In Contention

Tag: A Perfect Day for Bananafish

  • Christopher Nolan honored by BAFTA/LA

    As if you needed reminding that this is a pretty good summer for a certain Mr. Christopher Nolan, BAFTA/LA — the Anglo-American wing of the British Academy — has handed him their annual John Schlesinger Award for artistic excellence in directing. The award will be presented at their 2010 Britannia Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on November 4.

    You’d be well advised not to read too much into this award as far as general BAFTA voting goes: last year, Emily Blunt was named British Artist of the Year by BAFTA/LA for her performance in “The Young Victoria,” and received not so much as a BAFTA nomination for her pains. Shared acronym aside, the two awards ceremonies bear little relation to each other.

    Indeed, Nolan is the first filmmaker to land this particular gong in a year that could even be deemed his for the owning. Previously, BAFTA/LA has had a habit of rewarding directors the year after a notable achievement on their part: Danny Boyle in 2009, Stephen Frears in 2008, Martin, uh, Campbell in 2007, and so on. Clearly, they feel that “Inception” is an achievement that warrants less delayed recognition — which may or may not be significant.

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  • J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

    The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerHow eerily sad that exactly one year ago, I wrote a short piece mourning the passing of John Updike, one of my literary heroes and chief inspirations to become a writer. Today, the news has arrived that J.D. Salinger, the man joining Updike at the top of my personal pantheon, has followed him to the smoky writer’s study in the sky.

    January 27 is clearly not a lucky day for American literature.

    I first read “The Catcher in the Rye” when I was 10 years old. As banal as it is to say, and as innumerable as the people are who have said the same thing before me, it’s a book that changed my life. I suspect Holden Caulfield has served as a guide for many a curious child into the daring delights of “grown-up books,” but it wasn’t just the character or the story that held me in thrall — it was the flip, jazzy elegance of the writing itself.

    As a kid whose twin passions were reading and watching movies, Salinger taught me that a book could read like a movie, that prose could bend and bounce like verbal dialogue.

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