I picked up my movie tickets today, should be a decent next few weeks. The movies, the parties, mingling with celebrities and reviewers, the lineups... yes it's going to be another fun year.
Time for a rundown of the movies that I plan on seeing.
Black Book
Director Paul Verhoeven marks his return to his native Netherlands with Zwartboek(Black Book) a World War II thriller about the Dutch Resistance during the German occupation. The man who brought us such classics as Total Recall, Robocop, Basic Instinct and Showgirls is back in old form with this World War II movie. His critically acclaimed Soldier of Orange, which I have yet to see proves he has a good handle on the subject matter and the buzz is good around this movie.
Hitting up the Gala screening, so I'm looking forward to seeing Verhoeven speak and seeing the crazily hot Carice van Houten in person.
Volver
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is at it again. I'll be the first to admit that I'm seeing this movie just because of the director... I actually know very little about it. But hey that's what Film Festivals are for... It's fun going into a movie with no idea what to expect. I've seen enough of Almodóvar's work to know that Volver is probably going to be an above average movie, and having Penelope Cruz in it certainly doesn't hurt either.
The Host
For me the Film Festival is never complete without Midnight Madness. The awesome movies featured are usually of the horror, sci-fi, fantasy, martial arts or monster genre: The Host is of the monster genre. The South Korean film broke all box office records over there.. and honestly how can you go wrong with a giant monster that eats people? Seriously?!
Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Sacha Baron Cohen's crazy Kazakhstani reporter from the amazing "Ali G Show" gets his own movie! Mixing actual footage of Cohen in the character of Borat, accosting people all over the United States with his crazy faux-Kazakhstani investigative reporting with a brilliant social satire this movie should be a lot of fun. Especially if it's as crude and hilarious as everyone is saying.
Severance
What is sure to be another great Midnight Madness flick, Severance is an English film touted as "The Office' meets Deliverance". A company retreat in rural Hungary goes bad really fast when a group of mysterious attackers begins killing the group. Good reviews and that description sold me.
Sheitan
I'll admit I'm pretty pensive about seeing this French movie. The last French-language film I saw at Midnight Madness was Calvaire... a delightful romp in rural Belgium.... this movie sounds the same except it's set in France, with teenagers... and Satan. Satan instead of inbred country folk. Well I know it's going to be interesting to say the least.
The Fountain
Darren Aronofsky's anticipated follow-up to Requiem for a Dream is The Fountain. Weaving three stories about the search for eternal life or at least life it stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Jackman plays a 16th Century Conquistador, a Present Day Cancer Researcher and a 26th Century Astronaut... all seemingly searching for the same thing: The Fountain. Sounds interesting, no?
Renaissance
This slick looking French sci-fi movie looks amazing. Set in a dystopian Paris of the future the films creators used rotoscoping(animating over live action footage, similar to A Scanner Darkly) to give it the noir look. Many nods to Blade Runner and Fritz Lang's Metropolis are evident. I don't know much of the plot, but I'll go see it based on the visuals alone.
Those are my must see films. I know I'll be seeing more though, most likely including Macbeth, Shortbus, Pan's Labyrinth, All the King's Men and maybe Babel. We'll see.
If you've never done the film festival before, I highly recommend it. Just because you don't have tickets doesn't mean you can't go see movies... there are always Rush lines before screenings. Just take a look at the schedule and take a chance on a movie, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. Or you can bug me for a free pass.
Ready to Roll.
- Will
FipiLele