On the first 33 MIFF presentation which took place today in Cannes first competition films and Jury members were announced. The 33 MIFF will be opened with the World Premiere of Hollywood blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon (dir. Michael Bay).
Actress Geraldine Chaplin, Israel director and art designer Amos Gitai and Mexican director Arturo Ripstein will join festival as the Jury members. The first competition films to be announced are:
Leaving / Odcházení, dir. Václav Havel
Czech Republic, 2011
The film is based on a certain symmetrical composition of scenes mapping the last two days of Rieger’s stay in the villa, before he is finally evicted. Those present are chiefly the residents of the villa, the secretaries making an inventory of the contents and visitors from outside, who arrive and then leave. They are either Vlasta and Albín or Jack and Bob, who are preparing an interview, or Bea. With each succeeding scene the situation gradually goes from bad to worse. Irena loses her respect for Rieger, particularly after she catches him with Bea in the gazebo. Vlasta not only goes back on her proposal to offer a roof but even proposes a change to Rieger’s will. The journalists turn out to be in the pay of the gutter press which won’t print Rieger’s replies to political questions, but focuses solely on his private life, so his departure from public life is cast in a disreputable light. The phase shortly before the end in which Rieger loses his mind is expressed by a wild romp of all the characters around the pool and in it, accompanied by a huge light show.
Joanna, dir. Feliks Falk
Poland, 2010
Everyday life in the German occupied Warsaw in the midst of the WW2 runs between efforts to find a job and therefore – something to eat, and the efforts to avoid “seizures” carried on regularly by Gestapo on the streets. One of the days takes away a Jewish woman, whose 8-year-old daughter accidentally manages to avoid the seizure, but now – left completely alone – hides in the nearby church, hungry and frozen almost to death. It is Joanna, an ordinary middle-class woman waiting for her husband to return home for over four years now, who sees the girl. She feels a natural, strong urge to help, but doesn’t know anyone of the underground opposition circles, who would be able to secure the safe home for the Jewish child. The gravest danger hangs over everyone involved as there is the death penalty for hiding a Jewish person. It is then when Joanna has to decide for herself whether to engage or whether to stay safe. With this choice the whole reality changes and lays bare before her eyes, leading to places she would never have expected she will experienced.
American Translation, dir. Pascal Arnold, Jean-Marc Barr
France, 2011
A love grows from a chance encounter between Chris and Aurore. They are twenty years old and their passion is exclusive. It's a beautiful love story like you see in the movies... But then Aurore discovers that Chris is a killer. Will she continue to live passionately, an accomplice in spite of herself, or denounce the one she loves in spite of everything?
Chapiteau-show, dir. Sergei Loban
Russia, 2011
Chapiteau-show is a film dealing with how people’s relationship reflect on their social intercourse and bonding – telling how tragically everything tend to seem from within, and how comical it really looks from the outside. The protagonists of the four stories told in the movie are connected to each other to a greater or lesser extent – some of them are acquainted in real life, other tend to communicate in different networks. Each one of them is living through his own, private drama not noticing what’s happening to other people. Each one of them delivers his own accusatory speech not knowing that the words he’s pronouncing are not really his. Their dramas deal with different types of human relationships – love, friendship, respect or cooperation, but all of these stories are evolving simultaneously. And the tempest in the soul of one character will reflect with a tempest in the soul of another. The action takes place far away from Moscow – on a sea shore, against serene scenery and beautiful rugged mountains. In the moments of crisis characters find themselves on the stage of a mystery gilly theater where each of them can sing his “swansong”.
