The 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TiDF) is underway in the historic Greek port city, after an opening night ceremony that honored Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba.
Trueba, the Oscar-winning director of Belle Époque, received the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander, recognizing his contributions to cinema and culture. The honor was presented to him by Katerina Sakellaropoulou, president of Hellenic Republic, the first time a Greek head of state has launched the international event.
“Great documentaries profoundly move us, broaden our understanding of the world, challenge our beliefs, prejudices, or our established assumptions,” President Sakellaropoulou said from the stage at the Olympion cinema. “An artistic portrayal of reality, or a creative handling of an otherwise unseen aspect of it, a poetic depiction of a documented truth, or a subjective documentation of some of its dimensions, documentary is a film genre requiring cultural sensitivity, journalistic integrity, moral rectitude, conceptual purity, and political discernment.
Trueba, the Oscar-winning director of Belle Époque, received the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander, recognizing his contributions to cinema and culture. The honor was presented to him by Katerina Sakellaropoulou, president of Hellenic Republic, the first time a Greek head of state has launched the international event.
“Great documentaries profoundly move us, broaden our understanding of the world, challenge our beliefs, prejudices, or our established assumptions,” President Sakellaropoulou said from the stage at the Olympion cinema. “An artistic portrayal of reality, or a creative handling of an otherwise unseen aspect of it, a poetic depiction of a documented truth, or a subjective documentation of some of its dimensions, documentary is a film genre requiring cultural sensitivity, journalistic integrity, moral rectitude, conceptual purity, and political discernment.
- 3/8/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
They Shot the Piano Player is a documentary about Brazilian jazz artist Francisco Tenório Júnior, who went missing in 1976. Spoiler alert, the film uncovers why Tenório Júnior is no longer here. Directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary to discuss how they used animation to articulate historical moments for which they had no archival footage.
“My first commitment was to be fair to Tenório Júnior,” Trueba said. “I think you must do something for him, not just for us. For him and also for the audience to discover him, but I wanted the audience to know him, to meet him and to listen to his music.”
Some animated portions depict Tenório creating music, for which the filmmakers had audio recordings. Mariscal said the music guided the visuals.
“Thanks to the animation, we can again give life to Tenório recording and re-creating this moment,” Mariscal said.
“My first commitment was to be fair to Tenório Júnior,” Trueba said. “I think you must do something for him, not just for us. For him and also for the audience to discover him, but I wanted the audience to know him, to meet him and to listen to his music.”
Some animated portions depict Tenório creating music, for which the filmmakers had audio recordings. Mariscal said the music guided the visuals.
“Thanks to the animation, we can again give life to Tenório recording and re-creating this moment,” Mariscal said.
- 12/10/2023
- by Fred Topel
- Deadline Film + TV
They were all so incredibly young. Caetano Veloso opened Salvador’s Vila Velha Theater, a milestone event for the city, at the age of 21. Pianist Francisco Tenório Jr., the subject of Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player,” recorded one record as band leader, in March 1964, when he was 23 years old.
But he played piano on some of the greatest samba jazz records of all time, some with Raul de Sousa on trombone and J.T. Meirelles on tenor sax.
“These guys were the geniuses of Brazil music and they were only 23 years old,” Oscar winning writer-director Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”) told Variety at Annecy.
If Tenório isn’t better known, it is partly because he was murdered, “desaparecido,” in 1976 in Argentina while on tour, a full life suddenly annulled at the age of 35, as a military coup d’etat took hold of the country.
Nobody...
But he played piano on some of the greatest samba jazz records of all time, some with Raul de Sousa on trombone and J.T. Meirelles on tenor sax.
“These guys were the geniuses of Brazil music and they were only 23 years old,” Oscar winning writer-director Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”) told Variety at Annecy.
If Tenório isn’t better known, it is partly because he was murdered, “desaparecido,” in 1976 in Argentina while on tour, a full life suddenly annulled at the age of 35, as a military coup d’etat took hold of the country.
Nobody...
- 6/18/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
This big-budget prequel to the Peter Pan story adds little to the legacy of Jm Barrie’s classic
Like so many revisionist Peter Pan spin-offs, from Spielberg’s dismal Hook to Fernando Trueba’s unfairly maligned The Mad Monkey, Joe Wright’s multimillion-dollar prequel has already proved an unloved progeny, abandoned at the Us box office amid gloating “Pan gets panned” headlines. It’s actually not that bad, although crucially, it’s not that good either. With its piratical blend of Happy Feet-style reconfigured pop hits (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Blitzkrieg Bop), creaky funfair sets and weightlessly ropey wire-work, Pan is hardly timeless fare. Hugh Jackman plays Blackbeard, who steals away children to Neverland, like the bastard son of Johnny Depp and Dick Emery – all teeth, hair and gurning theatricality. He’s fun, but no match for Kathy Burke’s Mother Barnabas, or Adeel Akhtar’s consistently scene-stealing Sam Smiegel.
Like so many revisionist Peter Pan spin-offs, from Spielberg’s dismal Hook to Fernando Trueba’s unfairly maligned The Mad Monkey, Joe Wright’s multimillion-dollar prequel has already proved an unloved progeny, abandoned at the Us box office amid gloating “Pan gets panned” headlines. It’s actually not that bad, although crucially, it’s not that good either. With its piratical blend of Happy Feet-style reconfigured pop hits (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Blitzkrieg Bop), creaky funfair sets and weightlessly ropey wire-work, Pan is hardly timeless fare. Hugh Jackman plays Blackbeard, who steals away children to Neverland, like the bastard son of Johnny Depp and Dick Emery – all teeth, hair and gurning theatricality. He’s fun, but no match for Kathy Burke’s Mother Barnabas, or Adeel Akhtar’s consistently scene-stealing Sam Smiegel.
- 10/18/2015
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Fernando Trueba's meditation upon the nature of art offers few surprises, but is easy on the eye
Spanish director Fernando Trueba has an extraordinarily eclectic back catalogue, ranging from the twisted Peter Pan weirdness of The Mad Monkey (featuring Jeff Goldblum's most underrated performance) through the lush Oscar-winning charm of Belle Epoque, to the sensual jazz-inflected animation of Chico & Rita. His latest is a whimsical black-and-white meditation upon the nature of art, set in rural southern France during the second world war.
Here, sculptor Marc Cros (octogenarian Jean Rochefort, who came so close to playing Don Quixote for Terry Gilliam – a marriage made in heaven) takes in Spanish political refugee Mercè (Aida Folch) on the understanding that she will pose for him, reigniting his flagging artistic passion. With Jean-Claude Carrière sharing screenwriting credits, this holds few surprises in its revelatory conclusions about old men and young women, war and peace,...
Spanish director Fernando Trueba has an extraordinarily eclectic back catalogue, ranging from the twisted Peter Pan weirdness of The Mad Monkey (featuring Jeff Goldblum's most underrated performance) through the lush Oscar-winning charm of Belle Epoque, to the sensual jazz-inflected animation of Chico & Rita. His latest is a whimsical black-and-white meditation upon the nature of art, set in rural southern France during the second world war.
Here, sculptor Marc Cros (octogenarian Jean Rochefort, who came so close to playing Don Quixote for Terry Gilliam – a marriage made in heaven) takes in Spanish political refugee Mercè (Aida Folch) on the understanding that she will pose for him, reigniting his flagging artistic passion. With Jean-Claude Carrière sharing screenwriting credits, this holds few surprises in its revelatory conclusions about old men and young women, war and peace,...
- 9/14/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Berberian Sound Studio; Grabbers; Code Name Geronimo – the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden; A Few Best Men
While the press has been full of doom-and-gloom stories about the "British film industry" (whatever that is) dying on its feet, 2012 proved to be yet another year in which the UK punched above its weight thanks to the work of adventurously non-parochial film-makers like Peter Strickland. In the extraordinary (anti)revenge thriller Katalin Varga (2009), writer/director Strickland unravelled a mythical archetype against the backdrop of the Carpathian mountains. Now, with Berberian Sound Studio (2012, Artificial Eye, 15), he turns his eye towards Italy and the evocatively vivid giallo-inflected horrors of Mario Bava, Dario Argento et al, which set the stylish template for a generation of saleably derivative American 70s schlockers.
The brilliantly versatile Toby Jones (whose Christmas TV performance in The Girl gave Anthony Hopkins a run for his money in the forthcoming Hitchcock) stars as Gilderoy,...
While the press has been full of doom-and-gloom stories about the "British film industry" (whatever that is) dying on its feet, 2012 proved to be yet another year in which the UK punched above its weight thanks to the work of adventurously non-parochial film-makers like Peter Strickland. In the extraordinary (anti)revenge thriller Katalin Varga (2009), writer/director Strickland unravelled a mythical archetype against the backdrop of the Carpathian mountains. Now, with Berberian Sound Studio (2012, Artificial Eye, 15), he turns his eye towards Italy and the evocatively vivid giallo-inflected horrors of Mario Bava, Dario Argento et al, which set the stylish template for a generation of saleably derivative American 70s schlockers.
The brilliantly versatile Toby Jones (whose Christmas TV performance in The Girl gave Anthony Hopkins a run for his money in the forthcoming Hitchcock) stars as Gilderoy,...
- 12/30/2012
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
The Green Hornet; Chico & Rita; Confessions; In Our Name
There are few things more depressing than watching a genuinely inventive director being overpowered by the machinery of a franchise blockbuster. Take The Green Hornet (2010, Sony, 12), the long-gestating big-screen spin-off from the 30s radio serial and 60s TV show which is technically "Un Film de Michel Gondry" although frankly you wouldn't know it from watching the movie. In fact, the real driving force here is writer-and-star Seth Rogen playing slobbish Britt Reid, whose campaigning news mogul father (Tom Wilkinson) dies suddenly after a suspicious insect bite. Initially uninterested in his grand paternal legacy, Britt is stung into action by the inventive fighting skills of coffee-maker-cum-handyman Kato (likable Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou) and embarks upon a knockabout reign of clumsy crime-fighting vigilance, kept alive only by his super-agile sidekick.
The Green Hornet had been knocking around for a long time before the arrival of Gondry,...
There are few things more depressing than watching a genuinely inventive director being overpowered by the machinery of a franchise blockbuster. Take The Green Hornet (2010, Sony, 12), the long-gestating big-screen spin-off from the 30s radio serial and 60s TV show which is technically "Un Film de Michel Gondry" although frankly you wouldn't know it from watching the movie. In fact, the real driving force here is writer-and-star Seth Rogen playing slobbish Britt Reid, whose campaigning news mogul father (Tom Wilkinson) dies suddenly after a suspicious insect bite. Initially uninterested in his grand paternal legacy, Britt is stung into action by the inventive fighting skills of coffee-maker-cum-handyman Kato (likable Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou) and embarks upon a knockabout reign of clumsy crime-fighting vigilance, kept alive only by his super-agile sidekick.
The Green Hornet had been knocking around for a long time before the arrival of Gondry,...
- 4/30/2011
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
The Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia announces its complete program. There are still a few surprises to be confirmed, like the closing gala, but they have already put together the final list of films that will be screened at Sitges 09. Below you’ll find the titles of each film and their sections as well as links for the films that we have already reviewed here on Sound On Sight. Opening Film [Rec]2. Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró. 2009. Official FANTÀSTIC In Competition Section Accident. Soi Cheang. 2009. Accidents Happen. Andrew Lancaster. 2009. The Children. Tom Shankland. 2008. [1] Cold Souls. Sophie Bartes. 2009. The Countess. Julie Delpy. 2009. Les Derniers Jours Du Monde. Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu. 2009. Dogtooth (Kynodontas). Yorgos Lanthimos. 2009. Dorian Gray. Oliver Parker. 2009. Enter The Void. Gaspar Noé. 2009. Grace. Paul Solet. 2009. [2] Heartless. Philip Ridley. 2009. Hierro. Gabe Ibáñez. 2009. La Horde. Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher. 2009. Ingrid. Eduard Cortés. 2009. Kinatay. Brillante Mendoza. 2009. Metropia. Tarik Saleh. 2009. Moon.
- 9/19/2009
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
The full lineup has been announced, and among the load of genre fare that's been running the fest circuit are the world premiers of:
Vincenzo Natali's latest, Splice, which we're all excited about.
Simon Fellows twisted adaptation Malice in Wonderland (trailer)
Along some of our personal favorites:
Black Dynamite (friggin awesome)
Swiss scifi flick Cargo (trailer)
Pater Sparrow's incredible Stanislaw Lem adaptation 1 (review)
The Mo Brothers Indonesian slasher Macabre (review)
Atm (get it?) horror-comedy The Human Centipede (review)
Full list after the break.
Opening Film
[Rec]2. Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró. 2009.
Official FANTÀSTIC In Competition Section
Accident. Soi Cheang. 2009.
Accidents Happen. Andrew Lancaster. 2009.
The Children. Tom Shankland. 2008.
Cold Souls. Sophie Bartes. 2009.
The Countess. Julie Delpy. 2009.
Les Derniers Jours Du Monde. Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu. 2009.
Dogtooth (Kynodontas). Yorgos Lanthimos. 2009.
Dorian Gray. Oliver Parker. 2009.
Enter The Void. Gaspar Noé. 2009.
Grace. Paul Solet. 2009.
Heartless. Philip Ridley. 2009.
Hierro. Gabe Ibáñez. 2009.
La Horde. Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher.
Vincenzo Natali's latest, Splice, which we're all excited about.
Simon Fellows twisted adaptation Malice in Wonderland (trailer)
Along some of our personal favorites:
Black Dynamite (friggin awesome)
Swiss scifi flick Cargo (trailer)
Pater Sparrow's incredible Stanislaw Lem adaptation 1 (review)
The Mo Brothers Indonesian slasher Macabre (review)
Atm (get it?) horror-comedy The Human Centipede (review)
Full list after the break.
Opening Film
[Rec]2. Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró. 2009.
Official FANTÀSTIC In Competition Section
Accident. Soi Cheang. 2009.
Accidents Happen. Andrew Lancaster. 2009.
The Children. Tom Shankland. 2008.
Cold Souls. Sophie Bartes. 2009.
The Countess. Julie Delpy. 2009.
Les Derniers Jours Du Monde. Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu. 2009.
Dogtooth (Kynodontas). Yorgos Lanthimos. 2009.
Dorian Gray. Oliver Parker. 2009.
Enter The Void. Gaspar Noé. 2009.
Grace. Paul Solet. 2009.
Heartless. Philip Ridley. 2009.
Hierro. Gabe Ibáñez. 2009.
La Horde. Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher.
- 9/12/2009
- QuietEarth.us
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