Knowing Quentin Tarantino’s appreciation for films that are “out there”: if I had to do some really early predictions here, I’d say that the Gold and Silver Lion front-runners are in Alex De La Iglesia’s bizarro fantasy film A Sad Trumpet Ballad, Pablo Larrain’s Post Mortem or Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg (a filmmaker we recently profiled in our American New Wave 25 series – she spent more than a decade in Austin’s film scene). I’d also add put Abdellatif Kechiche’s Black Venus high up on any awards list, especially the Lido – it’s a film I’ve been pegging for Venice since the film went into production.
Added to Aronofsky’s Black Swan, the U.S is repped by Monte Hellman and his comeback film, Road to Nowhere, Julian Schnabel’s Miral, indie female helmers Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff) and Sofia Coppola (Meek’s Cutoff), and the Coppola-Tetro connection Vincent Gallo – I’m sure he won’t get booed on the Lido for Promises Written on Water. Not announced but perhaps pegged for a non comp debut are The Town (Ben Affleck) and The American (Anton Corbijn).
Italy is well repped this year in Celestini’s La Pecora Nera, Carlo Mazzacurati’s La Passione, Saverio Costanzo’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers and Mario Martone’s Noi Credevamo, while Canadian-Italian co-production Barney’s Version will of course hit Lido before Toronto. Italy’s neighbor to the West (France) will have the determined well in advance titles of Happy Few from Antony Cordier and François Ozon’s Potiche (see Deneuve pic above).
Asian titles include: Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung), Thirteen Assassins (Takashi Miike) and Tsui Hark’s latest goes by the fuller title of Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame. Finally, the Europes are repped by Tom Twyker’s Three and an off the radar title of Silent Souls from Aleksei Fedorchenko.
The festival announced that it will add one more title midway during the fest (September 6th) and if it’s not the Malick film, then expect the Rome Film Festival to fight hard for The Tree of Life. Titles mysteriously not mentioned that could fill that void include: Peter Mullan’s Neds, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech and William Monahan’s London Boulevard.
Look for the Out of Competition films to be named shortly, here is the complete list of competing films.
DARREN ARONOFSKY – BLACK SWAN
Usa, 103′
Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
ASCANIO CELESTINI – LA PECORA NERA
Italia, 93′
Ascanio Celestini, Giorgio Tirabassi, Maya Sansa
SOFIA COPPOLA – SOMEWHERE
Usa, 98′
Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Chiatti, Simona Ventura
ANTONY CORDIER – HAPPY FEW
Francia, 103′
Marina Fois, Elodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle
SAVERIO COSTANZO – LA SOLITUDINE DEI NUMERI PRIMI
Italia, 118′
Alba Rohrwacher, Luca Marinelli, Filippo Timi, Isabella Rossellini, Maurizio Donadoni
ALEKSEI FEDORCHENKO – OVSYANKI (SILENT SOULS)
Russia, 75′
Igor Sergeyev, Yuriy Tsurilo, Yuliya Aug, Victor Sukhorukov
VINCENT GALLO – PROMISES WRITTEN IN WATER
Usa, 75′
Vincent Gallo, Delfine Bafort, Sage Stallone, Lisa Love
MONTE HELLMAN – ROAD TO NOWHERE
Usa, 121′
Shannyn Sossamon, Dominique Swain, John Diehl, Fabio Testi
ÁLEX DE LA IGLESIA – BALADA TRISTE DE TROMPETA
Spagna, Francia, 107′
Carmen Maura, Carolina Bang, Santiago Segura, Antonio de la Torre, Fernando Guillen-Cuervo
ABDELLATIF KECHICHE – VENUS NOIRE
Francia, 166′
Yahima Torres, Olivier Gourmet, André Jacobs
PABLO LARRAÍN – POST MORTEM
Cile, Messico, Germania, 98′
Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers
RICHARD J. LEWIS – BARNEY’S VERSION
Canada, Italia, 132′
Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver
MARIO MARTONE – NOI CREDEVAMO
Italia, Francia, 204′
Luigi Lo Cascio, Valerio Binasco, Toni Servillo, Luca Zingaretti, Michele Riondino, Francesca Inaudi, Anna Bonaiuto
CARLO MAZZACURATI – LA PASSIONE
Italia, 106′
Silvio Orlando, Giuseppe Battiston, Corrado Guzzanti, Cristiana Capotondi, Stefania Sandrelli, Kasia Smutniak
TAKASHI MIIKE – JÛSAN-NIN NO SHIKAKU (13 ASSASSINS)
Giappone, Regno Unito, 126′
Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki
FRANÇOIS OZON – POTICHE
Francia, 103′
Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godrèche, Jérémie Régnier
KELLY REICHARDT – MEEK’S CUTOFF
Usa, 104′
Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson
JULIAN SCHNABEL – MIRAL
Usa, Francia, Italia, Israele, 112′
Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Willem Dafoe, Yasmine Al Masri, Vanessa Redgrave
ANH HUNG TRAN – NORUWEI NO MORI (NORWEGIAN WOOD)
Giappone, 133′
Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara, Kengo Kora, Reika Kirishima
ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI – ATTENBERG
Grecia, 95′
Ariane Labed, Vangelis Mourikis, Evangelia Randou, Yorgos Lanthimos
HARK TSUI – DI RENJIE ZHI TONGTIAN DIGUO (DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF PHANTOM FLAME)
Cina, 122′
Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Tony Leung, Ka Fai
TOM TYKWER – DREI
Germania, 120′
Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Devid Striesow