In Contention

Tag: Blue Velvet

  • 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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  • INTERVIEW: Dennis Hopper

    Dennis HopperThe voice on other end of the line sounds nothing like the many wild and somewhat insane characters Dennis Hopper has portrayed throughout his career, which now spans more than 50 years. This is a man who has walked with James Dean (his mentor), John Wayne (who affectionately labeled him a “pinko”) and Francis Ford Coppola.

    As a director, Hopper was part of the movement that would bring the New American Cinema into play, closing the 1960s with his biker flick “Easy Rider,” and though he won prizes at Cannes and was hailed around the world, he has rarely directed since.

    Hopper portrayed perhaps the single most terrifying character in a film with his seething work as Frank Booth in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.’  The same year he was nominated for an Oscar for his work as the town drunk seeking redemption with his son through basketball in “Hoosiers.”  Even Hopper was stunned that the Academy failed to nominate him for Lynch’s film instead.  He remembers roaring, “HOOSIERS?  You’re kiddin’ me, man” when being told of the nomination. “Blue Velvet” was a film the Academy obviously feared, allowing a single nomination to David Lynch for his dreamy, surrealistic direction of the classic.

    Currently Hopper is celebrating the upcoming DVD release and a low-key Oscar campaign for Best Supporting Actor in “Elegy,” a fine little film in which he portrays the poet best friend of Ben Kingsley’s introspective professor — Sir Ben as Hopper calls him.

    “I was a big fan of Isabel’s [Coixet, the film’s director] work”, he explains. “So when my agent called and said I had an offer to be in a film with Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, I jumped in. It was a very human story, the sort of film I like to see, and being a big fan of Philip Roth helped me along. The film had comedy and tragedy, and most of all characters I think we can all identify with.”

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  • THE LISTS: In Contention’s top 20 horror films of all time

    228 Days LaterYes, how trite.  Another list of the “best” horror films of all time.  But this really is the most subjective of genres, is it not?  What is scary to us all has slipped out of the realm of the universal and become much more of a personal thing.

    Certain films are inarguable, as our list certainly reflects here and there.  But across the landscape of horror filmmaking, you find perhaps the broadest range of creativity in the medium.  So it goes without saying that a list such as this ought to be varied.

    Unlike the other lists we’ve featured here at In Contention, our rundown of the 20 best horror films of all time did not spring from the mind of this writer or that, but is instead representative of the collective.  We’ve polled each of our six contributors to ascertain their high marks in the genre and, through a complicated process of tabulation that involved thorough computation, lots of late nights and perhaps an abacus as well, the list was whittled down to the 20 films you see here.

    There are mainstays aplenty, but we think you’ll be surprised by a few of the entries.  Each of us hold very different opinions, as should be expected when you get a southerner L.A. transplant, an Arkansas law professor, two Toronto natives 20 years apart in age, a north easterner who recently made the trek out west and a humble Brit.

    We hope you enjoy the list.

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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?