Zazie d'Or 2013

Oscars? Golden Globes? Golden Lions? Golden Palms? Golden Bears? BAFTAs? Césars?
Totally has been! Totally out of fashion! The most prestigious cinema award worldwide is – no doubt about it - the one and only ZAZIE D’OR!
Last year, Zazie has been 84 times to the movies and this, dear readers, is the BEST OF IT ALL:

The Zazie d’Or for BEST PICTURE 2013 goes to
LA VIE D'ADELE by Abdellatif Kechiche (France)
They are two girls in France but they could have been a boy and a girl in Japan or two boys in Alaska. Kechiche proves (thanks to two actresses en état de grace) that the first love and the first pain of love are universal and unforgettable. M A G N I F I Q U E !

The SPECIAL ZAZIE D’OR 2013 goes to
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS by the Coen Brothers (US)
A folk singer, a cat named Ulysesse, a bunch of beautiful songs, a cold winter in the NY of the 60s. And the genius of the Coen Brothers to turn a disastrous series of events into the most pleasant cinema moment of the year. W O N D E R F U L !

The ZAZIE COUP DE COEUR 2013 goes to 
12 YEARS A SLAVE by Steve McQueen  (US)
Before seing this movie I had no idea what being a slave meant. After having seen it, I do.
Very much so.

Zazie would like to give a special prize to the entire cast of this movie for their excellent performances: CHIWETEL EJIOFOR, LUPITA NYONG'O, MICHAEL FASSBENDER, SARAH PAULSON, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, PAUL DANO, PAUL GIAMATTI, they are all amazing. BRAD PITT, I am afraid, IS NOT included (but we thank him, anyway, because without his presence the money to produce the film would have never been found).

The Zazie d'Or for BEST DIRECTOR 2013 goes to
NICOLAS WINDING REFN for ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Thailand)
This is a prize that will surprise many of you, I know. Nobody liked this movie except me and few other people. Well, j'assume! I have always loved his cinema, and I adore the way he films. I am completely under his spell. I can stay in front of the screen for hours if Winding Refn is behind the camera.

 

The Zazie d’Or for BEST ACTOR 2013 goes to
BRUCE DERN for NEBRASKA by Alexander Payne (US)
You don't need to have made the Actor's Studio to give the performance of the year. You don't even need to be young and beautiful, to loose 30 kgs, to have a handicap or a mortal illness. Sometimes you just need to be Bruce Dern in a black & white movie. This one.

The Zazie d’Or for BEST ACTRESS 2013 goes to
CATE BLANCHETT for BLUE JASMINE by Woody Allen (US)
Yes, I know, she has already won all the prizes in this world. I’ve tried to find somebody else, I thought a lot about the girls of La vie d’Adèle, but then I had to admit it: the most unforgettable one, is her Jasmine. There's nothing I could do about it!

The Zazie d'Or for BEST SCREENPLAY 2013 goes to
RICHARD LINKLATER+JULIE DELPY+ETHAN HAWKE for BEFORE MIDNIGHT by Richard Linklater (US)

These three people have done something unique in cinema history: they have created a couple 20 years ago and they told us their story ever since. We have grown up with Jesse and Céline: we have shared with them the joys of youth, the doubts of maturity and now the difficulties of the middle age. The dialogues of these movies should be studied in every cinema school, because they're simply perfect. 
I hope we will meet them again!

 

The Zazie d'Or for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 2013 goes to
BRUNO DELBONNEL for INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS by the Coen Brothers (US)
Delbonnel, the man behind the magic light of movies like Faust and Le Fabuleux déstin d'Amélie Poulain, works for the first time with the Coen brothers and the result is more than special: the vintage patina of the '60s combined with the cold light of a NY winter is absolutely splendid!

The Zazie d'Or for BEST DOCUMENTARY 2013 goes to

STORIES WE TELL by Sarah Polley (Canada)

I adore Sarah Polley's cinema. Here she relates an incredible personal story: the discovery of her father not being her real father and her search for the natural one. In a strange mix of fictional super 8 films and interviews with the "real" people, she drags us into a very touching family history plenty of emotions, funny moments and universal questions about ourselves.

The Zazie d'Or for the BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 2013 goes to
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS by the Coen Brothers (US)

What can I say? I'm listening to this record in a loop since the day I watched the movie for the first time (back in October 2013...)

The LITTLE ZAZIE D’OR (Best First Feature Film Prize) 2013 goes to 
HAIFAA AL-MANSOUR for WADJDA (Saudi Arabia) 
I have the greatest respect for a woman who is trying to make movies in a country where cinema doesn't exist and where women barely exist. She has filmed all the street scenes hidden inside the back of a truck, proving that, sometimes, revolutions can start with a little girl and her bike. W la Liberté!

The JEREMY IRONS PRIZE (Man of my Life Award) 2013 goes to
Irish actor GABRIEL BYRNE
In Le Temps de l’Aventure by Jérôme Bonnell, Byrne proves to be the sexiest 60something on planet earth. In the movie, he takes a commuter train to go from Calais to Paris because he is afraid of the tunnel under the English Channel. If you assure me that I’m going to meet somebody like him on a train like that, I swear to avoid the Eurostar for the rest of my life! Gabriel, here I come...

And for you, dear readers, what has been the best of 2013?

Top 10 of 2013

It's raining TOP 10 Lists, dear readers, and Zazie (who's been to the movies 84 times last year) is looking forward to letting you know which are the films she simply ADORED in 2013...

1. LA VIE D'ADELE - Chapitres 1 & 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche (France)

2. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS by the Coen Brothers (US)

3. 12 YEARS A SLAVE by Steve McQueen (US)

4. FRANCES HA by Noah Baumbach (US)

5. LE TEMPS DE L'AVENTURE by Jérôme Bonnell (France) 

6. BEFORE MIDNIGHT by Richard Linklater (US)

7. L'INCONNU DU LAC by Alain Guiraudie (France)

8. WADJDA by Haifaa Al-Mansour (Saudi-Arabia)

9. NEBRASKA by Alexander Payne (US)

10. BLUE JASMINE by Woody Allen (US)

While these are the movies Zazie really COULD NOT STAND in 2013:
1. THE GREAT GATSBY by Baz Luhrmann (US)
2. L'ECUME DES JOURS by Michel Gondry (France)

3. TRANCE by Danny Boyle (UK)

And you, dear readers, which are the movies you've been crazy about in 2013?

12 Years a Slave

When I thought about a perfect Xmas movie to write about today in my blog, I unexpectedly thought about the new Steve McQueen film, 12 Years a Slave. 
I had the chance to see its avant-première a couple of weeks ago in a Paris cinema and I was eager to share my feelings about it with my readers.
Nobody else, I guess, would consider it a good movie for the Xmas time, but I do.
I am fed up with Xmas stories and fairy tales, I’d rather prefer to talk about an awful, tragic, real story: maybe it is not a bad idea to face the inhumanity of human beings on Xmas day! 

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor)

Steve Mcqueen, a British film-maker, is famous for his tough movies. From the story of Bobby Sands, the IRA revolutionary who starved himself to death (Hunger), to the story of Brandon, a NY sex addict (Shame), McQueen is not exactly the entertaining movies kind-of-guy. And I sincerely love him for that. For his third movie, he decided to go even “closer to the bone” relating the true story of Solomon Northup (the film is based upon Northup’s autobiography, having the same title). 
Northup, in 1840, was a free black man living with his family not far away from New York. A fine violin player, a well respected man in his community. One day, he accepts the job offer of two gentlemen, not knowing that the offer hides the most dreadful humbug: he has been sold as slave and sent to the Southern states to work in cotton plantations. The shock, for this cultivated man, is unspeakable. For 12 long years he will be obliged to work in the worst human conditions and be subject to the cruellest physical and mental punishments by his owners. When the hope is almost lost, Northup has the chance – unlike so many other slaves – to get back to freedom and write about his uncommon story...  

Northup (Ejiofor) and Epps (Fassbender)

If your reference in movies about slavery is Gone with the wind or The Colour Purple, well, forget about them, but if you want to know what really meant to be a black slave in the United States of America around 1840, well, this is the right movie for you. As it was the case for his previous films, McQueen is not here to gild the pill. Slavery is a shameful stain on American history, and it will always be. No matter what. This a story of rage, of survival, of dignity. McQueen shows it with his particular way of filming: very rigorous plans, scarce music, no useless scene, no-frills. He goes to the core of the story, straight away, without even giving you a chance to escape. Furthermore, this is not, at all, a heroic kind of movie. Northup is not better than any other slave. He is just more cultivated than they are. Which is a minus, not a plus, in a situation like this. The less you know, the less you feel, the better it will be for you. Northup is speechless, as we are, witnessing the misery, the cruelty, the non-sense of the whole situation. He is not brave, he is barely able to survive, keeping a feeble hope to go back to life and human condition.

Epps (Fassbender), Patsey (Nyong'o) and Northup (Ejiofor)

McQueen should be also complimented for the incredible cast he has been able to assemble. This is the best cast of the year: to play Solomon, he has chosen a great but underestimated (until today, I hope) British actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose performance is absolutely astonishing. It could have been so easy to overdo to play this character, but Ejiofor follows the path of a perfect understatement. In the role of a female slave, the newcomer Lupita Nyong’o, an actress from Kenya, grab you heart and never let it go, becoming pretty quickly unforgettable. Also actors having minor roles here are unforgettable: Paul Giamatti as the pitiless slaves seller, Paul Dano as the awful slaves manager in one of the plantations, Benedict Cumberbatch as a more human plantations owner, and Sarah Paulson as the cruel wife of Mr. Epps, the last owner of Solomon. To play Edwin Epps, the bad, bad guy of the story, McQueen turned to his acteur-fetiche, the German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender, proven that their relationship will be remembered as the Scorsese-De Niro liaison of modern time. Fassbender, perfect Southern accent and eyes injected with the red of hanger and booze, is a strange kind of persecutor: tortured by his feelings for a black slave, he is struggling in a more human way than expected. This is what great actors manage to do: you want to hate them but in the end you feel sorry for them… 
The only feeble point in this chain of fabulous actors is, as usual, Brad Pitt: having the charisma of an artichoke, his 5 minutes on screen are simply soporific.

Bass (Brad Pitt)

The UGC Les Halles, the cinema where the avant-première was taking place, informed people buying tickets on their site that Steve McQueen would have been present to the screening. When the film was over, a couple of people arrived, announcing a “big surprise”: McQueen couldn’t make it, but the two main actors, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o, were there. I guess that the audience was still so shaken by the movie, that seeing in flesh and blood the two actors was kind of an emotional shock. Ejiofor and Nyong’o were welcomed by a standing ovation and a long, long and big applause, and they were sincerely overwhelmed, looking at each other in disbelief.

Nyong'o and Ejiofor at the screening in UGC Les Halles, Paris - December 10

Well, I want to use this image, so simple but powerful: real feelings created by fictional scenes, to wish you a Merry Xmas, dear readers.
I hope it will be as human as possible!