The official Venice Film Festival line-up was announced today in Italy with some very exciting prospects, not least of which the latest from Claire Denis and Jacques Rivette. The fest will show their national spirit by opening with (groan) Giuseppe Tornatore's latest Baarìa (in other Tornatore news, did you know Miramax remade Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale? It'll be out later this year). A number of the films announced will also screen at this year's Toronto. I suspect Toronto might have been waiting for Venice's announcement to add the final details to their roster. My long-shot of a hope that Sébastien Lifshitz's Plein sud would premiere there didn't happen (its release has also been moved to December in France), but otherwise, 2009 has been a pretty promising year at the big festivals. If that's only by name and/or prestige, I can't say... But can we at least expect an Abel Ferrara/Werner Herzog showdown in Venice this year?In Competition
- 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup - d. Jacques Rivette - w. Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto, Jacques Bonnaffé, André Marcon- Accident - Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog)
- Baarìa, la porta del vento - d. Giuseppe Tornatore - w. Monica Bellucci, Raoul Bova, Ángela Molina
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - d. Werner Herzog
- Between Two Worlds - Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Foresaken Land)
- Capitalism: A Love Story - d. Michael Moore
- La doppia ora - d. Giuseppe Capotondi (directorial debut) - w. Filippo Timi
- Il grande sogno - d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale) - w. Riccardo Scamarcio, Laura Morante
- Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz
- Lourdes - d. Jessica Hausner - w. Sylvie Testud, Bruno Todeschini, Léa Seydoux
- Mr. Nobody - d. Jaco van Dormael (Le huitième jour, Toto le héros) - w. Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Rhys Ifans
- Persécution - d. Patrice Chéreau - w. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Romain Duris, Jean-Hughes Anglade
- Prince of Tears - Yonfan (Bishonen)
- The Road - d. John Hillcoat (The Proposition) - w. Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Michael K. Williams, Molly Parker, Garret Dillahunt
- A Single Man - d. Tom Ford (yes, the designer) - w. Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Matthew Goode, Gennifer Goodwin
- Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin - w. Birol Ünel, Moritz Bleibtreu
- Lo spazio bianco - d. Francesca Comencini (Visions of Europe) - w. Margherita Buy, Salvatore Cantalupo
- Survival of the Dead - d. George A. Romero - w. Kenneth Welsh, Devon Bostick (really, in competition?)
- Tetsuo: The Bullet Man - d. Shinya Tsukamoto
- The Traveller - Ahmed Maher
- White Material - d. Claire Denis - w. Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankolé, Christopher Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle
- Women Without Men - d. Shirin Neshat
Out of Competition
- [REC] 2 - d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza- Anni luce - d. Francesco Maselli (L'amore in città)
- Chengdu, I Love You - d. Fruit Chan, Cui Jian
- The Hole - d. Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'burbs) - w. Bruce Dern, Teri Polo
- The Informant! - d. Steven Soderbergh
- The Men Who Stare at Goats - d. Grant Heslov (HBO's Unscripted) - w. Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Stephen Lang
- Napoli Napoli Napoli - d. Abel Ferrara
- L'oro di Cuba - d. Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco & Vanzetti)
- Prove per una tragedia Siciliana - d. John Turturro, Roman Paska
- Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story - d. Yousry Nasrallah (La porte du soleil)
- South of the Border - d. Oliver Stone
- Yona Yona Penguin - d. Rintaro (Metropolis)
Midnight Movies
- Brooklyn's Finest - d. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) - w. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Brian F. O'Byrne- Delhi-6 - d. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
- Dev D - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Gulaal - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Valhalla Rising - d. Nicolas Winding Refn (the Pusher series) - w. Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Sives
Horizons
- 1428 - d. Du Haibin (China)- Adrift - d. Bui Thac Chuyên (Vietnam)
- Buried Secrets - d. Raja Amari (Satin Rouge, Tunisia)
- Il colore delle parole - d. Marco Simon Puccioni (Riparo, Italy)
- Cow - d. Guan Hu (China)
- Crush - d. Pyotr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., Boris Khlebnikov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vrypayev (Russia)
- Engkwentro - d. Pepe Diokno (Philippines)
- Francesca - d. Bobby Paunescu (Romania) - w. Luminita Gheorghiu
- I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You - d. Marcelo Gomes (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus), Karim Ainouz (Brazil)
- Insolacao - d. Daniela Thomas, Felipe Hirsch (Brazil)
- Io sono l'amore [I Am Love] - d. Luca Guadagnino (Melissa P.) - w. Tilda Swinton
- Judge - Liu Jie (China)
- The Man's Woman and Other Stories - d. Amit Dutta (India)
- Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country - d. Guo Xiaolu (China)
- The One All Alone - d. Frank Scheffer (Netherlands)
- One-Zero - d. Kamla Abou Zekry (Egypt)
- Paraiso - d. Héctor Gálvez (Peru)
- Pepperminta - d. Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland) - w. Sabine Timoteo
- Repo Chick - d. Alex Cox (U.S.)
- Tender Parasites [Zarte Parasiten] - d. Christian Becker, Oliver Schwabe (Germany)
- Toto - d. Peter Schreiner (Austria)
- Tris di donne e abiti nunziali - d. Martina Gedeck (Italy)
- Villalobos - d. Romuald Karmakar (Deutschland 09, Germany)
There were a few more events named, including some stuff from Werner Herzog, Aleksandr Sokurov, Tinto Brass and Phillip Haas. There was also a New Italian Cinema Trends side-bar that I didn't post -- but you can get the titles via Variety. I'll post more when I hear of it.
