Coens are heading for Oscar ‘Country’

Julian Schnabel
One of the bad boys of New York’s 1980s art scene, Schnabel made his directorial debut with “Basquiat,” a biopic of one of his peers. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” for which he’s nominated this year, is actually his third movie about a real-life person, coming on the heels of “Before Night Falls,” a portrait of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. (That film garnered an Oscar nod for “No Country’s” Javier Bardem.)

Miramax

“Diving Bell,” based on the memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, examines a French magazine editor who has suffered a debilitating stroke and can only communicate by blinking one eyelid. Schnabel effectively puts us inside this man’s head, for all its limitations and its liberties (hence the title), and it’s a movie that has registered strongly with many viewers, particularly the older ones who make up the bulk of the Academy’s voters.

What makes it tricky for Schnabel this year is that “Diving Bell” wasn’t nominated for best picture, and the last time a director won for a movie that wasn’t in the top race was at the 1928/1929 Oscars, when Frank Lloyd won for “The Divine Lady.” Granted, streaks were made to be broken, but first-time nominee Schnabel can take comfort in the fact that he can now without question be considered the conqueror of yet another medium.

Should have been nominated: David Fincher

Paramount

When film historians of the future look back on this year’s Oscars, the absence of nominations for “Zodiac” will be as confounding and rankling as it is now. An absolutely gripping procedural, “Zodiac” is an ambitious project that succeeds on every level, from retelling a famous true-crime mystery and allowing the audience to process the many facts involved in the investigation to creating interesting, compelling characters to crafting powerful and unforgettable visuals.

The man behind all this is David Fincher, one of this country’s most visionary filmmakers. From the extraordinary performances he got out of Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr. and the rest of his amazing cast to the groundbreaking (yet virtually invisible) digital effects he used to tell the story and convincingly recreate 1970s San Francisco, the always-fascinating Fincher was firing on all cylinders here. Pity the Academy didn’t notice.

Duralde is the author of “101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men”; find him at www.alonsoduralde.com

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