Movie Magazine International Blog

By Moira Sullivan The 44th Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco went virtual this year from September 17–27, 2020. It was a record breaking event with 75 films screened online. During thpandemic I am interested in seeing high quality features that are thought provoking and visionary. e Two films were exceptional at this year’s Frameline: The Goddess of Fortune from Italy directed by Ferzan Özpetek and Forgotten Roads from Chile directed by Nicol Ruiz Benavides. The Goddess of Fortune is a multi character well crafted film with a wonderful ensemble of vocalists for the soundtrack. Two gay men Arturo, (Stefano Accorsi) and Alesandro Edoardo Leo aon the verge of a breakup, receive a visit from a mutual friend. She is going to the hospital for tests and wants to leave her two children with them. It turns out the relationship is complicated since they all three were sexually involved in the past and one of her children may have been fathered byAlesandro. The film set design and ...

Movie Magazine International The Venice film festival was the first festival to be held with a public. The extraordinary measures taken to ensure the safety of the festival go-ers made it a success with no cases of covid during the 10 day even that ran from Sept 2-12. Here are some of the films that stood out for me towards the end of the festival. “Selva Tragica” or Tragic Jungle by the Mexican director Yulene Olaizola is set in the borders of Mexico Belize in the 1920s. The director explains that the setting is magical: "The jungle is a living being, harassed by those men trying to steal its treasures; but it takes revenge in different ways, with poisonous plants, swarms of mosquitoes, fierce animals, and with the enchantment of mysterious creatures". Here is the revenge. A woman entices these “thieves” to their demise in a role as archaic as the “catwoman” in Jacques Torneur's and Paul Shrader's Cat People . There was so much potential for this film an...

The Golden Lion at Venice 12 September wen to “Nomadland” directed by Chloé Zhao who shot, edited and directed the film starring Frances McDormand. The stunning storytelling in this film chronicles the people who live on the road, on motorcycles or in trailers, many of them baby boomers who do not have enough social security to live on, and have to rely on odd jobs such as working in Amazon mailing centers in remote areas. The travelers are not homeless, they are 'houseless' as Fern (McDormand) said at the press conference broadcast widescreen via Zoom in Venice on September 11. McDormand considers both herself and Zhao as 'docents' on this journey through the US, museum guides, which was a designation given to them by one of the nomads they met. It took a pandemic to change the face of this festival for women. Chloé along with Mira Nair are the only women of color of five women that have won the Golden Lion since 1949 after 77 editions of the Venice Film Festival:...

The 77th Venice Film Festival is in full swing since Sept 2 and runs through Sept 12. Venice went ahead and held the first physical as opposed to virtual film festival this year. The spring film festivals have been postponed because of covid but Venice took the Lion by the tail with celebrities walking the red carpet and being asked by photographers to wear their masks in their photos. If you were not planning on visiting Venice anytime soon, a sober documentary screened on the first day is a testimony not only to the changes in this city since 25 February but how tourism in general keeps the city afloat and has been nearly emptied. Directed by Andrea Segre Molecole (Venetian Molecules) is also a tribute to his late father Elderico who died of a heart murmur, an avid super 8 filmmaker who shot Venice during his teens in the 1960's. He studied free radicals and his son shows this city held up by poles that has been subjected to the invisible world of molecules. We see the Venice ...