2026年1月1日 星期四

盛大就職典禮 (Gala Inauguration) Zohran Mamdani (名字發音是“祖-倫·馬姆達尼zuh-RON mom-DAH-nee)”is sworn in as New York City mayor【 眾生報:每日人事物 2025 1107 週五】: 紐約市長選舉9萬名志工選上穆斯林/社會主義的Zohran Mamdani:世界如何看待馬姆達尼:偶像、威脅、美國夢的證明 。文學巨匠的世界:名言:「他每少寫一本書,他的聲譽就提升一分。《小說面面觀》」 Edward Morgan Forster(1879—1970),英國小說家、散文家:40多歲就停止寫作並活到91歲:《小說面面觀》E. M.著,蘇希亞譯(2009); 演講談 Virginia Woolf, the Art of Fiction 與女性主義。。約翰·溫斯洛·艾文(英語:John Winslow Irving,1942—)83歲,每日寫作實驗; 摔角名家教練......。Donald Keene (1922~2019) 著的日本人物傳記,多有日文和中文譯本《明治天皇 》《石川啄木》,缺 江戶後期畫家《渡邊華山》評傳 足利義政と銀閣寺 ( Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan)

His name is pronounced zuh-RON mom-DAH-nee. Not everyone gets it.

Live Updates: New York Readies Gala Inauguration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani

Mr. Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor and its youngest in more than a century, was officially sworn in shortly after midnight. A public ceremony is set for early afternoon.

他的名字發音是“祖-倫·馬姆達尼”。不是每個人都能唸出來。

即時更新:紐約市準備舉行佐蘭馬姆達尼市長就職典禮

馬姆達尼先生是紐約市首位穆斯林和南亞裔市長,也是一個多世紀以來最年輕的市長。他在午夜過後不久正式宣誓就職。公眾儀式定於下午早些時候舉行。





How the World Sees Mamdani: Icon, Threat, 


Proof of the American Dream

Zohran Mamdani’s improbable journey from Muslim immigrant to mayor-elect in New York City resonated across the globe in unpredictable ways.

世界如何看待馬姆達尼:偶像、威脅、美國夢的證明

佐蘭·馬姆達尼從穆斯林移民到紐約市長當選人的不可思議的歷程,以意想不到的方式在全球範圍內引起了共鳴。
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「我想起了那句關於E·M·福斯特的名言:他每少寫一本書,他的聲譽就提升一分。」

40多歲就停止寫作並活到91歲的福斯特先生不同,歐文先生一直在寫作——而且實際上,他根本停不下來。

演講談  Virginia Woolf,  the Art of Fiction 與女性主義

Virginia Woolf, EM Forster and the Art of Fiction
Foster, E. M.著,蘇希亞譯(2009):《小說面面觀》,台北,商周出版社。
愛德華·摩根·福斯特
出生亨利·摩根·福斯特

愛德華·摩根·福斯特
OMCH(英語:Edward Morgan Forster;1879年1月1日—1970年6月7日),英國小說家散文家

E. M. Forster

Portrait of Forster by Dora Carrington, c. 1924–1925
Portrait of Forster by Dora Carringtonc. 1924–1925
Born
Edward Morgan Forster

1 January 1879
Died7 June 1970 (aged 91)
OccupationWriter (novels, short stories, essays)
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge
Period1901–1970
GenreRealismsymbolismmodernism
SubjectsClass division, gender, imperialism, homosexuality
Notable works

福斯特一共著有六部小說:

天使裹足之處》(1905)是他第一部小說。書名是蒲柏的一句詩的後半句,前半句是「蠢人們卻闖進了」。小說寫英國中產階級的宗教道德觀念,故事曲折,人物性格複雜。

最長的旅程》(1907)的主題是現象與實在(實際的存在)的矛盾。書名引自雪萊靈魂上的靈魂》("Epipsychidion")一詩,意指不自由的結合是「最令人厭倦、 最長的一次旅行」。 故事寫的是想像中的愛情與現實生活的矛盾。它是福斯特小說中最不為人所知的一部,但卻是作者本人最喜愛的,以及最具自傳性的一部作品。

窗外有藍天》(1908)以義大利為背景,用喜劇手法寫虛偽與真實,自由、愛、音樂、義大利下層人民、自然風景等與假道學、虛情假意、傳統陋習、英國市民階層、窒息的環境之間的矛盾。

福斯特最主要的小說是《霍華德莊園》(1910)和《印度之旅》(1924)。

霍華德莊園》寫代表英國中產階級上層的精神和文化的施萊格爾姐妹和同一階層代表實幹、缺乏想像和傲慢的威爾科克斯一家之間,以及英國中產階級上層和下層之間的複雜關係。

印度之旅》是作者最後一部也是最重要的一部小說。作者在這部作品裡把「聯接起來」的思想擴大到不同的民族。


A Passage to India
Bookcover_a_passage_to_india.jpg
TSP Book Club 1995 edition (paperback)
AuthorE.M. Forster
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Novel
PublisherEdward Arnold, (London)
Released1924
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBNNA

印度之行(精): (英國)EM福斯特著、楊自儉譯 南京 : 譯林出版社 2003

這是重譯並有許多翻譯者"交底"的作品
目錄:. 一位盛名不衰的小說家——《印度之行》序
第一部清真寺
第二部山洞
第三部寺廟
附錄論《印度之行》 譯後記關於重譯《印度之行》的幾個問題——重譯後記 ...


A Passage to India 出自{草葉集}

我希望找原著讀一下

“To return to Forster is to be reminded that politics is tied to the fate of people, not theories. That same equivocal 'spirit which is half-afraid and half-thinking about something else' that he describes in another 1939 essay, 'Post-Munich,' was the same spirit that flooded me in November’s post-election days. His reflections on the value of culture during times of violence lend a brief flicker of hope to anyone who believes in art for art’s sake. And in WHAT I BELIEVE, the⋯⋯
 
Rhian Sasseen for BLARB - What He Believed: Revisiting E.M. Forster's Defense of Liberalism
BLOG.LAREVIEWOFBOOKS.ORG

What I Believe

(fromForster, E.MTwo Cheers for Democracy)







I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of Faith, and there
are so many militant creeds that, in self-defence, one has to
formulate a creed of one's own. Tolerance, good temper and
sympathy are no longer enough in a world which is rent by
religious and racial persecution, in a world where ignorance rules,
and Science, who ought to have ruled, plays the subservient pimp.
Tolerance, good temper and sympathy - they are what matter
really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come
to the front before long. But for the moment they are not
enough, their action is no stronger than a flower, battered be-
neath a military jackboot. They want stiffening, even if the
process coarsens them. Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process,
a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as
possible. I dislike the stuff. I do not believe in it, for its own sake,
at all. Herein I probably differ from most people, who believe in
Belief, and are only sorry they cannot swallow even more than
they do. My law-givers are Erasmus and Montaigne, not Moses
and St Paul. My temple stands not upon Mount Moriah but in
that Elysian Field where even the immoral are admitted. My
motto is : "Lord, I disbelieve - help thou my unbelief.
I have, however, to live in an Age of Faith - the sort of epoch
I used to hear praised when I was a boy. It is extremely un-
pleasant really. It is bloody in every sense of the word. And I
have to keep my end up in it. Where do I start ?
With personal relationships. Here is something comparatively
solid in a world full of violence and cruelty. Not absolutely solid,
for Psychology has split and shattered the idea of a " Person", and
has shown that there is something incalculable in each of us,
which may at any moment rise to the surface and destroy our
normal balance. We don't know what we are like. We can't
know what other people are like. How, then, can we put any
trust in personal relationships, or cling to them in the gathering
political storm ? In theory we cannot. But in practice we can and
do. Though A is not unchangeably A, or B unchangeably B, there
can still be love and loyalty between the two. For the purpose of
living one has to assume that the personality is solid, and the
"self" is an entity, and to ignore all contrary evidence. And since
to ignore evidence is one of the characteristics of faith, I certainly
can proclaim that I believe in personal relationships.
Starting from them, I get a little order into the contemporary
chaos. One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not
to make a mess of life, and it is therefore essential that they should
not let one down. They often do. The moral of which is that I
must, myself, be as reliable as possible, and this I try to be. But
reliability is not a matter of contract - that is the main difference
between the world of personal relationships and the world of
business relationships. It is a matter for the heart, which signs no
documents. In other words, reliability is impossible unless there
is a natural warmth. Most men possess this warmth, though
they often have bad luck and get chilled. Most of them, even
when they are politicians, want to keep faith. And one can, at all
events, show one's own little light here, one's own poor little trem-
bling flame, with the knowledge that it is not the only light that is
shining in the darkness, and not the only one which the darkness
does not comprehend. Personal relations are despised today. They
are regarded as bourgeois luxuries, as products of a time of fair
weather which is now past, and we are urged to get rid of them,
and to dedicate ourselves to some movement or cause instead. I
hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying
my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the
guts to betray my country. Such a choice may scandalize the
modern reader, and he may stretch out his patriotic hand to the
telephone at once and ring up the police. It would not have
shocked Dante, though. Dante places Brutus and Cassius in the
lowest circle of Hell because they had chosen to betray their
friend Julius Caesar rather than their country Rome. Probably
one will not be asked to make such an agonizing choice. Still,
there lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard
for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer, and
there is even a terror and a hardness in this creed of personal
relationships, urbane and mild though it sounds. Love and
loyalty to an individual can run counter to the claims of the State.
When they do - down with the State, say I, which means that the
State would down me.


約翰歐文眼中的世界

這位文學巨匠83歲依然筆耕不輟學,不斷突破創作的界限。

「我想起了那句關於E·M·福斯特的名言:他每少寫一本書,他的聲譽就提升一分。」漢森先生說道,“約翰的情況恰恰相反。他一直在寫作,這就像摔跤比賽一樣:你不知道自己能否贏得每一場比賽,但你還是會上場嘗試,看看結果如何。”


83歲的歐文先生並沒有停止寫作的打算。事實上,他已經開始創作下一部小說了。圖片來源:《紐約時報》凱爾伯傑

與40多歲就停止寫作並活到91歲的福斯特先生不同,歐文先生一直在寫作——而且實際上,他根本停不下來。

「他每天、每週七天、每年52週,都在同一時間坐下來寫作。」施瓦茨博士說。 “這就是他的風格。”

漢森先生認為這是一種美德。 「這就像科學家不斷做實驗一樣,」他說。 “約翰仍在嘗試,仍在成長,仍在努力鑽研技藝。”

The World According to John Irving

The literary titan is still publishing books, and still pushing envelopes, at 83.








“I was remembering that quote about E.M. Forster, that his reputation improved with every book that he didn’t write,” Mr. Hansen said. “John is just the opposite. He keeps writing books, and it’s almost like the wrestling model: You don’t know if you’re going to win every match, but you go out there and try and see what happens.”

Image
At 83, Mr. Irving has no plans to stop writing. In fact, he has already started his next novel. Credit...Kyle Berger for The New York Times


Unlike Mr. Forster, who stopped writing novels in his 40s and lived to 91, Mr. Irving continues to write — and, in fact, cannot stop.

“He sits down at the same time every day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, and writes,” Dr. Schwartz said. “It’s what he does.”

Mr. Hansen sees that as a virtue. “It’s like a scientist who continues to do experiments,” he said. “John is still experimenting, still growing, still trying to figure out the craft.”

維基百科,自由的百科全書

約翰·艾文
約翰·艾文 於 華沙波蘭, 10-09-2006
出生John Wallace Blunt, Jr.
1942年3月2日83歲)
新罕布夏州埃克塞特(Exeter, New Hampshire)
職業小說家,劇作家
代表作蓋普眼中的世界(The World According to Garp), 一路上有你(A Prayer for Owen Meany)
受影響於查爾斯·狄更斯
納撒尼爾·霍桑
君特·格拉斯
Ted Seabrooke
托馬斯·哈代
羅柏森·戴維思(Robertson Davies)
庫爾特·馮內古特

約翰·溫斯洛·艾文(英語:John Winslow Irving,1942年3月2日—),原名為 小約翰·華勒斯·布倫特John Wallace Blunt, Jr.),美國的小說家奧斯卡最佳改編劇本獎得主。

艾文1978年所寫的《蓋普眼中的世界》受到國際上讀者以及專家的一致好評,艾文也從此擁有相稱的名聲。艾文的其他小說,如:《一路上有你》以及《蘋果酒屋法則》等同樣都是暢銷書,並有許多作品被拍攝為電影。艾文亦因親自為《蘋果酒屋法則》的改編劇本執筆而獲奧斯卡最佳改編劇本獎




1956年9月13日,基恩在東京品川的喜多能樂堂扮演狂言劇碼「千鳥」中的太郎冠者(渡部雄吉攝影)

他在2007年出版了江戶後期畫家《渡邊華山》評傳,歸化日本國籍以後分別於2012和2016年出版了近代日本短詩型文學的兩名改革者《正岡子規》《石川啄木》評傳,每次都引發了言論。

Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 (Columbia University Press, April 1, 2002)明治天皇 (新潮社, 2001). Jp trans. 角地 幸男.
meiji tennou Also published in 4 volumes, 2007

 



Donald Keene 1922~2019 

Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan (Columbia University Press, November 1, 2003)足利義政と銀閣寺 (中央公論新社, 2008). Jp trans. 角地 幸男.
Yoshimasa to ginkakuji

哲學之道。
太多的人、太多的店,以至於太多的喧囂。
許多美好的回憶就留在哲學之道。
從南禪寺到銀閣寺,從安靜走到寂寥;
我遠遠地懷念那一條無人小道。

池塘的水路,使這座曾影響金閣寺與銀閣寺Ginkakuji 庭園設計的池泉迴遊式庭園再現昔日風貌。
西芳寺最早由奈良時代的行基於731年創建,後由以造園聞名的夢窗疏石於1339年重建。



--
Marina Yee, a member of the influential Antwerp Six fashion designers, who passed away on November 1, 2025, 

重複觀影者(Repeat Moviegoers)幫助好萊塢勉強2025年:北美地區2025年票房總計89億美元,比2024年成長2%。。Oscar Tug of War 2008. Chief Justice John Roberts 2025羅伯茲


Repeat Moviegoers Help Hollywood Eke Out a Slightly Better 2025

Ticket sales in North America totaled $8.9 billion for the year, up 2 percent from 2024. But the box office remains far below prepandemic levels.

重複觀影者幫助好萊塢勉強2025年


北美地區2025年票房總計89億美元,比2024年成長2%。但票房收入仍遠低於疫情前水準。

The outside of a movie theater at night, showing the AMC and IMAX logos.
Movie theaters sold slightly more tickets in 2025 than in 2024, a small but meaningful uptick for a struggling industry.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times


-----

At the end of President Trump’s address to Congress earlier this month, he was caught on camera tapping Chief Justice John Roberts on the shoulder, thanking him, and telling him that he “won’t forget.” Many interpreted Trump’s words as a reference to Roberts’s gift, in Trump v. United States, of granting the President broad immunity from criminal prosecution over his alleged instigation of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. (Trump later claimed that he was thanking Roberts for swearing him in on Inauguration Day.)
“But the gratitude should run much deeper,” Cristian Farias writes. “In his nearly 20 years as Chief Justice, Roberts has espoused a sweeping vision of Presidential authority—sometimes with language so broad as to make Congress and the courts appear small by comparison.” Trump’s breathtaking exercise of executive authority has put him on a collision course with the courts and Congress. If Roberts’s view is taken to its logical end, the executive branch is bound to prevail.

Farias writes about how Roberts has empowered Trump’s disruptive, smash-and-grab second term: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/9rZ-FL

本月初,在川普總統對國會發表講話結束時,鏡頭拍到他拍拍首席大法官約翰·羅伯茨的肩膀,向他表示感謝,並告訴他「不會忘記」。許多人將川普的言論解讀為對羅伯茨在「川普訴美國」案中給予總統廣泛豁免權的提及,即總統因涉嫌煽動 1 月 6 日襲擊國會大廈而免於受到刑事起訴。 (川普後來聲稱,他感謝羅伯茲在就職典禮當天為他宣誓就職。)

「但感激之情應該更加深刻,」克里斯蒂安·法裡亞斯寫道。 「在擔任首席大法官的近 20 年時間裡,羅伯茨一直倡導對總統權力的廣泛看法——有時其措辭過於寬泛,以至於國會和法院相比之下都顯得渺小。」川普驚人地行使行政權力使其與法院和國會發生了衝突。如果按照羅伯茲的觀點進行邏輯推導,行政部門必將獲勝。

法裡亞斯撰文描述了羅伯茲如何為川普破壞性十足、打砸搶的第二任期賦予了權力:


2008 第80屆奧斯卡金像獎結果揭曉,美國黑色喜劇《老無所依》(No Country For Old Men)成為今年的大贏家。

《老無所依》奪得今年的最佳電影獎,也為導演科恩兄弟帶來了最佳導演獎項。劇中飾演神經病職業殺手的西班牙演員賈維爾﹒巴爾頓也獲頒最佳男配角獎。

科恩兄弟同時也得到了最佳改編劇本獎。他們感謝電影行業“讓我們在沙盤中屬於我們的角落玩耍”。

HOLLYWOOD — “No Country for Old Men,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s chilling confrontation of a desperate man with a relentless killer, won the Academy Award for best picture on Sunday night, providing a more-than-satisfying ending for the makers of a film that many believed lacked one.

The Coens, who live in New York and remain aloof from the Hollywood establishment, also shared the directing and adapted screenplay awards. Joel Coen thanked the academy members for “letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox.”

sandpit UK Show phonetics
noun [C] (US sandbox)
a hole in the ground, or a box, filled with sand in which children can play


No film ran away with the night, however, as the 80th annual Academy Awards gave a bruised movie industry a chance to refocus its ever-inward gaze on laurels instead of labor strife.

BBC《黑色血金》(There Will Be Blood)的英國演員丹尼爾﹒戴─劉易斯成為今年奧斯卡影帝,影後寶座則由瑪麗昂﹒歌利亞憑《玫瑰人生》(La Vie en Rose)奪得。

新華社 丹尼爾·戴-劉易斯憑借在影片《血色黑金》中演繹美國石油大亨心狠手辣的早期發跡史,獲得奧斯卡最佳男主角獎。戴-劉易斯跪地領獎,感謝美國電影藝術與科學學院的成員用“漂亮的武器”擊中他。

Daniel Day-Lewis won best actor for his portrayal of a ruthless oil tycoon’s rise from the sweat and sludge of wildcatting to wealth, power and madness in “There Will Be Blood.”




另一位英國演員蒂爾達﹒斯溫頓也憑著《邁克爾﹒克萊頓》(Michael Clayton)一片成為今年的最佳女配角。

最佳男主角丹尼爾﹒戴─劉易斯
丹尼爾﹒戴─劉易斯一直是今年奧斯卡影帝的大熱門

首次撰寫劇本的迪亞波羅﹒科蒂以《朱諾》一片成為最佳原創劇本獎得主。

科蒂穿上鑲有價值200萬美元磚石的鞋子走上紅地毯,聽見自己獲獎後激動得泣不成聲。他在頒獎台上感謝了家人的支持。

間諜片《諜影重重3》(The Bourne Ultimatum)也奪得了三個獎項,包括羅最佳音響效果、最佳音效剪輯和最佳剪接。

編劇罷工餘波

著名喜劇演員兼司儀喬恩﹒斯圖爾特在頒獎禮開始的時候提到了早些時候的好萊塢編劇大罷工。他說這次頒獎禮的命運一度成疑。

他開玩笑說,適逢美國總統選舉年的奧斯卡80歲生日“自動讓他成為了共和黨提名戰的領先者”。

大會在現場播出了歷屆頒獎禮的經典時刻,作為對奧斯卡80周年的致敬。

在典禮結束後,應該是星光熠熠的得獎者派對卻迷霧重重。

備受重視的《名利場》雜誌在編劇工潮下已經宣告取消,《People》雜誌的派對也不能幸免。

但是根據行業刊物《綜藝》雜誌報道,名歌手麥當娜今年加入戰團,倉促舉辦了另一場得獎人派對。




2月24日,第80屆奧斯卡頒獎典禮在美國加利福尼亞州好萊塢柯達劇院舉行。這是因在影片《邁克爾·克雷頓》中的表演而獲得最佳女配角獎的英國女演員蒂爾達·斯溫頓。 新華社/法新

新華網洛杉磯2月24日電 第80屆奧斯卡獎頒獎典禮24日在洛杉磯柯達劇院舉行。各個奧斯卡獎項都已名花有主,而獲獎者的精彩感言也像那些流光溢彩的晚裝一樣為人們所津津樂道。以下是一些獲獎感言的摘要。

在影片《玫瑰人生》中再現法國盲人歌後埃迪特·皮亞夫傳奇一生的法國女星瑪麗昂·科蒂亞


爾獲得最佳女主角獎。她說:“謝謝你,生活;謝謝你,愛。在這座城市裏可真是有些天使存在啊!”

賈維爾·巴爾登憑《老無所依》奪得最佳男配角獎,成為歷史上第一名捧得奧斯卡“小金人”的西班牙男演員。他說: “這太令人驚訝了,獲得這個獎項對我而言是巨大的榮譽。感謝科恩兄弟,他們近乎瘋狂地相信我能行,還在我的頭上做了個可怕的發型,它可能是歷史上最可怕的 發型之一。”

47歲的英國女影星蒂爾達·斯溫頓獲得第80屆奧斯卡最佳女配角獎。她因在影 片《邁克爾·克雷頓》中扮演一名為了達到目的不擇手段的女律師而贏得這一競爭激烈的獎項。斯溫頓在頒獎典禮上坦言對獲獎感到意外。當她離開頒獎臺時,頒獎 人追著將證書交給她,斯溫頓說:“對,這可是證據。”

科恩兄弟憑借《老無所依》獲得最佳改編劇本獎。喬爾·科恩領獎時說:“我們之所以取得成功,完全是因為我們會選擇。我們只是改編了麥卡錫的同名小說。”

98歲的好萊塢老牌美工羅伯特·博伊爾獲得終身成就獎。他上臺領獎時,全體嘉賓起 立鼓掌表示祝賀。博伊爾在發表獲獎感言時說:“電影創造了歡笑和快樂,也告訴了我們事實真相。”他還感謝給他機會的導演:“感謝給我第一份工作的約翰遜, 感謝希區柯克給了我第一個機會……我如此熱愛電影,很幸運成為電影業中的一員。”


‘No Country for Old Men’ Wins Oscar Tug of War

Monica Almeida/The New York Times

No film ran away with the night, however, as the 80th Academy Awards gave a bruised movie industry a chance to refocus its ever-inward gaze on laurels instead of labor strife. Ethan Coen, left, Joel Coen, center, and Scott Rudin accepted the award for best picture. More Photos >


Published: February 25, 2008

HOLLYWOOD — “No Country for Old Men,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s chilling confrontation of a desperate man with a relentless killer, won the Academy Award for best picture on Sunday night, providing a more-than-satisfying ending for the makers of a film that many believed lacked one.

The Coens, who live in New York and remain aloof from the Hollywood establishment, also shared the directing and adapted screenplay awards. Joel Coen thanked the academy members for “letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox.”

No film ran away with the night, however, as the 80th annual Academy Awards gave a bruised movie industry a chance to refocus its ever-inward gaze on laurels instead of labor strife.

Daniel Day-Lewis won best actor for his portrayal of a ruthless oil tycoon’s rise from the sweat and sludge of wildcatting to wealth, power and madness in “There Will Be Blood.”

And Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for best actress for her incarnation of the tormented chanteuse Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose.”

“Thank you life, thank you love,” an elated Ms. Cotillard said. “It is true there are some angels in this city.”

None of the best picture nominees went home empty-handed: all picked off a significant win in one category or another.

Javier Bardem won a fourth Oscar for “No Country,” capturing the best supporting actor for his role as the cattlegun-wielding, pageboy-wearing serial killer. He thanked the Coens, saying they “put one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head.”

The Oscar for “No Country” was a long-sought triumph for Scott Rudin, a prolific producer who has specialized in movies on the smarter end of the spectrum, but only once before received a best-picture nomination, for “The Hours” in 2003.

Tilda Swinton took best supporting actress for playing a nervous wreck of a corporate lawyer who throws morality under the bus of her ambition in “Michael Clayton.”

The indie delight “Juno,” about a pregnant teenager with a mouth on her, won for best original screenplay, by Diablo Cody, who once worked as a stripper. She tearfully thanked her family for “loving me for who I am.”

“No Country” was denied in several technical categories, as well as in cinematography: Robert Elswit won that Oscar for “There Will Be Blood,” whose extended tracking shots in harsh open spaces and dimly lighted images of claustrophobic spots made for stunning scenes despite long stretches with little dialog.

With all four top acting prizes going to Europeans and the New York-based Coen brothers’ film in contention for several others, it was a night when Hollywood’s glittery establishment came out to honor what was essentially a gaggle of outsiders.

Another example: “Falling Slowly,” the ballad from “Once” about the music created in the space between two people, won best original song. It was written by the film’s stars, the Irish Glen Hansard and the Czech Marketa Irglova, who have since become a real-life couple.

“Atonement,” nominated for seven awards, won for best original score. The awards were otherwise all over the map, with the first nine going to different films, leaving the show’s host, Jon Stewart, to set the tone with a riff on the three-month writers’ strike that had threatened to turn the Oscars itself into a marathon of montages.

“You’re here — I can’t believe it, you’re actually here!” he joked as the show opened. “The fight is over, so tonight,” he added, “welcome to the makeup sex.”

Mindful of the election season, he took note of the Democratic primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. “Normally when you see a black man or a woman president, an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty,” he said.

“Ratatouille,” a rodent’s-eye view of the accessibility of art, won for best animated feature. Brad Bird, that film’s director, thanked his junior high school guidance counselor: “He asked me what I wanted to do with my life,” Mr. Bird recalled. “I said, ‘Make movies.’ He asked me what else I wanted to do with my life. And I said, ‘Make movies.’ ” Mr. Bird said the doubt he faced was “perfect training” for a life in Hollywood.

“Taxi to the Dark Side,” an examination of American torture practices, won best documentary feature.

Also in the early going, “La Vie en Rose” won for best makeup and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” won for costume design. “The Golden Compass,” in which every human character is born with a shape-shifting animal companion known as a “daemon,” scored a big early upset in the visual-effects category, beating two far more successful films: “Transformers” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

Among the lesser-watched categories, “The Bourne Ultimatum” won Oscars for all three in which it was nominated: film editing, sound mixing and sound editing.

“The Counterfeiters,” a Nazi-era drama, became the first Austrian film to win an Oscar, for best foreign-language film.

Owen Wilson presented the award for best live-action short to “Le Mozart des Pickpockets,” and played it straight, avoiding any reference to his personal collapse and hospitalization just as his “Darjeeling Limited” was being released last fall. Best animated short went to “Peter and the Wolf,” and was presented by an animated Jerry Seinfeld, in his “Bee Movie” character.

The animation award, and Mr. Stewart’s opening monologue, provided a lighthearted liftoff for an Oscars telecast sure to be weighted down by the field of mostly small and dark films in the running for the top honors. Embraced by critics, those movies have been less warmly received by the mass audiences whose attentions have sustained the Academy Awards as one of the nation’s few remaining shared rituals.

The lack of a clear consensus among critics and audiences left the potential for an Oscar night in which the top awards were scattered in every direction. Among other things, the evening promised to be a tug of war over sensibilities: Academy voters were being asked to choose between the nihilism of “No Country for Old Men,” in which the serial killer prevails; the hopeful spunk of “Juno,” in which a pregnant teenager forges her own solutions; or, perhaps, a saga of childhood betrayal and lives destroyed, in “Atonement,” set against the backdrop of British retreat in the early days of World War II.

As Mr. Stewart put it: “Does this town need a hug?” He added, “All I can say is, thank God for teen pregnancy.”

The 80th annual Academy Awards, held at the Kodak Theater here, delivered a welcome return to pomp and ritual for a town still recovering from the strike by film and television writers that stripped the glitz from the enterprise. “I think the town is ready to celebrate,” said George Clooney, walking up the red carpet accompanied by his girlfriend, Sarah Larson. “I know I am, but then that’s never been a problem for me.”

On Sunday, however, jitters still surrounded a broadcast that was assembled quickly around a roster of independent-style films, none of which has shown the audience appeal of a “Titanic” or “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” previous best-picture winners that pulled large audiences to the awards show in the past.

The early proceedings were slightly ad hoc, not quite normal for a show that operates more like an industry, bringing the 6,500-member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences roughly $40 million in net income each year. Security was tight, but did not operate with the usual precision. Promised ID checks and wristbanding did not occur. Mr. Stewart, the evening’s host, had little more than a week to prepare once writers voted to return to work.

With help from a smash-up special effects opening and Mr. Stewart’s monologue, things started out with a bang. But the show began to drag as one dusty montage after another of Oscar history piled up, more numerous and less effective than in recent memory.

The machine came slightly off the rails later on, as Mr. Stewart brought Ms. Irglova back out after a commercial break when she had been denied the chance to give an acceptance speech.

Probably nothing caught the slightly cynical air of self-reference better than Jack Nicholson’s lead-in to a montage of all 79 prior best-picture winners. “They touch the humanity — heh, heh, heh — in all of us,” laughed Mr. Nicholson, with a touch more of the Joker than human warmth.

A film community that lost its balance, and never quite got it back, was also clearly unsure how much fun was too much fun under the circumstances: The annual orgy of status, heat and sequined victory laps, Vanity Fair magazine’s Oscar after-party, was abruptly canceled, as were several other ordinarily hot-ticket private gatherings.

That sense of being unmoored was not the only disconnect on display.

All the stated concern for films and filmmakers aside, Oscar night has always been about stars — just ask ABC. Thirty nine million people tuned in two years ago when “Crash” upset “Brokeback Mountain,” one of the worst ratings performances in memory. (The 2003 telecast, shadowed by the beginning of the Iraq war, was worse.) That is compared with 1998, when 55 million viewers watched “Titanic” win 11 Oscars, Jack Nicholson beat out Matt Damon, and Helen Hunt slip past Kate Winslet.

Though no one would deny that this year’s contenders are long on talent, they are exceedingly short on celebrity. Casey Affleck’s breakthrough in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” was nominated, but Brad Pitt’s starring performance was not. Cate Blanchett picked up nominations in both actress categories, but Angelina Jolie (“A Mighty Heart”) and Julia Roberts (“Charlie Wilson’s War”) went unacknowledged.

Rather, relative unknowns like the 21-year-old Ellen Page and the 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan nabbed nominations for best actress (“Juno”) and best supporting actress (“Atonement”), respectively. For that matter, Mr. Clooney (“Michael Clayton”) and Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) picked up best-actor nominations, while the twice-honored Tom Hanks (“Charlie Wilson’s War”) and Denzel Washington (“American Gangster”) went empty-handed.

Instead, the megawatts would be supplied by the awards presenters — Mr. Hanks and Mr. Washington among them, along with stars like Jessica Alba, Renée Zellweger, Forest Whitaker, John Travolta and Harrison Ford — creating a scenario in which the Hollywood establishment turned out to sustain an institution that had failed to repay the gesture.

If Hollywood’s preoccupation with its intramural tensions seemed at odds with the celebratory order of the day, some here have suggested a divide involving the movies themselves: between the darkness and despair of films like “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country for Old Men” and what the industry’s countless amateur political analysts discern as a more hopeful mood abroad in the land. By that logic, the frustrations over the Iraq war that gave rise to such films, as well as more direct cinematic responses like “In the Valley of Elah,” may have come a year too late to strike a chord with a public that has finally moved on, at least to the next election.

Perhaps nothing has drawn more attention and concern than the sharp line dividing films that have pleased the widest audiences from those embraced by critics. Thanks to “Juno” and its $130 million in ticket sales, the five best-picture nominees together have grossed $327 million, $111 million of that since the academy nominations were announced, an unusually strong Oscar bump. But the combined grosses are a far cry from a decade earlier, when “Titanic” inflated the total.

“Juno” was not the only $100 million-plus movie up for an award; the animated “Ratatouille” received five nominations; “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “Transformers” and “Enchanted” each had three. But in the major categories, only “American Gangster” exceeded that mark besides “Juno.”

Art and quality aside, the paucity of widely seen movies up for consideration is ominous not just for ABC selling commercial time against the telecast but for the academy itself, rendering it that less culturally relevant. Left unchecked, the trend threatens to turn the yearly ritual into a niche affair instead of a shared national experience.

Yet for all the doom and gloom on the minds of academy members and obsessives — Heath Ledger’s death provided another reason to mourn — there were many areas in which excitement could be seen bubbling up out of the ground like Daniel Plainview’s black gold in “There Will Be Blood.”

If small and dark films captured the attention of critics and the academy, it was not for lack of ambition among Hollywood studios.

David Carr contributed reporting.

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