Cineworld Day 6: AMOUR/ The Best Film of 2012

     Thursday morning at 8:30 am EST, the Oscar nominations will be announced. As is tradition, my Oscar Wishlist will be soon to follow (I essentially only need to see Promised Land, Rust and Bone, and Zero Dark Thirty and I'm caught up for 2012). That night the Critic's Choice Awards will air at 8:00 pm EST on the CW and all of my up-to-the-minute thoughts will be posted on Rodney&Roger's Facebook Wall. Then on Sunday, the Golden Globes will air on NBC (I'll be publishing my Globes predictions/favorites posts for all the major categories over the next few days and will also be sharing my thoughts live on the the Facebook page throughout the ceremony), Before this blog is consumed by awards mania through the end of February though, I wanted to share my review for the best film of 2012:

Amour * * * *

Cineworld Day 2: Neighboring Sounds

     As I left today's screening of Neighboring Sounds, I felt so impacted by it that I wanted to get all of my thoughts written while they were still fresh. Immediately after, I drove to Panera Bread and began typing this post. Hence today's post is my review for Neighboring Sounds and yesterday's films will be revisited in my posts to come.

Neighboring Sounds * * * ½

     Never has a film's title been so perfectly exemplified and explained in its opening moments. The film opens on a black screen and neighborhood sounds can be heard in the background. Ominous music builds to a swell accompanying these sounds as the screen is brightened by black and white images of Brazil. A tracking shot following neighborhood children at play breaks this stillness and introduces action to the screen, announcing and defining what will become the film's signature camera style of fluidity and movement. The sounds of the children's play build to a roar as an abrasive screech grows louder and louder in the background. This symphony of music, voices, and organic noise builds to a crescendo as the camera reveals a man with a power tool working with iron on the other side of the playground's gate.

The Cineworld Film Festival: Schedule

     An unfortunate stretch of time has gone by since my last blog post. In the next week I'll be moving back in with my former room-mate and fellow blogger Robert. This new living arrangement will bring an end to my lack of internet access and hence I can begin to blog once again. So with a few months and an unfortunate end to a relationship behind me, I arrive here at my first post since July.

 

     Today marks the start of The Sarasota Film Society's Cineworld Film Festival. This is a small but significant festival in that just as the Sarasota Film Festival showcases the best of festival fare from Cannes and Toronto, Cineworld showcases the first in the onslaught of Oscar contenders soon to be released. Year after year the films and performances that I see there go on to be Oscar nominees and even winners such as 2011's Best Picture winner The Artist and 2010's Best Actress winner Natalie Portman (Black Swan).