euro|topics - The success of European cinema at the Oscars

Main focus of Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The success of European cinema at the Oscars

Several European actors and films have won awards in the 80th Oscar ceremony. Each year the Oscar Academy Awards consecrate excellence in world-wide cinema. The prize-winners are honoured in the press of their respective countries.

The Independent - United Kingdom

"By the time the Los Angeles-based film community knew it was under attack at the Oscars two nights ago, it was too late", jests the dailiy, "Never has there been a European night at the Oscars quite like it. As if to make the new order yet more obvious, Senor Bardem even delivered some of his speech in Spanish. So why, in the wake of this victory for Old Europe, does life seem a little emptier this morning on this side of the Atlantic ? European triumphs are all very well and indeed a credit to the good taste of the US movie industry, but if all of our top acting talent scarpers for the Hollywood Hills, who is going to star in our esoteric, stubbornly uncommercial art-house films ? Maybe America should send us Hilary Swank and George Clooney in exchange. Consider it a celluloid job swap." (26/02/2008)

Večer - Slovenia

With four Oscars, European cinema emerged victorious from the Academy Awards ceremony, writes Uros Smasek. But he adds that many of the films were European-American co-productions. "The only real winner was 'The Counterfeiters,' by Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky, which competed for best foreign language film against Israel, Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia. … But it is outrageous that the new Romanian film by Cristian Mungiu, '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,' which received the top prize at Cannes, never even made it into consideration for an Oscar. ... Perhaps that is due to its extremely realistic presentation of the problematic issue of abortion. If the Romanian film had been nominated, the European triumph at the Oscars would be much easier to celebrate." (26/02/2008)

Le Républicain Lorrain - France

"The fact that we had to wait half a century after Simone Signoret's triumph for a French artist to be crowned by Hollywood again says a lot about the importance of the event", writes Pierre Fréhel following the consecration of the Frenchwoman Marion Cotillard as best actress for her interpretation of Edith Piaf in 'La Vie en Rose'. "[Some will see this] as a sign, if not of the good state of French cinema, at least of the incontestable revenge of a French culture that has been little too buried by the American media. Still fresh in our minds is the polemic triggered a few months ago by an investigation carried out by Time Magazine which announced the irremediable decline of French culture. It would no doubt be going a bit far to transform Marion Cotillard into a banner-bearer for France's cultural renewal. She certainly has no such ambition herself. This is after all only a film and an actress." (26/02/2008)

El Periódico de Catalunya - Spain

The daily considers that the Spanish actor Javier Bardem clearly deserves the Oscar he has won for best second role. "This prize certifies the unique career of this versatile actor who is capable of bringing life to characters as different as the paraplegic Ramón Sampedro in 'Mar Adentro' to the dissident Cuban writer Reynaldo Arenas, or the Coen brothers' psychopath in No Country for Old Men, who has earned him an Oscar. This victory will act as a balm that will help improve the image of Spanish cinema, which is in mid-crisis. His opportune homage to the family of artists he comes from ... will contribute to the image of a country that generates talents, but hasn't the same means as the Hollywood machine." (26/02/2008)

Sme - Slovakia

Czech street musician Markéta Irglová, 19, and her Irish partner Glen Hansard received an Oscar for the best film song, "Falling Slowly." They shot their film, "Once," with two hand-held cameras in only 17 days. Jana Kadlecová is delighted at the honour for an independent production: "Irglová is exactly what the Oscars, what Hollywood, the media and other distorted institutions have desperately sought. Her song is part of the American dream, with its clear message, its resolve and its belief that soul goes much farther than marketing." (26/02/2008)

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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