Archive for January, 2004
Friday, January 30th, 2004
During the 2004 Awards Ceremony of the International Film Festival Rotterdam today, VPRO Tiger Awards were granted to Bu Jian (The Missing), a minimalist parable about loneliness, alienation and emotional traumas by first-time director Taiwanese Lee Kang-sheng, who frequently appears as an actor in the films of Tsai Ming-liang; Unterwegs (En Route), the debut film by German director Jan Kruger in which a manipulative, slightly sinister but charming young man falls in with a young mother, her daughter, and the daughter’s boyfriend on a camping holiday and leads them astray; and the Hubert Bals Fund-supported Ljeto U Zlatnoj Dolnini (Summer in the Golden Valley) by first-time director Srdjan Vulectic from Bosnia-Herzogovina, in which two young guys who dream of life elsewhere, hustle, hang out, get stoned and are soon caught up with a beautiful rich girl and a blackmail scam.
Following the IFFR Awards Ceremony, the City of Rotterdam awarded IFFR director Simon Field the Wolfert van Borselen Medal as a token of appreciation for his hard work and passionate commitment to the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The French Ministry of Culture and Communication also awarded Field with the grade of “Officier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres” for his achievements in the artistic domain and for his contributions to propagation of French culture. The farewell ceremony for Field, who will leave the IFFR after this 33rd edition, concluded with a series of cinematographic homages by some of his favourite filmmakers like Kitano Takeshi (Japan), Jan Svankmajer (Czech Republic), Catherine Breillat (France), Patrick Keiller (UK), Abolfazl Jalili (Iran), Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan), Kees Hin (The Netherlands) and Kawase Naomi (Japan).… Read the rest
Friday, January 30th, 2004
For fans of the work of recently-deceased Helmut Newton, Nerve has put together an excellent collection of some of the master photographer’s best-known work. Each image is accompanied by testimonials about Newton’s influence by Nerve’s contributing photographers. It’s a touching farewell to the man who revolutionized fashion and erotic photography more than 50 years ago (he once earned the nicknames the “35mm Marquis de Sade” and the “King of Kink”) and continued to work consistently until his death last week, at age 83, in a car accident outside L.A.’s Chateau Marmont. For more about Newton’s work, Barnes and Noble is a good place to start.
… Read the rest
Thursday, January 29th, 2004
Upon hearing the awards news from Sundance this past Sunday in Rotterdam, most of the buyers and sales agents at the Cinemart all wanted to know one thing from me: “What the hell is Primer?” The small minority who caught the film in Utah, though, had a different question: “Why the hell did this film win the Sundance Grand Prize?”
International film business types customarily feel somewhat lost and bewildered at Sundance, unable to figure out the shuttle bus routes or how to make it into the evening parties. But to be completely confused by what’s on screen? That’s a new one that made their sense of cultural alienation all the more acute.
Primer happened to be the first film I caught at the festival. I was drawn, perversely, by Geoff Gilmore’s catalog copy, which dubbed the dialogue “borderline incomprehensible.” Indeed, from its first frame, Primer plunges you into the world of scientific research as it follows a small group of amateur scientists who stumble onto a world-changing invention. And yes, unless you’re a physics and biochemistry dual major, the dialogue is impossibly hard to follow. Virtually every sentence is comprised of scientific lingo uttered in variations of the same measured-but-urgent cadence. At Rotterdam, I tried to explain to a Japanese distributor, who felt that her English wasn’t good enough to “get” the movie, that it was okay not to understand it. I couldn’t follow it either. Or at least I couldn’t follow the moment-by-moment progressions of the plot. I did get the film’s story of curiosity leading to exhiliration leading to fear as the “invention” wobbles out of control.
I interviewed Shane Carruth, the film’s writer, director, producer, star, editor, sound editor and composer at the festival, and our talk, which is a fascinating explanation of how this autodidact made the film and got it into Sundance, will appear soon in the magazine. One thing he told me though was how his inspiration for the film came from a cable-television ’70s movie marathon he watched while recovering from an accident. Carruth said he was fascinated by movies … Read the rest
Thursday, January 29th, 2004
Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, an exhibition at the International Center of Photography co-curated by Brian Wallis and Coco Fusco, explores the question “How do photographs make us see race?”
The exhibition, which includes over 350 works in a variety of formats spanning nearly 200 years of photographic history, is organized in five thematic sections — such as Humanized/Fetishized, which “contrasts photographs that emphasize a subject’s individuality with those that objectify or dehumanize their subjects,” and Assimilate/Impersonate, which “compares images of people attempting to look or act white with those of people assuming the characteristics of non-whites.”
In conjunction with the exhibition, which runs through February 29, a free interdisciplinary symposium, Visualizing Race in American Photography, will take place Saturday, February 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Columbia Law School Jerome Greene Hall, Room 101. For further info or to register, call the ICP Education dept. at (212) 857-0001.
… Read the rest
Wednesday, January 28th, 2004
The Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama section has confirmed another documentary, Traveling with Che Guevara (Italy, 110 minutes) by Gianni Mina, which will contribute further to shaping the festival’s special focus this year on Latin America.
The film, made during the shooting of Walter Salles’s Motorcycle Diaries, illuminates the circumstances behind Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s motorcycle trip through South America in 1952 and how it politicized him.
Guevara, at the time a 23-year-old medical student, kept diaries about his six-month-long journey with his friend, the biologist Alberto Granado. The two traveled as leprosy specialists all across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.
Salles, who received the Golden Berlin Bear in 1998 for his film Central Station, convinced Granado to be his advisor on the film and to accompany the shooting. In Gianni Mina’s documentary about the film’s making, Granado clarifies incidents, recounts his own memories, gives guidance on details and lends his support to the actors Gael Garcia Bernal (Che) and Rodrigo de la Serna (Alberto).
81-year-old Alberto Granado told the documentary filmmaker, “Re-living all this seems like a dream”.
Both Gianni Mina and Alberto Grando are expected to attend the Berlinale for the film’s presentation. Walter Salles’s Motorcycle Diaries, on the other hand, is reportedly headed to Cannes.
The Berlinale has also announced the creation a new series in its Official Program, the Berlinale Special, which will include the latest works of master filmmakers as well as revivals of important films related to the Festival’s special focuses or to particularly explosive political topics.
This inaugural series includes four components:
1) the most recent films of directors Peter Greenaway (The Tulse Luper Suitcases, part 2, featuring Isabella Rosselini, Franka Potente and Ornella Muti) and Ermanno Olmi (Cantando dietro i paraventi / Singing Behind Screens);
2) three revivals: Jacques Demy‘s 1970 adaptation of the fairy tale Peau d’ane (Donkey Skin), starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, Jacques Perrin and Delphine Seyrig (to be preceded by Agnes Varda‘s short film, Peau d’ane); from Germany, a newly restored printed of the … Read the rest
Monday, January 26th, 2004
After World War II, western European countries received not only economic aid but also cultural and psychological aid from the U.S.
June 1947 marked the start of the Marshall Plan — officially entitled the “European Recovery Program” — which gave 16 European states financial and economic support, including food, raw materials and machines. Yet ideals were also disseminated: by the time the Marshall Plan came to an end in 1952 over 200 films had been produced documenting American aid efforts, motivating self-help and promoting intercultural understanding, democracy and pluralism — and reinforcing boundaries against communist Eastern Europe.
At the same time the films offered very practical introductions to new technologies and forms of agriculture: the spectrum ranged from a European electricity network to the construction of chicken coops.
This year’s Berlin International Film Festival will present a selection of films produced under the Marshall Plan in 10 unique programs.
The retrospective and its films with their emphatic vision of a united Europe not only bring to light present-day parallels; these ambitious works by talented young directors are also still very compelling in their consciousness of form and occasionally light-hearted, imaginative tone. For instance, the Dutch production Houen Zo!, about the reconstruction of Rotterdam, received an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952. One of the filmmakers, Georg Tressler, later became a very successful German feature film director (Die Halbstarken / The Hooligans): his film Traudls neuer Gemusegarten (Traudl’s New Vegetable Garden) elucidates new methods of cultivation and was one of the many films explicitly aimed at children.
42 films will be screened at the Zeughaus-Kino, Berlin, as part of the series from February 5 to 15. Georg Tressler and others involved in the Marshall Plan film program will speak at accompanying events.
… Read the rest
Monday, January 26th, 2004
Last night the Sundance Film Festival announced the winners of the Independent Feature Film Competition and the Audience Awards for the 2004 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The Documentary Grand Jury Prize was given to DIG!, directed and produced by Ondi Timoner. Shot over a seven-year period, DIG! follows the parallel careers of two musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, head of The Dandy Warhols — star-crossed friends and bitter rivals. The 2004 Documentary Competition Jurors included Rory Kennedy, Mary Ellen Mark, Robb Moss, Robert Shepard,and Chris Smith.
The Dramatic Grand Jury Prize was presented to Primer, the debut feature by Shane Carruth. The low-budget film, reportedly made for only $7,000, tells the story of small-time entrepreneurs who build a cottage industry of error-checking devices that very quickly begin to test the limits of their friendship. The 2004 Dramatic Competition Jury included Lisa Cholodenko, Frederick Elmes, Danny Glover, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ted Hope.
The festival’s Directing Awards went to Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me and Debra Granik for the documentary Down To The Bone.
The Documentary Audience Award was presented to Born Into Brothels, a film by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski.
The World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award was given to Seducing Doctor Lewis, directed by Jean-Francois Pouliot. The World Cinema Documentary Audience Award was presented to The Corporation, directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott.
The Dramatic Audience Award winner was presented to Maria Full of Grace, directed and written by Joshua Marston.
The festival’s Excellence in Cinematography Awards, honoring exceptional photography in both a dramatic and documentary film at the Festival was awarded to Ferne Pearlstein for Imelda from the Documentary Competition, and Nancy Schreiberfor November from the Dramatic Competition received the 2004 Cinematography Awards.
The Freedom of Expression Award, given to a documentary film that informs and educates the public on issues of social or political concern, was awarded to the Korean documentary Repatriation, directed by Kim Dong-won. The 2004 Freedom of Expression Jury included Molly Haskell, Jorgen … Read the rest
Friday, January 23rd, 2004
In its Main Program and two other series, Special and Dokumente, the 2004 Panorama of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival will present 34 features and 16 documentaries.
The Panorama’s Main Program will open on February 5 with Walk on Water by American-born Israeli director Eytan Fox, whose film Yossi and Jagger premiered in last year’s Panorama to great acclaim, and was subsequently released in the U.S. by Strand Releasing. Walk on Water tells the story of a Mossad agent and a German tourist in Israel who uncover the truth about the “last Nazi”.
The Panorama Special section will open on February 6 with two films: the angst-driven arthouse indie A Problem with Fear — or Laurie’s Anxiety Confronting the Escalator by the Canadian director Gary Burns (Lions Gate), and with Untold Scandal by E J-Young, a rising star of Korean cinema.
In addition, the Panorama will enhance the Festival’s special focus this year on Latin America with three political documentaries and two fiction features: Mexican director Felipe Cazals’s Digna hasta el ultimo aliento, and Che — The Last Hours by Romano Scavolini, from Italy — along with three films from Brazil: the documentary Fala tu by Guilherme Coelho and the features O outro lado da ruaby Marcos Bernstein and Contra todos by Roberto Moreira.
And finally, the Dokumente program of the 19th Panorama will offer ample opportunities for exploration and debate on a wide variety of subjects — from Woody Harrelson’s passion for green issues and an anarchistic political satire on the WTO to the illumination of politically uncharted regions in Latin America, to portraits of artists like Klaus Nomi and The Ramones, and new essay films by Bruce Weber and Romuald Karmakar.
Complete list of feature film titles:
BRAZIL
Contra todos/Up against them all by Roberto Moreira with Silvia Lourenco, Giulio Lopes, Leona Cavalli, Ailton Graça, Martha Meola, Dionisio Neto
Fala Tu/Fala Tu — Lives of Rhyme by Guilherme Coelho/Brazil
BRAZIL / FRANCE
O outro lado da rua/The Other Side of the Street by Marcos Bernstein, with Fernanda Montenegro, … Read the rest
Thursday, January 22nd, 2004
In the first post on this new Filmmaker blog, I wrote about how we’d use this space to break out of the quarterly confines of the magazine’s publication schedule. Well, that’s still the intention, but after a few days here at the Sundance Film Festival, this blog has been filling up with news items filed by the New York office while the Sundance-attending staff has been seeing the movies, going to the parties, but not quite figuring out how to get into the rhythm of daily online journalism.
One of the good things about publishing quarterly is that it allows time to let film reactions gel over a period of weeks. One of the bad things about publishing quarterly is that it encourages a kind of OCD-ish approach to writing. Opinions can be futzed over for months — one Filmmaker writer typically sends me as many as 26 self-generated revisions of a single article — and then spastically reworked one last time in the days before press.
But this Sundance, I thought, would be different. And each day, I’d work out a lead paragraph in my head while riding the shuttle busses from theater to theater, struggle to remember it through the nightly parties, return home, and then — and here was my mistake — would scan online film sites like Moviecity News to check out what I’d missed that day before writing. And suddenly, the jazzy lead that seemed pithily entertaining on the bus would read painfully dull and obvious as I’d realize that countless versions of it were already all over the web. Like the Dean scream, news blips involving the Biskind book (included in the Diesel/Cinetic party gift bag but not, as many claimed, discussed here all that much), Paris Hilton, The Motorcycle Diaries (the raves for which are truly deserved, as I’ll post here soon), and Redford sightings would surface, quickly scour the internet and then be replaced by the next celebrity mix-up or tidbit of acquisitions news.
Which is why the film I feel like writing about first is one that’s somewhat invisible to … Read the rest
Thursday, January 22nd, 2004
Warner Independent Pictures made its first feature film acquisition yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival, purchasing all rights in North America and the UK to We Don’t Live Here Anymore for $2 million. The film is directed by John Curran from a screenplay by Larry Gross, based on two short stories by Andre Dubus (who also wrote the story that inspired In the Bedroom).
Front Street Productions‘s Harvey Kahn and Jonas Goodman reportedly hammered out deal points with William Morris agent Cassian Elwes and Mark Gill of Warner Independent, while cast members Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo and Laura Dern sequestered themselves in a stairway of the Wireimage Portal Studio for more than six hours at last night’s premiere party for the film, which debuted in Competition.
The film tells the story of two couples in a New England college town whose lives become inextricably intertwined and turned upside-down in a tide of passion, suspicion, humor, anger and stunning revelations.
“We are really pleased to be the first [finished] film to be acquired by Warner Independent,” said John Curran. “Their passion was clear after the first screening, and is evident in their plans for its release [later this year].”
Warner Independent Pictures, founded in August 2003, finances, produces, acquires and will theatrically distribute up to 10 feature films per year largely budgeted under $20 million. It is a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company based on the Studio lot in Burbank.
In 2004, Warner Independent Pictures will also release Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset which debuts in Competition in Berlin; first-time director Gregory Jacobs’s Criminal starring John C. Reilly, Diego Luna and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Michael Mayer’s A Home at the End of the World with Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts and Sissy Spacek; first-time director Jordan Roberts’s Around the Bend starring Michael Caine, Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas; and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s A Very Long Engagement, which is currently in production.
Warner Independent Pictures’s The Jacket, directed by John Maybury and starring Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch, Daniel Craig and Kris Kristofferson started production on … Read the rest
