Raspberry ripples and Oscar oddities | reviews, news & interviews
Raspberry ripples and Oscar oddities
Raspberry ripples and Oscar oddities
Thursday, 04 February 2010
Although the UK Film Council lost no time in firing out the usual self-congratulatory press release, it has been a thin year for British nominees at this year's Oscars. And, as Kim Newman, my colleague from the London Film Critics' Circle, points out, there is worse, much worse: home-grown talent is virtually absent from the list of nominees for the Razzies, or Golden Raspberries, the parallel event dedicated to celebrating the very worst of the cinematic year.
Only Robert Pattinson, from the Twilight films, is bravely flying the flag for Blighty at the 30th Razzies which are announced on 6 March, the night before the Academy Awards. "Note the injustice that Sarah Jessica Parker is nominated for Have You Heard About the Morgans? but Hugh Grant's equally poor work in the film is shamefully neglected. Where's Danny Dyer? Clive Owen?" Newman writes today in an impassioned email to the Critics' Circle membership.
Over at the Oscars, another strange trend is in evidence. It has always been a ritual annual moan that these are entirely dominated by the Hollywood establishment. But the American trade newspaper Variety points out one extraordinary feature of this year's line-up: of the ten films nominated for Best Picture, only four are set primarily in the US. Other locations range from the Middle East (The Hurt Locker) and Central America (Up) to South Africa (District 9), France (Inglourious Basterds) and the Planet Pandora (Avatar).
Curiouser and curiouser, many of these nominees have substantial subtitled sequences in languages ranging from Yiddish (A Serious Man) to, yes, Pandoran (Avatar). Inglourious Basterds, in which Christoph Waltz's Nazi is fluent in French, German and Italian, pokes fun at Americans' monolingualism, while Up is moved to include a gag explaining why the dogs in it all speak English (they wear special translator-collars).
And let's not forget that last year's Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, had long sections in Hindi. Even so, despite all this and the expanded Best Picture category, the distinguished Academy members just couldn't bring themselves to nominate a full-blown foreign-language entry.
Over at the Oscars, another strange trend is in evidence. It has always been a ritual annual moan that these are entirely dominated by the Hollywood establishment. But the American trade newspaper Variety points out one extraordinary feature of this year's line-up: of the ten films nominated for Best Picture, only four are set primarily in the US. Other locations range from the Middle East (The Hurt Locker) and Central America (Up) to South Africa (District 9), France (Inglourious Basterds) and the Planet Pandora (Avatar).
Curiouser and curiouser, many of these nominees have substantial subtitled sequences in languages ranging from Yiddish (A Serious Man) to, yes, Pandoran (Avatar). Inglourious Basterds, in which Christoph Waltz's Nazi is fluent in French, German and Italian, pokes fun at Americans' monolingualism, while Up is moved to include a gag explaining why the dogs in it all speak English (they wear special translator-collars).
And let's not forget that last year's Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, had long sections in Hindi. Even so, despite all this and the expanded Best Picture category, the distinguished Academy members just couldn't bring themselves to nominate a full-blown foreign-language entry.
more Film
Stephen review - a breathtakingly good first feature by a multi-media artist
Melanie Manchot's debut is strikingly intelligent and compelling
DVD/Blu-Ray: Priscilla
The disc extras smartly contextualise Sofia Coppola's eighth feature
Fantastic Machine review - photography's story from one camera to 45 billion
Love it or hate it, the photographic image has ensnared us all
All You Need Is Death review - a future folk horror classic
Irish folkies seek a cursed ancient song in Paul Duane's impressive fiction debut
If Only I Could Hibernate review - kids in grinding poverty in Ulaanbaatar
Mongolian director Zoljargal Purevdash's compelling debut
The Book of Clarence review - larky jaunt through biblical epic territory
LaKeith Stanfield is impressively watchable as the Messiah's near-neighbour
Back to Black review - rock biopic with a loving but soft touch
Marisa Abela evokes the genius of Amy Winehouse, with a few warts minimised
Civil War review - God help America
A horrifying State of the Union address from Alex Garland
The Teachers' Lounge - teacher-pupil relationships under the microscope
Thoughtful, painful meditation on status, crime, and power
Blu-ray: Happy End (Šťastný konec)
Technically brilliant black comedy hasn't aged well
Evil Does Not Exist review - Ryusuke Hamaguchi's nuanced follow-up to 'Drive My Car'
A parable about the perils of eco-tourism with a violent twist
Io Capitano review - gripping odyssey from Senegal to Italy
Matteo Garrone's Oscar-nominated drama of two teenage boys pursuing their dream
Add comment