
1999 Recommendations
Once again, the Montreal World Film Festival offers us a huge variety of films to
choose from and, indeed, far too many for any normal human being
to actually see. The trick, like in most festivals, is to
pinpoint the ones that are really worth watching. The following
list will hopefully give a good overview as to which movies are
worth watching.
Hundreds of films
shown during the festival will also be shown here for the first
time, some of which will be lucky enough to be distributed
(American or Canadian production companies, while others will be
never to be seen again. Because of this, many of these films have
not yet garnered any attention, or a place in the following
"Recommended" list. But, like every year, there are
gems amidst these unknown films, and the only way to find them is
to take a chance and see a few.
Main
Recommendations:
- A Mort la Mort
(Down with Death!) (Romain Goupil - France) - a man tries
to defy death by living his life to the fullest (from
Cannes)
- A Respectable Tragedy
(Kaisa Rastimo - Finland)
- Après la Fin du
Monde (After the End of the World) (Ivan Nichev
- Bulgaria/Greece/Germany)
- Beloved/Friend
(Ventura Pons - Spain)
- Babaouo
(Manuel Cussó-Ferrer - Spain) - a modern adaptation to
the lost third chapter of the Dali/Luis Bunel film series
meant to complement Un Chien Andalou and L'Age
d'Or
- Cerisaie, La
(The Cherry Orchard) (Michael Cacoyannis -
Greece/Cyprus/France) - adapted from the work by Tchekov
- Chang Jiang - The
Great River of China (Yasushi Sakaguchi - China)
- an IMAX presentation
- City of Marvels,
The
(Mario Camus - Spain)
- Colour of God,
The (Majid Majidi - Iran)
- Dilettante, La
(Pascal Thomas - France)
- Dinner, The
(Ettore Scola - Italy) - an impressive European cast in a
film by one of Italy's best directors
- Goya à Bordeaux
(Carlos Saura - Spain)
- Humanité, L'
(Bruno Dumont - France) - very controversial feature that
won three coveted awards at Cannes this year: the Jury
Special Grand Prize, Best Actress, and Best Actor
- Lettre La (A
Carta) (Manoel (Oliveira - France/Portugal)
- The Legend of 1900
(Giuseppe Tornatore - Italy) - from the acclaimed director of Cinema
Paradiso
- Lovers (Dogma 5)
(Jean-Marc Barr - France)
- Mansfield Park
(Patricia Rozema - USA) - adapted from the novel by Jane
Austen, by a Canadian director - the official opening
film of the festival
- My Best Fiend
(Werner Herzog - Germany) - a pseudo-documentary on the
trials director Herzog had working with Klaus Kinski,
should be fascinating for anyone who has seen Fitzcarraldo
and Aguirre
- Other, The
(El Akhar) (Youssef Chahine - Egypt)
- Peau Neuve
(Emilie Deleuze - France) - International Critics
prize-winner from Cannes
- Propaganda
(Sinan Cetin - Turkey)
- Souffle de Vie
(Soplo de Vida) (Luis Ospina - Colombia)
- Souvenirs Intimes
(Memories Unlocked) (Jean Beaudin - Quebec) - adapted
from the novel Homme invisible à la fenêtre by
Monique Proux
- Temps
Retrouvé, Le
(Time Regained) (Raoul Ruiz - France/Italy) - one of the
main attractions of this year's festival, adapted from
the novel by Marcel Proust
- Until We Meet
(Cho Moon-jin - South Korea)
- War Zone,The
(Tim Roth - UK) - controversial first feature from actor
Tim Roth
Additional
films worthy of note:
- Bayside Shakedown
(Katsuyuki Motohiro - Japan) - promises to be an amusing
comedy, spoofing old American police dramas
- Berezina or the Last
Days of Switzerland (Daniel Schmid -
Switzerland/Germany/Austria)
- Ça Commence
Aujourd'hui (It All Starts Today) (Bertrand
Tavernier - France) - the latest film by one of France's
best directors
- Convoyeurs Attendent,
Les (The Carriers Are Waiting) (Benoît
Mariage - France/Belgium)
- Courage
(Coraje) (Alberto Durant - Peru)
- Face to Face
(Marius Theodor Barna - Romania)
- Fille Sur le Pont,
La (Patrice Leconte - France)
- Genèse, La
(Genesis) (Cheick Oumar Sissoko - France/Mali) -
from Cannes
- Happy, Texas
(Mark Illsley - USA) - a hit with both critics and
audiences at Sundance
- Journey to the Sun
(Yesim Ustaoglu - Turkey/Pays-Bas/Germany)
- Mating Habits of the
Earthbound Human, The (Jeff
Abugov - USA)
- Misery Harbour
(Nils Gaup - Norvège / Canada / Danemark)
- Night Train
(John Lynch - Ireland)
- Personals, The (Chen
Kuo-fu - Taiwan/China)
- Pont Entre Deux Rives,
Un (The Bridge) (Gérard Dépardieu &
Frederic Auburtin - France) - latest directorial effort by actor
Dépardieu
- Poppoya
(Yasuo Furuhata - Japan)
- Post Mortem
(Louis Bélanger - Quebec)
- Romance
(Catherine Breillat - France)
- Shikoku
(Shunichi Nagasaki - Japan)
- Si Près du Paradis
(Biandan, Guniang) (Wang Xiaoshuai - China)
- Siam Sunset
(John Polson - Australia)
- Speechwriter,
The (Der Redenschreiber) (Julia Albrecht
- Germany)
- Throne of Death
(Murali Nair -India/UK)
- Wait and See
(Ah, Haru) (Shinji Somai - Japan)
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