Academy Award Tagged Articles at Cinematical

UPDATE: The Daily Variety story was incorrect; the MPAA actually rejected a trailer for Taxi to the Darkside, and not the poster. Here's the Variety clarification: "The MPAA did not approve a theatrical trailer for Alex Gibney's documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" that contained scenes with nudity and images that the org deemed inappropriate for all audiences. ThinkFilm has not yet officially submitted the one-sheet art referenced in a Dec. 19 story, but Daily Variety failed to indicate that it was the trailer that was rejected and not the one-sheet artwork."

ThinkFilm is prepping an appeal to the MPAA, but this one doesn't concern a film's rating. It's about a poster. The poster art for Taxi to the Dark Side -- a documentary about the pattern of torture practice that is on the short list for Academy Award consideration -- is causing a stir due to its depiction of a hooded man being led by American soldiers. The original news photo was taken by photographer Shaun Schwarz, and had been censored before -- when the military erased it from Schwarz' camera. (He later retrieved it from his hard drive.) Variety is reporting that the MPAA has officially rejected the poster, and if ThinkFilm goes forward with the marketing, they could have their "R" rating revoked. Taxi to the Dark Side is due for release on January 11th.

An MPAA spokesman says "We treat all films the same. Ads will be seen by all audiences, including children. If the advertising is not suitable for all audiences it will not be approved by the advertising administration." Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), the film's writer, producer, and director says, "Not permitting us to use an image of a hooded man that comes from a documentary photograph is censorship, pure and simple. Intentional or not, the MPAA's disapproval of the poster is a political act, undermining legitimate criticism of the Bush administration. I agree that the image is offensive; it's also real." I've got to side with Gibney on this one. This isn't horror movie imagery cooked up to sell tickets, this is really happening in the world today. And considering the explosive subject matter, I feel the poster is tastefully done. What do you guys think?

• Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech points out the irony of Academy members encouraging the rest of us to buy tickets to see movies in theaters instead of on DVD.
• Aaron's post-Oscar commentary at Out of Focus notes that "the Oscars are the hardest room in town" for comedians, even the top-notch variety such as Chris Rock and Jon Stewart.
• The Reeler performs a much-needed chore that I would not have had the stamina for: he reviews several Oscar liveblogging entries. That thing about the "God dust" scared me, and made me feel glad I spent Sunday evening at a nice quiet Oscar party with no internet access.
• Finally, Reverse Shot saves a thousand words and sums up their reaction to the Oscars in a single photo (which you might not want to look at from the office).

After this little bit of patter, Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin could, in fact, now get a 2-picture deal at Touchstone for wacky comedies. But even despite that, watching people do faux-Altman on the stage of the Kodak theater is like watching them do Noh theater or Thai shadow puppets; an interesting-yet-archaic reminder of a bygone age. ... Much like Altman. Following in the footsteps of prior Honorary Oscar winners like Akira Kurosawa, (Kurosawa famously accepted his Honorary Oscar by noting "I still feel like there's so much I don't know about film. ..." ), Altman managed to be modest, celebratory and gracious about his work and his craft. in what may have been one of the night's classiest moments.

The SXSW film festival lineup gets more celebrity-rich every day. Matt Dentler just announced more performers who will speak at the conference and/or screenings, including Ray Romano, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Erykah Badu. I'm still trying to decide which films to see ... there are some tough choices. Karina and I will be covering the film festival for Cinematical but even with two of us, we won't be able to catch everything.

• Night Watch opens in Austin this week as part of the Austin Film Society/Dobie Theatre series, AFS@Dobie. Ballets Russes (pictured above) is also held over for another week.
• Kevin Smith will be in Austin early next week and will introduce a midnight screening of House Party on Monday 3/6 at Alamo Downtown. Admission is free, but if you want to guarantee a seat you can buy a food/beverage coupon from Alamo ahead of time. I am not sure what the actual connection is between the Clerks director and the 1990 Kid 'N Play movie, but I'm sure Smith will explain.

Network was re-released on DVD this week in a special two-disc edition with all the trimmings. The last time I saw the movie was on a videotape I'd made from a TV broadcast of the 1976 film, so perhaps it's time to rent (or even buy) that DVD and treat myself to another viewing.

Network is a great film even if you watch it on a crappy videotape. The famous "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!" speech has fallen into popular use even among people who have no idea what it's from, or who haven't seen the whole movie. The film won four Oscars: Peter Finch for Best Actor, Faye Dunaway for Best Actress, Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress, and Paddy Chayefsky for Best Original Screenplay. Sadly, Finch died before he was even nominated for the award, and became the first actor to win an Oscar posthumously. (FYI, Rocky took home Best Picture/Director that year.)

It's Finch I tend to remember most vividly from Network, despite a top-notch cast: Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, and Ned Beatty among others. It's full of witty lines that we've forgotten in the wake of the big memorable one. And as a journalist, I find that the type of news show that is lambasted in the film for being ratings driven and frivolous is terribly tame and unsurprising today. However, the film doesn't date; in fact, sometimes it seems more relevant than ever.

• The Gurgling Cod normally focuses on food, not film. However, this week, The 'Fesser provides tips on the best ways to prepare cuisine using ... Oscar nominees.  I'm particularly amused by the Phoenix Family Turducken, but you might prefer Keener carpaccio or braised shank of Giamatti.
• At The New York Times, David Carr (aka The Bagger) compiles a list of all the annoying pseudo-news about the Oscars that he hates. The list includes Oscar bloggers: "As a group, they are forced to feed a perpetual-motion machine with all sorts of rants, non-sequitur links, and theories built out of chicken wire, gum, and duct tape." And The Carpetbagger isn't part of that machine? Oh-kay. [via The Reeler]
• Doug Cummings at filmjourney reviews all the Oscar-nominated shorts, figuring (correctly) that most of us haven't heard of or seen the films even in their recent limited tour of the U.S. Now I feel guilty that I missed the shorts on their two-day run in Austin last week.
• Edward Copeland describes the first time he felt the Oscars betrayed him, and invites the rest of us to do the same. He also lists a number of Oscars that he believes were mistakes, from the silent era through the current decade. [via Green Cine Daily]

• The AFS@ Dobie series must be doing very well. Originally planned as one film a week, the Austin Film Society/Dobie Theatre collaboration currently has three films screening at the Dobie. This week's new film is Les Saignantes, a 2005 French film about prostitutes in a post-apocalyptic world. Director Jean-Pierre Bekolo will attend the 7:20 pm screening on Friday 2/24. Before the Fall and Ballets Russes are being held over.

• The Black History Month series "Marching On: Independent African American Films from 1935-1950"  wraps up this weekend with the film Where's My Man To-Nite? (also known as Marching On), which plays twice at the Carver Museum theater on Saturday 2/25.

• Over at The House Next Door, Matt Zoller Seitz invites everyone to participate in a Robert Altman blog-a-thon on March 3 in anticipation of the director's honorary Oscar.
• Speaking of Oscars, Anne Thompson at Risky Biz Blog (aka the Hollywood Reporter blog) shares belated but fun details about the Oscar nominees' lunch she attended recently.
• Also on Seitz's site, guest blogger Jeremiah Kipp interviews film critic Charles Taylor about his experiences at Salon and why Taylor thinks he was fired from that publication. I was less interested in the firing story and more intrigued by Taylor's opinions about the purposes of film criticism.
• Cinema Strikes Back now has its own forum, The Movie Lounge, where film geeks are discussing The Hills Have Eyes, Shaw Brothers movies on DVD, and the ever-popular Daniel Craig.
  
• Susie Bright doesn't write often about mainstream film; her blog focuses on sexual issues. However, she found video on the Web of the lesbian sex scenes in Bound, on which she worked as technical advisor, and dishes about her involvement with the Wachowski brothers' film. (Susie's site is NSFW, by the way.)