Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 442: Everlasting Love

As we've learnt, it's quite hard to secure a Best Picture nomination if you're a film in anything other than the English language. In fact being a foreign film in the Best Picture category is quite an exclusive club with the most recent member being Michael Haneke's Amour.

In some ways Amour is quite an ironic title as Haneke's film focuses on an old French couple in their eighties who experience a significant trauma. After an early scene at a concert, the rest of Amour takes place in the apartment of retired piano teachers Anne and Georges. The film's story looks at Anne's increasing reliance on Georges after quietly suffering a stroke and how he reacts to the help provided. Although Haneke spoils the end of the story by putting the final scene at the beginning, it's still interesting to see how the deterioration of this once capable couple. After Anne's stroke, Georges believes she'll recover and the film slowly follows him helping her with her exercises. Unfortunately for him, just when there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel, Anne suffers a second stroke which leaves her unable to talk. After this tragic event, things start to go downhill for Georges as he shuts almost everybody else out as he feels he can care for his wife on his own. He fires a nurse he believes has been abusing Anne and chastises his daughter when she suggests they put her mother in a nursing home. Eventually, Georges does what we know he will do but Haneke makes the moment all the more shocking by preceding it with quite a mundane story. Throughout Amour, Darius Khondji's camera focuses on Anne's expressive face and this final scene is no different. Despite what Georges does we still sympathise with him primarily as we've seen what he's been through and recognise that what happened to the film's central couple could easily happen to any one of us.

Suffice to say Amour is quite a tough watch as Haneke makes you feel like you're watching a real couple suffering through Anne and Georges' plight. This is a testament to actors Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant both of whom inhabit the character of Anne and Georges for the film's two hour running time. Riva's performance was widely-acclaimed by critics and her nomination for Best Actress saw her become the oldest woman ever to receive that particular accolade. In my mind there was no way she shouldn't have won for her performance that touched almost every individual who saw the film. From the opening scene in which Khondji's camera picks them up at the theatre, Riva is an engaging screen presence and the compelling nature of her character only continues after Anne suffers her stroke. Riva makes us suffer with her and is particularly outstanding at portraying Anne's emotions after she loses the ability to speak. Trinitignant is no less spectacular, even though his performance didn't receive as much recognition as that of his on screen wife. I feel this is because Trinitignant almost acts as the straight man of the pair as he has the job of explaining the situation to both the audience and the other characters. However I found that he played Georges' frustration perfectly and his descent into despair is perfectly played by the actor. For a film about two music teachers it's interesting that for the most part there is no background music in Amour. This is most evident when we are allowed to hear certain classical pieces, most of which have some sort of resonance to Anne's history. Heartbreaking but at that same time life affirming, Amour is definitely one of the best films I've watched over the last few years. Due to its subject matter and the fact it's in a different language, it's a surprise that it even received a Best Picture nomination. However I'm glad it did as it once again proves that the Academy are broadening their horizons and looking at well-made, thought-provoking films that might not tick all the standard Best Picture sized boxes.

Next time we lighten the mood with two films suitable for all ages.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 425-426: Days of Future Past World Tour

As we've seen throughout the course of this journey very few foreign films are actually nominated for the main Best Picture prize. In fact to this day only nine films not made in the English language have been in contention for Best Picture and none of these have been successful. That's partly why foreign films have their own category at the Oscars which often features better films than those in the Best Picture race. In this post I return to the late 1960s and early 1970s to look at two films from the small group of nine to have found themselves among the five Best Picture nominees.

The first of the two films in this post feels extremely relevant and if I didn't know it already I would've been surprised that it was forty-five years old. Costa-Gavras' Z is an incredibly intense film about the assassination of a communist speaker by the hands of the far right government. Cinematographer Raul Coultard employs an incredibly realistic tone to his camera work meaning that at times you feel like you're watching a documentary. The bulk of the film focuses on Jean-Louis Trintigant's investigating magistrate who attempts to get to the bottom of conflicting statements given by both the assailants and the witnesses. Along the way he discovers false statements, witness intimidation and persecution of anyone who tries to argue with the right-wing establishment. Having previously watched Costa-Gavras' only other Best Picture nominated film Missing I know that his style is very much that of a fly-on-the-wall film-maker. Additionally both films were about political injustice and as a result I found myself getting more and more invested in Z as it went on. Particularly powerful was the final scene in which it was revealed that the majority of the generals who were charged with conspiracy ultimately went free whilst most of the witnesses were killed. Z won that year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar with Françoise Bonnot also being rewarded for his excellent editing of the movie. Another notable element of Z was the fantastic score by Mikis Theodorakis which was at times incredibly jarring but added to the overall feel of the film. Z is an example of a movie that I feel deserved to win Best Picture and I think if it had been released in the English language then it would have done just that. Ultimately I think Z is an outstanding piece of cinema and was more than deserving of winning the Best Picture prize as well as the title of Best Foreign Language film.

The other film in this post, Jan Troell's The Emigrants, also featured in both categories but oddly in different years. This occurred due to the fact that, at the 1972 ceremony, it had only been screened in its native Sweden rather for the larger Academy audience. After attaining a proper screening the following year it was nominated for Best Picture as well as a further three Oscars. The film looks at a group of people, all from the same small province in Sweden, who decide to emigrate to America. This group includes proud farmer Karl-Oscar, his idealistic brother Robert, his wife Kristina, their children and an oddball preacher. My main issue with The Emigrants was the fact that the group didn't get on the boat to America until 90 minutes into this three hour epic. I feel that Troell could've easily have skimmed 45 minutes of the running time had everything happened a little quicker. That being said the second half of the film more than made up for the first with Troell drawing the audience in to the claustrophobic settings of the boat journey from Sweden to the USA. It was in this second half that I became engrossed in the characters' fates partly due to the fact that the performances were fantastic. Liv Ullman, who was nominated for Best Actress, was brilliant as the young mother who was worried that she'd never set foot in America meanwhile Max Van Sydow gave a powerful turn as her strong-willed husband.  The film built up to a great ending which also set up for a sequel, The New Land, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Feature the same year that The Emigrants featured in the Best Picture category. It's fair to say that The Emigrants is definitely a film of two halves and I definitely struggled to make it through the first part of the feature. Despite the pay-off being rewarding I think the subject of foreign travellers coming to the USA has been dealt with better elsewhere most notably by 1960s nominee America, America. Ultimately The Emigrants was a realistic film with some fine performances but one that suffered from some bad pacing and an inflated running time.

And with that we're back to the present day as I sprint to the finish line next with the final fifty or so Best Picture nominees.