1.
Venice
–
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
2.
Golden Lion
–
The Golden Lion is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the committee and is now regarded as one of the film industrys most distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced, this is an award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema. The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark, previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia, awarded in 1947 and 1948. Before that, from 1934 until 1942, the highest awards were the Coppa Mussolini for Best Italian Film, no Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past,14 French films have been awarded the Golden Lion, more than that of any other nation. However, there is considerable diversity in the winners. Five American filmmakers have won the Golden Lion, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman, as well as Ang Lee, Darren Aronofsky and Sofia Coppola. The Golden Lion, by contrast, has awarded to ten Asians during the same time period. Ang Lee won the Golden Lion twice within three years during the 2000s, once for an American film and once for a Chinese-language film, zhang Yimou has also won twice. Other Asians to win the Golden Lion since 1980 include Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Trần Anh Hùng, Takeshi Kitano, Kim Ki-duk, Jafar Panahi, Mira Nair, and Lav Diaz. Russian filmmakers have won the Golden Lion several times, including since the end of the USSR. Still, to date 33 of the 54 winners were European men, since 1949 only four women have ever won the Golden Lion for directing, Mira Nair, Sofia Coppola, German Margarethe von Trotta and Belgiums Agnès Varda. In comparison to the other major Western European festivals, the Berlinales Golden Bear has also awarded to four women. In the history of Cannes, only one woman filmmaker has been awarded the Palme dOr
3.
Lebanon (2009 film)
–
Lebanon is a 2009 Israeli war film directed by Samuel Maoz. It won the Leone dOro at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, in Israel itself the film has caused some controversy. The film was nominated for ten Ophir Awards, including Best Film, the film also won the 14th Annual Satyajit Ray Award. Maoz based the film on his experience as a young Israeli conscript during the 1982 Lebanon War, the British newspaper The Guardian has described it as an anti-war film. The film depicts warfare as witnessed exclusively from the inside of a tank, the crews window to the outside world is a gunsight. As a way of adding realism to the effect, every change in the horizontal and vertical viewing directions is accompanied by the hydraulic whine of the gun turret. The film is set during the 1982 Lebanon War, there are four Israeli soldiers inside, the driver in the tanks hull, the loader, the gunner and the commander in the turret. For part of the time there is also the body of a dead Israeli soldier, a Syrian POW, a higher officer, and a visiting Phalangist who threatens the POW with torture. The soldiers are ordered to clear an area of Lebanese personnel and they are instructed to include the use of phosphorus grenades that are forbidden by international treaty. The gunner has never fired the cannon in a situation and is hesitant at first. As a result, a fellow Israeli soldier is killed along with an innocent man in a subsequent incident involving equally poor judgment, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% out of 97 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7. Apparently they are fine, they work, get married, have children, but inside the memory will remain stabbed in their soul. This is something you cant do if films are boycotted and it makes no sense to boycott art. Maybe I wouldnt have won if Jane Fonda was on the jury, the Guardian described it as a controversial choice, noting that some commentators in Israel have raised concerns that the film will deter young men from volunteering for the army. The Golden Lion is the highest award given to an Israeli film to date, Maoz says many Israeli figures were against Lebanon even being featured at the Venice International Film Festival. The Venice jury was chaired by Ang Lee, who had won the Golden Lion award in Venice in 2005 with Brokeback Mountain and in 2007 with Lust, Lebanon competed against 24 other entries. The win in Venice caused a boost in the popularity at the Toronto International Film Festival. The New York Times described Lebanon as a piece of cinema
4.
Women Without Men (2009 film)
–
Women Without Men is a 2009 film adaptation of a Shahrnush Parsipur novel, directed by Shirin Neshat. Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and photographer whose work explores issues in the Islamic world. Women without Men is Neshats first dramatic feature, Neshat, banned from even visiting Iran since 1996, lives and works in New York City. Neshat left Iran in 1974, just before the Islamic Revolution that drove the Shah into exile, the film profiles the lives of four women living in Tehran in 1953, during the American-backed coup that returned the Shah of Iran to power. Women Without Men was filmed in Morocco, with Casablanca standing in for Tehran, Iran, the film originated as a video installation by the filmmaker/artist, Shirin Neshat. The film begins with the sound of Adhaan, a woman is standing on the rooftop contemplating jumping. Munes does not want a husband and her tyrannical brother, Amir Khan, wants Munes to prepare for a visiting suitor and demands that she cook dinner for them. When she scoffs at the idea, he gets angry, people are chanting Durood bar Mosaddegh, marg bar Englis. A second woman, the religiously observant Faezeh, joins Munes, Faezeh calls the protestors a bunch of ner do wells. Munes suggests that they themselves should be outside protesting, Faezeh, who secretly longs to marry Munes brother, asks if it is true that he is getting married to someone else. A prostitute, Zarrin, puts on makeup, a male client gets up and dresses. As Zarrin washes her face, a brothel Madame is calling out her name, Zarrin curls into a corner and begins to sob, as the Madame continues to yell that there is yet another customer. Another man appears in Zarrins room, surrealistically, in Zarrins point-of-view, he appears to be faceless. Zarrin rushes out of the brothel, the Madame calling after her, in the next sequence, a wealthy 50-year-old woman named Fakhri, arrives at a military event where her husband Sadr, a general, is being honored. They get into a dispute about another officer, an old flame. Sadr tells Fakhri she is getting old and that if she is unable to satisfy him sexually, crying, she says she is tired of him and leaves. Faezeh and Munes are in the garden of Munes home, gossiping about the woman that Munes brother is planning to marry and it is suggested that the fiancee may not even be a virgin. Munes brother shows up and they get into another argument, Zarrin the prostitute is at a bath house
5.
65th Venice International Film Festival
–
The 65th Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was opened on August 27,2008, by Burn After Reading, and closed on September 6,2008. International competition jury, led by Wim Wenders, awarded Leone dOro to The Wrestler, 77-year-old Italian film director Ermanno Olmi received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The festival opened on August 27,2008, with the anticipated film directed by the Coen brothers. Unlike the Cannes Film Festival, American filmmakers have only won the coveted prize at Venice. It is also famine for British films, as none were selected for competition in this years festival, despite the dearth of English-speaking films, several films at the fest are likely to make a splash at this years Oscars in Hollywood. A trend has been several films launched in Venice have gone on to garner multiple Academy Award nominations. In 2005, Taiwan-born director Ang Lees film, Brokeback Mountain earned its director a Best Director Oscar, lee has won the top prize at Venice twice in the past few years. The glamour of the Venice Film Festival as well as the link with the upcoming Academy Awards has helped raise the Venice Film Festivals profile. Nonetheless, the event has a reputation for showcasing emerging cinema, including films from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Festival organizers have announced that the festivals shorts competition will begin on September 1 with Natalie Portmans directorial debut, rising Russian star Kseniya Rappoport will also host the opening and closing ceremonies. German independent film director Wim Wenders will head the Venice film jury, vianello subsequently declared the strike illegal, but if it goes ahead, ordinary festivalgoers may find themselves traveling with the stars. The festival will close on September 6,2008 and this years Venice Film Festivals film selections had been widely criticized as being among the weakest in years, with some publications even describing it as the worst ever. Later showings made It improve from bad to better, but it might have too late. The 65th Venice International Film Festival will be dedicated to the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, Chahine who died recently at age 82, was a notable in post-war Arab cinema. Festival director Marco Mueller said, Who else could have succeeded in mixing the philosopher Averroes with Fred Astaire, thats what cinema should be about, Mueller said, referring to Chahines film Destiny. Of the 52 films selected to screen at this years Venice Mostra, most of the films at Venice will be world premieres, including the things that go boom psychological thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker. The film deals with the physical and emotional strains faced by EOD bomb squads in Iraq, also premiering at the festival is home-grown favorite Birdwatcher directed by Italys own Marco Bechis. Other strong contenders for the coveted Golden Lion award are the Darren Aronofsky directed film, The Wrestler, with no British pictures and a diminished U. S
6.
Venice Film Festival
–
The film festival is part of the Venice Biennale, which was founded by the Venetian City Council in 1895. The film festival has taken place in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, since its inception the Venice Film Festival has grown into one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The 74th Venice International Film Festival is scheduled to be held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, the first edition of the Venice Film Festival was carried out from the 6 to the 21 of August in 1932. The festival began with an idea of the president of the Venice Biennale Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata and Luciano De Feo, with good reason, the festival was considered the first international event of its type, receiving strong support from authorities. This first edition was held on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, and at that stage it was not a competitive event. The very first film to be shown in the history of the Festival was Rouben Mamoulians Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the second edition was held two years later, from 1 to 20 of August in 1934. For the first time it included a competition, at least 19 countries took part with over 300 accredited journalists. The Mussolini Cup was introduced for best foreign film and best Italian film, other awards were the Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment to best actor and actress. The prize for best foreign film went to Robert J. Flahertys Man of Aran and was a confirmation of the taste of the time for auteur documentaries, starting in 1935, the Festival became a yearly event under the direction of Ottavio Croze. The actors award was renamed Volpi Cup, in 1936 an international jury was nominated for the first time and in 1937 the new Cinema Palace, designed by the architect Luigi Quagliata, was inaugurated. The 1940s represent one of the most difficult moments for the review, the conclusion of the Second World War divides the decade in two. Before 1938 political pressures distorted and ruined the festival, in addition, few countries participated and there was an absolute monopoly of institutions and directors that were members of the Rome-Berlin Axis. The festival resumed full speed in 1946, after the war, with the return of normalcy, Venice once again became a great icon of the film world. In 1947 the festival was held at the Doges Palace, a most magnificent backdrop for hosting a record 90 thousand participants, surely it can be considered one of the greatest editions in the history of the festival. For the next twenty years the festival continued its development and expansion in accordance with the plan set in motion after the war. In 1963 the winds of change blow strongly during Luigi Chiarini’s directorship of the festival, during the years of his presidency, Chiarini aspired to renew the spirit and the structures of the festival, pushing for a total reorganization of the entire system. The social and political unrest of 1968 had strong repercussions on the Venice Bienniale, from 1969 to 1979 no prizes were awarded and the festival returned to the non-competitiveness of the first edition
7.
Maria Grazia Cucinotta
–
Maria Grazia Cucinotta is an Italian actress who has featured in films and television series since 1990. She also worked as a producer, screenwriter and model. Internationally she is best known for her roles in Il Postino and as the Bond girl, credited as the Cigar Girl, Cucinotta was born in Messina in Sicily, Italy. She is well-known in Italy as a movie and television actress and she guest-starred in The Sopranos episode Isabella as the titular character. She also appeared on The Simpsons episode The Italian Bob voicing Sideshow Bobs wife and she won the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010. Official website Official website Maria Grazia Cucinotta at the Internet Movie Database Maria Grazia Cucinotta at askmen. com CNN interview with Maria Grazia Cucinotta
8.
Giuseppe Tornatore
–
Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is considered as one of the directors who brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema, in a career spanning over 30 years he is best known for directing and writing drama films such as The Legend of 1900, Malèna, Baarìa and The Best Offer. Probably his most noted film is Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, for which Tornatore won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and he directed also several advertising campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana. Tornatore is also known for his association with composer Ennio Morricone. Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and he worked initially as a freelance photographer. Then, switching to cinema, he made his debut with Le minoranze etniche in Sicilia and he then worked for RAI before releasing his first full-length film, Il Camorrista, in 1985. This evoked a response from audience and critics alike and Tornatore was awarded the Silver Ribbon for best new director. This obtained worldwide success and won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, subsequently Tornatore released several other films. In 2007 he won the Silver George for Best Director at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival for The Unknown Woman, Tornatore describes himself as one who does not believe and who regrets this. His brother, Francesco Tornatore, is a producer
9.
Chengdu, I Love You
–
Chengdu, I Love You is a Chinese film directed by Cui Jian and Fruit Chan, and released in October 2009. Runtime is 78 minutes with languages in Mandarin and English, Chengdu, I Love You had its world premiere screening in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on Saturday September 12, at 9,00 pm, after the awards ceremony. The 66th edition of the Venice International Film Festival was held at the Venice Lido from 2 to 12 September 2009, however, only two of the planned three segments were screened. Director Hur Jin-hos segment set in present-day 2008 was not included, the film portrays two love stories centered on Chengdu that spans over a 52-year period in the years of 1976 and 2029. The 1976 segment, directed by Fruit Chan, is about a family deals with the effects of a devastating earthquake. The 2029 segment, directed by Cui Jian, centers on rock musicians who meet in a Chengdu bar as they pursue their musical dreams. Wu Anya Tan Weiwei Guo Tao Huang Xuan Chengdu, I Love You at the Internet Movie Database
10.
Fruit Chan
–
Fruit Chan Gor is an independent Hong Kong Second Wave screenwriter, filmmaker and producer, who is best known for his style of film reflecting the everyday life of Hong Kong people. He is well known for using amateur actors in his films and his name became familiar to many Hong Kongers only after the success of the 1997 film Made in Hong Kong, which earned many local and international awards. Chan was deeply influenced by the era of film in Japan. In particular, Nagisa Oshima, a Japanese director during the sixties was someone who Chan looked up to, the film will be set in 1950s Hong Kong. Also, Stanley Kwan stated that he was talking with Lees family to make a movie about the action movie icon. Further, in April, Chinese state media announced that its national broadcaster started filming a 40-part TV series on Bruce Lee to promote Chinese culture for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Fruit Chan was born in China but in 1969 he immigrated with his parents to Hong Kong. As a child, Chan, watched a film that sparked his interest. In Middle School he held a job that allowed him to work in a theatre projection room. His first film screening was of a traditional Chinese opera directed by no other than John Woo and he continued his interest in film later on at the Hong Kong Film Culture Centre, a small film club, where he studied script writing and directing. In 1982, after one year of working at the Hong Kong Film Culture Centre he started his career in the film industry. He began his career as an assistant director to David Lai Dai-Wai in the film Mid-Night Girls and he later worked as an assistant director to mainstream directors Jackie Chan, Kirk Wong, Ronny Yu, and Shu Kei. His lucky break came in 1991 when a film he was working with stopped its production, Chan took this as an opportunity, he used the same studio to direct Finale in Blood starring Hong Kong film star Andy Lau. However, the outcome of the first of his own films was highly praised by the rather than the public. In 1994 he collected a total of 500,000 HKD, after Made in Hong Kong came out he was thought of as the hope for Hong Kong cinema by fellow Hong Kong filmmakers for challenging the stable model of Hong Kong filmmaking. The film was the first part to a trilogy that included The Longest Summer, in 2002 he was a member of the jury at the 24th Moscow International Film Festival. Finale in Blood The 1997 Trilogy Made in Hong Kong The Longest Summer Little Cheung The Prostitute Trilogy Durian Durian Hollywood Hong Kong Public Toilet Three, HK cinemagic entry loveHKfilm entry Fruit Chan, the Career Interview
11.
Cui Jian
–
Cui Jian is a Beijing-based Chinese singer-songwriter, trumpeter and guitarist. Affectionately called Mr. Cui, he is considered to be a pioneer in Chinese rock music, for this distinction Cui Jian is often labeled The Father of Chinese Rock. Cui Jian grew up in a family in Beijing—his father was ethnic Korean. Cui Jian followed his father to start playing the trumpet at the age of fourteen and joined the Beijing Symphony Orchestra in 1981 and he was first introduced to rock during this period when friends smuggled in illicit recordings from Hong Kong and Bangkok. Inspired by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and John Denver, in 1984 he formed his first band, Qi He Ban with six other classically trained musicians, including the saxophonist/suona player Liu Yuan. The seminal band was influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones. They performed their own works—mostly soft rock and love songs—in local hotels, with his band, Cui released his first cassette Vagabonds Return that same year. The album contained mellow, pop-oriented love songs, but also showcased songs with progressive and folk rock influences, in 1985, the band released another album, titled Cui Jian with Seven-Player band. The album featured a combination of Western pop rock, as well as new originals and it also featured more prominent use of the electric guitar, which was seldom used in Chinese popular music. Cuis departure from the band and subsequent solo career led him to become the most successful, Cui Jian first shot to stardom in 1986, when he performed Nothing to My Name on the 100-Singer Concert of Year of International Peace at Beijing Workers Stadium. The next year he left his permanent job with the orchestra and his band, now renamed ADO, included two foreign embassy employees, Hungarian bassist Kassai Balazs and Madagascan guitarist Eddie Randriamampionona. His first real album, Rock and Roll on the New Long March, was released in 1989, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cui created a hybrid and experimental music mix that cut across divisions between pop music genres. Cuis songs drew on folk and traditional music types, such as the Northwest Wind peasant songs of the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi, at times they knowingly parodied old Communist Party sayings and proverbs. In 1991, for example, he set the old revolutionary song Nanniwan to rock music, in 1988 he performed at a concert broadcast worldwide in conjunction with the Seoul Summer Olympic Games. His earliest works had influence from Western popular music styles, such as punk, dance and jazz, with tensions rising among the students of China and the government, Cuis work was very influential among the youth. Cui Jian reached the apex of his popularity during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the following government crackdown forced many rock musicians, Cui Jian included, into hiding in the other provinces. Sanctions proved relatively temporary and Cui was able to return to Beijing shortly afterward, in early 1990, he began his first rock tour entitled the New Long March, with ten concerts scheduled in Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Xian, Chengdu and others. After the tour,1 million yuan was donated to help pay for the 1990 Asian Games, elsewhere in China he was permitted to play to sell-out crowds in both large and small venues, only on occasion facing government interference
12.
Ang Lee
–
Ang Lee OBS is a Taiwanese-born film director, screenwriter and producer. Lees earlier films, such as The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands, Lee also deals with repressed, hidden emotions in many of his films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Hulk, and Brokeback Mountain. Lees work is known for its charge, which critics believe is responsible for his success in offsetting cultural barriers. Ang Lee was born in a Waishengren family, in a Military dependents village of the Republic of China Armed Forces located at Chaochou, Pingtung, both of Lees parents moved from Mainland China to Taiwan following the Chinese civil war in 1949. He grew up in a household that put emphasis on education. Lee studied in the Provincial Tainan First Senior High School where his father was the principal and he was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Taiwan. But after failing the exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a college, the National Arts School. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had interested in drama. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art, seeing Ingmar Bergmans film The Virgin Spring was a formative experience for him. Originally, Lee was interested in acting, but his challenges with speaking English made it difficult, at UIUC, Lee met his future wife Jane Lin, also a Taiwanese student, who pursued her Ph. D. degree. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and he was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, Joes Bed-Stuy Barbershop, We Cut Heads. During graduate school, Lee finished a 16mm short film, Shades of the Lake and his own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, Fine Line, won NYUs Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was later selected for the Public Broadcasting Service. Lees NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent, at first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time house-husband, while his wife Jane Lin and this arrangement put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lins support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in film but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time, in 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, to a competition sponsored by Taiwans Government Information Office, and they came in first and second, respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Li-Kong Hsu, Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct Pushing Hands, a full-length feature that debuted in 1991. The Father Knows Best trilogy Pushing Hands was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office and it received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwans premier film festival. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and these first two movies were based on stories of Chinese Americans, and both were filmed in the US
13.
Samuel Maoz
–
Samuel Maoz is an Israeli film director. His 2009 film, Lebanon won the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, shmuel Maoz was born in Tel Aviv. At the age of 20, he was a gunner in one of the first Israeli tanks to enter Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War, after the war, he trained as a cameraman at the Beit Zvi theater school, and did art direction in film and television productions. As a director, Maoz was associated with the production of documentary films, in 2007, Maoz began working on Lebanon, his first feature film. The script, based on Maozs personal experiences, describes the experiences of a four-man Israeli tank crew in a Lebanese village early in the war. Lebanon was praised as one of the most compelling competition entries and that same year the film was nominated for the Ophir, Israels national film awards, in ten categories. Lebanon Total Eclipse Samuel Maoz at the Internet Movie Database IONCINEMA. com interview with Samuel Maoz for Lebanon
14.
Sergei Bodrov
–
Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov is a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer. In 2003 he was the President of the Jury at the 25th Moscow International Film Festival, Bodrov was born in Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR, USSR. In the post-Soviet period he emigrated to the United States and his son, actor Sergei Bodrov, Jr. was killed in an avalanche in the mountains of the North Caucasus on September 20,2002 while shooting his film which was tentatively titled The Messenger. Bodrovs grandmother was ethnic Buryat, which influenced his decision to make the movie Mongol, Bodrov currently has an apartment in Los Angeles and a ranch in Arizona. He is married to American film consultant Carolyn Cavallaro, prisoner of the Mountains Nika Award for Best Picture and Best Director. Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film nomination, Mongol Nika Award for Best Picture and Best Director. Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film nomination, the Quickie 23rd Moscow International Film Festival Golden St
15.
Sandrine Bonnaire
–
Sandrine Bonnaire is a French actress, film director and screenwriter, who has appeared in more than 40 films. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for À nos amours, the César Award for Best Actress for Vagabond and her other films include Under the Sun of Satan, Monsieur Hire, East/West and The Final Lesson. Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region and she was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in 1983 and she played a girl from Paris beginning her sexual awakening. In 1984, she was awarded the César Award for Most Promising Actress and her international breakthrough came in 1986 when she played the main character in Sans toit ni loi, directed by Agnès Varda, for which she won her second César Award. She portrays a vagrant who fails both physically and morally, the film Monsieur Hire directed by Patrice Leconte followed in 1989, along with further work with directors Jacques Doillon and Claude Sautet. In 1995, she starred as a simple maid in Claude Chabrols widely acclaimed thriller La Cérémonie. The film and its stars won awards internationally, including for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for both Bonnaire and co-star Isabelle Huppert, in 2004, she starred in another Patrice Lecontes film, Intimate Strangers, which was an arthouse box office hit in the United States. Bonnaire has a daughter, Jeanne, from a relationship with actor William Hurt and they acted together in Secrets Shared with a Stranger. Since March 2003 she has married to actor and screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, with whom she has had a second daughter
16.
Liliana Cavani
–
Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. She belongs to a generation of Italian filmmakers from Emilia-Romagna that came into prominence in the 1970s, including Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature film Il portiere di notte. Her films are intellectual and have historical concerns, in addition to feature films and documentaries, she has also directed opera. Cavani was born in Carpi, near Modena in the province of Emilia-Romagna, Cavanis father, an architect from Mantua, belonged to a conservative bourgeois family of landowners. My father was an interested in urban development. He had worked in planning in Baghdad in 1956, when Iraq was still under British control. My mother was strong, very capable, and very sweet. Her mother was passionate about films and took her to the movies every Sunday from an early age, on her mothers side, Cavani came from a working-class family of militant antifascists. Her maternal grandfather, a syndicalist, introduced her to the works of Engels, Marx and she graduated in literature and philology at Bologna University in 1960, writing a dissertation on the fifteenth-century poet and nobleman Marsilio Pio. She had intended to become an archeologist, a profession she soon abandoned in order to pursue her passion for the moving image and she attended Romes renowned Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, inaugurated by Benito Mussolini prior to World War II. While attending film school, Cavani won a competition at RAI, Italys national television network and her professional career thus began making documentaries for RAI between 1961 and 1965, which included Storia del III Reich, which chronicles the rise of the Nazi regime. It was the first historical investigation of German totalitarianism to appear on television, in this period she also made Il giorno della pace, a four-hour documentary on immigration south-to-north within Italy. Cavani made her first full-length feature film in 1966 with Francis of Assisi, made for television and aired in two parts, it was deeply influenced by the style of Rossellini and the atmosphere typical of the films of Pasolini. Made in a period of political unrest, it was to become a kind of manifesto of dissenting Catholicism, starring Lou Castel, it portrays Francis of Assisi as a slightly depressed protestor and an avid, albeit mad, supporter of armed brotherhood. The ideal defender of the 1968 student movement, the film was a great success, but also triggered many negative reactions. It was called heretical, blasphemous and offensive for the faith of the Italian people and it was the first of many polemical reaction to Cavanis work. Her next film, Galileo, focuses on the conflict between science and religion. Galileo Galileis belief that the truth should be proved by experimental methods, makes him clash with the dogmas of the church and he falls into the hands of the Inquisition
17.
Joe Dante
–
Joseph James Joe Dante, Jr. is an American film director, producer, editor and actor. His films—notably Gremlins —often mix fantastical storylines with comedic elements, Dantes films also include Piranha, The Howling, Explorers, Innerspace, The Burbs, Gremlins 2, The New Batch, Matinee, Small Soldiers, and Looney Tunes, Back in Action. His work for television and cable includes immigration satire The Second Civil War and episodes of anthology series Masters of Horror and Amazing Stories, Dante was born in Morristown, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Livingston. His father, Joseph James Dante, was a professional golfer, Dante began his film career working for legendary low budget producer Roger Corman, who provided similar opportunities to future directors Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. He made The Movie Orgy in 1968 and he then worked as an editor on Grand Theft Auto after co-directing Hollywood Boulevard with Allan Arkush. His next feature film, Roger Corman-produced Piranha, was released in 1978, inspired by Steven Spielbergs Jaws, the film was written by John Sayles. Dante then invited Sayles to rewrite the script for werewolf tale The Howling, Dante directed episodes of cult television series Police Squad. before Steven Spielberg invited him to join the directing team on anthology movie Twilight Zone, The Movie. Dantes segment, Its a Good Life, featured special effects. Gremlins proved one of Dantes biggest hits to date, combining horror and comedy elements, the film revolves around Billy Peltzer, who is given a strange creature he calls Gizmo as a pet. After Billy fails to follow the rules for looking after Gizmo, the creature spawns other creatures, six years passed before Dante directed the even more anarchic Gremlins 2, The New Batch, set this time in a New York high rise. Aside from the Gremlins films, Dante also worked with producer Steven Spielberg on comedy adventure Innerspace and his 1985 boys meet alien tale Explorers marked the film debuts of actors River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke. Dante would later work with Tom Hanks on The Burbs, a comedy in which Hanks character deals with nightmare neighbours. In 1993 Dante directed Matinee, which received positive reviews, set during the 1960s, the film pays homage to B movies and the showmen who made and promoted them. Matinee has a 91 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, USA Today reviewer Mike Clark wrote Part spoof, part nostalgia trip and part primer in exploitation-pic ballyhoo, Matinee is a sweetly resonant little movie-lovers movie. Dante was creative consultant on short-lived fantasy series Eerie, Indiana and he played himself in the series finale. In 1995–1996 he worked on The Phantom, when he was removed from the film, he chose screen credit rather than pay. Dante directed the 2003 live-action/animation hybrid, Looney Tunes, Back in Action, a box office bomb, the film received mixed reviews. In 2007, Dante launched the web series Trailers From Hell and he is also a contributor to the website
18.
Anurag Kashyap
–
Anurag Kashyap is an Indian Film maker and producer. For his contributions to film, the Government of France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013 and he then went on to direct Black Friday, a film based on the book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. Its release was held up for two years by the Central Board of Film Certification because of the verdict of the case at that time. Kashyaps followup, No Smoking met with reviews and performed poorly at the box-office. His next venture Dev. D, a adaptation of Devdas was a critical and commercial success, followed by the political drama Gulaal. His prominence increased with the crime drama, Gangs of Wasseypur. His next films were Bombay Talkies, Ugly and Bombay Velvet, apart from filmmaking, Kashyap serves as the Member of board of the Mumbai-based NGO, Aangan, which helps protect vulnerable children around India. He is the founder of two production companies, Anurag Kashyap Films, Phantom Films with partnership from directors Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas Bahl. Anurag Kashyap was born on 10 September 1972 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and his father Prakash Singh worked as a Deputy General Manager at Obra Thermal Power Station in Sonbhadra district near Varanasi. He did his schooling in Green School Dehradun and, age eight onwards. Some of the used in Gangs of Wasseypur are also influenced from his own old house where he himself lived with his parents, sister Anubhuti Kashyap and brother. Abhinav is also a filmmaker, while Anubhuti has been his assistant in most of his films. Due to his desire to become a scientist, Kashyap went to Delhi for his studies and enrolled himself into a zoology course at the Hans Raj College. He then eventually joined a theatre group, Jana Natya Manch. The same year, his couple of friends urged to catch a de Sica retrospective at the International Film Festival of India, in ten days, he saw 55 films at the festival, and Vittorio De Sicas Bicycle Thieves was the film that influenced him the most. After the de Sica experience, Kashyap arrived in Mumbai in 1993 with INR5,000 in his pocket. Soon the money ran out, and he spent months on the streets, staying in lofts, sleeping on beaches, under a water tank and he then managed to find work at Prithvi Theatre, but his first play remained incomplete because the director died. In 1995, an acquaintance introduced Kashyap to Shivam Nair, the day they met, Kashyap watched Taxi Driver at Nairs place, and the film inspired him to write something
19.
Luciano Ligabue
–
Luciano Ligabue, commonly known as Ligabue, is an Italian singer-songwriter, film director and writer. Ligabue was born in Correggio, in the province of Reggio Emilia, before becoming a successful singer, he held various jobs, working in agriculture and in factories. He entered the world in 1987, when he founded the amateur band Orazero. For this band he wrote original songs, with which they participated in several local and national contests. The following year his fellow Emilian singer-songwriter Pierangelo Bertoli was the first to discover Ligabues writing talents, the following year Bertoli introduced him to producer Angelo Carrara, to finish an LP of his own, Ligabue, which was released in May 1990. Ligabue soon gained fame as one of the most successful Italian rock stars and he also collaborated with another famous singer-songwriter, Francesco Guccini, who also had a part in Ligabues first movie. Ligabue directed his first movie, Radiofreccia, in 1998, a story of a local radio station. Critics acclaimed it as surprisingly well shot for a newcomer, four years later he shot Da zero a dieci, however, it was not as well received as the first work, by both critics and fans. On 10 September 2005, Ligabue held a concert in Reggio Emilia to celebrate his first 15 years of activity, the audience of around 180,000 set a European audience record for the one, non-free event for a single artist. However, due to problems with the system, several thousand people were unable to listen to the music. Ligabue later apologised for the problems and he considers himself a believer, even if he shows strong criticism towards the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church. He is an Inter Milan fan, in the 1980s Ligabue was member of the communal council of his native Correggio, elected for the Italian Communist Party. Ligabue Lambrusco coltelli rose & popcorn Sopravvissuti e sopravviventi A che ora è la fine del mondo, su e giù da un palco Radiofreccia Miss Mondo Fuori come va. Giro dItalia Nome e cognome Primo tempo Secondo tempo Sette notti in Arena Arrivederci, campovolo 2.011 Mondovisione Giro Del Mondo Made in Italy RadioFreccia Da Zero a Dieci Niente Paura Ligabue wrote the screenplays of Radiofreccia and DaZeroaDieci and acted in the film Niente Paura. He also played the music for the film Niente Paura, Fuori e dentro il Borgo La neve se ne frega Lettere damore nel frigo Official website Ligabue on AllMusic. com
20.
Pere Portabella
–
Pere Portabella is a Spanish politician, director, and producer. In 1977, he was elected Senator in Spains first democratic elections, as a filmmaker, his style is experimental, reaching new aspects of film language, often with a poetic tone and social content. Portabella is hailed as a figure in the political and cultural history of Spain. Raised among the great Catalan industrial bourgeoisie, Portabella moved at an age to study chemistry in Madrid. There he met such as Joan Ponç, Antoni Tàpies and students at the Escuela Oficial de Cine, including Carlos Saura. The first contacts Portabella made with the world of cinema came in 1958, Portabella took on the role of producer, while the co-director of the short film was Carlos Saura. Portabella lamented an inability to edit the material into a structure, remarking, We got a lot of beautiful pictures. After the failure of project, Portabella decided to devote himself fully to productions related to the socio-political reality of the period. In 1960, Los golfos was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and he convinced Buñuel to return to Spain and shoot Viridiana. Presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1961, where the film earned the Palme dOr, following Viridiana, Portabella collaborated with several other filmmakers. On the first, Lejos de los arboles, written and directed by Jacinto Esteva, in 1965, Portabella wrote II Momento Della Verita of Francesco Rosi. Then, in 1969, he produced Hydrangea, directed by one of the pioneers of cinema in Spain. He subsequently collaborated with Miró on a series of films for the Fondation Maeght, in 1990 he made the fictional feature, Warsaw Bridge, a reflection on the relationship between literature and film, which marked a return to his most radical techniques. In 2007 Portabella directed The Silence before Bach, which explored the relationship between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and imagery, in 2009 he was a member of the jury of the 66th Venice Film Festival. He participated in the drafting of the Spanish Constitution and he has also been a member of the Parliament of Catalonia. Since 2001 Pere Portabella is the president of Fundación Alternativas, a Spanish think tank, every summer he brings together prominent personalities in politics, culture, art, at his residence in Palau-sator. In 1999 he was awarded the Cross of St. George, esteve Riambau, Temps era temps, Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura, Barcelone,1993
21.
Bady Minck
–
Bady Minck is a filmmaker, film producer and artist. She studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and experimental film at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and her work has been screened at international film festivals and exhibited at museums like the Centre Pompidou in Paris. She is a member of the film production companies AMOUR FOU Vienna. She lives and works in Vienna and Luxembourg
22.
Gina Kim
–
Gina Kim is a filmmaker and academic. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, Kims five feature-length films and short films have garnered acclaim through screenings at most major film festivals and at venues such as the MOMA, Centre Pompidou and the Smithsonian. Between 2004-2007 and 2013-2014, Kim taught film production and theory classes at Harvard University, Kim was also a member of the Jury for the 66th Venice Film Festival and the Asian Pacific Screen Awards in 2009. In 1995, upon moving to the United States for her MFA, following Gina Kims Video Diary, Kim began making fiction films to further many of the same concerns as her documentary work. Invisible Light tracks the physical and psychological journeys of two Korean/Korean-American women, which led Cahiers du Cinema to call it a block of feminine hardness. Senses of Cinema also asserts that Kims rigorous mise-en-scene matches the unflinching singularity of her vision, in addition to winning the special award at the 2004 Seoul Womens Film Festival, Invisible Light has been screened at more than 23 film festivals and in over 15 countries. Kim’s next film, Never Forever, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for its Grand Jury Prize. Starring Vera Farmiga and Ha Jung-woo, Never Forever engages the generic conventions of melodrama to examine facets of gender, sexuality, race, martin Scorsese has also called the film, A moving experience the performances are wonderful and touching, and the style. intense and very precise. Kim was nominated as Best New Director for the Grand Bell Awards, image, tradition vs. modern, native knowledge vs. exotic encounter--rub against each other without yielding a single dominant perspective. Faces of Seoul premiered at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, where Kim was invited to be a jury member, subsequently she was featured in LUomo Vogue as one of the Talents of Venice. Kim’s most recent film is 2013s Final Recipe, a Thai-Korean co-production starring Michelle Yeoh and it premiered at the 2013 San Sebastian Film Festival as the opening film for the Culinary Zinema section and was invited to be the opening film for the Hawaii International Film Festival. It features actors and crew from all over the continent, such China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Hollywood Reporter commends Kim for how she conjures a non-exotic piece out of a territory-trotting narrative, where every place is made to seem like home. Final Recipe also opened the Culinary Cinema section of the 2014 Berlin Film Festival, in January 2015, Final Recipe was announced as the first official co-production between China and South Korea. The film was released in China on August 26th,2016. The film will be released in the US and South Korea in 2017, between 2004-2007, and 2013-2014, Kim has taught film production and theory classes at Harvard University, being the first Asian woman teaching in her department. As acknowledgment of special contribution to the teaching of undergraduates at Harvard College, Kim is now an Assistant Professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
23.
Garin Nugroho
–
Garin Nugroho Riyanto, better known as Garin Nugroho, is an award-winning Indonesian film director. Nugroho was born in Yogyakarta, Special Region of Yogyakarta on 6 June 1961 and he was the fourth child of postal workers Soetjipto Amin and Mariah, who eventually had seven children. As a child, he attended an Islamic elementary school, later attending Catholic secondary schools and his father owned a lending library and enjoyed writing, leading Nugroho to start writing from a young age, he later quit writing because he felt his father to be too critical. After graduating from Kolese Loyola high school in 1981, Nugroho went to Jakarta to study filmmaking at the Jakarta Institute of Arts, as well as law, after studying under Teguh Karya, he graduated from the IKJ in 1985. He later graduated from UI in 1991, during his free time, Nugroho directed documentaries and short movies. Nugroho made his debut with 1991s Cinta dalam Sepotong Roti. Cinta dalam Sepontong Roti was selected as Best Film in that years Indonesian Film Festival, after his mothers death in 2005, Nugroho decided to make a film about Javanese culture. He was later commissioned by the government of Austria to make a film for the 250th anniversary of Mozarts birth, the result, Opera Jawa, was based on the Ramayana and produced by Simon Fields. In 2008 Nugroho returned to theatre with The Iron Bed, adapted from Opera Jawa, the play was shown at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel in Zurich, Switzerland. The Jakarta Post writes that Nugrohos films emphasize esthetics, but contain sociopolitical messages, among the issues he has discussed in his films are multiculturalism, politics, intercultural communication, and his vision for a New Indonesia. Joko Anwar, writing for The Jakarta Post, notes that dialogue written by Nugroho tends to lack believability, sylviana Hamdani of The Jakarta Globe describes his dialogue as poetic. Nugroho also mixes historical footage with staged scenes in several of his movies, including Surat Untuk Bidadari and his film Daun di Atas Bantal also won Tokyo International Film Festival, in 1998. Nugroho enjoys gardening and travelling, both in Indonesia and abroad
24.
Gianfranco Rosi (director)
–
Gianfranco Rosi is an Italian director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter. His film Sacro GRA won Golden Lion at 70th Venice International Film Festival and his 2016 film Fire at Sea, a documentary focused on European migrant crisis on the Sicilan island of Lampedusa, won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. After living as a youth at Rome and Istanbul, at 19 Rosi moved to New York City to attend the New York University Film School and his film Below Sea Level won the Orizzonti Doc Award at the 65th Venice International Film Festival. At the 70th Venice International Film Festival his film Sacro GRA won the Golden Lion award. 1993 - Boatman 2001 - Afterwords 2008 - Below Sea Level 2010 - El Sicario, Room 1642013 - Sacro GRA2016 - Fire at Sea Media related to Gianfranco Rosi at Wikimedia Commons
25.
Haile Gerima
–
Haile Gerima is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a member of the L. A. Rebellion film movement. His films have received international acclaim. Since 1975, Gerima has also been a film professor at Howard University in Washington. He is best known for Sankofa, which won international awards. Haile Gerima was born and raised in Gondar, Ethiopia and his father was a dramatist and playwright, who traveled across the Ethiopian countryside staging local plays. He was an important early influence, Gerima emigrated to the United States in 1968 to study theatre. He enrolled in acting classes at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, film making isnt encouraged or supported by the Ethiopian government. He felt limited by theater and was resigned, notes Francoise Pfaff, in 1970 he moved to California to attend the University of California, where he earned Bachelors and Masters of Fine Arts degrees in film. He was part of a generation of new filmmakers who became known as the Los Angeles School of Black filmmakers, along with Charles Burnett, Jamaa Fanaka, Ben Caldwell, Larry Clark. The film is the story of Dorothy and her husband T. C, a discharged Vietnam veteran who anticipated a heros welcome on his return. He is arrested and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, theirs is a world of welfare, perennial unemployment, and despair. The film has stark black-and-white photography, but its message is moving and it addresses issues of institutionalized racism, police brutality, and poverty, these remain pertinent. For the production of Mirt Sost Shi Amit Gerima returned to his native Ethiopia and it is an account of a poor peasant family who eke out an existence within a brutal, exploitative, and feudal system of labor. The travails of Black urban life in the United States are explored in the two-hour Ashes and Embers, after Winter, Sterling Brown is a documentary about the notable Black American poet. Gerima is perhaps best known as the writer, producer, the film attracted huge audiences across the United States, many of whom waited in long lines and filled theaters for weeks on end. The film subverted a notion that only mainstream distributors could attract audiences for filmmakers, guided by an independent philosophy, Gerima practiced an innovative strategy in distribution whose success remains unprecedented in African-American film history. The film opens with the statement, Spirit of the dead, rise up and it presents a brutally realistic portrayal of African slavery
26.
Ramin Bahrani
–
Ramin Bahrani is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert listed Bahranis film Chop Shop as the 6th best film of the 2000s, Bahrani is a professor of film directing at Columbia Universitys Graduate Film Program in New York City Bahrani was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Iranian parents. He received his BA from Columbia University in New York City and his first feature film, Man Push Cart, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film won over 10 international prizes, was released theatrically around the world, Bahrani was awarded the prestigious 2007 Someone to Watch Award Independent Spirit Award. In 2008, he was nominated for Best Director Independent Spirit Award, the film was called a masterpiece by numerous critics including Roger Ebert and A. O. Scott of The New York Times, in 2009, he made a short film Plastic Bag which features the voice of legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog and an original score from Kjartan Sveinsson of the band Sigur Rós. Plastic Bag premiered as the opening film of Corto Cortissimo in the Venice Film Festival where Bahrani was also on the jury for Best First Films. It later screened at Telluride and The New York Film Festival, in 2012 he made a music video of the song Eg anda for the Sigur Ros album Valtari. Bahranis fourth feature film, At Any Price stars Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron, Heather Graham, Kim Dickens, Clancy Brown and it was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. Bahranis fifth feature film 99 Homes opened to reviews at the Venice Film Festival
27.
Antoine Fuqua
–
Antoine Fuqua is an American film director and producer. Initially active as a video director, he has worked primarily in the action and thriller film subgenres. Fuqua was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Carlos and he is the nephew of record producer and executive Harvey Fuqua of The Moonglows. From 1998 onwards, he began directing films, although he has worked on a few music videos since then. His first feature film was the John Woo-produced action film The Replacement Killers and he then directed the crime thriller Training Day, for which star Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor. His most recent film is the action western The Magnificent Seven and he co-created the comic book miniseries After Dark with Wesley Snipes, which was written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Jeff Nentrup. Fuqua was scheduled to direct Prisoners, based on a storybook from Aaron Guzikowski and he was slated to direct Tupac Shakurs official biopic. The project was postponed to allow Fuqua to direct rapper Eminems second feature film, however, Eminem put Southpaw on hold to focus on music, and was replaced with Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2010, CBS Films hired Fuqua to direct a new movie based on a Vince Flynn novel, in May 2014, 20th Century Fox set Fuqua to direct a drug smuggling thriller film Narco Sub which is scripted by David Guggenheim. In March 2011, Fuqua signed on to direct a film featuring the love story between Consort Yang Yuhuan and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty. In 2016, Fuqua directed The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the 1960 western of the name and Akira Kurosawas Seven Samurai. This was the third of Fuquas films starring Denzel Washington, who plays the role of Sam Chisolm. He was also the producer of the 2016 television remake of Roots. In 1998, he and actress Lela Rochon were engaged and they married on April 9,1999, daughter Asia Rochon Fuqua was born on July 28,2002, followed by son Brando in May 2004. Fuqua has a son Zachary, from a previous relationship, when asked by the BBC if he believed in God, Fuqua said, Absolutely. Film On Directing with Antoine Fuqua nthWORD Magazine Interview by Gina Ponce, April 2010
28.
Sam Taylor-Johnson
–
Samantha Louise Sam Taylor-Johnson OBE is an English filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. Her directorial feature film came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy. She is one of a group of known as the Young British Artists. She was born Samantha Taylor-Wood in Croydon, London and her father, David, left the family when she was nine. Her mother, Geraldine, is a teacher and astrologer. She has one younger sister Ashley, and a maternal half-brother, Taylor-Johnson grew up near Streatham Common in south London until her parents divorce. The family then moved and lived in an old house in Jarvis Brook in East Sussex. Taylor-Wood began exhibiting fine art photography in the early 1990s, in 1994, she exhibited a multi-screen video work titled Killing Time, in which four people mimed to an opera score. From that point multi-screen video works became the focus of Taylor-Johnsons work. Beginning with the video works Travesty of a Mockery and Pent-Up in 1996, one of Taylor-Johnsons first United Kingdom solo shows was held at the Chisenhale Gallery, east London, in September–October 1996. Taylor-Johnson was nominated for the annual Turner Prize in 1998, and she won the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. The poses of the figures referenced famous works of art from the past, in 2002, Taylor-Johnson was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to make a video portrait of David Beckham—whom she depicted sleeping. She is perhaps best known for her work entitled Crying Men which features many of Hollywoods glitterati crying, including Robin Williams, Sean Penn, Laurence Fishburne, in 2006, Taylor-Johnson had a survey exhibition at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom. 2014 saw a new exhibition by Taylor-Johnson, of the private apartment of Mademoiselle Chanel at The Saatchi Gallery. Entitled ‘Second Floor’, the series of 34 photographs captured the private rooms of Coco Chanel at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris, in August 2008, Taylor-Johnson was chosen to direct Nowhere Boy, a biopic about the childhood of The Beatles singer, John Lennon. I got into the car and said, I just have to call these producers, I got into the car and I put the key into the ignition and Lennons voice came straight out of the radio and it was Starting Over. It was one of those moments where I thought it was a sign, the 53rd annual London Film Festival screened the film as its closing presentation on 29 October 2009. The film was released in the UK on Boxing Day,2009. to positive reviews, Taylor-Johnson was nominated for a BAFTA award on 21 January 2010, but lost out to Duncan Jones
29.
Stuart Gordon
–
Stuart Gordon is an American director, writer and producer of films and plays. Most of Gordons film work is in the genre, though he has also ventured into science fiction. Like his friend and fellow filmmaker Brian Yuzna, Gordon is a fan of H. P. Lovecraft and has adapted several Lovecraft stories for the screen. They include Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, and Dagon and he has turned to the work of Edgar Allan Poe on two occasions, directing The Pit and the Pendulum in 1991 and The Black Cat for Masters of Horror Showtime series in 2007. His science fiction films, Robot Jox, and Fortress have both become cult classics, with Brian Yuzna and writer Ed Naha he co-created Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for Disney Studios and executive produced the sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. He also co-wrote Body Snatchers for Warner Brothers in 1993 and The Dentist for Trimark in 1998 and he produced, co-wrote and directed the science fiction comedy Space Truckers starring Dennis Hopper in 1996. He also produced and directed The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit written by Ray Bradbury in 1998, in 2003 he turned to film noir and produced and directed King of the Ants based on the novel by Charlie Higson. This was followed by an adaptation of David Mamets dark play Edmond starring William H. Macy in 2006. And in 2007 he produced, co-wrote and directed Stuck starring Stephen Rea, Gordon attended the University of Wisconsin and soon after formed Screw Theater. In March 1967 Gordon produced The Game Show at the UW Memorial Union, the play, intended to be an attack on apathy, locked the audience in the theater and seemingly humiliated, beat and raped them Every performance ended with the audience rioting and stopping the show. The story made national headlines until the charges were dropped in November 1968, so, Peter Pan became the leader of the hippies and yippies, Captain Hook became Mayor Daley, and the pirates became the Chicago police. We left all of the James Barrie dialogue intact, so when they all went off to Neverland they sprinkled pixie dust on themselves and think lovely thoughts, and up they go. That was a trip, which was visualized by a psychedelic light show that was projected onto the bodies of seven naked young ladies. After the University of Wisconsin demanded future theatrical productions by Screw Theater be overseen by a University Professor and its first production, the new translation of the risque Lysistrata, premiered in May 1969. Gordon is married to Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, whom he frequently casts, together in 1969, they founded the Chicago Organic Theater Company, for which Gordon also served as artistic director. He is also the father of three daughters- Suzanna, Jillian, and Margaret, in 2009, he directed the one-man theatrical show, Nevermore. An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe which reunited him with Re-Animator alumnus Jeffrey Combs and writer Dennis Paoli. Recently nominated for a Saturn award, the show enjoyed success at its premiere in Los Angeles and is now in the process of touring the country. In 2011 Gordon produced, directed and co-wrote the book for Re-Animator and it played to sold out houses, rave reviews and standing ovations for six months at the Steve Allen Theater
30.
Carlo Lizzani
–
Carlo Lizzani was an Italian film director, screenwriter and critic. After directing documentaries, he debuted as a director with the admired World War II drama Achtung. Respected for his awarded drama Chronicle of Poor Lovers, he has proven a solid director of films, notably crime films such as The Violent Four. His film Loro di Roma examined events around the final deportation of the Jews of Rome, for his 1968 film Bandits in Milan he won a David di Donatello award as best director and a Nastro dArgento award for best screenplay. Lizzani worked frequently for Italian television in the 1980s and supervised the Venice International Film Festival for four editions, in 1994 Lizzani was a member of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival. For his 1996 film Celluloide, which deals with the making of Rome, Open City and he committed suicide in Rome at the age of 91, when he jumped from the balcony of his home in Via dei Gracchi on 5 October 2013. Carlo Lizzani at the Internet Movie Database
31.
Accident (2009 film)
–
Accident, originally titled Assassins, is a 2009 Hong Kong action thriller film directed by Soi Cheang, produced by Johnnie To and starring Louis Koo, and Richie Jen. Accident competed at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, and was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 17 September 2009, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Region 1 by Shout. In the opening scene, a man is killed in what appears to be an accident, however, it is revealed that the man was actually murdered, with the supposed accident actually orchestrated by a group of killers led by the Brain. The group specializes in killing their victims using elaborate schemes that mask the murders as if they were accidents, Uncle, one of the team members, accidentally leaves a cigarette butt at the crime scene, and it is found by the Brain. After an argument, Uncle vows to quit smoking afterwards, the team then gets a job from a son that wants to kill his own father, likely for insurance money. They plan an accident to kill their target via electrocution, the team tries to execute their plan many times but fail due to the rain falling later than necessary. During one run, Uncle smokes a cigarette and begins to show signs of Alzheimers disease, however, the rain falls on time, and the team decides to go forth with their plan. Uncle forgets to play his part in the murder, but the murder is successfully executed nonetheless, unexpectedly, after the murder, a bus loses control and almost runs over the Brain. The Brain manages to get out of the path, but the bus then runs over Fatty, another member of the team. The Brain takes Fattys belongings, with Fatty asking the Brain whether it really was an accident before he dies, the Brain then returns home to find police officers investigating his flat, which was broken into. The Brain becomes paranoid and is convinced that everything was a setup and he trails the son to an insurance company the next day. The Brain sees the son arguing with an insurance agent over what appears to be money, the Brain rents a flat on the floor directly below the insurance agents flat, and begins to perform secret surveillance on the agent. One day, the Brain trails the client to find the Woman picking up the payment for the job at a parking garage, however, only Fatty and the Brain should have known about the pickup. The Woman explains to the Brain that Fatty had told her about the client, after he leaves, as he is walking on the sidewalk, the client falls from the roof of the same building and is dead. The Brain develops further suspicion of the agent, who he can see talking on the phone. In a later date, the Brain receives a call from Uncle for help, however, the Brain is too late and finds Uncle severely injured, apparently dropping two stories from a building near the crime scene in the opening scene. However, in the middle of the execution, there is a solar eclipse. At this time, the Brain receives a call from Uncle in the hospital, Uncle had accidentally dropped a bag of toy balls that night, which led to the loss of control of the bus
32.
Around a Small Mountain
–
Around a Small Mountain is a 2009 French-language drama film directed by Jacques Rivette, which was his final film before his death on 29 January 2016, and starred Jane Birkin and Sergio Castellitto. It was screened in the competition at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. Kate is driving along a mountain road when her car stalls. Vittorio happens along, stops, and fixes her car without ever speaking to her, after he drives away, he slows down and decides to turn back. Something about the woman has interested him, later in town, Vittorio learns that Kate has returned to join her familys traveling circus after leaving under mysterious conditions fifteen years ago. Kates lover was killed during a performance, intrigued by Kates story, Vittorio stays for the show, and then decides to stay in town for a while, booking the room above a local cafe. He begins to attend all the shows, fascinated by the circus, when the circus caravan leaves town, Vittorio follows. With nowhere to go and nothing else to do, both he and Kate seem to be running away with the circus, gradually he learns about the buried past of the circus and the buried careers of its performers. Its message may be no more than that we all have to weather hard times, to ordinary life may be added some style and artifice, allowing the filmmaker to tweak reality into a more pleasing form. Maybe thats what Jacques Rivette has in mind with Around a Small Mountain,2010 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon Nomination for Best Actor 2009 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Nomination Around a Small Mountain at the Internet Movie Database
33.
Jacques Rivette
–
Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including Lamour fou, Out 1, Celine and Julie Go Boating and his work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times. Inspired by Jean Cocteau to become a filmmaker, Rivette shot his first short film at age twenty, Rivette began writing film criticism, and was hired by André Bazin for Cahiers du Cinéma in 1953. He continued making films, including Le Coup de Berger. Truffaut later credited Rivette with developing the movement, although he was the first New Wave director to begin work on a feature film, Paris Belongs to Us was not released until 1961. Rivette became editor of Cahiers du Cinéma during the early 1960s and publicly fought French censorship of his feature film. He then re-evaluated his career, developing a unique style with Lamour fou. This technique led to the thirteen-hour Out 1 which, although rarely screened, is considered a Holy Grail of cinephiles and his films of the 1970s, such as Celine and Julie Go Boating, often incorporated fantasy and were better-regarded. After attempting to make four films, however, Rivette had a nervous breakdown. During the early 1980s, he began a partnership with producer Martine Marignac. Rivettes output increased from then on, and his film La Belle Noiseuse received international praise and he retired after completing Around a Small Mountain, and it was revealed three years later that he had Alzheimers disease. Very private about his life, Rivette was briefly married to photographer and screenwriter Marilù Parolini during the early 1960s. Jacques Pierre Louis Rivette was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France to André Rivette and Andrée Amiard, according to childhood friend André Ruellan, Rivettes father was a skilled painter who loved opera. His younger sister said that their home in Rouen was next to a movie theater, Rivette, educated at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille, said that he briefly studied literature at university just to keep myself occupied. Inspired by Jean Cocteaus book about the filming of La Belle et la Bête, Rivette decided to pursue filmmaking, in 1948, he shot his first short film, Aux Quatre Coins, in Rouens Côte Sainte-Catherine section. The following year, he moved to Paris with friend, Francis Bouchet, on the day of his arrival, he met future collaborator Jean Gruault, who invited him to see Les dames du Bois de Boulogne at the Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin. Éric Rohmer, whose film criticism Rivette admired, gave a talk at the screening, although Rivette submitted his film to the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques because it was the kind of thing that would have pleased my parents, he was not accepted by the school. He took courses at the Sorbonne, but began frequenting screenings at Henri Langloiss Cinémathèque Française with Bouchet instead of attending classes, Rivette was active in post-screening debates, and Rohmer said that in film-quiz competitions at the Studio Parnasse he was unbeatable
34.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
–
The film takes its title from Abel Ferraras 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, however, according to Herzog, the film is neither a sequel nor a remake, but instead a re-imagining. Both Bad Lieutenant films were produced by Edward R. Pressman, the film premiered on September 9,2009 at the 66th Venice International Film Festival where it won the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Special Award for Herzog. It opened in general release in the United States on November 20,2009, Terence McDonagh is a New Orleans Police Sergeant. While cleaning out a locker after Hurricane Katrina, he notices that a prisoner may not have been transferred, when he finds the prisoner about to drown, he mocks him before eventually jumping in the water to save him. He is promoted to lieutenant and given a medal for his work, as a result, he is prescribed Vicodin which he will most likely need to take for the rest of his life to manage the pain. Six months later, McDonagh is now not only addicted to painkillers and he has convinced a person that works in the police department to bring him drugs sent to the evidence room. His girlfriend Frankie Donnenfeld, a prostitute, also does cocaine, over the course of the film, he uses his position as an officer to bully people and steal more drugs. McDonagh has been assigned to investigate a murder scene, where five illegal immigrants from Senegal were executed, the gang leader Big Fate has two associates, Midget and G. They are both arrested, leading to Big Fate willingly coming to the station with his lawyer. As they try to get evidence to convict Big Fate, McDonagh goes back to a hotel room where he finds Frankie beaten by one of her clients. McDonagh threatens Justin and takes $10,000 from him, later on, the auditory witness of the murder scene goes missing. McDonagh finds the grandmother, who works at a nursing home. The old woman has sent him to stay with her family in England, in addition to dealing with the murder investigation, McDonagh gets in trouble with his bookie Ned for not paying his debts. What little money McDonagh has is given to a gangster who works for Justin, the gangster now requests five times the amount stolen from Justin, $50,000, as compensation, and gives McDonagh two days to get it. As a result of his treatment of the old woman, McDonagh is on modified duty, now angry, McDonagh goes to Big Fate and they become partners, with McDonagh supplying Big Fate with police information. McDonagh now has money to pay off his debts to his bookie. During a celebration of the partnership between McDonagh and Big Fate, the gangster shows up, demanding his money. McDonagh offers him a cut worth more than $50,000 from a bag filled with pure heroin, Big Fate and his crew end up killing the gangsters
35.
Werner Herzog
–
Werner Herzog is a German screenwriter, film director, author, actor, and opera director. Herzog is considered one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Schröter, and Wim Wenders. Herzogs films often feature heroes with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog the most important film director alive. American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog has never created a film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons. He was named one of the 100 most influential people on the planet by Time magazine in 2009, Herzog was born Werner Stipetić in Munich, to Elizabeth Stipetić, an Austrian of Croatian descent, and Dietrich Herzog, who was German. When Werner was two old, his mother took refuge in the remote Bavarian village of Sachrang, after the house next to theirs was destroyed during a bombing raid in World War II. In Sachrang, Herzog grew up without running water, a flushing toilet and he never saw films, and did not even know of the existence of cinema until a traveling projectionist came by the one-room schoolhouse in Sachrang. When Herzog was 12, he and his moved back to Munich. His father had abandoned the early in his youth. Werner later adopted his fathers surname Herzog, which he thought sounded more impressive for a filmmaker, the same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school, and he adamantly refused, and was almost expelled. Until he was age eighteen, Herzog listened to no music, sang no songs and he later said that he would easily give ten years from his life to be able to play the cello. At an early age, he experienced a phase in which he converted to Catholicism. He started to embark on long journeys, some of them on foot, in the commentary for Aguirre, the Wrath of God, he says, I dont consider it theft. I had some sort of right for a camera, a tool to work with. He won a scholarship to Duquesne University and lasted only a few days, after graduating from high school, he was intrigued by the Congo after its independence, but only reached the south of the Sudan where he fell seriously ill. While already making films, he had a stint at Munich University. He earned money by participating in preproduction of a documentary for NASA with KQED, summoned to the immigration office because of a violation of his visa status, he chose to flee to Mexico. Before leaving school, he bought a house in the UK, there he learned to speak English
36.
The Big Dream (film)
–
The Big Dream is a 2009 Italian drama film directed by Michele Placido. It entered the competition at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. In 1968, in Rome, at the famous La Sapienza University, the police opposes him, while the upper class student Laura falls in love with Libero. In the meantime, however, the Rome police plan to stifle the student revolt, and among these is the young Nicola, who loves the theater. When Laura meets Nicola, changes perspective and the two fall in love, Nicola has the task of the police to infiltrate him in the group in protest, and to discover the weak points because the police can attach the students with more simplicity. But as soon as the attack one day, without warning, Laura discovers the true nature of Nicola. The young policeman, while Libero flees to Sicily, avoiding arrest, decides to devote himself entirely to the theater
37.
Michele Placido
–
Michele Placido is an Italian actor and director. He is best known for the role of Corrado Cattani in the TV series La Piovra, Placido was born at Ascoli Satriano, into a poor family from Rionero in Vulture, Basilicata, he is a descendant of the known brigand Carmine Crocco. Placido had a number of jobs since his youth and he studied acting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, and with Silvio DAmico at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his debut as an actor in the play Midsummers Night Dream in 1969 and his first success came with the role of soldier Paolo Passeri in Marcia trionfale, for which he won a David di Donatello. Two years later he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival for his role of the worker in ironical melodrama Ernesto. He went on to play the part in the subsequent three series, until his characters assassination. In 2008, in a reversal of roles, he portrayed longtime Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano in the TV movie Lultimo padrino, a recognizable role to US audiences is that of an Italian businessman in the 1988 comedy Big Business. Until a divorce in 1994, he was married to actress Simonetta Stefanelli and their daughter Violante Placido is also an actress
38.
Capitalism: A Love Story
–
Capitalism, A Love Story is a 2009 American documentary film directed, written by, and starring Michael Moore. The film was released to the public in the United States. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 9,2010, Moore begins by looking back at the contradictions in Ancient Rome, drawing similarities with the present day, and wondering how people of the future will look back on American society now. Would they pay attention to viral videos or the wave of home foreclosures after the late-2000s financial crisis. Moore meets with his friend Wallace Shawn and they discuss what capitalism, looking back on his happy and prosperous early life, Moore reflects, if this was capitalism, I loved it. This prosperity was driven by the industry, which benefited from post-war Germany. This is compared to an increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Moore tries to go into the General Motors head office in Detroit to speak to the Chairman but is denied access. He notes that by the time of the job cuts in Flint, Germany and Japan had rebuilt their automotive industries and were producing better, safer, cleaner, more reliable cars. Moore returns to the present, showing President George W. Bush enjoying his final year in office as companies announce massive layoffs and they corroborate this, reporting low pay, massive debt, being on food stamps and taking second jobs. Moore notes that pilots being overworked and underpaid didnt enter into the discussion following the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. He says that capitalism allows people to get away with anything, including making a profit from someones death. 5m payout because he died of cancer and he wonders how this can be legal when he is prohibited from taking out home insurance on someone elses property. Moore speaks to Catholic priests and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who agree that capitalism is evil and contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. Moore examines the claim that the tenets of capitalism are compatible with Christianity, arguing that the rich ignore religion when it comes to the poor, sick and disadvantaged. Moore then goes to see the United States Constitution, where he can find no trace of support for capitalism, only passages like we the people, Moore also points to Jonas Salk, who developed and refused to patent a polio vaccine. He notes that now, top college graduates are so burdened with debt that they seek out high-paying jobs, leading many of them to work in derivatives, Moore struggles to understand these concepts, finding that they are purposely complicated so as to avoid proper regulation. Moore meets with an employee, whose job it was to give prominent politicians, regulators and financiers cheap mortgages. He then meets William K. Black compares the financial crisis to the failure of a dam, slowly at first, with a failure that stretches back years. Moore meets with members of Congress, who report being told that they needed to vote for the $700 billion bailout of the banks or the economy would collapse
39.
Michael Moore
–
Michael Francis Moore is an American documentary filmmaker and author. His film Bowling for Columbine, which examines the causes of the Columbine High School massacre, both Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko, which examines health care in the United States, are among the top ten highest-grossing documentaries. In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the Internet, Slacker Uprising and he has also written and starred in the TV shows TV Nation, a satirical newsmagazine television series, and The Awful Truth, a satirical show. In 2005, Time magazine named Moore one of the worlds 100 most influential people. Michael Moore was born in Flint, Michigan, and raised in Davison, a suburb of Flint, by parents Helen Veronica, a secretary, and Francis Richard Frank Moore, an automotive assembly-line worker. At that time, the city of Flint was home to many General Motors factories and his uncle LaVerne was one of the founders of the United Automobile Workers labor union and participated in the Flint Sit-Down Strike. Moore was brought up Catholic, and has Irish, Scottish and he attended parochial St. Johns Elementary School for primary school and later attended St. Pauls Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan, for a year. He then attended Davison High School, where he was active in drama and debate, graduating in 1972. As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, at the age of 18, he was elected to the Davison school board. At the time he was the youngest person elected to office in the U. S. as the age to hold public office had just been lowered to 18. Moore dropped out of the University of Michigan–Flint following his first year, at 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine The Flint Voice, which soon changed its name to The Michigan Voice as it expanded to cover the entire state. In 1986, when Moore became the editor of Mother Jones, a political magazine. Matt Labash of The Weekly Standard reported this was for refusing to print an article by Paul Berman that was critical of the Sandinista human rights record in Nicaragua, Moore refused to run the article, believing it to be inaccurate. The article was flatly wrong and the worst kind of patronizing bullshit and you would scarcely know from it that the United States had been at war with Nicaragua for the last five years. Moore believes that Mother Jones fired him because of the refusal to allow him to cover a story on the GM plant closings in his hometown of Flint. He responded by putting laid-off GM worker Ben Hamper on the magazines cover, Moore sued for wrongful dismissal, and settled out of court for $58,000, providing him with seed money for his first film, Roger & Me. Since then Moore has become known as a critic of the view of globalization. Smith, former CEO and President of General Motors, harlan Jacobson, editor of Film Comment magazine, said that Moore muddled the chronology in Roger & Me to make it seem that events that took place before G. M. ’s layoffs were a consequence of them
40.
The Double Hour
–
The Double Hour is a 2009 Italian romantic thriller film. It is directed by Giuseppe Capotondi, produced by Francesca Cima and Nicola Giuliano, principal photography began in October 2008 in Turin, Italy. The film opened in Italy on October 9,2009, after premiering in competition at Venice Film Festival in September 2009 and it was also screened at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival. Samuel Goldwyn Films released The Double Hour in the US on April 15,2011, Sonia, a maid in a hotel in Turin, is cleaning a guests bathroom when the guest apparently jumps out the bedroom window to her death. Later, Sonia attends a speed dating event where she meets Guido and they strike up a friendship, and spend some time together after the event. As they part, Guido notices that the time is 23,23 - a double hour and he believes that at such times, one may make a wish and it will be granted - although he admits to Sonia that it doesnt always work. Some days later, Guido takes Sonia to the villa where he works. The villa has a security system, but Guido disables part of the system so that the two of them can go for a walk in the grounds. In the woods, they are ambushed by an armed man, waking up in the villa, he is forced by armed men in balaclavas to disable the security system. The robbers systematically loot the villa of its art treasures and other valuables, as they leave, the leader of the gang menaces Sonia, suggesting he is about to rape her. Enraged, Guido launches himself at him and they struggle, and a shot is fired, but it is not clear what happened next. Sonia is shown back at work, then visiting Guidos grave-site and she is distracted at work, frequently seeing glimpses of Guidos face, sometimes at a double hour. She is questioned by Dante, a policeman and former colleague of Guido, Dante gives her a photograph which appears to show her with Guido in Buenos Aires, although she has never been there. Sonia feels her sanity slipping away as her visions of Guido become more frequent, finally she is devastated when she hears that her friend and workmate, Margherita, has committed suicide by jumping out a window. At Margheritas funeral, Sonia is distraught when the officiating priest names the deceased as Sonia instead of Margherita, bruno, a regular guest at the hotel, takes Sonia away in his car. He gives her a flask which he says contains coffee and a hint of liqueur, bruno drives to a wooded area and drags Sonia out of the car, wrapping her in a plastic sheet and burying her in a shallow grave. Sonia blacks out, and is at the point of death when Guido digs her up, actually, Sonia is recovering from unconsciousness in a hospital. She learns that three days have elapsed since the robbery, and everything she experienced since was only her imagination
_Palais_du_Cinema.jpg)
