Oscar Submissions: Japan, Sweden and Germany's "Pina"

Three more films have been announced for this year's foreign film Oscar competition, and all are from countries with a fairly large degrees of success with Academy's foreign nominating committee. Though the Academy always has a veritably orgy of films to choose from (usually sixty-plus) for its five-wide profile boosting arguably hit-making honors, they do tend to prefer European pictures. They also tend to prefer Japanese films to other countries when it comes to Asian cinema. Will they choose any of these three pictures?

JAPAN (12 noms, 1 win, and 3 honorary awards before the foreign category existed)
Postcard, an anti-war film about a soldier (Etsushi Toyokawa) returning home from World War II to see his family devastated, comes from the 98 year old director Kaneto Shindo. He has already stated that this will be his last film. 

SWEDEN (14 noms, 3 wins)
Beyond is the directorial debut of the actress Pernilla August (More and more actresses are making the leap: see also Vera Farmiga and we're loving it. Why shouldn't they?) The actor-centric heavy drama stars Noomi Rapace as the adult survivor of alcoholic parents in the 1970s. Noomi's real life husband Ola Rapace co-stars. Beyond opened at last year's Venice Film Festival but didn't premiere in Sweden until December 2010, placing it safely within the eligibilty period for this year's submission.

Wim Wender working on his documentary homage "Pina"

GERMANY (18 nominations, 3 wins)
Pina is a high profile 3D documentary on the work of the influential German dance artist Pina Bausch who died two years ago -- it was not intended, originally, to be a posthumous film. Dancers convinced the acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders to continue with the project which is now an homage to Bausch featuring several of her most acclaimed pieces performed by dancers onstage and outdoors.

Honestly dance is a great use of 3D if you must use 3D at all. Unfortunately the dance movies that have used it previously have rarely understood that to get 3D to work its spatial relations magic and what that means to choreography (a lot), you need to actually not cut every second to a different camera angle so that the eyes can observe the physicality, distance, and depth. I haven't yet seen Pina (very soon I hope) but I'm assuming Wim Wenders understands this in a way, say, the makers of Glee the 3D Concert Movie would not. Just a hunch.

This is not the first time a filmmaker has been inspired by Pina or used that inspiration to really heartbreaking affect. Remember the way Pedro Almodóvar used Pina to set the stage for the ineffable emotional pull of Talk To Her?

My guess right now is that the documentary Pina may have enough acclaim and novelty interest to make the finals (at least). But documentaries have a tough road for Oscar acclaim in any category other than Documentary. To my knowledge no documentary -- and at least one is submitted each year in this category -- has ever been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. (Unless you count Waltz With Bashir which you could; it strikes me more as an uncategorizable hybrid film.)

Foreign Film Oscar Chart -NEW & SPARKLY!
Foreign Film Articles 

TIFF Begins... Tonight

The Venice jury hasn't even handed out their prizes yet (Will Shame win the Lion?) but Toronto kicks it off tonight with their opening presentation of Davis Guggenheim’s From the Sky Down, a rock documentary on U2. It's actually the first time a documentary has opened the 36 year old film festival. I'm personally going to be incommunicado this weekend. Perhaps it sounds like bad timing but I knew I'd need to be away from NYC this weekend (can't take all the 9/11 obsessing). More importantly, it's my last breather / eye rest (begone computer screens!) for the next six months until the post-Oscar ceremony wrap-ups. 

Paolo and Amir. The Film Experience correspondents for TIFF 2011

Just as with Venice, I've enlisted some correspondents. You'll be hearing from Paolo (who you've already met) and Amir (of Amiresque) as they hit the fest. That's them above so stay tuned!

I'm here until tomorrow and I'll be back Monday late night. You won't even miss me. 

Anyone Mix their Documentaries with Hip Hop?

Paolo here again. Referring to the question above I wonder if any of the readers here have seen Beats, Rhymes and Life in the few big cities where it's already on.

It's strange how, in watching this documentary about the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, I realized I knew less about them and more about the film's director Michael Rappaport. He of course is in True Romance and eventually ended up in one of those yearly Vanity Fair photo shoots where they name the next batch of great actors. You might remember him from "The War at Home," a passable sitcom. He also happens to be a guy from Brooklyn who grew up as part of the first hip hop generation.

What I knew about ATCQ was more about mixing them up with De La Soul, or their reluctant front man of a rapper Q-Tip. He released a song called "Vivrant Thing," which had more in common with flashy club music of the late 90's than the conscious hip hop he created with the disbanded group a decade or so earlier.

Rappaport and his editors Lenny Messina and AJ Schnack spent three years to find and compress a lot of material about ATCQ. The film tackles their origins - the group's four members are childhood friends. Q-Tip revisits his high school and reminisce about banging on his classroom tables the same way kids in my high school did. We also see him at the studio sifting through his old vinyls, admitting to being a fan of 1970's jazz and disco chanteuses.

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Team Experience: Recommendations, Hot Wheels To Replace "Cars 2"

Since we have a great roster of erratic contributors here at TFE, we should use them more often, right? What has Team Experience been watching?

What's the best and/or worst thing you saw this week?

Kurt (Cinema de Gym): The best thing I saw this week was Page One: Inside the New York Times, a doc that filled a little empty spot in my soul. Of course it's slanted so as to exalt the Gray Lady, but so what. It's thus far the most comprehensive film we have to address where we stand in the world of media, and thank GOD for the invaluable David Carr, a shut-up-and-listen voice of reason who defends the fundamentals amidst legions of people blindly barrelling toward an all-digital climate of media without merit. The worst thing I saw was Bad Teacher (my review) which couldn't even appeal to my sinful love of hating on goody-two-shoe types ("Bad Santa" this is not) and it contains the year's worst character in Lucy Punch's Amy Squirrell. She's unwatchable.

Robert G: Best: Noriko's Dinner Table--so many questions, so few answers. How could Suicide Club become more confusing and addictive with a sequel? Worst Thing: 8213: Gacey House--I have a high tolerance for bad horror. This overloaded my circuits.

Jose: Eclipse Series 27: Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas. Move over Sirk, Fassbender, Almodóvar and Visconti, this man owned when it came to suffering women! I'm still recovering from gasping and sobbing so much.

JA: I'm sort of completely and totally obsessed with Adrien Brody's brief bit as Dali in Midnight in Paris right now. I can't stop hearing him pronounce "RHINOCEROS" inside my head. He says it so many times that the word loses all meaning and becomes this jumble of sound, all nonsense, which is obviously the point - hysterical nonsense.

Robert (Distant Relatives):  I caught up with the 1962 samurai film Hara-Kiri. It's always great to have even high expectations exceeded and see an old film that still feels modern and poignant. 

Michael (Unsung Heroes):  A second viewing of the terrorism comedy Four Lions on Netflix Instant. I declared it the funniest movie of 2010 and I'm pleased to report it has the main quality that makes a cult classic: it gets funnier on repeat viewings.

Craig (Take Three): The best thing I saw this week, cinematically, was Bridesmaids, which was a daftly hilarious experience. (Yes, there categorically should be Oscar nods for Wiig and McCarthy. I ain't kidding.); worst thing, sadly, was Dario Argento's The Card Player (2004) apart from a ludicrous scene involving a life-or-death poker match played on train tracks to a pounding techno score.

Alex "BBats" The best thing I saw this week was a documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival called Salaam Dunk about a group of Iraqi female students playing college basketball.  I love sports docs (ESPN's 30 for 30 was amazing) and the concept of one focusing on women in the middle east was too interesting to pass up. It was a well balanced film about positive changes that are coming to the region while keeping the problems and challenges in clear perspective (I always forget that Iraqis call the war "The Invasion")  The girls are all so wonderful and their coach is hilarious and so caring towards his students. Definitely check it out when you get a chance.  Didn't see any terrible things this week, but will say that Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur, while having great moments and acting, was a very emotional confusing movie. It's like a revenge drama where revenge is taken within and often against oneself.

Andreas (Mix Tape): The best movie I watched was John Ford's unduly obscure Two Rode Together, which is essentially Jimmy Stewart & Richard Widmark reenacting The Searchers. The film is dripping with moral ambiguity & gets really emotionally intense toward the end; also, the usually lovable Stewart plays a total scumbag. It works. I loved the movie.

REGARDING CARS 2
I (Nathaniel) meant to write a review but every time I sat down to do so I was just angry. I hated -- and I do mean h-a-t-e-d -- the decision to make Pixar's absolute worst character "Mater" the lead of a nearly two hour movie. I figured I had to ask if there was anything salvagable in the concept of anthropomorphic cars.

Which movie car would you willingly spend two hours with?

Jose: The Phantom Carriage so I could grab Cars 2 and send it to hell where it escaped from! (*sob* I really tried to like it.)

Robert G: What could be better than a ride on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? A ride where the flying car lets you know how to avoid the Child Catcher and just have a good time.

Michael (Unsung Heroes):  I would like to see a full length feature starring the second hand police car driven by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in The Blues Brothers. It would have a nice deadpan sense of humor, its radio would play nothing but great rock and roll, and unlike the insufferable Mater it would be a car of few words.

JA: My first thought was Sam Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, which has made an appearance in all of his films. It could star in its own documentary - I bet it's got stories to tell. Like, I've always wanted to know what having a 23 year old Bruce Campbell sitting on you was like.

This is where we get off."

Kurt:  I have a soft spot for the Batmobile from the 60s TV show/movie, which actually just made an appearance at my favorite local theater (alas, I missed it). The car reminds me, of course, of watching the show (Pow! Thwack!), but also of being dragged to auto shows with my dad, which I hated in the moment but now think of fondly. They always had cars like the Batmobile at those things. I imagine the Batmobile and I would discuss chasing Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt, how it was ever able to sleep with all those Batcave gadgets buzzing, and if there's any competition among the other Bat vehicles (that Batsub will cut you!).

Alex "BBats":  I wish the car from The Car (1977) would follow Mater across a bridge...

YOUR TURN, READERS... What have you been watching and which movie car would you gladly see anthropomorphized for a couple of hours?

Links: Herzog, Björk and Novaks (Kim & Djokovic)

The Lost Boy Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams is just a few days away from joining the top gro$$ing documentaries club.
JobMob check out what some celebrity acting resumes look like
Sociological Images Some off flick backstory on that DDT spray scene in The Tree of Life. I wanted to soak in that scene, didn't you?
Tom Shone Terminator 2 turns 20 years old this week. What a stroke of genius casting Robert Patrick was. 
Old Hollywood great my-how-time-changes-things quote from Kim Novak on the initial failure of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
Movie|Line Remember those omnibus films celebrating Paris and New York. It's official: Sydney, I Love You plans to move ahead in early 2012
The Wrap looks at the reasons that the superhero crop of 2011 isn't really delivering as expected at the box office.The last sentence, though, is an unintentionally hilarious negation of the 'there's too many of these' thesis statement. It goes like so...

The good news for the box office: New installments of Batman and Spider-Man are due out next summer, with fresh incarnations of Superman and Iron Man following soon after.

off cinema
The Daily Beast backstage at Men's Fashion Week 
Low Resolution ranking the hotness of Wimbledon men 
Slant reviews Björk's new single "Crystalline". I love this bit:

Bjork's most esoteric album to date, 2004's Medúlla, is also among her best, and so my policy is to indulge Mrs. Matthew Barney in all pretensions so long as the music works.