Check it out! Films From the South

So last week I posted about Films From the South Festival in Oslo, Norway. To my surprise & excitement they've added this blog's post to their press page. Woo! Check it out here! I'll say it again. If you're in Oslo, get over to the festival cause it's going to be magic.

Happy moviegoing!

OH MY! Baz Lurhmann to Direct Great Gatsby with DiCaprio

Just saw on /Film that Baz Lurhmann is set to direct a version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio. For the record I love Baz. Apparently he made a statement at The Social Network premier saying:


"I’ve got two [pictures] going. One is a musical and one is a period work, both based in New York City, and I’m about to make that decision. I’ve got the script for both of them and I’m making that decision in four to six weeks, no longer than six weeks…’Gatsby,’ it is the Fitzgerald book and I’ve been working on that quite a lot. The other one is also New York based and music-driven and it’s just a question of … what is the next right step for me."


Ummm YES AND YES.  I don't care just do something already. Cannot wait to hear what he chooses. 


Happy moviegoing!

Check it out! Films From the South

On October 10th this year Film From the South, which is celebrating 20 years, is Northern Europe’s leading festival dedicated exclusively to film from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Festival runs from 7-17 October, 2010. This year they will be honoring The World Cinema Foundation, which Martin Scorsese founded, with a World Premiere of 1931 film Limite by Mario Peixoto's with live accompaniment. They will also be honoring 12 of the World Cinema Foundation's restored film all at the same time! 

They festival's release states that:

Established by Martin Scorsese, the Foundation supports and encourages preservation efforts to save the worldwide patrimony of films, ensuring that they are preserved, seen and shared. Its goal is to defend the body and spirit of cinema in the belief that preserving works of the past can encourage future generations to treat film as a universal form of expression. 


How marvelous no? It's nice to see people around the globe supporting other national cinema's and above all the preservation of those cinemas and their masterpieces. 


Check out what Variety had to say!


If you're in Oslo, Norway. I say get your ass over to this festival pronto!


Happy moviegoing! 

For more information, press inquiries and hi res photos, contact:

In Norway: Alexis Matos, alexis@filmfrasor.no; +47.47.83.44.59

In U.S.: Gary Springer, gary@springerassociatespr.com; +1.212.354.4660

Never Let Me Go

Well shit sake you know! It's a thursday night and I am in ruins because of this movie. It's wonderful. I wish I would have read the book before, but seeing as the collaboration between Mark Romanek and Kazuo Ishiguro, the novel's author, is what produced this film I think it's safe to say it stayed true to form. This is a sci-fi film of the ages, and a love story to be studied. It's stunning, sincere and just astonishing. I can't help it but, it made me cry and I can't stop thinking about it.

Looking at the film you would never pick out the sci-fi element to the whole story but it's amazing how subtle it is and ever so present at the same time. It haunts the film to an extent and yet the aesthetic is organic and natural, lots of greenery, wool, wood, rolling landscapes. The performances are great, it's all about the subtly here. Kiera Knightly is actually good here, Carey Mulligan is too amazing I cannot wait to see what she does next, and Alex Garfield is quite astounding (not sure about spiderman but I guess we'll see) But getting every wince, and eye flutter, allowing us to see someone being stripped emotionally is what is captured so well. But it's so gradual and yet you know the outcome from fairly early on in the film. The pace, the pauses, the looks; everything is given due attention and is executed so well. Please go see this film. It will definitely leave you in a certain state but jeeze this is what film is about. It's not about what you see but what you make others see...no?

Go see this film.

Happy moviegoing!

Keep an Eye Out For: Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go

It's getting outstanding buzz right now. The performances are supposed to be astonishing. Just check out this trailer. It looks just beautiful. It's rather intriguing given the trailer's bleak and vague glimpse at the picture. Gosh darnit it looks like it's going to be a good one. It's nice to know people are still making movies.

American Beauty (1999)

 Now I haven’t watched this in quite a while. But due to the recent surge of examples being given from this film in my academic classes, reminded me to watch it again. Subsequently the film didn’t cease to floor me just as it did when I watched the first time.

There is something strangely beautiful and tragic about the mundane, or I should say the mundane on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Mendes really did something here and it’s truly wondrous. The screenplay itself is astonishing and it’s these little key moments that screenwriter, Alan Ball, allows into the drama that gets to the beautiful tragedy about the human condition. You can see it's something Mendes takes great interest in. It's amazing to see. It’s these little moments, these brief glimpses into someone’s soul that is amazingly captured in this film. 

Which brings me to cast, let’s get serious here. Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Wes Bently, Chris Cooper, Allison Janning and Peter Gallagher(who’s eyebrows are a marvel). What’s important is that each of these roles doesn’t serve the same purpose as the other but they’re all acted strongly. Providing these moments, these glances, I spoke about above. Each role, however small, has a moment where we see this glimpse of utter tragedy in their hearts. Mendes watches, he waits, watches the silent vulnerability that leaves their souls bare to us, and it’s beautiful. For example, in a scene with Allison Janning’s character she sits alone at a table; we just sit with her and watch. She’s empty; we can see the void in her eyes and it’s completely breathtaking.

With moments like these we get a chance to peek inside these human beings while they’re on the edge of reason and sanity. It’s so thoroughly compelling and wonderful. It’s sad, but it’s true to form and allows us to get a glimpse of the human condition.

If you haven’t seen it, I don’t think I need to say go watch. Just do it.

Keep an eye out for Mendes' new film On Chesil Beach. Based on a novel written by the awesome Ian McEwan and the screenplay will be written by him also. The film is set in the 1960s and revolves around a couple on their honeymoon. Much much to look forward to!

Happy moviegoing!

Quills (2000)

If you haven't seen this you should. I am not sure why Philip Kaufman isn't making more movies like this anymore. Mind you he hasn't made much since this.  However, the film is masterfully done and has performances to astonish you. With a cast that includes, Michael Cane, Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, & Joaquin Phoenix you think it would surely be a mere performance film. But the film, despite it's perverse nature, is stunning with a color palette that only has muted creams, greys, and beiges powering ever scene. It was nominated for both costume design and art direction at the academy awards and it shows.

Now regardless of the fact that this could have turned to a performance film the actors cannot be wiped aside. Firstly, and most important the scenes that are filled with other characters then the above mentioned are riddled with performances that are brilliant also. However Cane, is devilishly creepy. Kate is mild, but she stays true to form an complements both Joaquin and Geoffrey's performances beautifully. Joaquin is wondrous and it's too bad he isn't focused anymore because giving more performances like these would make him a force to be reckoned with. Geoffrey Rush, Oh! Geoffrey Rush; I don't think I've seen anything with him where his performances was just so, so. He's brilliant. Truly you could should see this movie just for his performance and you should enjoy it just as much because of it.

Now I must remind you the film is about the Marquis de Sade, the man that the word Sadism comes from, and is set during his thirteen year stay at an insane asylum. So prepare yourself for something out of your usual viewing but definitely worth a look. "But in order to know virtue, we must aquanaut ourselves with vice, only then can we know the full measure of man." - Doug Wright Screenwriter and Playwright of Quills.  

Happy moviegoing!