The year sure is rolling by, and as we welcome May to the party it’s time to celebrate a new auteur in Rialto Channel’s Directors’ Showcase (Sundays, 8.30pm). This month, we’re showcasing the work of a true master of contemporary cinema, Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami.
The year sure is rolling by, and as we welcome May to the party it’s time to celebrate a new auteur in Rialto Channel’s Directors’ Showcase (Sundays, 8.30pm). This month, we’re showcasing the work of a true master of contemporary cinema, Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami.
A graduate of Tehran University's Faculty of Fine Arts, Kiarostami began making films in the late 1960s in a film department he helped establish at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. He kicked off his illustrious film career aged 30 with the short film Bread and Alley, and went on to became one of Iran’s most established and respected filmmakers, although it wasn’t until the late 80s that his work was shown outside Iran.
In 1997 he attended the Cannes Film Festival at the last minute with a film called Taste of Cherry, and became the first Iranian director to win the Grand Prize, the Palme D’Or. Taste of Cherry plays this Sunday 6th May, preceded by the launch of the series on Saturday with the premiere of Kiarostami’a latest drama, Certified Copy (Saturday 5th May, 8.30pm).
Kiarostami is now very familiar with the Cannes Film Festival, last year Certified Copy was his fourth film in competition, and actress Juliette Binoche won Best Actress for her compelling performance as a French woman living in Tuscany who spends the day discussing art, relationships and parenting with an English writer (William Shimell).
This was Kiarostami’s first film shot outside Tehran, and he’s got the travel bug. He’s back in the French Riviera this month with his fifth Competition entry, Like Someone in Love, which is set in Japan.
May also marks the beginning of a new event on Rialto Channel, Affairs of the Heart, a series of romantic dramas and comedies screening every Wednesday night at 8.30pm. These films are about love, life and relationships, and are the perfect companion on a winter’s evening. Undoubtedly they’re what they call female skewed, but it’s actually not such a terrifying line-up for the guys.
I’m sure there are a few men out there who could relate to Alex, the gorgeous and irresistible professional heartbreaker in the French comedy Heartbreaker, who can induce any woman to turn her husband, fiancée or boyfriend into an ex. Or maybe they can relate to Tom in The Romantics - engaged to Laura (played by Anna Paquin), but also still in love with his ex, played by Katie Holmes. OK, so that scenario might just be in your dreams…
Affairs of the Heart also features the Sundance Film Festival favourite Happythankyoumoreplease, written and directed by Josh Radnor (the Emmy-nominated actor from How I Met Your Mother), about a group of 20-somethings juggling love and friendship in New York; and you can also step back in time to the 20s, with the adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, staring Chris Evans and Bryce Dallas Howard.
There’s something for everyone, so enjoy.