From Cinephile Archive and in Francis Coppola‘s own handwriting…

It was revealed earlier today that Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen‘s San Francisco-shot movie, will be distributed by Sony Classics. Except the IMDB’s location listing says it was shot as much in Manhattan as San Francisco. “The story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife,” etc. Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg.

“Today we face the monsters!” I’ve loved Sir Laurence Olivier‘s St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V since I was a kid, and I’m a fan of Al Pacino‘s (and more precisely Oliver Stone‘s) “inches” spech in Any Given Sunday, but I really don’t care for generic rally-the-troops speeches.

“I thankfully want to say that I’m standing in a room of people who understand that depiction is not endorsement, and if it was, no artist could ever portray inhumane practices, no author could ever write about them, and no filmmaker could ever delve into the knotty subjects of our time.” — Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow, speaking last night upon accepting the Best Picture award from the New York Film Critics Circle.

“I think at the end of the day, we made a film that allows us to look back at the past in a way that gives us a more clear-sighted appraisal of the future.” — Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter-producer Mark Boal speaking last night.

The story I posted earlier this morning (“Why People Vote The Way They Do”) explains the DGA choices. The members didn’t vote for the directors — they voted for the stories and themes that they felt emotionally close to or supportive of, and then passed this along to the helmers. Like most moviegoers DGA members prefer quest stories and Voyage/Return films, and so they voted for three quest stories (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo) and two Voyage/Return films (Les Miserables, Life of Pi).

And they didn’t sufficiently support David O. Russell and the brilliant film he made that blended Comedy with Overcoming The Monster (i.e., Silver Linings Playbook) because some DGA members don’t like to see those two mixed together. It’s that simple.

Repeating — they didn’t vote for directorial skill or passion as much as the final emotional product. Like chumps, like easy-going pedestrians, the DGA membership voted for their locked-in longings and allegiances.

Silver Linings campaign orchestrator Lisa Taback reminds that over the past 12 years the DGA nominations and the Oscar’s Best Director Nominations have only matched twice: 2005 and 2009. All other years there have been at least one or two nominees that were not nominated for the DGA Award.

Les Miserables‘ Tom Hooper, by common consensus the most heavily criticized director of all the major 2012 Oscar season contenders for his close-ups and dutch angles and whatnot, has been effing nominated for a DGA Best Director Award? What’s going on here? What am I missing?

I’ve said frequently that the last 40 minutes of Les Miz work for me personally so I’m not dissing Hooper’s achievement, but what about all the people who’ve been putting down his relentless closeups? That’s all I’ve been hearing for the last few weeks. The DGA membership…what, lives on a different planet or something?

And what’s with the DGA not nominating Silver Linings Playbook‘s David O. Russell, who did everything right and extracted several killer performances and wrote the adaptation and put his personal history into the film and created the most appealing ride of the year? What standards are being applied or enforced here? What the…? Somebody needs to go out and find 10 or 15 DGA members and ask them why they voted the way they did. Because I really, really don’t get it. This is diseased.

Zero Dark Thirty‘s Kathryn Bigelow, Argo‘s Ben Affleck and Lincoln‘s Steven Spielberg were nominated along with Life of Pi‘s Ang Lee, winner of the 2012 Job-Well-Done, Friendly-Back-Pat Award for having directed a lusicously-toned CGI film that isn’t at the top of anyone‘s Best Picture list.

Django Unchained director Quentin Tarantino was also snubbed. I have no issue with that.

The freezer door on my refrigerator already had a dent in it, but I’ve punched it again for good measure.

The winner will be named at the DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, 2.2.13.

Salon‘s Daniel D’Addario has posted a concise impression of the mania of Oscar season and a few of the issues raging around. He spoke to myself, Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone and The Film Experience‘s Nathaniel Rogers. I sure as hell have never claimed to be any kind of Nate Silver when it comes to predictions. I just go with what feels right to me, and sometimes the crowd agrees, etc. But the name “Nate Silver” is so widely respected these days that it’s flattering to be quoted/included.

HE quote #1: “Most people are not that thrilled with what happens at the Oscars, but they like the argument [that leads up to the climax]. That’s the fun part. The blood is up. That’s what makes it fun. Then everybody goes to sleep [on] March 1st.” #2: “The constrictions that used to be put on trade reporters for the two main trades were that they had to be reportorial, dispassionate; what’s liberating is our personal voices.” #3: “The idea that a film [like Zero Dark Thirty] can’t be ambiguous — that’s as disgusting an idea as any I’ve heard in my life. It’s one of the lowest attack campaigns I’ve ever seen.”

“The seven basic plots: Quest, Voyage/Return, Rags to Riches, Comedy, Tragedy, Overcoming the Monster and Deepthroat.” — tweeted from Tokyo by Jack Reacher director & co-writer Chris McQuarrie.

Most industry-centric people who vote for awards do so with four considerations or goals in mind. One, they vote for the emotional resonance factor (“That’s kinda my story up there on the screen, and therefore I feel a certain kinship and want to affirm that”). Two, they vote in order to kowtow to the powerful and in so doing invite feelings of emotional comfort and professional security (i.e., why people vote for Steven Spielberg when he’s made a good film). Three, because they find the plot and/or subject matter to be comforting or heart-warming or reassuring on some level. And four, because they like the way the plot unfolds within the realm of its choosing and stays there, or in other words the way it refuses to fart around by shifting from one realm (“comedy”) to another (“overcoming the monster”).

At no time in their professional lives and not even under penalty of death will a significant percentage (much less many or a majority) of voters support a film because the high level of craft that went into it. Craft considerations are strictly for the acting categories and the tech branches. Best Picture voters (and I include myself to some extent as I just voted yesterday for the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Awards) vote for themselves and what they’re hoping to get out of it. One way or another they almost never vote for” the best.” They vote in order to make themselves feel better and safer and…whatever, less scared of financial destitution and death.

I’m different. I actually vote for quality all the way except (when it comes to my kneejerk reaction to almost any Steven Spielberg film shot by Janusz Kaminski and made after Schindler’s List), but that makes me an outlier. And I accept that.

Most of the 2012 Best Picture nominees are quest films. People like quest films because they’re relatively simple and schematic (with the exception of Zero Dark Thirty) as well as followable and satisfying and yaddah yaddah. Those that operate outside this realm and/or mix plot themes or style signatures (like Silver Linings Playbook, The Master and Anna Karenina) have received highly impassioned mixed reactions because many people generally don’t like the feeling of a movie doing this and also doing that. Most people prefer movies that just do this, period.

In some peoples’ minds Silver Linings Playbook is an oddball because it’s a Comedy that also focuses on Overcoming The Monster. That unsettles some folks. They just want to laugh and feel good have a good time, and they don’t want to know from (or flirt with) mental-health monsters. This basically describes your slow-on-the-pickup under-30 female audience that was hesitant to see David O. Russell‘s film in the early stages.

Zero Dark Thirty is a quest film. (They try and try and try, and then they hit pay dirt and get it done.) Life of Pi is a voyage/return film, and one that isn’t necessarily about a Bengal tiger but who cares either way because we’re still stuck in that fucking lifeboat for an hour or so. Argo is a quest film. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a quest film. Les Miserables is a Voyage/Return film.

The Master is a mixture of a Voyage/Return film and Overcoming The Monster, which obviously a significant group has had a problem with.

Lincoln is a quest film (i.e., we must pass the 13th Amendment!) that sticks to its turf and doesn’t shilly shally, and is therefore satisfying to people who like their movies to be about meat and potatoes and dark gravy and a vegetable on the side. It comes with the emotional comfort factor (“After all these years of being taught what a great man Abraham Lincoln was, I finally get to meet and hang with him and even get to know him a bit! That makes me feel kinda good!”) and an industry-comfort factor by way of a standard Spielberg kowtow (“If I vote for a Spielberg film maybe I’ll inherit a certain positive industry karma and — who knows? — my son or daughter might get a job on one of his films”)

After scanning Brad Brevet‘s “50 Most Anticipated 2013 Films” piece on Rope of Silicon, I’m adding 15 or 16 films to a previously posted rundown of 29 likely 2013 award contenders, must-sees and perk-ups. Not one is a low-rent superhero comic-book CG monster-action popcorn movie…not one. A few visionary fantasies aimed at Joe Popcorn, okay, but made by high-end directors.

Four are from Brevet’s initial list: (1) Peter Landesman‘s Parkland, Diablo Cody‘s untitled film (which was called Lamb of God when I read the script last year), (3) Brian Helgeland‘s 42 (Jackie Robinson biopic w/ Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford); and (4) Oliver Hirschbiegel‘s Diana (Princess of Wales biopic/love affair with Naomi Watts). (4)

I’m also adding Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel, David O. Russell‘s Abscam project (a.k.a. American Bullshit — starts shooting in March so might not be ready this year…who knows?); Steven Soderbergh‘s Side Effects (which — update — I saw and liked on Monday night, 1.7), Noah Baumbach‘s Frances Ha, Richard Linklater‘s Before Midnight, Stephen Frears‘ Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, Sofia Coppola‘s The Bling Ring, Lars von Trier‘s Nymphomaniac, Wong Kar Wai‘s The Grandmaster (which I’m almost certainly going to hate), Pedro Almodovar‘s I’m So Excited (all things Pedro!), Joe Swanberg‘s Drinking Buddies (Anna Kendrick, Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s The Young and Prodigious Spivet (Judy Davis, Helena Bonham Carter). (12)

The 16 biggies I listed on 12.16 are as follows:

(1) John Wells‘ August: Osage County;

(2) Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska;

(3) Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity;

(4) George Clooney‘s Monuments Men (a.k.a., cousin of The Train);

(5) Paul Greengrass‘s Captain Phillips;

(6) Martin Scorsese‘s Wolf of Wall Street;

(7) Jason Reitman‘s Labor Day;

(8) Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Inside Llewyn Davis;

(9) Bennett Miller‘s Foxcatcher;

(10) John Lee Hancock‘s Saving Mr. Banks;

(11) Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor;

(12) Spike Lee‘s Oldboy;

(13) Luc Besson‘s Malavita;

(14) Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years A Slave;

(15) Baz Luhrman‘s The Great Gatsby (which might have issues);

(16) Spike Jonze‘s Her.

Also: Terrence Malick‘s two ventures — the film formerly known as Lawless plus Knight of Cups (neither of which might not be released until 2014 or 2015…you know Malick). (2)

One could also include Ben Stiller‘s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Nicholas Winding Refn‘s Only God Forgives, Ron Howard‘s Rush, David Cronenberg‘s Maps to the Stars. Neill Blomkamp‘s Elysium, Joseph Kosinski‘s Oblivion, Robert Schwentke‘s R.I.P.D., Steven Spielberg‘s Robopocalypse, Sam Raimi‘s Oz: The Great and Powerful abd Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim (10).

The relentlessly moderate and mild-mannered Kris Tapley (In Contention) and Anne Thompson (Indiewire) sized things up last Friday. Kowtowing to Skyfall, Life of Pi, Les Miserables, etc. An interesting year, they say, for controversy (Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained), a large number of big contenders, the shorter Phase One, etc. Tapley: “I would not be surprised if there are 10 nominees.” The Wrap‘s Steve Pond “is quite certain that it will be eight,” says Thompson. And in the Best Director race, she thinks Tom Hooper “is out.”

Having just stumbled out of Gangster Squad and apparently gasping for air, Marshall Fine has proposed that all guns be banned from movies and TV.

Not for ethical or social reasons, although the absence of gunfire in mass entertainment would probably be, at the very least, an interesting thing to experience and quite possibly beneficial in certain ways. No, what Fine is really suggesting is a radical creative challenge to all filmmakers, particularly the action crowd.

Instead of always shooting your way out of situations, what if you guys had to figure some other solution? Could you? Do you have the imagination? Or would you just give up and complain and stamp your feet and yell “I want my Glock back!”?

If I was Emperor of Hollywood, I would impose a ten-shot rule. You can still use firearms to resolve conflicts, but using dozens or hundreds of bullets is out. Okay, you can use automatic gunfire if the film is about a wartime situation or about the Newtown or Aurora massacres or about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Or is a remake of The Wild Bunch or Heat or something in that vein. Otherwise you’ve have to shoot no more than ten bullets. That would be a challenge that would separate the men from the boys, you bet.

I’ve mentioned this before but think of how the gunplay feels in Shane, in which guns are fired sparingly in just three scenes — Alan Ladd “shooting that little white rock over there,” Jack Palance shooting Elisha Cook Jr. in the mud, and Shane gunning down Palance and Emile Meyer (Riker) and John Dierkes (Riker’s brother) in the final scene. Maybe nine or ten bullets in all. And each bullet means something.

In Peter Weir‘s Witness there was one brief shootout in a garage and a shootout on a Pennsylvania farm but I’d be surprised if more than ten shots were fired all in all. Okay, maybe twelve.

Remember that Robert Towne anecdote from the ’90s about how he’d written a scene in which his hero had picked up a rocking chair to defend himself against a couple of bad guys? And how the studio came back to him and said, “No rocking chairs…that’s too effeminate… have him pick up a baseball bat instead.” And how Towne concluded, “That’s what’s wrong with Hollywood these days…baseball bats!” But in today’s Hollywood a hero using a baseball bat (or a log, like Harrison Ford does at the end of Clear and Present Danger) instead of a .45 or an AK-47 would be novel and welcome.

“I’m not suggesting this because real handguns and automatic weapons are a threat to humans everywhere, though that is true,” Fine writes. “Nor is it because the casual, often comedic presentation of gun violence in films and TV shows tends to anesthetize young viewers to violence and its effects. Or that it warps their perception of reality so that it seems like a natural segue to move immediately from an argument to, say, lethal gunplay. The science isn’t all in on that last one, but I’d wager on the side of the empiricists.

“No, I believe we should ban guns from movies and television because they’re always the most boring and predictable dramatic choice you can make.

“And I say this, in spite of the fact that big-budget action films attract a mass audience that is entertained by extended exchanges of automatic weapon fire, in which hardly anyone ever gets hit. (Except when those automatic weapons are being fired by the hero – who can make every bullet in a machine-gun burst strike a different enemy.)

“A movie like this week’s Gangster Squad lend[s] credence to the theory that the mass audience would watch a movie that was nothing but two hours of fireworks, if each explosion was accompanied by blood spatters. Those kind of shoot-outs are not just a cliche in action films; they’re practically wallpaper. The shoot-’em-up scene is such a foregone conclusion that there simply is no pleasure or thrill to be derived from it.

“Guns are drama’s most reductionist element. Cell phones (or their lack of signal) have become a crutch for contemporary screenwriters as a dramatic device – but guns are the all-time fallback position. When in doubt, shoot first and ask questions later.

“Obviously, the kind of gun culture fostered in movies, the ease (and sometimes, amusement) with which life is taken — these are contributing factors to a culture that offers sudden national fame to gun-wielding mass killers, via the sensational coverage of those events. I personally don’t blame movies for the real-life gun violence; that’s the NRA’s excuse.

“I’m just a movie critic who believes that guns have long since made movie-makers lazy, based on the experience of seeing a lot of movies every week. And I’m here to call for a moratorium on guns in movies until our movies get better as a result. A lot of them couldn’t get worse.”