14 February 2012

Skandies: #5

Picture: House of Pleasures (218/16)
Director: Asghar Farhadi, A Separation (178/17)
Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin (246/19)
Actor: Michael Fassbender, Shame (161/14)
S. Actor: John C. Reilly, Terri (178/13)
S. Actress: Sareh Bayat, A Separation (186/18)
Screenplay: Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean and Razvan Radulescu, Tuesday, After Christmas (102/13)
Scene: A dog, a truck, and a Good Friday procession, Le quattro volte (130/12)



HISTORY:

A Separation is Farhadi's first Skandie-eligible film.

Swinton, as Alex Fung correctly predicted on Twitter once it became clear that Winslet hadn't squeaked in for either Carnage or Contagion, becomes the solo most-honored actress in Skandie history, with 10 career appearances in the top 20. (Only Philip Seymour Hoffman, with a whopping 13, has more.) Here's the complete list:

1. Julia (2009)
4s. Michael Clayton (2007)
5. The Deep End (2001)
9s. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
11. I Am Love (2010)
12s. Burn After Reading (2008)
13s. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
18. Female Perversions (1997)
19s. Thumbsucker (2005)

Fassbender gets his fourth nod in the past three years; in addition to Hunger (see "nomination" post), he has two previous appearances in Supporting, at #14 (Inglourious Basterds, 2009) and #12 (Fish Tank, 2010). Reilly, in addition to his previous "nomination," has placed at #8s (Boogie Nights, 1997), #20s (Chicago, 2002), and #15s (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, 2006). Bayat is new, as are the three Romanians.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember that scene being way more awesome than it really is. Now it just seems tediously schematic and impressive only on the level of an animal show at a theme park.

Jeff said...

The more people that see HOUSE the more love it will receive. Would not surprise me to see it in the best of the decade pole when that rolls around (if it ain't on my ballot then this decade is about to become insanely good).

And now: Go CERTIFIED.

Anonymous said...

Totally off-subject, but...

Mike, once the Skandies hiatus ends will you be posting any thoughts, even abbreviated ones, on the movies you've seen over the past few weeks? Lots of classic titles in there, and it seems like your opinion of many of them has changed signifcantly, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who'd be into hearing your current take on, say, ANNIE HALL. It'd probably be a pain in the ass to backtrack through that many movies at this point, so I get that the answer is probably (understandably) no. Just wonderin', is all.

Atli Sig said...

Maybe he could try to describe each of them in no more than 2-3 sentences? Basically like tweeting about them.

Jeff said...

If he could do it while jumping rope and blind-folded that would be even better.

md'a said...

I don't really have anything terribly interesting to say about Annie Hall, to be honest. That's one I would have struggled with. My only real observation is that the radical shift in focus during post-production makes the "third act" feel a bit rushed. And as inventive and wonderful as it is, it doesn't rip my heart out like Manhattan does. (Should be 100, but we'll soon see.)

Anyway, your best hope is that I write a sentence or two per film. Which I might do just as a reference for myself, since I otherwise tend to quickly forget what I thought, even with the rating as a general reminder.

Atli Sig said...

Maybe something like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unseSFWjuqs

Blake said...

Back to the matter at hand.
House of Tolerance should be about 8 slots higher.

Private Joker said...

Just here to reiterate that Bayat both has more screen time and a more important role in A SEPARATION than Hatami. I can't really understand putting Hatami in lead and Bayat in supporting, even though Hatami is in the first and last shot of the film. Everything in between is Moadi and Bayat.

Maybe if I see it again Hatami's performance will stand out more.

Nobody defended this categorization last time I brought it up -- any takers this time? Mike?

[FWIW, Moadi is the only actor I would put in any lead category -- the rest of the fairly strong ensemble would be supporting imo; but Hatami > Bayat is weird to me]

md'a said...

Bayat belongs in Supporting because that character isn't autonomous. We see her only as she relates to Nader and Simin. Even the tiny stretch of screen time she gets to herself is while she's working in their house.

Simin does vanish from the film for a while after she moves out, so that's an iffier case. But the film's original title includes both of their names, and we do see a number of scenes exclusively from her perspective. The focus is more on Nader primarily because their daughter stays with him and we need to stay with her. Essentially it's the story of this couple.

Alex said...

Nobody defended this categorization last time I brought it up -- any takers this time?

Not a defense; I agree with PJ and was also mildly surprised Hatami wound up in the lead category; I considered both Sayat and Hatami as supporting. (Like Zach, I also wound up [admittedly questionably] sticking Bejo as a lead.) I had sixteen citable supporting actresses!

Jeff said...

I agree with Blake, and I really hope Bonello comes in ahead of the overt symbolist Nicolas Winding Refn. I mean really.

Michael said...

I'm with Jeff. Leopard rising, Scorpio falling!

Brian said...

Reilly didn't place for Magnolia? AKA his greatest performance ever? You people are weird.

Alex said...

Reilly didn't place for Magnolia? AKA his greatest performance ever?

He tied for 2nd.
http://www.skandies.org/skandies99.html

md'a said...

I'm not sure how you misread that. Reilly came in 2nd for Magnolia, tied with Cruise. (The winner that year was John Malkovich in Being Me.)

md'a said...

Never mind, I do know how you misread it: I only allude to it here, having already noted it in the "nomination" post between #6 and #5.