mikejones

Popeyed

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:41:24 GMT

My new job has me booked tight, so unfortunately The Circuit will be updated only sporadically these days.

For the best fest news, keep up with Anne Thompson and now Todd McCarthy. Few know the fest scene better.

[Thanks to Matt and Anne for filling people in.]

Restrepo closes

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:17:43 GMT

Months before NatGeo releases the Sundance-winning doc "Restrepo," the NYT reports that U.S. forces are pulling out completely of the "Valley of Death."

Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's raw and searing doc illustrates the daily fighting that marked the Korangal Outpost, particularly the violence surrounding a particular outpost named for one of the 42 soldiers killed in the area -- Restrepo.

Buried in the NY Times piece is this admission Maj. Ukiah Senti:

“Realistically no one needs to be there,” he said. “We’re not really overwatching anything other than safeguarding ourselves.”

Spirits trade beach for real estate

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:59:28 GMT

With preparations almost complete for Friday's kudos, the immense tent atop a parking garage in Downtown LA shows just how much more room the ceremony has. "Capacity has doubled," said one tired worker. "Sure I miss the beach, but this is going to be great."

B-Side shutters

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:21:10 GMT

Coming out of extended hibernation to report that B-Side has closed its doors after failing to re-capitalize. Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker has the story here:

B-side Entertainment, the Austin-based tech and distribution company that provides website services to film festivals, is closing. The company, which launched a New York-based distribution arm just 13 months ago, lost its funding from venture capital fund Valhalla Partners in late 2009. “We have spent the last four or five months looking for a [financing] alternative,” B-Side CEO and founder Chris Hyams told Filmmaker. “But we reached the end of our cash before we could secure new investment. We had to shut the company down.”

B-Side shuts down after a huge gig running Sundance's online fest catalog, where they introduced a buzz section that tracked audience response to films. They had also recently branched into film distribution, embracing a grassroots, build-your-own-screening approach that saw some success with the docu "Super High Me" that pushed DVD sales through free screenings.

What happened? B-Side's President of Distribution Paola Freccero told Macaulay that the VC fund, Valhalla Partners, didn't have the patience for indie film:

“The VC world is one that looks for astronomical success in short amount of time, but the film business has never been about quick success. It’s about who can stay in the business long enough to become profitable. There is just a big discrepancy between what a traditional VC [fund] wants to see as a success and what is possible in independent film’s new world order. It’s not anyone’s fault — just unfortunate timing.”

Scott has a very thorough piece on the breakdown at the Filmmaker Mag blog. Check it out.

The economy takes CineVegas

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:50:20 GMT

The great CineVegas Film Festival, coming off its strongest year, has announced it will go on hiatus for 2010.

“Given the current economic climate and the pressures it has created, we made the difficult decision to put CineVegas on hiatus for the coming year. CineVegas has become such a well respected film festival, and rather than allow the economy to affect its level of quality we have opted to put the event on hold,” said Robin Greenspun, Festival President.
“We are so proud that CineVegas has grown to become a premiere showcase for uninhibited filmmakers and a scintillating festival experience for our attendees. CineVegas has developed a growing legion of supporters over the years who truly appreciate film and life on the edge, and we thank them for all of their support. We are very sad to be announcing this hiatus, but it is our hope to keep the CineVegas brand alive and re-launch the Festival once the economy recovers,” said Trevor Groth, Artistic Director.

Rachel Rosen heads to San Fran fest

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:07:39 GMT

San Francisco Film Society exec director Graham Leggat announced this morning that Rachel Rosen will be the fest's new Director of Programming.

"We're thrilled to welcome Rachel back to a leadership role in the organization after her extraordinarily successful tenure in Los Angeles," said Leggat. "Her intelligence, flair for innovation and keen eye for exciting new work are just what we need as we enter our next phase."

Rosen will leave her eight-year gig as director of programming for FIND's Los Angeles Film Festival, which recently wrapped up one of its best years. She was the associate director of programming for the San Fran Film Society before joining FIND.

Rosen steps in for former SFIFF programmer Linda Blackaby, who left August 7.

iW has the story here.

Postcard from Comic-Con

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:48:27 GMT

You know Comic-Con has turned a corner when a vendor hawks cologne for geeks. The box for this Star Trek-inspired perfume called Red Shirt reads: "Because tomorrow may never come."

Check out my Con article for FilmInFocus:

The Comic-Con volunteer working the registration desk has seen most every character in the universe pick up their badge, from the Green Lantern to Alice in Wonderland. "But it was the girl in the French maid outfit carrying an Uzi had me scratching my head," she says. "Bless her, but her generous body just wasn't built for that get-up." Yet that is Comic-Con -- a celebration of secret joys made public. And while its geek growth has made it a target of Letterman and Leno, genre lovers come here to be loved no matter how they look.
And loved they are.

In full here.

CineVegas well repped in Filmmaker Mag's list

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:50:46 GMT

A big winner out of Filmmaker Mag's 2009 list of 25 New Faces of Indie Film is CineVegas. Three of the twenty-five filmmakers premiered their pic at this year's event -- Frankie Latina ("Modus Operandi"), Jeff Mizushima ("Etienne!" -- pictured above), and Asiel Norton ("Redland").

I'd even add a 26th from the CineVegas lineup -- Kyle Patrick Alvarez, whose assured drama, "Easier with Practice," (below) won the fest's top award. Check out Cinematical's review.

Fantastic Fest lands new Jared Hess movie

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:53:49 GMT

"Let me irrigate your barren earth with fresh cream."

Austin's Fantastic Fest will open with Jared Hess's new Fox Searchlight comedy "Gentlemen Broncos"

Benjamin (Michael Angarano), home-schooled by his eccentric mother (Jennifer Coolidge), is a lovable loner whose passion for writing leads him on an offbeat and hilarious journey as his story first gets ripped off by the legendary fantasy novelist, Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement) and then is adapted into a disastrous movie by the small town's most prolific homespun filmmaker.

Check out the website and teaser:

What's happening to the film writers?

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:55:50 GMT

I have always marveled at how Anthony Kaufman was able to maintain a freelance life.

Tony and I met at film school years ago. We are in each others' short films, either in front of or behind the camera. When school ended we both went on to journalism. One of my proudest career moments is bringing Tony into an eager start-up I was working with called indieWIRE.

While I went on to make a living as a screenwriter, Tony kept at film journalism. I've watched Tony's writing become sharper, essential, and wonderfully opinionated as the years passed. With regular gigs in Variety, Village Voice, HR, Filmmaker Mag, etc., I consider him one of the more important voices in indie film journalism.

So it disturbs me to read his new blog post about struggling through the recession:

I’m finally starting to feel the economic crunch—personally. Over the last year, I’ve written about the crashes of ThinkFilm and New Yorker Films, tracked the demise of VHS, the collapse of indie film financing and followed the obsolescence of movie critics. Now, I, too, am seeing my occupation slip away from me with every passing week. Major publications have admitted to me that they “ran out of money”; others don’t have the room or budget for feature stories anymore; and fair compensation has dropped to the insulting “blog rate”—$35 to $50 for what would have been $100 to $200 for an equivalent amount of work a couple years ago. This shit is real.

I know precisely how he feels. When the writers' strike hit, I got a staff job at Variety. The steady paycheck and health insurance for myself and family was crucial. When I was laid-off, I relied on a few freelance jobs to keep the income coming in, as did many other former Variety staffers. But the pay started to rapidly shrink.

Recently I covered a film festival for a major indie film publication. Along with a fest wrap-up, the editors wanted daily blog posts of pictures and captions for their site. After four days of posts and another few writing the wrap-up for print, my grand take was 100 bucks.

When I mentioned that's what I got paid 10 years ago for half the work, the editors apologized. It's all they had to give. I believe them.

The freelance life is a scary one. Luckily, I've been able to transition back into screenwriting. This blog suffers for it, unfortunately, but it's a move of necessity. But where will the other writers go? How will they cobble together enough scratch to weather this?

I'll continue occasionally posting on this blog. But as many of you have noticed, it'll be few and far between. I hope you'll check back every once in a while. But before you come here, go to Tony's blog. See what he's writing now. He has much more interesting things to say anyway. He deserves the click-though votes. And he should keep writing.

AFI Dallas Film Festival drops AFI

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:48:30 GMT

There is certainly more to this story, but both AFI and the Dallas Film Society jointly announced "completion of their initial three-year agreement."

The release goes on to say "The DALLAS Film Society is planning its 2010 international film festival and expects to announce details over the coming weeks."

The AFI Dallas Film Festival came out of the gate strong three years ago. With a massive budget for a first time event, they had always intended to compete directly with the big fests. The "jointness" of this release indicates a mutual separation, though at the end of the day, I would imagine DFS didn't want to shell out the licensing fee to AFI.

Did AFI contribute to the fest's launch by increasing the profile? Probably. Is it satisfied being just a platform to launch events? A quickie branding opportunity that can be dropped later? Probably not. Might be time to rethink those fees.

Eli Roth: "It's f#cking worth it."

Thu, 21 May 2009 15:08:05 GMT

Eli Roth with Fantastic Fest's Tim League (left):

"I was 25 and broke and working as a PA on movies. I had a giant mouse infestation in my apartment. All my friends were married, had health insurance, 401K plans. There I was with 200 bucks in my bank account while I was cleaning up dead mice in a New York walk-up on 25th Street.
But my brother said, 'But you're pursuing your dream and you're not going to be here forever.'
And he was right. And a lot of my friends who took a job that they really didn't want are unhappy. They ask me 'What's it like making movies? You must be really happy.' You got to be willing to eat shit in your twenties to get to where you want to be. And I'll tell you, it's fucking worth it."

Check out the full article here.

Photo by Moe Inaki

AmPav Notebook: Lynn Shelton and Lee Daniels

Sun, 17 May 2009 11:36:58 GMT

Talking with indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez at the Cannes 2009 American Pavilion, directors Lynn Shelton and Lee Daniels spoke about their festival films, their career, and what's next.

Shelton's alt-buddy comedy "Humpday" opens July 10 while Daniels inner city drama "Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire" debuts November 10.

-- As an excited young producer (before hitting it big producing "Monsters Ball"), Lee Daniels courted then-emerging African American actors, including Morgan Freeman. "I know you from the Electric Company, man! We can rock this town!" Daniels told Freeman. "Let's make some money!" Daniels said he loves actors and is not satisfied with the word no. "No don't work for me. So I do things on my own. I decided to produce because I was tired of telling all my African American actors no."
-- Shelton firmly believes a comment she once overheard: "The sub-culture knows more about the dominant culture than the dominant culture knows about itself. Gays know more about straight people. Black people know more about white people." With this in mind, Shelton has "always been fascinated by observing people, finding out what makes them tick."
-- Despite Scott Rudin's advice to him to only worry about film, Daniels is working on a drag queen musical with Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Beyonce. "I wanna show how versatile I am," he said, but it's not easy. "Theater is a motherfucking beast. You have no control. But I'm a control freak. I'm also a masochist."
-- Daniels mused on the circle of his career: "I started in theater, now I'm back in it. I started with Lionsgate, now I'm back with them." He said picking his film's distributor, Lionsgate, was about letting go of his film. "I have a problem letting go. But you have to let go. I'm blessed to say they do get it. They'll do everything they can to get out the word, even if it's illegal."
-- Lynn Shelton mused on her trajectory. When Lynn's second film "My Effortless Brilliance" screened at SXSW, the director was her own press agent, sales rep, and entourage. "When Humpday got into Sundance, it all became a lot more business-like. "And what is it about signing a deal at midnight? Are these people teenagers? I was told 'Don't go to bed! It'll sign at 4am!" For two nights she stayed up, waiting. Her sales rep, Submarine, finally signed the deal with Magnolia Pictures -- at 10am. "A perfectly reasonable time to sign a deal." Too bad she lost two nights.
-- "You live your life to make your mom happy," said Daniels. "She would always tell me 'Why don't you want to be Tyler Perry?' So I had him see the film. And now I know my mom will see it." It also helped that as Daniels took the stage to receive his Sundance audience award, he got a call from Oprah, whom he mistook for his friend "who does a great Oprah impression." "I said, what do you want, bitch?" said an embarrassed Daniels. "Or something like that."
-- While the author Sapphire had many offers for her book, Daniels scored the prize through sheer persistence. "Everybody wanted the book. She gave it to me for a dollar. I stalked her. She was just tired of me calling." When she saw the film, she fell into his arms, crying. "I'm most happy to have served her."
-- Shelton began as an actress in New York, but the lifestyle didn't suit her. "I had a falling out with acting. Directing has been a beautiful way of reuniting with it."
-- Up next for Daniels: "I'm being offered sci-fi and horror projects, which I'm really excited about. But next I'm working on getting my kids to love me. They're 13. People tell me you got 4 years to go before they start loving you again." Obviously, that's not going to work for Daniels.
-- Up next for Shelton: "I'm learning how to deal with an agent and manager. I'm worried about my world getting bigger than I can handle. I know I'm shooting something this fall -- a project modeled on "My Dinner with Andre." It'll star Sean Nelson and author Sherman Alexie."
-- Instead of giving advice to the audience, moderator Eugene Hernandez had each director give a bit of advice to the other. "Don't worry about your agent and manager," Daniels advised Shelton. "Do your thing. Be a fierce bitch. Don't let them mind fuck you."
-- After that, and clearly enamored with Daniels, Shelton's only advise was "Keep on keeping on, Lee. I've loved being on this with you."

Jean-Pierre Busche and Mike Jones

Check back for more AmPav Notebooks. Upcoming panels are here.

AmPav Notebook: Francis Ford Coppola

Sat, 16 May 2009 08:35:59 GMT

by Jean-Pierre Busche
The 70-year-old directing legend Francis Ford Coppola spoke to a packed Roger Ebert Conference Center for a intimate conversation on his process. Some notes gleamed from the hour-long talk:

-- After an enthusiastic welcome by the audience, he joked that he is "currently living up past failures."
-- The director reminded moderator Scott Foundas that "Apocalypse Now" -- Coppola's follow-up to "The Godfather" -- did not receive good reviews initially. Nevertheless, it was appreciated over time and is much more appreciated today.
-- Coppola emphasized the importance of quality and innovation over budget, a notion well received by the audience: "The smaller the budget, the higher the ambition, the bigger the budget the more stupid the movie is. Films nowadays are just made for money"
-- A big inspiration in Coppola's life was his older brother who advised him on good literature when he was a child, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Huxley's Brave New World as examples.
-- In remembering some of his studio work, Coppola said that tried very hard to not feel like a prostitute. "I tried to find something to love in everything I did for them. Like "Peggy Sue Got Married." I read that and said 'Okay, it's sweet, like 'Our Town.'"
-- Coppola's advice for film students -- "If you're making movies out of passion, you need a dayjob." His best time to write? "I like working in the morning, when no one has hurt my feelings yet."

Check out indieWIRE's view from the crowd here.

Cannes' Blood Red Year

Tue, 12 May 2009 12:28:38 GMT

NY Times' Joan Dupont says Cannes will bring more gore than love:

So what’s new? A feast of horror and gore. Mr. von Trier’s “Anti-Christ” is a vision of the world created by Satan. Gaspar Noé — of the scandalous “Irréversible”(2002) — should spook again with “Soudain le vide” (Enter the Void); Johnnie To’s “Vengeance” stars Johnny Halliday as avenger; in Mr. Tarantino’s World War II epic the avengers slaughter Nazis. Park Chan-Wook’s “Bak-jwi” (Thirst) is about a priest who turns into a vampire; Isabel Coixet’s “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo” is a thriller about a female killer. Brillante Mendoza, who sexed up the selection last year with “Serbis,” a story of prostitution, returns with pitch-black “Kinatay,” in which the hero is manipulated by a psychotic murderer.

Cannes Competition Primer

Mon, 11 May 2009 08:44:29 GMT

The Guardian has a nice pic gallery of Cannes Competition contenders, including Almodovar, who returns this year with "Broken Embraces."

LAFF to preem Mann's "Public Enemies"

Tue, 05 May 2009 09:05:50 GMT

As their Centerpiece Premiere, Los Angeles Film Festival will screen Michael Mann's John Dillinger flick "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.

Seven world or U.S. preems make up the Narrative and Doc competitions, including -- for the first time -- some international pics.

In the Narrative Competition:

"Dear Lemon Lima," Suzi Yoonessi
"Harmony & Me," Bob Byington
"Hollywood, je t’aime," Jason Bushman
"Passenger Side," Matt Bissonnette (Canada)
"Turistas," Alicia Scherson (Chile)
"Wa Do Dem" (What They Do), Sam Fleischner, Ben Chace
"Zero Bridge," Tariq Tapa (USA/India)

In the Doc Competition:

"After the Storm," Hilla Medalia
"Bananas!*," Fredrik Gertten (Sweden)
"Branson," Brent Meeske
"Convention," AJ Schnack
"The Last Beekeeper," Jeremy Simmons
"October Country," Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher
"Those Who Remain," Juan Carlos Rulfo, Carlos Hagerman (Mexico)

Full lineup here.

Cannes : "Tetro" trailer

Tue, 05 May 2009 08:36:41 GMT

Coppola's black-and-white drama starring Vincent Gallo, "Tetro," has a trailer up. It shows the extreme limits online video has with blacks -- muddy and narrow.

IMDb has this bit of trivia:

Francis Ford Coppola decided to shoot this film the same way he shot Rumble Fish (1983): in black-and-white, with occasional bursts of colour, since both films held "a spiritual connection" with each other (both are dramas about relationships, primarily that of brotherhood).

and

To attain the film's visual style, director Francis Ford Coppola and cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. watched La notte (1961), Baby Doll (1956) and On the Waterfront (1954); films Coppola had admired during his student years.

NY Times intros Mumblecore to Hollywood, a little late

Sun, 03 May 2009 07:17:01 GMT

Among his "Memos to Hollywood," A.O. Scott calls on the rom-com studios to hire some fresh air for a dying genre:

To: Heads of production, Sony, Universal, Paramount, Fox, Disney
Cc: Joe Swanberg, Andrew Bujalski, Greta Gerwig, Aaron Katz and all their Facebook Friends
From: A.O.S.
You all keep trying to make Rock Hudson-Doris Day-style romantic comedies with the golden guys and gals of the moment, and the results are sexless, subtextless, bland career-girl-in-search-of-Mr.-Right retreads. Meanwhile, a bunch of hungry directors with digital cameras, time on their hands and not much money are making free-form studies about tentative hookups and long conversations among actual, overeducated, undermotivated young folks.

It's something that's been said since the troupe's early days at SXSW. At Sundance Greta was actively pushed as the next hot romantic lead after "Baghead." It worked, since she'll next be seen opposite Ben Stiller in Noah Baumbach's new film, "Greenburg."

But I wonder if these filmmakers aren't already a step ahead of this advice, and to mixed results.

The Duplass brothers have already tried for the studio translation with an as-yet-untitled film for Searchlight starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei. Their brand of comedy could make the crossover.

But Hollywood may not have the patience for Bujalski, Swanberg and the others. Their stories need room to stretch. They don't scream big box-office weekend, but more like a patient platform release. And while the fits-and-starts of awkward conversation are the tools of their drama, they themselves may have no patience for the confusing, black hole conversations involved in some studio development. These filmmakers want to keep making films, not conference call about it endlessly.

And I would bet that many of these filmmakers have gone down this intensely frustrating development road with Hollywood and, quite rightly, figured that they could have made a movie in the time they were waiting for a call-back.

At least Hollywood pays you to develop (sometimes).

Cannes : Packing for swine flu?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:27:27 GMT

Those planning their Cannes fest trip have one more item to pack, if they can find it -- hand sanitizer.

While no cases of the swine flu have been reported in France, today's jump in confirmed infections insures the news cycle will keep the story contagious.

Regular fest goers know that some fests are large petri dishes. The Sundance flu wreaks havoc in Park City, for example.

A quick polling of some industry folk making the trip finds not many were worried about it.

Meanwhile, stores in LA are empty of Purell. And if the Tweets keep their current pace, the France-bound planes could be loaded with masked people.

But those looking to Twitter as their swine barometer may be disappointed, says ForeignPolicy.com's Evgeny Morozov:

Twitter seems to have introduced too much noise into the process: as opposed to search requests which are generally motivated only by a desire to learn more about a given subject, too many Twitter conversations about swine flu seem to be motivated by desires to fit in, do what one's friends do (i.e. tweet about it) or simply gain more popularity.
In situations like this, there is some pathological about people wanting to post yet another status update containing the coveted most-searched words – only for the sake of gaining more people to follow them. And yet the bottom line is that tracking the frequency of Twitter mentions of swine flu as a means of predicting anything thus becomes useless (however, there are plenty of other non-Twitter ways to track the epidemic and Mashable does a good job of summing them all up).

Photo by Erin Orr.

San Fran : Midnight with Evan Rachel Wood, Elijah Wood

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 08:43:26 GMT

There were a few minor groans and a lot of last-minute refillings when the open bar closed during SFIFF's Midnight Awards reception as the guests of honor to took their seats for a Q&A. The awards honor young actors, this year focusing on Evan Rachel Wood and Elijah Wood.

As the audience nursed their last drops of wine, some bullet points were gleamed from the duo:

-- Evan holds a black belt in Taekwondo. So does her mom. The one time they sparred, Evan split her mom's lip and burst into tears.
-- Both Evan and Elijah's mothers have been on set during their love scenes, on "13" and "The Ice Storm," respectively. For Evan it was the infamous topless scene. For Elijah, his mom looked on while he and Christina Ricci "exchanged tongues."
-- At a CostCo -- where Elijah goes to print photos -- a fan approached him, complimenting him on staying a vegetarian. She had watched him on Leno the night before. Elijah wasn't on Leno, and is not a vegetarian, realizing the fan was confusing him for Toby Maguire. But the fan was so committed in her praise that he went along with it.
-- Evan said one Halloween a woman confused her for Evan Rachel Wood. "But you're hotter," she told the actress.
-- Evan is in talks to star in Julie Taymor's Broadway production of "Spider-Man." "It's gonna be this rock and roll circus show," she said. Taymor directed Evan in her last film "Across the Universe." Just before Evan's topless scene in that film, Taymor took her into another room, "to see the goods." They were apparently approved.
-- Elijah has been attached to an Iggy Pop biopic for four years, a passion project of his. The film begins during Iggy's years starting the landmark punk band The Stooges. "It's hard," said Elijah. Despite Pop's blessing, "this has been really hard to get this made." Elijah then announced the awards would now be a fundraiser.
-- If a biopic of their lives were to be made now, Evan joked that she would want to be played by Dakota Fanning. Elijah would pick Daniel Radcliffe.
-- Evan starred in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works" as Larry David's wife. "It's more like a "Harold and Maude" thing," the 21-year-old said. After which, she apologized to the audience for conjuring that image.
-- Elijah has a love for horror movies, and would like to be in one. He'd also like to play a more fleshed-out villain than the one in "Sin City."
-- Evan's dream role would be Janis Joplin and she has the pipes for it. At one point in her early career some producers thought of grooming Evan to be a pop diva. Evan quickly bowed out of that.

At the end of the night exec director Graham Leggat presented each with the Midnight Award -- a martini shaker.

"It's genuinely functional," exclaimed Elijah as Evan unsuccessfully juggled the award with her mic. The lid of the shaker hit the floor with a loud twang, to which Leggat announced "I hereby declare the bar open!"

Applause.

San Fran : Trouble with the neighbor boy

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:13:01 GMT

"Your boy. He's sick," an audience member said to Montreal director Philippe Falardeau after a screening of his "It's Not Me, I Swear" at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

"I didn't know if she was talking about me or my character," Philippe said.

Philippe's slightly contemporized version of Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" is a series of meandering adventures of a hellion ten-year-old after his mother abruptly leaves the family. Armed with eggs, a screwdriver, and a pocketful of stolen cash, he brings his unique hell to his 1968 suburban neighborhood. A metaphysical questioning has also made him suicidal, though through the eyes of a child who's not afraid of death but neither understands the finality of it.

Of note in the film is the luminous soundtrack of Patrick Wilson, which the director explains delivered the film from the edge -- pushing the tone toward comedy without throwing it over to absurdity.

Philippe said Wilson never read the script. Rather he wanted Philippe to pitch scenes to him while he wrote the music.

"That's a crock of shit," says Philippe. "He was just too lazy to read it. But it worked."

Did Watson see the finished film?

"Some."

Since its Toronto fest preem, the film hasn't landed a U.S. distributor, despite Dennis Harvey's Variety review:

Delicately balanced between absurdity and tragedy by director Philippe Falardeau ("Congorama"), adapting Bruno Hebert's 1997 novel and its 2000 sequel, this adventuresome, accomplished piece should ride critical acclaim to solid home-turf returns and a fair shot at offshore arthouse distribution.

Check out the trailer:

San Fran : Fest celebrates its own

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:51:43 GMT

The San Francisco International Film Festival kicked off Thursday at the landmark Castro Theater, opening with Peter Bratt's postcard drama to San Fran's Mission District, "La Mission" starring the helmer's brother, Benjamin Bratt.

Exec director Graham Leggat, at once excited and effortlessly collected, used the screening to stress the big changes at the San Francisco Film Society -- namely the take-over of many duties of the now-defunct Film Arts Foundation, which squarely plants the Society's feet in Bay Area film production.

Cannes lineup: What we'll miss.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:16:16 GMT

Perhaps it's not very surprising that American filmmakers didn't find much foothold in the Cannes lineup, announced this morning. Anyone remembering the past year's Telluride, Toronto, and Sundance lineups can see that film from American auteurs is on an extended leave.

And, thankfully, the health of art film doesn't depend on the health of American art.

But we were upset to see no Werner Herzog-flavored "Bad Lieutenant" with Nic Cage in the midnight section. Contrary to the naysayers, we were thrilled to hear Ferrara's original was being remade. Beautifully aimless and vague, the film was simply asking for Herzog step in -- if only to add more dark to the vague. "Stroszek" with a gun. Irresistible.

Sources say it'll be in Venice.

Photo from Eric Kohn off his Cinematical story about the film.

Hot Docs | In search of "Lady Viagra"

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:50:01 GMT

Premiering at Hot Docs -- in the "Let's Make Money" category -- is Elizabeth Canner's "Orgasm, Inc."

Canner was hired by a drug company to edit erotic videos, part of their pursuit for the first Viagra for women:

Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits.

Check out the trailer:

Info here.