skimpole

Did you have a choice for Best Actress?

Actor Francois Cluzet, Tell No One Clive Owen, Children of Men Denzel Washington, Inside Man Clive Owen, Inside Man Christian Bale, The Prestige Runner-ups: Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Cillian Murphy (The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Jamelle Debbouze (Days of Glory), Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan), Daniel Craig (Casino Royale), Teodor Corban (12:08 East of Bucharest), Edward Norton (The Illusionist), Song Kang-ho (The Host), Hugh Jackman (The Prestige), James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland), Hugh Jackman (The Fountain), Nun Bilge Ceylan (Climates), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Ulrich Muhe (The Lives of Others), Matt Damon (The Departed), Chow Yun-Fat (Curse of the Golden Flower), Jaruchai Iamaram (Syndromes and a Century), Han Samming (Still Life) Actress Helen Mirren, The Queen Penelope Cruz, Volver Laura Dern, Inland Empire Zhao Tao, Still Life Gong Li, Curse of the Golden Flower Runner-ups: Rachel Weisz (The Fountain), Carice van Houten (Black Book), Ivana Baquero (Pan's Labyrinth),* Sima Mobarak-Shahi (Offside), Nantarat Sawaddikul (Syndromes and a Century), Aissa Maiga (Bamoko), Ebru Ceylan (Climates), Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Supporting Actor Mark Wahlberg, The Departed Kevin Kline, A Prairie Home Companion Michael Caine, The Prestige, Children of Men Mircea Andreescu, 12:08 East of Bucharest Andre Dussolier, Tell No One Runner-ups: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Inside Man), Woody Harrelson (A Prairie Home Companion), Mohamed Akhzam (Babel), Ion Sapdaru (12:08 East of Bucharest), Garrison Keillor (A Prairie Home Companion), Ken Davitian (Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan), David Bowie (The Prestige), John C. Reilly (A Prairie Home Companion), Martin Sheen (The Departed), Dolf de Vries (Black Book), Robert Downey Jr., (A Scanner Darkly), Christopher Plummer (Inside Man), Tommy Lee Jones (A Prairie Home Companion), Ben Kingsley (Lucky Number Slevin) Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi, Babel Carmen Maura, Volver Lily Tomlin, A Prairie Home Companion Marie Josee Croze, Tell No One Maribel Verdu, Pan's Labyrinth Runner-ups: Yohana Coba (Volver), Adriana Barraza (Babel), Go Ah-sung (The Host), Eva Green (Casino Royale), Cate Blanchett (Babel), Jodie Foster (Inside Man), Virginia Madsen (A Prairie Home Companion), Julianne Moore (Children of Men), Clare-Hope Ashitey (Children of Men), Lindsay Lohan (A Prairie Home Companion), Meryl Streep (A Prairie Home Companion), Kristin Scott Thomas (Tell No One), Not seen: Blood Diamond, Venus, The Pursuit of Happyness, Notes on a Scandal, The Devil Wears Prada, Little Children -------I should point out that not since 1930, when movie makers were still trying to get the kinks out of sound technology, has there been a year whose movies that have impressed me less.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/martin-landau-dead-ed-wood-811318 Martin Landau, the all-purpose actor who showcased his versatility as a master of disguise on the Mission: Impossible TV series and as a broken-down Bela Lugosi in his Oscar-winning performance in Ed Wood, has died. He was 89. Landau, who shot to fame by playing a homosexual henchman in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic North by Northwest, died Saturday of "unexpected complications" after a brief stay at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, his rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. After he quit CBS’ Mission: Impossible after three seasons in 1969 because of a contract dispute, Landau’s career was on the rocks until he was picked by Francis Ford Coppola to play Abe Karatz, the business partner of visionary automaker Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges), in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Landau received a best supporting actor nomination for that performance, then backed it up the following year with another nom for starring as Judah Rosenthal, an ophthalmologist who has his mistress (Angelica Huston) killed, in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Landau lost out on Oscar night to Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington, respectively, in those years but finally prevailed for his larger-than-life portrayal of horror-movie legend Lugosi in the biopic Ed Wood (1994), directed by Tim Burton. Landau also starred as Commander John Koenig on the 1970s science-fiction series Space: 1999 opposite his Mission: Impossible co-star Barbara Bain, his wife from 1957 until their divorce in 1993. A former newspaper cartoonist, Landau turned down the role of Mr. Spock on the NBC series Star Trek, which went to Leonard Nimoy (who later effectively replaced Landau on Mission: Impossible after Trek was canceled). Landau also was an admired acting teacher who taught the craft to the likes of Jack Nicholson. And in the 1950s, he was best friends with James Dean and, for several months, the boyfriend of Marilyn Monroe. “She could be wonderful, but she was incredibly insecure, to the point she could drive you crazy,” he told The New York Times in 1988. Landau was born in Brooklyn on June 20, 1928. At age 17, he landed a job as a cartoonist for the New York Daily News, but he turned down a promotion and quit five years later to pursue acting. “It was an impulsive move on my part to do that,” Landau told The Jewish Journal in 2013. “To become an actor was a dream I must’ve had so deeply and so strongly because I left a lucrative, well-paying job that I could do well to become an unemployed actor. It’s crazy if you think about it. To this day, I can still hear my mother’s voice saying, ‘You did what?!’ ” In 1955, he auditioned for Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio (choosing a scene from Clifford Odets’ Clash by Night against the advice of friends), and he and Steve McQueen were the only new students accepted that year out of the 2,000-plus aspirants who had applied. With his dark hair and penetrating blue eyes, Landau found success on New York stages in Goat Song, Stalag 17 and First Love. Hitchcock caught his performance on opening night opposite Edward G. Robinson in a road production of Middle of the Night, the first Broadway play written by Paddy Chayefsky, and cast him as the killer Leonard in North by Northwest. In Middle of the Night, “I played a very macho guy, 180 degrees from Leonard, who I chose to play as a homosexual — very subtly — because he wanted to get rid of Eva Marie Saint with such a vengeance,” he recalled in a 2012 interview. As the ally of James Mason and nemesis of Saint and Cary Grant, Landau plummets to his death off Mount Rushmore in the movie’s climactic scene. With his slick, sinister gleam and calculating demeanor, he attracted the notice of producers and directors. He went on to perform for such top directors as Joseph L. Mankiewicz in Cleopatra (1963) — though he said most of his best work on that film was sent to the cutting-room floor — George Stevens in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), John Sturges in The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Henry Hathaway in Nevada Smith (1966). Landau met Bruce Geller, the eventual creator of Mission: Impossible, when he invited the writer to an acting class. Bain was in the class as well, and Geller wrote for them the parts of spies Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter. Landau earned an Emmy nomination for each of his three seasons on the series. He could have starred in another series. “I turned down Star Trek. It would’ve been torturous,” he said during a 2011 edition of the PBS documentary series Pioneers of Television. “I would’ve probably died playing that role. I mean, even the thought of it now upsets me. It was the antithesis of why I became an actor. I mean, to play a character that Lenny (Nimoy) was better suited for, frankly, a guy who speaks in a monotone who never gets excited, never has any guilt, never has any fear or was affected on a visceral level. Who wants to do that?” Landau found a kindred spirit in Burton, who also cast him in Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as the voice of a Vincent Price-like science teacher in the horror-movie homage, Frankenweenie (2012). “Tim and I don’t finish a sentence,” Landau told the Los Angeles Times in 2012. “There’s something oddly kinesthetic about it. We kind of understand each other.” Landau played puppet master Geppetto in a pair of Pinocchio films and appeared in other films including Pork Chop Hill (1959), City Hall (1996), The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998), Rounders (1998), Edtv (1999), The Majestic (2001), Lovely, Still (2008) and Mysteria (2011). On television, he starred in the Twilight Zone episodes “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” and “The Jeopardy Room,” played the title role in the 1999 Showtime telefilm Bonnano: A Godfather’s Story and could be found on The Untouchables, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Maverick, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train, I Spy and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. More recently, Landau earned Emmy noms for playing the father of Anthony LaPaglia’s character on CBS’ Without a Trace and guest-starring as an out-of-touch movie producer on HBO’s Entourage. He portrayed billionaire J. Howard Marshall, the 90-year-old husband of Anna Nicole Smith, in a 2013 Lifetime biopic about the sex symbol, and starred for Atom Egoyan opposite Christopher Plummer in Remember (2015). And Landau appeared opposite Paul Sorvino in The Last Poker Game, which premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Landau worked as director, teacher and executive director at the Actors Studio West. He has been credited with helping to guide the talents of Huston, Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton in addition to Nicholson. A documentary about his life, An Actor's Actor: The Life of Martin Landau, is in the works. Survivors include his daughters Susie (a writer-producer) and Juliet (an actress-dancer) from his marriage to Bain; sons-in-law Roy and Deverill; sister Elinor; granddaughter Aria; and godson Dylan.

I saw five movies last week. David and Lisa is a pioneering movie about mental illness, in this case the obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia of the characters. It was nominated for best director, one of three non Best Picture nominees that year, probably because there were three big budget movies nominated for best Picture that apparently the voters had little faith in. As for the movie, there are other movies that treat the issue with more subtlety and distinction. Charlie Wilson's War was made by Mike Nichols, whose adaptation of Catch-22 made one wonder whether he had a sense of humor. This movie is slightly better, but it's insubstantial, offensively so. It's bad enough the movie has Hanks as a white man heroically saving Afghanistan. What's even worse is that he didn't actually, and the movie looks even worse a decade later, since Afghanistan's civil war between a brutal fanatical insurgency and its corrupt selfish government is still going on, with no idea of how to solve it. Certain Women consists of a triptych about three women and their lives, which suffers from their underwhelming stories, as if the towns in the western states couldn't afford a proper epiphany. It's not that Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart don't try, but ultimately what is the point? The Paradine Case is not one of most admired Hitchcock movies: it certainly wasn't Hitchcock's. Interestingly, like in Senso and The Third Man, Alida Valli is in love with a man who doesn't love her back. This story actually works better than having Gregory Peck fall madly in love with her, ignoring her manifest flaws. Infatuation isn't something Peck does very well. Cosmos is a very strange movie. A law student and his friend takes room in a boarding house, and then he, but not his friend, but some of the the characters, start acting very strangely, with outbursts of hysteria. Worth watching a second time to understand what's going on.

Actor Robert Downey Jr, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Issey Ogata, The Sun Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote Viggo Mortenson, A History of Violence Jeremie Renier, The Child Runner-ups: Iona Fiscuteanu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu), Chang Chen (Three Times), Louis Garrel (Regular Lovers), Bill Murray (Broken Flowers), Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardener), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Match Point), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Daniel Auteuil (Cache), Johnny Depp (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Nathan Fillon (Serenity), Johnny Depp (Corpse Bride), Kais Nashef (Paradise Now), Tommy Lee Jones (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada), Guy Pearce (The Proposition), Ray Winestone (The Proposition), David Strathraim (Good Night, and Good Luck), Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Takuya Kimura (Howl's Moving Castle), Colin Firth (Where the Truth Lies), Romain Duris (The Beat that my Heart Skipped), Mos Def (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale), Choi Min-sik (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) Actress Q'Orianka Kilcher, The New World* Juliette Binoche, Cache Clotilde Hesme, Regular Lovers Shu Qi, Three Times Jodie Foster, Flightplan Runner-ups: Chieko Baisho (Howl's Moving Castle), Deborah Francois (The Child), Luminita Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu), Julia Hummer (Ghosts), Sabine Timoteo (Ghosts), Naomi Watts (King Kong), Lee Young-ae (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), Zooey Deschanel (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Helena Bonham-Carter (Corpse Bride), Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone we Know), Laura Linney (The Squid and the Whale), Georgie Henley (The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), *Juvenile Performance of the Year Supporting Actor Ed Harris, A History of Violence Val Kilmer, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Christian Bale, The New World Liam Neeson, Batman Begins Jack Black, King Kong Runner-ups: Maurice Benichou (Cache), Stephen Fry (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Alan Rickman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity), Ian McDiarmid (Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith), Akihiro Miwa (Howl's Moving Castle), Cilian Murphy (Batman Begins), Clifton Collins Jr., (Capote), Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain), Mickey Rourke (Sin City), Colin Farrell (The New World), Peter Sarsgaard (Flightplan), Michael Lonsdale (Munich), George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck), Matthieu Amalric (Munich), Ewen Bremner (Match Point), Christopher Plummer (The New World), Elijah Wood (Sin City), Supporting Actress Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener Michelle Monaghan, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Tilda Swinton, Broken Flowers, The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Maria Bello, A History of Violence Scarlett Johansson, Match Point Runner-ups: Catherine Keener (Capote), Sharon Stone (Broken Flowers), Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain), Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain) Not seen: Hustle & Flow, Walk the Line, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Transamerica, Pride & Prejudice, North Country, Cinderella Man, Junebug -------It turns out I haven't seen any of the Best Actress nominees. Has that ever happened before? Yes, in 1931-1932, where there were only three nominees, and in 1952. I blame the Academy in all three cases for choosing uninspiring movies.

I agree! I find Peter Morgan screenplays very annoying because instead of dealing with serious moral issues he deals with contrived ones. There's almost certainly a serious movie, in fact no shortage of them, about people whose sense of solidarity risks them getting killed. One thinks of adapting Nadine Gordimer's novel A Guest of Honor. But McAvoy's nitwit character is simply out of his depth. Likewise wondering whether Elizabeth II will adapt to the media kerfuffle over her daughter-in-law's abrupt death, or whether David Frost has the brains to reveal Nixon's mendacity...good grief.

Tropical Malady, notwithstanding an underwhelming premiere at Cannes, is one of the most admired of 21st century films, if you have happened to see it. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, maker of 2002's Blissfully Yours, it sort of starts like a Thai Brokeback Mountain about a soldier who meets a country boy while on this official duties. Unlike Weerasethakul's previous movie, which included explicit sex, Tropical Malady is much more tasteful and restrained. But instead of Jake Gyllenhall being murdered, about halfway through the movie he sort of turns into a tiger, and the movie becomes distinctly stranger. Innocence, which got a supporting actress nomination for Marion Cotillard, is one of the stranger movies of 2004. It starts with an isolated girl's dormitory. Where the students arrive in coffins, and play in strange, cloistered gardens. It's based on a story by Frank Wedekind, from whose work Pandora's Box was based on. The Weeping Meadow is a Greek film by the important, but crucially underappreciated in America, director Theo Angelopoulous. It was actually supposed to be the first part of a trilogy. The second movie was made, but Angelopoulos was hit by a car and killed before he could complete the third movie. The movie, like many of Angelopoulos' deals with Greek history. It starts with refugees expelled from long standing Greek communities in Turkey after Greece's decisive defeat by Turkey in the war they fought shortly after the first world war. The movie deals with a love story between a refugee girl and the boy in the family that takes her in. As they engage in an unhappy romance, with suitors forced on the young woman, Greece goes through the Depression, the second world war, and the civil war that followed it. One part of the film is that the part of Greece where the characters live often floods, so we get shots like the one above. Here is the couple, with the woman being one of my runner-ups for best actress. The movie focuses on her, since she is often separated from her lover/husband, and her sons get involved in the civil war. The movie is filled with beautiful, comparatively spare tracking shots, and it ends with a homage to Sansho the Bailiff. The movie, along with others Angelopoulos made, came out on DVD from New Yorker Video, which unfortunately went bankrupt. However, it is currently available on youtube with English subtitles, and can be seen below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzGG1FSjtcw

Kings and Queen got both my actor and supporting actress awards. You can see the two winners, Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve here. In this long, rich, emotional drama Amalric, who has appeared in several of director Arnaud Desplechin's movies, in particular in this character, has been committed to a mental hospital. Denueve plays a psychiatrist there, while Emmanuelle Devos, engaged to another man, worried about her dying her father, thinks Amalric may be the best father for her son from another marriage. Nobody Knows got my juvenile performance award for Yuya Yagira who plays the eldest son of a mother whose four children have separate fathers and who one day abandons them. He tries to muddle through with his three siblings. It doesn't work out. (Right to left, Momoko Shimizu, Ayu Kitaura, Yuya Yagira, Hiei Kimura, all runner-ups this year.)

And then there's the most parodied scene in movie history, from Downfall: Hans Krebs: The enemy made a breakthrough. They took Zossen and are advancing towards Stahnsdorf. They're at the northern city border, between Frohnau and Pankow. In the east, they reached Lichtenberg, Mahlsdorf and Karlshorst. Adolf Hitler: If Steiner attacks, everything will be alright. Hans Krebs: Mein Führer... Steiner... Alfred Jodl: Steiner didn't have enough men. The attack didn't take place. [Hitler pauses to take off his glasses] Adolf Hitler: The following stay here: Keitel, Jodl, Krebs and Burgdorf. (The four named generals, along with Goebbels and Bormann, remain in the room as the others leave. The door closes behind them) That was an order! Steiner's attack was an order! How dare you ignore my orders?! (Hitler's ranting is clearly audible outside the room) Is this what it came to? The military, everybody lied to me. Even the SS! The generals are no more than a bunch of disloyal cowards! Burgdorf: Mein Führer, I can't permit you to insult the German soldiers- Adolf Hitler: They are all cowards, traitors and failures! Burgdorf: Mein Führer, This is outrageous! Adolf Hitler: The generals are the scum of the German people! (flings a pencil onto the table) NO SENSE OF HONOUR! You call yourself general because you spent years at the academy, where you only learned how to use a knife and fork! For years, the military obstructed me. All you ever did is thwart me. What I should have done, is had all the high officers executed, like Stalin did! (pauses) I never went to the academy. But I conquered all of Europe on my own. Traitors! I've been betrayed and deceived from the start. Such enormous betrayal of the German people. But all these traitors will pay. They will pay with their own blood! They will drown in their blood! Traudl Junge: (To Gerda, outside the room) Gerda, please calm yourself. Adolf Hitler: All my orders have been ignored. How can I be a leader under these circumstances? It's over. The war is lost. But if you think this means I'll leave Berlin... you're wrong. I'd rather shoot a bullet through my head. [sighs] Do whatever you want.

Quotes from 2004 2046 Our cabin attendants are superbly designed... But there's only one problem : when they've served on so many long journeys, fatigue begins to set it. For example, they might want to laugh, but the smile would be slow to come. They might want to cry, but the tear wouldn't well up till the next day... Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Drink up, young man. It'll make the whole seduction part less repugnant. Tropical Malady I give you my spirit, my flesh and my memories. Every drop of my blood sings our song. A song of happiness. There… Do you hear it? Layer Cake You're born, you take ****. You get out in the world, you take more ****. You climb a little higher, you take less ****. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what **** even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son. The Incredibles Edna: I started with the baby. Helen: Started? Edna: Shh! Darling! Shh! I cut it a little roomy for the free movement. The fabric is comfortable for sensitive skin [flamethrowers throw fire at the suit without leaving burn marks], and it can also withstand a temperature of over 1,000 degrees! Completely bulletproof. [machine guns train on the suit and empty rounds into it without causing any damage] And machine-washable, darling. That's a new feature. Helen: What on earth do you think the baby will be doing?! Edna: Well, I'm sure I don't know, darling. Luck favors the prepared. I didn't know the baby's powers, so I covered the basics. Helen: Jack-Jack doesn't have any powers. Edna: No? He'll look fabulous anyway.

Is this a problem with Stewart generally, or because of the way he acts in the movie? Because I think Hitchcock doesn't want us to sympathize with him.

I found Batman ultimately underwhelming as it ended. Wag the Dog ultimately struck me as facile, while Crash struck me as singularly incompetent as I watched it.

14 is the cut off for juvenile performance?

I saw five movies last week. Muppets Most Wanted is another unnecessary sequel to another unnecessary revival. The songs aren't bad, and Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey have fun. But most of the Muppets have nothing special to do, and the romance between Kermit and Miss Piggy, never the most interesting part of the show, takes up a large part of that. The Last Samurai is a movie that is as epic as it empty-headed. Considerably more needs to be done to explain why we should care about the quarrel between militaristic Samurai and their modernizing empire, and the movie punts it aside. There is no real appreciation of Japanese culture. The battle scenes are competent and some of the cinematography is pretty though. The Music Man is an OK musical, with three good songs and a nice performance by Robert Preston. It has some nice touches, like the way Preston's character prevents the delegation from the mayor from investigating his credentials by turning them into a glee club. One problem, compared with better musicals of the decade, is that Preston is the only real charismatic presence. The other characters aren't bad, but also not particularly memorable. Chameleon Street is one of the more interesting movies of 1989, based on a true story about a black con man who tries with some success to blur into more socially prominent professions, such as a doctor, a TIME reporter, a Yale student and a lawyer. It's actually fairly funny, with director Wendell Harris doing a good job playing the con man. It won the grand prize at Sundance, and is certainly better than the winners that preceded and followed it, True Love and Poison. The Lost City of Z is everything that The Last Samurai only tries to be. It's an actual attempt of a man trying to appreciate another culture (one that may not exist, since the story is of a British explorer who finds fragmentary evidence of a developed civilization in the Amazon). It actually shows what true effort and difficulty are like, in contrast to Zwick's film. It is a fascinating adventure story, though not one with a conventionally happy or exciting ending, which probably explains why its release a few months ago didn't monopolize public attention. Charlie Hunnan gives a good, understated performance as the protagonist, while Robert Pattinson acquits himself well in an unrecognizable role as Hunnan's assistant. There are a couple of clumsy scenes between Hunnan and his wife, so that has to be taken into account.

And Rhys Meyers is the only lead in Match Point?

Actor Mathieu Amalric, Kings and Queen Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, 2046 Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda Bruno Ganz, Downfall Runner-ups: Michel Subor (The Intruder), Will Ferrell (Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy), Banlop Lamnoi (Tropical Malady), Tom Cruise (Collateral), Sakda Kaewbuadee (Tropical Malady), Jamie Foxx (Ray), Erland Josephson (Saraband), Daniel Craig (Layer Cake), Christian Bale (The Machinist), Jason Schwartzman (I Heart Huckabees), Jude Law (I Heart Huckabees), Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle), Yuya Yagira (Nobody Knows),* Damian Lewis (Keane), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers), Al Pacino (The Merchant of Venice), Liam Neeson (Kinsey), Jamie Foxx (Collateral), Cameron Bright (Birth), Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Alex Extel (Millions), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), Shane Carruth (Primer), Paul Giamatti (Sideways), Bill Murray (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Ben Kingsley (Suspect Zero) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Actress Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake Audrey Tautou, A Very Long Engagement Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Holly Hunter, The Incredibles Zhang Ziyi, 2046, House of Flying Daggers Runner-ups: Emanuelle Devos (Kings and Queen), Alexandra Aidini (The Weeping Meadow), Liv Ullmann (Saraband), Fatoumata Coulibaly (Moolaade), Zhao Tao (The World), Julie Delpy (Before Sunset), Nicole Kidman (Birth), Hillary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), Naomi Watts (I Heart Huckabees), Ayu Kitaura (Nobody Knows), Abigail Breslin (Keane), Cataline Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), Lindsay Lohan (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen), Christina Applegate (Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy), Anne Hathaway (Ella Enchanted), Supporting Actor Michael Gambon, Layer Cake, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Danny Chow Kwok-Kwan, Kung Fu Hustle Dustin Hoffman, I (Heart) Huckabees Gaspard Ulliel, A Very Long Engagement Tom Wilkinson, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Runner-ups: Jason Lee (The Incredibles), Phil Davis (Vera Drake), Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Dominique Pinon (A Very Long Engagement), Brad Bird (The Incredibles), Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), Liev Schrieber (The Manchurian Candidate), Steve Carell (Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy), David Carradine (Kill Bill: Volume 2), Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), Alfred Molina (Spider Man 2), Mark Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Nick Nolte (Hotel Rwanda), Michael Madsen (Kill Bill: Volume 2), Owen Wilson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), Jude Law (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), John C. Reilly (The Aviator), Hiei Kimura (Nobody Knows), Adrian Scarborough (Vera Drake), William H. Macy (Spartan), Elijah Wood (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), John Hurt (Hellboy), Wallace Shawn (The Incredibles), Alan Alda (The Aviator), Jean-Pierre Rouve (A Very Long Engagement) Supporting Actress Catherine Deneuve, Kings and Queen Gong Li, 2046 Faye Wong, 2046 Lily Tomlin, I (Heart) Huckabees Marion Cotillard, Innocence, A Very Long Engagement Runner-ups: Kirsten Dunst (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Sally Hawkins (Vera Drake), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill: Volume 2), Cate Blanchett (The Aviator), Julia Roberts (Ocean's Twelve), Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Chantal Neuwirth (A Very Long Engagement), Meryl Streep (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), Ruth Sheen (Vera Drake), Penelope Wilton (Shaun of the Dead), Amy Ryan (Keane), Laura Linney (Kinsey), Isabelle Huppert (I Heart Huckabees), Lauren Bacall (Birth), Meryl Streep (The Manchurian Candidate), Momoko Shimuzu (Nobody Knows), Sandra Oh (Sideways), Jadie Pinkett Smith (Collateral), Kate Winslet (Finding Neverland), Jodie Foster (A Very Long Engagement), Not seen: Being Julia -------A surprisingly weak year for Best Supporting Nominees, with two lead roles in disguise and a glorified cameo among the Academy's five nominees.

Cafe Lumiere is a movie by Taiwanese director Hou Hsaio-Hsen, It takes places in Japan and its plot is a tribute to the work of Yasujiro Ozu. You can read more from this brief article by Amy Taubin in a 2005 issue of Film Comment here, where she hoped the film would get a proper distributor: This Slant Magazine is also helpful: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/cafe-lumiere Crimson Gold is an Iranian movie about a deliveryman and deals with the poverty and corruption that he faces. The script is by Abbas Kiarostami. The lead actor, Hussein Emadeddin, is not a professional, an actual deliverymen, and a paranoid/schizophrenic. You can find out more about the movie from this review by Jonathan Rosenbaum: https://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2017/04/check-your-baggage/ Goodbye Dragon Inn is another Taiwanese film. It is more of an experimental film about the closing down of a theatre and the last movie it shows. Although Yang Kuei Mei does little aside from eat peanuts, watch the movie, and look for the shoe she had lost, she was so striking that I gave her a supporting actress nomination: See more here: http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-goodbyedragoninn.html Memories of Murder, which has actually shown on TCM, is easy to describe. Seen Zodiac? Well basically the movie is a South Korean version except that the detectives are fictional and the movie also deals with the difficult transition to democracy at the time the murders take place (the late eighties.) This review provides more insight: http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/a-south-korean-zodiac Oldboy is a baroque, brutal Korean revenge thriller worthy of John Webster. It was remade recently a few years ago by Spike Lee. This man here got a supporting actor nomination from me. You really have to see the movie to understand the utterly crazy and diabolical revenge plot, which involves the protagonist imprisoned in a room for 15 years without seeing the villain imprisoning him. It also involved a live octopus being eaten, The title refers to a special private school the protagonist and villain attended as children. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring is the third Korean film on this list. You could say that 2003 was a breakout year for (South) Korean cinema, except that the three movies did not get a wide release and they weren't all released internationally at the same time. The woman in this photo got my award for Best Supporting Actress, in this story of a man seeking spiritual enlightenment whose quest is interrupted by his love for her. Not to give too much away, it doesn't work out. This review offers more: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2017/6-reasons-why-spring-summer-fall-winter-and-spring-is-a-modern-masterpiece-of-south-korean-cinema/ Here's the Taubin link for Cafe Lumiere: https://www.filmcomment.com/article/cafe-lumiere-hou-hsiao-hsien-review/

I noted that there was disagreement among the critics group whether Phil Davis was lead or supporting in Vera Drake. Personally I believe Staunton dominates the movie so much all the other characters are supporting.

Perhaps. Shylock is clearly not supposed to be the protagonist. But has anyone seen the play in the past two centuries because they were interested in who played Antonio?

The Last Samurai: If only someone remade Lawrence of Arabia, but only lamer in every conceivable respect.

Quotes from 2003 Dogville Tell her you will stop [murdering her children] if she can hold back her tears. I owe her that. I'm afraid she cries a little too easily. Once Upon a Time in Mexico El, you really must try this. It's a puerco pibil. It's a slow roasted pork--nothing fancy, just happens to be my favorite--and I order it, with a tequila and lime, in every dive I go to in this country and honestly, that is the best it's ever been, anywhere. In fact, it's too good. It is so good that when I finish with it, I'll pay my check, walk straight into the kitchen, and shoot the cook, because that's what I do, I restore the balance to this country. And that is what I would like from you right now. Help me keep the balance by pulling the trigger. Finding Nemo Dory: How about we play a game? Marlin: All right. Dory: Okay, I'm thinking of something orange, and it's small... Marlin: It's me. Dory: Right! [Later...] I'm thinking of something orange and small... Marlin: It's me. Dory: All right, Mr. Smartypants... [Even later... again...] It's orange and small, and white stripes... Marlin: Me, and the next one - just a guess - me. Dory: Okay, that's just scary.

If I didn't loathe the movie, I'd suggest Cheadle might be the one lead.

I personally think this is Hepburn''s best performance, and the best actress of 1967. A much richer film, in my view than the one Hepburn was nominated for, Wait Until Dark. (It occurs to me that one reason that Hepburn is able to outsmart the trio of villains is that one of them has already murdered the other two.)

How is Ray a 2003 film?

I saw three movies this week. Yoyo was very charming indeed, especially with the first third that was a homage to silent movies with jokes worthy of Tati. (Hardly surprising, since Etaix was Tati's assistant.) I especially liked the elaborate limo ride so the protagonist can walk his dog. Dreamgirls asks us to believe that it is a great injustice for Jennifer Hudson to be passed over in favor of Beyonce Knowles, much like Diana Ross received undeserved fame in real life. I think for this to work, the songs supposedly before Beyonce Dreams have to be a lot better when in the movie they're all fairly forgettable. Another problem is the emotional tone: the pleading in the love songs is undercut by the shallowness of the movie's three main romantic relationships. There are good movies when one of the couple, usually the man, is unworthy of the other. But then their lesson isn't that you shouldn't sleep with selfish jerks. There's no emotional core to the relationships. 11 Minutes is a skillful Polish film by the director of Deep End (which I've seen) and Moonlighting (which I haven't), about various characters who find themselves inhabiting the same eleven minutes near a hotel in Warsaw, as it reaches towards the climax. Yet I can't say I appreciated the Rube Goldberg mechanism to disaster that concludes the movie.