The Night Visions movie marathon is the corner stone of the whole festival. The screenings start today already at 3.30 PM and the last film starts at 9 AM tomorrow. Please remember that the clocks are not turned until the last film has started!
If you still haven’t decided what films you are going to see tonight, here’s a couple of interesting options.
DEEP RED
A musician witnesses the murder of a famous psychic, and then teams up with a fiesty reporter to find the killer while evading attempts on their lives by the unseen killer bent on keeping a dark secret buried.
In the beginning of the screening there’s a video message from Goblin to you!
HIGH CRIME
An Italian police inspector matches wits with a powerful European drug ring. As he comes closer to the top of the underworld organization, his odds of survival decrease.
The main guest of the festival, Enzo G. Castellari, will be present at the screening. This is your last chance to see Mr. Castellari in person so don’t miss it!
RABIES
A brother and sister who run away from home find sanctuary in a deserted nature reserve. When the sister falls into the trap of a psychopathic killer…
The first horror movie ever to come out of Israel.
TRESPASS
As they’re held for ransom, a husband and wife’s predicament grows more dire amid the discovery of betrayal and deception.
If you are looking for the two biggest stars (Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman) in Hollywood to get robbed and mugged, this is a film for you.
THE WARD
A thriller centered on an institutionalized young woman who becomes terrorized by a ghost.
THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS
The story about a New England professor discovering alien horrors beyond his most dire imaginings is executed with stunning sense of style and atmosphere, reminiscent of the 1930s classic horrors of 1930s Universal monster movies.
One of the rare H.P. Lovecraft feature film adaptations.
DEADBALL
The gore-ladden story laced with politically incorrect humor centers on the misadventures of star pitcher Jubei, who ends up taking part in an deadly extreme sports tournament set inside the walls of a prison for juvenile delinquents.
For this one, I think the trailer speaks loader than words… but I’m sure it will bring the house down in Maxim at 3:00 AM.
So take a nap, drink shitloads of coffee and start getting ready for the Night Vision’s movie marathon, because it starts in a couple of hours. See you at the festival!
For the full list of films and schedule, check out the official site.
Night Visions started yesterday with a bang already breaking it’s own records. The lobby of Maxim (the theatre the festival is held) was once again familiarly packed and very crowded. If you don’t get at least a little bit claustrophobic at Night Visions, it just doesn’t feel right.
A short film called CONVICT (a film produced by Bronson Club actually) had it’s world’s premiere at the festival yesterday and it fit into the feel of Night Visions perfectly. It was violent and ruthless, just the way we like it! Some of the team attended the festival (pic below) and they also gave a quick Q&A after the screening. Good job guys!
The main event of the evening was HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN. A Canadian splatter horror thriller exploitation film starring the amazing Rutger Hauer and directed by Jason Eisener. To those of you who don’t know this, the film is actually based on the winning trailer of the same name from Robert Rodriguez’sSouth by Southwest Grindhouse trailers contest. Oh and by the way, there is still another screening of the film this Friday 28.10. at 17.30 in Maxim 1 if you missed it yesterday (the screening was totally sold out).
Here’s the winning “fake” trailer.
And the actual trailer for the movie.
TONIGHT’S UPCOMING HIGH POINTS
Today there’s a couple of very interesting screenings you don’t want to miss. First up is HIGH CRIME by Enzo G. Castellari, who will also be present at the screening! There’s luckily another screening on Saturday at 20.00 in Maxim 2 if you happen to miss this one (like me).
Another interesting event tonight is the screening of RABIES, the first horror movie ever to come out of Israel. The directors Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales are also attending the screening.
So great films and guests at Night Visions tonight!
Finland’s biggest genre film festival, Night Visions, starts today and it’s once again packed with a bone chilling catalogue of the best horror, fantasy, science fiction, action and cult cinema out there. In my opinion there is absolutely no better way to spend your Halloween than watching great (horror) films. The festival starts this Wednesday and continues all trough the sleepless weekend.
MOVIES TO DIE FOR
The 5 day long festival kicks off with a new version of the horror classic THE THING (dir: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr, USA/Canada 2011). The film was originally made famous by the master of horror himself John Carpenter. Although it has been said that the movie is a not a re-make, but who are they kidding, right? Talking about Carpenter, he also has a film at the festival called THE WARD (USA 2010) starring Amber Heard. After almost a ten year break from film, the maestro is back and you don’t want to miss this!
The film I’m most exited about has to be Kevin Smith’s brand new RED STATE (dir: Kevin Smith, USA 2011). The film just recently snatched two of the most important awards at Sitges Film Festival in Spain; Best Motion Picture and Best Actor for Michael Parks. Another extremely interesting flick is HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (dir: Jason Eisener, Canada 2011). Oh and just a hint, in front of both of these features there will be short film screenings also.
Check out the full list of films and the schedule from here.
What would Night Visions be without the FINLANDIA-GAALA? I love it, because it’s a great and quite unique platform for older Finnish genre films to be seen on the big screen. This year the movie to be screened is MERKITTY (dir: Ismo Sajakorpi, Finland 1984).
GHANAVISION-EXHIBITION
Before the festival had even started, we had a chance to go see a great art exhibition called Ghanavision. It displays original hand painted movie poster art work from Ghana for the first time ever in Finland. The posters are also all for sale, the prize ranging around 600 to 1200 euros or so. This unique exhibition is held in Myymälä2-galleria (Uudenmaankatu 23) 12.–30.10.2011.
THE NIGHT OF TERROR
The high point of the festival is always the Saturday-night movie marathon when the movies continue until the morning light. This Halloween the program seems great like always.
Check out the full list for the films and schedule from here.
For more info visit the official site nightvisions.info and get your tickets from here.
The year 2010 has been an interesting one. We decided to watch all of Star Trek (that’s 726 episodes and 11 movies), Timo started shooting Iron Sky, and I just celebrated the premiere of a movie I have been working on for the past three years (Veijarit / The Hustlers). In short, it has been one of the busiest years of our lives. I tried my best to devote as much time for watching movies as I possibly could given the time constraints. In the end I did manage to see a decent amount of good and bad films this year. And here they are. My top and bottom movie moments of 2010.
Ps. I haven’t seen Black Swan or True Grit yet, in case you were wondering…
I was checking out the ticket situation for tonight’s screening of Never Let Me Go and was very surprised that there were still many empty seats in the theatre. I do realize that Piranha 3D (that’s playing simultaneously) is probably the more popular choice. But maybe you just didn’t know that there even was a screening of the film. Either way you don’t want to miss the screening of Never Let Me Go.
Never Let Me Go is one of the most talked about scifi films of this year and now there is a rare opportunity to see the film way ahed of schedule. Never Let Me Go isn’t a basic scifi film with little green men from Mars, it’s more of a science drama with sociological undertones. The film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name written by Kazuo Ishiguro.
The leading ladies of the film, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, are already Oscar favorites. And if you are anything like me and really enjoyed Andrew Garfield’s performance in The Social Network, you will be as exited as me to see another great performance from the young actor.
Here’s the synopsis from imdb.com
As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.
NEVER LET ME GO
29.10.2010 / 21:45 / Maxim 1 (Kluuvikatu 1, Helsinki)
Here’s the direct link from where to buy tickets from.
More info on the film and the full schedule of Night Visions on the official site.
Fall is a time of heavy rain and gloomy darkness here in Finland, but for a movie nerd like me, it’s perhaps the best time of the year. It’s the time of the movie festivals! It all starts in August with Espoo Ciné, continuing to September with Helsinki International Movie Festival – Love & Anarchy and finally Night Visions in October. The latter is starting this week, so it’s time to go trough this years Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3010 lineup.
Night Visions will take place in Helsinki 27-31.10.2010. It is the only film festival in Finland to focus only on fantasy, horror, science fiction and cult cinema. This usually means that most of the films shown at NV, you won’t be able to see on a silver screen otherwise.
A Serbian Film is a Serbian horror film about a retired porn star who gets drafted into a snuff movie with child rape and necrophilic themes. The film has been causing a lot of commotion right after it’s first festival screening and for a good cause I imagine. Let me be the first to say that even though I’m extremely intrigued by this film, I’m still not 100% sure if I have the stomach to actually watch it. The stories I have heard about the film are mind boggling to say the least. For example raping a fetus isn’t something I particularly look forward to seeing. But when a film has this much controversy hanging over it, it’s almost impossible to resist. A Serbian Film is supposed to be the ultimate shocker film of the year, perhaps even the decade.
I guess this movie doesn’t need much of an intro. You all know Machete. It’s of course Robert Rodriguez’s highly-anticipated Grindhouse spin-off from his fake trailer a couple years back. Machete is also clearly the front runner in this years festival. The cast is out off this world, featuring Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro and even the uncrowned king of awesome, Mr. Steven Seagal himself. Unfortunately there is only a single screening and it’s naturally already sold out.
Piranha 3D is a horror film and the second remake of the 1978 film by the same name. I’m usually not very into re-makes and especially re-makes of a re-make, but for some reason I’m super exited about Piranha 3D. Maybe one reason is that I really thought the original film was pretty scary, although I did watch it when I was like 7 years old… In any case this film has a great sense of the good old days and it feels like a homage to the classic horror movie. I mean prehistoric killer fish, Richard Dreyfuss and Christopher Lloyd all in the same deadly package! And just to clarify that this is not just in my head, the film has gotten surprisingly positive reviews all over.
The first time we bumped into this film was back in 2008 in Cannes Film Festival, when me and Timo were just strolling around the market. La Horde instantly caught our eye with it’s awesome teaser poster at the time. I remember getting really exited about the film then, but up until now, I haven’ really heard anything about it. La Horde is a French zombie film, and personally that’s all I need to hear! If you’re not convinced, check out the cool trailer below.
Take notice of this film, because it is a late addition to the already great selection. Never Let Me Go is one interesting film you don’t want to miss. Just by looking at the trailer or any other marketing material for that matter, you might not know that Never Let Me Go is one of the most talked about sci-fi films of the year. And when I say sci-fi, I don’t mean flying saucers and little green men, I mean actual science, laboratories and human experiments. Critics have been raving over Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley for their performances and are even saying they are very strong candidates for this years Oscars. This is a rare opportunity to get to see the film way ahed of schedule, since the film is being distributed commercially in February 2011 the earliest.
Due Date is the new film from the director of Hangover. I don’t necessarily quite understand what business this film has in Night Visions, but never the less, I really want to see it. Hangover was hilarious and if Due Date has even half of it’s funniness, that’s good enough for me. Also how wrong can you really go on the road with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis?
Here’s a film I might regret even mentioning. I just saw the trailer yesterday for the first time and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. The movie might have some potential when taking the bad ass cast into consideration. But it wouldn’t be the first time when a great cast is ensembled and the end result is still a piece of shit. The line up includes Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren. Oh, and if you were thinking what the RED stands for, it’s Retired Extremely Dangerous.
Finlandia-gala brings Finnish genre classics back to the silver screen, accompanied with prestige guests from the films. This year’s Finlandia-gala is proud to present Harmagedon (1986). Unfortunately I couldn’t find a trailer for Harmagedon, so you just have to go and see the film regardless. Last year the gala was a blast, so I wouldn’t miss it for the world!
Gainsbourg (vie héroïque) is a musical drama written and directed by Joann Sfar and it’s based on his graphic novel. It is a musical biopic film about the life of French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
The ark of the film is pretty basic, starting from the protagonist’s childhood and working it’s way to old age and decay. What happens in between wasn’t so basic. First I’m intrigued, since I don’t know too much about Gainsbourg’s youth years and for a moment I’m pretty amazed on what I’m seeing on the screen. The animated opening sequence, the fantastical imaginary characters and Gainsbourg himself give much promise on the rest of the two hours. So first I go along for the ride, although it’s totally obvious from very early on that you shouldn’t believe everything you see.
All trough the film Gainsboug is followed by imaginary characters, his alter ego in a sense. Even though they give much depht to the film, the use of these magical characters and elements were too overpowering in a sense that they became sort of one of the main characters, in stead of supporting our lead as they should have.
After the childhood sequence of being raised in Nazi-occupied France by a strict but a good father who insists that Serge plays the piano, the story dries up a bit. At least for a while. First Gainsbourg was portrayed as a child prodigy, someone bigger than life, but as he gets older and we follow his life trough his teen years at art collage, he has reduced to a regular Joe. It’s not until he discovering his true talent in music that the story finds wind under it’s wings again.
We seem to fast forward trough Gainsbourg life and it feels like a loop at times. The countless adventures with women, the marriages and having kids seem to be on repeat. I wouldn’t mind this but we never really get to know the women or anything else in Serge’s life for that matter. The film ends with Gainsbourg struggling with alcoholism and disease, and the high point I guess is the sequence in Jamaica and discraising of the French national anthem “La Marseillaise”. As interesting as that sound the whole thing is presented with so little explanation that it just flies by your head and you leave the theatre wondering what had just happened.
The film ends with a quote from the director, where he tells us that he was “more interested in Gainsbourg’s lies than his truths”. This to me seems a little bit apologetic and underlining the obvious. From the viewer’s point of view this is already old news, since after seeing the film it doesn’t feel like you’ve gotten much insight on Gainsbour’s life per se. It’s all just a fantasy. So if you want to learn about Gainsbourg, go see a documentary instead.
Never the less, one thing needs to be said. The cast of the film was absolutely perfect. Eric Elmosnino’s interpretation of Serge Gainsbourg is brilliant, not to mention Laetitia Casta as the sexy bomshell BB, Brigitte Bardot. There’s also a tragic incident with Lucy Gordon, who played the actress and singer Jane Birkin beautifully. She committed suicide before the film was released.
The conclusion is that there were a lot of great and unique ideas, but they got a bit scrambled in the overall result of the film. Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) had a refreshing and unique approach to the worn out basic biopic, but it was also big mess.
Hi all and welcome to Zombie Room. As many of you know, we write diaries from film festivals we go to and try to give you an insight to what’s been going on from a film makers / film nerds perspective. The 23rd International Helsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy started yesterday and will go on all trough the week until the 26th of September, so stay tuned.
But before I go any further, here’s the amazing trailer for Love & Anarchy 2010 to get you into the festival mood, enjoy.
The first movie I saw, Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), was also the opening film of the festival. It is a biopic of the legendary French singer / songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. The film is directed by Joann Sfar and the film is based on his graphic novel. The film was good, but not great. There were a lot of imaginative and unique ideas, but they got a bit scrambled in the overall end result of the film. One thing is for sure, If you want to learn more about Serge Gainsbourg, go see a documentary instead. The film doesn’t really give you too much insight on the real events of Gainsbourg’s life, as much as it paints a beautiful picture of how one might imagine how everything went. I’ll try to get my review done soon so I can explain my stand more.
Gainsbourg (vie Heroique)
After the film was the official opening party for the festival that was held in Le Bonk. It wasn’t anything too fancy and the event was open to everyone, all film goers and film makers alike. Although I think the place was mostly filled with music lovers rather than film lovers to be honest.
For my second film I went to a gala screening of Michael Winterbottom’sThe Killer Inside Me. It tells a story of serial killer portrayed by Casey Affleck. The film is an adaptation of the 1952 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. The Killer Inside Me, much like Gainsbourg, had it’s problems. It is a very violent film with a pretty confusing plot. That being said, I did like it and I found the violence to be outstandingly perfect and very disturbing. It was also the best part of the film. The movie is sort of a mix of noir, horror and good old southern country drama. Now one might think that this is a pretty risky and weird combo, and that it unfortunately was. At least for the most part. Casey Affleck is perfect for the role, but he seems to hold back a bit and fall a bit too much in to his comfort zone with his acting. A full review coming soon.
The Killer Inside Me
In case you are interested in Estonian cinema, today is the day for you. A group of Estonian film makers are attending the festival and there are screenings of new Estonian movies. As the main film there’s a screening of The Temptation of St. Tony (Püha Tõnu kiusamine), where director Veiko Õunpuu and producer Katrin Kissa will be present. Later on in Dubrovnik the film makers presenting their films are director Veiko Õunpuu, producer Katrin Kissa (THE TEMPTATION OF ST TONY), director-writer Kiur Aarma (SEPTEMBER), director Liina Paakspuu (91 KILOMETRES) and also director Manfred Vainokivi together with his producer Marju Leppi. The event is free of charge and it starts at 18.00.
You can read my previous article on The Temptation of St. Tony here and check out the trailer below.
The Temptation of St Tony / Püha Tõnu kiusamine
I’ll check back with you later, now I’m off to the moving pictures.
The 23rd Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy will take place in Helsinki from the 16th to 26th September, 2010. The full program was released last friday on the festival’s website and to save you the trouble of going trough more than a hundred movies – I did it for you.
From the list below, I have only seen one film so far, so keep in mind that this is not so much a list of recommendations than an filtered overlook of the selection. It’s a list of films that I would like to see myself. So if you share my taste in films, this is a list for you. And if you don’t, well then it should still be a pretty good guide trough the selection.
So with no further ado, here are Zombie Room’s top picks for this years festival. S’il vous plaît!
Opening the festival this year is Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque). It tells the story of a legendary French musical icon Serge Gainsbourg. In my mind just the soundtrack alone would make this film an absolute treat, but it seems that the film is much more than your average music biopic. As you can see from the trailer below, it is more of an poetic and magical travel trough the amazing life of one of France’s national treasures.
There are many reasons for wanting to see Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me and certainly not least of them being the great cast. The movie is starring Casey Affleck, who I personally think is one the best actors of his time, as a psychotic killer. As mush as I can understand, the film is a travel to a dark individuals mind and it’s imminent decay. For me it’s always an interesting twist when the protagonist isn’t a nice guy or even someone you like. Remember this is just the impression I get from the film without seeing it. Never the less, I have been dying to see this film for some time now.
Life During Wartime is the new film from Todd Solondz (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse). Now here’s where I’m sold, but if you need more convincing, see some of his earlier work and you will recognize one of the most original film makers of our time. Solondz is the uncrowned king of black comedy!
Outrage is a new film from Takeshi Kitano, who also plays the lead in the film. This familiar set up should once again please all Kitano fans. Takeshi Kitano is a multi-talented genius who always delivers complex, beautiful and smart films. I would imagine that Outrage will be nothing short of that.
If you are like me and missed Lebanon in Espoo Ciné, now you have second chance and can see it in Love & Anarchy. Lebanon is an Israeli war film and it is the first feature film from director Samuel Maoz. Maoz based the film on his own adventures as a young Israeli conscript during the war with Lebanon in 1982. The film won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, after it was first rejected by Berlin and Cannes.
Rubber is a film directed by Quentin Dupieux, better known as the electronic musician Mr. Oizo. Yeah, you still remember this folks? In any case the film is horror film of a psycotic tire that rolls around killing people. And yes I’m not making that up.
City of Life and Death is a Chinese war film directed by Lu Chuan. The film deals with the Battle of Nanjing and its aftermath (commonly referred to as “The Rape of Nanking” or the “Nanking Massacre”) during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film is shot in beautiful black and white and it looks amazing!
Love Exposure is a Japanese movie, written and directed by Sion Sono. The epic final cut of the film is four-hours long, but the first version was originally six hours long, but was trimmed at the request of the producers. The story follows Yu Honda, a young teenage Catholic attempting to live his life in a faithful and orderly manner. His father, Tetsu, has become a devout Catholic priest following the death of Yu’s mother, and operates his own church. Yu’s father asks Yu to confess his sins, but Yu believes he is a good person, who has little to confess. At first he makes up sins, but his father sees right through him, and Yu sets out to commit real sins. Because of this, he falls in with a questionable crowd.
Winter’s Bone is this years winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. A 17-year-old girl finds herself forced to track her fugitive father, a longtime crystal meth maker, through the most hardcore of the local criminal network after she learns that he has put their home up as his bail bond.
Mr. Nobody is a science fiction drama film directed by Jaco Van Dormael and starring Jared Leto. I’m not even gonna try to explain the premise of the film any more than saying that the tale spans different time zones of the 20th and 21st centuries. Maybe in this case you should just see the trailer below. Mr. Nobody is also the closing film of the festival.
Howl is a poem written by a famous beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Howl is also the name of the 2010 biopic film made of him and the famous poem. In the film Ginsberg is portrayed by James Franco. I have always loved the Beat Generation. The major works of Beat writing are of course Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, William S. Burroughs’sNaked Lunch and Jack Kerouac’sOn the Road.
Some of you might already know that Norway is my new favorite film country from the north. After films like Død snø and Kommandør Treholt & ninjatroppen, I’m really exited to see more or less all the films coming from Norway at the moment. Especially genre films or the ones that are a part of a major official selections in the most important film festivals in the world. A Somewhat Gentle Man is crime comedy starring Stellan Skarsgård.
How I Ended This Summer won Best Actor awards in Berlin Film Festival this year. A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on the once strategic research base. It’s a film about isolation and frindship.
It probably came as a surprise to us all that this years Cannes Palme D’Or went to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I’m not saying it’s not good or anything like that. It just didn’t seem like the likely candidate for the prize. But as it is the winner, I really want to see it for myself.
Dogtooth is a story of a family who lives completely isolated from the rest of the society. The children are made to believe that the surrounding world is a dangerous place where beasts live that will kill you if you ever leave the estate. It’s an interesting concept filled with black comedy and it reminds me a little of M. Night Shyamalan’sThe Village. Dogtooth won the Un Certain Regard Award in Cannes.
A Screaming Man tells the story of a man who sends his son to war in order to regain his job at an upscale hotel. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. That’s just about everything I know about the film, but I’m eager to see all the Cannes winners.
Now here’s a movie I have actually seen and therefore can truly recommend it from the bottom of my heart. I don’t ever remember seeing a more heartwarming and sympathetic documentary film than Anvil! The Story of Anvil. If you are only going to see one film at Love & Anarchy – make it this one! I’m definitely going to see it again!
Armadillo is a Danish documentary about the war in Afghanistan. The film follows the young men who are on their first mission in Helmand. I’m expecting a pretty disturbing and close look at war. Armadillo will take you as close as you can be to war without actually being there.
Blank City is a film for all film makers. It is a documentary about the independent amateur filmmakers of the late ’70s in Manhattan, New York. This is the same art scene where from Jim Jarmusch and Steve Buscemi made a name for themselves.
This one is an easy pick for me personally since The White Stripes is one of my favorite bands of all time. So if you are a fan of the music, go see it. That is all.
The Town is directed by Ben Affleck. But don’t let this fool you, Affleck did a great job with his first feature film Gone Baby Gone. The film is set in Boston where there are over 300 bank robberies every year. It is the tale of four men being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent and a woman who might destroy them all. The trailer for The Town looks very promising, but I would recommend not to watch it and just take my word for it, since it has some pretty annoying spoilers.
I have my own concerns about Buried, but I’m still very intrigued to see it. In it’s simplicity Buried is a story of a man who wakes up buried alive six feet under and has to figure out how to get out. The beauty of the film is that there’s only one actor and about one square meter of room for him to act in. I love the set up, it reminds me of films made in the late 90′s and early 00′s (Cube, Saw) when new interesting film makers were emerging who had to think out side the box (no pun intended) because of budget restrictions. So hopefully Buried is not behind of it’s time and hopefully Ryan Reynolds has learned how to act. We’ll see.
Ondine is a film by Neil Jordan the visionary director behind one of my favorite films of all time, The Crying Game. In the film an Irish fisherman discovers a woman in his fishing net who he believes to be a mermaid. Colin Farrell plays the lead in the film, who I have always thought to be a great actor and who is in his very best when speaking in his natural and very rich Irish accent.
Tilda Swinton playes Emma, the matriarch of a wealthy Milanese family who lives in a carefully ordered world where her duty towards husband and children dominates. But a chance encounter ignites long repressed passions and sets her on a journey of sexual awakening. I Am Love has intrigued me for some time now because the trailer has an almost hypnotic quality. Also Swinton as the lead will no doubt be any less than perfect.
Heartbeats is the second feature film from the 21 year-old Xavier Dolan. I saw his first film I Killed My Mother last year at Love & Anarchy and really enjoyed it. It’s interesting to see how the young director/actor/screenwriter/producer has evolved from his debut film.
I’m Gonna Explode is Mexican film by Gerardo Naranjos. It is a story of teenage love. Not a subject that’s usually executed very well, but there are of course exceptions. One of them being Y tu mamá también whose two leading men, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, are also the co-producers of the film. The trailer promises an intense exploration of teenage angst in it’s most interesting form.
There’s nothing like a mother’s love. At least in Mother. In this South Korean drama film directed by Bong Joon-ho, a mother desperately searches for the killer that framed her son for their horrific murder. I want to see Mother because I find the plot very interesting and I really enjoyed the directors 2006 film The Host.
Vincere is a film that is based on the life of the first wife of Benito Mussolini. It’s the tragic story of Ida Dalser, the one time mistress of Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. She bore Mussolini a son before the outbreak of World War I. The two lost touch during the war years and, upon discovering him again in a hospital during the war, she also discovered his wife and daughter. Though Dalser claimed to be married to Mussolini, no documentation of the marriage has ever been found.
It says in the official site that “doing for an impoverished Mexican family what Let the Right One In did for Swedish kids in puberty, Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are reps a skillfully mannered genre-bender that tackles the queasy subject of cannibalism”. Now, I can’t promise that this statement is 100% correct, but just in case it is, this film should be quite interesting. Also cannibalism isn’t really a household subject, but the movie steps boldly to this unexplored territory.
The Family Tree only really has one interesting quality for me. The film is directed by a Finnish director Vivi Friedman! The reason why this is interesting is that, after Renny Harlin went off to conquer the Hollywood film world, there really hasn’t been anyone to follow in his footsteps. The new generation of filmmakers seem to be heading for the right direction, but I’m still waiting for that one film or filmmaker who will make it big outside of Finland. So if for no other reason than to support Vivi Friedman’s efforts, I’m going to see her first feature film.
I know the trailer looks pretty damn awful, but if you are like me and loved the The Doom Generation back in 1995, I have to say I tempted to see Gregg Araki’s new film Kaboom.
I would imagine that Dream Home is a treat for people who enjoy grotesque horror films. I’m one of those people. Cheng Li-sheung is a young, upwardly mobile professional finally ready to invest in her first home. But when the deal falls through, she is forced to keep her dream alive – even if it means keeping her would-be neighbors dead.
Now here’s a weird film that can easily be either totally horrible or totally awesome! In imdb.com the tagline says “The first musical cop movie”. What ever the hell that means. Well just check out the trailer below.
Those were my picks, what are yours?
Ps. I would also like to recommend a film that I’m actually been apart of making and that is THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY. The film is a co-production between Estonia, Sweden and Finland. The film is directed by Veiko Õunpuu and it is a contemporary art film shot in black and white. I guarantee you have never seen a film quite like it.
Exceptionally many films have taken part in the Méliès d’Argent competition series for fantasy films at Espoo Ciné this year: nine feature films and ten short films. Pleasingly four Finnish short films were presented in the short film competition series. Also screened at the festival are two Méliès d’Argent winners from earlier this year.
The jury of the competition consisted of film director Zaida Bergroth (head of the jury), screenwriter and film director CHRZU, journalist Anu Silfverberg and production manager Essi Suomela. The jury decided as follows:
In this film fantasy takes on a very literal meaning: flight from reality. The protagonist of the film leads his life alone but the fantasy of an “encounter of the third kind” gives him a sense of meaning. The message he perceives to receive from the creatures of Nebulosa-5 allows him to feel important and noticed. The film’s view of the end of the world is full of hope: afterwards everything will be different. The film looks at its subject with a sensitive gaze: the protagonist is touching and recognizable. The film is visually interesting and descriptive. El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5 is a warmhearted and humoristic, yet a melancholic film.
Amer is a stylistically flawless, yet a very experimental adaptation of the Italian giallo genre. The film is shamelessly direct in the way it deals with urges, fears and the feeling of shame. The protagonist’s sexual awakening and development is presented through horror imagery. The point of view is interestingly subjective: the age period of the main character determines the visual style of each segment in the film. Giallo films are traditionally murder mysteries, and also in this film tension is built by withholding information from the spectator. In the end, however, the viewer is rewarded. Amer speaks to the viewer more through the senses and individual images than through a narrative. The spectator is left haunted by sounds and images. The film plays with the limits of its viewers’ tolerance.
