Oscar Post-Mortem
Let us all breathe a collective sigh of relief and give thanks to God that there is still some justice in Hollywood. I am happy to announce that I don't have to boycott the Oscars for the next ten years. This year, in several categories, they actually decided to award TALENT (what a novel idea), and in others, refused to give in to bad films propped up by excessive marketing campaigns.

First and foremost, I am grateful that - for the most part, at least as far as the "big" categories are concerned - the Aviator was completely ignored. Instead, Million Dollar Baby picked up Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture, for which the Aviator was also erroneously nominated. I haven't seen MDB, and have no desire to see it. But I am satisfied with its victory. Justice be done.

The screenplay categories were pleasantly surprising, with Sideways and Eternal Sunshine... picking up awards - two independent type films (though I would have liked to see Hotel Rwanda get recognized, at least in this category). Screenplay is often a category where smaller, more independent films can get recognized, and a screenplay Oscar goes a long way to recognizing the integrity of the work as a whole.

Let see, what else. Oh - I think Chirs Rock is absolutly hysterical! I laughed through his whole opening dig! A lot of people think he's a jerk (and he kind of is), but I think he's hilarious. He's not afraid to tell it like it is (slightly embellished of course).

I was pretty glad Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress, but I loved just about everyone in that category so it was tough. And I wish John Williams would have won best score because the Harry Potter 3 score is really fantastic. But the Finding Neverland Score was pretty good I guess. I was also glad to see Morgan Freeman get an Oscar. Poor Johnny Depp got ignored again :( (hehehe, his very-French wife looked completly PISSED that he didn't win. The french are not so good at hiding what they think . . .)

OH! And my biggest beef: the new format - gotta go. Cut it. Nix it. Doesn't work. You cannot hand someone an Oscar IN THE AISLE. It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. (I loved Chris Rock's comment about giving the Oscars in the parking lot next year - drive-thru Oscars!) People just need to accept the fact that the show is eternal, get over it, and block off more time for it. Really, it's not that big of a deal. And I love how it was only the "lesser" categories, like the technical stuff and short films that got screwed. Obviously, you can't ask Clint Eastwood to accept his Oscar in the frigging aisle. Hollywood would boycott if they did that with the actor categories. How would everyone show off their Versache if they did it like that? Cut it.

Also - never hire Beyonce to sing songs in languages she can't speak. I was so happy that the song from Motorcycle Diaries won - it was the ONLY good song nominated, all the others completly sucked (and having Beyonce sing them didn't help any). Antonio Banderas might just be the hottest thing ever. No really: ever. I almost had to leave the room. And I love how the guy who wrote the song just went up there, sang a few lines of the song, blew a kiss and left - BEST OSCAR ACCEPTANCE EVER. So cool, so classy, SO LATIN AMERICAN. It was hot. He has my eternal respect.

All right, now the important stuff. I thought Charlize Theron looked like a GODDESS. Absolutly best dressed/best hair/best poise/OMG-I-want-to-be-her. She looked amazing! I thought Kate Winslett looked gorgeous too - great dress, great hair. Fabulous. Oh, and Sophie Okonedo (from Hotel Rwanda) looked stunning also. Right up there with Charlize. Honorable mentions go to Natalie Portman and Gwyneth Palthrow. And Barb, I still think Renee Zellwegger's dress looked cheap. And Drew Barrymore looked like death. Could someone please explain why Samuel L. Jackson thinks he can wear a jogging suit to the Oscars?
- posted by Nicole @ 12:21 PM

 
Darfur
I don't understand how leaders of the international community can look at these satellite images and still do nothing.
- posted by Nicole @ 1:43 PM

 
Academy Awards
My picks for tomorrow night. Once again, what I think SHOULD win, not what I think is actually going to win.

Best Actor, leading role:
Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda. This man is awesome. What a powerful performance. (Though I wouldn't mind seeing Johnny Depp finally get recognized for all the talen he has; but I think Jamie Foxx will win for Ray)

Best Actor, supporting:
Clive Owen for Closer. He got the Golden Globe, and I just love a sweep.

Best Actress, leading:
Don't care.

Best Actress, supporting:
Tough category. I think I'd like to see Sophie Okonedo win for Hotel Rwanda, because she was excellent, and I really want this movie to get some more attention. But I also absolutely loved Natalie Portman in Closer (possibly her best role yet), and Cate Blanchett was the only good thing about the Aviator. In general, I also really like Laura Linney as an actress, though I didn't see Kinsey. I think Kate Blanchett will win.

Best animated film:
I think they're all dumb.

Best art direction:
Finding Neverland. Very creative.

Cinematography:
House of Flying Daggers - really cool. Nothing like what we do here.

Costume:
Not impressed by any. Maybe Finding Neverland.

Directing:
If Scorsese wins, I'll vomit . . . but he will . . .unless Clint Eastwood does . . .

Best editing:
Again, not really impressed. Maybe Finding Neverland

Best Foreign:
Definitly haven't seen enough of this category, unfortunately. I'd really like to see the South African film and the German film, though.

Best score:
OBVIOUSLY John Williams for Harry Potter 3 - it's the best Harry Potter score of the three so far.

Best visual effects:
Harry Potter 3.

Best adapted screenplay:
Finding Neverland

Original screenplay:
Hotel Rwanda

Best Picture:
Really not impressed. Pray for Finding Neverland.

Here's a link to all the nominations.
- posted by Nicole @ 12:42 PM

 
Sir David Willcocks
We have Glee Club concert this weekend with Sir David Willcocks, who is one of the more famous, world reknown choral conductor/composer. The music we're singing is awesome - lots of glory-hallelujah-amen and God-save-the-king type stuff, but its really powerful, beautiful stuff. We're doing a couple pieces by Willcocks himself (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), a piece with organ called "I was glad", and then a combined number (Handel's Coronation Anthems) with the two other major choral groups on campus (Camerata and Schola), which puts us at about 200 singers, with an orchestra! The amount of sound is absolutely incredible! It's SO strong! It's a really exhilerating experience. Willcocks is this reall OLD, really nice British guy, and I wish he was my grandfather. "Tres gentil", as we say in French. He's really funny sometimes too. The concert it tomorrow, I can't wait!
- posted by Nicole @ 12:36 PM

 
Paul Rusesabagina
Yes. The real Paul Rusesabagina - whose heroic deeds are the subject of the film Hotel Rwanda - was here at Yale last night to speak. Of course I went to go see him. (Here's the link to the YDN coverage of the talk.)

It was amazing: he's just an ordinary guy. Just a normal, ordinary man, who has done extraordinary things. He was very affable, and you could tell he was very proud of what he did - but without being arrogant. I think the dean of the Law School put it very well when he introduced him: "Here is someone who reminds us that an Ivy League education is neither necessary nor sufficient for heroic acts in the defense of human rights." Paul talked a bit about the history of the Rwandan genocide, and then about his own life and personal experience. The film very closely and accurately follows his experience during those 100 days. (Though - it was really cute - he refuted the fact that he and his wife did not discuss the decision that his family would be evacuated in the UN effort, which ultimately failed.) His wife was there with him.

I'm so happy that so many people attended; the Law School Auditorium (which officially seats 350) was completely filled - including the aisles, so there was about 600 people there, plus two over-flow rooms with live feed that we also full to capacity. It was incredible. The Law School Aud was full a half hour before the start of the talk. When Paul first stepped to the podium, the entire place stood up and clapped - it was so moving. It was incredible to actually see him, and hear him tell his story. I think he is the bravest man alive. The courage and humanity that he showed in the face of such inhumanity is nothing short of amazing, and I question that I would have been able to do half as much as he has. He described his hotel as "an island of fear in an ocean of fire". And yet, he saved the lives of everyone there. He had the courage, where the international community failed to muster it.

We're currently reading an essay by Camus for my French class, and reading it this weekend, after having just seen Hotel Rwanda and Paul Rusesabagina speak, has had a powerful effect on me. Here's an excerpt from it:
“Les hommes ne se ressemblent pas, il est vrai, et je sais bien quelle profondeur de traditions me sépare d’un Africain. Mais je sais bien aussi ce qui m’unit à eux et qu’il est quelque chose en chacun d'eux que je ne puis mépriser sans me ravaler moi-même. C’est pourquoi il est nécessaire de dire clairement que ces signes, spectaculaires ou non, de racisme révèlent ce qu’il y a de plus abject et de plus insensé dans le coeur des hommes. Et c’est seulment lorsque nous en aurons triomphé que nous garderons le droit difficile de dénoncer, partout où il se trouve, l’esprit de tyrranie ou de violence.”
Rough translation:
"All men do not look alike, it's true, and I know well to what extent the traditions of an African are different from my traditions. But I also know well what unites me with them, and it is something in each of them that I cannot condemn without disparaging myself. That's why it's necessary to point out clearly that these signs, obvious or not, of racism reveal what is most despicable and most insane in the hearts of men. It is only when we have triumphed over this that we have the right to denounce, wherever it is found, the spirit of tyrannie and violence."
- posted by Nicole @ 8:03 PM

 
Hotel Rwanda
I finally got to see this film on Friday night. Really, words fail to adequately describe it, fail to describe the events it documents. It's disturbing and upsetting, and one can't look at humanity the same way after seeing it. The film is about the Rwandan genocide, which took place in 1994. It is one of the most horrible events in human history, not only because of the atrocities committed, but also because of the way the rest of the world stood by and let it happen. The film follows the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Kigali (the capital of Rwanda), who sheltered refugees in his hotel while roving bands of militias carried out waves of mass murder just outside. His courage and compassion are incredible. The film also issues a scathing indictment against the West and the International Community, justly revealing the cost of their inaction.

I basically sobbed through the entire film. It is REMARKABLY historically accurate. Everything that they show, everything they talk about, the vocabulary they use, the sound clips from the radio stations - all 100% accurate. And I think that's what upset me the most. Having read so much on this subject, I knew that this was an accurate portrayal of what actually happened, and it was like watching history come to life - a dark, evil part of human history. I hope that people will not watch this as a movie, but as a piece of historical evidence, a documentary. Nothing is embellished for dramatic effect. THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. If anything, it was worse than how it was portrayed.

Please go see this film. It's terribly important. We need to acknowledge this piece of history and try to understand it as best we can. You don't need any background information - they do an EXCELLENT job of explaining the history of the conflict and make it very easy to understand. (If you would like more information, either before or after, Wikipedia has a really good account of the genocide.) For everyone in Buffalo, the film is playing until Friday of this week at the North Park, showtimes are (2:00), (4:30), 7:00, 9:30. Go to see it, don't go see it alone, and talk about it afterwards. And no, "I meant to go, but I just didn't get around to it" doesn't cut it. That's what the International Community said, and 100 days later 937,000 Rwandans were dead.
- posted by Nicole @ 11:47 AM

 
Battle of Algiers
I just watched the film Battle of Algiers for my film class - wow! What a spectacular film. So honest and evocative. It's about the Algerian struggle for independence against French imperialism (1954-1962). And the really cool thing was, we covered this conflict earlier in the semester in my terrorism class. It was a very accurate portrayal of the conflict - of the atrocities and "terrorism" committed by both sides. It was realy powerful!
- posted by Nicole @ 9:07 PM

 
Copenhagen, Grammercy Park, and Good Food
This weekend has been really great! Yesterday after Saybrook rehearsal (BLAH!), I went out to eat with Nick, his suitemate Harry (who picked up the check?!), and Harry's girlfriend (in town, from Boston) Hailey. (Haha, I know "Nick and Nicole" and "Harry and Hailey" - shoot me now) We went to Scoozi's - it was a fabulous dinner, I had Chicken Papardelle, and then this chocolate/hazelnut gelato in a chocolate shell for dessert. Mmmmmm, so good. It was fun double-dating, too.

After dinner, Nick and I went to go see this play "Copenhagen". And it was AWESOME! The Dramat has been putting on some really good shows this year (re: "A Bright Room Called Day" in the Fall). It was about these two physicists - Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg - who met during WWII in Copenhagen. There's a lot of mystery surrounding the meeting, because the two were best friends, but never spoke to each other after this meeting. This play is a speculation of what they discussed at the meeting - presumably the atomic bomb, and the weapons development programs of the Allies and the Axis powers. It was so profound, showing how physics and politics were lethally intertwined, along with a fair degree of human emotion and moral dillema. I wish I could see it again (or better yet, read it), because they throw so many words at you (it's basically a conversation between three people the whole time; and it was "in the round", which was really cool, I've never seen a play like that before), and I was like, "wait - I wanna think about that line for, like, four days," and they're already onto the next thing. It's frightening, thought provoking, enlightening, and complex. WOW. One of the main themes is incertainty - not just the Uncertainty Principle in quantum mechanics, but in life and human relations. About not ever being able to see yourself, but only your reflection and effects on other people; reactions. I would LOVE to see it about 6 more times.

Then today I went into NYC with Glee Club to do a concert at the National Arts Club in Grammercy Park (yeah, the image you have in your mind right now is 100% correct). The arts club was actually right next to where Lauren (Aunt Patti's daughter) lived when she dormed in Grammercy Park her freshman year of SVA (School of Visual Arts). It was really elegant, classy, and full of rich white men. The brunch they fed us was INCREDIBLE. The concert went really well, and we were enthusiastically received by the (small) audience. I would just like to reiterate that I love Glee Club, and especially the people in it. We always have so much fun when we travel.

Now, I'm writing a paper on "Rhinoceros", a novella/play by Eugene Ionesco. We read it for my french class, and I absolutly loved it. It's a dark comedy about how people start turning into rhinoceri (plural? I know the plural in french), about conformity and individualism, mass ideological epidemics, etc. It's actually a metaphor for Nazism. It's fabulous, and at parts, incredibly, incredibly funny!
- posted by Nicole @ 11:00 PM

 
iTunes
Bands/singers/groups/albums that I have discovered through the campus iTunes network: (list includes this year's as well as last year's discoveries)

Coldplay
Maroon 5
Enya
Oasis
Frou Frou
U2
Ladysmith Black Mambazo (South African a cappella group)
Buena Vista Social Club
Amelie soundtrack

and I almost forgot Rufus Wainwright
- posted by Nicole @ 1:12 AM

 
How Terrorism Ruined My Life
So here, as per Barb's request, is a detailed account of the excrutiating events that have thrown my life into cataclysmic dissaray. I'm taking a class called "International Terrorism and Global Responses", which I actually helped get added to the curriculum, because I'm on a seminar selection committee. ANYWAYS. What that means is that I've been looking forward to taking this class for over 6 months, ever since I first saw the syllabus for the committee. My aspirations were confirmed when we interviewed the professor and I decided I absolutely had to take a class from this brilliant British man (ok, so I have a thing for British people . . .). The class is FABULOUS. Hands down, my favorite class this semester, and promises to be one of my alltime favorites for my whole career here. I could write PAGES on how much I love it and all the cool stuff we cover in it and how AWESOME and FUNNY this guy is as a professor (he's not an academic - he's a practitioner, and it's SOOOOO refreshing, because the class is based on reality on-the-ground, not on theory. It's soooo practical - I love it). But alas, all is not well in paradise.

He announced two weeks ago that we were going to have to change the meeting time of the seminar, because he takes PhD classes at Harvard and his schedule conflicts. This is IMPOSSIBLE. It is NEVER done. You can't change class times, especially three weeks into the semester when schedules have already been turned in and you can't add/drop classes without having to offer up your first born child. So we start going over 8 or 10 different times that the class could meet - ALL OF WHICH work for me (I have a fairly condensed schedule, and all my classes are in the morning). And then at the last minute, this one (stupid) girl goes, "What about Monday nights?". On Monday nights, not ONLY do I have Glee Club rehearsal, I also have screenings for my world cinema class (you know, it's a film class, so it's not like seeing the films is IMPORTANT OR ANYTHING. Rage.) This new schedule essentially requires me to be in three places at once, which - unless you're Hermione Grainger(Harry Potter reference) - is impossible. And I was THE ONLY person it didn't work for. So I got screwed. Insert hysterical crying. And the thing that really sucks is the fact that I absolutely love this class and will basically sacrifice everything to make it work. *sigh* I'm very slowly working it out, but it's literally ruining my life - the repercussions are enormous, it's sending shock waves through my whole schedule. It's a bit more complicated than I've written here (with Glee Club and film screenings, work, etc), but it would take way too long to explain all the little details that really make it even more difficult. But I really have very few options, so I'm making do with what I have. So there you have it. Aren't you glad you asked?
- posted by Nicole @ 8:19 PM

 
For those who think Bogie has sex appeal . . .
For all those out there for whom Humphrey Bogart is the "Be all end all", you ought to acquaint yourself with Jean Gabin. He's Bogart's cinematic predecessor, and he's fabulous! This morning, I watched the french film "Pépé Le Moko", which is essentially a French Casablanca - except this one came first. It's an absolutely fabulous film, and a must-see for those who love Casablanca. And, in my humble opinion, Jean Gabin (who plays the titular character) outdoes Bogie with his hands tied behind his back. Wow! This guy is awesome. He also stars in what may possibly be my all-time favorite film (which changes all the time, but this film is definitely in the top 10 - and I've seen A LOT of movies): La Grande Illusion. He totally rocks. And he's French. So hot right now (*shameless quoting of a really STUPID movie*; $5 if you know which one).
- posted by Nicole @ 8:11 PM