LAFCA: Oscar's loss
German director Werner Herzog, in accepting his award for the documentary "Grizzly Man" at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association dinner Tuesday night, shrugged off the fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failed to include his widely acclaimed film on its short list of nominees for this year's documentary Oscar.
"I think we should not spend any sleepless nights over the attitude of the documentary department of the academy," Herzog said.
Maybe the Oscar show's producers can lose a little shuteye, though, over not getting to hear Herzog make eloquent statements, such as the following from his LAFCA acceptance speech, about the very nature of reality in an image-inundated culture.
"I believe that there's a very, very big, momentous question behind all of this, and the question is the following: In the last 10 to 15 years, we have been overwhelmed by new forms of reality. Virtual reality. The Internet. Reality TV. Wrestlemania! We have to ask, What does PhotoShop do? What do visual effects do to movies?
"There is something out there that is much more important. And that is how to define truth in images. I have always tried to find an ecstasy of truth in my feature films and documentaries. And that, of course, puts me in conflict with mainstream films and documentaries. And that's all right, I'd like to continue."
Somehow, I just don't think we're going to hear anything that intelligent from the podium on March 5.
