July 23rd, 2007 00:33:00
Today, The Banquet, Roommates, Retribution and Pars vite et Reviens tard

The Banquet, présenté au Théâtre Hall, à 17h00

Retribution, présenté au Théâtre Hall, à 19h30

Here are some films not to be missed today:

The Banquet, one of China’s most popular directors, Feng (A World Without Thieves) transposes Shakespeare’s Hamlet into ancient China. Filled with lavish production values and deliciously graceful action sequences by Yuen Woo-Ping (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Matrix), the film flows like a tense chess game. Featuring Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Daniel Wu (One Night in Mongkok). Montreal premiere

Roommates, aka D-Day, is one of four horror films commissioned for the Suddenly One Day package, shot in HD for only $600,000. First-time feature-director Kim Eun-kyung has clearly made the most of her resources, culling a fine cast of unknowns and skillfully merging the imagery that has come to characterize contemporary Asian horror with a story inspired by Western classics such as Suspiria and The Shining. With an involving, unpredictable plot and scares-a-plenty, this is more than merely another movie haunted by black hair and ceiling stains. Those familiar motifs appear in Roommates, but what makes the film truly disturbing --especially this year -- is its reflection of the real-life havoc that school can wreak on fragile young psyches, and the horror that can ensue.

Retribution, hugely acclaimed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Kairo, Bright Future) joins forces with uber-producer Taka Ichise (Ringu, Ju-On) -- arguably the most important and influential figure in the entire J-horror boom. A beautiful, haunting work laced with anger, regret and isolation, beautifully shot and flawlessly performed — clearly the work of a true master.

French director Régis Wargnier is rightly celebrated for his exotic cinematic journeys—his Indochine, with Catherine Deneuve, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1993, and 1999’s Est-Ouest peered into a post-war Stalinist Ukraine, while his more recent Man To Man (2005) was his voyage into Africa. With Pars vite et Reviens tard, however, Wargnier comes home, and at the same time indulges his urge to fashion an effective cop thriller. In his adaptation of a novel by the distinctive crime writer Fred Vargas—comparable to Dan Brown (The Davinci Code) in his historical and archaeological fascinations, albeit with a more refined sense of realism and psychological insight—Wargnier brings to life a Paris at once sharply modern and shrouded in the fog of the past, and infuses it with a grim, arresting sense of dread. Leading the cast is José Garcia (La Boîte noire, Costa-Gavras’s Le Couperet), and watch for the great Michel Serrault as well.


Pars vite et Reviens tard, présenté au Théâtre Hall, à 21h40