72SSIFF - 20/28 September 2024
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Films
Pearls
Pearls
Alejandro González Iñárritu
USA 
142 min.
Armed with a Winchester, two young Moroccans set out to find the family herd of goats. They decide to test the rifle in the desert silence... but the bullet travels much further than expected. It only takes an instant for the lives of four groups of strangers on three continents to collide. A couple of American tourists, a deaf Japanese teenager rebellious with her father, and a Mexican nanny who takes two American children over the border without permission all find themselves trapped in the rising wave of an accident uncontrollably swelling out of proportion. None of them meet; despite the unexpected connection between them, they are isolated by being unable to communicate with the people around them.
David Frankel
 
111 min.
In the dizzying world of New York fashion, Runway is the Holy Grail. Overseen with a finely manicured fist by Miranda Priestly, the magazine is a fearsome gauntlet for anyone who wants to succeed in the fashion world. A stint as Miranda?s assistant could blast open the doors for recent college graduate Andy Sachs. More college drab than haute couture, she stands alone among the small army of superslim fashion divas on the magazine staff. But when Andy comes in for the job, it dawns on her that making it in the industry will take more than drive and determination. And her ultimate test stands before her in head-to-toe Prada.
Abderrahmane Sissako
France - Mali - USA 
118 min.
Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up. In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a court has been set up: African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IFM whom they blame for Africa?s woes. Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. Chaka does not seem to be concerned by this novel on Africa?s desire to fight for its rights.
Manoel de Oliveira
Portugal 
70 min.
38 years after Luis Buñuel?s Belle de jour, two characters from the film meet again in the strangeness of a secret which was only in the possession of the masculine character and a knowledge that had become crucial to the female character. Although she tries to avoid him, he stalks her and eventually manages to gain her attention with the intention of revealing the secret. They set a meeting, a dinner, where she, now a widow, awaits the expected revelation: what he had told her husband while he was mute and paralytic because of a gunshot fired by a lover of hers. The situation is tense and she ends up in despair without being able to find out what really happened. It?s his way of revenge for her never having given in to his desires.
Alfonso Cuarón
UK - USA 
114 min.
The action takes place in the generation following ours. The world has been driven to anarchy by the infertility of its population. The youngest person on earth has just died at the age of 18, and the human race would seem to be headed for extinction. Set against a London racked by violence and clashes between nationalist sects, the film tells the tale of Theo, a disillusioned ex-activist turned bureaucrat obliged to face his own demons if he wants to protect the last hope on the planet.
Israel Adrián Caetano
Argentina 
102 min.
Buenos Aires, 1977. A task force working for the Argentine military government kidnaps Claudio Tamburrini, goalkeeper of a B-league soccer team, taking him to a clandestine detention centre known as Sere Mansion, a forbidding old building in the suburban neighbourhood of Moron. In this nightmare world of arbitrary lunatic rules, interrogations, beatings, humiliations and betrayals, Claudio meets Guillermo and other young detainees who battle to survive while waiting for their fate to be decided. After four months of imprisonment, with execution looking certain, Claudio, Guillermo and another two prisoners (?El Vasco? and ?El Gallego?) open the window in the middle of a thunderstorm and jump into the void. Their future is about to begin.
Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
USA 
101 min.
Meet the conflictive Hoover family: a grandfather who snorts coke and swears, the father, a struggling motivational speaker, a mother who can?t cope, an uncle recovering from a failed suicide attempt after being dumped by his boyfriend, a Nietzsche-worshipping son who has taken a vow of silence and little Olive, the four-eyed, slightly pudgy youngster of the bunch who dreams of being beautiful. When luck has Olive invited to participate in the highly competitive ?Little Miss Sunshine? pageant in California, they all hop into the rusty old VW bus to accompany her westwards to her big debut in three mad days of tragicomic surprises; this is a family whose lives are in for a change.
Jonathan Demme
USA 
103 min.
A highly intimate musical portrait of Neil Young filmed at the promotional concert for his Prairie Wind CD in Nashville?s Ryman Auditorium. The music offers a rich and emotional look at Young?s relationship with his friends and family, with mortality and the passing of time. He is accompanied on stage by many a former musical accomplice, including his wife Pegi Young, country music star Emmylou Harris, and the guitarist Ben Keith.
Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Emmanuel Benbihy, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant
France - Liechtenstein - Switzerland 
119 min.
In Paris, love is everywhere: in its bars and cafés, under the Eiffel Tower, and even in the Metro running beneath its streets. In Paris, je t?aime, prepare to see the city in a way you?ve never imagined. It?s Paris as seen through the eyes of some of the world?s most acclaimed filmmakers. Each one was invited to tell a story set in one of the city?s neighbourhoods. The result is a kaleidoscope of stories about joy, separation, unexpected strange encounters and, above all, about love. Featuring an incredible international cast, including Natalie Portman, Fanny Ardant, Elijah Wood, Nick Nolte, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Bob Hoskins, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Gérard Depardieu and Steve Buscemi, Paris, je t?aime shows Paris as never before, reigniting your love for the world?s most romantic city.
Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
USA 
99 min.
Shut Up and Sing travels with the Dixie Chicks from the peak of their popularity as the national-anthem-singing darlings of country music and top-selling female recording artists of all time, through the now infamous anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war comment made by the group?s lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003. The film follows the lives and careers of the Dixie Chicks over a period of three years during which they were under political attack and received death threats, while continuing to live their lives, have children, and of course, make music. The film ultimately presents the Dixie Chicks as women, public figures and musicians.
Fredi M. Murer
Switzerland 
120 min.
Vitus is a boy who almost seems to be from another planet: he has the hearing of a bat, plays the piano like a virtuoso and studies encyclopaedias at the age of five. No wonder his parents start anticipating a brilliant future for him. They want Vitus to become a pianist. However, the little genius prefers to play in his eccentric grandfather?s workshop. He dreams of flying and of a normal childhood. Ultimately, with one dramatic leap, Vitus takes control of his own life.
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