Michael Dwyer on film
Angelina Jolie's minders put some media noses out of joint while she was promoting A Mighty Heart, dealing with the abduction and beheading of journalist Danny Pearl in Karachi. She plays his widow, journalist Mariane Pearl, in the film, which opens in the US today. The movie's US premiere last week was a benefit for Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based organisation that champions press freedom around the world.
However, reporters hoping to interview Jolie came up against some borders when they were asked to sign a document that, among other conditions, forbade them from asking her about her personal relationships. It added: "The interview will not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning or derogatory to Ms Jolie." Most journalists refused to sign the document.
Jolie's lawyer Robert Offer said it was the fault of a "boneheaded, over-zealous lawyer" (meaning himself) and that his client was unaware of it. "It was drafted overly broadly," he said. "It was well intended, but I understand how it was received."
Jolie's manager, Geyer Kosinski, said the document was meant to "guide" journalists, not control them: "She is an incredibly candid, honest person," he said. "Our collective intention was to protect her."
Hucklebuck wiggles back to town at IFI
Back in the 1960s, when showbands packed out ballrooms all over Ireland, the most popular band in the land was the Waterford outfit the Royal Showband.
They scored their biggest hit with The Hucklebuck, starting a new-fangled dance craze for which their fans were instructed to "wiggle like a snake, waddle like a duck". Those heady days will be recalled at the IFI in Dublin next Wednesday evening when the band's lead singer, Brendan Bowyer, will introduce an IFI Archive screening of The One-Nighters, the 1963 documentary following the Royal on the road. Its director Peter Collinson worked in RTÉ at the time and went on to make 16 feature films - notably Up the Junction, The Long Day's Dying and the spirited original version of The Italian Job - before he died in 1980.
Uno duce, tre film
More than 60 years after Benito Mussolini's death, Italian broadcaster RAI is backing three feature films set during his dictatorship. Mario Tullio Giordana, who made The Best of Youth, is directing Crazy Blood, dealing with actors Luisa Ferida (played by Monica Bellucci) and Osvaldi Valenti, who were shot dead in 1945 because of their fascist connections.
Marco Bellocchio, who directed Good Morning Night, dealing with the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, is preparing a film on Mussolini's illegitimate son, also named Benito, who died at the age of 27 in a mental institution where fascist militiamen kept him away from the public eye.
And RAI is also behind The Blood of the Losers, based on a best-selling book about atrocities perpetrated by anti-fascist partisans during Italy's civil war.
Thief of my heart
Great minds think alike. By coincidence, two movies dealing with the repossession of body organs are set to go into production within weeks of each other this summer. Director Miguel Sapochnick will make his feature film debut with Repossession Mambo, a morality tale set in the near future when artificial organs may be bought on credit and defaulting on payments will result in a fatal repossession. It stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker.
Darren Lynn Bousman, who made Saw II, Saw III and the imminent Saw IV, will direct Repo! The Genetic Opera!, in which a worldwide epidemic encourages a biotech company to promote an organ-financing programme. Terms and conditions apply, with potentially fatal consequences. This film is a musical.
