Re: Categories One-by-One: Foreign Language Film
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:50 am
For months - not only on this board - I've been predicting that The Hunt will win, so I can't change my mind now. Plus, The Great Beauty may have received very good (and, as I've said before, quite perceptive) reviews in the US, but when it comes to "big" Foreign Film awards, only the foreigners (Golden Globes, BAFTA) seem to really like it. It's certainly, and by far, the best of the three I've seen, but it belongs to an old and now sadly rare today - even in Italy - tradition of cinema. Cinema which is inventive, visionary (but deeply visionary, not like Gravity), and let's face it, not for everyone. I understand people based on their reaction to it - like I used to do in the past with, say, Fellini or Antonioni. I'm not saying that it is as great as the greatest Fellinis - it has its flaws - but it clearly belongs to that kind of filmmaking. And at least it tries to be great.
The Hunt is much more familiar, and to use Uri's word on another movie, it's so "Lutheran" that, I'm afraid, will be even more familiar to Americans. Not those on this board maybe - we are quite sophisticated here - but I mean Americans in general. It's safe, and, despite its vaguely open ending, extremely reassuring. The fact that it's not a bad movie, and that it's well-acted, will help: I still think that it will win.
But now I hear more and more people saying that The Broken Circle Breakdown will. And you know what? I had quickly - too quickly maybe - dismissed it when I saw it months ago, but now I think that it COULD win. Unfortunately (The Hunt is a masterpiece compared to this). I don't agree with Mister Tee: despite the fact that its content is almost grotesquely tragic, it's much, much more bearable than Amour. For the simple reason that, as Tee says, it's less insightful. It reminded me of those 70s movie where children (or devoted wives) used to glamorously die of unmentioned cancer. This one is smarter, of course, so it uses nudity, atheism, country music (Americans especially will love this aspect) and a non-chronological narrative. But it's still a movie about a child who dies (and I can't say more to avoid spoilers). People on this board keep saying that Wolf of Wall Street is porno. I think that The Broken Circle Breakdown is really pornographic - though it's pornography of feelings, not of sex.
(But I have to be completely honest and admit that yes, a European atheist wouldn't lie even to a dying child. I know, we are too cynical, and I probably shouldn't be proud of it).
I would be glad, of course, if Italy wins (and for a movie which deserves to win). This is a country which has given so much to cinema. Maybe less so in these last twenty years, but it's still a country which loves cinema and which can make very good movies, movies which still have something to say. And it's a country which loves the Oscars. I'm the only one here because Italians don't speak - and write - English well, but I'm definitely not the only one into Oscars. For example just before Christmas I was in line in a bookstore, and there was this group of teenagers who were discussing about George Clooney's Academy Awards - had he won one, two or three? (One was mistakenly convinced that he had won something for Good Night and Good Luck, too). I found that nice.
The Hunt is much more familiar, and to use Uri's word on another movie, it's so "Lutheran" that, I'm afraid, will be even more familiar to Americans. Not those on this board maybe - we are quite sophisticated here - but I mean Americans in general. It's safe, and, despite its vaguely open ending, extremely reassuring. The fact that it's not a bad movie, and that it's well-acted, will help: I still think that it will win.
But now I hear more and more people saying that The Broken Circle Breakdown will. And you know what? I had quickly - too quickly maybe - dismissed it when I saw it months ago, but now I think that it COULD win. Unfortunately (The Hunt is a masterpiece compared to this). I don't agree with Mister Tee: despite the fact that its content is almost grotesquely tragic, it's much, much more bearable than Amour. For the simple reason that, as Tee says, it's less insightful. It reminded me of those 70s movie where children (or devoted wives) used to glamorously die of unmentioned cancer. This one is smarter, of course, so it uses nudity, atheism, country music (Americans especially will love this aspect) and a non-chronological narrative. But it's still a movie about a child who dies (and I can't say more to avoid spoilers). People on this board keep saying that Wolf of Wall Street is porno. I think that The Broken Circle Breakdown is really pornographic - though it's pornography of feelings, not of sex.
(But I have to be completely honest and admit that yes, a European atheist wouldn't lie even to a dying child. I know, we are too cynical, and I probably shouldn't be proud of it).
I would be glad, of course, if Italy wins (and for a movie which deserves to win). This is a country which has given so much to cinema. Maybe less so in these last twenty years, but it's still a country which loves cinema and which can make very good movies, movies which still have something to say. And it's a country which loves the Oscars. I'm the only one here because Italians don't speak - and write - English well, but I'm definitely not the only one into Oscars. For example just before Christmas I was in line in a bookstore, and there was this group of teenagers who were discussing about George Clooney's Academy Awards - had he won one, two or three? (One was mistakenly convinced that he had won something for Good Night and Good Luck, too). I found that nice.