Father Geek here filing the 1st report from Ozymandias' man on the scene at the Venice Film Festival, Colin McKenzie. He'll be sending us items daily from the fest we all wish we were at. However, Father Geek does have a little fest here in Austin that I've been attending and I just got in from Spaghetti Western Night at the Alamo hosted by Quentin Tarantino. Earlier Moriarty, Tom Joad, Harry and I stuffed ourselves on all sorts of pasta to prepare for the evening. We then sat back to watch and listen to Quentin introduce us to his FAVORITE genre, "Man... I could... like do a WHOLE 10 day festival of nothing but THESE films!" To arrive home after an evening of kickass Italian Western features, and 3 dozen plus related trailers (Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West, Good Bad and Ugly, Cemetery without Crosses, Take a Hard Ride, Stranger and the Gunfighter, A Bullet for Ringo, My Name is Nobody, Minute to Pray a Second to Die, Death Rides a Horse, Etc...) to find an unexpected report on Clint Eastwood's SPACE COWBOYS and a doco entitled EASTWOOD: OUT OF THE SHADOWS was just way way too cool...

August, the 30

The Festival is starting officially today, but i have already seen two
movies yesterday and two press conference this morning. There's just one
name to say: Clint Eastwood. Even if today we have other movies to see,
everyone is speaking about him. He'll receive in the evening, by the hands of
Sharon Stone, the Golden Lion for his career. So, what are the movies whom i'm speaking about? Of course, one of them is Space Cowboys, that many of
you had already the chance to see. The other, instead, has his premiere at
the Festival and it's the documentary about Clint Eastwood realised by
Bruce Ricker.

Space Cowboys, by Clint Eastwood

There was so much talking, in these days in Italy, about Space Cowboys.
Many journalists were fascinated by these old mens that save the world. Me
too, i was waiting for something original. And, for an hour and a half, i
really appreciated the humour. The history: a russian satellite is falling
down. Only one man (that's not difficult to perceive who he is) knows the
old technology that was used to build the satellite. But the Eastwood
character is an outcast because, after he and his fellow Tommy Lee Jones have
destroyed three planes in the 1958 when they were young and they partecipated
at the project Daedalus, they lost the chance to arrive to the moon. So,
this is a new possibility to achieve their goal to arrive in the space. Clint
is perfect as a guide for the other members of the project Daedalus and his
quarrels with James Cromwell are delightful. The four actors are great and
their relationship is one of the most interesting i've seen in these
years in american movies. Sadly, the last 45 minutes dedicated to their
mission aren't so brilliant and reminded me too much similar situations in
Armaggeddon. So, this is a very good movie to open a festival, but that's not
as wonderful as Unforgiven or The Bridges of Madison County. But maybe
that's my fault, because i consider Eastwood a genius and i'm not
satisfied by a simple "good movie". If you like Eastwood as me, you can't
miss Eastwood-Out of the Shadows.

Eastwood-Out of the Shadows, by Bruce Ricker

The life, the career and the achievements of Clint Eastwood in 84 minutes.
Bruce Ricker made a marvellous job. He gathered a lot of informations and
extracts by Eastwood movies for the cinema and for television. We can see
some pictures of his childhood and he's described as a shy guy by his
mother. Very soon, we arrive at the part most interesting: his relationship
with the cinema. So, that's very funny to see some footage by movies as
Tarantula, one of the first apparitions of our hero in front of a cine-camera.
Very soon, he started with television, with some episodes of Maverick and
being the protagonist of Rawhide (i think it was a very popular serial in
The United States, but pretty unknown in Italy). Of course, he became a movie
star with Sergio Leone and with movies as A Fistful of Dollars and The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But with the character of The Man with no Name and
above all with Dirty Harry started also some misunderstandings about his
political views. He can see in the documentary Pauline Kael that described
him as a "machine for killing" and Ronald Reagan that borrow from
Eastwood the legendary line, "Go ahead, make my day". Unfortunately, whereas
the european critics adored him for movies as his masterwork Bird, the
american press didn't consider him an artist. Eventually, the success of
Unforgiven and his four Oscar gave Eastwood the deserved tribute.
Go to see this movie and see a part of the movie history.

Tomorrow reviews of Uttara (India), I cento passi (The Hundred Steps) and
Sade (France). Press conference of Space Cowboys and Sade.

See you

Colin McKenzie

L8r,

Ozymandias

Euro AICN Ireland/UK Office,
Penthouse Suite,
Ozymandias Towers,
Dublin,
Ireland.

If you're involved in the Irish or UK
movie industries I want to hear from you!

Mail me at ozymandias@dublin.com