For the Press
Espoo Ciné 2009 held its first press conference 26 May. The English
translation of the press release given out in the conference can be
downloaded in PDF form here:
|  090526 Media Release Eng (66.6 KB)
| Printable pictures for media distribution can be downloaded here>>.
You can also read the press release below:
|
Media Release 26 May 2009 (English); free for publication 11 am
The 20th anniversary of Espoo Ciné International Film Festival is celebrated 21–30 August 2009!
This
year's Espoo Ciné International Film Festival is the 20th edition of
the festival. To mark the anniversary, the festival is extended to ten
days instead of the traditional six. The festival also expands
geographically: in addition to the heart of the festival, the Espoo
Cultural Centre in Tapiola, films are screened in the Bio Rex Sello
cinema in Leppävaara and in Andorra in Helsinki.
| Special 20th anniversary programme
The anniversary edition
brings an exceptionally impressive programme for the festival audience.
In addition to the traditional items on the agenda, the 2009 programme
includes a selection of festival favourites from the past years and a
20th anniversary exhibition on display at the Espoo Cultural Centre.
This year, the top films of the programme are screened more than once.
| The Finnish debut director of the year: Zaida BergrothThe most
anticipated Finnish film of the year is Zaida Bergroth's debut feature
film Last Cowboy Standing. The film is based one the most notable
Finnish theatre event of the 1990s, Antti Raivio's stage play
Skavabölen pojat ("The Boys of Skavaböle") which immediately made
Q-teatteri the most interesting newcomer of the new Finnish theatre
companies. Now the magic of the play has been transferred to the silver
screen.
Although the film is the director's debut feature, Zaida Bergroth has
already made a mark with her short films such as Heavy Metal (2006) and
Glass Jaw (2004), both award-winners at the Tampere International Short
Film Festival. Last Cowboy Standing features many today's top Finnish
actors, including Leea Klemola and Martti Suosalo.
| Film programmeThe backbone of the anniversary year's film
programme is formed by new European cinema: in addition to the
traditionally well represented Spanish and German films, French cinema
is given a special focus this year. Confirmed titles so far include
Claude Chabrol's latest film Bellamy, starring Gérard Depardieu, and
Jean-Paul Lilienlfeld's Skirt Day, featuring another top favourite of
the silver screen, Isabelle Adjani, in her first film role for several
years.
Bertrand Tavernier, who became a cult name in the early
1980s with his Jim Thompson adaptation Clean Slate, has now filmed
another American detective story: James Lee Burke's detective figure
Dave Robicheaux is finally given a worthy interpretation by Tommy Lee
Jones in the new award-winning film called In the Electric Mist.
Everyone
Else, the winner of a number of awards at the Berlinale this year,
represents German cinema at its very best. The film's director, Maren
Ade, was widely noted for her debut feature, and her latest film
fulfils all expectations.
Austrian cinema, which has enjoyed a
renaissance over the past few years, is still going strong. Whereas
James Lee Burke's hero, Dave Robicheaux, is one of the most fascinating
American detective figures of today, Wolf Haas' phlegmatic Simon
Brenner is one of his most notable counterparts in the old world. In
The Bone Man, the film's director, Wolfgang Murnberger, has together
with the author and the key actor Josef Hader created an unforgettable
film noir interpretation of the Brenner novel with the same name.
The
hit song by Sting, An Englishman in New York, had a model in real life:
the British style icon Quentin Crisp, the self-confessed "stately homo
of England", who moved to New York at the age of 73. The English
expression "witty" reportedly cannot be fully comprehended before one
has heard Crisp speaking. Richard Laxton has succeeded in creating a
breathtaking low-key study of Crisp's life in New York. The selection
of potential protagonists for the film cannot have been very extensive
to begin with, and John Hurt probably emerged as the only possible
choice. Hurt naturally also won an award for his work in the film in
Berlin. It has to be noted in this connection that Hurt played Crisp
already in the 1970s in the film adaptation of his autobiographical
novel The Naked Civil Servant.
The Turkish-born director Ferzan
Özpetek has been one of the most popular Italian filmmakers also in
Finland after the turn of the millennium. Özpetek's latest film A
Perfect Day is a remarkable family drama set in the world of Italian
politics, and has been praised for being extraordinarily topical in its
homeland. The female lead actor of the film, Isabella Ferrari, won the
award for Best Female Actor at the Venice International Film Festival.
| The outdoor screening – with live accompaniment!One of the
long-standing favourites of the festival is the free outdoor film
screening arranged each year. The films screened at the beautiful
terrace behind the Cultural Centre have traditionally been favourites
of the younger section of our audience, but this year's film is
guaranteed to appeal to all age groups: the sing-along favourite of the
past year, the Abba musical Mamma Mia!
To honour the
festival's anniversary edition, the film is accompanied by a live
performer: Finland's one and only gay choir Out 'n loud, who take
Abba's music to an entirely new level.
| Exhibition: The history of Spanish cinemaThe lobby of the
Cultural Centre will host an extensive exhibition focusing on the
history of Spanish cinema. The exhibition has been arranged by
Instituto Cervantes in collaboration with the Spanish Foreign Ministry
and the Lunwerg publishing house.
The exhibition, entitled Cine
Español. Una crónica visual ("Spanish Cinema: A Visual History")
examines the colourful history of Spanish filmmaking from 1869 to 2006
with spectacular photos and posters. The exhibition will be opened by
its commissioner, film historian Jesús García de Dueñas.
| Kino TapiolaLast year the Espoo Ciné screenings scheduled to
Kino Tapiola were moved to another cinema in the last moment because of
an asbestos hazard that was discovered just before the festival. After
that the building has been found to require extensive renovation.
Unfortunately this means that no film screenings can be arranged in
this classic neighbourhood cinema until the works are finished. The
renovation works are scheduled to be finished later in the year, after
which Espoo Ciné will take over the theatre on a year-round basis.
| For more information and press photos, please contact:
Mickael Suominen
Press Secretary
Espoo Ciné
mickael.suominen (at) espoocine.fi
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