LeapBackBlog 2011 Film Awards – Part 3: Directors

Film in 2011 saw many very good films. Deciding what made the lists and what did not was very difficult this year, and there are more than a few great films, performances and technical achievements that I had to leave off. The LeapBackBlog Film Awards are comprised of what I think were the best and most interesting films, the strongest performances (taking into consideration who the actor is and what else they have done, and 2011 again features a lot of amazing breakthrough performances), the narrative style that drew me in (best directing), and exquisite craftsmanship (best technical achievements). But really, these are lists of my favorites from the year.

Part 1: Technical Achievements

Part 2: Supporting Performances

Part 4: Leading Performances

Part 5: Films

Directors:

J.J. Abrams – Super 8

J.J. Abrams had a difficult job going into Super 8 – making a Steven Spielberg style film with child actors (and not have it suck or be a lesser experience to say E.T.). Super 8 is brilliant. Abrams gets phenomenal performances from his young actors, keeps the action coming but still has important character moments and captures the perfect nostalgic tone and look for the film. It is a masterful job of directing, as Abrams further makes an argument for himself as an action auteur.

Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick seemingly is not interested in telling a story using a Hollywood style narrative, rather he is much more concerned with what the images and motifs in his films garner meaning wise in their viewers. Much like Sergei Eisenstein, Malick juxtaposes images to instill emotion and meaning. The Tree of Life seems to be his greatest departure from conventional narrative style. There is still a story and characters, but the meaning comes from the visual and audio experience. And with this film, Malick has created something quite powerful and to a degree spiritually engaging.

Lars von Trier – Melancholia

Aesthetically speaking, Lars von Trier’s Melancholia is a masterpiece of visual art. The film is striking – from the slow-motion living painting shots to the majesty of the alien planet approaching Earth. von Trier also achieves marvelous performances from his actors (especially Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg). Thematically, Trier has produced an intellectually and spiritually intriguing film that warrants multiple viewings (which is always a great compliment for a film). More than any film in 2011, Melancholia is a cinematic experience.

Joe Wright – Hanna

Hanna is also a wonderfully artistic film – especially for what is an action film akin to a Jason Bourne and/or James Bond movie. Joe Wright and his crew have exploited every aspect of the film to create interesting aesthetics. But, Wright succeeds in getting a difficult and fully formed performance from his young lead Saoirse Ronan, as well. The film is very engaging both from an artistic and narrative perspective (as the best films should be). Something that stands out in Wrights work, Hanna being no different, is his use of long takes, and this film has a couple amazing ones (Erik’s fight in the Subway, and the Container Park scene).

David Yates – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Deathly Hallows: Part 2 had a ton of expectation and anticipation and David Yates delivered a completely satisfying film. He faced the daunting task of getting everything important in, giving each character his moments and still keeping the pacing ever moving forward (which is the downfall of many a film, not just epics). And to this degree, Yates does a brilliant job. He gets everything right. His work on the franchise has been wonderful throughout, but this is his best film. Yates does it all – garnering great performances, enchanting aesthetics and a narrative that resonates.

Melancholia (2011) – Review

Review: Melancholia is a visually astounding character drama – exploding with tension, fantastic performances and a beautiful and sort of tragic atmosphere. Director Lars von Trier tells us what we can expect right from the prologue (which reminded me a lot of Kanye West’s music video for Power, the way von Trier’s shots are essentially moving stills), basically showing us everything we are about to experience in a drawn out display of a series of elegant and striking images set to Richard Wagner’s Tristian and Isolde Prelude. It is a very powerful opening, but at the same time it is isolating for many moviegoers. It screams art film, though this is not a bad thing (and in fact, it is too bad that art film seems to have a negative meaning for the average moviegoers). The film in a lot of ways resembles Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, just with more of a defined narrative structure, in that the characters are not burdened with laying out all their thoughts and feelings in words or clichés, rather the film allows the characters to be more subtle, relying instead on the juxtaposition of images to derive meaning , and the atmosphere and tone that von Trier creates plays into their performances and how we perceived them. As, thanks to the prologue, we know this is not going to end happily. This is not a Hollywood movie with grand missions and last ditch efforts to save the Earth. This is about these characters. What I really liked about it is that it is essential a disaster film, yet it is so personal and small in scale (narrative wise, that visually there are some grand shots). Here are these few characters isolated and completely helpless. von Trier also did well to juxtapose the sisters Justine and Claire. Their relationship goes through such an elaborate role reversal. But also, as independent characters, their journeys are quite intriguing and profound. The opening scene of the narrative, Justine and Michael in the limo as it tries to navigate a difficult turn, starts the characters on such a happy note – and this coming just after we see the Earth destroyed by a massive planet colliding with it in the prologue. So, right off the bat, we know this happiness is doomed. But von Trier, delays the impending annihilation rather focusing on digging into his characters and their relationships in part one. Which works, as the audience gets invested, making what is to come all the more difficult to accept and emotional. Part two seems like a totally different film in a way. Characters change in the face of the disaster, and it is very compelling to witness this change. As visually stunning as Melancholia is, it is the character work and performances that make it the engrossing piece that it is (but, wow are the visuals wonderful).

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Lars von Trier is an exceptional and nonconventional filmmaker. Of his films using Hollywood actors, I think Melancholia is his best (and I like Dogville a lot too). It has a lot more going on than I think I was able to fully ascertain on the first viewing (random stuff like, it was mentioned a number of times that the estate featured an 18-hole golf course, but there is a shot of Justine walking across the green of a 19^th hole, or why would Justine’s horse never cross the bridge, the same bridge that the golf cart dies on near the end). Plus, von Trier has this whole theme of good and evil playing under the main theme that comes to the surface in what Justine says about the Earth – all life being evil. It is definitely a film I want to see again. And that is a great compliment to both von Trier and the film. I did not think there was going to be better cinematography this year after seeing Emmanuel Lubezki’s in The Tree of Life, but Manuel Alberto Claro’s work on this film is as good and maybe even better. It completely blew me away. What makes it so brilliant is that it is completely grand and epic in scale and in its framing, and the color pallet is so clean and probably a bit saturated with mostly solid colors. Yet, it also captured the characters so specifically, there nuances. The eyes do most of the work in this film. Production designer Jette Lehmann also does exceptional work in creating the look of the film. I hope both these artists get more work from this film. The cast is very good; however there are only three roles of much substance. Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, and Stellan Skarsgard are all good in their limited parts. Kiefer Sutherland is quite good as a man who tries to be so strong and sort of a know-it-all, but underneath is actually very scared. Charlotte Gainsbourg is wonderful as Claire, the sister who has it all together but just does not know what to do in the face of her mortality, completely losing it. And, Kirsten Dunst is magnificent as Justine. She can convey so much with her eyes and mouth.

Summary & score: Melancholia is not going to appeal or work for everyone, it is far too specific in its style and narrative aspirations for that. I found it to be beautiful and very moving. 8/10

Anthony Dod Mantle – Movies Spotlight – February 2011

Anthony Dod Mantle is known for being at the forefront of digital photography in cinema, primarily working with directors Danny Boyle and Lars von Trier. This month his cinematography is featured in Kevin Macdonald’s new film The Eagle, about a Roman solider who crosses Hadrian’s Wall to retrieve his legion’s Standard, which was lost by his father.

Early Career:

Dod Mantle was born in the UK, but moved to Denmark in 1979 where he qualified as a photographer taking up permanent residence. In 1985, he enrolls at the National Film school. Five years later he is hired by Lone Scherfig (who made 2009’s An Education) to shoot his first film (Kaj’s fodselsdag) and then by German director Philip Groning to shoot Die Terroristen! The film is banned in Germany and thus achieves some cult status. He continues to work in the German and Danish film industries shooting both features and documentaries for around ten years. Then he met Danny Boyle, who had the idea to shoot two TV films for BBC One digitally – Strumpet and Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise. The success of the medium leads to the pair working together on a new feature film, which would serve as Dod Mantle’s breakthrough work and Boyle’s career resurgence after the box office flop The Beach (though, I think it actually a fairly interesting film).

Digital Photography:

That film is 28 Days Later…, which is shot almost entirely digitally (the sequence near the end at night when the military HQ is attacked by infected is shot on film). Boyle wanted the film to look aesthetically like it is being shot by survivors of the outbreak, the grittiness and harshness of the digital medium (at the time) made for a logical choice. Dod Mantle uses a Canon XL 1 camera to shot the film. In 2002, it is one of the first feature films to open wide to be shot on a DV format, paving the way for many other Hollywood films to be shot digitally (like Michael Mann’s Collateral in 2004). Next he works on Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s first Hollywood film It’s All About Love (he also shot his 1998 film The Celebration). The film is not well received; however it does serve as Dod Mantle’s introduction to another Danish filmmaker and friend of Vinterberg – Lars von Trier, who hires Dod Mantle to shot his new film and follow-up to his own breakthrough Dancer in the Dark – Dogville. The film is very interesting aesthetically, von Trier presenting it like a scaled down play with chalk outlines serving as buildings. Yet, his directing, Dod Mantle’s photography and the performances make the audience forget that the whole thing is taking play on a black stage not in an actual run-down small town. Dod Mantle continues to forward and perfect his craft of digital photography working again with Vinterberg on Dear Wendy (written by von Trier) and von Trier on Manderlay (aesthetically similar to Dogville).

Acclaim:

Dod Mantle also did a few films using film stock, working again with Boyle on Millions and shooting on both 16 and 35mm for Brothers of the Head, directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. His work on the film is fantastic as he distorted his film stock greatly to make it appear as though it were an older stock, fitting the time period of the film. Scottish director Kevin Macdonald loved his work so much that he hired Dod Mantle to shoot his first feature film (coming from a documentary background) The Last King of Scotland, using both 16 and 35mm film stock again and corrupting it to look grainier to fit the time period. Dod Mantle’s work on the film is recognized by the British Independent Film Awards, winning Best Technical Achievement. He next works again with Scherfig (Just Like Home) and Vinterberg (When a Man Comes Home), before again working with Boyle on a new project in India – Slumdog Millionaire. After shooting his sci-fi film Sunshine on 35 and 65mm film stock, Boyle wanted to return to digital aesthetically fitting the slum world of his new film. Dod Mantle’s work on the film is outstanding and (if not before with other films) legitimizes digital photography by winning Best Cinematography at the 2009 Oscars. He also won a BAFTA award for Best Photography (TV Award) for his work on the series Wallander (he shot episodes 1 and 3). In 2009 he shoots Antichrist for von Trier, and his work is again praised. He uses the Red One Camera on the film and on Wallander. His latest film, 127 Hours, with Boyle takes advantage of HD digital, 35 mm stock and a Moviecam Compact MK2 garnering him another BAFTA nomination in 2011 for Best Cinematography.

Future Projects:

Dod Mantle has The Eagle coming out this month, and he is currently filming on a reimaging of the comic book hero Judge Dredd – called Dredd. The film is directed by Pete Travis and written by excellent screenwriter Alex Garland. It stars Karl Urban (as Dredd), Lena Headey and Olivia Thirlby.

Anthony Dod Mantle’s Selected Career Highlights:

1.)    28 Days Later… (2002)* – available on Blu-ray/DVD

2.)    Dogville (2003) – available on DVD

3.)    Millions (2004) – available on DVD

4.)    Manderlay (2005) – available on DVD

5.)    Brothers of the Head (2006) – available on DVD

6.)    The Last King of Scotland (2006) – available on Blu-ray/DVD

7.)    Slumdog Millionaire (2008)* – available on Blu-ray/DVD

8.)    Wallander (2008) – available on DVD

9.)    Antichrist (2009) – available on Blu-ray/DVD

10.) 127 Hours (2010)* – available on Blu-ray/DVD

*editor’s picks