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Dirk Bogarde on TCM

Strangely, Dirk Bogarde never became a major star in the United States. I’m sure he was well known in the US in the ’50s and ’60s, but he wasn’t the superstar he was in Britain or the top star he was internationally. Perhaps Bogarde just didn’t care for Hollywood stardom — certainly not when in Europe he got to work for the likes of Joseph Losey, Luchino Visconti, Alain Resnais, Liliana Cavani, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John Schlesinger, Anthony Asquith, and the now all-but-forgotten but generally capable Basil Dearden.
Anyhow, today is Dirk Bogarde day as Turner Classic Movies continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" series, which features two TCM premieres later this evening: The Blue Lamp [...]

Hal Ashby Tribute

Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude (top); Julie Christie, Warren Beatty in Shampoo (bottom)

Cameron Crowe and Peter Bart will host a panel discussion with Haskell Wexler, Jon Voight, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Diablo Cody, and Ashby’s agent Jeff Berg as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences salute to Oscar-winning film editor and director Hal Ashby (right) on Thursday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The panel discussion will be followed by a screening of Ashby’s quirky 1971 classic Harold and Maude, starring Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon.
The salute will also kick off a weekend retrospective screening series [...]

Oscar 2008: Julie Christie, Tommy Lee Jones, Jon McLaughlin, Hilary Swank

Julie Christie, Robert Osborne

Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Osborne

Jon McLaughin, Robert Osborne

Hilary Swank, Robert Osborne
Photos: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

Oscar Ceremony 2008: Biggest Surprises

Oscar Ceremony 2008: Part I
The biggest surprise at the Oscar 2008 ceremony was Javier Bardem’s best supporting actor Oscar win for No Country for Old Men. Joke! (Bardem, shown above next to Jack Nicholson, is not applauding himself.)
The second biggest surprise was Marion Cotillard’s win. I was expecting Julie Christie. In fact, I wanted Julie Christie, though Cotillard (right) was surely just as deserving. Cotillard, who now apparently believes in angels (she said as much in her very emotional acceptance speech), also won the French Academy’s César a couple of nights ago. (I still say they should have an Oscar for Best Accent, given to people like Marion Cotillard.)

For the books: Cotillard is only the third individual — and the [...]

Genie 2008 Nominations

The two top nominees for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s 2008 Genie Awards are heavy dramas: David Cronenberg’s Russian mafia thriller Eastern Promises and Roger Spottiswoode’s Rwanda genocide tale Shake Hands With the Devil, each with 12 nominations.
They were followed by Away from Her with seven nods; The Tracey Fragments with six; Continental, a Film Without Guns and Silk, both with five; and Days of Darkness with four.
The violent Eastern Promises, which is up for the best British film BAFTA (it’s a co-production), stars American Viggo Mortensen and Australian Naomi Watts as two disparate people — he a Russian hitman; she a midwife — whose paths are crossed following the death of a pregnant 14-year-old girl. [...]

Oscar 2008 Predictions: Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
George Clooney (for Michael Clayton) might have been the sentimental favorite for he’s a local Hollywood-ite, while Daniel Day-Lewis (above, with Paul Dano), who plays a ruthless oil baron in There Will Be Blood, is an Englishman living in Ireland. Clooney, however, won an Oscar (for Syriana) a mere two years ago, while Day-Lewis’ SAG win has solidified his position as this year’s front-runner.
 

Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Until the SAG Awards, it was a three-lane race: veteran Julie Christie for Away from Her, Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose, and Ellen Page for Juno — by far the biggest box-office hit among the films nominated in the best actress category. [...]

SAG Awards 2008

2008 SAG Awards
2008 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations: December 20, 2007
2008 SAG Award winners: Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center on January 27, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
GEORGE CLOONEY / Michael Clayton — Michael Clayton (Warner Bros. Pictures)
* DANIEL DAY-LEWIS / Daniel Plainview — There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage)
RYAN GOSLING / Lars Lindstrom — Lars and the Real Girl (Sidney Kimmel Entertainment)
EMILE HIRSCH / Christopher McCandless — Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage)
VIGGO MORTENSEN / Nikolai — Eastern Promises (Focus Features)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
CATE BLANCHETT / Queen Elizabeth I — Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Universal Pictures)
* JULIE CHRISTIE / [...]

Oscar 2008: Nominations Buzz

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men

Alex Ben Block at Hollywood Today:
"Even if the writer’s strike is over on Feb. 24 when Oscars are handed out, the appeal of this year’s nominees, led by No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton, will be limited. The 80th Academy Award nominations are not just art house movies, but most of the leading contenders are so dark, violent, slowly paced and often purposely confusing or obscure that it will put mainstream audiences off the awards this year."
***

Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent in Away from Her

Tom O’Neil in The Envelope:
"If Julie Christie wins best actress for Away from Her, she’ll set a new record for longest gap between two [...]

Oscar 2008 Nominations

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men

A few brief remarks about the Oscar 2008 nominations:
The top nominees are: There Will Be Blood (8 nominations), No Country for Old Men (8), Atonement (7), Michael Clayton (7), Ratatouille (5), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (4), Juno (4).
***
Whether in dramas or in comedies, dark themes dominated in just about every category:

greed (There Will Be Blood, American Gangster),
murder (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Sweeney Todd, Eastern Promises, No Country for Old Men, In the Valley of Elah),
corruption (Michael Clayton, Sicko, Charlie Wilson’s War),
war (No End in Sight, War/Dance, Beaufort, Katyn),
illness (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Savages, Away from Her),
political/religious [...]

Iowa Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 Iowa Film Critics Association Awards
2008 Iowa Film Critics Association award winners: January 16, 2008
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Film: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Charlie Wilson’s War
Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away From Her
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille by Brad Bird
Best Film Yet to Open in Iowa: There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson
 
Iowa Film Critics Association Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Film Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 [...]

2008 Golden Globes Ceremony II

2008 Golden Globes Ceremony: Part I
Among the predictable winners were Julie Christie as best actress in a drama for her performance as a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in Sarah Polley’s Away from Her (right, with Gordon Pinsent); Daniel Day-Lewis as best actor in a drama for his star turn as a greedy oil baron in Paul Thomas Anderson’s widely praised There Will Be Blood; and Johnny Depp as best actor in a comedy or musical for his singing serial-killing barber in Sweeney Todd. (Depp was the only American actor to win in the feature-film categories.)
Also, Brad Bird’s Ratatouille, the story of a French rat with gourmet inclinations, as best animated film; and best supporting actor Javier Bardem for his [...]

Golden Globes 2008

2008 Golden Globes
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 2008 Golden Globe nominations: December 13, 2007
2008 Golden Globe Award winners: January 13, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Keira Knightley, James McAvoy in Atonement
 

MOTION PICTURES
Best Motion Picture – Drama
American Gangster, Imagine Entertainment/Scott Free Productions; Universal Pictures
* Atonement, Working Title Productions; Focus Features
Eastern Promises, Kudos Pictures — UK Serendipity Point Films — Canada A UK/Canada Co-Production; Focus Features
The Great Debaters, Harpo Films; The Weinstein Company/MGM
Michael Clayton, Clayton Productions LLC; Warner Bros. Pictures
No Country for Old Men, A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production; Miramax/Paramount Vantage
There Will Be Blood, A Joanne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production; Paramount Vantage and Miramax Films
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Across The Universe, Revolution Studios International; Sony Pictures Releasing
Charlie Wilson’s War, [...]

Julie Christie in the LA WEEKLY

Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago, Julie Christie as Lara in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago (top); Julie Christie as a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s and Gordon Pinsent as her husband in Sarah Polley’s Away from Her (bottom).
 
Ella Taylor on Julie Christie in the LA Weekly:
"Spend half an hour with Christie, and you’ll experience her ambivalence about Hollywood and almost everything else. Plainly shy and gun-shy, the actress hates being interviewed as much as she hates speaking in public. But as luck would have it, we had met two weeks earlier at a panel discussion about Away From Her, with Christie, her genial co-star Gordon Pinsent and a preternaturally confident [Sarah] Polley. Only Christie looked as though she was expecting to be [...]

Online Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 Online Film Critics Society Awards
2008 Online Film Critics Society award winners: January 8, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
 

PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
* No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
* The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
The Host
La Vie en Rose
The Lives of Others
The Orphanage
DOCUMENTARY
In the Shadow of the Moon
Into Great Silence
* The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters by Seth Gordon
No End in Sight
Sicko
ANIMATED FEATURE
Beowulf
Paprika
Persepolis
* Ratatouille by Brad Bird
The Simpsons Movie
DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood
* Joel and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
David Cronenberg – Eastern Promises
David Fincher – Zodiac
Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
ACTOR
George Clooney – Michael Clayton
* Daniel [...]

Dublin Film Critics Awards 2008

Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards 2008
2008 Dublin Film Critics Circle award winners: January 7, 2008
 

Directed by Leonard Abrahamson and written by Mark O’Halloran, the dramatic comedy Garage revolves around the lonely and somewhat dim-witted caretaker (Pat Shortt) of a crumbling small-town gas station whose life is radically changed after a teenager comes to work with him.

 
Best Irish Film: Garage by Leonard Abrahamson
Runners-up: Once, Kings, Small Engine Repair, Shrooms
Best International Film: The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Runners-up: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, This Is England, Zodiac, I’m Not There
Best Director: David Fincher, Zodiac
Best Actor: Ulrich Mühe, The Lives of Others
Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Breakthrough Award: Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
 
Source: [...]

Critics’ Choice Awards 2008

2008 Critics’ Choice Awards
Broadcast Film Critics Association’s 2008 Critics’ Choice Award nominations: December 11, 2007
2008 Critics’ Choice Award winners: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on January 7, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Picture
American Gangster
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
Juno
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
* No Country for Old Men
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood
Best Foreign Language Film
* The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
La Vie en Rose
Lust, Caution
The Orphanage
Best Documentary
Darfur Now
In the Shadow of the Moon
The King of Kong
No End in Sight
Sharkwater
* Sicko by Michael Moore
Best Director
Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
Sidney Lumet – Before the Devil Knows [...]

National Society of Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 National Society of Film Critics Awards
2008 National Society of Film Critics award winners: New York City on January 5, 2008
The numbers in parentheses represent the points earned by each individual/film.
 

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
 

Best Picture
There Will Be Blood (48) – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (28) – Julian Schnabel
No Country for Old Men (27) – Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Foreign-Language Film
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (57) – Cristian Mungiu
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (42) – Julian Schnabel
Persepolis (18) – Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson (47) – There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen (29) – No Country for Old Men
Julian [...]

Houston Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 Houston Film Critics Society Awards
2008 Houston Film Critics Society award winners: January 3, 2008
 

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Runners-up:
Juno
Atonement
Michael Clayton
Into the Wild
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Charlie Wilson’s War
I’m Not There
Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
Best Documentary: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters by Seth Gordon
Best Director of a Motion Picture: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Best Performance by [...]

indieWIRE Poll 2007

Via indieWIRE — "The Critics Speak: Best, Worst, the Auteurs and the Underrated." Below are a couple of sample quotes:
"More people in our world will see Juno than 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. More will see 300 than Offside. More will see Saw IV than There Will Be Blood [above]. Yet we fight on, championing those films that really mean something to us. I find this rage against an always dying light both disconcerting and empowering, and I am thankful for filmmakers like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jafar Panahi, Sarah Polley, Pedro Costa, Tsai Ming-liang, the Coens, Todd Haynes, and all of the others who consistently reminded me of why I do what I do and [...]

Phoenix Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards
2007 Phoenix Film Critics Society award winners: December 18, 2007
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Runners-up (in alphabetical order):
3:10 to Yuma
Atonement
Away from Her
Hairspray
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
Best Documentary Feature Film: Sicko by Michael Moore
Best Animated Feature Film: Ratatouille by Brad Bird
Best Achievement in Direction: Ethan and Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading [...]

Southeastern Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Southeastern Film Critics Association winners: December 17, 2007
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Film: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runners-up:
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
Zodiac
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Gone Baby Gone
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
Runner-up: La Vie en rose by Olivier Dahan
Best Documentary: No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson
Runner-up: Sicko by Michael Moore
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Runner-up: Joe Wright, Atonement
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Runner-up: George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Runner-up: Ellen [...]

Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association Award winners: December 17, 2007
 

Tommy Lee Jones in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runners-up:
Juno
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
Michael Clayton
Into the Wild
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Kite Runner
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Charlie Wilson’s War
Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
Runners-up:
La Vie en rose
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Lust, Caution
Black Book
Best Documentary: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters by Seth Gordon
Runners-up:
Sicko
No End in Sight
My Kid Could Paint That
Crazy Love
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille by Brad Bird
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old [...]

San Diego Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
2007 San Diego Film Critics Society Award winners: December 18, 2007
 

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Film: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
Best Documentary (tie): Crazy Love by Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens, and Deep Water by Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Ensemble: [...]

Critics’ Choices

In Time, Richard Corliss on the New York Film Critics‘ picks:
"I sprinted down the corridors of TIME this afternoon, eager to spread the news of the New York Film Critics Circle voting for the year’s best films. The winner, in the film, director, screenplay and supporting actor categories? The Coen brothers‘ No Country for Old Men, which three different people told me they’d been meaning to see. The runner-up, with wins for best actor and cinematographer? There Will Be Blood, an audience-punishing epic that doesn’t open for another two weeks. Best actress? Julie Christie, in Away From Her [above, with Gordon Pinsent], which earned less than $5 million in its North American release.
"I didn’t even tell them that [...]

Toronto Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Toronto Film Critics Association Award winners: December 18, 2007
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Film: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runners-up: Eastern Promises; Zodiac
Best Foreign-Language Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu
Runners-up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; The Lives of Others
Best Canadian Film: Away from Her by Sarah Polley
Runners-up: Eastern Promises; Radiant City
Best Documentary: No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson
Runners-up: Iraq in Fragments; My Kid Could Paint That
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Runners-up: David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises; David Fincher, Zodiac
Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Runners-up: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Gordon Pinsent, Away from Her
Best Actress (tie): [...]

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