Venice
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The Playlist10 commentslike3tweet44
Terrence Malick's 'To The Wonder,' Brian DePalma's 'Passion' & Harmony Korine's 'Spring Breakers' Lead Venice 2012 Line-Up
After something of wild goose chase (see above), the Venice line-up was announced this morning on the festival's official site, and although somewhat given away by the TIFF announcement a few days back, the big ticket is "To The Wonder," the second film in two years from anti-prolific auteur Terrenc...
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The Playlist11 commentslike0tweet0
The Amazing Race: Which Awards Contenders Came Out Of The Venice/Telluride/Toronto Derby On Top?
After two bonkers weeks, the September festival season is just about dragging to a close (at least in terms of major awards-season debuts; Fantastic Fest is pretty much imminent, but it's not an awards player and the NYFF follows hot on its heels, but most of those films have screened already). And ...
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The Playlist9 commentslike0tweet0
Aleksandr Sokurov's 'Faust' Wins Golden Lion At Venice Film Festival
Michael Fassbender Takes Best Actor, Chinese Surprise Film 'People Mountain People Sea' Wins DirectorWe might have abandoned the Lido a few days ago, but somehow festival organizers felt able to go on with the final awards ceremony without us this evening. With a jury led by Darren Aronofsky that also included David Byrne, Todd Haynes, Mario Martone, André Téchiné, Ejia-Liisa Ahtila and Alba Rorwacher, it was anyone's game, although for much of the week, talk had pegged Steve McQueen's "Shame" and Yorgos Lanthimos' "Alps" as potential front-runners for the big prize, the Golden Lion. However, the winner turned out to be something of a surpris...
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The Playlist4 commentslike0tweet0
'Carnage,' 'Shame' 'March,' Tinker Tailor' & More: Our Complete 2011 Venice Film Festival Coverage
Wrap Up Coverage From Telluride 2011 As Well, Including 'The Descendants' 'Albert Nobbs' & 'Butter'While there are two more days officially left on the Venice Film Festival schedule, for us, the Lido is now closed. Our man in the field, U.K. writer Oliver Lyttelton did a bang-up job and delivered wh...
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Venice '11 Review: 'The Last Man On Earth' A Promising But Flawed Sci-Fi Tinged Italian Debut
It might seem, particularly after a summer at the multiplexes like the one that we've just had, that American culture is driven entirely by the comic book. But that's not quite true; superhero movies might be all the rage, but comic books themselves remain a relatively niche passion -- this July, only "The Amazing Spider-Man" sold more than 100,000 copies, and it remains tainted by associations of geekdom, generally confined to comics shops. In Europe, in particular France and Italy, things are different; it's almost impossible to walk into a paper stall or tabac without seeing a book like Blueberry, Largo Winch, Danger: Diabolik or Dylan Dog...
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The Playlist4 commentslike0tweet0
Venice '11 Review: 'Killer Joe' A Terrific Texan Tale With A Revelatory Matthew McConaughey Turn
In recent years, film translations of stage hits haven't been as prevalent as they once were. You might get the occasional "Doubt" or "Rabbit Hole," for instance, but compared to the early days of the talkies, when a large proportion of movies were based on Broadway hits, it's been slim pickings; au...
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The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
Venice '11 Review: 'The Exchange' An Odd, Half-Interesting Follow Up To 'The Band's Visit'
"The Band's Visit" was something of a runaway success when it started doing the rounds in 2007. The feature debut of Israeli director Eran Kolirin, it told the story of an Egyptian police orchestra who become stranded in an Israeli desert town. Warm and witty, it became the best-reviewed foreign fil...
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The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
Venice '11 Review: Surprise Film 'People Mountain People Sea' Is A Hard, Unsatisfying Journey
The surprise film at a festival always has a tricky time living up to the sky-high expectations. Everyone brings in their own hopes and dreams, however unrealistic they may be, and the finished product has to be pretty special not to underwhelm -- witness the near-riotous reaction at the London Film Festival a couple of years ago when the surprise turned out to be not "Where The Wild Things Are," as widely-rumored, but instead Michael Moore's "Sicko." The reaction is slightly different at Venice, thanks to a reputation that the selectors hold back the most miserable, grueling film for the secret slot, so much so that most audience members are...
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The Playlist2 commentslike0tweet0
Cai Shangjun's 'People Mountain People Sea' Surprise Addition To Venice Competition Line-up
In 2003, Venice Film Festival organizers decided to take a page from the Telluride film festival's book and leave one slot open in their 24-entry competition lineup each year, for a surprise entry to be announced during the fest. The announcements to date have been a mixed bag ranging from forgettab...
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The Playlist4 commentslike1tweet1
Venice '11 Review: Sono Sion's 'Himizu' Is Close To Unwatchable, And Yet Vitally Important
If you're after a quick response to recent events, particularly in the case of a cataclysmic disaster, cinema is not your medium. It takes years to write and develop even a bad script, let alone the financing, casting, shooting and pre-production of a film. And that's even without taking into accoun...
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