Over the Top: DHOOM 2

Bollywood movies are an acquired taste. You don't go into them expecting realism and subtlety. Having seen only half a dozen or so, I'm hardly an expert, but one thing I've learned is to toss out my assumptions about what a movie should be the moment I start watching. Designed to appeal to the broadest possible demographic (kids, parents, grandparents, uncles, the family goldfish), they follow the maxim of "more is more." Or in the case of a big-budget action-comedy-musical-romance like Dhoom 2 (2006), "more is lots more." Got a kitchen sink? Go ahead, toss that in, too--maybe someone will need to wash up.
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Bending Reality: HAPPY ACCIDENTS

As far back as I can remember, I've always been a sucker for a good time-travel story. If the time travel is wrapped around a convincing romance, even better. Literary standouts of the genre include Time and Again, Bid Time Return (which became the movie Somewhere In Time), and The Time Traveler's Wife. Movie-wise you've got Time After Time, 12 Monkeys, the obscure but great 12:01, and last year's Safety Not Guaranteed. On TV the grandaddy of them all was the first-season Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever," written by Harlan Ellison and considered among the best Trek episodes ever made (of any generation).

Brad Anderson's Happy Accidents (2000) juggles elements from many of its predecessors yet manages, in its grounded, low-budget way, to make an impressive contribution to the time-travel-romance. You can tell this movie--written, directed, and edited by Anderson--was made with far more love than money. It's sci-fi of the mind, with nary a special effect to be seen. Imagine (if you will) a feature-length episode of The Twilight Zone, only shot in a realistic New York setting with quirky humor and bucketloads of heart.


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SHORT FEATURE: CARMAGEDDON GONE YAKETY

So, over at Aleteia this weekend I spent some time with Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain. Ultimately there were a few things which kept me from completely liking it, but I have to give the film its due. Bay has finally made a movie with some honest to goodness real ideas in it. Weird, I know. I’m willing to bet that when you think of Michael Bay, the first thing that probably comes to mind is something more along the lines of this…

Okay, so that was… pointless… stupid… silly? Yeah, all of those. But it makes me laugh every time I watch it, and as Proverbs 17:22 points out, “a joyful heart is the health of the body.”

Plus, as Father James Martin notes in an interview with Our Sunday Visitor, with all the bad stuff going on these days, now is a pretty good time to hold onto our sense of humor and joy. “First, it’s important to have a sense of humility and poverty of spirit. Second, humor helps us get along with people. Humor is a natural social element that is an essential part of human interaction. Third, to gain some perspective. The saints used humor as a tool in their quest for humility and also as a way of gaining some perspective on their place in the universe. And finally, as Archbishop Timothy Dolan has said, ‘Happiness attracts.’ Why would anyone want to join a group of miserable people? It also communicates our belief in the Resurrection. We’re living in Easter time now — Christ has risen. The disciples ran with joy to see the risen Lord. They didn’t mope around.”

So find something to make you smile today. It probably won’t be a Michael Bay film, but I’m sure there’s something else out there.

Expiration Watch: STARDUST MEMORIES

Misjudged as a slap at his fans and widely panned on its release in 1980, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories finally seems to be escaping the tarnish of its initial reception. Even without considering some of the director's shakier misfires to come, this arty, funny take on one filmmaker's struggle with his own limitations deserves a place among the Flawed Classics in the Allen pantheon.

A serio-comic homage to '60s European cinema, Stardust Memories tracks a day or two in the life of Sandy Bates, a successful comedy director overwhelmed by the world's suffering, his own mortality, and his inability to do a thing about either�in other words, the usual Allen preoccupations. Caught at a crossroads in both his personal and professional life while attending a filmmakers retreat with adoring critics and fans, Sandy seeks escape in surreal reveries about his past and in the allure of a pretty cellist (Jessica Harper). She reminds him of a past love, the troubled Dorrie�played in flashbacks by a luminous Charlotte Rampling�who Sandy has never entirely gotten over. This of course complicates things with his current girlfriend, Isobel (Marie-Christine Barrault), a French earth mother of two who represents sanity and stability but also a level of commitment he's not sure he's ready for.

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Getting Animated: A Secret STAR TREK

For me one of the great pleasures of streaming services like Netflix Instant (or Amazon Prime) is the ability to quickly indulge a nostalgic twinge by calling up a favorite episode of a fondly remembered TV show�say, The Twilight Zone or Columbo or Star Trek. If you're a Star Trek fan you already know what a godsend these sites are to Trekkies: all five live-action series can be found there�in HD, no less�with every episode available to be queued and streamed quicker than Scotty can beam down a redshirt to his untimely demise. (True ST fans, of course, already own their series of choice in at least one DVD edition, and would rather mix matter with antimatter than give up their slick Starfleet packaging and requisite bonus features.)

The crew returns (minus Chekov, plus a couple of weird aliens)

But what a lot of fans of old-school Trek may not realize is that there was another Star Trek, one that holds its own with much of the existing canon but gets little recognition outside of hardcore ST:TOS fans (that's Star Trek: The Original Series, for you non-Trekkies). This was Star Trek: The Animated Series,�a.k.a. ST:TAS. Produced for Saturday morning TV in 1973 and 1974 to placate the growing base of increasingly rabid fans, it utilized the voices of nearly all the original cast. Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest were back, ready to complete the Enterprise's aborted five-year mission. Only Walter Koenig as Chekov was M.I.A. (one actor too many for the show's tight budget), replaced by an odd, long-necked creature named Lt. Arex.
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2013 German Film Award Winners

Posting winners as they are announced via Twitter and facebook.  When info becomes available at official site, will confirm winners.  All winners are confirmed in official site that you can check here.

Honorary Lola goes to Werner Herzog; Audience Award Lola to Schlussmacher by Matthias Schweighöfer and Torsten Künstler.

Seems that Oh Boy will win most major awards... only one to go... and went to Oh Boy, which becomes the big winner tonight.

Winners are in BLUE.

3/22/13
A few hours ago the Deutsche Filmakademie (German Film Academy) announced the nominees for the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards) -better known as Lolas- and Cloud Atlas leads the pack with 9 nods including top award and Best Director closely followed by Jan Ole Gester's debut film Oh Boy with eight nods.

These are the nominees for all the 16 categories.

Best Film
Cloud Atlas, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
*Hannah Arendt, Margarethe von Trotta BEST FILM IN SILVER
*Lore, Cate Shortland BEST FILM IN BRONZE
*Oh Boy, Jan Ole Gerster  BEST FILM IN GOLD
Quellen des Lebens, Oskar Roehler
Die Wand (The Wall), Julian Roman Pölsler

Best Director
*Jan Ole Gester for Oh Boy
Margarethe von Trotta for Hannah Arendt
Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer for Cloud Atlas

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Martina Gedeck in Die Wand (The Wall)
Birgit Minichmayr in Gnade (Mercy)
*Barbara Sukowa in Hannah Arendt

Best Supporting Actress
Margarita Broich in Quellen des Lebens
Friederike Kempter in Oh Boy
*Christine Schorn in Das Leben ist nichts für Feiglinge

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Edin Hasanovic in Schuld sind immer die Anderen
*Tom Schilling in Oh Boy
Sabin Tambrea in Ludwig II

Best Supporting Actor
*Michael Gwisdek in Oh Boy
Robert Gwisdek in Das Wochenende (The Weekend)
Ernst Stötzner in Was Bleibt (Home for the Weekend)

Best Screenplay
Pam Katz and Margarethe von Trotta for Hannah Arendt
*Jan Ole Gerster for Oh Boy
Anna Maria Praßler for Schuld sind immer die Anderen

Best Cinematography
Adam Arkapaw for Lore
Jakub Bejnarowicz for Gnade (Mercy)
*John Troll and Frank Briebe for Cloud Atlas

Best Art Direction
Susann Bieling for Die Abenteuer des Huck Finn
*Uli Hanisch and Hugo Bateup for Cloud Atlas
Udo Kramer for Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World)

Best Editing
*Alexander Berner for Cloud Atlas
Anne Fabini for More Than Honey
Anja Siemens for Oh Boy

Best Sound Design
*Christian Bischoff, Uve Haussig and Johannes Konecny for Die Wand (The Wall)
Benjamin Krbetschek and Holger Lehmann for Du hast es Versprochen (Forgotten)
Stefan Soltau, Björn Wiese and Dominik Rätz for Gnade (Mercy)
Markus Stemler, Ivan Sharrock, Frank Kruse, Matthias Lempert, Roland Winke and Lars Ginzel for Cloud Atlas

Best Film Score
*The Major Minors and Cherilyn MacNeil for Oh Boy
Max Richter for Lore
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil for Cloud Atlas

Best Costume Design
*Kym Barrett and Pierre-Yves Gayraud for Cloud Atlas
Stefanie Bieker for Lore
Frauke Firl for Hannah Arendt
Thomas Oláh for Die Vermessung der welt (Measuring the World)

Best Make Up
Jeannette Latzelsberger, Gregor Eckstein, Elke Lebender, Stephanie Däbritz and Julia Rinkl for Quellen des lebens
*Daniel Parker and Jeremy Woodhead for Cloud Atlas
Astrid Weber for Hannah Arendt

Best Documentary
*More Than Honey, Markus Imhoof
Vergis Mein Nicht, David Sieveking
Die Wohnung (The Flat), Arnon Goldfinger

Best Children's Film
Das Haus der Krokodile (Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion), Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert
*Kaddisch für einen Freund, Leo Khasin

To check the official list go here.  Awards ceremony will take place on April 26 in Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast, will be broadcast live by ZDF and will be hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun.

There are many interesting films among the nominees, specially the family/personal dramas that seem to have interesting stories but there are a few period films and/or historical real life people  that also could be interesting. Among the documentaries The Flat has become must be seen for me. Great.

66th Festival de Cannes Official Selection Lineup - Update 1

Today organizers announced five (5) more films in the Official Selection, with Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (with Tilda Swinton) going into the Competition, Claude Lanzmann's Le Dernier des Injustes out of competition and three (3) films in Un Certain Regard: Lucia Puenzo's Wakolda, Hiner Saleem's My Sweet Pepperland and Katrin Gebbe's Tore Tanzt.

4/18/13
A few minutes ago the Official Selection lineup was unveiled and yes, there are some very positive surprises for me even when most films in the main competition are the ones everyone was buzzing and speculating will make the selection. The surprises: the latest film by master filmmaker Jia Zhangke, one of my favorite Sixth Generation Chinese directors, and none other than Amat Escalante that even when his films are quite violent, truly mesmerizes me with his particular and peculiar style. Fantastic!

My biggest non-positive surprise is to find Steven Soderbergh latest film in the Official Selection (?!) not only is a TV movie (is HBO) but the film stills and promotion material seems truly awful representation of Liberace. Obviously now I know will expect more from this movie that will premier Sunday, May 26 at 9pm on HBO.

As have been doing in previous years in one post will list ALL films that made this year selection and will update as soon as they announce new films in any section.

Competition

Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh, USA
Borgman, Alex van Warmerdam, Netherlands
Grisgris, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, France and Chad
Heli, Amat Esclante, Mexico
Inside Llewyn Davis, Ethan and Joel Coen, USA
Jeune et Jolie, François Ozon, France
Jimmy P. (aka Jimmy Picard) (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), Aranud Desplechin, USA
La Vie d'A Adèle (aka Le Bleu est une coleur chaude), Abdellatif Kechiche, France
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy and France
La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur), Roman Polansky, France
Le passé (The Past), Asghar Farhadi, France
Michael Kohlhaas, Arnaud des Pallières, France and Germany
The Immigrant (aka Lowlife), James Gray, USA
Nebraska, Alexander Payne, USA
Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch, USA
Only God Forgives, Nicolas Winding Refn, France and Denmark
そして父になる Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son), Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan
天注定 Tian Zhu Ding (A Touch of Sin), Jia Zhangke, China
Un château en Italie, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, France
藁の楯 わらのたて Wara No Tate (Shield of Straw), Takashi Miike, Japan

Out of Competition
Opening Film: The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann, Australia and USA
Closing Film: Zulu, Jérôme Salle, France
All is Lost, J.C. Chandor, USA
Blood Ties, Guillaume Canet, France and USA
Le dernier des injustes, Claude Lanzmann, France and Austria

The Jury
President: Steven Spielberg, director, USA
Naomi Kawase, director, Japan
Cristian Mungiu, director, scriptwriter and producer, Romania
Lynne Ramsay, director, scriptwriter and producer, UK
Ang Lee, director, scriptwriter and producer, Taiwan
Daniel Auteuil, actor and director, France
Christoph Waltz, actor, Austria
Nicole Kidman, actress and  producer, Australia
Vidya Balan, actress, India

Un Certain Regard

Opening Film: The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola, USA
Anonymous, Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran
As I Lay Dying, James Franco, USA
(*) Bends, Flora Lau, Hong Kong and China
Death March, Adolfo Alix Jr., Philippines
(*) Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler, USA
Grand Central, Rebecca Zlotowski, France
(*) La Jaula de Oro, Diego Quemada-Diez, Mexico
Les Salauds, Claire Denis, France
L'Image Manquante, Rithy Panh, Cambodia
L'Inconnu du lac, Alain Guiraudie, France
(*) Miele, Valeria Golino, France and Italy
My Sweet Pepperland, Hiner Saleem, Turkey, Iran, Irak
Norte, Hanggan ng kasaysayan (Norte, The End of History), Lav Diaz, Philippines
Omar, Hany Abu-Assad, Palestine and USA
(*) Sarah préfère la course, Chloé Robichaud, Canada
(*) Tore Tanzt, Katrin Gebbe, Germany
Wakolda, Lucía Puenzo, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany and Norway

Un Certain Regard Jury
President: Thomas Vinterberg, director, scriptwriter and producer, Denmark

Special Screenings
Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, Stephen Frears, USA (TV movie)
Seduced and Abandoned, James Toback, USA (Documentary)
Stop the Pounding Heart, Roberto Minervini, Italy, Belgium and USA
Week End of A Champion, Roman Polanski, UK, 1972 (Documentary)

Midnight Screenings
盲探 Man Tam (Blind Detective) , Johnnie To, Hong Kong
(*) Moonsoon Shootout, Amit Kumar, India and UK

Cannes Classics
Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1958

Jerry Lewis' Tribute
Max Rose, Daniel Noah, USA

Gala Screening, Tribute to India
Bombay Talkies, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee, India

Short Films Competition
37°4 S, Adriano Valerio, France, 11'
Bishtar az do saat (More Than Two Hours), Ali Asgari, Iran, 15'
Condom Lead, Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser, Palestine and Jordan, 14'
Hvalfjörður (Whale Valley, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, Iceland and Denmark, 15'
Inseki to Impotence (The Meteorite and Impotence), Omoi Sasaki, Japan, 10'
Mont Blanc, Gilles Coulier, Belgium, 14'
Olena, Elżbieta Benkowska, Poland, 14'
Ophelia, Annarita Zambrano, Poland, 14'
Safe, Moon Byoung-gon, South Korea, 13'

Cinéfondation Selection
Asunción, Camila Luna Toledo, Chile, 21', (Pontificia Universidad Catolica)
Au-delà de l'Hiver (After the Winter), Zhi Wei Jow, France, 19' (Le Fresnoy)
Babaga, Gan de Lange, Israel, 26' (The Sam Spiegel Film & TV School)
Contrafábula de una Niña Disecada (Fable of a Blood-Drained Girl), Alejandro Iglesias Mendizábal, Mexico, 25' (CCC)
Danse Macabre, Małgorzata Rżanek, Poland, 5' (Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw)
Duet, Navid Danesh, Iran, 24', (Karnameh Film School)
En Attendant le dégel (Waiting for the Thaw), Sarah Hirtt, Belgium, 20' (INSAS)
Exil (Exile), Vladilen Vierny, France, 16' (La fémis)
Going South, Jefferson Moneo, USA, 15' (Columbia University)
În acvariu (In the Fishtank), Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Romania, 20' (UNATC)
Mañana Todas Las Cosas (Tomorrow All The Things), Sebastián Schjaer, Argentina, 17' (UCINE)
Needle, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, USA, 21' (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
O Šunce, Eliška Chytková, Czech Republic, 6' (Tomas Bata University in Zlίn)
Pandy (Pandas), Matúš Vizár, Czech Republic, 12' (FAMU)
The Magnificent Lion Boy, Ana Caro, UK, 10' (NFTS)
The Norm of Life, Evgeny Byalo, Russia, 23' (High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors)
Seon (The Line), Kim Soo-Jin, South Korea, 27' (Chung-Ang University)
Stepsister, Joey Izzo, USA, 18' (San Francisco State University)

Special Screening
(*) Otdat Konci (Bite The Dust), Taisia Igumentseva, Russia

Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury
President: Jane Campion, director, New Zealand
Majida Abdi, actress, director and producer, Ethiopia
Nicoletta Braschi, actress and producer, Italy
Nandita Das, actress, India
Semih Kaplanoğlu, director, writer and producer, Turkey

(*) First film competes for the Camera d'Or

Main Competition, Out of Competition, Special Screenings and Tributes info, film stills or trailers @MOC
Un Certain Regard info, film stills or trailers @MOC
Check trailers for some Cinéfondation shorts at MOC.

Read basic info for all films but will continue finding more information, film stills and/or trailers and will upload them at MOC. So will update links to each section asap.

PULP CATHOLICISM #013

21st L'ACID Selection

Reliable news have already the ACID selection even when it is not posted at the official site of L'Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion, so I'm doing post and will confirm as soon as they publish at official site plus will add the special screenings and any other event they program for this year.

Update
The announcement is up at official site thus films are confirmed.

These are the nine (9) feature films in the 2013 selection

Au Bord du Monde, Claus Drexel, France
Braddock America, Jean-Loic Porton and Gabriella Kessler, France (documentary)
C’est eux les chiens, Hicham Lasri, Morocco
Deux automnes, trois hivers, (Two Autumns, Three Winters), Sébastien Betbeder, France

La Bataille de Solferino, Justine Triet, France
Ô Heureux Jours!, Dominique Cabrera, France (documentary)
Swandown, Andrew Kötting, UK
The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, Germany
Wajma, Barmak Akram, France and Afghanistan

For me it is a big surprise to find in L'ACID selection Barmak Akram's film Wajma, which won an award at 2013 Sundance as its presence in this section means that has no distribution.

Around minute 2 the list of movies begin with images in the below video, but if you wish to see the photos pleas go here.

PODCAST 44: Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem

This week Forest & Cory share their thoughts on Rob Zombie's latest feature film, Lords of Salem. Is it the best new horror flick or has Zombie lost his damn mind? Also the gang talk about Record Store Day and Forest's newly assembled Ed Wood film collection.

CONTINUE READING

Expiration Watch: TWO FOR THE SEESAW

There's a lot to be said for blunt, literate dialogue between two characters--something more common to plays, books, and high-caliber TV dramas than today's big-studio releases. Equally refreshing are movie romances minus the pinches of Hollywood fairy dust that often cloud the screen, especially if you prefer to see relationships with some semblance of real life. Functioning as a kind of companion piece to Billy Wilder's The Apartment, only less witty and with a narrower scope, Two for the Seesawthrives in its carefully observed portrayal of two lost souls learning to trust each other in 1962 New York.

The details are what sell it. From the Oscar-nominated location photography to the peeling paint inside the cramped and sagging downtown dwellings, this is a world that's been lived in. Not that the film is some gritty kitchen sink drama soaked in gin and reeking of broken childhoods. But director Robert Wise seems to have taken great care to dispense with movie shorthand and actually show what living in New York was (and still is) like for the average striver. Accounts are regularly tallied, dollars saved, geographical integrity honored. Given the film's pedigree--from the director of West Side Story, starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine, shot in gorgeous widescreen black and white--such fidelity comes as a refreshing surprise.

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Expiration Watch: INSERTS

You'd never guess that Richard Dreyfuss' first project after shooting Jaws would have been an X-rated black comedy that takes place entirely on one set. But that's exactly what the film Inserts was when it briefly hit theaters in 1975. Also notable for giving Bob Hoskins his first film role, this daring little indiscretion (since downgraded to a more palatable NC-17) is a provocative timepiece that's Exhibit A for the types of extreme subject matter filmmakers and actors were game for in the first half of the 1970s.

The film itself takes place in the early 1930s, soon after sound has hit the movies and the resultant industry fallout is still being felt. One of the talkies' casualties is a young superstar director known only as Boy Wonder (Dreyfuss), an artiste of silent cinema who refused to compromise his vision for Hollywood's bean counters. Reduced to an impotent, disillusioned alcoholic afraid to leave his mansion--which itself will soon be paved over to make way for a freeway--the Boy Wonder now plies his trade shooting no-budget stag films financed by low-rent producer Big Mac (Hoskins). Aiding and abetting him are lead actress Harlene, a living kewpie doll played by a surprising (and surprisingly sexy) Veronica Cartwright, and a dense leading man referred to disparagingly as Rex, the Wonder Dog (Stephen Davies). Rounding out the quintet is Big Mac's "maybe fiancee," one Miss Cake, an aspiring actress (Jessica Harper) who may or may not be as clueless as she seems.

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THE B-LIST – THE TOP 6 WORST PLACES TO BE BURIED

While recently reading through the Catechism in one year as a part of the Year of Faith (Day 185 to be precise), I ran across a quote from St. Monica regarding the handling of her mortal remains after her approaching death. “Put this body anywhere!” she said, “Don't trouble yourselves about it! I simply ask you to remember me at the Lord's altar wherever you are.” The good lady said this because she understood, as the Catechism explains, that “the Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who ‘have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified,’ so that they may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ.” So, saint or no saint, Monica was taking the possibility of time in purgatory seriously and wanted to make she was covered in case of that outcome.

Still, I have to wonder if she would have been quite so nonchalant about her body’s resting place if she had seen some of the movies I have. Here are some of the worst places in cinema history to be buried.

1. Buffalora Cemetery from Cemetery Man (1994)

Sure, we Christians believe in a bodily resurrection, but we prefer to wait until Jesus comes back around before we get to it. At Buffalora, you’re barely in the ground before you’re back up and looking for a quick snack… of human flesh!

2. The pet cemetery from Pet Sematary (1989)

Pretty much the same situation as Buffalora, except you have the added olfactory displeasure of waking up next to a bunch of dead cats.

3. Morningside Cemetery from Phantasm (1979)

Still, being a zombie isn’t the worst thing you could come back as. If you have the misfortune to be laid to rest at Morningside, there’s a strong possibility the Tall Man will dig you up and compress your body into that of a mindless inter-dimensional dwarf. Then he’ll dress you up like a Jawa.

4. Cuesta Verde Estates from Poltergeist (1982)

While being dug up is no fun, getting to stay in the ground is no picnic in a horror film either. There’s always the chance some land developer will decide to build a subdivision on top of you, requiring your ghost to cause a little ruckus to get them to leave.

5. Midian from Nightbreed (1990)

And if it’s not the humans moving in, it’s the monsters. The main problem with having a bunch of mutants build a city underneath your gravesite is that the local backwoods militia won’t like it, and they always seem to have a few rocket launchers sitting around.

6. The unnamed cemetery from Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Now you’d think the problem here would be the aliens running around trying to resurrect the dead for their own evil purposes, but that’s not really it. The problem is all the cheap cardboard tombstones. We pay you guys thousands of dollars for a site and a marker and that’s all we can expect? Put a little effort into it, why don’t you?

Oh well, it’s all temporary after all.

45th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Lineup

Today Edouard Waintrop, Artistic Director, announced the Directors' Fortnight selection that includes comedies, thrillers, 2 horror films, and 3 documentaries. A total of 21 features will screen with 17 world premieres selected after checking 3,311 titles.

There are some surprises as Yolande Moreau's first solo film, Sebastian Silva's film, the only Romanian film in all Cannes (a short) plus the most surprising duo of Jodorowsky films (!) one by him and another about him.  But most impressive is the fact that I have seen one of the films in the selection, fabulous short film Swimmer by Lynne Shelton!

Feature Films
Opening Film: The Congress, Ari Folman, Israel, Germany, Poland, France and Belgium
Closing Film: Henri, Yolande Moreau, France and Belgium

A Strange Course of Events, Raphaël Nadjari, Israel and France
(*) Les Apaches, Thierry de Peretti, France
(*) Ate ver a luz (After The Night), Basil Da Cunha, Switzerland
Blue Ruin, Jeremy Saulnier, USA
La Danza de la Realidad, Alejandro Jodorowsky, France, Chile and Mexico
(*) L'Escale, Kveh Bakhtiari, France and Switzerland (documentary)
(*) La Fille du 14 Juillet, Antonin Peretjatko, France
(*) Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen, Singapore
(*) Jodorowsky's Dune, Frank Pavich, USA (Documentary)
(*) Last Days on Mars, Ruairi Robinson, UK and Ireland
(*) Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table!, Guillaume Gallienne, France
Magic Magic, Sebastián Silva, USA and Chile
On The Job, Erik Matti, Philippines
The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnard, UK
Tip Top, Serge Bozon, France
Ugly, Anurag Kashyap, India
Un Voyageur, Marcel Ophuls, France
El Verano de los Peces Voladores, Marcela Said, France and Chile
We Are What We Are, Jim Mickle, USA

(*) Competing for the Camera d'Or

Short Films
Gambozinos, João Nicolau, France and Portugal
Lágy Eső, Dénes Nagy, Belgium and Hungary
Le quepa sur la vilni, Yann Le Quellec, France
Man kann nicht alles auf einmal tun, aber man kann alles auf einmal lassen, Marie-Elsa Sgualdo, Switzerland
O umbra de nor, Radu Jude, Romania
Pouco mais de um mês, André Novais Oliveira, Brazil
Que je tombe tout le temps?, Eduardo Williams, France
Solecito, Oscar Ruiz Navia, Colombia, Denmark and France
Swimmer, Lynne Ramsay, UK

Beyond the selection, Directors’ Fortnight will host a range of peripheral events this year. These include the Taipei Factory, a joint initiative between Directors Fortnight and the Taiwan Film Commission to team four Taiwanese directors with four other filmmakers from around the world. The resulting shorts will be screened at Directors’ Fortnight.

Taipei Factory

The Pig, Singing Chen (Taiwan) and Jero Yun (Korea)
Silent Asylum, Midi Z (Taiwan) and Joana Preiss (France)
A Nice Factory, Shen Ko-Shang (Taiwan) and Luis Cifuentes (Chile)
Mr. Chang’s New Address, Chang Jung-Chi (Taiwan) and Alireza Khatami (Iran)

Other events includes a Tribute to Jane Campion, who this year will receive the Carrosse d'Or and the Directors' Assembly consisting of two panels to discuss key issues impacting the film industry today.

Directors' Assembly Program

Session 1 - Saturday May the 18th
Independent directors’ experiences worldwide

From their experiences, directors will talk about film production conditions and financial support schemes for cinema worldwide. It can be about the independent cinema in the United States, financing schemes in India, China, Brazil, and about everything directors wish to point out as well… They will talk about new creative and economic momentum that they conjure up to make their films. Daring productions sometimes turn away from cinema support schemes, as their heaviness and slowness weigh on creative energy. It will be about putting those systems and those different context to the test of the filmmaking reality and the work methods of each.

A new global and multipolar cinema leads to rapid mutations of our professional practices…

Session 2 - Tuesday May 21st
The European crisis and its consequences on its Member States’ cultural policies

Often in Europe, institutional stakeholders, producers and distributors script debates about cinema economics in which directors have a hard time finding their rightful place. Re-assessment of national cinema support schemes, coproductions difficulties, European funds shrinking… what role can they play in discussions about cultural policies ?

Cinema is not just an industry, neither is it an industry like any other : between cultural ambition and economic power, how to solve the visible contradiction between regulation, competition and cultural exception ?

Will check all films for info, original names, etc. and will update post accordingly ASAP.

SHORT FEATURE - THE APOCALYPSE

It was double duty time over at Aleteia again this past weekend as I watched Oblivion, the post-apocalyptic epic starring Tom Cruise, and HBO’s Girls, a show full of stupid people doing stupid things.

It got me to thinking, wouldn’t it be great if there was a movie featuring both the apocalypse AND stupid people. Well, I guess Seth Rogen thought the same thing, because This Is The End comes out in June. But then I thought, wouldn’t it be great if there was one I could watch right now. Well, guess what, somebody already took care of that as well. Feel free to take a look, but be warned, there will be blood.

That doesn’t seem quite fair does it? Who knew a single thought could get you into so much trouble? Well, maybe Jesus did. Remember, he’s the guy who said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Thankfully he didn’t follow that up with, “And when that happens, their heads will explode!” That’s because, instead of setting up a sudden death scenario, Jesus was reminding us that God’s laws aren’t just about external compliance. They’re meant to be internalized, effecting a transformation of the inner person. And fortunately, he gives us time to work on that change instead of immediately having our heads pop whenever we have a bad thought. I, for one, appreciate that.

52nd Semaine de la Critique Lineup

A few minutes organizers released a video with Charles Tesson, Semaine Artistic Director, announcing this year selection with films that seem will be the usual "strange" films, which is absolutely Great!

As always there are seven (7) films in the Selection of 1st or 2nd films.

For Those in Peril, Paul Wright, UK
Dabba (The Lunchbox), Ritesh Batra, India, France and Germany
Le Démantèlement (The Dismantlement), Sébastien Pilote, Canada
Los Dueños, Agustin Toscano and Ezequiel Radusky, Argentina
Nos héros sont morts ce soir, David Perrault, France
Salvo, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, Italy and France
МАЙОР The Major, Yury Bykov, Russia

Special Screenings
Opening Night: Suzanne, Katell Quillévéré, France
Closing Night: TBA
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery, USA
Les Rencontres d’après minuit, Yann Gonzalez, France

Short Films
Agit Pop, Nicolas Pariser, France
Breathe Me, Han Eun-young, South Korea
Komm und Spiel (Come and Play), Daria Belova, Germany
La lampe au beurre de Yak, Hu Wei, France and China
Océan, Emmanuel Laborie, France
Pátio, Ali Muritiba, Brazil
Pleasure, Ninja Thyberg, Sweden
Tau Seru, Rodd Rathjen, India and Australia
The Opportunist, David Lassiter, USA
Vikingar, Magali Magistry, France and Iceland

Check info, stills and/or trailer @MOC

Film info is not yet at site, but will check the net to find what is available for each film. In the meantime see the video with the announcement (has English subtitles) to check photos from some of the films.

2013 Cannes Film Festival News

In last Thursday press conference besides announcing the lineup a few more things happened that are worth sharing. First was the release of "A Word From The President" were Gilles Jacob tells us about his vision for current edition and second, a hosting fund raising auction with Plantu & Friends in an event called Cartooning For Peace.

A Word From The President

Everyone knows the Cannes event that changes every year: poster, films, juries, prizes; behind its walls, there’s also an attitude which, decade in decade out, guarantees the continuing existence of this institution. The idea is one I particularly like, and it sees the festival as a shelter for endangered artists. Our influence has a long history: in the 1970s, already, Robert Favre le Bret and Maurice Bessy fou ght over Andrei Tarkovski; next, with Pierre Viot, we invited film makers harassed in their own countries, but who would be protected by the aura of the festival. Such watchfulness set precedents. I’m not going to list the names of those who benefitted, from Eastern Europe, Asia or the Middle East, but when we come across them, even years later, the warmth of their friendship is proof of their gratitude. And our doors remain open, both to them and to others... To all the others ...

Cannes, land of welcome. The 2013 edition illustrates – quite literally – this trait of ours. Indeed, we’ve invited press cartoonists to attend, they who have their own unique way to fight for liberty. On the press floor, under the eye of Plantu, there’ll be an exhibition of satirical, sharp and talented drawings on the theme of cinema. You’ll find a note about it in your press books.

And, so it is, that cartoonists from countries where freedom of expression is not a given will be rubbing up against each other. It’s like a signal: in the freest of countries, isn’t the ultimate dream of those in power for critics of their actions to be completely ignored? We must do all we can to ensure that the light of cartoonists, their art which consists in withholding nothing while summarizing fully in a single image, that that light never goes out: it’s the very last bastion against the despotism and dictatorship of the strong over the weak. By programming an event within which lies inherent a call to insurrection, the festival should perhaps fear that one day it might fall victim itself!

There is another philosophy that leaders should never forget, and that’s the hard work over many years that has enabled the identifying, help with developing, the encouraging, confidence-building and the time-saving given to successive generations of young film makers. We’ve been at this task of sifting and educating, or monitoring, rather, for a long time via a consistent process which became the Caméra d’or, the Cinéfondation and it’s Résidence, and the Atelier... I never miss a chance to say: sow and you shall reap the Fellinis of tomorrow. And the Bergmans and Buñuels. And the Jane Campions.

We thank the great artists who give of their time, expertise and enthusiasm to our young green shoots by heading up the Cinéfondation and short film jury. Helping burgeoning film makers dodge difficulties, get their projects known , and find the money to make them: that’s vocational for a few generous artists who find helping the newcomers to be vocational.

Thus, our good fairy this year is Jane Campion, who loved the idea of presiding over this jury, in the wake of Scorsese, Kusturica, the Dardenne brothers, Hou Hsiao Hsien, and all the others... Lady Jane, as I’ve been calling her since we met, is power, unity, harsh poetry and violence. She knows what she’s talking about. The three shorts of hers that we screened as a group when she first came in ’86 encapsulated everything about her world. They were great for all of the qualities mentioned, but they were also great because they were not copies of things that already existed. And then, 7 years after
Peel, The Piano won the Palme d’Or. What a beautiful example, what an inspiration for our filmmakers of tomorrow... At her side will be Maji-daAbdi, the Ethiopian director and producer, Nicoletta Braschi, the Italian actress, Nandita Das, the Indian actress and Semih Kaplanoglu, the Turkish director.

And now, it’s time to switch on the projectors, the official selection is about to be revealed...

Gilles Jacob

So, besides giving us his vision about this years' festival, praising Jane Campion and presenting us the complete Short Films and Cinéfondation jury, he announced an event that hopefully we will be able to see the works online, as yes I am curious to see the cartoons, especially those of many of my favorite directors.

The Event: Les dessins de la Liberté

The Festival de Cannes is hosting a fund raising auction sale on Monday, 20th of May at the Festival Agora to support Cartooning for Peace. This event, co-organized by Piasa, will present cartoonists Willis from Tunis (Tunisia), Dilem (Algeria), Kichka (Israel) and Plantu (Le Monde and L’Express) and will be conducted by the auctioneer James Fattori. For this unprecedented meeting between editorial cartoons and films, original collector artwork will be put on sale. The funds raised will benefit Cartooning for Peace to support their action.

Created in 2008 by Kofi Annan and Plantu, Cartooning for Peace aims to promote a better understanding and mutual respect between people of different cultures and beliefs using editorial cartoons as a universal language, by subtly shaking politically correct mindsets.

The exhibition linked to the benefit event, will be presented at the Palais des Festivals, during the whole festival.

A selection of eighty cartoons portrays legendary films, the film industry and famous film directors such as Fellini, Bergman, Spielberg or Haneke, in a light and satirical tone. Some cartoons also remind us that cinema creativity is still threatened in countries such as Iran or Algeria. If a film director has a problem with authorities, cartoonists from all over the world will take his defense and report freedom of expression violations.

Freedom of expression is under the spotlight to defend artistic freedom!

Nice work Cannes.

Cheers!!!

May Expiration Watch: Death by Twos

If the latest list is correct, a substantial chunk of Netflix's MGM/UA catalog is set to expire on May 1. Sadly that means a lot of great titles will be disappearing--including films by some of cinema's top directors. Many of the films represent these filmmakers' only Instant choices and, for whatever reason, seem to be leaving in groups of two (and occasionally three). So if you're a fan of--or just curious about--the work of any of the below directors, you'll want to consider pushing these titles toward the top of your queue. (Comments accompany films I've seen and can personally vouch for.)

Other departing titles include those of a few big-name bombshells (hint: initals B.B.), and yes, the increasingly slippery Mr. Bond. (Update: titles that stuck around past 5/1 have been noted accordingly.)

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Not Your Average Britcom: SPACED

Let's get Spaced

If you like your comedies smart and zingy and fueled with pop culture riffing, you're due for a visit to Spaced. Written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, Spaced is a British TV series that ran from 1999 to 2001 and still plays hummingly over a decade later. Long a cult favorite among geeks and filmmakers, it was well ahead of its time and credited as a major influence on the pace and comic style of such shows as Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and Community. What made it unique was not just the way it was made--more like a short film than a situation comedy--but its ability to mash together an offbeat, often surreal sense of humor with the pop culture-soaked psyches of its twenty-something leads.

Set in a suburban North London flat, the show's 14 episodes follow platonic roommates Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson) as they learn to deal with living together, their oddball friends, and their larger place in the world. On its face that could describe any number of stories about slacker youth. But with its clever, finely tuned scripts and clueless yet sympathetic characters, Spaced brought a topical freshness to the drab sitcom world not unlike Quentin Tarantino's pop makeover of crime films.

Along with Pegg and Stevenson's scripts, equal credit goes to series director Edgar Wright, who went on to make Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. His resourceful touch utilized every ounce of ingenuity to give practically every scene a visual zip or ping, turning an ostensibly low-rent sitcom into a charmingly baroque cinematic funhouse.

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NOW SHOWING AT A BLOG NEAR YOU

Unfortunately, work has kept me from heavy blogging this week, but I did manage to take in two movies for Aleteia over the weekend. First I saw 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic with very little actual Jackie Robinson in it (still liked it though), and then I watched To The Wonder, which is Terrence Malick at his most Malicky.

But enough of all that drama, how about something more along the lines of what’s usually found around these parts, like say a thriller. For that, look no further than Romish Graffiti where Scott W. has some things to say about The Tall Man, a movie that knows what’s better for your children than you do.

They just don’t make’em like they used to, do they? Maybe that’s why Paul D. Miller over at Schaeffer's Ghost is reminiscing about Raiders of the Lost Ark and its depiction of the all consuming fire that is God.

Of course, some people don’t want to make them like they used to, and that doesn’t sit too well with Micah Murphy. At Truth & Charity, Micah explains why he’s had about enough of revisionist fantasy novels where the bad guys from earlier works are reimagined as poor put-upon innocents, compelling him to ask the question, “Who Hijacked My Fantasy Genre?”

And finally, as you may remember, a couple of weeks back we had a pretty good debate going on here at the B-Movie Catechism about ethics and zombies. One question we never asked, though, is “why isn't Jesus a zombie?” Louis Sullivan takes some time to answer that at Busted Halo.

Anyway, that should keep you busy until I get back into the swing of things here. See you then.

Car Wreck Cinema: THE APPLE

There are guilty pleasures. There are movies so bad they're good. And there are those that, like a five-vehicle pileup on the interstate, you can't take your eyes off of. Welcome to Car Wreck Cinema.

Watching The Apple, a 1980 sci-fi disco opera, I couldn't help thinking of that brief period in the 1970s when porn films actually had a sliver of ambition. Some were entertaining enough that you wondered just how good they might be if the sex had been dropped entirely.

The Apple is the best porno musical ever made, without the porn. It's a movie that gives Can't Stop the Music a run for its money as Gayest Musical Ever--without having any Village People--and makes even Xanadu look like a pretty good idea. For the movie's writer-director, Menahem Golan, you wonder if it was the most elaborate tax dodge in history or, possibly more depressing, the realization of his life's dream.

This.

Written as a Hebrew stage musical in 1977, it so impressed Golan, the co-head of Cannon Studios (purveyor in the 1980s of all things crap), he had it translated into English with the goal of producing the next Grease or Rocky Horror Picture Show. If only he'd aimed lower. Instead of making the best gay porn musical in movie history, he concocted something more resembling the cracked fever dream of a small-town Lady Gaga impersonator.

Set in the glitzy, square-shouldered future of 1994, The Apple spins an Adam and Eve allegory about two naive young folkies from Moose Jaw, Canada, who in their pursuit of pop fame must struggle to save their souls from BIM, a world-dominating music corporation run by a Mr. Boogalow (who's really, you know, Satan). The future, we're shown, will include lots of triangular drinking glasses, star filters, face paint, and baggy silver tunics in a proto Duran Duran style, not to mention young men with pants so tight they actually sport cameltoes. (A gay friend informs me the technical term is "bull's knuckle.")

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PULP CATHOLICISM #012

PODCAST 43: Shark Attack 3: Megalodon & Orca [Sea Killer Edition]

This week the Forest & Cory go for a swim with a few second generation Jaws knock-offs, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon and Orca. They guys also cover meeting Rowdy Roddy Piper at the International Wrestling Cartel's second annual Night of the Stars and the upcoming

CONTINUE READING

Erotic Musing: SEX AND LUC�A

Original Spanish poster art

It's funny the tricks memory can play. I saw Sex and Luc�a when it was first released, in 2001, and I loved it. Then I saw it again a few years later on DVD and loved it even more. I found myself impressed with not only the bravery and conviction of the film's actors, who really put themselves out there, but with director Julio Medem's ability to paint a complex and romantic tale that, even if it doesn't entirely add up, is so beautiful and intriguing you mostly don't care.

And yet when it came time to write about the film here, I realized I remembered little beyond a few key scenes--mostly involving sex--and the simple fact that I really loved it and wanted to share it with others. Yes, I could recall (more or less) the basic characters and their function within the story. But the plot itself? Not so much. My memories instead were more emotional, imagistic, as if drawn from a distantly lived experience of youth.

Giving the film a third look, I can understand why. There's a lot going on. Lots of past events overlapping with present, fact with fiction, passion with reflection. One moment you think you've got it figured out, the next you're not so sure. It pulls you in and challenges you while mostly avoiding being frustratingly opaque.

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No, Really: KISS ME, STUPID

"It's a habit with me, like breathin'... If I skip one night a week I wake up the next morning with such a headache." -Dino (Dean Martin), on his daily need for sex

Anything to avoid a headache

If you're at all familiar with classic Hollywood movies, you probably know the work of Billy Wilder. He was the director and co-writer of some all-time gems, including Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, Sabrina, and The Apartment. Less well known is his 1964 sex comedy, Kiss Me, Stupid, a raunchy poke at showbiz sleaze whose subject--small-town songwriters do whatever it takes to convince a visiting superstar to buy one of their songs--would be right at home on today's reality TV.

But at the time, the movie proved far more risque than audiences (or critics) were equipped to handle. Even today there's something distinctly dirty about it. Aside from the illicit spark that comes with seeing undisguised innuendo in an old Hollywood movie, Kiss Me, Stupid is marked by a cynical leering quality that covers it like a crusty coat of pollen. With every lewd zinger and suggestive image, you can't help wondering, "How did they get away with this?"

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66th Festival de Cannes Short Films and Cinéfondation Lineup

While the Official Selection of feature films for the 66th Festival de Cannes will be revealed on Thursday 18th April, the list of Short Films is unveiled today.

As we already know the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury, presided by Jane Campion, will announce the award winners for the Short Film Competition and the Cinéfondation Selection.

Short Films Competition

This year, the Selection Committee received 3,500 short films, representing productions from no fewer than 132 countries.

Nine films will compete in 2013 for the Short Film Palme d’Or, to be awarded by Jane Campion, President of the Jury, at the Closing Ceremony of the 66th Festival de Cannes on 26th May. For the first time, a Palestinian film will take part in the Short Films Competition.

37°4 S, Adriano Valerio, France, 11'
Bishtar az do saat (More Than Two Hours), Ali Asgari, Iran, 15'
Condom Lead, Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser, Palestine and Jordan, 14'
Hvalfjörður (Whale Valley, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, Iceland and Denmark, 15'
Inseki to Impotence (The Meteorite and Impotence), Omoi Sasaki, Japan, 10'
Mont Blanc, Gilles Coulier, Belgium, 14'
Olena, Elżbieta Benkowska, Poland, 14'
Ophelia, Annarita Zambrano, Poland, 14'
Safe, Moon Byoung-gon, South Korea, 13'

Cinéfondation Selection

The Cinéfondation Selection selected 18 films (14 fiction films and 4 animated films) among the 1,550 submitted this year from 277 schools from all around the world

By focusing on the quality of work submitted by lesser-known institutions, the Selection is a true reflection of the diversity of film schools. This year sees a particularly significant broadening of scope, with a third of the schools being selected for the first time and one country – Chile – which has never previously been selected.

The following are the short films in competition; the schools are in parenthesis.

Asunción, Camila Luna Toledo, Chile, 21', (Pontificia Universidad Catolica)
Au-delà de l'Hiver (After the Winter), Zhi Wei Jow, France, 19' (Le Fresnoy)
Babaga, Gan de Lange, Israel, 26' (The Sam Spiegel Film & TV School)
Contrafábula de una Niña Disecada (Fable of a Blood-Drained Girl), Alejandro Iglesias Mendizábal, Mexico, 25' (CCC)
Danse Macabre, Małgorzata Rżanek, Poland, 5' (Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw)
Duet, Navid Danesh, Iran, 24', (Karnameh Film School)
En Attendant le dégel (Waiting for the Thaw), Sarah Hirtt, Belgium, 20' (INSAS)
Exil (Exile), Vladilen Vierny, France, 16' (La fémis)
Going South, Jefferson Moneo, USA, 15' (Columbia University)
În acvariu (In the Fishtank), Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Romania, 20' (UNATC)
Mañana Todas Las Cosas (Tomorrow All The Things), Sebastián Schjaer, Argentina, 17' (UCINE)
Needle, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, USA, 21' (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
O Šunce, Eliška Chytková, Czech Republic, 6' (Tomas Bata University in Zlίn)
Pandy (Pandas), Matúš Vizár, Czech Republic, 12' (FAMU)
The Magnificent Lion Boy, Ana Caro, UK, 10' (NFTS)
The Norm of Life, Evgeny Byalo, Russia, 23' (High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors)
Seon (The Line), Kim Soo-Jin, South Korea, 27' (Chung-Ang University)
Stepsister, Joey Izzo, USA, 18' (San Francisco State University)

The three Cinéfondation Prizes will be awarded at a ceremony prior to the screening of the winning films on Friday 24th May in the Buñuel Theatre.

Check trailers for some Cinéfondation shorts at MOC.

After reading, see film stills and/or trailer for all short films, can say that some seem very interesting; unfortunatelly not all have trailers and/or film stills but will be frequently checking to post at MOC trailers when they are released.

Cheers!!! Cannes has started.

STILL VOICES #021

2013 Cannes Wish List

As next Thursday April 18 we will learn the Cannes Official Selection let me share with you all my wish list with films that hopefully will make any section of the festival but IF they don't still believe that most films will be must be seen.

The Masters

Le Passe (The Past) by Asghar Farhadi.
Know director became famous for his Oscar winner film but I follow him closely since his 2006 Fireworks Wednesday and this is must be seen for me for him and because Tahar Rahim is the lead. Let's hope Bérénice Bejo acts better here than in her other films, sigh.

La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) by Paolo Sorrentino.
Absolutely must be seen for me as teaser has such beautiful images of Rome on top the star is none other than Toni Sevillo. (Photo)

Nymphomaniac by Lars Von Trier.
Soon we will know if director deeply tarnished his relationship with the festival or not. If film is not in Cannes then surely will be in Venice. Who can resist Charlotte Gainsbourg performing a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac? Not me.

Malavita by Luc Besson.

Female Master Directors

Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness) by Catherine Breillat.
The star is none other than Isabelle Huppert so we know that the story has to be intense and perhaps much more as Breillat adapted her novel -with the same name- about her true personal experience with professional conman Christophe Rocancourt.

Les Salauds (The Bastards) by Claire Denis.
With Chiara Mastroianni and Vincent Lindon. Not crazy about director but this revenge drama seems could be interesting. (Photo)

Serena by Susanne Bier.
The great Danish director took a break from her amazing dramas to direct light Love is All You Need; now she plays again with the English language to tell a very American story. The catch is that the leads are none other than Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper; but has great British actors too.

Bird People by Pascale Ferran.
Nude Area by Urszula Antoniak.
Wakolda by Lucia Puenzo.

Great Filmmakers ("walking" to become Masters)

Le Bleu est une couleur chaude (Blue is the Earmest Color) by Abdellatif Kechiche.
Really enjoy his movies and more if the star is none other than Léa Seydoux and has a story that seems will have lesbian interest (!!!). (Photo)

A Most Wanted Man by Anton Corbijn.
Images suggest that Corbijn kept his peculiar fabulous style in this adaptation of John le Carre's espionage thriller starring none other than Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Only God Forgives by Nicolas Winding Refn.
Trailer impressed me but I was more impressed by Kristin Scott Thomas as hardly recognized her. Director regular Ryan Goslin (recall Drive?) is also here in a film that I suspect will be even more violent than Drive.

Twelve Years a Slave by Steve McQueen.
McQueen's regular, great Michael Fassbender stars in this very American slavery story that know will have director impressive style (has to). My only concern is that Brad Pitt also stars in film. Still, European buzz wonder if film will be ready for Cannes.

Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm) by Xavier Dolan.
Cannes "enfant not-so-terrible" maybe will make his dream come true this year IF his latest film finally makes the Official Selection; but no matter where it lands, film has to be his most drama intensive when he tells about a grieven man meeting his lover's family, who were not aware of this son's sexual orientation. The best, Dolan also acts (I enjoy his performances). If film makes Cannes be sure that film will compete for a Teddy. Just read that "maybe" film will NOT be in Cannes, shame.

Jeune et jolie by François Ozon.
Like Father, Like Son by Hirokazu Kore-Eda.
Nine Minutes Interval by Corneliu Porumboiu.

In English

Blood Ties by Guillaume Canet.
Yes he is directing his first English language film and is a remake of Les Liens du Sang where he was the main actor. Perhaps the only good thing film has is his wife acting in film.

The Buttler by Lee Daniels.
After being highly impressed with the Paperboy this tale about a butler who served eight different American Presidents at the White House could be better than what I imagined before seeing the Paperboy; so the great cast (John Cusack, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, etc) could make this movie (hopefully) good.

The Congress by Ari Folman.
Highly impressed with his Waltz with Bashir but as some do Folman went to America to do an English movie with American stars and Sci-Fi genre. Still story (an aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job...) could be interesting specially when Robin Wright plays a version of herself who travels to the future.  The Great news, film is a blend of live action (70 mins) and animation (50 mins) that looks/feels like his previous film.

The list could grow exponentially but let's stop here as we only have to wait 5 days to learn which film made the Official Selection plus the selection in the parallel sections and beyond. Can't wait for Cannes and know you can tell.

Cheers!!!!