I then tried to watch it on the TV in the guest room. I heard and caught glimpses of some of the tributes, performances and acceptance speeches through the fuzzy audio and intermittent signal (bad, bad reception on that thing) but felt a bit unsatisfied by the end. I hope next time to have an enjoyable and uninterrupted Oscars viewing night. But of course, an entire year must pass by first.
This year was the first year that I saw a good number of the films nominated for Best Picture, including Black Swan, The Fighter, Toy Story 3, Inception and The Social Network which I just watched via Netflix about two weeks ago. I've always loved watching The Academy Awards but in recent years have definitely tried to be better about seeing the nominated films before the awards are actually handed out.
Most people agree that there were no major surprises last night. Even though Black Swan was amazing AND Natalie Portman was phenomenal in it AND she's won practically every award that she was nominated for, I kept hoping that Michelle Williams would pull an upset and grab the award for Best Actress for her terribly powerful performance in Blue Valentine. Reader, if you haven't seen it, you really should. But I know that Blue Valentine will be just one of her many great performances in her career. But I digress.
Pretty much everyone that's been winning all awards season won last night, although it seems as though The Social Network was a favorite at the beginning of the awards race but fell to that golden royal egg that is The King's Speech, which is apparently so good, even HRH enjoyed it.
I was happy to see that Colin Firth won the Best Actor award for The King's Speech. I haven't seen it yet, but I love Colin Firth and since the movie seems to be right up my ally (I could watch movies about English royals all day long), I'm pretty certain that I'm going to love it.
Last year, Colin was nominated (and lost to Jeff Bridges) for his role in A Single Man. The movie is based on the book of the same name by author Christopher Isherwood. I had never read A Single Man but when I saw the trailer for the film, it looked so intense and beautifully shot that I knew I'd have to see it at some point. It was one of the first movies I received in the mail when I joined Netflix and I saw it again this weekend on one of those movies channels that my cousins have about 200 of.
A Single Man is about a gay British professor whose lover has been killed in a car accident. He finds it hard to live without him and decides that he's going to kill himself. As he prepares to spend his last day on earth, he takes the time to really notice the things around him and reflect back on the moments he had with his love. Colin Firth's performance in that movie is so moving and it's sad that when there are so many good performances by actors in one year, you can't give an award to everyone. However, he's certainly had a nice run so far with The King's Speech to make up for it.
But all of this is just taking me to what I really want to mention. Tonight, I was finally able to watch a film that I got in the mail over the weekend, Chris & Don: A Love Story which tells the story of A Single Man's author Christopher Isherwood and his partner, artist Don Bachardy.
Your mother was right: finding true love is hard so it's pretty remarkable when two people can find it together, particularly when those two people are so comfortable in their love for one another that any sort of prejudices or harm they may face because of who they are (in this case, two gay men who met in the 1950s) doesn't stop them from loving one another openly, proudly and without regret.
In the film, you learn about the couple's relationship through photographs, videos, passages from Chris' diary and interviews with friends, literary experts and even Don himself. And while their relationship had its ups and downs and wasn't always perfect, at the end they were quite devoted to one another. And having devotion is a wonderful way to love someone.
