Dangerous Method festivals

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118037216?refCatId=13

Posted: Tue., May. 17, 2011, 8:00pm PT
Venice fest gets early start on slate
Lido secures hot pics three months in advance of start
By Nick Vivarelli

Helmer David Cronenberg's 'A Dangerous Method' will play in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
EXCLUSIVE-- The 68th Venice Film Festival is shaping up as an especially strong edition, with a slew of hot titles secured more than three months in advance of its Aug. 31 start.

Lido competition berths are set for Roman Polanski's "Carnage," David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" and Russian auteur Aleksandr Sokurov's highly anticipated "Faust," the fourth and final installment in his "Men of Power" series.

Venice regular Philippe Garrel will be back with "Un ete brulant" (A Burning Hot Summer), a remake of sorts of Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt," starring Monica Bellucci.

An ample U.S. contingent, comprising upcoming releases from the majors and high-profile indies, will include Todd Solondz's "Dark Horse," starring Mia Farrow, Farrow, Christopher Walken and Selma Blair, in competition.

Hollywood studios are carefully plotting their Lido launches since the large number of titles in the Venice mix poses potential conflicts.

There are two Steven Soderbergh movies under consideration, for example: "Contagion," which flies under the Warner Bros. banner, and action thriller "Haywire," which is a Lionsgate pic.

And two Steven Spielberg titles, "War Horse," from Disney and DreamWorks, and 3D family pic "The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn," going out via Paramount and Sony, are possibilities but, obviously, not both.

Also in the mix are Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," toplining George Clooney, from Fox Searchlight, and Sony's Clooney-directed political thriller "Ides of March," starring Ryan Gosling, which poses another problem.

Mary Harron's "The Moth Diaries" and Madonna's "W.E." have been submitted.

New titles from European helmers launching from the Lido include Greek Yorgos Lanthimos' "Dogtooth" follow up "Alps," about a hospital nurse who provides unusual services to bereaved families. "Paradise," the latest from Austrian helmer Ulrich Seidl ("Dog Days"), is also likely to be in competition.

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," the John Le Carre novel adaptation by Swedish helmer Tomas Alfredson starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth, is also tipped for a Lido berth.

And Luc Besson's Michelle Yeoh starrer, "The Lady," will be submitted shortly.

Works rushing to get finished in time for "wet-print" Lido preems include Wong Kar Wai's "The Grandmasters" and Walter Salles' "On the Road."

A strong batch of U.K. titles has already booked slots in the Venice selection: Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights"; Steve McQueen's "Shame"; Terence Davies' "The Deep Blue Sea"; and Michael Winterbottom's Freida Pinto starrer "Trishna," an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" with a Bollywood tone.

From Asia, Filipino auteur Brillante Mendoza's "Prey," starring Isabelle Huppert, has secured a slot.

One of two Johnnie To pics, "Life Without Principle" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," will also almost certainly unspool.

From Spain, Alex de la Iglesia's "La chispa de la vida" is likely to be Lido-bound if ready in time.

From Italy, the only certainty is Cristina Comencini's "Quando la notte" (When the Night) a drama about a fragile young mother and a tough mountain guide who meet after an accident in the Italian mountains.

Works by Italo auteurs Emanuele Crialese, Gianni Amelio and Ermanno Olmi have been submitted but are not yet slotted.

A trio of documentaries is booked: Cameron Crowe's "PJ20," about the rock band Pearl Jam; Jonathan Demme's untitled Hurricane Katrina pic; and Fatih Akin's globalization docu "Garbage in the Garden of Eden."

The 68th Venice fest runs Aug. 31 to Sept 10.

http://www.thestar.com/article/1012691--venice-festival-snares-cronenberg-movie

Venice festival snares Cronenberg movie
Published On Tue Jun 21 2011

David Cronenberg is a hometown cult auteur and one of the biggest players Toronto has ever had on the global cinema scene.

So you might think that A Dangerous Method, his first new movie in four years, would be an obvious selection for the opening night gala slot at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival — especially since it is not a horror picture.

But guess again. This movie, laden with prestige, will almost certainly be in the TIFF lineup, but not in the prime opening night gala slot.

That is because for the second consecutive year, TIFF has been trumped by a rival film festival in Venice, which starts two weeks earlier than the younger but livelier Toronto event.

Here we go again.

Last year it was Barney’s Version, produced by Robert Lantos, that had its world premiere in Venice and turned up at TIFF just a few days later. Now we can rerun the tape and we’re seeing almost the same story playing out in 2011.

Score: The Hockey Musical opened the 2010 Toronto film festival instead of Barney, the year’s most keenly anticipated Canadian movie.

A Dangerous Method is clearly British in most respects rather than Canadian, but because Cronenberg was in the director’s chair, we’re entitled to claim it as our own. The History of Violence in 2005 and Eastern Promises in 2007, the last two Cronenberg movies at TIFF, were both big hits.

A Dangerous Method is based on British writer Christopher Hampton’s play The Talking Cure, about how Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung more or less invented psychoanalysis more than a century ago.

Set in Zurich and Vienna, it tells the story of Jung’s relationship with a woman named Sabina Spielrein, who went on to become a noted female psychoanalyst after being Jung’s patient in a sexually charged relationship.

Hampton, who won a screenwriting Oscar for Dangerous Liaisons and was a nominee for Atonement, adapted his own play. Viggo Mortensen plays Freud, Michael Fassbender is cast as Jung, and Keira Knightley has the fascinating role of Sabina.

Last week Sony Pictures Classics announced it has acquired U.S. distribution rights to A Dangerous Method. SPC was also the U.S. distributor for Barney.

But why should Toronto be eclipsed by Venice in both cases?

In case you were wondering, neither Lantos nor Cronenberg resides in the Lido nor on the Grand Canal. Nor are they among the regulars at Harry’s Bar.

Indeed, they live around the corner from one another in Forest Hill. Both are Toronto boosters, but it serves the interest of their movies to be showcased at both these important festivals on opposite sides of the ocean.

Every year the Venice festival unspools before TIFF. And out of pride, Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey are not going to hand their opening night gala slot to a movie that has just had its world premiere at a rival festival.

So they’ll be looking for another movie to draw a standing ovation while waving the maple leaf flag at Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday, Sept. 8.

It won’t be Midnight’s Children, about India’s leap from colony to independence. It’s based on Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize novel and directed by the gifted and fearless Deepa Mehta, who gave TIFF a night to remember with the premiere of her magnificent Water in 2005.

Why not? Because her new movie, filmed earlier this year in Sri Lanka, won’t be ready in time. Mehta will be in the editing room, with a post-production schedule that goes until the end of the year. And Midnight’s Children won’t be at TIFF in the fall of 2012, either, because it is almost sure to be released in the first half of the year.

While we are on the subject of Barney’s Version, let’s take note that it will be released on DVD by eOne next week. And for those of us who saw and enjoyed the movie on the big screen but were left craving even more, the DVD delivers some delicious tidbits with half an hour of deleted scenes. Among them: a searing exchange in which Saul Rubinek, as the father of Barney’s hippie first wife, Clara, pays a horrifying visit to Barney (Paul Giamatti) after Clara’s suicide.

http://www.frontrowreviews.co.uk/news/lionsgate-showcase-at-empires-big-screen-2011/10270

Empire’s Big Screen 2011: LionsGate Showcase
By
Mike Chapman
Published: August 16, 2011

Another of the studios to showcase their upcoming attractions at Empire’s Big Screen was Lionsgate, a company known for recent Blockbuster hits such as Kick-Ass, Precious and Saw 3D among many others.

Their showcase started with a trailer for David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method which focuses on the early psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Cronenberg regular Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender are in the lead roles, with Keira Knightley as their main patient. It will be released on the 10th of February 2011 and may even be Academy Award material.

There were also trailers shown for Warrior, Abduction and 50/50. Warrior follows the youngest son (Tom Hardy) of an alcoholic boxer (Nick Nolte) who trains him up for an MMA competition where he comes to blows with his older brother (Joel Edgerton). This sports drama will definitely be one to watch out for and many are comparing it to this year’s The Fighter. Abduction is the latest vehicle for Taylor Lautner’s acting ‘talent’ as he plays a young man who realises his parents are not who they say they are. Looking mediocre at best, this seems to be a run of the mill action thriller purely for Team Jacob. 50/50 is a black comedy about Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a young man who discovers he has cancer and subsequently battles the disease. Despite the morbid subject, this looks to be a very funny comedy, with Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick in supporting roles.

Several long clips were shown from Ralph Fiennes’ directing debut Coriolanus in which he also stars. A modern day interpretation of the Shakespeare classic, the drama follows Coriolanus, a hero of Rome who is banished by his city and so takes revenge. With such a strong cast including Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and James Nesbitt, Coriolanus looks to one of the better modern Shakespeare interpretations and definitely a must see when it comes out on the 20th January 2012.

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york/news/08-2011/a-dangerous-method-the-skin-i-live-in-added-to-new_39786.html

A Dangerous Method, The Skin I Live In Added to New York Film Festival Lineup
By: Andy Propst · Aug 15, 2011 · New York

David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In will receive gala screenings at the New York Film Festival (NYFF), according to a report in Variety. The Festival will run September 30-October 16.

Cronenberg's film is an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play about the relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and stars Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, and Keira Knightley. Antonio Banderas stars in Almodovar's movie about a brilliant plastic surgeon, who, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands all damage.

As previously announced, the NYFF will feature the world premiere of Simon Curtis' film My Week With Marilyn, which chronicles Marilyn Monroe's life during the making of The Prince and the Showgirl, and Roman Polanski's Carnage, a film based on Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage.

For more information, click here.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-cronenberg-pedro-almodovar-films-223126

David Cronenberg, Pedro Almodovar Films Set for New York Film Festival Galas
3:31 PM 8/15/2011 by Gregg Kilday

"A Dangerous Method" and "The Skin I Live In" join the line-up for the fest, which kicks off Sept. 30.

David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method and Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In will be featured in Gala slots at the upcoming 2011 New York Film Festival.

The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito): Cannes 2011 Review
'A Dangerous Method': Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley Star in Historical Drama (Video)

Cronenberg’s Method, which stars Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Keira Knightly as a mutual patient, will screen on Oct. 5. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film on Nov. 23.

Skin, Almodovar’s latest film, which sees the Spanish director reteaming with Antonio Banderas in a thriller set against the backdrop of plastic surgery, will play the festival Oct. 12, two days before its scheduled Oct. 14 release via SPC.

It’s the first time NYFF has hosted two galas in addition to its opening, closing and centerpiece events. Explained Rose Kuo, executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which produces the festival, “This year has seen a great deal of growth for us with the opening of our new Film Center and we are thrilled to continue the expansion at this year’s NYFF. We will be offering more screenings, panels, and family events as well as these two new marquee nights that feature highly anticipated fall films.”

The festival runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 16.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/08/15/nyff_cronenbergs_dangerous_method_and_almodovars_skin_i_live_in_added_to_ga/

NYFF: Cronenberg’s Dangerous Method and Almodovar’s Skin I Live In Added to Galas
Thompson on Hollywood

Auteurs David Cronenberg and Pedro Almodovar are joining the line-up of the 49th New York Film Festival line-up with two new galas. Both are edgy sexually transgressive dramas from Sony Pictures Classics, which is also releasing the opening night film Carnage. Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley, will debut at Venice, play NYFF October 5 and open in theaters November 23. Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In, starring Antonio Banderas, played to mixed reaction at Cannes and will open October 14, right after its gala on October 12.

Thankfully adding two new galas did not mean backing off from the NYFF’s traditional standards. (Both films are from master filmmakers beloved by the festival.) Closing night is expected to be announced at week’s end. “This year has seen a great deal of growth for us with the opening of our new Film Center,” said executive director Rose Kuo. “We are thrilled to continue that expansion at this year’s NYFF. We will be offering more screenings, panels, and family events as well as these two new marquee nights that feature highly anticipated fall films.”
Thompson on Hollywood

Produced by Jeremy Thomas and adapted by Christopher Hampton from his play The Talking Cure, A Dangerous Method follows the complex dynamics inside the power triangle of Carl Jung (Fassbender), his mentor Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and alluring but mentally unbalanced patient Sabina Spielrein (Knightley). The film also stars Vincent Cassel and Sarah Gordon.
Psychological thriller The Skin I Live In reunites Almodovar with Banderas, the star of Matador among others of the director’s early films. Almodovar and his brother Agustin adapted Thierry Jonquet’s novel Mygale. Renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Ledgard (Banderas) fights for the development of new, tougher human skin and uses a hidden patient/prisoner (Elena Anaya) as his test subject; the movie explores issues of power and sexual identity. Almodóvar regular Marisa Paredes returns as Ledgard’s loyal assistant. Here’s our interview with Banderas.
General Public tickets will be available September 12th.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/2011/08/15/a_dangerous_method_the_skin_i_live_in_latest_gala_presentations_at_new_york/

‘A Dangerous Method’ & ‘The Skin I Live In’ Latest Gala Presentations At New York Film Festival


Get ready New York, the stars are on their way for the New York Film Festival and this afternoon, organizers announced two big additional special gala presentations to the slate.

First up, David Cronenberg adds another date for the festival run for “A Dangerous Method,” which already includes bows at Venice and TIFF. Based on Christopher Hampton‘s acclaimed 2002 play “The Talking Cure” and starring Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen, the film will center on the relationship between Carl Jung (Fassbender) and Russian-Jewish patient Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) that turns sexual, ultimately causing a rift between Jung and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Mortensen), but also catalyzes strong findings in regards to Jungian psychoanalysis. The move confirms that Sony Pictures Classics believes that this one will be a major contender for gold this year, with Knightley’s turn in particular the center of early buzz. The film will walk the red carpet on October 5th at Alice Tully Hall.

Meanwhile, a week later on October 12th, Pedro Almodóvar will deliver his change of pace project “The Skin I Live In.” Starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Marisa Paredes and based on Thierry Jonquet‘s novel “Mygale,” the film—a blend of horror, thriller and melodrama—is a revenge tale that tells the story of a plastic surgeon (Banderas) on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter. “The Skin I Live In” premiered earlier this year at Cannes where it received mixed reviews, but unsurprisingly still had a lot of people talking about the film on the Croisette. It hits TIFF next month before going to New York.

If you can’t make it to a festival screening, you won’t have to wait long for either film. “A Dangerous Method” hits on November 23rd with “The Skin I Live In” landing October 14th. The New York Film Festival runs from September 30 – October 16.

Kevin Jagernauth posted at 1:03 pm on August 15, 2011