Filmes
Jornal da Mostra
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31ª Mostra > 18/02/2008
Text: Leon Cakoff, from Berlin, to ‘Jornal da Mostra’
FESTIVAL PROMISSES A BANQUET OF FILMS
The last edition of the British magazine ‘Screen’ (www.screendaily.com) at the Berlin Festival started to spectulate on the possible films that will be in the selection of the next Cannes Festival (14-25/May/2008). As usual there seems to be more films than room for so much novelty. The titles suggested in the article “Global glitterati line up for Cannes in May”, by Mike Goodridge can’t only imagine which will be Cannes’s revelations, besides the veteran authors and well known talents whose films are ready for the French festival.
Here is the list of notable films for ‘ Screen ’:
The curious documentary in animation by Israeli Ari Folman WALTZ WITH BASHIR, with the memories of the director 25 years after he witnessed, as soldier, the Sabra and Chatila massacre, in September 1982, in the Palestinian refugee camps in Beyruth.
ASHES OF TIME REDUX, the remix of a rare martial arts film by Wong Kar Wai, little seen around the world, but one of the highlights of the 19th Mostra.
FROZEN RIVER, by American debutant Courtney Hunt, about the struggle and the friendship of two women, one of them descendent of the Mohawk Indians, on the border between New York and Quebec. The film is a sequel of a short film originally shot in 2004. The feature won the last Sundance Festival.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?, by famous American director Barry Levinson. Two weeks in the life of a movie producer having a difficult time to finish a film and a cast of Hollywood stars – Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Robert De Niro + Sean Penn, who will preside the jury of the Cannes festival.
The documentary ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED, by Marina Zenovich about the scandal and personal tragedy of the great Polish filmmaker who had to run away from the USA in February, 1978 under accusations of pedophilia. The filmmaker is not in the film, but has many appearances in the selection of interviews given thirty years ago.
LE SILENCE DE LORNA, by the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, twice Golden Palm in Cannes. In this new drama, the arranged wedding of a young Albanese clandestine with a drug addict. She becomes Belgian and, being thankful, will try to save the toxic maniac’s life.
THE PALERMO SHOOTING, by Wim Wenders, a story of love and disenchantment of a photographer who leaves Germany to live in Sicily. With German rock-star Campino + the icons Lou Reed, Patty and Giovanna Mezzogiorno. Dannis Hopper, who was the AMERICAN FRIEND, in a 1977 Wenders film, is also in the cast.
PARLEZ-MOI DE LA PLUIE/ LET IT RAIN, by French Agnès Jaoui. Drama, comedy and documentary about political ambition in a small town.
DAYDREAMS, by Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, compared to master Michelangelo Antonioni. His two previous films were revealed in the same festival.
LINHA DE PASSE, by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, a strong drama about the possible ways of four brothers to survive in São Paulo. Between Fiedor Dostoievski and Krzysztof Kieslowski, with the now grown Vinícios de Oliveira (the boy in CENTRAL STATION) among the siblings.
With the Golden Lion in Berlin, heads must turn a little more towards Brazil and Latin America. Another film from Brazil must be the co-production with Canada BLINDNESS, by Fernando Meirelles, with Julianne Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal, adapted from José Saramago.
LEONERA/ LION’S DEN, by Argentean Pablo Trapero, in which a convicted woman struggles to raise her son from the prison.
RUDO Y CURSI, by Carlos Cuaron. The film promotes the reunion of actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal after Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN, whose script was written by Carlos with his brother Alfonso Cuaron.
Another Mexican film in Cannes might be Guillermo Arriaga’s. The author/writer/scriptwriter of BABEL, 21 GRAMS, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, AMORES PERROS, broke up with director Alejandro González Iñáritu and debuts in the direction with his own script in THE BURNING PLAIN. Very much his style, the film tells two parallel storys, of a daughter and a mother trying to establish connections.
And more Latinity will be seen with Steven Soderbergh’s version of the myth Che Guevara.
Among the Asians, the expectation is the novelties by Chinese Jia Zhang-ke (24 CITY), who was honored during the 31st São Paulo IFF, Vietnamese Tran Anh Hung (I COME WITH THE RAIN); Koreans Kim Ji-woo (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD) and Kim Ki-duk (DREAM); and Japanese Kiyoshi Kurosawa (TOKYO SONTA), Hirokazu Kore-eda (ARUITEMO ARUITEMO) and Ryosuke Hashiguchi (GURUNI NO KOTO).
It has been speculated, on the European side, the new film by British Michael Winterbottom, GENOVA, a ghost story shot in Italy, the new film by multinational Barbet Schroeder, the French thriller INJU; MR. NOBODY, the new film by Belgian Jaco Van Dormael (TOTO THE HERO), with a big production about immortality and existential crisis; ST GEORGE SHOOTS THE DRAGO (or AMERICA), by Polish Jerzy Skolimowski; Laurent Cantet (VERS LE SUD) with the new ENTRE LES MURS; and still the veteran AGNÈS VARDA, with the documentary LES PLAGES D’AGNES.
From the USA there are still chances for the new film by brothers Andy and Larry Walchowski with SPEED RACER, inspired on a Japanese animation series about car races. At last, the special screening of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, by Steven Spielberg, is expected. Cannes makes a big deal out of the cinema of pop stars but, in the end, makes a good service at diffusing the good authorial and thoughtful cinema.
One shouldn’t forget that this list of speculations is mainly about the films in competition and special screenings. Cannes has room for films in many other selections, such as ‘Un Certain Regard’, ‘Quinzaine des Réalisateurs’ and ‘Semaine de la Critique’. A special evening will also be set aside for Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira, who will be 100 years old next December. Long life cinema (despite the piracy that undermines cinema all over the world).
English version: Laura Rebessi