Emir Kusturica

High in the mountains of Serbia sits a fairy-tale village full of wooden huts built in a style that hasn't changed in 300 years. You'll find French legend Isabelle Huppert and Cannes general delegate Thierry Fremaux hitting the slopes and Belgium's Dardenne brothers discussing the origins of a story with a young director after screening their latest, "The Kid With a Bike. " Iran-born "Persepolis" director Marjane Satrapi enjoys a cigarette at the Visconti restaurant, surrounded by adoring fan boys praising her new film, "Chicken With Plums.

High in the mountains of Serbia sits a fairy-tale village full of wooden huts built in a style that hasn't changed in 300 years. You'll find French legend Isabelle Huppert and Cannes general delegate Thierry Fremaux hitting the slopes and Belgium's Dardenne brothers discussing the origins of a story with a young director after screening their latest, "The Kid With a Bike. " Iran-born "Persepolis" director Marjane Satrapi enjoys a cigarette at the Visconti restaurant, surrounded by adoring fan boys praising her new film, "Chicken With Plums.

In 1993 the former Yugoslavia's greatest filmmaker, Emir Kusturica, returned to his homeland after a five-year absence to confront the disintegration of his country with a dazzling epic allegory, "Underground," which took two years to make and which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1995.

If "The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch" plays like a graphic novel, it's because it is based on writer Jean Van Hamme's "Largo Winch" series, enormously popular in Belgium and France. The briskly paced action adventure, directed by Jerome Salle from Julien Rappeneau's script, rips through a thicket of corporate intrigue as the story moves back and forth in time. There are plenty of twists and just as many bad guys speaking in a wide variety of accents. It's handsome, large-scale escapist fare - and has as its costar the formidable, versatile Kristin Scott Thomas.

In his new film "Black Cat, White Cat," Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica made a serious decision: He wanted to lighten up. He felt that it was what he and his war-ravaged homeland needed most. The film, which opened Friday in Los Angeles, is a picaresque fable of Eastern European Gypsies who have adapted to capitalism but still cling to some of the old ways.

mokra gora, serbia -- It looks like a movie set -- fitting, considering it was created by one of Europe's most famous film directors. Bosnian-born Emir Kusturica, winner of more top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival than almost any other director, has built a remote mountaintop hideaway here in western Serbia from scratch. Pitch-roofed wooden buildings sit quaintly amid a deep green forest.

With only three feature films behind him, Yugoslavia's Emir Kusturica has become one of the most critically acclaimed, award-winning directors in the world. His first film, "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?" a quirky coming-of-age love story set in Sarajevo's Muslim community, won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1981. His second, "When Father Was Away on Business," an evocation of the bleak, paranoid Stalinist era tempered with warmth and humor, won the grand prize at Cannes in 1985.

In an appropriate conclusion to an event that was universally conceded to lack surprises, the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday awarded its Palme d'Or to the film that had been touted as the winner sight unseen--Emir Kusturica's three-hour-and-12-minute "Underground." Unruly, audacious, unashamedly excessive, this emotional requiem for a dying Yugoslavia overpowered audiences here with the frenzy of a bull gone mad.

If "The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch" plays like a graphic novel, it's because it is based on writer Jean Van Hamme's "Largo Winch" series, enormously popular in Belgium and France. The briskly paced action adventure, directed by Jerome Salle from Julien Rappeneau's script, rips through a thicket of corporate intrigue as the story moves back and forth in time. There are plenty of twists and just as many bad guys speaking in a wide variety of accents. It's handsome, large-scale escapist fare - and has as its costar the formidable, versatile Kristin Scott Thomas.

I was pleased to read Kenneth Turan's articles last week about the Sarajevo Film Festival. His description of the state of Balkan films was excellent, although I was surprised to note no reference to one of the pioneers of Yugoslavian film, Aleksandar Petrovic, one of the greatest directors in film history. Petrovic, who passed away three years ago, won a Palme d'Or at Cannes for "I Even Met Happy Gypsies" in 1967 (the first in Yugoslavian film history) and was nominated twice at the Academy Awards (for "Three" in 1966 and "Gypsies" in 1967)

The works of Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne follow the hardscrabble struggles of lower-class life so relentlessly that they might seem like textbook examples of arduously difficult, obtusely unfun European art cinema. Yet their films are made with such restless energy, hurtling headlong and recklessly through their exactingly portrayed worlds, that they often feel more like crackerjack thrillers. So which is it?

mokra gora, serbia -- It looks like a movie set -- fitting, considering it was created by one of Europe's most famous film directors. Bosnian-born Emir Kusturica, winner of more top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival than almost any other director, has built a remote mountaintop hideaway here in western Serbia from scratch. Pitch-roofed wooden buildings sit quaintly amid a deep green forest.

Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica, twice winner of the Cannes Film Festival's best picture award, has been chosen to head the jury for the 2005 festival in May. The Sarajevo-born director of "The Time of the Gypsies" won the coveted Palme d'Or for best film at Cannes for "When Father Was Away on Business" in 1985. He scooped it again a decade later with "Underground."

In his new film "Black Cat, White Cat," Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica made a serious decision: He wanted to lighten up. He felt that it was what he and his war-ravaged homeland needed most. The film, which opened Friday in Los Angeles, is a picaresque fable of Eastern European Gypsies who have adapted to capitalism but still cling to some of the old ways.

In 1993 the former Yugoslavia's greatest filmmaker, Emir Kusturica, returned to his homeland after a five-year absence to confront the disintegration of his country with a dazzling epic allegory, "Underground," which took two years to make and which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1995.

I was pleased to read Kenneth Turan's articles last week about the Sarajevo Film Festival. His description of the state of Balkan films was excellent, although I was surprised to note no reference to one of the pioneers of Yugoslavian film, Aleksandar Petrovic, one of the greatest directors in film history. Petrovic, who passed away three years ago, won a Palme d'Or at Cannes for "I Even Met Happy Gypsies" in 1967 (the first in Yugoslavian film history) and was nominated twice at the Academy Awards (for "Three" in 1966 and "Gypsies" in 1967)

Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica, twice winner of the Cannes Film Festival's best picture award, has been chosen to head the jury for the 2005 festival in May. The Sarajevo-born director of "The Time of the Gypsies" won the coveted Palme d'Or for best film at Cannes for "When Father Was Away on Business" in 1985. He scooped it again a decade later with "Underground."

A man on a train is rebuffed by a woman, who utters that deathless question, "When will you get a divorce?!" Next we see the man with his wife and two little boys in a cozy domestic scene, then the man encountering this ex-mistress at an aeronautics pageant. She in turn confides in another man that this ex-lover criticized a political cartoon featuring a portrait of Stalin looking down on Karl Marx. The next thing the lover knows, he's sent off to a labor camp.

As the only Serbian director to attend the Sarajevo Film Festival, Srdjan Karanovic was understandably besieged by questions at his press conference. What was going on in Belgrade, who was working and what were they up to?

In an appropriate conclusion to an event that was universally conceded to lack surprises, the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday awarded its Palme d'Or to the film that had been touted as the winner sight unseen--Emir Kusturica's three-hour-and-12-minute "Underground." Unruly, audacious, unashamedly excessive, this emotional requiem for a dying Yugoslavia overpowered audiences here with the frenzy of a bull gone mad.