Best of 2014: Honorable Mention, Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)

Nymphomaniac. Lars von Trier. Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium.

I don't even know what to really say about Lars von Trier's films any more. With each new one, they tend to feel less and less like films and more like events. Hyped to death around the world and across the Internet, the sensations I get leading up to seeing these films feel more like those that I get before long-planned trips or eagerly awaited parties. My subsequent reactions don't feel like responses to the films themselves but to the particular experiences. Those reactions also never feel weighted by my own criticism or opinion. If you asked me whether I liked Nymphomaniac or not, I don't really have an answer.

I find my own experience with Nymphomaniac to be hindered by a number of factors: I watched both volumes alone On Demand from start-to-finish after the theatrical screening was pushed back two weeks; I settled on watching the "theatrical cuts" (which von Trier had nothing to do with) since I couldn't find any information regarding the releases of his versions (which clock in around an hour-and-a-half longer than the studio edits); I eventually watched the director's cuts, at home, both volumes back-to-back and simply found myself comparing the strengths and weaknesses of both versions. I still cannot even say that I like or dislike Nymphomaniac. What I will say critically, however, is that Nymphomaniac (Vol. I, to be specific) contains both the single greatest performance and the single greatest scene in any film this past year.

As Mrs. H, a mother of three whose husband has left her to be with our protagonist Joe (here played by Stacy Martin, whose lack of presence runs the risk of fading her into the wallpaper of every scene; later played by a much more captivating Charlotte Gainsbourg), Uma Thurman enters Joe's apartment (and the film itself) like a hurricane, clutching her three mute boys as she shuffles through Joe's apartment. She refers to her sons always as a collective entity ("the children") and even refuses to use her husband's name ("the children's father" suffices) and asks Joe, "would it be alright if we showed the children the whoring bed?" She escorts the sad angel-faced children into the bedroom as if they were walking into a museum exhibit, showing the children "the whoring bed," or their Daddy's new favorite place. My descriptions of the scene and Uma's performance can't do either the justice they deserve, but "shattering" is a word that comes to mind. Nothing that follows comes anywhere near the fever pitch of this chapter. Neither Thurman nor von Trier have ever shined brighter than they did in those 10-to-15 minutes, and even if I can't really tell you that I liked (or even disliked) Nymphomaniac, I can assure you that Uma made the experience totally worthwhile.

With: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBoeuf, Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, Uma Thurman, Mia Goth, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen, Michael Pas, Jamie Bell, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, Jens Albinus, Jesper Christensen, Nicolas Bro, Hugo Speer, Christian Gade Bjerrum, Jonas Baeck, Christoph Schechinger, Jesse Inman, David Halina, Anders Hove, Simon Boer, Cyron Melville, Saskia Reeves

Best of 2014: #5. Misunderstood (Asia Argento)

#5. Misunderstood (Incompresa). Asia Argento. Italy/France.

In her third outing as director, Asia Argento physically takes herself out of frame (after assuming the lead roles in both Scarlet Diva and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things) for her most personal film to date. In many ways beyond the fact that Argento starred in Catherine Breillat's The Last Mistress, Misunderstood pairs rather well with Abuse of Weakness, as both films turn the directors' own lives into fiction to explore some rather profound and complex emotions (though Argento said if she really wanted to make a film about her parents, it'd be more along the lines of Capturing the Friedmans than this). In Misunderstood, Argento paints a candy-colored diorama of Rome in the early 1980s where nine-year-old Aria, brilliantly played by Giulia Salerno, lives with her occasionally volatile, often neurotic, and consistently self-centered parents and her two sisters. Aria's father (Gabriel Garko) is a handsome, vain, superstitious actor who is a bit of a celebrity in Italy. Her mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a beautiful musician who changes her style with every successive lover who enters (and inevitably leaves) their lives.

What follows is a series of blow-ups that send Aria back and forth between her parents' respective homes, with her two sisters—one the older half sister who has the makings of a young Anna Nicole Smith, the other a pretty brunette who looks just like her mother—taking permanent stay with their respective parent. What's most impressive about Misunderstood is Argento's ability to capture the spirit of youth, in all its folly, heartache, and confusion. She pulls a truly remarkable performance out of her young lead actress, who is so perfectly wide-eyed and with a face that expresses the competing sensations of excitement and disappointment. Again like another Breillat film, Fat Girl, Argento understands the difficult forces that run through family—emotions and actions that occur between siblings and parents, many of which directly conflict the emotions and actions they had previously displayed, on an unpredictable cycle. Tenderness and spite come in equal measures. Equally entrancing and heartbreaking, Misunderstood showcases Argento's ever-increasing strength as a filmmaker with an impressive vision. Let's just hope it doesn't take her another ten years to direct her next film.

With: Giulia Salerno, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gabriel Garko, Carolina Poccioni, Anna Lou Castoldi, Alice Pea, Andrea Pittorino, Riccardo Russo, Sofia Patron, Gianmarco Tognazzi, Max Gazzè, Justin Pearson

"Comic Strip"

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)
2010, France
Joann Sfar

That Joann Sfar’s Serge Gainsbourg film was originally planned to star the famed musician’s own daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, as her father makes it difficult to imagine that, when Charlotte dropped out, anything or anyone that could have successfully taken her place. Sure, the casting of a woman in the role of an iconic, enigmatic singer/songwriter had been done (successfully) in Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan pic I’m Not There., with Cate Blanchett, but the possibility of seeing Charlotte Gainsbourg in drag as her late father, seducing and romancing an actor playing her mother, would have been as decidedly pervy and enticing as Charlotte’s own teenage duet with daddy, “Lemon Incest.” So it came as a bit of a surprise (to me, at least) that Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), sans Charlotte, is actually quite good.

Certainly Eric Elmosnino’s channeling of Monsieur Gainsbourg, which won him the Best Actor prize at the Césars, is impressive, but a solid impersonation does not a good film make. Instead, it’s the bolder choices made by Sfar, best known as a comic artist, in his first foray as a filmmaker that elevate Vie héroïque, which he adapted from his own graphic novel, beyond your factory-line Hollywood biopic. Sfar too won the César for Best First Film. Throughout the film, Serge–whether played as an adult by Elmosnino or as the child Lucien Ginsburg by Kacey Mottet Klein (of Ursula Meier’s Home)–is accompanied by a nightmarish, computer-animated version of himself, which serves as a visually exciting and narratively clever device.

 

Sfar also excels at one of the film’s more difficult tasks: introducing the many famed women of Gainsbourg’s life. It’s unfortunate that the two women who get the most screen time, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, are the least convincing performances in the film, despite both Laetitia Casta and Lucy Gordon’s strong physical resemblances to their respective characters. However, each of the women represented in the film enter the film explosively, almost the way I would imagine would befit the introduction of a series of recognized villains in a well-known comic book or video game. Villains these women, of course, are not, but they each provide their own individual challenges to our hero.

 

The more inspired performances come from Yolande Moreau as Fréhel, Sara Forestier as France Gall, Mylène Jampanoï as Bambou, and especially Anna Mouglalis as Juliette Gréco. Greco’s entrance is the most astonishing: a single shot of the opening her eyes to the sound of a thunder clap, as if she were waking from a hundred-year slumber. There’s also a funny, cartoonish cameo from Claude Chabrol (in his final appearance on the silver screen) as the record producer to whom Gainsbourg brings his new version of “Je t’aime, moi non plus” with Birkin filling in on vocals for Bardot. Again, it’s all about the eyes. Vie héroïque is probably the best biopic of Serge Gainsbourg that could have been made without Charlotte, and for that, Sfar should be commended.

With: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Kacey Mottet Klein, Razvan Vasilescu, Dinara Droukarova, Anna Mouglalis, Mylène Jampanoï, Sara Forestier, Yolande Moreau, Philippe Katerine, Deborah Grall, Ophélia Kolb, Claude Chabrol, François Morel, Joann Sfar

The Decade List: Antichrist (2009)

Antichrist – dir. Lars von Trier

What words could I possibly add to the ones already given to the most notorious film of 2009? Greeted with what those of us not in attendance can only imagine as a fury of loud, mixed reactions at Cannes in May, I begin to wonder if anyone seeing it after that premiere screening could really get the full effect of Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. While some people might be better off knowing about the more salacious aspects of the film before seeing it, I don’t count myself among them. Fueled by an unfortunate curiosity, I couldn’t help but read the various reports from Cannes, all of which expressed in detail the “finer” aspects of Antichrist, so when I finally got my chance to see the film, how could I pretend I didn’t know what lied ahead?

The experience of seeing a film without a single notion of what to expect is an enviable one, especially when considering a film like Antichrist. But, while the real “doozies” hardly even registered, I witnessed something strange and powerful around those elements, a film that certainly was, but never felt like, the film I had read about. With the right spin, the plot specifics of Antichrist could (and did) sound like a two-hour-long fuck-you from von Trier, from its biblical parallels to its dedication to the late Andrei Tarkovsky. But what I saw wasn’t that.

For its first hour, Antichrist unfolds like one, seemingly endless panic attack, made all the more unsettling and human by Charlotte Gainsbourg’s staggering performance. Stricken by the unimaginable guilt that she (or more specifically, her own sexuality) was responsible for the death of her child, Gainsbourg, the “She” to Willem Dafoe’s “He,” suffers a devastating paralysis, leading her husband to aid her in confronting the underlying fears triggering this guilt.

Perhaps the boldest aspect of Antichrist is the way von Trier takes his loudest criticism (misogyny) and magnifies it. Even his detractors should admit one of the director’s finest gifts is his ability to elicit brilliant performances from his actors, even if his methods have raised some eyebrows after his onset spats with Björk, Nicole Kidman and John C. Reilly have been made public. Gainsbourg’s performance, which won the Best Actress prize at Cannes, is what levels the magnification, allowing some of the dubious proceedings to haunt even if they happen to revile at the same time.

I’m not sure how Antichrist brought von Trier out of a serious bout of depression or if pushing the misogynistic claims to their limit succeeds at destabilizing them. I’m not really sure about a lot of things about Antichrist, aside from the fact that it worked for me, with all its idiosyncrasies. Antichrist opens in select theatres in the United States today and bows on IFC On Demand Wednesday, the 28th.

With: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Country of Origin: Denmark/Germany/France/Sweden/Italy/Poland
US Distributor: IFC Films

Premiere: 18 May 2009 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 25 September 2009 (Austin Fantastic Fest)

Awards: Best Actress – Charlotte Gainsbourg (Cannes Film Festival)

The Decade List: Nuovomondo (2006)

Nuovomondo [Golden Door] – dir. Emanuele Crialese

When first learning about literature, children are always taught that a good story has a beginning, middle, and an end. What they aren't taught is that, often, stories can be a lot more fascinating if you forego the former and the latter. Presented by longtime champion of world cinema appreciation Martin Scorsese, Emanuele Crialese's Golden Door (or New World, the direct translation from Italian) slights the audience on a traditional opening and closing, focusing with acute detail on a midsection of a tale of Sicilian immigrants on their way to the United States at the turn of the century. It would almost seem fitting that the weaker areas of the film take place when attempting to provide groundwork for the central family before embarking on the trip and that the finest moments focus on the journey. Golden Door is an adventure film without a clear destination in sight. Certainly, there's a literal finishing point (Ellis Island), but Crialese prefers the excitement of the expedition considerably more than the trophy at the end.

Salvatore (Vincenzo Amato) is a father of two boys, one a young man on the cusp of sexual awakening (Francesco Casisa), the other a curious mute (Filippo Pucillo). After receiving what they believe to be a sign from God, the three men, along with their witch doctor grandmother (Aurora Quattrocchi) and two other young women, embark on a journey to a mysterious land of opportunity. On the boat, however, they encounter an attractive English woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in search of a husband to allow her admittance into this new world. A widower and single father, Salvatore accepts her proposal, though she speaks little Italian and he, little to no English.

Long considered dead, or at least dormant, after cinema's glorious heyday in the '60s and '70s, Golden Door is probably one of the strongest films to come out of Italy this decade. Instead of depicting the bleak realities of death, famine, and despair on the long oceanic journey to America, Crialese fills his film with jubilation, and with an amusing surrealist touch. Kudos should also go to Agnès Godard, one of the most visionary cinematographers in European cinema today. Her images reach a sublime divinity in composition and clarity. Similar to her work with Claire Denis (Beau travail) and André Téchiné (Strayed), her artistry elevates Golden Door to awe-inspiring heights. With the combined forces of Crialese and Godard, Golden Door is a lush, joyous cinematic experience of a size Italian cinema has been lacking since the days of Antonioni, Fellini, Bertolucci and Pasolini.

With: Vincenzo Amato, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Aurora Quattrocchi, Francesco Casisa, Filippo Pucillo, Federica de Cola, Isabella Ragonese, Vincent Schiavelli, Filippo Luna
Screenplay: Emanuele Crialese
Cinematography: Agnès Godard
Music: Antonio Castrigano
Country of Origin: Italy/France
US Distributor: Miramax

Premiere: 8 September 2006 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: 3 October 2006 (Cinema Italian Style)

Awards: Silver Lion – Revelation (Venice Film Festival); Best Costume Design – Mariano Tufano, Best Production Design – Carlos Conti, Best Visual Effects (David di Donatello Awards, Italy)

The Decade List: Albums/Singles (2006)

When I mentioned in the 2005 edition of Albums/Singles that another of my favorite albums of the remaining four years was likely going to align with Pitchfork's choice, 2006 was the year. The Knife's Silent Shout is an album to be reckoned with, one that I'm still unable to rid from my mind. It's the sort of album that serves as a teleportation device for the mind, soaring it into uncharted landscapes and rhythms. Its sonic pulsations are still likely to send chills down my back, in a much different way than the Dreijer siblings have managed before. Though Silent Shout produced four singles, none even tried to call to mind their wildly successful "Heartbeats;" for the reclusive brother-sister pair, Silent Shout returned them into the tenebrosity they'd always preferred. Silent Shout is a luminous and terrifying creature, certain to appear in the upper tier of my official Decade List album ranking come December.

As for the rest, I've "fudged" a bit on some of these. I suppose technically Tom Waits' Orphans is more of a compilation than a 3-disc album. That sort of leeway was granted unfairly to a few others, some of which showed up (Massive Attack's "Silent Spring" with Liz Fraser, PJ Harvey's Peel Session version of "You Come Through," Pinback's "Versailles" off a collection of B-sides and rarities), some of which didn't (I omitted anything off Broadcast's The Future Crayon simply because I didn't have space for them). There are a number of other factors I didn't care enough about to adjust, such as my preference of The Hidden Cameras' Learning the Lie EP from 2005 over their LP Awoo from '06, which features a lot of the same songs re-polished, and the inclusion of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's The Swell Season, which is comprised mostly of songs from the film Once which probably should go along with the film music post I'm working on. With 2006, it's become clear to me the supreme importance of the few people who have shaped my musical awareness and taste for the past several years. So, a lot of credit goes to Bradford and Mike for leading me down the right path(s).

Honorable mention should be given to the Pet Shop Boys' Fundamental, Bat for Lashes' Fur and Gold, Sonic Youth's Rather Ripped and Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block. The albums are in loose descending order, with the number 1 as the only absolute.

The Knife - Silent Shout
Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance
Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová - The Swell Season
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
The Hidden Cameras - Awoo
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Lily Allen - Alright, Still
Adem - Love and Other Planets
Psychic Ills - Dins

Assorted Jams for the Year 2006

Again, I've placed significance on the singles which made the deepest impression on me. This time around, I've ranked the top 30 and left the additional 70 in no particular order. There are, of course, some annotations to a few of them. Quite a few have incredible videos to accompany them, so if the art of the music video is your thing, check out The Knife's "We Share Our Mothers' Health," Gnarls Barkley's Zelig-inspired "Smiley Faces," Kelis' "Bossy" (yes, really), the Pet Shop Boys' "I'm with Stupid" starring the boys from Little Britain as Neil and Chris, Bat for Lashes' "What's a Girl to Do?" and The Hidden Cameras' "Death of a Tune."

Naturally, not all of the videos are as good as their respective songs. Overlong, non-musical narratives appear to have been in fashion in 2006, the worst of which being Busta Rhymes' send-up of Mr. & Mrs. Smith for "I Love My Bitch," which was known in MTV world as "I Love My Chick." It's joyless, unclever and finds the idea of replacing Kelis, the titular "bitch/chick," with actress Gabrielle Union for the video to be an acceptable one (it's not). "I love my baby" just doesn't have the same ring as "I love my nigga."

And yes, I'm aware of the ridiculousness of including Beyoncé's "Ring the Alarm," off her curiously titled album B'Day (I guess no one alerted her to the homophonous connection one could make with a device used to clean one's anus and genitalia). I must still cling to defensiveness in regard to my guilt-free love of pop music. Hopefully by next month I won't even have to address it. The songs without links weren't mistakenly left without them; I just couldn't uncover them streaming anywhere and didn't feel like mentioning it every time. Enjoy.

The Top 30

The Knife - "We Share Our Mothers' Health" [from Silent Shout]
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Strange Form of Life" [from The Letting Go]
Sufjan Stevens - "Sister Winter" [from Songs for Christmas]
Justin Timberlake featuring T.I. - "My Love" [from FutureSex/LoveSounds]
Bat for Lashes - "Trophy" [from Fur and Gold]
The Hidden Cameras - "Learning the Lie" [from Awoo]
Gnarls Barkley - "Smiley Faces" [from St. Elsewhere]
The Knife - "The Captain" [from Silent Shout]
The Radio Dept. - "The Worst Taste in Music" [from Pet Grief]
Grizzly Bear - "Easier" [from Yellow House]
Sally Shapiro - "I Know" [from Disco Romance]
Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová - "The Moon" [from The Swell Season]
TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me" [from Return to Cookie Mountain]
Tom Waits - "2:19" [from Orphans]
Pinback - "Versailles" [from Nautical Antiques]
Hot Chip - "And I Was a Boy from School" [from The Warning]
Cat Power - "The Greatest" [from The Greatest]
Ellen Allien & Apparat - "Way Out" [from Orchestra of Bubbles] (thanks, Jordany!)
Rihanna - "SOS" [from A Girl Like Me]
The Gothic Archies - "Crows" [from The Tragic Treasury: Songs from "A Series of Unfortunate Events"]
Lily Allen - "Smile" [from Alright, Still]
Kelis featuring Too $hort - "Bossy" [from Kelis Was Here]
Beirut - "Rhineland (Heartland)" [from Gulag Orkestar]
Amy Winehouse - "Me and Mr. Jones" [from Back to Black]
Elvis Perkins - "Moon Woman II" [from Ash Wednesday]
Peter Bjorn and John - "Amsterdam" [from Writer's Block]
Junior Boys - "So This Is Goodbye" [from So This Is Goodbye]
Beyoncé - "Irreplaceable" [from B'Day]
Adem - "Launch Yourself" [from Love and Other Planets]
Pet Shop Boys - "I'm with Stupid" [from Fundamental]

Les autres

Oakenfold featuring Brittany Murphy - "Faster Kill Pussycat" [from Faster Kill Pussycat]
Massive Attack featuring Elizabeth Fraser - "Silent Spring" [from Collected]
Albert Hammond, Jr. - "Cartoon Music for Superheroes" [from Yours to Keep]
Bat for Lashes - "What's a Girl to Do?" [from Fur and Gold]
Psychic Ills - "Another Day Another Night" [from Dins]
Grizzly Bear - "Sure Thing" [from the Sorry for the Delay EP]
The Knife - "Neverland" [from Silent Shout]
The Rapture - "Get Myself Into It" [from Pieces of the People We Love]
Busta Rhymes featuring Kelis and will.i.am - "I Love My Bitch" [from The Big Bang]
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - "Crowd Surf Off a Cliff" [from Knives Don't Have Your Back]

Archie Bronson Outfit - "Cherry Lips" [from Derdang Derdang]
Grizzly Bear - "Knife" [from Yellow House]
Prince - "Black Sweat" [from 3121]
T.I. - "Why You Wanna" [from King]
Sufjan Stevens - "Star of Wonder" [from Songs for Christmas]
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Deus Ibi Est" [from Ballad of the Broken Seas]
Christina Aguilera - "Candyman" [from Back to Basics]
Band of Horses - "The Funeral" [from Everything All the Time]
Sally Shapiro - "I'll Be by Your Side" [from Disco Romance]
Danielson - "Did I Step on Your Trumpet?" [from Ships]

The Radio Dept. - "It's Personal" [from Pet Grief]
Sonic Youth - "Jams Run Free" [from Rather Ripped]
Beirut - "Bratislava" [from Gulag Orkestar]
Nouvelle Vague (vocals by Mélanie Pain) - "Dance with Me" [from Bande à part] (I'm not terribly sure whether this is a fan video or not, but Anna Karina dancing to this is just lovely)
Kelis - "Trilogy" [from Kelis Was Here]
The Knife - "Silent Shout" [from Silent Shout]
Hilary Duff - "Play with Fire (Richard Vission Remix)" [from the Play with Fire promo single] (This verse-free, loud remix is the only way to listen to this or any other Hilary Duff song... if only this was the direction her music career was heading...)
French Kicks - "So Far We Are" [from Two Thousand]
The Speakers - "The Mountain Tomb" [from Yeats Is Greats]
Xzibit - "Family Values" [from Full Circle]

Justin Timberlake - "FutureSex/LoveSound" [from FutureSex/LoveSounds]
The Black Angels - "The Prodigal Son" [from Passover]
Beyoncé - "Ring the Alarm" [from B'Day]
Soundpool - "On High" [from On High]
Lily Allen - "Knock 'em Out" [from Alright, Still]
Air France - "Beach Party" [from On Trade Winds]
The Zutons - "Valerie" [from Tired of Hanging Around]
Alcian Blue - "See You Shine" [from Alcian Blue]
Nelly Furtado - "Maneater" [from Loose]
Teddybears - "Alma" [from Soft Machine]

PJ Harvey - "You Come Through (Peel Session)" [from The Peel Sessions: 1991-2004]
Junior Boys - "The Equalizer" [from So This Is Goodbye]
Robin Guthrie - "Darkness of the Heart" [from Waiting for Dawn]
Grizzly Bear - "On a Neck, On a Spit" [from Yellow House]
Ludacris featuring Pharrell - "Money Maker" [from Release Therapy]
Awesome Color - "Grown" [from Awesome Color]
Amy Winehouse - "You Know I'm No Good" [from Back to Black]
Cold War Kids - "Hang Me Up to Dry" [from Robbers & Cowards]
Unk - "Walk It Out" [from Beat'n Down Yo Block] (forever linked with that amazing Bob Fosse dance trio)
Tom Waits - "Bottom of the World" [from Orphans]

Vapnet - "Thoméegränd" [from Jag vet hur man väntar]
Mos Def - "Crime & Medicine" [from True Magic]
Thom Yorke - "The Eraser" [from The Eraser]
The Hidden Cameras - "Death of a Tune" [from Awoo]
Grizzly Bear - "Particular to What?" [from the Sorry for the Delay EP]
Cat Power - "Lived in Bars" [from The Greatest]
Adem - "Crashlander" [from Love and Other Planets]
Peter Bjorn and John - "Up Against the Wall" [from Writer's Block]
Eagles of Death Metal - "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)" [from Death by Sexy...]
Christina Aguilera - "Ain't No Other Man" [from Back to Basics]

Cazwell - "All Over Your Face" [from Get Into It]
Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy" [from St. Elsewhere]
Grant-Lee Phillips - "Under the Milky Way" [from Nineteeneighties]
Asobi Seksu - "Thursday" [from Citrus]
Gwen Stefani featuring Akon - "The Sweet Escape" [from The Sweet Escape]
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "The Songs That We Sing" [from 5:55]
TV on the Radio - "I Was a Lover" [from Return to Cookie Mountain]
Tom Waits - "Children's Story" [from Orphans]
Phoenix - "Long Distance Call" [from It's Never Been Like That]
Grizzly Bear - "Colorado" [from Yellow House]

Some Thoughts on the Closing Ceremony of the 62nd Festival International de Cannes

I trekked through the closing ceremony yesterday morning streaming via the Cannes Official website, which really is not conducive for the few of us who are fluent in both English and French, and had a few observations.

1. The best moment wasn't the long-overdue recognition for Alain Resnais or finally bestowing Michael Haneke with the fest's top prize, but instead, it was the humble acceptance of Charlotte Gainsbourg after being named Best Actress for Lars von Trier's Antichrist. With a "bien sûr" delivery, Isabelle Huppert read off Gainsbourg's name as if there were no other choice the jury could have made, which makes natural sense considering Huppert and fellow jury member Asia Argento's history of emotionally devastating roles. With her hushed voice, Gainsbourg thanked von Trier, co-star Willem Dafoe, husband Yvan Attal, her two children, mother Jane Birkin and, naturally, her late father, whom she hoped was looking down at her both proud and shocked. This was easily the best moment of the whole ceremony.

2. Worse than Isabelle Adjani's shameless plug for her film La journée de la jupe, which Andrew Grant informed me is not only "god-awful" but worse than Bon voyage, were presenter Terry Gilliam's laughless crocodile tears when host Edouard Baer informed him that he was not the winner of the Best Director prize, which he was introducing. IndieWire commented, "Across the stage, Isabelle Huppert, not laughing, remarks simply, 'OK?'" I was sort of hoping for a bitchier "OK?" than Huppert gave, with a half-smile, but her sentiment was precisely how I felt. I was more embarrassed for Gilliam in those three minutes than I was during the entirety of The Brothers Grimm.

3. While I was partly amused by Christoph Waltz's acceptance speech for Best Actor, I think I'm beyond the point of wanting to hear someone verbally jerk Quentin Tarantino off. He does a good enough job by himself.

4. Though it seems Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo was the hands-down worst film to screen in competition this year (not surprising after the steady decrease in the director's work from My Life Without Me to Elegy), I'm wondering if the boos that accompanied Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay and Lou Ye's Spring Fever from the US critics were appropriate or if the rumored "jury craziness" had some validity. I wasn't impressed with Mendoza's The Masseur or Lou's Summer Palace, but I'm certainly willing to give both another shot.

5. While this has nothing to do with the ceremony itself, I've read conflicting reports of how IFC Films is planning on releasing Antichrist in the US. Some have said we'll be seeing the film in all its genital-mutilation glory, but others have said it will be cut. Another source said that IFC will be releasing both versions, as certain cable providers would probably shy away from showing the film OnDemand. It'll be interesting to see how this is handled when IFC rolls the film out, hopefully later this year.

Cannes 2009: Haneke, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrea Arnold, Jacques Audiard Among the Winners

The jury, headed by Isabelle Huppert, handed out their awards this afternoon, with a few surprises, both good and bad. Jane Campion's Bright Star and Marco Bellocchio's Vincere went home empty-handed despite mostly universal acclaim from the reviews I read. The awards are as follows.

Palme d'Or: Das weiße Band [The White Ribbon] - d. Michael Haneke - Austria/Germany/France
Grand prix: Un prophète [A Prophet] - d. Jacques Audiard
Prix exceptionnel du Festival de Cannes: Alain Resnais - Les herbes folles [Wild Grass]
Prix du jury: (tie) Fish Tank - d. Andrea Arnold; Thirst - d. Park Chan-wook
Prix de la mise en scène [Best Director]: Brillante Mendoza - Kinatay
Prix d'interprétation féminine [Best Actress]: Charlotte Gainsbourg - Antichrist
Prix d'interprétation masculine [Best Actor]: Christophe Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Prix du scénario [Best Screenplay]: Ye Lou - Spring Fever
Caméra d'Or: Samson and Delilah - d. Warwick Thornton - Australia
Caméra d'Or Mention Spéciale: Ajami - d. Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani - Israel/Germany

As for the acquisitions, only a few have been snatched up so far. Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and Park Chan-wook's Thirst were produced by The Weinstein Company and Focus Features, respectively. IFC Films took three films so far: Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Ken Loach's Looking for Eric and Tales from the Golden Age, from Romania. Sony Pictures Classics has the Palme d'Or and the Grand prix winners, as well as the fest's out-of-competition closer Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky and Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], which they bought a few months back. It's rumored that Bright Star will be the first release for a new company from Picturehouse's former head. I'll be posting more acquisitions in the coming weeks as they're announced.

What do a scary kid, a lesbian track star, pot brownies, old people making porn, Lars von Trier and Heather Graham have in common?

A couple of the more savvy studios have already announced a handful of titles for the early-2008 DVD schedule. I always wonder why the beginning of the year isn’t a bigger landing ground for interesting DVD releases, as the studios “drop the kids off at the pool” with their theatrical releases around this point. Granted, there’s always those “we opened in NY and LA for one day for Oscar consideration” films that trickle down during these months, but theatre-going in January blows.

Here’s a few of the announced DVDs for January and February of 2008:

Adrift in Manhattan - Available in an “unrated” edition, the film follows a couple of Yanks as they go about their daily subway transit in the Big Apple. Stars William Baldwin and Heather Graham.
Affair to Remember, An - 50th Anniversary Edition
Amateurs, The [aka The Moguls] - A film about a bunch of old farts that decide to make a porn flick with a huge (and weird) cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Tim Blake Nelson, Joe Pantoliano (or Joey Pants, as we like to call him), Ted Danson, Lauren Graham, that beast Jeanne Tripplehorn (I hope she is the lead actress in the porn), Judy Greer, Steven Weber, and that stupid, deep-voiced guy who played Ray Romano’s older brother on that stupid TV show.
Big Bang Love: Juvenile A - Apparently, this is Takashi Miike’s personal favorite of all of his films, even better than it’s a boys-in-love-in-prison film. For Miike to say this is his favorite is a bold statement as I think he releases at least five films a year.
Breaker Morant

Death Sentence - I like Kevin Bacon. I’ll see it. It’s bound to be better than The Brave One.
Eagle vs. Shark
Eugénie de Sade - Jess Franco’s erotic adaptation of the Marquis de Sade, starring the luscious Soledad Miranda.
Golden Door - Seriously, this film is really good; rent it when it comes out. The combination of Agnès Godard’s cinematography and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s presence should be reason alone.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner - 40th Anniversary Edition - Not me.

Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The - Alan Arkin is a deaf-mute, sentimentality follows.
In the Shadow of the Moon
Joshua - 20th Century Fox buried this film deep, canceling numerous of its releases, all for no good reason, it’s excellent.
King of California - Why do I have to see Evan Rachel Wood in every other film out these days?
Kingdom, The - Series 2

Klimt - I won’t see this… John Malkovich is in it.
Lake Placid 2 - The SciFi channel makes a lot of shit, but here’s hoping that Cloris Leachman belts out the lines like Betty White did in the original: “If I had a dick, this is where I’d tell you to suck it.”
Not for or Against [Ni pour, ni contre] - From the director of that horrid L’Auberge espagnol, with Diane Kruger, Vincent Elbaz.
Personal Best - First time on DVD, see Mariel Hemingway lez it out while running track.
Ritz, The - Terrence McNally’s play is supposed to be much better than this film adaptation, but I love the fact that the main character mistakes Rita Moreno for a drag queen. Also starring Jerry Stiller, F. Murray Abraham, and Treat Williams.

Scenes of a Sexual Nature - A British sex comedy with Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Lester, Ewan McGregor, Tom Hardy, Eileen Atkins, Sophie Okonedo, and Polly Walker.
See How They Fall [Regarde les hommes tomber] - From the director of The Beat That My Heart Skipped and Read My Lips, with Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Yanne, Bulle Ogier, Mathieu Kassovitz.
Sex & Breakfast - Ew, an American sex comedy with Macaulay Culkin, Eliza Dushku, Kuno Becker, Tracie Thoms.
Smiley Face - Gregg Araki’s stoner comedy (yeah, I know) with Anna Faris, Jane Lynch, Adam Brody, John Krasinski, John Cho, Marion Ross, Danny Trejo. The cast is appealing, but I guess Araki didn’t know how to follow up Mysterious Skin.
Sunshine - Danny Boyle’s ode to the beauty of sun and Cillian Murphy.

Tell Me a Riddle - Oscar-winning actress Lee Grant (Shampoo, Valley of the Dolls) directs this road film about old people and death.
Twister - Special Edition - Could you really pair anyone worse than Bill Paxton (I actually typed Bill Pullman, because I really don’t know the difference) and Helen Hunt as a lame couple chasing tornados? Oh, and if you want to barf, check this link to see what Helen Hunt was wearing at the premiere. [I couldn't resist posting the photo above that I found in my google image search for Twister; it's better than the movie]
Yes, but… [Oui, mais…] - French girl comes of age. Count me in.
Zodiac - Director’s Cut - If you haven’t read, it’s only five or so minutes longer. Here’s hoping that certain shit was cut or reedited, because I already sold away my theatrical version DVD.