Father Geek here with Edgard's Monday morning Euro-AICN column for this week. It includes some storyboards for a H. P. Lovecraft based film. Cooool! I Love Lovecraft stories... even the lesser films based on his tales are wonderful entertainment full of great imagery and imagination. I can't wait for this one.
EURO AICN
Hello... Edgard here with our last EURO AICN for September. I know it will sound weird but I am quite happy this month is almost over, always thought September was a boring month. Don't know why. Who cares anyway ? Well I do because I didn't receive much news this week so I feel this Euro AICN will be kind of short... So I thought at first writing a very long introduction instead (I could for example launch a discussion on which month is the least boring) but it's Sunday night and I don't feel like doing that now... so here's the few news I got for you today...
UK
Hello... Edgard here with our last EURO AICN for September. I know it will sound weird but I am quite happy this month is almost over, always thought September was a boring month. Don't know why. Who cares anyway ? Well I do because I didn't receive much news this week so I feel this Euro AICN will be kind of short... So I thought at first writing a very long introduction instead (I could for example launch a discussion on which month is the least boring) but it's Sunday night and I don't feel like doing that now... so here's the few news I got for you today...
UK
* The next film from director Ken Loach will be The Navigators, which is set to roll in the UK in October. Scripted by Rob Dawber, Navigators is the story of a group of railway maintenance men facing the privatisation and down-sizing of their industry. Source : Screendaily
* Also from Screendaily : Whoopi Goldberg will emcee the BAFTA LA 10th Annual Britannia Award presentation to Steven Spielberg to be held in Los Angeles on Nov 4. Spielberg will be honoured with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence In Film. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Shoah Foundation of which Spielberg is the founder; the event is being sponsored by New Economy business Sapient. BAFTA LA is the Los Angeles branch of the British Academy Of Film And Television Arts.
* This one comes from www.empireonline.co.uk : London film company Archer Street Productions, headed by Hilary and Jackie director Anand Tucker, is working on a new big screen version of Cleopatra - the first for almost four decades. The last movie based on the Egyptian Queen was the Liz Taylor and Richard Burton epic that cost an unprecedented $44 million to make (around $300 million today) and nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox. A report in today's Variety suggests that the UK company, which is developing Cleopatra for Universal Pictures, has 'a new perspective on the story'.
* And another one from Empire on line : Joseph Fiennes will play the title role in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield next year. An epic story of power and love, Edward II will be directed by acclaimed theatrical director Michael Grandage as part of the theatre's 2000/2001 season. Speaking in his role as Associate Director, Sheffield Theatres, Grandage said the season "brings together some of our most talented young directors and offers an opportunity to see some of our finest actors in one of the most exciting spaces in the country." Fiennes has recently been in Prague filming WWII drama Enemy At The Gates with Jude Law. Although he has had lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, it will be his first appearance at The Crucible Theatre. The production will run from 8 March to 31 March 2001.
FRANCE
* (French speaking) Fans of Jean-Jacques Annaud, brilliant director of THE BEAR, THE LOVER, SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET and very soon ENEMY AT THE GATES has now his official website : To Visit Here . This is a great website, full of information on the director and really well made. Two negative comments : it's only in French and there's nothing (yet) on Enemy at the gates...
* French director Régis Wargnier (INDOCHINE) should soon start working on his first American production : a film about the life of the writer/aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The little prince). Shooting will start next Summer.
* Claude Zidi, one of the most popular comedy director in France in the last 25 years (he directed the first ASTERIX), has started the shooting of his new film : LA BOITE. A comedy (of course) around nightclubs. Shooting started on September 18th around Paris.
* Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam (ex general director of Gaumont, one of the main French studio) have announced the creation of a new studio simply called Europa. The goal is to work on films at every level : production, distribution, exportation, video, music, internet... with international directors (from Europe of course, but also Besson hopes to work with Americans who wish to get out of the "Hollywood studio control"). Three projects are actually in the works and should be the first "Europa" films to appear on our screen : 15 AOUT (from Patrick Alessandrin); YAMAKASI (from Ariel Zeitoun) and KISS OF THE DRAGON (from Chris Nahon; with Jet Li and Tcheky Karyo). And don' t tell Luc he's doing his own Dreamworks... he doesn't like to be accused of plagiarism.
FRANCE / FINLAND
* In the celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Finnish Institute of Paris will show all the movies of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki from September 21st to December 16th. If you never saw a movie from Kaurismaki, this is certainly the good time to do something about it... For more information Visit their Site
And this bit in from Väinämöinen...
*I finally saw the latest Coen Brothers flick at The 13th Helsinki International Film Festival, Love and Anarchy (Check out www.hiff.fi if you want to know more about the festival). My expectations were huge to say the least, but lately I had read a couple of so-so reviews. Was I up for a dissapointment?
The movie surpassed my expectations, it stands right up there with Miller's Crossing in the Coen Brothers' canon. I'd say I wasn't dissapointed.
The acting is spot on perfect. The regulars, John Turturro, John Goodman and Charles Durning to name a few, are as good as ever, relative newcomer Tim Blake Nelson is their equal, but the biggest surprise for me was George Clooney. I've known for a long time that he can act, but this role was a real departure from his earlier work. I don't really want to reveal any more than necessary, but Everett Ulysses McGill is quite different from anything he's done before, in both looks and manner.
As expected from the Coens, visually the film is beautiful. It is not as over-the-top as some of their earlier work (especially The Hudsucker Proxy), but there are a few really stunning sequences. There's a lot of brilliant play with a faint light in the darkness, whether it be moonlight, firelight or light filtered by deep water.
The music consisted almost entirely of old (or old style) songs. They fitted the movie nicely, just wait till you see Bob Dylan's Man of Constant Sorrow performed live by the Soggy Bottomed Boys! Still, I would have really enjoyed a good old Carter Burwell Soundtrack. He does get credit for additional music though. (As a side note, Burwell's soundtrack for Being John Malkovich is one of my all time favorites, and it really deserved a lot more recognition than it got.)
This is mostly a good natured, but really funny, feel-good film. In a lot ways the general atmosphere reminded me of The Hudsucker Proxy, it does have it's darker moments, but there isn't much violence and there's hardly any coarse language. There's no point in trying to describe the plot, suffice to say that it concerns a trio of escaped convicts searching for something of great value. From there it takes numerous twists and turns which had the audience in hysterical laughter more often than not.
Don't miss this one, it's one of the best of the year.
Get going to the theater already!
Okay, if you are still hesitant, know this: this is one of those rare movies where the trailer really does capture the feel and spirit of the film well. So if the trailer was up your alley, Definitely Don't Miss This One!
Call me Väinämöinen
GERMANY
Martin the Martian just sent me some storyboards from this upcoming German production THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK, based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. Unfortunately I don't know much about the story of this film, just know that sfx will be needed here... The first drawing is at the beginning of the film and will show the city for the first time (and it looks that the looking man doesn't like what he sees).
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The second one represents, as Martin the Martian told me, "the transition between two important scenes that will eventually lead up to the finale".
That's it... just enough to make us more curious on that film... hopefully some friends in Germany will inform us more on that film, I am sure that many will be interested to find out more on that Lovecraft adaptation... Thank you to Martin the Martian.
A QUICK MESSAGE FROM OZYMANDIAS
Just a quick one to ask any AICNers who are thinking of attending the upcoming Cork or Foyle Film Festivals and who'd be interested in writing up some reports for us to mail me at ozymandias@dublin.com as both look to be cooking this year and I want some of our guys there!!!!
