Two Thumbs Up For the Past

The Artist wins the 2011 Oscar for best film.

It's a "French" film, directed by Michael Hazanavicius (French), and produced by the Hollywood Mogul, Harvey Weinstein.

It's also a “silent” film, or as some have said, a "love letter" to Hollywood’s silent movie era.

Anachronism, at least content-wise, wins. Yet, The Artist hasn’t been a truly popular film, in the sense that it hasn’t done even remotely well at the box office.

But in today’s culture, it is possible, with the help of the machinery of a “campaign” to make the micro look macro (and vice versa).

Frank Bruni claims that The Artist has been seen by a minority of film goers in the United States and abroad, and yet because of Weinstein's aggressive campaign, it gets to, not only win a nomination easily, but also, really wins the actual Oscar.

Kudos, says Bruni, to the Weinstein company for knowing how to “drag an imperfect contender toward, and possibly across, the finish line.”

Thrusting the really unpopular into the category of the popular and the winner is, Bruni argues, has become a characteristic of 21st century Oscar campaign.

Could this also be a characteristic of contemporary political campaigns? How else could one explain the phenomenon of extremely anachronistic Republican contenders—some of them do speak like they have just crept out of a Cro-Magnon era, ideologically speaking.  

Of all the Cro-Magnon Republican candidates for a Presidential nomination, Mitt Romney looks Cro-Magnon. Bruni thinks he looks like the artist, and these days his thoughts are also sounding like blasts from the past.    

Yet the Mitt Romney campaign is lagging behind in popularity. Ought they to hire the Weinstein Company to “drag” Romney across the finishing line?

Interesting question, isn’t it?