Exactly one year to the day since his death from an accidental drug overdose, Heath Ledger was remembered Thursday with an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor for his performance as the deranged Joker in “The Dark Knight.”
Hollywood 2008: Popular Movies–National and Global Taste
January 18, 2009 by
When looking at the top-grossing films of 2008 from a global standpoint, it is interesting to analyze for each of the 10 pictures the ratio between domestic (U.S.) and foreign (international) grosses. For example, “The Dark Knight” made close to $1 billion, but more than 50 percent of that impressive figure ($531 million, to be exact) was generated by American audiences. In contrast, the joyous but poorly reviewed musical “Mamma Mia!” grossed close to $573 million globally, but the ratio between domestic and foreign performance is 1 to 3.
Hollywood 2008: Top-Grossing Films–Global Movie Taste–The Dark Knight
January 17, 2009 by
What do grosses reveal about taste and preference, joy and pleasure, influence and impact of the movies. Not much. Box-office receipts tell us how many people saw a particular film, or rather how much money each film made (In some European countries, the unit of analysis is the number of admissions, not dollars from tickets sold). But they don't tell us whether people actually liked those movies, or even stayed to the end of the screening.
Oscar: Mentally and Physically Ill–Part Two
January 16, 2009 by
If Javier Bardem gets a nod from the Academy for The Sea Inside, in which he embodying the physically immobile Spaniard poet, he will join the company of Supporting winner Harold Russell, a real-life hero who played himself in The Best Years of Our Lives, and Best Actor winner Jon Voight, as a sensitive Vietnam vet on a wheelchair in Coming Home.
Oscar: Thrillers and Horror Flicks–Missing in Action
January 16, 2009 by
With the exception of Jonathan Demme and the Coen brothers, no other filmmakers have won a directorial Oscar for a thriller, including Hitchcock, the genre's acknowledged master. Hitchcock was nominated five times: for Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960). No wonder, he was cynical in his view of the Oscar, telling a reporter he wasn't disappointed, because, “Why do I want another doorstop?”
