Oscar organizers honor film science, technology

LOS ANGELES: Hosting Oscar organizers’ Scientific and Technical Awards on Saturday night, actress Milla Jovovich, a veteran of effects-driven movies like the “Resident Evil” franchise, confessed she knew little about what actually goes on behind the cameras.  

“I’m not an expert in technology. However I will say that as an actor, I certainly benefited from the many innovations you bring to filmmaking,” she told a packed ballroom of technical wizards being honored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.  

The annual awards event is typically overshadowed by the Academy Awards, or Oscars, which will be given out on February 26 for the best film, performances, directing, writing and other film work of the year.  

Saturday’s scientific and technical awards were reserved for honorees including Douglas Trumbull, recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for work that has “brought credit to the industry.”  

Trumbull has been at the forefront of visual effects for decades, working on classics like “2001:  A Space Odyssey,” “Blade Runner” and more recently, “The Tree of Life,” a contender in this year’s best film race.  

He spoke to the audience about rapidly changing technology in cinema and challenges facing the industry as attendance dips.  

“I think we can make movies that make people say, ‘I’m going to go out to a movie tonight because it’s so cool, it’s so big, it’s so grand and it’s so spectacular and there’s so much showmanship,” said Trumbull. “I think we can bring movies to new heights.”  

Other scientific and technical winners included the late John D. Lowry, inventor of the Lowry technique that is used to enhance image quality. Lowry died in his sleep only three weeks ago on January 21. Upon accepting the honor in his absence, his widow kissed the plaque then held it to the heavens.  

Honorees also included achievements in lens development, high-speed digital camera systems, camera stabilization rigs and high-resolution stock used in archival preservation.  

Visual effects guru Jonathan Erland was awarded the John A. Bonner Medal for a lifetime of dedication to the academy. With a career spanning over 50 years, Erland joined legendary effects house Industrial Light & Magic in the 1970s and worked on such classics as “Star Wars.”  

The academy’s science and technical awards chairman, Erland holds a patent for the Blue-Max flux projector, a traveling matte process, and was instrumental in establishing visual effects as a separate branch of the Academy.  

“The real task before us is to manage the present so that motion pictures stay relevant to the academy’s mission and the ideals we espouse,” declared Erland. “When all motion pictures are excellent, then, perhaps, we can talk about a new vision for this body. AGENCIES

South African bank notes to bear Mandela’s image

PRETORIA:  Nelson Mandela’s face will feature on all South Africa’s bank notes to honor the former president’s role in fighting apartheid, President Jacob Zuma  said Saturday.

The announcement coincides with the 22nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison after serving 27 years in jail for his opposition to white-only rule.

“It is a befitting tribute to a man who became a symbol of this country’s struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy,” Zuma said.

“With this humble gesture, we are expressing our deep gratitude as the South African people, to a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity worldwide.”

News Friday that Zuma would make an announcement of “national importance,” along with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus, spooked the market and sent the rand tumbling as much as 2.6 percent on the day. Marcus apologized for the confusion.

The new notes featuring Mandela, who became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994, will be in circulation by the end of the year.

The frail 93-year-old has not been seen in public since the closing ceremony of the Soccer World Cup in Johannesburg in July 2010.

Communist world back in new German film

BERLIN: The oppressive world of Communist East Germany was brought back to life in a haunting new film called “Barbara” at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, the first of three German productions in the main competition.

A fictional tale of a young doctor banished to the East German provinces because she requested to move to West Germany, the film set in 1980 is a sedate portrait of the Communist country nine years before it imploded when the Berlin Wall fell.

The film by Berlinale veteran director Christian Petzold, teaming up with actress Nina Hoss for a fifth time after she won Berlin’s Silver Bear best actress award for “Yella” in 2007, has none of the stirring moments or heart-breaking scenes as in other films about East Germany such as “The Lives of Others.”

But “Barbara” nevertheless gave the festival’s audience a harrowing reminder of what life was like two decades earlier behind the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall that stood just a few meters to the east of theatres where the Berlinale is based.

“It was a tremendous challenge for me to try recreate that East German atmosphere of 1980,” said Hoss, 36. “I didn’t grow up in East Germany and didn’t know how it felt to always be on guard like that, to always be mistrustful of other people.”

The heavy-handed Stasi security police in East Germany with a myriad of informants kept close watch on the country’s 17 million people, especially the many thousands who applied to leave to the West or were otherwise deemed enemies of the state.

The film by Petzold, whose parents fled East Germany to West Germany, shows how suffocating that world was where people had to deal with the omnipresent fear their neighbors, co-workers, friends and even spouses might betray them to the Stasi.

“It’s not a film about East Germany, it’s a film about how people survive in a country that was on its way out,” said Petzold, who added that he, like many other Germans, are fascinated by stories about East Germany.

The doctor played by Hoss is a target of Stasi persecution, including regular body cavity searches, because she wants to leave the East to be with her West German lover. But while preparing to flee via the Baltic, she starts to fall in love with an East German doctor whom she is not sure she can trust.

The other two German films competing for Golden Bears in Berlin are “Was bleibt” (Home for the Weekend), a family drama by Hans-Christian Schmid, and “Gnade” (Mercy), a drama set in Norway by Matthias Glasner. AGENCIES

After film on Bosnia war, Actress Jolie plans film on Afghanistan

BERLIN: Angelina Jolie says it was only natural that her directorial debut should tackle some of the toughest issues facing humanity and after wartime Bosnia, Afghanistan is likely to be her next subject.

At the Berlin film festival to present her unflinching drama about rape as a weapon of war, “In the Land of Blood and Honey”, the Hollywood icon-cum-humanitarian told AFP her turn behind the camera was aimed at using cinema as a force for reconciliation.

“I’ve written a lot of journals while travelling over 10 years in the conflicts around the world and being frustrated by the lack of intervention,” said the 36-year-old Oscar-winning actress.

“So I went to the region and started to really look at the Bosnian war, but I couldn’t really understand or figure it out, and I felt this is my generation this happened to so I should know this. So I gave myself some education.”

Jolie, who backs a range of causes as a UN goodwill ambassador, said her research inspired her to start writing a screenplay and her partner Brad Pitt encouraged her to show a rough draft to people from all sides of the brutal 1992-1995 war.

But when it came to making the film, she realised she was the only one with both the objective distance and passionate commitment to do the job.

“And this is how I found myself being a director!” she said.

“I knew that there might have been people who were technically more capable than me, but I knew I really, really cared from the bottom of my heart so therefore I felt I should do it.”

She filmed versions of the movie in local languages and English in parallel.

It tells the story of a young Muslim woman and the policeman son of a Bosnian Serb general who had a fling before the conflict broke out.

When they meet again, she has been taken prisoner by a unit of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by her former lover.

As the women around her are gang raped, the officer offers her protection, telling the other soldiers she is his “property”. But the upheaval of the relentless war means he is only able to shield her for so long.

Jolie said the most difficult part of filming was asking her actors, almost all of whom come from the former Yugoslavia and had their own bitter memories of the war, to simulate the savagery that tore their country apart.

“It was very hard for everybody, for the actors, the men who had to be the aggressors,” said Jolie, who is in the German capital with Pitt and their six children.

“They were fathers, husbands and very sweet men and they didn’t want to do that. But they knew also they had to do it on behalf of the women just to show the brutality they suffered.”

She said the hardest scene to shoot was one in which elderly women were ordered to undress at gunpoint while soldiers look on and laugh – an experience recounted to her by a prison camp survivor.

“This is one that you just never want to ask anybody to do and you are asking real older women to do this,” she said.

“The whole crew was very uncomfortable but the women were so sweet and so professional. I came to them several times asking, ‘Are you really OK, are you sure?’”

She said she hoped Serbs would see the film with open minds when it is screened in wide release this month.

“I went to Auschwitz recently and so many names are Serb names all along the walls because they fought against the Nazis .. and later they were to be the aggressors,” she said.

“I think it’s important to study (genocides) and to understand them so we will really understand how to stop them.”

Bosnia’s war between its Croat, Muslim and Serb communities claimed some 100,000 lives. Tens of thousands of people were held in prison camps, where torture and abuse were commonplace. Some 20,000 women were raped, according to the government’s estimates.

Asked what’s next, Jolie said she would keep her focus on the world’s trouble spots.

“I have been working on something that deals with Afghanistan but I haven’t shown it yet to anybody,” she said. AGENCIES

Formula One: Rosberg puts Vettel in shade

 

Double world champion Sebastian Vettel returned to the track for the first time in two months on Thursday, but was overshadowed by German compatriot Nico Rosberg.

 

Vettel, behind the wheel of the new Red Bull RB8, clocked 1min 19.297sec in his first stint of winter testing with Rosberg flying to a day s best of 1min 17.613sec in his Mercedes.

 

“It s been two months since we were in the car, so it does take a couple of laps to get back in the rhythm, but the car feels fine and as we expected,” said Vettel.

 

“There s quite a loss of grip due to the regulation changes, but you get used to it quickly and then start to explore how the new car feels. So far we can be happy, we had a couple of issues, but it s normal when the car is new.”

 

Rosberg s speed followed on the trail of teammate and former seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher who was fastest on Wednesday with 1min 18.561sec.

 

“I m happy with the testing that we have achieved here in Jerez, and we learned a lot about the Pirelli tyres and a few other things for the new car,” said Rosberg.

 

“It seems that the tyres are closer performance-wise this year, with the rear tyres also looking a bit stronger.

 

“You can t really compare the lap times with other teams, but it was interesting to learn a lot with our 2011 car. Now I m really looking forward to the two Barcelona tests with our new Silver Arrow.”

 

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean clocked the second-fastest time of the day with       1:18.419 off 117 laps while Britain s Lewis Hamilton was fourth in his McLaren.

 

“Today felt pretty good considering it was my first time in the new car. My initial feelings are pretty positive, despite going through a long, tough programme of initial tests — there were no nasty surprises, which is pleasing,” said Hamilton.

 

“This year s car feels a bit different from last year s. In 2011, we had so much stability from the rear-end, particularly in the high-speed corners, but we re now having to find that grip elsewhere, or, at least, take grip off the front and somehow offload it at the rear.”

 

The third day of testing at the Spanish circuit took place in challenging, chilly conditions with Force India unable to get extensive track time after French driver Jules Bianchi buried the car in the gravel.

 

Force India were unable to repair the damage, which left Nico Hulkenberg kicking his heels until Friday s final day of testing.
 

Tennis: Kerber sets up Sharapova showdown in Paris

 

Maria Sharapova will face Angelique Kerber for a place in the WTA Paris Open semi-finals, after the German ninth seed beat Romania s Monica Niculescu 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight on Thursday.

 

Sharapova, the top seed, booked her place in the quarter-finals with a straightforward 6-3, 6-1 defeat of South Africa s Chanelle Scheepers at the indoor tournament on Wednesday.

 

With Li Na and Jelena Jankovic having both withdrawn through injury, the Russian s biggest challenge is likely to come from French second seed Marion Bartoli, who tackles Croatian Petra Martic later on Thursday.

 

A semi-finalist at last year s French Open, Bartoli is the last Frenchwoman left in the draw after Pauline Parmentier lost 6-3, 6-0 to 21-year-old German qualifier Mona Barthel on Thursday.

 

Should Bartoli overcome Martic, she will face Italian seventh seed Roberta Vinci, who overcame a second-set slump to defeat American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
 

Schumacher fastest on 2nd day of testing in Jerez

 

Michael Schumacher set the fastest pace on the second day of Formula One preseason testing Wednesday at the Jerez Circuit track.

 

The German driver, entering the final year of his Formula One comeback, used Mercedes  car from last year to clock an early morning lap of 1 minute, 18.561 seconds that proved unbeatable.

 

Schumacher says “it was a good and productive test, full of lots of useful information, and I am now looking forward to driving our 2012 car for the first time at the next test.”

 

While Schumacher used last year s car to continue trying out the new Pirelli tires, Mark Webber came in second at 0.623 seconds behind driving Red Bull s new 2012 vehicle.

 

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was third, while Kimi Raikkonen was fifth after having the fastest lap on day one.
 

German Chancellor Merkel wraps up China visit

BEIJING: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday wrapped up a visit to China where she tried to reassure her hosts on the strength of the euro and Europe’s ability to overcome its debt crisis.

During her three-day trip to the world’s second largest economy, Merkel praised the advantages of the single currency and urged China to put pressure on Iran and to condemn Syria at the United Nations.

Merkel, who was prevented from meeting journalists and a human rights lawyers, ended her official visit in the southern city of Guangzhou, Xinhua news agency reported.

Merkel, who held talks with Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao during her visit, had said that she would raise human rights issues during the trip.

She attended a business forum with Wen, who Friday said China had neither the intention nor ability “to buy Europe”.

Experts believe China holds more than $550 billion of European sovereign debt, although the figure has not been officially confirmed.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will preside Monday over the 14th Franco-German council of ministers, which will be largely devoted to the eurozone financial crisis. AGENCIES

Court rejects bail plea by Megaupload founder

A New Zealand court refused an appeal by the founder of online file-sharing site Megaupload.com to be freed on bail, Friday, agreeing with prosecutors there was a risk he would attempt to flee before an extradition hearing.

 

Kim Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, was returned to custody until February 22 ahead of a hearing on an extradition application by the United States.

 

The High Court in Auckland said the lower court judge was right to rule there was a significant risk Dotcom, who had passports and bank accounts in three names, might try to flee the country.

 

There was nothing to tie Dotcom to New Zealand except his motivation to fight the charges and get his funds, Justice Raynor Asher said.

 

“The judge correctly concluded that the risk of flight cannot be mitigated by the imposition of conditions, including electronic monitoring,” said prosecutor Anne Toohey.

 

STRENUOUSLY DENIES CHARGES

 

Prosecutors say Dotcom was the ringleader of a group that netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.

 

Dotcom s lawyers say the company simply offered online storage and that he strenuously denies the charges and will fight extradition.

 

Dotcom, 38, and three others, were arrested on January 20 after armed New Zealand police raided his country estate at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

He told the court that with his assets frozen and business shut down he had no intention of trying to flee to his native Germany, where he would be safe from extradition.

 

“I will not run away. I want to fight these allegations on a level playing field. I have three little children. My wife is pregnant with twins. I just want to be with them,” he said in court.

 

EXTREME FLIGHT RISK, FUNNY VISITS

 

The prosecution again painted Dotcom as an extreme flight risk because of he had multiple passports, sources of funds, access to various means of travel, and previous history of fleeing to avoid criminal charges.

 

Officers cut Dotcom out of a safe room he had barricaded himself in within the sprawling mansion, reputedly New Zealand s most expensive home.

 

Dotcom said he said he had received “funny visits” and contacts while in jail, including one from a man claiming to be a prosecutor asking for money in return for a favorable bail hearing. He denied knowing anyone with a background in providing forged documents, whom the prosecution said had tried to visit him.

 

He said police had been unnecessarily aggressive when they raided his property.

 

“I was punched in the face, I was kicked down on the floor, one guy was standing on my hands … it was bleeding.”
Legal experts have said extradition hearings are likely to be drawn out with appeals likely all the way to the country s highest court.

 

The lower court judge said the accused appeared to have “an arguable defense at least in respect of the breach of copyright charges.”

China criticizes Iran sanctions

 

China s main ruling party criticized sanctions on Iran as German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Friday with President Hu Jintao after urging Beijing to press Tehran to avoid developing nuclear weapons.

 

Western efforts to pressure Iran with an oil embargo are “casting a shadow over the global economy,” said People s Daily, the main Communist Party mouthpiece. It appealed to other governments to “keep calm and restrained and not escalate tensions.”

 

China has rejected sanctions. The world s second-largest economy gets about 10 percent of its oil imports from Iran.

 

Chinese analysts say an embargo could be damaging because Beijing would be hard-pressed to replace those supplies.

 

Merkel appealed Thursday to Beijing, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude, to help persuade Tehran to renounce the possible development of nuclear weapons. At an appearance with Premier Wen Jiabao, the German leader said sanctions were unavoidable.

 

Also Thursday, Wen said Beijing might contribute to European bailout funds but made no financial commitment.

 

On Friday, Hu told Merkel that Beijing wants to develop a “strategic partnership” and commercial relations with Germany, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. There was no mention of whether the leaders discussed Iran.

 

The European Union imposed an oil embargo on Iran last week and froze the assets of its central bank. In December, the United States said it would bar financial institutions from the U.S. market if they do business with Iran s central bank.
 

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