2019-2020年高中英语必修10Module4TheMagicofFilm-Backgroundination.doc

2019-2020年高中英语必修10Module4TheMagicofFilm-Backgroundinformation1. Oscars, minority groups challengeDenzel Washington and Halle Berry made history Sunday with Academy Award wins, and for many, it was a sweet victory, long past due. Nonetheless, minority groups say diversity must extend beyond Hollywoods glamour night - and include other groups such as Asians, Hispanics and American Indians. If this is a sign that Hollywood is finally ready to give opportunity and judge performance based on skill and not on skin color, then it is a good thing, said Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. However, if this proves to be a momentary flash in a long history of neglect, then Hollywood has failed to learn the real meaning of equality. But seeing the two winners on stage with the evenings African-American emcee (the often acid-tongued Whoopi Goldberg) on a night when Sidney Poitier was one of the honorary award winners, made quite a statement. The double victory for Washington and Berry - who became the first Blacks to win best actor and best actress trophies in a single year - was one of those symbolic triumphs that signal social watersheds, even though their recognition was for the kinds of roles they played as much as for the facts of their race. In 1939, when Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Oscar for Gone With the Wind, it was a bittersweet victory. McDaniels role was blasted by progressive African-American groups, and she was straitjacketed for much of the rest of her career in similar, stereotyped roles. Now Washington has won for his part as Alonzo Harris in the violent police thriller Training Day, playing a charismatic but corrupt narcotics detective who bullies his narcotics squad trainee while ruling the roost in a Los Angeles battle zone. Berry beat the field for her steamy part in Monsters Ball as Leticia Musgrove, a Southern mother doubly bereaved - by the execution of her husband and the car-accident death of her son. Both movies are frank, verbally profane and violent. They show things unshowable in the time of Gone With the Wind or even 20 or 30 years later. But mostly, they showed that African-Americans could be portrayed onscreen as plex human beings - part good, part bad - rather than the bigot-fodder of decades ago: the cardboard villains, ical personas or long-suffering saints and mammies of Hollywoods Golden Age. That battle, at least onscreen, was settled long ago. But this years double Oscar seals the contract. Nonetheless, some organizations say minorities will have power in front of the camera only when there is more minority representation behind the scenes as directors, writers and producers. Washington Sunday became the first Black man to be named best leading actor since Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field. Now that a trail has been blazed for Blacks, he suggested, other minority actors must continue to fight for more significant roles. I dont recall seeing any Asian-Americans, women or men, being recognized and not too many Latin Americans, Washington said, So there is still a lot of work (to be done).1. 79th Academy Awards Producer Laura Ziskin Producer Laura Ziskin will return to produce the 79th Annual Academy Awards telecast next February, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announced today. It will be Ziskins second involvement with the production of an Oscar telecast. Her first was in 2002 for the telecast of the 74th Academy Awards, the first time the ceremonies were broadcast from the Kodak Theatre.Her 2002 freshman outing garnered eight Emmy nominations for the telecast, including one for Ziskin as producer in the Outstanding Variety, Music or edy Special category. The telecast won an Emmy for choreography. “This is a tough producing job,” said Ganis, “but weve been blessed with terrific producers, including Laura her 2002 show was one of the most colorful and fun shows in my memory. I cant tell you how pleased I am and how exciting it is to have her back, and for me to be, this time, in a position to participate with her in the creation of the show. This one is going to be great fun for all of us, viewers especially.”Ziskin currently is in post-production on Spider-Man 3. Other feature films on her plate include a number of projects for her home studio, Sony Pictures, including Me and My Monster with director McG and The Crimson Petal and the White, with Curtis Hanson directing, as well as The Spellman Files for Paramount and an HBO film on Katharine Graham written by Joan Didion. I have wanted to produce the Academy Awards again for a long time, Ziskin said. It is a terrific, really fun challenge for a producer mingling the thrills of putting on a live show, the creating of an exciting broadcast for the people watching at home and celebrating the extraordinary medium of film.I am delighted to have an opportunity to work with Sid Ganis and the spectacular Academy staff, and it is an honor to be in the pany of past Academy Awards show producers such as Gil Cates, Joe Roth, Dick and Lilli Zanuck, Quincy Jones, Howard Koch, and others, Ziskin said. There are a lot of award shows these days, but the Oscars remain unparalled. Cates, who has produced 13 shows since 1990, wished Ziskin the very best of great luck. Lauras first outing in xx was fantastic. Its an amazing show to do and were all privileged to work on it. The producer of over a dozen films, including the Spider-Man franchise, Ziskin also was executive producer of As Good As It Gets and Pretty Woman.In 1994 she was founder and served as president of Fox xx, a feature film arm of 20th Century Fox, before re-forming Laura Ziskin Productions in xx. After graduating from the USC School of Cinema, Ziskin began her career as a development executive, moving into feature films with Jon Peters production pany where she worked on the remake of A Star Is Born, starring Barbra Streisand.In 1984 Ziskin formed Fogwood Films with partner Sally Field, and in 1985 she produced Murphys Romance, which received a Best Actor nomination for James Garner and a cinematography nomination for William A. Fraker. As an independent producer, she cast then-relatively-unknown actors Kevin Costner and Sean Young alongside veteran Gene Hackman and produced the hit thriller No Way Out for Orion Pictures. In 1990 Ziskin executive produced Touchstone Pictures Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, who received a Best Actress nomination for her role. Her executive-produced 1997 film As Good As It Gets received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and its stars, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, took home Oscars in the lead acting categories. Ziskins other producing credits include What about Bob?, based on a story by Ziskin and two-time Oscar winner Alvin Sargent; The Doctor; Hero, again based on a story by her and Sargent; To Die For; The Rescue; D.O.A. and Everybodys All-American.As a television producer, Ziskin served as executive producer with George Clooney and Pamela Oas Williams for the live CBS presentation of Fail Safe. She also served as co-executive producer of the series Tarzan for the WB Network and Warner Bros. Television and executive produced the Norman Jewison-directed Dinner with Friends adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning play for HBO. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented on February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. The show will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.