Green Glass Door

2011 is shaping up to be a great year for film lovers, at least for those who share a certain set of aesthetic sensibilities: the carnivalesque, the grotesque, the masquerade, and probably other adjectives that contain a “que.” Here is a sampling:

Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy II) is teaming up with Nick Cave (of the Bad Seeds and Grinderman) to do justice to a dark fairy tale we mostly know in its Disney-mangled form: Pinocchio. In Carlo Collodi’s 19th-century novel, Pinocchio kills the Talking Cricket (not Jiminy Cricket)  by the third chapter, and it’s all downhill from there. Safe to say, in Collodi’s novel, Pinocchio really has to earn his redemption on his own, without being shepherded along by quasi-religious guardians. And I, for one, can’t wait to see how the tale fares in the hands of Cave and del Toro. Details here.

Another musician-filmmaker partnership, Spike Jonze and The Arcade Fire, sounds promising. “Scenes from the Suburbs” is a coming-of-age tale that slips in and out of reality–a detail owed, at least in part, to the influence of fellow collaborator Terry Gilliam. I’m intrigued.

Tantalizing hints from Studio Ghibli, according to Anime News Network, suggest that Hayao Miyazaki is currently working on his masterpiece, his summum bonum. And for this blogger, the post on Anime News Network contains even more tantalizing tidbits: anime adaptations of two of my favorite childhood books. Ghibli released The Borrower Arrietty last year (adapted from the children’s series The Borrowers), and will be releasing the second film from Miyazaki’s son later this year. Even though Goro Miyazaki’s debut, Tales from Earthsea (an adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy, another childhood favorite of mine), was roundly declared a stinker, I’m tempted to see it anyway.

And finally, Isabella Rosselini (The Saddest Music in the World) and Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting) will join a panel of curators at the annual Edinburgh International Film Festival. Great talents in a gorgeous Gothic city. What would it take to get Green Glass Door there? Oh, that’s right…a press pass and several thousand dollars. Sigh.

That’s a lot to look forward to. And it’s still only February.

Photo credit: Zoltán Kelemen, Flickr.com