Official Submissions for the 2013 Best Foreign Language Oscar

 

71 countries will be competing for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at next year's ceremony, setting a new record. A number of heavy-hitters will be vying for the award, from festival darlings to crowd-pleasing local hits. Each of the top prize winners at the three major competitive film festivals–Berlin, Cannes, and Venice–will be representing their respective countries. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Golden Bear winner Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire), which is set in a men's prison where the inmates are preparing a performance of Julius Caesar, was Italy's submission. Michael Haneke's Amour could earn the director his second Academy Award nomination just as it claimed his second Palme d'Or, following The White Ribbon (Das weiße Band) in 2010, though Amour will be representing Haneke's native Austria instead of Germany, which laid claim to his previous film. South Korea chose Kim Ki-duk's Pietà, this year's Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival, as their submission.

 

In addition to Caesar Must Die, five other films from the Berlinale competition back in February made the cut: Christian Petzold's Barbara for Germany, Ursula Meier's Sister (L'enfant d'en haut) for Switzerland, Kim Nguyen's War Witch (Rebelle) for Canada, Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair (En kongelig affære) for Denmark, and Benedek Fliegauf's Just the Wind (Csak a szél) for Hungary. Japan's submission, Yang Yong-hi's Our Homeland, and Uruguay's, Rodrigo Plá's The Delay (La demora), screened as part of the Forum section at the Berlinale, and Morocco's submission, Faouzi Bensaïdi's Death for Sale, played in the Panorama section.

 

Amour will be joined by six other films from this year's Cannes Film Festival: Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills (După dealuri) for Romania, Benjamín Ávila's Clandestine Childhood (Infancia clandestina) for Argentina, Pablo Larraín's No for Chile, Joachim Lafosse's Our Children (À perdre la raison) for Belgium, Michel Franco's After Lucía (Después de Lucía) for Mexico, and Aida Begić's Children of Sarajevo (Djeca) for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Rounding out the rest of the notable contenders: Oliver Nakache and Eric Toledano's box office hit The Intouchables (Intouchables) for France; Chen Kaige's latest Caught in the Web, which recently played at the Toronto International Film Festival, for China; Cate Shortland's German-language feature Lore for Australia; Johnnie To's Life Without Principle for Hong Kong; Baltasar Kormákur's survival drama The Deep (Djúpið) for Iceland; Rama Burshtein's Fill the Void, which took home the Best Actress prize at Venice, for Israel; Annemarie Jacir's When I Saw You for Palestine; João Canijo's family drama Blood of My Blood (Sangue do Meu Sangue) for Portugal; Pablo Berger's Blancanieves, a 1920s-set silent film likely hoping to attract the attention this year's big winner The Artist received, for Spain; Pen-ek Ratanaruang's thriller Headshot for Thailand; and Lasse Halström's The Hypnotist (Hypnotisören), the director's first Swedish-language film in over twenty years, for Sweden.

 

A full list of the submissions can be found at this link, via Alt Film Guide. It's also worth noting that Iran, who won the previous Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, has officially boycotted the Oscar race. For those in the US, both Life Without Principle and Headshot recently became available on Netflix Instant. As in previous years, the Academy will narrow the list down significantly before announcing the five nominees on January 10th. The 85th Academy Awards will be held on February 24, 2013.

The Decade List: 3-Iron (2004)

3-Iron – dir. Kim Ki-duk

When rewatching Kim Ki-duk’s 3-Iron, I had the fear that the very stylized contrivances that made me initially like it would have worn thin. As admirable as it may have seemed to situate your films around characters that barely utter a word to one another (if at all), this action proved a little too precious when I revisited The Isle, despite its occasional grotesqueness. Kim Ki-duk has proven by now that his chattier films, like Bad Guy and Samaritan Girl, fall short of his minimal works (like the splendid Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring), so I was pleased when 3-Iron managed to retain its poetic charms the second time around.

Tae-suk (Lee Hyun-kyoon) spends his days nimbly breaking into the homes of vacationing families, observing the details of their living spaces and quietly exiting before its inhabitants return. Eventually, he makes the mistake of entering a home that’s not empty, where the sullen Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon) resides while her asshole husband (Kwon Hyuk-ho) is away on business. Sun-hwa bests Tae-suk at his own game of phantom lurking, and naturally they fall in wordless love. Altogether tighter and more elegantly composed than The Isle, 3-Iron works because it’s more of a fable than an obtuse allegory. And like all the best fables I can think of, 3-Iron is perfectly, equally lovely and sad.

With: Lee Seung-yeon, Lee Hyun-kyoon, Kwon Hyuk-ho, Choi Jeong-ho
Screenplay: Kim Ki-duk
Cinematography: Jang Seong-back
Music: Slvian
Country of Origin: South Korea/Japan
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Premiere: 7 September 2004 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: January 2005 (Sundance Film Festival)

Awards: Special Director’s Award, Little Golden Lion, FIPRESCI Prize – Competition (Venice Film Festival)

The Decade List: Some Honorable Mentions for 2000

As time is not on my side, I probably won't get the chance to write about (or even view) all of the films I'd like to for The Decade List. To make up for this, I've singled out a few other notable films from the year 2000, most of which aren't likely to show up on the big list down the road. Some of them are annotated, others not. Of the films below, only five have been revisited within the past year. You can still expect a bunch of other 2000 films throughout the year. I'll probably continue to do this with other good, if not amazing, films from the past 10 years. The films below are in no particular order, though the annotated ones are listed first.

Seom [The Isle] - dir. Kim Ki-duk

A rewatch of the film that introduced me to Kim Ki-duk proved less satisfactory than I had remembered. Outside of its grotesqueness, Ki-duk conducts a breathtaking landscape, a dream/nightmare world of floating houses on a Korean river with dialogue at an absolute minimum. This setting/tone of a cinematic poem works a lot better in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, but on a visual level, The Isle is still quite lovely.

With: Suh Jung, Kim Yoosuk, Park Sung-hee, Jo Jae-hyeon, Jang Hang-Seon
Screenplay: Kim Ki-duk
Cinematography: Hwang Seo-shik
Music: Jeon Sang-yun
Country of Origin: South Korea
US Distributor: First Run Features

Premiere: 22 April 2000 (South Korea)
US Premiere: 2002 August 23

The King Is Alive - dir. Kristian Levring

Of the notable Dogme 95 films of the 21st century (which, I believe, Lone Scherfig's Italian for Beginners, Susanne Bier's Open Hearts and Ole Christian Madsen's Kira's Reason: A Love Story may be the only others), Kristian Levring's The King Is Alive always stood as my favorite, despite the handful of problems that lie within. The premise, in which a group of tourists get stranded in the middle of an African desert when their bus veers off-course, isn't remarkable. It's a classic pre-reality TV boom exposé of the dark side of the human condition, in which a group of strangers resort to greed and treachery as their hope diminishes, and it doesn't break new ground there. However, when meta psychdrama takes precedence over bleak survival drama, The King Is Alive becomes a lot more intriguing. Of the uniformly excellent cast, Levring provides his actresses with the best material, with Romane Bohringer as an Iago-esque French woman, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a seemingly vapid party girl, Janet McTeer and Lia Williams as women unsatisfied by their husbands. Though certainly contrived, The King Is Alive is rather beautiful when it's hitting the right notes.

With: David Bradley, Romane Bohringer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janet McTeer, David Calder, Bruce Davison, Lia Williams, Chris Walker, Vusi Kunene, Miles Anderson, Brion James, Peter Khubeke
Screenplay: Kristian Levring, Anders Thomas Jensen, with inspiration from William Shakespeare's King Lear
Cinematography: Jens Schlosser
Music: Derek Thompson
Country of Origin: Denmark/Sweden/USA
US Distributor: IFC Films

Premiere: 11 May 2000 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 2001 May 11

Awards: Best Actress - Jennifer Jason Leigh (Tokyo International Film Festival)

Psycho Beach Party - dir. Robert Lee King

An amalgam of Frankie & Annette beach films, slasher pics and 60s Americana, Psycho Beach Party finds nothing new to say about its gender or sexual politics, but in such a rambunctious, vibrant package, it's hard to complain. The year 2000 was a strong one for Lauren Ambrose, whose hysterical performance as the spunky schizo Chicklet here and the lost teenager Frankie in Robert J. Siegel's somber Swimming would lead her to the amazing Six Feet Under the following year. Though Psycho Beach Party has a few casting missteps (Nicholas Brendan as Mr. Perfect?), Amy Adams, as the boycrazy Marvel Ann, is one of the bright spots.

With: Lauren Ambrose, Charles Busch, Thomas Gibson, Nicholas Brendon, Beth Broderick, Kimberley Davies, Matt Keeslar, Danni Wheeler, Amy Adams, Nick Cornish, Andrew Levitas, Kathleen Robertson, Nathan Bexton, Buddy Quaid
Screenplay: Charles Busch, based on his play Psycho Beach Party
Cinematography: Arturo Smith
Music: Ben Vaughn
Country of Origin: USA/Australia
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 23 January 2000 (Sundance)

Awards: Outstanding Actress - Lauren Ambrose (L.A. Outfest)

Trolösa [Faithless] - dir. Liv Ullmann

Ingmar Bergman screenplays directed by other people always lack the filmmaker's visual and emotional touch, but his frequent actress and former lover Liv Ullmann does an impressive job with Faithless, even if it does feel like something's missing. There's a strangeness about the unveiled disclosure of the screenplay, in which Erland Josephson, another regular in Bergman's troupe of actors, plays a character named Bergman, living on the island of Fårö, where many of the master's great works were filmed and where he'd later die. Ullmann keeps things ambiguous however, intertwining imagination and memory and keeping the narrative from feeling too confessional.

With: Lena Endre, Erland Josephson, Krister Henriksson, Thomas Hanzon, Michelle Gylemo
Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman
Cinematography: Jörgen Persson
Country of Origin: Sweden/Italy/Germany/Finland/Norway
US Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Premiere: 13 May 2000 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 2001 January 26 (Palm Springs International Film Festival)

Happy Times - dir. Zhang Yimou

Happy Times would be the turning point in Zhang Yimou's successful, if overpraised, career. His fascination with human drama ended on a high note with Happy Times before giving way to shit-fucking-awful martial arts epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers (as well Curse of the Golden Flower, which I never saw, and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, a "return to form").

With: Zhao Benshan, Dong Jie, Dong Lifan, Fu Biao, Li Xuejian
Screenplay: Zi Gai, based on the novel Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan
Cinematography: Hou Yong
Music: San Bao
Country of Origin: China
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Premiere: 31 December 2000
US Premiere: 2002 July 26

Erin Brockovich - dir. Steven Soderbergh

As wildly diverse as Steven Soderbergh's career may be, he found one of his best films, Out of Sight, under the Hollywood umbrella. While not nearly as good as Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich was, for this writer, the better of Soderbergh's offerings in 2000. Erin Brockovich's "empowerment" and sense of humor made for a much more enjoyable filmgoing experience than Traffic's "grittiness." Both could be thrown together as "message movies" about giant social issues, and while their insincerity comes from divergent reasons, Erin Brockovich never strives for anything bigger than its real-life subject does, and thankfully a few of those things are a tight-top, big hair, high heels and plenty of sass. All snark aside, Julia Roberts' performance is quite good, and her Oscar for it is certainly justified from a Hollywood perspective (though, of course, plenty of other actresses were even better with more challenging roles).

With: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger
Screenplay: Susannah Grant
Cinematography: Ed Lachman
Music: Thomas Newman
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Universal Studios

Premiere: 14 March 2000 (USA)

Awards: Best Actress - Julia Roberts (Academy Awards); Best Actress - Julia Roberts (BAFTAs); Best Actress, Drama - Julia Roberts (Golden Globes); Best Actress - Julia Roberts, Best Director [also for Traffic] (National Board of Review)

Dancing at the Blue Iguana - dir. Michael Radford

As a film, Dancing at the Blue Iguana isn't much, but as an acting experiment, which was how the film became what it is, it's fantastic. Surrounding the personal and professional lives of five strippers at the Blue Iguana, Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh deliver some of the best performances of their careers. All three tool around with their own expected cinematic personas (Hannah as the ditzy blonde, Oh as the introverted nice girl and Tilly as the fiesty vixen) with remarkable results. As one might expect from a film based around improvisation, Dancing at the Blue Iguana works better in individual scenes than as a whole. The most memorable occurs when Tilly, after finding out that she's pregnant, tries to smoke in the waiting room of the doctor's office and goes off on the irritating mom-to-bed next to her. Though neither Hannah nor Oh are physically believable as strippers (I always assume chest size is a pre-requisite for such a job), they make up for it in other areas. Dancing at the Blue Iguana is one of the few examples of a film that overcomes the fact that the sum of its parts greatly out-weight the whole.

With: Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly, Charlotta Ayanna, Sandra Oh, Sheila Kelley, Elias Koteas, Robert Wisdom, Vladimir Mashkov, Kristin Bauer, W. Earl Brown, Chris Hogan, Rodney Rowland, Jesse Bradford, Christina Cabot
Screenplay: Michael Radford, David Linter
Cinematography: Ericson Core
Music: Tal Bergman, Renato Neto
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Lions Gate

Premiere: 14 September 2000 (Toronto Film Festival)
US Premiere: 21 April 2001 (Los Angeles Film Festival)

Trasgredire [Cheeky!] - dir. Tinto Brass

Taken from my earlier review: Tinto Brass still makes films as if it were the 1970s. We open Cheeky! with our heroine, Carla (Yuliya Mayarchuk), strolling through a London park like Jayne Mansfield in The Girl Can’t Help It to an amusingly high-cheese score, where it just so happens everyone around her is engaging in lusty sex. Everywhere she turns, there’s a woman uncrossing her legs to reveal she forgot to put her panties in the laundry that morning. Or there’s a couple in heat, appeasing one another’s sexual urges. Of course, Carla, looking like an Eastern-European streetwalker dressed up as Brigitte Bardot, joins in on the fun, wearing a see-through skirt and exposing her buttocks to passer-byers. There’s a story that follows involving Carla’s tight-ass boyfriend and her search for an apartment, but really this is only an excuse to introduce Carla to as many sexual partners as possible or place her in a situation where others are about to bang. The playfulness of Cheeky!’s sexuality is admirable and refreshing, even if the film is simply pretext for close-ups of Mayarchuk’s ass and sexual experimentation.

With: Yuliya Mayarchuk, Jarno Berardi, Francesca Nunzi, Max Parodi, Mauro Lorenz, Leila Carli, Vittorio Attene
Screenplay: Tinto Brass, Carla Cipriani, Nicolaj Pennestri, Silvia Rossi, Massimiliano Zanin
Cinematography: Massimo Di Venanzo
Music: Pino Donaggio
Country of Origin: Italy
US Distributor: Cult Epics

Premiere: 28 January 2000 (Italy)
US Premiere: 30 May 2006 (DVD Premiere)

Sordid Lives - dir. Del Shores

With: Beth Grant, Delta Burke, Ann Walker, Leslie Jordan, Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Kirk Geiger, Olivia Newton-John, Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander
Screenplay: Del Shores, based on his play
Cinematography: Max Civon
Music: George S. Clinton
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: here! Films

Premiere: 2000 May 25 (Toronto InsideOut Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)
US Premiere: 31 May 2000 (Seattle International Film Festival)

Awards: Outstanding Soundtrack (L.A. Outfest); Best Feature Film, Best Actor - Leslie Jordan (New York International Independent Film & Video Festival); Best Feature (Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival)

Faites comme si je n'étais pas là [Pretend I'm Not Here] - dir. Olivier Jahan

With: Jérémie Renier, Aurore Clément, Sami Bouajila, Alexia Stresi, Nathalie Richard, Emma de Caunes, Johan Leysen, Ouassini Embarek, Bouli Lanners
Screenplay: Olivier Jahan, Michael C. Pouzol
Cinematography: Gilles Porte
Music: Cyril Moisson
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: N/A

Premiere: 2000 June (Avignon Film Festival)
US Premiere: N/A

101 Reykjavík - dir. Baltasar Kormákur

With: Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Victoria Abril, Hanna María Karlsdóttir, Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir, Baltasar Kormákur
Screenplay: Baltasar Kormákur, based on the novel by Hallgrímur Helgason
Cinematography: Peter Steuger
Music: Damon Albarn, Einar Örn Benediktsson
Country of Origin: Iceland/Denmark/France/Norway/Germany
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 1 June 2000 (Iceland)
US Premiere: 25 July 2001 (New York City)

Awards: Discovery Award (Toronto International Film Festival); Best Screenplay, Best Sound - Kjartan Kjartansson (Edda Awards, Iceland)

Mysterious Object at Noon - dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Cinematography: Prasong Klimborron, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Country of Origin: Thailand
US Distributor: Plexifilm

Premiere: 2000 October 2 (Vancouver International Film Festival)
US Premiere: 2001 June 23 (New York City)

Dayereh [The Circle] - dir. Jafar Panahi

With: Nargess Mamizadeh, Maryiam Palvin Almani, Mojgan Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin, Solmaz Panahi, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Fatemeh Naghavi, Monir Arab
Screenplay: Kambuzia Partovi
Cinematography: Bahram Badakshani
Country of Origin: Iran/Switzerland/Italy
US Distributor: Fox Lorber

Premiere: 6 September 2000 (Venice FIlm Festival)
US Premiere: 1 March 2000 (International Film Series)

Awards: Golden Lion (Venice); Freedom of Expression Award (National Board of Review)

O Fantasma - dir. João Pedro Rodrigues

With: Ricardo Meneses, Beatriz Torcato, Andre Barbosa, Eurico Vieria, Joaquim Oliveira, Florindo Lourenço
Screenplay: Alexandre Melo, José Neves, Paulo Rebelo, João Pedro Rodrigues
Cinematography: Rui Poças
Country of Origin: Portugal
US Distributor: Picture This!

Premiere: 8 September 2000 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: 2001 June 2 (Seattle International Film Festival)

Awards: Best Feature (New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)

Grumble!

I knew it was true, but now I have official confirmation. Tartan USA is dead. This is terrible news, but I'm not surprised. The studio, an American branch of the UK company, released a number of extremely popular Asian films, including Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy, as well as challenging films from the rest of the world, including Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, Catherine Breillat's Anatomy of Hell, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu and Carlos Reygadas' Battle in Heaven. This is terrible news, unless some savvy studio has bought their collection.

Films in limbo now include: Kim Ki-duk's Breath, Koen Mortier's Ex Drummer, Brad McGann's In My Father's Shoes, Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light (though I don't know if the studio had actually picked it up as they were dying by the time this was released), György Pálfi's Taxidermia, and Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer.

Release Updates

Todd Haynes' hotly-anticipated Bob Dylan film, I'm Not There, which stars Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Wishaw (Perfume), and Marcus Carl Franklin as Dylan, will be released by the Weinstein Company on November 21st in limited release. The film also stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Julianne Moore, Bruce Greenwood, Michelle Williams, and David Cross (who plays Allen Ginsberg). Too bad the rumors that Haynes wanted to cast either Beyoncé or Oprah Winfrey as one of the Dylans fell through.

IFC Films has picked up Catherine Breillat's Une vieille maîtresse, releasing it as The Last Mistress, for early 2008. Asia Argento stars, along with Fa'ud Ait Attou and Breillat regulars Roxane Mesquida, Anne Parrillaud, Sarah Pratt, Amira Casar, and Lio. The film is based on the novel by Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly.

There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson's first film since Punch-Drunk Love, will make the Oscar cut-off in New York and Los Angeles just before the new year. The film is based on an Upton Sinclair story and stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. Paramount Vantage and Miramax will co-release the film.

Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's Perespolis, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year, will also do the Oscar cut-off business from Sony Pictures Classics. This animated film about an Iranian girl's upbringing features the voices of Chiarra Mastroianni, her mother Catherine Deneuve, and Danielle Darrieux (which will mark her fifth time playing the mother of Deneuve, after 8 femmes and The Young Girls of Rochefort, among others)... though it looks like the film will be overdubbed by American actors for its U.S. release, including Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands, and Iggy Pop.

IFC Films has acquired the rights to two Cannes entries, Christophe Honoré's Les chansons d'amour (Love Songs) and Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park. Both don't have set release dates, but it looks likely that they won't be around until early 2008. Tartan also acquired Kim Ki-duk's Breath, which also debuted at Cannes this year.

Day and a half late, $1.50 short, or Is This How We Say Goodbye?

The Cannes Film Festival closed the other day, announced its awards yesterday, and I'm just now (due to severe computer troubles) getting around to posting the winners. This year's Palme d'Or went to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a somber, stripped-to-the-bones Romanian feature from Christian Mungiu. The rest of the awards are as follows:

Palme d'Or: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile) - dir. Cristian Mungiu - Romania

Grand Prix (or second place, if you will): The Mourning Forest - dir. Naomi Kawase - Japan/France

Jury Prize (tie): Persepolis - dir. Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud - France and Silent Night (Luz silenciosa) - dir. Carlos Reygadas - Mexico/France

Best Director: Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon)

Best Actor: Konstantin Lavronenko for The Banishment

Best Actress: Jeon Do-yeon for Secret Sunshine

Best Screenplay: Fatih Akin for The Edge of Heaven (Yasamin kiyisinda)

60th Festival Special Award: Paranoid Park - dir. Gus Van Sant - USA/France

According to Toni Collette, jury member this year, the special award for Gus Van Sant was for recognition of Paranoid Park itself and his body of work as a whole. She stated that the entire jury was in agreement with this. The jury this year really went for the smaller films over the biggies, like the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights, or Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. No awards either for Catherine Breillat's Une vieille maitresse. For US distribution, IFC Films has picked up Paranoid Park and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Sony has acquired the Jury Prize-winning animated film Persepolis, and Tartan will likely pick up Reygadas' film (as they have his previous two). Miramax has No Country for Old Men set for November, just in time for Oscar consideration, especially as many are regarding this Coen brothers film as one of their finest. Miramax will also be releasing The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in early 2008 (groan). No word set on distribution for Breillat's, Tarr's, or Ki-duk's, but The Weinstein Company already had their hands all over My Blueberry Nights, so expect that (along with many of the others) this fall or sometime next year.

Cannes News

For once in a long, long time, Julianne Moore fans can rejoice. Though her work in Tom Kalin's Savage Grace is not in the runs to get her a Best Actress nod at the fest, critics have stated that it's her finest, juiciest performance in years. For those who just couldn't get enough Julianne after her performances in [Safe], Magnolia, and Far from Heaven, you can know wipe your minds clean of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio and Trust the Man. The film is the second feature from Kalin, who previously directed Swoon... and if she can shimmer with brilliance under the direction of one homo (Todd Haynes), why not another?

On a more disappointing note, critics have not been kind to Andrei Zvyagintsev's follow-up to The Return, entitled The Banishment. The word "morose" and "humorless" were thrown around a bunch, but I hardly consider these to be criticisms... so we'll have to wait until it comes to the US to decide.

In other news, Michael Moore's Sicko has been getting stronger acclaim than his previous Palme d'Or-winning doc Fahrenheit 9/11 (which I, honestly, wasn't wild about). Olivier Assayas' English-language Boarding Gate, which premiered at a midnight screening, was savaged -- though we all know those French critics can be a bit harsh. Christophe Honoré's musical Les chansons d'amour, with Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, and Chiarra Mastroianni, has also gotten some pretty poor reviews, but I still can't understand why anyone keeps thinking that the Ma mère director will ever make a good film is beyond me... though doesn't the photo of Mastroianni with an umbrella make you wish this was just as good as her mother's turn in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg? Kim Ki-duk's Breath and Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Flight of the Red Balloon (his first French-language film, with Juliette Binoche) have gotten solid, but unenthusiastic praise, so it looks like the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men is the front-runner for the Palme d'Or so far, which would make it their third top prize honor, after Barton Fink and Fargo.

There's about a week left, so expect more updates as I receive them. There's still excitement remaining from the likes of Catherine Breillat, Carlos Reygadas, Abel Ferrara, Asia Argento, Tilda Swinton, Béla Tarr, Alexander Sokourov, Angelina Jolie, Harmony Korine, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, and... of course... Quentin Tarantino and his Death Proof ladies. PS: I love how youthful and hot the ladies of the jury (Sarah Polley, Toni Collette, Maggie Cheung, Maria de Mederios) look in comparison to the old frumpy men (Stephen Frears, Abderramane Sissako, Michel Piccoli, Marco Bellocchio, and Orhan Pamuk) on board. To be a true film fanatic, you gotta be a hot, young woman or an old fart with an extra chin or two. That's what I gather from this photo.