While a Best International Feature Film Oscar nomination for Perfect Days (Neon) is a high honor, director Wim Wenders cited another bit of recognition earlier on in the process which he found quite gratifying and unexpected. Wenders related that as a German director, he was surprised to learn that Perfect Days was chosen by Japan as its official selection for Academy voters to consider. It’s his understanding that this is the first time that the country has given such distinction to a film from a non-Japanese director. Additionally, the honor grows in stature given that there were at least a couple of other films from Japanese filmmakers that were most deserving, having had successful runs at the Cannes and Venice film festivals.

The selection by Japan and the subsequent nomination of Perfect Days mean a great deal to Wenders in that he “very dearly” loves Japanese cinema, which he described as “so important in my life.” He’s particularly drawn to “the enormous sense of the common good that people have and still have in Japan,” underscored by a sense of genuine humility and selflessness.

In that vein, Wenders doesn’t regard Japan’s embrace of Perfect Days as reflecting any individual achievement on his part. He instead attributes the official selection status to the country’s beloved actor Koji Yakusho, who stars in the film. “When we came back from Cannes, hundreds of people came to the airport [in Tokyo] to receive him,” recalled Wenders, who quipped that relative to Perfect Days, he is regarded in Japan as the “director sidekick” to Yakusho.

A long-time admirer of Japan and its culture, Wenders had those positive feelings reinforced during a visit which laid the groundwork for what would become Perfect Days. He had come from Berlin where the return after the COVID pandemic lockdown was a disaster. “Parks and streets were treated ruinously,” related Wenders. “People behaved as if there were no tomorrow."

Wenders observed that the opposite was true in Tokyo during that same post-COVID stretch as he saw care, consideration and respect for people and resources. Wenders was in Tokyo to take a tour of public toilets for a proposed social project in Japan. He was invited to do a series of short films on different architects and their creations. The notion of famous architects being enlisted to build the smallest possible toilet units, featuring different styles as part of a beautification project for the Tokyo Olympics, intrigued Wenders. These public toilets are part of a welcoming culture, small sanctuaries of peace and dignity--quite a departure from how the Western world views its sanitation facilities. 

Wenders soon realized that a series of short films wasn’t the way to go. He and co-writer Takuma Takasaki constructed a narrative about a man whose job is to clean the public toilets, showing a dedication to their maintenance--and to how he goes about his duties. 

Wenders immediately thought of Yakusho--whose performances impacted him over the years--as the ideal actor to portray this character, named Hirayama. The film’s protagonist sees a purpose to his occupation, which is part of a routine that also includes music, books, nature’s beauty and his photography of that beauty, specifically trees. He leads a modest life that is fulfilling, attaining a serenity, peace, gratitude and joy that elude most of us. Though he speaks sparingly in the film, Hirayama has a simple eloquence that’s conveyed in his striving to do his work the best he possibly can while treating others with care and consideration, trying to be helpful to those with whom he comes in contact--whether it be his niece, a sister he’s estranged from, a flighty co-worker, that co-worker’s girlfriend, a bathhouse attendant or a ramen restaurant owner,

Another source of inspiration for Wenders was the work of Japanese film auteur Yasujiro Ozu, marked by a calm, quiet precision and caring--much like in many respects the essence of Hirayama. In fact, Wenders got the name Hirayama from the family surname used in An Autumn Afternoon, the final film of Ozu who died in 1963.

Wenders also adopted a simpler, bare bones production approach to Perfect Days. “The man [Hirayama] is so much into reduction,” observed Wenders. “He leads a simple life. You cannot make a movie about him with many means [of production].” Hence Wenders stripped away much of what he didn’t really need--Steadicam, a dolly, other resources. There’s also the simplicity of Hirayama which is amplified by the fact that for the most part he is pretty much alone, continued Wenders. Only towards the end of the film does the semblance of a family emerge--with his niece and sister.

In some respects, Perfect Days has a documentary feel. There are no preconceived ideas as Wenders chronicles this character. Wenders added that Hirayama reflects “a longing we all have. Days become so complex and complicated. There’s so little time for anything. We’re overwhelmed.” Thus Hirayama, the idea of “living in the moment,” had a major effect on Wenders. A lot of people come back to see the film twice or even three times, he noted. They’re trying to find out what it is about Hirayama that touches them. They want to again see his ability “to live in the moment.”

Additionally, they want to experience “routine” the way he does. Generally everyday routine is regarded as boring and monotonous. But even though Hirayama has a distinct routine, he shows us “a different way to deal with it. Every morning he wakes up and it feels like a new day of work--bringing to it the spirit of a Japanese craftsmen. Even if he’s doing the same thing, each time he has to do it in the best possible way. Each and every toilet he cleans is done as good as he possibly can. That has such an effect on routine, on the self-value you get from your work. If you do it really well, whether routine or not, it represents a much different reward.”

For Wenders, one of the challenges of Perfect Days was to “represent the routine of a man, show two weeks of his life, his workdays and two days off each week--and somehow make it interesting, to see what he makes of it.” And when there are exceptions to the routine, when something new breaks in his life, how does he deal with it. 

Wenders said that Hirayama shows the value of routine--that it can “give structure and not burden us down... That you can make every day a new adventure.” 

The director added that he is attracted to Hirayama’s penchant for consuming only what he needs in the moment. He buys one book at a time to read. He uses one roll of film to photograph trees, gets that film developed, and then buys another roll for the next week. “He makes his choices,” commented Wenders. “Our problem very often is it’s not us who make our choices. We have too many choices. We’re overwhelmed by choices and options.”

Wenders concluded that Hirayama is “so simple and clear.” The director recalled getting up each morning during the shoot and being happy to see Hirayama again. That same dynamic is being experienced by audiences. “We love to see him again--that’s because of his spirit and attitude,” Wenders affirmed.

Wenders has received assorted awards over the years, including the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for The State of Things (1982); the Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival and the BAFTA Film Award for Paris, Texas (1984); the Director’s Prize in Cannes for Wings of Desire (1987); and the Silver Bear for The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) from the Berlin International Film Festival. His documentary films Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Pina (2011) and The Salt of the Earth (2014) have each been nominated for an Oscar.

David Hemingson
Writer-producer David Hemingson, a TV veteran, made an auspicious feature debut with The Holdovers (Focus Features), earning an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Hemingson’s nomination is one of five garnered by director Alexander Payne’s film, the others being for Best Picture, Editing (Kevin Tent), Lead Actor (Paul Giamatti) and Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). 

The Holdovers takes us back to 1970 over winter break at a New England boarding school. Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, an adjunct professor of ancient history who’s stuck with the task of being held over at Barton Academy, having to supervise those kids who can’t go home for Christmas. A bit of a curmudgeon, Hunham is generally disliked by his students. But during their holiday confinement, he bonds with a held-over lad, Angus Tully (portrayed by Dominic Sessa in his feature debut). With them during the holidays is the school’s head cook, Mary Lamb (Randolph) whose only child Curtis, a recent Barton grad, was killed in the Vietnam War. Hunham, Tully and Lamb somehow form and find a semblance of family--something they either tragically had lost or never truly had before.

While Payne usually writes the features he directs, he gravitated towards Hemingson this time around. The backstory began to unfold over a decade ago when Payne saw a relatively obscure French film, Merlusse (1935), by the acclaimed filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. The film--which left a lasting impression on Payne--told the story of boarding school students marooned with a reviled teacher over the holiday break. Payne thought that premise was fertile ground for a new story.

Fortuitously, a script for a TV series pilot came to Payne four or five years ago. Written by Hemingson, the show was set in an all-boys prep school--and Payne enjoyed what he read. Payne reached out to Hemingson. In an earlier SHOOT interview, Payne recalled telling him, “I read your pilot, I don’t want to make it. But would you consider writing something for me set in that world?” From that came a script for The Holdovers, adding to a body of television work for Hemingson which includes such series as Whiskey Cavalier and Kitchen Confidential. The latter was based on Anthony Bourdain’s memoir and starred Bradley Cooper. An episode of Kitchen Confidential yielded Hemingson a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award nomination back in 2006.

Reflecting on his transition from TV to feature filmmaking, Hemingson--who also served as a producer on The Holdovers--observed that the pilot for a TV series is akin to the first act, followed by a lengthy second act consisting of pretty much everything that happens after the pilot--as multiple episodes or seasons are spent escalating and relieving tension, putting the protagonist back on his/her/their heels and then giving that character some wins along the way. You’re building up relationships and then tearing them down for as long as the series lasts. The third act is the finale--taking the form of a single episode or season. The bottom line of all this, said Hemingson, is that you have “a huge amount of time to do your thing.”

In sharp contract, with a feature film, he continued, “You have to back all those dynamics up into a two-hour parking space.” Thus out of necessity, “you learn the value of economy, the value of silence.” Hemingson remarked that better understanding silence was “revelatory to me.” In the case of Randolph’s Oscar-nominated performance, Hemingson shared that there was a particular scene where he left the language for the actor to fill in, resulting in the “cleanest and most beautiful expression of this mother’s grief.” This collaborative trust in the crafting of a scene best honored the character’s heartache and sacrifice.

Hemingson expressed his gratitude to Payne for giving him “room to run,” helping him to adjust and adapt--to focus on how to best tell a story centered on three very different broken people who “come together in the season of miracles and heal each other.” Hemingson added that he had the good fortune to have those three people be played by Giamatti, Randolph and Sessa whose performances were stellar.

Also helping immeasurably in bringing The Holdovers script to life was the casting of the boarding school students. In addition to the impressive debut of Sessa as Tully, the four other students held over at Barton were Jason Smith (played by Michael Provost), a rich jock; Teddy Kountze (Brady Hefner), a bully; Ye-Joon Park (Jim Kaplan) whose family is in Korea; and Alex Ollerman (Ian Dolley) whose parents are on a religious pilgrimage for the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Eventually all the holdovers are rescued from holiday break purgatory at Barton--except for Tully. The entire ensemble of actors--especially these young adults--speak to Payne’s casting acumen in that finding the right teenagers to deliver believability and authenticity is a delicate proposition.

Hemingson described Payne as “an extraordinary artist and director.” The writer expressed his “love and friendship” for Payne as their collaborative relationship is happily continuing on another movie, this one a Western.

Laurent Sénéchal
For his work on Anatomy of a Fall (Neon), Laurent Sénéchal recently garnered his first career nominations for the Best Editing Oscar, ACE Eddie Award and BAFTA Film Award. His Oscar nod is one of five for Anatomy of a Fall--the others being for Best Picture, Director (Justine Triet), Lead Actress (Sandra Hüller) and Original Screenplay (Triet and Arthur Haran).

Hüller portrays a novelist, also named Sandra, whose husband Samuel (played by Samuel Theis) is found dead outside their chalet in the French Alps after plummeting from a top-floor window. Did he accidentally fall or was he pushed? A trial gets underway, putting the couple’s marital relationship--replete with fights, affairs and a roller coaster of emotions--under the magnifying glass.

Anatomy of a Fall adds to Triet and Sénéchal’s track record of collaboration, which includes teaming on the features In Bed With Victoria in 2016, and Sibyl in 2019--as well as their first go-around, the documentary Des ombres dans la maison, released in 2010. Sénéchal noted that auteurs often make the same movie differently. But Triet, he continued, wants and needs to do something dramatically different from anything she’s previously done. For Anatomy of a Fall, Triet sought to give the story a documentary feel. “We never worked that way before, towards that goal,” related Sénéchal.

The process was also different in that Sénéchal bypassed the early solo assembly step on Anatomy of a Fall. No cut was made before Triet joined Sénéchal in the editing room. Sénéchal explained that Triet wanted them to take the entire edit journey together. That journey spanned some nine months as they deliberated over 130 hours of rushes. “We had to refine and redefine a lot of things,” said Sénéchal who praised Triet for always listening “to what I feel, think and can provide. She wants to be in there with me where it’s happening.”

Part of what needed to happen in Anatomy of a Fall entailed a delicate balancing act. “The main thing we had to pay attention to was maintaining the ambiguity among the main characters,” related Sénéchal. There was also the matter of keeping viewers somewhat empathetic with Sandra but not giving the audience the answer. “You never know exactly if she is guilty or not, exactly what she’s thinking. It’s quite opaque from beginning to end--but also endearing.”

Then there’s the couple’s son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), a deceptively complex character who at first is a boy who wants to protect his mom. “After two hours of the movie, he becomes a main character,” said Sénéchal, identifying that as a substantive change of direction that takes hold over the film’s last 30 minutes or so.

Just as the audience is making discoveries during the course of the film--always given space to draw their own conclusions--so too, said Sénéchal, are he and Triet engaged in a discovery process. Despite all their planning, Sénéchal and Triet are always working to discover the movie. They have grown very attuned to one another over the years. “She’s really listening to every little thing--even my body language.” 

Sénéchal said this close rapport helps him better understand the relationship between other directors and editors who have teamed for many years on varied projects--a prime example being director Martin Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker. “It becomes easy to understand each other,” said Sénéchal, noting that Triet often reacts--accurately--to him even when he hasn’t said anything. “She says, ‘Your body is talking to me’ and she’s right. She’s listening to every little feeling I have--or that I’m about to have. The same is true for me when I’m working with her. I’m receptive to who she is, what she’s feeling and going through.”

Together by virtue of being on this same wavelength, he continued, “you will find out what you cannot figure out yet.”

Sénéchal added, “In the edit room, we are a strange couple.” He described Triet as “very intense to work with” yet “funny” at the same time. “She is the funniest person I know.”

The Oscar nominations bestowed upon Anatomy of a Fall were described by Sénéchal as “huge.” He said that he “could not have imagined” that a French director and editor would get Academy Award nominations,--for a project that also fetched a Best Picture nod. Sénéchal said he was particularly happy for Triet whose Best Director nomination is only the ninth in history for a woman.

Diane Warren
Diane Warren scored her latest Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for writing “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (Searchlight Pictures). It’s the lone nomination for the well-received Eva Longoria-directed film. But it’s the 15th career Academy Award nomination--and seventh straight--for songwriter Warren. She has yet to win the award--though she got an honorary Oscar in 2022

When Warren took the stage that year at the Governors Awards to accept the honorary Oscar, she uttered the words she had been waiting to say since her first nomination in 1988 (for the song “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from the movie Mannequin):  “I’d like to thank the Academy.” She went on to quip, as she looked at the golden statuette, “Mom, I finally found a man. I know you wanted him to be a nice Jewish boy but it’s really hard to tell.”

Warren noted that an honorary Oscar had never been given to a songwriter before. She’s proud of that distinction--just as she is of all 15 nominations. Warren regards being nominated as a high honor, noting that the Oscars represent “the gold standard for film music artists.” While it would be nice to finally win one in competition, Warren said she wouldn’t want to win if it meant not being nominated again. She would never make such a deal in exchange for coming up triumphant but once. The consistency demonstrated by multiple nominations over the years means the world to her--and she hopes to continue creating at that high level.

Warren feels a personal connection to Flamin’ Hot, which tells the inspiring true story of Richard Montañez (portrayed by Jesse Garcia) who as a Frito-Lay janitor disrupted the food industry by channeling his Mexican-American heritage to create Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, a snack which turned into an iconic global pop culture phenomenon. Warren feels a kindred spirit in Montañez, a person who bucked the odds, was doubted by others but was like “the little engine that could,” believing in himself and striving to achieve, not taking “no” for an answer. 

Warren encountered naysayers when she set out to make a living as a songwriter. And thus an anthem for Montañez came naturally to her. In fact, upon seeing the film, she wrote down the title “The Fire Inside.” She was drawn to the double meaning--the fire you feel when you eat Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and the passion or fire in one’s belly that “no one can put out.” That drove her creation of the song with lyrics that include, “Nothing can hold you back. No one can kill your vibe. When you got the fire inside.”

Looking back, Warren observed, “I’m writing the song for this movie and about Richard Montañez. I’m writing the song about me too.”

Performing “The Fire Inside” was multi-platinum, Latin Grammy-nominated singer Becky G. Warren observed, “When I do a song for a movie, I’m like a casting director for that song. The artist has to be authentic for that movie.” Becky G, affirmed Warren, was absolutely “the right artist” for “The Fire Inside.” She too came from a modest background to attain stardom. Warren added that when the singer was a little girl, she sold Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Fast forward to Flamin’ Hot and Becky G’s rendition  of the song helped movingly sell and advance the story of Montañez.

Warren loved working with Longoria, whose ascent to actor, producer and director as a Mexican-American woman also bucked the odds much like Montañez. “She’s a badass,” said Warren of Longoria, adding that she hopes to continue collaborating with the director.

Warren regards working on Flamin’ Hot as a privilege. “I loved seeing this man’s journey. A guy who came from nothing, with everything stacked against him. I came away being so proud of being a part of this movie. I’m proud of my song. So many people have told me it’s their ‘wake-up song’ every morning, that they find it inspiring.” 

Laura Karpman
Composer Laura Karpman--a seven-time Emmy nominee, winning in 2020 for an episode of Why We Hate--recently landed her first career Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score on the strength of her work on writer-director Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction (Amazon MGM Studios).

Asked to reflect on what it means to her to be an Oscar nominee, Karpman shared, “It’s such a gorgeous acknowledgment from the Academy’s Music Branch, my branch, my community.” She described an Oscar nomination as “a symbol of achievement that is so high and so rare. It’s an extraordinary feeling that I have not at all completely processed.”

Karpman’s nomination is one of five earned by American Fiction--the others being for Best Picture, Lead Actor (Jeffrey Wright), Supporting Actor (Sterling K. Brown) and Adapted Screenplay (Jefferson). American Fiction marks the directorial debut of Jefferson. It is based on the 2001 novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a professor of English literature. He is both a respected and frustrated novelist, fed up and disillusioned with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own which propels him to a lucrative publishing deal, the promise of a feature film adaptation--and in the process into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain. The cast also includes Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae and Erika Alexander.

At one point given the protagonist’s name--shared by the late, great jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk--Jefferson and Karpman contemplated a jazz score perhaps driven in part by Monk’s work. Early on, Karpman presented a couple of options--tapping into a piece arranged by Monk to score a scene, and then some original music. The latter proved to be the option that prevailed, providing the musical foundation for a storytelling arc that could help sustain the entire film. The bottom line was that American Fiction is such an original film--dramatic, comedic, satiric, tragic, touching on tough social issues as well as the issues within a family--that it required an original score, one that had the musical dexterity to navigate the diverse elements and emotional range of the story. 

Karpman said her ongoing discussions with Jefferson--whom she worked with for the first time on American Fiction--were invaluable. “The philosophical discussions behind the film were frequent and constant. How to shape the comedy. How we let people know it was okay to laugh. Should we be on the nose comedically? It was like we took the approach of Bunsen burners that we would heat up or turn down depending on what the film needed.”

While American Fiction was Jefferson’s first foray into features and directing, he is no stranger to critically acclaimed fare. For Watchmen, Jefferson won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series alongside Damon Lindelof. Jefferson’s writing credits also include Succession and the philosophical comedy, The Good Place--shows for which he garnered two Writers Guild Awards and an NAACP Image Award. His other work spans such shows as Station Eleven, Master of None, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and Survivor’s Remorse.

Karpman knew of Jefferson’s writing chops but added that he “didn’t feel like a first-time director” on American Fiction. "He was really solid in terms of what he wanted--and of course, his knowledge of the characters and their backstories. He had a complete and total vision of what the film was about. And we explored a lot together to see what the film needed musically.”

Karpman noted that Jefferson didn’t send her a script, instead asking her to come in and see the film itself. She quickly read Everett’s book prior to screening the film. Karpman described the book as “an absolute masterpiece,” adding that while reading it, she heard music, she heard the Monk character, she heard “the sound of thinking.” Next upon seeing Jefferson’s movie, “a spectacular adaptation of the book,” Karpman knew she had to do justice to the genius of both Everett and Jefferson.

“The book is stunning and goes deeper into the characters,” she said. Even though a long novel inherently contains more than a two-hour-or-so-long movie, Karpman explained she finds great value in reading and becoming familiar with the source material. “If something is based on a book, I want to read the book,” she affirmed, noting that composing music for a film is “an exercise in empathy.” Thus it’s prudent to know as much about the story and characters as humanly possible--even if they don’t wind up in the movie. “I want to know where they came from, their genesis.” All this helps to inform the music.

As for her biggest takeaways from American Fiction, Karpman shared, “I really want to continue working with smart, caring and great thinkers like Cord, [editor] Hilda Rasula and [producer] Nikos Karamigios.” Collaborating with considerate, thoughtful people is tantamount to being in “the best kind of summer camp,” said Karpman, adding, “You look for projects where you have the freedom, where you can be yourself, find part of your experience and existence as an artist and bring that to the film....in collaboration with other people who have different experiences.”  Karpman loves the dynamic of coming together as a team to develop and evolve the film, getting it to its best and final version.

(This is the 15th installment of The Road To Oscar, a 16-part weekly series. The 96th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10.)