A long take is a held breath.

by Cláudio Alves

Long takes are a constant subject of fascination for filmmakers and film lovers alike. The technical challenge inherent to them makes many directors salivate at the prospect of showing off their craft. At least, that's what, as an audience member, it sometimes feels like. Though, to characterize the long take as a mere tool of formalistic showmanship would be wrong. Depending on the case, this mechanism can be transformative, capable of bending the audience's perception of time, their attachment to what they're watching and sentimental engagement.

In 1917, Sam Mendes uses the long take as a key to sensorial immersion and ever-tightening tension. Each cut is a blink, a breath, a repositioning of the eye and recalibration of the senses. It's something that's a convention and brings comfort to the viewer. When you take it away, one feels as if the action never stops, like there's no time to breathe or to disengage with the narrative. A long take is a held breath and it can be a gloriously suffocating thing to experience…

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Cannes' Oscar Impact

by Murtada Elfadl 

The Cannes Film festival is not usually a bellwether for Oscars. That happens with the trifecta of late August / early September of Venice, Telluride and Toronto. However this year several movies that premiered in the main competition and in adjacent sections have been nominated for Oscars. Two of them  - Parasite and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - scored multiple nominations and are expected to win a few and are considered favorites for the big prize, Best Picture... 

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An "Evita" Reunion

by Camila Henriques

One thing I love to do each award season is to scan through the connections between the films and nominees.  That sighting of Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes  transported me immediately back to 2005's Walk the Line. Amongst this year’s Oscar nominees, though, the connection that has me most nostalgic is one between two category mates: Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce, competing with each other in Best Actor, are finally Academy Award nominees.

They have a past together in Argentina, the same country that gave us Pope Francis, played so delightfully by Pryce. More than two decades ago, Pryce played another famous Argentinian, former president Juan Peron in the Alan Parker/Andrew Lloyd Webber/Madonna extravaganza that was Evita. That movie also featured Spanish heartthrob Banderas, fresh off a successful transition from being the quintessential Almodóvar man to Hollywood player, with talked about turns in Philadelphia and Desperado. He'd become an even bigger international star with Evita... 

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Did Scorsese actually score five nominations?

by Cláudio Alves

Officially, Martin Scorsese received two nominations for this year's Oscars. He's a contender for Best Picture, as a producer, and the Best Director statuette for his long-gestating epic The Irishman. However, there's a fellow nominee whose movie is noticeably indebted to the old master's filmography. So much so, that some would go as far as to say that these other project's nominations are due to nostalgia for the Scorsese of yore as much as they are to this new movie's actual quality.

We're talking about Todd Phillips and his triple nomination for the Joker…

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Soundtracking: The 2019 Original Song Nominees

by Chris Feil

Right on schedule, the "why do we still have Best Original Song?" responses have arrived. While this year doesn't rank high among the greats in terms of quality, I, your resident Best Original Song obsessive, would argue that this year's crop of nominees is far from the worst. The most expected (or at least predicted) nominee left off the list was The Lion King's "Spirit", though we can all rest on the certainty that Beyoncé will one day be a nominee here. And then there is many folks saddest omission, Wild Rose's "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)", sadly from a small film that couldn't ultimately battle against bigger names and titles.

Let's break down the nominees and their potential to win...

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