Next Cinema Lounge

The Cinema Lounge meets Monday, January 12 at 7:00pm for our annual attempt to outguess the Oscars. Join us as we try to guess the nominees in the major categories. So far, our track record is very good. Can we keep up the pace?

Cinema Lounge, a film discussion group, takes place the second Monday of every month at 7:00pm at Borders Books, 600 14th St., NW in Washington, DC (near the Metro Center Metro stop).

Vote for The Best of 2003 and Win

Cold Mountain and Its Lasting Effects of War on Human Minds

By Janette Yeap

Anthony Mingheller’s astounding film (adapted from Charles Frazier’s novel) cleverly sweeps the audience into the horrors of war at its beginning, without the complexities of the religiously spiritual motifs of the Frazier novel. Mingheller then introduces his two principal characters who gradually move the audience into their world wrought by war and hardship. We watch as the characters begin to unravel their internal tortures and their need to subdue their isolation to face their regrets and hope for the future. This is an absolutely fabulous movie that portrays the stunning performances of its stellar cast of actors and the overwhelming raw landscapes that are kept in sync with their events and moods. Observe the stages of emotional changes in the characters. So amazingly and magnificently captured at different camera angles, from scene to scene against the cold, mountainous countryside!

This film doesn’t throw off longwinded dialogue and lengthy physical encounters between Jude Law’s Inman and Nicole Kidman’s Ada to reveal the meeting of two souls searching for a meaningful existence. Yes, it’s that brief and silent stare of Inman as he confronts the graciously low-keyed, prim and proper Ada that explicitly puts their sensory awareness of each other so powerfully on screen. As the events flowed, I was completely mesmerized by watching the Inman character transcend to his sense of isolation and his developing disillusion with his world. On the other hand, I couldn’t take my eyes off the immaculately well-bred and gorgeous Ada as she succumbs into a scrawny hapless damsel in complete distress. It’s fascinating to watch the couple adapt to situations beyond their control and to study the emotional and behavioral attitudes of two human beings altering at such opposing magnitude as a result of one war. Observe how the once popular Inman slips into desolation in the battlefield, becoming even more tormented from his world as he meets up with some very strange characters. Will he ever find solace with these characters, or with Ada at the end? Will Ada, while feeling alienated from her new abode, at the beginning of the film and with the death of her father, be able to battle her insecurity to become spiritually enlightened and physically capable with the help of her new acquaintances? Is she able to embrace what the farmland has to offer her? And will Inman be capable of escaping what the gruesome battlefield has come to mean to him? This film lays out an enormous ground for the examination of the effects a war on different individuals.

The film continues to remind the audience that Ada and Inman are bound together by their haunting memories of one another. That, indeed, is beautifully captured by the expressions on Law and Kidman’s faces. The symbolisms, throughout the film, are plentiful and brilliantly ascribed, allowing the audience to join the dots to the destinies of the couple. Even crows, clearly suggesting doom and destruction, never fail to demonstrate the dark instincts that trouble a man's soul. And those women Inman meets in his journey seem to trigger the audience's expectation of seeing him draw closer to the woman he loves and to home. Even these characters, encountered by Inman, provide a picture of how different people react to the war. But will war ultimately bring peace and safety to its protagonists? This film is a masterpiece that will provide much food for thought.

Renee Zwellweger is phenomenal in her boisterously loud ‘Ruby’ role. She brings another aspect of the American woman that’s so different in breeding from Kidman’s Ada. Both are educated in their different cultural way of life. What can Ada learn from Ruby, the frontier woman who sees the ‘hands and knees’ toiling as the only way of survival in her community? Zwellweger provides the comic relief that’s much needed for this powerfully intense film. She’s superb in her role as the beacon of strength and hope for injecting a meaningful existence of living. Unlike the soldiers or the hypocritical Home Guard authorities that use guns to destroy their enemies, Ruby uses her hands-on skills to beat the odds of survival. It’s uncannily delightful to watch her interacting with Kidman’s character. She, Law and Kidman are definitely worthy of being recipients of the Oscar statuettes. They exhibit their superb non-stop performing talents in this film with their onscreen appearances. The Q&A session with Brendon Gleeson (who plays Ruby’s father), has prompted me to want to go see this movie again--to watch closely how the strength of the film’s womenfolk can make a difference to the human beings’ survival instincts. I want to study again how hellish wars are for destroying and crippling, not only the physical, but the mental aspects of the masculine race. And Gleeson does drive home an interesting question: When these mountain folks “volunteer” to fight a war, how come they should be penalized as deserters if they were to decide to opt out of it?

This film is a MUST-SEE. It’s beautifully crafted, assembled and absolutely mesmerizing in all aspects of filmmaking techniques and style. The music and soundtracks fit well with the scenes and moods. Even the title smartly projects its allegorical results.

Washington DC Film Critics Name Best Film of 2003

By Willie Waffle

Washington, D.C. The final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy rings up another victory as The Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) has named Return of the King Best Film, and Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings: Return of the King) Best Director. The 23-member group’s second annual year-end selections included Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) as Best Actor and Naomi Watts (21 Grams) as Best Actress.

21 Grams, Return of the King and Lost in Translation proved to be among the favorites of DC film critics as each received 2 major awards.

WAFCA names the cast of Love Actually as Best Ensemble, while selecting Finding Nemo as Best Animated Feature and Pirates of the Caribbean Best Guilty Pleasure.

WAFCA President Tim Gordon stated, “This year’s awards were a challenge due to the MPAA’s screener ban. We support all efforts against piracy, but feel the studios need to address the leading sources of pirated material instead of hindering efforts to recognize the best of film, whether that comes from the largest studio or the smallest. Thankfully, the studios worked closely with us to help get all movies screened in they way they are intended to be seen--on the big screen.”

WAFCA 2003 Winners:
Best Film
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King/New Line Cinema

Best Ensemble
Love Actually/Universal

Best Director Peter Jackson/Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King

Best Actor
Bill Murray/Lost In Translation

Best Actress
Naomi Watts/21 Grams

Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro/21 Grams

Best Supporting Actress
Anna Deavere Smith/The Human Stain

Best Screenplay, Original
Sofia Coppola/Lost In Translation

Best Screenplay, Adapted
Brian Helgeland/Mystic River

Best Animated Feature
Finding Nemo/Buena Vista Pictures

Best Documentary
Fog of War/Sony Pictures Classics

Best Guilty Pleasure
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl/Buena Vista Pictures

WAFCA is comprised of DC area film critics for newspaper, television, on-line and radio outlets. Winners were chosen from among Academy Award eligible films. Voting was conducted from December 15 - 17, 2003.

The European Film Awards

By James McCaskill

This is a follow-up to last month's story detailing the EFA's nominations.

BERLIN, GERMANY. The hit German film Good Bye, Lenin! was the big winner in the 16th European Film Awards at Berlin's Arena, taking home 6 awards. The film was named the European Film of the Year for 2003 and its star, Daniel Bruhl, was named Best Actor. Another award garnered by the touching story of a teenager's attempt to prevent his coma awakening mother from finding out that the Berlin wall has fallen and Lenin had lost went to co-screenwriter Bernd Lichtenberg. The director, actor, and Katrin Sass, who plays the mother, also picked up the Jameson People's Choice Awards as voted viewers across Europe. This is the first time in the 15 year history of EFA that the top award has gone to a German film.

European Director of the Year went to Lars von Trier for Dogville (Denmark) and Charlotte Rampling took Best Actress for her performance in the French film Swimming Pool. Anthony Dod Mantle won for his cinemagraphic work on 28 Days Later (UK) and Dogville. The European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award went to France's Claude Chabrol. His latest film, La Fleur du mal (The Flower of Evil) (France 2003) looks at the effects of a mother's political career upon three generations of a wealthy Bordeaux family when a political pamphlet revives an old murder scandal.

Carlo di Palma, Italy, won the European Achievement in World Cinema 2003. Mr. di Palma has made 51 films in a career that began in 1956. The EFA Discovery award went to the Russian film Vozvraschenie (The Return). Special mention in this category went to Gori Vatra (Fuse) by Pjer Zalaica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Film Academy Critics Award went to the Italian film Buongiorno, Notte (Goodmorning, Night) directed by Marco Bellocchio. EFA Documentary award went to the French film S21, La Machine de Mort Khmere Rouge (S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine).

The Short Film Award went to (A) Torzija by Stefan Arsenijevic, Slovenia and the Non-European Film Award was won by Les Invasions Barbares by Denys Arcand, Canada.

Venice Film Festival in Jeopardy

By James McCaskill

VENICE, ITALY. The simmering row between the arts community and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has erupted into a conflict that threatens the Venice Film Festival. In December the Minister of Culture, Giuliano Urbani, fired the entire governing body of the Biennale of Venice, who run the Venice Film Festival, on the day that they were to sit and confirm Moritz de Hadeln as head of this year's festival.

Four previous directors of the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica of the Biennale di Venezia (to use its official name) have declared their availability to jointly direct an alternative event in the event that de Hadeln is is not confirmed or the new director did not possess the professional and cultural attributes required for the prestigious film festival. The alternative, modeled after the highly successful Giornate del Cinema of 1972-73, will only be organized if necessary and would take place on the same dates as the Mostra. Already major national and international filmmakers, film critics have announced their support of this action.

Politics seems to be behind the firings as more liberal heads of art institutions have been dismissed and replaced with conservatives. Rumor has it that the conservative Australian arts critic Robert Hughes as been tapped for the director job.

American Filmmaker Mugged, Killed in Cuba

A 33 year old production assistant on NBC's Access Hollywood, en route to the Havana International Film Festival in Cuba with his short film Capicu (winner of the best short prize in New York's Latin USA Film Festival) was mugged and robbed of cash and clothing and his body dumped a block from his hotel. He died a few days later. We hope to have a full report of the Havana Film Festival in next month's Storyboard.

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