You know the old Hollywood saying "dying is easy but comedy is hard"? I've never doubted that its truth. But you know what the mythical "they" don't say that I bet is equally true: 'Pulling off sweeping epics with lots of kissing? Not a piece of cake!' For huge romantic films to soar the casting has to be perfect, the chemistry has to sizzle and the size and stylistic choices of the movie walk a delicate highwire. Any false step and your lovers can go tumbling into the kitsch of Harlequin paperback cliché. There's also the very real trap of cheapening history by reducing it to pretty backdrop for the tortured swooning of very beautiful people. Not surprisingly the historical epic, whether fictional or 'true story based', sometimes ignores romance altogether or relegates it to subplot.The subject is relevant since the super sized Baz Luhrmann epic Australia will soon hit theaters and, if people swoon along with its photogenic lovers, it could be up for Oscars. How many? Which ones?
Is Oscar an easy lay for this specific type of film or do they only swoon when Mr & Mrs Perfect come courting?
Read the rest for an incomplete history of big scale love stories courting the Academy.
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