PARTNERS GUY MADDIN AND KIM MORGAN - 2014 TELLURIDE GUEST DIRECTORS

Canada's finest, filmmaker Guy Maddin, and his journalist spouse, Kim Morgan, will serve as guest directors at the 2014 Telluride Film Fest. The pair, who are working together on Maddin's upcoming feature Spiritismes, ought to make for an interesting programming team in the Guest Director programme, sponsored by Audible.com and due to run over Labor Day weekend, the 29th of August to the 1st of September.

TRAILER AND CLIP FOR DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

Justin Simien's feature-length debut Dear White People has caused quite a stir on the festival circuit so far this year, including winning the Grand Jury Prize from Sundance back in January. It's set for release in the US on the 17th of October, with no international releases yet scheduled for the controversial comedy.

LUMIERE AWARD TO BE BESTOWED UPON PEDRO ALMODOVAR

On the 17th of October, Pedro Almodovar will receive the 6th Lumiere Award from the Lumiere-Grand Lyon Festival. The fest, which is run by the Lumiere Institute's Bertrand Tavernier and the Cannes Film Festival's Thierry Fremaux, has previously awarded Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, Ken Loach and Quentin Tarantino. Almodovar will also present a programme of films entitled 'Almodovar: Mi Historia del Cine', while tributes will run for Isabella Rossellini, Ted Kotcheff and Warren Lieberfarb.

REVIEW - BRIGHT DAYS AHEAD (MARION VERNOUX)

Covering potentially melodramatic terrain with a feather-light touch, Marion Vernoux's Bright Days Ahead is an amiable romantic drama, but its lightness, and the plot's wayward trajectory, consign the film to an inevitable future as a forgotten piece of French fluff. As yet another Gallic adultery drama, Bright Days Ahead is notable only in that it features Fanny Ardant in what has been marketed as a return to the big-time for one of cinema's most compelling, seductive figures; otherwise, it's of scant value, contributing little to an already-overstuffed sub-genre of cinema. Vernoux attempts nothing in the way of stylistic individuality, leading to an unflattering feeling throughout that all this has been done before, and much better, and quite possibly with Fanny Ardant in one of the roles. The graceful actor performs with exquisite poise and perceptiveness, as ever, communicating a plethora of emotions and emotional motivations in a film that's lacking in such depth in all other regards. She plays on her innate watchability, never overstepping her mark and overwhelming the film - perhaps to its disadvantage, in the end - but puts considerable work in to her characterisation, as evidenced by a strong scene in which she plays inebriation considerably more convincingly than most actors are capable of. Vernoux's camera seems to thrive off Ardant, as though she is its sole source of energy, and indeed Bright Days Ahead would be a lacklustre, lethargic trifle of a film without her. It even seems dedicated to her stardom, like Vernoux has intentionally stripped her film of anything of interest in the service of her star. The scenario she inherits from Fanny Chesnel's novel, however, provides her with little inspiration, and Bright Days Ahead dribbles its way through it from there.

REVIEW - MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS (TOM BERNINGER)

His camera like an extension of himself, Tom Berninger applies his knack (not that anyone knew he had one) for drawing out the worst in others to a new-found knack (not that he knew he had it) for filmmaking. Crucially, he also draws out the worst in himself, and arranges the footage into a rich and funny hybrid of rock documentary and family portrait. Using a variety of techniques to evince this wide range of emotions present in his relationship with his brother Matt, the frontman of popular indie rock band The National, and also with his film's other subjects, what's surprising above all is the consistency of the finished product. It's evident in every short scene, though, the candour that Berninger seeks in his film, which extends to a candour in the artifices he creates for the film - staged moments whose corniness is so distinctly at odds with the rest of the film, or even the very process of making a film. In the apparent insignificance of much of what Berninger captures on his camera and in the self-sufficient loop the film seems to be in (screening old scenes as part of the film, chronicling its own editing process, like a 'making of' within the film being made), Mistaken for Strangers takes the form of a revision of what a film is, or what one can be. Its honesty does not relent, does not fail to permeate any fraction of the film, to the effect that it seems completely aware of its status and its purpose, even as it is in production. Berninger's camera seems to point back at itself, as well as the petulant, passive-aggressive, irresponsible, supercilious, pretentious, aloof, nasty, childish people in the frame. As a rock-doc, it's only of moderate value. As a bizarre family portrait, it's exceptional.

REVIEW - PANTANI: THE ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF A CYCLIST (JAMES ERSKINE)

A frustratingly basic and shallow biographical documentary, about a man who ignited a new flame of inspiration in a sport, by a man evidently burned by that flame. There's no denying the talent in Marco Pantani, nor the magnitude of what he achieved, nor the passion felt by many of his countrymen and women for him, and possibly not even the dubious circumstances under which his downfall was orchestrated. It's just that there's no denying that James Erskine tells this side of the story and this side only. Through standard documentary techniques such as interviews, voiceover, montages, archive footage and the occasional recreation, none of which have been used to especially impressive effect, Erskine charts Pantani's life through the prism of his career as a cyclist, with little insight into anything else. Considering the film's title, and the eventual manner in which both his career and his life came to their respective ends, there's scope here for considerable rumination upon Pantani the man, rather than Pantani the icon, but Erskine never seems to bother getting inside his head. We see his desire to succeed, and we see his desperation when that is denied him, but we don't understand them - there's no clue as to why. What we're provided instead is a doc that strives for dynamism in its style and structure, albeit a rudimentary dynamism, to make up for the lack of compelling archival content. Erskine manages to make his picture engaging, perhaps up until the close, where his adoration for his subject begins to grate in its relentlessness, but his stylistic choices are crude and cheesy, and cheapen the film to the point where it induces unintentional laughter. A shame that such a seminal figure in sport should be dishonoured with mediocre filmmaking, and ironically so, since this is the exact opposite of what was intended.

COLIN FIRTH OUT OF PADDINGTON MONTHS BEFORE RELEASE

A trailer for StudioCanal's upcoming update of the popular British TV show was notable for not featuring Colin Firth. He had been cast to provide the voice of the titular character in Paddington in Paul King's film, but has announced now that he has dropped out of the production. The film, which is due for release in the British Isles as soon as the 28th of November, will now have to scramble to find a replacement for the Oscar-winner, and someone talented enough to head up a stellar supporting cast including Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Hugh Bonneville and Nicole Kidman. The Weinstein Company will handle North American distribution, where it's set to open on Christmas Day.

DATES ANNOUNCED FOR NEXT TWO STEVEN SPIELBERG PROJECTS

An as-yet-untitled Cold War thriller written by the Coen brothers and starring Tom Hanks, and an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG which Melissa Mathison will pen. Those are the next two films on Steven Spielberg's slate, after months of speculation regarding which of the many projects he's considering he'll elect as his follow-up to Lincoln. Currently, the Cold War thriller is scheduled for the 16th of October next year, with The BFG set for the 1st of July 2016. That's a typically quick turnaround for Spielberg, though normally the summer blockbuster precedes the late-year awards contender. So far out, though, and with two such ambitious films to be made, one can expect these dates to change at some point in the future.

REVIEW - THE DIRTIES (MATT JOHNSON)

There's not nearly as much originality in Matt Johnson's concept for The Dirties, nor in the message he's peddling us in it, as he seems to think, but while all its gaucheries can be excused by its self-reflexive quality, the potency of what Johnson presents cannot. It's a product of the effort that went into making the film, and the skill, no doubt gleaned from the many classics referenced herein. The Dirties' main reference, though, is to itself, a technique that's old hat even among the cinema that has inspired Johnson, and which serves little technical purpose beyond showing off the ways in which it can be achieved: films within the film, acknowledgement of the crew, fictional storylines becoming real, even a neat scene in which Johnson presents a sequence we've seen as footage from his own feature. The style is found footage, though its application is more advanced. What purpose it does serve is to emphasise the senselessness and the awfulness of what eventually occurs here, in heightening the sensation of reality. Though a number of moments query the narrative validity of having an unknown third party carting filming equipment around in any and all circumstances, The Dirties is resolutely devoid of the staged sensation that is so often utilised in film to dehumanise violence. As is commonly the case in cathartic North American cinema, however, the sensational conclusion is more than the sum of the parts that preceded it. Johnson is fine at establishing his notions about bullying - that it creates not only social outcasts liable to express their shame, pain and rage in distressing ways but also more bullies born out of the victims. He's negligent, however, in exploring the roots of such behaviour, and the reasons behind the reactions. But it may not fit snugly into his film's design, which is simple but effective, and that's just about true for everything else about this film.

REVIEW - KORENGAL (SEBASTIAN JUNGER)

The second impression of war from Sebastian Junger, a reflection upon and depiction of the daily activities of the squadron stationed at the remote outpost Restrepo in Afghanistan's Korengal valley. Junger observes them first-hand, his method at once intimate yet removed, and also conducts interviews with the squadron's members after their tour, as they offer up their own subjective judgement on an experience few can know. There's a sense of monotony in their routines, the desperate boredom of being situated so distant from western civilisation, and the terror of near-relentless assault from Taliban fighters. In this examination of mundanity, Junger transitions smoothly from a physical perspective to an emotional one, and though his subjects may be varying degrees of eloquent or reliable, their testimony is powerful in its pertinence. It's also distinctly sanctimonious - this is a very contemptuous film. Junger gives a nod or two to the horror that is warfare, or even the very notion of it, but otherwise wholeheartedly supports these men's personal interpretations of their place in the world. It's less a portrait of dangerous individuals than a tribute to damaged heroes, which is a tone irreconcilable with Korengal's content, and so often are these soldiers seen to act in such a dishonorable manner that Junger's reverence swiftly becomes irksome. A frequently melancholy film, its spasms of brutal life rather spoil the initially subdued mood, and by generally vicious means, such as one memorable celebration of murder. When this mood is broken, it never catches hold again, and what sets this frankly redundant feature apart from its predecessor, Restrepo, is lost.