OWFilm World Cup Round 1: Austria vs. Russia

By Laurent Kelly / July 3, 2010

Voting has now ended on the Mexico vs. Denmark match;

Mexico (Amores Perros) 58% beat Denmark (Breaking The Waves) 42%.

First Round of OWFilm World Cup

This is the final of the first round matches with the winner of this fixture joining the remaining fifteen nations in the second round. Austria are represented by powerful war film The Counterfeiters and Russia led by the €˜father of montage€™ Sergei Eisenstein and his highly influential silent masterpiece The Battleship Potemkin. As always, you decide who goes through. Tale of the reel after the jump...

The Counterfeiters (2007)

OSCAR COUNT ( 1) IMDB (7.6) ROTTEN TOMATOES (94%) EMPIRE TOP 500 (Not listed)

Winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

A brilliant, compelling war film which presents a gripping moral dilemma and highlights some deeply important themes of loyalty, survival and honour. The acting is top notch and the film doesn€™t try and force the drama €“ rather letting symbolic language and powerful visuals tell the story. If I have one complaint then it is that I feel that the film could have been longer as ninety minutes was too limited a time-span to try and fully develop the characters and situation and thus make the drama more emotionally engaging. There were certain moments which I felt needed to be stressed more powerfully and I would have seen nothing wrong with a long and uninterrupted ten to fifteen minute extended scene in which the film€™s important moral question was truly put to the test€ As it was the pacing was pretty even throughout which meant that the more dramatic moments weren€™t able to stand out as well as they should have done. Still a resounding success however. INTERESTING FACT: In 2008, The Counterfeiters became the first film in the history of Austrian cinema to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

IMDB (8) ROTTEN TOMATOES (100%) EMPIRE TOP 500 (313th)

NB: The first Oscar ceremony was not held until May 16th, 1929. What more needs to be said about this fine work of art. It helped to define cinema as we know it today€ montage, individual frames, cross cutting€ and not used just for the sake of technical mastery but also to develop layers of emotion and metaphor within each sequence. The scenes in this film are still thought-provoking and intense and it is credit to the innovation of the film that it€™s most iconic moment featured on the oddysea steps sequence still tricks people into thinking that it is real documented footage. A perfect mixture of technical genius and an intelligent focus on human emotion is what made this film so striking at the time and is what still makes it resonate strongly today. INTERESTING FACT: The favourite film of director Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth, Falling Down, Flatliners and er, Batman & Robin) WRITER€™S VERDICT: I know I said in a recent post that the modern classics deserve more respect but when you€™re dealing with an old classic that helped to establish the foundations of modern cinema and which is still highly watchable almost ninety years after its release €“ you really just have to take your hat off. Battleship Potemkin deserves the nod here.