Palisades Tartan Makes Their First Acquisition in Lourdes

Jessica Hausner's third feature Loudres, which screened at both Venice and Toronto this month, was acquired by Palisades Tartan, marking their first new title outside of the Tartan film library. The Austrian film, which Daniel Kasman reviewed at The Auteurs, stars Sylvie Testud, Bruno Todeschini, Léa Deydoux, Elina Löwensohn and Orsolya Tóth.

Foreign Oscar Submissions and TIFF and Deuville Award Winners

The submissions for the foreign language Oscars are all due on 1 October, and so far, thirty countries have announced their entries. Currently, the Netherlands are reconsidering their choice of Jean van de Velde's The Silent Army [Wit licht], which played out of competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, as it risks being disqualified for not being "Dutch" enough; a good portion of the dialogue is in English. Thanks to Movie On for the full list. Of the films below, only one filmmaker (Giuseppe Tornatore) is a previous winner, and so far six (maybe seven) have US distribution. David Hudson ponders why Germany, and not Austria, will be submitting Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon over at The Auteurs Daily.

Armenia: Autumn of the Magician, d. Ruben Gevorkyants, Vahe Gevorkyants
Austria: Ein Augenblick Freiheit [For a Moment, Freedom], d. Arash T. Riahi
Belgium: De helaasheid der dingen [The Misfortunates], d. Felix van Groeningen
Brazil: Salve Geral, d. Sérgio Rezende
Bulgaria: The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, d. Stephan Komandarev
Chile: Dawson Isla 10 [Dawson Island 10], d. Miguel Littin
Finland: Postia pappi Jaakobille [Letters to Father Jacob], d. Klaus Härö
France: Un prophète [A Prophet], d. Jacques Audiard, Sony Pictures Classics
Germany: Das weiße Band [The White Ribbon], d. Michael Haneke, Sony Pictures Classics
Hong Kong: Prince of Tears, d. Yonfan
Hungary: Kaméleon [Chameleon], d. Krisztina Goda
India: Harishchandrachi Factory, d. Paresh Mokashi
Iran: About Elly, d. Asghar Farhadi, Here! Films
Italy: Baarìa, d. Giuseppe Tornatore
Japan: Nobody to Watch Over Me, d. Ryôichi Kimizuka
Kazakhstan: Kelin, d. Ermek Tursunov
Lithuania: Duburys [Waterhole], d. Gitis Luksas
Morocco: Casanegra, d. Nour Eddine Lakhmari
Portugal: Um Amor de Perdição [Doomed Love], d. Mário Barroso
Romania: Poliţist, adj.. [Police, Adjetive], d. Corneliu Porumboiu, IFC Films
Serbia: Here and There, d. Darko Lungulov
Slovenia: Pokrajina Št.2 [Landscape No.2], d. Vinko Moderndorfer, Vanguard [released on DVD 25 August]
South Africa: White Wedding, d. Jann Turner
South Korea: Mother, d. Bong Joon-ho, Magnolia
Sri Lanka: Akasa Kusum [Flowers in the Sky], d. Prasanna Vithanage
Sweden: De ofrivilliga [Involuntary], d. Ruben Östlund
Switzerland: Home, d. Ursula Meier, Lorber Films (?)
Taiwan: No puedo vivir sin ti, d. Leon Dai
Thailand: Best in Time, d. Youngyooth Thongkonthun
Venezuela: Libertador Morales, el justiciero, d. Efterpi Charalambidis


Though technically not a competitive film festival like Cannes, Sundance, Venice or Berlin, the selected few awards given at this year's Toronto International Film Festival were announced over the weekend.

People's Choice Award: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - d. Lee Daniels
- First Runner-Up: Mao's Last Dancer - d. Bruce Beresford
- Second Runner-Up: Micmacs [Micmacs à tire-larigot] - d. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
People's Choice Award for Documentary: The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls - d. Leanne Pooley
- Runner-Up: Capitalism: A Love Story - d. Michael Moore
People's Choice for Midnight Madness: The Loved Ones - d. Sean Byrne
- Runner-Up: Daybreakers - d. Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig

Best Canadian Feature Film: Cairo Time - d. Ruba Nadda
Best Canadian First Feature Film: The Wild Hunt - d. Alexandre Franchi

FIPRESCI Prize for Special Presentations Section: Hadewijch - d. Bruno Dumont
FIPRESCI Prize for Discovery Section: The Man Beyond the Bridge - d. Laxmikant Shetgaonkar


Precious also tied for the Prix du jury at the 35th annual Deauville Festival du cinéma américain last week. The jury was headed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and included actors Hiam Abbas, Émilie Dequenne, Deborah François, Sandrine Kiberlain, Géraldine Pailhas, Dany Boon, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie (César et Rosalie), and directors Patrice Leconte and Bruno Podalydès (Dieu seul me voit). The winners are below.

Grand Prix: The Messenger - d. Oren Moverman
Prix du jury: (tie) Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - d. Lee Daniels; Sin Nombre - d. Cary Fukunaga
Prix de la révélation Cartier [Cartier Newcomer Award]: Humpday - d. Lynn Shelton

Belgian architecture eschews monotony, embraces variety

Shared party walls, for example, don't just divide households; they may divide contrasting designs and construction styles
Michael Geller, Special to The Sun
Published: Saturday, September 19, 2009

Recently, I returned from three weeks in Belgium and Luxembourg. While I spent a number of nights in hotels, most of my time was spent in a rambling 22-room house in Zomergem, a small village between Bruges and Ghent. While I lived in this former mayor's mansion, which had been lovingly restored, the owner and his family were enjoying my much smaller home in Vancouver.

This was our seventh house exchange. Like all the others, it went extremely well, without any problems. Not only did we exchange homes, we also exchanged cars. However, unlike some previous years, we did not exchange cats or cellphones.

House exchanges are a wonderful way to travel. Not only can you save money, you can also experience a country in a way that is simply not possible when staying in hotels and eating in restaurants.

During an exchange, one also often gets to meet the neighbours. We were fortunate in having Tom and Martine nearby. They both spoke perfect English and helped us better understand the local cultures and customs.

Although summer is now over, it's not too early to perhaps consider a house exchange as a good way for your family to travel next summer.

While Belgium is not as popular as France or Italy as a tourist attraction, it has an extremely interesting history and extraordinary places to visit. And as I discovered, in addition to the wonderful chocolates, it also offers ideas and lessons that could help make our cities more livable and attractive.

One of the first things that I noticed in Zomergem was the way the streets were designed and built to improve traffic safety. Throughout the village -- and in most nearby towns and cities -- bicycle paths are clearly marked with specially coloured paving or asphalt. There is also a separate bicycle highway network with its own numbering system, signage and maps.In and around Zomergem, road intersections are raised about 10 cm, or four inches. This is done to caution drivers and help slow down traffic. Some intersections also have large mirrors to improve visibility. Pedestrian crosswalks are very clearly marked, sometimes with tall black and yellow striped poles and additional overhead lighting. When I commented on these designs, my neighbour told me that the country had recently embarked on a very deliberate traffic safety program to reduce the number of fatalities. The goal was no more than 500 a year -- in a country of 11 million people, five million cars and thousands of national and international trucks.

I had no idea how many traffic fatalities occurred in our country, so I did some research. While I was pleased to discover that the number of fatal accidents has been steadily dropping, there were still 2,900 deaths across Canada in 2006. If Canada was to attempt to limit traffic fatalities to the same level as Belgium's proportionately, those 2,900 deaths would need to be cut in half. Improved intersection designs, better pedestrian crosswalks and safer bicycle lanes might help.

Belgium has a great architectural history and cities like Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp and Brussels have many streetscapes full of buildings dating back to the 17th century, and earlier. During the 19th century, many buildings were designed in what is called the neoclassical style and architectural revivalism, which combined various architectural styles from earlier periods. However, at the end of the 19th century, a new style was created in Europe, which became known as art nouveau. Many areas in Brussels and Antwerp were developed in this new, highly decorative style, and while some of the better examples have tragically been destroyed over the years, many good examples remain.

Looking at these buildings, I was most impressed with the attention to detail and efforts to combine architecture and art. I was particularly taken with the beautiful brickwork, which often combined different colours and patterns, including the distinctive "Flemish Bond," which incorporates bricks of different sizes.As I admired these buildings, I thought about how little additional effort and cost would be required to make our new brick buildings more attractive and decorative. Yes, architects would need to be paid to include additional details on their drawings, and bricklayers would have to pay more attention to the drawings. But just as in Belgium, our brick buildings will likely last for many centuries and they could easily be designed and built in a more beautiful manner. Why, most Toronto brick buildings have more decorative qualities than what we are building!

While the new housing in Belgium is different than what was built centuries ago, looking around Zomergem and nearby towns, I was fascinated by the differences between new Belgian subdivisions and new subdivisions in British Columbia. For one thing, it is not uncommon to see a variety of housing forms and architectural styles in one subdivision. To conserve land, the new housing form is either open, half-open or closed.

Open housing refers to detached, single-family dwellings.

Half-open housing is what we we might call semi-detached or duplex housing, with a common or shared party wall. However, unlike most semi-detached housing built in Vancouver, half-open houses are often designed by two different architects and built by two different owners. The results can be quite extraordinary.Closed housing has shared party walls on both sides, resulting in what we would call townhouses or row housing. Again, homes in the row are often designed and built by different architects and owners, just as they were centuries ago.

In reviewing the local streets and subdivisions, I was surprised by the number of modern designs being built. In Vancouver, most new subdivision housing seems to belong to another time or place. We rarely see small, modern "West Coast" houses being built in subdivisions or on infill lots.

I believe the Belgians are building more contemporary and interesting homes for three reasons:

- They have a desire to be individualistic and to not always conform.

- They have had a longstanding interest in architectural design.

- Architects are usually hired to design a house, even a small, modest house.

Perhaps there are some lessons for us here, too.



Michael Geller is a Vancouver architect, planner and developer and retired university administrator. His blog on Belgium can be found at gellersworldtravel.blogspot.com on the Internet. For more information on house exchanges visit homelink.org.

Tourneur, Lamarr, Penn & Teller and Kathy Bates in the Warner Archive

With just over 300 titles now included in the Warner Archive Collection, Warner has certainly kept its promise from earlier this year to keep bulking up their selection and, shockingly, have actually been listening to their customers by offering bundle packs and discounts on the DVD-R releases (I remember someone joking in regard to Little Darlings that $20 was pretty steep for a film starring Kristy McNichol).

A few titles you can look forward to being added, hopefully, by the end of the year: Sidney Lumet's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull, with James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret and David Warner; Robert Z. Leonard's The Bribe with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton and Vincent Price; King Vidor's Comrade X, with Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr; and Kenneth Branagh's A Midwinter's Tale [a.k.a. In the Bleak Midwinter], with Joan Collins, Jennifer Saunders and Julia Sawalha.

Below you'll find a list of the titles recently added to the collection. All are available now at the Warner Archive homepage. Highlights include a pair of noirs from Jacques Tourneur, Roger Ebert's favorite 90s teen comedy Angus, a number of Hedy Lamarr flicks including I Take This Woman (which went through the hands of Josef von Sternberg and Frank Borzage before being completed by W.S. Van Dyke), King Vidor's silent The Patsy with Marion "Rosebud" Davies, Peter Glenville's Term of Trial and Paul Brickman's remake of Moshé Mizrahi's La vie continue, Men Don't Leave, Arthur Penn's Penn & Teller Get Killed and the little-seen, much-hated fantasy Lionheart.

- Airborne, 1993, d. Rob Bowman, w. Seth Green, Edie McClurg, Jack Black, Alanna Ubach
- Angus, 1995, d. Patrick Read Johnson, w. Kathy Bates, George C. Scott, Rita Moreno, Anna Thomson, James Van Der Beek
- Bad Ronald, 1974, d. Buzz Kulik
- Berlin Express, 1948, d. Jacques Tourneur
- Crossroads, 1942, d. Jack Conway, w. William Powell, Hedy Lamarr
- Experiment Perilous, 1944, d. Jacques Tourneur, w. Hedy Lamarr
- The Heavenly Body, 1944, d. Alexander Hall, w. William Powell, Hedy Lamarr
- Highway 301, 1950, d. Andrew L. Stone
- Hot Millions, 1968, d. Eric Till, w. Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Cesar Romero
- How Sweet It Is!, 1968, d. Jerry Paris, w. James Garner, Debbie Reynolds
- I Died a Thousand Times, 1955, d. Stuart Heisler, w. Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lee Marvin
- I Take This Woman, 1940, d. W.S. Van Dyke, Frank Borzage, Josef von Sternberg, w. Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr
- Ice Palace, 1960, d. Vincent Sherman, w. Richard Burton
- Killer McCoy, 1947, d. Roy Rowland, w. Mickey Rooney
- Kisses for My President, 1964, d. Curtis Bernhardt, w. Fred MacMurray, Polly Bergen
- Lightning Strikes Twice, 1951, d. King Vidor
- Lionheart, 1987, d. Franklin J. Schaffner, w. Eric Stoltz, Gabriel Byrne, Nicholas Clay, Dexter Fletcher, Paul Rhys, Sammi Davis
- Men Don't Leave, 1990, d. Paul Brickman, w. Jessica Lange, Arliss Howard, Joan Cusack, Kathy Bates, Chris O'Donnell
- Not with My Wife, You Don't!, 1966, d. Norman Panama, w. Tony Curtis, Virna Lisi, George C. Scott
- The Patsy, 1928, d. King Vidor, w. Marion Davies
- Pay or Die, 1960, d. Richard Wilson, w. Ernest Borgnine
- Penn & Teller Get Killed, 1989, d. Arthur Penn
- The Plunderers, 1958, d. Joseph Pevney, w. John Saxon
- Quantrill's Raiders, 1958, d. Edward Bernds
- Return of the Frontiersman, 1950, d. Richard L. Bare
- The Search, 1948, d. Fred Zinnemann, w. Montgomery Clift
- Speedway, 1929, d. Harry Beaumont
- Suspense, 1946, d. Frank Tuttle
- The Tall Target, 1951, d. Anthony Mann
- Term of Trial, 1962, d. Peter Glenville, w. Laurence Olivier, Simone Signoret, Sarah Miles, Terence Stamp
- Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, 1993, d. Randa Haines, w. Robert Duvall, Richard Harris, Shirley MacLaine, Sandra Bullock, Piper Laurie

navratri 2009, navratri sms, navratri wallpapers, navratri greetings

navratri sms, navratri wallpapers, navratri greetings, navratri 2009

This Navratri, may you be blessed with good fortune

As long as Ganeshji’s trunk,

Wealth and prosperity as big as his stomach,

Happiness as sweet as his ladoos

And may your trouble be as small as his mouse.

Happy Navratri

“Maa ki jyoti se prem milta hai,

sabke dilo ko marm milta hai,

jo bhi jata hai MAA ke dwar ,

kuch na kuch jarur milta hai. ”

SHUBH NAVRATRI.

Aavo Ne Ramva Re

Garbe Ghumva Re

Maadi Tmne Jova

May maa bless you

With happiness all the year through!

Wishing you a happy durga puja

Fortunate is the one

Who has learned to admire,

But not to envy.

Good wishes for a joyous Navratri,

With a plenty of peace and prosperity.

This Navratri, may you be blessed with good fortune

As long as Ganeshji’s trunk,

Wealth and prosperity as big as his stomach,

Happiness as sweet as his ladoos

And may your trouble be as small as his mouse.

Bajre ki roti,

aam ka achar,

suraj ki kirne, khushiyo ki bahar,

chanda ki chandni, apano ka pyar,

mubarak ho aapko

‘NAVRATRI’

ka tyohar.

PYAR KA TARANA UPHAR HO,KHUSHIYO KA NAZRANA BESHUMAR HO,

NA RAHE KOI GAM KA

EHSAS; AISA Navratra UTSAV IS saal ho, , . .

HAPPY NAVRATRA.

Lakshmi ka Hath ho,Saraswati ka Sath ho,Ganesh ka niwas ho,

aur maa durga ke

ashirwad se Aapke jeevan mai prakash hi prakash ho….

‘HAPPY NAVRATRI’

Maa Durge,

Maa Ambe,

Maa Jagdambe,

Maa Bhawani,

Maa Sheetla,

Maa Vaishnao,

Maa Chandi,

Mata Rani meri aur apki manokamna puri karey..

JAI MATA DI.

Tags: navratri sms, navratri wallpapers, navratri greetings, navratri 2009, navratri wallpaper, navratri greetings, navratri messages, navratri quotes, navratri sms hindi, navratri free sms, happy navratri, navratri scraps

The Decade List: Odete (2005)

Odete [Two Drifters] - d. João Pedro Rodrigues

Though his first attempt at consternating his audience, the Pasolini-inspired O Fantasma, wasn't a grand success, João Pedro Rodrigues' Odete hit the mark a lot harder than its predecessor. Released in the US as Two Drifters, the film is an exuberant and decidedly Eurotrashy take on obsession which takes joy in nullifying the romanticized, politically-correct trends in contemporary queer cinema. The central figure of Odete is a handsome twenty-one year old boy named Pedro (João Carreira), who dies in the opening scene in a bloody car crash. As the film's catalyst, his death affects both his cherished boyfriend Rui (Nuno Gil) and a woman he’s never met named Odete (Ana Cristina de Oliveira). Rodrigues presents Rui and Pedro's relationship mockingly, magnifying their cheeseball displays of affection as they exchange one-year anniversary rings, engraved with "Two Drifters," a nod to Breakfast at Tiffany's. They’re an agonizingly perfect couple, in the most extreme sense - in the sense that, in this world, they cannot thrive.

When Pedro perishes, the "Moon River" dries up, and "two drifters" takes on a separate meaning, referring instead to the grief-stricken Rui and the tall, beautiful and emotionally unstable Odete, who uses the Pedro's death as a way of coping with her own boyfriend's (Carloto Cotta) departure. Their drifting is wiped clean of its previously embellished sentimentality as the two empty souls wander through their lives like emotionally-stricken zombies, without the strength to move past their own infatuation.

For Rui, Odete is a mystery; despite living in the same building, they first meet after Pedro's passing when Odete starts claiming to be pregnant with Pedro's baby. This leads Rui to believe she might be the reincarnation of his lover. She’s not, and we know this, but the film presents a number of mythical situations, all of which would have made sense had the film existed in that fantasy world Rui and Pedro seemed to be inhabiting in the opening scene. For a portion of the film, we don’t really know whether Odete is lying or not about her pregnancy. Rodrigues doesn’t allow this misinterpretation to stay for long, as his film is about two tortured young people holding onto the desire of lost happiness. For Odete, Rui functions like as a way to erase “Odete” and assume the role of Pedro, a person who, unlike "Odete," is loved deeply.

Odete is a fascinating film, denying expected conventions and narrative structure in favor of exploring complex and strange emotional responses to grief and loneliness. Perhaps certain elements in the film don't really work, but when a director takes risks like Rodrigues does, some ventures will inevitably fail. And more often than not, I'm more inclined to forgive when ambition is high.

With: Ana Cristina de Oliveira, Nuno Gil, João Carreira, Teresa Madruga, Carloto Cotta
Screenplay: Paulo Rebelo, João Pedro Rodrigues
Cinematography: Rui Poças
Music: Olivier Bombarda
Country of Origin: Portugal
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 18 May 2005 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 23 June 2006 (New York City)

Awards: Cinémas de Recherche - Special Mention (Cannes Film Festival)

Criterion Delays and Other Announcements

Nothing terribly exciting in the way of new DVD announcements, but here it is anyway. They are in descending order of release date. The Criterion date changes are below, with the only new items being Blu-rays of Gimme Shelter and A Christmas Tale. Also, a word to the (Blu-ray owning) wise: DVDTimes claims that the Studio Canal Blu-ray collection arriving on 28 September appear to not be Region B locked, so those upset about the cancellations of Criterion's Le mépris and Ran, get 'em imported. The other titles in the collection include The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, The Deer Hunter, Belle de jour, L'année dernière à Marienbad and The Elephant Man.

- The Cove, 2009, d. Louie Psihoyos, Lionsgate, 8 December
- The First Saturday in May, 2007, d. Brad Hennegan, John Hennegan, E1 Distribution, 8 December
- Runaway, 2005, d. Tim McCann, E1 Distribution, 8 December, w. Mark Webber, Robin Tunney
- Slam-Bang, 2009, d. Mark Lebenon, Cinema Epoch, 8 December
- This Beautiful City, 2007, d. Ed Gass-Donnelly, Cinema Epoch, 8 December
- World's Greatest Dad, 2009, d. Bobcat Goldthwait, Magnolia, 8 December
- The Girl from Monaco [La fille de Monaco], 2008, d. Anne Fontaine, Magnolia, 15 December
- Blind Date, 2007, d. Stanley Tucci, E1 Distribution, 22 December, w. Tucci, Patricia Clarkson
- The House of the Devil, 2009, d. Ti West, Magnolia/MPI, also on Blu-ray, 22 December
- Staten Island, 2009, d. James DeMonaco, National Entertainment Media/E1, also on Blu-ray, 22 December

New Criterion Release Dates

- Monsoon Wedding, 2001, d. Mira Nair, DVD and Blu-ray, 20 October
- Howards End, 1992, d. James Ivory, Blu-ray, 3 November
- Wings of Desire [Der Himmel über Berlin], 1987, d. Wim Wenders, DVD and Blu-ray, 3 November
- A Christmas Tale [Un conte de Noël], 2008, d. Arnaud Desplechin, DVD and Blu-ray, 1 December
- Gimme Shelter, 1970, d. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, Blu-ray, 1 December