end-of-2006 film stuff (detrius 2, the Richard Donner Cut)

Broken Sky vs. sell-out Mexican directors is a really stupid polarity, even for the NY Pres.

Regarding the SAG's: I doubt Di Caprio will make the final cut in the Supporting Actor race come Oscars.

Melville's posthumous triumph was only the most extreme example of a year that smiled on veterans—Eastwood and Scorsese repositioned themselves as reigning old-school directors. The venerable James Bond was pressed back into service in a new adaptation of Ian Fleming's first Bond novel. Dreamgirls—an '80s musical about '60s music—was remounted for the '00s. Seasoned actresses Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren gave the year's most triumphantly imperious performances. (A movie that matched the latter's ice queen Elizabeth against the former's frosty fashionista editrix would be a whole other sort of combat movie.)

Performances for the ages

Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat)
Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)
Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Robert Downey Jr. (A Scanner Darkly)
Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls)

the freshest voice in highbrow faggotry finds his cult slightly engorged ... bitch-slaps Almodóvar for the timid bourgeois he's become.

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0701,lee,75436,20.html

http://www.cahiersducinema.com/article959.html

More senile than Sarris.

BEST ACTRESS 1. Helen Mirren -94 (The Queen) 2. Laura Dern – 32 (Inland Empire) 3. Judi Dench – 25 (Notes on a Scandal)

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM to David Lynch’s labyrinthine INLAND EMPIRE, a magnificent and maddening experiment with digital video possibilities. FILM HERITAGE AWARD to Jean-Pierre Melville’s ARMY OF SHADOWS (1969), lovingly restored and released by Rialto Pictures for the first time in the United States. FILM HERITAGE AWARD to the Museum of the Moving Image for presenting the first complete U.S. retrospective of French filmmaker Jacques Rivette, including the premiere American showing of the director’s legendary “Out 1.”

http://davekehr.com/?p=150

http://www.dga.org/

I was wondering something about Dayton/Faris, though -- I was under the impression that the DGA prohibited joint directors, and that this is why Joel Coen always got single credit as director, even though both brothers directed the films. I guess that didn't seem apply to Andy/Larry Wachowski or Albert/Allen Hughes, though, so I have no idea where I got that idea.

This may seem something of a paradox. How can two people direct their first film together if the DGA won't admit them as a team? Some of those who have are the Hughes Brothers (who co-directed music videos), the Wachowski Brothers (who had co-directed a feature film) and the Coen Brothers (who did not seek a co-directing waiver until their recently released remake of The Ladykillers). The WDC could also accept substantial co-directing experience in documentaries, commercials or other areas where it is permitted.

BILL CONDON
Dreamgirls

JONATHAN DAYTON & VALERIE FARIS
Little Miss Sunshine

STEPHEN FREARS
The Queen

ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU
Babel

MARTIN SCORSESE
The Departed

http://www.reverseshot.com/article/11_offenses_of_2006

Taking personal inventory here?

The Fountain has got a bit more going on than those hideous Live albums. and The Illusionist wasn't crap (well, except for that childhood prologue).

http://www.wgaeast.org/awards/2007/01/11/screen_nominees/

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Babel, Written by Guillermo Arriaga, Paramount Vantage

Little Miss Sunshine, Written by Michael Arndt, Fox Searchlight Pictures

The Queen, Written by Peter Morgan, Miramax Films

Stranger Than Fiction, Written by Zach Helm, Sony Pictures Entertainment

United 93, Written by Paul Greengrass, Universal Pictures

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer, Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips, Based on a Character Created by Sacha Baron Cohen, Twentieth Century Fox

The Departed, Screenplay by William Monahan, Based on the Motion Picture Infernal Affairs, Written by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, Warner Bros. Pictures

The Devil Wears Prada, Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna, Based on the Novel by Lauren Weisberger, Twentieth Century Fox

Little Children, Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta, Based on the Novel by Tom Perrotta, New Line Cinema

Thank You for Smoking, Screenplay by Jason Reitman, Based on the Novel by Christopher Buckley, Fox Searchlight Pictures

LOS ANGELES, January 11, 2007— Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC, (Children of Men), Dick Pope, BSC (The Illusionist), Robert Richardson, ASC (The Good Shepherd), Dean Semler, ASC, ACS (Apocalypto), and Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (The Black Dahlia) are vying for top honors in the feature film category at the 21st Annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards competition. The winner will be announced during the awards gala on February 18 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

“There is no textbook formula for artful cinematography,” says Russ Alsobrook, ASC who chairs the organization’s Awards Committee. “It takes talent and skill to master a complex craft, as well as a collaborative spirit. These five, amazingly talented individuals were selected by their peers who believe they have set the standard for artful visual story-telling in a sharply competitive field from 2006.”

This is the eighth ASC nomination for Richardson, the third for Zsigmond, the second for Lubezki and Semler, and the first for Pope. They were nominated for movies that occur in different places and eras, with themes varying from pure fantasy to stark reality.

But I'm shocked that this is only the THIRD time Zsigmond has been nom'd by his guild.

http://www.bafta.org/site/page287.html

"smonkin' aces" on the other hand: ai ai ai.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/worldcinema/award2007.shtml

http://silentbobspeaks.com/?p=305

http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2007/01/grainy-haze-of-dreams-denby-lynch-mann.html

I hate praising ideas instead of results.

That's all film criticism is.

Fixed.

I think I'm weighting my ballot toward the underseen.

I'm still pissed this thread basically doesn't exist now that I can't find the old sandbox thread.

I haven't finished my best of '06 list

I mostly wanted to look up my initial skepticism that Inland Empire would be anywhere near the ex-VV film poll top 10, or even 20.

Oh, it's spelled detritus?!?! I'm so embarassed.

wow, Eric high in OTMness, esp on ranking #1 and 2, and properly placing Army of Shadows.

I haven't quite finished with '06 yet: Duck Season, The Good Shepherd, etc.

this about notes on a scandal:

Oscar bait dressed up like trash. Better than if it were the other way around

so OTM

also the descent gets two different ratings!

and i've seen less than half of these but i otherwise agree with #1 and 2 also

That list works better turned on it's head.

These threads have great replay value for me. I wish the sandbox stuff could've been integrated into this one, tho.

I don't know how The Descent got in there twice, much less how it got two stars the (I presume) first time around.

Also, I'm really looking forward to watching The Good Shepherd for some strange reason, and in hi def.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071122/COMMENTARY/71123002

at least he found the energy to assemble a list a dreary as every other middlebrow's.

There's a review of Inland Empire on his site ('07 for Chi), but it's by someone else.

God this was a fantastic year.

Inland Empire
Everything Will Be OK
Syndromes and a Century
Children of Men
Miami Vice
The Case of the Grinning Cat
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Jackass Number Two
The Ister