Slumdog wins Eight

Slumdog Millionaire just picked up eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button appears to have picked up at least three, while both Milk and The Dark Knight picked up two each.

Oscar winners include: Penelope Cruz (supporting actress), Heath Ledger (supporting actor), Sean Penn (actor) and Kate Winslet (actress).

The night included two Oscars for A. R. Rahman, who, became one of three Indians to win an Oscar, the others being Gulzar (who shared one with Rahman for Original song) and Resul Pookutty (who shared one with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for sound mixing).

Wall-E won best animated feature, as expected.

Here's a partial list of winners:

— Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Best Director: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Best Actor: Sean Penn, "Milk."

— Best Actress: Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

— Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight."

— Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

— Foreign Film: "Departures," Japan.

— Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, "Milk."

— Animated Feature Film: "WALL-E."

— Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt; set decoration: Victor J. Zolfo, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

— Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Sound Editing: Richard King, "The Dark Knight."

— Original Score: "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman.

— Original Song: "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar.

— Costume: Michael O'Connor, "The Duchess."

— Documentary Feature: "Man on Wire."

— Documentary (short subject): "Smile Pinki."

— Film Editing: Chris Dickens, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Makeup: Greg Cannom, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

— Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes."

— Live Action Short Film: "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

— Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

PS: "Smile Pinki" is a documentary about an Indian girl with a cleft lip. The director who won the award though is American.

Here's a clip of the best original song:

Oscars and more ...

Nate Smith of http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ recently posted his predictions for the Oscars:

• Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (86% chance of victory)
• Best Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (51% chance of victory)
• Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (71% chance of victory)
• Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader (68% chance of victory)
• Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (99.7% chance of victory)
• Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (99.0% chance of victory)

That Slumdog Millionaire ranks so high is interesting. Clearly it is a well made movie, with a very engaging plot and offers Western audiences an opportunity to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude at the level of poverty depicted. However, I suspect that much of it's success may have to do with it being the right story at the right time. This year, hope sells. Slumdog's rags to riches story is just the ticket.

I wonder, though, where Slumdog Millionaire will rank when the current hoopla is over. It will probably not rank with romantic classics such as "Roman Holiday", "When Harry Met Sally", "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "Casablanca", "It Happened One Night", "Love Story", etc. It isn't clear whether it is artistically good enough to compare to classics such as "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Shawshank Redemption", or even Boyle's earlier work, "Trainspotting". It may join the ranks of the hundreds of topical Oscar winners, which seem overrated in hindsight. Still it's a good movie.

On a different note, I recently saw Hayao Miyazaki's film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. It isn't up to his usual standards. The central relationship is between two little kids whose love seems a bit too tenuous to be the cause of such an uproar. However, it is an fascinating take on the Little Mermaid, particularly in its depiction of the sea. For those who haven't seen a Miyazaki movie, you might want to try "Spirited Away" or "My Neighbor Totoro". Most of Miyazaki's movies are great, but these two stand out in a class by themselves for their sheer imaginative brilliance.

Finally, while on the subject of Studio Ghibli's movies (Hayao Miyazaki's studio), I should perhaps mention that if you do go farther afield than Miyazaki, you may want to try "Grave of the Fireflies" by Isao Takahata. In terms of the sheer sense of poignancy evoked, it ranks right up there with Vittorio De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" (Ladri di biciclette) and Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali." It is a fascinating window on WWII from the point of civilians.