Zazie D'Or 2014

Dear Readers,
Yes, it is THAT time of the year, when your cinema blogger de confiance gives away her prizes. So forget about Oscars, Golden Globes, Golden Lions, Golden Palms, Golden Bears, BAFTAs and Césars. The one and only cinema awards is, of course, the fabulous ZAZIE D’OR! 

The LITTLE ZAZIE D’OR (Best First Feature Film Prize) 2014 goes to 
PARTY GIRL by Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger & Samuel Theis (France/Germany)
I have loved so much the energy of this movie! Angélique is a woman who lived her life the way she wanted, and now that she is getting old, everybody is telling her she should behave in a wiser manner. But can we change our real nature just because we're not young anymore? Hopefully not!!! 

The Zazie d'Or for BEST COSTUME DESIGN 2014 goes to
MILENA CANONERO for THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL by Wes Anderson (US)
You can only dream of living in a classy hotel like the Grand Budapest Hotel: from the Lobby Boy till the richest guest, everybody is dressed in a heavenly way. 
Glamour has never been so irresistibly rétro!

The Zazie d'Or for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 2014 goes to
RYSZARD LENCZEWSKI & LUKASZ ZAL for IDA by Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland)
The magnificent light and black & white of this picture are almost as unforgettable as the story. The poetry and the beauty of the images undoubtedly contribute to the final result: one of the gems of the cinematographic year. 

The Zazie d’Or for BEST ACTRESS 2014 goes to
ANNE  DORVAL for MOMMY by Xavier Dolan (Québec)
Already absolutely amazing in other Dolan's movies (she was his mum in Dolan's first film J'ai tué ma mère, then Nicolas's mum in Les Amours Imaginaires), Anne Dorval is simply SUBLIME in Mommy. Her Diane is vulgar in the way she dresses, she speaks, she moves, but she is incredibly strong, funny and touching when it comes to her mum's feelings. 
An actress who is not afraid of anything and who should be covered in prizes.

The Zazie d’Or for BEST ACTOR 2014 goes to 
JAKE GYLLENHAAL for NIGHTCRAWLER by Dan Gilroy (US)
After few years of confusion, Gyllenhaal has re-born again to great cinema thanks to his collaboration with québecois film-maker Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy), but it is with this American movie that he has found the role of his life. He is more than perfect as Louis Bloom: he is scary, inhumane and unable to show any feeling (because he doesn't have any, probably). 
Let's hope his career will keep going this way!

The Zazie d'Or for BEST DIRECTOR 2014 goes to
XAVIER DOLAN for MOMMY (Québec)
When you make bold choices like using a square format for your movie, you've got all my attention. But when you decide to open it twice during the movie, well, in that case you have the Zazie D'Or as best director. Because you deserve it!

The ZAZIE COUP DE COEUR 2014 goes EX-AEQUO to 
DEUX JOURS, UNE NUIT by JEAN-PIERRE & LUC DARDENNE (Belgium)

and
BOYHOOD by RICHARD LINKLATER (US)
Two very different movies, coming from two different parts of the world, but both able to give us hope in human kind. A rare and very precious thing. What a blessing!

The SPECIAL ZAZIE D’OR and the Zazie D'Or for BEST SCREENPLAY 2014 go to 

WINTER SLEEP by NURI BILGE CEYLAN (Turkey)
As I often wrote in this blog: there is cinema and then there is Bilge Ceylan's cinema. A league of his own, this Turkish film-maker has created in these last few years two of the most incredible and wonderful pictures ever. My admiration towards him has no limits.

The ZAZIE D’OR 2014 goes to 
MOMMY by XAVIER DOLAN (Québec)
I AM SURE YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING...!!!

The JEREMY IRONS PRIZE (Man of my Life Award) 2014 goes to
American actor JAKE GYLLENHAAL
I have to confess he didn't have to work hard to have this prize. He just had to show up with his beard in Enemy by Denis Villeneuve. And the lucky thing was, he had to play his double as well! 
Because two Jakes on screen is meglio che one...

As usual, thanks to Sergio Saccingo Tanara for the design of the Zazie D'Or Award! 

Top 10 of 2014

It is time to let you know my favourite pictures of 2014, dear readers! 
Zazie last year has seen 80 films, coming from every corner of the planet.
Of all of them, she can’t stop thinking about the following ones:

10 - '71 by Yann Demange (UK/Northern Ireland)
A young British soldier left in the middle of the Belfast Catholic enclave in the ‘70s. 
It is breathless, superbly filmed and played by an actor whose name you’ll often hear in the future: 
Jack O’Connell. 

9 - Party Girl by Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger & Samuel Theis (France/Germany)
Angélique has been a stripper all her life and she had different children from different men. Now she’s old, but this doesn’t mean she is wiser. You can love her or you can hate her, but you can’t forget about her. And, détail qui tue: this is a true story, played by the real Angélique, filmed by one of her sons.
Caméra d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival. You bet!

8 - Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy (US)
Louis Bloom is looking for a job and he finds one: he patrols LA streets at night searching for accidents, fires, dead people. He films everything without a shadow of emotion.
He is a modern monster, a product of contemporary society, an adept of the "business plans".
Jake Gyllenhaal delivers the performance of his life as this (in)human vulture.

7 -  Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski (Polland)
1962. Anna has never left the Polish convent where she spent all her young life. Before taking the perpetual vows, she visits her only relative, aunt Wanda. Together with her, she will venture into the real world and into their family history, discovering a dark secret. 
Essential, filmed in a magnificent black & white, an incredible portrait of two amazing women.  

6 - Deux Jours, Une Nuit by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (Belgium)
Sandra, a Belgian mother just recovered from a nervous breakdown, has only two days to convince her colleagues to renounce to a bonus in order to have her re-integrated at work. The Dardenne brothers deal with the economic crisis in their way: a simple but powerful story where the most important thing is people’s solidarity. Marion Cotillard proves once again that she's an actress of a superior kind. 

5 - Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer (UK)
The weirdest cinema object of these last years: a young woman drives in her car through the Glasgow streets. She is looking for men, but sex is not her final purpose. It is very slow, it is very strange, it is maybe going nowhere but you follow Scarlett Johansson in the cold and gloomy Scottish land as there was no tomorrow. So unpredictable that it gets under your skin, as the title promises.   

4 - Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson (US)
Everybody would like to live in Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel: it is full of bizarre and fascinating characters, the décor is to die for, the rhythm is frantic and the concierge, M. Gustave, is the classiest and the most reliable man ever. Ralph Fiennes shines brighter than anybody else in this irresistible and glamorous whirligig.  

3 - Boyhood by Richard Linklater (US)
As a modern Antoine Doinel, young Mason is followed by the camera of Richard Linklater from the age of 5 till the age of 18. We see him and his family (divorced father and mother and an older sister) growing up and aging literally in front of our eyes. It is life (and cinema) at its best: true, emotional, intelligent and funny. We are not alone in this world: it is so good to know it! 

2 - Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
Watching a movie by Nuri Bilge Ceylan means something more than simply watching a movie. You are carried away in a parallel world: it is like reading a Tolstoj novel in the space of 3 hours. The psychological portrait of all the characters is so profound, complex and real, that you are submerged by a new kind of gratitude. The one you feel in front of masterpieces. 
Palme D'Or at the last Cannes Film Festival. You bet (twice!).

1 - Mommy by Xavier Dolan (Québec)
Have a look at the picture here below. This guy is about to do the most revolutionary and jubilant cinematic gesture of 2014. I'm lacking words to describe the effect that this movie has on me. 
Xavier Dolan is a larger-than-life director whose talent will grow in the years to come. 
He's a force of nature, a forerunner, a genius.
Lovers of minimalism in life and movies, please keep off, we're busy crying on a Céline Dion song. 
And, damn, we love it!

And if somebody is curious to know: no, I didn't see Gone Girl by David Fincher, because life is too short to waste time watching movies of film-makers that depresses you. 
I preferred to watch Mommy twice. 
Do you know what I mean?

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Last week I was invited (by Wes Anderson himself!) to the Paris avant-première of his latest movie: The Grand Budapest Hotel. What a joy!!! Especially when, arriving at the Gaumont Opéra Capucines, I realized there was also the main actor of the film: the amazing Ralph Fiennes (one of my favourite actors of all time). Anderson, together with Fiennes and French actor Mathieu Amalric, introduced the movie in a very cute way. I had the feeling everybody had fun: while filming and also now, in front of the audience. In any case, I like festive atmospheres:

The Gaumont Opéra Capucines "Grand Budapest Hotel" version

Photo Call: Wes Anderson and Ralph Fiennes

Photo Call: Ralph Fiennes

The film introduction: Wes Anderson and Mathieu Amalric

The film introduction: Anderson, Amalric and Ralph Fiennes

Set in a fictional Eastern European country called Zubrowka, The Grand Budapest Hotel relates the story of this grandiose hotel from the splendor of the ‘30s, through the tough time of  the World War II until the complete decadence of the ‘60s. The person who tells this story is Zero Moustafa, once a simple lobby boy, and now, through a series of incredible circumstances, owner of the entire place. Zero found a job at the Grand Budapest Hotel at the moment of its highlight, when the concierge was the amazing Monsieur Gustave. It is following M. Gustave in his unbelievable adventures (which include a heritage, a greedy and pitiless family, a famous painting, an escape from prison etc. etc.) that Zero learns everything he knows: he will receive an extraordinary education, he will be confronted to many things and he will even find the true love of his life. Who else can ask for more?

Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) and M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes)

I have to make a confession: even if I am a huge Wes Anderson’s fan, I “didn’t get” a couple of his pictures. One is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which I found profoundly boring; the other one is Moonrise Kingdom, which I found perfect but a bit heartless, like a mere exercice de style. 
That film had a cupcake effect on me: beautiful to watch but then too creamy to be easily digested. For the first time in my life, I agreed with the detractors of Anderson cinema: that movie was flawless but it was going nowhere. 
This is why I was quite worried to see this new one: will Wes Anderson go somewhere now? 
Of course, we pretend more from people we know can give us more. It’s in the scheme of things. 
So, it is with great pleasure and relief that I announce you to have adored The Grand Budapest Hotel!
This movie is Anderson at his best: witty, intelligent, ironic, romantic, melancholic and superbly made. With a plus: one of the most wonderful characters I have ever seen on screen, Monsieur Gustave. In fact, I was hooked into the story the very first moment he appears...

Simply irresistible: Ralph Fiennes as M. Gustave

A miracle like M. Gustave can only be created by two essential factors: a superb writing and a superb acting. And this is exactly the case: M. Gustave dialogues are a constant delight and the way Ralph Fiennes recite them is absolutely astonishing. Some of Anderson favourite film-makers (the usual suspects Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder), are a major influence here: the speed of M. Gustave’s phrasing, his gentleman manners combined with some unconventional behaviours ("I go to bed with all my friends, darling!"), and the atmosphere he is able to create all around, make him a perfect screwball comedy hero! 
Anderson has assembled for this movie THE MOST amazing cast. Besides Fiennes, in this adventure you’ll find involved: Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Tom Wilkinson, F. Murray Abraham, Owen Wilson, Léa Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric and the super cute new comer Tony Revolori as Zero. Very difficult to do better than this, guys!

But what it is grand about this Grand Budapest Hotel is the world Anderson is able to create: the hotel as a microcosm where the macrocosm of the outside life changes the set, the colours, the furniture, the entire atmosphere. The signs of time, the melancholy pervading places and people, an old world collapsing under the fury of a war and then succumbing to the grey reality of modernity. The awareness of a missing feeling: no more M. Gustave, no more charme, no more class, no more Mendl’s patisserie, no more female guests enchanted by the smell of his favourite perfume, L’Air de Panache.
After the movie ends, the memories of the things you have laughed about are strangely and firmly mixed with the ones you are very sad about (this is probably what we can call the “Anderson touch”).
Welcome, dear readers, to the most elegant hotel in the world...

In case you have missed it, here's the scrumptious short movie Anderson recently directed for Prada, CASTELLO CAVALCANTI:

And, last but not least, here's the lovely song the Italian band I CANI dedicated to the film-maker, simply called WES ANDERSON: