Oscars: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for art directing; ‘Inception’ for cinematography
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Tom Hanks, yeah! Definitions of art directing and cinematography, boo!
Really, guys, we know what they mean.
These were good categories, though, to come after the movie mash-up of the opening by James Franco and Anne Hathaway -- especially the whole ‘Inception’ into Alec Baldwin’s dreams bit.
Cinematography went to ‘Inception’s’ Wally Pfister. Not exactly a surprise. Pfister took home honors not that long ago from the American Society of Cinematographers. There was a sort of last-minute swell of hope that Roger Deakins might take it home for ‘True Grit.’ BAFTA just gave him the honor. But I fear ‘True Grit’ came too late, and it’s hard to argue against ‘Inception,’ it was groundbreaking... literally.
On the art direction, it wasn’t really much of a rabbit out of the hat trick -- ‘Alice in Wonderland’ looked stunning, a truly inventive visual playground created for the familiar story. And so it was as it should be.
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--Betsy Sharkey
