San Sebastian 2011 review: 'Le Skylab' by Julie Delpy (***1/2) and 'Take This Waltz' by Sarah Polley (*1/2)

It is hard not to draw comparisons between Julie Delpy and Sarah Polley, who have presented in consecutive days their latest films Le Skylab and Take This Waltz here at the San Sebastian Film Festival's competition strand.

Born to show business families, they both enjoyed successful careers as child actresses, then went on to work with some of the world's most acclaimed filmmakers (Delpy with Bernard Tavernier, Agnieszka Holland or Krzysztof Kieslowski; Polley, with Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg) before making up their minds to write and direct their own movies and gaining international recognition for that work, including Oscar nominations in a discipline, writing, nobody would have predicted when Oscar buzz first started to purr around their names for their performances in Kieslowski's White and Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. (Julie Delpy shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nod with Before Sunset director Richard Linklater and co-star Ethan Hawke in 2005, while Sarah Polley was nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for her film debut Away From Her in 2007).

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San Sebastian 2011 review: 'Albert Nobbs', a film by Rodrigo García (**)

The key to the success of any film ascribed to the cross-dressing subgenre is whether the central performance is able to create an autonomous character who can live beyond the limitations of the gender gimmick. Sadly, Glenn Close's commendable effort to inhabit the character of Albert Nobbs, a woman dressed as a man to make a living as a waiter in 19th Century Ireland, completely fails to do so, for it has nothing more going for it than its gimmick. Not once during the almost two hours of this overlong, stagy rendering of George Moore's short story does the viewer (at least the one writing this review) have the impression to be watching anything else than a hugely popular actress, with coincidentally androgynous looks, dressed in drag for the sake of self-important farce.

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San Sebastian 2011: Day 1

I've been merely 24 hours in San Sebastian but I'd swear I've spent here all my life. I arrived yesterday too late for the morning press screening of Intruders, opening film of the Official Selection, but just in time for the press conference, in which a self-assured Juan Carlos Fresnadillo defended his film surrounded by his cast, led by an irresistibly charming Clive Owen. There's no much to say here. Rumour quickly spread that Intruders is a disappointment, and judging by the banalities we heard during the press conference, it's probably true.

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San Sebastian 2011 interview: 'Amen' director Kim Ki-duk

Kim Ki-duk is South Korea's best-known filmmaker and one of the most celebrated directors in the international film circuit. In 2004 he won the Best Director award for two different films in two of the major film festivals: for Samaritan Girl at the Berlinale and for 3-Iron at the Venice Film Festival. 3-Iron also earned him the FIPRESCI award as best film of the year. His divisive documentary Arirang bagged the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

His latest narrative film Amen has had its world premiere this morning here in San Sebastian. I've met with the director just one hour after the screening. Here is an extract of the interview.

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San Sebastian 2011 review: 'No habrá paz para los malvados', a film by Enrique Urbizu (***)

Enrique Urbizu's career is a curious anomaly in Spanish filmmaking. Spanish genre filmmakers usually score a couple of box office gongs and go on to collaborate with renowned international actors, screenwriters or directors, then feel disappointed or frustrated with the experience and go back home where their creative freedom is less restricted. (After directing Nicole Kidman in The Others, produced by Tom Cruise, Alejandro Amenábar shot The Sea Inside with an all-Spanish cast, while Jaume Balagueró chose Manuela Velasco for the lead of his hit Rec after unsuccessful collaborations with Anna Paquin and Calista Flockhart).

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