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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2012

San Sebastian Film Festival 2012

Zabaltegi-Pearls

Programme

12 films · 9 reviews

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Amour

Review preview for Amour

Haneke goes far beyond pushing emotional buttons into territory where our most visceral fears lurk.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
An elderly couple deal with the ravages of old age.

(Country: France, Germany, Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Michael Haneke; Writer: Michael Haneke; Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert)

Full review See: National Board of Review Awards Gala red carpet with Ben Affleck, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redrgrave, Emmanuelle Riva and more , San Sebastian Film Festival Diary: Episode 3

The Angels' Share

Review preview for The Angels' Share

One of The Angels' Share's strongest points is the way the script and the actors capture natural language.

Donald Munro · 4 out of 5
A group of young offenders doing community service find inspiration in whisky.

(Country: UK, France; Year: 2012; Director: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Gary Maitland, Jasmin Riggins, William Ruane, Roger Allam, Siobhan Reilly)

Full review See: Ken Loach, Gary Maitland and Jasmin Riggins on The Angels' Share

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Review preview for Beasts Of The Southern Wild

There's poetry, tough love and, above all, a fierce stoicism on the bayou in Benh Zeitlin's strikingly beautiful and haunting debut.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna return from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’ under, in this tale of a six-year-old named Hushpuppy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Benh Zeitlin; Writer: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin; Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry) , Official site

Full review See: Quvenzhané Wallis, Jessica Chastain, Benh Zeitlin, Rich Moore, Famke Janssen and Daniel Craig on the National Board of Awards red carpet , Sundance Episode 3: Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Robot & Frank and Lay The Favourite

Caesar Must Die (Cesare Deve Morire)

A docudrama following drama workshops at Italy's Rebibbia prison, charting the trials and tribulations as the inmates tackle Shakespeare.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani; Stars: Fabio Cavalli, Salvatore Striano)

Hope Springs

A middle-aged couple attend counselling to try to restore their relationship.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: David Frankel; Writer: Vanessa Taylor; Stars: Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell, Jean Smart, Ben Rappaport, Marin Ireland, Patch Darragh, Brett Rice, Becky Ann Baker, Elisabeth Shue, Charles Techman, Daniel Flaherty, Damian Young, Mimi Rogers, Ann Harada)

The Imposter

Review preview for The Imposter

A film and a story where you can't afford to be out of the conversation.

Owen Van Spall · 4 out of 5
In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappears from his home in San Antonio, Texas, but three and a half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in Spain with a shocking story of kidnap and torture... but all is not what it seems in this tale that is truly stranger than fiction.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Bart Layton; Stars: Anthony Zanlungo, Adam O'Brian)

Full review See: Report from Secret Cinema screening and Q&A of The Imposter

Me And You (Io E Te)

Review preview for Me And You

Everything here is meticulously planned yet the effect is of something effortless.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
An introverted teenager forges a bond with his step-sister as he hides out in his family's basement.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Bernardo Bertolucci; Writer: Niccolò Ammaniti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Niccolò Ammaniti, Umberto Contarello, Francesca Marciano; Stars: Tea Falco, Jacopo Olmo Antinori, Sonia Bergamasco, Veronica Lazar, Tommaso Ragno, Pippo Delbono, Francesca De Martini)

Full review

Savages

Review preview for Savages

Leads and support cast alike march their talents off a cliff like the most earnest of lemmings.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 1 out of 5
A pair of pot growers clash with a drug cartel after their girlfriend is kidnapped.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Oliver Stone; Writer: Shane Salerno, Oliver Stone, based on the book by Don Winslow; Stars: Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jana Banker, Candra Docherty, Patrick Fourmy, Gary Stretch, Benicio Del Toro, Diego Cataño, Shea Whigham, Karishma Ahluwalia, Joaquín Cosio, John Travolta, Jonathan Carr, Demián Bichir)

Full review

Something In The Air (Après mai)

Review preview for Something In The Air

Most real, and at once divine, are the scenes in nature.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
An 18-year-old man reacts to the social changes of late 1960s Europe.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas; Stars: Lola Créton, Dolores Chaplin, India Menuez, Carole Combes, Clement Metayer, Victoria Ley, Felix Armand, Nathanjohn Carter, Mathias Renou, Nick Donald, Félix de Givry)

Full review See: Olivier Assayas interview about Something In The Air (Apres Mai)

The Sessions (The Surrogate)

Review preview for The Sessions

It takes messy and unresolved dynamics and finds their poetry. Can’t say sexier than that.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 4.5 out of 5
A man in an iron lung hires a sex surrogate to help him lose his virginity.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Ben Lewin; Writer: Ben Lewin; Stars: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks, Adam Arkin)

Full review

This Is Not The Private Life Of Javier Krahe (Esta no es la vida privada de Javier Krahe)

This film produced in 2006 shows the strength of Krahe live, of his intimate and peculiar relationship with the audience. Cinéma Vérité, in comic strain and road movie format, recovering fragments like the super 8 Sobre la Cristofagia (On Eating Christ), the cause of renewed controversy in 2012.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2005; Director: Ana Murugarren, Joaquín Trincado; Writer: Ana Murugarren, Joaquín Trincado; Stars: Moncho Alpuente, Fernando Anguita, Pilar Bardem, Pablo Carbonell, Enrique Cavestany, Jesús Cifuentes, Wyoming El Gran, Antonio Fraguas 'Forges', Julián Hernández, Javier Krahe, Paco Lucena, Javier López de Guereña, Rosendo Mercado, Carmen París, Albert Pla)