THE BURNING PLAIN, INJU, PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA: Venice Film Festival 2008
Via Agence France-Presse:
"The 65th Venice film festival has produced no standouts since it opened on Wednesday, with reactions to the first crop among the 21 movies vying for the Golden Lion ranging from lukewarm to hostile.
"The Burning Plain by Guillermo Arriaga of the United States disorients the viewer with flashbacks that cannot be identified as such until much later in the film, a device the reviewer in leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera branded as ‘gratuitous.’"
…
"As for the French literary-erotic thriller Inju, the Beast in the Shadow [top photo], the daily La Repubblica was scathing, asking ‘How did such a film get into the competition for the Golden Lion?’ under the headline, ‘A horror movie that provokes hilarity.’
"Corriere accused director Barbet Schroeder of ‘(badly) imitating Alfred Hitchcock‘ in a film ‘without suspense, which ends up irritating the spectator, trapped in a cerebral and weak-willed farce.’"
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Andrew Pulver reviews Guillermo Arriaga’s The Burning Plain in The Guardian:
"But Arriaga resorts far to often to hack soap opera tricks to move things along: studied glares, can-I-have-a-word-with-yous, implausible behaviour tics. And if the story was told in a linear fashion, it would be a pretty unremarkable string of punishingly melodramatic events.
"But how does Arriaga do as a director? The truth is he has a long way to go before he can match [Arriaga's former partner Alejandro González] Iñárritu’s cinematic panache. There’s nothing here to compare with Iñárritu’s spectacular set-pieces, such as the opening 10 minutes of Amores Perros, or the gunshot sequence in Babel."
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Natasha Senjanovic reviews Ferzan Ozpetek’s A Perfect Day in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Ferzan Ozpetek’s anticipated new film A Perfect Day, based on Melania Mazzucco’s eponymous novel, follows the latest trend of intertwining stories with multiple characters all connected to one another. Apt to put off critics, the commercial appeal of the emotionally charged film should guarantee continued domestic success for Ozpetek, as well as abroad, as the director slowly but surely solidifies his international reputation.
"After an enigmatic beginning (only in that it does not correspond the ending), during which a single shot is fired, the film then cuts to 24 hours earlier, to depict the events that lead to a horrible tragedy."
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Natasha Senjanovic reviews Pupi Avati’s Giovanna’s Father in The Hollywood Reporter:
"[Silvio] Orlando’s performance [in the title role] renders credible the central story while [Francesca] Neri and [Ezio] Greggio bring a certain amount of dignity to their parts. As does [Alba] Rohrwacher, in a challenging role that hits almost all the stereotypes of the mentally insane.
"Unfortunately, however, Avati fills the movie with detailed scenes that do little to push the story along, further diluted by secondary characters that walk in and out of the frame delivering lines with seemingly no direction."
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In Variety, Ronnie Scheib reviews Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which has earned nearly US$100 million since opening in Japan:
"Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated epic, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, unfolds with a magic limpidity, teeming with imaginative transports that owe nothing to CGI. Effortlessly shuttling between sea, land and sky, this Little Mermaid-ish tale dives deep into the collective unconscious of Japan’s island culture, imagining a transparency between natural elements that promises salvation and apocalypse in equal measure."
Marco Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini at the Venice Film Festival 2008
Venice Film Festival 2008 - Too Little Hollywood
George Clooney, Brad Pitt at the 2008 Venice Film Festival
Sarasota Film Society’s GLBT Film Festival 2008
North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Venice Film Festival 2008 - Competition Line-Up
ASK NOT, WERE THE WORLD MINE, THE LOST COAST: Outfest 2008
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