Valeria Golino – This Had Oscar Buzz

A film with strong festival reviews that gets dumped to cable television because its commercial prospects appear slim? Sounds like something ripped from today’s cinema headlines, but it’s the case for this week’s film, Rodrigo Garcia’s Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her. Led by a prestigious cast of awards show mainstays, the film is a tapestry of loosely interconnected stories that detail the inner lives of women living in the San Fernando valley. After successful trips to both Sundance and Cannes, the film’s distributor sold the film to Showtime when even its good reviews weren’t considered enough to merit a theatrical release.

This episode, we talk about the understated work of writer/director Garcia and the critical community’s reaction at the time to the film’s punting to cable. We also talk about Calista Flockhart’s run on Ally McBeal, Kathy Baker and Valeria Golino’s absence from the film’s marketing, and how Glenn Close and Holly Hunter went from Oscar beloveds to Emmy perennials.

Topics also include the Emmys, MGM’s then-looming bankruptcy, and the Tyra Banks game.

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Our Patreon Selects episodes continue this week with a pick from Audrey: the beloved 2019 lesbian romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The film launched at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Best Screenplay prize and skyrocketing director Céline Sciamma to the names of most beloved contemporary directors. However, when the Oscar race began, France instead chose to submit Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables for the International Feature race. Sciamma’s film still gained feverish fandom on the fall festival circuit and even more critical raves, but ultimately distributor Neon focused its awards campaign energies on fanning the flames of the Parasite moment.

This episode, we talk about the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and Portrait’s delayed platform release that got abbreviated by COVID. We also discuss Adèle Haenel’s stunning enigmatic performance, the film where Noémie Merlant falls in love with a circus ride, and the case for Claire Mathon in Best Cinematography.

Topics also include Louis Ironson’s poster’s disease, 2019 films directed by women, and the 2022 Sight and Sound poll.

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Tag: Valeria Golino

306 – Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her

271 – Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Patreon Selects)