Earlier today Jeffrey Wells was waxing on about how Santa Barbara ought to change up the order of things, the natural flow of a given tribute. Well, tonight he got his wish.
The evening’s Modern Master tribute in honor of “Avatar” director James Cameron — the festival’s highest honor — began on the wrong foot. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to present the award to his friend and three-time collaborator, but given the obviously tight schedule of a public official, his bit was going to land during the middle of the two-hour presentation.
That information was somehow lost in translation to Cameron, who thought he was being told the actual award acceptance would happen at the beginning of the tribute, so rather than strolling over to moderator Leonard Maltin and sitting down for the usual kiss-kiss, he stopped at the podium and began speaking.
Uh-oh.
Maltin stood frozen. “This doesn’t exactly register as protocol,” I thought. And it wasn’t. Five minutes later, Maltin finally chimed in. “You’re stealing my material, we’re going to get to all this.” Cameron, perplexed, asked, “Wait, am I supposed to do this now or later?” Maltin winked. “Later,” he mouthed.
It was a nice bit of levity and disorganization in a generally well-structured event. The Governor did show up, for all of 10 minutes, offered his touching words and off he went as the rest of the tribute went on from there. It was certainly out of keeping with the usual rundown of things, but like Roger Durling said at an after party at Cafe Luck, “Whatever, it’s rock and roll, man. I was having fun.”
The tribute itself was the usual clip, chat, clip, chat. Cameron spent a great deal of time discussing his philosophy on digital enhancement and effects, that he feels the best representation of that media comes in service of character or story. He gave off the vibe that I really believe of the man, that he is in awe of the cinema and what can be accomplished with the moving image.
Case in point, following a clip of “Aliens” (the final showdown between Ellen Ripley and the Queen Alien), Cameron pointed out that when Lance Henriksen’s android character Bishop, sheared in two, reaches out to catch young Newt as she’s sucked across the floor toward an open air lock, you can see the actor underneath the prosthetic, roughly a foot or two of his side sticking out mid-reach. “It reminded me of what movies do,” Cameron said. “You don’t see it. You know why? Because you’re not looking there. You’re looking at his hand to see if he’ll catch her. I didn’t see it until the premiere!”
That enthusiasm for this work could also be seen in his recollections of the early days working with Roger Corman (who gave him his first break shooting second unit photography on “Piranha Part Two: The Spawning”). This was after he spent his even younger days heading over to the stacks in a USC campus library and photocopying everything he could about emerging filmmaking technology, collecting print-outs in a series of binders that he’d study intently, learning everything he could so when that door did open, he could “squirt through” and have a knowledge base to boot.
It was a nice enough evening, if a touch chaotic, and I guess if anyone ought to be designated a “modern master” in 2009, Cameron is the guy.
He’ll be back in town tomorrow morning for the directors panel with Nancy Meyers, Jason Reitman and — yep — Kathryn Bigelow. Should be an interesting discussion.
Comments
9 responses to “SANTA BARBARA: Cameron honored as Modern Master”
Excellent article, Kris. Didn’t Cameron also end up directing “Piranha 2”?
Kris I had an interesting thought about the editing race. Do you think its possible a voter might see Cameron’s name in editing and say “I want to give him SOMETHING for this achievement”, even if they are fully going THL for Picture and Director?
Voters wouldn’t see Cameron’s name on the ballot, actually.
Oh, it doesn’t have names? Hmmm.
James Cameron is quite possibly the greatest living “action” filmmaker. Who else? Woo? Greengrass?
Does Arnold buy suits from Pandora?
Liked that bit about the actors side sticking out and cameron never noticing. It’s all about the story. What makes him great is that his effects are there to enhance the story and not just to impress. My two cents
@2: Ryan
Nobody is going to give James Cameron an “I feel sorry for you” award in any category. He doesn’t need it and he doesn’t deserve it. The PR hype on the movie being “groundbreaking” is not substantiated by facts. He didn’t event 3-D. He didn’t animate Pandora (someone else did). He didn’t invent green screens or the lame use of motion capture acting. It’s all rather clumsy when you look at it from a storytelling point-of-view anyway. The story is lame, the dialogue is pathetic and the film could have stood to have at least a half hour cut out of it.
Besides, he’s a known Hollywood jerk who is reputed to be cruel to his cast and crew, alienating many Academy voters in the process. And if that’s not enough, he has already won a bunch of awards for TITANIC! It’s not necessary to honor him again, when you think about a director like HITCHCOCK never receiving an award.
Cameron’s definately a good director of fantasy films aimed at the populist dollar though. No doubt. But AVATAR is not high art. It is only high concept. The little underdog film that could, THE HURT LOCKER is going to rightfully crush it at the awards. This is a historical year for the Academy to right the wrongs of the past 85 years and for a best picture that just happens to be directed by a woman to sweep in all categories. Choke on that jujubee, Cameron!
Yikes lol I’m not a fanboy, i could care less about whether avatar is good or not. I was just asking from more of a oscarologist POV, and before when i thought they would see a name on the ballot, then it might make a difference.