Angry Harvest

Angry Harvest (Bittere Ernte) wasn't directed as well as it was written. (It was directed by Agniezska Holland and written by Holland and Paul Hengge from a novel by Hermann H. Field and Stanisław Mierzeński.) In other words, the film is more intelligent and interesting on paper than it ends up being on film. The direction was more claustrophobic than it ought to have been, and it avoided suspense almost purposefully.

Foreign Language 2012 Round-up

These last two weeks I have been able (finally) to see the nominees for last year's Foreign Language Academy Award.

Last year's winner was a film from Iran called A Separation which was definitely the best entry in the category. A Separation is an incredibly powerful film that builds slowly but by its ending has become absolutely incredible. I ranked it as my #5 film from last year. It is just that good. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to rent it immediately. Move A Separation to the top of that Netflix queue.

I have written about Belgium's entry, Michaël R. Roskam's Bullhead here.


Israel's entry Footnote was also pretty excellent. It is a rather hard satire of two academics, a father and a son. One is a theorist and the other has decided that what he does is "science", although what he really is a philologist, a student of language and language patterns. He, of course, wants to be a scientist so that he can think of his own work as more important than the work that other people (in this case his son) do. Foucault talks about this tendency among scientists. (If I may, sometimes I think that the turn toward cognitive science in performance studies and theatre studies smacks of this kind of scientist discourse – understandable in a discipline [art] that constantly needs to justify itself.) Blah blah blah. Anyway, Footnote makes fun of this man outright, and isn't much kinder to his academic son, whose work is actually appreciated by the academy. Both men are figures of ridicule in Joseph Cedar's movie, and Footnote manages, therefore, to be both quite funny, and quite politically pointed. As an academic, it resonated.


Less interesting was Canada's film Monsieur Lazhar. It is about a teacher who substitutes for a primary-school classroom after the students' teacher commits suicide in the classroom. I was mostly bored by this movie. It is fairly standard fare, but it makes a few unobjectionable points about the nature of grief as well as an (obvious and rather conservative) argument that we don't listen enough to kids, and that they know how to deal with things better than adults know how they ought to deal with them. The best thing about the movie is the performance by a young man named Émilien Néron who might rival Quvenzhané Wallis as the most heartbreaking child of 2012. Little Émilien is absolutely incredible. He might be reason enough to watch Monsieur Lazhar.

And that brings us to Poland's entry, Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness, which is honestly not interesting at all. This will sound dismissive, but In Darkness is The Diary of Anne Frank in the sewers of Poland. To be sure, it is beautifully filmed, and the acting is great. But... I guess I am not sure what the point of another Manichaeist film about Nazi Germany accomplishes. Nazis are bad. Nazi-sympathizers are bad. People who help European Jews are good people. I believe all of this. And I understand that not everyone does believe this. But for me a film like In Darkness has as much conflict as, say, Captain America. There are so many good movies about this period in history, but In Darkness is no more interesting than a film like Defiance, and I think that's saying a lot. But enough about how uninteresting In Darkness is. Let's talk about its star, the beautiful Benno Fürmann.

I mean, do you know what I'm talking about?

He's just... so... good looking.

One of the points of conflict in In Darkness is whether or not this girl is going to fall in love with Benno Fürmann or not. This is presented as a conflict. Frankly, I don't see one.

2012's Nominees: Part 9 of 10

W Ciemności (In Darkness)

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Picture: Poland (Katyń, Man of Iron, Young Girls of Wilko, Nights and Days, The Deluge, Promised Land, Pharaoh, Knife in the Water)

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Cast: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader, Herbert Knaup.

The older films that represented Poland with the Oscars have mostly been directed by the great Andrzej Wajda (Katyń, Man of Iron, Young Girls of Wilko, and Promised Land). Knife in the Water, the classic Polanski film, also has made an appearance in this category, before he started working in English with Repulsion. I didn't really realize Agniezska Holland was still making films in Poland. Her film Europa Europa was nominated for Original Screenplay back in 1992, and her Angry Harvest was nominated for Foreign Language Picture (for West Germany) in 1986. Since then she has been directing for The Wire and Treme, excellent credits to be sure. If any film this year can unseat favorite A Separation, it will be this one – WWII has been a favorite subject matter for this category for years.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Foreign Language Picture

My Rating: Not ranked

Rundskop (Bullhead)

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Picture: Belgium (Everybody's Famous!, Farinelli, Daens, The Music Teacher, Peace in the Fields)

Director: Michaël R. Roskam

Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Tibo Vandenborre.

This is only Belgium's sixth nomination. Historically, this country has succeeded by choosing period pieces/costume dramas (all of the films above except for Everybody's Famous! took place before 1930), and they have traditionally been Francophone films, as well. Bullhead is in both French and Dutch, and is set in contemporary Belgium. Lately the Academy has been happy to nominate exciting films and movies about violence, but they don't seem to want to give them the Oscar when it comes down to it. Still, the Oscar nomination hopefully means that people actually get out to see Bullhead.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked

Footnote

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Picture: Israel (Ajami, Waltz with Bashir, Beaufort, Beyond the Walls, Operation Thunderbolt, The House on Chelouche Street, I Love You Rosa, The Policeman, Sallah)

Director: Joseph Cedar

Cast: Lior Ashkenazi, Shlomo Bar-Aba, Yuval Scharf, Alma Zack, Aliza Rosen.

This is Israel's fourth nomination in the last five years! Either the Israeli artistic group who chooses these films is really excellent or the Israeli film industry is really good at making films that appeal to the old USAmericans who vote for these things. Or both. Joseph Cedar has already been nominated in this category, as well, for 2008's Beaufort about the defense of a Fortress on the Lebanese border. The other two recent nominees, Ajami and Waltz with Bashir have also been very good. I am not expecting Footnote to take home the Oscar on Sunday, but I am, of course, happy that the Academy has maintained a sustained interest in the Middle East and its politics.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked

Monsieur Lazhar

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Picture: Canada (Incendies, Water, The Barbarian Invasions, Jesus in Montreal, The Decline of the American Empire)

Director: Philippe Falardeau

Cast: Mohammed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Émilien Néron, Danielle Proulx, Brigitte Poupart.

This is Canada's second nomination in two years. And one of the great things about Canadian cinema, it seems to me, is that – since the Academy changed its rules on exactly which language constitutes a "foreign" language – Canada has been submitting films about its immigrant populations and by its immigrant filmmakers. (Prior to this shift, all of the nominated films in this category had been directed by the great Denys Arcand.) Last year's Incendies (of which I was not particularly fond) is about Lebanese immigrants, and Indian-born Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta's wonderful Water doesn't even take place in Canada. Monsieur Lazhar is about an Algerian immigrant. I love this shift, and I look forward to this film. I should also note that both Monsieur Lazhar and Incendies were based on plays (by Évelyne de la Chenelière and Wajdi Mouwad, respectively).

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked