Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 4: "Hey, I know that face!"
Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 12:22PM "everything u ever wanted to know about the foreign film category
*...but were afraid to ask"
Pt 1 All 81 Trailers | Pt 2 Women Directors & Debut Filmmakers | Pt 3 Zoology
Actors You Know & Possibly Love
Successful actors really rack up the frequent flyer miles. The savvy ones cultivate relationships wherever they go. The very smartest of them pick up a second or third or fourth language and actually use those languages in their careers. Viggo Mortensen doesn't have quite the Hollywood career he deserves but notice that he doesn't settle - he's truly in love with his craft and uses his Spanish, English, Danish, and French in films all over the world. When the Danish Connie Nielsen was starting to look basic after lots of unsatisfying American films, she reminded everyone that she was actually gifted by going international with France's demonlover and returning home for Brothers. Actors who are bilingual and never use that onscreen are a mystery. It would be fun to see Sandra Bullock in a German movie or Hugh Jackman or Bradley Cooper in a French flick... even if it was only cameos since we know none of them are hurting for work. Why did Mira Sorvino not really capitalize on her Mandarin during her long dry spell? It's no accident that Charlotte Rampling and Carmen Maura never stopped working or that Kristin Scott Thomas only quit working when she wanted to; they speak multiple languages and make films outside their home countries often.
Let's look at the actors with a strong international presence that pop up in this year's Oscar submitted foreign-language films after the jump...
Geraldine ChaplinGeraldine Chaplin will forever be most famous as Charlie Chaplin's daughter but at 71 she has built quite a filmography with classics under her own belt like her Golden Globe nominated performances in Doctor Zhivago, Nashville, and Chaplin. Plus there's her perfect cameo in Almodóvar's masterpiece Talk to Her to consider. She works all over the place since she speaks Spanish, French and English fluently. This year she headlines Sand Dollars, a lesbian drama submitted from the Dominican Republic (reviewed) which opens in the US in November.
Tim Roth of Tarantino Troupe fame (plus, you know... Rob Roy, Incredible Hulk, Selma, Planet of the Apes), is the lead in the Mexican submission 600 Miles as a kidnapped ATF Agent. So he's in two Oscar hopefuls this year since Hateful Eight hits theaters at Christmas
Song Kang-ho is the king who struggles with his heir in South Korea's historical drama submission The Throne (in South Korea it's called Sado which is the name of the Crown Prince in question). You may not know Kang-ho's name but you know his face as the muse of Park Chan-Wook (Snowpiercer) since Chan-wook's movies have lives outside of Korea. Though he only had a supporting role in Snowpiercer, he's usually the lead or one of them at least. Previous imported hits include: The Host, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and the great vampire picture Thirst.
Daniel Wu, in addition to being one of the world's most beautiful men, is the male lead of China's surprise submission, the romantic comedy Go Away Mr Tumor. He's appeared in many high profile Asian films including Bishonen, The Banquet and recently The Man With the Iron Fists and Tai Chi Hero and he models and likes to show off his body so there are lots of photos of him to drool on all over the web. He surely deserves his own Beauty Break but we'll have ample opportunity for that next month surely. Why? If you're like 'he looks soooo familiar' but you don't watch that many Asian films or drool on beefcake photos, it's possible that you've been watching AMC where they've been constantly promoting his first American TV series Into the Badlands which debuts in November.
Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, Greenberg, Harry Potter) headlines the UK's submission, a Welsh adaptation of the play Under Milk Wood (yes, the same one that became this Elizabeth Taylor movie)
Pilou Asbaek leads Denmark's A War about a soldier whose actions in Afghanistan haunt him and his family back home. Asbaek recently starred in the Danish hit A Hijacking (similar story as Captain Phillips), but if you didn't see that his face is probably familiar from his supporting role in Scarjo's very recent sci-fi blockbuster Lucy. His profile gets even bigger next year when he plays Euron Greyjoy in the ever expanding cast of Game of Thrones on TV and Pontius Pilate in the remake of Ben-Hur on the big screen.
Shu Qi and Chang Chen attending Cannes for the premiere of "Three Times" years ago
Shu Qi & Chang Chen are the stars of Taiwan's The Assassin reuniting them with their Three Times director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. If they look familar it's because they're in a ton of movies. Chen was, most famously, Zhang Ziyi's lover in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but he's also co-starred in high profile Asian films like The Grandmaster, Red Cliff, and 2046. You may have seen Shu Qi in the original Transporter with Jason Statham or in the action film So Close or in Hsiao-Hsien's Millenium Mambo.
Deneuve & Gorilla in "The Brand New Testament"
Catherine Deneuve France's all time most iconic actress (and that's saying a lot!) co-stars in Belgium's comedy The Brand New Testament. If you're a younger reader who is like "why is everyone so obsessed with Catherine Deneuve pick any of three of these for a mini festival at home: Belle de Jour, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Pola X, The Hunger, Repulsion, 8 Women, Tristana, A Christmas Tale, Indochine... and really that's just scratching the surface. She's been a brilliant and vital cinematic force for over 50 years and is still working all the time and in daring films at 71 years of age!
Reader Comments (16)
I adore Geraldine Chaplin. I hope she gives a lot of interviews to promote the movie in the US. She's hilarious and her life is fascinating.
Pilou Asbaek is also the guy from Brogen, a prestigious danish tv-series with excellent female roles.
Was she GG nominated for Chaplin,i thought she wa only in it for 2 mins tops.
We are really due to a Deneuve retrospective here at TFE. She really is a delight, and one of those actors who never gave up on challenging roles, regardless of age. Truly a treasure.
PS. tiny typo: Denevue in bold! ;)
Geraldine was touching as her her grandma Hanna Chaplin in Attenborough's biopic, I was glad GG considered her, no matter her screen time was short.
Geraldine Chaplin can currently also be seen in German (and Austrian and Swiss) cinemas in Wolfgang Becker's first feature film since "Goodbye Lenin!": "Ich und Kaminski". I saw it a few weeks ago and rather enjoyed it (the first half more so than the second). It's full of multilingual actors, among others: Chaplin, Jesper Christensen, Amira Casar and, of course, Daniel Brühl. I think, the latter has already acted in 5 different languages (German, French, Spanish, Catalan and English) and he's only 37.
Geraldine Chaplin has a dual role in Cría cuervos, a great Spanish film from the '70s which is one of my all-time favorites. Anyone who hasn't seen it should seek it out ASAP.
I'll have the gorilla please.
most of all, you want to know deneuve, see REPULSION
Don't forget Deneuve is also in von Trier's Dancer in the Dark! And Truffaut's The Last Metro (playing an actress!). And also did voiceover work for Persepolis!
Although, really, just watch Ozon's 8 Women and fall in love with the other Amazing French Actresses You Should Know: Danielle Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Emanuelle Béart, Ludivine Sagnier...
Pilou Asbaek was SO GOOD in A Hijacking!
Pilou Asbaek is very attractive in Borgen, and when he hits Game of Thrones he will become huge.
Yay to Pilou in everything, including Borgen as Peggy Sue mentioned.
Kevin Kline could also be here. He did a credible job in the French movie, Queen to Play, as well as My Old Lady. Would love to see him again in a comedic role with Kristin Scott Thomas--some French caper thing.
Geraldine Chaplin is life itself in Remember My Name.
Lupita Nyong'o is fluent in Spanish. Any Spanish speaking filmmaker should utilize her.
Jan: Cria cuervos is also one of my all-time favorites! Ana Torrent's juvenile performance was heart-wrenching.
Hadas Yaron, whom you might remember from the Israeli film "Fill the Void," is the female lead in Canada's Oscar submission "Félix et Meira." In fact, she had to learn French and Yiddish for the fole.
William Hurt also was lead in a French film in 2012, "J'enrage de son absence," and did quite a good job of it.
A thousand times THIS.
I think what it comes down to is a simple truth that keeps revealing itself over the years to me among huge Hollywood actors: they just don't wanna challenge themselves, not really. They don't wanna tip the boat! They don't wanna look like idiots if it doesn't work all or if it's too risky a highwire act or if the director isn't a proven talent. Some of them who have an artist's spirit and nothing at all to lose, like Jodie Foster or Viggo, have done it and come out looking more impressive than ever.
But unless Spielberg is doing another bland Cold War espionage movie and needs Sandra Bullock to play a double agent and do a scene with one of the languages she grew up with, she ain't speaking German onscreen for no one!
I'm kinda surprised tho that Kiki, who knows German, Gwyneth, very comfortable in Spanish, and Tom Hiddleston, who knows like three languages, haven't stuck their toes in the foreign auteur world yet. And I'd love to see Cooper work with someone like Assayas, how cool would that be?