If you have visited our atrium lately, you've seen that we've been busy decorating for our Best Exotic Oscar Party on Sunday, February 24. On that special night when filmmakers and stars gather together in the Dolby Theatre, local cinephiles will celebrate Hollywood artistry and glamour in style at Bryn Mawr Film Institute's Oscar Party!This year, two film fans will attend as our guests! To win two tickets to BMFI's Best Exotic Oscar Party, make your case for which Best Picture nominee should win the Oscar this year. Submit your entry as a comment on this post by Thursday, February 7 at 6 pm.* Our staff will pick a winner based on the entries' persuasiveness and originality. The winner will be announced next Friday, February 8!
If you can't be in Los Angeles to rub elbows with Jessica Chastain and Daniel Day-Lewis in person, there's no better view than at BMFI; the stars will truly appear larger than life on the big screen during our live simulcast of the Academy Awards. Guests will sip cocktails from the cash bar and dine on a gourmet buffet dinner prepared by Catering by Design amidst exotic decor provided by Garden Accents and Janice Martin Couture. Traditional Indian dancers, music by the Philadelphia Mandolin & Guitar Ensemble, and a bazaar-style festival sale sponsored by Ten Thousand Villages will help transform the evening into something truly memorable.
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Argo
ReplyDeleteIt is without a doubt I support Beasts of the Southern Wild for Best Picture of the year. Asking us to probe deeply into our own fears and dreams, in a way redolent of Where the Wild Things Are, this movie challenges our notion of safety, complex interpersonal reactions and joy. In a manner akin to magical surrealism, this movie transcends the ordinary in a way that makes you believe, just a little bit, that our inner monsters are real and our dysfunctional life is normal. The music, acting, directing and general tone of the film trigger all sorts of feelings in the watcher and it is fairly riveting in nature. I saw this movie twice and promoted it by writing the producers and having post cards to hand out to my therapy clients (I am a psychologist). I want to come to your party and jump for joy when they call this picture's "family" to the stage.
ReplyDeletesilver linings playbook ,bradley cooper a great movis.
ReplyDeleteOf the films nominated for best picture, I would have to say "Amour" -- it was certainly the most affecting personally. Haneke has always been a master craftsman whom I've admired to a great extent. I consider "Cache" and "La Pianiste" two of my personal favorites. Not only was "Amour" replete with those singular Haneke-shots (the frame composed of dozens of subjects -- in this case the early theater scene) but these brutal and sinewy characteristics of his films were somewhat subverted by his use of humor and sentimentality. Sentimentality is, of course, a dirty word in high art -- it is the gruel of middle brow-- but I do believe that my favorite enemy of the word, Mr. Vladimir Nabokov, would be wholly reverent of Haneke's work, and in particular "Amour" for confronting our many histrionic instincts as related to sentimentality. "Amour" is a challenging, brutal, but enchanting look at the vagaries of old age, the sentimentality of mortality, and the ambiguity of love. Quite near a perfect film in my book.
ReplyDeleteI would have to go with Argo. Well-written and acted story with an uplifting ending.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fantastic year for we cinéphiles. Les Misérables probed the limitations of film’s ability to convey the intimacy of a work created for the stage. Silver Linings Playbook unassumingly created a heartwrenching family portrait that made us both laugh and cry. At the movies this year, an impressive number of films – from Argo to Life of Pi to Zero Dark Thirty- were so enveloping, creative, and noteworthy that we seem to unanimously agree that they each deserve a Best Picture nod. But which of the nominees deserves the highest honor of them all? I think that Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild merits the Academy Award, and here’s why.
ReplyDeleteThe Academy Award for Best Picture should go to a film that has it all, and Beasts of the Southern Wild truly does. The chemistry between actors, innovative cinematography, well-crafted score, and striking play between scenes harshly real and imagined knock this film straight out of the park. The spirit of the Louisiana “Bathtub” is conveyed through every channel possible, from the lilting back-country string music that crescendos and then disappears to the gritty set design that puts us as viewers inside of Hushpuppy’s beastly, difficult, but much-loved little corner of the world.
Quvenzhané Wallis stuns us with an emotionally-charged, convincing performance in her role as Hushpuppy. Her work is complimented by Dwight Henry in the role of her father, Wink. What’s especially remarkable about this film in the acting department is that the cast is built of relatively inexperienced, unseasoned, if not novice actors. The film achieves so much in part because the cast of unrecognized faces has an innocence about it that makes the film all the more hypnotizing and genuine. There isn’t a long list of celebrities carrying this film to star status; the acting itself does that, and isn’t that what a true “Best Picture” should be able to accomplish? I enjoyed Les Mis and Silver Linings, but I wonder if my opinion of them is elevated at all by my appreciation for the star actors?
Zeitlin’s work is strong enough on its own and doesn’t need a star-studded cast, lots of special effects, or a false, curated sense of suspense (ahem, Zero Dark Thirty) to keep an audience at the edge of its seat. The plot is simple but so compelling, the dialogue is somewhat sparse but right on point, and the theme of losing one’s home is one that would touch something inside of a viewer today, 50 years ago, and 50 years from now. Beasts of the Southern Wild is going to be considered a timeless masterpiece in the future. It’s a film with more heart and soul than any other on this year’s Best Picture roster.
There is no better movie this year than Beasts of the Southern Wild and it will be handily taking the Best Movie Award when the evening comes to an end. The writing, directing, acting and creative rendering of this tale evoked wonderful images and emotions. As a psychologist, I wrote the producers and handed out their post cards to my clients and encouraged them to see the movie. The magical, Where the Wild Things are, pathos moved many of my clients, particularly ones facing huge fears at this time. The movie did not sentimentalize nor cheapen life for people struggling in the Bathtub, it merely created a world you felt had meaning, pain and joy, as measured by what life is for the most thinking, feeling people in the world. Beasts will win and I will celebrate where ever I find myself that evening, but I sure wouldn't mind coming to your shindig!
ReplyDeleteGa Ward
ReplyDeleteMy nomination for best picture would be to award "Beasts of the Southern Wild". The acting,phenominal direction by young "Ben Zeitlan", special effects and cinematography challenged my emotions!As an American seeing "the Bath Tub" made me so empathetic toward a father rearing his daughter as he would had he had a son,knowing the trials and struggles she'd endure growing up in that section of New Orleans!My heart raced as I watched the catastrophes and mental anguish all the characters experienced and then my empathy and compassion set in as they helped each other survive. The Beasts for me truly represented the great and horrific people and situations we all are faced with at different times in our lives and definitely some of us more than others!
Standing ovation and an Oscar for this brilliant film!!!
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a lovely heartfelt indie masterpiece. Zero Dark Thirty is an extraordinary film on every level with a masterful directorial job by Kathryn Bigelow. With Lincoln, Spielberg actually made a film I enjoyed for a change, thanks to Tony Kushner, Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, and the incomparable trio of James Spader, John Hawkes and Tim Blake Nelson. However, I do believe that the Academy cognoscenti will give the nod to either the "Moonstruck" genre film, Silver Linings Playbook, or the ppopular and well done Argo.
ReplyDeleteThe Best Picture I would pick would be 'Silver Linings Playbook'. I'm not picking this movie for the obvious reasons like that it was filmed in the area but for the story, acting, direction, and even the music. I've seen a lot of movies including most of this years Best Picture nominees and I've never had a feeling like I did after watching Silver Linings. Leaving the theater I wanted more and couldn't stop talking about it. I feel in love with every character and I think everyone could relate to at least one of the characters in the film. Bradley Cooper and Robert Deniro's father son relationship was very special to watch and Cooper and Lawrence played off of each other very well and had great chemistry. The love story was so complex and one that I've never ever seen in a movie before. David O Russell not only adapted the screenplay perfectly but he also directed it so well. The fall weather and authentic look of the neighborhood really showed well on screen. Also, when I heard Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's voices singing ''Girl from the North Country" set a really good tone for the movie. I personally don't think that anyone who has seen 'Silver Linings Playbook' could say one bad thing about it. It reaches all audiences and truly deserves to win Best Picture. All in all its been a great year for movies and I look forward to seeing who brings home the gold on Oscar night. Hopefully I'll be watching at BMFI ;)
ReplyDeleteBeasts of the Southern Wild, Best Everything.
ReplyDelete“Best picture nominee...WOW...that to me is really a tough choice this year. I have seen four of the nominated movies so far...Lincoln, Silver Lining Play Book, Les Miserables and Zero Dark Thirty.....all very different movies. To me I would have to pick Les Miserables as the best movie that I saw.. . I have never seen the musical so this was a first time that I saw this production .the acting was wonderful, so natural...the transformation in the characters during all that happened at the time in history was remarkable.
ReplyDeleteLes Misérables” is not a movie musical in the traditional sense, nor is it a case of a stage production awkwardly grafted onto a cinematic template. What director Tom Hooper is presenting here is cinema as stage production, in the truest possible sense.
With very few exceptions, filmed musicals are bold, lavish affairs shot with wide angles to showcase the intricate choreography and production design that went into their creation, where characters are just as liable to burst into song as pedestrians/gang members and/or construction workers are to line-dance. While all the prerequisite extravagance, big establishing shots and star power are present here, what stands out about Hooper’s “Les Mis” is how intimate it all feels. The idea to have all the performers sing all their songs live on set , never has there been one where the performers were forced to rely on the degree of sheer acting skill seen here, captured in unforgiving close-ups for most of the major numbers. Without extras, props, choreography, or even a lip synch to hide behind, the combined effect is one that is simultaneously raw and immediate.
Hugh Jackman is finally able to distance himself from his blockbuster leading man image, portraying the fugitive Valjean with commendable verve and commitment. From his emaciated opening scenes to his ultimate denouement,. And what of Anne Hathaway, she is Fantine. Damaged in body, spirit, and dignity, Hathaway’s Fantine is deadened in every way but her maternal drive to provide for Cosette, creating a performance that ranks among the most heart-rending ever committed to film.
If there’s a weak link in the cast, it would be Russell Crowe as lawman Javert. Crowe gives it his best shot, but is hampered by the fact that the hawkish nose that made him such a distinctive gladiator is also what he sings out of. Crowe cuts a striking, formidable figure in uniform, making it all the more unfortunate that his performance ends up being tear-jerking for all the wrong reasons.
Unlike many stage-to-film adaptations, “Les Mis” had the sung-through nature of the stage version, meaning that the film contains far less actual dialogue than certain portions of the audience may be used to. For fans and patrons of musical theater, though, there is much to love about this sparkling translation of a beloved musical.
As much for longtime fans as it is for the uninitiated willing to give it a chance, "Les Misérables" is an excellent way to see this classic story, brilliantly retold.