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9 articles from 2009

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53rd London Film Festival: A Round-Up

21 hours ago | The Auteurs | See recent The Auteurs news »

Above: Pema Tsedan’s The Search.

Now that the red carpets on Leicester Square have furled, the maddening din over square-jawed celebrities, and anthropomorphic foxes recede into distant memory, we can now safely cast a selected glance back at this year's London International Film Festival high and low lights. As is inevitable with a festival round up, we look for themes, or—with want for a better word—tropes to associate an otherwise geopolitical program. Fortunately some convenient ones did arise.

Most compelling of them was, perhaps, the enduring topic: faith. Or as Jonathan Romney quipped in a pre-screening introduction: "this year was a good festival for nuns." Of course, he was referring to both Bruno Dumont and Eugène Green’s Hadewijch, and The Portuguese Nun, respectively—though Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes also fits this broad description.

Green’s enjoyable latest “transubstantiates” Lisbon into a site of spiritual reckoning, steered »

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53rd London Film Festival: "La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris" (Frederick Wiseman, USA)

4 November 2009 8:41 AM, PST | The Auteurs | See recent The Auteurs news »

Revelations were thin on the ground at London Film Festival this year. Despite the exhibition of almost three hundred new films, no cinema turned out to be as exciting, or vital, than that from some of its oldest hands: Jacques Rivette’s 36 vues du Pic Saint Loup, Manoel de Oliveira’s Eccentricities of a Blond Haired Girl, and Frederick Wiseman’s latest masterpiece, La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris. The latter screened at the very beginning of the festival, just before the onset of the shuffle of the new, and cast the longest shadow over everything that followed.

Wiseman’s rigorous investigation into the civic structures of American and global society,  varying little in method or form since his second feature, High School (1968), has by now developed into something of an institution itself. This consistency, and ever-presentness, is both a blessing and a curse—on the one hand, »

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Dogtooth, Still Walking and Yu Irie's 8000 Miles among Fnc's 38th Edition

22 September 2009 | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

- I've just completed an exhaustive 35 film slate at Tiff and I've got very little time to recharge the batteries for The Festival du nouveau cinéma. Canada's most avant-garde film festival have released their entire slate for their 38th edition. Apart from Lee Daniel's pegged for Oscar - Precious, Lone Scherfig's An Education, Lars von Trier's Antichrist and Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces (Los abrasos rotos), this year's edition is filled to the gills with obscure titles and names that even a hardcore connoisseur of world cinema such as myself is unfamiliar with. Along with their regular sections: International Selection (top festival prize and section given reserved for filmmakers with 1st, 2nd or 3rd films), Special Presentation, International Panorama, Focus (Quebecois and Canadian features) and my fav. section Temps Ø (where you'd find Harmony Korine and Bong Joon-ho's latest) there is a short films section with stellar »

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Full Programme announced for the 2009 London Film Festival

9 September 2009 3:57 AM, PDT | The Hollywood News | See recent The Hollywood News news »

The programme for The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival, has been announced today by Artistic Director Sandra Hebron. The line-ip includes a diverse selection of world and international premieres with a total of 191 features and 113 shorts screening alongside an exciting line-up of special events and expected guests. Opening Night film, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, is one of the Festival's 15 world premieres and will be presented by the director and cast members including Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Helen McCrory.   Other films celebrating their world premieres include Sam Taylor-Wood's Closing Night Gala Nowhere Boy and the Festival's first ever Archive Gala, the BFI's new restoration of Anthony Asquith's Underground, with live music accompaniment by the Prima Vista Social Club, led by Neil Brand.  The Festival will also host 23 European premieres, including Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs, Scott Hicks' The Boys Are Back and Robert Connolly's Balibo, »

- Paul

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Century Old Director Set For New Project

14 July 2009 12:32 AM, PDT | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

Giving the term Centurion a different slant, Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira shows that 100 is the new 50 when it comes to directing, as he picks up a brand new project The Strange Case of Angelica, at nearly 101 years old.A Strange Case Of Angelica (like a Portugese girl cousin of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button) will be set in the 1950s, and will follow a photographer tasked with photographing a dead girl for her hotelier parents, taken from a script written by Oliveira way back in 1952.Not to be confused with some chump change retirement project, the film is likely to be made to a budget in excess of 2.5 million Euros and will be filmed in his native Portugal from December when he hits the big One-Oh-One.Maybe he'll even get a birthday card from the Queen! »

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Toronto Announces First 24 Films for 2009 Fest

23 June 2009 5:45 PM, PDT | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Is the Toronto International Film Festival upon us already? I still have poutine stains on my shirt from last time! Yes, the 2009 fest is less than three months away, and Tiff has just announced the first batch of films that will play. All 24 will be making their North American premieres, so unless you've been to the festivals at Cannes, Venice, or Berlin, it's unlikely that you've seen any of them. Exciting!

In the "Masters" category are films by three directors who qualify for that distinction. Portugal's Manoel de Oliveira -- who is 100 years old (!) and has made 50 films, most of them in the last two decades -- has a new one called Eccentricities of a Blond-Haired Girl, about a man enchanted by a woman he sees from his window. Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad), the 87-year-old Frenchman who got a lifetime achievement at Cannes this year, has Les Herbes Folles »

- Eric D. Snider

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Toronto International Film Festival announces first titles, all North American premiers

23 June 2009 12:40 PM, PDT | QuietEarth.us | See recent QuietEarth news »

With a total of 26 pics, we've got some real good looking ones, and our very own Dr. Nathan is tentatively planned to be there to bring us reviews.

How about Air Doll? Check.

Samson & Delilah? Nice.

Fish Tank? Awesome. Our review here.

Check em out after the break.

Masters

Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl Manoel de Oliveira, France/Portugal/Spain

North American Premiere

Famed filmmaker Oliveira, who celebrates his 101st birthday this year, tells the tale of Macario's obsession with the enticing blond he spies from his window. Little does he know that she will end up stealing much more than his heart.

Les Herbes Folles Alain Resnais, France

North American Premiere

From modernist master Alain Resnais comes a romantic adventure based around the simple act of losing a wallet.

Air Doll Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan

North American Premiere

This compelling tale of a blow-up doll that becomes a real person »

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Tiff 2009 Selections: First Wave includes Cannes' Fish Tank, Air Doll and Police, Adjective

23 June 2009 | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

- Traditionally among Tiff's first wave of announcements are titles that premiered at Cannes and Berlin and are solid enough to merit a North American preem in Toronto. Of the first 26 titles announced, nineteen of them were first shown on the Croisette. Tiff's busy Asian, South American and European curators selected Eyes Wide Open (Haim Tabakman), Huacho (Alejandro Fernandez Almendras), Like You Know It All (Hong Sang-Soo), Lourdes (Jessica Hausner), Men on the Bridge (Asli Özge), My Year without Sex (Sarah Watt), Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu), The Time that Remains (Elia Suleiman), and The Wind Journeys (Ciro Guerra) for the Contemporary World Cinema section, chose Face (Tsai Ming-Liang), Independencia (Raya Martin), Irène (Alain Cavalier), Karaoke (Chris Chong Chan Fui), Nymph (Pen-ek Ratanaruang) and To Die Like a Man (Joäo Pedro Rodrigues) to populate the Visions sidebar.  The "Masters" section will see Air Doll (Hirokazu Kore-eda), Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl »

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Summer Preview: Repertory Calendar for the Coasts

5 May 2009 1:32 PM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

James Cameron in Los Angeles with 70Mm prints of "Aliens" and "The Abyss"?!?! The Dardenne brothers in New York for a career retrospective?!?! The instant cult classic "The Room" with Tommy Wiseau live in Austin?!?! Be still my heart. There's something for all tastes this summer on the West Coast, the East Coast and as you'll notice, the Third Coast on our calendar of the must-see events on the repertory theater circuit in May, June and July. And don't miss our look at the indie films that are hitting theaters or headed to online, VOD or DVD premiere this summer.

Anthology Film Archives

With the New York Polish Film Festival (May 6-10) and first-runs of the docs "Ice People" (May 1-7) and "Audience of One" (May 8-14) and Ken Jacobs' reinvention of his 1969 work "Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son" with the 3D "Anaglyph Tom" (May 15-21) taking up the Anthology's screens, »

- Stephen Saito

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2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

9 articles from 2009

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