The Precinct (Director: Ilgar Safat): A few weeks ago, I received an email from a Hollywood-based publicist. I get lots of these sorts of emails, but this one was a bit different. How would I like to review Azerbaijan’s submission to the Best Foreign Film category for this year’s Academy Awards? That’s just the sort of unusual pitch to which I’m likely to respond, so I said sure.

Garib is a photographer of erotic nudes working in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. His fiancée Sabina is getting a bit tired of waiting for Garib to finally settle down and marry her. During an excursion to the picturesque cliffs of Gobustan, he informs her he’ll be leaving again for several months to work in Africa. They argue during the car ride back and Garib loses control of the car. Fortunately, two police officers come by and pull them from the burning wreck. Instead of of taking them to hospital, though, the policemen bring them back to their isolated precinct, where their very creepy superior submits Garib to some very probing questions about his past.

Suddenly the film flashes back to Garib’s youth. We learn how he discovers a love for photography but also how that interest is used against him by local gangsters. When a box of old negatives washes up on shore, some local thugs force Garib to print them at the studio of his beloved photography teacher. When the images turn out to be pornographic, Garib is forced to keep printing them while the thugs sell the prints. After this racket is discovered and broken up by the local Communist authorities, the thugs force Garib to take pornographic photos of Alina, a local girl who’s been turning tricks to support her young brother. Since Garib has been secretly in love with Alina, this drives him to attempt suicide. But when he tries to hang himself, the rope breaks and he’s rescued by two policemen. Curiously, they are the same two policemen we have seen earlier in the film.

When the film snaps back to the present, Garib seems to understand what the precinct is. When the officers throw him into a burning cell, he realizes he’s in a sort of purgatory. Suddenly, he comes to in the burning car with the sound of the approaching police car in his ears.

It’s a fairly ambitious structure, although I found the framing story, for all its Kafkaesque atmosphere, pretty easy to figure out. The combination of spiritual/psychological menace is clearly meant to force Garib to confront something from his past, hence the flashback. The middle section of the film is the strongest, keeping to a naturalistic tone and shedding light on the history of photography and cinema in Azerbaijan. Although the exposition is sometimes a little clumsy, I nevertheless found it quite interesting. Visually this section is strongest as well, for we travel with young Garib all over his childhood village and are not confined to the dark precinct.

Performances are good, although there’s not really much in terms of character development. Garib learns his lesson but it’s only clear from the flashback and flashforward. Within the precinct, the performances are pitched a little high, to match the eeriness of the situation. Overall, the film was entertaining without being exceptional. This is the first Azeri film I’ve ever seen, and I was impressed with the production values for the most part. But I think would have been happier to see a film based entirely on Garib’s childhood rather than trying to graft that coming-of-age story onto a more genre-based psychological/horror story.

(6/10)

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

The Precinct

This morning’s Academy Award nominations really drove home to me why I write this blog. I am not embarrassed to tell you that I have yet to see any of the films nominated for Best Picture. That’s not to say that I won’t see them at some point. But I’ve come to understand that I just don’t care about keeping up with the flood of new releases or rushing to see every nominated film before the awards are announced.

I will discover the great films the way I’ve always discovered them, and in the same way that I find great music, or literature. Not (necessarily) from awards or year-end lists, but in my own time and in my own way. Maybe it will be through a friend’s recommendation, or an interesting review, or a connection with another film or actor or director.

But I don’t want this blog to try to “cover” the big news the way that so many other blogs do. They do it quicker, and bigger, and better most of the time.

The title “Toronto Screen Shots” may make this site sound like a generic (if local) film blog, but the truth is that it’s a personal site, with my idiosyncratic tastes on full display.

Instead of posting the nominations and carping about them, like hundreds of other sites will be doing today, I’m simply going to let it pass. If something shiny appears in the corner of my eye, I’ll let you know about it, as always, but it’s become clear to me that I’m just not qualified to talk about the Oscars right now when I’ve seen so few of the nominated films.

The media generally like to whip up the hype to make everyone think that this year’s nominees are among the greatest works of art ever committed to film. When you take the long view back into history, and the broad view around the world, you realize how ridiculous that really is.

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Not Another Post on the Oscar Noms!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their documentary shortlist yesterday. Here are the 15 films selected:

• At the Death House Door (review)
• The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
• Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Seneesh
• Encounters at the End of the World
• Fuel
• The Garden
• Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
• I.O.U.S.A.
• In a Dream
• Made in America
• Man on Wire (review)
• Pray the Devil Back to Hell
• Standard Operating Procedure
• They Killed Sister Dorothy
• Trouble the Water (review)

Though I’ve seen just three of the nominated films so far, I’m pretty confident saying I’d be bitterly disappointed if Man on Wire fails to win the Oscar. Like some other commentators, I’m surprised and a bit let down that Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze (review) wasn’t shortlisted.

Documentarian AJ Schnack (Kurt Cobain: About a Son) is breaking these down over on his excellent blog, All These Wonderful Things.

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Oscar Doc Shortlist Announced

Although it would appear that many winners of the 2007 Academy Awards are obvious in key categories, Sunday night may provide some surprises,one can only hope. The truth is, a surprise win can be the single most exciting development on the entire show! In the meantime, as we await and watch the show in anticipatory nausea, I think these are the potential winners in each category. Enjoy the show and relish the many fruitful, subsequent discussions!

Best Picture

No Country for Old Men

Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Actress

Julie Christie, Away From Her

Supporting Actor

Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Supporting Actress

Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

Director

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Foreign Film

The Counterfeiters, Austria

Adapted Screenplay

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Original Screenplay

Diablo Cody, Juno

Animated Feature Film

Ratatouille

Art Direction

There Will Be Blood

Cinematography

There Will Be Blood

Sound Mixing

Transformers

Sound Editing

Transformers

Original Score

Atonement, Dario Marianelli

Original Song

“Falling Slowly” from Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Costume Design

Atonement

Documentary Feature

No End in Sight

Documentary (short subject)

Sari’s Mother

Film Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum

Makeup

La Vie en rose

Animated Short Film

Madame Tutli-Putli

Live Action Short Film

Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)

Visual Effects

Transformers

Editor’s Note: Moen is very brave putting up his predictions. It’s something I never do, usually just picking for the Oscar pool an hour or so before the show. How about you? Feel free to post some of your boldest predictions in the comments.

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Predicting the 2007 Oscar Winners

Some brilliant folks over at the National Film Board of Canada have come up with a unique and fun campaign for Oscar-nominated animated short Madame Tutli-Putli. Each visitor to the site can “unlock” a frame of the film each day. If all 23,287 frames are unlocked, then the entire film will be available for streaming on the site.

Not only is this a clever social media outreach, but it provides a way for people outside Canada to actually see the film, alleviating a common problem that many short films face. In my opinion, the film is a lock for the Oscar, and I’d heartily encourage you to participate in this innovative marketing campaign. They’re even giving away 200 copies of the DVD to random frame unlockers.

By the way, this is the NFB’s 70th Oscar nomination (they’ve won 12 times), and the fourth in the past four years.

Well-done, NFB!

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Madame Tutli-Putli’s Brilliant Oscar Campaign