Thelma Adams: Novelist, Critic, Oscar Expert

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Contenders 2016: From the Palmes d’Or to the Oscars

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Cate Blanchett in the title role

Cate Blanchett in the title role

We hate to be looking over someone’s shoulder like Carol/Cate but we know that somewhere, beyond next winter, the movies of sunny spring will be competing for Oscar. And right at the front of that long red-carpet march is Blanchett, only two years out from her Best Actress win for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. (Like Blanche DuBois, we’re constantly looking at the past and struggling with the disappointments of the present.) Blanchett was the queen of Cannes 2013 — and no one could catch her. So, I’m tossing out some ideas generated by Cannes for Contenders:

BEST PICTURE

Carol

Youth

BEST DIRECTOR

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Paolo Sorrentino (Youth)

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Emily Blunt (Sicario)

Marion Cotillard (Macbeth)

Emma Stone (Irrational Man)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Rooney Mara (Carol)

BEST ACTOR

Michael Caine (Youth)

Michael Fassbender (Macbeth)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Woody Allen (Irrational Man)

Yorgos Lanthimos, Elthymis Fillipou (The Lobster)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Son of Saul
The Assassin

Dheepan
The Other Sister

[Related: From THR Study: In Cannes vs. Oscars, the Winner is….]

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Inside Out

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Amy

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Richard Deakins (Sicario)

Edward Lachman (Carol)

The TIFF13 Countdown Continues – 4 Days – “12 Years a Slave” Trailer

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It’s way too early to talk about Oscar frontrunners, but Steve McQueen’s “!2 Years a Slave” brought the house dawn at the Telluride Film Festival (and started an uncomfortable discussion pitting McQueen against Lee Daniels). The fact-based Antebellum drama stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender. Under the watchful eyes of “Shame” director McQueen, Ejiofor plays an African American freeman kidnapped from Upstate New York and sold into slavery. cue the trailer:

Adams on Reel Women: ‘Prometheus’ pregnant with horror

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Speaking of scary — here’s an “Adams on Reel Women” post from last summer:

Over the years, there have been some truly scary pregnancy horror movies — Mia Farrow awakening to the fact that she’s pregnant with the devil’s spawn in Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby,” Samantha Eggar’s mother of mutants in David Cronenberg’s grossly disturbing “The Brood,” and, of course, “Aliens 3,” when Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley discovers that, yes, sir, that’s an alien baby in her tummy. Pregnancy horror is the ultimate in haunted house frights: Evil lurks within the walls of the womb, and there really is no safe exit. [Read more…]

Viggo Mortensen Reveals How He Became Freud in ‘A Dangerous Method’

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Sigmund Freud, Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg, Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley

Viggo, Siggy; Siggy, Viggo

Here’s my interview with Viggo for Yahoo! Movies the day he won the Golden Globe nomination for playing Freud in A Dangerous Method:

Fresh from his Golden Globe supporting actor nomination for playing the proud papa of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, “A Dangerous Method” star Viggo Mortensen, 53, talked exclusively to Yahoo! Movies about brilliant thinkers — Freud, Carl Jung and director David Cronenberg — and his A-list co-stars Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley.

Thelma Adams: At the movie’s core is a mentor/pupil, father/son relationship between Freud and Jung. You’ve now made three movies with Cronenberg — “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises” and, now, “A Dangerous Method.” Is there a parallel?

Viggo Mortensen: To some degree it’s similar in the sense that, to start with, Jung and Freud had a great deal of affection for each other. With David, our friendship is first and foremost: respecting and liking, and a similar sense of humor. I’ve learned a lot and stretched with him. In “Eastern Promises,” he asked a lot of me and I asked a lot of myself.

TA: And with Freud, is there more scrutiny because it’s a historical character whose reputation precedes him?

VG: Freud was even more of a stretch. And, as for my friendship with David, at least so far we haven’t had the oedipal thing that was played out by Jung and Freud. We get along and hopefully we’ll continue to do so.

TA: Do you have any plans to collaborate again?

VG: David always has a couple of things cooking. One possibility is to do a sequel to “Eastern Promises.” The end left you wondering what would happen to my character now in that criminal London subculture. It was an ending that asks for, or allows for, a sequel like the “Godfather,” like Michael Corleone. What will happen next? I’m not a fan of sequels, although “Godfather 2” was as good as the original, maybe somewhat better. With David you can count on something interesting. He’s never done a sequel before. It’s not like with Woody Allen where he gets to do a movie every single year.

TA: That may not be a bad thing — some times I wish that Allen would take a year off and meditate…..MORE….on the Yahoo! Movie website