New Year of Film Fests Kicks Off at Palm Springs
Written by L E Shannon Sunday, 01 January 2012 00:00
The Palm Springs International Film Festival can take credit for being the first film festival
in the U.S. in the new year, running January 5 - 16, 2012. The festival is screening at the Annenberg Auditorium, Camelot Theatres, Palm Canyon Theatre, Palm Springs High School and Palm Springs Regal 9 Theatres in Palm Springs, California.
Now in its 23rd year, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 130,000 attendees each year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries.
The Opening Night film is Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, directed by renowned Lasse Hallström. The film is a tale of fly-fishing, politics, heroism and love, based on the novel by Paul Torday. Heading the cast are Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristen Scott Thomas.
The Special Presentation film is Haywire, directed by Steven Soderbergh, with a stellar cast including Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas. A government security operative is double crossed and left for dead by one of her own, and must now learn the truth in order to stay alive.
The Closing Night film is Almanya, Welcome to Germany / Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland (Germany), directed by Yasemin Samdereli and starring Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardim, Lilay Huser, Demet Gul, Aylin Tezel, Denis Moschitto. This award-winning comedy centers on multiple generations of a German-Turkish clan, replete with "cultural misunderstandings and the question of what constitutes national identity."
World Premiere films include:
If I Were You 
dir. Joan Carr-Wiggin (Canada/UK)
starring Marcia Gay Harden, Aidan Quinn, Leonor Watling
A woman learns of her husband's affair and starts stalking his girlfriend.
A Thousand Cuts
dir. Charles Evered (USA).
starring Michael O’Keefe
A director of splatter films is confronted by a man whose daughter's murder was inspired by the director's first film and he is determined to get revenge.
The Festival will screen 40 of the 63 official submissions to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. For those who missed them at last year's festivals, here's your chance:
- Breathing (Austria), dir. Karl Markovics
- Bullhead (Belgium/Netherlands), dir. Michaël R. Roskam
- Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (Brazil), dir. Jose Padilha
- Tilt (Bulgaria/Germany), dir. Viktor Chouchkov
- Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), dir. Philippe Falardeau
- The Flowers of War (China), dir. Yimou Zhang
- Alois Nebel (Czech Republic/Germany), dir. Tomáš Lunák
- Superclásico (Denmark), dir. Ole Christian Madsen
- Le Havre (Finland/France, Germany), dir. Aki Kaurismäki
- Declaration of War (France), dir. Valérie Donzelli
- Pina (Germany), dir. Wim Wenders
- Attenberg (Greece), dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari
- A Simple Life (Hong Kong/China), dir. Ann Hui
- The Turin Horse (Hungary/France, Germany, Switzerland), dir. Bela Tarr
- Volcano (Iceland/Denmark), dir. Rúnar Rúnarsson
- Abu, Son of Adam (India), dir. Salim Ahamed
- A Separation (Iran), dir. Asghar Farhadi
- Footnote (Israel), dir. Joseph Cedar
- Terraferma (Italy), dir. Emanuele Crialese
- Postcard (Japan), dir. Kaneto Shindo
- The Front Line (Korea), dir. Jang Hun
- Back to Your Arms (Lithuania/Germany, Poland), dir. Kristijonas Vildziunas
- Miss Bala (Mexico), dir. Gerardo Naranjo
- Omar Killed Me (Morocco/France), dir. Roschdy Zem
- Sonny Boy (Netherlands), dir. Maria Peters
- The Orator (New Zealand/Samoa), dir. Tusi Tamasese
- Happy, Happy (Norway), dir. Anne Sewitsky
- In Darkness (Poland/Canada/Germany), dir. Agnieszka Holland
- Jose and Pilar (Portugal/Spain, Brazil), dir. Miguel Goncalves Mendes
- Morgen (Romania/France, Hungary), dir. Marian Crisan
- Montevideo - Taste of a Dream (Serbia), dir. Dragan Bjelogrlic
- Tatsumi (Singapore/Indonesia), dir. Eric Khoo
- Gypsy (Slovakia), dir. Martin Sulík
- Black Bread (Spain), dir. Agustí Villaronga
- Beyond (Sweden/Finland), dir. Pernilla August
- Summer Games (Switzerland/Italy), dir. Rolando Colla
- Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan), dir. Te-Sheng Wei
- Once Upon a time in Anatolia (Turkey/Bosnia-Herzegovina), dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- Patagonia (United Kingdom/Argentina, Wales), dir. Marc Evans
- Rumble of the Stones (Venezuela), dir. Alejandro Bellame Palacios
Some highlights:
Postcard / Ichimai no hagaki
dir. Kaneto Shindo (Japan)
starring Etsushi Toyokawa, Shinobu Otake, Naomasa Musaka
This is the latest film by the 99-year-old elder-statesman auteur, and by his own pronouncement, his last. Based on his own experience in World War II as one of six survivors from a unit of 100 men, the homefront drama "not only pays tribute to those lost lives but also to the wounded souls left behind to pick up the pieces."
"I have always had the souls of the 94 with me and have made them the theme of my existence," said Shindo.
The Flowers of War
dir. Zhang Yimou (China)
starring Christian Bale, Huang Hai-Bo, Tong Da-Wei, Qin Hao, Paul Schneider, Shigeo Kobayashi, Tenma, Ziang Bin, Nie Yuan
Zhang's long awaited opus about the Nanking Massacre at the beginning of World War II in China is the story of a missionary who, rather than evacuate with other Westerners, remains behind to help the schoolgirls and prostitutes being victimized by the invaders.
In Darkness
dir. Agnieszka Holland (Poland/Canada/Germany)
The story of a Polish sewer worker and petty thief in 1943 Lvov whose encounter with a group of fleeing Jews compels him to save lives by hiding them in the sewers.
Le Havre
dir. Aki Kaurismäki (Finland/France, Germany)
A shoe shiner risks legal punishment as he hides an African refugee from the police.
The Orator / O le tulafale
dir. Tusi Tamasese (New Zealand/Samoa)
Samoa’s very first feature film tells the story of a village pariah who learns his stepdaughter's family intends to steal her away. He must settle the dispute through the Samoan tradition of oration.
Palm Springs is not just a winter playground anymore -- it's a place to start the year with some of the finest films the world has to offer.
For more information, visit www.psfilmfest.org.
Palm Springs International Film Festival
January 5 - 16, 2012
Annenberg Theater
Palm Springs Art Museum)
101 Museum Drive
Camelot Theatres
2300 E. Baristo Road
Palm Canyon Theatre
538 N. Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs High School Auditorium
2248 E. Ramon Road
Regal Cinemas Palm Springs Stadium 9
789 East Tahquitz Canyon Way
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760-323-4466
