"The Ghost Writer" Haunts Europe. Can it Win American Oscar Nods?

The European Film Awards were held yesterday in Estonia's capital Tallin (next year the ceremony will be in Malta). Roman Polanski and Ewan McGregor both appeared via the wonders of the internet (you may have heard Polanski doesn't travel much) to accept for The Ghost Writer. The mystery thriller about a politician under fire and the two sorry writers who attempt to ghost his memoirs is filled with twists. It opened way back in March 2010 but it's apparently not done surprising us. Against the odds, it's been resurfacing in the awards conversation... and not just here. It took home a record-breaking 6 prizes, only losing "people's choice".

The previous EFA record holders, according to Screen Daily, were Spain's Talk to Her (2002) and Germany's Goodbye Lenin (2003) both of which, we foreign film Oscar obsessed must note, notoriously missed out on Oscar's Foreign Film category in their years (albeit for different reasons).

The European Film Awards aren't an Oscar precursor in the traditional way of thinking about these things but could we see The Ghost Writer with a stray Oscar nod or three come January's end? And if so, which? (Adapted Screenplay? Score? Art Direction? *gulp* Pic or Director?) Discuss.

The Euro Winners

• Picture The Ghost Writer
• People's Choice Jaco van Dormael's Mr Nobody 
• Co-Production Award  Zeynep Özbatur Atakan
• Achievement in World Cinema Gabriel Yared (Juliette Binoche was the surprise presenter of this award to The English Patient composer)
• Lifetime Achievement Bruno Ganz
• Discovery Lebanon
• Director Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
• Actor Ewan McGregor, The Ghost Writer
• Actress Sylvie Testud, Lourdes
• Animated Feature Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist
• Documentary Feature Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light
• Screenwriter & Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
• Cinematography Giora Bejach, Lebanon
• Editor Luc Barnier & Marion Monnier, Carlos
• Composer Alexandre Desplat, The Ghost Writer
• Production Designer Albrecht Konrad, The Ghost Writer

I'm sure there will be many claims that this a "political" message given Polanski's legal troubles with the US which have been in the news again a lot this year. And though politics can truly never be extricated from any awards show (even preferring decidedly apolitical movies is in its own way, a political stance) at least some of The Ghost Writer's past and future honors out to be attributed to the fact that it's a fine movie.

Who can The Ghost trust? No one.

I shall update this post if I can find good photos since the evening held appearances from France's Binoche (love) and Denmark's Nikolaj Lie Kaas (also love) among other international film notables.

Related Articles EFA Nominations & "Best in Show: Olivia Williams"

Olivia Williams, The Ghost Actress

I was late to the party on The Ghost Writer but as with any good film, the party is still raging once you get there. It's already one of my favorites of 2010. But back in March I should have been out there championing it as a clever, well executed thriller (if that's the genre you'd like to define it as).  I think it was Pierce Brosnan who kept me away. Since when does he make good movies? And since when is he good in them?

Brosnan is in deep doo-doo in The Ghost Writer. Cattrall and Williams are
out-of-focus behind him. Which is just how both their characters like it, thank you.

Finally, it was you (yes you!) that convinced me to see it. It was praised enough in comment threads to make me think I'd missed out... particularly in regards to Olivia Williams. She's an actress I'd never thought much about until the past few years and now, it's getting kind of hard to deny her her due.

I wrote up her terrific work in my "Best in Show" column for Tribeca Film. She really is something (in general and here in particular). She's such a sticky actress; she haunts.

"God of Carnage" The Movie

News this heavy with starry wattage and awarded source material spreads quickly. I'm sure you've heard this morning that Kate Winslet & Matt Dillon will square off with Jodie Foster & Christopher Waltz as the combative couples of Yasmine Reza's hilarious and occasionally disturbing four-hander, God of Carnage. Make that Roman Polanski's God of Carnage, since he's bound to make adjustments in the adaptation. I fear that they'll add characters and scenes and lose the play's intense get-me-outta-here vibe... all in the name of "opening it up" as a movie. But perhaps I worry for nothing. Polanski has shown skill at non-literal claustrophic material in the past. In the play two sets of parents meet up cordially to discuss a school fight between their children and the way it breaks down, everyone basically breaks down. The play is entirely set in the living room of one of the couples and takes place in real time.

James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden and Jeff Daniels
in Broadway's God of Carnage (2009)

Polanski is a reliable auteur and all four actors are strong but I still have to worry. It's my nature. I'm hoping that everyone involved understands first and foremost that it's a comedy. This type of material could easily fall apart if it loses its satiric edge and embraces the dramatic too willfully. If it does, people will just be like "ugh. these people are so immature. I hate them!" and you know how the public reacts to characters they don't like.

Pray for Jodie to pull this off!

The most intriguing casting choice has to be Jodie Foster, who I assume is taking on the Tony-winning Marcia Gay Harden role. I would haved loved to have seen Harden get this shot on the big screen but they rarely let people transfer... even Oscar winning people who aren't bankable. Anyway, Foster knows from claustrophic environs (Panic Room, Flight Plan, Silence of the Lambs) but she hasn't spent much time honing her comic gifts and this character is, at least in my experience of the play, the fulcrum point. She's full of abundant pretense and holier-than-thou speechifying and she'd be utterly detestable and annoying if she weren't also so funny and so endearingly a complete emotional wreck. It's just a killer role.

I'm glad the two time Oscar winner will be truly challenging herself for the first time in well over a decade but if you rest you rust and I hope she's up to the challenge.
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