Alternative Film Guide

"The lineup actually does look pretty mouthwatering this year," says Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. "Festival director Marco Muller has unveiled a sparkling set of films, with contributions from Takeshi Kitano, Ang Lee, Brian De Palma, Damien Odoul and many, many more. And after being snubbed at Cannes, the Brits have a very good showing in the competition, with four British directors: Joe Wright with Atonement, Kenneth Branagh with Sleuth, Peter Greenaway with Nightwatching, and Ken Loach with It’s A Free World. However, these are co-productions: Wright and Branagh with Hollywood, Loach and Greenaway with their accustomed European investors."

Bradshaw later adds, "I haven’t seen Nightwatching yet. I have no idea what it’s like. But for sheer shake-up value, giving Greenaway (right) the Golden Lion would probably be the most gratifying. Whatever your view of him and his work, it is pretty ridiculous that this important film-maker, lauded in Europe, at his creative prime, does not make mainstream cinema releases in this country. Has the continent been cut off by a fog of complacency? A Golden Lion for Greenaway would at least compel some sort of UK distribution for his latest film and allow British filmgoers to make up their own minds."

Nightwatching stars Martin Freeman as Rembrandt. If the photograph at the top is any indication, cinematographer Reinier van Brummelen has clearly been inspired by the work of the Dutch masters.

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64th Venice Film Festival: Out of Competition Line-Up

64th Venice Film Festival: Horizons Sidebar

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Venice 2006 - Golden Lion Film Line-Up

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