R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

27May08

Directed Sydney Pollack died of cancer today. The film world lost one of its greatest visionaries.

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Tags: death, news, Sydney Pollack

Cannes Films – The Winners

26May08

THE CLASS
Directed by: Laurent Cantet
Country: France
Winner: Palme d’Or

Synopsis: rançois and his fellow teachers prepare for a new year at a high school in a tough neighborhood. Neither stuffy nor severe, his extravagant frankness often takes the students by surprise. But his classroom ethics is put to the test when his students begin to challenge his teaching methods …

GOMORRA
Directed by: Matteo Garrone
Country: Italy
Winner: Grand Prix

Synopsis: Power, money and blood: these are the “values” that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta, have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice, and are almost always forced to obey the rules of the “system”, the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a “normal” life.
Five stories are woven together in this violent scenario, set in a cruel and apparently imaginary world, but one which is deeply rooted in reality.

A CHRISTMAS TALE
Directed by: Arnaud Desplechin
Country: France
Winner: Special Prize

Synopsis: Abel and Junon had two children, Joseph and Elizabeth. Victim of a rare genetic condition, Joseph’s only hope was a bone marrow transplant. As they and Elizabeth were incompatible, his parents conceived a third child in the hope of saving their son. But little Henri too was unable to help his brother, and Joseph died at the age of seven.
The Vuillard family has never recovered. Many years have passed, and family relationships are more strained than ever. In particular, those between Elizabeth, authoritarian head of the family and Henri, a cynical drop out who divides his time between women and drink. After a violent argument, Elizabeth banishes her feckless brother, cutting him off from his nephew, her son Paul – a tortured adolescent beset by serious mental problems.

CHANGELING
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Country: USA
Winner: Special Prize

Synopsis: Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered he had vanished. A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter.

THREE MONKEYS
Directed by: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Country: Turkey, France, Italy
Winner: Director

Synopsis: A family dislocated when small failings blow up into extravagant lies battles against the odds to stay together by covering up the truth… In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?

IL DIVO
Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Country: Italy, France
Winner: Jury Prize

Synopsis: In Rome, at dawn, when everyone is asleep, there’s one man who isn’t sleeping. That man is called Giulio Andreotti.
He isn’t sleeping because he has to work, write books, be a socialite, and, last but not least, prey. Calm, ambiguous, inscrutable, Andreotti is synonym of power in Italy for over four decades. At the beginning of the nineties, without arrogance or humility, immobile, ambiguous and reassuring, he advances relentlessly towards his seventh mandate as Prime Minister.
Nearing seventy, Andreotti is a gerontocrat who equipped like God, fears nobody and doesn’

t know what fear is: Used as he is to seeing this fear painted on the faces of his interlocutors. His contentment is dry and impalpable. His contentment is power, with which he lives in symbiosis. A power which he likes, always immovable and immutable. Where everything, election battles, terrorist massacres, infamous accusations, slide over him through the years without leaving trace. He remains passive and the same as ever before everything. Until the strongest counter power in the country, the Mafia, decides to declare war against him.

CHE
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA
Winner: Best Actor (Benicio del Toro)

Synopsis:
PART ONE
On November 26, 1956, Fidel Castro sails to Cuba with eighty rebels. One of those rebels is Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentine doctor who shares a common goal with Fidel Castro – to overthrow the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Che proves indispensable as a fighter, and quickly grasps the art of guerrilla warfare. As he throws himself into the struggle, Che is embraced by his comrades and the Cuban people. This film tracks Che’

s rise in the Cuban Revolution, from doctor to commander to revolutionary hero.

PART TWO
After the Cuban Revolution, Che is at the height of his fame and power. Then he disappears, re-emerging incognito in Bolivia, where he organizes a small group of Cuban comrades and Bolivian recruits to start the great Latin American Revolution.
The story of the Bolivian campaign is a tale of tenacity, sacrifice, idealism, and of guerrilla warfare that ultimately fails, bringing Che to his death. Through this story, we come to understand how Che remains a symbol of idealism and heroism that lives in the hearts of people around the world.

LINHA DE PASSE
Directed by: Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas
Country: Brazil
Winner: Best Actress (Sandra Corveloni)

Synopsis: Sao Paulo. 20 million inhabitants, 200 kilometers of traffic, 300,000 messengers on motorcycles.
At the heart of one of the toughest, most chaotic cities in the world, four brothers try to reinvent themselves in different ways.
With the backdrop of Brazil in a state of emergency, every single one is looking for a way out .

LORNA’S SILENCE
Directed by: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Country: Belgium, France, Italy
Winner: Best Screenplay

Synopsis: In order to become the owner of a snack bar with her boyfriend, Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium becomes an accomplice to a diabolical plan devised by mobster Fabio.
Fabio has orchestrated a sham marriage between her and Claudy. The marriage allows her to obtain Belgian citizenship and then marry a Russian Mafioso willing to pay a lot of money to acquire the same quickly. However, for this second marriage to be possible, Fabio has planned to kill Claudy. Will Lorna keep silent?

Click on thumbnails to see larger versions.

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Tags: Benicio del Toro, Cannes, Cannes film festival, Changeling, Che, Clint Eastwood, Gomorra, Il Divo, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Steven Soderbergh, The Class, Three Monkeys

Announcement – Welcome!

26May08

Greetings to all and welcome to Consider Film. Thank you for stopping by. Still getting some things organized, so please excuse the lack of substance at the moment. Coming soon will be film reviews, artist interviews, entertainment news, film debates, and much more.

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