Quick two links

I usually dislike Jason Salomon, but this is a very lucid article about the decrepit state of the British film industry with which I agree with almost 100%.

Read it here

Also, holy cow! Disney just bought Marvel! Read about that here.

Venice, Day 2

Today was the first proper day of training (and of getting to know the other delegates- the chap in the pic is my roomie, Francesco). Our first job is to organise a travelling Latin American film festival - and propose it to the European funders. It's difficult to concentrate with such a breathtaking backdrop - but who's complaining.

Some fantastic artwork is being built as we speak all around us - as the island doubles as one of the pavillions for the Biennale. Check out the spaceship!

Tonight we have what can only be described as an experiment in chemistry: every delegate has brought one bottle from their country, which is going to be (presumably) consumed at a party called 'One Nation/One Bottle'. I fear for tomorrow morning's session.

Venice, Day 1

I arrived this morning to the beautiful island of San Servolo, which feels like a spiritual retreat of some kind, and given its origins as an insane asylum, I am not surprised. A quiet, serene atmosphere is only upset by some of the more avant garde art on display (the place is a arts university during term time).

The CICAE staff are all helpful and super nice and everyone genuinely seems to be happy to be here, which is good.

It ws my only day off so I took the No. 20 Vaporetto and headed into Venice and overdid it. Too much food, walking, ice cream and people...and a touch of sun stroke. Tomorrow our course starts in full and from the 2nd Sep, the Mostra. I'll be trying to see as many film as possible and I am really keen on THE ROAD, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, LIFE DURING WARTIME, SOUTH OF THE BORDER, BAD LIEUTENANT and hopefully some good surprises.

Stay tuned for more!

Venice

I'm flying off to Venice tomorrow morning to attend the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Manager training course. It's a ten-day, intensive period dedicated to all things cinema: marketing, programming, budgeting, funding, etc. We also get a pass to the Venice Film Festival, so I'll try and make as many screenings as I can.

I'll be blogging and posting as much as possible every day, so keep an eye out for film reviews, general comments and some nice pictures....(the picture above is the island where we'll be staying, San Servolo).

Arrivederchi

American Indies

Jason Wood, who used to programme the Duke of York's, is also a film writer and he's written a really cool pocket book called 100 American Independent Films, from the BFI Pocket Guides Series.

There's a launch event for the book at Riverside Studios on the 10th September at 6.30pm.

The book provides a guide to one hundred of the most interesting and influential American indies, with twenty-five brand new entries, including recent releases such as OLD JOY, JUNEBUG and ME & YOU & EVERYONE WE KNOW.

The launch will feature a rare screening of SUTURE and an advance preview of Steven Soderbergh's THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE.

I'll be there - and so should you!

Flick's Flicks - Number 50!

Brighton Rocks

This week, the news that BRIGHTON ROCK was getting a star studded remake got people excited. The classic film set the bar high for subsequent Brighton-set films, only reached by one other film:QUADROPHENIA. Our projectionist Jimmy, incidentally, was an extra on that film. It's a small town.

The chaps at VISIT BRIGHTON have produced a nice little guide to Brighton as a film set. Check it out here. They also produced a podcast, in which yours truly talks about the Duke of York's Picturehouse. You can listen here.

Other, lesser known films shot in Brighton: the Liam Neeson thriller UNDER SUSPICION, Kristin Scott Thomas' starrer A HANDFUL OF DUST (in which the Dukes makes a brief appearance) and Woody Allen's disastrous CASSANDRA'S DREAM.