Film Festival Circuit 2012

[puxzkkx]

When I'm not monumentously drunk I'll look at the synopses and make my predictions

[Lemmy Caution]

Jeez, The Totentanz: Scenes from the Warsaw Uprising seems to be in competition at the SIFF next week, while the dvd is already in the local Shanghai pirate shops. Seems a breach of etiquette ...

I might try to see the competition film Isztambul from Hungary, a Turkish film Pomegranate, or one of the half dozen new Cuban films on offer.
Or take in the restored Melies Trip to the Moon or the Chinese classic Crossroads.

[puxzkkx]

The Shanghai awards have been announced:

GOLDEN GOBLET - "Bear" (Khosrow Masoumi)
JURY PRIZE - "For the Love of God" (Micheline Lanctôt)
BEST DIRECTOR - Gao Qunshu, "Detective Hunter Zhang"
BEST ACTOR - Vladas Bagdonas, "The Conductor"
BEST ACTRESS - Ursula Pruneda, "The Dream of Lu"
BEST SCREENPLAY - "Key of Life"
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - "Chrysalis"
BEST MUSIC - "Falling Flowers"

[puxzkkx]

Lots of edits - Karlovy & Moscow juries & winners + Locarno lineup & jury and Venice president.

[ianungstad]

They announced the initial batch of titles this morning:

World Premieres
"Looper" (Rian Johnson) (Opening Film)
"Cloud Atlas" (The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer)
"Argo" (Ben Affleck)
"The Silver Linings Playbook" (David O Russell)
"Love, Marilyn" (Liz Garbus)
"Free Angela And All Political Prisoners" (Shola Lynch)
"The Place Beyond The Pines" (Derek Cianfrance)
"Midnight's Children" (Deepa Mehta)
"Hyde Park On Hudson" (Roger Michell)
"Great Expectations" (Mike Newell)
"Inescapable" (Ruba Nadda)
"Twice Born" (Sergio Castellitto)
"English Vinglish" (Gauri Shinde)
"The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" (Stephen Chbosky)
"Thanks For Sharing" (Stuart Blumberg)
"End Of Watch" (David Ayer)
"Imogene" (Robert Puccini and Shari Springer Berman)
"A Late Quartet" (Yaron Zilberman)
"Much Ado About Nothing" (Joss Whedon)
"Frances Ha" (Noah Baumbach)
"The Time Being" (Nenad Cicin-Sain)
"Writers" (Josh Boone)
"At Any Price" (Ramin Bahrani)
"Venus And Serena" (Maiken Baird)
"Byzantium" (Neil Jordan)
"Quartet" (Dustin Hoffman)
"Ginger And Rosa" (Sally Potter)
"A Liar's Autobiography" (Ben Timlett, Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson)
"Foxfire" (Laurent Cantet)
"In The House" (Francois Ozon)
"The Impossible" (JA Bayona)
"Hannah Arendt" (Margarethe Von Trotta)
"Mr. Pip" (Andrew Adamson)
"Capital" (Costa-Gavras)
"The Attack" (Ziad Doueriri)
"Zaytoun" (Eran Riklis)
"The Deep" (Baltasar Kormakur)
"Dreams For Sale" (Nishikawa Miwa)
"The Last Supper" (Lu Chuan)

International/North American Premieres
"To The Wonder" (Terrence Malick)
"Anna Karenina" (Joe Wright)
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (Mira Nair)
"The Company You Keep" (Robert Redford)
"Jayne Mansfield's Car" (Billy Bob Thornton)
"A Royal Affair" (Nikolai Arcel)
"Dangerous Liasons" (Hur Ji-Ho)
"Thermae Romae" (Hideki Takeuchi)
"Caught in the Web" (Chen Kaige)
"Dormant Beauty" (Marco Belloccchio)
"Everybody Has A Plan" (Ana Piterbarg) w/Viggo Mortensen
"Kon-Tiki" (Espen Sandberg)
"Reality" (Matteo Garrone)
"A Few Hours Of Spring" (Stephan Brize)
"The Hunt" (Thomas Vintenberg)
"The Iceman" (Ariel Vromen)
"Lore" (Cate Shortland)
"No" (Pablo Larrain)
"Outrage Beyond" (Takeshi Kitano)
"Rust And Bone" (Jacques Audiard)
"The Sapphires" (Wayne Blair)
"Tai Chi O" (Stephen Fung)

Canadian Premiere
"The Sessions" (Ben Lewis)

[Jeff]

Wow! That is a pretty stunning line up. I didn't even know Noah Baumbach had made a film, and only recently heard about Joss Whedon's on-the-sly filming of Much Ado About Nothing. New films by Margarethe Von Trotta, Costa-Gavras, and Neil Jordan are surprises to me too.

The big "get" is obviously Malick, though it will certainly debut at Venice, and that lineup will be announced in a couple of days. Maybe it will finally land a distributor.

[domino harvey]

Mind-blowingly good lineup. Shows how many highly anticipated films we still have to look forward to this year

Description of the secret Baumbach film:

Frances Ha Noah Baumbach, USA World Premiere An aspiring dancer (co-writer Greta Gerwig) moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks, in the new film from director Noah Baumbach (Margot at the Wedding, Greenberg).

[zedz]

I've got to say I don't get what all the enthusiasm's about: lots of new films by middling to mediocre 'name' directors, or actors-turned-directors (for their red carpet appeal, presumably). Very little in the way of new work by reliably first-rate filmmakers. It's been a very long time since a new film by Costa-Gavras, Chen or Von Trotta has been much of an 'event', and the likes of Neil Jordan, Takeshi Kitano and Sally Potter are chronically erratic (though nobody would be happier than me to find out they've made a new Butcher's Boy, Scene at the Sea or Tango Lesson). Who's left? Mira Nair?

[mfunk9786]

Costa-Gavras' last film was pretty fantastic.

[wigwam]

"A Liar's Autobiography" (Ben Timlett, Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson)

very exciting!

[zedz]

Costa-Gavras' last film was pretty fantastic.

But it was never released in the US or UK. Nor was his previous film. For better or worse, he hasn't been an essential part of international film culture for a long time - which is not necessarily any reflection on the quality of his recent output, but it is on the 'strength' or otherwise of a festival programme where a new Costa-Gavras film is identified as a highlight.

[ianungstad]

Venice 69 (Competition)

Something In The Air, dir: Olivier Assayas
Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Félix Armand

At Any Price, dir: Ramin Bahrani
Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid, Kim Dickens, Heather Graham

Bella Addormentata, dir: Marco Bellocchio
Toni Servillo, Isabelle Huppert, Alba Rohrwacher, Michele Riondino, Maya Sansa, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio

La Cinquième Saison, dirs: Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth
Aurélia Poirier, Django Schrevens, Sam Louwyck, Gill Vancompernolle

Fill The Void, dir: Rama Burshtein
Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg, Chaim Sharir

E Stato Il Figlio, dir: Daniele Cipri
Toni Servillo, Giselda Volodi, Alfredo Castro, Fabrizio Falco

Un Giorno Speciale, dir; Francesca Comencini
Filippo Scicchitano, Giulia Valentini

Passion, dir: Brian De Palma
Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Paul Anderson, Karoline Herfurth

Superstar, dir: Xavier Giannoli
Kad Merad, Cecile De France

Pieta, dir: Kim Ki-Duk
Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin

Outgrage Beyond, dir: Takeshi Kitano
Tomokazu Miura, Ryo Kase, Fumiyo Kohinata, Toshiyuki Nishida

Spring Breakers, dir: Harmony Korine
James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Heather Morris

To The Wonder, dir: Terrence Malick
Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Javier Bardem, Olga Kurylenko

Thy Womb, dir: Brillante Mendoza
Nora Aunor, Bembol Rocco

Linhas De Wellington, dir: Valeria Sarmiento
Nuno Lopes, Soraia Chaves, John Malkovich, Marisa Paredes, Melvil Poupaud, Mathieu Amalric

Paradise: Faith, dir: Ulrich Seidl
Maria Hofstätter, Nabil Saleh

Betrayal, dir: Kirill Serebrennikov
Franziska Petri, Dejan Lilic, Albina Dzhanabaeva, Arturs Skrastins

Out of competition

L’Homme Qui Rit, dir: Jean-Pierre Ameris
Gérard Depardieu, Marc-André Grondin, Christa Theret, Emmanuelle Seigner

Anton’s Right Here, dir: Lyubov Arkus
(documentary)

Love Is All You Need, dir: Susanne Bier
Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Sebastian Jessen, Molly Blixt Egelind

Cherchez Hortense, dir: Pascal Bonitzer
Jean-Pierre Bacri, Isabelle Carré, Kristin Scott Thomas

It Was Better Tomorrow, dir: Hinde Boujemaa
(documentary)

Sur Un Fil…, dir: Simon Brook
Peter Brook, Yoshi Oida, Shantala Shivalingappa, Marcello Magni

Clarisse, dir: Liliana Cavani
(documentary)

Enzo Avitable Music Life, dir: Jonathan Demme
(documentary)

Tai Chi 0, dir: Stephen Fung
Yuan Xiaochao, Angelababy, Eddie Peng, Tony Leung Ka-fai, William Feng, Shu Qi

Sfiorando Il Muro, dirs: Silvia Giralucci, Luca Ricciardi
(documentary)

Carmel (2009), dir: Amos Gitai
Keren Mor, Efratia Gitai, Keren Gitai, Ben Gitai, Makram Khoury, Amos Gitai

Lullaby To My Father, dir: Amos Gitai
Yael Abecassis, Jeanne Moreau, Hanna Schygulla, Keren Gitai, Ben Gitai

El Imenetrable, dirs: Daniele Incalcaterra, Fausta Quattrini
(documentary)

Penance, dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Kyoko Koizumi, Yu Aoi, Eiko Koike, Sakura Ando, Chizuru Ikewaki

Bad 25, dir: Spike Lee
(documentary)

Witness: Libya, dir: Michael Mann
(documentary)

Medici Con L’Africa, dir: Carlo Mazzacurati
(documentary)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, dir: Mira Nair
Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan

O Gebo E A Sombra, dir: Manoel De Oliveira
Michael Lonsdale, Claudia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau, Leonor Silveira, Ricardo Trêpa, Luís Miguel Cintra

The Company You Keep, dir: Robert Redford
Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Richard Jenkins, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte

Shark (Bait 3D), dir: Kimble Rendall
Xavier Samuel, Sharni Vinson, Julian McMahon, Adrian Pang

Disconnect, dir: Henry-Alex Rubin
Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Nyqvist, Jason Bateman, Andrea Riseborough

La Nave Dolce, dir: Daniele Vicari
(documentary)

The Iceman, dir: Ariel Vromen
Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, James Franco

[mfunk9786]

Man, Harmony Korine has more lives than a cat. He still has never made a good film, yet his latest work still gets into competition at Venice. Charmed life.

[Jeff]

Nice to see the Assayas finally turn up somewhere, and pleasantly surprised that the DePalma is ready. It looks like the DePalmaiest film since Femme Fatale.

[warren oates]

Man, Harmony Korine has more lives than a cat. He still has never made a good film, yet his latest work still gets into competition at Venice. Charmed life.

Trash Humpers isn't exactly good but it's kind of necessary. It certainly strikes me as the most honest and interesting work he's done yet, so I'm looking forward to the new one.

Also to the Assayas, Malick, De Palma , Kim Ki-Duk and Bahrani.

[ianungstad]

Penance, dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Kyoko Koizumi, Yu Aoi, Eiko Koike, Sakura Ando, Chizuru Ikewaki

Apparently this has already aired as a 5 episode series on Japanese television. It's suppose to be fantastic. This seems to be similar to Carlos where they are showing it out of Competition in a roadshow format. (running time is over 5 hours) Might be a good pick up for IFC/Sundance as it would also provide programming for their tv channels.

Witness: Libya, dir: Michael Mann
(documentary)

Just going by the title I'm guessing that this is going to be a compilation of videos shot by citizens on their smart phones and other media devices. Could be interesting.

As for Harmony Korine...I've found things to like in all of his movies but the overall product tends to be a pretty mixed bag. I actually just watched Mister Lonely recently and the bulk of the movie with the commune of celebrity impersonators came off as kind of flat but there is a truly hilarious tangent shot in black and white about a group of flying nuns that should have been cut out and released as a fantastic 10 minute short. Spring Breakers looks very gimmicky but the footage that screened at Cannes played like gangbusters and getting a competition slot at Venice has piqued my interest.

[knives]

Man, Harmony Korine has more lives than a cat. He still has never made a good film, yet his latest work still gets into competition at Venice. Charmed life.

Not even Mister Lonely? Personally I like his redneck Lynch thing though Trash Humpers was a bit of a waste.

[Cold Bishop]

Korine's undoubtedly a man with talent, and each of his movies have a few wonderful scenes, but he's yet to make a great movie. I can't work up the hostility that other people throw his way. That is one fascinating cast, I must say. Either those two are desperate to shed their teenybopper image (another Havoc) or Korine is aiming for something more commercial.

But De Palma? I was as disappointed to see him doing a remake as I was to see Walter Hill doing a Stallone film, but it looks like he transcended it and made it his own. I consider Tree of Life to be a fiasco, but I'm hoping this new reinvigorated Malick can knock it out of the parks without his usual years of pre-and-post-production. I didn't even realize Kitano made an Outrage sequel. I still don't see why Bellochio doesn't get more attention after the triumph of Vincere (his last film sunk without a trace) but I'm intrigued.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Spring Breakers is only the second most incongruous inclusion in this lineup. #1 is Bait 3D.

Orrizonti lineup:

Wadjda (Haifaa Al Mansour, Saudi Arabia/Germany)
The Paternal House (Kianoosh Ayari, Iran)
The Millennial Rapture (Wakamatsu Kōji, Japan)
Three Sisters (Wang Bing, Hong Kong/France)
I Also Want It (Alexey Balabanov, Russia)
Gli equilibristi (Ivano De Matteo, Italy/France)
L'intervallo (Leonardo Di Costanzo, Italy/Switzerland/Germany)
Winter of Discontent (Ibrahim El Batout, Egypt)
Tango libre (Frédéric Fonteyne, Belgium/France/Luxembourg)
The Cutoff Man (Idan Hubel, Israel)
Fly With the Crane (Li Ruijun, China)
A Hijacking (Tobias Lindholm, Denmark)
Leones (Jazmin Lopez, Argentina/France/Netherlands)
Bellas mariposas (Salvatore Mereu, Italy)
Low Tide (Robert Minervini, U.S./Italy/Belgium)
Boxing Day (Bernard Rose, UK/U.S.)
Yema (Djamila Sahraoui, Algeria/France)
Araf - Somewhere in Between (Yesim Ustaoglu, Algeria/France)

[criterion10]

I'm beyond excited to see Spring Breakers make the line-up. Korine's an interesting filmmaker, one I still can't really decide on whether or not I like him. I've seen all of his films up until this point. Gummo is one of my all time favorite films, a true masterpiece in my opinion, and Julien Donkey-Boy is also excellent. Other than those films, however, I can't see he's made anything else worthwile. Mister Lonely is a good film, just nothing terribly special. The segment about the flying nuns would have made an excellent short film, as someone else pointed out. Trash Humpers has some memorable moments, but overall is a stupid film. I hope that Spring Breakers will help me decide whether or not the man is a true auteur or self indulgent hack.

[puxzkkx]

La cinquième saison looks really interesting.

[Jeff]

The Master has been added to the competition schedule.

[puxzkkx]

Wonder if this counts as the "surprise film" or if another Comp selection will be revealed during the festival as is usually the cases?

[Jeff]

Wonder if this counts as the "surprise film" or if another Comp selection will be revealed during the festival as is usually the cases?

I wondered that too, but they had originally said the "surprise film" would be announced late this week.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Venice hasn't actually announced it yet.