Safe As Film

[discoRdance]

THE DUBLINER WHO CREATED OSCAR

As the stars walk away with their Oscars in Hollywood tomorrow night we should remember the Irishman who made it all happen.
Dubliner Cedric Gibbons helped to set up the Academy of Motion Pictures, which presents the awards, and designed one of the great icons of the modern age, the Oscar statuette itself.
The flamboyant Dublin-born art director, who had emigrated to New York with his family as a child, was himself one of the most prolific Oscar winners in history, bagging 11 Academy awards for art direction as well as an honorary Oscar.
Gibbons designed the famous statuette depicting a knight holding a crusader's sword on a tablecloth at a movie industry banquet in 1928. His drawings were passed on to the sculptor George Stanley who produced the original statue for $500.
The Gibbons design was initially dubbed the 'Iron man', but, according to Hollywood lore, it got its more familiar nickname after the Academy's librarian Margaret Herrick saw it and exclaimed: "It looks just like my uncle Oscar!"
Each Oscar statuette is made from the alloy, britannium. It is plated in copper, nickel silver, and 24-carat gold.
With 1,000 films credited to his name, Gibbons is commonly regarded as the most important and influential art director in cinema history.
His 'art deco' designs created the exotic and luxurious look of Hollywood's heyday. He believed that cinemagoers would be reluctant to pay to see the harsh realism of everyday life played back to them on the screen, and preferred escapist fantasy.
Although Gibbons won 11 competitive Oscars, his most famous work, 'The Wizard Of Oz', went unrewarded in 1939. 'Gone With The Wind' won the Oscar for art direction during that year.
As well as creating the Hollywood look, his sets also influenced interior design. Having been dazzled by his designs on screen, cinemagoers tried to recreate them at home.
Gibbons died in 1960 in Los Angeles four years after his retirement. His achievements have been all but forgotten in the city of his birth.


- from yesterday's Irish Independent newspaper

[gillworm]

Syriana, bit of a headf*ck. about halfway through I wondered whether I'd ever understand what was going on. but I got there in the end!

did I mention the torture scene? boy did I want a nice fat cushion to hide behind just then!

good film, buy tickets for consecutive screenings so that you'll understand it!

and George, even plump I would.
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(and gillworm! she's so funny!)

[Kris]

Funny you should say that Gill.... the torture was the one thing that I didn't understand, namely, why was he tortured, and who was this, "Jim" fella doing the torturing?

Very much worth watching - I'd be inclined to recommend the DVD so you can watch scenes several times!

Kinks
xxx
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"fashioned by the blade of a world that doesn't care,
feeling so removed, drifting thru stealing air then...
pause and think about it, try to move and shift the pain, but it's there you feel it kicking and you scream and feel alive."

[gillworm]

my understanding was that he (George) had been given the job of setting up the assassination and this Jim bloke was someone he'd worked with before. but Jim has been turned and works for the other side and he was torturing George to find out who else he was working with in whichever country they were in at that point.
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(and gillworm! she's so funny!)

[John Mc]

Any of you culture vultures seen this?

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/specialy/ceskysen/en/

Saw it last night and can't make my mind up whether its a top art prank or a bunch of knobheads wasting everybody's time.

[Tommy BOO]

how come there's always a bad guy called tommy in all gangster films?


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"Tommy Boo has played a pivotal role in my life. I've looked up to him since I was a kid and he has inspired every note of music I have ever written. The man is a fucking genius" -BC

[John Mc]

[CiaranMac]

[joeloke22]

[John Mc]

The Da Vinci Code - like Tom Hanks hair it was unnecessarily long. I've never seen a cinema so crowded though so the hype has obviously worked. It didn't make me question the foundations of the catholic church but it did make me want to live in Paris and marry a French cryptographer woman.

If there's any french cryptographer women who like the Boo Radleys and appreciate the midfield genius of Steve McMahon reading this thread then feel free to PM me.

[Bev]

Saw it last night - Christ, it makes the book seem good....
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Scattershot Writing: www.jameseverington.blogspot.com

[gillworm]

[John Mc]

Cars! It's ace! The critics didn't love it but I did.

[chuddy]

A Scanner Darkly

Dissapointing.

Although the acting is very good and it looks interesting, the film isn't very enjoyable at all. Partly because it is really miserable, but mainly because it feels empty.

5/10

[chuddy]

oh yeah

I liked Renaissance much more.

The black and whte animation effect thingy they use is far more successful than Scanner Darkly's, which while being cool gave me a headache.

Looks a bit like Sin City set in a future Paris but better. Bladerunner with a bit of Akira thrown in , but not as good.

It has an ace futuristic car chase along the Sein aswell.

7/9