César Noms: "Amour" vs "Rust & Bone" vs "Holy Motors"

Editor's Note: You may have figured out over the years that The Film Experience is more than a little fond of France and French cinema. Sadly I've never been to France. This year I've asked my friend in Paris, Julien to keep us up to date so he sent in the following article about this year's nominations. You should follow Julien Kojfer on Twitter because he's great. Just pretend you understand French whenever he goes there! - Nathaniel R

Julien takes it from here.

Three Films that also made waves Stateside

Here’s one for all you francophiles out there. France’s very own AMPAS, the César Academy, revealed its own set of nominees this morning. Since I’m guessing a lot of you won’t be familiar with most of the anointed films and performers, I’ll guide you through the major categories - a usual mixed bag of auteurist fare, populist hits, and biopic dreck.  

BEST PICTURE

• Amour
• Rust and Bone
• Holy Motors
• Farewell, My Queen
• In the House
• Camille Rewinds
• Le Prénom (What’s in a name) 

BEST DIRECTOR

• Michael Haneke for Amour
• Jacques Audiard for Rust and Bone
• Leos Carax for Holy Motors
• Benoît Jacquot for Farewell, My Queen
• François Ozon for In the House
• Noémie Lvovsky for Camille Rewinds
• Stéphane Brizé for Quelques heures de printemps

The major categories were bumped up from 5 to 7 nominees since the last couple of years, which makes no sense to me whatsoever, but who cares. The über-frontrunner is obviously Amour, which will be difficult to deny considering that Palme d’or and those 5 Oscar nominations.

This is Michael Haneke's 2nd Best Director nomination at the César Awards. He was previously nominated for Caché (Hidden)Rust and Bone seems to be the main challenger, but since Jacques Audiard has already triumphed twice at the César for his two most recent efforts, voters will presumably see no objection in handing the César-less Haneke his due. Also keep in mind that César voters are notoriously generous to foreign auteurs: Roman Polanski has won the Best Director prize thrice (and for English-speaking films to boot: Tess, The Pianist and The Ghost Writer) and past best director winners also include Joseph Losey (American) for Monsieur Klein, Andrzej Wajda (Polish) for Danton, Ettore Scola (Italian) for Le Bal and Denys Arcand (Canadian) for The Barbarian Invasions. 

The other nominees make for a surprisingly strong lineup: Farewell, My Queen (on Nathaniel’s own Top Ten list) is superior costume fare from respected veteran Benoît Jacquot; the deliciously sly In the House is François Ozon’s best film since 8 Women; Noémie Lvovsky’s Camille Rewinds is so charming and heartfelt that it manages to make you forget how blatantly it rips-off 80s classic Peggy Sue Got Married; and of course Leos Carax’s astonishing Holy Motors is everyone’s favorite comeback story of 2012 (I’m sorry, Ben who?) 

MORE AFTER THE JUMP including Cotillard vs. Riva

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The Deep Blue Link

Awards Daily Spike Lee won't see Django Unchained "slavery was not a spaghetti western" and Sasha is right that if he made the film he'd be crucified in the media that's now celebrating Tarantino.
E! It's a third marriage for Kate Winslet who could now legally change her name legally to "Kate Rocknroll" should she want to.
Michael Murray's hilariously inappropriate interview with Rust & Bone's "Marion Cotillard" 
Movie|Line a good interview with Tom Hooper on his Les Misérables direction... and the controversial choices he made

Coming Soon the cast of Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom follow up The Grand Budapest Hotel is revealed. I'm sad that there's no Anjelica Huston (I need her in my Wes movies) but it's fun to know that some regulars will return and the newbies Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law and Saoirse Ronan, who has, according to the man himself "quite a big part" are exciting gets.
/Film wonders if Famke Janssen has a cameo in The Wolverine. Ooh, that'd be sweet.
My New Plaid Pants If I had an award for "Best Reaction Shot" I'd also give it to Kiki Dunst in Bachelorette

Today's Must Read
McSweeney's "Answers to Rhetorical Questions Posed by Movie Titles". I died. 

Rachel Weisz for Vanity Fair. Photographed by Craig McDean

Year in Review
IndieWire interviewed the 37 indie film breakthroughs of the year including our friend Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) to Gayby's Jonathan Lisecki and Middle of Nowhere's Ava DuVernay 
Towleroad Michael Musto does impressions (Angelina Jolie among them) for Village Voice's 2012 to do
Vanity Fair shares their best celebrity photos of the year
Cracked says goodbye to 13 unusual and unusually awesome creatives who died this year from Ralph McQuarrie (Star Wars wouldn't be Star Wars without him) to the guy who co-created many of Batman's villains.
Movie Screams surveys the year in horror related releases

Beasts of the Precursor Wild

New Podcast ~ Part 2 of 2 
[Part 1 Here]
When we left off we were talking about the Globe Comedy and SAG Ensemble nods specifically and now the conversation continues. We turn to two films which could receive several nominations or none: The Master and Beasts of The Southern Wild and explore other Oscar mysteries too. [With Nathaniel, Nick, Katey, and Joe.]

Topics include:

• The Master and P.T. Anderson's shift from ensemble to two-man dramas
• Beasts of the Southern Wild, the outsider film
• Globe categorizations. Why wasn't The Sessions a comedy?
• Marion Cotillard is so Hollywood
• Screenplays, Original and Adapted
• Cinematography is neither Art Direction nor Visual Effects. Discuss
• Oscar Stats. Will Supporting Actor be the only acting lineup ever that goes in with all previous winners? 
• Screener piles. Are AMPAS voters more likely to watch The Paperboy or Compliance?

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post. But, as always, the podcast isn't complete without you. Join in the conversation by commenting!

Beasts of the Precursor Wild

THR Actress Roundtable Final Thoughts

But what she really wants to do is laughSee Part One for the full video and commentary on first half hour

The Hollywood Reporter's Actress Roundtable has become an event I impatiently await more than any other non-awards part of the season. It's how I used to feel about Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue before too many dud covers and too many other types of issues using that template. But I digress. Though I am deeply thankful for actresses on every day of the year it IS Thanksgiving so I'm eager to get to the festivities with my family of friends. So just a few quick final notes on each actress before turkey and pie!

Naomi Watts
Her palpable terror about auditions is fascinating when you pause to connect it with the exact moment that essentially made her a star: her persona-switching audition scene in Mulholland Dr. Unlike Anne Hathaway my tendency is not to go pollyanna and I completely don't believe that 'everything happens for a reason' as most people are so fond of saying in a soothing way when bad things happen but maybe those years of career trauma were worth it because Mulholland Dr just wouldn't have been so special without her absolute genius in that dual role. (I do not find her amnesia about I ♥ Huckabees amusing. That movie is so great and she is quite funny in it. "Fuckabeeeees!")

Helen Hunt
The Sessions star flips the questioning on to the reporters who completely lie through their teeth 'Yes, we'd ask the men the same questions'  LOL. (I've never heard that 'when were you last victimized?' school of questioning toward male actors that the "when did you feel forced into doing something you didn't want to do?" question belongs to.)

Helen Hunt is a smart one. "would you ask the same question of the men?"

Sally Field

It's cute the way she's so embarrassed about how much she hogs the conversation but if you're a good raconteur, as she is, hog away. I'm desperate to see this spy movie that Anne Hathaway wanted to write for her and how random is that?!

Anne Hathaway & Marion Cotillard
I will think of little else for the next hour than which movies they were talking about when they expressed that they were in over their head and can't even watch it (Anne) and so miserable and in hate with the director that they couldn't perform (Marion)... though I suppose Marion's will be easy enough to figure out given the clues.

Amy Adams
Still looking like she doesn't want to be there in this Part 2. What gives?

Rachel Weisz
The most surprising contender in the roundtable and, quite possibly, the most fun to have a drink with afterwards. I'm really pissed to hear that the studios responded with "no one makes movies like that" about her proposed very solitary Julia Butterfly-Hill movie. Um... Cast Away? 127 Hours?

Let's end with a poll.

Each actress was asked to share a role she really wanted to play or write or make happen somehow. Which of their imagined movies do you most want to see?

"I would like to play a monster. Like the Gollum."

poll by twiigs.com

THR Actress Roundtable - Part 1

Live Blogged via Tape Delay! Woot 

I've embedded the whole hour at the bottom of this post. Please to enjoy.

00:01 Photoshoots. We begin with a lot of hand to throat or chest or hair gesturing. And... pose! This year's models in order of first solo shot in the montage: Marion Cotillard, Sally Field, Naomi Watts, and Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway and Helen Hunt . Weirdly Rachel Weisz does not get a solo shot. Don't they negotiate every second of these things: "AGENT!!!"

00:38 One thing that's immediately clear about this latest edition of the Hollywood Reporter Actress Roundtable -- now one of the best Oscar traditions -- is that they're upping their game. The camera work is more expressive, and the spacious well designed interior with white couches is less corporate bland than I remember and more conducive to the group therapy session that follows. Psssh, it is so group therapy!. I mean they start with a question about fear and move straight into rock bottom trauma of careers the "should I give up?" moment before the big break. 

00:43 Helen Hunt's "I'm thinking about the question" face is hilarious. PONDERING in all caps. [Lots more after the jump.]

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