We don’t normally pay much attention to the Emmy Awards, this being a site primarily devoted to the bigger screen. But when the recently unveiled nomination list contains such film heavyweights as Todd Haynes, Olivier Assayas and (twice) Martin Scorsese, it’d be remiss not to mention it — and the fact that the line between cinema and television is becoming an increasingly pliable one.
Indeed, there’s still disagreement over which category one of yesterday’s nominees falls into. Assayas’ five-hour stunner “Carlos” may have been produced for French television, but it’s a bit difficult to define a vast work from one of world cinema’s leading auteurs, one that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was theatrically released on the arthouse circuit, as merely a TV miniseries.
Most haven’t — it won a slew of film critics’ awards last year (and indeed made my 2010 Top 10) before more finicky eligibility rules kept it out of the Oscar race (I know, I know, as if) and in the TV races at the Globe and SAG Awards.
Here it crops up again, with Emmy nominations for director Olivier Assayas and star Edgar Ramirez — though the fact that it’s shut out of the Best TV Movie/Miniseries category (in favor of the dismal “The Kennedys”) rather compounds the surreal sense of it being there at all. (These are still the voters who rate Jon Cryer, after all.)
Top nominee “Mildred Pierce,” meanwhile, is less debatable as a TV production, but its appearance on the list still prompts the odd double-take: it’s unusual enough to see an A-list star like Kate Winslet doing small-screen work in the prime of her career, but positively mind-boggling to think of a filmmaker as avant-garde as Todd Haynes as the current king of the Emmy race — particularly when most film awards bodies have yet to give him his due.
I’m less besotted than most with “Mildred” — it’s so meticulously mounted as to feel a little embalmed, and I wish both director and star had gone in harder on the melodrama — but it’s exciting both to see top-flight artists like Haynes experimenting with other media and said media welcoming their contributions in this manner. (On a side note, amid the blizzard of nominations for the project, couldn’t one have been spared for young Morgan Turner — who only gives, in my opinion, the best performance in the whole thing?)
The big-screen invasion extends to the series categories too — I confess I wasn’t even aware Neil Jordan (admittedly a long way from the Oscar-winning glory days of “The Crying Game”) had created “The Borgias” with Jeremy Irons, and yet there he is in the Drama Series category, alongside where’s-she-been indie name Patty Jenkins (“Monster”) for “The Killing.” Both, admittedly, look like small fry next to Martin Scorsese, inevitably tapped for the pilot of “Boardwalk Empire” — another art-direction-as-star series I wish I loved as much as I do the people involved in it.
I’m therefore more personally gratified to see Scorsese nominated again in the Specials field for his lovely Elia Kazan documentary “A Letter to Elia” — which I reviewed upon its premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival. And so the line blurs again. That none of these lofty film folk — with the possible exception of Assayas — are nominated for anything quite as rich and nourishing as any one season of the comparatively small-name “Mad Men” (which, if anyone is prepared to remove the dividing line altogether, I would suggest is collectively the finest American screen work of the last half-decade or so) suggests that TV is in a robust enough state without their help, but it’s a welcome development all the same.
[Photo: HBO]
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23 responses to “Emmy goes to the movies”
Wasn’t Frank Darabont also nominated for directing the pilot for “The Walking Dead”.
Ooops, ignore the previous comment. Just checked it out and he wasn’t nominated.
Did not realize you were such a Mad Men fan. I would apply your Mildred Pierce comments to that show and add that, while it is an interesting show, it is impressively shallow.
No Community = Sad Andrej. :(
The Mildred Pierce overload is just silly. This is becoming the Globes all over again. They will nominate any movie star popping up in any way on TV just to say “thank you for steeping to our level”. Are all tv performances so bad that Mildred Pierces has to take up half the nominations in most of the categories? Ridiculous… Especially, as you say Kriss, when they overlook the best performance of the show. A lot of critics pointed her out as the best thing in the miniseries, and what does Emmy do? Oh, she hasn’t been in a REAL famous movie like her co-stars, so why should we nominate HER?
Amen on “Mad Men”
Some episodes are actually cinema in it’s finest form.
I semi-agree with you @The Great Dane. I thought Mildred Pierce started off great, but it was so. damn. slow. The book is one of my favorites, and the series was definitely faithful to its original source, but did it really need to be split up into 5 episodes?
As far as Winslet goes, I think she did a fine job. I got an April Wheeler vibe from time to time but overall, an awards-worthy performance. I can’t say I was impressed by Melissa Leo, in fact, I was more annoyed by her than anything. Guy Pierce was fantastic and I agree with Kris on the Morgan Turner shout-out.
Todd Haynes did a fine job- I’ve been stuck on him since Far From Heaven, but Mildred Pierce was a respectable film making venture. By biggest qualm was the casting of ERW- she was… a dud.
*Pearce
@Kris- how do you feel about Mad Men taking so long to return? I feel like my Sunday’s have been replaced by sadness :(
Guy wrote this. Just saying.
Aha! Thanks Jim T- my bad, I mean GUY what are your thoughts?
If we were to blur the lines even further and Mildred Pierce wins Best Miniseries…it will mark the thrid time in a row that Guy Pearce has appeared in a film that was deemed best of the year for its specific media outlet.
The Suitcase episode of Mad Men, which was submitted for emmy consideration, is perfection. I wouldn’t be surprised if they dominated the awards again based on the strength of that episode.
Mad Men’s my favorite show currently, but I dunno if I love it as much as Guy.
The Suitcase was nominated for 3 categories – Writing, Editing, and Sound (the series’ 1st). For the 1st time, the show was snubbed for directing, but that category is filled up with pilots this year…possibly more than any other year?
Mildred Pierce’s 69 on Metacritic is pretty accurate. Great Winslet, great period detail, boring storytelling.
Winslet will just need the Tony after she collects her Emmy.
I was mystified to see Elizabeth McGovern nominated for “Downton Abbey”, given her rather small part (and in the Lead category too); there are a number of people on that show I’d nominate before her. But I hope Maggie Smith wins; nobody does the snooty aristocrat as well as her.
I thought Mildred Pierce was spectacular, and that it deserved each of it’s six acting nominations.
“Modern Family” is the best show on network TV.
Though I enjoyed Mildred Pierce (especially Mare Winningham, almost unrecognizable) but it never came close to touching the greatest program on TV since The Wire ended: Friday Night Lights. No, it does not have big stars, but it doesn’t need them. Not when you have actors who consistently deliver honest, complicated real human beings… I’ll take it over Mad Men any day…
Speaking of The Wire, Treme is also deserving of far more Emmy love.
So pissed that Regina King wasn’t nominated.
Don’t worry that Mad Men isnt on yet, the best show on TV started up again last week… Breaking Bad!!!!
If Kate Winslet can win an Oscar for such mid-level filmmaking as “The Reader,” the Emmy is probably hers to lose.
Ugh. Apparently it’s still in fashion to blast “The Reader,” and Kate Winslet’s phenomenal performance within.
I, for one, am glad to see “The Kennedy’s” included in the Emmy race. That series was rife with standout performances. And was greatly entertaining.