BELLA IN THE FESTIVAL OF TORONTO

23 de August 2006

By Etan Vlessing

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - The latest movies from Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott, Anthony Minghella, Douglas McGrath and Patrice Leconte will get the red carpet treatment at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, organizers said Tuesday as they released the full 352-film lineup.

Festival organizers said they have booked world premieres for Minghella's "Breaking and Entering," a drama about intersecting lives in London that stars Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn and Vera Farmiga; and Scott's "A Good Year," the Russell Crowe vehicle about an investment banker who moves to southern France. 20th Century Fox will release the film November 10.

Both will receive high-profile festival sendoffs at Roy Thomson Hall, as will Leconte's comedy "Mon meilleur ami" (My Best Friend), starring Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon, and Verhoeven's "Zwartboek" (Black Book), a Dutch-language thriller about a feisty German Jewish girl surviving World War II.

The festival already announced that Canadian Inuit-language film "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen" will kick things off September 7 with a gala premiere.

Closing Toronto nine days later is the world premiere of Michael Apted's "Amazing Grace," which stars Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Michael Gambon and Albert Finney.

In all, Toronto will unspool 352 films from 61 countries. That compares with 335 films last year. This year's crop includes 261 features, most of which are world, international or North American premieres.

Festival programmers booked a North American premiere for the "other" Truman Capote biopic, McGrath's "Infamous," which will shift to Toronto after opening in Venice. Also making the Venice-to-Toronto jump is Xiaogang Feng's "The Banquet," an ancient Chinese battle picture starring Ziyi Zhang and Daniel Wu.

There also is a North American premiere scheduled for Danish director Susanne Bier's "After the Wedding," which stars Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Rolf Lassgard.

Toronto also promoted two previously announced films for gala presentations: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel," starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal, and the Reese Witherspoon starrer "Penelope."

Among the 20-strong field of high-profile movies unspooling at Roy Thomson Hall are eight U.S. offerings and eight European titles, including Pedro Almodovar's "Volver," and "The White Planet," from French directors Thierry Piantanida, Thierry Ragobert and Jean Lemire.

Festival co-director Noah Cowan said he foresees strong interest in U.S. titles given that such films as Mark Palansky's "Penelope," Leon Ichaso's "El Cantante," Christopher N. Rowley's "Bonneville" and Scott Caan's "The Dog Problem" will all go into Toronto with North American rights up for grabs.

At the same time, Cowan noted a number of foreign-language titles with an accessible, U.S. independent sensibility that he anticipates major film buyers pursuing. These include such galas as "After the Wedding," which broke box office records in Denmark; the big-budget Hong Kong movie "The Aunt's Postmodern Life," directed by Ann Hui and starring Chow Yun Fat and Zhao Wei; and Margarethe von Trotta's German erotic thriller "I Am the Other Woman."

A record 123 feature films and documentaries from EU member countries will unspool in Toronto.

Six French films will receive world premieres in Toronto, including Anne Fontaine's "Nouvelle Chance," which stars Danielle Darrieux as an old actress long forgotten in a rest home, and Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold's "One to Another."

British films bowing in Toronto include Shane Meadows' portrait of skinhead culture, "This is England," and Roger Michell's "Venus," the story of two old friends, played by Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips, whose lives change when a grand-niece arrives from the provinces.

Other European world premieres include Alex van Warmerdam's "Waiter" from the Netherlands, Nacho Cerda's "The Abandoned" from Spain and Finnish director Antti-Jussi Annila's "Jade Warrior," a co-production with China, Estonia and the Netherlands.

Other announcements Tuesday include plans for in-person conversations with U.S. filmmakers Michael Moore, John Waters and John Cameron Mitchell as part of the Mavericks sidebar. The Dialogues: Talking With Pictures sidebar has added five new directors to discuss films that inspired their careers: Bruce Weber, Albert Maysles, Perry Henzell, Costa Gavras and Christine Vachon.

Also, another 13 titles -- five world premieres and seven North American premieres -- were added to the Masters program, including Goran Paskaljevic's "The Optimists," German director Volker Schlondorff's "Strike," Alain Resnais' "Coeurs" and Benoit Jacquot's "L'Intouchable" from France, Italian director Gianni Amelio's "The Missing Star" and Robert Guediguian's "Le voyage en armenie."

Festival programmers also added 15 films to the Visions program, including Gabriel Range's "D.O.A.P.," a feature film debut from Britain that explores the fallout from a horrific attack on America in mock documentary fashion, Jem Cohen's "Building a Broken Mousetrap" and Jay Anania's "Day on Fire."

Films joining Toronto's expansive Special Presentations lineup include world premieres for Mira Nair's "The Namesake," Hong Sang-soo's "Woman on the Beach" and Emanuele Crialese's "The Golden Door," and North American premieres for Todd Field's "Little Children" and Johnnie To's "Exiled."

The Contemporary World Cinema showcase, featuring 60 titles from 40 countries, swelled Tuesday with the addition of U.S. director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde's directorial debut "Bella," Mel Chionglo's "Twilight Dancers," Dror Shaul's "Sweet Mud" and Cate Shortland's "The Silence."

The Vanguard sidebar added a North American premiere for "The Hottest State," which Ethan Hawke wrote and directed and which will bow in Venice.

Toronto also promises no end of star wattage this year. Already booked for the festival are Anthony Hopkins, Penelope Cruz, Tom Hanks, Danny Glover, Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Winslet, Joan Allen, Ed Harris and Sigourney Weaver.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter