skimpole

Out of curiosity, if you didn't choose The King's Speech for best picture or for the best performances, why would you choose Hooper as best director?

Actor Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network William Shimell, Certified Copy Tom Hanks, Toy Story 3 Ewan McGregor, The Ghost Writer Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine Runner-ups: Carlos Ramirez (Carlos), Colin Firth (The King's Speech), Viktor Nemets (My Joy), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Mimi Branescu (Tuesday, After Christmas), James Franco (127 Hours), Tom Cruise (Knight and Day), Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island), Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon), Thanapat Saisaymar (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) Actress Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy Natalie Portman, Black Swan Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine Yoon Jeong-hee, Poetry Runner-ups: Maria Popastasu (Tuesday, After Christmas), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Julianne Moore (The Kids are all Right), Mandy Moore (Tangled), Elle Fanning (Somewhere), Cameron Diaz (Night and Day), Angelina Jolie (Salt) Supporting Actor Adriano Luz, Mysteries of Lisbon Vincent Cassel, Black Swan Ben Kingsley, Shutter Island Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech Ned Beatty, Toy Story 3 Runner-ups: Ricardo Pereira (Mysteries of Lisbon), Joao Luis Arrais (Mysteries of Lisbon)*, John Hawkes (Winter's Bone), Afonso Pimintel (Mysteries of Lisbon), Pierce Brosnan (The Ghost Writer), Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception), Lee David (Poetry), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Matt Damon (True Grit), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Armie Hammer (The Social Network), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island), Pete Postelthwaite (The Town), Max von Sydow (Shutter Island), Eli Wallach (The Ghost Writer), Christian Bale (The Fighter), Sam Neill (Daybreakers) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Supporting Actress Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer Mila Kunis, Black Swan Wallapa Mongkolprasert, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives Clotilde Hesme, Mysteries of Lisbon Mirela Oprisor, Tuesday, After Christmas Runner-ups: Maria Joao Bastos (Mysteries of Lisbon), Amy Adams (The Fighter), Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech), Lea Seydoux (Mysteries of Lisbon), Ellen Page (Inception), Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), Winona Ryder (Black Swan) Not seen: Biutiful, Rabbit Hole, Animal Kingdom -------So Binoche finally wins an award from my me, after five Best Actress nominations and two supporting. That must be some kind of record of me. Otherwise an oddly underwhelming year: for once the Academy Best Picture nominees lined up pretty closely with the critics choices, largely because an absence of alternatives. It sort of explains why Tom Hanks gets a nomination for his third time as a vocal performance.

My choices Actor Adrien Brody, The Pianist Actress Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive Supporting Actor Sergei Dontsov, Russian Ark Supporting Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago Juvenile Performance Joel Haley Osment, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

Great quotes from 2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox Badger: [scoffs] I'm sugar-coating it, man. This is Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, three of the meanest, nastiest, and ugliest farmers in the history of this valley. Mr.Fox: Right, tell me about them. Badger: [sighs] Allright. Walt Boggis is a chicken farmer, probably the most successful in the world. He weighs the same as a young rhinoceros. He eats three chickens every day for breakfast, lunch, supper, and dessert. That's twelve in total per deim. Nate Bunce is a duck and goose farmer. He is approximately the size of a pot-bellied dwarf, and his chin would be underwater in the shallow end of any swimming pool on the planet. His food is homemade donuts with mashed up goose livers injected into them. Frank Bean is a turkey and apple farmer. He invented his own species of each. He lives on a liquid diet of strong alcoholic cider, which he makes from his apples. He's as skinny as a pencil, as smart as a whip, and possibly the scariest man currently living. Inglourious Basterds Lt. Archie Hicox: [In English] Well, if this is it, old boy, I hope you don't mind if I go out speaking the King's. Major Dieter Hellstrom: [In English] By all means, Captain. Lt. Archie Hicox: [picks up his glass of scotch] There's a special rung in hell reserved for people who waste good scotch. Seeing as how I may be rapping on the door momentarily... [drinks his scotch] Lt. Archie Hicox: I must say, damn good stuff, Sir. 500 Days of Summer

I was thinking that TCM might have a day for those stars with indelible performances who didn't make enough movies that were deserved a full day. I'm thinking of Maria Falconetti and James Dean to start with. (Dean occurred in three movies of course, so I suppose he would be a three-hit wonder, but one gets the general gist.) Robert Williams only had one leading role, for Platinum Blonde. What are some other choices?

I saw three movies last week. When Strangers Marry has some interesting touches such as having the leading couple wander into what would have been called at the time a Negro bar. But the couple has very little chemistry and the overall solution is based on implausible coincidence. Interrupted Melody is a melodrama with very little to recommend it. One suspects that Eleanor Parker was nominated for best Actress because the people responsible didn't realize that she didn't sing her own songs. Florence Foster Jenkins has Simon Helberg as Jenkins' pianist who realizes she can't sing doing his "Big Bang Theory" character impersonation when trapped by Sheldon Cooper's lunacy. Streep gives a good performance singing very badly as the deluded patron of the arts. Hugh Grant is better still as her quasi gigolo husband who, while maintaining a mistress, acts as he does out of love. It's a bit touching actually.

Actor George Clooney, Fantastic Mr. Fox Isaach de Bankole, The Limits of Control Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Red Cliff, Part 2 Christopher Plummer, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus George Clooney, Up in the Air Runner-ups: Ed Asner (Up), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Red Cliff, Part 2), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet), Shahab Hosseini (About Elly), Ben Whishaw (Bright Star), Dany Boon (Micmacs), Matt Damon (The Informant!), Stephane Aubier (A Town Called Panic), Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Robert Downey Jr., (Sherlock Holmes), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer), Bill Hader (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Actress Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia Isabelle Huppert, White Material Golshifteh Farahani, About Elly Abbe Cornish, Bright Star Zooey Deschanel, 500 Days of Summer Runner-ups: Carey Mulligan (An Education), Tilda Swinton (I am Love), Dakota Fanning (Coraline), Reese Witherspoon (Monsters vs. Aliens), Anna Faris (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), Marion Cotillard (Nine), Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Peter Capaldi, In the Loop Heath Ledger, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds Zhang Fengyi, Red Cliff, Part 2 Runner-ups: Bill Murray (The Limits of Control, Fantastic Mr. Fox), Fan Wei (City of Life and Death), Tom Waits (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus), Owen Wilson (Fantastic Mr. Fox), Verne Troyer (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus), Brad Pitt (Inglourious Basterds), Jason Schwartzman (Fantastic Mr. Fox), Christopher Plummer (Up), Jordon Nagai (Up), Peymaan Moaadi (About Elly), August Diehl (Inglorious Basterds), Chang Chen (Red Cliff, Part 2), Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), Bob Peterson (Up), Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia), Michael Gambon (Fantastic Mr. Fox), Burghart Klausner (The White Ribbon), Tong Dawei (Red Cliff, Part 2), Scott Bakula (The Informant!), Zang Jinsheng (Red Cliff, Part 2), John Hurt (The Limits of Control), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), J.K. Simmons (Up in the Air), James Gandolfini (Where the Wild Things Are), Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker), Kevin Spacey (The Men Who Stare at Goats), Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds), Gedeon Burkhardt (Inglourious Basterds), Supporting Actress Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds Zhao Wei, Red Cliff, Part 2 Meryl Streep, Fantastic Mr. Fox Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air Runner-ups: Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Elizabeth Docter (Up)*, Qin Lan (City of Life and Death), Maria Victoria Dragus (The White Ribbon), Lin Chi-Ling (Red Cliff, Part 2), Julianne Moore (A Single Man), Teri Hatcher (Coraline), Paz de la Huerta (The Limits of Control), Tilda Swinton (The Limits of Control), Sigourney Weaver (Avatar), Angelia Papulia (Dogtooth), Mary Tsoni (Dogtooth), Mariah Carey (Precious), *Juvenile Performance of the Year Not seen: Crazy Heart, Invictus, The Last Station, The Messenger, The Lovely Bones -------Meryl Streep wins an award from me 31 years after I first nominated her for The Deer Hunter. Is that a record? No: Jack Lemmon won for Glengarry Glen Ross 33 years after I first nominated him for Some Like it Hot. -------Not in my view a good year for lead actresses.

Now that it's on Criterion DVD and Blue-ray, you might think TCM could show Stalker again.

A Christmas Tale got nominations in all four categories from me. Deneuve plays the matriarch of a well off family that suffers from a number of problems. One is that decades earlier one of the children suffered from cancer, and another of the children was conceived in order to save him, only for this not to work. Now Denueve is suffering from cancer and is looking for a blood relative to provide the bone marrow that may save her. Roussillion plays her husband, Amalric her older son, viewed as the black sheep of the family, especially by his sister played by Consigny. Mastroianni plays the wife of the son conceived to save his brother, who wonders whether she should have been with her husband's cousin. Devos plays Amalric's Jewish girlfriend who drops for a time. To quote from Philip Lopate's essay on the film for the Criterion Collection: "In the eight films he’s made since 1991, Arnaud Desplechin has been developing a visionary world, a personal style that goes against the grain of standard cinematic practice today. He’s a master of ensemble mise-en-scène and a brilliant director of actors, and his interest tends to fan out over many characters, whose mixed strengths and flaws jolt the viewer out of easy identification with any of them, compelling instead a more complex, deferred, time-capsule-release sympathy. This environmental, novelistically long approach, with its digressive and converging plotlines, is admirably suited to the family romance, a specialty of Desplechin’s, with A Christmas Tale his greatest example.... "What sets A Christmas Tale apart from any holiday film in memory, however, is its technique. Desplechin has always been an immensely skillful and vigorous visual stylist who stops just short of making a fetish of the pictorial. Here he employs a catchall of self-conscious devices that draw our attention to the film’s fabrication: chapter headings, actors directly addressing the cam­era, iris shots, split screens, shadow puppets representing the characters, multiple first-person voice-overs, and a third-person omniscient narrator. Oddly enough, none of these devices have the Brechtian alienation effect of taking us out of the action in order to induce critical reflection; rather, they are shortcuts that propel us further into the naturalistic narrative. They are all warming, amusing modes of storytelling, and very New Wave (think of Truffaut’s high-speed openings in Shoot the Piano Player and Jules and Jim). Their ultimate effect is to keep us off balance. The same could be said for the director’s approach here to individual shots, a stutter-step technique that includes short pans and tracks, multiple takes of actions that last only a few seconds, and a good deal of cutting. The aesthetic of deep-focus, long-duration takes that Desplechin developed in earlier films has been jettisoned, replaced by the visual equivalent of turntable scratching (as we see Ivan do as DJ of the town dance). And if the visuals keep us jarred, the soundtrack’s astounding variety, from Vivaldi to raga to Cecil Taylor, induces another sort of disorientation." Gommorah is an Italian movie that tells a number of interweaving stories about the Camorra, the organized crime institution as ruthless and powerful as the more famous Mafia, who ruthless dominate Naples. One of these subplots include the two young men, who I singled out as runner-ups. These two cocky teenagers think they can make their way into the glories of violent crime out of sheer brashness. It's not too much of a spoiler to suggest that it's not that easy. Hunger helped introduce the world to both the director Steve McQueen and the actor Michael Fassbender. It's about the IRA hunger strikes in 1980-1981 in order to regain political status for IRA prisoners. Ultimately Fassbender, who plays the strike leader Bobby Sands, dies (after being elected to Parliament) as do several other prisoners. Apparently the British tactfully made some concessions after the strike ended. One crucial scene is a 17 1/2 minute long take where Fassbender argues the morality of hunger strikes with a Catholic priest played by Liam Cunnigham. I nominated both actors. 35 Shots of Rum is a movie directed by Claire Denis. It deals with a widower (he's a train driver) and his close relationship with his grown daughter. Alex Descas got my fifth nomination for best actor. The title refers to the beverage he drinks when his daughter is successfully married at the end of the movie. To quote from Peter Bradshaw's review from The Guardian: "The action of Denis's film, and the themes and ideas attendant on it, are never forced or directed in the conventional way; she manages the succession of scenes in a miraculously understated style so that the audience is immersed in the characters' world and comes to intuit their feelings, and appreciate what is at stake, without having things spelt out. Denis has a brilliant wordless sequence in which Lionel's family group, stymied by a car breakdown, take shelter from the driving rain in a cafe, a stopover that turns into an impromptu party: we see the principals' hidden emotional lives coming to the surface." I'm not the best fan of Kelly Reichardt movies, but Wendy and Lucy benefits from a compelling plot. Michelle Williams plays Wendy is traveling in Alaska with her dog Lucy. Wendy is clearly fairly poor, and when her car breaks down in one town, she ends up losing her dog.

Quotes from 2008 The Dark Knight The Joker: How about a magic trick? [sticks a pencil into the table, point first] I'm gonna make this pencil disappear. [in one swift motion, slams Gambol's approaching crony head-first into the table, ramming the full length of the pencil through his eye socket, killing him] Ta-da! It's…it's gone. Quantum of Solace I should point out that I've never actually seen all of this movie. In fact I only saw the beginning on a flight once. But I liked this: James Bond: Are you going to tell us who you work for? Mr. White: I was always very interested to meet you. I'd heard so much about you from Vesper. In fact, the real shame is that if she hadn't killed herself, we would have had you too. I think you would have done anything for her. M: You know you're not in Britain, and goodness knows where you will be tomorrow. Which should tell you that eventually, you will, tell us about the people you work with. And the longer it takes, the more painful we'll make it. Mr. White: [laughs] You really don't know anything about us, do you? It's so amusing because we are on the other side, thinking "Oh, the MI6, the CIA, they're watching over our shoulders, they're listening to our conversations." And the truth is, you don't even know we exist! M: We do now, Mr White, and we're quick learners. Mr. White: Oh, really? Well, then, the first thing you should know about us is that we have people everywhere. Am I right? [M's bodyguard, Mitchell, gets out a gun and starts firing shots]

Ryan's Daughter and The Friends of Eddie Coyle would have been good choices. I've also never seen Farewell My Lovely. His role in Dead Man is brief, but it was one of his last roles, and TCM should show it anyway.

Last week i saw seven movies. Tokyo Twilight is grimmer than most Ozu movies, what with the younger daughter getting pregnant out of wedlock, getting an abortion, meeting her long-lost mother and getting hit and eventually killed by a truck. The actress playing her is good, as is Setsuko Hara playing her older sister. Record of a Tenement Gentleman is lighter Ozu far, an effective little drama about a middle aged woman who finds herself taking care of a lost child and gradually getting to like him. Wonder Woman was quite disappointing in most respects. The comic book relationship between Diana Prince and Steve Trevor was never particularly moving, and it can't bear the weight the movie puts on it. Nor is moving the action to the first world war a very good idea, nor is the overall theme well developed, what with love showing it is more powerful than hate by crushing hate to death. Nor are the special effects that convincing. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, by contrast, is much much better. It's bursting with brilliant visual ideas, even if the ideas are those of an overgrown teenager. Nevertheless the love story is much more convincing, and certainly less heavy handed. One doesn't mind that much of the movie is spent ignoring the McGuffin with the heroine rescuing the hero, and then the hero rescuing the heroine, just to balance things. .The Wedding Plan is about an Orthodox Israeli woman who decides to go through with her elaborate wedding even though she no longer has a groom, supposedly on the idea that if you hold he will come, or that God will provide one. Although other religions would probably handle the gender dynamics differently (the director is an Orthodox woman), one can imagine them providing the same convenient result. Ultimately what's created is theologically dubious and since it involves the heroine hoping for love from someone she barely knows, not very romantic in my view. The lead actress is good, but I preferred the one playing her angry sister. Ziegfield Follies contains some fascinating ballets, the chance to see Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire dance together (and they're terrific) and some comedy sketches of questionable effectiveness (a man tries to get a telephone operator to reach someone just a few buildings down, a man is barnkrupted when his stubborn lawyer insists on fighting a $2 fine, a couple try to get their winning lottery ticket back from their landlord, and a television sponsor gets drunk tasting the sponsored product). It's OK in the end. Captain Fantastic asks whether it's good to home school your kids and teach them survivialist techniques if you also support Noam Chomsky and make sure they read Dostoevsky and Nabokov. Not surprisingly, the movie suggests you have to compromise and since the mother's suicide that is the core of the movie isn't really dealt with, it can't be said this is a really thoughtful examination of the subject.

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche, New York Michael Fassbender, Hunger Sean Penn, Milk Mathieu Amalric, A Christmas Tale Alex Descas, 35 Shots of Rum Runner-ups: Hiroki Doi (Ponyo), Ben Burtt (WALL-E), Ari Foman (Waltz with Bashir), Benicio del Toro (Che), Michael J. Smith, Jr., (Ballast), Kare Hedebrant (Let the Right One In), Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges), Joaquin Phoenix (Two Lovers), Jeremie Renier (Lorna's Silence), Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Colin Farrell (In Bruges), Javier Bardem (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Toni Servillo (Il Divo) Actress Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky Catherine Deneuve, A Christmas Tale Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married Yuria Nara, Ponyo* Runner-ups: Arta Dobroshi (Lorna's Silence), Mati Diop (35 Shots of Rum), Lina Leandersson (Let the Right One in), Maria Onetto (The Headless Woman), Scarlett Johansson (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Elissa Knight (WALL-E), Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Tarra Riggs (Ballast), Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Zhao Tao (24 City), Kate Winslet (The Reader), Juliette Binoche (Summer Hours), Jennifer Aniston (Marley & Me) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Supporting Actor Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Liam Cunningham, Hunger Jean-Paul Roussillon, A Christmas Tale Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky Ralph Fiennes, In Bruges Runner-ups: Jeff Garlin (WALL-E), Madhur Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire), Bill Irwin (Rachel Getting Married), Peter Dinklage (In Bruges), Laurent Capelluto (A Christmas Tale), Jasper Christensen (Quantum of Solace), Tom Noonan (Synecdoche, New York), Melvin Poupaud (A Christmas Tale), Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie), Terrence Stamp (Valkyrie), Marco Macor (Gomorrah), Ciro Petrone (Gomorrah), Josh Brolin (Milk), Jeremie Renier (Summer Hours), Supporting Actress Edith Scob, Summer Hours Anne Consigny, A Christmas Tale Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona Chiara Mastroianni, A Christmas Tale Samantha Morton, Synecdoche, New York Runner-ups: Dianne Wiest (Synecdoche, New York), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Catherine Keener (Synecdoche, New York), Emmanuelle Devos (A Christmas Tale), Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married), Gwyneth Paltrow (Two Lovers), Michelle Williams (Synecdoche, New York), Viola Davis (Doubt), Alice de Lenquesaing (Summer Hours), Tomoko Yamaguchi (Ponyo), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Synecdoche, New York), Not seen: The Visitor, Changeling, Frozen River, Tropic Thunder, Revolutionary Road -------After five unsuccessful nominations, Hoffman finally wins an Oscar from me. -------It appears I've nominated three movies where mother and daughter Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni. In the first, Time Regained, Deneuve played the mother of Marcel's first love, and Mastroianni played Marcel's second love. In the third, Deneuve plays the strong matriarch of the family, and Mastroianni plays her daughter-in-law. In Persepolis, Deneuve actually plays Mastroianni's mother, but she has a stronger relationship with her grandmother, played by Danielle Darrieux. ------My three actors runner-ups are actually voices in animated movies.

Earlier this week I was able to see the 1947 Ozu film Record of a Tenement Gentleman, which is a somewhat misleading title, since the movie is actually about Choko Iida, who was about 50 at the time. A neighbor has encountered the boy after losing his father and who dumps it on the single Iida. The little boy is not very cute (he's a bit plump) and Iida is annoyed with him, because he wets the bed. But as the movie wears on, they become more attached to each other, except the boy's father eventually finds him again, and she reluctantly, if not too emotionally, gives him up. I liked the movie, but it made me think of the larger genre of oldish person who is warmed by the presence of a cute orphan. The model for such movies if The Kid, made at a time when Chaplin was hardly an old man.

Flight of the Red Balloon was made by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien as part of a program with the Musee D'Orsay. The movie, as the title suggests, alludes to the movie The Red Balloon. There are shots of a red balloon floating through Paris. But much of the movie deals with Juliette Binoche, who I choose as a nominee for best actress. Binoche, whose hair is blonde in this movie, plays the mother of the small Iteanu, and Fang Song serves as Iteanu's baby-sitter for much of the movie. Binoche works for much of the movie as a puppeteer, often on Chinese films, while having problems with a tenant she's dealing with and a much older child of her. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon was the last movie made by Eric Rohmer. It is based on one of the first French novels, an early 17th century novel, or arguably proto-novel, about a pastoral romance that takes place in fifth century Gaul. To quote the Guardian review: "There are absolutely no modern twists or inventions. The actors wear flowing robes and speak in earnest classical language. The movie is performed largely in the open air, and the wandering camera follows the players unobtrusively, keeping largely a stone's throw away. The action takes place on sunny, blowy days in an unspoilt rural landscape that could belong to any century, and filmed in such a way that it could have been made at any time in the past 30 years."

I was busy two weeks ago, so I couldn't talk about these movies. The first and the third were nominated for best actress, while the middle was nominated for best Actor. Regular Lovers is a black and white film about a young Frenchman, played by the director's son, who lives around the time of the 1968 rebellion. He is peripherally involved, talks about culture and politics and has an ultimately unsuccessful relationship with Hesme's character. I will admit it is an acquired taste. To quote from the Guardian's review: "If that movie [bertolucci's The Dreamers] was a sexy sell-out, this is a sell-in - the biggest, longest, dourest and unsexiest sell-in imaginable - but with mesmeric moments, none the less. Regular Lovers runs for three hours and is shot in a beautiful but severe monochrome by cinematographer William Lubtchansky." Peter Bradshaw continues: "This is an uncompromising, unflinchingly difficult movie in the gnomic Godardian argot, complete with intertitles, that has not been fashionable for decades. The film behaves as if these particular arguments and événements are still current; in its style, it might almost have been made in 1968. All this may well send modern audiences running for the hills, but they would miss a startling and intriguing piece of work. There are moments of visionary fascination and gritty, gloomy authenticity that are absent from Bertolucci's digitally burnished memory of 1968." Oddly enough, and perhaps not oddly enough,one scene that was used for its trailer was quite untypical, as the characters dance to the Kinks' "This Time Tomorrow." The Sun is part of Alexander Sokurov's trilogy (arguably tetralogy) of power, and it is about Hirohito as he moves from surrender to the Allied occupation renouncing his divinity. Issey Ogata's Hirohito is arguably a pathetic character, more concerned with his interests as a biologist than really dealing with the magnitude of the problem his country faces, "part gawkish boy, part sclerotic old man" to quote the Guardian's review. The movie is shot in a unique style: "...in crepuscular twilight, a sepia gloom for interior shots and a truly strange bleached-out blankness on the rare occasions when the emperor goes out of doors - as if the shock of defeat and nuclear catastrophe had leached all the natural light out of the world. It really is a quite extraordinary visual effect, and for a long time you watch it blinking, as if your eyes might eventually become accustomed to this subdued light.." Three Times has a very straightforward concept. Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien has his couple, Chang Chen and Shu Qi play a couple at three times in Taiwan's history, in 1966, in 1911 when Taiwan was a Japanese colony, and in the present day. Apparently Barry Jenkins was inspired by this movie while making Moonlight. You can read more about the movie here: http://sensesofcinema.com/2006/spotlight-on-hou-hsiao-hsien/three_times/

Great quotes from 2007 There Will Be Blood I'm finished Michael Clayton I'm not the guy you kill, I'm the guy you buy! Are you so **** blind that you don't even see what I am? I sold out Arthur for eighty grand and a three year contract. I'm the easiest part of your problem and you're gonna kill me?

Did anyone find something a little odd about the movie, such as how a movie taking place in Mississippi is so very white. A look on Wikipedia reveals that the small city ten miles from the famous bridge was about 72% black in 2010. Now granted the movie takes place six decades earlier, and that's more than half a century of demographic change. But Mississippi isn't like Detroit, there's hasn't been that much demographic change. And while the places where the characters are likely to hang out, at school, at church, at work are likely to be intensely segregated, the absence of African-Americans is really striking.

Hathaway isn't in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Are you thinking of another movie or another star?

I saw three movies last week. Mogambo is essentially two hours waiting for Clark Gable to realize that he should be with Ava Gardener and not Grace Kelly. Many viewers would think this was the obvious choice, even if Kelly's character was not already married and her husband is not obligingly run over by a rhinoceros. But notwithstanding that, Gable and Gardener are quite good, if not good enough to be nominated for an award in what was a very good year for actors, and Ford does good competent work here. Pieces of April is a pseudo-independent movie that is mildly black turn on the holiday family reunion movie. Patricia Clarkson got an oscar nomination for playing the mother dying of cancer. There is also sordid Manhattan, the kind of interracial relationship less popular with white men, and a short running time. Rewatching A Christmas Tale, with a similar plot, helps show how ultimately slight the plot is. Margaret is almost an epic tale of a self-absored somewhat spoiled upper class New York teenage girl who helps cause a fatal bus accident. Wrecked by guilt, Anna Paquin gives a terrific performance as she spends three hours trying to make amends in not the most effective or honest way of dealing with it. It is a rich role that does not attempt to be sympathetic. One certainly admires the movie for its ambition.

Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood 2006 movie nominated in 2007 Gordon Pinsent, Away from Her George Clooney, Michael Clayton Viggo Mortenson, Eastern Promises Philip Seymour Hoffman, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Substitute for Pinsent Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild Runner-ups: Jake Gyllenhaal (Zodiac), Gabe Nevins (Paranoid Park), Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac), Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Kurt Russell (Death Proof), Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Andy Gillet (The Romance of Astrea and Celdadon), Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Lust, Caution), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Karl Markovics (The Counterfeiters), Simon Iteanu (Flight of the Red Balloon), Owen Wilson (The Darjeeling Limited), Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille), Glen Hansard (Once) Actress Anamaria Manica, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose Laura Vasiliu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 2006 movie nominated in 2007, Julie Christie, Away From Her Juliette Binoche, Flight of the Red Balloon Substitute for Christie Chiara Mastroianni, Persepolis Runner-ups: Stephanie Crayencour (The Romance of Astrea and Celadon), Naomi Watts (Eastern Promises), Marketa Irglova (Once), Ellen Page (Juno), Galina Vishnevskaya (Alexandra), Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart), Supporting Actor Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men Vlad Ivanov, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Robert Downey Jr., Zodiac Albert Finney, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Runner-ups: Adrian Brody (The Darjeeling Limited), Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men), John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises), Woody Harrelson (No Country for Old Men), Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises), Peter O'Toole (Ratatouille), Kevin J. O'Connor (There Will be Blood), Ethan Hawke (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild), Jack Black (Margot at the Wedding), Simon Abkarian (Persepolis), Jason Bateman (Juno), Richard Gere (I'm Not There), Stephen Root (No Country for Old Men), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War) Supporting Actress Gabrielle Lopes, Persepolis* Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton 2006 Movie Nominated in 2007 Olympia Dukakis, Away From Her Danielle Darrieux, Persepolis Substitute for Dukakis Marisa Tomei, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Runner-ups: Vanessa Ferlito (Death Proof), Ann Savage (My Winnipeg), Natalie Portman (The Darjeeling Limited), Zoe Bell (Death Proof), Fang Song (Flight of the Red Balloon), Sylvie Testud (La Vie En Rose), Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men), Jennifer Garner (Juno), Janeane Garofolo (Ratatouille), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement), Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement), Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Catherine Deneuve (Persepolis) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Not seen: In the Valley of Elah, Elizabeth: the Golden Age, The Savages, Gone Baby Gone ------How odd it is that the Academy gives Tilda Swinton an oscar before I do. ------There's a rather striking theme of murder, political tyranny and dying in general this year. Also, not a bad year for supporting actress.

Actually Jones closes the film. And I think it's important to point out that the groups were unanimous that Bardem was a supporting, and not a lead, actor. This wasn't like 2004 where Foxx got a supporting nomination in Collateral because he was also nominated (and winning) in a lead. It's not like he's running against a more prominent actor (neither Brolin nor Jones) were nominated. It's not like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, where Casey Affleck came in second in the Village Voice poll for supporting actor, and seventh for actor. Bardem may have a lot of screen time, but for much of it he's just an unstoppable killing force, like the truck in Duel or the title characters in Jaws and Alien. There are only a few scenes which do more, and basically they just add to his aura of malevolence. He's more a screen villain who complicates the action, rather a deep character in his own right. It's striking the Academy choose actors playing three striking murderers in a row for best supporting. Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight is supporting, he has no relationship outside his Lord of Misrule function. (And yet he is clearly more imaginative and striking than Bardem.) In my view Waltz, Pitt and Laurent, and by definition all the other characters are supporting. There are large passages of the movie where they aren't present, and one large sequence when none of them are present.

Great quotes from 2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Anyway, by now you may wonder how I wound up here. Or, maybe not. Maybe you wonder how silly putty picks **** up from comic books. The point is, I don't see another **** narrator, so pipe down. Gay Perry: What are you doing? Harry: I'm just trying to wrap up the movie, and leave the people a message. Gay Perry: Oh. Well, I got a message for ya. Get your feet off my **** desk. Harry: Sorry. I work for Perry now- Gay Perry: [Covers Harry's mouth] And stop narrating. [to the audience] That's it, please stay for the end credits. If you're wondering who the best boy is, it's somebody's nephew. Um, don't forget to validate your parking, and to all you good people in the Midwest, sorry we said "****" so much. Say "Good night". [uncovers Harry's mouth] Harry: Thanks, again. Gay Perry: Now go. Vanish. Great quotes from 2006 Casino Royale [M comes home to find Bond waiting for her] M: You've got a bloody cheek! Bond: Sorry. I'll shoot the camera first next time. M: Or yourself. You stormed into an embassy. You violated the only absolutely inviolate rule of international relationships, and why? So you could kill a nobody. We wanted to question him, not to kill him! :[Angrily throws down a newspaper headlined MI6 KILLS UNARMED PRISONER onto a table in front of Bond] For God's sake! You're supposed to display some kind of judgment. Bond: I did. I thought one less bomb maker in the world would be a good thing. M: Exactly. One bomb maker. We're trying to figure out how an entire network of terrorist groups is financed and you give us one bomb maker. Hardly the big picture, wouldn't you say? The man isn't even a true believer; he's a gun for hire. And thanks to your overdeveloped trigger finger, we have no idea who hired him and why! And how the hell did you find out where I lived?! Bond: Same way I found out your name. I thought "M" was a randomly assigned letter. I had no idea it stood for— M: Utter one more syllable and I'll have you killed. Bond: Vodka martini. Bartender: Shaken or stirred? Bond: Do I look like I give a damn?

I wanted to post this last week, but I was busy: 2002 The Pianist Spirited Away Russian Ark The Lord of the Rings: the two Towers Femme Fatale Ten The Man Without a Past Unknown Pleasures Morvern Callar Punch Drunk Love Honorable Mentions: Blissfully Yours, Spider, Amen, Panic Room 2003 The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King Oldboy Finding Nemo Mystic River In America Los Angeles Plays Itself Looney Tunes: Back in Action American Splendor Crimson Gold West of the Tracks Honorable Mention: Dogville, The Return, Memories of Murder, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring, The Best of Youth, Cafe Lumiere, Goodbye, Dragon Inn 2004 A Very Long Engagement The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The Incredibles The Weeping Meadow 2046 Kings and Queen Tropical Malady Vera Drake I (Heart) Huckabees Innocence Honorable Mention: Kung Fu Hustle, Nobody Knows, Moolaade, The Intruder, The World, Keane 2005 Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang Howl’s Moving Castle The Child The Death of Mr. Lazarescu The New World The Sun Three Times A History of Violence Regular Lovers Broken Flowers Honorable Mention: Ghosts 2006 Tell No One Syndromes and a Century Offside Children of Men Volver A Prairie Home Companion Inland Empire Still Life 12:08 East of Bucharest Iraq in Fragments Honorable Mentions: None

I saw four movies last week. The Ninth Configuration advertises itself as a black comedy where one wonders whether the psychiatrist at a secret military hospital is really sane or not. Well, it wouldn't be much of a movie if there wasn't anything wrong with hm.and while we go on there is a facile Christ complex and facile talk of redemption. But that doesn't mean the movie should be simply ignored. Marriage of the Blessed deals with a common theme, the war-damaged veteran who returns from the front and has trouble adapting. And so we have him thinking he's a burden to his family, while his woman stands by him regardless. The interesting thing is that this is from Iran, and its brief (about 70 minutes) is shot in an innovative style. Ode to Billy Joe benefits from a good performance by Glynnis O'Connor as the young Mississippi girl who is half of the romantic couple in the movie. And there is a genuine attempt to deal with rural Mississippi without condescension and mockery. (Though this is done by one particularly egregious omission, which I'll discuss in the Ode to Billy Joe thread). Unfortunately Robby Benson is borderline hysterical even before the homosexual tryst which causes him to commit suicide. And the movie is too obvious and literal considering that the power of the original song was its tact and understatement. (It wasn't really enigmatic: obviously the singer wouldn't be singing it if Billy Joe was simply a vague acquaintance.) What can one say of Inside Daisy Clover? It's more subtle than earlier Hollywood movies about how difficult it is for an ingenue to make her way through Hollywood. But it isn't necessarily more intelligent or thoughtful. It's sort of in a transitional state, like Hollywood at the time.