Foreign Oscar Short-List, BAFTAs, IFC Deals for Noé and Solondz, Berlinale Competition

The Academy announced the nine finalists in the Foreign Language Oscar category yesterday, which will be narrowed down to five once the Oscar nominations are announced on 2 February; 65 films were submitted for the category, which I listed a couple of months ago. Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band], from Germany, and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet [Un prophète], from France, made the final cut, as expected. Sony Pictures Classics has The White Ribbon in a limited release now, and A Prophet will expand on 26 February. Another SPC title, Juan José Campanella's The Secret in Their Eyes [El secreto de sus ojos] from Argentina, was also among the nine; Campanella was previously nominated for Son of the Bride. Rounding out the rest of the pack are Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's Ajami from Israel (to be released by Kino this spring), Claudia Llosa's The Milk of Sorrow [La teta asustada] from Peru (which won the Golden Bear at the 2009 Berlinale), Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah from Australia, Martin Koolhoven's Winter in Wartime [Oorlogswinter] from The Netherlands, Stephan Komandarev's The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner from Bulgaria and Ermek Tursunov's Kelin from Kazakhstan. Campanella is the only previous nominee in this category (Haneke's Caché was disqualified from the running when Austria submitted it in 2005). Among the upsets, the omissions of Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective [Poliţist, adj.], from Romania, and Bong Joon-ho's Mother, from South Korea, were the biggest surprises. Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother [J'ai tué ma mère], from Canada, and Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa were also expected to make the list from the former's festival credentials and the latter director's previous Oscar win (thank God for no Tornatore is all I have to say).

In distribution news, IFC announced their acquisitions of both Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void and Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime. Both played at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, though Enter the Void made its official premiere, in an unfinished version, at Cannes in May. Life During Wartime will make its way onto screens in the U.S. over the summer, as well as on IFC's On Demand program. Enter the Void will bow sometime later this year.

The official line-up for the 2010 Berlinale Competition titles was unveiled yesterday, including films from Kôji Wakamatsu, Noah Baumbach, Nicole Holofcener, Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern, Zhang Yimou, Thomas Vinterberg, Lisa Cholodenko, Wang Quan’an and Michael Winterbottom. As usual David Hudson at The Auteurs Notebook has a fabulous round-up of the titles.

And finally, the BAFTA nominations were announced yesterday, with both Clint Eastwood's Invictus and Jane Campion's Bright Star left out of the race. Though even without Campion, two female directors made the cut this year, and three of the five nominees for British Film of the Year were also directed by women. Each year, the BAFTAs come closer and closer to mirroring the Oscars, so fingers crossed that the Academy follows suit with snubbing Lee Daniels, Nine and Sandra Bullock. Nominees below, full list at IndieWire:

Best Film

Avatar, d. James Cameron
An Education, d. Lone Scherfig
The Hurt Locker, d. Kathryn Bigelow
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, d. Lee Daniels
Up in the Air, d. Jason Reitman

Outstanding British Film

An Education, d. Lone Scherfig
Fish Tank, d. Andrea Arnold
In the Loop, d. Armando Iannucci
Moon, d. Duncan Jones
Nowhere Boy, d. Sam Taylor-Wood

Film Not in the English Language

Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], d. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Coco Before Chanel [Coco avant Chanel], d. Anne Fontaine, France
Let the Right One In [Låt den rätte komma in], d. Tomas Alfredson, Sweden
A Prophet [Un prophète], d. Jacques Audiard, France
The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band], d. Michael Haneke, Austria/Germany/France/Italy

Animated Film

Coraline, d. Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox, d. Wes Anderson
Up, d. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

Director

James Cameron, Avatar
Neill Blomkamp, District 9
Lone Schefig, An Education
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Leading Actor

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Andy Serkis, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Leading Actress

Carey Mulligan, An Education
Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Audrey Tautou, Coco avant Chanel

Supporting Actor

Alec Baldwin, It’s Complicated
Christian Mckay, Me and Orson Welles
Alfred Molina, An Education
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Supporting Actress

Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Kristin Scott Thomas, Nowhere Boy

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, David Pearson - Mugabe and the White African
Eran Creevy - Shifty Stuart
Hazeldine - Exam
Duncan Jones - Moon
Sam Taylor-Wood - Nowhere Boy

Original Screenplay

The Hangover - Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
A Serious Man - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Up - Bob Peterson, Pete Docter

Adapted Screenplay

District 9 - Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
An Education - Nick Hornby
In the Loop - Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Cinematography

Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker
Javier Aguirresarobe, The Road
Mauro Fiore, Avatar
Trent Opaloch, District 9
Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds

Samuel Maoz's Lebanon Takes the Golden Lion

Samuel Maoz's Lebanon, which is set during the First Lebanon War in 1982, took home the Golden Lion in Venice today, wrapping up the annual festivities. Ang Lee, who's won two Golden Lions himself in the past five years (for Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution) was the head of this year's jury, which also included Sandrine Bonnaire, Sergei Bodrov, Liliana Cavani, Joe Dante, Anurag Kashyap and Luciano Ligabue. The awards are all listed below.

Golden Lion: Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
Silver Lion, for Best Director: Shirin Neshat - Women Without Men
Special Jury Prize: Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor: Colin Firth - A Single Man
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress: Xenia Rappoport - La doppia ora
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor: Jasmine Trinca - Il grande sogno
Osella for Best Technical Contribution: Sylvie Olivé, production designer - Mr. Nobody
Osella for Best Screenplay: Todd Solondz - Life During Wartime

New York Film Festival line-up, 2009

Yesterday the New York Film Festival announced their prestigious line-up, all of which only serves to give the high profile international releases of the year their premiere in the States. This year is heavily populated by European auteurs, and only three American films will screen (Life During Wartime, Don Argott's doc The Art of the Steal, Ilisa Barish and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Sweetgrass and Lee Daniels' Precious, which will have played at nearly every single major festival in 2009 before Lionsgate throws it onto theatres with a giant Oscar push in November). The line-up is listed below:

- 36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak [36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup] - d. Jacques Rivette
- Antichrist - d. Lars von Trier
- The Art of the Steal - d. Don Argott
- Bluebeard [La barbe bleue] - d. Catherine Breillat
- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos] - d. Pedro Almodóvar
- Crossroads of Youth - d. An Jong-hwa (the oldest surviving Korean film)
- Eccentricites of a Blonde [Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loira] - d. Manoel de Oliviera
- Everyone Else [Alle Anderen] - d. Maren Ade
- Ghost Town - d. Zhao Dayong
- Hadewijch - d. Bruno Dumont
- Independencia - d. Raya Martin
- Inferno [L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot] - d. Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea
- Kanikosen - d. Sabu
- Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz
- Min Yé - d. Souleymane Cissé
- Mother - d. Bong Joon-ho
- Ne change rien - d. Pedro Costa
- Police, Adjective [Politist, adjectiv] - d. Corneliu Porumboiu
- Precious - d. Lee Daniels
- Room and a Half - d. Andrey Khrzhanovsky
- Sweetgrass - d. Ilisa Barish, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
- Sweet Rush [Tatarak] - d. Andrzej Wajda
- To Die Like a Man [Morrer Como Um Homem] - d. João Pedro Rodrigues
- Vincere - d. Marco Bellocchio
- White Material - d. Claire Denis
- The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band] - d. Michael Haneke
- Wild Grass [Les herbes folles] - d. Alain Resnais
- The Wizard of Oz - d. Victor Fleming, 70th Anniversary

8 of the films above are going in with US distribution (I'm not counting The Wizard of Oz, which will receive a special anniversary DVD and Blu-ray release in November): 3 from Sony (Broken Embraces, Wild Grass, The White Ribbon), 3 from IFC (Vincere, Police, Adjective, Antichrist), 1 from Lionsgate (Precious) and 1 from Seagull Films (Room and a Half).

New Denis, Rivette, Ferrara, Chéreau, Akin, Sequels to Repo Man, Tetsuo at Venice 09

The official Venice Film Festival line-up was announced today in Italy with some very exciting prospects, not least of which the latest from Claire Denis and Jacques Rivette. The fest will show their national spirit by opening with (groan) Giuseppe Tornatore's latest Baarìa (in other Tornatore news, did you know Miramax remade Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale? It'll be out later this year). A number of the films announced will also screen at this year's Toronto. I suspect Toronto might have been waiting for Venice's announcement to add the final details to their roster. My long-shot of a hope that Sébastien Lifshitz's Plein sud would premiere there didn't happen (its release has also been moved to December in France), but otherwise, 2009 has been a pretty promising year at the big festivals. If that's only by name and/or prestige, I can't say... But can we at least expect an Abel Ferrara/Werner Herzog showdown in Venice this year?

In Competition

- 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup - d. Jacques Rivette - w. Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto, Jacques Bonnaffé, André Marcon
- Accident - Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog)
- Baarìa, la porta del vento - d. Giuseppe Tornatore - w. Monica Bellucci, Raoul Bova, Ángela Molina
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - d. Werner Herzog
- Between Two Worlds - Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Foresaken Land)
- Capitalism: A Love Story - d. Michael Moore
- La doppia ora - d. Giuseppe Capotondi (directorial debut) - w. Filippo Timi
- Il grande sogno - d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale) - w. Riccardo Scamarcio, Laura Morante
- Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz
- Lourdes - d. Jessica Hausner - w. Sylvie Testud, Bruno Todeschini, Léa Seydoux
- Mr. Nobody - d. Jaco van Dormael (Le huitième jour, Toto le héros) - w. Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Rhys Ifans
- Persécution - d. Patrice Chéreau - w. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Romain Duris, Jean-Hughes Anglade
- Prince of Tears - Yonfan (Bishonen)
- The Road - d. John Hillcoat (The Proposition) - w. Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Michael K. Williams, Molly Parker, Garret Dillahunt
- A Single Man - d. Tom Ford (yes, the designer) - w. Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Matthew Goode, Gennifer Goodwin
- Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin - w. Birol Ünel, Moritz Bleibtreu
- Lo spazio bianco - d. Francesca Comencini (Visions of Europe) - w. Margherita Buy, Salvatore Cantalupo
- Survival of the Dead - d. George A. Romero - w. Kenneth Welsh, Devon Bostick (really, in competition?)
- Tetsuo: The Bullet Man - d. Shinya Tsukamoto
- The Traveller - Ahmed Maher
- White Material - d. Claire Denis - w. Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankolé, Christopher Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle
- Women Without Men - d. Shirin Neshat

Out of Competition

- [REC] 2 - d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
- Anni luce - d. Francesco Maselli (L'amore in città)
- Chengdu, I Love You - d. Fruit Chan, Cui Jian
- The Hole - d. Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'burbs) - w. Bruce Dern, Teri Polo
- The Informant! - d. Steven Soderbergh
- The Men Who Stare at Goats - d. Grant Heslov (HBO's Unscripted) - w. Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Stephen Lang
- Napoli Napoli Napoli - d. Abel Ferrara
- L'oro di Cuba - d. Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco & Vanzetti)
- Prove per una tragedia Siciliana - d. John Turturro, Roman Paska
- Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story - d. Yousry Nasrallah (La porte du soleil)
- South of the Border - d. Oliver Stone
- Yona Yona Penguin - d. Rintaro (Metropolis)

Midnight Movies

- Brooklyn's Finest - d. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) - w. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Brian F. O'Byrne
- Delhi-6 - d. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
- Dev D - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Gulaal - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Valhalla Rising - d. Nicolas Winding Refn (the Pusher series) - w. Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Sives

Horizons

- 1428 - d. Du Haibin (China)
- Adrift - d. Bui Thac Chuyên (Vietnam)
- Buried Secrets - d. Raja Amari (Satin Rouge, Tunisia)
- Il colore delle parole - d. Marco Simon Puccioni (Riparo, Italy)
- Cow - d. Guan Hu (China)
- Crush - d. Pyotr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., Boris Khlebnikov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vrypayev (Russia)
- Engkwentro - d. Pepe Diokno (Philippines)
- Francesca - d. Bobby Paunescu (Romania) - w. Luminita Gheorghiu
- I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You - d. Marcelo Gomes (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus), Karim Ainouz (Brazil)
- Insolacao - d. Daniela Thomas, Felipe Hirsch (Brazil)
- Io sono l'amore [I Am Love] - d. Luca Guadagnino (Melissa P.) - w. Tilda Swinton
- Judge - Liu Jie (China)
- The Man's Woman and Other Stories - d. Amit Dutta (India)
- Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country - d. Guo Xiaolu (China)
- The One All Alone - d. Frank Scheffer (Netherlands)
- One-Zero - d. Kamla Abou Zekry (Egypt)
- Paraiso - d. Héctor Gálvez (Peru)
- Pepperminta - d. Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland) - w. Sabine Timoteo
- Repo Chick - d. Alex Cox (U.S.)
- Tender Parasites [Zarte Parasiten] - d. Christian Becker, Oliver Schwabe (Germany)
- Toto - d. Peter Schreiner (Austria)
- Tris di donne e abiti nunziali - d. Martina Gedeck (Italy)
- Villalobos - d. Romuald Karmakar (Deutschland 09, Germany)

There were a few more events named, including some stuff from Werner Herzog, Aleksandr Sokurov, Tinto Brass and Phillip Haas. There was also a New Italian Cinema Trends side-bar that I didn't post -- but you can get the titles via Variety. I'll post more when I hear of it.

Noé, Solondz, Almodóvar, Audiard, Others at Toronto '09

Another round of titles were announced for the Toronto International Film Festival, including Todd Solondz's sequel to Happiness, Life During Wartime, and a bunch of Cannes leftovers like Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void, Ye Lou's Spring Fever, Almodóvar's Broken Embraces, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, as well as Samantha Morton's directorial debut The Unloved. Previously announced titles can be found here and here.

Vanguard

- Accident - d. Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog) - Hong Kong/China
- The Ape [Apan] - d. Jesper Ganslandt (Farväl Falkenberg) - Sweden
- Bunny and the Bull - d. Paul King - UK
- The Dirty Saints [Los santos sucios] - d. Luis Ortega - Argentina
- Enter the Void [Soudain le vide] - d. Gaspar Noé - France/Germany/Italy
- Hipsters - d. Valery Todorovsky - Russia
- The Misfortunates [De helaasheid der dingen] - d. Felix Van Groeningen (Steve + Sky) - Belgium
- My Queen Karo - d. Dorothée Van Den Berghe - w. Deborah Franoçois - Belgium/Netherlands
- Spring Fever - d. Ye Lou - China/Hong Kong/France


Discovery

- The Angel [Enkeli] - d. Margreth Olin - w. Maria Bonnevie, Lena Endre, Börje Ahlstedt - Norway/Sweden/Finland
- Applause - d. Pieter Zandvliet - w. Paprika Steen - Denmark
- Bare Essence of Life - d. Satoko Yokohama - Japan
- Beautiful Kate - d. Rachel Ward - w. Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Ben Mendelsohn - Australia
- A Brand New Life - d. Ounie Lecomte - South Korea/France
- The Disappearance of Alice Creed - d. J Blakeson - w. Eddie Marsan, Martin Compston - UK
- Eamon - d. Margaret Corkery - Ireland
- Every Day Is a Holiday [Chaque jour est une fête] - d. Dima El-Horr - w. Hiam Abbass - Lebanon/France/Germany
- Five Hours from Paris - d. Leon Prudovsky - Israel
- Heliopolis - d. Ahmad Abdalla - w. Khaled Abol Naga - Egypt
- The Day Will Come [Es kommt der Tag] - d. Susanne Schneider - Germany/France
- Le jour où Dieu est parti en voyage - d. Philippe van Leeuw - Belgium
- Last Ride - d. Glendyn Ivin - Australia
- My Dog Tulip - d. Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger - w. Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rossellini, Lynn Redgrave (voices) - USA
- My Tehran for Sale - d. Granaz Moussavi - Australia/Iran
- Northless [Norteado] - d. Rigoberto Pérezcano - Mexico/Spain
- Shirley Adams - d. Oliver Hermanus - South Africa/USA/UK
- La soga - d. Josh Crook - Dominican Republic/USA
- Toad's Oil - d. Kôji Yakusho - w. Yakusho - Japan
- Together [Sammen] - d. Matias Armand Jordal - Norway
- The Unloved - d. Samantha Morton - w. Robert Carlyle, Susan Lynch - UK

Special Presentations

- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos] - d. Pedro Almodóvar - Spain
- An Education - d. Lone Scherfig - UK
- The Front Line [La prima linea] - d. Renato De Maria - w. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Riccardo Scamarcio - Italy
- Glorious 39 - d. Stephen Poliakoff (Close My Eyes, The Tribe) - w. Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, Christopher Lee, Hugh Bonneville, David Tennant, Eddie Redmayne, Charlie Cox, Jenny Agutter, Jeremy Northam - UK
- Kamui - d. Yoichi Sai (Blood and Bones, Soo) - Japan
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz - d. Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Shirley Henderson, Ciarán Hinds, Michael K. Williams, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Reubens, Renée Taylor - USA
- A Prophet [Un prophète] - d. Jacques Audiard - France
- The Secret of Their Eyes [El secreto de sus ojos] - d. Juan José Campanella - Argentina/Spain

The Decade List: (Some of) The Worst Films (2004)

On the fourth year of the Aughts, I realize that the (Some of) The Worst Films chapter has become rather drab. The lists never really amount to anything of substance, except mildly pissing a few people off, and simply expose the lousy crop of films I had the misfortune of seeing in some form. Is there any need to mention that Christmas with the Kranks blew or that an incompetently-made coming-of-age tale of a young European that no one's seen like Shem was even less enthralling than Catwoman?

I speculate that I continue to make these lists for two reasons. 1.) They're easy to compile and don't require me to sit down and watch them again (unless you strongly suggest I reevaluate my thoughts); and 2.) I derive great pleasure in spitting (and re-spitting) venom onto films as contemptible as Paul Haggis' Crash as often as possible. Yes, though it would go on to become the hands-down worst Best Picture winner in Oscar history in 2006, Crash technically made its premiere at Toronto in 2004. Once guaranteed to emit an angry tirate out of me, the process of aging has caused me to forget many of my reserve of arguments against that garbage. Or maybe I spend less time dwelling on the bad than I used to.

As for the common themes outside of Ben Affleck, lousy "adapatations" of Georges Bataille make a dual showing in 2004. Christophe Honoré's "faithful" adaptation of Bataille's final book Ma mère finds little more than a naked Louis Garrel and Isabelle Huppert on auto-pilot, while The Story of the Eye suffices in merely quoting the writer and proceeding with an inspid "art" video "porno" which shares no commonality with the book other than a central ménage à trois.

And for general comments: Oliver Stone can cut Alexander any way he wants to, but it'll never be a good film; despite Tracey Ullman being a fair substitute for Divine, A Dirty Shame is not good (at all); without trying, The Notebook is funnier than Napoleon Dynamite, which tries... hard; as hard as it is to offend me, the tween comedy Sleepover managed to do so; and Palindromes is the ill-conceived and -realized film I'd always expected to come from Todd Solondz.

- Alexander - d. Oliver Stone - USA/Germany/Netherlands/France/UK
- Along Came Polly - d. John Hamburg - USA
- Catwoman - d. Pitof - USA/Australia
- Christmas with the Kranks - d. Joe Roth - USA
- Club Dread - d. Jay Chandrasekhar - USA
- Crash - d. Paul Haggis - Canada/UK
- Crutch - d. Rob Moretti - USA
- The Day After Tomorrow - d. Roland Emmerich - USA
- A Dirty Shame - d. John Waters - USA
- Eating Out - d. Q. Allen Brocka - USA
- Garden State - d. Zach Braff - USA
- George Bataille's Story of the Eye - d. Andrew Repasky McElhinney - USA
- House of Flying Daggers - d. Zhang Yimou - China/Hong Kong
- Jargo - d. María Sólrún Sigurðardóttir - Germany/Iceland
- Ma mère - d. Christophe Honoré - France/Portugal/Austria/Spain
- Melinda & Melinda - d. Woody Allen - USA
- Most High - d. Marty Sader - USA
- Napoleon Dynamite - d. Jared Hess - USA
- The Notebook - d. Nick Cassavetes - USA/Portugal
- Palindromes - d. Todd Solondz - USA
- People: Jet Set 2 - d. Fabien Onteniente - France/Spain
- Ray - d. Taylor Hackford - USA
- Saved! - d. Brian Dannelly - USA
- Shem - d. Caroline Roboh - UK/Israel
- Sleepover - d. Joe Nussbaum - USA
- Slutty Summer - d. Casper Andreas - USA
- Surviving Christmas - d. Mike Mitchell - USA
- Until the Night - d. Gregory Hatanaka - USA

2009 Notebook: Vol 3

I'm thinking that I may create a database somewhere online to keep track of my 2009 viewings, but as it stands now, my nose is like Niagara Falls, my ear like a fucking church bell and I'm still waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. Here's the last 10 films I've seen, all of which will be spoken about in more depth at a later date. All I'll say now is that Żuławski's Possession officially placed itself onto that list of my all-time favorites. January is a good month to resort to some of your old faithfuls (Muriel's Wedding, ha!), especially when your December was not only jam-packed with film watching, but jam-packed with films like Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Gran Torino. All of us deserve a month off (at least).

Brilliant! (?)

La vie nouvelle [A New Life] - dir. Philippe Grandrieux - France - 2002 - N/A - with Zachary Knighton, Anna Mouglalis, Marc Barbé, Zsolt Nagy, Raoul Dantec, Vladimir Zintov

Not Brilliant!

Via Appia - dir. Jochen Hick - Germany - 1990 - Strand Releasing - with Peter Senner, Guilherme de Pádua, Yves Jansen

Revisited

The Dead Girl - dir. Karen Moncrieff - USA - 2006 - First Look - with Brittany Murphy, Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, Mary Beth Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Kerry Washington, Nick Searcy, Giovanni Ribisi, Mary Steenburgen, James Franco, Piper Laurie, Josh Brolin, Bruce Davison

Happiness - dir. Todd Solondz - USA - 1998 - Lionsgate - with Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lara Flynn Boyle, Cynthia Stevenson, Ben Gazzara, Louise Lasser, Rufus Read, Camryn Manheim, Jon Lovitz, Jared Harris, Marla Maples, Evan Silverberg, Dan Moran, Molly Shannon

Muriel's Wedding - dir. P.J. Hogan - Australia/France - 1994 - Miramax - with Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter, Jeanie Drynan, Gennie Nevinson, Matt Day, Daniel Lapaine, Sophie Lee, Roz Hammond, Belinda Jarrett, Pippa Grandison, Gabby Millgate, Daniel Wyllie

Palindromes - dir. Todd Solondz - USA - 2004 - Wellspring (R.I.P.) - with Emani Sledge, Valerie Shusterov, Hannah Freiman, Rachel Corr, Will Denton, Sharon Wilkins, Shayna Levine, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ellen Barkin, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Matthew Faber, Debra Monk, Alexander Brickel, Richard Masur, Robert Agri, Richard Riehle, John Gemberling

Possession - dir. Andrzej Żuławski - France/West Germany - 1981 - Blue Underground - with Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Heinz Bennett, Margit Carstensen, Michael Hogben, Johanna Hofer

Red Road - dir. Andrea Arnold - UK/Denmark - 2006 - Tartan Films (R.I.P.) - with Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Nathalie Press, Paul Higgins

Storytelling - dir. Todd Solondz - USA - 2001 - Fine Line Features (R.I.P.) - with Mark Webber, Selma Blair, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Robert Wisdom, Leo Fitzpatrick, Julie Hagerty, Jonathan Osser, Lupe Ontiveros, Noah Fleiss, Aleksa Palladino, Franka Potente, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Xander Berkeley

Welcome to the Dollhouse - dir. Todd Solondz - USA - 1995 - Sony Pictures Classics - with Heather Matarazoo, Angela Pietropinto, Brendan Sexton III, Matthew Faber, Eric Mabius, Daria Kalinina, Bill Buell, Dimitri DeFresco

Because pedophiles love children...

I just rewatched all of Todd Solondz's films, for better or worse, over the past week, and though I posted about his new film's cast earlier and that it was an intended sequel to Happiness, I was unaware that Forgiveness will also feature all of the same characters, played by new actors. This is what the IMDb lists:

Shirley Henderson as Joy (Jane Adams)
Ally Sheedy as Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle)
Allison Janney as Trish (Cynthia Stevenson)
Ciarán Hinds as Bill (Dylan Baker)
Michael K. Williams as Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) !!!
Paul Reubens as Andy (Jon Lovitz) !!!!
Renée Taylor as Mona (Louise Lasser)
Chane't Johnson as Kristina (Camryn Manheim)

It looks like Ben Gazzara's character Lenny won't be in it and that Charlotte Rampling and Gaby Hoffmann will be playing new characters (the kids are all different too, by the way) and Paris Hilton doesn't have a character name listed yet. I can only hope that Forgiveness is Happiness good and not Palindromes bad. Look for it to open at one of the big film festivals later this year, and I'll be writing more about revisiting Solondz's films later on.

How'd you get to be Happiness?

Oh boy! IndieWire posted an update on Todd Solondz's new film, which is apparently a follow-up to Happiness probably in the same way Palindromes was to Welcome to the Dollhouse. The official cast includes Charlotte Rampling, Allison Janney, Michael K. Williams (aka, everyone's favorite character on The Wire, Omar), Paul Reubens (who was the first actor attactched to the project), Shirley Henderson, Ciaran Hinds and, last and certainly least, Paris Hilton. The IMDb also lists Natasha Richardson in the cast. The film should hit one of the big festivals next year.