43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2008
By Ron Holloway | August 11, 2008
One glance at the lineups of the top A-category competition film festivals, and you can rate and measure – even criticize – them for their respective portfolios carried proudly on their backs. Cannes is honored as an authentic “auteur festival,” respected each May for discovering new directorial talent while furthering the careers of past auteur directors even when they are evidently over the hill. Venice, praised as a “director’s haven,” scores among veteran festivaliers as a laid-back September rendezvous for cult directors at the end of summer, a must for cineastes. Berlin likes to promote its “Hollywood image,” using its February dates to book as many box-office hits of the previous Christmas season as slots will allow, knowing full well that LA producers easily benefit from a Berlinale festival launch before their films hit the lucrative German screens. So what is Karlovy Vary best known for?
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Filmfest Dresden Sommernacht in Berlin 2008
By Ron Holloway | August 11, 2008
Robin Malick, director of the Dresden International Short Film Festival, is always on the lookout for more film friends in Berlin. Last April 1st, he presented a preview of the 20th Filmfest Dresden (15-20 April 2008) in the Vertretung des Freistaates Sachsen in Berlin-Mitte. Then, on April 26, he returned to Berlin to present a roundup of awarded festival hits at Babylon Kino. Now, for his third visit to Berlin on July 31, Robin teamed with Simon Chappuzeau and Mark Müller at their Home Base Lounge for a Summer Night in Berlin on the banks of the Spree.
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Artur Brauner – 90 Years Old
By Ron Holloway | August 2, 2008
Celebrating his 90th birthday on August 1st (on the same day as the Swiss National Holiday), Artur Brauner, Berlin’s legendary film producer, can look back on more than 250 productions from 1948 onwards under his CCC (Central Cinema Company) logo. A remarkable achievement for the son of a Polish wood-merchant born in Lodz, particularly when one notes that dating from those immediate postwar years his CCC is the only one of 119 production companies to survive up to the present day.
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Russian Film Festivals – Ivanovo, Sochi, Moscow 2008
By Ron Holloway | July 29, 2008
Care to piggyback a quartet of Russian film festivals? It’s much easier than you can imagine. Though a bit like playing the roulette table at Las Vegas. These days, your odyssey on a Russian summer festival circuit begins at the Russian Pavilion in the Marché du Film at Cannes. Newly opened, and serving as an unofficial Russian film office (an official one is still in the talking stage), the Russian Pavilion is well worth the visit, particularly for those Russian film buffs badly in need of visa support for multi-entry festival visits. Located in the Cannes village on “pavilion row” just down the way from the American and beach-side oases, the Russian Pavilion can be easily reached at the end of that regal row, where a flight of stairs leads up to a eye-fetching view over the harbor.
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Spirituality in Cinema – Ecumenical Jury at Cannes
By Ron Holloway | July 13, 2008
Stroll through the lower level of the Palais des Festivals at the Cannes film festival, and you bump into the Ecumenical Jury Stand – prominently positioned on the corner of Row 13. Throughout the festival, the stand is a beehive of activity. Respected by critics and filmmakers alike, the Ecumenical Jury has been part and parcel of the Cannes film festival for the past 34 years. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rumba – Mime Comedy Romp
By Ron Holloway | July 11, 2008
After sitting through some pretty heavy entries in the official program during the first few days of the Cannes festival, the chance to enjoy some side-splitting belly laughs during the opening night presentation of Rumba (Belgium/France, 2008)) in the International Week of the Critics was welcomed, to say the least. Directed by a veteran Belgian mime trio – Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, and Bruno Romy – Rumba is old-fashioned silent-film comedy reworked into a modern-day fairy tale. Read the rest of this entry »
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Pablo Trapero’s Lion’s Den – Woman’s Prison Odyssey
By Ron Holloway | July 11, 2008
As films about women’s prison’s go, Pablo Trapero’s Leonera (Lion’s Den) (Argentine/Brazil/South Korea, 2008) doesn’t offer much new, save that this one in Buenos Aires is only for pregnant women whose children are about to be born. This factor alone lends Lion’s Den extra, and welcomed, authenticity in an otherwise familiar genre. Read the rest of this entry »
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Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness – No Exit Game
By Ron Holloway | July 11, 2008
Take a book by a Portuguese Nobel Prize winning author (José Saramago), an Oscar-nominated Brazilian director (Fernando Meirelles), and a four-time Oscar nominated actress (Julianne Moore), plus a dozen rather well known actors in supporting roles (Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga), and the mix seemed right for the opening night at Cannes. But Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness (Brazil/Canada/USA/Japan, 2008) is arthouse fare at best, although the film might be saved for general release with a new version edited down from the present tedious two-hour length. Read the rest of this entry »
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Kornel Mundruczo’s Delta – Tragic Incest Tale
By Ron Holloway | July 11, 2008
Awarded the Golden Reel and International Critics Prize at the Hungarian Film Week in Budapest last February, Kornel Mundruczo’s Delta (Hungary/France/Germany, 2008) arrived at Cannes as a front runner for Palme d’Or laurels. To say nothing of the director’s career as a rising auteur linked directly to the good graces of this festival. Read the rest of this entry »
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Gomorra – Matteo Garrone on Naples Camorra
By Ron Holloway | July 11, 2008
The most talked about film at Cannes, Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah (Gomorra) (Italy, 2008) is based on the non-fiction bestseller with the same title written by Roberto Saviano about the inner workings of the Camorra mafia in Naples. Indeed, since the book’s publication, author-researcher Roberto Saviano has been living under police guard. Read the rest of this entry »
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