Q: If Notes on a Scandal opens and closes with Dame Dench and Cate Blanchett is the object of her driving force in the film, why would Blanchett be considered a Lead by a voting group?
A: Because they only have 5 nominees in Supporting and 10 in Lead, so she can be assured a nomination.
Q: Is Volver a comedy or a drama?
A: Depends if you think you
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Have you seen all the potential Oscar contenders (and not just for BP), or are there some you still have to see?
There’s a lot of weird comedy/drama issues this year… History Boys, Venus and The Queen are all quite funny, ditto Running with Scissors. Heck, even Notes on a Scandal has a few funny moments at the beginning. Right, and Volver. Maybe the HFPA should just give up trying to differentiate and try to narrow it down to five nominees.
Is there any reason the HFPA divides the categories like that besides the fact that doing so makes studios etc. happy by giving them more nominees and winners?
Volver’s structure is more comedy than drama, as is its tone, I’d say. Tough call. But not for the HFPA, who ought to go Comedy for the reason you offered.
If I were SPC I’d, as you say, be seeing the numbers of competitors in drama and comedy and placing Volver accordingly. The only nomination it could get that would be affected by the placement would be Penelope Cruz for Best Actress. It’s inneligable for Best Film and Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress don’t matter in regards to drama or comedy.
Just because Volver has some comic elements, doesn’t detract from the story being a drama… (how can abuse be a comedy?). I think it’s part of Almodovar’s genious that he is able to find elements to lighten up the dramatic side of the story and make it more endearing to the viewer. But question: are the more typical-Spanish elements equally funny to foreigners? I cracked up laughing in sequences when the audience around me kept a straight face ’cause they just didn’t get the joke…
I wish they’d drop the “musical” from the comedy category, because what happens is that every year, one musical that is not a comedy (e.g., WALK THE LINE) gets nominated there and ends up winning, leaving two dramas with Globes and the actual comedies shut out yet again.
The floor wax/dessert topping argument plagues television even more. The Emmys categorize BOSTON LEGAL as a drama, but the Globes classify it as a comedy. And even ABC keeps referring to MEN IN TREES as a drama, though no one I know who watches it would consider it anything but a comedy, and it’s a lot funnier than UGLY BETTY–which ABC does consider a comedy. Oy, I got such a headache…