Eye on North America

The Anti-Blockbuster: European Films On American Screens

2009-07-10T18:26:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Summer is the traditional time at movie multiplexes for blockbuster films from the Hollywood studios that tend to focus more on explosions and special effects than effective storylines. While there is no denying the box office clout of such films as TRANSFORMERS, TERMINATOR SALVATION and WOLVERINE, there are some less deafening art films that are also being released on American screens. Call it counter-programming, a strategy of offering a breather from the summer staples, that is proving to be an effective marketing ploy. Films that appeal to adults and to sophisticated tastes in the heart of summer.....who knew?

This week alone two French films have opened to rapturous reviews. THE BEACHES OF AGNES, an impressionistic documentary essay film by Nouvelle Vague favorite Agnes Varda, has captured the imagination of the arthouse crowd and is proving to be a summer sleeper hit.

THE GIRL FROM MONACO, a splashy romancier by Anne Fontaine, provides the requisite helping of sex, seduction and romantic settings that appeal to the Francophile crowd.

These two new entries come on the heels of several other French films that have remained remarkably popular in the light of so much Hollywood competition. One of the big hits of the summer season has been the film SUMMER HOURS by Olivier Assayas. The film opened back in May and continues a remarkable run that has yielded almost $2 million at the American box office. SERAPHINE, the celebrated biopic of outsider artist Seraphine Louis directed by Martin Provost, has also been a strong contender this season, as it expands its run outside of the traditional centers of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago to become a modest but well esteemed arthouse hit.

Other European titles filling the void include CHERI, the Stephen Frears-Christopher Hampton adaptation of twin novels by French writer Colette that explores the fevered relationship between an aging courtesan (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her immature younger lover (Rupert Friend) in fin-de-siecle Paris; DEAD SNOW, a Norwegian horror satire by Tommy Wirkola populated by Nazi zombies (!!!) who terrorize a small town; LAILA'S BIRTHDAY, a Dutch/Palestine co-production by director Rashid Masharawi about the strange and disorienting everyday life for Palestinians in the Israel-occupied West Bank; MOON, a sci-fi meditation on loneliness and futuristic alienation by UK director Duncan Jones; and QUIET CHAOS, a slice-of-life Italian drama starring Nanni Moretti and directed by Antonello Grimaldi.

Add to this the retrospective of the existential films of Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky at New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center (and scheduled to do a national tour) and one finds that amdist the cyborgs and superheros, that summer movie-going (of a more discriminate palette) has its own pleasures.

Andrei Tarkovsky In The New York Spotlight

2009-07-06T21:17:00.004+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

There are few filmmakers more controversial or more "difficult" for mainstream audiences to appreciate than the Russian existential master Andrei Tarkovsky. His films are indeed an acquired taste, but for those willing to take the complex cinematic journeys, there are many rewards to be had. A Tarkovsky fan is indeed a Tarkovsky fanatic, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York provides both devoted fans and those new to this important oeuvre a rare opportunity to sample the master's handiwork.

No less a film giant than Ingmar Bergman praised his Russian counterpart as a "master who invented a new film language." First and foremost a visual artist, Tarkovsky invested a mystery and melancholy in his films that shone a light on the human condition and the aspiration for belief in something greater than ourselves. The Film Society of Lincoln Center brings back the complete oeuvre of this astonishing artist in REVISITING TARKOVSKY, an eight film series beginning on Tuesday, 7 July.

Showcasing all seven of the auteur's landmark films, the series will also premiere Dmitry Trakovsky's provocative new documentary, MEETING ANDREI TARKOVSKY, featuring rare interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. The series opens with the director's 1962 debut IVAN'S CHILDHOOD, a coming of age story which earned the 30 year-old director the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The series also features the director's best-known film, SOLARIS (1972), a sci-fi classic based on a novel by the great Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. Considered a spiritual cousin to Stanley Kubrick's landmark 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, the film uses space bound scientist Chris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) as a medium for viewers to meditate on the ideas of perception, relationships and love. The film was later remade by Tarkovsky fan Steven Soderbergh in 2002, with George Clooney as the existential astronaut.

One of Tarkovsky's most controversial films was produced two years later. THE MIRROR (1974) is a loosely autobiographical and experimental film based on his father's poetic writings. Taking close to ten years to come to fruition, and banned by the Soviet film ministry on the eve of its Cannes Premiere, Tarkovsky's masterwork has developed a cult reputation among cinephiles.

The series also features rare screenings of ANDREI RUBLEV (1966), a sprawling tableau of the Russian icon painter that was mangled upon its initial release and later screened in a restored 205-minute cut; STALKER (1979), a sci-fi twinged thriller about a town that has been unalterably changed by a cosmic event; NOSTALGHIA (1983), a meditation on human relationships starring one of Russia's most famous actors, Oleg Yankovsky, opposite the Swedish actor Erland Josephson; and Tarkovsky's final film THE SACRIFICE (1986), a cri de coeur against nuclear proliferation that embodied the director's fears for the future and belief in the essential goodness of mankind.

For more information, visit the website of the Film Society of Lincoln Center: www.filmlinc.com

European Films Highlight Tribute To Strand Releasing

2009-06-29T03:13:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Being an independent distributor of European films in the American market is more a labour of love than it is a ticket to monied success. Among the most hard-working and celebrated of these arthouse distribution companies is Los Angeles-based Strand Releasing, which is receiving a 20th anniversary tribute next week at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

MoMA is presenting a six-film showcase of recent titles from Strand Releasing in the exhibition Carte Blanche: Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans, the names of the co-founders of the company. Strand Releasing has been at the forefront of independent and arthouse cinema, with a particular focus on films with gay content and by gay filmmakers. Founding their visionary company in 1989, Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans have since maintained a dedication to risk-taking directors who privilege innovation and authenticity over commerciality.

Although the company has distinguished itself with contemporary films from around the world, it has always had a strong focus and allegiance to the new European cinema. Included in the six-film tribute, programmed by Hu and Gerrans themselves, are such landmark European titles as LE TEMPS QUI RESTE (Time To Leave), an existential meditation on death, eroticism and the human legacy by French filmmaker Francois Ozon; AUF DER ANDEREN DER ANDEREN SEITE (The Edge of Heaven, 2007), Turkish/German director Fatih Akin's award-winning look at cross-culturalism in the new Europe, with an outstanding cast led by actress Hannah Schygulla; and AVANT QUE J'OUBLIE (Before I Forget, 2008), a semi-autobiographical memory film about an aging gay gigolo, written and directed by and starring Jacques Nolot.

Several European co-productions that introduced international talents on the world film stage are also included in the tribute, including SUD PRALAD (Tropical Malady, 2004), Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Thai/French co-production about the mystical love affair between a young soldier and the country boy he seduces.; the French/Taiwan co-production TIAN BIAN YI DUO YUN (The Wayward Cloud, 2005), an erotic musical fantasy about a jaded porn film star that established the international reputation of Taiwanese writer/director Tsai Ming-Liang; and Argentine director Lucrecia Martel's LA MUJER SIN CABEZA (The Headless Woman, 2008), an arresting film about a bourgeois woman who loses all sense of memory, that was co-produced with Spain, France and Italy.

Strand Releasing remains quite active in the current theatrical marketplace, with plans to release the following European films in the next few months, including A WOMAN IN BERLIN (Max Foberbock, Germany), LE CHANT DES MARRIES (Karin Albou, Tunisia/France), and DONNE-MOI LA MAIN (Give Me Your Hand, Pascal Alex-Vincent, France). For more information on the Museum of Modern Art program, visit: http://www.moma.org/. For more information on Strand Releasing, visit: http://www.strandrel.com/

European Documentaries Strong At SILVERDOCS

2009-06-22T18:02:00.005+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

European documentaries continue their international winning streak at film festivals around the world. At the SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival (http://www.silverdocs.com/), the prestigious American event held in the Washington DC area, films from UK and Denmark were among the winners at the event, which ran from 15-22 June.

The Festival, which is co-presented by the American Film Institute and The Discovery Channel, screened over 120 films representing 58 countries and included more than 1000 filmmaker and media professional attendees at the concurrent International Documentary Conference, with its particular emphasis on youth, education and next generation media artists. Winning filmmakers received over $70,000 in combined cash and in-kind prizes.

The SILVERDOCS Sterling Award for a World Feature was won by MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN (http://www.mugabeandthewhiteafrican.com/), co-directed by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson. The UK documentary explores, through the lens of a 74-year-old white farmer, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s deeply controversial land seizure program, which intended to re-distribute white-owned farmland. The film made its US Premiere at SILVERDOCS, with the directors returning home with a $10,000 cash prize.

In a second European win, the SILVERDOCS Sterling Award for a Short Film was given to the Danish film 12 NOTES DOWN, directed by Andreas Koefoed. This engaging short film documents 14-year old star choir performer, Jorgis, after his voice starts changing and he decides to make an unexpected yet graceful exit from choir.

The Festival divides its documentary competition into two sections, one for specificially American films and the other for a range of international productions. In the 10-film SILVERDOCS Sterling World Feature Competition, European documentary films predominated.

In the Hungarian film ANOTHER PLANET, director Ferenc Moldovanyi offers a powerful globe-spanning tale about children who are struggling to survive as trash scavengers, soldiers and sex workers. Award-winning UK documentarian Richard Parry focuses his camera on war photographer Robert King, whose insightful images drawn from his travels to Chechyna, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Iraq bring those trouble spots to vivid life in the film BLOOD TRAIL. Another UK documentary that drew a strong response was Oscar-nominated director Jon Blair's DANCING WITH THE DEVIL, an intense and kinetic story of the drug wars in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, which world premiered at the Festival.

In the highly inventive COOKING HISTORY, Slovakian director Peter Kerekes offers an unusual perspective on the history of modern European warfare as seen through the eyes of the field cooks, bakers and kitchen staff who "catered" some of the most significant conflicts of the past century. Norwegian director Thomas Lien details the astonishing story of a man who wakes up one day on a train in China not remembering his name or how he came to be in a country halfway across the world in the film HUNTING DOWN MEMORY. A similarly engaging portrait is the focus of RENE, Czech director Helena Trestikova's intimate film that follows a career criminal for 20 years, as he evolved from a teen delinquent to a hard-core criminal. A portrait of some one long since gone is the focus of THE SOUND OF INSECTS---RECORD OF A MUMMY, Swiss director Peter Liechti's deeply poetic film about a hunter who stumbles upon body remains and a diary of a man who committed suicide from self-starvation over a two-month period.

In the non-competitive Silver Spectrum section of the Festival, European titles were among the most intriguing. In French director Samuel Collardey's THE APPRENTICE, the filmmaker spends one year in the life of a French high school student, which shows the ups-and-downs in the life of the current generation. In OUR FORBIDDEN PLACES, a French/Moroccan co-production by Leila Kilani, a series of Moroccan families confront government secrets and personal losses of family members abducted and then never again heard from in the years following Morroco's independence from France. In the French/Cameroon film SACRED PLACES, director Jean-Marie Teno uncovers the hidden charms of the unknown neighborhood of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, during that city's famed African Film Festival.

Netherlands had a strong representation in the program. In BLOODY MONDAYS AND STRAWBERRY PIES, director Coco Schrijber offers a cinematic examination of boredom, narrated by actor John Malkovich. In the deliciously comic CARMEN MEETS BORAT by director Mercedes Stalenhoef, a small community in Romania is forever changed after it hosts a crew from the famed film satire BORAT. In the expressionistic ENJOY POVERTY, visual artist and filmmaker Renzo Martens offers an aburdist look at how African countries exploit poverty as a natural resource in order to attract tourist and NGO monies.

From Scandinavia came two provocative films. In LET'S BE TOGETHER, Danish director Nanna Frank Moller offers the compelling portrait of a waif-like young man who fondness for eyeliner and fine couture make him an oddball in his small fishing community. In the Swedish documentary LONG DISTANCE LOVE, a young man and his new bridge in the Krgyzstan plains must endure a forced seperation while he goes looking for work in Moscow.

UK films were also a standout at this year's Festival. Outstanding British documentaries on tap included AFGHAN STAR, director Havana Marking's intriguing tale of an American Idol-like television talent competition set in war-torn Kabul; the rousing ONLY WHEN I DANCE, director Beade Finzi's inspiring tale of two aspiring teenage dancers and their inspirational journey from the favelas of Rio to the heighest of international ballet; THE TIMES OF THEIR LIVES by director Jocelyn Cammack offers an intimate look at two elderly women who refuse to let their advancing years hold back their enthusiasm for life as they spend their last years at an enlightened senior citizen living center. European films were also strong in the Festival's many shorts anthology programs, with the Danish film 12 NOTES DOWN winning top honors.

For European documentaries, the SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival is a springboard for recognition of their efforts by enthusiastic audiences and the many film professionals who come to the event to sample potential films for distribution pick-up or showcasing at other festivals. For more information on these and other films at this year’s exemplary SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival, visit: http://www.silverdocs.com/

The Good Pitch At SILVERDOCS

2009-06-15T16:24:00.002+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

The SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film events devoted to the non-fiction form, has joined forces with UK's Channel Four BRITDOC Foundation (www.britdoc.org/goodpitch) and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (www.sundanceinstitute.org/docsource) to present the North American tour of THE GOOD PITCH, a co-production market initiative that will be part of the Festival's industry events this week.

The initiative received over 300 applications, with the final group of 8 filmmaking teams having been selected to pitch their films to an invited audience, comprising leading national and international NGOs, foundations, broadcasters, campaigners and media in order to maximise the impact of their social-issue documentary projects. The pitching session will take place in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, 16 June.

Media professionals confirmed to attend include: Cinereach, IMPACT Partners, Fledgling Fund, Moveon.org, Katahdin Foundation, Avaaz.org, Amnesty International, ITVS, Tribeca Film Institute, Wide Angle, Indiepix, BAVC Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, POV, Incite Productions, 1% for the Planet, The Impact Arts + Film Fund, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media and the Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust.

The selected filmmakers and their projects include:

Budrus has a Hammer

Dir. Julia Bacha

A Palestinian community organizer unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in a Gandhian struggle to save his village, unleashing a non-violent movement - with women on the front lines - that is still gaining ground today.

Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America

Dir. Robbie Gemmel

Cape Wind illuminates the divisive controversy surrounding the Cape Wind Project – a proposal to build 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod – translating the furor which exploded on the Cape Cod community into a story of transcendent national importance for the future of sustainability in America.

Ethiopia’s Exchange

Dir. Hugo Berkeley

Ethiopia’s Exchange tells the story of a woman on a mission - and a world of trouble standing in her way. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a charismatic Ethiopian economist, wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. She designed the nation's first commodities exchange, which she hopes will revolutionize an age-old market system.

Green Shall Overcome

Dir. Megan Gelstein

Green Shall Overcome takes an in-depth look at the green-collar job movement through the lens of Van Jones, an African-American civil-rights lawyer. Jones envisions the new green economy as a pathway out of poverty for low-income Americans while simultaneously solving challenges of environmental destruction. After years of advocating for change, Jones is recruited by the Obama Administration and appointed Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation by the White House Council on Environment Quality.

High Tech, Low Life

Dir. Stephen T. Maing

High Tech, Low Life is about one of China's first citizen reporters and the achievements of a fearless new digital youth generation. The film follows the evolution of a young vegetable seller from blogger to internet celebrity as he reports on sensitive news stories in China.

Hungry In America

Dirs. Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush

Hungry in America will investigate why nearly 38 million Americans - including 14 million children - go hungry here, in one of the richest nations on earth.

Out in the Silence

Dir. Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer

Out in the Silence uses the story of a small American town confronting the firestorm of controversy ignited by a same-sex wedding announcement to illustrate the challenge of being an outsider in a conservative environment and catalyze new ways of making resources and support available for those working for change.

Split Estate

Dir. Debra Anderson

Split Estate follows an unfolding conflict in the Rocky Mountains. With cries from Washington for more domestic gas and oil production, the citizens of Colorado and New Mexico find themselves in the path of an unstoppable rush to drill that is destroying their health, their homes, and their communities.

The Challenge Of Human Rights

2009-06-11T16:55:00.006+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

These challenging times call for courage, determination and a selflessness that was woefully out of fashion in the Me-Me-Me Decade that preceded the worldwide economic collapse. That there is potential for the global community to learn from its mistakes is always a hopeful sign (although let us remember that the Great Depression was followed almost immediately by its antidote, World War II). When this moral courage needs to be inspired in each one of us, it helps that courageous filmmakers are documenting the stories of those who are suffering and others who respond by tapping into their innate compassion and righteous activism.

These are the themes and the goals of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, which opens its New York edition at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater this evening. Sponsored by Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights, the Festival is a clarion call for witnessing and acting on human rights abuses that sometimes get scant attention in the traditional news media.

The Festival features a number of strong entries from European directors. The event begins this evening with the premiere of EDEN IS WEST (Eden A L'Ouest), the epic story of an immigrant's journey, directed by the legendary Greek/French filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Z). The film follows a young man's journey from the Agean Sea to the ports of heaven and hell, until finally arriving in that most magical of cities, Paris. That this was intended to echo Homer's Odyssey is purely intentional and gives Costa-Gavras an exceptional palette to explore the themes of immigratioTn, fulfillment and human aspiration. The director himself will appear at tonight's screening for a conversation with Carroll Bogert of Human Rights Watch, followed by a reception.

Other European highlights of the film series include: AFGHAN STAR, a rousing depiction of an "American Idol" talent competition set in Afghanistan by UK director Havana Marking; THE AGE OF STUPID, British director Franny Armstrong's apocalyptic mix of drama, documentary and animation set in an Artic fortress archives fifty years in the future; BACK HOME TOMORROW, Italian directors Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini's absorbing tale of two children in war-torn Darfur and Afghanistan and the remarkable work of the Italian aid organization Emergency; IN THE HOLY FIRE OF REVOLUTION, Dutch director Masha Novikova's portrait of chess-champion-turned-social activist Garry Kasparov; KABULI KID, an eye-opening look at the daily life-and-death adventures of a taxi driver in Kabul, from French Afghani director Barmak Akram; SNOW, a stunning debut feature from Bosnian director Aida Begic which chronicles the drama of life in a Bosnian village that was devastated during the tragic war of the 1990s; and TAPOLOGO, the moving story of a migrant labor camp in South Africa where a group of former sex workers living with HIV have created a network of solidarity to care for themselves and others living with HIV, directed by the Spanish team of Gabriella Dewar and Sally Gutierrez Dewar.

These films challenge us to be witnesses and to find a way to light a candle rather than curse the darkness For a full list of films screening this year, along with seminars, shorts programs and special events, log on to the websites: www.hrw.org/iff or http://www.filmlinc.com/

European Views At New York Gay Film Festival

2009-06-09T18:11:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

New York audiences interested in a uniquely gay European point of view have several films to sample at the NewFest, New York's key gay and lesbian film festival event. The Festival obviously values this European perspective, having chosen a UK film as its Opening Night attraction. MR. RIGHT, written and directed by Jacqui Morris, was an audience pleaser as it unfolded its interlocking stories of a group of gay men and their "fag hag" compatriot in the gay-centric Soho neighborhood of London.

In Richard Laxton's AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK, Brit actor John Hurt reprises his most famous role as raconteur Quentin Crisp, in an entertaining portrait of the gay icon as he takes residence in New York City for the final chapter of his oh-so-colorful life. In GREEK PETE, UK director Andrew Haigh mixes documentary realism with fictional recreations in a sexually explicit look at London male escorts. Working class youth in the London slums also face difficult struggles with sexual and identity issues in Simon Pearce's arresting SHANK.

Germany is represented by three films in the Festival. In GHOSTED, veteran director Monika Treut offers a haunting love story that crosses ethnicities and continents. When a lesbian photographer travels from her native Hamburg to Taipei, she encounters a sexy female journalist who has a strange bond with the Taiwanese girlfriend who died under mysterious circumstances. Incorporating the Asian penchant for ghost stories with the bluntness of German queer cinema, Treut's film was celebrated at its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival this winter. Also from Germany comes LIGHT GRADIENT, an erotic road movie about a male couple on a scenic bike trip through the German countryside, directed by Jan Kruger. In the documentary THE GOOD AMERICAN, queer director Jochen Hick profiles Tom Weise, the controversial founder of rentboy.com and the producer of the HustlaBall, a celebration of the male hustler lifestyle.

Two arresting French films are having their US Premieres at the event. GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Pascal-Alex Vincent is a strong debut feature starring two identical twin brothers who trek across Spain to attend their mother's funeral. As their adventure unfolds, complex truths about family secrets and sexual identity dramatically come to the surface. In Alan Tasma's OUT OF THE BLUE, a middle aged-mother and wife makes the bold move of leaving her husband and looking to "find herself". That she ends in the bed of a free-spirited dancer is not so surprising in this heartfelt lesbian drama.

Spain offers two contributions at this year's event. CHICA BUSCA CHICA by Sonia Sebastian is a feature-length film version of the popular web series that finally makes it to the big screen. A cross between the campy melodramas of Pedro Almodovar and the sexual roundelay of the cable series THE L WORD, the film features luscious ladies hopping in and out of each other's lives and beds with carefree abandon. The tone is more serious in director Andres Rubio's CAMPILLO, YES I DO, a dcomentary on the hot button issue of gay marriage. The film tells the story of a small Spanish village whose mayor was the first to officiate at same sex marriages after the Spanish Parliament passed the law in 2005 giving gay couples the right to tie the knot.

One of the charmers in this year's Festival was one of the big hits at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. PATRIK AGE 1.5 by Swedish director Ella Lemhagen offers a kind of post-gay marriage drama. Husbands Sven and Goran live in picture-perfect suburbia and their lives are pretty perfect, except for their longing for a child to raise. After a string of disappointments, the adoption agency calls to let them know that they have an infant, aged 1.5 years, available. When it turns out that a clerical error has misrepresented the age of the boy (he is actually 15 years old, and quite a rebellious handful), their ordered life gets turned on its head. As a portrait of the challenges of gay parenting, the film is rueful, affecting and very human.

New York audiences have much to appreciate in these choice European films with their unique viewpoints and stories. For more information on the full program of Newfest, visit their website: http://www.newfest.org/

UK Film Opens New York Gay Film Festival

2009-06-05T17:52:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

In what has so far been a very wet beginning of the summer season, the month of June is heralding the start of the gay film festival season in the mecca cities of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In New York, the 21st edition of NewFest, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival, had its gala opening last night at its new home in the heart of the city gay-centric Chelsea district, the School of Visual Arts Theater. Boasting the second largest screen in Manhattan and a full digital projection system, the SVA Theater has become the go-to screen for some of New York's best alternative film events (including recent uses by the Tribeca and Gen Art film festivals).

NewFest will occupy the theater's two screens for the next week, giving the Festival a much needed home in the heart of the city's gay community of choice. Festivities kicked off last night with the U.S. Premiere of MR. RIGHT, a multi-character romantic comedy written and directed by UK debut helmer Jacqui Morris. The film is centered in London's own gay district of Soho, where the aspirations and romantic tensions of a group of gay men intersect.

"I've lived in Soho for over 25 years, before it even was a gay neighborhood", an ecstatic Morris told the crowd. "I made this film for a ridiculously low budget but was able to draw on the support of the restaurants, bars and production houses that call Soho home." The film features long set pieces on Old Compton Street, Soho's gay promenade, and in the cafes and nightclubs that gives the street its late-night frenetic energy.

Using a loose style that intercuts encounters of drama and comedy, the film follows a group of sexy men (and their "fag hag" female buddy, an obvious stand-in for the director herself) as they negotiate career ambitions, relationship tensions and the obsessive needs to find and nail down a relationship with their own version of Mr. Right.

"Only two of the men in the film are actually gay", Ms. Morris explained during a lively q+a following the screening. "The rest are familiar television actors who really responded to the script and wanted to be part of a quality project that showed gay men as having many dimensions." While sex is definitely a driving force for the characters, stability and fufillment trump everything else and by the end of the film, everyone has found themselves at a better, sometimes unexpected, place. Even the sole female's boyfriend, whose exposure to the gay men bring out his inner queer. "One word of advice", Ms. Morris cautioned. "Never introduce your straight boyfriend to your gay male friends.....it's a recipe for disaster." Wise words, indeed.

MR. RIGHT is one of several British films screening at the week-long festival. Also from the UK are director Richard Laxton's AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK, featuring a reprise by British actor John Hurt of his celebrated turn as gay raconteur Quentin Crisp, in a fictionalized account of the icon's final years in New York City; GREEK PETE, a documentary/fiction mix by director Andrew Haigh that follows a group of real life London male escorts; and SHANK, a contemporary coming-of-age film by Simon Pearce, set among gang members in London's working class districts that deals with both class and sexual identity issues.

Other European films making their debut at the Festival will be profiled in the next article. For more information on NewFest, visit their newly designed website: http://www.newfest.org/

The Italian Invasion Of New York

2009-06-03T17:41:00.006+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

With the tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic covering the nasty divorce spat between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his former-actress wife (a spicy melange of adultery, illicit sex with teenage "models" and political corruption), the Italian penchant for soap opera and high drama continues unabated. Our on-going interest and curiosity about all things Italian continues with a double sided invasion of Italian cinema in the next few weeks in New York City and its environs.

This has been a banner year for Italian film. GOMORRAH, the relentless film from Matteo Garrone about the Napolitean crime scene, has been an arthouse hit throughout the world and offers a non-romantic view of the Mafia that contrasts with the romanticized view of the GODFATHER films. IL DIVO, the stylized tale of Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti, directed with a Visconti-like flair by Paolo Sorrentino, has also been widely embraced for its mix of the grand and the petty (which describes the Italian political scene at its most colorful).

With this double header of films creating renewed interest in Italian cinema (which has been a favorite of Americans since the post-war years of neo-realism), two new film programs debuting this week are highly anticipated. One looks back, while the other looks forward, to establish a lineage of Italian film language and sensibilities that continues to fascinate.

The Jacob Burns Film Center, that beacon of cinematic art located in Westchester County just north of New York City, will be presenting some of the masterpieces in the Italian canon. Beginning this Friday, the Center is presenting its program of Classic Italian Cinema, which includes the chefs d'oeuvres of some of world cinema's most legendary filmmakers. The program begins with a ravishing new 35mm film print of AMARCORD (1973), director Federico Fellini's lyrical and gorgeous memory film of his youth in pre-war Italy, with superb visuals by director of photography Nino Rota and one of film composer Nino Rota's most beautiful film scores. The opening night premiere will be followed, most appropriately, by a food and wine reception that includes the obligatory Italian buffet. Fellini is represented again in the series by his ROMA (1972), a sprawling semi-documentary love letter to his adopted city that includes some of the master's most memorable vignettes and set pieces.

Other unmissable films in the series include: the masterful OPEN CITY (1945), director Roberto Rossellini's neo-realist classic that remains a shattering and raw portrait of Rome under the occupation by the Nazis, featuring a for-the-ages performance by Anna Magnani; THE DAMNED (1969), stylist Luchino Visconti's magnum opus of German society during the rise of Hitler, with a brilliant international cast that includes Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling and Helmut Berger; JEALOUSY, ITALIAN STYLE (1970), a delicious sex comedy by Ettore Scola, featuring a dream cast that includes Marcello Mastrioanni, Monica Vitti and Giancarlo Giannini; and the lesser-known DILLINGER IS DEAD (1969), an anarchic comedy commenting on violence and hero worship by Marco Ferreri that features a wonderful performance from Italian everyman Michel Piccoli. The film series continues through June 25. For more information, visit the website: http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org/

While it is always a treat to revisit the classics, the vision of contemporary Italian filmmakers is equally compelling. A little burdened by the celebrated masters of the past and a rather dysfunctional film industry and government support structure, contemporary Italian film artists depend more on their wits to create cutting-edge examinations of their cherished if often tattered society. In this sense, they have a close affinity to the American independent film movement, which also must rely on its own resources to survive.

Giving contemporary Italian artists a major resource of visibility is the goal of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which is presenting its annual OPEN ROADS: NEW ITALIAN CINEMA program beginning on Thursday. The series offers a snapshot of both established talents and emerging artists on the Italian film scene and their world views.

The program opens with BRAVE MEN, an intriguing melodrama by Edoardo Winspeare that offers the story of a judge who unknowingly falls in love with the aid of a female mob boss. Other highlights of the series include: AS GOD COMMANDS, a compelling road movie by local sensation Gabriele Salvatores; THE GERMANS' FACTORY, a documentary/fiction mix that looks at lives lost in a factory accident by Mimmo Calopresti; GIOVANNA'S FATHER, a 1930s-set melodrama of murder and madness by the popular Pupi Avati; THE MAN WHO LOVES, a non-sentimental love story that is the sophomore film of Maria Sole Tognazzi, the daughter of legendary actor Ugo Tognazzi; and A PERFECT DAY, featuring a Venice Film Festival Best Actress performance by Isabella Ferrari, as directed by Ferzan Oztepek.

Many of the film directors, producers and actors will be present for the screenings held at the flagship theater of the Film Society, the luscious Walter Reade Theater. For more information on the program, visit: http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/italian09.html

For two marvelous weeks, the Italians are invading New York......and not a moment too soon.

From Cannes To US Screens

2009-05-29T18:56:00.008+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Additional announcements are now emerging about European films that premiered at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival that have found distribution in the United States. The latest news hitting the film trades has startup American distributor Oscilloscope Pictures scooping up North American rights to Michel Gondry's new project, a documentary called THE THORN IN THE HEART (L'Epine dans le coeur) that was screened in Cannes as a special screening.

The film is a passion project for the director, centering on schoolteacher Suzette Gondry, the director's aunt and matriarch of his family, and her relationship with her son. The film is both a personal tale of one family's secrets and a larger story of life in rural France. Partizan Films produced and financed the pic, with Studio Canal in place as international sales agent.

Oscilloscope, which will release theatrically as well as on DVD and via digital platforms, has been active in picking up European and international titles for the North American market. They recently picked up North American distribution rights to Irish director Lance Daly's award-winning feature, KISSES, a romantic coming-of-age film about with remarkable performances from its two young leads (newcomers Kelly O'Neill and Shane Curry); and the documentary BURMA VJ, by Danish director Anders Ostergaard. Oscilloscope Laboratories is a film production and theatrical distribution entity launched in 2008 by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

Palme d'Or Winner To Reach American Soil

2009-05-27T01:27:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

THE WHITE RIBBON, the latest film from Austrian auteur Michael Haneke, was acquired on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival for North American release by Sony Pictures Classics. The pre-Cannes buy turned out to be a master stroke, with the film going on to win Palme d'Or honors.

This is the specialty US distributor's second second collaboration with Haneke, having previously released his film CACHE in 2005. The film also marks a long-standing reunion between the company and the producers Margaret Menegoz and Stefan Arndt. The film is a co-production between X-Filme Creative Pool in Germany, Les Films du Losange in France, Wega Film inAustria and Lucky Red in Italy.

THE WHITE RIBBON is set just prior to the start of WWI, where the quiet life of a small German village is mysteriously eroded by a series of inexplicable events. The film marks director Haneke’s fifth Cannes competition entry, following such modern classics as FUNNY GAMES, CODE UNKNOWN, THE PIANO TEACHER and CACHE, for which Haneke won Best Director honors at Cannes.

Controversial Von Trier Coming To America

2009-05-21T22:18:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

As the Cannes Film Festival enters its final weekend and the announcement of its top prize winners, it is a strong certainty that the most controversial film to emerge this year is Lars Von Trier's ANTICHRIST. The film, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourgh, is definitely of the "love-it-or-hate-it" variety which sometimes never get a chance to reach a wide audience.

Well, that concern has been addressed by the announcement that specialty distributor IFC Films has picked up North American distribution rights to the film, with a planned Fall release. Von Trier's latest tells the tale of a grieving couple who retreat to ’Eden’, their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.

After its world premiere in Cannes earlier this week, there was an open question about whether the film was releasable in the United States. However, IFC Films, which has been one of the most active arthouse distributors in the past few years, with releases of such celebrated films as GOMORRAH, HUNGER and SUMMER HOURS, has not shied away from the pragmatic challenge of releasing the film. IFC has specialized in simultaneous day-and-date releases of their films in theaters and also on VOD cable and satellite systems. This dual approach has allowed the films to benefit from modest advertising and promotion budgets and have a surprisingly long life after their initial press reviews.

ANTICHRIST has raised hackles for its slow-moving storytelling style and its didactic interpretation of Biblical themes. Astute critics have perceived the film as an exercise in unorthodox theology and trace the story elements to a personalized version of the Book of Genesis, where Adam is cast from Eden because of the intrigue of Eve, and the devil assumes a powerful role in what was once a perfect world. This interpretation of Man's Fall From Grace is strong stuff and discriminating audiences will debate this one for a long time to come.

Look for the film to turn up at some of the top film festivals of the next few months, including Venice, Toronto, New York, San Sebastian and others. IFC Films also announced its pickup of LOOKING FOR ERIC, the latest film from UK director Ken Loach, who won the Palme D'Or two years ago with the epic THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (which IFC Films also distributed in the US). To learn more about the film and view a trailer, visit the film's official site at: http://www.antichristthemovie.com/?language=en

Belgium's Best: The Dardenne Brothers

2009-05-18T21:42:00.005+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

As the Cannes Film Festival unfurls along the Cote d'Azur in France this week, New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center has timed a tribute to one of Europe's most dynamic film teams.....alot closer to home. Starting on 27 May, the Film Society will present the most extensive New York retrospective of the works of the seminal Belgian auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. BEYOND L'ENFANT: THE COMPLETE DARDENNE BROTHERS will screen all of the brothers' major films, including early narrative and documentary works, and will appear in person at the Walter Reade Theater for an on-stage discussion following a screening of their breakthrough film LA PROMESSE. Their newest film LORNA'S SILENCE will open in theaters later this summer, following a worldwide tour of the international film festival circuit.

Born and raised in the Belgian town of Seraing , outside of Liège, Jean-Pierre (b. 1951) and his younger brother Luc (b. 1954) Dardenne studied drama and philosophy, respectively. One of Jean-Pierre’s teachers inspired the brothers to document the lives of the working-class in their native town. In 1975, the brothers established a production company, Derives, which they used to produce over 60 documentaries about the blue-collar lives in surrounding towns. This immersion in documentary work informed the neo-realist style that they later developed in their narrative films, giving them a mix of realism and poetry.

The series opens with ROSETTA (1999), a neo-realist look at a poor teenager who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother, which was the first Belgian film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film's teenage lead Emilie Dequenne, won Best Actress honors at Cannes and a slew of other awards for her heartbreaking performance.

The series will also present some of the brothers' better known films, including LA PROMESSE (1996) and LE FILS (The Son), which won a Best Actor prize for lead actor Olivier Gourmet. L'ENFANT (The Child) won a second Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2006 and further cemented their reputation as realists with a touch of the poet. Lesser known, and making this series a true treasure trove of discovery, are the screenings of two rarely screened early films: FALSCH, their first dramatic film, an adaptation of a play by Belgian writer René Kalisky about the melancholy reunion of a family of Holocaust survivors; and JE PENSE A VOUS, the story of a steelworker and family man who loses his job. The series even unearths the Dardennes’ early experimental left-wing documentary pieces, including REGARD JONATHAN (1983); JEAN LOUVET, SON OEUVRE (1983), a profile of 18th century radical playwright Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai and several others mainly produced for Belgian television.

This is a rare opportunity to view the (almost) complete oeuvre of one of the most celebrated and significant team of filmmakers working in the world today. Their commitment to film as art and film as provocation have created a unique legacy for artists whose most powerful is undoubtedly yet to come.

European (And Other) Winners At San Francisco FF

2009-05-08T19:08:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

European films were among the big winners at the San Francisco International Film Festival, which ended yesterday evening after two weeks of film premieres and special events. On 6 May, the Festival, the oldest in North America, announced its Golden Gate Awards, which included cash prizes of close to $100,000 for the lucky winners. The Best Investigative Documentary prize, with a cash award of $25,000, was given to BURMA VJ: REPORTING FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY, by Danish director Anders Østergaard. The film, which chronicles the human rights abuses in Myanmar/Burma, also won the Joris Ivens Award at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, one of the world’s most prestigious documentary film events.

The Best Documentary Prize, including a $20,000 cash award, was given to the Swiss documentary NOMAD’S LAND, by director Gaël Métroz. The film looks at the lifestyles and cultures of nomadic tribes in Asia, Africa and Europe. The film had its international premiere this past summer at the Locarno Film Festival. Winner of the Best Bay Area Documentary Feature prize, with a cash award of $15,000, was local filmmaker Jim Granato for his feature debut D TOUR, a portrait of a San Francisco rock band.

Eleven films from around the world were in competition for the Festival’s prestigious New Directors Award, a $15,000 cash prize given to a first-time filmmaker whose work exhibits a unique artistic sensibility. The jury chose director Bosnian director Aida Begic's SNOW, an intimate and effecting look at the aftermath of the 1990s war in a small mountain town. SNOW, which had its world premiere at last year’s International Critics Week sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival, went on to win the Grand Prix in that showcase, as well as awards the Hamptons and Thessaloniki film festivals. Begic was nominated for a European Film Award as Best Newcomer for her sensitive work.

The FIPRESCI jury, comprised of Mihai Chirilov, Rob Nelson and Charles-Stéphane Roy, awarded the Critics Prize to the American indie film EVERYTHING STRANGE AND NEW, by local San Francisco filmmaker Frazer Bradshaw. The film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is an unflinching portrait of a family under the stress of the downward economic climate. The San Francisco International Film Festival is one of only three festivals in the United States to host a FIPRESCI jury and award a FIPRESCI prize.

The Festival’s enthusiastic audiences also voted for their favorites, giving Audience Awards to the American films DON’T LET ME DROWN, a Latino themed narrative by Cruz Angeles, and SPEAKING IN TONGUES, a heated debate on bilingual education by local Bay Area filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider. The controversial film made its World Premiere at the Festival earlier this week.

The Festival used its awards ceremony as a platform to announce a new filmmaking grant sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. The SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants support films that through plot, character, theme or setting significantly explore human and civil rights, antidiscrimination, gender and sexual identity and other urgent social justice issues of our time. The first grant of $35,000 has been awarded to Richard Levien to develop the script for LA MIGRA, a family drama about a young girl’s struggle to save her illegal immigrants from deportation. Levien has had his short films presented at over a dozen film festivals. The SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant will disburse over $3 million over the next five years to assist independent filmmakers with script development, preproduction and postproduction support. For more information on the Festival, visit: http://www.sffs.org/

European Talents Shine In San Francisco

2009-05-01T18:04:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

At mid point of the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival, the oldest in North America, films from European directors have been making the most impact. With its cosmopolitan air and its distinctive European ex-pat communities, San Francisco is not only a destination for European artists but also a place to sample the best of the new European cinema.

Most of the European films on display are congregated in the World Cinema section. Among the highlights from European talents: BULLET IN THE HEAD, Spanish director Jaime Rosales' political thriller about the assassination of French policemen by Basque terrorists; DELTA, Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo's provocaive story of the taboo relationship between a young man and his half sister; EASY VIRTUE, a veddy British all star cast (Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas) based on a Noel Coward play; HEAVEN'S HEART, a Bergman-esque exploration of marriage by Swedish director Himlens Hjarta; THE TIGER'S TAIL, an Irish satire on class warfare directed by John Boorman; TROUBLED WATER, an intense drama about a man's return to his former life after serving time in prison for murdering a child, by Norwegian director Erik Poppe; and WILD FIELD, Russian director Mikhail Kalatozishvili's beatifully filmed story of a doctor connecting with the inhabitants of the desolate Kazakh steppes.

As no great surprise, French cinema talents dominate the World Cinema section. Catherine Breillat, the provocateuse of contemporary French film, is represented by BLUEBEARD, an original take on the 17th century wife killer. Tunisian-born director Karim Dridi offers a neo-realist vision set in the Roma community on the outskirts of Marseilles in the evocative KHAMSA. Director Jean-Francois Richet won a Cesar Award for his direction of the nearly four-hour biopic MESRINE, the story of one of France's most notorious crime bosses (with Vincent Cassell in a career-defining role). The dynamic duo of Pierre Trividic and Patrick Mario Bernard team up for THE OTHER ONE, a feminist drama about a middle-aged woman's identity crisis when she is dumped by her younger love for a girlfriend his own age. Olivier Assayas, one of France's most prolific and controversial directors, is back at the Festival with his meditative SUMMER HOURS, about a family gathering where secrets and lies are revealed. The always provocative Claire Denis examines the tensions between a father and his rebellious daughter in the engaging 35 SHOTS OF RHUM.

New European talents figure in the Festival's New Directors Competition section. Turkish director Ozcan Alper has emerged as one of his country's newest talents to watch in the beautifully acted AUTUMN, about a political prisoner's return to his native village in order to find himself again. In her debut feature, Dutch director Esther Rots examines the psyche of a young Dutch woman who is shattered by a random act of violence in the penetrating CAN GO THROUGH SKIN. In another striking debut, Swiss director Ursula Meier cast French icon Isabelle Huppert as a woman who lives with her family outside of the mainstream in HOME. A co-screenwriter of the international arthouse hit GOMORRAH, Italian director Gianni Di Gregorio won a Best New Film Prize at the Venice Film Festival for the family drama MID-AUGUST LUNCH. Bosnian director Aida Begic has scored with her debut film SNOW, which earned the Grand Prix at the Cannes Critics Week and has been a success on the international film festival circuit.

Lucky San Franciscans are able to do a tour of Europe from the comfort of their own city as the San Francisco International Film Festival serves up a multi-course repas of outstanding European films. For more information on the Festival and the San Francisco Film Society, visit: http://www.sffs.org/.

Visions Of Italy in Palm Beach

2009-04-27T19:01:00.002+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

When you are part of Italian film royalty, one of the things that you do know is Italian cinema. Veronica De Laurentiis is the daughter of legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis and neorealist film star Silvana Mangano. With cinema in her blood, she is the perfect programmer for the VISIONS OF ITALY program screening today at the Palm Beach International Film Festival.

De Laurentiis, who jet sets between homes in Rome and Los Angeles, has worn many hats in her career. Actress, fashion designer, best-selling novelist, lecturer, television personality.....all of these impressive credentials have made her one of Italy's most recognizable faces. Her memoir LA MIA VITA (Claim My Life) is on the Italian best seller list for months and she is currently finishing up a follow-up book. She has been one of the first to tour Italy and speak openly about issues of rape, domestic abuse and breaking the silence surrounding these taboo subjects. She has launched her own foundation to combat domestic violence and is one of Italy's most respected motivational speakers (self-help being a new phenomenon in Italian culture).

"For the film series that I have programmed here in Palm Beach, I wanted to bring fims that have a message of hope and tell the truth", De Laurentiis commented during our interview. "I have found in my personal life that finding the truth is the most important thing we can do with our lives, and films help that process by showing how others have done it. In this way, film is a great inspiration."

The program of Italian films, most making their U.S. debuts at the Festival, includes: ATOMIC! A TRAIN OF MAD ITALIANS IN CHINA, a documentary about mental patients and their care workers who take a train from Venice to Beijing, directed by Giovanni Piperno; DOUBLE (Doppio), the story of an Italian filmaker who must work in a dubbing house to make ends meet, written and directed by Eric Alexander; NARCISO, DIETRO I CANNONI, DAVANTI AI MULI, a look at the emergence of multiculturalism in Italy as told in the story of a mountain worker who returns to his native village with a Muslim son and wife, written and directed by Marcello and Dario Baldi; and SALVATORE, the tale of a young boy who is forced to live with his grandfather, who is played by Giancarlo Giannini. In addition, the program will showcase four short films from a new generation of emerging Italian filmmakers.

With Italy's filmmaking scene making (yet another renaissance) with the international successes of films like GOMORRAH and IL DIVO, this program of new Italian film talents is of definite interest. Asked why this resurgence in interest in Italian cinema has blossomed again, De Laurentiis offered "Italian filmmakers get so little government support and yet they have amazing stories to tell.....so they must find economical and effective ways to put their films on the screen."

Oscar Nominee Saved From Direct-To-DVD Fate

2009-04-24T23:21:00.005+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX, a German historical pastiche of the real-life 1970s terrorist group Red Army Faction that was nominated for both the Oscar and the Golden Globe, was slated to go directly to dvd release into the United States. That one of the most celebrated European films of the year would have such a fate is testament to the challenge that arthouse films, particularly those with sub-titles, are facing in this economic market. However, like a knight on a white horse, a new American art house distributor has galloped to the rescue to offer film audiences a chance to discover the film on the big screen.

Vitagraph Films (www.vitagraphfilms.com), which is currently distributing the diverting documentary VALENTINO THE LAST EMPEROR, has secured North American rights for the film from German production company Constantin Films. BAADER-MEINHOF was written and produced by German honco Bernd Eichinger and directed by Uli Edel, who helmed one of Germany’s best-known films of the 1980s, CHRISTIANE F.

The historical film features an all-star German cast, including Martina Gedeck (“The Lives of Others”), Moritz Bleibtreu (“Run Lola Run”), Johanna Wokalek (“Aimee and Jaguar”) and Bruno Ganz (“The Reader”). “This is a story that has not been widely told in America,” Vitagraph prexy David Schultz commented in a prepared statement. “With the early years of our current century dominated by the aftermath of 9/11, this is an interesting time for audiences to take a look at a previous generation of terrorism that continues to reverberate in our times.” To read more about the film, its historical context and see a trailer, visit: http://www.thebaadermeinhofcomplex.com/

European Films In Tribeca Spotlight

2009-04-21T18:59:00.003+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

The Tribeca Film Festival, which begins tomorrow evening with the world premiere of the newest film from New York iconic director Woody Allen, has a strong lineup of European films in its streamlined program of 85 feature films this year. The Spotlight section of the Festival includes a trio of European titles that have won awards at other events or are from established directors/stars with a strong following in the New York film community.

Among the European films making their premieres in the Spotlight section are: EASY VIRTUE (UK), a comical tale based on a Noel Coward play, directed by Stephen Elliot with a delicious cast that includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes; FEAR ME NOT (Denmark), an intense psychological thriller from director Kristin Levring that won Best Screenplay and Best Actor honors at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina; and MOON (UK), a hi-tech sci-fi flick starring Sam Rockwell and (the voice of) Kevin Spacey that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, directed by Duncan Jones.

European titles figure strongly in both the World Narrative and World Documentary competitions, which will be reviewed in later articles. As attention turns to downtown Manhattan over the next two weeks, international cinema is again king of the hill. For information on these and other films participating in the Tribeca Film Festival, visit: www.tribecafilm.com/festival

Irish Tax Incentives Stimulate Production

2009-04-17T22:20:00.003+02:00

Anand Tucker

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

As Ireland attempts to attract international co-productions by offering generous tax incentives to international producers, the newly initiated financial stimulus is already paying dividends for the tight Irish filmmaking community. shake-up in the country's system of tax incentives late last year already is paying dividends for the Irish filmmaking community. Late last year, the Irish government greenlighted plans to raise the individual investor cap for those wishing to invest finance in film in Ireland. The government upped it to £50,000 ($65,000) per annum, from the previous limit of £31,750 and pushed up the relief on it to 100% from 80%.

Those attractive incentives are attracting interest. A case in point is the Spyglass Entertainment production of LEAP YEAR, a romantic comedy to star Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, directed by Anand Tucker (SHOPGIRL, WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER). The film is expected to spend some $16.5 million on Irish crew and services, according to a statement released by the Irish Film Board. Tucker is expected to prep and shoot in various locations throughout the country over a four- to five-month period and the project will be co-produced by Morgan O' Sullivan and James Flynn of World 2000, based at Ardmore Studios. Irish production company World 2000 has a long running relationship with Spyglass, having previously worked on REIGN OF FIRE and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. For more information on production opportunities on the Emerald Isle, visit: www.irishfilmboard.ie

US/Euro Co-Production To Open Palm Beach FF

2009-04-14T21:31:00.004+02:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

STONE OF DESTINY, the latest film from actor-turned-director Charles Martin Smith, will open the 2009 edition of the Palm Beach International Film Festival on Thursday, 23 April. The film, a US/Scottish co-production, retells the fascinating and true story of four young Glaswegian students who, in 1951, outwitted the British authorities in their successful attempt to take back the Stone of Scone - a beloved symbol of Scottish pride. The adventure comedy stars Robert Carlyle (TRAINSPOTTING), Peter Mullan (BOY-A) and Brenda Fricker (MY LEFT FOOT).

Director Smith won a fistful of international awards for his debut feature THE SNOW WALKER in 2003, after a prolific career as an actor in such well known films as AMERICAN GRAFFITI and THE UNTOUCHABLES. For his work on STONE OF DESTINY, the writer/director was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA Award, with the film winning the Audience Award at the Victoria International Film Festival earlier this year. The film had its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival and was featured at a host of international events, including the Toronto Film Festival. The Palm Beach International Film Festival is fast emerging as a major showcase of American and international cinema with a reputation for enthusiastic audiences and welcoming hospitality for its visiting filmmakers. For this year's edition, there is a strong European representation, with a special mini-sidebar of contemporary Italian cinema. For more information on this year’s event, visit: http://www.pbifilmfest.com/

New German Cinema In New York

2009-04-08T16:51:00.005+02:00

The Invention of Currywurst

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

The Museum of Modern Art presents Kino! at Thirty: New Cinema from Germany, the Museum’s 30th annual survey of recent German cinema, from April 22 through 30, 2009. Over the last three decades, MoMA has celebrated new cinema from Germany with an annual presentation of contemporary fiction features, documentaries, student works, and animated films.

This year’s selection opens with Germany ’09, a compilation of short films organized by esteemed German director Tom Tykwer. For Germany ’09, which premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, 12 leading filmmakers working in Germany today take a look into the country’s current social, cultural, and political landscape.

An important highlight of this year’s presentation is Laurens Straubn and Dominik Wessely’s Reverse Shot—Rebellion of the Filmmaker (2008), an illuminating documentary about the legendary Filmverlag de Autoren, the founding organization of the New German Cinema movement (Neue Kino). It will be complemented by a selection of that movement’s defining films and filmmakers drawn from MoMA’s archives, including The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Stroszek (1977) by Werner Herzog, and Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness (1979) by Margarethe von Trotta. Reverse Shot provides a bridge between the filmmakers working 30 years ago, when Germany won its first Academy Award for best Foreign Language film (Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum), and the current New German Cinema.

Kino! at Thirty includes the New York premiere of three feature films by German directors exhibiting at MoMA for the first time, each of which deals with some aspect of modern German history: Ulla Wagner’s The Invention of Currywurst, Christian Schwochow’s November Child, and Christian Klandt’s Weltstadt, all made in 2008. Kino! at Thirty: New Cinema from Germany is organized by the Museum of Modern Art, the Goethe Institute and German Films Service + Marketing. For information on the full program, visit the Museum's website: http://www.moma.org/

The New European Auteurs At NDNF

2009-04-01T16:34:00.004+02:00

UNMADE BEDS (United Kingdom)

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

New Directors New Films, an annual rite of spring in New York film circles, provides the armchair traveler with a delicious and intoxicating journey through world cinema. While the series is certainly international in scope, new films from Europe provide the cream in the coffee for ambitious filmgoers. This year, new European auteur directors are making a strong impression on New York film critics and industry reps.

The themes and styles of the films are decidedly different. In CAN GO THROUGH SKIN, a feature debut by Dutch director Esther Rots, a young woman’s carefree life in Amsterdam is upended when her boyfriend breaks up with her and a deliveryman breaks into her apartment and assaults her. After helming two short films that have been featured at international film festivals, her impressive debut is a study of the battles that occur between the subconscious and reality.

In Russian director Vladimir Kott’s feature debut THE FLY, a macho truckdriver with interest in little else than life on the road (and the casual sex and vodka drinking done there) discovers that he may have a teenage daughter living in a dismal Russian town. When he decides to pick up the pieces and re-enter her life, high drama and delicious humor ensues, topped off by the strong acting of Aleksei Kravchenko as the father and Alexandra Tyuftey as the unruly daughter.

In the French/German co-production GIVE ME YOUR HAND, director Pascal-Alex Vincent sets his road movie as a journey by twins who are hitchhiking to their mother’s funeral in Spain. In another feature debut, Vincent sets the physical terrain against the interior struggles of the fraternal brothers, creating an atmosphere that is at once freewheeling and also tainted with rivalry and jealousy. After directing numerous short films, including the animated CANDY BOY, Vincent is a new French film talent to watch. GIVE ME YOUR HAND will reach theaters later this year via arthouse distributor Strand Releasing.

French director Ursula Meier worked on several films of the acclaimed Swiss director Alain Tanner before helming her debut feature HOME. Starring Isabelle Huppert as the matriarch of a family living in a desolate stretch near an unused highway, the film looks at the dynamics of her intense family, particularly after the highway becomes clogged again by whizzing cars and the sounds of “progress”. Finding the right balance between farce and drama, Meier gives her talented cast room to expand their characters and create a portrait of a family in distress.

Also from France comes the collaborative team of Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delepine, whose third film LOUISE-MICHEL is set in a troubled factory. When they are abandoned by the factory management, they decide to hire a hit man to take care of business. Both a social satire and a “cri de Coeur” of economic hard times, the film is a potent reminder of the possibilities for revenge and retribution.

Italy has been enjoying yet another renaissance these days and the film MID-AUGUST LUNCH by writer/director Gianni Di Gregorio is a welcome addition. After a long career as a screenwriter (including the script for Matteo Garrone’s award-winning GOMORRAH), Di Gregorio takes the director’s chair in telling the tale of money-troubled Giovanni, who spends his days caring for his demanding elderly mother. Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Isverma Award for Best First Film and London’s Satyajit Ray Award, the film is a potent charmer.

Spanish director Daniel Hernandez makes an auspicious debut with ORDINARY BOYS, a political drama set in a small Moroccan village that was home to the terrorists of Madrid’s infamous train station bombing in 2004. The film introduces use to a group of people who muddle through their lives and have simple desires but are sometimes influenced by the wrong forces. After producing more than 30 documentaries for television and the cinema, director Hernandez uses a realist eye to find the small exchanges that make up the lives in this slice-of-life drama.

An impressionistic story of the early days of the Soviet space program, Alexey German’s PAPER SOLDIER is part drama and part film essay. Through the eyes of a doctor working with young cosmonauts, German outlines the tensions in Kruschev-era Russia, where liberal intellectuals began to look into the future towards a new era of openness (that would not actually arrive until two decades later). After winning best film honors for his previous film THE LAST TRAIN at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the director has been honored as the “discover of the year” by Russia’s Nika Awards.

Following his international success GLUE, Argentine director Alexis Dos Santos has made his first film in English. UNMADE BEDS, a UK production, follows a wide-eyed Spaniard who comes to London who finds himself in the midst of a bohemian community living in an underground squat. Allowing his misfits to carve out precious terrain in a hostile environment, Dos Santos uses original visual language to tell the story of these irreverent searchers.

To read more about these films and the full program for the New Directors New Films series, which runs to April 5, visit the websites: http://www.filmlinc.com/ and http://www.moma.org/

Mexican Duo Reunite For Comedy Film

2009-03-24T20:31:00.003+01:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Two of Mexico’s best known actors, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, who made their first impressions in the international arthouse hit Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, are reunited in the film RUDO Y CURSI, a Spanish language comedy directed by Carlos Cuaron (brother of Alfonso Cuaron and a co-screenwriter of TAMBIEN). The film, about two dim-witted brothers who are recruited by rival soccer teams, had its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will be shown at next month’s Tribeca Film Festival. The film, co-produced by Los Angeles-based Cha Cha Cha Films and Mexico City-based Canana Producciones, is being distributed in North America by arthouse distributor Sony Pictures Classics and will open in early May. With positive advance buzz, international interest in the lead actors and a skillful distributor, the film should become one of the arthouse hits of the season in American and Europe.

Chilean Director Wins IFG Award In Miami

2009-03-19T20:46:00.002+01:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Chilean director Sebastian Silva has been awarded the International Film Guide Inspiration Award at the Miami International Film Festival (6-15 March 2009) for his debut film THE MAID (La Nana). The Award, sponsored by UK book publisher Wallflower Press (http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/) and American dvd distributor The Criterion Collection (http://www.criterion.com/), honors emerging filmmakers at international film festivals and events worldwide. The Miami International Film Festival (http://www.miamifilmfestival.com/) was the first film event in North America this year to offer the prize, a library of film books and classic DVDs with a cash value of US $2500.

THE MAID has become one of Latin America’s hottest titles after winning the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Competition at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. It repeated the trick of winning Best Film honors one month later at the Cartagena Film Festival. The film is the debut of Sebastian Silva, a multifaceted artist whose body of work includes painting, illustration and popular music. For his first feature, he has chosen a subject that is both subtle and controversial in Latin American culture. The role of the established maid in an upper class Latin American home is sacrosanct….a servant who is treated equally as a family member and a social outcast. When said family brings another additional help, the claws come out as these servants fight for “head of place” for the often ungrateful family. The actress who portrays the reserved yet flinty older maid is played by Catalina Saavedra, who has won awards for her performance at the Sundance and the Cartagena film festivals.

The film was produced by Gregorio Gonzalez of Forastero (http://www.forastero.cl/), a production company based in Santiago, Chile and Tiburon Filmes, and is being sold internationally by Los Angeles-based sales company Shoreline Entertainment (http://www.shorelineentertainment.com/). THE MAID was shot on location in Santiago and has been featured at the film festivals in Rotterdam and Berlin in Europe and what will certainly be many other North American film festivals, following its Sundance win.

The International Film Guide Inspiration Award has been designed to honor emerging filmmakers at major film festivals around the world. Winners have a choice of a dozen film books from the library of Wallflower Press and a 10 DVD classic film collection from the Criterion Collection featuring the masterworks of such icons as Fellini, Bergman, Hitchcock, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Godard and several others.

“It’s one thing for a young director to make one film, it’s another to sustain a career as a film artist”, commented Sandy Mandelberger, North American representative and IFG Website Editor (http://www.internationalfilmguide.com/). “Through books written about some of the world’s great directors and a library of visionary films from true film maestros, a young filmmaker can really absorb the important lessons they will need as they attempt a full career in an often uncertain business. These legendary filmmakers can offer these new film artists some encouragement and inspiration.”

Italian Film Wins Top Prize At Miami FF

2009-03-18T20:07:00.003+01:00

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

The 26th edition of the Miami International Film Festival, and the first under former Locarno FF veteran Tiziana Finzi, came to a stimulating and warm-spirited climax on Saturday evening, with the Festival’s hommage to festival winners, held in the rococo-meets-arts deco palace known as the Gusman Theater for the Performing Arts, the jewel of downtown Miami.

The Italian drama THE PAST IS A FOREIGN LAND (Il Passagto E Una Terra Straniera) by Daniele Vicari won top prize honors in the World Cinema Competition, with an impressive $25,000 cash prize from the Knight Foundation. In the Ibero-American Competition, a special feature of the festival devoted to films from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, the choice of the Jury was the four-hour Argentine epic HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS, a metaphysical journey in peace and wartime directed by Mariano Llinas. In a strong year for documentaries, the jury singled out SHAKESPEARE AND VICTOR HUGO’S INTIMACIES, a reflective tableau of secrets, mental illness and gay prostitution that is at its heart a journey into the subjects of identity and community, directed by Mexican director Yulene Olaizola.

The International Film Guide Inspiration Award, a new prize being given out at major international film festivals, singled out an Ibero-American filmmaker at the start of his career who has already established a unique visual execution and an identifiably expressive style. Sebastian Silva is a renaissance man from Chile whose body of work includes painting, illustration, pop music and, now, filmmaking. THE MAID, his skillfully trenchant view of class politics in Latin American culture, won him an Award that includes a film library of cinema titles from Wallflower Press (http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/), the leading film book publisher in the UK, and a set of classic dvds drawn from the sublime library of dvd distributor The Criterion Collection (http://www.criterion.com/). In addition, the winning film and filmmaker will be profiled on the sister website: http://www.internationalfilmguide.com/ and be featured in the 2010 edition of the Guide, to be printed in January 2010 and distributed at the Berlin Film Festival and other key international events.

The Audience Award prizes spread the wealth among the many fine films at the festival, giving an indication of how these films play for enthusiastic audiences. In the World Cinema Competition, the Irish/Swedish co-production KISSES, an emotionally involving story about preteens in working class Ireland, showcases its young cast and the obvious skills of its director Lance Daly. In the popular Ibero-American competition, audiences were moved and entertained by NORA’S WILL (5 Dias sin Nora), a semi-autobiographical dramedy set in Mexico City’s tight Jewish community, by the multi-tasking writer/director Mariana Chenillo. 16 MEMORIES which won the votes of audiences in the International Documentary Competition, is an effervescent and telling montage of personal family “home movies” that has been compiled by Colombian director Camilo Botero Jaramillo into a bittersweet story of family tragedies and celebrations and the passage of time. The Festival Juries were quite generous with their jury mentions awarding screenwriters, directors, cinematographers and actors.

To get more information on all the winning films and a complete list of winners, go to the Festival’s website: http://www.miamifilmfestival.com/