Eyes on the prize
Foriegn-lingo pics vying for Best Pic are rare, but 'Crouching Tiger' has a legit shot
Except it is in Mandarin Chinese.
The pic, a pulpy wuxia martial-arts fantasy set during the Qing Dynasty, has been touted for months as a strong contender for year-end honors. But Oscar can be fickle, and as a glance at the Academy's history reveals, foreign-language pictures aren't often tapped for top prizes.
In 72 years, only six foreign-lingo films have earned best picture noms: "Grand Illusion" (1938), "Z" (1969), "The Emigrants" (1971), "Cries and Whispers" (1972) "The Postman" (1995) and "Life Is Beautiful" (1998). All have hailed from Europe; in fact, the nominated films encompass only three languages -- French, Swedish and Italian.
Michael Barker, co-president of "Crouching Tiger" distrib Sony Pictures Classics, says that a foreign film must possess a striking uniqueness, "something that hasn't been seen before to be nominated (for best picture)." And "Crouching Tiger," which is racking up record numbers for the distrib in limited release, is that kind of pic.
If past races are any indication, a foreign-language feature certainly doesn't require a major studio imprimatur to garner Oscar's favor. Despite the decades-old dominance of the major studios, all but one of the films were distribbed by indie companies.
Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion" was swept in on the strength of its critics' notices; it was the only nomination the film received. No doubt the larger number of pic nominees that year (10, including winner "You Can't Take It With You") was also a contributing factor.
More than 30 years later, "Z," a French-Algerian co-production from Greek director Costa Gavras, took four noms, and it was distributed by tiny Cinema V. It was the first foreign-language film to be named top picby the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. Though it lost the picture Oscar to "Midnight Cowboy," "Z" did win in the foreign-language category.
Warners' pickup "The Emigrants" earned three noms, including one for Swedish helmer Jan Troell. Curiously, "The Emigrants" lost the foreign-language film Oscar the year before. (Acad rules allowed for such double eligibility at the time).
Campaign success
Troell's countryman Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" snagged five noms when B-movie king Roger Corman, whose New World was distrib, launched an aggressive campaign for the film, which had swept the top prizes from the New York critics after a '72 run in Gotham.
Miramax, and its proven Oscar campaign mettle, broke a 22-year dry streak for foreign-lingo best pic nominees with "The Postman," leveraging the pic's ineligibility for the foreign-language category and the post-production death of star and co-writer Massimo Troisi.
Three campaigns later, Miramax's "Life Is Beautiful" set a record for the most noms for a foreign-language film, buoyed by the inimitable presence of actor-director-force of nature Roberto Benigni.
With "Crouching Tiger," Barker says, the time is right for a transpacfic Acad embrace. "Asian filmmakers are the most exciting filmmakers in the world at this moment."
The high praise for "Yi Yi," directed by Lee's fellow Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang and named top foreign-language film by the N.Y. film critics and Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., underscores Barker's point.
Should "Crouching Tiger" earn a pic nom, it would be the first Asian-language film to do so. Only two such films have earned director noms, both from Japan: Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" (1985) and "Woman in the Dunes" (1964). The latter, which won a special jury prize at the '64 Cannes fest, earned a nom for its helmer, Hiroshi Teshigahara, in 1966, a year after it was a nominee for foreign-language film.
Should "Crouching Tiger" snare an adapted screenplay nom, it would be another first. Though foreign-language movies have made frequent appearances in the writing categories, particularly in the 1960s, none has been for films in Asian languages. Traditionally, Asian films have had more success in the cinematography category among non-foreign races, with noms for "Ran," and in the '90s, "Farewell, My Concubine" (1993) and "Shanghai Triad" (!995).
Positive buzz
So far, prospects for a "Crouching Tiger" run are brightening. It won the audience award at the Toronto fest, often a launching pad for the awards season. The L.A. critics awarded "Crouching Tiger" its top prize, selecting a non-English-language film for the first time in its 24 years of existence, as well as its best director award. The National Board of Review tapped the film for top foreign-language honors.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which excludes foreign-language films from the best picture Golden Globe races, awarded the film three nominations, including a nom for helmer Lee.
Barker says that sort of recognition is hard to come by, noting that the HFPA has been reluctant to recognize foreign-lingo films outside the foreign pic category. He points to the 1998 best actress nomination of Fernanda Montenegro, star of SPC's "Central Station," as a rare exception.
As with "Ran," which Barker helped steer to four Oscar noms while at Orion Classics, "Crouching Tiger" is only being released with subtitles. Barker says the distrib gave no thought to releasing "Crouching Tiger" dubbed, despite resistance among filmgoers to "read movies." He contends that "with the exception of minor genre action pictures, audiences do not like to see dubbed features," even when done expertly.
In addition, Barker says that people he's talked to who have seen the film "didn't even remember the subtitles. It's a nonissue."
Language bias
Nonetheless, there remains an implicit bias against languages in foreign tongues, one that often ghettoizes such pictures to the foreign-lingo category out of a mistaken assumption that they are ineligible elsewhere. However, the distrib is making sure that Acad voters know that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" can compete in all categories. As with "for your consideration" ads for past foreign-lingo releases "Central Station" and "All About My Mother" (1999), the distrib alerts voters that the pic "is eligible in all categories, including best picture."
Andrew Johnston, film critic at Us Weekly, says though a best pic nom for "Crouching Tiger" hardly can be called a sure thing, he likes its chances. Though Sony Classics has had only one best pic nominee (1992's "Howards End"), the distrib may benefit from a wide-open field and perhaps a desire to give a time out to Oscar juggernaut Miramax, which has had at least one best pic nominee every year since 1992.
The Acad's habit for correcting past oversights also could play in "Crouching Tiger's" favor. Lee's omission from the 1995 slate of director nominations, despite his "Sense and Sensibility" earning a pic nom and six other bids, was a stinging snub.
"Ang Lee hasn't' had the best track record with the Academy," Johnston says, also citing the shutout that greeted Lee's 1997 "The Ice Storm." "Certainly, if they give him a best director award, that's a victory in and of itself."
Lee receiving a nod, but being snubbed in picture, is a definite possibility; in fact, it's the Acad's most common manner of recognizing acclaimed foreign-lingo films. Several foreign filmmakers -- Lina Wertmuller ("Seven Beauties" (1976)), Federico Fellini ("Amarcord" (1974), "Satyricon" (1969)), Edouard Molinaro ("La Cage aux Folles" (1978)), Francois Truffaut ("Day for Night" (1973)), Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot" (1982)), Ingmar Bergman ("Fanny & Alexander" (1982)) and Krzyzstof Kieslowski ("Red" (1994)) among them -- earned noms for helming subtitled features but were omitted from the best pic race.
But Johnston believes that "commercial success is going to be on 'Crouching Tiger's' side" in its pursuit of Oscar's brass ring, predicting that it will be a record-breaker for Sony Classics.
"Even a film like 'All About My Mother,' which did well, didn't expand that much beyond (helmer Pedro) Almodovar's fan base," he says, adding that a domestic gross north of $50 million is well within reach.
And despite "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's" high-kicking moves and subtitles, he describes the film's intertwining romantic stories as possessing a kind of "old-fashionedness. And it's said that the Academy membership skews older, so that could well be in its favor after all."
