The 70th Venice Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend with the Bernardo Bertolucci led Jury announcing the following list of winners.
Taking top honors, the Golden Lion Award, was Sacro GRA, a documentary directed by Gianfranco Rosi about the famous highway that circles Rome. A rather unexpected win by all accounts.
The 70th Venice Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend with the Bernardo Bertolucci led Jury announcing the following list of winners.
Taking top honours, the Golden Lion Award, was Sacro GRA, a documentary directed by Gianfranco Rosi about the famous highway that circles Rome. A rather unexpected win by all accounts.
Greece’s Alexandros Avranas picked up the Silver Lion Award for Directing and the Special Jury Prize for his shocking drama Miss Violence about an eleven year old girl’s apparent suicide.
Acting awards went to Themis Panou, for his work in Miss Violence, and Elena Cotta, for A Street in Palermo, the debut feature film from actress Emma Dante.
The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Taiwan’s Tsai Ming-liang for Stray Dogs, with the heartwarming Philomena starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan winning the Best Screenplay Award.
In other film news, Diana, the biopic of Princess Diana that covers the last few years of her life, premiered in London late last week to dismal reviews. It will be a bit of a shock for Naomi Watts who rarely puts a foot wrong when choosing roles. Take a look at the 1 star review from The Guardian. Ouch.
On a lighter note, there’s plenty else to entertain you this week - here are a few highlights for the week.
Starring: Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna
Directed by: Matt Piedmont
Premiering: Saturday 14th September, 8.30pm
Ex-Saturday Night Live head writer Andrew Steele has penned this hilarious spoof, brought to life by Will Ferrell playing the not-so-bright son of Mexican rancher Armando. His successful older brother Raul (Diego Luna) returns to the ranch with his beautiful fiancé Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), but rather that return to save the financially troubled farm he plans to take over the local drug lord’s business. Chaos naturally ensues and Armando must save the farm and restore honor to the family name. The sets, sunsets, and even animals at times, are all fake and the acting wonderfully melodramatic – I’m not sure how they managed to shoot with straight faces.
Starring: Crystal Starr, Steve Coy, Tommy Stephens, Dorota Coy
Directed by: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Premiering: Thursday 12th September, 8.30pm
Detropia is an artful ode to a dying city, Detroit. A beautifully shot documentary capturing a city bordering on bankruptcy, a desolate post-industrial wasteland struggling to survive. It’s a short and sharp film where images speak louder than words. Released in 2012, directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady showed great foresight in capturing this period in Detroit’s history. Regarded as the birthplace of the middle-class, Detroit has recently been declared bankrupt and this documentary shows the reality of living in a city unable to support itself. Among the deserted buildings and suburbs Ewing and Grady find hope, a group of young people determined to protect their city’s history and find ways to add a new chapter to its story.
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Premiering: Sunday 15th September, 8.30pm
Seven Samurai is internationally the best known of Kurosawa’s films, and one of his most influential works. Seven Samurai tells the story of a 16th century village who hire a group of Samurai to protect them from invading bandits. It’s a tale of courage and hope, and stars Toshirô Mifune and Takashi Shimura, who both regularly appeared in Kurosawa’s films. The film inspired a Hollywood remake, The Magnificent Seven, and the plot device of pulling a old heroes together to accomplish a mission can be seen in films from Star Wars to Oceans 11 and The Dirty Dozen.
In 2015 we’ll be able to enjoy a “modern retelling” of Seven Samurai thanks to The Weinstein Co. Reported to be directed by Scott Mann (The Tournament) and written by John Fusco (The Forbidden Kingdom) the film will be shot in Northern Thailand where a threatened town hires a gang of mercenaries to protect them. I’ll reserve my judgment until I at least see a trailer. In the meantime, enjoy the original epic classic.