USA: "AMELIE", LAGAAN" AND "NO MAN'S LAND" ARE CONTENDERS FOR OSCAR FOR BEST FOREIGN FILM

Record ID: 392665

  • Title: USA: "AMELIE", LAGAAN" AND "NO MAN'S LAND" ARE CONTENDERS FOR OSCAR FOR BEST FOREIGN FILM
  • Date: 1st March 2002
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 20, 2002) (REUTERS) SCU SOUNDBITE (English) DANIS TANOVIC, DIRECTOR OF "NO MAN'S LAND," SAYING: "... you know it is best foreign film so you know there is already I don't know how many films in first round and then five best in the second round so you never imagine you are going to get it. You hope you would get it but you d
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA30526KZ0VLG4M9KRD7B0ARUS0
  • Story Text: The past three winners of the Oscar for best foreign-language film have been global blockbusters -- a trend some suggest makes France's "Amelie" this year's front runner after bringing in $134 million (USD) worldwide.
    Forget art-house: for the past three years, the foreign-language Oscar has been won by a global blockbuster.
    So history would suggest that French romantic comedy "Amelie,"
    with a worldwide gross of $134 million, will follow the path to the podium previously trodden by Taiwanese production "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Italian hit "Life Is Beautiful."
    From the U.S. perspective, this year's other four contenders -- Argentina's "Son of the Bride," Norway's "Elling," Bosnia's "No Man's Land" and India's "Lagaan" -- look like weaklings by comparison. Yet in the context of their own countries, they're all box office behemoths, too.
    War-ravaged Bosnia, for example, hardly has any cinemas left, so the $215,000 earned there by "No Man's Land" is an extraordinary achievement. In Norway, "Elling" is the all-time No. 1 local picture. "Son of the Bride" was Argentina's biggest local movie in 2001. And "Lagaan," despite its daunting 223-minute running time, came in at No. 3 in India.
    These four still have some distance to go on their international travels, and therefore much to gain commercially from an Oscar victory. For "Amelie," it's just a matter of pride.
    Writer/director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movie has already travelled wider than any other French picture. Its big numbers in Germany and Spain ($14 million and $7 million, respectively) might not have beaten the record for a Gallic film set by "Asterix and Obelix versus Caesar," but Jeunet's charmer also wowed the crowds in territories where Asterix never managed to get his passport stamped -- the U.S. ($29 million), the U.K. ($7 million) and Japan ($8 million). It also has opened in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, territories where few French pictures ever open.
    "Amelie" achieved its success despite being snubbed by the Cannes Film Festival last year. It was the French theatrical release in April that set the tone. Jeunet himself says he doesn't understand the film's success.
    "I wanted to make just a small, French movie. I came back after 'Alien' to make just a small movie and boom, it's an explosion everywhere and don't ask me why, I don't understand why. Maybe because it's a positive movie and we need it,"
    Jeunet told Reuters.
    In contrast, Cannes was the making of "No Man's Land,"
    which earned an eight-minute standing ovation and the script prize. Nonetheless, it's a tough movie -- an ironic drama about the war in Bosnia -- and its box office beyond home turf reflects that.
    The film's director Danis Tanovic says he has Oscar hopes, but he's not holding his breath.
    "I always say I am not expecting anything; I am hoping,"
    Tanovic said after winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.
    The French-Italian-Belgian-British-Slovenian co-production won a Cesar Award in France for best first film; in Belgium the prize for best Belgian film; and in Italy it has been adopted as the country's Oscar standard-bearer after Nanni Moretti's "The Son's Room" failed to secure a nomination.
    The French release, on Sept. 19, was overshadowed by the events of Sept. 11, but the film still ended up with a healthy $900,000. In Italy two weeks later, however, its thunder was stolen by the remarkable run of Afghan movie "Kandahar," and "Land" bagged $400,000.
    In the former Yugoslavia, where the movie is set. It has broken records in Slovenia and Serbia as well as Bosnia itself. The only blip -- an ironic legacy of the conflict that is the subject of the film -- was Croatia, where it grossed just $16,000 even though both lead actors are local boys.
    After topping the charts in Argentina last year, "Son of the Bride" is now running strongly, with a $4 million gross in Spain, where Latin American movies routinely fail. The picture's Spanish takings surged 60% higher in the weekend after the Oscar nominations. Sony Classics opens the film March 22 Stateside.
    The film's director, Juan Jose Campanella, says winning an Oscar would be the fulfilment of his ultimate dream.
    "Obviously the Oscar is the most important award in the world and everyone who grows up dreaming to do movies if they have one dream is to win the Oscar," Jose Campanella told Reuters.
    The Indian pictures "Lagaan" -- a kind of Bollywood-Merchant Ivory hybrid -- has played strongly both in India and in Bollywood theatres in the U.S. and U.K., but has yet to cross over to a non-ethnic audience. Sony Classics has picked it up for a Stateside re-release, and the studio will roll it out across the rest of Europe in May.
    Ashutosh Gowariker, the director of "Lagaan," says that while it's somewhat unfair to compare such different films only because they're foreign productions, but that he'd still like to win.
    "Actually it is unfair to compare five films that are completely different in nature from each other but if you have to choose, so be it. My fingers are crossed," Gowariker told Reuters.
    That leaves only "Elling," which has yet to open anywhere beyond Scandinavia, where it has put in the best-ever performance by a Norwegian movie, grossing a combined $5.9 million across those territories.
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