Won Best Actress Oscar...
for Nomadland
shareI loved her performance, but I was surprised she won. I thought it was between Carey Mulligan and Viola Davis.
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MovieChat Forums > Frances McDormand Discussion > Won Best Actress Oscar...
Good work!
shareWell, anyone who can take a dump in public on film deserves some recognition. ;-)
That was a pretty depressing movie. I thought it was an important movie, but damn
if I really understand what it was about or what it was trying to say.
HORRAY for FRANCES!!!
After watching a 20 min video today -- (about how the NOMADLAND film was made because Frances read the novel and liked it so much that she had them make the story she read into a film)-- I'm that much more PLEASED to about hear how she's won another OSCAR again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zICxsKAUO0k
NOMADLAND | See You Down The Road | Half Hour Broadcast Special
Will also still keeping the fingers crossed hoping that FRANCES will also be able to TIE (or even surpass) the record of KATE HEPBURN (who's also the actress who has won the MOST OSCARS).
Kate had 4 of them.
FRANCES needs 5 of them to be able to beat Kate's record.
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Is that movie supposed to make the poverty stricken with no health care, or support system feel better and more free?
shareI haven't seen it yet.
Perhaps it's an exploration of the NOMADIC lifestyle in hopes that people won't look down on them as being BUMS ...
(like the HOBO's use to be -- back during the GREAT DEPRESSION of 1929-- who would hop on trains and travel about from place to place that way)???
Because in that video she also says that she's "HOUSELESS but NOT HOMELESS."
> Because in that video she also says that she's "HOUSELESS but NOT HOMELESS."
Brave words, but not really true. She is sleeping in a road stop's parking lot and it gets freezing that night and she heads for her friend's caravan group. She meets and constantly rebuff this nice guy, David Strathairne, and she likes him, but she deliberately keeps her distance. She seems mentally ill or depressed, so while they show all these moments of her life, it sort of deliberately refused to pass judgement on her, in a way pretending she is living the life she chooses, even though on occasions when she looks back she wonders why she did the things she did. It seems curious to me why this movie would win best picture. It is like a statement saying there is nothing wrong with this lady's choices in life and she needs no help, or would not realize she needs help. Personally, I thought the movie was meaningful in some way, but it was not something of note. Best picture? It's like saying to homeless people, you are OK, or saying to society, see, they don't need any help.
Ok. Thanks for the explanation which is also appreciated very much.
So maybe the idea is to reveal how NOMADS (like the case is with the homeless) do need help???
In "INLAND EMPIRE," for instance, (the last film that was made by David Lynch), there's also a scene near the end of it where 3 HOMELESS people sit there on HOLLYWOOD BLVD -- discussing the BUS SCHEDULE to Pomona-- while a girl who's been stabbed in the GUT with a SCREW DRIVER pukes up blood on one of the STARS of a MOVIE STAR there on the WALK of FAME -- and then dies.
But none of the HOMELESS people ever use one of the many free PAY PHONES that we see to call 911 for an ambulance, because they are so use to being IGNORED by others (who don't do anything to help them) that it never even occurs to them that they should do anything to try to help the other woman as she lays there and DIES right in front of them.
So perhaps that's also the message that this movie is trying to convey? Is how NOMADS have had the silly Horatio Alger "SELF RELIANCE" kind of a message BEATEN into them to the point where they can't even realize anymore how desperate they are, or the fact that they need HELP and shouldn't be living inside of a VAN where they could also FREEZE to death by doing so???
In other words, maybe the idea is to point out the lack of HUMANITY on the part of others and the CRUEL kind of INDIFFERENCE that certain others have towards them???
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I don't know, but I suspect nothing so dramatic. I'm not a fan of David Lynch. I think Fern was sort of traumatized by life, the death of her husband and how she was attached to their home because I don't think she had any purpose or knew what to do. In the movie I don't recall her meeting anyone who was unkind to her, so it was not cruel indifference on the part of others, it was rather the whole system. The one part that I assume was the data part of the movie was the leader of the nomad group, I forget their name, talking about their stories and their plights in his "sermons". It was like people who were brought together by being at the lowest point in life accepting each other and what happened to them.
One part where it is clear that the David Strathairne character really likes Fern (McDormand), and cares about her, and is a nice civilized individual goes to live with his family. After they have known each other for a while he invites Fern to visit, and says she can stay there if she wants, but Fern doesn't want to sleep in the bed in the nice guest house on his son's ranch, I think it is, and after a few days moves on. That was thought provoking.
There are some tropes here like "the homeless like their lifestyle" which are interesting. But I also think the typical homeless person would not be a Fern, but a Fred, i.e. mostly male, mostly men and many of them with deep trauma and drugs problems. That is not portrayed, the people in the nomad group are all sort of portrayed as civilized upstanding citizens and great people. I had my issues with the reality of this movie, which is why while I think it is good thought-provoking movie, I think recognizing it as some masterwork by giving it an Academy Award is unwarranted.
Then again it is in line with the genre of gritty reality with "The Father", so maybe that was the logic. I have not seem the Hopkins' movie.
In that 22 min short video there's also a scene where Fern tells another character about how she's been GUILTY of "REMEMBERING too much." So perhaps that's the message being sent??? Is that sometimes people can be so full of GRIEF about the DEAD people they knew that they become BLIND to being able to see those around them who are still LIVING and full of life???
It's the scene where you see the broken plate and she also explains how her father had gone around to SWAP MEETS as a way to try and find that entire set of dishes for her wedding gift.
And she also glues it back together again, in an effort to try to hang on to it after it's broken. So maybe that broken plate also represents how she also needs to BREAK AWAY from the the kind of GRIEF that she's feeling over the deaths of her father and husband and move on???
And when she let's the other guy have all of her PREVIOUS belongings that were being stored, perhaps that's also a CLUE to let us know that she's finally ready to "BREAK AWAY" and MOVE ON with her life, and go back and accept the offer to live there on the ranch???
If that's the choice she's made, then it would also be interesting to see a SEQUEL where we get to find out what her life is like living there at that ranch. Perhaps she could also do something (like start a support group) while living there as a way to try and make other people more aware of what she went through???
it was not cruel indifference on the part of others, it was rather the whole system...the leader of the nomad group, I forget their name, talking about their stories and their plights in his "sermons". It was like people who were brought together by being at the lowest point in life accepting each other and what happened to them.
And wasn't that also basically what the NOMADS had going on-- was a kind of SUPPORT GROUP that they formed as a way to support each other???
And The "INDIFFERENCE" also seems to be on the part of the COMPANY who owns all of the homes, and then KICKS people like FERN out of them after it closed down the place where she'd worked. Because they also did NOTHING to SUPPORT her or to help her with finding another place to live or with finding another job???
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You get into analyzing the symbolism in movies far more than I do. But the broken plates, incidentally broken by her new friend David Strathairne accidentally as he was trying to help her, she held on to them by gluing them together.
In a way most of us do this. We hold on to way more stuff than our circumstances indicate; and plates that she never uses are hoarding in a van. Why do Americans not use their driveways? They are full of all the junk they have to store.
Maybe the question is, is this breaking away from her plates and the stuff she had in storage that she had to pay for, actually freedom or just being jettisoned from society. There is a documentary out there called "The End Of Poverty", narrated by Martin Sheen, that talks about the process the old world used to take over the new world. It involved removing people from their land, their lives, and just letting them fend for themselves on the rejected land. Sort of similar.
Fern does not end up at the ranch in case I did not make that clear. She packs up and moves on after feeling that it is not for her, but why is really never explained. It is awfully politically expedient to display a homeless person who is just that way, and that she finds freedom. That hedging or ambiguity is why I don't think this should have gotten an Academy Award, but looking at most of what Hollywood makes that is a pretty high standard.
To me all roads lead back to everything being political, and about power and taking from some people to feed the "Megamachine" [ "End Of The Megamachine" by Fabian Schiedler ] another common analogy to what our world has turned into. Movies that do not in some way come to terms with that one way or other are just a waste of time.
is this breaking away from her plates and the stuff she had in storage that she had to pay for, actually freedom or just being jettisoned from society.
There could be a couple of possibilities. One is she's ready to move on away from her past (which could be what she means when she says she spent too much time remembering).
Or she may be still haunted by what happened in her past, which also might be the reason why she fears getting attached again (to anyone or to anyplace -- such as if she settles down at the ranch where still something else could go wrong again).
So maybe she rejects life at the ranch in an effort not to be evicted again and have to go through what she's already been through again?
Did she reject the offer before or AFTER she gives away what she had in storage? If she rejects it before, that seems to indicate she may have had a change of mind and gets rid of the stuff from her past so that she can't start over again with some new stuff at the ranch.
Or maybe she likes living alone and just never knew how much she liked it because she'd moved directly from her father's house into the other house with her husband?
Since this is also the first time that I've ever heard of a MEGAMACHINE mentioned before, there's also not much one can say about that matter.
Did she also get rid of the plates that she tried to glue back together??? Or did they also get discarded when she BREAKS away from her past???
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Actually she has 4 Oscars even though only 3 are for acting. The 4th one is for being a producer on Nomadland.
shareThanks for the heads up about her having 4 Statues now !!!
So how does that one for being a producer figure in to KATE having 4 of them???
Does that one for being a producer count towards her being TIED now with Kate???
I would say 4 acting ones trumps 4 overall.
shareOk.
So if Frances wins another OSCAR for acting ...
then having 4 of them --
PLUS having another one for producing an OSCAR WINNING film --
would also TRUMP Kate's 4 WINS (due to the way Kate doesn't have another one for producing)???
And that would also make FRANCES the most decorated ACTRESS ever with her having 5 OSCARS !!!
GO FRANCES !!!
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In such a tight race, the pull of Best Picture nosed her over the line. I love Fran and while I didn’t fully embrace Nomadland like so many have, her performance was superb.
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