January 25

Earlier this week the nominees for the 2009 Academy Awards were announced. There were a couple surprises - In Bruges and Robert Downey, Jr. - and a couple (HUGE) snubs - The Dark Knight not receiving a Best Picture or Best Director nod. Feel free to Google "2009 Academy Award nominees" to scan the entire list; to which you'll then run across a section that should look something like this:

Achievement in cinematography

• “Changeling” (Universal), Tom Stern
• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Claudio Miranda
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle

There's one film missing from this list. It's one some of you may not have seen or heard of; But if you had, you'd understand where I'm coming from. The movie is called The Fall and is the second feature from Tarsem Singh. He's the man responsible for The Cell, the crime-fantasy from around 2000. Now if you visit imdb.com, you'll see 2006 next to the title. It hit the film festival curcuit around this time but wasn't nationally released until early 2008. Special "presented by" credits were given to Spike Jonze on this project, as well. Anyway, do yourself a favor and see this movie. It's not the best in terms of story or directing that I've ever laid eyes on, but the cinematography is flat-out breathtaking; Not to mention an amazing...AMAZING performance by then 5 or 6 year old Catinca Untaru. The cuteness level is a 17 on a 1-to-10 scale here, people. Here's a quick synopsis (taken from imdb):

Roy Walker (Lee Pace), an early 20th century Hollywood stuntman, lands in the hospital after performing a dangerous stunt to impress his girlfriend. Distraught and suicidal after losing her, the bedridden Roy befriends a fellow patient, a young girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru). He enchants her with vivid, fantastical tales about five heroes — an Indian, an ex-slave named Ota Benga, an Italian explosives expert, a masked bandit, and Charles Darwin — who unite to fight a common enemy, Governor Odious. Although Roy has genuine affection for Alexandria, he also has an ulterior motive...

Let me stop right there and just mention you see a lot of the film take place from Alexandria's highly vivid and imaginative point of view. It's like watching a painting come to life. Beautiful. Now this is a film you have to be "in the mood" for, so try holding off until you feel like it. But please...PLEASE watch The Fall and then let me know if you think the Academy missed one.

The Fall is beautiful,
B