Special # LOCARNO70 : The Awards jury divided critics and while France is full of Pardi

It could not be otherwise because the selection 2017 which comprises more than fifty new works is characterized as already stated by a massive presence of 0ltre Alpe film (about one third of new titles). The curiosity is that, as often happens, the jury has distanced itself from criticism by assigning the Grand Prize of the Festival and the City of Locarno to the film: MRS. FANG di WANG Bing, which unfortunately we have not seen but which instead enjoyed a third place among the most authoritative critics and in particular Francesca Monti of the Giornale del Popolo (Switzerland) who called it a lesson in cinema and ethics of the gaze that we need today. But also by Francesco Boille, International (Italy) for which Mrs Fang is the motionless portrait of a woman at the end of her days, free of pornography and full of humanity instead. But also from Europe and America like Giorgia Del Don, Cineuropa.(Belgium) who prefers it for its poetry and desperation. Wang Bing invites us to focus on the small details that make us human, to look into the void without getting lost. A delicate film to be handled with caution. And finally the American Christopher Small, IndieWire, which defines the mourning of Ms. Fang by Wang Bing as materialistic theater, gives us her inner and outer life. All you need is just a face.

For the critics, the film to be awarded was Lucky which was not taken into consideration by the jury. Unfortunately we were unable to see it due to the sold out of the various projections which indicates how word of mouth works. Switzerland in favor of the film with Matthias Lerf of the SonntagsZeitung who tells us "why sometimes it takes so little, Luckily: a turtle, two songs and a lot of Harry Dean Stanton ". But also his colleague Michael Sennhauser. And Maurizio Porro from Italy, Alessandra Levantesi, Massimo Lastrucci, Valentina D'Amico. From united Europe the German Peter Claus, the Frenchman Thomas Sotinel of Le Monde, and British Allan Hunter of the influential Screen International and Pamela Jahn of Electric Sheep Magazine. But also dear friend Nina Rothe of the Huffington Post: Because it's a beautiful and compelling story that makes you want to live in that place with that person.

Instead, it unites all MADAME HYDE by Serge Bozon France / Belgium with a great interpretation by Isabelle Huppert who deserves the Oscar for her versatility to the characters she has recently played.

And in fact the Leopard for the best female interpretation was awarded to her!

The film that we loved very much precisely for the great interpretation of Isabelle Huppert. Accompanied in her adventure as a teacher Romain Duris and José Garcia.

Not only from Germany Frédéric Jaeger, Critic, my reed Nicholas Elliott del prestigious Cahiers du Cinéma, Olivia Cooper-Hadjia, critico francese e Jean-Baptiste Morain di Les Inrockuptibles, always French and finally the Portuguese Francisco Ferreira dell’Expresso supported him during the event.

But we report the other awards of the international Competition.

The Official Jury of the 70th Locarno Festival, composed by President Olivier Assayas, filmmaker (France) e Jean-Stéphane Bron, filmmaker (Switzerland), Miguel Gomes, filmmaker (Portugal), Christos Konstantakopoulos, producer (Greece), Birgit Minichmayr, actress (Austria) has decided to award the following prizes:

Special Jury Prize – Award of the Municipalities of Ascona and Losone to AS BOAS MANEIRAS by Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra, Brazil, France

Pardo for best direction and Award of the City and the Region of Locarno to F.J. OSSANG for 9 FINGERS, France, Portugal

Leopard for the best male interpretation assigned to the plaintiff: ELLIOTT CROSSET HOVE for WINTER BROTHERS by Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark, Iceland

In the Competition Filmmakers of the Present The jury formed by President Yousry Nasrallah, filmmaker (Egypt) and Matías Piñeiro, filmmaker (Argentina), Katrin Pors, producer (Denmark), Johanna ter Steege, actress (Netherlands), Paola Turci, songwriter (Italy) has decided to award the following prizes:

Filmmakers of the Present Golden Leopard a 3/4 (Three Quarters) di Ilian Metev, Bulgaria, Germany

Special award of the Ciné + Filmmakers of the Present jury at MILLA by Valerie Massadian, France, Portugal

Prize for best new director - City and Region of Locarno to KIM DAE-HWAN for CHO-HAENG (The First Lap), South Korea

Special mentions a DISTANT CONSTELLATION di Shevaun Mizrahi, United States, Turkey, Paesi Bassi and DANADO SUMMER by Pedro Cabeleira, Portugal

In the Signs of Life Contest the jury constituted by Maria Bonsanti, programmer (Italy), Jordan Cronk, film critic and programmer (United States), Chris Fujiwara, film critic and programmer (Japan) has decided to award the Signs of Life Award ELECTRONIC-ART.FOUNDATION for Best Film to COCOTE by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, Dominican Republic, Argentina,Germany, Qatar

While as a first work the jury composed by Diego Batlle, movie critic (Argentina), Birgit Kohler, programmer (Germany), Clarense Tsui, movie critic (Hong Kong) has decided to award the following prizes:

Swatch First Feature Award (Prize for the Best First Feature) a SASHISHI DEDA (Scary Mother) at Ana Urushadze, Georgia, Estonia

Swatch Art Peace Hotel Award a METEORLAR (Meteors) di Gürcan Done, Netherlands, Turkey

Special mention and THOSE WHO GOET GOOD (Those Who Are Fine) di Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland

As far as we are concerned, we remember the interesting Critics' Week of which we have seen for you over half of the titles (4 his 7)that we report in order of rating:

favela Olympic Samuel Chalard Switzerland (v.o.Portoghese)

Family (The Family) The Rok Biček Slovenia / Austria (v.o.) Slovenian

Las cinéphilas di María Álvarez Argentina (v.o. Spanolo)

The Poetess di Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff Germania/Saudi Arabia(v.o. Arabic)

In the various sections of the French we seemed to us clear favorites for the quality offered and in particular:

For the selection of the Piazza Grande of the Audience Award (5) we preferred DOG by Samuel Benchetrit France / Belgium - 2017 - 87 'World Premiere. A paradoxical story of a modern Job starring Vincent Macaigne struggling with his ex (Vanessa Paradis) and an evil Bouli Lanners, dog trainer who submits him like an animal. Gilmore final sees him in the role that best suits him, after losing wife, children and work. It will be only in his mind or will actually? A parody on the human values ​​that are increasingly turning to breed humanizing. But let the International Competition (6) where we so loved in France 9 FINGERS of F.J. Ossang France - 2017 - 99 'World Premiere. A hichicockiano films spanning various kinds of stupefacendo film the viewer between crime story, spy story e fantastic story. Il cast formato da Paul Hamy, Damien Bonnard, Pascal Greggory, Gaspard Ulliel, Lisa Hartmann, Alexis Manenti is respectable. Too bad it didn't get any awards, but it is not the first time that we have come across a film with a biting humor from Palestine. It is the case of MANDATORY (Duty) Annemarie Jacir Palestine / France / Germany / Colombia / Norway / Qatar / UAE - 2017 - 96 'World Premiere which is laid bare the relationship between two generations living experiences. A son vacationed in Italy that has sidelined Arab customs, a father clinging to traditions that forced him to behave traditionally. In the background a city of Nazareth and a few chaotic tribute to pop music 70 years this road movie through the streets of the Palestinian city. I due protagonists are Mohammad Bakri, Saleh Bakri.

From the Filmmakers of the Present Competition we preferred the delicious SEVERINA Felipe Hirsch Brazil / Uruguay - 2017 - 103 'World Premiere with Javier Drolas, Carla Quevedo, Alejandro Awada, Alfredo Castro, Daniel Hendler an ode to writing, the world of unconditional love books with an incisive style and the special participation of Alfredo Castro who plays the controversial father figure.

As we have already reported, one of the novelties of this edition were the prizes reserved for the section Signs of Life (2) where works using innovative languages ​​are presented. We saw two movies both deserving the first It WAS ONCE BRASÍLIA of Adirley Queirós Brazil / Portugal - 2017 - 100 'World Premiere with Wellington Abreu, Andreia Vieira, Marquim Troop, Franklin Ferreira in the form of fantasy tells us the political situation in the South American continent, the second takes us back in time and history of Romania to understand what today's Romania. COUNTRY LIFE (The Dead Nation)di Radu Jude Romania - 2017 - First International DOC through the presentation of vintage photo of the photo Splendid study focused on the Shoah in Romania during fascism.

Of the films mentioned, those nominated for the Swatch First Feature Award we preferred METEORLAR di Gürcan Done (Competition Filmmakers of the Present)

As we said cinematic pearls of this edition is limited to a few title while in the independent section of the Critics' Week are concentrated the most worthy works for both language for originality. Let's say aThe first place is the documentary on the Brazilian Olympics of 2016 favela Olympic Samuel Chalard Switzerland (v.o.Portoghese), followed by intimate documentary Family (The Family) The Rok Biček Slovenia / Austria (v.o. Slovenian), shot in more than a decade with a central small Nia and her parents early. After much controversy his young parent waiver of parental authority. But the ag tribute to all lovers of Cinema : Las cinéphilas di María Álvarez Argentina (v.o. Spanolo) in a escursus seven Cinefile where each of us can be recognized with their own strengths and weaknesses. And finally the story of emancipation in Saudi Arabia The Poetess di Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff Germania/Saudi Arabia(v.o. Arabic) to break the tradition that sees women placed in position of inferiority compared to man.

From colleague and friend Ugo Baistrocchi we report his personal ranking that has a lot in common with that expressed by the critics but not by the Jury. We can only tell you that the judgment of any spectator and therefore also of the critics is influenced by the particular moment in which they taste the film.. We confess that many times we have changed our opinion!

FILMS seen by UGO BAISTROCCHI in Locarno LXX (2017) in order of rating:

The cinephilas di Maria Alvarez 74′ DCP Colore f Critics' Week)

Lucky di John Carrol Lynch 88′ DCP Color (Competition)

Tomorrow and all the other days by Noemie Llovsky 96′ DCP Color (Piazza Grande)

Person to person di Dustin Guy Defa 84′ DCP Color (Filmmakers of the Present)

Charleston by Andrei Cretulescu 119 DCP Color (Competition)

Lola pater di Nadir Moknèche 95′ DCP Color (Piazza Grande)

Loves that cannot be in the world by Cristina Comencini 92′ DCP Color (Piazza Grande)

What happened to Monday? by Tommy Wirkola 123′ DCP Color (Piazza Grande)

Madame Hyde di Serge Bozon 95′ DCP Color (Competition)

The errant telenovela di Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento 80′ DCP Color (Competition)

Goliath di Dominik Locher 85′ DCP Color (Competition)

Gemini by Aaron Katz 93′ DCP Color (Competition)

Easy by Andrea Magnani 91′ DCP Color (Filmmakers of the Present)

Good luck di Ben Russell 143′ DCP Color & B/N (Competition)

See you at 2018!

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