Polanski’s Pomeii

Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski has signed on to direct Pompeii, starting this summer in Italy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski
The film is based on the best-selling novel by Robert Harris and tells the story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius through the eyes of a young engineer. The engineer was sent from Rome to repair an aqueduct and is forced to fight corruption and mother nature.
Polanski won an Academy Award in 2003 for The Pianist, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Chinatown (1975) and Tess (1981). His last film was Oliver Twist in 2005. http://minadream.com/romanpolanski/ http://www.rp-productions.com/

Pick Pan's

After weeks of waiting, I finally saw Pan’s Labyrinth – great picture. Also nice to see a full theater.
It’s also a surprising movie. You never know what a film is going to be like based on clips and hype.
It’s not all fantasy. It’s not like Lord of the Rings. If you’re not a fantasy film fan, don’t steer clear of the movie just because of that.
In fact the storyline I enjoyed the most was following the housekeeper, Mercedes, played by Maribel Verdú http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0893941/, and her brother’s band of resistance fighters against Franco’s Spain. The majority of the film is set in the real world. It had a real Hitchcock feel and urgency about it as in Notorious.
It’s violent. There are a lot of cringe-worthy screens, and once out on DVD I don’t’ recommend it for children.
Go see it in a theater for the spectacle.

Red Carpet Gala

Speaking of the Academy Awards, the Lone Star Film Society of Fort Worth http://www.lonestarfilmsociety.com/ and Texas Christian University College of Communication are hosting an Evening at the Academy Awards at 6 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 25 at The Dee J. Kelly Alumni Center, TCU, 2820 Stadium Drive.

Here’s your chance to revel in all that is Hollywood, without having to deal with that annoying paparazzi. Watch the Academy Awards live on three jumbo screens and root for your favorite stars and films.

Walk the red carpet with “celebrities” to the cocktail reception at 6 p.m., and then watch the awards broadcast starting at 7 p.m. Come dressed as your favorite movie character or in cocktail attire.

The event honors Mr. & Mrs. Jesse Upchurch for their continued support of the Gwendolyn P. Tandy Film Library.

For tickets or more information, call 817.735.1117 or visit http://www.eventbrite.com/event/47167078.

Get Thee to a Theater

OK we’re fast approaching the Academy Awards ceremony – which airs Sunday, Feb. 25 – so you need to grab a friend and get out to the picture show.

Here’s a quick, alphabetical overview of films that relate to our Sister City countries.

Apocalypto
Remember that movie? It’s largely been ignored by the Academy, but it did receive nominations for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Makeup. Yawn. There’s no category for most frenzied movie. Apocalypto was directed by Mel Gibson and filmed in Catemaco and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Unknown actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, some Native Americans from the United States and Canada, and locals from Los Tuxtlas and Veracruz star in this picture featuring the Yukatek Maya language.
http://apocalypto.movies.go.com/

Babel
This crisscrossing global movie was directed by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. It’s nominated for seven Academy Awards. Nominations include: Best Picture, Best Director, Original Screenplay and two Best Supporting Actress nods, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi. The film takes place in Morocco, Japan and Mexico. It comes out on DVD Feb. 20, if you want to go ahead and see something else in the theater and watch it at home.
http://www.paramountvantage.com/babel/

Letters from Iwo Jima,
This movie, while directed by Clint Eastwood, is acted totally in Japanese. That’s a twist for the guy who got his start with Italian-filmed westerns many years ago. Nominations include: Best Picture, Best Director, Original Screenplay
http://iwojimathemovie.warnerbros.com/lettersofiwojima/framework/framework.html

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
This German film rolls into theaters Feb. 23 in North Texas, so be watching for it. It’s been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/

Pan’s Labrynth (El Laberinto del Fauno)
This film by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro takes place in Franco’s post-war Spain. Nominations include: Best Foreign Language Film and Original Screenplay.
http://www.panslabyrinth.com/

Global Universities

Several area universities host free global film series. Texas Christian University’s KinoMonda Film Series is 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday in Sid Richardson Building, Lecture Hall No. 4. This spring’s series has a wide variety of film, but only two from our Sister City countries: Uiridiana, directed by Luis Buñuel, from Mexico (1961) will show May 2 and I Vitelloni, directed by Federico Fellini Italy (1953) shows May 23. http://wholewideworld.tcu.edu/kinomonda/kinomovies.asp

University of North Texas in Denton hosts a Global Film Series at 7:30 p.m. every Monday. Two films from Germany show in February. Films are shown in Room 184 of the Radio, Television, Film and Performing Arts Building, which is located one block west of Welch and Chestnut streets, Denton. http://web2.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=10149

Feb. 12 - Bonhoeffer - http://www.bonhoeffer.com/ This 2003 documentary from the United States tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian and pacifist who was imprisoned and killed by the Nazis for plotting to assassinate Hitler.






Feb. 26 - Europa Europa - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099776/ Released in 1990, this German film tells the story of a Jewish boy who separated from his family in the early days of World War II. He poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world, and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.

Come on Ride a Train

Based on an allegedly true story, Train Man (Densha Otoko) has led to a media frenzy of books, comics and now a movie. http://www.trainman-movie.com/ The movie makes its DVD debut this week and you can find in at sites like Netflix, Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.
The story is a modern love story about a Japanese computer geek, who meets a pretty girl on a commuter train and saves her from a lewd fellow passenger. He falls for her and a few days later she sends him a thank you gift.
Unsure of what his next steps should be, the guy enlists the help of his cyber friends from the 2ch bulletin board. http://www.2ch.net/ Soon he’s bombarded with “surefire” recommendations from cyberspace.

You say Otoko I say Otaku
So try to work these words into your daily conversations. "Otoko" means man. In Japanese slang, "Otaku" means fanatic and has a derrogotory tinge to it, according to the Train Man web site. Some common uses include paso-kon otaku (personal computer geeks), game otaku, idol otaku, tetsudou otaku (metrophiles), or gunji otaku (military geeks). Apparently "densha" means to send messages, as in "denshabato" or carrier pigeon.

2ch or 4ch
Never heard of it, but sounds interesting. The Train Man site also has a little primer on 2ch and 4ch. “2ch is the largest Internet forum in the world. With over 10 million visitors a day, 2ch is gaining a significant profile in Japanese society, competing for influence with traditional mass media such as TV, radio, and magazines. 4-ch (http://4-ch.net/) is an English-language website, with discussion boards for English speakers, presented in the style of 2ch. It also contains a board where Japanese 2ch users can talk to each other in Japanese.”

Indonesian Film Turmoil

The film industry in Indonesia is in the midst of several conflicts: one dealing with regulation and the other with the top award presented to a film during a recent festival. The two controversies seem to pit young filmmakers against the established film industry.
I’m the first to admit I don’t know much about Indonesian film, but from the outside it looks like young filmmakers are rallying against a federal law that involves a government censor. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=62370
The second controversy surrounds accusations of copyright infringement against the producers of Ekskul, a comedy-drama. http://www.ekskul.com/ Apparently the score of another film was lifted without consent and used in Ekskul.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=60337
In response, more than 20 directors, actors and film professionals returned their Citra Awards to the Indonesian Film Festival in protest.


Indonesia Flood Relief Effort

http://www.redcross.org/pressrelease/0,1077,0_314_6030,00.html

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