Updates, 8/10: "The circle of life is given warm and redemptive treatment in La petite chambre, written and directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter. Updates, 8/9: "After screening his nearly four-hour documentary Rata Nece Biti, on the aftermath of the war in the former Yugoslavia, at Locarno (then going on to win the Turin Film Festival and a David di Donatello), Daniele Gaglianone returns to narrative cinema and the Swiss festival with Pietro, the only Italian title in competition for the Golden Leopard." Gabriele Barcaro for Cineuropa: "Though this piece of cinéma vérité is not entirely successful, it strives sincerely to capture, through the story of an outcast, the heart of the society in which we live."Īt indieWIRE, Eric Kohn reviews Honoré's Man at Bath and Jalmari Helander's Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.
And Eric Kohn reviews LA Zombie: "A purely experimental exercise in the cinema of the body, the movie overstates LaBruce's gay-porn-as-art routine in an extreme fashion even by his own standards." Update, 8/6: IndieWIRE interviews Kitao Sakurai, whose debut feature Aardvark sees its world premiere in Locarno. Photo by Fabrizio Maltese/EF Press/, Locarno 2010. And for indieWIRE, he reviews Deep in the Woods: "Jacquot's dark, sexy tale of savage love lacks the emotional clarity to match its ideas." Update, 8/5: Eric Kohn has photos and notes from Day 1. Jacquot's opener, Deep in the Woods, "stars 27-year-old French actress and filmmaker Isild Le Besco," notes Leffler, "who will also present her third feature as a director, Underworld, which Père says tells the 'shocking and poetic' story of three girls who kill a biker in a small village."Įarlier: " Leopard of Honour for Jia Zhangke." And the Concorso Pardi di domani jury is headed up by none other than Lisandro Alonso other members: Sylvie Pialat, Nina Meurisse, Miguel Gomes and Corneliu Porumboiu. Eduardo Antin (Quintín) presides over the Concorso Cineasti del presente jury, whose other members are Anita Caprioli, Maren Ade, Joachim Lafosse and Thom Andersen. Eric Khoo presides over the international competition jury that includes Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, Melvil Poupaud, Lionel Baier and Joshua Safdie, who might as well be summering in Europe as his and his brother Benny's new short, John's Gone, premieres in Venice next month. The juries make for a more interesting mix than many at larger festivals. 'I want (Locarno) to go back to its origins as a festival that took risks, that didn't just recycle films from other festivals,' he adds." 'It's pretty sexual,' Père says of the film about a gay couple going through a breakup. Sagat also has a role in Christophe Honoré's somewhat provocative Man at Bath. Leffler: "'It's a mix of very strange experimental video and gore,' Père says of the unorthodox title. So it's self evident it has artistic merit and most censorship boards take that into account." My film is debuting at Locarno in competition, it's a prestigious festival. It gives me a profile I didn't have yesterday. The director recently told the Sidney Morning Herald's Michelle Griffin, "My first thought was 'Eureka!' I'll never understand how censors don't see that the more they try to suppress a film, the more people will want to see it. The "Canadian gay porn" would be Bruce LaBruce's LA Zombie, banned from a screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival by the Australian classification board. Still, the Hollywood Reporter's Rebecca Leffler notes that Père's "edgy choices" for this year's lineup, "including everything from Chinese comedy to Canadian gay porn," screening through August 14, "may raise eyebrows for the first time in years." Père commented: 'I want to put the emphasis on new trends rather than on more institutionalised cinema.'"Įven so, among the highlights will be the presentation on August 13 of a lifetime achievement award to Francesco Rosi followed by a screening of a newly restored print his Many Wars Ago (1970). "This year's event is marked by the desire to focus the festival on three main points: the discovery of new talent, the financial network and glamour, an essential ingredient for all film festivals. This'll be the "first edition under the direction of Olivier Père, who was previously artistic director of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight," notes Anna Percival at Cineuropa.
The 63rd Locarno Film Festival ( site) opens tonight with the world premiere of Benoît Jacquot's Deep in the Woods.