Foreign Language Oscar Winners: What Are They Up To?
Monday, January 5, 2015 at 11:07AM
Manuel here to talk auteurs abroad. Did everyone hear (pun alert) about Pedro Almodóvar’s upcoming film, Silencio? We don’t seem to have much else other than its title (“It’s called Silencio because that’s the principal element that drives the worst things that happen to the main female protagonist”) and that Pedro doesn't think it will star one of his regular muses. But it made me curious as to what other Academy Award foreign auteurs were up to. Below the jump then, find a non-exhaustive list of the future projects of recent Foreign Language Film winners.
Sorrentino directing Caine in Venice
Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty, 2013)
His latest film Youth (La Giovinezza) was shot this past summer with Rachel Weisz, Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, and centers on two older men on vacation in the Alps.
Michael Haneke (Amour, 2012)
His newest film, Flashmob was due to film this past summer but that didn’t happen. Implausibly, the film is about a group of characters who connect through the internet and are brought together by the titular event at the end, with the movie thematically exploring the relationship between media and reality.
Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, 2011)
We all know how his follow-up did, and while we wait for what’s next for The Past director, us New Yorkers can look forward to catching his early film About Elly which will play at Film Forum this Spring.
Susanne Bier (In a Better World, 2010)
We’re still awaiting the release of Serena which according to the internet is supposed to make it stateside by… March? No other projects have been linked to the director.
favorite moment from the Serena trailer
Juan José Campanella (The Secret in Their Eyes, 2009)
He’s kept himself busy directing an animated film about foosball and some episodes of Halt & Fire (anyone follow that show?) and he’s slated to start production on a Spanish-language show called Ariana. (Oh, and his Oscar-winning film is being remade with Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, so there’s that to look forward to!)
Yojiro Takita (Departures, 2008) The english-speaking net world must still be baffled by Takita’s win (remember that roster?) for I wasn’t able to find anything about any upcoming projects.
Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters, 2007)
Natalie Dormer recently joined Ruzowitzky’s upcoming film, a zombie outbreak flick titled Patient Zero.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others, 2006)
Might he still be feeling the sting of having given The Tourist to the world? No word on what’s next for this German director.
Mirren plays military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell in Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky
Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, 2005)
Starring Colin Firth, Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul, Hood’s next film is titled, Eye in the Sky and is being billed as a “military drone drama.” So if you had always wondered what Dame Helen looked like in camo, look no further.
Alejandro Amenabar (The Sea Inside, 2004)
Starring Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson, Regression centers on Angela (Watson) as she accuses her father of a horrible crime, unleashing a number of mysteries around the family.
Denys Arcand (The Barbarian Invasions, 2003)
His latest film An Eye for Beauty debuted at Toronto and will make its US premiere at the Palm Springs Film Festival later this week.
Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa, 2002)
After Morocco (2013), Link has been laying low, not revealing much about what’s next.
Danis Tanović (No Man’s Land, 2001)
His newest film Tigers just screened at the Palm Spring Festival. The film follows "a young salesman whose charm and knack for sales land him a job with the multinational “Lasta” where he happily peddles Western-made drugs and baby food. Until, that is, he witnesses firsthand the devastating effects that the infant formula sometimes has."
Which brings us to arguably the most successful crossover successes on this list, Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 2000) and Almodóvar himself (All About My Mother, 1999) both of whom have multiple Oscars already (2 directing, 1 foreign film for Lee / 1 foreign film, 1 screenplay for Pedro) which is as good an excuse as any to discuss Brokeback Mountain, a film Almodóvar admits turning down. “I always imagined it differently and I don’t think I would have been able to make it the way I wanted. They wouldn’t have let me,” he says forever teasing us with what his version might have done to Ennis and Jack. But then, would his film have angered Annie Proulx enough to admit, “I wish I’d never written the story”? We’ll never know. As to what to expect from two-time Oscar winner Lee? A film adaptation of Ben Fountain’s novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.
Are you excited about Almodovar’s (hopeful) return to form with Silencio this year? Do you also constantly imagine what Almodóvar would have done with the other films he’s turned down over the years?
Reader Comments (7)
Oh gosh, Almodovar's BROKEBACK sure would be.... something.
THE COUNTERFEITERS is still the worst winner of this category from the sampling you chose. I haven't seen DEPARTURES, mind you. SERENA, on the other hand, has been released in other parts of the world.
So many of these future films are in English. Is the English speaking world really so dominate for films (and lazy about subtitles) or is there some draw for directors to work in this language?
The Proulx interview is interesting. We should all have the problems with success she has suffered from Brokeback. But I get her point. The story is perfect just the way it is.
Silencio is such a boring title. Doesn't sound like Almodóvar at all!
A little correction: Denys Arcand's "An Eye for Beauty" actually opened here in Québec in May 2014, well before TIFF. (It's not very good at all; I really think Arcand has lost his touch.)
"Serena" had a brief lease here in Canada about a month ago, and it just doesn't work at all. The script is all over the place, and there's surprisingly little chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence, though, is, in her own way, sort of a Depression-era counterpart to Amazing Amy.
Henry, it's all about funding. You can spent five years trying to get funding for a... Spanish language movie, or you can say you'll make it in English with a name actor or two and get funding immediately and actually be allowed to be creative.
I think Glenn's right about funding. The thing is, that that takes away from work that those directors could be doing in their home countries. My local example: Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée and Philippe Falardeau have all done English-language movies recently...but when are any of them going to be doing movies here in Québec?
I saw Serena at the London Film Festival in November. I agree with Bill_the_Bear's comments. The film isn't a disaster, but it is...odd (and not always in a good way).
After The Great Beauty, I'm on tenterhooks to see what Sorrentino does next. Regarding English-language films, he, of course, made one before The Great Beauty (This Must Be the Place), so perhaps he likes to work in both languages. I can't imagine he'd have had problems funding an Italian-language film after his Oscar win (though I may be wrong...).
The word Silencio makes me think of Mulholland Drive and Le Mepris. Will it be something about filmmaking?