with your permission Tagged Articles at Cinematical
TIFF Watch: Other Fests (AFI, Fantastic) Build on the Buzz
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Horror », Independent », Thrillers », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
With hundreds of titles playing at the Toronto festival, which ones will emerge as critical or popular favorites? One way to build popular word of mouth is by screening selected titles at other fall festivals. Festival buzz often leads to sales for films without distribution, and that same buzz can increase awareness of films in advance of a theatrical release. For example, this week AFI Fest announced another 15 titles, according to indieWIRE, of which 11 are screening in Toronto. Bruce MacDonald's The Tracey Fragments and Paprika Steen's With Your Permission will have their US Premieres at the fest, while other buzz titles include Telluride fave Juno, the animated Persepolis, the Romanian 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (which was pulled earlier this year from the Los Angeles Film Festival), biopic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Tamara Jenkins' The Savages and Austrian Oscar entry The Counterfeiters. As an Asian film fan, I'm excited to see Hao Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon and Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine in the lineup. Two documentaries will world premiere: Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome and 1000 Journals. The fest will open with the North American Premiere of Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs; it runs from November 1-11 in Los Angeles, California.
Starting in less than two weeks, Fantastic Fest is filled with exciting titles for genre fans -- I'm going and my schedule is already overflowing. They've just announced their opening night film will be George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, with director Romero in person. The film premiered Friday night as part of Toronto's Midnight Madness program. Other recently-added films include Flash Point (another Midnight Madness title), The Backwoods (starring Gary Oldman) and Nacho Vigilando's Timecrimes. Look for a BIG Cinematical preview coming next week. The craziness begins September 20 and lasts until September 27 in Austin, Texas.
TIFF Review: With Your Permission
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Romance », Theatrical Reviews », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
It's hard to imagine a film like With Your Permission being made in America, even as an indie film. The film, directed by Danish actress/director Paprika Steen (who appears in another film playing at TIFF this year, Lars von Trier's Erik Nietzsche: The Early Years), deals with the subject of spousal abuse, but it's not, for the most part, an overly heavy film. I know, I know -- there's nothing funny about spousal abuse. And yet, there are very funny moments in this film that allow it to be entertaining, in spite of its potentially weighty subject matter.
For one thing, the spousal abuse in With Your Permission isn't dealt with the way you'd expect, especially at a film fest, where things tend to lean toward the oh-so-serious side of the spectrum. The victim in this case is Jan (Lars Brygmann), a slight, middle-aged man with longish hair who spends his days ruling his workplace, a "gourmet restaurant" -- really, the restaurant on a ferry between Denmark and Sweden -- with a fist so tightly wrapped around the rulebook he makes the bureaucrats at the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles seem downright laid-back by comparison.
World Cinema: Danish Trailers Look Hot
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Horror », Thrillers », Cinematical Indie »
We last visited Denmark to tell you about The Substitute, a so-called "children's thriller" that had a strong performance at the box office in June. Weeks later, The Substitute is still drawing Danes into theaters; it was the top-grossing local film this past weekend. The Substitute has been selected to play in the Sprockets Family Zone at the Toronto film festival in September, which may help it land a US distribution deal. Several upcoming releases also look to have international appeal.Room 205 is due August 10; it's a horror picture about a university student who unwittingly unleashes an angry spirit seeking revenge. The trailer (available at the official site) makes it obvious we're not talking about Casper, The Friendly Ghost: young girl comes to city, is seduced by loud music and sexy dancing, and soon blood and body parts are flying. Two weeks later, Just Another Love Story rolls out. Directed by the suddenly busy Ole Bornedal (The Substitute), it's a thriller that starts when a weary family man causes an auto accident, resulting in a young woman losing her memory. The family man is then mistaken for her new boyfriend and assumes his identity. It looks like a very dark, intriguing twist on While You Were Sleeping.
September takes a comic turn with Thomas Vinterberg's A Man Comes Home, in which a small town kitchen worker's romances get mixed up with the arrival of a famous opera singer. (The breezy, jazzy trailer is NSFW.) Finally, Paprika Steen (star of The Substitute) returns to the director's chair for With Your Permission, scripted by the gifted Anders Thomas Jensen. The film is described as a tragic comedy: "Sometimes you should let go of your dream and let another dream come true." All the trailers are available at one convenient site.
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
Directors We Love: Jim Jarmusch
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Shelf Life: Fight Club_thumbnail.jpg)
Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
_thumbnail.jpg)
