Cinema Sins on Les Miserables

Hilarious, enjoy!

Must read article

I found this interesting article by Sasha Weiss at The New Yorker entitled "Anne Hathaway: In defence of the happy girl".

It is well worth a read and offers an interesting perspective on how we view women in the limelight.

After the Oscars

• Seth MacFarlane says he won't present again. Total Film have listed his best and worst lines from the night.
• For those who didn't see it: A complete list of all the winners
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• Bizarrely amusing alt-Oscars over at Film School Rejects

Personally I'm with Minnie Driver who, when interviewed outside the Vanity Fair Party by the BBC, said that she had wanted it to be more exciting.

For Your Consideration

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting

Awards season is upon us and as every film geek knows it is a grand celebration of all the achievements made in Western (okay mostly American) film over the past twelve months. Saying that, it’s also a chance for every aforementioned film geek plus critics and casual observers to gripe and whine about the various “snubs” and omissions and for the nausea inducing, sycophantic interviews that forms half all of the multi channel coverage, the other half being those horrific “let’s rip into these otherwise successful and beautiful women by making offensive comments about their appearance” shows.

I have a love/hate relationship with awards shows. On the one hand gets everyone talking about films and I have to own up to enjoying my fair share of glitz and glamour. On the other hand it gets people whinging about films and the complaints over who has been omitted can overshadow the glory of those who win.

The best example of this is how the word “snub” becomes the buzzword on everybody’s lips as soon as the first batch of nominations are out.

There is always outrage that XYZ didn’t make it in or if Film A was nominated why wasn’t the guy who directed it? This year for example, Skyfall didn’t receive any Oscar nominations for its lead actor or director and wasn’t nominated for best picture.  Even at our own BAFTAs Skyfall is trailing behind Lincoln (which hasn’t even been released in the UK yet, much to the consternation of many British film goers) which got 10 nominations. Director Steven Spielberg has been “snubbed” by both BAFTA and the Academy who have both left him out of the lists for Best Director. Add into the mix the same arguments about animation and foreign film that come back year after year and you start to wonder why anyone bothers. Of course money plays a huge part as does ego and the fact that many awards and nominations are politically motivated but there is also the fact that these are good films.

It isn’t helpful to dwell on the negatives and flinging the word “snub” around just diminishes the achievements made by those who did make it in to the nominations. So I for one resolve this year to approach awards season with an open mind and view it as a way to be introduced to new films and discovered new, thoroughly deserving, talent.

Full list of Academy Award nominees here

Full list of BAFTA nominees here

Review: Les Miserables

A film that may just be longer than the French Revolution itself, Tom Hooper's adaptation of the hit musical is tipped for every award going. Spoilers ahead (but come on the book is over a century old people...)

Poster from here

Review: Hugo

I love films about films, heck I'm a huge fan of films being self referential in general but this gem of a movie was especially good.

Picture from here

Movie Making Madams Part Six

Happy new year! The final part of my series on Women in Film is up over here at Yellow Bunting!