Locarno: The Struggle of Being David Lynch as told by his Producer

Elisa Giudici reporting from Locarno

David Lynch has consolidated his status as one of cinema's greatest auteurs and geniuses to such an extent that it is easy to forget just how much fighting against compromise every step of his career required, even after winning the Palme d’Or for Wild at Heart or revolutionizing TV history with Twin Peaks.

At the Locarno Film Festival, his Icelandic producer and lifelong friend Sigurjón "Joni" Sighvatsson was presented with the Raimondo Rezzonico Award for his decades-long career as an outsider working within Hollywood. The Festival recognized how, as an outsider, he found ways around the major studio system's rules, helping lots of the soon-to-be great directors of the Eighties and Nineties gain some experience as music video makers...

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Review: "Two Seasons, Two Strangers" wins Locarno

by Cláudio Alves

Berlin, Cannes, and Venice are considered the major European film festivals, holding on to a level of world renown rarely afforded to such institutions. While not meaning to question their importance, it's worth noting that they are far from the only celebrations of cinema happening around the Old Continent, nor are they the ones most welcoming to the challenging and the avant-garde. Rotterdam has them beat on that account, not to mention more non-fiction-focused events and, of course, the Locarno Film Festival. With their propensity for honoring cineastes like Pedro Costa, Albert Serra, and Wang Bing, the Swiss fest will always struggle to capture the attention of more conventional-minded cinephiles, but they deserve some love. Indeed, it's about time we counted the Golden Leopard on par with the Bear, the Palme, the Lion. 

This year's victor was announced last weekend, as the festivities drew to a close at Piazza Grande, making Shô Miyake the fifth Japanese filmmaker to take Locarno's highest prize. And after all that talk about audacious artistry, it's worth noting that Two Seasons, Two Strangers is hardly radical. Nevertheless, it makes for a formally rigorous, moving, occasionally humorous look at the toll of loneliness through a graceful feat of mise en abyme…

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"Rule 34" and "Tengo Suenos Electricos" win big at Locarno

by Nathaniel R

the sexually charged "Rule 34" wins Locarno

Our favourite film festival correspondent, Elisa Giudici, couldn't make it to Locarno this year so we are here to just report on the winners! The top prize went to a sexually provocative drama from Brazil called Rule 34 (only the second Brazilian film to ever win Locarno) while a Costa Rican film called Tengo Suenos Electricos won three prizes from the jury.

Will any of the following titles show up as Oscar submissions for International Feature Film? Who can say. A little bit about each winner after the jump...

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Links: Sadie Sink, Kurt Russell, Jean Smart, and "Giant"

• Advocate If you're in LA this weekend note that the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills is showing a restoration of Giant (1956) -- excellent epic with three ridiculously iconic stars (Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, and James Dean) and meant to be seen on the big screen
• Antidote Director Bruce LaBruce interviews Betty Blue herself Béatrice Dalle. Great photoshoot
• PrimeTimer all of Jean Smart's Emmy nods, ranked: Hacks, Fargo, Frasier, Watchmen, etc

More after the jump including Kurt Russell's Elvis movie, Sadie Sink on Broadway, and, sadly, more actor deaths to report...

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Locarno Diary #5: "Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash" wins the Golden Leopard

by Elisa Giudici

"Vengeance is Mind, All Others Pay Cash" won the Golden Leopard

I did it. With your help! 

I am always so happy when the winner of something-d'Or at a Festival I attended is a movie I was able to see and review. Sometimes seeing all of the competition entries is next to impossible (though I managed at Cannes this year!) and, festival after festival, I discover it requires a special talent to sense which film you should not miss, no matter what. It's a talent/skill I am trying to develop. This time I was lucky. Not only did I see the Golden Leopard winner Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash but I scheduled it thanks to a comment I read right here on The Film Experience!  I was not able to attend the first press screenings but because of the hype generated by that comment and a little research among some Locarno connaisseurs I go to for help, I booked a ticket at the very last projection, late at night

After the first scene I knew it was the right choice, even if some major construction sites on my way home meant I wasn't able to sleep until 3 AM. After the credits I wrote this very note on my notebook: "A winner for sure, if the Jury is brave enough". It was!

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