SarahPolley Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This past weekend kicked off the 12th annual Tel-Aviv International Student Film Festival, an event that was to feature master filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as one of its honorary guests. But this morning, it was announced that Godard has backed out due to "circumstances beyond his control." Those circumstances, according to someone close to the filmmaker's office, are related to political pressures brought about by a group called The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Godard received an open letter from the group last week urging him to cancel his trip to Israel, making comparisons between the Jewish state and South Africa during apartheid.

Considering the recent celebrations of Cannes 1968, which was partially shut down by protesting filmmakers, including Godard (who wanted the festival to continue, though without prizes awarded), it's interesting to see the Breathless filmmaker still boycotting festivals after all these years. Of course, politics aside, it's probably of great disappointment to the young future filmmakers who were looking forward to meeting the cinema legend.

And the battle continues. In the beginning of March, I posted about how the Canadian government is looking to increase restrictions on which films get tax credits -- all to keep money from those lowest-of-low sorts of movies -- you know, the ones with "gratuitous violence, significant sexual content that lacks an educational purpose, or denigration of an identifiable group." Under those terms, it would mean any action film or thriller, most films that discuss sex, and any comedy that teases well, anyone.

Now those within the industry are fighting back. The CBC reports that Sarah Polley, the actress and filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated Away From Her, and others in the industry have descended on Ottawa to have their say. Polley says: "It's the job of artists to provoke and to challenge. Part of the responsibility of being an artist is to create work that will inspire dialogue, suggest that people examine their long-held positions and, yes, occasionally offend in order to do so." Meanwhile, the Conservative Party of Canada issued a press release reportedly attacking Polley's political ties and stating that artists shouldn't tell "hard-working Canadians" how tax dollars should be spent.

Oh, the neverending and never resolved wars with taxation and censorship. Won't we ever learn?

There is a very short list of filmmakers who are so perfectly in tune with my sensibilities, so completely on my wavelength, that each of their projects threatens to collapse my critical faculties and reduce me to a drooling, adoring mess. One such person is little-known Canadian director Vincenzo Natali, whose enigmatic sci-fi mind-blowers Cube and Cypher were about as far up my alley as you could go before it starts to hurt. (I haven't seen Nothing yet, but I will soon.) So I've been hungrily devouring every morsel of information about his upcoming Splice, which is about a pair of scientists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) who discover a way to create new kinds of creatures in the lab by splicing DNA, and then go and introduce human genes into the experiment. My squeamishness about genetic horrors (no joke: I consider Cronenberg's The Fly to be the scariest movie I've ever seen) and my affinity for Natali's approach makes me think this one could really do a number on me.

The San Francisco Film Critics Awards have been announced, and they're especially exciting for us here at Cinematical. Why? Because three of our writers are in the SFFC! Our very own James Rocchi, Jeffrey M. Anderson, and Richard Von Busack are all part of the San Francisco critic "scene." San Fran made some interesting picks, several outside of the expected Oscar nominees. So what were their choices? For Best Foreign Film, they selected Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (which I am watching when I finish this post). For Best Documentary, they selected No End in Sight (which didn't blow me away, but was certainly well done). Best Adapted Screenplay went to Sarah Polley for Away From Her (great script, one of the most kick-in-the-stomach depressing movies I've seen lately). And Best Original Screenplay went to Tamara Jenkins for The Savages.

Amy Ryan was named Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant portrayal of a highly difficult character in Gone Baby Gone. Ryan's co-star in that film, Casey Affleck, was named Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Best Actress was Julie Christie for Away From Her and Best Actor was George Clooney in Michael Clayton -- two choices I approve of though I disagree with them. Joel and Ethan Coen took Best Director(s) honors for their latest masterpiece, No Country for Old Men. And -- drumroll please -- the Best Picture Award went to Jesse James. A surprising pick perhaps, but it was an absolutely fantastic film, and hopefully the award encourages more people to see it. The SFFC gave a special citation to an indie called Colma: The Musical, "a homegrown song-and-dance extravaganza about the paradoxical drudgery and surreality of life in a city where the dead outnumber the living one thousand to one." That old story again? See the list for yourself here -- it's a San Francisco treat!

Whenever the talk of genetics and ethics comes up, there's lots of chatter around what is allowed, and what isn't. But come on, no matter what the rules are, if a scientist is splicing stuff together, and feels a high at the thought of creating new animal life forms, or other scientific breakthroughs, how can they resist that little human touch? If not the everyday scientist, then maybe some evil, cackling one who fits all the stereotypes and has some sort of evil superfunding. Whatever the case, it's like a dentist living above a candy shop and telling his kids that they most certainly cannot go there for candy. The temptation is too great, no matter what the ramifications are.

This is the environment that Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are jumping into. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the pair will star in a new science fiction thriller called Splice, which is being directed by Cube helmer Vincenzo Natali (and Guillermo del Toro is one of the film's producers). The movie centers on "the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists (Polley and Brody) become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. They ignore the legal and ethical boundaries and introduce human DNA into their experiment." The script was written by Natali, along with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, and will find life in front of the camera in Toronto this November. It's a cool idea, and I'd go see almost anything that pairs Brody and Polley, but we have to wait until at least 2009 to see what they'll make of it.

Jared Leto has come a long way since his stint as Jordan Catalano. While he probably could've rode the girl-admiration train for a while, he's been all over the map with his film choices -- he's ran, fought as a soldier and an Angel Face, loved mentally-troubled women, got slashed by a Huey Lewis-loving psycho, been an addict, traversed the Sunset Strip, menaced with cornrows and even threw on the weight to embody Mark David Chapman. Now he's getting a bit fantastical to even out the reality a bit with writer/director Jaco van Dormael's first English-language feature, Mr. Nobody. And, his co-star is none other than recent Away From Her director Sarah Polley.

The romantic drama is being described as a "multilayered love story inspired by the 'butterfly effect.'" No, not the questionable film, but what it was based on -- the part of chaos theory that claims that the mere movement of a butterfly's wings can cause atmospheric changes that start a chain of events that have large and far-reaching results. Leto is playing nemo Nobody, a 120-year-old man, and the last mortal, living amongst immortals in the not-so-distant future. Nobody spends his time reliving both "real and imaginary years of marriage." Whatever that means. Production begins next week, and will shoot in Brussels, Montreal and Berlin. Being in that stage where we only have the smallest bit of information, anything could be possible, but regardless, it's sounding like a pretty intriguing notion. That, and I'd like to see what Polley can pull out of Leto.

The 60th annual Festival de Cannes has concluded, and the Palme D'Or goes to ... not the Coens? Despite all the praise and hype, No Country for Old Men was passed over for the prize in favor of 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, an abortion drama that our own James Rocchi called "incredibly affecting, magnificently acted and superbly made." Looks like he called that one. The Grand Prix, which is second prize, went to Naomi Kawase's The Mourning Forest, a French-Japanese co-production that Variety says "had viewers and critics streaming for the exits." The 60th anniversary prize, which is third place, went to Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, a drama about a teen skateboarder in denial over having caused someone's death. James reviewed that one too, but wasn't exactly blown away by it. "I have to wonder when -- or if -- the fierce filmmaking of [Van Sant's] earlier career will return," he wrote.

Julian Schnabel took the best directing prize for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which has been snapped up by Miramax. Get a load of this line, again from Variety: "Perhaps imagining he was at the Oscars, Schnabel overstayed his welcome at the spotlight at least three times over, shaking the hand of every jury member, making his cast stand up and rambling as he thanked everyone he could think of." The screenplay prize went to The Edge of Heaven, from a Turkish-German filmmaker, while the best actress prize went to Jeon Do-yeon, a South Korean actress who appeared in Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine. Best actor went to Konstantin Lavronenko for The Banishment. The jury prize was a tie vote between Persepolis, a French-U.S. production and Silent Light, about a mennonite community in Mexico.

At the jury press conference following the prizes, Stephen Frears was asked how Javier Bardem didn't win the best actor prize, Frears joked: "He's terrible, absolutely dreadful ... he's a wonderful actor. Why did we not give it to Javier? He owes me 500 pounds." Sarah Polley and Toni Collette were also asked to defend their odd choices, with Polley saying "I've never seen so many people listen to each other so closely." The jury also included Maggie Cheung, Maria de Medeiros, Abderrahmane Sissako, Marco Bellocchio and Orham Pamuk. If you want the full rundown, you can go to Variety and check it out.

Imagine that you've been happily married for over 40 years, and then your loved one is stricken with Alzheimer's. You both agree that your partner should go to a nursing home. The twist: you are not allowed to visit your memory loss-suffering loved one for 30 days, so they can adjust to their new surroundings. I'm sure you can guess what happens -- when the month is up, you head to the home and your long-term love doesn't recognize you. To add insult to injury, they've fallen for someone else.

That's the premise of Sarah Polley's directorial debut, Away From Her, for which Kim Voynar shared the poster in March. Now Cinematical has an exclusive clip of the film, courtesy of Lionsgate. I would suggest first checking out the film's website and trailer (warning: some embedded music in the beginning can't be turned off). While it might just be the saddest trailer that I've ever seen, it really gives some context to the scene above. Julie Christie plays Fiona, the woman suffering from Alzheimer's; Gordon Pinsent plays Grant, her husband; and Michael Murphy plays Aubrey, her new love. In the clip, Fiona and Grant are in the office of Dr. Fischer (Alberta Watson), and the doctor is asking a series of simple questions -- some which she can answer, and some of which elude her. If the trailer and this clip are any indication, you best prepare for a heart-wrenching ride.

Away From Her will head into limited release on May 4.

Sure, there are a lot of benefits to speed dating. You speed through a bunch of unimpressive candidates and get face-to-face time with people who are also looking for someone to spend Friday night with. At the same time, how much do you learn from a first impression and can you make a value judgement based on a speedy self-sales pitch? The Berlin International Film Festival seems to think so. Amongst the many opportunities for filmmakers to meet financial backers in the German city is their own form of swift selling.

When case studies on financing films gets to be too much, prospective sellers and buyers can partake in "speed matchings" and "country tables." This will be great for the people and places that will inevitably be zeroed in on. Of the US projects up for grabs is The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes from Joe Dante, who is responsible for two eighties classics -- Gremlins and Innerspace. Two other notable names looking for backing come from the Maple Leaf Land of Canada -- Sarah Polley, actress-turned-director and Clément Virgo, who was responsible for last year's super-saucy Lie with Me.

So, sure, this will be great for them. Their names have magnetic pull and are sure to attract much interest from those with cash to burn. However, what of the other films that make up the 37? I don't envy them and the stellar sales pitch they've got to create. Then again, maybe this is the way to go. With the clock ticking, maybe the world can finally stop some pictures before they ever get made ... but that is just wishful thinking.

A few more buys have been announced from the Toronto International Film Festival:

• Away From Her, which marks the directorial debut of actress Sarah Polley, with a supposedly brilliant (and "Oscar-worthy") performance by Julie Christie, has been picked up by Lionsgate for U.S. distribution. The deal was a surprise to many in the industry who associate the studio's recent interests to be more genre-based (like cheap exploitive horror) films. The film has Christie as a sufferer of Alzheimer's, and is based on Alice Munro's short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Lionsgate will be pushing the film for Oscar contention, but not until the 2008 awards, since they aim for a Spring 2007 release.
• Netflix has picked up the documentary The Prisoner, or: How I Tried to Kill Tony Blair. How does Netflix make distribution deals you ask? Well, through their Red Envelope label, they have been partnering with different theatrical distributors, including IFC, on releasing films like Sherrybaby and This Film is Not Yet Rated. Netflix is said to be looking for a permanent partner, but none have been named for this acquisition. The film, which focuses on a detained Iraqi journalist, is currently under 60-minutes in length, but the filmmakers will be adding more footage before its release.