February 24, 2003

What does it all mean?

I’ll write about this further in Thursday’s 15 Weeks To Oscar column at MCN, but the weekend awards in France and England managed to be relevant and irrelevant in my eyes.  First, the Cesar Awards giving Best Picture to the Canal Plus-funded The Pianist carried the stench of a Miramax film in the American Oscar race. 

But the BAFTA Awards on Sunday giving their best picture award to The Pianist might mean something.  It’s not a British film, which sometimes seems to skew the BAFTA voters’ choices.  (And I would say that the choice of The Warrior as Best British Film is a slap in the AMPAS’ face, after the Academy disqualified the film from Best Foreign Language competition.) Nor is The Pianist the film expected to sweep the Oscars, which BAFTA wants to be assumed to be influencing. 

What The Pianist happens to be is, without a doubt, the best film that’s been nominated for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.  And for that - and that alone – it should win the Oscar next month.

I am not alone in this analysis.  But can the good folks at Focus take the BAFTA win and the reviews and the “ethnic advantage” and even the Cesar Award and turn it into gold?

ADDING UP:  In the mix with the awards, in an act of timing that seems like it could have all kinds of meanings, are two bits of media.  The first is a letter to the L.A. Times from the woman that Polanski had sex with when she was 13, who clearly states that the sex was a result of aggression and a Quaalude.  Samantha Geimer, who gives her name in the letter, also tells the story of the plea agreement that never happened, stating that she and her family would have been happy to let Polanski off with time served as punishment. 

So is this letter a pro or anti Polanski item?  Geimer says that she feels that Polanski should not be judged by his actions of 25 years ago.  But “it was not consensual sex by any means. I said no, repeatedly, but he wouldn't take no for an answer.”

Somehow, on the other side of the country, gossip columnist Cindy Adams was telling the exact same story.  She had a little more, which was that Howard Koch was the one who told Polanski, through friends, that the judge was going to throw out the plea agreement and throw the book at Polanski.  The story came, it is written, to Adams from Peter Bart. 

The thing is, I don’t believe in coincidences like that.  Not in this game.  And the fact that Bart, a journalist, was the conduit, and not a lady-killing Polanski pal suggests to me that it is all a part of a sympathy campaign.  They had to take the bitter with the good.  And even Adams writes that there is a consensus that The Pianist won’t happen.  But this double team should also put the “Polanski issue” on the back burner permanently and allow the Focus Features team to, ahem, focus in on the goal.

Must be an odd morning at Focus.  Cesar Win, Rapist, Forgive Him, Roman Victimized By The Judge, BAFTA Win.  It’s like waking up from great sex with a stranger by realizing that no only was the sex unprotected, but she was ovulating.  Who knows what the result is going to be?

SPEAKING OF OSCAR:  Fox moved Peter Weir’s Master & Commander out of the summer and into November, which may or may not be a good sign.  The positive version is that the studio is as serious as they claimed about the film being an awards film and they know that summer is no time to chase Oscar.  The negative version is that the film needs re-shoots and more time for CG work and that it is a sign of trouble. 

The move leaves Fox with only 2 summer films, X-Men 2 and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  But the answer may have more to do with Summer 2004, where Fox has three hundred million-plus projects already scheduled and have been looking for financial partners on others.  Instead of throwing mega-money at the heat of the summer season, November 14 allows the studio to save some advertising dollars and to enter the Thanksgiving Day cash flow with the only non-CG epic anywhere near the schedule. 

I suspect that the move is legit.  Peter Weir is known for long runs in the editing room.  And with only a comedy (Stuck on You) on the schedule in December, the move helps spread the wealth over both high-profile periods for the studio. 

If I had the distribution reigns at the studio, I would be seriously considering another move of Phone Booth into the open summer slot.  (I don’t expect it to happen…. they announced the April date officially just recently.)  It’s a good movie.  And it takes place in the summer of New York.  Where it is now, Anger Management will eviscerate it after just one weekend.

B.O. TO GO:  Daredevil recovered from Friday to Saturday, estimating a weekend draw of $18.8 million… which sure seems high after Friday estimate that it did $5.3 million.  But Fox doesn’t play a lot of estimate games as a rule, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the real number will be about $18.3 million and 54 percent.  The variation from what is likely reality is enough to get the film over the $70 million mark (on TV Sunday night and Monday morning) and to keep it far from the threat of being topped by Old School.  Regardless, it now looks like Leatherdevil will squeak by the $100 million mark, which may or may not inspire Fox to go for a sequel.  My bet would still be nope, but who knows?

Chicago made its first stumble, falling an estimated 34 percent, the first time it has fallen more than 15 percent during its Oscar run.  And Miramax is not known for estimating low.  But ironically, I feel the need to defend Chicago, as the slings and arrows will come from this weekend’s result, as the film’s expected middling response from Middle America will be unfairly used as a cudgel. 

The Life of David Gale was strapped into the chair, but its lame opening was no shock to anyone. 

Jungle Book 2 held on to around 76 percent of its hail from last weekend, which is more than the bare necessity.

Gods & Generals didn’t even make it to the battlefield, retreating with an estimated $4.7 million. 

The estimated $3.7 million start for Dark Blue means that Kurt Russell may have to start letting Kate Hudson pick up the dinner check. 

SATURDAY NIGHT BLOGGING:  I’m not a big blog guy.  Some of you may not even be aware of the blogging phenomenon.  There are weB LOGS out there, which serve as personal journals reflecting any subject or any whim.  There are no rules, unlike this column, but the upside is a kind of conversational freedom rarely seen in public forums. 

I went to a blogging panel at the “Freedom Film Festival” at the AFI.  On the panel, there were two people I knew, Cathy Seipp and Luke Ford, and five others I did not (Heather Havrilesky, Mickey Kaus, Emmanuelle Richard, Matt Welch, Ken Layne, Dr. Eugene Volokh and RiShawn Biddle ).

The panel was okay.  The party at Heather Havrilesky’s house afterwards was better.  I’m a believer in “what happens on vacation stays on vacation,” so long as you don’t come home with a disease. 

But this is why I’ve brought it up… Blogging is a fascinating “middle” form of expression.  And the group on the dais, with the possible exception of one member, aspires to something more conventional.  One, Mickey Kaus, is already under contract to blog for bucks.  Heather works for Salon.  Cathy isn’t a blogger, but a freelancing classicist.  Luke Ford wants to publish a book.  Volokh is a law professor.  RiShawn Biddle works for Forbes.  And Welch & Layne are anticipating a summer launch for a new Los Angeles print weekly.

These are the people on “the edge.”  These are the ones so bright that the mainstream doesn’t get it.  But still, the rent must be paid and the mescal must be bought. 

Change continues to come.  And film – you know there’d be a point – is just another young medium, needing to walk the tightrope between indulgence and commerciality.  It’s nice to spend some time around people – in this case, an incestuous near family – that are reaching for more.  The judgment comes later.  Not always for the better.  Not always honestly.  But it is the odd price of growing up.

READER OF THE DAY:  UNFORMED MELODY writes:  “"THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT FOR SOME, BUT TO BE CONSIDERED THE TOP OF THE YEAR IS  AN ATROCIOUS CHOICE." 

Ah, it must be Oscar season again, a time in which  the people who say they don't care about the awards bitch the loudest - and they all approach it in the same manner.  #1 - attack the film as simply entertainment with nothing worthwhile to say.  #2 - state your credentials  (Bloody Sunday was the best film of the year).  #3 - end by bringing up  another superior film that is only playing in two cities in America (All the Real Girls is simply fantastic).  In the end what have we learned?  Popular movies suck and I am more enlightened about film than the general population.

To be able to make this statement I guess I would have to assign to the outline above and say that The Pianist, Talk to Her and Bloody Sunday were the best films of the year.  Chicago was a nice aside with giddy moments but not the best.  But rather than pile another heap of "not deserving" on to the Oscar wagon I would like to quote something from a pitchforkmedia.com interview with the band ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, which I believe fits in with Oscar season: "...it's fair to say that a lot of indie kids are pretentious, stuck-up pricks who would rather fuck their own mothers than actually like something."

JJ writes:  “About the "electric guitar in Gangs of New York"...

Here's one for ya...I remember reading an article/interview with Scorsese in the 80's where he talked about "Gangs" and his desire to shoot a period New York film with music by THE CLASH!

Since "Gangs" was originally planned in 1978, perhaps Scorsese was thinking a pre-MTV type visual and musical cinema (He had just shot both New York, New York" and "The Last Waltz") that contrasted and complemented the story in new and original ways.

I'm guessing all these years later, that single inspiration (Scorsese could have been listening to the music and imagining the visuals) still lingers with the electric guitar in gangs.

Actually when i heard U2 were involved, I thought they would be scoring the entire film, evolving the original idea of rock and The Clash.

Having recently seen the October "01 cut of "Gangs", I've been enjoying your dialogue about the film.”

And MG LITE writes:  “Today I saw Just Married (True to form, its Australian release date was a month late). Anyway, I remembered your prior hatred and searched out your column on the film. Having seen the film, perhaps the most absurd thing of all is how much rational thought you devoted to this haphazard, fifth-rate hunk o' junk. Perhaps reviewers should treat their films with the same level of respect that the filmmakers treated the audience. In the case, let me try and think of an appropriate review.......... "What the fuck was that?"

E ME:  Good question. Any answers?