In Contention

Tag: Samson and Delilah

  • Foreign notes

    The Milk of SorrowWell, as I suspected, my predictions for the Academy’s foreign film shortlist were mainly off the mark, though I maintained my 4-from-9 strike rate from last year … so, yay for consistency.

    That said, I’m not terribly surprised by the films that did make the cut. As I wrote earlier today, I knew one of the WWII-themed films in the mix would make the cut — but plumped for Norway’s “Max Manus” instead of the Netherlands’ “Winter in Wartime.” And festival hit “Samson and Delilah” was high on my radar, a film I suspected the executive committee might save (as I’m sure was the case).

    I foolishly blanked on Argentina’s “The Secret in Their Eyes,” a romantic thriller that was extremely well received at Toronto in the fall, and may yet be the spoiler in this race. I’d received word that this was one to watch, but it slipped my mind this morning.

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  • Academy’s foreign shortlist unveiled

    Samson and DelilahWell, Guy nailed down four of them.  But you just never know what this controversial branch is going to do.  I’d love to know what the secondary committee had to re-institute (probably “A Prophet”), but nevertheless, we have our nine.

    The only films I was predicting that didn’t make the cut are “Backyard” from Mexico and “Forever Enthralled” from China.  Replace those with “Ajami” from Israel (which I JUST took out of my predictions Monday in favor of “The Milk of Sorrow”) and “The Secret in Their Eyes” from Argentina and that would be my bet.

    I’ll leave it to Guy with further thoughts later on.  I need to catch up on the rest of films now that it’s a more, shall we say, manageable list.  Check out the full list of nine, from an original list of 65 submissions, after the jump.

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  • Waiting on Oscar’s foreign language shortlist

    Niels Arestrup and Tahar Rahim in A ProphetLast Saturday, the Academy concluded four months of screenings of the 65 films in contention for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film award. Today, that tall pile of titles will be culled to a shortlist of just nine contenders, from which the eventual five nominees will be chosen.

    Making predictions here is a pretty thankless task, given the regularity with which this branch of the Academy slights seemingly sure-fire nominees in favour of less visible, and less acclaimed, fare. Indeed, a high-profile snub, with ensuing media outcry, has virtually become an annual Oscar tradition.

    The furore over the omission of Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” two years ago even prompted a change in the voting system – to safeguard against such controversies, a smaller executive committee was appointed to add three titles to the six elected by the branch voters.

    It didn’t work: when last year’s critical darling “Gomorrah” failed to impress even the new committee, the Academy was raked over the coals once more. The bottom line, then, is that even the mightiest title can’t be called a shoo-in in this race.

    (More analysis, and shortlist predictions, after the cut.)

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  • 10/30 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sotigui Kouyate and Brenda Blethyn in London River• Brian Lowry on how The Ten is an Oscarcast producer’s nightmare. [Variety]

    • With Hugh Jackman out, Jeff Wells thinks the Oscars need to skew younger with their host. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • The producers of “London River” launch a deserved Oscar campaign for Brenda Blethyn, despite still lacking US distribution. [Notes on a Season]

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  • LONDON: Exploding girls on trains

    Zoe Kazan in The Exploding GirlNot my most successful day at the London Film Festival today, as a communication error kept me out of the fest’s final “Samson and Delilah” screening — vexing partly because it leaves a significant gap in the collective review I had planned to do of multiple foreign Oscar contenders next week, but more simply because it was one of my most anticipated films of the festival. Can’t win ’em all, I suppose.

    Meanwhile, the Surprise Film screening, usually my favorite night of the festival, proved slightly anti-climactic for yours truly as the selection turned out to be Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” — a respectable enough choice on fest director Sandra Hebron’s part, but a film I’d already dug into at Venice. (Meanwhile, it marks the first time in four years that I hadn’t correctly anticipated the ‘surprise.’)

    In keeping with the theme of the day, then, I thought this as good a time as any to briefly round up five of the fest’s more disappointing efforts so far.

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  • Counting down to the London fest

    Fantastic Mr. Fox(Apologies for the “Fantastic Mr. Fox” review that appeared prematurely here as a result of embargo confusion. It will be reposted later today.)

    There may have been silence on my end these past few days, but I assure you it hasn’t been for lack of activity. The days leading up to the London Film Festival — which officially kicks off tonight with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — have been crammed with press screenings and assorted admin duties.

    Yesterday, meanwhile, was given over to the film’s extraordinarily elaborate, and most enjoyable, press junket, staged across a range of picturesque locations in Roald Dahl’s home village of Great Missenden, an hour’s train ride from London. (More on that later.) Fox has spared no effort or expense in the launch for this unusual film, which culminates tonight with the LFF Opening Gala party at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.

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  • Australia and Spain enter foreign-language race

    Samson and DelilahAs regular readers have probably noticed, I’ve been away (undeservedly, apparently) on vacation for the past week or so, so I’ve missed out on the recent influx of submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film race.

    Fortunately, Kris has been keeping you up to speed with our new foreign contenders page. Thanks, meanwhile, to the many helpful readers who have been keeping me updated with developments via email. Keep ’em coming.

    Today, however, saw two potentially significant players enter the race. Readers who have kept up with my predictions since I first posted them in May will recall that I’ve been instinctively forecasting a nod for Australian critical sensation “Samson and Delilah” from the beginning. Now that possibility has taken one further step towards fruition.

    Thanks to Glenn at Stale Popcorn for pointing us to the news that Australia has officially entered Warwick Thornton’s English and Warlpiri-language debut feature, which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes back in May and recently played at Telluride and Toronto to across-the-board praise. (I’ll be seeing it at the London fest this month.)

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  • London fest adds awards, goes heavy on Clooney

    George Clooney in Up in the AirWhile still ensconced in Venice, I must admit that the thought of diving into another festival makes me slightly dizzy — but the London Film Festival doesn’t care about that. LFF artistic director Sandra Hebron unveiled a strong lineup this morning, but the real news is that they have added a bevy of awards to their trophy cabinet.

    In addition to their existing honors, including the Sutherland Trophy for best debut feature and the Grierson Award for best documentary, the festival will, for the first time, hand out an overall Best Film award, as well as an honor for Best British Newcomer. Meanwhile, the British Film Institute will award writing and directing fellowships. Compounding these changes, the festival will, for the first time, hold a formal awards ceremony on the final day.

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  • Yes, but you didn’t actually WIN

    There are several reasons I’m bothered by this one-sheet for gay rom-com “I Love You Phillip Morris,” which has built up a fair amount of goodwill from its appearances at Sundance and Cannes this year.

    I Love You Phillip Morris

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  • Cracks show in Cannes lineup

    Johnny Hallyday in VengeanceAfter surveying the reviews of Johnnie To’s “Vengeance” and Brillante Mendoza’s “Kinatay,” it seems safe to assume that neither film is a contender for the Palme d’Or — in the latter, we may even have our first real critical punchbag of the Competition.

    ScreenDaily dismisses “Vengeance,” an action effort teaming Hong Kong genre lord To with iconic French actor/singer Johnny Hallyday, as a “revenge shoot-em-up which fires mostly blanks,” citing a “contrived plot,” “wooden English dialogue” and a “stilted” lead performance as the key problems. Variety is more charitable, calling it “smoothly executed” but ultimately “more of the stylish same” from the director.

    Less predictable, and a lot more contentious, appears to be “Kinatay,” a grim, ultra-violent (the title translates as “slaughter”) tale of an ordinary man drawn into a crime syndicate — though apparently a lot weirder than that generic premise indicates. Variety slates the film, labelling it both “unpleasant” and “banal,” and predicting a general critical drubbing.

    Roger Ebert confirms that prognosis, with a vicious takedown in which he claims the film surpasses Vincent Gallo’s infamous “The Brown Bunny” as the worst in the festival’s history:

    There will be critics who fancy themselves theoreticians, who will defend this unbearable experience, and lecture those plebians like me who missed the whole Idea. I will remain serene while my ignorance is excoriated. I am a human being with relatively reasonable tastes. And in that role, not in the role of film critic, I declare that there may not be ten people in the world who will buy a ticket to this movie and feel the money was well spent.

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