Baz Luhrmann and Arthur Cohn: Down but not out in Oscar race

'Tis the season for giving and this is the tale of two very passionate filmmakers hoping that in an award cycle that has overlooked their films (which go against the current grain of heavy, hopeless drama)  their luck will change dramatically when Oscar ballots are sent out the day after Christmas.

Certainly the academy has smiled on producer Arthur Cohn and "Australia's" dynamic director/producer Baz Lurhmann before, and they are counting on that kind of recognition again to help boost their dream movie projects at a time when they need it most.

Cohn, who since "The Sky Above, the Mud Below" in 1961 has personally won six Oscars for six films — including "The Garden of the Finzi Continis," "Dangerous Moves," "Black and White in Color," "American Dream" and "One Day in September" — and whose other works include "Central Station" and "A Brief Vacation," is throwing a lot of money into an academy campaign for his latest effort, "The Yellow Handkerchief," a heartfelt, beautifully made film with two wonderful actors, William Hurt and Maria Bello, at the top of their game. It also stars "Twilight's" breakout star Kristen Stewart in a major role but STILL can't seem to find a distributor — at least not yet.

So in order to bring some attention, Cohn decided to launch a pricey Oscar campaign with several full-page ads in Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times. He also shelled out his own money this week to open the movie for a one-week run in order to qualify for academy consideration. The film plays twice a day at the rather obscure Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino, the only theater available to his marketers at this late date. DVD screeners have also been sent to academy members.

Hoping to hatch a Christmas miracle, "Yellow Handkerchief" is being prominently advertised right next to better-financed contenders like "Doubt," "Slumdog Millionaire," "Frost/Nixon" and others in hopes the industry will take notice, not only for long-shot Oscar nods for the likes of Hurt and Bello but also as a film that the producer, fed up with the current trends of many movies, hopes will find someone willing to give it the kind of release next year he feels it richly deserves.

"Distributors think we need brutal and violent films to catch the  public, but I think Americans are more intelligent than that,"  Cohn said on the phone from Bern in his native Switzerland. "In the case of 'Yellow Handkerchief' it is a very life affirming film, some think it may be the best one I have ever produced but distributors in America are very negative."

He says the film's release hopes are a very difficult proposition given current market realities, but he believes it has a chance, and the Oscar race is the portal he's using to boost its stock.

"Thirty-one distributors turned down 'The Garden of the Finzi Continis' in America and Europe. It was brought to the academy without ANY distributor and it won the Oscar [1972's best foreign-language film] and got reviews and the public went for it," he says.

For a veteran who has been at this game for a half century, Cohn still has the enthusiasm of a first-time producer when he talks about his new films, which also included an underrated Sony Classics release, "The Children of Huang Shi," earlier this year with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the lead. He hopes this attention-getting campaign for "Yellow Handkerchief" has an effect.

"I can't do much more than create awareness. I create awareness that the film exists, and I do that with the various ads which have a special color so they know yellow has a meaning. It will give [potential distributors] pause, that maybe I wasn't wrong. It's a feel-good movie in the best possible way,"  he says.

Finally, he hopes his long association with Oscar has added value in this instance.

"People might say he has six Oscars, so maybe he has another winner,"  Cohn says, laughing. "Maybe we shouldn't write him off too quickly."

Oddly enough there have probably been more trade ads for "Yellow Handkerchief" to date than Baz Luhrmann's passion project,  "Australia," a big studio epic made for people who love movies, that started out soft but is tenaciously hanging in modestly at the domestic box office, earning $42 million so far since its Nov. 26 opening. It is slowly opening around the world now, and advance tracking indicates it will be No. 1 when it is released in England for Christmas.

Luhrmann, like Cohn, is hoping for some of Oscar's magic fairy dust to really kickstart the film, which has gotten mixed response from Internet-ians but some rave notices from the New York Times, Washington Post and Roger Ebert, among others. He says in fact that "Moulin Rouge" was in the exact same place critically and at the box office three weeks into its run in 2001 and that it went on to eight nominations, including for best picture, winning two Oscars. Baz is hoping people won't write "Australia" off, even if it has yet to show up in any precursor awards.

"Pundits are always confused about my movies. I knew going in there would be lots of negativity. Audiences understand, though," he says, and indeed, when he appeared with some of his key crew at a crowded Wadsworth Theater Q&A last week, he received two standing ovations with some questioners, mostly from various guilds, who were visibly moved by the film.

"The academy, of which I am a member, is different [from the critics groups]. They are filmmakers. We need to sell just enough tickets to keep it going long enough for the broader audience to discover it," he says, noting that Oscar nominations can certainly help, even though he is "sanguine" about its best picture chances at this point.

"Academy Award nominations are big in the sense that we can keep it in the cinemas longer and people will go check it out. Best picture is hard. There's a variety of movies that can be best picture," he told me over lunch at the Four Seasons last week. "You think of 'Slumdog Millionaire' or whatever else is exceptional. Movie makers know more about it. 'Moulin Rouge' was killed in Cannes, and Entertainment Weekly panned it. Yet a month ago the same magazine named it one of the classic films of the last 10 years!"

Like Cohn, Baz Luhrmann's enthusiasm for all things movie-related is infectious. He's the real deal. His "Australia" is meant to be a return to the kind of movies he loved growing up. And, yes, he also loves the Oscars and thinks his "Australia" star Hugh Jackman will be a great host.

"I've been on the road with Hugh. If there's a man alive that can work a room, truly as an old style Vegas performer who can truly hold a crowd, then Hugh Jackman is your man,"  he says.

Of the Oscar show itself?

"I grew up in a little town in the middle of nowhere, and there was nothing more glamorous, more cool, more unattainable. Could there be anything more magical? As for this year's show, I think they are searching for an authenticity and a feeling of entertainment with class," he says.

Luhrmann is happy to note that  Fox is finally sending out DVD screeners of "Australia" now before the holidays kick in, and he's hoping voters will give it a look before casting those ballots.

"Do I want to see the movie nominated? Yes, but it's become like an election not unlike Obama's," Luhrmann states with just a touch of whimsy.

Happy hopeful holidays to Arthur, Baz and all of you out there in the dark. Here's hoping you get whatever you wish this (award) season.

—Pete Hammond

Baz Luhrman at a photo call for "Australia" in Rome. Credit: Andrew Medichini / AP

Comments

[Drew Williams]

I really hope " Australia' gets some recognition come Oscar time. It would take a miracle for it to garner a BP nod.
I think it better settle for a few techs and maybe not even that. We will see in a few short weeks.

[Roland Jackson]

The best best film award need the power to uplift its standard of progress, sales level should be enhance to uplift the power that guides the film industries and film makers, we cannot leave illegal street and pirate film sellers to put down sales and value of all film makers, render us a helping hand to uplift value of our productions, thanks Sir.

[Roland Jackson]

The best best film award need the power to uplift its standard of progress, sales level should be enhance to uplift the power that guides the film industries and film makers, we cannot leave illegal street and pirate film sellers to put down sales and value of all film makers, render us a helping hand to uplift value of our productions, thanks Sir.