Gervais, Antichrist in lineup at Atlantic film fest
Last Updated: Thursday, August 27, 2009 | 3:05 PM ET
CBC News
Ricky Gervais, centre, with Jennifer Garner, right, in The Invention of Lying. British comedian Ricky Gervais's newest film The Invention of Lying and Antichrist, the controversial work by Lars Von Trier, are among the special presentations at this September's Atlantic Film Festival.
The Halifax festival announced its galas and special presentations Wednesday, including the closing-night film, The Trotsky by Montreal's Jacob Tierney.
The comedy by the director of This is My Father stars Ottawa-born Jay Baruchel, who appeared in Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder.
He plays a Montreal student who claims to be the reincarnation of early the 20th-century Russian Marxist Leon Trotsky and sets out to lead a revolution at his high school.
Von Trier's Antichrist drew gasps and jeers for its graphic violence at Cannes, but has been a big draw on the festival circuit.
Gervais, star of the British version of The Office, is continuing his foray into U.S. comedy with The Invention of Lying, which he wrote, stars in and directs with Matthew Robinson.
Egoyan film featured
Previously announced Love and Savagery, Dilip Mehta's Cooking with Stella and Atom Egoyan's Chloe are among the films to be feted at special galas.
Mehta, who made his feature debut in 2008 with The Forgotten Woman, worked with his sister Deepa Mehta on the script for Cooking with Stella, about a master chef in the household of a Canadian diplomatic couple posted to India.
Liam Neeson (left) and Julianne Moore in Chloe, Atom Egoyan's film to be screened at the Atlantic Film Festival. The chef is shocked when the stay-at-home husband asks to be taught the secrets of Indian cuisine. The film stars Lisa Ray, Don McKellar and Indian actress Seema Biswas.
Chloe is Toronto director Egoyan's latest effort, starring Julianne Moore as a woman who believes her husband (Liam Neeson) is having an affair.
Egoyan, who was raised in Victoria, is known for such films as Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter.
The French gala film will be Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, the biopic about the romance between the two artists, created by Jan Kounen.
Other international presentations:
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, by Terry Gilliam, featuring actor Heath Ledger's last performance.
- Helen, starring Ashley Judd in her first film in nearly three years.
- Bright Star, by Jane Campion of Britain.
- Broken Embraces, by Pedro Almodovar of Spain.
- Micmacs, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet of France.
Also on the bill is Emmett Malloy's music documentary The White Stripes Under Great Northern Lights, which features footage of the U.S. band's tour of Canada.
Among the documentary offerings is Tulku, a National Film Board production about the Halifax boy recognized as a tulku, or reincarnation of a Buddhist master, and Nance Ackerman's Four Feet Up, a portrait of child poverty in Canada.
The NFB is also screening the Atlantic premieres of:
- Vive la Rose, a mixed media film about the Emile Benoit song.
- Paris 1919, a docudrama about the conference at the end of the First World War.
- Light-hearted animated film Runaway.
- The Spine, an animated film for adults that has won awards at Annecy, France, and Melbourne, Australia.
The Atlantic Film Festival is scheduled for Sept. 17-26.
