Limelight: Hello Oscar By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Like a grown Cupid, Oscar has flown over tinsel town for the 78th time, breaking many hearts -- again, delighting a select few -- again. The ultimate salute to the Seventh Art, the Golden Boy's annual Hollywood visit is the most anticipated in Filmdom, and provides the most watched programme in Television land. This year was the exception. Never have all the five nominated features for "Best Film" honours been less popular or less viewed, than this season's crop. Revenues were so poor, that a French documentary with a bunch of penguins, amassed more at the box-office than all of the nominated films combined. Forty-four per cent of US viewers have not even heard of any of the films, let alone seen them. Perhaps in this altogether heavily laden year, too much emphasis on a social, political, or moral message was more than the public cared to swallow. Still, Oscar did what Oscar does -- he spread havoc and ruin, dashing hopes and shedding a river of tears over the immaculate cul-de-sacs of posh Beverly Hills. Simultaneously, he launched a few careers, granted a few wishes, and above all filled a few pockets with Oscar gold. Winning an Oscar always translates into more dollars and cents, and that, in tinsel town, is what it's all about. Despite a few vocal liberals, the academy voters are traditionally a conservative lot. Yet since the beginning of Awards season, the front runner was Brokeback Mountain, a movie about a homosexual affair, not normally one the voters would single out for a reward. So tender was the love story between two rugged cowboys in a mucho macho world, viewers soon forget "that same-sex thing" and are moved to tears by their forbidden romance, their passion, their pain, their predicament. Tastefully directed by the ultimate perfectionist, Taiwanese Oscar winner Ang Lee, who took home his second Oscar for Best Director to make a pair of loving golden boys on his mantel-piece. Since Oscar usually reserves a surprise on his show of shows, this came at the very last moment, when a small independent film, Crash, knocked the Mountain off, and crashed it's way to the top, winning Best Picture Award, and causing audiences to gasp, squeal, cheer and applaud. A critic's favourite, Crash is an intense multi-layered drama, about inter-racial prejudice in the spreading, straggling city of the angels. Since the residence of Los Angeles, which the academy of voters are, love movies about their city, they rewarded an excellent ensemble cast, who only discover themselves and each other when their vehicles literally crashed. George Clooney's beam lit up the Hollywood skies as he won Best Supporting Actor for his role as disillusioned CIA operative in Syriana, an examination of the Gulf War, another political theme. It made up for losses for his noble effort Goodnight and Goodluck also a best film nominee. Besides the little known nominated films, many of the nominees themselves were relatively unknown. Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor for his virtuoso performance as the gay, controversial author Truman Capote in Capote also a Best Picture nominee. Walk the Line, the only popular box office hit, about the life and love of Johnny Cash, was not even nominated for Best picture, but its stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were. While Phoenix won a Golden Globe for his incredible imitation of "the man in black", his luck did not carry over to the Oscars. Pretty, perky Reese however won for playing pretty, perky June Carter Cash, not only an Oscar but every other award on both sides of the Atlantic. So did a very pregnant Brit, Rachel Weisz, for Supporting Actress in the English film adaptation of John Le Carré's dark and angry novel, The Constant Gardener. Rounding up the big five was Stephen Spielberg's account of the Munich Olympics' assassinations Munich, and his moral ambivalence failed to score with the voters; another political message that got lost in the shuffle. But the penguins marched on to victory winning Best Documentary. This year's Oscar party was not the most exciting. First time host comedian Jon Stewart could not compare with the best, like Billy Crystal. The show sagged and dragged despite his efforts to keep the interest and the laughter flowing. To boost the ratings the presenters were among the most glamorous that Oscar ever picked, opening with the Beatrice -- like beguiling beauty, Nicole Kidman and keeping us entranced with the likes of Jennifers Aniston and Lopez, Selma Hayek, Russel Crowe, and the inimitable king himself, Jack Nicholson. The most moving moment came from South Africa when director Gavin Hood of Tsotsi won for Best Foreign Language Film and thanked his people, his country, his fellow nominees, his two young stars and cried 'Viva Africa' all in ten seconds. The only standing ovation went to a unique man in the history of film, the great Robert Altman who received the Honorary Oscar for his great contributions and distinctive style. Oscar razzle dazzle is, according to the venerable George C Scott, "just a meat parade in front of an international TV audience". That much is true, but who is to blame? We are a society of voyeurs, and when the object is the glitterati of the film world, our fascination knows no bounds. They amuse, inspire, entertain, enchant and often times shock us. Now, who else can boast of all that. Whatever they do, they provide a brief intermezzo to the often painful drama of our lives. Forget the bad season, the poor ratings, the meager revenues and the politics, Oscar still stands tall and proud as he rewards excellence in film, providing a feast for our eyes, an occasion to gape and gasp, to bow and cheer, to the beautiful people of the Seventh Art.
