Father Geek here, WOW, wasn't that Venice coverage last week cool... hopefully we'll have stuff like that coming in from all the major festivals from now on, because let's face it geeks these fests are where alot of flicks get their 1st exposure and the more info we get from them the more we can pass on to the world at large. Well, here's Edgard and crew with their regular Monday morning Euro-column

EURO AICN

Hello Edgard here for the new Euro AICN goodies. The two major European Festivals are now over, so we will come back here on the results. Ozymandias got us a nice review of one of the most (or maybe just THE most) awaited European film of the fall : Lars Von Trier's DANCER IN THE DARK... Can't wait to see that one. And of course some more news from all over Europe. So here it is...

NORWAY

* Siggis sent us this news from Norway and Hollywood... : Don't know if this info is important for you guys "over there", but the first (and probably only) norwegian Hollywood director was on Norwegian tv the other day and talked a bit about his latest movie ONE NIGHT AT McCOOL'S starring John Goodman, Liv Tyler, Michael Douglas and Paul Reiser. They also showed the trailer for the movie, and I don't know if it has been released to theaters (the trailer) in the US yet, but it looks very interesting. And I also have to mention that he got to push in a song in the soundtrack from A-HA's new album (the norwegian band which also had the theme music for a Bond movie...Think it was Living Daylights). Harald Zwart also talked a bit about his next project, thought he didn't have a final confirmation if it was green litted, but if he got the script the way he liked, and the actors he wanted he would go forth with Supernatural Law. A movie based on the cult comic book "Wolff and Byrd - Counselors Of The Macabre" by Batton Lash. He said it would be something like Men in Black/Ghostbusters kind of thing. "Universal and Harald has agreed on what kind of movie it's supposed to be, but there are still some things which needs to be discussed" he says to the Norwegian TV program "Filmredaksjonen". Thanks for listening..

Siggis

FRANCE

* French actress just received the Best Actress price at the Montreal Festival for her role in the upcoming new film from Claude Chabrol, MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT (released in France late October).

* Two happy and personal notes from Edgard : first, O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU ? did a very good first week in France, if it doesn't decrease too much (read if the word of mouth is good) it could become the most succesful Coen film here; second only two more weeks to wait before THE event of the fall in french cinema : Matthieu Kassovitz's LES RIVIERES POURPRES (with Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel) will be released here on September 27th. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, you must look at it at :The Site

* Here below you will find a cool poster for the upcoming BELPHEGOR (remember I reviewed the bad script last week); in case you are a fan of Sophie Marceau, here's the address of a very nice website dedicated to the French actress. Los of pictures and info, both in French and English at Their Site

* After two years, it seems that Luc Besson (via his Seaside production company) will leave Fox. Two weeks ago we were talking about a new Besson production called WW3.COM for Fox, well now nothing is certain anymore... This would have been the first project Besson would have made for Fox under this contract of development. So after Sony and Fox, where will Besson go ?

* The American Cinema Festival of Deauville is now over. Saturday Samuel L. Jackson presented SHAFT and received a special prize for his career; and Sunday was the award ceremony (remember only independent movies can get prizes, not the big blockbusters). Good words were on Ben Younger's BOILING ROOM and Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO (btw the trailer of that film looks really cool, it's released here in October), but it's Karyn Kusama's GIRLFIGHT that got the Grand Prize. BOILING ROOM and MEMENTO still received the Price of the Jury ex-aequo.

ITALY

* Ettore Scola just finished the shooting of his new film called CONCORRENZA SLEALE. It tells the story of a competition between two shopkeepers and neighbours, until the fascist menace makes them become friends. Sergio Castellito, Diego Abatantuona, Jean-Claude Brialy, Claude Rich, and Gérard Depardieu star.

* From Screendaily : Sicilian director Pasquale Scimeca, whose Placido Rizzotto premiered this week in the Venice film festival's Filmmakers of Today sidebar, has finished writing his next project which will be set in 15th Century Spain. The film will recount the period when a royal edict forced thousands of persecuted Jews to leave Spain. "It is one of the roots of modern day evils, in a way the birth of racism," said Scimeca, a former history and literature professor.

* The Venice film Festival is now over, we got a great coverage thanks to Ozymandias and his team there... Here's a final look on the results from Reuters : ``The Circle,'' a dark Iranian movie about the oppression of women, won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. The movie, directed by Jafar Panahi, emerged as a clear critics' favorite after its screening earlier this week. It tells the story of the daily lives of eight women in a country where they are not allowed to smoke in public, stay in a hotel on their own, or ride in a car driven by a man who is not a relative. U.S. painter and director Julian Schnabel took home the Jury Grand Prix for best director for ``Before Night Falls,'' a movie tracking the life of gay Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas, a victim of Cuban censors. The film, which will be released in the United States by year's end, also picked up the Volpi Cup for best male acting performance for Spanish actor Javier Bardem's intense portrayal of Arenas. The Special Director's Award went to Indian director Buddhadeb Dasgupta for his film ``The Wrestlers,'' a lyrical portrayal of the devastating impact of violence on a small town in rural India. Australian Rose Byrne won the award for best actress in the Australian film ``The Goddess of 1967'' by Clara Law. She plays a blind 17-year-old girl who leads a Japanese man on a strange and erotic journey through the Australian countryside in search of the seller of a 1967 Citroen. Italy's ``The Hundred Steps,'' a true story about a courageous anti-Mafia crusader in 1960s Sicily, won top prize for best script for a screenplay, written by director Marco Tullio Giordana, Claudio Fava and Monica Zapelli.

UK

* Also from Screendaily : Monty Python star Terry Jones and long-time collaborator Julian Doyle have launched a UK-based production company, Messiah Pictures, to produce films which will be directed by both Jones and other talents. (...) "We believe there’s no secret to keeping costs down: it’s an attitude of mind," said Jones in a statement. "Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life and Life Of Brian look every bit as good as movies made on budgets ten or twenty times larger." The outfit is currently developing a handful of projects including rock’n’roll saga The Chemical Wedding, co-written by Doyle and Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson, and Dope Opera, written by Doyle, which follows a bag of marijuana around London. A third project written and to be directed by Jones, whose last feature as director was Erik The Viking in 1989, is also in development (...).

OZYMANDIAS CORNER

* Empire Online tells us that: Uppercrust boarding school Harrow is being considered as a location for Harry Potter's school, Hogwarts, by Warner Bros. 'It will depend on whether we can fit in with their timescale,' a school spokersperson told The Times.Gloucester Cathedral has already signed up to play a part as Hogwarts - insiders believe that the dining rooms scenes will be shot inside the Cathedral. Meanwhile, a quick glance at Harrow's website (www.harrowschool.org.uk) reveals the reason why the Potter filmmakers are so enamoured with the school. The 19th century library is the perfect stand-in for Hogwart's.

* BBC Online say: England striker Michael Owen has been asked to appear in a new gangster drama starring Samuel L Jackson. The footballer, whose late goal secured England's 1-1 draw with France on Saturday, has been approached to appear in THE 51st STATE, which starts filming in Liverpool later this month. It stars Jackson as a drug dealer who travels to Liverpool to strike his last big deal for he retires - but things go wrong as he is sucked into the city's club scene. A spokesman for Owen, 20, said: "A script has been sent to our office but no decision has yet been made." The film also stars Robert Carlyle, of The Full Monty and Trainspotting fame. It is not clear whether Owen is being offered a speaking part or a cameo role.

* From popcorn.co.uk: 'Trainspotting' director Danny Boyle will follow 'The Beach' with two movies for television, both set in his native Manchester. Boyle will direct two TV movies based on screenplays by Jim Cartwright, 'Vacuuming Nude In Paradise' (which sounds like it could have been a sequel to 'The Beach') and 'Strumpet'. This isn't the first time Cartwright's work has been filmed: Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor and Jane Horrocks all starred in 'Little Voice', based on the writer's play 'The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice'. The two TV movies will be made by BBC Films. A spokesperson for the company told Variety that Boyle "wants to do something raw, powerful and emotional". All that's known about the projects is that 'Vacuuming' is about music, while 'Strumpet' is about the world of high-profile selling.

* This one has been dividing people right down the middle since Cannes.... Check it out:

DANCER IN THE DARK Review

I’m a mind reader. You’re the sort of moviegoer who prefers Jim Carrey’s “earlier, funnier movies”, right? You don’t think Arnie is on the big screen enough anymore, true? And Gone In 60 Seconds blew you away, correct? OK then my friend, time to back out of this review nice and easy like…… There ya go…… Bye! Right then, everyone else, come with me!

As you’ll know if you’ve ever read any of the reviews on this site I hate giving away too much about plot details in a movie I’m covering. It happens too in a lot of trailers these days so that by the time you actually end up sitting in front of the darkening screen trying to yank your shoes out of the pool of gunk on the floor below, you pretty much already know who’s in the movie, you’ve seen most of the key scenes and you can pretty much guess the ending. Not here my friends! Suffice it to say that Bjork is Selma, a Czech immigrant factory worker in the US in the 1960’s with a fancy for the musicals… Or for those Arnie fans still with us it’s like The Green Mile meets The Singing Detective… I suppose your odds of feeling the same way about Dancer In The Dark as I did depend on how you feel about Bjork. I have one friend who saw the film before I did, I asked him what he thought, he paused for a second and gave me his five cents (or his five words in this case), “It’s got Bjork in it…” She’s on screen for almost the whole duration of the film and sings the musical numbers to boot but it’s a hypnotic, likeable, warm performance worthy of the best actress award she received this year at Cannes. It may have been a wise move on her part at the same festival to announce her immediate retirement from acting though as I can’t imagine a part more tailor made for her – there can’t be too many of them around.

The single most underlined word I wrote on my notepad at the screening was “challenging” and DITD is just that. The first five minutes are an old fashioned Hollywood overture played against a blank screen, the first 45 minutes or so are almost kitchen sink drama before all of a sudden the screen goes technicolor with the first musical number and it reserves it’s biggest emotional punch for the kick in the balls right at the very end. I’m one who believes that being challenged at the movies is always good – as a society it happens to us so rarely in our entertainment these days.

Von Trier’s direction is well paced and steady (it’s 2hrs and 20 feels like far less) and the supporting cast are all right on the money. David Morse and Peter Stormare both get rare chances to step out from the ensemble roles they usually play and are engaging as is an always excellent Catherine Deneuve (even though she’s ever so slightly unbelievable as a factory worker, like hello!!!). There are one or two quibbles I had with minor plot inconsistencies and the like but I refuse to put them into print here and possibly influence you against going to see DITD. It’s one of the most powerful, fascinating, effort demanding and above all best movies you’ll see all year.

L8r,

Ozymandias

Euro AICN Ireland/UK Office, Penthouse Suite, Ozymandias Towers, Dublin, Ireland.

If you're involved in the Irish or UK movie industries I want to hear from you!

Mail me at ozymandias@dublin.com

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Well that's it for the Euro news of this week, hope you enjoyed it... remember to send your contributions (no, we don't take checks, just info) to the Euro AICN offices in beautiful and very sunny (at least today) Paris at : euroaicn@yahoo.com