Yes, kids, here we are with another edition of International Eye Candy, the bi-weekly AICN-Twitch presentation of the very best bits and pieces from around the globe. Yes, this edition is a couple days later than it normally is but, hey - it's the summer time and if I want to slack off a little bit there's nothing you can do about it. So there. The big news over the past couple weeks? A whopping nine minute promo from John Woo's BATTLE OF RED CLIFF packaged up all bright and shiny for your viewing pleasure. That one already got a post to call its own on these pages so on we go with a few things you may not have heard of yet. Such as? How about some French vampires? A Russian Hitler? Danish astronauts? We got it all, baby, we got it all.
What the hell ... big ol' John Woo promo up there, let's give you a big ol' chunk of Mamoru Oshii's SKY CRAWLERS to go along with it. This is the latest from the director of GHOST IN THE SHELL, reactions at advance screenings have been uniformly glowing and a five minute extended scene from the film is available for your viewing pleasure. Oshii's one of the best there is and this looks to be one of his good ones. Yum.
You'll find the clip here
And what are Oshii's wonderful flying machines made of? Nothing but Japanese METAL and we've got more of it for you with DETROIT METAL CITY. Yes, that was a horrible, horrible pun but damn if this flick doesn't look like more than enough fun to make up for it. We've written about this one in the IEC before but here's the skinny again: geeky kid turned glam metal god, complete with costumes and makeup. Gene Simmons from KISS cameos. And there's a new teaser.
Bang your head here
So ... you like WALL-E okay but wish your animated scifi was a little bit naughtier? Then may I recommend Denmark's JOURNEY TO SATURN for you consideration? From the team behind TERKEL IN TROUBLE - a cheery film that featured young children beating each other with metal pipes and spraying each other down with urine-fiulled water guns, among other things - this aint no Disney film, that's for sure. But damn, does it look funny assuming that you consider alien probes, binge drinking and the like amusing. Which I do. A second full trailer just arrived and this thing looks like comic gold.
Blast off here!
More animation here, this one an independent American production that's a wee bit more serious in tone. Titled DEAR BEAUTIFUL it's the feature length expansion of a scifi horror short that knocked us on our collective asses when we caught it on the festival circuit last year. Moody and atmospheric it's about plants mutated by chemical waste from a cosmetics factory that spread throughout the world transforming those who come into contact with them into zombie like creatures. This should be one truly exceptional bit of work. And, yes, I did use the royal plural up there. I apologize.
Stop and smell the flowers here
Hey! Assuming that these rumors I'm hearing about the Weinstein Company running out of money are either false or over-stated this is one you might actually be able to see at a theater near you! A Brazilian action-drama about a corrupt squad of elite police - think SWAT level - TROPA DE ELITE was a surprise winner at the Berlin Film Festival and has become a genuine phenomenon in its home nation where it was widely protested by police and even more widely embraced by the poor population who obviously felt like the film had gotten things right. No firm release date has been set in North America yet but it's coming to screens in France and they've released an extended scene from the film for your perusal.
Check it out here!
See above comment about the Weinstein Company, because they're sitting on this one, too. A paranormal chiller about a psychiatrist becoming increasingly convinced that her young patient is, in fact, possessed, DOROTHY MILLS has quietly been building a groundswell of hugely positive word of mouth. I know a handful of people who have seen this one and they all agree that it could easily end up being a major sleeper hit. Film's in English but the only trailer available so far is a French dubbed version. So no love on hearing the original actors delivering their lines but plenty of love when it comes to checking out the truly unsettling atmosphere of this thing.
Get spooked here!
Allow me to rant a moment, if you will. Norway's Erik Poppe should be an absolute giant on the international film scene. He's smart, he's stylish, he's got a brilliant grasp of human nature and he shoots absolutely stunning film. He also rivals P.T. Anderson when it comes to juggling multiple plot lines and the effective use of music. I really, really love this guy but he doesn't seem to generate a lot of noise outside his home country. It's been four years since Poppe turned out HAWAII, OSLO and he's back now with DE USYNLIGE. It releases in September, the first trailer is freshly arrived, and it looks incredible.
More details, more ranting and the trailer here
Quick! Name the last Australian film you saw! For me it's THE PROPOSITION and, brilliant though it is, it's not exactly new. Australia's film industry has fallen on hard times in recent times, producing just a handful of films from year to year, but it was not always thus. Nope. For a period of the seventies and eighties Australia was a prime breeding ground for action, horror, and cult b-films. Think MAD MAX sprang out of a vacuum? Think again, because it was only a small part of a much larger movement and the directors of upcoming documentary NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD are determined to bring those heady days back into the limelight. Yeah, they've got an impressive array of talking heads in here talking about things - Tarantino is front and center, of course - but the real attractions are the original films themselves and there's LOADS of material included from those. Tasty. A fresh theatrical trailer just arrived and it's chock full of goodness.
Marvel at just how good bad movies can be!
Know the name Tetsuya Nakashima? 'Cause I guarantee that once you see one of his films you'll never forget it. The director of KAMIKAZE GIRLS and MEMORIES OF MATSUKO is one of the world's most gifted visual directors, filling every inch of every frame of every one of his films with so much eye candy that I should be lying on the floor in a diabetic coma right now. He's kind of like a Japanese Jeunet, but even moreso. His latest picture, PACO AND THE MAGICAL PICTURE BOOK, is his first real stab at a kid's film and considering just how visually loaded his grown up films are you can imagine how colorful this is. The cast is loaded up with massive international stars, too, but the costumes are so extreme you'll probably never recognize them. We've pointed to teasers for this one in the past but now there's a full length trailer.
It's the candiest film of International Eye Candy! Check the trailer here!
You know, I don't normally care for French humor, there's just something about it that doesn't quite sit properly for me. But when you get something that works then DAMN, it really works. And the French really seem to have this whole horror-comedy thing sorted. James Huth's HELLPHONE is a criminally underseen little gem and coming soon is LES DENTS DE LA NUIT or THE TEETH OF THE NIGHT. Yes, it's about vampires. Yes, the production values are really, really good. Yes, French girls are rather attractive. And, yes, these three teasers make Todd a happy boy.
Get out the garlic and sharpen your stakes! The teasers are here!
Ram Gopal Varma has made a habit recently of frustrating his fans. When the man is on top of his game he's kind of like an Indian Michael Mann and at his peak he turned out a string of breath taking crime pictures - a hard edged blend of style and grit that any film maker anywhere would be proud to have on their resume - as both a director and producer. For a while there it seemed like Varma could do no wrong and then the worst thing that could happen did: Varma started to think that he could do no wrong. It's been a while now since he made something truly a-list but CONTRACT looks it it could be. It's the concluding chapter in an informal crime trilogy that also includes COMPANY - arguably his best film - and the trailers are fantastic. Fingers crossed that the master is back on form ...
Check otu the trailers here
When I think "Russia" I generally don't think "comedy". And if I think "Russian comedy", I generally don't think "Zucker style farce". And I definitely don't think "WWII slapstick". But what do you know ... in a country not generally known for comedy, where the effects of WWII still sting a bit, they've gone and made a Zucker Brothers style WWII comedy titled HITLER KAPUT. The first teaser turned up in IEC thanks to a gloriously deadpan Britney Spears cover song and now the theatrical trailer is here and it makes IEC purely because it makes me laugh so damn hard. And also because of the Spears cover.
Go ahead, do it again!
Belgium's Fabrice Du Welz turned a lot of heads with his film CALVAIRE - out on these shores as THE ORDEAL - a film that some love and some hate but absolutely nobody who sees it is able to ignore. Well, Du Welz is back now with VINYAN, his English language debut. It's the story of a couple obsessed with the child they lost in the Thailand tsunami and while the brilliant first trailer really plays up the dynamic between the couple and some emarkably mature and assured character work the rumblings are that when the blood starts to flow in this one it flows so hot that the producers are concerned it may not be approved by the French censors.
Check it out here
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA shares a remarkably assured sense of family dynamics with VINYAN but there the similarities end. The director of CURE and KAIRO moves into some new territory here, leaving the spooks and scares behind and instead painting a picture of a typical Japanese family on the edge of total breakdown. There's nothing flashy in this one but I caught it in Cannes and it's a really remarkable film, incredibly well written and acted. It's no mystery why the Japanese press consider Kurosawa to be one of their greatest film makers regardless of genre right now: he's really damn good.
Check out the trailer here
And, finally, talking about Japanese masters, it really doesn't get any bigger or more masterful than animator Hayao Miyazaki. The man's a living legend for a very good reason, he's arguably the best animator living and working today. Studio Ghibli has been taking a nothing-online approach to marketing Miyazaki's latest, PONYO ON THE CLIFF, but you know how the internet is: it can't really be stopped. The trailer's out there and the trailer's good, a definite throwback to the simpler days of his early films.
Check it out here
| 
