24/06/2011

Munich has been celebrating summer in style for the past 29 years with an international festival that has become the most important one of the season in Germany, with over 65,000 admission tickets sold every year, around 2,500 professionals and about 600 press representatives. The Munich Film Festival, which opens tonight with a gala evening followed by a screening of the Dardenne brothers’s The Kid With A Bike [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile] (with the directors in attendance) and will close on July 2 with Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes FIPRESCI Prize-winnerLe Havre [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aki Kaurismäki
film profile], will this year show almost 250 films from over 50 countries.

The International Programme comprises 71 titles which revolve around the theme of childhood and our pitiful legacy to future generations, including former Cannes selectees Corpo Celeste [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
film profile] by Alice Rohrwacher and Breathing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Austria’s Karl Markovics (award-winner in the Directors’ Fortnight); and Greek helmer Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s aptly-titled Wasted Youth.

Spain is represented by six films, including Álex de la Iglesia’s The Last Circus [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile] and Agustí Villaronga’s Catalan flick Black Bread [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which triumphed at the Goya Awards; and Portugal by three titles, including Raúl Ruiz’s long and lively amble Mysteries of Lisbon [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Other features selected in this vast section include Dad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vlado Škafar
interview: Vlado Škafar
film profile] by Slovenia’s Vlado Škafar; Saverio Costanzo’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers [+see also:
trailer
interview: Luca Marinelli
film profile]; Frédéric Sojcher’s French/Belgian co-production Hitler In Hollywood [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Angelina Maccarone’s The Look: Charlotte Rampling; Alice Nellis’s Czech film Mamas & Papas [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Principles of Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Constantin Popescu
film profile] by Romania’s Constantin Popescu; Truth About Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Danish helmer Nikolaj Arcel; and Volcano [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson.

As every year, there is a section dedicated to New German Cinema (with 17 titles on the way in which today’s sordid society affects individuals), and another to New French Cinema (with ten titles, including Maïwenn’s Cannes Jury Prize-winner Poliss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maïwenn
film profile], André Téchiné’s Unforgivable [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Godard’s Film Socialism [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

This year, the spotlight is on Sweden, with nine films showing the variety of approaches of its young directors, including Lisa Aschan’s acclaimed She Monkeys [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lisa Aschan
film profile], Ruben Östlund’s Play [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Ostlund
film profile] and Daniel Espinosa’s Easy Money [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a crime thriller based on Jens Lapidus’s best-seller. There will also be a full retrospective of Roy Andersson’s work. This section comprising 12 films, whose sub-title is "The Swedish master of the absurd and genius of the grotesque", also includes a documentary about the director of You, The Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pernilla Sandström
interview: Roy Andersson
film profile].

The winners of the CineMerit Award, Otar Iosseliani and John Malkovich, will also be the subject of retrospectives, alongside the festival’s many other sections and events. Although the Munich Film Festival is not competitive, many prizes will be awarded at its close.

(Translated from French)