CANNES OSCAR POSSIBILITIES

Winning Best Picture at Cannes rarely leads to an Academy Award. In fact last years Cannes winner was UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES.  We never heard from that movie after Cannes. THE TREE OF LIFE winning Best Picture this year does not mean much either. The Cannes jury is much different than the Academy voters. THE TREE OF LIFE doesn't have a typical storyline that the Academy prefers. It is more of a movie that makes the audience decide what the film is about. Not only that, but the reviews have been mixed. Only time will tell if TREE makes it all the way. It will be released wide on July 18th.

­ Oscilloscope Laboratories announced that they picked up the rights to LETS TALK ABOUT KEVIN. They are releasing it in the Winter with a full Oscar campaign. This is great news for Tilda Swinton who has a great shot at a Best Actress nomination. But only if the movie can get an audience.

DRIVE is another film getting a lot of good reviews from Cannes. Ryan Gosling plays Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheel man and discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong. Gosling seems to never get the acting awards he deserves. Maybe this year?


TAKE SHELTER won the top critics prize at Cannes. it is about a family plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions.  A husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.

THE BEAVER was shown at Cannes. The reviews have been poor, but I hear that Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson are great in their roles. Gibson is hated too much now for the movie to get any recognition.

MELONCHOLIA starring Kirsten Dunst and directed by Lars von Trier may have lost its chances at any awards. This is due to Trier joking at a press conference that he was a Hitler sympathiser. He may have been trying to be funny, but he was censured from the rest of the festival. Much like Mel Gibson, if you are not liked its hard to win an Academy Award. Hopefully it won't ruin Kirsten Dunst's chances. She did win Best Actress at Cannes, but she may be hurt by the bad press.

SLEEPING BEAUTY was very much anticipated before Cannes, but once it was screened the reviews didn't hold up. It is about a university student drawn into being a prostitute and is not for everyone due to its graphic nature. It may not even get released in the US.


WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of the few films if any from Cannes that will make to the Academy Awards.

CANNES WINNERS

The winners for this years Cannes Film Festival were announced on Sunday.

Palme d’Or: THE TREE OF LIFE

Grand Prix: THE KID WITH THE BIKE and ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

Best Director: Nicolas Winding Refn (DRIVE)

Best Actor: Jean Dujardin (THE ARTIST)

Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst (MELANCHOLIA)

Best Screenplay: Joseph Cedar (FOOTNOTE)

Jury Prize: POLISSE

Kirsten Dunst winning for Best Actress puts her in the mix for a Best Actress Oscar nomination. THE TREE OF LIFE has had mixed reviews. It will be interesting to see how far it goes and how well it does at the Box Office.

CANNES

Now that the Cannes Film Festival is wrapping up we are getting a sense of some possible Oscar contenders. The official Cannes awards will be announced tomorrow,but some films getting good reviews are:

THE ARTIST

THE TREE OF LIFE

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

THE IRON LADY

TAKE SHELTER-won the Critics Grand Prize

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

MICHEAL

OPENING THIS WEEKEND

Not too much opening this weekend unless you are a PIRATES fa.m. THOR and BRIDESMAIDS are still dominating the Box Office.


PRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES: (Award potential:maybe technical awards)
Reviews have been poor and its reported that it is hard to follow.


THE LION OF JUDAH: (Awards potential: none) Another animated 3D movie.


THE BEAVER:(Awards potential: none) It had some buzz last year before the Gibson tirade. It is being released wider this weekend.  Now that it has been seen the reviews are mixed.

CAN A SILENT FILM WIN AND OSCAR?

Growing up in the 70's we did not have DVR's, VCR's, DVD,s and 4 or 5 channels on TV. The first movie I ever saw at a movie theater was PETE'S DRAGON in 1977. I was instantly hooked on movies and movie making. I desperately wanted to work at a movie theater so that I could see all of the films that were playing. I soon learned that there were film projectors for consumer purchase. Being 11 years old I didn't have the money to buy one, but would constantly ask my parents when I could get one. Finally they bought me my first film projector I think it was $50 or $60. It was not a sound projector, but I was in heaven. The only problem now was where do you get films to watch?  I learned that my local library rented them. They were all silent old films most of which I never heard of and didn't think looked that interesting. The reel was in a white box with the title sloppily handwritten on the top. I didn't care I just wanted to watch movies on my projector. I was soon getting films from the library weekly. I remember many of them starring Charlie Chaplain. I would invite friends over and I placed the projector as far from the wall as possible to make the picture as big as I could. I would play a music record during the movie to add some sound and make my bedroom as close to a movie theater as possible. Charlie Chaplain running around to a record from The Police really didn't match but it did'nt matter.  When I reflect back on those movies I realize what terrific film making it was. The actors were telling a story without saying a single word except for a title card here and there. They were able to portray true human emotion and tell a great story wit no sound.

The point of my childhood story comes from a silent black and white film that was shown at Cannes this week. THE ARTIST has received great reviews from those lucky enough to have seen it. The film is presented in 4:3 ratio and the score is close to something you would hear in the 1920's. The story revolves around a silent film star who is resistant to playing along with the emerging "talkies" of the time.

If THE ARTIST does well at the Box Office it could very well be a contender at awards time.



THE ARTIST TRAILER