Venue: Sydney Film Festival
In the stunning docu-drama "Rain of the Children", New Zealand-born filmmaker Vincent Ward revisits the past to unravel a mystery that's niggled at him for three decades. Here meticulous research reveals the family secrets burdening the stooped old Maori woman who was, in fact, the subject of Ward's 1978 observational film "In Spring One Plants Alone". It's a masterful companion piece -- a kind of marathon director's cut -- but it also stands alone as a haunting historical epic. "Rain" is guaranteed a warm Art House reception.
Ward introduces us to his 21-year-old self with amusement. Back then he was an earnest art student, who lived with 80-year-old Puhi and her mentally ill adult son, Niki, in the remote ranges of New Zealand's north island. He recorded striking images of this old woman scratching out a lonely existence and fussing over her son. But he sensed a troubling undercurrent and, 30 years later, set out to discover what it was she was trying to chase away with her ceaseless praying.
Combining early photographs, personal narration, interviews with descendants of her tribe and gloriously shot re-enactments, Ward paints a portrait of a remarkable woman who believed she was cursed -- and for good reason.
After being chosen by the Maori prophet Rua Kenana to marry his son, she fell pregnant at the age of 14. Over the years, she had another 13 children, all but one of whom either died or was taken from her. Niki was her only surviving child.
It's a tragic tale, compelling in its personal detail and almost mythic in its sweep. As he showed in "Map of the Human Heart", Ward is a romantic, but here he undertakes an almost forensic exploration of both rational and mystical interpretations.
Is Puhi cursed, as much of her tribe believes, or the victim of bad luck? Was her son brain-damaged in an accident or truly visited by demons? Ward communicates through grand gestures and indelible images: The stark beauty of a White Horse standing watch over a suddenly orphaned Niki is not soon forgotten.
Production companies: Wayward Films, Forward Films and Vincent Ward Films. Cast: Puhi Tatu, Niki Takao, Temuera Morrison, Rena Owen, Miriama Rangi. Director: Vincent Ward. Screenwriters: Vincent Ward, Alison Carter and Louis Nowra. Producers: Margaret Slater, Tainui Stephens and Vincent Ward. Director of photography: Adam Clark, Leon Narbey. Production designer: Shayne Radford. Music: Jack Body and John Gibson. Costume designer: Pauline Bowkett, Gavin McLean. Editor: Chris Plummer. Sales agent: New Zealand Film Commission/Rialto.
No MPAA rating, 98 minutes.
In the stunning docu-drama "Rain of the Children", New Zealand-born filmmaker Vincent Ward revisits the past to unravel a mystery that's niggled at him for three decades. Here meticulous research reveals the family secrets burdening the stooped old Maori woman who was, in fact, the subject of Ward's 1978 observational film "In Spring One Plants Alone". It's a masterful companion piece -- a kind of marathon director's cut -- but it also stands alone as a haunting historical epic. "Rain" is guaranteed a warm Art House reception.
Ward introduces us to his 21-year-old self with amusement. Back then he was an earnest art student, who lived with 80-year-old Puhi and her mentally ill adult son, Niki, in the remote ranges of New Zealand's north island. He recorded striking images of this old woman scratching out a lonely existence and fussing over her son. But he sensed a troubling undercurrent and, 30 years later, set out to discover what it was she was trying to chase away with her ceaseless praying.
Combining early photographs, personal narration, interviews with descendants of her tribe and gloriously shot re-enactments, Ward paints a portrait of a remarkable woman who believed she was cursed -- and for good reason.
After being chosen by the Maori prophet Rua Kenana to marry his son, she fell pregnant at the age of 14. Over the years, she had another 13 children, all but one of whom either died or was taken from her. Niki was her only surviving child.
It's a tragic tale, compelling in its personal detail and almost mythic in its sweep. As he showed in "Map of the Human Heart", Ward is a romantic, but here he undertakes an almost forensic exploration of both rational and mystical interpretations.
Is Puhi cursed, as much of her tribe believes, or the victim of bad luck? Was her son brain-damaged in an accident or truly visited by demons? Ward communicates through grand gestures and indelible images: The stark beauty of a White Horse standing watch over a suddenly orphaned Niki is not soon forgotten.
Production companies: Wayward Films, Forward Films and Vincent Ward Films. Cast: Puhi Tatu, Niki Takao, Temuera Morrison, Rena Owen, Miriama Rangi. Director: Vincent Ward. Screenwriters: Vincent Ward, Alison Carter and Louis Nowra. Producers: Margaret Slater, Tainui Stephens and Vincent Ward. Director of photography: Adam Clark, Leon Narbey. Production designer: Shayne Radford. Music: Jack Body and John Gibson. Costume designer: Pauline Bowkett, Gavin McLean. Editor: Chris Plummer. Sales agent: New Zealand Film Commission/Rialto.
No MPAA rating, 98 minutes.
- 6/30/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- German film vet Rainer Kolmel has rebranded his Kinowelt Filmproduktion production outfit, dubbing the German-language shingle Starhaus Filmproduktion and rolling out a new slate of Art House drama and documentary projects.
The name change was necessary after Kolmel and his brother Michael sold the bulk of the Kinowelt group to StudioCanal in January for 70 million euros ($110 million). Kolmel's German production operation wasn't included in the deal. Starhaus, however, retains a first-look deal with Kinowelt's German distribution operation.
Rainer Kolmel will run Starhaus with Wasiliki Bleser.
Among the projects planned under the new label include a documentary on chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, the drama "Mauer des Schweigens" (Wall of Silence) from Winfried Bonengel and "Feuertanz", a thriller penned by Peter Probst, one of Germany's most successful TV drama writers.
The name change was necessary after Kolmel and his brother Michael sold the bulk of the Kinowelt group to StudioCanal in January for 70 million euros ($110 million). Kolmel's German production operation wasn't included in the deal. Starhaus, however, retains a first-look deal with Kinowelt's German distribution operation.
Rainer Kolmel will run Starhaus with Wasiliki Bleser.
Among the projects planned under the new label include a documentary on chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, the drama "Mauer des Schweigens" (Wall of Silence) from Winfried Bonengel and "Feuertanz", a thriller penned by Peter Probst, one of Germany's most successful TV drama writers.
- 6/30/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Francisco International Film Festival
SAN FRANCISCO --Writer/director Mia Hansen-Love's first feature, "All is Forgiven", a keenly observed study in intimacy that has the rhythm and feel of real life, announces the arrival of an intriguing sensibility. Technically accomplished and finely acted without artifice by a talented ensemble cast, it's an astutely written, mature work in its content, understated, naturalistic style and sensitive rendering of complex emotion.
A sudden, inconclusive ending that comes out of left field will leave some unsatisfied. Plus an ostensibly depressing subject, the disintegration of a family, could limit its Art House potential in the U.S. This slice of life picture, punctuated by poetry and cultural discourse, may fare better in European markets and on the festival circuit.
Playing Victor, a feckless aspiring poet coasting through life on little more than boyish good looks and charm, actor Paul Blain reveals the fault lines underneath his character's amiable, sometimes volatile demeanor. When Victor descends into the drug addiction, which inevitably destroys his relationship with his exasperated Austrian wife, Annette (Marie-Christine Friedrich), and his young daughter, Pamela (Victoire Rousseau), it seems like a natural progression. Unfolding with minimal exposition, the story, set in Vienna and Paris, picks up 11 years later with Pamela (Constance Rousseau, Victoire's older sister), now a young woman, warily reuniting with her father after a long estrangement. The reading aloud of letters between them, a conceit that could bring the film to a halt, is handled with finesse. Rousseau, a shimmering, delicate beauty, brings a combination of tentativeness and resolve to Pamela, a product of a fractious home embarking on her own life. Production designers Sophie Reynaud and Thierry Poulet get the telling accoutrements just right, from the rambling chaos of the bourgeois family residence to a struggling couple's suffocating apartment. Pascal Auffray's luminous cinematography, shot through with painterly light, brings to mind the pastoral idylls and muted urban landscapes of the Impressionists.
Wistful folk songs underscore the sorrow of missed connections, a condition that plagues Hansen-Love's intelligent, wounded characters.
Production Company: Les Films Pelleas. Cast: Paul Blain, Marie-Christine Friedrich, Victoire Rousseau, Constance Rousseau, Carole Franck, Olivia Ross. Director: Mia Hansen-Love. Screenwriters: Mia Hansen-Love. Executive Producers: not listed. Producer: David Thion. Director of Photography: Pascal Auffray. Production Designer: Sophie Reynaud, Thierry Poulet. Music: not listed. Costume Designer: Eleonore O'Byrne, Sophie Lifshitz. Editor: Marion Monnier. Sales Agent: Pyramide International. No rating, 100 minutes.
SAN FRANCISCO --Writer/director Mia Hansen-Love's first feature, "All is Forgiven", a keenly observed study in intimacy that has the rhythm and feel of real life, announces the arrival of an intriguing sensibility. Technically accomplished and finely acted without artifice by a talented ensemble cast, it's an astutely written, mature work in its content, understated, naturalistic style and sensitive rendering of complex emotion.
A sudden, inconclusive ending that comes out of left field will leave some unsatisfied. Plus an ostensibly depressing subject, the disintegration of a family, could limit its Art House potential in the U.S. This slice of life picture, punctuated by poetry and cultural discourse, may fare better in European markets and on the festival circuit.
Playing Victor, a feckless aspiring poet coasting through life on little more than boyish good looks and charm, actor Paul Blain reveals the fault lines underneath his character's amiable, sometimes volatile demeanor. When Victor descends into the drug addiction, which inevitably destroys his relationship with his exasperated Austrian wife, Annette (Marie-Christine Friedrich), and his young daughter, Pamela (Victoire Rousseau), it seems like a natural progression. Unfolding with minimal exposition, the story, set in Vienna and Paris, picks up 11 years later with Pamela (Constance Rousseau, Victoire's older sister), now a young woman, warily reuniting with her father after a long estrangement. The reading aloud of letters between them, a conceit that could bring the film to a halt, is handled with finesse. Rousseau, a shimmering, delicate beauty, brings a combination of tentativeness and resolve to Pamela, a product of a fractious home embarking on her own life. Production designers Sophie Reynaud and Thierry Poulet get the telling accoutrements just right, from the rambling chaos of the bourgeois family residence to a struggling couple's suffocating apartment. Pascal Auffray's luminous cinematography, shot through with painterly light, brings to mind the pastoral idylls and muted urban landscapes of the Impressionists.
Wistful folk songs underscore the sorrow of missed connections, a condition that plagues Hansen-Love's intelligent, wounded characters.
Production Company: Les Films Pelleas. Cast: Paul Blain, Marie-Christine Friedrich, Victoire Rousseau, Constance Rousseau, Carole Franck, Olivia Ross. Director: Mia Hansen-Love. Screenwriters: Mia Hansen-Love. Executive Producers: not listed. Producer: David Thion. Director of Photography: Pascal Auffray. Production Designer: Sophie Reynaud, Thierry Poulet. Music: not listed. Costume Designer: Eleonore O'Byrne, Sophie Lifshitz. Editor: Marion Monnier. Sales Agent: Pyramide International. No rating, 100 minutes.
- 6/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
AMSTERDAM -- Dutch independent film distributor Cinemien has teamed with its Belgian partner, ABC Distribution, to launch the first portal for downloading Art House films in Benelux.
Under the banner Cinemalink.tv, the companies will offer a catalog consisting of some 250 titles, including such Art House hits as "Festen", "Kaos", "Swimming Pool" and "Good bye, Lenin!"
Cinemien plans to extend the catalog on a regular basis. The Amsterdam-based distributor also is looking for other partners to offer music on the Web site.
Under the banner Cinemalink.tv, the companies will offer a catalog consisting of some 250 titles, including such Art House hits as "Festen", "Kaos", "Swimming Pool" and "Good bye, Lenin!"
Cinemien plans to extend the catalog on a regular basis. The Amsterdam-based distributor also is looking for other partners to offer music on the Web site.
- 6/10/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Early fears that romantic comedies could not travel overseas were somewhat assuaged over the weekend as New Line's "Sex and the City" surged to the top of the international market and Fox's "What Happens in Vegas" hurdled past the $100 million mark.
In its second weekend, "Sex" edged out "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," pulling in $37.6 million from 5,708 screens in 40 markets compared with $36.5 million for the Paramount tentpole's third round on 7,519 screens in 53 territories. "Sex" reached an international cume of $91.5 million while "Indy" hit a lusty $325.1 million.
In Australia, where "Sex" debuted at No. 1 with $7.5 million, pirates served as indicators of what's hot at the boxoffice when police raided two retailers in Sydney that were selling pirated copies of the film two days before the opening. Nevertheless, many theaters in major Aussie cities reported sellout audiences on opening day, with many showings extended to movie houses that normally play Art House fare.
In Hong Kong, women flocked to see the racy film, which was categorized as restricted to persons over 18. About 75% of the audience were women in their 30s and 40s who dressed up for the occasion and attended in groups, according to Joe Li, manager of the IFC Palace Theater in central Hong Kong's multinational business hub.
In South Korea, young women flocked to theaters largely devoid of men and ooh'd and ahh'd at each dress, high heel and closet full of clothes, according to reports.
In its second weekend, "Sex" edged out "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," pulling in $37.6 million from 5,708 screens in 40 markets compared with $36.5 million for the Paramount tentpole's third round on 7,519 screens in 53 territories. "Sex" reached an international cume of $91.5 million while "Indy" hit a lusty $325.1 million.
In Australia, where "Sex" debuted at No. 1 with $7.5 million, pirates served as indicators of what's hot at the boxoffice when police raided two retailers in Sydney that were selling pirated copies of the film two days before the opening. Nevertheless, many theaters in major Aussie cities reported sellout audiences on opening day, with many showings extended to movie houses that normally play Art House fare.
In Hong Kong, women flocked to see the racy film, which was categorized as restricted to persons over 18. About 75% of the audience were women in their 30s and 40s who dressed up for the occasion and attended in groups, according to Joe Li, manager of the IFC Palace Theater in central Hong Kong's multinational business hub.
In South Korea, young women flocked to theaters largely devoid of men and ooh'd and ahh'd at each dress, high heel and closet full of clothes, according to reports.
Opened: Friday, May 30, in New York (Outsider Pictures/Medusa Film).
Fans of such Guiseppe Tornatore films as "Cinema Paradiso" and "Malena" are apt to be left chagrined by this latest effort, a stylish but ludicrous thriller in the Hitchcock vein. The winner of five Italian David de Donatello Awards, including deserved ones for its cinematography and musical score by the great Ennio Morricone, "The Unknown Woman" is ultimately too sleazy to garner much Art House interest on these shores.
Tornatore's twisty, flashback-laden script centers on Irena (Xenia Rappoport), a beautiful Ukrainian who has relocated to a Northern Italian City. Haunted by memories of her past as a prostitute who was abused by her brutal pimp (Michele Placido) and forced to deliver a series of babies destined for the black market, she is now a woman on a mission.
That mission, only gradually revealed, revolves around an upscale married couple (Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudia Gerini) and their 4-year-old daughter, Thea (Clara Dossena). Managing to insert herself into their household as a domestic servant through means like pushing their current maid Piera Degli Esposti) down the stairs with near-fatal results, Irena takes a powerful interest in the little girl, who possesses a near-pathological inability to stand up to the bullies tormenting her at school.
Absorbing in its subtler, more mysterious first half, the film becomes increasingly absurd the more its plot machinations get revealed. The director does, however, demonstrate a real ability to create quietly suspenseful sequences, the best of which involves Irena's desperate efforts to make a copy of a vital key without making its owner aware of the subterfuge.
The film's narrative deficiencies are partially offset by such factors as Rappoport's consistently riveting performance, the spookily atmospheric visuals and a score by Morricone that not so subtly resembles the sort of great work done by Bernard Herrmann.
Cast: Xenia Rappoport, Michele Placido, Claudia Gerini, Pierfrancesco Favino, Clara Dossena, Margheria Buy, Piera Degli Espositi, Allesandro Haber. Director-Screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore. Producer: Laura Fattori. No MPAA rating, 118 minutes. Director of Photography: Fabio Zamarion. Production Designer: Tonino Zera. Music: Ennio Morricone. Costume Designer: Nicoletta Ercole. Editor: Massimo Quaglia.
Fans of such Guiseppe Tornatore films as "Cinema Paradiso" and "Malena" are apt to be left chagrined by this latest effort, a stylish but ludicrous thriller in the Hitchcock vein. The winner of five Italian David de Donatello Awards, including deserved ones for its cinematography and musical score by the great Ennio Morricone, "The Unknown Woman" is ultimately too sleazy to garner much Art House interest on these shores.
Tornatore's twisty, flashback-laden script centers on Irena (Xenia Rappoport), a beautiful Ukrainian who has relocated to a Northern Italian City. Haunted by memories of her past as a prostitute who was abused by her brutal pimp (Michele Placido) and forced to deliver a series of babies destined for the black market, she is now a woman on a mission.
That mission, only gradually revealed, revolves around an upscale married couple (Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudia Gerini) and their 4-year-old daughter, Thea (Clara Dossena). Managing to insert herself into their household as a domestic servant through means like pushing their current maid Piera Degli Esposti) down the stairs with near-fatal results, Irena takes a powerful interest in the little girl, who possesses a near-pathological inability to stand up to the bullies tormenting her at school.
Absorbing in its subtler, more mysterious first half, the film becomes increasingly absurd the more its plot machinations get revealed. The director does, however, demonstrate a real ability to create quietly suspenseful sequences, the best of which involves Irena's desperate efforts to make a copy of a vital key without making its owner aware of the subterfuge.
The film's narrative deficiencies are partially offset by such factors as Rappoport's consistently riveting performance, the spookily atmospheric visuals and a score by Morricone that not so subtly resembles the sort of great work done by Bernard Herrmann.
Cast: Xenia Rappoport, Michele Placido, Claudia Gerini, Pierfrancesco Favino, Clara Dossena, Margheria Buy, Piera Degli Espositi, Allesandro Haber. Director-Screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore. Producer: Laura Fattori. No MPAA rating, 118 minutes. Director of Photography: Fabio Zamarion. Production Designer: Tonino Zera. Music: Ennio Morricone. Costume Designer: Nicoletta Ercole. Editor: Massimo Quaglia.
Opens: Friday, May 23 (Sony Pictures Classics)
Full of incident but nearly devoid of dramatic tension, "The Children of Huang Shi" is a based-on-fact saga that has lost much of its power on the long road to the screen.
The story of an unlikely British hero in 1930s China clearly was a huge undertaking on Chinese locations and backlots, but director Roger Spottiswoode only occasionally achieves the historical sweep and intimate romance for which he strives. The China-Australia-Germany production finally is more admirable than affecting. Despite its big-screen beauty, this Art House entry is not destined to carve out an epic profile at the boxoffice.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers is effective, if lacking in heft, in the underwritten role of George Hogg. Seeking adventure, the young British reporter arrives in 1937 Shanghai to cover the Sino-Japanese War and ends up leading 60-odd orphans on an arduous trek to safety. His exploits begin when, after sneaking into Nanjing with a colleague (David Wenham), he witnesses a massacre of civilians by the occupying Japanese and is caught with a camera full of photographic evidence.
In their images of war's devastation, these early scenes bear a timeless poignancy, Zhao Xiaoding's eloquent lens prowling the shadows of production designer Steven Jones-Evans' rubble-strewn streets. But the emotional impact is dulled by mechanical, choppy storytelling. Most audiences might not have an immediate grasp of the period, but the history lessons are all too thinly disguised as dialogue.
Providing some of that helpful background info is Chow Yun Fat, underused as Chen, a West Point-educated engineer who leads a group of Communist rebels and saves Hogg from execution by the Japanese. He also puts him in the care of Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell), an American Red Cross nurse who suggests that the wounded Brit hole up in the remote northwestern village of Huang Shi.
Chen wants Hogg to learn Mandarin so he can be of more help to the cause; Lee wants him to oversee a boys' orphanage. Over a vague passage of time, he does both, in the process falling for the tough but haunted Lee. In Hogg's mission to refurbish the dilapidated orphanage, he finds an ally in an elegant businesswoman (a slim role for Michelle Yeoh). Like most of what transpires onscreen, Hogg's growing bond with the children, even a recalcitrant teen (Guang Li) is suggested rather than felt.
To protect his charges from the advancing Japanese and the Nationalists, who view all boys as potential soldiers, Hogg plans a daring 700-mile journey, and the story regains its footing, and a pulse. But it can't fully recover its dissipated energy.
Too often the script -- credited to James MacManus (whose 1985 Daily Telegraph article on Hogg brought his story to light in the West) and Jane Hawksley -- feels cobbled together from stock moments. Hogg, as written, is too transparent and uncomplicated a hero to inspire much audience involvement; the true emotional anchor is Mitchell's convincingly complex nurse. Her performance and the handsome widescreen camerawork by Zhao ("House of Flying Daggers") are the most potent elements of a less-than-potent mix.
Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, David Wenham, Guang Li. Director: Roger Spottiswoode. Screenwriters: James MacManus, Jane Hawksley. Executive producers: Taylor Thomson, Lillian Birnbaum. Rated R, 125 minutes.
Full of incident but nearly devoid of dramatic tension, "The Children of Huang Shi" is a based-on-fact saga that has lost much of its power on the long road to the screen.
The story of an unlikely British hero in 1930s China clearly was a huge undertaking on Chinese locations and backlots, but director Roger Spottiswoode only occasionally achieves the historical sweep and intimate romance for which he strives. The China-Australia-Germany production finally is more admirable than affecting. Despite its big-screen beauty, this Art House entry is not destined to carve out an epic profile at the boxoffice.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers is effective, if lacking in heft, in the underwritten role of George Hogg. Seeking adventure, the young British reporter arrives in 1937 Shanghai to cover the Sino-Japanese War and ends up leading 60-odd orphans on an arduous trek to safety. His exploits begin when, after sneaking into Nanjing with a colleague (David Wenham), he witnesses a massacre of civilians by the occupying Japanese and is caught with a camera full of photographic evidence.
In their images of war's devastation, these early scenes bear a timeless poignancy, Zhao Xiaoding's eloquent lens prowling the shadows of production designer Steven Jones-Evans' rubble-strewn streets. But the emotional impact is dulled by mechanical, choppy storytelling. Most audiences might not have an immediate grasp of the period, but the history lessons are all too thinly disguised as dialogue.
Providing some of that helpful background info is Chow Yun Fat, underused as Chen, a West Point-educated engineer who leads a group of Communist rebels and saves Hogg from execution by the Japanese. He also puts him in the care of Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell), an American Red Cross nurse who suggests that the wounded Brit hole up in the remote northwestern village of Huang Shi.
Chen wants Hogg to learn Mandarin so he can be of more help to the cause; Lee wants him to oversee a boys' orphanage. Over a vague passage of time, he does both, in the process falling for the tough but haunted Lee. In Hogg's mission to refurbish the dilapidated orphanage, he finds an ally in an elegant businesswoman (a slim role for Michelle Yeoh). Like most of what transpires onscreen, Hogg's growing bond with the children, even a recalcitrant teen (Guang Li) is suggested rather than felt.
To protect his charges from the advancing Japanese and the Nationalists, who view all boys as potential soldiers, Hogg plans a daring 700-mile journey, and the story regains its footing, and a pulse. But it can't fully recover its dissipated energy.
Too often the script -- credited to James MacManus (whose 1985 Daily Telegraph article on Hogg brought his story to light in the West) and Jane Hawksley -- feels cobbled together from stock moments. Hogg, as written, is too transparent and uncomplicated a hero to inspire much audience involvement; the true emotional anchor is Mitchell's convincingly complex nurse. Her performance and the handsome widescreen camerawork by Zhao ("House of Flying Daggers") are the most potent elements of a less-than-potent mix.
Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, David Wenham, Guang Li. Director: Roger Spottiswoode. Screenwriters: James MacManus, Jane Hawksley. Executive producers: Taylor Thomson, Lillian Birnbaum. Rated R, 125 minutes.
- 5/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lonely Tune of Tehran (Taraneh Tanhaiye Tehran), Cannes, Directors Fortnight
In a bad year for Iranian cinema, when even expected films by Abbas Kiarostami, Samira Makhmalbaf and Amir Naderi have failed to turn up at Cannes, "Lonely Tunes of Tehran" saves the good name of Iran with its touching tale of two lonely misfits struggling to survive in the asphalt jungle. Sensitively written, directed and produced by Saman Salour ("From the Land of Silence", "A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral"), this is a film that plucks the heartstrings while it effectively speaks for the masses of poor souls who can neither earn a living nor satisfy their unbearable longing for love. Fest prizes will help unleash its Art House potential.
Salour rolls the dice, and wins, on the unusual casting of leads Hamid (Hamid Habibifar) and Behrouz (Behrouz Jalili), respectively a midget and a giant, the first a cocky, sarcastic electrical engineer; the latter a taciturn, morose war veteran missing a few screws. Comic and dignified at the same time, this odd couple teams with the sweet-tempered driver of a dumpster (Mojtaba Bitarafan) to ply the dangerous trade of satellite dish installers, in a country where dishes are illegal and everyone owns one.
Hamid keeps up a non-stop stream of put-downs at poor Behrouz's expense, as they march up the hills to Tehran's wealthy neighborhoods and install rusty dishes on rooftops, slaving away but never earning enough to pay their rent. Economic woes come second, however, to the piercing loneliness each feels and their inability to find even a hint of love from the opposite sex.
As in Mohamad Ahmadi's "Poet of the Wastes", the main characters unrealistically fall for a beautiful lady they meet (Maryam Sabaghian), who becomes a focus for their fantasies. Salour skillfully plays them off each other, stopping just short of pathos until the final scene when he lets out the emotional stops, abetted by Mohammad Salarvand's touching musical score.
Story can be faulted for being too one-note, as most of the film is nothing more than a comic portrait of Hamid and Behrouz's bickering and bonding. Fortunately the pace of this 75-minute film is swift and even in translation the Persian dialog comes across as amusing.
Giving the proceedings a quality look is Touraj Aslani's superbly imaginative camerawork, which paints an unforgettable double portrait of Tehran both in its daytime, traffic-choked ferocity, and its peaceful nocturnal beauty.
Cast: Hamid Habibifar, Behrouz Jalili, Mojtaba Bitarafan, Maryam Sabaghian, Mohammad-Reza Salour, Mohammad Fassihi. Director: Saman Salour. Screenwriter: Saman Salour. Producers: Saman Salour, Nasrine Medard de Chardon. Director of photography: Touraj Aslani. Production designer: Saman Salour. Music: Mohammad Salarvand. Sound: Mohammad Shahverdi. Editor: Saman Salour
Sales Agent: DreamLab Films, France
No MPAA rating. 79 minutes.
In a bad year for Iranian cinema, when even expected films by Abbas Kiarostami, Samira Makhmalbaf and Amir Naderi have failed to turn up at Cannes, "Lonely Tunes of Tehran" saves the good name of Iran with its touching tale of two lonely misfits struggling to survive in the asphalt jungle. Sensitively written, directed and produced by Saman Salour ("From the Land of Silence", "A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral"), this is a film that plucks the heartstrings while it effectively speaks for the masses of poor souls who can neither earn a living nor satisfy their unbearable longing for love. Fest prizes will help unleash its Art House potential.
Salour rolls the dice, and wins, on the unusual casting of leads Hamid (Hamid Habibifar) and Behrouz (Behrouz Jalili), respectively a midget and a giant, the first a cocky, sarcastic electrical engineer; the latter a taciturn, morose war veteran missing a few screws. Comic and dignified at the same time, this odd couple teams with the sweet-tempered driver of a dumpster (Mojtaba Bitarafan) to ply the dangerous trade of satellite dish installers, in a country where dishes are illegal and everyone owns one.
Hamid keeps up a non-stop stream of put-downs at poor Behrouz's expense, as they march up the hills to Tehran's wealthy neighborhoods and install rusty dishes on rooftops, slaving away but never earning enough to pay their rent. Economic woes come second, however, to the piercing loneliness each feels and their inability to find even a hint of love from the opposite sex.
As in Mohamad Ahmadi's "Poet of the Wastes", the main characters unrealistically fall for a beautiful lady they meet (Maryam Sabaghian), who becomes a focus for their fantasies. Salour skillfully plays them off each other, stopping just short of pathos until the final scene when he lets out the emotional stops, abetted by Mohammad Salarvand's touching musical score.
Story can be faulted for being too one-note, as most of the film is nothing more than a comic portrait of Hamid and Behrouz's bickering and bonding. Fortunately the pace of this 75-minute film is swift and even in translation the Persian dialog comes across as amusing.
Giving the proceedings a quality look is Touraj Aslani's superbly imaginative camerawork, which paints an unforgettable double portrait of Tehran both in its daytime, traffic-choked ferocity, and its peaceful nocturnal beauty.
Cast: Hamid Habibifar, Behrouz Jalili, Mojtaba Bitarafan, Maryam Sabaghian, Mohammad-Reza Salour, Mohammad Fassihi. Director: Saman Salour. Screenwriter: Saman Salour. Producers: Saman Salour, Nasrine Medard de Chardon. Director of photography: Touraj Aslani. Production designer: Saman Salour. Music: Mohammad Salarvand. Sound: Mohammad Shahverdi. Editor: Saman Salour
Sales Agent: DreamLab Films, France
No MPAA rating. 79 minutes.
- 5/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film Review: Gomorra, Cannes, In Competition
Powerful, stripped to its very essence and featuring a spectacular cast (of mostly non-professionals), Matteo Garrone's sixth feature film "Gomorra" goes beyond Tarrantino's gratuitous violence and even Scorsese's Hollywood sensibility in depicting the everyday reality of organized crime's foot soldiers. The characters of the film's five stories all work for the Camorra - the Neapolitan "mafia" behind over 4,000 murders in 30 years in Italy, and countless illegal activities - and besides being extremely dangerous are relentless, petty and anything but wise.
Success at home is virtually guaranteed for "Gomorra" as it's based on Roberto Saviano's eponymous 2006 bestseller (1.2 million copies sold, translated into 33 languages) and the build-up to its release along with selection in competition at Cannes have created a huge buzz in Italy. Internationally, the film has sold to a handful of European territories so far, as well as Canada, though buyers are expected to grow significantly after Cannes.
"Gomorra" is one of the rare dramatic films to come out of Italy in recent years that has the appeal to play well theatrically, at least in Europe, and in festivals worldwide. In the U.S., it should play to the widest possible range of Art House audiences looking for a thinking person's mafia movie.
At times slow and documentary-like, "Gomorra" is tension-filled and highly realistic. (Author and co-screenwriter Saviano, 29, has been under police escort even since the book was published.) Shot predominantly in Naples' Scampia neighborhood - an architectural nightmare of enormous rundown apartment blocks - the film never caters to those looking for the kind of adrenaline or over-the-top humor or glamor that's come to be associated with the genre.
Garrone neither judges nor idolizes in his sober approach, and restrains from too many other indulgences, artistic or formulaic, beyond handheld camera work and numerous close-ups. And the faces he chooses, predominantly people plucked from the streets on which he films, make most movie mafiosos look like models.
Even the film's soundtrack (Neapolitan pop music, sparingly used) adds to the overall feel of background rather than imposing a mood. Garrone also makes use of total silence and, rather than coming across as a manipulative film school trick, it only enhances particularly emotional scenes.
Apart from the film's most notable star, Toni Servillo, other standout performances come from Gianfelice Imparatore, Salvatore Cantalupo, Carmine Paternoster and 13-year-old Salvatore Abruzzese.
Cast: Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo, Gigio Morra, Salvatore Abruzzese, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone, Carmine Paternoster. Director: Matteo Garrone. Screenwriters: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano. Producer: Domenico Procacci. Director of photography: Marco Onorato. Production designer: Paolo Bonfini. Costume designer: Alessandra Cardini. Editor: Marco Spoletini.
Production companies: Fandango, RAI Cinema
Sales Agent: Fandango Portobello Sales
No MPAA rating, 135 minutes.
Powerful, stripped to its very essence and featuring a spectacular cast (of mostly non-professionals), Matteo Garrone's sixth feature film "Gomorra" goes beyond Tarrantino's gratuitous violence and even Scorsese's Hollywood sensibility in depicting the everyday reality of organized crime's foot soldiers. The characters of the film's five stories all work for the Camorra - the Neapolitan "mafia" behind over 4,000 murders in 30 years in Italy, and countless illegal activities - and besides being extremely dangerous are relentless, petty and anything but wise.
Success at home is virtually guaranteed for "Gomorra" as it's based on Roberto Saviano's eponymous 2006 bestseller (1.2 million copies sold, translated into 33 languages) and the build-up to its release along with selection in competition at Cannes have created a huge buzz in Italy. Internationally, the film has sold to a handful of European territories so far, as well as Canada, though buyers are expected to grow significantly after Cannes.
"Gomorra" is one of the rare dramatic films to come out of Italy in recent years that has the appeal to play well theatrically, at least in Europe, and in festivals worldwide. In the U.S., it should play to the widest possible range of Art House audiences looking for a thinking person's mafia movie.
At times slow and documentary-like, "Gomorra" is tension-filled and highly realistic. (Author and co-screenwriter Saviano, 29, has been under police escort even since the book was published.) Shot predominantly in Naples' Scampia neighborhood - an architectural nightmare of enormous rundown apartment blocks - the film never caters to those looking for the kind of adrenaline or over-the-top humor or glamor that's come to be associated with the genre.
Garrone neither judges nor idolizes in his sober approach, and restrains from too many other indulgences, artistic or formulaic, beyond handheld camera work and numerous close-ups. And the faces he chooses, predominantly people plucked from the streets on which he films, make most movie mafiosos look like models.
Even the film's soundtrack (Neapolitan pop music, sparingly used) adds to the overall feel of background rather than imposing a mood. Garrone also makes use of total silence and, rather than coming across as a manipulative film school trick, it only enhances particularly emotional scenes.
Apart from the film's most notable star, Toni Servillo, other standout performances come from Gianfelice Imparatore, Salvatore Cantalupo, Carmine Paternoster and 13-year-old Salvatore Abruzzese.
Cast: Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo, Gigio Morra, Salvatore Abruzzese, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone, Carmine Paternoster. Director: Matteo Garrone. Screenwriters: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano. Producer: Domenico Procacci. Director of photography: Marco Onorato. Production designer: Paolo Bonfini. Costume designer: Alessandra Cardini. Editor: Marco Spoletini.
Production companies: Fandango, RAI Cinema
Sales Agent: Fandango Portobello Sales
No MPAA rating, 135 minutes.
- 5/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
opens: In France: May 14 (Capa Cinema, Starfeld Productions, Art'Mell, Fantascope Prods.)
PARIS -- Philippe Aractingi's "Under the Bombs" ("Sous les Bombes") is an Art House movie about an unpopular war featuring actors unknown outside the Islamic world. In an ideal world it would pack them in, but its makers will probably have to make do with a sideboard-full of festival awards. The movie is set against the Israeli invasion of south Lebanon in July 2006. "Under the Bombs" could even be described as an odd-couple road movie.
Zeina (Nada Abou Ferhat), the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businesman based in Dubai, arrives in Beirut, desperate to travel to the south of the country to trace her young son. The only driver she can find is the scruffy Tony (Georges Khabbaz), who happens to be Christian.
As the pair travel through Lebanon's strikingly beautiful but tragic countryside, a bond forms between them despite Zeina's initial suspicions of Tony's motives and his resentment at her snobbish behaviour. Zeina, we learn, is estranged from her husband, and Tony has ghosts of his own, in particular an older brother who collaborated with the Israelis back in the 1980s. He has not seen his brother since.
What makes this movie utterly compelling is the knowledge that many of the war scenes were shot while the Israeli attacks were in progress. Bombs seen exploding in the near distance are real, and coffins disinterred for reburial elsewhere contain real bodies.
Only three actors are professionals. Most of the rest -- Lebanese civilians for the most part, but also foreign journalists and UN peacekeepers -- play parts they were enacting in real life days earlier. Thus, the movie has a rough-hewn, documentary feel, enhanced by the sense of urgency conveyed by both the lead actors and the filmmakers. (During the early part of the shoot, writer Michel Leviant was turning out pages of dialogue to be filmed the same day.)
Franco-Lebanese director Aractingi makes no attempt at even-handedness. The picture is an unabashed portrayal of life at the receiving end of Israeli bombs. But the director's focus is on the common humanity of his characters and there is no sense of political point-scoring. The final twist, when Zeina and Tony reach their destination, is sharp and wrenching.
Cast: Nada Abou Ferhat; Georges Khabbaz; Rawya El Chab; Bshara Atallah.
Director: Philippe Aractingi.
Screenwriters: Michel Leviant, Philippe Aractingi.
Executive Producers: Claude Chelli, Nathalie Leyendecker; Sound: Mouhab Chanesaz.
Producers: Herve Chabalier, Francois Cohen-Seat, Paul Raphael, Philippe Aractingi. Director of photography: Nidal Abdel Khalek.
Music: Rene Aubry, Lazare Boghossian.
Editor: Deena Charara.
Sales: Art'Mell.
No MPAA rating, running time 98 minutes.
PARIS -- Philippe Aractingi's "Under the Bombs" ("Sous les Bombes") is an Art House movie about an unpopular war featuring actors unknown outside the Islamic world. In an ideal world it would pack them in, but its makers will probably have to make do with a sideboard-full of festival awards. The movie is set against the Israeli invasion of south Lebanon in July 2006. "Under the Bombs" could even be described as an odd-couple road movie.
Zeina (Nada Abou Ferhat), the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businesman based in Dubai, arrives in Beirut, desperate to travel to the south of the country to trace her young son. The only driver she can find is the scruffy Tony (Georges Khabbaz), who happens to be Christian.
As the pair travel through Lebanon's strikingly beautiful but tragic countryside, a bond forms between them despite Zeina's initial suspicions of Tony's motives and his resentment at her snobbish behaviour. Zeina, we learn, is estranged from her husband, and Tony has ghosts of his own, in particular an older brother who collaborated with the Israelis back in the 1980s. He has not seen his brother since.
What makes this movie utterly compelling is the knowledge that many of the war scenes were shot while the Israeli attacks were in progress. Bombs seen exploding in the near distance are real, and coffins disinterred for reburial elsewhere contain real bodies.
Only three actors are professionals. Most of the rest -- Lebanese civilians for the most part, but also foreign journalists and UN peacekeepers -- play parts they were enacting in real life days earlier. Thus, the movie has a rough-hewn, documentary feel, enhanced by the sense of urgency conveyed by both the lead actors and the filmmakers. (During the early part of the shoot, writer Michel Leviant was turning out pages of dialogue to be filmed the same day.)
Franco-Lebanese director Aractingi makes no attempt at even-handedness. The picture is an unabashed portrayal of life at the receiving end of Israeli bombs. But the director's focus is on the common humanity of his characters and there is no sense of political point-scoring. The final twist, when Zeina and Tony reach their destination, is sharp and wrenching.
Cast: Nada Abou Ferhat; Georges Khabbaz; Rawya El Chab; Bshara Atallah.
Director: Philippe Aractingi.
Screenwriters: Michel Leviant, Philippe Aractingi.
Executive Producers: Claude Chelli, Nathalie Leyendecker; Sound: Mouhab Chanesaz.
Producers: Herve Chabalier, Francois Cohen-Seat, Paul Raphael, Philippe Aractingi. Director of photography: Nidal Abdel Khalek.
Music: Rene Aubry, Lazare Boghossian.
Editor: Deena Charara.
Sales: Art'Mell.
No MPAA rating, running time 98 minutes.
- 5/12/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Despite all the focus on summer's looming tentpoles, a couple of recent Art House releases bear watching.
"The Visitor", a funny drama that TV types would dub dramedy, is directed by Thomas McCarthy, an actor best known for his role as an ethically challenged reporter on HBO's "The Wire". His only previous feature-helming credit was the Art House hit "The Station Agent".
The Overture film has been doing solid business as the distributor adds theaters and markets, drafting off of positive reviews and word-of-mouth. "Visitor" travels north of 125 playdates after adding about 50 playdates Friday.
Elsewhere, IDP unspooled Samuel Goldwyn's "Roman de gare" in just a pair of New York venues last weekend, fetching more than $12,000 per engagement and boding well for the thriller's expansion into five new markets today and May 9 in Los Angeles.
On the other hand, some films get limited runs simply to fulfill contractual commitments before a quick trip to a DVD release. MGM's critically panned "Deal" was in 51 theaters last weekend, but it's hard to see the Burt Reynolds poker film being platformed significantly during future frames.
"The Visitor", a funny drama that TV types would dub dramedy, is directed by Thomas McCarthy, an actor best known for his role as an ethically challenged reporter on HBO's "The Wire". His only previous feature-helming credit was the Art House hit "The Station Agent".
The Overture film has been doing solid business as the distributor adds theaters and markets, drafting off of positive reviews and word-of-mouth. "Visitor" travels north of 125 playdates after adding about 50 playdates Friday.
Elsewhere, IDP unspooled Samuel Goldwyn's "Roman de gare" in just a pair of New York venues last weekend, fetching more than $12,000 per engagement and boding well for the thriller's expansion into five new markets today and May 9 in Los Angeles.
On the other hand, some films get limited runs simply to fulfill contractual commitments before a quick trip to a DVD release. MGM's critically panned "Deal" was in 51 theaters last weekend, but it's hard to see the Burt Reynolds poker film being platformed significantly during future frames.
LONDON -- Startup indie distribution company New Wave Films, established by former Artificial Eye chiefs Robert Beeson and Pam Engel, has secured U.K. rights to a trio of movies.
New Wave snapped up Joanna Hogg's "Unrelated", Andrzej Jakimowski's Venice prizewinner "Tricks" (Sztuczki) and the Italian boxoffice hit "Quiet Chaos" (Caos Calmo) starring Nanni Moretti and directed by Antonello Grimaldi.
The company's first two acquisitions since launch, the Dardenne brothers' "The Silence of Lorna" and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Three Monkeys", have slots In Competition at this year's Festival de Cannes.
Pam Engel said that she and Robert established New Wave Films to feed an audience that wants "to see the best of world cinema."
"Our philosophy remains the same as when Andi Engel and I established Artificial Eye over 30 years ago, with Robert joining us soon after: to acquire quality Art House films from around the world and present them to the audience that we know extremely well, plus attracting the next generation of cinema-goers to these movies," she said.
New Wave snapped up Joanna Hogg's "Unrelated", Andrzej Jakimowski's Venice prizewinner "Tricks" (Sztuczki) and the Italian boxoffice hit "Quiet Chaos" (Caos Calmo) starring Nanni Moretti and directed by Antonello Grimaldi.
The company's first two acquisitions since launch, the Dardenne brothers' "The Silence of Lorna" and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Three Monkeys", have slots In Competition at this year's Festival de Cannes.
Pam Engel said that she and Robert established New Wave Films to feed an audience that wants "to see the best of world cinema."
"Our philosophy remains the same as when Andi Engel and I established Artificial Eye over 30 years ago, with Robert joining us soon after: to acquire quality Art House films from around the world and present them to the audience that we know extremely well, plus attracting the next generation of cinema-goers to these movies," she said.
- 4/23/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Director Pascale Ferran and her "Club of 13" are making noise in Gaul, blasting the state film funding structure here and submitting a proposal to change the current system to France's Cultural Minister Christine Albanel on Thursday.
More and more industry insiders have pledged their support to the report, which criticizes the Gallic film sector and proposes a series of new measures to nurse the French film funding system back to health. One hundred and eight directors, screenwriters, distributors, theater owners and actors have added their names to the list of industry insiders backing the proposal. Professional organizations the SACD (Association of Authors, Composers and Playwrights) and AFCAE (French Association of Arthouse and Experimental Cinemas) also have announced their support for the new plan.
After her jarring speech at last year's Cesar awards ceremony highlighted the growing disparity between the production of low-budget Art House fare -- films with budgets under €4 million ($5.9 million) -- and more costly commercial productions, director Pascale Ferran has gathered influential industry figures to form the Club des 13.
More and more industry insiders have pledged their support to the report, which criticizes the Gallic film sector and proposes a series of new measures to nurse the French film funding system back to health. One hundred and eight directors, screenwriters, distributors, theater owners and actors have added their names to the list of industry insiders backing the proposal. Professional organizations the SACD (Association of Authors, Composers and Playwrights) and AFCAE (French Association of Arthouse and Experimental Cinemas) also have announced their support for the new plan.
After her jarring speech at last year's Cesar awards ceremony highlighted the growing disparity between the production of low-budget Art House fare -- films with budgets under €4 million ($5.9 million) -- and more costly commercial productions, director Pascale Ferran has gathered influential industry figures to form the Club des 13.
PARIS -- French film industry professionals have joined forces to criticize the Gallic film sector and propose a series of new measures to nurse their national cinema back to health in a document to be delivered to French cultural minister Christine Albanel on Thursday.
After her jarring speech at last year's Cesar awards ceremony highlighted the growing disparity between the production of low-budget Art House fare -- films with budgets under 4 million euros ($5.9 million) -- and more costly commercial productions, director Pascale Ferran has gathered influential industry figures to form the "Club des 13" (Club of 13).
The group includes directors Claude Miller, Jacques Audiard and Ferran; production banners Why Not, Archipel 35, Rectangle Prods. and Agat Films; distributor Pyramide; international sales agent Films Distribution; and screenwriter Cecile Vargaftig.
Despite efforts by state funding organization the CNC to ameliorate production of what Ferran last year referred to as "middle movies" -- 30 films were made in the mid-budget category in 2007, up from just 19 in 2006 -- the Club des 13 has outlined a detailed report both criticizing the current state funding system and offering ways to change it in order to benefit films in the "middle" category.
After her jarring speech at last year's Cesar awards ceremony highlighted the growing disparity between the production of low-budget Art House fare -- films with budgets under 4 million euros ($5.9 million) -- and more costly commercial productions, director Pascale Ferran has gathered influential industry figures to form the "Club des 13" (Club of 13).
The group includes directors Claude Miller, Jacques Audiard and Ferran; production banners Why Not, Archipel 35, Rectangle Prods. and Agat Films; distributor Pyramide; international sales agent Films Distribution; and screenwriter Cecile Vargaftig.
Despite efforts by state funding organization the CNC to ameliorate production of what Ferran last year referred to as "middle movies" -- 30 films were made in the mid-budget category in 2007, up from just 19 in 2006 -- the Club des 13 has outlined a detailed report both criticizing the current state funding system and offering ways to change it in order to benefit films in the "middle" category.
Hong Kong Filmart HAS Screenings
Tom Shu-yu Lin's semi-autobiographical debut feature about the bonding, rivalry and eventual dissolution of a gang of high school boys captures both the palpitating heartbeat of youth and re-creates the tangible ambiance of a place and era -- the post-bubble IT town of Hsin Chu in mid-1990s Taiwan. Having an authentic voice has helped override inadequacies of budget and local production conditions. Its sensitive, personal tone and vivid period details will provoke a ripple of nostalgia among Taiwanese viewers in their 30s.
The first of the "Winds of September" trilogy produced by Hong Kong showbiz multihyphenate Eric Tsang, Lin's screenplay was the prototype that inspired Tsang to bring to fruition two more films using the same concept, made by new talents from Hong Kong and China. Lin could break out of the Art House circuit in Chinese-speaking markets by capitalizing on Tsang's clout in the industry and the novelty of seeing how directors from three places tackle the popular Asian topic of youth.
The English title refers to the nickname of Lin's hometown Hsin-Chu -- Windy City. The Chinese title "Jiu Jiang Feng" is an old Hakka term for the wind that blows strongest in Hsin-Chu during the ninth month of the lunar calendar. In 1996, a gang of boys in the last year of high school find solidarity in small rebellions like smoking, late-night skinny-dipping, and rooting for their favorite baseball team, the China Times Eagles. Their leader, Yen (Rhydian Vaughan), is a handsome and cocky womanizer with a heart as big as a pitching field. But when Tang (Chang Chieh), a less confident or popular boy, takes the rap for one of Yen's romantic indiscretions, what used to be admiration turns into envy. Two incidents, both involving motorbikes, test the gang's loyalty and personal integrity.
Just as Lin's award-winning short "The Pain of Others" (2005) anchors its plot about the hazing of army freshmen in the historic moment of Chan Shui Bian's presidential election in 2,000, personal crises in "Winds" takes place at the height of the baseball game-fixing scandal. Background news reporting on the prosecution of Eagles members casts a looming sense of disillusionment and betrayal over their halcyon days of youth.
Though Lin's homage to Edward Yang's "A Brighter Summer Day" is plain to see, he does not overreach himself to appropriate the same depth in socio-historical vision. Lin wisely condenses the drama into a few powerful scenes of emotional confrontation and sets them in ordinary locations like the rooftop, the KTV rental or the baseball field that are ordinary yet rife with meaning in the boys' world.
Consciously avoiding a macho style that emphasizes adolescent testosterone overdrive, the camera work by Fisher Yu is gentle, tenderly bathing the protagonists in softened lighting so as to accentuate their fragility of being still on the cusp of manhood. The song in the closing credits is "I Look Forward To", sung by Chang Yu-sheng, who died in 1997 -- an elegiac last touch of nostalgia recognized by most Taiwanese.
WINDS OF SEPTEMBER -- TAIWAN (Jiu Jiang Feng -- Taiwan Bian)
Produced by Film Mall/Ocean Deep Film/presented by See Corp., Big Pictures, Ocean Deep Films
Sales Agent: Mei Ah Entertainment Group Ltd.
Credits: Writer-director: Tom Shu-Yu Lin
Writer: Henry Tsai
Producers: Eric Tsang, Yeh Jufeng
Director of photography: Fisher Yu
Art director: Lee Tien-Chue
Music: Blaire Ko
Costume designer: Sun Hui-Mei
Editor: Chen Hsiao-Dong
Cast:
Yen: Rhydian Vaughan
Tang: Chang Chieh
Yun: Jennifer Chu
Hsing: Wang Bo-Chieh
Pei-Pei: Chi Pei-Hui
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Tom Shu-yu Lin's semi-autobiographical debut feature about the bonding, rivalry and eventual dissolution of a gang of high school boys captures both the palpitating heartbeat of youth and re-creates the tangible ambiance of a place and era -- the post-bubble IT town of Hsin Chu in mid-1990s Taiwan. Having an authentic voice has helped override inadequacies of budget and local production conditions. Its sensitive, personal tone and vivid period details will provoke a ripple of nostalgia among Taiwanese viewers in their 30s.
The first of the "Winds of September" trilogy produced by Hong Kong showbiz multihyphenate Eric Tsang, Lin's screenplay was the prototype that inspired Tsang to bring to fruition two more films using the same concept, made by new talents from Hong Kong and China. Lin could break out of the Art House circuit in Chinese-speaking markets by capitalizing on Tsang's clout in the industry and the novelty of seeing how directors from three places tackle the popular Asian topic of youth.
The English title refers to the nickname of Lin's hometown Hsin-Chu -- Windy City. The Chinese title "Jiu Jiang Feng" is an old Hakka term for the wind that blows strongest in Hsin-Chu during the ninth month of the lunar calendar. In 1996, a gang of boys in the last year of high school find solidarity in small rebellions like smoking, late-night skinny-dipping, and rooting for their favorite baseball team, the China Times Eagles. Their leader, Yen (Rhydian Vaughan), is a handsome and cocky womanizer with a heart as big as a pitching field. But when Tang (Chang Chieh), a less confident or popular boy, takes the rap for one of Yen's romantic indiscretions, what used to be admiration turns into envy. Two incidents, both involving motorbikes, test the gang's loyalty and personal integrity.
Just as Lin's award-winning short "The Pain of Others" (2005) anchors its plot about the hazing of army freshmen in the historic moment of Chan Shui Bian's presidential election in 2,000, personal crises in "Winds" takes place at the height of the baseball game-fixing scandal. Background news reporting on the prosecution of Eagles members casts a looming sense of disillusionment and betrayal over their halcyon days of youth.
Though Lin's homage to Edward Yang's "A Brighter Summer Day" is plain to see, he does not overreach himself to appropriate the same depth in socio-historical vision. Lin wisely condenses the drama into a few powerful scenes of emotional confrontation and sets them in ordinary locations like the rooftop, the KTV rental or the baseball field that are ordinary yet rife with meaning in the boys' world.
Consciously avoiding a macho style that emphasizes adolescent testosterone overdrive, the camera work by Fisher Yu is gentle, tenderly bathing the protagonists in softened lighting so as to accentuate their fragility of being still on the cusp of manhood. The song in the closing credits is "I Look Forward To", sung by Chang Yu-sheng, who died in 1997 -- an elegiac last touch of nostalgia recognized by most Taiwanese.
WINDS OF SEPTEMBER -- TAIWAN (Jiu Jiang Feng -- Taiwan Bian)
Produced by Film Mall/Ocean Deep Film/presented by See Corp., Big Pictures, Ocean Deep Films
Sales Agent: Mei Ah Entertainment Group Ltd.
Credits: Writer-director: Tom Shu-Yu Lin
Writer: Henry Tsai
Producers: Eric Tsang, Yeh Jufeng
Director of photography: Fisher Yu
Art director: Lee Tien-Chue
Music: Blaire Ko
Costume designer: Sun Hui-Mei
Editor: Chen Hsiao-Dong
Cast:
Yen: Rhydian Vaughan
Tang: Chang Chieh
Yun: Jennifer Chu
Hsing: Wang Bo-Chieh
Pei-Pei: Chi Pei-Hui
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/31/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HK Filmart HAS Screenings
Screen representations of relationships between a younger woman and an older man, like Last Tango in Paris, Stealing Beauty or Elegy, are often taken for granted and their massaging of male egos readily indulged. Second-time director Nami Iguchi offers a refreshingly moral-free alternative in Sex Is No Laughing Matter, in which an older woman is the elusive object of desire.
When "Sex" had its domestic release in Japan earlier this year, it was highly regarded among critics and scored excellent boxoffice for an independent film of its kind. The universal appeal of sexy comedies and the casting of internationally known young stars Kenichi Matsuyama ("Death Note I & II," L:Change the World) and Yu Aoi (Hula Girls), the film has good prospects in selected overseas Art House niches.
There's certainly a touch of Rohmer in this mischievous and observant sex comedy-drama, and some may even proclaim that Iguchi is Japan's answer to Hong Sang Soo, except that she choreographs amorous encounters from a sly female perspective. But anyone who's seen her award-winning debut feature, The Cat Leaves Home, will recognize a voice and film language all of her own -- a voice that's full of good-humored wisdom about the little ironies in life and a film language that elegantly expresses feelings and situations with quirky gestures and conversational dialogue. Her shooting style is a little detached, with longish takes and mostly medium shots that capture a politely distant suburban campus town.
After two chance encounters, student Mirume begins a fling with Yuri, who teaches lithography at an art college. The rookie lover becomes putty in the hands of the self-assured and coltish woman of 40 in some marvelously wry and tastefully racy scenes, which combine refined skills of seduction with childish pranks. Iguchi even makes cavorting inside a canvas camper's sleeping bag on the hard wooden floor with no central heating look sensuous!
Just when Mirume is beginning to find his sexual groove, Yuri does a disappearing act. When he looks up her permanent address, he receives a minor shock or two.
A subplot that enhances the centerpiece is Mirume's classmate En's unrequited love for him. En, in turn, has a secret admirer in fellow student Domoto but he too is frustrated. Iguchi shows that personal ticks and mannerisms often achieve more dramatic effect and verbal outpouring, so she makes all of En's romantic frustrations quirkily physical -- like her nervous kicking about whenever Mirume's around, her thrashing him when she gets rejected inside the cable car, or jumping up and down the bed when he falls asleep next to her in the love hotel.
With red-hot idols Matsuyama and Yu at her disposal, Iguchi tones down their glamour and makes them adopt bashful, emotionally inarticulate personas. But it is Hiromi Nagasaku who offers a wonderfully upbeat image as a woman who knows what she wants and gets it with no consequences. Better still, she doesn't eat little boys for breakfast because of marital discord, family trauma, personal insecurity or even mid-life crisis. Best of all, contrary to the film's tongue-in-cheek title, she encourages everyone to laugh about sex. How else are you supposed to enjoy it?
SEX IS NO LAUGHING MATTER (Hito no sekusu ni warau na)
Happinet, Tokyo Theatre, WOWOW
Credits:
Writer-Director: Nami Iguchi
Writer: Yuka Honcho
Based on the novel by: Naocola Yamazaki
Director of photography: Akikhiko Suzuki
Music: Hakase-sun
Production designer Takeo Kimura
Cast:
Yuri: Hiromi Nagasaku
Mirume: Kenichi Matsuyama
En: Yu Aoi
Running time -- 137 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screen representations of relationships between a younger woman and an older man, like Last Tango in Paris, Stealing Beauty or Elegy, are often taken for granted and their massaging of male egos readily indulged. Second-time director Nami Iguchi offers a refreshingly moral-free alternative in Sex Is No Laughing Matter, in which an older woman is the elusive object of desire.
When "Sex" had its domestic release in Japan earlier this year, it was highly regarded among critics and scored excellent boxoffice for an independent film of its kind. The universal appeal of sexy comedies and the casting of internationally known young stars Kenichi Matsuyama ("Death Note I & II," L:Change the World) and Yu Aoi (Hula Girls), the film has good prospects in selected overseas Art House niches.
There's certainly a touch of Rohmer in this mischievous and observant sex comedy-drama, and some may even proclaim that Iguchi is Japan's answer to Hong Sang Soo, except that she choreographs amorous encounters from a sly female perspective. But anyone who's seen her award-winning debut feature, The Cat Leaves Home, will recognize a voice and film language all of her own -- a voice that's full of good-humored wisdom about the little ironies in life and a film language that elegantly expresses feelings and situations with quirky gestures and conversational dialogue. Her shooting style is a little detached, with longish takes and mostly medium shots that capture a politely distant suburban campus town.
After two chance encounters, student Mirume begins a fling with Yuri, who teaches lithography at an art college. The rookie lover becomes putty in the hands of the self-assured and coltish woman of 40 in some marvelously wry and tastefully racy scenes, which combine refined skills of seduction with childish pranks. Iguchi even makes cavorting inside a canvas camper's sleeping bag on the hard wooden floor with no central heating look sensuous!
Just when Mirume is beginning to find his sexual groove, Yuri does a disappearing act. When he looks up her permanent address, he receives a minor shock or two.
A subplot that enhances the centerpiece is Mirume's classmate En's unrequited love for him. En, in turn, has a secret admirer in fellow student Domoto but he too is frustrated. Iguchi shows that personal ticks and mannerisms often achieve more dramatic effect and verbal outpouring, so she makes all of En's romantic frustrations quirkily physical -- like her nervous kicking about whenever Mirume's around, her thrashing him when she gets rejected inside the cable car, or jumping up and down the bed when he falls asleep next to her in the love hotel.
With red-hot idols Matsuyama and Yu at her disposal, Iguchi tones down their glamour and makes them adopt bashful, emotionally inarticulate personas. But it is Hiromi Nagasaku who offers a wonderfully upbeat image as a woman who knows what she wants and gets it with no consequences. Better still, she doesn't eat little boys for breakfast because of marital discord, family trauma, personal insecurity or even mid-life crisis. Best of all, contrary to the film's tongue-in-cheek title, she encourages everyone to laugh about sex. How else are you supposed to enjoy it?
SEX IS NO LAUGHING MATTER (Hito no sekusu ni warau na)
Happinet, Tokyo Theatre, WOWOW
Credits:
Writer-Director: Nami Iguchi
Writer: Yuka Honcho
Based on the novel by: Naocola Yamazaki
Director of photography: Akikhiko Suzuki
Music: Hakase-sun
Production designer Takeo Kimura
Cast:
Yuri: Hiromi Nagasaku
Mirume: Kenichi Matsuyama
En: Yu Aoi
Running time -- 137 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/31/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
South by Southwest
AUSTIN -- An early sequence in Mark Webber's Explicit Ills carries viewers past rows of abandoned and near-collapsed buildings, navigates debris-strewn empty lots and winds up in a forsaken room where a tiny, healthy tree has sprouted up through decaying floorboards. Audiences who take that image as the start of a certain kind of urban fable -- the spark of life amid squalor -- will be surprised by what follows. The life force of Ills isn't in the exceptions but in the community itself, a disjointed cast of characters who have better things to do than bend themselves to some storyteller's idea of social-uplift allegory.
More restrained than many films it might be compared to and never preachy even when its characters go marching through the streets, the movie's an assured directing debut for young actor Webber. Commercial appeal is limited by the absence of an easy narrative hook, but the picture should earn some respect in an Art House run.
Set in a rough area of Philadelphia, the story follows characters who cross one another's paths but aren't destined for any kind of climactic collision. The community issues that connect them are downplayed in favor of a focus on individual goals: The scrawny kid wants to bulk up and win a bodybuilding contest, the clean-living loft dwellers want to open a natural grocery, the gentle youngster Babo (bathed in a white glow wherever he wanders) wants to make peace where others would harbor grudges.
While most of the characters are poor and the two who clearly have money are gentrifying white kids in what threatens to be a Sid and Nancy romance, the film doesn't trade in misery. It dwells on personal optimism and good will, even if its most emotionally fraught moments arise from a young mother's inability to afford health insurance.
Benefiting from an unhurried but tight cut by editor Jay Rabinowitz (frequent collaborator of exec producer Jim Jarmusch) and Patrice Lucien Cochet's vivid cinematography (which earned a special jury award, alongside an audience award for best narrative feature, at South by Southwest), Ills also draws on recognizable acting names while letting newcomers have the spotlight. Rosario Dawson and Paul Dano, for instance, while understandably highlighted in promo material, appear here solely as warm supporting figures for young charmer Francisco Burgos (Babo), who's making his feature debut. Webber's way with his young cast is as unforced as the movie itself, which easily could have been overwrought and maudlin but is instead oddly affirming.
EXPLICIT ILLS
Mangusta Prods., Film 101, AM/FM Films, Riker Hill Films
Sales agent: Endeavor
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Mark Webber
Producers: Mark Webber, Sol Tryon, Liz Destro
Executive producer: Jim Jarmusch
Director of photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Production designer: Michael Grasley
Music: Khari Mateen
Costume designer: Nikia Nelson
Editor: Jay Rabinowitz
Cast:
Rocco: Paul Dano
Babo's Mom: Rosario Dawson
Jill: Naomie Harris
Jacob: Lou Taylor Pucci
Michelle: Frankie Shaw
Kaleef: Tariq Trotter
Babo: Francisco Burgos
Demetri: Martin Cepeda Jr.
The Girl: Destini Edwards
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
AUSTIN -- An early sequence in Mark Webber's Explicit Ills carries viewers past rows of abandoned and near-collapsed buildings, navigates debris-strewn empty lots and winds up in a forsaken room where a tiny, healthy tree has sprouted up through decaying floorboards. Audiences who take that image as the start of a certain kind of urban fable -- the spark of life amid squalor -- will be surprised by what follows. The life force of Ills isn't in the exceptions but in the community itself, a disjointed cast of characters who have better things to do than bend themselves to some storyteller's idea of social-uplift allegory.
More restrained than many films it might be compared to and never preachy even when its characters go marching through the streets, the movie's an assured directing debut for young actor Webber. Commercial appeal is limited by the absence of an easy narrative hook, but the picture should earn some respect in an Art House run.
Set in a rough area of Philadelphia, the story follows characters who cross one another's paths but aren't destined for any kind of climactic collision. The community issues that connect them are downplayed in favor of a focus on individual goals: The scrawny kid wants to bulk up and win a bodybuilding contest, the clean-living loft dwellers want to open a natural grocery, the gentle youngster Babo (bathed in a white glow wherever he wanders) wants to make peace where others would harbor grudges.
While most of the characters are poor and the two who clearly have money are gentrifying white kids in what threatens to be a Sid and Nancy romance, the film doesn't trade in misery. It dwells on personal optimism and good will, even if its most emotionally fraught moments arise from a young mother's inability to afford health insurance.
Benefiting from an unhurried but tight cut by editor Jay Rabinowitz (frequent collaborator of exec producer Jim Jarmusch) and Patrice Lucien Cochet's vivid cinematography (which earned a special jury award, alongside an audience award for best narrative feature, at South by Southwest), Ills also draws on recognizable acting names while letting newcomers have the spotlight. Rosario Dawson and Paul Dano, for instance, while understandably highlighted in promo material, appear here solely as warm supporting figures for young charmer Francisco Burgos (Babo), who's making his feature debut. Webber's way with his young cast is as unforced as the movie itself, which easily could have been overwrought and maudlin but is instead oddly affirming.
EXPLICIT ILLS
Mangusta Prods., Film 101, AM/FM Films, Riker Hill Films
Sales agent: Endeavor
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Mark Webber
Producers: Mark Webber, Sol Tryon, Liz Destro
Executive producer: Jim Jarmusch
Director of photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Production designer: Michael Grasley
Music: Khari Mateen
Costume designer: Nikia Nelson
Editor: Jay Rabinowitz
Cast:
Rocco: Paul Dano
Babo's Mom: Rosario Dawson
Jill: Naomie Harris
Jacob: Lou Taylor Pucci
Michelle: Frankie Shaw
Kaleef: Tariq Trotter
Babo: Francisco Burgos
Demetri: Martin Cepeda Jr.
The Girl: Destini Edwards
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Hong Kong International Film Festival
HONG KONG -- In what is sure to be viewed as a Russian spin on The Devil Wears Prada, director Andrei Konchalovsky (Sibiriada, Runaway Train) turns an only partially jaundiced eye at the modern fixation on celebrity and fashion.
This is somewhat outdated and well-worn material, and explorations of the encroachment of Western celebrity culture on developing nations isn't new either. On top of that, a good amount of the film relies on tired character archetypes. Although cinematically polished and possessing an engaging lead, Gloss never manages to take flight as an effective satire.
Any film skewering the fashion industry and what was once called The Jet Set is likely to get attention from independent and Art House distributors. Gloss certainly has the production values for limited overseas release, but it's just as likely to be consigned to DVD after a spin on the festival circuit.
Galya (an appropriately low-rent Yulia Vysotskaya) is a working-class seamstress in the backwater town of Rostov-on-Don who dreams of becoming Russia's next great supermodel. After she's featured in a second-rate ad in a local newspaper, she decides the time is right to move to Moscow. She borrows enough money to get there from her on-and-off thug boyfriend, Vitya (Ilya Isaev), and quickly finesses her way into the office of the editor of Beauty magazine.
The editor, Marina (Irina Rozanova), lays the brutal truth on Galya: She doesn't stand a chance of making her mag's cover. Only temporarily defeated, Galya lands on her feet by working as a seamstress for the Karl Lagerfeld-like Mark (Yefim Shifrin), stumbles (literally) onto the runway in his new collection's show, loses her job and winds up working for erstwhile agent and escort mogul Petya (Gennady Smirnov). In the end, she does make the cover of Beauty after being transformed into a latter-day Grace Kelly and marrying up to politico Klimenko (Alekander Domogarov).
There's a lot going on in Gloss, and Konchalovsky and co-writer Dunya Smirnova go to great pains to draw links among fashion, prostitution, power and celebrity while at the same time peeling some of the glamor from the glitterati. The film is populated by shallow, fundamentally unhappy people who are simply spinning their wheels.
Marina's magazine is just a little behind the curve, and she feels her age when she looks at her competition, some of which comes in the form of her arrogant, needling daughter Nastya (Olga Arntgolts). Rozanova is affecting as a former beauty facing forced retirement, but she's only in Galya's sphere for a fleeting moment. Gloss is loaded with partially explored ideas, but therein lies the problem: They're also partially unexplored.
GLOSS
A Mosfilm, Motion Investment Group, Cadran Prods., Studio Canal, Backup Films production
Sales agent: Fortissimo Films
Credits:
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Screenwriters: Andrei Konchalovsky, Dunya Smirnova
Producer: Andrei Konchalovsky
Director of photography: Mariya Solovyova
Production designer: Yekaterina Zaletayeva
Music: Eduard Artemyev
Co-producers: Jeremy Burdek, Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Politowski
Editor: Olga Grinshpun
Cast:
Galya: Yulia Vysotskaya
Zhanna: Olga Meloyanina
Vitya: Ilya Isaev
Marina: Irina Rozanova
Nastya: Olga Arntgolts
Mark: Yefim Shifrin
Petya: Gennady Smirnov
Klimenko: Alekander Domogarov
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
HONG KONG -- In what is sure to be viewed as a Russian spin on The Devil Wears Prada, director Andrei Konchalovsky (Sibiriada, Runaway Train) turns an only partially jaundiced eye at the modern fixation on celebrity and fashion.
This is somewhat outdated and well-worn material, and explorations of the encroachment of Western celebrity culture on developing nations isn't new either. On top of that, a good amount of the film relies on tired character archetypes. Although cinematically polished and possessing an engaging lead, Gloss never manages to take flight as an effective satire.
Any film skewering the fashion industry and what was once called The Jet Set is likely to get attention from independent and Art House distributors. Gloss certainly has the production values for limited overseas release, but it's just as likely to be consigned to DVD after a spin on the festival circuit.
Galya (an appropriately low-rent Yulia Vysotskaya) is a working-class seamstress in the backwater town of Rostov-on-Don who dreams of becoming Russia's next great supermodel. After she's featured in a second-rate ad in a local newspaper, she decides the time is right to move to Moscow. She borrows enough money to get there from her on-and-off thug boyfriend, Vitya (Ilya Isaev), and quickly finesses her way into the office of the editor of Beauty magazine.
The editor, Marina (Irina Rozanova), lays the brutal truth on Galya: She doesn't stand a chance of making her mag's cover. Only temporarily defeated, Galya lands on her feet by working as a seamstress for the Karl Lagerfeld-like Mark (Yefim Shifrin), stumbles (literally) onto the runway in his new collection's show, loses her job and winds up working for erstwhile agent and escort mogul Petya (Gennady Smirnov). In the end, she does make the cover of Beauty after being transformed into a latter-day Grace Kelly and marrying up to politico Klimenko (Alekander Domogarov).
There's a lot going on in Gloss, and Konchalovsky and co-writer Dunya Smirnova go to great pains to draw links among fashion, prostitution, power and celebrity while at the same time peeling some of the glamor from the glitterati. The film is populated by shallow, fundamentally unhappy people who are simply spinning their wheels.
Marina's magazine is just a little behind the curve, and she feels her age when she looks at her competition, some of which comes in the form of her arrogant, needling daughter Nastya (Olga Arntgolts). Rozanova is affecting as a former beauty facing forced retirement, but she's only in Galya's sphere for a fleeting moment. Gloss is loaded with partially explored ideas, but therein lies the problem: They're also partially unexplored.
GLOSS
A Mosfilm, Motion Investment Group, Cadran Prods., Studio Canal, Backup Films production
Sales agent: Fortissimo Films
Credits:
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Screenwriters: Andrei Konchalovsky, Dunya Smirnova
Producer: Andrei Konchalovsky
Director of photography: Mariya Solovyova
Production designer: Yekaterina Zaletayeva
Music: Eduard Artemyev
Co-producers: Jeremy Burdek, Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Politowski
Editor: Olga Grinshpun
Cast:
Galya: Yulia Vysotskaya
Zhanna: Olga Meloyanina
Vitya: Ilya Isaev
Marina: Irina Rozanova
Nastya: Olga Arntgolts
Mark: Yefim Shifrin
Petya: Gennady Smirnov
Klimenko: Alekander Domogarov
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/27/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
South by Southwest
AUSTIN -- Part allegory, part time capsule, Michael Almereyda's New Orleans, Mon Amour is heartfelt but in some ways as flimsy as a FEMA trailer. High-def production values and an experimental aesthetic limit its potential to small Art House runs at best, with straight-to-video more likely.
Shot mostly in summer 2006, the thin story offers a pair of ex-lovers who, unsurprisingly given that their surnames are Jekyll (Christopher Eccleston) and Hyde (Elisabeth Moss), were disastrous together during their relationship's first spin. Now he's a doctor trying to tolerate reintegration into New Orleans' society scene, and she's volunteering with a group of anti-establishment do-gooders.
The couple's reconnection affords a scene or two of soul-searching pillow talk about Katrina (making some sense of the title's allusion to Hiroshima Mon Amour) and supplies some apt metaphors of wreckage and reconstruction. But the movie's nature -- with its improvised-sounding dialogue and sometimes clumsy camerawork, feels more like a sketch than a feature -- suggests it's as much of an excuse to tour through recent devastation as it is a piece of storytelling, following bicycling protagonists as they survey uprooted trees and desolate neighborhoods.
With other filmmakers having done strong work in that department already, "New Orleans, Mon Amour's" tentative stabs at poetry aren't very compelling.
NEW ORLEANS, MON AMOUR
Voodoo Production Services, New Orleans Mon Amour
Credits:
Director: Michael Almereyda
Screenwriters: Michael Almereyda, Katya Apekina, James Robison
Producers: Edith Le Blanc, Michael Arata
Executive producers: Benjy Caplan, Jerry Daigle, Emanuel Michael
Director of photography: Andrew Wonder
Production designer: Mara LePere-Schloop
Music: T. Griffin
Costume designer: Dana Embree
Editor: Rachel Webster
Cast:
Dr. Jekyll: Christopher Eccleston
Hyde: Elisabeth Moss
Emerson: Barlow Jacobs
Himself: Andre Williams
Running time -- 78 minutes
No MPAA rating...
AUSTIN -- Part allegory, part time capsule, Michael Almereyda's New Orleans, Mon Amour is heartfelt but in some ways as flimsy as a FEMA trailer. High-def production values and an experimental aesthetic limit its potential to small Art House runs at best, with straight-to-video more likely.
Shot mostly in summer 2006, the thin story offers a pair of ex-lovers who, unsurprisingly given that their surnames are Jekyll (Christopher Eccleston) and Hyde (Elisabeth Moss), were disastrous together during their relationship's first spin. Now he's a doctor trying to tolerate reintegration into New Orleans' society scene, and she's volunteering with a group of anti-establishment do-gooders.
The couple's reconnection affords a scene or two of soul-searching pillow talk about Katrina (making some sense of the title's allusion to Hiroshima Mon Amour) and supplies some apt metaphors of wreckage and reconstruction. But the movie's nature -- with its improvised-sounding dialogue and sometimes clumsy camerawork, feels more like a sketch than a feature -- suggests it's as much of an excuse to tour through recent devastation as it is a piece of storytelling, following bicycling protagonists as they survey uprooted trees and desolate neighborhoods.
With other filmmakers having done strong work in that department already, "New Orleans, Mon Amour's" tentative stabs at poetry aren't very compelling.
NEW ORLEANS, MON AMOUR
Voodoo Production Services, New Orleans Mon Amour
Credits:
Director: Michael Almereyda
Screenwriters: Michael Almereyda, Katya Apekina, James Robison
Producers: Edith Le Blanc, Michael Arata
Executive producers: Benjy Caplan, Jerry Daigle, Emanuel Michael
Director of photography: Andrew Wonder
Production designer: Mara LePere-Schloop
Music: T. Griffin
Costume designer: Dana Embree
Editor: Rachel Webster
Cast:
Dr. Jekyll: Christopher Eccleston
Hyde: Elisabeth Moss
Emerson: Barlow Jacobs
Himself: Andre Williams
Running time -- 78 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- Johan Mardell, head of production at Scandinavian major Svesnk Filmindustri, is stepping down at the end of March to begin a new career as an independent producer, the company said Monday.
As production head since 2003, Mardell has overseen SF films ranging from Reza Bagher's Art House comedy "Popular Music" (2004) to the medieval epic "Arn -- The Knight Templar", at $30 million the most expensive Scandinavian film of all time. He also shepherded SF's impressive TV slate including the politically charged miniseries "Crown Princess" and the popular "Van Veeteren" detective series.
"Johan Mardell has played a most important part in the development and increased production activities the last few years," Svensk president and CEO Rasmus Ramstad said. "As he now chooses to leave the company and play an independent role as producer, we wish him the best of luck. We will of course try to find ways of cooperating with him in the future."
Mardell will stay on with Svensk as an executive producer on "Arn 2", which is in postproduction.
As production head since 2003, Mardell has overseen SF films ranging from Reza Bagher's Art House comedy "Popular Music" (2004) to the medieval epic "Arn -- The Knight Templar", at $30 million the most expensive Scandinavian film of all time. He also shepherded SF's impressive TV slate including the politically charged miniseries "Crown Princess" and the popular "Van Veeteren" detective series.
"Johan Mardell has played a most important part in the development and increased production activities the last few years," Svensk president and CEO Rasmus Ramstad said. "As he now chooses to leave the company and play an independent role as producer, we wish him the best of luck. We will of course try to find ways of cooperating with him in the future."
Mardell will stay on with Svensk as an executive producer on "Arn 2", which is in postproduction.
- 3/11/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A spin-off of the Brazilian television series that was itself derived from Fernando Meirelles' 2002 Art House hit "City of God", this film directed by longtime Meirelles collaborator Paulo Morelli similarly explores the sex- and violence-drenched lives of those living in the slums, or favelas, of Rio de Janeiro.
"City of Men" revolves around two of the central characters from the series, Ace (Douglas Silva) and Wallace (Darlan Cunha). Both approaching their 18th birthday, the best friends are coping with separate crises: the former is struggling to raise the young son he sired far too early, while the latter is desperate to track down the father he never knew. When Ace discovers the identity of his own father's killer and Wallace finally reconnects with his dad, a hardened ex-con who has skipped out on his parole, it sets off emotional repercussions affecting their friendship, as does a local gang war involving Wallace's cousin in which they find themselves on opposite sides.
Less hyperkinetic and more character driven than its predecessor, "City of Men" ultimately is not fully involving enough to sustain interest, though it offers plenty of undeniably pungent atmosphere along the way. From the rickety shantytowns perched in the hills to the sun-drenched beaches to the music clubs throbbing with loud dance music, the film delivers a visceral sense of its milieu, with the hand-held cinematography matching the restless energy of the characters on display.
Elena Soarez's screenplay blends melodrama, comedy and violence to sometimes awkward effect, but director Morelli keeps the pacing fast enough to compensate for the stylistic inconsistencies. And the youthful cast delivers terrifically naturalistic and convincing performances that provide the proceedings with an emotional immediacy not always evident in the script.
CITY OF MEN
Miramax
Fox Film, Globo Filmes, O2 Filmes
Credits:
Director: Paulo Morelli
Producers: Paulo Morelli, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Bel Berlinck, Fernando Meirelles: Executive producer: Mariza Figueiredo
Director of photography: Adriano Goldman
Production designer: Rafael Ronconi
Music: Antonio Pinto
Costume designer: Ines Salgado
Editor: Daniel Rezende
Cast:
Wallace: Darlan Cunha
Ace: Douglas Silva
Madrugadao: Jonathan Haagensen
Nefasto: Eduardo BR
Heraldo: Rodrigo dos Santos
Cristiane: Camila Monteiro
Camila: Naima Silva
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
"City of Men" revolves around two of the central characters from the series, Ace (Douglas Silva) and Wallace (Darlan Cunha). Both approaching their 18th birthday, the best friends are coping with separate crises: the former is struggling to raise the young son he sired far too early, while the latter is desperate to track down the father he never knew. When Ace discovers the identity of his own father's killer and Wallace finally reconnects with his dad, a hardened ex-con who has skipped out on his parole, it sets off emotional repercussions affecting their friendship, as does a local gang war involving Wallace's cousin in which they find themselves on opposite sides.
Less hyperkinetic and more character driven than its predecessor, "City of Men" ultimately is not fully involving enough to sustain interest, though it offers plenty of undeniably pungent atmosphere along the way. From the rickety shantytowns perched in the hills to the sun-drenched beaches to the music clubs throbbing with loud dance music, the film delivers a visceral sense of its milieu, with the hand-held cinematography matching the restless energy of the characters on display.
Elena Soarez's screenplay blends melodrama, comedy and violence to sometimes awkward effect, but director Morelli keeps the pacing fast enough to compensate for the stylistic inconsistencies. And the youthful cast delivers terrifically naturalistic and convincing performances that provide the proceedings with an emotional immediacy not always evident in the script.
CITY OF MEN
Miramax
Fox Film, Globo Filmes, O2 Filmes
Credits:
Director: Paulo Morelli
Producers: Paulo Morelli, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Bel Berlinck, Fernando Meirelles: Executive producer: Mariza Figueiredo
Director of photography: Adriano Goldman
Production designer: Rafael Ronconi
Music: Antonio Pinto
Costume designer: Ines Salgado
Editor: Daniel Rezende
Cast:
Wallace: Darlan Cunha
Ace: Douglas Silva
Madrugadao: Jonathan Haagensen
Nefasto: Eduardo BR
Heraldo: Rodrigo dos Santos
Cristiane: Camila Monteiro
Camila: Naima Silva
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 2/29/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Berlin International Film Festival
PARIS -- Although Guilty involves a police investigator, a lawyer and two suspects in a murder, Laetitia Masson's film is a philosophical and psychological film rather than a mystery or action piece. Commercial prospects may be limited to Art House theaters, though in France, where it opens February 27, auteur buffs will embrace the director's best film to date.
In the first half-hour, the characters are introduced while the philosopher Michel Onfray presents his vision of love and sex in voice-over -- a method reminiscent of Alain Resnais' My American Uncle. The main character is a young woman, Marguerite (Helene Fillieres), a cook and maid at the house of Blanche (Anne Consigny) and her wealthy husband. When the husband is found stabbed to death, both Marguerite and Blanche are suspects in the eyes of Louis (Denis Podalydes), a detective, and Lucien (Jeremie Renier), a lawyer facing problems of his own with his wife, Dolores (Amira Casar). Lucien sees in this crime the perfect case to build up a real career, and he starts an odd relation with Marguerite. During the investigation, Louis observes their game surreptitiously. No one is innocent as each character is linked to another by a form of dependence. Everyone has a secret to hide, and the murder causes them all to confront their darker sides.
Masson's first films -- "To Have (or not)" and "For Sale" -- have shown her to be a genius in female psychology. Guilty confirms her skills in creating strong female characters. Marguerite and Blanche are in a way two sides of the same coin. The struggle between social classes adds dimension to their relationship, enhanced by Masson's clever use of locations and production design.
The five main actors give these figures a captivating complexity. Fillieres creates a fascinating Marguerite, clumsy when she moves, mysterious when she talks, disquieting when she smiles. Podalydes, often cast in comedies, reveals an intriguing nastier side as the unconventional detective who spies on others. Consigny is a true revelation as the model wife navigating between bliss and insanity. Renier, a regular in the Dardenne brothers' films, undertakes a proper physical transformation here as the shifty lawyer who neglects his wife, a character that would otherwise be superfluous except for a nice touch of madness Casar brings to the role.
GUILTY
Rezo Prods., Rhone Alpes Cinema
Credits:
Writer-director: Laetitia Masson
Producers: Maurice Bernart, Jean-Michel Rey, Philippe Liegeois
Director of photography: Antoine Heberle
Production designer: Pascale Consigny
Costume designer: Carole Gerard
Editor: Ailo Auguste
Music: Jean-Louis Murat
Cast:
Marguerite: Helene Fillieres
Lucien Lambert: Jeremie Renier
Louis Berger: Denis Podalydes
Blanche Kaplan: Anne Consigny
Dolores: Amira Casar
Paul Kaplan: Marc Barbe
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARIS -- Although Guilty involves a police investigator, a lawyer and two suspects in a murder, Laetitia Masson's film is a philosophical and psychological film rather than a mystery or action piece. Commercial prospects may be limited to Art House theaters, though in France, where it opens February 27, auteur buffs will embrace the director's best film to date.
In the first half-hour, the characters are introduced while the philosopher Michel Onfray presents his vision of love and sex in voice-over -- a method reminiscent of Alain Resnais' My American Uncle. The main character is a young woman, Marguerite (Helene Fillieres), a cook and maid at the house of Blanche (Anne Consigny) and her wealthy husband. When the husband is found stabbed to death, both Marguerite and Blanche are suspects in the eyes of Louis (Denis Podalydes), a detective, and Lucien (Jeremie Renier), a lawyer facing problems of his own with his wife, Dolores (Amira Casar). Lucien sees in this crime the perfect case to build up a real career, and he starts an odd relation with Marguerite. During the investigation, Louis observes their game surreptitiously. No one is innocent as each character is linked to another by a form of dependence. Everyone has a secret to hide, and the murder causes them all to confront their darker sides.
Masson's first films -- "To Have (or not)" and "For Sale" -- have shown her to be a genius in female psychology. Guilty confirms her skills in creating strong female characters. Marguerite and Blanche are in a way two sides of the same coin. The struggle between social classes adds dimension to their relationship, enhanced by Masson's clever use of locations and production design.
The five main actors give these figures a captivating complexity. Fillieres creates a fascinating Marguerite, clumsy when she moves, mysterious when she talks, disquieting when she smiles. Podalydes, often cast in comedies, reveals an intriguing nastier side as the unconventional detective who spies on others. Consigny is a true revelation as the model wife navigating between bliss and insanity. Renier, a regular in the Dardenne brothers' films, undertakes a proper physical transformation here as the shifty lawyer who neglects his wife, a character that would otherwise be superfluous except for a nice touch of madness Casar brings to the role.
GUILTY
Rezo Prods., Rhone Alpes Cinema
Credits:
Writer-director: Laetitia Masson
Producers: Maurice Bernart, Jean-Michel Rey, Philippe Liegeois
Director of photography: Antoine Heberle
Production designer: Pascale Consigny
Costume designer: Carole Gerard
Editor: Ailo Auguste
Music: Jean-Louis Murat
Cast:
Marguerite: Helene Fillieres
Lucien Lambert: Jeremie Renier
Louis Berger: Denis Podalydes
Blanche Kaplan: Anne Consigny
Dolores: Amira Casar
Paul Kaplan: Marc Barbe
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SYDNEY -- Dendy, Australia's largest independent film distributor and Art House cinema chain, has been sold to Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Distribution for AUS$21.5 million ($19.6 million) following what Dendy owner the Becker Group said was "a competitive bid process."
Becker said the deal includes the 35-screen Dendy Cinema chain in Australia and New Zealand and the Dendy film distribution business in Australia and New Zealand. The deal, expected to close by March 31, makes Icon the largest independent distributor in Australia.
"Icon was selected based on various parameters including value, timing and transaction certainty," the Becker Group said Friday.
Becker managing director Warwick Syphers said the company will now focus on growing its television production and broadcasting assets.
Dendy Films and Dendy Cinemas were part of the film and TV production and distribution company the Becker Group, which was acquired by regional broadcaster Prime Media for AUS$24 million following changes to Australia's cross-media ownership laws last year.
Becker said the deal includes the 35-screen Dendy Cinema chain in Australia and New Zealand and the Dendy film distribution business in Australia and New Zealand. The deal, expected to close by March 31, makes Icon the largest independent distributor in Australia.
"Icon was selected based on various parameters including value, timing and transaction certainty," the Becker Group said Friday.
Becker managing director Warwick Syphers said the company will now focus on growing its television production and broadcasting assets.
Dendy Films and Dendy Cinemas were part of the film and TV production and distribution company the Becker Group, which was acquired by regional broadcaster Prime Media for AUS$24 million following changes to Australia's cross-media ownership laws last year.
- 2/23/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Competition
BERLIN -- Stepping back from the bright colors and sentimentality of his signature films such as The Children of Heaven and Baran, veteran helmer Majid Majidi reverts to a plain country setting in The Song of Sparrows, a metaphor-driven tale of moral decline and redemption. The story, spiked with gentle humor, moves smoothly through the standard tropes of Iranian Art House cinema. The film's market strength can be gauged accordingly.
After the intellectualized sidestep of Weeping Willow, about a blind man who regains his sight and loses his soul, Majidi wisely heads back to stories about simpler folk with simpler problems that audiences can identify with. Here, the hero is the gruff, craggy-faced Karim (Reza Naji), a loving husband and father of three who is fired from his job on an ostrich farm when one of the birds scenically runs off into the hills.
There is little outright talk of God in this seventh film by the religious Majidi, yet everything seems to happen right on schedule to test Karim's faith. While he's on an errand in the city, a harried businessman jumps on his motorcycle, and Karim embarks on a new career as a taxi driver. The money is good but, as we know, the root of all evil, and as Karim's nest egg grows he starts to become contaminated by the distracted, dishonest city folk.
Observing the rich middle class and their homes that have everything, he is overcome with a burning desire to accumulate. What he brings home on his bike is literally junk, however, piled in the front yard like a giant trash heap. Unwilling to give away even the most useless items, he flies into a rage when he learns his wife has made a present of an Old Blue door, which he then carries home on his back across fields in pretty shots reminiscent of Samira Makhmalbaf's Blackboards.
The turning point will arrive when Karim's world of useless material objects collapses on top of him.
In the film's most original scenes, Majidi ably demonstrates how even innocent children can turn into rabid capitalists, ready to smash everything around them to protect their investment. The film's running subplot involves Karim's little son, Hossein, and the dream he shares with his friends to stock a well with fish and become a millionaire when they multiply. When the fish are accidentally lost, the boys go wild with grief and frustration until the newly sage Karim reminds them that "the world is a dream and a lie," heralding a return to joy and sanity for all.
Low-key, realistic performances from a mostly nonpro cast keep the story running smoothly. His face visibly stressed-out and hardened from loneliness as he detaches himself from family and friends, Naji gives the film a strong center.
Although toned down from the strong hues of the director's earlier films, the cinematography by Tooraj Mansouri is always striking and elegant.
THE SONG OF SPARROWS
Majidi Production Co.
Credits:
Director-producer: Majid Majidi
Screenwriter: Majid Majidi, Mehran Kashani
Executive producer: Javad Norouzbeigi
Director of photography: Tooraj Mansouri
Production/costume designer: Asghar Nezhad-Imani
Music: Hossein Alizadeh
Editor: Hassan Hassandoost
Cast:
Reza Naji
Maryam Akbari
Kamran Dehghan
Hamed Aghazi
Shabnam Akhlaghi
Neshat Nazari
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BERLIN -- Stepping back from the bright colors and sentimentality of his signature films such as The Children of Heaven and Baran, veteran helmer Majid Majidi reverts to a plain country setting in The Song of Sparrows, a metaphor-driven tale of moral decline and redemption. The story, spiked with gentle humor, moves smoothly through the standard tropes of Iranian Art House cinema. The film's market strength can be gauged accordingly.
After the intellectualized sidestep of Weeping Willow, about a blind man who regains his sight and loses his soul, Majidi wisely heads back to stories about simpler folk with simpler problems that audiences can identify with. Here, the hero is the gruff, craggy-faced Karim (Reza Naji), a loving husband and father of three who is fired from his job on an ostrich farm when one of the birds scenically runs off into the hills.
There is little outright talk of God in this seventh film by the religious Majidi, yet everything seems to happen right on schedule to test Karim's faith. While he's on an errand in the city, a harried businessman jumps on his motorcycle, and Karim embarks on a new career as a taxi driver. The money is good but, as we know, the root of all evil, and as Karim's nest egg grows he starts to become contaminated by the distracted, dishonest city folk.
Observing the rich middle class and their homes that have everything, he is overcome with a burning desire to accumulate. What he brings home on his bike is literally junk, however, piled in the front yard like a giant trash heap. Unwilling to give away even the most useless items, he flies into a rage when he learns his wife has made a present of an Old Blue door, which he then carries home on his back across fields in pretty shots reminiscent of Samira Makhmalbaf's Blackboards.
The turning point will arrive when Karim's world of useless material objects collapses on top of him.
In the film's most original scenes, Majidi ably demonstrates how even innocent children can turn into rabid capitalists, ready to smash everything around them to protect their investment. The film's running subplot involves Karim's little son, Hossein, and the dream he shares with his friends to stock a well with fish and become a millionaire when they multiply. When the fish are accidentally lost, the boys go wild with grief and frustration until the newly sage Karim reminds them that "the world is a dream and a lie," heralding a return to joy and sanity for all.
Low-key, realistic performances from a mostly nonpro cast keep the story running smoothly. His face visibly stressed-out and hardened from loneliness as he detaches himself from family and friends, Naji gives the film a strong center.
Although toned down from the strong hues of the director's earlier films, the cinematography by Tooraj Mansouri is always striking and elegant.
THE SONG OF SPARROWS
Majidi Production Co.
Credits:
Director-producer: Majid Majidi
Screenwriter: Majid Majidi, Mehran Kashani
Executive producer: Javad Norouzbeigi
Director of photography: Tooraj Mansouri
Production/costume designer: Asghar Nezhad-Imani
Music: Hossein Alizadeh
Editor: Hassan Hassandoost
Cast:
Reza Naji
Maryam Akbari
Kamran Dehghan
Hamed Aghazi
Shabnam Akhlaghi
Neshat Nazari
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/11/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Competition
BERLIN -- Black Ice can be a treacherous hazard to drivers in cold climes where a slippery patch disguises itself as a dry roadway. Fittingly, Petri Kotwica's Black Ice follows suit: The film has its characters slipping and sliding all over an icy psychological landscape in a twisted thriller about marital infidelity, manipulation and betrayal. The Finnish writer-director himself skates across thin ice in a not always convincing third act. Nevertheless, it's an exciting ride that displays ferocious talent on both sides of the camera as a taut tale of near-claustrophobic intimacy gets the Cinemascope treatment.
Black Ice could break out of the Art House ghetto to wider audiences if properly marketed in Europe. It will have to battle lack of name recognition in North America but could find welcoming audiences in specialty venues.
Kotwica keeps a tight focus on three characters that form a most unusual romantic triangle.
The pivotal one is philandering Helsinki architect and professor Leo (Martti Suoalo). When his lovely gynecologist wife Saara (Outi Maenpaa) gets wind of his extramarital pursuits, she creates a fake identity to get acquainted with her husband's mistress, a young graphic arts student named Tuuli (Ria Kataja). Saara even, somewhat unwittingly, joins the martial arts class Tuuli teaches.
The two become very friendly in short order. As Saara has moved out of the house she shares with Leo, her new identity permits her the freedom to reimagine her life, even bedding down with a much younger German student after one of Tuuli's impromptu parties.
Saara actually grows to like her rival, but she still has a jealous streak and means to rid her life of Tuuli one way or another. Before long, Leo's sister and brother-in-law get pulled almost comically into Saara's improvised revenge plot.
Masks at a midwinter revelry play a role in this game of disguise and vengeance and Maenpaa is the perfect actress for this. She has a wise, even placid, face but every now and then flashes of pain and anger play across it with startling ferocity. Kataja's mistress is less a Femme Fatale than a contradiction of feminine strength (the martial arts) and gullible innocence (her taking both husband and wife at face value). Suosalo's Leo is a man of insatiable desires, a perpetual pursuer of young flesh, oblivious to the damage he causes. And the jeopardy he puts himself in.
Kotwica shoots in widescreen in Helsinki and its wooded suburbs, a place where the frozen wilds seem to encroach on the city. The characters move with deceptive freedom within the wide frame but are trapped by their own foolishness. As events move fatefully to a somewhat overwrought climax, the city's wildness reclaims them from their bourgeois complacency as primal instincts take over.
BLACK ICE
Making Movies/Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Petri Kotwica
Producers: Kai Norberg, Kaarle Aho, Leander Carell, Patrick Knippel, Steffen Reuter
Director of photography: Harri Raty
Music: Eicca Toppinen
Costume designer: Kristina Saha
Editor: Jukka Nykanen
Cast:
Saara: Outi Maenpaa
Tuuli: Ria Kataja
Leo: Martti Suosalo
Ilkka: Ville Virtanen; Lea: Sara Paavolainen; Krista: Netta Heikkila; Uwe: Philipp Danne
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BERLIN -- Black Ice can be a treacherous hazard to drivers in cold climes where a slippery patch disguises itself as a dry roadway. Fittingly, Petri Kotwica's Black Ice follows suit: The film has its characters slipping and sliding all over an icy psychological landscape in a twisted thriller about marital infidelity, manipulation and betrayal. The Finnish writer-director himself skates across thin ice in a not always convincing third act. Nevertheless, it's an exciting ride that displays ferocious talent on both sides of the camera as a taut tale of near-claustrophobic intimacy gets the Cinemascope treatment.
Black Ice could break out of the Art House ghetto to wider audiences if properly marketed in Europe. It will have to battle lack of name recognition in North America but could find welcoming audiences in specialty venues.
Kotwica keeps a tight focus on three characters that form a most unusual romantic triangle.
The pivotal one is philandering Helsinki architect and professor Leo (Martti Suoalo). When his lovely gynecologist wife Saara (Outi Maenpaa) gets wind of his extramarital pursuits, she creates a fake identity to get acquainted with her husband's mistress, a young graphic arts student named Tuuli (Ria Kataja). Saara even, somewhat unwittingly, joins the martial arts class Tuuli teaches.
The two become very friendly in short order. As Saara has moved out of the house she shares with Leo, her new identity permits her the freedom to reimagine her life, even bedding down with a much younger German student after one of Tuuli's impromptu parties.
Saara actually grows to like her rival, but she still has a jealous streak and means to rid her life of Tuuli one way or another. Before long, Leo's sister and brother-in-law get pulled almost comically into Saara's improvised revenge plot.
Masks at a midwinter revelry play a role in this game of disguise and vengeance and Maenpaa is the perfect actress for this. She has a wise, even placid, face but every now and then flashes of pain and anger play across it with startling ferocity. Kataja's mistress is less a Femme Fatale than a contradiction of feminine strength (the martial arts) and gullible innocence (her taking both husband and wife at face value). Suosalo's Leo is a man of insatiable desires, a perpetual pursuer of young flesh, oblivious to the damage he causes. And the jeopardy he puts himself in.
Kotwica shoots in widescreen in Helsinki and its wooded suburbs, a place where the frozen wilds seem to encroach on the city. The characters move with deceptive freedom within the wide frame but are trapped by their own foolishness. As events move fatefully to a somewhat overwrought climax, the city's wildness reclaims them from their bourgeois complacency as primal instincts take over.
BLACK ICE
Making Movies/Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Petri Kotwica
Producers: Kai Norberg, Kaarle Aho, Leander Carell, Patrick Knippel, Steffen Reuter
Director of photography: Harri Raty
Music: Eicca Toppinen
Costume designer: Kristina Saha
Editor: Jukka Nykanen
Cast:
Saara: Outi Maenpaa
Tuuli: Ria Kataja
Leo: Martti Suosalo
Ilkka: Ville Virtanen; Lea: Sara Paavolainen; Krista: Netta Heikkila; Uwe: Philipp Danne
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/11/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- GreeneStreet Films has appointed Amy Beecroft, HBO's former director of international theatrical distribution, to head its international sales division.
Beecroft, who spent a year and a half at HBO, was in charge of expanding the cabler's international distribution and served as a bridge between Picturehouse and HBO creative execs. HBO, co-owner of Picturehouse with New Line Cinema, is now seeking to lessen its role in theatrical releasing through the specialty film outfit, and no replacement for Beecroft has been named.
Beecroft's new role offers her an opportunity to expand GSFI's sales, marketing and distribution. She said she hopes to bring more high-quality genre fare to GreeneStreet's traditionally Art House and mainstream feature slate.
Beecroft, who headed directly to the Sundance Film Festival after her HBO exit, will attend next week's Berlin International Film Festival and will have ample time to grow the company's traditionally strong Festival de Cannes presence. She will be based in Los Angeles.
Beecroft, who spent a year and a half at HBO, was in charge of expanding the cabler's international distribution and served as a bridge between Picturehouse and HBO creative execs. HBO, co-owner of Picturehouse with New Line Cinema, is now seeking to lessen its role in theatrical releasing through the specialty film outfit, and no replacement for Beecroft has been named.
Beecroft's new role offers her an opportunity to expand GSFI's sales, marketing and distribution. She said she hopes to bring more high-quality genre fare to GreeneStreet's traditionally Art House and mainstream feature slate.
Beecroft, who headed directly to the Sundance Film Festival after her HBO exit, will attend next week's Berlin International Film Festival and will have ample time to grow the company's traditionally strong Festival de Cannes presence. She will be based in Los Angeles.
- 1/30/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
AMSTERDAM -- Sales agent Fortissimo Film Sales and Amsterdam-based production house Circe Films are joining forces to work on European co-productions, the duo said Tuesday at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
The aim of both companies is to produce high-quality Art House titles in Europe. Up until now, Fortissimo Film primarily produced Asian and U.S. independent titles such as Penek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves", John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" and "Mysterious Skin" by Gregg Araki.
Circe Films concentrates mainly on Dutch films, with titles including Nanouk Leopold's "Guernsey" and "Wolfsbergen".
Circe director Stienette Bosklopper hopes to profit from the sales experience offered by familiar market face Fortissimo, in exchange for a first look deal on Circe's projects.
For his part, Fortissimo co-founder Wouter Barendrecht plans to get more involved in Dutch productions.
The first co-production both companies will work on is "Face", the new film by Tsai Ming-Liang, set up by production banner JBA from France, together with the Louvre museum in Paris.
The aim of both companies is to produce high-quality Art House titles in Europe. Up until now, Fortissimo Film primarily produced Asian and U.S. independent titles such as Penek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves", John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" and "Mysterious Skin" by Gregg Araki.
Circe Films concentrates mainly on Dutch films, with titles including Nanouk Leopold's "Guernsey" and "Wolfsbergen".
Circe director Stienette Bosklopper hopes to profit from the sales experience offered by familiar market face Fortissimo, in exchange for a first look deal on Circe's projects.
For his part, Fortissimo co-founder Wouter Barendrecht plans to get more involved in Dutch productions.
The first co-production both companies will work on is "Face", the new film by Tsai Ming-Liang, set up by production banner JBA from France, together with the Louvre museum in Paris.
- 1/30/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- A large crowd packed the Snow Park Lodge in Deer Park on Sunday night to applaud Picturehouse president Bob Berney as he received the second annual Indie Mogul Award.
The veteran distributor/film marketer/exhibitor was presented with the honor by The Hollywood Reporter vp/associate publisher sales and marketing Rose Einstein, who noted such hits as Newmarket's "The Passion of the Christ", IFC Films' "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and Picturehouse's "Pan's Labyrinth" as just some testaments to Berney's marketing skill.
"In all his years in the business, he's never forgotten how to get in touch with an audience," she said at the event, sponsored by THR and Fuji Film.
Berney began his career operating a Dallas Art House theater before moving into distribution. He demonstrated an ability to find audiences for unusual fare with Newmarket's "Memento" in 2001. Moving on to IFC Films, he expanded the audience for Spanish-language features with 2002's "Y tu mama tambien" and turned "Big Fat Greek Wedding" into an indie hit.
The veteran distributor/film marketer/exhibitor was presented with the honor by The Hollywood Reporter vp/associate publisher sales and marketing Rose Einstein, who noted such hits as Newmarket's "The Passion of the Christ", IFC Films' "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and Picturehouse's "Pan's Labyrinth" as just some testaments to Berney's marketing skill.
"In all his years in the business, he's never forgotten how to get in touch with an audience," she said at the event, sponsored by THR and Fuji Film.
Berney began his career operating a Dallas Art House theater before moving into distribution. He demonstrated an ability to find audiences for unusual fare with Newmarket's "Memento" in 2001. Moving on to IFC Films, he expanded the audience for Spanish-language features with 2002's "Y tu mama tambien" and turned "Big Fat Greek Wedding" into an indie hit.
- 1/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Phoebe in Wonderland reverberates with the frustration of a young girl who seeks refuge in a fantasy world when her parents and school fail her. A jarring and sweet depiction of disability, Phoebe should win hearts on the Art House circuit and appeal to female and family audiences on cable.
Angelic and talented Phoebe (Elle Fanning) has blessings and challenges: She is obsessively compulsive and blurts out inappropriate things. Her protective mother won't accept professional advice -- obsessive control disorder, Tourette's. Girls will be girls, she rationalizes. Yes, Phoebe's behavior confounds teachers and tears apart her family.
In this compelling drama, writer-director Daniel Barnz examines the disorienting and dispiriting world that kids often face: officious teachers, cruel classmates, confused adults. The mesmerizing performance of Fanning as the gifted and troubled young Phoebe sparks the picture. Charismatic and graceful, Fanning is wondrous. Patricia Clarkson as Phoebe's empathetic and inspiring drama teacher evinces the sympathetic fiber that only a person who also has suffered for being different can convey.
As the beleaguered and well-intentioned mother, Felicity Huffman crystallizes the frustrations and self-doubt of a loving mother, while Bill Pullman captures a father's feeling of helplessness.
Under Barnz's guiding directorial hand, technical contributions are masterful. Christophe Beck's score is aptly whimsical and fearsome, while Bobby Bukowski's smart visual compositions are similarly succinct.
PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND
Silverwood Films
Director/screenwriter: Daniel Barnz Producers: Lynette Howell, Ben Barnz
Executive producers: Doug Dey, Chris Finazzo
Director of photography: Bobby Bukowski
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Robert Hoffman
Music: Christophe Beck
Cast:
Hillary Lichten: Felicity Huffman
Miss Dodger: Patricia Clarkson
Phoebe Lichten: Elle Fanning
Peter Lichten: Bill Pullman
Principal Davis: Campbell Scott
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Angelic and talented Phoebe (Elle Fanning) has blessings and challenges: She is obsessively compulsive and blurts out inappropriate things. Her protective mother won't accept professional advice -- obsessive control disorder, Tourette's. Girls will be girls, she rationalizes. Yes, Phoebe's behavior confounds teachers and tears apart her family.
In this compelling drama, writer-director Daniel Barnz examines the disorienting and dispiriting world that kids often face: officious teachers, cruel classmates, confused adults. The mesmerizing performance of Fanning as the gifted and troubled young Phoebe sparks the picture. Charismatic and graceful, Fanning is wondrous. Patricia Clarkson as Phoebe's empathetic and inspiring drama teacher evinces the sympathetic fiber that only a person who also has suffered for being different can convey.
As the beleaguered and well-intentioned mother, Felicity Huffman crystallizes the frustrations and self-doubt of a loving mother, while Bill Pullman captures a father's feeling of helplessness.
Under Barnz's guiding directorial hand, technical contributions are masterful. Christophe Beck's score is aptly whimsical and fearsome, while Bobby Bukowski's smart visual compositions are similarly succinct.
PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND
Silverwood Films
Director/screenwriter: Daniel Barnz Producers: Lynette Howell, Ben Barnz
Executive producers: Doug Dey, Chris Finazzo
Director of photography: Bobby Bukowski
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Robert Hoffman
Music: Christophe Beck
Cast:
Hillary Lichten: Felicity Huffman
Miss Dodger: Patricia Clarkson
Phoebe Lichten: Elle Fanning
Peter Lichten: Bill Pullman
Principal Davis: Campbell Scott
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In Ballast, three people struggle mightily against one another and against their own worst instincts, bred out of deep distrust and bad memories, to reach a kind of equilibrium where they might live calm, productive lives. Lance Hammer's feature debut is gutsy -- gutsy for what he wants to achieve and for how he goes about it. The film is set in bleak circumstances in a bleak township and comes at viewers in a style more familiar to European Art House patrons than American moviegoers. Finally, few white filmmakers, even veterans, have portrayed an African-American experience with so little self-consciousness as Hammer.
Ballast necessarily limits itself to festival play and theatrical showings for those eager to catch a new and clearly talented filmmaker's first work. The film plays in dramatic competition at Sundance.
The film, which Hammer wrote, directed and edited, has an austere, rigorous yet fully engaged aesthetic. Opening credits don't get more minimal than this: During an initial sequence, only the word Ballast appears onscreen. Scenes that follow are short and to the point. Editing compacts the time even within these scenes. Angles are carefully chosen. Only ambient sounds and no music appear on the soundtrack. Characters speak, at least initially, more with body language than dialogue.
In the rural Mississippi Delta in the bitter cold of winter, a suicide throws a delicate balance among three people out of whack. After sitting with the body for an unknown time, Lawrence Michael J. Smith Sr.) shoots himself in despair over his twin brother's death. When he comes home from the hospital, he doesn't even bother to reopen a small convenience store he operated with his twin.
For the brother's 12-year-son James (Jim Myron Ross and his long-estranged girlfriend or wife, Marlee (Tarra Riggs) -- the movie is vague about this -- the death may have this blessing: At the last minute, the brother wrote a letter giving the mother and child the house they live in. Lawrence pins the note on their front door.
But the legality of the note is unclear. And how Marlee would sell the house is even less clear. Hammer slyly shoots the early scenes to disguise a key fact: Lawrence and Marlee's houses occupy the same property with an imaginary Berlin Wall between them.
James is getting in over his head with drugs and the wrong people. But he is still a kid at heart. Marlee, who is surprisingly unaware of this, works long hours scrubbing toilets and still has little money. Her hatred for her ex extends to the brother who looks exactly like him.
The situation causes a necessary breach in the Berlin Wall, but only animosity and recriminations ensue. James likes pointing Lawrence's gun, which he stole, at his uncle whenever he demands money. Lawrence doesn't much care if he shoots.
Hammer gradually lets a glance of sunlight into the gloom, but its power can't be checked. The three have no choice but to deal with one another. It's not easy, and the final note is not that of peace but of a tenuous truce.
Working with non-pro actors, Hammer pulls authentic performances from the trio that are at times almost too painful to witness. The hurts run deep. The bullet hole in Lawrence's chest is nothing compared to these wounds. And yet Ballast is an optimistic film: The sun finally does break through.
BALLAST
Alluvial Film Co.
Credits:
Director-screenwriter-editor: Lance Hammer
Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh
Executive producers: Andrew Adamson, John J. Hammer, Mark Johnson, Aimee Shieh
Director of photography: Lol Crawley
Production designer: Jerel Levanway
Costume designer: Caroline Eselin
Cast:
Lawrence: Michael J. Smith Sr.
James: Jim Myron Ross
Marlee: Tarra Riggs
John: Johnny McPhail
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- In Ballast, three people struggle mightily against one another and against their own worst instincts, bred out of deep distrust and bad memories, to reach a kind of equilibrium where they might live calm, productive lives. Lance Hammer's feature debut is gutsy -- gutsy for what he wants to achieve and for how he goes about it. The film is set in bleak circumstances in a bleak township and comes at viewers in a style more familiar to European Art House patrons than American moviegoers. Finally, few white filmmakers, even veterans, have portrayed an African-American experience with so little self-consciousness as Hammer.
Ballast necessarily limits itself to festival play and theatrical showings for those eager to catch a new and clearly talented filmmaker's first work. The film plays in dramatic competition at Sundance.
The film, which Hammer wrote, directed and edited, has an austere, rigorous yet fully engaged aesthetic. Opening credits don't get more minimal than this: During an initial sequence, only the word Ballast appears onscreen. Scenes that follow are short and to the point. Editing compacts the time even within these scenes. Angles are carefully chosen. Only ambient sounds and no music appear on the soundtrack. Characters speak, at least initially, more with body language than dialogue.
In the rural Mississippi Delta in the bitter cold of winter, a suicide throws a delicate balance among three people out of whack. After sitting with the body for an unknown time, Lawrence Michael J. Smith Sr.) shoots himself in despair over his twin brother's death. When he comes home from the hospital, he doesn't even bother to reopen a small convenience store he operated with his twin.
For the brother's 12-year-son James (Jim Myron Ross and his long-estranged girlfriend or wife, Marlee (Tarra Riggs) -- the movie is vague about this -- the death may have this blessing: At the last minute, the brother wrote a letter giving the mother and child the house they live in. Lawrence pins the note on their front door.
But the legality of the note is unclear. And how Marlee would sell the house is even less clear. Hammer slyly shoots the early scenes to disguise a key fact: Lawrence and Marlee's houses occupy the same property with an imaginary Berlin Wall between them.
James is getting in over his head with drugs and the wrong people. But he is still a kid at heart. Marlee, who is surprisingly unaware of this, works long hours scrubbing toilets and still has little money. Her hatred for her ex extends to the brother who looks exactly like him.
The situation causes a necessary breach in the Berlin Wall, but only animosity and recriminations ensue. James likes pointing Lawrence's gun, which he stole, at his uncle whenever he demands money. Lawrence doesn't much care if he shoots.
Hammer gradually lets a glance of sunlight into the gloom, but its power can't be checked. The three have no choice but to deal with one another. It's not easy, and the final note is not that of peace but of a tenuous truce.
Working with non-pro actors, Hammer pulls authentic performances from the trio that are at times almost too painful to witness. The hurts run deep. The bullet hole in Lawrence's chest is nothing compared to these wounds. And yet Ballast is an optimistic film: The sun finally does break through.
BALLAST
Alluvial Film Co.
Credits:
Director-screenwriter-editor: Lance Hammer
Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh
Executive producers: Andrew Adamson, John J. Hammer, Mark Johnson, Aimee Shieh
Director of photography: Lol Crawley
Production designer: Jerel Levanway
Costume designer: Caroline Eselin
Cast:
Lawrence: Michael J. Smith Sr.
James: Jim Myron Ross
Marlee: Tarra Riggs
John: Johnny McPhail
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
AMSTERDAM -- The International Film Festival of Rotterdam faces major logistical problems in the near future as several cinemas in the center of town are to close down in 2008 and '09.
According to some calculations, by 2010 the festival will have 140,000 fewer seats than this year's edition. Last year, the festival welcomed 360,000 visitors.
The IFFR on Friday presented a report on the future of the 37-year-old festival. The main objective of the report was to stress the desire of the IFFR to remain in the center of Rotterdam and not be spread out across town.
Several centrally located cinemas already have decided to move to the south of Rotterdam, which offers more parking space and better opportunities for expansion. One of the theaters involved is the Art House cinema Lataarn/Venster, where the IFFR was started in 1971 by its founder, Hubert Bals.
Rumors that the main cinema in Rotterdam's city center, Pathe Schouwburgplein, also will close, have been denied by Lauge Nielsen, general director of Pathe Nederland.
According to some calculations, by 2010 the festival will have 140,000 fewer seats than this year's edition. Last year, the festival welcomed 360,000 visitors.
The IFFR on Friday presented a report on the future of the 37-year-old festival. The main objective of the report was to stress the desire of the IFFR to remain in the center of Rotterdam and not be spread out across town.
Several centrally located cinemas already have decided to move to the south of Rotterdam, which offers more parking space and better opportunities for expansion. One of the theaters involved is the Art House cinema Lataarn/Venster, where the IFFR was started in 1971 by its founder, Hubert Bals.
Rumors that the main cinema in Rotterdam's city center, Pathe Schouwburgplein, also will close, have been denied by Lauge Nielsen, general director of Pathe Nederland.
- 1/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- The French film industry regained its momentum in 2007 after a drop in French film production in 2006, with 228 films made in the territory last year, compared with 203 the year before, government film body the CNC said Wednesday.
One hundred-eighty six French films were produced in 2007, just shy of 2005's record 187, for a record €1.01 billion ($1.48 billion). Majority foreign co-productions represented 42 of the total films made, for a total production cost of €191.4 million ($280.5 million).
French film industry insiders have been worried about the growing disparity between low-budget Art House fare (films with budgets under €4 million) and more costly commercial productions.
Only 19 mid-budget films (those with budgets between 4 million euros and 7 million euros) were made in 2006, compared with 48 in 2005.
At last year's Cesar awards ceremony, "Lady Chatterley" helmer Pascal Ferran urged the CNC to make strides to get rid of such a lack of midbudget films, and 2007's results show improvement.
One hundred-eighty six French films were produced in 2007, just shy of 2005's record 187, for a record €1.01 billion ($1.48 billion). Majority foreign co-productions represented 42 of the total films made, for a total production cost of €191.4 million ($280.5 million).
French film industry insiders have been worried about the growing disparity between low-budget Art House fare (films with budgets under €4 million) and more costly commercial productions.
Only 19 mid-budget films (those with budgets between 4 million euros and 7 million euros) were made in 2006, compared with 48 in 2005.
At last year's Cesar awards ceremony, "Lady Chatterley" helmer Pascal Ferran urged the CNC to make strides to get rid of such a lack of midbudget films, and 2007's results show improvement.
- 1/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Red Lion Films
PALM SPRINGS -- That Art House staple known as the period coming-of-age film demonstrates its enduring resilience in the form of Small Secrets.
Luxembourg's official foreign-language Oscar submission, the nicely acted, spirited portrait of a 12-year-old boy with a vivid imagination effectively captures the country at a very specific place in time.
It's 1962, and Norbi (Ben Hoscheit) isn't exactly having a wondrous childhood. He's still wetting his bed and he constantly finds himself on the receiving end of the wrath of school bullies and thrashings from his strict disciplinarian father (Andre Jung).
Then one day, while snooping around the family typewriter store, Norbi notices cryptic notations in his Dad's ledger book, which sets his mind racing.
Given that his town is very much still harboring wartime suspicions, he gradually becomes convinced that his father was a Nazi collaborator.
While there's ultimately nothing of tremendous consequence involved, director Pol Cruchten, along with screenwriters Viviane Thill and Francois Dupeyron and his resourceful cinematographer Jerzy Palacz, do an evocative job of re-creating a transitional time in European history when the era's forward-thinking, mod sensibility was struggling to come out from under those lingering murky shadows of the past.
Red Lion Films
PALM SPRINGS -- That Art House staple known as the period coming-of-age film demonstrates its enduring resilience in the form of Small Secrets.
Luxembourg's official foreign-language Oscar submission, the nicely acted, spirited portrait of a 12-year-old boy with a vivid imagination effectively captures the country at a very specific place in time.
It's 1962, and Norbi (Ben Hoscheit) isn't exactly having a wondrous childhood. He's still wetting his bed and he constantly finds himself on the receiving end of the wrath of school bullies and thrashings from his strict disciplinarian father (Andre Jung).
Then one day, while snooping around the family typewriter store, Norbi notices cryptic notations in his Dad's ledger book, which sets his mind racing.
Given that his town is very much still harboring wartime suspicions, he gradually becomes convinced that his father was a Nazi collaborator.
While there's ultimately nothing of tremendous consequence involved, director Pol Cruchten, along with screenwriters Viviane Thill and Francois Dupeyron and his resourceful cinematographer Jerzy Palacz, do an evocative job of re-creating a transitional time in European history when the era's forward-thinking, mod sensibility was struggling to come out from under those lingering murky shadows of the past.
- 1/16/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Blind Spot Pictures
PALM SPRINGS -- Prostitution provides a quick fix -- and an emotional undoing -- for an unemployed husband and father in A Man's Job, the Academy Award submission from Finland. With this well-observed second feature, writer-director Aleksi Salmenpera (Producing Adults) intensifies his exploration of intimacy and alienation in contemporary relationships. The drama, which recently screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, deserves wider Art House exposure.
Tommi Korpela is perfect as Juha, a strapping factory worker in his 30s who hides his layoff and monthslong job search from his listless wife, Katja (Maria Heiskanen). After the alarm wakes him and he has checked her supply of antidepressants, he heads for a local fast food cafe to brainstorm with Olli (Jani Volanen), a cab driver with an anxious gaze. The rivalrous chemistry between them is one of the film's most fascinating elements, and the two actors are never less than compelling as characters who are both lying to themselves. However medicated she might be, Katja's depression is in a sense the truest response in this sometimes comic scenario of disconnection.
Olli, who pretends not to be drinking anymore but still has trouble with the breathalyzer on his taxi, happens to be the father of Akseli (Konsta Pylkkonen), the boy Juha is raising as his own, along with his and Katja's two younger kids. In short order, he also becomes Juha's driver and pimp. On a handyman gig, a well-to-do woman offers Juha a higher hourly wage than he's ever dreamed of, for work that has nothing to do with the renovation of her house. Rediscovering the confidence his unemployment and troubled home life have drained from him, Juha sees prostitution as a simple solution.
But his encounters (all based on journalistic investigations) are often disquieting: the neediness and pain of neglected older women, the violent rage of an obese client, the mostly chaste curiosity of a 19-year-old girl with Down syndrome. Korpela embodies Juha's deepening unease and the heedlessness with which he's heading for a fall. Olli, meanwhile, awkwardly steps in to the widening gap on the home front. "Man's Job" essentially is about the disintegration of a marriage, and its coda, jarring at first, offers a glimmer of break-it-and-reset-it hope.
Blind Spot Pictures
PALM SPRINGS -- Prostitution provides a quick fix -- and an emotional undoing -- for an unemployed husband and father in A Man's Job, the Academy Award submission from Finland. With this well-observed second feature, writer-director Aleksi Salmenpera (Producing Adults) intensifies his exploration of intimacy and alienation in contemporary relationships. The drama, which recently screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, deserves wider Art House exposure.
Tommi Korpela is perfect as Juha, a strapping factory worker in his 30s who hides his layoff and monthslong job search from his listless wife, Katja (Maria Heiskanen). After the alarm wakes him and he has checked her supply of antidepressants, he heads for a local fast food cafe to brainstorm with Olli (Jani Volanen), a cab driver with an anxious gaze. The rivalrous chemistry between them is one of the film's most fascinating elements, and the two actors are never less than compelling as characters who are both lying to themselves. However medicated she might be, Katja's depression is in a sense the truest response in this sometimes comic scenario of disconnection.
Olli, who pretends not to be drinking anymore but still has trouble with the breathalyzer on his taxi, happens to be the father of Akseli (Konsta Pylkkonen), the boy Juha is raising as his own, along with his and Katja's two younger kids. In short order, he also becomes Juha's driver and pimp. On a handyman gig, a well-to-do woman offers Juha a higher hourly wage than he's ever dreamed of, for work that has nothing to do with the renovation of her house. Rediscovering the confidence his unemployment and troubled home life have drained from him, Juha sees prostitution as a simple solution.
But his encounters (all based on journalistic investigations) are often disquieting: the neediness and pain of neglected older women, the violent rage of an obese client, the mostly chaste curiosity of a 19-year-old girl with Down syndrome. Korpela embodies Juha's deepening unease and the heedlessness with which he's heading for a fall. Olli, meanwhile, awkwardly steps in to the widening gap on the home front. "Man's Job" essentially is about the disintegration of a marriage, and its coda, jarring at first, offers a glimmer of break-it-and-reset-it hope.
- 1/11/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Satcaster British Sky Broadcasting and distributor-exhibitor Curzon Artificial Eye said Thursday that they will release Cannes award winner "The Edge of Heaven" day-and-date in cinemas and on Sky's video-on-demand Sky Box Office simultaneously Feb. 22.
The move is the first time the satcaster has teamed up with a distributor for a joint launch, and is intended to maximize the potential audience for an Art House title that might otherwise fail to pull in audiences.
Directed by Fatih Akin ("Head-On"), "Heaven" will be released theatrically in Curzon and City Screen cinemas and simultaneously be made available to 8.7 million Sky subscribers via Sky Box Office and via PC-based transactional VOD service Sky Anytime.
"It is often the case with non-Hollywood titles that many cinemagoers are aware of the film's release but don't have access to a cinema showing it. This deal means they will now have the opportunity to see it on release," said Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon Artificial Eye.
The move is the first time the satcaster has teamed up with a distributor for a joint launch, and is intended to maximize the potential audience for an Art House title that might otherwise fail to pull in audiences.
Directed by Fatih Akin ("Head-On"), "Heaven" will be released theatrically in Curzon and City Screen cinemas and simultaneously be made available to 8.7 million Sky subscribers via Sky Box Office and via PC-based transactional VOD service Sky Anytime.
"It is often the case with non-Hollywood titles that many cinemagoers are aware of the film's release but don't have access to a cinema showing it. This deal means they will now have the opportunity to see it on release," said Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon Artificial Eye.
PARIS -- Serge Bozon's low-budget feature "La France" is that rarity: a war movie with no war scenes. Alternatively, it is a love story with no love scenes that happens to take place in a war zone. Either way, it was justly praised at this year's Festival de Cannes, and though its boxoffice prospects are minimal, it will reap festival awards and please Art House audiences.
In the autumn of 1917, Camille (Sylvie Testud) receives a letter from her soldier-husband telling her that he is breaking up with her for good and that she will never see him again. She sets off for the front to find out what's going on. Disguising herself as a man -- or rather as a slightly androgynous youth -- she tags along with a group of a dozen soldiers who have split away from their regiment and are tramping through the fields and forests of eastern France, apparently aimlessly.
The men, under the leadership of a lieutenant (Pascal Greggory) who is never named, are more than usually literate, discussing recipes around the campfire or the mythical sunken world of Atlantis. They also, at four points in the film, break into song, confirming the spectator's mounting suspicion that the war, and Camille's quest, stand for something deeper.
The war itself is present only in the form of periodic outbreaks of explosions or the thunder of remote gunfire. Four Germans are seen riding on horseback at a distance but are not engaged. Incidents are few, the most notable being an encounter with two villagers who pull the soldiers out of a pit they have fallen into, an incident with a tragic coda.
The action, such as it is, concerns Camille's relations with the men, who, we learn an hour into the film, are in fact deserters heading for the Dutch border. Camille's femininity eventually is exposed, but by then, as one of the men comments, she has become "one of us." She does, as it turns out, meet her husband (Guillaume Depardieu) at the end, but this could by no stretch be said to represent a happy ending.
The deliberate pace, spare camera movements, formal framing of the soldiers and the slightly stylized acting add to the sense of a world cut off from mundane -- or, in the context of World War I, bloody -- reality. The songs, played on a ramshackle collection of acoustic instruments incorporating everyday objects, heighten the alienation effect, all the more so given that their sonorities are distinctly modern, closer to rock than to early 20th century music hall.
The acting is economical but first-rate, with Greggory in particular hinting at the inner torments of an officer leading his men to he knows not what disaster. (In a cryptic end title, Bozon informs us that the men never reached their destination.) The movie itself is a puzzle, but one that lingers in the mind long after the closing credits.
LA FRANCE
Les Films Pelleas
Credits:
Director: Serge Bozon
Screenwriter: Axelle Ropert
Producer: David Thion
Executive producer: Helene Bastide
Director of photography: Celine Bozon
Production designer: Brigitte Brassart
Costume designer: Renaud Legrand
Music: Mehdi Zannad, Benjamin Esdraffo
Editor: Francois Quiquere
Cast:
Camille: Sylvie Testud
Lieutenant: Pascal Greggory
Cadet: Guillaume Verdier
Jacques: Francois Negret
Antoine: Laurent Talon
Alfred: Pierre Leon
Pierre: Benjamin Esdraffo
Jean: Laurent Lacotte
Running time -- 102 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In the autumn of 1917, Camille (Sylvie Testud) receives a letter from her soldier-husband telling her that he is breaking up with her for good and that she will never see him again. She sets off for the front to find out what's going on. Disguising herself as a man -- or rather as a slightly androgynous youth -- she tags along with a group of a dozen soldiers who have split away from their regiment and are tramping through the fields and forests of eastern France, apparently aimlessly.
The men, under the leadership of a lieutenant (Pascal Greggory) who is never named, are more than usually literate, discussing recipes around the campfire or the mythical sunken world of Atlantis. They also, at four points in the film, break into song, confirming the spectator's mounting suspicion that the war, and Camille's quest, stand for something deeper.
The war itself is present only in the form of periodic outbreaks of explosions or the thunder of remote gunfire. Four Germans are seen riding on horseback at a distance but are not engaged. Incidents are few, the most notable being an encounter with two villagers who pull the soldiers out of a pit they have fallen into, an incident with a tragic coda.
The action, such as it is, concerns Camille's relations with the men, who, we learn an hour into the film, are in fact deserters heading for the Dutch border. Camille's femininity eventually is exposed, but by then, as one of the men comments, she has become "one of us." She does, as it turns out, meet her husband (Guillaume Depardieu) at the end, but this could by no stretch be said to represent a happy ending.
The deliberate pace, spare camera movements, formal framing of the soldiers and the slightly stylized acting add to the sense of a world cut off from mundane -- or, in the context of World War I, bloody -- reality. The songs, played on a ramshackle collection of acoustic instruments incorporating everyday objects, heighten the alienation effect, all the more so given that their sonorities are distinctly modern, closer to rock than to early 20th century music hall.
The acting is economical but first-rate, with Greggory in particular hinting at the inner torments of an officer leading his men to he knows not what disaster. (In a cryptic end title, Bozon informs us that the men never reached their destination.) The movie itself is a puzzle, but one that lingers in the mind long after the closing credits.
LA FRANCE
Les Films Pelleas
Credits:
Director: Serge Bozon
Screenwriter: Axelle Ropert
Producer: David Thion
Executive producer: Helene Bastide
Director of photography: Celine Bozon
Production designer: Brigitte Brassart
Costume designer: Renaud Legrand
Music: Mehdi Zannad, Benjamin Esdraffo
Editor: Francois Quiquere
Cast:
Camille: Sylvie Testud
Lieutenant: Pascal Greggory
Cadet: Guillaume Verdier
Jacques: Francois Negret
Antoine: Laurent Talon
Alfred: Pierre Leon
Pierre: Benjamin Esdraffo
Jean: Laurent Lacotte
Running time -- 102 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Love in the Time of Cholera".SAN FRANCISCO -- "Love in the Time of Cholera", Mike Newell's handsomely appointed but disappointing adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's complicated, sprawling novel retains the essential flavor of the book. Audiences are likely to split into two camps: Fans will mourn what's left out; and those unfamiliar with the book might find the film mannered and slowgoing.
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist") and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. "Cholera" is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist") and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. "Cholera" is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SAN FRANCISCO -- Love in the Time of Cholera, Mike Newell's handsomely appointed but disappointing adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's complicated, sprawling novel retains the essential flavor of the book. Audiences are likely to split into two camps: Fans will mourn what's left out; and those unfamiliar with the book might find the film mannered and slowgoing.
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. Cholera is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. Cholera is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- Veteran producers Margaret Menegoz of France's Les Film du Losange and Veit Heiduschka of Berlin-based Wega Film will be awarded the inaugural Prix Eurimages co-production award at this year's European Film Awards.
The prize is backed by Eurimages the EU film subsidy body, which funds European co-productions.
Menegoz and Heiduschka are among the most important players in the Byzantine world of European co-production, with more than 80 feature film credits between them.
Menegoz has produced such Art House crossover films as Angnieszka Holland's "Europa, Europa" (1990), Andrzej Wajda's "Danton" (1983) and Michael Haneke's "Hidden" (2005), the latter produced together with Heiduschka's Wega Film.
Heiduschka is best known for his work with Haneke. He has produced most of the Austrian auteur's films, including "Benny's Video" (1992), "Funny Games" (1997) and "The Piano Teacher" (2001).
Serbian director Stefan Arsenijevic, whose feature film debut "Love and Other Crimes" is a Serbian-German-Austrian-Slovanian co-production, will present the Prix Eurimages at the 20th European Film Awards on Dec. 1 in Berlin.
The prize is backed by Eurimages the EU film subsidy body, which funds European co-productions.
Menegoz and Heiduschka are among the most important players in the Byzantine world of European co-production, with more than 80 feature film credits between them.
Menegoz has produced such Art House crossover films as Angnieszka Holland's "Europa, Europa" (1990), Andrzej Wajda's "Danton" (1983) and Michael Haneke's "Hidden" (2005), the latter produced together with Heiduschka's Wega Film.
Heiduschka is best known for his work with Haneke. He has produced most of the Austrian auteur's films, including "Benny's Video" (1992), "Funny Games" (1997) and "The Piano Teacher" (2001).
Serbian director Stefan Arsenijevic, whose feature film debut "Love and Other Crimes" is a Serbian-German-Austrian-Slovanian co-production, will present the Prix Eurimages at the 20th European Film Awards on Dec. 1 in Berlin.
- 11/9/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
More news from the Pusan fest
Singapore director Royston Tan's latest film, "881", is a musical about two childhood friends who grow up mesmerized by the glitter and glamour of getai -- concerts on makeshift stages all over Singapore. Getai events are held to placate and entertain the spirits during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, when the ghosts and spirits of the departed make their annual pilgrimage back to the land of the living. Filmed in Mandarin as well as the Hokkien dialect, "881" is Tan's third film -- and his first commercial success. His first feature, the award-winning "15," is a gritty look at teenage delinquency. In addition to being the first film from Singapore invited to be in competition at the Venice Film Festival for the "Lion of the Future Award", the film earned Tan a reputation as the enfant terrible of Singapore cinema. "881", with glitzy costumes and lavish choreography, is described as "a cross between 'Dancer in the Dark' and 'Moulin Rouge.' " All the musical numbers are by Chen Jin lang, a Singapore getai songwriting legend who died in August 2006. The director spoke with The Hollywood Reporter's Janine Stein about his commercial success and his approach to filmmaking.
The Hollywood Reporter: "881" is a glitzy musical heavily rooted in a tradition not usually associated with young, cutting-edge Singapore or the Art House films you are known for. What made you choose this particular film?
Royston Tan: The film started as a joke about finding something Uniquely Singapore (the slogan of the Singapore Tourism Board's campaign). We came up with getai as an answer. The story began to take shape, and I wrote the outline in one sitting. It's time for us to appreciate the beauty of the Hokkien dialect. The next generation will lose it, and if we do, we lose a part of ourselves. I'm very concerned. The younger generation are not speaking Hokkien anymore. There are a lot of feelings and closeness when you speak in Hokkien. As a Hokkien boy, I must add that I have a special fondness for the dialect, which I think is an indispensable part of my heritage and hope young filmgoers will hear its beauty in the songs' lyrics.
THR: What would you like movie audiences to take away from "881"?
Tan: The first thing is that I never have the audience in mind when I make my films.
Singapore director Royston Tan's latest film, "881", is a musical about two childhood friends who grow up mesmerized by the glitter and glamour of getai -- concerts on makeshift stages all over Singapore. Getai events are held to placate and entertain the spirits during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, when the ghosts and spirits of the departed make their annual pilgrimage back to the land of the living. Filmed in Mandarin as well as the Hokkien dialect, "881" is Tan's third film -- and his first commercial success. His first feature, the award-winning "15," is a gritty look at teenage delinquency. In addition to being the first film from Singapore invited to be in competition at the Venice Film Festival for the "Lion of the Future Award", the film earned Tan a reputation as the enfant terrible of Singapore cinema. "881", with glitzy costumes and lavish choreography, is described as "a cross between 'Dancer in the Dark' and 'Moulin Rouge.' " All the musical numbers are by Chen Jin lang, a Singapore getai songwriting legend who died in August 2006. The director spoke with The Hollywood Reporter's Janine Stein about his commercial success and his approach to filmmaking.
The Hollywood Reporter: "881" is a glitzy musical heavily rooted in a tradition not usually associated with young, cutting-edge Singapore or the Art House films you are known for. What made you choose this particular film?
Royston Tan: The film started as a joke about finding something Uniquely Singapore (the slogan of the Singapore Tourism Board's campaign). We came up with getai as an answer. The story began to take shape, and I wrote the outline in one sitting. It's time for us to appreciate the beauty of the Hokkien dialect. The next generation will lose it, and if we do, we lose a part of ourselves. I'm very concerned. The younger generation are not speaking Hokkien anymore. There are a lot of feelings and closeness when you speak in Hokkien. As a Hokkien boy, I must add that I have a special fondness for the dialect, which I think is an indispensable part of my heritage and hope young filmgoers will hear its beauty in the songs' lyrics.
THR: What would you like movie audiences to take away from "881"?
Tan: The first thing is that I never have the audience in mind when I make my films.
- 10/5/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the festival screening of "Caramel".Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- The set-up is hardly new -- a beauty salon as nexus of female social life -- but it feels fresh in "Caramel", a relaxed comedy from first-time filmmaker Nadine Labaki. Warm-hearted and accessible, it could benefit from good word of mouth in a limited Art House run, particularly among audiences who like their rom-coms laced with foreign ingredients.
Labaki herself stars as Layale, the proprietor of a Lebanese salon. A handful of characters bustle around the slightly chaotic place, running the gamut from Rima, a (closeted?) lesbian hair washer, to a young bride-to-be and an actress past her prime. (A slightly cruel running gag has the latter using strategically placed adhesive tape as a poor face-lift substitute for auditions.)
Layale is suffering through an affair with a married man, but more promising hints of romance pop up throughout the film: the policeman who, despite the crush he has on her, is duty-bound to give Layale parking tickets she never pays; the dignified old gent who visits aging seamstress Rose; the stunning beauty with long, silken hair who develops a fondness for having her scalp massaged by Rima. Interestingly, while Labaki gets charming mileage out of each subplot, she makes a point of leaving each hanging in the air at the end, only tying up the one relationship we're confident about at the picture's start.
Performances are likeable across the board from women who, for the most part, have few if any other screen credits. The absence of pro acting experience it tough to believe in the case of Sihame Haddad, playing the Rose, who is especially strong in a poignant scene late in the film.
Labaki saves some drama for herself, as Layale struggles with what to do about her married lover and the wife who "coincidentally" comes by the salon for a waxing, but is generous with her co-stars, each of whom gets some time in the spotlight. A light-on-its-feet score by Khaled Mouzannar, mixing piano with violin and traditional instruments, complements the relaxed vibe perfectly, while gold-hued cinematography catches the salon and surrounding areas (Labaki dedicates the picture "to my Beirut") to good effect.
CARAMEL
Roadside Attractions
Les Films des Tournelles / Roissy Films / Les Films de Beyrouth / Sunnyland / Arte France Cinema
Credits:
Director: Nadine Labaki
Writers: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Rodney Al Haddad
Producer: Anne-Dominique Toussaint
Director of photography: Yves Sehnaoui
Production designer: Cynthia Zahar
Music: Khaled Mouzannar
Costume designer: Caroline Labaki
Editor: Laure Gardette
Cast:
Layale: Nadine Labaki
Nisrine: Yasmine Al Masri
Rima: Joanna Moukarzel
Jamale: Gisele Aouad
Rose: Sihame Haddad
Lili: Aziza Semaan
Youssef: Adel Karam
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
TORONTO -- The set-up is hardly new -- a beauty salon as nexus of female social life -- but it feels fresh in "Caramel", a relaxed comedy from first-time filmmaker Nadine Labaki. Warm-hearted and accessible, it could benefit from good word of mouth in a limited Art House run, particularly among audiences who like their rom-coms laced with foreign ingredients.
Labaki herself stars as Layale, the proprietor of a Lebanese salon. A handful of characters bustle around the slightly chaotic place, running the gamut from Rima, a (closeted?) lesbian hair washer, to a young bride-to-be and an actress past her prime. (A slightly cruel running gag has the latter using strategically placed adhesive tape as a poor face-lift substitute for auditions.)
Layale is suffering through an affair with a married man, but more promising hints of romance pop up throughout the film: the policeman who, despite the crush he has on her, is duty-bound to give Layale parking tickets she never pays; the dignified old gent who visits aging seamstress Rose; the stunning beauty with long, silken hair who develops a fondness for having her scalp massaged by Rima. Interestingly, while Labaki gets charming mileage out of each subplot, she makes a point of leaving each hanging in the air at the end, only tying up the one relationship we're confident about at the picture's start.
Performances are likeable across the board from women who, for the most part, have few if any other screen credits. The absence of pro acting experience it tough to believe in the case of Sihame Haddad, playing the Rose, who is especially strong in a poignant scene late in the film.
Labaki saves some drama for herself, as Layale struggles with what to do about her married lover and the wife who "coincidentally" comes by the salon for a waxing, but is generous with her co-stars, each of whom gets some time in the spotlight. A light-on-its-feet score by Khaled Mouzannar, mixing piano with violin and traditional instruments, complements the relaxed vibe perfectly, while gold-hued cinematography catches the salon and surrounding areas (Labaki dedicates the picture "to my Beirut") to good effect.
CARAMEL
Roadside Attractions
Les Films des Tournelles / Roissy Films / Les Films de Beyrouth / Sunnyland / Arte France Cinema
Credits:
Director: Nadine Labaki
Writers: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Rodney Al Haddad
Producer: Anne-Dominique Toussaint
Director of photography: Yves Sehnaoui
Production designer: Cynthia Zahar
Music: Khaled Mouzannar
Costume designer: Caroline Labaki
Editor: Laure Gardette
Cast:
Layale: Nadine Labaki
Nisrine: Yasmine Al Masri
Rima: Joanna Moukarzel
Jamale: Gisele Aouad
Rose: Sihame Haddad
Lili: Aziza Semaan
Youssef: Adel Karam
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/17/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Goya's Ghosts.""Goya's Ghosts" is a decidedly odd film coming from such a prestigious group of filmmakers that includes writer-director Milos Forman, renowned screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and producer Saul Zaentz. Its central figure is the great Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco de Goya, in many ways the world's first modern artist. Yet the film displays only passing interest in his art. Its focus instead is on Spain during the horrific period of the Inquisition and Napoleon's conquest, a subject that has its modern-day parallels, but the film never chooses to make them. Indeed, the story these talented filmmakers tell is a sad, even pathetic tale about tawdry events and cowardly individuals.
The film opened in Europe in November to poor results. Foreign boxoffice stands at $5.9 million, with $2.2 million coming from Spain. "Ghosts" makes its domestic debut Friday, July 20 in select markets before an expansion Aug. 3. While lavishly produced with exquisite period details and battle scenes, the film seems destined to attract a mostly Art House crowd.
Goya (1746-1828) is viewed here -- no doubt with some justification -- as being apolitical, a man interested in his art but not caring who he paints, be it a haughty royal or a Grand Inquisitor. Yet the journalistic and subversive side to his art, especially in his "Caprichos" etchings or painting about Napoleon's invasion of a conservative, priest-ridden Spain, make one wonder if he wasn't a very good actor to maintain such cordial relations with royals and invaders alike while depicting the true horrors of his society.
Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) provides the film's viewpoint since he moves easily between the Royal Palace and streets and taverns of Madrid. The story he bears witness to concerns a young and beautiful daughter (Natalie Portman) of a wealthy Christian merchant, who also is his model. When she is unjustly fingered by the Inquisition for hiding "Jewish practices", she is tortured into a confession that causes the Church to lock her up in a filthy prison to rot.
Her father (Jose Luis Gomez) appeals to Goya to intervene with Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), a fanatical priest behind the revival of the odious Inquisition. Goya arranges a dinner and the father a sizable bribe, but all the priest manages to do is impregnate the daughter. To demonstrate how easily one can produce "confessions," the father subjects Lorenzo to the same torture as his daughter endured, forcing him to admit to being a monkey. It's difficult to believe, though, that the family would suffer no repercussions for such an outrageous act.
Humiliated and ostracized from the Church, Lorenzo flees Spain only to return 15 years later with Napoleon's army and a portfolio for revenge against the Grand Inquisitor (Michael Lonsdale). He does manage to free his now deranged lover but thoughtlessly consigns her to an asylum. When he finally locates his daughter (Portman in an uncomfortable dual role), he discovers that she has turned to prostitution. His reaction is to arrest and send her to America, where she can't bother him. Only the British invade Spain and the tables turn again.
There is truly no one to like in this film. The ex-priest is a human rights abuser of the first order. Goya is too wishy-washy to stand for anything. One young girl goes insane, while her daughter becomes an unrepentant whore. Royals are out of touch with a world in which priests and soldiers inflict rape, barbarity and death on a terrified populace. The only bright spot is Randy Quaid in a humorous turn as a playful (if not terribly American) King Carlos.
Scenes might suggest some of Goya's more horrific images, but for the most part his art is ignored. His personal life is stripped from him so he may wander through Madrid as our eyes and ears (at least until he become deaf). He always manages to be in the room when great historical news arrives -- the execution of the French king or the landing of British forces in Spain.
The script contains one jarring leap in time, an awkward shift in the narration and much telescoping of events, like the British invasion that seemingly takes place a few weeks after Napoleon's arrival when in fact the French stayed for six years.
In general, the filmmakers failed to make several basic decisions before shooting: What are they trying to say and to whom are they saying it? The good vs. evil is painted too black and white to reveal much about the human character. Indeed, a modern sensibility afflicts much of the screenplay, with characters expressing thoughts and opinions for our ears rather than acting as people of that era.
Below-the-line credits are terrific, which only increases an overwhelming sense of disappointment with the film's failed ambitions.
GOYA'S GHOSTS
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Xuxa presents a Saul Zaentz production
Credits:
Director: Milos Forman
Screenwriters: Milos Forman, Jean-Claude Carriere
Producer: Saul Zaentz
Executive producer: Paul Zaentz
Director of photography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Production designer: Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Music: Varhan Bauer
Co-producers: Mark Albela, Denise O'Dell
Costume designer: Yvonne Blake
Editor: Adam Boome
Cast:
Brother Lorenzo: Javier Bardem
Ines/Alicia: Natalie Portman
Goya: Stellan Skarsgard
King Carlos: Randy Quaid
Grand Inquisitor: Michael Lonsdale
Bilbatua: Jose Luis Gomez
Mabel Isabel Bilbatua: Mabel Rivera
Running time -- 113 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The film opened in Europe in November to poor results. Foreign boxoffice stands at $5.9 million, with $2.2 million coming from Spain. "Ghosts" makes its domestic debut Friday, July 20 in select markets before an expansion Aug. 3. While lavishly produced with exquisite period details and battle scenes, the film seems destined to attract a mostly Art House crowd.
Goya (1746-1828) is viewed here -- no doubt with some justification -- as being apolitical, a man interested in his art but not caring who he paints, be it a haughty royal or a Grand Inquisitor. Yet the journalistic and subversive side to his art, especially in his "Caprichos" etchings or painting about Napoleon's invasion of a conservative, priest-ridden Spain, make one wonder if he wasn't a very good actor to maintain such cordial relations with royals and invaders alike while depicting the true horrors of his society.
Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) provides the film's viewpoint since he moves easily between the Royal Palace and streets and taverns of Madrid. The story he bears witness to concerns a young and beautiful daughter (Natalie Portman) of a wealthy Christian merchant, who also is his model. When she is unjustly fingered by the Inquisition for hiding "Jewish practices", she is tortured into a confession that causes the Church to lock her up in a filthy prison to rot.
Her father (Jose Luis Gomez) appeals to Goya to intervene with Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), a fanatical priest behind the revival of the odious Inquisition. Goya arranges a dinner and the father a sizable bribe, but all the priest manages to do is impregnate the daughter. To demonstrate how easily one can produce "confessions," the father subjects Lorenzo to the same torture as his daughter endured, forcing him to admit to being a monkey. It's difficult to believe, though, that the family would suffer no repercussions for such an outrageous act.
Humiliated and ostracized from the Church, Lorenzo flees Spain only to return 15 years later with Napoleon's army and a portfolio for revenge against the Grand Inquisitor (Michael Lonsdale). He does manage to free his now deranged lover but thoughtlessly consigns her to an asylum. When he finally locates his daughter (Portman in an uncomfortable dual role), he discovers that she has turned to prostitution. His reaction is to arrest and send her to America, where she can't bother him. Only the British invade Spain and the tables turn again.
There is truly no one to like in this film. The ex-priest is a human rights abuser of the first order. Goya is too wishy-washy to stand for anything. One young girl goes insane, while her daughter becomes an unrepentant whore. Royals are out of touch with a world in which priests and soldiers inflict rape, barbarity and death on a terrified populace. The only bright spot is Randy Quaid in a humorous turn as a playful (if not terribly American) King Carlos.
Scenes might suggest some of Goya's more horrific images, but for the most part his art is ignored. His personal life is stripped from him so he may wander through Madrid as our eyes and ears (at least until he become deaf). He always manages to be in the room when great historical news arrives -- the execution of the French king or the landing of British forces in Spain.
The script contains one jarring leap in time, an awkward shift in the narration and much telescoping of events, like the British invasion that seemingly takes place a few weeks after Napoleon's arrival when in fact the French stayed for six years.
In general, the filmmakers failed to make several basic decisions before shooting: What are they trying to say and to whom are they saying it? The good vs. evil is painted too black and white to reveal much about the human character. Indeed, a modern sensibility afflicts much of the screenplay, with characters expressing thoughts and opinions for our ears rather than acting as people of that era.
Below-the-line credits are terrific, which only increases an overwhelming sense of disappointment with the film's failed ambitions.
GOYA'S GHOSTS
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Xuxa presents a Saul Zaentz production
Credits:
Director: Milos Forman
Screenwriters: Milos Forman, Jean-Claude Carriere
Producer: Saul Zaentz
Executive producer: Paul Zaentz
Director of photography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Production designer: Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Music: Varhan Bauer
Co-producers: Mark Albela, Denise O'Dell
Costume designer: Yvonne Blake
Editor: Adam Boome
Cast:
Brother Lorenzo: Javier Bardem
Ines/Alicia: Natalie Portman
Goya: Stellan Skarsgard
King Carlos: Randy Quaid
Grand Inquisitor: Michael Lonsdale
Bilbatua: Jose Luis Gomez
Mabel Isabel Bilbatua: Mabel Rivera
Running time -- 113 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 7/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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