18:30
Literary Session with Douglas Kennedy
American author Douglas Kennedy will talk about his work and then conduct a book signing session in association with Ernster bookstores. Kennedy is the author of twelve novels, including the international bestsellers “The Big Picture”, “The Pursuit of Happiness” and “Leaving the World” and “The Woman in the Fith” which was adapted into a film starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke.
Venue: Festival headquarters, place de la Constitution, Luxembourg-Centre
Feng Xiaogang’s film is a poetic exploration of the bureaucratic incompetence and legal complexities of life in China. Chinese superstar actress Fan Bingbing plays Li Xuelian, a peasant women seeking right by her ex-husband after he cheats her during a scam they have hatched together. Later she has to fight her way through the legal system to redeem her reputation.
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Venue: Utopia, Luxembourg-Limpertsberg
Rusudan Glurjidze’s beautifully haunting film is set in the aftermath of the civil war in Georgia in the early 1990s. A young family is given a house whose previous owners fled the conflict. Their new neighbour observes them through the scope of her rifle…For both parties the conflict has left deep scars. The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review of the film which it described as “a ghost story without any ghosts”.
In Georgian and Russia with English subtitles
Venue: Cinémathèque, Luxembourg Centre
19:00
Rudolf van den Berg’s entertaining art history thriller tells the story of Han van Meegeren, a Dutch painter in the 1920s and 30s whose career is destroyed by a famous art critic after he begins an affair with the critic’s wife. So produce a perfect fake Vermeer to fool the art world. But when the Nazis occupy Holland his forgery lands him in a real dilemma, one that will have consequences after the war.
The film is a Luxembourg co-production made by Tarantula. Rudolf van den Berg will be at the screening.
In Dutch with English subtitles
Venue: Cinémathèque, Luxembourg Centre
James Gray’s adventure film stars Charlie Hunnam as British explorer Percy Fawcett who in the early 20th century set out to find a hidden civilization in the Amazon. Sienna Miller and Robert Pattinson co-star. The ever-reliable Todd McCarthy in The Hollywood Reporter says that the film is “a rare piece of contemporary classical cinema” and praises Gray’s methodical storytelling. It is an “immaculate production” says McCarthy.
In English
Venue: Utopolis, Luxembourg-Kirchberg
21:00
Double Indemnity with Douglas Kennedy
The writer introduces Billy Wilder’s classic, erotically charged 1944 noir thriller starring Fred MacMurray as insurance salesman Walter Neff who is seduced by Barbara Stanwyck into planning the accidental death of her husband. Edward G. Robinson plays the insurance investigator who looks into the case.
In English subtitles
Venue: Cinémathèque, Luxembourg Centre
Andreas Dalsgaard’s fascinating documentary from 2012 follows Danish architect Jan Gehl as he explores the challenges of overcrowding and traffic faced by cities from Melbourne to Chongqing, New York to Dhaka, Gehl asks fundamental questions about urban planning and poses the to a number of thinkers on the subject. Variety said the documentary was excellent and that it “should enthuse pedestrians, bike riders and public-space proponents everywhere.”
The film is presented by Archiduc, the bi-annual architecture magazine owned by Delano publisher Maison Moderne.
In English
Venue: Utopia, Luxembourg-Limpertsberg
Theo Anthony’s exceptional film is more of a poetic essay than a conventional documentary. It takes a rather different approach to the travails of urban life than “The Human Scale” (see above). Using the problem of rats as the central core of his thesis, Anthony takes “an anthropological look at Baltimore, its inhabitants, both human and animal, and the catastrophic failures of urban society.”
Eric Kohn in IndieWire says that the film “manages to say something real and immediate in a fresh and inventive voice.”
In English
Venue: Utopia, Luxembourg-Limpertsberg