So, the video attached below is the “In Memoriam” section from last night’s Oscars.
It registered on two levels with me:
- What a dreadful toll the last year has taken: Ian Holm; George Segal; Sean Connery; Max von Sydow; Yaphet Kotto; Olivia de Havilland; Irffan Khan; Christopher Plummer; Hal Holbrook; Helen McCrory; Ennio Morricone; Carl Reiner; Alan Parker; Brian Dennehy; Diana Rigg; Anthony Powell; Michael Apted; Peter Lamont; and Chadwick Boseman, not to mention a host of others.
- What a shambolic job the Academy did in presenting the list. Who thought it a remotely good idea to choose a song (Stevie Wonder’s “As”) with varying speeds and then time the pics to the beat? (I’m not very musical, but I don’t think they even got that right at some points). Pictures flashing up subliminally at times, too quickly to read the name! It came across as amateurish and – worse – disrespectful.
It was great that the event happened face-to-face and mask free. But this, together with some other tacky aspects of the show, showed that the Academy need to do MUCH better with the production of a his event next year.
