News

Hungary has chosen Janos Szasz's "Le Grand Cahier" ("The Notebook") as its official submission for the 2014 Foreign-Language Oscar catetory. Winner of the Crystal Globe and European Cinemas Label Award at the 48th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic earlier this year, the film centers on 13-year-old twin boys (Ulrich Thomsen and Ulrich Matthes) sent to live with their malevolent grandmother during World War II. Szasz and co-writer Andras Szeker adapted the film from the 1986 novel of the same name by Hungarian author Agota Kristof. "The Notebook" was shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Christian Berger ("The White Ribbon"). Watch the compelling trailer below. Hungarian entries haven't been nominated for best foreign language film since 1988's "Hanussen," directed by Istvan Szabo, who won in 1981 for "Mephisto." Last week, Romania submitted "Child's Pose," winner of Berlinale's Golden Bear, to the Oscars. The deadline for all foreign language submissions...

"Swedish actor Erland Josephson, who collaborated with legendary film director Ingmar Bergman in more than 40 films and plays, has died," reports the AP. He was 88. "Josephson was born in Stockholm in 1923 and met Bergman while training as an amateur actor at 16. He appeared in several Bergman plays and films. He shot to international stardom with the role of Johan in Berman's film Scenes from a Marriage, in 1973. Josephson also starred in Andrey Tarkovskiy's films Nostalghia [1983] and The Sacrifice [1986]."

"It is Josephson's face which makes him so effective on film," reads his entry in the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, "that bearlike aspect, his ability to look lost and forlorn, to convey a sense of suffering and bewilderment, in spite of his bluff exterior. Were one to repeat Kuleshov's famous experiment of the 1920s and to intercut the same shot of Josephson with images of joy, of sadness, of anger,...

Michael Chabon is a literary star (The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policeman's Union) whose novels have mostly managed to escape adaptation to film. Both those novels I cited have been in development, but have yet to yield a film. Wonder Boys is the only prominent adaptation, though Mr. Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, got a little-seen adaptation a few years back. (Which, frankly, I'd forgotten even existed. Time to queue that one.) He's been more visible as a screenwriter than as an author whose novels are adapted, with credits on Spider-Man 2 and forthcoming films John Carter of Mars; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; and Snow and the Seven. Now Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman have set up a project called Hobgoblin at HBO. It is an original series that will feature magicians, con men and Hitler. Wait, run that by me again? THR [1] says that the show,...

tuesday top ten returns! It's for the list-maker in me and the list-lover in you

The Cannes film festival wrapped this weekend (previous posts) and the most recent Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes is still in the midst of a successful Us run. That Oscar winning Argentinian film came to us from director Juan Jose Campanella. It's his second film to be honored by the Academy (Son of the Bride was nominated ten years back). The Academy voters obviously like Campanella and in some ways he's a Hollywood guy. When he's not directing Argentinian Oscar hopefuls he spends time making Us television with episodes of Law & Order, House and 30 Rock under his belt.

So let's talk foreign-language auteurs. Who does Oscar love most?

[The film titles discussed in this article will link to Netflix pages -- if available -- should you be curious to see the films]

Best Director winners Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and Milos Forman

(Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)

Please Note:...