MBN The Monte Bubbles Network: Foreign Language Nominees

Feb 24

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Explosive films that dealt with tough issues were nominated in the Foreign Language Film Awards category for the 79^th ©Academy Awards® from Algeria , Canada , Denmark , Germany and Mexico . The Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium was held earlier today at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills .

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Now in its 50^th year for this category, the field began with 300 films from 61 countires, narrowed to a group of 15, then 9, and finally a smaller committee selected the final 5 nominees.

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Mark Johnson, the Foreign Language Film Award (FLFA) Executive Committee Chair, noted the commonalities of the nominated foreign films. Each film had a common use of a secret, a fundamental and self eroding secret, a family unit, and a triumph through characters as unique and indelible as any in recent history.

Clips from each of the 5 nominated films were played -

Algeria , “Days of Glory (Indigés)”, Rachid Bouchareb, director

Canada , “Water”, Deepa Mehta, director, on DVD
Denmark, “After the Wedding”, Susanne Bier, director, March 13 release

Germany , “The Lives of Others,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director, playing

Mexico , “Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro, director, playing in theatres

Johnson moderated the symposium with four of the five directors. The Algerian director for “Days of Glory” was unfortunately delayed after being nominated for 9 César awards last night in France .

Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” was developed as a companion film for “Devil’s Backbone”. It is an emotionally charged adult surreal fairytale featuring Doug Jones of del Toro’s “Hellboy”. Joined by friend, Alfonso Cuarón, director of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, it is a visual fantasy.

Susanne Bier’s “After the Wedding” uses her quite distinctive trademark of extreme closeups. Admittedly an obsession of hers, her closeups are so abstract it’s similar to a wideshot. One such closeup, focused on a single eye of two different people responding as you heard dialogue.

Deepa Mehta’s “Water” about the House of Widows in India , had a rocky beginning and 2 starts. After being initially approved for filming in India , protestors closed the filming after effigies burned. The second start was in Sri Lanka . In 1938 India , “Water” portrayed the idea that without men, the widows they left behind were half dead.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, towering above at 6’9”, had a dream team in his head to create “The Lives of Others” and according to him, “enough immodesty to get his perfect cast”. Amazingly the film cost only $2 million to make and the cast followed through with the film even though no distributor had been found.

After audience and press questions were received, a spirited discussion about the use of subtitles vs. dubbing insued. The philosophy of more accurate subtitles to relay a truer picture vs. shorter subtitles so you could enjoy the image more without having to read as much vs. dubbing English so audiences don’t need to read and can then enjoy the film images more. The answer? To be more like Spain and offer both.

While watching snippets of each of these films, we were drawn into the stories as only master story tellers can weave, then abruptly brought into reality as we realized it was only a clip. All of the nominated foreign films are currently playing or on DVD except for “After the Wedding” which is set to release on March 13^th.

Feb 23