The first clue as to how tricky it all is comes from this room on the first floor. It pays homage to filmmaker and activist Spike Lee. There are numerous artifacts on display, some from Lee’s private collection, which are reminiscent of unforgettable films, such as “Malcolm X”, “He Got Game” or “BlacKkKlansman”. Or this Muhammad Ali Think Different poster from the advertisement for Apple. Or a Jackie Robinson jersey – Lee recently published a script about the black baseball player that was never implemented. Or those Oscars for the best screenplay and the “Honorary Award”, which always comes across as a little apologetic.
It’s a wonderful tribute to the director – but let’s be honest: Wouldn’t the appropriate tribute be a trophy for the best director? For example, and it is no coincidence that the film is called “Do the Right Thing”. It’s about racial conflict and anger, in the end a young African American is killed by a police officer. With all due respect to Oliver Stone and the film “Born on the Fourth of July”, it would have been the right thing to recognize Lee as best director in 1990; but he wasn’t even nominated. But, and now it’s getting really complicated: If this award had to be taken away from him when actress Rosie Perez said: “The reason no one sees my face when Spike Lee puts ice cubes on my nipples: I cry. I wanted to don’t do that, the atmosphere was out of order. ” Phew
The example shows what an ambivalent experience a visit to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opens on September 30 in Los Angeles, can be; just as the history of the film academy, which has been awarding the Oscars since 1929, is an ambivalent one. She sees herself as the guardian of the art of film, and she is, but there is no denying that the members have always been mostly male and white – and that had an impact on the awarding of the prizes and the ceremonies. Hattie McDaniel, for example, was the first African American woman to receive an Oscar in 1939 (for best supporting actress for “Gone With the Wind”), but she had to sit at the black table at the very back of the room at the award ceremony.
An exhibition in the new museum is dedicated to the director Spike Lee.
(Photo: Joshua White / Academy Museum)
This is the subject of the Oscar awards room. Halle Berry’s speech can also be seen on a giant screen. She cries, yes she sobs, then she says: “This moment is so much bigger than me. It is for every nameless and faceless Woman of Color who now has a chance because this door has been opened this evening.” As a reminder, only white women have been recognized in this category since then, and it wasn’t until 2009 that Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director. 2015 was the year of the hashtag #oscarssowhite, 2020 that of #oscarssomale. This is not the past, this is the present.
The tour shows, however, that the Academy is not afraid to come to terms with this past, on the contrary. There is a retrospective on racism and sexism in cartoons, an exciting tribute to the works of Afro-American filmmakers from times when the works of Afro-American filmmakers were not recognized – “Swing” (1938) for example or “The Betrayal” (1948) –, and a tribute to the Los Angeles Latinas independent drama, Real Women Have Curves, directed by Patricia Cardoso, which did not receive a single Oscar nomination in 2003.
Is that exactly right now? Or is it too much, like the way people who apologize a few times too often come across as implausible? Amazingly, it works. The museum is a magical place that takes serious things seriously, honors the art of film and satirizes Hollywood with a wink. This is no small feat, because a film museum like this is like having the great white shark (hanging in the stairwell), the sled Rosebud from “Citizen Kane” (first floor) and cram Cher’s costume at the 1986 Academy Awards (second floor) into a tiny wooden box. If you turn left at the “Real Women Have Curves” movie poster, you can pretend you’re getting an Oscar yourself in an augmented reality room: people applaud, you pick up a statue and are supposed to be moved The video will be sent to you later by email. Sure, that’s completely ridiculous, but that’s exactly the glamorous fuss about this award.
The dome that the architect Renzo Piano designed for the Academy Museum has long been known as the “Death Star” in LA. He would prefer the term “soap bubble”.
(Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP)
Tom Hanks is also there on the tour before the opening, giving a short speech in the newly built, enchanting cinema hall in the huge glass ball on the roof (the Italian architect Renzo Piano says: “Please don’t call this ball the death star, dear soap bubble”) – He raised many of the $ 385 million in donations himself and now welcomes a few reporters and VIPs such as actress Anna Kendrick. “See this place as a magic lamp,” he says, referring to the first film projectors, and then he doesn’t send you to the famous exhibits (the red shoes of Judy Garland from the “Wizard of Oz”, the robotic arm of Arnold Schwarzenegger from “Terminator”), but in what he says, “a dark room with a few lights in which the magic can be felt”.
It’s actually just a small room, a few figures turn in a circle – but then the lights start to twitch and the visitor realizes: Wow, that’s how 3-D animation films are made! It continues with an homage to the Japanese cartoon genius Hayao Miyazaki, which comes along like a magic mushroom trip with a Buddhist school of life; and at some point you lie on artificial turf and stare at the sky like the boy in Richard Linklater’s fantastic long-term film study “Boyhood”. It’s terrific.
Tom Hanks speaks at the museum’s press conference – he’s one of the great promoters of the idea.
(Photo: Valerie Macon / AFP)
This is exactly what they want to achieve with this museum on Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile. It is not supposed to be a dry collection of artifacts, but rather an experience of what film can be. “We want to invite visitors to a dialogue about film history and the influence of this art on their lives,” says Jacqueline Stewart, who – sorry, does that have to be mentioned? – Afro-American artistic director: “You should not only discover and learn things, but also feel encouraged to tell your own stories and experiences.” The museum is not so much an exhibition space as a multi-layered and varied experience. Like when you come out of the cinema and can’t wait to talk to the others about what you’ve just seen.
This principle also characterizes the program for the new cinema hall. For Halloween horror classics like “Poltergeist”, “Macario” or “Pan’s Labyrinth”, but in between Hayao Miyazaki works like “Castle in the Sky”, “Porco Rosso” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. Then there are the short films by the Ethiopian visionary Haile Gerima and works in which the music of female composers is celebrated – for example “Joker” (Hildur Guðnadóttir), “Tron” (Wendy Carlos) or “Escape from LA” (Shirley Walker).
Dorothy’s red shoes from the “Wizard of Oz” are also among the exhibits.
(Photo: Joshua White / Academy Museum)
One day you might see “Shanghai Express” with Marlene Dietrich, then the cartoon “Moana”, then the thriller “Double Face” and later the silent film “Pavement Butterfly” from 1929 – yes, that is the program for November 13th, and on days like this in LA it can happen that Tom Hanks suddenly sits next to you or you talk to “Moana” director John Musker about his classic “The Little Mermaid”.
It’s like going to a film academy, and that’s exactly how they want it to be. There is a total of 4700 square meters of exhibition space that is supposed to be constantly changing; the remaining 25,000 or more are there to stroll a little, watch films together (it’s an experience to see a film premiere in LA) or just meet and chat (actress Anna Kendrick says she does one time pro Week) instead of rushing from one exhibit to the next. “Is that really necessary, a museum about film?” Asks Tom Hanks, and then he presents pretty much every facial expression of his unforgettable characters. He says, “Yeah!” Who would dare to contradict him?