The Oscar-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain" to take part in the evening tribute event the FilmFest is dedicating to Sergio Leone.   As a member of the Film Foundation, Ang Lee has been designated by Martin Scorsese to introduce the world premiere of the restored version of "Once Upon a Time in the West", a joint effort between the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, Scorsese’s Film Foundation, and Paramount Pictures. The project was announced in Rome a year ago by Scorsese...

During the ten days of the Berlinale most Berlin dailies adorn their front page with large colour photos of celebrity clowning the night before. On Thursday, day number 7 of the fest, however, what was to be seen on all Berlin front pages were shots of men in hooded white spacesuits holding up dead swans fished out of the city lakes, or otherwise attempting to deal with the sudden arrival of the dreaded aviary virus in the midst of the city. Of course, this does not mean that we can expect to s...

Why was Heath Ledger (Ennis) nominated for Brokeback Mountain for the Golden Globes, and not Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack)? The Hollywood Foreign Press managed to nominate all the Desparate Housewives! But not the desparate ones from Brokeback Mountain (Michelle Williams, Anne Hatheway), their roles not really fleshed out. If 'love is a force of nature', as the film poster states, why not equal awards to both actors? Could it be that it is assumed that it is harder to play someone coming to terms wi...

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN – MAKING A MOLEHILL OUT OF A MOUNTAIN The outraged attack by some people on Brokeback Mountain for being a ‘gay Western’ is based on blind ignorance, reducing a complex relationship mountain to a gay molehill. Not surprising, since most of the bigots haven’t even seen the film. Andrew L. Urban puts them straight (as it were).In Australia, famous Fred Nile, leader of the narrow minded, is agitating for some way of blocking screenings of Brokeback Mountain because he’s...