Catton's first novel to debut at NZ International Film Festival
The mid-year NZ International Film Festival has scored the world premiere of an adaptation of prize-winning novelist Eleanor Catton's first work of fiction.
The mid-year NZ International Film Festival has scored the world premiere of an adaptation of prize-winning novelist Eleanor Catton’s first work of fiction.
The Rehearsal has been filmed by US-based director Alison Maclean, whose last New Zealand feature was Crush (1992) and the acclaimed short Kitchen Sink.
Ms Maclean has co-written the script with Elizabeth Perkins.
The Rehearsal stars James Rolleston in the role of Stanley, a naive newcomer drawn to the city by his passion to make it on stage.
He joins a class of drama students, while romancing young Isolde (Ella Edward) outside school. Michelle Ny, Marlon Williams and Kieran Charnock are also alongside Kerry Fox (An Angel at My Table), the school’s grandstanding senior tutor.
The full programme of the NZIFF 2016, which opens in Auckland on July 14, followed by Wellington on July 22 and other centres after that, will be available on June 20.
So far, the organisers have announced a dozen features, including five music-themed documentaries featuring, among others, Frank Zappa and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Also in the documentaries are Andrew Rossi’s The First Monday in May, featuring Anna Wintour and a glittering charity-raising event, and Werner Herzog’s examination of the internet, Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.
The features include:
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Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room, about a clash between punk rockers and skinheads
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Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, based on JG Ballard’s (then) futuristic novel first published in 1975
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Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Polish vampire-mermaid themed musical The Lure, set in 1980s Warsaw and loosely based on The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
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Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special, a science fiction thriller about parallel universes and a child with superhuman powers; and
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Danish drama A War, set in the Middle East conflict and directed by Tobias Lindhom (A Hijacking).
Tune into NBR Radio’s Sunday Business with Andrew Patterson on Sunday morning, for analysis and feature-length interviews.
Nevil Gibson
Fri, 10 Jun 2016
Fri, 10 Jun 2016
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Catton's first novel to debut at NZ International Film Festival
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