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Berlin

Jude Looks Like a Lady -- Image of the Day

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:02:00 EST

Filed under: Drama, Independent, Berlin, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Images

Jude Looks Like a Lady -- Image of the Day

I know, she looks like a cross between the woman who cut your hair when you were seven and that weird chick from Taxicab Confessions, but believe it or not -- that's Jude Law, the actor, in character for the new film Rage. According to director Sally Potter, Law took on the role of Minx -- "a "celebrity super-model" [who] took on a kind of hyper-beauty for this persona... a 'female' beauty which gradually unravels as the story unfolds." Potter adds, "Strangely, the more he became a 'she', coiffed and made-up - the more naked was his performance. There was great strength in his willingness to make himself vulnerable. It was an extraordinarily intense part of the shoot."

Rage was chosen to premiere at this year's Berlin Film Festival (which is just about to start), so I'm sure we'll hear more about it real soon. Described as "a bitterly funny exposé of the inner lives of individuals working at a New York fashion house - as if shot by a schoolboy on his cellphone camera - over seven days in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation.," Rage also stars Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard, John Leguizamo and Dianne Wiest. Check out more character photos from Rage in the gallery below.

Gallery: Rage

[via Filmonic via SallyPotter.com]

Continue reading Jude Looks Like a Lady -- Image of the Day

A Depressing, Star-Studded Trailer for 'Fireflies in the Garden'

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:02:00 EST

Filed under: Berlin, Distribution, Trailers and Clips

A Depressing, Star-Studded Trailer for 'Fireflies in the Garden'

Let's see: a serious, multigenerational, semi-autobiographical family drama starring Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson and Julia Roberts -- it sure sounds like Oscar buzz for Fireflies in the Garden should have gotten turned up to 11 by now. There hasn't really been any; the bad reviews from the film's out-of-competition premiere at Berlin probably didn't help. Still, that cast is tough to beat (there's also Ryan Reynolds, Carrie Anne-Moss and Hayden Panettierre), and the movie should be able to land with at least a minor splash if its eventual US distributor puts in a bit of effort.

There's now a full international trailer up at one of the film's websites. If the movie does indeed suck, the trailer doesn't telegraph the suckage -- it makes the film look solid, respectable. The reviews, on the other hand, make it sound embarrassing, with the sort of logistical difficulties (Texas failing to stand in for Chicago; implausible casting of younger and older versions of the same characters) that shouldn't really plague a production this high-profile.

Director Dennis Lee is making his feature debut after directing a well-received short film called Jesus Henry Christ. It's a heck of a pedigree for a first film, though the scenario and the reviews (and the director's last name) make me think of Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe -- a feature debut by a director with a strong short on his resume, and a spectacular cast, that turned out to be completely unwatchable.

Berlin Film Festival Winners

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:02:00 EST

Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Awards, Berlin, Cinematical Indie

The 2008 Berlin International Film Festival awards have been announced, and while I've only seen one of the films that picked up prizes, I'm very excited about the results. The top honor, the Golden Bear, went to Tropa de Elite (The Elite Squad), which is the first fiction film directed by Brazilian filmmaker José Padilha, who last gave us the brilliant documentary Bus 174. It was also scripted by Oscar-nominated writer Bráulio Mantovani (City of God) and tells the story of a captain in Rio's Special Police Operations Battalion and the corruption within the city's military police force, particularly its brutality in the handling of Rio's favelas. The film was hugely popular in Brazil when it was released there last fall, though mostly it was viewed illegally via the internet. Originally due out in the U.S. last month from The Weinstein Co., Moviefone now shows the film as being a Summer 2008 release, hopefully with a lot of support now thanks to the big win in Berlin.

Another Latin American cinema winner was Mexico's Lake Tahoe, the latest from Fernando Eimbcke (Duck Season), which picked up the Alfred Bauer Prize for innovative filmmaking and a FIPRESCI critics prize. Other winners include Errol Morris' eagerly anticipated documentary on Abu Graib, Standard Operating Procedure, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (aka second prize) and Paul Thomas Anderson, who won the Silver Bear award for best director, for There Will Be Blood. Anderson's film also received a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Music) for Jonny Greenwood and its score. The Silver Bear award for best screenplay went to Xiaoshaui Wang for In Love We Trust, while the Silver Bears for acting went to Sally Hawkins, for her peformance in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, and Reza Najie for his performance in Majid Majidi's The Song of Sparrows. Kumasaka Izuru won a best first film award for Asyl -- Park and Love Hotel. For the rest of the Berlin winners head over to the festival's website.