Chad passed this along. I actually hadn’t seen it in a while. I wonder if Nolan’s support system blew their stack a la this crowd:
Chad passed this along. I actually hadn’t seen it in a while. I wonder if Nolan’s support system blew their stack a la this crowd:
Comments
68 responses to ““I got beaten out by Fellini!””
..and Jaws is still a classic to this day, regardless of whether it got a Best Director nomination or not.
That’s always the most important thing to keep in mind about all of this. Even if your favourite doesn’t get in, that doesn’t mean it’s any less good than it was the day before.
Yeah, FELLINI. A master. No hard feeling buddy.
Thanks a bunch. I had read about this but had never seen it. Man, I can’t believe Spielberg isn’t even 30 yet in that video!
And regardless of the Nolan snub, he still got two noms this time around unlike two years ago.
To be fair, I couldn’t watch 8 1/2 without falling asleep at least once…so your mileage on “master” may vary.
I thought about this in regards to Nolan today, actually.
I want a 70’s-era Jaws shirt — the real deal, not some faux-vintage effort from Target.
Tapley, have you already bought Enter the Void on Blu-ray? Do you even have to buy them, or do you get them for free?
“Who made it, the shark?”
hahahaha…pretty much what I’m wondering right now. I guess Inception was directed by the dream machine.
I get a lot of them for free. Haven’t asked about that one yet, though. I have the screener.
In most cases, I’d say there’s justice in being beaten out by Fellini — but “Amarcord” was not his finest hour.
This is why you don’t let cameras in when you’re watching the nominations.
god, the ’70s kicked so much ass it’s almost heartbreaking
REALLY, Guy? “Amarcord” is fantastic.
And Kyle… you’re in the minority. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but Fellini is considered one of cinema’s greatest directors by most cinephiles. Sorry about your poor luck with the excellent “8 1/2.”
It’s all them “-ini” foods: zucchini, linguine and fettucine. I want some American food, dammit! I want french fries!
I know he’s young in this video, but must the tag really read Steve Spielberg?
The Coens are the modern day Fellini.
“The Coens are the modern day Fellini”.
BS, their’s among the strongest work in that field.
By the way, there is no better vindication than seeing Spielberg get a further NINE director’s guild nominations, three wins, three oscars todate and many more nods. The guy is clearly having the last laugh.
Nolan got two Oscar nominations today, he’s got plenty to be happy about even if it stings to be passed over a third time.
And it’s not like he got the shaft in favour of some real bullshit nominees either, which should make it a little bit easier on him.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is on hulu.com for free (without ads if you have hulu plus)
Oh man Willi Cicci! That guy rocks.
Bob Fosse of Cabaret won, that’s bullshit!
Don’t worry, Nolan will get his due in The Dark Knight Rises.
Imagine what the marketing team would put on the posters.
Starring Christian Bale (Oscar Nominee), Anne Hathaway (Oscar Nominee), Morgan Freeman (Oscar Winner), Michael Caine (Oscar Winner).
“Don’t worry, Nolan will get his due in The Dark Knight Rises.”
I’d actually be 100% confident in placing a LOT of money against that bet.
Chris: I have a feeling ‘Oscar Winner’ will be a more appropriate tag for Bale.
Fellini hate makes me sad.
Amarcord and 8 1/2 are both wonderful.
@Kris
Yeah, I really think The Dark Knight’s Oscar situation was a lightning in a bottle type thing. TDKR will unfortunately be seen as another “good” blockbuster. One thing’s for sure, even if it just blows everything out of the water (which, being Nolan, I don’t think will be a stretch), we simply cannot take him for granted with this sorry group of directors.
I have to hand it to Scott Rudin; TG peaked at EXACTLY the right time it needed to, right before ballots were due.
Agree Guy but calling Bale a winner now may jinx his chances. It’s been a long time coming for him.
If this sense of anger ripples through the community, I think we may look at Inception as the 2nd Best Picture winner without a Directing nom in Oscar history.
Cde: “Hate” is a word people jump to far too rashly in these comment threads. I love Fellini, but that doesn’t mean I have to love all his films.
If this sense of anger ripples through the community, I think we may look at Inception as the 2nd Best Picture winner without a Directing nom in Oscar history.
Sorry, but not a chance. You’re mistaking the internet for “the community,” Chris.
(Trivia side note: It’d be the fourth such winner, actually.)
I think people underestimate how vital Ledger was to the Dark Knight phenomenon. I can see Rises making a good bit less than Dark Knight worldwide, being interpreted as being a bomb, etc.
But I’d looooooove to be wrong.
I think things the other way around. Think of how awesome the trailer for The Dark Knight Rises’s gonna look like when the actor’s name show up.
Academy Award winner Christian Bale. Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman. Academy Award winner Michael Caine. Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway.
I wasn’t expecting Inception to be his winning movie, but like Spielberg, with each movie he’s been building up with the Academy guys, and at this rate, he’ll be getting his dues sooner than later. I have my faith put in The Dark Knight Rises to be his first movie that the Academy doesn’t snub in some way or form. Not that it’ll win (far, far too soon for that), but at least the nods will be in their right places.
Just as long as The Reader 2: Electric Boogaloo isn’t around to screw things over.
Guy, the internet community is powerful enough to sway opinions of those at large, think Heath Ledger.
@Andrej:
Yeah, I can just see that:
Academy Award winner Christian Bale.
Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman.
Academy Award winner Michael Caine.
Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway.
Directed by three-time DGA nominee Christopher Nolan.
@Chris: It wasn’t just the Internet community that went crazy over Ledger’s performance. He was uniformly lauded by critics, fanboys, fellow actors, and popular audiences alike. And though it’s tragic, his premature death also helped to contribute to the aura that accrued around the film.
“Who made it?! Chris Nolan’s Mother?!” LOL!
Now there’s a golden video. Thanks.
Guy, the internet community is powerful enough to sway opinions of those at large, think Heath Ledger.
The Academy needed no swaying on Heath Ledger, Chris. They certainly weren’t listening to voices in the blogosphere — otherwise “The Dark Knight” would have been nominated for Best Picture in the first place. You’re vastly overestimating y/our influence.
For Christopher Nolan to be Oscar-nominated for The Dark Knight Rises it’ll have to be on par (or better) than The Dark Knight, and this time he most likely won’t have a performance like Ledger’s either.. I can’t imagine it’ll happen. Nolan’s obviously extremely talented, but I can only really see it happening if the film somehow manages to top The Dark Knight, and that’s a pretty damn tall order, even for Christopher Nolan.
Chris:
If anything I’d say the internet community has hurt Christopher Nolan’s chances at a nomination by turning his above-average work into something it seriously cannot stand up to. If the Academy realise what’s going on online, then I’m sure that this violent love people express for Nolan works to his detriment.
(By the way: I’ve decided to add the “P.” to my name, because it’s been confusing me for a while now that there’s two people calling themselves “Chris” on these boards. You can have it. :) )
I also seriously doubt that The Dark Knight Rises will be nominated for anything more than tech categories (unless we still have 10 best pic noms in two years). It has to make more of an impact than The Dark Knight, and while I anticipate a great film, I just don’t see that happening.
And a bit of trivia – Just one film based on a comic has ever been nominated for best picture. Skippy in 1931.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest: Milos Forman
Nashville: Robert Altman
Amarcord: Federico Fellini
Barry Lyndon: Stanley Kubrick
Dog Day Afternoon: Sidney Lumet
Not the weakest of line-ups. Kind of difficult to feel too outraged. Yeah, I’d switch Fellini for sir Stevie, but not very gracious to act like FF wouldn’t be a perfectly fine choice (…really loved Amarcord and 8½ for instance, but since the latter put Kyle to sleep I think I need to reconsider my stance on the maestro.)
“Who made it, the shark?!” = awesomeness. Thanks.
Full of snark this morning eh? ;-)
Hey, I didn’t say it was a bad movie, just not my (or my g/f’s) cup of tea. It’s not like we’re mental midgets over here either, I just want my films to entertain me a little bit even if they are challenging. Unfortunately, art-house fare like 8 1/2 and Last Year at Marienbad just didn’t do it for me.
A soft poke.
I find the latter period excess-all-areas Fellini a bit insufferable (I feel such guilt for pretty much agreeing with the Annie Hall -dweeb), but the B/W works for instance are just glorious and I find very entertaining. Amarcord has a bit of best of both worlds for me… but I’m sure I speak for every Fellini fan when I say, we’re sorry to lose you (& gf)
Anywhoo. Watching that clip reminds me just how bad Spielberg seemed to want the oscar gold. I’d be the last guy in the world to deny my childhood hero that, but it’s a bit depressing to see him on bait territory when “entertainment” is what he clearly does best. God I hope Nolan won’t follow suite. He so doesn’t need any AMPAS leg-ups or seal of approvals.
Oh I’m certain we’ll get the gumption to try again with another film of his, though it may be a Netflix-er rather than a impulse buy at B&N :-)
Completely agreed on the 2nd point, I like Sasha Stone’s quote from yesterday:
“if he wants the Academy to like him, to really really like him, he has to change the way he makes movies. He has to dumb them down enough and make them sappy enough to get in one go. Should he ever make that kind of movie he will win big. But that would mean he’d have to stop making the kinds of movies he makes. And that would be the bigger crime. It’s their loss, not Nolan’s.”
I find it impossible to fathom somebody not loving Giulietta Masina, just throwing that out there.
Yeah, I read that at AD. Dunno if I agree, though. What would dumbing down Inception or TDK even mean in practice? Neither are exactly Finnegan’s Wake. The plots just seem convoluted, because of his relative clumsiness, but there’s a fairly clear thru-line in both of them. Would a little levity help (then it’d be, what, in the Raiders of the Lost Ark ball-park) or more seriousness (Michael Clayton? Bourne -series?). I can’t help feeling sceptical. Stone and Nolan would do well just actually buying the “trick is not minding” -mantra.
My guess would be that he’ll eventually win best original screenplay (hell, they embraced Charlie Kaufman) for something formalistic, like Memento. Snubs piling like this means that the “overdue” screams will be deafening and that’s the easiest “bone to throw.”
Tough titty, but what are you gonna do.
What an honor, being beaten by Fellini!
Spielberg deserved to be nominated – I’m not sure over whom, though. Maybe that year there should have been 6 nominees, anyway. But, inarguably, JAWS only worked due to the young director’s creative solutions and tenacity.
Spielberg was young then, poor lad. Let’s give him a break.
“(By the way: I’ve decided to add the “P.” to my name, because it’s been confusing me for a while now that there’s two people calling themselves “Chris” on these boards. You can have it. :) ”
Oh you’re not the only one ;)
On topic: Unless Rises has serious actor contentions, I don’t see it happening in 2012 either. His script and direction might be that good for rises, but I think the acting nods really go a long way when it comes to nominating the directors.
I still really hope Rises is as good as or better than TDK, but expect the movie he makes after Rises to be the one to watch.
Graysmith:
Come on, have a little faith. No one expected Ledger to act like that, maybe there’s something hidden in Hathaway and Hardy that’ll make the movie and wrap it nicely as well.
And if it ends up being not as good as TDK, then probably there could be something that simply clicks with the Academy guys to make them nominate him properly. Maybe it’s the Bale/Freeman/Caine awarded trifecta they can’t ignore, or that the movie makes huge amounts of money, or that it’s the last film of an important trilogy and they’ll want to bid farewells to it explosively.
Or even, it could be the story. Bane breaks Batman’s back, he spends his time in recovery and lecturing Catwoman that it’s her turn to fight criminals, though she has tough times adjusting to that thought. Something closer to the Academic’s, tastes, who knows.
I kind of agree with Kris on the Academy and TDKR. Maybe they’ll make up for the director snub for TDK, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Perhaps I’m in the minority here (though I think I remember Kris saying the same thing), I can imagine liking Rises better than TDK simply because I thought Batman Begins was better than TDK. All the people who say Nolan has a tough assignment in topping TDK, I agree to an extent, but as a Batman fan, I didn’t think TDK was the be-all, end-all for Batman films.
Rises might have a difficult time equaling TDK’s total box office (especially without the Joker’s involvement), but quality-wise I expect Rises to be better.
Out in the real world noone is up in arms with the Nolan snub. Inception is a far better film than the spectacularly overrated Dark Knight but even so, it wasn’t anywhere near my top 10 for the year and although it was immaculately directed, I’d have nominated 5 others instead (because their films were much better.)
The internet love for Nolan warps everyone’s views. If you look at IMDb, Dark Knight is the #7 film OF ALL TIME and Inception is #10. It is patently absurd and the internet fanboys need to get a life and get out more.
A good laugh.
In other news, is it just me, or has Sasha Stone gone off the deep end this year at AwardsDaily? Besides her amazingly snarky comments via Twitter to Kris, she’s lambasting anyone who supports anything but “The Social Network.”
I for one liked Inception, TSN, TKS, and True Grit a lot and really wouldn’t mind if anyone wins, but with Sasha this year, it’s like “hell hath no furry,”…so was so excited her favorite was finally going to win this year, was a lock, then it all came crashing down with the PGA and now the nominations. (Not that the race is over by a long shot.)
Thanks Kris for keeping your site civil, objective, but still including your thoughts and commentary. That’s exactly why we show up.
Maito –
I will certainly check it out when I get a chance, I appreciate the recommendation.
That’s a good point you raise…I feel like the most “serious” film Nolan ever made (or at least the one without any kind genre elements) was Insomnia, and it was received well I guess (as far back as I can remember) but it’s sort of the “better than you remember/black sheep” film in his CV.
Honestly, if Nolan makes a film like Michael Clayton, I might blow my brains out…then again Aronofsky is making Wolverine, so I guess anything is possible.
Perhaps if Nolan finally makes that Prisoner movie…or finds a critically lauded book to adapt, he might finally get past whatever it is that is holding him back with the Academy. He keeps getting closer and closer, finally cracking Best Picture this year…