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Francis Ford Coppola now calling Buenos Aires home
FILE
Five-time Oscar winner, director Francis Ford Coppola.
The maestro has gone gaucho. Francis Ford Coppola, 68, believes he's finally where he's supposed to be, a place where he can revel in financial and artistic control. Yes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, land of comparatively low production costs and much cultural ferment, especially the streets of this cosmopolitan capital. A city, one might add, with a large Italian community dating back to the early 20th century. This five-time Oscar winner probably needs a change of scene, given his last outing, the roundly panned and commercially ignored "Youth Without Youth." But then, Coppola has had his share of pratfalls over the decades, only to bounce back. Currently, he's preparing to film a picture about a dysfunctional Italian-immigrant clan. But forget any notion of similarity to the Corleones. "Tetro," being made from Coppola's original screenplay, follows the paths of two sons of a gifted but egocentric Argentine orchestra conductor. And Coppola has not been dissuaded from shooting in the city by the glitch of a unsettling burglary: His studio was hit in September by crooks who pilfered computers and even his backup data system. He's financing the $15 million production himself, a sum that can go a long way, given Argentina's recent reputation as a mecca for budget-conscious travelers or businesspeople. Which also means Coppola is flush again. His holdings include three luxury resorts in Belize and Guatemala as well as his stateside vineyard and pasta businesses. Vincent Gallo is joined in the cast of "Tetro" by newcomer Alden Ehrenreich and by Spanish actors Javier Bardem ("No Country For Old Men") and Maribel Verdu of ("Pan's Labyrinth," "Belle Epoque"). Brynner fest He was the most famous bald actor who ever lived, and the only ex-trapeze artist philosophy grad from the Sorbonne to make a career for himself in film. And what a career: imposing, larger than life, with screen presence to burn. Russian-born Yul Brynner's power to command an audience's unwavering attention, on stage or screen, will be vividly recalled during the Yul Brynner Film Festival, slated Monday through Friday in the auditorium of the main branch of the Charleston County Public Library. All screenings (except for Friday's 3 p.m. finale) are at 1 p.m. and free to the public. The fest is being held in cooperation with the Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation as part of Oral, Head And Neck Cancer Awareness Week. Brynner, you may recall, made a touching public service announcement shortly before his death in 1985 from lung cancer warning people to quit smoking or avoid taking up the habit. Brynner was a 1956 Best Actor Oscar winner for the "The King and I," which opens the festival Monday, followed on Tuesday by "The Ten Commandments," on Wednesday by "The Magnificent Seven," on Thursday by "Taras Bulba" and concluding Friday with the double feature "Westworld" (recreating his "Magnificent Seven" character as an android) and "Catlow." Dad & Son's Film Club As his memoir "The Film Club" opens, David Gilmour is an unemployed film critic laboring to convince his 15-year-old son, Jesse, of the value of doing his homework. When he realizes Jesse is beginning to view learning as a loathsome task, Gilmour offers his son an unusual deal: Jesse can drop out of school, not work or even pay rent, but he must watch three movies a week of his father's choosing. Week by week, side by side, father and son watch everything from "True Romance" to "Rosemary's Baby." Even — gasp! — "Showgirls," as well as films by Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder, among others. The movies got them talking about Jesse's life and his own romantic dramas with "mercurial girlfriends, heart-wrenching breakups and the kind of obsessive yearning usually seen only in movies." Through their film club, dad and son managed to discuss girls, music, work, drugs, money, love and friendship. Their own lives changed in surprising ways. It's a wise and winning small book that demonstrates a lot about the power of film as a bridge to connection. Gilmour is the author of six novels, the most recent of which, "A Perfect Night to Go to China," captured the 2005 Governor-General's Award for fiction in Canada. He worked for the Toronto International Film Festival before moving into a broadcasting career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC) where he served as the national film critic for the country's flagship news show, The Journal. He went on to host his own talk show on CBC's Newsworld, Gilmour on the Arts, which won a Gemini Award. Bits and Pieces Another adaptation, Danny Boyle's "Q&A," is drawn from a book of the same name by Vikas Swarup, about a man arrested for winning a pile of money on a quiz show. Good or bad, the new film is not to be confused with Sidney Lumet's "Q&A" (1990), a top-notch cop drama featuring the finest performance of Nick Nolte's career, a film well worth seeking out on video. The Weinstein Company has announced it has acquired the rights to develop, produce and distribute the first biopic of Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist and activist Bob Marley and his wife, Rita Marley. The feature film is to be based on the autobiography "No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley" written by his widow. The script is being penned by Lizzie Borden ("Working Girls"), with Rita Marley as executive producer. ... Veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins ("The Assassination of Jesse James," "No Country for Old Men") is as occupied as ever, with two more pictures already in the can: "Doubt" and "The Reader." Dad & Son's Film Club As his memoir "The Film Club" opens, David Gilmour is an unemployed film critic laboring to convince his 15-year-old son, Jesse, of the value of doing his homework. When he realizes Jesse is beginning to view learning as a loathsome task, Gilmour offers his son an unusual deal: Jesse can drop out of school, not work or even pay rent, but he must watch three movies a week of his father's choosing. Week by week, side by side, father and son watch everything from "True Romance" to "Rosemary's Baby." Even — gasp! — "Showgirls," as well as films by Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder, among others. The movies got them talking about Jesse's life and his own romantic dramas with "mercurial girlfriends, heart-wrenching breakups and the kind of obsessive yearning usually seen only in movies." Through their film club, dad and son managed to discuss girls, music, work, drugs, money, love and friendship. Their own lives changed in surprising ways. It's a wise and winning small book that demonstrates a lot about the power of film as a bridge to connection. Gilmour is the author of six novels, the most recent of which, "A Perfect Night to Go to China," captured the 2005 Governor-General's Award for fiction in Canada. He worked for the Toronto International Film Festival before moving into a broadcasting career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC) where he served as the national film critic for the country's flagship news show, The Journal. He went on to host his own talk show on CBC's Newsworld, Gilmour on the Arts, which won a Gemini Award. Bits and Pieces Another adaptation, Danny Boyle's "Q&A," is drawn from a book of the same name by Vikas Swarup, about a man arrested for winning a pile of money on a quiz show. Good or bad, the new film is not to be confused with Sidney Lumet's "Q&A" (1990), a top-notch cop drama featuring the finest performance of Nick Nolte's career, a film well worth seeking out on video. The Weinstein Company has announced it has acquired the rights to develop, produce and distribute the first biopic of Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist and activist Bob Marley and his wife, Rita Marley. The feature film is to be based on the autobiography "No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley" written by his widow. The script is being penned by Lizzie Borden ("Working Girls"), with Rita Marley as executive producer. ... Veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins ("The Assassination of Jesse James," "No Country for Old Men") is as occupied as ever, with two more pictures already in the can: "Doubt" and "The Reader."
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