• Steve Pond lays it all out for “The Descendants” winning Best Picture, trying to make good on his two-year streak (though at least he had seen the other two before making those calls). [The Odds] • At Telluride, meanwhile, Sasha Stone laid down a cool 20-spot on Viola Davis taking Best Actress. (I’m a […]
9/8 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Pond picks Payne, Von Trier steps in it further, Waxman knocks ‘Warrior’ strategy
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:59 am · September 8th, 2011
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Three days left to catch ‘Melancholia’ in LA
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:49 am · July 26th, 2011
I should really have drawn attention to this earlier, but as Jeff Wells pointed out on Hollywood Elsewhere, Lars von Trier’s Cannes hit “Melancholia” began a one-week, once-a-day screening run at Los Angeles’ out-of-the-way Laemmle Fallbrook 7 theatre on Friday — a handy opportunity for local film buffs with free afternoons to sneak a look […]
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Inevitable
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 7:04 pm · May 20th, 2011
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 56 — Special Edition! — Cannes so far, ‘Tree of Life,’ Von Trier, taking the 2011 awards pulse
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:32 am · May 20th, 2011
Welcome to Oscar Talk. In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty […]
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How do you solve a problem like Von Trier?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:10 pm · May 19th, 2011
It couldn’t last. As the closing credits began rolling on Wednesday morning’s 8.30am Cannes press screening of “Melancholia,” Lars Von Trier’s elegant rumination on anxiety, the apocalypse and all those other swell things, I was stunned by how civil the atmosphere in the vast Lumiere theater was. Enthusiastic applause greeted the film — more surprisingly, […]
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Persona non whateva
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:32 am · May 19th, 2011
Guy is on his way to a screening of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” at Cannes right now, but he will eventually get around to addressing Lars Von Trier’s spanking by the festival, which now considers him persona non grata. In the meantime, however, I’ll align myself with this statement from David Poland’s assessment: Is von […]
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REVIEW: “Melancholia” (***1/2)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:32 am · May 19th, 2011
Cannes Film Festival It’s the end of the world as we know it, and Lars von Trier feels fine. Well, not “fine,” exactly: he feels as despairing and sceptical and faithless as he usually does, but that’s clearly where he’s comfortable, and where his creative faculties thrive most actively. They’re certainly in rude health in […]
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CANNES CHECK: ‘Melancholia’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:40 am · May 10th, 2011
The director: Lars von Trier (Denmark) The talent: After the lonesome two-hander that was “Antichrist,” von Trier is back to the all-star ensemble form of “Dogville” — and an eclectic ensemble at that. Taking on the traditionally punishing duties of von Trier’s female lead (though the man maintains she got off lightly) is Kirsten Dunst. […]
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‘Melancholia’ poster
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:48 am · April 28th, 2011
One of the mostly eagerly awaited films of next month’s Cannes Film Festival, Lars von Trier’s latest has just unveiled an international one-sheet — and while it’s less than illuminating, employing only a single (lovely) still we’ve already seen amid an ocean of white space, I’m happy for this one to play coy. Meanwhile, I […]
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Cannes competition includes Malick, Almodóvar, von Trier
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:06 am · April 14th, 2011
After weeks of speculation, this year’s Cannes lineup was unveiled in spectacularly long-winded fashion by fest director Thierry Frémaux this morning. (French TV networks clearly got so bored with his sidebar discussions on each title he announced that they helpfully cut to commercial halfway through the press conference.) Anyway, the speculation was largely borne out […]
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‘Melancholia’ trailer
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:16 am · April 8th, 2011
I’m continuing my 2011 resolution of not watching trailers for films I’m really looking forward to, but for the less ascetic among you, here’s our first glimpse of Lars von Trier’s latest, which will doubtless turn up in next month’s Cannes lineup. As many of you know, I’m always in the tank for von Trier […]
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Robert De Niro to head Cannes jury
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:19 am · January 6th, 2011
Sure, that Cecil B. DeMille Award at the upcoming Golden Globes is nice enough, but this is the greater honour. Robert De Niro has been selected as the president of the competition jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May — the third time this most European of festivals has tapped an American for the […]
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LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 2003 and 2004
Posted by Chad Hartigan · 9:34 pm · December 28th, 2010
Catch up with the idea behind this series here. 2003 belonged to “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” as it won every single award it was up for, tying the all time record haul of 11 trophies. Few could argue that Peter Jackson had accomplished something unique with the execution of […]
Filed in: Life Without Oscar
Bring on spring already
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:39 pm · December 8th, 2010
Okay, I know we’re all jacked up for the next few months of awards-watching, but would anyone mind if we just fast-forwarded straight to May? I’ll miss the Oscars, but frankly, the winter freeze is getting me down, the movies have petered out, and then I read a Cannes-teasing tweet like this from the ever […]
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Annual Fox holiday bash draws filmmakers and talent
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:13 am · December 2nd, 2010
20th Century Fox held its annual holiday party on the roof of the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills last night. It afforded a good opportunity to corral press members into a tight space with talent from the studio’s five awards season contenders. Newly tapped Oscar host Anne Hathaway was on hand (with “Love & Other […]
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INTERVIEW: Willem Dafoe
Posted by John Foote · 7:30 am · November 23rd, 2009
I have thought about little else since seeing Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” at TIFF a few months ago. The astonishing, beautiful images are in my head once a day, the performances have never strayed from my mind. At this writing I still do not know if I liked the film, but I do feel it […]
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THE LONG SHOT: Consider this
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:34 pm · November 18th, 2009
There’s nothing like an Oscar season to prove what a small number five (or even ten) is. We may only be in November, but already, months of conversation, covering a broad canvas of Oscar sure-shots and long-shots alike, have devolved into a ruthless mathematical elimination process, as previously five-wide categories fill up with safe bets. […]
Filed in: The Long Shot
OFF THE CARPET: Original players
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 2:44 pm · November 16th, 2009
When I had the unmitigated gall last week to project a set of winners for this year’s Oscar race, I was a bit startled at how easy Mark Boal’s script for “The Hurt Locker” slid into the Best Original Screenplay slot. Looking over the landscape of contenders in the category, it’s a little obvious why […]
Filed in: Off the Carpet