Father Geek here with this week's edition of the Euro-AICN Report...
Hi people, Robert here in Rome. Waiting for the new contributors' stuff, I had the pleasure to present you a very interesting issue of our column, thanks to the wonderful work done by our usual staff. Grozilla follewed for us the french festival of Deauville dedicated to american cinema, while Ethan and James Bartlett provided 4 reviews. Moreover, we have great news about Ichi the Killer, Colin Farrell latest flick Intermission's set pics, Bourne Identity sequels and, last but not least, Sylvester Stallone in Taxi 3!!! Enjoy...
Moreover, we have great news about Ichi the Killer, Colin Farrell latest flick Intermission's set pics, Bourne Identity sequels and, last but not least, Sylvester Stallone in Taxi 3!!! Enjoy...
Ichi the Killer
Do you adore Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer? So, if you want to know something more about the different releases of the movie on DVD (many, unfortunately, different from the original version), read this article, which was passed by Jenz:
http://www.bulletsnbabesdvds.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=820
ShowBizIreland.com snapped Colin Farrell filming scene from his latest Irish movie, Intermission, in Dublin during the week
Go here to see 8 photos of Farrell smashing up a car in character:
http://www.showbizireland.com/news/september02/05-farrell41.shtml
Matt Damon on Bourne Identity sequels...
Matt Damon was on this weeks Movie Nights, and said some nice stuff about a Bourne Identity sequel and joked about a crossover with jack ryan. Full interview link here, or selected bits below that.
http://www2.itv.com/carltonlondon/programmes/this_week.jhtml?id=535942&type=LON+-+Dedicated+Sites&page=dedicated
Bye Ellroy Tevis
Luc Besson hires Sly Stallone...
Sylvester Stallone will play in the movie taxi 3 ( a luc besson's production). Sylvester will be a internationla character in a futur Besson's movie.
http://www.allocine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=713542.html
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/020908/5/2qp1g.html
Bye Basurrel
Grozilla's reportage from Deauville
Back on the air…
As the French summer was absolutely boring in matters of releases (some very very bad French thrillers – Sueurs, Requiem-, all the moronic US comedies – The sweetest thing, Pluto Nash- and other crap) I decided to take some vacation. At last, business is on again. With the 28th edition of Deauville American film festival. Ten days in early september, Hollywood stars and very indie filmmakers are walking on the sand of Normandie’s beach.. For years now this has been a famous rendez-vous for filmgoers able to see previews of huge blockbusters about to be released in France but also to discover independent stuff. Well I won’t tell you about big studios films you may have seen everywhere outside France this summer ( from Windtalkers to K-19, Bourne identity to Signs, Road to perdition toDivine secrets of Ya-Ya sisterhood), besides they all have been much talked about already. Anyway I always thought the best in americain movies is in the independent way. This part of selection has, by the way, always been wisely picked in Deauville. That’s were stuff like George Washington, Ghost world or Hedwig and the angry Inch had been discovered
Day 1
I’m with lucy
I know, this ain’t an indie one. But that was the opening film of the festival and I was intrigued to see what Gaumont, one of our biggest company/ exhibitors company here found in this small comedy to quite fully finance it. And I still wonder after seeing this at best anecdotic, at worst dull romantic thing about one girl exploring the joys of blind dating. Everything here is known for years to every fan of Ally Mc Beal or John Hughes films about couples. Even Monica Potter, kind of mixed clone of Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock can’t avoid audience from yawning… Well I guess after the scam on Les Visiteurs en Amérique/ Just visiting this will warn Gaumont of reading script before thinking they got just a concept of film…
DAY 2
Thirteen conversations about one thing
I was appealed by this because of Michael Stipe producing…And stay puzzled hours after seeing this Jill Sprecher film. Maybe because its very dark mood affected me in a way I didn’t expect. At moments, I found those crossed stories about destinies quite unbeareable because being too talky, exploring clichés on meaning of life. But those times always were overwhelmed by very good acting from Alan Arkin, Clea Duvall or … Matthew McConaughey (boy, after Reign of fire, could this guy been blessed by some kind of resurrection ?) or some very moving scenes, like the hearttearing last one… Hours later after screening, I was still thinking about this as some Kieslowki’s look-a-like on humanity… Some sign this is a good film? I guess so.
Ash wednesday
Edward Burns is an Ok actor. But never occurred to me to as some brillant director. His romantic comedies never bothered me, but never interested me either. Now he’s goin’ on the thriller side with his latest effort. This story of revenge in Hell’s kitchen ain’t so bad. But looks terribly to some rip-off from any Irish-in-NY thriller seen for many years. Same orange-brown photography, same thugs look… I was seeing “State of grace” blinkin’ everywhere on the screen. But Burns isn’t enough gifted to equal Phil Joanou’s masterpiece. More than that, there’s some huuuuuge miscast in here : who could believe Elijah Wood as Burns’ brother ? Oliver Platt as some very nasty gang leader ? Not me. On the other side, I found very amazing the humility of directing and even more this brilliant idea of filming NYC as a very peaceful city, without quite any noise…
Last party 2000
Fun to see Michael Moore appearing in this documentary covering the last six months of lastest presidential US campaign. Because even with best intentions, this does the exact opposite of Moore’s work by being so naïve about politician world. Even more when that films goes on every touchy subject but never really speaks about one. At the end we can wonder if it wasn’t just some MTV stuff about the singers opinion on politics…. Which isn’t interesting at all, above all when it just say that Bush is a bad guy and Gore the saviour. So much lack of point of view on this kind of work might be called sense of irreponsability.
Spun
This Jonas Akerlund flick was sold here as the most subversive film from the festival, something stronger, darier than Trainspotting or Requiem for a dream…. I might have guess this was total bullshit. Spun is some extended clip about some dealers recycling ideas seen so many times, from 70’s visual to some hip cast. If you need some more daring look at drugworld, just check the first To the salton sea, which has more true ideas and style than all this dull stuff. If the idea of being subversive to you is showing Mena Suvari having a shit, that’s for you, if not well avoid Spun at any price. Congratulations Darren Aronofsky and Terry Gilliam : your drug-movies are still on top of the list for last decade.
Day 3
Sunshine state
I’ve already wrote when it was screened in Cannes all the qualities I fond in this John Sayles film. Seeing it again confirms how much Edie Falco is a magnificent actress and how Sayles is some Mankiewicz for the OO’s
The Laramie project
Why making a fiction when documentary would have definitely more strength to a purpose? This reconstitution of the Matthew Shepard case didn’t need actors to play what real people have said. Using fiction’s rule weakens all emotions by sounding so false when music overlights anything or when some actors overplayed. This could have been some Errol Morris’ stuff not an heavy essay on the true nature of a country. Too bad.
Full Frontal
By now you may all know this is some kind of very long private joke that only Soderbergh and his pals will laugh at. In one scene, Terence Stamp appears in a plane, quoting The Limey by saying “I was gone too long” or something like that. Well, that’s also the case for Soderbergh who’s away for the audience here, only speaking to himself… Forget that, just wait for Solaris...
Before the part 2 of Deauville's coverage, here's some shots from people who were there...
Nicolas Cage has given a duplex press conference, from the set of Matchstick man (meaning the Ridley Scott's film is already shooting I guess) to promote Sonny. When asked if he will get on second directing try; he answered than he will sooner than expected by handling a remake of Festen(The celebration), the wonderful Thomas Vinterberg's film. Cage also told that this will be, as the original, a Dogma 95 film.
As expected someone asked at the end of Harrison Ford press conference for K 19, some point on Indy IV. He answered that he'll doin'it for sure, at worst on 2004, and assured that we will see Indy's son in this episode, adding that Kevin Costner was at some time approched to play this part but that he doesn't know more about that cast for now.
Andrew Niccol talks about his feeling on a second part of Simone, where this time, the virtual star become so famous that she access to other level : politics to becoming the president of USA...
That's all for now
Grozilla
"1 NA 1" review by Ethan
1 NA 1 is a gritty, urban basketball western. It is the story of the young hardboiled streetballer Macak (The Cat in English) whose talents are being picked and exploited by the local criminals. He tries to get away but they go brutal on him which causes his flamboyant vengeance. His wrath upon them is pure spaghetti western, something we rarely see in sontemporary cinema.
The spine of the film is Macak, played by Zoran Cica, young Yugoslav basketball player. He plays streetball and Second Division basketball in Yugoslavia but he`s a first-rate actor. Too bad he appears to stick to balling. His character and acting and how his character is designed and visualized are the strongholds of this film. All around him can be subjected to criticism. There is too much dialogue, a bit too much street-lingo, but these are all typical shortcomings of Yugoslav cinema and the requirements of Yugoslav audience. Director apparently decided to contaminate the film with such compromises but he kept the Macak character clean, and strong. Mladen Maticevic, the director of 1 NA 1, is famous for his orthodox taste. Such people are usually destined to be losers in times when directors do POVs of birds. His approach of wide shots and rarely used close-ups is the concept that is hard to find in today`s cinematic climate. But in this movie, the concept works and doesn`t feel anachronistic at all. Basketball duels are done with some quick-cutting, and energetic effects. They feel more powerful than HE GOT GAME but still not as stylish like AMERICAN HISTORY X. Of course, Yugoslav film NEBESKA UDICA can`t even be mentioned since it was written by sports illiterates and directed by pedestrians. Other actors are fine. Young rappers play Macak`s sidekicks and they are regarded as weaknesses of 1 NA 1. Yugoslav superstar rappers Sunshine do a great job as composers and actors, while Sonja Kolacaric delivers fine support as Macak`s romantic interest. Battle-scarred veteran Branislav Ciga Jerinic and charming Zoran Cvijanovic are 1 NA 1`s counterattacks delivered with a dunk.
Some may regard 1 NA 1 as a masterfully directed hommage to the African-American ghetto cinema of the early nineties. But John Singleton and The Hughes Brothers are influences only when it comes to writing of Srdja Andjelic of DO KOSKE and MUNJE fame. Mladen Maticevic`s direction (while some parts were shot by Radivoje Andric) is in the Budd Boetticher-Raoul Walsh vein. He captures the cleanliness and machoism of their westerns and especially Boetticher`s star Randolph Scott. Zoran Cica is his own Randolph Scott, his own icon to be shot with monumental framing. His club scenes can be compared to club sets in Don Siegel`s COOGAN`s BLUFF. 1 NA 1 must be compared with APSOLUTNIH STO. It`s basically the same film. These films are twins in a way. 1 NA 1 is the smarter twin, the better- directed one, the low-budget one, the one that has ethical superiority. The good twin. APSOLUTNIH STO is a fancy twin, the one liked by girls and mainstream audience who use DIE HARD one-sheets instead of toilet paper. The evil twin. Sadly, 1 NA 1 was made on digital tape and it had poor transfer so it looks shabbier than his evil twin. I hope enough people will see this one. A definite pick.
God bless, Ethan
Our faithful James Bartlett has three reviews for us
One Hour Photo... SPOILERS AHEAD
d. Mark Romanek, with Robin Williams, Connie Neilsen, Michael Vartan, Dylan Smith
Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams) is a friendly, white haired 50-year-old guy who works in the SavMart photo-developing shop. He takes a real pride in his work because it is his life; he lives alone and is a bit of an anonymous and lonely man.
The highlight in his life is getting the latest rolls of film from Nina and Will Yorkin of their new son Jakob - Seymour has seen their boy grown from a babe-in-arms to the child he is now. A bit creepily, Seymour feels like an uncle - "Uncle Sy" to the boy and takes a spare set of prints of the films for himself, mounting them all on one wall of his flat.
As the film progresses, Seymour engineers "accidental" meetings with Nina (Connie Neilsen) and Jakob (Dylan Smith,) but the final straw comes when a girl comes to get her photos developed by Seymour - and they show that Will (Michael Vartan) is having an affair with her. This moment of pure chance changes things forever.
Seymour is devastated for the family and puts one of these pictures in with the next prints of Nina's films so that she can find out about his betrayal. He follows them from the SavMart and watches outside the house to see the inevitable argument - when he can presumably save the day - but nothing happens.
Then things take a turn for the worse - Seymour is sacked for all the missing and unexplained prints and he decides he must take on his "Uncle" role to the next level and seek out the straying father himself.
Following Insomnia, Robin Williams again takes on a role to work against his type and in his portrayal of Seymour he comes across as both chilling and moving. The film has some good ideas and looks great - very clincical and white, like the photo lab and the house he lives in.
It has some flaws though; the use of an unnecessary horror moment (that will no doubt be used in the trailer,) plus it would have worked better if Seymour had actually insinuated himself into Nina's life a little more, though the ending scenes when Seymour takes his revenge works really well.
However, it is teeth-gnashingly frustrating to see the lazy device used of a man in a cell as the beginning of the film being told by the cop to "tell the story" - so then we immediately know he did something against the law and is the villain of the piece.
That said, there is real tension as you wait for the mild-mannered and kind Seymour to finally crack - shame the reasons he gives for doing what he did are a cop out; it would have been much more effective to make his actions motiveless or instantaneous. But I sense a studio hand there.
Williams may get an Oscar acting nod for this.
The Château
d. Jesse Peretz, with Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Sylvie Testud
Riding the crest of the new wave of digital films, The Château is about two American brothers who inherit a château from a distant uncle and set off to the French countryside to see their new palatial home. From the outside it looks amazing, but inside it has irritable retainer staff, the roof leaks, there are no electrics and wiring and the place is basically on its last legs.
City boy Max (Romany Malco) wants to sell up, but the more sensitive Graham (Paul Rudd) is less sure - he likes the idea of a country life and besides, he has quite fallen for the maid Isabelle (Sylvie Testud). The staff however do not fancy the idea of losing their cushy lifestyle, so every time prospective buyers are bought to view the property, they do their best to make the place seem as unattractive as possible.
Then Max falls for Isabelle too and a crude American record producer says yes to buying the place - and in the usual classy American response to historical fixtures and fittings, wants to add a hot tub, a games room and a tanning salon - and sack the staff. Now the brothers and the staff join together to make sure the château goes to the right people, as all what not what it seemed with the long lost uncle.
The charm of The Château essentially lies in the American's attempts to speak French; as the staff hear their faltering speeches, we read the subtitles and translate what is being said and it really can be very funny (at dinner, Allen praises the food: "Je t'aime le potato" translation - "I love you potato").
This is apparently a largely improvised film and, despite some disjointed and jarring moments (nothing is made of the fact that Allen is black, it is a small triumph for that - with Rudd taking the actor honours.
But, as ever with digital films, it is diminished by it's technology and looks like crap. I'm all for innovation and usurping power from the studios and their big budget dross, but DV right now is not the way - it looks pixellized and really makes the eyes sore.
The Bourne Identity... SPOILERS AHEAD
d. Doug Liman, with Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper
Based on the novel by Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity is based around a man (Matt Damon) whose unconscious, bullet-riddled body is pulled out of the sea by fishermen. On recovery, this man confesses he has no idea who he is.
Once back on dry land, he only has a Zurich bank account number that was contained in implant on his body as a guide to start the search. In the safety deposit box is money, a gun and a variety of a passports with his photograph - and the USA passport says he is Jason Bourne, an American who lives in Paris.
Bourne sets out to find who he is, but soon concludes that he is not a bank manager after officials at the US Embassy try to capture him and he kicks some serious ass.
After escaping, he offers $20,000 dollars to Marie St-Jacques (Franka Potente) to drive him to Paris. But what will he do when he gets there? And why does he come across like a modern-day James Bond? Why is he a man wanted by the Police?
Back at the FBI HQ, Conklin (Chris Cooper) activates several assassins in Europe to kill Bourne - it seems that Bourne was an assassin himself who botched the job of killing one President Wombosi of the quintessential rogue African State. This was most inconvenient for Uncle Sam, because Wombosi was put in charge by the CIA themselves, but went power-crazy (as you do) and was deposed.
Now he wants a return to power - or he'll spill the beans on his CIA connections; hence the sending of Bourne to do the job. It was assumed that Bourne was dead; a dead failure. But now they know he is very much alive - and wants answers.
As the CIA begin to track Bourne and Marie, they become more and more enmeshed together as they go on the run through France. Can Bourne find out who he is before he gets killed for who he is?
The Bourne Identity combines elements of Long Kiss Goodnight, Enemy Of The State, James Bond and, believe it or not, The Italian Job - there's wicked chase through Paris in a mini!
Whilst the plot is ludicrous - is it a good idea for all these top CIA bods to work on finding one man? Why they don't just leave Bourne to his searching for an identity? He'll doubtless never find the truth and even if he did, who would believe him? He'd probably end up in an asylum or hospital.
Plus anyway, a CIA agent assassinates the President guy anyway, so it's problem solved. And that's not including the idea of Bourne as one of the seemingly drug-induced/controlled assassins run by the CIA.
Director Liman does a good job, keeping the direction slick and reflecting the "on the run" aspect of the film. He makes good use of the European locations and restrains the histrionics content in the action sequences. Perhaps it lacks the odd explosion for a real Saturday night date movie, but it's a good - even occasionally well-thought out - piece of work nevertheless.
Damon himself makes an unlikely hero and Franka (from Run Lola Run) is a good partner for him - also nice to see she doesn't fall, Bond-girl like, into his bed all the way through the film - she bails when she realises this is serious.
James Bartlett
