Into Africa

So what’s it like filming in Africa?
Across the continent, film groups are trying to pull film producers in to learn more about options and opportunities.
James Hall, executive director of the Golden Lion Film Festival in Mbabane, Swaziland, has spent time cultivating the consular corps in his country. The work has netted him invitations to visit France and Cannes to market his festival and country.
The Golden Lion web site makes this invitation: “Filmmakers are invited to explore Swaziland, where African culture and tradition thrive in a beautiful mountainous setting. Mlilwane Game Reserve is only 15 minutes from two of the festival’s principal venues. Our South Africa venue, Casterbridge Cinema, is located in White River, the gateway to Kruger National Park, Africa’s oldest game reserve.” http://www.goldlionfest.co.sz/festival.html
And in Uganda director Kevin Macdonald told how his visit in 2002 for research encouraged him to return when it came time for filming. Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland has been earning raves and actor Forest Whitaker appears a shoe-in for Best Actor at this weekend’s Academy Awards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/
"The locals had the desire for it to be good because it was their story, a lot of them had lived through the Amin period or knew Amin,” Macdonald said in an article posted on Filmmaker South Africa.
http://www.filmmaker.co.za/readarticle.php?article_id=197

In South Africa recently, screenwriters were cultivated with a symposium for writers attended by two-time Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson and British actor Stephen Fry at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The programs were held prior to the release of a film on local poet Ingrid Jonker. http://www.capefilmcommission.co.za/

New This Week

German director Mathias Dinter’s Night of the Living Dorks arrives this week on DVD. It looks like your typical American teenage movie – only in German. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378417/
The promo I saw on Netflix said, “Philip, Konrad and Weener – the three biggest dorks at Frederich Nietzsche High School – get a second stab at coolness when they’re killed in an auto accident and reanimated as flesh-eating zombies.”
How could that not be good?
At the opposite end of the spectrum a biopic called Puccini is this week’s Italian offering. The 1952 film by director Carmine Gallone presents selections from Madama Butterfly, La Boheme and Turandot. The film focuses on Puccini’s romantic life via a singer, a beauty and a servent.
And finally, this week’s anime feature: Chevalier D’Eon is set in France, but is a Japanese animated film. D’Eon is based on a true story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d about a brother who begins investigating the death of his sister, along with many other women who are turning up dead in Paris's Seine River, D’Eon becomes inhabited by his sister’s spirit and the diplomat, writer, spy and Freemason adds another moniker, as he spends the second half of his life living as a woman. Now that’s a story.

Iwo Jima Anniversary

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

Let’s Talk About Babel

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.

Who was that silver-masked man?

The Cartoon Network has announced plans for an animated series based on the Mexican icon Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata (the silver masked man). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0763803/
Mexican wrestler El Hijo del Santo (son of Santo) is working with Carlo Olivares Paganoni to develop the untitled adventure/fantasy series set in Mexico City.
According to Cartoon Network, El Hijo del Santo is heir to the legendary silver mask, once held by his father, the flesh and blood icon Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata. A highly idolized figure in Mexico, Santo is a cultural icon who has not only conquered the world of lucha libre (Mexican wrestling), but has also been immortalized in film and television. Santo passed his legacy onto his son 25 years ago, who has since successfully defended his father’s title and propelled the distinguished reputation to a world-wide level. Today, El Hijo del Santo is recognized as the silver masked wrestler, Santo.
Santo uses his new powers to defend justice inside and outside the wrestling ring and faces a slew of enemies ranging from everyday criminals to genetically enhanced mystical villains. Created and executive-produced by Paganoni with Alex Soto ( Ben 10) as supervising producer, 13 half-hour episodes are being produced at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, Calif. Cartoon Network (CartoonNetwork.com), currently seen in more than 91 million U.S. homes and 160 countries around the world.

Boolinale

International glam star Jennifer Lopez http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000182/ debuted her new film Borderline at Berlinale and was simultaneously recognized by Amnesty International for her work on the film.
The film also was reportedly booed by the audience. Who boos at the theater anymore, unless you’re tossing popcorn at a melodrama?
OK, so I wanted to boo during and after Gangs of New York, but I resisted. In fact, I want to boo right now, but I digress.
Anyway the film is a thriller set in Juarez, Mexico, and Lopez plays a Chicago-based reporter who crosses the border to investigate serial killing of women from the maquiladoras.
The film is directed by Gregory Nava, who directed Lopez in Selena so many years ago. It also co-stars Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen. http://www.capitolfilms.com/cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?page='
Nava has been working on the project, but it wasn’t until Lopez agreed to star that financing fell into place and the stars aligned.
Amnesty recognized Lopez for bringing attention to the real-life plight of women in Juarez. The killings have been going on for years, but Mexican officials reportedly are ignoring the problem for fear of loosing the lucrative border manufacturing business that comes from U.S. companies. Amnesty believes more than 400 women have been killed in Juarez.
The Berlinale audience reportedly didn’t like the “thriller” aspect when applied to a real-life investigation. I figured European film audiences were made of stronger stuff than that.
Kudos for Lopez and company for tackling tougher stuff than demanding bosses and romances with dance partners. (My favorite Lopez movie is 1998’s Out of Sight with George Clooney.) What’s yours?
Does anyone have thoughts on the Juarez killings or the concept of a thriller built around a true-life tragedy?

Banderas, Lopez, Nava

Berlinale Roars Toward Finale

The 57th annual Berlinale Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin started Feb. 8 and runs through Feb. 18. http://www.berlinale.de/en/das_festival/videostreaming/index.html.

Berlinale is Germany’s biggest film festival. In its second week, the festival is reaching a feverish pitch with a distribution deal landing for actress-turned-director Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in Paris, with Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Berlinale's film programme is divided into six sections: Competition, Panorama, International Forum of New Cinema, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino and Retrospective. Each section is headed by a section director, who is responsible for selecting the films and is advised by the Berlinale's correspondents and other experts.

This year’s international jury consists of seven members from the film industry, and they consider films only in the competition section, awarding the festival’s main prizes. Prizes include the Golden Bear for best film and Silver Bears for Jury Grand Prix, Best Director, Best Actress and Actor, outstanding artistic contribution and Best Film Music. The Alfred Bauer Prize is given to a work which “takes the art of film in a new direction.”

The 2007 jury includes American Gigolo director Paul Schrader as jury president, Palestinian actress Hiram Abbass, German actor Mario Adorf, American actor Willem Dafoe, Mexican actor Gael García Bernal (at right), Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi and Danish film editor Molly Malene Stensgaard.

Berlinale’s website offers live streaming video and archives of news conferences and red carpet events at http://www.berlinale.de/en/das_festival/videostreaming/index.html.

Awards are presented the final day of the festival, Feb. 18.