Monthly Archives: September, 2011

Coming in from BAFICI, and preceding its big center stage NYFF unveiling, The Student is one of the year's most promising unknowns. As the writer for Cannes-competing Lion's Den, it's no surprise that Mitre's got big-name potential. This is his second feature, and his first to play anywhere in North America. If it does well, look for huge things in this guy's future.

That long movie that TIFF likes to program every once in a while. Dauntingly time-consuming, programmers decided to give it away with free admission to all interested parties. One of the most prolific Irish thinkers, writers, critics, whatevers... the guy's obsessive if nothing else, and this might be his grandest work of all.

Can't say I consider myself a fan of Lou Ye's body of work, so when word first surfaced that A Prophet's Tahar Rahim was joining the banned Chinese filmmaker for a Last Tango-like drama that was sexually and violently fierce, my thoughts were indeed I'm back in the Ye camp. I'd normally be tempted to make a last minute switcheroo as the reactions from Venice have been mostly negative --- but the performances appear to be the film's consolation prize.

Perhaps this year's contempo version of Meek's Cutoff because of the navigation of male-female rapport in the tricky surroundings of the vast wilderness, if it weren't for Gael García Bernal signing up for the lead, perhaps Julia Loktev would still be trying to finance the film --- this says a lot about the quality of the project and perhaps the observational approach to the film with much of the minimalism we found in her debut effort - Day Night Day Night. Recently premiered in Locarno with a glowing review from both Variety and IndieWIRE, I'm decidedly hopeful about the prospects.

Can't say that I'm an unconditional fan of this cult Japanese filmmaker, but if I had to choose a side-dish of mayhem during the fest I'd go with this number which just like the Testuo film before it, is also en route to Venice. A mentor to several filmmakers, in a way this mimics that of Aronofsky's Black Swan - female protag is powerless unless performing. Shinya Tsukamoto employees Cocco - a non-actress professional singer for the gig. Should be a bloodcurling highlight outside of the Midnight Madness section.