The "Spettacoli" (entertainment) sections of the Italian dailies on Mondy (September 11...) all carried detailed commentaries -- mostly recriminations -- regarding the distribution of awards and other aspects of the festival which wrapped on Saturday. To start with, hardly anyone stuck around for the "Gala Closing Film", Pavel Lounguine’s „The Island -- but cut out quickly and headed for the closing bash at the Excelsior down the road. Pavel may be a fairly big name in Russia but he’s n...
The surprise winner of the Golden Lion (Grand Prix for Best Film) was the untouted Chinese entry "Sanxia Haoren" (Still Life) by youthful director Jia Zhang-ke, immediately styled "a perplexing verdict" by dean of Italian film critics, Tullio Kezich. The general reaction to the jury's off-the-wall decision was something like "they must be kidding!" Although residing in the competition section, the pic was projected mostly at late night red-eye screenings, when most of the press had either packe...
The French actress Jeanne Moreau is one of the few performing artists who both epitomize and transcend their eras by the originality of their work.Jeanne Moreau was born in Paris on January 25, 1928. Her father, Anatole Désiré Moreau, was the proprietor of a Montmartre bistro. Her mother, Kathleen Sarah Buckley, left Lancashire, England, at the age of seventeen to dance at the Folies-Bergère. After honing her craft as a principal member of the Comédie-Française and the Théâtre National Po...
With a couple of hours still left to go until the official kick-off of this "Mother of all Film Festivals" activity is feverish along the short stretch of the Lido known as Viale Marconi, the actual location of this oldest of all world film festivals --Now that was rather a mouthful, calling for a bit of elucidation. The first Venice film festival took place way back in 1932 when the Fascist government under Benito Mussolini, taking a page from Lenin, realized that film was a powerful propaganda...
With the festival entering its twilight phase there is no apparent letup in surprises and flashy new films. Three big ones yesterday were Kenneth Branagh's eagerly anticipated world premiere of a new screen version of Mozart's "Magic Flute", Manoel Oliveira's homage to Bunuel's "Belle de Jour", and another bravura turn by Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada". La Streep, (a magnificent 57), the last big star of the week to hit town, held forth in a most interesting press conference in which s...
The breadth and scope of this festival, the name directors, top stars and prestige films it attracts, all clearly mark it as a five star top drawer event, one of the three or four most important way stations on the annual international film festival circuit. But aside from big names and prestige Hollywood products Venice is also known for its focus on lesser-known auteur directors and for its awarding of prizes to films and performances of high artistic merit. It was here in Venice, for examp...
The Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia, presided by Davide Croff, has accepted the proposal by Director Marco Müller to award the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to US director David Lynch at the 63.Venice International Film Festival, scheduled to take place on the Lido di Venezia from August 30th through September 9th 2006. The award will be presented to the director on September 6th, in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema, on the occasion of the screening of his new maste...
La Biennale di Venezia63rd Mostra Internazionale d’Arte CinematograficaJuan José Bigas Luna, Paulo Branco, Cameron Crowe,Chulpan Khamatova, Park Chan-wook, Michele Placidoin the international Jury of Venezia 63. presided by Catherine DeneuveThe Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, presided by Davide Croff, has approved the proposal by the Director of the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica Marco Müller, regarding the composition of the international Jury of Venezia 63 pr...
The centenary anniversaries of Rossellini, Soldati and ViscontiThe Magic Flute by Kenneth Branagh in premiere at the Teatro La FeniceThe great French actress, Catherine Deneuve, will preside over the International Jury of the 63rd Venice International Film Festival, to be held between 30th August and 9th September 2006, and which will assign the Golden Lion for best film.The decision was taken by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Davide Croff, approving the suggestion...
And the Winners were...Golden Bear, the big one for best feature film in competition, "GRBAVICA" directed by Jasmila Zbanic of Bosnia. Zbanic has received fairly wide recognition for her documentary films, among them '"Do you remember Sarajevo?". This her feature film debut and the picture focuses on the traumas of the Yugoslavian wars and their current aftermath. This is basically a study of the relationship between a young mother and her twelve year old daughter. The child wants to believe t...
German author, Nobel Prize laureate Gunther Grass, is a high profile visitor here in connection with the screening of a new Polish film based on one of his novels, "The Call of the Toad". Grass was actually born in Dansk in 1927 when it was a German city known as Danzig, so this amounts to a kind of home-town visitation. His novel, "The Tin Drum" also had a WW II Danzig setting and was made into a highly acclaimed film by Volker Schloendorff in Germany (1979) which featured the Polish actor Dan...
THIRTIETH POLISH FEATURE FILMS FESTIVAL IN GDYNIASeptember 12-17, 2005The Gdynia Festival of Polish Feature Films (Festiwal Polskich Filmow Fabularnych) is an annual event showcasing the entire feature film production of the country in the preceding twelve month period right up to curtain time. The festival was established on somewhat shaky ground in 1974 in the shipyard city of Gdansk -- later to become famous for the Solidarity strikes which led to the downfall of Communism in Poland -- but t...
The "Arca Cinema Giovani" announced three awards that will be presented tomorrow at the Golden Lion ceremony: Prize for the movie that has best treated the theme "Passagi d'Occidente: encounters, diversities, contrasts": Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener, "for having chosen such a difficult and up-to-date subject; for the intense elaborated artistic direction." (France/Germany, 2005) Prize for Best Italian Film: Cristina Comencini's Don't Tell, "for having harmonized the stories of eve...
The Italian journalists so far think that George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck is the best film in the international competition but the journalists don’t select the awards. Still, often what film critics think turns out to be right. Add to the list Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener , screened today at the fest, another strong contender for the Lion. The Venezia 62 international jury is composed of the Chinese scriptwriter and author Acheng, French filmmaker Claire Denis, Israeli ...
Out of competition films: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Tsui Harks Seven Swords (Qi jian), the opening film , and The Art of Love, Mine Ha Ha by John Irvin set the Venezia 62 in motion August 31. Tsui Hark explained why he has made another martial arts film. Because ‘the stories are still compelling’. Seven Swords is concerned with the origins of martial arts in 1600 China when peasants wanted to defend themselves from rogue bandits. Both Charlie Young and Honglei Sun evoke the stro...
The winning feature film in the Competition Section was announced july 9th during the course of the closing ceremony of the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The festival’s grand prix, the Crystal Globe, was awarded by a unanimous jury to the Polish film My Nikifor (Mój Nikifor) and the trophy was presented to the director Krzysztof Krauze and producers Juliusz Machulski and Wojciech Danowski. The Special Jury Prize was won by the Israeli film What a Wonderful Place (Eize makom n...
The International Istanbul Film Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, has kicked off with Charles Dance's film Ladies in Lavender. The festival will run April 2nd to 17th, 2005. The Festival will show approximately 170 films from 62 countries. Among these films will be some brand new films that participated in world-acclaimed festivals last year and were appreciated and greatly honoured with awards, as well as unforgettable cinema classics and masterpieces from the...
ISTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL IS FULL UP THIS YEAR!The International Istanbul Film Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, is approaching with full speed. The 24th International Istanbul Film Festival sponsored by AKBANK will be replete with some of the most striking, newest and world-class films, special screenings, guest stars and chats with masters of cinema from April 2nd to 17th, 2005. Once again, the Festival will practically lock film-lovers into the movie-theaters i...
7th Annual BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS Announces the winners for 2004The contentious story of an abortionist in 1950s England swept the board tonight at the 7th annual British Independent Film Awards. Vera Drake scooped a massive six awards including the prestigious Best Film and Best Director.Mike Leigh and actress Imelda Staunton repeated their Venice Film Festival triumph where the film was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film and Best Actress award for Staunton. Again, Leigh, who has en...
MOUNT SHASTA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OFFERS EXCITING GETAWAY WEEKEND FOR FILM BUFFS AND OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTSNorthern California and Southern Oregon movie buffs can look forward to viewing 20 wonderful films from eight countries along with an opportunity to enjoy spectacular outdoor adventures during the inaugural Mount Shasta International Film Festival. The festival, helmed by Founder/Director Jeffrey Winters, unspools the weekend of October 8th-10th at Coming Attractions Theatre in downtown...
TORONTO BIZ BUZZ 1SONY PICTURES CLASSICS HAS A RECORD TORONTOThe first few days of the Toronto International Film Festival has seen a spurt of buying for US distributor Sony Pictures Classics. The company already has a record six films screening in Toronto, including Festival opener Being Julia (directed by Istvan Szabo), Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education, Zhang Jimou’s House of Flying Daggers, John Duigan’s Head In The Clouds, and Al Pacino-starrer The Merchant of Venice, has announced som...
Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake" won the coveted "Leone d’Oro" - Golden Lion - at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, presided over by John Boorman, jury president. The awards were announced at the closing ceremony September 11. Imelda Staunton who plays Vera Drake, a midwife in the 1950's prosecuted for "helping young girls and women in trouble" won the Coppa Volpi, best actress award. There is an irony in the award of the Golden Lion to Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake". Tod Solondz "Palindro...
On the eighth day of the Venice International Film Festival, several very strong contenders for the Golden Lion have screened and are the talk of the Lido. To date Howl’s Moving Castle (Hauru nougoku shiro) by award winning Hayao Miyazaki has produced the most enthusiastic response from Italian journalists and public. The film was screened under the utmost care to prevent piracy as the film will not be released in Japan until November 20. It will open in France on December 15. According to Miy...
The 61st Venice International Film Festival has long been an “A” festival of world renown. This year an anti-globalization manifestation on the first day raised the question of how Venice may more and more be bowing to Hollywood glamour and celebrities by staging world premieres to market films outside the US. Many of these films do better in the global box office as proof. The manifestation was designed to blow the horn about the presence of Hollywood movie headliners with top stars as majo...
Several films in Venice are turning heads on days 4 and 5. Agnes und seine Brüder(Agnes and His Brothers) by Oskar Roehler (Germany) is a kitchy tale of three brothers who grew up with an alcoholic pedophile. The grown children make messes of their relationships--or lack of them. Hans-Jorg (Herbert Knaupt)is a sex addicted librarian and Werner(Moritz Bleibtreu) - a rageaholic politician that ignores his wife and kids. The most tender of the three - Agnes (Martin Weiss) as had a sex change and i...
