Through Her Lens: 2011 (The 84th Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Introduction / Explanation

At the 84th Oscars, the winner for Best Director was first-time nominee Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist (2011), the story of a silent film star on the verge of downfall as Hollywood transitions into the talkies. The recreation of that era's silent filmmaking became one of the more unusual Best Picture wins of recent memory. Hazanavicius was up against four men who were previous nominees in the category: Alexander Payne for the dramedy The Descendants, Terrence Malick for the art film The Tree of Life, and two previous winners in Martin Scorsese for the adventure Hugo, and Woody Allen for the period fantasy Midnight in Paris.

2011 was business as usual in the Best Director race, with no female director ever really in serious consideration. The only arguable exception was one extreme longshot early on in the conversation - Angelina Jolie for her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey. Out of the 265 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2011 (84th Academy Awards), only 19 (7.2%) were directed/co-directed by women...

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The Secret Marriage: Daniel & Rachel

Congratulations to the newlyweds, Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig! You may have heard that they pulled off the impossible feat of keeping a double-star wedding under wraps until entire days after the nuptials. They were married on Wednesday June 22nd.

Secret weddings are the best. Without the prying paparazzi lenses we are free to imagine the whole thing. So this is what The Film Experience officially believes they were wearing when they tied the knot.

WHY NOT?

The couple may prove ubiquitous for the remainder of the year. Consider...

JULY & AUGUST
In Rachel's next film --which seems like it's been "about to open" for years though now -- she plays The Whistleblower and some Best Actress whispers have emerged. Daniel Craig's next, Cowboys & Aliens, arrives first in July but is not garnering any Best Actor whispers for either alien of cowboy life forms. 

SEPTEMBER
The newlyweds started dating after working together (as fictional spouses) in Dream House from Jim Sheridan (In America). Naomi Watts and Martin Csokas co-star in a thriller about a seemingly idyllic house with a nightmarish history.

Dream House (2011)

DECEMBER
The year will end with a possible Oscar campaign for Weisz (though she's already a winner from The Constant Gardener) and a possible blockbuster for Craig by way of David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. May he have more luck with the (comparatively) dull "Mikael Blomkvist" part than Michael Nyqvist had.