Just a little piece of paper coated with chlorophyll

Die Fälscher (The counterfeiters)

Crit (2007)

The 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, but by my rules (date of U.S. theatrical release) the first contender for 2008 honors. And I gotta say, the critics who suggested that nothing the manifestly incompetent nominating committee nominated was remotely as good as, say, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days was unfair to this. Like that film, this one takes a subject everyone has strong feelings about--one that many of us have kneejerk feelings about--and introduces ambiguity that we're really uncomfortable with. And I'm always a fan of discomfort. Perhaps those Foreign Film bozos aren't quite as bozo-ish as I've been assuming.

Oh, but how about this for a paying-attention-to-end-credits bonus: Sally's paramour in the frame story is played by one Dolores Chaplin, granddaughter of Charles and Oona, thus great-granddaughter of Eugene O'Neill. And so I decided that my evening viewing should also be Holocaust-and-Chaplin-related.

Trailers

• Stop Loss--Second time I've seen this trailer and I can't decide whether I expect it to be harrowing or merely harridenish.
• Hors de prix (Priceless)--Oh boy! Amélie as a ho'! Most unpromising tagline of the year? You be the judge: "She dated only men with money until she met a man with a heart."