Analysis: Tales of reinvention abound in Oscars race

ENT

Analysis: Tales of reinvention abound in Oscars race

2018-11-15 07:27 Last Updated At：11:33

F. Scott Fitzgerald, who said there are no second acts in American lives, might have felt differently had he seen this year's Oscar race.

In mid-November, there is much solidifying, scrapping and self-promotion to come (not to mention a few potential awards heavyweights). But most of the expected contenders have by now been seen and there's a definite theme: Reinvention is the season's most sought-after attribute.

One after another, potential contenders have trotted out new iterations of themselves: Lady Gaga, the actor; Alfonso Cuaron, the re-made filmmaker; Melissa McCarthy, dramatic actress; Peter Farrelly, a million miles from "Dumb and Dumber."

Metamorphoses, like that of Rami Malek's prosthetic-toothed, full-bodied performance as Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody" (an expected best actor nominee), are always a staple of awards season. But this year, transformation is more than a costume change. It's an abiding ethos.

Coming between the fall festivals and the onset of critics' awards, November is when Oscar campaigns hope to get enough traction to land on — or ascend — the short lists that proliferate ahead of the litany of ceremonies to come.

So far, much of the field breaks down between an old dichotomy: crowd-pleasers and show-stoppers, and intimate art-house indies. Among the former are Bradley Cooper's box-office smash "A Star Is Born"; Peter Farrelly's soon-to-debut charmer "Green Book," with Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen; and Ryan Coogler's superhero sensation "Black Panther."

All of them are studio films. And each reminds Hollywood it can still do something it may have thought it no longer could: make an old-fashioned romance; craft a poignant, uplifting comic drama; create an urgent and meaningful comic book film.

Like many of this year's nominees, Hollywood, itself, is in flux. The film industry is becoming more digital (Disney and Warner Bros. are prepping Netflix-like streaming services) and it's shrinking (Disney is acquiring Fox; more consolidation is expected). Hollywood is searching for a second act, too.

That pressure is due, in part, to new viewing habits and deep-pocketed innovators like Netflix, which this year has its most lauded Oscar contender yet: Cuaron's "Roma," a deeply personal black-and-white film that the Mexican director has said made him reinvent himself as a filmmaker. "Roma" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and it's expected to return Cuaron (who won best director for his last film, 2013's "Gravity") to the category, alongside Cooper, whose "A Star Is Born" launches the 43-year-old actor as director.

Partly to appease Oscar voters, Netflix has for the first time granted a theatrical window for a handful of films (including "Roma" and the Coen brothers' "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"). The gesture has an underlying message to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members: Netflix and theaters can coexist (at least if an Oscar is at stake).

There are plenty of contenders predicated not on reinvention, but on doing what they do best. There is Spike Lee's incendiary "BlacKkKlansman," a prize-winner at the Cannes Film Festival. Yorgos Lanthimos' savage period romp "The Favourite" could land noms for all three of its leads: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz. (The latter two are expected to go as supporting actresses.) Two years after "Moonlight" won best picture, Barry Jenkins is back with an equally lyrical and eloquent film, the James Baldwin adaptation "If Beale Street Could Talk." And lauded performances by the likes of Robert Redford (his maybe-swansong in "The Old Man & the Gun") and Richard E. Grant (alongside McCarthy in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?") are brilliant because they capture the performers in their sweet spot.

There are plenty more in the mix, too, like Steve McQueen's just-opening "Widows"; Damien Chazelle's "First Man," with Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong; and "Eighth Grade," the tender coming-of-age drama from Bo Burnham.

The 28-year-old Burnham boasts one of the year's most extreme accounts of reinvention. He was an internet-fueled stand-up comedian when, two years ago, he gave up the stage and grew disenchanted with social media. "Eighth Grade," starring 15-year-old Elsie Fisher, is about a shy girl who overcomes Instagram-amplified anxieties.

Most notable of the still-unseen films is "Vice," the Dick Cheney biopic from Adam McKay, who several films ago charted the path from comedy to drama that Farrelly (he of the Farrelly brothers) is now steering. Christian Bale, who disappears under makeup and a 40 lb. weight gain as the former vice president, is, sight-unseen, believed to be a likely contender, so great is his reputation for transformation. Another of those "nearly unrecognizable" performances may follow suit: Nicole Kidman, mean and gaunt in the L.A. noir "Destroyer," if votes don't instead go her way for the gay conversation therapy drama "Boy Erased."

The academy members voting on those and other performances (Glenn Close! Timothee Chalamet! Yalitza Aparicio! Ethan Hawke! Regina King!) are perhaps the most fluctuating part of the whole season. Membership has been greatly expanded in recent years to diversify and internationalize the academy's ranks. After last year's all-time low ratings, the Oscar ceremony is being revamped by John Bailey, academy president. Though the academy withdrew its "popular film" category, it's shortening the broadcast and won't present all awards live.

At this year's Academy Awards, everyone's getting a makeover.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Venice launches experiment to charge day-trippers an access fee in bid to combat over-tourism

2024-04-25 17:37 Last Updated At：17:41

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase, as well as new entrances separating tourists from residents, students and workers.

Stewards were on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the first time with her boyfriend, said it felt “strange" to have to buy a ticket to enter a city in her native Italy, and then pass through a tourist entrance.

The couple were staying in nearby Treviso, and had paid the fee and downloaded the QR code as required prior to arrival.

Workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station, and anyone caught faces fines of 50 euros to 300 euros — though officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, and officials hope the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors — which last year numbered 4.6 million, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cell phone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete. “It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism. Some say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, is opposed to the new plan. She was passing out mock EU passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

Rodino has seen her local butcher close and families leave her neighborhood near the famed Rialto Bridge as short-term apartment rentals spring up. But she said the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for often rowdy gatherings.

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii," she said. “It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism.”