Venice: Park Chan-wook's "No Other Choice"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Venice...

NO OTHER CHOICE

In 2005, Costa-Gavras adapted Donald E. Westlake’s novel The Ax into Le Couperet, a stark meditation on the cruelty and dehumanization embedded in the modern workplace. Nearly two decades later, Park Chan-wook returns to the same source material with No Other Choice, dedicating the film to Gavras, and in doing so asserting himself once more as one of the most audacious and precise filmmakers alive. Here is a director capable of merging Korean cultural specificity with an elegance of cinematic form so distinctive that only he could achieve it—where narrative, composition, and moral complexity are intertwined to such an extent that a single viewing can scarcely contain their richness.

At the center is Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), head of a company producing security and specialty papers, who finds himself suddenly dispossessed of the only role matching his qualifications...

Click to read more ...

Venice: Paolo Sorrentino returns with "The Grace"

by Elisa Giudici, reporting once again from Venice 

Toni Servillo stars in "The Grace". Image credit: Andrea Pirrello

For a director who has already devoted two films to real and controversial Italian prime ministers (Giulio Andreotti and Silvio Berlusconi), two series to fictional popes, and one feature to the president of the Italian Republic (a largely ceremonial role compared to its French or American counterparts), La Grazia (The Grace) plays like a natural progression. Yet it still manages to surprise. What's particularly astonishing is how Sorrentino shot a €13 million production in some of Italy’s most symbolic locations for months—La Scala included, packed with extras—without a single leak...

Click to read more ...

The Film Fest Triple Crown: Who's Next?

by Cláudio Alves

Juliette Binoche's jury made history when they gave Jafar Panahi the Palme d'Or.

One month ago, Jafar Panahi took the Palme d'Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident and thus became the fourth director to win top honors from the Croisette, the Berlinale, and the Venice Film Festival. The Iranian master joins the ranks of Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Robert Altman. However. If you exclude ties and those cineastes who won two prizes for the same film, then Panahi and Antonioni are in an exclusive club of two. Inspired by Eric Blume's musings on the Triple Crown of Acting – Oscar, Tony, and Emmy – I started to ask myself what other filmmakers are close to achieving the same Palm, Golden Lion, and Bear combo. Who's next? The answers might surprise you…

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Venice and Cannes loom over Best Director

Here's Nathaniel R and Elisa Giudici on the Best Director race...

ANORA, Sean Baker | © NEON

NATHANIEL: Elisa, my far away friend, I miss attending festivals with you. One of the greatest joys of film festivals, as opposed to normal moviegoing / movie coverage, is that it's a departure. It's both more intimate (you're choosing a bunch of films to watch alone even if you're discussing them later with strangers and friends) and more expansive: generally speaking you see films from all over the world (if you're doing it right) and it's more auteur-focused. The latter brings us to today's volley topic: BEST DIRECTOR...

Click to read more ...

Venice 2024: "The Room Next Door" takes the Golden Lion

by Nathaniel R

Pedro Almodóvar and his actresses Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton working on THE ROOM NEXT DOOR which is now a Golden Lion winner

The 81st annual Venice Film Festival has ended and the two perceived frontrunners The Brutalist and The Room Next Door took home major prizes, as did Babygirl, The Quiet Son, and Brazil's possible Oscar submission I'm Still Here. The "Competition" films are the headlining titles of course but they aren't the only films that get major mileage from applause and kudos as any festival wraps up. Outside of the main competition films like Familiar Touch (US), Familia (Italy), Iddu (Italy),  Mon Inséparable (France), Paul and Paulette Take a Bath (UK) and The New Year That Never Came (Romania) all won fanbases if the awards that flew around this week are indication.

The prizes went like so... 

Click to read more ...