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Y'Aura-t-ll de la Neige a No 'l? Will it Snow for Christmas? 
Opening Night Gala
France
Winner of a Cesar Award (the French equivalent of the Academy Award) for Best First Film, Sandrine Veysset's directorial debut is a sensitive, authentic and almost documentary film about the harsh country life of a single mother (Dominique Reymond) struggling to raise her seven illegitimate children The family's drafty, damp, stone farmhouse in southern France has no heating or plumbing, but they are happy. That changes, however, when the children's father arrives to harvest the latest crop. The tyrannical father, who has a wife and home elsewhere, uses this second family as free labor, forcing all but the youngest children to work in the fields. The mother, however, is at the heart of the children's lives, loving them with tremendous pride and an unwavering spirit. Life is a series of small pleasures for the children, threatened intermittently by their unpredictable father. Veysset details with an unsentimental eye the rhythms and realities of the family's life, moving from spring, through summer and fall, into winter, where Christmas stands as a beacon of hope for all. Producer Humbert Balsan on Will It Snow for Christmas? "I had worked with [Sandrine Veysset] in the art department [on another film] and was impressed by her personality. Then she decided to switch to directing. She obtained [a grant to develop the film] and spent the next two years battling to get it off the ground. Two producers backed out on her. By the time she brought the script to me, she was feeling quite discouraged. When I read it, I knew I owed it to myself to produce it And not only that, I knew I had to respect the way Sandrine wanted it to be made. The film had to follow the seasons; all right, we'd shoot three seasons in a row. The heroine had to have a house full of kids; all right, we'd have seven kids, not just the two or three the other producers had tried to impose. Sandrine had actors in mind who weren't well known; we'd take the risk together. I believe a producer's job is to bolster the director's courage and ambition, to stick up for them while pushing them to put everything they have in their guts into the film...! quickly grew to like the film Sandrine was bringing to life, although at that stage I couldn't have [predicted] it would be such a critical and popular success."
Wings of a Dove
United Kingdom 1997, Color, 35mm, 108 min.
Director: Iain Softley The young, darkly beautiful, but sadly impoverished Kate Croy (Helena Boneham Carter) has found a place in society due entirely to the good graces of her aunt Maud. Kate's mother (Charlotte Rampling) married a man of limited financial means, and Kate is about to repeat her mother's mistake-she is hopelessly in love with a handsome, young and penniless journalist, Merton Densher (Linus Roache). When Milly Theale, a wealthy young American heiress, arrives on the scene, men are attracted to her like moths to lamplight. Aunt Maud threatens to cut off Kate if she continues to see Merton. And Milly is struck by Kate's handsome young English lover. Soon a series of thrusts and counterthrusts of Byzantine complexity is enacted by this group of people, each of whom has a desired goal to achieve. This emotional maneuvering takes place against the stunning backdrop of London society and English country estates, before Kate, Merton and Milly travel to Venice, where their story is completed. Iain Softley and his outstanding cast have done a brilliant job of transposing Henry James' eponymous novel to the screen-and not just its story, mesmerizing in its own right, but also the mood and tone of this most human tale. |
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