Oscar Speeches

Added: Mon Feb 25th 10:54am
Posted in: Movies

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I thought the Oscars awards show was a great example of why filmmakers spend so much time and money perfecting their craft.  None of them do it because they think they will get nominated -- they do it because it's their passion, and they feel fulfilled by their work.  The nomination is just icing on the cake.

I think that's why I got so excited when I saw big-time celebrities get emotional when they walked on the Oscars stage.  Marion Cotillard won for "La Vie en Rose" and weeped at the podium.  Javier Bardem, who knew he was likely to win, gave a lovely speech that ended with a clearly emotional statement to his mother in Spanish.  Jon Stewart even brought the winner of Best Song back onto the stage, so she could share her thanks after the speech got cut off.

But this moment really grabbed my heart -- a tribute to 98-year-old Robert Boyle, a legendary production designer.   After an introduction by Nicole Kidman, he walked onto the stage to accept his honorary Oscar, and shared his beliefs that dreams do come true, no matter what those dreams are, or how old you are.  And you have to laugh at his first line:



What a beautiful sentiment.  Robert Boyle pursued his passion, and now the world knows all about his work.

Work that includes:

• Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - For a story of evil in Eden, Boyle combined a small town paradise in northern California with the Universal back-lot.

• North by Northwest (1959) - Boyle's re-creation of the United Nations is indivisible from the real thing.

• The Birds (1963)- He combines extensive location footage of Bodega Bay with very complex studio work.

• Marnie (1964) - Not a conventional Hitchcock thriller, but a dreamy, slightly surreal meditation on guilt.

• In Cold Blood (1967) - Boyle masterfully goes for straight neo-realism in Richard Brooks' take on Capote's real-life novel.

• The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) - Ultra-stylized Hollywood gloss, and a pure visual pleasure.

• Fiddler on the Roof (1971) - Boyle creates a muddy, ramshackle Czarist Russia from scratch in Yugoslavia.

• The Shootist (1975) - Known mostly as John Wayne's final film, and a very good one, but notice how carefully Boyle creates an impression of the American West in Victorian times - the overstuffed horsehair couches, the potted palms, the ugly pillows.

Isn't this what we're all working for?  A chance to do something we love, and impact someone else's life?  Before last night, I didn't know Boyle's name, or his story.  Now I, and millions of others, do.  Robert Boyle is Growing Bolder.