Well, here’s an awards announcement a million miles away from “The Social Network” — the Louis Delluc Prize, the single most prestigious award in French cinema. (Yes, loftier than the César Awards.) And I do mean “single”: awarded to one film from a shortlist of eight by a jury of French journalists and industry types, it’s one of the simpler ceremonies on the block.
While last year’s award went to the ubiquitous crossover hit “A Prophet,” this year’s jury (headed by Cannes festival president Gilles Jacob) threw a slight curveball: the award was handed this morning to Raul Ruiz’s epic Portuguese-French production “Mysteries of Lisbon,” a dreamy 272-minute period puzzle piece that I was thoroughly bewitched by at the London Film Festival. (Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Belle Epine” received debut filmmaker honors.)
The film beat out one hell of a heavyweight shortlist, listed after the cut.
“Carlos,” Olivier Assayas (review)
“The Ghost Writer,” Roman Polanski
“Of Gods and Men,” Xavier Beauvois (review)
“On Tour,” Mathieu Amalric (review)
“The Princess of Montpensier,” Bernard Tavernier (review)
“White Material,” Claire Denis (review)
“Young Girls in Black,” Jean-Paul Civeyrac
Save the snoozy costumer “Montpensier” (whose appeal seems mostly limited to homeland critics) and Oscar entry “Of Gods and Men” (on which I fully admit I’m in a grumpy minority), that’s a list I can wholeheartedly cheer. I, you might have guessed by now, would have chosen Denis, but Ruiz’s film is quite the achievement.
It remains sadly distributorless in the States — coincidentally enough, I cast my vote for the film in the Best Undistributed Film category in indieWIRE’s critics’ poll this morning, just minutes before the Delluc announcement dropped. (It currently leads the category.) Here’s hoping I can maintain this voodoo for the rest of the season.
[Photo: MUBI.com]
Comments
6 responses to “Ruiz’s ‘Lisbon’ takes Louis Delluc prize”
Man, what’s with all the insanely long movies? Indulgent, or truly warranted?
Warranted — it’s another film that also served time as a TV miniseries, and the surreal patchwork structure of myriad interlinked narratives necessitates the length. It’s so absorbing and near-hypnotic you won’t notice.
Of Gods and Men is also a snooze in my opinion.
Ruiz is an absolutely spectacular director, but so much of his work is impossible to find. This one’s relatively high-profile and I’m holding out hope of seeing it within the year.
I have seen Carlos, The Ghost Writer, On Tour and Of Gods And Men and my favorite is On Tour.
I’m in slight agreement with you about Of Gods And Men, it is very well directed but it was trying very hard to be heavy-handed and moving and devastating when it actually was not completely successful. I did not cry even during the film’s big scene. It was a superb scene and I was affected but it but I did not weep. I think its been over-rated.
Speaking of over-rated, The Ghost Writer continues its European wave of recognition, its a film I genuinely think is a great master having fun but it is no masterpiece.
Carlos is of course one of the great events of art house cinema in recent years but there is nothing to beat On Tour for humanity and pathos, a beautiful dramedy and containing perhaps my favorite Amalric performance ever.
I really hope some of these movies find their way onto our shores, b/c I have been dying to see them since Guy has championed (most of) them for over a year. Beyond Mysteries of Lisbon, I really want to see Carlos, White Material, and On Tour. Its only a matter of time before the DVD’s of White Material and Carlos come out – so I am set for those, but On Tour and obviously Mysteries of Lisbon may take some time before they will be coming out. Good for you Guy for doing your part to recognize Mysteries of Lisbon on the Indiewire poll – who knows if distributors see those things or not but anything that can be done is certainly worth doing.