PeterAalbaekJensen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you've ever quickly passed by the DVD for Lilya 4-ever in a store, you might have had to do a double take, thinking the girl on the cover was Michelle Williams -- a very young Michelle Williams, that is. The lead actress in that film, Oksana Akinshina, doesn't exactly look like Williams, but there are a few shots where you can see a resemblance. Take a look at this still, and this one, to see what I mean. With this in mind, I wonder if Lukas Moodysson, the writer-director of Lilya, was also thinking of Akinshana when he cast Williams to co-star in his next film, Mammoth. According to Variety, the Oscar-nominated actress will play the wife of Gael Garcia Bernal, who we previously learned would appear in Mammoth, which will be Moodysson's English-language debut. The film, about a couple "facing a crisis", begins shooting next week in Thailand. Filming will also take place in the Philippines, Sweden and New York.

Though the exact plot is still unclear, I previously made the prediction that it involved an affair between the husband played by Garcia and his 8-year-old daughter's nanny played by Filipino actress Marife Necesito. But then, I just assume all movies these days are about infidelity. The most I've read about the story so far is that Bernal's character is on a business trip to Thailand when he decides to seriously alter his life. I guess that could very well mean something other than cheat with the nanny. Whatever the plot, I'm excited. I am typically dubious regarding a favorite foreigner making an English-language film, but with Bernal and Williams on board, I am imagining great things. And this is even without the involvement of Lars von Trier, who had previously been named as a producer. However, Lars Jönsson, who has produced much of the work of both von Trier and Moodysson, is still attached, as is regular von Trier-producers Vibeke Windeløv and Peter Aalbæk Jensen and long-time Tom Tykwer-producer Maria Köpf. Sounds like it could be one of the best non-foreign-language foreign films to come out next year (so far it's set for Swedish release in August, but hopefully it will be easily picked up for the U.S., too).

Now an official rule in filmmaking, if you want to break out in America -- cast Gael García Bernal (Babel) in your film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is what Lukas Moodysson is doing for his next pic, titled Mammoth. The Swedish writer-director, who gave us the brilliant teen-trafficking drama Lilya 4-ever and the very sweet lesbian film Show Me Love, has cast Bernal in the domestic drama, about a young couple, their child and their nanny. Knowing how most domestic dramas go, we can assume Bernal's husband character has an affair with the nanny, who will be played by Filipino actress Marife Necesito (Evolution of a Filipino Family). Bernal, who may have helped the Stateside successes of many Latin American filmmakers, possibly appeals to foreign directors because he speaks English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. After shooting Mammoth, he should be able to pick up some Swedish and Filipino.

I typically frown upon foreign directors making the leap to filming in English. Sure, a ton of great filmmakers have done it well, but too many have not. However, because Lukas Moodysson didn't hit so well with his previous two Swedish films (A Hole in My Heart; Container), it is perhaps time for him to try something different. This isn't the usual immigration to Hollywood, though; Mammoth is still technically a foreign film, co-produced by Swedish, Danish and German companies and financiers. It may be better to think of this as similar to Lars von Trier's English-language work since the Dogville director is producing Mammoth with Peter Aalbaek Jensen (Breaking the Waves) and Maria Kopf (Heaven), both of whom work for von Trier's company Zentropa Entertainments -- Kopf being head of the new division Zentropa Berlin. Jensen also co-produced many of Moodysson's Swedish work, including Lilya 4-ever. Moodysson will shoot in Sweden, New York, Thailand and the Philippines.

The typically maverick filmmaker Lars von Trier is entering more common territory. Following the premiere of his latest "automavision" film, The Boss of it All, at the Copenhagen International Film Festival last Thursday, he announced plans to make a horror film called Antichrist. He didn't give anything away in terms of the plot, but did mention an affinity for Asian films like The Ring and Dark Water. He also said that it would be in English, will feature three main characters, and is likely to begin shooting next summer if financing goes as planned. He added that, "anything can happen in a horror film," suggesting that nothing about the project is definite. According to the report by ScreenDaily, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen gave away too much plot info two years ago, prompting von Trier to completely rewrite the script and keep most of the details a secret from him.

Von Trier dabbled in horror a bit with his miniseries The Kingdom, which was recently remade for U.S. television by Stephen King, but it was more weird than scary (I know people who disagree with me there), and in that sense it shares with Asian horror the lack of slashing and hacking that is common with the American brand. I would prefer to see what the filmmaker would do with killings more than with hauntings, the latter being too permitting of free-form, surreal randomness, but hopefully he'll have something interesting to add to the genre no matter what he has in store.

As for Wasington, the third installment of von Trier's "America the Beautiful" trilogy (Dogville; Manderlay), which he previously said wouldn't happen, the film is not completely dead yet. He told reporters,"I'm quite sure it will happen one day," but says that right now it is an avoidable project.