Berlinale. Competition, round 2.

"Almost two-thirds of the programme for the Competition of the 58th Berlin International Film Festival have now been confirmed," reads the announcement which adds nine more titles to the previous eight. This round is all either world or international premieres:

• Luigi Falorni's Feuerherz (Heart of Fire). Based on Senait Mehari's bestselling book about a young woman's struggle to survive in Eritrea. Falorni, by the way, directed and shot The Story of the Weeping Camel.

• Erick Zonca's Julia, featuring Tilda Swinton in the titular role; evidently, she enlists the help of a young man to pull off some sort of blackmail scheme. Zonca's best known for The Dreamlife of Angels.

• Robert Guédiguian's Lady Jane. His Le Promeneur du champ de Mars (The Last Mitterand) was a favorite of mine in 2005.

• Isabel Coixet's Elegy, with Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson and Deborah Harry. Based on Philip Roth's The Dying Animal.

• Antonello Grimaldi's Caos calmoQuiet Chaos), with Nanni Moretti, Isabella Ferrari, Alessandro Gassman and Valeria Golino. IMDb plotline: "A look at the strange bereavement behavior of an Italian executive. Based on a novel by Sandro Veronesi."

• Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky. Time Out reports that it "stars Sally Hawkins as a teacher in north London - a performance which, we're told, sees her 'in every single frame of the film'... We're told that Happy-Go-Lucky is a comedy... but we also hear that it's not a film without a dark side."

• Johnnie To's Sparrow. At Twitch, Wolf's got a trailer and points to a synopsis.

• Yoji Yamada's Kabei (Kabei - Our Mother). Stone Bridge Press notes that the film is based on "the nonfiction novel" written by Teruyo Nogami, author of Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa. With Sayuri Yoshinaga, Mitsugoro Bando and Tadanobu Asano.

The festival runs February 7 through 17.

Posted by dwhudson at January 9, 2008 7:56 AM