Announcement: The July Criterion Releases!

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From the Collection's homepage:

In July, Criterion is dealing in pairs. First, a double feature from Ozu, whose moving early films The Only Son and There Was a Father are coming to home video for the first time. Then, a matched set from cinema’s preeminent twosome, Powell and Pressburger: the Technicolor dazzlers Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, in Blu-ray and DVD editions. Add the breathtaking French drama The Secret of the Grain and the Eclipse series Presenting Sacha Guitry, and you’ve got quite a summer bounty.

Plus, check out this incisive, if brief, essay by Eric Kohn on the viewing experience of the more immediately upcoming Criterion release, Summer Hours.

Announcement: The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film Honors Kore•eda Hirokazu

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So, this news is kind of old news but it's nevertheless fun news: The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, a film group based here in Boston like I am - at least for the time being - also chose to honor director Kore•eda Hirokazu as the Best Director of the Year in Film 2009 like I did. It's wonderful that this director and his stunning film are getting superlative recognition beyond the limits of this tiny tab in the universe, this my blog, A Year in Film. Congratulations, Mr. Kore•eda; exceptional work!

Trailers and Things: Wild Grass, Bluebeard, Spike Jonze, and Carey Mulligan

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Apple's always fun site featuring the latest upcoming-films' trailers has recently posted two trailers whose films are definitely on my list: The former, Les Herbes Folles (Wild Grass), premiered earlier last year at the Cannes Film Festival to great acclaim for its director, the prolific and enduring Alain Resnais, and the latter, Bluebeard, was featured last year on The Criterion Collection's blog, The Criterion Current, for its admirable synergy between story and storyteller (i. e., directress Catherine Breillat, whose interview with the Current is the central content of that posting). Watch both trailers here and here, respectively.

In other news, director Spike Jonze has released a short film I'm Here - A Love Story in an Absolut World online, at www.imheremovie.com. I watched the film earlier today and, while I had to admire the film for its skillful direction and innocent tenderness, I ultimately had to take pause at the extent to which the melancholy drama pushed its limits bordering on the preposterous and the maudlin. An entirely selfless and robotic protagonist, oppressed not only by his solitude but moreover by his society, is practically beyond credulity, not because he is robotic but rather because he is so entirely selfless hat he will literally surrender himself to his affections. Allegorical, yes, but saccharine too, the film seemed too bent on romanticizing what amounts to a destructive partnership and thus lacked a smooth cohesion with the softness and fluidity of its techniques.

Finally, in future film news, Carey Mulligan, winner of 2009's Best Actress SpyGlass Full, it has recently been announced, has been cast in the leading role in the upcoming Emma-Thompson(!) adaptation of My Fair Lady (1956), an adaptation itself of George Bernard Shaw's classic Pygmalion (1913). To earn the part, Ms. Mulligan surpassed both Natalie Portman and her former co-star Keira Knightley in consideration, reports say; here's to celebrating that the casting director(s) has(ve) made the right choice!

That's all for now. Reviews for a handful of current films are to come soon.

Announcement: The June Criterion Releases!

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From The Criterion Collection's homepage:

Directors from the world over will make June a truly eclectic month at Criterion. Get on track with Jim Jarmusch’s and Carol Reed’s Mystery Train and Night Train to Munich, an ode to Memphis and a spy thriller, respectively. Along the way, check out the much-anticipated release of Antonioni’s Red Desert [...], Kiarostami’s amazing Iranian fiction-doc Close-up, and Everlasting Moments, the lyrical latest from Swedish master Jan Troell. All this and Visconti’s divine The Leopard on Blu-ray disc!

From Bringing Up Baby (1938): "The leopard! David, THE LEOPARD!"
Cheers, Criterion. :)

Failer, Which Equals Fake plus Trailer

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Via AwardsDaily comes this rather hilarious 'failer' for what its producers think is sure to make its (presumedly non-existent) referent film an Academy-Award winner. Well done!

Aftermath: The Academy Awards for the Year 2009

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Well, it's happened: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has committed yet another (see here) devastating assault on its own integrity, when it last night chose to present its statuettes designed to recognize "achievement" to several individuals all of whom achieved less than a cheese grater's end-product: cheese cheese and more cheese. Monumental self-immolations on the part of AMPAS like last night's statuette-presentations are, unfortunately, about par for the course nowadays; and so, while perpetually aggravating and embarrassing, such vulgar commissions nevertheless register now with a grotesque familiarity, much like a lactose-intolerant individual's familiar groan-inducing rumbling after having indulged quite deliriously in similar dairy-based products instead of having soberly abjured from them for the infinitely wiser choice of soy greens and Carey Mulligan.

The saddest effect of this self-devastation is that there now will be people who simply by the reputation of the indulger's prudent mask earnestly believe that Geoffrey Fletcher did adapt what became "the greatest achievement in screenwriting" in the year in film 2009, that Argentina did proffer what became "the greatest achievement in foreign-language film-making" in the year in film 2009, and - travesty of travesties - that Sandra Bullock did display what became "the greatest achievement in acting by a leading female" in the year in film 2009. How utterly misguided such people will be, duped by the mask of earlier years and more prudent statuette-presentations that seals the Academy in the minds and the hearts of such an adoring public ad perpetuum, away from any serious critique, any well-reasoned lambaste, and any plucky revile wherefore repeated demerits would not be shuffled under the carpet or else rebranded into "that high-shelf classic" that deserves its gathering devotees. And how the public willingly accepts such misguidance year after year, when the seriously deserving nominees (e. g., Kate Winslet, Peter O'Toole) must jump through hoops to even hope to receive what the likes of Ms. Bullock have received merely by having a hit smile, is beyond my comprehension.

How similarly would either group feel, I wonder, AMPAS or its duped devotees, if the Golden Raspberry Awards, also annually held, too presented its statuettes, designed to recognize utter lack of achievement, nationally publicly and on TV and too made it known that its counterpart statuette (for the least achievement in acting by a leading female in the year in film 2009) has been presented to none other than the woman very same? I shudder to think that they wouldn't even care:

The Oscar to the Razzie-winning actress this year, AMPAS? A new low? Well, OK, if you're sure....

The 11 Best Films of the Year in Film 2009

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OK, kids; now, when the 82nd Annual Academy Awards' ceremony with its goofy list of 10 Best Picture nominees is nearly upon us and after I've finished announcing the winners of my SpyGlasses Full, is it time for me to reveal my list of the 11 Best Films (see last year's list here) of this year in film 2009 (in order alphabetical; with grades):

• 歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking), A
• Avatar, A-
  
• An Education, B+
  
• The Hurt Locker, A-
  
• Inglourious Basterds, A-
  
• L'Heure d'Été (Summer Hours), B+
  
• The Messenger, A-
• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, B+
  
• Un Prophète (A Prophet), B+
  
• A Single Man, A-
  
• Up in the Air, A-/B+
  

Congratulations to all the winners and here's to the year in film 2010!

Article: "Photopost: Lust, Caution [2007] and Mahjong"

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Colin Low at Against the Hype has recently posted an incredibly illuminative article about the games of mahjong played in director's, Ang Lee's, 2007 film 色, 戒 (Lust, Caution) - illuminative for those viewers of the film who are not already familiar with mahjong's rules of play. Essentially, Mr. Low describes how one critical game of mahjong in the film underwrites the action - both diegetic and non-diegetic - of the superficial plot; as Mak Tai Tai (artfully played by Tang Wei) finds her inlet into a seductive affair with Mr. Yi (played by Tony Leung), the mahjong tiles encode his complicity with her advances and the affair. Read Mr. Low's full piece at Against the Hype, here.

The SpyGlasses Full (2009): Official Winners

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Alright, kids; even though I still haven't yet had a chance to see Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, the calendar dictates that the awards must be issued and so issued the awards will be. I think, I'll proceed into issuing them in the same way as how I did two years ago, when I announced their winners in daily installments for the week.

To begin then, I now announce the winners of the sonic and technical categories:

Best Sound Editing

Christopher Boyes & Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Avatar

Jason George & Geoffrey G. Rubay, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Brent Burge & Chris Ward, District 9

Paul N. J. Ottosson, The Hurt Locker
Michael Silvers & Tom Myers, Up

Best Sound Mixing

Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, and Tony Johnson; Avatar

Joe Barnett, Todd Beckett, & Mathew Waters; Crazy Heart

Michael Hedges & Gilbert Lake, District 9

Paul N. J. Ottosson & Ray Beckett, The Hurt Locker
Ren Klyce, Where the Wild Things Are

1 March 2010: Make-Up and Visual Effects

Best Make-Up

Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, & Joel Harlow; Star Trek

Leon von Solms, Sarah Rubano, & Joe Dunckley; District 9

Sarah Monzani, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Jean Ann Black & Fríða Aradóttir, A Serious Man

Kate Biscoe & Cydney Cornell, A Single Man

Best Visual Effects
Volker Engel & Marc Weigert, 2012

Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones; Avatar

Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, and Matt Aitken; District 9

2 March 2010: Music - Original Score and Original Song

Best Original Score

Michael Galasso, Séraphine

Michael Giacchino, Up

Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant!

Rolfe Kent, Up in the Air

Abel Korzeniowski with Shigeru Umebayashi, A Single Man

Best Original Song
"Hideaway" by Karen O. & the Kids, Where the Wild Things Are

"Sirens of the Sea" by Bruno Coulais, Michele Mariana, and Bernard Paganotti; Coraline

"Up in the Air" by Kevin Renick, Up in the Air

"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" by Ryan Bingham and Joseph Henry 'T-Bone' Burnett, Crazy Heart

"You've Got Me Wrapped around Your Little Finger" by Beth Rowley & Ben Castle, An Education

3 March 2010: Writers - Original and Adapted Screenplays

Best Screenplay (Original)
Pedro Almodóvar, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces)

Olivier Assayas, L'Heure d'Été (Summer Hours)

Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker

Kore•eda Hirokazu, 歩いて も 歩いても (Still Walking)

Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Screenplay (Adapted)
Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, & Tony Roche; In the Loop

Neil Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9

Scott Cooper, Crazy Heart

Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

4 March 2010: Sets, Shirts, and Shots: Art Direction, Costuming, and Cinematography

Best Art Direction

Philip Ivey, District 9

Nelson Lowry, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Anastasia Masaro & Dave Warren, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Mark Ricker, Julie & Julia

David Wasco, Inglourious Basterds

Best Cinematography

Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker

Greig Fraser, Bright Star

Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds

Robbie Ryan, Fish Tank

Yamasaki Yutaka, 歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking)

Best Costuming

Janet Patterson, Bright Star

Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria

Monique Prudhomme, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Anna B. Sheppard, Inglourious Basterds

Casey Storm, Where the Wild Things Are

5 March 2010: Editing and Animation

Best Editing

James Cameron, John Refoua, & Stephen Rivkin; Avatar

Julian Clarke, District 9

Chris Innis & Bob Murawski, The Hurt Locker

Kore•eda Hirokazu, 歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking)

Barney Pilling, An Education

Best Animated Film (Feature-Length)
Coraline

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Secret of Kells

Up

Best Animated Film (Short)
The Cat Piano

La Dama y la Muerte (The Lady and the Reaper)

French Roast

Partly Cloudy

Runaway

6 March 2010: The Actors

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Colin Firth, A Single Man

Tahar Rahim, Un Prophète (A Prophet)

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Actress

Yolande Moreau, Séraphine

Carey Mulligan, An Education

Robin Wright Penn, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones

Meryl Streep; It's Complicated, Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall; Crazy Heart, The Road

Michael Fassbender; Fish Tank, Inglourious Basterds

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Stanley Tucci; Julie & Julia, The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Kiki Kirin, 歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking)

Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Rosamund Pike, An Education

Blanca Portillo, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces)

7 March 2010: Director and the Live-Action Films
Best Live-Action Film (Feature-Length)

歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking)

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The Messenger

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

James Cameron, Avatar

Kore•eda Hirokazu, 歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking)

Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Documentary Film (Feature-Length or Short)
The Beaches of Agnès

The Cove

Food, Inc.

Best Foreign-Language Film (Live Action or Animated, Feature-Length or Short)

Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces)

歩いても 歩いても (Still Walking)

L'Heure d'Été (Summer Hours)

Un Prophète (A Prophet)

Séraphine

Review: The Last Station

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Genre: Drama

I have to say, I wasn't quite sure of what I was expecting of this film when I was purchasing my tickets at the electronic kiosk this past weekend. I knew, of course, that two of its prominent actors, save the seemingly forever over-glanced Mr. McAvoy, had been nominated for the golden man in their respective categories; however, knowing also the rather shoddy choices that the people behind that man can and do often make (see here for starters), I didn't put too much stock in the promise of those nominations. Rather, I think, if I had been putting stock into any part of this film that may have been knowable before seeing it, I put it rather in the promise of the actors themselves, whose work I know in other films has been quite good (see The Queen [2006] and - duh - Captain von Trapp [The Sound of Music, 1965]).

Perhaps it was this expectation that led me to the distinct feeling of disappointment, creeping upon me like a puce liquid tide, briny and cold like salted Russian fish, while I sat watching the film. It wasn't exactly the performances per se that were so disappointing; no, rather it seemed to be settings of the performances that in comparison, like poor settings for decent precious stones, dulled and awkwardly exaggerated the nuanced features that went into each rôle. No doubt, in film studies, this bastardizing setting is aptly called the director and screenwriter, Mr. Michael Hoffman, who attempts to salinize an already sensationalized minor stop in history as if attempting to impregnate an old ovary that was scraped almost inadvertently from the bottom of a barrel.

Are these overly harsh words that I post onto this film? Perhaps; the work as a melodrama isn't really all that bad - Mr. McAvoy particularly stood out well to me and the art direction was certainly embellished enough. Still, watching an otherwise nearly endless repetition of hollow trades of ambition among rather unimpressive and relatively 2-dimensional characters was just winnowing on the eye and on the ear. I longed for the fully mature version of such tugs-of-war-like antics, for the great The Lion in Winter (1968), in place of what can best be comparatively characterized as the blind and utterly squashable pupa The Last Station.

So, Dame Mirren, Mr. Plummer, congratulations on your nominations this year; but let's try to really do something, more than just flaccor-redemptive work, in our next project, shall we?

Grade: C; meh.

P. S. Good lord, casting director Leo Davis, what ever possessed you to think that Paul Giamatti was in any way the right man for the rôle of Vladmir Chertkov? It's not that I know very much about Chertkov, but obviously obviously - yes, two "obviously" - a Mr. Giamatti he was not....