Amour (Austria)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
No (Chile)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
War Witch (Canada)
What do Norway, Denmark, Austria, Canada and Chile have in common? No, they’re not the countries in which Julian Assange sought amnesty (semi-topical satire for the win); they are actually the list of countries from which this year’s Best Foreign Language Film nominees are. From. Of course, you probably could have guessed that from the fact that they’re listed at the top of this post, but, in fairness, I did cunningly swap the order, so don’t be too hard in yourselves.
Amour is clearly the odds on favourite here, being – as it indeed is – nominated elsewhere. Every time that a film has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film in the same year, it has won the latter category. That said, Pan’s Labyrinth recently picked up six nominations including three wins, without winning Best Foreign Language and, in a funny old couple of years, Swedish The Emigrants, was a losing nominee in 1972 but was then up for Best Picture in 1973. Thank heavens the Academy has now stamped out that kind of mind-bending shenanigans.
But Amour remains distant favourite and my thoughts on the film have been well documented. Here.
A Royal Affair also has love at its heart. But this is a much more passionate and – inevitably with Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen involved – sexy love. It’s a fairly nuts and bolts period piece set during the European enlightenment years of the late 18th century, and jam-packed full of the quintessential remarkable dresses, resplendent palaces, men in wigs and pantyhose, general misogyny and required quota of peasant whores. But excellent performances, a taste of erstwhile unfamiliar Danish history and well-handled commentary on the perils of successful revolution, set this above the average hoipolloi.
War Witch also stands on well-trodden ground. A familiar portrayal of how grim it is to live in war-torn Sub-Saharan Africa. Notwithstanding my rather unfair dismissiveness, it is an effective piece of cinema about a girl’s premature journey into womanhood after being left the sole-survivor of the slaughter of her entire village. It is lead by one of those seemingly-now-standard jaw-dropping amateur performances from debutant Rachel Mwanza.
Kon-Tiki would be a little more unusual, but for its striking similarity to this year’s Life of Pi. Although the acting is a little on the melodramatic side and the script tires under the weight of its own clichés, the cinematography transports this portrayal of anthropological endeavour. Depicting Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his crew’s epic journey on a balsa wood raft across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Polynesia, it is a remarkably shot picture. Filmed in a huge tank in Malta, one is convinced by the intrepid travellers’ being surrounded only by deep blue salty stuff and dozens of very convincing sharks.
Similarly, were it not nominated in 2013 and did not star a very de rigueur (and superb) Gael García Bernal, one would be forgiven for thinking Pablo Larraín’s No was filmed contemporaneously with Rain Man and Pelle the Conqueror back in 1988. It follows an advertising exec’s television campaign against General Augusto Pinochet’s re-election as Chile’s el presidente. No is an excellent film; a compelling drama laying bare genuine emotional – as well as political – conflict and intrigue. It looks fantastic; shot on the same 3:4 ratio film as in the late 80s, it seamlessly melds new film with archive footage from the time.
No directed by Pablo Larraín
And, for me, it says more about the human condition than Amour, which is the reason why (together with, perhaps, my semi-regular penchant for contrariness) it is my pick of the category.
What should win: No
What will win: Amour
Bloscars 