I was a wee bit surprised by the 10.16 announcement that Saul Dibbs‘ Suite Francaise, a World War II romance about a French wife (Michelle Williams) who falls in love with a German officer (Matthias Schoenaerts), won’t have its first L.A. screening at AFI Fest but during the American Film Market. The AFM is not exactly a prestigious venue. It tends to favor “market”-level films, and it’s sometimes tricky for journalists to get into certain screenings. Based on a book by Irene Nemirovsky, the film costars Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Riley, Ruth Wilson, Lambert Wilson and Wolf of Wall Street‘s Margot Robbie. The Weinstein Co. has U.S. distribution rights. The AFM will run 11.5 through 11.12 in Santa Monica. One question: why would planes from either side of the conflict drop bombs on civilians? To what end?

Beanstalk: “Why is Birdman in the top spot? Boyhood should be. This looks like too much bias. You should distinguish yourself by only targeting movies that have been seen. You should follow the lead of Anne Thompson.”

Jack: “I admire Boyhood but it’s a safe, non-risky consensus choice. It’s the movie you say you really like if you want to be liked by the crowd, and I don’t necessarily see a great value in that. I’m very proud of the fact that I’m not a meticulous, fair-minded pulse-taker like Steve Pond. Right now the only unseen films that have people even half-excited are American Sniper, A Most Violent Year and The Gambler. People expect Unbroken to be good in a humanistic, touching-bottom sort of way, but I wouldn’t say they’re particularly cranked about it. I don’t know what people are saying about Into The Woods, but anyone who loves good music loves Sondheim.”

Beanstalk: “Okay, but putting two unseen films on your chart devalues your credibility. Wait until the time is right. Take it from me — you’ll be written off.”

Jack: “You can’t say with a straight face that the very commendable and respectable Boyhood should be in the top spot above the brilliant Birdman. It’s a very fine and brave and novel film and Linklater has my sincere respect, but you can’t say it’s the very best. Besides when have I ever placed a high premium on predicting what the Academy thinks? I believe in blowing the horn and not baahing like sheep.”

The American middle class has been so thoroughly ravaged by the American oligarchs over the last 30 years they aren’t pulling their pants up any more — they’re just leaving them bunched around the ankles. Certainly since the dawn of Dubya. I don’t know when the term “the American dream” began to sound fairly laughable but the fix has been in for so long that it looks like up to everyone. Should I say “except” the wealthy or “including” them? I’m not doing too badly myself I’ve played it smart by travelling light, keeping expenses down and borrowing nothing.

A 10.25 Salon piece by Richard Eskow called “7 Facts That Show The American Dream is Dead” plows the usual turf. The middle-class can’t breathe for the debt. No one can afford to retire. One-income families are a thing of the past, and even those with two incomes can’t even seem to get ahead. The terms of most college loans equal economic enslavement. Nobody can afford to retire or take vacations. Health care costs are rising and making things all the harder for Joe Schmoe.

I was a huge fan of the Movieline Oscar Index chart that Stu VanAirsdale created, maintained and constantly updated during the 2010 and 2011 Oscar season. (Stu left Movieline in July 2012.) I recently wrote Stu and asked if he’d mind if I launched a tribute/ripoff version of Oscar Index. His response: “I can’t really stop anyone from launching a variation on it, and I wish anyone who does the best of luck.”

I realize that the below image is a bit small so please click on the large version of the chart. And please be patient with my crude Photoshop skills at this early stage.

Thanks to Brooklyn-based web designer Sean Grip for doing the initial heavy lifting and to HE’s Jett Wells for helping me learn enough of Photoshop to size the heads and titles properly and make sure the graph lines are the right colors, etc. The intention, God help me, is to eventually post freshly considered Oscar Balloon charts three times weekly — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor. It’s going to be hugely time-consuming on top of everything else, but I’ll give it a shot. First pair on Monday, the second on Wednesday, the third on Friday or Saturday…something like that. Maybe I’ll post an occasional Best Documentary and Best Foreign Language Feature chart…maybe.

The Top 11 Best Picture Contenders (as of Sunday, 10.26): 1. Birdman; 2. Boyhood; 3. The Imitation Game; 4. The Theory of Everything; 5. Gone Girl; 6. Unbroken; 7. Interstellar; 8. Whiplash; 9. Foxcatcher; 10. A Most Violent Year; 11. American Sniper.

Jim Carrey has a point. Doing Lincoln car commercials in the wake of an Oscar win suggests a certain degree of self-absorption. And taking your eyes off the freeway for six or seven seconds in order to stare at your fingers…not cool either. But the dark philosophical ruminations have a ring.

This Nightcrawler redband trailer is inspired — it nails the sensibility and the coolness factor to a T. Serious congratulations to the Open Road marketing ace who cut it together and decided on the tone. On the other end of the spectrum, TheWrap‘s Jeff Sneider needs to apologize for not even mentioning that Nightcrawler (opening on the evening of 10.30) is the only new film to see that weekend. Sneider urges viewers to catch some classic horror films (Candy Man tops the list) but…well, this is a portrait of typical genre hounds, I suppose. They want what they want when they want it, and they don’t want to know from intelligent counter-programming.

During yesterday’s drive into Savannah from the airport I told a senior Los Angeles-based exhibition executive (i.e., a guy who doesn’t want to be quoted) about the over-cranked, super-bassy sound inside the TCL Chinese that made dialogue hard to understand at times during Thursday night’s Interstellar screening. He said he knows all about that. He said that union guys who were calibrating the sound at a West L.A. theatre plex constructed two or three years ago wanted to heighten the bassy “thromp” levels, and that he and his associates told them “nope, nope…no way.” He knows exactly what bass-thromp does to dialogue. And he made the right call. The plex in question delivers excellent sound. Hearing dialogue is never an issue when I see a film there. I can always hear every last vowel and consonant.

Interior of refurbished TCL Chinese. The muddled, super-bassy, over-cranked sound delivery in this theatre has probably harmed…okay, influenced the critical opinion of Interstellar among L.A. journos who attended Thursday night’s screening. I have already pledged to see Chris Nolan’s film again in a theatre with better calibrated sound.

I’ve also heard from a journalist friend who saw Interstellar Wednesday night at the California Science Center IMAX theatre, and he says the sound there “was exquisite…you could hear absolutely everything perfectly.” He also dropped by Thursday night’s TCL Chinese showing, or actually “bits and pieces of the last 25 minutes of the film and the sound was way overpumped. In fact standing in the lobby we thought the theatre was going to collapse, and I heard complaints from a couple of SAG voters that they couldn’t understand the dialogue, which always used to be the case at the Chinese pre-IMAX.”

I’m waiting to speak soon to Chapin Cutler, the projection and sound guru from Boston Light & Sound who handles projection standards at the Telluride Film Festival, the TCM Classic Film Festival and is now preparing projection for the upcoming AFI Fest. I’m not going to assume anything but Cutler knows his realm cold, and I can guess what he’ll tell me about bass-thromp.

From a 10.24 Guardian story by Alex Hern: “Tim Berners-Lee has expressed sadness that the web has mirrored the dark side of humanity, as well as enabling its ‘wonderful side’ to flourish.”

Hollywood Elsewhere to Tim Berners-Lee: “I hear you, man. I know exactly what you’re talking about and then some. But I fear your assessment of human nature is a touch on the Pollyannic side. If nothing else comment threads on the web have revealed who and what some of us really are. The more vocal sector, I mean.”

A little less than 150 years ago, or in late December of 1864, the city of Savannah surrendered to Union troops led by General William Tecumseh Sherman. Here is the message sent by Sherman to Confederate General William J. Hardee on 12.17.64:

Gen. Sherman and troops entering Savannah just before Christmas 1864.

“I have already received guns that can cast heavy and destructive shot as far as the heart of your city. Also, I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied, and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city of Savannah, and its dependent forts, and shall wait a reasonable time for your answer, before opening with heavy ordnance. Should you entertain the proposition, I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army — burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to Savannah and other large cities which have been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war.”

After Thursday night’s Interstellar screening I was heading down the escalator inside the Chinese/Dolby complex, heading for the orange level in the parking garage. On the up escalator I noticed this shapely ginger-haired girl with really tight jeans, maybe 23 or 24, with some big-shouldered, dark-haired guy standing behind her. There was another girl with them, I think. Then I realized the guy, who was wearing a powder-blue shirt of some kind, was Miles Teller….”yo, Whiplash!” I naturally started eyeballing him instead of ginger girl. Then ginger girl dropped something and bent over to pick it up just as she and Teller were passing me, and I couldn’t resist checking out the cheeks. Hey, anybody would have…c’mon. She wasn’t looking so what the hell…right? Except Teller was looking at me. And then the humiliation: “Don’t be a pervert, man.” And he kind of bellowed it. Shamed, I tried a little “oh, no, no, man…I was just…you know, you and Damien Chazelle, man…I’m on the team!” But he kept looking at me like I was scum. The irony is that I never gape at women shamelessly. I’ll sneak looks, sure, but covertly. But Teller, man…he wouldn’t back off. Typical guy thing: “Hey man, she might be hot but I’m with her so avert your fucking eyes, and keep them averted!”