Father Geek here along with our Euro-editor Bernocchi, and a host of other reporters to post a fact crammed Euro-AICN Column for this Monday morning. There's lots of coolness below so ol' Father Geek is going to step aside and let you dig in... Now, here's our man in Rome...
Welcome people... Eventually LOTR arrived in our local Italian theaters. I will just say that it’s a masterpiece, and easily the best movie of the last twelve months. Even the Italian audience share's this enthusiasm. In fact, LOTR grossed more than a million euro (about $900,000.00) in its first day of release here, beating the record held by "Hannibal" and it went on to garner 7 million euro for the weekend (Much, much more than Harry Potter, or Hannibal).
Welcome people... Eventually LOTR arrived in our local Italian theaters. I will just say that it’s a masterpiece, and easily the best movie of the last twelve months. Even the Italian audience share's this enthusiasm. In fact, LOTR grossed more than a million euro (about $900,000.00) in its first day of release here, beating the record held by "Hannibal" and it went on to garner 7 million euro for the weekend (Much, much more than Harry Potter, or Hannibal).
The sad news is that Italian distributor Medusa, after choosing to release Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Rings a month later (january 18 instead of december 19) than the United States and Western Europe, announced that the next two episodes, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, will receive the same shoddy treatment. Medusa claims taking this decision because there are too many important titles presented during Christmas period in Italy, even if Peter Jackson’s movie was greeted with enthusiasm both by critics and public worldwide since the 19 of December, and the same acclaim is occuring in Italy. I know that 99% of you’re not directly interested in the Italian release date. But please, consider what your reaction would be if you’d be forced to wait a month later than nearly everyone in the world before seeing the next episodes of this masterpiece. We created a petition (both in Italian and in English) where we ask Medusa to listen to fans’ opinion and to release The Two Towers and The Return of The King at the same time with United States and the rest of the European Community.
Please, take a minute of your time to sign it: Please Go Here To Help Us Out
And now, let’s start with our usual Monday column:
A few news items from Screendaily
David Lynch, whose Mulholland Drive is just starting a successful European release, is to head the jury of this years Cannes film festival (15-26 May) Just Click For The Full Story
Lone Scherfig, director of Denmark's foreign-language Oscar hope- ful Italian For Beginners, is to make her first English- language film. Check It Out Here
The distribution rights buying continued yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival...
with Fine Line Features taking domestic rights on Finn Taylor's "Cherish" and fledgling North American distributor THINKFilm taking domestic rights on Gus Van Sant's experimental "Ger ry" starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. At the same time,
Lions Gate acquired worldwide rights to the Spanish thriller Intacto. Go Here For More Info
Lions Gate Films snapped up worldwide rights to horror movie May at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, marking the third world- wide deal of the festival to close so far. The film is a retelling of Roman Polanski's Repulsion. Click for the Details
And, now, The Rotterdam Film Festival, with a reportage by Philippe Verspeelt
Hi, I thought to send you a quick list of films playing at the Rotterdam Filmfestival (http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com ). As usual there is quite a list of Japanese movies. This year it includes 4 films of Miiki Takashi (see below). The complete playlist should be available on thursday the 17th.
Main Programme:
During its 31st edition, the International Film Festival Rotterdam brings innovative, adventurous feature films to a large audience. Established names as David Lynch and Mike Figgis, a former Filmmaker in Focus Catherine Breillat (France), who will show her latest film "Fat Girl", and Danis Tanovic' overwhelming, anti-war-satire debut film "No Man's Land" (Winner of the Golden Globe for BEST Foriegn Film) are some names which makes 'Rotterdam' a ground breaking voyage into the world of cinema. Current is Majid Majidi's "Baran" (Iran), a love story set against the background of the Afghan refugees. Somber but moving is "La Ciénaga", Lucrecia Martel's debut and one of the most successful and youngest filmmaker productions from Argentina with its revived and thriving market of new films, as opposed to its tragic and relentless general economic instability.
The younger generation of French filmmakers is represented by Laurant Cantet (L'Emploi du Temps), Alain Gomis (L'Affrance / As a Man) and Matthieu Amalric (Le Stade de Wimbledon). Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, Agitator and Happiness of the Katakuris are no more than four new features by Japans most productive director Miike Takashi.
Also from Japan are "Japan Pulse" by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, "Distance" by Kore-Eda Hirokazu and ex-CineMart-project "Hush!" by Hashiguchi Ryosuke. "Address Unknown" by Kim Ki-Duk and "Camel(s)" by Park Kiyong are expected from South-Korea. China/Hong Kong-produced features within the Main Programme are The Orphan of Anyang (Wang Chao), ex-CineMart-projects Quitting (Zhang Yang) and Hollywood, Hong Kong (Fruit Chan), Lan Yu (Stanley Kwan) and GeGe by Yan Yan Mak whose new project Tian Ya is selected for CineMart 2002.
Critic's Choice:
"The Teenage Hooker Became a Killing Machine in DaeHakRoh" from South Korea, Der Schöne Tag and the winner of the golden shell in San Sebastian, Taxi Para Tres.
Met vriendelijke groeten / Kind regards
Philippe Verspeelt
Namarie shares with us the latest project by German director Volker Schlöndorf…
hi! I just saw an interview with Volker Schlöndorf at the award show “der bayrische filmpreis”
He was asked about his future projects he`s going to do. He said he just works at the script for his next movie. it is a book adaption of Donna W. Cross novel “Die Päpstin” a.k.a. “The Pope”.
nice greetings from germany –
namarie
Berg Andersen talks about Ole Bornedal's (Nightwatch) new movie…
Hi Robert
Just wanted to give you some news from Denmark, hope you find it interesting.
The danish director Ole Bornedal maker of danish "Nattevagten" and the american version of the same film "Nightwatch" has made a new movie called "I am Dina".
The film opens in Denmark March 15 - I don´t know the dates for rest of Europe - It stars Gérard Depardieu, Pernilla August(Star Wars-Episode I),Christopher Eccleston (Elizabeth), Maria Bonnevie (The 13th Warrior).
The teaser is online right now at the movie´s site www.iamdina.com The teaser looks fantastic. The most wellcrafted teaser in a long time. The cinematography is breathtaking.
You should check this site out. There is a english version available.
If you find this little piece usefull, I may have some more about "Dogville" the new Lars Von Trier movie starring Nicole Kidman, James Caan, Cloe Sevigney, Lauren Bacall, Stellan Skarsgaard.
That´s all. Thanks for taking your time to read this... BergAndersen
And here we have some interesting information about the armenian director Don Askarian:
In January of 2002 Harvard Film Archive will screen in the section " Directors in Focus" the films AVETIK, KOMITAS and ON THE OLD ROMAN ROAD by Don Askarian(Berlin).
During last two months the retrospective and special screenings of the films by Don Askarian took place on Cine World Festival Sarasota, USA and on the Asiaticafilmmediale, Rome, Italy. For more information, please contact in Germany:
Frau Gaby Schein, Askarian Film, Niebuhrstr.69, !0629 Berlin.Tel./Fax: 030-3246023, e-mail: askarianfilm@web.de, http://www.don-askarian.am
HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE FILMS
January - February 2002
DIRECTORS IN FOCUS
Hieroglyphs of Armenia: Films by Don Askarian
January 21 - January 23
DIRECTORS IN FOCUS
Hieroglyphs of Armenia: Films by Don Askarian
January 21 - January 23
January 21 - January 23
The most important Armenian-born director since Sergei Paradjanov, Don Askarian has created a body of films that explore the history and spirit of his native land. He does so in a modern idiom, inflected with surrealist overtones and powerful imagerythat embrace the extremes of beauty and brutality. Born in 1949 in Nagorno Karabakh, in the former Soviet Union, Askarian traveled to Moscow to study history and art and worked as an assistant film director and film critic before being imprisoned in 1975. Emigrating to West Berlin in 1978, Askarian began to create his meditations on Armenia from his home in exile, beginning with an adaptation of Chekov’s The Bear, in 1984. Since that time, he has directed a range of works, from documentaries to biographical essays to fiction features, that have been honored at festival screenings worldwide.
KOMITAS
January 21 (Monday) 7 pm
January 23 (Wednesday) 7 pm
Directed by Don Askarian;
West Germany 1988, 35mm, b/w and color, 96 min.
With Samvel Ovasapian, Onig Saadatian, Margarita Woskanjan
German with English subtitles
January 23 (Wednesday) 7 pm
Directed by Don Askarian;
West Germany 1988, 35mm, b/w and color, 96 min.
With Samvel Ovasapian, Onig Saadatian, Margarita Woskanjan
German with English subtitles
The monk soghomon soghomonian, known as Komitas, was a renowned Armenian composer and conductor who became a symbol of Armenian cultural unity through his orchestral and choral performances and his late nineteenth-century travels throughout the countryside, in which he collected peasant songs for generations eager to preserve their cultural heritage. In 1915, however, the musician’s career ended abruptly after a nervous breakdown precipitated by the Ottoman Empire’s devastation of an estimated three-fourths of the country’s population. Wracked with pain and subjected to the abuses of nineteenth-century psychiatric hospitals, Komitas lost his mind and withdrew into his own world of tortured memories for more than twenty years. Director Askarian dedicates his beautifully constructed, ambitious, and impressionistic portrait of Komitas to those who lost their lives.
AVETIK
January 21 (Monday) 9 pm
January 22 (Tuesday) 7 pm
Directed by Don Askarian;
Germany/Armenia 1992, 35mm, color, 84 min.
With Alik Assatrian, Mikhael Stehanian, Karen Janibekan
Armenian with English subtitles
January 22 (Tuesday) 7 pm
Directed by Don Askarian;
Germany/Armenia 1992, 35mm, color, 84 min.
With Alik Assatrian, Mikhael Stehanian, Karen Janibekan
Armenian with English subtitles
Hovering between the realms of poetry and history, this stunningly photographed, elegiac workto reflect the history of his homeland and shades of his own exile in Germany. In sensuous, lyric tableaux, Askarian explores German racism, the 1915 Armenian genocide, the disastrous earthquake of 1989, tranquil childhood memories, and images inspired by erotic medieval poetry.
ON THE OLD ROMAN ROAD
January 22 (Tuesday) 8:45 pm
January 23 (Wednesday) 9 pm
Directed by Don Askarian;
Germany/Armenia 2001, 35mm, color, 76 min.
English and Armenian with English subtitles
January 23 (Wednesday) 9 pm
Directed by Don Askarian;
Germany/Armenia 2001, 35mm, color, 76 min.
English and Armenian with English subtitles
Askarian’s most recent project is another meditation on the artist in exile. Like the filmmaker Avetik and the real-life composer Komitas from his previous films, Levonis caught between memories of homeland and the realities of contemporary life. From his Dutch domicile, Levon reminisces about his brother-in-law (a hairdresser who robs dead Turks), a brilliant Kurdish musician, a red-bearded executioner, a seventeen-year-old girl with chestnut-colored skin, and a Turkish Apollo with eight wives who likes to bury himself in hot ash. His memory is also populated by beautiful thoroughbred horses, stray dogs, camel drivers, soldiers, and Turkish policemen. These poetic, almost surrealist scenes of magic love and political cruelty are contrasted with the reality of present-day Rotterdam, presented in the guise of a modern crime story with Armenian terrorists and a Kurdish tragedy.
