• Week of October 7: The Ides of March – It’s a Clooney/Gosling feast for all the girls… and it has a pretty good political plot too.
• Week of October 21: Martha Marcy May Marlene – The youngest (and least known) Olsen sister, Elizabeth, breaks onto the big screen with a performance that has folks raving. Likely we will see a nomination come her way. John Hawkes rocks the creep factor as her cult-leader boyfriend. Check both of them out in the Martha Marcy May Marlene HD trailer.
• Week of November 7: My Week with Marilyn – Michelle Williams could read the telephone book and get nominated for another award. She stars as Marilyn Monroe in this retro 50s style film.
• Week of November 11: J. Edgar – Leo covers up his beautiful face to get into the uglier, older, heavier character of Hoover. But at least it is for a worthy director: Eastwood. Not much word on the street yet, but that is how Clint does it – no advance PR budget, just word of mouth. And it always works for him.
• Week of November 18: The Descendants – It’s another Clooney vehicle but with an Alexander Payne twist (Election, Sideways). He is the one who gets cheated on. Let’s hear it for fantasy films.
• Week of November 25: A Dangerous Method – Viggo Mortensen as a delicious Freud with David Cronenberg at the helm. If it is anything like the amazing duo of films they have already created – A History of Violence and Eastern Promises – then this one will also be a must see.

Last weekend at the Venice Biennale, Soderbergh premiered his latest film Contagion (Trailer – Italian Version) so somehow it only seemed fitting to watch the trailer version that showcased the masterful work of Cinecitta’s “dubmasters”. In any language, a film where Gwyneth Paltrow dies in the first few minutes is one scary flick, e vero?

1. 68th Venice International Film Festival begins on August 31 and continues through September 10. Highlights include Polanski’s Carnage, Soderbergh’s Contagion, Clooney’s The Ides of March, and Madonna’s directorial debut about Wallis Simpson, W.E.
2. Telluride Film Festival starts on September 2 and runs through the 5th.
3. Toronto International Film Festival kicks off on September 8 and runs through September 18.

These festivals (plus the slightly smaller Deauville Festival du Cinema Americain) pave the way for the New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16), the Aspen Film Festival (September 21-25), the AFI Fest (November 3-10) and the other festivals that litter the fall movie season.

A presto!

He was as tough and romatic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat…. New York was his town. And it always would be.

It’s hard to find a film more perfect than Woody Allen‘s Manhattan. As a kid in the 70s, it was impossible not to imagine an “adult” life as one of his characters in their upper east side prewar apartments, full of vintage books, hip art and witty banter. Now with the ten year anniversary of 9/11 upon us, it stands as a time capsule to an era that may never be seen again. Catch it for the first or fiftieth time on Netflix Streaming until September 1st.