Concurso Nacional de cortos de animación

BUENOS AIRES.- Con la presencia de la Presidenta del INCAA , Liliana Mazure, Caloi y María Victoria Ramírez , el jueves 30 de Julio se lanzó el Concurso Nacional de Animación Caloi en su Tinta, organizado por CT producciones y auspiciado por el Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales y el Festival Internacional de Cine de Animación de Annecy (Francia).

En el año del Bicentenario, la Argentina será la Invitada de Honor en el Festival de Annecy 2010. CT Producciones y el INCAA, con el apoyo de la Embajada de Francia en Argentina, preparan un importante Homenaje a la Animación Argentina. Bajo la dirección general de María Verónica Ramírez, el Homenaje contará con una destacada presencia argentina que exhibirá lo más importante de la producción nacional de animación, retrospectivas, programas especiales, exposiciones y la participación de una representativa delegación. Annecy 2010 ofrecerá, además, un marco celebratorio especialmente importante ya que estará festejando el 50 aniversario de su creación.

En la conferencia de Prensa María Victoria Ramírez, resaltó que "es fundamental el apoyo que nos brinda el INCAA desde el desarrollo y desde lo económico".

Caloi exhortó a dibujantes y animadores : " anímense a dibujar que se acaba el mundo ! ".

Liliana Mazure resaltó que "el rol de estos festivales es poner en valor la cinematografía argentina en todo el mundo y además que podamos valorarnos entre nosotros". E invitó a los realizadores de animación a acercar material a Ventana Sur, el nuevo mercado que tendrá lugar en Buenos Aires entre el 27 y el 30 de noviembre próximos, donde participarán compradores de todo el mundo.

El Concurso Caloi en su Tinta invita a participar a artistas de todo el país y premiará a los ganadores con la inclusión de sus películas en el Festival y la asistencia de sus realizadores al mismo. El Festival de Animación de Annecy es el más importante del mundo en la materia y concentra anualmente una inmensa cantidad de realizadores, productores, distribuidores, estudiantes, periodistas y público en general.

La convocatoria al concurso es para cortos de animación producidos entre 2007 y 2009. Los ganadores serán elegidos por un jurado integrado por Juan Pablo Buscarini, Juan Pablo Zaramella y Daniel Santoro.

Se entregarán 3 premios:

• 1º premio: Participación del filme en el Programa Argentino de Annecy 2010. Un Pasaje, estadía y una acreditación en el Festival de Annecy 2010.

• 2º premio Participación del filme en el Programa Argentino de Annecy 2010. Un Pasaje y una acreditación en el Festival de Annecy 2010.

• 3º premio: Participación del filme en el Programa Argentino de Annecy 2010. Una acreditación en el Festival de Annecy 2010.

'Alien' prequel takes off (Variety)

Twentieth Century Fox is resuscitating its "Alien" franchise. The studio has hired Jon Spaihts to write a prequel that has Ridley Scott attached to return as director.

Spaihts got the job after pitching the studio and Scott Free, which will produce the film.

The film is set up to be a prequel to the groundbreaking 1979 film that Scott directed. It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

The deal gives Fox another chance to keep the "Alien" franchise alive. There were three sequels to Scott's original, but it is the first time the director has set his mind on directing one.

Spaihts has become a go-to-guy for space thrillers. After Keanu Reeves became attached to his Warner Bros. sci-fi script "Shadow 19," Reeves hired Spaihts to write the space journey epic "Passengers," which is berthed at Morgan Creek. That script got Spaihts the meeting with Fox and Scott Free, and he won the job with an "Alien" reboot take that the studio and Scott loved.

Fox has separately hired him to rewrite "The Darkest Hour," which Timur Bekmambetov to produce with Tom Jacobson. Spaihts is writing "Children of Mars" for Disney and Scott Rudin, and he will follow by rewriting "St. George and the Dragon" for Sony and Red Wagon.

El nuevo filme de Adrián Caetano, a Venecia

Ayer se confirmó que la nueva película de Adrián Caetano, ahora titulado "Francia" (se la conocía como "No necesitamos de nadie"), fue seleccionada para Venice Days. Aparentemente, el corte final estuvo listo hace muy poco tiempo y los programadores esperaron por la película, incluso luego de publicar la seleccion oficial del programa.

El filme tiene guión y dirección de Caetano, quien es productor en asociación con Magma Cine. El filme cuenta con apoyo del INCAA.

El elenco protagónico es: Milagros Caetano (debut cinematográfico de la hija del director), Natalia Oreiro y Lautaro Delgado, entre otros.

Nurses - Apple's Acres (2009)

Link

Band members Aaron Chapman and John Bowers originally hail from Idaho Falls, ID. After heading out west to Southern California with former band members, and even spending a short time in Chicago, the two longtime friends have since settled in Portland, OR in 2008.

Nurses released Hangin’ Nothin’ But Our Hands Down with help from Sargent House in March 2007. After the loss of some former band members, Chapman and Bowers began songwriting and recording as a duo. Much of these recordings make up their second full length release Apple’s Acre, to be released in spring 2009. The second album shows a radical departure from older styles of songwriting, and dives more into a world of dreamy, experimental pop. James Mitchell (of Idioflux) has since joined the group on percussion in early 2008.

Nurses recently played some short tours with the likes of Born Ruffians , Maps & Atlases.

"Toy Story 1 & 2 - 3D" (trailer)

"Fantastic Mr. Fox", de Wes Anderson (trailer)

"Secuestro y muerte", de Rafael Filippelli (fotos)

Cornershop - Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast (2009)

Link

It’s to Cornershop’s eternal credit that, rather than attempt to exorcise the ghost of that song (or, to be exact, that remix) by throwing a decade-long sulk and retreating into tuneless unlistenability, they have instead embraced pop melodicism.

Even though they must know that their big moment will never return, they’ve turned out some cracking tunes since “Brimful of Asha”, blissfully oblivious to whether the world will be listening. For example, “Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III”, their swaggering T Rexy juggernaut from their 2002 album Handcream for a Generation.

The gloriously titled Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast picks up where Handcream left off. Something’s gone badly wrong with pop in those seven years, and Tjinder Singh and his songwriting partner Ben Ayres (who still holds downa day job as a press officer for Rough Trade Records) know it. Much of Cornershop’s sixth album is concerned with pinpointing what that something is, while simultaneously doing a little to put it right.

“Who Fingered Rock’n’Roll” combines a Stonesy riff with psychedelic sitar and soulful backing vocals, and, give or take the 47-second latino disco teaser “Half Brick”, most of side A (this album is broken into two notional halves, like albums used to be) continues in that vein: it might have been subtitled Exile on Jullander Shere.

When Primal Scream or The Charlatans do a similar thing, there’s an overpowering stench of death. Against the odds, Cornershop breathe new life into it. Side B shifts the emphasis to sunshiney fusion pop – typified by “The Constant Springs”, whose title is a reference to the baffling territorial bickering in Althea & Donna’s “Uptown Top Ranking” – barring a pointless but pleasant Southern rock’n’roll rereading of Dylan’s much-covered “The Mighty Quinn”.

The closing “The Turned-On Truth”, a 16-minute rock’n’soul marathon, brings us full circle to the Keefmeets- Ravi hybrid where we came in. Cornershop have done something rather unexpected here. They’ve created a cultural critique you can dance to.

"A Serious Man", de Joel y Ethan Coen (trailer)

Toronto Film Festival 2009: New Titles

Toronto – The Toronto International Film Festival is pleased to announce the addition of four Gala Presentations and four Special Presentations to the programming lineup for this year’s Festival, which runs September 10 to 19, 2009. Included are the World Premieres of films from across the globe by an international roster of filmmakers which includes Jason Reitman, Ashutosh Gowariker, Dagur Kári, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Anurag Singh. Featuring on-screen performances by Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, George Clooney, Brian Cox, Paul Dano, Shahid Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee.

GALAS

The Damned United Tom Hooper, United Kingdom

North American Premiere

Set in 1960’s and 1970’s England, this is the confrontational and darkly humorous story of Brian Clough’s doomed 44 day tenure as manager of the reigning champions of English football Leeds United. Previously managed by his bitter rival Don Revie, and on the back of their most successful period ever as a football club, Leeds was perceived by many to represent a new aggressive and cynical style of football. Taking the Leeds job without his trusted lieutenant, Peter Taylor, by his side, Clough encounters a changing-room full of players who - in his mind - were still Don's boys. An examination of Clough's belligerence and brilliance, The Damned United stars Michael Sheen, is written by Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) and directed by Tom Hooper (John Adams, Longford).

Dil Bole Hadippa Anurag Singh, India

World Premiere

In a village where girls don’t play cricket, Veera (Rani Mukherjee) has to put on a turban and beard and become a man to fulfill her dreams. Her brilliance on the field earns her a place in Rohan’s (Shahid Kapoor) team and Veera Kaur becomes Veer Pratap Singh. And then begins a roller-coaster journey of Veera, Rohan and Veer filled with music, romance and comedy through Punjab and beyond.

Micmacs Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France

World Premiere

Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, even if it means you might drop dead any time or would you rather have the bullet taken out and live the rest of your life as a vegetable? Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is scrap metal worth more than landmines? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? What is the human cannonball world record? Micmacs, a fantastical comedy from the world class director of Amélie and Delicatessen, answers these questions and way more.

What’s Your Raashee? Ashutosh Gowariker, India

World Premiere

What’s Your Raashee? is a romantic comedy about a young man who has always wanted to marry for love. When he suddenly is told that he must find his dream girl within ten days in order to save his family from utter ruin, he discovers that finding her is even hard when it has to happen in a hurry. The film is based on the Gujarati novel, Kimball Ravenswood, by Madhu Rye and stars Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

The Good Heart Dagur Kári, Iceland

World Premiere

A homeless boy Lucas (Paul Dano), meets Jacques (Brian Cox), a grumpy bar-owner, whose unhealthy lifestyle has brought him five heart attacks. Jacques takes Lucas under his wing with the intention of having him continue his legacy. Everything is going according to plan until a drunken stewardess named April enters the bar.

The Hole Joe Dante, USA

North American Premiere

After moving into a new town, brothers Dane and Lucas and their neighbour Julie discover a bottomless hole in their basement that brings their nightmares to life. With shadows lurking around every corner, they must face their darkest fears in order to put an end to the mystery of the hole.

Soul Kitchen Fatih Akin, Germany

North American Premiere

From the director of Head-on comes the story of a young restaurant owner Zinos is down on his luck. His girlfriend Nadine has moved to Shanghai, his Soul Kitchen customers are boycotting the new gourmet chef, and he’s having back trouble. Things start looking up when the hip crowd embraces his revamped culinary concept, but that doesn’t mend Zinos’ broken heart. He decides to fly to China for Nadine, leaving the restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother Illias.

Up in the Air Jason Reitman, USA

World Premiere

From Jason Reitman, the Oscar^®-nominated director of Juno, comes a comedy starring George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveller woman of his dreams.

Venecia 2009: programación oficial

ROME -- The Venice Film Festival on Thursday unveiled a refreshingly rich mix of established auteurs and lesser-known helmers in its lineup of 71 world preems marked by prominent U.S. and European contingents, but also ample Asian entries, and even robust representations from rarely represented countries such as Egypt and India.

66TH ANNUAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP

COMPETITION

"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) - Opening Film

"Soul Kitchen," Fatih Akin (Germany)

"La Doppia Ora," Giuseppe Capotondi (Italy)

"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)

"Persecution," Patrice Chereau (France)

"Lo Spazio Bianco," Francesca Comencini (Italy)

"White Material," Claire Denis (France)

"Mr. Nobody," Jaco van Dormael (France)

"A Single Man," Tom Ford (U.S.)

"Lourdes," Jessica Hausner (Austria)

"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)

"The Road," John Hillcoat (U.S.)

"Between Two Worlds," Vimukthi Jayasundara (Sri Lanka)

"The Traveller," Ahmed Maher (Egypt)

"Lebanon," Samuel Maoz (Israel)

"Capitalism: A Love Story," Michael Moore (U.S.)

"Women Without Men," Shirin Neshat (Germany)

"Il Grande Sogno," Michele Placido (Italy)

"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)

"Survival of the Dead," George Romero (U.S.)

"Life During Wartime," Todd Solondz (U.S.)

"Tetsuo The Bullet Man," Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)

"Prince of Tears," Yonfan (Hong Kong)

OUT OF COMPETITION

"REC 2," Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza (Spain)

"Chengdu, I Love You," Fruit Chan, Cui Jian (China) - Closing Film

"The Hole," Joe Dante (U.S.)

"The Men Who Stare at Goats," Grant Heslov (U.S.)

"Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story," Yousry Nasrallah (Egypt)

"Yona Yona Penguin," Rintaro (Japan)

"The Informant!," Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)

"Napoli Napoli Napoli," Abel Ferrara (Italy)

"Anni Luce," Francesco Maselli (Italy)

"L'oro di Cuba," Giuliano Montaldo (Italy)

"Prove per una tragedia Siciliana," John Turturro, Roman Paska (Italy)

"South of the Border," Oliver Stone (U.S.)

MIDNIGHT MOVIES

"Gulaal," Anurag Kashyap (India)

"Dev D," Anurag Kashyap (India)

"Brooklyn's Finest," Antoine Fuqua (U.S.)

"Delhi-6," Rakeysh Omprakash (India)

"Valhalla Rising," Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)

GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2009

JOHN LASSETER AND THE DISNEY/PIXAR DIRECTORS

"Toy Story 3-D" (New Version), John Lasseter (U.S.)

"Toy Story 2-D" (New Version), John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon (U.S.)

HORIZONS

"Francesca," Bobby Paunescu (Romania) - Opening Film

"One-Zero," Kamla Abou Zekri (Egypt)

"Buried Secrets," Raja Amari (Tunisia)

"Tender Parasites," Christian Becker and Oliver Schwabe (Germany)

"Adrift," Bui Thac Chuyen (Vietnam)

"Crush," Petr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., Borisd Khlebnikov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vrypayev (Russia)

"Repo Chick," Alex Cox (U.S.)

"Engkwentro," Pepe Diokno (Philippines)

"The Man's Woman and Other Stories," Amit Dutta (India)

"Paraiso," Hector Galvez (Peru)

"Io sono l'amore," Luca Guadagnino (Italy)

"Cow," Guan Hu (China)

"Judge," Liu Jie (China)

"Pepperminta," Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland)

"Tris di donne e abiti nunziali," Martina Gedeck (Italy)

"Insolacao," Daniela Thomas and Felipe Hirsch (Brazil)

"1428," Du Haibin (China)

"I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You," Marcelo Gomes and Karim Ainouz (Brazil)

"Once Upon A Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country," Guo Xiaolu (China)

"Villalobos," Romuald Karmakar (Germany)

"Il colore delle parole," Marco Simon Puccioni (Italy)

"The One All Alone," Frank Scheffer (The Netherlands)

"Toto," Peter Schreiner (Austria)

HORIZONS EVENTS

PROGRAM 1

"The Death of Pentheus," Philip Haas (U.S.)

"Faces of Soul," Gina Kim (U.S.)

"La Boheme," Werner Herzog (U.K.)

"Mudanza," Pere Portabella (Spain)

PROGRAM 2

"Deserto Rosa - Luigi Ghirri," Elisabetta Sgarbi (Italy)

"Reading Book of Blockade," Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)

"Armando Testa - Povero ma moderno," Pappi Corsicato

"La Danse - Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris," Fredrick Wiseman (U.S.)

(In Collaboration With Dance Biennale)

"Hugo en Afrique," Stefano Knuchel (Switzerland)

"Via della Croce," Serena Nono (Italy)

CONTROCAMPO ITALIANO ­- (NEW ITALIAN CINEMA TRENDS SIDEBAR)

"Poeti," Toni D'Angelo

"Negli occhi," Francesco del Grosso

"Il compleanno," Daniele Anzellotti, Marco Filiberti

"Dieci Inverni," Valerio Mieli

"Cosmonauta," Susanna Nicchiarelli

"Hollywood sul Tevere," Marco Spagnoli

"Il Piccolo," Maurizio Zaccaro

CONTROCAMPO ITALIANO EVENTS

"Giuseppe De Santis," Carlo Lizzani

CONTROCAMPO/RETROSPECTIVE EVENTS

"Lola," Giulio Questi

"Hotel Courbet," Tinto Brass

Algunas ideas sobre "Enemigos públicos"/"Public Enemies", de Michael Mann

Ya escribí un poco y publiqué bastantes cosas acerca de "Enemigos públicos", de Michael Mann. Habiendo viajado a hacer las entrevistas a los actores y al director (que ya van a ir saliendo), preferí no escribir la crítica en el diario, me parece que sigue siendo una sana costumbre.

De cualquier manera, la película me entusiasma demasiado como para no agregar algunos motivos y razones por las que, creo, es uno de los grandes estrenos del año. Acá van algunos puntos.

-Me fascina el uso que hace Mann del HD. Tal vez sea porque la vi en un cine que la proyectaban directamente así y el "grano" de la imagen, su hiper-realismo era realmente impactante. Te quedabas viendo las imágenes como si no fueran cine, tampoco un video casero, sino otra cosa. No se trata de un digital que imita al celuloide ni tampoco uno que deja ver sus deficiencias. Al contrario, es un HD usado por su electricidad, por su imagen contrastada, "televisiva", sin el filtro visual que parece existir en el combo celuloide/fotografía tradicional, más cuando es usada en una película de época.

-Además, la puesta en escena no es para nada convencional, el montaje por momentos es radical, enrarecido, "godardiano". Los planos están compuestos de manera muy especial, usando mucho un primer plano muy cercano de un lado de la pantalla y un gran "espacio negativo" en el resto, un poco a la manera de sus otros filmes (hay cientos de escenas de hombres recortados frente a la nada, al paisaje o al mar en el cine de Mann), pero aún más sucio y desprolijo.

-Sí, se puede decir que es una película desprolija y sucia, montada con el desparpajo y la falta de sobriedad de un recién llegado. El HD convirtió a Mann en un nuevo cineasta y lo está haciendo reaprender su trabajo, desarmando esa eficiencia cool de filmes como "Heat", "The Insider" y casi todo lo que hizo antes, por un approach mucho más directo y crudo. Las escenas de acción no tienen esa precisión coreográfica: funcionan como captadas a las apuradas por un noticiero de televisión.

-Si bien acercarse a un relato de época usando cámara en mano, editando de manera sucia y con la imagen fría del digital puede parecer un recurso simplista de actualización del material para acercarlo a un público joven, sólo con ver dos minutos de película se nota que no hay nada de convencional en ella, que "el recurso" está usado de forma experimental y no comercial. De "Collateral" en adelante (un poco en "Ali" también hay), Mann ha ido arriesgando cada vez más.

-Hablábamos en Los Angeles con el colega Scott Foundas acerca de lo abstracta que es la película. El decía que Mann está adelantado a su tiempo, yo decía que ciertos recursos me hacían acordar a "Sin aliento". Hay algo de eso en la forma de filmar las escenas, pero también ese mismo salto al vacío (siempre dentro de los "saltos al vacío" que se pueden hacer en una película de 100 millones de dólares con Johnny Depp) lo hace en su narración.

-No hay, casi, psicología en "Enemigos públicos". Nunca se explica de donde viene el comportamiento de Dillinger (apenas se menciona el abandono de su padre), de su novia apenas se conoce su origen étnico y de Purvis, cero. Tampoco el resto de la banda de Dillinger amerita ese tratamiento. "No importa de donde vienen, importa adonde van", dice él y dicen ellos.

-"Heat" me encanta, pero tenía "momentos actorales" de exposición, si se quiere, psicológica, que eran bastante irritantes. La escena de De Niro y Pacino servía para explicarnos qué le pasaba a cada uno, y hay otra con Pacino y su mujer (¿qué fue de la vida de Diane Venora, tan bien que está acá?) que tenía aquella frase temible: "I gotta hold on to my angst. I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be." Acá está todo eso, pero nadie lo dice.

-El sonido del filme es impresionante. Espero que les toque una buena sala, que se vea y se escuche bien. Las armas te taladran el cerebro. Yo ya veo que nada será igual aquí: vi la peli de vuelta en la sala de la distribuidora y era como una copia en videocassette TDK de la que vi en Los Angeles. La imagen, opacada, y el sonido, destrozado.

-Podría seguir con todo lo que el filme tiene para hablar, sin decirlo, de la época que retrata: el fin del mito del western y el principio "del siglo XX", los últimos héroes solitarios (tanto policías, como el gran Stephen Lang, como ladrones) y el comienzo del crimen y la ley organizada. La escena en la que le piden a los agentes del FBI que busquen donde venden una chaqueta como la usada en un crimen es ejemplar.

-Se critica la poca profundidad de los personajes secundarios y aún de los principales. Creo que ese es el punto de Mann, cada vez más. Ir destilando su cine hacia esa abstracción de la que hablaba Scott. Tom Cruise y su "I Ching" y Jamie Foxx y su "isla soñada" no están más (ok, Dillinger quiere irse a Río de Janeiro, pero eso es apenas un comentario). La frase de Dillinger ("me gusta la bebida, las mujeres bonitas, etc, etc, ¿qué más necesitás saber?) expresa ese desapego por los psicologismos de salón. Todos los personajes están ahí y se entiende muy claramente qué le pasa a cada uno con un par de líneas de diálogo (Giovanni Ribisi) o, simplemente, con una expresión en el rostro (Stephen Dorff). ¿Qué más necesitás saber?

-El personaje femenino está delineado de la misma manera que el resto y no creo que sea una concesión comercial ponerle "un interés romántico". Chico conoce a chica, hay tensión sexual, ella lo ve como la forma de salir de un vida rutinaria, le fascina y le preocupa su "trabajo". ¿No es lo mismo que pasa con todas las mujeres del cine de Mann? Y si es cierto que no es muy compleja, entonces hay que decir que nunca lo fueron. No creo que sea así (tómense un segundo para seguir la evolución de las mujeres de Mann desde sus primeras películas hasta ahora), aunque es cierto que el mayor interés del director está en los personajes masculinos.

-Es muy interesante escuchar a Mann hablar sobre las diferencias entre los hombres "psicoanalizados" o, al menos, autoconscientes de hoy, con los de esos tiempos, lo cual explica su "falta de profundidad". Acá va una frase de la entrevista que le hice que me parece notable.

"Para ellos, cada día puede ser el último... Dicen cosas como “when your time's up, your time's up”, hay un sentido de fatalismo que es muy diferente de la forma en que pensamos ahora. Ahora pensamos: "Si me conozco mejor voy a tomar mejores decisiones y eso va a tener un efecto en la forma en la que las cosas sucederán. Y si las cosas salen mal, será por que no me conocía tan bien como creía". Ellos no pensaban asi, para nada. Pensaban: "voy a hacer esto, lo mejor que pueda, probablemente toda la vida, y cuando llegue el momento de terminar, terminaré (when time's up, time's up). Y eso es todo". Es algo muy ajeno a nuestra experiencia, como ir a un país extranjero."

-Ni hablar de los ecos y las relaciones con la historia del cine que tienen tanto el filme como el personaje. Mann desprecia hablar de influencias y dice que no vio ni se inspiró en ninguna película para filmar ésta. Pero con sólo ver las dos notables escenas que tienen lugar en cines queda claro que los ecos entre ambos universos le resultan más que relevantes.

-Todos los temas del cine de Michael Mann aparecen acá. Ya todos los conocen y no voy a repetirlos. Mismo tipo de personajes, mismo tipo de situaciones, aún más destilados hacia su esencia. A diferencia del muy profesionalizado Scorsese, Mann se va alejando cada vez más de las estructuras narrativas y visuales convencionales. Es como si le cansara contar de vuelta lo mismo: simplemente lo expone como brutales ráfagas de imagen y sonido.

Y podría seguir, durante horas, enumerando las cosas fascinantes que tiene el filme (igual, creo que algunas no funcionan del todo bien), pero tengo que irme a mi trabajo real... Si ven la peli, y la quieren seguir por aquí, encantado. Aporten, critiquen, discutan: se que es una película que generará eso. Y me encanta.

"Cous Cous"/"La graine et le mulet", de Abdellatif Kechiche (Clarín)

Link

"Funny People", de Judd Apatow (Village Voice)

By Scott Foundas

After devoting his first two films as director, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, to getting laid and having kids, respectively, Judd Apatow brings the circle of life to a close with Funny People, which stars Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a popular, Sandler-esque movie star diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal form of leukemia. When actors and directors start thinking outside of themselves and start worrying about how to get more respect or be taken capital-s seriously, it's almost always a recipe for disaster. Mercifully, Funny People is probably the least bathetic, self-pitying movie about death and dying to come out of Hollywood since Albert Brooks's Defending Your Life. When he receives his diagnosis, George doesn't sit around feeling sorry for himself, or set out on some inspirational quest to do everything he ever wanted to do before he dies, or any of the other things people in movies tend to do in these situations. Instead, like probably most of the people you and I know who have faced similar bad news, he resolves to fight this thing the best he can and get on with the business of living.

That's not to say that George doesn't go through his share of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression en route to accepting his condition. There's a great, discomfiting scene early on—one that begs to be pushed even further—in which he lapses into a dark, stream-of-consciousness riff during a stand-up set at the famous Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, leaving the audience uncertain about whether or not they should laugh. After George implodes, a twentysomething actor and comic named Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) takes the stage and makes light of George's gloom, winning laughs for doing so. Later, when the comics meet up in the parking lot, George tells Ira he would have done the same thing when he was his age, and eventually asks him to come write jokes for him.

So the world of the dying comedy legend intersects with that of the hungry up-and-comers—not just Ira, but his roommates, Leo (Jonah Hill), another aspiring actor-writer, and Mark (Jason Schwartzman), a hilariously pompous pretty-boy actor who has recently landed the lead in a not-very-good high school sitcom. Apatow clearly knows a lot about the competitiveness and petty rivalries of showbiz people desperate to get their foot in the door, and the Hollywood scenes in Funny People remind you how soft and self-congratulatory the ones are in most other movies. Ira, whom Rogen plays as a dithering mixture of Sancho Panza and a nervous Jewish mother, realizes that George is his big break, and Apatow shows us his willingness to exploit his close proximity to a famous person—dying or not—for all it's worth. And there are other things Apatow observes so well, yet so indirectly, that you wonder if people who haven't lived in L.A. and known people like these characters will fully appreciate them.

In fact, there's so much that's so disarmingly good and sharp about Funny People that you wish the whole movie weren't so much of a shambles. I've seen the film twice, and both times, exactly halfway into its two-and-a-half-hour running time, I have felt the cabin shudder and noticed tiny fissures forming in the fuselage. That's at the point in the movie when George goes in for a checkup and learns that the experimental drugs he has been taking seem to be working, and that he may no longer be dying after all. "Get back to your life," the doctor intones, and the rest of Funny People is about George's dawning realization that he doesn't much like the life he had before, socializing with celebrity pseudo-friends (cue raft of cameos from Sarah Silverman, Eminem, et al.) and perambulating his giant, Xanadu-like mansion, surrounded by mountains of useless swag. So he decides to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend, Laura (Leslie Mann, the real-life Mrs. Apatow), whom he cheated on 12 years earlier and who now has a new life with a businessman husband (Eric Bana) and two young daughters (played by Apatow's own kids, Maude and Iris).

It's hard enough for a movie to withstand the introduction of a whole set of major characters past the point when most movies are wrapping things up, and it's even harder when those characters feel so incongruous to everything that has come before. On one hand, Laura and her brood should seem incongruous to George and his solitary life, but the feeling is one of unintentional mismatch. When George and Laura have their first big scene together, it doesn't feel like these two people have a whole shared history together, and this is even less apparent in Mann's scenes with Bana. Apatow has been accused of not writing good parts for women—unfairly, I think, because Catherine Keener's in The 40-Year-Old Virgin was that rare smart and sexy role for a woman over 40 in a major Hollywood movie. But here, the accusation sticks: Laura's inner life hasn't been thought out nearly as well as that of George, Ira, and all the other guy parts, and the character ultimately becomes a cog in a series of third-act plot machinations that betray the organic feel of the earlier scenes.

Apatow's obvious model here is Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News director James L. Brooks, who gets a thanks in the end credits and whose last two films, As Good As It Gets and Spanglish, were as phony through and through as Funny People is in its lesser moments. But where Apatow falls short of Brooks is in his desire to redeem all his characters, to forgive even the worst behavior, and to send everyone—on-screen and in the audience—home happy. A movie that strives to convey the depth of feeling and the range of emotions that Funny People so clearly does badly needs at least one moment of cruelty comparable to the fake tears of William Hurt's reporter in Broadcast News, or the betrayal of Nick Nolte's over-the-hill film star by a bubbly young assistant in I'll Do Anything. Apatow has plenty of opportunities, but the closest he comes—a scene in which George callously checks his cell phone, while Laura is held tearfully rapt by a family home video—makes only a softball impact (though it might have made a bigger one had we felt there was more at stake for the characters). For a movie with countless dick jokes, and in which the final clearly audible word of dialogue is "balls," you wish that Apatow's own cojones were a wee bit bigger.

Six Organs of Admittance - Luminous Might (2009)

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Venice announces jury lineup (Variety)

ROME -- The Venice Film Festival has announced the complete roster for its main jury.

Joining Ang Lee, previously announced as jury prexy, will be U.S. helmer Joe Dante; Gallic thesp Sandrine Bonnaire; Italian helmer Liliana Cavani; Indian scribe-helmer Anurag Kashyap; and Italian rock star and helmer Luciano Ligabue.

Most fest jurors are longtime Lido aficionados.

Lee is a two-time Venice Golden Lion winner, in 2005 for "Brokeback Mountain," and in 2007 for "Lust, Caution."

Bonnaire won the Venice Coppa Volpi thesping prize in 1995 for her role in Claude Chabrol's "A Judgement in Stone" (La Ceremonie). Bonnaire tied for that nod with Isabelle Huppert, her co-protag in that pic.

Dante's "The Second Civil War" unspooled at the Lido in 1997.

Cavani scooped a Venice Lion in 1965 for her docu "Primo piano: Philippe Petain, processo a Vichy," and was most recently at the Lido with "Ripley's Game" in 2002.

Ligabue's first feature "Radiofreccia" bowed in Venice in 1998.

The only Venetian newcomer on the jury panel is Kashyap, a big name in Bollywood whose feature films include "Black Friday" and "Dev. D," and who collaborated with Danny Boyle on "Slumdog Millionaire."

The 66th edition of Venice will run Sept. 2-12. The lineup will be announced Wednesday.

Ibermedia hands coin to Latin pics (Variety)

BARCELONA — Two pics by Argentine helmers, Diego Lerman's "Moral Sciences" and Marcelo Pineyro's "Thursday's Widows," are among 26 co-productions that have pulled down incentives from Ibermedia.

The coin, in the form of non-returnable loans, was announced after an Ibermedia meeting in Santo Domingo. It reps the first of two funding rounds this year.

Lerman and Nicolas Avruj's Campo Cine are producing "Sciences," whose screenplay, freely based on a Martin Kohan novel, won a 2009 Sundance/NHK award. It turns on a classroom assistant at a boarding school whose takes discipline to the point of perversity.

"Thursday's Widows" is produced by Mariela Besuievsky and Gerardo Herrero's Madrid-based Tornasol Films. Recently acquired for Latin America by Hugo Kusnet's Alfa Films, the pitch black thriller-comedy is the film with the highest budget --$4.8 million -- presented in this round of Ibermedia funding.

Limited to $200,000 a pic, the fund's finance is crucial for often micro-budgeted pics coming out of Latin America.

Ibermedia's total 2009 funds stand at some $7.8 million; 68 projects were put forward in July's funding. The second rounds will include exhibition aid.

Among better-known projects, other recipients of co-pro aid are Julia Murat's "Pesso da massa, leveza po pao," produced by Brazil's Taiga Filmes, Juan Carlos Wessolossky's "La mujer del coronel," from Venezuela's A.C. Mestizo, and Victor Arregui's "El facilitador," from Ecuador's Otra Cosa Producciones.

Further recipients include Alejo Crisostomo's "Fe," Jaime Mario Osorio's "El Paramo" and Bolivian Fernando Martinez's docu feature "Por que me quebro McDonalds."

Projects put forward show a move, especially noticeable in Spanish pics, toward more mainstream ambitions. According to Elena Vilardell, Ibermedia's technical secretary, the org is hiking its emphasis on exhibition and a push for the region's pubcasters to screen Latin American films.

Ibermedia also announced a first list of films that will be screened by Latin American broadcasters backed by a $1.6 million fund, which has purchased free-to-air rights to the films for the region. Fund is co-financed by the pubcasters and public institutions. Films include Lucia Puenzo's "XXY," Carlos Sorin's "Minimal Stories," Hector Babenco's "Carandiru" and Juan Carlos Valdivia's "American Visa."

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Under The Covers Vol. 2 (2009)

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In 2006, Sweet and Hoffs demonstrated with engaging ’60s collection Under The Covers Vol. 1 that revisiting rock standards is a viable aesthetic pursuit. Like its predecessor, their new ’70s retrospective uncannily re-creates indelible tracks from primary Sweet inspirations Todd Rundgren (twice), Big Star, Fleetwood Mac (with Lindsey Buckingham guesting) and Yes (ditto Steve Howe), while also giving Hoffs a chance to wrap her crystalline voice around unexpected choices like Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and Bread’s “Everything I Own.”

Working out of his home studio, Sweet—joined by drummer Ric Menck and multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz—nails every sonic nuance, buried under cumulous clouds of glorious boy/girl harmonies. The sheer joy that permeates thrilling performances like The Raspberries’ “Go All the Way” and Derek & the Dominos’ “Bell Bottom Blues” makes for a captivating listen. PASTE

Venice Days: Program

18 world premieres, 5 debut films, 12 fictional stories, 6 documentaries, 12 nationalities: Albania, Algeria, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA. Founded six years ago by ANAC and the filmmakers of a.p.i., presided over by Roberto Barzanti, Venice Days return on the Lido from September 3-12, once again directed by Giorgio Gosetti, who succeeds film critic Fabio Ferzetti, today head of the special project 100 + 1. One hundred films and one country, Italy.

In an objectively difficult year, during which local filmmakers and culture industry workers have mobilized in droves against the severe budget cuts to the FUS Culture Fund, Italian cinema is very much and very legitimately represented in our program by highly diverse stories, styles, sensibilities and production approaches: from Poes ia che mi guardi by Marina Spada in the official selection, to Elisabetta Pandimiglio's short film Un giorno di Vito, chosen for its original cinematic language and the strength of its subject (the difficulties of motherhood for incarcerated women), which imposes itself upon our conscience.

"This edition will be very much tied to women," says Delegate General Giorgio Gosetti, "with filmmakers, protagonists and situations that profoundly moved us and the international selection committee that flanked me in the difficult task of making the final decisions. Yet it will also be a program that, while remaining coherent to the identity of Venice Days, will leave much room for provocation, to genre cinema that has been rediscovered by younger filmmakers, to the adaptability of languages and production models, and even to laughter and satire, elements often overlooked at top festivals."

There are 12 feature films in the official selection, includ ing those by illustrious auteurs who make up recent film history yet who this year bring distinctly independent and personal works to Venice. They are Claude Miller, who with his son Nathan surprisingly made the rough and powerful "debut film" Je suis content que ma mère soit vivante; Goran Paskaljevic, who in Honeymoons depicts all the contradictions of his land, at the center of a scandal in a Europe that tries in vain to forget its recent past; Algeria's Merzak Allouache, who in Harragas accompanies his "boat people" (a microcosm of the thousands of faces of his torn country) across the Mediterranean towards an impossible dream of freedom; and Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam, who in The Last Days of Emma Blank continues his highly personal social satire down a fine line between realism and surrealism.

They will be flanked by debut filmmakers such as Léa Fehner and France's Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher, behind the poli tically incorrect horror film La Horde (a special event at Venice Days and already a cult film on the Internet and market, despite the fact that it will be premiering in Venice); numerous second films; and welcome returns, such as Spain's Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo (DarkBlueAlmostBlack), who will certainly stir up controversy with his ruthless satire, Gordos.

There will be five Films on Reality proposed as a special program created to place special emphasis on a form of expression that is enjoying particular success in Italy today. They are Paola Sangiovanni's passionate Ragazze, Marina Spada's film on poet Antonia Pozzi, the scandalously "normal" love stories captured by Stefano Consiglio, the larger-than-life Vittorio De Sica in Vittorio D. (by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri), and the disconcerting state of Italian cinema depicted with happy and erratic freedom by Valerio Ialongo in Di me cosa ne s ai.

Last, but certainly not least, are this year's tributes and parallel activities. Some will be announced in the coming weeks, and some in conjunction with evolving initiatives of Italian cinema, for which Venice Days are the most natural and directly involved presentation space. However, we are pleased to already announce the special tribute to animation artist Signe Baumane (a festival favorite, discovered in Venice and celebrated at Sundance and Berlin), who will bring the entire anthology Teat Beat of Sex, with eight brand new episodes (just 2' each) that will screen before the films of the selection.

Also returning is the special project created and directed by Fabio Ferzetti, 100 + 1. One hundred films and one country, Italy, on the eve of its first event organized with the Province of Rome and with support from Cinecittà Luce. Venice will also be an occasion to present the restored print of Francesco Rosi's The Magliari (1959), made possible through a collaboration with the Bologna Cinematheque.

THE FILMS OF 2009

BARKING WATER
by Sterlin Harjo - USA
International Premiere
The filmmaker's second feature, on the pride and end of the Seminole and Crow Nations, as well as an uncontaminated Oklahoma (literally, the "land of the red people" in the Ponca language). Frankie wants to leave the hospital before dying - to find his daughter and niece and ask their forgiveness. He asks Irene, who was in love with him in the past, for her help. This nostalgic and surprising road movie unfolds among longing, hopes and appeased rancor, amid an ancient landscape that looks on impassively. Produced with support from the Sundance Institute.
Production: Indion Production

CELDA 211
by Daniel Monzón - Spain
World Premiere
Two men at the centre o f prison revolt: the ruthless murderer heading it and the novice prison official who finds himself implicated. A genre prison movie that becomes a vehicle for an auteur exploration, as well as a thriller in which each moment could be the last. Not only for the two main characters, because beyond the jail walls there are loved ones, power games and secret agreements, as the margin for negotiations becomes increasingly narrower. Featuring Carlos Bardem (Che), Luis Tosar (Semana Santa) and Antonio Resines (Pan's Labyrinth).
Production: Vaca Films, Morena Films, Telecinco
World Sales: Films Distribution

DESERT FLOWER
by Sherry Horman - Germany/Austria/UK
World Premiere
The extraordinary Waris Dirie was a nomad girl from the Somali desert who became a highly successful model and UN ambassador for women's rights. Based on her real life, the film offers a colorful fresco of the contradictions of the contempor ary world and an image-obsessed society, in a narrative mix of social drama and sophisticated comedy. This intense portrait of a woman owes much to the luminous onscreen debut of the beautiful Liya Kebede. Today, Dirie is the face of the campaign against the infibulation of and violence towards African women.
Production: Desert Flower Filmproductions
World Sales: The Match Factory

DI ME COSA NE SAI
by Valerio Ialongo - Italy
World Premiere
Why is Italian cinema doing so poorly? After five years of interviews, meetings and exemplary events, this film depicts the tragicomedy of our times, lost memory, the depreciation of culture and artistic solitude. What emerges is an erratic, free account alongside an exploration into private stories. The approach is disenchanted, the tone light, at times comical. The reality, much less so.

Production: Cinecittà Luce, Ameuropa

GORDOS
by Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo - Spain
World Premiere (Second Feature)
The second feature by the director of DarkBlueAlmostBlack tackles a true contemporary evil: obesity. This outrageous and "over-size" comedy centers on a group of overweight people in search of redemption. It is a story of insecurities, phobias, dramas, mistakes, shame, hopes, concessions, love, sex, health and family. The most politically incorrect film on survival. in the "broadest" sense of the word.
Production: Tesela
World Sales: Imagina International Sales

HARRAGAS
by Merzak Allouache - Algeria/France
World Premiere
The "harragas" (a Spanish term of Arabic origin) are those who burn documents (and borders). They are the illegal immigrants of the sea, from the shores of the Maghreb, searching for better lives across the Spanish border. The greatest Algerian director of our times recounts the odyssey of a grou p of young friends who tempt fate - from Algeria to Gibraltar - and the suicide of one of them. Allouache's acclaimed films include The Other World, Chouchou and the recent Tamanrasset.
Production: Libris Films
World Sales: Doc&Film International

HONEYMOONS
by Goran Paskaljevic - Albania/Serbia
World Premiere
The first Albanian/Serbian co-production is a film on the "Kosovo curse." It looks at two, young newlywed couples in search of freedom, and the paradox of seemingly wide-open borders that are actually lethal traps, be they in Hungary or Bari. The director of Cabaret Balkan offers an ensemble portrait of our times involving his country, atavistic Balkan rivalries, Italy and Europe. The most personal, moving and fierce work of a great master who believes in human beings over passports.
Production: Nova Film

JE SUIS HEUREUX QUE MA MERE SOIT VIVANTE
by Claude and Nathan Miller - France
World Premiere (Debut Film)
"Our identities are clothes the shape of which were designed by our childhood," says Claude Miller, in an exploration on what happens when this childhood is denied. Thomas was abandoned by his birth mother at the age of four. Intolerant of his adoptive family, the boy searches for his mother for years. When he finds her, he begins a parallel life at her side, without anticipating the fatal epilogue. The film also unveils a young talent: Vincent Rottiers. Based on a true story narrated by Emmanuel Carrère.
Production: F Comme Films, Orly Films, France 3 Cinéma
World Sales: Coach 14

THE LAST DAYS OF EMMA BLANK
by Alex van Warmerdam - The Netherlands
International Premiere
Scenes of a class struggle along the banks of the Netherlands coast or a long wait for a new Exterminating Angel? With his own personal and unmistakable surrealism, the director of highly critically acclaimed films such as Abel, The Dress and Waiter continues his exploration of cinematic language and social criticism in this bitter and biting new comedy. In her mansion behind the dunes, the tyrannical Emma Blank awaits death, driving her exasperated servants and relatives to a paradoxical mutiny. Who will win in this theatre of cruelty: the oppressor or those trying to overturn the rules of the game?
Production: Graniet Film
World Sales: Fortissimo Films

QU'UN SEUL TIENNE, LES AUTRES SUIVRONT
by Léa Fehner - France
World Premiere (Debut Film)
In the visiting room of a French prison, the lives of a group of men and women brush up against one another to ultimately influence mutual destinies. A mother of a murdered Algerian, the random double of a dangerous offender, the girlfriend of a young rebel, a doctor who feigns cynicism and a killer's sister have one hour to make amends with life, in the thousand faces of modern society's malaise. The cast includes Reda Kateb, a revelation in A Prophet.
Production and World Sales: Rezo Films

Special Event

LA HORDE
by Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher - France
World Premiere (Debut Film)
A police squad sets out to settle the score with a gang of fools. But the dilapidated building in which the thugs are holed up is also the favorite destination of a savage horde of violent zombies. Under a high moon, a battle begins across the city. By dawn, only the best will survive. The highly anticipated debut of two young filmmakers, La Horde regains to horror genre its unsettling spirit of rebellion, sarcasm, political incorrectness and unabashed film references. and this time speaks "European."
Production: Capture the Flag
World Sales: Films Distribution

Films on Reality: Special Screening

L'AMORE E BASTA
by Stefano Consiglio - Italy
World Premiere
What does it mean to have a normal, happily scandalous love knowing that it is "different" only in terms of social customs? The loving relationships that Stefano Consiglio sought out throughout Europe speak with the simplicity of children, the colorful animation of Ursula Ferrara and the voice of Luca Zingaretti, of experiences we would all like to have.
Production: BiBi Film, Lucky Red
World Sales: Doc&Film International

Films on Reality: Special Screening

POESIA CHE MI GUARDI
by Marina Spada - Italy
World Premiere
The subtle and modern gaze of the director of As the Shadow here rests upon the youth of poet-photographer Antonia Pozzi, who committed suicide on December 3, 1938, before the Italian Racial Laws were promulgated, in a tense and icy Milan. Her forgotten memory is revived thanks to today's street poets who believe in the power of a verse, of a though t capable of saving the world.
Production: Miro Film

Films on Reality: Special Screening

RAGAZZE. LA VITA TREMA
by Paola Sangiovanni - Italy
World Premiere (Debut Film)
Their names are Alessandra, Liliana, Marina and Maria Paola. They were teenagers in the 1960s, young adults in the following decade when women's lib began. Their public and private lives - from the stage to free radio stations, from feminist collectives to street demonstrations - are intertwined with Italian history and the ideas of utopia of that that time. More than just a black and white memory.
Production: Metafilm

Special Event 100+1

VITTORIO D.
by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri - Italy
World Premiere
Seventy years after his first film (Red Roses, 1939) and 35 after his death, Vittorio De Sica remains a celebrated, forgotten and perhaps unknown giant of Italian cinema. His irre pressible humanity, versatility as an actor and intransigence as a filmmaker remain in the shadows. This original and different portrait is created through stories from De Sica's children - Emy, Christian and Manuel - alongside artists such as Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, John Landis, Ken Loach and Mario Monicelli.
Production: Surf Film, La7
World Sales: Surf Films

Tribute to Signe Baumane

TEAT BEAT OF SEX
Latvia/Italy
World Premiere
The series Teat Beat of Sex (produced in Europe), of 15 withering shorts on love and sex, will be presented in its entirety at Venice. A set of eight unseen episodes, world premieres, will screen before films of the Official Selection. One of the most celebrated artists of international animation, in recent years she participated in competition at Sundance and the Berlinale. An illustrator of children's books and theatre animator and regular collaborator of Bill Plympton, Baumane 's objects and installations have been exhibited in art galleries. She has won numerous prizes at top festivals for her six films and countless shorts.
Production: Pierre Poire Productions

In collaboration with International Critics' Week (SIC)
VIDEOCRACY
by Erik Gandini - Sweden
World Premiere
In the beginning, there was free TV, then came the orgy of antennas, the rapture of choice, the slow but inexorable mutation of a people's genetic code. Television's autocracy is not particular only to Italy, but only in this country has the "magic box" generated such exemplary protagonists, such an analogous plethora of absurd specimens. To keep this discussion alive, together with the SIC we will present the "other point of view," of Italian/Swedish director Erik Gandini (Sacrificio, Gitmo).
Production: Atmo AB, Zentropa Entertainment7
World Sales: Trust Nordisk

The final films of th e selection and the complete program of events and activities at the Filmmakers Villa will be announced shortly.

Toronto Film Festival 2009: More Galas and Special Presentations

GALAS AND SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS ADDED TO FESTIVAL LINEUP

Toronto – The Toronto International Film Festival is pleased to announce the addition of two Gala Presentations and eight Special Presentations to the programming lineup for this year’s Festival, running September 10 to 19. Included are works from critically acclaimed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, Werner Herzog, Rebecca Miller, Michael Moore and Oliver Parker, and featuring on-screen performances by Drew Barrymore (in her directorial debut), Jim Broadbent, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Colin Farrell, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, Val Kilmer, Christopher Lee, Juliette Lewis, Blake Lively, Eva Mendes, Julianne Moore, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Robin Wright Penn and Keanu Reeves.

GALAS

Dorian Gray Oliver Parker, United Kingdom

World Premiere

In Victorian London, the handsome Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) is swept into a social whirlwind by the charismatic and cunning Lord Wotton (Colin Firth). Immersed in the hedonistic pleasures of the city, Dorian vows he would give anything to keep his youth and beauty – even his soul. Based on the Oscar Wilde novel, Dorian Gray examines the destructive power of beauty, the blind pursuit of pleasure and the darkness that can result from both.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee Rebecca Miller, USA

North American Premiere

From all outward appearances, Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) leads a charmed existence. An anchor of feminine serenity, she is the devoted wife of an accomplished publisher (Alan Arkin) 30 years her senior, the proud mother of two grown children, a trusted friend and confidant. But as Pippa dutifully follows her husband to a new life in a staid Connecticut retirement community, her idyllic world and the persona she has built over the course of her marriage will be put to the ultimate test. Adapted from writer-director Rebecca Miller’s novel of the same name, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee presents the complex portrait of the many lives behind a single name.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Werner Herzog, USA

North American Premiere

Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage), a homicide detective with the New Orleans Police Department, is promoted to Lieutenant after he saves a prisoner from drowning in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. However, during his heroic act, he severely injures his back and is put on prescription pain medication. A year later, Terence – struggling with his addictions to sex, Vicodin and cocaine – finds himself in the battle to bring down drug dealer Big Fate, who is suspected of massacring an entire family of African immigrants.

Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore, USA

North American Premiere

On the 20-year anniversary of his groundbreaking masterpiece Roger & Me, Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story comes home to the issue he’s been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene far wider than Flint, Michigan. From Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan, Michael Moore will once again take film-goers into uncharted territory.

Harry Brown Daniel Barber, United Kingdom

World Premiere

Harry Brown is a provocative and thought-provoking modern urban western featuring a tour-de-force lead performance from two-time Academy Award^®-winner Michael Caine. Harry Brown has lived to see his community descend into crime and violence, and ruled over by a gang of teenage thugs. After his best friend is brutally murdered and the gang leader responsible walks free, Harry reaches a breaking point and revenge becomes his only aim.

Perrier’s Bounty Ian Fitzgibbon, Ireland/United Kingdom

World Premiere

When Michael’s (Cillian Murphy) debt to Dublin kingpin Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) is called in and one of Perrier’s goons accidentally ends up dead, Michael escapes to the mountains with his father Jim (Jim Broadbent) and best friend, Brenda. Flat broke, on the run and with only 24 hours to pay up, Michael is forced to confront his true feelings for Brenda and make amends with his father. However, with Perrier and his gang in hot pursuit, time is running out for Michael and only fate, a bit of luck and possibly a gang of savage dogs will save him, in this cracking gangster comedy.

A Serious Man Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, USA

World Premiere

Imaginatively exploring questions of faith, familial responsibility, delinquent behaviour, dental phenomena, academia, mortality and Judaism – and intersections thereof – A Serious Man is the new film from Academy Award^®-winning writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen.

Triage Danis Tanovic, Ireland/Spain

World Premiere

Mark (Colin Farrell), a war photographer, returns home from Kurdistan without his friend and colleague David (Jamie Sives). As time goes on, it becomes clear that Mark holds the key to the truth of David’s disappearance.

Whip It Drew Barrymore, USA

World Premiere

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut stars Ellen Page (Juno) as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small-town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller-derby. Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Bliss’s disapproving mother, while Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Juliette Lewis (Old School) play roller-derby stars. Whip It also stars Eve, Jimmy Fallon, Daniel Stern, Alia Shawkat, Ari Graynor, Andrew Wilson, Zoe Bell and singer-songwriter Landon Pigg.

Women Without Men Shirin Neshat, Germany/France/Austria

North American Premiere

Shirin Neshat’s first feature-length film is based on a magic-realist novel written by Iranian author Sharnush Parsipur. The narrative interweaves the lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953, a pivotal moment in Iranian history when an American led coup d’état brought down the democratically elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah to power. The film chronicles each woman’s quest for change and their mysterious encounter in a magical orchard.

"The Fantastic Mr. Fox", de Wes Anderson, inaugura el Festival de Londres

The Times BFI London Film Festival is proud to announce that this year’s Festival will open on Wednesday 14 October with the world premiere of FANTASTIC MR. FOX, from visionary director Wes Anderson (THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, THE DARJEELING LIMITED).

Anderson’s first animated film, which he co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, uses classic handmade stop motion techniques to tell the story of the best selling children’s book by British author Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach). The film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Jarvis Cocker and Helen McCrory. It is produced by Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin and Allison Abbate.

Wes Anderson, George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Jason Schwartzman are expected to attend the opening night screening along with other members of the voice cast.

Mr and Mrs Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson). But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost.

The film was shot at London’s Three Mills Studios and Twentieth Century Fox will release the film in the UK on 23 October 2009.

Sandra Hebron, the Festival’s Artistic Director comments: “Wes Anderson’s boundless invention and meticulous film making craft find perfect expression in this imaginative and hugely enjoyable version of a much loved story. We are delighted to open our festival with FANTASTIC MR. FOX, and thrilled to host its world premiere.”

On having the film's world premiere at the Festival, director Wes Anderson adds: "FANTASTIC MR. FOX is a British film -- based on a Roald Dahl book, set in the UK, produced in the UK -- and so I am especially pleased to have been invited to be the opening night movie of this year's London Film Festival. We had a wonderful experience at the LFF with my previous film, and I am eagerly looking forward to introducing FANTASTIC MR. FOX to the world in this wonderful venue.”

The full programme for The Times BFI 53^rd London Film Festival will be announced at the Press Launch on Wednesday 9 September.

Why? - Eskimo Snow (2009)

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WHY? is, most often, a trio of handsome Midwestern men with a shared past, present and future. Today, they fiddle around with skins, strings and bells through microphones attached to tape, presenting their “findings” to the waiting world. In an earlier decade they were all born in Cincinnati. And in the time in between, much did happen. Yoni Wolf, for instance, grew up the second son to an art book editor and a rabbi. He got his start recording bad poems and sloppy beats on the family synagogue’s forgotten 4-track. In junior high he discovered hip-hop; in art school he learned how to drop out.

His brother Josiah played drums at worship service as a tot, dominated Concert Band as a teen, and fell in love with the compositions of Thelonious Monk on his way to University of Cincinnati’s music conservatory. Doug McDiarmid would eventually get expelled from UoC for carrying a stun gun, but was first conceived by two French teachers and taught piano while in kindergarten. He went to high school with the Wolfs, where he played in Steve Miller cover bands. In various permutations together and with other now-notables (Dose One, Odd Nosdam, Mr. Dibbs, Slug), these three created and/or contributed to a number of freewheeling rap and lo-fi bedroom-rock related projects, some still unexcavated: Miss Ohio’s Nameless, Apogee, Greenthink, Reaching Quiet, and the now seminal cLOUDDEAD. Their wildest dreams were achieved when they relocated to the West to make pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop.

Yoni was the first to make the move. For four years, two EPs and one color-drenched album (2003’s Oaklandazulasylum), WHY? was his alone. He honed his trademark delivery—that sickly sweet, half-rapped, singsong-suicide style—shined up his wry, picturesque poetry on life, love and self, and developed a clip-and-collage composition aesthetic using keyboards, toys, guitars, samplers and anything worth banging on. When Doug and Josiah joined Yoni in Oakland, they brought a hoard of instruments and the ability to wail on every last one of them. By chops and imagination, WHY? grew into a thing of flesh, bones and fully fledged songs. In 2005, the band released Elephant Eyelash, and suddenly that once tenuous future seemed solid. Critics swooned; ladies lauded; WHY? did not rest. They toured (with Silver Jews, Yo La Tengo, and Islands). They collaborated (with Danielson, Department of Eagles, and Subtle; Yoni made Hymie’s Basement with Fog’s Andrew Broder). They put out yet more music (the Rubber Traits EP and “Dumb Hummer” 7-inch). In February of 2007, the trio temporarily relocated to Minneapolis and became five, officially inducting Andrew Broder and Mark Erickson of good-art friendlies Fog into the band, then recording their new work live. As can be expected, Alopecia is a fantastic offering of raw sweat and dreams inspired by nothing more or less than the infinite erring bits of daily existence.-Myspace

"This record is really the least hip-hop out of anything I've ever been involved with." That quote from Yoni Wolf about the follow-up to Why?'s Alopecia gave some fans of the art-rap act reason to pause. Such uneasiness is unwarranted though. Alopecia was also more rock-oriented and was the Anticon. crew's best. During the Alopecia sessions, Wolf and Co. recorded more songs, ten of which compromise Eskimo Snow. Though both albums were recorded during the February 2007 Minneapolis sessions, the Eskimo tracks avoid the segmented recording of Alopecia, for a more "resigned" and "open" sound. Wolf also noted that Eskimo Snow is a "bit more wild, and the drums have more room mics."-~ Kyle Lemmon/Prefixmag