History has a way of repeating itself. In 1980, Martin Scorsese was the critical favorite for Raging Bull, expected to win until leading man Robert Redford made his directorial debut. In 1990, Scorsese was the critical favorite for GoodFellas, with everyone making jokes at the expense of Kevin Cosnter, a leading man making his directorial debut...until they actually saw Dances with Wolves. Once people saw the film, they knew the inevitable was to occur:
My ranking of the nominees:
5. Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather: Part III
past winner, fourth and final directing nomination; DGA Awards nominee for Best Director, Golden Globe nominee for Best Director
He seems most dialed in when it's Michael Corleone trying to patch things up with Kay or when it's Michael making confession to the Pope about his betrayal of Fredo or, well, basically, all of the character beats that involve reflecting on mistakes made in the past and the horror show of a person you've become. All of those scenes click in a way that the plottier mob aspects just don't: even the climactic montage with the family settling scores feels more rote than a return to form.
4. Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves
only nomination in this category; DGA Awards winner for Best Director, Golden Globe winner for Best Director, National Board of Review's Best Director of 1990; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Directing, LAFCA Awards runner-up for Best Director
The performances are great, the entire production is well-mounted, the scale of the buffalo hunt and the massacre, the insistence on the language is admirable, the vistas are beautiful, and the pacing is not very good. There is much to admire and a lot to like, but I wish I loved it more than I did, and I place it squarely at the foot of Costner, a director so determined to preserve a patient, novelistic approach that he takes 30 minutes to make a point when the audience only needs 15.
3. Stephen Frears for The Grifters
first of two nominations
Sometimes farcical in tone, sometimes frightening, a good balance for the high-octane, high-risk life of the grifter. Literalizes the idea of neo-noir in costume and hair/makeup styling, with some (like Anjelica Huston) seemingly walking right off the set of a 1940s Warner Bros. pic, while others (like John Cusack) are very much of the now - and Annette Bening is right between. Crafts a solid crime picture.
2. Barbet Schroeder for Reversal of Fortune
only nomination; Golden Globe nominee for Best Director, NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Director
Manages a tone that is equal parts dark comedy and suspenseful whodunnit, every scene a balance between the two. Take the fascinating conversations between Dershowitz and his team where they bat about different theories, recreated in a way that recalls 1978's Death on the Nile ("It is you I can see..."): it's chilling, ultimately, but presented as intellectual sparring among frustrated equals. The domestic scenes between the polished von Bülows and the down-to-earth Dershowitzes are apparent but not too on-the-nose. Schroeder underlines time and again that the von Bülows and their class are almost alien, untouchable even in their crimes against each other.
1. Martin Scorsese for GoodFellas
third of ten directing nominations; BAFTA Award winner for Best Direction, LAFCA Awards winner for Best Director, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Director; DGA Awards nominee for Best Director, Golden Globe nominee for Best Director
It moves like few films, you know? Meeting the wiseguys at the Bamboo Lounge, the tour through the Copacabana, the whole scene with Billy Batts, the kitchen conversation with Tomm'y's mother, Karen meeting the wives and girlfriends, and so on: each scene crackles with comedy, anthropology, and the underlying tension of what these men do for a living, the knowledge that it can't last. He allows just enough normalcy to let us relate...then goes right back to the whacking and the double-cross.
Tomorrow, my Top Ten of 1990.
No comments:
Post a Comment