In Contention

Tag: London River

  • Things of beauty: Guy’s best of 2009

    Julianne Moore and Colin Firth in A Single ManThe year of the woman. The year of animation. The year of science-fiction. Depending on who you read (and believe), the final year of the decade has been an awful lot of things.

    If you’re with Kris, it’s also the best cinematic year of the last ten. If you’re with an awful lot of others, it’s quite the opposite. I’ll stop short of rewriting the first page of “A Tale of Two Cities,” but suffice to say it’s been different things to different people.

    What kind of year has it been for me? I think I’ll need another year to figure that out in detail. But as I compiled the list you’re about to read, I happily concluded that it’s been, at the very least, a good one: the 25 titles gathered here were jotted down with minimal brain-racking, with still more fighting from the sidelines.

    None of them are grudging inclusions, either: I sincerely liked most of these titles too much to allow room for popular or critical phenomena that are worthy of respect, but nonetheless didn’t connect with me personally. There was a sufficient range of quality work in 2009 (following a lean 2008) that any film lover could afford to construct his own playlist of future treasures without resorting to consensus.

    Before we begin, a note on the construction of the list. In addition to my Top 10, there are 15 honorable mentions here, five of them singled out for extra consideration. Some of you will quibble that I opt to include international or festival releases that have yet to surface in the U.S.

    (more…)

  • If I had a ballot

    Sam Worthington in AvatarEvery year I like to keep track of personal favorites throughout the Academy’s designated categories (plus one of my own addition, Best Ensemble). At the end of the year, my “if I had a ballot” post is the result.

    Of course, for the most part, I follow Academy designations here. If something is ruled ineligible, I play along. It’s not that often that something like that is egregious anyway, though the music branch consistently tests my resolve on the matter.  In years past I’ve tried to make it an AMPAS/critics’ awards hybrid kind of thing, but this makes it easier.

    I know, I know.  “Why don’t you just list what you think should be nominated, the rules be damned?”  Because then I couldn’t call it “If I had a ballot?”  But I guess I’m contradicting myself by adding a category.  I don’t know.  I’m just trying not to be too lamely definitive or authoritative with something like this, I suppose.

    Anyway, I’m also abstaining from offering up a list of foreign language nods. Firstly, I feel it’s been a rather weak year in general there, but I also haven’t made my way fully through the list of submissions either. So I’ll address that another time.  The same goes with he doc features, as I’d rather push through more of the eligible titles first.

    This year the top 10 is the Best Picture field, obviously, and from there, I toss my two cents into a variety of discussions. Here’s what I came up with…

    (more…)

  • Golden Globes announce more inclusive foreign-language list

    Penelope Cruz in Broken EmbracesAny regular Oscar-watcher is familiar with the finicky rules and regulations that, year in and year out, keep some of the year’s most talked-about foreign-language titles from contending for the Oscar.

    Happily, the Golden Globes have fewer restrictions — unlike AMPAS, they permit more than one film per country in the competition, and don’t rely on the official submissions of the countries themselves. The result is a larger, more inclusive field of contenders for the Best Foreign Language Film award, as demonstrated by this longlist of Globe contenders (courtesy of Screen International).

    At 69 titles, it’s only 4 titles longer than the Academy’s list, but the real difference lies in the number of high-profile films in contention. For example, while France’s profilic industry is only represented by “A Prophet” for the Oscars, the Globes allow such titles as “Coco Before Chanel,” “The Girl on the Train” and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Micmacs” to join it in the race.

    (more…)

  • Brenda Blethyn angles for Oscar attention in ‘London River’

    Brenda Blethyn in London RiverAmid the surfeit of underdog titles vying for Oscar glory, a special prize for maximum cojones should go to the producers of indie Brit drama “London River,” who are mounting a campaign for Brenda Blethyn’s superb lead performance — despite the obstacle of the film lacking a US distributor.

    The film (which was disqualified as Algeria’s Oscar entry due to excessive English dialogue) has just begun a week-long qualifying run in L.A., and if you happen to be around, you owe it to yourself to give it a look.

    As I wrote in my June review of the film from the Edinburgh fest, it’s a quiet, humane piece dealing with the still-sensitive subject of the London terrorist attacks of July 2005. Despite this political currency, the film doesn’t draw overt attention to itself — but it affords Blethyn her finest showcase since “Secrets and Lies,” tempering the familiar rhythms of distraught-parent drama with less flattering streaks of prejudice and self-absorption.

    (more…)

  • The odd couple

    I … have no words. Let’s hope that Oscar campaign for “London River” picks up steam, shall we?

    poster for Dead Man Running

  • 10/30 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sotigui Kouyate and Brenda Blethyn in London River• Brian Lowry on how The Ten is an Oscarcast producer’s nightmare. [Variety]

    • With Hugh Jackman out, Jeff Wells thinks the Oscars need to skew younger with their host. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • The producers of “London River” launch a deserved Oscar campaign for Brenda Blethyn, despite still lacking US distribution. [Notes on a Season]

    (more…)

  • OFF THE CARPET: Looking at the leading ladies

    Helen Mirren in The Last StationNow is the time when everyone begins assessing the race at its beginnings, and the gist I’m getting is that no one really knows what to write about.  Stabs at analysis end up being responses to other takes or rehashed arguments, and nothing really insightful is being brought to the table.

    And let’s face it.  As we dip into what looks to be the longest early-season lull in some time, there really is nothing insightful to offer.  So let’s just spit-ball…

    I think the Sony Classics acquisition of “The Last Station” is more significant than most seem to be aware right now.  There are only a handful who have seen it (Telluride being the film’s only festival stop so far), so that’s understandable.  And the film isn’t a knock-out, one that will be damned as merely efficient in some circles.  But with Helen Mirren in the lead actress race, it’s worth noting that suddenly that category is further framed as the old guard versus the new.

    And I may be wrong in my conviction, but I have to say it again: Mirren is VERY much in this race.  As the fiery Countess wife of a literary titan, she brings equal parts passion and delicacy to a complicated, certainly flawed character.  She’s afforded a number of moments that give her room to chew the scenery, and if Christopher Plummer happens to ride a wave of sentiment to a nomination as well, part of me feels that he will owe something to Mirren’s coattails.

    My predictions for the leading ladies this week are Mirren, Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe and, my weak link, Marion Cotillard (who is expected to be a lead actress push for “Nine,” but things could change).  In that collective we have three former winners, two legends of the form, two newbies and one performer shifting into the second gear of her career.  I think that’s a pretty good balance.

    (more…)

  • Foreign film news and notes — 40 films so far

    Anne Dorval in I Killed my MotherANOTHER UPDATE: Thanks to emails for keeping me on track here, but there are some titles I failed to mention.  The number is up to 40 now.

    EARLIER: Anne Thompson is reporting that Denmark has submitted “Terribly Happy.”  And Nat has Mexico’s entry as “Backyard.”  Make it 31 films.

    STILL EARLIER: Guy is so much better at keeping track of this stuff than I am. But some things of note recently:

    Serbia has switched it’s entrant from “Here and There” to “Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu” (“St. George Shoots the Dragon”).

    “Ded na Si Lolo” will represent the Philippines and Canada has selected “I Killed My Mother.”

    indieWIRE is keeping a nice list of films going, but generally speaking, no one does this category better than Nat Rogers at The Film Experience.

    One newsy-ish item: There is talk of “London River” potentially being the Algerian entry. More than 50% of the film is in French, so it’s possible (and would make a handsome nominee, in my opinion).

    Full list of submitted titles after the jump.

    (more…)

  • TELLURIDE: ‘An Education,’ ‘Bright Star,’ ‘London River’

    London RiverThis year’s Telluride fest is slowly gearing up.  There are a handful of press screenings this afternoon and the opener, Marco Bellochio’s “Vincere,” is set to play at 5:00pm.  I’ll probably miss that in order to take in “The Last Station,” which if it picks up a buyer, could make good on awards potential for Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy.

    Before things get going, though, I though it best to clear the slate with a few reactions to films playing here which I’ve already seen.  More to come later this evening, I’m sure.

    “An Education” (****)

    Few films are likely to have the refined air of artistry that Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” offers.  Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, the story is, in a nutshell, that of a young girl eager to grow up but unprepared for the disappointments of adulthood.  But the film is, of course, so much more than that.

    (more…)

  • EDINBURGH: ‘London River,’ ‘Spread’

    London RiverThe past day has presented me with two films that made their first appearances at high-profile festivals early in the year: Scottish auteur David Mackenzie’s first U.S. effort “Spread” — a “look ma, I can act” venture of sorts for Ashton Kutcher — played at Sundance in January, while Rachid Bouchareb’s “London River” was a favorite (and an award-winner) at February’s Berlinale. Suffice to say that winter festival bows are all these titles have in common.

    LONDON RIVER (***)

    American filmmakers have been combing the ashes of 9/11 for inspiration for some years now, but the British have been far more reticent in taking the London bombings of July 2005. Indeed, it has fallen to Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb (a recent Oscar nominee for his excellent WWII drama “Days of Glory”) to make the first major fictional exploration of this territory, and happily he doesn’t fumble the catch by presuming importance.

    The story of two culturally opposed parents (an impoverished Francophone Muslim and a middle-class British widow) who travel to the eponymous city after the attacks, in search of their missing children, “London River” infuses a standard-issue story of parental grief with social and racial tensions that mine the Western suspicion of Islam that has become commonplace in the wake of 9/11. (“The place is crawling with Muslims!” Brenda Blethyn’s culturally sheltered rural character exclaims about London, in one of the film’s few stabs at humor.)

    (more…)

  • Berlin jury avoids the mainstream

    Perhaps it’s an indication of an unusually low-key festival, or perhaps (more likely) I’ve been too distracted by the steamrolling Oscar season, but either way, I’m a little disturbed that the Berlin Film Festival wrapped up this weekend and I am barely familiar with most of the prizewinning films.

    I had heard some positive things about “London River,” a culture-clash drama from “Day of Glory” helmer Rachid Bouchareb, set around the 2005 London bombings, that gathered some buzz for Brenda Blethyn’s performance — but ended up taking Best Actor for Sotigui Kouyate.

    And I was aware that “Sweet Rush,” which shared the Alfred Bauer Prize (which rewards “new perspectives,” apparently), is the latest from Andrzej Wajda (though word is it’s not one of his best), while I remember the Best Screenplay winner, Iraq-themed US indie “The Messenger,” gathered some notice at Sundance.

    But I must admit that the winner of the Golden Bear, “The Milk of Sorrow,” skipped my radar entirely. The sophomore film from female Peruvian director Claudia Llosa, it’s a solemn-sounding effort about the lifelong trauma inflicted on a child of rape — or, if you want the more sensationalist pitch, a woman with a potato in her nether regions. It seems to have attracted mixed notices — Variety’s review admires from a distance, but Screen International finds it “mannered” and “contrived.”

    Of course, one would expect a jury headed by avante-garde arthouse queen Tilda Swinton to favour the international and the eccentric, so none of this is really a surprise — especially given that they’d made clear their intent to reward politically charged work.

    In any case, the Golden Bear truly hasn’t been any indicator of international success of late — the last few winners include “U-Carmen eKhayelitsha” (which really deserved a higher profile), “Grbavica,” “Tuya’s Marriage” and “Elite Squad.” I have a feeling Llosa’s film isn’t going to have much more luck crossing over, but we’ll see.

    Full list of winners after the cut.

    (more…)