Open bar in the multiverse of the Oscars

In the multiverse of the Oscars, held this Sunday in Los Angeles, everything happened at the same time everywhere.

Cate Blanchett was resplendent and her nerves at bay in the most exclusive bar of the theater, so calm that they had to remind her that the moment was coming when, a few minutes later, Michelle Yeoh would snatch the best actress award from her;

director

Baz Luhrmann was asking to be held on to something that looked like a

to take a selfie with two admirers, it is seen that it was his way of retaining control over the shot;

while Harrison Ford hid the whiskey in his hand, like a teenager surprised by his parents, to speak with the young Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was there as executive producer of a short film.

More information

All award winners

Everything at once everywhere

, the title of the film that won seven Oscars at the 95th edition of the Hollywood awards, has proven since its premiere to be useful for many things;

also to describe the experience of living the ceremony from inside the Dolby theater.

Beneath the gleaming, orderly guise of the TV broadcast, the occasion looks more like a happy mess, far less orderly than one might expect, with people coming and going all four floors to stock up on sweet, chili-flavored popcorn. , with open bar lovers leaning on their elbows at the bar and, more or less from the moment the beer ran out, with guests engaged in more entertaining things than a gala hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who, frankly, You will not be remembered for your interest.

All very understandable (everywhere).

It is that the Academy preferred a ceremony without frights, after the one last year, in which Will Smith visited heaven and hell one bitter night in March, when he slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about hair loss. the wife of that one, Jada Pinkett Smith, to later win the statuette for best leading actor.

It is also understandable that if you have won the award for best international film, like the team from the German

you want to celebrate it in the ambigu with your friends in Berlin, while they open the envelope with, say, the winner of the short from animation and the presenters give the so-called technical prizes, once again explaining the importance of editing in cinematographic art.

Could it be that the writers of the ceremony believe that the audience for the Oscars is not only dwindling, but also a little hard-headed?

Edward Berger receives the award for 'All Quiet on the Front'.

Chris Pizzello (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

To contribute to risk prevention were the designers of the set design for the gala, a tribute to the old

deco cinemas that still survive in some

in the United States, with their illuminated marquees and their promise of fantasy.

In 2022, with the pandemic still very much present, those designers thought it a good idea to turn the stalls into a club with its separate tables, and that allowed Smith to walk purposefully and unimpeded to meet Rock.

This year, they chose to leave the natural organization of the theater seats alone.

For everything else, it was possible to count on the

, a strange tribe of men and women without attributes who can only be seen one day a year: the Oscars.

They hire them (although they do not receive money in return, according to two of them, Alexandra and Spencer, clarified) to be on the lookout and occupy the seats of the guests when they go out to attend to the press after collecting an award or to stretch their legs.

Its mission is that no empty seats are seen if the cameras point.

They are like the secondary actors in

by Fernando Fernán Gómez: their virtue and their only value, all in rigorous black, is to go unnoticed, on a night in which the rest go out of their way to stand out.

Public relations

It's also a night when the stars are chilling out and, not to be forgotten, working as PR for their sympathy, so one can talk about the best record stores in Los Angeles with musician Questlove, who last year won the Oscar for best documentary for

and this gave another award;

with Daniel Brühl from the novelist Erich Maria Remarque (author of the anti-war classic that inspired

, a film that Brühl interprets and produces);

commenting on Lady Gaga's performance with Paul Dano (the best of the night for the

regret the "resultadismo" of current culture with Ricardo Darín (it was his way of putting himself in the worst, why not,

"the miracle" did not work and he left without his statuette for best international film);

or discover that Eva Longoria is a pretty direct woman.

When asked how she felt on such a special night, she replied in Spanish: "I'm hungry, I'm tired and my legs hurt."

She also expressed her love for Marbella, saying she was "excited" to debut at the Oscars.

Another who was debuting was Ana de Armas.

She did not fulfill her dream of winning the best actress award (for playing Marilyn Monroe in

but at the end of the gala she celebrated that there had been "so much diversity in the winners" and "so many first times."

Ana de Armas, during the gala. ETIENNE LAURENT (EFE)

One of those first times was starred by director Steven Spielberg's three sisters.

He had never deigned to invite them to the Dolby theater until this Sunday, and that Spielberg is the only filmmaker who has been nominated in six different decades.

“But this year is special, because I am competing with a

very personal film [the autobiographical

I needed a lot of courage to do it", he told in a conversation with EL PAÍS before the gala began (and, therefore, before knowing that the award was for others: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, for Everything at the same time

Is that the same bravery it takes to show up at the Dolby in a tuxedo and sneakers?

"That's not bravery," replied the director of

: "It's common sense: this is too long a day."

Not as much as others, in his case.

Spielberg was not seen at the party that followed the gala, the Governor's Ball, held in a large ballroom with plenty of food and more drink.

There the indisputable protagonists were the members of the

who attracted all the spotlights when they went through the process of

their statuettes.

It works like this: when you win the most coveted award in Hollywood, they give you an Oscar with no name, of course, to which they later add a plaque with your address.

This year, at a much livelier party than in the past (and despite the fact that they had made the dance floor disappear), that process ended in a show, in which the less than glamorous act of screwing a piece of metal to a wooden base it became another contagious demonstration of the enthusiasm of the directors and actors for the independent film that has broken all their modest expectations.

Michelle Yeoh waits for her statuette to be plaqued at the Governor's Ball this Sunday in Los Angeles.

ANGELA WEISS (AFP)

In the multiverse of the Governor's Ball, Michelle Yeoh was fondling her new golden best friend, Jamie Lee Curtis couldn't hide the excitement of feeling that she had finally reached a goal that her parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh never reached, and Ke Huy Quan would get on the table and do mischief as if he had never stopped being Data, the nerd he played in

Paraphrasing his character in

he gave the impression that each rejection, each disappointment, led the three interpreters to the great moment they experienced on Sunday.

It was her enthusiasm that saved the Oscars from ending up on a trip to the multiverse of boredom.

That, and the good will of the guests, who celebrated one award after another in the stalls, like when they organize a surprise birthday party for one, discover the intentions of their friends, and still feign astonishment so as not to take away from them. the illusion.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber