10

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE March 10, 2006

eveningsout

PHIL COLLINS

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

the

cleveland

international

film festival

March 16-26.2006

www.clevelandfilm.org

Tower City Cinemas at

Tower City Center

in theaters since 1977

Sing your life

A young Colombian fan of the Smiths band sings one of their songs in el mundo no escuchará/ the world won't listen, a video installation by British artist Phil Collins on display in the Box at the Wexner Center for the Arts through the end of March.

Collins (no, not the one from Genesis) created karaoke tapes of the songs from the album The World Won't Listen by the Smiths, fronted by queer pompadoured crooner Morrissey, and put out posters telling fans, "¡Tu oportunidad de briller!"'

And shine they did.

Collins selected one rendition of each song for the film, which is playing in a continuous loop. After the success of experiment in Bogotá, he tried it again in Istanbul, where Turkish fans were as fervent in their devotion to the Smiths.

Collins described the band's fans as "the shy, the dissatisfied, the narcissistic," and he found startlingly large numbers of the “isolated bedroom devotees" in strange foreign cities just as he did in the Smiths' native Manchester. The artist expects to continue the series of Smiths karaoke films in other locations.

For more information about el mundo no escuchará/the world won't listen, Phil Collins or the Wexner Center for the Arts, call 614-292-3535 or go to www.wexarts.org. The Wexner Center is located at 1871 North High Street in Columbus.

-Anthony Glassman

'Brokeback' takes three Oscars, but not Best Picture

by Kaizaad Kotwal

At the 78th annual Academy Awards on March 5, Brokeback Mountain's phenomenal award-winning streak halted with a thunderous and surprising Crash.

Brokeback, which has won just about every Best Picture Award out there and is featured on countless critics' lists, was the odds-on favorite to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It was beat out by Crash, a film about racial tensions in Los Angeles directed by Paul Haggis.

The day before the Oscars, at the 21st Annual Independent Spirit Awards, Brokeback had continued its winning streak by nabbing Best Film and Best Director for Ang Lee. Capote won Best Actor for Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Best Screenplay by Dan Futterman while Felicity Huffman grabbed Best Actress for Transamerica.

Brokeback's loss of the Best Picture Oscar was particularly surprising since it had just picked up Best Director for Ang Lee. In accepting the award, Lee paid homage to the film's two groundbreaking heroes.

"First of all, I want to thank two people who don't even exist or I should say they do exist because of the imagination of Annie Proulx and the artistry of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Their names are Ennis and Jack. And they taught all of us who made Brokeback Mountain so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, the greatness of love itself."

The film, nominated for eight awards-the most of any film this year-won its second for the lush and heartbreaking score by Gustavo Santaolalla.

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana took home their expected award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Speaking to Brokeback's message of much-needed tolerance towards gay people, Ossana said in her acceptance speech that, "The duty of art is to send light into the darkness of men's hearts."

Philip Seymour Hoffman also took home the Best Actor Oscar for his turn as the complex and manipulative Truman Capote. Hoffman edged out Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback.

Felicity Huffman lost out in the Best Actress race to Reese Witherspoon, who won for her dramatic acting and spot-on singing as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.

Dolly Parton's song for Transamerica, "Travelin' Thru," lost out to "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle and Flow. Parton gave a strong performance of the song at the ceremonies.

Memoirs of a Geisha, directed by out director Rob Marshall, also walked away with three Oscars. It won Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction and Set Design.

Hosted by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, the ceremony packed a political punch. In top form, the opening montage featured Stewart waking up in bed with George Clooney, happy because he had "scored" with one of Hollywood's savviest hunks and most bankable stars.

Also in the opening montage were past hosts who said why they couldn't or didn't want to come back to host. Billy Crystal and Chris Rock peered out from their tent on a mountain in Wyoming, probably adding to the ongoing angst of the religious right.

George Clooney, nominated for three Oscars including best director and best original screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck, won for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana. He made the harshest statement against the right wing's homophobia and intolerance.

He excoriated the incessant harping by rightwing pundits and audiences that Hollywood's celebration of so many GLBT films this year was amoral and out of touch with the realities of middle America.

"I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular," Clooney said. "And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people, gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch."