Announcing... The 18th Annual Saint Louis International Film Festival

Cinema Saint Louis has officially unveiled the line-up for the 18th annual Saint Louis International Film Festival today. I've known about all this for a while, as I did some assisting this year, but now that everything's set in stone (at least, as much as it can be) I can discuss some of the highlights this year. The four best films we're screening: Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza], Lisandro Alonso's Liverpool, Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum [35 rhums] and Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax. All four will make their local debuts at the festival, which begins 12 November 2009, opening with Lone Scherfig's An Education, with Peter Sarsgaard, who hails from the Saint Louis area, in attendance. Sadly, I was so focused on the features this year I haven't had a chance to see any of the documentaries yet.

Bujalski will be in attendance at the Beeswax screening on 13 November at Webster University. Lee Daniels is coming with Precious (I tried to get Mariah, but y'know, she's busy) on 14 November. Director Kirk Jones will also be present for Everybody's Fine, a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Stanno tutti bene with Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. Jason Reitman is coming with Up in the Air, followed by a Q&A, on 14 November at the Tivoli Theatre. Other appearances include Kevin Willmott with his The Only Good Indian; author Daniel Woodrell for the Director's Cut of Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil; Connie Stevens for Saving Grace B. Jones as well as co-stars Penelope Ann Miller, Rylee Fansler, Evie Louise Thompson and Tricia Leigh Fisher; Faruk Sabanovoc, co-writer and art director of Snow [Snijeg]; David Lowery with his excellent feature debut St. Nick; Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, with The Young Victoria which she co-produced with Martin Scorsese; AJ Schnack with his Convention; Joel Hodgson and the original crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000; Joe Berlinger with his latest film Crude; and Ry Russo-Young, writer/director of You Wont Miss Me, another film that comes highly recommended.

Stewart Copeland's Jennifer, which I discussed twice before, will screen as part of the Documentary Short collection "Individuals." Another friend of mine Mike Steinberg, director of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, will premiere two documentaries: Old Dog, New Trick and The Pride of St. Louis (co-directed by Thomas Crone). The screenings, on 20 November, will be followed by a concert from the subjects of the docs, local musicians Steve Scorfina and the band Mama's Pride (one of my father's favorites, actually).

Closing on Sunday, 22 November, you have your pick between Agnès Varda's The Beaches of Agnès [Les plages d'Agnès], Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus or Jean-Marc Vallée's The Young Victoria.

A few other films screening this year that I quite admire: Nancy Kissam's Drool; two films from Christian Petzold, Yella and Jerichow; Lucía Puenzo's XXY; and Noah Buschel's The Missing Person. And a couple I have yet to see: Jia Zhang-ke's 24 City; Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Three Monkeys [Üç maymun]; Ondi Timoner's We Live in Public; and Hans-Christian Schmid's Storm [Sturm]. Check out the full schedule and descriptions (many of which were written by yours truly) at Cinema Saint Louis' website. I'll have more updates closer to the fest itself.

Cinema Guild to Release L.A. Without a Map, Plus Other DVD/Blu-ray Announcements

Cinema Guild has announced Mika Kaurismäki's L.A. Without a Map, their first non-theatrical DVD release since the re-formation of their home video branch after New Yorker's closure, for 10 November. Based on the novel by Richard Rayner, the film, which premiered at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival, boasts a huge cast which includes Vincent Gallo, Julie Delpy, David Tennant, Vinessa Shaw, Saskia Reeves, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Monte Hellman, Joe Dallesandro, Amanda Plummer, the Leningrad Cowboys, Andre Royo, Jerzy Skolimowski, James LeGros, Robert Davi, Anouk Aimée and Johnny Depp in an uncredited role. Also note that Cinema Guild and Project X's release of Christian Petzold's Ghosts [Gespenster] has been pushed to 3 November.

I went back through the previous DVD release updates to check the status on a couple of films and noticed a few cancellations and a number of date changed. Warner took their Blu-ray release of The Exorcist off their release slate, and Paramount postponed the Centennial Collection of (surprise) The African Queen and Anatole Litvak's Sorry, Wrong Number indefinitely. All of the other date changes, for both DVD and Blu-ray, are listed below the newly announced titles of their respective format.

DVD

- Homicide: Life on the Street, The Complete Series, 1993-2000, A&E, 29 September
- Children of the Corn, 2009, d. Donald P. Borchers, Anchor Bay, 6 October
- The Sunchaser, 1996, d. Michael Cimino, Warner, 13 October, w. Woody Harrelson, Jon Seda, Anne Bancroft
- Orphan, 2009, d. Jaume Collet-Serra, Warner, also on Blu-ray, 27 October
- Enlighten Up!, 2008, d. Kate Churchill, New Video, 10 November
- L.A. Without a Map, 1998, d. Mika Kaurismäki, Cinema Guild, 10 November
- Spread, 2009, d. David Mackenzie, Anchor Bay, also on Blu-ray, 10 November
- Moon, 2009, d. Duncan Jones, Sony Pictures, also on Blu-ray, 17 November
- The Open Road, 2009, d. Michael Meredith, Anchor Bay, also on Blu-ray, 17 November, w. Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Steenburgen, Lyle Lovett
- The Rebirth, 2007, d. Masahiro Kobayashi, Facets, 24 November
- Superstar, 2009, d. Tahmineh Milani, Facets, 24 November

DVD Date Changes

- Valentino: The Last Emperor, Phase 4 Films, 8 September
- Chinatown, Centennial Collection, Paramount, 6 October
- The New Hollywood Box Set, Sony, 20 October
- Night of the Creeps, Sony, 27 October (also on Blu-ray, which wasn't initially announced)
- Rashevski's Tango [Le tango des Rashevski], Menemsha Films, 27 October
- The Sam Fuller Collection, Sony, 27 October
- Ghosts [Gespenster], Project X/Cinema Guild, 3 November

Blu-ray

- Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 1966, d. Chuck Jones, Ben Washam, Warner, 6 October
- Galaxy Quest, 1999, d. Dean Parisot, DreamWorks, 17 November
- The Way of the Gun, 2000, d. Christopher McQuarrie, Lionsgate, 24 November

Blu-ray Date Changes

- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sony, 6 October
- Wolf, Sony, 6 October
- Easy Rider, Sony, 20 October
- Ichi the Killer, Tokyo Shock, 20 October
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacaction, Ultimate Collectors Edition, Warner, 3 November
- Chasing Amy, Miramax, 17 November
- Clerks, Miramax, 17 November
- Fight Club, 20th Century Fox, 17 November

More Petzold from Project X/Cinema Guild

Project X, through Cinema Guild, announced a 6 October DVD release of Christian Petzold's Ghosts [Gespenster], which stars Aurélien Recoing, Sabine Timoteo and Benno Fürmann. In other DVD news, Magnolia will release Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! on 6 October; Anchor Bay is releasing Not Forgotten, with Paz Vega and Simon Baker, on 6 October; and MYA will have Sergio Garrone's Evil Face [Le amanti del mostro], with Klaus Kinski, on 27 October.

On the Blu-ray front, 20th Century Fox announced Fight Club for 13 October, and Paramount will be releasing South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut! on the same date. All for now. James Hansen revisited the brilliant South Park movie recently, which you can check out over at Out 1 Film Journal.

IFC Films on DVD, Round 2 + Akerman + Petzold - Michael Jackson

Though you might have other things on your mind, I thought I'd post another DVD update. Through their new deal with MPI, IFC Films announced their second round of DVD releases after that Blockbuster/Genius drought. Unfortunately, all of their titles so far have been part of their Festival Direct package and not their theatrical releases (The Last Mistress, The Duchess of Langeais, A Christmas Tale, Hunger, Gomorrah, My Winnipeg, etc). On 15 September, look for Spiros Stathoulopoulos' single-take thriller PVC-1 and Baltasar Kormákur's White Night Wedding [Brúðguminn], which stars the Icelandic director's frequent actor Hilmir Snær Guðnason. On 29 September, Madonna's wretched directorial debut Filth and Wisdom and the Spanish thriller Fermat's Room [La habitación de Fermat] will be released.

Icarus Films has set a release date for Chantal Akerman's acclaimed, little seen From the East [D'Est] for 6 October, as well as David Barison and Daniel Ross' documentary The Ister for 3 November. Kino will release a double-feature of sci-fi/horror films from director Graham Reznick, I Can See You and The Viewer, on 28 September.

Cinema Guild will follow Project X's July release of Christian Petzold's The State I Am In [Die Innere Sicherheit] with his latest Jerichow on 27 August. And finally, it appears as if the elusive Phantasm II will make its way onto DVD on 15 September (though I can't back this up) from Universal. I know you've been waiting.

Claire Denis + Cinema Guild; Repulsion + Criterion

Via IndieWire, Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum [35 rhums] has found a US distributor in Cinema Guild, who just started their own DVD label after New Yorker Films closed up shop. In other Cinema Guild news, they have teamed up with Project X, who previously brought us a bunch of amazing Peter Watkins films. Their first release together will be Christian Petzold's The State I Am In [Die Innere Sicherheit] in July, followed by Watkins' 14-hour doc The Journey [Resan] sometime later this year.

Criterion announced their July titles this afternoon. Roman Polanski's Repulsion, previously only available in a wretched bargain bin disc, will be out on both DVD and Blu-ray on 28 July. Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition is set for the 14th, as well as a Blu-ray of For All Mankind. And Godard's Made in U.S.A. is the other release, though Eric pointed out that spine number 482 has yet to be announced. He suspects it may be Godard's 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her [2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle] (though Polanski's Cul-de-sac is another possibility). I suspect it may be Revolutionary Road (if Criterion's release of Benjamin Button is any indication). Let's hope he's right.

S'more DVD Updates

Kino announced two more titles. Amos Gitai's One Day You'll Understand [Plus tard tu comprendras], starring Jeanne Moreau, Hippolyte Girardot and Emmanuelle Devos, will be out on the 2nd, and Erwin Wagenhofer's We Feed the World for 19 May. And Universal... I don't like what you're up to. First, We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story and now Pufnstuf, set for 19 May!? I see where you're priorities lie. The Weinstein Company announced that long-on-the-shelf Killshot, which stars Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Thomas Jane and Rosario Dawson, for a 26 May DVD release (after a brief theatrical run earlier this year). Gee, the director of Shakespeare in Love has come so far! And finally, Axiom Pictures in the UK have set a new date for Jean-Claude Brisseau's À l'aventure for 25 May. À l'aventure will be released by IFC later this year.

And here are the Ryko titles for June: Robert Hartford-Davis' Black Torment (aka Estate of Insanity) from Redemption, Lucio Fulci's Door Into Silence [Le porte del silenzio] from Severin, three films from Giuseppe Andrews (In Our Garden, The Date Movie, Air Conditioning) from Troma, Joe D'Amato's Horrible [Rosso sangue] from MYA, Sergio Martino's The Island of the Fishmen [L'isola degli uomini pesce] from MYA, Stephen C. Apostolof's Lady Godiva Rides from S'more, Akio Jissoji's Marquis de Sade's Properties of Vice from Mondo Macabre, Mario Imperoli's Monika [La ragazzina] from MYA, Norman J. Warren's Prey (aka Alien Prey) from Redemption, Umberto Lenzi's So Sweet... So Perverse [Così dolce... così perversa] from Midnight Choir, Elliott Hung's They Call Me Bruce? from Liberation, Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax and Michel Gondry's Tokyo! from Liberation, Alfredo Sternheim's Violence and Flesh [Violência na Carne] from Impulse. All street on 30 June.

Via IndieWire, The Cinema Guild will start their own DVD label, after New Yorker Films (who had released most of their titles recently) closed up shop. So, it looks like both Christian Petzold's Yella and Alexandr Sokurov's Alexandra have not been cancelled. Yella streets on 31 March, Alexandra on 28 April.