OVP: Best Foreign Language Film (2004)
The Nominees Were...
As It Is in Heaven, Sweden
The Chorus, France
Downfall, Germany
The Sea Inside, Spain
Yesterday, South Africa
My Thoughts: We are a couple of days late on this, but what better way to ring in the new Oscars (and a new slate of winners) than by doing one of our ballots on the ceremony day (if you're reading this in the future, the 2020-21 Oscars were held the day this was published)? We've talked about this a bit before, but if you're newer to conversations about the Academy Awards, the rather hip, progressive, and occasionally even avant-garde films that the Foreign Language Film category (now called the International Feature Film category) underwent in the late 2000's was pretty radical. They changed the nominating process after films like 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, considered by many (including me) to be one of the finest films of 2007, failed to get a nomination. The category now more closely resembles the category in the 1960's & 70's, when it would honor the films of Bergman & Fellini, but from the 1980's through the mid-aughts, this category becomes a bit middling, frequently having you search out for hidden diamonds in a field full of rocks.
This is best evidenced with The Sea Inside, the most well-known of these five films to modern audiences not just because it would win this category, but also because it stars an Oscar winner (Javier Bardem). The movie, though is a snore. It is constantly repeating itself, underlining its arguments about euthanasia, over-and-over again, as if we're at an actual political debate & not trying to construct a movie. The film's protagonist is the problem-there's too little growth in his perspective as he encounters people who, within the confines of the script, should change his mind about how he sees the world. As a result, it may tackle an important subject, but the movie itself is not good, and I wonder if the combination of Bardem & the plot's hot topic nature won it the trophy.
Political topic films are a big part of this category during this era, but so are feel-good films about how art can change someone's life. That's the plot of The Chorus, one of the hundreds of movies that show how teaching can be a noble, life-altering profession. The Chorus is not a bad movie-it's pleasant, enjoyable, & the music sings sweetly through the film (we discussed it already below for the Original Song category), but it's also a movie you've seen a thousand times. This is not a film that elevates the discourse about the educational system, and it doesn't feature great acting or dialogue to make you think it's somehow genre-lifting. It's just a middle-of-the-road, film-your-aunt-will-enjoy.
The Chorus is at least a good movie, which is more than I can say for As It Is in Heaven, the most recent film of this quintet that I've seen, and another movie about the transformative power of music. The film itself wants to be progressive & quirky & profound, but it's never any of those things. It takes a cute premise (a world-renowned composer is forced through implausible reasoning to live in his hometown, where he directs the local choir to increasing success) & totally loses focus, not knowing who the story is actually about & having characters behave irrationally so we can get to a bizarre ending (I don't want to spoil it, but it takes a turn and feels almost like the last couple of sequences were filmed by someone who hadn't read the rest of the script). A disjointed mess.
Yesterday is the film on this list I'm going to forgive the most for being about raising awareness, even if the film itself falters. The movie, about the AIDS crisis in Africa in 2004 (both of the main characters are dying of AIDS, and trying to find a home for their young daughter), is two-dimensional in its plotting, & oftentimes replaces somberness with plot, something that might feel real (HIV, especially 15 years ago, was a greater death sentence than it would be today, particularly in South Africa), but doesn't service the movie. That said, it is helped by a strong lead performance from Leleti Khumalo as the titular Yesterday, who manages to elevate the film's tougher or most suspended scenes with humanity.
The final film of this bunch is Downfall, a movie about the final days of Adolf Hitler (proving my point above, the entire slate is pleasant pictures about the arts, "political issue" films, and World War II, the three staples of this category). The movie is extraordinary, both in its design (the realistic bunkers that Hitler & his closest associates live in feel appropriately claustrophobic) and its acting (Bruno Ganz as Hitler & Corinna Harfouch as Magda Goebbels in particular stand out as giving some of the best work of the year). It's a gigantic epic, one that could falter under its own weight, but never does. The movie did court quite a bit of controversy at the time, for purportedly humanizing Hitler (though that's up-for-debate, as he is very much the villain of this picture), but I tend to side with those who defended the movie at the time, claiming that the most terrifying thing about Hitler was that he was a human being & still capable of this evil (and not a space alien or a cartoon character). Downfall shows us that the 20th Century's greatest monster chose this path, it was not preordained for him.
Other Precursor Contenders: Awards ceremonies like the Goyas and the Cesars aren't good representatives here since they're typically honoring the main films of a specific country, so I only count the Globes among the awards bodies we check-in with for Foreign Language film. They went with The Sea Inside as their winner with The Chorus the only other repeat Oscar player, but chose films like A Very Long Engagement, House of Flying Daggers, and The Motorcycle Diaries, all films that did much better domestically and starred more well-known faces.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I don't see enough of the contenders to have a cohesive opinion here, but I will say that House of Flying Daggers missing is wrong, and it would've taken the trophy for me had it gotten in.
Oscar’s Choice: Without Flying Daggers as an option, Oscar went with The Sea Inside. I'd assume either The Chorus or Yesterday was in second place considering Academy tastes at the time.
My Choice: Downfall is so much better than the rest of these movies it's not even in the same game. An easy gold, with Yesterday, The Chorus, The Sea Inside, and As It Is in Heaven following behind (in that order).
Those are my thoughts-what about you? This is such a milquetoast field with one clear winner for me, is everyone in agreement on Downfall, or are you over with The Sea Inside & Oscar? Why do you think it took so long for Oscar to admit this field needed a refurbish? And how did House of Flying Daggers get snubbed against such forgettable pictures? Share your thoughts below!
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