Platform

Bruce Goldstein, from NY to SF to "Con"

Whether it’s the low road of finding little girls to scream like Fay Wray at the sight of King Kong or the high road of promoting great French films, Bruce Goldstein is the indispensable man for all cinema seasons. There have been gimmicks galore and a soupcon of chutzpah as he picks and chooses anywhere from the Three Stooges to Last Year at Marienbad to show at New York’s fabulous repertory theater, the Film Forum. Along the way, Goldstein has won France’s Order of Arts and Letters medal and recently the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Mel Novikoff Award given to an individual or institution "whose work has enhanced the public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema."

It’s a little off that particular beaten track, but Goldstein’s latest timely challenge to the Cannes Film Festival is his current Con Film Festival at the Forum featuring the warden of Sing Sing Prison, who he brought in to introduce 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis.

topics: bay area, cannes film festival, castro theatre, exhibition, film festivals, genre films, hollywood, independent film, san francisco international film festival, world cinema

Take Two

Terence Davies' "Of Time and the City" is poetic, personal

One might assume from the unhurried meticulousness of his features—and the fact that there have only been four of them over the last 20-plus years—that Terence Davies is simply a slow worker. But the truth is something much worse, at least for those of us who think he’s one of the greatest living filmmakers: He apparently just has a hell of a time getting his productions funded.

It’s been almost a decade since the brilliant Edith Wharton adaptation House of Mirth, and Davies has been quite public of late about his frustrations in getting the money people to commit. Such travails collapsed his plans to film the classic 1930s Scottish novel Sunset Song with Kirsten Dunst, amongst other fine fits. The BBC, Channel 4 and UK Film Council all declined his proposals—and what the freak should take priority for such institutions over supporting a national treasure like Terence Davies?

topics: british cinema, cannes film festival, directors, distributors, documentary, world cinema

Carlos Reygadas's "Silent Light"

Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas’ third movie is an unmistakably serious work, the kind of big-questions, large-canvas filmmaking which has become a rarity even at Cannes, where “Silent Light” shared a jury prize with buoyant “Persepolis.” Reygadas endured much hectoring for the brash sex scenes in his second feature, “Battle in Heaven,” though one senses that many of these critics had a plainer dislike for the deliberately challenging narration also featured in his debut, Japón. “Silent Light” lands in an isolated Mennonite community in hardscrabble Northern Mexico, and is already taking potshots for its slow-winding scenario, inexpressive performances by nonprofessionals (the film is apparently the first made in the Plautdiestch dialect), and stacked spirituality.

topics: cannes film festival, filmmakers, latin cinema

Brazil!

Brazilian director/producer Lina Chamie (second from right) traveled to Cannes for “A Via Lactea” (“Through the Milky Way”), which is screening in Critics Week. Joining Chamie for a nice lunch at Plage Razo (basically a beachside restaurant—a great day to spend the day) along the Croisette is assistant director Carolina Goncalves (right), co-producer Andre Klotzel (left) actress Andrea Estrella (“Both”), lead actor for “A Via Lactea” Marco Ricca, and “Both” director Bass Beche. Breche’s short is also screening in Critics Week. (Photo and text by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE. Reprinted with permission, copyright 2007.)

topics: cannes film festival, directors, producers

"11th Hour" and friend

“11th Hour” co-directors Leila Conners-Petersen and Nadia Conners along with environmental expert Kenny Ausubel of Bioneers, at the Hotel du Cap Saturday afternoon ahead of the premiere of their environmental doc. The film goes beyond the scope of global warming, sending a message that non-action will mean suicide for humanity as a species, while at the same time giving hope in new technologies that can reverse damage done. “We’re not in need of saving the planet,” said Leila giving context to the message in her film. “We need to save ourselves.” (Photo and text by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE. Reprinted with permission, copyright 2007.)

topics: cannes film festival, directors, documentary, environmental films

Meet the Jury/A Palme d'Or 20

No sooner does the Festival de Cannes open than attendees start buzzing about the potential award-winners. Last year, Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Volver,’ which screened early in the festival became the instant odds on favorite to win the top prize, the Palme d’Or, which it famously lost to Ken Loach’s ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley.’ So, it’s not surprise that the nine Cannes jurors were up for a grilling when they met the press Wednesday afternoon prior to beginning their service at the festival. Among the burning questions was whether actress Maggie Cheung will be able to remain impartial despite her close friendship with opening night director Wong Kar Wai, whom she has worked with many times. She noted that she won’t let her personal fondness for the filmmaker affect her vote, noting, ‘I have been judged by many friends (on juries) before.’

[ SF360.org Editor’s Note: This article originally published in indieWIRE May 17, 2007.]

"Cheung sat on stage laughing and smiling cordially along with actress Toni Collette, director and actress Maria de Medeiros, director and actress Sarah Polley, director Marco Bellocchio, writer Orhan Pamuk, director and actor Michel Piccoli, director Abderramane Sissako and filmmaker Stephen Frears, serving as jury president.

‘Film isn’t a competitive sport and I don’t think any of us think that,’ noted Sarah Polley, when asked how the group will make its choice and what they did to prepare. ‘But, I think it wil be great to discuss (the films). ‘I don’t know if it is possible to judge art,’ said Maria de Medeiros, ‘But it will be interesting.’ While Toni Collette added later, ‘I don’t know how one can prepare, it’s a matter of being in the moment and being affected, just as you do for any film. Being engaged.’

Author Orhan Pamuk, recent winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, summed it up suitably, saying that the jurors have been preparing their whole lives for such an experience and they simply need to rely on their own judgement. And he recommended, ‘Going into a movie with the child’s enthusiasm and then saying to daddy, ‘This is the one I like, this is the one’.’

‘The truth is that I will be curious to see how we all end up, joked Frears about the warmth among the jurors on stage, ‘maybe terrible things will start to come out, you know, so far so good.’"

A Palme d’Or 20

1. "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," Ken Loach, 2006
2. "The Child," Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2005
3. "Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore, 2004
4. "Elephant," Gus Van Sant, 2003
5. "The Pianist," Roman Polanski, 2002
6. "The Sn’s Room," Nanni Moretti, 2001
7. "Dancer in the Dark," Lars von Trier, 2000
8. "Rosetta," Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 1999
9. "Eternity and a Day," Theo Angelopoulos, 1998
10. "The Eel," Shohei Imamura, 1997
11. "Taste of Cherry," Abbas Kiarostami, 1997
12. "Secrets & Lies," Mike Leigh, 1996
13. "Underground," Emir Kustrica, 1995
14. "Pulp Fiction," Quentin Tarantino, 1994
15. "The Piano," Jane Campion, 1993
16. "Farewell My Concubine," Chen Kaige, 1993
17. "Best Intentions," Bille August, 1992
18. "Barton Fink," Joel and Ethan Coen, 1991
19. "Wild at Heart," David Lynch, 1990
20. "sex, lies, and videotape," Steven Soderbergh, 1989

(Reprinted with permission, copyright Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE 2007.)

topics: awards, cannes film festival, lists