Friday 15 February 2008

If there were any justice

Casey Affleck should walk away with the Best Supporting Oscar. But, of course, life doesn't always work like that. Lovely ad, though. Very in keeping with the movie.

10 comments:

Essi said...

I saw Jesse James a couple of weeks ago and it was absolutely stunning. I was very impressed with Casey Affleck, he really became Robert Ford. He definitely deserves an Oscar. And yeah, that ad is nice!

I finally saw Sweeney yesterday! Damn... I couldn't speak for awhile when it was over. After a long silence, my friend said "Well, there isn't anything that can be said." And he is so right. Words are too small to describe how wonderful the movie is! I loved everything about it, everything. I can't wait to see it over and over again. Ed Wood is still my favourite Burton film, but Sweeney doesn't come far behind it.

Mark Salisbury said...

And Sweeney gets better the more times you see it.

Definitely in my top three, but I would still would put Ed Wood and Scissorhands before it.

Gerard said...

I'd not seen this ad yet, it's great! And you're gonna kill me, but I'm rooting for Bardem come Oscar night. As astonishing as Affleck was, Bardem, for me, gave an absolutely iconic performance.

I took my fifth trip to Fleet Street yesterday. I cannot get sick of that film. I think Ed Wood is still probably Burton's best film, but Sweeney has matched Scissorhands as my very favourite ever (as hyperbolic as I'm certain that sounds); they each speak to completely different parts of me, but neither's voice drowns out the other's.

I do, however, think that 'The Final Sequence' in Sweeney (ie, from The Beggar Woman's arrival at Sweeney's tonsorial parlour to the blackly sublime tableau that is the film's final shot) is the absolute greatest thing Burton has ever put to film, period.

Mark Salisbury said...

If push came to shove (or whatever that expression is) I don't think I'd disagree with you regarding the final sequence. It's both tremendous and tremendously haunting and does, after all, contain my favourite moment in the entire movie, the "Come here my love line..."

I think there's a very interesting corelation between the characters of Scissorhands and Sweeney that Depp and Burton have joked about but is certainly the case. And that is, both are much the same in terms of their non-verbal nature, and the way Depp is then forced to communicate much of his performance through his eyes (like a silent movie star). Tim has referred to Scissorhands as being the optimistic side of the coin, with Sweeney the result of decades of life just beating you down...

But five times. At the cinema. My hat is off to you my good man.

Mark Salisbury said...

Can't disagree that Bardem was iconic. But Casey just came into his own with that role. And, ultimately, I think it's a better performance.

Gerard said...

I could not tell you my favourite moment in the entire film - it's an entire film of favourite moments, it's incredible. Though that line, Depp's "BENJAMIN BARKER!!!" followed by one of the most viscerally brutal on-screen murders in recent memory, the blood-drenched Depp, Bonham Carter's face on "Can we still be married?," everything from Toby rising from the sewers to that gorgeous final shot, the bleeding from his throat across her face... That's the stuff that echoes through dreams, that's the stuff that really sticks with me.

Sweeney is a total flipside of Scissorhands, which is why I think I love the films (and characters) so much. They are definitely two extremes of a common personality, in a way, and I guess I relate a lot to both sides of it. There's just so much going on in those two films and characters that really, really gets me... It's why I respond so much to them, really, and indeed nearly all of Burton's work.

And yeah. Thing is, I'll go again. And four of those five times I've paid for somebody else to join me!

As for Affleck, I'll have to check back in with the film upon its DVD release in a couple of weeks; I can't wait to pick up a copy. Either way, I'll be happy, cause it has to go to one of them, surely?

And PS, was there anything preventing the Cave/Ellis score for Jesse James from being Oscar nommed?

Mark Salisbury said...

I have a feeling that the score just didn't get the necessary push to put it into voters' mind. I know that as a BAFTA member I wasn't sent a copy, just as I wasn't sent a DVD of the film itself. Warners just didn't get behind the film in the way it deserved. A shame.

Gerard said...

Ridiculous. Not only is it the best score of the year (in my opinion), but it's just such a beautiful album in its own right.

Sill Warners.

Mark Salisbury said...

Ridiculous but sadly true.

Gina Sackman said...

I completely agree with everything you two have said about Sweeney, Burton, and Jesse James.

And on the note of Jesse James - even with it running close to three hours, let me tell you, I didn't look at the time ONCE. I really felt attached to that film. There were so many open moments, yet it didn't allow me to drift away. I was stuck, but I was okay with it. :)