It’s not as formal an honor as one of the Governors’ Awards they dished out last week, but nonetheless, Thursday will find the Academy still in a laudatory mood as they cross the Atlantic to celebrate the career of boundary-busting British producer Jeremy Thomas. AMPAS is holding a Thomas tribute evening in London, with Keira Knightley, Stephen Frears and Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux among those taking part.
It’s heartening to see the Academy acknowledge a globally-minded career that has largely been dedicated to shepherding milestone films most of their voters wouldn’t touch with a bargepole: Nicolas Roeg’s “Bad Timing,” David Cronenberg’s “Crash” and “Naked Lunch,” Nagisa Ôshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” Jonathan Glazer’s “Sexy Beast” and so on.
He’s still busy, to: two of his productions, “Essential Killing” and the superb “13 Assassins,” were in competition at Venice in September, while 2011 will see him renew his partnership with Cronenberg for the eagerly awaited (by me, at least) “A Dangerous Method.”
Of course, he’s been in the Academy’s good graces before; as good an example as any of voters’ predilection for awarding the most dangerous talents for their most tentative work, Thomas took the 1987 Best Picture prize at his sole nomination, for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor.” And judging from this recent statement he made to Time Out, he’s as cavalier in his regard for “Oscar bait” as we are:
I never aspired to win an Oscar, I was quite cynical about it to be honest. But we knew “The Last Emperor” would win, it was the kind of grand project the Academy likes, and there was no real competition that year. I’d rather win the Palme d’Or, but I never have.
Between this casual jab and the Godard affair, one wonders if the Academy might be impatient for someone to reciprocate their affections by the time February rolls around. And some might take issue with his dismissal of the 1987 competition — hell, “Moonstruck” is and always was a better picture than “The Last Emperor,” grand or otherwise — but then, Thomas’s work has never been overly characterized by politeness.
[Photo: Optimum Releasing]
Comments
7 responses to “AMPAS pays tribute to Jeremy Thomas”
Moonstruck better than The Last Emperor? Really? I enjoyed Moonstruck greatly. But I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a better film.
The Last Emperor is in intricately decorated jewellery box of a movie, with all the riches stored offsite. The Academy has made worse choices for Best Picture — and I can’t be entirely unhappy that Bertolucci has an Oscar, one way or another — but they’ve made few duller ones.
As he says, though, 1987 wasn’t the best vintage.
I really liked The Last Emperor. In terms of straight-up dramatic films, I think it is one of the best the 1980’s has to offer (which I acknowledge isn’t saying much, but it still is a good movie). Yes, it is probably overly grand visually yet stylistically tepid from the narrative point of view, but as a history buff, I really enjoyed the story.
Of course, your taste and my taste in film don’t seem to match up all that often, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised in your indifference towards The Last Emperor. I’m sure your a much bigger fan of The Conformist, which is a pretentious mess of film in my opinion, but is generally regarded as a classic by all the people who like “daring” films.
Moonstruck is great. People keep making me feel ashamed for passionately loving it, so seeing you stand up for it fills me with joy.
Well, BROADCAST NEWS is a great film, a modern masterpiece, but of course — James L. Brooks already had his big moment and the Academy – at the time – favored epics enormously.
We could argue which film(s) is better but that’s not the point. One really shouldn’t dismiss the competition as easily as Thomas has done.
If nothing else the ease with which he did it shows that there’s little depth to the man’s view of either Oscars or Cannes Film Festival.
Think about it: there were strong films out that year, including the non-nominated contender “Empire of the Sun”. Yet they get dismissed solely because they are not “big enough” in his view. Oscars do not automatically work that way. On the other hand, Cannes is nothing esle is just an opinion of an everchanging group of filmmakers. And even that has it’s own constants.
One isn’t better than the other. They are just different.
I don’t real
I love Cher and Olympia, I like Moonstruck, but come on you’d pick it over The Last Emperor? Robocop (1987) is the greatest genre picture from the 1980s, of course others will say Raiders, Empire Strikes Back, and Blade Runner are superior, I know better. None of these films have the highest of the high moments of Robocop.
Getting back to the subject at hand I’m a proud owner of both of his Cronenberg pictures. Naked Lunch is the most disturbing film I own until I buy Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983).