Locarno International Film Festival

College-Age Critics Wanted: Indiewire Could Send You to Cover the Locarno Film Festival

Matt Singer — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:54:30 GMT

The first question I get when I meet aspiring film critics is always the same: "How do I do what you do?" My standard response -- "Dumb luck and good blackmail material" -- isn't particularly helpful, but at least it's honest. Getting a job as a professional film critic is like winning the lottery; the worst paying lottery in history.

The folks at Indiewire are passionate about film criticism. And more than that, they're passioante about championing new, young voices in film criticism. That's a big reason why they started this blog and an even bigger reason why they're launching an exciting new partnership with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, and the Locarno Film Festival to send six college-age participants to Locarno to cover the festival. Here's some actual advice for aspiring critics: apply for a spot in this program. Here's Indiewire's Eric Kohn, with more details about Indiewire's Locarno Critics Academy:

"Indiewire and Locarno will select six college-age participants to attend the two-week festival in early August, where they'll write about the program in a deadline-driven environment. With the support of Gohner Stiftung, the festival will provide housing from July 31 through August 11. Indiewire will contribute with a share of the travel expenses depending on the country of origin of the participant.

"During Locarno, participants will work with me and other critics and journalists to cover the festival on a daily basis. Their writing assignments will appear in Pardo Live, the festival's daily newspaper, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's website, filmlinc.com, and Indiewire's Criticwire blog. They will also be encouraged to pitch other outlets based on their experiences in Locarno."

Yes, that's right: the six critics selected will have their work published on Criticwire. So if you've ever wanted to know what it feels like to get pestering emails from me at three in the morning, this is your chance!

In all sincerity, if I'd been a college-aged critic when this program was around, I would have murdered a kitten to participate. A trip to a major European film festival, the opportunity to get published at a variety of respected outlets, and, best of all, the chance to make connections with and receive feedback from working film critics from around the world, all add up to an invaluable opportunity. Here's what you need to apply:

1) CV: A basic one-page resume
2) Contact information for two recommendations (professors, employers, etc.)
3) Four writing samples about film. These can take the form of film reviews, scholarly papers, blog posts, college newspaper clips, or any other written work that you think demonstrates your writing skills.
4)A 500-word statement of intent. Tell us about your background and why you would make an ideal candidate for in the Critics Academy. Also note any particular interests you have as a critic (genres, national cinemas, etc.). Passion, strong writing skills and a deep knowledge of film history matter more than overall experience, so this is your chance to really make a case for yourself.

Send your application in the body of an email by June 22, 2012 to SUMMERACADEMY@PARDO.CH -- and if you have questions, contact Eric Kohn at eric@indiewire.com. Good luck! I can't wait to work with the winners.

Read more about Indiewire and the Locarno Film Festival's Critics' Academy.

Attention College-Age Film Critics: Indiewire, Locarno Film Festival and Film Society of Lincoln Center Could Send You to Switzerland

Eric Kohn — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:11:27 GMT

One of the central challenges for any film critic is finding opportunities to turn the practice into a profession. The gateways to launching a career in film criticism have dwindled to a few scattered university courses and internships. A budding critic looking for places to write will find more outlets than ever before, but after a few bylines even the most ambitious newcomer will be forced to ask: Now what?

For many critics, film festivals are the ideal arena to practice the craft. Bigger festivals contain a dense lineup of films for critics to cover in a deadline-driven environment. The challenge is getting there in the first place.

That's where we come in. Indiewire has stepped up its efforts to create a support system for film critics by developing the Criticwire Network and the accompanying blog run by Matt Singer. Now, we're taking the next step.

This summer, Indiewire is partnering with the Festival del Film Locarno -- aka the Locarno Film Festival -- along with the Swiss Association of Film Journalists and the Film Society of Lincoln Center to run a workshop for aspiring film critics.

Indiewire and Locarno will select six college-age participants to attend the two-week festival in early August, where they'll write about the program in a deadline-driven environment. With the support of Gohner Stiftung, the festival will provide housing from July 31 through August 11. Indiewire will contribute with a share of the travel expenses depending on the country of origin of the participant.

The Critics' Academy is a subset of Locarno's larger Summer Academy initiative (more information can be found here). While the festival has co-hosted a workshop for Swiss students in the past, this summer's Critics' Academy will mark the first time it represents an international selection of aspiring critics, some of whom may also attend a similar workshop this fall in New York during the 50th edition of the New York Film Festival.

During Locarno, participants will work with me and other critics and journalists to cover the festival on a daily basis. Their writing assignments will appear in Pardo Live, the festival's daily newspaper, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's website, filmlinc.com, and Indiewire's Criticwire blog. They will also be encouraged to pitch other outlets based on their experiences in Locarno.

One of the oldest festivals in the world, Locarno attracts thousands of press and industry members each year. Most famous for its Piazza Grande section, which hosts nightly outdoor screenings before crowds of 8,000, Locarno has grown into one of Europe's most significant film events. In addition to premiering many films that go on to play at other major festivals, Locarno also hosts an annual retrospective (this year's is dedicated to Otto Preminger) and tributes to accomplished filmmakers and producers. Participants in the Critics Academy will have the opportunity to write about all of these events.

As one of the few U.S. critics to attend Locarno over the last few years -- beginning when film critic Olivier Pere took over as artistic director -- I can attest to the quality and scope of its programming that has been tailored to meet the standards of committed cinephiles. It is one of the best festivals for critics to hone their skills.

In an insightful 2008 essay about the film festival circuit, Cinema Scope editor (and Locarno programmer) Mark Peranson divides festivals into two categories: "Business" festivals and "audience" festivals. Locarno, a festival programmed by critics and cinephiles, pleases the latter contingency; however, with its opening "Industry Days" and developing marketplace, it also connects the dots between cinematic discovery and the process through which films can find audiences beyond the festival circuit.

For critics, this is an invaluable connection. Participants in this year's Critics' Academy will be able to explore Locarno's program and help introduce it to readers around the world.

Applicants must have completed a minimum of three years of undergraduate study and have a demonstrated interest in film criticism as well as the ability to speak and write fluently in English.

Interested? Here's what applications must include:

CV: A basic one-page resume
Contact information for two recommendations (professors, employers, etc.)
Four writing samples about film. These can take the form of film reviews, scholarly papers, blog posts, college newspaper clips, or any other written work that you think demonstrates your writing skills.
A 500-word statement of intent. Tell us about your background and why you would make an ideal candidate for the Critics Academy. Also note any particular interests you have as a critic (genres, national cinemas, etc.). Passion, strong writing skills and a deep knowledge of film history matter more than overall experience, so this is your chance to really make a case for yourself.

Please send applications in the body of an email by June 22, 2012 to SUMMERACADEMY@PARDO.CH.

Questions? Please direct them to me at eric@indiewire.com.

Locarno to Honor Otto Preminger With a Retrospective

Nigel M Smith — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:01:06 GMT

The Locarno Film Festival (August 1 -11) has chosen to dedicate their annual retrospective this year to Otto Preminger, the Austrian three-time Oscar nominated director best known for his classics "Anatomy of a Murder," "Exodus," "The Cardinal" and "Bunny Lake is Missing."

The festival will screen all 40 or Preminger's films in 35mm. Each screening will be followed by discussions hosted by a variety of filmmakers, actors and critics. In addition to the screenings, the retrospective's curator Carlo Chatrian will chair a roundtable discussion of the director's work.

The Swiss and French Cinemateques will repeat the retrospective in the fall.

Locarno Fest Fetes "Back to Stay" & "Best Intentions" in Weekend Awards

Brian Brooks — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:08:09 GMT

Argentine/Swiss production "Abrir Puertas Y Ventanas" (Back to Stay) won the golden leopard at the Locarno Film Festival over the weekend, capping the ten day event. Japanese director Shinji Aoyama received a special golden leopard in recognition of his career and for his film, "Tokyo Koen," while Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid received a special prize for "Hashoter" (Policeman).

Adrian Sitaru received the best director prize for "Din Dragoste cu Cele Main Bune Intentii" (Best Intentions). The film's star, Bogdan Dumitrache was honored with the best actor nod, while "Abrir Puertas Y Ventanas" actress María Canale took best actress.

The list of Locarno winners with information and credits provided by the festival:

Concorso internazionale

Pardo d’oro: "Abrir Puertas Y Ventanas" (Back to Stay) by Milagros Mumenthaler, Argentina/Switzerland

Pardo d’oro speciale della giuria: Shinji Aoyama for the film "Tokyo Koen" and his outstanding career

Premio speciale della giuria: "Hashoter" (Policeman) by Nadav Lapid, Israel

Pardo per la migliore regia (Best Director): Adrian Sitaru for "Din Dragoste cu Cele Main Bune Intentii" (Best Intentions), Romania/Hungary

Pardo per la miglior interpretazione femminile (Best Actress): María Canale in "Abrir Puertas Y Ventanas" (Back to Stay) by Milagros Mumenthaler, Argentina/Switzerland

Pardo per la miglior interpretazione maschile (Best Actor): Bogdan Dumitrache in "Din Dragoste cu Cele Main Bune Intentii" (Best Intentions) by Adrian Sitaru, Romania/Hungary

Special Mention: "Un Amour de Jeunesse" (Goodbye First Love) by Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany

Concorso Cineasti del presente

Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente - Premio George Foundation
"L'Estate di Giacomo" by Alessandro Comodin, Italy/France/Belgium

Premio speciale della giuria Ciné+ Cineasti del presente
"El Estudiante" (The Student) by Santiago Mitre, Argentina

Special Mention:
"It’s the Earth Not the Moon" by Gonçalo Tocha, Portugal

Opera Prima
Pardo per la migliore opera prima (Best First Film): "Nana" by Valérie Massadian, France

Pardi di domani
Concorso internazionale
Pardino d’oro for the Best International Short Film: "Rauschgift" (Addicted) by Peter Baranowski, Germany

Pardino d’argento: "Les Enfants de la Nuit" by Caroline Deruas, France

Special Mention: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano" by Juliano Dornelles, Brésil

Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards - Pianifica Prize: "Frozen Stories" by Grzegorz Jaroszuk, Poland

The Film und Video Untertitelung Prize: "Liberdade" by Gabriel Abrantes and Benjamin Crotty, Portugal

Concorso nazionale

Pardino d’oro for the Best Swiss Short Film: "The Ambassador & Me" by Jan Czarlewski

Pardino d’argento: The Girls’ Grave" by Carmen Jaquier

Premio Action Light for the Best Swiss Newcomer: "Another Game" by Jean Guillaume Sonnier

Prix du Public UBS: "Monsieur Lazhar" by Philippe Falardeau, Canada

Variety Piazza Grande Award: "Monsieur Lazhar" by Philippe Falardeau, Canada

Being a Provocateur Without Being a Bad Guy: Locarno Artistic Director Olivier Pére

Eric Kohn — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 08:33:32 GMT

Last year, Paris-based festival programmer Olivier Pére made the dramatic transition from head of Directors' Fortnight at Cannes to Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. Now he looks a little more comfortable in his role, wearing the same blindingly white suit (he owns several versions, he claims) each night when he introduces outdoor films on the festival's Piazza Grande in front of 8,500 people.

When not also introducing smaller films in the festival's two competition sections, Pére has any number of other things to do. On most late nights during the festival, you can find him at the makeshift beachside party tent hosted by the Parisian club Lido, holding court with dozens of filmmakers and other guests. Pére has many resources and, as a longtime critic, plenty of cinephile passion to spare, but one thing he lacks is a lot of spare time. Nevertheless, Locarno's most familiar face found time to sit down with indieWIRE Wednesday for a discussion about his progress at the festival, which wraps its 64th edition this weekend.

Looking back on your first round as artistic director of Locarno last year, do you think you made some drastic changes to the festival?

Yes, for me it was great, but of course it was the first experience, so we knew what we wanted to change and we did it: The catalog, the idea for the films to be more eclectic. We had a vision of being a more exciting European festival, as I told you last year. We wanted to bring back the best filmmakers and discover some new filmmakers. It was okay, everybody enjoyed it, but I have to confess that I'm much more satisfied with this year.

I think the good and bad parts of last year were about my work, but also about the festival and the expectations for it. I studied more about the programming, the selection. With the Piazza, you have to feed the audience expectations. I took more advice. We fixed some things. I'm really proud of the results. I think what we tried to harvest last year we've had success with this year. Last year, we tried to get in touch with some American studios as well as some talented actors and filmmakers. Sometimes it takes several years before they are available.

You say you surveyed "the good and bad parts" of last year. Can you give me some examples?

In my opinion, it was too focused in one direction -- arthouse newcomers. I think that last year, because it was my first year, most of the filmmakers were newcomers making very radical low-budget films. So it was great, but it was not eclectic enough and maybe not as rich as I would have wished. This year, I'm satisfied with the international competition because we tried to discover some very good first features and support some new filmmakers who I consider to be some of the great directors of our time, like Mia Hansen-Love. The balance between marketable filmmakers and first-time filmmakers is more exciting, a balance between expectation and surprise.

The International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF) ranks Locarno as an "A" festival. In order to maintain that ranking, all the competition films must be either world or international premieres. How do you satisfy that requirement while also paying attention to quality?

It was already an "A" festival, but in my opinion [the program] was too weak. It's not the fact that it's a world premiere that makes a film interesting.

Is it upsetting for you to have to turn down films because they don't have premiere status?

It's better this way. I think it's important to be competitive because if Locarno wasn't an "A" festival, we would not be able to catch the attention of the press or the industry. Nobody would come. It would be a great festival for professionals, maybe, but not the audience, and we want both. So I like that. It's a good platform for international premieres, including American features like "The Color Wheel" or "Without." They may already have attention in the United States, but they're completely unknown in Europe.

Of course, having Harrison Ford on the Piazza is a totally different story.

That was related to one of my main objective goals when I arrived. The reason last year there were not so many mainstream blockbusters at the festival was not because we didn't want them but because the films were not available. The schedule wasn't good. Nothing really fit with the Piazza or our expectations or the desires of the distributor. So that was not successful, but we tried, and we tried again this year.

I got in touch with the major distributors in Los Angeles, London and Zurich. We had a great collaboration with Disney and Universal. We exchanged lists of films we wanted to see. By chance, they were the same. Paramount's decision to use the Piazza as the platform for the European premiere of "Cowboys and Aliens" means they were okay with bringing Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Jon Favreau here. It's very good for us and for them as well. If you celebrate stars like Harrison Ford, of course you grab the attention of the media. So the fact that the festival became more famous was very, very good for the competition, for all the young filmmakers who are here. It's not something against something. It's something with something.

Your replacement as Artistic Director of Directors' Fortnight, Frederic Boyer, stepped down this year. How do you feel about what happened?

I'm sorry, but I don't want to comment on that.

More generally, then: Every festival has its politics. How would you compare Directors' Fortnight politics with Locarno politics?

I think the idea of the cinema is the same, but the vision is much bigger at Locarno. In Switzerland, you're working with the whole country. There are a lot of things to consider--not only 20 features but 200 or so. This is a complicated country and you have to introduce yourself. Maybe some people were scared or reluctant about me. Of course, there were people who knew me and knew I wasn't a bad guy, that I was totally dedicated to cinema, but some people didn't. After a year of great international success, I know part of the landscape. Now I think it's okay, people realize I'm not a bad guy, not a provocateur, I just love cinema.

You can be a provocateur without being a bad guy.

Yeah, I don't like to provoke things myself, but I do like provocative movies.

"Big Man Japan" Hitoshi Matsumoto is Tired of TV Comedy, But Loves "Columbo"

Eric Kohn — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 09:36:56 GMT

Hitoshi Matsumoto's name may not mean much in American households, but in Japan he's a television superstar. Mainly known as one half of the comic duo Downtown, Matsumoto took his career in a new direction a few years ago when he started directing movies. Like his comedy acts, Matsumoto's work as a director is zany, surreal and hard to describe in simple terms.

His filmmaking debut, "Big Man Japan," followed a reluctant superhero, while "Symbol" focused almost entirely on a man trapped in a room surrounded by magical cherub penises. Yes, you read that right. By comparison, Matsumoto's third feature (already open in Japan) is a little more tangible.

"Scabbard Samurai," which screened in Locarno's Piazza Grande section on Thursday to coincide with a retrospective of Matsumoto's work, follows a downbeat swordsman (Takaaki Nomi) faced with an impossible task. After arrested for abandoning his clan, the man has 30 days to make a feudal lord's grim-faced son smile. Intermittently a slapstick comedy and an overwrought sentimental family drama (the samurai's main guide is his young, disapproving daughter), "Scabbard Samurai" is a meandering and offbeat tale as only Matumoto could pull off.

A day before receiving an honor at the Locarno Film Festival, Matumoto sat down with Indiewire and a translator to discuss his career and the perceptions of it around the world. Meanwhile, cameras from Japanese network NHK kept rolling, gathering footage for a six-hour miniseries on Matsumoto set to air this fall.

You have said before that comedy provided you with an escape from your impoverished childhood. "Scabbard Samurai" deals with the redemptive nature of comedy, so I wonder if you see it as a personal project?

I was not really focused on that. What I really care about is an original idea.

This is very far from being a conventional samurai film. Were you trying to play off audience expectations?

I don't want to make films that are already made. I want to make films that are my own original ideas. Every film I make isn't one I've made before. In almost every samurai film, you see the origin of the samurai, but in this film, there isn't one scene like that. In most samurai films, you see the sword. In this one, you do not.

The tone of your films are very specific. How would you describe it?

It's my intention to change from comedy to seriousness. You can't say it's just a comedy or a tragedy, but there's no gradation. It changes quickly. In this sense, it's a very new approach to genre.

"Symbol" and "Scabbard Samurai" both have life-affirming messages, whereas "Big Man Japan" is less overtly spiritual. Can you explain this shift in your work?

For me, it was important that I bring originality to the film…

You keep talking about originality, but it's starting to sound like you don't enjoy elaborating on the themes of your work. How can you avoid discussing the interpretations of a movie called "Symbol"?

It's not that I had a strong intention of making a religious film with "Symbol." It just came out that way. You don't have to probe it too deeply. It just became like that. I wasn't too concerned about it. For example, let's say this glass of soda in front of us were to spill. Maybe somebody could take it for a symbol. It's just cathartic to do that.

How do you think your work is perceived in different parts of the world?

I think that in Japan, because I'm really famous as a comedian, in a way it's a bit difficult when I make films. They're always seen in the background, on the side of my other activities. In other countries, I'm more appreciated as a film director, it's not just a background thing. So it's completely different.

Are there any films that have inspired you to make your own?

I don't like to take inspiration from other filmmakers. But when I was making "Scabbard Samurai," I was thinking about "Paper Moon."

Do you identify more now as a filmmaker than as a comedian?

It's a difficult question. I'm a little tired of all these TV comedy programs, and have many plans to work on film productions. So I compete with myself more.

There is currently a plan to remake "Big Man Japan" in the United States. What do you make of this?

Of course, I'm very happy that the film was well-received in America. I wonder if the film will be shot from the point of view of a Japanese person. I also wonder how it will be with an American director. I'm very curious. It's not really that I have to judge this. It's rather the spectators who must decide.

Do you watch any American movies or TV yourself?

I watch "Columbo." I'm very sad about Peter Falk's death.

LOCARNO REVIEW | Jia Zhang-ke Producing Credit Can't Salvage Offbeat "Mr. Tree"

Eric Kohn — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:11:04 GMT

The role of Chinese filmmaking giant Jia Zhang-ke as producer of first-time writer-director Han Jie's "Hello! Shu Xian Sheng" ("Mr. Tree") doesn't properly convey its offbeat vibe. While loaded with considerably interesting ideas, it lacks the requisite energy to link them together. The story follows troubled young slacker Shu (Baoqiang Wang), the resident of a small village who loses his job and can't figure out where he belongs in life. Haunted by the death of his father and older brother years earlier, he grows increasingly disconnected to the world around him. Meanwhile, the plot meanders along in search of a reason to exist, not unlike Shu (whose name means "tree") himself.

However, the lack of an immediate purpose isn't reason enough to dismiss "Mr. Tree." That comes from the complete absence of any rationale for caring about the main character and his existential plight, which consumes each moment of screen time. Somewhat salvaged by Wang's klutzy performance, Jie's screenplay begins in a conventional fashion and then starts to drift.

After screwing up his job in a relative's motor repair shop, Shu meets Xiaomei (Zhuo Tan), a shy deaf girl to whom he's immediately attracted. After a tangent involving Shu's attempt to land a gig as a tutor, he turns back to his romantic pursuit and promptly decides to propose marriage. Neither character has enough depth to make their relationship credible, although that actually makes sense considering what comes next.

One awkward wedding and an even more awkward sex scene later, the relationship falls apart. So begins the darker section of "Mr. Tree," in which Shu confronts the demons of his past through a series of disturbing dreams and visions involving his relatives' ghosts and an upcoming disaster at the local mine. At first a rather curious deadpan comedy, "Mr. Tree" transforms into less explicable "Donnie Darko" knock-off. It's hard to say which is works better since neither one finds its footing.

Despite many shortcomings, "Mr. Tree" plays more like an inspired concept that never find its direction than an outright bomb that never should have been made in the first place. As such, it puts Jie on the map as a curious new voice who might have the capacity for strong character-driven drama. He simply can't figure out what kind of story he wants to tell: The stronger concept involves Shu morphing into a dazed prophet of doom, but it arrives too late in the game. The movie loses its way long before Shu loses his mind.

criticWIRE grade: C+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? With Jia's name attached to it, "Mr. Tree" is likely to continue its path along the festival circuit, but probably not much further. In North America, it may find a welcome home on the Asian American festival circuit, which will help establish Jie's name.

LOCARNO INTERVIEW | Director Julia Loktev: "I'm interested in good people doing bad things."

Eric Kohn — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 05:44:54 GMT

Three years after Julia Loktev's minimalist suicide bomber story "Day Night Day Night" hit theaters, the director has returned with a new film that contains a similarly restrained style but deals with entirely separate issues.

"The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a young engaged couple traveling the Georgian mountainside with an enigmatic guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), facing troublesome cultural barriers and other unexpected developments that shake up their relationship. Intentionally slow, quiet and supremely observational, the movie proves Loktev hasn't lost her touch.

After an afternoon press conference in Locarno, Loktev sat down with indieWIRE to discuss the time between her projects and the inspiration for her latest low-key effort.

It's been four years since "Day Night Day Night." What accounts for the gap?

Part of it is that it takes me awhile to figure out what I want to do. I work slowly. The other thing is that it's just so damn hard to raise the money. We were going to shoot it one year earlier and the money didn't come together. We almost shot it in China, in the Xinjiang Province, and then they had riots. It was initially supposed to take place in Georgia, and then we needed that last piece of money that wasn't happening. It's a story I wanted to set in the mountains, and in China you have a very short period of time to do that, because the mountains are covered in snow for three quarters of the year. I decided to make things easy for myself. We were getting towards the end of the summer and we had an investor who said, "Why don't you come to China?" We went to the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and two weeks later they had riots. The government shut down the province. But the film was always meant to be in Georgia.

Why Georgia?

For me, it's a very intimate thing. I'm from the Soviet Union and Georgia was the jewel of the Soviet Union. It's where my parents traveled to when they were young. My mom hiked for three weeks across the Caucases when she was in university. The place had a mythical proportion in my mind, so it made sense to set it in Georgia. When were in China, we kept looking for landscapes that looked like Georgia. In the end, it came back to where it should be.

How long was the shoot?

The shoot itself was six weeks. It was a bigger budget. Not big enough, but bigger. "Big" is a relative term.

Both "The Loneliest Planet" and ""Day Night Day Night" are very slow, but contain a handful of suspenseful moments. They also both intentionally withhold crucial information about the characters. What do you make of those connections between the films?

I see a disturbing relationship between the two movies: I can't make another film now about people walking around with backpacks. (laughs) It's just pathological at this stage. No, I'm joking. For me, it seems like a very natural progress. It was very different in the sense that you're going from Times Square to the middle of the mountains. I don't know if I set out to have that progression. I treat each film differently, but there are probably some things about the way I treat the motion of people, their faces, the camera, that probably come through.

One significant difference is that you're working with three main characters in "The Loneliest Planet" as opposed to just one in "Day Night Day Night."

Exactly. I was thinking, "Oh my god, I'm going to make a film about people in relationships with each other, not just a girl's relationship with her own mysterious faith." For me, it's all kind of a part of making films. I didn't think of it very differently.

A lot of people compared "Day Night Day Night" to the work of Robert Bresson. What inspirations did you draw from for "The Loneliest Planet"?

There are specific things that I thought about. There are some Soviet films that have a very specific role for the landscape, where it really becomes a character. There's a really beautiful movie called "The Unsent Letter," from the director of "I Am Cuba." It was this little film set in Siberia that had fundamentally little to do with this film but it was a film where the landscape became an intense character. In a weird way, I thought of "Stalker," only because there are three people and it's very, very green. I really love Rossellini's "Voyage in Italy," which has nothing to do with hiking in mountains. But it does have to do with a relationship and this strange coming apart, coming together progression and it's kind of inexplicable.

Since a lot of the movie involves casual dialogue and small actions, it seems like there was a lot of improvisation.

There's a heavy amount of improvisation but within very tight guidelines. I have a very clear idea of what I want to happen and we'll probably get to it at some time, but when is less clear. That's one of the pleasures of shooting. Everyone except for Gael and Hani [Furstenberg] in the film were not professional actors. That's the fun of it: Shoving them into a real house with a grandmother [in the first scene of the film] and letting them hang out while giving them some guidelines.

How much of the story did you work out in advance?

The structures of the conversations were usually written, and then around them there was usually some space for the characters to dance around them. I'm an incredibly rigid control freak, but I like letting things get out of control and then reigning them in. But you start out with a definite ideal of what you're trying to get.

On the one hand, you've made a relationship movie, but it's also about the perils of tourism. How do you reconcile those two themes?

I didn't want to make a "Hostel" thing, although I haven't seen it, but there is a kind of genre of bad things happening to tourists. In generally, I'm utterly uninterested in films about bad things happening to good people. I'm interested in good people doing bad things. That's what interested me in this film. It's not like they're these poor victims; they're not. They're victims of themselves, if anything.

How did you go about creating chemistry between your two actors? Gael Garcia Bernal is obviously a star, while Hani Furstenberg is not so widely known outside of the Israeli theater.

They had really nice chemistry together, so I didn't have to do much for that. They're both really open. They're very curious, open people. They brought nice things out of each other. I can't really take credit for that. I was interested in seeing a different side of Gael that I think we haven't seen: Older, probably. He's a mature actor. He's 30 now. He's not a kid anymore. I was interested in seeing a different aspect of him. It's a very quiet character and he's an amazing physical actor. He hardly speaks for the second half of the movie.

How did you get him interested in the part?

He said he had been dreaming of the Caucuses since he was nine and read "A Hero of Our Time" when he was 12. So apparently he had been harboring this fantasy of going there. It's very easy to make films that make fun of tourists and I didn't want to do that. One of those "let's make fun of Americans" movies. So I think one of the things I wanted to do was reflect the kind of Americans I know: Half of them have accents, half of them were born somewhere else. That becomes a causality. This happens because they're American. I liked that. Also, he's very appealing, you're comfortable in his masculinity, and I think he brought that comfortableness.

More superficially, he also brought star power, which you haven't had in any of your previous works.

Yeah, that helped, but I think he kind of underplayed that in a way. It's a very humble performance, it's not flashy. He grew a beard. I'm obviously weird because I'm open across the board. I cast a well-known actor, Hani, who's well known in Israel, and this guy who has never acted before but he's a professional mountaineer. What does it mean to be an actor? I don't want to say "actor" and "non-actor." If someone is right for the role, they could be a professional or a mountaineer and it makes sense. I think that can be dangerous. When you mix a well-known actor with non-professionals it can be very dangerous.

How did you find the mountaineering character?

We had a line producer in Georgia who climbed over every rock. We were looking for someone who spoke English well enough to play a guide. I met with every English-speaking Georgian actor and then we started meeting with mountain guides. Part of the appeal to me was it would be someone who knows the part inside out. But also I think a guide is a performer. You have a new audience every week, you tell them jokes, you show them things, you're playing for audiences all the time. Bidzina [Gujabidze, who plays the guide] has guided people on expeditions. He's the top mountaineer in Georgia. He got stopped on the street more than Gael. He became our guide, literally, in the film.

How big was your crew?

About a dozen [people]. We had to carry everything. We had these amazing Georgian mountaineers who helped us carry things and were our drivers.

At the Locarno press conference, you mentioned that the audience laughed at certain moments in the film where you didn't expect it, but not in a bad way.

At some point I knew that was going to happen. I hope that you don't walk out of my films knowing what to think, and you don't always react how you think you should react. That's what the film is about: How do you think you respond to something and how do you respond to something?

LOCARNO REVIEW | The Real-Time "Best Intentions" is One Man's Anxiety, Many Points of View

Eric Kohn — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 05:42:57 GMT

In "Best Intentions," a real-time family drama in which a young man continually worries about his mother's health, the tension fluctuates but never sits still. Following up his 2008 directorial debut "Hooked," Romanian filmmaker Adrian Sitaru constructs a temporally complex psychological thriller, mixing contemporary Romanian realist traditions with a thoughtful subjective technique.

The story concerns expectations more than follow-through, so the stakes are always uncertain. However, it compensates for the lack of a strong payoff with unique insight into irrational behavior.

The anxious man in question is Budapest resident Alex (Bogdan Dumitrache), a mid-30s head case first seen squabbling with his girlfriend about her cleaning habits. His anal retentiveness lands a much bigger target moments later, when he gets a call from his father announcing that his mother (Natasa Raab) has been sent to the hospital after a stroke. Initially frozen in shock, Alex slowly pulls himself together and heads for the train station.

The journey is a slow one. Alex makes small talk with a nosy train passenger and calls his father for more details. Here Sitaru introduces his bold narrative device: The passenger is the first of many people whose point of view merges with our own, as the director turns head-cams into the guiding motif. Throughout the movie, many such angles are used, but never from Alex's perspective. Sitaru delves into the nature of anxiety by stepping outside it, while providing a constant reminder that all behavior is in the eye of the beholder.

Alex always feels convinced he has reason for concern. He arrives at the hospital to find his doped-up mom drifting in and out of lucidity. Coping with his father's resigned attitude and a colorful group of hospital inmates, Alex can't sit still. He goes head to head with his mother's easygoing doctor and begins insisting that he move her to another hospital. "The first 24 hours are crucial!" he moans, not only talking about his mother's health but unconsciously referencing his sanity as well.

The night passes without incident and Alex's mother starts to improve, but he remains sick with uneasiness. He can't find a way to turn off his jitters and begins to lash out, eventually becoming ostracized by the people he intends to help. "You believe all the morons," he tells his parents when they insist that all is well. Over time, he starts to slow down and slip up, worsening a situation that has begun to improve and realizing that he could critique his behavior as well anyone else.

Like many Romanian movies of the moment, "Best Intentions" invests heavily in the feeling of time passing. With its organic construction of a hospital environment, the movie begs comparison to "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," although its interests are less grim. With Alex's mother in recovery for most of the running time, "Best Intentions" shifts focus from the illness to its lasting effect on Alex as he comes to grips with the mortality of his loved ones.

In this regard, the ongoing POV shots externalize his emotional transition. Always wide-eyed and on the brink of argument, he refuses to admit his inner frailty and projects it onto others. The movie ends with him as anxious as ever, but more self-aware. While lacking a precise resolution, "Best Intentions" concludes on the brink, one phone call away from disaster -- or at least one man's anticipation of it.

criticWIRE grade: B+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? A committed North American distributor could help ride the art-house interest in recent Romanian films and gain a decent reception for "Best Intentions" in limited release at theaters kind to this type of material like New York's Film Forum, although its long-term commercial prospects are relatively slim.

LOCARNO REVIEW | Why Julia Loktev's "The Loneliest Planet" Earns Its Leisurely Pace

Eric Kohn — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:22:24 GMT

In "Day Night Day Night," Julia Loktev told the quietly experimental tale of a young would-be suicide bomber nervously wandering through the crowd of Times Square, impressing some critics if not much of an audience beyond that. Her long-awaited follow-up, "The Loneliest Planet," deals with noticeably broader terrain and even includes a mid-size star (Gael Garcia Bernal). Both of those factors yield something closer to a conventional viewing experience than the intentionally prosaic momentum of her previous outing. It's a smart, mesmerizing and provocative expansion of her talents.

However, Loktev remains a devout minimalist whose latest work will surely alienate anyone on the opposing side of the fence when it comes to debates concerning "slow cinema," that broadly defined format for certain films with an extremely casual pace. To those naysayers, I would argue that "The Loneliest Planet" at least qualifies as an exemplary version of that vague category, but also that it earns its unhurried approach in spades. Hardly an indolent director, Loktev has much to say about a couple suffering from the inability to say much of anything.

With luscious visuals lending the feel of a travelogue, Loktev follows spirited young couple Alex (Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) as they backpack across the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia a few months ahead of their American wedding. Early fragmentary scenes show them wandering through rural towns, exploring the bustling scene with the giddy expressions of lovers blind to the world's secrets but hypnotized by each other. Then they acquire a smooth-talking guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), head off into the wilderness, and the real journey begins.

Or, rather, it starts to begin. "The Loneliest Planet" contains long stretches of time where the three travelers walk and walk, surrounded by vast green hills, gently flowing streams and little else. Save for pithy conversations around the campfire, they remain largely mute. At first, it becomes a game to wonder when that silence might break, but after awhile the inaction turns into an endless driving force heading nowhere in particular--which is exactly where Loktev wants it to go for the prolonged opening act.

It should come as no surprise that sudden developments eventually shake up the characters' lives and call the couple's relationship into question, but the leisurely pace makes the first incident difficult to predict. Two more eventful moments follow over the course of the movie's 110-minute running time, each contributing a new ingredient to the dynamic shared by Alex and Nica (as well as the enigmatic guide, whose personality eventually enters into the equation).

The performances, particularly Bernal and Furstenberg's ceaselessly ambiguous expressions, provide the essential glue that holds together Loktev's conceit. Her camera (which appears to have been much more expensive than the lightweight DV apparatus used for "Day Night Day Night") stays largely static and observational. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a pay-off worthy of post-screening debate, although it arrives with only brief nuggets of new information that nudge along a virtually non-existent plot.

Although its cast is even smaller than many microbudget film crews, compared to "Day Night Day Night," Loktev has directed an ensemble piece. The expansion from a single, isolated figure in the big city to the multicultural trio in this barren setting results in a movie about several forms of communication: Language, behavior and unstated desires. A natural barrier exists between the couple and their guide, but with time, they discover a similar barrier between each other. The art house answer to recent horror critiques of touristic indulgences (particularly Eli Roth's "Hostel"), Loktev's second feature compellingly argues that we are all foreigners, even to ourselves.

Broadening her storytelling canvas, Loktev displays a strong narrative kinship with Kelly Reichardt. Savants of slow cinema, these filmmakers relish the challenge of allowing evocative stories to emerge from their environments in an organic fashion. It's not just meant as a stamina test; they create the palpable, occasionally haunting sense that while life may amble along, it always has a destination.

criticWIRE grade: A-

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Set to make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, "The Loneliest Planet" will only attract risky distributors willing to take gamble on a blend of strong reviews and Bernal's popularity to drive theatrical attendance. But it should help re-establish Loktev's status as a film artist with a clear vision, even though several years have past since she last shared it.

LOCARNO REVIEW | "Tahrir" Provides an Intimate View of Cairo Protests

Eric Kohn — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:18:15 GMT

A welcome contrast to the Western media's bird's eye view of the seismic January revolution in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the energetic verité documentary "Tahrir: Liberation Square" dives right into the action. As directed and shot by Italian filmmaker Stefano Savona, its principle strength is the immediacy of the content: Assembling a collage of young and old Egyptians united by the prospects of a post-Mubarak future, Savona allows the revolution to speak for itself.

The movie begins on January 30, 2011, the sixth day of the Tahrir Square protests (presumably when Savona first turned his camera on). Although program notes for the film describe it as following three young Egyptians named Elsayed, Noha and Ahmed, Savona follows many others, capturing fragments of passionate conversations and rousing speeches. In a bold maneuver that makes "Tahrir" more expressive than journalistic, he avoids adding captions to the screen that might easily identify any characters. Instead, he collects snippets of tentative excitement in addition mounting fears (the words "a revolution without a leader" are stated more than once).

A good portion of the documentary is made up of chants, most of which relate to the widespread poverty of Egyptian citizens and the gulf between their struggles and the posh lives of their leaders. The call-and-response approach makes the case for viewing the Arab Spring as paragon of grassroots activism in the twenty-first century. "Tell me Egyptian, what do you want?" beckons one leader. The reply: "Egypt wants democracy."

Social media influence abounds. Savona's camera is onstage when Google executive Wael Ghonim addresses the masses about the success of their actions. References to the influential "Khalid Said" Facebook group and mobile phone updates on reports of Mubarak's decision to resign also endow "Tahrir" with a contemporary distinction. Despite those new tools, old dangers remain: Some protesters, drafting demands from the government, express skepticism over whether the domineering Muslim Brotherhood deserves to take the mantle of new leadership.

Packed with one fluid exchange after another, "Tahrir" enthusiastically sprints toward Mubarak's resignation for a rewarding climax. However, despite the intimate perspective, Savona fails to create a cogent movie out of the material. By drifting around, he makes it difficult to identify specific characters or protract a unifying thesis about the events at hand.

Still, "Tahrir" benefits from a first-rate approach to montage that won't quit (perhaps thanks to editor Penelope Bortoluzzi). A vain speech by Mubarak in which he states his intention of "staying in my place to project calm" is shown to the crowd on a ramshackle screen, while cutaways to dozens of faces display an increasing frustration that gives way to aggressive chants ("Game over, Mubarak"). When a poet begins to read one of his recent works to a fellow activist, his voice continues on the soundtrack over images of the protest, giving it a collective voice: "In a country of death, we court the light: Revenge."

Beyond those constructed moments, the appeal of "Tahrir" is intrinsic to the footage. Even the words "the end" are written on a protest sign rather than superimposed end credits. For that reason, "Tahrir" gains much of its value from archival purposes, regardless of whether or not it functions in conventional documentary terms. Lacking any historical distance from the events that would allow for cautious dissection of their ramifications, "Tahrir" leaves open the lingering question of what its contents will look like in years to come, and whether they will merit a sequel.

criticWIRE grade: B+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? The movie's relationship to current events means that it will need to find a distributor in the near future in order to capture the attention of audiences before it sounds too dated. Its best bet is to find those viewers through grassroots community screenings or VOD.

LOCARNO REVIEW | Doc-Fiction Hybrid "Year of the Tiger" Evokes Horrors of Chilean Earthquake

Eric Kohn — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:19:07 GMT

The destructive earthquake that rocked Chile in 2010 provides the starting point for Sebastián Lelio's "The Year of the Tiger" (“El año del tigre”) but as a meditation on insurmountable catastrophe its intentions are highly abstract. Shot in the Chilean countryside two months after the quake struck, the movie uses the remnants of damaged homes and scattered detritus as its sets, and follows only a single character wandering through them. As his journey grows increasingly dreamlike and distant from the instigating event, "The Year of the Tiger" approaches the apotheosis of its poetic intentions before eventually--and perhaps appropriately--losing its way.

The basic premise finds middle-aged prisoner Manuel (Luís Dubo) escaping from prison along with dozens of other inmates on the night of the quake. Breaking from the crowd, he returns to the empty shell that used to be his household, now torn to shreds by a tsunami that most likely took his wife and child with it. Despondent, he continues to his mother's home and promptly discovers her corpse. From there, the narrative becomes increasingly abstract: Manuel encounters a caged tiger washed up on the rocks and sympathizes with its captivity, inspired by the existence of another life and relating to its displacement. Continuing to sift through one heap of rubble after another, Manuel technically heads north to find his wife's relatives, but really heads nowhere in particular.

With only two scenes of prolonged dialogue, "The Year of the Tiger" is virtually a silent film in which the images supersede the vague hints of a plot. Although Lelio (whose last feature was the 2009 Cannes Director's Fortnight entry "Navidad") uses a production method that calls to mind the bomb-addled World War II setting of "Germany Year Zero," his emphasis on otherworldly lyricism places the project on a surreal plane. In visual terms, Manuel's journey across a post-apocalyptic landscape is no less harrowing than "The Road," and even more hopeless because Manuel has virtually no one with whom to share his grief.

Manuel's encounter with a gun-crazy farmer who gives him accommodations for the night only furthers his perception of the world's arbitrary cruelty. Emphasizing that mounting despair, their prolonged discussion about whether or not they deserve their fates culminates with an act of violence, expanding the perception of the environment as a kind of endless purgatory.

After its mesmerizing first half, "The Year of the Tiger" begins to repeat the same images and lose some of its raw emotional strength. The ironic recurring use of a gospel song on the soundtrack ("I'm on my way to Canaan's land") provides an on-the-nose shortcut to externalize Manuel's unspoken desire to find his Shangri-la. But the movie works best when it shows more than it tells.

"The Year of the Tiger" is hardly the first speedy cinematic reaction to a natural disaster. The 2010 Chinese epic "Aftershock" incorporates the 2008 Sichuan quake into its multi-generational tale, while "Vinyan" explores the effects of the 2004 Indian tsunami as a visceral horror film. However, Lelio gets closer to the event in question than either earlier project by mostly avoiding the need to impose a detailed story on events that speak for themselves. While not a documentary per-se, "The Year of the Tiger" is unquestionably a valid document of existential frustration falling on deaf ears.

criticWIRE grade: B+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? With its unique production story and connection to recent events, "The Year of the Tiger" should generate media curiosity as it continues along the festival circuit and gains larger exposure at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Its distribution prospects are limited, but Latin American audiences will likely embrace it.

LOCARNO REVIEW | "The Student" Announces Santiago Mitre as a South American Aaron Sorkin

Eric Kohn — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:14:30 GMT

A speedy depiction of university politics and the spirited radicalism associated with them, "The Student" ("El estudiante") announces 31-year-old Argentinean filmmaker Santiago Mitre as a South American Aaron Sorkin. A screenwriter whose credits include Pablo Trapero's "Carancho" and "Leonera," Mitre uses his directorial debut to craft a fascinatingly heady universe filled with moody young intellectuals and back-stabbing schemes. It might be the first serious political narrative about undergraduate matriculation.

The story revolves around Roque (Esteban Lamothe), a two-time college drop-out who returns to his Buenos Aires campus unsure what to do with his time. University life offers no shortage of opportunities for the disillusioned to waste their time, and Roque quickly starts wasting his days away with late night parties and bedroom trysts, bonding with the equally carefree Paula (Romina Paula), his best friend with benefits. But when Roque falls for the politically-charged assistant professor Valeria (Valeria Correa), his hidden passion for strategic planning comes out to play.

At first simply arm candy for Paula during a staff meeting about the upcoming election of the university dean, Roque confidently speaks up when the faculty resign themselves to supporting a candidate whose platforms no longer conform to their own values. Does Roque actually care who wins or simply enjoy the art of winning? It doesn't matter: His enthusiasm captures the eye of the group's elder statesman, faculty member Alberto Avecedo (Ricardo Felix), a former politician who enlists Roque in a grassroots protest of the election, eventually paving the way for Alberto himself to enter the race. The following weeks and months worth of events shift between Roque's cunning ability to pave a smooth path for his new-found leader without sacrificing the socialist allegiances that helped him woo Paula in the first place. With its likable suave leading man always in danger of letting success get to his head, "The Student" develops into a universal parable about danger of self-confidence among the power-hungry elite.

One of the sharpest campaign movies since "Primary Colors," Mitre's story is almost entirely concerned with the electoral process as an abstract event. Supremely chatty and littered with specific references to Argentinian university culture bound to go unheard by anyone unfamiliar with them, "The Student" nevertheless has a clear-cut arc, which could be seen in its most basic sense as a version of the "Star Wars" mythology with Roque as an academic Anakin Skywalker. Drawn to the excitement of the race, he barely realizes that he has been coaxed into burning bridges until it's too late.

Given that epic dimension, "The Student" is particularly impressive for the smallness of its design. Shot with a crew of six on a micro-budget, the movie never feels sloppy or aimless (although an occasional disinterested voice-over could have been excised). A dense middle section appears to mimic Roque's subjectivity as his immersion in the campaign world reaches a fever pitch, but then the final third increases in clarity, sharply reflecting the character's progression into a mature thinker.

Still, it's easy to get the feeling of becoming lost in the details, but that's what makes "The Student" incredibly engaging in the first place. When the elder Alberto advises Roque that "the secret is never to argue," they have a good laugh. Arguments keep them in the game, even though they paradoxically doom them from the start. As the texture of "The Student" grows more crucial than its specificity, it shrewdly portrays youth activism in motion; that is, students who are never entirely certain of the meaning behind their cause, but utterly convinced that it matters.

criticWIRE grade: A-

HOW WILL IT PLAY? A big hit at the Buenos Aires Film Festival several months ago, "The Student" dropped off the industry's radar until this week when it had its international premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. It should continue to garner strong notices at the Toronto International Film Festival next month and land a home with a midsized U.S. distributor, extending its audience beyond the Latin American market.

LOCARNO REVIEW | "Policeman" Is Not Your Typical Israeli Movie

Eric Kohn — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:53:09 GMT

Everyone seems lost in Nadav Lapid's "Policeman" ("Ha-shoter"), an unsettling story of brawny Israeli anti-terrorist officers and the equally clueless activists they're eventually tasked with hunting down. While blatantly topical, this is not a political film of the moment, but rather a calculated meditation on purpose. Developed by first-time director Lapid at a Cannes Film Festival residency, the script for "Policeman" contains a persistently muted, disquieting tone that the director could expand upon in subsequent efforts. While somewhat problematically fragmented, "Policeman" is loaded with insight into the nuances of Israeli society.

Using a cerebral approach that calls to mind fellow Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai, Lapid follows tough-minded officer Yaron (Yiftach Klein), an ultra-confident man of the law and husband to a very pregnant woman. Biking up a desolate hill with his fellow officers in the first scene, he sprints ahead of the group in extreme close-up, making his domineering nature immediately prominent. But Yaron's hardened exterior has been put to the test by mounting legal troubles he faces along with his colleagues in the wake of an offscreen showdown with Arab militants, which results in an innocent death.

The group makes a mutual decision to officially place the blame on the one member of their unit afflicted with cancer, who readily accepts the role. Viewed by Lapid camera in long, thoughtful takes and distended tracking shots to accentuate the fraternal groupthink of the unit, Yaron's life contains a hauntingly disaffected quality, as if he has become trapped by a need to retain his alpha male presence at all costs--and lost some of his humanity as a result.

Just when it looks like that bubble of self-confidence may burst, Lapid shifts to an entirely separate storyline involving bleeding heart Israeli activists planning a misguided terrorist act against local bureaucrats. Led by a dashing young romantic (Yaara Pelzig), the group talks excitedly about their need to strike out against a society held down by avaricious self-interests.

Lapid script brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the homefront in a manner that few other recent entries in Israeli cinema have: While Eytan Fox's "Bubble" studied pro-Palestinian Israeli youth activists in Tel Aviv, it placed them within a familiar comedic backdrop, positioning the subculture in a cheery genre ready-made for western consumption. "Policeman," which has an experimental formalism that calls to mind Carlos Reygadas, has no such easy access point. Its activists are continually alienated from their cause and no less conflicted about it than Yaron as he struggles with the nature of his duty.

The two stories inevitably converge with an act of violence that brings the country's classism into a gripping climax. However, Lapid cold stylistic approach lessens the possibility of becoming emotionally involved in the plights of his main characters, relegating them to thematic props. Yaron drops out the picture just when he starts to show the cracks in his robust personality.

Nevertheless, when he returns for the exceptional climax, he shows the first signs of doubt, and "The Policeman" adopts a progressive stance. "You are also oppressed," the young activist announces to the policeman before they eagerly dismantle a poorly executed hostage situation while mocking her accusation. Yaron says nothing, but his face speaks volumes about the possibility that some aspect of that vague proclamation has snuck into his mind and held tight. Stuck in a listless world for much of its running time, "Policeman" ends with the slightest hint of progress.

criticWIRE grade: B

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Although the narrative style is too experimental for wide release, "Policeman" should still generate buzz on the festival circuit, particularly at Jewish and Israel-centric film festivals, where its unique take on controversial material is likely to get people talking, whether or not they like what they see.

LOCARNO REVIEW | "Hanaan" Suggests "The Wire" By Way of Robert Bresson

Eric Kohn — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:51:43 GMT

If Robert Bresson directed an episode of "The Wire," it might look something like sad world of drug-fueled anger and broken dreams that dominate first-time director Ruslan Pak's "Hanaan." The Uzbeki filmmaker patiently studies one man's desire to escape his diaspora and find a utopian ideal that constantly eludes him. Shot with a palpably gritty, stripped down look, "Hanaan" thoughtfully explores the nature of its protagonist's dream, bringing striking clarity to his vanity. Despite the supreme downer of a message, Pak's story is elevated by the peace it makes with an indifferent reality.

Pak stars as Stas, a twentysomething Korean-Uzbek descendent of Koreans deported from their homeland three generations earlier. In a short prologue, he recounts his family history as a fairy tale to help a younger relative fall asleep, then stares down at two lines of coke. "Why is your fairy tale so sad?" asks the friend who supplies him with the stuff. "It's not a fairy tale," Stas replies adamantly, explaining that the history of his ancestors' exile gives him the desire to escape Uzbekistan and find the proverbial "land of milk and honey" referenced in the movie's title. Stas tacks on a stipulation: His "Hanaan" does not have to be Korea, although he expresses no other possibility. Although he never again references his abstract need to escape, it becomes the thematic backbone for everything that comes next.

In the following scenes, Pak wastes his days with a drab job at a local garage made interesting by frequent visits from his friends. His trio of companions--Shin, Kasoy and Said--party each night away, but their relatively stable lives take an immediate stumble when they abruptly decide to try heroin. Jacked up and hot-headed, Kasoy decides to go on a revenge-fueled mission to strike out against the neighborhood gangsters responsible for injuring his brother in some undefined dispute. Blind to reason, Kasoy becomes careless, and the incident ends in his death. Then Stas' real tribulations begin.

Six years later, still haunted by demons of the past, each remaining member of the group has found a different form of catharsis: Shin has moved to Korea. Said has become a thieving junkie. Only Stas has found a less precise solution, having inherited Kasoy's career ambition and become a detective still hoping to bring his friend's murderer to justice. Going undercover in a mission of his own making, Stas infiltrates the Uzbeki underworld in a tense attempt to set things right. Instead, he discovers a hopeless chain of dependency that extends beyond the corruption of the drug industry and into the halls of the police station.

Pak's frequent use of close-ups allow for Stas' moral struggles and flagging sense of purpose to become an internal process. Nearly every scene implies a descent into chaos (even the only hint of humor, when Stas dozes off during a stakeout and accidentally fire his gun into the hole of his car, underscores this point). The character finds himself stuck in an endless cycle of dependency that involves both drug usage and an immutable social order. "We are a factory for imprisonment," his boss tells him, saying nothing about serving any greater good.

Although spread across several years, "Hanaan" contains very few major developments. Sticking close to Stas' dramatic ups and downs, the movie reflects his expectation of a directionality to life that never fully comes around until he abruptly decides to take action. And even then the results are mixed.

Intentionally slow and sometimes unfocused, "Hanaan" occasionally feels as aimless as Stas' outlook, but the final scenes develop increasing power. A stand-out sequence involving heroin withdrawal brings Stas' overarching goal into sudden, visceral focus. Gazing off into the horizon, surrounded by the stillness of nature and searching for his promised land, he sees only distant mountains. The implication is clear: No matter how hard he searches, the journey will always continue.

criticWIRE grade: A-

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Shot on the cheap and not exactly concerned with a commercial topic, "Hanaan" is no easy sell. However, it should garner international acclaim on the festival circuit (it plays at the Toronto International Film Festival next month) and land Pak on a list of new talent worth keeping tabs on.

"Monsieur Lazhar" Delivers a Moving Take on the Classroom Drama

Eric Kohn — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:40:03 GMT

The classroom drama has become such a popular genre for social analysis that it can be boiled down to a few essential ingredients: Good-natured but internally conflicted instructor takes on intellectually capable but emotionally stunted class and figures out a way to tame them. "Monsieur Lazhar," the fourth feature from Quebec-based filmmaker Phillippe Falardeau, fulfills these clichés while at the same time transcending them. It has neither the gritty edge of "Half Nelson" nor the screwball energy of "Hamlet 2" but a combination of realism and wit that relates it to both of them. The light, charming exterior services darker tragedies at the root of the story.

There are two of them: For a group of Montreal elementary students, the abrupt suicide of their beloved teacher Martine - discovered by one of the children hanging from a scarf in their classroom during the prologue - brings the trauma of death into their young lives with crude, unmanageable suddenness. Her replacement, the plucky Algerian refugee Bachir Lazhar (the Algerian actor and writer Fellag), has his own problems involving race and family to sort out. From the outset, his relationship to his new disciples is reciprocal.

Based on a play by Évelyne de la Cheneliére, "Monsieur Lazhar" begins with a bleak situation and suddenly brightens up. As the school reels from its widely publicized catastrophe, the genial Bachir seemingly materializes out of thin air, boasting about 19 years of teaching experience in Algeria and eager to begin his 20th.

Desperation works in his favor and the instructor gets to work. In most stories that belong to this tradition, the first act would involve a prolonged adjustment period where the rebellious students refuse to pay heed to their new caretaker until some handy breakthrough changes the terms of the relationship. "Monsieur Lazhar" has a slower progression, with the new teacher finding a class more traumatized than outright rebellious, and thus in immediate need of his support.

"Lazhar," the Bachir tells his students, means "lucky" in Arabic, and initially it appears that Bachir deserves his surname. Outside of the classroom, however, he faces the greater challenge of seeking political asylum after fleeing Algerian criminal attacks that left his wife and children dead. Fragments of courtroom scenes establish Bachir as a refugee while the details of his past remain secret to everyone but him.

Falardeau's screenplay oscillates between Bachir's efforts to help the children overcome their teacher's untimely passing and their own internal struggles to the same amongst each other. Not the only one with a secret to keep, Bachir slowly catches onto the students' feelings of culpability for Martine's death. Fellag's subtle, touching performance is matched by those of his character's closest students, particularly Sophie Nélisse as the fragile Alice, whose classroom writing assignment nearly moves the teacher to tears--less for the advancement of its prose than for the purity of its expression. Encouraging the children to discuss the past allows him to examine his experiences as well. (So do the awkward parent-teacher conferences, where a xenophobic man refuses Bachir's insight into a student because he's "not from around here.")

These events take place under the auspices of a intelligent but generally cheery comedy. Notwithstanding the heavy events at hand, "Monsieur Lazhar" cleverly pokes fun at elementary school politics, from the boundaries of student-teacher interaction (teachers grousing at a meeting about the riskiness of physical interaction with students) to Lazhar's unreasonably adult curriculum (asking his 11 and 12-year-old students to dictate Balzac). Life-affirming in accordance with classic Frank Capra formula, "Monsieur Lazhar" doesn't abuse the backdrop of wartime scars as an excuse for heavy-handed dramatic weight. The affecting nature of the material is well-earned.

Accurately described by a colleague as "'Incendies' meets 'The Class,'" Falardeau's perceptive work grapples with issues of racial conflict and education as a single, unified whole. Despite the cultural specificity of the setting, Bachir's ability to workshop his grief by dealing with that of his students turns the classroom into a microcosm of larger concerns for everyone involved, and a better sanctuary for Bashir's purposes than any government can provide.

Criticwire grade: A-

HOW WILL IT PLAY? After playing to great acclaim at festivals ranging from Toronto to Sundance before getting an extra boost from an Academy Award nomination, "Monsieur Lazhar" finally comes out in limited U.S. release this weekend via Music Box Films. Strong reviews and months of buzz should help it find a respectable audience.

Editor's note: A version of this review originally ran during the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival. "Monsieur Lazhar" opens Friday.

Abel Ferrara: Download Torrents of My Undistributed Movies

Eric Kohn — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:05:42 GMT

[This interview was originally published during the 2011 Locarno Film Festival. Abel Ferrara's latest, "4:44 Last Day on Earth," comes out this Friday, via IFC Films]

Abel Ferrara was in typical form this weekend at the Locarno Film Festival. Those familiar with the director and his distinctive persona know what that means: Ferrara's appeal is defined by wisecracks, self-deprecation and an unmistakable blend of sleaziness and charm - just like his best movies. In town to accept the Swisscom honor from the festival, Ferrara took to the rainy stage of the Piazza Grande on Friday night with a guitar in hand for a wildly uneven trio of folk rock tunes that received an amusingly mixed reaction from the massive crowd (some of whom booed). He also shared a scene from his new feature, the not-quite-finished "4:44 Last Day on Earth," which premieres next month in Venice and stars Willem Dafoe as part of a couple dealing with the imminent demise of mankind.

The next day, the director was in an equally cynical mode for a public conversation at Locarno's Spazio Cinema. Afterwards, he met up with indieWIRE at a nearby café (while hordes of curious Swiss fans looked on). Ferrara discussed his current projects, returning to New York after a long stay overseas, and the best way to find his recent undistributed films on piracy sites.

That was quite a performance you put on at the Piazza last night. Maybe you should put out an album.

Who's going to care about that? Well, I was surprised by how many people were there in the rain. It wouldn't have been me. I wouldn't have been out there. But we should've selected a more exciting clip from the film. We're working on it in the editing room. There's one movie you sit and watch on your telephone and there's one movie you're going to play for 8,500 people in the middle night somewhere. There are a lot of different edits of the movie. It's like I've been saying, working on the internet…we used to make films where we knew what the audience was going to want. These films didn't come out of heaven. You dig what I'm saying? Like "Driller Killer" was made for a specific audience. Right now, it's a matter of whether the tail is wagging the dog or the dog is wagging the dog.

Your new movie, "4:44 Last Day on Earth" is about the end of the world, but it only has two main characters. Presumably this is not a CGI-driven story of the apocalypse.

Well, we might have a shot here and there, but the CGI in it has been misreported. It's a story about a relationship between an actor and an artist, set in New York.

It's good to have you back in New York.

I know, right? I did a few years in Italy. It was good, but you know, the economics of the fucking world…unfortunately, when it's, like, primetime Wall Street, then independent filmmakers have it really bad. These guys are ripping everybody off. But Italy was great. I kept thinking, "Why the fuck didn't I think to come here way before?" We played the Hollywood game and we never had the sense to come to Italy. When you're in New York, you can't really imagine yourself living anywhere else. There's something about that city that really puts a stranglehold on you. When you're raised in New York, there's an expression that if you're not in New York, you're camping out. There's no other city has that 24-hour life. Try to break that habit.

Last night you mentioned that one of the songs you sang was written in the Chelsea Hotel. What do you make of the recent news that the hotel has been closed to guests?

That hotel is going down the tubes. You know when you have a piece of property there in this day and age, it's not going to happen.

This would be a good time for you to release "Chelsea on the Rocks," your documentary about the hotel's history, which includes many famous residents.

Well, I don't think anybody cares now.

I found it was really entertaining.

The movie? Yeah. I mean, you can't miss with that subject matter. You know what I'm saying? We had 40 hours of footage. Every clip was good. I didn't know anything about that hotel, you know what I mean?

Would you want to help save it?

No, no, I'm trying to save my own career. I always think I had it bad, but all those stories about them putting up Milos Forman for two years…the landlords are running the city now. You can have a rent party 24/7.

You mentioned earlier that you've been developing a screenplay about Pier Paolo Pasolini.

We wrote it, and now my producer, who was supposed to be here, has had bypass surgery. This happened two days ago.

What interests you about Pasolini's films?

He's the man, you know? He really is. But again, this is a project that already has financing. Somebody is already going with it. Where do the ideas come from? Well, if you got money behind something, that's a good start. It's an economic deal, man. We're trying to make a living here. Willem Dafoe will play Pasolini. They won't do a film about Pasolini unless an American actor is in it.

So it's going to be in English?

That's a real point, right? OK, so that I've been fighting about since I got to Italy. Any Italian story needs Italian actors, right? And there are great Italian actors. But they don't want to use them. It's impossible. At this point, I'm throwing in the towel, because I'm tired of arguing. They can't show an Italian movie. A movie that's in Italian can't be financed if you're trying to recreate 1975.

It's interesting to hear you talk about financing problems outside of the U.S., since you've had a pretty rough time making movies in the U.S. Your last several features weren't even distributed in North America.

The only thing you need to see them is the internet. Go find the torrents. That's my big distributor. You got to leave it to that. They're all on there. I just don't want to find the one I'm working on. That's the only thing that scares me. But just go on the internet for the rest.

Locarno is screening four of your films: "Bad Lieutenant," "King of New York, "Mary" and "The Funeral." Do you feel that accurately represents what you do?

I wouldn't have selected those films, because those are films people have already seen. I would have selected "'R-Xmas," "Go Go Tales," "Chelsea on the Rocks, or "Napoli, Napoli, Napoli," the films we've just made.

"Go Go Tales" played in competition at Cannes. I remember you were very proud at the festival that you were able to make a set in Rome look like a Chelsea nightclub.

The thing about "Go Go Tales" is that I tried to make it for a long, long time. I couldn't believe we actually ended up making it. Now, I care if it comes out. Back then, I didn't. There were so many times we actually built the set and I watched the set being thrown out into the street. I saw the set we kept making for $5 million thrown out into the street because we couldn't make a payment for the rent.

Sounds like the plot of the movie.

Yeah, it was exactly like the movie. I said, "Damn, this film does not want to be made." And then we made it big-time, the way we really wanted to make it. Hey, that film's going to last forever, so I can't get that hung up on whether my films come out. Yeah, sure, it's a lot easier if they come out. But you can't not play the game and then bitch about it. It's like, go and get an agent and live in L.A. and kiss some ass. Then maybe your film will come out.

What do you make of the way you're treated as an auteur in Europe but a trashier filmmaker in the U.S.?

My kind of filmmakers don't really exist. There's, like, what? Scorsese's a big-time Hollywood filmmaker. So's Oliver Stone. So's Spike Lee. So are the Coen brothers. [David] Lynch doesn't even want to make films anymore. I've talked to him about it, OK? I can tell when he talks about it. I'm a lunatic, and he's pushing transcendental meditation. These guys can't put up with it. George Lucas - you watch "THX 1138" and anything else - they're not into it. America is about grinding out product. That's what makes America. That's the deal.

At one point, there was an independent film field from 1990 to 1994. You had one window and then those guys all sold out. I ain't blaming them, because we probably sold out with them, but it ain't what it was. What I like now is that no one's going to theaters, and these guys are all like, "What the fuck is going on?" So now what? OK, dude, just when you thought you had the whole fucking game figured out, now the game is gone. I ain't got the answer, they ain't got the answer.

Since you like the internet, why not ask your fans to fund your next project? Crowdsourcing is hot now.

I just want to raise money from people who have money. The last thing I want is some poor slob who has less money than me to give me money he ain't gonna get back. But I know what you're saying. Believe me: I will resort to that.

Locarno REVIEW | Despite Fix to Formula, Comic Misadventure "Headhunters" Recalls "The Fugitive"

Eric Kohn — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 09:52:49 GMT

The heroes of great crime stories generally come equipped with extreme inferiority complexes. If there's a list ranking those wily characters, then Roger Brown, the daring art thief anti-hero of Morten Tyldum's widely enjoyable Norwegian action-comedy "Headhunters," belongs somewhere in the pantheon.

Adapted from Jo Nesbo's novel by screenwriters Lars Gudmestad and Ulf Ryberg from the novel, "Headhunters" announces itself as a routine heist movie by letting Roger's perspective dominate. Not knowing that his self-made world will soon collapse around him, Roger (Aksel Hennie) boasts an introductory voiceover about his art thieving routine and his ability to prevent his supposedly loving wife Diana (Synnove Macody Lund) from learning about it. Noting his 1.68 meter height, which causes Diana and everyone else to loom over him, Roger explains that he makes up for the physical shortcoming by achieving power in other ways, successfully hiding his criminal life by working a day job as the influential headhunter at a major Norwegian firm.

The slick early scenes establish Roger as a bite-size Danny Ocean. Learning about a colleague's priceless artwork, he hires a goon to help him with an ambitious plan to make millions lifting it. However, while "Headhunters" begins with Roger laying out the rules of good art robbery, the story suddenly breaks them by veering off in another direction. After a sudden death ruins Roger's plan, he begins to suspect his wife (whose shapely physique suggests Sharon Stone circa "Basic Instinct") and a coworker (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) not only know about Roger's thieving shenanigans but have been plotting against him. Afraid for his life and trusting no one, Roger hits the road, at which point "Headhunters" suddenly transforms into an occasionally ingenious riff on "The Fugitive" as a bizarrely comic misadventure.

Roger doesn't know why he's on the lam, but he barely has time to figure it out. In a blitz from one close call with a man trying to kill him to another involving the police, "Headhunters" maintains an inspired lunacy. After gags involving microtransmitters, a fecal matter disguise, and the unexpectedly gruesome death of a guard dog, the solution to Roger's conundrum is virtually irrelevant. The thrilling pace compensates for fairly hollow characterizations of everyone but Roger, but no matter how clever the story gets, it still retains a general sense of familiarity. Tyldum keeps the events engaging but never transcendent.

Nevertheless, directing his third feature after "Buddy" and "Fallen Angels," the director displays a strong capacity for lively action sequences. He's particularly skilled at playing with visual details, most notably crafting a tense moment in which Roger must play dead and nearly loses his composure with each passing second.

Petite but never pathetic, Hennie is an ideal actor for the lead role, coming across as a Gollum-like hustler whose confident exterior gradually comes undone until he transforms into a figure of slapstick. Roger's routine ability to take advantage of his environment by thinking quick on his feet, inevitably winding up in another jam, calls to mind Buster Keaton in a role he might have enjoyed playing himself.

Still, the genre "Headhunters" inhabits doesn't take easily to humor. Tyldum need to stick close to formulaic guidelines constantly holds down its potential, leading to a half-assed conclusion that's out of proportion with the energetic series of events leading up to it. After an exhilarating ride, however, it's no surprise that "Headhunters" eventually comes crashing back to Earth.

criticWIRE grade: B+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Well-received in the Piazza Grande section of the Locarno Film Festival, "Headhunters" may not get quite as much attention when it screens at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. However, the film has had North American distribution since Magnolia picked it up at the Berlinale market earlier this year, and will likely perform well on VOD.

LOCARNO INTERVIEW | Joe Cornish on "Attack the Block" vs. "Cowboys and Aliens"

Eric Kohn — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:18:06 GMT

Joe Cornish has been busy lately. In March, the British comedian-turned-filmmaker premiered his directorial debut, "Attack the Block," at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Sony Screen Gems released it last weekend in North America, but Cornish's work continues. This weekend, he journeyed to Locarno, Switzerland, where the film played on Friday night to a massive crowd in the Piazza Grande as an official selection of the Locarno Film Festival.

Produced by his colleague Edgar Wright, "Attack the Block" follows a group of lower class South London teens fending off a horde of carnivorous alien invaders. Released in the U.S. the same weekend as "Cowboys and Aliens," the movie was warmly received as a carefully executed evocation of 1980's fantasy tales of the "Gremlins" variety. That's not the only reason Cornish should feel happy now: He and Wright share writing credits on Steven Spielberg's upcoming "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn." Shortly before jetting off to Italy for a meeting, Cornish sat down with indieWIRE to discuss the success of "Attack the Block" as well as the inevitable comparisons to "Cowboys and Aliens."

When "Attack the Block" premiered at SXSW, you expressed some anxiety that the thick British accents would scare off U.S. distributors. Now that the movie has been released in North America by Sony Screen Gems, how do you feel about that initial presumption?

Well, I don't think that the subtitle issue was every seriously raised by anybody at Sony or in the U.K. by anybody specifically. It was a journalist who suggested it, and then it got sort of echoed and repeated around websites. But I didn't mind that; I love anybody talking about the film in any way. There was never a question that it would happen. Clint Culpepper from Sony Screen Gems was adamant that he wouldn't touch the film at all. He was even resistant to putting Screen Gem's logo on it, because he loved it for what it was, and that has informed their whole marketing strategy to just put it out there, screen it and let people advocate it themselves - to make it a very honest and direct proposition.

You mean the marketing was very hands-off?

They just wanted to let people own it. So many large movies come to you with a huge marketing campaign and it's like you have to see this movie this weekend, otherwise you'll be culturally bankrupt and can't converse with your friends. I think "Attack the Block" is just something that people can feel they own it if they like. I'd like it to be a film like that. I love films like that, that I discover and can tell my friends about.

Were you surprised that the movie gained momentum on the festival circuit and landed good reviews? An '80s-style sci-fi action movie set in a lower class British neighborhood isn't the easiest proposition.

It's a hard question to answer. When you make something, you obviously have to have part of your brain that's going, "This could be amazing." Otherwise, you wouldn't make it. Of course, there's another part of your brain that's going, "This could be a disaster, but it's worth of shot." So there's no single expectation. I have all sorts of random, crazy expectations depending on how happy or tired I am, just like anybody. The fact that it seems to have a little momentum, the fact that it's here at Locarno and was at SXSW, yeah, it's amazing for a first film.

Did you expect it to land U.S. distribution?

I didn't expect it, but I hoped it would. I think the Britishness of the film did put off some distributors, but we were very lucky to find Mr. Culpepper, to find someone as adventurous and as imaginative as him.

You're very open about the movie's low budget, and the special effects certainly don't look expensive - although that's part of the charm. How did you make peace with the cheap look?

Well, people would say that during the production. The producers were certainly anxious about the look of the creatures, but I kept saying that as long as they look fairly cool and clever enough, I don't think it matters. Did it matter that the Gremlins looked like hand puppets or that the tips of Yoda's ears wobbled? Did it matter that E.T. looked a mold? It didn't. If the story around them is strong enough…an amazing-looking monster is not going to make a film. "Jaws," one of the greatest monsters movies of the last 50 years, shows that. I think it's fairly obvious to say that the quality of the monster is important, but it's not the be-all, end-all. I was keeping my fingers crossed on that being true.

The movie opened in the U.S. on July 29, the same weekend as "Cowboys and Aliens." Both movies are also screening in Locarno's Piazza Grande section. What are your thoughts on that pairing?

I think that was quite a clever idea. It wasn't my decision, but they're not stupid at Screen Gems. They know what they're doing. That was a clever bit of counter-programming. Jon Favreau has been very supportive of the film. He introduced one of the screenings at the Arclight, which was really generous. We opened on eight screens [nationwide]. I think they opened on several more. (laughs) So I don't think there's any actual conflict. It was just a crafty little way for the film to get some attention in a really crowded year.

A number of reviews compared the movies. Did you read them?

Yeah, I did look at some of those. I haven't seen "Cowboys and Aliens" yet since I've been too busy doing this stuff. It hasn't opened in the U.K. yet. I can't wait to see it.

Locarno's opening night film was "Super 8," so there were many aliens descending on the Piazza this year.

I think it's cool for film fans and writers to compare a lot of different takes on an archetype. That can be fun: seeing it set in the late Seventies, in a Spielbergian way; seeing in a grimy, lo-fi British way; seeing it in an old west way.

Re-watching the movie on the Piazza last night, I was struck by how carefully you emulate the movies that inspired you. It's got a lot of Joe Dante in it.

That's nice of you to say. I was 41 when I made the film and I've loved movies since I was a kid so there's a lot of stuff in my head waiting to be expressed. I'm a huge fan of Joe Dante and he saw the film. He really liked it. We sent some emails to and fro, and that's amazing to have a hero like what you do. Walter Hill also saw it and liked it. The fact that Spielberg saw it is incredible.

What did Spielberg say?

He said he loved it. I didn't push him any further. The conversation switched to other things. I didn't want to push him in case he had reservations. That was enough for me.

Speaking of Spielberg, had you already worked on his "Tintin" screenplay prior to making "Attack the Block"?

Yeah, I had finished my work on "Tintin" before we started shooting "Attack the Block." I was working on the "Attack the Block" screenplay concurrently with "Tintin." I have to stress that I'm a small, small part of "Tintin." Steven Moffat is the main writer. Edgar Wright and I came in and did a bit of work on it. Plus the names, director and producer are amazing; the material is incredible. Herge's work is obviously legendary.

Can you talk about the differences between working on a studio script and directing a low budget project?

I always thought that was kind of inherent in the premise of "Attack the Block" because the aliens are something from a Hollywood movie, but they crash-land somewhere that couldn't be less Hollywood. The initial treatment for "Attack the Block" used to start with the line, "This is the alien invasion in the last place you'd expect to find one." That's what appealed to me: To set a Hollywood story in a place you almost were permitted to have fantasies. It's as if the characters in that world, cinematically, are only allowed to inhabit socio-realist, downbeat dramas. They're not permitted to play in the Hollywood playground.

Have you screened the film for that community?

Absolutely. It's gone over very well. Most people seem to understand what we're trying to do and enjoy it.

Have you received offers on the basis of this movie's reception?

I've certainly got lots of nice, interesting enthusiasm from studios. I have another idea for something I want to do, but I don't have any game plan. This has all happened quite fast. It's almost as if we hadn't had a chance to take a breath.

Mia Hansen-Love's Smart "Goodbye First Love" Critiques the Clichés of Teen Romance

Eric Kohn — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 11:29:32 GMT

Director Mia Hansen-Love is only 30 years old, but her three films already contain textures sharply attuned to the experiences of a long life. This may have something to do with her close kinship to Olivier Assayas, who cast her in "Late August, Early September" as well as "Les destinées," reportedly kickstarting her interest in filmmaking and helping establish her own directorial style as well. (The two are now engaged and have a child.)

Hansen-Love's last feature, "The Father of My Children," was a tragic story of personal obsession with a structural surprise at the midway point that broadened its scope, exploring the resolve of a tortured auteur's offspring when faced with his shattered legacy. By contrast, Hansen-Love's third feature, "Goodbye First Love," folds in on itself: The story of a teen romance that won't die, it holds so tightly to feelings of lovesickness that it eventually inhabits them.

The teen romance at the center of "Goodbye First Love" imbues it with a nostalgic atmosphere. In that regard, it echoes Assayas' "Summer Hours" by lyrically evaluating a single character's emotional trajectory over the course of several years. Opening in 1999, the story follows 15-year-old Camille (Lola Créton) and her mad love affair with the equally passionate 19-year-old Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky). But Sullivan has other passions as well, including a desire to travel the world by himself, which troubles the hyper-romantic Camille to no end. "I cry because I'm melancholic," she moans to her cynical mother, who amusingly suggests she just go watch a movie. Instead, Camille pops some pills and winds up in the hospital, buried in grief before deciding to move on. Or does she?

Years pass by with the abruptness of a scene change, maintaining the sense that little about Camille's sentiments have shifted. Still obsessed with the long-absent Sullivan, the slightly older woman falls into a loveless affair with her architecture teacher and attempts to move on, right in time for Sullivan to return to the scene. In a predictably quirky romance, Sullivan's arrival might play like a late act twist, but Hansen-Love takes a quieter approach.

Their passions quickly rekindled, Camille forgives and forgets her previous heartbreak for the sake of reliving the excitement of her original affair. Tenderly embodied by relative newcomer Créton (who also appeared in Catherine Breillat's "Bluebeard"), Camille is a fascinatingly sympathetic creation, slave to her destructive whims to matter how much everyone around her calls them out.

Unfortunately, since Hansen-Love never stays far from observing her delicate heroine, "Goodbye First Love" lacks a dramatic edge to keep up with its profound characterizations. On the one hand, the movie works as a relatively simplistic two-hander about a couple fated to repeat the same ups and downs indefinitely, begging comparisons to Maren Ade's recent talky romance "Everyone Else," although neither Camille nor Sullivan have the verbal acuity to properly verbalize their problems in the same fashion. (They do try quite a bit.) In both movies, however, one of the character's obsession with architecture appears to reflect a need to compartmentalize the world as a means of making up for an inability to do the same thing for their intangible feelings.

But "Goodbye First Love" derives its chief strength from the dichotomy drawn between Camille's perspective and Hansen-Love's observation of it. The director sympathizes with her creation (and presumably draws from real life to create her) while allowing the pathological dimension of her obsession with Sullivan to critique inexperienced romantic desire. In that regard, it treads ground similar to Drake Doremos' acclaimed Sundance entry "Like Crazy," a far more conventional look at the strain of long distant relationships.

Whereas "Like Crazy" works hard to make its young lovers appear destined for each other as a typical means of making the inevitable heartbreak that much harder to take, "Goodbye First Love" acknowledges the challenge of making characters both real and likable at once: When Camille and Sullivan see a movie together, Sullivan complains that "the actors are annoying and complaisant," to which an adamant Camille replies that he's "not sensitive enough." By comparison, "Goodbye First Love" is just sensitive enough.

criticWIRE grade: B+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Already acclaimed by European critics and released in France, "Goodbye First Love" also played to strong reactions at Toronto and New York Film Festival. Sundance Selects has picked up it up for a U.S. release, and it's a delicate enough movie to generate decent numbers in limited release, although it should generate its biggest numbers on VOD.

Editor's note: A version of this review originally ran during the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival.

Locarno Sets Slate For 64th Edition

Peter Knegt — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:58:52 GMT

The Festival del film Locarno has set the full slate for its 64th edition, which takes place August 3-13, 2011 in Locarno, Switzerland. Major American titles like Jon Favreau's "Cowboys and Aliens," Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive," Kevin Smith's "Red State," J.J. Abrams' "Super 8" and Will Gluck's "Friends With Benefits" will stand along side an eclectic mix of international film, including 14 world premieres in the festival's competitive Concorso internazionale program.

Films screening in the latter program include Mike Cahill's "Another Earth," Danielle Arbid's "Beirut Hotel," Nicholas Klotz's "Low Life," Julia Loktev's "The Loneliest Planet," Marco Van Geffen's "Onders On," and Mia-Hansen Love's "Un Amour de Jeunesse"

Olivier Père, the artistic director of the festival, said with regard to the Concorso internazionale program in a statement:

This competition, both open-minded and demanding, brings together several major names in contemporary cinema who have already produced a body of work that has been acclaimed at many festivals - Locarno regulars, and those invited for the first time, as well as young auteurs from all over the world whose talent and skill already prove they are ripe for international competition.

Père also noted that the festival, while "faithful to its origins," is also resolutely looking forward, and continues "its adventurous course, always attentive to change in film and the emergence of new talent."

"It continues to strive to limit the number of films selected," he continued, "in order to guarantee maximum visibility of those selected while offering a range of appealing and tempting views of world cinema, film production in all its forms and landmarks in film history."

Those expected to attend this 64th edition include Claudia Cardinale, Ingrid Caven, Kabir Bedi, Guy Bedos, Abel Ferrara, Mike Medavoy, Bruno Ganz, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Claude Goretta, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Kati Outinen, Pierre Richard, Maribel Verdú, Anri Sala, Daniel Brühl and Nicolas Winding Refn.

Below is the lineup for four of the festival's feature film programs. Check the festival's website for special programs and short film programs.

Piazza Grande
An enormous square that can accommodate up to 8,000 viewers a night, the Piazza Grande is both the Festival’s heart and its showcase. With its giant screen, one of the biggest in Europe, endowed with truly exceptional projection quality, the Piazza Grande is one of the finest open- air venues in the world. This magnificent and unique setting is where every night all the many and diverse Festival audiences come together for a big cinematic event. The programming on the Piazza Grande offers prestigious screenings, most of them world, international or European premieres, introduced by the director and the cast.

4 TAGE IM MAI (4 Days in May) by Achim von Borries
Germany/Russia/Ukraine – 2011 – 97 min with Pavel Wenzel, Aleksei Guskov, Ivan Shvedoff, Andrey Merzlikin, Sergey Legostaev, Maksim Kovalevski Production: X Filme Creative Pool GmbH Coproduction: ZAO Studio F.A.F., LLC Aurora Production, HR, Arte/Strasbourg, NDR International Sales: The Match Factory World Premiere

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS by Vincente Minnelli
United States – 1951 – 113 min with Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron Retrospettiva Vincente Minnelli

ATTACK THE BLOCK by Joe Cornish
United Kingdom – 2011 – 88 min with Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega and Nick Frost Production: Big Talk Pictures Coproduction: Studio Canal, UK Film Council, Film4 International Sales: Studio Canal Swiss Distributor: Frenetic Films First Film

BACHIR LAZHAR by Philippe Falardeau
Canada – 2011 – 94 min with Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Émilien Néron Production: micro_scope International Sales: Films Distribution Swiss Distributor: Agora Films World Premiere

COWBOYS & ALIENS by Jon Favreau
United States – 2011 – 115 min with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde Production: Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Reliance Entertainment International Sales: Universal Pictures International Swiss Distributor: Universal Pictures International Switzerland European Premiere

DRIVE by Nicolas Winding Refn
United States – 2011 – 95 min with Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac Production: Bold Films, Odd Lot Entertainment, Marc Platt Productions, Seed Productions International Sales: Sierra / Affinity Swiss Distributor: Ascot Elite Entertainment Group / Elite Film AG

ET SI ON VIVAIT TOUS ENSEMBLE? (And If We All Lived Together) by Stéphane Robelin
France/Germany – 2011 – 96 min with Jane Fonda, Géraldine Chaplin, Pierre Richard, Claude Rich, Guy Bedos, Daniel Brühl Production: Les Films de la Butte, Rommel Film, Manny Films, Studio 37 International Sales: The Match Factory Swiss Distributor: Frenetic Films World Premiere – Closing film

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS by Will Gluck
United States – 2011 – 109 min with Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Woody Harrelson Production: Castle Rock Entertainment, Olive Bridge Entertainment, Screen Gems, Zucker Productions International Sales: The Walt Disney Company Swiss Distributor: The Walt Disney Company Switzerland

HEADHUNTERS by Morten Tyldum
Norway/Denmark/Germany – 2011 – 101 min with Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund Production: Friland film as, Yellowbird Norge AS Coproduction: Nordisk film A/S, ARD Degeto Film GmbH International Sales: Trustnordisk Swiss Distributor: Ascot Elite Entertainment Group / Elite Film AG World Premiere

HELL by Tim Fehlbaum
Germany/Switzerland– 2011 – 86 min with Hannah Herzsprung, Lars Eidinger, Stipe Erceg, Angela Winkler Production: Caligari Film- und Fernsehproduktions GmbH Coproduction: Vega Film AG International Sales: Beta Cinema Swiss Distributor: Vega Distribution AG First Film – International Premiere

L’ART D’AIMER (The Art of Love) by Emmanuel Mouret
France – 2011 – 85 min with Ariane Ascaride, Frédérique Bel, François Cluzet, Julie Depardieu, Judith Godrèche, Gaspard Ulliel, Élodie Navarre Production: Moby Dick Films, Partizan Films International Sales: Kinology Swiss Distributor: Ascot Elite Entertainment Group / Elite Film AG World Premiere

LE HAVRE by Aki Kaurismäki
Finland/France/Germany – 2011 – 93 min with André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin Production: Sputnik, Pyramide Productions, Pandora Film Co-Production: ARTE France Cinéma, ZDF/Arte International Sales: The Match Factory Swiss Distributor: Filmcoopi Zürich AG

MOURIR AUPRÈS DE TOI by Spike Jonze and Simon Cahn
France – 2011 – 6 min Animation Production: Realitism Films International Premiere

RED STATE by Kevin Smith
United States – 2011 – 97 min with Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman Production: The Harvey Boys International Sales: IM Global International Premiere

ROMANCE by Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland – 2011 – 7 min Animation Production: Studio GDS World Premiere

SAYA ZAMURAI (Scabbard Samurai) by Hitoshi Matsumoto
Japan – 2011 – 103 min with Takaaki Nomi, Sea Kumada, Itsuji Itao Production: Yoshimoto Kogyo, Kyoraku Sangyo International Sales: Phantom Film International Premiere – Tribute to Hitoshi Matsumoto

SPORT DE FILLES (Of Women and Horses) by Patricia Mazuy
France/Germany – 2011 – 105 min with Bruno Ganz, Marina Hands, Josiane Balasko, Isabel Karajan Production: Lazennec Films, Maïa Cinéma, Vandertastic Films International Sales: Le Pacte Swiss Distributor: Pathé Films World Premiere – Tribute to Bruno Ganz

SUPER 8 by J.J. Abrams
United States – 2011 – 111 min with Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Gabriel Basso, Noah Emmerich Production: Amblin Entertainment, Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures International Sales: Universal Pictures International Swiss Distributor: Universal Pictures International Switzerland Opening Film

-the lineup continues on the next page-

Concorso internazionale
The Concorso internazionale presents a stimulating panorama of contemporary auteur cinema, where young talent rubs shoulders with that of established directors. A jury of major figures in cinema is charged with choosing one of the twenty competing fiction or documentary features from all over the world screened as world or international premieres to win the prestigious Pardo d’oro.

ABRIR PUERTAS Y VENTANAS (Back to Stay) by Milagros Mumenthaler
Argentina/Switzerland/Holland – 2011 – 99 min with María Canale, Martina Juncadella, Ailín Salas, Julián Tello Production: Alina film, Ruda Cine Coproduction: Waterland Film, Fortuna Films, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Sales: The Match Factory Swiss distributor: Look Now! First Film – World Premiere

ANOTHER EARTH by Mike Cahill
United States – 2011 – 92 min with William Mapother, Brit Marling, Jordan Baker Production: Artists Public Domain World Sales: Fox Searchlight Pictures International Premiere

BEIRUT HOTEL by Danielle Arbid
Lebanon/France – 2011 – 98 min with Darine Hamze, Charles Berling, Fadi Abi Samra, Rodney El Haddad Production: Les films Pelléas, Maïa Cinéma World Sales: Films Distribution World Premiere

CRULIC – DRUMUL SPRE DINCOLO (Crulic - The Path to Beyond) by Anca Damian
Romania/Poland – 2011 – 72 min Animation Production: Aparte film Coproduction: Fundacja im. ferdynanda magellana World Sales: Wide Management
World Premiere

DERNIÈRE SÉANCE (Last Screening) by Laurent Achard
France – 2011 – 81 min with Pascal Cervo, Karole Rocher, Mireille Roussel Production: Les Films du Worso Coproduction: Dragon 8, Mikros Image, Arane Productions World Sales: Les Films du Losange World Premiere

DIN DRAGOSTE CU CELE MAI BUNE INTENTII (Best Intentions) by Adrian Sitaru
Romania – 2011 – 105 min with Bogdan Dumitrache, Natasa Raab, Marian Râlea, Alina Grigore Production: Hifilm Productions World Sales: Films Boutique World Premiere

EL AÑO DEL TIGRE (The Year of the Tiger) by Sebastián Lelio
Chile – 2011 – 82 min with Luis Dubo, Sergio Hernández, Viviana Herrera Production: Fabula World Sales: Funny Balloons World Premiere

HASHOTER (Policeman) by Nadav Lapid
Israel – 2011 – 107 min with Yiftach Klein, Yaara Pelzig, Michael Mushonov, Menashe Noi Production: Laila Films LTD World Sales: Wide Management First Film – International Premiere

LES CHANTS DE MANDRIN (Smugglers’ Songs) by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche
France – 2011 – 97 min with Jacques Nolot, Kenji Levan, Christian Milia-Darmezin, Sylvain Roume, Salim Ameur-Zaïmeche, Jean-Luc Nancy, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche Production: Sarrazink Productions Coproduction: Maharaja Films World Sales: MK2 World Premiere

LOW LIFE by Nicolas Klotz
France – 2011 – 128 min with Camille Rutherford, Arash Naimian, Luc Chessel, Michael Evans, Maud Wyler, Winson Calixte Production: Agora Films Coproduction: Maïa Cinéma, Les Films du Losange, Rhone-Alpes Cinéma World Sales: Les Films du Losange World Premiere

MANGROVE by Frédéric Choffat and Julie Gilbert
Switzerland/France – 2011 – 70 min with Vimala Pons, Solal, Giovanna Cavasola, Efren Mendez Avalos Production: Les Films du Tigre Coproduction: Red Star Cinéma, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Sales: Les Films du Tigre Swiss distributor: Agora Films World Premiere

ONDER ONS (Among Us) by Marco Van Geffen
Holland – 2011 – 84 min with Dagmara Bak, Natalia Rybicka, Rifka Lodeizen Production: Lemming Film World Sales: Elle Driver First Film – World Premiere

SAUDADE by Katsuya Tomita
Japan – 2011 – 167 min with Tsuyoshi Takano, Hitoshi Ito, Dengaryu Production: Kuzoku International Premiere

SETTE OPERE DI MISERICORDIA (Seven Acts of Mercy) by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio
Italy/Romania – 2011 – 100 min with Roberto Herlitzka, Olimpia Melinte, Ignazio Oliva, Stefano Cassetti, Cosmin Corniciuc Production: La Sarraz Pictures Coproduction: Elefant Film World Premiere

TANATHUR (Last Days in Jerusalem) by Tawfik Abu Wael
Israel/France/Germany – 2011 – 81 min with Ali Badarni, Lana Hajyahia, Kais Nashef, Zuhaira Sabbagh, Huda Al-Iman, A’mer Hkehel Production: Lama Films, Sophie Dulac Productions, Cabiria Films, Neue Pegasos World Premiere – Open Doors Project 2007

TERRI by Azazel Jacobs
United States – 2010 – 105 min with Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly, Creed Bratton, Bridger Zadina, Olivia Crocicchia Production: Verisimiltude Coproduction: Silverwood Films, Periscope Entertainment, KnowMore World Sales: Coach14 International Premiere

THE LONELIEST PLANET by Julia Loktev
United States/Germany – 2011 with Gael García Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, Bidzina Gujabidze Production: Flying Moon Filmproduktion, Parts and Labor, Wild Invention World Sales: The Match Factory World Premiere

TOKYO KOEN by Shinji Aoyama
Japan – 2011 – 119 min with Haruma Miura, Nana Eikura, Manami Konishi, Haruka Igawa Production: d-rights Inc., Showgate Inc., Amuse Inc., Nikkatsu Corporation, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc., Memory-Tech Corporation, Yahoo Japan Corporation International Premiere

UN AMOUR DE JEUNESSE (Goodbye First Love) by Mia Hansen-Løve
France/Germany – 2011 – 110 min with Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Magne-Håvard Brekke, Valérie Bonneton, Serge Renko Production: Les films Pelléas, Razor Film Coproduction: Arte France Cinéma, Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, WDR/Arte, Jouror Productions World Sales: Films Distributions Swiss distributor: Frenetic Films International Premiere

VOL SPÉCIAL by Fernand Mélgar
Switzerland – 2011 – 103 min Documentary Production: Climage Coproduction: RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, Arte G.E.I.E Swiss distributor: Look Now!
World Premiere

Fuori concorso
The Fuori concorso selection offers recent work – feature, shorts, film essays, and documentaries – by well-established filmmakers, presented out of competition. A place is offered to work presented in non-standard formats, such as collective projects or collections of films, mostly as world, international or European premieres.

1 DUE 100 OFFICINE by Danilo Catti
Switzerland – 2011 – 74 min Documentary Production: Associazione Treno dei Sogni Co-production: Radiotelevisione Svizzera RSI World Premiere

BUENAS NOCHES, ESPAÑA by Raya Martin
Spain/Philippines – 2011 – 70 min Production: Pantalla Partida Co-production: ACC Cinematografica Films International Sales: Pantalla Partida
World Premiere

CARTE BLANCHE by Heidi Specogna
Switzerland/Germany – 2011 – 91 min Documentary Production: PS Film GmbH Co-production: Specogna Film
World Premiere

ELS NOMS DE CRIST (The Names of Christ) by Albert Serra
Spain – 2010 – 193 min Production: Andergraun Films S. L.

GLAUSER by Christoph Kühn
Switzerland – 2011 – 72 min Documentary Production: Ventura film sa Co-production: SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen Swiss distributor: Filmcoopi Zürich AG
World Premiere

GOTTHARD SCHUH. UNA VISIONE SENSUALE DEL MONDO by Villi Hermann
Switzerland – 2011 – 89 min Documentary Production: Imagofilm SA Lugano, RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen International Sales: Imagofilm SA Lugano World Premiere

INCONSCIO ITALIANO by Luca Guadagnino
Italy – 2011 – 100 min Documentary Production: First Sun World Premiere

LET THE BULLETS FLY by JIANG Wen
China – 2010 – 132 min with CHOW Yun-fat, JIANG Wen, GE You, Carina LAU Production: Emperor Motion Picture (International) Limited, Beijing Buyilehu Film And Culture Limited, China Film Group Corporation International Sales and distribution: Emperor Motion Pictures European Premiere

MILANO 55%
Italy – 2011 – 105 min Documentary collectively made, co-ordinated by Luca Mosso and Bruno Oliviero Production: Filmmaker World Premiere

NINIFUNI by Tetsuya Mariko
Japan – 2011 – 42 min with Masaru Miyazaki, Takashi Yamanaka, Kanako Momota, Akari Hayami Production: Nikkatsu World Premiere

TAHRIR by Stefano Savona
Italy/France – 2011 – 90 min Documentary Production: Picofilms World Premiere

Concorso Cineasti del presente
An ideal arena for discovery, the Concorso Cineasti del presente is dedicated to emerging directors from all over the world and devoted to first and second features. Fourteen documentary and fiction features compete as world or international premieres for the Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente - Premio George Foundation.

É NA TERRA NÃO É NA LUA (It’s the Earth Not the Moon) by Gonçalo Tocha
Portugal – 2011 – 180 min Documentary World Premiere

EL ÁRBOL DE LAS FRESAS by Simone Rapisarda Casanova
Canada – 2011 – 71 min Documentary Production: Ibibym Films First Film – World Premiere

EL ESTUDIANTE (The Student) by Santiago Mitre
Argentina – 2011 – 110 min with Esteban Lamothe, Romina Paula, Ricardo Felix, Valeria Correa Production: La Unión by los Ríos, Pasto Co-production: El Pampero Cine, Wanka, Tierra Colorada Films First Film – Internationale Premiere

HANAAN by Ruslan Pak
South Korea/Uzbékistan – 2011 – 84 min with Stanislav Tyan, Bahodir Musaev, Ilbek Faiziev, Dmitry Eum, Ruslan Pak Production: Zamie Pictures & Flying Tiger Pictures International Sales: M - Line Distribution First Film – World Premiere

HELLO! SHU XIAN SHENG (Mr. Tree) by Jie Han
China – 2011 – 88 min with Baoqiang Wang, Zhuo Tan Production: Xstream Pictures Co-production: Shanghai Film Group Corporation, Beijing Bona Film and Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. International Sales: United Star Co International Premiere

L’ESTATE DI GIACOMO by Alessandro Comodin
Italy/France/Belgium – 2011 – 78 min with Giacomo Zulian, Stefania Comodin, Barbara Colombo Production: Faber Film Co-production: Les Films d’ici, Les Films Nus First Film – World Premiere

NANA by Valérie Massadian
France – 2011 – 68 min with Kelyna Lecomte, Alain Sabras, Marie Delmas Production: GAÏJIN International Sales: Wide Management First Film – World Premiere
Concorso Cineasti del presente

PAPIROSEN by Gaston Solnicki
Argentina – 2011 – 74 min Documentary with Víctor Solnicki, Mirta Najdorf, Mateo Tarlowsky, Pola Winicki, Lara Tarlowsky Production: Filmy Wiktora Co-production: Atopic/Third Home, Naked Faces International Sales: Atopic/Third Home World Premiere

SEÑORITA by Vincent Sandoval
Phillippines – 2011 – 99 min with Vincent Sandoval, Publio Briones, Garry Lim, Richard Manabat Production: Autodidact Pictures International Sales: Vagrant Films Releasing and Publicity First Film – World Premiere

SOLNETCHNIYE DNI (Sunny Days) by Nariman Turebayev
Kazakhstan – 2011 – 101 min with Erlan Utepbergenov, Iuriy Radin, Inkar Abdrash, Dmitry Skirta, Asel Kaliyeva Production: Kazakhfilm JSC, Kadam Studio World Premiere – Open Doors Project 2010

TAI YANG ZONG ZAI ZUO BIAN (The Sun Beaten Path) by Sonthar Gyal
China – 2011 – 89 min with Yeshe Lhadruk, Lo Kyi, Kalzang Rinchen, Lhakyed Ma, Rekdsen Drolma Production: Beijing Fang Jin Television Media co. Production International Sales: Beijing Fang Jin Television Media co. Production First Film – International Premiere

THE COLOR WHEEL by Alex Ross Perry
United States – 2011 – 83 min with Carlen Altman, Bob Byington, Kate Lyn Sheil, Alex Ross Perry Production: Dorset Films International Premiere

THE SUBSTANCE – ALBERT HOFMANN’S LSD by Martin Witz
Switzerland – 2011 – 89 min Documentary Production: Ventura film sa Co-production: RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera, Teleclub AG, Lichtblick Filmproduktion GmbH, Spotlight Media Productions AG
International Sales: Autlook Filmsales GmbH Swiss distributor: Frenetic Films World Premiere

WITHOUT by Mark Jackson
United States – 2011 – 87 min with Joslyn Jensen, Ron Carrier Production: Right on Red Films First Film – International Premiere

Film Movement Acquires French Romanctic Comedy "Queen of Hearts"

Nigel M Smith — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:25:12 GMT

Film Movement acquired North American distribution rights to the directorial debut of French actress Valerie Donzelli, the romantic comedy "Queen of Hearts."

Here's a synopsis courtesy of Film Movement:

Thirty-something Adele is devastated following a painful breakup. With no close friends or family, her distant cousin Rachel reluctantly takes her in and graciously attempts to salvage Adele’s personal and professional life. Rachel finds her a job and suggests that Adele sleep with other men to get over her heartbreak. Adele bounces from one lover to the next in search of her perfect companion, but can’t escape the visage of her ex. Finally, she recognizes the man who may just hold the answer to her broken heart.

The company plans to open it in New York theatrically later in the year, followed by a limited national roll-out. It will also hit VOD.

Full release below:

FILM MOVEMENT ACQUIRES FRENCH ROMANTIC COMEDY “QUEEN OF HEARTS”
Locarno Official Selection to be Distributed in all of North America
June 30th, 2011 (New York, NY) - Film Movement (www.filmmovement.com), the North American film distribution company that brings first-run, award-winning independent and foreign films to fans all across the country, announced today their acquisition of QUEEN OF HEARTS.
This directorial debut from beloved French actress Valérie Donzelli paints a charming and light-hearted portrait of a young woman experiencing the ups and downs of love in contemporary Paris. The film was also written by Donzelli, who stars in the leading role opposite Jérémie Elkaïm, an incredibly versatile comic actor playing three different characters—each a lover of Donzelli’s. QUEEN OF HEARTS is in French with English subtitles, and will enjoy a New York theatrical opening in Q4 of 2011, with a limited national roll-out to follow, as well as a day-and-date Cable Video on Demand premiere.
“An endearingly goofy spin on looking-for-love-in-the-big-city comedies…frequently hilarious” – Dennis Harvey, Variety
“A marvelous tension between a prim comedy of manners and unbridled slapstick.” - Ronnie Scheib, Variety
Synopsis of QUEEN OF HEARTS:
Thirty-something Adele is devastated following a painful breakup. With no close friends or family, her distant cousin Rachel reluctantly takes her in and graciously attempts to salvage Adele’s personal and professional life. Rachel finds her a job and suggests that Adele sleep with other men to get over her heartbreak. Adele bounces from one lover to the next in search of her perfect companion, but can’t escape the visage of her ex. Finally, she recognizes the man who may just hold the answer to her broken heart.
Acclaim for QUEEN OF HEARTS:
Official Selection – Locarno Film Festival, Mumbai Int’l Film Festival, Buenos Aires Film Festival, Santiago Int’l FF, Milly Valley Film Festival, St Louis Film Festival
The acquisition of QUEEN OF HEARTS was negotiated by Film Movement’s President Adley Gartenstein and VP of Acquisitions and Distribution Rebeca Conget, and Ryan Kampe of Visit Films.
“Talented French actress Valerie Donzelli has directed herself in an utterly charming and whimsical comedy that is both sexy and touching without ever getting sentimental. We’re delighted to be distributing this promising new director’s feature film debut,” says Adley Gartenstein, Film Movement’s President.

Locarno Locks Down Two Early Titles: Mia Hansen-Love's Latest & Debut Feature from De Serio Twins

Nigel M Smith — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:31:49 GMT

The 64th Locarno International Film Festival today revealed the first two titles in its International Competition: Mia Hansen-Løve's "Un amour de jeunesse," and Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio's "Sette opere di misericordia."

Hansen-Løve made her Locarno debut in 2004 with her short film, "Apres relexion." She has since gone on to helm the Cesar nominated "Tout est pardonné," and the Cannes winner "Father of My Children." "Un amour de jeunesse" marks her third feature film.

"Sette opere di misericordia" is the first fiction feature from the De Serio twin brothers. Their short films "My Brother Yang" and "Zakaria" were both nominated for the David di Donatello Prize.

The full lineup will be announced in the coming weeks. The 64th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will take place August 3 - 13 in the Swiss lakeside resort town.

Under New Guidance, Locarno Dashes Through Busy 63rd Year

Eric Kohn — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:14:06 GMT

Olivier Père left no doubt about his roots when he left his position as the artistic director of Directors' Fortnight at Cannes to hold the same job at the Locarno Film Festival this year. A montage of notable filmmakers whose early works premiered in Locarno played for about a minute before each competition screening, boasting names of established directors ranging from Stanley Kubrick to George Lucas. With a majestic score setting the tone, the introductory bit looked nearly identical to the one that Père commissioned back in his Fortnight days. The message, for those paying attention to such things, was clear: Père, an avowed cinephile, was out to change Locarno -- not the other way around.

The festival, which wrapped its 63rd year over the weekend, has steadily developed a prestigious reputation as one of the oldest events of its kind. Nevertheless, in recent years Locarno has not been known for major discoveries or high profile international premieres, which some blamed on the tamer choices made by previous artistic director Frédéric Maire. In contrast, Père's selection -- including 50 world premieres, many from first-time filmmakers -- created a noticeable tension among ticket-buyers less interested in audacious cinema than glitzy fanfare.

An example could be found on the opening night. Nestled at the northern tip of Lake Maggiore on the cusp of the Alps, the Swiss-Italian town's Piazza Grande hosts a magnificent outdoor screening venue each night, with an audience as large as 8,000 people when it doesn't rain. Last year, the expansive arena screened Fox Searchlight's "(500) Days of Summer," an easy crowd-pleaser that obviously fits the agenda of moviegoers looking for basic entertainment. Père, however, took a radically different route, screening "Deep in the Woods," Benoit Jacquot's dark psychological thriller about sexual deviance in the South of France, as the Piazza's opening night selection. Not everyone was pleased: Word on the street was that Swiss president Doris Leuthard left the screening after 30 minutes.

As a popular destination for affluent German tourists and others driven to indulge in European luxuries, Locarno could easily cater to local interests rather than play a progressive role in the global festival dynamic. After all, festival president Marco Solari also heads the city's tourism office, a conflict that could place the city's reputation as a vacation spot ahead of the need for quality among the programming selections.

But with Père on board, Locarno seems poised to become less about its glorious locale than its relevance to the industry. The current year saw the launch of "Industry Days," a frenzied three-day period at the start of the festival during which distributors were able to see all the films in competition. "We need to have an industry to help these films," Père told indieWIRE during a chat in his office last week. "I want to make Locarno a very important appointment every year for everyone making cinema."

Olivier Père, the new artistic director of Locarno, is looking to shake up the festival's offerings. [Photo by Eric Kohn]

Locarno locals may feel differently about that. A sign in the middle of town marks the point where its 116-year-old municipal school will supposedly get turned into the festival's "Casa del Cinema," a projected headquarters not unlike Toronto's recently unveiled Bell Lightbox. Some veterans of the festival expressed skepticism about the Casa's projected opening date ("a few years"), sounding about as convinced about the headquarters as they are that Locarno's Castle Visconteo was built by Leonardo Da Vinci . Meaning, not much, but they're happy to embrace the cause anyway.

Ultimately, recent Locarno attendees expressed more support of the festival than its specific home. National press has assailed the festival for remaining within the close quarters of Locarno, with some pundits suggesting a shift to the comparatively larger space in neighboring Lugano.

But the constant chatter about location and purpose have yet to wear down Père, whose first Locarno program showcased a wide variety of ambitious productions from around the world. The quality of Locarno's program is far from perfect, but Père's willingness to take chances yields one of the more fascinating larger festival line-ups that I've encountered this year. Slimming down the program to three competitions -- Piazza Grande, International Competition and Filmmakers of the Present -- Père has created a unique environment where obscure finds like a D.I.Y. production from Romania ("Belly of the Whale") can stand on even footing with a German midlife crisis story ("At Ellen's Age") and an American indie ("Cold Weather") already familiar to readers of this site.

A movie like "Belly of the Whale," directed by two Romanian women and centered entirely around one evening in which a few characters watch Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" while searching for a missing cell phone, has very few prospects of finding an audience beyond the festival circuit. Within the confines of Locarno, however, it becomes an object of cinematic scrutiny that validates the innovation behind its creation. Shot in long takes with largely improvised dialogue, "Belly of the Whale" is almost devoid of narrative, instead focusing on the neurotic personas at the center of a single, rather inconsequential situation, and making the details come alive. It was hardly my favorite of the festival -- that honors belongs to the innovative Serbian musical "White White World," which certainly does deserve a post-festival audience -- but I'm grateful for the opportunity to have seen it. This experiential quality of Locarno's diversity is key to its design.

"We are not looking for masterpieces in every section," Père said. "I think that maybe a couple of films can pretend to be masterpieces. I'm not obsessed with them. I'm obsessed with daring, original and surprising films. We prefer to support encouraging first features rather than more successful but conventional films made by established directors."

Indeed, as larger festivals go, Locarno mostly avoids the red carpet frenzy. Its largest celebrity visitor was John C. Reilly, the recipient of a career retrospective, while Swiss legend Alain Tanner took home the festival's Leopard of Honor. Other notable filmmakers received various accolades throughout the festival, including Chinese director Jia Zhangke and, in a hilariously unorthodox move by Père, B-movie aficionado Menahem Golan. "Locarno should become one of the biggest festivals in the world!" the cheerily naive Golan exclaimed while receiving his award in the Piazza, which caused some folks in the crowd to grouse under their breath.

Someone should let Golan know that growth is the least of Locarno's worries. The festival reported a total of 148,436 audience members this year (down from last year's 157,057, a drop attributed to rain keeping people out of the Piazza). That's quite a hefty turnout for a program of 280 films (compared to 397 in 2009), especially when you consider the opportunities for smaller movies to unspool for large crowds they may never reach again.

The Locarno Film Festival reported an attendance of 148,000 this year, down from last year's 157,000. [Photo by Eric Kohn]

Among the Filmmakers of the Present selections, standouts include Kitao Sakurai's "Aardvark," perhaps the first martial arts revenge movie to star a blind actor, and "The Fourth Portrait," a bittersweet drama from Thailand in which a young boy copes with the death of his father. The loopy Canadian existential mystery "You Are Here" provided the festival's most original narrative experiment, while the Serbian "Tilva Ros," a tale of rebellious youth in an impoverished mining town, offered the most typically satisfying emotional arc.

For me, the top title of the section was "Foreign Parts," a wonderfully eerie documentary about life among the dying junkyard businesses of Willets Point, Queens, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently paved the way for massive renovation. Directed by Verena Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki, the movie builds much of its power from its post-apocalyptic audiovisual ingredients. Never leaving the constraints of its location, the movie delves deep into a world composed of machinery in motion and the frustrated lineup of drug addicts and struggling business owners aware of their community's impending demise. The characters' colorful anguish turns "Foreign Parts" into a dark comedy about the casualties of modern development. Imagine Ramin Bahrani's "Chop Shop" remade by Harmony Korine and you might start to get a sense for the haunting, otherworldly atmosphere the filmmakers have managed to create.

The Piazza Grande section had nothing so daring on its slate, with the Duplass Brothers' "Cyrus" winding up as one of the best-received entries. Other aspects of the program that were heavy on genre generated similar good vibes. These included "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale," where hunters chased down Santa Claus, the impressively old school zombie thriller "Rammbock," and the unequivocally awesome spectatorial headtrip "Rubber," which isn't so much about a killer tire as it is about the appeal of watching one. The Piazza audience's enthusiasm for "Rubber" will most likely carry over to its screenings at upcoming U.S. festivals.

Israeli director Eran Riklis's soul-searching drama "The Human Resources Manager," which won the section's audience award, sports a fine performance by Mark Ivanir as a Jerusalem-based worker whose cold exterior melts away when one of his employees dies in a suicide bombing. The ensuing road trip, in which the character decides to take the woman's body back to her family in Romania, grows weary after an hour despite a competent pace. The Piazza audience loved the sincerity of its finale, which probably bodes well for future engagements.

I was personally more excited by Cédric Anger's tightly assembled crime drama "L'Avocat," a classically enjoyable tale of corruption and moral confusion. French star Benoit Magimel plays a conflicted lawyer whose exploding career leads him to accidentally work for a criminal organization, a fact he comes to realize once it's too late to pull out. Stylishly made with a Scorsese-level meshing of humor and suspense, "L'Avocat" has the potential to get recognized as a decent ride that does justice to its roots.

Sadly, I'm not nearly as certain about the future of Russian animator Garri Bardin's feature-length adaptation "The Ugly Duckling," a lovely stop-motion affair that takes occasional forays into darkness worthy of Jan Svankmajer. The screening found several families in attendance, and many older audiences equally immersed in the timeless (and timelessly adorable) story.

On the whole, the Piazza only had a few entries that lacked commercial appeal, whereas the International Competition practically embraced obscurity. The festival gained early publicity from Père's controversial decision to show Bruce LaBruce's experimental gay porn "L.A. Zombie," an amusingly muddled affair that builds most of its shock factor out of porn star Francois Sagat's ability to resurrect the dead with his manhood. After my original review cited the numerous walkouts at the movie's premiere, LaBruce protested on Twitter, claiming that his press agents noticed only two people exiting the theater. Anyone who was actually in attendance at the late night premiere can attest that said press agents either weren't paying attention or lied, but why dispute it either way? Getting ostracized should serve as the movie's badge of pride.

Elsewhere in the International Competition: My festival highlight came with "White White World," a Serbian drama that combines elements of Greek tragedies, musicals and deadpan humor into a remarkably unique product. The best debut was Marian Crisan's "Morgen," a Romanian story where a fisherman attempts to assist an illegal Kurdish immigrant with mixed results.

I didn't see the Chinese entry "Winter Vacation," which won the section, but this year's jury (headed by filmmaker Eric Khoo) was especially partial to Quebec-based filmmaker Denis Côté's "Curling," a sensationally enigmatic character study that has lonely janitor Jean-Francois (Emmanuel Bilodeau) dividing his time between tending to his reclusive daughter and seeking romantic companionship. Côté loads each scene with extreme subtext, and we begin to wonder if the father-daughter relationship has subversive connotations. The heavy snowfall engulfing the town begins to take on metaphoric dimensions -- Jean-Francois's secrets lie beneath several layers of discontent.

No one can doubt the effectiveness of Père's ability to put filmmakers at early stages of their careers at the forefront of the festival, but this year's chief appeal belonged to a long-dead master: Ernst Lubitsch, Hollywood's grand architect of the romantic comedy, received a massive retrospective that covered every phase of his career. Scholar Joseph McBride, currently working on a book entitled "How Would Lubitsch Do It," introduced many of the screenings, but the movies speak for themselves. The famous "Lubitsch Touch" carries through the three decades of his career, from his frenzied silents to his equally hyperactive talkies. Sexuality and marital dysfunction often seep into his plots with an élan that still feels daring today.

Studios continue to churn out romantic comedies superficially based on scenarios Lubitsch used as a starting point (consider how "The Shop Around the Corner" was rearranged into "You've Got Mail"), but his ability to create a sense of moral ambiguity -- particularly when a man must choose between two women, and makes the safe choice rather than the one that guarantees a happy ending -- is unparalleled. Lubitsch's 1927's "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" creates the semblance of a fairy tale romance and then knocks it down; the giddy pre-code innuendo throughout "The Smiling Lieutenant" pays off with a pragmatic finish, as Claudette Colbert teaches Miriam Hopkins how to please her man, when Colbert's character could just as easily steal him away. Lubitsch's classic anti-Nazi farce "To Be Or Not To Be" (which makes "Inglourious Basterds" look particularly glib) played in the Piazza during my last night in Locarno. The audience had such a grand time that many of them stuck around even after the rain and lightning began.

The purely dramatic "The Man I Killed" shows Lubitsch's potential for applying his touch to non-comedic scenarios, but he sadly died before he could further explore that angle: Francois Truffaut noted that the director "filmed himself to death" at the age of 55. That's a questionable goal for the upstart filmmakers featured in Locarno's 2010 edition. Many in attendance -- encountering Lubitsch films for the first time -- possibly admired the vitality of his oeuvre, rather than acknowledging the odds of their own sudden ends as a result of their art. The festival should do the same when considering its legacy and contemplating its future.

"Winter Vacation" Wins Top Prize at Locarno Fest

Brian Brooks — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:09:04 GMT

Chinese director Li Hongqi took home the Pardo d'oro, or Golden Leopard, for his film, "Han Jia" (Winter Vacation), closing out the 63rd Locarno Film Festival. French/Romanian/Hungarian production "Morgen" by Marian Crisan received a Special Jury Prize, while Denis Côté was named Best Director for his feature, "Curling." The prize included 30,000 CHF and the Golden Leopard included a 90,000 CHF cash prize.

In other prizes, Emmanuel Bilodeau received the best actor award for his role in "Curling," while Jasna Duricic was named best actress for her role in "Beli Beli Svet" (White White World) by Oleg Novkovic, Serbia/Germany/Sweden. "Foreign Parts" by Verena Paravel and JP Sniadecki won Best First Feature, while Kitao Sakurai's "Aardvark" received a special mention.

Li's "Winter Vacation" centers on four idle, aimless adolescents who gather at Zhou Zhixin's home. According to a Locarno description, the teenagers are hoping to enjoy their last day of holiday and want to hang out in this place where nothing ever seems likely to happen. Their conversations are desultory and they sometimes seem to argue for argument's sake. One of them, Laowu, talks frankly with his girlfriend about how teenage love might affect their studies, while Laobao questions school's value and relevance to real life. The film also won the FIPRESCI competition, whith fellow Chinese production, "Kamaray" by Xu Xin receiving a special mention.

List of Locarno Winners:

"Aardvark" director Kitao Sakurai with producer Andrew Barchilon. Image provided by the festival

Golden Leopard: International Competition
"An Jia" (Winter Vacation) by LI Hongqi, China

Special Jury Prize
"Morgen" by Marian Crisan, France/Romania/Hungary

Best Director
Denis Côté for "Curling," Canada

Leopard for Best Actress
Jasna Duricic in "Beli Beli Svet" (White White World) by Oleg Novkovic, Serbia/Germany/Sweden

Leopard for Best Actor
Emmanuel Bilodeau in "Curling" by Denis Côté, Canada

Golden Leopard: Filmmakers of the Present Competition
"Paraboles" by Emmanuelle Demoris, France

Special CINÉ CINÉMA Jury Prize
"Foreign Parts" by Verena Paravel and JP Sniadecki, USA/France

Special Mention:
"Ivory Tower" by Adam Traynor, Canada/France

Leopard for the Best First Feature
"2Foreign Parts" by Verena Paravel and JP Sniadecki, USA/France

Special Mention:
"Aardvark" by Kitao Sakurai, USA/Argentina

Prix du Public UBS
"The Human Resources Manager" by Eran Riklis, Israel/Germany/France

Variety Piazza Grande Award
"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" by Jalmari Helander, Finnland/Norway/France/Sweden

FIPRESCI Prize
"Han Jia" (Winter Vacation) by LI Hongqi, China