לוס אנג'לס טיימס לאקדמיה האמריקאית: זירקו את התקנון שלכם מהחלון והתחילו מהתחלה
אם עד עכשיו הכיסוי של פסילת "ביקור התזמורת" מהאוסקרים בתקשורת האמריקאית היה מרוכז ברובו בבלוגים אינטרנטיים, אתמול זכה הסיפור לכיסוי הגדול והאוהד ביותר שלו מטעם התקשורת האמריקאית המיינסטרימית: פטריק גולדסטין, שמפרסם מדי יום שלישי ב"לוס אנג'לס טיימס" את המדור "התמונה הגדולה", יוצא במתקפה נגד האקדמיה האמריקאית ותקנונה בעקבות פסילת סרטו של ערן קולירין. הטקסט המלא נמצא כאן.
הטור מתחיל כך: "יש לי עצה לאקדמיה האמריקאית: קחו את 44 העמודים של ספר התקנון שלכם, העיפו אותם מהחלון ותתחילו מהתחלה".
"ב-2005 האקדמיה פסלה את 'מחבואים', אחד הסרטים הכי מהוללים של אותה שנה, מהסיבה שהסרט נשלח על ידי אסטריה אבל הכיל דיאלוג בצרפתית. ב-2004 פסלה האקדמיה את 'מריה הלבנה', נציג קולומביה, כי לא היה בו מספיק ספרדית. הקורבן השנה הוא 'ביקור התזמורת' סרט ישראלי שגרף את פרסי אופיר וזכה לכבוד בפסטיבלים בכל העולם… הטון של הסרט אירוני ומחמם לב, אבל מבלי לגלוש לסנטימנטליות ומובילה אותו הופעה נהדרת של ששון גבאי, שמפגין את הסטואיות מלאת הנשמה של באסטר קיטון".
מארק ג'ונסון, יו"ר ועדת הבחירה לסרט הזר אומר לגולדסטין:
"You have to remember, it's called best foreign-language film, not best foreign film," says Johnson, a respected Hollywood producer. "I'm heartbroken, because I loved the movie. But there wasn't a single person on our committee that disagreed with the decision. If we accepted this film just because we liked it so much, the rules wouldn't mean anything at all."
ועיניו של מפיק הסרט, אהוד בלייברג, התמלאו דמעות כשהוא דיבר עם גולדסטין על הנושא:
The film's producer, Ehud Bleiberg, broke down in tears when we spoke about the academy decision. "This is a tragedy, especially for the filmmaker, who made this film for everybody,"' he said. "We were just banned from the film festival in Abu Dhabi simply because we were an Israeli film. Now we've been banned from this Oscar category because they say our movie has too much English. It's almost Kafkaesque, to have a movie judged not on its art, but by a stopwatch."
He stopped to compose himself. "How does the academy think that Israelis and Egyptians can talk to each other? Should they only talk with weapons?"
Bleiberg said that while the Israeli academy has submitted a backup entry, many of its members are infuriated by the U.S. academy's decision. "They feel as if they've been slapped in the face. It won eight of our 12 film award prizes — best film, director, screenplay, lead actor and actress. To have the rest of the world only hear about our country when it comes to war and strife, and then have this beautiful, optimistic film rejected, is a terrible blow for everyone."
It's also a huge blow for the film's commercial reach. Eighty percent of the box-office returns for the German film "The Lives of Others" came after it won the Oscar for best foreign-language film this past February.
וגולדסטין חושף, לתדהמתו, שרק איש אחד צפה בסרט לפני הפסילה: ג'ונסון עצמו
But much to my shock, Johnson told me he was the only person on the committee who actually watched the movie. It was simply judged by a stopwatch. Filmmakers often complain that conservative ideologues attack Hollywood movies for being unpatriotic without bothering to see the films — as has just happened with "Rendition" — yet an august body of academy filmmakers rejected Israel's most decorated film without bothering to see it.
I give academy executive director Bruce Davis credit for his willingness to get on the phone and defend the decision. But he was dismissive of my concerns. "Seeing the film really isn't essential," he said. "Out of 60 or more foreign-language entries, there are probably a dozen that had eligibility questions. No one has the time to watch every movie where there's an issue. It doesn't matter whether this was a wonderful film. This film didn't come close to meeting the criteria, so it's out."
Rules are rules, but something's wrong when an organization devoted to celebrating the greatness of cinema is making its decisions, as Sony Classics co-chief Michael Barker put it, "based on mathematics instead of art." Davis, who also makes the point that the film is still eligible in other Oscar categories including best picture, believes I'm the one being arbitrary by putting a film's value ahead of the academy's rules. But it's the academy that has put itself in an indefensible position by devising rules that are needlessly arbitrary.
A rule decreeing that foreign films have to be "predominantly in a non-English language" is a rule showing its age. Already the common business language, English is quickly becoming a common language of cinema as well, especially as local productions try to reach a global audience. Even worse, by overruling a selection made by a respected group of filmmakers in the film's country of origin, the academy allows itself to be viewed as another arrogant American institution that insists on having the rest of the world play by its rules.
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