ALILA
Director: Amos Gitai
Country: Israel
Year: 2003
Runtime: 123 minutes
Language: Hebrew with English
subtitles
A post-film
discussion will be moderated by Fred Linch.
ALILA may be an eye-opener for
Americans who take large living spaces for granted.
In this film, about a dozen
main characters float in and out of one another’s lives in the
cramped space of an apartment
building Tel Aviv. However, to call their living quarters
an apartment building is to
grossly exaggerate how limited their apartments and,
thereby, their lives really
are. Arabs, Israelis, and illegal foreign immigrants (Chinese
and Filipino) vie for privacy.
It’s the whole Mideast written in small. Quick sex,
recalcitrant sons, cheating
husbands, a man with only his dog for company—all are
presented under the ominous
threat of some act of terror. A fascinating eye-opener by
Israel’s arguably most
important contemporary filmmaker. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Yael
Abecassis, Uri Klauzner, Hanna Laslo, Ronit Elkabetz, Amos Lavie,
Lupo Berkowitch, Liron Levo,
Yosef Carmon, Amit Mestechkin, Lyn Shiao Zamir
Screenwriters: Amos Gitai and
Marie-José Sanselme
Producers: Amos Gitai and
Michael Tapuach
Director of Photography:
Renato Berta
Editor: Kobi Netanel and
Monica Coleman
Official Website:
http://www.kino.com/alila/
ALMOST PEACEFUL - (UN MONDE PRESQUE
PAISIBLE)
Director: Michel Deville
Country: France
Year: 2002
Runtime: 94 minutes
Language: French with English
subtitles
Awards: Bordeaux International
Festival of Women in Cinema - Special Mention
In 1946 post-war Paris, a
Jewish couple cautiously and carefully restart the family
business—a
tailor shop, in which they turn out handmade garments for Parisians who
condescend to deal with them. Only one of the shop’s
employees is not Jewish. For
the most part, Deville confines his camera to one room, which serves as a
microcosm
for the “the Jewish question” before the creation of Israel. It’s a variation on
the standard
plot of placing various personality types in an almost claustrophobic situation (Airport,
The Poseidon Adventure) to watch how they interact. Lots of talk, little action—it’s all
in the dynamics between the characters, especially those of a woman who has fallen in
love with an emotionally-damaged, grieving husband living under the shadows of his past.
ALMOST PEACEFUL never becomes maudlin nor does it sink to the level of a tear-jerker,
but don’t be surprised if you find yourself profoundly moved. ~ Nick
Salerno
Principal Cast: Simon
Abkarian, Lubna Azabal, Zabou Breitman, Clotilde Courau,
Vincent Elbaz, Denis
Podalydes
Producer: Rosalinde Deville
Writers: Michel Deville,
Rosalinde Deville
Cinematographer: André
Diot
Editor: Andrea
Sedlácková
Music: Giovanni Bottesini
Official Website:
http://www.unmondepresquepaisible.com/
THE CHORUS - (LES CHORISTES)
Director: Christophe Barratier
Country: France
Year: 2004
Runtime: 95 minutes
Language: French with English
subtitles
Christophe Barratier will be in attendance
to introduce his film and participate in
a Q&A afterward.
1949, post-War France – In a
dark, doom-filled school for troubled boys where hope itself is
in short
supply, a mild-mannered new teacher has just arrived, only to find
himself surrounded
by prepubescent
thieves, inveterate liars, unapologetic rebels and lost souls beyond
reach.
Or are they?
When Clement Mathieu (Gerard Jugnot) introduces these supposedly
hard-core
delinquents to
something they’ve never experienced before – the freedom and joy of
music –
he discovers there
is far more to these children than anyone dared to believe. The year’s
runaway
smash hitin
France, THE CHORUS is an emotional, music-filled tale about how a very
humble
man’s simple dreams
changed the future for a forgotten group of children. Shot inside a
castle
in the French countryside
that lends a rich fairy-tale atmosphere, the film marks the debut of
writer, director and composer Christophe Barratier. THE
CHORUS is directed by Christophe
Barratier from a screenplay by Barratier and Philippe
Lopes-Curval. The producers are Arthur
Cohn and Jacques Perrin. The original music is composed by
Bruno Coulais and Barratier.
Principal Cast: Gerard Jugnot,
François Berléand, Jacques Perrin, Jean-baptiste Maunier
Producer: Arthur Cohn, Jacques
Perrin
Cinematographers: Carlo
Varini, Dominique Gentil
Editor: Yves Deschamps
Official Website:
http://www.leschoristes-lefilm.com/
Director: Eduardo Mignona
Country: Argentina / Spain
Year: 2003
Runtime: 105 minutes
Language: Spanish with English
subtitles
CLEOPATRA
Director: Eduardo Mignona
Country: Argentina / Spain
Year: 2003
Runtime: 105 minutes
Language: Spanish with English
subtitles
Awards: Ft. Lauderdale International
Film Festival - Best Foreign Language Film, Montréal World
Film Festival - Best Film from
Latin America
A retired schoolteacher (Norma
Aleandro) takes part-time jobs to support her depressed, unemployed
husband. When she meets a
young actress (Natalia Oreiro) aspiring to better roles than those in
soaps, they form an immediate
bond and embark on a more benign version of Thelma and Louise.
For part of the trip they are
joined by a sympathetic hunk, played with smoldering sexuality by
Leonardo Sbarglia. Their
adventures on the road both amuse and enlighten—them and us too. The
film’s open-ended final scene
allows viewers to muse on the role of women, married and un-, in
Hispanic America.
Academy-Award nominated (The Official Story) Aleandro is wonderfully
ditsy in
her role as an older,
married woman exposed to the possibilities of FemLib. The musical score
is
an added pleasure. P.S. The film’s title is misleading. ~
Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Norma
Aleandro, Natalia Oreiro, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Héctor Alterio
Producers: Pablo Bossi, Carlos
L. Mentasti
Editor: Juan Carlos
Macías
Music: Paco Ortega
Cinematographer: Marcelo
Camorino
Screenwriters: Eduardo
Mignogna, Silvina Chague
Offical Website:
http://www.uolsinectis.com.ar/patagonik/cleopatra/indexf.htm
DEAR FRANKIE - Closing Night Gala
Director: Shona Auerbach
Country: Scotland
Year: 2004
Runtime: 105 minutes
Awards: Los Angeles IFP/West
Film Festival – Audience Award for Best International Feature,
Seattle International Film Festival - Women in Cinema Lena Sharpe Award
DEAR FRANKIE is a heartwarming and often humorous tale of nine year old
Frankie and his mom,
Lizzie, who have been on the move ever since he can remember. To
protect her son from the truth,
Lizzie has invented a story to satisfy Frankie's curiosity. She
regularly writes Frankie a letter from
his make-believe father who works aboard a ship traveling to exotic
lands. However, Lizzie soon
finds out his "father's" ship will be arriving in a few days. Now,
Lizzie must choose between telling
Frankie the truth and hatching a desperate plan to find the perfect
stranger to play the perfect father.
This one has OSCAR ® potential written all over it for Emily
Mortimer. The only UK film selected
for competition in this years Cannes Film festival received a 15 minute
standing ovation.
Principal Cast: Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler, Jack McElhone, Sharon
Small
Producers: Caroline Wood, Stephen Evans
Cinematographer: Shona Auerbach
Editor: Oral Norrie Ottey
Music: Alex Heffes
Official Website: http://www.miramax.com/dearfrankie/index.html
Plays with:
STANDING ROOM ONLY
Director: Deborra Lee-Furness
Country: UK
Year: 2003
Runtime: 10 minutes
A humorous silent film that takes a wry look at the people queuing for
theatre tickets.
Principal Cast: Hugh Jackman, Joanna Lumley, Sophie Dahl, Michael
Gambon, Mary-Elizabeth
Mastrantonio, Alan Rickman
DELUXE COMBO PLATTER
Director: Vic Sarin
Country: Canada
Year: 2004
Runtime: 103 minutes
When a small-town waitress decides to take a chance at the town's most
eligible bachelor, her
plans are thrown off course when an attractive, successful big-city
corporate executive blows into
town taking the male population by storm.
Principal Cast: Jennifer Tilly, Marla Sokoloff, Dave Thomas, Monika
Schnarre, Barry Watson,
Jonathan Cherry
Producer: Tina Pehme
FALLING ANGELS
Director: Scott Smith
Country: Canada
Year: 2003
Runtime: 109 minutes
Awards: Genie Awards - Best
Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design/Best Achievement
in Music - Original Song, Nanaimo inFEST Film Festival - Silvie Award
A delicate balancing act of humor and tragedy, FALLING ANGELS is a
richly woven character-study
of family dynamic and missed opportunity. Treading the fine line
between adolescence and adulthood,
the Field sisters have all but declared war on their domineering
father. Though Jim Field runs the
family house like a military camp, it’s the three teenaged daughters
who really run the show and
baby sit their fragile mother Mary, as she quietly sits on the couch
and quells her anxiety with
whiskey. It’s 1969 and beneath suburbia’s veneer of manicured lawns and
rows of bungalows, the
world faces explosive social change. The girls’ quest for independence
is compounded by their love
for their fragile bird of a mother and their simmering mistrust of
their father, while all are oblivious to
the real effect of the family secret and to the signs of Mary’s
deterioration. Still, the Field sisters
manage their experiments in living outside the home with some
surprising results.
Principal Cast: Miranda Richardson, Callum Keith Rennie, Katherine
Isabelle
Executive Producers: Kevin DeWalt, Alain de la Mata, Dean English,
Geoff Cox
Editor: Reginald Harkema
Cinematographer: Gregory Middleton
Music: Ken Whiteley
FIRST BLOOD
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Country: USA
Year: 1982
Runtime: 97 minutes
Ted Kotcheff will be in attendance to
introduce his film and participate in a Q&A afterward.
FIRST BLOOD is the Sylvester Stallone film that unleashed "Rambo" onto
an unsuspecting world.
Wandering into a small, hostile town, ex-Green Beret John Rambo
(Stallone) is targeted for persecution
and abuse by potbellied Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy). When he
can stand no more, Rambo goes
bonkers, killing a deputy and heading into the surrounding hills, armed
to the teeth. Only after Rambo
has picked off practically every law enforcement officer within a
radius of 50 miles do the local authorities
bring in his former commanding officer Trautman (Richard Crenna) for
advice. Trautman's response, that
the locals had better get a lot of body bags ready, is hardly
encouraging. FIRST BLOOD proved to be
one of Stallone's biggest non-Rocky hits. ~ Synopsis by Hal Erickson,
All Movie Guide
Principal Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, Bill
McKinney, Jack Starrett,
Michael Talbott
Producer: Buzz Feitshans
Cinematographer: Andrew Laszlo
Editor: Joan E. Chapman
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
FLOWER & GARNET
Director: Keith Behrman
Country: Canada
Year: 2002
Runtime: 103 minutes
Awards: Boston Independent
Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize, Genie Awards - Claude Jutra Award,
Leo Awards - Best Musical Score/Best Supporting Performance – Male,
Vancouver Film Critics
Circle - Best Actor - Canadian Film/Best Director - Canadian Film/Best
Film – Canadian,
Vancouver International Film Festival - Best New Western Canadian
Director
Set in rural British Columbia, FLOWER & GARNET is a subtle and
deeply moving portrait of a
family living in an emotional no-man's land. With his mother passed
away, his teenage sister
pursuing her own interests, and a strictly macho father, young Garnet
becomes a sullen,
withdrawn child that no one seems to understand. Featuring outstanding
performances by
Callum Keith Rennie (MEMENTO) and young newcomer Colin Roberts.
~ Synopsis by the Independent Film Society of Boston
Principal Cast: Callum Keith Rennie, Colin Roberts, Jane McGregor, Dov
Tiefenbach,
Kristen Marguerite Pigott, Bryan Gliserman, Trish Dolman, Dean English,
Jessica Fraser
Producer: Trish Dolman
Screenplay: Keith Behrman
Cinematographer: Steve Cosens
Editor: Michael John Bateman
Music: Peter Allen
LAURENCE GARTEL: THE DIGITAL JOURNEY
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Laurence Gartel will discuss the key elements towards making a
successful film as well
as give an overview of his 30 year career in the digital arts. He will
showcase same tracks
of his new DVD and discuss techniques.There will be a question and
answer period relating
to the necessary elements in the creation of narrative, digital motion
works.
Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Gartel not only had the
opportunity to teach Andy Warhol
how to use the Amiga Computer, but also went to the School of Visual
Arts with fellow student,
graffiti artist Keith Haring. Mr. Gartel earned his BFA in Graphics,
and started his electronic arts
career working side by side with Nam June Paik at Media Study/Buffalo
in upstate New York.
Over the years, Gartel has worked with musicians such as Debbie Harry
(Blondie), Sid Vicious
(Sex Pistols), Stiv Bators (Dead Boys), Johnny Thunders (New York
Dolls), Ace Frehley (Kiss),
and Wendy O Williams (Plasmatics). Recently, he has created artwork for
the likes of Justin
Timberlake and Britney Spears. His best-known work is his ABSOLUT
GARTEL ad for the
vodka company.
GOD IS BRAZILIAN - DEUS É
BRASILEIRO
Director: Carlos Diegues
Country: Brazil
Year: 2003
Runtime: 110 minutes
Language: Portuguese with English subtitles
How would you like to take a road trip with God? Well, in GOD IS
BRAZILIAN that’s exactly
what happens. God (Antonio Fagundes) is so exhausted from dealing with
humanity’s problems
that he decides to take a vacation. Needing to find someone to mind the
store while he is
recovering, God descends to Earth to find a likely candidate for
sainthood, someone who can
spell him. Toaca, a con artist, seeing a potentially advantageous
situation, offers to help God
in the search—in which they are assisted by the beautiful Mada. The
film is alternately touching,
romantic, thoughtful, and always loopy. If you’re not offended by the
film’s premise, you will be
entertained. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Antonio Fagundes, Wagner Moura, Paloma Duarte, Hugo
Carvana
Producers: Renata de Almeida Magalhães
Music: Chico Snows, Hermano Viana and Sergio Mekler
Cinematographer: Devout Affonso
Editor: Sergio Mekler
GRAND ECOLE
Director: Robert Salis
Country: France
Year: 2004
Runtime: 110 minutes
Language: French with English subtitles
GRAND ECOLE is a stunning evocation of contemporary life among rich
young people in an
exclusive French school. While Paul (Gregori Baquet) is ostensibly the
film’s focus, the
narrative is actually constructed around a group of characters all
equally important and all of
them beautiful. It’s a sort of a French version of Friends, but with
fewer laughs, more talk,
and much more sex. The sex is hetero-, homo-, and bi-. Paul loves
Louis-Arnault and Agnes
and Meclir (a younger Arab boy). GRAND ECOLE is complex and extremely
erotic, a French
take on sexual and religious politics and on class distinctions. It
would probably be rated R
for strong sexual situations and nudity. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Grégori Baquet, Jocelyn Quivrin, Alice Taglioni,
Elodie Navarre, Arthur Jugnot
GUERREROS
Director: Daniel Calparsoro
Country: Spain
Year: 2002
Runtime: 95 minutes
Language: Spanish, Albanian, French and Serbo-Croatian with English
subtitles
Kosovo, winter 2000. One year after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The
Southern Serbian
province has become military protectorate in the hearth of Europe. This
is a story of a platoon
of Spanish military engineers, part of the peace forces in Kosovo.
Vidal is just one of the young
soldiers recently recruited into professional army. He goes on a
mission full of optimism and
ideals. Vidal and his friends are convinced that neutrality will
protect them from conflicts.
But when they are sent on a mission to reconstruct a small country
generating station, they will
realize the brutal reality: not only that local citizens don’t favor
them but they openly show hostility.
~ Synopsis by the Palic Film Festival
Principal Cast: Eloy Azorín, Eduardo Noriega, Rubén
Ochandiano, Carla Perez, Jordi Vilches,
Roger Casamajor
Producers: Fernando Bovaira, Enrique López Lavigne
Cinematographer: Josep M. Civit
Editor: Julia Juaniz
GUERRILLA- THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST
aka NEVERLAND: THE RISE AND FALL OF
THE SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY
Director: Robert Stone
Country: USA
Year: 2004
Runtime: 90 minutes
A post-film discussion will be
moderated by Francie Noyes.
Awards: Florida Film Festival
- Best Documentary Feature
For those of us old enough to remember the 60’s and 70’s, Guerrilla
will be a painful trip
down memory lane. For the younger crowd, it will provide shocking
insights into terrorism
on our home turf and the federal government’s spy machine. Patty Hearst
was born with
a silver spoon in her mouth. Because she was part of a dynasty of
publishing magnates,
her capture/kidnapping by the SLA began as a sort of lark aimed at
making a point about
poverty in the US. But it turned into guerrilla theatre when Patty
joined forces with her
captors to participate in a rampage of bank robberies and killing. Was
she brainwashed
or willingly acting out of misguided good intentions? Hearst was
eventually “saved,” but her
story did not officially end until the administrations of President
Carter and Clinton. If you
find yourself reflecting of current events in this Presidential
election year, it will not be purely
coincidental. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Michael Bortin, Timothy Findley, Russell Little
Producer: Nick Fraser
Cinematographers: Howard Shack, Robert Stone
Editor: Don Kleszy
Official Website: http://www.guerrillathemovie.com/
KWIK STOP
Director: Michael Gilio
Country: USA
Year: 2002
Runtime: 110 minutes
Michael Gilio will be in attendance to
introduce his film and participate
in a Q&A afterward.
Awards: Buenos Aires
International Festival of Independent Cinema - Best Director,
St. Louis International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize
Like a screwball hybrid of Jack Kerouac and Luis Buñuel, Michael
Gilio's KWIK STOP is a
road picture where the characters never quite manage to hit the road.
Before leaving town
on the trip of a lifetime, Mike pulls over at a convenience store for
one last stop. Big mistake.
In the parking lot, he is confronted by a charismatic local teenager
named Didi, who threatens
to bust him for shoplifting if he doesn't agree to take her along. From
this point on, the film
takes more twists and turns -- and delivers more pure enjoyment -- than
you might expect.
As the writer, director, and star, Gilio immediately establishes
himself as an exciting
new talent on the indie film scene. "Blindsides us with unexpected
humor and sadness,
and is one of theunsung treasures of recent independent filmmaking."
Roger Ebert, the
Chicago Sun Times ~ Synopsis by the Los Angeles Film Festival
Principal Cast: Michael Gilio, Lara Phillips, Rich Komenich, Karin
Anglin, Kris Wolff,
Eric Curtis Johnson, Sunny Seigel
Producers: Fern Baker, Scott Casty
Cinematographer: David Blood
Editor: Chris McKay
LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN
Director: Christopher Browne
Country: USA
Year: 2004
Runtime: 93 minutes
Language: English
Awards: SXSW Film Festival -
Audience Award
Since I have little patience with professional sports in which adults
pursue balls—foot, basket,
base, or other—I approached this film with skepticism verging on
scorn. A documentary about
professional bowling? It didn’t sound promising. Surprise,
surprise. A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY
GENTLEMEN is entertaining and informative. The film first traces
the rise and gradual decline
of interest in professional bowling in the United States. When
three Microsoft employees buy
the whole PBA—balls, pins, bags and all—and hire a successful Nike
marketing expert to turn
what looks like a bad investment into a gold-plated business
success, the result is an
only-in-America story—not the least interesting part of which is the
uneasy marriage of bowling
and television. By turns funny and shocking, A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY
GENTLEMEN is for
sports fans of all ages. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Pete Weber, Wayne Webb, Walter Ray Williams, Jr., Chris
Barnes, Steve Miller
Producers: Wilhelmus Bryan, Alexander Browne
Cinematographer: Ken Seng
Editors: Kurt Engfehr, Dave Tung
MOVIE MYSTERE
What we don't know:
Did our Toronto International Film Festival pals persuade anyone famous
to bring their new film
to the Scottsdale International Film Festival? You know as much as we
do, and we will find out
together once the Festival has started!
What we do know:
The surprise might be a famous director showing up with his latest
film, or there might be a
special encore presentation of the audience favorite from this year's
event. Be sure to vote for your
favorite film using the new addition of Audience Award ballots given to
you before each screening.
When will we know?
We will make an announcement during the Festival as soon as the
surprise has been revealed.
Honest!
Find out what the surprise film is via the Website:
Go to the website at www.ScottsdaleFilmFestival.com and click on the
"Updates" button during
the Festival.
NOI - (NOI ALBINOI)
Director: Dagur Kari
Country: Iceland
Year: 2004
Runtime: 93 minutes
Language: Icelandic with English subtitles
Awards: Angers European First
Film Festival - Ciné Cinémas/Best Soundtrack /European
Jury
Award Feature Film/GNCR Award/Laser Vidéo Titres Award, Denver
International Film Festival
- Best European Film, Edda Awards - Best Actor/Best Director/Best
Screenplay/Best Supporting
Actor/Film of the Year/Professional Category: Sound/Vision, Edinburgh
International Film Festival
- New Director's Award, Göteborg Film Festival - FIPRESCI Prize,
Nordic Film Prize, Rotterdam
International Film -MovieZone Award, Rouen Nordic Film Festival
- Grand Jury Prize
If you’re a genius living in a small, ice-bound Icelandic village, what
do you do to pass the time?
Certainly not go to school—when a tape recorder can substitute for you.
Of course, there’s Iris,
the waitress in a gas station’s café. You could rob a bank? Or
try to cope with Mother Nature’s
waywardness? Noi’s choices are limited. Expect a sometime comedy, a
sometime near- tragedy.
And lots of ice. Wear your snow goggles. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Tómas Lemarquis, Elin Hansdottir, Anna
Fridriksdóttir, Throstur Leo Gunnarrsson,
Hjalti Rognvaldsson, Pétur Einarsson
Cinematographer: Rasmus Videbaek
Editor: Daniel Dencik
Music by: Slowblow
Official Website: http://www.noi-themovie.com/
POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAIN - (NASHAN
NAREN NAGOU)
Director: Huo Jianqi
Country: China
Year: 1999
Runtime: 93 minutes
Language: In Mandarin with English subtitles
Awards: Montréal World
Film Festival – Audience Award Best Film, Golden Rooster Awards -
Best Actor/Best Film, Mainichi Film Concours - Best Foreign Language
Film, Indian International
Film Festival - Jury's Special Award, Maine International Film Festival
- Audience's Award Best Film
Every so often you come across a film which makes you wonder about the
movie business. How is
it that so fine a film as this fails to achieve national distribution
in the United States? Beats me, for
this film is truly, truly wonderful. It’s small masterpiece, elegant in
its simplicity. POSTMEN IN THE
MOUNTAIN concerns a father who, now aging, must perforce turn over his
mail route to his son.
The father, accompanied by the loyal family dog, has walked his route
for decades, a route up and
down the mountainous terrain of Hunan province. The photography does
full justice to the ravishingly
beautiful terrain. Father and dog accompany the son on his first,
literal, walk-through. In the process
the son learns how important human contact is and that a man’s soul and
his work are inseparable.
Equally important, father and son are finally able to express their
love for another. I thought my heart
would break. I’ll have to add this one to my video library. ~ Nick
Salerno.
Principal Cast: Teng Rujun, Liu Ye
Cinematographer: Zhao Lei
Art Director: Song Jun
Sound: Guan Jian
Music: Wang Xiaofeng
Official Website: http://www.prcmovie.com/postmen/
RED ROSES & PETROL - Opening Night
Gala
Director: Tamar Simon Hoffs
Country: USA
Year: 2003
Runtime: 97 minutes
The Cast and Director will be in
attendance to introduce the film and participate in
a Q&A afterward.
The seemingly incongruous title is a fitting one for writer/director
Tamar Simon Hoff's elegy about an
Irish family's scars, secrets and shared experiences contrarily
recalled. Malcolm McDowell delivers
a typically stellar, powerfully understated, performance. The death of
patriarch Enda Doyle, a respected
college librarian and poet, reunites a combustible Irish family. While
waiting for their guests at the wake,
the family matriarch Moya, brooding eldest daughter Catherine, stuck in
the middle Medbh and
angry-at-the-world Johnny - watch Enda's videotaped memoirs, an
experience that both opens new
wounds and helps to heal old ones. Well written and acted, alternately
lyrical and profane, this is
a touching, funny and ultimately cathartic film, simply yet beautifully
crafted, about the inextricable
bond of family. ~ Synopsis by the AFI Los Angeles International Film
Festival
Principal Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Olivia Tracey, Heather Juergensen,
Max Beesley, Greg Ellis,
Susan Lynch, Catherine Farrell, Sean Lawlor, Robert Easton, Aubrey
Morris
Producers: Tamar Simon Hoffs, Gail Wager Stayden, Georganne Aldrich
Heller, Alfred Sapse
Editor: Dathai Keene
Cinematographer: Nancy Schreiber
Official Website: http://www.redrosesandpetrol.com/
REMEMBER ME. MY LOVE - (RICORDATI DI
ME)
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Country: Italy
Year: 2003
Runtime: 124 minutes
Language: Italian with English subtitles
A post-film discussion will be
moderated by Nick Salerno.
Awards: Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists - Best
Producer/Best Screenplay/
Best Supporting Actress
The myth and the reality of the Italian family are often wildly
different. The traditional sociologist
will tell you that everything still revolves around the concept of
all-for-one-and-one-for all, but the
reality of contemporary Italian life is something else. Husbands
threatened by working wives
who are intelligent and with emotional lives of their own. The
new woman who is made to feel
guilty if she doesn’t devote her every thought to her husband and
children. Children who are
into drugs or looking for more glamorous, financially rewarding
careers. They’re all here in
Remember Me, My Love. Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Laura Morante make
an attractive couple,
but each is frustrated and dissatisfied by the traditional roles they
are supposed to fill. Enter
Bentivoglio’s high school sweetheart, played by luscious Monica
Bellucci (Mary Magdalene in
Mel Gibson’s The Passion) and the fabric of the Italian family begins
to unravel. This is the
kind of film about which critics used to say, “You’ll laugh, you’ll
cry, and you’ll never forget….
” Well, it’s true. You’ll remember REMEMBER ME, MY LOVE. ~ Nick
Salerno
Principal Cast: Monica Bellucci, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Laura Morante,
Nicoletta Romanoff,
Silvio Muccino
Producer: Domenico Procacci
Cinematographer: Marcello Montarsi
Editor: Claudio Di Mauro
THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE
Director: Deepa Mehta
Country: Canada
Year: 2003
Runtime: 95 minutes
THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE is a warm-hearted story of love and enchantment
set in the coldest
of winters, featuring the lucky and unlucky in love in the 21st
century. Tom and Fay live in the
same apartment block, going about their parallel lives but never
meeting. Tom is a charismatic
late- night radio talk show host, whose unconventional upbringing has
made him a little too
quick to fall in love and marry, resulting in three divorces before the
age of 40. Fay is his total
opposite; her romantic ideal never attained (and unlikely to be ever
met) due to her impossibly
high expectations as a result of living with idealized parents who
embody the epitome of a rock
solid marriage. One day, through mutual acquaintances, Tom and Fay meet
and, miracle of
miracles, fall deeply in love at first sight. He is "the one"; she is
"the one"! Everything goes
swimmingly until suddenly, Fay's parent's "perfect" marriage breaks
down, abruptly, out of
nowhere, after 40 years of wedded bliss. Her whole idea of
relationships thrown topsy-turvy,
Fay quickly calls everything off with Tom. Devasted, Tom picks himself
up and goes to work
on a heroic campaign - to persuade miserable but steadfast Fay to
re-discover and re-invent
their romantic relationship. THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE, an official
selection of the 2003 Toronto
International Film Fesitval, wins both laughter and sighs, as it
explores life and love in a
modern age where geography is destiny and each of us is our own
republic.
Principal Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Emilia Fox, Edward Fox, Connor Price,
Martha Henry,
Claire Bloom, Gary Farmer, Rebecca Jenkins
Producers: Julie Baines, Anna Stratton
Cinematographer: Douglas Koch
Editor: Barry Farrell
SINCE OTAR LEFT
Director: Julie Bertuccelli
Country: Belgium/France
Year: 2003
Runtime: 102 minutes
Language: Georgian, Russian and French with English subtitles
A post-film discussion will be
moderated by Fred Linch.
Awards: Cannes Best First
Film, César Award Best First Film, Deauville Film Festival -
Best French Script, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics - Critics Award,
Viennale - FIPRESCI Prize,
Warsaw International Film Festival - Special Mention
Three women in Georgia (formerly one of the USSR’s republics) all
suffer –in varying degrees—
the loss of their son, brother, and uncle. Seeking a better life, Otar
went to Paris, leaving his
family behind. Mama Eka lives for the arrival of Otar’s letters. Her
daughter Marina thinks less
kindly of him, since caring for the family is now her sole
responsibility. Granddaughter Ada
watches and plots her own escape. When Otar is killed, Marina and Ada
decide to conceal
the truth from Eka. But things get unexpectedly complicated when Eka
sells some of the family’s
treasures to buy three train tickets to Paris. Secrets beget secrets
beget secrets. The film is
slow to get going, but ultimately captures the audience’s hearts and
minds. The ending is stunning
and extremely satisfying. The acting is brilliant, especially that of
Esther Gorinton (90 years old!)
as Eka. SINCE OTAR LEFT deserves wider circulation. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Esther Gorintin, Nino Khomassouridze, Dinara
Droukarova, Temour Kalandadze,
Roussoudan Bolkvadze, Sacha Sarichvili, Douta Skhirtladze
Producer: Yaël Fogiel
Cinematographer: Christophe Pollock
Editor: Emmanuelle Castro
Official Website: http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/sinceotarleft/
SONS OF PROVO
Director: Will Swenson
Country: USA
Year: 2003
Runtime: 93 minutes
The Cast will be in attendance to
introduce the film and participate in a Q&A afterward.
Awards: Spud Fest Film
Festival - Best Film
Think This Is Spinal Tap and The Commitments and you’ll be ready for
SONS OF PROVO.
This time it’s a send-up of Mormon pop music—if there is such a thing
as Mormon pop music.
Real-life brothers Will and Danny Jensen star as two members of
Everclean, a Mormon boy band.
Their search for a third member takes them to a handicrafts shop where
they—Golly Gee!—find a
scrapbook expert who fills the bill perfectly. So what kind of music
will an aerobics teacher, a New Age
philosopher, and a scrapbooker make? Heavenly music, of course.
Thrill to the ups and downs of
the boys as they climb the stairway to stardom. Will their rendition of
“Dang, Fetch, Oh My Heck”
knock Eminem off the charts? Seeing—and hear—in the believing.
Who knows—you may even
want to buy the soundtrack. Be that as it may, you’re in for a
rollicking good time.
~ Nick Salerno.
Principal Cast: Will Swenson, Kirby Heyborne, Danny Tarasevich, Peter
Brown, Jennifer Erekson,
Maureen Eastwood, Sally Hale
Producer: Peter Brown
Cinematographers: John Lyde, Stephen Rose
Editor: John Lyde, Stephen Rose
Official Website: http://www.SonsOfProvo.com
SOUTH FROM GRANADA - (AL SUR DE
GRANADA)
Director: Fernando Colomo
Country: Spain
Year: 2003
Runtime: 111 minutes
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Awards: Goya Awards - Best
Original Score
A member of the Bloomsbury set, Gerald Brenan retreated to a remote
area in Andalucia during
the 1920s in the hope of finding his literary muse. In the film, Brenan
stumbles into a mountain village,
where he buys a house and quickly becomes an integral part of the local
society. He befriends Paco,
who advises him to pursue Juliana, his beautiful young housekeeper.
Juliana teaches Brenan a few
things about sensuality that his Victorian upbringing didn’t cover. But
when his literary friends arrive
on a visit from London, they don’t find Brenan’s rustic lifestyle so
romantic and reveal themselves as
uptight and arrogant compared with the passionate locals. Colombo’s
film doesn’t question such
stereotyping, but it’s very good on the petty intrigues and affairs of
village life. It also looks absolutely
gorgeous, with ace cinematographer José Luis Alcaine making very
creative use of the extremes of
light and shade which characterize the region. ~ Synopsis by
¡Viva! Spanish Film Festival
Principal Cast: Matthew Goode, Verónica Sánchez,
Guillermo Toled, Consuelo Trujillo, Ángela Molina,
Antonio Resines
Producers: Fernando Bovaira, Gustavo Ferrada, Beatriz de la
Gándara
Cinematographer: José Luis Alcaine
Editor: Antonio Lara
Official Website:
http://www.plus.es/codigo/cine/especiales/default.asp?id=203245
SQUINT YOUR EYES - (ZMRUZ OCZY)
Director: Andrzej Jakimowski
Country: Poland
Year: 2003
Runtime: 88 minutes
Language: Polish with English subtitles
Awards: San Francisco
International Film Festival – Skyy Prize, Camerimage - Special Award,
International Filmfest Mannheim-Heidelberg – FIPRESCI Prize, Polish
Film Awards – Eagle, Polish
Film Festival – Best Cinematographer/Best Costume Design/Best Debut
Director/Best Production
Design, Special Jury Prize
Once again Poland sends us an offbeat provocative film with comic
elements. Jasiak, a retired school
teacher, decides to act as custodian of a deserted farm in the Polish
countryside. Forget the fact
that the owners of the farm don’t need a custodian but don’t know
how to evict their squatter. When
his solitude is broken by a former students--a young girl who’s had it
with her materialistic parents,
Jasiak’s life becomes complicated. The young girl is soon joined
by some con artists, some cyclists,
at least one self-proclaimed poet, the girl’s parents, the farm’s
owners, and ultimately the police.
If life in the countryside is this unpredictable, what must life
be like in Warsaw? You might call
SQUINT YOUR EYES a provocative, philosophical comedy.~ Nick
Salerno
Principal Cast: Zbigniew Zamachowski, Ola Prószynska, Malgorzata
Foremniak, Andrzej Chyra,
Andrzej Mastalerz
Producer: Arkadiusz Artemjew, Tomasz Gassowski, Andrzej Jakimowski
Editor: Cezary Grzesiuk
Music: Tomasz Gassowski
Cinematographers: Adam Bajerski, Pawel Smietank
TASUMA - THE FIGHTER
Director: Daniel Kollo Sanou
Country: Burkina Faso
Year: 2003
Runtime: 90 minutes
Language: Dioula and French with English subtitles
TASUMA is an absolute winner, an utterly charming rumination on French
colonialism; and
the role of elders, women, and children in small African communities.
Sogo Sanon has been
trying to claim his military pension for decades; his plight reminds us
the French military
filled its ranks with Blacks from numerous French colonies in African.
Finally assured that
his pension will arrive ”tomorrow,” Sogo Sanon buys a mill to lighten
the burden of the village
women who must grind their grain, by hand, on a daily basis. Of course,
the pension does not
arrive. In what seems like a turn towards the violent, Sogo Sanon takes
a hostage and forces
him to write a letter to the long-dead General Charles de Gaulle. Never
fear. All is resolved when
the women and children mount a crusade in support of the village elder.
The songs are wonderful
and make a major contribution to the feel-good tone of a film you may
want to see more than once.
~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Mamadou Zerbo, Bésani Raoul Khalil, Aï
Keita, Noufou Papa Ouedraogo
Music: Cheick Tidiane Seck
Photography: Nara Keo Kosal
TRAVELLERS & MAGICIANS
Director: Khyentse Norbu
Country: Bhutan
Year: 2003
Runtime: 108 minutes
Language: Dzongkha with English subtitles
A post-film discussion will be
moderated by Francie Noyes
A motley crew of travelers join forces in search of a better life or
merely some fun at a religious
festival many kilometers down the road. In the process, they learn to
care for and about one another.
The group includes a monk, a beautiful young woman, and an army
deserter. Not much happens—
no car crashes or special effects; but a shaggy-dog story told within
the film’s framework sheds a
bright light on the actions of the traveling companions. The scenery in
Bhutan is so lusciously ripe
it makes you wonder why anyone would want to leave it. No belly laughs
here, but some genuinely
satisfying smiles. I could happily watch it again. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Tsewang Dandup, Sonam Lhamo, Lhakpa Dorji, Deki
Yangzom, Sonam Kinga
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
Cinematographer: Alan Kozlowski
Editor: John Scott, Lisa-Anne Morris
Official Website: http://www.travellersandmagicians.com/
THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI
Director: Yoji Yamada
Country: Japan
Year: 2002
Runtime: 129 minutes
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Awards: Japan Film Academy
Awards- Best Picture/Best Director/Best Screenplay/ Best Actor/
Best Actress, Far East Film Festival - Audience Award, Hawaii
International Film Festival - Best
Feature, Hong Kong Film Awards- Best Asian Film, Hochi Film Awards -
Best Actress/Best Film,
Kinema Junpo Awards - Best Actor/Best Actress/Best Director/Best
Film/Best New Actor/Best
Screenplay/Best Film, Mainichi Film Concours - Best Actor/Best
Cinematography/Best Film/
Best Supporting Actress
This Oscar-nominated, poignant story of Iguchi is set in the waning
days of the Japanese feudal
system. Winner of 12 Japanese Academy Awards and directed by one of
Japan’s best known
and most prolific directors Yoji Yamada (The Tora-san series), TWILIGHT
SAMURAI is the story
of Seibei, a lower caste samurai played by Hiroyuki Sanada (RING). He
is a widower and must
care for his two daughters, his ailing mother, the house, the garden,
even the crickets. He works
all day as a clerk in the clan office but at dusk he must go straight
home instead of going to the
local pub for a drink – earning him the rather demeaning nickname
‘twilight samurai’. Despite his
hard work, he remains hopelessly poor. Then Tomoe, Seibei’s best
friend’s sister, re-enters his
life after many years away. Seibei must fight her jealous and violent
ex-husband to keep him away
and to claim Tomoe’s heart. Taking notice of his swordsmanship, the
superiors of his clan order
him to assassinate a certain samurai. Watch fot the fantastic duel
scene – with no CGI or hidden
wires – and a love story with a tragic twist. Although this film is set
at the end of the Edo period
(1600-1867), it presents Japan in a contemporary way, complete with
recession, corporate
restructuring, political shifts and men who cannot say what they feel.
~ Synopsis by the Cambridge Film Festival
Principal Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa,Nenji Kobayashi, Ren
Osugi, Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Producers: Hiroshi Fukasawa, Shigehiro Nakagawa, Ichiro Yamamoto
Cinematographer: Mutsuo Naganuma
Editor: Iwao Ishii
Music: Isao Tomita
UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Director: Ferenc Toth
Country: USA
Year: 2004
Runtime: 78 minutes
Awards: Los Angeles IFP/West
Film Festival - Best Dramatic Feature,
Philadelphia Film Festival - Best Feature Film
It takes uncommon valor to survive life on the streets of Harlem AND
keep your personal integrity
intact. After the death of his father, Ellison or L finds it impossible
to get by, even with the help
of his friends. Rejected because of his asthma by the military, unable
to rent an apartment of
his own, and reduced to living in a shelter—L accepts an offer to be
gangsta Zee’s “personal
assistant.” L now faces a genuine dilemma: which values can serve
him best—his father’s or
Zee’s? First-time director Toth makes a stunning debut with this
unflinching and only slightly
sentimental look at the Other America. And Carl Louis, a student
at Fordham, also makes a
stunning starring debut. In the plethora of films with similar
plotlines,UNKNOWN SOLDIER
stands out as genuinely original, provocative, and moving. ~ Nick
Salerno.
Principal Cast: Carl Louis, Randy Clark, Postell Pringle, Layla Edwards
Producer: Sean Bachrodt
Cinematographers: Steve Carillo, Louis Armada
Editor: Frank Reynolds, Sam Neave
Music: Peter Calandra
Official Website: http://www.unknownsoldierfilm.com
WAKE IN FRIGHT
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Country: Australia
Year: 1971
Runtime: 109 minutes
Ted Kotcheff will be in attendance to
introduce his film and participate
in a Q&A afterward.
Detailing the life of a city school teacher stuck in an Australian
outback town, this movie shows
in great detail the ugly side of Australian country life that the
Australian tourist authorities attempt
to hide. Excellent performances by all the actors, including Donald
Pleasance, Jack Thompson,
John Mellion and the legendary Australian character actor Chips
Rafferty (in his final film) help give
the film a very gritty "real" texture.
Principal Cast: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond
Producers: Howard G. Barnes, Bill Harmon, Maurice Singer, George
Willoughby
Cinematographer: Brian West
Editor: Anthony Buckley
Directors Bio: Ted Kotcheff was
born in Toronto, Canada. After graduating in English Literature at
the University of Toronto, he began his professional career directing
TV drama at age 24 at the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was the youngest director in the
CBC. His film career
started in England: TIARA TIHITI, a social comedy starring James Mason
and John Mills;
LIFE AT THE TOP, starring Laurence Harvey and Jean Simmons; TWO
GENTLEMEN SHARING,
starring Robin Phillips, a film set in the West Indian community of
London and dealing with
relationships between black and white. His next film OUTBACK was made
in Australia. It was
the Australian entry in the Cannes Film Festival and many Australians
still think it is the finest
Australian film ever made and the beginning of the renaissance of the
Australian cinema. Ted Kotcheff
then returned to Canada in 1972 to make a film of a novel written by
his best friend, Mordecai
Richler, THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ. This film, thought to be
one of the best
Canadian films ever made, won the Golden Bear First Prize at the Berlin
Film Festival and
numerous other awards including an Academy Award nomination for best
script. Ted has also
directed FUN WITH DICK AND JANE, starring Jane Fonda and George Segal;
SOMEONE IS KILLING
THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE, starring Jacqueline Bisset and George Segal;
NORTH DALLAS
FORTY which he also wrote and starring Nick Nolte; FIRST BLOOD,
starring Sylvester Stallone
(one of the biggest box office winners of all time); UNCOMMON VALOR,
starring Gene Hackman;
and WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S. In the mid-1980's, Ted Kotcheff made a film of
another
Mordecai Richler novel, JOSHUA THEN AND NOW.
YOU I LOVE - (JA LYUBLU TEBYA)
Directors: Olga Stolpovskaya and Dimitrij Troitskij
Country: Russia
Year: 2003
Runtime: 85 minutes
Language: Russian with English subtitles
Awards: New Fest: New York
GLBT Film Festival - Best Foreign Narrative Feature Award
How’s this for the plot of a romantic comedy set in contemporary
Moscow: when a well-known,
drop-dead gorgeous television anchorwoman discovers, much to her
chagrin, that she can’t pay
her tab in a restaurant, a well-heeleded, drop-dead gorgeous design
artist comes to her aid.
Soon they are sleeping and eating and eating and eating together.
(Think of the eating scene
in Tom Jones.) Then our hero meets a poor, drop-dead gorgeous boy who
feeds the animals at
the Moscow zoo and, in an act of kindness, brings him back to the
apartment. So you think you
know what happens next? Boy meets boy, boy beds boy, girl returns to
find them making the
beast with two backs. Yes, that does happen. But that’s only the
beginning. Who ends up with
whom? The film becomes increasingly complex and ever more and more
comic. The scenes
with the boy’s family are hysterically funny. I guess sexual hi-jinks
are not confined to Miami
Beach and San Francisco. Charming, sexy, funny. Definitely a feel-good
movie.
Try it. You’ll like it. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: Lyubov Tolkalina, Damir Badmajew, Jewgenij
Korijakowskij, Alisa Tanskaya
Producer: Dmitry Troitsky
Screenwriter: Olga Stolpovskaya
STUDENT COMPETITION
AMERICAN STANDARD
Director: Amadeus David Tao
Runtime: 6:08 minutes
New York Film Academy, New York
The two United States political mindsets are personified in a couple
out-to-dinner.
BETWEEN THE BOYS
Director: Jake Yuzna
Runtime: 4:00 minutes
Minneapolis College of Arts & Design, Minnesota
Exploring a relationship between two young men which falls into a gray
area.
EL TRÁFICO
Director: Marco Santiago
Runtime: 5:00 minutes
Scottsdale Community College, Arizona
A young boy gets caught up in human trafficking.
GETAWAY BEN
Director: Tyler Jones
Runtime: 14:26 minutes
University of Southern California
A night in the life of a bank robber immediately after he steals from
the people who repossessed
his family farm.
LYNCH
Director: Robert Conway
Runtime: 10:38 minutes
Scottsdale Community College, Arizona
Jesse Lynch is an outlaw and a killer, but when he crosses the wrong
man he finds himself at the
end of a rope.
REPERCUSSION
Director: Byron Gatt
Runtime: 11:00 minutes
Diablo College, California
A teenage boy gets even with his father after experiencing an abusive
childhood.
SIR JOSH
Director: Chris Hite
Runtime: 9:30 minutes
Hollins University, Virginia
SIR JOSH is about a man and his car, a man and his dreams, and how
those dreams can become
a prison when they are not fulfilled.
THERE’S SOMETHING OUT THERE
Director: Brian Pulido
Runtime: 14:30 minutes
Scottsdale Community College
Life is going along pretty well for Brad and Penny until Brad brings
home a yard Gnome.