"Power of the Dog" teases. Venice here we come

by Nathaniel R

Behold the first teaser for Power of the Dog which opens in the US in limited release on November 17th followed by Netflix streaming on December 1st. Director Jane Campion has long been a favourite and I've scheduled this for my first day at my first ever Venice Film Festival (!!!) That's right, I will be joining our new regular Italian festival reporter Elisa Giudici (who you heard from at Cannes and Locarno) for this edition of the Venice Film Festival which runs September 1st through September 11th.

What should Elisa and I see? The lineups are after the jump...

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Venice 2021: The Jury

by Nathaniel R

With Cannes wrapped we move on to the fall festival buzz. Next up is Venice (September 1st-11th) and we are thrilled to report that Elisa Giudici, our Italian correspondent who did such a fine job covering Cannes, will repeat that trick for Venice. The 78th Venice festival has just announced the complete jury for its competition films. Like Cannes, they've chosen a majority female jury this time around. Unlike Cannes they went big on very recent Oscar nominees and winners...

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"Parallel Mothers" to open Venice

by Nathaniel R

Reporting Pedro Almodóvar news twice over. First, his 22nd feature Parallel Mothers will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 1st, followed by a September rollout in Europe.  Sony Pictures Classics will distribute the film in the US though they haven't announced a specific date yet. Almodóvar has been an arthouse sensation in the international marketplace since the late 80s. Though he feels like an Oscar perennial the truth is that though he's often in 'the conversation', as it were, Oscar has been a bit stingy; Collectively his films have earned 7 Oscar nominations and 2 wins (Best Foreign-Language Film for All About My Mother and Best Screenplay for Talk To Her) but are often snubbed despite outclassing their competitors. Remember Volver not placing in Foreign-Language Film and The Human Voice not landing in the short film category just last season when in both cases they both ought to have won those particular categories given the finalists? 

The second bit of news is that we'll be launching a Thursday series here at TFE in which we'll (re)watch his whole filmography... which we've been meaning to do for awhile. His official debut Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980) is surprisingly available on HBOMax at the moment!

Julie Harris: The woman who dressed 007, Sherlock, and The Beatles

by Cláudio Alves

The word 'iconic' gets thrown around a lot these days. So much so that its essence has become diluted, nearly meaningless. Nonetheless, some people do deserve to be called iconic. Costume designer Julie Harris, who was born 100 years ago, is one of them. If not her, then her work deserves the moniker. From the 1940s until 1991, Harris helped define the look of British cinema and pop culture, dressing a myriad of international stars and idols, working for some of the greatest directors ever.

Her impact was particularly felt in the 1960s when - designing films like Darling, the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night and Help! - she defined mod fashion on the silver screen. Furthermore, Harris dressed such iconic characters as James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and the Muppets. Her filmography's the stuff dreams are made of…

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Almost There: Juliette Binoche in "Three Colors: Blue"

by Cláudio Alves

With Pieces of a Woman having premiered on Netflix, Vanessa Kirby becomes one of the big contenders in this year's Best Actress race. She previously won the Volpi Cup, joining a selection of other actresses who managed to turn a win at Venice into genuine Oscar buzz. However, not every Volpi champion is as lucky as to get a nomination. In 1993, Juliette Binoche managed to earn the Cup for her studies of loss in the first part of Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy about Europe and the French Revolutionary ideals. Still, when Oscar nomination morning arrived, Binoche's searing work in Three Colors: Blue was not found amid AMPAS' choices…

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