by Sam Juliano
The Grammys were staged on Sunday night, but I don’t yet have a full report. R.I.P. Albert Finny, one of the greatest of all film actors. Our annual Oscar party will be held at the Tiger Hose Firehouse on Sedore Avenue in Fairview on Sunday, February 24th. The BAFTAs were also held on Sunday night with Roma scoring yet again for Best Picture and The Favorite racking up the most overall wins. James Clark’s latest mega-essay in his ongoing Ingmar Bergman series, Smiles of a Summer Night was posted this past week. In addition, J.D. Lafrance published his weekly film review on Keith Gordon’s 2000 Waking the Dead. Another superlative essay from J.D.
Lucille, Sammy, Danny and I took in the three-hour-plus latest masterwork, The Wild Pear Tree, from the brilliant Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan Wednesday at the Film Forum. This fascinating barrage of extended dialogues, examining complex musings on philosophy, theology, politics, and ethnics all transcribed through a cynical haze includes the usual ravishing visual tapestries of seasonal resplendence that showcase again why Ceylan is one of the world’s most singular talents. 2019 now has its set-the-bar cinematic work, one that begs for repeat viewings. The Wild Pear Tree is stunning.
The final of the five films nominated for the Foreign Film Oscar, the German Never Look Away was watched last night at the Angelica Film center with film and TV writer/blogger and friend Adam Ferenz, who is in from Michigan for a few weeks. The epic film about art, love and politics set over three decades in Germany spanning the Nazi era was set in Dresden, Dusseldorf and Berlin was loosely based in part on the life of painter Gerard Richter. Both Adam and I were stunned and surprised at how extraordinary this often powerful and emotional film panned out to be, though we were all most familiar with director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s previous Oscar masterwork “The Lives of Others.” As “Never Look Away” did not open in 2018 in USA theaters as did the other four nominees, the film which rates a strong 4.5 of 5.0 (perhaps I’ll go the limit as I ponder further) will count for 2019. Great score and Oscar nominated cinematography from Caleb Deschanel.
The Wild Pear Tree ***** (Wednesday night) Film Forum
Never Look Away **** 1/2 (Saturday night) Angelica Film Center
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An amazing week, seeing two films of this caliber. I’ve read up on both and am hoping to get the opportunity to see them soon.
Deschanel is long overdue for Oscar recognition. Maybe he’ll pull a Roger Deakins and finally take home the prize this year.
Oscar injustice of the year: the failure of Orson Welles and Bob Murawski to score a film editing nomination for “The Other Side of the Wind.”
Perhaps the Academy should create a Vikar Jerome* special award to honor avant-garde innovation in the art of cinematic montage.
*The radical film cutter in Steve Erickson’s novel “Zeroville.”
Oh, Christ. I’ve just learned that the cinematography and editing awards will be presented during commercial breaks in the Oscar ceremony, as if those prizes are less consequential than archaic awards for Best Sound.(Is this a holdover from the end of the silent era?). Dump Best Song. It’s the drippiest, most embarrassing moment of the evening.
Mark, I am devastated to hear this news!! Those are two of the most important awards in the show!! This is reprehensible!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Howdy Sammy! Hope you and the family are well. I’m writing to you from Vancouver where I’m here on work this week and braving more snow. Apparently winter has followed me here because they haven’t had snow at all this winter until I got here. lol. On the way out there today I watched 2 movies.
Beautiful Boy – 3/4: Very heartfelt film and the acting from Chalamet was very good. Somewhat glossy approach to the topic but it is engrossing nonetheless.
Bohemian Rhapsody- 2.5/4: Typical Hollywood rendering and hits all the moments you’d expect it to. I’m not sure it ever elevates beyond exactly what you’d expect, and no more. Malek certainly gives it his all…..yet I can’t really recommend it to anyone per se. It’s just so typical of what Hollywood does with things like this. Fun to hear the music in this kind of rendering, but still.
That’s my update for this week….sending all my best my friend!
4 days of no power, 2 feet of snow and now rain…I was just reading up a storm wrapped in clothing/blankets and trying to stay warm. We did walk downtown – about 3 miles to find a hot meal on Sunday and almost no restaurants were open. Yesterday the crews were clearing streets, main roads, We have a giant fir tree down on our street so lots of shoveling but not able to get the car out of garage and out and about yet. I can hear the saws working on it. Watched nothing…still adding to my list to see. More snow for Thursday – I have had enough already! Happy Valentines Day
Sam — I just watched the trailer (with English subtitles) for THE WILD PEAR TREE on YouTube. It looks iNNNNNNteNNNNNse.