Rachel Rosen, director of programming for the San Francisco Film Society, Benoit Jacquot, director of FAREWELL, MY QUEEN, and Melanie Blum, SFFS interim executive director, arriving at Opening Night of the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 19, 2012. Photo © Pamela Gentile, courtesy of San Francisco Film Society
The longest-Running Film Festival in the Americas Enjoys a Spectacular Year with Superb Programming, Numerous Spe...
"The vibrant new film adaptation of the Anton Chekhov novella The Duel...nails also the essential qualities of comic indolence and dangerous yearning in Chekhov, which have proved so elusive time after time, in adaptation after adaptation.... The Duel looks beautiful, but it is not merely so. It doesn't carry the baggage of an important adaptation; it's deft, droll and languorously sexy.... This film is indeed something like a miracle." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune [Read the r...
Director: Dover Kosashvili.
The pivot point is an emotional and psychological triangle: a civil servant, Laevsky (Andrew Scott, appalling and appealing); his married mistress, Nadya (Fiona Glascott, a milky beauty); and a zoologist, Von Koren (Tobias Menzies, suitably rigid). The story gets going with Laevsky bitterly complaining about Nadya to an older friend, a doctor, Samoylenko (Niall Buggy). Laevsky claims to no longer care for Nadya, who, having left her husband, now inspires her lover’s contempt or, perhaps, fatigue. Like a caged animal, he wants out and claws at Samoylenko as Von Koren watches and seethes, stoking his loathing for Laevsky. For his part, by cutting to Nadya during Laevsky’s rant and capping the scene with a disapproving look from Von Koren, Mr. Kosashvili suggests that his own sympathies are divided.
The opening of B-EST International Film Festival 2009, 5th edition, will take place on March 23rd, at Studio Cinema Hall.The event will commence with VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, directed by Woody Allen, thus keeping the festival’s tradition of presenting for the first time in Romania films that have achieved recognition in famous film festivals around the world.The film tells the story of two American women (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson), who are spending their summer in Spain, where they...
