Toronto Line-Up Announced

Toronto Film Festival Packs Good Flicks

(Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche)

Now that the Venice Film Festival is over, its time to roll over to the next batch of films looking to get bought or do their North American Premieres. Toronto Film Fest will run September 4-11. Among the 249 features to be shown, about 116 of them will be premieres and 61 are first features. Let the races begin…

These are the films our Starworks crew consider “ones to watch”…

MARNI PICKS:

(Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche)

(1) Synecdoche, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton

(2) Management, starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn

(3) Gigantic, starring Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano

SARAH JENKS DALY PICKS:

(Bryce Howard in The Loss of A Teardrop Mind)

(1) The Loss of A Teardrop Mind: “I’m really looking forward to seeing this film. The original screenplay was written by Tennessee Williams and since it’s set on a Southern plantation, I’m sure the cinematography will be impressive. I’m also a big fan of both Bryce Dallas Howard and Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter)” — SJD

(2) Burn After Reading: “I’m excited to see this film from the Coen brothers, which is quite the departure from No Country For Old Men. Obviously the cast is stacked with A-list names like Clooney and Pitt and Tilda Swinton, but I’m more interested in the performances by Frances McDormand and John Malkovich.” — SJD

(3) Pedro: “I remember watching Pedro Zamora on The Real World: San Francisco in 1994 when I was in junior high school. He was a magnetic and intelligent individual who contracted the HIV virus at a young age and used his platform on reality television to educate a group of young people about the disease. This documentary tells the story of the challenges he faced and the inspiring life he led. I can’t wait to see it.” — SJD

JAURETSI PICKS:

(Waltz with Bashir’s Protagonist flashbacking to the first Lebanon War)

(1) Waltz With Bashir - “Already saw it, but I can honestly say, one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen in my entire life. A must-have Soundtrack. It will be released in the States this Fall. Review + Trailer here.” –J

(2) Synecdoche - “Because I’m a freak for a good Charlie Kaufman script” — J

(3) Public Enemy No. 1 — “Vincent Cassel is a badass. Directed by Jean-Francois Richet, it’s a thriller starring Cassel as legendary gangster Jacques Mesrine” — J

(Vincent Cassel and Cécile de France in Public Enemy No. 1)

GREG PICKS:

(Keira Knightley in The Duchess)

(1) The Duchess: “A period film with Keira. I’m there no questions asked.”–GK

(2) New York I Love You: “Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson direct. Mira Nair contributes a segment called Kosher Vegeterian. I’m excited and loved the Paris film.” — GK

(3) Me and Orson Welles: “Zac Efron and Richard Linklater. Nuff said.” — GK

(Zac in Me and Orson Welles. Natalie Portman in New York I Love You)

—————————————————————————————-

GREG’s HONORABLE MENTIONS:

(Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler)

The Burning Plain
Uncertainy
Blindness
Easy Virtue
Lymelife
Gigantic
Wendy and Lucy
Sounds Like Teen Spirit - a Popumentary
Deadgirl

JAURETSI’s HONORABLE MENTIONS:

(Paris, Not France)

“This doc world Premieres at Toronto. Directed by Adria Petty. Title is based off a poll in certain demographics that says more people identity the name Paris with “Hilton”, and not “France”. I can’t tell if I’m amused or disgusted by that thought, but I’m still heavily compelled to see Adria’s doc — plus she’s a cool girl. (P.S. the doc is modeled after a 1960’s pic, Darling)” — J

To all the filmmakers, Break a Leg!

Venice Film Slate Announced

Congrats to all these films!!!!

(World Premiere: Brad Pitt in Coen Brother’s Burn After Reading)

The 65th Venice Film Festival is slated to occur August 27 to September 6. The line-up is skinny on showing American pics this year due to lack of films (thanks to the writers strike). If an American studio DOES happen to have a film that’s aimed for late 08 release, it probably would not have been submitted because of piracy issues (so many things to worry about these days).

Having said that, at least its good to know that 5 American films are playing at the fest — and all are options to nab the “Golden Lion”. All this premiere timing cuts it very close with Toronto’s desire to premiere films. Hopefully there’ll be enough good cinema to see (and buy) for both fests.

World Premieres at Venice Film Festival:
• Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading (Fest Opener)
• Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler
• Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married
• Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker

(Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. Marisa Tomei plays a stripper here)

Having shown at Cannes last May, Writer Guillermo Arriaga (Babel) will present his directorial debut, The Burning Plain, about an American woman disturbed by her childhood (starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger as her mother). The fest also has a broad range of additional films from Europe and Asia.

Heeeeeeere’s the selects (… may the best man win)

65TH ANNUAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

OPENING FILM
“Burn After Reading,” Joel and Ethan Cohen, (U.K., U.S.) out-of-competition.

COMPETITION
“The Wrestler,” Darren Aronofsky (U.S., France)
“The Burning Plain,” Guillermo Arriaga (U.S.)
“Il Papa di Giovanna,” Pupi Avati (Italy)
“Birdwatchers,” Marco Bechis (Italy)
“The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow (U.S.)
“L’Autre,” Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic (France)
“Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow (U.S.)
“Il Seme della discordia,” Pappi Corsicato (Italy)
“Rachel Getting Married,” Jonathan Demme (U.S.)
“Teza,” Haile Gerima (Ethiopia, Germany, France)
“Paper Soldier,” Aleksey German Jr. (Russia)
“Sut,” Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey, France, Germany)
“Achilles and the Tortoise,” Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
“Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea,” Hayao Miyazaki (Japan)
“Vegas: Based on a True Story,” Amir Naderi (U.S.)
“The Sky Crawlers,” Oshii Mamoru (Japan)
“Perfect Day,” Ferzan Ozpetek (Italy)
“Jerichow,” Christian Petzold (Germany)
“Inju, the Beast in the Shadows,” Barbet Schroeder (France)
“Nuit de Chien,” Werner Schroeter (France, Germany, Portugal)
“Inland,” Tariq Teguia (Algeria, France)
“Plastic City,” Yu Lik-wai (Brazil, China, Hong Kong/China, Japan)

OUT OF COMPETITION
“Puccini e la fanciulla,” Paolo Benvenuti (Italy)
“Yuppi Du,” Adriano Celentano (Italy)
“35 Rhums,” Claire Denis (France, Spain)
“Cry Me a River” (short), Jia Zhangke (China, Spain, France)
“Shirin,” Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)
“Tutto e musica” (1963), Domenico Modugno (Italy)
“Vicino al Colosseo…c’e Monti” (short), Mario Monicelli (Italy)
“Do Visivel ao Invisivel” (short), Manoel de Oliveira (Brazil, Portugal)
“Les Plages d’Agnes” (documentary), Agnes Varda (France)
“Vinyan,” Fabrice Du Welz (France, U.K., Belgium)
“Encarnacao do demonio,” Jose Mojica Marins (Brazil)
“Volare” (1959), Piero Tellini (Italy)

OUT OF COMPETITION — SPECIAL EVENTS
“Bajo el Signo de las Sombras” (documentary) (1984), Ferran Alberich (Spain)
“Vida en Sombras” (1947), Lorenzo Llbobet Gracia (Spain)
“Ketto Takadanobaba” (1937), Masahiro Makino, Hiroshi Inagaki (Japan)
“La Rabbia” (1963) (documentary), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy)

IN COLLABORATION WITH UDINE FAR EAST FEST
“Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit!,” Minoru Kawasaki (Japan)
“Queens of Langkasuka,” Nonzee Nimibutr (Thailand)

HORIZONS
“Goodbye Solo,” Ramin Bahrani (U.S.)
“A Erva do Rato,” Julio Bressane, Rosa Dias (Brazil)
“Parc,” Arnaud des Pallieres (France)
“Melancholia,” Lav Diaz (Philippines)
“Un Lac,” Philippe Grandrieux (France)
“Wild Field,” Mikhail Kalatozishvili (Russia)
“Il Primo giorno d’inverno,” Mirko Locatelli (Italy)
“Voy a explotar,” Gerardo Naranjo (Mexico)
“Jay,” Francis Xavier Pasion (Philippines)
“Pa-ra-da,” Marco Pontecorvo (Italy, France, Romania)
“Zero Bridge,” Tariq Tapa (India, U.S.)
“Pusique nous sommes nes” (documentary), Jean-Pierre Duret, Andrea Santana (France, Brazil)
“Women” (documentary), Huang Wenhai, China, Switzerland
“In Paraguay” (documentary), Ross McElwee (U.S.)
“Z32” (documentary), Avi Mograbi (Israel, France)
“Below Sea Level” (documentary), Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, U.S.)
“Los Herederos” (documentary), Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico)
“L’Exil et le royaume” (documentary), Andrei Schtakleff, Jonathan Le Fourn (France)

HORIZONS EVENTS
“Verso Est” (documentary), Laura Angiulli (Italy, Bosnia)
“ThyssenKrupp Blues” (documentary), Pietro Balla, Monica Repetto (Italy)
“La Fabbrica dei Tedeschi” (documentary), Mimmo Calopresti (Italy)
“Soltanto un nome nei titoli di testa” (documentary), Daniele Di Biasio (Italy)
“Antonioni su Antonioni” (documentary), Carlo di Carlo (Italy)
“Venezia ’68” (documentary), Antonello Sarno (Italy)
“Valentino: The Last Emperor” (documentary), Matt Tyrnauer (Italy)

CLOSING FILM
“Orfeo 9” (1973), Tito Schipa Jr. (Italy), out-of-competition

Also, after its world premiere at Venice, Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading will be released here in the States on September 12th.
J

Battle in Seattle

Victory for Battle at Malibu Film Fest

(Writer/Director Stuart Townsend with Producer/Honey Charlize Theron)

On Sunday, June 29, W Magazine sponsored an intimate & exclusive screening of Battle in Seattle at the Malibu Country Mart. Stuart Townsend wrote and directed the intense political drama. Townsend’s girlfriend for life Charlize Theron (who plays a lead role in the film) and Jennifer Carpenter of Dexter (one of the leads) came out to support the first time filmmaker!

Said Townsend: “This film was six years in the making and Charlize was with me every step of the way!” Other big stars showed up to support, including, Matthew McConaughey (with fiancé and mother-to-be Camilla Alves), Michael C. Hall, Amanda Anka & Jason Bateman, Peter Berg (director of Hancock), Dita Von Teese (in Catherine Maladrino), Alexis Bledel, Gabrielle Reece (and her adorable new baby girl), Steve Tisch, stylist Estee Stanley (looking radiant and pregnant), etc.

(Jason Bateman with wife Amanda Anka, Steve Tisch, and Charlize)

E!’s Ben Lyons moderated an informal Q & A following the film with Stuart Townsend and Jennifer Carpenter, while Charlize affectionately harassed the director from her seat. The film was many years in the making for Townsend who assembled an impressive cast in under a week (Ray Liotta, Andre Benjamin, Woody Harrelson, Channing Tatum). The film focuses on five days in 1999 as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest the WTO talks.

(McConaughey with a final look at pregnant fiancé Camilla Alves. The baby is now born!)

Following the screening guests took over locale fav, Tony’s Taverna for dinner. CIROC provided the cocktails and co-sponsor Tommy Hilfiger strategically placed surfboards against the wall to keep the paparazzi out.

(Gabrielle Reece with new baby girl, Charlize)

Back in September last year, Jauretsi reviewed the film at the Toronto Film Festival (Read here). The film also acts as an informative bookmark for American history in relation to news and events happening in the world today regarding protests and “people power” in the making (Read here). The film finally opens September 19 in NYC, and September 26th in LA.

GO SEE IT! WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

For more info, go to BattleinSeattleMovie.com.

Marfa

Texas Desert Under the Stars

(Susannah holdin’ it down in Marfa)

If you’re looking to travel on a whim to one of the downlo sexy cities in America, take a look at West Texas. Marfa is in the middle of nowhere and takes trains, planes, and automobile’s — so the fact its the First Annual Marfa Film Festival next week, is reason alone to take the hike. Susannah Lipsey is acting as the festivals Special Events Director (May 1st to May 5th), and told me about the cool happenings next week.

A little background for those who’ve never heard of Marfa (I can hear some jaded fashionistas now rolling their eyes with the quintessential line, “oh Marfa, we already knew about that”). So this is for the virgins.

(Downtown Marfa)

A remote town located near the Big Bend National Park, Marfa has been a hub for high-art due to the children of Donald Judd who’ve managed to rebuild the town as an art community. There is one monster collection outdoors (referred to as The Chinati Foundation), except this tour is an outdoor gallery/museum/space/collection unlike any other. Read Men’s Vogue for that feature. The New Yorker referred to it as the “Xanadu of Minimalism”. ‘Nuff said.

Then there’s the cinematic history this little town embodies. It was the set for James Deans’ last film, Giant, with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Dennis Hopper about the lives of Texan barons. The movie’s grand mansion (a hollow Hollywood-built facade still exists in Marfa!).

(James Dean in Giant with the famous mansion in the background)

But back to the festival next week, good ‘ol Dennis Hopper is attending the screening in a few days to represent for Giant. He hasn’t been to Marfa in 50 years since she shot the movie. Oh, and he’s also bringing with him some rare little film he made called The Last Movie which won at the 1971 Venice Film Festival. Memories!

(Dennis Hopper in Giant)

Onto contemporary cinematic history. Marfa is responsible for helping a major assist at the Oscar race this year. That’s 8 nominations for No Country For Old Men and 8 nominations for There Will Be Blood, altogether 16 trophy opportunities for a tiny little town with no movie theater.

(There Will Be Blood)

The best part is that the festival will be hosting a 35mm screening outdoors of There Will Be Blood on the actual set where it was made. The gigantic 40 x 20 foot screen belongs to Austin’s famous Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow. It’s gonna be a sweet night for the locals, cast, and crew of the flick — some whom haven’t even seen the movie yet!

I can’t list the entire week of screenings and events on this blog, but one more thing is worth mentioning. There is a music/film collective called “The Masses” who will be visiting Marfa to premiere some music videos directed by Matt Amato, Shannyn Sossamon, and Jon Ramos. Heath Leger (who had created within this collective) will be there in spirit as they all present never-seen-before stuff he was involved in. Peace to the Texan desert air that night. Heath was our James Dean.

(No Country For Old Men)

If you care to hit the town for these screenings, go to their website (Marfa Film Festival), and reach out to Susannah (pictured above) who’s acting as hostess-with-the-mostess down there. Her words on the city this week: “The vibe here is sunny — warm in days, cool at night. It’s pretty mellow but there is ALWAYS something going on. I always seem to find myself in the most random and spontaneous of situations down here – I love it. People from New York, LA, and artists from all over seem to be navigating here. There’s a broad range of locals (young to older) in a very relaxed environment inspiring one another creatively and appreciating one another’s individuality.”

Stay tuned for a future post where I’ll write about Susannah’s little bohemian headpieces which she designs and creates herself. For now, we’ll let her focus on the hectic schedule that awaits her.
J

Marni’s Tribeca Film Fest picks

Here are a few films that I’m really excited to check out at this year’s fest. My picks are kind of all over the place, but how can I resist a Matthew Broderick black comedy, a Patrick Wilson drama, a quirky comedy with William H. Macy, and a doc on meerkats?
-By Marni

(1) Finding Amanda

After winning multiple awards as a writer, director, and producer of television shows like Murphy Brown, The Larry Sanders Show, and Rescue Me, Peter Tolan (screenwriter of Analyze This, America’s Sweethearts) makes his feature directorial debut with Finding Amanda, a black comedy that finds humor in otherwise serious subject matter. Amanda focuses on Taylor Peters (Matthew Broderick), the writer and executive producer of a successful but trite sitcom. The gig isn’t exactly artistically satisfying work, but it’s the only one he could get after a struggle with alcohol and substance abuse. His beautiful and supportive wife (Maura Tierney) has never left his side, but she’s at her wit’s end when she thinks he’s started betting the ponies again. When Taylor learns that his 18-yearold niece Amanda (Brittany Snow) is living in Las Vegas, working as a prostitute, and probably doing a lot of drugs, he figures the best way to redeem himself with his wife is to go to Vegas and convince his niece to go to rehab-but a trip to Sin City is not exactly the best medicine for a recovering alcoholic with a gambling problem. Peter Facinelli and Steve Coogan also star.

(2) Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins

Meerkats have been gaining ground in the media since The Lion King’s Timon showed up on the scene more than 10 years ago. Their human-like tendency to stand on their hind legs might be one reason, and their hilariously expectant demeanor is certainly another. Directors Chris Barker and Mike Slee use both to great advantage in this amazing adventure that uses real footage of wild African meerkats to tell the story of a spunky young female named Flower. The mix of ingenious editing, evocative narration by Whoopi Goldberg, and the stunning beauty of South Africa’s wilds make this a delightful experience for children and adults. Young Flower, the hope of her family, must fulfill her destiny by clearing the hurdles that Nature throws her way-be it snakes, neighboring gangs, or just the unyielding cruelty of the barren Kalahari desert.

(3) Life In Flight

This thoughtful drama from first-time writer-director Tracey Hecht stars Patrick Wilson as a successful New York architect who seems to have the perfect life with his beautiful wife Catherine (Amy Smart) and an adorable, seven-year-old son. They are an attractive, well-to-do couple with a comfortable brownstone, but their relationship can be tense and distant, though not entirely loveless. Just as Will’s business is about to enter the next phase, he meets Kate (Lynn Collins), a quirky retail designer, at a dinner party. Although they exchange nothing more than innocent conversation and mild flirtation, it is obvious the two have an immediate connection.

(4) Bart Got a Room

“What other evening in your whole life is as big? Maybe your wedding. But odds are that will end in divorce anyway,” says Danny’s sage-like friend, Craig, as the two nerdy pals lounge poolside in the Florida retirement community they call home. The night in question? Prom, of course, and high school senior/band member/student council vice president Danny Stein wants what any reasonable young man wants on prom night-to get a little lovin’ from a cute girl. He’s got the hotel, limo, and tux lined up. He has his recently divorced, slightly dysfunctional but supportive parents (William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines) rooting for him. He’s only missing one thing-the girl. This side-splitter follows Danny as he hustles his way through the three weeks leading up to the night that will mark him for life. Directed by Brian Hecker.

For times/dates/tickets, go to Tribeca Film Fest site. April 23 - May 4th.