It's raining in Sarasota!

Before the Rains

• The Sarasota Film Festival is now well underway, with one screening of Before the Rains gone, and the other occuring in a few hours. If you have seen the film at Sarasota or at any other location, we would love to hear from you!
  
  
• Radio SRQ report that Jennifer Ehle is expected to attend tonight's World Cinema Celebration, which is honoring actress Liv Ullmann and is one of many events happening all over the area as part of the Festival.
  
  
• Meanwhile, if you live in Los Angeles, Calendar Live report what appears to be a screening-and-speaker session for the film on April 21 at the Wadsworth Theater. Guest speakers taking part include actor Rahul Bose and producer Andrew Spaulding.
  
  
• The Hindustan Times have a quick chat to Mr. Bose while Television Point speak to Santosh Sivan about his and Bose's latest project as competition judges.
  
  
• A reminder that you can access all the press materials for the film at the official Before the Rains site. Here are some interesting excerpts from the Production Notes on how the film came to be:

The inspiration:

[...] Co-producer Amotz Zakai showed Mankoff and Spaulding an Israeli film by Dany Verete called “The Desert Trilogy: Yellow Asphalt,” and were captivated by a 50 minute short film within it, called “Red Roofs.” This story - of an Israeli farmer who has an illicit affair with his housemaid and forces his Bedouin assistant to deal with the increasingly dangerous situation – was extremely moving to both of them, and Mankoff suggested the idea of transplanting this universal story back to 1930s colonial India. [...]

The script:

[...] Mark then introduced the team to writer Cathy Rabin, whose script “Livingstone Falls” spoke to both the tone and the themes of the project. Cathy did enormous amounts of research on life amongst Indians and the British during the tumultuous 1930s, and she delivered an exquisite and compelling script. [...]

The shoot:

[...] The film was shot in the remote region of Munnar, Kerala, hours up winding mountain roads from any city. The state is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Production designer Sunil Babu led a dedicated local art department who built an entire village (comprised of over thirty structures), a bridge, a small town and a ferry boat all from scratch. Local craftspeople hand-made everything from the costumes and the props to the drapes inside the characters’ homes. [...]

Miscellaneous:

• Among the featured selection for Broadway Cares this month is 'The Fourth Wall' - a collection of photographic portraits of actors in public spaces. Bookcourt mention that Utopians Ethan Hawke and Martha Plimpton are among those photographed.
• Times Online interview Tom Stoppard about Hapgood, 'eerily quotable sentences' and wonky 'Rs'.
• Lastly, Amazon are now selling the first-ever fully annotated Pride and Prejudice for just $11. Annotations include explanations of historical context, citations from Austen’s life, illustrations and maps, and literary analyses and clarifications. Happy thought indeed.