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German Film Academy Awards – Lola 2009

German Film Academy Awards – Lola 2009
2009 German Film Academy Award nominations: March 13, 2009
2009 German Film Academy Award winners: Berlin, April 24, 2009
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

John Rabe, starring Ulrich Tukur.

 
Best film
The Baader Meinhof Complex, director Uli Edel
Chiko, director Ozgur Yildirim
A Year Ago in Winter, director Caroline Link
Jerichow, director Christian Petzold
* John Rabe, director Florian Gallenberger
Cloud 9, director Andreas Dresen
Silver Lola: A Year Ago in Winter
Bronze Lola: Cloud 9
Best Documentary
Lenin kam nur bis Ludenscheid, director Andre Schafer
* NoBody’s Perfect, director Niko von Glasow
Best Children or youth film
Lilly the Witch, director Stefan Ruzowitzky
* Nothing [...]

THE RAPE OF EUROPA, OCHBERG’S ORPHANS Screening

Ochberg’s Orphans (right) and The Rape of Europa will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 27th annual "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.  Admission is free.
Directed by Jon Blair and produced by Blair, Paul Goldin and Georgina Townsley, Ochberg’s Orphans tells the story of a South African businessman’s efforts to save 300,000 Jewish Russian children who had been orphaned in anti-Semitic attacks during the Russian Revolution and ensuing civil war.
Directed and produced by Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen, The Rape of Europa depicts the theft and destruction — [...]

Federico Fellini’s 8½ Screening

In conjunction with its exhibition “Fellini’s Book of Dreams” — which is definitely worth a visit — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a special screening of Federico Fellini’s Academy Award-winning 1963 extravaganza 8½ on Friday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The evening will be hosted by Robert Rosen, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
There have been homages and imitations ever since (Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz comes to mind), but no self-analytical film that I’ve seen gets even close to what Fellini accomplished in 8½, while very few films about the art of moviemaking have been nearly as artful [...]

Claudia Cardinale Remembers Luchino Visconti

At Cafebabel.com, there’s a curious chat with screen legend Claudia Cardinale and French newcomer Alexandre Styker. Here’s a brief quote from the piece:
"’I would have liked to have worked with Visconti too,’ the young man [Styker] continues to discuss his unrealised dreams. ‘Of course,’ Claudia replies, ‘the man was a genius! I made four films with him, he took me all over the world and showered me with gifts.’ So he was a real character, the legendary Italian director? ‘He used to say that I was a kitten that could be stroked, but a kitten with claws. Visconti was a man of the theatre, you couldn’t move a muscle if he didn’t want you [...]

OTTO; OR, UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE, THE LARAMIE PROJECT Offend

Tina O’Grady, a member of the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s "cultural competency initiative" was scolded by her boss after co-workers complained about an e-mail she had forwarded promoting the gay-themed Out@Wex Film Festival in Columbus.
As per the Columbus Dispatch, O’Grady’s co-workers seemed to be particularly offended by the festival’s description of Bruce LaBruce’s Otto; or, Up With Dead People in its release. Otto is summed up as an "art-porn provocation [that] depicts an explosion of cannibalistic, sodomy-seeking zombies in Berlin."
What exactly in that sentence — art, porn, provocation, explosion, cannibalism, sodomy, zombies, Berlin — offended some of the Ohio Department of Public Safety workers remains unclear.
The judges at the Milan International Lesbian and [...]

DAYS OF ‘36 d: Theo Angelopoulos

Meres tou ‘36 / Days of ‘36 (1972)
Direction: Theo Angelopoulos
Screenplay: Theo Angelopoulos, Petros Markaris, Thanassis Valtinos and Stratis Karras
Cast: Giorgos Kiritsis, Christoforos Chimaras, Takis Doukakos, Kostas Pavlou, Petros Zarkadis, Christophoros Nezer
 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos‘ 1972 effort Meres Tou ‘36 / Days of ‘36, winner of the International Film Critics Association award at the Berlin Film Festival, is the least of the several films of his that I’ve seen. It is also, by over a decade and a half, the earliest one I’ve seen so far, and at one hour and 45 minutes it is by a good margin the shortest as well. [...]

Salvatore Samperi

Director Salvatore Samperi, the maestro dell’erotismo all’italiana best known for the 1973 social/sex comedy Malizia / Malicious (above), died on March 4 in Bracciano, near Rome. He was 64.
Invariably pushing the boundaries of the socially — and erotically — acceptable by the hypocritical, image-conscious bourgeoisie in Italy and elsewhere, the Padua-born (July 26, 1944), former left-wing militant tackled subjects that American movies, with rare exceptions, wouldn’t dare get close to then or now.

For instance, Grazie, Zia / Thank You, Aunt (above, 1968), his feature-film debut (inspired by mentor Marco Bellocchio’s I Pugni in tasca / Fist in His Pocket), tells the story of a wealthy young man (Fist in His Pocket leading man Lou Castel) who [...]

Jan Troell’s EVERLASTING MOMENTS Opens in the US

Mike Hale interviews Jan Troell in the New York Times:
"At the age of 77 the Swedish director Jan Troell ­ after a four-decade career that includes a best picture prize at the Berlin Film Festival, a Golden Palm nomination at Cannes and a best picture Oscar nomination ­ is among the world’s most distinguished filmmakers. He is also practically invisible in the United States.
"Only two of his films, the well-regarded 1996 Hamsun, about the Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun, and Hurricane, a misfire from his brief sojourn in Hollywood in the late 1970s, are available here on DVD. His masterpieces ­ The Emigrants, The New Land, The Flight of the Eagle ­ have not been in print since the days of [...]

Bodil Awards 2009

2009 Bodil Awards
2009 Danish Film Critics Association’s Bodil Award nominations: Jan. 2009
2009 Bodil Award winners: Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen on Mar. 1, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Henrik Ruben Genz’s Terribly Happy, about a Copenhagen cop (Jakob Cedergren) transferred to a Danish village where locals have their own ideas about right and wrong, was the big winner at the Danish Film Critics Association’s 2009 Bodil Awards. In addition to its best film win, Terribly Happy also received trophies for best actor (Cedergren), best actress (Lene Maria Christensen), and best supporting actor (Kim Bodnia), plus a couple of (shared) special awards.
Honorary Bodil winner Jorgen Leth, 72, was unable to attend the ceremony because he was in Haiti filming [...]

SERAPHINE Wins César 2009 for Best Film

The 2009 César ceremony, held this evening at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, offered a few surprises. (In the US and probably elsewhere, TV5 will be showing the César ceremony this evening.)
One of the evening’s favorites, Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winner The Class, taken from François Begaudeau’s book about a teacher trying to cope with unruly students in one of Paris’ toughest neighborhoods, won a single award: best adapted screenplay.
On the other hand, Martin Provost’s Séraphine, the story of early 20th-century French painter (and cleaning lady) Séraphine de Senlis, took home no less than 7 Césars, including best film, best original screenplay, and best actress for Yolande Moreau in the title role.
Moreau, who had [...]

César 2009

2009 César Awards
2009 French Academy of Film Arts and Sciences’ César du Cinéma nominations: January 24, 2009
2009 César du Cinéma winners: the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, on February 27, 2009. President of the ceremony: Charlotte Gainsbourg. Host: Antoine de Caunes.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Yolande Moreau in Séraphine
 

BEST FILM / MEILLEUR FILM
Entre les murs / The Class, directed by Laurent Cantet, produced by Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime / I’ve Loved You So Long, directed by Philippe Claudel, produced by Yves Marmion
Mesrine, directed by Jean-François Richet, produced by Thomas Langmann
Paris, directed by Cédric Klapisch, produced by Bruno Lévy
Le premier jour du reste de [...]

Étoiles d’Or 2009

2009 Étoiles d’Or
2009 French Film Critics’ Étoiles d’Or winners: Feb. 9, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

In Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winner The Class, teacher-author François Bégaudeau (who also wrote the book on which the film is based) stars as a teacher coping with students in a tough Parisian suburb mostly inhabited by African and Arab immigrants. Chosen as the best French film of the year by the French film critics, The Class has also won a Spirit Award for best foreign-language film and is up for an Academy Award in that same category.
 

Best Film / Etoile d’Or du Film français 2008
* Entre les murs / The Class by Laurent Cantet
Le premier jour du reste de ta vie [...]

Irish Academy Awards 2009

2009 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards
2009 Irish Film Award nominations: Jan. 8, 2009
2009 Irish Film Award winners: February 14, 2009
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

With six wins, Steve McQueen’s Hunger was the big winner at the 2009 Irish Academy Awards. The story of Irish republican prisoner Bobby Sands‘ last days, Hunger won trophies for best film, best actor (Michael Fassbender, as Sands), best supporting actor (Liam Cunningham), original score (David Holmes), production design, and sound. Curiously, director Steve McQueen was passed over in favor of Lance Daly, whose Kisses follows two young runaways who find both thrills and some serious danger in the streets of Dublin. The best screenplay award went to Martin McDonagh for In Bruges.
 

FILM CATEGORIES
Best [...]

Berlin 2009: Michelle Pfeiffer, CHERI

Derek Elley reviews Stephen Frears‘ Chéri in Variety:
"Like a passable bottle of champagne, Cheri fizzes and slides down quite easily but lacks real body and doesn’t really hit the spot. Driven along by Alexandre Desplat’s busy score, scrumptious duds by Consolata Boyle, pastel-tinged widescreen lensing by Darius Khondji and, most of all, by Kathy Bates‘ [right] scene-stealing turn, this Stephen Frears-Christopher Hampton adaptation of Colette’s famous Belle Epoque tale of romance between an experienced older courtesan and a spoiled youth [Rupert Friend, as the "Cheri" of the title] is, like Michelle Pfeiffer’s lead perf, short on real passion and emotion."
***
Here’s a rather different take on Chéri by The [London] Times‘ Stephen Dalton:
"Frears handles this slow shift from romantic frolic [between [...]

LONDON EVENING STANDARD Awards 2009

2009 LONDON EVENING STANDARD British Film Awards
2009 Evening Standard British Film Award nominations: Jan. 13, 2009
2009 Evening Standard British Film Award winners: Feb. 1, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Steve McQueen’s widely acclaimed (in the UK) Hunger — which has been all but ignored by American critics and assorted US-based award-giving groups — took the 2009 Evening Standard award for best film. Slumdog Millionaire, which has been the critics’ and everybody else’s darling on this side of the Atlantic, wasn’t even nominated for best film. Danny Boyle, however, was nominated for best director though he lost to Stephen Daldry for The Reader. Starring Michael Fassbender (above), Hunger chronicles the last six weeks in the life of Irish [...]

Goya Awards 2009

2009 Goya Awards
2009 Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Goya Award nominees: December 19, 2008
2009 Goya Award winners: Madrid, February 1, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
Photos: © Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
 

Written and directed by Javier Fesser, the controversial drama Camino — described by Screen Daily’s Lee Marshall as a "kind of three-way collision between The Magdalene Sisters, Amelie and The Song of Bernadette" — was the big winner at the 2009 Goya Awards, bagging a total of six trophies: best film, director, original screenplay, actress (Carme Elias, holding the "Jesus Loves You" poster), supporting actor (Jordi Dauder), and female newcomer (Nerea Camacho, lying in bed). Inspired by a true story, Camino [...]

Golden Globes 2009: Foreign-Language Nominees Screenings

The American Cinematheque and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will be screening all five Golden Globe nominees in the best foreign-language film category from Jan. 7-9 at the Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.
The nominated films are: The Baader-Meinhof Complex (Germany), National Society of Film Critics‘ winner Waltz with Bashir (Israel), European Film Academy Award winner Gomorrah (Italy), Swedish Film Institute’s Guldbagge nominee Everlasting Moments (Sweden), and I’ve Loved You So Long (France), starring European Academy Award best actress winner Kristin Scott Thomas.
On Sunday, Jan. 10, the Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood will present a panel discussion featuring the directors of the five nominated films. Screen International’s Mike Goodridge’s will act as moderator for Uli Edel, Jan Troell, Ari [...]

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD Trailer

 
Directed by Sam Mendes and adapted by Justin Haythes from Richard Yates‘ novel, Revolutionary Road stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (Mendes’ wife) as a 1950s Connecticut couple whose "ideal" marriage is in the doldrums for they feel something is missing in both their personal and professional lives. A trip to France, which is supposed to make things better, ends up deteriorating their relationship even further.
DiCaprio, apart from a Golden Globe nod, has been all but ignored throughout the 2009 awards season, though Winslet has managed quite a few mentions, in addition to both Golden Globe and SAG nominations. The film itself has been included in several top-ten lists, and is up for a Golden Globe in the best film, [...]

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD Photos

Revolutionary Road stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as a 1950s suburban couple whose marriage hits the skids.
Directed by Sam Mendes. Screenplay adaptation by Justin Haythe from Richard Yates‘ novel.
Revolutionary Road opens in the US on Dec. 26, 2008.
Photos: DreamWorks
Click on the images to enlarge them.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road

THE INTERNATIONAL to Open the 2009 Berlin Film Festival

 
Tom Tykwer’s big-budget conspiracy thriller The International, written by Eric Singer and starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, will open the 59th Berlin International Film Festival on February 5, 2009.
Tykwer, best known for the small-scale Lola rennt / Run, Lola, Run (1998), has built his career around "little" films such as Winterschläfer / Winter Sleeps (1997), Der Krieger und die Kaiserin / The Princess and the Warrior (2000), and Heaven, which opened the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. All that changed a couple of years ago with the release of the (by European standards) costly (US$60 million) English-language period piece Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006).
According to [...]

BEFORE THE FALL: Q&A with F. Javier Gutiérrez

F. Javier Gutiérrez’s 3 Días / Before the Fall, the filmmaker’s feature-film debut (co-produced by Antonio Banderas), has an unlikely premise: as a giant meteorite is about to destroy the planet and all its denizens in three days — hence the original Spanish-language title — a young man (Victor Clavijo) living in a remote village in the south of Spain readies himself to protect his mother (Mariana Cordero, in a role akin to that of Lillian Gish in The Night of the Hunter) and his absent brother’s four children from a psycho (Eduard Fernández) on the loose. What follows is not a science-fiction tale, but a suspenseful character-driven drama about the importance of old loyalties and [...]

MAN BITES DOG d: Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel

C’est arrivé près de chez vous / Man Bites Dog aka It Happened in Your Neighborhood (1992)
Direction: Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel. Screenplay: Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Vincent Tavier. Cast: Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Jean-Marc Chenut, Alain Oppexxi, Vincent Tavier
 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
The 1992 Belgian mockumentary C’est arrivé près de chez vous / Man Bites Dog (or, somewhat literally, It Happened in Your Neighborhood) is one of those films that is neither bad nor good, and not really its own "thing," either. By that I mean that it is manifestly influenced by works that came before it, so it is nothing original, while also displaying techniques that [...]

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN d: Tomas Alfredson

Låt den rätte komma in / Let the Right One In (2008)
Direction: Tomas Alfredson. Screenplay: John Ajvide Lindqvist, from his novel. Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist.
 

Directed by Tomas Alfredson from a screenplay by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Låt den rätte komma in / Let the Right One In is not only a satisfying horror film from beginning to end — one of the best entries in the vampire genre since Blade, Interview with a Vampire, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula — but it’s also a subtle love story, which happens to add an intricate ingredient to the film’s memorability.
Where 30 Days of Night was more concerned with setting up [...]

Daniel Craig in QUANTUM SOLACE Trailer

 
Daniel Craig is back as James Bond in Quantum of Solace, directed by unlikely choice Marc Forster and written by Robert Wade, Neal Purvis, and Paul Haggis. The plot of the new Bond involves water supplies in an unnamed South American country, terrorists, the CIA, gay Martians, and horny women. Well, perhaps I’m mistaken about the gay Martians, but "exotic" locations, hot & bothered gals, mind-numbing action, and absurd plot developments will surely be a part of the fun (if you’re like most people) or the tediousness (if you’re like me) of it all. In spite of Judi Dench, I found the highly popular and generally well-received Casino Royale the very worst James Bond flick I’ve seen. And that’s [...]

Gina Lollobrigida in the NEW YORK TIMES

Rachel Donadio writes about film legend Gina Lollobrigida — La Lollo for short — in the New York Times. Lollobrigida, who turned 81 last July, will be honored with a lifetime achievement award next Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival. During her 50+-year career, the actress and sculptress appeared in nearly 70 film and television productions, including many of the best-known European motion pictures of the 1950s and 1960s, e.g., Belles de nuit, Fanfan la Tulipe, Le Grand jeu, La Romana.
Along the way, Lollobrigida won numerous accolades, among them best actress David di Donatellos for Imperial Venus (1963) and Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968, tied with Monica Vitti for The Girl with the Pistol), in addition to an [...]

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