Why We Love: Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris is a pretty standard Woody Allen film but it was set in Paris, with fantasy, and Owen Wilson was playing Woody Allen. This might not sound like a great combination to you, but we were hooked. Owen Wilson's contributions to indie comedies are much more enjoyable than his roles in frat-pack films such as You, Me and Dupree or blockbusters like Meet The Parents (although we always have a soft spot for Zoolander. Who doesn't though, really?!). His work with Wes Anderson in particular made many reassess their opinion of him

Firstly, Owen Wilson is a superb Woody Allen. From the way he walks, talks and even some of the looks, you can tell he's really spent his time studying the classic Woody Allen stock character. Secondly, he's almost slightly more believable than Woody Allen ever was in his roles. It's always slightly mystifying at the end of the film when somehow, he normally ends up with the girl. Or having affairs left right an center. Owen Wilson is not a short, bespectacled dweeb and he's believably good-looking enough to have the pick of the three girls in the film.

Rachel McAdams plays the dismissive fiancee wonderfully. Her character and her family say they are open minded, but ultimately, they are not prepared to accept that Paris isn't in the USA. In an almost flashback to Annie Hall, an irritating friend, Paul Bates seems to know everything about all the places the couples visit, and Wilson's portrayal of Pender's annoyance at this shines though, you are almost expecting him to say "Well, that's funny, because I happen to have XXX right here..."

Now for the story. A young betrothed couple (Wilson and Rachel McAdams) are staying Paris, and struggling with writer's block, Gil Pender (Wilson) goes on nightly strolls around the city, which he always finds beautiful at night. When the clocks strike midnight, he is transported back in time to the roaring 1920s, spending his nights with authors such as Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald and artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Dali (captured brilliantly in a small cameo by Adrian Brody). Pender is in awe, believing the 1920s to be a 'golden era' for, well, just about everything. Falling in love with the slightly mysterious Adrianna, he starts to wonder about his imminent marriage and life in 2011.

The film's ultimate message seems to be that everyone looks to the past as a golden era, without realising they may well be living in one right now. It once again proves that Woody Allen can still make amazing films!

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Oscars 2012 (Episode II: Attack of the Academy Awards)

This is actually the serious post about the Oscars, following the last shambles! We're not making predictions, this is just a post about which films we want to win. We usually end up backing the films that don't end up winning the award, so we're not much good there, but such is life. The ones in red are the ones we want to win, and the ones in blue are the ones we think will win.

Best Picture:

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

The Tree of Life was a pretentious load of garbage, and we haven't heard brilliant things about War Horse or Extremely.. (although the latter does look interesting). The Descendants was a really nice film, despite being generally quite scathing of George Clooney's performances. We think The Artist may win, if the BAFTAs and the worldwide crush the entire population of film critics seems to have on it, but we're supporting Hugo for this one. It was a beautifully made film, a lovely story and had a fantastic cast - even the kids were good! We didn't see it in 3D, and can't imagine it actually being that good in 3D as a lot of the beautiful set design would have been lost (that's our main problem with 3D films). Obviously we're always going to cheer on any Woody Allen film too, but Hugo was just lovely.

Best Director:

The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius

The Descendants - Alexander Payne

Hugo - Martin Scorsese

Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen

The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

 

We didn't rate the Tree of Life, but it's the kind of thing that critics might enjoy. The Artist might get this too, just because it's the 'in thing' at the moment. The Descendants wasn't particularly unusual or stunning, so maybe it shouldn't win this particular award. As you may have guessed, we love Woody Allen, so any directing award for him is a good thing. Especially when you consider how hard he must work, and how much he does for his films, he usually writes, directs and produces them. However, he doesn't actually care about winning any Oscars, so we think Scorsese should get it for Hugo, just because it's such a lovely picture! 

Actor in a Leading Role

Demian Bichir - A Better Life

George Clooney - The Descendants

Jean Dujardin - The Artist

Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Surely it's got to be Clooney?! It'll probably go to Jean Dujardin (again, The Artist seems to be flavour of the month, so it really wouldn't surprise me). George Clooney was very good in The Descendants. Perhaps Gary Oldman should win an Oscar, but we don't think he will this year, and let's face it, everyone knows he's a top actor, maybe that's why we want Clooney to win.

Shamefully, we haven't seen any of the films that feature any of the actors nominated for Actress in a Leading Role, so we'll gloss over that with a Star Wars-esque scene sweep.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Berenice Bejo - The Artist

Jessica Chastain - The Help

Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids

Janet McTear - Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer - The Help

Shailene Woodley was robbed of a nomination for The Descendants and that's all we have to say about that. Probably one of the actors from The Help will win it as the Academy seem to like films about white people helping solve racism (see Sandra Bullock's performance in The Blind Side). It would be nice to see a comedy win an acting award, because that so rarely happens, so we're going to back Melissa McCarthy!

Music (Original Score)

The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams

The Artist - Ludovic Bource

Hugo - Howard Shore

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias

War Horse - John Williams

Kudos to John Williams for getting nominated twice! He's pretty much the most famous/successful/commercially viable film composer ever, so it's not like he needs the award. If he doesn't win, people aren't going to say "hey, there's that guy who almost won the Oscar once. Don't think we want him doing our movie." Also if you're making a movie that looks like it needs a John Williams soundtrack/are Steven Spielberg making any movie at all, chances are, you can afford to get John Williams to write the soundtrack. The music must carry The Artist, what with it being silent and all, but from what we've seen of it , it seemed like all music that's played in any 1920s movie ever or in any movie since that's depicting the 1920s. The music for Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, wasn't noticeable. If a film's soundtrack didn't stand out for us, chances are it wasn't very impressive, but that's just because we're massive soundtrack geeks!
This leaves Howard Shore. I guess he's a bit like John Willams really - he's been pretty successful since Lord of the Rings (he won three Oscars for two of the three films - two for the third one), and he's one of those people who if you're making some sort of epic film, you probably want him to write the music for it. However, he's done a lot of soundtrack work that wasn't epic orchestral work, plus he's the only composer to work with Tim Burton who wasn't Danny Elfman, so maybe it's time for him to win another Oscar?! Here's to guessing he might be nominated for one or both of The Hobbit films coming out this year and next year, so maybe he can wait. But we want it to be him! As far as the actual award goes, it's pretty open - John Williams is a favourite of everyone, so he's a safe choice, but they may feel they have to give Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy something.

It would be nice to see Harry Potter win the awards it's been nominated for - particularly Best Visual Effects, as it seems to have done a lot for visual effects in films, just because of what was required from J. K. Rowling's writings!

Films That Really Matter To Us: Annie Hall

For more info on 'films that really matter to us' posts, check this post out.

*If you have not been fortunate enough to read my rant on why no one seems to give a damn about Woody Allen any more, now would probably be a good time to read it.*

I love Woody Allen. I mean everyone 'of a certain age' knows he's a genius, right, and OK, his personal life is dubious at best, but I really love his films. He always starts his films the same way, with the same titles at the beginning, and they'll normally be full of witty, quotable lines. Annie Hall is no exception. I'm not going to stand up and say it's his best film, because there's a hell of a lot of Woody Allen films I haven't seen yet - but it's certainly one of my favourites out of the ones I have seen.

Dianne Keaton is just too cool as Annie - a kind of crazy, air-headed woman, with a ridiculous fashion sense. Apparently Woody Allen liked her fashion sense in real-life so much that most of the clothes she wore were her own.

Woody Allen plays his stock character - a neurotic, intelligent, yet nerdy man. In this case, he's Alvy Singer, a comedian who, like Woody Allen, despises L.A. and all that it stands for. He falls in love with Annie Hall who has promising prospects as a singer and who ends up relocating to L.A.

Of course, there are mishaps and tender moments in their relationship, but ultimately, it's just hilarious from start to finish.

Personal highlights include the lobster scene, the spider in the bathroom scene and finally, one of the funniest things I have ever seen: the cocaine scene.

Lastly, if you have not seen Annie Hall, here's some reasons why you really should:

• It will enhance your viewing of other films and TV shows. I can think of many films and tv shows that parody, pay tribute to and just plain rip off, Annie Hall. For example, if you've seen the Green Wing house party episode from series 1, you will laugh even harder. Human Traffic (1999) draws heavily from it.
• It's 134 on the IMDB.com top 250 films. And let's face it, it's most film geek's secret ambition to watch all of those films!
• It won Best Picture at both the Oscars AND the BAFTAS in 1977. 
• It's been preserved by the United States National Film Registry as a film that is culturally significant.
• Total Film reckon it's the 44th funniest film EVER. That's pretty darn funny!
• The American Film Institute recognised it in about 6 or 7 or their '100 Years...' films.

Just go out and watch Annie Hall, you can probably pick it up for a fiver from HMV.

Have You Seen This Man? Woody Allen anyone?

Or: Why don’t more young people watch Woody Allen?

I saw this topic on an IMDB.com discussion board and decided to weigh in here.

To a certain generation, you say “Woody Allen” and Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) or Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) springs to their collective minds. Dianne Keaton, ‘La-Di-Dah’ and, of course, Mia Farrow will also be mentioned. However, most of my generation seem to struggle to even recollect that he voiced ‘Zee’ in Antz, let alone anything else he might have done before or since. Allen’s films are original, often hysterically funny, and if not, dramatic observations of life. If you haven’t already guessed, I am a big fan of his and I believe he is a genius.

Alvy Singer, reincarnated

But why, when you mention Annie Hall (one of his most famous films) to anyone my own age, are you greeted with a blank stare and “I’ve never heard of it”? It’s commercially available in many shops, it won many Oscars and influenced so many films since – even Channel 4’s Green Wing paid homage to it in its 5^th episode - however, I doubt many of its younger fans got the joke. IMDB.com currently list Annie Hall as number 133 on their top 250 list. Can you now understand my frustration why more people haven’t discovered Woody Allen’s work through Annie Hall?

 

Maybe it’s the fact that he plays records rather than docks his iPod in Play It Again, Sam, or that he talks about Nixon in Annie Hall that put the younger generations off. However, Woody Allen’s stock character is broadly a neurotic New Yorker, unable to function anywhere else. Yes, he plays that character in a lot of his films, but he does it really well! This sort of character is, surely, funny to any age – his erratic attempts to stay cool during a date in Play It Again, Sam (1972) or his extreme hypochondria in Hannah and Her Sisters drew hysteric laughter from me, after all.

Yup, that's Zee from Antz

OK so maybe Annie Hall and Manhattan are too ‘of their era’ to be relevant today (a point which I disagree with), but let’s look at some of Allen’s newer films. I disliked Small Time Crooks (2000), but when Woody Allen simultaneously discovered London and Scarlett Johansson in Match Point (2005) and later, Scoop (2006), you’d really think his audience would widen. Scoop has wacky and outlandish plot, but ultimately is a hilarious depiction of two New Yorkers trying to fit in to the British upper class – surely just the kind of film that British people of any age would appreciate! Lastly, of course, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) received international praise, yet many people I know have never even heard of it, let alone seen it.

So, in my opinion, there really is no excuse for people my own age not to have at least seen one Woody Allen film that isn’t Antz. So, get moving people, get over the fact that he married his step-daughter and start with Annie Hall. See where you go from there!