The second edition of the American Film Festival came to an end. The Wrocław-based event was the only film event in Poland focused on American independent cinema. The audience saw 76 films, including 40 Polish, 6 European and 1 world premiere.
Just like at the first edition of the festival, the awards were given in the American Docs and Spectrum sections after an audience vote. The winners were announced at the closing gala of the festival on the 20th Nov. Out of the 11 US features...
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomfortably intimate HAPPINESS (1998) and the less well receive...
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomfortably intimate HAPPINESS (1998) and the less well received STORYTELLIN...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomf...
The PALINDROMES Interview by Craig ParishSolondzian Cruelty: No Such ThingLike a Palindrome the world turns in on itself, unchanged and unchanging. Director Todd Solondz still lives alone in the same place he did 10 years before WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE stormed Sundance in 1995.“Free will is an illusion but limitations are liberating” - TSBorn in 1959 in Newark, NJ, Solondz studied at NYU Film School and made severalshort films, one of which turned studio heads at 20th Century Fox. The upsi...
Other screenings on day 8 and 9 include Horizon selection Izo by Takashi Miike. An assassin for the anti-Shogun Lord Hampeida is crucified in 1865 and comes back to revenge his murder. But what has he learned? The film is an endictment on war and displays a basic hatred of women for giving life. Briefly featuring Beat Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano) as prime minister, the film reminds Venice fest goers of what cinema is about with multilayered tableau, entries to new worlds, imagery that confronts. ...
