Father Geek here in Austin, Texas along with Robert Bernocchi in Rome to bring you this week's edition of our regular Monday Euro-AICN Column. Lots of coolness this week, not the least of which is the fact that Harry and ol' Father Geek will be in London from Feb.28th thru March 3rd to check out that local film scene, meet up with some of our British spies and fans, explore the pubs, and to do a little promotion for the premiere of the British Edition of Harry's book, AINT IT COOL. Make sure to check out the top story on the site's frontpage for the latest word on where we'll be and when while in London. We'll be updating it from time to time as we find out more about our calendar while there... Now here's Robert...
Hi people. Thanks to the great european sites Screendaily and ShowBiz Ireland, this week we have the latest information about the directors Francis Ford Coppola, Pedro Almodovar, Neil Jordan and the actors Pierce Brosnan, Samantha Mumbo, Michael Caine and Gabriel Byrne. And, to conclude this column, I received a great report by our dutch movie fan Amahagger Muggle from the Rotterdam Film Festival, where he reviews for us Mamoru Oshii's Avalon and Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer. Enjoy...
News from Screendaily:
Myriad on the road with Coppola's Zoetrope
Myriad Pictures yesterday unveiled three new pictures it will fi-
nance for Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope including its
long-gestating adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On The Road to be di-
rected by Joel Schumacher and new films with Bill Condon and
Robert Greenwald.
http://www.screendaily.com/index.pl?7452
Culkin kills for Party Monster role
Macauley Culkin is in final negotiations to star as Michael Alig
in Party Monster, the movie about the notorious murdering
New York party promoter that is being produced by Killer Films
and sold by Fortissimo Film Sales. Ed Pressman and John Schmidt's
ContentFilm has also come on board as co-financier and will han-
dle North American rights.
http://www.screendaily.com/index.pl?7437
Almodovar Talks to Euro theatres for premiere
Pedro Almodovars eagerly anticipated new film Talk To Her
(Hable Con Ella) will not receive its world premiere at one
of this years top film festivals as might be expected. Instead
promotion will focus initially on a release in just three key Eu-
ropean territories so that the director can get back to work on
his next project, the long-gestating Bad Education (La Mala
Educacion).
http://www.screendaily.com/index.pl?7430
News from ShowBiz Ireland (http://www.ShowBizIreland.com):
Michael Caine in Jordan's The Actors...
Michael Caine has arrived in Dublin start filming Neil Jordan's current movie project The Actors.
The film will be made in Ireland's Ardmore Studios at a cost of £5 million pounds and will be co-produced by the Irish filmmaker who has put the actor up at a new apartment block down the road from his own home.
Caine will stay in the luxury Coliemore Apartments where the Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett will also be staying while she is shooting her new movie The Veronica Guerin story in Dublin.
Caine's film is expected to be directed by the Irish playwright Conor McPherson, who wrote the script for the Irish movie I Went Down, the movie that gave Brendan Gleeson his first big break.
The Actors will put Caine back working with Jordan's film firm The Company of Wolves Production Company for the first time since the 1986 movie Mona Lisa.
The Actors tells the story of a struggling Irish actor who uses his skill to get a friend out of trouble with a gangster.
As things go wrong the actor has to play more and more roles to cover things up.
Colm Meaney in Jordan's Intermission...
Irish Star Trek actor Colm Meaney is to star alongside his fellow Irish actor Colin Farrell in next Neil Jordan film Intermission.
Jordan who has made such hits as Interview with a Vampire and The Crying Game will start shooting the film next month in Dublin when Farrell returns from Canada where he has been filming The Farm with Al Pacino.
Speaking recently to the Irish press a source close to Jordan said, "It's a bit like Short Cuts. There are loads of plots going on at once. Including a gangster story."
The film Intermission is set to be made by Neil Jordan's film company, Company of Wolves.
Samantha Mumbo in The Time Machine
It won't be long until we see the Irish Pop Princess Samantha Mumba and her brother Omero on our cinema screens.
Their new film, The Time Machine, is set for release on the 8th of March.
Also starring celebrated actor, Guy Pearce, the Steven Speilberg film is expected to top the box office charts and may be launched in Dublin with a star studded premier.
Speaking recently about the film in Ireland Samantha said: "I loved every minute of filming it. It was amazing to work with Guy - he taught me everything. The first day on set I was so nervous but he put me at ease straight away. It took me a few takes to settle down and stop shaking but my confidence grew as time went on."
Samantha's little brother Omero, has been equally amazed at working within the film industry and has been approached by many American agents.
However, the 12-year-old star explained to ShowBizIreland.com recently that his heart was in music, and he never really expected to follow in his sister's footsteps.
"I never really thought it [music] was going to happen, but then when I did the film, that was another door opened."
Talking about his career preference he joked: "it's probably singing, but when I see the film I'll probably change my mind again! For now I want to focus on the music."
Samantha is off to LA next week to begin promoting the film, and despite the fact she dislikes being away from home, it won't be too bad this time.
She says: "I have my own apartment in LA so that when I am there I can feel more at home".
Byrne fears The Ghost Ship...
The Irish actor Gabriel Byrne is currently preparing to film his new movie in Australia but he says he's far from looking forward to it.
The acclaimed actor explained to Irish press recently, that he has a fear of water and cannot swim.
This may pose problems as the film, The Ghost Ship, is about a haunted vessel on which sailors mysteriously disappear.
He explained to the Irish Star newspaper, "I'm kind of dreading it. I can't swim. Irish fishermen never learn to swim because they believe that if the sea calls them, it's their fate to go down."
He also quipped that you might see him "wearing a pair of floaties."
Another reason he may not be looking forward to the 3-month shoot is that he will be away from his children, Jack and Romey. Their mother, Byrne's ex-wife Ellen Barkin, will be taking care of them in New York. Byrne added: "I'll be down there for three months. It's too far for anyone to visit."
Gabriel is currently in production in London, working on Spider, a film directed by David Cronenberg and co-starring Ralph Finnes, Miranda Richardson and Lynn Redgrave.
Brosnan shaken but not stirred...
Reports on the Web say that Bond star Pierce Brosnan has come a cropper on the set of the Bond 20.
Reuters reports that Brosnan has suffered a knee injury while filming the latest installment of the James Bond franchise.
EON Productions said in a statement "Pierce Brosnan has always pursued the character with extreme physicality. Friday, Brosnan sustained a knee injury during an action sequence involving water".
Apparently Brosnan will be out of action for two weeks but the film would still hit screens in November as planned.
Brosnan was shooting an action sequence involving water at the time of the injury.
Meaney in Jordan's Intermission...
Irish Star Trek actor Colm Meaney is to star alongside his fellow Irish actor Colin Farrell in next Neil Jordan film Intermission.
Jordan who has made such hits as Interview with a Vampire and The Crying Game will start shooting the film next month in Dublin when Farrell returns from Canada where he has been filming The Farm with Al Pacino.
Speaking recently to the Irish press a source close to Jordan said, "It's a bit like Short Cuts. There are loads of plots going on at once. Including a gangster story."
The film Intermission is set to be made by Neil Jordan's film company, Company of Wolves.
Pendragon Pictures announces its new project: Chrome
The principals of Pendragon Pictures announce March 18, 2002 as the
official start date of live action photography of CHROME, their new sci-fi
action thriller, starring Katie Tomlinson.
CHROME is set in the year 2131 in a nightmare world where seas of robot
slaves toil under a dark world-dominating totalitarian government. Chrome, a
shimmering, silvery robot, legendary for her ability to challenge humans, is
pulled into a global fight for freedom. A fight she ultimately leads as the
world struggles to rear up from the darkness of tyranny.
"It was a difficult transition from the WAR OF THE WORLDS project," says
CHROME director, Timothy Hines. "When the tragedy of September 11th
occurred, we had little time to rebound. I felt from the beginning that we
were going into CHROME spread too thin. And I didn't want to do a picture
like that. So twice we extended the pre-production time by several weeks
until I was satisfied that we were doing this picture right."
Producer Susan Goforth concurs, "Timothy has made the right choices in
extending pre-production. Moviegoers will flip out when they see the array
of amazing robots in CHROME, which are a combination of live actors,
animatronics and CGI. Timothy has been very adamant that the mechanics work
and that the robot characters are plausible. You don't have to be with
Timothy very long to know that he's the real thing. He has a gift of totally
focusing on the details, while never losing the bigger picture. His focus is
one hundred percent on making a great movie, and on telling a great story."
Amahagger Muggle has a great report for us from the Rotterdam Film Festival...
Hi, you good people at Aint-it-cool-news, I wrote a Battle Royale review
last year and you published it! Let's see if this works again...
AVALON review:
Two years ago, the 29th International Rotterdam Film Festival showed
a couple of Japanese animation features, including Princess Mononoke
(original subtitled version) and Ghost i/t Shell (dubbed). I had never
seen either of them, and thought it would be cool to have my first viewing
of these on the big screen. Both movies impressed me, and I got seriously
addicted to the haunting GitS soundtrack. Last year I lamented the fact
that Avalon wasn't playing at the 30th International Rotterdam Film
Festival, and had to be satisfied with seeing Battle Royale instead
(happily blundering into the European Premiere of what turned out to be a
movie that was quite good indeed...). So this year, to my great joy, it
was announced that Avalon would indeed be playing. Looking through the
schedule, my friends and me noted that the first showing of Avalon would
be on the largest screen in Rotterdam (Imax closed down last year), the
very same where we had seen Battle Royale, GitS and Princess Mononoke.
Needless to say, I was there. And, unlike other movies I've been waiting
more than a year for, I wasn't disappointed.
The plot, in short (just the premise): Ash, a lonely young woman, is
a nobody in the dreary, tedious real world. She is also a quite famous
player in the dreary, dangerous multiplayer videogame called "Avalon".
This game is being played (or just watched) by a large number of people,
even though it's illegal. When Ash starts reaching the upper limit of her
abilities in the game, she goes looking for a legendary secret level,
which might hold the answer to some questions from her past that have been
plaguing her. End of plot summary for the first half of the movie. I
really, really liked Avalon. First and foremost, it looks and sounds
fantastic. Shooting his first non-animated feature (that I know of) in
Poland and in Polish, Mamoru Oshii shows a world in which you could have
thrilling adventures or make many action movies about. And then he goes
beyond that world and uses it for telling a different sort of story. As
with his animated films, the action sequences are so well done you can't
help but wish there were more of them. Whenever Ash goes into an Avalon
gaming session, the movie starts to speed up, and the end-of-level bosses
have to be seen to be believed: grossly exaggerated versions of existing
weaponry. But these scenes are (sometimes frustratingly) not what this
movie is about. All the marvelous settings and designs are only there as
tools for the director to show the story, and outside the videogame world
he takes his time in telling it. Because of this, Avalon can seem very,
very slow indeed. This is not a bad thing in itself, for it's a conscious
choice of Oshii, but if you have a strong aversion to watching long scenes
where almost nothing happens, skip this one! This is a drama with some
impressive action scenes (and most of those in the first 8 minutes), not
an apocalyptic action movie. And lots of people will be uncomfortable with
the ending.
But even in the slow moments there are lots of details to notice. Both the
game world and the real world in Avalon look intentionally fake, and
neatly incorporate every graphical shortcoming a videogame can have.
Repeating textures, bad drawing distance, limited number of objects,
limited number of movements, limited number of locations, wrong shadows
and coloring... it's there, sometimes subtly, sometimes in your face, and
clearly always deliberate. Little things, like how all keys on every
keyboard are blank. At every moment you are looking at carefully modified
visuals. And when Oshii pulls a "Wizard of Oz"-like stunt late in the
movie, the effect is nothing short of suddenly having your sunglasses
ripped off, mixed with a breath of fresh air. Just seeing the reaction of
the audience when this happens is fun in itself. The acting is sufficient
to good (if a bit "deadpan"), with Polish actress Malgorzata Foremniak as
Ash being quite watchable. Which is a good thing, as she is the center of
almost all shots. Also very noticeable is the use of Kenji Kawai's score.
After his work on Ghost i/t Shell, I was interested in hearing what he did
for Avalon, and got what I wanted: another soundtrack to put on my to-buy
list (it's been purchased; listening to it as I am writing this). At times
it starts carrying the visuals instead of supporting it, and I can't think
of a lot of other movies which have the score so cleverly integrated into
their design and story. To finish this review, lets just say this is now
one of my favorite movies, even with the low pacing. If you see this one
with friends, make sure to plan a visit to the pub afterwards to discuss
it!
And I feel I've been lucky that I had the chance to see it on such a big
screen, with good sound, as I'm guessing most people won't.
ICHI THE KILLER review:
After reading Elaine's excellent and intriguing review of Miike
Takashi's psychological drama Audition, and noticing that one of the local
smaller cinema's was screening that one, I went to see it with a couple of
friends and colleagues. We left the cinema somewhat paler and profoundly
shaken, and Audition became a bit of a legend at my workplace as that
"incredibly sick picture". Me and my colleagues can still make each others
skin crawl by saying "kittykittykittykitty" (this was translated in the
subtitles as "deeper, deeper", which is not nice if you know the context).
Fast forward 18 months towards the 31st International Rotterdam Film
Festival, with Miike Takashi present and showing no less than four new
films of his. Including what is apparently his sickest stuff yet:
Visitor-Q and Ichi the Killer. "Do we dare visit these?", is asked in the
group that had previously been to Audition... Of course we do!
With Ichi the Killer having the reputation of being the most violent
picture you can make without alienating ALL of the audience, that one
became the single Miike film we most definitely had to see... even if we
maybe didn't really want to. Just to be able to say that we had seen the
worst, and survived it.
Going into old Luxor theater (temporarily made a cinema for the festival,
prior to demolition) with my friends, I felt the same anticipation as
sitting in a roller coaster, going up towards the first plunge. The
feeling like... it looked like a good idea before I sat down, but now that
I'm actually sitting I'll just hope for the best...
And then I spot a familiar face, recognizing it from surfing the web,
looking for info Miike Takashi films...
It's Elaine! No, just kidding, don't know what he or she looks like,
although I have a suspicion she might be there (note made afterwards: she
wasn't, took a different screening). It's actually Miike Takashi himself!
When announced, he is greeted with a roaring applause from the audience,
which knows full well what to expect for this evening and is eagerly
awaiting it. When the announcer quips that this evening the festival shows
a beautiful humanist drama, the crowd laughs. When he asks the audience
for forgiveness for showing this picture, the crowd laughs. When he asks
people to make sure not to leave any body parts in the cinema after the
movie, the crowd laughs, politely. The minor Q&A between the announcer,
Miike Takashi and actor Tadanobu Asano (who plays the main badguy) goes
down well. When Tadanobu Asano says that he's never seen this movie played
in front of such a large number of people, everyone laughs. When Miike
Takashi says he'll go on his knees if more than half of the room is still
full when the movie ends, everyone laughs. Astonishingly, only a small
minority seems to have stumbled into this screening not knowing beforehand
it would be a gorefest, and everybody is obviously prepared to have a good
time with this movie.
Well, I hope his knees weren't too stiff because only a couple of people
left. This time, I'm not even going to give a plot summary, just the
tagline on the poster: "All persons in this picture are completely sick
and disturbed, any resemblance to people living or dead is a sad
coincidence". Which sets the film up nicely. No good guys in this pic,
just bad ones carving each other up (literally, in some cases). In short,
it wasn't as hard to watch as I was afraid it would be. Regardless of all
the hype surrounding Ichi the Killer, I found the violence in Audition far
more difficult to watch, because in Audition you cared for the main
characters, and the violence looked real. Most of the violence in Ichi is
so over the top the audience cheered and applauded. The blood geysering
around looks too thin to be real, which removes much of the bite. Shocked
laughter could be heard several times. There are two exceptions though:
once, a woman is methodically being beaten to pulp, which looked so
realistic it was uncomfortable. The second time was when another woman was
tortured to near-death by two sadistic detectives, which is horrible to
see. The aftermath of that particular sequence is very well done though,
and I was surprised at the speed with which Miike Takashi won the audience
over to his side again.
In short: lots of violence, an odd story told in a confusing way, and a
finale which is so weird and tragic it's funny at the same time. And Asano
is brilliant as a criminal who looks more like The Joker than Jack
Nicholson did. My friends and I had a lot of fun with this, but if you're
only going to see one Miike Takashi movie, I would recommend Audition
instead.
I fear to think what Miike Takashi and Tadanobu Asano must be thinking
about us (the Dutch, that is) after this screening, as Ichi the Killer got
the highest audience rating of all Miike's movies that showed this year.
PS: About those ratings...
Lots of prices are given at the International Rotterdam Film Festival, but
the audience also gets to pick it's favorite. At every single movie you
visit, you get a card with the numbers 1 to 5 on them, and you tear
through one of the numbers to give a rating. The numbers stand for:
1: bad, and anything lower. 2: poor. 3: reasonable. 4: good.
5: very good, and anything higher.
Elaine stated a suspicion that the festival cheats with these numbers,
based on the impossibly high rating that H-Story got. Now that may be
true, but after the votes from the screening she saw got counted, the
score dropped from above 3 to..., to..., ehm... Well, they only show the
top 200, and the lowest of those has a 1.94, so H-Story (not even on that
list) is somewhere below that. I guess the director was present at the
first screening, which boosted the score temporarily. Let's face it,
people who specifically wanted to see that movie would pick that
screening, right?
Anyway, an average of 4.69 is very high indeed, which is what the winner
got. Just for fun, I added a short list of movies recently mentioned on
Aint-it-cool-news, that got into the top 200, with the rating they got.
Check if you agree with the Rotterdam audience:
Place, title, rating.
- 1: No Man's Land, 4.69 (Amazing score, just look at the difference with
number 2! Clearly not a close finish.)
- 2: Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, 4.48
- 7: Scratch, 4.37
- 10: Tape, 4.35
- 11: Donnie Darko, 4.30
- 13: Ghost World, 4.24
- 14: Mulholland Drive, 4.24
- 19: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 4.19
- 37: Dogtown and Z-Boys, 4.04
- 56: Ichi the Killer, 3.93 (Miike's highest this year!)
- 60: Happiness of the Katakuris, 3.89 (Miike's second place)
- 63: Avalon, 3.88
- 75: Visitor Q, 3.83 (Miike's third. Note how close the scores are between
his first three films in this list...))
- 82: From Hell, 3.78
- 89: Bully, 3.76
- 95: In the Bedroom, 3.74 (...and that's what happens to so-called
"mainstream" cinema at a festival...)
- 97: Shadow o/t Vampire, 3.71
- 100: Fat Girl, 3.70
- 120: Agitator, 3.54 (Miike's last but not.. oh, hang on, it IS least!)
- 124: Waking Life, 3.51
- 156: Pulse, 3.26 (Now we're approaching the low-ish scores...)
- 184: Wendigo, 2.84
- 186: Teenage Hooker Became Killing Machine in DaeHakRoh, 2.81
And that's all for this year at Rotterdam as far as I'm concerned.
The last time I did use a spy name, and it was Amahagger Muggle. Meaning
without an ounce of magic but easily bewitched.
That's all for today,
See you next week
Robert Bernocchi
euroaicn@yahoo.com
http://www.caltanet.it/frm/cinema/
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