Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is on a roll. 2016 will see the back-to-back debut of his couple of most recent films at two of the most important international film festivals. Neruda had its world premiere as part of the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival, and it was announced today that his biopic film Jackie will premiere as part of the official competition at the 73rd edition of the Venice Film Festival. That in addition to the U.S. theatrical release of his Berlinale winner The Club which hit American theaters earlier this year.
With seven feature films, Larraín has become one of the most visible and recognized Latin American filmmakers of his generation, and with his latest two new productions he seems bound to get a ticket to the 88th Academy Awards, after being nominated in 2012 the Best Foreign Language Film category for No.
Set in 1948 when the Cold War had reached Chile, Neruda follows Senator Pablo Neruda, who in congress accuses the government of betrayal and is swiftly impeached by President Videla. Police Prefect Óscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife Delia del Carril, but they are forced into hiding. In the struggle with his nemesis Peluchonneau, Neruda sees an opportunity to reinvent himself. He plays with the Prefect, leaving clues designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse more dangerous, more intimate. In this story of persecution, Neruda recognizes his own heroic possibilities: a chance to become both a symbol for liberty and a literary legend.
Starring Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, and Mercedes Morán, Neruda will be releases this fall in the U.S. by the hand of distribution company The Orchard. The Toronto Film Festival just announced yesterday its Canadian premiere at its 41st edition, for which it can be deducted that it will probably have its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival during Labor Day weekend.
Written by Noah Oppenheim, produced by Darren Aronofsky, and starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Billy Crudup, and Greta Gerwig, Jackie is an account of the days of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. The film has already started generating buzz for both Larraín and Portman as potential awards contenders.
Neruda
Jackie
