8 Days 'til Oscar: The Visual Wonders

I'm saving my beloved category Costume Design for its own post. For now let's talk Cinematography, Production Design, Editing and Visual Effects. At the Oscars Life of Pi is up for all of these categories. It can pick up all of those statues if it can fend off viable threats from Skyfall, Anna Karenina, Argo and The Avengers respectively. Is it likely to? I'd say no but it's a safe bet that it won't go home empty-handed come Oscar night. If Anne Hathaway can use her Golden Globe as "a weapon against self-doubt" than orphaned Pi can surely use an Oscar as blunt heavy object to fend off that tiger. (Life of Pi isn't up for all four of those prizes at The Film Experience's own awards but then no film is.) 

CINEMATOGRAPHY
We're definitely living in some kind of golden age of cinematography. There are so many great DPs working right now in the 21st century that it feels downright ungrateful each January when only five are held up as the gold standard. So I'm happy to honor an at least partially different list in my own awards. Don't talk to me about Greig Frasier, one of the single brightest stars who this year alone lit Snow White and the Huntsman, Killing Me Softly and Zero Dark Thirty, still being nomination-free --- I CAN'T! Other relative newbies I'm personally excited about are Radium Cheng (Starlet), Bradford Young (Middle of Nowhere), and Mihai Malaimare Jr. (The Master) And that's just scratching the surface of cinematographers who Oscar didn't notice this year. There are so many longtime giants still walking the earth in this field that Oscar couldn't even find room for a talent as big as Darius Wolski (Prometheus) or any of the exciting newbies.

Kaminski has lensed 13 of Spielberg's movies. He's nominated for the 6th time for Lincoln

Oscar Nominated: Seamus McGarvey (Anna Karenina), Robert Richardson (Django Unchained), Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi), Roger Deakins (Skyfall) and Janusz Kaminski (Lincoln)
Should Win: McGarvey
Will Win: Miranda -- Pi looks gorgeous through and through and cinematography has lately become the province of vfx epics... though it's hard to tell where computers take over for DPs these days in post
Spoiler Possibility: Skyfall is stunning eye candy which might help Roger Deakins. He's more likely to win for sentimental reasons than for the best-looking Bond. It's ridiculous that he's still waiting for an Oscar at 63 after 10 nominations and such an amazing influential career.

PRODUCTION DESIGN
(formerly titled Art Direction at the Oscars)
My guess is that Anna Karenina is headed for the eye candy double (Costumes + Production Design) that I've come to think of as "The Moulin Rouge! Awards" But it's possible that they'll throw this bone to a Best Picture nominee instead.

Oscar Nominated: Anna Karenina (Sarah Greenwood), The Hobbit (Dan Hennah), Life of Pi (David Gropman), Lincoln (Rick Carter), Les Misérables (Eve Stewart)
Should Win: Anna Karenina
Will Win: Anna Karenina
Spoiler Possibility:  Life of Pi

What if Bruce Banner had to share a boat with Richard Parker?

VISUAL EFFECTS
We can all agree that this Oscar category will land safely in the hands of Life of Pi, can't we? Damn but that tiger alone, right. Even Hulk can't smash its Oscar dreams.

EDITING
In a piece about Argo's Oscar chances I already detailed my feelings about this race. I think Argo will take it but if you ask me William Goldenberg (double-nominated) did much stronger work on Zero Dark Thirty so he'll win for the wrong film --  which won't be any kind of Oscar first ;). Goldenberg's work Zero is the only Oscar nominee that crossed over into my ballot.

OSCAR INDEX & OSCAR RACE ARTICLES
OSCAR VISUALS
FILM BITCH AWARDS - VISUAL CATEGORIES 

Mystery Swag

One of my favorite things to receive during Oscar season is mystery swag - unlabelled promotional items just to keep you thinking about a film. My favorite ever was two years ago when a black envelope from "Nina Sayers" arrived. There was nothing inside it but a few feathers. This week in a last minute rush of FYC booklets and animated film paraphenalia (Wreck-It Ralph hands, Brave bow & arrow, stuffed Frankenweenie -- guess which Oscar is up for grabs?) I received this little box in a totally unlabelled package, tied with a yellow bow...

But what do I unlock with it?

Links, Inc.

i09 Monster University has a recruiting ad
i09 and character designs - Helen Mirren being dragon-like as the Dean in this Pixar sequel
Interiors picks a great topic this month: the apartment in Amour. All mapped out. 
NPR Tony Kushner's research and characterizatin of Lincoln
Pakoto illustrated tribute to Jurassic Park
Movie|Line talks to the Ryan Gosling of the porn set who keeps getting cast in XXX versions of Gosling hits

Details interviews James Franco on this moment in his career including Oz the Great and Powerful and...
MNPP brilliantly dissects those page 3 answers about deep throating a pistol for his next picture Spring Breakers
Stale Popcorn Naomi Watts on stardom and breakthroughs
Vanity Fair Quentin Tarantino Kill Chart in infographic form. Wow his movies are gruesome 
Grantland has a snarky Oscar bracket for worst travesties ever while...
A Blog Next Door has some snark for Grantland's fratboy leanings

/Film Jason Reitman's next live reading of a famous picture is Glengarry Glen Ross. This time it's gender-flipped. Normally I am quite happy to be a New Yorker but these events in LA sound so enticing every time. Alec Baldwin's famous role has yet to be cast but Robin Wright will be doing her best Pacino and Catherine O'Hara gets the plum Jack Lemmon role. 

Finally... I wasn't aware of this but Encore Entertainment is hosting a blog-a-thon of some sort called Motifs in Cinema so far I've seen two articles. They are: Motifs: Aging featuring Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Hope Springs, and Amour; Motifs Fantasy & Reality featuring Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Hobbit, and Savages; 

I forgot to wish you a 'Happy Valentines'

I wasn't feeling it yesterday. Were you?

Did you see a movie with that special someone?

Posterized: Bruce Willis, Perennial

I raced excitedly to a A Good Day To Die Hard screening earlier this week though I couldn't quite put my finger on why. As a rule of thumb, I love Bruce Willis but I don't exactly seek his movies out and haven't seen a Die Hard since the second one. (I've been the furthest thing from a loyal fan mostly because he churns out so many disposable actioners.) I was just in the right mood I guess though I am sad to report that it felt like a phone-in.

But for this week's edition of Posterized, I thought we'd look back on his whole career. I've previously applauded him for his unheralded range. Which is to say that even though he is always "Bruce Willis" he can easily slip into auteur pieces, comedies, dramas, and action flicks without ever disrupting the site-specific tonal demands. That's as true of a definition of Movie Star who also happens to be a Fine Actor as I know of. But the posters disagree with me since every other one cribs some element from the original Die Hard (1988) poster, Bruce with a tense side stare, Bruce pursing those thin lips, Bruce holding a gun (or signifying that a gun is just outside the frame with battle gear on). Every movie wants to be Die Hard... especially all the subsequent Die Hards. Die Hard 2 may be the most hilarious example of the unspoken sequel motto ("be the same movie over again... only bigger")

The "Moonlighting" Years (85-89)
aka Cybil (TV) and Demi (The Movies) share him
Blind Date (1987), Sunrise (1987), Die Hard (1988)

Seemingly hundreds of movies after the jump! How many have you seen?

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