UPDATE
A Panorama extra screening will be presented today, 23.00, at the Prinz
Eisenherz bookstore, Bleibtreustr. 52: Rules of the Game is a video documentary
on growing up queer in New York at the end of the Millennium.
Camera crews beware!
Security at the Zoo-Palast was stepped up yesterday after the screening
of Dutch competition entry Left Luggage. A Dutch TV crew bluffed its way
in and came on stage behind the team as they presented the film. Other
TV crews attempting the same stunt will be given short shrift!
JUST IN
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment has entered into an agreement with director/producer
Ivan Reitman and former MCA vice chairman and Motion Picture Group head
Tom Pollock to become a partner in a production company. Each partner will
own one third of the new company, which is to produce three to five mainstream
movies a year to be distributed in all media worldwide by PFE.
Sony Picture Classics has acquired North American rights to Brian Gilbert's
Oscar Wilde biopic. Wilde is set to open in New York on 1 May.
IN TOWN
David Arquette, Michael Barker, Tim Cole, Ellis Driessen, Jojo Dye,
Dimitri Eipides, Katinka Faragó, Neil Jordan, Romuald Karmakar,
Caroline Link, Graeme Mason, Patrick McCabe, Stephen Rea, Edgar Reitz,
Antonio Saura, Wolfram Skowronnek, Kevin Williams, Stephen Woolley, Fernanda
Montenegro, Penélope Cruz, Alain Sarde, Brenda Blethyn, Nick Hurran,
Julie Walters, Thomas Jahn, Per Holst, Jürg Judin, Dr. Rudolf Biermann…followed
by an advance screening of Darb al tabanat (official Panorama premiere
on 21 February).
Karakter hits US
"It’s great for the makers of the movie and it’s sure to help
the forthcoming US theatrical release." Dutch producer Laurens Geels
is describing the boost that this week’s Foreign Language Academy Award
nomination has given Mike Van Diem’s handsome costume epic, Karakter. Sony
Classics is planning a March release in the US to capitalise on all the
pre-Oscar hype.
Karakter wasn’t originally in the running at all. All Stars, Jean Van
Der Velde’s upbeat comedy-drama about fun, football and friendship, was
first choice to represent Holland in the hunt for Oscars. Van Der Velde
stood aside to make way for Karakter, which reportedly received standing
ovations at its Academy screenings in LA last month.
As Geels acknowledges, promoting Foreign Language Academy Award nominees
can be a very expensive business. (The campaign for Marleen Gorris’ Oscar-winning
Antonia reportedly cost in excess of $300,000.)
Karakter has already picked up a handful of awards and has been sold
to most major territories. GM
"I didn’t know he was really famous. When I came to Amsterdam and we had a press conference before starting the film, it was like, my god… you’re a Dutch Sean Connery!" Scottish actress Laura Fraser is talking about Jeroen Krabbé, who directed her in competition film, Left Luggage. Since being plucked out of drama school to star in Gillies Mackinnon’s Small Faces, Fraser has been making movies at a prolific rate. She plays a maid in Cousin Bette ("I say a few lines, cry a bit and get my bum pinched by Bob Hoskins.") She also stars in Divorcing Jack
And the ship sails on
Cruising along in top spot in the German box-office charts for the fifth week in a row is James Cameron’s epic Titanic, which has now pulled in over $50 million during its run. Starship Troopers held on to second place despite a substantial drop-off in business last week, while In & Out in third lost less than 1% on the last frame. Local flick Der Campus, produced by Bernd Eichinger and starring Heiner Lauterbach as the naughty professor, bowed in fifth place, making a respectable $1.4 million. Der Campus joins local attraction Comedian Harmonists, which has now featured in the top ten for seven weeks, attracting over two million visitors. Free Willy 3 and George of the Jungle bowed this week with OK performances. LF
Rated ‘P’: Perverts Only
There’s nothing like a nice evening of trash to take your mind off the
daily grind of quality filmmaking and this year, with a few specially programmed
double bills from some of Curt Siodmak’s schlockier oeuvre, the Berlin
Film Festival offers us the unique opportunity to roll out of the Astor
at day’s end with our brains duly purged (or soiled, as the case may be).
And just to make sure, the theatre is providing a thematically prepared
cocktail to guarantee we walk out the door reeling. Today starts us off
with a double dose of Dorothy Lamour in Aloma of the South Seas and Her
Jungle Love. See Dottie duke it out with an amorous chimpanzee to the tune
of ‘Moonlight and shadows and you in my arms’. Pardon my sarong! Next to
the Wolfman, Siodmak’s greatest creation is Donovan’s Brain and on Sunday
we get two brains for the price of one, allowing us to compare the horror
of the Erich von Stroheim version (called The Lady and the Monster) with
the sheer terror of Nancy Reagan’s later performance. Siodmak repudiated
both versions, but then they wouldn’t let him direct either of them. As
if in revenge, Siodmak offers us two of his directorial efforts next Friday
(20 February) and you can almost feel the mosquitoes nipping as Beverly
Garland screams her way out of the coils of a giant boa in Cucuru, Beast
of the Amazon, while Don Taylor loses it all to a bevy of green-skinned
babes in Love Slaves of the Amazon. Siodmak said of his on-location experience,
"I never recovered physically." Will we? AH
