Funny Songs

I, unfortunately, had no time to write something significent for Goatdog's William Wyler blog-a-thon and whenever I tried to type something I just had no inspiration (just like the entire last week at the blog, fyi). So, instead, here are some clips from my favourite Wyler film (of the limited few that I have seen) Funny Girl, all performed by Barbra Streisand. I'm not a fan of Babs outside of film, but when she's in front (or even behind) the camera I guess the pink switch just gets flicked big time.

It does amaze me that William Wyler is, as Electronic Cerebrectomy discusses, never particularly hailed as one of the greatest directors of all time who won three Oscars, which a quick glance of his resume would suggest he most definitely is. I guess he was just one of those directors that didn't forge a career in one defining style of films (such as the likes of Hitchcock, Lean, Scorsese have) and instead ran the gamut from epics, musicals, intimate dramas and even dived into GLBT themes (without the use of subtext, ahem) in movies such as The Children's Hour.

Please enjoy these clips from Funny Girl. I know I sure do.


"I'd Rather Be Blue"


"People"


"Don't Rain on My Parade"


"My Man"

Check out the rest over at Goatdog. There's some nice entries by people who actually articulate without the use of YouTube clips.

Pulp Fiction Mystery Solved!

Always wanted to know what was inside the briefcase in Pulp Fiction? I proposition that the answer may be this. It's the new five-disc special edition of Ridley Scott's masterpiece Blade Runner. Yes, you read correctly: FIVE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION. It features five different versions of the movie(!!!), including the original theatrical cut, the original director's cut, the second director's cut and the supposed difinitive director's cut. And then, on top of that, we get the original work print (what's that? the first version but with time stamps?) Also included is the feature-length making of documentary Dangerous Days and a whole bunch of other stuff on there too.

This is crazy though, isn't it? If Ridley Scott put more time into claptrap like A Good Year that he's been putting into a 25-year-old movie then perhaps he'd have his Oscar by now?

Nevertheless, I've added this epic DVD collection to my Wishlist Widget in the sidebar (it's new!) Feel free to purchase it (or anything else on there for that matter) for my birthday (October 13...!) or just as a reward for being such a nice humanitarian and wonderfully kind human being.

Oh, hush you!

Lists Make Glenn Angry

I've been perusing through Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever list and, for the most part, it's a generally acceptable list. I always cherist a movie-related list that doesn't have Citizen Kane or Orson Welles at the top (I've said it before, and I'll say it again - The Magnificent Ambersons is better than Citizen Kane) and it's hard to deny the likes of Hitchcock, Scorsese, Spielberg, Hawks and Coppola their place in history, but the following names didn't just annoy me in a "Oh no they di'nt!" way. No, they made me angry in a "Oh no they did not!" See that, non-abbreviation. That means angry.

#9 Peter Jackson
I don't deny that his career has certainly been an achievement, but if Brett Ratner had directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, would he be here too?

#10 David Fincher
No. Just NO! FUCKING NO!, even. Christ. It's a good thing he hasn't made more than six movies because if he had he might have actually been number ONE! I like the guy and has made a few great movies, but this is fanboy-ism gone beserk. Sorry, but it is. Fincher is the TENTH best director EVER after six movies? No. Way. Jose. (who's Jose?)

#12 Quentin Tarantino
Even as a huge fan of QT's I can't help but think he's a tad high, don't you think? He, too, only has six films on his resume. Jackie Brown is still his best, by the way (and don't you forget).

#20 Paul Thomas Anderson
Much like Fincher at #10, this is utter madness. Let me get this straight Total Film: After FOUR films, Anderson is already considered a greater director than Robert Altman, the man who has influenced him more than any other. For the record, Altman came into the countdown at #26. Yeah, I'm confused too.

#22 David Lynch
Should be, like, #2. :P

#32 Christopher Nolan
Just like the other younger modern directors on this list it seems that the fanboy mentality has overtaken rational thinking. Four movies (okay, five, but only about three people on the planet have seen his debut Following) into his career and he is already considered one of the greats (a spot under him at #33? Yasujiro Ozu!) I presume it is only because he made Batman Begins. If he hadn't he'd be hanging around #99 with Sofia Coppola. Or, at least, #65 with Bryan Singer.

#38 James Cameron
Yeah, I KNOW! Quite possibly one of cinemas greatest pioneers of all time apparently hasn't done enough of merit to rank him alongside David Fincher (five films) and Paul Thomas Anderson (four films). Not creating one of cinemas most beloved franchises with The Terminator. Not revolutionising cinema and visual effects with Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Not even creating the highest-grossing film of all time with Titanic. Nope. He didn't make Fight Club so, naturally, he doesn't deserve to be that high. :/

#51 Robert Wise
I'd rank him (much) higher, but my issue is with their selection of his best film. The Curse of the Cat People, his debut and a sequel to Cat People, is actually lame and doesn't feature anything that made the original an amazing classic. Bizarre.

#75 Tony Scott/#76 Milos Forman
Let it be known that the man who has won two Best Director Academy Awards and been nominated for another is ranked one position below the man who made Days of Thunder. You did read that correctly.

#92 Paul Verhoeven
This isn't about Verhoeven (I haven't seen any of his Dutch work to say), but could they at least do some fact checking? They say that "Verhoeven impressed with ironic/iconic sci-fi(Robocop, Starship Troopers) until success bred excess (Showgirls)." yet Starship Troopers came after Showgirls. So, until success bred excess, which bred success again?

#97 Baz Luhmann
With only three movies to his name, with Australia he'll be TOP TEN MATERIAL!

Christ, what a stupid list (yet at other times, spot on perfect - Hitchcock!) I thought I'd type down a few names that failed to meet the taxing criteria put upon the candidates.

Elia Kazan - East of Eden, On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Splendor in the Grass,

Jacques Tourneur - Cat People, Out of the Past, I Walked With A Zombie, The Leopard Man

Sidney Lumet - Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men, Serpico, The
Verdict

Charlie Chaplin - The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Kid

FW Murnau - Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Nosferatu, Faust

Bernardo Bertolucci - The Last Emperor, The Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist, 1900

Warren Beatty - Reds, Heaven Can Wait, Dick Tracy

Victor Fleming - Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Joan of Arc

Otto Preminger - Anatomy of a Murder, The Man with the Golden Arm, Bunny Lake is Missing, Carmen Jones

William Wyler - Mrs Miniver, Funny Girl, The Little Foxes, The Best Year of Our Lives

George Stevens - Giant, A Place in the Sun, Woman of the Year, Shane

Bob Fosse - All That Jazz, Cabaret, Lenny, Sweet Charity

Vincente Minnelli - An American in Paris, Meet Me in St Louis, Designing Women, Gigi

King Vidor - The Champ, War and Peace, The Citadel, The Crowd

Michelangelo Antonioni - Blow Up, L'aventtura, The Passenger, Zabriskie Point

But who are those guys compared to the man who made Alien3? REALLY? I'm surprised they didn't throw Guillermo del Toro or someone like him on there because Pan's Labyrinth was the greatest thing evaaaaa!

Antoinioni at the Oscars

In discovering that clip of Bruce Springsteen performing and winning at the 1995 Academy Awards, I also discovered this clip (and a few others too, but this one was timely) of Michelangelo Antonioni winning his honourary Academy Award from the same show. I thought some of you guys may wish to view it so here it is!

If you're here as a result of Movie City News then, please, do stick around. If you're so inclined to do so then I'll give you money. Or, if not that, something shiny. Fair trade? Enjoy...

RIP Michelangelo Antonioni

I don't have anything to say about the news that I read at the hot blog that another famous iconoclastic European director, Michelangelo Antonioni, has died at the age of 94.

I haven't seen any of Antonioni's film, through no fault of my own - they're only now actually being released on DVD down here (I was amazed to see L'Avventura in the 'Coming Soon' section of my DVD service recently). But I have Bergman films to see first!

The Europeans are dropping like flies. What famous Euro director will die next to join Bergman and Antonioni in a game of 'death comes in threes' on the rocky beach from The Seventh Seal? What respected Euro actor will join Ulrich Muhe and Michel Serrault in the same position? Because death always comes in threes.

RIP Ingmar Bergman

This one is a loss! This is just like Robert Altman last year, no doubt. Reports are coming in that Bergman has died in his home country of Sweden. This news is so fresh that the story at NineMSN is incredibly brief and IMDb doesn't have anything up yet.

It's sad that we've lost another legend of cinema in the form of Bergman. I haven't seen more than half of his work, but the films I have seen are mostly great (I'm not a fan of his early Sawdust and Tinsel) - films like Persona, Fanny and Alexander, Dreams... the list goes on. You just know Woody Allen is going to be mourning, too. Shame that, unlike Altman, Bergman never even got an honourary Academy Award despite being nominated for nine, his most recent of which were duel nominations for writing and directing the epic Fanny and Alexander.

His most recent film was Saraband, which was a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage, a film I liked but not like some of the others - and I haven't even seen The Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers or Wild Strawberries - they're all on my DVD queue, but are hanging around the #40 mark so I may have to push them up a bit higher do you think?

This is a sad loss for cinema, but he won't be forgotten at all.

The Dame/The Dealer

Clearly the coolest Dame isn't Dame Judi or Dame Helen. No, the coolest Dame is Dame Shirley Bassey. Reasons? Well, for starters - "Goldeneye" and "Diamonds Are Forever" are the two greatest James Bond themes ever. Secondly, Would Judi Dench or Helen Mirren (as awesome as they may be) ever record a cover version of Pink's song "Get the Party Started"? I think not!

Perhaps nobody passed on the memo to Dame Bassey that she is, in fact, singing about being an ecstacy dealer to a raver orgy party, but it's pretty freakin' awesome nonetheless. I guess singing all those Bond theme songs gave The Dame a knack for innuendo, I can't be certain, but when she drawls "If you know what I mean" the image pops into my mind of Dame Bassey being an e-hopping drug dealer and, well, that just puts a big ol' smile on my face. It's like Weeds but with eccies and instead of a single "mom" it's a feisty Dame. Charming.

I'm not entirely sure the video is any good. In fact, I know it's not. It doesn't really do anything. It's just there and Shirley pops up every now and again, sometimes inside a mirror. Weird.



Why don't the producers of the next James Bond movie bring Dame Bassey into the sweet comforting bosom of Daniel Craig and get her to sing the theme song? I know they're all about "reinventing" the franchise and all, but hey, that Chris Cornell song was sort of terrible and if the producers are going around making bizarro hiring decisions then I'm not sure it matters. Here's hoping Marc Forster, who to this date hasn't made one movie I have liked, can pull off an Alfonso Cuaron/Prisoner of Azkaban on us and make a completely amazing movie with there being absolutely zero markers to suggest he can.

One from the Heart: A Discussion

This is part of Culture Snob's Misunderstood Movie Blog-a-Thon. Hopefully there is plenty of discussion over there that will shine a new light onto old (or, new) movies. I am just kind of writing this off-the-cuff. No real preperation at all. So that's why it probably seems a bit chaotic and shambolic and no at all thought out. Just, whatever. Learn how to deal. If Mandy Moore can do it, then so can you. :)


I have chosen to discuss Francis Ford Coppola's infamous 1982 film One from the Heart. If you are unaware of Coppola's grand debacle in experimental filmmaking then I can't really blame you. A notorious flop upon release in 1982, the film single-handedly plunged Coppola and his Zoetrope producion company into debt - a debt that he spent the better part of two decades trying to repay by being a director-for-hire on films such as The Rainmaker and Jack. It was almost universally reviled by critics and audiences alike (the few who actually went and saw it on the big screen that is) and subsequently grew the tag of being one of Hollywood's biggest follies.

Personally, One from the Heart is one of my very favourite movies of all time. I'm not entirely sure I can explain why I like this movie over Coppola's other pet projects such as The Godfather (all parts) or Apocalypse Now. I just do. I do know that one of the reasons that I get a weird sense of glee while watching it is the ever-encompassing sense of artificiality that, for many (understandably), drowns the film.

And that is where I think it becomes misunderstood. Critics and audiences went in expecting a certain thing and when the film confounded them they just dismissed it. I'm not sure if there has ever been a more perfect example of a film being both ahead of it's time and incredibly old-fashioned. Let's discuss.


In my eyes, one of the key aspects of One from the Heart is it's pure desire to adhere to old-school filmmaking techniques. Particularly MGM musicals. The reason that the film put Coppola into bankruptsy was because he desired to make his film on the Zoetrope film studios. And for a film set entirely in Las Vegas, that presents a challenge. The solution to this challenge was to recreate a full size replica of Las Vegas in the studio. Sound's absurd right? Well, he didn't recreate the ENTIRE Las Vegas. Obviously there is heavy use of models and matte work, which were of prominent use in musicals from the onset of the genre. Many movies in the genre have a primary set and you can see the edges and the painted backdrops. I don't see why here is any different.

There are scenes set on the streets of downtown Las Vegas where you can actually see the ceiling of the studio! Several scenes set at the edge of town are quite obviously filmed at the very edge of the studio with the backdrop painted on. This just adds to the effect that what we are watching is completely artificial. It's not real. Which is, I assume, what people didn't like about the movie. Why watch something that is eminently false? For some genres like science-fiction or action it works because you're dealing with hyper-reality, a world that we can associate with but know in our brain that it is all make believe. Whereas in One from the Heart we're being given a "romance" movie of sorts and some couldn't marry the mixture of these real people having emotion-wringing fights on a backdrop made from plaster and paint. It's silly, but nevertheless.


Add to all that the cinematography by legendary Vittorio Storaro and Ronald Victor Garcia, which bathes the film in technicolour neons and the film's, for me, centrepiece - the unabashedly old-fashioned musical sequence that starts as a mere tango and then descends into an all-in dance fest on the main street of Las Vegas. There's even singing. This old-fashioned break in tradition was just not common in the '80s. The most recent musicals were, what? Xanadu? It's the same reason, I believe, that Martin Scorsese's New York, New York failed. People were just not ready for an old-fashioned musical (or any musical) on the screen.


But presenting an old-fashioned musical on the screen is one thing, but when Coppola mixed it with one of the most strange filming shoots in history, he was just begging for trouble. Not only did Coppola cast incredibly unglamourous lead roles (Frederick Forrest and Teri Garr don't exactly encapsulate the MGM spirit, do they?) but then he had to go and try and pioneer an altogether new way to make movies. One that in this day and age is common place, but back in the early '80s was seen as playing God. Coppola didn't even seem to set foot on the soundstage, instead choosing to use a live video feed from which he viewed the goings on from his own home, a process that is now routinely used for second, third and fourth units on film sets and in various other assorted filming conditions.

The gossip coming out of the set (I presume that was one major side effect of the process) was that Coppola didn't know what he was doing and that he didn't have a handle on the set and the going ons of his employees.

Another major force behind the film was the soundtrack by Tom Waits, featuring Crystal Gayle. Where would television be these days (think Grey's Anatomy and The OC) without the good ol' song score. One from the Heart uses a collection of songs to mirror the action that's happening on screen, as opposed to traditional musical sequences that you would expect to help the audience understand how a character is feeling. It works incredibly well, and was probably one of the one aspects of the film that was hailed upon release. Waits was even nominated for Academy Award.

When viewing a film like One from the Heart I think it's important to view it in a certain light. Look at it as a grand experiment. You may not enjoy it, and that's your own prerogative, but you may come away thinking that Francis Ford Coppola is like the old crazy scientist who has a theory but nobody believes him, only to be proven right by film's end. His film has flaws, I admit that as will any of the film's die hard fans, but it's dedication to itself paves over a few of those cracks.


I've read countless reviews of the latest indie sensation film who praise it purely because it's different and not the same thing that we've seen before. I like to imagine that the end result was just an unfortunate product of it's time. It really was like nothing nobody expected. Nobody expected Coppola to make an old-fashioned stylised quasi-musical. And neither were they expecting Coppola to create a near brand new way of making movies. People just didn't understand what Coppola was trying to be by mixing the old with the new. He was essentially trying to bridge the gap between older filmmaking techniques and those of the future, all while presenting a film that would have confounded expectations with or without the art direction or the filming techniques - what with it's bickering 'plain looking' people having affairs. I guess they wanted more mafia bosses and war-torn jungles.


To quote the film's own tagline "When Francis Ford Coppola Makes A Love Story... Don't Expect Hearts And Flowers."

UMA 2006: Part I

BEST PICTURE

The Top Ten: 1. Jindabyne, 2. Children of Men, 3. United 93, 4. The Devil Wears Prada, 5. Dave Chappelle's Block Party, 6. The Descent, 7. Ten Canoes, 8. Volver, 9. Inside Man, 10. Marie Antoinette

GOLD
Jindabyne
SILVER
Children of Men
BRONZE
United 93

BEST DIRECTOR

Sofia Coppola
Marie Antoinette
Thwarting all preconceptions of genre, Coppola makes the story of Marie Antoinette, most definitely, "A Film By Sofia Coppola". Her eye just gets sharper.



Alfonso Cuarón
Children of Men
Making a mammoth film feel intimate, Cuaron doesn't skimp on the detail but also brushes his canvas as large as he possibly can. This is stellar filmmaking by a man who just keeps getting better.

Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr
Ten Canoes
In working with the indiginous Ramingining people, de Heer has made, and this is about as rare as can be in this day and age, something nobody has ever seen before. It was a long road to get there, but he did it.

Paul Greengrass
United 93
Treating the subject matter with precision, but also at arms length. This isn't a hallmark movie, folks. Greengrass guides United 93 like a pilot with thousands of hours under his belt.

Ray Lawrence
Jindabyne
Like a warm embrace, Lawrence makes films that just feel so right and comfortable. On only his third feature, seeing Lawrence's name in the credits makes me safe. I'm in capable hands.
Honourable Mentions: Neil Marshall handled the frights of The Descent with aplomb, Spike Lee new exactly what he was doing with Inside Man, Pedro Almodóvar doesn't put a foot wrong with Volver, Anthony Minghella impressed me with his restraint on Breaking and Entering, George Miller is still pushing new frontiers with Happy Feet, Darren Aronofsky had a task-and-a-half bringing The Fountain to the screen, Pan's Labyrinth was obviously a labour of love for Guillermo del Toro

GOLD
Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr for Ten Canoes
SILVER
Alfonso Cuarón for Children of Men
BRONZE
Ray Lawrence for Jindabyne

BEST ACTOR

Gabriel Byrne
"Stewart Kane"
Jindabyne
Finally giving me a performance I can sink my teeth into. Shows amazing layers as the man who can't see the wrong of his actions.



Sasha Baron Cohen
"Borat Sagdiyev"
Borat: Cultural Learnings of American for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Utterly convincing performance art with some of the best comic timing I've ever seen.



Leonardo DiCaprio
"Billy Costigan"
The Departed
Continuing to grow into one of the finest actors of his generation, Leo adds "masculine" to his hat of tricks. And how!



Hugh Jackman
"Tomas/Tom/Tommy"
The Fountain
I knew he had it in him, but for many this was a revelatory performance. A career best for his three roles in this time-travelling love story. He's not embarassing at all (hi Brad Pitt).

Jude Law
"Will Francis"
Breaking and Entering
Without the aid of action, or novelty, Law creates a fully-formed man facing the problems of the world. It's simple, but effective and Law is the best he's ever been.

Honourable Mentions: Shane Jacobson created an iconic character with Kenny, Clive Owen proves he can stay afloat when surrounded by Children of Men, Forest Whitaker kept my eyes awake even when The Last King of Scotland was descending into barbaric lunacy, Daniel Craig made a fine James Bond in Casino Royale, Heath Ledger continues his re-emergance as an actor of class as a drug-addict in Candy, Patrick Wilson's duel roles in Hard Candy and Little Children make me wish he was a big star, Aaron Eckhart was at his smarmy best in Thank You For Smoking.


GOLD
Jude Law in Breaking and Entering
SILVER
Gabriel Byrne in Jindabyne
BRONZE
Hugh Jackman in The Fountain

BEST ACTRESS

Emily Barclay
"Katrina Skinner"
Suburban Mayhem
An astonishing display of evil from Barclay, even when the film starts to sink towards the end. She's quickly becoming the best young actress around.

Penélope Cruz
"Raimunda"
Volver
Amazing performance that finally put her money where her mouth was. Single-handedly made me a fan and made want to see if she's on a hot streak. What's next?

Judi Dench
"Barbra Covet"
Notes on a Scandal
Sure, she's stuck with the "evil lesbian" role, but she does so much with it. Feels so lived in and you can see Dench crawling out of her skin to inhabit Barb.

The Lovely Laura Linney
"Claire Kane"
Jindabyne
You can tell Linney's Claire feels out of place and I think that the hiring of an American actress with such a strong accent was wise, just amplifies her outsider status.

Meryl Streep
"Miranda Priestly"
The Devil Wears Prada
Creating a comedy icon, Streep outdoes all her previous comedy work, and a whole lot of her dramatic work, with her witty, biting portrayal of the boss from hell.

Honourble Mentions: **There were so many women that, in weaker years, would have made the final five, I love them all** Maggie Cheung, Yeong-ae Lee, Gong Li and Sook-Yin Lee proved this was a powerful year for Asian performers in Clean, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Curse of the Golden Flower and Shortbus respectively. Cate Blanchett was splendid and her german was ace in The Good German. Kate Winslet continued to prove why she's the contender for Meryl Streep-status in Little Children.

Sienna Miller and Gretchen Mol showed many things we'd never seen from them before in Factory Girl and The Notorious Bettie Page. Jennifer Hudson had a helluva debut in Dreamgirls. Hard Candy was a big splash for Ellen Paige. Helen Mirren made The Queen her own, as did Kirsten Dunst with her wistful Marie Antoinette. Victoria Hill's Lady Macbeth was a hoot, and lastly Abbie Cornish goes from strength-to-strength in Candy. *phew*


GOLD
Penélope Cruz for Volver
SILVER
Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada
BRONZE
Emily Barclay for Suburban Mayhem

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

David Bowie
"Nikola Tesla"
The Prestige
Bringing a calm but magnetic force to this tale of duelling magicians, Bowie's charisma makes Tesla a fascination, while also proving delightfully deadpan.

Steve Carell
"Frank Ginsberg"
Little Miss Sunshine
A perfect fit for the sarcastic Frank, Carell proves to be adept at the mixture of comedy and drama. Someone call his agent and stop these Evan Almightys, he's so much better than that.

Paul Dano
"Dwayne Hoover"
Little Miss Sunshine
Doesn't miss a beat as the mute, angry-at-the-world Dwayne. A fresh face in young Hollywood, he also impressed in Fast Food Nation and The King.

Ben Sliney
"Himself"
United 93
Proving insightful as, well, himself. With the absense of grandstanding, Sliney shows skill infront of the camera and lends (even more) authenticity to the film.

Stanley Tucci
"Nigel"
The Devil Wears Prada
The delightful Tucci turns a stock standard "token gay" character into much more, fleshing him out to a believable and lovable emotional investment.

Honourable Mentions: Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg work excellent ying/yang teamwork in The Departed, but for me it was both or neither and I couldn't fit them both in there. Richard Birrinbirrin obviously relishes the comic sidekick role in Ten Canoes. Guy Pearce and Michael Sheen make a fine Andy Warhol and Tony Blair in Factory Girl and The Queen respectively. Rafi Gavron and Christian Beyers impressed on debut in Breaking and Entering and Opal Dream while Alan Arkin and Eddie Murphy gave extra vibrancy to Little Miss Sunshine and Dreamgirls.


GOLD
Steve Carell for Little Miss Sunshine
SILVER
Stanley Tucci for The Devil Wears Prada
BRONZE
David Bowie for The Prestige

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Claire-Hope Ashitey
"Kee"
Children of Men
Ashitey creates a wonderful mix of wide-eyed naivity and street-smart sass to cover up the scared cracks in her facade. Her debut is one worth noticing.

Emily Blunt
"Emily Charlton"
The Devil Wears Prada
Taking her chance to upstage Meryl Streep, she does so with refreshing enthusiasm. Blunt is a riot as the smart-mouthed assistant. This is a career-making performance.

Jodie Foster
"Madeleine White"
Inside Man
I devoured Foster's performance with the same maniacal glee that Foster gives off with each passing second. That omnipresent smirk was just a great touch.

Deborra-Lee Furness
"Jude"
Jindabyne
Charging through scenes with the brute-force tenacity of a great white shark, Furness boils over in her fight to protect her family. Just supurb.

Fiona Shaw
"Ramona Linscott"
The Black Dahlia
An utterly bonkers extended cameo is truly like nothing other from 2006. At once both hysterical and terrifying, Shaw chews the scenery and spits it out to the nth degree.

Honourable Mentions: Seema Biswas was the heart of Water, as was Rinko Kikuchi in Babel. Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin and Lindsay Lohan were ace in A Prairie Home Companion. Maggie Gyllenhaal made the best of bad situations in World Trade Center and Stranger than Fiction. Rose Byrne and Wendy Hughes were a hoot in Marie Antoinette and Caterpillar Wish respectively (as was Susie Porter in the latter). Mia Kirschner did more with 10 minutes than most of the cast did for the entire Black Dahlia. Carmen Maura was effective as the ghost mother in Volver, while Abigail Breslin and Toni Collette were a fine mother/daughter team in Little Miss Sunshine. Ashley Johnson was enthusiastic and fun in Fast Foot Nation, and Edie Falco was the only good thing in Freedomland, she deserved a much better movie.


GOLD
Deborra-Lee Furness for Jindabyne
SILVER
Fiona Shaw for The Black Dahlia
BRONZE
Emily Blunt for The Devil Wears Prada


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY


Anthony Minghella
Breaking and Entering
A major change of pace for Minghella. He obviously feels passionate about what he's writing with this mature drama about adults.



Michael Arndt
Little Miss Sunshine
Interesting characters to get invested in and many lines of laugh-out-loud funniness. It may be slight, but it's still enjoyable (for the most part).


Rolf de Heer and The Ramingining Community
Ten Canoes
A refreshing home-grown comedy that portrays the stories of indiginious Australians in a accessable and wildly entertaining form.



Paul Greengrass
United 93
Extensively researched and prepared screenplay that tries to present the story of United Airlines Flight 93 from all angles. The victims, the terrorists and the people on the ground.

Pedro Almodóvar
Volver
A true original in every sense of the word, Almodóvar extends his Almodoóverse with ghosts, funerals, dark hearts and murders while keeping the highly stylised eccentricity of his early work.

Honourable Mentions: The Jacobson Brothers wrote many funny lines for Kenny. Rian Johnson invented a universe withing a world in Brick, while John Cameron Mitchell did the same on a more human level with Shortbus. Olivier Assayas have Maggie Cheung some great stuff in Clean and Russell Gerwitz twisted the bank heist movie Inside Man into gold while Guillermo Del Toro did the same to fairy tales. Peter Morgan wrote some great behind-the-scenes goss for The Queen.


GOLD
Pedro Almodóvar for Volver
SILVER
Paul Greengrass for United 93
BRONZE
Anthony Minghella for Breaking and Entering

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
Children of Men
Based on the novel The Children of Men
Wonderfully reworking the novel for the screen into a concise (90 minutes!), but powerful film.

William Monahan
The Departed
Based on the film Infernal Affairs
Following the original Hong Kong film fairly well, The Departed adds many new aspects to the original, including some great dialogue.


Aline Brosh McKenna
The Devil Wears Prada
Based on the novel The Devil Wears Prada
After a couple of rom-com misfires, McKenna finally gets the comedy part perfect. Sure, it's not historically accurate, but who cares when it's this much fun?

Beatrix Christian
Jindabyne
Based on the short story So Much Water, So Close to Home
Transforming Raymond Carver's American short into a powerful and very Australian story of responsibility. Adults talking like adults, thankfully.

Sofia Coppola
Marie Antoinette
Based on the biography Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Turning the definitive text on Antoinette on it's head by picking and choosing whatever she wants to create an altogether new interpretation of the Queen.

Honourable Mentions: Todd Field and Tom Perrotta's work on Little Children would have made my final five if it weren't for that mishandled narration. Notes on a Scandal isn't another Closer for Patrick Marber but it sure is fun. Jonathan and Christopher Nolan do indeed work magic with The Prestige while Richard Linklater deserves points for turning non-fiction to fiction in Fast Food Nation.


GOLD
Beatrix Christian for Jindabyne
SILVER
Aline Brosh McKenna for The Devil Wears Prada
BRONZE
Sofia Coppola for Marie Antoinette

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Curse of the Golden Flower [Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia]
China
A debaucherous hoot filled with murder, incest, backstabbing, uprisings and a whole freakin' lot of chrysanthemums and costume changes.

Pan's Labyrinth [El Laberinto del Fauno]
Mexico
A wildly inventive, if occasionally flawed, fairy tale for adults. If for nothing else, it wields a technical sword that every film should be envious of.




Sympathy for Lady Vengeance [Chinjeolhan Geumjassi]
South Korea
Beautiful but ugly. Cold but tender. The final entry in Chan-Wook Park's Vengeance Trilogy is a stylish devilish delight.




Volver
Spain
Read about it in the top ten.



Water
Canada and India
The final in Deepa Mehta's Element Trilogy (and the first I've seen), Water is perhaps too Hollywood-ised, but I enjoyed it's colourful storytelling and powerful subject.

Honourable Mentions: Well, the only other title I could have nominated was Don't Tell from Italy. Other than that I didn't get to see many more foreign titles, unfortunately.


GOLD
Volver
SILVER
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
BRONZE
Pan's Labyrinth

BEST AUSTRALIAN FEATURE


Happy Feet
Delirious and bonkers, but that's part of it's charm.






Jindabyne
See the top ten







Kenny
A full out comedy from Australia that's, *gasp*, actually funny. Shocking.






The Society Murders
I'm cheating with this one, but whatever. I really enjoyed this Melbourne-set crime movie made for TV.





Ten Canoes
See the top ten. A first for the industry.





Honourable Mentions: Hunt Angels was unabashedly proud to wave the flag, Macbeth was a mess, but my god I sort of thought it was hilarious, Opal Dream was a surprising Aussie family flick that wasn't terrible, The Caterpillar Wish plumbed usual places, but did it with style. Answered by Fire was another ace made-for-TV miniseries.


GOLD
Jindabyne
SILVER
Ten Canoes
BRONZE
Happy Feet

BEST ANIMATED/MIXED MEDIA FILM

Cars
I fell completely and utterly under the spell of this old-fashioned, new-tech Pixar release with it's Americana and open roads and neon-drenched night skies.




Happy Feet
Taking it's inspiration from everything from Busby Berkley and using the latest pioneering animation techniques, George Miller's Happy Feet is a true original.




Hunt Angels
A new and refreshing way of presenting the documentary feature, Hunt Angels uses visual effects and animation to bring the life of 1920s Australia to the screen.




Monster House
A fun and thrilling haunted house movie that features many great setpieces and thankfully un-starry eyed voice work. Could have done without the 3D effects on the 2D screen though.



Renaissance
Yeah, it's a confusing mess at times, but it's animation and rotoscoping visuals surpass the similarly-aesthetic Sin City for pure bang.



Honourable Mentions: Over the Hedge was a brisk and fun 80 minutes while Flushed Away had some inventive stuff up it's hyper-colour sleeves.

{tie}
GOLD
Cars and Happy Feet
(Sorry, I couldn't tear them apart)
BRONZE
Monster House

BEST DOCUMENTARY


Dave Chappelle's Block Party
See the top ten.





Hunt Angels
This Australian docu-drama mixed talking heads with archive footage with the recreations by Ben Mendelsohn and Victoria Hill, but was patriotic and cheered for filmmakers all over the world.



In Search of Mozart
Mixing the discussions of Mozart's life with many lush performances of his work, In Search of Mozart was over two hours well spent in the presense of a master.




Shut Up & Sing
This documentary got me angry, excited, starry-eyed and emotional. Essentially it's starfucking, but Natalie Maines and crew deserve it.




Welcome 2 My Deaf World
Being "inspirational" and "sentimental" when discussing "disabled" people (they don't think they're disabled) can be tricky, but when your subject are this full-of-life even I get misty-eyed.

I unfortunately didn't get to see the Oscar nominees Deliver Us From Evil or Jesus Camp (much to my chagrin), but Oscar-winner An Inconvenient Truth doesn't deserve a nomination purely because on director Davis Guggenheim's part, all he's documenting is a colourful Powerpoint presentation.


GOLD
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
SILVER
Shut Up & Sing
BRONZE
Welcome 2 My Deaf World