It's official. The cruelest bunch on the film festival circuit are the programmers from TIFF. Once again they make choosing what films to cover during a film festival a painstaking process. A sizeable chunk of films among the just announced Gala and Special Presentations reflect ongoing trends, heavy on world premieres of Brit offerings, red carpet bling items that will be receiving a theatrical release with weeks of the T.O premiere, and a satisfying mix of Cannes items that are definitely worth re-watching and Venice items that have been circled as must see coverage items for the IONCINEMA.com team.
Running between August 31st and September 10th, the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival would be a dandy last edition for festival impresario Marco Muller even if he doesn't nab the likes of Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster, Walter Salles' On the Road, Fernando Meirelles' 360 and/or Zhang Yimou's Heroes of Naking. In his final year of contract, with approximately twenty-two competition slots (minus the already confirmed opening film from Italian res George Clooney and his TIFF-bound The Ides of March), this thursday's announcement should be heavy on items from the the U.K along with a robust presence from European filmmakers headed by Roman Polanski's Carnage.
In addition to the pair of films that were accepted into the Cannes film festival (The Prodigies and Days of Grace), they have Sylvie Testud, Juan Solanas, Quentin Dupieux items in the works. French sales outfit Kinology have got a solid 2012 ahead of them.
You're suddenly 37, in the middle of a divorce and you can't remember a thing. That's the terrifying premise of the directorial debut by French actress and writer Sylvie Testud. Life of Another (La Vie d'une Autre) is the sort of project that could add up to nothing more than a very long list of French actresses turned directors, but it actually carries a lot of promise when you have Juliette Binoche toplining the pic.
Kinology is heading to Cannes with a single title in Copacabana – the Isabelle Huppert starring with her daughter comedy is a focal point in the Critic's Week section this year. It's the projects that they've got on the sales slate that have got my ears perked up in an upright position – beginning with Juan Solanas' next - he is currently shooting Upside Down in Montreal, while Andrew Niccol is still in pre-production mod with The Cross.