Sending congratulations to German actress Feodora (Feo) Aladag—the big winner in this year’s Tribecca Film Festival. Her film WHEN WE LEAVE (DIE FREMDE) won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature in this year’s World Narrative Competition. Aladag is credited as director, screenwriter & producer… & this is her first time behind the camera!
On home turf, DIE FREMDE won the “Label Europa Cinemas” award at the Berlin International Film Festival, & received six nominations from the German Film Academy (including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, and Outstanding Feature Film), although awards this year were otherwise dominated by Michael Haneke’s Oscar-nominated film THE WHITE RIBBON.
So keep your eyes peeled for WHEN WE LEAVE now that it’s made its big debut on the international film festival circuit!
Shout out to Feo Aladag:
You Go, Girl!
30.Apr.10 
Rants: Oscars & Other Awards 
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Director Teresa Costantini (left) was here in Chicago last week to screen her new film Felicitas at our 26th annual Chicago Latino Film Festival. She is now on her way east to screen Felicitas in NYC too.
Felicitas is a gorgeously produced 19th Century romance with a feminist kick. Recipient of 8 nominations from the film academy of Argentina, Felicitas is already a big success in Latin America & is now making its debut in international film festivals such as our CLFF. I encourage all of you to see Felicitas on a big screen if at all possible. It’s definitely worth it!
Just a note for those you coming to this film unfamiliar with Latin American history: Teresa told me the story of “the real Felicitas” is very well known in Argentina, in other words this film is a BioPic (historically reimagined of course) rather than “just” an Argentinean version of Gone with the Wind.
27.Apr.10 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comments (0)
Challenging new screenplay from Erin Cressida Wilson (FUR, SECRETARY) based on French erotic thriller NATHALIE (directed by Anne Fontaine).
Julianne Moore stars as a woman whose carefully constructed life has reached a crisis point. When she becomes involved with a young prostitute (Amanda Seyfried), family & friends are baffled. Great back-up from Liam Neeson as Moore’s husband & Max Thieriot as their son. Strong acting all around & Moore goes the distance in her best part in years. Directed by Atom Egoyan. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
18.Apr.10 Reviews: B-D Read more Comments (0)
The Greatest? If only L
First time director Shana Fest wastes an incredibly talented cast on a maudlin story chock full of plot holes. Carey Mulligan stars as a “Rose,” a high school virgin who makes love with a classmate & then boom: he’s killed in a car crash & she learns she’s pregnant. My Juno nightmare has come true—all those Juno Oscar nominations have opened a door for cloying waif films. Oy!
Susan Sarandon, playing the boy’s mother “Grace,” tries to rebel when Rose appears out of nowhere expecting to be adopted (at least thru the birth of this unexpected grandchild). But Grace is overruled by her husband “Allen” (Pierce Brosnan) who finds the promise of new life in Rose’s swelling belly preferable to his wife’s obsessive grief. Add in the misadventures of screwed-up younger son “Ryan” (Johnny Simmons), & the Brewer family is poised & ready for redemption by Madonna & child.
But look beyond the schematic set-up, & there’s literally no there there. The Brewers live in a large comfortable home somewhere in suburban New Jersey, so when Rose moves in, there’s a convenient spare room just waiting empty for her. She doesn’t intrude on Ryan’s space, and she never disturbs the shrine Grace has made of Bennett’s room. The Brewers also have a beach house in Atlantic City.
After Bennett dies, Allen makes a halfhearted attempt to continue on as a college math professor. Grace, on the other hand, is never assigned a professional life of any kind. But Bennett and Rose meet as students at an upscale private school. Curlish me, I kept wondering where all the money was coming from? So maybe the Brewers do have magic movie money, but the screenplay requires Rose to be totally without resources. Her mother is a junkie and her only friend is a beautician she works for part time. So where did Rose live before landing on the Brewers’ doorstep, & who paid her school tuition?
And then there’s the weather, which annoyed me even more than the money. The specified timeframe goes from insemination in June to birth in March, and yet there’s never any snow. New Jersey in winter… but no snow… That’s how much thought went into creating backstory details that might make these lives seem feel. Proof positive, that The Greatest is actually set in a movie LaLaLand that prides itself in its own emotionality.
Maybe I should mention that our great Chicago actor Michael Shannon is also in this film, but his character is so bogus I can’t make myself describe it. And yet, this film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. What were those folks smoking?!?
According to IMDb, Shana Fest is now working on a new film with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. I live in hope.
17.Apr.10 Reviews: E-G Read more Comments (0)
Seems Oscar wasn’t enough for director Martin Scorsese. Seems he couldn’t rest until he’d made “a Holocaust film.” But despite all the talented people involved (including wonderful actresses Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer & Michelle Williams), this film is a total mess. Barely 5 minutes in, it was already close to unwatcheable, & by the end (minute 138), I was ready to tear my hair out!!!
Shout out to screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis: Better luck next time L
17.Apr.10 Raving/Ranting about Male Filmmakers, Reviews: Q-S Read more Comments (0)
Click HERE for song lyrics, etc.
Thanks to videographer Tim Bolger, you can now enjoy excerpts from our 2010 Chicago WITASWAN program (held in conjunction with celebrations of the 3rd annual International SWAN Day).
Meet our special guests Eileen Douglas & Ron Steinman. Eileen introduces their film My Grandfather’s House in Part One. Then Eileen & Ron do a Q&A together (after the screening) in Part Two.
I’m the one in the red sweater (in the MC role). And Leslie Newcorn provides the beautiful voice singing “Birds are Drowsing” (in Yiddish) at the beginning and “I Believe” (in Hebrew) at the end.
Click HERE for more program information
(including links to all program sponsor sites).
WITASWAN:
Women in the Audience
Supporting Women Artists Now!
06.Apr.10 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: Khaverot v' Khaverim, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comments (0)
