The Karma of THE ARTIST

By Mike Takeuchi

"Sometimes life is wonderful. Today is one of those days." Michel Hazanavicius on Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica, Michel Hazanavicius was in a hurry. He was in the middle of a whirlwind weekend and had just collected the first of four awards for him that day and start of nine speeches he had to make to accept the awards for the film he directed, THE ARTIST. In the terms of any filmmaker, it was a great weekend for the black-and-white, predominantly silent film which garnered four Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, and five more at the Academy Awards at what host Billy Crystal jokingly called "The Bankrupt Theatre" on Sunday.

But at this particular moment, the French director had only achieved one thus far-the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, and was in a hurry to get back to his seat to join his friends possibly to see what penis joke irreverently funny host Seth Rogen would make next. On his way, we nearly literally ran smack-dab into each other. He stopped, looked and realized that the Rubenesque Asian-American in front of him was someone somewhat familiar to him. Seemingly struggling for a moment to remember, I let him off the hook.

"Hey Michel, congratulations, plenty more of good things to come," I said.

Looking relieved that he didn't have to remember the name of someone he only had a scant recollection of (if at all), smiled brightly.

"Thank you, thank you very much," he genuinely expressed in his heavy French accent before disappearing into the backstage area of the tent.

With that, he was gone-onward and upward.

The first time I met Michel was in Santa Barbara at the Riviera Theatre. THE ARTIST was not yet known outside of my boss Roger Durling, the executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and a select few who saw it in Cannes, Telluride and Toronto. An agent friend of mine told me that it was going to be a hit.

I thought “Silent, black-and-white movie, Riiiiight!"

It turned out that he was right. An hour before he arrived, I watched the first part of this unique film just mesmerized. While the style was an homage to Billy Wilder, I got the same feeling I did when I watched Frank Capra films. These guys have something here.

Michel's arrival cut my viewing pleasure short, but I wasn't complaining as I looked forward to meeting him and his lovely wife Berenice Bejo (Alas, Ms. Bejo was ill and could not make it that evening but I was able to meet her later at SBIFF. All I can say about her is "Wow!").

As I walked him down the outer corridor of the Riviera as the credits of his film rolled, I didn't say anything to him other than give him some brief stage instructions on what to do. He peeked inside the still packed theatre and looked back at me.

“Wow, this is incredible!” he said.

In hindsight, I wish I said something incredibly wise and prescient like “Your life will never be the same again.” But instead I told him to enjoy himself, because the people he would be joining loved the film.

“Thank you very much,” he said.

When he went out to sit in his director’s chair, I was thinking who would have thought that it would be this successful?

Two months later, when he, Berenice, and Oscar Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin came for the Festival, they were nothing but gracious and full of class. While the highlight for me was getting a wink and a nod from Berenice, I will always remember the constant display of gratitude from Michel as he expressed his thanks several times during his stay with us. The more time spent together, the more I couldn’t help but root for them come Oscar Night not just for their niceness, but for the way they genuinely seemed to enjoy being around each other and just the joy each individual from the film possessed.

To a lot of people, I likened their run a lot to the people from my other recent favorite, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. While I mentioned in my previous post that there were parallels between the two, the most telling was that like THE ARTIST group, the trio of director Danny Boyle, writer Simon Beaufoy, and producer Christian Colson seemed to have such good karma going for them, one couldn’t but help get swept up in or at least very interested with this group.

And here it was happening, or did happen with a sense of deja’ vu all over again.

Why THE ARTIST Will (probably) Win Best Picture

Okay, here's who I think is going to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards tonight...wait, I don't know. But I do have a general idea, that when they open the envelope to reveal the Academy Award winner for Best Picture at the Kodak, ahem Hollywood and Highland Bankrupt Center Theatre tonight, I will be surprised if I'm surprised.

By the end of the broadcast, people will say that Billy Crystal was a nice replacement choice (While I and many others will have wished for Jon Stewart, Ellen, Chris Rock, or even Hugh Jackman to have been up there.) as host. No surprises, no Brent Ratner bombs of intolerance…

The other most likely occurrence is that, THE ARTIST will probably win Best Picture. I can't personally argue, because I loved the film enough to see it three, well two-and-a-half times because when the director Michel Hazanavicius came up to do a Q & A, I had to leave halfway through. When working with him, Michel and lead actor Jean Dujardin were gracious and actress Berenice Bejo took my breath away.

But no matter how much I enjoyed the film, I can't honestly say if it was the best of 2012 or not. Everyone surely has their own opinions much like they did when talking about 2009's SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE-it was good, but definitely not the best of the year was a familiar refrain.

While it remains one of my favorite films of recent years, in SLUMDOG's defense, the film won eight of the 10 Oscars it was nominated in including Best Picture, without having the benefit of one performer even being nominated in any of the four acting categories. Among Oscar receivers were director Danny Boyle, adapted screenplay (who my boy Simon Beaufoy beautifully adapted from Vikas Swarup’s wonderful novel "Q AND A'), cinematography, sound, music and direction. All for a film that a producers group that included Christian Colson, were worried about not getting any funding (after Warner Independent went under, it was bought by Fox Searchlight around the time of its world premiere at Telluride in 2008) and fearing it having to go direct to video. Soon enough, it gained critical acclaim and awards and where everyone was singing JAI HO! As SLUMDOG eventually grossed $377 million worldwide.

But I digress.

The journey of THE ARTIST shares some parallels, but it also has its differences. Unlike SLUMDOG, it is still relatively slow at box office ($76.5 million so far) and Dujardin (Best Actor) and the lovely Bejo (Best Supporting Actress) garnered performance Oscar nominations. But THE ARTIST is similar to Boyle's film in a few aspects, including noms in several different categories. It also has momentum amongst critics and more importantly, voting Academy members.

But even with a dearth of strong candidates, it could be an upset victim to THE DESCENDENTS or even HUGO when the last award is announced.

But it is in my opinion that it won't fall victim to the major upset due to the Weinstein Effect, aka Harvey and Bob. This one wildcard THE ARTIST holds up its sleeve will probably be the difference maker when the envelope is opened. Normally studios don't make that much of a difference, or at least as much as they would like people to believe, but because of the influence of the Weinstein brothers - any film that they were involved in has a shot at the brass ring...errr, golden statue. Take for instance one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history when SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE defeated SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and three others to win Best Picture in 1998.

Anyone who is familiar with film at the time can attest that this was nothing short of monumental, especially after PRIVATE RYAN's director Steven Spielberg had just taken the Best Director win a few minutes early. The odds of this occurring are not impossible, but difficult as films that have won a Best Director prize have gone onto win Best Picture 62 out of 85 times in Academy history.

When Harrison Ford (aka Grumpy Old Man With an Earring which is another story entirely) opened the envelope on national television, I recall a brief flash of shock over his face before announcing it. But was it really? This writer thinks that the brothers and their minions who were part of then Miramax Studios (which was named after the brothers' parents) understood the workings of a once mysterious group of Academy voters. Since then, their demographic cover has been blown thanks to a recent comprehensive article by the Lost Angeles Times that details the makeup of the 5,765 voting members. The story points out that the Academy Members are predominantly white males (no surprise there) that average 62-years of age.

With the utmost of respect and admiration, I think they knew how to work the system in their favor via publicity, shrewd marketing and knowing and being ahead of the curve in the ever-changing business. For the lack of a better term, they were the MONEYBALL (one of film's competition in the category) of their day with the difference being that they actually won the championship a few times.

I suspect a lot of this has to do with the T-Factor. No, the T-Factor is not some kind of foolproof saber metric formula, but it might as well be. The T-Factor is Lisa Taback, a publicist that works on Oscar campaigns. She was a big part of the publicity of SHAKESPEARE and since, then dozens of nominated and winning films, including last year's winner THE KING'S SPEECH-which leapfrogged frontrunners THE SOCIAL NETWORK and THE BLACK SWAN for the top prize.

Having known her these last few years, I have come to know Lisa as one tough broad who one doesn't want to cross. But to me she is always cordial and has shone compassion and reached out after losing a friend. I have come to admire her because of my interactions with observations of to see that she knows exactly what is needed to be a contender and will go to the wall to ensure that it happens.

It truly is a sight to watch her, her staff as well as the Weinstein group tirelessly work the room/red carpet in terms of getting media exposure for their film and possibly swaying voters much like a presidential candidate's staff trying to do the same thing. I again saw this firsthand at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. While I don't have any insider information (if I did, I would be Vegas bound), but based on this as well as the habits of the Academy voters, it would be hard to bet against THE ARTIST as well as the Weinstein Effect and the T-Factor tonight.

Unforgettable Mike deGruy

By Mike Takeuchi for the Santa Barbara News-Press

I can't believe he's gone. Not yet a month ago, Mike deGruy and I were sharing an enlightening conversation on our passions when it was interrupted by a phone call. The Santa Barbaran, a multiple Emmy and BAFTA award-winning underwater cinematographer apologized because he had to take the call. After all, who rejects a call from Oscar-winning director James Cameron, especially if it concerns a collaboration they were going to be working on?

Other than a too-brief interlude at a press conference, that was the last time we spoke.

The ringing phone of the early morning call jarred me from a deep sleep last Saturday morning when the Executive Director and my boss at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Roger Durling personally delivered the terribly bad news that our good friend deGruy died along with fellow filmmaker Andrew Wight in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia while scouting locations for a film that they were working on for Cameron and National Geographic.

I knelt down, unable to breathe, like I was punched in the gut.

My first reaction was that this couldn't be, I was just talking to him a few weeks ago. But a quick glance at the internet confirmed it was true. For the surreal rest-of-the day and throughout the weekend, hugs and tears were shared by all those who knew him. Even the Hollywood types who didn't know him and often seemed devoid of any sympathy, expressed their condolences to those of us who were reeling.

What followed over the next 24 hours on the internet were several stories, including pieces from the New York Times, the Guardian and dozens of others from around the world. Of course, all of the articles extolled his work in Cameron's "Last Mysteries of the Titanic" and the award-winning series from David Attenborough and Discovery's "Blue Planet: Seas of Life" (in which many could be seen on his website mikedegruy.com) which were nice, but understandably couldn't touch upon Mike as a man and a friend.

I knew him as an effervescent guy regularly clad in a fleece top, blue jeans and with a perpetual smile on his face that always left me feeling considerably much better after parting. When we worked together on the Film Festival's Field Trip to the Movies project for the last few years, he was constantly willing to take suggestions while offering his own wisdom on making the free program for Santa Barbara County fifth- and sixth-grade students better.

"Why don't we try this?" "What do you think if we ..." were the constant refrains of someone who never lost his wonder for life. And when he hit the stage to deliver the lesson along with the likes of Cameron two years ago and Oscar-winner Lee Unkrich ("Toy Story 3" ) last year, it was like 2,000 kids were attracted to his enthusiasm like a magnet and then reciprocated.

While he was great with the studio films, Mike was especially in his element with nature projects, like Cameron's "Aliens of the Deep," an incredible underwater piece that elicits as much pride from the vaunted filmmaker as the work he did with the Academy Award-winning "Titanic."

Mike and I often spoke of our mutual love for the outdoors. One memorable night we were joined by my wife Munch and his wife Mimi on discussing travel and the outdoors amidst the shallow cocktail party conversations where people started sidling up and eavesdropping as he spoke.

In our last extended conversation early in January, along with sharing some personal thoughts, my late friend continued to inspire me. Ever the teacher and caretaker of the Field Trip program, Mike offered some last-minute instructions to ensure that the kids remained engaged and involved. They were words that I will forever take to heart, not so much for their content, but for the passion behind it.

My deepest sympathies go out to Mimi, his children Max and Frances, and anyone who has ever been touched by this truly great individual.

For a more detailed and extremely moving tribute to Mike, click here: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/17/remembering-mike-degruy-and-andrew-wight-extraordinary-explorersfilmmakers/