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Title: Enzo Avitabile Music Life Director: Jonathan Demme After the mega-success of “The Silence of the Lambs,” it would have been very easy for Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme to become beholden to Hollywood, and the increasingly narcoleptic rhythms of an ever-diminishing slate of genre fare for which he would have been richly compensated. Instead, Demme chose the road less traveled, mixing studio fare (“Philadelphia,” a remake of “The Manchurian Candidate”) and the occasional indie (“Rachel Getting Married”) with nonfiction works that indulged some of his other intellectual interests – including a trio of documentaries on Neil Young. With his latest film, “Enzo Avitabile Music Life,” Demme again mines his love of music, [ Read More ]

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Italian jazz saxophonist and composer Enzo Avitabile might not be a household name in the States, but in the annals of world music he’s quite a fixture. In his native Naples he is so famous that when he visits the neighborhood of his youth, folks bustle into the streets and onto rooftops and balconies to lay eyes on him. A scholar of jazz, he can hold court on the evolution of the form as long as you’d like him to, although as Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme discovers in his newest concert film, Enzo Avitabile Music Life, that may not […]...

Italian jazz saxophonist and composer Enzo Avitabile might not be a household name in the States, but in the annals of world music he’s quite a fixture. In his native Naples he is so famous that when he visits the neighborhood of his youth, folks bustle into the streets and onto rooftops and balconies to lay eyes on him. A scholar of jazz, he can hold court on the evolution of the form as long as you’d like him to, although as Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme discovers in his newest concert film, Enzo Avitabile Music Life, that may not […]...

Moving easily and often between documentaries and feature film projects, Jonathan Demme has always got a few things on the go at any given time. This year alone has seen him direct theater legends Wallace Shawn and André Gregory in their re-teaming in "Wally And André Shoot Ibsen," hit the festival circuit with "Enzo Avitabile Music Life," get involved as a producer on "Song One" with Anne Hathaway set to star, and pick up a directing credit on "Old Fires." But it looks like one project has fallen off his slate. With the Marrakech Film Festival in full swing, Demme is one of the directors receiving a tribute, and our own Jessica Kiang got to quickly sit down with the filmmaker and chat about what he's working on, or in the case of Stephen King's "11/22/63," no longer working on. "That's off the table," he shared about the film that...

Venice is buzzing this year with superb documentaries from high-profile film figures. Jonathan Demme’s “Enzo Avitabile Music Life” was a spirited portrait of the Neopolitan singer-songwriter who may not be widely known but whose zeal, talent and exhilarating performances with other figures in his field had me reappraising my assumptions about that woollily defined genre called world music; and more on Sarah Polley’s revelatory “Stories We Tell” later. But it was Spike Lee who rocked the Lido today with his rousing, passionate, breathlessly paced and frequently moving paean to Michael Jackson, which focuses intently on the creative process that went into generating the songs and videos for his third album, Bad – an album which spawned some of the greatest pop hits of all time, including its title track, ‘Man In The Mirror’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’. While defiantly hagiographic in nature, with reams of talking heads...

Venice – Polish-born actress and model Kasia Smutniak officially declared the 69th edition of the Venice Film Festival open Wednesday, ahead of the Sala Grande screening of Mira Nair’s terrorism drama The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Enzo Avitabile Music Life, a documentary from Jonathan Demme. Meanwhile, Alberto Barbera, in his first edition as Venice artistic director after a ten-year hiatus, attracted headlines by declaring his support for striking workers from Cinecitta, the legedary movie studios down the road in Rome. Photos: International Week in Review 8/24: Ridley Scott Suspends Shoot After Brother's Death, Pussy Riot Sentencing and Prince Harry

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This morning, the lineup for the 2012 Venice Film Festival arrived with a selection worthy of a once over. The non-Toronto titles of note include Olivier Assayas' Something in the Air, Ramin Bahrani's At Any Price starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron, Amos Gitai's Carmel, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers and the two I'm most upset won't be playing Toronto, Susanne Bier's Love Is All You Need and Brian De Palma's Passion. Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme and jury president Michael Mann all arrive with documentaries; Mann with Witness: Libya, Demme with Enzo Avitabile Music Life and Lee with his Michael Jackson documentary, Bad 25, taking a look at the making of Jackson's 1987 album "Bad" 25 years later, which includes appearances by Martin Scorsese, Usher Raymond, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Quincy Jones, Cee-Lo and Sheryl Crow. Name titles that will also play Toronto include Terrence Malick's To The Wonder,...

by Terence Johnson

HollywoodNews.com: Hot on the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival announcing their titles comes word from Venice about the films to be featured at the 69th Venice Film Festival.

With 60 films, the selection includes a wide range of anticipated titles such as Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, Passion from Brian De Palma and The Company You Keep directed by Robert Redford, as well as 20 films from female directors. Surprisingly, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is not included in the lineup, might this mean it will be skipping the festivals? Check out the full list after the jump!

Competition Films

Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas (France)

Outrage: Beyond, Takeshi Kitano (Japan)

Fill The Void, Rama Burshtein (Israel)

To the Wonder, Terrence Malick (U.S.)

Pieta, Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)

Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)

E’ stato il figlio, Daniele Cipri (Italy)

At Any Price,...

With the line-up for the Toronto International Film Festival dropping a few days ago and the list for Venice out today, the festival circuit has arrived!

The lead stories for the Venice line-up aren't nearly as exciting as those coming out of Toronto. Harmony Korrine's "Spring Breakers" with James Franco and Selena Gomez will make its debut, as will Brian De Palma's "Passion" with Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams.

Perhaps the biggest headline here is the absence of Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," a film that was expected to appear here. Skipping Venice is just more proof that the rumors of a Fantastic Fest debut may be true.

Check out the full line-up (via The Playlist) after the jump!

Opening Film (Out Of Competition)

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist," Mira Nair (U.S.,Qatar)

Competition

"To The Wonder," Terrence Malick (U.S.)

"Something in the Air," Olivier Assayas (France)

"Outrage:Beyond,...

The complete lineup for the 69th Venice Film Festival has been announced! Despite rumors, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master will not be playing at the festival, but the slate remains just as exciting, with new entries from Assayas, Kitano, de Palma, Korine, Ramin Bahrani, and Kim Ki-Duk—plus Raúl Ruiz's second "last film" of the season (Lines of Wellington, completed by his widow and longtime editor Valeria Sarmiento) and the infamously meditative Terrence Malick's second feature in two years.

In Competition

Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas (France)

At Any Price, Ramin Bahrani (Us, UK)

Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)

La Cinquieme Saison, Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (Belgium-Netherlands-France)

Fill The Void, Rama Bursztyn and Yigal Bursztyn (Israel)

E' stato il figlio, Daniele Cipri (Italy)

Un Giorno Speciale, Francesca Comencini (Italy)

Passion, Brian De Palma (France-Germany)

Superstar, Xavier Giannoli (France-Belgium)

Pieta, Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)

Outrage: Beyond,...

The Venice Film Festival announced its lineup today, and it has something for everyone: Hollywood A-listers, Disney Channel darlings, a host of foreign films, a Dragon Tattoo alumna — and that’s just what’s in competition for the Golden Lion trophy.

Notable premieres include Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep, which stars Redford as a Weather Underground member exposed by a young reporter (Shia Labeouf), and Spring Breakers, a film about restaurant-robbing college girls that stars Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and James Franco. Rachel McAdams shows up twice, first alongside Noomi Rapace in Brian De Palma’s thriller Passion,...

This week sees the line-up announcement of not one but two of the year’s biggest events in the film industry. Toronto International Film Festival’s line-up was officially announced earlier this week, and was absolutely fantastic, and now the Venice International Film Festival have officially announced their line-up, featuring some incredibly anticipated films as well.

The festival will run from 29th August to 8th September, and will be opened by Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, making its world debut and premiering out of competition. Heading up the most notable films among the announcement are Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, with James Franco, Selena Gomez, and Vanessa Hudgens; Brian De Palma’s Passion, with Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace; Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price, with Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid, and Heather Graham; Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage: Beyond, with Tomokazu Miura, Ryo Kase, and Fumiyo Kohinata; Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep,...