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Fire on ice for Noir 17 |
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| 01/11/2007 |
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The noir genre has crowned its king of 2007: lawyer/writer Scott Turow, who invented the modern legal thriller with Presumed Innocent and is this year’s recipient of the Courmayeur Noir in Festival’s most coveted prize, the Raymond Chandler Award for a literary career, which in previous editions has gone to eminent authors such as John le Carré, John Grisham and Elmore Leonard.
Like every year at the onset of winter, from December 4-10 Courmayeur will adorn itself in yellow and black to celebrate the directors, actors, writers and leading figures of mystery, between fiction and reality.
Directed by Emanuela Cascia, Marina Fabbri and Giorgio Gosetti, and promoted by the Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta, Comune di Courmayeur, Aiat, with partnerships from private sponsors (MINI, Gruppo Napapijri, Fox Crime, Casinò de la Vallée) and support from the General Direction for Cinema, the Courmayeur Noir in Festival was recently also included in “international film bible” Variety's list of “50 unmissable film festivals” throughout the world. The only one of its genre, it has become famous precisely for its balanced mix of cinema, literature, television, comic strips, crime news and top international intrigues.
There are 16 films in competition (all Italian premieres), 20 writers bringing their highly-anticipated new novels and six awards: three for cinema, a new one for documentaries, the Scerbanenco Award for best Italian novel and a “Super Scerbanenco” for the best noir of the past 15 years.
The most anticipated films include Xavier Gens’ Hitman, in which emerging star Timothy Olyphant (the bad guy in Live Free or Die Hard) plays the mysterious Agent 47; Joshua by George Ratliff, featuring the most evil child of recent years; Michael Radford’s deadly thriller Flawless, with Michael Caine and Demi Moore; Jar City by Iceland’s Balthasar Karmakur; as well as numerous surprises in from Italy.
The literary guests include best-selling Swedish author Asa Larsson, whose Sun Storm is being turned into a film starring Izabella Scorupco and will be released this November.
There are also special programs, premieres and events for children and adolescents through MINI Noir (in collaboration with the European Institute of Design) and compelling documentaries, such as Terror’s Advocate by Barbet Schroeder and The Dictator Hunter on Reed Brody, the most tenacious “bounty hunter” on the international human rights scene.
This year, there will two themes, rather than one, for our special daylong events: Chi ha ucciso la giustizia? (“Who killed justice?”), with a look at legality by the leading judges, journalists and writers; and “Crime novels against Ecocrimes”), organized in collaboration with newly established publishers Verde Nero).
2007 is a year of special celebrations for the Courmayeur Noir in Festival as it marks the 20th edition of the Raymond Chandler Award (whose first edition went to Graham Greene), the 15th anniversary of the Giorgio Scerbanenco – La Stampa Award for Italian noir and the 17th edition of the festival, which since 1993 has resided at the foot of Mont Blanc. “Number Seventeen,” like the title of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s early films, will surely be a lucky one for Courmayeur.
The poster of the year is designed by Antonello Silverini
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