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Office Politics Gone Wild: Why you must see ‘Two Days, One Night’

December 30, 2014 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Two Days One Night
Naturalistic and probing, in Two Days, One Night, Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (The Kid with a Bike) tell an apparently simple, linear story with astonishing depth. Recovering from depression, wife and mother Sandra (Marion Cotillard) returns to work at a solar panel factory after sick leave. Once there, she discovers that her bosses have made her co-workers a Sophie’s Choice: take a thousand Euro bonus and lay-off Sandra, or save Sandra and sacrifice the cash.

It’s not surprising that Sandra’s colleagues choose the bonus over their colleague’s needs. But, when management allows a last-minute recount, Sandra’s husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) urges her to visit each and every individual to plead her case. This reluctant quest — a married mother on the verge of a second nervous breakdown travelling door-to-door over two days and one night — opens up a working class world to the audience. We see into the lives of the others from the factory and their impact on the sobbing Sandra.

Oscar-winner Cotillard (Ma Vie en Rose) portrays Sandra in jeans and a tank top, bra straps showing, hair clutched uncombed in a pony-tail; far more unkempt than the actress who plays her, who is the face of Lady Dior handbags. As Sandra, Cotillard’s walk rides low in her hips, she pops Xanax and, defeated, she retreats to her bed where she lies in a fetal position under the duvet. But none of this is overwrought. She melds perfectly in the Dardennes’ matter-of-fact style; the first true star these Belgian brothers have cast as a lead.

[Related: TIFF Critic’s Pick: ‘Two Days, One Night]

Cotillard has become one of my favorite actresses. Whether in high-gloss blockbuster mode in The Dark Knight Rises or period perfect in The Immigrant, she works from a very quiet core. Her characters always have a life beyond the screen, a before and after. These women don’t ask you for permission, they compel you to watch. The biggest emotions register in tiny gestures.

While Sandra’s struggle and transformation is central to Two Days, One Night, the drama is less a star vehicle than an ethical exploration. Do you leave your morals at the door when you clock in? You may treat your family humanely at home, but the actions taken in pursuit of a paycheck also define your character. In reality, what you do at work is as much who you are as your private identity. In this competitive economy of layoffs and job insecurity, that certainly is cause for reflection, whether you’re American or Belgian

Filed Under: Criticism, Oscar Race Tagged With: Belgian Films, best actress, French Language, Marion Cotillard, Office Politics, Oscars, Two Days One Night

St. Petersburg Diary: It’s Too Early to Start Narrowing the Oscar race

October 1, 2014 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Stolen Kisses: Anne Dorval and Antoine-Olivier Pilon in Xavier Dolan's Momm;

Stolen Kisses: Anne Dorval and Antoine-Olivier Pilon in Xavier Dolan’s ‘Mommy’

It was a crisp night in St. Petersburg as the city’s First International Media Forum had its gala opening with Xavier Dolan’s explosive mother-son drama, Mommy. The Cannes jury prize winner relates the tumultuous relationship between a sexy widow (Anne Dorval) and her troubled teen (Antoine-Olivier Dolan). Seeing it for the second time among a festive chattering audience at the city’s Old Stock Exchange that couldn’t quite sit still, I was taken again by the movie’s emotional power — it’s both freshly contemporary and Bergmanesque. I wept. Again.

Recently, while talking to Jessica Chastain about Bergman’s muse, Liv Ulmmann and Chastain’s Miss Julie director. Jessica described Ullmann as having no bones. In other words, she was all feeling, open to every possible emotion dark or light — which doesn’t make her fearless only brave. This echoed for me while watching Mommy, because the performances are so volatile and yet grounded in the real world. Both Dorval and Pilon change minute to minute, dancing to raging, hope to despair, violent to tender. You have to be extremely open to embrace this kind of movie. It’s scenes from a mother-son relationship that we haven’t seen before.

The magnitude of the performances reminded me of the single principal I have to live by this early in the Oscar race: before Thanksgiving is a time to expand contenders, to seek out those performances and movies that may not be obvious candidates but that deliver Oscar power. Let’s not ghettoize Mommy as a Best Foreign Language Film contender even if it is Canada’s selection; let’s bring those brilliant performances forward.

While my Gold Derby colleague Pete Hammond argues persuasively that the Best Actor race should be expanded from five to ten, I think we should be looking even farther afield than Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne or Benedict Cumberbatch. Let’s throw Pilon in the mix. From mugging at the mirror in an homage to Home Alone to dancing seductively with his Mum and a middle-aged neighbor to exploding in intimate violence, this is a performance to watch and register.

And, in a year where Best Actress is looking a little thin, we’re calling on Quebec-native Dorval to join the fringe French speakers — Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night) and Juliette Binoche (Clouds of Sils Maria, which is also playing in St. Petersburg as well as the New York Film Festival) — to power into awards season playing thoroughly modern women of the world beyond Hollywood.

Pilon power.

Pilon power.

Filed Under: Criticism, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Anne Dorval, Antoine-Olivier Dolan, best actor, Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Oscar Race, SPIMF, Xavier Dolan

Critic’s Pick: NYFF Edition ‘The Immigrant’

October 27, 2013 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Mation Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix come to America (courtesy of The Weinstein Company)

Mation Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix come to America (courtesy of The Weinstein Company)

 

Must-See Movies Beyond the Blockbusters

James Gray weds personal ancestry and opera in a drama about a Polish sister, Ewa Cybulski (Marion Cotillard), who walks off the boat at Ellis Island in 1921 into the arms of a well-dressed shyster, Bruno Weiss (Joaquin Phoenix). Having left behind her coughing sister Magda (Angela Sarafyan) at the island infirmary, and fearing for her own deportation, the beauty will now do nearly anything to raise the money to rescue Magda and weather the false promises of the promised land of America.

Oscar-winner Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose,” “The Dark Knight Rises”), speaking flawless regional Polish as well as English, pulls the camera toward her in every scene. There is not a wasted movement so that when she suddenly draws a pair of seamstress scissors in self-defense, the audience awakens to how tightly wound Ewa has been, how completely on her guard. It is a performance of operatic feeling, with the control of her instrument that only great singers have: capable of reaching the audience in the farthest seats with an emotion as small and fragile as an eyelash.

[RELATED: Critic’s Pick: NYFF Edition ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ l

As fraught as Ewa’s arrival in America is, when she steps between Bruno, who has plucked her off the boat like a pimp looking for Midwestern flesh at the bus terminal in Manhattan’s Penn Station, and his cousin/rival, Orlando the Magician (Jeremy Renner), her situation darkens. She becomes the canary between these two tomcats.

It is fun to see Renner out of the action of “Avengers” and playing a puckish period performer with a sly mustache who first meets Ewa when levitating himself before a ragged group at Ellis Island. Even in drama, there is the opportunity to “meet cute” – but there will be no romcom resolution.

“The Immigrant” extends Gray’s tight body of work. From his brilliant 1994 debut feature, “Little Odessa” (rent it!) set in the contemporary immigrant community of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the director (and co-writer) has told stories of complicated America citizens, often with roots in the old country. He is a studious and compassionate filmmaker with a strong knack for directing actors with grit. One of his trademarks is his fearlessness in peeling back male emotion.

[RELATED: Steely Cotillard shines in ‘The Immigrant’]

“The Immigrant” is Gray’s fourth collaboration with Phoenix and, like the better known teams of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, or Wes Anderson and Bill Murray, or Howard Hawks and Cary Grant, they play each other well.

Phoenix, despite his off-screen antics, remains an actor of profound depth and range: “The Master,” “Walk the Line,” and “Gladiator.” He surprises. He has wells of tragedy, yes, but also the capacity for comedy both broad and specific, and great charm.

The awkward moments in this movie where Bruno emcees a cheesy girlie revue that recalls “Cabaret” have inspired some criticism of Phoenix’s acting. But Bruno the emcee is not Joel Grey’s accomplished cabaret performer. Phoenix intentionally plays these performances within a performance badly. (Remember he nailed Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”) For Bruno, being on stage is a hustle not an art. He is an immigrant himself, who as a boy had to peddle any skill he had to survive, even if that meant tacking bottle caps to the soles of his shoes and dancing in the street.

So who is the immigrant of the title: Ewa or Bruno or even Orlando the Magician? They all are.

Bottom Line: All-stars Cotillard, Phoenix and Renner sail back in time for a deeply moving melodrama

Filed Under: Criticism, Movies & TV Tagged With: Favorite Directors, James Gray, Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, New York Film Festival, The Immigrant

Yahoo! Movies: Adams on Reel Women: Five must-see leading ladies out of TIFF

October 2, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Keira Knightley (Left) in “Anna Karenina”, and Laura Linney and Bill Murray (Right) in “Hyde Park on Hudson”. (Photos: Focus Features)

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival was rife with strong and varied women’s roles. Here are just a few that will pop and will be buzzed about in the Oscar race and beyond.

Marion Cotillard, “Rust and Bone”: This is a movie about transformation. A woman who works at Marineland in France has a horrible accident with an orca. As a result, she loses her legs below the knees and hits the bottom she was heading for when she was physically whole but emotionally lost. The remainder of the movie shows her slow progress on a journey that doesn’t require legs: the journey to spiritual wellness. A scene in which she finally returns to Marineland, perched on steel prosthetics, and, well, dances with the whale is magical without being sentimental. The camera loves Cotillard, but her physical beauty does not make her lazy. She acts quietly, subtly, a musician who knows her range. In this role, she defies the audience to like her as she casts off the armature of her looks and dives deep. It doesn’t hurt that this is the type of role — the “My Left Foot” affect — that ensures Oscar nominations if not outright wins. Cotillard will be among the five final nominees for best actress.

Laura Linney, “Hyde Park on Hudson”: This is the performance I feel I have to rally behind because of its subtle beauty and deeply felt realization. As Margaret Suckley, a fifth cousin turned secret lover to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray), Linney plays a faded daisy. She shows every wrinkle in a face that would have been plainly pretty but has passed its marital sell-by date. She wears dresses that have seen wear in a limited wardrobe, hats that are unflattering, home-styled hair. Linney knows what she’s doing, and she doesn’t give this woman any more power than she would have had. She is like an Edith Wharton character, a Lily Bart; and as she enters the world of FDR, the president of the United States, she feels the weight of being a poor relation in the court of the Sun King. She is outmaneuvered at every point, and yet her love, her sensitivity, her sense of a spinster’s rebirth at an unexpected opportunity that takes her out of the musty cedar closet of her life and puts her in the center of the president’s household — all are real. While there is general acclaim for Bill Murray’s wily, wise FDR, there has been an underlying critique of Linney’s character and characterization. Hers is the more difficult role, and modern women may not have the patience for this passive spinster. However, her pain and relative powerlessness are real verging on tragic, and Linney draws her finely and with honor.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “Smashed”: I have written about Winstead’s performance as a young married kindergarten teacher who reaches that post-college tipping point when she realizes that she’s not just hard-partying but an alcoholic. That she reaches this awareness ahead of her equally “fun loving” husband (well played by Aaron Paul) makes her climbing the first wrung of her 12 steps all the more difficult. The tall, brunette all-American beauty, the star of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” imbues her teacher with an extraordinary ordinariness, quick to smile and slow to judge. She is our best friend, our next-door neighbor, the woman we laugh with at the supermarket checkout stand about the latest cover of the National Enquirer — and yet her pain is as deep as that of the denizens of “Leaving Las Vegas.”

Keira Knightley, “Anna Karenina”: Knightley dons the hats, veils, and upholstery silks of one of literature’s major heroines, a character played in the past by Greta Garbo and Vivien Leigh. Working with her “Atonement” and “Pride and Prejudice” director, Joe Wright, and a Tom Stoppard adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel, Knightley is part of a production that breathes fresh air into the tragedy of a virtuous wife and mother who falls into a spiral of passion with dashing Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Knightley wears the costumes and jewels — they do not wear her. The actress brings humanity, a warmth and intimacy, that make this historical character relatable to lonely wives who play with the fire of passion outside their marriages and burn with the consequences in any era. She gives Anna a contemporary urgency, and following on her overlooked turn in “A Dangerous Method,” she has become a top contender for the 2013 best-actress Oscar.

Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”: in the year’s strongest one-two punch, Oscar-nominee Lawrence proves that her “Hunger Games” box office muscle as Katniss Everdeen is not her only trick. In the latest movie from “The Fighter” director David O. Russell, Lawrence plays Tiffany, the mystery woman whom Bradley Cooper’s bipolar Pat Solitano befriends when he returns home after a stint at a mental institution. They meet cute and ultimately enter a dancing competition together. Sexy, crazy, and dancing? And uplift? How can Lawrence not compete? I would still love to see an Oscar nom for Lawrence’s “Hunger Games” performance, but this appealing role will surely land Lawrence a second best-actress nomination following “Winter’s Bone” and possibly a win.

More to love: Nina Hoss, “Barbara”; Greta Gerwig, “Frances Ha”; Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”; Ana Moreira, “Tabu”; Macarena Garcia, “Blancanieves”; and Emayatzy Corinealdi, “Middle of Nowhere.”

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Interview, Jennifer Lawrence, Keira Knightley, Laura Linney, Marion Cotillard, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oscar, TIFF12

Oscars 2012: Best Supporting Actress First Look

September 25, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

The Help,Octavia Spencer,Viola Davis, Kathryn Stockett,Bestseller,Blockbuster,Women's Fiction,Chick Flick

The Help's Spencer

This category is really where we take a flyer this early in the season. But why not? We’re just beginning to define the field, and we know who the frontrunner is…..

1. Octavia Spencer, The Help
2. Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
3. Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus
4. Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris
5. Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
6. Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter or Tree of Life
7. Berenice Bejo, The Artist
8. Sandra Bullock, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
9. Kate Winslet, Carnage
10. Carey Mulligan, Shame

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Albert Nobbs, Berenice Bejo, Best supporting actress, Carey Mulligan, Carnage, Coriolanus, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Janet McTe3er, Jessica Chastain, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris, Octavia Spencer, Oscars 2012, Sandra Bullock, Shailene Woodley, Shame, Take Shelter, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Tree or Life, Vanessa Redgrave

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