As Universal Pictures continues to pretend that The Bourne Legacy never actually happened, they’ve turned back to a familiar face of the Bourne franchise. Julia Stiles, who played Nicky Parsons in all three of the first Bourne movies, will reunite with Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass in the as-of-yet untitled Bourne 5 movie. Aside from Damon’s Bourne, Nicky Parsons is the only character to have appeared in all three of the first Bourne movies.

In addition to the presence of Julia Stiles, Bourne 5 might feature a notable good guy going bad. Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings franchise, A History of Violence) has allegedly been offered the villain’s role according to The Wrap’s Jeff Sneider. Beyond Mortensen, Deadline earlier reported that Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander is in negotiations for a major role herself.

All this news likely comes in between bites of caviar at Universal, whose major releases thus far in 2015 have included the mega-successes of Fifty Shades of Grey, Pitch Perfect 2, Furious 7, and now Jurassic World. The company currently plans to release the next Bourne installment on July 29th of next year.

Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja, world premiering in Un Certain Regarde, is from another planet. Much like Ceylan’s Winter Sleep this is what a real experience feels like in the movie theater. Unfortunately, I was unable to get too acquainted with Lisandor’s previous films before the festival began and only managed to catch his 2004 film Los Muertos, about a man released from prison and his journey back home to his daughter. It’s a captivating, at times tedious, affair. Man’s displacement in nature and within family feels like one of Alonso’s major themes. Snail-like camera movement, lengthy takes, and no musical accompaniment, his preferred tools. 10 years later, and after a couple of more films I will most definitely be seeing soon, he has a made a film that is in a different league, using everything seen in Los Muertos (right down to the subject of a father searching for his daughter) to infinitely higher degrees. It’s unbelievably not competing for the Palme D’Or and I’m not sure how that happened, but I’ve got an inkling that it will wind up as the granddaddy of the UCR; with more experience and wisdom captured in a few frames than entire films in the section.

The film opens with a caption about what ‘Jauja’ is exactly; a mythical, earthly paradise, which man has sought for centuries and never found. The time and setting of the desolation that surrounds the 4:3 frame is never revealed, though it looks to be the period of the conquistadors when European forces were conquering aboriginal peoples. Danish Captain Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) has joined camps with a Spanish infantry and brought his daughter Inga (Ghita Norby) along. The first section of the film establishes the relationships between Dinesen, the Spanish lieutenant Pittaluga, Inga, and Inga’s Spanish soldier-lover Corto. Word has reached their camp that captain Zuluaga, renowned for his bravery and experience in the desert, has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. When Inga steals off one night with Corto, Dinesen wakes up in a panic and – not heeding the advice of the seedy Pittaluga – rides off into the desert to search for his daughter.

The film truly takes off once Mortensen’s captain begins his search. The establishing scenes contain more dialogue than the entire length of Los Muertos and while the words spoken lay the foundations of the themes (mysticism, perversion, loss of self) it is the framing and depth of field in this beginning sequence that is instantly captivating. Characters on the left side of the screen in the forefront are contrasted with an action occurring in the distant background on the right, with the vacuum in the middle providing the groundwork for the thematic use of space in the mid-section. Once Dinesen begins his search, the desert that ‘devours everything’ becomes the film’s antagonist as it eats up time itself. Detailing how it does this would classify as a spoiler, but suffice it to say that Dinesen’s search for his daughter and the desire to go back home, as he feels more and more alienated in the foreignness that surrounds him, transcends expectations and delves into a philosophical discourse devotees of existentialism will adore.

It’s quite difficult to find the right words to describe the sensations and deep impact Jauja leaves you with. Directors that immediately come to mind in terms of aesthetic and thematic influence are Andrei Tarkovsky, David Lynch, and Carlos Reygadas though my unfamiliarity with such directors as Alejandro Jodoworski and Manoel de Oliveira feels like a deficiency here. This is the kind of philosophical, deeply visual filmmaking which many will be able to appreciate, and my respect for Viggo Mortensen (who is a magnanimous minimalist here) has sky rocketed. He is the biggest star Alonso has worked with, and if nothing else, his name alone should guarantee a lot of buzz. Of course, Alonso’s mastery alone should be enough because he has created something spectacular here. As I conclude these thoughts, my mind is flipping through the poetic excursion it just had the privilege of experiencing; scenes allowed to sink in so that the vastness of the volcanic nature swallows all attention, or the peculiarity of the aspect ratio which brings to mind Cormac McCarthy’s lack of quotations; an artistic expression which empowers the themes and mysticism of the film. Rating this film feels almost ridiculous as it’s one of those picture that transcends all kind of formality. Is there an infinite out of 10? Like Winter Sleep, principle prevents me from giving it a perfect 10, and besides, more viewings feel essential to get a full grasp. Can’t wait to go back to Jauja.

This review was originally published as part of our Cannes 2014 coverage. Jauja is out in limited theatrical release today, March 20.

Best known for writing Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, Hossein Amini makes his directorial debut with the ’60s noir-ish throwback, The Two Faces of January, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. Set in Greece in 1962, the film follows a vacationing American couple, Chester (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst), who get intwined with a small-time conman named Rydal (Oscar Isaac) when he witnesses Chester committing a deadly crime at their hotel. Rydal offers to help the couple flee to Athens, and as the three evade the authorities on the streets, Chester is forced to compete with the younger Rydal for his wife’s affections.

In media roundtable interview conducted at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, we spoke to Hossein about the film’s ’60s influences, his attraction to weakness in characters, Highsmith’s fascination with male competition, silent storytelling, the film’s period set and costume design, and more.

The Two Faces of January is out this Friday in San Francisco.

Your film resembles a lot of suspense noirs from the ’60s. What were some of your inspirations?
Hossein: I’m a total film nut, and I love film noir, so I couldn’t wait to get to Turkey to shoot that. I wanted to, in a way, recreate that period of [’60s cinema]. It was important to not be too contemporary with the camera moves. It was such a novel period in filmmaking, with the French New Wave and Italian cinema. I watched a lot of European movies from that time. But I always go back to ’40s and ’50s American film noir, because that was my first real movie passion. I remember seeing Kiss Me Deadly on the big screen, and it blew me away. It was the first time I fell in love with movies. Hitchcock is an influence as well. The French talk about a “film soleil” as opposed to a film noir, which is a film noir shot in the sunshine. I kind of love it. It’s that idea of oppressive heat and dust in these landscapes.

Did you feel that the more rugged landscapes revealed the real nature of the characters?
Hossein: That was absolutely the intention. We wanted to start off [Viggo] with this beautiful suit, and [Kirsten] with this dress, and gradually, as those layers are stripped off, it starts to reveal who they are. I remember liking those characters as I read the book. They’re so fragile, and I think it’s rare when you get movie characters who are weak. We make films about bad people or villains, but I think villains that are actually human are rare. I know how difficult that is; we did test screenings and the audience said, “I don’t have anyone to root for.”

I have to accept that, but I think that’s what makes [Patricia] such a great writer. She just strips these characters naked. She’s kind of cruel and compassionate to them as a writer, and that’s something I capture in the movie. I like Chester. I don’t know what other people think, but he was the character when I read the book that really made me want to do this. I felt he was jealous and drunk–all these weak human qualities–and yet there are sometimes moments of dignity.

Talk about the challenge of being an homage to those films without becoming “retro”.
Hossein: It is a fine line. Some people do find it goes too far into the Hitchcock pastiche, which wasn’t intentional. The characters are so modern; that would be my defense of what makes it contemporary. [Patricia] was so ahead of her time in that her characters change so quickly from being kind to cruel, from vicious to suddenly having remorse. It doesn’t happen in scenes; it happens almost within moments. One example is when they’re all sitting around at dinner and there’s dancing going on. Rydal is flirting with Colette, and then he remembers her husband is there, and he’s almost apologetic. That’s something about her writing that I found…it’s almost how I behave. That doesn’t say particularly good things about me, but I can suddenly be mean to my wife and feel terrible about it the very next moment. She captures this very modern psychology.

There’s a big father-son theme in the film.
Hossein: When I read the book I thought, what does The Two Faces of January mean? One is the idea of the god, Janus, that has got the two heads facing outwards. I thought it was interesting, because no matter how much [Chester and Rydal] hate each other, they’re twins, and they’re tied together. Also, it’s about the new replacing the old. Back in early times, the son would have to kill the father in order to become a man. There’s something about the sense of competition and admiration going together between a younger man and an older man. Highsmith is so fascinated with the relationships between men. I think she’s much more interested in that. In Ripley, she gets rid of Marge fairly quickly. The father-son thing is a way for her to show a love story and a hate story between men.

A lot of the storytelling in your film is told through the actors’ eyes. Some of the most significant scenes are silent.
Hossein: As a screenwriter, I’ve always felt the dialogue is there to set up those silences. It’s about the space between the lines. If you have a scene where a woman is on the phone with her lover, and then she goes to her husband and talks about the weather, it can be the most moving, powerful scene. The dialogue is irrelevant, really; it’s the subtext and the looks between them. In marriage scenes, the couple rarely talks about the problem, but the undercurrent is always there. I think that’s what I love about movies–the close-ups, the silences, the way you feel people’s pain. Quite often, we’d cut to who’s not talking in those three-way conversations, because I think that’s where the drama is.

I struggle so much with dialogue as a writer. I find it very hard to write. If I could write like Tarantino, I’m sure I’d be huge! [laughs] I find silent storytelling more interesting than people saying what they actually think.

Are you angling for a silent picture next?
Hossein: One of my favorite directors, [Jean-Pierre] Melville, who did Le Samorai and Le Cercle Rouge…there’s almost no dialogue in those.

Colette sort of fades into the background about halfway through the film. How does this compare to the book?
Hossein: The book has that thing of her disappearing from the picture. That was always there. When I wrote the script, I thought I needed to make it more of a triangle, and we shot it like that. In the book, it isn’t; Highsmith isn’t that interested in her. When I was editing with the editor, and when we test screened it, we found that Highsmith’s DNA came back to reclaim [the film]. People were more interested in the relationship between the men, the same way as an author she had been. We felt after a while that going back to the book and making her the catalyst and object of competition for the men [is better]. Kirsten resists that kind of thing, but I do think that her part was a struggle than the movie. She was better than the part, I think, and we both struggled to make that part better. But in the editing, the shape of the movie pushed it to her being watched as opposed to being in the center.

Talk a bit about the set and costume design. That must have been a fun experience to watch that come together.
Hossein: As a writer, my favorite thing about writing a script is the research. We went through a lot of ’60s photographs, which you can find on the web. It’s amazing, just home photos of people from that period. Then there are the movies from that period, like Alain Delon wearing a white suit. What I liked about directing for the first time was that everyone knows what they do so much better than you do, and it’s fantastic to watch how good other people are. If you let them, people really want to help you. I wonder if that happens on the second or third film, because maybe people step back. But here, being open to that was really helpful.

The Los Angeles Film Festival continued its Gala screenings Tuesday with The Two Faces of January. First time director Hossein Amini has proven he understands the art of calculated and slow-building periodic drama as the screenwriter of subdued gems The Wings of the Dove and Jude. He’s even proven he can handle drama of a more fast-paced nature with his script for 2011’s Drive. But Amini’s directorial début seems to hint at a possible film truth — that perhaps writing talent and directorial talent come from two different places.

Set in Greece in 1962, The Two Faces of January is based on the Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name. She who gave us the inspiration for similar film adaptations The Talented Mr. Ripley and Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Highsmith weaves thrillers involving characters that fall into one of two categories: those who have and those who covet. The Two Faces of January is no exception, telling the tale of American couple Chester and Colette MacFarland (Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst) on vacation in Greece, both the epitome of American wealth and refinement. The two catch the eye of part-time tour guide and sometime swindler Rydal (Oscar Isaac), an American who has been living in Greece, avoiding his family to the point of missing his own father’s funeral.

After catching Rydal staring at them, Colette investigates and Rydal charms them into an outing at the flea market, and later dinner. Enamored with the young Colette, and clearly in awe of the stylish Chester, Rydal rushes to return a bracelet Colette left in the taxi after their evening out. When he gets to the hotel he finds Chester in a precarious position involving an unconscious man. From there Rydal’s ambition and daddy issues pull him into the mounting troubles of Chester and Colette, while his increasing attraction to Colette forces him to travel into darker and darker territory to protect them.

Amini, while clearly capable of writing great characters, falters somewhat in getting his actors to help push the story along. The tacit tension between the three of them is certainly evident in their spectacular performances, however the film’s pacing is lacking, each of their misery only adding to the heap and not building off one another. Viggo Mortenson has made a believable transition from the smoldering heroes he’s played in the past, to an older cocksure man of leisure. Oscar Isaac continues to be the best part of almost every movie I’ve seen him in of late (even the recent and truly stunted In Secret, another film of wasted performances), his chiseled face and hungry expressions always conveying his lust for the sort of life he thinks he wants. Kirsten Dunst seems to be the deficient element, though not likely by any fault of her own as she’s given us plenty of remarkable performances over the years. Instead Amini underutilizes Dunst’s character, rather than allow the story to flow from her anchor as the strongest link between the three of them. As a result, Rydal’s infatuation seems unwarranted, Chester’s growing jealousy equally so.

With a distinctly classic feel, the soft lighting and bright colors of Greece are a stark contrast to the darker moments of vulnerability and madness woven through the few days the film covers. Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind (Dancer in the Dark) could hardly make the exotic locales of the film look anything but beautiful. Amini’s ambitions are clear, often utilizing distinctly Hitchcockian motifs. A closing foot chase scene through the pebbled streets of Istanbul could have been pulled straight out of a 50’s black and white film-noir. Steven Noble’s costume design is distractingly sophisticated. Clearly Amini has all the pieces: the looks, the feel, the music, the actors, but where he seems to falter is where Hitchcock most excelled — delving into the psychology of his characters.  Where Hitchcock would dig deeper, Amini has only given us surface level and thus being truly invested in their collective fate is rather hard to muster. The story plays out melodramatically, instead of thrillingly.

Leveraging nostalgia and star power, the film is enticing even as it makes one hungry to put on an older classic. He may not yet be a writer-director double-threat, but this is an elegant first film from Hossein Amini.

It was a packed house at the Castro Theater in San Francisco last night for Opening Night of the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival. I should know–I had to sit in the nosebleeds! (It’s that damn SF parking. 2 hour limits can suck a…never mind.) Despite my undesirable vantage point of the beautiful silent era theater, I was excited, as there was a definite buzz in the air for the SFIFF faithful, many of whom are members of the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS), the organization responsible for making the festival happen in addition to their other remarkable contributions to the national film community.

When Noah Cowan–an accomplished veteran of the Toronto International Film Festival and newly appointed executive director of SFFS–took to the podium to kick off the festival, a thrilling rush of applause practically blew his hair back. The San Francisco film community was saddened when Ted Hope stepped down from the position just recently, but when SFFS named Cowan as the new head honcho, overseeing SFIFF as his first major task, we couldn’t have been more happy. His inaugural address felt like a new beginning for the festival, and he felt the love. “Thank you for the warm San Francisco greeting,” he said with a humble grin. Needless to say, we Bay Area residents look forward to a bright future for the festival, and to Cowan we give our full support.

The reality is, however, that Cowen’s only been in town for about six weeks. We owe this year’s incredible festival lineup to Rachel Rosen, SFFS’s Director of Programming, and her team. Rosen stepped onstage next to Cowan, I got goosebumps at the thought of what the two will accomplish together in years to come.

Following the festival introductions, director-screenwriter Hossein Amini (he wrote Drive) stepped on stage to introduce his film, The Two Faces of January, an adaptation of a novel by Patricia Highsmith (other adaptations of her books include The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ripley’s Game). A throwback to ’60s murder romances like Hitchcock’s most touristic pictures, the film is set in 1962, following Chester and Colette (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst), an American couple vacationing in Athens who meet a swindling tour guide named Rydal (Oscar Isaac). Rydal gets caught up in a sticky predicament with the couple when he becomes a witness to a fatal hotel room accident, and the three attempt to flee the country before the police can sniff them out.

Amini exhibits old-fashioned cinematic style, riffing on tried-and-true noir, love triangle, and suspense machinations to entertaining effect. Isaac, Dunst, and Mortensen are game performers, and they all have natural chemistry with one another. Most engaging is Mortensen and Isaac’s relationship, which sits somewhere between a testosterone-driven rivalry and a father-son companionship. Dunst’s role lacks the same depth. The cinematography by Marcel Zyskind is clean and crisp, and picturesque, but the score by Alberto Iglesias emulates the great Bernard Hermann too closely. The film pays homage to a specific era in cinema without feeling retro, which is its greatest accomplishment. It’s greatest disappointment is that it doesn’t insert itself as a formidable entry into the sub-genres it evokes, a feat proven possible by gems like Shaun of the Dead and The Artist.

For more SFIFF57 coverage, stay tuned to Way Too Indie.

Tomorrow night, the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24-May 8) kicks off its program of 168 films representing 56 countries. Seeing every film in that span of time is a veritable impossibility (though San Francisco is full of sun-depraved cine-maniacs ready to jump at the challenge), so we’re going to take a look at some of the highlights in the festival’s catalog for anyone planning on hopping over to the Bay Area and joining in on the fun.

Opening up the festival tomorrow night at the Castro Theater is Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces of January, a Greece-set suspense thriller starring Kirsten Dunst and Viggo Mortensen, an American couple on holiday who find themselves inextricably linked to a shifty tour guide (Oscar Isaac) after a fatal accident in a hotel room forces them to frantically find a way out of the country. Evoking Hitchcock’s touristic action-romance romps, the film should send the festival on its way nicely.

Speaking of being on holiday, Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip to Italy (pictured above) looks to walk on the lighter side of vacationing. A sequel to 2011’s The Trip, the film stars English funnymen Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing inflated versions of themselves as they, like in the first film, take a culinary tour of expensive restaurants, making each other chuckle along the way with improvised chatter and–of course–spot-on Michael Caine impressions.

On the darker side of traveling lies Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, about a sociopath Japanese office assistant who flies to Fargo, North Dakota in search of a buried treasure she glimpsed in the famous Coen Brothers movie. For some reason, she believes a suitcase full of money buried in the snow by Steve Buscemi in a fictional movie exists in real life…and that totally piques my interest for some reason…

The film that’s got me frothing in anticipation more than any other is Night Moves (pictured above), by ridiculously talented writer/director Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy). It’s a safe bet that, like her previous films, we’ll be treated to a smorgasbord of deliciously cinematic imagery to support a wholly unique script (set, as in all her previous efforts, in Oregon). The political thriller stars Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning as environmentalist lovebirds who, with marine veteran Peter Sarsgaard, hatch a plan to blow up a dam. This one looks to be a less contemplative and more narrative-driven movie than we’re used to seeing from Reichardt, which excites me to no end.

The fest’s centerpiece presentation is the Bay Area-set teenage drama Palo Alto, directed by Gia Coppola and starring Emma Roberts, James Franco, and Jack Kilmer. Based on a book of short stories written by Franco about his experience growing up in the titular Bay Area community, the film aims to be a more authentic take on teenage life than your typical high school drama, casting appropriately-aged actors in all roles and eschewing tropes like stereotypical clique dynamics.

Richard Linklater is set to receive the Founder’s Directing Award at SFIFF, and he’s bringing Boyhood, his much buzzed-about coming-of-age movie, along with him. We’ve all heard by now that the film is pretty good and that it took  an unprecedented 12 years to make, which is reason enough to check out the film at the festival, but sweetening the deal is that a career highlight reel of the indie pioneer will also be shown, and Linklater will participate in an on-stage interview. Doesn’t get much cooler than that!

There are two films with the word “Summer” in the title playing at the festival, but seriously, they couldn’t be any more different. Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders) chronicles the rise of the Civil Rights movement in his powerful documentary Freedom Summer, focusing on the significant, eruptive events in Mississippi in the summer of 1964. Director Michael Tully’s nostalgia comedy Ping Pong Summer (pictured above), set in a 1985 Maryland beach town, follows 13-year-old Rad Miracle (Marcello Conte) as a simple family vacation turns into one of the most memorable summers of his life.

Closing out the festival is actor-turned-director Chris Messina’s Alex of Venice, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the titular workaholic attorney, whose negligence of her family drives her husband (Messina) to walk out of their lives. As Alex’s strictly organized life begins to spiral out of control, she scrambles to restore some semblance of order, in the process discovering what’s truly important to her. The film also stars Don Johnson as Winstead’s father in a standout role.

For more information and ticketing info, visit sffs.org

Today, the San Francisco Film Society (and its new executive director Noah Cowan) announced the full lineup for the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival, running from April 24-May 8. Consisting of 169 films from 56 countries, the festival looks to present a broad selection of both domestic and world cinema features. 200 filmmakers and special guests are expected to attend.

Opening up the festival will be Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces of January, a Greece-set suspense-thriller starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, and Oscar Isaac. Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto will serve as the fest’s Centerpiece Film, while actor Chris Messina’s directorial debut Alex of Venice, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Don Johnson, will wrap up the festival’s 15-day run.

Receiving awards at this year’s festival will be Pixar’s John Lasseter (2014 George Gund Craft III of Cinema Award), Richard Linklater (Founders Directing Award), screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (Kanbar Award), and film historian David Thomson (Mel Novikoff Award), with more to be announced.

Some standouts: Kelly Reichardt’s (Meek’s Cutoff) environmental activist drama Night Moves starring Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, and Peter Sarsgaard, looks to be another excellent entry into the acclaimed indie filmmaker’s oeuvre;  The Skeleton Twins, a sibling drama starring SNL favorites Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, who will be in attendance at the fest; Young & Beautiful, a drama from Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool) billed as “a portrait in four seasons and four songs”; and Boyhood, Linklater’s unprecedented coming-of-age story filmed over 12 years.

For the full schedule, check out sffs.org

The 57th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, which runs from April 24-May 8, has announced its opening night film as The Two Faces of January, starring Oscar Isaac, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst, which will be making it’s North American premiere at the fest. Closing out the festival will be Alex of Venice, the directorial debut of actor Chris Messina starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Don Johnson.

“We are delighted to offer these exceptional films by first-time directors who are best known for their work in other areas of the film world,” said San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan. “Championing talented artists who aren’t afraid of taking risks is at the heart of the Film Society’s mission and our ongoing support of filmmakers around the world. I can’t think of a better pair of films to kick off and wrap up what is going to be an amazing festival.”

The Two Faces of January (above) marks a directorial debut as well, in this caseof screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive). Set in Greece, the thriller sees Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst play a couple who fall into a dangerous dilemma with an Athens tour guide (Oscar Isaac) following a murderous incident at their hotel.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars in Chris Messina’s Alex of Venice as a workaholic environmental lawyer whose husband (Messina) is fed up with being a stay-at-home father and decides to stay elsewhere. Winstead is left at home with her son and actor father (Don Johnson) and is forced to hold the family together all by herself.

For more festival info, visit sffs.org