week 3: AND THE OSCAR GOES TO…

At the beginning of March there was the 86. Oscar Awards Gala organized by the American Academy of Film. Instead of writing about winners, I would like to tell you about the biggest loser of this year’s gala. It’s of course Leonardo DiCaprio. 

Leonardo is 40 years old and this was his fourth nomination to the prestigious award. He got his first nomination for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” in 1994, the second for “Aviator” in 2005 and the third for “Blood Diamond” in 2007. This year he was nominated in The Best Actor category for the role of Jordan Belford In “Wolf of Wall Street” directed by Martin Scorsese. The story is about a broker who quickly became very successful and began to earn lots of money. His out of law lifestyle quickly attracts attention of FBI. I won’t tell you more, because I don’t want to spoil the fun of people who haven’t seen it yet.

Long time before the gala the Internet was full of speculation whether Leo would finally get his dreamed award. For what I saw, many people had fingers crossed for him.

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Many articles were written why Oscar should go to Leonardo.

Here there are a few examples:

    1.     His four earlier nominations.

    2.     His underestimated play in „Titanic” as touching, heroic, humble and amazing Jack Dawson.   

    3.     It’s been over two decades since his first Oscar nomination, so it’s just about time!

More you can find here.

Of course there were also articles why Leo wouldn’t get it. I have to admit that the reasons I found were quite funny:

1.    Maybe he sent letters filled with glitter to all Academy voters’ asking them to help save sharks somewhere.

2. They’re waiting until he stars in at least five films in one year, so he can only run against himself for the best actor and the only mystery is what movie he will win for.

3.     I don’t know . . . did he kick a puppy? He would never kick a puppy.

I recommend reading the whole article here.

Irrespective of the articles, Leonardo didn’t win the Oscar. Why? In spite of his great play, the movie didn’t make a good impression. It was judged as a vulgar comedy full of nudity. DiCaprio worked really hard to make a convincing hero. Belford is a wicked fraud who caused many honest people to lose lots of money. His “la dolce vita” is filled with sex and drugs. The conservative jurors don’t like movies like this. Some of the members of Academy considered the film impropriate after the first showing.  Apparently, one of them told to Scorsese that he should be ashamed of this piece. Then the daughter of one of the “Wolf” partners expressed disgust. Finally a “Business Insider” journalist went to see the movie with the people of Wall Street. He was shocked when he saw their enthusiastic reaction. Taking into account all the above, it was impossible for Leo to be rewarded with an Oscar. I’m sorry.

It’s worth mentioning, that Leo isn’t alone in the Academy oblivion. In the history of cinema there were many great artists ignored by the American jury. For example: Alfred Hitchcock, Rita Hayworth, Marline Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, just to name a few.  It’s hard to imagine Hollywood without them, nevertheless, their work was never honoured by the gold statuette. Stanley Kubrick has won just one Oscar and it was for special effects in “2001: A Space Odyssey”!!! Also today there are artists who are regularly overlooked by the Academy Awards. I think Leonardo is one of the persons most ungracefully treated by the Academy.  

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However… Leo shouldn’t be really worried, because the actors from the Intimate Theatre in Russia gave him an award which imitates the real Oscar. DiCaprio also will get a lifetime free entrance to the Theatre. I think that’s really nice of them :). I haven’t found any information if Leo enjoyed the prize. I hope that thanks to the Russian Oscar he will forget about the American one.

Questions:

   1.     Do you think that Leonardo should have won the Oscar?

   2.     What’s your favourite actor?

   3.    Would you like to take part in the Oscar Gala?