|
|||||
|
|||||
|
 |
Matt Arnoldi looks forward to the 27th Deauville Festival of American Film August 31 - Sept 9th 2001 Just across the Channel in the fashionable casino resort of Deauville in the heart of Normandy, hoteliers, restaurant owners and cinema programmers are gearing up for the 27th Annual Festival of American Film in which new Hollywood product and so far un-released American independent films get an airing to an appreciative French public, swelled by eager journalists from England, France, Germany and beyond. Over a period of 10 days, screenings take place in the main Cinema complex and the Casino opposite, with special guests packing out the plush Hotel Normandie next door to the Casino. One of the highlights this year is sure to be the screening of the Coen Brothers' latest The man Who Wasn't There starring Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand (Frances of course last starred for her husband Joel Coen and her brother-in-law Ethan in the wonderful comedy thriller Fargo for which she won an Oscar). Also likely to be a draw are Woody Allen's new film The Curse of the Jade Scorpion starring Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd and Charlize Theron, Steven Spielberg's robotic drama Ai, gross-out comedy American Pie 2 starring American Beauty's Mena Suvari and Tom McLoughlin's thriller Sins of the Father in which the watchable Andy Garcia takes the lead role. Edward Burns writes, directs and acts (as he always has done up to now) in Sidewalks of New York and Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are viciously conniving in David Mirkin's delicious mother-and-daughter comedy Heartbreakers which also sees Ray Liotta on good form. The pick of this year's Panorama Independent Section has to be the showing of Ethan Hawke's directorial debut Chelsea Walls starring Uma Thurman, followed closely by Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World starring Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi and Brad Renfro. Also in the melting pot will be screenings of new films by the likes of Abel Ferrara (R-Xmas), Tom Di Cillo (Double Whammy), Larry Clark (Bully) and Todd Solondz (Storytelling). Aside from the films, tributes have been lined up to James Dean, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore and Joel Silver plus a Special retrospective focusing on Stanley Kubrick, which will include screenings of all his work. President of a largely-French Jury this year, is Jean-Jacques Annaud and he will be backed by the likes of Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean Pierre Jeunet and camera genius Darius Khondji amongst others. They will be handing out prizes for the Best Feature films in the festival as well as the best short films. Last year, the Grand Prize was awarded to Girlfight directed by Karyn Kusama, whilst the Jury Prize was shared jointly by Ben Younger's Boiler Room and Christopher Nolan's Memento. All three were arguably worthy winners. Many of the guests also enjoy a few days in the sun at Deauville and this year's festival promises to be another star-studded affair, with possible appearances from the likes of the Coen brothers and Woody Allen (who have enjoyed attending previous Deauville festivals) together with Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds and Joel Silver. Hopefully many headline stars from the films listed above, may also put in an appearance. More on Deauville Festival of American Film
|
 |
|
|
INSIDE IOFILM
|
 |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|