Film Festival Circuit 2007

[Anonymous]

You've already seen Khadak? Isn't it called The Color of Water?

Yeah they seem to have renamed it.. Personally, I preferred Colour of Water. I really hope they put the promo online at some point, because it's extraordinary.

[Grimfarrow]

The film looks very nice, but extraordinary? Hmmm...

[Anonymous]

I should clarify; I've seen a pre-mixing/grading cut and it was very good. It's vaguely reminiscent of Bela Tarr's films, with a similar pace and magical realist edge. The performances are fantastic, especially considering that the cast is mostly non-actors. And the film is visually stunning, even before grading it looks wonderful, always with immaculate composition and the otherworldly light that the location seems to provide. I'm looking forward to checking it out with an audience and with the sound fully finished.

The promo I saw did seem to have mostly finished sound, including this incredible diegetic, pulsing Mongolian music that, combined with the acting and images, was what really set the promo apart.

[Grimfarrow]

Sorry, but I disagree - it is NOTHING like a Bela Tarr film.

[cafeman]

I generally dislike movies Venice gives awards to (Vera Drake?!) but this lineup is indeed much more interesting than Cannes.

And, my prior comment was maybe an exagerration, but I just found iot weird that some of thhose film weren`t deem worthy of being in competition.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but I disagree - it is NOTHING like a Bela Tarr film.

Stylistically they are worlds apart, I agree. But the atmosphere of Colour of Water is very reminiscent of the Werckmeister Harmonies - the vague but ubiquitous military threat, the static crowds and the deus ex machina that drives the plot.

[Antoine Doinel]

Venice, Rome duelling over film fests

By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press WriterWed Aug 30, 9:31 AM ET

The world's oldest running film festival, the Venice Biennale, is used to imitators. But this year, the upstarts are just a little too close to home.

The city of Rome's decision to launch a festival of its own just two months after the venerable Venice Film Festival, which opens its 63rd showing on Wednesday, has erupted into a full-blown spat that mirrors centuries-old rivalries between the Eternal City and the Most Splendid Republic.

A gentlemanly truce broke this week when the director of the Venice film festival gave an interview saying the nascent Rome festival was performing a service to films overlooked by Venice and Cannes by giving them a venue.

By the time the comment reached the ears of the Rome festival directors, the Rome lineup had become "leftovers" — to the ire of the founders of the new festival.

They called the alleged comment "an incredible offense to the filmmakers who are showing their work in Rome."

The Venice Film Festival issued a statement denying that their director had ever used a word as offensive as "leftovers." But the fact remained: The films being shown at Rome "are films that neither we nor Cannes wanted."

Take that, Nicole Kidman, who opens the Rome festival on Oct. 16 with the world premier of "Fur," a film combining biography and fictional romance based loosely on the life of photographer Diane Arbus.

There were early signs that the Rome festival was causing strains in the lagoon city. For the first time in festival history, all of the films competing for the Golden Lion are world premieres. The festival opens with the Brian De Palma film "Black Dalhia," an adaptation of James Ellroy's novel about a Hollywood starlet's 1947 murder starring Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett and Hilary Swank.

The Venice Film Festival was the brainchild of a count who was trying to draw American visitors back to the island following the depression. He set up a film projector in the gardens of the Excelsior Hotel in 1932, and the film festival was born.

Jealousies arose nearly instantly.

"This is a story that began in the 1935, when people in Mussolini's circle took notice of the festival and said, 'Why are they doing this in Venice and not in Rome. This is the capital of fascism.' That is what began this ridiculous war," said Tullio Kezich, a film critic for the Milan daily Corriere della Sera who is covering his 60th Venice film festival this year.

The pull of Rome only grew with the rise of Cinecitta, the studios built by Mussolini in 1937 where such greats as Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica produced their best films. By comparison, the Lido island that hosts the festival is little more than a dormitory for visitors to Venice during most of the year.

Still, Kezich contends no spat would have erupted had the Rome festival directors not decided to time their festival so close to Venice's.

"No one can stop Rome from having its festival, because all of the world has copied Venice. There are thousands of festivals. Why not Rome? The problem is the timing, that it is taking away the media attention from Venice," Kezich said. "If they had done it in March, no one would have taken notice."

Italy's Culture Minister, former Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli, has stepped in to calm tempers.

"Our job is to give value to both festivals with a rational calendar," Rutelli told reporters on Wednesday. "Two film festivals are a bounty of riches, not a problem."

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Venice, Rome duelling over film fests

Jealousies arose nearly instantly.

Still, Kezich contends no spat would have erupted had the Rome festival directors not decided to time their festival so close to Venice's.

It's at times like this that you want some giant Gilliam-animated God hands to come down and clunk the heads of the two rival festival directors' heads together.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Jia's Still Life is now in competition as a last-minute "surprise entry." Excitement city!

[dadaistnun]

More photos from Sakebi/Retribution here.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Still Life wins the Golden Lion. The other winners:

Silver Lion: Alain Resnais for Private Fears in Public Places
Silver Lion Revelation: Emanuele Crialese for Nuovomondo - Golden Door
Special Jury Prize: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun for Daratt
Best Actor: Ben Affleck (!!!) in Hollywoodland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren in The Queen
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor: Isild Le Besco in L'Intouchable
Osella for Best Technical Contribution: Emmanuel Lubezki (cinematographer) for Children of Men
Osella for Best Screenplay: Peter Morgan for The Queen
Special Lion: Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet for innovation in the language of cinema

[Antoine Doinel]

The cinematography win for Children Of Men has me excited.

[miless]

The cinematography win for Children Of Men has me excited.

Lubezki is one of the greatest living cinematographers, IMO. The New World is possibly one of the most beautifully shot films I've ever seen, and his work with Alfonso Cuaron is great (esp. Y Tu Mama)

I am really looking forward to Children of Men for many reasons, but the main one being that it is not everday a beautifully shot quasi-sci-fi film gets made.

[kieslowski_67]

Jia's Still Life (San1 Xia2 Hao3 Ren2) just won the top prize at Venice. Watched it on a crappy transfer, but wow, this is easily the best film of 2006. Somehow the main characters are no longer passive as they were in all of his previous films.
=D> =D> =D>

[Barmy]

Didn't Affleck win something too? If so, VFF has zero credibility.

[Cinesimilitude]

look a few posts up... He won for his small role in Hollywoodland. Very surprising. I might see it now.

[Barmy]

Well, at least the USA didn't get shut out entirely. Go Ben!

[Gropius]

Jia's Still Life (San1 Xia2 Hao3 Ren2) just won the top prize at Venice. Watched it on a crappy transfer, but wow, this is easily the best film of 2006. Somehow the main characters are no longer passive as they were in all of his previous films.

Was this one also made within the Chinese commercial system, like The World, which seemed to have replaced some of the earlier social realist grit with a certain lusciousness? Are there any more dubious animated interludes? Can it compare to Platform (IMHO the best of the four I've seen)?

I think Jia either has the potential to become perhaps the most interesting Chinese filmmaker of his generation, or to end up being seduced into a more populist form of production (the anti-capitalist bitterness gradually giving way to 'feel-good' atmosphere?). Hopefully not the latter.

[kieslowski_67]

Jia is the most interesting directors out of China right now along with Huo Jianqi. One thing that works really well for him is that he writes all his scripts.

"Platform" is still his masterpiece. "Still life" stands out partly because this is shaping up to be a horrible year for film. I can count with one hand the films that I would give a 3 plus stars so far.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Obligatory post-festival gossip

Somewhat interesting to learn that Still Life nearly lost to Nuovomondo, but the real meat comes near the end of the article:

The choice of "Still Life" as best film overshadowed a deeper controversy, when the jury awarded a special prize to Italy-based French filmmaking duo Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet.

Straub stoked controversy last week by releasing a statement supporting terrorism. "As long as there's American imperialistic capitalism, there will never be enough terrorists in the world," the 72-year-old Straub said in the statement.

[Jury member Michele] Placido said Hollywood director and fellow jury member Cameron Crowe had opposed awarding the prize.

The Corriere della Sera reported that Crowe relented when it was agreed a statement would be made distancing the festival from Straub's anti-American sentiments. But no statement was released, the newspaper said.

The article also says Jia's next film, Tattoo Age (a period piece set during the final years of the Cultural Revolution), "is expected to be ready by January." A triple shot of Jia (Dong also premiered at Venice) sounds too good to be true.

Are there any more dubious animated interludes?

Well, the Variety review contains this tidbit:

At one point, what appears to be a CG spaceship takes off behind a hill. No, really.

Not sure what to make of this.

[Barmy]

"American imperialistic capitalism"???

Lol. What is this, 1968? Sometimes I wish "artists" would STFU about their political beliefs. But whatever, S/H have been a total irrelevancy for eons. What some people will do just to get attention.

[fred]

"American imperialistic capitalism"???

Lol. What is this, 1968? Sometimes I wish "artists" would STFU about their political beliefs. But whatever, S/H have been a total irrelevancy for eons. What some people will do just to get attention.

I have no interest in getting into an argument over the politics of Straub/Huillet, who are, in any event among the very greatest artists in the history of the cinema, but given how brief Jean-Marie Straub's statement is, it is the height of recklessness for the press accounts to excerpt only the part they did. Here is the statement in it's entirety:

"I would not be able to celebrate in a festival where there are so much public and private police looking for a terrorist. I am that terrorist. To paraphrase Franco Fortini: as long as American imperialistic capitalism exists, there won't be enough terrorists in the world. All the best, Jean-Marie".

Message from Jean-Marie Straub to the Venice Film Festival, 6 September 2006

"D'altronde non potrei festeggiare in un festival dove c'è tanta polizia pubblica e privata alla ricerca di un terrorista - il terrorista sono io, e vi dico, parafrasando Franco Fortini: finché ci sarà il capitalismo imperialistico americano, non ci saranno mai abbastanza terroristi nel mondo."

If you don't believe in the existence of "American imperialistic capitalism" I can only think that you've been its beneficiary rather than its victim.

[Barmy]

The full statement is even funnier. Thanks. And, umm, the vast majority of Americans, as well as much of the world population, are beneficiaries of AIC.

P.S. I like some of S/H. But they haven't done much of significance for 20 years or so.

[Antoine Doinel]

Replace the word "beneficiaries" with "exploited by" and that would speak the truth of those who can't bask in the glow of the good America has done.

[fred]

Their work of the last 20 years hasn't exactly circulated widely, but minimally includes perhaps the greatest of the 16 Straub/Huillet films I've seen, Death of Empedocles (1987). Have you seen Antigone? Or Sicilia? Distribution is not the same thing as significance.

Hopefully without going any further down this road, being the beneficiary of a murderous regime is hardly an unambiguously good thing. And it's arguable whether "the vast majority" of Americans are actually beneficiaries, but the only way I can even remotely make any sense of the second half of your statement is by reading "much of the world" as identical to "the vast majority [sic] of Americans". Surely millions upon millions of people in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Chile, Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq (and on and on) would find that statement hard to swallow.