100 Not Nominated For Oscars – Part 13

2008 was another peculiar Oscar year, and literally a game-changer it would turn out wit regards to the way Best Picture would go thereafter. Slumdog Millionaire was a great story and great movie, but whether or not it deemed the domination of eight Oscar wins is a debate. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button had the most nominations, and was the least Fincher movie he has ever made – what does that tell us about what the Academy think of him? The Dark Knight was famously not nominated for Best Picture, even though they clearly liked it. What happened instead was the rather dour The Reader – sadly the last movie that involved Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, who had recently died. That, and The Damn Weinstein Company, go a long way to explain the film’s late surge rather than the quality of the movie itself. On a brighter note, let’s start this chapter with two very different space adventures somehow missing from contention in the top prize.

Picture — Wall-E 2008 — Robin Write

I will always bang the animation drum. Some, don’t get me wrong, are pretty formulaic stuff, but often they are right up there in the top tier of movie entertainment. As an audience member you don’t need to think about the man hours that go into creating a feature length animated movie, you can just sit and watch and be swept up. Wall-E has so much to say about the society and world we live – how we may end up, or the way we are now, and where we’ve been. More than that though it is a true love story. The movie never had a chance for acting nominations, and likely a small shot with Andrew Stanton making Director. That said, it had six nominations, and was well liked by many. The lack of a Best Picture nomination for this (and a few others) is not about the quality or any publicity, it is about a certain low level of respect for the genre, as well as the lack of balls.

Picture — 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 — Steve Schweighofer

1969 was another year for which Oscar should hang his little golden head in shame. Both Kubrick’s masterpiece and Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, considered to be two of the greatest films ever made, were eligible for the major awards, but were tossed crumbs in nearly all categories except directing and writing. 2001 not only missed out on a Best Picture nod, it won just a single Oscar (Visual Effects). As well, that year Oscar decided to bestow a special award for ape make-up – not to the more realistic ape-men in 2001, but to the rubber-masked Hollywood Halloween job in Planet of the Apes. The awards didn’t go any better – Oliver! (or, as I like to call it, the Best Film of 1943) cleaned up, then went on to become one of the most forgettable winners in Oscar history. Romeo & Juliet, Bullitt, Rosemary’s Baby, The Lion in Winter, Faces and the aforementioned Battle of Algiers and 2001:A Space Odyssey had to settle for relegation to the immortal status as “classics.”

Director — Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) 2008 — Robin Write

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson has broken some extraordinary ground with Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In). Creating a cinematic love story, you might say, between children, as one bullied eleven year-old boy (Kåre Hedebrant) is befriended by a girl his own age (Lina Leandersson) who happens to be a vampire. Alfredson’s vision in executing such a rare gem is both extremely composed and beautiful to look at. Perhaps a snow-filled small-town landscape of melancholy and mystery has never looked so good. There are sequences of such style and grace too which you likely don’t see elsewhere – including an iconic climax in a swimming pool that simply has to be seen for it’s shock and aesthetic value.

Supporting Actor — Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals) 2016 — Bianca Garner

Nocturnal Animals came and went with little interest from the Academy in 2016. It still remains a mystery to me, why this film hasn’t received more praise. Perhaps because it addresses some ugly issues which are still taboo in society. That it doesn’t pander to the ideology that men can’t be victims. That the film presents with a post modern America that has lost it’s sense of identity, where art and beauty has lost it’s meaning. Perhaps Nocturnal Animals is so under appreciated because it confirms our worst fears, that there’s is a generation of lost men who are labelled as animals so they submit to their inner desires. It was very difficult just choosing one actor in Nocturnal Animals, but it was Aaron Taylor-Johnson who really stole the show as redneck Ray. Taylor-Johnson really embraces the “villain” character- it would be easy to fall into the trap of giving an almost pantomime, traditionally over the the top bad guy, but what Taylor-Johnson gives us is a very disturbing and unsettling portrayal of a man who is far too used to blending into society. He is the type of man who really exists; he’s charming, friendly but can effortlessly turn on his prey in the blink of an eye. He’s not your average redneck monster, he’s not stupid or deformed in any physical way. He’s our worst nightmare, because our monsters are not meant to look that way or be that charming. And that’s why Aaron Taylor-Johnson deserved praise for his performance, it was a role that could have ever so easily been forgotten but he made it his own, however he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, which is the greatest crime of all.

Leading Actress — Anne Parillaud (Le Femme Nikita) 1990 — Robin Write

Ferocious, sympathetic, evolving, an absolute powerhouse of a performance by Anne Parillaud as the assassin of the title in Luc Besson’s adrenaline ride Le Femme Nikita. Plucked from a basket of low-life, amateur crooks, Nikita undergoes a whole government make-over, forced to take up killing professionally. Parillaud is like a volatile, tame animal surrounded by different breeds of wild beasts in her varying transitions of criminal activity, yet she gives Nikita a fiery intuition and survival reflex that has inspired more female-centric roles of the aggressive, self-defending nature than you might know. 

Comments welcome below.

100 Not Nominated For Oscars – Part 8

So with all the movies released in the year 2013 it came down to two apparently. The Picture / Director split at the Oscar was on the cards for a long time in my eyes. The third wheel thought it was as good as those, but thankfully, in spite of it being lavished with acting nominations in all four categories it was, as I predicted, in a more realistic position to come away with zero Oscars than take Best Picture. Elsewhere, Paul Greengrass was missing, as was Tom Hanks (but not here). No The Butler, Fruitvale Station, Inside Llewyn Davis, Saving Mr Banks for Best Picture. Documentary Feature, there was no Blackfish (more on this to come) or Stories We Tell (this too). In the acting categories, I have tormented over and over on the fascinating actresses that didn’t make the Best Actress five. And there would be no default invitation to the Academy Awards this time around for the much fancied Robert Redford. On that note…

Director — Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) 1980 — Robin Write

The flowing, mesmeric construction of The Shining is unforgettable. Stanley Kubrick’s excessive, obsessive techniques and execution show on screen. A pain-staking journey of surreal suspense and unshakable anticipation, with some of the most memorable tracking shots ever seen in cinema. The heavy whiff of madness, suffocation, and fear infiltrate your psyche, this is a remarkable motion picture experience you can’t shake off in a hurry, a true directorial masterclass. But, alas, not a single nomination. I mean, as far as voters went that year, Kubrick was no Robert Redford it seems. 

Art Direction — Ferdinando Scarfiotti (The Conformist) 1970 — Steve Schweighofer

Many films in the mid-seventies pioneered new directions for various departments involved in filmmaking, and the seminal milestone for production design was Scarfiotti’s work on The Conformist. It should be noted that in the decade between following 1963, Italy had a nominated submission every year except one, and nearly half of those went home with the Foreign Language Film Oscar, yet it is hard to reason how this film, the recognized high point by most critics, didn’t make more of an impact on AMPAS. Director Paul Shrader commented that the Bertolucci (not nomimated for Best Director)/Storaro (not nominated for Cinematography)/ and Scarfiotti were “one of the most incredible visual troikas in the history of movies,” and its omission from these three categories remains a head-scratcher. Scarfiotti’s sets ranged from richly colored and imaginatively shadowed rooms to stark exterior settings using existing period art and architecture, creating a virtual buffet for the eyes. Here is a three minute sample of what they missed:

Leading Actress — Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks) 2013 — Robin Write

Someone who was in the top tier for Best Actress consideration pretty much the whole awards season was Emma Thompson with her commanding performance in Saving Mr Banks. The dismal thing here is the movie’s popularity seemed to wane rather quickly towards arrival of the Academy Awards nominations, and it did not even make the Best Picture short-list – and likely Thompson (and a less certain Tom Hanks) suffered as a result of this.

Original Score — Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West) 1968 — Steve Schweighofer

La Cage aux Folles, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America, The Battle of Algiers, Days of Heaven, Heaven can Wait, The Mission, and Cinema Paradiso. These are a few of the films scored by arguably the greatest film composer of the past five decades, and there’s not one Oscar win – and few nominations – among them. When he finally did win the Oscar, it was for a minor work in a minor film, supposedly because guilt had set in within the music hive in AMPAS and they are afraid he would die before being acknowledged and they would look like fools. One of his most famous scores he composed for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West. It’s unique, memorable, and elevated the film to classic status, all with a wave of his baton. If you think you don’t remember it, here’s a clip, pure and completely out of context:

Picture — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 — Robin Write

The two Screenplays winners this year were possibly the best two movies of the year. Depends who you ask. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind did have reasons to show up to the Oscars, but there were no nominations for Picture, Director (Michel Gondry), or Actor (Jim Carrey). It is quite simply one of the most original ideas every written and brought to the screen in such an affecting way. It see-saws between that very thin line of comedy and drama, just the way life in your head can. It has a superb cast, and a narrative so jumbled up and head-spinning, it is actually the deepest love story you might see. It can hurt, it can bemuse, but it is wonderful.

What a mixture of terrific non-nominees – comment away below.

 

Genre Blast: Things That Go Bump, Part 2 – The Paranormal

Of all the genres designed to disturb, this one is the creepiest. What makes the films so unnerving is the normalcy of the main characters and their surroundings and how that comfort zone is turned upside down and inside out by tragedy or evil. Everybody loves the tingle when we know that a protagonist is about to turn the corner and come face to face with his or her demise, when we realize that the sicko’s phone call is “coming from inside the house,” or that maybe some unsettling event is not a dream or an aberration, but reality.

These are the ghost stories we tease each other with from the time we learn to speak and that we listen to from others, wide-eyed and cringing. The more ordinary the characters and their situation might be at the beginning, the more upending the effect when the unthinkable and unexplainable take over their lives. When a great filmmaker seizes on the opportunity to present this in the imaginative and effective ways with visual clues, suspenseful editing, and a frightening score, no member of the audience stands a chance. I often wonder if the gesture of hiding our eyes behind our hands or a pillow even was a thing before movies because it certainly is a thing now.

How many times have we said aloud – eyes covered, “Don’t go down/up/out there,” “Behind you!” or “Shut the fucking door!” More times than we care to remember, I would assume, because we never tire from being both appalled and thrilled to see someone like us in peril.

Here are but five from a genre that includes thousands of choices:

The Haunting – Robert Wise (1963)

Hill House is the mother ship of haunted houses not because of anything obvious, but because of the insidious habit it has to shift from normal to frightening in a split second. Acting giants Julie Harris and Claire Bloom perfectly register events as they are doled out to them and their small group of colleagues as they try and get to the bottom of a number of deaths that occurred in the house. As with later films like Amityville Horror and Poltergeist, the house is having none of it. Perhaps it is the simplicity of the storytelling – devoid of any slam-bang FX – that makes the film so effective. Or maybe it’s because Robert Wise worked as a film editor before he became a director and knows every trick down to the millisecond about how to get the most effect with the least effort.

Don’t Look Now – Nicolas Roeg (1974)

The loss of a child is probably the most traumatic thing that can happen to a parent and the grief can be insurmountable. Although they are slowly recovering a normal life and relationship, John and Laura (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) are both haunted by the death of their daughter by drowning. Roeg is most definitely a visual impressionist, so the choice of Venice as the primary setting for the main portion of the film throws us off-kilter enough that we, like John, believe in the flashes of a child’s red coat as it disappears around corners and behind buildings. Grief can be crippling as it blinds us from realistic possibilities and coincidences. It also narrows our focus and we become oblivious to the fact that things are not necessarily what they seem, and we forget important details, such as the police report of there being a serial killer on the loose.

The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (1980)

Although it’s based on Stephen King’s novel, the film version is very much a Kubrick manifestation. It’s hard to believe that he received a Razzie nomination for Worst Director that year considering how the film’s legacy over the years has increased as our admiration catches up with Kubrick’s vision. I know from experience that the idea of placing a wannabe writer in a mountain lodge that is inaccessible for long periods during the winter can be a blessing or a curse, and of course for King and Kubrick, the latter works like a charm. The only wrinkle in the idyllic setup is that the previous caretaker murdered his family there. Now throw in Kubrick visuals and unusual score choices, toss references (everything from Diane Arbus photos to Ed McMahon’s opening line for Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show) around like confetti, and get Jack Nicholson pull out the stops on his peculiar type of madness. No wonder Shelley Duvall damn near quit acting when they were finally finished – after an entire year of principle photography.

Rosemary’s Baby – Roman Polanski (1968)

What could be more upsetting to a woman pregnant with her first child than to believe mounting evidence that her infant is the target of a witches’ coven. What poor Rosemary (Mia Farrow in what is probably her best role) doesn’t know is that is only a portion of the story. Polanski ramps up the paranoia interfering neighbors, a husband whose ambition knows no bounds, and an anagram sent from an old friend who has suddenly died. As usual, Polanski knows the limits of tolerance of his audience and proceeds to take things a step further anyway, all to the strains of Krzysztof Komeda’s sinister lullaby of a score. Of note – this film is rumored to be one of Stanley Kubrick’s favorite films.

Cat People – Jacques Tourneur (1942)

Horror Noir on steroids. I searched-out this landmark film only after watching the Paul Schrader’s reboot in the 80s and I wasn’t disappointed. The premise is simple, if a bit puritan – a woman of Balkan descent (where else?) believes she has inherited the curse of turning into a panther when crossed or sexually aroused. Sexual politics aside, the situation kind of limits the possibilities, and Irena (Simone Simon) must face them all when she is persuaded to marry in spite of the legendary curse. The film is beautifully shot in B&W, with lots of long shadows and double exposures, and is the origin of the “Lewton Bus” technique where a moment of tension is broken by a snap back to reality – in this case, a panther’s snarl turns into a bus pulling up to a stop.

If you haven’t watched some of these, it’s the season so go for it. Just don’t blame me for any spilled snacks or recurring nightmares.