Letters from Iwo Jima
February 23rd - March 1st, 2007 United States. 2006. War drama. Dir.: Clint Eastwood. 141 min. With Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. Official Website After bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in his film Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood offers an equally thoughtful portrait of the Japanese forces who held the island for 36 days in this military drama. In 1945, World War II was in its last stages, and U.S. forces were planning to take on the Japanese on a small island known as Iwo Jima. ‘’When the young men were shipped off to the island for combat, they already knew their odds for survival - that for every 10 of them, 8 or 9 would not return. Their lives and sacrifices are etched in Japanese history, and deservedly so. It is my hope to make these individuals known to the rest of the world, and not just in Japan. With Letters From Iwo Jima, it is my intention to portray the battle, from their perspective, through their eyes. From whichever perspective, soldiers who sacrifice their lives in battle are worthy of respect. These 2 films are my way of paying tribute to those fallen soldiers. By telling the stories of these men from both perspectives, it is my hope that the films will illustrate the things in common that both sides shared, and allow us to look at that difficult time in our history with entirely new eyes.’’
"Eastwood's direction here is a thing of beauty, blending the ferocity of the classic films of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) with the delicacy and unblinking gaze of Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story)." "Letters from Iwo Jima isn't just the film that Eastwood wanted to make, but one that the film's producer Steven Spielberg had tried to make twice with "Empire of the Sun" and "Saving Private Ryan."
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Advertising films, that's real cinema!
February 23rd - March 1st, 2007 Preceeded by short animation film THE DANISH POET International. 2006. 96 min. Advertising. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Established in 1954, the Cannes Advertising Film Festival is the largest annual gathering of international advertising, where the most prestigious advertising awards are handed out. In 2007, the Cinema du Parc has the pleasure of the event ADVERTISING FILMS, THAT’S REAL CINEMA ! ( THE WORLD’S BEST COMMERCIALS) with the Qui fait Quoi collaboration. In this new program, you will see among others, a series of advertisements created by renowned director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation). The popular rock band The White Stripes has even written a song exclusively for Coca-Cola. See 30-second short films over and over again, such as Pulp Fiction, Exorcist, Titanic and many others that are encapsulated into 30 seconds by comical rabbits. Original quality advertising films experience worldwide growing success year after year, not only when they are presented as a program, as is the case with Cinema du Parc, but also when they can be viewed individually on television or even at the movies For the movie lover as well as for the entertainment devotee, for the profane as well as for the advertising professional, there's a little for every taste. There's enough to constitute a faithful reflection of advertising production in 2006.
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The Danish Poet
February 23rd - March 1st, 2007 Followed by ADVERTISING FILMS, THAT'S REAL CINEMA! Norway - Canada .2006. Animation - Short. Dir.: Torill Kove. 14 min. Narration by Liv Ullmann. Official Website Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter? The narrator of The Danish Poet considers these questions as we follow Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer, Sigrid Undset. As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all. The technique of this film is cell animation. It was drawn in pencil on paper, then scanned and coloured digitally. All of the backgrounds were made the same way except the skies, which were oil painted by Montreal artist Anne Ashton.
1 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION
Original English version
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El Laberinto del Fauno
February 23rd - March 1st, 2007 Mexico / Spain. 2006. Fantasy-Drama. Dir.: Guillermo Del Toro. 112 min. With Ivana Baquero, Sergi López and Maribel Verdú. Official Website PAN’S LABYRINTH unfolds through the eyes of Ofelia, a dreamy little girl who is uprooted to a rural military outpost commanded by her new stepfather. Powerless and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Ofelia lives out her own dark fable as she confronts monsters both otherworldly and human.
‘’ Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro is best-known to English-speaking audiences for his ghoulish, comic-book adaptations such as Hellboy or Blade II, but he also makes more personal Spanish-language films such as Chronos and The Devil's Backbone. Like that latter film, Pan's Labyrinth is a child's story set against the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, and it may well be his masterpiece. This is like no movie you've seen before, a haunting mixture of horror, history and fantasy that works simultaneously on every level. ’’ " Del Toro handles this rich narrative in a way that goes far beyond mere deftness - this is incredibly passionate filmmaking, its digital effects shots included. And while it's a paean to imagination, its devastating conclusion is far more layered than typical Hollywood "fantasy will set you free" bromides, and the film's stout-hearted contempt for cruelty of all kinds is uncanny, and inspiring. " " Pan's Labyrinth like his terrific 2001 The Devil’s Backbone, Mexican horrormeister Guillermo del Toro's new movie offers us both real-life and fantastical monsters, and if you know his work, you won't waste time figuring out which to root for " " Visually stunning, it meshes haunting images with a complex multilevel story about the enchantment of youth. " " Pan's Labyrinth is a transcendent work of art. " 6 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS Original Spanish version with French Subtitles - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
