Forced perspective Part 2

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84th Academy Awards winners

The 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony was hosted by Billy Crystal and produced by Brian Grazer. The ceremony marked Crystal’s ninth time serving as host for the Academy Awards. The ceremony was originally scheduled to be hosted by Eddie Murphy. However, Murphy stepped down after Brett Ratner resigned as producer, following Ratner’s use of a gay slur when discussing rehearsals.

The Artist and Hugo each won five awards, with the former winning Best Picture and its star Jean Dujardin winning Best Actor. The Iron Lady won two awards, including Best Actress for Meryl Streep. The Artist became the first silent motion picture in 83 years to win Best Picture (after Wings, which won Best Picture in the 1st Academy Awards).

BEST PICTURE:
The Artist – Thomas Langmann ## WINNER ##
The Descendants – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor, and Alexander Payne
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin
The Help – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, and Michael Barnathan
Hugo – Graham King and Martin Scorsese
Midnight in Paris – Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum
Moneyball – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, and Brad Pitt
The Tree of Life – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, and Bill Pohlad
War Horse – Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy

BEST DIRECTOR:
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist ## WINNER ##
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo

BEST ACTOR:
Jean Dujardin – The Artist as George Valentin ## WINNER ##
Demián Bichir – A Better Life as Carlos Galindo
George Clooney – The Descendants as Matt King
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as George Smiley
Brad Pitt – Moneyball as Billy Beane

BEST ACTREES:
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady as Margaret Thatcher ## WINNER ##
Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs as Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis – The Help as Aibileen Clark
Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Lisbeth Salander
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn as Marilyn Monroe

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christopher Plummer – Beginners as Hal Fields ## WINNER ##
Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn as Laurence Olivier
Jonah Hill – Moneyball as Peter Brand
Nick Nolte – Warrior as Paddy Conlon
Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as The Renter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Octavia Spencer – The Help as Minny Jackson ## WINNER ##
Bérénice Bejo – The Artist as Peppy Miller
Jessica Chastain – The Help as Celia Foote
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids as Megan Price
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs as Hubert Page

BEST WRITING – ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen ## WINNER ##
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids – Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo
Margin Call – J.C. Chandor
A Separation – Asghar Farhadi

BEST WRITING – ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
The Descendants – Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash from The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings ## WINNER ##
Hugo – John Logan from The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Ides of March – George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon from Farragut North by Beau Willimon
Moneyball – Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin from Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
Rango – Gore Verbinski ## WINNER ##
A Cat in Paris – Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
Chico and Rita – Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
Kung Fu Panda 2 – Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Puss in Boots – Chris Miller

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
A Separation (Iran) in Persian – Asghar Farhadi ## WINNER ##
Bullhead (Belgium) in Dutch and French – Michaël R. Roskam
Footnote (Israel) in Hebrew – Joseph Cedar
In Darkness (Poland) in Polish – Agnieszka Holland
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada) in French – Philippe Falardeau

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Undefeated – TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay, and Richard Middlemas ## WINNER ##
Hell and Back Again – Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front – Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory – Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Pina – Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT:
Saving Face – Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge ## WINNER ##
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement – Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
God Is the Bigger Elvis – Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
Incident in New Baghdad – James Spione
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom – Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:
The Shore – Terry George and Oorlagh George ## WINNER ##
Pentecost – Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
Raju – Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
Time Freak – Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
Tuba Atlantic – Hallvar Witzø

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM:
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore – William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg ## WINNER ##
Dimanche – Patrick Doyon
La Luna – Enrico Casarosa
A Morning Stroll – Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
Wild Life – Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
The Artist – Ludovic Bource ## WINNER ##
The Adventures of Tintin – John Williams
Hugo – Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
War Horse – John Williams

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets – Bret McKenzie ## WINNER ##
“Real in Rio” from Rio – Sérgio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett

BEST SOUND EDITING:
Hugo – Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty ## WINNER ##
Drive – Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Ren Klyce
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
War Horse – Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

BEST SOUND MIXING:
Hugo – Tom Fleischman and John Midgley ## WINNER ##
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, and Bo Persson
Moneyball – Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco, and Ed Novick
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Peter J. Devlin
War Horse – Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, and Stuart Wilson

BEST ART DIRECTION:
Hugo – Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo ## WINNER ##
The Artist – Laurence Bennett and Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Stuart Craig and Stephanie McMillan
Midnight in Paris – Anne Seibel and Hélène Dubreuil
War Horse – Rick Carter and Lee Sandales

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Hugo – Robert Richardson ## WINNER ##
The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth
The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse – Janusz Kamiński

BEST MAKEUP:
The Iron Lady – Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland ## WINNER ##
Albert Nobbs – Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnson, and Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, and Lisa Tomblin

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
The Artist – Mark Bridges ## WINNER ##
Anonymous – Lisy Christl
Hugo – Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre – Michael O’Connor
W.E. – Arianne Phillips

BEST FILM EDITING:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter ## WINNER ##
The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants – Kevin Tent
Hugo – Thelma Schoonmaker
Moneyball – Christopher Tellefsen

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
Hugo – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, and Alex Henning ## WINNER ##
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler, and John Richardson
Real Steel – Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Danny Gordon Taylor, and Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew E. Butler, and John Frazier

Source: Wikipedia.

Nominations for the 32nd Golden Raspberry Awards

The Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies is a parodic award ceremony that will be held on April 1, 2012 to honor the worst films of 2011. The nominations were announced on February 25, 2012. Taking a break from Razzie tradition of announcing both the nominees and winners before the Academy Awards functions by one day, it was decided in January of 2012 to delay both the Razzie nomination announcements and ceremony by several weeks in order for the actual Razzie ceremony to be held on April Fool’s Day.

The actual nominations however, still had some connection to the Oscars ceremony, as they were announced the night before the Academy Awards are held. American actor Adam Sandler received a Razzie record 11 nominations as an individual, and numerous nominations for films he was involved with.

HERE THE NOMINATIONS:

Worst Picture
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Jack and Jill
New Year’s Eve
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Actor
Russell Brand – Arthur
Nicolas Cage – Drive Angry, Season of the Witch and Trespass
Taylor Lautner – Abduction and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Adam Sandler – Jack and Jill (as Jack) and Just Go with It
Nick Swardson – Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

Worst Actress
Martin Lawrence (as Big Momma) – Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Sarah Palin (as herself) – The Undefeated
Sarah Jessica Parker – I Don’t Know How She Does It and New Year’s Eve
Adam Sandler (as Jill) – Jack and Jill
Kristen Stewart – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Supporting Actor
Patrick Dempsey – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
James Franco – Your Highness
Ken Jeong – Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, The Hangover Part II, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Zookeeper
Al Pacino – Jack and Jill
Nick Swardson – Jack and Jill and Just Go with It

Worst Supporting Actress
Katie Holmes – Jack and Jill
The Underwear Model (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Brandon T. Jackson (as Charmaine) – Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Nicole Kidman – Just Go with It
David Spade (as Monica) – Jack and Jill

Worst Director
Michael Bay – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Tom Brady – Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Bill Condon – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Dennis Dugan – Jack and Jill and Just Go with It
Garry Marshall – New Year’s Eve

Worst Screenplay
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Jack and Jill
New Year’s Eve
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Screen Couple
Nicolas Cage & Anyone Sharing the Screen with Him in Any of His Three 2011 Movies (Drive Angry, Season of the Witch and Trespass)
Shia LaBeouf & The Underwear Model (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Adam Sandler & EITHER Jennifer Aniston OR Brooklyn Decker – Just Go with It
Adam Sandler & EITHER Katie Holmes, Al Pacino OR Adam Sandler – Jack and Jill
Kristen Stewart & EITHER Taylor Lautner OR Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel
Arthur
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (Rip-off of Boogie Nights and A Star Is Born)
The Hangover Part II
Jack and Jill (Remake/Rip-off of Ed Wood’s Classic Glen or Glenda)
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Screen Ensemble
The Entire Cast of Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
The Entire Cast of Jack and Jill
The Entire Cast of New Year’s Eve
The Entire Cast of Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Entire Cast of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Multiple Nominations
Twelve: Jack and Jill
Eight: Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Six: Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Five: Just Go with It, New Year’s Eve
Three: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Two: Arthur, Drive Angry, The Hangover Part II, Season of the Witch, Trespass

Source: Wikipedia

Happy B-Day, Victor Hugo

VICTOR HUGO (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885)

Born in 1802 in Besancon, Victor Hugo was an extremely prolific poet, novelist and dramatist, the author of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Misérables”. He has been analyzed, praised, described, and criticized in many, many biographies; one of the first of these was published by his wife Adèle in 1863. He deeply influenced the Romantic movement and the formulation of its values in France.
Victor’s father Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo was an officer and a general in Napoleon’s Army, and a governor of provinces in Italy and Spain. His mother raised Victor after the initial collapse of their marriage; she would rejoin her husband several times at his various posts of duty.

At an early age, Victor began to write tragedies and poetry, and to translate Virgil. At 17, he founded a literary review with his brothers, the Conservateur Littéraire. His first collection of poems was published in 1822, the year of his marriage to Adèle Foucher (which triggered the lifelong incarceration in a mental institution of his brother and competitor, Engène). It earned him a royal pension from Louis the eighteenth. His first novel, “Han D’Islande” appeared anonymously in four pocket-sized volumes (his second appeared three years later). “Cromwell”, his famous dramatic poem, was published in 1827.
Hugo’s political stance wavered from side to side. He wrote royalist odes and cursed Napoleon’s memory, would then defend his father’s role in Napoleon’s victory, and attack the injustices of the monarchist regime. When Léopold Hugo died in 1828, Victor started to call himself a baron. In his later life, he would become involved in politics as a supporter of the republican form of government. He was elected in 1841 to the Académie Francaise; in 1845, he was made a pair de France, and sat in the Upper Chamber among the lords. When the coup by Louis Napoleon the third took place in 1851, he believed his life to be in danger, and fled to various different places; finally to Guernsey in the English channel. His voluntary exile lasted for 20 years, until he returned to France when Napoleon III fell from power and the Republic was reclaimed. In 1876, he was elected a senator of Paris.

His lyrical style has been described as ‘rich, intense and full of powerful sounds and rhythms.. although it followed the bourgeois popular taste of the period it also had bitter personal tones.’ Verlaine describes the progression in a typical Hugo love poem as follows: ‘I like you. You yield to me. I love you – You resist me. Clear off…” In 1843, Hugo’s daughter Léopoldine drowned along with her husband. A decade passed before Hugo would publish anything new.
Hugo’s funeral in 1885 was a national event, attended by two million people.
Victor Hugo Bio and Poems: www.poemhunter.com
Images: Google and Wikipedia
Read another Post about Victor Hugo on this blog: Man and Woman, a poem by Victor Hugo

THE GRAVE AND THE ROSE

The Grave said to the Rose,
“What of the dews of dawn,
Love’s flower, what end is theirs?”
“And what of spirits flown,
The souls whereon doth close
The tomb’s mouth unawares?”
The Rose said to the Grave.

The Rose said, “In the shade
From the dawn’s tears is made
A perfume faint and strange,
Amber and honey sweet.”
“And all the spirits fleet
Do suffer a sky-change,
More strangely than the dew,
To God’s own angels new,”
The Grave said to the Rose.

THE EXILE’S CHOICE

Since justice slumbers in the abysm,
Since the crime’s crowned with despotism,
Since all most upright souls are smitten,
Since proudest souls are bowed for shame,
Since on the walls in lines of flame
My country’s dark dishonour’s written;

O grand Republic of our sires,
Pantheon filled with sacred fires,
In the free azure golden dome,
Temple with shades immortal thronged!
Since thus thy glory they have wronged,
With ‘Empire’ staining Freedom’s home;

Since in my country each soul born
Is base; since there are laughed to scorn
The true, the pure, the great, the brave,
The indignant eyes of history,
Honor, law, right, and liberty,
And those, alas! within the grave:

Solitude, exile ! I love them !
Sorrow, be thou my diadem !
Poverty love I, — for ‘t is pride !
My rugged home winds beat upon;
And even that awful Statue wan
Aye seated silent by my side.

I love the woe that proves me strong;
That shadow of fate which all ye throng,
O ye to whom high hearts aye bow, —
Faith, Virtue veiled, stern Dignity,
And thou, proud Exile, Liberty,
And, nobler yet, Devotion, thou!

I love this islet lonely, bold, —
Jersey, wherever England’s old
Free banner doth the storm-blast brave;
Yon darkling ocean’s ebb and flow,
Its vessels, each a wandering plough,
Whose mystic furrow is the wave.

I love thy gull, with snowy wing
In pearls to the wind blithe scattering,
O ocean vast, thy sunny spray;
Who darts beneath hugh billows gaping,
Soon from those monstrous throats escaping
As a soul from sorrow flits away!

I love the rock, — how solemn, stern !
Thence hearkening aye the plaint eterne
On the wild air around me shed,
Ever the sullen night outpours,
Of waves that sob on sombre shores,
Of mothers mourning children dead!

THE GENESIS OF BUTTERFLIES

The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers
The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers
That kiss the buds, and all the flutterings
In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings,
That go and come, and fly, and peep and hide,
With muffled music, murmured far and wide!
Ah, Spring time, when we think of all the lays
That dreamy lovers send to dreamy mays,
Of the fond hearts within a billet bound,
Of all the soft silk paper that pens wound,
The messages of love that mortals write
Filled with intoxication of delight,
Written in April, and before the May time
Shredded and flown, play things for the wind’s play-time,
We dream that all white butterflies above,
Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love,
And leave their lady mistress in despair,
To flit to flowers, as kinder and more fair,
Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies
Flutter, and float, and change to Butterflies.

SERENADE

When the voice of thy lute at the eve
Charmeth the ear,
In the hour of enchantment believe
What I murmur near.
That the tune can the Age of Gold
With its magic restore.
Play on, play on, my fair one,
Play on for evermore.

When thy laugh like the song of the dawn
Riseth so gay
That the shadows of Night are withdrawn
And melt away,
I remember my years of care
And misgiving no more.
Laugh on, laugh on, my fair one,
Laugh on for evermore.

When thy sleep like the moonlight above
Lulling the sea,
Doth enwind thee in visions of love,
Perchance, of me!
I can watch so in dream that enthralled me,
Never before!
Sleep on, sleep on, my fair one!
Sleep on for evermore.

MORE STRONG THAN TIME

Since I have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet,
Since I my pallid face between your hands have laid,
Since I have known your soul, and all the bloom of it,
And all the perfume rare, now buried in the shade;

Since it was given to me to hear on happy while,
The words wherein your heart spoke all its mysteries,
Since I have seen you weep, and since I have seen you smile,
Your lips upon my lips, and your eyes upon my eyes;

Since I have known above my forehead glance and gleam,
A ray, a single ray, of your star, veiled always,
Since I have felt the fall, upon my lifetime’s stream,
Of one rose petal plucked from the roses of your days;

I now am bold to say to the swift changing hours,
Pass, pass upon your way, for I grow never old,
Fleet to the dark abysm with all your fading flowers,
One rose that none may pluck, within my heart I hold.

Your flying wings may smite, but they can never spill
The cup fulfilled of love, from which my lips are wet;
My heart has far more fire than you can frost to chill,
My soul more love than you can make my soul forget.

Cosplay Girls

More beautiful cosplay girls. Enjoy.