Welcome to Oscar Talk.
In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.
Today Anne and I are both in the Colorado Rockies for the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival. We’re joined today by Guy Lodge, who has been filing from the Venice Film Festival and has plenty to say about what he’s seen so far. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…
• We kick things off with Guy’s Venice coverage, in particular his thoughts on the three big films to screen there so far: “The Ides of March,” “Carnage” and “W.E.”
• Today kicks off the Telluride Film Festival, which has its share of exclusive early looks. Anne and I talk about what we’re looking forward to and, in particular, get into “The Artist,” which is playing here. (Both her and Guy caught it earlier in the year at Cannes.)
• With the film set to bow at Venice tomorrow morning, Anne and I figured it was as good a time as any to get into Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” so we do.
• And finally, reader questions. We address queries concerning the non-festival strategy for “Young Adult” and, conversely, which films could take off from the festival circuit via word of mouth.
Have a listen to the new podcast below, with the trailer for “Contagion” leading the way. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. And as always, remember to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.
NOTE: I left my microphone at home (ugh) and Guy is using the usual laptop mic so audio could be a bit dicey this week. Apologies.
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Back-up download: Oscar Talk Episode 59
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16 responses to “OSCAR TALK: Ep. 59 — Venice thoughts from Guy Lodge, debating ‘The Artist’, Telluride musings and Soderbergh’s stripped-down ‘Contagion’”
Only a few minutes into the podcast, glad that Guy brought up Kate’s age. Surprised that nobody else has been talking about how young she is (Christoph is old enough to be her father!).
Good to hear good things about Contagion. After so many weeks of no very good movies Sept 9th has got a couple of good ones coming out.
Radiohead :)
I thought it was very weird the way they used Radiohead’s “Everything in its right place” for Anonymous’s trailer. Lyrically it (kind of) fits, but the music itself doesn’t help establishing its setting or premise properly.
It left me waiting for Shakespeare to deliver a line from The Social Network, but even if Anonymous could share some its “I did this, you didn’t” story, it felt phoned in, especially when The Social Network’s trailer used an a capella cover of “Creep” instead of the original single.
Oh well. It reminded me how awesome Kid A was, regardless.
Great podcast, guys :)
So W.E. seems to be following Miral’s “oops, never mind then” pattern in terms of festival reaction…
Guy, correct me if I misunderstood your statement about Carnage having a lack of cultural direction, but do you think that if Polanski had gone for a straight-forward American setting that Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet’s roles would need to be recast with American actors. Also, do you think there was something Polanski may have been for by casting a pair of American actors as one couple and a pair of europeans as the guests.
Good podcast. I gotta say, getting disappointed in a lot of early reactions.
Ides – ‘good’ from Guy. Most of the reviews are good or v good but nothing great or amazing.
Carnage – ‘ok to good’ from all. Nothing great or amazing.
A Dangerous Method – ‘ok’ from Guy. Lots of ‘I want old Cronenberg back!’ sentiment. But at least it’s getting better reviews, on the whole, than a lot of other hopefuls.
The Artist – the trailer didn’t win me over as I had hoped it would. And then Kris finds it goodish, but thin. Eek.
I’m, at least, glad that ‘Contagion’ looks to be good Soderbergh.
But yeah, these titles I’ve mentioned, I hoped/expected a majority of raves. They’re not getting them.
Anyone else a little sad at that? Or am I just overreacting at this very early stage?
I’m a bit disappointed too. I had high hopes for ‘Ides of March’ and ‘Carnage’. ‘A Dangerous Method’ is getting good reviews in terms of performances, which I figured would happen rather than everyone agreeing on the film itself. Hopefully Shame and Wuthering Heights impress.
Kris, this is kind of random but do you know if the indie flick ‘Hick’ is in this years line-up or is it being held for next year? I haven’t heard much about it.
Guy didn’t talk enough about Kate Winslet’s projectile vomiting, for me. Maybe we’ll get more later?
Thanks for the Radiohead too.
Very enjoyable podcast!
And the audio was fine.
Guy didn’t talk enough about Kate Winslet’s projectile vomiting, for me.
She vomits in the movie. What more is there to say? Am I missing something?
It was kind of a joke, although I did hear her vomiting got the most applause from the audience.
Guy: When you said that “W.E.” was a shoe-in for costumes, were you being somewhat tung-in-cheek or did you honestly mean that? Because I honestly couldn’t tell. (which says a lot about how the members of that branch vote)
No, I honestly mean that. The costumes are richly detailed, meticulously researched and plentiful — everything that branch likes. That branch, more than any other, tends to prioritise the craft ahead of the film around it, which I thoroughly approve of.
Plus, Arianne Phillips is a previous Oscar nominee (and a three-time Guild nominee). I think this nomination should be an easy get.
Just wondering, what was the music at the end of the podcast? Sounded rather familiar for some reason but can’t put my finger on it..
Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place