Father Geek here with Robert Bernocchi's Euro-AICN Column for this Monday. Buuuuuut before we get to the regular report here are a couple of really interesting items that Grozilla sent in a little late so ol' Father Geek will include them here...

The french saga with Miyzaki keeps goin'on : I (Grozilla)just learned that
SPIRITED AWAY won't be released here as scheduled on jan 16th,
but at least one month later. Why this delay ? Seems that the
translation is harder than thought, the story refers so much to
japaneses culture that it ain't easy to make it accessible for Western
kids. And y'all know what kids means to Disney as an audience...
The other buzz in town is that the French office of Buena Vista
is having some difficulties in getting all the material needed from
the Japanese.

Well, that could be true : ask any people working
in film business, they'll never lack for stories about how hard it
is to deal with Japanese society... Anyway, the screening of
Spirited Away scheduled during "Les nouvelles Images du Japon" in
late Decembre doesn't seem to be canceled. But will it be
subtitled till then?

Then a little later we received this at Geek Headquarters here in Austin, Texas from Grozilla...

Just received the line up for the Nouvelles images du Japon,
starting soon in le Forum des Images in Paris. Most of these
films have never been released for theatres in France. And I guess everyone
will notcice the screenings no one can miss (Avalon, Metropolis
and of course : Spirited Away).

Dec 15th

• Porco rosso
  
• Princesse Arete
  
• Conan, son of future (in presence of Yasuo Otsuka)
  
• Escaflowne
  
• Nausicaa
  
• Jin-Roh

Dec 16th

• Junkers come here
  
• Sherlock Holmes
  
• Kare Kano
  
• Vampire hunter D
  
• Boogie Pop phantom
  
• Pompoko
  
• Blood

Dec 17th

• Kuromi-Chan
  
• Kiki's delivery service
  
• Utena
  
• Music videos, Ads
  
• Special evening "digital cinema"

Dec 18th

• Trigun
  
• Shorts films
  
• Furi Kuri
  
• The fireflies graveyard
  
• Metropolis

Dec 19th

• Totoro
  
• Goshu
  
• Tenguri (in presence of Yasuo Otsuka)
  
• Cagliostro's catsle (in presence of Yasuo Otsuka)
  
• Perfect blue (in presence of Satsohi Kon)
  
• Read or die

Dec 20th

• The big O
  
• Spirit of wonder
  
• Junkers come here

Dec 21th

• Chie la petite peste
  
• Le roi du 21e siècle
  
• Sherlock Holmes
  
• Princesse Arete

Dec 22th

• Nausicaa
  
• Panda Kopanda
  
• Pompoko
  
• Kiki's delivery service
  
• Spirited away (in presence of Hayao Miyazaki)
  
• Furi Kuri

Dec 23th

• Cagilostro's castle
  
• Princess Mononoke
  
• Laputa
  
• Si tu tends l'oreille
  
• Avalon (in presence of Kenji Kawai)

Grozi

WOW!!! Father Geek back. What a wonderful Christmas present for anyone who can get to Paris for this festival. Man, wish I could make it! Here's Robert and his regular report for this week...

Euro-AICN...

Hi people. Not a very good week for this column. I guess Hollywood's ultra short work week due to the USA's Thankgiving holiday affected things over here as well... I received very few tidbits from the readers.

Unfortunatelly, I also got a virus on my computer which erased completely a folder (do I have to say which one?) on my Outlook. Moreover, I was busy this weekend preparing a conference here in Rome about LOTR (which, for the record, was attended by a lot of people). Thus, this week I have just some news (taken from great Euro magazines such as Screendaily, ShowbizIreland and Empire Online) and also a review of Abbas Kiarostami's latest opus "ABC Africa".

Enjoy and... Send Me Alot Of Cool Stuff in the coming days.

ScreenDaily

(http://www.screendaily.com/)

The UK’s Simon Perry, Holland Film’s Claudia Landsberger and Pandora Film's Christoph Friedel are among the members of the revamped selection committee for the Berlinale’s official competition section at the forthcoming festival (February 6-17, 2002). The 13-person line-up comprises: Dieter Kosslick (festival executive director), Wieland Speck (Panorama), Christoph Terhechte (International Forum), Beki Probst (European Film Market), Alfred Holighaus (Perspectives German Cinema), Anke Leweke (film critic), Matthias Elwardt (cinema owner, Hamburg), Rainer Rother (film historian, Berlin), Katrin Schloesser (producer, O-Film, Berlin), Claudia Landsberger (Holland Film, Amsterdam), Simon Perry (producer, London) and Cristina Hoffmann (Export-Union French representative, Paris).

Uruguayan box office wonder Tricky Life (En La Puta Vida) was awarded the top Golden Columbus (Colon de Oro) prize Saturday (Nov 24) by the jury of Spain’s 27th annual Iberoamerican Film Festival of Huelva. A Uruguayan-Spanish-Belgian co-production sold internationally by Bavaria Film, Tricky is the first film ever nominated by Uruguay to compete for the foreign language Oscar. Beatriz Flores Silva wrote and directed the tale of Uruguayan prostitution in Europe. Argentine Eliseo Subiela took home the best director prize for The Dark Side Of The Heart II (El Lado Oscuro Del Corazon II). Best actor and actress nods went to Argentina’s Ulises Dumont for Rosarigasinos and Mexico’s Gabriela Canudas for her title role in Otilia. Other official competition awards included best script for Colombia’s Dano Garcia (La Pena Maxima), best new director for Argentina’s Veronica Chen (Vagon Fumador), best photography for Roberto Henkin (Brazil’s Netto Perde Sua Alma), and the jury’s special prize to Rodrigo Grande’s Rosarigasinos. Venezuelan-Spanish-Canadian co-production A Hnanouse With A View Of The Sea (Una Casa Con Vista Al Mar), Venezuela’s nomination to the foreign-language Oscar, walked away with the public's prize. Sea director Alberto Arvelo picked up the audience award last month in Biarritz as well.

ShowbizIreland

(http://www.showbizireland.com/)

ShowBizIreland.com's Jason O'Callaghan interviews Pierce Brosnan from the set of his new movie Evelyn and quizzes him about Bond and other projects.

Will the new Bond be shot in Ireland?

Reports that parts of the Bond film will be shot in Ireland are just rumors, unfortunately Ireland will not feature in the next Bond film.

Will you ever move back to Ireland?

I keep dreaming about living here but never get around to doing anything practical about it. But, I am very happy to be back working in Ireland at the moment.

Why this script (Evelyn) and not one of the hundreds of others you get?

It was the script that attracted me. Then when Bruce Beresford got involved with his cinematic flare I just could not refuse.

But it is so far from Bond?

This is a little step away from the Bond. But Bond can also be a milestone around your neck. You have to step away from that as one can get pigeon holed so easily by it. You have got to stay on your toes as an actor and search for roles that can stretch you. And take you in a different direction. And this is a far cry from the world of Bond.

Read the entire interview here: By Just Clicking Here Right Now

Channel 4 Father Ted Nemeses Fr. Jack, aka Frank Kelly, is to star as Pierce Brosnan's Dad in his latest movie Evelyn. It has been reported in Irish tabloids that the veteran Irish actor is to star along side Brosnan's celeb filled cast including Stephen Rea and Aiden Quinn. Frank joked to Ireland on Sunday "Once you've played James Bond's father, the only way is down." And it's not the first time Kelly starred along side Brosnan, "I tried to blow his head off with a shotgun in an episode of Remington Steele and I was the publican in Taffin.

From Empire Online

(http://www.empireonline.co.uk/)

It's been a busy old week for British wunderkind Sam Mendes. Fresh from announcing that he and Kate Winslet were now an item, the British director today revealed that he was quitting his role as Artistic Director of London's Donmar theatre. Mendes joined the Donmar in 1992, turning an ailing theatrical venture into a star-studded venture which regularly transferred its productions to Broadway. But it was Mendes' production of the Blue Room starring Nicole Kidman which rocketed him to worldwide fame for bringing 'pure theatrical Viagra' to the stage.

Freddy Krueger he ain't, but Frodo Baggins can still give young kids the heebie-jeebies when the lights go out. The little hobbit’s adventures in The Fellowship of the Ring have earned a PG rating, but the film will carry warnings that it is unsuitable for children under the age of eight. Jurassic Park and follow up The Lost World are the only other films to give warnings alongside the child-friendly PG certificate. Bigwigs at the British Board of Film Classification said the film was not scary enough to take it into the 12 rating but scenes of "battle violence and fantasy horror" put it at the top end of the PG category. In an effort to bridge the gap between the two certificates, Entertainment Film Distributors has agreed to include advice that the film contains scenes which may not be suitable for younger children.

ABC Africa

by Abbas Kiarostami

In Uganda AIDS killed two million people, wiping out a whole generation of men between 18 and 45. How can children survive without their parents? And how did women organize a net of solidarity? These are the questions that ABC Africa should answer.

Let’s take a great director, who in his career was greeted with the Palme d’or in Cannes and who is an admirer of italian neorealism. Let’s him work on a very important item as the AIDS tragedy in Africa. Probably we’ll get a masterwork. But we can also get a despicable pic as this.

I’m trying to explain my point of view. There are many types of documentary. We have the fake documentary, which is often ironic (as the exhilarating mockumentary This is Spinal tap or the too-incredible-to-be-true Forgotten Silver), but also serious (as Hoop Dreams). Of course, this is a real documentary, which should have the ambition to describe the reality of a very unhappy country. On the contrary, Kiarostami decides to preserve his auterish and unique style (which, just to be honest, provided us a few masterpieces). But it’s not acceptable to see Kiarostami on the screen as he was one of the main characters. Even because this movie is not (and doesn’t want to be) a reflection about cinema as Close Up and “Sotto gli Ulivi” were. And after all, what’s the aim of showing 10-15 minutes (out of a little more of eighty) of children dancing and kidding? Maybe to prove that life continues anyway? And, to achieve this goal, is it acceptable to use so dull images? Sometimes, it’s hard to see the difference with a cynic tv reportage, mostly when we see some diseased patients in a hospital. But this is not the worst of this documentary. It’s evening and the cameraman points his camera to a group of huge mosquitos (by the way, if in Uganda Aids is a scourge, malaria is not a less serious problem). Suddenly, the light is turned down. Thus, we stare at five stupid, useless, shameful minutes of black screen with laughable dialogues. It looks like the stereotype of an auterish film: five minutes of black screen. But that’s reality. There are even a few interesting ideas (as the critic to local church which, in spite of the tragedy, is contrary to condoms). And when a little, motionless body is covered with a sheet, it’s quite hard to not be moved. But, rather than saving this documentary from mediocrity, these (rare) moments increase the regret for a movie that have could been a great work of art and that I’ll remember for its huge faults.

Robert Bernocchi

euroaicn@yahoo.com

http://www.caltanet.it/frm/cinema