Oscar's List.

Jose here with some Oscar news.

If the Academy often gets trashed for its choices, their Foreign Language Committee takes this to the ultimate level. Year after year they specialize in ignoring avant garde, gritty, groundbreaking cinema in favor of WWII dramas, epic soap operas and unimaginative biopics.

This year however, they didn't mess it up so much, their shortlist released earlier today stands as follows:

• Argentina, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella (discussed previously here)
  
• Australia, Samson & Delilah, Warwick Thornton
  
• Bulgaria, The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, Stephan Komandarev
  
• France, Un Prophète, Jacques Audiard
  
• Germany, The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke, director
• Israel, Ajami, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
  
• Kazakhstan, Kelin, Ermek Tursunov
  
• The Netherlands, Winter in Wartime, Martin Koolhoven
  
• Perú, The Milk of Sorrow, Claudia Llosa

Out of this list, five movies will move on and be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (if you aren't familiar with the nomination process you can read more about it here).

It's a relief of sorts to see how The White Ribbon and A Prophet, which have been considered the frontrunners since their debut in Cannes last May, weren't snubbed.
AMPAS has shown special reluctance to agree with the French film festival and has ignored prominent films like Gomorrah last year and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007 to nominate more Oscar friendly pics.

This year alone we saw how Departures-the "safest" choice- won over The Class, Revanche and Waltz With Bashir.
Their shortlist however proves that they are perhaps vying for a change considering that only one of the movies (Winter in Wartime) deals specifically with WWII and they snubbed baity choices like Max Manus from Norway.

Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon which won the Golden Globe on Sunday and swept the European Film Awards in December, might prove to be a crossover hit with some people hinting at Haneke's possibility of being nominated in the Screenplay and Director categories at the Oscars.

Australia's submission also proves to be an interesting choice considering how this committee often disregards movies that contain any traces of the English language and the haunting love story between outback aborigines pushes their limits in this sense.

Of course no year can come without a conspicuous snub and once again the Foreign Language Committee shows that they aren't impressed by Romania's New Wave, snubbing the wonderful Police, Adjective altogether. This decade Romania has specialized in raw, documentary like cinema unafraid to look at the ugliest parts of their society through a darkly humorous lens.
AMPAS has yet to recognize any of their films.

Have you seen any of the possible nominees? Which do you think will make it to the top five?

How I Felt About the Golden Globes (in Two Images)

Jose here with my reaction to the popularity orgy held last night by the HFPA.

Yes! Michael Haneke wins a major award in our part of the world and for what might be his greatest film so far!

To everything else, like Mickey, I say:


How did you feel about the Golden Globes?

Michael Haneke, Supreme Confounder

A mssg received from my friend 'txt critic' today.

Lincoln Plaza is the WORST! Half of my audience was literally snoring through "The White Ribbon" -- in unison! -- and one half-deaf woman bellowed an hour in, 'I THOUGHT THIS HAD TO DO WITH THE HOLOCAUST.'

I swear UWS seniors ruin more movies than anyone.

I wasn't there but I can attest to this phenomenon. You will always get a perturbed earful when you see a Haneke picture on the Upper West Side. Should we presume the AMPAS members on the foreign film nominating committee will feel just as impatient with its mysteries and its implicitly projected "25 years later..." horror? AO Scott certainly didn't boost this Cannes Winner's Oscar cause with his recent review either.

But then I'm not currently speaking to AO anyway. He disses Haneke's always provocative direction just two weeks after raving about Clint Eastwood's work on Invictus??? What a world... what a world... [argh] don't make me talk about Invictus, AO. don't make me. I can't. I can't. It's just so ham-fistedly unworthy of discussion... [argh!]
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Decade in Review: 2005 Top Ten

2009 is almost over and so many magazines and websites have already offered up their best of the year AND decade that I'm afraid y'all will get sick of the retrospectives before The Film Experience has chimed on. Remember: the tortoise wins! 2005's top ten list (in its original form) follows. New comments in red.

Public Favorites (Box Office): Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, War of the Worlds, King Kong, Wedding Crashers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Madagascar and Mr & Mrs Smith
Oscar Favorites: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck and Munich
My Vote For UnderAppreciated: In Her Shoes, Happy Endings and The White Countess
Top Ten Runners Up (11-15): The Squid and the Whale, Match Point, The New World, Junebug and The Beat That My Heart Skipped. I like all five of these even better today than I did at the time... and more than a few things in my top ten list. I'd definitely reorder.

10 Corpse Bride
If there is one thing I value above all else in animated films, it's vivid character designs and cohesive artistic vision. In this area, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride has few equals. Credit goes to the titular auteur Tim Burton and co-director Mike Johnson's guiding goth-happy hands as well as one of Hollywood's finest production designers, Alex McDowell. (His past visually stunning credits include Minority Report, The Terminal, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, and Fight Club. And still no Oscar nomination for his troubles... tsk tsk Hollywood.)

Beyond its superb visual delights, Burton's best film in years also digs up rich voicework from its cast, and offers an enchanting tale both sweet and sour. Nowhere close to perfect but Corpse Bride's got magic to spare.

09 Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit
(Another animated film that's blissfully not of the currently homogenous CG *only* school of animation)

I have been a fan of W&G for a long time and enjoying them for an entire feature was akin to visiting with supremely droll friends whom one never sees enough of. To sweeten the reunion, they brought along the sublimely silly Lady Tottington. They even uncovered a heretofore unseen sense of humor in Ralph Fiennes (who voices bunny-hunting Victor Quartermaine). W & G's last cinematic outing was in 1995. A plea to Nick Park: Please do not make us wait another whole decade for the next adventure.

Curious that I shoved two animated films into the top ten... especially considering how strong the runners up were. I blame this partially on my own childlike delight at stop motion animation (it gets to me on some primal level) but mostly on release schedules. I know I'm too susceptible to that but it's just the way I am. I am better at loving things I'm familiar with than brand new things I've just met. And I had JUST gotten a glimpse of Match Point and I remember that I had an awful awful time processing The New World and what was going on with Oscar qualifications that year. Like Nick recently mentioned, I wasn't even sure which version of the Malick movie I was watching. And I don't know that it even still exists. I'm nervous about what this says about me but I actually felt physically angry at the idea that a movie I saw in the theater was not the same movie that my friends saw in the theater which was maybe not even the same movie that critics were writing about for their readers who would never be able to see that one. In some ways I'm still angry. It makes no sense to be this bonkers about it but I even feel like there should be laws against that ever happening again.

08 Good Night, and Good Luck.
Seasonal truth: As surely as leaves fall in autumn, "prestige" dramas arrive in movie theaters. They are generally set in the past, always aim to be 'classy', wish to delight year-end awards voters with gorgeous production values, and plan to be good for you, too. Rarely however are do they deliver on all four counts. This recreation of the 1950s media war between journalist Edward R Murrow (played by the mesmerizing David Strathairn) and Communist hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy (playing himself in archival footage) gratefully hits all of its mark. It's a prestige bullseye for writer, director, star, and emerging activist hero George Clooney.

I have had no desire whatsoever to rewatch this. Does that mean I overvalued it or is one enjoyable viewing of anything reason enough to love a movie?

07 Kings & Queen
Ever since seeing Arnaud Depleschin's wondrously mutating film Rois et Reine about a single mother named Nola (the superb Emmanuelle Devos) and the four men (father, son, ex-lover, and fiancé) in her life I've been desperately trying to pin it down. Exactly what is it?

Whatever it is --melodrama, comedy, existential quandry-- it's as gripping as any fine novel. And to extend the comparison further, it seems just as rich and information packed. Like Nola herself, Kings and Queen is a mysterious and possessive creature: Ultimately unknowable but unwilling to let you withdraw from its world.

06 Brødre
I first saw this Danish drama @ TIFF in 2004 where it became one of my two favorites of the festival. A year later Brothers was released in the states to critical acclaim but made not much of a ripple at the arthouse box office, making it one of the many lost foreign pleasures of the year.

Hollywood may soon be utilizing director Susanne Bier. It's easy to see why. This drama about a young family turned upside down by the news that the husband has been killed in Afghanistan is emotionally potent without ever once feeling forced, despite story elements that would be either pedestrian or overplayed in lesser hands. There's nary a false note struck from the entire ensemble including Hollywood actress Connie Nielsen (making her first film in her homeland) who has never looked better or been more sympathetic onscreen.

Oops. Hollywood didn't take my warning about a story that would feel "pedestrian or overplayed in lesser hands". They went and proved my point just two weeks ago.

05 Me and You and Everyone We Know
Quirky. Edgy. Precocious. Artsy. Odd. These are all adjectives that truthfully describe Miranda July's debut film. Unfortunately all of these carry a whiff of negative connotation. Any of them alone can feel like mere attitudinal posing if a film has nothing to say. Thankfully Me and You and Everyone We Know, with its endearing cast of childlike adults and children playing at adult games has plenty to say about life and connections in this digital age. So quirky yes, but blissfully so. Me and You transcends any adjective you'd like to bestow on it.

One of Miranda July's funniest affectations in her performance/digital art is her tendency to use pre-recorded crowd cheering to punctuate her lines or do her own repetitous call/response with a lowered voice creating her own sycophant lover. I didn't need the prompting to express my adulation. In a year filled with promising debut filmmakers hers was the most endearing new voice.

This movie feels a bit like a lost oddball relic now. Not that it's aged poorly... just that it was always such an idiosyncratic unfashionable feeling thing that it stills feels a bit like an installation rather than a movie that came out. I hope she makes another film soon.

04 Caché
The last time I saw a Michael Haneke picture the title was The Piano Teacher. I was completely terrified, revolted, and stunned. Though nothing in Caché (also known as Hidden) reaches the peak of Isabelle's Huppert's performance accomplishment in the earlier film, I much prefer the newer film, which offers me the same visceral mix of reactions, albeit in different quantities. Perhaps in 2002 I just wasn't ready for the way Michael Haneke mercilessly dissects human weakness.

This mind-bender (and politically-minded story) about a rich French couple and the stalker-like videotapes that begin arriving at their door is masterfully told and rewards attentive viewing. The Austrian auteur uses no musical scoring, no quick editing, and no cheap Hollywood "gotcha!" scare tactics but still manages to thoroughly unnerve the audience. And unlike most tales meant to terrify, Caché also gives the intellect a workout. Michael Haneke may be the most gifted frightener since Alfred Hitchcock.

03 Pride & Prejudice
Confession: Prior to seeing this romantic romp from debuting director Joe Wright I had not read the Jane Austen novel nor seen the BBC miniseries which many consider definitive. I have since begun to fill in those gaps. For those angered at the films many liberties taken (300 plus page novels can't make it to film without cuts --sorry) I say pshaw! What matters is the spirit of the thing. And spirit the new Pride & Prejudice has in spades.

Austen's writing is full of memorable characters, delicious staccato banter and wit and breakneck pace. In this impressively cinematic transformation, the nimble cinematography, beautifully dexterous setpieces, and highly enjoyable performances have all been beautifully choreographed together to ape the high spirits of Austen's eternal charmer. For pure movie-movie fun and swoon-worthy romance, this film is tough to beat.

I am not at all embarrassed by my love for this film, but I do think I overstated the case with the bronze medal. I'd move Caché up a spot for sure.

02 A History of Violence
David Cronenberg, the legendary Canadian director, is a shining beacon to all fringe dwelling filmmakers with a taste for mainstream exposure. You can make an accessible film without losing any of your maverick qualities or subversive spirit. Cronenberg hardly sold out upon taking the reins of this graphic novel adaptation. His signature offputting bits, like his taste for body-horror are still present, just less visible. In one of the film's many masterfully pivoting scenes, Edie Stall (Maria Bello) suddenly vomits upon learning a disturbing truth about her husband. This isn't the in-your-face gynecological terror of Dead Ringers (another Cronenberg masterpiece) but damned if it's not psychologically connected to Mrs. Stall's genitals

...Violence is one of those rare movies that expands and contracts with the audiences expectations. For film fanatics wishing to get lost in the celluloid, it's as deep as you want it to be. For the more casual moviegoer it's a shocking thriller. Either way it's a superbly crafted piece of cinema.

01 Brokeback Mountain
When I read the famous short story upon which this instant classic is based it haunted me for weeks. In very few pages with precise and spare prose, Annie Proulx gave me a portrait of two lives and broke my heart in the process. The film version has that same lean spirit but miraculously never missteps in expanding her original story. This portrait has fresh details and a stunning humanism. Ang Lee paints the secondary characters, wives, mothers, employers, fathers nearly as vividly. In the process the confident auteur has deepened the tragedy of the original story. Brokeback Mountain is no longer just a small but perfect romantic tragedy. It's now an improbably behemoth portrait of tragedy spilling out all over; this is the price of love rejected and forbidden --both for all those who find it and all those who deny its place in society.

Brokeback, which felt like an instant classic at the time, has never disappointed on repeat visits. If anything its familiarity works for it. Like Jack and Ennis, this love deepens. Will it haunt for a whole lifetime?


How does 2005 hold up for you? Which were your favorites at the time and which have snuck up on you as enduring loves?
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LFF: Pander, Provoke, Perplex

More from the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, where Dave had a rather dreadful day at the movies, but I've omitted tearing apart "a new Slumdog Millionaire?", Ride the Wave Johnny (which is, can you believe it, even worse than our newest Best Picture winner), and have instead finally decided to give you my (briefer than I wanted them to be) thoughts on Cannes winner The White Ribbon. But first...

Glorious 39 isn't. Glorious, that is. In fact, it's a remarkable disaster of a film, one of those that slowly goes further and further down the road of dreadful and eventually emerges at somewhere completely laughable, although I'm sure everyone involved saw the ridiculous developments as some masterstroke. Stephen Poliakoff has received critical laudings for his television work over the last decade, but there's no sign of any of that supposed quality here at all. A superb British cast, mixing promising youngsters (Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, and a delectably absurd Juno Temple) with seasoned performers (Julie Christie, Bill Nighy, Christopher Lee), is wasted on a story that is delivered in so hackneyed and laughable a manner that it never convinces. If you've missed ripe thriller cliches such as the message from 'beyond the grave' through a piece of film, the disembodied wails of a lost baby, or, most delightfully, our heroine becoming gothically unhinged, then maybe it is worth checking this out - it is entertaining, just in all the wrong ways. D-

Harmony Korine clearly loves his title of provocateur, for Trash Humpers is as repulsively erratic as you'd expect. However, while it slowly becomes more and more embroiled in the darkest of places with this group of elderly people - whose favoured pastime is, literally, humping trashcans - it's really less striking than it wants to be. A few moments of absurdity strike the funny bone, and a few strike the gag reflex, but mostly this is an unbearably boring piece of work, featuring actors wearing masks that make them look more like Freddy Krueger than OAPs and one with laughter so piercing I repeatedly had to stick my fingers in my ears. There's some vague point about how these people "choose to be free", all handily spelt out for us in one scene, but mostly it's an excuse for Korine to try and baffle and disturb. Instead, he merely bores. D

There's some edge taken off the clinical deconstruction usually so typical of Michael Haneke in The White Ribbon. Perhaps it's the black-and-white photography, so glowingly attractive that it's markedly different from the perverse, bare visual appeal of his other features. Perhaps it's the surprising presence of romance and acidic humour. Perhaps it's the mediation of a cypher in the uncommonly nice young schoolteacher, a inclusion that seems a bit too designed to make the audience like the film more than Haneke usually allows. Haneke's searing portrayal of the gradual undoing of a hypocritical bunch of people - in this case a small German township just before World War I - is as insidiously intriguing and deliberately constructed as ever, but ironically the attempt to make an audience more emotionally invested had the opposite effect of pushing this viewer away. The lack of conclusions, and the lack of importance in the offered solution is as effective in making the film linger as Haneke's work always is, but despite the strong ensemble work and Haneke's technical supremacy, something about the film's project feels disconnected. It doesn't quite fascinate and enthrall with the same punchy strength Haneke has made his trademark. B

The Men Who Stare at Links

Streep Tease An evening of famous Meryl Streep monologues performed by men this Saturday, September 5th! You Los Angelenos better be going to this. I want to hear everything. Someone buy me a ticket. And a plane ticket!
The Big Picture Matt Damon getting a lifetime achievement prize? He's 38! Does that make 40 the new 70 instead of the new 30?
The Auteurs Daily asks the question I've been asking myself silently: How is Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon German enough to be Germany's official Oscar submission this year?
Awards Daily shares the BFCA's best rated films as a preview for the Oscar race. They fail to mention that the BFCA's "scores" throughout the year don't usually end up directly correlating with their "Best Picture" field. They'll ditch high rated films if they don't think they can score big Oscar nods, just watch.

Kenneth in the (212) continues his one man crusade to remind people that Ryan O'Neal was the "Brad Pitt of the 70s"
My New Plaid Pants finally forgives David Fincher for Benjamin Button
Movie|Line on True Blood's breakout blonde, Alexander Skarsgård. Do you think the producers of Thor are regretting their casting decision these days? (I personally lost all interest in that Norse God superhero movie when they passed him by.)

And finally, our long (mostly) lost Ewan McGregor back in the lead (yay!) for a movie that probably won't suck (The Men Who Stare at Goats) with an exceptional cast (on paper). Feel free to rejoice but only parenthetically since... who knows, really?



Be excited now or sensibly wait until November 6th to do so. Your choice.

I feel it's worth noting that the movie was directed by George Clooney's extremely less famous frequent partner-in-crime and two time Oscar nominee Grant Henslov (pictured left) who writes, acts, directs and produces... and supposedly even forked over the money for Clooney's first professional headshots 27 years ago. Let's hear it for Grant and for all the talented multi-hyphenates out there that make their movie star friends look even more fantastic than they already naturally do.

Cannes Winners for 2009

OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Jury president was French actress, deity, provocateur Isabelle Huppert
Palme D'or: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke. Cannes loves him long time. And so does Isabelle Huppert, his La Pianiste leading lady. Sony Pictures Classics has US distribution rights to this black and white costume drama about German village and school prior to World War I. It sounds like something of a departure for Haneke since his films are usually contemporary and often tightly focused on small casts. The extensive German voiceover will be rerecorded in English for that release.

Michael Haneke nabs the top prize

Grand Prix: Un Prophète by Jacques Audiard. Sony Pictures Classics also has this one -- winner and runner up prepping for release? Not bad, SPC, not bad.
Jury Prize: It was a tie between the family drama Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold and vampire drama Thirst from Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook

Special Jury Prize: Director Alain Resnais won this special prize for Wild Grass. He's 86 and he's still making movies. His most famous film is probably Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) but, rather incredibly, he's never had a film nominated for Oscar's foreign language race and he's only had won prize winner at Cannes, Mon Oncle d'Amérique (1980)
Best Director: Brillante Mendoza competed last year with Serbis and for this prolific Pinoy director, the second time is the charm. He won the prize for his violent drama Kinatay. This award will cause a ruckus. Many people detested the film, including Roger Ebert who declared it the worst in Cannes history.


Best Actress Charlotte Gainsbourgh for Lars Von Trier's Antichrist. This film just keeps adding fuel to its media fire. Well done Lars and your latest actress victim. You continue a grand tradition.
Best Actor Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (see previous post for Rosengje's very similar enthusiasm)
Best Screenplay Feng Mei won for writing Lou Ye's explicit gay romantic drama Spring Fever
Palme D'Or (Short Film): Arena by Joao Salaviza

CAMERA D'OR
This award goes to the best first film. Warwick Thornton's buzzy Australian feature Samson and Delilah (pictured right) took the prize. He's previously made three short films. Special Mention went to Ajami by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani

FIPRESCI
Competition: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke
Un Certain Regard: Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu
Directors Fortnight: Amreeka by Cherien Dabis

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Jury president was Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino
Prize: Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos. The synopsis sounds vaguely Virgin Suicides-ish, three teens are cut off from the outside world by their parents.
Jury Prize: Police, Adjective
Two Special Prizes: Father of My Children by Mia Hansen-Love and No One Knows About the Persian Cats by Bahman Ghobadi

CRITICS WEEK
Grand Prix: Goodbye Gary by Nassim Amaouche
SACD Prize: Lost Persons Area by Caroline Strubbe
Cash Prize, Young Critic Award and Regards Jeunes Prize: Whisper in the Wind by Shahram Alidi
Canal Plus Grand Prix (Short Film): Seeds of the Fall by Patrick Eklund
Kodak Discovery (Short Film): Logorama by Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain

DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT
Art Cinema, 7e Prix Regars Jeunes and the SACD Prize: Twenty year-old (!) actor Xavier Dolan-Tadros ' (pictured right) won an incredible three prizes for his directorial debut, a coming out mother-son drama called I Killed My Mother (J'ai Tue Ma Mere)
Special Mention: La Merditude des Choses by Felix van Groeningen
Europa Cinemas Label: La Pivellina by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
French short film: Montparnasse

THE SNUBBED
Whether you're in the main competition or outside of it in the sidebars, when reaction is very positive the snubs have to sting. The following films won coveted buzz but no hardware: Lee Daniel's Oscar hopeful Precious, Marco Bellochio's Vincere and Jane Campion's Bright Star.

FURTHER READING
Indie Wire live blogged the event. Time Warner Cable of New York wanted me to pay $9.95 per month for the French language station so sadly I couldn't gaze at Huppert and her fire-starter jury myself.

More From Cannes: Imelda, Penélope, Brad, Palme D'Or Frontrunners

I'm so far behind on the Cannes coverage! The festival wraps on Sunday. So, without further ado some red carpet beauties and some links to get you caught up if you haven't been online much or were trusting me to bring you the best bits ...so sorry to have kept you waiting.


First up is Imelda Staunton at the photocall for Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock. There was some very very early Oscar buzz for Imelda for her comic portrayal of Dimitri Martin's mom. Rosengje wasn't sold, writing...

I think people are going to be very divided about Imelda Staunton. It was a technically perfect performance and likely imitated the real life counterpart, but the character is written as too much of a caricature. Excluding one great scene involving some.. special brownies she is excessively shrill.

Saïd Taghmaoui, all in white, attended the Vengeance premiere. I feel like I haven't seen him in a movie in forever but I like him. Next up for Saïd is G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra. Kristin Scott Thomas remains a classy red carpet must have. Michelle Yeoh and Kerry Washington, two undervalued actresses that we've always loved here at the Experience, have both been valiantly working the charity circuit at Cannes.

Kerry's getting muscled out of this picture by Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, mega-stars (heyyyy, just like she was in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. You're entirely forgiven if you didn't realize Kerry was in that movie. She barely is). Brad was in Cannes for Inglourious Basterds which seems to have a left a lot of people underwhelmed.

All Cannes! All the Time!
Go Fug Yourself salutes Penélope's game face after her food poisoning this week.
Eating the Sun Lots of Philippines upset abotu Roger Ebert's 'worst film ever' comments about Brillant Mendoza's Kinatay
IndieWire on why Cannes still matters
Living in Cinema is jazzed for the new Tsai Ming-Liang film Face. The early stills and the trailer do look like pure eye candy.
NY Post Did you know that Antichrist's end credits cite a "misogyny consultant" Ha! Lars Von Trier continually delights me... and I don't even need to see his movies (not that I don't -- love them, too) for this delight to take place. But then, I've always had a thing for artists who loved to push buttons just to be pushing them and/or to mock themselves or have fun with perceptions of their persona. Madonna used to be in this camp, too.
Twitch rumor has it: Universal is going to ask Tarantino to trim Inglourious Basterds down after the mixed reaction at Cannes. Hey, a little trim probably wouldn't hurt most QT movies.
Getty points to the trend for the red carpet at Cannes and elsewhere: nude (coloring that is)
Obsessed With Film enthusiastically offers 5 reasons to see Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell
IndieWire Director's Fortnight winners... a big night for the Quebecois film I Killed My Mother
My New Plaid Pants is waiting impatiently for each new bit on Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon
Risky Business thinks that Haneke's film is going to win the Palme D'Or.

Will these two films be the big winners?

As to who might win... Haneke seems like a good bet but it's not the only film that's been wowing them. Others are saying Jacques Audiard's Un Prophete could take it. (If you don't recognize the name just think of the lively, tense French hits The Beat That My Heart Skipped and Read My Lips... both of which did well in their US runs). But remember Cannes watchers... no one knows anything. The winners are never exactly predictable. This ain't the Oscars. It's a juried competition where they're encouraged to spread the wealth. No one knows who might win what... except maybe Isabelle Huppert.
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'Cannes you put a price on your dreams?'

My brain and heart are 3,990 miles away. If you have several minutes to spare you might want to check out this video of the Cannes ceremony. If you speak French you'll have more fun but even if you don't the montage of films showing at Cannes (14 - 22 minute mark) is still intriguing.You can see brief cuts from Bright Star, Emmanuelle Devos in L'Origine (Je l'adore), Broken Embraces, Spring Fever and many more including a bit from Heath Ledger in the The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus "Do you dream? Or should I say 'Can you put a price on your dreams?' "

A little kid in a Michael Haneke movie?!? Poor kid.
What horrific, psychologically distorting fate awates him?

Cannes over the weekend... for those of you who've been offline
Roger Ebert "fings ain't wot they used t'be" - lovely piece
Bright Star scrapbook. Jane Campion has such an eye
IFC Daily Strong response to Mother, from The Host director Bong Joon-ho

LA Times Doctor Parnassus still waiting for buyer. The last film of Heath Ledger and a f***ing Terry Gilliam movie with major stars and they don't want it? I will always love the cinema as an artform but as a business it sometimes seems like a malevolent soul crushing destroyer
In Contention joins the chorus singing that Cannes competition lineups need to be riskier than just 'insert 20 famous auteurs'
Getty Tilda Swinton & Agnès Varda of the avant-garde
IndieWire Lars Von Trier does it again with Antichrist. Boos and applause at the premiere
Spoutblog Lars Von Trier does it again for Antichrist. Quotable egomania

I am the best filmmaker in the world

I know it's too much to ask that all directors be as brilliant as Lars Von Trier. But why can't they all be this entertaining?

Cheeky Dafoe, 'the best filmmaker in the world' (?) and sweet Charlotte Gainsbourg

too much Cannes? These posts have never been to France.
PopWrap Shia Labeouf overshares with Playboy
Topless Robot Star Trek = Star Wars. It's Benji Button = Gump all over again
Lazy Eye Theater Remembering Royal Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums
BoingBoing Twitter graph -- how topics get played out. hee
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Cannes Lineup 2009

The following twenty films are competing for that coveted Palme D'Or.

Antichrist Lars Von Trier (Denmark-Sweden-France)
Bright Star Jane Campion (Australia-UK-France)
Broken Embraces Pedro Almodovar (Spain)
<--- Enter the Void Gaspar Noe (France)
Expect cheer and happy endings!
Face Tsai Ming-Liang (France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium)

• The first three titles there, bunched up together, feel like some sort of pornographic love letter addressed to me. Not to you, to me. Mine. ALL MINE. Three of my favorite filmmakers with new completed films, one right after the other? Talk dirty to me on the Croisette, Cannes programmers. Talk dirty to me.
  

Fish Tank Andrea Arnold (U.K.-Netherlands)
Les Herbes Folles Alain Resnais (France-Italy)
In the Beginning Xavier Giannoli (France)
Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino (US)
Kinatay Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)

• Brillante (right) sure is prolific. His last film Serbis was a difficult sit. I continually felt like I was missing something having little knowledge of Pinoy film or culture. But, that said, it wasn't a fast fade either. I still find myself thinking about it: the goat in the movie theater, the aggravating weary repeat walks up and down those enormous staircases, the family unable to deal. Resnais is 86 years old and still making movies but his presence is another reminder that Cannes is pretty conservative with their choices. Reading through the list of films reminds us that Cannes is more likely to stick with laureled auteurs in the main field. The new talent generally has to battle it out in other sidebars.
  

Looking for Eric Ken Loach (U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy)
<--- Map of the Sounds of Tokyo Isabel Coixet (Spain)
a dual identity drama starring Rinko Kikuchi
A Prophet Jacques Audiard (France)
Spring Fever Lou Ye (China-France)
Taking Woodstock Ang Lee (US)

• Why am I not more excited for new films from both Ang Lee and Quentin Tarantino? My best guess is that the comedic nature of Woodstock is throwing off my general Angthusiasm and the extreme violence of Basterds -- not to mention its trouble with spelling -- is putting a damper on the latter. I'll see both of course.
  

Thirst Park Chan-wook (South Korea-US)
The Time That Remains Elia Suleiman (Israel-France-Belgium-Italy)
Vengeance Johnnie To (Hong Kong-France-US)
Vincere Marco Bellocchio (Italy-France) --->
Starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Mussolini's secret lover Ida Dalser
The White Ribbon Michael Haneke (Germany-Austria-France)

• More Cannes regulars.

Some potentially exciting titles outside of the main competition include: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam), Agora (Alejandro Amenabar), Tales from the Golden Age which is an omnibus film from Romania (Cristian Mungiu of 4 Months... fame has two segments), Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi) and Push/Precious/Untitled/Based on Book by Sapphire.

The congested world famous festival runs May 13th-24th in France.
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Brother, Can You Spare Some Eggs?

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JA from MNPP here, gently tapping on the screen door to Film Experience headquarters, politely requesting some eggs for your neighbors. Nevermind the white gloves, can I just have the eggs? Please? Thank you. Oh your cat jumped up on me, Nat, and I dropped the eggs. Can I have the other ones? I see them right there. You can go to the store tomorrow. No I am not being rude. No, I will not leave without the eggs.

Hey everybody, sorry about that, but... Nat's not gonna be here today! He's... preoccupied. Much like Susanne Lothar (sidenote: who else adores Susanne Lothar?) and Naomi Watts before him, he's... preoccupied.


But I'm here! Ready, willing, full-bodied, able, to guide you through your Wednesday. And it's funny that I brought up Michael Haneke's dueling Funny Games pictures here because I actually mean to speak a bit about the "Home Invasion" movie genre here for a moment. (Funny how that I works! I brought it up, and I want to talk about it! Funny!)

Although it's a genre near and dear to my heart, I've been thinking about the genre this past week or so more than often than usual. I just finished the chapter in David Hughes' book The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made on Steven Spielberg's never-happened Close Encounters sort-of sequel, to be called Night Skies. Night Skies was going to tell the story of a family on a farm who come to be terrorized by a group of outer-space aliens who trap them inside their farmhouse and kill their cattle and are generally bad guys (and yes, if that immediately made you think of M. Night's Signs, you are not alone.) Anyway, the story goes, Spielberg wasn't liking where the story was heading, but did like the side-story in the script of the farm-family's son who befriended the only nice alien out in the group, which turned into you guessed it again E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. And then Spielberg got his home invasion ya-ya's out by "producing" "Tobe Hooper's" Poltergeist the same year (switch out the aliens for ghosties, and wha-la).

And besides that sordid tale, I also saw the remake of The Last House on the Left last week, which, befitting the current "Home Invasion" film renaissance - Ils (Them), The Strangers, and Funny Games being recent torch-bearers - feels more like your standard Home Invasion film than it's previous Bergman/Craven incarnations. The bad guys are still invited into the home like they've been since The Virgin Spring, but due to alterations in certain outcomes (trying to stay spoiler-free here), it becomes more about maintaining the safety of the home space than just straightforward vengeance. (as an aside, if you can handle the brutality of what Last House has to offer, I'd say that Dennis Iliadis' film is a mostly artful contemplation on The Horrors Men Can Do... at least until that slightly silly denouement).


I'd be remiss, in discussing Home Invasion movies, without giving a shout-out to three of the genre's most important figureheads, so here they be:

(Sam Pekinpah's still controversial Straw Dogs,
Jodie "Mother Hen In A Confined Space" Foster,
and Attempted-Child-Brutality-Has-Never-Been-So-Funny
superstar Macauley Culkin)

Alright, so now that I've lured y'all in here and quietly clicked the lock into place, behind you, you ain't going nowhere without telling me your favorite Home Invasion movie. And why do you think these movies have been so popular specifically the past couple of years? What I'm getting at is, do you think the genre will subside a bit now that we don't feel locked in this country with a madman who seemed to have swallowed the keys to the Oval Office anymore?
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Tuesday Top Ten: New Academy Members

for the list maker in me and the list lover in you

The Oscars used to hide their membership roster like they hide the final vote tallies. But for the past few years they've been letting us know who they've invited into their 6000 wide flock. They're trying to keep their numbers stable so we figure they're only passing out as many invites as people who die. It's too much to hope that they're jettisoning members who voted for A Beautiful Mind or Driving Miss Daisy. Of course even knowing who they've invited doesn't tell enough of the story since we don't know who is already in... and thus who is still snubbed. You can see the full list here but I'm sharing my choices for their most interesting choices.

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10 David Benioff (Writer) -Mr. Amanda Peet is a perfect example to me of how hard it is to judge talent in Hollywood, film being a collaborative enterprise. Answer me this: How do you write something as nuanced, intelligent and amazing as 25th Hour and then churn out something like his desecration of The Iliad with the über dumb Troy and then do The Kite Runner? I can't figure him out. Is everyone in Hollywood this hot and cold? And if so is that why the Oscars are so uneven in their discernment capabilities?

09 Allison Janney (Actor) Everyone loves Janney and I assume this invitation is at least partially due to the afterglow of Juno (Ellen Page, curiously, was not invited though Janney, Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman all were) but she's more of a TV star than anything. I include her because I think this choice is probably representative of how incestuous the film and TV academies have really become.

08 Kimberly Peirce (Director) This was a wise choice since she'll have plenty of time to watch all the movies each year since she never makes any. I kid, I kid... But seriously the Boys Don't Cry / Stop-Loss auteur has only two film credits. How ever does she pay her rent? Untitled 3rd Kimberly Peirce Project: coming to theaters near you in 2016!

07 Jet Li (Actor) I like Jet Li well enough but this made me scratch my head a bit. That said I applaud their obvious desire to get more international and racially diverse these past few years.

06 Barry Alexander Brown (Editor) He was Oscar-nominated once nearly 30 years ago in the documentary category. Inbetween then and now he's done great editing work on films as diverse as Salaam Bombay!, Madonna's Truth or Dare and several Spike Lee films including his three best films (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and 25th Hour) . So why invite him now... and not many moons ago? Could this be a precursor to more Oscar attention for Spike Lee joints?

05 Peyton Reed (Director) I've been pulling for him ever since falling in love with Bring it On, his first picture. He hasn't made a picture as good since but I still hope he will. It's an interesting choice since he works almost exclusively in very mainstream comedies which is the last place Oscar looks for people worth nominating.

04 Dylan Tichenor (Editor) I just love him is all. You should too. He's only been the lead editor on nine films but most of them have amazing rhythms and play just ever so smoothly: Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Brokeback Mountain and The Royal Tenenbaums... What a filmography.

03 Ray Winstone (Actor) Most cinephiles will be enthused about this choice. He's made valuable contributions to ensemble films (The Departed) solid popcorn fun (Beowulf... all CGI slimmed-down) and memorable indies (Sexy Beast). Good choice Academy.

02 Jack Fisk (Art Director) Color me astonished that Mr. Sissy Spacek and favored production designer of both David Lynch and Terence Malick and the Art Director nominee that should have won last year (for There Will Be Blood) is not already a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


01 Michael Haneke (Director) I have a new obsession: trying to figure out what they were thinking when they decided to invite Michael f***ing Haneke (Caché, The Piano Teacher, Funny Games). He's a genius BUT I can't think of a working auteur more anti-Oscar than he. Can you? He likes to punish audiences rather than coddle them (a big Oscar no-no) and that's just for starters. After I get bored of this new obsession of wondering why they invited him, my next obsession will be enduring. I know myself well enough to know that I will spend hours each and every year moving forward, imagining what his Oscar ballot could possibly look like. My brain will hurt. Give 'em hell, Haneke.
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