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Queen vying with Bobby for Venice honours
2006-09-07
With two days of the Venice Film Festival to run, British director Stephen Frears' "The Queen" and Emilio Estevez's lament for a lost America "Bobby" are the among the favourites to win the coveted Golden Lion for top film. Frears' film, about the British monarch's reaction to the death of Princess Diana, is the overwhelming favourite with both critics and public in a daily survey published by Italian film magazine Ciak. But close behind in the popularity stakes is "Coeurs", the latest film from veteran French director Alain Resnais, who won the Golden Lion here in 1961 and a lifetime achievement award in 1985. "Coeurs" (Hearts) focuses on loneliness and ordinary people's quest for happiness in snow-covered Paris and features a cast of leading French actors in a version of Alan Ayckbourn's play "Private Fears in Public Places". Resnais, 84, said earlier this week the characters in his movie were like "fish in an aquarium". Estevez's stirring movie is the most political film among the frontrunners. "Bobby" follows 22 people who were at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night US presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down. "Its time for Robert Kennedy, what he stood for, and to remember his voice," said Estevez, who denied his movie was an indictment of President George W. Bush. The all-star cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Christian Slater, Demi Moore, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone and Estevez father, Martin Sheen. "The script was written before 9/11 and before the Iraq and Afghan wars and its become sadly more relevant as time goes on," he said. The race for the Golden Lion is still wide open, with the last two of the 22 films in competition being screened on Friday -- "Mushishi" (Bugmaster) by Japanese director Otomo Katsuhiro and the Italian "Nuovomondo" (Golden Door) by Emanuele Crialese. A jury led French actress Catherine Deneuve will decide on the destiny of the festival's top prize, to be announced at a gala finale on Saturday. Italy's La Repubblica daily said Deneuve has been impressed by two poetic Asian films, Malaysian director Tsai Ming-Liang's "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" and Thai movie "Sang Sattawat" (Syndromes and a Century) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The newspaper however said Frears, Resnais or Italian director Gianni Amelio, for "La Stella che non c'e" (The Missing Star), were the three most likely films to snatch the award. Amelio is the last Italian to win the Golden Lion, in 1998. The newspaper also cited "Bobby" and "Daratt" (Dry Season) -- a film from Chadian direction Mahamet-Saleh Haroun about the aftermath of his country's civil war -- as strong contenders. Helen Mirren is favourite to take the Best Actress award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Frears' film, but faces competition from Sabine Azema in Resnais' movie. The main contenders for the Best Actor prize are Sergio Castellito (The Missing Star) and British actor Clive Owen for Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men". "Ostrov" by Russian director Pavel Lounguine will close the festival on September 9.
Hong Kong artists tipped to sweep Chinese "Oscars" (2006-11-25)"The Queen," "Bobby" lead race for Venice awards (2006-09-08)Queen vying with Bobby for Venice honours (2006-09-07)Taiwan filmmakers sees hope from Ang Lee's success (2006-02-11)Taiwan unveils nominees for Chinese Oscars (2005-10-18)
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