August 2006 | blackfilm.com | features

MARIE ANTOINETTE

Release Date: October 20, 2006
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Molly Shannon, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, Asia Argento, Marianne Faithful, Aurore Clement, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Mary Nighy

Synopsis: Kirsten Dunst portrays the young Austrian princess, who, as a teenager, becomes Queen of France. Jason Schwartzman portrays her indifferent husband Louis XVI. Other members of the ensemble, portraying various members of the elitist court of Versailles include Rip Torn (in the role of King Louis XV), Judy Davis (as the Comtesse de Noailles), Steve Coogan (as Mercy), Asia Argento (playing the Comtesse du Barry), Marianne Faithful (Maria-Teresa), Aurore Clement (Duchesse de Chartres), Molly Shannon (Aunt Victoire) and Shirley Henderson (Aunt Sophie).

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER AND PHOTOS - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060113/features/marieantoinette.shtml

BABEL

Release Date: October 27, 2006
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Cate Blanchett, Elle Fanning, Brad Pitt, Koll Yakusho

Synopsis:

Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family’s herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle… but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would.

In an instant, the lives of four separate groups of strangers on three different continents collide. Caught up in the rising tide of an accident that escalates beyond anyone’s control are a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett), a rebellious deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who, without permission, takes two American children across the border. None of these strangers will ever meet; in spite of the sudden, unlikely connection between them, they will all remain isolated due to their own inability to communicate meaningfully with anyone around them.

From Alejandro González Iñárritu comes a film that is at once intimate and epic, shot in four countries, cast with actors and non-actors, and concludes his trilogy that started with “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams.”

THE PRESTIGE

Release Date: October 27, 2006 (limited)
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Director: Christopher Nolan
Screenwriter: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, Piper Perabo, David Bowie

Synopsis: From acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "Batman Begins"), comes a mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.

From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them. Full of twists and turns, "The Prestige" is set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London, the exceptional cast includes two-time Oscar® winner Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER AND PHOTOS - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060707/features/theprestige.shtml

CATCH A FIRE

Release Date: October 27, 2006
Studio: Focus Features
Director: Phillip Noyce
Screenwriter: Shawn Slovo
Starring: Tim Robbins, Derek Luke, Bonnie Henna

Synopsis:
Shot on location in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Mozambique, this political thriller is based on the real-life story of Patrick Chamusso. The film takes place in South Africa, spanning from the country's turbulent and divided years in the 1980s to the present day. Patrick (played by Derek Luke) is an oil refinery employee and soccer player who is apolitical - until he and his wife are brutalized by government-sanctioned terror squads. Shocked into action, Patrick reorients his sense of self and purpose. Even as policeman Nic Vos (Academy Award winner Tim Robbins) further insinuates himself into the lives of Patrick and his family, Patrick becomes a rebel fighter and political operative, staging daring solo attacks against the brutal apartheid regime. Change must and will come, not only for South Africa but also for Patrick, Nic, and those closest to them.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER AND PHOTOS - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060805/features/catchafire.shtml

SAW III

Release Date: October 27, 2006
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Screenwriter: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus MacFadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Dina Meyer

Website: http://www.saw3.com/

Synopsis:
Jigsaw has disappeared. With his new apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith), the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) is unaware that she is about to become the latest pawn on his vicious chessboard.

One night, after finishing a shift at her hospital, Lynn is kidnapped and taken to an abandoned warehouse where she meets Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), bedridden and on the verge of death. She is told that she must keep the madman alive for as long as it takes Jeff (Angus Macfayden), another of his victims, to complete a game of his own. Racing against the ticking clock of Jigsaw's own heartbeat, Lynn and Jeff struggle to make it through each of their vicious tests, unaware that he has a much bigger plan for both of them...

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER AND PHOTOS - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060728/features/saw3.shtml

FLUSHED AWAY

Release Date: November 3, 2006
Distributor: Dreamworks Pictures
Directors: Sam Fell and David Bowers
Producers: Peter Lord, David Sproxton and Cecil Kramer
Screenwriters: Dick Clement, Ian LaFrenais
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian Mckellen, Andy Serkin, Bill Nighy, Shane Richie, Geoffrey Palmer, Simon Callow, Jean Reno

Synopsis:
From DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features, the teams behind the worldwide hit “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” comes the computer-animated comedy “Flushed Away.” Blending Aardman’s trademark style and characterizations with DreamWorks’ state-of-the-art computer animation, “Flushed Away” is a madcap comedy set on and beneath the streets of London.

Roddy is a decidedly upper-crust “society rat” who lives the life of a pampered pet in a posh Kensington flat, complete with two hamster butlers named Gilbert and Sullivan. When a common sewer rat named Syd comes spewing out of the sink and decides he’s hit the jackpot, Roddy schemes to rid himself of the pest by luring him into the “whirlpool.” Syd may be an ignorant slob, but he’s no fool, so it is Roddy who winds up being flushed away into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis. There Roddy meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Roddy immediately wants out, or rather, up; Rita wants to be paid for her trouble; and, speaking of trouble, the villainous Toad—who royally despises all rodents—wants them iced…literally. The Toad dispatches his two hapless hench-rats, Spike and Whitey, to get the job done. When they fail, the Toad has no choice but to send to France for his cousin—that dreaded mercenary, Le Frog.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER AND PHOTOS - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060127/features/flushedaway.shtml

VOLVER

Release Date: November 3, 2006
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Esther Garcia
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodovar
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Cast: Penelope Cruz, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo, Carmen Maura, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave, Antonio de la Torre, Leandro Rivera, Carmen Machi, Yolanda Ramos, Maria Isabel Diaz.

Synopsis:
"Volver" is a meeting of "Mildred Pierce" and "Arsenic and Old Lace", combined with the surrealistic naturalism of my fourth film, "¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!" ("What have I done to Deserve This?"), that is, Madrid and its lively working-class neighbourhoods, where the immigrants from the various Spanish provinces share dreams, lives and fortune with a multitude of ethnic groups and other races. At the heart of this social framework, three generations of women survive wind, fire and even death, thanks to goodness, audacity and a limitless vitality.

They are Raimunda (Pénelope Cruz), who is married to an unemployed labourer and has a teenage daughter (Yohana Cobo); Sole (Lola Dueñas), her sister, who makes a living as a hairdresser; and the mother of both (Carmen Maura), who died in a fire along with her husband. This character appears first to her sister (Chus Lampreave) and then to Sole, although the people with whom she has some unresolved matters are Raimunda and her neighbour in the village, Agustina (Blanca Portillo).

"Volver" is not a surrealistic comedy although it may seem so at times. The living and the dead coexist without any discord, causing situations that are either hilarious or filled with a deep, genuine emotion. It's a film about the culture of death in my native La Mancha. The people there practice it with an admirable naturalness. The way in which the dead continue to be present in their lives, the richness and humanity of their rites mean that the dead never die.

"Volver" destroys all the clichés about "black" Spain and offers a Spain that is as real as it is the opposite. A Spain that is white, spontaneous, funny, intrepid, supportive and fair.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS AND TRAILER - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060623/features/volver.shtml

A GOOD YEAR

Release Date: TBD
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Director: Ridley Scott
Producer: Ridley Scott
Screenwriter: Marc Klein, based on the book by Peter Junele
Cast: Russell Crowe, Mitchell Mullen, Marion Cotillard, Albert Finney, Tom Hollander, Didier Bourdon, Freddie Highmore, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Synopsis: An Englishman (Crowe) inherits a vineyard in Provence. Upon arriving at his new property, he meets an American woman who claims that the land is hers.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS AND TRAILER - http://www.blackfilm.com/20060602/features/agoodyear.shtml