Foreign Language Films

  

Bollywood superstarAamir Khan makes his long-awaited return to the big screen, in the mystery thriller TALAASH which opens in theaters worldwide on November 30. The award-winning actor and producer will be joined by not one, but two of India’s most popular actresses – Rani Mukherji and Kareena Kapoor.

TALAASH finds Khan playing an inspector investigating the death of a film star which could be an accident, or a crime. Following the suspicious death of a popular film star who plunged into the waters in his car, Inspector Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) investigates in order to determine whether it was an accident, or a crime. To find the truth in this complex case, he will be forced to confront his past.

The actor starred in and produced 2001’s Lagaan, India’s last motion picture to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Khan’s last film, 2009’s Three Idiots, smashed box office records becoming reportedly the highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all-time in North America. No film since has come close to its record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn5QXaHpKGU

 

Read more

 [caption id="attachment_2902" align="alignnone" width="1020"]Nicolas Maury as Ruben and Carmen Maura as Rachel in LET MY PEOPLE GO! A film by Mikael Buch. A Zeitgeist Films release.[/caption]

The French, Jewish, Gay comedy Let My People Go! is coming to America; the film by Mikael Buch will
open at the Quad Cinema in New York on January 11 and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal and Town Center on January 18, 2013.  A national release will follow.

Described as, A sweet and hilarious fusion of gay romantic comedy, Jewish family drama and French bedroom farce, Mikael Buch’s Let My People Go! follows the travails and daydreams of the lovelorn Reuben (Regular Lovers’ Nicolas Maury), a French-Jewish gay mailman living in fairytale Finland (where he got his MA in “Comparative Sauna Cultures”) with his gorgeous Nordic boyfriend. But just before Passover, a series of mishaps and a lovers’ quarrel exile the heartbroken Reuben back to Paris and his zany family—including Almodovar goddess Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver) as his ditzy mom, and Truffaut regular Jean-François Stévenin as his lothario father.

 

Read more

SIMON AND THE OAKS, the award winning feature film directed by Lisa Ohlin will open in New York at The Paris Theater and in Los Angles at The Landmark on October 12, 2012.  A national release will follow.

Simon and The Oaks, a major commercial success in its native Sweden, has received a record 13 nominations for the 2012 Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards (the local equivalent of the Oscars), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Cinematography.  

An epic drama spanning the years 1939 to 1952, this is the gripping story of Simon (played as the adult by Bill Skarsgaard, son of Stellan, and named by the Berlin Film Festival Jury as one of the Shooting Stars of 2012 for this performance), who grows up in a loving working class family on the outskirts of Gothenburg but always feels out of place. Intellectually gifted, he stubbornly persists in acquiring an education normally reserved for young men of the professional classes, much to the chagrin of his parents who fear that he will become stuck up. He finally convinces his father to send him to an upper-class grammar school, where he meets Isak, the son of a wealthy Jewish bookseller who has fled Nazi persecution in Germany.  Simon is dazzled by the books, art and music he encounters in the home of Isak’s father Ruben (Jan Josef Leifers), which makes Simon long to know more about his own family background. Isak, on the other hand, draws comfort from learning to do something with his hands, helping Simon’s dad (Stefan Godicke) make boats. When Isak faces trouble at home, he is taken in by Simon’s family and the two households slowly merge, connecting in unexpected ways as war rages all over Europe.

SIMON AND THE OAKS is based on the Swedish bestseller of the same name, written by Marianne Fredriksson. It offers a unique depiction of fate, destiny and free will and vividly portrays the situation for Jews in Sweden during World War II.

Read more

Production on the set of the Bollywood action movie “Bbuddha” starring Amitabh Bachchan was brought to a screeching halt, in Mumbai on Tuesday after a political party protested against the use of foreign dancers.

Read more

Pamela Anderson is currently starring in Big Boss, India’s version of Big Brother and reportedly said that she is a fan of Bollywood and would love to re-launch her career there.

Read more

Canadian director Bruce LaBruce’s controversial gay porn horror film LA Zombie, which stars a French porn star as a schizophrenic homeless man who believes he is a cannibalistic ghoul,” and depicts homosexual sex, full-frontal male nudity, and necrophilia, was withdrawn from the Melbourne International Film Festival in July after it failed to get a pass from the Australian Film Classification Board.

Read more

The Indian medical community is upset with producers of the Bollywood film Guzaarish after posters were released showing the lead actress holding a cigarette. Doctors think it is sending a wrong message to the youth on smoking.

Read more

Ethiopia has its first contender for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with (Ateltu) “The Athlete’. Co-directed by Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew, the low budget independent film is about Ethiopian barefoot marathon runner, Abeba Bikila who became the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal. Rasselas Lakew, who also wrote the screenplay, plays Abeba Bikila.

Read more

Film Movement is bringing Eran Riklis’s “The Human Resources Manager,” to the US with plans for a theatrical release in March of 2011. The film, “Human Resources Manager” was the winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival and is Israel’s foreign film submission for the Academy Award.

Read more

Zeitgeist Films presents the US theatrical release of VISION, a film by Margaretha von Trotta. Official Selection – Telluride and Toronto film festivals, VISION will open in Los Angeles at Laemmle theaters on November 12.  A national release will follow.

Read more

The San Francisco Film Society, New Italian Cinema Events of Florence, Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco present New Italian Cinema, November 14 – 21 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. The eight-day festival is dedicated to bringing Italy’s newest directors and films to Bay Area audiences and celebrating the country’s rich cinematic tradition. The 2010 edition opens with Ferzan Ozpetek’s humorous drama Loose Cannons and a three-film retrospective of this talented and prolific auteur’s work, and closes with Paolo Virzì’s moving new film The First Beautiful Thing. The core program of New Italian Cinema features seven recent films by breakthrough filmmakers vying for the City of Florence Award.

Read more

Olive Films will present the US theatrical release of Germany’s Oscar entry for 2011, WHEN WE LEAVE, a film by Feo Aladag, starring Sibel Kekilli (Head-On).  Winner of BEST FILM and BEST ACTRESS awards at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, as well as winner of BEST ACTRESS award at the German Film Awards, WHEN WE LEAVE will have its US Theatrical premiere in New York and Los Angeles in January 2011.  A national release will follow.

Read more