Being shut out of your first screening at a festival is never a good sign.
However, the opening night film getting panned by critics is a pretty standard occurrence.
Rarely does a festival of this magnitude open with a great film; there are too many political, audience and sponsorship considerations that come into play. So it was no surprise that the timely film THE INTERNATIONAL (bankers steal your money and give it to arms dealers) was widely panned. The film was shot in Germany and was directed by one of its more famous filmmakers in Tom Tykwer (RUN LOLA RUN), who, with each additional film, looks more and more like a one-hit wonder.
Since I was shut out of Julie Delpy's THE COUNTESS (I swear there were still seats left in the cinema when they cut off the line - only letting film buyers in) I ended up catching a Sundance film I missed THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE. Similar in vein to the delightful 2006 drama THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, but real. The documentary follows the infamous Anna Wintour, who has been the editor at Vogue Magazine for over 20 years.
Delving deeply into the process of compiling the biggest issue in the magazine's history, the film reveals a fascinating process and explores the dynamic mind of an artist (Creative Director Grace Coddington) and editor in a commercial enterprise.
Tomorrow I have at least five films on the docket.
In case you were wondering, I have posted this photo because it is the Starbucks I blog from. On the right side of the frame is the poster for my most anticipated film of the Berlinale, STORM by Hans-Christian Schmid. Schmid made the film REQUIEM, which was my favorite film of 2006.
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3 comments:
"One-hit wonder?" You don't think much of "Heaven" then? Okay, fine, it has faded from whatever impression it left, but Blanchett was pretty amazing in that film.
I think the only film of his I cared for was Winter Sleepers. I remember nothing about Heaven and I am huge Kieslowski fan. Couldn't bring myself to watch Perfume.
I have never truly been under the spell of one of his films. Run Lola Run just has a place in contemporary cinema... The German producers should switch their funding to Hans-Christian Schmid!
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