| Benicio
des Toro's Silver Bear Role in Traffic |
| Benicio
del Toro is the focus of most of the scenes set in Mexico in
Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, which are all subtitled. He plays
a Mexican police officer just trying to survive in Tijuana and
is another amazing facet of this movie. We are never sure what
side del Toro's character is really on, who he sympathizes with,
who is "good" or who is "evil." For this role he won the Silver
Bear for Best Actor at the Berlinale 2001 and could very well
add Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. |
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| Catherine
Zeta Jones Had Her Bellyful Written Into the Script |
| Steven
Soderbergh's Traffic is a gritty, fast-paced look at the world
of drug trafficking. Catherine Zeta Jones delivers a tour de
force performance as the wife of one of San Diego's wealthiest
dealers who doesn't want to admit honestly how her husband has
made his millions, even once he is carted off to jail. She played
the role while she was pregnant, expressly written into the
script for her. |
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| Sir
Anthony Lecter |
|
It's been ten years since FBI agent Clarice Starling set foot
in the top security wing of a penitentiary for mentally-disturbed
criminals for the nerve-racking encounter with diabolical genius
Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Hopkins gives some insight into how the
sequel came about. |
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| Patrice
Chereau Defends Intimacy |
| The
big winner at Berlin 2001 was Intimacy, from French director
Patrice Chereau's, an explicit look at two strangers who become
entangled in an illicit love affair. In addition to winning
the Golden Bear, its star Kerry Fox picked up a Silver Bear
for Best Actress. At the press conference Patrice Chereau defended
the explicit sex scenes as an integral part of communicating
his story. |
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| Soderbergh
Brings Traffic from LA to Berlin |
Steven
Soderbergh's film Traffic
won raves from critics around the US for its gritty portrayal
of the war on drugs. With an all star cast including Catherine
Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, the film is winning raves at
this year's Berlinale as well. It was no one surprise when the
film picked up Oscar nominations for Best Film and Best Director
earlier this week.
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Lone
Scherfig - Press Conference
Scherfig,
41, recently directed episodes for the "Taxa" and
"Morten Korch" television series in Denmark, while
her last full-length feature, Når mor kommer hjem (On
Their Own), starring Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, opened
the 1998 Kinderfilmfest in Berlin. Her year 2001 feature Italian
for Beginners was screened in competition with great success,
picking up the FIPRESCI and Ecumenical prizes as well as the
Silver Bear Jury prize.
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Kirsten
Sheridan in Disco Pigs
The
24-year old director discusses her new film, Disco Pigs,
which was screened at the Berlinale 2001. It is her first
feature as director and has led her to be selected as one
of the three finalists in Europe for the Sundance/NHK International
Filmmakers Award.
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| Jean
Jacques Annaud is Berlin's Number One Enemy |
Annaud's
Enemy
at the Gates kicked off the 51st Berlinale with an all
star cast including Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Bob Hoskins all
in attendance on the red carpet. Born October 1, 1943 in France,
he was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris before launching a
filmmaking career. He won a Best Foreign Film Oscar for his
film Hothead in 1979 and has been banned from entering
China because of his 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet.
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| Julianne
Moore: from Park City to Potsdamer |
| It
was announced last year at the Berlinale that the lovely actress
Julianne Moore (in town then to promote the eventual Golden
Bear Winner Magnolia)
was chosen to replace Jodie Foster in the sequel to The Silence
of the Lambs. Almost one year later, she was awarded a Lifetime
Achievement Award at the Sundance Festival, where she made a
stop before heading to Berlinale with the much anticipated Hannibal.
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| Jacqueline
Bisset Has Jury Duty in Berlin |
| Fresh
from Sundance where she was promoting a film, Bisset headed
back to the Continent to serve on the jury for the 51st Berlinale,
where she joins Bill
Mechanic and eight others in deciding the winner of the
Golden Beat. Throughout her career British-born Bisset has worked
with such renowned directors such as Truffaut, Lumet and Polanski.
Claude Chabrol's La cérémonie (Judgement in Stone) marks
one of her recent European films. She took time off during the
Sundance
Film Festival to speak with FilmFestivals.com |
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| Series
7: A New Take on Reality |
| A
hit at the Sundance Film Festival and screening in the Panorama
section at Berlin, Daniel Minahan's Series
7 parodies our media-obsessed culture follows a new
"reality-based" TV game show. The rules are as follows: five
contenders are randomly selected, given loaded guns, and followed
for television broadcast. The last one alive wins. Minahan was
born in Connecticut in 1963. He produced documentary segments
and features for PBS, MTV, and the BBC, among others. He developed
this film in the Sundance
Screenwriters Lab and was later invited back to workshp the
script at the Filmmakers Lab. We caught up with Minahan in Park
City. |
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