David's Birthday

Just got back from a decent Italian flick David's Birthday which is playing at NewFest. My friend thought the title made it appropriate for my special day though the movie birthday in question wasn't exactly, um, celebratory once it rolled around at the end. But it's the thought that counts.

We liked the film's attention to a weird amount of ensemble character detail considering it kept threatening to become a one and a ½ man show in the Death in Venice mode. The plot, such as it is, concerns a married Italian man Matteo (Massimo Poggio) on vacation with his wife, played by the always welcome Maria de Medeiros -- I just love her movie face -- from Henry & June and Pulp Fiction, and another couple. Matteo becomes obsessed with his friend's 18 year old son David (Thyago Alves), an underwear model from New York. It's really not as tawdry as it sounds! Most of the good stuff in the film is in the oddly realistic wandering mundane conversations between spouses and friend's spouses. I loved one tense heart-to-heart between Matteo and Francesca that never self identified as such. Instead, the conversation disguised itself as a simple list of home decorating plans. People do like to distract themselves from the heavy stuff.

Like I Am Love, another new (and much greater) Italian film about a sexual awakening, it goes from being electrified by sensuality to being punishing about sex. Movies can be so puritanical.

What movie did you see this weekend? At home or the theater?

Cannes 60: The Jury. The Films. The Competition

What will lucky travellers see at Cannes this year? What films will we hear reactions to very very soon...

OPENING FILM
My Blueberry Nights Wong Kar Wai's first English language feature --a road movie starring Norah Jones and several famous actors including Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

CLOSING FILM
The Age of Darkness is a comedy about a civil servant with a highly active imagination from Canadian writer/director Denys Arcand. Arcand is a Cannes and Oscar fixture for films like Jesus of Montreal and The Barbarian Invasions. This film stars Marc Labrèche and features and appearance by Rufus Wainwright as a young prince.

GALA (Not in Competition)
Sicko Michael Moore's documentary expose on the Heath Care industry (good topic choice, right? Should provoke lots of anger)
Ocean's Thirteen by Steven Soderbergh. They usually have at least one commercial effort that gets a high profile. This ensures a high American movie star contingency showing up...or at least 13 of them.
A Mighty Heart Michael Winterbottom directs Angelina Jolie as Marianne Pearl, wife of the slain journalist Daniel in this true story. Can she snag an Oscar nom for playing a real person (that's usually strong bait for AMPAS regardless) ?

THE JURY
British director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons) heads the international prize giving group which also includes actors Michel Piccoli (La Belle Noiseuse) from France, film experience fav' Toni Collette from Australia, Canadian Sarah Polley (who is moving into directing now with Away From Her), Cannes winner Maggie Cheung (Clean, In the Mood for Love) from Hong Kong, and Maria De Medeiros (Pulp Fiction, Henry & June) from Portugal, Italian director Marco Bellochio (My Mother's Smile, Good Morning Night) and nobel prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.

They'll be choosing from the films playing...

IN COMPETITION
Une Vieille Maitresse by provocatrice Catherine Breillat. Her most recent film was Anatomy of Hell but she's most famous for Fat Girl (France)
Les Chansons d'amour a musical by provocateur Christophe Honoré who gained fame from films like the incest drama Ma Mére with Isabelle Huppert. This film stars The Dreamers Louis Garrel and Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier (France)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Before Night Falls artist turned auteur Julian Schnabel. If memory serve this biopic of editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (who suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body) was once slated to star Johnny Depp. Obviously that version didn't happen but we've got a fine actor in his place. It's now Mathieu Almaric, who starred in Kings and Queen (tfe top ten list 2005), in the lead role. (France)
Auf der anderen Seite des Lebens by Fatih Akin. He made an international splash with the strong erotic drama Head On a few years ago and if you haven't seen that one. By all means, rent it. (Turkey)
No Country For Old Men by The Coen Brothers. They have fallen out of favor since the heady days of Fargo. Can they regain their cultural capital? This is an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel and stars Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem (US)
Zodiac by David Fincher (US) my review

We Own The Night by The Yards director James Gray. This movie is about a nightclub manager who must save his family from the Russian mafia. Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall star. (US)
Mogari No Mor by Golden Camera winning director Naomi Kawase (Japan)
Promise Me This by award gobbling Emir Kusturica (Underground, When Father Was Away on Business) who has won the Golden Palm twice (Serbia)
Secret Sunshine a romantic comedy by Lee Chang-dong of Oasis fame (South Korea)
4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile by Cristian Mungiu who had a strong festival run with Occident in 2002 (Romania)
Tehilim by Raphael Nadjari (France)
Silent Light by Battle in Heaven bad boy Carlos Reygadas (Mexico)
Persepolis an animated adaptation of the famous graphic novel (pictured to your left) about an Iranian girl directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud with the voices of Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Chiara Mastroianni and Gena Rowlands (France)

Import/Export by Ulrich Seidl (Austria)
Alexandra by Aleksandr Sokurov who had his biggest success with the technical bravura of Russian Ark five years ago. His films Father and Son and Molokh took home prizes at Cannes in past years. (Russia)
Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino. I've already said my bit here (US)
The Man From London by the influential Bela Tarr. A switchman at a railway station witnesses a murder. Tilda Swinton appears. In what role I know not. But she's there. And it should be noted don't you think? (Hungary)
Paranoid Park by Gus Van Sant who took two prizes at Cannes for Elephant in 2003. Here he's adapting a Blake Nelson novel about a teenager who commits an accidental crime. (US)
The Banishment by Andrey Zvyagintsev who made the well received father/son drama The Return (Russia)
Breath (pictured) by Kim Ki-Duk who directed the exquisite spring, summer, fall, winter...and spring (tfe top ten list 2004) among many others. This one is about a distraught woman who visits a death row inmate repeatedly. She decorates his cell using the seasonal motifs (South Korea)

* Any predictions as to which films Toni, Stephen, Maggie, Orhan et al. will favor?

[You can read more info --there's lots more-- at European Films, Twitch and GreenCine amongst other fine sites]