Aronofsky and Boyle Interviews

Fox Searchlight, which has two films on all the shortlists this award season — Slumdog Millionaire, which I've seen twice now and highly recommend, and The Wrestler, which I'm looking forward to seeing after New Year's — had the brilliant idea to have the films' directors (Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky, respectively) interview each other in a series of web videos.

To save you all the trouble of searching around for the film blogs with "exclusive" embeds of each video, here are the links to all the available parts, which can be viewed directly on Fox Searchlight's site:

• Full Interview
• Part 1: Directing The Wrestler (topmost video)
• Part 2: TBA
• Part 3: Camera Technology
• Part 4: Directing Style
• Part 5: Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei
• Part 6: The "Millionaire" Game Show Rights
• Part 7: Film Development

Update 2009/01/11: Still waiting for Fox Searchlight to post the two remaining clips. In the meantime, here are some interesting videos on YouTube (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) taken by spectators at a CZW event in Philadelphia where the fight between "The Ram" and Necro Butcher was filmed. (The rematch with The Ayatollah was filmed across two Ring of Honor events.)

The clips really show why Aronofsky chose a cinematographer with a documentary background, as well as the pressures of shooting in such a chaotic environment, without having the safety net of doing many takes.

Update 2009/03/01: I can't find Part 2 on Fox Searchlight's website, but they now have a version where everything is in a single video, so I've added the link to that along with the link to Part 1.

There Will Be Speeches

A couple of my fellow bloggers and I saw over 10 hours of movies yesterday, as part of AMC's Best Picture Showcase. There was a diverse audience, composed of people who want to see good films even if they may not like them, who get into the films enough to respond outwardly, and are ready to chat about them while waiting in line at the concession stand or when milling about between films — the best kind of audience, in my opinion. It was a fun experience, and I hope they continue to do it every year.

As for the Oscars themselves, here are George Clooney's picks:

Picture: No Country For Old Men
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen (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)
Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody (Juno)
Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)
Cinematography: Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood)

I'm inclined to agree with Clooney's picks, although the Actress categories are up in the air for me. The winners could easily be Marion Cotillard and Cate Blanchett, or Laura Linney and Saiorse Ronan (OK, maybe not that far). Also, I wouldn't count out cinematographer Roger Deakins, who's shooting for his first Oscar (he's up for two films). I'll go out on a limb and say that Ratatouille will win for Animated Feature, although I wouldn't be too surprised to see Persepolis take it. I've seen both, and they're great in their own ways.

SNL was back last weekend, and here's its spoof of the Oscar nominated films:

You can also consider the latest Digital Short a movie spoof as well. (Not a movie spoof: Tina Fey and Steve Martin brought the funny in the monologue.)