The Cinematheque Francaise tribute to Phillip Noyce kicked off Wednesday night (10.27) and will run until Sunday, November 7. The after-event happened at L’auberge Aveyronnaise. Congrats and best wishes to Phillip, wife Vuyo Dasi, beautiful daughter Ayanda, colleagues & collaborators Jason Clarke and Svetlana Cvetko, et. al.

I wish I could’ve been there. I wish I was in Paris, period. I miss it.

All hail Newsfront (my first taste, way back in ’78), Heatwave, Dead Calm, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger (my personal favorite), The Saint, Rabbit-Proof Fence. The Quiet American (my second favorite), Catch a Fire, Salt, the under–rated Above Suspicion and Lakewood.

A big hoo-hah dinner at the Australian embassy is slated for Friday night. I’ll be missing that one also.

Nope, another five weeks to go. Why is it that I feel Benedetta‘ed out?

In Nora Fingscheidt‘s The Unforgivable (theatrical 11.24, Netflix 12.10), 50ish Sandra Bullock plays a woman who moves in with her younger sister after serving a 20-year sentence for a violent crime.

In Philippe Claudel‘s I’ve Loved You So Long (’08), Kristin Scott Thomas played a 40ish doctor who moves in with her younger sister after serving 15 years for the murder of her son.

13 year-old HE blurb: “In the remarkable, deeply penetrating I’ve Loved You So Long (Sony Classics, 10.24) , Kristin Scott Thomas gives an immensely sad but highly sensitive and attuned performance that you just know, minutes into it, will be with you the rest of your life. She draws you in like some sad-eyed lady of the lowlands, but she never sells anything. Start to finish, she dwells in this fascinating zen-grief space that just ‘is.’ She owns it…and from the moment the film begins, owns you.”

You have to know how to read Scott Feinberg‘s regularly updated Hollywood Reporter articles about Oscar spitball guesses. Yes, they reflect his “best attempt to predict the behavior of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and not his personal preferences,” but they also reflect a mid-fall decision that many handicappers make — i.e., it’s easer to insincerely approve of certain mediocre contenders because it’s early yet (not even Halloween!) and why not shrug our shoulders and go with the flow?

Feinberg’s Best Picture Frontrunners:

King Richard (Warner Bros., 11/19, trailer) / HE says: Almost certainly fated to win the Oscar.
Belfast (Focus, 11/12, trailer)
The Power of the Dog (Netflix. 11/17, trailer) / HE says: Will be nominated but that’s all.
A Hero (Amazon) / Excellent film, but belongs in Best Int’l Feature category.
C’mon, C’mon (A24, 11/19, trailer) / HE says “tech categories, otherwise not a chance.”
The Hand of God (Netflix, 12/3, trailer) /
CODA (Apple, 8/13, trailer) / Crowd-pleasing, sitcom-level, calm down.
The Harder They Fall (Netflix, 11/3, trailer) / Why?
Summer of Soul (Searchlight, 7/2, trailer) / a found footage documentary, doesn’t count.

In The Realm of Feinberg-Speak, “Possibilities” means “unlikely but who knows?”

Flee (Neon/Participant, TBD, trailer) / NC
Titane (Neon, TBD, trailer) /
Parallel Mothers (Sony Classics, 12/24, trailer) / HE says “utterly brilliant Pedro, his best in years!”
The Lost Daughter (Netflix, 12/31, TBD)
Spencer (Neon/Topic, 11/5, trailer)

In The Realm of Feinberg-Speak, “Longer Shots” means “dead in the water”

The Tragedy of Macbeth (A24/Apple, 12/25, trailer)
Cyrano (MGM/UA, 12/31, TBD)….wrong! Beautifully made, wonderfully acted by Peter Dinklage!
Tick, Tick…Boom! (Netflix, TBD, trailer)
Red Rocket (A24, 12/3, trailer)…grim silence after it played in Telluride’s Galaxy theatre.
The Green Knight (A24, 5/29, trailer)…one of HE’s worst endurance tests of the year….even worse than Dune in this respect.

Everyone knows that Vittorio Storaro‘s default, go-to aspect ratio is 2:1 — not 2.2:1 (70mm) or standard Scope (2.35:1) but 2:1. On 2.25.08 it was confirmed by Criterion’s Peter Becker that the intended aspect ratio of Bernardo Bertolucci‘s The Last Emperor, which Storaro shot, was 2:1.

On 10.17.21 a Team Deakins podcast it was confirmed by The Northman director Robert Eggers and dp Jarin Blasche that their upcoming has been shot in Storaro’s a.r.

I riffed on the “Viking Hamlet” aspect last January (“More or Less Hamlet“).

Focus Features will release The Northman on 4.8.22.