(Your non-Harvey-influenced round-up for the morning…)
• Is Armando Iannucci planning to take the world of “In the Loop” to HBO? [CHUD]
• Bill Mechanic responds to criticism over move to eliminate original song performances. [The Odds]
• Actors on an actorless “Avatar.” [Los Angeles Times]
In case you missed the first part of our look at the best shots of 2009, go ahead and catch up here. Before getting into the top five, however, I’d like to spotlight a few examples that almost made the cut but just missed.
First and foremost, “Inglourious Basterds” is obviously a favorite around these parts. Robert Richardson, as we’ve come to expect, offered a wonderful visual context for Quentin Tarantino’s story, and though none of the shots particularly spoke to me on a thematic level, it is nevertheless worth pointing out the aesthetic impact of Shoshana’s cackling specter projected on smoke and the gripping crane down to reveal a hiding Jewish family in the countryside of Nazi occupied France.
One of the unsung heroes of the season in the field was Greig Fraser, whose soft touch gave Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” a beautiful identity. The shot that has always stuck out for me was Fanny Brawne on her bed, intoxicated with love as a strong afternoon breeze blows in her window.
I was also captivated by the visual aesthetic of Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” shot by Eduard Grau. The disorienting nature of an image featuring a “Psycho” poster always stuck out to me. It is also worth noting a shot of Jeremy Renner standing in a grocery aisle in “The Hurt Locker,” speaking volumes about his character’s disposition, lost in a safe world (though lenser Barry Ackroyd was not involved with the U.S. portion of the shoot, it should be noted). And I always smile when I see the image in “Crazy Heart” of a passerby reflected in the window of Bad Blake’s wrecked suburban, rushing down the hill to help.
Finally, Roger Deakins should never go unmentioned in a discussion of cinematography, and what he did on the Coens’ “A Serious Man” was trademark organic beauty. The image that sticks out to me is, ultimately, the final image of a tornado bringing the arbitrary wrath of the film’s themes to a tangible form.
In any case, it was, as always, a joy digging through the year’s visuals and coming up with this collective. Even in a weak year for the medium, there are always gems worth spotlighting. I hope you enjoy the second half, so let’s get down to it.
The top five shots of 2009…
Berlin International Film Festival
A spry, sun-bleached and often rather sexy study of what makes a family in modern America, “The Kids Are All Right” breezes by so pleasurably it’s easy to forget what a daring and very necessary film it is. Gift-wrapping its smart sexual politics with kicky dialogue, bright visuals and a pleasingly messy tangle of relationships, Los Angeles-born auteur Lisa Cholodenko’s fourth (and finest) feature is her most mainstream to date, but makes a virtue of those concessions.
Since its deservedly buzzy Sundance premiere, you’ve probably already heard “The Kids Are All Right” described ad nauseum as a lesbian – or perhaps more coyly, liberal – drama. With the film having been adopted by Focus Features, who recently had success with “Brokeback Mountain” and “Milk,” it seems likely the tag will stick, particularly if award season beckons.
But such a label, however well-intentioned, does a disservice to Cholodenko’s admirable avoidance of social tract. Rather than hectoring its audience to accept its characters as normal, this film goes one better by doing just that, and not commenting on the matter any further.
In a slight rarity, the year’s Best Supporting Actor category reflected the Screen Actors Guild nominees 100% this season. Nominations for Alfred Molina and Alec Baldwin at the BAFTA Awards weren’t enough to generate enough cross-over support, while Christian McKay’s late surge couldn’t get him there, either.
What we’re left with is a sleepwalking performance in a dud movie, a spellbinding portrayal from a consistent performer in an indie awards success story, the first nomination for one of the screen’s legends, a tip of the hat to an actor who showed a wide range this season and a multi-lingual piece of work that began its awards run way back at Cannes.
The nominees are:
Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
• David Poland sits down with Mark Boal and, separately, Paul Ottosson and Ray Beckett to talk “The Hurt Locker.” [The Hot Blog]
• Saoirse Ronan talks “The Lovely Bones” across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]
• Chris Jones profiles Roger Ebert, the man and his thumbs. [Esquire]
And you thought there was nothing charitable about “Inglourious Basterds.” Tomorrow, L.A.’s Upper Playground Gallery, in conjuction with The Weinstein Company, will be hosting an exhibition of alternative poster art for the film from a range of contemporary artists. The posters will be sold in aid of Red Cross Haiti drive.
With the noble stuff out the way, I can also add that some of the artwork is pretty damn cool. This one by Grotesk is my favorite; you can view the rest here.
[Source: Upper Playground]
Berlin International Film Festival
It took six days and an awful lot of films, but the Berlinale has finally turned up a masterpiece. Moreover, it’s a rare case of one of the fest’s most eagerly awaited titles managing to meet, and even subvert, expectations.
“The Illusionist,” French animator Sylvain Chomet long-gestating follow-up the 2003 Oscar nominee “The Triplets of Belleville,” confirms a truly singular auteur sensibility, while revealing a more disciplined artist and storyteller within. A streamlined character study, less deliriously eccentric in tone and structure than his debut feature, “The Illusionist” nonetheless boasts an emotional heft that handsomely repays its creator’s restraint.
Those who have been following the project will already know the reason for the newfound calm in Chomet’s quirk. “The Illusionist” is based on a previously unfilmed script by the late comic master Jacques Tati, and the film plays as a fascinating across-the-decades collaboration between two distinct voices (though given their shared preference for amusingly garbled dialogue, perhaps “distinct” isn’t the word) of French comedy: the tangling of Tati’s genial situational humor with Chomet’s more extravagant flights of fancy proves mutually enhancing.
Intrepid publicists worked diligently last month to float the idea that Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” due to it’s healthy critics awards take, was in a position to upset the presumed frontrunner in the animated feature category: “Up.” Of course, at the time, no one in the media helping that story along bothered to point out that, well, the opinions of the critics don’t matter a whole lot when it comes to how the Academy votes at large.
Left in the cold a bit during that discussion was “Coraline,” which opened way back in February — a full year ago — and maintained a steady course through the spring, summer and, eventually, the awards season. In fact, given the evidence presented by the Annie Awards, it’s possible that Henry Selick’s film would have a leg up on “Fantastic Mr. Fox” as the true competition in a field many have already chalked up to the Pixar contender.
I spoke to Selick earlier in the season and Gaiman quite recently about their work on the project. Gaiman had Selick in mind from the beginning, dating back to his first viewing of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” 16 years ago, while Selick put a lot of trademark care into fleshing out a tangible world from Gaiman’s words. The result is one of the finest animated films in a banner year for the medium.
When People Magazine’s annual issue dedicated to the “100 Most Beautiful People” hits stands in May, you can expect at least one of the year’s Oscar contenders for Best Actress to make an appearance: Gabourey Sidibe.
The special issue, which charted a list of 50 up until 2006, is dedicated to spotlighting the most beautiful individuals in the world, and truly, the magazine’s editors couldn’t have made a better choice for inclusion than the infectious, bubbly and delightful Sidibe, Oscar-nominated, of course, for her work in “Precious.” This is a perspective that began way back in October when she made that first vibrant appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Congrats to her.
This announcement will hit via press release in the trades tomorrow (EDIT: Strike that, it looks like the release has now gone out, maybe due to this early report.), but since the news has already appeared in the form of a blog post last month from director Doug Liman, and since I confirmed it with Geoffrey Fletcher during a telephone interview this afternoon, I don’t see the harm in jumping the gun.
The “Precious” screenwriter will follow up his Oscar nomination with a script based on the Attica prison uprising for Liman. The project was set up in December and is a personal endeavor for the director. Liman’s father, Arthur L. Liman, was the young lawyer who ran the investigation during the uprising.
The ultimate report was “a riveting page-turner,” Liman says in this 30ninjas blog entry. “But the people whose job it was to prosecute the crimes wanted my father to reveal who had admitted to what. When my father refused, they threatened to hold him in contempt of court and throw him in jail.”
Assembling the assets for my annual take on the best single shots of the year was more of a chore this time around than ever. Perhaps one need only look to a lackluster list of Oscar nominees in the Best Cinematography category to gauge just how underwhelming much of the work behind the camera was in 2009. In fact, just one shot from a film shortlisted by the Academy in the field showed up on the list.
And yet, 2009 brought my personal pick for the best cinematography of the decade. Quite the paradox, I know.
So a note on that. Anthony Dod Mantle’s work on Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” was the most compelling, the most thematically resonant, the most daring work of the last 10 years. But when it came to putting together my list, I could not, for the life of me, decide on an image that would make a solid entry from the film.
To be perfectly honest, I can’t even decide on one that stands out as a specific piece of identity for its visual aesthetic. One possibility would have been quite X-rated, while a handful of others seemed too much of a piece with an overall vision to be singled out. So the film is not on the list.
At the end of the day, however, I came around to a streamlined, varied collective that represents, for me, a nice cross-section of visions, genres and, certainly, budgets. We’ve once again rounded up the perspectives from the DPs recognized this year, though two instances saw a necessity to quote the director rather than a proper cinematographer. But we’ll get into those tomorrow.
For now, let me offer the same sentiment I did last year: 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. Thanks for your patience as I put it together, and I hope you enjoy the list.
Without further ado…
Speaking of sound, I stumbled across this panel of sound engineers from “Avatar” over at SoundWorks Collection, well worth a look:
This year marked the first year in recent memory that the Motion Picture Sound Editors offered up its list of nominees prior to the Oscar nominations announcement rather than after. Generally that batch of tea leaves is therefore elusive for those of us looking for indicators along the way.
Nevertheless, there wasn’t a huge shift in ideology form the mixing field to the editing field. Four films crossed over while the one that pushed through here certainly isn’t as deserving as the one that was nixed, but c’est la vie. I get the feeling there was some chummy autopilot voting going on there, but it’s a relatively solid batch of competitors anyway.
The nominees are:
“Avatar” (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
“The Hurt Locker” (Paul N.J. Ottosson)
“Inglourious Basterds” (Wylie Stateman)
“Star Trek” (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
“Up” (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)
This is a bit outrageous. Mike Fleming is reporting at Deadline Hollywood Daily that the original song nominees will not be asked to perform the tracks on the telecast:
Explanations include that the songs never delivered ratings, and that is what this Oscarcast is all about. That not having the big production numbers will move the show along. That it will save money for distributors, who eat most of the costs (up to 7 figures) of schlepping singers in. That unless a song by Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Sting or U2 were nominated, most of the worldwide audience is hearing the tune for the first time when it is sung. I mean, can anybody besides Tom Bernard or Michael Barker from Sony Pictures Classics hum a few bars of “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36?
Dear Academy: I don’t think we can possibly bend over any further.
Film festivals have a curious way of either dulling one’s critical faculties or provoking them to an impolite degree. I almost never walk out of a screening under normal circumstances; at a festival, while compressing five-odd films into one day, it’s almost life-affirming to do so.
Such was the case yesterday, halfway through “Caterpillar,” a Competition entry from widely admired Japanese veteran Koji Wakamatsu. An apparent Oshima knockoff combining catatonic narrative inertia with visual dinginess, it centers on a mute, limbless Sino-Japanese War vet rebuilding his relationship with his wife: “rebuilding his relationship” being a euphemism for working his way through the paraplegic Kama Sutra.
After a sufficient number of po-faced sex scenes, interspersed with shots of cherry-blossom to indicate the passing of seasons — the film, it seems, was edited with a blunt axe — Tim turned to me and whimpered, “I can’t take it anymore.” We bailed and headed for “Gentlemen Broncos” instead; and you know now how that worked out.
The film has its champions, mind. And I’m now convinced it will win something on Saturday just to spite me. After the cut, however, are three films I happily sat through in their entirety.
Creative Screenwriting senior editor, Jeff Goldsmith, always bites off a lot when he lines up a massive panel of the year’s screenplay nominees to discuss the evolution of their work each year, which leads to any number of publicists grumbling in the shadows about the time overage. Last night’s panel was supposed to run until 8:30 but Goldsmith was still hammering away at 8:45. But he always asks well-considered, engaging questions and writers being writers, they have plenty to say.
The panelists included Nick Hornby, Alessandro Camon, Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, Geoffrey Fletcher, Terri Tatchell, Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner. Quentin Tarantino, Mark Boal and Oren Moverman were scheduled to attend but bailed out at the last minute, while the Coen brothers — no shock here — were never going to be there. So Goldsmith almost nailed down nine of the 10 nominated films.
It was a great discussion with plenty of insights. Goldsmith asked about defying genre, which he judged to be the connective quality of all the work represented by the panel, what the re-writing process was like for all involved, how they made it through the agony of staring at a blank page, etc.
