Skiing, Dying, Running, Filming

On the eve of the Oscars, I contemplate three odd films 2010 brings that likely will not be nominees in next year’s Best Picture category:

•an ill-advised-sounding thriller called Frozen about three men stuck throughout the film on a ski lift chair after dark (claustrophobic terror done wrong, sounds like)

•a trippy film called Enter the Void about a ghost watching the after-effects of his murder on criminals in Japan, from the same director who did the earlier film Irreversible, which was made controversial in part by having a nine-minute-long one-take scene of Monica Belucci’s character being raped, all of which sounds like stuff the Wachowskis might enjoy

•the parkour-themed sequel District 13: Ultimatum, from a series that I only now realize is not only produced by Luc Besson but directed by the director of Taken. I bought the Taken DVD on Nybakken’s pro-patriarchal-violence recommendation and liked it (Kyle Smith did not).

There’s been talk that the same director may do a Dune remake (which might sound something like, “You have my son. If you give him back, this ends and I will let you go. If you run, or you hurt him, I will find you, I will attack you with giant sandworms, and I will kill you.”) My two main hopes for a new Dune: subtract 80% of the stuff David Lynch tried to squeeze in but add the stuff about Paul Atreides perceiving branching timelines every time he makes a historic decision — one way peace, the other death-dealing hordes marauding across the galaxy with him at their head, etc. Just like when I decide where to eat lunch.

On the parkour thing, it occurs to me that I don’t really know the rules of parkour (or “free running,” the art of running and climbing one’s way across urban landscapes, so frequently deployed in action movies from Bond to Bourne to Hulk in recent years). Would I automatically lose if I concluded, “You know, I think, weighing all my options, I’m going to try running on the sidewalk, thus avoiding the whole scaling-fire-escapes thing and the clambering over a parked bus thing”? Do you get points for climbing extra-crazy objects, even while ostensibly trying to move as quickly as possible? I’m sure the Wikipedia page explains all this, but for the moment I’m enjoying the old-fashioned sensation of not knowing.