Mexican Film News

Directors Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro (above) have met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon to encourage governmental support of the film industry. The three were set to visit the Mexican Legislature to seek better distribution and exhibition opportunities for local production companies, according to Reuters. Of about 60 films produced here in 2006, only half hit theaters, they report.
Last week, Mexico joined Germany offering new tax incentives to help boost domestic production.

Mexico Film Awards
Pan’s Labyrinth swept the Mexico Film Awards, also known as the Ariels. The film won nine Ariels, including best picture and director for Gullermo del Toro.

There was a tie for Best Actress award with Spaniard Maribel Verdu winning for Pan's Labyrinth and Mexican Elizabeth Cervantes winning for Mas que a nada en el mundo.

Best Actor went to Damian Alcazar for Cronicas (click to see the trailer). This was his second successive win.

El Orfanato
Meanwhile the trailer for del Toro’s next film El Orfanato (The Orphanage) has been leaked onto You Tube. Creep-O-Rama. A release date hasn’t been set.

Color Me Kubrick

Mbabane’s own Richard E. Grant (photo below) appears in the latest John Malkovich film Color Me Kubrick debuting this weekend. It’s hard to know how much of Grant is in the film.
One review I read said Grant was wasted in a role that anyone could play. I think that’s a compliment.
The official media kit for Color Me Kubrick misspells Mbabane as Mbane. I sent a note to one promoter who said she’d pass along the correction. It wasn’t changed in the online version. At least they referenced his hometown. Most actor’s bios aren’t that detailed.
If you can’t get out to see Color Me Kubrick, the folks at Magnolia Pictures have a deal for you to view the picture at home. HDNet Movies will broadcast the picture Friday, March 23 at 7 p.m. and 10:05 p.m. Central. If that doesn’t fit your schedule, they’ll be releasing the picture to DVD on Tuesday, March 27.
So don’t blink, or you’ll miss it in theaters.

Color Me Kubrick Reviews
IFC

LA City Beat

San Francisco Bay Guardian

Ventura County Reporter

FWSCI Filmies Event Reminder

Don't forget we're gathering for the 2 p.m. Sunday, March 25 showing of The Lives of Others at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. (See details above right)

Asian FIlm Awards

Upsets, upsets, upsets.

OK, I don’t know how big the upsets were, but they were billed that way when the inaugural Asian Film Awards were handed out Monday night with many surprise winners.

South Korea’s monster smash The Host won Best Film, Best Actor, Best Cinematographer and Best Visual Effects.

The biggest surprise of the evening, was the Best Actor win for Song Kang-ho, who beat out Japanese actor Ken Wantanabe for Letters From Iwo Jima.

Other awards included Best Director going to Jia Zhangke for China’s Still Life; Best Actress to Miki Nakatani for Japan’s Memories of Matsuko; Best Screenwriter to Mani Haghighi for Iran’s Men at Work; Best Production Designer to Tim Yip for the Hong Kong/Chinese production The Banquet; and Best Editor to Lee Chatametikool for the Thailand/Austrian/French production of Syndromes and a Century. Best Composer went to Rahayu Supanggah for the Indonesian/Austrian film Opera Jawa.

In addition to the ten award categories, special tributes were also an integral part of the ceremony with Luc Besson presenting legendary Asian actress Josephine Siao with the Asian Film Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema; renowned director Johnnie To honored David Bordwell with the Asian Film Award for Excellence in Scholarship in Asian Cinema, and Asian actor Andy Lau was bestowed the Nielsen Box Office Star of Asia Award.

This Just In: DVD Releases

Apparently it's Italy day at Netflix. Many of the films released today on DVD are from our friends in Italy.

The Passion of Joshua the Jew (2005) - Italy

Born in Spain in 1492 at the time all Jews and Muslims were ordered out of the country, Joshua (Leonardo Cesare Abude) is declared the next messiah by an elder (photo above). Eventually settling in Italy with his family, Joshua grows into a man and becomes fascinated with Catholicism, much to the dismay of local religious leaders. Pasquale Scimeca's religious drama exploring the nature of prejudice and intolerance also stars Anna Bonaiuto and Toni Bertorelli.Director: Pasquale Scimeca.

'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1971) Addio, Fratello Crudele - Italy
When she becomes pregnant from an incestuous affair with her brother Giovanni (Oliver Tobias), Annabella (Charlotte Rampling) quickly marries unsuspecting aristocrat Soranzo (Fabio Testi) in this adaptation of John Ford's 1633 play. But when Soranzo learns the truth, his reaction turns violent. From Italian director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, this lushly produced tale of forbidden passion also stars Antonio Falsi, Rik Battaglia and Angela Luce.

Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005) Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus
To distance himself from Adolf Hitler and a war he philosophically opposes, a young German (Peter Ketnath) moves halfway around the world to Brazil, where he meets a hitchhiker (João Miguel) with his own motivations to keep moving. Together, they drive across the country making pit stops in various villages to sell the locals a "miracle" drug. Marcelo Gomes directs this multilingual Cannes Film Festival selection.

Manhattan Gigolo (1986) - Italy
A trip to New York City leads to a racy three-person tryst, a sex tape and big trouble for Johnny (Gianni Dei) in this spicy drama, which also stars former CNN anchor and "NYPD Blue" actress Andrea Thompson. Johnny's wild ride begins when he learns his actor friend Rudy (Aris Iliopulos) is actually a gigolo. The friends engage in a threesome with Leslie (Thompson), but things really heat up when Johnny finds out the encounter was videotaped. Director: Amasi Damiani.

Street War (1976) - Italy
After being dismissed for use of excessive force, former cop Murri (Maurizio Merli) soon finds himself back on the job as the only man who can stop a brutal crime spree. When a mob boss escapes from prison and re-forms his gang, Murri is called on to organize a crackerjack team
to put an end to the gang's reign of terror. Fueled by vengeance, Murri stops at nothing to finish off the boss once and for all. Cyril Cusack and James Mason also star. Director: Giuseppe Rosati.

And the Winner is ...

German Film Awards nominees have been announced. The awards known as the Lolas, are now given by an "academy," having given up the controversial "award jury" format.

Perfume: The Story of a Murder and Four Minutes each received eight nominations including best picture and director.

Four Minutes is the story of an piano teacher who trains a prisoner at a women's penitentiary. The film was a critical success but only brought in $1.7 million at the box office. In contrast Perfume brought in $52 million.

Winners of the 57th German Film Awards will be announced May 4 in a galaceremony at Palais am Funkturm in Berlin.

The Lolas come with a €3 million award and are the biggest symbol of the German government's support of film and culture.

Let the Competition Begin!

The Lone Star International Film Festival has begun accepting entries for the inaugural festival to be held Nov. 8-11, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas. The first entry was a work filmed in the United States and France.

The competition categories include: Documentary Feature Length, Documentary Short, Feature, Short and, Animation.

Additionally Fort Worth Sister Cities International, will present a film series during the festival focusing on its seen sister cities and countries, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Nagaoka, Japan; Trier, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Bandung, Indonesia; Mbabane, Swaziland; and Toluca, Mexico. If you know of a great film from these countries or featuring an actor, director or link to these cities/countries, let me know.

FWSCI will host delegations from our cities during a week-long celebration, which will include the Fort Worth Mayor’s International Dinner and a celebration of the 20-year relationship between Fort Worth, Trier and Nagaoka.

The Lone Star International Film Festival competition will be held in downtown Fort Worth with special events, receptions and a gala recognizing the best the world has to offer.
To enter your film in the competition, go to http://www.withoutabox.com/login/5602

Good Luck!

Still playing

You still have the chance to see several top movies on the big screen before they go to DVD and small screens. Below are four films that you should see and a repeat of previous blogs about them.

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth is still showing at many screens (Sundance 11 in downtown Fort Worth, as well as Inwood and Magnolia in Dallas.)
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.

The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others is showing at the Inwood and Magnolia in Dallas.
FWSCI Filmies will go see The Lives of Others next weekend at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The movie shows for two weekends, starting next Friday. We'll be at the 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 25. See the announcement at right.

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) opens in area theaters today, Feb. 23. The film, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film is directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/ It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief officer Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreymann, and Martina Gedeck as his lover Christa-Maria Sieland. In 1984 eastern Germany, Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, is assigned to spy on playwright Georg Dreymann, who is suspected of western leanings. The agent finds out the real reason for the spying is that the spy agency’s minister is attracted to Dreymann’s girlfriend and wants to get the playwright out of the way. While Pan’s Labyrinth has garnered most of the buzz in that category. The Lives of Others made a case for it’s popularity a couple weekends ago during its US premier. The film opened with more than $200,000 in 13 theaters for an average of $16,430. The film is currently an exclusive locally at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth March, The Magnolia, Dallas, and the Angelika Plano. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/movies/16758431.htm

Letters from Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima is still showing at the Inwood in Dallas.
Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima is causing a stir on both sides of the Pacific. The film is up for a fistful of Academy Awards and is pulling audiences into the theater across Japan. Already it’s landed a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film Award. Some 7,000 American soldiers died at Iwo Jima and more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers died there. The battle ranged for more than a month from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945. Eastwood’s companion film Flags of Our Fathers, which tells about the battle from an American standpoint, is out now on DVD. The film has been doing well in Japan, and according to Time Magazine: “the Oscar-nominated Letters has grossed just under $40 million, earning it the top spot during the Japanese cinema industry’s all-important New Year holiday season.” Now’s a good time to watch both. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1581828,00.html http://iwojimathemovie.warnerbros.com/lettersofiwojima/framework/framework.html

Babel
And Babel is showing at the Angelika in Dallas. Babel has already gone to DVD.
Babel makes its DVD arrival tomorrow, just in time for pre-Academy Awards viewing. http://www.paramountvantage.com/babel/ The movie features an international cast, locations and languages – and it’s a candidate for Best Picture. Since I’m behind on my film watching, I’ve decided to wait to watch Babel on DVD. So many films left to see. Stars Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt lead the Hollywood cast, but not the award list. The Academy instead smiled upon two actresses virtually unknown in the United States: Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi. http://imdb.com/title/tt0449467/ Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also was nominated for Best Director. Altogether there are seven Academy Award nominations. Inarritu won a Best Actor Award at Cannes Film Festival. The film won Best Picture Award at the Golden Globes and Kikuchi won Best Actress Award from the Chicago Film Critics Association.