Nathaniel's New York Film Festival: Coming Soon

The New York Film Festival starts officially on September 24th. Critics screenings have already begun but so far I've been in absentia. I have my reasons though the selection committee and certain cinephiles would surely scoff at them so they will go unnamed. This morning I picked up my credentials but opted to skip Carlos the Olivier Assayas film about Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramirez Sanchez or "The Jackal" as he's infamously known in history and in the movies. I love Assayas (Summer Hours + demonlover = movie heaven plus rare artistic range!) but I can't do 5½ hour movies. I just can't!

That's one of the reasons people will scoff (oops. so much for unnamed). I've heard it's terrific but I know my limits. My back and ass know them, too. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see it in its piecemeal French miniseries form at some point. I love serialized drama as much as anyone but for me that's a television-specific experience and it should stay where it belongs.

While exiting the Walter Reade I spotted a "coming soon" poster for Desperately Seeking Susan.


It's not every day you see a "coming soon" poster for a movie that's 25 years old starring your favorite celebrity of all time. Director Susan Seidelman will speaking to the crowd at the screening (Sept 23rd -- get your tickets) and Rosanna Arquette and Aidan Quinn will also attend. If they blasted "Into the Groove" through the speakers and Madonna made a surprise appearance in her original costume I would die on the spot with a stupid grin on my face. What a way to go.

Susan is not part of the official festival (shame) though the fest usually does have a few retros. See, NYFF isn't exactly known for comedy if you know what I mean. They lean hard on Cannes lineups but only the dour subtitled selections. If NYFF goes "mainstream" it's usually for something gloomy, like say dead children a la Clint Eastwood's Changeling but not dead children a la Rachel Getting Married because that movie was too warm and humane! I'm partially joking since I love the NYFF but that 2008 selection committee decision will haunt me forever. They crazy. I shan't ever forgive them.

My point is this: in one particular NYFF year I sat through three films in a row from multiple countries starring voyeuristic barely verbal loners who stalked / killed women. I can't even talk about it! I just can't.

For 2010, I'm most excited for the following seven in roughly this order:

• Another Year -because it's a Mike Leigh film. That's all I need.
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives -because it won the Palme D'Or and I found Apichatpong Weerathesakul's Tropical Malady so worthwhile in its enigmas.
• The Social Network -because people keep saying it's "a perfect 10".
• My Joy -because Nick loved it.
  
  
  
• Meek's Cutoff -because Michelle Williams and Kelly Reichardt's last collaboration Wendy & Lucy was so moving. I'm sometimes allergic to westerns, though, so we shall see.
• Poetry -because I still think about Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine frequently and staying power is not properly rewarded at the cinema.
• Black Venus -because even though Guy Lodge didn't love it, it sounds fascinating.
  

I'll see other pictures too but those have made me the most curious.

And because Jonathan Glazer's Birth (2004) seems to be coming up frequently in discussions round here lately, you should probably know (should you be in NYC) that one of the special events this year is an evening with film scholar David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film) in which he will screen and discuss this wonderful and misunderstood picture.
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April Showers: Changeling

April Showers evenings @ 11 all month long

Showers in real life are comforting and cleansing. In the movies, they're often harrowing ... if you survive them that is. If my math is correct there are five types of shower/horror in the movies.

1. being murdered
2. being raped
3. being spied on (possibly for the purposes of #1 or #2)
4. seeing something you didn't expect to see (like blood or Kevin Bacon's penis)
5. being violently hosed down...
   

...is more specialized. It's generally spotted only in the wilds of prison movies or in the sub genre of Women's Pictures dealing with the martyred crusader. Think Meryl Streep in Silkwood or this recent demonstration from Angelina Jolie in Changeling.


Most of us will never experience the hose down (water fights on your childhood lawn don't count) so who knows if it's as painful as it always looks? The point is surely humiliation, rather than pain. It's another chance to build yet more sympathy for the heroine.

This isn't meant as a knock against Clint Eastwood (calm down) but why must workers in unfortunately dehumanizing facilities like asylums or prisons always be portrayed as evil themselves? This happens in a lot of movies, not just Changeling. When Eastwood grants these actresses shots of their own they're completely unforgiving and possibly malevolent.

Evil Worker #1 "spread your legs" she intones mercilessly
Evil Worker #2 has no voice. She wields her hose with committed intensity

Maybe these two ladies could just as easily have starred in a Woman's Picture themselves? Perhaps they're widows or hard up single mothers like Christine Collins? How easy was it for them to get jobs in the 1920s? Maybe at the beginning of their movie they were circling want ads just like Erin Brockovich did in hers. Maybe this is the first job they could find to feed their kids and they hate it with a passion? Surely not everyone who works at miserable jobs is evil themselves?

Hunger is the only recent film I can think of that understands that it can be even more emotionally potent and despairing to humanize the people doing the dehumanizing work. There was a brief shot of a crying prison guard after a particularly brutal "beat up the prisoners" sequence that was just devastating. Caricaturizing worker drones as evil simplifies your movie but it does dehumanizing work of its own.
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Breakfast With... Christine Collins (and the Real Walter)

Growing boys need their breakfast. Toasted Corn Flakes it is.

Angelina Jolie and Gattlin Griffith in Changeling

Christine Collins actually makes a joke about eating it before it gets cold. Ha! (Would that Angelina had found a way to bring that sense of humor into the character later on in the movie. sigh) Her son Walter, so independent and capable he won't let her pour it for him, informs her that cereal is supposed to be that way. Kids are so literal. Lighten up, Walter.

I love how absolutely plain the box is but I was curious as to how accurate it was (James J. Murakami and Gary Fettis were Oscar nominated for their 20s/30s based Art Direction). I couldn't find any blue Corn Flakes boxes from the 20s but google searches often let me down. And maybe Christine Collins was buying generic brands. She seemed like the thrifty type. The cereal boxes sure were plain back then ... at least by today's gaudy multi-colored cartoon branding / synergistic tie in standards.

I don't know why I love such random details within movies but I sure do. I will now have a bowl of cold cereal in honor of Walter... though I'll have to substitute Rice Krispies because that's all I got.

previously on "breakfast with"...

Hyperboles Gone Wild

Year in Review: Part 1 of 5

Recently I was discussing my CEP (Clint Eastwood Problem) with a friend. Frequent or even fairweather Oscar-time readers will know what that is since Eastwood makes movies every single year (he's become Woody Allen regular in his 70s). I find the megastar an overappreciated filmmaker. Though he's made some fine films (no argument from me there...and my estimation of Million Dollar Baby went up on a subsequent viewing) he's also made his share of mediocrities. Yet each and every film, even the ones that fade quickly and eventually produce many detractors (say, Flags of Our Fathers) open to anywhere from a few to abundant "masterpiece!" raves and impossible-to-miss Oscar buzz. This, if you're at all sympathetic to my "issue", is maddening. This, if you're unsympathetic, you'll view as only just and right. I bring this up because I was hashing Gran Torino out with a friend the other day. The following paraphrased conversation followed...

Nathaniel: I know it's an impossibility since movies require marketing and costs millions of dollars but just once I'd love to see a Clint Eastwood arrive that no one on earth knows he made. His name isn't on it anywhere. He doesn't star in it. What would the reviews be like?

Friend: Yeah, that's impossible

Nathaniel: I know, I know... but let me get to my hypothetical.

READ THE REST ...
for my partial concession to Clint Eastwood fans, thoughts on the subjectivity of movie-love, The Dark Knight and other movies I sadly couldn't connect with as much as many of you...
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Motor City Mama

As In Contention recently reported, the Detroit Film Critics have given another Supporting Actress prize to my girlfriend Marisa Tomei. I couldn't let this pass as, despite my critical fatigue I am a Detroit boy. I grew up dreaming about being the film critic for the Detroit Free Press. Which means of course that I wouldn't have a job anymore.

Pic & Dir: Slumdog Actor & Supporting Actress: Mickey Rourke & Marisa in The Wrestler Actress: Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

This is great fun since Tomei's character in The Wrestler , "Cassidy/Pam", could so easily have been imagined as a Motor City transplant (the movie takes place in New Jersey). Apparently this puts Marisa at a tie with Penélope Cruz in most supporting actress precursors (I wasn't aware... pile enough critics awards on me and my brain goes as slushy as Detroit roads this time of year) though of course teensy critical notices are not as powerful as a SAG nomination in drawing Oscar's attention. Still, I think she'll be nominated. I spoke with Marisa again last week and I'll share some of that conversation with you after Christmas. But I'll drop this little tidbit for now: I was pleased to hear that she's a big fan of Milk --"it blew me away" she said. Here's hoping it blows other movie-loving Academy members like her away since Slumdog, Frost/Nixon and Doubt seem to hogging the media attention (at least this week).

Two other critical awards I haven't yet discussed in case you're less insatiable than I: The Women's Critics Circle which have rather unique awards no Best Picture just "Best Film About Women" which went to Changeling (how anyone can think that's a better film about women than Rachel Getting Married or Frozen River I will never in a million years understa--oh, right Clint Eastwood. Got it) and The African American Film Critics Association which went like so...

Picture & Supporting: The Dark Knight & Heath Ledger Dir: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire Actress: Angelina Jolie, Changeling (her only critics award this year (no the Satellites aren't "critics" prizes) Actor: Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt

I am making a vow for next year right here and right now. No critics organization that doesn't keep an updated webpage will be included in my awards coverage. I'll just ignore them entirely. It'll make things more professional and easier on me. The AAFCA and the WFCC are yet two more that haven't updated their websites in several months.

You Can't Hurry Link (No, You Just Had to Wait)

And Your Little Blog, Too attends a Wrestler event with Rourke & Aronofsky taking questions
Burbanked's insightful nervous look at the Terminator: Salvation trailer
Public School Intelligentsia the most vicious review of Changeling since at least the NYFF
IFC top ten lists spreadsheet
Sunset Gun great influential fashions onscreen
AV Club 17 worst films of 2008


The House Next Door a positive review of Revolutionary Road that doubles as a book review
The Big Picture translates the letter to Twilight fans from the franchises' new director Chris Weitz (American Pie, The Golden Compass)
Art of the Title on Raging Bull (1980)
The Hot Blog Steven Soderbergh talks to a semi-hostile crowd at Che
Guardian is Guy Ritchie sexing up Sherlock Holmes?
Ephemerist "first" diagrammed

and the Wolverine trailer because you should all love Mr. Jackman, with or without the pointy claws...
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

October. It's a Wrap

October is my favorite month of every year. Love the weather, the spooky/fun holiday, the transitional feeling as the festive cool season begins. But it hasn't been my favorite month of blogging... I've been pulled in many directions lately and though I haven't exactly been institutionalized or weeping profusely in the movie of my life off-blog like Angie is in Changeling, I do feel like I'm always wearing the same hat, the direction is funereal and the cinematography is inky black. And maybe that's showing up here...

"I want MY blog back"

I'm probably too hard on myself but next month I'm going to try to be more like "Poppy" in Happy-Go-Lucky. She's my new heroine. I dig her worldview. I probably won't be taking up flamenco or trampolining but the truth is I need more good cheer. But anyway... who cares about my personal life -- you're here for THE BLOG.

10 fav bits from October in case you missed any

Women Who Should Star in Grand Guignol Horror Films ~ Inspired by Straight-Jacket (1964) but nobody even commented on my jokey Debra Winger poster [*sniffle*]
Podcast Relaunch I hope it's back for good. You like?
Brad Pitt is a "Basterd" more Tarantino is always good news
"How do you score an orgasm?" one of the joys of guest bloggers (for me) is reading things that I would never have posted / thought of myself. Thanks again to my magic elves
Changeling yes I need to write reviews more often
Eqqqqq! the Broadway revival of Equus with Harry Potter
NYFF Wrap the highlights from a disappointing fest
Cabin in the Sky This MotM was fun, weird and previously unseen
Nick and Norah scattered thoughts about gay in teen movies
The Road Under Construction thoughts from a test screening. I had internal drama about posting this. When something is a work in progress always give the benefit of the doubt


Coming in November ~an interview with Sally Hawkins from Happy-Go-Lucky, the long awaited release of Australia, the 10th anniversary of Velvet Goldmine on November 6th (Join the 'Musical of the Month' party on your own blog), Hitchcock's Rebecca (can you believe I've never seen it?!) and more... though the rest will be as much of a surprise to me as to you. I basically have no idea what's coming for the next 30 days. Discover it along with me.

Red Carpet Rendezvous

A brief glimpse at this week's movie star fashions on the carpet for those cinephiles among you who don't troll gossip blogs or who might if they weren't littered with so many worthless celebrities who aren't famous for anything cinematic or encumbered by talent --there's so many these days. Why do people care about the talentless? It remains a mystery to me. But not the type of mystery you can't put down for hoping to solve, the kind that makes your eyelids very heavy.

Kate Beckinsale is a midget! No offense to midgets: she pretty
[image sources mostly]

from left to right: Brad Pitt, Brad's lucky left hand & Angelina Jolie at NYFF's Changeling premiere. For Oscar-Watchers: I wouldn't worry so much about the sudden influx of mixed/negative reviews from NYFF for this Eastwood pic. Once the mainstream critics get to it, it'll be raves. That's how it goes. Some of them even called Flags of Our Fathers a 'masterpiece'... and this movie is better than that. Expect its RT percentile to move up when it opens proper. Jennifer Lopez and Kate Beckinsale pretty in white at Elle's "Women in Hollywood" event. FYI: JLo is ending her strange and rather sudden 3 year break from acting. (Oh right, infants) She has two movies in pre-production.

Tangent Gripe: Jane Fonda and Kerry Washington were also there and if I could've found a photo of them full length (at the time I prepared this photo - I've seen one now), I would've included them in this red carpet mashup in order to declare my love for the 188th and 41st time respectively. But, as it turns out, photo services and gossip blogs have 3,000,000 photos of a certain heiress and various reality TV stars to every 1 photo of Kerry f'ing Washington and sometimes this just makes me want to die. What a world if Kerry be not prioritized?!

Maggie G favors black for the "Fashionably Natural" Gen Art and SoyJoy show. Kristin Scott Thomas, having quite a year, at the Seagull opening on Broadway. My BFF who saw Dianne Wiest onstage in the same role earlier this year gives the thumbs down in comparison. Actually he does the cat poo scratch but that seems awfully harsh --I've seen neither performance so I can't say. But it is what it is. Kristin is on Broadway run and Dianne wasn't. This Broadway gig will raise her acclaim and profile for that Oscar run for the upcoming I've Loved You So Long. TONY run to follow for The Seagull? Campaign synergy!

And finally we get to Saoirse Ronan and Nicole Kidman since we needed a little color with everyone leaning heavily on black & white. Saoirse was promoting City of Ember (now open) and Nicole was also at that starry Elle event. Isn't her increasingly strawberry hair begging to darken? Take back that head o' hair: Come Back to the Red or Ginger Nicki Kidman Nicki Kidman.
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NYFF 2: Changeling

reporting from the New York Film Festival

I really wanted to love Changeling, the latest Oscar-Bait pic from Clint Eastwood. I find the period of the 20s/30s a fascinating time in American history. I love Angelina Jolie. And yet... Goddamnit. I can't say that I loved the picture or even liked it, really. Clint loyalists might think I had it in for the picture, what with my history of finding Eastwood films indulgently reviewed/awarded in the past, but I was rooting for it early on, even trying to ignore the pleasant but awkward score (That's Clint's doing again, you know how he likes to tinker with themes). Yet once the picture got going I just couldn't find much to root for.

A couple of early scenes at home and at the workplace provide Changeling with interesting period detail and establish Mrs. Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) as a self sufficient woman and capable single mother. We learn that her husband fled many years ago leaving her to raise the child alone. She's also a supervisor at work with possible management in her future. All of this, the screenplay (by J Michael Straczynski) reminds us, is taking place in a time in which women were expected to be meek and dependent. Women were supposed to obey the patriarchy without question. This friction between nature (Christine Collins inner character) and nurture (time period specific sexism) is both an ideal setup for and an obstacle to the drama to come. After Christine's son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) goes missing she must fight an uphill battle with the patriarchy, excuse me, the LAPD. They're at best incompetent and at worst purely evil in their disregard for her son's well being. They even return to her a boy who is not her son at all. The evil LAPD (they should all be twirling mustaches) even throw poor Christine in an asylum when she won't accept the strange child as her own flesh and blood.

Somewhere buried in the heavily detailed procedural crime drama that Changeling becomes after Christine is locked up, is an interesting story about a woman finding her strength against significant odds in a time long before women's liberation and only a decade after women were granted the right to vote. Unfortunately the movie as directed and scripted works against this potentially thrilling internal drama. The plotting and direction can't decide which kind of movie this is: melodrama, courtroom, serial killer picture, procedural, period epic?

Unfortunately, the casting also gets in the way. Angelina Jolie's screen presence is, as everyone knowns, competent and forceful which is usually a good thing. Unfortunately her largeness somewhat robs Mrs. Collins of the journey from socially conditioned feminine weakness to lioness strength that we need to watch her stumble through. Jolie is technically proficient enough in these "womanly confusion" scenes but they don't feel organic to the actress and there's no surprise or reveal once she starts fighting back. Changeling might have been a better film with a less formidable icon at its center; an actress like, say, Amy Adams, might have had more success forced as she would have been to fight against her own girlishness to find the strength for the character transformation. What's missing in the role is the trained humility and period-specific weakness that Mia Farrow sold so superbly in Changeling's time frame contemporary A Purple Rose of Cairo. We can never doubt that ANGELINA JOLIE (capitals intended) is a woman of fortitude and perseverance. As an actress she's practically a modern superhero.

That said, I've little doubt that Jolie will receive her second Oscar nomination for the role as pundits have been predicting, even in a crowded Best Actress race. Eastwood even throws the Academy a shout out (within the movie's period context of course). Jolie's performance will play exceedingly well in short form, bursting to the seams with "Oscar clip" moments it is: shouting, crying, proclamations for justice --she's especially good in an interview sequence in the insane asylum when you can see her strategizing emotional responses and doubting herself. Clips might be the best way to experience this handsome looking but overlong, overwrought film. The plot is complicated -- it even loses focus on Christine for a surprisingly length of time -- but the picture is not.


In its opening frames Changeling takes us on a welcome trip back in time to the ancient Universal logo and then a black and white shot of Los Angeles. As it nears its subject, mother and son, it gradually imperceptibly turns to color. That's often a neat trick in the movies but with Tom Stern (Clint Eastwood's favored DP) behind the camera it's also not all that much of a transition. Inky blacks and subdued color are favored to such a degree that one wonders why this team, also responsible for the shadowy Million Dollar Baby and the nearly colorless Letters From Iwo Jima haven't just succumbed to their urges and made a true black & white picture. Black and white describes the film's characterizations, too. The film sparks colorfully a bit in the presence of a vivid supporting cast but mostly, like Jolie, they're trading on their screen presence and not the demands of their respective roles. Jason Butler Harner, who understands how to sell both time period and grinning pathology, will impress many in the breakout role of the infamous Gordon Northcott but the only character that isn't instantly easy to pin down as simply Good or Evil is the policeman (played by Michael Kelly) who serves as the bridge between Changeling's two halves. Changeling's title accurately reflects its early creepy child switch and its relentlessly mediocre shift from melodrama to true crime story. A better more disciplined film would have earned that title in a more ambitious way. It's a shame that there's so little real fluidity, few emotional surprises and no transformative character arcs within the sprawling story. C
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p.s. Since you want to know about its Oscar chances as much as Clint does --what? He even references to the Oscars in his movie and in an endearing affectionate way -- I'll say this: It's a good bet for Angie, costumes and art direction. The rest will be tougher going. Of the supporting cast only John Malkovich and Jason Butler Harner are feasible and they're longshots at best and only in the race if voters go wild for the picture as a whole. The rest Director, Screenplay, technicals, depends on how well Gran Turino is received. If that other Clint pic is Oscarable it'll give voters a reason to pass here and still honor their favorite actor turned director/composer/producer. Which they like to. Current Oscar Predictions -they'll be updated on October 11th.

"Nobody puts Baby Angie in a Corner"

...except, apparently, movie poster designers. What exactly is the message here? Attack of the 50 Foot Woman? Angelina will one day overpower us all !

bonus jpeg: I've redesigned the poster to make it more appropriate for the context in which the movie intends to be received. (Thanks to Fox in the comments for his fine tuning suggestion!)

Angelina Jolie: Pregnant with Oscar Hopes

The Cannes Film Festival is fueling Oscar buzz. Awards Daily says raves are pouring in for Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood's Changeling which is based on a true story about a woman whose child was abducted in the 1920s and the government corruption she met in her despair. Apparently it might have a new title, The Exchange... I prefer the former. It's eerier --definitely has more flavor. Anyone surprised by the Oscar style hosanna! reviews needs their heads checked: Eastwood doesn't get bad reviews. Even when he maybe deserves them (see: Flags of Our Fathers). If this is as good as people are saying, it'll be thrilling to watch and possibly even a Best Picture contender. GreenCine is more cautionary about the nature of the reactions in their roundup. update and IFC does not like it.

One interesting note about the reviews is the notion that the second half of the film is very ensemble driven. This could be great news for any number of character actors in the film (Jason Butler Harner, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, John Malkovich, etcetera) since Eastwood is known to guide his cast to golden trophies of one sort or another. He's currently tied for 4th place in the record books for directors whose films have won the most acting Oscars.

No public comment yet from Julianne Moore about Angie working her corner --mom with missing/possibly dead/imaginary/mysterious child. She must be livid. I kid, I kid. But in all seriousness: This year's Best Actress race is going to be gargantuan. I can feel it. Two former winners (Jolie & Streep) with juicy roles. Three overdue A listers (Pfeiffer, Moore & Winslet) with juicy roles. And abundant others with less buzz and less Oscar history thus far... My Oscar predictions will be updated on June 1st.

A Socialite's Life also covers the Changeling/The Exchange premiere... but to my disappointment The Fug Girls have not yet weighed in on Angie's retro earth mother muumuu.
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Cannes is Coming. Tilda Fashion to Follow

World cinema fans can start salivating. The world's most famous film festival -- the Olympics of film? Only without those human rights squabbles and torch marathons -- kicks off next month. The question you're undoubtedly asking is this:

W.W.T.W ?
What Will Tilda Wear?

I kid. I kid. It wouldn't be Cannes without her but fashion can wait. For now we drool on the unseen films from an international who's who of filmmakers. There's a hundred plus more than those listed here of course: film markets, multiple sidebars, etcetera but here are the headliners.

C O M P E T I T I O N

La Mujer Sin Cabeza (Woman Without A Head) [Argentina]
Lucrecia Martel (pictured left) is definitely one to watch for the prizes. She's previously directed the extraordinarly well received La Ciénaga and The Holy Girl. I haven't seen the former but the latter was riveting and uniquely its own. Queue it.
Leonera [Argentina]
Pablo Trapero directs this story of a convicted woman struggling to raise her son from within prison. Sounds like it offer up a meaty role for its lead actress.
Le Silence De Lorna (The Silence of Lorna) [Belgium]
This if from the Brothers Dardenne (Jean-Pierre & Luc, s'il vous plait) who Cannes truly loves giving them multiple wins in the past for Rosetta, Le Fils and L'Enfant. Belgium usually submits their films for Oscar consideration, but AMPAS ignores. The critical community has a decidedly different response. Watch for it to win something... best actress for Arta Dobroshi, the title character perhaps? Just speculatin'
Linha de Passe (Line of Passage) [Brazil]
Famed Brazilian auteur Walter Salles (pictured left. He made Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries among others) co-directs this one with Daniela Thomas. It's about a group of poverty-stricken brothers playing amateur soccer in the outskirts of São Paulo.
Adoration [Canada]
Atom Egoyan hasn't really taken the film world unanimously by storm since The Sweet Hereafter (1997) Bonne chance. I have to say straightaway that the cast raises eyebrows: Scott Speedman and Rachel Blanchard starring in an Egoyan flick...together? Aside from the Canada connection...


24 City [China]
Jia Zhangke, born in the Shanxi province of China has made quite a name for himself with cinephiles for his work on The Platform, Still Life, The World and more. Will this film continue to cement his reputation?
La Frontiere De l'Aube (The Frontier Of Dawn) [France]
Philipe Garrel (Regular Lovers) directs his ubiquitous movie star son Louis (pictured left) in this new film. Seriously... Louis Garrel is in every French movie that makes it to the States these days. This is Garrel's (the senior) first time in the competitive lineup.
Un Conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale) by Arnaud Desplechin [France]
Arnaud Desplechin, who made the amazing and complex Kings & Queen (queue it!) returns with a film featuring much of the same cast. Wheeeeeee! or Oui! (they mean the same thing to me)
The Palermo Shooting [Germany]
This is from Wim Wenders, of Wings of Desire (1987) fame. Milla Jovovich and Dennis Hopper headline.
Delta [Hungary]
This film comes from frequent festival awards magnet, actor/director Kornél Mundruczó (pictured right). It's about a brother and sister reunited as adults in their birth village.
Waltz With Bashir [Israel]
Ari Folman wrote and directed this animated feature which is in Hebrew and German. For the curious: No, this isn't a first. No animated film has won the Palme D'Or, but they've competed before... most recently with Persepolis which tied for the Jury Prize at least year's festival.
Gomorra [Italy]
Matteo Garrone (of First Love and The Embalmer fame) directs yet another film about Italian crime families. I shudder to think how many have been made just in my lifetime, let alone before.
Il Divo [Italy]
This biopic from Paolo Sorrentino is about Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Toni Servillo has the lead role. Their last collaboration (The Consequences of Love) netted Servillo various Best Actor awards.

Serbis (Service) [Philippines]
Brillante Mendoza (pictured left, who is sometimes referred to as "Dante") started directing features prolifically in 2005. Most of his films, including this one, have gay themes. His most well known is probably The Masseur. He gets his first competition spot @ Cannes with this film and it's the first Filipino film to make the competitive lineup in nearly a quarter century. This one is about male movie house prostitutes. --Thanks to various Pinoy readers for the info!
My Magic [Singapore]
Director Eric Khoo is probably most well known previously for the festival film Be With Me (2005).
Uc Maymun (The Three Monkeys) [Turkey]
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who made some critical waves with Distant (2002) returns to the fest.
Che [United States]
Steven Soderbergh brings his Che Guevera biopic to France. Is this The Argentine and Guerilla together (they were reportedly being split up for American consumption) as one Lawrence of Arabia length spectacle?
Synecdoche, New York [United States]
Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman and a huge ensemble of great actresses. We slobbered all over it in a previous post
Changeling [United States]
Clint Eastwood and everyone's favorite globe-trotter Angelina Jolie will have the red carpet alight with a bajillion paparrazi flashbulbs. No, much more than that. Since it's Eastwood and Jolie you'll be hearing about this film on this and every other outlet you'll be sick of it by the time it is or isn't nominated for a heap of Oscars.
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O U T * O F * C O M P E T I T I O N

The politics of who gets into and who is still prominently featured despite being outside of the competition are always unbeknownst to me. At any rate, here we'll see Kim Jee-Woon's 1930s western The Good, The Bad, The Weird from South Korea and Woody Allen's star-studded romantic dramedy (Cannes still loves him) Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I'm still a little disappointed in the way the release of Match Point was handled. It was Woody's biggest hit in quite a long while but it could have been even bigger with both Oscar and the general public. It was so mismanaged, shoved in for last minute Oscar consideration instead of capitalizing on its Cannes buzz with an early fall release. Hopefully, should reception of VCB be as rapturous across the Atlantic, the Weinstein's won't sit on the film. I know I know... that's a lot to hope for. The wannabe blockbusters that will be featured outside the competition (there's always a couple) are Kung Fu Panda --but will anything be a real competitor for Pixar's Wall•E (previous post) at the box office or at the Oscars next winter? -- and Steven Spielberg's fourth adventurous anthropologist film: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

P L E A S E * N O T E

We haven't heard all of the Cannes news yet. They've whittled 1692 (!) submissions down to the films selected for competition above (their eyes, their eyes, poor things) but there's generally one or two more last minute additions. Plus, they still haven't announced the coveted Opening or Closing night slots. We'll talk about the festival jury tomorrow. How confident do you feel about this lineup above?



Here's the official site of the festival.
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Tuesday Top Ten: Super Early Oscar Predictions

for the listmaker in me and the list lover in you.

Ten Things That Make Early Oscar Predictions Difficult
If you're super impatient you can move on to the actual predictions

10 IMDB doesn't always list complete credits for a film... even when it looks like they do. For instance, in some cases you can't tell who shot a particular movie or who scored it, or who did the costumes. Who did what is important since there are Meryls and Denzels amongst the technical crowd, too, you know --nomination magnets, as it were.

09 Not knowing which companies will be releasing certain films is difficult. Films that look great on paper that have undefined (or unshared) distribution plans include presumable actor showcases like biopics Grey Gardens and The Young Victoria as well as marital dramas like Richard Eyre's The Other Man and Jim Sheridan's remake of the Danish film Brothers. Who pushes which movie matters. Not all distributors are created equal. At least not where Oscar is concerned.

08 Stephen Daldry has thrilled Oscar voters twice before with Billy Elliott and The Hours. His new film The Reader has a WW II backstory --something that often lights AMPAS's collective fire. But will he finish it in time? The Hours was delayed by a year and this new movie also lost its producer Anthony Minghella (RIP).

07 The Weinsteins have what looks like a great slate this year. Vicky Christina Barcelona, The Reader, The Brothers Bloom. But they've been bad at courting Oscar lately? And even if Vicky is good Woody Allen and even if Cruz is great (in what sounds like a fun if typically misogynist Allen-written role) and even if they figure out how to sell it, is Oscar over Woody Allen?

06 No matter how good you are at Oscar predicting, no matter how much research you do, you're never going to see the Junos coming... those little non-baity films that turn miraculously into behemoths.

05 The supporting categories. They're usually foggy until very late in the year. A lot of early buzz only focuses on lead performers and general plotlines. Those with smaller roles have to prove themselves when the picture opens.

image from AnneHathawayFan.com

04 My general theory is that for the early bird predictions, you let yourself have some optimism regarding personal pets/dreams. Letting personal feelings interfere is a no-no later on when the race clears up. But for how I'm wanting to (and so I will) assume that Dancing With Shiva will mark a dramedic return to form for Jonathan Demme (Married to the Mob, Silence of the Lambs) and that Anne Hathaway who has been the good ignored soldier for two Oscar seasons supporting co-stars who were nominated (Brokeback Mountain and The Devil Wears Prada) might get her due. Why not? Nobody knows anything yet. I'm still deciding.

03 Clint Eastwood, who loves making movies quickly almost as much as he loves winning Oscars, has a movie for November (Changeling) and December (Gran Turino). There are many rumors about Gran Turino (the strangest of which is that it's actually a new Dirty Harry picture) but when all details are secret it could just as easily be one for the crowds rather than something prestige for the Academy. He doesn't only make Million Dollar Babies. He also makes True Crimes and Blood Works.

02 Steven Soderbergh's two part Che Guevera epic. The first half is called The Argentine and the second Guerilla. Will they actually release both halves this year? If they do will they only campaign one? If they only release The Argentine and the Academy likes it, will they wait to honor it until part two?

01 The act of predicting Oscars in April is insane.

The first step is knowing you have a problem...

previous article: studio preview

Early Bird Oscar Predictions

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