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Release - 2009 Program |
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| 19/11/2009 |
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AVATARS, DETECTIVES AND ZOMBIES AT THE NOIR FEST
The 19th Courmayeur Noir in Festival (December 7-13, 2009) is marked by variety within a genre that no theorizing has yet encapsulated and ordered into a single formula. Avatars and mutants, zombies and vampires, detectives and spies, desperate men and dangerous criminals will rendezvous at the foot of Mont Blanc for a irresistible offering of emotions, thrillers, laughs and nightmares, that never ceases to examine and reflect upon reality.
“We’re not afraid to join entertainment and civic passion, new languages and traditions,” say festival directors Giorgio Gosetti, Marina Fabbri and Emanuela Cascia. “It is precisely this combination that makes our festival unique, a not-to-be missed event of cinema and literature, among historical memory and the documentation of the real, cartoons and television, discovery and celebration. Next year, the challenge of our 20th anniversary awaits us, and we wanted to prepare ourselves by laying all of noir’s cards on the table.”
The figures of the Courmayeur Noir in Festival 2009: 29 films (of which four first films and five second films) that range from premieres, tributes and documentaries; six TV series; 30 writers from throughout the world; four days of panels and in-depth discussions; five film awards and three literary awards; two creative workshops for the “festival within a festival” MiniNoir; a lecture by Adrian Wootton in honor of Raymond Chandler; a graphic design exhibit; a concert; a play; and a seminar on film criticism.
The guests of a Festival that Variety deems should not be missed: Oscar-winning author-screenwriter Diablo Cody with her new film, Jennifer’s Body; the criminal Renato Vallanzasca, author and protagonist of Carlo Bonini’s book-interview, Il Fiore del Male; Michael Caine, the wonderful star of Harry Brown, this year’s opening film; Leonardo Padura Fuentes (winner of the 2009 Raymond Chandler Award), the imaginative narrator and free voice of Cuban culture; Federico Zampaglione, musician (who will perform with his new group The Alvarius) and director (with his newest film, Shadow); Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo, who inspired two episodes of the new series of Crimini, one of which is set among the snows of Courmayeur; the virtual creatures of James Cameron’s new masterpiece Avatar: an extended prmo of the film will be screening simultaneously with the world premiere of the film.
This year’s theme – blending memory and news, film and literature, civil action and historical research – will be the anniversary of December 12, 1969, “Piazza Fontana Day.” Discussing this Italian mystery, its judicial and investigative consequences and above all its political and social implications for our collective memory will be Gaetano Savatteri, journalist Paolo Cucchiarelli and judge Guido Salvini, along with essayists, writers and commentators.
The genres and themes most present in this year’s film selection are: the return in grand style of the undead (the hilarious parody Zombieland) and warriors of a distant future (the mutants of the Mutant Chronicles, finally making their way to the big screen); the legacy of the celluloid classics from Jean-Pierre Melville (evoked in by Johnnie To in Vengeance) to 1970s Blaxploitation (parodied in Black Dynamite); the rediscovery of social and civil noir with the illegal immigrants of Jackie Chan (Shinjuku Incident); the urban disenfranchised (The Queen of Clubs); the spies who brought down the Berlin Wall (Farewell); psychological drama (Tomorrow at Dawn); new examples of Italian noir such as the exercise in style that is the Manetti Bros’ Cavie and the marathon of TV series Il Mostro di Firenze, directed by Antonello Grimaldi for Fox Crime (an official partner of the Festival).
This same versatility also spans the writers present in 'The Dark Page' literary meetings: a lesson on contemporary noir by James Sallis (president of this year’s international jury) and the labyrinths of the psycho-thriller in the new novel by Sebastian Fitzek (The Child); the return of Matt Haig (after The Dead Fathers Club) with the sophisticated mystery The Last Family in England, and Jonathan Rabb with his cinephile fresco of Fritz Lang’s Berlin (Shadow and Light); the enigmatic historical crime novel by Carlo A. Martigli (999: L’Ultimo Custode) and the adventures of an Indian Hercule Poirot by Tarquin Hall (The Case of the Missing Servant); the great Spanish tradition of Juan Madrid (Pajaro en Mano) and the rebels of the new Berlin narrated by Zoran Drvenkar in Sorry. There is also the fiction debut of Gianni Canova (Palpebre) and Marco Lombardi (I Nuovi Amici), a journey through the voices of “Sardinia in Noir” (Angioni, Bellu, Fois, Murgia, Saba, Todde) and the five finalists of the Premio Giorgio Scerbanenco – La Stampa Award for the Best Italian Genre Novel.
There are five films in the DocNoir sidebar (organized in collaboration with the Festival dei Popoli) vying for the Mystery Award presented by a jury of young critics: the daily violence under the Mexican sun of Welcome to Tijuana and the snowy cold of repression in Chechnya told in Entre Ours et Loup; the frightening topicality of a massacre that becomes a game (Playing Columbine) and the game of massacring by the ‘Ndrangheta in Duisburg (Mobsters Without Borders); and recent American politics traversed by the madness of The Killer Poet, told by Susan Gray, director of Citizen Berlusconi.
There are four highly anticipated film premieres in MiniNoir: the hysterical catastrophes in 3D of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, from the children’s book by Judi Barrett; animated Italian film Cuccioli – Il Codice di Marco Polo, presented in world premiere by director Sergio Manfio; Stefan Ruzowitzky’s fairy tale Lilly the Witch: The Dragon and the Magic Book; and the TV series Casper’s Scare School, presented by Cartoon Network.
There are five top-quality series in the sidebar TV Noir: in collaboration with Fox Crime, besides the marathon of Il Mostro di Firenze, also showing will be the premiere of Episode 1 of the 10th series of CSI: Las Vegas and the pilot of White Collar (the most-watched series in the US today), starring Matt Bomer. Thanks to CBS, we will also present the pilot of The Good Wife, produced by Ridley and Tony Scott and featuring Chris Noth (“Mister Big” of Sex and the City) and Julianna Margulies (ER). Italian TV will be represented by two new episodes of Crimini: Neve Sporca by Davide Marengo, from Giancarlo De Cataldo; and Niente di Personale by Ivano De Matteo, from Carlo Lucarelli and Giampiero Rigosi.
The retrospective Spanish Noir of the 50s offers five films, organized with the Instituto Cervantes in Milan. Five police dramas from a political season we know little about, the height of Francoism: Julio Salvador’s Apartado de Correos, Ignacio F. Inquino’s Brigada Criminal, Julio Coll’s Distrito Quinto, José Luis Sáenz de Heredia’s Los Ojos Dejan Huellas and Francisco Pérez-Dolz’s A Tiro Limpio (from the early 1960s). It will be particularly interesting to compare these works with the contemporary Spanish noir we will host at Courmayeur this year: Patxi Amézcua’s Catalan film 25 Carats and literary guest Juan Madrid.
The poster for the 2009 Festival was created by the American artist who goes by the Orwellian pseudonym Winston Smith; the MiniNoir poster by Enrico Sangiorgio (IED Milano); and the new Festival trailer by Frame by Frame.
On the right, you may download on the right full Press Release including details of films and books in the program.
In the photogallery, you may download high-res 2009 Poster.
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