In Contention

Category: Daily

  • The top 10 shots of 2008: part one

    Slumdog MillionaireI’m hoping to make this an annual tradition here at In Contention.  It’s no secret we have a lot of respect for below-the-line talent around these parts, but it’s nice to have a visual way of showing that appreciation.  I sat down to write this piece for the first time last year, taken by the caliber of cinematography we had to bask in throughout the year and, indeed, the awards season.  The unusually high number of lensing achievements in 2007 left a slew of images to choose from and it was difficult whittling it down to 10.

    This year the challenge was of a different sort.  The field was curiously thin.  It wasn’t that the talent wasn’t on display.  God knows, a number of the greats were lining up behind the camera this year.  But the images weren’t as instantly iconic or as viscerally gripping as they were in 2007, which might have left me a bit disappointed on one hand.  Then again, it just made searching for my favorites all the more involved and interesting, and I’m happy to offer my findings to you in this space, even if it meant doubling up.

    Yes, in one instance (an undeniable one, really), a certain film found two shots popping up on the list, and nearly three.  Another film also found itself close to a second mention, but I tried to keep a balance of honesty and fairness in place as much as possible.  If a film has two of the year’s best shots, it has two of the year’s best shots, right?

    This year, things are slightly different.  Last time around, I got a few arbitrary quotes from lensers throughout the season and plugged them into the piece where they fit best.  This year, I sought out the various directors of photography to get their opinions on the specific shots in question.  Their insight, as always, makes for a better story and, indeed, more context for the reader.  I hope you enjoy reading their thoughts as much as I did collecting them.

    So, I look forward to doing this each and every year I’m cranking out copy for your reading pleasure (or displeasure).  In my view, it is one of the best ways I can commemorate the technicians that so often find themselves overlooked this time of year.

    So let’s get on with the list…

    (more…)

  • What if they made a ‘Dark Knight’ NES game?

    Well, I’m guessing it would look something like this:

    Can I just say: that’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life?  You might recall my boyish reminiscence of the original “Batman” NES game a few months ago (I finally beat the Joker recently, by the way), which was fun and all, but I’d love to see the guys that cooked this thing up go all out and generate some game play.

    And hey, why don’t we get some new NES games on the market anyway?  I’d buy them.  The best graphics in the world can’t substitute the glee I feel after 30 minutes of kicking the alien queen’s ass in “Contra,” that’s all I’m sayin’.  (Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start, baby.)

    (Courtesy: /Film)

  • ‘Gomorrah’ doesn’t deliver, says AMPAS

    Kris has already given the philistines on the Academy’s foreign-language film committee a deserved telling-off for sidelining Italy’s astonishing entry “Gomorrah,” but I feel compelled to add my voice to his — not least because, if I had my way, Matteo Garrone’s cinematic gut-punch about the Camorra crime syndicate would be in line for a Best Picture nod, not just a puny ghetto-category citation.

    I could be here all day if I decided to go through the innumerable landmark films, from “City of God” to “The Celebration” to “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” that have been similarly mistreated by this ever-disappointing branch of voters, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when they failed us yet again, right?

    And yet I was, because the newly formed executive committee, which added an extra three titles to the list of six elected by the main body, was specifically designed to avoid such travesties. I can believe that they may well have used one of their slots to save France’s masterpiece “The Class” from exclusion, and if that’s the case, I’m most grateful. (Though I still wouldn’t put it past the boneheads to omit it from the final five.) Hell, it’s not inconceivable to me that they coud have stepped in on behalf of a popular favourite like “Waltz With Bashir” — the ignorance of the larger committee knows no bounds.

    But even given that worst case scenario, and speaking as someone who has seen 8 of the 9 shortlisted titles, I can’t fathom how the executive committee didn’t deem “Gomorrah” worthy of their company. What was the rule change for, if not to protect challenging, relevant, widely acclaimed works like Garrone’s film? 

    Well, Jeff Wells has done some digging, and seems to have found the explanation. He spoke to a member of the committee, who had this to say:

    Voices in the foreign branch’s executive elite committee just didn’t think Gomorrah “delivered in the way it could or should have,” he said. “It’s not a matter of it not being heart-warming. It’s a matter of our respecting the film without believing that it really brought the goods home.”

    (more…)

  • 1/14 Oscarweb Round-up

    Gomorrah• Stop the presses, Tom O’Neil meets the Carpetbagger at the Globes. [Gold Derby]

    • Scott Foundas on the “Gomorrah” foreign committee snub. [LA Weekly]

    • David Poland talks to Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins. [The Hot Blog]

    • David Carr is stoked about the “new kind of prom queen” Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” represents. [The Carpetbagger]

    • It’s likely to become a tired (if true) trend: David Gritten calls the film “the first film of the Obama era.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Patrick Goldstein considers “Gran Torino” reason enough to warrant a Clint Eastwood class on acting career management. [The Big Picture]

  • Claude Berri (1934-2009)

    Claude Berri, who passed away on Monday at the age of 74, may not have been the most gifted or prolific of French filmmakers, but I owe him an awful lot — not least the fact that I speak French in the first place.

    At a very young age, I saw “Jean de Florette,” Berri’s exquisite 1986 adaptation of Marcel Pagnol’s classic story of corrupted rural power games, and was thoroughly enraptured — by the painterly textures of the Provençal landscape, by the iconic melancholy of Jean-Claude Petit’s Verdi-interpolating score, by the masterly interplay of three generations of French acting talent (Montand, Depardieu and Auteuil), and by the rhythms and poetry of the language itself.

    “Florette” (and its follow-up, “Manon Des Sources”) triggered a fascination with French culture and cinema that has stuck with me to this day, and as Xan Brooks points out in today’s Guardian, I wasn’t the only one claimed by its influence. In Britain, in particular, the film represented a milestone in crossover arthouse cinema, generating near-blockbuster figures, nabbing a BAFTA for Best Film, and chiming into a renewed public interest in the Continent.

    Nothing else in his directing CV quite stands up to that mammoth achievement (though he actually won an Oscar for his 1962 short “Le Poulet”), but it’s really as a producer that he made his largest, and most lasting, contribution to global cinema: among the numerous arthouse projects he shepherded to our screens are such landmarks as Polanski’s extraordinary “Tess,” the hit bodice-ripper “La Reine Margot” and last year’s delightful critics’ darling “Couscous” (or “The Secret of the Grain,” depending on your side of the Atlantic).   

    For most film buffs, however, it’s the gorgeous strains of the music below that will forever spring to mind first when Berri’s name is mentioned. Qu’il repose en paix.

  • Reminder

    The top 10 shots of the year kicks off with part one of two tomorrow afternoon.  Be on the lookout.

  • Bagger: Rourke passes the PR test

    Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerGiven the newly compressed awards calendar of recent years, with a gap this year of only one day between the Golden Globe awards and the deadline for Oscar nomination ballots, the former has little impact on the latter anymore. However, that’s not to say that what happens on Globe night has no effect on the winners’ Oscar campaigns.

    For actors in particular, the Globes are the most visible Oscar-night audition a contender can ask for. A memorable Globe moment can play into Phase II of Academy voting: Jamie Foxx’s canny Golden Globe acceptance speech in 2005 pretty much sealed his Oscar win there and then, while Eddie Murphy’s indifferent one two years later hardly galvanized Academy members into voting for him.

    So, trivial as it may sound, it’s worth taking into account the press and public reaction to Sunday night’s victors. Kate Winslet’s manic gushing may be earning her no end of criticism in the British press, but I suspect her evident gratitude at winning could go over well with Academy members. Meanwhile, Sally Hawkins’ emotion-drenched near-breakdown on stage can only raise her profile if she garners an Oscar nod.

    However, the Carpetbagger seems to feel (and I’m inclined to agree) that the real PR champ on Sunday was surprise Best Actor winner Mickey Rourke — whose eccentric acceptance speech, complete with tributes to canines past and present, was as memorable as it was oddly touching. (I don’t mind admitting I teared up, but then I did lose a dog myself last year. Cut me some slack.) While the Bagger confesses he was hoping for some trademark Rourke controversy, he was thoroughly won over by the star’s openness — and crucially, thinks his peers were too:

    But there is another part of the Bagger that watched hopefully, wishing that Mr. Rourke would keep it between the lines. His candidacy for best actor took a huge step the other night and the audience of his peers at the Beverly Hilton nearly jumped in his lap. “Everyone in that room has had their ups and downs,” said Aaron Eckhart, who was at a party held last night for Mr. Rourke hosted by LA Confidential. “We all felt good about what happened on that stage.”

    (more…)

  • CDG nominees

    I’ve been out and about, so apologies for getting to the Costume Designers Guild nominees late:

    Contemporary Film
    “Iron Man” (Laura Jean Shannon and Rebecca Bentjen)
    “Mamma Mia!” (Ann Roth)
    “Sex and the City” (Patricia Field)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Suttirat Larlarb)
    “The Wrestler” (Amy Westcott)

    Period Film
    “Changeling” (Deborah Hopper)
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Jacqueline West)
    “The Duchess” (Michael O’Connor)
    “Milk” (Danny Glicker)
    “Revolutionary Road” (Albert Wolsky)

    Fantasy Film
    “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” (Isis Mussenden)
    “The Dark Knight” (Lindy Hemming)
    “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (Sanja Milkovic Hays)

    I have to say, while I could understand the classification for, say, the Tim Burton films, I’m increasingly agitated by the “fantasy” classification of Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise.  And “The Dark Knight” is 10 times more “contemporary” than “Iron Man,” but whatever.  If the false classification means the films find some guild love in the fields of art direction and costume design, so be it, I guess.

    More frankly surprising guild support for “The Wrestler,” while “Slumdog” and “Button” remain the guild champs.  I’m happy “Prince Caspian” finally popped up somewhere.

    I see no real reason to change my Oscar predicitons here based on these results, but we’ll keep an eye on it as always.

  • Foreign film shortlist revealed, ‘Gomorrah’ snubbed

    This is the most vile of all Academy committees.  They prove their disdain for truly great cinema year in and year out (let’s not forget last year’s snubs of “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “Persepolis” early on), and they’ve done it again this year, skewering Matteo Garrone’s blistering “Gomorrah,” leaving it for the dogs, cast aside, abandoned.

    The almighty foreign language film committee has chosen the following to proceed to the next stage of the season:

    “3 Monkeys” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan — Turkey)
    “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (Uli Edel — Germany)
    “The Class” (Laurent Cantet — France)
    “Departures” (Yojiro Takita — Japan)
    “Everlasting Moments” (Jan Troell — Sweden)
    “The Necessities of Life” (Benoit Pilon — Canada)
    “Revanche” (Gotz Spielmann — Austria)
    “Tear This Heart Out” (Roberto Sneider — Mexico)
    “Waltz with Bashir” (Ari Folman — Israel)

    Turns out Guy correctly foresaw only four of these in his post this morning.  From these, I’d anticipate “3 Monkeys,” “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” “The Class,” “Everlasting Moments” and, the likely winner, “Waltz with Bashir” to make the final five.

    (Thanks to Blake for passing along the list, and kudos to him for anticipating the “Gomorrah” shaft.  I just wanted to disregard all that talk about the committee having an issue with the film’s violence, but you can’t give these bozos the benefit of the doubt, I guess.)

  • Jeremy Piven addresses the mercury poisoning at the Globes

    (Courtesy: Vulture)

  • 1/13 Oscarweb Round-up

    Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight• Tom O’Neil chats with Pete Hammond and Anthony Breznican about possible repeat victors from Sunday night’s Globe ceremony. [Gold Derby]

    • Sasha Stone reminds that Kate Winslet is much more due in 2009 than Sigourney Weaver was in 1988. [Awards Daily]

    • David Carr catches up with Danny Boyle at the Fox Searchlight Golden Globes afterparty. [The Carpetbagger]

    • John Wayne and Heath Ledger make Steve Mason’s list of the best final performances ever. [/Film]

    • Anita Singh reports the Oscar odds in Kate Winslet’s favor. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Danny Boyle says he’ll never be a “proper director.” [The Guardian]

    • Rebecca Ascher-Walsh gives a quick preview of the 2009 film year. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Christopher Campbell goes with Sam Mendes for the lone director spot.  Hmm… [Spout Blog]

  • In the cards?

    Clint Eastwood in Gran TorinoDave Karger, from in a blog post today at Entertainment Weekly’s Oscar Watch:

    And now, his fascinating drama Gran Torino is indisputably the hot movie of the moment: It just raked in nearly $30 million in its first weekend of wide release, and it’s the film that most Oscar voters discovered last, screening it just before ballots were due…But with many voters said to be loving the film, could it eke out a Best Picture nod as well?

    From my Off the Carpet column yesterday:

    But the strangest whispers I’ve heard concern Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino,” opening wide over the weekend to exceptional box office and, some say, the real threat to “The Dark Knight”’s shifty #5 spot at the moment.  The guilds haven’t necessarily reflected that, but then again, they didn’t reflect much on “Letters from Iwo Jima” either.

    Just sayin’…

  • Foreign film shortlist to drop soon

    Waltz with BashirI believe the 9-title shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film is due today, but details on the announcement are oddly hard to come by, so I could be wrong.

    In any case, it’s one I’m having a tough time calling. The new voting system should ensure that some of the year’s most acclaimed contenders are spared the indignity of being left off the shortlist (as happened, notoriously, to “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “Persepolis” last year), so it’s difficult to see favorites “Waltz With Bashir” (fresh from its Globe win) and “Gomorrah” missing the cut. 

    I’d like to say that the best film of 2008, “The Class,” is similarly assured a spot, but it’s a risky, tough-minded docudrama, and I’m not sure how the committee (even the executive panel created to keep things in check) will respond to it — especially with “Gomorrah” and “Bashir” also occupying contemporary, genre-spanning territory. Fingers crossed. 

    Beyond that, my predictions get shaky. I think my projected list is a little heavy on European entries, but it’s hard to predict which one/s will miss. The Academy invariably throws a few less-heralded curveballs into the mix, but with 67 entries to choose from (and many of them fairly unknown quantities), it’s anyone’s guess which obscurities have caught the committee’s eye.

    (More thoughts, and my predicted shortlist, below the cut.)

    (more…)

  • Gimme five

    I was contemplating writing a post bemoaning the stultifying consensus that has been reached in the assorted guild nomination lists this past week. But now Nathaniel Rogers, tack-sharp as ever in his assessment of yesterday’s ACE nods, has spared me the trouble by saying everything I needed to say:

    I’m so confused right now. I swear that I saw 113 movies in 2008 and I’m beginning to think that I imagined 108 of them. Did I? Are these the only 5 movies that came out in 2008? It sure seems like it. Who knew that movie theaters were so empty all year? I specifically remember being in movie theaters and in all kinds of places and weather, too. Am I losing my mind?

    Nah, Nat. They’re just losing their memories. Or their imaginations. Or both. Do something about it, Academy.

  • Golden Globes: Feeling the love

    Sally Hawkins at the 66th Annual Golden Globe AwardsAs I curled on the couch in the wee small hours of the morning, watching last night’s Golden Globes telecast with only a hot toddy and a handful of chatty IC commenters for company, it occurred to me that I was hearing an awful lot of one word as the evening unfolded. And that word was ‘love.’

    Of course, it’s a ubiquitous word in any awards show, weepily applied as it is to innumerable family members, lovers and colleagues as winners rattle names off thank-you lists longer than most films’ scripts. But this struck me as slightly different: the love here was being directed towards film and art itself.

    Sally Hawkins, the night’s most endearing (and overwhelmed) winner, set the tone, describing her film, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” as being about love both on and off the screen. Surprise (to some) winner Colin Farrell followed her lead, celebrating cinematic adventurousness with the elegant soundbite: “Curiosity is love.”

    Meanwhile, Danny Boyle picked up above all on the affection his awards-sweeping film has garnered within the industry, while Kate Winslet paid tribute to a long-standing love cultivated with her co-star, refracted very differently in two films, eleven years apart.

    It struck me as an appropriate motif for an awards ceremony that seemed less calculated and more sincere than usual. Perhaps a year away the Globes has made me –- or them –- soft, but for an institution that takes sustained criticism for being overly susceptible to campaigning muscle and star power, it seemed to me that, in almost every category, the HFPA members had voted with their collective hearts, singling out the performers and films that they themselves loved.

    (more…)

  • Coming this week…

    …the top 10 shots of 2008.  I know this piece has a lot of folks chomping at the bit, but all the interviews are just about complete.  I’m aiming for Wednesday, so be on the lookout.  And if you missed it, check out last year’s list here for an idea of what to expect.

  • POLL: Which of these films has the best shot at upsetting the apparently “locked” five?

    Alright, I let that “Revolutionary Road” poll run its course through the New Year, as promised, and it seems most readers feel the film has, for the most part, received the undeserved shaft this awards season.  Now we can finally get a fresh query out to the readership.

    Assuming, what with PGA, WGA, DGA and ACE nailing things shut, that the Oscar frontrunners for Best Picture are “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Dark Knight,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” which film has the best shot of upsetting the group?  Personally, I think only five films are in that mix, but I left an “other” option in this week’s sidebar poll, just in case.

    Let us know what you think — vote now!

  • ‘Watchmen’ talks show silver lining at the Globes

    Patrick Wilson in WatchmenMichael Cieply, one of the best entertainment reporters in the business for my money, filed this one-off from last night’s Golden Globe festivities at The Carpetbagger:

    From where this reporter sat at the Golden Globes last night, that sure looked like Tom Rothman of Fox and Alan Horn of Warner Brothers down among the superstar seats, smiling and back-patting — each other, not the superstars — just before the show began. A public display of affection between studio chiefs, along with those pricey “Watchmen” ads on the National Football League playoff games this weekend, would add up to a message as big as the Hollywood sign: The talks between hitherto warring Fox and Warner over a settlement of Fox’s lawsuit over rights to “Watchmen” must be on track.

    Fox, remember, had claimed rights to the film and was trying to block Warner’s release of it on March 6 — a breach of the usual etiquette in Hollywood, especially with a movie that costs $130 million. A hearing scheduled for 3:30 this afternoon with Judge Gary A. Feess of the federal court here should tell more.

    Boy I hope this thing settles itself.