Donald Clarkeon film
Visitors to Variety's website, online home of the (cliche alert) industry bible, were, this week, greeted with an advertisement declaring, "It's that time again."
Time to start thinking about schoolbooks? Time to buy autumn jumpers? No. The commercial, placed by the PR company that flogged the so-so Crashto the Academy in 2004, announces the formal beginning of the campaign for the 2009 Oscars.
This is becoming absurd. We are now approaching the stage where awards season promotions will begin immediately after the film has been pitched. "Well, we have yet to secure a script, a cast, a director, a producer or a final title, but we have placed a great For Your Consideration ad in The Hollywood Reporter," Hiram Hype III will soon say.
Let's play their game and have a speedy glance at the films generating speculative buzz. Many psychics like the sound of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Sam Mendes's Revolutionary Road, but the director's last films ( Road to Perditionand Jarhead) failed to gather any major nominations. The excellent trailer for Oliver Stone's W, hitherto viewed with suspicion, has reignited hopes for the George W Bush biopic. Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, another crack at a right-wing president, might garner nominations for Frank Langella and Michael Sheen.
Also, look out for Sean Penn in Milk, the story of murdered mayor of San Francisco Harvey Milk, and the Kidbot (Nicole model) in Baz Lurhman's epic Australia. Among the few talked-about films that have been seen, Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which received both raves and shrugs in Cannes, appears set for multiple nods.
Oh, who knows? It might be best to put all your money on a long shot - The Love Gurusounds right - and hope for an outbreak of insanity.
Euro film classics in Belfast
Formidable! Bravo! The programmers of the Stella Artois Continental Classics at the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast have outdone themselves this year. This terrific season, which begins next Friday, draws heavily from the canon of essential European classics made during the golden years of art-house cinema. (Okay, they're also showing Amélie, but never mind that.)
The French films include Jean-Pierre Melville's heist drama Le Cercle Rouge, Jean-Luc Godard's thrilling Bande à Partand Jacques Tati's timeless comedy Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. Teutonophiles can look forward to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul, that odd reworking of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows. Fans of Russian misery should seek out Andrei Tarkovsky's great The Sacrifice. There are plenty more great films (and Amélie) where that came from.
The Stella Artois Continental Classics season begins next Friday, August 15th . For details go to www.queensfilmtheatre.com.
Fleadh shorts see the light
The popularity of short movies online has been a boon for the medium, but the best place to place to see such films is surely still in the cinema. With that in mind, the good people at Dublin's Light House cinema will present a programme of winning shorts from the recent Galway Film Fleadh this Sunday afternoon. Following an introduction by the Fleadh's Steve Woods, The Best of the West, which includes such gems as Sean Branigan's Martinand Luke McManus's Danger High Voltage, will commence in Screen 1 at 4pm. www.lighthousecinema.ie.
Terry still tilting at windmills
Oh no, not this again. Demonstrating a determination that long ago passed from dogged to demented, Terry Gilliam says he still intends to progress with his cherished, cursed reinvention of Don Quixote. Despite having Johnny Depp on board, The Man Who Killed Don Quixotecollapsed in disarray and debt eight years ago.
"As far as we're concerned, it's on. When Johnny's ready, we're ready," Terry said. "We're just talking about dates to film. Basically it all depends on his schedule, but otherwise we're set. It will be next year some time, before next summer anyway."
In related Hell-Freezes-Over news, it seems as if Inglorious Bastards, Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited war film, is finally set to start filming in the autumn. We'll see, shall we?
Premieres fit for a queen
Aside from their low quality, what do The Man Without a Face, The Grinch, True Blueand Hot Shotsall have in common? The surprising answer is that they were previous selections for that hilariously outdated shindig, The Royal Film Performance. This year, following 2007's embarrassing cancellation of the "controversial" Brick Lane, currently unconfirmed members of the Windsor dynasty will get to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. How nice for them.
Hang on a moment! Hot Shots?How did that happen?
Olsen-Ledger connection
So, what does Mary-Kate Olsen know about the death of Heath Ledger? Earlier this week, it was suggested that the actress, one half of the feared Olsen Twin Mob, had refused to speak to officials looking into Ledger's demise unless she was given freedom from immunity. (Somewhat mysteriously, the masseuse who discovered Ledger's body spent nine minutes trying to phone Mary-Kate before she thought to dial 911.)
Olsen's lawyers later denied the claims and announced that their client had co-operated in full with the authorities. Our own lawyers tell us it might be best just to write "Hmm?" and leave it at that. Hmm?
Quote
"If, God forbid, we live to see Mr Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before"- Well known sane person Jon Voight speculates on the upcoming election
0 -The number of companies prepared to distribute Steven Soderbergh's biopic Chein the US
