Editor’s note: Welcome to the eleventh of a 33-part series dissecting the 82st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Kirby Holt of Movie Dearest.

Unlike last year, the Academy’s music branch managed to deem five songs (from four films) worthy of nomination for Original Song in the 2009 Oscar race. This in itself is notable considering the rules for this category were once again tinkered with earlier this year, creating new restrictions that could have resulted in at little as two nominees or even (gulp) no nominations at all.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and the quintet of tunes honored offer a varied selection of styles, not surprising considering their respective films are set in 1920’s New Orleans, 1930’s Paris, 1960’s Italy and the present day American southwest. Three of the songs are from two full-fledged musicals, while the other two are from films set in the “real world”, albeit in show biz settings where “bursting into song” isn’t all that unusual. All five songs are performed onscreen in whole or in part; no end title power ballads here (sorry Avatar, no room for you here).

And the nominees are (click on the song titles to listen to them on YouTube):

• “Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney Pictures), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman.
• “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney Pictures), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman.
• “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36 (Sony Picture Classics), Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas.
• “Take It All” from Nine (The Weinstein Company), Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston.
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight Pictures), Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

An Academy favorite, Randy Newman is the only previous winner amongst this year’s nominated songwriters, having finally won the Oscar for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc. a few years back. His two nods this year for The Princess and the Frog brings his career total to a whopping 19 nominations, 11 in this category alone. Rich with the flavors of his hometown of New Orleans, Newman’s songs for Disney’s return to traditional animation are an integral part of this creative retelling of the fairy tale “The Frog Prince”.

First up is “Almost There”, performed by Anika Noni Rose as the film’s heroine, Tiana. A classic example of the Disney protagonist’s “I want” song, “Almost There” is an up-tempo declaration of independence for Tiana, who yearns to open her own restaurant on her own terms. The song is boosted by the strong vocals of the multi-talented Rose (who won a Tony Award for the Broadway musical Caroline, or Change) and its unique visual presentation, a stylized art deco fantasy as only Disney animation can do.

Newman’s other nominated Frog tune is “Down in New Orleans”, which serves as a jazzy introduction to the film’s colorful setting and cast of characters. The song is actually heard three times in the film: first, as a brief prologue sung by Anika Noni Rose, then performed over the opening credit sequence by the Grammy-winning jazzman Dr. John, and finally as (you guessed it) the finale, again sung by Rose. I suspect that these two songs will be performed together as a medley on Oscar night, hopefully by original singers Rose (who last sang on the Oscars as part of the Dreamgirls) and John.

By all accounts a surprise nominee, “Loin de Paname” from the French period piece Paris 36 nevertheless follows this category’s recent trend of recognizing non-English language songs, such as recent winners “Al Otro Lado del Río” from The Motorcycle Diaries and “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. In fact, the last French song to be nominated was “Look To Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)” from The Chorus (Les Choristes), directed by Christophe Barratier, who also directed (you guessed it) Paris 36.

Detailing the trials and tribulations of a ragtag group of theater people “putting on a show” in pre-World War II France, Paris 36 centers on the music hall known as the Chansonia, wherein we hear “Loin de Paname” (translated: “Far from Paris”). The show’s ingénue, Douce (played by lovely newcomer Nora Arnezeder) is urged by the opening night crowd to sing a song, and she timidly agrees, eventually winning them over with her natural talent and the rousing refrain of “Paris, Paris”. With its lilting melody and simple lyrics, “Loin de Paname” is reminiscent of the period; one could almost image Édith Piaf singing it.

And speaking of Piaf, the actress who won an Academy Award for playing her on film in La Vie en Rose, Marion Cotillard, is the singer (no lip-syncing this time) of the next nominated tune. Written by Maury Yeston, who won a Tony for his score of the original stage version of Nine, “Take It All” replaces the similar number “Be On Your Own” in the film adaptation. Both songs serve the same function in the story: Luisa, the oft ignored and cheated on wife of celebrated film director Guido Contini, has had enough of it and is leaving him.

But whereas the original song is an overwrought ballad, the new tune is a fierce showstopper delivered fearlessly by Cotillard in a stark striptease number that will hopefully be recreated for the Oscar ceremony (where it will probably be paired with “Loin de Paname”). Nine’s other all-original tune, the catchy-but-fluffy “Cinema Italiano”, may have received nominations from the Critics Choice, Golden Globe and Satellite Awards, but the Academy favored the more dramatic option.

The song that beat “Cinema Italiano” for all those early awards is also the favored to win the Oscar: “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” composed by T Bone Burnett (who was previously nominated for “Scarlet Tide” from Cold Mountain) and Ryan Bingham (no relation to this Ryan Bingham). If it does prove victorious, it will follow in the footsteps of such other recent low-key “singer/songwriter” winners as “Falling Slowly” from Once and “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth.

The plaintive “Weary Kind” is heard throughout Crazy Heart, a by-the-numbers drama about a washed-up country singer played by Best Actor front-runner Jeff Bridges. Bridges’ character, Bad Blake, writes the song during the course of the story, and Colin Farrell (as Tommy Sweet, Blake’s protégé-who-is-now-more-famous-then-he-is) performs it, in part, in a concert at the end of the film. However, the complete version of the song, sung by co-writer Bingham, is heard over the end credits (so much for no end title songs).

While Bingham will most likely perform the song solo on the Oscars, it would be kind of cool if Bridges and even Farrell joined him on stage for a Grammy-esque jam session. We will see on March 7, when the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC.

Editor’s note: Welcome to the ninth of a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Kirby from Movie Dearest

Through the years, the Academy Awards category of “Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song” has received more than its fair share of derision. Simply put, it is the Oscar that gets no respect, partly due to the sometimes-questionable presentation of the nominated tunes on the night of The Big Show. Perhaps it is these very and varied production numbers, added to my already undying love for anything even remotely show tune-y, that makes Oscar’s Best Songs something of a “guilty pleasure” of mine. In fact, I dare say it is my favorite Oscar category, the first one I instinctively scan the list for when the nominations are announced.

So naturally, this year’s nominations were a bit of a disappointment for me, as only three songs (from only two films) made the finals. However, it was a mixed blessing, as (unlike in most years), all the nominees are deserving of winning. And those nominees are:

“Down to Earth” from WALL-E(Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel.

“Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire(Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar.

“O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

Anybody who has seen these two movies and/or heard the three songs (you can listen to them in their entirety at the Official Movie Dearest MySpace page) will notice that the Original Song category has gone global this year; all three tunes have distinct World Music influences. It is also notable that both Newman and Rahman are nominated in the other music category, Original Score, this year. This leads me to predict that they both will be taking home the Little Gold Man on Oscar Night, one in each category. But which one? Let’s take a closer look/listen to all three nominated songs.

“O Saya” starts off Slumdog Millionaire with a driving, percussive beat as the two young protagonists are chased through the slums of Mumbai. The lyrics comment on the onscreen action (”They can’t touch me”) while alluding to the characters’ futures (”One day I’ll be a star”), and this perfectly captures the desperate situation Jamal and Salim are in, and the lengths they’ll each go to escape it.

In contrast, the other Slumdog song “Jai Ho” is a high-energy finale heard at the beginning of the end credits and inter-cut with a dance number right out of Bollywood led by lovebirds Jamal and Latika in the middle of a train station. This infectious fantasy sequence serves as the “happily ever after” to this Dickensian tale and (despite some people’s misgivings about it) is a large reason why so many audiences around the world have embraced Slumdog Millionaire, as it follows the old show biz maxim to leave them dancing in the aisles.

The third and final nominee, WALL-E’s “Down to Earth”, also acts as an epilogue to the film in question. As Gabriel’s plaintive yet inspiring vocals tell about “snow up on the mountains … rivers down below” and sending the “seeds out in the breeze”, the expressionistic end titles sequence depicts the rebirth of our planet through the evolution of art. This song too provides a happy ending, as the words and music wrap you in a comforting belief that there is hope for Mother Earth after all.

So whose name will be called on The Big Night? I think Rahman will get the score award for his overall work on Slumdog, while the song trophy will go to Newman and Gabriel. The Academy will want to (finally) honor Newman, and they love giving this particular prize to superstar recording artists like Gabriel (for example, such past winners as Elton John, Bob Dylan and Melissa Etheridge).

In any event, with three excellent compositions to choose from (and their eagerly awaited live performances on February 22), they (and we) are all winners in my Oscar Song-loving book.

URL: http://moviedearest.blogspot.com/

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