OVP: Best Foreign Language Film (2009)
The Nominees Were...
Ajami, Israel
The Milk of Sorrow, Peru
A Prophet, France
The Secret in Their Eyes, Argentina
The White Ribbon, Germany
My Thoughts: For
some reason I’ve been putting off writing about the foreign language film
nominees of 2009, and I’m not 100% certain why (it’s been a bit of a while
since we last discussed the 2009 Oscar nominees in our countdown, and we now only have the Big Eight to go). It might be because the films are not as fresh in my mind (I
put off seeing the least of the nominees until last, always a
mood-killer). Or because these
films (the best ones, at least) require a second viewing and I haven’t had the time
or the stomach (A Prophet is very
violent). Whatever the reason, I
haven’t wanted to get into the movies, but I am jumping this hurdle. Let’s take a look at the bleak
(seriously-this is a dark set of films even by this category’s standards)
selections.
A Prophet is a
movie that is both subtle in the ways to understand it and utterly blatant. The movie is very violent, messily
so. We’re used to a nice clean,
neat violence in the movies, but A
Prophet wants to make us squirm.
The film succeeds most when it is focusing on the slow deterioration of
Tahar Rahim’s Malik (what a find he was, though I feel like he didn’t catch on
internationally in the way that a handsome, young French actor should). There’s a bit of The Godfather in the plotting, and I love the way that Rahim’s
character remains so unknowable throughout the movie. You see his innocence evaporate away, but there’s few
indications of what is left of him.
The film veers into the wordy and overly violent to the point where it
occasionally leaves some bitterness in my mouth, but that’s hardly a
deal-brekaing deterrent: this is a strong film.
Also a strong film is The
White Ribbon, which is the only one of these five films to have been
nominated somewhere else (Best Cinematography). The White Ribbon was also the only one of these five films that I caught in movie theaters and that I saw considerably before I saw the rest of these movies, but even though it's the oldest in my memory, it still haunts me. The beautiful cinematography and the nastiness at the center of it (something wicked this way comes) permeates. I loved the way that Haneke not only doesn't give us the easy answers, he pushes in different directions on the questions. His movies generally don't give solutions, and what I truly love about this particular film is that we don't 100% know why we're slowly becoming more and more paranoid as an audience, but the tension keeps building in this small German town. A visual triumph, and a writerly one as well.
The last truly great film in this pack is the film that won. On Oscar night, I remember personally debating whether it would be The White Ribbon or A Prophet that picked up the trophy, but I soon learned that it would be neither, and felt a little disappointed, like Oscar had decided to go middle-of-the-road. Little did I know that The Secret in Their Eyes was also a breathtaking film, and certainly not worth the grumbling snobby film fans did the morning after when a film they hadn't seen took the prize over the beloved duo from Cannes.
The movie has a more traditional plot than The White Ribbon (probably making it more accessible to the voters, and thus gaining the trophy), but there is also a similar level of nastiness below the surface of this mystery/noir. I love the coloring of the film-warm colors (browns and reds throughout the decor) that seem to contradict the increasingly cruel and desperate story (about two detectives falling in love while investigating a brutal murder). The film asks a lot of questions about punishment and what is worth spending our lives doing (and has a fascinating obsession with the concept of time), and increasingly gets more and more complex, until a well-executed ending (I won't spoil it-go out and rent it immediately) gives you a sudden gasp of realization. A triumph of acting and visual cues, this film was no milquetoast upset.
We'll use that bizarre word to head into The Milk of Sorrow, the final film of the year that I saw and I left the most disappointed by. It's hard to call a film like this bad, since there's obviously talent on-display (like all five of these films, the cinematography is quite fetching), but the movie is boring, repetitive, and doesn't quite get the dark humor that it's occasionally grasping toward. The movie's central performance is solid, but all of the supporting performances are one-dimensional and lackluster. The movie appears on autopilot from the beginning, and while it's exciting that Peru got its first nomination for Best Foreign Film in 2009, it would have felt better with a stronger movie.
The Milk of Sorrow at least remains memorable though (the potato scene will do that to a person's psyche). I actually enjoyed Ajami better than The Milk of Sorrow, but I had to reread my reviews and notes to remember even the plot of the film (it doesn't stay with you in the same way). Once I did, I recalled that the actual plotting of the movie is quite sturdy-there's a confidence in the film in showing different pieces of the story early, risking the audience knowing what will happen later, but having the fortitude to assume they won't figure out everything that's right in front of them. The film has balance problems, with the police officer Dando's scenes not nearly as interesting as those featuring the central character of Omar. I will note that it's not a bad movie (this is a solid lineup of movies, save one, if you ever find yourself wanting to see some recent foreign language flicks), but you can't compare it to the three major triumphs of the category.
Other Precursor Contenders: As I have noted before, the Globes don't have the same "only one from one country" rule, but they're the only really similar category as far as precursors, so we'll go there. The HFPA gave their trophy to Germany with The White Ribbon, and actually chose a different South American country other than Peru or Argentina (clearly a good year for the continent cinematically) for one of their nominations: the dramedy The Maid. Otherwise, A Prophet was the only Oscar crossover aside from The White Ribbon with Baaria from Italy and Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces from Spain finishing out the category.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I see so few of these films that I can't really have an opinion. That said, while it has to be so annoying to always submit a Pedro film when he makes one, I do think Spain missed the boat by not putting Broken Embraces, a stylish slightly forgotten film from the master's canon, as their official selection.
Oscar’s Choice: As I mentioned above, Oscar went with the surprise and chose The Secret in Their Eyes over A Prophet and The White Ribbon.
My Choice: I was all set to go with the same gold-silver combination that Cannes did, but The Secret in Their Eyes flummoxed me. Instead, I'll still give this trophy to Germany, but Argentina takes the silver with France in bronze. Israel and then Peru follow.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Were you as surprised as I to find you loved The Secret in Their Eyes? Or are you still reeling about The White Ribbon and/or A Prophet losing? And which is your favorite of the nominees? Share in the comments!
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