For a Woman

2014 BAM Award Considerations – October

Posted on by bernardovillela

I decided that with the plethora of BAM Awards-related post towards the end of 2013 and the start of this year it was best to wait to the end of this month before officially recommencing the process.

I will post these lists towards the end of the month to allow for minimal updates. By creating a new post monthly, and creating massive combo files offline, it should make the process easier for me and more user-friendly for you, the esteemed reader. Enjoy.

Eligible Titles

Dracula Untold
Hellaware
Summer of Blood
Mercy
Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Annabelle
Ouija
St. Vincent
The Day the Series Stopped
In the Heart
Abuse of Weakness
Moebius
1,000 Times Good Night
Fury
For a Woman
Cannibal
Finn
The Judge
Gone Girl

Best Picture

St. Vincent
Fury
Finn
The Judge
Gone Girl

Best Foreign Film

1,000 Times Good Night
Finn

Best Documentary

The Day the Series Stopped

Most Overlooked Film

As intimated in my Most Underrated announcement this year, I’ve decided to make a change here. Rather than get caught up in me vs. the world nonsense and what a film’s rating is on an aggregate site, the IMDb or anywhere else, I want to champion smaller, lesser-known films. In 2011 with the selection of Toast this move was really in the offing. The nominees from this past year echo that fact. So here, regardless of how well-received something is by those who’ve seen it, I’ll be championing indies and foreign films, and the occasional financial flop from a bigger entity.

Dracula Untold
Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
1,000 Times Good Night
Finn

Best Director
St. Vincent
Fury
Finn
The Judge
Gone Girl

Best Actress

Kim van Kooten In the Heart
Isabelle Huppert Abuse of Weakness
Juliette Binoche 1,000 Times Good Night
Mélanie Thierry For a Woman
Olimpia Melinte Cannibal
Rosamund Pike Gone Girl

Best Actor

Luke Evans Dracula Untold
Bill Murray St. Vincent
Koen de Graeve In the Heart
Jae-hyun Jo Moebius
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau 1,000 Times Good Night
Robert Downey, Jr. The Judge
Ben Affleck Gone Girl

Best Supporting Actress

Melissa McCarthy St. Vincent
Eun-woo Lee Moebius
Vera Farmiga The Judge

Best Supporting Actor

Youg-ju Seo Moebius
Logan Lerman Fury
Jan Decleir Finn
Robert Duvall The Judge

Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Leading Role

Lauren Canny 1,000 Times Good Night

Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Leading Role

Chandler Riggs Mercy
Ed Oxenbould Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Jaeden Lieberher St. Vincent
Mels van der Hoeven Finn

Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Supporting Role

Emma Tremblay The Judge
Adrianna Cramer Curtis 1,000 Times Good Night
Kerris Dorsey Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Supporting Role

Dario Barosso St. Vincent
Art Parkinson Dracula Untold
Joel Courtney Mercy

Best Cast

St. Vincent
Moebius
1,000 Times Good Night
Fury
Finn
The Judge
Gone Girl
Dracula Untold
Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Best Youth Ensemble

1,000 Times Good Night
Finn
Mercy
Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Best Original Screenplay

St. Vincent
Moebius
1,000 Times Good Night
Fury
Finn
The Judge

Best Adapted Screenplay

Gone Girl
Dracula Untold
Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Best Score

Fury
Finn
Gone Girl
Dracula Untold

Best Editing

St. Vincent
Moebius
Fury
Finn
The Judge

Best Sound Editing/Mixing

Fury
Finn
The Judge
Gone Girl
Dracula Untold

Best Cinematography

St. Vincent
Moebius
1,000 Times Good Night
Fury
Finn
The Judge
Gone Girl

Best Art Direction

St. Vincent
Moebius
Cannibal
Finn
Gone Girl

Best Costume Design

St. Vincent
Moebius
Fury
Cannibal
Finn
Dracula Untold

Best Makeup

St. Vincent
In the Heart
Moebius
1,000 Times Good Night
Fury
The Judge
Gone Girl

Best Visual Effects

Dracula Untold

Best (Original) Song

St. Vincent
In the Heart
1,000 Times Good Night
Finn
The Judge

Review: For a Woman

Posted on by bernardovillela

This is a family drama told in hindsight. Anne (Sylvie Testud) tells the story of her parents Léna (Mélanie Thierry) and Michel (Benoît Magimel) as Russian emigres in post-war Paris especially after Michel’s estranged brother, Jean (Nicholas Duvauchelle) returns.

What’s most intriguing about this film is not just the fact that a daughter is wondering about the origins of her family, specifically what her parents’ life was like before she was born, but the facts that it commingles familial dramas and postwar political intrigue. All too often films that deal with Wold War II in some way see the liberation of Europe as the endgame. Some of the most fascinating European films are postwar, set either during reconstruction or in involved in the politics of a new Europe. This one goes there and furthermore examines some of what happens when you’ve moved past survival and are living with compromises made to move on.

Jean arrives enshrouded in mystery. His return to Michel’s life is sudden and almost unceremonious. There’s always some doubt about his nature or identity, but the conflict ends up being one in family rather than the fact that he’s still a Soviet and comrade, and his brother is a communist expat.

These narrative elements may seem like they’re too different to connect but when family is involved everything connects. With everything connecting there could be a tendency to lose the characters behind the ideas they represent and to muddle through to a conclusion. What this film does is end its commentaries on family and politics in separate scenes. One in a discussion and one in a voice over to close a tale. Each is astutely stated and a perfectly presented synthesis of hypotheses.

The most interesting thing again is that it wanders into gray areas, and fights to explain that gray against characters and a world that insist on black-and-white both in political and familial arenas. When not wanting to lose your characters to your ideas the performances by the actors are crucial.

Thierry compassionately portrays a woman torn between her emotions and duties; Magimel plays a cockeyed-optimistic struggling to hold on to ideals in the face of staggering new realities, and Devauchelle a passionate yet embittered cynic seeking unattainable levels of revenge. Each conveys characters as they are and makes you wonder both about where they came from and where they end up. While this film is an origin story of sorts for its narrator, it resists the flashier sacrificial, survivalist beginnings of the characters maturely realizing that life does goes on, and the future is constantly striven for.

The film keeps apace on both its fronts working with a smooth ease that allows you to settle in and ruminate on this situation without losing your interest or pushing it too quickly. The balance that For a Woman strikes may be imperfect but it’s not an easy one to strike and it holds on well enough to entertain and provoke thought in equal measure.

7/10