The magnificent nine

Very soon, the Hollywood bomond will gather to find out who this year will become the happy owner of the cherished award of American film akademiks Oscar. This year nine nine nine: some time ago it was decided to choose from the 10 best (before it was 5), and then out of 5-10, if only the candidates overcame the five percent barrier in the vote. Therefore, they are 9 this year. Despite the fact that some paintings recognized in Europe and made a noise around the world, according to the best films of the year, according to the American Film Academy, did not have good works in the sheet. Although, of course, not all of them are so good as to get a gold prize. What are these films? We will briefly describe them and their creators, if they deserve it.

"Guardian of Time", director Martin Scorsese

Having shot several films with Leonardo Dicaprio, Scorsese still decided to take a break from his beloved actor and took up the family fairy tale in which the boy met the great Meles. The action takes place between the two world wars, by that time the brilliant inventor of the cinema had already lost his materials and came to the fact that he began to work as an old man in the doll shop. Probably, someone will be interested in learning the story of who this brilliant person was still. The picture received eleven nominations, more than everyone else.

Obviously, film academics hurried to give out Oscar Martin Scorsese in the mid-2000s. From the very beginning of the 2000s, Skorsze made each film with an eye on an Oscar, in a crazy race, forgetting about creativity and its sense. From a technical point of view, his tape was good, but they did not touch at all, did not leave a long aftertaste, so necessary for a truly standing film that would remain in memory for a long time. As a result, Skorsze received a figurine for the "apostates". And when he shot a truly touching film for family viewing, he would give a reward again, which would be more fair. But there is little chance of this.

"Tree of life", director Terent Malik

Terens Malik is an amazing figure in the cinema. During the New Hollywood, having not worked for long as a journalist and teacher of philosophy, he suddenly decided that he would make a movie. And in the 1970s, he really made two masterpieces of “Wasteland” and “Harvest Days”. Then he went into the shadows and returned only in the late 1990s with the “thin red line”, then competing with the Spielberg picture “Saving Private Ryan”. All three works went down in the history of cinema. In the 2000s, Malik removed the New World, which did not cause any great enthusiasm, no more noise, and, it seems, everyone has forgotten about it for a long time. And in 2011, Malik received a gold palm branch in Cannes for the “Tree of Life”, although the jury's decision was still complicated. It is funny that in the end, many citizens who came to the cinema this summer look at Pitt's delirium, and not enjoy the highly conceptual picture of Malik, were very disappointed, and therefore cursed a lot and for a long time when they saw what was happening on the screen. In general, the tape is too arthouse, and obviously not on the mass viewer. But maybe some movie academics will appreciate the movie for this.

"Combat Horse", director Stephen Spielberg

As in 1998, Malik, with his film difficult to perceive, was a competitor for Spielberg with a picture, although heavy, but very careful, and after almost fifteen years, their paths met at the current Oscars. Stephen Spielberg can make a good movie touching the most delicate strings of the soul, from any material, even from the tape about the horse in the war. It seems that the director, who has long gathered all the honors and rewards, simply trains, checks himself for the strength to make a strong movie from a rather weak plot. And, it seems, he succeeds. At least, film academics decided that the picture of a horse, which influenced the fate of people during the First World War, should be nominated for an Oscar. But it remains to be hoped that Spielberg will still not get the coveted figurine: he already has it, enough.

"Midnight in Paris", director Woody Allen

Woody Allen once “loved New York. He considered this place to decline in culture. " However, it seems that culture, at least, the one that Allen loved and sang in his films of the 1970s ended. Allen no longer loves New York, now he is making his films in London, in Barcelona, ​​and now he got to Paris. Although, apparently, modern Paris does not really seduce him, why he sends his hero to the bohemian party of the beginning of the twentieth century, where he feels like a fish in the water. This film collected a lot of money, more than any other, the director. And at the same time, despite the box office, the film is far from the long-standing masterpieces “Jewish neurotic, who quitting to write in time,” but not to shoot. Allen can afford to do anything after Manhattan and Annie Hall, as one critic subtly noticed: we love him for this. This picture is unlikely to recognize this picture. Allen did not receive a cherished reward for directing, but giving it for this film is to offend the master.

"The person who changed everything", director Bennett Miller

A strong film at a time. Brad Pitt is a good actor, and plays well. The young comedian John Hill began to receive serious roles. The hero of Pitt is a coach of a poor baseball team, perfectly understanding that it is useless to compete with their budget with other teams. Then he decides on desperate measures: using the statistics and cunning ideas of his assistant, whom he just also bought from another company, the coach gathers the mutual and no interesting players. And the meaning of the picture, of course, is not that if you give a chance to losers and losers, they will win together, but that life does not stand still, and sometimes you need to “first feel important”, as Habermas once aptly remarked, and the first to go through a difficult path. The hero of Pitt, going to conflict with his colleagues, abandoned the traditional ideas about baseball - that you need to know the tricks and subtleties of the game that the computers and graduates of Yele do not know, and went exclusively by the intellectual, thereby giving anyone not understanding the rest of the world except America to the game intellectual charm. In the end, at least the epigraph tells us, it was he who turned out to be right. But no matter how delightful the idea of ​​the film may be, it is difficult to call it the best in a year.

"Artist", director Michelle Khazanavichus

The dumb movie star instantly loses everything - wife, house, money, glory - after the appearance of the great sound. However, a sweet girl, now becoming a pop-tree, to whom the hero of the tape was once very friendly, did not forget her idol and tries to return him to life. It will win, as expected, love. A couple of days ago, the “artist” who started at our box office has already made a lot of noise. And he will probably do even more. This is the film really with powerful energy. However, he is quite secondary. A few years ago, the Australian master Rolf de Hir, perhaps the best director of the country in which our good friend Kangaroo lives, shot a really outstanding picture “Doctor Plonk”-a black and white, lilac comedy about the end of the world. Even the clever dog from the “artist”, today which has become a great star and, it seems, completely written off from the Tiberius dog from Dr. Plonka, was anticipated by Rolf de Hir. Although critics drew attention to the "Pad", the tape did not become a breakthrough. That is why the success of the “artist” still became possible thanks to the heroic pioneers from Australia. At the same time, the “artist”, of course, fits much better at the ideas about the great cinema: there is a comedy, drama, and melodrama, and especially the emotional component, so important for the audience. In addition, there is also a bow to old Hollywood, which also increases the film's chances of great success. And although everyone adore the “artist”, I’ll risk telling that the horseradish in it is still not enough. Some smoothness and appreciation, and therefore, unnaturalness does not allow him to love him with the heart, which, of course, is very important for the film.

"Servant", director Tate Taylor

Everyone knows perfectly well that the black in the southern states lived very poorly. More than one film was shot on this subject. Also, everyone knows perfectly well that women in the United States have long lived very badly. Now imagine how the black women in the southern states of America lived in the 1960s. If it is difficult to imagine, then look at the picture "Service". There they tell and show everything in detail. Characteristically, the progressive young white young lady who came to the father from New York, like the once noble revolutionaries in Russia of the 19th century, could not endure the humiliation of ordinary black women and became the leader of their quiet and timid protest. The film balances on the verge of comedy and drama. Women will pour tears and be touched by the human being. Particularly sensitive men will also pour tears. The men will spit, if, however, they get to such a movie. Well, maybe the second half will make you look. In general, a typical operating American political correctness is a tearful tape. However, we must pay tribute to the authors: they found the right path. It’s just not so relevant about oppressed women, shooting about the suffering of the black people is also old. Therefore, the key of success, of course, was the film about the suffering of “black women”. I would try to only nominate this picture for the main prize! We pay attention that this is a trend. In the same year, the tape “Made in Dagenham” was released, which tells about women-workers in England, who fought for the right to receive an almost equal salary with men. The same tears, the same humor, the same concept.

"Descendants", director Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne is terribly popular in America. His paintings “Upclay” and “Citizen RUF” remain the most powerful examples of good independent American cinema. And his films “About Schmidt” and “On the sidelines” are excellent examples of thin almost independent ironic dramas. But the tape, which fell into the list of the best films of 2011, is an example of another type of films. Once I called the American independent cinema "Films about how a man shaves." As a rule, talented people who take the first steps in the film business do not have a lot of money, and therefore you have to get out: invent interesting ideas and shoot it in an original way, for example, about how a man shaves. “Descendants” about this, but for a lot of money and with stars, in particular with the great George Clooney. Therefore, such a genre also deserves a separate label. Personally, I propose this: “A movie about how George Clooney shaves” - such a formula accurately describes the essence of the tape. How else can you describe the plot in which a millionaire living in Hawaii, having learned that the wife, by the way, is in a coma and soon must give the soul to God, cheated on him, decides with his daughters to find his wife’s lover? At the same time, at the same time, the hero will decide - to whom to sell a huge piece of land that belongs to his family. Having found out that the wife’s lover is connected with the client, to whom the family wanted to sell the land initially, the character of George Clooney is changing the decision. All this lasts a very long time. At the same time, I must say that Alexander Payne is an outstanding director, and even this film is quite strong. One could understand and praise him in every way if it were the first tape in his career, but nominating it on the best - far for the most successful idea.

"Terribly loud and prohibitively close", director Stephen Doldri

No doubt the best film of the year. At the very end of 2011, in the United States he was released in limited rental, and then brought him to an out -of -end show at the Berlin Film Festival. Therefore, for a long time there was nothing to say about him, because no one saw him. However, one could assume about the high quality of these products, because the director of the tape was Stephen Doldri, three times a nominee for Oscar, and the literary basis of the picture was released in Russian in 2007 the book of Jonathan Safran Feaer of the same name. And since the source is very strong, it was difficult to assume that such a master as Doldri could poorly film a magnificent romance. A boy who lost his father on September 11, a year later discovers a riddle that, as the hero thinks, left him dad. In the future, we plunge together with the child in search of an answer to the question of what opens the key left by the father. The excellent role of Max von Syudov, nominated for the best male better role, decorates the film. Even Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, which I personally treat with prejudice, do not spoil the film and almost improve. Although the picture is crowded with emotions, it is very important that all these emotions are justified, unlike other tapes in the list. Touching, life -affirming cinema, although prohibitively sad.