Only an American can make a film that takes entirely place in a small wooden casket buried underground, and still have snakes, fire, explosions, terrorists, hostage plot and a love story, all in a same box (no pun intended). The irony of it is that Buried is not an American film. It just feels like one, down to the last detail. Guess one could call Buried “an American fan film”?
It’s a nice, sunny day somewhere in Ohio. The gentle wind is blowing, and the birds are chirping in the trees paving the streets of a friendly neighborhood. Kids playing outside, BBQ in the backyard. The problem is; we’re not there. We’re somewhere in Iraq, buried in a small wooden box few feet underground, armed with only a lighter and an Arabic language cellphone. The film opens to a pitch black screen, accompanied by heavy breathing. With such a concept – what could possibly go wrong?
Well, let’s see. The biggest problem is Ryan Reynolds, and the paper-thin truck driver character he’s portraying. So we end up having a douchebag – who’s not much of an actor himself – in a casket? Why should anybody want him to get *out* of there?
It’s interesting how close we are to the character, yet how completely irrelevant the guy remains all through the film. Then comes the plot, written possibly by an 8-year-old kid. There’s the evil government, stupid terrorists who don’t even know the currency of US, snakes in a casket, a fire, an air raid, explosions, a hostage plot and emotional moments the wife and the kids – it’s like a season of 24. Without Jack Bauer. In a wooden box.
Watching Buried makes me think if it’s a US remake of a much better European film. Unfortunately, it IS the European film, and we’re left waiting for the US remake.
Stars: 2 / 5
At least it has quite nice posters (apart from the official one):
The best serial killer stories are either very detailed explanations of the mind of the killer, or play around with the mystery of trying to figure it out. In the best of them, we follow the twisted logic of the murdering maniac, and the policeman who – usually fighting against the laziness of his or her’s colleagues – triest to figure the logic out. The Killer Inside Me is an ambitious film trying to combine the two elements together under one roof, but falls flat due to huge number of antagonists – or protagonists, depending what are the “good guys” called in a film where the main character is the “bad guy” – that appear and disappear randomly.
The story – based on a novel by Jim Thompson – kicks off strong, but begins to disintegrate as more and more characters start popping out of nowhere. Michael Winterbottom is doing a good job keeping the visual storytelling nice and clean, but the fight against a script that hasn’t been able to lose the weight of the novel’s complexity is a lost fight. Novel is a novel, film is a film and they go well together only when the filmmaker has enough bullets (and guts) to kill a bunch of darlings on the way.
Casey Affleck plays a fine young policeman somewhere in southern Texas, who meets a hooker (played by always unnaturally beautiful Jessica Alba) who has just settled down in his county. He’s sent out to tell the woman to get the hell out of the town, but accidentally falls into a violent sexual relationship that brings up memories of his childhood and sends him into a murdering spree. Casey is an interesting actor, much more talented and less annoying than his brother Ben, but in The Killer Inside Me the “creaky whining freak” -manner he’s done so well before have reached their limit. Let’s hope he’s able to step out of his comfort zone and reinvent himself in the next films; I know he has the skills for it.
Last, but not least – The Killer Inside Me is a violent film. First thing usually coming in mind from the term “violent” is blood, mayhem and gore, especially if it’s a serial killer flick. Winterbottom treats violence much more violently – by being honest to the camera. The most harrowing thing about violence is what happens in the last seconds of one’s life – the strangeness of the behavior as the brain shuts itself down. But another interesting thing about filmed violence is that if it’s not connected to anything, no matter how brutal, honest or merciless it is, the audience is remains unmoved. As the story keeps on fragmenting, the remains of the emotion that was created in the beginning keeps on fading. Finally, the what’s left is a tepid mess of wishful beginnings. Unfortunately so, since The Killer Inside Me is a film I’d loved to love.
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.
Today is the last day of the competition and later tonight we will have to decide the winner for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film for Méliès d’Argent. There is still one more feature film and two short films to consider and then we are done. At the moment I still haven’t made my final decisions, so for the time being it’s anyone’s game as far as I’m concerned. Tomorrow the results will be made public around noon.
Yesterday we saw three movies in total and to my surprise I’m almost feeling a bit hangover this morning. I didn’t drink yesterday, so it must be a symptom of a some sort of movie overdose. I didn’t even think that would be possible, but since we have been watching Star Trek the whole year and kept the movies on a down low, I think my brain is just over heating by this sudden change in pace. Well what ever it is, I’m so happy to be a participating the festival and doing what I love most – watching movies.
The last film on the Méliès d’Argent menu is Outcast. It is an intriguing movie to say the least. In the Espoo Ciné booklet it says: “if Mike Leigh would do a werewolf movie, it would be something along the lines of Outcast”. Before the film there are the last two short films Touch of Red and The Sack.
Outcast
Mother and son live hiding in one of the rougher suburbs of Edinburgh. Someone – or something – is after them, and soon the neighbourhood is shocked by a wave of brutal and untimely deaths. Outcast fuses strong social drama with a werewolf horror plot that draws influence from ancient Irish and Scottish mythology (via espoocine.fi).
I’m now faced with the difficult job of choosing the winners. To be honest I’m not going into the judges table with the calmness of knowing what to do yet. Hopefully tonight will make it clear to me.
Since I’m still keeping my opinions to myself about the competing films, you can read Timo’s review of Vampires right here.
Today is the day I have been waiting for the most. Not only are there three awesome films to see, but they are really hitting to the core of genre film for me. I mean there are vampires, monsters and even bloodthirsty mutants all in one day. It just doesn’t get any better than that! First up is Vampires that takes a look into the “real” life of vampires. This documentary-like film, or even a mocumentary, promises to show us what vampires are really like. Great concept indeed, but let’s see how they execute it. Before Vampires there is David Jackson’s short film The Last Breath.
Vampires
Belgium is the home to an extensive vampire community, whose secret life is revealed in Vincent Lannoo’s inventive, fictional documentary. What is the weekly amount of blood required by the children of the night, and how is their waste management arranged? Vampires does the same to our blood-sucking friends that The Last Horror Movie did to serial killers: strips off their masks and brings them next door to us (via espoocine.fi).
Monsters is a film I’m extremely exited about. First off the film’s budget was only 15 000 dollars, which is absolutely nothing for a film of this magnitude. Secondly the film crew consisted only from the director and a sound guy, and all the special effects were made in the directors bedroom. Of course this is not unheard of, but it’s always interesting to see a movie that has been made with that amount love and devotion. I can’t wait to see it. The film begins with Chema García Ibarra’s short film El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5.
Monsters
Monsters starts where monster movies usually end. Six years ago a space shuttle that carried samples of extraterrestrial life forms crashed in Mexico. Soon the cargo had taken over half of the country, which was quickly quarantined. Monsters was produced on a shoestring budget and has already been named the most realistic monster film of all time.
La Meute or The pack is French horror film that was in the official selection in Cannes this year. That alone is a good enough reason to want to see the film, but there is also something else. La Meute rides on the new wave of French horror and if you have seen films like Martyrs (one of the best horror films of the decade), you certainly don’t want to miss this. The screening of the film begins with Mikael Palsio’s short film Child of Frankenstein.
La Meute (The Pack)
High Tension, Inside, Frontier(s), Martyrs and now… The Pack! The new wave of French horror films continues with an atmospheric but very bloody film where Georges Franju meets John Carpenter. In The Pack, a young woman driving through a remote mining region encounters a pack of bloodthirsty mutants and their matriarch (via espoo cine).
So as you can imagine I’m really exited about today and hope to see some pretty awesome genre films tonight. That’s it for today, I’m soon off to Espoo, but don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the introduction of the last film in the Méliès d’Argent competition.
Yesterday was a surprisingly hectic day for me. I had to work all sunday and then went to see two films in the evening. So unfortunately I didn’t have time to write. But here’s a recap of what’s happened so far in the wonderful land of Espoo Ciné.
Saturday was the first official day of my so called jury duty in Espoo. I first met with the other members of the jury over lunch where we discussed our tactic how to approach the competition and got to know a little about each other. I’m sharing my place in the jury with Zaida Bergroth, CHRZU and Anu Silfverberg. Clearly we all represent a wide range of different opinions and insight to film, so this should be very interesting. After lunch we went to see the first film on the Méliès d’Argent-menu, which was Luc Besson’sLes Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec. in front of the film was also our first competition short film, Meruan Salim’s animated short film What’s Up.
After the film there was a two hour break, which I used up by going to see Centurion. It’s a movie festival after all and I’m there to see as many films as I possibly can. Here’s the synopsis and trailer of Neil Marshall’s Centurion.
Centurion
The 9th Legion of the Roman Army has invaded Scotland, but is soon ambushed by a northern tribe of warriors, the Picts. Only a handful of men survive, and are forced to make their escape through the barren highlands. Neil Marshall’s Centurion, a combination of a fascinating revenge story and an excruciating escape plot, is historical action at its very best (via espoocine.fi).
After Centurion, it was time for the second Méliès film Amer. In front of it was a short film Les Bessones del Carrer de Ponent. I’m not gonna get too much into these competing films before we announce the winners, but let’s just say that I might never completely recover from the combination of these two movies. I’ll explain later…
Then became sunday and I had to work all day, so no time to write. In any case we saw two films in competition, Solomon Kane and [Rec] 2. The two competing short films in front were Iron Heart and Pokayoke. As you might imagine I’ve been eagerly anticipating the sequel for Rec, after all I really enjoyed the first one and all zombie films just have a special place in my heart. Unfortunately I can’t go into details yet, but I’ll be getting back to this issue later this week for sure.
Solomon Kane
James Purefoy (of TV series Rome) plays an early 17th century mercenary who has left ways of evil behind him. Soon, however, Satan himself and a black magician working for him entice Solomon Kane to take up his sword once more. The majestic and dark fantasy vision directed by Méliès winner Michael J. Basset finally brings the cult character created by Robert E. Howard to the big screen (via espoocine.fi).
REC 2
In 2007, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza startled audiences with their explosive cocktail of documentary style and zombie horror. Now they push the ultimate limits of the genre with a sequel that continues where the previous film ended. The film follows a scientist and special police task force who capture a house plagued by a serious outbreak of aggressive rabies (via espoocine.fi).
Today I only have one film in the competition to see called L’ Autre monde (Black Heaven) of which I’m really exited about. Check out the trailer below, it looks pretty cool.
L’ Autre monde / Black Heaven
A group of teenagers finds a mobile phone, which takes them on a journey into a twisted world of sex, death and virtual reality. A gothic bride (Louise Bourgoin) takes a sexually inexperienced young man deep into the passionate and dark depths of an online game called Black Hole. Reality, however, proves even more unimaginable than the virtual in this top-grade thriller (via espoocine.fi).
Yesterday was the first official kick-off day of this year’s Espoo Ciné extravaganza, although the party started already 2 days ago with a special screening of Fatih Akin’s heartwarming Soul Kitchen in the brand new Kino Tapiola. The festival goes on during 10 days 20.-29.8.2010.
This year is extra special for me personally since I’m not only attending this fine festival as a guest, but I’m also a part of the prestige Méliès d’Argent jury. I take part in the first stage of the competition where each participating festival organises a Competition during its event, at the end of which a European film is awarded with a Méliès d’Argent, also known as the silver Méliès. This film is then automatically nominated to take part in the Méliès d’Or Competition, the Golden Méliès, which is awarded for the Best European Fantastic Feature Film & the Best European Fantastic Short Film. The Méliès d’Or Award is the the only competition organised between collaborating festivals in Europe. Once all the affiliated members have awarded their own Méliès d’Argent, the next festival on the calendar organises the Méliès d’Or Competition and Ceremony. For that competition, an international jury (with five members from five of the affiliated festivals) is gathered, their task is to decide which of the 10 Méliès d’Argent will be awarded with the Méliès d’Or. If I remember correctly the next Méliès d’Or Ceremony will take place at Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya in October 2010.
Last year’s feature film winner in Espoo Cinè was Duncan Jones’s captivating sci-fi flick Moon. This year we have 9 feature and short films from which we need to decide the best of the best. The films selected to Espoo need to be seen between today and next wednesday and after that we need to decide the winners. The winners will be announced next thursday, so stay tuned!
The latest film by Luc Besson, who has returned to live action film from animation, is an intense adaptation of Jacques Tardi’s graphic novel that enjoys cult fame. The divinely beautiful Louise Bourgoin is Adèle Blanc-Sec, a cross between Amélie and Indiana Jones, whose incredible adventures take us to the outer limits of fantasy (via espoocine.fi).
Amer is giallo at a very high voltage. Cattet and Forzani have created a perfect genre pastiche and a film so beautiful that its every image could be framed and made into a poster. The film’s soundtrack, packed with songs by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai as well as other classic compositions of the genre, would make even Quentin Tarantino envious. (via espoocine.fi).
Ok, that’s it for today. I’m off to start my jury duty.
The Zombies have just returned from the Cannes Film Festival, and for me – this year’s hubbub is now done, and I’m not missing it one bit. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun – hell yeah, we did – or that the festival was not successful – quite the contrary, but there’s nothing better than come back home, to the warm spring weather of Finland, and get back to work.
I’m assembling here a small scrapbook from the festival, just to give you an overall idea what happened there – welcome to the Cannes 2010 Memory Lane!
First few days of the festival were mainly about setting up our office in the Grand Hotel terrace. The location was just the best anyone could’ve asked, since most of the business in Cannes takes place in or very close to the Grand Hotel.
Setting up a nice and visible banner to the balcony is a custom many production companies or distributors tend to do, so we wanted to have our part of the fun. Pekka did a great job designing and doing the dirty work with the banner.
But of course, our puny attempts to surpass the big Hollywood money which they pour in the advertisement in Cannes are feeble. Take a look at some of these ads. And although they might seem ludicrously expensive – which they are – this year things was much smaller than last year.
But this year, the most expensive spot in Cannes was taken by the French. The price for that is 70,000€, plus the banner, design etc. of course.
This year’s logo of the festival did have some serious 80′s vibe to it, but I liked the cool colors, which definitively connected well with the cold weather…
Finally, the teaser for Iron Sky arrived, and we were one happy campers, the whole bunch of us!
And of course, a big thanks went over to the main CGI wizard Samuli in Tampere!
But as said, the weather was mostly quite crappy this year. Although there was sun in the daytime, I was mostly freezing in the balcony of our office – it was actually much warmer in Tampere this year than in Cannes, which has always been the other way around.
Every now and then, being in Cannes, surrounded by all the glamorous people and parties, you might feel like living in a bubble. Well, at least this time we got to try that out for real.
And of course, when in Cannes, you can’t avoid popping by at La Petit Majestic, a small pub just around the corner behind Grand Hotel, where everybody gathers after the day is over (and nobody wants to spend 15€ to a G&T on Grand Terrance or Carlton anymore…)
One of the coolest people in Cannes we got to meet this year were the Norwegian Ninjas, as we call them. We of course mean the people from Tordenfilm and Euforia, and the freaks working on the hugely awesome Norwegian Ninja -film that’s coming out later this year. We got to see a sneak peek of the trailer, and although I’ve been waiting for the film – it kicked ass much more than I had expected! They will release the teaser on the Internet quite soon, and we’re definitively going to tell you about it. I mean what more can you ask, a good political ninja spy movie set in Norway?
We visited the Norwegian Ninja party on the last day, and enjoyed some Norwegian sausage.
See you next year, Cannes! We’re off to make some movies!
