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Female Filmmaker Friday: Fish Tank, 2009 (dir. Andrea Arnold)
I saw this one for the first time a few years back when Michael Fassbender was in all the movies and I was doing some catch up (still haven’t seen all his films, though). This one really struck a chord with me because it’s a nice riff on the Angry Young Man/Kitchen Sink/British New Wave films of the late-50s/early-60s, but with a female protagonist and a female filmmaker, which gives a whole other perspective to the angst of the youth of this socioeconomic class. Beware, there be spoilers after the cut.
Movie Quote of the Day – A Dangerous Method, 2011 (dir. David Cronenberg)
Carl Jung: On the subject of monogamy, for example, why should we put so much frantic effort into suppressing our most basic natural instincts?
Sabina Spielrein: I don’t know. You tell me.
Oscar Vault Monday – Inglourious Basterds, 2009 (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
There is so much to write about with this film. Lots of production history and awards history, etc. But those are all things you can look up elsewhere, or watch on the DVD extras, so I am mostly going to stick with various impressions and favorite parts of this film. when taking screencaps for the post I somehow wound up with 177 images. I have whittled this down to 34. It was difficult. I’ll probably post the extras on Tumblr over the week. It’s just such a beautifully composed film. The first post I ever made on this site was about how Inglourious Basterds topped the SAG nominations, so this movie and this site are forever linked. I saw this movie when I managed to get a Friday off from a job that I hated. My mother and I drove 100 miles to Klamath Falls, Oregon and saw this and then got coffee for an hour and then saw (500) Days of Summer. I like to think of that trip as either Inglourious Summer, or: (500) Days of Basterds. It was a good trip, if not a little emotionally draining. Inglouious Basterds was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning one: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz (won), Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films up for Best Picture that year were A Serious Man, An Education, Avatar, District 9, Precious, The Blind Side, Up and Up in the Air.
Movie Quote of the Day – Shame, 2011 (dir. Steve McQueen)
Sissy Sullivan: I make you angry all the time and I don’t know why.
Brandon Sullivan: No. You trap me. You force me into a corner and you trap me. “I’ve got nowhere else to go.” I mean, what sort of fucking shit is that?
Sissy Sullivan: You’re my brother.
Brandon Sullivan: So what? I’m responsible for you?
Sissy Sullivan: Yes.
Brandon Sullivan: No, I’m not.
Sissy Sullivan: Yes you fucking are.
Brandon Sullivan: No. I didn’t give birth to you. I didn’t bring you into this world.
Sissy Sullivan: You’re my brother, I’m your sister. We’re family, we’re meant to look after each other.
Brandon Sullivan: You’re not looking after me; I’m looking after myself.
Sissy Sullivan: I’m trying. I’m trying to help you.
Brandon Sullivan: How are you helping me, huh? How are you helping me? How are you helping me? Huh? Look at me. How are you helping me? You come in here and you’re a weight on me. Do you understand me? You’re a burden. You’re just fucking dragging me down. How are you helping me? You can’t even clean up after yourself. Stop playing the victim.
Sissy Sullivan: I’m not playing the fucking victim. If I left, I would never hear from you again. Don’t you think that’s sad? Don’t you think that’s sad? You’re my brother.
Movie Quote of the Day – X-Men: First Class, 2011 (dir. Matthew Vaughn)
Professor Charles Xavier: Erik, you said yourself we’re the better men. This is the time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships. Good, honest, innocent men! They’re just following orders.
Erik Lehnsherr: I’ve been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.
“The Descendants” Named Best Picture, Malick Named Best Director By LA Film Critics
Best Picture: Winner: The Descendants Runner-up: The Tree of Life
Best Actor: Winner: Micahel Fassbender “A Dangerous Method,” “Jane Eyre,” “Shame,” and “X-Men: First Class” Runner-up: Michael Shannon “Take Shelter”
Best Actress: Winner: Yun Jung-Hee “Poetry” Runner-up: Kirsten Dunst “Melancholia”
Best Supporting Actor: Winner: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners” Runner-up: Patton Oswalt, “Young Adult”
Best Supporting Actress: Winner: Jessica Chastain, “Coriolanus,” “The Debt,” “The Help,” “Take Shelter,” “Texas Killing Fields,” “The Tree of Life” Runner-up: Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Best Director: Winner: Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life” Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
Best Screenplay: Winner: Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation.” Runner-up: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, “The Descendants.”
Best Documentary/Non-fiction Film: Winner: “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” Runner-up: “The Arbor”
Best Foreign-Language Film: Winner: “City of Life and Death” Runner-up: “A Separation”
Best Animated Film: Winner: Rango Runner-up: The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Best Cinematography: Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki, “The Tree of Life” Runner-Up: Cao Yu, “City of Life and Death”
Best Production Design: Winner: Dante Ferretti, “Hugo” Runner-Up: Maria Djurkovic, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Best Music/Score: Winner: The Chemical Brothers, “Hanna” Runner-Up: Cliff Martinez, “Drive”
Career Achievement: Doris Day
Douglas E. Edwards Award for Independent/Experimental Film/Video: “Spark of Being”
New Generation Award: The creative team behind “Martha Marcy May Marlene” (Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Josh Mond and Elizabeth Olsen)
Scorsese’s “Hugo” Named Best Film of the Year by the National Board of Review
I very rarely agree 100% with the NBR, but this year’s list is pretty decent, though I still need to see a handful of their choices.. They always include Eastwood, no matter what the consensus is on his films, though. I still haven’t seen J. Edgar, so I can’t comment just yet. I’m happy to see Drive on their list, but a little miffed to see the final Harry Potter on there, because from a stand-alone film point-of-view it failed miserably.
“Shame,” “Tyrannosaur” and “Tinker Tailor” Lead British Independent Film Award Nominations
So many films on this list that I’ve yet to see, but definitely want to. Hopefully we’ll see a little bit of an overlap between these nominations and the Oscars. Mostly I’m thinking for Steve McQueen, Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, though Shame‘s NC-17 rating may still be a hurdle the film’ll need to overcome stateside. I’d also like to see a Best Actor nomination for Gary Oldman. I still haven’t seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but boy is he overdue. He’s never even been nominated! That’s a travesty that must be remedied soon.
The winners are decided by an independent jury comprised of people from within the British film industry. This year’s jury includes: Josh Appignanesi (Director / Writer), Lucy Bevan (Casting Director), Edith Bowman (Broadcaster), Mike Goodridge (Editor), Ed Hogg (Actor), Neil Lamont (Art Director), Mary McCartney (Photographer), Molly Nyman (Composer), Debs Paterson (Director / Writer), Tracey Seaward (Producer), Charles Steel (Producer), David Thewlis (Actor), Ruth Wilson (Actress) and Justine Wright (Editor). The winners be announced on December 4th. Full list of nominees after the cut.
New Trailer For Steve McQueen’s “Shame”
This looks fantastic. I’m already really digging the mood and Fassbender and Mulligan seem to be firing on all cylinders.
You can watch the trailer here. Shame is set to open in the US on December 2nd.
“Faust” Wins Golden Lion, Fassbender Best Actor At Venice
Russian director Aleksander Sokurov’s “Faust,” a new take on The German legend about the quest for knowledge at all cost, won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
Dense and difficult to watch, “Faust” was nevertheless one of the critics’ top choices among the 23 in-competition films at Venice this year. It snapped up the top prize by the jury headed by Darren Aronofsky, whose “Black Swan” opened Venice last year.
The best actor award went to Michael Fassbender for his portrayal as a sex addict in Steve McQueen’s “Shame,” while the best actress award went to Deanie Yip, who plays an aging domestic servant opposite her master in Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s “A Simple Life.”
The Silver Lion prize for best director went to this year’s surprise entry at the Lido, Beijing-based Shangjun Cai for “People Mountain People Sea.” And the special jury prize went to the Italian-French production “Terraferma,” about the influx of migrants to a tiny Italian island, by Emanuele Crialese.
All contenders at the world’s oldest film festival were world premieres.
“Faust” tells the tale of a professor, played by Johannes Zeiler, who craves knowledge and sells his soul for the love of Margarete, played by Isolda Dychauk. The Mephistopheles character is played by Anton Adasinskiy.
The film marks the final chapter in Sokurov’s four-film look at the relationship between man and power that began with “Moloch” in 1999 about Hitler, “Taurus” a year later about Lenin and the 2005 film “The Sun” about Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
[source]
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