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.

Holocaust Double Feature

Two Holocaust movies in the last couple of days. This was a coincidence, but it happened nonetheless. And... I didn't like either of them.

Stefan Ruzowitzky's film Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) actually won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film last year, and I have to say that I have no idea why other than that it is a film about World War II. The Counterfeiters isn't even a good movie. In fact, I found it rather irritating. The movie is about a Jewish counterfeiter who gets caught and sent to prison. When the Nazis begin sending Jews to concentration camps, they set up an operation in one of them where they force all of the Jewish men they can find who have experience in printing or forgery or banking to work at forging the British pound (and other jobs too, of course). The film is about how these men survive, and it is also sort of about the moral questions these men live with—they are treated really well by the Nazis but their fellow Jews are tortured and killed. Also, they save their own lives by forging the British Pound, but they are prolonging the German war effort.

The thing is, the film doesn't really have anything to say about these moral questions, and in any case the Allies come before anyone really has to make any serious decisions. And the ending of the film makes no sense at all, emotionally or narratively. Oh yeah, it's also shot in this bizarre documentary style with jump close-ups and an intrusive camera. None of these formal devices work for the movie; instead, they continually remind the viewer of the artificiality of the film, an artificiality which the viewer wouldn't be able to forget in any case given the tropes of Holocaust drama, with which we are all, by now, quite familiar.

Holocaust movie #2 was Edward Zwick's Defiance. Now, I have not been a fan of Ed Zwick for some time, and this film illustrates (once again) exactly why.

There actually isn't much to say about this movie. It's ridiculously sentimental. A melodrama from start to finish, it follows four brothers as they hide out in the forest from the Nazis. They also take care of some hundred or so (maybe there were more; I'm not quite sure because the film is really bad about keeping track of this information: sometimes you look at all the people and there seem to be two hundred, but at other times there are only about seventy-five). The stars of the film are compelling: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and (the totally smoking hot) Mark Feuerstein, but the film is really boring. I saw every plot "twist" ten minutes before it showed up on screen. This includes all emotional twists. They were all obvious from the very beginning.

Defiance's politics are totally absurd, too. There is all of this debate about being "better than the Nazis" and "staying alive is our revenge." But all of this is bunkum. In typical Hollywood fashion, the film allows the men to debate about violence and decide against it, but when push comes to shove even the men in the nonviolence camp pick up their rifles and kill the bad guys.

I know we are not done watching Holocaust movies. I assume there will be another three or four every year, but I think I might be getting a little tired of them...

The Nominees: Part II of VIII

BLOOD DIAMOND

5 Nominations:

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator, What's Eating Gilbert Grape)

Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou (In America)

Best Film Editing

Best Sound Mixing

Best Sound Editing

Director: Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, The Siege, Courage Under Fire, Legends of the Fall, Glory)
Cast: Djimon Hounsou, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, David Harewood, Kagiso Kuypers, Arnold Vosloo, Michael Sheen

The popularity of this movie both with critics groups, awards-giving bodies and the Academy has been astounding to every pundit who talks about Oscar. Mostly, I think, because all of us saw this film and said both to ourselves and collectively "what a dreadful piece of junk." This lead to most people predicting that DiCaprio would be nominated as lead actor not for Blood Diamond but for The (far superior) Departed. Nonetheless, this film, a superficial exploration of western colonial influences on Africa and a poorly-directed action movie with a shamelessly sentimental streak, presisted in the minds of the Academy's voters and it wound up one of Oscar's most-nominated films this year. It won't win a thing, of course, unless I am--once again--underestimating this movie.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing
My Rating: #58 out of 68

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

4 Nominations:

Best Picture

Best Director: Clint Eastwood (who has one nomination—Mystic River—and two trophies—Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven)

Best Original Screenplay: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby and Crash, last year's winner)

Best Sound Editing

Director: Eastwood (Flags of Our Fathers, Space Cowboys, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Bridges of Madison County)
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Nae, Yuki Matsuzaki

This is Eastwood's companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, which came out earlier in the year. This movie, unlike its predecessor, was met with rave reviews. Its subject matter and language difference—it's filmed almost entirely in Japanese—have caused it to meet with a less-than-warm reception with American audiences, however. The Best Picture nomination may be a boost for the film, but this film is one of the lowest grossing films ever to be nominated for Best Picture, or so I am told. It's a prestigious-looking piece and it's a World War II drama, though, and we all know how well those go over with the Academy. They will all see this movie and it will probably go home with a trophy or two. Let me grudgingly say that we should never underestimate the Eastwood (or Paul Haggis, for that matter).
Will Win: Best Sound Editing
Might Also Win: (in an upset) Best Original Screenplay
My Rating: #34 out of 68

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

4 Nominations:

Best Picture

Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!)

Best Supporting Actress: Abigail Breslin

Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt

Director: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Cast: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, Bryan Cranston

The little movie that could! This is certainly this year's My Big Fat Greek Wedding, though this film got much further than Wedding ever did with the Academy and is a much, much, much better film. I mention Wedding because both were independent comedies that gained massive public popularity through word-of-mouth, enough to influence the Academy. This happens very rarely and for a picture like this to get a nomination in the giant Best Picture category is almost unheard of (The Full Monty was ages ago). Best Picture is up in the air this year, though, and a Best Ensemble win at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards means that this movie is in the running—as much as any other candidate for the big prize. And it could happen. This film's got legs.
Will Win: Best Original Screenplay
Might Also Win: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor
My Rating: #18 out of 68

NOTES ON A SCANDAL

4 Nominations:

Best Actress: Judi Dench (Mrs Henderson Presents, Iris, Chocolat, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs. Brown)

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Elizabeth)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Patrick Marber

Best Original Score: Philip Glass (The Hours, Kundun)

Director: Richard Eyre (Stage Beauty, Iris)
Cast: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson, Juno Temple, Max Lewis

This film has Oscar written all over it, of course, and it did very well. These actresses are highly respected and they elevate this material (read: camp), to great heights, but don't expect the picture to win anything. British melodramas never do as well as American ones with the Academy.
Will Win: N/A
Might Also Win: Best Original Score
My Rating: #36 out of 68

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

4 Nominations:

Best Art Direction: Rick Heinrichs & Cheryl A. Carasik (The team from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; he has a trophy for Sleepy Hollow)

Best Visual Effects

Best Sound Mixing

Best Sound Editing

Director: Gore Verbinski (The Weather Man, Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl, The Ring, The Mexican)
Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightley, Bill Nighy, Stellan Skarsgaård, Naomie Harris, Jonathan Pryce, Jack Davenport, Tom Hollander

This made a brave showing on Oscar-nomination morning. Of course its effects are stunning and it is handsomely decorated and beautiful to look at, so no one should have been surprised. Four nominations, though, is nothing short of excellent for a film this boring and obviously soulless. I hated this movie, but it is one of the biggest money-makers of 2006, and the Academy likes to make a point of paying homage to those Hollywood blockbusters in its Effects and Sound categories.
Will Win:Best Visual Effects
Might Also Win: N/A
My Rating: #67 out of 68

To be continued... (just like Dead Man's Chest!)

Film Update

I am a shitty film blogger.

The Fountain, new from Darren Aronofsky (his last film was 2000's Requiem for a Dream) is amazing. Aronofsky ought to never wait do long to make a movie again. I loved this movie. It's a visual stunner and the imagination of Aronofsky is front and center with the movie. I know some will have trouble with the movie, but I absolutely loved it. It's not terribly intelligent or new or anything, but the techniques he uses are so wonderful and it is easily the most beautiful film of the year. Hugh Jackman is absolutely wonderful in the lead role(s). And there is a totally hot, wonderfully filmed sex scene in a bathtub. Did I mention the movie is breathtakingly gorgeous?

Ask the Dust is a competent, slow-paced movie from legendary screenwriter-turned-director Robert Towne (you know who he is. He wrote Chinatown.) It's okay. No great shakes. An Italian immigrant and a Mexican woman fall in love in 1933 Los Angeles. Some of the movie is done really, really well. Colin Farrell is very good (if far too good looking for the part) and so is Salma Hayek. The plot is rather conventional, though, and it doesn't really have much new to say. Shrug. It was good.

Half Nelson is one of myn ew favorite films from this year. I loved it. It's about a drug addicted high school teacher in an inner city neighborhood. It's a movie with very few answers and a lot of really intriguing, honest questions. The two main performances, from Ryan Gosling as the teacher and Shareeka Epps as his young student are absolutely extraordinary. Epps is a total puzzle. She is the toughest little girl you've ever seen and yet she has a smile that can make you feel like you've never seen anyone smile before. Gosling is superb, haunted. The movie is about so many things: mostly addiction, race relations and teacher-student relations. I cannot recommend it enough. I think it's the smartest movie I've seen this year. Go see it!

Blood Diamond is retarded. Skip this bullshit. It's an Edward Zwick party and it's idiotic as all Hell. I think I disliked it more than last year's Munich. Spielberg's movie was at least well-made.

Happy Feet is a total mess too, but also totally fucking fun. Penguins that dance like Savion Glover. You can't really screw that up. It's also a movie about religious fanaticism and environmental protection in the Antarctic and growing up different (gay?--I think so). I liked it quite a bit. It's very silly but totally ridiculous and therefore fun. There are even these little tiny Adélie penguins that all speak Spanish. It's hilarious.