Jodie Foster, whose new film Anna and the King opens on both sides of the Atlantic today, is planning to star in and produce a film about Leni Riefenstahl, the controversial German director who won international acclaim for accomplished films such as Triumph of the Will, her film of the Nazi party which has been described as "the ultimate in Fascist propaganda", and Olympia, which chronicled the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. "She was perhaps one of the greatest film-makers of all time and yet her name will forever be linked to the horror of Nazi Germany," says Foster. "There is no other woman in the 20th century who has been so admired and vilified simultaneously,"
Riefenstahl, who is now 97, is co-operating with a German company which is also making a film about her life. Many considered her to have been a Nazi sympathiser and after the war she was imprisoned for three years on suspicion of having committed Nazi crimes. She was later cleared. Allegations that she had used gypsies as film extras knowing that afterwards they would be sent to their deaths in concentration camps were never proved.
After a 13-year break from film-making caused by a stroke, the 67-year-old Japanese director, Nagisa Oshima, has returned with his most controversial work since the notorious Ai No Corrida (In the Realm of the Senses). His new movie, Gohatto (Forbidden) tackles the issue of homosexuality in the machismo world of the samurai warrior.
At the film's world premiere in Tokyo, Oshima said his gay revisionist spin on the warring samurai did not seem out of line. "The samurai in this movie were a group of men who were intently involved in the business of killing," he said. "I think that in this extremely intense situation, for love to live among the members, whether it is homosexual love or not, seems to be entirely natural."
Starring the acclaimed Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano, Gohatto is set in 1865 in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, at a time when forces loyal to the shogun ruler and the feudal system are fighting against those who want to open the country to the outside world. A talented teenage swordsman works his way into the samurai group called Shinsen-gumi and inflames the passions of many of the higher ranking men in the group.
Gerry Stembridge's second feature as writer-director, All About Adam, has been selected for next month's Sundance Film Festival in the US, where it will have its world premiere. A romantic comedy, it features Stuart Townsend, Frances O'Connor and Kate Hudson.
Kirsten Sheridan's Disco Pigs, adapted by Enda Walsh from his own play, is one of 12 international projects short-listed for the Sundance/HNK Film-makers Award, for which the prize includes $10,000 and a guaranteed TV sale to the Japanese broadcaster, NHK.
The new Wim Wenders movie, The Million Dollar Hotel, written by Bono and Nicholas Klein, is set to open the 50th Berlin Film Festival on February 9th. It stars Mel Gibson as a detective investigating the death of an eccentric loner who, to the amazement of his fellow residents at the run-down eponymous hotel, is the son of a billionaire media magnate. The film also features Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich and Jimmy Smits. It's due to open in Ireland on April 24th.
On the Eyes Wide Shut Website Christiane Kubrick has spoken out against Eyes Wide Open, the book Frederic Raphael wrote about collaborating on the film's screenplay with her late husband, Stanley. The book "is not and never has been endorsed in any way by Stanley Kubrick's family, those close to him or Warner Bros," she says. "Mr Raphael was engaged to write a screenplay, which he did in collaboration with Stanley who trusted him and (according to Mr Raphael) confided in him. In violation of that trust and in breach of what would be regarded by many as a normal professional duty of confidence, Mr Raphael announced the publication of his memoirs within days of Stanley's death.
"The timing of the publication of the book was clearly intended to take advantage of the publicity build up immediately prior to the opening of the film Eyes Wide Shut. We believe that Mr Raphael, while professing praise and a degree of affection for his subject, has in fact denigrated Stanley and unjustly caused pain to those who knew him well."
"In making this public statement we know that we risk further publicising Mr Raphael's book, but we feel we could not allow our silence to be understood as confirmation of his opinion and claims."Perish the thought. The cringe-inducing Pauly Shore has been signed to star in the comedy, The Bogus With Project, a spoof on you-know-what.
