Venice, Toronto 09 in Posters, Round 1

So far, I've found at least 75 posters for the various films playing at this year's Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, so to save on scrolling cramps, I've linked to two earlier posters that contain some of the other films screening this year. I also skipped over the promo posters, but here's what I have so far.

Posters for Los abrazos rotos [Broken Embraces], Vengeance, Mother, Visage [Face] and Enter the Void are located here.

Posters for Un prophète [A Prophet], Precious, J'ai tué ma mère [I Killed My Mother], Eyes Wide Open, Air Doll, La Pivellina and Morrer Como Um Homem [To Die Like a Man] are located here.

Posters for Partir and Hadewijch are located here.

The Decade List: La niña santa (2004)

La niña santa [The Holy Girl] - dir. Lucrecia Martel

Few filmmakers can depict a sense of wonder quite as breathtakingly as Lucrecia Martel can. Her command of the cinematic form is evident throughout her second feature La niña santa, but it's fully realized in a singular moment midway through the film. Within the film, the scene, best described as the one where the "miracle" occurs, functions as somewhat of a springboard for teenage Amalia (María Alche) to carry out the muddled idea of salvation she's constructed, but for me personally, it's one of those rare instances in which one is reminded of why they fell in love with the cinematic arts in the first place.

Like the other exemplary scenes I can trace this love back to, it doesn't work its magic when extracted from the whole it came from. Martel's cinema is one of highly concentrated sensory immersion; few artists can entrance me the way she does. She brings me to a point in which I'm rendered silent, unable to convey with any efficiency the swarming thoughts she conjures or speculate why that is. Forgive my inarticulateness.

With: Mercedes Morán, María Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Mía Maestro, Marta Lubos, Arturo Goetz, Alejo Mango, Mónica Villa, Leandro Stivelman
Screenplay: Lucrecia Martel, Juan Pablo Domenech
Cinematography: Félix Monti
Music: Andres Gerszenzon
Country of Origin: Argentina/Spain/Italy/Netherlands
US Distributor: HBO Films/Fine Line Features

Premiere: 6 May 2004 (Argentina)
US Premiere: 10 October 2004 (New York Film Festival)

Awards: Best Director, Best New Actress - Julieta Zylberberg (Clarin Awards, Argentina)

DVDs, Acquisitions, Etc. - 7 August

In addition to the DVD releases below, Sony will be releasing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein on Blu-ray on 13 October. There weren't any other exciting Blu-ray release announcements made, so I didn't create a section for it this time around.

- Ace [Asso], 1981, d. Franco Castellano, Giuseppe Moccia, MVD, 11 August, w. Edwige Fenech
- Hot Dogs on Ibiza [On est venu là pour s'éclater], 1979, d. Max Pécas, Sinful Mermaid/MVD, 11 August
- Landscape No.2 [Pokrajina St.2], 2008, d. Vinko Moderndorfer, Vanguard, 25 August
- The Mama Cass Television Program, 1969, Falcon Picture Group, 25 August
- Attention [L'attenzione], 1984, d. Giovanni Soldati, Sinful Mermaid/MVD, 22 September, w. Stefania Sandrelli
- The Brothers Bloom, 2008, d. Rian Johnson, Summit Entertainment, also on Blu-ray, 29 September
- Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, 2008, d. Jay Delaney, Oscilloscope Pictures, 29 September
- Shrink, 2009, d. Jonas Pate, Lionsgate, 29 September, w. Kevin Spacey, Mark Webber, Saffron Burrows, Robert Loggia, Gore Vidal, Dallas Roberts, Pell James, Laura Ramsey
- Steam, 2007, d. Kyle Schickner, Wolfe Video, 29 September, w. Ally Sheedy, Ruby Dee, Kate Siegel, Chelsea Handler
- Summer Storm, 1944, d. Douglas Sirk, VCI, 20 October
- Whatever Works, 2009, d. Woody Allen, Sony Pictures, also on Blu-ray, 27 October
- Up, 2009, d. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Walt Disney, also on Blu-ray, 10 November
- A Woman in Berlin [Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin], 2008, d. Max Färberböck, Strand Releasing, 10 November, w. Nina Hoss
- Margaret Cho: Beautiful, 2009, d. Lorene Machado, Image Entertainment, 17 November
- The New Year Parade, 2008, d. Tom Quinn, Carnivalesque Films, 24 November
- The Silent Scream, 1980, d. Denny Harris, Scorpion Releasing, 24 November

In acquisition news, Strand picked up the latest from André Téchiné, The Girl on the Train [La fille du RER], which boasts a pretty impressive cast which includes Catherine Deneuve, Ronit Elkabetz, Michel Blanc, Mathieu Demy, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Émilie Dequenne in the title role.

I must have missed the official announcement, but via ioncinema.com, it looks as though Haim Tabakman's Eyes Wide Open, which premiered at Cannes this year, was picked up by here! Films for a 2010 release. The film opens on 2 September in France and will screen at TIFF.

Milestone has found a partner in Oscilloscope Pictures after New Yorker's closure earlier this year. The studio, who previously released Mikhail Kalatozov's I Am Cuba, Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home [Je rentre à la maison], Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep, Orson Welles' The Trial [Le procès] and Marcel Ophüls's The Sorrow and the Pity [Le chagrin et la pitié] among others, has several titles lined up for the near-future, including Kent MacKenzie's The Exiles (which is featured prominently in Los Angeles Plays Itself), Margot Benacerraf's Araya and a 30th Anniversary edition of Rob Epstein's Word Is Out.

Also, be sure to check out IFC.com's Fall Movie Preview, which covers the "Indie" Theatrical Releases; a guide to On Demand as well as DVD and Internet releases and what you can find at the selected Repertory Theatres around the country (and elsewhere). It's sure to be more helpful than whatever Entertainment Weekly has to offer. If you want some tips from yours truly, steer clear from Nicolas Winding Refn's heinous Bronson, which Magnolia will premiere On Demand. It's a skuzziest showboat of a movie, best appreciated by the douchebag Guy Ritchie devotees. Also, I'd advice against IFC's Festival Direct title Better Things, which boasts the claim "The Dardenne brothers meet Lynne Ramsay" on Soda Pictures' R2 DVD artwork. I know plenty of people, myself included, who could hardly say no to such a description, but don't be fooled by that or its gorgeous overcast aesthetics; it's pretty barren. All for now.