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We talked about the Globes and SAG nominations a little bit but then just spent some time on a deeper dive into films in general. We talk about what a competitive year this is, and how the Best Picture race is still wide open.
Have a listen.
I can’t wait to hear this. 🙂
The podcast can neither be played nor downloaded.
So looking forward to this
https://dotunsblog.com.ng/
I can’t play the podcast..
So where is the podcast?
I actually disagree that Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood is a preferential ballot movie. People love that film (myself included) but a lot of people hate it too. That final scene is really divisive and what comes before it is relatively slow and some may call it self indulgent. That’s why I currently have Parasite in number 1 because I’m yet to find a single person in any walk of life who doesn’t love it.
I can’r bring myself to predict a foreign language film will win after what happened to Roma last year. But it’s a fine movie.
I dunno, Roma was much more divisive than people thought and the big thing months ago I said if Parasite gets a SAG ensemble nom (which Roma could not and only one foreign film ever has) I said I would put it in top spot of my predictions so there it is now. Things can obviously change and we will see how it does at other awards but in general I think it is in a good spot to do what no foreign film ever has.
Do you perchance still have the mp3 for this or know where I could find it to listen to? The link seems dead now, and I’ve not been able to locate this particular episode anywhere else on the internet. 🙁
I hate it, for example
I disagree about the long takes. Yes, it’s against the way a lot of the stylistic beats of the basic Hollywood film these days but that alone isn’t reason to say that filmmakers shouldn’t use them, in fact in a lot of cases it’s more interesting than the need to cut too much because that is somehow “cinematic” but that usually just leads to stating things in the most obvious ways possible. Long takes are as functional a style as anything else if you know what you’re doing with them (or is La règle du jeu one of the greatest films ever made?) Let these filmmakers figure their styles out. Perhaps some of them might gravitate away from longer shots but they don’t have to and they can still make the masterpieces you speak of (I’d argue some of them already have)
I think the issue is that long takes done well will ultimately be more satisfying but if you aren’t good enough to use it effectively you get that drop off Sasha was talking about and it will ultimately be much worse than cutting more regularly. I do love a well used long take – I think the style, if used effectively, keeps you there with the characters and I for one disagree with Sasha on the farewell in particular which I loved.
I wanted to add to this that actually the best use of this I have seen this year is actually Rocketman, which feels so much more cinematic and impressive precisely because of the long takes. Yet another reason why its disappointing that it is doing so much worse this season than the disaster of Bohemian Rhapsody did last year. It does cut a lot at times where necessary but there are some very long takes at other times and it is utilised brilliantly. The editing in that film is really underrated.
I like BR better than you do, but I happily second you on the long takes in Rocketman, which were dramatically adept and brought the story’s feelings home, made them land. I also even more eagerly share your view of Rocketman‘s editing, which I found mostly quite tight and, agreeing with you, “really underrated”. For just one example, the cutting of “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” took my breath away. Of course the number’s sharp choreography. production design and performing also helped enormously. Despite the general underrating of the movie’s editing that you point out, I must say that several reviewers I read shared my enthusiasm for the “Saturday Night” number. I thought the whole movie was edited responsibly, not for cheap jolts.
Yeah Saturday Night was really brilliantly done all around, shot in sort of a one take style but with obvious cuts where they felt right. Paired with the music and production and performances was brilliant!
Kudos to Ryan for bringing up Portrait of a Lady on Fire in the “Female Directors” part of the conversation, that’s the film that should be the basis of the argument that there IS at least one masterpiece by a female director in 2019 and it is criminal that its director isn’t even in the conversation when male directors with less accomplished films are. And I don’t mean the quartet of auteurs (Tarantino, Scorsese, Bong, Mendes), I have zero beef with them or their potential BD nominations.
My wishful thinking at the moment is that since the Academy won’t be able to recognise the film in International, they may opt to nominate it elsewhere and while some below the line categories seem most likely (Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design), I’m holding out hope for a Celine Sciamma nod in either Original Screenplay or Director. I mean if Pawlikowski could pull off something similar (BD nod for the second most-hyped foreign language contender of the year) as recently as last year, I don’t think Sciamma is out of the realm of possibilities, either.
I think in Best Director the Tarantino – Scorsese – Bong – Mendes quartet is set and they are all there with good reason but that’s still only four slots. Who is to say the fifth shouldn’t go to a fellow masterpiece that just happened to be a film about and from women ?
The directors often have a surprise or two. POALOF could shock.
Here is hoping. I don’t want any of the masterpiece helmers of 2019 to be snubbed (Tarantino, Scorsese, Bong, Mendes) but let’s face it, that remaining fifth slot should go to someone who delivered another undeniable masterpiece and that could be easily Sciamma.