In the last installment, I promised to be back with a Cannes edition of the roundup but, stuff happened. Since then, we’ve heard a little more from France including the Che fallout but by far the best recap of the entire festival came care of Karina Longworth who discussed her experience at Cannes, including her favourite films and stories of creepy European men, during a recent FilmCouch Podcast. But enough banter, onto the trailers!

The Stranger in Me

As a woman, one of the scariest things I can think of would be to have a child and not feel that motherly connection one expects. This became even more of an issue for me after seeing The Business of Being Born (our review).

In her film The Stranger In Me German director Emily Atef captures an intimate story of a woman’s rejection of her baby. Screen Daily called it “one of the highlights of this year’s Critic’s Week” and the trailer certainly suggests a good film. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the film found an international distributor but here’s hoping it still manages to make the rounds to a few smaller festivals and arthouse theaters.

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Tony Manero

Pablo Larraín didn’t seem to make any splashes at Cannes but I have to say, I’m beyond mild curiosity about his film.

The film’s title may be familiar to fans of the 70’s John Travolta starring classic Saturday Night Fever in which Travolta plays Tony Manero. Larraín’s film stars Alfredo Castro as a dude who aspires to be Tony Manero to the point where he dresses like him and aspires to have Manero’s success, so much so that he resorts to violence.

Something about that story sounds so darn twisted in a strange way that I can’t help but be interested. There are a couple of clips floating around YouTube including the Cannes promotional trailer which is set to disco tunes but I prefer this short scene from the film.

No international distributor for this one either but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.



More trailers tucked under the seat.



Il Divo

Winner of the Jury Prize, Paolo Sorrentino’s film about Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who has been elected to Parliament seven times since it was established in 1946, seems to be an all around well liked film. Not only did it win a fairly big prize, it also happens to look fantastic. The general complaint I’ve heard about this is that although it’s a well made film, it’s difficult to follow unless you’re familiar with Italian politics. This may be the reason that the film has yet to be picked up for international distribution but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the great looking trailer.

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The Class

The winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s festival, Laurent Cantet docu-drama revolves around teacher and student relationships in a school classroom. The film was apparently shot over the period of a year using real teachers and students and though I can potentially see the interest in a film like this one, I’m not completely sold based on this description and the trailer. Still, I am curious to see what Cantet has to offer than garnered him the prestigious award.

The film doesn’t yet have an international distributor but I expect it will follow last year’s prize winner, making the rounds through the festival circuit and then opening in limited release before Christmas or early in 2009.

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Christopher Columbus, The Enigma

I owe my mom an apology. During the last ATC I recounted that mom had told me that Manoel de Oliveira had won a Cannes prize and it turns out, he did. Oliveira was awarded a Palme d’Or for his body of work, which spans more than five decades. How’s that for an award?

The director, who turns 100 this December, is currently finishing work on two films for release in 2008 but I thought I’d share this short clip from one of his films from last year Christopher Columbus, The Enigma in which Oliveira makes a case for the long debated issue of Christopher Columbus’ true heritage.

In this short clip, the young couple ask the woman if she knows where Columbus lived and the woman responds that she’s never heard of him and she’s been living there her entire life. Very typical conversation encountered when talking to people from small towns.