These days, genre has been boiled down into such simplistic forms that it becomes a buzz-worthy feat when a film manages to pull off more than just a basic premise. A superhero film becomes wow-worthy if time was taken to perfect the story and actors. A comedy becomes rare if it includes a lot of smarts with the slapstick. A romance becomes one of a kind if its characters don't fit into the almost-always-used conventions.

This latter one is a true sore spot of mine. For the most part, romance and relationships have been boiled down to such ridiculous stereotypes that all romcoms sound ridiculous and anything with romance gets the "chick flick" badge. But romance isn't all that stereotypes would have you believe. It's not all clutzy or irrational women, fashion, game playing, and vast gender divides. Sometimes, the romance is even infused with smarts, success, and tangible connection. In praise of my favorite romances, I give you: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

Just to lighten things up after word that Vincent Perez's life is going to hit the big screen, Variety reports that Israeli director Eytan Fox is teaming up with X Filme International for a film based on Gad Beck. Fox is currently writing the mostly-English script with partner and collaborator Gal Uchovsky, to film on location in Germany. While the subject matter is still heavy, this time around the hero has a better fate.

As a gay Jew, Beck had fled from the Nazis, joined the Jewish resistance, and saved dozens of Jewish people from being murdered. According to Uchovsky, "It's a complicated story because Gad's mother was originally a German Christian who converted to Judaism, so he had quite a large German family in Berlin. The Nazis would call someone like Gad a mischling, or half-Jew, so the film will also look at those relations." With a solid $6-$10 milliion price tag, they're hoping to land an American actor as Gad, so this could be a fairly high-profile project. Personally, looking at the pic of Gad to the right, I'm thinking Alan Cumming.

Almost two years ago, back in January of 2006, Cinematical first posted about the upcoming film called The Air I Breathe. While it went away for a bit, the film is finally gearing up for limited release in January, and a trailer has made its way online, courtesy of Aglet Productions. Coming from writer/director Jieho Lee (and co-written with Bob DeRosa), Breathe is a drama based on the Chinese proverb that says life is based on four emotional elements -- happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love. Sure, this sounds like a film with four unrelated vignettes, but it's actually looking to be a rather dark story where each emotion intertwines with the others.

Lee uses them to tell the stories of a businessman who bets his life on a horse (Forest Whitaker as Happiness), a gangster who can see the future (Brendan Fraser as Pleasure), a popstar who falls victim to a crime boss (Sarah Michelle Gellar as Sorrow), and a doctor trying to save the love of his life (Kevin Bacon as love). As if that wasn't enough for a solid starter cast, the film also boasts the likes of Andy Garcia, Emile Hirsch, and Julie Delpy. All of these people are interconnected through a dark and seemingly desperate backdrop. The only thing that's funny about all of this is that Gellar is playing a woman famous for her singing and dancing (she sings when she has to, but as Once More with Feeling will attest, she's no an American Idol). Still, it's a good trailer, and if these clips are any indication, it should be one heck of a film. And at the very least, it's got to be better than Southland Tales!

[via Empire Online]

After touring the festival circuit, with stops in Berlin and Tribeca, Julie Delpy's new film, 2 Days in Paris, recently opened domestically to very good critical reception -- it's currently sporting an 87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. If you haven't seen it, it's a romantic comedy about a native Parisian played, of course, by Delpy, who brings her American boyfriend home to Paris for a visit. The boyfriend is played by journeyman actor, writer and director Adam Goldberg, who most of you probably remember most for his large role in Saving Private Ryan. In the years since then, he's appeared in movies such as Deja Vu, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and David Fincher's Zodiac, while also writing and directing a film called I Love Your Work. Cinematical recently spoke with Adam about the experience of making 2 Days in Paris, a film that's in some ways, semi-autobiographical -- he and Delpy were formerly in a relationship, and the film draws heavily from their time together.

CINEMATICAL: I was on your character's side in this film -- as a cultural outsider, it falls to Julie's character to make your character feel as comfortable as possible when he's not on his home turf.

AG: I totally agree. Even if it's not necessarily about it being a cultural difference, just the idea of, when you're on somebody's home turf, if you're gonna meet their family, obviously, then you have to make the outsider, the alien, feel as comfortable as possible. She kind of affects this sort of oblivious attitude, which I think is sort of part of her way of kind of goading him and getting attention. He's got his own ways of goading her and getting her attention, and so I think it's something that they both sort of kind of do to each other, you know, a little bit? Which tends to happen sometimes in relationships, you know, a few years down the line.

RS: Do you think those characters have the makings of a successful relationship?

AG: For entertainment value purposes. I mean, that was sort of one of the things we would talk about -- this idea of almost kind of keeping themselves amused by, maybe sort of battling wits, maybe kind of in an effort to not really deal with the more serious underlying issues of the relationship. So I think there's potential for success, but basically they're both emotionally a bit underdeveloped. [Dogs barking] Hold on one sec ... I think they both need to be in therapy. There's no mention of therapy, you know. But certainly, if they keep going the way that they're going, they're going to start aging in dog years.

We already know that Julie Delpy is talented at writing and acting in solid, non-schticky romantic fare. And, as 2 Days in Paris showed us, she can also make life drama light and comedic without needing to put in an obligatory group dance scene, or anything else equally tacky. MTV recently talked to the filmmaking wonder woman about her next project (aside from The Countess) -- and she's having trouble getting it off the ground.

The flick is called World Wars and Other Fun Stuff to Watch on the Evening News, and Delpy describes it as a political satire that crosses Dr. Strangelove with Monty Python. The movie "takes place in a fantasy country that borders Afghanistan, Korea and Cuba. It's the country of VBP, the Very Bad People. It's all about a big coup. It makes fun of the idea of making everything, including war, a spectacle." Brilliance! (How many presidents wished they could just transport Cuba far, far away from North America?!)

Personally, I'd be sold just on that, but unfortunately, I'm not the one with the money. She explains: "I'm facing the problem [of finding] financiers. They're terrified of serious political subject matter dealt with in a crazy way. They think you'll lose this demographic and that demographic, but it's all bull. I wish people were more ballsy. Financiers are chickens." I guess these guys didn't see Borat. (Oh man, Delpy and Cohen together... I'd be in heaven!) Anyhow, she'd "die to do it," and I'd die to see it, but what about you?

"Niche freshmen were in better shape" than Hollywood product this past weekend, according to Leonard Klady, who compiled box office estimates for Movie City News. He placed Chak De! India first among independent releases by virtue of its earnings of $390,000 at 75 locations, resulting in a per-screen average of $5,250. Chak De! India stars Shahrukh Khan as a disgraced field hockey player who returns to the game as coach of the national women's team. In a New York Times capsule (free registration required to read), Andy Webster said: "The film's greatest merit is its commentary on sexism in India."

Klady also gave kudos to Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris for its performance; it reaped $20,510 per screen at eight locations, according to his figures. Our own Erik Davis raved about 2 Days when he saw it earlier this year. The critical response was good, rated at 85% positive by Rotten Tomatoes, so that bodes well for Delpy's future filmmaking projects. Recently Cinematical's Ryan Stewart talked with the writer/director/star in a far-ranging interview that touched on other scripts she's written as well as the challenges posed by 2 Days. The trailer, available at the official site, makes me laugh every time I see it, so I hope the film gets pushed out to a few more cities before heading to DVD.

The other notable indie release this weekend was Rocket Science, director Jeffrey Blitz's coming of age flick. Scott Weinberg reviewed it at Sundance, while Erik Davis took a more recent look and also interviewed director Blitz. Rocket Science made $9,390 per screen at six locations for an estimated total of $56,300. The film scored even higher than 2 Days in Paris, according to Rotten Tomatoes (89% positive), so we'll see if word of mouth builds the audience for next weekend.

Not long ago, I had a chance to sit down with Julie Delpy in Manhattan to talk about 2 Days in Paris, her upcoming directorial effort that's bowing on August 10th. (You can check out Erik's glowing Berlinale review here.) As she waited on some black tea to arrive, we quickly got into talking about the film, which is about a native Parisian played by Delpy who brings her American boyfriend home to Paris for a quick visit; the two of them try to survive what the resulting cultural shockwaves do to their relationship. We also got into the subject of her next directorial project -- a biopic of the infamous 16th century 'Blood Countess' Elizabeth Bathory -- and discussed the unconventional arc of her career in general. Delpy has been quite vocal about having grand ambitions as a director -- she dreams of helming major action/sci-fi blockbusters -- but told me with characteristic bluntness that her filmmaking goals wouldn't force her to put acting on the backburner. "I don't have to choose, so I'm not going to," she said, pointedly. Here's the interview.

RS: Have you seen Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English yet?

JD: I didn't see it yet. I want to, though.

RS: The reason I bring it up is because [spoiler warning] they came pretty close to ripping off the ending of Before Sunset.

JD: They did?

RS: Yeah. Girl meets French guy in New York, she chases him to Paris, can't find him, finds him at the very end, they're deciding if they will stay together, and he says something along the lines of 'you're gonna miss that plane,' and that's the end.

JD: No..

RS: Yes. Lots of critics noticed it at the time, not just me.

JD: Really?

RS: Yeah. It was like, why would she do that?

JD: Why would she do that? That's weird. Was it conscious?

RS: I don't know. I thought maybe you two were friends, and it was an homage. Who knows?

JD: Maybe it's an homage.

I'm a pretty big fan of Julie Delpy, which is why I write up pretty much every bit of news I can find on the actress/director/wonder-woman. This latest bit of info will be particularly sweet to Delpy fans in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, while I sit here in a flurry of jealousy. As part of a monthly series between indieWIRE and Apple, Delpy will be appearing at three Apple stores to discuss her body of work, as well as her recent film, 2 Days in Paris, which she wrote, directed, produced, edited, scored and starred in. She's basically the French, female version of Robert Rodriguez without the special effects. Can you imagine the potential talent if they reproduced? Anyway...

This is just in time for the film's limited release, which is the now very-soon August 10. The three lucky stores in question are the store on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago tonight at 7:00 p.m., the Stockton Street in San Francisco on Sunday, July 29 at 6:00 p.m. and finally, the Los Angeles store at the Third Street Promenade on Thursday, August 2 at 7:00 p.m. What's even better -- the talks are free and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. After the film's release, it seems that more locations will follow, but there's no word on which. In the meantime, you can catch the latest trailer here, and you can see a really great clip from the film here, where Delpy and Adam Goldberg's characters are trying to put on a condom and have sex -- don't worry, it's all done under a comforter.

Yes, I like seeing them on screen together as much as you do, so don't send me hate mail over this one, but it's true. I recently had a chance to sit down with Julie Delpy in Manhattan for a one-on-one interview -- I'll be publishing it soon -- and over the course of our talk, she dropped that bit of unexpected news. Ethan Hawke is no longer expected to appear as Ferenc Nadansky, the husband of Delpy's character, 'Blood Countess' Elizabeth Bathory, in the Delpy-directed film The Countess. "He might do a cameo, but I don't think he will anymore, " Delpy told me with a sad look. "He was going to, and now he's busy with something else. But it was such a small cameo, and it would have jeopardized the dates for other actors, and I felt like it was not right, you know? He agreed to be in it at first, and now he has a play, maybe. But it's okay -- maybe it's not meant to be. I have wonderful people attached, so I'm very happy with that."

Wait, don't jump out of the window yet -- there's a silver lining to this cloud. Delpy seems to be as on board as Hawke is to do another Before Sunrise sequel, although the details have yet to be worked out, of course. "We wanted to do, maybe a third one," she told me. "We might do it. We don't know. We have to come up with the right idea." When I suggested that she wait until they hit 65, 70 before doing part three, she didn't seem to be into that. "Maybe not -- maybe it could be good every ten years, you know, like we did it. Maybe it's good in our early forties." Stay tuned to Cinematical for the full interview, which is coming as soon as I have time to type it out.

Before Sunset is probably one of the best examples of a good sequel. Actually, scratch that. A great sequel. It's incredibly rare that you can go into a film expecting goodness, and be completely blown away. I liked Before Sunrise; I watched it any time I was itching to be a conversational voyeur. But I didn't love it. Then Sunset came out, and I don't think six months can go by without me itching to pop it back into my DVD player. When I first saw the film in the theater, I heard the loudest noises from the audience ever. There were groans, ughs, awhs and even some "no!" exclamations coming from every direction. We all want to know what happens as the light dims and Nina Simone croons on.

While it is no secret that the trio of Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy would like to keep revisiting the couple every ten or so years, it seems that we're missing out on a sequel that would've shared the aftermath of Jesse and Celine's walk through Paris. Hawke told MTV News: "If the film had been totally ignored, we probably already would have made a third one. Rick said to me the other day, 'It's that whole thing of people coming up to you at dinner parties and saying [they] know what happened to [Jesse and Celine]. You don't want to deal with it.'" Thanks, guys. You make a great film that we all can't help but love, and that's why we're not getting a third? It seems that this sequel wouldn't have been a feature, but a sort of fan goodie to wrap some things up: "We had an idea but [it's] not going to happen, a pretty good outline of what the next one was going to be. But we would need to be in production right now, because we wanted to pick up right where we left off. Rick wanted to do a short film that was just two weeks later. Time goes by so fast."

The bittersweet edge to this project is just how much we don't see. These characters have a million stories to tell -- from Jesse's relationship with his wife and child to Celine's work and relationships -- but maybe it's better to not know it all. Maybe part of the magic is letting things amplify over the years. But that being said -- please, guys, don't have it be another 'we havent seen each other for years' situation. We've had the 'missed opportunity.' Now we need the relationship actuality.