RIP – One-handed violinist and Cannes Film festival winner Angel Tavira dies at age 84

Posted by admin on June 30, 2008 under Foreign Film, R.I.P. | Comments are off for this article

Angel Tavira, a one-handed violinist who dedicated his life to Mexican folk music and won a Cannes Film Festival award for his first movie at age 82, has died. He was 84.

Mexican director Fernando Vargas made a documentary about Tavira in 2002, and two years later cast him in the fictional film “The Violin.” With no previous experience, Tavira won an acting award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his role as the patriarch of a family of street musicians who support an armed rebel movement.

Tarantino considering porn actress for role

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Tera Patrick, star of “Struggle Pretty Captive” and “Reign of Tera,” is going mainstream. NY Post Page Six reports that the porn queen is being considered for Quentin Tarantino’s remake of “Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill!” “Quentin loves her, and she’s a dead ringer for original star Tura Satana,” said our source. Patrick gushes over the Russ Meyer 1966 cult film about three women on a violent desert road trip. “It would be the hottest remake ever, and I’m honored to be considered,” she told Page Six. “I was built for this part.”

Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in his own documentary

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Hunter S. Thompson is the subject of a new documentary, “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” by Alex Gibney. The documentary by Mr. Gibney, who also made “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “Taxi to the Dark Side, is produced by Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, and narrated by the actor Johnny Depp.

August men line up to pay their respects in the documentary — Patrick J. Buchanan, George McGovern, Jimmy Buffett, Gary Hart and Timothy Crouse, the author of the campaign memoir “The Boys on the Bus” — as do the women he loved. Both his first wife, Sandy, and second wife, Anita, testify to his courage and courtliness, in between pointing out that he could be mean as a snake and far less predictable.

Stylistically the documentary combs the extensive archive of tapes, both audio and video, some made by Thompson familiars who spent time with him in his bunker at Woody Creek, Colo. The rest of the film uses standard talking heads and narration drawn mostly from Mr. Thompson’s two most celebrated books, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.”

Thurman is engaged

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Uma Thurman of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill is engaged to financier Arpad “Arki” Busson.

“I can confirm she is engaged,” Thurman’s representative, Stephen Huvane, told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

Dutch politician won’t be charged for anti-Islam film

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Dutch prosecutor said today that they will not prosecute politician Geert Wilders for inciting hatred of Muslims with his film denouncing the Quran.

Prosecutor said his film “Fitna,” or “Ordeal” in Arabic, and statements Wilders wrote in Dutch newspapers were hurtful and insulting but not criminal.

The film juxtaposed Quranic verses against a background of violent film clips and images of terrorism by Islamic radicals. It aroused protests around the Muslim world after it was released on the Internet in March.

Film Festival Ticker .. recent headlines

Posted by admin on June 29, 2008 under Film Festival | Comments are off for this article

Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) Winners

HOLLYSHORTS UNVEILS OFFICIAL SELECTIONS FOR 2008 HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL

Edinburgh International Film Festival … And the winner is

Edinburgh International Film Festival no love for “The Edge Of Love”

via: Film Festival Ticker

Premiere of long-awaited Slovak film ‘Bathory’

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The long-awaited Slovak film ‘Bathory’, based on the life of Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614), the infamous ‘Blood Countess of Cachtice’, who allegedly bathed in the blood of murdered young virgins in order to remain eternally young and beautiful, premiered on Saturday with President Ivan Gasparovic, Prime Minister Robert Fico and many other prominent figures in attendance.

In Central Europe’s most expensive film, shot by illustrious director Juraj Jakubisko, the countess is cast in rather different light, with the gory details of the story removed.

Attempting to make the viewer identify with Bathory, the director wanted to show Europe that Slovakia has its own culture and proud ancestry. “In this movie, I indicated the history of a great land – Hungary, out of which evolved Slovak speech and nationality,” he said.

Bathory, which stars Anna Friel in the main role, will hit Slovak cinemas after its Czech version is premiered in Prague.

via:tasr

Another Irish film to get a US big-screen release

Posted by admin on June 28, 2008 under Foreign Film | Comments are off for this article

An independent Irish film originally made for Irish television will be released in US theaters this Fall, following the same path as last year’s successful Once that won an Oscar.

Eden, adapted from a play, is a feature-length drama a married couple’s relationship that begins to fall apart as their 10th wedding anniversary approaches. The film stars Eileen Walsh and Aidan Kelly.

It received critical acclaim at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last month, and Walsh won the best actress award.

Via: TimesOnline