YNOT at the Movies

Director Stephan Elliott ("The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,") blends brilliant performance, fantastic cinematography, lavish art design and costumes, funky music, and mischievous humor into an entertaining "Easy Virtue" (UK/USA 2008 | 93 mins.). The movie is the second adaptation of Noel Coward's classic play, and the first adaptation is a silent film by Alfred Hitchcock eighty years ago. Even though this film is no "Gosford Park," it has its own charm when telling a story about a newly wed American wife tries to escape a suffocating upper class British family.

Just won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Awards few days ago at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards, director Dante Lam's (林超賢) action packed thriller "The Beast Stalker" (證人) will have its U.S. premiere at the festival. Go and see it before the Hollywood remakes it.

Worked with directors Zhang Yimou (张艺谋) and Chen Kaige (陈凯歌), director He Jianjun (何建军) is considered to be a leading voice of the sixth generation Chinese filmmakers. His new docudrama "River People" tells a story about two teenager boys living on the Yellow River bank, one wants to leave for the city, and the other one wants to stay.

It appears to be a very simple story — a bedridden 80-year-old man gets ready for his estranged son's visit. He looks out his window at the Patagonian landscape and sees light and life, the past and the present, while sensing the future. When the story is told by renowned director Carlos Sor’n in his new film "The Window," it becomes a must see at the festival.