Academy Award Nominations

[Billybob Dylan]

Fuck me, this was a Scorcese discussion a minute ago.

BCB film threads unchanged, shocker.

*drops organic bacon sandwich provided by Set Meals craft services*

[The Write Profile]

GREAT conversation!

Yeah, I like these film threads too. Sometimes better than music debates.
Peckinpah gets a lot of love in film circles and I can see why but I'll say take away The Wild Bunch (his only truly classic film) and what you have left is a handful of 'good' movies. I kind of liken him to Steinbeck: Dismiss The Grapes of Wrath from his body of work and you have some nice books but no real 'classics.'

Even if I give him Ride the High Country (which is pretty great, actually) and admit it's better than that same year's The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance (which it is) then the next film (in order of quality) is Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, which is better now in its 2005 version than it ever was theatrically. And I do think it's pretty fabulous but I in no way compare him favorably to Ford--despite the fact that when I made my westerns thread a few months ago I put all three of the above films in my top twenty.

Oh, Peckinpah gets a lot of free-pases because of his supposedly "iconoclast" reputation (despite the fact that he often willingly took on hackjobs to keep himself in check), but his best films are often far less haggard and loose than sometimes presumed.

Actually, I'd say that Cross of Iron and Straw Dogs are also pretty damn good, too- the former's certainly one of the more pitiless war films made by an American, certainly a world away from the pieties of a Saving Private Ryan (which, brilliant opening segment aside, basically follows the same structure and/or thematic concerns than practically every other war film that proceeded it).

For sure, Cross of Iron is an often quite contentious film- you're basically asked to sympathise with the monster- but in that sense, it's not that far away from Das Boot, insofar as it deals with a group of hardened men in a pretty hopeless situation which they don't really believe in. Actually, the rather unremitting landscape and constant atrocities serve only to point out that it's a spiritual cousin to the Wild Bunch. Anyway, it's an excellent film and really deserves a decent, 'expanded' treatment on DVD.

I've talked about Straw Dogs countless times before so I won't now.

Btw, I'm not trying to compare him with Ford (or Marty, really, for that matter), just trying to say that for all the fact that his filmography was littered with desultory and occasionally botched pics (and he really made some awful films near the end), his best work was actually pretty coherent: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia excepted, naturally!

[Sneelock]

coherence is overrated.
I love "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia". I think it's a fever dream like David Lynch's "Lost Highway" or something. I like Peckinpah a lot. I think this is what passed for a personal film in what was left of his mind. He may have had no idea that it was a personal film but, obviously, Warren Oates did as he appears to be doing Peckinpah in the film.

sure, it's an ugly prolonged thing but it's pure cinema. I think it's remarkable, the work of a true stylist and I suspect I'll live to see it's reputation mended if only slightly.

But, as I say, I think the man's a giant. He invented himself, like David Hockney. too bad he didn't take better care of himself. I'd pull on 'Osterman Weekend's pigtails long before I picked on anything else and I even admire much about 'Osterman Weekend'

I think he was as singular a stylist as Kubrick in many ways. sure, he let his vices take a toll on his work but I think his vices may have affected his voice and had something to do with how much character it had.

I think 'Alfredo' is among his strongest films.

[Sneelock]

And the very worst of Scorsese's output, a pretty meager list of films, are not without some merit (Boxcar Bertha, New York New York, The Color of Money)

well, it's always a treat to see one of my favorite films singled out as being one of somebody's worst. I think "New York, New York" is a wonderful film.

when two people fall in love in the movies, that is usually enough to get them to a happy ending. that's not how it happens in real life and it's not how it happens in "New York, New York". Despite this, the film is mounted in lavish period style. every hair in place. a stunning recreation of the musicals of the period but with this major revison - love is NOT enough.

the stars are terrific, the music has stood the test of time. I think it's a feather in his cap, one of my VERY favorite Martin Scorcese films.

[The Write Profile]

coherence is overrated.
I love "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia". I think it's a fever dream like David Lynch's "Lost Highway" or something. I like Peckinpah a lot. I think this is what passed for a personal film in what was left of his mind. He may have had no idea that it was a personal film but, obviously, Warren Oates did as he appears to be doing Peckinpah in the film.

sure, it's an ugly prolonged thing but it's pure cinema. I think it's remarkable, the work of a true stylist and I suspect I'll live to see it's reputation mended if only slightly.


I think 'Alfredo' is among his strongest films.

So do I! If anything, it's pure Peckinpah and the one that gives the most ammunition to both his admirers and his detractors. Certainly, he never let himself loose in quite the same way again to such great affect. I loved your Lost Highway comparison, it kinda makes sense, although personally to me, Lost Highway feels rather embryonic when placed against Mulholland Dr. (I haven't seen Inland Empire yet). It's a genuine shaggy dog film that lets it all hangout, for sure. I might have to watch it on DVD this evening!

Cross of Iron as I said is up there too, for different reasons. That film desperately needs a decent DVD reissue, if it hasn't got one already.

[Sneelock]

they've been showing it on my cable a lot. it's really pretty much of a piece, isn't it? very strong. I like how focused Coburn is in SP's films. He did this a lot later but I don't think he did as much in those days.

I like it, it's pretty powerful.

[Velvis]

I'd like to have seen Robert Downey Jr. get nominated for A Scanner Darkly.

[The Write Profile]

I'd like to have seen Robert Downey Jr. get nominated for A Scanner Darkly.

Same here! It was a really good comic performance, there was the sense that he playing a lot on his past rep to the extent that you could say that he was, ahem, 'method' acting, but he was really wired throughout- I've read the book and he nails the spirit of Barris's character- this eccentric paranoid who actually turns out to be a nasty piece of works indeed. Actually, Robert Downey Jr is a really likeable screen presence in general, there's something about the way he can turn it off and on- his performance in Good Night & Good Luck was supremely relaxed and assured, for instance. I can't help but feel that he really squandered his talent during his 'wilderness' period, then again it does give him an interesting back story to work with.

And if there's ever a film version of James Elroy's American Tabloid in the wings, he would be my first choice to play Kemper Boyd, hands down- he has the right coolness and nervous energy to pull it off.

[Velvis]

I'd like to have seen Robert Downey Jr. get nominated for A Scanner Darkly.

Same here! It was a really good comic performance, there was the sense that he playing a lot on his past rep to the extent that you could say that he was, ahem, 'method' acting, but he was really wired throughout- I've read the book and he nails the spirit of Barris's character- this eccentric paranoid who actually turns out to be a nasty piece of works indeed. Actually, Robert Downey Jr is a really likeable screen presence in general, there's something about the way he can turn it off and on- his performance in Good Night & Good Luck was supremely relaxed and assured, for instance. I can't help but feel that he really squandered his talent during his 'wilderness' period, then again it does give him an interesting back story to work with.

And if there's ever a film version of James Elroy's American Tabloid in the wings, he would be my first choice to play Kemper Boyd, hands down- he has the right coolness and nervous energy to pull it off.

Downey and Harrelson make the film. Too bad. Their energy would have been useful in the last third.

Downey's going to be playing Tony Stark in the Iron Man film.

[Sneelock]

well, he'd better grow a mustache.

[geoffcowgill]

I think 'Alfredo' is among his strongest films.

I've always been a fan of Salad Days.

[The Write Profile]

List of winners at the 79th annual Academy Awards, presented Sunday night at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles:

Art Direction: ``Pan's Labyrinth''

Sound Editing: ``Letters From Iwo Jima''

Sound Mixing: "Dreamgirls"

Makeup: ``Pan's Labyrinth''

Animated Short Film: ``The Danish Poet''

Live Action Short Film: ``West Bank Story''

Actor in a supporting role: Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine"

Animated feature film: "Happy Feet"

Adapted Screenplay: "The Departed"

Costume Design: "Marie Antionette"

Cinematography: "Pan's Labyrinth

Visual Effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"

Actress in a supporting role: Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls"

Foreign Language Film: "The Lives of Others"

Documentary Feature: "An Inconventient Truth"

Documentary Short Subject: "The Blood of Yingzhou District"

Original Score: "Babel" Gustavo Santaolalla

Original Screenplay: “Little Miss Sunshine” Written by Michael Arndt

Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth" Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge

Film Editing: "The Departed"

Best Director: Martin Scorsese for "The Departed"

Actress in a leading role: Helen Mirren in “The Queen”

Actor in a leading role: Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland"

Best Motion Picture: "The Departed"

Well, so now it's all over. Marty's finally no longer the Bridesmaid. It's a shame that he eventually won with a picture that was a bloated rehash (and remake, no less!) of themes he's covered with greater acuity in the past, as enjoyable and thrilling as it undeniably was--and ironically, far less of a "prestige pic" than either The Aviator or Gangs of New York.

Most of the winners went according to tipping and it's not surprising Whitaker won for The Last King of Scotland- not only was it a powerfully persuasive performance, but one that was utterly precision tuned and even managed to find some hidden depth and vulnerability beneath the monster. A world away from a mere pantomine tyrant-though there were elements of comedy in his performance, for sure, not least the fact that a Ugandan dictator would hold such an eccentric obsession with Scotland.

Ironically, I felt that Paul Greengrass's United 93 was a far more assured piece of direction than Marty's- sure the Departed features all of his highly kinetic, engaging flourishes, but there's a compendium feel to it all. Greengrass's work seemed more honed and haunted, while Gonzalez Innaritu's work in Babel was more formally ambitious (albeit less felt than Amores Perros). Actually, Curan's work for Children of Men was one of the best pieces of directing I saw last year- tight and purposeful, yet also hugely energetic without ever over-egging the handheld DV for the action sequences.

That said, Marty's "earnt" the Oscar and it was one of his better films in recent times. I'll have to watch it again shortly. Actually the thing that's probably gone unnoticed is that the great Gustavo Santaolalla has now won 3 Oscars in succession for his haunting and very dinstictive soundtrack work for The Motorcycle Diaries, Brokeback Mountain and Babel respectively. I really like his work, there's melancholic understatement to a lot of it that's very affecting and otherworldly.

Nice to see that Ennio Morricone has finally received an "honourary award." Shame he had to wait so long. I think he's 80 this year.

[nathan]

Nice to see that Ennio Morricone has finally received an "honourary award." Shame he had to wait so long. I think he's 80 this year.

Well I think his problem was that for every excellent score he did for a good movie, he did four good scores for really horseshit movies. Just check out his credits. yuk.

But watching the montage of people who had passed away during the year, I realized that I had totally forgotten that Jack Warden is no longer with us. I cried again.