The short list for the Foreign Language Oscar race has been announced. There are no incredibly shocking omissions, at least not at first glance. Austria’s Amour, France’s The Intouchables, and Denmark’s A Royal Affair have led the pack for most of the season, and all three remain alive in the race. The other two I have been predicting, Chile’s No and Norway’s Kon-Tiki (distributed by The Weinstein Company) are also still in the running, as is Romania’s Beyond the Hills. See the list of nine after the jump…
Read more on Nine Foreign Language Films Contend for Oscar…
 Via Kris Tapley over at HitFix/In Contention, he took a look at the ballot for the Writers Guild of America upcoming awards and took note of several omissions that include Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Michael Haneke’s Amour. He counted fifteen in total.
Tarantino has never been a member of the WGA but has found success with his other films Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Pulp Fiction (1994). Tapley has explanations for many of the contenders that won’t be getting a boost from the WGA. I encourage you to take a look. The nominations for the Writers Guild Awards will be announced on January 3, the day Oscar ballots are due. The list of films DISQUALIFIED are listed below and after the jump. Read more on Writers Guild of America Disqualifies Several Films for their Awards!…
Categories: News Tags: Amour, Anna Karenina, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin, Brave, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Middle of Nowhere, Quartet, Quentin Tarantino, Rust &Bone, seven psychopaths, Take This Waltz, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Deep Blue Sea, The Impossible, The Intouchables, Tom Hooper, WGA, Writers Guild of America, Your Sister's Sister
A beautiful story based on a true story, The Intouchables (2012) is filled with laughter from the beginning until the end. Two people from two very different worlds learn to become friends and teach each other how to be pragmatic. A rich man named Philippe (François Cluzet) is paralyzed from the neck down and requires a caretaker to help him get through his days. Driss (Omar Sy), in need of signatures for government welfare, arrives for a signature and is given a chance to live another life if willing to be Philippe’s caretaker. The two give it a shot and learn to become great friends. There are ups and downs along the way, but they teach and learn from each other, finding a way through life as it goes. Philippe receives no discrimination from Driss, which is what he wants, and Driss gives no pity to anyone. They mutually benefit from each other’s presence and ways of life. Read more on The Intouchables (***)…
 With six nominations, Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winning film, Amour, leads the recently announced nominees for the European Film Awards. Receiving noms in all the major categories, including two acting nominations, it’s certainly got widespread appeal, could this translate to Oscar? Amour isn’t the only Oscar contender, past or present, included in the nominations with the European Film category including the likes of Barbara, Caesar Must Die, The Intouchables, Shame and The Hunt, the last two of which received five nominations a piece. View the full list of nominees after the jump!
Read more on ‘Amour’ leads European Film Awards with 6 nominations…
Categories: News, Precursors Tags: Amour, Barbara, Caesar Must Die, Cristian Mungiu, Emmauelle Riva, European Film Awards, Gary Oldman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Kate Winslet, Mads Mikkelsen, Michael Fassbender, Michael Haneke, news, Shame, Steve McQueen, The Hunt, The Intouchables
 The Weinstein Company has been on fire for years now. Today, their foreign language effort The Intouchables, has become the highest grossing foreign language film in North America year-to-date. The film, which tells the story of an aristocrat that becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, received positive reviews from critics this year. The film is sitting comfortably at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, is currently (as of today) sitting at #82 on IMDB for the top-rated films of all time, and received a favorable review from our own Joey Magidson earlier this year.
Read more on “The Intouchables” becomes this year’s highest grossing Foreign Language Film in North America!…
 While I liked ‘The Intouchables’ when I saw it earlier this year (and reviewed it here), I easily saw rough edges that suggested a remake wasn’t the worst idea in the world. The combination of Paul Feig in the director’s chair and Colin Firth in the co-lead role of a rich quadriplegic is very promising, and now The New York Post is reporting here that the other leading part could come down to either Idris Elba, Jaime Foxx, or Chris Rock, with Jessica Chastain circling the female lead as well. After the jump you can see a plot summary from my original review, but this could be one to look forward to in the next year or so. It’s now going to be called ‘Untouchable’, but the story should still be the same, and you can see it below…
Read more on Who could star opposite Colin Firth in the remake of ‘The Intouchables’?…
 An enjoyable enough crowd pleaser that was heavily nominated by France’s César Awards (winning one for Best Actor and receiving another 8 nominations), ‘The Intouchables’ is a mature comedy that handles its potentially tough subject matter well, but never elevates things to the level of something more than simply entertaining. There’s nothing really wrong with the flick, but numerous opportunities to make itself into something unique and more than a slightly different version of something we’ve seen many times before are either outright ignored or simply glossed over. My issues with the story and the choices that the screenplay makes for its characters notwithstanding, the direction by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (who also wrote the script) is solid and the acting is all around excellent by the cast, especially leads Omar Sy and François Cluzet. Happily, each time I was worried that film was about to begin disappointing me, the acting and humor in the flick brought me back in. I’m not as big a fan of this movie as many seem to be, but I had a pleasant time with it and it’s definitely a movie that audiences willing to deal with subtitles will enjoy. It’s just not as good as it could/should have been in my eyes. That being said, it’s far from bad.
Read more on The Intouchables (***)…
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