Barbara (Director: Christian Petzold)
Nominees: Zero Dark Thirty, Moonrise Kingdom, Searching For Sugarman, The Invisible War, Cosmopolis, Avengers, Looper, Amour, It's Such a Beautiful DayOscars pick: Argo
Nominees: Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty
Oscar's baby, Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, was gripping and I liked it well enough. I just thought it pushed the manipulation/tension buttons too hard. After a while, I was like "Just get 'em into the damn air Ben!" Yeesh, I was half expecting a man to show up on the wing of the plane, to keep the suspense rolling.
Looking over the Academy's nominations: I enjoyed Lincoln, Django Unchained, and Life of Pi. The others were mostly just okay. Silver Linings Playbook, for example, started off fantastic, but it slipped into conventional rom-com waters at the end and stop being special.
Two from Oscar that stood out for me...
Amour. I'm not a Michael Haneke fan, but this was very well done. It dragged a bit, the director was likely shooting for a certain measured rhythm, kin to what Dryer would do. But I don't find Haneke as accomplished with the technique. The story is brutal. I've seen many films about death, but I've rarely seen one a raw and painful as this. Still, the director also injects a rare (for him) warmth into the relationship.
I also admired Zero Dark Thirty - the nail-biting look at the hunt for bin Laden. I reject the notion that this is pro-torture, as much as I rejected the criticism that Hurt Locker was pro-war. It simply presents the act as fact. I'm glad the writer and director didn't play the apologist, but instead simply shows us this action and these people, and the cost this hunt exacted on them. The filmmakers take some dramatic license with the material, but not to the detriment of the whole, you still get a sense of what happened. Beyond that, it's prime filmmaking. I think it's a better paced, tighter directed, and scripted picture than Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker, and it was my pick among the Oscar nominees.
Outside of Oscar, I liked Don Hertzfeldts unique and imaginative existentialist comedy, It's Such a Beautiful Day. Both intimate and cosmic - its simple line drawings carry so much weight and wisdom and yes, beauty. It speaks about the mundane repetitions that fill up our lives - and the strange thoughts and observations we carry in our heads, as it follows the days and life of Bill, a man who is slowly losing his grip on reality. The droll humor is both darkly funny, a little sad, and filled with contemplative truths about mortality, and how the little joys, even those that are seemingly insignificant, are what makes life wondrous. It was formed out of three shorts Don filmed over the years but works smartly as a whole. Just a brilliant piece that really spoke to me.
2012 was a difficult one to pin down, and I've switched this around a few times over the years, but I believe I've finally found one that will stick. Christian Petzold's Barbara, an absorbing cold war drama about an East German physician who is exiled to a remote area as punishment after applying for an exit visa.
MUBI notebook author, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, summarized Christian's style as practical but not utilitarian because each shot has a sense of purpose. He went on to add... "Petzold is a genre director whose work eschews conventional devices and techniques; his films, essentially thrillers, operate by never giving a viewer cues—visual, musical, or tonal—as to what sort of film they're watching. His plots read like pulp but play like natural, logical developments of the setting and characters". I kept this in mind as I watched and noted the directorial qualities Ignatiy highlighted in his review.
The film is among the director's finest, though on first viewing it can seem too precise, too emotionally detached, and cool. Every hair tucked in place, neat and combed, clothing pressed and perfect - however, another look reveals that there is indeed a lot of feeling boiling under that surface veneer. If the movie doesn't shout at you, doesn't wave its arms about, or aggressively pull at the heartstrings, that doesn't mean it's missing a beating heart. Much like its protagonist, skillfully played by Nina Hoss, it holds its emotions close to the vest. It (and she) has to, as someone could be watching and recording her every move, even a friendly colleague is a potential threat. The paranoia is tangible, but not brazenly presented, there's nuance and subtlety throughout... still, you feel it - whether it's anger over the dehumanizing politics, or the frustration in seeing the pain and sadness that envelopes characters who lack the freedom to live where they chose... even the sacrifice is underplayed, moving, but not overwrought.
While the film is carefully directed and planned - through it all, Barbara is tense, affecting, and bares its soul, quietly, but beautifully and with honesty.
Other films I enjoyed in 2012 listed here... Letterboxd Top 100+
Best Actor: Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt (also A Royal Affair)
Honorable Mentions:
Jean Rochefort, The Artist and the Model * Philip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix, The Master * Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln * Denzel Washington, Flight * Jean Louis Trintignant, Amour * Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained * Tim Roth, Broken * Fabrice Luchini, In the House
MUBI notebook author, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, summarized Christian's style as practical but not utilitarian because each shot has a sense of purpose. He went on to add... "Petzold is a genre director whose work eschews conventional devices and techniques; his films, essentially thrillers, operate by never giving a viewer cues—visual, musical, or tonal—as to what sort of film they're watching. His plots read like pulp but play like natural, logical developments of the setting and characters". I kept this in mind as I watched and noted the directorial qualities Ignatiy highlighted in his review.
The film is among the director's finest, though on first viewing it can seem too precise, too emotionally detached, and cool. Every hair tucked in place, neat and combed, clothing pressed and perfect - however, another look reveals that there is indeed a lot of feeling boiling under that surface veneer. If the movie doesn't shout at you, doesn't wave its arms about, or aggressively pull at the heartstrings, that doesn't mean it's missing a beating heart. Much like its protagonist, skillfully played by Nina Hoss, it holds its emotions close to the vest. It (and she) has to, as someone could be watching and recording her every move, even a friendly colleague is a potential threat. The paranoia is tangible, but not brazenly presented, there's nuance and subtlety throughout... still, you feel it - whether it's anger over the dehumanizing politics, or the frustration in seeing the pain and sadness that envelopes characters who lack the freedom to live where they chose... even the sacrifice is underplayed, moving, but not overwrought.
While the film is carefully directed and planned - through it all, Barbara is tense, affecting, and bares its soul, quietly, but beautifully and with honesty.
Other films I enjoyed in 2012 listed here... Letterboxd Top 100+
Honorable Mentions:
Jean Rochefort, The Artist and the Model * Philip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix, The Master * Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln * Denzel Washington, Flight * Jean Louis Trintignant, Amour * Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained * Tim Roth, Broken * Fabrice Luchini, In the House
Honorable Mentions:
Waad Mohammed, Wadjda * Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild * Eloise Laurence, Broken * Rachel Mwanza, War Witch * Cosmina Stratan & Cristina Flutur, Beyond the Hills * Saskia Rosendahl, Lore * Nina Hoss, Barbara * Keira Knightley, Anna Karenina * Emmanuelle Riva, Amour * Cho Min-soo, Pieta
