John August, writer of Corpse Bride or Big Fish, directed his first movie The Nines. As he blogs on a regular basis and answers questions from beginning screenwriters he has build a nice community on his page.

Some time ago he came up with the idea of a trailer competition for his movie, he would provide raw footage of the movie and everyone could participate and edit a trailer. I think this is very nice idea, and besides strengthening the community this is a very smart way of marketing.

A few days ago he published the winners in three categories.

The last days have been very stressy for me, the shooting of “Sophie” endet last monday with a 28 hours day, and since tuesday i had to work at Knallgrau.
I was able to order some important stuff, organize my thoughts for the upcoming projects, and prepare different things that need to be prepared.

Right before the shooting i ordered The Tiger and the Snow, the current movie from Roberto Benigni. I was not able to watch it till now, so back to the title of this post: “Define Beauty”.

The Tiger and the Snow is one special movie, i am watching it with a big smile on my face. It´s not because of the extraordinary optic of the movie, not because of the special settings or stunning effects, it´s because of the beauty of the movie and the characters itself. It´s just so impressing watching the easiness of the protagonist Attilio, he´s loving a women which does not return his feelings, he´s facing an impossible situation while she get´s wounded in Bagdad, but he´s handling the situation with such an easiness as if anything in the world would be possible.

Just like in La Vita è bella Benigni´s character is just so beautiful to watch, and the end of the movie is one of the best endings i´ve ever seen, so that´s how i would define “Beauty”.

Yesterday i was at the premire of the new movie from Michael Glawogger, “Slumming“.
I have to say that i am deeply impressed, this is one great movie, the idea, the characters, the realization, the director and the actors are stunning.

You can see a trailer of the movie here.

After the premiere most of the cast and crew got up the stage and the director said some words about his work, they really made a great movie. The only “problem” with this film is that in my opinion it will be hard to understand if you´re not from Austria, the movie addresses the deeply urban society of Vienna, so it must be really hard to follow if you don´t have any relation to Austria.