REVERSE ANGLE
Not in hand
Park Chan-wook’s critically acclaimed “The Handmaiden” is now playing. It’s like “The Grifters” meets “Blue Is the Warmest Color” meets “Oldboy.” What it’s not like is a nominee for best foreign-language film.
That’s because it’s not South Korea’s official selection — that would be the well-received, notably patriotic “The Age of Shadows.” No knock on “Shadows,” but “Handmaiden’s” omission is just another example of why the rules in this category need to change.
“Each country shall be invited to submit its best motion picture to the Academy,” say the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences rules. “Selection of that picture shall be made by one organization, jury or committee that should include artists and/or craftspeople from the field of motion pictures. … Only one picture will be accepted from each country.”
First, let’s stipulate that the burdens on the Oscars’ foreignlanguage committee are great. There are 85 countries in competition this year — that’s a lot of movies for anyone to watch, much less the industry professionals you’d want determining the shortlists and final nominees.
But people complain about Academy politics; imagine what it’s like in certain other nations that have sociopolitical barriers to certain messages getting out. Or that have internecine struggles in their artistic communities — not that that would ever happen, right? And none of that accounts for basic differences in taste.
The main issue, though, is the limitation to one film per country. No one wants to open the floodgates. But what if additional entries were allowed if a film were to win or be nominated for other major awards?
“The Handmaiden” was up for the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. Others in the running included official Oscar submissions “Julieta,” “Elle,” “The Salesman,” “It’s Only the End of the World,” “Ma’ Rosa,” “Sieranevada” and “Toni Erdmann.”
Notably, one of the Palme d’Or contestants that, like “Handmaiden,” wasn’t its country’s official selection was “Graduation,” from Romania (and France). That film was made by Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”), who won Cannes’ best director prize for it.
To see the trailer for “The Handmaiden”: https://youtu.be /vHOmrolJEiY