In Damascus, a
‘Cinema Paradiso’ struggles to stay open

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

VENICE: Director Alexandros Avranas (C), actor Themis Panou and actress Eleni Roussinou pose on the red carpet as they arrive for the award ceremony of the 70th Venice Film Festival yesterday at Venice Lido. —AFP

ritics have tipped movies from Britain, Japan and the inative tale of life in Japan between the two World Wars would United States to win Venice’s Golden Lion prize this year, be his last feature.
A total of 20 films are competing at the festival, including not have the patience to appreciate my slowness,” he told jour-
James Franco’s necrophilia flick “Child of God”, the tale of a social nalists. Some critics suggested that, with the US mulling inter-

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• due to be announced at the world’s oldest film festival
• “In the past, I have said many times I would quit. This time, it’s outcast whose loneliness drives him to live in a cave and murder vening in the Middle East again, the jury might give the award to

yesterday. British director Stephen Frears provoked a hugely for real,” the 72-year-old said in Tokyo. He had become too old women to have sex with their bodies. enthusiastic response with his charming tragi-comedy for the kind of craftsmanship and physical work required for “Philomena”, the true tale of a mother’s search for her son after major commercial projects, he added.
Errol Morris’s “The Unknown Known”, an interview with former
US actor Scott Haze-who isolated himself for three months US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

• and slept in caves to prepare for the part-is the hot favourite for
• The film presses Rumsfeld on decisions taken in the lead-up

he is given up for adoption by Catholic nuns in Ireland.
Starring Judi Dench as Philomena Lee and comic actor Steve has also been lauded for its tale of three radical environmental- ing depiction of madness and loss.
American writer and director Kelly Reichardt’s “Night Moves” the best actor prize. He astounded audiences with his harrow- to the Iraq war but he proves to be a combative, slippery customer.
The festival has featured dozens more films, including
Gordon Green’s “Joe”. He plays an ex-con who hopes to redeem Jonathan Glazer’s eagerly awaited “Under the Skin”, starring a
Coogan as the ex-BBC journalist who helps her, the film puts the ists who plot to blow up a hydroelectric dam but are unprepared spotlight on one of the Church’s dark secrets and Frears joked for the consequences. that Pope Francis should see it.
The film topped the list of international critics’ ratings of the Social Network”, the film refuses to endorse or condemn its ployed, violent and alcoholic father.
Viewers were also impressed by Cage’s performance in David
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, the Oscar-nominated star of “The himself for past sins by saving a teenage boy from an unem- seductive Johansson as a man-eating alien who hunts down prey in Scotland, which left many critics cold.

• Among those joining Bertolucci, best known for his raunchy
• films in competition, but many remained unconvinced that it naive eco-activists. Reichardt had to refute accusations that the

was daring enough to win over the jury, this year headed by movie was a manual for would-be bomb makers. Italian cinematic master Bernardo Bertolucci.
Critics said Tsai Ming-liang’s slow-moving “Stray Dogs”, which many viewers walked out of in boredom, has an outside chance 1972 “Last Tango in Paris”, on the jury are British director Andrea

• The jury’s choices are due to be announced in a ceremony at clinching the top prize.
• Arnold (“Red Road”), German actress Martina Gedeck (“The Lives

• The only Chinese-language picture in the competition, it tells of Others”) and US actress Carrie Fisher. — AFP
• Japanese Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki impressed starting at 1700 GMT. The world’s oldest film festival has brought

with “The Wind Rises”, the tale of a boy who yearns to design Hollywood stars including George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, the tale of a homeless family living on the margins of society in planes. It is based partly on the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man Nicolas Cage and Scarlett Johansson by speed boat and gondola contemporary Taipei, and exhausted many with its extraordinari-

• behind Japan’s deadly A6M Zero fighter aircraft.
• to Venice’s Lido, as well as art house auteurs from around the ly long, hypnotic shots and minimal action.

• Miyazaki announced during the festival that this wildly imag- globe.
• “I am not interested in making films for audiences who do

NUSA DUA: Miss World 2013 contestants attend a press conference a day before the opening ceremony of Miss World in Nusa Dua resort island of Bali yesterday. Miss World contestants will take part in the ceremony today, and the finals in Sentul on September 28. — AFP photos
NUSA DUA: L to R: Miss Lebanon Karen Ghraoui, Miss Philippines Megan Young and Miss Puerto Rico Nadyalee Torres attend a press conference a day before the open- ing ceremony of Miss World in Nusa Dua resort island of Bali yesterday.

ndonesia said yesterday the final of Miss World later this to take place in and around Jakarta, with the winner originally ing,” coordinating minister for people’s welfare, Agung month would take place on the Hindu-majority holiday set to be crowned at a venue outside the capital on Laksono, told reporters in Jakarta.
While the vast majority of Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam, a vocal hardline fringe has succeeded in getting

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• island of Bali instead of near the capital, after days of September 28. But the government said Saturday they had
• He said the government had “listened to what the people events cancelled in the past.

• Muslim hardline protests. decided all events would now be held on Bali, where hardline wanted”. The decision was taken in a meeting between
• Last year, pop sensation Lady Gaga axed a concert after

Thousands took to the streets this week to denounce the influence is almost non-existent and which is used to hordes Laksono, Vice President Boediono, and police and tourism hardliners threatened to burn down the venue and criticised

• decision to hold the beauty pageant in the world’s most pop- of foreign tourists sunbathing in skimpy swimwear.
• ministry representatives.
• her for wearing only “a bra and panties”. — AFP

ulous Muslim-majority nation, with protesters burning the organisers in effigy and branding them “infidels”.
Hardline influence is strong in areas of the main island Java not far from the capital. “All the events will now be held at organisers. Protests flared again on Saturday, with hundreds
There was no immediate reaction from the Miss World
The contest opens in Bali today and later rounds were due venues in Bali-it will all be concentrated in Bali, until the clos- taking to the streets on Yogyakarta and Surabaya on Java.