Huh? The Ring Two has only five pages.

Argh! I need to check my stats better. I was so sure Constant Gardener was here (it really could be).

I love black and white. My intitial response was, so does everyone else. Plus the weave of archival footage. But when push comes to shove, cinematography has always gone to sweeping vistas. I bet if someone looked at all the past movies, almost all winners were outdoor shooting. This was an arguement that came up last year with Mann's. It was great, and creative use of digital cams, but it was inside a cab, interiors of bars, and a urban scenes. Doesn't cut it.

Its Brokeback of New World, and look at Lubezki's history. The only thrice nominated guy..and for The Little Princess. Lets think about this. I kids movie rarely gets noticed, especially not a 200 million grossing one. Clearly people like his style, so it all depends really on how they feel towards him, and if they feel they've already chalked up brokeback enough times on their ballots that they'll give this to someone else. I'd say Geisha was an outside shot (Batman being the only one with zero chance) ala all those random Frida wins, but it just wasn't well received enough, and there's the horror that was that dance scene.

Close call, but I did in fact put it down to New World. Not just what I like, etc. I'm going by the Little Princess nom, the Landscape cinematography, and I really think I've been logical about this one. Could go just as easily to brokeback though. Third in line is Good Night, then Geisha, last Batman.

Richard Roeper lovedddddddddd The New World (downside he also loveddddddddd Crash)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/roep...nws-roep01.html

Richard Roeper
Oscar nods about as imaginative as a B movie

February 1, 2006

BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST


Joan Allen? Robbed.

"Syriana"? Should have had the most nominations.

Russell Crowe? His name should have been called.

Comedies? Ignored, as always.

Every year when they reveal the Oscar nominations, the presentation is the same as the year before. It might as well be 1983 for all the innovations we (didn't) see when the names of the 2005 nominees were announced at the crack of dawn Tuesday in L.A., the better to get exposure on all the East Coast morning talk shows.

(Technically, it was before the crack of dawn. Sunrise in L.A. yesterday was at 6:42 a.m., a full hour after the nominations.)

The nominations are read by the Academy president, i.e., a guy in a suit nobody knows, and a former Best Supporting Actress winner who is at the point in her career where she'll get up at 3 a.m. for an insanely early call time.

This year it was the lovely Mira Sorvino, who graciously wished all the nominees the best of luck. But you know that somewhere deep down in the recesses of her actress soul, she's thinking that SHE could have played the Michelle Williams role in "Brokeback Mountain" or the Rachel Weisz part in "The Constant Gardener."

So The Guy in the Suit and The Best Supporting Actress Winner From a Long Time Ago stand on stage, framed by giant Oscars, as they address the assembled press.

The photographers snap photo after photo of the suit guy and the actress, thus creating an annoying strobe effect for the viewers at home. You half-expect Mira to start dancing, as long as there's a light show and she's wearing the dress and heels for it.

The names of the nominees in the major categories are read in rapid-fire fashion. Some of the hackier hacks in the press let out a whoop when one of their favorites is announced. You can almost hear them: "You know, I'm pretty good friends with Clooney. Every time I do a junket with him, he remembers my name and asks how the wife is doing. And you can tell he really means it!"

Sure he does. He's going to have you over to the villa in Italy any summer now.

More envelopes, please

As for the nominations, there has never been a less surprising year. Even if you haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," "Walk the Line," "Capote" or "Crash," you knew those films were favored to capture multiple nominations. These days there are so many awards prior to the Oscars -- and so much more publicity about those awards -- that by the time the nominations are announced, it's like Selection Sunday for the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. We already know who's going to capture about 90 percent of the slots.

You can peruse the list of nominees elsewhere in today's Sun-Times. I understand most of the choices, though I'd argue against Judi Dench (she's played variations on that part a dozen times), and it's just nuts that the best documentary of the year, "Grizzly Man," wasn't even on the short list of nominations.

But instead of dwelling too much on the undeserving, here's my list of films and performances that were equal to or better than the actual nominees.


Best Picture

"Syriana"

"The New World"

"Nine Lives"

"Walk the Line"

"A History of Violence"


Best Actor

Russell Crowe, "Cinderella Man"

Viggo Mortensen, "A History of Violence"

Eric Bana, "Munich"

Ralph Fiennes, "The Constant Gardener"

Colin Farrell, "A New World"


Best Actress

Q'Orianka Kilcher, "A New World"

Joan Allen, "The Upside of Anger"

Ziyi Zhang, "Memoirs of a Geisha"

Naomi Watts, "King Kong"

Radha Mitchell, "Melinda and Melinda"


Supporting Actor

Don Cheadle, "Crash"

Matt Damon, "Syriana"

Ed Harris, "A History of Violence"

Kevin Costner, "Upside of Anger" or "Rumor Has It"

Christian Bale, "A New World"


Supporting Actress

Robin Wright Penn, "Nine Lives"

Sandra Bullock, "Crash"

Maria Bello, "A History of Violence"

Shirley MacLaine, "In Her Shoes"

Thandie Newton, "Crash"

***

The coolest thing about the 2005 nominations: George Clooney getting nominated as an actor, director and screenwriter.

Didn't see that coming when Clooney was on "The Facts of Life," did ya? Me neither.

He was good, but not great (IMO).

I was about to say, even I'm not that blinded by my love.

Wow, what a cynical bastard Roeper is, eh? And his replacement nominees are, for the most part, terrible. Sandra Bullock? Get real .

What an incredibly beautiful film.

Just wonderful. Just wonderful.

At first, I didn't know what to make of it, but as the running time wore on, I started growing attached to it.

Kilcher gives, without a doubt, the most astonishing performance be a female this year. It may not be so visibly obvious, and maybe her not being a star helped, but she just transcended beyond the screen and meshed into the history and time.

It will disrupt my top 10

In honour of the best cinematography nomination (and to shamelessly lengthen this thread ), I'll post a few gorgeous shots from The New World over the next little while.

Wanna share the source of these stunning pictures?

My own personal copy of this masterpiece, mine to enjoy in the comfort of my own home, minus the jackasses that populate most theatres these days . Your friendly neighbourhood bittorrent site could hook you up.

"The River leads back there. It leads onward too......deeper.....into the wild"

I want to, but I'm scared of the internet, for the most part.

I don't blame you.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html#020806a

Extended DVD as early as March or April

Haha. Look at the avatars on this page

And I ruined it.

Hey, for once you're supporting what *looks* to be a decent movie. Color me surprised. (That's a light shade of blue, by the way)

Delete that post !



Oh, and great news about the possible extended DVD coming sooner rather than later.

B+. Some rambling thoughts: Captures the essence of Heidegerrian philosophy beautifully. The music in the film was absolutely awesome, best of the year, although I'm not sure how much of it was previous famous composers vs James Horner. The sound mixing was very expertly done, with the noises of nature and cannons and bows and arrows. The voiceover narrations added another dimension to the film. Actingwise, Q'Orianka Kilcher, Colin Farrell, & Christian Bale were about equally good.

Surprisingly I wasn't too impressed with the cinematography...Emmanuel Lubezki's work was more beautiful in Great Expectations (director of photography), Y Tu Mama Tambien, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events & Sleepy Hollow.

In terms of length/boredom, Brokeback Mountain and Munich definitely felt like longer movies to sit through.

Before the last third of the movie (after Christian Bale shows up), I was leaning towards a B/B-. There were just so many great scenes in the last part of the film that boosted it up. My second favorite scene (the ending sequence is my favorite) showed the Native American walking through the massive garden in England, staring at all the trees that have been trimmed to perfect conformity. Anyone else really liked (or remember) that scene?

"Where am I?"

YES! One of my favorite in the whole movie. Pretty much all the England scenes were great.

Which is?????



Yeah. I'm guessing Horner wasn't up for consideration after Benny started pointing out how much of the music was centuries old!

I agree with you on everything except for the equal acting quality. Perhaps its my disdain for Farrell, coloouring my opinion, but he just wasn't exceptional, and pretty much coule have been replaced by anyone.



Interesting. On many accounts. I did not realize he did so many other films, though I know Little Princess was directed by Cuaron as well, so Y Tu Mama makes sense. Sleepy Hollow, I am least impressed with. Snicket I liked, but an awful lot of it was digital, so it starts to affect my view on who is responsible for the aesthetic sensibilities of that movie.



They're all heavy, so that makes sense. I did feel it was a long movie, but I saw a version that was apparently twenty minutes longer than everyone else here. I will say it didn't have the same multiple-ending aspect Munich did, which always makes a film seem to stretch. Its a style I like (Fellini was notorious for multiple endings) but I'll admit its meant to manipulate one's ability to sit still. New World still had a climax, and it was pretty clear when it was coming.



I liked the Garden scenes. I likes how the other Native American said he was going to put a notch on his stick for every person he saw. Though honestly, unlike everyone else, I was most taken by her entrance into the banquet hall with all the caged birds and her clothing, etc, as far as England scenes go.

I agree with you Dolce, to me Ferrell could have easily been replaced by anyone. I'm just not a fan of him overall I guess.

Well, anyone's whose curiosity has been slightly piqued, y'all better watch it this week/weekend before New World gets completely dumped from theatres.