The Oldman and Paddy
Paddy Considine has confessed to the influence of Gary Oldman on his directing debut, Tyrannosaur. The new film, which stars Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan, is based on Paddy's award-winning short film Dog Altogether, and has a searing, visceral quality of Brit grit, the like of which I haven't seen since Nil by Mouth – still the only film Oldman has directed. Despite being best known for his work with director Shane Meadows, Considine revealed to me that Oldman was the key to Tyrannosaur. "I remember seeing Nil by Mouth as a student in Brighton and being in awe. I felt that at last here was a guy who spoke my language. It's strange how life works, because I happened to be working with Gary on a film in Spain [The Backwoods, 2006] and was very frustrated with the experience so I wrote Dog Altogether one pissed-off afternoon in the hotel. Gary was first to read it. I gave it to him the next morning and asked him to be brutal. He said he loved it, and that if he could, he'd produce it. This was a total shock to me. So when it came to later expanding it into Tyrannosaur, it was only right to send it to Gary again. And he just called me and said: 'Don't let anyone change a thing, not a word of it.' So here it is."
Little forgiveness in Albania
Fury has erupted in Albania over the tiny nation's Oscar entry. The Balkan country, famous for worshipping Norman Wisdom as a national treasure, is miffed that its leaders have submitted American director Joshua Marston's The Forgiveness of Blood to contest the Oscar for foreign language film, a submission that has sparked a formal protest from local film-makers, who have asked for it to be disqualified. Bujar Alimani, whose film Amnesty was overlooked, said: "Marston and the co-writer are American, and the cinematographer, music composer and editor are American citizens as well." However, the selection committee have argued that The Forgiveness of Blood, which won a Silver Bear in Berlin for its script earlier this year, is set entirely in Albanian and was shot in Albania with a mostly local crew. It is not the first time Marston has met with such outrage. His debut film, Maria Full of Grace, although shot in Ecuador and America, was Colombia's Oscar entry in 2005 but was ultimately disqualified; its lead actress Catalina Sandino Moreno, however, received a surprise best actress nomination that year.
When is a French film not a French film?
Likely to be the hit of the forthcoming London film festival - as it has been everywhere it has played since Cannes - French film The Artist will not be officially entered by the French Academy for the foreign film Oscar. I'm told the selectors fear the film, a sumptuous and adorable black-and-white homage to the Hollywood silent era, isn't "French enough", despite being directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. The Artist's distributors, the Weinstein Company - who bought the film just days before it debuted in Cannes having been mysteriously promoted to an "in competition" slot - are not bothered: they're aiming for best picture, and I reckon they have a very strong chance. France has instead put forward Valérie Donzelli's cancer drama Declaration of War; Germany has offered Wim Wenders's Pina; Israel has proposed Joseph Cedar's excellent Footnote (opening the UK Jewish film festival next month); and Finland has had no hesitation in entering Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre, even though it is shot in France, in French.
