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Release - 2011 Program |
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| 23/11/2011 |
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THE END OF DAYS AT THE 21ST COURMAYEUR NOIR IN FESTIVAL
Since the dawn of time, human beings have been irresistibly fascinated by the apocalypse. Even Jorge Luis Borges asked: “Why are we attracted to the endings of things? (…) Why does tragedy enjoy a kind of respect that comedy does not? Why do we feel that the happy ending is fictitious?” As we approach the “fateful” 2012, the Noir in Festival is not shying away from this fascination. On the contrary, we are placing it at the center of our reflections on rationality and in society in the face of the crisis that has been plaguing the entire Western world since the start of the new millennium.
As part of the discussion The Dark Side: Will an apocalypse save us? led by conspiracy “fanatic” and journalist Ranieri Polese, we will hear analyses by economist Giulio Sapelli, audiovisual scholar Gianni Canova and writers Tullio Avoledo and Davide Dileo (co-authors of Un buon posto per morire), Antonio Scurati (La seconda mezzanotte), Tommaso Pincio. As well as environmentalist and literary critic Valerio Calzolaio and nuclear physicist-crime writer Federico Tavola, who will speak on various aspects of our permanent contemporary apocalypse and discuss “exit strategies” towards possible, sustainable change.
The other part of The Dark Side, entitled Italian cinema responds, looks at our film industry’s rediscovered civic sense, in search for answers in individual and collective dignity. Moderated by journalist and writer Gaetano Savatteri, the discussion will feature screenwriters, directors, investigative reporters and film and television producers. Organized with support from Cinecittà Luce, the panel is the first step in a permanent observatory dedicated to Italian audiovisual production.
With the collaboration of the Centro Studi Alessandro Milano in Courmayeur, we will also revisit a chapter in the town’s history: the apocalypse announced for July 14, 1960 by the mysterious and folkloristic “Mont Blanc prophet” Elio Bianco (a.k.a. Fratello Emman).
The Noir in Festival is, as always, a unique cocktail of cinema, literature, television, current events, graphic design and new media. This year’s cinematic guest of honor is director Stephen Frears, who will speak of the “noir” side of his multi-faceted career, from his feature debut Gumshoe to the apocalyptic TV movie Fail Safe, The Grifters and Dirty Pretty Things. The film section also features 10 premieres in competition, three out-of-competition titles, the international documentary selection, and new television series offered this year with Festival media partner FoxCrime.
This year’s film line-up includes the financial stock market/banking thrillers Margin Call (starring Kevin Spacey and Demi Moore) and De bon matin with Jean-Pierre Darroussin; cult director Andrew Niccol’s futuristic nightmare, In Time; Na Hong-jin’s high-octane urban noir The Yellow Sea; Norway’s Headhunters, written by the king of thrillers, Jø Nesbo; the chilling portraits of youth despair We Need To Talk About Kevin with Tilda Swinton and Martha Marcy May Marlene, starring Elisabeth Olsen in a breakthrough role; the shockfest Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, penned by Guillermo Del Toro; new 3D horror flick Paranormal Xperience by Sergi Vizcaino; the irresistible black comedies Bernie, Richard Linklater’s latest (featuring an extraordinary Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey), and Russian director Sergei Bodrov’s A Yakuza’s Daughter; and the explosive reportage Khodorkovsky, on the trial and imprisonment of the much-talked about Russian tycoon.
Television titles include the brand new series Homeland, the return of cult heroes Luther and Dexter, special event of the closing night will be the Danish director Benjamin Christensen’s horror masterpiece Seven Footprints to Satan, with live musical accompanied by Pivio and Aldo De Scalzi. And then there are the myriad surprises in Mini Noir, such as the premieres of Dolphin Tale (with Ashley Judd), the last installment of Luc Besson’s Arthur trilogy, The War of the Two Worlds; and Maccio Capatonda La villa Di Lato, adapted from his web series.
Noir’s literature section this year is chock-full of “heirs” – some of a glorious literary tradition, others of famous masters. Beginning with guest of honor Lawrence Block, who will also be at the Festival as a jury member and is also part of the prestigious anthology Millennium Thriller, edited by genre veteran Otto Penzler and James Ellroy, which will be presented at Courmayeur by Penzler. Then there’s British writer C.M. Jones, who used his experience in business intelligence to take over the political espionage reins from John Le Carré, while best-selling author Åke Edwardson, three-time winner of Sweden’s Best Thriller Award, is considered the successor to Henning Mankell.
The current success of Scandinavian crime drama has other surprises in store for Noir audiences, such as Finnish writer Matti Rönka, who explores the mysteries of the Karelia region, and Swedish globetrotting journalist Thomas Kanger. Heirs of the hard-hitting Anglo-Saxon tradition of investigative reporting, The Guardian’s investigations editor David Leigh and Moscow correspondent Luke Harding are bringing to Courmayeur their controversial book on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. As every year, there are also discoveries, such as Britain’s Stephen Kelman, whose debut novel has been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, and criminologist Federico Varese, who from Oxford analyzes the global expansion of Italy’s most successful export: the Mafia.
Also heirs of a grand culture are the joint winners of the Festival’s 2011 Raymond Chandler Career Award: Andrea Camilleri and Petros Markaris. The masters will revisit the lessons of Georges Simenon and the “particular way of conceiving human relationships,” as Camilleri has called the Mediterranean crime novel, and will speak to us together on today’s crisis and injustices.
Lastly, two important anniversaries round out our rich program. On the eve of the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’ birth (2012), Adrian Wootton and Masolino D’Amico will look at noir’s historic roots in the great Victorian social novel. While on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Giorgio Scerbanenco – the father of Italian noir – we remember him as an inquisitive explorer of literary territories other than noir and uniquely in keeping with this year’s theme: the apocalypse.
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