Locarno Film Festival 2011

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Saturday, 30 July 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 64th edition of Festival del film Locarno / Locarno Film Festival takes place August 3 - 13, 2011 at Piazza Grande, Auditorium FEVI, La Sala, L'Altra Sala, Ex*Rex, Teatro Kursaal, Rialto and Palavideo Theaters in Locarno, Switzerland.

Founded in 1946, the Festival del film Locarno is one of the oldest film festivals in the world, held in a Swiss-Italian town right in the heart of Europe -- a fitting location for the world capital of auteur cinema.

The Festival is"the essential rendez-vous for auteurs, observers and key players in world cinema" and strives to "limit the number of films selected, in order to guarantee maximum visibility" of those selections.

Ever attentive to changes in cinematography, it has been especially renowned for being among the first to recognize emerging new talent, many of whom went on to become major filmmakers.

That roster includes such directors as Claude Chabrol, Paul Verhoeven, Chen Kaige, Edward Yang, Aleksander Sokurov, Atom Egoyan, Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Gregg Araki, Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Kim Ki-Duk and Stanley Kubrick.

Screening on Opening Night is Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams, with Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning.

Festival Tracks include:

• feature films
  • International Competition
  • Filmmakers of the Present Competition
• short films
  • Swiss
  • international, Leopards of Tomorrow
• retrospective
• Open Doors co-production lab
• documentaries in Semaine de la critique / Critics’ Week
• Appellations Suisse, a review of the best films produced in Switzerland during the past year

The 2011 Retrospective celebrates the career of director Vincente Minnelli. Films being screened are:

• A Matter of Time (1976)
• On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
• The Sandpiper (1965)
• Goodbye Charlie (1964)
• The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)
• Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
• The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)
• Home from the Hill (1960)
• Bells Are Ringing (1960)
• Some Came Running (1958)
• The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
• Gigi (1958)
• Designing Woman (1957)
• Tea and Sympathy (1956)
• Lust for Life (1956)
• The Cobweb (1955)
• Kismet (1955)
• Brigadoon (1954)
• The Story of Three Loves (1953) (co-directed with Gottfried Reinhardt)
• The Long, Long Trailer (1953)
• The Band Wagon (1953)
• The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
• Father's Little Dividend (1951)
• Father of the Bride (1950)
• Madame Bovary (1949)
• The Pirate (1948)
• Undercurrent (1946)
• The Clock (1945)
• Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
• Ziegfeld Follies (1945) (co-directed)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• Cabin in the Sky (1943)
• I Dood It (1943)

All titles will be screened from the best available 35 mm prints, introduced by filmmakers, actors and critics. A round table on Minnelli and his work will also be held.

This year‛s Pardo d’onore Swisscom / Leopard of Honour is awarded to American filmmaker Abel Ferrara. At the award ceremony, Ferrara will introduce an exclusive preview of excerpts from his latest film, still in production, 4:44 Last Day on Earth, starring Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh.

In addition, four of Ferrara‛s films are being screened during the Festival:

• Ms. 45 (1981)
• King of New York (1990)
• Bad Lieutenant (1992)
• Mary (2005)

The Excellence Award Moët & Chandon 2011 is awarded to French actress Isabelle Huppert. Some of her work being screened at the Festival:

• White Material dir. Claire Denis
• Villa Amalia dir. Benoît Jacquot
• The Piano Teacher dir. Michael Haneke
• Merci pour le Chocolat dir. Claude Chabrol
• Loulou dir. Maurice Pialat
• The Lacemaker dir. Claude Goretta

The Premio Raimondo Rezzonico / Best Independent Producer Award this year goes to U.S. producer Mike Medavoy. For over 40 years, Medavoy has been involved in more than 300 feature films, some of which are being screened at the Festival:

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) dir. Milos Forman
• Apocalypse Now (1979) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
• Dances with Wolves (1990) dir. Kevin Costner
• Shutter Island (2010) dir. Martin Scorsese

Medavoy will also be giving a Master Class at the Festival.

Another Special Program features Hitoshi Matsumoto, one of Japan‛s most popular comedians, who has directed three films:

Saya Zamurai / Scabbard Samurai
starring Tokio Emoto, Itsuji Itao, Sea Kumada, Takaaki Nomi, Rolly, Ryo
An aging samurai only has a scabbard, after a past incident compelled him to throw away his sword and refuse to fight. He must now complete his sentence or die.

Shinboru / Symbol
A Japanese man in colorful kid’s pajamas is trapped in a white room with no windows or doors. Things get really surreal from there.

Dai Nipponjin / Big Man Japan
starring Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Riki Takeuchi, Haruka Unabara, Ua
Sato is the quintessential couch potato until, one day, duty calls him to an electricity plant. There a contact with 3,000 volts turns him into Mega-Sato, a 30-meter-high sumo wrestler who starts taking down evil monsters.

Some other films by directors to watch include:

Hell
dir. Tim Fehlbaum (Germany/Switzerland)
The sun has turned the entire world into a baked, barren wasteland and survival depends on protection against the sun’s light. Some young people head for the mountains in a car with covered windows in pursuit of water, and encounter a man who seems helpful enough -- so far.

Beirut Hotel
dir. Danielle Arbid (Lebanon/France)
Zoha and Mathieu meet one evening in Beirut. She’s a young Lebanese singer trying to free herself from her ex-husband’s stranglehold. He’s a French lawyer on a business trip who will be tracked down and suspected of spying. Over the course of ten days, they will live a love story made of fear and desire, intrigue and violence.

Let the Bullets Fly
dir. Jiang Wen (China/Hong Kong)
starring Chow Yun Fat, Feng Xiaogang, Carina Lau, Chen Kun, Ge You, Jiang Wen, Jiang Wu, Liao Fan, Zhang Mo, Zhou Yun
China in the 1920s was in total chaos, plagued with the Age of Warlords and all-but-total system breakdown. The leader of a band of outlaws, the Mahjong Gang, plans a train robbery that goes very wrong and then attempts to control a small town.

The Open Doors section works to highlight filmmakers and films from countries whose cinema is still developing, and is committed to enabling them to find coproduction partners for their new projects.

This year, the focus of Open Doors is on India. In addition to several films by Indian directors, Open Doors presents a salute to the works of director Satyajit Ray. Films by Ray include:

• Joi Baba Felunath / The Elephant God (1979)
• Nayak / The Hero (1966)
• Mahapurush / The Saint (1965)
• Kapurush / The Coward (1965)
• Charulata / The Lonely Wife (1964)
• Mahanagar / The Big City (1964)

There will also be panels, roundtables and conversations with the award winners, as well as actors Claudia Cardinale and Gerard Depardieu, and director Maurice Pialat.

For more information, go to www.pardo.ch/jahia/Jahia/home/lang/en.

Festival del film Locarno / Locarno Film Festival
August 3 - 13, 2011

Piazza Grande
Auditorium Fevi
La Sala
L'Altra Sala
Ex*Rex
Teatro Kursaal
Rialto
Palavideo Theater
Locarno, Switzerland.

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