In Contention

Author: Guy Lodge

  • Royal premiere for ‘Lovely Bones’

    Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely BonesSorry for getting to this news a day late, but you may have heard by now that “The Lovely Bones” has been selected as this year’s Royal Film Performance, an annual British charity event that entails a world premiere in London in late November, with the Royal Family in attendance. Peter Jackson states in the press release:

    I am honoured that The Lovely Bones has been selected to be this year’s Royal Gala film, in support of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund. This film has been an extraordinary journey, for myself as a filmmaker and for all of those who worked on it. On behalf of everyone involved, we are thrilled that Their Royal Highnesses and the CTBF audience will be amongst the first people in the world to see it.

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  • LONDON: ‘Enter the Void,’ ‘Wolfy’

    Paz de la Huerta in Enter the VoidAs if sympathetic to the fact that I’d have a pounding hangover from Wednesday’s swish opening party in Chelsea, festival organizers were kind enough to schedule a film I’d already seen, “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” for the next morning, affording me a much-needed lie-in.

    Still, George Clooney’s second go-round on the LFF red carpet in as many days was the day’s major event. I already weighed in on the film at Venice, though from conversations I’ve had with others, I’m not finding many supporters for my view that the film is big, silly fun.

    Anyway, missing this stop on the Clooney-London express afforded me the chance to catch up with two artier prospects that had been high on my festival priority list, one big (Gaspar Noé’s latest Cannes-endorsed provocation “Enter the Void”) and one small (Russian playwright Vassily Sigarev’s filmmaking debut “Wolfy”). Guess which one was the keeper.

    “Enter the Void” (**)

    Back in 2002, more column inches were spent on two isolated scenes — an agonizing rape sequence and that fire-extinguisher bludgeoning — than the whole of Gaspar Noé’s “Irréversible,” but amid the shrill cries of the moral police, the film arguably received insufficient credit for its thoughtfulness (and structural verve) in probing and evaluating the way we respond to onscreen violence. An astonishing technical feat by any measure, it was that rare film that revealed something of the viewer to himself, albeit in an unpleasant fashion.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Minority report

    PreciousWhen the Academy Awards roll around in March, it will have been precisely two decades since the unlikely figure of Kim Basinger blasted Academy voters’ conservatism on air at the 1989 ceremony, with specific regard to their sidelining of “Do the Right Thing,” Spike Lee’s groundbreaking study of urban interracial tension.

    “We’ve got five great films here, and they’re great for one reason – they tell the truth,” the star opined before presenting a clip from one of that year’s Best Picture nominees. “But there is one film missing from this list that deserves to be on it because, ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all.”

    As if in response, later that evening, the Academy handed their top prize to “Driving Miss Daisy,” as quiet and uncontroversial a portrait of the American racial divide as you could ask for. Let it never be said that the Oscars have no sense of irony.

    20 years on, much has changed. (Basinger has become an Oscar-winning actress, for starters. No one saw that coming.) More to the point, the amount of black Oscar winners in acting categories has trebled. And just two years after Basinger’s outburst, the Academy named 23 year-old John Singleton their first black Best Director nominee.

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  • Woman’s touch

    We’ve seen a lot of posters for “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” highlighting its starry male cast, and they’ve mostly left me cold. So is it a coincidence that this new design — which places relative newcomer Lily Cole in the spotlight — is the one that finally does it for me? Or am I just being a man about this?

    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

  • Ridley Scott takes on ‘Red Riding’ remake

    Rebecca Hall in Red RidingYou may remember that back in March I raved about “Red Riding,” the British TV adaptation of David Peace’s quartet of Yorkshire-set crime novels that IFC will soon be distributing theatrically in the U.S.

    Specifically, I flipped for the first installment of the three-film series, Julian Jarrold’s “1974” — an exquisitely textured mood piece, with vivid turns from Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall, that remains one of the best films I’ve seen this year on any size screen.

    Six months later, Americans got to see what British critics had been gushing about since the spring (David Thomson overexcitedly stated that the films excelled “The Godfather” in the pantheon of crime cinema), as “Red Riding” played to a very warm reception in Telluride. (Even if Kris wasn’t entirely won over.)

    Now the buzz continues with the announcement that Columbia has acquired remake rights to the project, with director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian in line to compress Peace’s mammoth narrative into a single feature film. (As a feat of adaptation, expect comparisons to what Curtis Hanson and Brian Helegeland took on James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet.)  Scott will also produce via his Scott Free production company.

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  • Netherlands switches Oscar submission to ‘Wartime’

    Winter in WartimeThanks to regular reader Jonathan for alerting us yesterday to the news that the Dutch have backtracked on their Best Foreign Language Film award, after their first selection, “The Silent Army,” was disqualified by the Academy. Martin Koolhoven’s well-regarded Second World War drama “Winter in Wartime” will compete in its place.

    “The Silent Army” was an unpopular selection in the first place, having been extensively recut after an initial critical mauling, and prompting complaints from Dutch industry insiders that it had too much English dialogue to qualify. In the end, however, it was the former rather than the latter issue that led to its disqualification — the initial cut of “Army” was released in 2008, and Academy rules forbid new edits of previous years’ releases from competing.

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  • REVIEW: “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (***)

    Fantastic Mr. FoxLondon Film Festival

    Rather like two well-matched friends that one sets up on a failed blind date, Roald Dahl and Hollywood really ought to have got along better over the years. Taken at face value, Dahl’s rightly beloved children’s books should be a cinch to film: the concepts are high, the imagery vivid, the storytelling swift and snappy.

    Yet for all these virtues, and for no lack of trying on Hollywood’s part, a stone-cold classic filmization of one of his novels still awaits us. Some stand by Mel Stuart’s irony-deficient “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; others will put in a word for Henry Selick’s vividly textured but emotionally inert take on “James and the Giant Peach.” No filmmaker has exhibited more understanding of Dahl’s cruel streak than Nicolas Roeg, but his largely dazzling “The Witches” still loses its nerve in the final reel with a facile ending.

    Though the men share a broad eccentricity, Wes Anderson’s fey, faintly solipsistic creative touch once more seems a less-than-perfect match for the nastier, more arch sensibility of Dahl – and there are a few glib missteps in his otherwise appealingly ragged riff on “Fantastic Mr. Fox” that show up the disconnect.

    But Anderson has at least been savvy in picking one of Dahl’s youngest-skewing, most sweet-natured narratives for his first ever adaptation. The brevity and elemental simplicity of the book’s survival-themed tale provides a lot more room for Anderson’s trademark affectations and diversions – be it the familiar 1970s-style duds or a jangly nonsense ditty from Jarvis Cocker – than Dahl’s later, darker work would.

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  • U.S. ‘Broken Embraces’ trailer

    I’m already on the record as thinking “Broken Embraces” is distinctly minor Almodóvar, but I’ll be damned if this sleek new trailer (available on Apple here) doesn’t foreground all its most beguiling features in one lovely package. If the film only had as much to say as it does to show, we’d have something truly special here.

  • Counting down to the London fest

    Fantastic Mr. Fox(Apologies for the “Fantastic Mr. Fox” review that appeared prematurely here as a result of embargo confusion. It will be reposted later today.)

    There may have been silence on my end these past few days, but I assure you it hasn’t been for lack of activity. The days leading up to the London Film Festival — which officially kicks off tonight with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — have been crammed with press screenings and assorted admin duties.

    Yesterday, meanwhile, was given over to the film’s extraordinarily elaborate, and most enjoyable, press junket, staged across a range of picturesque locations in Roald Dahl’s home village of Great Missenden, an hour’s train ride from London. (More on that later.) Fox has spared no effort or expense in the launch for this unusual film, which culminates tonight with the LFF Opening Gala party at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.

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  • AFI honors Mike Nichols

    Mike NicholsScreen International reports that veteran film, TV and theater director Mike Nichols will be the next recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, to be presented next summer:

    “Genius is a word oft overused in our world, but surely not in the case of Mike Nichols,” [AFI board of trustees chair Sir Howard] Stringer said. “His artistry has spanned the mediums of modern storytelling – movies, television and the stage – and his gifts across five decades continue to inspire artists and audiences alike.”

    No argument there from me. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “The Graduate,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Silkwood” and “Closer” all continue to hit me where it hurts, every time I see them. For others, it’s “Angels in America.” Or “Working Girl.” Or even his brave attempt to make cinematic sense of “Catch-22.” Forget the duds … mainstream American cinema doesn’t have many (or any) like him today. Congratulations, sir.

  • Sendak on ‘Wild Things’

    Maurice SendakThe best read of the day is Scott Timberg’s substantial LA Times profile of “Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak, which traces the vast influence he and the book exerted on children’s literature — as well as a certain young Spike Jonze.

    As someone who was heavily raised on Sendak’s work — “Wild Things” apart, I could recite his entire “Nutshell Library” back-to-front in my kindergarten days — I’m glad to see the 81 year-old author foregrounded amid the swell of hype for Jonze’s film. Obviously, Timberg devotes much attention to the boundary-breaking darkness and psychological grounding of Sendak’s work; more surprising, however, is this interpretation of the book’s cinematic properties:

    In “Wild Things,” a single sentence can take pages to unfold, its meaning changing slightly with each image. And this book with numerous wordless pages ends with a half-sentence and no accompanying image. Sendak works similarly to the directors of the French New Wave, who used jump cuts and other techniques to dislocate their editing.

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  • Goldfrapp meet Beatles in ‘Nowhere Boy’

    Alison GoldfrappI meant to mention this just before I went on vacation in September, but it slipped my mind.

    Anyway, adding to the many reasons for my interest in Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Nowhere Boy,” the John Lennon biopic that closes the London Film Festival on 29 October, is the promise of a score by electro-pop outfit Goldfrapp (probably best known Stateside for their 2005 hit “Ooh La La”).

    The British duo, comprising musician Will Gregory and vocalist Alison Goldfrapp, revealed last month that they had almost completed the score, and would be recording string segments with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. (An obvious tribute to Lennon, and a nice one.)

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  • Foreign film correction: Greece submits ‘Slaves’

    Slaves in Their BondsLast week, based on word from a source I had no reason to disbelieve, I reported that Greece had submitted the acclaimed Cannes prizewinner “Dogtooth” in the Best Foreign Language Film race. Not so, apparently.

    I’m not sure whether this was incorrect from the start or the selectors changed their minds — details can get murky in this race — but Screen International confirms that the the Greek entry is actually veteran director Adonis Lykouresis’s “Slaves In Their Bonds.” Apologies for the misinformation.

    Either way, it’s probably a savvy choice. For all its critical kudos, Academy voters most likely wouldn’t have touched the violent, discomfiting “Dogtooth” with a bargepole, while Lykouresis’s film, a romantic family saga set in Corfu at the turn of the 20th century, sounds rather more up their alley.

  • Guilds announce honorary awards

    Amy PascalWhen two guilds have already named certain people they plan to honor in 2010 — unlike the Academy, they don’t feel the need to relegate honorary award recipients to a separate ceremony in November — you know the season is upon us.

    The Producers Guild of America recently announced that their next annual Milestone Award will be jointly awarded in January to Sony Pictures chiefs Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton. Considering the studio currently holds the top two spots in the U.S. box office chart, it seems an apt week to make the announcement.

    Recent recipients of the award, the PGA’s highest career honor, include Jeffrey Katzenberg, Warren Beatty and Clint Eastwood, while last year’s winners were Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Education’ lands, animation expands

    Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard in An Education• After a quiet week for awards news, this week’s Off the Carpet column contemplated the depth of the Best Actress race.

    • A topic that Kris and Anne also debated in this week’s episode of Oscar Talk.

    • Speaking of Best Actress, “An Education,” with its nomination-bound performance by Carey Mulligan, finally hit theaters this week.

    • And speaking of Mulligan, she placed highly in our list of the Top 10 actors under 30.

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  • Guy Ritchie on ‘esoteric marmalade’

    Guy RitchieCheers to my friend Paul for pointing me to the quote of the week from Guy Ritchie, featured in a recent Esquire interview. It’s the same piece that has already attained a measure of press attention for his description of Madonna as “retarded,” but this metaphor for his filmmaking oeuvre (handily condensed by the Guardian) is the real keeper:

    “What you’ve got with marmalade is fucking bitter and sweet,” Guy explains. “Now, the marmalade at [the place they had breakfast], that’s an accessible marmalade. And my sensibility is accessible. My nature is, I like accessible shit. The first two accessible movies I made, Lock, Stock and Snatch, they are accessible.

    The next two aren’t accessible. First there’s Swept Away, which, well, everyone gets confused on, because of Madonna. And the next one [Revolver] is just conceptual. That one – that’s just pure esoteric marmalade. You can tell a lot by a person’s marmalade. My palate is really a fine shred, it’s accessible. I’m not saying I won’t test you. Because all marmalade tests you.”

    No word yet on what type of marmalade “Sherlock Holmes” will be. Maybe he’s switched to jam.

  • ‘Seagull’ film going ahead with Mulligan and Scott Thomas

    Carey Mulligan as Nina in the Broadway production of The SeagullIn Carey Mulligan’s entry on Tuesday’s “best actors under 30” list, I mentioned her stunning turn on stage in the recent revival of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” writing that “if/when anyone commits that to film, Mulligan will be unbeatable for Best Supporting Actress.”

    What I didn’t know is that “if” has definitely become a “when” in this case. I wrote when rumors of a “Seagull” movie surfaced in January, but the project was actually confirmed a month ago. (I was in Venice and missed the news; thanks to a helpful but nameless reader for pointing me to the news.)

    Anyway, with news as good as this, better late than never. The production is being brought to the screen with the cast and creative team largely unchanged.

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  • Martin and Fey: the obvious choice

    Tina Fey and Steve Martin at the 81st Annual Academy AwardsIt seems the annual spitballing over who will/should host next year’s Academy Awards ceremony has already started.

    Sasha Stone has compiled a list of her own preferred men (and women) for the job, while Kris has other ideas. (More seriously, his Kevin Spacey suggestion last year remains one I’m completely on board with.) Meanwhile, Kris and Anne will spotlight the issue in tomorrow’s edition of Oscar Talk.

    For my part, I can’t see a Hugh Jackman repeat working as effectively without Bill Condon and Laurence Mark’s creative steering. (Besides, as game as he was, I missed the comedy a little.) And for all the championing of vogueish names from Neil Patrick Harris to Justin Timberlake — and as much as I actually appreciated Jon Stewart’s efforts — I always find the night feels more comfortable with a genuine movie figure on stage.

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