DIFF 2014 – Films to see at this year’s Dallas International Film Festival – Saturday, April 5

DIFF 2014 – Films to see at this year’s Dallas International Film Festival – Saturday, April 5

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ANNA, LADIES OF THE HOUSE and THE ONE I LOVE take center stage for Saturday (April 5) films you should make an effort to see at this year’s Dallas International Film Festival. We’ll be posting daily suggestions on what you should make time for at DIFF, and our two starters are pretty great.

In the mind-altering film ANNA, director Jorge Dorado mines the very essence of truth and reality. John (Mark Strong) is a recently widowed man with the ability to enter people’s memories. In the past John used his abilities to solve criminal cases, but after a stroke that left him incapacitated and financially broken, he has become a shell of his former self.

Desperate for an assignment, John jumps into a new case involving a troubled girl, Anna (Taissa Farmiga) who subjects herself to an on-going hunger strike. What at first seems like an easy job proves to be much more challenging than John expected. Anna is intelligent, insightful, and possibly one of the most conniving and manipulative people he’s ever encountered. As John delves deeper into Anna’s memories to discover the reason for her problems, everyone around her becomes a suspect—her family, her nurse, even John’s own mentor.

Lavishly shot and deftly acted, ANNA is a superb thriller that will have audiences asking, “who done it?” then “wait, did they really do it?” In this film, truth is really just a state of mind.

DIRECTOR Jorge Dorado
SCREENWRITER Guy Holmes, Martha Holmes
PRODUCER Jaume Collet-Serra, Mercedes Gamero, Peter Safran, Juan Sola
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Maria Contreras, Tom Drumm, Nathalie Marciano
CINEMATOGRAPHER Oscar Faura
EDITOR Jaime Valdueza
MUSIC Lucas Vidal
PRODUCTION DESIGN Alan Bainee
CAST Taissa Farmiga, Mark Strong, Brian Cox

Angelika 6 – Saturday – 4/5 – 12:00pm
Angelika 4 – Sunday – 4/6 – 2:45pm

Don’t worry about the title “MINDSCAPE“, the film is now known as ANNA.

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ladiesofthehouse

Up next is the second showing of THE LADIES OF THE HOUSE. The saying goes that “a lady is as a lady does,” but what these ladies do is shockingly disturbing. A reluctant birthday celebration starts out innocently enough but quickly turns into three men’s desperate fight for survival. The film explores a modern-day house of horrors, inhabited by four women who lead a most unusual lifestyle. This unorthodox ‘family,’ made up of dangerous beauties with a retro-sensibility, will let nothing compromise the happy home life they’ve carved out for themselves. Filmed in Dallas by the husband and wife team of John Stuart Wildman and Justina Walford, this stylized and sexy thriller lures the viewer into a place of unthinkable terror. While a macabre feast for the senses, it serves as quite the cautionary tale. Taking a place at this table is indeed eye-opening to the potential deadliness of feminine wiles.

DIRECTOR John Wildman
SCREENWRITER Justina Walford, John Stuart Wildman
PRODUCER Farah White, John Stuart Wildman, Justina Walford, Adam Dietrich
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Ruth Mutch
CINEMATOGRAPHER Beau Ethridge
EDITOR James Taylor
MUSIC Yasuhiko Fukuoka
PRODUCTION DESIGN Adam Dietrich
CAST Farah White, Melodie Sisk, Brina Palencia, Michelle Sinclair, Gabriel Horn, Samrat Chakrabarti, Frank Mosley

Angelika 7 – Saturday 4/5 at 11:15pm

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Click on image to see it full-size.

THE ONE I LOVE is only showing once and is not to be missed. Ethan and Sophie are a married couple on the brink of separation. At the urging of their therapist, they escape to a beautiful vacation house for a weekend getaway in an attempt to salvage what’s left of their relationship. What starts off as a relaxing and tranquil retreat soon spirals into a dizzyingly bizarre experience that forces the couple to reflect upon the complexities of their troubled partnership. Over the course of a few days, Ethan and Sophie work diligently to rediscover their better selves and embrace the unexpected as everything they once thought was real becomes more and more surreal.

In acclaimed author Charlie McDowell’s highly original directorial debut, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass deliver delightfully wry and engaging performances as a couple on the verge of dissolution. McDowell injects his distinct, comedic voice into this uncanny exploration of the human relationship—with welcomingly unpredictable results.

DIRECTOR Charlie McDowell
SCREENWRITER Justin Lader
PRODUCER Mel Eslyn
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, Justin Lader, Charlie McDowell
CINEMATOGRAPHER Doug Emmett
EDITOR Jennifer Lilly
CAST Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson

Angelika 6 – Saturday 4/5 at 7:30pm

For details on all films playing at DIFF visit their official website.

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About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.