Official U.S. Trailer for Jeunet's latest: Micmacs à tire-larigot

Jean-Pierre Junet's 6th film is finally getting a U.S. theatrical run, albeit a limited one, in May. Apparently the film is a sort of satire on the world arms trade and of course Dominique Pinon will appear. I personally plan on traveling as far as need be to see this on the big screen as it will be several years before Jeunet releases another movie, it took six years for him to release this one after 'A Very Long Engagement' so he doesn't work very fast.

Some quotes from Jeunet on what we can expect:

"You know Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," exclaims Jean-Pierre Jeunet, waving his arms around with excitement. "Well, I wanted to create something funny and imaginative like that: a stupid band of seven people. And also I wanted a story of revenge because I love Once Upon a Time in the West so much."

"I put everything I have into this film," laughs Jeunet. "There are no limits -- it's all of my influences at once. Guillaume Laurant, my writing partner, and I note down everything we hear. Then, when we write a script, we open the box of details and use them. Only when the box is packed full of ideas to we start to write. The principle of the Walt Disney Company is to have one idea per shot and I try to do that too."

9 Foreign Films Advance to the Next Stage of the Oscars

9, out of 65, films have advanced in the Academy's Oscar race. Out of these choices only 5 will make it to the final cut.

The nominees are:

• Argentina, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Juan Jose Campanella, director;
• Australia, “Samson & Delilah,” Warwick Thornton, director;
• Bulgaria, “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner,” Stephan Komandarev, director;
• France, “Un Prophète,” Jacques Audiard, director;
• Germany, “The White Ribbon,” Michael Haneke, director;
• Israel, “Ajami,” Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, directors;
• Kazakhstan, “Kelin,” Ermek Tursunov, director;
• The Netherlands, “Winter in Wartime,” Martin Koolhoven, director;
• Peru, “The Milk of Sorrow,” Claudia Llosa, director.

I'm absolutely floored that Almodovar's 'Broken Embraces' didn't even make the shortlist and had hoped it would at least become an augmented choice. But Spain has won 4 times now so I suppose I can understand cutting them out but I can't believe there are no Asian countries in the final round. South Korean Bong Joon-Ho's 'Mother' certainly deserved a final spot as did the Vietnamese director Nhat Minh Dang's 'Don't Burn It.' But alas....

I think it's safe to say that 'White Ribbon' will come away with the win but I can't decide which 4 movies will get dropped from the final round though I do believe both 'Ajami,' and 'Kelin' will make the cut.

Happy Birthday to Carlos Saura

On the 4th of January it was Carlos Saura's birthday and it is my opinion that Saura is a director whom everyone with an interest in cinema should be or become well acquainted with. He directed one of two movies I recommend to those who view 'Pans Labyrinth' as "unlike anything they've ever seen" or was "so original how it dealt with Franco's horrible regime et-cetera" and that movie is 'Cria Cuervos' and was actually made during the last months Franco was in power. It deals with the regimes fascist "truths" and the effect is has on a family while focusing in on one of the children whose insecurities mirror those of an unstable post-Franco Spain. The film manages to blend reality and fantasy perfectly with strong storytelling and subtlety rather than relying on a crutch such as CGI or violence. I should note that the second of the two movies, 'Spirit of the Beehive,' was directed by Victor Erice in '73 only two years before 'Cria Cuervos' and both movies star the same actress, Ana Torent, who happens to play a child named Ana in both. 'Spirit of the Beehive' also deals with the Franco regime in a subtle way and also blends reality and fantasy quite perfectly. Unfortunately Erice, though an obvious and important master of cinema, has only directed a total of three movies. But Saura is still working today & perhaps Erice will show his face again in the future.