Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What's On starting December 10

EU Film Festival starts Friday!

Chiang Mai movies beginning Wednesday, December 10

by Thomas Ohlson

Best Bets: Traitor. Twilight. Ong-Bak 2. The Day the Earth Stood Still. EU Film Festival.

Seemingly at the last moment, the film chains decided to open their new pictures on Wednesday this week, which is a holiday. Major Cineplex, however, didn’t bother to post their times on their website, and I finally had to go to their theater and purloin one of the staff’s personal list of movie times. The things I have to do to keep you all up to date! (That’s why this listing is a little late today.) Major Cineplex will probably change their times again tomorrow to accommodate more showings of Transporter 3.

These are my comments on the films playing at Major Cineplex at Airport Plaza and at Vista at Kadsuankaew beginning Wednesday, December 10, 2008. Attached is the same list in Word format.

This is Issue Number 7 of Volume 4 of these listings – in our fourth year!

Now playing in Chiang Mai * = new this week

* The Day the Earth Stood Still: US Sci-Fi/ Drama/ Thriller – 103 mins – I enjoyed this! If you like sci-fi thrillers, you should too. Of course, you have to be willing to accept a lot of the “aliens invade Earth” conventions. I did, and found it a lot of fun. Except perhaps for the actor playing the part of the kid, who seems to me to be an example of why you shouldn’t adopt stray kids.

And as for Keanu Reeves, he’s perfect for the part of the alien! Absolutely perfect, because he really is an alien himself! I think all of us have always known that. Think about it – think about him in any movie he’s ever been in. He is not human! He is truly an alien himself, a little spooky, but accessible, and I love him just the way he is!

This is a remake of the landmark film of 1951 with Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, and Sam Jaffe, directed by Robert Wise. [See the photo of the original.] This time Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, a mysterious alien who travels to Earth with a simple mission: to save the planet. He lands his vast space ship in Central Park, New York, and tries without success to announce his plans to the world via a speech at the United Nations. He’s taken into custody instead. Thus rebuffed, to goes to the backup plan: He will destroy everything, then re-populate our planet with clones of the current species. All, that is, except humans who he feels are responsible for Earth's destruction and must be permanently destroyed. He unleashes swarms of dust size robots who sweep through New York and the surrounding area dissolving everything in their path. As mankind fights to survive, one female scientist convinces Klaatu to stop the earth’s destruction and give us a second chance.

Is mankind worth saving? Worth a “second chance”? Good question. As for me, I’m not quite sure. In the movie, Klaatu needs to be convinced “Yes,” or we all die.

scifimoviepage: Science fiction literature and films have served to not only entertain, but to address our questions, hopes and fears about extraterrestrial life. Such speculation has captivated our collective imagination and inspired the development of new technology to explore the farthest reaches of our universe and the very real possibility that we are not alone.

One of the most original and innovative films of the genre is the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, a truly groundbreaking movie that has influenced generations of sci-fi enthusiasts, authors and filmmakers. Directed by legendary filmmaker Robert Wise, the film tells the story of a benevolent, human-looking alien called Klaatu, who lands his spaceship in Washington D.C. with the goal of meeting with the leaders of Earth to warn that the violence that man is committing against man actually threatens the survival of other civilizations in the universe. With the help of Gort, his giant robotic bodyguard, Klaatu eludes the authorities who attempt to capture him and immerses himself in human culture to gain a better understanding of a species that seems committed to conflict and destruction. He befriends a widow and her son, and through the prism of their friendship he learns much about humanity – and ultimately challenges mankind to be its best version of itself.

"The premise for this remake is rooted not in man’s violence against man, but in mankind’s destruction of the Earth’s environment."

The film was revolutionary, not only in its then-cutting edge conceptualization of aliens, spaceships and robots, but in its audacious variation on a familiar allegory for the escalating tensions of the early Cold War era. “The entire canon of science fiction in America in the Fifties was constructed in such a way as to reinforce Western fears of the Eastern Bloc,” notes producer Erwin Stoff. “The ‘other’ to be feared was always a metaphor for Communism. What was remarkable about The Day the Earth Stood Still was that it placed the onus of responsibility on everyone equally. The ‘other’ to fear was ourselves – the nature of man and the terrible violence that humanity is capable of.”

Another aspect of the film that sets it apart is the perspective from which it unfolds. “One of the really unique things about the story is that it’s told from the alien’s point of view,” Stoff observes. “We’ve seen a lot of movies about aliens, but rarely do we see ourselves as the aliens.”

The idea of remaking The Day the Earth Stood Still first struck Stoff, who has managed Reeves for over 20 years, in the wake of their success on the 1994 blockbuster Speed. During a meeting with at Twentieth Century Fox studios, Stoff noticed a poster for the classic film hanging on the wall. “I said, ‘Forget about the project I came here to talk to you about. What we should do is develop The Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu playing Klaatu,’” he remembers. “It seemed like a great idea, but for one reason or another, it didn’t happen. Then, as destiny would have it, a draft showed up on my doorstep twelve years later.”

As re-conceived by screenwriter David Scarpa and director Scott Derrickson, the premise for the 2008 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still is rooted not in man’s violence against man, but in mankind’s destruction of the Earth’s environment. “I’m a tremendous fan of the original film,” Derrickson says. “It was so interesting and original and progressive for its time – in the visual effects, in the way it commented on the Cold War tensions of that era, in the idea of seeing humanity from an outsider’s perspective. It’s a truly great film, but most modern audiences haven’t seen it. I feel like people deserve to know this story, and this was a fantastic opportunity to retell it in a way that addresses the issues and conflicts that are affecting us now.”

There is nothing the original film says about the nature of mankind that isn’t every bit as timely and relevant to this generation of movie audiences,” Stoff believes. “It’s the specifics of the way we now have the capability to destroy ourselves that have changed. The evidence that we are doing potentially irreparable harm to the environment is pretty irrefutable. The challenges that we face today are no less daunting, and if we fail at them, no less lethal, than the ones that we faced before the end of the Cold War.”

In re-imagining this picture, we had an opportunity to capture a real kind of angst that people are living with today, a very present concern that the way we are living may have disastrous consequences for the planet,” says Reeves. “I feel like this movie is responding to those anxieties. It’s holding a mirror up to our relationship with nature and asking us to look at our impact on the planet, for the survival of our species and others.”

* Transporter 3: France Action/ Crime – 100 mins – I’ve seen it, and I can attest that it’s an action movie – meaning that there’s a lot of explosions, car crashes, and men being violent and assertive. And it’s all quite well done, and seasoned with just the slightest bit of plot and humor. If that’s what you like, this is for you.

Jason Statham returns for a third time now as Frank Martin, a former British Special Forces soldier turned mercenary, whose specialty is delivering risky items in a timely fashion. In this third installment, Frank who has just relocated to Paris, awakes to find himself with a bomb strapped to his wrist which threatens to blow up should he try to remove it. Mixed or average reviews: 51/50 out of 100.

Roger Ebert: A perfectly acceptable brainless action thriller.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua: US Comedy/ Adventure/ Family – 91 mins – With the voices of Drew Barrymore, Jamie Lee Curtis, Eugenio Derbez, Andy Garcia, Cheech Marin, Plácido Domingo, George Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Luis Guzmán, and Salma Hayek. Almost every Spanish-accented voice in Hollywood! In this Disney comedy, a pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua named Chloe (voice of Drew Barrymore) finds herself accidentally lost in the mean streets of Mexico without a day spa or Rodeo Drive boutique anywhere in sight. Now alone for the first time in her spoiled life, she must rely on some unexpected new friends – including a street-hardened German Shepherd named Delgado (voice of Andy Garcia) and an amorous pup named Papi (voice of George Lopez) – to lend her a paw and help her to find her inner strength on their incredible journey back home. It’s a pretty ordinary talking animal picture. Critical reaction seems to be very mixed, with people either loving it or hating it. Overall, it comes out as mixed or average reviews: 41/50 out of 100.

You must know fairly well at this stage of the game whether or not you enjoy talking animal pictures, and if your child does. I found it amusing with parts quite a lot of fun. It is well done of its kind, so if this is your cup of tea, you should enjoy it well enough. Especially if you like dogs, because they really are terrific!

This is not an animated movie – it uses real animals, and the actors are the voices of the animals, apart from the small assortment of humans, like Jamie Lee Curtis, who is playing the lost dog's owner, and Piper Perabo, who is playing her niece.

Ong-Bak 2: Thai Action/ Adventure – 100 mins – With Tony Jaa, who also directed. I’m not sure what your reaction will be to this film, for it’s rather difficult and really not too much fun to watch. It’s quite dark, and exceptionally violent. Not for children! But it’s extraordinary in many respects, and approaches almost every aspect of an action film in a new way. And it seems a terribly personal film for Tony Jaa, in which he apparently is trying to exorcise some inner demons. I think it’s a fascinating attempt.

Here is the official synopsis: “Set in the regal times of King Naresuan, Tony Jaa plays Tien, a man who was born into nobility but had it stripped from him after his parents were brutally murdered. During his childhood Tien learned Khon, a form of dance which is usually reserved for royalty. Although he didn't know it yet, Khon would later prove to be an invaluable aide to him. After seeing his parents murdered when he was at the tender age of 10, Tien is forced to live on the streets where he is eventually captured by a group of thieves who take him in and teach him how to steal and fight. Tien’s expertise as a thief and fighter grows, and it isn't long before he is made head thief. Then Tien sees something that makes his stomach churn. A competition is being held to find the best knights to serve under the very man who had killed Tien's parents all those years ago. Tien passes the tests easily and is made Lord Rachasana's 2nd Knight. Now, he has his opportunity to strike but he will have to use all his skill and ingenuity if he is going to get his revenge on the man who killed his parents, and stay alive.”

Kong Rithdee, writing in Variety: Ong-Bak 2 smashes its way to No.1Ong-Bak 2 ruled the Thai box office over the weekend, and is on its way to becoming the highest grossing local release of the year. The film, directed by and starring martial artist extraordinaire Tony Jaa, opened Friday with a robust 28 million baht take. As of Sunday, the film has reportedly taken in 70 million baht.

The film performed even better than Tom Yum Goong during its opening weekend in 2005, which earned about 200 million baht in Thailand.

Producer Sahamongkol Film Intl is said to be preparing a celebration of Ong Bak's 100-million-baht achievement on Wednesday. It will be the first Thai movie to touch that milestone this year.

Before the release of Ong Bak 2, the highest grossing Thai film of the year was a small comedy about a former rapper-turned-monk Luang Pee Teng 2, which made around 80 million baht.

Twilight: US Vampire love – 121 mins – It’s quite well done overall, and I rather enjoyed it. Robert Pattinson is indeed a handsome, smoldering devil as the vampire.

In the story of Twilight, you have your against-the-odds teen love, your woman in peril, your vampires, and your cult following. It’s a complex story, in three volumes so far and more to come. Mixed or average reviews: 56/53 out of 100.

Vista has a Thai-dubbed version only, with no English subtitles. Airport Plaza has it in the original English, with Thai subtitles.

Traitor: US Drama/Thriller – 114 mins – With Don Cheadle. Probably in its last days. See it while you can. Another serious look at the world of moral uncertainty amid the war on terror. I am very fond of this movie; I think Don Cheadle gives another outstanding performance in this film – really a great person to watch. And I found the story (by Steve Martin) very engrossing.

James Berardinelli, Reel Views: Traitor is an uncommonly intelligent espionage thriller that explores the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by agents who go deep undercover in the service of their country. For movies that revolve around terrorist organizations and acts, there are typically two approaches: a gung-ho, "John Wayne" style and a story that seeks to humanize the terrorists. Traitor takes a different, less straightforward trajectory that exhibits the complex motivations of the terrorists as well as those who oppose them without resorting to caricatures on either side. The film's villains are not cookie-cutter bad guys and the FBI agents are neither bumbling nor infallible. Caught in the middle of everything is a man trying to save innocent lives but whose actions end up taking them as well.

. . . As a thriller for adults who don't require manic chases, frenetic shoot-outs, and ten cuts per second, Traitor is smart, effective, and at times suspenseful. It's one of a very few terrorist-themed movies that presents its situation without resorting to exploitation or oversimplification.

The story: Straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, and all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn (Cheadle). A mysterious figure with a web of connections to terrorist organizations, Horn has a knack for emerging on the scene just as a major operation goes down. The inter-agency task force looking into the case links Horn to a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice, and a raid in London, but a tangle of contradictory evidence emerges, forcing Clayton to question whether his quarry is a disaffected former military operative – or something far more complicated. Obsessed with discovering the truth, Clayton tracks Horn across the globe as the elusive ex-soldier burrows deeper and deeper into a world of shadows and intrigue. Only mixed or average reviews: 60/60 out of 100. Nevertheless, despite the lukewarm reviews, I suggest you go. At Vista only.

Scheduled for Chiang Mai cineplexes on Thursday, December 18

Happy Birthday / แฮปปี้ เบิร์ดเดย์: Thai Drama/ Romance – Starring Ananda Everingham. Looks like a real weepy love story. This time Ananda is a travel photographer who travels around Thailand with his guide/girlfriend, until the girl is involved in a terrible car accident and ends up in a hospital in a coma, while Ananda waits at her bedside for her to wake up. From the previews, I have to say it looks perfectly tedious, despite the fact that I’m a fan of Ananda. But we’ll hope for the best.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Alliance Française schedule

At Alliance Française on Fridays at 8 pm

At Alliance Française on Friday, December 12: Les Brigades du Tigre / The Tiger Brigades (2006) by Jérôme Cornuau – 125 mins – France, Action/ Adventure. English subtitles.

With Clovis Cornillac, Diane Kruger, Edouard Baer, Jacques Gamblin, Thierry Frémont, Léa Drucker, Aleksandr Medvedev, Gérard Jugnot.

In 1907, an unprecedented crime wave strikes Belle Époque France. To counter the criminals of the new-born century, the Interior Minister, George Clemenceau, nicknamed "the Tiger,” creates modern special police force called "les Brigades Mobiles.” The French call them "les Brigades du Tigre.”

Alliance description

The film, set in 1912, is about the exploits of France's first motorized police brigade. IMDb viewer: a lavish and rather enjoyable French movie spin off of a much-loved TV series, a sort of “Les Untouchables” about an elite quartet of crime fighters taking on Russian anarchists, crooked politicians and embezzlers in 1912 in the run-up to the signing of the Triple Entente between Russia, France and Britain that would make the First World War an inevitability. The film suffers from the lack of a memorable Al Capone-like opponent and there are no shootouts at train stations (though it does all revolve around a coded ledger) but there is a particularly good one at a farmhouse that draws a crowd of approving visiting aristocrats to watch as if it were a grouse shoot and a rather spectacular assassination at a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's “Ivan the Terrible”. But rather than a straight-out gangster movie, this is a period conspiracy thriller that naturally takes a slightly leftist leaning despite the heroes being the mobile brigades who tended to lean more to the right, and there is a sense of the film trying to have its moral cake and eat it at times with the characters' divided political sympathies occasionally seeming more like demographic-appeasing on behalf of the producers: Clovis Cornillac's cop even delivers a speech about what standup guys anarchists are just to reassure the modern target audience in the banlieues that these cochons are cool anti-establishment types.

At Alliance Française on Friday, December 19: Diva (1981) by Jean-Jacques Beineix – 117 mins – France, Action/ Drama/ Mystery/ Romance/ Thriller/ Music. English subtitles. Generally favorable reviews: 80 out of 100.

With Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi, Richard Bohringer, Thuy An Luu.

Jules is a postman who’s mad about Opera. His is crazy about Cynthia Hawkins, a Diva who refuses to have any album of her own; so he tries to record her voice illegally but he is in trouble with pirate disc dealers…

Alliance description

Variety: Diva is an extraordinary thriller and first film from Jean-Jacques Beineix, complex, stylish, and fast-moving.

The story [from the novel by Delacorta] involves a young mail courier (Frederic Andrei) with a passion for opera. His idol, Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez), has made a career of avoiding the recording studio but the industrious young man manages to covertly make a high-quality tape of her Paris performance. At the same time, a prostitute hides a cassette recording she's made in his delivery motorcycle putting the finger on a drug kingpin before she's killed.

His only ally is a mysterious, shadowy character, Gorodish (Richard Bohringer), who lives with a Vietnamese nymphet (Thuy An Luu). Character has been popularized in a series of French novels and provides an element of fun to the picture, popping up to help the hero throughout the story.

The director dots the tale with bizarre types who continually cross each other's paths and wind up doing more harm to each other than to the young postman. The novel touches, bizarre chases and plot twists, breathtaking camerawork by Philippe Rousselot and tension-filled editing, make Diva a superior piece of entertainment.

Lost at Sea: In 1981, Beineix's Diva was a forerunner of the Cinema du Look movement that would come to hold a prominent role in the French films of the following decade. Wikipedia defines the movement as one that "referred to films that had a slick visual style and a focus on young, alienated characters that were said to represent the marginalized youth of Francois Mitterrand’s France." Common themes within the genre included alienation and doomed love, with a focus on the conflicted state of the country's youth and the frequent use of the Paris Metro. Beineix's wonderful film incorporates all of these aspects and more, showcasing a director truly fascinated by the possibilities of filmmaking and the tools of color, music, sound, and mise-en-scene. Diva is clearly a thriller, but one with very little action; the first car chase, minor as it is, doesn't occur until well past the film's halfway mark.

At Alliance Française on Friday, December 26: No film shown. Holiday!

Film Space schedule

At Film Space: on Saturdays at 7 pm

Film Space in December is presenting “A Month of Krzysztof Kieslowski” featuring the Three Colors Trilogy, films of which I am very fond, plus his The Double Life of Veronique.

Film Space is to the right and in the back of the CMU Art Museum, in the Media Arts and Design building across from the ballet school. Now that the weather is cool, they are resuming their rooftop showings, weather permitting. You might want to bring something to sit on or lie on. A contribution is requested in the donation box at the entrance. Well worth supporting.

At Film Space on December 13, 7 pm: Trois Couleurs: Blanc / Three Colors: White (1994) by Krzysztof Kieslowski – 91 mins – France, Drama. In Polish and French with English subtitles. Generally favorable reviews: 77 out of 100.

With Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy, Janusz Gajos, Jerzy Stuhr, Aleksander Bardini, Grzegorz Warchol.

This is the second of the "Three Colors" trilogy Red, White, and Blue: the colors symbolizing liberty, equality, and fraternity. White, therefore, was written around the destructive dynamics of a relationship based upon great inequality. Karol is a Polish hairdresser working in France. He has a beautiful wife, Dominique, whom he loves to obsession, and who is in the process of divorcing him for his inability to "consummate the marriage.” Karol loses all of his earthly possessions and is literally driven out of France by his estranged wife. Karol decides to fight back...”

Alliance Française description

White is perhaps the craziest of the three: Kieslowski moves quickly and fluidly through a careening narrative that encompasses love lost and regained, death and rebirth, France and Poland, abject poverty and capitalist triumph. All in 90 vivid minutes. It’s actually a comedy, though it might take a second viewing to convince you of that. A black comedy. Which I suppose is why it’s called White, Kieslowski being Kieslowski!

There’s an interesting film clip of an interview with the film’s female star Julie Delpy discussing and dissecting the ending of White, where her character uses sign language to communicate with her ex-husband. There seems to have been some disagreement about what her signs were meant to convey, and here she explains it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gqYoVAErLQ.

Interestingly enough, this whole scene seems to have been an afterthought, and she was called back to film this additional scene in the middle of the shooting of the final film in the series, Red.

Doug Cummings, Senses of Cinema: White is a return to the dark humor and irony reminiscent of Decalogue: Ten with its story of Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), an impotent Polish man whose French wife, Dominique (Julie Delpy), divorces him. This sets in motion Karol's elaborate plot to regain equality in their relationship, though the scheme he hatches verges on revenge and thus ensures a tragic combination of love and separation. (Quoting a Polish proverb, Kieslowski remarked, “There are those who are equal and those who are more equal,” suggesting equality is a fleeting and imperfect ideal.) However, the film suffers in comparison to Blue and Red—the cool machinations of its protagonist (as well as its storytelling) often seem manipulative and superficial, but Kieslowski's pessimistic wit shines throughout.

Cinemathequeontario: “A continuing testament to the Polish director’s poetic mastery. . . . articulates a whole language of sensations, images, ironies, and mystery” (Desson Howe, The Washington Post). In this somewhat anomalous second film in the Trois Couleurs trilogy, an impotent, penniless hairdresser claws his way back to the top after rejection by his wife (Julie Delpy) leaves him shattered. Blanc shies away from the explicit treatment of existential themes found in Rouge, and the introductory collapse of its whimsically pathetic protagonist is a far cry from Bleu’s majestically grieving Binoche. But with oddly compelling, sometimes comical verve, Blanc offers a haunting tale of love and possession in which the hairdresser’s elaborately planned vengeance is depicted as an ambiguous triumph. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1994 Berlin film festival.

Saturday, December 20: Trois Couleurs: Rouge / Three Colors: Red (1994) by Krzysztof Kieslowski – 99 mins – France, Drama. English subtitles. Reviews: Universal acclaim: 84 out of 100.

With Irène Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Frédérique Feder, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Samuel Le Bihan, Marion Stalens.

Third and last part of Kieslowski's trilogy . . . Valentine is a young model living in Geneva. Because of a dog she ran over, she meets a retired judge who spies his neighbors' phone calls, not for money but to feed his cynicism…”

Alliance Française description

James Berardinelli, Reel Views: "Blue, liberty; White, equality; Red, fraternity... We looked very closely at these three ideas, how they functioned in everyday life, but from an individual's point of view. These ideals are contradictory with human nature. When you deal with them practically, you do not know how to live with them. Do people really want liberty, equality, fraternity?"

- Writer/director Krzysztof Kieslowski

Red, the final chapter of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, is a subtle masterpiece. With its satisfying exploration of such complex and diverse themes as destiny and platonic love, Red is not only a self-contained motion picture, but a fitting conclusion to the series. Through one brief-but-important scene, this movie adds closure to both Blue and White, tying both to each other and to Red, and thereby reinforcing the commonality of ideas threaded through all three.

This time around, the protagonists are a young woman named Valentine (Irene Jacob, who starred in Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique) and a crotchety retired judge, Joseph Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant). Valentine, a fashion model, meets the judge after running down his dog in the street and taking the injured animal to the address listed on the collar. Kern is initially indifferent to his pet's predicament, telling Valentine to keep the dog if that's what she wants. She does; however, the animal eventually runs away and finds its way back to the judge's. When Valentine goes searching, she inadvertently learns Kern's secret - he enjoys spying on people by illegally tapping into their phone conversations. Told in parallel with the chronicle of the unusual friendship between Valentine and the judge is the story of two lovers that Kern spies upon. Auguste and Karin seem devoted to each other, but fate has already cast its die against them. For Auguste's life is eerily similar to that of Kern thirty years ago and, like the older man, he is drawn by forces beyond his control towards Valentine.

Thematically, Red is the strongest of the three films. Its construction allows hardly a moment to pass when the viewer isn't considering how fate manipulates the lives of Valentine, Auguste, Kern, and Karin - not to mention the characters from Blue and White (reprised oh-so-briefly by Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Julie Delpy). Then there's the meaning of platonic love (or "fraternity") - friendship completely divorced from sexual overtones. Kieslowski shows exactly how multi-faceted any relationship can be, and what occasionally must be sacrificed to the basic human need of finding a kindred spirit.

Red also toys with foreshadowing in a very literal sense. A shot of Valentine used for a billboard ad presages something that later happens to her in real life. It is this moment, more than any other, which crystallizes everything that the Three Colors trilogy is attempting to convey about life and destiny. While Red lacks the emotional depth of Blue and the dark humor of White, it more than makes up for these with its textual and stylistic richness. The red-saturated visuals by Polish cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski are crisp and consistently atmospheric, and the score by Zbigniew Preisner is at full power (after being shunted into the background in White).

The performances are without flaw. Irene Jacob is mesmerizing as Valentine, a woman unknowingly trapped in fate's web. As is true of the other female leads in the Three Colors trilogy, her acting ability matches her screen luminance. Jean-Louis Trintignant presents a multi-layered character whose final secrets are not revealed until late in the film.

Red virtually demands more than one viewing for an appreciation of the picture's ambitious scope. Repeated examination of Red's narrative and thematic structure makes it apparent what Kieslowski has accomplished not only here, but through his entire trilogy. This is one of 1994's exceptional motion pictures.

Roger Ebert: One of the opening images in Red is of telephone lines, crossing. It is the same in life. We are connected with some people and never meet others, but it could easily have happened otherwise.

Looking back over a lifetime, we describe what happened as if it had a plan. To fully understand how accidental and random life is - how vast the odds are against any single event taking place - would be humbling.

That is the truth that Kieslowski keeps returning to in his work. In The Double Life of Veronique, there is even a moment when, if the heroine had looked out of a bus window, she might have seen herself on the street; it's as if fate allowed her to continue on one lifeline after choosing another. In Red, none of the major characters knows each other at the beginning of the movie, and there is no reason they should meet. Exactly.

The film opens in Geneva, in an apartment occupied by a model named Valentine (Irene Jacob). She makes a telephone call, and the phone rings at the same time in an apartment just across the street, occupied by Auguste, a law student. But she is not calling him. Her call is to her boyfriend, who is in England, and whom she rarely sees. As far as we know, Valentine and Auguste have never met. And may never meet. Or perhaps they will.

One day Valentine's car strikes a dog, and she takes it to the home of its owner, a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant). He hardly seems to care for the dog, or for her. He spends his days in an elaborate spying scheme, using wiretaps to monitor an affair being carried on by a neighbor. There is an instant spark that strikes between the old man and the young woman - a contact, a recognition of similarity, or sympathy - but they are 40 years apart in age, strangers to one another, and have met by accident, and . . .

The story becomes completely fascinating. We have no idea where it is going, where it could possibly go. There is no plot to reassure us. No goal that the characters hope to attain. Will the young woman and the judge ever meet again? What will come of that? Does it matter? Would it be good, or bad? Such questions, in Red, become infinitely more interesting than the questions in simple-minded commercial movies, about whether the hero will kill the bad guys, and drive his car fast, and blow things up, or whether his girlfriend will take off her clothes.

Seeing a movie like Red, we are reminded that watching many commercial films is the cinematic equivalent of reading Dick and Jane. The mysteries of everyday life are so much deeper and more exciting than the contrivances of plots.

We learn something about Auguste, the law student who lives across the way. He has a girlfriend named Karin. She specializes in "personal weather reports" for her clients, which sounds reasonable, like having a personal trainer or astrologer, until we reflect that the weather is more or less the same for everybody. But perhaps her clients live in such tight boxes of their own construction that each one has different weather.

Valentine talks to her boyfriend. They are rarely together. He is someone on the phone. Perhaps she "stays" with him to save herself the trouble of a lover whose life she would actually share.

She goes back out to the house of the old judge, and talks to him some more. We learn more about the lives he is eavesdropping on. There are melodramatic developments, but no one seems to feel strongly about them.

And Valentine and Auguste. What a good couple they would make! Perhaps. If they ever meet. And if, in the endless reaches of cosmic time, there had been the smallest shift in the lifetimes of Valentine and the Judge, they could have been the same age. Or another infinitesimal shift, and they would have lived a century apart. Or never lived at all. Or if the dog had wandered somewhere else, Valentine would not have struck him, and met the judge. Or if the judge had had a cat . . .

Think about these things, reader. Don't sigh and turn the page. Think that I have written them and you have read them, and the odds against either of us ever having existed are greater by far than one to all of the atoms in creation.

Red is the conclusion of Kieslowski's masterful trilogy, after Blue and White, named for the colors in the French flag. He says he will retire now, at 53, and make no more films. At the end of Red, the major characters from all three films meet - through a coincidence, naturally. This is the kind of film that makes you feel intensely alive while you're watching it, and sends you out into the streets afterwards eager to talk deeply and urgently, to the person you are with. Whoever that happens to be.

Saturday, December 27: La Double vie de Véronique / The Double Life of Veronique (1991) by Krzysztof Kieslowski – 98 mins – France/ Poland, Drama/ Fantasy/ Romance. In French and Polish, with English subtitles. Generally favorable reviews: 77 out of 100.

With Irène Jacob, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Sandrine Dumas, Guillaume de Tonquedec, Aleksander Bardini.

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Irène Jacob is incandescent as both Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Though unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond, which Kieslowski details in gorgeous reflections, colors, and movements. Aided by Slawomir Idziak’s shimmering cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner’s haunting, operatic score, Kieslowski creates one of cinema’s most purely metaphysical works: The Double Life of Veronique is an unforgettable symphony of feeling.

Reel.com: Just before he began work on his stunning film trilogy Blue, Red, and White, Polish writer/director Krzysztof Kieslowski made a film that could easily have been part of the same series, and probably should have been called Yellow, but was titled The Double Life of Veronique instead. Like the three color films, Veronique is a meditation on the interconnectedness of people, told in poetic style with a visual language that repeats itself with the comforting cadence of a nursery rhyme. It's a film experience, in other words, in which the sensuous nature of the medium takes over, and the plot matters less and less as the film goes on.

The Double Life of Veronique is propelled by an idea, and by the excellent performance of Irène Jacob in dual lead roles—as Weronika, a young woman in Poland, and Vèronique, her identical counterpart in France. Weronika receives the shocking news first: She learns about her double when she spies Vèronique in a busload of picture-snapping French tourists on a plaza in Krakow. Vèronique finds out later, when she develops her snapshots from the trip, and is equally devastated. A doppelganger, in this case, is not a pal who knows what you're going to say before you say it; it means that feelings of loneliness and isolation are passed back and forth between the characters, doubling their despair.

About the director:

"Live carefully, with your eyes open, and try not to cause pain."

Krzysztof Kieslowski (b. June 27, 1941 in Warsaw, Poland – d. March 13, 1996) was a leading director of documentaries, television and feature films from the 1970s to the 1990s. The social and moral themes of contemporary times became the focus of his many significant films and his unique humanist treatment of those themes secured his place as one of the greatest of modern film directors. He was a prominent member of the Polish film generation who defined the so-called "Cinema of Moral Anxiety" - films which tested the limits of Socialist film censorship by drawing sharp contrasts between the individual and the state.

Kieslowski graduated from the Lodz Film School in 1968 and began his film career making documentaries that were both artistic and political and aimed to awaken social consciousness. Workers '71 attempted to relate the workers' state of mind as they organized strikes. The people's desire for more radical change was addressed in Talking Heads. In 1973, social and political commentary infused The Bricklayer, the story of a political activist who becomes disenchanted with the hierarchy surrounding Party politics, and returns to bricklaying. Kieslowski's documentary Hospital (1976) is both homage to the hardworking surgeons in a Polish hospital, and a revealing look at the problems with health care in Poland.

His early feature films were made for television; they include Personnel and Calm. Because his feature films evolved from the documentaries, he continued to use documentary techniques to enhance and add realism to the fiction films. The Scar (1976) was Kieslowski's first theatrical release, a socio-realist view of management problems in a large industrial factory. He came to festival attention with Camera Buff (1979), a parody on the film industry, an exploration of the unknown and a wry commentary on censorship. Blind Chance, a 1981 feature film, concentrates on what role fate or chance plays in our futures.

In 1984, he began a longtime writing collaboration with Polish lawyer, Krzysztof Piesiewicz with No End. Set during Poland's martial law of 1982, it is the story of a dead lawyer who watches over his family as they continue on with their lives. His wife becomes involved in his last case involving a worker who had been arrested when he tried to organize a strike.

Kieslowski's mammoth Decalogue, co-written with Piesiewicz, is a series made for Polish television based on the Ten Commandments. Each episode is set in a contemporary apartment complex in Warsaw and is one hour long. Kieslowski tackled the project after feeling "tension, a feeling of hopelessness, and a fear of worse yet to come - everywhere, everything, practically everybody's life." The series was shown in its entirety as the centerpiece of the 1989 Venice Film Festival and is considered a masterpiece of modern cinema.

Lack of funds in Poland drove Kieslowski to seek financial backing from the West - most notably in France. The Double Life of Veronique (1992) firmly established Kieslowski with an international reputation. This moody, atmospheric study of two women, doppelgangers, one French, one Polish, who share the same name, birthday, heart condition, and a vague sense of the existence of the other, was a commercial as well as critical success and made a star of its leading actress, Irene Jacob.

The Three Colors trilogy, representing the colors of the French flag, Blue (1993, liberty), White (1994, equality) and Red (1994, fraternity) followed. The trilogy explores these three themes; in Blue, Juliette Binoche grieves as she loses her husband and child in a car accident and her new life and freedom cannot replace lost love. In White, a Polish hairdresser tries to regain the love of his ex-wife, a beautiful French girl played by Julie Delpy, and seeks equality in their one-sided relationship. In Red, Irene Jacob is a model who gradually falls in love with an older man (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) after she accidentally [hits] his dog in a traffic accident. The retired judge arranges for her to "accidentally" meet someone her own age and for whom he thinks will be good for her. The films were scheduled to be released three months apart and while each can stand on its own; they were designed to be seen as a single entity.

Kieslowski periodically announced his retirement from filmmaking, though he never actually abandoned the cinema completely. His last project was to coauthor another trilogy with Piesiewicz, with the films tentatively titled Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Kieslowski died before the trilogy was completed. A chain smoker, the great director died following cardiac surgery at the age of 54. Heaven, the first in the trilogy, was completed in 2002 with Tom Tykwer at the helm and Cate Blanchett in the starring role.

Facets.org

EU Film Festival 2008

EU Film Festival Schedule, December 11-21, 2008, at Vista

For the 17th year running the European Union Film Festival 2008 (EUFF) will be bringing the best in European cinema to Chiang Mai.

This year’s festival will give Thai audiences the chance to enjoy 17 films from 17 EU member states.

Taking place in Bangkok from November 27 to December 7 at SF World Cinema, Central World, the festival will then move to Chiang Mai from December 11 to December 21 where the films will be screened at Vista Kadsuankaew.

Tickets for Bangkok screenings cost 100 baht while Chiang Mai tickets are 70 baht.

All films are shown in the original language with English subtitles except for the UK entry Control which is subtitled in Thai.

Speaking about the festival Dr. Friedrich Hamburger, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Thailand, said, “For 17 years the European Union Film Festival has given Thai film lovers the chance to enjoy European cinema at its best. This year’s festival boasts an outstanding line up, showcasing the diversity of European cinema and the talent of its filmmakers.”

He describes the variety of themes which run through this year’s festival lineup:

Sense of place and society is explored by a number of films. In the Czech Republic’s Empties a literature professor, unable to understand his students, abandons his post to work in a local supermarket; Bulgaria’s Monkeys in Winter explores in three mini films the stark choices that life can present; Portugal’s Skin looks at racism as a rich, beautiful and intelligent woman faces discrimination due to her color; while Spain’s El Balancín de Ivan sees a family hide out from a brutal military regime in 1970s Argentina.

The strength of family ties are the focus of Sweden’s Darlecarlians where three sisters return to a small village to celebrate their father’s 70th birthday; the Netherlands’ Northern Lights follows the fallout when a father-son relationship unravels; Poland’s It Will Be Well tells a story of a young runner who vows to help his ailing mother by making a pilgrimage; while Italy’s The Ball follows a young boy’s efforts to set his mother up with the right man.

The forces that divide cultures are examined in Germany’s powerful and multi-award winning The Edge of Heaven in which a Turkish son finds it in his heart to forgive his father while a German mother decides to forgive and help her daughter's Turkish lover. The cross-cultural theme is also explored in Luxembourg’s Arabian Nights in which a train conductor leaves his comfortable and familiar surroundings to travel to Algeria in search of a mysterious woman.

Also taking part in the festival are Austria’s Come, Sweet Death in which a failed, alcoholic cop investigates one last case; Belgium’s King of the World tells a story of the rise and fall of a young boxing champ; Finland’s The Leaning Tower sees an ailing couple journey to Italy in an attempt to see Pisa’s leaning tower; France’s Ulzhan follows a quest for treasure and love across Central Asia’s endless steppes [see picture]; Greece’s One Day in August sees three couples take their marital problems on holiday; the UK’s multi-award winning Control is a biopic of doomed Joy Division singer Ian Curtis; while Hungary’s Porcelain Doll comprises three fairy stories with magical farmers coming up against the laws of the surrounding world.

The European Union Film Festival in Chiang Mai is organized by the Delegation of the European Commission to Thailand, the embassies and the cultural institutions of the European Union Member States in collaboration with the Vista Group.

Screening schedule, at Vista in Kad Suan Kaew.

Date

Title

Time

Country

Fri 12 Dec

El Balancin De Ivan + Porcelain Doll

18.00

Spain + Hungary

Darlecarlians

20.00

Sweden

Sat 13 Dec

Skin

12.30

Portugal

It Will Be Well

14.30

Poland

Leaning Tower, The

16.45

Finland

Edge of Heaven, The

19.00

Germany

Sun 14 Dec

Northern Lights

14.00

The Netherlands

Arabian Nights

16.00

Luxembourg

Come, Sweet Death

18.15

Austria

Mon 15 Dec

One Day in August

19.30

Portugal

Tue 16 Dec

Monkeys in the Winter

19.30

Bulgaria

Wed 17 Dec

Skin

19.30

Portugal

Thurs 18 Dec

Ulzhan

18.00

France

Northern Lights

20.00

The Netherlands

Fri 19 Dec

Arabian Nights

18.00

Luxembourg

Edge of Heaven, The

20.15

Germany

Sat 20 Dec

Monkeys in the Winter

12.00

Bulgaria

El Balancin De Ivan + Porcelain Doll

14.30

Spain + Hungary

One Day in August

16.30

Greece

Control

18.45

U.K

Sun 21 Dec

Ulzhan

14.00

France

Ball, The

16.00

Italy

Darlecarlians

18.15

Sweden

Empties

20.15

Czech Republic

The Synopses

Here are the synopses of the films as prepared by the European Union Film Festival.

Come, Sweet Death (2001)

Original Title :

Komm, Susser Tod

Country :

Austria

Category :

Dark comedy

Director :

Wolfgang Murnberger

Principle Cast :

Josef Hader, Simon Schwarz, Barbara Rudnik.

Awards :

Length :

108 min

Simon Brenner is a failed cop but successful dope-smoker and alcoholic who now works as a paramedic for a private rescue service waging a ruthless war for patients against a rival business. Things fall off the stretcher when Brenner suspects his German colleague of a double shooting, whereupon he half-heartedly investigates the crime and, a few corpses later, unravels a murky ploy, roughly to do with State subsidies.

King of the World (2006)

Original Title :

Koning Van De Wereld

Country :

Belgium

Category :

Drama

Director :

Guido Henderickx

Principle Cast :

Kevin Janssens, Koen de Bouw, Jan Decleir, Josse De Pauw, Katelijne Damen,

Awards :

Length :

105 mins

King of the World tells a story of the rise and fall of a young boxing champ, who, in the last days of World War II, boxes his way to become European champion. Will his shoulders be strong enough to bear the weight of success?

Monkeys in Winter (2006)

Original Title :

Maimuni prez zimata

Country :

Bulgaria

Category :

Tragic drama

Director :

Milena Andonova

Principle Cast :

Bonka Ilieva-Boni, Diana Dobreva, Angelina Slavova

Awards :

Length :

111 mins

Dona is a single mother living in the suburbs of Sofia in the early 1960s. Being abandoned by her boyfriend and threatened by local bailiffs, Dona desperately agrees to marry an elderly man only to discover that he is a reprehensible pedophile. Flash forward to 1981, Lucretia is attempting to get impregnated so she won't have to move back to the countryside after graduation. In the third and final story, the wife of a wealthy real estate tycoon watches their once-happy life slip into discontent when she discovers that her husband is infertile.

Empties (2007)

Original Title :

Vratné Lahve

Country :

Czech Republic

Category :

Bitter-sweet comedy

Director :

Jan Sverák

Principle Cast :

Zdenak Sverak, Daniela Kolarova, Tatiana Vilhelmova, Jiri Machacek, Nela Boudova

Awards :

Length :

103 min

Czech literature teacher Josef realizes one day that he no longer understands his pupils and quits his job. What he does not know is that in doing so he will lose his sense of place in society. He finds himself isolated in his flat with his wife. After a few vain attempts at finding a decent job he accepts a position at a refundable bottles counter in a local supermarket. Surrounded by characteristic people and at the centre of a city community, Josef finally finds his way back to his own life.

The Leaning Tower (2006)

Original Title :

Kalteva torni

Country :

Finland.

Category :

Tragic comedy

Director :

Timo Koivusalo

Principle Cast :

Martti Suosalo, Liisa Kuoppamaki, Seela Sella, Risto Salmi, Mats Längbacka

Awards :

2007: Jussi awards Best Supporting Actress Seela Sella

Length :

96 mins

Johannes is suffering from a life-curtailing disorder and dreaming to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He meets a girl while building a leaning tower from wooden discs in the park of a mental hospital. She also dreams of seeing the Leaning Tower. The grandmother of the girl, a former ballerina who once toured Europe, promises to take her granddaughter to see it in Italy and to rediscover her early life’s dreams. The mother of the girl, who is Johannes’ nurse, goes after them when they don’t come home on the plane they should.

Ulzhan (2007)

Original Title :

Ulzhan

Country :

France.

Category :

Adventure, drama

Director :

Volker Schondorff

Original idea

Written by

Jean-Marie Cambaceres and Régis Ghezelbash

Jean-Claude Carrière

Principle Cast :

PhilippeTorreton, Ayanat Ksenbai David Bennent

Awards :

Festival de Cannes 2007: Official Selection “Tribute of the 60th Anniversary”

Toronto Film Festival 2007: Official Selection

Pusan Film Festival 2007: Official Selection

Length :

95 mins

Somewhere in the endless steppes of Central Asia lies a treasure. One man holds the key to it, a fragment of an ancient map. But in his restless quest, Charles isn't looking for fame or glory. He is looking for a way to heal his wounded soul. He is looking for love. Ulzhan felt it the first time she laid eyes on him.

The Edge of Heaven (2007)

Original Title :

Auf der Anderen Seite

Country :

Germany

Category :

Director :

Fatih Akin

Principle Cast :

Nurgül Yeşilçay, Baki Davrak, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Nursel Köse, Tuncel Kurtiz, Hanna Schygulla

Awards :

European Screenwriter 2007

Official German entry for the Oscar: Best Foreign Language Film 2007

Prix Lux 2007, European Parliament

Golden Orange Film festival Antalya 2007: Best Director & Best Edit & Jury Special Recognition Award

Cannes 2007: Prix de Scénario & Prix du Oecuménique

Length :

122 mins

Nejat disapproves of his widowed father's choice of prostitute, Yeter, for a partner. But he grows fond of her when he discovers she sends money home to Turkey for her daughter. Yeter's sudden death distances father and son. Nejat travels to Istanbul searching for Yeter's daughter, a political activist, Ayten, who has fled to Germany where she is staying with a young woman, Lotte. When Ayten is arrested and denied an asylum plea, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Lotte travels to Turkey, where she gets caught up in the hopeless situation of freeing Ayten.

One Day in August (2002)

Original Title :

Dekapentavgoustos

Country :

Greece

Category :

Comedy-drama

Director :

Konstantinos Giannaris

Principal Cast:

Akylas Karazisis, Eleni Kastani, Hristos Mitselos, Maria Ioannidou, Aimilios Heilakis, Amalia Moutouzi, Stathis Papadopoulos, Mihalis Iatropoulos,

Awards :

-

Length :

100 mins

Three couples living in the same apartment complex head out with their marital problems on vacation. Fanis and Morfuola are a blue collar couple whose children have given them more than their fair share of challenges. Their vacation goes awry when their daughter disappears. Kostas and Katia are a pair of thirty-somethings who have begun to lose interest in each other. In the last couple, Sandra is ready to give up on Mihalis, her drug addict husband, when he accidentally kills a man. Meanwhile, a stranger is rummaging through their apartments, searching for something other than money.

Porcelain Doll (2005)

Original Title :

A porcelánbaba

Country :

Hungary

Category :

Drama

Director :

Péter Gárdos

Principle Cast :

Lajos Bertók, Sándor Csányi, Judit Németh

Awards :

2005: Budapest Hungarian Film Week: Best Director: Péter Gárdos, Best Supporting Actor: Sándor Csányi, 2005: Matad'or (Main Prize) 2005: Moscow International Film Festival: Russian Film Critics' Special Mention

Length :

73 mins

Based on three fairytales by the Hungarian fabulist Ervin Lázár, the earthy, lovable farmers of Porcelain Doll live by their own laws, at least until they come up against the laws of the surrounding world. Resurrections, magical villages, music, and bureaucratic bogs ensue.

The Ball (2006)

Original Title :

Liscio

Country :

Italy

Category :

Family drama

Director :

Claudio Antonini

Principle Cast :

Laura Morante, Antonio Catania, Umberto Morelli, Antonio Catania, Glorgia Brunacchi, Giordano Di Pietro, Edoardo Baietti, Massimao Ciavarro, Gianni Coscia

Awards:

Nice 2007: Best Feature Film

Length :

80 mins

Raul, a12-year-old boy, lives with his mother whose love life is distressing. She is the lead singer in an orchestra, founded by Raul’s grandfather. Raul sees her suffering due to the sad endings of her relationships. He wants to help her by finding the right man. Raul embarks on a number of clumsy attempts to set up a meeting between his mother and his music teacher. Not only does his plan end happily, but it enables Raul to understand an important life lesson.

Arabian Nights (2007)

Original Title :

Nuits d’Arabie

Country :

Luxembourg

Category :

Adventure

Director :

Paul Kieffer

Principle Cast :

Jules Werner, Sabrina Ouazani,

Awards :

Length :

110 mins

When Georges, a train conductor first meets Yamina, an Algerian woman, she is just a passenger whose ticket he needs to inspect. But the next day, she’s aboard the train again, on the run from mysterious assailants. As she shares her story, his compassion grows into fascination, friendship and even love. For Georges, Yamina represents an exciting and exotic distraction in his well-ordered life. When she suddenly disappears, Georges determines to find her, discovering along the way that neither she nor Algeria are anything like what he expected.

Northern Lights (2006)

Original Title :

Langer Licht

Country :

The Netherlands

Category :

Drama

Director :

David Lammers

Principle Cast :

Raymond Thiry, Dai Carter, Melody

Klaver (DEEP), Fikret Koc, Monique Sluyter

Awards

Length

90 mins

Two years after the death of his wife and daughter, Lucien, the owner of a boxing school in Amsterdam-Noord, is forced to take care of his son and fight for what he still has left. To Lucien, the training and well-being of the kids he's coaching means everything, but he's estranging his 15-year old son Mitchel. After a violent confrontation with his son, he slowly descends into solitude and everything he cares for starts to fall apart.

It Will Be Well (2007)

Original Title :

Wszystko Bedzie Dobrze

Country :

Poland

Category :

Heart Warming Drama

Director :

Tomasz Wiszniewski

Principle Cast :

Adam Wersta, Izabela Dabrowska, Daniel makolski, Beata Kawka

Awards :

Polish Film Festival, Gdynia 2007:

Best Directing for Tomasz Wiszniewski,

Best Actor Award for Robert Wieckiewicz,

Best Music Award for Michal Lorenc.

Portugal Film Festival, 2008: Best Actor – Silver Dolphin – Robert Wieckiewicz

Length

96 mins

It Will Be Well tells a story of a young runner who vows to help his ailing mother by making a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Jasna Góra and seeking out the blessing that could cure her. Pavel's mother is gravely ill while his father is a hopeless drunk. Perhaps with a little help from his sympathetic coach, a struggling alcoholic, Pavel can summon the strength and conviction needed to make this crucial pilgrimage and find out if miracles really exist.

Skin (2006)

Original Title :

Pele

Country :

Portugal

Category :

Drama

Director :

Fernado Vendrell

Principle Cast :

Daniela Costa, Francisco Nascimento, Manuel Wiborg,

Awards :

Length :

102 Mins

Olga is a young mulatto woman who in spite of being rich, beautiful, and intelligent, feels discriminated against because of the color of her skin. The entire plot is set in the early 70's, when Portugal had a dictatorial government and lots of racism in its society. Issues like racism, the female condition, and the spoilt lives of high-society figures are the main themes of this movie.

El Balancín de Ivan (2002)

Original Title :

El Balancín de Ivan

Country :

Spain

Category :

Short film

Director :

Dario Stegmayer

Principle Cast :

Juan Diego Botto, Malena Alterio, Ernesto Alterio, María Botto, Blas Migliore, Juana Migliore

Awards :

2003: Alcalá de Henares Short Film Festival : Best director

2003: Las Palmas Film Festival: Best Short Film

2004: Cartagena Fil Festival: Best Short Film

Length :

20 mins

Ana goes back to the house where she spent of her childhood during the Argentine dictatorship. Once there, remembers the last moments she lived with her brother Iván and her parents. Ana's memories immerse us in the reality of her family, which hides from the police and the military during the brutal 1976 dictatorship.

Darlecarlians (2004)

Original Title :

Masjävlar

Country :

Sweden

Category :

Drama

Director :

Maria Blom

Principle Cast :

Sofia Helin, Kajsa Ernst, Ann Petrén, Lars G. Aronsson

Awards :

Length :

94 mins

The story revolves around three sisters who grew up together in a small village in the province of Dalecarlia. The youngest sister, Mia, who left home at an early age for life in the big city, returns for her father’s 70th birthday celebrations. At the community centre, the party gets under way. Old conflicts are brought to life, things start to hot up, and pretty soon it is not only the cat who is in trouble.

Control (2007) – With Thai subtitle

Original Title :

Control

Country :

UK

Category :

Biography drama

Director :

Anton Corbijn

Principle Cast :

Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara

Awards :

2008 BAFTA Film Award (nominated for Best British Film and Best Supporting Actress)

2007 Cannes Film Festival (Golden Camera - Special Mention)

2007 British Independent Film Award (Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Newcomer)

Length :

122 mins

Biography of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, from schoolboy days to his suicide at the age of 23. Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, Ian joins a band, and his musical ambition begins to thrive. Soon though, fears and emotions that fuel his music slowly begin to eat away at him. Married young, with a daughter, he is distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band. With epilepsy adding to his guilt and depression, desperation takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on his shoulders, Ian’s tortured soul consumes him.