic, revenge, and forgiveness on a strange island by turning the play’s vexed sorcerer, Prospero, into a sorceress, Prospera, played by Helen Mirren with moody feminist authority.

Personally, I enjoy most Shakespeare adaptations–even the bad ones–and am interested in what Taymor has done with this one.

Here’s the film’s trailer:


And an interview with Taymor on The Colbert Report:


The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Julie Taymor
www.colbertnation.com
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