ERNEST AND CELESTINE
Animated Feature Film - Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
Ernest and Celestine, on its face, is about the unlikely friendship between a bear named Ernest and a sweet little mouse named Celestine. They find that they need to help each other along the way - him, in his quest for food and shelter and her in her quest to become a dentist. But, their respective mouse and bear communities have fears and prejudices about the other that are seemingly impenetrable. Ernest and Celestine commit theft together, and they escape to Ernest's home in the woods. When they are caught (she by the bears and he by the mice), they discover that each community is more invested in their prejudices than in seeing them as individuals.
On its face, Ernest and Celestine is just a super adorable animated film. But when you take time to look at the underlying point of the story, it takes on a level of importance that I wouldn't have expected before I saw it. I have talked in other blogs about how this Oscars journey where I see every nominated film uncovers a hidden gem that I would never have seen without this process. Ernest and Celestine IS that gem, and I can't believe it took until the second to last film on the list for me to find it.
I loved this film, and I'm pleased to share that it will be coming out again soon, dubbed totally in English by a cast of powerhouse American actors, so it will get more attention. However, I highly recommend seeing it in its original French before you see the English version. I promise you'll be glad you did!
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THE GREAT BEAUTY
Foreign Language Film - Italy
Did you ever sit through 2 hours of a movie and wonder what the heck just happened in the story you just watched? I have, it was called The Great Beauty. It took over an hour for me to even figure out the plot.
The basic premise is that an aging writer in Rome looks back on his life and wonders if it was a series of opportunities wasted, how he missed out on the great love and beauty of his life, why he never wrote a second novel after much acclaim for the first, and if his decadent lifestyle has any meaning. Scenes are set against the backdrop of avant garde performance art pieces, which seem to question life and its absurdity. There are also heavy religious symbols, including a Mother Theresa-esque character, who is presumably there to provide a juxtaposition between crazy excess and over the top self-deprivation.
I know some people love these kinds of "arty" movies (The Great Beauty won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film), but I find them gratuitous, overly complex, and mostly exhausting. I find no evidence that absurdity is a higher form of intellect, and The Great Beauty only seemed pretentious in its circus atmosphere. You have to work way too hard to get the point.
However, I do have to give a shout out to the spectacular costumes and the absolutely beautiful soundtrack. The production design was also wonderful and captivating, and with Rome for a backdrop, the setting was gorgeous. Better than seeing the film, go to Rome, listen to some beautiful music, and go shopping on the Piazza Navona - it will have been time much better spent.
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OMAR
Foreign Language Film - Reported by the Academy as the submission from "Palestine"
Omar tells the story of a young member of a terrorist group living in the West Bank who, with his two friends Tarik and Amjad, go in the middle of the night to a base for the Israeli Defense Forces and shoot and kill a soldier from their concealed spot in the woods. Omar is caught by the IDF and while imprisoned, is tricked into implicating himself for being an accomplice to the crime. Meanwhile, he is in love with Nadia, Tarik's sister, and he dreams of marrying her and starting a life together, so he agrees to act as a double agent for the army as they try to round up Tarik, who is the head of the terrorist group in order to gain his release from prison. He remains loyal to the group and immediately reveals what the army wants him to do, but the group figures out that there is indeed an informant in the mix. He also discovers that he has a rival for Nadia's affections in Amjad, who would equally do anything to win her, and to get Tarik's approval for marriage.
I am incredulous at this film's nomination, first and foremost because of the major holes in the story. Before I even address the propaganda in the film, it is impossible to miss that there are so many big, implausible, illogical plot points for which we are asked to suspend disbelief that it is difficult to understand how this became an Oscar nominee. It is just a cartoon of a film in which all Israelis are the caricature equivalents of Dastardly Dan tying the innocent damsel to the train tracks, and all Palestinians are simple people trying to live their lives in peace, even when they are planning murders of IDF soldiers. We are asked to disregard the fact that Omar, himself, volunteers to act as sniper without a single thought when Amjad, the shooter, is agonizing about pulling the trigger. We are asked to applaud Omar that he never betrays his cause and will set up an ambush to murder the extraction team who wants to arrest the leader of the terrorist group (Tarik) who orders the times and places of murders of Israelis.
The movie hopes that we will miss the fact that when Omar is imprisoned, that he is provided a lawyer for free, that the Israelis acknowledge that they need evidence to charge and hold him, and that let's face it, were the situation reversed, there would be no justice system for captured Israelis, merely executions. And, the biggest problem of all, we are asked to draw a moral equivalence between being used as an operative for the Israeli army in order to capture known terrorist leaders and murdering a person in the dead of night. This is too big of a leap for me to make, and in the end, all I had for this film was stunned and angry silence. Let's hope that smart people are not so easily manipulated.
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THE MISSING PICTURE
Foreign Language Film - Cambodia
The Missing Picture documents the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and the atrocities committed by them under their ruthless dictator, Pol Pot. The systematic murder of intellectuals followed by the "re-education" of the Cambodian people is carefully and methodically portrayed through the use of hand created clay figurines, with a background of bits of video footage from the time. Most photo and video evidence has been destroyed, including individuals' own histories, since they were required to release any personal items from the moment that the Khmer Rouge rounded the people up and sent them to labor camps.
The film is an astounding accomplishment both in storytelling and in the incredible feat of staging hundreds (thousands?) of clay figurines in the settings. They are truly magnificent and that accomplishment alone makes the film mind boggling. The story of the violence and brutality is told through the eyes of one survivor, his journey, and his family, and it is impossible to shake off once the film is completed.
When one is able to connect with clay figurines as representations of people, you know there is a powerful story there. It is not easy to sit through if you have even the slightest sense of humanity, but it is likely the most important of the foreign films nominated this year. The question for the Academy voters is likely to be what prevented The Missing Picture from making the top 5 list of the full length documentary nominees, as it easily competes with this year's crop. However, what a relief to know that this film will get recognition and attention through the foreign film category, at least. It will be interesting to observe how a documentary competes with original screenplays written to be entertainment, rather than the review of real life events.
Either way, The Missing Picture is an outstanding and moving film - one that is truly not to be missed.
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THE HUNT
Foreign Language Film - Denmark
If you read my review of the Broken Circle Breakdown, you already know why the foreign films tend to be an outstanding group, having been submitted by their respective countries as the best ones to be produced from the entire crop of movies to appear in theaters that year. Denmark has a very strong entertainment industry, and has had many nominees make the top 5 list for the Oscars.
This year's "The Hunt" is no exception. The movie tells the story of Lucas, wrongly accused of child sexual abuse because of one little girl's lie. (We know throughout the film that he is innocent, not a spoiler.) Though the little girl immediately admits the lie to her parents, everyone has already been told that children never lie and also that out of shame, once they have revealed abuse they have a tendency to recant. So when she admits what she did, everyone is already convinced that this is just the regular pattern that children who have been abused follow, and don't believe the truth. Soon after, other children in the kindergarten also claim abuse, after having been coached by their appropriately concerned parents.
It is a small town in Denmark, so naturally the entire town turns against Lucas. They vilify him, beat him, and interfere with his attempts to get custody of his son, who is living in another town with his estranged ex-wife.
The tension in the film comes from two places - how can one prove that one hasn't done something, and how can we blame the town for following the diagnosis of the experts, who are convinced that the children have been abused? There was a knot in my stomach for most of the movie. Wanting to see justice, watching the needless breakdown of lifelong relationships among Lucas and his childhood friends, understanding the parents' desire to protect their children and their fury in learning that they couldn't - all of these elements made for an outstanding film.
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DIRTY WARS
Documentary Feature - Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
The Joint Special Operation Command is the focus of an investigation being conducted by Jeremy Scahill, war correspondent. In the film, we learn that the JSOC is a division of the American military that conducts its work in secret and apparently, without limitations or oversight. The film is a condemnation of this kind of work, and especially when it follows the murders of members of a family of bystanders who seemingly have no connection to terror activities.
From what we can tell, the work seems amoral, without reason and too secretive to have integrity. The notion of a "kill list" which not only includes foreigners but Americans, as well, is almost too cinematic to be real. There are several former military talking heads in the film who confirm that the JSOC does indeed have a wide berth in which they are allowed to operate and make secret decisions, and it isn't clear whether those choices are taken to any sort of military chain of command, including the Commander-in-Chief. (spoiler alert - neither Democrats nor Republicans have the moral high ground here - these operations have been taking place for decades covering Presidents from both sides of the aisle, so please save your commentary along these political lines for someone else's, or your own, blog)
It would be simplistic to condemn these actions and fall down the rabbit hole with Scahill as though there isn't a very real war on terrorism abroad, particularly in the countries where the majority of the operations have been carried out. This film is important because of this dilemma - we know that there are people who are targeting America and Americans, we know that there are terrorists in the world, and we know that not everyone being targeted is indeed a terrorist. So we must try to figure out what's moral, what's important, and what's legitimate use of force, and we must do that while we know full well that we can't ever know what the decision-makers know without levels of government clearance that most of us will never have.
For me, the documentary failed to acknowledge that there are things that we don't know, and that some of those things are critical for evaluating the actions of the JSOC, but it is hard to escape the eerie sense that there are people who are over empowered to do what they like, potentially without justification or rationality.
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CUTIE AND THE BOXER
Documentary Feature - Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
Cutie and the Boxer asks a number of fundamental questions about marriage, art, and life and what success looks like in all three. Is there only room for one genius in each relationship; a gardner and a flower but never two flowers?
Cutie is the artistic doppelgänger to her artist, the wife of the pair (Noriko), who tames her narcissistic, formerly alcoholic cartoon husband, Bullie (the inspiration for the character drawn from her real-life husband, Ushio) in art, if not in life. One can see the resentment that comes after a life of giving up one's voice in order to accommodate the dreams of her partner. But there is love there too, and respect for his talent, and we see the devastation that such narcissism and alcoholism can wreak on a family, including their now adult - and seemingly alcoholic - son.
We are at the moment in time where both artists appear to be on the brink of flourishing, and we see Noriko begin to find and embrace her own voice, both as a person and as an artist, while Ushio is fighting to save what little career he has left, reviving his unique style of "boxing art" for what is likely his final show.
I expected to like this film so much more than I did. In places where it was trying to be methodical, it was excruciatingly slow. In places where it was trying to be touching, it translated as ironic. In places where we are meant to be uplifted, we are sadly, turned off. Perhaps there is too much bitterness and not enough love left for us to care about this couple, though the filmmakers do attempt to show the brief moments of affection they have left for each other. Unfortunately, it's just not enough to make the film great.
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