The French don’t have it easy – selecting just one film among a good dozen to rep the country in the foreign film category of the Academy Awards must be an arduous task. This year (probably a dilemma that occurs in most years where a film like Amelie is not running) means some Oscar category campaigns are literally handicapped by this year’s nom.
By picking Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis, it therefore makes it tougher for Picturehouse to get behind the best female perf this year in Marion Cotillard’s La Vie en Rose (La Môme). Her impeccable performance as the tragic French singer serves as a blow to her chances of picking up Oscar for Best Actress. While I stand by Persepolis as the “better” film when you consider La Vie En Rose, if I’d be the folks over at Miramax I’d be peeved. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a film that will easily find itself in my year end top 10 – the difference between an Oscar winning foreign language flick at the box office is not the same as one that got no nomination.
Sony Pictures Classics now have the monopoly – The Counterfeiters, The Band's Visit and Persepolis places them in a good position for the Best Foreign category – I’d add IFC First Take’s Cristian Mungiu's 4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days to the mix.
