Overview

The non-competitive, public exhibition is directed as usual by the Argentinian film critic Carlos Morelli, and organized by the Maldonado City Hall through its Film Festival Committee. Focused on European films, it has been recognized as one of the prominent festivals of the southern region of South America, as it shows the very selective Uruguayans and Argentineans some of the finest European productions of the last years and gives them a preview of what they will find in theatres everywhere at a later date.

For the 2000 edition, 23 films coming from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Portugal, England, Greece, The Netherlands and Yugoslavia are shown at the Sala Municipal Cantegril. The biggest news at the festival is the fact that the European Film Council (EFC) -the official European Union film board- has chosen Punta del Este as their "Latin American base", leaving behind other candidates such as Mar del Plata (Argentina) and Miami. This acknowledgement gives the Uruguayan festival the chance to offer the audiences cinematography from selected European countries that are not usually released in this part of the globe. For that matter, the EFC's director, Claudia Landsberger, will receive the special new Mauricio Litman Award -honoring the creator of the festival- on the opening night. The festival is also supported by the European Film Promotion.

The opening night features La Celestina (Spain) directed by Gerardo Vega and starring the beautiful Maribel Verdú, who flew in especially for the occasion. She is also at the festival for her role as the famous Duchess of Alba (the "Maja Desnuda") that inspired the great artist Francisco de Goya in Carlos Saura's latest production, Goya in Bordeaux, one of this festival's hot films. La Celestina also stars the rising Penelope Cruz, Jordi Mollá and Juan Diego Botto, among others. The story recreates the traditional Spanish play about the joys and misfortunes of three young couples and a mysterious character that plays the matchmaker of the title, who will taint their kisses with blood.

More than 40 filmmakers, actors, producers and qualified members of the European cinema community are attending the third edition of this festival in Uruguay. Among them, the American legend Robert Duvall -who's a confessed fan of tango and is married to a pretty young Argentinean- will be honored in the parallel section "The American Night" for his acclaimed The Apostle.The other awaited off-festival section is "The Surprise Soirée", when the audience sits in the theatre not knowing what movie will be shown.

The new section "La hora del lobo" ("The werewolf's night") will offer on Sat. 22 and Sun. 23 late night showings of two high impact films: Germany's Nachtgestalten (A night in Berlin), by Andreas Dresen, which won the Silver Bear at Berlin 99 for Michael Gwisdek as Best Actor; and England's Under the Skin by Carine Adler, multi-awards at Edinburgh, Toronto and Venice.

Some other special guests include French director Patrice Leconte, who will present his 1999's acclaimed La fille sur le pont (The Girl on the Bridge) with Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis, nominated for Best Foreign Picture in the 1999 Golden Globe Awards. Italian comedian Lando Buzzanca starring in Rocco Cesareo' s Il popolo degli uccelli (Birds' town) and Argentinean actor Federico Luppi, starring in the Spanish-Argentinean production Las huellas borradas directed by Enrique Gabriel and winner at the 1999 Malaga Film Festival, are both to be presented with honorary awards.

Just to present a few of the important movies programmed for this prestigious annual encounter in the south of the world, The Netherlands will be represented by Jeroen Krabbé's Left Luggage (1998); La Cena, the latest film by the Italian talent Ettore Scola; the interesting Bure Baruta by Goran Paskaljevic, a co-production coming from France, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey and Yugoslavia; France's C'est quoi la vie? by Francois Dupeyron, winner of the Concha de Oro at San Sebastian 1999; and La Balia (The nanny) directed by Marco Bellochio. Spain offers another hit, Solas by Benito Zambrano, also awarded at Berlin. Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos' Jaime, (Luxembourg- Portugal) won the Special Jury Award at San Sebastian. A Swedish-Finish co-production, Under the Sun directed by Colin Nutley, is Sweden's nominee for the next Oscars. Gloomy Sunday (Germany-Hungary) by Rolf Schübel won at Mar del Plata 99. Among others, Max Fäberböck's Aimée & Jaguar and Raoul Ruiz's Le Temps Retrouvé are long awaited by the Southern American audience.

The Spanish beau Jorge Sanz is also coming to Punta del Este who appeared in César Martínez Herrada's first film Manos de Seda (Silk Hands), which presents itself as one of the best pictures to be shown during these six Euro-packed days of cinema and sun.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Clara Fernández Escudero

A week of films and stars under the sun and an eager audience

After showing 23 films coming from different European countries at the packed Sala Municipal Cantegril during the week long "Europa, un cine de Punta 3", the ever growing film festival that has been attracting the sun-tanned audiences who enjoy their holidays in this beautiful city on the Atlantic has assured itself its fourth edition.

On 20 Thursday, the Maldonado authorities signed the contract with the European Film Promotion organization, concluding the next Punta del Este European Film Festival to be held from 22-29 Jan 2001. Carlos Morelli, the festival director, claimed to be "ecstatic". "All of the stars attending flew in for its artistic importance. We didn't pay a dollar for their presence here," he said.

For an audience who is known as being quite selective, most of the films presented in this festival were well received. Some attracted their attention so much that they even made one fact stand out. Though the organization was pretty much efficient, the theatre chosen for the occasion -a historic place within Punta del Este- proved to be small: for Carlos Saura's Goya in Bordeaux, chairs were added in the hallways and the programmed screenings had to be doubled up, to refrain the public's irritation.

The final figures climbed to almost 10,000 attendants in the seven days of the festival. Though the 600 seats in the Cantegril didn't prove to be enough, the theatre itself was renewed and comfortable. "My biggest pride," remarked Morelli, is the fact that on Tuesday (18th.) we showed a 'difficult' movie, like (the Luxembourg-Portuguese production) Jaime, and still the public filled up the theatre". Nevertheless, this particular movie did not seem to convince the press. The film, directed by the Portuguese Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos, portrays the story of a kid trying to make a living in the harsh conditions provided by the end-of-the-century European society. Though it received an award at the latest San Sebastian edition, it is filled with a poor aesthetic and cheap emotions.

Robert Duvall deserves a separate mention. As usual, the American star stood out of the group of stars invited to Punta del Este, not only for his passion for tango -he promised this year he'll direct a film based on the music and its magic, called 'Assassination Tango' and played by a local cast of dancers- but also because of his good mood and his special award for The Apostle. He spoke to every reporter in a surprisingly improved Spanish.

The Spanish young stars Maribel Verdú and Jorge Sanz both got special mentions for their careers and gave the event its glamorous touch. The Italian B-movie actor Lando Buzzanca showed his political attitude towards Ettore Scola, the prestigious director whose La Cena (The Dinner) was one of the highlights of the festival. Not only he declared himself as a right-wing Italian, but criticized the filmmaker Nanni Moretti for his evident left wing films. "Politics are not for the cinema", he said. The movie he starred in, Il poppolo degli Uccelli (Birds' Town), did not get very good reviews. He even got everyone angry when he disqualified the soccer star Diego Maradona.

The films that enlightened the quality of this festival ended up being the ones the audience preferred. Among them, Goran Paskaljevic's Bure Baruta; Germany's Aimée & Jaguar; Solas (Spain); Colin Nutley's Under the Sun -Sweden's Oscar nominee and an interesting story about an illiterate farmer who decides to get a wife out of the classified ads, starring Rolf Lassgard, Helena Bergström and Johan Widerberg-; Raoul Ruiz's Le Temps Retrouvé and the famous filmmaker Patrice Leconte's La Fille sur le Pont (The Girl on the Bridge). This movie was nominated for the Golden Globe as Best Foreign Picture, and -as the film by the German Max Fäberböck- lost to Pedro Almodovar's latest melodrama on last Sunday's ceremony in L.A. The French director was also very welcome at the Cantegril and the audience enjoyed his quiet and respectful presence on the Uruguayan sands.

Claudia Landsberger, president of the European Film Promotion board -who received a special award before the festival's opening- said that the "dependence" this event seems to have on the prestigious Basque film festival is due to "the difficulty of finding subtitled films coming from such unusual markets" as the ones programmed in Punta del Este. "That's why," she added, "we need to try to sell most of the movies shown during the week, so as to assure ourselves the chance to broaden the spectrum of productions we will present at forthcoming editions". Morelli agreed with her and said he is willing "to take the risk and keep on betting on unknown directors and cinematographers".

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Clara Fernández Escudero