So I looked up the Oscar nominees. As usual... I have barely seen any of them. I've seen Atonement, which is up for quite a bit, Juno, Ratatouille, Transformers (visual effects), Enchanted (music) and others. Movies that are taking a lot of nominations that I don't... actually want to see: Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Sweeny Todd and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, No Country For Old Men, etc.

I am... perplexed by the fact that all 'good art' has to be pretentious and painful to watch. I feel like fine art is, again, caught up in ignoring the finer elements of humanity, the grace of using less, etc and so forth. I think that is part of the reason why I love Beaugereau so much. Not many people have heard of him, but he was an amazing artist. Ironically, the Academy (this being the French art Academy this time) actually like him, thought he was a rising star, however, he actually spent the majority of his time drawing oridinary people and making them look extraordinary.

That motivation, too, can turn pretentious in time, but I think what people don't realize is that good actors, editing, screenplay, costumes does not make a good MOVIE. A good movie is a collaborative effort in which NO ONE is showing off. Rather, it is a slick amalgamation between all facets in order to communicate the story involved. A good director, I think, would not fight against the script that he is given, trying to make it into something grander than it actually was. He cannot control if the script is good or not. He should choose a script he already loves and then with his efforts in instructing the actors, he should make the characters come alive.

The actors should not buck against the authority of the director or to turn the director against the script, rather they should take direction and do their best to make that direction as effective as possible.

The art director should not look at a scene and think, "Oh how can I make this scene more artistic". Instead he should think, "How can I make this scene effective AND beautiful?" favoring, of course, the content over the flourish. He should realize that any flourish will take its direction from the content, which, since the content comes to him already created, does the dictating. While ideally, the content and the art should arise together, both complementing and cedes to the will of the other to create the most effective comprimise... it is not always the case.

However, that is just my own hack opinion. Art, fully realized, will probably always be a little bit pretentious strictly for the sake of its own survival. Blah.

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