Video Interview: Olivier Assayas on Sex, Marx and Revolution in ‘Something in the Air’

“I’ve always believed more in movement than narration.”

With his new film “Something in the Air,” revered French filmmaker Olivier Assayas (“Irma Vep,” “Carlos”) has effectively made his version of “Almost Famous.” A sexy yet sincere reflection on the post-revolutionary times of his youth, Assayas’ film – torn between past and present – is almost certainly among the most entertaining movies he’s ever made, but also one of the most conflicted and layered.

In Film.com’s full review of “Something in the Air,” I described the film as follows:

“The film begins with a floppy teenager named Gilles (Clément Métayer as Assayas’ blank but perceptive proxy) running around the February 9, 1971 demonstration, in which a branch of French maoists were teargassed by the Parisian police force. Originally titled “Après Mai” (or “After May”), “Something in the Air” rages with the orphaned energy that lingered in the aftermath of the May ’68 revolution, introducing us to the kids who were there to devour the crumbs of the counterculture. Gilles’ friends – the most memorable of whom is played by Lola Créton, perhaps the most compulsively watchable ingenue in all contemporary cinema – represent a generation of agitated adolescents so idealistic and impossibly beautiful that their physical presence alone is enough to suggest that this is a personal story told through a political lens, and not the other way around. Like a fire with nothing to burn, they have all the zeal in the world and no cause into which they might channel it.”

It was a hell of time to be young, and it’s obvious from the film that Assayas has plenty more to say on the subject than what he could fit in a single movie. That being said, IFC was kind enough to offer Film.com an exclusive clip from this Sundance Now video interview with the filmmaker, in which he talks about some of the ideas that informed his new work.

“Something in the Air” hits theaters tomorrow.

Categories: Interviews

Tags: Apres Mai, Director, Ifc films, Interview, Olivier Assayas, Something in the Air, Video Interview

10 Actors You Think Won For Something But Won For Something Else

The Oscars are the ultimate prize in the movie industry, but the storied Academy, as anyone who has filled out an annual office pool can attest, sometimes fails to reward filmmakers and actors when you expect it. That’s why there are so many award winners who have Academy Awards for what we consider the wrong film. It’s a totally different issue than those completely snubbed for the honor (we feel for you, Ben Affleck). We’re talking about the disconnect between which movie a renowned performer or auteur deserved to win for and which actually landed them the golden statue.

If you think about the following 10 Oscar winners’ careers, we guarantee you’ll assume they won for a different movie.

10. Meryl Streep: The most nominated actor in Academy history is living legend Meryl Streep. With 17 nominations to her name, it’s difficult to remember exactly which three performances netted her the statue. “Sophie’s Choice” remains her four-decade career’s signature film, but the other two are harder to pinpoint, even if she won one just last year! In 2012, Streep upset favorite frontrunner Viola Davis with her portrayal of “The Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, but what about the prolific actress’s unforgettable turns in “Doubt,” “The Devil Wears Prada,”  “Julie & Julia,” “Silkwood” and “The Deer Hunter”? She won for none of those, but for her 1979 family drama, “Kramer Vs. Kramer.”

9. Robert De Niro: The one, the only De Niro has two Academy Awards. One is definitely for his tour de force as aging boxer Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull,” and the other … Is it also for a Scorsese-directed drama? Nope. It’s not for playing a loyal Vietnam vet in “The Deer Hunter,” a homicidal ex-con in “Cape Fear” or a psychotic Vietnam vet in “Taxi Driver.” De Niro won his other Oscar the first time he was nominated, for Best Supporting Actor in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather: Part II.” While his win for playing the young Vito Corleone was well deserved, De Niro has played so many extraordinary characters, it’s easy to believe those other roles earned Oscars.

8. Roman Polanski: He may have a both depressing and despicable personal history, but Polanski is a brilliant filmmaker who’s been nominated for Best Director four times (“Chinatown,” “Tess” and “The Pianist”) and Best Adapted Screenplay (“Rosemary’s Baby”). Even though “Chinatown” is considered Polanski’s best film, earning 11 Academy Award nominations, the neo-noir classic scored only one Oscar – for Robert Towne’s original screenplay. Polanski’s twisty Los Angeles-set drama had the misfortune of being pitted against Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather, Part II,” so it’s the Holocaust drama “The Pianist” (2002) that earned the Polish-French director his Oscar due.

7. Cate Blanchett: The amazing Aussie actress has memorably played the Queen of England, a royal elf and the bard of rock and roll, but her Academy Award isn’t for “Elizabeth,” “The Lord of the Rings” or “I’m Not There.” Blanchett’s one Oscar (she’s been nominated four times) is for her supporting role portraying Katherine Hepburn opposite Leo DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes in “The Aviator” (2004). The patrician New England accent alone earned her the award. We still can’t believe Blanchett has yet to win a Best Actress.

6. Whoopi Goldberg: If you were to play a montage of Goldberg’s film roles in your head, you’d pause and marvel at exactly one film – her starring role as Celie in “The Color Purple” (1984). Goldberg beautifully portrayed a woman who survives every indignity that comes along with being black, poor, ugly, a woman, a “nothin’ at all” in the rural Jim Crow South. But Steven Spielberg’s adaptation didn’t win a single Academy Award, despite 11 nominations. Goldberg went on to win a Best Supporting Actress award for playing an eccentric medium in “Ghost” six years later.

5. Judi Dench: Eight minutes. That’s how long Dench’s droll depiction of Queen Elizabeth I lasted in “Shakespeare in Love.” Her acceptance speech lasted almost as long, and she herself joked, “I feel for eight minutes on the screen, I should only get a little bit of him.” Considering Dench has impressed critics and audiences for 50 years in much more substantial roles, like playing England’s other famous female monarchs in “Mrs. Brown” and the eponymous Alzheimer-suffering novelist in “Iris,” not to mention her inimitable portrayal of Bond’s boss “M,” it’s hard to be sure which role should have snagged the grand Dame her Oscar.

4. Martin Scorsese: When Scorsese took the podium for his Best Director Oscar in 2007, many might have assumed he was accepting his second or possibly third Academy Award. After all, what were the odds that New York City’s quintessential auteur would win his first Oscar for “The Departed,” a Boston cops-and-mobsters drama? This is the filmmaker responsible for “Goodfellas,” “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver,” so surely Marty had already won for one of those homages to the “Mean Streets” of New York. Alas, no. Scorsese has been nominated for 10 Oscars but only has the one.

3. Tommy Lee Jones: Another Best Supporting Actor nominee this year, the “Lincoln” actor has brilliantly played stern-faced men for more than 40 years in unforgettable movies like “No Country for Old Men,” “In the Valley of Elah,” “JFK” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” But it wasn’t playing a West Texas sheriff, a grieving father, a conspirator to kill the president or Crystal Gale’s husband that led to Jones’s Academy Award but playing a persistent U.S. Marshal in the action thriller “The Fugitive.” It doesn’t help that Jones beat out the considerably more deserving Ralph Fiennes’s turn as the scary evil SS officer in “Schindler’s List,” for his win.

2. Denzel Washington: With his nomination for “Flight,” Washington has a cool half-dozen Oscar nominations and two wins. He’s one of only six actors to display both a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor on his shelf. Thanks to that epic tear streaming down his face, there’s no doubt what movie was his Supporting “Glory.” And the leading role belonged to Washington for his career-best performance as black power activist “Malcolm X.” No other actor could have pulled off such a masterful depiction, and finally a black actor besides Sidney Poitier landed a Leading Actor award. Wait, what? Denzel lost in one of Oscar’s biggest upsets. Instead, he won nine years later for playing a very, very bad cop in “Training Day.”

1. Al Pacino: And just who was responsible for Washington’s loss in 1993? That would be none other than Al Pacino, who won the Oscar on his eighth (and so far, last) try. It’s unbelievable, but Pacino’s name was never called for playing mafia son-turned-boss Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” (either time!) or whistleblowing cop “Serpico” or the inept bank robber in “Dog Day Afternoon.” No, Pacino won for a movie that has not withstood the test of even 20 years, “Scent of a Woman.” His over-the-top hooahing as a retired blind Army officer certainly didn’t deserve the Academy Award, not when compared to Denzel, and not to his own best roles.

Categories: Awards

Tags: Al pacino, Cate blanchett, Denzel washington, Ghost, Judi dench, Kramer vs. kramer, Martin scorsese, Meryl Street, Robert de niro, Roman polanski, Scent of a Woman, Shakespeare in love, The aviator, The departed, The fugitive, The Godfather Part II, The Pianist, Tommy lee jones, Training Day, Whoopi goldberg

Given Braveheart, Should Pixar Have Named Brave Something Different?

Let me make a bold, radical, and unexpected statement: I love everything about Pixar’s Brave. I love the cast. I love the concept and the setting. I love the poster and the teaser. (I’m certain I’m the only person who feels this way. Pixar! Who likes them, right?) I even dig the title for ridiculous, romantic, and altogether mythic reasons.

I shouldn’t like the title. I can foresee a thousand and one stories and reviews playing with some variation of Braveheart.  “Brave Has Heart” is one you’ll undoubtedly see. “Brave Shows Pixar Has a Brave Heart” is clunkier, but also doable. I bet some smart-ass will even write “Brave: Every Film Plays, But Not Every One’s A Hit” or “Brave Shows Pixar’s Freeeeeedom!” or something equally wink-wink-nod-nod. The comparison and jokes to Mel Gibson’s kilted and bloody epic are inevitable, at least for traffic purposes. One might even argue Pixar is asking for trouble given Gibson’s plummeting popularity, and the sinking of anything and everything he cinematically touched.

But that’s just silly. Brave is a fantastic title, and a marked improvement over The Bear and the Bow, which screamed working title and not theater marquee. Brave immediately evokes a lot of things, whereas The Bear and the Bow will undoubtedly leave many (especially children, who haven’t quite grasped the one-word-multiple-meanings trick yet) confused as to what kind of bow we’re talking about, and how a bear plays into it. Does the title mean, like, a ribbon? Or what a man does in front of the Queen? Oh, you mean a Robin Hood bow!  Well, now the bear bit makes sense! Someone probably shoots it!

Frankly, there’s nothing you can title a Scottish-themed picture but Brave. The Scots are a brave people, possibly even the bravest. Everything about them is strapping and hardy — their architecture, their weather, their bagpipes, their brogues, their alcohol, their food. (Cue the haggis jokes — but as someone who has eaten it, I can assure you haggis is far more palatable than homemade oatcakes or tablet.) Even the national wardrobe is a flag of courage. The kilt is sneered at by lesser beings — “The men wear skirts!” — which only proves what guts it takes for the men to wear them so casually, particularly since they’re generally not wearing anything underneath. (Consider that parts of Scotland are further north than Moscow, where they favor furs, and then wonder how they run around bare-legged, with the wind having no place to go but up.) Even without the haggis and the kilts, the Scots have their history, and their chronicles are full of valor. You can sneer at Mel Gibson’s film all you like (and I don’t), but William Wallace was no man to dismiss. He wasn’t the only man or woman risking it all for independence, either, and he wasn’t the only Scot to suffer the traitor’s death, which was only meted out to the “worst” offenders to the crown. You have to admire a people who watch one leader hung, drawn, and quartered, but keep on fighting, even as others meet the same hideous fate.

Even their unofficial anthem (or rather, one of the unofficial anthems) says how damn brave they are. Even America — as full of Scots as it was — didn’t have that kind of swagger. Our anthem isn’t “America the Brave,”  we favored “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a title (and could get no tougher than “America the Beautiful” for our unofficial one), as if we were afraid Scotland would collectively sail over and kick our butts if we opted to title it after the catchiest lyric. (And “The home of the brave”  was probably just Francis Scott Key acknowledging we’d mixed the Scots into the general population.)

In fact, I’m willing to wager Scotland, as a collective unit, quietly emailed Pixar and said, “You’re not actually going with that The Bear and the Bow title, are you? May we quietly suggest you refer to our massive courage? Perhaps you could just call it Brave? P.S. Did you get the haggis we sent? P.P.S. You know, the execution scene in Braveheart was the censored version of what happened. Just thought you should know.”

Trying to fight was pointless. Why try to pretty it up with a title like Merida and the Bear, or The Warrior Princess? It’s about a Scottish lass who picks up a weapon and defies all odds, so let’s just cut to the chase: she’s brave.  As brave as William Wallace, the unofficial national anthem, Robert Burns poems, kilts, Sean Connery in Zardoz, haggis, and whiskey. Mel Gibson has no claim on the rugged brogue of a word. Scotland does. So, keep the freedom jokes and eye rolls to a minimum. They might see you …