My Awards nominations: Actor

Guess I'd better get started on these. I was going to leave them for after the Oscars, but it sorta just dawned on me how much time we have to kill until then. I still have a handful of films to see, so I'll start out with some of the categories that I've already pretty much set in stone, such as today's category: Best Actor.

Gotta say, this was by far the toughest one for me to narrow down this year. There are at least ten or eleven absolutely terrific performances that would be welcome here, and the quality of this year's leading men is well represented by the Oscar lineup as well. But tough decisions have to be made, so the five that I chose are:

Review - Amour

Finally got to see this recently, and despite having to endure months of hype from critics and privileged festival-goers, the film more than met expectations. Michael Haneke has never made a more moving and emotionally honest picture than this celebrated Palme d'Or winner; a heartrending study of what love really means.

Set almost entirely in the apartment of George and Anne, an elderly couple whose life together requires significant readjustment when Anne suffers a mild stroke, Amour effectively imposes a sensation of being trapped by a hopeless situation; a revelant thematic undercurrent to the piece. Haneke's often static camera rarely cuts to different angles within a single scene, allowing us to fully absorb his actors' unbroken performances, and yet it never feels like a play put on film. Using efficient vignettes to evoke the gradual decline of Anne's condition keeps the film's stillness from boring the viewer, and with a pair of such soulful performances on display, it's hard to look away.

Emmanuelle Riva is getting the most notice from awards bodies for her incredibly nuanced embodiment of a woman becoming increasingly trapped by her own body, exhibiting remarkable control over her physicality throughout. Jean-Louis Trintignant is equally refined in his ability to tap into deep emotions through quiet gestures and minimalist expression. As the couple's frustrated daughter, Isabelle Huppert conveys in just a handful of scenes all the pain and anguish of being truly powerless over the inevitable.

**** out of ****