The stuttering king defeats Facebook

“If you’ll excuse me, I have some impulses I have to tend to”. This is how Colin Firth ended his thank you speech after winning the Oscar for Best Leading Actor, as the stuttering King George VI in The King’s Speech. The movie won “just” four Oscars during the night of the stars, which took place in Los Angeles, between Sunday and Monday.

We watched the evening live; if you want to see the award ceremony, minute by minute, including the red carpet, visit the Facebook page “Anche io guardo la notte degli Oscar”.

So, there was no overall winner, the Oscars were almost equally divided, also between “Inception” and “The Social Network”. However the movie about the stuttering king did get the upper hand, taking home the awards for Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Screenplay. Other important awards went to The fighter, with the award for Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role, to Melissa Leo and Christian Bale. As forecast, the award for Best Actress went to Natalie Portman, in Black Swan, and it was she who appeared the most moved on the stage.

The Social Network won only three Oscars: for the Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. Inception, Christopher Nolan’s lovely visionary movie, had to be content with four technical Oscars, including Best Sound, Best Sound Effects and Best Visual Effects.

The evening was a little disappointing for the Italian movie industry. The Italian candidate for Best Costume Design in I am love, by Luca Guadagnino, was defeated by Alice in the Wonderland (which also won for set design). The Italian movie industry was remembered at the time dedicated to the artists that had passed away in 2010, with images of Mario Monicelli and Dino De Laurentis.

On the whole, the ceremony was relatively fast-paced, but the two young hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco, were unable to provide a youthful pace, relying on an old-fashioned and stale formula. However, the objective was to give awards to English language movies. And this was done, without praise or blame. In any case, there was still the feeling that the movies nominated were all dignified in their own right, especially the three that shared the Oscars. A good year for the film industry.