© 70. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica, La Biennale di Venezia
Well, not exactly a sciencefictional event, but one of the world’s best film festivals, part of the Big Five Ones. Nevertheless, a SF friendly event especially that a SF film will open this edition of the Venice International Film Festival.
70. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica, La Biennale di Venezia (The 70th Venice International Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia), will be held on the Lido of Venice from 28th August to 7th September 2013, directed by Alberto Barbera.
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organizes retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.
The LINE-UP of the 70th Venice International Film Festival (28th August – 7th September) has been announced on Thursday 25th July.
The official selection includes: Venezia 70, Out of Competition, Orizzonti, and Venice Classics. The autonomous and parallel sections include the International Critics’ Week, and the Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days.
Film Director Bernardo Bertolucci will head the jury at the event, which runs from 28 August to 7 September.
“Gravity“, from Warner Bros. Pictures, is a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. In the film, Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney). But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone – tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth… and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space. The last time Venice opened with a science fiction movie was in 2000 with “Space Cowboys” by Clint Eastwood, at the 57th Film Festival, directed by Alberto Barbera.
The world premiere of “Gravity” of the Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron’swill be screened in 3D on August 28th in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido, following the opening ceremony.
The 3D movie sees the pair as astronauts (George Clooney and Sandra Bullock) on an ill-fated mission, attempting to return to Earth after debris crashes into their space shuttle, leaving them drifting alone in orbit.
©Warner Bros. Pictures
“Gravity” was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón. It was produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the Harry Potter series). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones are the executive producers. The credits also include Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men, Y tu mamá también, The New World) as director of photography, production design by Andy Nicholson (Alice in Wonderland), and costume design by Jany Temime (theHarry Potter series). The visual effects supervisor is Tim Webber (The Dark Knight). Music is by Steven Price (Attack the Block). Gravity was filmed entirely at London’s Shepperton Studios. It will be distributed worldwide in 3D and 2D, and in IMAX©, by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros Entertainment Company.
“Gravity” ‘s trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsrgE0BYf0
Terry Gilliam’s “The Zero Theorem” stars Christoph Waltz as a reclusive computer genius attempting to solve a mathematical equation that will determine whether life has meaning.
© Zero Theorem&Mediapro Studios
The cast consists of Matt Damon, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis, Lucas Hedges, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton.
An intervew with Terry Gilliam : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzOgZd0yLtQ
Also in competition is “Under the Skin“, the first feature from “Sexy Beast” director Jonathan Glazer since 2004’s “Birth”.
Based on the novel by the dutch writer Michel Faber (Walter Campbell : screenplay) it stars Scarlett Johansson as an alien who searches remote roads in Scotland to find human prey.
The brilliant British director Jonathan Glazer has been even more absent from the scene than Cuaron, and around this time last year, audiences were disappointed to learn that his newest film would not be making the fall festival rounds.
©Film4&FilmNation Entertainment
Better late than never: The story of an extraterrestrial (Scarlett Johansson) harvesting the bodies of male hitchhikers sounds no less strange and disquieting than his criminally underrated 2004 drama, “Birth.” The cast : Scarlett Johansson (Laura), Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Shadow Alien), Paul Brannigan (Andrew) , Krystof Hádek , Robert J. Goodwin, Scott Dymond, Michael Moreland, Jessica Mance, Jeremy McWilliams.
“Space Pirate Captain Harlock” is a 2013 Japanese 3D CG anime film directed by Shinji Aramaki.
In 2010, Toei Animation announced that it made a pilot for a computer-graphics remake, and it presented the pilot at Tokyo International Anime Fair that year. In the next year, was presented a preview of Space Pirate Captain Harlock at Annecy International Animated Film Festival. This will be the Toei Animation’s highest production budget ever at the equivalent of over 30 million U.S. dollars. The story was reconstructed by the writer Harutoshi Fukui to reflect the themes of modern society and Toei provided the latest filmmaking technology for the film. An English-narrated international teaser trailer was released for promotion. It is scheduled to be shown out of competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.
“Space Pirate Captain Harlock” trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89SHhTcO08
© 70. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica, La Biennale di Venezia
The cinema of Theo Angelopoulos and of Federico Fellini is celebrated in the image chosen for the new official poster of the 70th Venice International Film Festival, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, which will be held at the Lido from August 28 to September 7, 2013.
Created by Simone Massi – the animator, director and illustrator of the Festival’s opening sequence – the image recalls a frame from the film by Theo Angelopoulos, Eternity and a Day (1998), starring Bruno Ganz. A man seen from behind waves his arms at a boat which, in the distance, is carrying a child and a rhinoceros. A tongue-in-cheek reference to last year’s poster (which was inspired by Federico Fellini’s 1983 film, And the Ship Sails On), the poster marks both continuity and a break with the past. It also invites viewers to look beyond, to roam using their imagination.
Once again, the coordinated visual identity and image of the Venice Film Festival have been entrusted to Milan’s Studio Graph.X, based on the drawings by Simone Massi.
http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23447314
