Awardsdaily.com: "La mayoría de las veces, los académicos y el público en general no sitúan a las mejores películas del año en el contexto de nuestro tiempo. Utilizamos términos como "zeitgeist", "oportuna" y "relevante", pero lo que realmente queremos decir es que podemos encontrar en ellas algo aplicable al mundo que nos rodea. A veces puede ser el mundo definido por un cineasta, que tiene lugar en otro tiempo, en otro país. O puede ser un mundo definido por la historia.
"Lincoln" habla sobre la Guerra Civil, pero también trata el conflicto entre las dos Américas. Y lo hace contando una guerra salvaje, brutal y sin sentido sobre la esclavitud y cómo la oposición del "poder blanco" acabó con el asesinato de uno de nuestros más grandes presidentes. Si bien Spielberg y Tony Kushner comenzaron a idear la película hace una década, ahora mismo también nos encontramos una Norteamericana polarizada. Une pelea entre el norte y el sur, entre los estados rojos y azules. No se trata sólo de que la popularidad de Spielberg ha llevado a mucha a gente a los multicines, y no sólo son las buenas críticas cosechadas. La razón de su éxito es que este film nos muestra el camino que hemos seguido.
Spielberg, con razón, quería estrenar la película después de las elecciones. Los republicanos en el tiempo de Lincoln defendían la libertad. Hoy en día, representan todo lo contrario. Aaron Sorkin dijo que 2012 fue el año de mayor división en Norteamérica desde la Guerra Civil. Si los bloggers, críticos y académicos van a sacrificar este film por razones como "No me gustó el final", o "es una película donde sólo se habla", ¿qué debemos hacer? Debemos volver a lo que impulsa al principal órgano de nuestro cuerpo: al corazón. Si sus corazones no están dispuestos a recompensar un trabajo de diez años de amor que dio como resultado una obra maestra, dando aún más brillo a la carrera de uno de nuestros mejores cineastas, con la mejor interpretación y el mejor guión del año... no hay elección. El corazón quiere lo que quiere. Llevamos dos años viendo esto y no hay razón para pensar que esto pueda cambiar.
"Les misérables" trata sobre el levantamiento estudiantil mucho después de la Revolución Francesa. A diferencia de "Lincoln", no se sumerge en el conflicto, sino que sirve como escenario de fondo para crear un musical conmovedor y emocionante con una historia de amor como eje central. No se puede negar que es un "ricos contra pobres" y no se puede negar que, al igual que "Oliver", podría ser justo lo que necesita la gente para ayudar a sanar las heridas que todo el mundo siente este año. "Oliver" ganó en 1968, el mismo año en que Robert F. Kennedy y Martin Luther King fueron asesinados. Sin embargo, "Les Misérables" es aún más complicada porque es, en muchos sentidos, un audaz experimento para el cine. Aunque muchas personas están familiarizadas con el musical, no es habitual que la música ocupe casi todo el metraje. Muchos creen aún así que su poder emocional le dará el Oscar a la mejor película. De ser así, Tom Hooper se uniría al club selecto de cineastas que ganaron mejor film y director con un musical, junto a Robert Wise, Leo McCary y Milos Foreman. En ninguno de esos musicales estaban todo el rato cantando. Eso es un aviso. Aunque hasta el año pasado tampoco ninguna película muda había ganado el Oscar desde el primer año de los premios y mucho menos dirigida por un director francés.
"Zero Dark Thirty" es un film con una mirada inflexible a nuestro papel de entrometidos en Oriente Medio y en la guerra contra el terror, y como, al fin y al cabo, la guerra es un negocio sucio. Al igual que "The Hurt Locker" nos aplasta hasta el final porque Bigelow y Boal no quieren darnos ningún alivio. Hemos acabado con Bin Laden, pero no estamos seguros. Es una buena noticia pero no se soluciona nada. No repara el daño. La milagrosa interpretación de Jessica Chastain refleja este conflicto interior. Aparte del mismísimo Abraham Lincoln, no hay un papel más interesante de este año.
La carrera por el Oscar nos devuelve a una nueva encrucijada. Tenemos películas que definen la vida americana y tenemos películas que exploran la condición humana y el significado más profundo de nuestra propia mortalidad. Películas como "Life of Pi", "Silver Linings Playbook", "Moonrise Kingdom", "Amour" o "Beasts of the southern wild" hablan de la poesía, de la belleza, y esta espirar de muerte en formas incuestionablemente memorables. Estamos en guerra, desde luego, con otros países, con nosotros mismos.
En medio de la niebla de la guerra, sin embargo, el amor puede hacernos encontrar el camino. La película que se aleja de todo lo demás, desde mi punto de vista, es "Silver Linings Playbook". Es una película que gusta a casi todo el mundo y te hace sentir bien cuando sales del cine. Además, está dirigida por un cineasta que aún no ha ganado, protagonizada por una actriz que podría ganar y un final que invita a la gente a abrazarse. Esa es una medicina poderosa. Pero no por eso dejo de creer que "Lincoln" pueda ganar. Lo que más me gusta es que nadie realmente lo cree. No creen que pueda ganar por todas las razones por las que debería ganar. ¿Quién hubiera pensado que una película de Spielberg fuera a estar tan desamparada?
La película que he vuelvo a ver y que no debe pasarse por alto es "Moonrise Kingdom". Mientras que la primera vez me dejó un poco fría, un segundo visionado me recordó su gran guión, sus originales personajes y su encanto permanente. Es tan "feelgood" como "Silver Linings Playbook" y el "buzz" de "Beasts of the southern wild" parece haberse rebajado. Para mí, cuando mire hacia atrás y recuerde este memorable año de cine, doy por seguro que recordaré "Moonrise Kingdom".
The State of the Race: At War, In Love
ResponderEliminarMost of the time, Oscar voters and audiences do not put the year’s best films in the context of our time. We throw around words like “zeitgeist” and “timely” and “relevant” but what we really mean is that we can find something in them that applies to the world around us. It can sometimes be the world defined by a filmmaker — taking place in another time, in another country. Or it can be a world defined by history.
More people know about the daily comings and goings of Lindsay Lohan than they do the ongoing war in Afghanistan, brought about by an eager beaver neocon presidential administration using the war on terror as their battle cry. Soldiers and civilians continue to die as we wait out one more long year before troops will be pulled. This, the last wave of the Bush administration legacy. That legacy, it seems, has birthed the films most likely to compete for this year’s Best Picture Oscar.
Lincoln is about the Civil War but it’s also about the ongoing conflict between the two Americas, about a savage, brutal and senseless war over slavery and how opposing side defended “white power” by murdering one of our greatest presidents. When President Bush left and President Obama ran for office, the McCain campaign had the choice to use Obama’s race against him or not. McCain nixed it. He warned that heading in that direction would be dangerous for the Republican party. That’s how they tell it in Game Change, anyway. But four years later, a slow economy gave rise to fear and hatred of the kind not seen since the Civil War. Though planned by Spielberg and Tony Kushner a decade earlier, Lincoln found himself once again in the middle of a fight between North and South, red states and blue states. His words echo like screams in a rock canyon right up to now. It isn’t just Spielberg’s popularity bringing people to the multiplex, and it isn’t just the good reviews, but it’s the lanky leader himself, our true north, showing us the way.
ResponderEliminarSpielberg rightly wanted to release the film after the election so that it wouldn’t become a lightning rod for either side. The Republicans in Lincoln’s time stood for freedom. Today, they stand for anything but. Aaron Sorkin said of 2012 that it was the most divided the country has been since the Civil War. It remains divided.
All 50 states have applied to secede from the union at the behest, no doubt, of the lunatic fringe on the right who have now become mainstream, the Rush Limbaughs and the Glenn Becks. Look at this list and know how alive racism is in this country, for even after Bush led us into two catastrophic wars, lazily allowed 9/11 to happen on his watch and sunk the country into the worst recession in modern history, one million signatures to secede from the United States. Gone is patriotism, gone is standing by the elected president. But it will come as no surprise that the South is where racism is alive and well and has the highest number of signatures. Texas alone has over 100,000. This is something none of us has ever seen in the 150 years since Southern fanaticism killed our greatest president.
ResponderEliminarIf bloggers, critics and voters are going to sacrifice that kind of relevancy, popularity and box office for reasons like, “I didn’t like the ending,” or because they say it’s too talky or it’s a procedural, it’s “homework” or whatever else, what then must we do? We must turn to what drives the other organ in the body: the heart.
If their hearts aren’t inclined towards rewarding a decade-long labor of love that resulted in a masterpiece, coming at the height of a notable American director’s long career, with the best performance of the year, and the best screenplay, there is no choice to but to once again try to figure out what will be merely the most well-liked movie across the board to win. Well-liked, as in, the heart want what it wants. Two years of this now means there’s no reason to expect them to stop now.
ResponderEliminarLes Misérables is about the student uprising LONG AFTER the French Revolution, the underclass unseating the monarchy in France. It’s about that, but many will also see it as a comment on our occupy movement, though markedly more violent and urgent. It is about that in the abstract. Unlike Lincoln, it does not dive into the conflict of the time but uses that conflict as a set piece for a rousing, emotional musical with a love story in it. There is no denying that it’s a rich vs. poor and there’s no denying that it, like Oliver, could be just what the people need to help heal the hurt now being felt all over the world, not just in America. Oliver won Best Picture in 1968, the same year that Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot.
However, Les Misérables is tricky because it is, in many ways, a bold experiment for film. Though many are familiar with the musical, there is the aspect of it being wall to wall singing with no breathing room for dialogue or traditional character development. Many believe that the Victor Hugo book gives it depth and gravitas and that the emotional response to it will drive it home to Best Picture. Tom Hooper would join an elite group of directors who’ve won Best Director and Best Picture for a musical. Robert Wise is one — he directed two musicals — Leo McCary who directed Going My Way and Milos Foreman, who directed Amadeus.
ResponderEliminarAlthough none of these were all singing musicals, last year was the first time a silent movie had won the Best Picture Oscar, in decades, much less one directed by a French person; precedents are made to be broken. But so far, Les Misérables as it’s the only film in the Best Picture race right now with not a single review online, which means that its appraisal could go either way. Oscar pundits are banking on rave reviews based on the stacked screenings over Thanksgiving weekend.
One of the best reviewed films of the year is Argo, which has made $100 million without breaking a sweat and, though entertaining, also reminds us of our “crippling” sanctions against Iran and the constant nuclear threat, which have gotten worse since Tony Mendez colluded with the Canadians to free the hostages in Iran. Though not directly related to the War on Terror Bush left us, there is no doubt that our relationships with Iran has only worsened since 9/11, and remains the primary bone of contention by Senator John McCain and others who wish to prove the Obama Presidency is bad for foreign relations. Since the events in Argo took place during the Carter administration, President Carter’s slandered memory also hangs over Argo like a ghostly reminder of bad things can get.
ResponderEliminarPresident Obama’s presence hangs over the proceedings on Zero Dark Thirty the same way Carter’s is felt in Argo, except with a little more skepticism. Kathryn Bigelow’s astonishing new film doesn’t take a partisan side but it still echoes the failures of the Bush administration, the fallout from what Bigelow’s last movie, The Hurt Locker, expressed so mercilessly — this continues to be an unwinnable war with an unseen enemy, only now the military and the CIA have to worry about PR. It is even sweeter that this time around Bigelow found a worthy female character to frame her film around. The only female character, in fact, who leads any of the major Oscar BP contenders.
That makes it all the more relevant in our post-2012 election culture because, for the first time in a long time, support for women’s rights issues translated into a fierce coalition which ultimately resulted in many more women getting elected to office than ever before. While Bigelow’s female lead doesn’t strap on the talking points from the feminist movement or even the Obama administration, it is telling that not once in Bigelow’s film does her lead stand behind a man, trust a man’s opinion over her own, or feel the need to strike up a romance with a man, “I’m not the girl who fucks,” she says.
ResponderEliminarZero Dark Thirty is unflinching, uncompromising look at our obtrusive role in the middle east and in the war on terror, what lengths we go to to protect our homeland, what kinds of tactics we used to find Bin Laden. And how, at the end of the day, war is dirty business. Like The Hurt Locker it crushes you at the end because Bigelow and Boal offer us no relief. We got Bin Laden but we aren’t safer. The war rages on. The two films are the only major Hollywood films that really get to our enduring conflict not just with a world we don’t understand and can’t change but with ourselves, what we’ve become, what we now do to other human beings. The capture and assassination of Bin Laden is not more satisfying than the news of the deaths in 9/11. It doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t repair the damage. We bandage ourselves up and we limp onward. In Jessica Chastain’s miraculous performance this inner conflict rages. Other than Abraham Lincoln himself, there isn’t a more interesting protagonist this year.
The State of the Oscar race is that we find ourselves at a crossroads once again. We have gritty and meaningful films that define this American life. And we have films that explore the human condition, the endless reach for deeper meaning in our own mortality. Movies like Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Moonrise Kingdom, Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild chase the poetry, the beauty, this mortal coil in unquestioningly memorable ways. We are at war, yes, with other countries, with ourselves.
ResponderEliminarThrough the fog of war, however, love might find its way. As voters reach for the movie that takes them away from everything else, from my perspective, that movie could be Silver Linings Playbook. Because it is the one in the bunch that is beloved by most, hated by few, and makes you feel good when you come out of it. It has the benefit of a director who has never won before, a lead actress who might win, and that ending that makes people want to hug themselves. That’s powerful medicine.
For my money, though, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln continues to tower over the competition. The thing I like the most about it is that no one really thinks it can win. They don’t think it can win for all of the reasons it should win. Who would have ever thought that the scrappy underdog would be a Spielberg film?
The one movie I’ve revisited lately that should not be ignored is Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. While the first viewing of it left me a little cold, a second viewing reminded me of the great writing, original characters and permanent charm. It is every bit as feelgood as Silver Linings and Beasts of the Southern Wild though its buzz seems to have died down. To me, looking back on this truly memorable year for film, I feel sure Moonrise Kingdom will be remembered.
ResponderEliminarWe are just about to start in with the critics awards and from here on out, Oscar watchers. Stay frosty. The car will speed so fast downhill we will not be able to catch our breath and when we come out the other side we will look back in amazement at all that happened, all that didn’t, and wonder what it even means anymore to call anything “best.” These filmmakers have delivered so much richness to our ailing eyes, our war-torn spirit and our aching hearts. We owe them nothing so much as our attention, and perhaps, our gratitude.
Si claro, voy a escribirlo en mi máquina de escribir invisible...
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