The harsh reality competed with unrestrained imagination last night at the 96th Academy Awards.
While Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” atomic bomb took home the most awards, seven in total, George Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” proved that the different, the unexpected, the dreamlike, and the extreme have the power to resist both the real and the cinematic world.
The ideal protagonist of the Greek director, Emma Stone, managed to defy predictions and won the Best Actress Oscar for her outstanding portrayal of Bella Baxter, a medieval heroine with the body of a woman and the mind of a baby, who travels the world fighting for women’s emancipation.
She literally stole it from the hands of her entirely worthy fellow nominee, Lily Gladstone, the first indigenous actress ever nominated in the category, for her leading role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Emma Stone tried to cover her anxiety and deep emotion for this second Oscar of her career with humor: “George, thank you for this gift of life, Bella Baxter,” she said, addressing George Lanthimos, who watched her smiling broadly, and she added jokingly: “My zipper broke. I think it happened when Ryan Gosling was singing ‘I am just Ken’. I’ll leave now. But don’t look at my back with the broken zipper.”
The other three Oscars for “Poor Things” were won in the basic technical categories of Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup – Hairstyling.
Victories that were not easy at all as they had very strong opponents. That is why George Lanthimos’ journey at this year’s Oscars should be considered extremely successful.
The heavy artillery of the cinematic year, once again, “Oppenheimer”, with a total of 13 Oscar nominations, prevailed, as expected, in the three main categories: Direction and Leading and Supporting Actor, for the performances of Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. respectively.
However, by the middle of the evening, it had lost in the basic technical categories to “Poor Things”.
“There are so many who pushed me this far. I have so many to thank. My wonderful cast, my crew. I have no words to thank my crew. I want to thank everyone who believed in me throughout my entire career. Emma (Thomas) – for producing all our films and all our children… This award means everything to me,” said Christopher Nolan emotionally while accepting the Best Director Oscar.
The legendary carnivals of Greece from North to South (photos)
However, the Academy owed an Oscar to Robert Downey Jr., and they awarded it to him this year, as expected, for his outstanding performance in “Oppenheimer” as Louis Strauss, the primary opponent of the atomic bomb and leader of the campaign to revoke its security clearance.
