Also in Thursday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, upcoming New York Film Festival debut Frances Ha gets a buyer. The Rome Film Festival will debut a new section with a film by a quartet of auteurs. Any Day Now and Alex Gibney ‘s The Last Gladiators heads to theaters. And Focus Features welcomes a new executive vice president. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln To Close AFI Fest The world premiere of the forthcoming film will close the AFI Fest November 8th at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the drama focuses on the tumultuous final months in office of the 16th President of the United States. DreamWorks Pictures/Twentieth Century Fox title (in association with Participant Media) will open in limited release November 9th and go wide November 16th. The 26th AFI Fest will take place November 1 – 8 in Los Angeles. For the fourth year, AFI Fest will off free tickets for all its screenings, though only package holders will be able to reserve seats for the Lincoln closing night gala. Robert Redford to Fete Roger Ebert The Sundance Institute founder will honor film critic Roger Ebert with the Vanguard Leadership Award in “recognition of his advocacy of independent cinema.”The award presentation will take place at the third annual ‘Celebrate Sundance Institute’ benefit, chaired by Institute Trustee Lyn Lear and her husband, Norman, on June 5, 2013 in Los Angeles. “Among the many things I admire about Roger Ebert is how he has long supported freedom of artistic expression,” said Redford in a statement. “When I started Sundance in 1980, and when few would support us, Roger was there. This was one of the ways he communicated his forward-thinking outlook. He was one of the first to support our artists. His influence and reach is as meaningful as his personal passion for cinema, and he certainly deserves this award.” Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s Frances Ha Heads to Theaters in the Americas Ahead of its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, IFC Films picked up rights to the Telluride/Toronto debut Frances Ha , starring Greta Gerwig. The film centers on Frances, a New Yorke dance apprentice without her own apartment. She splits with her best friend Sophie, but throws herself into her dreams even as her possibilities dwindle. The film is a modern-comic fable that explores New York friendships, class, ambition, failure and redemption. Arianna Bocco negotiated the deal for Frances Ha from UTA on behalf of the filmmakers. Rome Film Festival to Debut Centro Histórico by European Auteurs The world premiere of the collaboration by Aki Kaurismäki, Pedro Costa, Victor Erice and Manoel de Oliveira will open the Cinema XXI, the new section of the festival that spotlights “new trends and new languages in international cinema.” The film explores the stories for modern-day Guimarães, the founding city of Portugal. Any Day Now Heads to North American Theaters Based on a true story and starring Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt, the film is set in the late 1970s about a mentally handicapped teen who is abandoned and is taken in by a gay couple. Music Box Films acquired the title and plans a release this December. Louis Phillips Joins Focus Features Phillips joins the specialty distributor as Executive Vice President, Physical Production. Based in the company’s West Coast office, he’ll oversee physical production and post-production on all in-house film productions and outside acquisitions. Alex Gibney’s The Last Gladiators Heads to U.S. & Canadian Theaters Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney’s The Last Gladiators , which explores “the goon,” Ice Hockey’s players who have only one mission: to protect the star players at any price. Phase 4 Films which picked up rights to the documentary, will roll out the film in Canada in October, followed by a U.S. release in early 2013. Phase 4’s Larry Greenberg and Sam Posner with Josh Braun from Submarine and Anne Atkinson from Pryor Cashman LLP on behalf of the filmmakers.
The New York Times reported Friday morning that Google had made the controversial decision to block access to the inflammatory anti-Islam video, Innocence of Muslims , in Egypt and Libya, where the crude production had sparked anti-U.S. riots and violence that resulted in the deaths of four American diplomats, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stephens . According to the Times , Google, which owns YouTube where the clip is posted, did not remove the video from its site because its policy is to remove content only if it is deemed “hate speech,” or “if it is responding to valid court orders or government requests.” Based on company guidelines, the Internet behemoth determined that Innocence of Muslims “was not hate speech,” the paper reported, but Google still made the exceptional decision to block access to the video in Egypt and Libya in response to the violence and killings. In the wake of this extraordinary decision by an American company to censor content, Movieline wants to hear from you. Take the poll after the jump and tell us if Google’s actions were warranted, or if, in your opinion, even more decisive action is required. Google’s immense power as one of the pillars of the Internet means that it can have huge influence over the boundaries of free speech on the web. As Peter Spiro, a constitutional and international law professor at Temple University, told the Times : “Google is the world’s gatekeeper for information so if Google wants to define the First Amendment to exclude this sort of material then there’s not a lot the rest of the world can do about it.” [ New York Times ] You can make your opinion heard. If your point of view doesn’t fit neatly into one of the three choices below, please leave it in the comments box. Take Our Poll Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Friday morning’s round-up of news briefs, the Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro film festivals unveil details of their opening nighters. Thriller Errors of the Human Body heads to U.S. theaters. And Warner Bros. gives details on the Godzilla reboot. Thriller Errors of the Human Body Heads to U.S. Theaters IFC Midnight took North American rights to the film directed by Eron Sheean, starring Germany’s Karoline Herfurth ( The Reader ). In the film, Canadian geneticist Geoff Burton (Michael Eklund) works on a human regenerative gene with direct ties with a personal tragedy, yet matters prove increasingly difficult: jealous co-workers’ feelings are ruffled, old flames are rekindled and personal demons become consistently harder to suppress in this new and oppressive work environment. After a festival run overseas, the film will have its U.S. premiere at the upcoming Fantastic Fest. Rio de Janeiro Film Festival to Welcome 400 Films Brazilian director Breno Silveira’s Gonzaga – From Father to Son will open the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival September 27th. Jeremy Irons, directors Fernando Trueba, Leos Carax, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ( Little Miss Sunshine ), Teresa Villaverde, João Pedro Rodrigues, Roland Joffé, and the artist Marina Abramovic, are among those guests who have already confirmed their attendance at the festival. Tokyo Film Festival to Co-Open with Ridley Scott’s Japan in a Day with Andrew Adamson’s Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away The project is a collection of video submissions overseen by Ridley Scott that were filmed on March 11th, the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated an large area of the country. The submissions have been compiled into a single film and apparently convey the message of Japan’s recovery. THR reports that the world premiere of Cirques du Soleil: Worlds Away 3-D will also open the festival. The 25th Tokyo International Film Festival takes place October 20 – 28. Around the ‘net… Christian Slater Joins Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac The film by the Danish director could be his most controversial yet, reportedly featuring genuine sex scenes. Christian Slater will join Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LeBeouf and Stellan Skarsgård. “Lars is a complete gentleman. It’s great to be on a set with someone who has such a loyal and talented team,” Slater said. “The majority of his crew are people he has worked with over the past 20 years. They love him and I understand why. It’s lovely as an actor to get opportunities a few times in your career to work on a truly special project with a director and leader who really understands his material and is able to convey what he wants so concisely.” The Guardian reports . A 2nd Filmmaker May Be Behind Incendiary Anti-Muslim Video News reports have identified Cerritos, CA resident Joseph Nassralla Abdelmasih, president of Duarte-based charity Media for Christ and an associate of Nakoula Baseley Nakoula (the individual earlier identified under the persona of Sam Bacile), the first person believed to have been behind the video. Both are Egyptian immigrants and have gone into hiding, Deadline reports . Godzilla Reboot Heads for May, 2014 Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures will bow the reboot of the Godzilla in franchise in 3-D on May 16, 2014. Gareth Edwards ( Monsters ) will direct the pic from a script by David Callaham who wrote The Expendables movies, Deadline reports .
Steven Spielberg debuted the trailer to Lincoln , his highly anticipated film about the 16th U.S. President at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, but the experience was less-than-mesmerizing. That’s because the webcast was initially plagued with glitches that left some viewers with nothing more than a “buffering” notice or moments when the trailer seemed to fade in and out of blackness. The Google + Hangout session with the filmmaker and Joseph Gordon-Levitt , who stars as Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln, was also bedeviled by sound problems that turned the question-and-answer session into an annoying echo chamber. If you didn’t — or couldn’t — see the trailer during its premiere, check it out after the jump, along with the first images from Spielberg’s ’12 Oscar contender. PHOTOS: First Images From Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln The sound problems were eventually corrected, and Spielberg remarked that Lincoln “is a figure in this national landscape who hasn’t been re-examined enough,” except, he added, as parody. According to Spielberg, the last movie to take a substantial look at the historical figure was the 1939 feature Young Mr. Lincoln , in which Henry Fonda portrayed him in his pre-presidential days as a lawyer. “I think a figure as great as Abraham Lincoln deserves re-examination,” Spielberg said. Gordon-Levitt took a more personal approach to the Q&A, taking time to give a shout-out to his high-school AP U.S. History teacher, Mr. Bechtel — I’m guessing at the spelling here — who the actor said was one of his favorite teachers because he presented history as if it were “story time” instead of reducing it to “a bunch of facts and multiple-choice questions.” Gordon-Levitt also said he was “honored” to work with Spielberg. Here’s the trailer. Instant Oscar powerhouse? Watch it on Youtube. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Do Paul Thomas Anderson and The Weinstein Co. need to worry about the Church of Scientology ? Following the New York Post’s report of “strange calls” and mounting opposition among members of the organization to pseudo-Scientology pic/festival darling The Master , TWC confirmed to Movieline that the studio has increased security for tonight’s premiere at New York’s Ziegfield Theatre. The Master , which opens in limited release on Friday, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a charismatic spiritual leader, a la Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who launches a religious organization in the 1950s while his right hand man, a former soldier/drifter (Joaquin Phoenix), begins to question everything. The film’s ties to Scientology have been a focal point of the buzz around the film since even before Anderson shot it, but in interviews Anderson and Hoffman have downplayed suggestions that the film is a direct depiction of the church and its leader. Still, it’s not surprising that The Post claims efforts from within the organization are underway to battle The Master ‘s marketing campaign ahead of its September 14 release. Before getting an official title, The Master was pretty much known as “Paul Thomas Anderson’s Untitled Religious/Scientology Drama,” so the Scientology camp must have been preparing for its release for a long while. What makes the clash of interests more curious is the claim by a Post source that “strange calls” thought to be from Scientology members have been streaming into the distributor to the point that “some on the film’s team have hired extra security.” A studio source tells Movieline that security for tonight’s premiere has been beefed up as a result, though the nature of said calls and the Weinstein Co.’s exact security concerns are unknown. It should be interesting to see how the image-conscious Church of Scientology reacts to the film and its contents, and to what extent they might feel it necessary to combat The Master ‘s huge (and only getting huger by the day) buzz in the name of defending their own image. (Guess they can’t count on Sci-celeb Tom Cruise to be their public delegate, even if pal Anderson has screened the film for him.) The Master ‘s profile has been steadily ascending with cinephiles swooning in surprise screenings around the country and its recent Venice Film Festival wins , not to mention the added profile boost of having awards guru Harvey Weinstein (who has his own personal crazies to deal with) on its side. This is all shaping up to be a strange case of religion butting heads with the Oscars as awards season gets an early start. And while Scientology certainly has an weird, omnipresent, boogeyman-esque mystique in this town, I’d put my money on Weinstein emerging victorious. Read more on The Master . [ NYP ]
As a movie title, The Place Beyond The Pines doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but that didn’t stop the latest project from Derek Cianfrance and his Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling from being one of the most discussed films at the Toronto International Film Festival . The picture — which tells the tale of a bank-robbing motorcycle stunt driver (Gosling), a cop (Bradley Cooper) who fatefully crosses his path and their sons, did not have a distributor when it premiered at the festival on Friday night. That changed when Deadline reported on Sunday that Focus Features had acquired the film for release. On Saturday, Gosling and Cianfrance met with the press to discuss the making of the film, its thematic exploration of legacy, and Gosling’s fantasy about robbing banks on a motorcycle — an idea that figures into the plot of film. The Pines, Cianfrance explained, “is a place where you find your demons but also where you can find your destiny.” As for that title, it doesn’t sound so cumbersome when you consider that it could have been called Schenectady . Read on for the explanation. You said at the premiere on Friday that The Place Beyond The Pines is a movie about “Legacy.” Can you elaborate on that? Derek Cianfrance: It’s a movie about what we pass on. I started writing it in 2007 right before my second son was born. I was thinking about what kind of father I was going to become again, and I was thinking about this feeling I’ve had inside me my whole life. There’s this fire inside me that had helped me do many things in my life, but that also was very destructive. And I started thinking that my father — and my grandfather — had that fire and then wondering how far back it went and where it started. I was also thinking about this baby that was going to come into the world that was going to be clean and what I was going to give him. I was thinking how I didn’t want him to have the fire. I wanted him to be fresh and clean. Very quickly, that led to this idea about legacy. Ever since film school, I had wanted to make a triptych, like Abel Gance’s film Napoleon , but I didn’t know what story to tell. When I discovered this idea of legacy, I realized that that was how I would tell this story. That fire that you mention — it shapes who you become but you have to take control of it. DC: Yes, it’s the choices you make, but sometimes you’re born into a world with all of these repercussions that people have made before you. So you have to fight and claw to get out of that. You said at the premiere that you were reading a lot of Jack London at the time. I was reading pretty much everything I could find that Jack London had written. If you just take The Call of the Wild , for example, it’s about this domesticated wolf that hears the calling of his ancestors. When he howls at the moon, he feels the hunger — and how his ancestors were starving — and he can sing their song with them. That line continues, and I got kind of obsessed with this idea of evolution, of where that came from within me. And of my ancestors. And wanting them to be better than me. Wanting them to survive. If they’re worse than me, then they don’t survive. Then your bloodline doesn’t survive. And to survive is brutal. Ryan, what’s significant about the film for you? Ryan Gosling: I love Derek’s idea of passing the narrative. I saw this film called The Red and the White [Miklós Jancsó]. It’s this war picture and you’re following this one soldier, and, suddenly, he gets killed. Then you’re following the guy that killed him and he ends up attacking some woman. And the you follow the woman. It was completely different kind of experience, and when I saw it, I wondered why this type of picture wasn’t done more often. I thought it was very interesting that Derek wanted to do that. Initially, we talked about this film before Blue Valentine. I was saying to Derek that I always wanted to rob banks, but I’m scared of jail. But, if I was going to do it, I would do it on a motorcycle then drive up into a U-Haul [after the robbery to hide the bike] That’s how I would get away with it. And he said, “That’s crazy. I just wrote a script about that.” So, I said, ‘I’m in.” What appeals to you about robbing banks — the adrenaline rush? RG: There’s just all this money there, and some people are walking in with more than others. And what I learned from this movie is you just have to ask for it. [The tellers] have to give it to you. I’m not promoting this idea, but I would say don’t use a weapon if you’re going to do it. It’s just safer all around and less time in jail. And all of the people we interviewed said that the ones that did it nicely got less time. There’s a Hitchcockian element to this movie and your character. RG: I’m Janet Leigh. That’s how I’ve always thought of myself. Both Ryan’s character, Luke, and Bradley Cooper’s character, Avery are complex, morally flawed guys. But Avery, who comes from a so-called good family, isn’t punished for his shortcomings. Are you making a class statement there? DC: We shot this movie in Schenectady, New York. Schenectady, which is the Iroquois word for “the place beyond the pines,” is the place where my wife grew up and where one of my co-writers Ben Coccio grew up, and I feel like there are these tribes of people in these small cities and towns that keep themselves in certain strata, for lack of a better word. And this movie is about those different tribes that live in a contemporary American city. And I feel like the bloodline goes very far back. Avery is born into this small-town royalty. His father is a judge, but even though Avery went to law school, he wants to become his own man. His decision to become a police officer shows that he is trying to carve his own path and escape his father’s legacy, but it’s very difficult. Ryan, did you and Derek work together to develop your character? RG: We worked on it together. We talked a lot about the myth of Parsifal and the Red Knight. That was sort of what I used. A lot about this character was someone who ws posturing and posing and performing. We liked the idea of him maybe alluding to things that weren’t true, and him being a mystery even to himself — lost in his own mythology. All the tattoos I wear in the movie — I don’t know how necessary they are, but they were a part of trying to understand this character. What’s interesting about working with Derek is that you’re not allowed to take your decisions lightly. They’re permanent, and any step you take with your character, you have to embrace that. For instance, with the face tattoo [of a dagger] that I wear in the movie, it was the last one applied, and I felt like it was too much when it came down to it. I thought, I don’t want to have a tattoo on my face this whole movie. It’s just going to be distracting, and I think I’ve gone too far. And Derek said, “That’s what happens when you get a face tattoo. That’s how you feel. And now you’re stuck with it.” So then I had to go through the whole film having that tattoo on my face, and I regretted it the whole time. Only Derek would do that. Only Derek would do that. You really convey onscreen that you care for the baby you fathered with Eva Mendes’ character. RG: First of all that’s due to the fact that the kid that Derek cast, who plays my son as an infant — his name is Tony Pizza. It’s hard not to like a guy named Tony Pizza, Anthony Pizza Jr. So, I just liked that guy, and we really hit it off. DC: There’s a line in the film where Luke’s character says, “I never had my father and look at the way I turned out.” I think there’s this kind of shame in his character. He’s marked. And he sees this boy that’s clean, that has no marks, that hasn’t been tainted that thing happens that can happen, which is this overwhelming feeling of responsibility. This character takes responsibility because it’s something so pure in his life and he never had that. I know a lot of people who didn’t grow up with strong fathers or grew up with absent fathers and they turned out to be the most dedicated fathers. At the boy’s baptism, you cry onscreen. RG: I didn’t know that that was going to happen. Again, it’s a credit to Derek’s process because it’s never something that’s asked of you or in the script — those emotional benchmarks that you know you have to reach. I was just sitting in the church watching the baby be baptized, and I don’t know why I was emotional but I was. The motorcycle chase scenes are intense. How were they shot? DC: My reference points were Cops and America’s Wildest Police Chases . I wanted it to feel like a video that came from a camera mounted to the dash of a cop car. And so that raised the stakes for shooting. It raised the stakes for Ryan because there are some stunts in there where he really had to learn how to ride a motorcycle very well. There are certain takes where he had to park the bike, rob the bank, leave the bank, get back on the motorcycle, drive into traffic while being pursued by a cop car and go through an intersection avoiding 36 cars. And he had to do that 22 times. And every time I watched that scene, I think, he’s going to get hit — because every time he did it, he almost got hit. Ryan, did you do all of your stunts? RG: No, in scenes like that where Derek planned them as one shot, I had to do them. But there were a lot of things that the stunt driver Rick Miller did. When Batman gets on a motorcycle [in The Dark Knight films], that’s Rick Miller in the suit. He ‘s the best that there is. He and I rode motorcycles for a few months beforehand. And he showed me the best that he could. But these things take a lifetime to learn. I did my best, but my best wasn’t good enough. How scared were you? RG: I think you need it a little bit. Once you lose the fear, you got to get off it because then your mind starts to wonder and you get in trouble. But when I was a kid, I was walking to school and saw this guy on a motorcycle get hit by a car. He was laying on the ground, and I looked at him and he had blood coming out of his head. And my first thought was, I’ve got to get a motorcycle. Motorcycles put some kind of spell on you. It’s dangerous. Derek, in the the last third of the movie, you get remarkable performances from two young actors, Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen, who play the sons of, respectively, Luke and Avery. How long did you have to look to find these two actors? DC: I auditioned over 500 kids for those roles. I thought I was going to cast raw people, but in order to keep this baton pass going, I needed them to be at a certain level. I met them very late in the process. The first thing I heard them discussing what who was a better actor, James Dean or Marlon Brando. And they could not agree. Then, they were debating whether Al Pacino or Robert De Niro was better. Dane said “Pacino,” and Emory said “De Niro,” and I realized that these kids had ambition to be great and that I could unleash that conflict on the movie. But at the same time, they had so much in common. They were flip sides of a coin. This is the second time you’ve worked with Derek. Why the repeat the performance? RG: I was excited to work with Derek again because so much of making a first film with somebody is getting to know one another and how you work — and you really just get started by the time it’s over. I feel like Derek and I had a shorthand when we came into this film. We were able to do much more in a shorter period of time. We both evolved and the film evolved together. We have instant access to each other, which you need when you’re making a film because time is always coming to get you. Derek, what’s special about working with Ryan? RG: I look like Derek. DC: He’s just a magic person. He makes things better. We’ve all seen him save people by getting hit by a car, and we’ve all seen him break up fights in the city. And that’s what he does in a movie. He makes the world a better place. He makes me a better filmmaker and everyone around him better. That’s why I have no doubt that he’ll be a great filmmaker. Ryan, when do you start shooting How to Catch A Monster and what can you tell us about it? RG: Beginning of next year. Christina Hendricks is in the film. I’m not going to be in the film. That’s probably all I should say about it. Are you two planning to work together again? DC: I hope so. RG: Yeah. DC: The next thing I’m doing is this HBO series [on bodybuilding] called Muscle. [Turns to Gosling] I’d love it if you could do it, but you would have to gain about 80 pounds of muscle over the next five years. Read more from the Toronto Film Festival. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Paul Thomas Anderson ‘s The Master was set to receive the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter ‘s inside source, until a decision to allow only two major awards per film forced jury members to re-assign the top honor to another contender. When the awards were doled out earlier today by Venice jury president Michael Mann, the best picture prize went to Kim Ki-Duk’s ultraviolent mother-son flick Pieta while Best Director went to Anderson. (Full list of winners follows.) Per THR : “Apparently during the jury’s first deliberations, members decided to give The Master — a drama loosely based on the origins of Scientology — the top prize, as well as the Silver Lion directing award to Anderson and the acting award jointly to co-stars Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman.” UPDATED: Asked to redeliberate, the jury instead gave the Golden Lion to Pieta , leaving The Master with a joint Best Actor prize shared by stars Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, along with the Silver Lion (Best Director) for Anderson. The Master had been hotly tipped for The Golden Lion, backed by a groundswell of critical praise ahead of its September 21 theatrical release. Full list of Venice Film Festival winners announced today, via Indiewire / Venice Film Festival : Golden Lion (Best Picture) Pieta , Kim-Ki Duk Silver Lion (Best Director) Paul Thomas Anderson – “The Master” Volpi Cup – Best Actor Joaquin Phoenix & Philip Seymour Hoffman – “The Master” Volpi Cup – Best Actress Hadas Yaron – “Fill The Void” Special Jury Award Ulrich Seidl – Paradise: Faith Mastroianni Award – Best Young Actor Fabrizio Falcone – “Dormant Beauty,” “It Was The Son” Best Screenplay Olivier Assayas – “Something In The Air” Technical Achievement Daniele Cipri – “Il Stato E Figlio,” Luigi De Laurentiis Award (Best First Feature) “Kuf: Mold,” Ali Aydin Orrizonti: Best Feature “Three Sisters,” Wang Bing Orrizonti: Jury Prize “Tango Libre,” Frederic Fonteyne FIPRESCI Award (Competition) “The Master,” Paul Thomas Anderson FIPRESCI Award (Orizzonti/Critics’ Week) “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Constanzo SIGNIS Award “To the Wonder,” Terrence Malick SIGNIS Award (Special Mention) “Fill the Void,” Rama Burshtein Audience Award (Critics’ Week) “Eat Sleep Die,” Gabriela Pilcher Label Europa Cinemas Award “Crawl,” Herve Lasgouttes Leoncino d’Oro Agiscuola Award “Pieta,” Kim Ki-duk Leoncino d’Oro Agiscuola Award (Cinema for UNICEF mention) “It Was the Son,” Daniele Cipri Pasinetti Award “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Constanzo Pasinetti Award (Documentary) “The Human Cargo,” Daniele Vicari Pasinetti Award (Best Actor) Valerio Mastandrea, “Gli Equilibristi” Pasinetti Award (Special) “Clarisse,” Liliana Cavani Brian Award “Dormant Beauty,” Marco Bellocchio Queer Lion Award “The Weight,” Jeon Kyu-Hwan Arca CinemaGiovani Award (Best Film of Venezia 69) “The Fifth Season,” Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth Arca CinemaGiovani Award (Best Italian Film) “The Ideal City,” Luigi Lo Casco Biografilm Lancia Award “The Human Cargo,” Daniele Vicari; “Bad 25,” Spike Lee CICT-UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Award “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Costanzo CICAE Award “Wadjda,” Haifaa Al Mansour CinemaAvvenire Award (Best Film of Venezia 69) “Paradise: Faith,” Ulrich Seidl CinemAvvenire Award (Diversity) “Wadjda,” Haifaa Al Mansour FEDIC Award “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Costanzo FEDIC Award (Special Mention) “Bellas Mariposas,” Salvatore Mereu Mimmo Rotella Foundation Award “Something in the Air,” Olivier Assayas Future Film Festival Digital Award “Bad 25,” Spike Lee Future Film Festival Digital Award (Special Mention) “Spring Breakers,” Harmony Korine P. Nazareno Taddei Award “Pieta,” Kim Ki-duk P. Nazareno Taddei Award (Special Mention) “Thy Womb,” Brillante Mendoza Magic Lantern Award “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Costanzo Open Award “The Company You Keep,” Robert Redford La Navicella-Venezia Cinema Award “Thy Womb,” Brillante Mendoza Lina Mangiacapre Award “Queen of Montreuil,” Solveig Anspach AIF-FORFILMFEST Award “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Costanzo Mouse d’Oro Award “Pieta,” Kim Ki-duk Mouse d’Argento Award “Anton’s Right Here,” Lyubov Arkus UK-Italy Creative Industries Award “The Interval,” Leonardo Di Costanzo Gillo Pontecorvo-Arcobaleno Latino Award Laura Delli Colli Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Award “Low Tide,” Roberto Minervini Interfilm Award “Wadjda,” Haifaa Al Mansour Giovani Giurati del Vittorio Veneto Film Festival Award “The Company You Keep,” Robert Redford Giovani Giurati del Vittorio Veneto Film Festival Award (Special Mention) Toni Servillo Primio Cinematografico Award “Terramatta,” Costanza Quatriglio Green Drop Award “The Fifth Season,” Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth
Reincarnated begins, appropriately, with a big cloud of smoke. Over the course of the documentary, which premiered today in Toronto, rapper Snoop Dogg (real name: Calvin Broadus) transitions into his reggae-focused new alter ego Snoop Lion , dropping classic lines left and right. Will Snoop Lion be around for long? “I’m Snoop Motherfuckin’ Dogg till the day I die,” he told reporters , “but at the same time when I’m making my reggae music I’m in the light of the Lion.” Well then! Get to know the Lion a little better with 9 Snoop Lion quotables from Reincarnated . 1. ” Reggae is a form of hip hop and hip hop is a form of reggae .” 2. Sample lyrics of Snoop Lion’s first reggae recording, “Smoke Da Weed”: ” Smoke da weed / Every day / Don’t smoke da seed …” 3. Snoop, after revealing that he stole from his white school friends: ” You all know you shouldn’t have let me in your motherfuckin’ houses .” 4. Snoop’s cousin Daz: ” I’m smoking a blunt in the jungle! ” 5. To reggae legend Bunny Wailer: “W e want to bless you with some California herbs that we have .” 6. ” My songs are too hard…I know Obama wants me to come to the White House, but what the fuck can I perform? ” 7. ” I want to be loved while I’m here. And the only way to get love is to give love. ” 8. Snoop on turning 40: ” I’m wiser, or a bit wiser. Like Budweiser. ” 9. Not a quote, but a fun fact: Snoop’s Rastafarian name is “Berhane,” which means “light.” Stay tuned for more on Reincarnated . check out Movieline’s ongoing coverage of the Toronto Film Festival. Follow Frank Digiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also making the rounds: Eric Roth will receive an honorary award at the Austin Film Festival, the latest doc from the filmmakers behind Sweetgrass and Foreign Parts makes a deal, and the Sylvester Stallone-Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle The Tomb gets a 2013 release date. David Gordon Green And Nicolas Cage: Two Great Tastes? THR reports that Nic Cage will star as an ex-con and mentor to a teenage boy in a gritty Southern-set adaptation of Larry Brown’s novel Joe . The versatile David Gordon Green ( All The Real Girls , George Washington , Pineapple Express , The Sitter ) will direct, either reining in or letting Cage’s signature nouveau shamanic acting method run free. Cinema Guild Acquires TIFF Doc Leviathan The documentary by directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Sweetgrass) and Véréna Paravel (Foreign Parts) will be distributed in the U.S. by Cinema Guild after screening next week at the Toronto Film Festival and subsequently at the New York Film Festival. The experimental documentary about fishing “captures the collaborative clash of man, nature, and machine. Shot on a dozen cameras — tossed and tethered, passed from fisherman to filmmaker — it is a cosmic portrait of one of mankind’s oldest endeavors.” Eric Roth To Receive Honors At Austin Film Festival The annual event, held October 18-25 in Austin, TX, will award the Forrest Gump and Curious Case of Benjamin Button screenwriter with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award. The Oscar-winner will also take part in “A Conversation with Eric Roth,” along with a retrospective of his work and screening of 1999’s The Insider . Martin Scorsese, Steve James, and Steven Zaillian To Make Roger Ebert Doc America’s most beloved critic announced via Twitter that he’ll be getting his own (much deserved) documentary, with a trio of heavy hitters behind the camera: Hoop Dreams director Steve James, writer Steven Zaillian, and executive producer Martin Scorsese will join forces on the adaptation of Ebert’s memoir Life Itself . “Whatever they do I will be fascinated,” Ebert wrote to Indiewire. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger Are Coming To A Theater Near You in 2013 The Expendables and Planet Hollywood buddies will hit theaters in their own team-up, The Tomb, which will now be released on September 27, 2013 via Lionsgate, reports THR .
Rust and Bone is essential. It’s life and death. It’s like fucking at a funeral. It throws the grit of existence in your face and while you reel at our insubstantiality and balk at our crudity as human beings, it shows you that love is the only transcendent force we possess. What separates man from beast. There is no doubt it will polarize. There is nothing commercial here apart from the pulling power of Marion Cotillard . Cinematographically it is an expressionistic essay; intellectually, a two-hour conversation with its filmmaker. And physically it is a kick in the teeth, a depiction of poverty, sex and violence which crosses most known codes of acceptability. Spoilers follow. I would expect nothing less from director Jacques Audiard . From Read My Lips to The Beat My Heart Skipped to A Prophet , (the latter both also shot by Stephanie Fontaine) this is as ever courageous work. He is skilled at combining grainy realism with something esoteric — beyond romance. He creates criminal heroes within almost apocalyptic fairy tales. The premise of Rust and Bone is unbelievable — risible, even — and sounds more French farce than dramatic arc: A love story between a bare-knuckle street boxer and a woman who trains orca whales and loses her legs after a Seaworld accident. Adapted from a series of short stories by Craig Davidson, Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), homeless and penniless with his five-year-old son Sam (Armand Cerdue) on his shoulders, turns up at his estranged sister’s in Antibes in the South of France. She houses them in her grimy garage, he gets a job as a bouncer in the local nightclub and rescues Stephanie (Cotillard), bloodied after a brawl. They don’t see each other again until after the accident; until after Stephanie has lost both legs to a killer whale. She calls him. He shows her no pity, and from there a relationship develops. As we move forward the stakes are raised and the scales turn. Audiard uses his common thematic – the juxtaposition of two characters, one the likeable criminal, the other the vulnerable — as Ali, involved in illegal street fighting and surveillance crime, compromises his relationships with Stephanie, his son and his sister. Simultaneously Stephanie begins to find her new identity and gets released back into her life, with or without him. Relative unknown Matthias Schoenaerts ( Bullhead ) is astonishing as Ali. He does nothing and everything, and, looking like a pit-bull, is at once a combination of unhealthy-yet-attractive and physically fit. And the bond between him and child actor Armand Cerdue is also extraordinary, almost symbiotic. This is also the best work I have seen Cotillard do. There are multiple moments in the film which are almost transcendent and indelibly stain the mind’s eye. Your heart leaps when Ali and Stephanie first have sex and you see that she has found renewed hope; a will to live, the will to return to work and confront her assailant. You feel empowered when you see her amputated legs resplendent with fresh tattoos (reading ‘Droite’ and ‘Gauche’). And you reel when she walks, prosthetic limbs on display, into the middle of a fistfight — possibly one of the coolest female character moments I have ever seen. It is all-physical. This is apt because Rust and Bone is corporeal. It tells you this in the opening shot sequence, when a montage of water and feet in sandals is accompanied by the overbearing sound of breathing and footsteps. The film is all about the body, about control and the loss of it. About the dichotomy between unwanted pain and pain sought — the accident and the bare knuckle boxing. The violence, the sex, is thus immediate and visceral. And whether you want to be or not, you are there — you can almost touch it, feel it, reach them with your hands. The fine lines between power and death are visible here too. The metaphors are clear; from the force of the whales leaping in and out of the water to the unseen dangers of ice and snow, we know that nature is bigger than us and in that terrifying reductivity there is love between father and son, man and woman. It is terribly intense, and French. There is no other way to describe it. And whereas I went out and bought the soundtrack (Bon Iver, Lykke Li, with score by Alexandre Desplat) and want to go back and see it again, the ferocity with which I liked it — was moved and haunted by it, and found it real and refreshing — could also be the ferocity with which it is loathed and eschewed for being pretentious and even sentimental. But like Audiard, Cotillard, Schoenaerts and I suspect everyone else who worked on the project, I’m happy to have that argument and suggest that this film is so good, it stands alone. This is not half-baked ennui — whatever anyone else thinks about it. Read more from the Toronto Film Festival. Follow Lorien Haynes on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
