The Best of Comedy is restricted to a single genre, featuring film legends in the form of actors, directors and their unforgettable, time-tested works, which even after all these decades haven’t lost their charm or wit. The section was compiled by festival president Milan Lasica. The selected titles will include films such as The Apartment (1960) from Billy Wilder, director and screenwriter of numerous successful titles, in this case starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in an intriguing ensemble treading the line between drama and comedy. The film was awarded five Oscars, including those for Best Film, Director and Screenplay.
Billy Wilder also wrote the script to another film featuring at this year’s festival: director Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka (1939), a delightfully funny look at a meeting of capitalism and Marxism, featuring Greta Garbo in her first comic role as Comrade Nina Ivanovna, earning the actress an Oscar nomination.
Director Frank Capra is to blame
for the unique romantic comedy It Happened One Night (1934). Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable excel in this irresistible tale of a millionaire’s daughter and a calculating reporter. “A first-rate romantic comedy, one of dozens shot in Hollywood during the 1930s. But what makes this one special is the masterful directing of Frank Capra, the professionalism of screenwriter Robert Riskin and of course the performances of the starring actors," says Milan Lasica. For decades, this was the only film to have received all five of the most significant Oscars.
The musical comedy Artists and Models (d. F. Tashlin, 1955) is the fourteenth collaboration of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the popular and successful American comedy duo. One is an aspiring comic-book artist who can’t write; the other is an author plagued by nightmares. And what happens when these terrifying dreams meet reality? “In the decade after WWII, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis formed a very popular comedy duo. Martin was the attractive beau and singer, something like Cary Grant, and Lewis was the eccentric comedian, comparable to Jim Carrey of our day – in short, a madman,” says Milan Lasica.
The section Stardust Memories contains a variety of genres, but focuses on prominent works of cinema by major directors and starring renowned actors. Films such as Five Easy Pieces (1970) from American director Bob Rafelson, nominated for four Oscars including Best Film and Best Actor for the performance of Jack Nicholson, who excels in the role of a talented pianist working at an oilfield.
L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot (d. S. Bromberg, R. Medrea, 2009) is a one-of-a-kind documentary composed of reminiscences of the co-creators of an unfinished film from a renowned French director as well as preserved footage from the film itself, featuring a sparkling Romy Schneider. The film won a César Award for Best Documentary, as well as the International Jury Award at the São Paulo IFF.
The section will also present the unforgettable classic comedy Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (1953), where director and comic Jacques Tati first introduced the character of the kind but bumbling Monsieur Hulot, who would appear in three more of Mr. Tati’s films.
But horror lovers can also expect a treat with the Frankenstein-esque Eyes Without a Face (d. G. Franju, 1960), considered by some to be the most elegant horror film of all time. It tells the story of a surgeon who attempts to bring back his disfigured daughter’s face at any cost. It was directed by co-founder of La Cinémathèque Française film archives, Georges Franju. The films will be screened using new 35 mm prints.
Photographs can be found at artfilmfest.sk in the Press section. The Art Film Fest International Film Festival Trenčianske Teplice/Trenčín is made possible through the financial support of the Audiovisual Fund and the European Union Programme MEDIA.
Organizers: ART FILM, n. o., Forza, a. s. Co-organizers: the Town of Trenčianske Teplice, the City of Trenčín, the Trenčianske Teplice Health Spa General Sponsors: Dôvera Medical Insurance, AquaCity Poprad Main Sponsors: Tatra banka, Slovnaft, Veolia Voda – Central Slovakian Waterworks, OHL ŽS, Alison Slovakia Official Transport Provider: Lancia Logistics Sponsor: DHL; Free student cinepasses provided by: Prvá stavebná sporitelna (First Housing-Construction Savings Bank) Sponsor of the Slovak Season section: Zlatý Bažant; Sponsors: AVI Studio, Baske Guest House, Park Hotel na Baračke Official Suppliers: HUBERT J.E., Kláštorná, GS design, Philips, A Briliant Media Sponsors: Slovak Television, Markíza Television, FilmBox, CSTV, Central Europe Television, Rádio Europa 2, Rádio Hit FM, Pravda, .týždeň, Markíza, Pardon, Cinemax, Kam do mesta, zoznam.sk, Boomerang Media, SITA, euroAWK, superobed.sk
