Water Lilies & Secret of the Grain

Saturday was without a doubt the strongest day of the week, with 3 films imposing their mark in different genres: in terms of pure entertainment, OSS 117 (OSS 117 review) proved to be the most intelligent and ambitious comedy showcased at COL COA. Flirting with cinema-verité, Water Lilies (Water Lilies review) offered an uncompromising look at the lives of 3 teenage girls while Secret of the Grain (The Secret of the Grain review) brought a significant emotional dimension by bringing us in the life of North-African immigrants. Next to these 3 major works, the charming but light comedy La Vie d’Artiste (La Vie d'Artiste review) was quite forgettable.

The Killer & Rivals

Centered on the intriguing relationship between a man and the killer who has been sent to kill him, Jacques Maillot’s The Killer (The Killer review) was the revelation of the night, this minimalist psychological piece slowly enveloping the audience in its noir atmosphere. Built on the confrontation of two brothers, a cop and a con, and supported by French stars Guillaume Canet & François Cluzet, Rivals is quite entertaining but collapses once you realize how poorly drafted are these characters, their implausible personas being used as a gimmick to trigger an expected dramatic conclusion.

Cedric Klapisch's Paris

One of the most anticipated entries of the festival, Paris (Paris review) by Cédric Klapisch (L’Auberge Espagnole, Un Air de famille), proved to be a big disappointment. Abandoning his juicy portraits of a modern youth to, this time, focus on the adult world, with some social commentary in the background, Mr. Klapisch delivered a choral movie that stumbles in its messy storylines and veers too many times into cheesy Claude Lelouch territories.

Even more embarrassing was the following Q&A where it became clear that the interviewer didn’t know much about Mr. Klapisch’s body of work, beside a few articles he had read.

Welcome to the Land of Shti and COL COA

The 12^th edition of COL COA opened with the gala presentation of Welcome to the Land of Shti. The event kicked off with the usual cocktail party featuring fine French food and lots of champagne, allowing festival-goers and celebrities to mingle around the food tables and the bars (American actor Robert Foster proved to be a lot of fun despite the fact I cut him in the line at the bar and several French filmmakers including Florent-Emilio Siri, Cédric Klapisch & Claude Lelouch were also available to chat).

Following the usual laborious speeches by some “French officials”, Welcome to the Land of Shti (Welcome to the land of Shti review) was presented to a room that was conquered in advance, thanks to the hype surrounding its French box office record. While the film was certainly fun and provided some great laughs (especially if you’re from the South of France like yours truly), there is certainly nothing to cheer about here, as this charming but cheesy little movie is far from being a good representative of what French cinema is.

OSS 117 review

The hilarious spy comedy OSS 117 is one of the must-see films at COL COA this year. It stars French humorist Jean Dujardin as a French secret agent and it's been one of the best critical and box office success of these last couple of years. Check out our OSS 117 review

COL COA 2008

Check out our COL COA 2008 film selection for the 12th edition of Los Angeles French film festival COL COA
Come back soon for our festival reviews and our festival coverage on this blog.

Film Investor

Since this blog is about festivals and new filmmakers, you might be interested in reading our Film Investor article that offers some resources on how to find film investors.

Superheroes and deficit

Whether you came to the walk of fame as a tourist to snap a picture of The Hof’s star or to haunt clubs on Hollywood blvd, chances are that you ran into Superman, the Hulk, Wonder-Woman, Batman or one of the multiple incarnations of Jake Sparrow. I’m of course not talking about the real ones – because guess what, they don’t exist – but about those “actors” who pose in superhero suits with tourists in front of the Chinese theater, in exchange for a tip. Part of the Hollywood tourist trap that is the walk of fame, these characters are the subject of Confessions of a Superhero, a hilarious and not-to-be-missed documentary that explores the lives and journeys of the people behind the masks, from actors making a living to more obsessive persona's. Superman, Wonder-Woman, the Hulk and the filmmakers were present for a Q&A afterwards.

After fighting through the mess to enter the screening – thanks to AFI’s absurd & unexpected change regarding passes and total disdain for the press – actor-turned-producer Diego Luna introduced the screening of his friend Gael Garcia Bernal’s directing debut, Deficit, which followed a group of rich kids partying at a house for a weekend. Despite some light comments on social classes and racism in the background, Deficit proved to be disappointing, a somewhat pointless work that didn’t bring anymore drama than most parties I’ve attended…but don’t get me started on this. Luna and another producer came back for a Q&A while Bernal was MIA.

AFI FEST 2007: The Telenovela & the Policia

IT'S BETTER IF GABRIELA DOESN'T DIE
(MEJOR ES QUE GABRIELA NO SE MUERA)

Directed by Sergio Umansky

Saturday night we entered the world of a telenovela writer (Mauricio Isaac) and his twisted relationship with a policeman(Dagoberto Gama) in Mexico City. After a not-so-routine stop one night in the city, writer Miguel escapes policie harassment when he reveals that he writes for a very popular telenovela. The policeman Bracho, a fan, feels he has a special link to the inside world of his favorite soap. From there, a cat and mouse game ensues as plot details change and Bracho becomes violent.

The film is hilarious in it's portrayal of the ridiculous telenovela world and in the policeman's increasing frustration when the plotline doesn't go his way. It's also a meditation on police harassment in Latin America and the fact that the bad guys don't always get caught; more often than not they're rewarded.

The film could have been edited down about 40 minutes to be a bit more taut and the ending is not very punchy but it's still a fun ride for anyone who ridicules the genre.

AFI FEST: Romania

Saturday we traveled to Romania just before the fall of Communism.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, directed by Cristian Mungiu and winner of this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes, proved to be a brilliant study of two women arranging an illegal abortion during the final years of Ceaucescu's dictatorship in Romania. Repression, both political and sociological, comes in the form of an illegal abortion, of the difficulty of doing simple things like renting a hotel room or buying cigarettes. Anyone who lived or traveled to Eastern Europe during this time and remembers the absolutely awful service and gray atmosphere will find this familiar.

From arranging for an illegal abortion, to rape and having to dispose of the fetus somewhere in the streets, the actions here are almost in real time and shocking. While there has been controversy over whether or not the fetus should have been shown at the end (given that many other actions take place offscreen), Mungiu explained that since the whole movie centered on this abortion, it seemed implausible not to show it. I agree--anyone who agrees with the idea that abortion should be legal and safe absolutely and those who seek to have it made illegal must see this film.
Check out the review at: http://www.plume-noire.com/movies/reviews/4months3weeks.html

Searching for the last mistress

Venturing into new cinematic territories, Catherine Breillat offers with The Last Mistress, a period piece starring Asia Argento, probably her most classical works, where sex is this time in the background rather than forefront, used only for a metaphoric purpose. Built on great dialogues, this elegant production keeps a constant emotional edge, hope and fate battling until the end – and with Miss Argento as the mistress, you can expect things to be complicated.

Israeli entry The Band’s Visit, the tale of an Egyptian police band that gets lost in Israel on its way to a show, used a humoristic angle to tackle loneliness and a rapprochement of politically-opposed cultures. With spare dialogues, a simple setting and a great cast, this is no surprise that this film has become a fave on the internation film circuit.

It is kinda funny that AFI Fest screened Searchers 2.0, a film which plot centers around kicking the butt of some evil screenwriter the same weekend as the writers’ strike in LA kicks off. A satirical journey into movie nerdiness with political tones in the background, the latest from Alex Cox – who attended the screening with his cast – is a treat if you’re familiar with genre films such as spaghetti westerns, vigilante movies and if you’re a Hollywood insider – otherwise you might get lost in dialogues that refer to many b-movies and to the industry behind-the-scenes. The only regret, which is linked to a lack of budget, is that the film would have gained to be shot in film – or even in cinemascope – to emphasize the homage it was paying.

Tales of Sigur Ros

Only faux pas here, I kicked off the festival with the screening of Southland Tales, Richard Kelly’s notorious sci-fi political epic, which has been missing in action since it’s panned representation at the Cannes film festival two years ago.

The director who was present with his troops – from The Rock to Kevin Smith with whom I shared an elevator ride – announced before the film that he was finally done with post-production. While I haven’t seen the earlier cut of the film, this final version proved to be a bloated and confused piece of work, which is all over the map and takes itself too seriously despite its satirical format. If that was up to me I would classify Southland Tales as Torture Porn, for how painful this 140mn film was to me – fortunately I was able to sleep through parts of that mess, courtesy of the Absolut bar on the rooftop. I’m not sure how Kelly went from the subtle Donny Darko to that failed attempt at being Alex Cox but he certainly lost a lot of credibility in the process.

The second half of the evening offered an unexpected treat, an intimate show from Iceland fave Sigur Ros, which preceded the screening of their live show documentary with an acoustic set of new material. If you’re a fan of the band, you will certainly enjoy that documentary but one can regret the filmmaker went for clichéd shots of Iceland instead of going for an artistic approach that would have matched the visual identity of the band. The band came back for a Q&A afterwards, those 4 nerdy guys offering welcome sarcastic answers to some of the lame questions coming from the audience.

AFI Fest

From November 1st to November 11th, Plume-Noire.com will be covering AFI Fest in this blog. Check out our festival picks below.

AFI FEST 2007
November 1-11, 2007
Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood

The 21st anniversary of AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival features more than 100 films from around the world. And this year’s selection is truly diverse and top notch.
Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford and starring Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, kicks off the festival on November 1st.

From Cannes to Los Angeles
Several films that premiered at Cannes earlier in the year will have their moment in the California sun, including Persepolis, Southland Tales directed by Richard Kelly and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Lee, Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light and the Romanian Palme D’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The Last Mistress, starring the versatile Asia Argento and helmed by the always controversial Catherine Breillat will be screened.

Special Screenings include Honeydripper directed by the great John Sayles, Margot at the Wedding directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Documentaries
AFI’s documentary selection is always stellar and this year’s selection is of special note.
Fans of music take note. The documentaries Sigur Ros: Heima and Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome will screen, along with surprise special guests.
Atenco: A Crime of State takes a look at government brutality in Mexico against a group of florists and Lynch is a glimpse into the mind of visionary director David Lynch.
Big Rig is a journey through America and Confessions of a Superhero takes a look at those who embody the famous on the streets of Hollywood Boulevard.

Quirky American Films include Look, American Fork, Expired, In Search of A Midnight Kiss and Searchers 2.0.

World Cinema
Women, women and more women. The Lebanese film Caramel is centered on the stories of five women in a beauty salon while Irina Palm stars Marianne Faithful as a sex worker in her 50’s. The Chinese film Night Train features a femail executioner. This year’s African showcase looks promising, with several films from the continent: Faro- Goddess of the Waters (Mali), Nosaltres (Senegal), Clouds Over Conakry (Guinea).

Films from Latin America
The finest selection of films from and about Latin America. This year’s top picks include:
Argentina’s black and white surrealist The Aerial, Cyrano Fernandez- a modern Venezuelan take on Cyrano de Bergerac, Deficit- directed by Gael Garcia Bernal and starring Diego Luna, The Year of the Nail- directed by Jonas Cuarón (Alfonso’s son), the Puerto Rican comedy Manuela Y Manuel and Carol Reygada’s Silent Light.

Tributes
Two tributes will honor the work of Laura Linney and the spectacular Catherine Deneuve. On November 10, the French-Iranian film Persepolis (voiced in part by Catherine Deneuve) will be screened and a tribute in her honor will follow.

TALK/SHOW
TALK/SHOW at the festival Rooftop Village is free to the public and features a series of conversations on an array of topics that includes FROM CHARLIE CHAN TO PANCHO VILLA: MOVIE STEREOTYPES AND AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE on Saturday, November 3, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. and one we’re really excited about: WHOSE REALITY IS THIS? A CONVERSATION WITH WERNER HERZOG on Sunday, November 4, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. And on Saturday, November 10, from 2:30 p.m. - 4 p.m. authors James Ellroy and Bruce Wagner will read from their works.

The centerpiece gala is Jason Reitman’s Juno. The closing night gala is Love in the Time of Cholera starring Javier Bardem.

And the winners are.....

The following is the complete list of winners for the 11th Annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival:

Features CATEGORY:
Best Film - Rita Award
Winner: El Corazón de la Tierra
Director: Antonio Cuadri
Country: Spain / Portugal / UK

Best Screenplay
Winner: Madrigal
Director: Fernando Pérez
Screenwriters: Fernando Pérez, Eduardo del Llano, Susana María
Country: Cuba/Spain

Best Director
Winner: El Cobrador (In God we Trust)
Director: Paul Leduc
Country: Mexico

OPERA PRIMA CATEGORY: Best Opera Prima
Winner: Ladrones
Director: Jaime Marques Olarreaga
Country: Spain

Special Jury Award: Opera Prima
Malos Hábitos (Bad Habits)
Director: Simón Bross
Country: Mexico

Special Jury Award: Opera Prima
La León
Director: Santiago Otheguy
Country: Argentina

Best Documentary
Winner: Invisibles
Directors: Fernando León de Aranoa, Javier Corcuera, Mariano Barroso, Wim Wenders, Isabel Coixet.
Country: Spain

Special Mention:Documentaries
Estrellas (Stars)
Directors: Federico León and Marcos Martínez
Country: Argentina

Special Mention: Documentaries
Compañeras
Directors: Elizabeth Massie, Mathew Buzzell
Country: USA

SHORTS CATEGORY:
Best Short:
Winner: The Grass Grows Green: Life and Death From Behind the Recruiting Office Desk
Director: Jesús Beltrán
Country: USA

Special Mention: Shorts
Juanito Bajo el Naranjo (Juanito Under The Orange Tree)
Director: Juan Carlos VillamizarCountry: Colombia

Los Angeles Latino Film Festival Recap

It's been a somewhat frustrating week. We had high hopes for this year's Los Angeles Latino Film Festival since this was the first year at the Arclight in Hollywood. A beautiful space, top notch screens--a wonderful venue to discover new films in the middle of Hollywood. While there were emails each day relating the days events (a vast new improvement), it was impossible to find out what the repeat screenings would be and which films had been canceled. Posting this on the web site would have been nice--this is basic stuff. Putting on a film festival is hard work and takes a cadre of staff and volunteers who are running around for a week putting out fires and getting very little sleep. The trick is making it seamless and LALIFF is still not there. Even the procedure to pick up tickets changed mid-week, making in harder to get in to see desired screenings.

Los Angeles absolutely deserves and must have a top notch Latino Film Festival in 2007. The explosion of films from Latin America, the U.S. and Spain means there is no lack of films. And there is competition: for years AFI and the Los Angeles Film Festival have bolstered their Latino selections and what they feature is what should be at LALIFF in terms of quality and diversity.

In the end though, it's about the movies, and the week at Arclight did provide a chance to catch something engaging that might not end up on a screen somewhere near you sometime soon.

La Edad de la Peseta- a fantastic way to end the festival

On Sunday, the last day of LALIFF, I was in the mood for a feature film and the day was chock full of documentaries. I took a chance with La Edad de la Peseta (The Silly Age), a Spanish/Cuban production directed by Pavel Giroud.

Giroud's film is a bittersweet coming-of-age tale set in Havana in 1958 on the eve of the Cuban Revolution. Samuel and his somewhat slutty mother, on the heels of yet another divorce, end up not entirely welcome his grandmother Violeta's well to do home in Havana. While his mother looks for work and men, Samuel finds himself on the frustrating cusp of his teenage years as he navigates his own sexuality and love. His anachronistic relationshop with his grandmother, a sometime "blue" photographer changes over time.

Beautifully shot in vibrant colors, La Edad de la Peseta has a Sirkian quality to it mixed with deep, modern sarcasm.

Want some soap?

It's never a good sign when it's raining in L.A. and I should probably have checked the weather before heading to the Los Angeles Latino Film festival.

While on paper, the Cuban entry Madrigal looked like the kind of weird Lynchian-type film that makes my day, this is probably one of the most painful experience I had in theaters for a long time. Pretentious and cheesy at the same time, Madrigal is one of these projects that aim at being art but end up being a ridiculous piece of fluff -- to give you an idea, it was so bad that I couldn't help myself laughing during the supposedely soap-style sad scenes.

As for Radio Corazon, a movie based on stories heard on a popular radio show in Chile, after a first hilarious and original story, it all went downhill, falling into soap territory and loosing its sense of humor.

On the nightlife front, while I skipped the party, there was not shortage of stars at the festival, from the Sean & Robin Wright Penn couple to Javier Bardem.

La Buena Voz (The Good Voice)

Had I listened to the little voice in my head I would have left the theater in the middle of this muddy melodrama from Spain.

A couple who looks like they've hated every moment they've lived together is come undone by the appearance of an old family friend with a secret to tell. She's the wife's best friend and she's come to tell her that her son was born out of a fling she had with her husband 27 years ago. Instead of getting angry, Rosa is happy since she couldn't have kids of her own. Enter the son, who is also gay and has just found out he has AIDS. Enter his ex-boyfriend, who doesn't want to leave him. Enter the father, who won't accept a gay son.

Enter a thousand cliches of every bad telenovela you will find yourself in the middle of La Buena Voz, trying too hard to be a hip meditation on life in the 21st century.

The one and only saving grace to this film is the cinematography, which is excellent and the opportunity to see Bilbao, where the film was shot.

Estrellas de la Linea (The Railway All Stars)

By far the most engaging documentary of the festival, Estrellas tells the story of a group of Guatemalan prostitutes who form a soccer team to bring attention to the abuses they suffer at the hands of police and clients in Guatemala City. They live precariously at the end of the line, so to speak, and the doc does an excellent job of treating them with respect and showing their struggle with compassion, dignity and a large unexpected dose of humor. We see them at work, with their families, training for soccer matches and traveling the country.

This doc could easily be turned into a feature film and the hope is that a larger audience would see it.

Madres without Antenna

As I arrived to the Laliff ticket desk, after sipping a Korean drink they were serving in the VIP tent -- yeah a Korean drink ... go figure!! -- I had the bad surprise to learn that the LA Latino Film Festival had cancelled the screening of La Antenna, which I was planning to see.

Since they were short on tickets for the premiere of Adrift in Manhattan, I instead decided to go see Madres, a pretty sad documentary about the mothers of young Argentineans who were kidnapped and executed by the military, back in the 70's. While the film was touching and this story deserves to be hears, the documentary did suffer from a few flaws -- more to come in my review.

After the screening, I decided to go check out the premiere party for Adrift in Manhattan, which I'm sad to say was not short on posers and b-celebrities such as one of the Baldwin brothers -- don't ask me which one, I just know it wasn't Alec!