Looking at Film from Every Angle
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The DGA has announced its nominees. See below:
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
The universally selected four made it through with the fifth spot going to Lee Daniels for Precious. Congratulations to Peter and Wes for picking all five correctly.
With all due respect to Mr. Donarum, I think that the criticisms surrounding Lee Daniels’ direction are unfounded. Aside from the fact that Mr. Daniels extracted superior performances from one of the oddest casts in recent memory, the staging, pacing, and framing are wholly appropriate given the narrative’s source material and point of view. Unlike many American films where the emphasis is on the “savior” figure (most recently in “The Blind Side”), the audience views the story from the perspective of the oppressed protagonist. In other words, we are experiencing Precious’ world as she experiences it, which mandates a deviation from conventional aesthetics. In the film’s most harrowing moment, Precious returns home with her newborn son, and by that point, we fear the worst. Certainly, we can credit the fine work of the two principals, but an equal share is due the director. My congratulations are extended to Mr. Daniels and to the DGA for its astute selections.
There’s a bit of Oscar trivia I was aware of. 🙂 Thank you. It’s interesting how I sometimes agree with Oscar’s choices over the DGA. But normally I have more respect for the DGA in its nominees than I do with Oscar. I definitely agree with Oscar’s choice in ’06 to nominate Mereilles for City of God over that of Ross for Seabiscuit.
I mean, I don’t wanna bash Precious. I thought it was a good movie. But its weakest point was by far its directing. It was in so many ways what you’d expect to see from a low-budget indie film concerning the issues it deals with.
District 9 was very tightly directed, with a lot of originality. Fake documentary setups have been used many times in movies, but outside of certain comedies, mostly the works of Christopher Guest, they’ve never been done quite as effectively. I mean, that’s not the only thing that stands out, but it’s certainly one of the major points.
Well, here’s a bit of quick history…hopefully to make you feel better.
Only four times in history has the DGA matched the Best Director Oscar nominees 100% (2005, 1998, 1981 & 1977)
And here are the DGA nominees and who they were replaced by at the Oscars:
2008: Nolan – The Dark Knight (replaced by Daldry – The Reader)
2007: Penn – Into the Wild (Reitman – Juno)
2006: Condon – Dreamgirls; Dayton, Faris – Little Miss Sunshine (Eastwood – Letters from Iwo Jima; Frears – The Queen)
2004: Forster – Finding Neverland (Leigh – Vera Drake)
2003: Ross – Seabiscuit (Mereilles – City of God)
2002: Jackson – The Two Towers (Almodovar – Talk to Her)
2001: Luhrmann – Moulin Rouge; Nolan – Memento (Altman – Gosford Park; Lynch – Mulholland Drive)
2000: Crowe – Almost Famous (Daldry – Billy Elliot)
1999: Darabont – The Green Mile (Hallstron – Cider House Rules)
I should say Lee Daniels was nominated FOR Precious…
So Precious was nominated. Blomkamp deserved it, but what can you do?
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