In Contention

Tag: Atom Egoyan

  • García Bernal among names added to Cannes jury

    Just over a week away from the announcement of the official selection for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and any festival-related news is received gratefully by the blogging community. Today, those who deemed Tim Burton too “Hollywood” a choice as this year’s jury president might be appeased by a host of more arthouse-leaning names lined up for jury duty.

    Chief among them are actors Gael García Bernal and Giovanna Mezzogiorno, both worthy selections to join Burton on the competition jury; that announcement surely means Bernal starrer “Even the Rain,” a Spanish-language epic telling parallel stories of Christopher Columbus and Bolivia’s Water Wars, will not appear in competition, as some speculated it might. Thanks to Anne Thompson for passing along the news.

    More exciting to me is the news that Claire Denis, one of the greatest filmmakers at work today, will be presiding over the Un Certain Regard section, where she herself competed with “I Can’t Sleep” in 1994. It’s a nice gesture towards a filmmaker who isn’t quite the Cannes fixture you might expect — she hasn’t been represented at the fest since “Trouble Every Day” played out of competition in 2001. Atom Egoyan, meanwhile, will head up the Cinéfondation jury.

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  • LONDON: ‘Chloe,’ ‘Leaving’

    Julianne Moore in ChloeI realize I’ve dropped the ball somewhat with my festival updates — between the to-and-fro of festival business, other writing tasks and the occasional impulse to have a personal life, a backlog longer than I care to count has accumulated of films yet to be discussed. Expect that to be partially rectified over a quieter weekend … even if I resort to “100 words or less” games.

    However, once more a pair of films seen in relatively close succession demand to be reviewed together. Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe” and Catherine Corsini’s French-language “Leaving” overlap in a number of ways.

    Both are slickly accessible thrillers revolving around marital infidelity, both use that as cover for a less mainstream investigation of middle-aged female sexuality, and both are anchored by formidable actresses — Julianne Moore and Kristin Scott Thomas, respectively — in full possession of their powers.

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  • On acting

    Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlWhat constitutes a great performance?  What makes it something that puts it head and shoulders above the rest?  What does an artist do to go to that level of art and achieve something that is both extraordinary and rare?

    Does the Academy, or rather the branch that nominates the actors, look as closely at performance as critics do?  Is a performance considered great because it is an Oscar-winning piece of acting or nominated for one of the acting prizes?

    An actor reads a script and likes both the character he or she is being offered and the story on the page. The actor accepts, and begins (we hope) work on the character.  A year or so later, after shooting and cutting the film, on the screen in front of us the actor’s work will be seen and judged, commented on, praised, perhaps showered with accolades or negative comments, perhaps winning an Oscar or a Razzie, maybe becoming discussed for years to come, or forgotten moments after seeing it.

    I doubt, seriously, that an actor accepts a role with any of that in mind. Perhaps I am overly idealistic, but I hope actors accept roles because they are trying (always) to evolve as an artist, to discover something different in their acting and themselves, and to do something they have never done before. Of the many actors I have interviewed over the years, most of them take a role based on something that speaks to them in the screenplay.

    Meryl Streep once told that me she seeks something that “touches my soul” while Robert Duvall looks for a character that is “real, something that will challenge me, but he has to be real.” Tom Cruise said he “likes to try different things each time out, and hopes he does the part justice”, while Hilary Swank looks “for something that speaks to me, as though the character were whispering to me.”

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  • TORONTO: ‘The Road,’ ‘Bad Lieutenant,’ ‘Chloe’

    Chloe(Please note, as opposed to Kris and Guy, I tend to grade films on a 5-star scale.)

    Loads to catch up on today and some interviews still to write up. First off, I have to confess that I disagree with Kris’s review of “The Road,” respectfully of course, and I think I have a reason why I might have viewed and appreciated the film in a very different light than he.  I also saw Werner Herzog’s “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” which features a hugely entertaining performance from Nicolas Cage, and the latest from Atom Egoyan, “Chloe,” which features a splendid performance from Amanda Seyfreid.

    Let’s dig in…

    “The Road” (****)

    This was a dark and unsettling film based on the brilliant book by Cormac McCarthy about a father (Viggo Mortensen) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) journeying to the south after the world has essentially seen its end of days. We are never really given a clear explanation as to what happened, but the vague description we do get sounds like nuclear war finally came, and the planet is dying a slow death.  Trees are dead, there is nothing alive or growing anymore, the world is a gray and dreary place, as though hell had suddenly burst forth from the bowels of the earth.  The south brings warmer weather, which is what the man and his son need, he believes, to survive, and survivial is what the film is about.

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  • ‘Young Victoria’ to close TIFF, Egoyan’s ‘Chloe’ added

    Rupert Friend and Emily Blunt in The Young VictoriaToronto is obviously digging the corsets this year. Weeks after Jon Amiel’s Charles Darwin biopic “Creation” was announced as the opening film of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, fest organizers have revealed that Jean-Marc Vallée’s “The Young Victoria” will close proceedings.

    This choice of bookends gives an odd symmetry to the festival schedule: both films are (or appear to be, since I haven’t seen “Creation” yet) old-fashioned Anglocentric period biopics with minimal buzz.

    The choice of “Victoria” is an unsurprising one, given that Vallée is a hometown boy whose last, considerably more interesting, effort “C.R.A.Z.Y.” won the Best Canadian Feature award at the 2005 festival. But it’s a disappointingly stiff choice for such a prime spot.

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  • The professional

    Liam NeesonIt’s not as if we were short of reasons to admire Liam Neeson in the first place. The man is a remarkable actor, by all accounts an intelligent, decent human being, and even in the face of his wife’s untimely passing, has always managed to keep his private life laudably, well, private.

    But even by his own stand-up guy standards, Neeson went above and beyond the call by returning to the set of Atom Egoyan’s new thriller “Chloe” to complete his scenes, a mere week after Natasha Richardson’s death. A deeply impressed Egoyan says:

    “He was very committed to the film and finishing his role, and he didn’t need to come back that soon … But he really thought it would be best for the film, and it was just such an unspeakably generous thing for him to do. And he’s an extraordinary, extraordinary person.”

    As for the film itself, I must say I’m intrigued. Egoyan, Neeson (who co-stars with Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried) and ultra-left-field scripter Erin Cressida Wilson (“Secretary”) occupy very different artistic spheres in my mind — given the auteur’s patchy form of late, the combination could get messy. Still, together with Sundance winner “Five Minutes of Heaven” (in which he does sterling work), it indicates a move into the kind of gutsy arthouse territory Neeson hasn’t entered much in recent years.

    In any case, Neeson’s recent mini-comeback has been one of the more pleasantly surprising developments of the past year. “Taken,” for all its sleeper success, was a rote effort, while you may recall I was none too impressed with “The Other Man” — but it’s encouraging to see a 56 year-old thesp (and one who has always seemed more comfortable as an actor than a star) getting major leading-man roles. Meanwhile, “Lincoln” and “Clash of the Titans” await him. Score one for the good guys.

  • Oscar nominations that made me cheer

    Over the years I have been watching and studying the Oscars in earnest, since about 1974 (age 13).  It has always been a nice surprise when an unexpected actor, director or film made the cut to the final five.  It’s a special kind of high.

    I remember reacting with surprise and genuine happiness when Giancarlo Giannini was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in “Seven Beauties,” but even better was the inclusion of Lina Wertmuller, the film’s director (becoming the first woman ever to receive a designation in the directing category — nd for a foreign language film, no less).  I loved the film, so this put me over the moon, even though Giannini’s nod likely cost John Wayne his nomination for “The Shootist.”

    In 1997 it was Atom Egoyan, nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Sweet Hereafter,” a brilliant study of grief in small town Canada; the L.A. Times named it the best film of the year but up here in Canada, we never expected Oscar attention for Atom and his film.

    I was equally thrilled when Martin Scorsese was rewarded with a nomination for his direction of “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a bold, passionate film made from the heart by one of our greatest directors.

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  • Thrilling Oscar nominees…when the Academy took a chance

    Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of ChristI love it when the Academy steps out and provides us with a genuine shock that is so richly deserved you feel like weeping for joy that they got it…they really got it.

    For all the ranting I do about the Academy’s lack of vision, every so often they pull something out of the air that so defies the odds, so stuns the critics and Oscar forecasters, it is a hearty reminder that these people do love film.

    I think the first time I really stood and cheered a shocking inclusion was Martin Scorsese’s directing nomination for “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a powerful film that it took a great deal of courage to make, and an equal amount for the Academy to acknowledge given the storm of controversy the film faced upon release.

    I remember going to see “Last Temptation” on opening day and asking one of the men picketing the film what he had thought. “Oh I haven’t seen it,” he stated, “my church warned me against it.” It was a clear indication of the power of religion over the masses.

    Two years earlier I championed David Lynch’s being nominated for “Blue Velvet,” a dark and frightening film that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel dissed at every turn. What would have made the year complete would have been a nomination for Dennis Hopper in the film as opposed to his supporting nod for “Hoosiers.”

    In 1998 as I cheered when Canada’s Atom Egoyan found his way to the Best Director list for his haunting “The Sweet Hereafter.”  The film had been named the year’s best by the Los Angeles Times and finished runner-up for Best Picture and Best Director in the New York Film Critics Circle voting. Not only was this a huge accomplishment for Egoyan, a uniquely gifted director, but for Canadian cinema.

    Just last year, Sarah Polley was nominated for her screenplay “Away From Her,” which also earned Julie Christie a nod for best actress. In my opinion Polley should have been a nominee for Best Director as well.

    I guess I wonder today, in this age of super Oscar campaigns, does the Academy really sit up and take notice of the daring work, or should most of the credit rest at the feet of savvy PR pushes?  I have to think, at least in a number of cases, it has to be the Academy.  The aforementioned films did not have the money to spend on any major campaign, of course.

    So that leaves me feeling good about the AMPAS and what they are doing, despite my moaning.  They are still watching and appreciating art in cinema, and the proof shines through form time to time.

    Any bold choices you can think of to celebrate?

  • TIFF adds Canadian titles

    TorontoIf there is a single aspect to the Toronto International Film Festival I enjoy most, it is the fact that the programmers have never lost sight of the event’s original mandate: showcasing homegrown talent in this country.

    Alongside the films that will no doubt be in the thick of this year’s Oscar season, a number of wonderful Canadian films will also earn rave reviews, stun critics and the audiences that see them, and then quietly disappear, perhaps never to be released or heard from again. Such is the legacy of Canadian celluloid. And it is quite the maddening reality, since so many wonderful films are made here by directors other than Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and Deepa Mehta, which is not meant to be a slam on them.

    Already announced are the Canadian films “Adoration” — the latest from Atom Egoyan, previously an Oscar nominee for “The Sweet Hereafter” — and “Passchendale,” the opening night Gala film from director Paul Gross, which is shaping up to be the most aniticpated film of the festival thus far. Yesterday festival organizers announced a number of other titles thatw ill make their North American and world premieres in September during the ten days of TIFF.

    “Fifty Dead Men Walking” is the new film from Kari Skogland, who last helmed the adaptation of “The Stone Angel,” a premiere last year. Jim Sturgess of “Across the Universe” portrays a young man sent to infiltrate and spy on the IRA from within its ranks. Sir Ben Kingsley co-stars with Sturgess.

    Former “Dawson’s Creek” star Joshua Jackson will be seen in “One Week,” a new film from director Michael McGowan about a young man who impulsivlely buys a motorcycle and escapes his mundane life to become utterly reckless.

    Deepa Mehta, Oscar-nominated in 2005 for her seminal film “Water,” is back at the festival this year with “Heaven on Earth,” a study of a woman who travels from India to Canada and is hit with culture shock. Bollywood star Preity Zinta stars.

    Renegade director Bruce McDonald, here last year with Ellen Page and “The Tracey Fragments,” is back with his new zombie thriller “Pontypool” and we also have Canada’s first stop-motion animated feature “Edison and Leo,” which seems to have Oscar written all over it.

    From Quebec we will have “Lost Song,” a new film from the fine director Rodrigue Jean about a couiple dealing with the depression of the wife after a move to a summer cottage, and “Maman est chez le coiffeus” from Lea Pool, which explores a separation as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old child.

    I keep looking for some major anouncements to come but as always the programmers save those for last. Keep reading for reactions to the announcements each Wednesday.

  • Movies that Oscar missed

    As film junkies, we all know it happens. Usually every single year there are one or more films the Academy passes over for Best Picture consideration, in some cases because there are, after all, just five slots available, but in others because, well — they blew it.

    Like the rest of you, I sit and listen to the nominees announced live every January and have never had a year when I did not roll my head and ask to no one in particular, “Where is such and such or so and so?”

    I mean for me, the great honor is the nomination, because when “Kramer vs. Kramer” defeats “Apocalypse Now” for Best Picture, how can you possibly take the winners seriously? However, a nomination — that is decidedly different.

    Where was the Best Picture nod for John Ford’s masterful “The Searchers,” arguably the greatest American western ever made? And Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” which redefined the horror genre?

    Since 1980 there have been a number of truly brilliant films passed over, leaving this critic often shaking his head in disgust, though I get over quick enough to watch the damned awards…talk about hooked. But it amazes me how “The Empire Strikes Back” can be a better film than “Star Wars,” yet not be nominated in the big race. Ditto Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out,” possibly the finest film of his career, ignored in every category despite its artistic mastery. The very same year Milos Forman gave us “Ragtime,” a much stronger film than “Chariots of Fire,” which won the Oscar, or even “On Golden Pond,” one of the five nominees!

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  • As Cannes winds down, TIFF looms…

    With Cannes on the downswing, it becomes time to to start making preparations for the annual Toronto International Film Festival, for which screening announcements begin next month. I have been covering Toronto for more than 15 years and can safely say it is Christmas to a film critic.

    Each September I move into the Delta Chelsea Hotel for the duration of the festival — it makes no sense to make the 90 minute drive home each night as the days begin at dawn and often tie into the following morning. My wife and girls make the drive into the the city for the weekend and swim while I screen. And if time permits, I take Sherri to a Gala screening at Roty Thomson Hall.

    Over the course of each festival I see between 30 and 50 films (50 being my personal high, in fact) and though it sounds like tons of fun, and I would not miss it for the world, it is exhausting to say the least.

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