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Matt Damon in THE INFORMANT Photos

Directed by Steven Soderbergh (above, lower photo) and written by Scott Z. Burns (from Kurt Eichenwald’s book on the true story of executive-turned-whistleblower Mark Whitacre), The Informant! was recently screened out of the competition at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
Matt Damon, who gained about 30 lbs. for the role (and who still looks nothing like Whitacre), stars as the high-ranking executive informant (and embezzler) who gets agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland in big trouble with the U.S. government.
Also in the Informant! cast: Lucas Carroll, Eddie Jemison, and Rusty Schwimmer.
The Informant! opens in the US on Sept. 18.
Photos: Claudette Barius / ©2008 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

LEBANON Photos

“I dedicate this award to the thousands of people all over the world who, like me, come back from war safe and sound,” said Israeli war veteran and (first-time) filmmaker Samuel Maoz (above, lower photo) upon receiving the Golden Lion for his graphically violent war drama Lebanon at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. “Apparently they are fine, they work, get married, have children. But inside the memory will remain stabbed in their soul.” (On his notes for the film, Maoz writes: "On June 6, 1982, at 6:15 a.m., I killed a man for the first time in my life.")

Set during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Lebanon chronicles the travails of an Israeli tank crew sent [...]

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN: Q&A with Oliver Hirschbiegel

Inspired by a true incident that occurred in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s, while placing the real-life participants in a fictitious set-up, Five Minutes of Heaven stars Liam Neeson as Alistair Little, the former leader of an Ulster Volunteer Force cell who, as a teenager, shot in the head a young Catholic man, James Griffin, in front of his 11-year-old brother, Joe Griffin (played by British Independent Film Award winner, and Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee James Nesbitt).
Written by Guy Hibbert (who wrote Omagh, winner of the Irish Film & Television Academy’s 2004 best film award) and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (above right, whose Downfall was nominated for a best foreign-language film Oscar), Five Minutes of Heaven explores [...]

MADE IN U.S.A / 2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER d: Jean-Luc Godard

Made in U.S.A. (1966)
Direction: Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard; from Donald E. Westlake’s novel
Cast: Anna Karina, László Szabó, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marianne Faithfull, Yves Afonso
 
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle / 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Direction and screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Marina Vlady, Joseph Gehrard, Anny Duperey, Roger Montsoret, Raoul Lévy, Jean Narboni
 

 

When the young cinephiles who would later spawn the French New Wave attended screenings of Hollywood films at the Cinémathèque Française, they often found themselves watching prints lacking French subtitles.  Not all of these men understood English, but they stuck it out anyway.  After all, you can still learn from a film even if you can’t quite follow the dialogue; [...]

THE 10 CONDITIONS OF LOVE Controversy at the Melbourne Film Festival

Protesting the planned appearance of Uighur-independence activist Rebiya Kadeer, whom the Chinese government blames for the ethnic violence this month between Uighurs and Han Chinese, a hacker has posted a Chinese flag on the Web site of the Melbourne International Film Festival, the New York Times has reported, citing the Associated Press. The ethnic riots in the East Turkistan region left nearly 200 people dead.
The hacker, reportedly a Chinese man offended by Kadeer’s scheduled appearance at the screening of Melbourne-based filmmaker Jeff Daniels‘ documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, also left messages in English demanding an apology from festival organizers. The 10 Conditions of Love, which chronicles Kadeer and her family’s struggles against the Chinese government’s oppression, premiered at [...]

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON Screening

A newly restored print of Frank Capra’s 1939 Best Picture nominee Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Jean Arthur, James Stewart, and Claude Rains, will be screened tonight, July 20, as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Hollywood’s Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939.” The screening will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The evening will begin at 7 p.m., with the tenth chapter of the 1939 serial Buck Rogers, starring Buster Crabbe and Constance Moore, and the Columbia animated short Scrappy’s Added Attraction.
By the time Mr. Smith Goes to Washington came out in 1939, [...]

Cannes 2009: Michael Haneke’s THE WHITE RIBBON

 
Dave Calhoun in Time Out London, via David Hudson’s The Daily:
"For quite some time at the beginning of Michael Haneke’s latest film, which is a two-and-a-half hour parable of political and social ideas set entirely in a north German village in 1913 and 1914, you wonder what you’re watching, how its disparate parts hang together and what it all might mean. More than ever, the playful, challenging, sometimes shocking director of Hidden, Funny Games and Time of the Wolf solidly resists answering the ‘what’s it all about?’ question and makes you work hard to make sense of what you’re seeing. As in Code Unknown, he resists focusing on one story or [...]

OPERATION HOMECOMING, BODY OF WAR Screening

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (top photo) and Body of War (bottom photo) will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 27th annual "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, May 13, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Directed and produced by Richard E. Robbins, the Academy Award-nominated Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience presents letters written by US military personnel and their families who have been involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Directed and produced by Ellen Spiro and former talk-show host Phil Donahue, Body of War tells the story of 22-year-old Tomas Young, who volunteered to fight [...]

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis

Based on actual events, Eran Riklis‘ Lemon Tree (no connection to Sandy Tolan’s novel The Lemon Tree), which opens today in the Los Angeles area, chronicles a Palestinian widow’s fight to prevent the Israeli army from razing her lemon grove. The problem is that all those lemon trees are located right next door to the brand new house — actually, "fortress" would be a better description — of the Israeli minister of defense. Security agents have deemed the grove a potential hide-out for terrorists, who could then fire rockets right onto the minister’s dining table.
Sounds like a political film? Well, sure. Lemon Tree is definitely political. (The real-life case was that of defense minister Shaul Mofaz and his [...]

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis Part II

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis Part I
Along those lines, the men in charge in Lemon Tree don’t come across in a very positive light. A bossy male security agent demands the destruction of the lemon grove. A bossy Palestinian man threatens Salma because of her relationship with her lawyer. The defense minister is obsessed with his career and may be having an affair with an assistant. The Palestinian lawyer himself seems to be as interested in advancing his career as in helping Salma, even though he actually cares for her.
The two women, however, are both admirable characters. Was that a conscious decision, to make the women “stronger” — in their [...]

Artivist 2009 Call for Entries

PRESS RELEASE
"ARTIVIST" is the 1st international film festival dedicated to addressing Human Rights, Children’s Advocacy, Environmental Preservation, and Animal Advocacy. Our mission is to strengthen the voice of international activist artists – "Artivists" – while raising public awareness for social global causes.
The 6th Annual Artivist Film Festival is currently accepting international Film and Video submissions that concern themselves with human rights, social or political issues, children’s issues/advocacy, animal issues/rights, or environmental issues. Artivist also accepts films that tell inspirational stories or are empowering. Each year Artivist screens shorts, feature-length films, documentaries, narratives, music videos, experimental and animated shorts directed by established international filmmakers, novice filmmakers and the YouTube community. Since 2004, Artivist has showcased 350 [...]

A PROMISE TO THE DEAD: THE EXILE JOURNEY OF ARIEL DORFMAN, PORTRAITS OF A LADY Screening

Neil Leifer’s Portraits of a Lady and Peter Raymont’s A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 27th annual Contemporary Documentaries series on Wednesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Portraits of a Lady takes a look at the work of 25 artists who participated in a painting session with former US Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O’Connor in 2006. Following the screening, Leifer and co-producer Walter Bernard will take questions from the audience.

A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel [...]

Nagisa Oshima at the American Cinematheque

“No other director of Oshima’s generation has made more vital, inventive and challenging films, or taken more risks. He is a giant in contemporary cinema.” – Tony Rayns
“Plainly the greatest living Japanese filmmaker.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum
“Japan’s greatest living filmmaker.” – J. Hoberman
Those in the Los Angeles area can judge for themselves as Nagisa Oshima is the subject of an eight-film series from April 23-26 at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The Oshima series is being presented in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (which will have its own Oshima series in May) and is co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation.
"I am not interested in making films that can be understood [...]

Luis Buñuel’s VIRIDIANA Screening

Viridiana, Luis Buñuel’s provocative 1961 Palme d’Or-winning classic proving that life is a bitch and then you play cards, will run at New York City’s Film Forum from Friday, April 24, through Thursday, April 30.
Inspired by a painting of Saint Viridiana kneeling on the floor before a crucifix and crown of thorns (and by Benito Pérez Galdós‘ novel Halma), co-written by Buñuel and Julio Alejandro, and financed by the lead actress’ rich husband, Viridiana stars Silvia Pinal (recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Ariel Award), as a pious young nun who, before entering a cloister, goes visit her strange and reclusive uncle (Fernando Rey). There, while trying to do Good, she befriends the [...]

Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams in STATE OF PLAY Photos

Ben Affleck

Helen Mirren

Rachel McAdams

Ben Affleck

Robin Wright Penn, Ben Affleck
Photos: © Universal Pictures
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

 
Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe in STATE OF PLAY Photos
Sylvia Miles, John Barry at MIDNIGHT COWBOY Screening
Oscar 2009: Robert Pattinson, Sophia Loren, Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon
Oscar 2009: Jennifer Aniston, Penélope Cruz, Zac Efron, Daniel Craig
Oscar 2009: Penélope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey

Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe in STATE OF PLAY Photos

Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe

Directed by Kevin Macdonald and adapted by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ray from Paul Abbott’s television series, the thriller State of Play stars Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels, Justin Bateman, and Michael Berresse.
State of Play opens in the US on April 19.
Official site
Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams in STATE OF PLAY
Photos: © Universal Pictures
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Russell Crowe

Helen Mirren, Russell Crowe

Jeff Daniels, Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck

 
Sylvia Miles, John Barry at MIDNIGHT COWBOY Screening
Oscar 2009: Robert Pattinson, Sophia Loren, Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon
Oscar 2009: Jennifer Aniston, Penélope Cruz, Zac Efron, Daniel Craig
Oscar 2009: Penélope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Brad [...]

DARFUR NOW, THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK Screening

Darfur Now and The Devil Came on Horseback, both focusing on the ongoing Darfur crisis, will screen as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 27th annual "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, April 15, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Darfur Now is a call for people everywhere to take action against the human tragedies taking place in Darfur, Sudan. Director Theodore Braun and producer Cathy Schulman will be present to take questions from the audience following the screening.

Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern, The Devil Came on Horseback depicts the events in Darfur through the eyes of an American marine [...]

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 — [...]

Berlin 2009: After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall

The Dog’s Night Song by Gábor Bódy

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival will serve as the launching pad for the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Deutsche Kinemathek series “After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall.”
As per the festival’s press release, "in fifteen feature-length blocks, ‘After Winter Comes Spring’ will present films made in both Germanys and Eastern Europe during the last decade of the Cold War – films that convey a sense of the radical changes to come. Some of these works were made in the official studios of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Others were realized more [...]

KING: A FILMED RECORD … MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS Screening

Producer Ely Landau and associate producer Richard Kaplan’s 1970 Martin Luther King Jr. documentary King: A Filmed Record … Montgomery to Memphis will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ “Monday Nights with Oscar” program. King will have a special afternoon presentation on Monday, January 21, at 3 p.m. at the Academy Theater in New York City. Richard Kaplan will be present for a pre-screening discussion.
In its 80-year history, only three Academy Awards ceremonies have been postponed. One of those postponements occurred after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Nearly two years later, on March 24, 1970, King: A Filmed Record … Montgomery to Memphis premiered as a [...]

Rotterdam 2008: Lucía Cedrón’s LAMB OF GOD

The 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which runs between Jan. 23-Feb. 3, has announced the 15 films vying for the 2008 VPRO Tiger Awards. All entries are first or second efforts. (See Rotterdam 2008 Film Line-Up.)
The Tiger Awards are worth 15,000 euros (US$22,070) for each of three winning features and 3,000 euros (US$4,414) for the short film awards.
The 2008 Rotterdam film festival will open with the world premiere of Lucía Cedrón’s narrative feature-film debut Cordero de Dios / Lamb of God (photo), about an elderly man kidnapped during Argentina’s catastrophic economic crisis of 2002. The man’s predicament forces his exiled daughter to return to Buenos Aires and confront her family’s past, which also involves a late [...]

WOYZECK d: Werner Herzog

Woyzeck (1979)
Direction: Werner Herzog
Screenplay: Werner Herzog; from a play by Georg Büchner
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Eva Mattes, Wolfgang Reichmann, Willy Semmelrogge, Josef Bierbichler, Paul Burian, Volker Prechtel
 

Klaus Kinski in Woyzeck
 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
One of the signs of a great artist is that even when not at the top of his game he is still capable of flashes of utter brilliance. Such is the case in Werner Herzog’s Woyzeck (1979), starring his friend and bane Klaus Kinski in the third of five films made by the director-actor team.
Woyzeck is not a great film, but here and there it offers great moments. Part of the reason it fails to reach true greatness is that the story’s stage roots are too [...]

Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2007 in San Francisco

Total Denial by Milena Kaneva

Via San Francisco’s YBCA website:
2007 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
March 2, 8, 15 & 22
$8 regular, $6 seniors, students & teachers/ $6 YBCA members
In collaboration with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, we present a selection of powerful documentaries. Human Rights Watch’s International Film Festival has become a leading venue for distinguished fiction and documentary films with distinctive human rights themes. The works help to put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail.
Total Denial
by Milena Kaneva (2006, 65 min, Beta)
Fri, Mar 2, 7:30 pm
This is the inspiring story of villagers from the jungles of Burma whose quest [...]

BREACH – Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper

Breach (2007)
Direction: Billy Ray
Screenplay: Adam Mazer, William Rotko, and Billy Ray
Cast: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, Caroline Dhavernas, Gary Cole, Kathleen Quinlan, Dennis Haysbert, Bruce Davison
 

Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper in Breach
 

A sophisticated spy thriller directed by Billy Ray, Breach creates suspense through intense dialogue exchanges and strong character development, thus avoiding big explosions, repetitive gunfights, and wild car chases.
The film is based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), a traitor who provoked one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. history by leaking top-secret information to the Soviet Union. The events depicted in Breach are the ones that led up to Hanssen’s arrest on February 18, 2001.
At first, we are [...]

MANDA BALA: Brazil’s Corruption, Kidnappings, and Frogs

When I read the synopsis of Jason Kohn’s Manda Bala / Send a Bullet in the Sundance Film Festival’s independent film – documentary list I thought the film sounded like supermarket tabloid trash: “In Brazil, known as one of the world’s most corrupt and violent countries, Manda Bala follows a politician who uses a frog farm to steal billions of dollars, a wealthy businessman who spends a small fortune bulletproofing his cars, and a plastic surgeon who reconstructs the ears of mutilated kidnapping victims."
Not helping matters was reading Mary Milliken’s Reuters article on Manda Bala, in which she asserts that there’s “a boom in ear-reconstruction surgeries” in Brazil as a result of the fact that “gangs from the teeming [...]

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