Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Mommy - It is Xavier Dolan's face


What to say, when the heavy breathless sobs invade your heart as you’re going through some sort of heavily required catharsis for the human beings you are experiencing the lives of? I guess this is what cinema is all about.

Being a film person, I certainly suffer from the knowledge of the films I see. Cases like La vie D’Adèle, where I can quite frankly screw up the whole film experience, or even Boyhood and many other films, where I know exactly what I’m seeing and what to expect. That’s why when I have a film that completely surprises me feels so great and wins me over. But then I have Mommy, where I knew was I was expecting and the expectations were high, coming from the incredible Cannes success; when I know the artist so well, feeling so compelled by his films. ‘Xavier Dolan? Now that’s living cinema at its fullest.’ I said something like this before watching Mommy. I certainly wouldn’t disappoint the person I was expressing this, even more, Xavier Dolan didn’t disappointed me, as he filled me with life for a couple of hours. This is the film I was waiting for, not just from Dolan and not just the expectations, but in general, this is the film I want to see every year, this is my kind of film. And Xavier Dolan was able to surpass all of that.


Mommy is the kind of film it takes an incredible effort from us to come back to our own reality.
Music has become a huge part of my year. This Christmas, I decided to make a mix tape for my sister, so I’ve been going through the songs we used to listen as we were growing up. Music can become a huge part of our memory source. I may not remember events, but I remember listening these songs. So I’ve been going through songs such as The Verve’s Better Sweet Symphony, Garbage’s Stupid Girls, Oasis’ Wonderwall or recently the awesome debut albums by Florence and The Machine or Lana Del Rey. It is pretty incredible and sweet how sometimes things fall in this nearly perfectly balanced moment. From the very beginning of Mommy, as Dido’s White Flag played, it seemed as if it was meant to be for me to watch the film the moment I saw it.

Mommy is a rollercoaster of strong emotions, but so much of it is in the lyrics of the songs he smartly chooses to play. Mommy starts out with a written explanation about a Canada’s legislation on mental health in the near future. Then you have this serene moment of this woman, before you are hit, or literally so, she is hit by a car while driving to someplace. Diane Després is introduced to us in all her glamour and unwarranted straightforwardness and wit. She discusses with a supervisor of the institution her son is in and ends up taking him home. So Diane and Steve come home while Dido’s White Flag plays in the background. If you go on and carefully listen the lyrics of this song, it pretty much resumes the entire film and it could as well be the representation of their relationship.


Diane and Steve have to quickly adjust to their new life, together again, alone in their household. It’s not easy for them, but Diane just keeps fighting and not taking any moment to get depressed or anything of the sort, no matter how actually difficult this must be for her, how hard it is for her to deal with emotional conflicts towards her son, who can be as unpredictable and as difficult. As Steve and Diane furiously and quite freely argue, whether at the house, or even inside a taxi cab, you can’t help but remember Dolan’s first film J’ai tue ma mère. Sorry Dolan, but these two fighting inside the car immediately takes me back. Indeed, Dolan brings back the mother son relationship to its center.
The songs go from a freer moment of both anger and bliss, as Steve rides his skateboard accompanied by Counting Crows’ Colorblind to others. Out of a severe moment when Steve comes so close to hurt her mother out of pure uncontrolled anger, their front neighbor comes in the scene. She calms down Steve, somehow. Diane decides to invite her for dinner. Kyla suffers from a severe stutter; she always been shy, she explains, but since a year ago it got worse, so we know she’s taking a sabbatical year from teaching (as Susanne was in Dolan’s first film)… Kyla doesn’t talk much, but it is not because she stutters, it is clearly because of something else we don’t know about, because she decides not to say it. So then comes Celine Dion’s On En Change Pas and Diane and Steve that make Kyla sing along. Another musical moment whish basically represents the entrance of Kyla into Diane and Steve’s life.  
She starts homeschooling Steve, as Diane tries to find a job. Eiffel 65’s Blue starts playing while Kyla teaches Steve. This music is frantic and it is exactly where Steve’s mind probably is a lot of the times, another musical moment that fits perfectly, where we have Kyla freaking out with Steve’s moods and eventually the both coming together to a mutual understanding. I used to listen this song so much when I was a kid. I have an older brother, and that’s probably where this comes from. I used to listen this song on my brother’s walkman, I think. It’s incredible, memory wise. And Xavier Dolan’s being the similar age as myself, will be doing this to me quite a lot throughout the film. 


Oasis’ Wonderwall is one of the most cinematic, expressive and vivid moments of cinema this year. Oasis’ Wonderwall is a world where these three human beings co-exist in some approachable harmony and things seems to happily move forward as we can see in their smiling faces. It’s a marvelous moment, where Xavier Dolan wins our hearts so freaking easily, smart guy, using the aspect ratio as a way to tell us – here, this is the moment where they are free and breathe happily. You may want to resist the effect, but you really can’t. “Because Maybe You’re Gonna be the One that Saves Me”, Gallagher says. It is a dreamy scenario, indeed, and we are filled with hope for these human beings, especially Steve and Diane.

Mommy is irresistibly unpredictable, when at the same time we know exactly where the story will led to. Steve’s uproaring nature, eventually, will lead Diane to make a hard decision and having a huge effect on their lives. This film can be so stylish, so unpredictable, sexual and musical and it is, but it is also mature, it is also inventive and timeless. Xavier Dolan has made yet another incredibly unique and personal film, full of live.


It is all about emotion, hard emotions, strong emotions; it’s all about characters and their strong emotions, bursting out. The aspect ratio is because of that. The use of the songs is for that. Some may feel it is actually too much. The performances are over the top. The emotions are too showy and over the top. The use of Steve’s mental health is too much. Kyla, the neighbor, is another strong cliché. It may be repetitive. Etc etc etc.
You do have all of this. It may be an extreme portrait. But the thing about Xavier Dolan’s work is that he cares. We are all quite vulnerable and so is Xavier Dolan, but he is not afraid to show it on screen. When I saw Xavier Dolan debut film a few years ago, the thing that stayed with me was his strong personality, his mark. When you see a film by him, you can’t help but think of all his previous work, as well as when you’re watching the films, you inevitably have specific expectations. But I don’t really care. I love them and I love Mommy. Obviously, his style is remarkable; their films have so much style is crazy. Mommy brings all of that. But stories about mothers are never ‘enough’, or told enough. He may have the cliché neighbor in Kyla, but her care is so real, Suzanne Clement’s performance is so touching. The scene at the end, the last scene between Kyla and Diane, is so heartfelt, you just want these women to hug each other and be happy. Not every filmmaker has the ability to convey such real characters, and make its audience feel so utterly connected to the story. They burst out of the screen and we want to jump inside the screen.
Born to Die  by Lana Del Rey is the last song that is played in the film, a song I had heard the day before, at home, while I was going through my old mixed CD’s, and it makes you have a lot of feels!


Xavier Dolan, I'm a huge fan.

Friday, December 26, 2014

The Old and the Young


The Old and the Young is a beautiful song by the American band called Midlake that I love so much. Sometimes I found this song heart breaking and at the same time refreshing, but I think of it as really really special.
A big part of Clouds of Sils Maria is about the old and the young, but it is specially about the distance between the two, about the way one positions itself in life and the different approaches that comes with age. The way a woman feels about her age, how she reacts and grows old. 
I admire the effort of Clouds of Sils Maria, it is such an interesting subject matter to dive into. I gradually liked the film more and more. I feel like I want to take it layer by layer, every bit of it and dig into it. At times it feels like the ideas are beautiful fighting their arguments through and at other times because these ideas are so good there isn't perhaps enough argument and actions but at the end of the day there's only so much you can tell in a story, or do with a story and with a certain film structure. That's also why I appreaciated this film so much, because of its layers. I will gladly dive into them with pleasure. In fact, this is the kind of film that makes me desperately want to speak with other people about, to go deep into it and discuss it. I love that!
Maybe I'll write a more extented review of this film, it deserves. 

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Ava's Christmas


Today is the day. Our first opening day for SELMA in NY, LA, ATL and DC. This image communicates how I feel today. There aren't words really. Just love. I hope love invades your day in some way today. Let's drink it in and let it nourish us. xo
Message from Ava DuVernay from her Facebook page. Merry Christmas.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Pic of the Day


Jeff Wells did it, I think.
No further comments.

Making Boyhood


A good way to describe Boyhood is that it is special.
Pretty basic isn't it? But it is.

Rave Reviews


Look at all those rave reviews!
This seems quite the challenging film. 

Monday, December 15, 2014

Knight of Cups


You know what? Emmanuel Lubezki.
That's the first thing that comes to mind.
Then, that it looks crazy and insanely rich. Kind of.
Possibly a lot of worthy performances to watch. 
The beauty of these films are really the challenge of it, I think. Though I have this really strange feeling because ever since I saw To the Wonder trailer, I found it so ridiculously laughable...It was after watching The Tree of Life and finding it earth shattering. Completely opposite feelings. So, I don't really know. But I want to see this one (though it will be hard).

Friday, December 12, 2014

Thanks Parks Crew


Ladies and Gentlemen, it is happening.
It is coming to an end.
Thank you ALL for the brilliancy and for making me laugh so much, I had probably the best giggles of my life. No joke. In addition to the laugh, I learned so much with Parks and Recreation. So much. I grew up with Parks and Recreation, I started to appreciate life and its comic tones with Parks.
Thank you all.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Ridiculous History


Ava DuVernay as the first Black Female nominated for Best Director (only the fifth woman) at the Golden Globe Film Awards.

It is what it is and well, if there is such history, today, one couldn't and shouldn't be more glad than that person be someone like Ava DuVernay. Right? No matter how frustating this history might be!

Update:
As I said, about Ava DuVernay being the right kind of person for this frustating history, here is her response to her Golden Globe nomination:
"The "first" of it all is the bittersweet part. I'm certainly not the first black woman deserving of this. You can't tell me that since 1943 there's not been another black woman who's made something worthy of this kind of recognition. But for whatever reason it hasn't happened. The time is now. I thank them for recognizing Selma. I just hope … that we get through all the 'firsts,' that we can just get to the good stuff and that people can just make their work and move on from [that conversation]."

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Art of Loosing


“In this world, there’s a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that’s so...”
Still Alice is so worth the time. Go watch it.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Boyhood


Boyhood, in my quiet and pretty personal ambitious resume, is a simple story, that feels like so much and all at the same time like nothing, not exactly nothing, but seemingly uneventful, when all in itself it is exactly what life is, what life feels like. I mean, how “uneventful” it is to watch someone grow? Can you feel yourself growing, can you ‘see’ it? You don’t really feel it and you don’t really see it. It just happens. And that’s what Boyhood is, that’s what life is. And at least that’s how I feel right now.

It is when you’re a liberal, campaigning ferociously for Barack Obama and then you end up marrying the most American Republican family. When you keep doing the same mistake towards men because you want so much to feel safe and be a family, because that’s just the way one feels towards life, the falling in love and the inevitability of falling in love with the wrong person. When you’re a teenager and you question and they question you when you have no idea, no fucking clue of what’s coming and what are the answers. And maybe you never will, exactly. It’s nothing and it is everything. And some part of this ‘nothing’ and some part of the ‘everything’, you know, this American tale of growing up, of family, of patriotism, of technology and social growth, is in Boyhood.


Boyhood is a singular journey, or the vision, of this one individual named Richard Linklater. One you can be a part of, because he makes a living as an artist, the storyteller that gives us these unique experiences of seeing someone grow up throughout twelve years. Richard Linklater made a unique film. No doubt. It is actually like I’m watching this film with these great impeccable visual effects, like we’ve never seen anything like it, like Richard Linklater should be rewarded for the visual effects he created in this. This film is exactly what he wanted, it is a whole, it is a complete thing. And I think it couldn’t possibly be anything else than this.
I knew exactly what I was having and so now, as I’ve seen it and experienced it, I do think about what else this film could have been. Though I don’t want it to be anything else, I really don’t. It just can’t be. I guess, as you go home, the continuing experience of Boyhood is to go and perhaps write you own tale of your own story, of your own growing up, which can be so different from Mason’s. Or maybe appreciate parents a little bit more, or maybe be more grateful to the people around you, because that’s what this film is about. So now, I wonder about time, as time is such an essential figure to Boyhood, time and growing up to experience this film and value it in different moments of my life, as it will certainly be the case. For now, I thank Richard Linklater for the experience and I praise him for his tremendous work.


The Boyhood team.
Loooooved Patricia Arquette, her performance is growing in me by the minute.
Ellar Coltrane's voice and speaking reminds me of someone, I can't seem to whom it is exactly so it is killing me.
Ethan Hawke, I really like him and especially the way he portays his character throughout the last part of the film, basically his transition from liberal to conservative, kind of, you could put it that way...

Thursday, December 4, 2014


The poster of Appropriate Behaviour.
But where's the trailer?
Where's the film??

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

K-Stew


"Lez b honest" K-Stew.


Camp X-Ray

On a serious note, I feel like nominating Kristen Stewart the Breakout Star of the Year. Along with Keira Knightley, for instance, they both bring three good films that are challenging from a creative and accomplishing perspective.
I really enjoyed Kristen Stewart’s performance in Camp X-Ray, I really liked this film. It feels like a flawed film but it is also so well constructed visually and consistent and the performances are spot on. There’s a lot of talent exuding in this film and the filmmaker Peter Sattler will go far. It is not at all an easy subject to approach, to write a conventional three part storyline about the soldiers working in Guantanamo Bay and so it becomes an interesting meditation on the American war and its history and how both sides from the equation are perceived.
Clouds of Sils Maria premiered at Cannes with rave reviews for her. I haven’t seen this one, but I can hardly wait. I will be very interested in seeing her here because I know this role was really important to her and she got really connected to it, even having a permanent tattoo of her character, and it is certainly a role that is the closest to Kristen Stewart’s self and one we haven’t seen probably in quite a long time.  And finally Still Alice, another supporting role that I’m sure will be interesting to see. Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart sounds great to me.


It is a “wonderfully challenging” prospect the idea that she’s now thinking and will eventually pause on the ‘acting’ and will be spending more time doing other creative endeavors. This doesn’t sound that bad because I’m looking forward to take a look at her work other than acting. She has written poems and she’s also mentioning short films. That’s what we need, female voices and art from their perspective. I’m sorry I sound so boring.


I obviously haven’t come to realize that we are almost at the end of the year and in no time I will be actually looking over the films I’ve seen throughout the year and picking the ones who I believe have stood out and make me want to mention, and others that make me want to mention for intriguing reasons! In my brain, it is like middle of the year. The other day I mentioned December like I was in May. I’ve seen over one hundred and twenty or thirty films this year, give or take. It is nothing, isn’t it? 

Knowing Martin Luther King Jr story, knowing the history of the United States of America and following today's events around 'Ferguson', it makes for a reasonaly poignant point to makes way more films like Selma, to have and value artists like Ava DuVernay.
Think about it.



Begin Again - Ambivalences


Written and Directed by John Carney.

These days it is harder and harder for me to create empathy with films, especially with stories and I hate it. This is the thing I’m supposed to be good at doing, or rather, what I enjoy the most. My perspective watching Once and now Begin Again, has to be completely different. Am I this ugly cynic who just watches and enjoys painful dramas?
Once takes place in Ireland, a European country, similar to my own. It is easy to create empathy with our protagonists, an Irish lad and a young Eastern immigrant, young talented musicians working with something they absolutely love even though they don’t have necessarily the greatest means to achieve a certain success. Their journey becomes quite intimate, quite personal and with an inspiring hope necessarily based on love. They don’t really have much, but they’re just being themselves really.
Begin Again brings a mixture of success and failure, in certain ways. It takes place in New York, an utterly rich place in diversity, culture, let alone people from all over the world. Some have the greatest means, for example, the owner of the Record Label, played by Mark Ruffalo. Then you also have a musician who had a tremendous success with its previous work, the soundtrack to a film, and his girlfriend, also a musician, but simply not known, they’re Gretta and Dave. She does not go public, so to speak. You immediately think they could be the young couple from Once.


Like so often in life, you have someone looking for something and someone who has that something, but they just don’t know each other, can’t reach each other or so often don’t have the means to reach for that middle term. Dan, the owner of the Record Label is the one searching; he searches for something to fulfill his soul, musically. Gretta, the young musician who isn’t interesting in going public with her music, and just broke up with his musician beau, is the one having that something to fulfill someone else’s heart. In this film, they happen to meet. Dan is able to convince Gretta of producing an album recorded literally in the streets of New York. And just like that, they record an album. It’s the American dream! The thing I have a hard time with because the American dream is a lie. And the music isn’t that special, but that’s another story.

Once and Begin Again, however, gives us something recognizable and relatable that it is inherently artistic and that’s an artist’s unrelentlessness to not give value, in a way, to a determined level of success, and in some cases, even actually being heard. It just doesn’t matter to them. The notoriety, the money, etc., they will do what they love anyway, they will not change their ways. They are quite ready to be poor. This is how Gretta is, to a certain extent (clearly without the poor part). She does decide to record the unusual album, but at the end she also doesn’t care if no one pays her, or better, she has the ability and power really to not give in to a label, no matter how independent and open to his artists it might be.


Begin Again means way more than it actually looks, I think. It not only portrays artists, their own unrelentlessness to discredit success, but it also portrays the Music industry and the recording issues of the moment. It is quite sober. Then finally, it really does the unthinkable.
Let’s all take a moment now. Let’s all take a moment, because Begin Again is a film where there’s a female protagonist, or you can also say that is a co-lead with Mark Rufallo. Even so, Gretta, played by the worth every second on screen Keira Knigthley, a female, who comes to New York with her solid boyfriend who dumps her after a cute Asian assistant, is incredibly talented, doesn’t give a fuck about labels and actually recording for them, who then leaves her boyfriend and records an album, and at the end of the film, does not choose either of her male co-protagonists, her boyfriend Adam Levine, nor the record owner Mark Rufallo. Utterly unprecedented. You seriously cannot believe it and it feels wonderful. Keira Knightley’s smile at the end is everything. Great end.
I don’t know why and how, but this film looks like nothing special, a minor Hollywood product but at the same time, it brings solid insight because it actually tells something and it is honest. So I had a hard time throughout the film, convincing myself a young musician playing in the streets and bars is able to live in New York, even though where he actually lives could probably be the size of my bedroom.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Under the Skin


Under the Skin both made me feel numb, as I barely made it, barely touched my conscious surface, as at the same time, it made for an interesting experience. It is not a common film, and it seems, especially in the first half, or probably throughout the majority of the film, that nothing really happens. A woman takes an odd alien transformation, and then travels around Glasgow streets meeting random men and taking them out…of space. Why go over that number of subjects, as in humans, when we already know the outcome, we already know what’s happening? Or maybe we don’t really know what happens, we only know what the woman will do. The thing is, that’s probably the point, and the point has to be to show this number of different ordinary people that come towards this young woman, for a number of indifferent reasons. And how this pleasantly and warm and good looking woman can be someone and something completely harmful, just utterly unpredictable and capable of anything. Human or non human, the truth is such outcome rings real for us in here on earth on every given situation. It is an unusual experience and sometimes hard to go through, like the scene where you have a young couple with a baby on a beach, where we can see the man gradually drowning, the woman being taken by these unknown people and the baby staying alone in this cold windy beach crying his lungs out. It challenges you.


The film is consistently composed, to the detail and it’s beautiful. And I would think it is not necessarily bad to stare at Scarlett Johansson and pretty and often blank canvas for what it seems to be infinite hours…until you come to the conclusion that basically life is fucked up for humans as it is, imagine for aliens…
It is surely a unique piece of filmmaking and storytelling, but this film is definitely a solo show for Johansson.

Monday, November 24, 2014

The Way He Looks


Brazillian coming of age tale, where teenagers will be teenagers, classic on the edges, 
with a queer touch that elevates it to something braver and cheerful.

Interstellar


All I know is that things happen for a reason. But do they really? I don’t have a clue actually. As I don’t have a clue of the world’s possibilities, though I might have an idea they are quite vast. But don’t come talking about time travel…I’m kidding! When I say things happen for a reason then time travel probably fits in this sentence.
I’m not a space science engineer kind of person. Needless to say, I’m not a science fiction kind of person. My current science fiction fandom stretches as far as Orphan Black, I don’t know if you heard about this little Canadian show about a clones’ conspiracy.

I think with Interstellar, the Nolans’ go beyond the science…if I could say such a thing. Or better, he makes for a pleasantly admirable attempt at connecting science and human emotion and reason, and future and choices into one story with minimal identity and identification. First of all, Interstellar gives you plenty to chew on. Even if you don’t have a clue about space and what the hell means warmwhole and gravity, even if the few dimensions you know are the psychological, physical and emotional. It makes you ponder on a few perhaps basic human conditions on earth. Like our future, but first of present. And this is where Christopher Nolan comes in and makes a difference, especially when the previous version, the Spielberg one, included aliens and other different story driven ideas.


I remember when I was a kid, in a science class, ask the teacher how does the earth is round and we’re able to stand in two feet. I remember her uncomfortably replying something short and leave the question for some other time or something. Gravity must have been some of the words used. I’m actually remembering those classes when we were learning the solar system and all that wasted time. I’m a believer I never really learned much in school or maybe because I was never a good student. Anyway, even if you’re maybe one of my failing cases, I believe there are a few things you can spend some time meditating on. I give credit to the older brother Nolan for transforming this story to a whole new meaning and props to these actors for making it feel real. However how much the soundtrack sucks!


Now I’m going to deviate from the subject matter a little bit. Believe it or not, I was having parallel thoughts as I was watching Matthew McConaughey Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain trying to save the human race. Talking from a European point of view, I need to remember you folks out there that it has to be a little awkward for us to watch a film where the American Citizen is the ultimate hero, the pretty much only source of human kind able to save the world. It’s interesting how I don’t read anything about this. They mention the Russians, it’s interesting how they didn’t brought Russians to space or encountered Russians in Space or even Chinese, as we all know how China is becoming and will certainly be the world’s biggest…deal breaker. Anyhow, if it wasn’t for the mention of Russians and the suggestion that the moon travel was fiction and propaganda made by the US, you could almost believe that there were only Americans living on Planet Earth. Think about it. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

May the best woman win!

Hi, folks!
Interesting prospects are happening 'over at the' Oscar Season (Awards Season, you call it).


"May the best woman win!" - Sasha Stone from Awards Daily wrote this article where she ponders the Angelina Jolie case, and her film Unbroken. It is a really peculiar situation to ponder upon. And one that will need a lot of help and conscious analysis from wonderful femininsts like Sasha Stone, which I believe is really one of the women's saviours of Hollywood town. God, if she is needed.
In this article titled "A Movie Star Crashes the Best Director Race", she writes about the current situation where a great part of the Oscar pundits are choosing Unbroken to be the Best Film of the Year, when no one actually saw it. The film premiered in Sydney, a couple of days ago, but no one is allowed to talk about it until the first day of December. The word of mouth from the premier in Sydney is that it was 'warmly' received. As Sasha Stone been remembering us throughout the season, is that it is really hard to live up to these kind of expectations, where the film needs to be almost perfect to live and not immediately drown.

Here is the Variety article.

Ava DuVernau on the set of her film Selma.

The other woman from this season is the inspiring Ava DuVernay.
Over at Indiewire, two articles just came out about her. Peter Knegt, covering awards season, writes about the history that can be made with the nomination of Ava DuVernay for Best Director. The nomination alone. Similar to what I wrote two posts ago, he lays out the 'correct' Oscar data and analysis of Ava DuVernay's possible history. If Sasha Stone is a saviour, then Melissa Silverstein, over at the Indiewire's Women and Hollywood, is the ultimate, relentless warrior. I'm a huge admirer. She also released an article today writing about Ava DuVernay. Melissa also writes about Oscar history and statistics, but she reminds us that the beauty  of what's happening to Ava DuVernay is that it is on a big scale, the Oscar scale, the world wide, everyone watches Oscars - scale.

Here's an interesting trivia from Selma she wrote-
And speaking of writing, the credits on Selma will say a man named Paul Webb wrote the film. He wrote the first draft. He wrote a movie that was more of a tete-a-tete between King and President Lyndon Johnson. He wrote about two guys. In the film business, it is usual for other writers to take passes and do polishes on scripts. Because of rules (some ridiculous and plainly unjust) and contracts, there are lots of instances where people whose words we hear onscreen don't get the credit. That is the case with Selma. While Paul Webb might get the credit for this film, he did not write what we are seeing up there. He knows it. The studio knows it. The producers know it. Everyone knows it. He could have given Ava a co-writing credit (which she was promised), but he has at all turns not been interested in acknowledging that this is a joint piece of work. Shameful.
So let's go over it again, because it really is an amazing history:

11 Films in 86 years, directed by women, were nominated for Best Picture.

In 86 years (423 nominations, 'chances'), only four women got nominations for Best Director, including the win for Katherine Bigelow. All of them were white.

The first woman ever to be nominated for Best Director was only in the seventies, 1977, for an Italian woman with a Foreign film, she was called Lina Wertmuller. Then more than a decade later, an Australian, Jane Campion for her film The Piano. This was 1993. Than ten years later, came young American woman, in the Twentieth First Century, the first American woman is nominated for Best Director. In 2009, the historic year when Katherine Bigelow won for her film The Hurt Locker.

Again, of these 423 chances, only FOUR WHITE WOMEN were nominated for Best Director, and now THREE BLACK MEN were nominated for Best Director. I don't even know which one is more shocking. The first Black Man ever to get nominated for Best Director was only in the nineties, 1991. As Peter Knegt writes, Woody Allen alone was nominated for as many times as the women and black men put together.

Well, it isn't that different with the other branches. No woman was ever nominated for Best Cinematography. The writers brunch must be pretty mediocre as well. Gillian Flynn is pretty much going solo this year.
Gillian Flynn makes history in the adapted screenplay race as she stands to become the first female nominee to ever adapt her own novel. 
It is the deadliest fact - America is a staggering racist country. And the way they 'treat' women has been downgrading, just getting worst to a ridiculous point. You can see that just by looking at the History of the American Cinema, with the statistics on Box Office, etc, etc, etc. Because again, it goes the same with the Black, Hispanic, Gay, all the minorities.

Think of the way many men and women have talked about David Fincher's Gone Girl. I'm in no way mentioning the people who didn't enjoyed the film on its own terms.

Let’s talk about Gone Girl. Some people felt really disappointed because they weren’t able to fully enjoy the film because of their high standards on David Fincher. I think it is a solid storytelling, pretty solid on pretty much everything. It’s a pity one isn’t able to enjoy the film as much as one wants because of such perspective. I don’t think they have to worry about disappointing their friends because the film is pure entertainment (also masterful). Talking from the American Cinema history, it is a relevant film. To me, it was pure entertainment. Who cares if it is one of the best films of the past decade or so? I don’t think saying Gone Girl isn’t a brilliant masterpiece or that it isn’t David Fincher best film is an excuse to downgrade Gone Girl. The film is really good. It isn’t much of an argument. It’s a pity people don’t enjoy this film because of these reasons, but these are somehow the least offensive. Some other excuses get to do with the story content, meaning, the feminism. This one is pretty ridiculous. To say the film, I mean the story, the one adapted from the novel, is anti-feminism because it portrays a negative portrait of a woman is plain wrong.  This is where Sasha Stone comes in and is the Women's saviour. We all know, what this is a representation of a human being. Period. Forget gender sweethearts. I think we all know that representing an unsettling woman doesn’t mean women are all unsettling. We shouldn’t even be discussing such argument. It’s just so archaic. But anyway, one has to make sure to emphasize on the obvious. “I wish I could stoop to the womanly art of communication.” This sentence was written by a woman, from a men’s perspective, private thought, and one I utterly relate to, being a female myself. As I relate so often with Nick.
Sasha Stone brilliantly summs up in this article of hers, I think, the Gone Girl and the woman 'issue'. It's a great read.


Finally, in addition to this current theme, once again, Sasha just released an article titled "Women Take in This Year's Oscar Race' where not only she mentions these women and other Film statistics, but she also mentions other sections, like Documentary. Click here
Sasha Stone about Ava:
But hey, no pressure. It’s only a black woman who made a career change over the age of 40, started her own releasing company to bring more black ticket-buyers to the arthouse, whose indie career has been ticking along steadily, who won Best Director at Sundance in 2012 but was overlooked in the original screenplay category. This auteur steps into the Oscar race and the film industry as an original – there has never been anyone like Ava DuVernay. That makes it quite possible she has the ability to change the Oscar race as we’ve known it for a while.

So this is where we stand, dear men and women from this century, about Film History and Oscar History and American Film History. Isn't it a cool interesting history? Some same is pathetic, some say ridiculous, I wouls say it is a tragic comedy. Have a good rest of the week.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

KK


Keira ten years ago.
My dad actually texted me. He said, “apparently you’re having a renaissance at 29!” Fantastic! I mean, yeah, sure, I’ll take it. I didn’t realize I’d gone away, though. I didn’t realize I needed a renaissance. Fuck! Nobody told me.


Keira Knightley, my love, loved you then, love you now, love you always. It's a pleasure, always a pleasure to see you in anything, acting, being in the screen, it is worth every second.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Hopes


America (as in US), do you want a Hero? As you love Heros so much - give an (the) Oscar to this woman called Ava DuVernay. In this case, it is a Heroine, crucial difference, obviously.

Clearly, it will already be a huge deal (and in itself a huge film) IF she gets that Oscar nomination for Best Director for her film Selma. Let alone win the award. A woman, a black woman, between directors - as in a men's world for decades and decades. To remember that only three women were nominated for Best Director, I think, and only one won...over quite the unsettlling controversy, and the fact that they pretty much wanted to get away with the "give it to her so that the Women's barrier is broken". Because the women's state stayed the same.

Sometimes I get amazed how broken the country of United States of America is. So full of unsettling battles for equality, deep ignorance from gender to health to human rights, abuse of power, abuse of money, unrationally and hateful appropriation of the American people, when all at the same time it ends up being this fascinating country so rich in unlikely possiblities. So, as you might accept, dichotomies, or you know, binary approches aren't that healthy, the black and white is a tricky situation to be in.

For me, Ava DuVernay already is a Heroine. She's the example of a wonderful inspiring role model, she's a forward thinking woman, and it is the kind of example that even if she wasn't outspoken, her actions are everything. The right kind of 'show it, don't tell.'
Not only she tells, she shows it with great effect.
So there you go.


It is a beautiful inspiring trailer, it looks so good.
And now premiering at AFI Fest with a wonderful reception, the hopes are high.

Read Sasha Stone's essay here.
Shadow and Act reviews here.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Writers Roundtable


I look at the release of this Writers Roundtable as unexpected, because I don’t even realize that it is November, and in no time Awards and nominations and critics choices will begin hitting the season hard. I know it already started but this year, I come in a different state. I still follow the season, but not as thoroughly as I used to over the past few years and so when I suddenly see these Oscar Roundtables I’m hit with the season’s choices…But the truth is that some things never change, and in this case, another solo woman between dudes.


Gillian owning it between the dudes.

I find this Roundtable a little bit uninspiring, personally, because they start to ramble a little too much about insecurities, and being in the business, the Hollywood business, and maybe a little too much men’s egos and insecurities involved and at the same time I can understand the truth and honest in it and I get that politics and money issues and how hard it is to make a film wherever you are in the world, but also I’m not really into the Nolan’s insights about “Oh, I didn’t choose to be a writer’ blahblahblah, I’m a Nolan, I’m a white dude so I do whatever the fuck I want…and I can hear Gillian not giving a fuck about what these guys are saying sometimes…


“It’s paralyzingly difficult. It’s one of the things, you know, there are writers who like writing and there are writers who don’t, I fucking hate writing but I haven’t came up with anything else to do for a living.” – This is the uninspiring part of Nolan talking but then this is good – “I find it difficult because I’m always aware when it is not good and most of it is not good and then you keep working and you keep working, you know, your work day is six hours, everyone’s process is a little different but you know five and half of it is garbage and you have to go back and do it all over again…”


I liked the part about a film not being perfect and the unhappy endings.

"I love unhappy endings. I’m all about the unhappy ending, like I will not give you what you want. It's not the most satisfying, it's the most correct and true. I remember being 5 years old, seeing that movie in theaters and first they lose, and you think, 'What's happening now? They lost.' And then the team comes over and apologizes, and you expect the Bad News Bears to gracefully accept their apology, and instead the kid's like, 'Take your trophy and stick it up your ass!' And I was like, 'This movie is great!'”.

There’s always things you can take from these roundtables, even though they’re not ‘inspiring’.

KK, the Feminist

Always. Keira Knightley, the all around down to earth awesome conscious and unpretentious that just won't take any bullshit Keira Kngithely. As she always was.


"I've had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it's paparazzi photographers or for film posters…That [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: 'OK, I'm fine doing the topless shot so long as you don't make them any bigger or retouch. Because it does feel important to say it really doesn't matter what shape you are. I think women's bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame. Our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape."


Also, she took her best friend Emily to prom, and the director  or professor didn't liked it.
“We both turned up an hour late, and I’d been filming Bend It Like Beckham, and I turned up in leather pants and a crop top, and she was a model for a while, and she’d been in Paris shooting something, and she turned up as the boy, so she had a black tie with ripped jeans on, and everybody else was completely dressed up, obviously, in that kind of finery, and then we had our picture taken underneath the thing, and she’s kissing me, and we were told that that was disgusting.
“And one of the teachers took us both aside and said we were never going to come to anything if we didn’t know how to dress appropriately for events like that. So that was my prom. We had a great time!”