My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Get Out
Actor: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Supporting Actress: Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Original Screenplay: Get Out
Adapted Screenplay: Mudbound
Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049
Production Design: The Shape of Water
Editing: Dunkirk
Costume Design: Phantom Thread
Original Score: Phantom Thread
Song: "Mystery of Love", Call Me By Your Name
Sound Mixing: Baby Driver
Sound Editing: Blade Runner 2049
Visual Effects: War for the Planet of the Apes
MakeUp: Darkest Hour
Foreign Language Film: A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
Animated Feature: The Breadwinner
Animated Short: Negative Space
Live Action Short: DeKalb Elementary
Documentary Short: Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Drag Race

The 1982 Oscar race is the first one I can remember.  Not only were 3 of the Best Picture nominees films that I’d seen (a first for my then 12-year-old self), but other films I’d been allowed to see—Annie, TRON, Poltergeist—were in the running in some of the smaller categories, too.  Only years later would I catch some of the other highly-acclaimed nominees like Missing, The Verdict, Sophie's Choice or Das Boot. 

But that year, it was all about Gandhi and Tootsie and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, a poster of which hung on my bedroom wall, another first (previously it had all been sports legends and super heroes but never movies).  These were the 3 top nominated films—with 11, 10, and 9 nods respectively—and the anticipation was high to see who would emerge the winner in the end.

But what I do remember about the race in the build-up to the nominations—and eventually the ceremony itself—was the talk about the gender-bending that year, for not only was Dustin Hoffman’s masquerade as a woman in the mix, but so was Julie Andrews (whom I only knew as Mary Poppins and Maria Von Trapp) as a woman playing a man playing a woman in Victor Victoria and John Lithgow (a supporting actor nominee) as a transsexual in The World According to Garp.  In the end, none of them would win, but it was the first time I remember the Academy Awards acting as a springboard for conversation that intersected with the cultural zeitgeist.

Looking back, it seems almost a miracle that a movie almost exclusively about Muslims, Hindus and the tyranny of white imperialism was even made, let alone go on to sweep with 8 wins.  But few people talk about Gandhi now, except for the role it played in catapulting Ben Kingsley (the Best Actor winner) into our consciousness.  E.T. is still adored, though Spielberg’s career has expanded well beyond the summer blockbuster wunderkind which was his reputation (not without a bit of condescension) 35 years ago.

But Tootsie has taken on a new, burnished reputation as one of the Great American Comedies, even elevated to #2 of all-time by the American Film Institute in 2002 (behind only Some Like It Hot, another guys-in-gals-clothing romp).  But to these eyes, time has not been kind to Sydney Pollack’s film and while it still has some very funny moments, it’s not without the acrid aftertaste of its regressive, even toxic, views on sex and gender.  This is especially true when compared to Blake Edwards’s Victor Victoria, which is just as funny but also far more compassionate, generous, and forward-thinking.

Tootsie is about Michael Dorsey, a New York actor who’s earned a well-deserved reputation as a prima donna, but whose vanity is rooted in his adherence to the “craft” of acting, which he uses as an excuse to be insulting, unyielding, and a royal pain-in-the-ass.  This renders him unemployable and the only way he can get a job is to impersonate a woman at an audition, which lands him a gig on a daytime soap opera, Southwest General.

Victoria Grant is also hard on her luck.  A classically-trained singer in 1930s Paris, she is destitute and desperate and can only find work by taking on the guise of Count Victor Grazinski, a gay Polish aristocrat and female impersonator.  In both films, the only other people complicit in these actors’ secrets are their roommates (Bill Murray and Oscar-nominee Robert Preston, respectively).  And both find their love lives and worldviews altered from the experience.

Tootsie is on the surface an exercise in empathy.  Michael has to experience firsthand the indignities of harassment at work, the condescension of the piggish male director (Dabney Coleman), the misogyny of playing roles that only perpetuate stereotypes, and the countless everyday challenges (hailing a cab, buying endless accessories) that women face.  In this sense, the film actually works fairly well.  The problem is the film isn’t satisfied with him as a low-level actress who gets to walk a mile in another’s high heels.  For the movie’s purposes, “Dorothy Michaels” has to become a feminist icon.  She talks back to the director, changes her lines on the show without permission, and is never really reprimanded or punished like any woman would be in such a sexist environment.  Instead, she’s indulged and rewarded, with a fervid fan base and photo shoots for the covers of Woman’s Day and Ms.  It’s a fantasy of male privilege—a world where the women are brow-beaten or complacent and where it takes a guy to come to the rescue and role model real feminism, even if he has to dress up as a gal to do it.

What’s worse is that there’s no evidence that Michael has learned anything from his parallel life to inform his “real” one.  His treatment of his friend and pseudo-lover Sandy (a delightful, Oscar-nominated Teri Garr) is atrocious, he makes sexual advances to his co-worker Julie (Supporting Actress winner Jessica Lange) as both a man and a woman, and when he finally “outs” himself as a dude, he still feels entitled to approach Julie on the pretense that they were “good friends” the entire time she was confiding in him while he was lying to her.  And she falls for it!  Another male privilege fantasy.  While perhaps slightly more enlightened when wearing a girdle, Michael hasn’t really changed.  He still gets his way through coercion and egoism but we’re supposed to believe that he’ll somehow be different than Julie’s malignant previous boyfriend.  Lange’s portrayal only scratches the surface of how damaged Julie is, but she’s clearly co-dependent and he’s a narcissist who, lip service aside, is still lacking in any real self-awareness. 

Victor Victoria, on the other hand, is about real female empowerment, as Victoria becomes aware of the choices and privileges she gets as a “man” that she wasn’t even aware of previously.  But more than that, the film embraces sexual identity and the variety of ways it expresses itself.  Sex (the act) is only seen in relationship to power in Tootsie.  But the complexity of desire and the fluidity of attraction is explored in smart, sophisticated ways in VV.  This is particularly true with the character of King Marchand (James Garner).  He’s initially attracted to Victoria before he discovers that “she” is a drag act.  But even then, his curiosity is piqued—as well as his suspicions—and they are all tied to what he as a man is traditionally drawn to.  After Victor's debut, King confronts "him" backstage.

King: I find it hard to believe that you’re a man.

Victor: Because you find me attractive as a woman?

K: Yes, as a matter of fact.

V: It happens frequently.

K: Not to me.

V: It proves the old adage, “There's a first time for everything.”

K: I don’t think so.

V: But you’re not 100% sure.

K: Practically.

V: But to a man like you, someone who believes he could never under any circumstances find another man attractive, the margin between “practically” and “for sure” is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

K: If you were a man, I’d knock your block off.

V: Then prove that you’re a man.

K: That’s a woman’s argument.

V: Your problem, Mr. Marchand, is that you’re preoccupied with stereotypes.  I think it’s as simple as you’re one kind of man.  I’m another.

K: And what kind are you?

V: One that doesn’t have to prove it—to myself or anyone.

Later, after he learns her secret and they spend the night together, King wants her to quit the show and revert back to being Victoria.  But she refuses, noting the hypocrisy of asking her to do something he would never consider doing himself.  She recognizes the power, and freedom, that has come with her new standing and is loathe to lose it.  The two then begin to see each other romantically, but since “Victor” must continue to maintain his public identity, King is put in the position of being perceived as gay, even though he knows he’s not.  In Tootsie, there are several scenes that are played for comic effect about characters being mistaken for being gay, but it never extends beyond a joke.  But VV mines this landscape for larger truths about homosexuality and society’s scrutiny, personal worth vs public perception, and ultimately accepting yourself with or without others’ validation. 

So many of the supporting characters feed and reflect this theme in different ways.  King’s moll Norma (hilarious, Oscar-nominated Lesley Ann Warren) can’t decide whether to be jealous or not as Victor slowly insinuates himself into King’s orbit.  King’s bodyguard Squash (Alex Karras) comes out to his boss as gay after he mistakes his boss for also swinging that way—a genuinely touching moment layered under a light comic affect.  And then there’s Robert Preston’s Toddy.  I certainly can’t begrudge Louis Gossett Jr.’s Supporting Actor victory that year for An Officer and a Gentleman (the first person of color to win that award).  But Preston’s performance is one of the finest in any musical ever—a queen who’s funny, catty, nosy, flirtatious, but also has the biggest heart in the film.  He’s sublime.  Of course up to this point, nobody had ever won an Oscar for playing a gay character (the first would be William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman three years later) and it’s impossible to say if Hollywood’s old-school homophobia played a part in Preston losing, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.  This was his only nomination (incredibly, he was overlooked for The Music Man 20 years earlier), and he’s perfect.

Then again, it’s hard to think of a mainstream film from the 80s that’s as gay-friendly as Victor Victoria.  Maybe having it set as a European period piece, and a musical no less, helped.  But it features a wide variety of queer characters as part of the natural fabric of the cabaret scene (and beyond) and even has a remarkable musical number that explicitly references the duality of masculine and feminine in everyone.  The fact that the central romance is hetero doesn’t relegate the LGBT themes to the margins.  They’re still unquestionably front and center and make the movie feel, even a third of a century later, very modern.  By contrast, there isn’t a single gay character in Tootsie’s NY acting community that we see.  The closest concession we get is a brief cameo by Andy Warhol.

Victor Victoria plays broader and indulges in familiar tropes of farce (especially with Edwards’s impeccable ballet of characters hiding in closets and on balconies), but it’s also far more real and human in the long run.  Tootsie has some undeniably funny moments, but it’s all in the service of reinforcing narrow sexual roles and having things revert back to comfortable normalcy.  Whatever happens to Sandy, who gets such short shrift?  That the movie forgets her (the most complex and believable woman in the film) says everything about the narrative’s priorities.  Lange may have won the Oscar, but Garr’s Sandy is the conscience of the film and gets steamrolled for her efforts.  In fact, all of the Grrl Power moments are via Hoffman and the film seems to delight In how fickle or hypocritical its female characters are.  It’s at its core a surprisingly mean movie, while VV is an open-hearted, nonjudgmental one.

Blake Edwards holds two unique records in Oscar history.  No director has had his films earn as many nominations (33 total) without ever earning a Best Director nod himself.  His only career nomination was for VV’s screenplay, and while he did lose (to Missing), he would earn an Honorary Oscar from the Academy before passing away in 2010.  The other Oscar record is that no director’s films earned more nominations for Best Song than his: 8 total, all with the assistance of Henry Mancini, his longtime collaborator.  Mancini won 4 Oscars, all for Edwards movies—2 for Best Score (Breakfast at Tiffany’s and VV) and 2 for Best Song (“Moon River” from Breakfast and the title tune from The Days of Wine and Roses).

Sydney Pollack lost Best Director that year to Richard Attenborough, but would go on to win it three years later for Out of Africa.  Still, the best thing about Tootsie is his acting, as Michael’s long-suffering agent, George.  He’s amazing and incredibly funny and if I had to choose Pollack’s filmography as director or as actor (which includes fantastic turns in Michael Clayton, Eyes Wide Shut, and Husbands and Wives), I would pick the latter.  His one scene in Death Becomes Her is a masterclass in comedy and funnier than the rest of the movie combined.  He died in 2008.

Some other trivia odds & ends about the 1982 Oscars:

·       Jessica Lange became the second person in history to receive a Lead and Supporting nomination in the same year for different films (the first being Fay Bainter over 40 years earlier).  She was up for the lead in Frances and this double-whammy no doubt had some bearing on her winning for Tootsie, the only Oscar that film would get.

·       Charles Durning, who played Jessica Lange’s dad (and Dorothy Michaels’s suitor) in Tootsie was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor that year, but for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a title which included a word that went over my head in 6^th grade.

·       This year’s sequel to Blade Runner reminds us that Ridley Scott's original quite famously lost both of its nominations back in 1982, most notoriously for Visual Effects to E.T. (for more thoughts on the Spielberg film, check out my blog post here).

·       In 1982, Das Boot became the first foreign language film to earn six Oscar nominations, and its director Wolfgang Petersen still holds an Academy record himself: Director whose films have earned the most nominations (15 total) without winning anything at all.

·       Mickey Rooney received an Honorary Oscar at that year’s ceremony, making him the only person in Academy history to win both a Juvenile Oscar (a miniature statuette they gave to young performers for a short time) and a full-size one.

Since this blog also covers postage stamps in the movies, both Tootsie and Victor Victoria have items worth mentioning.  Southwest General’s producer (Doris Belack) says that the show is getting 2000 letters a week thanks to Dorothy (whose character's name is Emily Kimberly), and we see a shot of some of these letters, which feature real-life stamps including the floral Love stamp (Scott #1951) and the fire pumper stamp (#1908), both issued in 1981.  As for VV, there are no stamps visible, but the Parisian set was built on a soundstage, including this storefront for “Timbres Poste” (French for postage stamps).

As for the cards from my collection, the Henry Manicini stamp (which includes Victor Victoria in the titles listed, if you look close enough) is Scott #3839.  Audrey Hepburn is #3786 while the two Tiffany stamps are #3757 and #4165.  The Han Solo stamp is #4143l and while Tootsie wasn’t nominated for Best Makeup (only the second year of that category’s existence), I did include a Makeup stamp (#3772e) from the American Filmmaking series.  The "Things to Come" stamp is from the UK, released as part of a science fiction set in 1995.

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Moonlight
Actor: Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Actress: Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Supporting Actor: Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences
Director: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Original Screenplay: The Lobster
Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight
Cinematography: Moonlight
Production Design: Hail Caesar!
Editing: Arrival
Costume Design: Jackie
Score: Jackie
Song: "How Far I'll Go",  Moana
Sound Mixing: Rogue One
Sound Editing: Arrival
Visual Effects: Kubo and the Two Strings
Make-Up: Suicide Squad
Animated Feature: The Red Turtle
Animated Short: Blind Vaysha
Live Action Short: Timecode
Documentary Short: 4.1 Miles
Foreign Language Film: Toni Erdmann

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Mad Max: Fury Road
Actor: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Actress: Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Original Screenplay: Ex Machina
Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short
Cinematography: Carol
Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Costume Design: Carol
Score: Sicario
Sound Mixing: The Revenant
Sound Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Visual Effects: Mad Max: Fury Road
MakeUp: Mad Max: Fury Road
Foreign Language Film: Mustang
Animated Feature: Anomalisa
Animated Short: World of Tomorrow
Live Action Short: Day One
Documentary Short: Last Day of Freedom

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Boyhood
Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Supporting Actor: Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Original Screenplay: Nightcrawler
Adapted Screenplay: Inherent Vice
Cinematography: Mr. Turner
Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Editing: Whiplash
Costume Design: Inherent Vice
Score: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Song: "Glory",  Selma
Sound Mixing: Birdman
Sound Editing: Interstellar
Visual Effects: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Make-Up: Guardians of the Galaxy
Animated Feature: Song of the Sea
Animated Short: The Dam Keeper
Documentary Short: Our Curse
Foreign Language Film: Timbuktu

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Actor: Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Actress: Amy Adams, American Hustle
Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Director: Steve McQueen: 12 Years a Slave
Original Screenplay: Her
Adapted Screenplay: Before Midnight
Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis
Production Design: Her
Editing: Gravity
Costume Design: The Grandmaster
Score: Philomena
Song: "Let It Go", Frozen
Sound Mixing: Gravity
Sound Editing: All Is Lost
Visual Effects: Gravity
Make-Up: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Animated Feature: Frozen
Animated Short: Feral
Documentary Feature: The Act of Killing
Documentary Short: Facing Fear
Live Action Short:  Just Before Losing Everything
Foreign Language Film: The Missing Picture

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Amour

Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress: Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master

Director: Michael Haneke, Amour

Original Screenplay: Moonrise Kingdom

Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln

Cinematography: Skyfall

Art Direction: Life of Pi

Editing: Life of Pi

Costume Design: Mirror Mirror

Score: Life of Pi

Song: “Skyfall”, Skyfall

Sound Mixing: Life of Pi

Sound Editing: Life of Pi

Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Make-Up: Hitchcock

Foreign Language Film: Amour

Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man

Documentary Short: Inocente

Animated Feature: Frankenweenie

Animated Short: Head Over Heels
Live Action Short: Asad

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: The Tree of Life

Actor: Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Actress: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Supporting Actress: Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Director: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris

Adapted Screenplay: Moneyball

Cinematography: The Tree of Life

Art Direction: Hugo

Editing: Moneyball

Costume Design: The Artist

Score: The Artist

Song: “Man or Muppet”, The Muppets

Sound Mixing: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Sound Editing: Drive

Visual Effects: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Make-Up: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Foreign Language Film: A Separation

Documentary Feature: Pina

Documentary Short: God is the Bigger Elvis

Animated Feature: Rango

Animated Short: Wild Life

Live Action Short: Tuba Atlantic

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Winter’s Bone

Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Actress: Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Supporting Actor: John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone

Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Original Screenplay: Another Year

Adapted Screenplay: Winter’s Bone

Cinematography: True Grit

Art Direction: Inception

Editing: The Social Network

Costume Design: I Am Love

Score: The Social Network

Song: “I See the Light”, Tangled

Sound Mixing: Inception

Sound Editing: Inception

Visual Effects: Inception

Make-Up: The Way Back

Foreign Language Film: Dogtooth

Documentary Feature: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Animated Short: The Lost Thing

Live Action Short: God of Love

Point Ache

Congrats to Kathryn Bigelow for being the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar. Though highly-praised in some circles, I find Point Break, which she made back in 1991, is a joyless absurdity, with laughable performances across the board. I think Swayze and Reeves get a bad rap sometimes, but here they’re hopeless, fighting tooth and nail to see who can be less convincing—a renegade FBI agent or a craptastic hippie surfing guru. Bigelow has chops and has managed to create some flawed but engaging films from questionable material (Near Dark, Strange Days). But Point Break is epic loads of d-u-m-b. Here’s hoping, post-Hurt Locker (an undeniably terrific film) that she isn’t relegated to grade-B material anymore, even if she notches a failure or two on her belt (like many Oscar-winning male counterparts have).

Point Break doesn’t take place in Hawaii, but I used the statehood stamp because of the surfing motif.

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: The Hurt Locker

Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Actress: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Original Screenplay: A Serious Man

Adapted Screenplay: In the Loop

Cinematography: The White Ribbon

Art Direction: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Editing: The Hurt Locker

Costume Design: Bright Star

Score: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Song: “The Weary Kind”, Crazy Heart

Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker

Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker

Visual Effects: District 9

Make-Up: The Young Victoria

Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon

Animated Feature: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Animated Short: Logorama

Live Action Short: The New Tenants

My Oscar Ballot

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Actor: Sean Penn, Milk

Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Original Screenplay: In Bruges

Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Editing: Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design: Milk

Score: WALL-E

Song: “Jai Ho”, Slumdog Millionaire

Sound Mixing: WALL-E

Sound Editing: WALL-E

Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Make-Up: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir

Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Animated Feature: WALL-E

My Oscar Ballot

I love the ridiculous institution called Oscar but a more thorough breakdown analysis is for another site.  However, I will post my personal preferences if I had a real ballot.  Maybe one day...

PICTURE: There Will Be Blood
ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
ACTRESS: Julie Christie, Away From Her
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Savages
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: There Will Be Blood
CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
ART DIRECTION: There Will Be Blood
EDITING: Into the Wild
COSTUME DESIGN: Sweeney Todd
ORIGINAL SCORE: Michael Clayton
ORIGINAL SONG: “Falling Slowly”, Once
SOUND MIXING: No Country for Old Men
SOUND EDITING: There Will Be Blood
VISUAL EFFECTS: Transformers
MAKE UP: La Vie en Rose
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Taxi to the Dark Side
ANIMATED FEATURE: Persepolis
ANIMATED SHORT: Peter and the Wolf