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Reviews
The Acapulco International Film Festival
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 17 December 2010 08:11
- Written by Eric Lurio
Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was one world-class resort in Mexico that everyone had heard of -- Acapulco, Mexico.
Back when Grandma was a little girl, when the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable were still in their prime, and John Wayne was still little more than a kid, movie stars would take a four-day cruise from Hollywood to the Mexican state of Guerro, where they would encounter an astoundingly beautiful set of three bays surrounded by rolling hills. Back then Acapulco was the third most famous place in the country, after Mexico City and Tijuana. The rich and famous all wanted to go there and those who wanted to see the rich and famous did too.Romanian Film Festival Reviewed
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- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 05 December 2010 21:01
- Written by Sean Glass
The 5th annual Romanian Film Festival at NYC's Tribeca Cinemas concluded on Sunday, December 5th, 2010. This year hosts The Romanian Cultural Institute and curator Mihai Chirilov added the moniker “A New Beginning,” in appreciation of the recent success of what has been dubbed the “Romanian New Wave.”
This year, Cristi Puiu, arguably the one who started it all with his 2006 debut The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, returned with his second feature Aurora which premiered earlier this year at the New York Film Festival to resoundingly positive reviews. Also returning from NYFF are Radu Montean’s Tuesday After Christmas (opening May 25 at Film Forum) and Andrei Ujica’s The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, which opened the festival.
2010 Toronto Int'l Film Festival Unveils New Properties
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- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 20 September 2010 09:48
- Written by David D'Arcy
For a longstanding festival like Toronto’s, it was a brave beginning. TIFF 2010 was the debut of the Toronto International Film Festival in its new home, the TIFF Bell Lightbox. A silvery modernist box of cinemas, galleries and offices, it stands a few blocks away from one of the Festival's gala venues, the Roy Thomson Hall, a quirky 1980’s structure inspired by Japanese and Native American architecture.
Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2010
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- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 23 August 2010 14:54
- Written by David D'Arcy
The old town of Karlsbad two hours west of Prague is sleepy most of the year. It’s a place for spa treatments, and most of the patients are
old. So is the best architecture in Karlovy Vary.
German was the language of this resort town. Mozart visited and his music was performed here. During the days of communism, the hotels were filled with guests from “fraternal” Arab countries. They still return in the summer. These days the new visitors are Russians. The former occupiers, for whom furs and jewelry are the new uniform, have bought up property. They support a restored Russian Orthodox church with an excellent choir and they fill the tables at the Casino at the Hotel Pupp.
They also fill screenings of Russian films at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 2 - 10, 2010). Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) and Alexei Popogrebsky (How I Ended This Summer) were two of the Russian directors who made the trip this summer.
The Russians have driven up prices here, to the contentment of the local merchants. They could soon be filming their movies here, as could Hollywood studios, thanks to a new 20% rebate on money spent, intended to incentivize a lagging industry. Yet Karlovy Vary remains a place where you can get a great massage for $30 and a great beer for $1.50.
The film at Karlovy Vary that you weren’t likely to see anywhere else was Hitler In Hollywood by the Belgian director Frederic Stojcher. It’s a mockumentary about an international conspiracy to destroy European cinema, and the film is in the form of an investigative journey by Maria de Medeiros (one of many stars in Quentin Tarentino's Pulp Fiction) and Micheline Presle (the octogenarian who was a glamorous actress in French post-war cinema).