Foreign Devils Trailer

Hey friends, our little Beijing movie is finished. We're getting the word out, submitting it to festivals, and hoping that it will steal the hearts of indie film lovers the around the world. So here's the trailer for Foreign Devils. Curious to hear your thoughts. If you like what you see spread the word. You can even "friend us" on Myspace.

Feel the Foreign Devils Love

New friend and fellow Miami blogger Verticus from Miami Vision Blogarama has a nice post about our film Foreign Devils. So far, he's our biggest fan, and he's only seen the trailer.

Simpsons Movie Party @ The Forge

Jerusalem Film Festival

The Jerusalem International Film Festival kicked off last week with an outdoor screening of Ratatouille next to the Old City. The movie is a nice expression of the passion of a foodie (albeit a rat foodie) and though the film was outdoors on a chilly Jerusalem night, I fell asleep courtesy of the cozy fleece blankets provided by the festival's sponsor, Orange cellphone service.
We've caught some great films throughout the week including Persepolis, the animated version of the graphic novel about a young girl's experience growing up in Iran in the 80's and Wristcutters: A Love Story, the adaptation of Etgar Keret's novella Kneller's Happy Campers featuring a wonky Tom Waits and a pleasant cameo by Will Arnett of Arrested Development genius.

Palm Beach Film Festival Awards Gala @ Boca Raton Resort

Couldn't help posting these pics I took at the Palm Beach Film Fest Gala Saturday night. Damn, people in Palm Beach are old! Every time I venture to Boca or Palm Beach I am SO thankful that I live in Miami, home of diversity and tanned people. I think this woman is almost as pickled as those olives in her martini...

I managed to snag a picture of Malcom McDowell, he of Clockwork Orange fame. The festival awarded him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Could he be any whiter?

Free Movie This Friday Night

Free Israeli Movie - Thursday March 8

The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival is hosting a free movie under the stars in Historic Downtown Hollywood this week and every 2nd Thursday of the month. The Israeli film "Left Luggage" will be screened this month. It's a touching and emotional story of Chaia, a rebellious philosophy student who is struggling to come of age. Her relationship with her parents, both concentration camp survivors, is strained, and she finds herself unable to accept her Jewish identity. Admission is free.
Thursday March 8, 7pm.
Anniversary Park
Hollywood Blvd. and 20th Ave., Downtown Hollywood
954-921-3016

Paul Verhoeven @ Miami Film Festival

The Miami International Film Festival opens tonight with a film by rogue director Paul Verhoeven. A description of Black Book from imdb:

Set during the end of WWII, Black Book is the story of a Dutch Jewish girl who narrowly survives the war in Holland. She joins the resistance to find out who betrayed her family after all of them were killed in an attempt to reach the liberated south.

I've been impressed with Verhoeven ever since Starship Troopers , a fanstastically campy/smart movie, the best kind. And of course there's Total Recall and Basic Instinct. The man is a masterful and quirky filmmaker and we need more people like him in the film world. At the press conference this morning a the Shore Club he and the film's lead actress Carice van Houten shared some details about the making of the film.
On shooting two scenes in Israel, one at the Dead Sea and the other at a kibbutz south of Tiberias: The producers didn't want to spend the money to shoot in Israel but Verhoeven insisted. After five months of haggling they got the green light (and funding). They shot the scenes in June 2006, a few weeks before the conflict with Lebanon broke out.
According to the director, Black Book is the most successful R-rated movie in Holland today. (The only other successful R-rated film in Holland was Spetters, also directed by him in 1980.)
On why he chose to tell this story: What happened to resistance fighters and collaborators after the war was surrealistic, and these were questions Verhoeven had since his youth, growing up in post-WWII Holland.
Carice on working with Verhoeven: He's got this mixture of the curiosity of a young boy and an intellectual...And he's very impressed with women's breasts. It's good to be a woman around Paul.
Verhoeven: It's true...ever since I was 13 I have thought women's breast were the most beautiful things in the world. And I love women.