Cinematic Concerns

What I think about the current year's Academy Awards.

There are two parts to this.

(A) Oh well, these things are subjective, what's past is past. Should just let it go and get on with my life.

(B) What kind of freaking nonsense is this?! This is what I think should have happened!

Best Motion Picture
THE DEPARTED
Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen
----------
Should have won: CHILDREN OF MEN


Best Actor In A Leading Role
FOREST WHITAKER
Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Peter O'Toole, Will Smith
----------
He deserved it.


Best Actress In A Leading Role
HELEN MIRREN
Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet
----------
She utterly deserves it.


Best Actor In A Supporting Role
ALAN ARKIN
Jackie Earle Haley, Djimon Hounsou, Eddie Murphy, Mark Wahlberg
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Should have won: JACKIE EARLE HALEY


Best Actress In A Supporting Role
JENNIFER HUDSON
Adriana Barraza, Cate Blanchett, Abigail Breslin, Rinko Kikuchi
----------
Should have won: ADRIANA BARRAZA


Best Director
MARTIN SCORSESE
Clint Eastwood, Stephen Frears, Paul Greengrass, Alejandro González Iñárritu
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Should have won: PAUL GREENGRASS/ALFONSO CUARON


Best Screenplay, Written Directly For The Screen
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen
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Should have won: THE QUEEN


Best Screenplay, Based On Material Previously Produced Or Published
THE DEPARTED
Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan, Children Of Men, Little Children, Notes On A Scandal
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Should have won: NOTES ON A SCANDAL


Best Cinematography
PAN'S LABYRINTH
The Black Dahlia, Children Of Men, The Illusionist, The Prestige
----------
Should have won: CHILDREN OF MEN


Best Editing
THE DEPARTED
Babel, Blood Diamond, Children Of Men, United 93
----------
Should have won: THE QUEEN


Best Art Direction
PAN'S LABYRINTH
Dreamgirls, The Good Shepherd, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Prestige
----------
Should have won: CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER


Best Costume Design
MARIE ANTOINETTE
Curse Of The Golden Flower, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, The Queen
----------
One of the most fairly nominated categories among the list. Milena Canonero deserves it.


Best Original Score
BABEL
The Good German, Notes On A Scandal, Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen
----------
Should have won: HAPPY FEET.
I have a score to settle with this one, because I'm most passionate about this category. This is the worst nominated list in years in an always-badly-nominated category, with perhaps The Queen being the only one classy enough to be there. Where's The Da Vinci Code? Letters From Iwo Jima?


Best Original Song
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Dreamgirls, Dreamgirls, Dreamgirls, Cars
----------
No opinion.


Best Make-up
PAN'S LABYRINTH
Apocalypto, Click
----------
Should have won: APOCALYPTO/PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST


Best Sound Mixing
DREAMGIRLS
Apocalypto, Blood Diamond, Flags Of Our Fathers, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
----------
Should have won: HAPPY FEET


Best Sound Editing
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
Apocalypto, Blood Diamond, Flags Of Our Fathers, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
----------
Should have won: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST


Best Visual Effects
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
Poseidon, Superman Returns
----------
Deserving award. Not an exceptionally progressive year for visual effects, however.


Best Animated Feature Film
HAPPY FEET
Cars, Monster House
----------
YES! YES! YES! My favourite film of 2006!


Best Foreign Language Film
DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN/THE LIVES OF OTHERS
Efter Brylluppet/After The Wedding, Indigènes/Days Of Glory, El Laberinto Del Fauno/Pan's Labyrinth, Water
----------
No strong opinion other than that Pan's Labyrinth not winning it was a great moment.


Best Documentary, Features
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Deliver Us From Evil, Iraq In Fragments, Jesus Camp, My Country, My Country
----------
No strong opinions. An Inconvenient Truth won because of popularity.


Best Documentary, Short Subject
THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
Recycled Life, Rehearsing A Dream, Two Hands: The Leon Fleisher Story
----------
No opinion. Not familiar with the category.


Best Short Film, Animated
THE DANISH POET
Lifted, The Little Matchgirl, Maestro, No Time For Nuts
----------
Should have won: MAESTRO


Best Short Film, Live Action
WEST BANK STORY
Binta Y La Gran Idea/Binta And The Great Idea, Éramos Pocos/One Too Many, Helmer & Søn, The Saviour
----------
The clear favourite, deserving win. A great encouragement for film students (err, with money to spare) everywhere. The moral of the story is: make a good, effective comedy if you want to win in this category.

I have a major zit on my face.

I'm going to meet famous people and there's a visible zit on my face.

So I dress up in a suit, without a tie - the best thing I have, and went off to take a bus to the Beverly Hills Hotel, where they are having the function Night Of 100 Stars, where much more than 100 stars (obsolete, uninvited ones) turn up to watch the Oscars together. I arrived at around 3.15 pm, looked for the other people in our group ...

... and standing there is Mark Johnson. Whom I saw giving an interview yesterday to the directors of the foreign language film nominees. Now, in case you don't know, he was producer of such films as The Chronicles Of Narnia. No one else approached him. So I did, went up to him, introduced myself, talked a little, gave him my card. I wished I had time to tell him that I absolutely loved The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe - even though I still can't explain why.

So we got this small little room where we get to watch the Oscars on a TV. Before it started we got a couple of guests - one an actor from the TV show Dallas, the second one being Richard Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss was kind enough to talk to us at length, but then someone throws him a question about religion and spiritualism which spun the conversation away from films for the rest of it, and Dreyfuss came up with a pretty good quote that I jotted down, "Reputation is what the world sees in a person; character is what God sees in a person."

Then I went off to the lobby, and here's Lou Diamond Phillips walking by, there's David Carradine from Kill Bill, and Jon Voight standing there taking pictures. All expected in such a time and place, of course.

Then we started watching the Oscars. I'll blog all about it in another post, but I'll just say that it was mostly disappointing, but a couple of good surprises. The night was ruined, though, by a quarrel that broke out over the bill. All I had was this strange dish called steak tartare, and a glass of water, and there are a little over a dozen ppl in the room - and somehow the bill came up to about $1200. It became more and more heated, but eventually people forked out much more than they expect to pay (we couldn't really figure out how come the bill ended up so high, even when taking into account the room rent) ... I paid $75, which was painful, as I know I will not be able to be frugal enough to compensate for that. It spoiled the night.

So I thought back to the past few Oscar nights. For last year I had to go all the way down to London to a friend of a friend's place to watch the Oscar. The year when Chris Rock hosted I ... didn't get to watch it. One year in Concord I borrowed a portable TV from a friend but the battery was running out and the image was fuzzy, but I tried to watch anyway, and I remember seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones winning it for Chicago, and then at some point I got a terrible leg cramp, and then the battery gave out, and then I fell onto the ground, my leg completely painful and unusable for a moment, and I crawled towards the door in an attempt to go to my neighbour to wake him up for batteries ... and stopped at the door and gave up. This doesn't bode well for future Oscar endeavours.

Anyway, when the Oscars were done we waited in the lobby for a while and got to talk to the likes of Jon Voight who was real nice and talked about how he prefers to do movies with an uplifting message, Frances Fisher who played the mother of Rose in Titanic, who was telling us about this new reading she'll be doing, and Lou Diamond Phillips who could only give us a few minutes, and Barry Shabaka Henley who was the trumpet guy in Collateral talking about Miles Davis who gets killed by Tom Cruise.

After that, I said goodbye to the group, and took the bus home.

Maybe the next time I will be closer to the Kodak Theatre - zero displacement, hopefully.

The thing about writing a story is, sometimes, when I'm clear about an idea, an idea of something I want the audience to feel, I know exactly what that emotion is, but I don't know how to actually achieve it. I mean, say I want to SLAP THE FUCKING AUDIENCE ACROSS THEIR STUPID FACE INSIDE OF WHICH ENCLOSES AN IDIOTIC BRAIN. How do I do that? What, write a story around it? Call it the subtext and pretentiously try and bury it in layers? How? Think about it?

This isn't unique to scriptwriting, of course. Engineers have the same problem. Some architect comes up with a unique-shaped building and the engineer needs to figure out how to make sure the building needs to be built so it doesn't topple over.

It is the most difficult part about life, isn't it? To be creative?

The day started off with us going to the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) to see the Foreign Language Film Symposium, where the directors of the nominated foreign language films were there to do a Q&A. Mark Johnson (producer of the Narnia films, among other distinguished credits), who holds the position as the chair of the Foreign Language Film Committee, hosted the event. We see short clips from the movies - Indigènes (Days Of Glory), After The Wedding, El Laberinto Del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives Of Others), and Water. The director for the French-Algerian film couldn't turn up (held back by the Cesar Awards, as Mr. Johnson puts it), but Susanne Bier, Guillermo Del Toro (who's omnipresent these days), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (love that long name) and Deepa Mehta all turned up, and clearly all are warmed up to each other, apparently spending their first moments telling each other their films should win. (Wish I could do that some day ...)

The Q&A was held in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater - which is grand and well built and large and beautiful and comfortable, the sort of place one would love to open one's movies in. There were security checkpoints - which caused a fuss coz I bring my penknife with me in my bag. Anyway, it was a full audience and people had to be turned away, or so I'm told. I read the booklet and found out that Herr von Donnersmarck studied PPE in Oxford - now I wished I had a chance to meet him, because so many people have lifted their eyebrows when I told them I studied Economics and now here is an example of an Econs grad who made it big in the world of film. And in his first feature attempt too.

According to Mr. Johnson, this was a very strong year and the committee struggled at the last 15 films they had to cut down, which he described as being "emotionally accessible, politically charged with explosive issues", etc. Ultimately the general committee boiled it down to 9, then the Academy nominates the final 5.

This is what is said during the Q&A. For von Donnersmarck, he said that he had his dream team in mind, went after them, and was surprised that all of them agreed to do the film (based on strong material, I guess). Still it took him 6 years to put it all together. He also said that perhaps one should not be modest when being a film director. Bier had a couple of good quotes: "a movie [cinema] is a description of a sensual space"; sometimes "extreme close-ups become wide shots, like landscapes", which is why she likes it a lot, and in fact we saw it used prominently in the clip they showed us of After The Wedding; and that one "cannot think a movie into being".

Del Toro was loud as ever, but it made him extremely popular as well as offputting to others. Can't remember the stuff he said now but he is good with one-liners, and very playful. As for Mehta, she reminded me of Yasmin Ahmad, with the gruffy but wise-sounding voice and the tendency to put on a 'what can you do?' tone, like nothing fazes her. Also the fact that the movie took her twice to make, because the subject matter, seen as controversial to the extremist Hindus of Varanasi, caused protests that shut down her first effort years ago. She describes it as painful because it's "like your parents telling you you're no good". It's interesting the parallels to our filmmaking industry in Malaysia.

At the end, Mr. Johnson invited the committee to stand up - and what an interesting observation: they're almost all above the age of 50.

Anyway, at the end of it we left for Santa Monica, to the Hotel Casa Del Mar, where the Independent Spirit Awards were happening right next door (Little Miss Sunshine picked up Best Film this time). We had three speakers, Matthew Rhodes (producer of such films as Southland Tales and An Unfinished Life, and was once the assistant of the likes of Scott Rudin), Mark Castaldo (producer) and Patrick Horton (a screenwriting consultant). We spent many hours there and I jotted down notes, but forgot to attribute who said what, but here goes.

Film is a collaborative process - and for writers that means that the result probably won't end up like you thought, since writers are the first phase of the process. Writers must understand that.

This is repeated often: building a career is about getting movies made.

Also, know that some producers, if they like a script a lot but want some changes, won't specify their criticisms until the deal is done - then the barrage of script notes begin.

And it is important for producers to hear a writer say that "I'm going to do whatever it takes to get the movie made".

Why do commercial scripts? For visibility. Simple as that.

Rhodes observes that no one in this business really does their homework. He proceeds to barrage us with questions like how many majors are there, how many producers, what divisions are there in majors, etc, Pete Abrahams-style.

Throughout the process of writing, do table reads and show treatments to people, over and over again.

Rhodes mentioned that when he first started he went through the list of all the names within the Hollywood Creative Directory and called up the companies, one by one. He also encouraged us to visit film markets, and he said that he'd spend time going through the list of film financiers.

Also, don't ever say "I'm trying to make this work" - that will sound, to the person you're talking to, like your script's not ready. If you, the writer, don't connect with the material emotionally, then the game's up.

Later, Horton gave us more advice about writing. It is important to know, and to let the audience know, what transformations that the protagonist could potentially go through (to make them better). In Leaving Las Vegas, where the character never achieves his transformation, never achieves change, it is still a good story because the audience is aware of what could be, but that the character never achieves it makes it a tragedy.

He says writers' block or writers' blank is rare - it usually means that one is reaching for something, some emotion or experience that doesn't exist within oneself, like moulding when there isn't clay, or grabbing at air.

Find the spine - what's going on? what's the need? what's the shift? If the writer doesn't know what's going on in the scene, then writing becomes very difficult, because then one has to start dealing with it mechanically (fixing structure, infusing conflict, modifying character, etc).

Later, Gary managed to snag Lily Tomlin who's just walking past. Ms. Tomlin is real nice and friendly and warm - she spent about 15 mins talking to us, about Robert Altman whose memorial she just attended, and the speech she did about one year ago with Meryl Streep (it was kept loose so they sorta improvised it) when Altman received his Honorary Oscar. She mentioned that Altman once said, "you write the script so they know who they are". Altman isn't bothered if something else happens - accidents are welcome. She said that she was worried that she couldn't sing; Altman told her that, in that case, she's a bad singer in the story, make it work. (Honestly, I like that style - whatever happens, happens.) Also, Altman prefers very few takes - this I like too. When she left, she shook hands with everyone.

Later, we went to an Indian restaurant next to the WGA, where we had two more guests. One is Bo Zenga, who is producer of such films as Turistas, Soul Plane and the first Scary Movie. He said that writing is the most merit-based part of the business. (He also said he will not take scripts from first-time screenwriters.) Bad scripts don't sell. Average scripts don't sell. Even good scripts don't sell. Only great ones do. As for defining high concept, he says, the higher the concept, then the easier it is for other people to understand it and the less likely they are to screw up when helping you sell the idea. Pitching a script means saying whatever is necessary to get someone to read the script; selling a pitch is when there isn't actually a script yet. And producers DO judge a book by the cover.

He also said that there is one effective way to guarantee producers will read your script. He says, you must say this: read the first 10 pages of the script, and if you don't like it, I want you to throw the script out, and go through the Rolodex and call up every producer you know and tell them that I am a big fucking moron and never read anything I write ever again. Tough words - but the point being, you must believe in your script enough to say that.

Another valuable nugget - scriptwriting is about setups and payoffs.

A good producer who really believes in a project will suffer as many times as required being run to the ground, but will always get up, dust himself off, and push forward.

Another guest we had is Al Watt, who writes and teaches about writing. He spoke to us for over two hours but I was knackered and didn't manage to jot down notes. By the time we were done, it was 10 pm.

I was glad to go back to sleep - the Oscars are tomorrow.

The following are the nominated short films, which I saw at the Steven Spielberg Theatre at the American Cinematheque, Egyptian Theatre. Despite the name it's a really small screen, a really compact theatre.

Best Short Film, Live Action Category

Binta & The Great Idea - Spain/Senegal (in French)

This one tells of two unrelated stories weaved in and out of each other for some reason - one, about a letter written by Binta for her father in order to explain to authorities her father's great idea, which audiences await with (dissipated) attention; the other, about Binta's cousin, Soda, who was forbidden by her father to go to school, and how the local kids help her out.

This one I didn't like so much. I did find it amusing that for the latter story, they cut in and out between the real events and the sketch version of it, at one point with the sketch director cutting in to give directions. A bit too slow for me though.


Eramos Pocos/One Too Many - Spain

When his wife leaves him out of the blue, Joaquin and his son Fernando go to the old folks home to bring Joaquin's mother-in-law home ... so that she can clean the house and take care of them instead. This, the mother-in-law does with glee.

This one was alright. The punchline was very, very effective - and surprising as well.


Helmer & Son - Denmark

A son is called to the rest home, where his father has recently been admitted, in order to coax his father out of the closet (literally).

Two layers of stories on a single one - one, at the emotional level about father and son and acceptance and all that stuff, which was alright but I didn't care too much about; the other, the more literal level about trying to get the father to come out, which was satisfying due to the surprising but completely believable (and sweet) punchline.


The Saviour - Australia

Malcolm, a door-to-door Mormon is having sex with a married woman, but then the woman starts rejecting him (as well as refusing to be converted). Malcolm confronts her husband, and an uncomfortable meeting ensues.

It was alright. Stuff like these means that many of us are capable of producing Academy Awards nominated shorts, as long as a story is well-written and well-executed.


West Bank Story - United States

A musical comedy between the warring factions of (who else?) the Palestinians and the Israelis, who respectively own two restaurants next to each other at the border, the Hummus Hut and the Kosher King. David and Fatima fall in love and go through a series of romantic parodies (mostly from West Side Story and Romeo And Juliet). Tension escalates (to the stomach-achingly laughs of the audience) when the Israelis sing Build The Wall (and build the wall) while the Palestinians crow 'Jews and construction? That's the funniest thing I've ever heard!' and try to Break It Down. In the end, both sides learn what is more important than their animosity - their customers; while Fatima learns from David a place where Muslims and Jews can live together happily - ******* *****.

This one will and should win the Academy Awards, hands down. Its many laughs a minute makes it simply superior to the rest, and indicates that the best way to win a Live Action Short category is to make a darn good, effective comedy (and, like in this case, if it is socially relevant, more points for you). Last year's winner, Six Shooter, was a comedy as well, albeit a dark one.


Best Short Film, Animation Category

The Danish Poet - Norway/Canada

It starts off with an illustration accompanying the narration about where we come from - DNA, sperm and egg, babies, that sort of thing - and proceeds to tell the story of where the narrator came from, which is not a story of science but a story of life. Which apparently begins with Kaspar, a Danish poet becoming depressed due to writer's block and deciding to go to Norway to visit a famous writer, Sigrid Undset. He detours instead and falls in love with a girl along the way. And this is just the beginning of the story.

Heartwarming and sweet. Uses simple and rough animation but it does the trick. My second choice to win the Oscar.


Lifted - United States (Pixar)

A man is being abducted by aliens - turns out the abductor is a probational abduction trainee who completely fumbles his test under the bored and unamused eyes of his instructor.

Funny, great comedic timing - just like every other Pixar short. Some good laughs.


The Little Matchgirl - United States

Based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, the story of a little matchgirl in the streets of Moscow (or St Petersburg, one of those) who is unable to sell her matchsticks and has to brave the wintry night.

Very classical. Not bad, but didn't grab me too much - was waiting for it to be done so I can watch the next one.


Maestro - Hungary

Maestro the bird sits in front of a dressing room mirror, and carefully prepares for his grand show.

This should win the Oscar! It has a great sense of style - the camera whips staccato-like around the singer- bird (one jerky move at a time), and the music plays along in like manner to evoke a sense of anticipation as an adept mechanical hand grooms the bird for its show. Then it comes time for the bird to perform - and what a surprise, what a punchline, the best one of the night. I love it!


No Time For Nuts - United States (20th Century Fox Animation)

Scrat uncovers a frozen time machine while trying to bury a nut during the Ice Age. Scrat travels about through time, each time almost losing his nut, until he arrives at some time with a tree full of nuts. So he destroys the time machine, only to discover ...

We're getting a little tired of Scrat, to be honest. The punchline in the end made it worthwhile to an extent.

So the morning started with me going to the Cyber Java Cafe at Hollywood Blvd to meet up with the other people in the programme. Among them a part-time writer who arrived from London, another from Toronto, another from Rome, and the rest from around here I guess. We didn't so much except chit-chat, getting to know each other - which was the whole point.

By noon we're in the California Pizza Kitchen, which is just below the Sunset Laemmle 5 theatre (where I caught the preview screening of Curse Of The Golden Flower a few months back), where we had a few sessions with various producers. While entering the restaurant I thought I saw Michael Rosenbaum - and turns out it is him. So Gary* asked him over to talk to us for a while and he did.

* (Gary Shusett is the director of the program. His brother, Ron Shusett, wrote the screenplays to such films as Total Recall and Minority Report.)

Michael Rosenbaum, of course, is the actor who plays Lex Luthor in Smallville, and was utterly friendly. He says he prefers comedy really, and it shows, coz there's nothing of Lex about him - the fellow kept on cracking jokes. But at the same time he also talks about how he had just had his first try directing a Smallville episode, and how he sold a script based on his childhood and how that happened. That was fun. It's also interesting to know that he shaves his head only when necessary - when he has to shoot the show. He is almost always in Vancouver, however ... sigh, thought he be the sporting type and would be willing to act in the shorts that me or my coursemates might do in the future.

The first producer was Alex Rose. She (and all the other producers) mentioned that development from script to screen lasts a minimum of 5 years - often up to 12. Hence, one must only do projects one is passionate about, becoz that passion is necessary to last that many yrs of torture. She also says that sometimes writers don't dig deeply enough, or self-edit, or listened to people who prefer to moderate down their writing. She mentioned an interesting anecdote - that Meryl Streep made a choice to mirror Clint Eastwood's acting style for her role in The Devil Wears Prada. Essentially that meant keeping her voice low, even though we usually associate bitchy characters with high pitch voices. That shows how smart she is as an actor. She also talks about how the person who has the power needs to have the vision (whether producer or director) to carry the project forward, and just as important, to communicate that vision to every cast and crew member so that everyone is sailing the ship in the same direction - else the voyage falls apart.

Martin Guigui had a funny Faye Dunaway anecdote, about how she woke him up one early morning to tell him that she's 'got it' and that they ought to start filming right away. Guigui says no, of course - hard to wake the entire crew up and get them there. So she says 'Damn you!' and proceeds to keep doing stuff to keep her mind off the performance. When the crew got to the set, she had already lined the cameras and set the lights and all, and was fussing for them to start shooting as soon as possible. And of course she did it in a take and everyone's happy. It's also worth pointing out that she's an attentive actor - being knowledgeable enough to set up lights and camera and all. (She's a director as well, of course.)

Anne Gillen mentioned that 99% of people who agree to fund your film project are either dreamers or schemers.

Ilyssa Goodman mentions that producers look for a feeling or a vision, or rather, want to be able to sense it from directors they interview about a project. She also says that it is important to be able to synopsise a story into a hook - that helps make it easier to sell a project.

Anne Quin-Harkin - now, I like her company's style. They have a particular preference, of course, but they prefer not to interfere with however a writer chooses to adapt a novel, or essentially how a writer makes choices about rewrites. The point is whether they think a writer has it in them, and whether they like them. She kept stressing for writers, don't worry about what other people want; work on making story structure work, above everything. It's obvious to her whether writers are passionate about their work or whether they're just wringing it. Pitches no longer work these days - because often there isn't a completed work yet and scripts are more important than pitches. When having discussion with others about one's script, build on other's suggestion and throw them back to them - that shows that you're listening to them. If the material doesn't resonate, doesn't stand on its own, needs a packaged director or actor to sweeten it - don't do that packaging stuff, but try and work on it more.

Devorah Cutler has an interesting analogy she got from a friend about the industry - that it's like a box where one walks round and round and can't their way in, and out of nowhere a window appears and one is hurled into it, and later when someone else walks past that spot the window is no longer there. That one shouldn't spend too long feeling disempowered. That Hollywood is like pharmaceutical companies. That people who are further along are just as scared as you are, so don't feel inferior. That great writing is about concealing. She also reminded me of The Secret, Law of Attraction, don't even include 'not' in one's thoughts but focus on what one wants.

After that we headed off the Samuel French bookshop for a while - I must go back there one day. And then we had dinner, and then we went to watch the nominated shorts.

I must have been through over a dozen, most of them given only 20 secs or so, and not once watching it in entirety. These are the ones that survived.

One Night With You - Comedy/Norway



Be warned: Contains MATURE content. Simple comedy, nicely done. Even managed to surprise me at the end with an overused comedic technique.


Not So Small Talk - Comedy/United States



Be warned: Contains slightly MATURE content ... though seriously teenagers can take it. Anyway, genuinely funny situation played for laughs American style.


Friday Night In - Comedy/United Kingdom



Simple comedy, well done, yet again.


Secret Talking - Comedy/United Kingdom



Was moderately funny - which is more than can be said for most which is why this made the list.

As most film pundits would tell you, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards are becoming more and more important now. The nice thing about them is that their nominations are always a little different from the Oscars (but compared to others, radically so), and as a result their awards are different as well, half the time anyway.

So here's what I think about it. (I wished I got to watch it - I liked how British the awards are conducted; dry British jokes instead of song and dance or slapstick gags.)

Best Film
The Queen
Babel
The Departed
The Last King of Scotland
Little Miss Sunshine

The BAFTAs always pick the underdog movie to win (with the exception of last year) - for example, one year it gave it to Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World. It can be said though, that if a movie wins the BAFTA Best Film, it has zero chance of winning the Oscar Best Picture. Still, I liked that The Queen was Best Film for a major award.


Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year
The Last King of Scotland
Casino Royale
Notes on a Scandal
The Queen
United 93

Any of those would have been good, so that's fair enough. The Last King Of Scotland is a harrowing film, indeed. Americans might be scratching their head at United 93 making this list.


Best Actor
Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland
Daniel Craig for Casino Royale
Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed
Richard Griffiths for The History Boys
Peter O'Toole for Venus

Expected.


Best Actress
Helen Mirren for The Queen
Penélope Cruz for Volver
Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal
Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet for Little Children

Expected.


Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
James McAvoy for The Last King of Scotland
Jack Nicholson for The Departed
Leslie Phillips for Venus
Michael Sheen for The Queen

Yes! Die Eddie Murphy! I would have liked James McAvoy or Michael Sheen to win though. Oh well, they're still young.


Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
Emily Blunt for The Devil Wears Prada
Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine
Toni Collette for Little Miss Sunshine
Frances de la Tour for The History Boys

Honestly, where is Adriana Barraza? I would have liked Emily Blunt to win though - would have been interesting.


David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction
Paul Greengrass for United 93
Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton for Little Miss Sunshine
Stephen Frears for The Queen
Alejandro González Iñárritu for Babel
Martin Scorsese for The Departed

Yes! Die Martin Scorsese! Hurrah for Paul Greengrass! But where is Alfonso Cuaron? Anyway, an award that makes sense.


Best Screenplay (Original)
Little Miss Sunshine: Michael Arndt
Babel: Guillermo Arriaga
Laberinto del Fauno, El: Guillermo del Toro
The Queen: Peter Morgan
United 93: Paul Greengrass

Well deserved. The guy did put in dozens of drafts/rewrites, and that's something.


Best Screenplay (Adapted)
The Last King of Scotland: Peter Morgan, Jeremy Brock
Casino Royale: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis
The Departed: William Monahan
The Devil Wears Prada: Aline Brosh McKenna
Notes on a Scandal: Patrick Marber

Yes! Die William Monahan! Though I confess I don't see why The Last King Of Scotland won it. Personally I'd rather have seen Notes On A Scandal get it.


Best Cinematography
Children of Men: Emmanuel Lubezki
Babel: Rodrigo Prieto
Casino Royale: Phil Meheux
Laberinto del Fauno, El: Guillermo Navarro
United 93: Barry Ackroyd

Shame on you, BAFTA, for not nominating more of Children Of Men. At least they got this one right.


Best Editing
United 93: Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson, Christopher Rouse
Babel: Stephen Mirrione, Douglas Crise
Casino Royale: Stuart Baird
The Departed: Thelma Schoonmaker
The Queen: Lucia Zucchetti

Interesting choice. I would have gone for The Queen, or Babel. I liked the way they cut away in mid-sentences in The Queen, and I thought Babel did a good job weaving those stories together, confusing the more idiotic among the audiences but leaving us more intellectual types intrigued.


Best Production Design
Children of Men: Simon Wakefield, Jim Clay, Jennifer Williams
Casino Royale: Peter Lamont, Simon Wakefield
Marie Antoinette: K.K. Barrett, Véronique Melery
Laberinto del Fauno, El: Eugenio Caballero, Pilar Revuelta
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: Rick Heinrichs, Cheryl Carasik

Well, I don't know that much about production design but my fellow Italian coursemate is over the moon over the production design in the film. I would have thought Pirates Of The Caribbean put more effort into theirs, and that Marie Antoinette was very sumptuous. Anything that makes the Faun lose is good though.


Best Costume Design
Laberinto del Fauno, El: Lala Huete
The Devil Wears Prada: Patricia Field
Marie Antoinette: Milena Canonero
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: Penny Rose
The Queen: Consolata Boyle

This blows. One reason why I didn't like that movie is because the monster suits look so rubbery and fake. Seriously, give it to The Devil Wears Prada, or even more appropriate - Marie Antoinette.


Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music
Babel: Gustavo Santaolalla
Casino Royale: David Arnold
Dreamgirls: Henry Krieger
Happy Feet: John Powell
The Queen: Alexandre Desplat

Fuck this shit! What kind of fucking nonsense is this? They hit the jackpot by nominating John Powell's score for Happy Feet, and then proceed to throw away their opportunity by giving it to the minimalist hack? I can't tell you how many times just listening to Mumble's heroic theme has sent me back to thinking about those very scenes. Assholes!


Best Make Up/Hair
Laberinto del Fauno, El
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Queen

I have nothing to say, except that if the idiots think the hair and make up is more impressive in that movie than in Pirates Of The Caribbean, or even Marie Antoinette, they can go to hell.


Best Sound
Casino Royale
Babel
Laberinto del Fauno, El
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
United 93

I can't remember which movie I was rooting for, but I guess among this list Casino Royale is a fair choice.


Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Casino Royale
Children of Men
Laberinto del Fauno, El
Superman Returns

They got the award right, alright. But that nomination for that film - are they fucking insane?


Best Film not in the English Language
Laberinto del Fauno, El
Apocalypto
Zwartboek
Rang De Basanti
Volver

Foregone conclusion. Tough. But I liked that the list is so dissimilar from the Oscar list.


Best Animated Feature Film
Happy Feet
Cars
Flushed Away

YES! YES! YES! Finally someone with brains recognises the brilliance of Happy Feet, the best animation feature since The Lion King!


Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer
Andrea Arnold for Red Road (director)
Julian Gilbey for Rollin' with the Nines (director)
Christine Langan for The Last Hangman (producer)
Gary Tarn for Black Sun (director)
Paul Andrew Williams for London to Brighton (director)


Orange Rising Star Award
Eva Green
Emily Blunt
Naomie Harris
Cillian Murphy
Ben Whishaw

Well, I voted for her after all. I have to say though, this is the first time I felt like the nominations were so fair and so good that I honestly didn't know which one was my favourite.
Eva Green - daring in The Dreamers, great in Kingdom Of Heaven, great in Arsene Lupin, and poignant in Casino Royale, definitely the best Bond girl in years.
Emily Blunt - never paid attention to her, coz I didn't watch Summer of Love, but she was definitely good in The Devil Wears Prada.
Naomie Harris - I will always remember how she screams for Cillian Murphy to wake up in 28 Days Later, and she was good in Pirates and everyone remembers her from there. Great with accents.
Cillian Murphy - his recognition is due, too bad he's up against Miss Green.
Ben Whishaw - wonderful, wonderful performance in Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer.


Best Short Animation
Guy 101
Dreams and Desires: Family Ties
Peter & the Wolf

Guy 101 can be watched online. I gave it 20 secs and then shut it off, 'nuff said.


Best Short Film
Do Not Erase
Care
Cubs
Hikikomori
Kissing, Ticking and Being Bored

From time to time, when I'm bored, I like to watch short films online. Good ones are not easy to find - it's one of those things, like prying open clams for pearls, or going for plays, where it's hit and miss. But when you find one that is good, you cherish it - and unlike plays, you can watch them again.

These are the better ones among those I looked at today - both happened to be made in Ireland.

MY NAME IS YU MING - Dramedy/Ireland



A young Chinese fellow takes up Gaelic in order to find a new life in Ireland - only to find that the people there don't necessarily speak Gaelic anymore. It's well made, and makes it point - a point that is of course relevant to Ireland, but might be relevant to China in the future - and certainly relevant to the young Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese of today. [13 mins]


CHICKEN - Drama/Ireland



Subtle. Plus, I liked Celtic accents - they're speaking English but we can only half understand them. [3 mins]

Went to watch Children Of Men again in a free screening, followed by the Q&A with Alfonso Cuaron (apparently a good friend of my directing tutor) and co-writer Timothy Sexton.

The last movie I saw at a cinema was more than a month ago, during New Years' Day. It was Children Of Men.

Just before the movie opens I was thinking, gosh, what am I doing here again. One always feels so when going in for a second viewing of a movie at the cinema (no problems if it had been at home using the laptop). By the time the movie ended I was reminded by the fact that I had forgotten what made me love the movie so. And I'd like to believe that I loved the movie for reasons different from others.

By the way, one extra thing I noticed - a newspaper headline saying that 'David And Victoria Beckham Celebrates Golden Anniversary'. Very cheeky - not that the Yanks will get it.

Cuaron didn't show up. Holed up in London due to flu running around the family - which the host of the Q&A used as a repeated joke, since in the movie Theo and Julian's son died in a flu pandemic.

Anyway, watching a movie like this always makes me feel helpless. Here, Cuaron found the perfect story, and fit it within the perfect story structure, and found the perfect ensemble cast (not all of them are famous actors, for one), and the perfect style and technique, and achieved perfect direction. The details, the fact that the script doesn't explain everything (yet, according to Sexton, great effort was made to explain every detail ... so that how much an individual audience gets depends on his/her intelligence level). They didn't mess up. I was jealous.

It's distracting from my writing my thesis script.

UPDATE: Try reading this article about Cuaron's philosophy on film.

Just watched The Greatest Game Ever Played, a film directed by the actor Bill Paxton. Like Mel Gibson he doesn't direct often, but whenever he does people pay some attention. Though this film didn't earn a huge amount of money and by and large remained below the radar, it is a very well-made film, the unique choices Paxton took with the way the golfing scenes were filmed worked because it was fun, and the most important litmus test -

It didn't feel like an unnecessary sports movie. (The last two I remember in this category are Cinderella Man and Remember The Titans.)

Which got me thinking - I would like to make a sports movie some day. But that doesn't make sense, coz I don't like sports. They often bore me. But of course, sports movie is not purely about the sports. It's about the tension in the game, about believing in one's abilities, about the mother and father standing behind (or not standing behind) the protagonist, the sidekick and/or the mentor, the obstacles and hardship ... and the miracle at the end. Ultimately that makes sports movies as predictable as romantic comedies - but as I said about The Holiday, if you manage to make unpredictable fun and enjoyable and engaging, the audience will not be ungrateful about it. (Critics will, however.)

Another thing about the film is that the casting choices were great. I first noticed Stephen Dillane in The Hours, and thoroughly enjoyed the scene where he and Nicole Kidman argued at the train station - it was well-written in the first place, of course, but the expressions, everything, was very British and yet explosive at the same time. Here, he was casted as the British golf player Harry Vardon because Paxton needed someone who can fill the screen with one look (asides from being a good golf player = less takes), and that is definitely the case here. It's rare to find actors who can give the camera a steely look and not have the audience laugh and command their attention.

Shia LaBeouf. I really paid attention to this movie because of his performance - at least, whatever I managed to see in the two-minute trailer. (In fact, the movie was released a couple of years back. For whatever reason, I continued to keep the movie in my mind, even though I never came across any time and place when it was playing in the cinema. That's how limited its release was.) Most people (above the age of 18) would probably remember Shia, if at all, from the bit part he did at Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Point is, I've always placed him in the same category as Frankie Muniz. But here he is in a serious, non-cheeky role that isn't made just for tweens to swoon over - and he looks the part (meaning he looked like he could belong in the ealry 20th century era the film is portraying), has charisma, is expressive (showing all different modes in the trailer alone). And in the film itself he certainly delivered the expectations set by the trailer. That pushes him into the actors I might like to work with category.

As for the music, well, what can I say, Brian Tyler did it again. Except that for whatever reason, A Beautiful Mind is playing in some of the cues - though I daresay it's a better rendition of the theme ... more inspiring and uplifting.

Okay, so it wouldn't technically be 'the Oscars' since it's my list, but who cares. It's the one time I get petty over something insignificant ... which is what virtually every other guy does with football.

So the actual list was announced last week, but without much fanfare or controversy, except that Dreamgirls got the most nominations but got slapped over with no Best Picture, and Salma Hayek embarrassing herself by squealing at every mention of a Mexican name/film, and climaxing at Penelope Cruz's mention. (I noticed that, but hey, I would be thrilled myself if I was up there mentioning Michelle Yeoh or Yasmin Ahmad's name. Farfetched, but it proves the point. The point is, people are happy for a good reason, don't diss them.)

Personally, some of the announcements annoyed me. Especially the Original Score category - which made no sense to me at all. At all. And Pan's Labyrinth garnering six - sort of expected, but damn annoying nevertheless. And Children Of Men not getting Best Picture and Best Director. What kind of nonsense is that?

This list I prepared a few weeks before the announcement. I wasn't trying to predict what might be, rather I was coming up with a list of what I thought ought to be. So here goes.


BEST PICTURE
Babel
Children Of Men
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Queen
United 93

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
Alfonso Cuaron - Children Of Men
Tom Tykwer - Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Ben Whishaw - Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
Forest Whitaker - The Last King Of Scotland
Ken Watanabe - Letters From Iwo Jima
Rudy Youngblood - Apocalypto
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Ellen Page - Hard Candy
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Judi Dench - Notes On A Scandal
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children
James McAvoy - The Last King Of Scotland
Kazunari Ninomiya - Letters From Iwo Jima
Michael Sheen - The Queen

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Cate Blanchett - Notes On A Scandal
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Happy Feet
Little Miss Sunshine
Stranger Than Fiction
The Queen

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
Thank You For Smoking
The Prestige

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Children Of Men
Letters Of Iwo Jima
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
The Fountain
The Prestige

BEST ART DIRECTION
Curse Of The Golden Flower
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Prestige
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Curse Of The Golden Flower
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Devil Wears Prada

BEST SOUND (MIXING)
Babel
Casino Royale
Children Of Men
Happy Feet
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer

BEST FILM EDITING
Babel
The Departed
The Queen
The Prestige
United 93

BEST SOUND EDITING
Happy Feet
The Prestige
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Fountain
X-Men: The Last Stand

BEST MAKE-UP
Apocalypto
Marie Antoinette
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Dreamgirls
Happy Feet
Home Of The Brave

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Letters Of Iwo Jima
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
The Da Vinci Code
The Painted Veil
World Trade Center

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Days Of Glory
The Banquet
The Lives Of Others
Volver
Water