“How bad were this year’s Academy Awards?” said the president, throwing up his hands as the crowd roared at his rally in Colorado Springs. “Did you see? And the winner is a film from South Korea. What the hell was that about? ”
“Parasite,” the acclaimed Bong Joon Ho thriller about class tensions boiling over at the home of a wealthy family, this month was the first non-English language film to win an Academy Award for best picture in the 92-year history competition. .
The film also won best director, original script and international feature, marking a moment of pride for many Asian Americans and a turning point in the academy’s long history of embracing stories told by white filmmakers.
However, it is clear that Trump was not impressed.
“We have enough problems with South Korea, with trade,” he said. “On top of all that, they give them the best film of the year? Was it good? I do not know.”
Trump expressed nostalgia for Hollywood films of a bygone age.
“Let’s get ‘Gone With the Wind. ‘Can we have, like,’ Gone With the Wind ‘back, please?’ he said, praising the 1939 romantic saga set in the South around the Civil War, which won numerous Academy Awards, including the best picture.
He also mentioned “Sunset Boulevard,” the 1950 Billy Wilder film noir, which was nominated for best picture but did not win. (Won in other categories.)
“So many great movies,” Trump said. “The winner comes from South Korea. I thought it was the best foreign movie, right? Best foreign film. Has this ever happened before? ”
Hollywood and the Academy Awards have long been a favorite target of Republicans who unscrew the film industry as the foundation of liberalism. And this year’s awards ceremony included speeches by celebrities attacking Trump.
At his rally, Trump singled out a particular critic of Brad Pitt, who had referred to Trump’s impeachment trial in Parliament in receiving his award this year for best-supporting actor for “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”
“They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Parliament gave John Bolton this week,” Pitt said in his speech.
In firing back at his rally, Trump said he was “never a fan” of Pitt and added that the actor “got up and made a wise little statement.”
“He’s a wise little guy,” Trump said.
Trump’s attack on “Parasite” prompted a response from the Democratic National Committee.
“Parasite is a foreign film about how forgetful the ultrarich is about working class struggles, and requires two hours of reading subtitles,” the committee wrote on Twitter. “Of course Trump hates it.”
Neon, the independent film distributor behind “Parasite,” also responded to Trump’s broadside with an acid reference to the film’s English subtitles.
“Understandable,” the company wrote on Twitter. “He can’t read.”
© 2020 New York Times News Service
