Oscar 2011 - Best Picture

I still disagree with the Academy's last year decision of expanding the nominee number for best picture from 5 to 10. It's simply marketing and nothing more. It's obvious that you can remove some titles when considering this category without worrying that they actually had chances to win. Even so, there is a good part. If for last year I still wonder how did they manage to find enough movies to get 10 nominations, considering the quality, this year is probably the best in the last ten as number of very good movies/number of nominees. Usually I had one, maybe two if not zero titles nominated here that I actually liked. As much as necessary to consider rewatching sometime. This year I have five. From these five I consider that one should get the Oscar for the best picture, but I would like another one to take it :). However, it won't be neither of them. Let's see the nominations ...

"Black Swan" - .. I just realize that I was wrong above. I liked five of this year's nominations quite a lot, but there is one of them that I don't think I want to see it again - this one. It's a film I enjoyed exclusively for the movie making and for the look of the final result, and not for the story or the subject. It's one of the two movies this year that manage to create a sufficiently intense feeling in order to change your state of spirit you had before entering the cinema (and I mean for longer than ten minutes before forgetting it and thinking of something else). It's the best movie I've ever seen that exploits a mental issue to build its story. The story is one of a ballerina who wants so badly to get a role that develops a quite advanced degree of psychosis on this ( I think the depicted condition is more close to psychosis than schizophrenia from what I know .. anyway, maybe I'm not right ..). The movie manages to be so efficient in presenting the story that it gives you the creeps at the thought that what you see is actually plausible in reality. All the fear, the tension, the dementia are so well expressed by the way the movie is shot, edited, etc. I wrote about this also in some previous entries on other categories ( forgot to mention about the mirrors when talking about cinematography :) ). Well, even if it's probably the movie that manages to express most well it's base idea it's still a niche movie considering it's psychological noir tragedy genre, so I'm not seeing it higher than 3 in an Oscar favorite top list.

"The Fighter" - is probably the movie with the best casting at this category, I think a bit above "The King's Speech". The film is something like a "Rocky" based on real facts - the story of a boxer from a poor neighborhood who eventually manages to get a title. I wrote more details in January - here. So I don't know if it makes any sense to say much more now. It's one of the movies that I won't bet a dime on the Oscars except for the actors. Because the rest was already seen in too many productions on the same topic (and for some reason it seems the americans like them enough to give awards, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen for Best Picture).

"Inception" - ... well, this is the movie that I would like to get the Oscar. I don't see any chances for that considering it didn't get a nomination for directing and also more surprisingly neither for editing. And I don't know any movie in the last 20 years to win the award for best movie and not to be nominated to at least one of these two. It's a story that is based on the lucid dreaming concept (much more real than you might think), the subject evolving around a group of individuals able to manipulate the information at the subconscious level. It's my type of SF and I actually waited for this movie to come out for about one year (since the first trailer). It was nice, but it wasn't enough. And I'm not so surprised or better said not very disappointed that Nolan didn't get a nomination for directing. There is one problem with the movie. It doesn't have as much warmth for the story it tells as it could. You don't get a powerful enough feeling related with the characters or the action that unfolds. Anyway, this is a very personal point of view from someone who knew a bit about lucid dreaming before seeing the movie and ... also did read "Ubik" by P.K.Dick. What's "Ubik" ? "Ubik" is a book written somewhere in the '60s that has quite a lot in common with the (original) screenplay of "Inception". It's not the same story ... but are pretty much the same ideas. Instead of lucid dreaming we have artificially sustained coma. Instead a group of individuals dealing with manipulating this state of mind we have a group of individuals dealing with counteracting manipulators of somebody's mind (generally speaking, not coma related). But in the end, and that's the beauty of the book - in the end - all resumes to the same stuff : the ability to create places, things, and other stuff, manipulate them, interact with other people - all at the subconscious level, not being able to discern what's exactly real and what is not, and of course .. the ending. The ending is the same as in "Inception". We have a coin instead of a spinning top, that we don't actually now what it says. Again, the stories as action are different, the contexts are however very much alike. Nolan didn't mention anything about "Ubik" as far as I know, but I tend to think he did read the book at some point in his life. The problem is that if you'll read the book you'll probably be a bit disappointed about the movie (just a bit). At least from my point of view "Ubik" unfolds in a way that is really able to get to your heart in the end. Thing that I haven't felt as much in "Inception". Mainly because of this I'll stick to the opinion that "The Prestige" is the best movie made by Nolan, because at least for me remains the more powerful regarding the feeling it gives. But, considering that "Inception" is one of the stories I really wanted to see on screen :) I'll also stick to the wish to see it getting the Oscar, as unlikely as it is. I'll end talking about this nomination with a quote .. from "Ubik" which is a bit cryptic even in the book (it's just the final chapter's motto) .. because of this as a warning that I really wanted to avoid but I think I must say it, just try to disregard any religious point of view when you read the next lines .. it's an idea that may have some connection somewhere with some form of religion but what it wants to say in essence is completely distinct of any such stuff - my interpretation in the context of the book is that this is just a self-said definition of the human subconscious: "I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, they do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be."

"The Kids Are All Right" - ... I feel like falling from a nice sunny mountain top to a dark muddy swamp just by writing the title after talking about the previous movie. Well .. I've seen during past years among the Oscar nominations an entire row of comedies with drama tendencies, with a lot of weirdness/crazyness in their action: "Little Miss Sunshine", "Juno", "A Man Apart", etc. Somehow it happened that I liked them all, and in some cases even more than the other nominations. And that's really something considering I'm not really into comedies. That's because I think is the genre with the highest percent of junk movies per year = very often overusing the same subjects in lame "being funny" attempts. Fortunately, at the Oscar we had quite good comedies. Not this year ... "The Kids Are All Right" respects the recipe of original crazy subject: the son and daughter of a lesbian couple decide one day that they want to meet their father, a former sperm donor that no one knows what kind of person is. Original, that's pretty much this film has in common with other comedies we've seen nominated here. Actually I don't even think the comedy is the dominant genre here, because the movie unfolds more like a typical family drama, with many dialog cliches and lots of loose ends (just one of the many .. example spoiler: there isn't very clear what will happen with the kids father in the end, we just see him leaving after a sort of a fight which is not very convincing to consider the character out of story). I don't know what more to say besides that there is one title somewhere below that I boycott since a while and even so I think is better than this one.

"The King's Speech" is considered by many the favorite to the Best Picture Oscar this year based on the 12 nominations it got, on the BAFTA it recently won and also on some other awards. I disagree. It was pretty clear that it will get the BAFTA but with the Oscars there's another story. I don't know .. Maybe I'm wrong but .. I don't want to brag, I haven't been wrong since "Chicago" (well, maybe enough time passed for another error :) ). I'm not saying that the movie is not good. It just looks too .. normal. Generally the Oscar is given to something that can differentiate a bit in the genre it belongs. Here the main aspect to consider is the casting, and especially Colin Firth's role as George the VI-th. Even if the role of the british monarch tormented by his speaking problems is flawlessly done I don't think it's enough to get this movie out and apart from an entire row of UK made historical dramas produced during the last years. That's what I was telling in the previous directing blog entry also, because I think the ability of building the individuality of the movie lies pretty much in the hands of the director. I agree that "The King's Speech" is better than other movies covering a history part, but not much more original than these. Conclusion: according to the general opinion, I also started to consider it among the Oscar favorites, but because of what I mentioned a few lines above I would place it on the 2nd position.

"127 Hours" is the movie that I consider to be the most complete from all the nominations, and because of this also the most entitled to get the Oscar here. Thing that won't happen considering the outsider status besides larger production value titles having also a more powerful marketing behind them. Besides this, it didn't get even the directing nomination. I think I've already told it somewhere on my blog that I am not very attracted by real case based movies. This was an exception. Maybe the story of a guy blocked for 127 hours under a rock sounds somehow .. catchy .. I don't know, but what I can tell is that the movie worth seeing for much more reasons than the story. You have directing, you have the visuals, you have the editing, you have the score, you have only one actor but he's enough to not feel the need for more. I think I wrote enough about these in the movie entry around a month ago - here. Looking at the entire nomination list, if you would make me choose the best made title in three seconds I'll probably go for "Inception". But if I take them all and compare on every level related to a movie production, disregarding any subjective preferences, I'm pretty convinced that the average grade will be in the favor of "127 Hours". Well .. to end here .. and talking about movie production, considering the originality of the cinematography in this movie (and the lack of nomination for this ...) I said myself that would be nice to point it out with the next clip:

"The Social Network" is my option for placing a bet on the winner for Best Picture. It is the most appreciated by critics from what we have this year, and enough liked by the public and the movie industry. For me it was interesting from the "documentaristic" point of view, giving some insight about the "Facebook" beginnings (don't know how authentic though ..). As a feature film it was .. so & so. It has some good points, but I didn't find anything to be extraordinary (maybe the score, which is different from what you usually hear). The problem is that the story, for me at least, doesn't have any power to impress, to make you actually feel something. There are just some facts put on screen. And I think that everybody working on the movie from the director to the sound editing department, made their best to compensate that. Otherwise you'll probably have as final result something as slow paced as "The King's Speech" and without the "feeling factor". But the final result is not like that. After you've finished watching "The Social Network", thinking back and considering strictly the movie subject you might have the impression that you have watched a slow paced production, but that's not what you feel while you are watching. That's the point, as I see it, where this movie gains the most in overall level. But I don't think it's enough to make it the best picture. Anyway, I think this will be the case at this year Oscars.

"Toy Story 3" .. I totally get the marketing idea to extend the best picture nomination list from 5 to 10, but I don't get why do we have animations nominated here. There is a category for best animation, as there is a category for best foreign language film and one for best documentary. The best picture should be dissociated considering the nominees from these, and it is, except for the animation one. I don't have anything against giving the prize for best picture of the year to an animation - even more I think that the animation level in the last years went high enough that more should be nominated as best picture, but not also keeping in this case a separate category for best animation. Difficult question: if we have "Toy Story 3" nominated for best picture, guess who will win for best animation ? I would really like to be wrong... That's the reason for my so called boycott this year against the best animation category by not writing about it. Well .. I also didn't see the third title nominated. But the other one, "How to Train Your Dragon" for me is way better than "Toy Story 3". And the fact that "Toy Story 3" got a nomination for best movie is like considering it at least one class above the rest animations. Why doing this ? Especially considering that is pretty obvious it won't get the Oscar for best picture. "Toy Story 3" is a good movie but below "Up" and "Wall-E" from what Pixar has produced before. What actually gave it a push at the level it's considered is the marketing, the fact that is a sequel for a success series, and that it's written Pixar on it. What annoys me the most in all the reviews that praise "Toy Story 3" is that is said it's "deep" and much more "adult oriented" than the DreamWorks production. For God sake ... if an adult needs a movie who is one step close from including a "boo-hoo-hoo" in the background sound for the teardropping moments as it's in sitcoms for laughters to consider it deep .. I'll stick to the target focus of DreamWorks whatever that might be. "How to Train Your Dragon" is a movie that has "something" behind all the humor and the sarcasm it shows but without giving that "something" on a plate to be served by the viewer in the way Pixar does it all the time. You have to remove yourself the curtain to look through the window, not being actually pulled through it directly as it's in the other case. For me that's the meaning of "deep" (I tend to think that people reviewing "Toy Story 3" forgot even the dictionary definition of the word). Well, what I've written probably sounds very anti-"Toy Story 3", and I really don't want to be like that because as I said "Toy Story 3" is a good movie, and for the technical aspects for instance Pixar still rules. My problem is less with "Toy Story 3" than with the critics for "Toy Story 3". And with this "end of story" here ...

"True Grit" probably is as Oscar winning chances pretty close to "Black Swan", so also somewhere on the 3rd spot in a favorites top. I've written more in January about the movie - here, and the current blog entry really got long enough to repeat myself with all I said there. In a few words, the movie is a western that follows the story of a girl hiring a federal marshal to avenge her killed father. It's a movie that I think would appeal to almost everybody contrary to how it sounds or maybe even on how the trailer looks. That's why I don't see it as a typical western, although many are saying it's quite old school in this genre. I don't agree with that. The script has enough witty lines, and the visuals and the score are delightfully composed (although the last one didn't get a nomination). It's enough to give the movie a note of originality. It has 10 Oscar nominations, including directing and editing, and this might actually place it in the position of a potential surprise for the evening, although nobody expects that. I won't mind being wrong with my prediction and seeing "True Grit" win instead of "The Social Network", even though I'm more supportive for "Inception" and "127 Hours" ( "The King's Speech" is the one which I'll really dislike ruining my predictions :) ).

"Winter's Bone" .. I started with one of the two movies nominated that are above the rest in the level of intensity transmitted to the viewer and I finish with the second one. Unlike "Black Swan" which might frighten you with the base idea it's built upon, here you have pure tension that is continuously raised until the end. The subject it's placed around a girl looking for her missing father to get him back to the police in order not to lose her house placed as a bail. The pure tension mainly relates with the fact that the way the story unfolds you'll start to think that in the next five minutes of the movie the girl will be "missing" too. I wrote more about the film in parallel with "True Grit" (the link is above). "Winter's Bone" is an indie movie = low budget, but for what it has to tell you is more than enough, showing that you don't really need as much money as "Avatar" costs to be able to make a good picture ( actually much better than "Avatar" here, although I don't think it's the best comparison :) ). And to end this overlong entry I will just say more that despite the tension of the movie, and unlike "Black Swan" this one I would like to see again some time, because even if it's really grim, the end has something optimistic in it close to a warm feeling that matters quite much for the whole story.

I think this is the record for a long entry :D (actually written from pieces during two days, a first even for me :-p). I pretty much doubt that somebody will get to this line :)) unless he/she starts reading from the end to beginning, so I don't know why I'm still pressing the keys on my laptop :). Well ... Thanks to the winter vacation and to the lack of flexibility of the Academy that pretty much shuffled the 10 nominations for best picture also to the rest of the categories, I somehow managed to pull off a decent Oscar coverage in terms of number of posts this year (in terms of quality :) ... I'm sure it can be done much better). Anyway, starting with next week, I'll be back to the usually one entry/week rate and with a good movie I hope :).

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 :)

Oscar 2011 - Adapted Screenplay

I was thinking to jump completely over this section. Usually I'm not very accurate with the predictions here (but this year is easy :-p). The reason for that it's quite simple. I don't read the scripts because I don't have enough time (by the way, generally these are surprisingly short ... but even so ..). And from the script to the final screen version there is a (sometimes long) way, and things are lost along it. Even if the main impression is given by the aspect of the story you see on screen, what matters for the script is also what's on paper and how much does add the directing to that. This year I managed to take a quick look on the written material last weekend = not more than one page from every screenplay, so I'm gonna take my chances and try writing a few lines :) It will be probably the most boring entry because considering the "literature oriented" topic I chose to give script quotes instead of clips today :-p ...

"127 Hours" - is the script that's probably the most descriptive of all. And I also think that it's the most original from the adaptations although I didn't read the book that tells the guy's story. However I really doubt that's composed more than 50% from describing what you should see in front of your eyes. And I'm telling it again ... it's enough variation for 127 hours about a guy being stuck under a rock to be watchable enough. And due to that, I prefer this title among the rest although I have to admit that's probably not the best script.

INT. CANYON. C/U BOTTLE NECK
The bottle neck stares at Aron.

INT. CANYON. C/U ARON.
Aron’s eyes stare at the bottle neck.

INT. CANYON. NIGHT.
Aron shakes the bottle. Water splashes inside. Not much water. Puts the bottle back down. Moves to pop a contact lens out of his eye and into his mouth.

INT. ROPE BAG. PRE-DAWN.
In big close-up, an ant crawls across Aron’s face. His muscles twitch in response.

INT. ROPE BAG. PRE-DAWN.
Aron’s eyes, open a slit. That’s as much asleep as he gets. Targets some puffs of breath at the ant. Doesn’t work. Flicks the ant away with a finger. Eyes close again.

"The Social Network" - at least at this category is probably one of the safest Oscar bets. I would really like to see a surprise although it's hard to believe it will be so. It's the longest and most dialogue rich script among all. I have no idea how much does matter the quantity, but it seems it does considering the amount of awards received so far. I have to be fair and say that it is a good script, but as a story (with the title above counting as one of the few exception) I never was very impressed by the movies with real basis. Anyway, I don't think that for the origins of Facebook you can get something much better than we have here. It's dense and has enough tension to get close to a thriller feeling at some points, and for the spoken lines it's probably the best this year at the same level with one title below.

ERICA
I have to go study.

MARK
You don't have to study.

ERICA
How do you know I don't have to study?!

MARK
Because you go to B.U.!

Erica stares at him...

MARK (CONT'D)
(beat)
Do you want to get some food?

ERICA
I'm sorry you're not sufficiently impressed with my education.

MARK
And I'm sorry I don't have a rowboat.

ERICA
I think we should just be friends.

MARK
I don't need friends.

ERICA
I was being polite, I had no intention of being friends with you.

"Toy Story 3" - I have no idea what's with this movie that deserves to be here. I'll continue my small boycott and I won't comment too much. It won't take the Oscar - that's the essential part. The script is ok on the comic side for an animation, although there were better titles for this, and for the drama side is the tearlake direction - trademark Pixar. As a sample I prefer the first side:

Rex sticks a finger in Buzz’s re-set hole.

WOODY
Okay, now what?

HAMM
All right, let’s see... “Caution: Do not hold button for more than five
seconds.”

Abruptly, Buzz BEEPS loudly, falls limp, face plants. The others all look at Rex. Rex lifts his finger.

REX
It’s not my fault!

Suddenly, Buzz leaps up, knocking the Toys off him. He strides forward, flips his wrist radio.

SPANISH BUZZ
Bitácora Espacial -- Me he despertado de hipersueno en un planeta extrano.
(Star Log -- I’ve awakened from hypersleep on a strange planet.)

The Toys are speechless. Hamm glares at Rex.

"True Grit" - it's as good if not even better than "The Social Network" for the witty lines. Thing that's actually specific for Coen Brothers. The problem is that doesn't have so much dialogue, and for the descriptive parts it's not the most complex scenario, at least from a quick look on it + what you see on the screen + what you get from make-of clips. It seems that the directing had more to do with the final result than the script, changing here & there what didn't look right enough when shooting the movie. Besides that it's a script that after all tells a wild west revenge story, which was already adapted one time, and even if they say that's an original view on the book I really doubt that the first script written didn't count at all. The idea is that for a good screenwriter I think to be much easier to get something of good quality based on an already done movie that got a bit lost in time (just look at Tarantino with "Inglorious Basterds").

MR. GOUDY
Thank you, Mr. Barlow. In your four years as U.S. marshal, Mr. Cogburn, how many men have you shot?

MR. BARLOW
Objection.

MR. GOUDY
There is more to this shooting than meets the eye, Judge Parker. I will establish the bias of this witness.

JUDGE
Objection is overruled.

MR. GOUDY
How many, Mr. Cogburn?

COGBURN
I never shot nobody I didn’t have to.

MR. GOUDY
That was not the question. How many?

COGBURN
. . . Shot or killed?

MR. GOUDY
Let us restrict it to “killed” so that we may have a manageable figure.

"Winter's Bone" - it's probably the most balanced script as quality = it's quite good at the descriptive level and pretty much the same for the dialogues. From my point of view it is the best script from the ones here, although I'm for "127 Hours" :). Unfortunately the movie is too much of an outsider in front of "The Social Network". I didn't see for a long time something so well done considering the tension level, although for this the directing has also a big part. But if you take a look on the script you can see clear enough in what detail is a scene described and that the script's feeling it's what it gets finally on the screen also. On the other hand, the director - Debra Granik - is also the screenwriter in this case :) so, she didn't do anything else than to prepare a detailed plan for the next step.

Baskin and Ree register Teardrop’s accusation. Baskin, apprehensive, makes eye contact with Ree and draws his pistol from the holster. Attempting to regain control, he taps the side of the truck with his gun.

SHERIFF BASKIN
I know you. I know your family. Get out of the car now.

Teardrop raises his rifle and rests it on the open window, staring Baskin down in the side mirror. Baskin shifts uneasily, again looking to Ree.

TEARDROP
Is this gonna be our time?

Teardrop and Baskin hold each other’s eyes in the mirror as Baskin slowly backs away, still brandishing his flashlight.

One more step until best movie - next time: directing

Oscar 2011 - Film Editing

Like I said last time this one is the aspect that might save or bury a film's cinematography, and with it most of the final visual aspect of the entire production. If the cinematography gives the movie the visual feeling = warm, cold, open, closed, etc, the editing is the the technical category which gives probably the most of the general feeling of the movie. And yes, in this is comprised also the sound mixing for aranging the final audio track, but usually the film editing is considered more important at the Oscars. As far as I know statistically speaking I think it's the one which is the most often associated with the best picture (having the same winner). I don't think it will happen this year though. Anyway, I find really hard to predict the winner here. Let's see which are the movies that got nominated ...

"Black Swan" - I believe this is the movie that will get the prize. Excellent editing, which enhances a lot the sense of tension, the dark atmosphere and completes it to give the image of dementia put on screen. Generally it's useless too comment the editing to much - the main aspect to follow is how it's built the scene from the individual shots, the way these follow one another and the length/for how much time. I didn't manage to find a better clip than the next one to show these, but it's suggestive enough about the movie look & feel.

"The Fighter" - it's the movie that I consider to be on the bottom of the grid here. The editing is ok, but it doesn't have anything special besides the boxing scenes. And that's the type of scene which has in itself more power to enhance the editing appearance than the editing does for the scene. Anyway .. I'm not an expert :). Unfortunately the most appropriate clip I found it's "embedding disabled", so sorry again for the extra click (it seems I didn't manage to get rid of this even without any "Inception" today :) ):

"The King's Speech" - I've already said it last time, here the editing helps a lot the cinematography. Below is the final scene of the movie (I don't know for how long it will last on YouTube), scene that I think it's one of the best in the entire film - also for the cinematography (which reaches a peek here), but I kept it for editing :) because I believe that it's more representative for the movie. Anyway, if above I was saying something about scenes that give a push to the editing, to say it so = have enough context to get something interesting from them, "The King's Speech" as a whole movie it's entirely the opposite to that. The story is calm, slow paced, without much action and that's not helping in this category, so even if it's ok the editing is under a certain threshold compared to other movies nominated here.

"127 Hours" - from my point of view has the best editing, but unfortunately this year is a bit of an outsider at the Oscars. I would really like to be wrong with the prediction here and to see it getting the award. I already wrote in the blog entry about the movie and I will say it again: for me it seems awfully challenging to try making a 90 minutes movie having as main scene a guy stuck under a boulder, and one of the key factors in managing to getting it done it's definitely the editing. Well .. the reason for "127 Hours" it's not really expected to win here is besides that there are more popular movies in competition, the fact that the editing (unlike "The King's Speech") is helped pretty much by the cinematography (which didn't receive an Oscar nomination, but it had it's share at BAFTA and in other places) = I'm pretty sure that the editor had quite a lot of choice to pick from the shots taken given the variety we see in the movie. Even so, I'll stick to the opinion that it's superior to the other titles.

"The Social Network" - it's probably the second on the favorites list (although many are saying it's the first and it already got the BAFTA for editing). As I mentioned, it's a hard to predict category because as I see it there are pretty 50/50 split chances among this one and "Black Swan" and I have some hope that I'll see a surprise from "127 Hours" :). The reason I'm placing this a little bit after "Black Swan" as chances is for one part related with the actual quality - even though it's an excellent editing that completes some lacks on the cinematography (which again I don't even know how come it got nominated) it still seems it's not really at the same level with the work in "Black Swan". On the second part, if the Academy wants to give another Oscar to "Black Swan" besides the one which is the most sure to bet on in the Awards night (for leading actress of course), I think they will have editing as the first choice. But, going back to "The Social Network" one of the nice parts is that despite having again a pretty much actionless movie, the editing manages to speed up the pace:

First entry next week - adapted script ;)

Oscar 2011 - Cinematography

Unlike last time, I really like writing about cinematography. It's obviously the aspect that gives the most to the visual feeling of a movie (well, sometimes helped ot buried by the editing, but about that next time). So, let me go quickly into the subject :) until I'm not getting again too long ( and out of the subject :) ) in the intro..

Matthew Libatique for "Black Swan" - is the cinematographer who worked at most of the movies directed by Aronofsky (except "The Wrestler"). I think his best remains "The Fountain", but "Black Swan" is not too far. It's the story of a ballerina driven by her obsession for a role up to a thin edge somewhere between psychosis and schizophrenia. The image composition in the movie helps a lot in creating an atmosphere that is a mix between tension and pure madness increasing in intensity as the film gets near its end. Remember "Shining" by Kubrick ? Maybe, it's better to give it as example for the effect of the cinematography in there as a comparison instead rambling general nonsense from my head :) Getting a bit more technical, the image in "Black Swan" is cold, in dark tones, narrow framing (I don't think you have more than 10 minutes in the entire movie in which the visual field covers more than 4-5 square meteres maximum), the camera is usually close to the character, sometimes even pretty "bound" enough scenes being filmed in one shot (one sample below). However, with all these helping a lot to getting the feeling I was telling about, I see "Black Swan" somewhere in the middle of this years nominees. I've said it before :) it was quite a good year for movies ...

The second nominee and one of the main two favorites is Wally Pfister for "Inception". Here also, as in many cases, we have a pair, the mentioned one being the cinematographer preferred by Nolan. Actually, since "Batman Begins", meaning also "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" Pfister got every time a nominee for cinematography. No Oscar yet. I personally like his work, but in every movie I have the feeling that something is missing somewhere ... There are some scenes that should be more "warm" instead of looking to cold and dry as they do, generally speaking, not only in "Inception". Actually "Inception" and "The Prestige" suffer less of this problem. I'd say even more, that "The Prestige" has some advantage in the visual aspect of the final result being quite close to perfect, but this taking into consideration that the movie has much lower visual requirements than "Inception" (less location settings, very consistent support from art direction - I can't forget the hats scene :), etc). To cut it shorter, Pfister has pretty big chances this year to get the Oscar for "Inception", but I think he'll wait one more time :) unfortunately .. because something tells me that we won't see anything better as long as he keeps his current style. In "Inception" I think he gave the maximum he can for this type of production (like I said "The Prestige" falls in a different category). At least he is much better here than he was in "The Dark Knight". And that actually counts even for scenes that apparently don't require much like the next one - love the slow motion in the end :) - that's cinematography, not VFX like the water flood by the way (with appologies for one additional click, but unfortunately 99% of what's on YouTube from "Inception" has "embedding disabled by request"):

Danny Cohen for "The King's Speech" - I don't have any clue who this guy is. I think even the BAFTA doesn't :), where this movie was in its own "kingdom" to say so = grabbing any deserved and not really deserved award, but I prefer not to talk more about it ( was expected to be so in UK :) ). Even so, like I said it didn't get the award for best cinematography. I actually find a bit strange the nominee at this category, considering that last year were movies much more deserving like "Shutter Island" or "Ghost Writer". Anyway, this is not the only case here ... We have one more a bit below, which I think it's even worse. Going back to the topic, and trying to be fair, there are some scenes in "King's Speech" well done visually - the walk in the park, or the traveling in the final scene where the camera follows the main character, and even some frames from the therapy sessions. Anyway, in all of these, I think the editing helps a lot. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything from the mentioned ones so I don't have something better to give as sample besides the wine cellar scene. This one is .. well .. pretty normal :), ok with respect to the shadow composition = the image is well balanced regarding the lighting, but that's pretty much of it I think ..

Jeff Cronenweth for "The Social Network" - from my point of view it definitely shouldn't be here. He is the cinematographer who did "Fight Club", and didn't work with Fincher afterward until now. I really believe that the cinematography in "Fight Club" is better than here although I don't remember being impressed by this part there also. What worth mentioning about "The Social Network" with respect to the final look is the editing, but like I said I'll discuss this next time. I don't even know what else to say. If on the above one I did have some examples to give .. here I don't. If this movie gets the Oscar for cinematography, I really think that next year I'll seriously consider not writing anymore about this category, because in that case it would mean that I'm probably waaaaay off the line with my appreciations ( not just way :) ). The only scene that I can mention (although again .. the editing ...) is the one with the boat race:

Roger Deakins for "True Grit" - reached to the ninth Oscar nomination without getting any until now. I didn't see two of his previous works in this list ("Kundun" and "The Man Who Wasn't There") but from the rest, I definitely believe without any discussion that this one is his best movie. Many people consider this guy one of the best cinematographers of the moment, and after seeing "True Grit" I'm also starting to believe it finally :). Also many people consider that he should have won the Oscar for "No Country for Old Men". I totally disagree on this, the cinematography from "There Will Be Blood" was way superior and deserved its award. Here, however it's something totally different, even if it's the same collaboration with the Coen brothers as directors, and even if we have pretty much the same kind of open settings as in "No Country for Old Men". The result it's clearly above. It is the best movie of the last year for cinematography and I don't think it will miss the Oscar. Probably I shouldn't say more, and just let the next clip roll.

Back next time - keyword: editing ;)