1st Movie World Cup – Second Round Results!

In keeping with the format laid out by the Soccer World Cup, 16 teams competed in a knock-out format in the second round of the Movie World Cup.

Rules for scoring in second-round and onwards until the Final:

1) Movies compete in 5 categories (Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography and Sound) earning either 0 or 1 point for each criteria.
-- If movie A has a better story than its opponent (movie B), then movie A gets 1 point and movie B gets 0.
-- However, if both movie A and movie B have good stories, then they each get 1 point each.
-- Also, if both have terrible stories, then the two movies get 0.

This scoring enables reasonable soccer scores like 3-2, 2-0 or even 0-0 (both movies failed on all 5 criteria).

2) If the score is tied after all the 5 categories, then a penalty shoot-out will be used with a single criteria – subjectivity. That means, I can freely give preference to a movie that I like without caring for its objective values. Is that fair? Well it is more fair than penalties are in the real soccer world cup!!

Here are the match-ups and results:

1A vs 2B – Germany vs England

German movie: Werner Herzog’s Signs of Life
English movie: Director Gary Wicks Endgame

This contest was not even close. It was a bit unfair because the English movie was thrown into the fire but the odd thing is that Signs of Life was Herzog’s first movie. Herzog’s 1968 film has some similarities with his last movie Grizzly Man . Both movies are about insanity, although the two films take a different approach to reach that conclusion. Grizzly Man is a documentary where Herzog narrates the camera footage that he discovered of Timothy Treadwell. Signs of Life is a scripted movie but it is told in a documentary format where a narrator tells of the slow transformation of Stroszek, a solider who gradually goes insane after he finds himself bored on an island. The beautifully shot black and white movie is told in documentary style and could easily be something constructed by assembling found camera footage of the incidents on the Greek island. The camera angles at times also give us the idea that the audience is looking from the outside and is never let in as to what is happening, something which is common when one is watching a documentary based on archival footage. Overall, Signs of Life is visually excellent with some very poetic shots. Easily a contender for best movie!

Final score: Germany 5 – 0 England
Goal scorers, Germany: Story, Acting, Direction, Cinematography, Sound
The German movie was strong in every department and ran the English movie off the pitch!

1B vs 2A – Sweden vs Poland

Swedish movie: Ingmar Bergman’s Persona
Poland: Andrzej Wajda’s Kanal

This was a really close contest. Persona is a critically loved movie and I can see why. But then again, I don’t think it is as good as it made out to be. Kanal on the other hand has a very dull start but once the story movies to the underground labyrinth of tunnels, the movie really kicks into gear. My biggest problem with Persona was that I believe all the clever abstract elements were wasted on a dull story; the movie ensures that the viewer knows at all times that they are watching a film -- the start gives the viewer a glimpse of the evolution of cinema, the middle has the screen split in half as if the projector chewed up the film, and near the end, the camera shifts back to the camera crew showing the movie being shot. Now, these are great elements but the story of the two women trying to outwit each other just didn’t appeal to me.

Final Score: Sweden 2 – 3 Poland
Goals, Sweden: Acting, Direction
Goals, Poland: Cinematography, Story, Sound

1C vs 2D – Argentina vs Portugal

Argentina – Director Héctor Olivera’s A Shadow you soon will be
Portugal - Director Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home

This was a very close contest but in the end, ‘subjectivity’ penalty kicks had to decide the contest. Personally, I loved the Argentine movie. I felt this was a poor man’s version of the sentiments that the 2005 Brazilian movie Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures echoed. Both the Argentine and Brazilian movies had similar ideas of men setting out into the unknown, escaping and seeking. In the Argentine movie, the main character returns home only to find himself thrust into a chaotic circus surrounded by colorful eccentric characters who are seeking to live their life to the fullest, even if that means living in the past, dreaming about the future or merely driving away the present. The Portuguese movie, I’m Going Home is in French and is a technically polished movie with high caliber acting. However, I didn’t agree with the director’s vision of packing the movie with plenty of staged dramatic scenes to convey the main character’s love of theatre over other aspects of his life.

Final Score: Argentina 3 – 3 Portugal, Argentina win on Penalties
Goals, Argentina: Story, Direction, Sound. Penalty: Subjectivity
Goals, Portugal: Direction, Acting, Cinematography

1D vs 2C – Iran vs Holland

Iran – Director Abbas Kiarostami’s And Life Goes On
Holland - Director Paul Verhoeven’s Turkish Delight

Two completely different movies, two completely different styles! The Iranian style was slow but the Dutch were pacy and only slowed down near the end when they knew the victory was in the bag. And Life Goes On turned out to be appropriate pick because it does talk about the Soccer World Cup – the films showed that despite having an earthquake level out cities, some people still wanted to watch the soccer World Cup because it came only every 4 years. However, as the movie’s actor told one person, an earthquake was more critical because it could only occur once every 40 years!

Final Score: Iran 4 – 5 Holland
Goals, Iran: Story, Acting, Direction, Cinematography
Goals, Holland: Story, Acting, Direction, Cinematography, Sound,

1E vs 2F – USA vs Japan

USA - Director David Dobkin's Wedding Crashers
Japan – Director Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan

Wedding Crashers were able to power their way out of their group in the first round but they stood no chance against the award-winning stylish Japanese movie.

Final Score: USA 1 – 4 Japan
Goals, USA: Acting
Goals, Japan: Story, Direction, Cinematography, Sound

1F vs 2E – Brazil vs Italy

Brazil - Director Vicente Amorim's The Middle of the World
Italy - Director Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow

What a colourful contest! The Italian movie, unlike the Italian soccer team, showed plenty of energy. However all of Benigni’s energy was not enough to channel enough goals to overcome the technically polished Brazilian movie. It felt as though Benigni was trying to carve out another feel good movie along the lines of Life is Beautiful but this time the hollow story didn’t stand strong.

Final Score: Brazil 5 – 2 Italy
Goals, Brazil: Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography, Sound
Goals, Italy: Acting, Sound

1G vs 2H – Korea vs Tunisia

South Korea - Director Chan-wook Park's Lady Vengeance
Tunisia -- Director Raja Amari's Satin Rouge

Both movies were very good and quite different from each other. In the end, tt was a very close contest and the final decision was a tough one.

Final Score: Korea 5 – 4 Tunisia
Goals, Korea: Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography, Sound
Goals, Tunisia: Acting, Story, Direction, Sound

1H vs 2G – Spain vs France

Spain -- Director Achero Mañas's El Bola
France – Director Pierre Jolive’s In all Innocence

This is the only tie that is similar in both movie and Soccer World Cup. The soccer game will be a tight encounter but the movie contest was not as close.

Final Score: Spain 5 – 2 France
Goals, Spain: Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography, Sound
Goals, France: Acting, Cinematography

1st Movie World Cup – First Round Results!

The first round of both the FIFA World Cup and Movie World Cup have been completed. Here are the final results and comparisons of both (Note: the top two teams advance from the 8 Groups, A - H):

FIFA World Cup First Round Results:

Teams advancing -- Germany (1st in Group A), Ecuador (2nd in Group A), England (1B), Sweden (2B), Argentina (1C), Holland (2C), Portugal (1D), Mexico (2D), Italy (1E), Ghana (2E), Brazil (1F), Australia (2F), Switzerland (1G), France (2G), Spain (1H), Ukraine (2H)

Movie World Cup First Round Results (Note: There were a total of 22 movies from the 32 countries involved):

Movies advancing: Germany (1A), Poland (2A), Sweden (1B), England (2B), Argentina (1C), Holland (2C), Iran (1D), Portugal (2D), USA (1E), Italy (2E), Brazil (1F), Japan (2F), Korea (1G), France (2G), Spain (1H), Tunisia (2H)

Comparison: 10 Countries overlap in both Soccer and Movie World Cup. Out of those, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Spain have first place in both cases and Holland and France take second place in both. Only One of the second round matches is the exact same in both the movie and soccer world cup -- Spain vs France.

Group A – Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Germany, Signs of Life, 3
Poland, Kanal, 1
Costa Rica, 0
Ecuador, 0

Germany advance in First place with 3 points. Poland take Second Place with 1 point.

Group B – England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Sweden, Persona, 3
England, Endgame, 1
Paraguay, 0
Trinidad & Tobago, 0

Group C – Argentina, Ivory Coast, Holland, Serbia& Montenegro

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Argentina, A Shadow you soon will be, 3
Holland, Turkish Delight, 3
Serbia, The Wounds, 1
Ivory Coast, 0

A tough group but Argentina take first place over Holland on goal difference.

Group D – Mexico, Iran, Portugal, Angola

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Iran, And Life Goes On, 3
Portugal, I'm Going Home, 3
Mexico, In the Middle of Nowhere, 1
Angola, 0

Group E – US, Czech Republic, Italy, Ghana

The tightest group in the World Cup ends up being a dud when it comes to the movie world cup. The most commerical choice in this group ended up crashing the party and advances as top of the group into the next round -- Wedding Crashers was the most unlikely choice but it worked in what it tried to achieve, which was not much to begin with but it delievered a few laughs. The biggest disappointment for me was Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow. No one can dispute the amazing energy Benigni brings to his work but this movie just didn't click. In a soccer game, you can have players with tons of pace but if they can't direct the ball into the net, then all their running amounts to nothing. Which is the same thing I felt about Benigni's work -- too much energy but no end product. Every now and then, you saw glimpses of brilliance and even at the end, I expected things to turn out completely but that was not the option taken. The story was not a fable no matter how much I interpret it to be and as a result, I felt it was a let down. The Czech movie had plenty of promise but I felt the joke was really on the audience. I have Milan Kudera's book by the same name and I am sure the book is great but the movie was bland. In the World Cup as well, the Czech team had so much promise but their efforts fizzled out after the second game. So here are the final standings:

USA, Wedding Crashers, 3
Italy, The Tiger and the Snow, 1
Czech Republic, The Joke, 1
Ghana, 0

Group F – Australia, Japan, Brazil, Croatia

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Brazil , The Middle of the World, 3
Japan, Kwaidan, 3
Australia, He died with a Felafel in his hand, 1
Croatia, Witnesses, 1

Brazil take first place on goal difference.

Group G – South Korea, Togo, France, Switzerland

France finally got their act together in the World Cup and it was because the coach finally made the right selections. As far as the movie cup goes, both France and Korea had strong showings. The Swiss doc was disappointing even though it was a very good effort. It came down to my lack of interest in the topic about the Tibetan Saltmen and since I had seen similar documentaries in the last few years about that part of the world, it didn't seem anything new. In the end, the Korean movie edged out the French movie on goal difference. I never finished watching Lady Vengeance the first time around so I decided to give it a second chance. I am glad I did because it is a very good movie. It is slow at times but manages to show flashes of brilliance throughtout to stay the course. The French movie has good pace (not as good as Thierry Henry's) and is technicall good but the predictable story line loses the fizzle near the end.

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Korea , Lady Vengeance, 3
France, In all Innocence, 3
Switzerland, The Saltmen of Tibet, 1
Togo, 0

Group H – Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

Final Standings (Country, Movie, Total Points)
Spain , El Bola, 3
Tunisia, Satin Rouge, 3
Ukraine, 0
Saudi Arabia, 0

A very tight duel between Spain and Tunisia but Spain narrowly take first place with the slightest goal difference.

1st Movie World Cup!!!

Ah the craziness starts again! That insane game of futbol is here again to dominate a month in the lives of calcio fans everywhere. But honestly, this is the first time since 1990 that I am not that excited. A huge reason for my lack of enthusiasm is the dull rigged 2002 World Cup. Back then, most of the top players from the European leagues were exhausted by the time the World Cup started. After all, they only had 2 weeks break between the end of their hectic European season and the start of the tournament. As a result, the big teams went out early and other matches were tainted by inept refereeing. So I am a bit cautious about this year’s tournament which starts on Friday, June 9. In order to enhance my football watching experience, I decided to have my own Movie World Cup as the tournament goes on. The rules are simple:

1) Pick a movie from each of the 32 countries playing in the tournament. The first choice is to pick a feature length film. But if no feature can be found, then a documentary from the country will suffice as well.

2) The movies will be put into groups as per the tournament itself. In the World Cup, 32 teams are divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each. The top 2 teams from each group advance to the round of 16, from where the tournament switches to a knock-out format. Meaning, there will be 8 matches in the round of 16, 8 teams would advance to the quarter-finals, 4 to the semi’s and 2 to the final!

3) Once the top 2 movies advance from each group, the movies will compete in the same format as the world cup knockout stage. For example, the movie from top of Group A will play the 2nd place movie in Group B.

4) In the World Cup, each team plays 3 games in the group stage. However, only one movie will be used for the duration of the tournament.

5) Using the pointing system from the World Cup, each movie can get either 3 points (for a good movie), 1 point (average movie) or 0 points (bad film) for their entry.

6) In cases, where a country has no movie entry, it will be defaulted to 0 points.

7) Since the group stage concludes by June 23, all candidate movies should be viewed by June 24!

Sounds easier than it really is. Out of the 32 countries, it will be hard to track down entries for atleast 11 participants. Nations such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia aren’t exactly thriving movie industries. In fact, as per imdb.com, Saudi Arabia only made its first length feature this year (on top of that, since the movie was shot in Dubai, it was only recently released in the U.A.E. Chances are that movie has no English subtitles and won’t make it to North America). But the key thing is to find atleast movies for 2 of the countries in each of the 8 groups. That way, there is a chance to go ahead with 16 movies in the next round. And even if a group only has 2 movies, it is still important to rate the movies because if a good movies finishes 2nd in its group, it could get knocked out if it meets a stronger movie in the next round. For example, the 2nd place team from Group E meets the Winner of Group F. Group E consists of Italy, Czech Republic, Ghana, USA; Group F has Brazil, Croatia, Japan, Australia. So potentially you could have a second round where an Italian movie takes on a Brazilian movie or a Brazilian movie goes against the US entry.

I still have not selected all the movies, but I will list the groups (as per the World Cup) and some of the movies I have picked so far. Regarding the selections, I didn’t use a pattern to pick films from each country. Meaning I didn’t try to go for big name directors, award winners or any specific genre. I picked the first movie I could find from each country. Ok I admit, in some cases, it was not the first movie. But I only wanted to pick movies I had never seen or in most cases never heard of. Just like there are surprize results in every World Cup, I too wanted to be shocked by some of my picks.

Note: I will also be comparing how my movie world cup results compare to the actual football games results.

Group A – Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador

Germany – Director Werner Herzog's Signs of Life . I had to find another movie because my original picked German language movie, Michael Haneke's Funny Games , turned out to be an Austrian movie.

Poland - Director Andrzej Wajda's Kanal

Group B – England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden

England -- Director Gary Wicks's Endgame
Sweden -- Director Ingmar Bergman's Persona

Group C – Argentina, Ivory Coast, Holland, Serbia& Montenegro


Argentina – Director Héctor Olivera’s A Shadow you soon will be
Holland – Director Paul Verhoeven’s Turkish Delight
Serbia – Director Srdjan Dragojevic's The Wounds .

Initially, I had come across the Serbian co-production Somebody’s Else America but I never finished watching it, so it would have been unfair to use that. Even though The Wounds is a German movie, it is a Serbian language movie.

Group D – Mexico, Iran, Portugal, Angola


Iran – Director Abbas Kiarostami’s And Life Goes On
Mexico – Director Hugo Rodríguez’s In the Middle of Nowhere
Portugal - Director Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home

Group E – US, Czech Republic, Italy, Ghana

Italy - Director Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow .
Of all the choices from Italy, this was an unexpected pick. I was debating between Fellini or Antonioni when I came upon this movie and since I had wanted to see this one, chose this instead.

Czech – Director Jaromil Jires’s The Joke
USA - Director David Dobkin's Wedding Crashers.

The most unlikely choice from the total 32 countries but I needed a light hearted brain dead movie to watch in the middle of all the intense soccer games and foreign movies. That being said, it is unfortunate I chose a commerical film from the country with the largest selection of movies around. But even though this selection will limit the USA's progession in the movie world cup, it is a decent selection. The rest depends on the other movies in this group.

Group F – Australia, Japan, Brazil, Croatia

Brazil - Director Vicente Amorim's In the Middle of the World
Japan – Director Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan
Croatia - Director Vinko Bresan's Witnesses .

I am breaking my rule here in that I am dragging a movie which I had seen previously. But this seemed easier than finding another movie from Croatia.

Australia - Director Richard Lowenstein's He died with a Felafel in his hand.

Once again, I am dragging a previously viewed movie into the running.


Group G – South Korea, Togo, France, Switzerland

France – Director Pierre Jolive’s In all Innocence
South Korea - Director Chan-wook Park's Lady Vengeance .

I wanted to go back and finish watching this movie properly and here's my chance.

Switzerland - Director Ulrike Koch's The Saltmen of Tibet .

This documentary is probably the most unlike choice for a Swiss movie but given that I was having a hard time finding Swiss movies, this German/Swiss co-production had to do.

Group H – Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

Spain -- Director Achero Mañas's El Bola
Tunisia -- Director Raja Amari's Satin Rouge