Tomas Alfredson's
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (review
here) netted three well-earned Academy Award nominations this morning, including Best Actor for Gary Oldman (portraying John Le Carré’s spymaster
George Smiley), Best
Original Score for
Alberto Iglesias and Best Adapted Screenplay for the husband-and-wife team of Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan. Sadly, the recognition is a posthumous one for O'Connor, who succumbed to cancer before the film was released. But what better tribute for such a talented screenwriter? I'm glad that the film garnered these nominations, since it's been shockingly omitted from most of the year-end guild awards, but I'm still sorry that it didn't earn
more. For my money, it should have also been up for Director, Supporting Actor (for John Hurt as Control), Art Direction, Costumes, Editing and Best Picture. The last one is particularly insulting, considering that only nine out of a possible ten films were chosen this year. Shockingly, this nomination is a long-overdue career first for the great Gary Oldman!
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was better recognized in its native land, where it earned 11 BAFTA nominations including Best Film
and Outstanding British Film, Best Actor, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design and Sound.
Spy fans may also be pleased that four veterans of the fantastic
OSS 117 parodies (reviews
here and
here) received Oscar nominations for their work on the wonderful awards front runner
The Artist: Jean Dujardin and Bernice Bejo were both nominated for their acting, Ludovic Bource for his score and Michel Hazanavicius for directing and writing. It's great to see spy movie veterans go on to such acclaim, but I hope amidst all the Oscar buzz they don't forget their Eurospy spoof roots... because I still desperately want to see a third OSS 117 adventure! (It would likely see a much wider U.S. release following the visibility of
The Artist.)
Congratulations to all the nominees from
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
The Artist!
I am shocked and retroactively outraged that this is Oldman's first nomination.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Oldman for his nomination.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different note, did anybody watch TCM last night. It was a comedy spy night. The films shown were:
In Like Flint
Where the Spys Are
Agent 8 3/4
The Where the Spys Are with David Niven is definitely a rare showing.
I'm a big fan of Agent 8 3/4, if it is the film also known as Hot Enough For June?
ReplyDeleteAs Tanner agrees with me, Sylva Koscina is the most attractive Eurospy actress, especially in Deadlier Than the Male. She's dynamite in this movie too.
How about a U.S. 2 disc Blu Ray set of their OSS 117 films? Any news of that happening?
ReplyDeleteHi mr. Armstrong Sabian,
ReplyDeleteI have sent you three emails (about TTSS) and normally you reply immediately. So either they were too uninteresting or you haven't received them. Please let me know.
Thanks! Then I can get it out of my system. :-)Kees