26/09/2013 - A Scorsese retrospective as a birthday gift for the 40th anniversary of the Gand Film Festival and hats off to composer Alexandre Desplat

The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears

For its 40^th edition, which will take place from October 8-19, the Gand Film Festival chose to honour independent American cinema. A retrospective and an exhibition will pay tribute to the work of Martin Scorsese. Besides, the festival selected the best of American independent cinema of the past few months, and will propose many avant-premieres, including Don Jon, the first film by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises), and Behind the Candelabra, Soderbergh’s latest movie, presented in Cannes. The festival will open with The Fifth Estate [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Bill Condon, the highly anticipated biopic about the rise and fall of the founder of Wikileaks, an Afterworks and FBO Film production, in collaboration with Flemish producer Hilde De Laere (read the news).

In competition, it is worth mentioning two Belgian contenders: The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, noticed in Locarno and Toronto, and the new film by Caroline Strubbe, I Am the Same, I Am An Other. Also competing, the sensation from the Certain Regard 2013, Stranger by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile] by Alain Guiraudie; In the Name of [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
interview: Mateusz Kosciukiewicz
film profile] by Polish director Malgoska Szumowska; The Missing Picture [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Rithy Panh (France/ Cambodia); The Selfish Giant [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clio Barnard
interview: Clio Barnard
film profile] by English director Clio Barnard; and Suzanne [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile] by Katell Quillevéré.

For the 13^th time, the Festival will also organise the World Soundtrack Awards. The guest of honour this year will be French composer Alexandre Desplat, the author of over 140 original soundtracks, in France (notably the films by Jacques Audiard), and aborad (The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile], for example). He is actually named in the Best Composer of the Year category, for his work Argo, Reality and Zero Dark Thirty. A Lifetime Achievement Award will also be given to Italian composer Riv Ortolani, who composed music for over 200 films, notably many spaghetti westerns in the 60’s and 70’s, and whom we rediscovered thanks to the tributes of Quentin Tarantino and Nicolas Winding Refn.

(Translated from French)