2 Days in Paris | France/Germany | 2007 | 96 mins
Synopsis : Engenue Julie Delpy does triple-duty as writer, director and star of this romantic comedy. French photographer Marion (Delpy) and American interior designer Jack (Adam Goldberg) are returning from a vacation in Venice. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be the ultimate romantic getaway, disagreements and misunderstandings seemed to drive them farther apart rather than bringing them closer together. Before they return to the United States, Marion and Jack have a quick two-day stop in Paris to visit Marion's parents and pick up the cat that they had been pet-setting for their daughter. Unfortunately for Jack, Paris proves to be quite a culture shock. Not only are Marion's parents a pair of eccentric former "revolutionaries" who make no qualms about having knock-down-drag-out arguments regardless of who's present, but they also appear to have a particular distaste for Americans. Add to this the fact that Marion's friends hold nothing back when it comes to discussing their sexual lives, seem fixated on food rituals, and that Marion seems to run into former lovers on every street corner, and Jack quickly begins to suspect that he doesn't know his girlfriend half as well as he thought he did when they were living the simple life back in New York.
Director : Julie Delpy
Bio : Since age 14, when Delpy played a role in Jean-Luc Godard's DŽtective, she has worked with some of the world's most esteemed and intellectual directors. In 1994, Delpy charmed international audiences as Dominique in White, the second of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy Three Colors. Delpy began her career in America in 1993 with The Three Musketeers, acting opposite Chris O'Donnell, then went on to star in the title role of the Quentin Tarantino film, Killing Zoe. In 1995, Delpy starred opposite Ethan Hawke in Richard Linklater's romance, Before Sunrise, a performance that took her to the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Offscreen, Delpy made her appearance in the U.S. long before she moved to L.A. to pursue Hollywood roles. Delpy used money she had saved from her acting jobs to pay for her first trip to New York City when she was only 16 years old. She was so enamored with Manhattan that she returned over and over before finally moving to New York in 1990. Inspired by her experiences with Godard, Delpy has begun her own small-time directing projects. She wrote and directed a short film, Blah Blah Blah in 1997, then took it to her second Sundance Film Festival.
Awards/ Screenings : Official Selection Panorama Berlin International Film Festival 2007; Coup de Couer - 2007 Mons International Festival of Love Films
Angel | France/Belguim/UK | 2007 | 137 mins
Synopsis : A destitute-but-determined young woman living in turn-of-the-century England ascends the social ranks after authoring a series of successful romantic novels in French writer/director Franois Ozon's first English-language feature. Romolo Garai takes on the title role in a French and Belgian co-production co-starring Sam Neill, Charlotte Rampling, and Michael Fassbender and financed by FidŽlitŽ Films, Canal+, Celluliod Dreams, France 2, and Pan-EuropŽenne.
Director : Francois Ozon
Bio : Franois Ozon was born in 1967 in Paris. With his master's degree in Cinema (Paris I), he enters the French famous school of cinema La FEMIS in the director section in 1990.Since then, he has been shooting many movies in super-8, video, 16mm and 35mm . Many of his short movies have been in competition in various international festivals.Action VŽritŽ (Truth or Dare) is the beginning of his collaboration with FidŽlitŽ Productions.Une Robe d'ŽtŽ (A Summer Dress) gets the "LŽopard de Demain" Award at the film festival of Locarno. Sitcom, his first feature, is in competition in the Official Selection of "La Semaine Internationale de la critique" (International Week of Film Critic) in the Cannes Festival in 1998.
Awards/ Screenings : Closing Film - 2007 Berlin International Film Festival
Fay Grim | USA | 2007 | 118 mins
Synopsis : A single mother from Queens becomes unwittingly embroiled in international espionage indirector Hal Hartley's sequel to the critically acclaimed Henry Fool. Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is determined to raise her 14-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) so he won't be like his father Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan), who disappeared seven years ago after accidentally murdering a vicious neighbor. As Fay's brother Simon (James Urbaniak) serves time in a prison cell for aiding Henry in his daring escape, he gradually begins to suspect that the man who inspired him to take up writing in the first place is not the louse he appeared to be, but instead the keeper of some potentially explosive government secrets that, if made public, could prove quite dangerous. As Simon begins to explore the possibility that Henry's autobiography "Confessions" contains coded references to a wide variety of international atrocities committed by governments around the world, the CIA contacts Fay to inform her that her husband was killed in a hotel fire in Sweden shortly after fleeing America, and that the French government is currently in possession of two notebooks containing drafts of "Confessions." Convinced that the notebooks contain information that could endanger the security of the United States, CIA agent Fullbright (Jeff Goldblum) convinces Fay to travel to Paris and retrieve Henry's property before the information falls into the wrong hands. Now trapped in the middle of a cross-continental con and thrust deep into the world international espionage, Fay is about to find out that her ex-husband is not only still alive, but in more trouble than he could ever imagine.
Director : Hal Hartley
Bio : He won the Best screenplay award at Cannes in 1998 for his film Henry Fool and, later that year staged his play, Soon, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria and at the de Singel Theater in Antwerp. A second staging was performed in California in 2001.Hartley was made a Chevalier of arts and letters by the Republic of France in 1997 and taught filmmaking at Harvard University from September 2001 till May 2004. More recently, he was awarded a fellowship by the American Academy in Berlin for the fall of 2004, where he worked on his as yet untitled script for a film on the life of the French social activist and educator Simone Weil.
Awards/ Screenings : Official Selection Panorama Berlinale International Film Festival 2007; Audience Choice Award - 2007 RiverRun International Film Festival
God Willing | Sweden |2006 | 87 mins
Synopsis : There's a heat-wave in Stockholm during the summer of 1975. In the day, Juan (Chamdin) packs fruit in rstahallarna (marketplace) with his brother, with whom he also lives. In the evenings he works a second shift as a janitor at a hamburger-restaurant. In seven days his wife will arrive in Stockholm and by then everything must be perfect. The lack of sleep and the opressive heat make the loneliness even more apparent. One early morning his seat by the bus-stop is taken by a beautiful woman, Juli (Persson). After a couple of chance encounters the nightly adventures with Juli become the most important thing in his life.
Director : Amir Chamdin, Erik Eger
Bio : Amir Chamdin was the lead singer with the band Infinite Mass and started by directing videos for his band. Since then he has directed over 50 music videos and several advertising films. In 2004, he won the MTV Award for Best Video for The Cardigans' You're The Storm. God Willing (2006) is his first feature film. Erik Eger, born in Sweden but in love with Spain, where he lives at the moment, has directed commercials and music videos for almost ten years. The Artist, his first short film, was shot to complete his Certificate of Directing at New York University.
Awards/ Screenings : Nominated for Best Cinematography - 2007 Gulbagge Awards
The Hero | Angola/France/Portugal | 2004 |97 mins
Synopsis : The physical and emotional toll of Angola's civil war -- a conflict which spanned nearly four decades -- sets the stage for this powerful drama. Vitorio (Oumar Makena Diop) volunteered for the army when he was a 15-year-old seminary student. Twenty years later, he lost his leg in an explosion only a few months before the war finally ground to a halt, and after a long stay in a military hospital, Vitorio was finally given an artificial leg and released. However, after returning home to Luanda, Vitorio learns no one wants to give a thirtysomething veteran with no work experience a job, and he ends up living on the street, where his medals and his leg are soon stolen by ruffians. Vitorio strikes up a friendship with another one of society's outcasts, Maria Barbara (Maria Ceica), a prostitute who has lost her son and hopes to find him by appearing on a television program which daily broadcasts the pleas of family members. Meanwhile, the streets of Luanda are also home to Manu (Milton Coelho), a ten-year-old boy who has become a petty thief as he searches for his father, refusing to believe he could have been killed in the war. And Joana (Patricia Bull) is a schoolteacher whose faith in her nation has been shattered by the war; realizing Manu's intelligence, she attempts to tutor the boy, and having encountered Vitorio, she tries to find a new leg for the tragic veteran. The Hero was the first feature-length drama from filmmaker Zeze Gamboa; the film received its American premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
Director : Zeze Gamboa
Bio : Born in Angola in 1955, Gamboa began his career as a director of the TV news and programmes of information of Angolese television. Since then he has made documentaries. He recently received the grand prizewinner in Sundance’s World Dramatic Competition category. A Hero is his first feature film.
Awards/ Screenings : Grand Jury Prize - 2006 Sundance Film Festival; Official Selection - 2007 Tous Les Cinemans du Monde Canne Film Festival
The Home Song Stories | Australia | 2007 | 103 mins
Synopsis : A combination of circumstance and poor life choices turn to young children into the caretakers for their unstable mother in writer/director Tony Ayres' semi-autobiographical family drama. As aging writer Tom (Darren Yap) sits down to pen a screenplay detailing his life story, memories quickly transport him to the Shanghai nightclub where his single mother Rose (Joan Chen) would captivate Western servicemen. A beautiful thrush with a magnificent voice, Rose eventually packed up children Tom (Joel Lok) and May (Irene Chen) and set off for Australia after accepting a marriage proposal from Melbourne sailor Bill (Steven Vidler). When the relationship between Rose and Bill withered after just one week, the mother set her sights on Sydney. In the following seven years, Rose and her two young children would bounce between a series of "uncles" as stability continued to elude the trio. Though desperate Rose would eventually return to Melbourne with her children and attempt to rekindle her relationship with Bill, that too would eventually result in failure when the impulsive woman entered into a heated affair with local restaurant employee Joe (Qi Yuwu). Enraged when younger lover Joe takes note of May's blossoming beauty, Rose once again begs Bill's forgiveness though his generosity finally seems to have been exhausted.
Director : Tony Ayres
Bio : Born in 1961, Macau, China, he is an award-winning writer and director of documentary, television, film and theatre. In 1997 he edited two plays by the late Timothy Conigrave, Thieving Boy and Like Stars in My Hands, the latter winning the Victorian Green Room Award for Best New Australian Play. His outstanding documentary film, Sadness, received numerous awards. His television scripts, Ghost Story and The Long Ride, have won prestigious awards. His first feature film, Walking on Water, won the Teddy Award at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival, five AFI Awards, two Film Critics' Circle Awards and an IF Award.
Awards/ Screenings : Official Selection Panorama Berlinale International Film Festival 2007
The Motel | USA |75 mins | 2006
Synopsis : Thirteen-year-old Ernest lives and works at a sleazy hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way with his Mother, his Grandfather and his little sister. This is the family business.Even though he's only thirteen, Ernest has to take on the responsibilities of man of the house since his father has abandoned the family. After school, Ernest cleans all the vacant rooms making sure to sponge off the wet spots on the plastic-sheeted mattresses. He also baby sits his eight-year-old sister Katie whose playground is the parking lot and favorite toy is a dirt-filled headless Barbie. And at night, Ernest watches the front desk making sure that guests pay for their three-hour check-ins. Ernest's Mother is a battleaxe of a woman -- running her own business and raising two children makes it hard not to be. When she finds out that her son has lied to her about entering and also winning a short story contest, her punishment to him is to regard the whole matter as a waste of time. In her mind, he wasnÕt even good enough to win anyway; he only got Honorable Mention. Underneath her anger lies the fear that Ernest may actually be growing into an individual. ErnestÕs only solace from life at the motel comes in the form of a fifteen-year-old girl named Christine whose family owns the Chinese restaurant down the street. Ernest loves Christine. Christine thinks Ernest is a dork. And then Sam Kim checks in. Sam, a charismatic Korean American man who has his whole life packed in the trunk of his car, has come to the motel to sleep with as many ethnically diverse prostitutes as possible and hopefully to forget about the crumbling life he left behind. Sam sees himself in Ernest, a boy lost in the worst stages of pre-pubescence with nobody to help guide him. After they bond over a midnight snack of fried chicken, Sam becomes inspired to take Ernest under his wing and teach him the steps to manhood.
Director : Michael Kang
Bio : Michael Kang (born May 3, 1970 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American film director. His major full-length directorial debut is the independent movie The Motel, which won the NHK film award in 2003 at Sundance. He is currently working on a Korean-American project called West 32nd. He is a Korean American filmmaker based in New York and Los Angeles. His feature film directorial debut "The Motel" which was produced by Indie veteran director Miguel Arteta premiered at Sundance and is currently on DVD through Palm Pictures. ÒThe MotelÓ is the recipient of the Humanitas Prize as well as the top jury prizes from the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival,The San Diego Asian Film Festival and The VC Film Festival. Most recently, ÒThe MotelÓ was nominated for Best First Feature Film by The Independent Spirit Awards. Recently, Michael was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts ArtistÕs Residency Grant at The MacDowell Colony. Michael is recipient of the Geri Ashur Award in screenwriting through the New York Foundation for the Arts. Michael also received a fellowship through the ABC / DGA New Talent Television Directing Program. Currently, Michael will premiere his second feature ÒWest 32ndÓ which was produced by Teddy Zee and features John Cho, Grace Park and Jeong Jun Ho at The Tribeca Film Festival.
Awards/ Screening : Official Selection - 2006 Sundance Film Festival
Paris Je T'aime | France | 2007 | 116 mins
Synopsis : Twenty acclaimed filmmakers from around the world look at love in the City of Lights in this omnibus feature. Paris Je T'aime features eighteen short stories, each set in a different part of Paris and each featuring a different cast and director (two segments were produced by two filmmakers in collaboration). In "Faubourg Saint-Denis," Tom Tykwer directs Natalie Portman as an American actress who is the object of affection for a blind student (Melchior Belson). Christopher Doyle's "Porte de Choisy" follows a salesman (Barbet Schroeder) as he tries to pitch beauty aids in Chinatown. Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier are lovers out on the town in "Parc Monceau" from Alfonso Cauron. Animator Sylvain Chomet turns his eye to a pair of living, breathing mimes in "Tour Eiffel." A witty look at race and class in France is offered by Gurinder Chadha in "Quais de Seine." In "Le Marais" from Gus Van Sant, a man (Gaspard Ulliel) finds himself falling for a handsome gent (Elias McConnell) who works in a print shop. Isabelle Coixet tells the tale of a man (Sergio Castellitto) who is making his final choice between his wife (Miranda Richardson) and his lover (Leonor Watling) in "Bastille." Juliette Binoche plays a grieving mother in Nobuhiro Suwa's "Place des Victoires," in which she's greeted by a spectral cowboy (Willem Dafoe). Richard LaGravanese's "Pigalle" finds a long-married man (Bob Hoskins) turning to a prostitute for advice on pleasing his wife (Fanny Ardant). Gerard Depardieu and Frederic Auburtin direct Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara as former lovers meeting again in "Quartier Latin." Steve Buscemi learns a lesson about local etiquette in the Paris Metro in "Tuileries" from Joel and Ethan Coen. In "Loin du 16eme" by Walter Salles, a housekeeper (Catalina Sandino Moreno) watches the wealthy woman of the house tend to her children as she wonders how she will care for her own. Elijah Wood stars in "Quartier de la Madeleine," a vampire tale from from Vicenzo Natali. Wes Craven presents another fantasy in "Pere-Lachaise," in which a two ghosts (Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell) have fun toying with the city's flesh and blood residents. A postal worker from Colorado (Margo Martindale) shares her thoughts on her visit to Paris in oddly accented French in Alexander Payne's witty "14th Arrondissement." Other segments include "Place des Fetes" from Olivier Schmitz, Bruno Podalydes's "Montmartre" and "Quartier des Enfants Rouges" by Olivier Assayas, which stars Maggie Gyllenhall. Paris Je T'Aime received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Directors : Bruno Podalydes, Gurinder Chadha, Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, Walter Salles, Christopher Doyle, Isabelle Coixet, Nobuhiro Suwa, Sylvain Chomet, Alfonso Cuaron, Olivier Assayas, Oliver Schmitz, Richard Lagravenese, Vicenzo Natali, Wes Craven, Tom Tykwer, Frederic Auburtin and Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne
Awards and Screenings : Official Selection 2007 Cannes Film Festival
Requiem | Germany | 2006 | 93 mins
Synopsis : Director Hans-Christian Schmid helms this award winning account of a first-year university student whose bout with epilepsy leads to a tragic exorcism. Inspired by the same events that were previously dramatized in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Requiem follows college freshman and devoted Catholic Michaela Klinger (Sandra Hueller) as she attempts to adjust to dormitory life while struggling to meet the growing pressures and academic expectations of school. Though a tentative friendship with temperamental classmate Hanna (Anna Blomeier) and a blossoming romance with easygoing chemistry student Stefan (Nicholas Reinke) at first find the shy student developing a pair of healthy bonds, an ill-advised abandonment of her medication regimen sets into motion a chilling series of events. Warned by a series of apparitions and disembodied voices that she should stay away from rosaries and crucifixes, Michaela seeks out the help of both her parents and amiable priest Father Landauer (Walter Schmidinger) to no avail. When Michaela becomes convinced that she is being made to suffer in the same manner of a well-known saint, well-intending pastor Borchert (Jens Harzer) hastily assembles an in-home exorcism that is doomed to end in tragedy.
Director : Hans-Christian Schmid
Bio : Hans-Christian Schmid was born in 1965 in Altštting, a place of pilgrimage in Bavaria which presented several themes for his first films: for example Die Mechanik des Wunders, his prize-winning graduation film at the Munich Academy for Television and Film 1992, is about the way in which belief and superstition, customs and misuse go hand in hand in his home town. The television film Himmel und Hšlle with Hannelore Hoger and Katja Riemann was concerned with religion and commerce. And because Schmid likes to relate things that he knows a lot about, the film Nach fŸnf im Urwald is about the experience of arriving in the big city from the provinces for the first time. After its showing at the Hofer Filmtage 1995, the film began a victory march through the cinemas and brought the young actress Franka Potenta her first breakthrough. After this, Schmid worked together with Michael Gutmann for the fourth time, writing the screenplay for Nur fŸr eine Nacht, which Gutmann then produced. This was followed in 1998 by 23, the story of the hacker Karl Koch, a film bringing considerable attention to its protagonist August Diehl. Schmid also received a German Film Award and the Hypo-Promotion Prize for 23. Finally, Schmid made a film version of crazy, the bestseller by private schoolboy Benjamin Lebert, again succeeding in making a mark at the cinema box offices.
Awards/ Screening : FIPRESCI Award - 2006 Berlinale International Film Festival |
