The New York Times International - 28.09.2019

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12 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

THE ART OF FILMMAKING

If you want to spot the contenders at

next year’s Academy Awards, take a

look at the Competition lineup at this

year’s Venice International Film Festi-

val. There often is overlap.

Three of the last five Best Pictures de-

buted at Venice, “Birdman or (The Un-

expected Virtue of Ignorance),” “Spot-

light” and “The Shape of Water.” And at

February’s Oscars, three Best Picture

nominees also had Venice premieres. All

three garnered prizes in other catego-

ries: Olivia Colman won Best Actress

for her tragicomic turn in “The Fa-

vourite,” Lady Gaga and her co-writers

won Best Original Song for “Shallow” in

“A Star is Born,” and Alfonso Cuarón

took home Best Director, Best Cinemat-

ography and Best Foreign Language

Film trophies for “Roma.”

Timing is everything. For a film to do

well on Oscar night, it needs enough

time to gather critical momentum, but

not enough time for voters to get sick of

it. And that is why the Mostra Inter-

nazionale d’Arte Cinematografica of La

Biennale di Venezia — to use its full title

— signals the de facto start of awards

season. Recently, most Best Picture

winners have been shown at Venice, or

at the Telluride and Toronto festivals,

which get underway shortly afterward.

Sticking to Venice, which begins on

Wednesday, here are a few of the films

that could embark on the tumultuous

journey to the Oscars.

“AD ASTRA,” BEST PICTURE

For some reason, there is a special con-

nection between Venice and thoughtful

Hollywood space-travel dramas.

“Gravity,” “Arrival” and “First Man”

all appeared at Venice, and the latest

star vehicle on the launchpad there is

this James Gray movie.

Set in the near-future, the film fea-

tures Brad Pitt as an astronaut who flies

through the solar system to find his fa-

ther (Tommy Lee Jones), a scientist

who was lost in space several years ear-

lier.

Those of us who are still outraged that

“First Man” did not get a Best Picture

nod will be watching closely.

“THE TRUTH,” BEST FOREIGN

LANGUAGE FILM

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” was

nominated for the Best Foreign Lan-

guage Film award this year. But consid-

ering the sky-high quality of Mr. Kore-

eda’s bittersweet domestic dramas over

the past two decades, he deserves to

have had a lot more Academy recogni-

tion.

Perhaps “The Truth” will help redress

the balance, if for no other reason than

that its cast is starrier than usual. Cath-

erine Deneuve plays a Catherine De-

neuve-ish legend of French cinema. Ju-

liette Binoche plays the daughter who

lives in New York with her husband,

Ethan Hawke, but who returns to Paris

when her mother’s memoirs are pub-

lished.

What follows, says the writer-direc-

tor, is a small family story of “lies, pride,

regrets, sadness, joy and reconciliation.”

It is Venice’s opening night film and also

the first film Mr. Kore-Eda has made

outside Japan. Anyone who dislikes it is

asking for a cry of, “You can’t handle

‘The Truth’!”

“JOKER,” BEST ACTOR: JOAQUIN

PHOENIX

The origin story of a Batman supervil-

lain directed by the person behind “The

Hangover”? You can understand why

some cineastes were sniffy when Todd

Phillips’s “Joker” was accepted by the

world’s oldest film festival, but the trail-

ers promise a brooding urban psy-

chodrama that pays tribute to Martin

Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and “The King

of Comedy.” Robert DeNiro cameos as a

talk-show host.

The Oscar contender here is Joaquin

Phoenix, who reimagines the Clown

Prince of Crime as an emaciated outcast

with the limited social skills of his ham-

mer-wielding vigilante in “You Were

Never Really Here.”

On the other hand, he could be

stymied by the Heath Ledger factor.

That is, it might not seem right if two ac-

tors of the same generation won Acad-

emy Awards for playing the same role.

“THE LAUNDROMAT,” BEST ACTRESS:

MERYL STREEP

Julia Roberts won her Best Actress Os-

car for “Erin Brockovich,” Steven Soder-

bergh’s David-and-Goliath tale of a cor-

porate cover-up and an unlikely cam-

paigner. “The Laundromat” appears to

be its spiritual follow-up.

Adapted from Jake Bernstein’s book

on the Panama Papers, Mr. Soder-

bergh’s comedy stars Meryl Streep as a

widow who investigates a Panama City

law firm specializing in global financial

chicanery.

It has now been well over a year since

Ms. Streep was nominated for an Acad-

emy Award, an oversight that will al-

most certainly be rectified in 2020. Gary

Oldman and/or Antonio Banderas, who

play the law firm’s founders, could go

head-to-head for the Best Supporting

Actor award.

“WASP NETWORK,” BEST ADAPTED

SCREENPLAY: OLIVIER ASSAYAS

If Scott Z. Burns does not get the Best

Adapted Screenplay award for “The

Laundromat,” the Oscar could go to

Olivier Assayas (“Clouds of Sils Maria,”

“Personal Shopper”), whose espionage

thriller is based on Fernando Morais’s

“The Last Soldiers on the Cold War: The

Story of the Cuban Five.”

Penélope Cruz and Gael García

Bernal play two of the five spies sent

from Cuba to Florida to infiltrate anti-

Castro organizations, meaning that

“Wasp Network” has the Oscar-friendly

combo of heavyweight geopolitical ma-

terial and superstars who scrub up well

for the red carpet.

“MARRIAGE STORY,” BEST ORIGINAL

SCREENPLAY: NOAH BAUMBACH

Noah Baumbach’s semi-autobiograph-

nical “The Squid and the Whale” screen-

play was Oscar-nominated in 2006.

But since then Baumbach has either

written or co-written “Margot at the

Wedding” (2007), “Greenberg” (2010),

“Frances Ha” (2012) and, best of all, the

underrated comedy “Madagascar 3:

Europe’s Most Wanted” (2012), so it is a

little surprising how long it has been

since he has had a script on the Acade-

my’s shortlist.

“Marriage Story” stars Scarlett Jo-

hansson and Adam Driver as an actor

and a director going through a brutal di-

vorce and custody battle. Prepare for

another in-depth examination of mid-

dle-class metropolitan hang-ups. Also,

prepare for lots of interviews in which

Mr. Baumbach denies that the film is all

about his breakup with Jennifer Jason

Leigh.

A sneak peek of awards season

It’s not unusual to see

films at the festival turn

up on the Oscar ballot

BY NICHOLAS BARBER

WILSON WEBB/NETFLIX LAURENT CHAMPOUSSIN

NICO TAVERNI

FRANCOIS DUHAMEL/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

NETFLIX

Contenders

Clockwise from top

left, Scarlett Jo-

hansson and Adam

Driver in “Marriage

Story,” Catherine

Deneuve and Ju-

liette Binoche in

“The Truth,” Brad

Pitt in “Ad Astra,”

Meryl Streep in

“The Laundromat,”

Joaquin Phoenix in

“Joker,” and Edgar

Ramirez in “Wasp

Network.”

The Deauville American Film Festival

may be stirring up controversy with its

screenings of films by Woody Allen and

Nate Parker, but its lineup offers a sign

of changing times.

Six of the 14 films in competition were

directed by women: Annie Silverstein’s

“Bull,” Mirrah Foulkes’s “Judy and

Punch,” Jennifer Reeder’s “Knives and

Skin,” Danielle Lessovitz’s “Port Au-

thority,” Pippa Bianco’s“Share”and An-

nabelle Attanasio’s “Mickey and the

Bear.”

It is Ms. Attanasio’s directorial debut.

“Mickey and the Bear” is a story of a

motherless Montana teenager, Mickey

(Camila Morrone), struggling to care

for her father, Hank (James Badge

Dale), an Iraq veteran unraveling from

PTSD and substance abuse.

“It is Mickey’s story, but Hank is the

wick on the dynamite,” she said.

Ms. Attanasio, 26, is the daughter of

the producer and screenwriter Paul At-

tanasio (“Quiz Show,” “Donnie Brasco”)

and the producer Katie Jacobs, who both

were executive producers of the TV

show “House.” (They are now di-

vorced.)

Raised in Los Angeles, she performed

in plays throughout childhood and at

New York University, where she also be-

gan writing one-act plays and making

short films.

She stayed in New York and contin-

ued acting, in Steven Soderbergh’s “The

Knick” and her father’s series “Bull,” be-

fore leaving that series to make “Mickey

and the Bear.”

“Once I made “Frankie Keeps Talk-

ing,”which was my first short out of col-

lege, I realized I really liked being be-

hind the camera,” she said.

The following conversation has been

edited and condensed.

Is having all these women directors at the

festival an encouraging sign?

I feel so blessed to be a filmmaker in this

era. Young female directors, producers,

financiers, distributors, actresses take

on a bit more of a sisterhood mentality

than “It has to be me or you.” I had an

entirely female producing team and

mostly female department heads. It’s

not a rebellion, but women, especially

young women, are more open to hiring

women. I’m thrilled to be in the com-

pany of women.

Were your parents encouraging or wary of

your following them into the industry?

My dad was always a huge advocate for

me being a screenwriter or playwright.

He thought filmmaking was a slightly

more realistic goal than being an actor.

It’s also unpredictable, but you’re able to

have more control.

Young writers are told to write what you

know, but your family has a very different

external narrative than your characters’. Is

there an emotional truth underneath,

something about your learning to go off

on your own?

While the circumstances of our lives are

completely opposite in many ways, I

too grew up with somewhat of an adult

child syndrome. Mickey’s is a story

that is deeply personal to me in many

ways, but it’s a story that’s much larger

than my family — codependency in

families is a phenomenon that trickles

down to the children. You don’t often

see young women taking on the bur-

dens of being a mother, a wife and a

daughter to their father in cinema.

You developed the film for four years

before production. How did it evolve?

It changed dramatically and yet not at

all. Mickey was always incredibly

clear. But Hank began as 85 percent

villain. Two years before production, I

realized he was too uncomplicated a

character. I had to get the script where

it could teeter on the line of whether

he’s a good dad or bad dad. He has mo-

ments of proving himself, and then he

has those painfully awful moments too.

The biggest thing was that as I grew

more confident as a writer, I was able

to strip away exposition and feel confi-

dent about revealing certain elements

of the plot and character through a look

or a prop or the way something was

shot. Then we pared it down to the

bone in the editing room — we took out

a ton of information that was in the

footage.

What made you cast Ms. Morrone, who

has limited acting experience?

Talking with Cammy about her real-life

experience, growing up as a single child

with a home somewhat similar to mine,

made me see why she needed to do this

part. She was the only person who bal-

anced the maturity of a 45-year-old

housewife with the naïveté of a 13-year-

old girl. She knew how to take care of an

older man, but she has a twinkle in her

eye; she fluctuates between the two

with no effort, it’s just part of her.

How much did making short films help

you prepare for this?

Directing shorts prepared me in terms

of establishing lines of communications

on set and dealing with department

heads and knowing myself. But feature

filmmaking requires so much more

stamina. Nothing could have prepared

me for that.

We shot this for five weeks, which was

a luxury for a film of this size. You’re per-

colating on ideas and putting out fires

and deepening scenes and assembling

your rough cut, all at the same time, con-

stantly. You’re handcuffed to your mov-

ie. Sometimes you just want to take a

nap, but there’s always something to do

— a shot list to pare down, a schedule to

look at. All that said, I can’t wait to make

the next one. There’s nothing like this.

In Deauville, signs of change

Annabelle Attanasio

debuts as a director in the

company of women

BY STUART MILLER

ANA CUBA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

UTOPIA

The next step

Before “Mickey and

the Bear,” left,

which stars Camila

Morrone and James

Badge Dale, Anna-

belle Attanasio, far

left, wrote one-act

plays and made

short films.

RELEASED

BY

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"What's

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gan writing one-act plays and making

short films.

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short films.

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