20/01/2006

In the same week where all eyes are on Brokeback Mountain by Ang Lee, winner of the Golden Lion at the last Mostra of Venice and one of the big favourites at the upcoming Oscars, two European films and one Canadian/German co-production also feature on Spanish screens. Hidden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile], Madre Teresa and Alone in the Dark will also be in competition against two American films, Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall (distribution: Sony Pictures) and Roll Bounce by Malcolm D. Lee (Hispano Foxfilms).

Big winner of the last European Film Awards, Hidden (o.t. Caché) marked the return of Michael Haneke, after the mixed reception of his latest film, The Time of the Wolf (o.t. Le temps du loup) (2003). With the hard look that characterises each of his films, the Austrian director has constructed a story where the daily life of a man is turned upside down by videotapes and anonymous drawings, which seem to be linked to a story that he thought he had wiped from his memory. Golem is responsible for the distribution of this Austrian/French/German/Italian co-production —already covered by Cineuropa in a Film Focus — with Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche heading the bill.

The distribution company Lauren Films also releases on big screens this week the Italian telefilm Madre Teresa produced by Mediatrade and Lux Studios and directed in 2003 by Fabrizio Costa. The film takes its inspiration from the life of Teresa of Calcutta, whose role is interpreted by Olivia Hussey.

Finally, this week's releases also makes room for horror cinema with Alone in the Dark from Germany's Uwe Boll. America's Christian Slater plays a detective who has to fight a supernatural enemy, a role different to those he has played up to now. Produced by Canadian companies AITD Productions and Brightlight Pictures Inc. and by the American Infogrames Entertainment, Alone in the Dark is a European co-production thanks to the participation of two German-based production companies: Boll Kino Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG and Herold Productions.