Noé, Solondz, Almodóvar, Audiard, Others at Toronto '09

Another round of titles were announced for the Toronto International Film Festival, including Todd Solondz's sequel to Happiness, Life During Wartime, and a bunch of Cannes leftovers like Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void, Ye Lou's Spring Fever, Almodóvar's Broken Embraces, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, as well as Samantha Morton's directorial debut The Unloved. Previously announced titles can be found here and here.

Vanguard

- Accident - d. Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog) - Hong Kong/China
- The Ape [Apan] - d. Jesper Ganslandt (Farväl Falkenberg) - Sweden
- Bunny and the Bull - d. Paul King - UK
- The Dirty Saints [Los santos sucios] - d. Luis Ortega - Argentina
- Enter the Void [Soudain le vide] - d. Gaspar Noé - France/Germany/Italy
- Hipsters - d. Valery Todorovsky - Russia
- The Misfortunates [De helaasheid der dingen] - d. Felix Van Groeningen (Steve + Sky) - Belgium
- My Queen Karo - d. Dorothée Van Den Berghe - w. Deborah Franoçois - Belgium/Netherlands
- Spring Fever - d. Ye Lou - China/Hong Kong/France


Discovery

- The Angel [Enkeli] - d. Margreth Olin - w. Maria Bonnevie, Lena Endre, Börje Ahlstedt - Norway/Sweden/Finland
- Applause - d. Pieter Zandvliet - w. Paprika Steen - Denmark
- Bare Essence of Life - d. Satoko Yokohama - Japan
- Beautiful Kate - d. Rachel Ward - w. Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Ben Mendelsohn - Australia
- A Brand New Life - d. Ounie Lecomte - South Korea/France
- The Disappearance of Alice Creed - d. J Blakeson - w. Eddie Marsan, Martin Compston - UK
- Eamon - d. Margaret Corkery - Ireland
- Every Day Is a Holiday [Chaque jour est une fête] - d. Dima El-Horr - w. Hiam Abbass - Lebanon/France/Germany
- Five Hours from Paris - d. Leon Prudovsky - Israel
- Heliopolis - d. Ahmad Abdalla - w. Khaled Abol Naga - Egypt
- The Day Will Come [Es kommt der Tag] - d. Susanne Schneider - Germany/France
- Le jour où Dieu est parti en voyage - d. Philippe van Leeuw - Belgium
- Last Ride - d. Glendyn Ivin - Australia
- My Dog Tulip - d. Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger - w. Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rossellini, Lynn Redgrave (voices) - USA
- My Tehran for Sale - d. Granaz Moussavi - Australia/Iran
- Northless [Norteado] - d. Rigoberto Pérezcano - Mexico/Spain
- Shirley Adams - d. Oliver Hermanus - South Africa/USA/UK
- La soga - d. Josh Crook - Dominican Republic/USA
- Toad's Oil - d. Kôji Yakusho - w. Yakusho - Japan
- Together [Sammen] - d. Matias Armand Jordal - Norway
- The Unloved - d. Samantha Morton - w. Robert Carlyle, Susan Lynch - UK

Special Presentations

- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos] - d. Pedro Almodóvar - Spain
- An Education - d. Lone Scherfig - UK
- The Front Line [La prima linea] - d. Renato De Maria - w. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Riccardo Scamarcio - Italy
- Glorious 39 - d. Stephen Poliakoff (Close My Eyes, The Tribe) - w. Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, Christopher Lee, Hugh Bonneville, David Tennant, Eddie Redmayne, Charlie Cox, Jenny Agutter, Jeremy Northam - UK
- Kamui - d. Yoichi Sai (Blood and Bones, Soo) - Japan
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz - d. Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Shirley Henderson, Ciarán Hinds, Michael K. Williams, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Reubens, Renée Taylor - USA
- A Prophet [Un prophète] - d. Jacques Audiard - France
- The Secret of Their Eyes [El secreto de sus ojos] - d. Juan José Campanella - Argentina/Spain

Some Thoughts on the Closing Ceremony of the 62nd Festival International de Cannes

I trekked through the closing ceremony yesterday morning streaming via the Cannes Official website, which really is not conducive for the few of us who are fluent in both English and French, and had a few observations.

1. The best moment wasn't the long-overdue recognition for Alain Resnais or finally bestowing Michael Haneke with the fest's top prize, but instead, it was the humble acceptance of Charlotte Gainsbourg after being named Best Actress for Lars von Trier's Antichrist. With a "bien sûr" delivery, Isabelle Huppert read off Gainsbourg's name as if there were no other choice the jury could have made, which makes natural sense considering Huppert and fellow jury member Asia Argento's history of emotionally devastating roles. With her hushed voice, Gainsbourg thanked von Trier, co-star Willem Dafoe, husband Yvan Attal, her two children, mother Jane Birkin and, naturally, her late father, whom she hoped was looking down at her both proud and shocked. This was easily the best moment of the whole ceremony.

2. Worse than Isabelle Adjani's shameless plug for her film La journée de la jupe, which Andrew Grant informed me is not only "god-awful" but worse than Bon voyage, were presenter Terry Gilliam's laughless crocodile tears when host Edouard Baer informed him that he was not the winner of the Best Director prize, which he was introducing. IndieWire commented, "Across the stage, Isabelle Huppert, not laughing, remarks simply, 'OK?'" I was sort of hoping for a bitchier "OK?" than Huppert gave, with a half-smile, but her sentiment was precisely how I felt. I was more embarrassed for Gilliam in those three minutes than I was during the entirety of The Brothers Grimm.

3. While I was partly amused by Christoph Waltz's acceptance speech for Best Actor, I think I'm beyond the point of wanting to hear someone verbally jerk Quentin Tarantino off. He does a good enough job by himself.

4. Though it seems Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo was the hands-down worst film to screen in competition this year (not surprising after the steady decrease in the director's work from My Life Without Me to Elegy), I'm wondering if the boos that accompanied Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay and Lou Ye's Spring Fever from the US critics were appropriate or if the rumored "jury craziness" had some validity. I wasn't impressed with Mendoza's The Masseur or Lou's Summer Palace, but I'm certainly willing to give both another shot.

5. While this has nothing to do with the ceremony itself, I've read conflicting reports of how IFC Films is planning on releasing Antichrist in the US. Some have said we'll be seeing the film in all its genital-mutilation glory, but others have said it will be cut. Another source said that IFC will be releasing both versions, as certain cable providers would probably shy away from showing the film OnDemand. It'll be interesting to see how this is handled when IFC rolls the film out, hopefully later this year.

Cannes 2009: Haneke, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrea Arnold, Jacques Audiard Among the Winners

The jury, headed by Isabelle Huppert, handed out their awards this afternoon, with a few surprises, both good and bad. Jane Campion's Bright Star and Marco Bellocchio's Vincere went home empty-handed despite mostly universal acclaim from the reviews I read. The awards are as follows.

Palme d'Or: Das weiße Band [The White Ribbon] - d. Michael Haneke - Austria/Germany/France
Grand prix: Un prophète [A Prophet] - d. Jacques Audiard
Prix exceptionnel du Festival de Cannes: Alain Resnais - Les herbes folles [Wild Grass]
Prix du jury: (tie) Fish Tank - d. Andrea Arnold; Thirst - d. Park Chan-wook
Prix de la mise en scène [Best Director]: Brillante Mendoza - Kinatay
Prix d'interprétation féminine [Best Actress]: Charlotte Gainsbourg - Antichrist
Prix d'interprétation masculine [Best Actor]: Christophe Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Prix du scénario [Best Screenplay]: Ye Lou - Spring Fever
Caméra d'Or: Samson and Delilah - d. Warwick Thornton - Australia
Caméra d'Or Mention Spéciale: Ajami - d. Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani - Israel/Germany

As for the acquisitions, only a few have been snatched up so far. Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and Park Chan-wook's Thirst were produced by The Weinstein Company and Focus Features, respectively. IFC Films took three films so far: Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Ken Loach's Looking for Eric and Tales from the Golden Age, from Romania. Sony Pictures Classics has the Palme d'Or and the Grand prix winners, as well as the fest's out-of-competition closer Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky and Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], which they bought a few months back. It's rumored that Bright Star will be the first release for a new company from Picturehouse's former head. I'll be posting more acquisitions in the coming weeks as they're announced.

Cannes 2009 Line-Up

Heavy competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which was announced earlier today in France. As stated earlier, the new Pixar 3D film Up! will open the fest, and it will be closed by that other Coco Chanel film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, from director Jan Kounen (Dobermann) with Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen. New films from a number of previous Palme d'Or winners will screen in competition, from Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark), Jane Campion (The Piano), Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds) and Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley). More films in the other various programs will be announced tomorrow. Actress Isabelle Huppert is the head of this year's jury.

In Competition

Bright Star - dir. Jane Campion - UK/Australia/France - with Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox, Abbie Cornish

Spring Fever - dir. Ye Lou - China/France

Antichrist - dir. Lars von Trier - Denmark/Sweden/France/Italy - with Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Enter the Void - dir. Gaspar Noé - France/Japan

Face [Visages] - dir. Tsai Ming-liang - France/Taiwan/Netherlands/Belgium - with Laetitia Casta, Lee Kang-sheng, Mathieu Amalric, Jeanne Moreau, Fanny Ardant, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Baye

Les herbes folles - dir. Alain Resnais - France/Italy - with André Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos, Sabine Azéma, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny

À l'origine [In the Beginning] - dir. Xavier Giannoli - France - with Gérard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Devos, François Cluzet

Un prophète [A Prophet] - dir. Jacques Audiard - France - with Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup

The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band] - dir. Michael Haneke - Austria/Germany/France - with Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Tukur

Vengeance - dir. Johnnie To - France/Hong Kong/USA - with Johnny Hallyday, Simon Yam, Sylvie Testud

The Time That Remains - dir. Elia Suleiman - Israel/France/Belgium/Italy

Vincere - dir. Marco Bellocchio - Italy/France - with Giovanna Mezzogiorno

Kinatay - dir. Brillante Mendoza - Philippines

Thirst - dir. Park Chan-wook - South Korea/USA - with Eriq Ebouaney, Song Kang-ho

Los abrazos rotos [Broken Embraces] - dir. Pedro Almodóvar - Spain - with Penélope Cruz, Ángela Molina, Lola Dueñas, Rubén Ochandiano, Blanca Portillo, Rossy de Palma, Chus Lampreave

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo - dir. Isabel Coixet - Spain - with Rinko Kikuchi, Sergi López

Fish Tank - dir. Andrea Arnold - UK/Netherlands - with Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway

Looking for Eric - dir. Ken Loach - UK/France/Italy/Belgium

Inglourious Basterds - dir. Quentin Tarantino - USA - with Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers, Eli Roth, Cloris Leachman, Til Schweiger, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Cheung, Daniel Brühl

Taking Woodstock - dir. Ang Lee - USA - with Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Paul Dano, Eugene Levy, Kelli Garner, Imelda Staunton, Katherine Waterson

Out of Competition

Drag Me to Hell - dir. Sam Raimi - USA - with Justin Long, Alison Lohman

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - dir. Terry Gilliam - France/Canada - with Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Jude Law, Tom Waits

Agora - dir. Alejandro Amenábar - USA/Spain - with Rachel Weisz