In Contention

Tag: Marion Cotillard

  • OFF THE CARPET: Suiting up

    George Clooney in Up in the AirYou might have noticed this morning’s round-up reverted back to “Oscarweb.”  The big late-summer festival trilogy wrapped up with Toronto’s kudo-dishing over the weekend and on the other side, we face the long haul.  The season is officially here.  You ready?

    As punishing as it feels, I’m still excited for our weekly coverage.  Punishing because monthly diagnosis is so liberating, but we’re at that stage where the nuances of the season are worth tracking closely, the layers of the race peeled back slowly but surely.  Today’s Off the Carpet column kicks all of that off for us at In Contention.

    Tomorrow we’ll have a list dedicated to the best of the Academy’s chosen.  Wednesday, Guy will launch “The Long Shot,” a new weekly awards column that will consider things from afar without the dizzying insider silliness you find in this space every Monday, and I’m really excited for that.  Gerard comes back Thursday for another series of Tech Support columns, and, of course, Anne and I will continue the conversation Friday in our weekly Oscar Talk podcast.  I think we’re covering all bases.

    So, as we go into the season, what do we know?  And do we think we know more than we actually do?  Probably.

    “Up in the Air,” for instance, was the story of September if only because any goodwill toward “Precious” was already a known commodity.  Jason Reitman’s “Juno” follow-up comes along at just the right time for the country, taps into actor George Clooney’s movie star quality to find other insights and pretty much nails a tone, a vibe, an overall sense of things.

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  • Hey, the rest of the year counts too

    Marion Cotillard in Public EnemiesAs we sit in the flurry of festival season, with the even more flurry-ful (sorry, I’m tired) awards season upcoming, everyone’s eyes are pointed forward, as we impatiently await the supposedly Oscar-tailored collection of movies peppered across the next 3 or 4 months.

    At this point, it’s easy to forget that the year is actually 12 months long, and that the warmer seasons offer their (admittedly, usually smaller) share of work worthy of celebration.

    So I’m grateful to friend, reader and generally superb film writer Nick Davis for assembling this handy (though very idiosyncratic) alterna-Oscar ballot of the best work released in 2009 thus far.

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  • 7/6 Web Round-up

    Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince• Ahead of the latest Harry Potter instalment, a profile of no-longer-boy wonder Daniel Radcliffe. [The Guardian]

    • Ever a must-read, Nick Davis continues reviewing the decade, taking on “American Psycho.” [Nick’s Flick Picks]

    • Dredging up the Marion Cotillard 9/11 “controversy” … again? Jeez. [Times of London]

    • Nathaniel Rogers tweaks his Oscar predictions, elevating “The Lovely Bones” to pole position. [The Film Experience]

    • A Brit offers his perspective on the ten-wide Best Picture field … and remains on the fence. [ScreenDaily]

    • List of the day: the top 10 “apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic” movies. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Jim Fusilli chats with “Public Enemies” composer Elliot Goldenthal. [Wall Street Journal]

    • Andrew O’Hehir catches up with the wonderful oddity “Tony Manero,” which is gradually making its way across the the U.S. [Salon]

  • Love your ‘Enemies’

    Marion Cotillard in Public EnemiesI’ve had a busy week, so I’m a bit late to the table on “Public Enemies” — but in a way, it seemed fitting to wait until the 4th of July to watch such a muscular, intrinsically American piece of cinema.

    Much has already been said on these pages about the film, so there’s no need for me to discuss it at great length, but I do want to say how befuddled I am by the numerous lukewarm-to-cool critical reactions out there. I went into the theater with guarded expectations — not being an ardent devotee of Michael Mann’s oeuvre in the first place — only to be greeted by something rare and rather special: a broad, red-blooded blockbuster that is nonetheless tailored specifically for adults.

    Calling it Mann’s finest film since “The Insider” may sound like faint (albeit merited) praise. Perhaps more meaningful is to declare the film — with its elegant synthesis of crisp, confidently linear storytelling and rich, unfussy visual construction — the most completely realized major American studio picture of the last two or three years.

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  • TCM gets in the gangster mood

    Manhattan MelodramaSpeaking of John Dillinger’s final hours, it’s worth pointing out that TCM will be showing a slew of classic gangster titles tonight, including the Clark Gable starrer “Manhattan Melodrama,” which was the last film Dillinger would ever see.  Mann makes considerable thematic use of the film in “Public Enemies,” as noted by critic F.X. Feeney in an exchange with Jeffrey Wells two days ago:

    “I will admit La Cotillard takes the coupe du monde in [Mann’s female characters’] honors, but then she is not only great in herself but that magnificent hall-of-mirrors moment when Dillinger contemplates her angelic double, Myrna Loy, in ‘Manhattan Melodrama.’ It seems to me that here, Mann grandly contradicts the old saw that men’s ‘immortal dreams of women’ are ‘unattainable.’ From where Dillinger sits, that dream has been attained quite fully, thank-you-very-much. A ticklish mystery, this.”

    In addition to “Manhattan Melodrama,” TCM will be showing “Fog Over Frisco,” “G-Men” and the 2008 documentary “The Public Enemies: The Golden Age of Gangster Film.”  Set your DVRs.

  • Respectfully disagree

    Marion Cotillard in Public EnemiesF.X. Feeney, whose Taschen study on the films of Michael Mann is must reading for fans of the director, has gone on the record with Jeffrey Wells as believing the female characters from Mann’s films to be “deeply observed, self-reliant and fully dimensional.”

    The comment follows an earlier Wells posting concerning Marion Cotillard’s strong performance in “Public Enemies,” opening Wednesday.  And while I have all the respect in the world for Feeney and his opinions, I have to respectfully disagree with his take here.

    In writing about Cotillard’s performance in my review of the film, I praised the actress for finding “the right combination of frailty and strength that has defined the few well-developed female characters from Mann’s films,” and I stand by the passing commentary at the end there.  Most of the females in Mann’s work, to my eye, serve as transitional devices more often than not.  Cora Munroe in “The Last of the Mohicans,” Charlene Shiherlis in “Heat” and now, Cotillard in “Enemies,” represent the few examples of the director tapping into women with a compelling trajectory.

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  • “There was something…really dark about me.”

    Marion Cotillard in Public EnemiesWhat is beautiful/sexy anyway these days?  Is classic back in?  Does bombshell still register?  Who knows, but for me, very much so lately, actress Marion Cotillard seems to be a certain embodiment.

    A taste thing, obviously.  Subjective.  But I put her near the head of the pack in a business so hung up on boiler-plate image that it tends to miss gems like Cotillard.  Fortunately, thanks to an Oscar and prime film gigs, audiences Stateside are making her introduction.

    It is with these, perhaps overly dude-ish thoughts that I read Heather Hudson’s unique profile of the actress in London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.  Painting a portrait of depth at the very top of the piece, Hudson begins to capture a quite complicated, attractively thoughtful actress.  The writer details a “propensity for complicated emotion” and conversations concerning “intrinsic worth” that absolutely captivates.  Or maybe it’s just another crush.

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  • REVIEW: “Public Enemies” (***1/2)

    Public EnemiesLos Angeles Film Festival

    There is a moment very early in Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” featured today as the centerpiece exhibition of the Los Angeles Film Festival, when Depression-era criminal John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) stares into the dying eyes of friend and mentor Walter Dietrich (James Russo) as his band of cohorts flees the scene of a somewhat botched prison escape attempt. The sequence is at once curiously beautiful and unmistakably somber, of a piece with the filmmaker’s coldly calculated vision of a man caught up in the freedom of his rebellious lifestyle, yet haunted by the specter of his own obsolescence.

    The film marks an exciting return to muscular, patient storytelling form for Mann. After dubious stabs at commercial appeal in “Collateral” and “Miami Vice,” films that certainly have followers and admittedly plumb thematic depths no other filmmaker would have reached, the director has painted his most resonant character study since 1995’s “Heat.”

    Headlined by an emotive, at times unsettlingly internalized performance by Depp, the film amplifies Mann’s penchant for nuance while marrying it with a well-exercised gift for staging unique if not inimitable action set pieces. But for all the director’s classic cinematic accoutrement, the film nevertheless stands apart from Mann’s portfolio for its fully realized vision of a doomed romance highlighted by, rather than merely peripheral to, the machismo on display.

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  • 5/25 Web Round-up (MEMORIAL DAY EDITION)

    Spider-Man vs. Morbius• Tom O’Neil asks the question of the week: Will Cannes winners repeat at the Oscars? [Gold Derby]

    • On the attraction to Amelia Earhart, featured in two films this year. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Charles McGrath talks to director Sam Raim, whose “Drag Me to Hell” is more fun than it has any right to be. [New York Times]

    • Arbitrary collective of the day: The top 15 movie boats of all time. [Premiere]

    • Nathaniel Rogers stumbles onto a short film series, “Lady Dior,” starring Marion Cotillard from “La Vie en Rose” director Olivier Dahan. [The Film Experience]

    • /Film gets a beautiful new layout. [/Film]

    • William Goss on the latest vampire movie/TV trend, which could extend to…Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 4?” [Cinematical]

  • Casting news galore

    Michael ShannonLots of acting decisions being made today.  Despite the “holiday,” it’s all legit, too.  Well, I can’t vouch for /Film’s points us to the news that a trio of thesps joining Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (each of them listed as “in talks”).  According to Variety, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page are circling the project (and I’m dying to get my hands on that script, by the way).  I wouldn’t mind seeing these three pan out.

    Elsewhere, Michael Shannon joins Mickey Rourke as the second of this year’s Oscar nominated acting class to sign up on a comic franchise.  Shannon and “Arrested Development” star Will Arnett have both been cast in Jimmy Hayward’s “Jonah Hex” among an ensemble that already includes Josh Brolin (in the title role), John Malkovich and Megan Fox.

    I’m stoked for Shannon even without knowing the specific role he’ll take in “Hex.”  Knowing the world of that comic book series, however, I expect he’ll find a nice home for one of his trademark off-kilter portrayals.  Arnett is a weird fit but, well, we’ll see.  I just want the movie to be good.  After “Watchmen,” studios will likely start scrutinizing the wisdom of comic book adaptations.  I don’t want something like “Hex” to come along, screw the pooch and do the very same thing to westerns.

  • Watch this face

    You can’t lose much by making “star is born” pronouncements. If you’re right, you get to brag about your stunning foresight, and if you’re wrong — hey, nobody remembers anyway.

    But back in October last year, as I watched stunning young French ingenue Léa Seydoux illuminate Christophe Honoré’s lovely, woozy teen romance “La Belle Personne,” I was convinced there and then that I was seeing a major talent in the making. The César voters agreed, nominating her for Most Promising Actress. (The film, which you may remember I liked a great deal, got a limited U.S. release over a fortnight ago — catch it if you can.)

    So I was excited to see her name pop up on yesterday’s press release for Ridley Scott’s as-yet-untitled Robin Hood venture. My guess is the role won’t amount to much — but hey, Marion Cotillard did her time as eye candy in a Scott film (let’s not name it, shall we?) a little over two years ago, and she’s doing all right for herself these days.

    Seydoux will also be seen shortly in “Inglourious Basterds.” The girl’s going places, I tell you.

  • On ‘Public Enemies’

    Public EnemeisDuring our week away, materials landed for one of my own most anticipated films of the year: Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies.”  I haven’t taken a moment to really dig in to this yet, but here goes…

    The first thought I had when I saw the trailer was that this is the most un-Mann tease I’ve ever seen.  The latter half montage under Otis Taylor’s “Ten Million Slaves,” however, is vintage Mann, wallowing in the rush of narrative flow, images both beautiful and unusual, it’s all signature.  And for a guy like me who puts Mann on a pretty high pedestal, those final moments are exciting for those reasons.

    No one seems to want to admit the poster is just bad, and that’s fine.  Who wants to sour the mood?  But it screams “studio” and has no artistic focus.  It’s a figment of selling the film first and that’s okay, but it’s graphically awkward and visually impotent.  It says nothing.  Maybe we’ll see another one before release, but truth be told, I’ve never been particularly impressed with a poster for a Mann film.

    I’ve heard Marion Cotillard is quite good in the film, and of course, Johnny Depp looks like he’s cranking out a special performance.  Christian Bale will be nice background flavor but I don’t sense the symbiosis of, say, “American Gangster.”  I wonder if Billy Crudup might finally be on the cusp of “arriving” after nearly a decade of solid work without a real breakthrough to show for it.  His work here could mix with his positive notices for “Watchmen” and make a perfect publicity storm.  Or not.

    I’m most excited at the idea of Mann teaming up with lenser Dante Spinotti after a 10-year break.  I don’t think the director was tinkering with digital very much in their last collaboration, “The Insider,” but it’s become his adopted style as of late and it may or may not work in a period piece such as this.  Ultimately, I think it might make the film too slick to be seen as prestigious.  We’ll see.

    On the whole, I don’t get a big awards vibe from this film.  I think it’s perfectly positioned to make good money but it’s also very much on a “Road to Perdition” trajectory.  Maybe I’m just muting expectations, but I see commercial success, design respect, not much else.  But who cares about Oscars?  I’m stoked.

  • What about Melissa Leo?

    Yesterday, Kris pondered whether Kate Winslet’s Best Actress Oscar is quite the sure thing it appears to be on paper, or whether Meryl Streep can surf in on a tide of veteran goodwill and spoil the Brit’s party yet again.

    I’ve been saying since nomination day that I can’t imagine Winslet losing yet again, least of all for a performance in a Best Picture nominee (the first time she’s had that luxury since her non-starter nomination for “Titanic” in 1997). If she wins the BAFTA on Sunday, as almost everyone suspects she will, her campaign stays comfortably on course; if, however, Streep manages to pull off an upset, I may well change my mind.

    But allow me to play devil’s advocate for a minute. Why has the competition been reduced to two performances that are by no means necessarily the strongest in the lineup? Let’s perform a process of elimination. Streep’s performance has been polarising from the get-go, with the reverberations of Variety’s notably harsh review still being felt in the critical community. (As “Doubt” opens today in the UK, a number of critics find themselves bewildered, with the Guardian describing her work as “beyond absurdity.”)

    Of the competition, Angelina Jolie has drawn even less critical consensus than Streep, so it’s safe to say she’s out of the running. Anne Hathaway looked to be a frontrunner at one point, and barely anyone has a bad word to say about her performance, but judging from the tepid Academy reaction to her divisive film, I can’t help feeling that her ship has sailed. Kate Winslet’s performance has also been widely praised, and it’s clear that a large faction of the Academy appreciates “The Reader” — but it’s still a film with some notable detractors, and not everyone likes the way Harvey Weinstein muscled it into the race.

    And so we arrive at Melissa Leo. In many ways the odd woman out in this year’s star-heavy Best Actress race, she is arguably the one nominee whose performance — and film — have attracted the least criticism from any quarter. Critics have showered superlatives upon Leo’s raw, career-defining performance, with the venerable Roger Ebert singling her out as his favourite of the nominees.

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  • Say it right

    Last week, I wondered whether Mickey Rourke’s eccentric, yet moving, acceptance speech at the Golden Globes could bolster his chances with the Academy. It may sound like a trivial concern, but the fact remains that Rourke’s speech was a talking point, a bona fide ‘moment’ that made for great TV — and if Roberto Benigni has taught us anything, it’s that onstage personality goes a long way with the Academy. In a tight race, the promise of a memorable acceptance can be just enough to push a contender past the finish line.

    Now, Dave Karger is addressing the flipside of the question, and asking whether the relatively sloppy acceptance speeches of Anne Hathaway and Kate Winslet, at the BFCA Awards and Golden Globes respectively, could actually damage their Oscar campaigns:

    Upon sharing the Critics Choice prize with her idol, Meryl Streep, Hathaway — who certainly meant to say this a bit more artfully — said it was “fitting” that she tied for the prize with Streep since she thought the Doubt star was the best actress around. But it came off condescending to all the other actresses in the room, particularly her category-mates like Angelina Jolie and Melissa Leo. The usually composed Winslet, meanwhile, nearly had a heart attack when she won her two Golden Globe prizes. To many people, the reactions seemed over-the-top. Or worse, fake.

    It must have been overwhelming for both of them to hear their names called. But on the other hand, let’s remember that both of these awards are handed out by groups of journalists, for God’s sake — people that big stars like Hathaway and Winslet usually don’t give a hoot about. Why should they then fall to pieces over what those journalists think about them?

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  • Goldenthal to score Mann’s ‘Enemies’

    Exciting news.  This is without a doubt my most anticipated film of next year.  The press release, in part, on Goldenthal jumping on board:

    Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal (Frida) has been signed to score Universal Pictures’ action-thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann, Public Enemies. Currently shooting in Chicago, Public Enemies stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in the incredible story of criminal folk hero John Dillinger (Depp), whose wave of bank robberies and the subsequent FBI manhunt, commanded by J. Edgar Hoover and run by Special Agent Melvin Purvis (Bale), fascinated the nation in the 1930s.  The film also stars Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Lang, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Channing Tatum, and Jason Clarke.  It arrives in theatres in July 2009.

  • AMPAS invites 105 to the party

    The Academy has officially announced the 105 people it has invited to join its ranks this year; they range from obvious recent winners (Marion Cotillard, Diablo Cody), to cool commercial forces (Judd Apatow, Sacha Baron Cohen), to less glamorous but equally deserving names such as documentarian Nanette Burstein and composer Michael Giacchino.

    Looking down the list, it’s hard to believe that certain veterans weren’t already members; take Ruby Dee, for example, or Jack Fisk, or one of my personal writing heroes, Jean-Claude Carriere. Knowing that such vital artists could be voting sure aids the credibility of the awards – though I have a hard time imagining Michael Haneke hunched over his ballot, agonising over the nominees for Best Original Song.

    The full list of 2008 invitees is after the jump. Your thoughts, as ever, welcome.

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  • Day-Lewis in line for ‘Nine?’

    OK, so the dream cast potentially just got dreamier.

    Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Variety reports that none other than Daniel Day-Lewis (one almost feels that should be preceded with a Sir, no?) is in talks to play the lead in Rob Marshall’s film version of “Nine” — the Broadway show that is in turn based on Fellini’s “8½,” and is arguably one of the artiest musicals out there.

    If he boards, Day-Lewis will be joining a cast already sagging under the weight of its riches: Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and (wow) Sophia Loren.

    It is a fascinating casting prospect for a number of reasons, and not just because we know so little of Day-Lewis’ abilities as a song-and-dance man. (And for those unfamiliar with the show, it’s a full-on, virtuoso musical role — no getting away here with shuffling and speak-crooning, a la Rex Harrison.) Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that a great voice and great moves are merely two other weapons in the man’s well-stocked arsenal of actorly gifts; given how selective Day-Lewis is with his projects, I sense he wouldn’t take the part if he wasn’t sure he could pull it off.

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