Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 473: Silence is Golden

So this it, we've come full circle and apart from a little housekeeping in the final few posts we're on to our last Best Picture winner. Five years ago when I started this blog, the first winner I watched was the very first Best Picture victor Wings. Some eighty-four years later, The Artist became the second silent film to win the award and it's the film I've selected to end this portion of the blog.

Rather than just being a silent film, Michel Hazanavicius' movie is a silent films about silent films. Jean Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win the Best Actor award for playing one of the biggest stars of the silent film era George Valentin. Ironically the film begins in 1927, the same year as the Oscars did, where Valentin finds himself loved by movie bosses and audiences alike. He also has a brief moment with the beautiful newcomer Peppy Miller who he advices to where a beauty spot to make herself distinctive. George's advice works as soon Peppy rises up the credits list and becomes a star singing to the same studio as her idol. Unfortunately for George his star starts to decline as he refuses to succumb to the new trend of the talkies. George's life only gets worse as his self-funded movie bombs whilst at the same time he loses everything due to the Wall Street Crash. He also almost dies in a fire and is only saved when his beloved dog Jack alerts a policeman to the ensuing blaze. The fire brings Peppy and George back together again as he learns that she brought all of his possessions when they were auctioned off and later she tries to get his career back on track. The final scene in which Peppy and George tap dance together intentionally evokes memories of Fred and Ginger, a very odd sight for me as Top Hat was the very first film I watched for this blog.

The first time I saw The Artist I really enjoyed it and found everything about it delightful from the performances down to the costumes. However, this time around I found myself being annoyed by certain things namely the fact that Peppy Miller winked so many times that I thought she would have some sort of seizure. It's clear to see why the academy went crazy for The Artist as it includes many nods to the sort of films that the ageing members of the group would've remembered the first time around. To be fair to The Artist there are certain brilliant elements about it namely Ludovic Bource's score which essentially has to anchor the narrative of the film due to there being almost no dialogue. Bource's score perfectly conveys the emotions of each of the characters and even if you were just listening to the film you'd probably be able to guess what was going on. Dujardin's lead turn is equally fantastic as he is able to make you care about a man who loses everything mainly due to his own pride. Even the gorgeous Berenice Bejo makes Peppy Miller likeable rather than irritating even though that constant blinking really got on my nerves. The fact that Dujardin and Bejo weren't known outside of their native France aided the film's success as they made the film more believable than a couple of recognisable movie stars would've done. The film does contain some recognisable faces in supporting roles namely John Goodman as the larger-than-life movie producer and James Cromwell as George's loyal butler. Another cast member who garnered a lot of buzz during the film's initial release was Uggie the dog whose performance as Jack was utterly charming.

I think it's quite interesting that The Artist found success at the same Oscar ceremony as Hugo as both films praise the early cinematic era. Both films won five awards with The Artist finding more success in the lead categories, picking up awards for Dujardin and Hazanavicius as well as the big Best Picture prize. The success of both of these films beggars the question whether the Academy's tastes have really altered in the eighty plus years since the ceremony originally began. It could certainly be suggested that the Academy has a love of the past as films set in days gone by often do better than those set in the present. But, judging by the eclectic mix of films nominated at the most recent ceremony it would seem that the Oscars are at least heading in a contemporary direction. To that point the next four posts will be ones that I wrote prior to this year's ceremony in which I reviewed all eight movies that were in contention for Best Picture.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 412: My Day on Death Row

In the last post I mentioned how Morgan Freeman's participation in Million Dollar Baby was partly to do with the fact that he could provide a similarly stirring voiceover to the one he delivered in The Shawshank Redemption. That film also has a lot in common with our next nominee The Green Mile, not least because it has the same director in Frank Darabont and is based on a novel by Steven King.

In addition The Green Mile is also set in a prison, albeit a small one on death row in which several inmates await the electric chair. The story is narrated by Paul Edgecomb, who was a guard on death row in the 1930s and is currently living in a retirement home. In a nice little bit of symmetry, the first film I ever watched for the challenge; Top Hat, is referenced several times throughout The Green Mile. The film itself gets the title from the colour of tarpaulin that the prisoners walk their final mile on before they get to the chair. The main focus of the story is on the arrival of a new prisoner John Coffey, a mountain of a man who is accused of raping and murdering two young girls. Despite his hulking stature, Coffey has almost a childlike demeanour and is even scared of the dark. As the film goes on it transpires that Coffey has magical powers which allow him to cure Paul of his urinary infection, bring a dead mouse back to life and later remove the brain tumour from the wife of the head guard. I felt that Darabont balanced the fantastical elements of the story nicely with the more unsavoury nature of some of the characters. One thing he does do is set a fine line between the heroes and villains of the piece meaning that there are very few shades of grey in the film. For example both sadistic prison guard Percy and psychopathic inmate 'Wild Bill' Wharton are painted as pure villains and neither have any redeeming features to speak of. Both also get their comeuppance at the end of the film with Wharton being revealed as the man who was involved in the crime that Coffey was charged with. What I did like about The Green Mile was its final chapter in which the redemption that happened in Shawshank doesn't occur for Paul. Instead he has been given almost a curse by Coffey and as a result has had to see his loved ones die gradually over the space of fifty years.

Even though I've seen The Green Mile before I didn't quite remember the ending where we learn just what sort of effect John Coffey had on Paul. I also don't remember the film being quite as long as it was, just over three hours, however the time seemed to past relatively quickly. The fact that I was never bored is a testament to both Darabont's direction and his adaptation of King's source novel. One part of the film I did like was the fact that John Coffey was never overused and his magical powers were littered throughout the film making them more special when they did appear. Instead, Darabont's focus on the mundane nature of the mile meant that you got a real sense of what it was like to be working on death row. Tom Hanks was the perfect choice to play Paul Edgecomb as he has the everyman quality that the role requires. Hanks is surrounded by a bunch of character actors who play his colleagues including Barry Pepper, David Morse and James Cromwell. I particularly admired Sam Rockwell's performance as the certifiable Wharton as he added an extra element of crazy to an already deranged character. Meanwhile, Doug Hutchinson did his best to make the audience detest the weasel-like Percy and I felt he pulled it off admirably. However, the best performance for me came from relative newcomer Michael Clarke Duncan, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. Cinematographer David Tattersall goes to great lengths to capture the size of Duncan on screen but I felt the actor did great at portraying his character's softer side. Duncan was in fact the only member of the cast to be nominated for his role in a film which also picked up another three nominations. Although at times The Green Mile makes you suspend your disbelief I feel you're rewarded for doing so by a magical film which is ably written and directed and that contains a number of fine performances.

Next time you'll have to grab your passports as we go on a whistle-stop tour around Asia

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 402-403: Michael and Peter's True-Life Tales

In 2003; actor Michael Sheen, director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan all worked together on a TV film called The Deal. Sheen starred as Tony Blair in the story of the future Prime Minister's infamous deal with his eventual deputy Gordon Brown. Three years later Sheen reprised his role as Blair for another film, this time on the big screen, which again was directed by Frears and written by Morgan.

That film was The Queen; a dramatic account of the royal family's reaction to the death of Princess Diana on the 31st August 1997. Although a lot of films I've watched so far have touched on modern history I can't really relate to them as I have no recollection of the events. This isn't true of most of what happened in The Queen as at the time I had a paper round and had to deliver the updated papers that carried the news of Diana's death. Morgan's script looks specifically at how the Royals wanted a private funeral whilst the general public instead wanted to mourn the woman that they'd taken to their hearts. In the middle was the newly elected Tony Blair who appreciated The Queen's wishes but at the same time was keen to offer a sympathetic message himself. The famous 'People's Princess' line is one of the many moments in the film that I remember seeing on TV at the time. Although at the same time I can't remember the reaction to the royal silence being so bad that there were calls to abolish the monarchy all together. What I liked about Morgan's script was the fact that neither Blair nor The Queen were portrayed as the villain of the piece. Both were doing what they thought was best and Blair in particular was eager to stick up for a woman who he had great respect for. Instead the evil forces were instead the members of the press who used the public grief to stir up outrage among the general public. The film's finale is the hint that one day the same thing that happened to Queen Elizabeth in this film would happen to Blair himself. This was obviously a knowing line as Blair was suffering press scrutiny at the time of the film's release and stepping down as Prime Minister soon after The Queen was released.

The fact that The Queen was co-produced by ITV studios suggests to me that the original plan was for it to be screened on the TV. There is in fact very little about The Queen that is particularly cinematic save a couple of nice shots of the Scottish countryside and an iconic shot of the monarch and a deer. My theory about why the film was eventually put on the big screen can be summed up in two words; Helen Mirren. Mirren's performance as Queen Elizabeth was so fantastic that I'm sure someone quickly noticed that it would garner a multitude of awards if it was screened in cinemas. This notion is completely understandable as Mirren's turn is one of the best Best Actress performances of all time and one that was destined to earn the star as many gongs as possible. Mirren's skill is to totally convince us the audience that she is Queen Elizabeth and I think she pulls it off expertly. Not for one moment did I feel like I was watching Mirren on screen and felt she delivered a brave portrayal of a woman during a week in which she'd felt she'd lost everything. I wasn't so convinced by the actors who were playing her other family members, most notably American star James Cromwell who appeared to be an odd casting choice as Prince Philip. Luckily Michael Sheen was on hand to deliver a similarly stellar performance as the ambitious yet thoughtful Prime Minister who was forced to make his first monumental decision. Just like Mirren, Sheen never lets his performance as Blair slip into caricature and as a result turns the Prime Minister into a three-dimensional character. The combination of Mirren and Sheen's performances, Morgan's measured script and Frears' assured direction turns The Queen into an enjoyable factual drama. At the same time there was nothing particularly remarkable about it perhaps aside from the tour de force performance given by its lead actress.

Four years later, Sheen and Morgan would team up again for the final part in the informal Blair trilogy, 'The Special Relationship' which explored the Prime Minister's friendship with Bill Clinton. However, Morgan and Sheen would also team up for Frost/Nixon; initially a play exploring David Frost's infamous set of interviews with disgraced President Richard Nixon. The play was so successful on both sides of the Atlantic that it was eventually made into a film which starred Sheen and the play's other lead actor Frank Langella. Unlike with the events in The Queen, I knew little about the basis of Frost/Nixon so had to take Morgan's words as fact. The way Morgan presented the interviews they seemed more like a set of sporting fixtures or boxing matches that would be the breaking point for one of their participants. Having funded the interviews almost single-handedly, Frost would lose his reputation and go bankrupt if the broadcasts didn't go his way. Meanwhile Nixon, who never formally apologised for his actions during the Watergate Scandal, was conscious that Frost would try to go for the jugular. Both surrounded themselves with crack teams however Frost's big mistake was in underestimating Nixon who run rings round him in the first couple of interviews. The film's turning point is a very odd late night call about cheeseburgers which is quite evidently a work of fiction but is a nice narrative move by Morgan as it changes the whole tone of the film. Obviously with a film that has quite a dry subject matter, Morgan has had to be quite liberal with the facts and reading round the subject it appears that he has done just that. It's certainly clear to see that, aside from Frost and Nixon; all of the other characters are quite broadly drawn and wear their political leanings firmly on their sleeve. Thankfully Morgan's crafting of the titular characters and the performances by the leading actors save the film being too clichéd.

I found Sheen to be even better as David Frost than he was as Tony Blair as he delivered another barnstorming performance. He played Frost as a jovial sort of chap who didn't take anything at all seriously but was secretly harbouring a fair amount of insecurities. Sheen conveyed Frost's fears perfectly as for the most part he let his character be as animated as possible but every now and then the smile slipped. However, just like with The Queen, it was his co-star that was given all the plaudits whereas Sheen was left without a nomination. I think in terms of both films the Academy struggled to know where to place Sheen especially with Frost/Nixon where he shared equal billing with Langella. I personally wouldn't have minded if both men had been nominated for Best Actor as they deserved it more than Brad Pitt for his make-up aided turn in Benjamin Button. However it was Langella who gave the flashier turn albeit one that showed a more sensitive side to the once great president. It was quite easy to tell that Frost/Nixon had started life as a stage play as at times it did feel as if Howard had just brought a camera to the theatre. The majority of the film, especially the portion of it that focuses specifically on the interviews, was very dry and was only slightly spiced up by the actors. Therein lies my major problem with Frost/Nixon as I don't believe that it should ever have been turned into a film in the first place as the story really doesn't suit the cinema screen. Whilst I feel it's an interesting story, it doesn't make for a particularly entertaining film and Howard certainly doesn't utilise the cinema screen to its fullest potential. However, due to the fact that it covers a major event in U.S. history, it's still easy to see why the Academy heaped five nominations upon Frost/Nixon. While it's not necessarily a bad film it's not one that ever drew me into its story and the only really compelling elements of it were the performances given by both Langella and the sadly overlooked Sheen.

Next time we travel back to Britain where an array of famous faces are suspected of murder.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 354: Keeping it Hush-Hush

As I've commented in previous posts, by the 1990s many films that were nominated for Best Picture were set in the past. This is certainly true of the next film on our list, Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential, which concentrated on 1950s Los Angeles. The film was adapted by Hanson and Brian Helgeland from the novel by James Elroy, with the pair boiling down a lot of the story to focus on three prominent characters. Those characters were Police Officers Jack Vincennes, Bud White and Ed Exley all of whom initially come into contact with one another during a Christmas brawl at the police station. Each man has a fatal flaw to his personality that makes it impossible for the audience to truly warm to them. Exley is incredibly ambitious, White flies off the handle too easily and the smooth Vincennes is more interested in the fame that his job allows. In fact Vincennes often aides magazine editor Sid Hudgens to track down exclusives for his tabloid rag 'Hush-Hush' and also offers advice on cop show 'Badge of Honor'. All three men are later involved in investigating the Nite Owl Killings which resulted in the death of six people at a local restaurant. Initially thought to be the work of a group of low-level criminals, further digging exposes prominent members of the Los Angeles community. The investigation also leads to a relationship between White and prostitute Lynn Bracken, who is one of many sex-workers who have been made over to look like famous movie stars. Through her relationship with White, Bracken hopes to be seen more as herself and less like somebody who looks like Veronica Lake. Hanson and Helgeland certainly craft an interesting story which has plenty of twists and turns along the way. But more than that they make you care about a trio of men who initially come across as unlikeable but are vindicated later when they decide to expose the truth. I did feel that the ending of the film was a little drawn out but nevertheless L.A. Confidential was a satisfying watch and harked back to plenty of films from the time. 

I certainly do feel that Hanson's inspiration for the film was the noir films of the 1940s as well as later offerings to the genre, most notably the L.A.-based Chinatown. Just like with Roman Polanski's film, L.A. Confidential makes the titular film the star of the show as Dante Spinotti's cinematography beautifully captures the Californian scenery of the time. The film's production design is excellent as it convincingly takes you back to a world of both sumptuous glamour and sleazy undertones. Jerry Goldsmith's fantastic score perfectly complements the film's storytelling with its jazzy notes evoking memories of the era. The film is bolstered with a trio of fine central performances, two of which came from men who were relative unknowns in North America at the time. Australian Guy Pearce had made his name on TV soap Neighbours before graduating to films courtesy of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert. But his role as Ed Exley was certainly his big break as he captured the spirit of a man who was looking to climb the ladder of the police force by any means necessary. Pearce's clean-cut features, which were perfectly offset by a pair of glasses, made him the perfect poster boy for the police force but his facial expression also made the audience constantly mistrust his motives. New Zealander Russell Crowe had achieved similar success to Pearce in Australia with his role in Romper Stomper convincing Hanson that he'd be perfect as the brutish Bud White. Crowe demonstrated a certain intensity throughout the film but was similarly convincing at displaying Bud's more intelligent side. I'm not surprised that his enigmatic turn in this film propelled Crowe into the mainstream and as a result made him one of the biggest movie stars of the new millennium. The more famous Kevin Spacey was perfectly utilised as the charming Vincennes as he gave a charismatic turn as the celebrity policeman. The only Oscar nominee, and eventual winner, among the cast was Kim Basinger who gave a sensitive turn as faded beauty Lynn. Brilliant support was provided by Danny DeVito as the sleazy magazine editor and James Cromwell as the mighty Captain Dudley Smith. 

I'm not surprised that L.A. Confidential was nominated for an Oscar as it provided the perfect nostalgia trip for the Academy members. But at the same time Hanson's film didn't wallow in 1950s nostalgia and instead presented L.A. as a scandalous city in which anybody could be manipulated. The film was rightfully rewarded with a Best Screenplay Oscar and was the early favourite to win Best Picture before a certain ship steam-rolled its way to victory. But L.A. Confidential is definitely a well-rounded film which is great to look at, boasts an incredible cast and has an involving story from beginning to end. 

Next time we watch two films featuring an actor who finally won the Oscar he should rightfully have received in the 1970s. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 326-327: Something for the Kids

Like most people of a certain age, my first cinema experiences were watching Disney films. Thankfully I was lucky to grow up during the so-called Disney renaissance where the company finally got out of the decade-long slump they'd been in. In fact the first film of the renaissance, The Little Mermaid, was the first big-screen Disney film I viewed whilst the second was the first animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture.

That film was Beauty and The Beast which was Disney's second only Best Picture nominee, the first being the partly-animated Mary Poppins. I find it strange that not one of Disney's previous animated features was ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar especially seeing as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released when the academy were honouring twelve or fourteen films a year. The aforementioned renaissance had started after Disney had produced a number of flops such as Oliver and Company and The Black Cauldron. The Little Mermaid was the first film in which Disney enlisted the songwriting talents of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who both brought back to compose the song score for Beauty and The Beast. Anybody who's seen the film knows that the songs are brilliantly composed and the majority of them are utterly memorable. From the opening strains of the operatic-like 'Belle' to the energetic 'Be Our Guest' every song brings different characters to life and makes the film feel special. I'm personally a fan of 'Something Changed', the song in which Belle realises there may be more to The Beast then claws and growling. But it's the beautifully realised title track that gets me every time and as our titular characters descended the staircase I started to get quite emotional. Oddly the DVD I watched also had a musical sequence that I hadn't seen before in which The Beast's staff sing 'Human Again'. This was apparently cut out of the original film and I feel with good reason as it really spoils the narrative flow.

But it's not just the songs that make Beauty and The Beast so special as it's really one of cinema's most iconic love stories. The story is so simply told over the film's ninety minutes but I feel that it's still resonating with people who watch it today. The script of the film was rewritten to include a cast of colourful characters who would appeal to the younger viewers. In particular the objects that come to life were perfectly fantastic creations and I even remember having a small plastic Cogsworth toy which came with a meal from a certain popular fast food restaurant. The bullish Gaston was the perfect villain of the piece and his exchange with The Beast was one of Disney's most thrilling sequences. The animation of Beauty and The Beast made it feel like one of the studio's earlier pieces when in fact it was one of the first to use newer technology. The French backdrops as well as The Beast's fabulous castle are perfectly captured and every design is incredibly detailed. I do feel that animated features don't get the credit they deserve and that's maybe because their aimed at a younger audience. It's only during the 21st century that Oscar decided to dedicate a category purely for animation and I feel that more films from that genre should be in contention for the main prize. Although others should have come before it, Beauty and The Beast was the perfect candidate to be the first fully-animated Best Picture nominee. Even to this day I can remember having to wait around at the cinema for the next screening as the one we wanted to go to had sold out. The film's popularity is certainly timeless and I'm sure that people who saw it when they were young have now introduced it to their own children.

About three years later I saw my second Best Picture nominee but unfortunately that film didn't have quite the same lasting effect on me. I can't actually remember the first time I saw Babe at the cinema and when I came to watch it again I couldn't recall that much about it. I do know that, prior to watching the film, I'd read Dick King Smith's original source novel The Sheep Pig which was a far superior work to this film adaptation. The biggest attraction of Chris Noonan's film were definitely the visual effects as the movie's pigs and dogs were represented by both real animals and animatronic replicates. The film's brilliant animatronics, which were utilised during Babe's talking animal sequence, were co-produced by the Jim Henson Company and won the film its only Oscar. Andrew Lesnie's cinematography was another highlight of the film as he perfectly differentiated the scenes between the talking animals and their ordinary interactions with Farmer Huggett. As Huggett, James Cromwell shone in a film that was mainly about the animals. Cromwell was perfect as a man of few words who is often hen-pecked by his domineering wife. Cromwell looks every inch the country farmer and has a dignified stance about him which almost demands respect. His delivery of the now famous 'that'll do pig' line bookends the film as he communicates how far his character has come over the course of the film. Cromwell, who earned a Supporting Actor nomination for the film, also contributed to my favourite scene in the film in which he tries to get through to Babe by singing and dancing with him. This change in character was heartwarming and was the only moment where I emotionally connected with the film. Meanwhile Cromwell himself learnt a lot from the film and stopped eating meat after spending so much time on set with real animals.

Whilst the film is full of brilliant visual effects and a great performance from Cromwell, I didn't ever find it particularly engaging. I suppose the children would be won over by the talking animals but, as an adult, there wasn't a lot about the film I liked. The use of title cards to indicate various chapters was a nice touch but I felt that the film didn't need the additional narration by Roscoe Lee Browne. While Cromwell's presence kept the adult characters interesting my attention waned during the scenes which were purely based around the animals. I actually found Babe quite an irritating character and Christine Cavanagh's voice work did nothing to change this perception. The only animals I really warmed to were sheepdogs Rex and Fly primarily due to the great voiceovers provided by Hugo Weaving and Miriam Margolyes. There's no comparison between Beauty and the Beast and Babe when it comes to the best family film as the Disney effort wins hands down. Furthermore I don't feel that Babe really deserved a Best Picture nomination as nothing about it strikes me as incredibly outstanding. If the Academy wanted to nominate a family film with superb visuals then I don't know why they didn't recognise Pixar's first feature film Toy Story. Toy Story has cemented a legacy that Babe never could and appealed to every member of the family rather than just the kids. But then I can't rewrite history and Babe will always be a Best Picture nominee whether I like it or not however my advice would be to read the original story instead. At the end of the day Babe is a decent children's film but there wasn't anything outstanding that made me feel that it deserved its Best Picture nomination.

Next time we travel back to Tudor times and focus on one particular monarch.