Oscar’s logic: things to consider…

Tonight are the Oscars awarded, in a big ceremony in the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles. So over the last week(s) many people have tried to predict who is going to win. But what do we need to consider? Three types of Oscar logic work kinda against each other this year:

Oscar logic number 1: there is almost always one big favourite. This year that favourite is Michel Hazanavicius’  almost-silent black-and-white film The Artist. Last year it was The King’s Speech. Crucially, this big favourite will win awards, in the wake of winning best picture, almost automatically. Best Director and Best Original (or adapted, depending on the film) Screenplay for instance. Or some technical awards that other films might be more deserving of. So there is a chance that The Artist, apart from winning Best Film, will also win Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Music, Best Art Direction, Best Costumes, Best Editing and best Cinematography. And of course Best Actor for Jean Dujardin and Best Supporting Actress for Berenice Bejo.

Oscar logic number 2: The industry has certain demands. You wouldn’t believe it, but Hollywood thinks it is in crisis. Because of the economical crisis everwhere else of course, and because of piracy. So box office success and industrial demands do influence the votes. If a film has hardly been seen by anyone, then kiss your chances goodbye. Sorry Glenn Close (nominated for Albert Nobbs), but that is the deal. As to industrial demands: In 2009-10, Avatar broke all kinds of box office records. So it won awards. Technical ones, mostly, but still. In a strange, counter-sentimental move against Avatar and 3D the important prizes of 2010 were won by the little-seen The Hurt Locker. But this year 3D must be proven a viable option for the future, now that legendary directors Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have adopted the format. Since Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin was criminally neglected by the Academy, Scorsese’s Hugo may have a shot at some prizes, especially Editing and Cinematography.

Oscar logic number 3: On the wave of The Artist Dujardin and Bejo may win awards for their performances, but there are other factors to consider: Best Actor is a career prize. It usually goes to actors who have a long-standing reputation in Hollywood. To win, it has to be your time. Cue Jeff Bridges in 2010, Colin Firth in 2011 and now George Clooney in 2012. Or, very perhaps, Gary Oldman. In the supporting categories the Academy tends to reward eccentric, extravagant performances in socially ‘relevant’  films. So Mo’nique in 2010, for Precious, and Melissa Leo last year for The Fighter. And this year Octavia Spencer for The Help.

I do not know what will happen in Los Angeles tonight. But whatever the outcome, the three types of Oscar logic described above will play their parts.

Oscar logic number 4. Pixar wins Best Animated Film. Oh, wait, they are not nominated this year. ..

The Top Ten Best Films of 2011

Disclaimer: due to the usually late release dates of film in The Netherlands I have not yet seen some films that have already had their US/UK releases (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, The Muppets). For the same reason some films are for me part of 2011 despite their first release in 2010 (True Grit, Black Swan). Finally there is one film I really wanted to see but did not get around to: Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive. I will pick it up on DVD or Bluray and get back in touch about it.

10 Tree of Life

Who would have though that a Terence Malick film, besides ethereal whispers and meditations on the meaning of (a) life, could feature dinosaurs? Brilliant!

9 The Adventures of Tintin

Another film in which the plot did not matter ebcause the visuals were so beautiful. Spielberg explored the possibilities of animation, motion capture and 3D and comes up with some of the most captivating action sequences and original transitions of the year.

8 Contagion

A film that literally gives you the creeps. I was scared to sneeze, to touch my face, to touch objects in public places. Well, for an hour or so at least. Soderbergh manages again, after Traffic, to mix topicality with suspense and entertainment.

7 Bridesmaids

I called it the best comedy of the year, and Bridesmaids is the ultimate proof that, despite the inevitable toilet humor, American comedy is still very much alive. Also: despite the involvement of non-funny-man Judd Apatow.

6 Source Code

The 2011 heir of Inception. A smart intelligent action sci-fi flick that only revealed its plot priblems upon retrospection, never during the movie itself. And upon finally seeing Duncan Jones’ previous film Moon (2009) one could argue that Inception is the heir of Moon…

5 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Based on the Jasper’s Take Award winning trailer my expectations were perhaps set too high, and my disappointment inevitable. But Thomas Alfredson delivers a moody, beautifully designed and shot thriller with outstanding performances accross the board.

4 True Grit

The best thing about True Grit is that it is not a typical Coen brothers film. It is first and foremost a gripping western and a great adaptation of the Charles Portis novel. The directorial peculiarities are restricted to the details, which is nice after the essential Coen film that was A Serious Man.

3 Carnage

I called it the best comedy of the year. Polanski does Sartre, but with laughs. And the old master is getting a bit sentimental in his old days, considering the last shot. Furthermore Carnage had the best ensemble performance of the year.

2 Black Swan

A film that touched me, literally, physically. I could not get up at first when the ending credits started to roll. Aronofsky may not be for everyone, but for me he is the most consistently overwhelming filmmaker of the last two decades

1 The Artist

It’s not original to think this is the film of the year, but it is. Especially for me, as I am closely studying both silent film and its musical accompaniment, and the aesthetic changes brought about by the introduction of sound. A film that forms a perfect tripple bill with Singing in the Rain and Sunset Boulevard. A feelgood film, a romantic adventure and a modern classic of the postmodern age, but without an ironic tone. The best film of 2011 was without a single doubt Michel Hazanavicus’ The Artist.

A New Classic is Born! – the The Artist review

Having been deprived of American cinema during the Nazi occupation, France was flooded with old American b-pictures, right after World War 2. And for the film theorists of the magazine Cahiers du Cinema, this was a blessing. They were fed up with old fashioned French cinema, and paid tribute to a genre that they, and nobody else, retrospectively invented: Film Noir. Of course, being inspired by American cinema, those critics – most notably Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, would go on to make films that could not be more French even if they tried to be: the classics of the Nouvelle Vague.

In a strange turn of fate then, that the contemporary French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius (how less French can a family name get?) felt the need to return to Hollywood once more. Having already succesfully parodied the British 007 in his OSS 117 films, he felt the artistic need, a need as only a French filmmaker can feel – to make a silent film. And not just a silent film: a silent film about the advent of the sound film, and about the terrible consequences of that development for silent movie stars. Hazanavicius did not just metaphorically visit Hollywood, he actually went there to film The Artist.

A film that breathes Hollywood and America in way that no American film can. And crucially, a film that never could have been made were it an American film. A black-and-white film, in the original Academy ratio (meaning that the shape of the image is 1.33:1, rather than the modern widescreen ratio of 1.67:1), without notable dialogue, and with a minimun of sound effects? This film could not have been less French if it tried to be.

But those film-historical quips aside, The Artist is a triumph. It is a film about film, for people who love film. But unlike other films about film, made for people who love film, it is not by any means cynical or pretentious. There is not the post-modern ennui in this film that was so apparent in Being John Malkovich, or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It is a story from the heart, told by the heart. An emotional, rather than a rational account. This in sharp contrast with something that has become a truthism in film theory: that the image is rational and the sound is emotional.

Jean Dujardin, a dead ringer for the Oscar for best lead actor in my book, is silent film star George Valentin. Valentin is essential in kick-starting the career of young actress Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), but subsequently loses everything when he can’t adapt to the needs of the sound film. Valentin is, not just in name, a metaphor for Rudolph Valentino, the real-life silent movie star, who tragically died even before the arrival of the sound film.

The film is a triumph. A true, heardfelt love letter to film history. And a truly excellent film. With visual and also, sonic, contrivances that are more innovative than anything James Cameron did in 3D. Dujardin and Bejo breathe Hollywood stardom, in ways that American stars no longer do, or want to do.

Granted, the musical score, composed by Ludovic Bource, can get a bit on your nerves if you are not used to watching silent classics with historical or contemporary music. But if that is the only thing you can think of in terms criticism, then you also know that a new classic is born.

The Artists of the Silent Screen

This week The Artist opens. Michael Hazanavicius film about a silent movie star losing everything after the introduction of sound calls into recollection Singing in the Rain, of course. But instead of celebrating the new by being a musical, The Artist celebrates the old by being, oh well almost at least, a silent film. Which in this case mean a film without dialogue and sound effects. not without music. But that is nitpicking, especially since we all know that silent movies weren’t silent at all: there were always musicians, sound effects, actors speaking dialogue behind the screen or lecturers exlaining the film.

I hope to see and review The Artist this weekend. But to wet your appetite I present you a few fragments of some of the best silent cinema of the first Hollywood Golden Age (1915-1927).

Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928 – Chaplin would not make a sound film until 1936′s Modern Times)

Buster Keaton in The General (1927)

Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand (1922)

And finally the trailer that this film is all about: The Artist, starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo.

Cannes do with a few trailers, he…

The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)

La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodovar)

We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)