Cannes 2012 Official Selection Preview - Post Tenebras Lux by Carlos Reygadas

The much awaited (by me) semi-autobiographical fiction film by outstanding master filmmaker Carlos Reygadas that with only three feature-length films has established himself as one of the most prominent master filmmakers in contemporary world cinema and one of the most adored directors by me, mainly because his breathtaking realistic visuals, outstanding framing/compositions and stories that blow and could shock your mind is finally here. For me he does films that are the complete "package", the complete filmmaking/storytelling experience where everything you see and everything you hear are seen and hear at the right moment, in the right sequence and with the right storytelling technique. So close to perfection. This is what I expect from his latest oeuvre.

There is no doubt in my mind that Post Tenebras Lux, Latin for Light After Darkness, will have breathtaking images and you'll agree while watching these stunning images.



Clearly we can see that Reygadas realistic approach to visuals style is in these pictures as it is in his own description about what film is all about. At the 2010 Berlinale Reygadas told Variety what follows.

"Lux" will be about "feelings, memories, dreams, things I've hoped for, fears, facts of my current life," ... "reason will intervene as little as possible, like an expressionist painting where you try to express what you're feeling through the painting rather than depict what something looks like,".

Those comments absolutely blow my mind as tell about something I have always appreciated in great films, visuals that I can compare to paintings, that allow me to have an experience similar to when I see a great paint but also a great photography, a sculpture, a miraculous piece of architecture, and in a few words, a work of art.

The synopsis is puzzling especially when you add his own comments as we can see that hardly fits them; but no worries, most of Reygadas film synopsis have truly very little to do with the cinematic experience you live while watching them.

Juan and his young urban family live in the countryside of Mexico. There, they enjoy and suffer a world that understands life in a different way. Juan wonders if those worlds are complementary or, truly, they fight unconsciously to eliminate one another.

So I suggest to place our attention into the gorgeous visuals as if narrative will have very little reason, then this will be another very visual film.

Carlos Reygadas in Cannes

Reygadas opens his Cannes relationship in 2002 when his debut film Japon is screened at a parallel section and goes to win a Caméra d'Or Special Mention; in 2005 comes back with his second film, Batalla en el Cielo (Battle in Heaven) competing for the Palme d'Or. His third film Silent Light competes for the 2007 Palme d'Or and goes to win the Jury Prize ex aequo with Persepolis.

I believe that Reygadas has a long and fruitful cinema career ahead and know that eventually will win the Palme d'Or; but even do probably could deserve it with this film, this year eclectic jury could find film odd and "too different". Still I have my hopes as Reygadas has a solid history with the festival and maybe, only maybe, could get some significant recognition. Buzz around serious movie sites is high and positive especially after the release of the photographs, some predict it as the top winner. If Reygadas' Post Tenebras Lux wins the top award there will be a BIG party here.

A must be seen movie for me and one that I highly recommend even if I haven't seen it. If you're not familiar with the work of this director my best suggestion is to start watching him chronologically, first Japon, followed by Battle in Heaven and last, Silent Light; after the feature-length movies watch his shorts.

Film Specs
Directed by Carlos Reygadas
Written by Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Non-professional actors. Adolfo Jimenez, Natalia Acevedo, Willebaldo Torres, Eleazar Reygadas and Rut Reygadas
Language: Spanish
Nationality: Majority Mexican (France, Mexico, Netherlands)
Runtime: 2h
Production year: 2011

There is no trailer yet but a clip is promised as "coming soon" at Matarraya twitter account.

End Notes
Post Tenebras Lux at Cannes site go here.
Reygadas in Cannes go here.
Topkapi Films go here.
Le Pacte go here.
Unifrance go here.

Cannes 2012 Official Selection Preview - Amour by Michael Haneke

Introduction

As the most famous film festival in the world will start next week, a week later than always due to France presidential elections, a new to this blog idea came to my mind: to share my thoughts about each of the films in the Official Competition. Not an easy task as not all movies have trailers but have to admit that most have photos -some truly breathtaking- and many are from well-known to me directors that somehow assure me the quality of their work besides the obvious high quality that have to have to be in Cannes Official Selection.

Is very unusual to find in the Cannes Official Selection so many American movies, 5 in the Main Competition, 3 in Un Certain Regard, 1 in Special Screenings, and 1 in Midnight Screenings, for a total of 10 films in the Official Selection. Probably must a be a first but will check later to confirm. My honest first reaction was not-positive as in a way these films fill a place that could be filled with great non-American films that really need this festival to boost their exposure. But I know that this as any other festival is all about business and when you assure HUGE Hollywood celebrities walking the red carpet, the fest gets wider media exposure. Sigh.

Nevertheless the Official Selection has several of my favorite directors like Mexican Carlos Reygadas, Romanian Cristian Mungiu, Austrian Michael Haneke, and Iranian Abbas Kiarostami; can't deny that already knew about each of their films and was hoping for them to make the selection, so was kind of relief to find that they did. Great.

So without further introductory comments let's get into my first preview.

Amour (Love) by Michael Haneke

Absolutely "dying" to watch this film that reunites Haneke with Isabelle Huppert after 2001 La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher) and 2003 Le Temps du Loup (Time of the Wolf). Not only Haneke is one of my favorite directors but Huppert is one of my favorite actresses, one that makes me watch all her films. So that is the main reason for my true excitement about this film.

Talking about Haneke is talking about a cinema of disturbance that has marked his work since his earlier movies like really disturbing Funny Games or shocking-disturbing La Pianiste, to puzzlingly disturbing Caché (Hidden) and breathtaking yet disturbing The White Ribbon, so I'm assuming that Amour has to have his disturbing style but from the very little info available I'm expecting that disturbance will have a qualificative adjective that has to be his surprise twist in this film, that maybe, only maybe, could be (a bit more) emotional with an unexpected warmth from master filmmaker Haneke.

The available synopsis can't be more intriguing:

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers.
Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family.
One day, Anne has an attack.
The couple's bond of love is severely tested.

What intrigues me the most is that Huppert plays Eva, a character that's not clearly stated in the synopsis, except for being the daughter; still, it is implied in the most Haneke style that leaves everything to your imagination, that will fly freely especially when you also know the characters that Huppert loves to play.

Also in this movie one of the greatest French actors and one that I have seen almost all his movies, Jean-Louis Trintignant. An older Trintignant with looks that still recall how handsome he was and mostly, how good an actor he was in almost all of his 137 films where is hard for me to say which performance I like best (maybe Costa-Gavras Z?), but can't hide that one of my emotional favorites is in Claude Lelouch's Un homme et une femme (A Man and A Woman). Trintignant in the hands and head of Haneke has to be spectacular.

5/14 update: FINALLY trailer is available here.

What else I'm expecting? Extraordinary images even when Amour cinematographer work does not facilitate me imagining greatness.

Haneke in Cannes

Haneke and Cannes have a tale of successful relationship; he has been nine times before with five films nominated to the Palme d'Or which with the exception of two, all collected mayor awards. The relationship started in 1989 where Haneke was in a parallel section with Der 7 Kontinent (The Seven Continent), in 1992 also in a parallel section was Benny's Video, and in 1994 again in a parallel section, 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance).

In 1997 Haneke comes back to Cannes with Funny Games that's part of the selection but does not collect awards; three years later, in 2000, Haneke came back with Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages (Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys) starring none other than Juliette Binoche, that won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.

The following year, 2001, the Grand Prize of the Jury went to La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher) and four years after in 2005 Haneke won the Best Director for his amazing film Caché (Hidden) also starring Juliette Binoche; the film went to also win the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the FIPRESCI Prize.

In 2009 Haneke comes to Cannes with what I have to call master oeuvre, Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (The White Ribbon) that gave him his first Palme d'Or plus the Cinema Prize of the French National Education System and the FIPRESCI Prize.

Is he going to win his second Palme d'Or with Amour and belong to the small group (only six) of directors that have won the Palme twice? Haneke surely has all the necessary pedigree to be a strong contender and a frontrunner for the top award just because of his history with the festival and his outstanding films. Amour on the positive side has to have Haneke style plus an amazing dramatic cast; on the not so positive side, a cinematographer Darius Khondji that already worked with him in his American Funny Games American remake which may not be the best reference for success. These are the elements that fill my head and tell me that maybe he will get recognition.

Haneke is Haneke

At least for me. So no matter if he does fine or not at Cannes his film is absolutely must be seen for me and yes, I do have high expectations which I know is not the best to do, but with the casting and his master filmmaker style film has to be more than worth watching.

Last here is an insightful quote from his book Film als Katharsis (Film as Catharsis)

"My films are intended as polemical statements against the American ‘barrel down’ cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for a cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance in place of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead of consumption and consensus."

Absolutely great vision, one that many filmmakers should have or at least, contemplate once in a while, then cinema will be true art where we film-viewers have the power to get from film what we like the most and the second time we watch with a different state of mind, we will be able to see something else. A vision that I'm still hoping will be the essence of Amour.

The only Amour photo available up to today.



New photo



Film Specs
Directed by Michael Haneke
Written by Michael Haneke
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Tritignant, Emmanuelle Riva, William Shimell
Language: French
Also known as: Liebe
Release date: October 24, 2012 in France
Nationality: Majority French (France, Germany, Austria)
Runtime: 2h 7m
Production year: 2011
North American rights: Sony Pictures Classics

End Notes
Amour at Cannes site go here.
Haneke in Cannes go here.
Films du Losange go here.
X Filme Creative Pool go here.
Unifrance go here.

56th David di Donatello Award Winners

A few minutes ago the winners were announced and from press sources will post winners now, as soon as they are post at official site will post direct link to check winners in all categories. Award winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories at official site go here.

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4/13
Today the Accademia del Cinema Italiano announced the nominations for this year and surprisingly there are no comedies in the main categories. Have to comment that this year nominees are truly high quality films and the best is that have seen many, but still there are two or three that now I'm looking forward to watch. These are the nominees in the main categories.

Best Film
Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese
Habemus Papam, Nanni Moretti
This Must Be The Place, Paolo Sorrentino
*Cesare Deve Morire, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
Romanzo di una Strage, Marco Tulio Giordana

Best Director
Emanuele Crialese for Terraferma
Nanni Moretti for Habemus Papam
Paolo Sorrentino for This Must Be The Place
*Vittorio and Paolo Taviani for Cesare Deve Morire
Ferzan Ozpetek for Magnifica Presenza
Marco Tulio Giordana for Romanzo di una Strage

Best New Director
Alice Rohrwacher for Corpo Celeste
Andrea Segre for Io Sono Li
*Francesco Bruni for Scialla! (Stai sereno)
Guido Lombardi for La-Bas - Educazione Criminale
Stefano Sollima for ACAB all cops are bastards

Best Actress
Donatella Finocchiaro in Terraferma
*Zhao Tao in Io Sono Li
Valeria Golino in La Kryptonite nella Borsa
Claudia Gerini in Il mio Domani
Micaela Ramazzotti in Posti in piedi in Paradiso

Best Actor
*Michel Piccoli in Habemus Papam
Fabrizio Bentivoglio in Scialla! (Stai sereno)
Elio Germano in Magnifica Presenza
Valerio Mastandrea in Romanzo di una Strage

Best European Film
Carnage, Roman Polansky
Melancholia, Lars von Trier
Le Havre, Aki Kaurismaki
*Intouchables, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius

Best Foreign Film
Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn
Hugo, Martin Scorsese
*A Separation, Asghar Farhadi
The Tree of Life, Terence Malick
The Ides of March, George Clooney

To check nominees in all categories go here. Awards ceremony will be on May 4tth at Rome's Auditorium Conciliazone.

2012 German Film Awards Winners

About an hour ago the Academy finished their award ceremony and even if winners are not yet at the official site here they are from press sources. Winners are in *BLUE. 

To check all winners at the facebook official page go here, available only in German but you can translate to English with Bing.  Also can check winners in all categories here.

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3/23
A few minutes ago the Deutsche Filmakademie announced the nominations for the famous Lola’s and here they are for main categories. Christian Pertzold’s Barbara leads with eight nominations.

Best Film
Anonymus, Roland Emmerich
*Barbara, Christian Petzold BEST FILM IN SILVER
Dreiviertelmond (Three Quarter Moon), Christian Zübert
*Halt Auf Freier Strecke (Stopped on Track), Andreas Dresen BEST FILM IN GOLD
Hell, Tim Fehlbaum
*Kriegerin (Combat Girls), David Wnendt  BEST FILM IN BRONZE

Best Director
*Andreas Dresen for Halt Auf Freier Strecke (Stopped on Track)
Christian Petzold for Barbara
Hans Weingartner for Die Summe Meiner Einzelnen Teile (Hut in the Woods)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Hüller in Über uns das All (Above Us Only Sky), Jan Schomburg
Steffi Kühnert in Halt Auf Freier Strecke (Stopped on Track), Andreas Dresen
*Alina Levshin in Kriegerin (Combat Girls), David Wnendt

Best Actor in a Leading Role
*Milan Peschel in Halt Auf Freier Strecke (Stopped on Track), Andreas Dresen
Peter Schneider in Die Summe Meiner Einzelnen Teile (Hut in the Woods), Hans Weingartner
Ronald Zehrfeld in Barbara, Christian Petzold

To check nominees in all categories go here in German only. Can’t deny that is surprising that Petzold’s Barbara got so many nominations but Nina Hoss was not nominated for Best Actress; hope to see movie ASAP and maybe then will learn the reason why. Award ceremony will be on April 27, 2012

3rd Cannes Queer Palm News

Organizers announced the Jury for the award that every year becomes more established with this year not only giving the Palm to a feature film but also to a short film, so now we will have two palms that will be announced at the awards ceremony on May 26. I have already identify a couple of gay interest feature films, let's hope that some lesbian interest will appear too beyond the short films category, sigh.

These are the jurors.

President: Julie Gayet, actress and producer, France
Sam Ashby, Little Joe founder and designer, UK
Jim Dobson, publicist, USA
Sarah Neal, Head of Programming at Brisbane Queer Film Festival, Australia
Frederic Niolle, assistand director and film journalist, France
Moira Sullivan, film critic, promoter and experimental filmmaker, USA and Sweden

To read more about each juror go here.

An interview with Julie Gayet and Franck Finance-Madureira, the award founder; available only in French.

2012 Cannes Classics Selection

As the relationship between contemporary cinema and its own memory was disrupted by the advent of the digital age, in 2004 the Cannes Film Festival created the Cannes Classics program showcasing restored prints of classic films and masterpieces of film history. Now an important part of the Official Selection, Cannes Classics is also a means to honor the work carried out by production companies, rights-holders, film libraries or national archives around the world.

The Cannes Classics 2012 program includes 13 feature films, two shorts, a mini-concert and four documentaries. All these films will be world premieres.

The Film Foundation (USA), chaired by Martin Scorsese, will present a 4K restored and reconstructed print of ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA by Sergio Leone (1984, 245'), with 25 minutes of additional scenes, based on the first cut by Sergio Leone in 1984. Restoration by the Cinematheque of Bologna at the Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with Andrea Leone Films, The Film Foundation and Regency Enterprises. The restoration was funded by The Film Foundation and Gucci.

Pathé presents TESS (1979, 171') by Roman Polanski, in a 4K restoration which he himself supervised and was "very impressed" by the laboratory work. Roman Polanski and Nastassja Kinski will be in attendance. A Pathé restoration, image restored by Eclair Group and Le Diapason for the audio restoration.

To celebrate its centenary, the Hollywood studio Universal will present a restored print of this emblematic film in the studio's recent history: JAWS by Steven Spielberg (1975, 124'). The restoration was carried out by Universal Studios Digital Services and the post-production team of Amblin Entertainment.

The BFI National Archive (London) has carried out a three-year programme to restore all nine of Alfred Hitchcock's surviving silent films. THE RING (1927, 109') will be screened as a world premiere and a cine-concert with the musician Stephen Horne. The restoration was undertaken by the BFI National Archive, and funded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The Film Foundation, Deluxe 142 and the Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the production and release of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA by David Lean (1962, 222'), Sony-Columbia have made a new restoration of the film in 4K. Restored by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 4K at Sony Pictures’ Colorworks.

Keisuke Kinoshita is a Japanese filmmaker born in 1912 and deceased in 1998. Having spent much of his career at the Shochiku studios, he will be celebrated by the current management of Shochiku with the projection of THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA (1958, 98'). The digital version has been restored and funded by Shochiku Co., Ltd. and Shochiku Media Worx Inc.; digital restoration by Imagica Corp. and Imagica West Corp.

Cannes celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Dance Cinematheque (Paris). They will present three jewels from its collection: A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM (1994, 60') by Jean Bach and two "jazz shorties": AN ALL COLORED VAUDEVILLE SHOW (4') and JAMMIN THE BLUES (11'). These will be screened from new prints 35mm printed by Daems Laboratory.

In 2011, Cannes Classics welcomed the ambitious Rossellini Project, the result of a collaboration between Instituto Luce Cinecittà, Cineteca di Bologna, CSC-Cineteca Nazionale and the Co-Production Office (head of international sales). After presenting The Machine that Kills Bad People (1948, 70’) in 2012 we will present, as a restored print, VIAGGIO IN ITALIA / JOURNEY TO ITALY (1954, 97') by Roberto Rossellini. Print restored by Cineteca di Bologna with L'Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Istituto Luce Cinecittà, CSC-Cineteca Nazionale and The Co-Production Office.

As is the tradition, the Festival de Cannes will host the World Cinema Foundation, created in Cannes in 2007 by Martin Scorsese and many filmmakers, in order to restore world treasures. In this year’s programme there is an Indian film and an Indonesian film, as rare and little-known as they are beautiful and necessary.
AFTER THE CURFEW by Usmar Ismail, Indonesia (1954, 101'). Restoration carried out by the National Museum of Singapore and the World Cinema Foundation. In association with the Konfiden Foundation and Kineforum Jakarta Arts Council. The film was restored from the original print kept at the Indonesian Cinematheque. Special thanks to the family of Usmar Ismail.
KALPANA of Uday Shankar, India (1948, 155').Restored by the World Cinema Foundation from a copy of the original negative preserved by the National Film Archive of India. With thanks to Shivendra Singh and family of Uday Shankar. The print was restored by the Cinematheque of Bologna and the Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.

On the occasion of his presence in Cannes, the festival has asked Andrei Konchalovsky to present RUNAWAY TRAIN (1985, 111'). A new print has been struck courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer/Park Circus.

Every year the CNC French Film Archives (Paris) exhibit a restoration, fruit of their year’s labor. For this edition, they chose CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1961, 90’) by Agnès Varda, who will be there in person to present the film. Digital print, restored by Ciné Tamaris, CNC French Film Archives.

An Homage to Georges Lautner: in the presence of his numerous friends, the director of the Crooks in Clover, Let’s Not Get Angry, Sink or Wwim, will be honored by the Cannes Film Festival. The film chosen for this evening of celebration is THE GREAT SPY CHASE (1964, 118'). Film restored by Gaumont and the Eclair Group

Documentaries on the filmmaking, which represent a different kind of cinema and which Cannes Classics regularly showcases, will honor four directors:

Woody Allen
WOODY ALLEN: A DOCUMENTARY by Robert Weide (113'), produced for the American Masters series (PBS) by B Plus Productions, Whyaduck Productions, Rat Entertainment Mike's Movies and Insurgent Media, distributed in France by Memento Films Distribution and world sales by Hanway Films.

Jerry Lewis
METHOD TO THE MADNESS OF JERRY LEWIS by Gregg Barson (115'), produced for American television channel Encore by Mansfield Avenue Productions.

John Boorman
ME AND ME DAD (66’) by his daughter Katrine Boorman who also produced the film through her production company, Colourframe Ltd.

Claude Miller
A film by Emmanuel Barnault, CLAUDE M LE CINEMA (52') produced by Jean Fabrice Barnault of Movie Da Productions for the Ciné + television channel and sold by Catherine Chevassu-C&CO.

On Wednesday, May 23rd at the Plage des Palmes in Cannes, the CNC will host its annual lunch for Cinematheques and Archives around the world.

Finally, it is the “montage film” Final Cut - Hölgyeim És Uraim by György Pálfi (Hungary), produced by Béla Tarr, which will close Cannes Classics on Saturday, May 25th.

To read the announcement at the official site go here.

20th L’ACID Selection

A couple of days ago L’Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion announced the selection that will be screened at this parallel activity that also happens at Cannes. These are the nine (9)films in the 2012 selection.

Feature Films
Casa Nostra, Nathan Nicholovich, France
The End, Hicham Lasri, Morocco
Ini Avan, Asoka Handagama, Sri Lanka
Noor, Çagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti, France
Room 514, Sharon Bar-Ziv, Israel
Sharqiya, Ami Livne, Israel, France and Germany
Stalingrad Lovers, Fleur Albert, France
La Tête la première, Amélie van Elmbt, Belgium
La Vierge, les Coptes et Moi, Namir Abdel Messeeh, France, Qatar and Egypt

Special Screenings
Ab Irato, sous l'empire de la colère, Dominique Boccarossa, France
L'été de Giacomo, Alessandro Comodin, France, Belgium and Italy
El Puesto, Aurélien Lévêque, France

Carte blanche à des cinéastes de l’ACID Screening
Le cinéma français se porte bien, Stéphane Arnoux, Aurélia Georges, Jean-Baptiste Germain and Chiara Malta

To read about each film go here, available only in French. The program runs from May 17 to 26 and this year celebrates its 20 years with some special activities.

Jean-Baptiste Germain talks about the selection in the following video available only in French.