OVP: Best Foreign Language Film (2012)
The Nominees Were...
My Thoughts: Continuing on into the international front, we can now discuss the foreign films of 2012, at least the five the Oscars thought were worthy of inclusion in the Best Foreign Language Film list.
The first I want to discuss, to get it out of the way, is the one that, if you've seen one of these, it's likely the one you've seen, and that is Amour, the latest work from the brilliant Michael Haneke. Haneke's movie still haunts me with its depictions of the difficult, harsh woes that await us if we are lucky enough to have a long life, and there's definitely something revelatory to be found in this movie. Perhaps because I'm still (relatively) young, my mind most remembers and connects with Isabelle Huppert's character. Huppert's middle-aged daughter is definitely the third character, and is not a great performance in the same vein as Riva, but it is a unique look at one of the least-talked about aspects of the film: how she, a continually unlucky in love woman, must come to grips with the deterioration of one of the only two people that have ever universally loved her. I know this is a side plot, but it's the sort of jarring, below-the-skin sort of revelation that Michael Haneke specializes in, and was one of the moments in the movie that most stuck out to me, particularly as a single person.
The rest of the movie, I have to say, I wasn't as drawn into, though I acknowledge there is some greatness in all of it. The film moves relatively slowly between the key moments, and it's stunningly straight-forward for a man who made such mind-bending films as Cache and The White Ribbon. I will say that it revisits better months after I saw it, but I still don't see the masterwork that most people do when I remember it. It doesn't have, for example, the awe-and-inspire of a movie like A Separation, for example, and I remain a tad disappointed that Haneke had to become so universally recognized for one of his least inventive movies.
But those are the arguments of a slightly picky critic, and so let's move on to another film that was far less universally adored, A Royal Affair. The movie is great for royalty enthusiasts and for those who follow the monarchy with a microscope (that would be me, if the Prince and Princess name posts weren't an obvious indication already), but it doesn't add much more than pageantry and pomp to go with a pair of underwhelming leads. The motivations of the two main characters, particularly the young queen, don't meld with their actions-the Queen, raised from birth to be royal and to never stray, never really explains her actions. As a modern audience, we are meant to assume it was because her husband cheated on her, but at the time this would have been the norm. Instead, it was likely that she was foolish, but as that doesn't play well with audiences, Vikander doesn't get this obvious crutch with her character, and instead we're left with a "why" feeling for the Queen.
War Witch is probably the least known of the films, and as I mentioned before, is a short, tiny film that would have been lost from memory had the Oscars not plucked it out of obscurity with a nomination. The movie's best attributes are the lead performer (Rachel Mwanza) and its cinematography, and the occasional dreamlike states it takes. The film, however, has too little plot to keep these dreamlike states afloat, and has too conventional of a message that sustains something like a Terrence Malick movie. I felt like by the film's end, even with the movie's short run-time, that it had been going for far too long, and that's not a good thing for any movie, much less a drama that clocks in at under two hours.
No was probably the biggest "surprise" of Oscar nomination morning for pundits (the quotation marks are based on the fact that we know it's down to nine by Oscar nomination morning, so no one is a complete surprise, especially in a category that revels in out-of-the-blue decisions). The film likely gained most of its nomination from Gael Garcia Bernal's presence. Garcia Bernal, known to U.S. audiences for his work in Y Tu Mama Tambien and Bad Education, has become famous enough to be recognized in the U.S., and is now at a point that he, like Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve, gets all of his films released to major art houses domestically.
The movie suffers from what a lot of good-not-great films get side-tracked by: having one plot that is far more interesting than the other. The movie's at its best when it's dissecting the weird sort of meld that has happened between entertainment and politics-how the commercials for the "No" campaign are more successful when they look like Pepsi ads than when they speak toward a harsh truth. The film, however, is also about the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (smart directorial choice to have him played by himself in clips, and not by an actor), and that's been done so many times there's not a lot more the film can say without achieving a larger kind of excellence. The movie would have been sharper, edgier if it had stuck to the universally sad state of political discourse that has permeated societies the world over rather than on the more traditional look at life in a dictatorship.
The final nominee was my biggest surprise of the bunch, as I was not expecting to enjoy Kon-Tiki quite as much as I did. The film has definite faults (the development of the side characters being the principle one), but it succeeds on so many other levels that it, like Amour, ages well in your mind. Part of that aging process is the handsome, movie star-charming Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen, who sells the wink-and-seduce Heyerdahl as an addictive, can't-say-no-to-him explorer (something that seems relatively true to life). The other part is the stunning visual effects on the raft. You get the sense of the impending doom of storms, with less CGI (or at least ridiculously realistic CGI) than your big Hollywood blockbusters and the scariest shark scenes since Jaws. Overall, this is a strong film, and the only successful "epic" in the bunch.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Goyas, Cesars, Davids-they all could number amongst the foreign language films that missed here, but the only truly comparable set of nominees is the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Golden Globes. The Globes went with Amour as their victor, and included Kon-Tiki and A Royal Affair amongst their nominees, but named two French films for the final two slots: Rust and Bone and the crazy lucrative The Intouchables.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Because of the weird way the Academy handles the Foreign Film race, and the way that studios only release certain movies to theaters rather than all of the contenders (wouldn't that be blissful-I'd be broke, but in cinematic heaven), I have no contenders I feel I need to boost here. I will say, though, that even though France didn't submit it, Rust and Bone and its fine performance by Marion Cotillard would be included over several of the nominees here on my ballot.
Oscar’s Choice: What likely amounted to a fairly easy win, Amour took the trophy over Kon-Tiki and A Royal Affair.
My Choice: I really want to be controversial and endorse Kon-Tiki over Amour, as one was a huge surprise in the "hit" direction and one missed me more than it hit me, but objectively, Amour is the better film of the two, and gets my vote. Kon-Tiki follows, with No, War-Witch, and A Royal Affair behind.
And there we have another category finished-we'll be diving into the writing categories when I get my internet back (hopefully by Tuesday). In the meantime, I've got a few reviews coming later today that you'll definitely want to peruse (future OVP's!). And of course, let's open this up to the comments (I know there must be some!)-what did you think of the Amour stampede to every award, and which movie did you favor amongst the five?
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