Bad news is good news longer. What applies to the classic definition of comedy (tragedy plus time) could well be useful to us to analyze from the perspective here what happened on Sunday night in Los Angeles on account of the Golden Globesthe new ones, those recovered for the cause. The Snow Society, of Juan Antonio Bayona, did not win the statuette as a non-English speaking production. Oh. But be careful, the film that took the award from him will not be able to do so again in the Oscar.
It is, indeed, a matter of time. When the Academy Awards are presented on March 11, Hollywood will once again surrender to what seems justifiably its great favorite and last Palme d’Or: ‘Anatomy of a fall, by Justine Triet. But, and here’s the surprise, the French film that deservedly sweeps wherever it goes does not appear in the preselection for the international films category. In its place, the French Academy (France does not win for quarrels) long ago elected the also notable ‘To simmer’, by Tran Anh Hung. And from there, the bad-good news.
For some time now, every year it happens that a production outside the scope of the large American industry sneaks into the top of preferences. The voter registry has changed, it has expanded and it looks more navel-gazing than those born in the United States. Sometimes scandalously (and to the dismay of Almodóvar’s ‘Pain and Glory), the chosen one’Parasites‘, by Bong Joon-ho, and others, ‘Drive my car‘, by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. This season it was Triet’s turn. If everything had gone as logic indicates, yours would already be at this point the Oscar reserved for outsiders and yours, the most likely nomination for best film on the list of ten. The second part will be given, and even more so after seeing that the perfect script signed by Arthur Harari and Triet herself wins the Golden Globe ahead of everyone, but Bayona will have her Oscar. Fiance.
For the rest, the Golden Globes came after their great crisis of prestige (what if bribes, what if Cruise returns his award, what if he abused Brendan Fraser, what if he said goodbye to the Foreign Press Association) and, beyond whether whether or not they serve to set a trend regarding specific awards (which they will), what they launch is a message of consensus, of reconciliation and (long live the ‘wishful thinking‘) recovery. Hollywood seems tired of scolding viewers or gives the impression that it has come to the conclusion that this is not the way. Gone seem to be the times when the thing was to reward either the rabidly small or the clamorously minority, whether for being very inclusive or very exclusive. Bad times, therefore, for ‘Past Lives’by Celine Song. Already last year, the discussed ‘Everything at once everywhere‘ was there to announce that ‘arty’ cinema could be made with the multiverse parameters of superhero cinema. And succeed. And how. That is the way the guild seemed to say when awarding some very strange Oscars.
The big phenomenon of this year (you know, the ‘Barbenheimer‘) has been read by the industry as a return to those good old days when the audience and relevant cinema They shook hands. Aside from the opinion of the critics (they should scold), the distinctive thing about the season that ended has been that the public conversation in every sense (be it aesthetic, political or ideological) has revolved around some films that were liked more or less, you had to have seen so as not to look like a Martian without social networks after dinner. And that is what the Golden Globes, with an almost unbearable pure aseptic gala and with an unprecedented presence of stars on the red carpet, wanted to validate. No more (or at least this year) giving mention to films that have only been seen at festivals and big cities; goodbye to inflamed speeches about nothing; not a trace of any statement that encourages the brawl in the middle of a presidential election year (how is it possible that neither the conflict in Ukraine nor the war in Israel have had even the slightest mention? And it is just an example). Otherwise, Hollywood has discovered that polarization is bad business and decency detracts from the box office.