Best Picture and Director 2012

What are your choices for Best Picture and Director of 2012?

Amour
14
21%
Argo
2
3%
Beasts of the Southern Wild
1
1%
Django Unchained
1
1%
Les Misérables
1
1%
Life of Pi
1
1%
Lincoln
6
9%
Silver Linings Playbook
1
1%
Zero Dark Thirty
7
10%
Michael Haneke - Amour
18
26%
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
4
6%
David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
2
3%
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
7
10%
Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
3
4%
 
Total votes: 68

ITALIANO
Emeritus
Posts: 4076
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 1:58 pm
Location: MILAN

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by ITALIANO »

[quote="SalantBeau"}I liked Silver Linings Playbook, which I found to have more to say about human relationships, love and the world we live in than most films from the past decade,[/quote]


Obviously you must have seen only two or three films from the past decade... Because honestly - HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, LOVE and THE WORLD WE LIVE IN... I mean, I'd use these terms for, say, Anna Karenina (the novel) or other masterpieces. Let's be careful with words, words are so important, really.
SalantBeau
Graduate
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 11:07 am

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by SalantBeau »

Zero Dark Thirty was, for me, the most complete film of the year with a secure and confident directorial vision that was executed perfectly in every department. Bigelow, a true artist, composed every shot perfectly. We saw exactly what she wanted us to see, heard exactly what she wanted us to hear and felt what she wanted us to feel. It was also an unflinching look at humanity and hostility, with a lot to say about self-defense, revenge and even human thought. My only gripe was the failure to explore Jessica Chastain's Maya, a character that could have been one of the most compelling in recent years had they only taken a few minutes to show us more.

A shame Bigelow wasn't nominated for director.

Ang Lee got my director vote. While I liked Silver Linings Playbook, which I found to have more to say about human relationships, love and the world we live in than most films from the past decade, more than Life of Pi, I can't argue that Russell's directorial achievement (albeit a great one) is superior to Lee's handling of Pi. Ang Lee absorbed us into the world of the film, took us by the hand and walked us through Pi's life, showing us his ups and downs and eventually his predicament, for lack of a better word, that ultimately makes the film. An incredibly well-done and well-rounded directorial job with incredible use of visuals to boot. If Bigelow couldn't have won, I'm glad it was Lee that did.

I also enjoyed Django Unchained quite a bit. And big shoutout to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, yet another masterpiece from one of our greatest living directors that the Academy failed to recognize in the way they should have.
User avatar
Eric
Tenured
Posts: 2749
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 11:18 pm
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Contact:

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by Eric »

Top 10
01. The Turin Horse
02. This Is Not a Film
03. Consuming Spirits
04. Holy Motors
05. Cosmopolis
06. Lincoln
07. The Loneliest Planet
09. Zero Dark Thirty
08. Moonrise Kingdom
10. Tabu

Anti-Top 10
01. Hitchcock
02. Bully
03. Hyde Park on Hudson
04. Project X
05. Curfew
06. To Rome with Love
07. Taken 2
08. The Lucky One
09. Les Misérables
10. The Sessions
User avatar
Precious Doll
Emeritus
Posts: 4453
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by Precious Doll »

1. Amour (Michael Haneke)
2. The Sessions (Ben Lewin)
3. Paradise: Faith (Ulrich Seidl)
4. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
5. Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl)
6. Dead Europe (Tony Krawitz)
7. Lore (Cate Shortland)
8. Call Girl (Mikael Marcimain)
9. Outing (Sebastian Meise & Thomas Reider)
10. Sightseers (Ben Wheatley)
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
FilmFan720
Emeritus
Posts: 3650
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
Location: Illinois

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by FilmFan720 »

To me, 2012 had 2 complete achievements in film-making that were near-perfect constructions, completely opposite in scale yet equal in theme and depth: Michael Haneke's Amour and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. The fact that both are nominated in both categories here is a remarkable achievement. It is a toss-up to me as to which gets my vote, and even if Amour ranks slightly higher in my esteem, I gave both votes to Spielberg's now underrated masterpiece.

Sabin, I will completely back you on Silver Linings Playbook. Never having been much of a David O. Russell fan, it remains my biggest surprise of 2012 and remains one of the sharpest films of the year. It is funny, wonderfully acted, poignant all while playing with the tropes of a genre and bending your expectations at every turn. I would place it a strong third here and am so happy that it managed the series of nominations it got.

A fourth film from my own personal Top 5 also managed a double nomination here, making this a remarkable close year in my own preference and the Academy's. Beasts of the Southern Wild is easily the most unique directorial debut of the year; I am not sure now much of the voice of the film will carry over to Zeitlin's next film, but he exploded on the scene with a film so completely realized, so comfortable yet so foreign, that it marks him as a possibility for a great new American director. I really love the film, and I'm not sure how well it stands to repeat viewings, but Zeitlin's nomination may have been the happiest surprise on a morning full of shocks.

As for the others, there are a lot of good films that don't execute as much as they should. Life of Pi is a great ride, but the narrative limitations and flaws of the source material hinder the film too much. Argo is a wonderfully entertaining ride, but in the end the film really has nothing of interest to say. Zero Dark Thirty opens and closes with some really powerful material, and tries to mine some interesting territory, but gets bogged down in the middle. Django Unchained is easily Tarantino's least successful film, with nothing novel to say and no new way to say it. I still haven't seen Les Miserables, and should get around to that one of these days.

Among the films sadly missing from this list, both The Master and Looper would seem to have had a shot in a 10-film roster but didn't get the traction they needed. I also love Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, The Cabin in the Woods and Anna Karenina.
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
- Minor Myers, Jr.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by Sabin »

Last year, I had some qualms about calling Silver Linings Playbook the best film of the year or even the best of the nominees. Although it's a little bit easier to make this call now that Amour has such a strong lead, for me Silver Linings Playbook is that rare Oscar heavyweight (and for a moment, it was one) that deserves the hoopla. I've seen it countless times. I have some mild reservations about it that seem to matter less and less every time I watch it. On a personal level, it amped me up creatively in a way that I'm very grateful. The Academy should have honored Silver Linings Playbook and David O. Russell, and it makes no sense to me that the Director's Guild nominated Kathryn Bigelow and Tom Hooper over Russell. Putting aside personal taste in films, I just find that result so perplexing.

I feel like I've talked about the other nominees to death. I'm less interested in how overrated Argo is than how underrated Steven Spielberg's Lincoln has officially become. I do not love the film but it is such a full film that deserves to be remembered for more than the third film that Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar. I think I'd be more forgiving if history remembered it as the film for which he won his most deserving Oscar.
"How's the despair?"
ksrymy
Adjunct
Posts: 1164
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:10 am
Location: Wichita, KS
Contact:

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by ksrymy »

Best Picture
01. Berberian Sound Studio
02. Holy Motors
03. Amour
04. The Master
05. Beasts of the Southern Wild
06. Skyfall
07. Compliance
08. Django Unchained
09. Silver Linings Playbook
10. The Cabin in the Woods

Best Director
01. Michael Haneke, Amour
02. Peter Strickland, Berberian Sound Studio
03. Leos Carax, Holy Motors
04. Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
05. Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

06. Craig Zobel, Compliance
"Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
mlrg
Associate
Posts: 1747
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:19 am
Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Re: Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by mlrg »

voted for Zero Dark Thirty and Spielberg
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Best Picture and Director 2012

Post by Big Magilla »

2012 was a roller-coaster ride.

Three of the four directors who were most prominent in the annual early guessing game - Ben Affleck (Argo); Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) failed to make the cut. Only Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) receiving his seventh nomination for Best Director and eighth for Best Picture remained in the game. Nominated instead of Affleck and former winners Bigelow and Hooper were former winner Ang Lee (Life of Pi); former nominee David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) and first time nominee Michael Hankeke (Amour) as well as newcomer Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), a wild card nominee who had actually been in the conversation since Sundance when his film was presented there in January just two days after completion.

The pundits who predicted a fail for Argo for Best Picture because, forgetting Driving Miss Daisy, "films without Best Director nominees can't win" were of course as out of touch as they were this year predicting that that 12 Years a Slave couldn't win because it wasn't going to win Best Director. Well, sorry, but the old assumptions don't always work. Will they again? Well, "there's always next year" as the saying goes.

Ang Lee, getting his second win for Best Director on his third nomination for his epic fantasy was a nice win for a decided underdog but my preference was Haneke for his harrowing but ultimately humane study of death and dying. I was pleased for Lee, but really happy that they didn't award David O. Russell for the wildly over-rated Silver Linings Playbook or for that matter young Benh Zeitlin for his well-intentioned but equally wildly over-praised glorified home movie.

As for Best Picture, once Affleck was ignored by the directors' branch it was all over. Sure, some of us held out hope for other films, but with the actors' branch controlling the most votes, it should have been clear that revenge was going to be sweet. Zero Dark Thirty might have been in the same position, but its director (Bigelow) had recently won and the film itself was seen in some circles as condoning torture - it didn't but the damage to its chances had already been done.

Argo was a fun ride, a much easier take on recent American history. Life of Pi for which Ang Lee won, was also very much a fun ride. Lincoln, probably the quality film of the year, was for some too much like taking medicine - they would award it for Best Actor, enough to show they liked it if they didn't love it. Les Misérables, an early favorite and my own particular choice, was damned by the pundits who saw it on screeners rather than in theaters where its in-your-face close-ups overwhelmed it in away they didn't on the big screen. Amour was, I suppose, thought to have been honored enough as one of the few foreign language films to have been nominated for Best Picture. Django Unchained was the usual Quentin Tarantino exaggerated nonsense - fun while you're watching it, but without any real substance. Silver Linings Playbook and Beasts of the Southern Wild were films that many were passionate about, but they were never going to be more than niche nominees. Argo, one of the early front-runners, was after the Affleck snub the one that most people were convinced had to win and it did.
Post Reply

Return to “81st and Other 9th Decade Discussions”