Le joli mai

Yeah, yeah... I know I've pulled the post-a-photo-of-Grace-Jones-as-Mayday-on-May-1st business before, but when you've found something that works, stick with it (as my father always said). Now that the weather has improved, my mental well-being has ventured out of the red, and I'll be returning full-ish time to the blog. What you can expect from me this month: reviews of Kentucker Audley's two latest films, Holy Land and Open Five, which both premiered last month; the early stages of a new regular feature on the blog; more DVD updates (Mulholland Drive is supposedly making its way to Blu-ray this fall by the way); a rather messy criticism of Up in the Air, which started as an unsuccessful side-by-side-by-side comparison of that piece of shit, another overpraised turkey (An Education) and Andrea Arnold's magnificent Fish Tank (portions of the latter films still show up, but it really didn't work as a whole); likely some links to writings about the films screening at Cannes (as I won't be in attendance); the Cannes poster update (which is looking grim so far, but it usually isn't until halfway through the festival that the posters start showing their faces); many unnecessary references to Liz Lemon; an appreciation post for Téa Leoni; some press for a good friend's NYC show coming up; a belated 2009 music post; some of this; and hopefully plenty of other (quasi-)exciting things. Getting back into "the swing of things" is more difficult than I had imagined, but the (non-breeding-related) post-partum depression is slowly vanishing...

More Pansexual, Vaguely Sci-fi/Apocalyptic Teen Angst from Gregg Araki

I've concerned myself so much with the past ten years that I forgot 2010 is upon us, and I haven't even looked into which of my favorite filmmakers have stuff in the can... but browsing French distribution company Wild Bunch's website I uncovered that, lo and behold, after three years, Gregg Araki will have a new film out. Eric at Ioncinema listed Araki's Kaboom under his predictions for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. Though Mysterious Skin made its world premiere at Sundance, it hit Sundance a few months later, so unless the film isn't totally ready, it'd surprising if Kaboom didn't show up there. College-age bisexuality and science-fiction elements suggest an extension of Nowhere, which as you know is fine by me, but Wild Bunch describes it as "Twin Peaks for the Coachella Generation" (I've never heard that description before). Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes) will play the James Duval antihero, though Duval will also show up as "The Messiah," as he's credited on the IMDb. Kelly Lynch (overdue for a comeback), Roxane Mesquida (Fat Girl) and Juno Temple (daughter of Julien). Here's to my most anticipated film of '10!

My My, Penélope!

I already planned on seeing Rob Marshall's Nine, even though I think he's a royally shitty film director, but this single image of Penélope has me sold. Plus I'm pretty sure my love for Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren and sometimes Nicole Kidman wins out over my disgust/hatred for Kate Hudson and Fergie.

Poster for Sébastien Lifshitz's latest Plein sud

French distribution company Ad Vitam just released the official poster for the latest from Sébastien Lifshitz, entitled Plein sud, or in English literally Due South. The film opens nationally on 30 December, after being pushed from August, and will likely make an appearance at the Berlinale in February; Lifshitz's previous film Wild Side won the Teddy for Best Narrative Feature in 2004. The film stars Yannick Renier (Nue propriété), Léa Seydoux (La belle personne), Théo Frilet (Nés '68), Pierre Perrier (Chacun sa nuit) and Nicole Garcia (Duelle) and features a score by John Parrish, Jocelyn Pook and Marie Modiano. I'm probably one of eight people ecstatic about a new film from Lifshitz, but maybe if I mention him enough on here, I can convert a couple more.

We Belong Together

Isabelle Huppert and Michael Haneke will join forces yet again for the director's latest project, which begins filming next year. It will be their third pairing, after La pianiste [The Piano Teacher] and Le temps du loup [Time of the Wolf] and after his latest The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band] was awarded the Palme d'Or in May by Huppert and her jury. The yet-untitled film will also mark Jean-Louis Trintignant's return to the screen after almost ten years of absence. He did have a bit part in the film Janis et John (Patrice Chéreau's Ceux qui m'aime prendront le train [Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train] was his last major role in 1998) but has been otherwise absent from the screen following his daughter Marie's death in 2003. Being Isabelle Huppert's "friend" on Facebook has its perks.

Bio-Hazard

Within the past few years, we've gotten varied cinematic portraits of famous people: Édith Piaf, Séraphine de Senlis, Françoise Sagan, Uschi Obermaier, Che Guevara, Coco Chanel, Harvey Milk, Jacques Mesrine, Diane Arbus, George W. Bush, Charles Bronson (the prisoner), Idi Amin, Edie Sedgwick, Charles Darwin, Gustav Klimt, the Bouvier Beales, the Notorious B.I.G., Amelia Earhart, Ian Curtis, Queen Victoria and Jean-Dominique Bauby. Now you can add a few more to add to the list, for better or worse; and I'm sure there are plenty more in the works.

Without anything useful to say about Roman Polanski’s imprisonment in Switzerland, a friend of mine directed me to an unofficial Polanski biopic that was released this year. Already available on DVD, the film, now called Polanski: Unauthorized, is co-written, directed and starring some guy named Damian Chapa, who you may recognize from a small role in Under Seige or as “Ken” in that awful Street Fighter movie (the one that had Kylie Minogue and Jean-Claude Van Damme, not the other awful one). Polanski: Unauthorized looks like a disaster and surprisingly was made and released before all the new developments, though likely capitalizing on the newfound interest in Polanski’s exile after the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired came out. Based on the trailer, it appears to cover the director’s life from the taking of his parents to Nazi concentration camps to the infamous court case, likely in flashbacks but I’m only inferring here. The actress playing Sharon Tate looks especially appalling; just listen to her tell Roman over the phone that she’s pregnant. As the cast list includes actors playing both Mia Farrow and Anton LaVey (ha!), the filming of Rosemary’s Baby probably takes up a good portion of the film. If anyone’s actually seen this, let me know… Variety’s review, by Todd McCarthy sounds amazing:

“Roman Polanski won't lose any sleep over Polanski Unauthorized, a basement tape-quality slum through the most famously traumatic episodes in a sensation-riddled life. Straight-to-DVD auteur Damian Chapa invested little money, and less talent, in depicting the subject's escape from the Nazis, flirtation with devil worship on "Rosemary's Baby," relationship with Sharon Tate and arrest for raping a 13-year-old girl, moments from all of which are shuffled together almost at random. With production values no better than homemade porn -- most scenes are played in front of drapes -- and dialogue that makes you feel sorry for the actors, this Friday the 13th Los Angeles vanity release isn't even fun in a bad-movie way. Paying customers will feel gypped.”

Like Coco Chanel, Romy Schneider, for whom Chanel designed numerous articles of clothing, is the subject of two competing biopics at the moment (though technically Chanel had three released within a year of one another). The first of the two, entitled Romy, will be airing on German television 11 November, followed by the DVD release the next day. Actress Jessica Schwarz (Kammerfilmmern) will play Schneider; the rest of the cast includes Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, King Kong, Queen Margot) as her first husband Harry Meyen and Guillaume Delorme as Alain Delon, a good friend and frequent co-star of the actress. The bigger of the two biopics, tentatively titled Eine Frau wie Romy [A Woman Like Romy], was scheduled to have begun shooting in summer 2008, but there isn’t a whole lot of information following that. Directed by Josef Rusnak (The Thirteenth Floor, Quiet Days in Hollywood), Eine Frau wie Romy has actress Yvonne Catterfeld as Schneider (no, not Beyoncé, unfortunately), and the IMDb lists Michel Piccoli, one of Schneider’s close friends, in the cast, as well as Jean-Hughes Anglade and Tchéky Karyo. I’ll let you know if I hear anything further about either version.

Breaking Glass Pictures, a new studio launched by former heads of TLA Releasing Richard Wolff and Richard Ross, has acquired the rights to An Englishman in New York, a sequel-of-sorts to The Naked Civil Servant from 1975, based on the autobiography of Quentin Crisp. John Hurt reprises his role as Crisp and is joined by Cynthia Nixon, Denis O’Hare, Jonathan Tucker and Swoosie Kurtz in the film, which earned Hurt a special Teddy Award from the Berlin International Film Festival for his performance. Breaking Glass will release the film sometime in 2010.

And finally, nothing looks to have changed about the Serge Gainsbourg biopic, Vie héroïque; it’s still set for a French release on 20 January.

Retourne-toi: Post-Cannes

Though it was barely more than a month ago, I haven't seen a whole lot of post-Cannes coverage anywhere. And maybe that's because not a whole lot has stirred since then. I have uncovered some details about US releases of a few of the titles. Sony, maybe predictably, plans Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winning The White Ribbon for a week-long run in New York and Los Angeles on Christmas, though I'm not clear if it will expand from there or wait, à la The Class, a couple months before showing up elsewhere.

IFC will unleash Antichrist this October, before Halloween, On Demand as well as in NY and LA, though the Variety article didn't mention anything about the Uncut vs. "Catholic" version of the film. Jane Campion's Bright Star still looks to be the first release from the late Picturehouse's former president Bob Berney's new company, which is still nameless. A September date is expected.

Ken Loach's Looking for Eric has a tentative 2009 release date from IFC, while Cristian Mungiu's Tales from the Golden Age will, more than likely, be out early 2010. I also heard that IFC snatched up Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank for a 2010 release, but I can't find an official announcement of that. So let's just hope so.

And closing out IFC's acquisitions from the fest thusfar is Marina de Van's critically savaged Don't Look Back [Ne te retourne pas] with Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci.

As for the pre-bought/produced titles, Almodóvar's Broken Embraces is locked for limited release date of 20 November from Sony Pictures Classics; Inglourious Basterds is still set for 21 August from The Weinstein Company, with Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock a week later from Focus. Focus is also releasing the first of the In Competition titles to play stateside, Park Chan-wook's Thirst, on 31 July.

Here Films, newly revised and expanding beyond their initial catalogue of solely gay flicks, nabbed Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother [J'ai tué ma mère], planned for early next year. No date seems to be set for Sony's release of Jacques Audiard's A Prophet [Un prophète].

And, though I don't think this is official information, it looks as though Strand might have picked up Lou Ye's Spring Fever. Strand also released the director's Suzhou River in the early part of the decade.

The In Competition titles still without a US distributor are then: Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void, Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay, Alain Resnais' Wild Grass [Les herbes folles], Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains, Johnnie To's Vengeance, Marco Bellocchio's Vincere, Tsai Ming-liang's Visage and Xavier Giannoli's In the Beginning [À l'origine].

...which leads me to Toronto's unveiling of their first wave of titles to play at their International Film Festival in September. All (except maybe two) have premiered elsewhere before they'll screen in Toronto. Expect the announcement of the rest of the festival soon, including the world premieres, and additionally, the line-up for Venice which begins at the end of August.

From Cannes:

- Air Doll - d. Hirokazu Koreeda
- Eyes Wide Open - d. Haim Tabakman
- Face [Visage] - d. Tsai Ming-liang
- Fish Tank - d. Andrea Arnold
- Huaco - d. Alejandro Fernández Almendras
- Independencia - d. Raya Martin
- Irène - d. Alain Cavalier
- Karaoke - d. Chris Chong Chan Fui
- Like You Know It All - d. Hong Sang-soo
- Nymph - d. Pen-ek Ratanaruang
- La Pivellina - d. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
- Police, Adjective [Poliţist, adjectiv] - d. Corneliu Porumboiu
- Samson and Delilah - d. Warwick Thornton
- The Time That Remains - d. Elia Suleiman
- To Die Like a Man [Morrer Como Um Homem] - d. João Pedro Rodrigues
- Wild Grass [Les herbes folles] - d. Alain Resnais
- The Wind Journeys [Los viajes del viento] - d. Ciro Guerra

From Berlin:

- Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl [Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loira] - d. Manoel de Oliveira
- Gigante - d. Adrián Biniez
- The Happiest Girl in the World [Cea mai fericita fata din lume] - d. Radu Jude

And Elsewhere:

- Kelen - d. Ermek Tursunov
- Lourdes - d. Jessica Hausner
- Men on the Bridge [Köprüdekiler] - d. Asli Özge
- Should I Really Do It? - d. Ismail Necmi

Silent Light Coming to DVD; You, the Living and Taxidermia Coming to the Theatre

Through Vivendi Visual, Palisades Tartan will release their first two DVDs in the US in September. Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light [Stellet licht] will finally be out on 9 Sept, along with Anders Morgenthaler's animated actioner Princess on 29 Sept. Vivendi also announced Aaron Woodley's Tennessee, starring none other than Mariah Carey, on 1 September. Additionally, Kino will be releasing Emily Hubley's The Toe Tactic and Sean Baker and Tsou Shih-Ching's Take Out on 1 September. Magnet will have Ringo Lam, Johnny To and Tsui Hark's Triangle on 15 September. And, my pick for best title of the year so far goes to Life Is Hot in Cracktown, which Anchor Bay will release on 25 August. It also is ranking on the list of strangest casts of the year (Lara Flynn Boyle, Illeana Douglas, RZA, Brandon Routh, Kerry Washington, Mark Webber and Vondie Curtis-Hall); let me know if the film is as good as it sounds.

Surprisingly, I haven't heard of really any post-Cannes acquisitions, aside from Oscilloscope's pick-up of Michel Gondry's The Thorn in the Heart [L'épine dans le coeur]. However, it looks as if Roy Andersson's You, the Living [Du levande] and György Pálfi's Taxidermia, both previously stuck in release limbo after Tartan USA died, will finally see a theatrical release this year from Palisades Tartan, who picked up most of their library, and Regent Releasing, respectively.

Music Box Films have two German films lined up for later this year, the old-people-fucking flick Cloud 9 [Wolke 9] from director Andreas Dresdon (Summer in Berlin) and music video director Philipp Stölzl's North Face [Nordwand] with Benno Fürmann and Johanna Wokalek.

In addition to Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza], Strand also has a number of films lined up for later this year: Pascal-Alex Vincent's Give Me Your Hand [Donne-moi la main]; Pablo Trapero's Lion's Den [Leonera]; Noah Buschel's The Missing Person, with Michael Shannon and Amy Ryan; Jay DiPietro's Peter and Vandy, with Jess Weixler, Jason Ritter and Tracie Thoms; and Karin Albou's The Wedding Song [Le chant des mariées].

Regent Releasing picked up Lucía Puenzo's follow-up to her wonderful XXY, The Fish Child [El niño pez], which also stars Inés Efron, a few months ago. Regent will also release Eran Merav's Zion & His Brother, with Ronit Elkabetz, in the near future. That's all for now.

New Lifshitz, plus some bad TV news

For those of you not tired of me blabbing about Sébastien Lifshitz, I'd like to thank my friend Jordany for directing me to his new film's IMDb page. Plein sud stars Yannick Renier (Private Property, Born in '68), Léa Seydoux (De la guerre, The Last Mistress), Théo Frilet (also from Born in '68) and Pierre Perrier (Cold Showers, One to Another), will unfortunately not be shot by Agnès Godard (Claire Mothon is the DOP, I'm not familiar with her work), but will feature music from John Parish, one of PJ Harvey's collaborators [check out their album A Woman, A Man Walked By if you haven't already], and Jocelyn Pook. It's scheduled to be released in France on 19 August, and I suppose there's a chance it'll play at either Venice or Toronto a few weeks later. You like how I got to bring up both Lifshitz and PJ Harvey in the same post?

Also, Nathan at Film Experience gives us some bad news about a planned television series based around Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. No Carmen Maura or Rossy de Palma and scripted by someone who works on Grey's Anatomy? Fail. Makes you kinda wish that American remake with Jane Fonda had happened, so this wouldn't have.

Because pedophiles love children...

I just rewatched all of Todd Solondz's films, for better or worse, over the past week, and though I posted about his new film's cast earlier and that it was an intended sequel to Happiness, I was unaware that Forgiveness will also feature all of the same characters, played by new actors. This is what the IMDb lists:

Shirley Henderson as Joy (Jane Adams)
Ally Sheedy as Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle)
Allison Janney as Trish (Cynthia Stevenson)
Ciarán Hinds as Bill (Dylan Baker)
Michael K. Williams as Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) !!!
Paul Reubens as Andy (Jon Lovitz) !!!!
Renée Taylor as Mona (Louise Lasser)
Chane't Johnson as Kristina (Camryn Manheim)

It looks like Ben Gazzara's character Lenny won't be in it and that Charlotte Rampling and Gaby Hoffmann will be playing new characters (the kids are all different too, by the way) and Paris Hilton doesn't have a character name listed yet. I can only hope that Forgiveness is Happiness good and not Palindromes bad. Look for it to open at one of the big film festivals later this year, and I'll be writing more about revisiting Solondz's films later on.

About time...

IndieWire reports that Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light, which premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and has been sitting in distribution limbo in the US (likely due to Tartan's demise), will make its way to the Film Forum on 9 January 2009. They didn't name who was releasing the film (nor does the IMDb), but there's a possibility that it may be Palisades first theatrical release since acquiring Tartan's UK and US libraries. The film, which is nominated this year for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film (yeah, I know, I don't quite understand their regulations), is the third film from Reygadas, who previously directed Japón and Battle in Heaven. Go out of your way to see it.

Requiem pour un con...

After the worldwide success of La vie en rose, it looks like an official Serge Gainsbourg biopic has started filming in France. No title yet, but still photographs show actor Eric Elmosnino (L'heure d'été) looking remarkable as Monsieur Gainsbourg. I'll post more as it comes to me, like the casting of the many women in his life: Brigitte Bardot, Anna Karina, Françoise Hardy, Bambou, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin (and, of course, Whitney Houston). Fingers crossed that this breaks the lousy musician biopic mold! By the way, Raro Video released his film Équateur, with Barbara Sukowa, earlier this year. Anyone see it?

Trois en plus

Yes, it looks as if one of the big "oversights" of the Cannes Film Festival announcement earlier this week was Fernando Meirelles' Blindness, but it's now confirmed that the film will open Cannes, out of competition. The film stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael García Bernal and will be released theatrically in the US from Miramax in September. Additionally, Laurent Cantet's (Human Resources, Time Out) Entre les murs and James Gray's (We Own the Night, The Yards) Two Lovers with Gwyneth Paltrow, Elias Koteas, Joaquin Phoenix and Isabella Rossellini will also be screened in competition this year. Can someone please explain to me why Gray's films keep popping up at Cannes, particularly after We Own the Night was reportedly booed this past year?

In other news, it looks as if the Coen brothers' new film Burn After Reading, a comedy, will be the opener of this year's Venice Film Festival which begins sometime in August. The film stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand. Focus Features will have the film out in the US in September.

May Fools

God, I totally forgot that the line-up for this year's Cannes film festival will be announced in a mere month, and The Hollywood Reporter has a line-up of possible films to make their way into this year's festival. Among the possibilities are:

- Michael Winterbottom's Geneva with Colin Firth, Catherine Keener and Hope Davis
- Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Messina (the only Jew in the cast, likely playing the Allen role) and Patricia Clarkson (you might know the film better as the one where Cruz and Johansson have a steamy lesbian sex scene)
- Two films from Steven Soderbergh, The Argentine and Guerilla, the first with Franka Potente, Benicio del Toro, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Demián Bichir, the latter with all the above plus Jordi Mollà, Benjamin Bratt, Joaquím de Almeida, and Julia Ormond
- Bertrand Tavernier's In the Electric Mist with Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Kelly Macdonald, Peter Sarsgaard and Ned Beatty
- Anh Hung Tran's (The Vertical Ray of the Sun) I Come with the Rain with Josh Hartnett and Elias Koteas
- Fernando Meirelles' Blindness with Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Sandra Oh, Gael García Bernal and Danny Glover
- Wim Wenders' The Palermo Shooting with Milla Jovovich, Dennis Hopper, Sebastian Blomberg, Patti Smith and Lou Reed
- Arnaud Desplechin's Un conte de Noël with Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Chaira Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Devos and Hippolyte Girardot
- Bertrand Bonnello's De le guerre with Asia Argento, Mathieu Amalric, Guillaume Depardieu, Aurore Clément, Michel Piccoli, Elina Löwensohn and Laurent Lucas
- Barbet Schroeder's Inju with Benoît Magimel.

Sounds fucking good to me, whether these films make it into the festival or not. Oh, and via the same source, Wong Kar-wai may debut his Ashes of Time Redux, a new version of his martial arts epic. A new version? That doesn't sound like Wong! (I'm being sarcastic, see below). Anyway, I can't wait until May.

Once I wanted to be...

What can we expect for the US release of My Blueberry Nights? According to the Weinsteins, the US version will differ greatly from the version which screened at Cannes (which I have seen and was rather lukewarm toward). This seems to be a trend for Wong Kar-wai. He caused a minor scandal a few years back when the Cannes release of 2046 was delayed due to it "not being ready." As far as I know, the version most of the world has seen of 2046 is not the version which screened at Cannes (to decidedly mixed reviews). Please correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe Wong's problem is that he hasn't been able to successfully follow up his breathtaking In the Mood for Love and has been even more unsatisfied with his last two films than most of his fans have been. May I offer a suggestion? Less Natalie Portman, less Rachel Weisz, more Chan Marshall. Okay, so I'm bias. Normally I would oppose of those slimy Weinsteins fucking with the film, but if you saw the film I did, it could certainly use some improvement. If anyone has more information about the US release of My Blueberry Nights, don't hesitate to share. My Blueberry Nights begins its limited release on 4 April, and here's the US poster below, which is probably the lousiest out of all the international posters for the film, which you can see at this link.


My original review of My Blueberry Nights, the non-US cut, can be found at this link.

Sundance 2008, baited breath

Good news for all Gregg Araki fans (they appear to need it after Smiley Face). The Living End will screen on January 18th at the Sundance Film Festival. Not only has the film been completely remastered and restored by Strand Releasing and Fortissimo Films, but it will appear in its uncut 92-minute version. This is fucking great news as the rest of the line-up for Sundance looks pretty snoozy (except for Bruce LaBruce's Otto; or Up with Dead People... yeah, gay, I know). I would expect a special edition DVD for The Living End (billed as "an irresponsible film by Gregg Araki") sometime in 2008 from Strand, and here's hoping that they can get their hands on the other unavailable Araki titles (Nowhere, Three Bewildered People in the Night, and the made-for-MTV-but-never-aired This Is How the World Ends) and fix the severe fuck-up of the Lionsgate/Trimark Doom Generation disc. Baby steps, I know, but here's hoping.

2008, baited breath

The spring of 2008 is already looking like a hot arena for world cinema, particularly if you're following IFC Films' releases for the early part of the year. Here's a rundown of some notables for the coming year.

Of course, I'm most excited about Catherine Breillat's latest, The Last Mistress [Une vieille maîtresse], which went home empty-handed at Breillat's first Cannes this past May but has received positive feedback on the North American festival circuit (even from her detractors). Sample dialogue: Asia Argento (to another woman): "Ugh! I hate everything feminine... except young boys of course." Brilliant. With Argento, Roxane Mesquida, Fu'ad Ait Aattou, Anne Parrillaud, Sarah Pratt, Amira Casar, Claude Sarraute, Yolande Moreau, Lio, Caroline Ducey. France/Italy. 25 April. IFC.

Romanian cinema has never felt so exciting as it has in the past two years, with the astounding Death of Mr. Lăzărescu and the lauded (though yet unseen by me) 12:08 East of Bucharest. The crowning jewel of this new attention is the Palme d'Or winner of 07, Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a minimalist abortion drama that's already scooping up a number of end-of-the-year critics prizes (it's main opposition in the non-English-speaking realm: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). With Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov. Romania. 25 January. IFC.

Winner of a special prize at this year's Cannes, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park is dazzling and frustrating, just like you like him. I can assure you it's a change in pace to his Death Trilogy, though still light-years away from, say, Finding Forrester. I just wish Gus would stop finding his "actors" on MySpace as the kids here are given much more to do than just walk dazed through hallways as they did in Elephant. With Gabe Nevins, Daniel Liu, Taylor Mornsen, Jake Miller. France/USA. 7 March. IFC.

Jacques Rivette's latest comes in the form of a period romance from a novel by Honoré de Balzac. Titled Ne touchez pas la hache (translated: Don't Touch the Axe), the film will be released under the more arthouse-approved title The Duchess of Langeais. With Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier. France/Italy. 22 February. IFC.

I guess there were people that liked Gummo. And I guess there will be people who'll cream themselves over Harmony Korine's high-concept Mister Lonely. It got surprisingly positive responses at Cannes, but you know how the French can be. With Diego Luna (as Michael Jackson), Samantha Morton (as Marilyn Monroe), Denis Lavant (as Charlie Chaplin), Anita Pallenberg (as The Queen of England), Joseph Morgan (as James Dean), Richard Strange (as Abraham Lincoln), Werner Herzog, Leos Carax, James Fox, David Blaine. USA/UK/France/Ireland. 30 April. IFC.

Although they have yet to do anything with the director's last film Mary, IFC picked up Abel Ferrara's latest Go Go Tales, a "screwball comedy" at a go-go dancin' club. The reception has been tepid, at best, but I know there are people who will watch anything the Bad Lieutenant director touches (even if all of them happen to live in France). Added bonus: Asia Argento makes out with a pit bull. With Willem Dafoe, Bob Hoskins, Matthew Modine, Argento, Lou Doillon, Pras. Italy/USA. Date UNK. IFC.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi has made her second feature as director/writer/actress in another tale about, well, herself. As much as I love the Franco-Italian actress (see Cote d'Azur or Time to Leave for reasons), her indulgence appears to be wearing thin on her admirers with Actresses [Actrices] (the film has gotten bad notices at nearly every festival it's played). Still, I'll see it. With Bruni Tedeschi, Noémie Lvosky, Louis Garrel, Mathieu Amalric, Valeria Golino. France. Date UNK. IFC.

I've gone on record stating that I kind of hate Christophe Honoré, the author-cum-filmmaker of the wretched Ma mère and the blah Dans Paris. But I've also gone on record stating my love for the musical, particularly France's interpretation of it (outside of Une Femme est une femme, damn you). Here's his take with Love Songs [Les Chansons d'amour]. With Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastorianni. France. 19 March. Red Envelope Entertainment/IFC.

I do not count myself among the followers of Canada's Guy Maddin, a pretentious bore whose The Saddest Music in the World and collection of shorts have made him a favorite among the film student crowd. His latest, My Winnipeg, won the prize for Best Canadian feature at the Toronto International Film Festival... because, well, other than David Cronenberg and Sarah Polley, how many working Canadian directors can you name? With Darcy Fehr (as Guy Maddin). Canada. Date UNK. IFC.

Hou Hsiaco-hsien's greatest fans don't reside in his homeland of Taiwan, or even the continent of Asia. They reside in, surprise, France, so it was no surprise at all that he crafted his first French-language feature this year with The Flight of the Red Balloon [Le voyage du ballon rouge], a strange take on the classic Red Balloon, making its rerelease rounds in the US right now. With Juliette Binoche, Hippolyte Girardot. France. 2 April. IFC.

Oh, Claude Chabrol, how you cease to thrill me outside of your collaborations with Isabelle Huppert. Thankfully, he's enlisted the lovely Ludivine Sagnier for his latest dark comedy/thriller A Girl Cut in Two [La Fille coupée en deux]. Every time you think the seventy-seven year old director has made his last, he churns out another. With Sagnier, Benoît Magimel, François Berléand. France/Germany. Date UNK. IFC.

IFC Films' calendar for 2008 is exhausting already, and here's the last of the crop: Tom Kalin's Savage Grace with Julianne Moore returning to more Safe material than The Forgotten. It's a docudrama about an infamous murder case from the 70s. Kalin hasn't directed a film since the early 90s with Swoon, so I'm most excited to see his long overdue follow-up. With Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Stephen Dillane, Hugh Dancy, Belén Rueda, Unax Ugalde, Elena Anaya. USA/Spain. 28 May. IFC.

The Hungarian dark comedy Ex Drummer went through plenty of turmoil when Jan Bucquoy tried to adapt Herman Brusselmans' novel in the mid-90s. Only now was it completed, with Koen Mortier in director's seat. The film follows the manipulation of a man who joins a rock band of three "handicapped" dudes. Rumor has it Mortier really pulls out all the "shock" punches with this one. With Dries Van Hegen, Norman Baert, Gunter Lamoot, Sam Louwyck. Hungary. Date UNK. Tartan USA.

Tartan is pulling a double bill of Hungarian shock cinema with György Pálfi's follow-up to his wildly original Hukkle, entitled Taxidermia. The film follows three men, according to the IMDb, "an obese speed eater, an embalmer of giant cats, and a man who shoots fire out of his penis." Hot. Hungary. Date UNK. Tartan USA.

Olivier Assayas' English-language crime thriller Boarding Gate boasts the third mention in this post by Miss Asia Argento, all three of which premiered at this year's Cannes with varying results. My friend Pete hated it, but he's disliked most of what Assayas has done, so I'm not fully convinced. His new French-language film with Juliette Binoche will be out from Sony Pictures Classics sometime later next year. With Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Ng, Kelly Lin, Alex Descas, Kim Gordon, Joana Preiss. France. 14 March. Magnet Releasing/Magnolia.

Michel Gondry's new film, Be Kind Rewind, sounds like just about the most fun you could have at the theatres come January. The film takes place in a video rental store during the VHS era where Jack Black aids Mos Def in making their own versions of such cinema classics as Ghostbusters. With Black, Mos Def, Mia Farrow, Danny Glover, Marcus Carl Franklin. USA. 25 January. New Line.

Unhappy with the lightness of the television series of the same name, the producers of City of God crafted their own sequel to the highly popular Brazilian film, called City of Men. With Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha, Jonathan Haagensen, Rodrigo dos Santos. Brazil. 18 January. Miramax.

Europe seems to think Turkish-German director Fatih Akin is the bee's knees after Head On and In July, two films that did nothing for me. He won the Best Screenplay award at this year's Cannes for his latest The Edge of Heaven. Germany/Turkey. Date UNK. Strand Releasing.

See if you can join the small crowd of people that actually enjoyed Wong Kar-wai's English-language debut, My Blueberry Nights, a curious starring vehicle for singer Norah Jones. I'm sure, at least, that it will be pretty. With Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, David Strathairn. Hong Kong/France/China. 13 February. Weinstein Company.

US Studios are still scared of the NC-17 rating. Even in the horror genre. I suppose it's because most of the audience for horror films, particularly the Saw films, is under 17... but still. The Weinstein Company is having issues with their pending release of the Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's gruesome French horror film Inside [À l'intérieur] due to its NC-17 rating. It's still suspected that they may do something with it around March, but it may shoot directly to an "unrated" DVD release instead. With Béatrice Dalle, Alysson Paradis. France. Date UNK. Weinstein Company.

There's a number of other films that I will touch upon later, but duty is calling and I must invest the rest of my time elsewhere! Until then...