Oscar 2011 - Directing

I think that would be better to get directly to the first nomination than rambling the usual intro nonsense for the entry. Because it's an excellent example of what good directing means - Darren Aronofsky - "Black Swan". This movie can be resumed in three words - "symphony of madness" - and to complete the analogy the composer of the tune is the director. From my point of view is definitely the best of the directing nominations. Unfortunately it's not also the most appreciated, and probably will remain only with the nomination status. It doesn't make sense for me to write much more from my own opinions about it. The next clip is probably saying these better:

The second nomination here is David O. Russell for "The Fighter". Is one of the two from this year where I didn't know anything about the director. And it doesn't surprise me because when taking a look on IMDb I couldn't find more than other four feature films directed and those seem pretty obscure (I've seen only "Three Kings" from them, and this has actually the highest rating .. although is far from a masterpiece). The directing in "The Fighter" is ok, I've said it already when I wrote more about the movie. If it weren't for the directing you'll probably get bored considering how many times was this kind of subject used in a movie. Anyway, this doesn't separate too much the directing style you see here from the other stuff you can find in the genre. And I tend to think that the Oscar will be given to something more original.

The second director about who I haven't heard is Tom Hooper, nominated for "The King's Speech". As in the above case, I've seen enough british historical dramas and if you take this movie and place it along them, I don't know if you can make a difference for the directing part. It's ok ... as in "The Fighter" I can also say sufficiently ok for not letting you fall asleep considering the lack of action in the movie ... but it's too ... common (just check "The Young Victoria", "The Duchess", even "Atonement" which is set in the same time period). The movie level is raised by Colin Firth's performance and by the editing (video + audio) mostly, and less by the directing ...

David Fincher will probably take the Oscar for "The Social Network". Unfortunately for his filmography it will happen here ... unfortunately = because it's not his best movie, and to add more he didn't even got a nomination for his best movie at that time - this being "Fight Club". Actually I have an entire list of Fincher's movies that I like better than "The Social Network": "The Game", "Panic Room", even "Alien 3" (with all the things said about it I say it has its own "air" so to speak that separates it from the rest, and not in a bad sense). But .. all these are from different genres, and none is based on a real story, so probably comparing it's not the right thing to do. For a real story adaptation I can't say that the directing isn't good. I might even say that it is very good considering that the final result is less slow paced than Fincher's first Oscar nomination which was for "Benjamin Button" (movie that for me definitely had a sleeping pill effect). And I didn't expect that considering the real basis. However, I'll stick to "Black Swan" as personal preference and I'd like to see a surprise there...

The last nomination on the directors list has two names written on it: Joel & Ethan Coen, for "True Grit". Although I liked the movie quite a lot, I must admit that for directing is not their best title (well, it's definitely much better than "No Country for Old Men" and they got an Oscar for that one). This doesn't mean that the directing is not good, because the way all the story is carried until the end differentiates it from what you can usually see in a western. It has enough originality in it. But ... this is helped by lots of factors, and I admit that these can be influenced by the directing, but it seems that unlike "Black Swan" for instance, you have much more from the individual style of the cinematographer, from the production designer, from the actors, etc.

One more category left & I'm done with the (probably boring) Oscar entries. Guess which one :)