THE OSCARS (2)

I don't watch the Oscar award ceremony, it's just too painful. But I do have an interest in the outcome, not least because of the effect it might have on the local cinema. In the next batch of eight films, we are showing Lincoln, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty and Les Miserables, all of which were nominated for, and won, Oscars. Since all four are non-Danish, we rely a fair amount on publicity to generate local interest, which the Oscars provide. Whether it will be enough to get the locals - other than me - in to watch an almost three-hour long Quentin Tarantino spaghetti western remains to be seen.

One film we got wrong was Operation Argo, which we showed in the first week of January and which last night won the award for best picture. I think the timing was not right. After the Christmas and New Year binges, I think that people are rather sick of spending money. Perhaps we should have opened between Christmas and New Year and shown it then instead.

Walter Blotscher