"We talk about democracy in America, but it's bullshit, we have to wake up, do not remain silent, I hope to awaken people's consciences, the extreme right is raging all over the world and we are bored by the lies presented. like truths, my film is about that. " These words, spoken by Spike Lee at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival when he came to present BlackKklansman , set the tone. The African-American director, known for his activism against discrimination and his committed films, will probably have the opportunity to repeat his remarks on February 25, for the Oscars ceremony. With six nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor, BlackKklansman has a good chance to walk away with at least one statuette. Sign, among others, of a very symbolic selection in Donald Trump's America.
Brûlot anti-Trump ... For if BlackKklansman tells the story of a black policeman from Colorado who infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan in the 1970s, it is first and foremost a trump anti-Trump. Multiplying the parallels between racist America in the second half of the 20th century and today's, Spike Lee traces a direct continuity between the two. His feature film ends with the original, chilling images of the Charlottesville attack of August 2017. A white supremacist drove into the crowd of anti-racist activists, killing young Heather Heyer, whose movie is dedicated. And Donald Trump was content, for any reaction, to refer supremacists and anti-racists back to back.
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... and wild critic of American politics. But BlackKklansman is not the only overtly political film to have made an Oscar appearance this year. Named in eight categories, including best film and best director, Vice , Adam McKay, is interested in the journey of Dick Cheney, former vice president of George W. Bush between 2001 and 2009. And as its title indicates, it's not really a hagiography. Using the same process as for his previous feature film, The Big Short, which dealt with the real estate and stock market crisis of 2008, the director focuses on dissecting complex power stories with humor, sarcasm and pedagogy. The result is the caustic portrait of an American political class where mediocrity disputes it with baseness, and where power rises to the head. Is any resemblance to an existing situation really fortuitous? Hard to believe, especially when we go back further in the filmography of Adam McKay, who was also interested in Living Legends to the horrors of television.
The African American community in the spotlight. If they do not have as directly political statements as BlackKklansman , others named have a particular significance in a country led by Donald Trump. One could, with a little bad spirit, quote the Cold War of the Polish Jawel Pawlikowski, and his lovers separated in the 1950s when one of them chooses to cross the Berlin Wall. Or the memoirs of the Mexican childhood of Alfonso Cuaron in Roma . The reminiscences of a Europe cut in two or neighboring Mexico will be all the more bitter at a time when the erection of a wall, which was believed to be definitely out of fashion, is again relevant.
But you do not have to go that far. Just look at If Beale Street Could Talk by Barry Jenkins, adaptation of a social novel by James Baldwin. The African-American author tells the story of a young black man wrongly accused of rape in the 1970s, and it is still difficult not to see in his journey of dead ends and injustices the fate always reserved for a large part of the black-American community in the United States. Barry Jenkins does not hide it by the way: "James Baldwin is an important author because he was telling the truth," said the director, already Oscar winner for Moonlight , another film dedicated to the African-American community. As for Green Book , nominated in the category of the best film, it is about the story of a black pianist (Mahershala Ali, already seen in ... Moonlight precisely) who decides to make a tour in the South of the United States at the time of segregation.
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The Black Panther symbol. The diversity that emerges in this selection probably finds its high point with Black Panther , the film taken from Ryan Coogler from the Marvel universe. And this, for two reasons. First of all, because Black Panther is a superhero movie with a cast almost entirely black, and a technical team also largely African-American. A UFO (and, for now, another exception) in the country of blockbusters.
But this diversity is also that of the cinematographic genre: Black Panther thus competes in the category of the best film, and it is the first time that Academy of Oscars, which one knew much less daring, draws in the adventures of superheroes for major appointments. If we add to this the record of nominations (10) for Roma , directed by the Mexican Alfonso Cuaron but mostly distributed by the Netflix platform, we can legitimately consider that the Oscars have undertaken a dedusting operation.
Very queer selection . Diversity is also that of sexual orientation. As such, the selection of Oscars is one of the most queer of all time. Yorgos Lanthimos' favorite La Favorite , which equals Roma's record of 10 nominations, features a trio of women with lesbian attractions, in which Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone compete for Olivia Colman's attention (the three being named in the categories best actress and best actress in a supporting role). Biopic Freddy Mercury, leader of the queer gay group, Bohemian Rhapsody , snatches five nominations, including best film and best actor. One could also mention the presence of Lady Gaga, singer openly committed to the rights of LGBTQ minorities in her country, and nominated in the best actress category for her performance in A Star is born .
Where are the women ? Remains a category of population, though not a minority, which is still difficult to find its place in the Oscars, a sign that it finds it especially difficult in the entire film industry: women. These are at the heart of the films on offer, from Roma to La Favorite via The Wife . Yet no filmmaker competes in the categories of best film and best director.