French dramas rule the roost in Foreign Language derby
EXARCHOPOULOS AND SEYDOUX. Love knows no gender.
BEJO. Won Best Actress at this year’s Cannes fest.
It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, so we remain hopeful about the Oscar chances of Anthony Chen’s “Iloilo,” Sean Ellis’ “Metro Manila” and Hannah Espia’s “Transit,” each tackling fascinating slices of the Filipino diaspora, in the Best Foreign Language category—whose finalists will be announced on Jan. 16. It’s instructive to note that there are 76 films vying for the Oscar derby’s coveted five slots.
So far, the “winningest” films on the awards circuit are two French-language features that are as engaging as they are lengthy: Abdellatif Kechiche’s three-hour lesbian romance, “Blue Is The Warmest Color,” and Asghar Farhadi’s 130-minute domestic drama, “The Past” (which “officially” represents Iran).
“The Past” and “Blue” have made it to the Golden Globes’ shortlist, along with Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, “The Wind Rises,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty” (Italy), and Denmark’s “The Hunt,” Thomas Vinterberg’s horrifyingly visceral drama about an alleged sexual abuse.
Cut-off date
While “The Past” is the National Board of Review’s top pick, “Blue” has been ruling the roost among top critics’ groups in New York and Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Kechiche’s controversial love story isn’t eligible for an Oscar, because it was released in France one week too late for the Academy Awards’ qualifying cut-off date!
Interestingly, both movies were big winners at the prestigious Cannes festival last May, with the latter winning the Best Actress award for Berenice Bejo (of “The Artist”) and the former earning the plum Palm d’Or prize, not only for director Kechiche, but most remarkably for its lead actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux—the first time the Golden Palm was also awarded to a winning entry’s lead stars!
“Blue” has been compressed from 800 hours’ worth of footage—but, more than Kechiche’s penchant for real-time filmmaking, we were initially taken aback by the film’s explicit depiction of girl-on-girl action as it details the blossoming and heart-wrenching decline of the red-hot love affair of Adele and Emma, portrayed with searing honesty and peerless intimacy by Exarchopoulos and Seydoux. Love knows no gender, indeed!
Graphic violence
While it has themes that are potentially unsettling for young viewers, “The Past” has neither graphic violence nor explicit sex—but, that doesn’t make it any less riveting:
After four years in Iran, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris to finalize his divorce from Marie (Bejo), who wants to marry her new boyfriend, Samir (Tahar Rahim). But, his surprise homecoming sets off a series of events that opens old wounds—and new ones!
