Film
SUNDAY
10.03.2010

VIFF IS HERE!

by / kihada Share this post /

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VIFF IS HERE! SEPT 30 – OCT 15 2010

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Below we have some previews of some of our best film picks!

Starting with:

biutiful-viff-kihada

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Biutiful

(Spain, Mexico, 2010, 147 mins, 35mm)

In Spanish, Mandarin with English subtitles

Directed By: Alejandro González Iñá

EXEC PROD: David Linde
PRODS: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
SCR: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo, Nicolas Giacobone
CAM: Rodrigo Prieto
ED: Stephen Mirrione
PROD DES: Brigitte Broch
MUS: Gustavo Santolalla
CAST: Javier Bardem, Maricel Alvarez, Eduard Fernández, Rubén Ochandiano, Luo Jin

In just 10 years Alejandro González Iñárritu has become the old guard of Mexican cinema… Iñárritu’s return to the screen for the first time since 2006’s Babel is a justified event. But Biutiful is his first project without collaborator Guillermo Arriaga, who helped steer the director through all three of his features to date. Fortunately, it proves Iñárritu as a talent in his own right. A tale of terminal illness, spirituality and Barcelona’s black market, it’s an intricately woven portrait of a man’s despair. And it’s as artfully executed as it is heartbreaking.

Javier Bardem leads Iñárritu’s first all-Spanish-language project since Amores perros as Uxbal, whose life is at turns seedy, desperate and caring. With two young kids in tow and a mentally ill estranged wife to contend with, his is an existence defined by a need to eke out a living any way possible. Providing cheap Chinese labor for sweatshops and construction sites, and managing the sale of black market goods by some of Barcelona’s immigrant population, he’s practically a one-man mafia, bribing police officers and doing his best to keep his charges out of trouble, while making a quick buck…

When he’s told his cancer has spread and he has mere months to live, his whole world changes… The film’s greatest strength is its unwillingness to judge Uxbal for his actions. There but by the grace of God go I, after all. The character’s position in Barcelona’s under classes is one defined by circumstance, and his is a slippery slope he can’t find purchase to escape. – Joe Itichi, Cinematical.

For more information click here

This one is a must to see!

Into the Wind

(USA, Canada, 2010, 51 mins, HDCam)

Directed By: Steve Nash,
Ezra Holland

EXEC PROD: Keith Clinkscales, John Dahl, Joan Lynch, Connor Schell, Bill Simmons, John Skipper, John Walsh
PROD: Erin Leyden, Johnson McKelvy
CAM: Aaron Phillips
ED: Paul Carruthers, Daniel Goddard
MUS: Daniel Goddard

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No one in Vancouver need be reminded of Terry Fox’s 1980 Marathon of Hope, wherein the cancer-stricken young man, having already lost a leg to the disease, became determined to run across Canada to raise awareness of, and money for, cancer research. But now two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash wants the whole world to know the inspiring story. The basketball star has become a film director with this moving documentary – co-directed by Ezra Holland – that re-creates Fox’s remarkable odyssey through his personal journal entries that detailed his fear, courage and unbelievable will to continue.

What many people in Canada forget is that Terry Fox was anonymous at the beginning of his journey. Battling the elements and trying to cover a marathoner’s distance each day, he began on the East Coast with Victoria, BC his goal. As he progressed, TV images of the 21-year-old began rallying a nation to his cause. After 143 days and two-thirds of the way across Canada, with the eyes of the country upon him, Fox’s journey came to an abrupt and heartbreaking end when newly discovered tumours took over his body. Steve Nash was a seven-year-old boy in Victoria, BC at the time and this is his tribute to a young man whose courage inspired him to the heights he has achieved. Call it a bit of payback…

These festival screenings are sure to be memorable events. They will be your only opportunity to see this documentary on the big screen with members of the Fox family and a specially recorded on-screen introduction from Steve Nash.

For more info about INTO THE WIND: click here

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Certified Copy

(France, Italy, Belgium, 2010, 106 mins, 35mm)

In French, English, Italian with English subtitles

Canadian Premiere

Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami

EXEC PROD: Gaetano Daniele
PRODS: Marin Karmitz, Nathanaël Karmitz, Charles Gillibert, Angelo Barbagallo
SCR: Abbas Kiarostami
CAM: Luca Bigazzi
ED: Bahman Kiarostami
PROD DES: Giancarlo Basili, Ludovica Ferrario
CAST: Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, Jean-Claude Carrière, Agathe Natanson, Gianna Giachetti

Juliette Binoche (Best Actress, Cannes) is an antique-shop owner in romantic and gorgeously rendered Tuscany who strikes up a relationship – or is it just a “copy” of a relationship – with an English author (William Shimell, a first-time film actor). Marking Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami’s return to narrative filmmaking, Certified Copy also happens to be his first feature made outside of Iran – and a certified masterpiece. Binoche’s absolutely captivating performance along with cinematographer Luca Bigazzi – who better to capture the fabled Tuscan landscapes than Italy’s greatest cinematographer? – just add to the film’s myriad pleasures.

“…Kiarostami’s marital close-up, starring British opera star William Shimell and Juliette Binoche as a philosopher and an antiques dealer [respectively] who may or may not be a married couple, becomes a surprisingly effective return to the Pirandellian shuffling of reality and cinematic illusion that gave shape to the director’s signature works of the 90s. The turning point? The moment when Kiarostami herds his cast into a car for one of his celebrated driving scenes. Continuing her personal tour of the world’s leading auteurs, Best Actress-winner Binoche is splendid in an emotionally naked performance that morphs into a deconstruction of itself.” – Scott Foundas, Film Comment

For more info click here