ALl good but how about a real audience for next years kermodes, we could dress in all the major fashion houses (oxfam, levi's etc) and provide all the appropriate oohing and wowing. Of course we would all be very well behaved.

Wrong video displayed :(



On topic, I would add another vote to Biz's suggestion. Make an event, out of the Kermode's



We can cheer, applaud, laugh at jokes and because it won't last 5 hours we could squeeze in a movie of your choice.

For me Inception won the awards it deserved.

It really is a very technical film but without any real substance. It's a "look what I can do" film. Even the screenplay itself is very technical and showy. It's for me like the film equivalent of a book like Da Vinci code. It makes the viewer/reader feel really smug and superior!

I did indeed enjoy it when I saw it in the cinema, but on repeat viewings I have found myself bored because the "what will happen next" wasn't there. Not a good sign. For me a "best movie" at the Oscars should have replay value. Like "There Will be Blood" where you discover something new about Plainview every time you see it.

Each to their own though.



I'm very glad about Social Network winning best score because it's the best thing about that (just slightly) over hyped film.



Black Swan, The Fighter and King's Speech all amazing and deserving of all the won and more for me.

I am *very* tired of Ricky Gervais these days.

Like Ben Elton before him (of whom I was also a fan - even bought the LPs) a little goes a very very long way.

I agree with Kevy Canavan above on Inception. Technical marvel, thematical failure.

Allow me first to say that I readily accept the internal logic of the film, the means to explore dreamscapes and the like. I understand and abide by these evocations. The problem is, I do not accept the fundamental premise of the film. I do not believe for a second that the imparting of ideas would be that complex a procedure, especially not on a subconscious level. Anyone who's spent more than two hours in the company of another human being knows how suggestible we are to all forms of stimuli, and how effective psychological warfare really is.

Furthermore, I do think that, ironically, Nolan underestimates the impactful nature of dreams, and how its absurdist constructs are part of its lingering influence. In his attempt to produce a tangible and stringent dreamscape, no matter how labyrinthine, he undermines that influence by rendering it something extraordinarily ordinary.



Nolan is an ambitious filmmaker, and I commend him for it. But he's not quite there yet.

The highlight was Pfister receiving his Oscar. I feel sorry for Deakins though who was nominated for the tenth time I believe.



I thought Inception had plenty of substance; it's one of the few films in recent years I can be bothered watching again

Good to know we were pretty spot on with the Oscars as well as the Kermodes. Great choice of winners Dr K.



We had a delayed telecast of the Oscars last night. I think Gervais' opening speech would have been better. Franco and Hathaway were pretty bland IMHO. Hathaway just played 'fangirl' all night as well as clothes horse, the number of costume changes she had. Bring back Billy Crystal. Like the late, great Bob Hope, he knows how to host these events.



Nice to see The Kings Speech get the major gongs, as well as Aaron Sorkin, adapted screenplay. Loved how he kept on talking over the music. Almost like one of his scripts - how much dialogue can you fit into 45 seconds, he stretched it to at least a minute.



I'm all for a Kermode Awards with audience. Would lend more weight and gravitas to the ceremony. The only people who would attend, are those who care.

Ah Nuts! I didn't pay proper attention to the rules and regs of the Kermode Awards, think I would have got more right if I'd realised that winners were not allowed to have been nominated for any of the major awards.

Some great choices Dr K. I managed to get Chico & Rita and Chris Nolan right so I wasn't too shabby! Chico & Rita is wonderful, old fashioned and completely charming.

I will definitely be seeking out the Kristen Scott Thomas movie Leaving, I'm always impressed by her work. I particularly loved her in the fairly recent I've Loved You So Long, she's a very talented lady.

I found the whole lesson on how films end up being nominated fascinating, there's enough stuff there to make an expose documentary about the whole "dodgy" process. On a lighter note I also found myself wondering if you had borrowed Charlie Chaplin's cane as a pointing stick!

I absolutely agree with everyone else and think that there should be an audience for the Kermodes, there are plenty of film fans out there that would much rather see your idea of what constitutes greatness in the world of film, than any academy! Think about it.

PS I have often wondered about the lack on neck on the Kermodes too!

Chris Nolan one of Oscar's worst oversights, not quite. Hitchcock never won a single Oscar for directing, only one of his films ever won best picture; explain that one!



Spielberg was overlooked for Jaws, Close Encounters & ET; mind you he then raised his game to such a level with Schindler's List that the Academy couldn't plausibly be seen to ignore him yet again. Maybe Chris Nolan has his best still yet to come.



As for Roger Deakins, ten nominations, yet no win. What exactly does he have to do to win one?

Comparing the real Mark Kermode with the statuette, they both have brass necks.



Wasn't there a rent-a-mob crowd for a previous Kermode awards ceremony? And another time there was just an audience of one heckler who turned out to be Ken Russell.

Of Gods And Men should not be eligible based on the fact that it is an overrated, overly worthy film about some self-important men. It is quite dull and quite Oscar-baity. I was very disappointed by it.

The only award of the evening that genuinely surprised, and delighted, me, was Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross winning Best Original Score for The Social Network. I've been a Nine Inch Nails fan for many years but never once did I expect this. Very well deserved.

And so we live in a world where Alice in Wonderland and The Wolfman each won more Oscars than True Grit.

I wonder if people have realised how bad Benjamin Button was, and are rightly punishing David Fincher for it.

I'm bound to say that I'm surprised that Tom Hooper won Best Director for The King's Speech. The performances are good and I liked it BUT "Best Director"? The film was hardly innovative or complex. Indeed, it was the kind of sturdy professionalism one can see any Sunday night on British television.



Nolan's achievement's are well-documented (and contested) on this site but what of Fincher's work on The Social Network? This is as rich and complex a film as we'll see in years.



Both main acting awards were predictable Oscar fayre and broadly well deserved I suppose. I'm glad Melissa Leo won and Bale's was a good "performance". None had the subtlety I appreciate (e.g. jennifer Lawrence). Like many other contributors I am staggered that Deakins gets continually snubbed.



Ultimately, it's all nonsense really. As Vincent Canby observed, Oscar night has "The solemnity of the annual Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm with the cheerful bad taste of the grand opening of a shopping center in Los Angeles."

Oh peer through those crocodile smiles and you'll find a sense of bitterness alright. Some of them don't even pretend. Remember Bill Murray failing to win for that naval gazing nonsense Lost in Translation? Look at Nick Nolte - that is one unhappy chappy whom I also want nominated again just so I can see what his next mugshot looks like when he loses... again.



Others are definitely more graceful than the Academy deserve. Julianne Moore should certainly be angrier than she is right now. The burning question is : how long until DP Roger Deakins enters the ceremony with a backpack full of explosives? Or as one review blogger put it : "WHO DOES ROGER DEAKINS NEED TO BL** TO WIN A MOTHER****ING ACADEMY AWARD?" He's now 0-for-8 - even when he received two nods in one year!

While Wally Pfister will almost certainly go down in history as a great cinematographer (& rightfully so) I think its a crime that Deakins was once more passed over. Pfister has shot better films in The Prestige and The Dark Knight.



Inception is to cinematography what playing a psycho or a Forest Gump type character is to acting. Where does the CGI end and the camerawork begin?

Roger Deakins will win an Oscar before he dies, the problem is that would mean he would become immortal.



On a more serious note Roger Deakins’ constant nominations and no wins reminds me of Martin Scorsese who was often nominated and never won until The Departed in 2006, Deakins will (and should) win someday. Surprised at the Oscar for Best Director going to Hooper not so at the other three awards going to The King’s Speech.

"And so we live in a world where Alice in Wonderland and The Wolfman each won more Oscars than True Grit."



To be fair it was for Costumes and make-up respectively. It's not as if they won best film!

Mark



I know you're not a tv fan. You do enjoy well made films.



Do me a favour and have a look at Peter Kosminsky's 'The Promise' on ...hmmph ... another channel:



https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-promise



Should have won many awards.

Oscar was a bit of a snooze fest . . . but then it usually is.



Re Tom Hooper getting the best director Oscar . . . as far as I can see, no one appears to have considered that his direction may have got the best out of all the actors, to get them to raise their game perhaps, to get the best out of them.



I've not seen TKS (I was too busy watching Drive Angry at the weekend, so hey . . .). But just because a film is popular / important / culturally significant, can it be assumed it has been well directed? We know Mark's view towards George Lucas & Star Wars. He's said that Lucas can't direct traffic, yet that film has proved SO influential, so imitated (and probably, ultimately improved upon). THAT film was, by Mark's logic, even more directed than Inception - and yet I would assume that Mark would say that Lucas's Best Director nomination was flawed in some way.



I do agree that Nolan should have been nominated - Inception is a fine film. But The Prestige and Batman Begins are better films. I wonder if LOTR:ROTK syndrome will hit, and the third film in Nolans trilogy - The Dark Knight Rises - will scoop the lot?

I'm sad Deakins didn't win, he must have been nominated more than Peter O'Toole. But very very happy that Reznor and Ross got Best Score, i was suprised by that because i didn't think the academy would actually give an award to something that good, and it was electronicy and the academy are all old. Anyway no wins for True Grit, whyyyyy. And its funny because i think the golden globes got it right and the oscars got it wrong, Social Network and David Fincher winners at the globes, Kings speech and Tom Hooper at the oscars, heck even the baftas gave fincher best director.

George Lucas ~ before Star Wars he directed American Graffiti, a movie I loved when it first came out.

I can't figure out what happened to Lucas, rightly reviled for his Star Wars prequels, yet he was the power behind getting Indiana Jones made (Spielberg was a gun for hire back then); other than pushing special effects forward with his Industrial Light & Magic company nothing much else has come from him. Strange, he could have attempted a lot, lot more film wise, but seemed to lose the interest.



Nolan's The Prestige is a much more interesting film than Inception; The Prestige may be the one he has to beat.



The Dark Knight series, I'm not so sure about. Batman Begins was a bit of a mess plot-wise, like an overstuffed pizza.

TDK was better (more focused); not least because of having The Joker (always Batman's best villain) in it and a stand-out performance (and written to make it stand-out) by Ledger.



These Batman films may make sh!# loads of cash, but I don't see them as Nolan's artistic high points compared to his previous work.

Mind you Oscar likes rewarding sh!# loads of cash, if it has a veneer of cleverness about it.



Something not many have mentioned: two British actors, Firth and Bale, won both of the major acting awards for men.

Bale's performance in The Fighter is reminiscent of his work in The Machinist (extreme weight loss etc), which was a powerful performance. (Good film too.)



Despite his up & down career so far (American Psycho to Reign of Fire etc), I'm quite happy Bale's won an Oscar. Given the right material he gives everything to it.



At the end of the day award ceremonies are just promotional tools for the respective industries; it's always nice for people to get recognition, but we know inherent unfairness is inbuilt into them. So many good actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, costume designers do good work (occasionally great) without any recognition.



Romero's Night of the Living Dead for example. A classic? Certainly. Influential? Massively. Where's the Oscar?

The biggest oversight at the Academy Awards was not acknowledging Chris Nolan, but in not giving a few seconds to mark Corey Haim's passing along with the other entertainment industry's deceased of the past year. Regardless of how you regard him, he was the lead in a number of good films. The Lost Boys (one of the better vampire flicks out there), Silver Bullet (one of the better werewolf) flicks out there) and the VERY underrated coming of age flick Lucas being among the better ones.

He had his offscreen problems, but I'm sure a lot of the people that were honored did, as well. Shame on the Academy for choosing not to include him among the list of the deceased as they have in recent past years with the passing of the likes of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Don Knotts (although, I think they rectified it the following year in Don Knotts' case). They always cite that these stars were stars of other mediums or fields like television and the music industry. They can't make any claims of that nature with Haim since he was primarily a movie actor. Surely if they list all of the obscure editors and sound technicians that noone outside of Hollywood would recognize, then they could have acknowledged one of the more well known actors of the 80s and my generation. He was one of the 'Coreys', after all.

And I meant to word that first line "... was not the failure to recognize Chris Nolan in the category for Best Director, but...



At least, I think I did.

If there's one thing Hollywood loves it's a fister.

#23 - All fair observations, particularly re Lucas after Star Wars (though I think it's been covered that he had fairly good personal reasons for choosing not to really pursue direction, and only come back for the Star Wars saga - his saga,his choice, irrespective of the merits & demerits of those films.



I'm with you on the Prestige. I love Batman Begins because it is - in my opinion - wonderful mix of comic book and reality (well, in a cinematic sense at least).



As you say, Bale has done great stuff (I thought he was great in Shaft, too - wonderful bad guy). Given the context of the Oscars, it's thoroughly deserved.



With you too on Romero for NOTLD . . .but where do you stop? Tobe Hooper for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Wes Craven for Elm Street or Last House . . .? All unique visions, all totally directed, all seen as vital, influential (and all horrors, too) . . . but no noms there?



As ever, to each their own . . .

"And the Kermode fellowship goes to... Dario Argento."



Outstanding Dr K, outstanding. I'm off for a blu ray double bill of Suspiria & Inferno as way of a belated celebration.

lol I love all this rhyming with Inception. Anyway, I don't have anything sensible to say regarding the awards as I didn't follow them. I remember William Friedkin saying in a Dutch TV show (this was around the time of Bug) that he thought there shouldn't be so much focus on who is "the best". And I kind of feel the same way... I mean it's nice and all but I don't really take it all that seriously.

thanks so much for the tip Mark!

As ever Gervais got it right!!! hahahaha

I thought it was a pretty poor show too by the way.

https://wp.me/p19wJ2-h3

Cheers Mark, you cost me £20 with your incorrect Fincher for Best Director prediction!! However I did win on: Best film, Best make-up, Best Actress and Best Documentary :)

With you too on Romero for NOTLD . . .but where do you stop? Tobe Hooper for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Wes Craven for Elm Street or Last House . . .? All unique visions, all totally directed, all seen as vital, influential (and all horrors, too) . . . but no noms there? #27



"And the Kermode fellowship goes to... Dario Argento. Outstanding Dr K, outstanding." #28



Agree with you both.



As always very interesting work happens outside the mainstream (often more so) as well as inside it; one of the nice things about film blogs like this one is it attracts people that understand the relevance and importance of both.



Too much of other mainstream film crit' sites is about superficial 'I liked, didn't like at the time' opinions, and 'ooh, what lovely dresses they wore...'



Keep it up people, I come here for the 'recommends' people make as much as anything, and that folk that contribute here know and care about cinema.

At the end of the day, it isn't worth getting into any sort of froth over who won or didn't win the Oscar's, which is merely a statistically skewed sampling of the opinion of a limited set of people in the industry. For that it's as worthwhile as the Golden Globes or the BAFTA's but not as doolally as the former nor universally ignored as the latter. The best part of the Kermode's is that it simply is one opinion. Like it or not. I guess at least you can argue with the good Dr. K, even though he's (sure he is) right.



As for snubs in the In Memoriam section of the show, noted above, they also left out Tura Satana (who was included in the BAFTA's list of the dead).

On post Oscar matters: Rango; it's animation (which we all love).



It's 2D, and from the trailers it looks wonderful; plus it's J. Depp (and motion capture animation); the actors did more than the voices, they mimed the actions the animators based the characters' expressions and movement on. (And it's not Pixar!)



Your opinion Dr K?

"I've not seen TKS (I was too busy watching Drive Angry at the weekend, so hey . . .)."



Wow, Roadblaster. You realise that's on the public record now? A case of being honest to the point of reckless endangerment.

#35



Look at my user name, and then consider why I might like Drive Angry... a legacy of playing games such as Dark Future & Car Wars as a kid, plus liking Mad Max 1 & 2 (3 is poor), Vanishing Point, Cannonball Run, etc etc. Always been a sucker for car films.



Heh heh.



Have to say though, considering how well it's done in the box office (i.e. terribly) and how many people were in the cinema when I saw it (about 10), then I don't think there is much danger here...



I liked Inception about as much as I enjoyed Drive Angry - just on a completely different level. It's possible!

Any awards, or indeed nominations, for Alice in Wonderland - even in minor categories - are far more attention than that vile thing deserves. It even managed to be revolting on a purely aesthetic, visual level.



It's only going to encourage Tim Burton to make more of these ghastly films you know.

As usual with the Oscars, the only noteable happenings are the things that don't happen. This year,as the good Dr rightly pointed out,Christopher Nolan was overlooked for Inception, a film that has possibly done more good for the way future film makers can now dare to approach a big budget productions. The term 'raising the bar' is overused, but Nolan has done just this. No disrespect to Tom Hooper and his fine work on A Kings Speech,but the real achievement in direction this year was clearly Christopher Nolan.

First off, loved the 'K' Awards this year, all deserved winners. But, and here it is, the 'big but', there was nothing, not even a mention, for 'Four Lions' even in the 'For My (The Good Doctor's) Consideration' list.

Now, the best thing about this film, among other things (acting, writing, ignoring the fact it was written by the same guys who wrote 'Magicians' but more brilliantly, 'Peep Show', and the outstanding casting) was the handling.

This film could have missed the mark like the trojectory of a bazooka missile aimed at an American spyplane that accidentally hit and killed Osama, but it didn't.

This was THE most daring, un-flinching and, in this critic's critic, best films of the decade.

How the hell do you approach subject matter such as that which features in 'Four Lions' in a way that is funny, poignent, touching and relevant all at the same time?

You don't.

Is the short answer, because you can't.

But Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain and Chris Morris did, and they did it with such thought, intelligence, wit, bravery and prowess that I'm surprised that The Good Doctor, for all his goodness, needs to have a quick check up for 'Oscar-fever-i-tis' for overlooking what is surely the best, not just British (because Hollywood couldn't even grasp the concept of this film, even with Lars Von Trier's crooked stick), but one of the best world cinema films of recent years.

Marky Mark, why is film not part of your Funky Bunch?