In Contention

Tag: The Reader

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Cinematography — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionToday we begin our in-depth looks at the individual crafts categories.  I’m a sucker for starting with my favorite: Best Cinematography.

    The art of film is reliant on the motion picture camera and those men and women who lend their talents behind the lens.  The Director of Photography is in charge of charge of capturing the director’s vision on film, not only by ensuring mood through lighting, thematic comment through juxtaposition, etc.  This work has to be done in tandem with the director, which makes it not surprising that many cinematographers and directors work together frequently.

    This category tends to award “pretty” films.  Big epics and gorgeous landscapes frequent the nominated five each year, as do war films and anything generally considered a labored task in this department.  That is not to say such efforts have a monopoly on this category –- just that they are especially apt to be nominated.

    Last year it was sad to see Roger Deakins lose for the sixth and seventh times on the same evening. I cannot deny that Robert Elswit -– a longtime favorite of mine –- was an excellent choice for “There Will Be Blood,” but the great Deakins is once again searching for his first statuette!  He will be back in contention this year, lensing Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road.” This film clearly has Oscar in its sights.  While I still remain skeptical on how it will be received overall, Deakins will almost certainly be in contention should the film deliver in the slightest.

    Deakins will also be lensing “Doubt” this year, which also has the potential to be a major awards player.  Though I’m doubtful (no pun intended) about its chances in this category.

    In what would be a historic nomination, Mandy Walker will likely be in contention for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  She would be the first ever woman nominated in this category.  Yes, that’s right.  No woman has ever been nominated for Best Cinematography in 80 years of Academy history.  Lurhmann’s films are always visually spectacular and this effort in particular fits in perfectly with the sorts of epics usually nominated in this category.

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  • 9/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Harvey Weinstein• David Poland adds a nice perspective to yesterday’s nothing “news” about Weinstein vs. Rudin. [The Hot Blog]

    • Patrick Goldstein sticks his toe in the scuffle as well. [The Big Picture]

    • Ditto Brad Brevet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • 10 things you need to know about “The Wrestler.” [Vulture]

    • Jeffrey Wells thinks “Miracle at St. Anna” is a poblem movie because he didn’t get an invite. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • When will Hollywood start feeling the credit crunch? [The Guardian]

    • Keira Knightley could be lined up to play F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Zelda Sayre. [The Independent]

  • The battle over ‘The Reader’

    Cover of Bernhard Schlink\'s The ReaderThe news that Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein are in a tug-of-war over the release date of “The Reader” isn’t really news at all.  We were talking about this over a month ago, back when it seemed Rudin had won the debate.  But the pieces slowly fell into place and a 2008 release became a reality, so here we are.

    The problem: the film isn’t finished yet.  That’s all well and good.  Neither is “Revolutionary Road” or, last I checked, “Milk.”  The issue with “The Reader” is that it likely won’t be finished by the time Weinstein wants to release the film, and that is where the efforts of those involved could go to waste at the whims of an awards-hungry big-wig desperate for a major Oscar contender for the first time in four – count ’em – four years.

    What’s worse — or at least could be perceived as worse — is the notion floating out there that Weinstein is banking on good will for “Reader” producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.  Both filmmakers passed away earlier this year.  Steven Zeitchik aludes to this in his Hollywood Reporter piece.

    Zeitchik has a lot of smoke but not much fire, though, since both Weinstein and Rudin declined commen.  And he’s likely peddling anonymous quotes from publicists on one side or the other — sentiments we’ve all heard, and probably from the same publicists.

    My guess, at the end of the day (and as one of Zeitchik’s sources concludes), is that Weinstein wins the battle.  He’s proven recently enough that he’ll push something down the collective AMPAS throat if he doesn’t have the goods (Sienna Miller in “Factory Girl.”)  It’s that insatiable awards appetite.  The tragedy this time around isn’t that he won’t have the quality, though, but, more likely, that he’ll have an incomplete product that could have been better serviced.  We’ll see how it turns out, but here’s a look at Zeitchik’s collection of a month-and-a-half’s worth of rumors:

    Weinstein is pushing for a December release for the movie, which director Stephen Daldry is working on in post. The romance set in postwar Germany and based on Bernhard Schlink’s novel already has buzz from strong test screenings, though there are post elements left to be completed…

    Rudin, however, has been lobbying hard for a 2009 release. The producer already has two Oscar candidates — “Revolutionary Road,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Winslet as a married couple in the 1950s, at Paramount Vantage, and the Broadway transfer “Doubt,” toplining Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, at Miramax — and a third would mean he is vying heavily against himself.

    The producer faced a similar scenario last year when his “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” competed against each other for Oscar kudos.

    The fact that Winslet stars in both “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader” would mean the actress too could wind up competing against herself.

    The rest.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Calm before the storm

    Sean Penn in MilkThe season is upon us.  One month from today the industry’s first major stepping stone on the way to the Kodak Theater will arrive in the form of the Toronto International Film Festival: 10 days of put up or shut up by a number of the year’s prospective contenders.

    Oddly enough, however, there will be a few considerable no-shows at this year’s festivities.  In a business increasingly proving the precariousness of an early “frontrunner” status, studios and publicists seem to be slowing the machine down…but a few hands have been forced this season.

    Heavily anticipated entries like “Revolutionary Road” and “Milk” will be absent at Toronto next month.  Neither is expected to be ready, actually.  Sam Mendes has been hard at work on “Farlanders,” while Focus Features would probably prefer to take the slow road after emerging from Toronto as the “frontrunner” in 2005 and 2007, but ultimately coming up short on Oscar night.

    This is probably for the best on both.  Gotta maintain those expectations.  Early raves are as dangerous as early pans.

    Meanwhile, the lineup is currently littered with modest independent efforts that depend on the festival circuit to find their groove: “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “The Other Man,” “Rachel Getting Married,” “The Secret Life of Bees,” etc.  The major stuff — so far — seems to be steering clear.

    Regardless, we’ve got one more month of full blown speculation before the season begins to settle into a tangible state…so let’s get to it.

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  • Poland takes his first stab

    Benicio Del Toro in CheDavid Poland has dipped his toes into the Oscar waters of 2008 and come up with…well, the same thing we’ve all got at the moment, to tell you the truth.

    The one point he touches on that we haven’t brought up in this space yet is the notion that The Weinstein Company’s “The Reader” will likely find its way to screens in 2009 rather than this year.  There’s a discrepancy of preference between the studio and producer Scott Rudin, but we can guess who wins that battle at the end of the day.  Rudin has plenty to keep his 2008 attention with John Shanley’s “Doubt” and Sam Mendes’s “Revolutionary Road.”

    Here are Poland’s brief asides on that:

    There still could be a backdoor surprise effort, like the Weinsteins’ Scott Rudin movie, The Reader… but probably not.  (The one 2009 title that screams “They could make December!” is DreamAmount’s The Lovely Bones, though Par needs Benjamin Button to make a LOT of money and awards talk will help and DW’s side of that mountain is pushing The Soloist hard as they exit the auditorium.)…

    …The Reader also happens to be the last picture made by Mirage under Pollack and Minghella.  But, the in-control producer on board is Scott Rudin, who always has a lot of awards pictures out there and probably doesn’t want this one to threaten Doubt or his beloved Revolutionary Road (which also stars Kate Winslet).  And for that matter, Rudin is probably appalled with the idea of an appeal for The Reader being made by invoking two lost Oscar-winning filmmakers… especially Pollack, for whom Rudin went well out of his way to keep the keep the press at bay as Polack dealt with his illness and efforts at recovery.

    He’s also got his first big list of title up as well, including some love for “W” (after that trailer?) and mentions for “The Secret Life of Bees” (the one film Fox Searchlight will be taking to Toronto) and “Che” (which will go before North American audiences at the New York fest but still is unlikely to see the light of day in 2008…unless director Steven Soderbergh suddenly decides to make a buck for an interested studio rather than perpetuate his long-ish vision of the film.

    Read up on Poland’s column here, and check out his chart here.

    And check back Monday for our updated charts here at In Contention.

  • Variety ponders the season at the mid-way point

    We’ve already been over what a thin year it’s been so far for Oscar candidates – or good films at all, for that matter. Now Variety has come to the same conclusion. In his mid-year awards-season study, Timothy M. Gray goes so far as to say that “the past six months have offered fewer potential contenders than any January-June period in memory,” and wonders if we’re seeing a return to the days when the Oscars were dominated by winter releases from the majors.

    Indeed, Gray only finds one title from the first-half of the year that he thinks has main category potential: Overture Films’ “The Visitor,” the prospects of which I discussed extensively yesterday. I’m not sure I’d boil down an entire half-year to a sole film (“In Bruges,” anyone?), but I agree that “The Visitor” has a real campaigning advantage:

    Keep an eye on Overture’s “The Visitor”: Lead actor Richard Jenkins has rightly earned awards buzz, but the film has many other virtues (Thomas McCarthy’s script and direction, the other performances, etc.). McCarthy, a talented actor in his own right, has crafted an actors’ movie — a character study with current-event concerns — that will play well on DVD, so late-year mailings could pay off.

    (Indeed, the more I think about the film’s position in the awards derby, the more it reminds me of a certain tiny spring release from last year: “Away From Her.”

    Looking forward into the rest of 2008, Gray ends up pondering most of the same questionmarks that we all are, including the following questions:

    Will the early buzz sustain for Disney-Pixar’s “Wall-E” and WB’s “The Dark Knight” and Heath Ledger?

    What effect will the Clint Eastwood double whammy — November’s “Changeling” and the December bow of Warner Bros.-Village Roadshow’s “Gran Torino,” in which he stars as well as directs — have on kudos? Similarly, Scott Rudin, who was in the winner’s circle with “No Country,” has two December openers — but will he have a third with “The Reader,” whose opening date is not yet set?

    Benicio Del Toro won Cannes’ actor award for Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” but will it find a U.S. distrib this year and, if so, in what form will the two-part film be released?

    And then there are … other questions. In the last few years, the song category has been dominated by tunes that were production numbers (as opposed to those end-credit or background songs). So does this bode well for Disney’s “High School Musical 3” and Focus’ “Hamlet 2”? (If the song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” can win, there may be hope for the latter pic’s “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.”)

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  • OFF THE CARPET: 2008, a year in advance

    Another year, another set of wins…and another look ahead at what’s in store NEXT year.

    It’s never too late to take a long gander at what we might see dominating the film awards landscape in 365 days, and with that in mind, I’ve been doing my usual mulling over the possibilities for a few weeks to put together the sadly thorough examination of the 2008-09 award season that follows. Let’s get into it. There are some major considerations to take into account. right off the top.

    Like Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, who is set to be the entertainer of the year. With performances in “Body of Lies” (Ridley Scott) and “Revolutionary Road” (Sam Mendes), DiCaprio is working with a duo of awards-proven talent this year. Perhaps that will work against him, much like it did in 2006, and no major Oscar success will come knocking. But we’ll wait until we see the performances. Each of them could be enticing.

    This year’s Best Picture Oscar victor Scott Rudin is back again, by the way, with “Revolutionary Road,” recently inherited by Paramount Vantage and probably one of the true “frontrunners” this far out that we could put our finger on. The only other film in Vantage’s arsenal is Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” which could simply be a commercial success, but might find its way to multiple nods like “The Last Samurai” and “Blood Diamond” in recent years.

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