Nominees: Nostalghia, Videodrome, The King of Comedy, Sugar Cane Alley, And the Ship Sails On, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Vassa, The 4th Man
Oscars pick: Terms of Endearment
Nominees: The Big Chill, The Dresser, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies
A year loaded with over-rated twaddle like Terms of Endearment, which would have better served as a Lifetime movie of the week. Robert Bresson's final film L'argent has its message diluted by tedium and mechanical composition and performance (I've seen mannequins with more life than these characters. And yeah, I know that's his 'style', but it still doesn't work for me here). And while The Big Chill was one of my girlfriend's favorite movies, I came away feeling, "Me’h".
Many chose The Right Stuff, but I can't see it. I feel it stumbles on several fundamental film making levels. Though based on fact, it mines every cliché in the book, its emotion and characterizations are superficial, and the broad humor is insipid. It’s filled -not with full-blooded individuals- but broad caricatures, like the uptight nurse with the faint mustache. The conflicts between the astronauts, the relationships with their wives, are affected and stagy. They are types, cardboard effigies doing a poor impression of the real deal. I know it has avid fans, but I just can't get into this formulaic film.
So yeah, I didn’t love a lot of movies in 1983, but damn, did I love Sans Soleil, Chris Marker's thoughtful reflection on memory, and how it colors our perceptions of time and history. I found it evocative, endlessly fascinating and beautifully scripted (I was as captivated by the language of these faux letters, as I am the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song). Alexandra Stewart's voice (she's the narrator in English language version) adds so much character to the piece, I could listen to her speak all day. As a bonus, it includes some interesting observations on Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Tyler Brassard called it, "a poem masquerading as a fiction while wearing the clothes of a travelogue, in which the traveler is never the one speaking."
Its strongest competition for the Felix includes Tarkovsky's Nostalghia and Martin Scorsese's King of Comedy, which is a perceptive look at the cult of celebrity. Robert De Niro plays a guy out of touch with reality, who dreams of doing his comedy act on a Carson style show. Meeting resistance and at the end of his rope, he kidnaps the host (Jerry Lewis) and demands a slot on the show. While expertly realized, King sometimes made me squirm in my seat.
Speaking of seat squirming... David Cronenberg made two movies – One was one of his familiar strange, fleshy mind-f---, the other was the first step towards another direction for the filmmaker, one that proved he could bring humanity to the screen, along with the creepiness. You can read about those, here.
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Honorable Mentions:
Om Puri, Ardh Satya * Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy * Tom Courtenay & Albert Finney, The Dresser * Christopher Walken, The Dead Zone * James Woods, Videodrome * Jeroen Krabbé, The 4th Man * Gérard Depardieu, Danton * Naseeruddin Shah, Masoom
Honorable Mentions:
Inna Churikova, Vassa * Isabelle Huppert & Miou-Miou, Entre Nous * Julie Walters, Educating Rita * Sandrine Bonnaire, À nos amours * Jane Alexander, Testament * Fanny Ardant, Confidentially Yours * Irene Papas, Eréndira
Supporting Actress: Sandra Bernhard, The King of Comedy
Note: For years King of Comedy was considered a 1983 release. Then all of a sudden a Dec '82 showing in Iceland pops up in places like IMDB. I don't know what that was about... a test screening, an exhibition, etc. But to hell with it. I'm not changing my blog now. It was shown worldwide in '83 and it's staying an '83 release here.
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