As previously mentioned, Freida Pinto, is currently back in India. She missed the world premiere of  Miral at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday night as she had to return home for an emergency. Here’s what her spokesperson had to say about it.

“Yes, Freida has come to attend to a personal matter. But she will attend the screening of the film at the Toronto film festival, which is later this month.”

I hope everything is okay with the Pinto family, and you can be sure that Freida Pinto Fan will cover the Toronto International Film Festival with info, photos, videos and more!

The world premiere of Miral was held yesterday at the Venice International Film Festival, and now the first reviews are here! It’s been given mixed-to-poor reviews by the US critics, saying that it doesn’t quite live up the high expectations everyone had after Julian Schnabel’s last movie The Diving Belle and the Butterfly. I’ve featured some of the reviews below.

Remember, these are only a first look at reviews for Miral, I will make another post of reviews where top industry critics are included closer to the release date.

While any film addressing the Israeli-Palestinian divide can expect a measure of controversy, few hearts or minds are likely to be stirred by Julian Schnabel’s inoffensive, well-intentioned “Miral.” Schnabel’s signature blend of splintered storytelling and sobering humanism feels misapplied to this sweeping multigenerational saga of four Arab women living under Israeli occupation, the youngest of which, Miral, emerges a bland totem of hope rather than a compelling movie subject. A year-end Stateside release date will raise expectations unlikely to be borne out by either passionate critical response or sustained arthouse biz.
[...]
Bound to raise perhaps the most criticism is the casting of Pinto, the Indian actress-model who came to fame in “Slumdog Millionaire,” in the role of an Arab Everygirl — an odd choice for a drama predicated on specifics of cultural identity. While Pinto looks appropriately willful, driven and occasionally fierce as Miral clashes with her loving guardians (and is later whipped in prison for her suspected terrorist involvement), neither she nor the material convincingly demonstrates why, of the countless stories that have been told about the conflict, this one was worth singling out.

• Justin Chang, Variety

Some of the dialogue in Miral is portentous in the extreme. Characters deliver lines like “this is a very crucial moment for our country – our people can’t take it any more” rather than speaking in anything that remotely resembles normal speech. There are distracting cameos from stars like Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe, who are on screen for a few moments and then disconcertingly disappear from the story without trace. Schnabel is covering three generations but his storytelling style is more cumbersome than nimble. At its most leaden, this is more like a school lecture in Middle Eastern history than it is a piece of drama. Newsreel footage is thrown into the mix in heavy-handed fashion and characters – as they age – suddenly go very grey. Quiet domestic scenes and climactic political moments are juxtaposed in seemingly random manner. Even so, it’s hard not to root for Husseini (played with great dignity by Abbass) as she tries to educate the orphan kids and thereby save them from a rootless existence in the refugee camps. Miral herself is played very engagingly by Freida Pinto as a mischievous and idealistic teenager with an acute sense of natural justice.

• Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

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According to Italian site MyMovies.it, Freida Pinto had to cancel her attendance at the Venice Film Festival last-minute. She was expected to attend the world premiere of Miral tonight, but an emergency caused her to return to India instead. We wish all the best to Freida and her family, and hope that everything is all right at home.

Freida Pinto Fan will still report from Venice with updates on how the movie’s being received by audiences and critics. Stay tuned for that!

Five new video clips from Miral have been released onto the web, thanks to French movie-site AlloCiné.com (click the link to view them all). Two of them feature Freida Pinto in her role as Miral, and both have been added to the video archive. Watch them here or after the cut. Miral will make its debut at the Venice Film Festival (on September 2) and Toronto International Film Festival (on September 13).

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More awesome news! The line-up for the 67th Venice Film Festival has been announced and Julian Schnabel’s Miral is set to be screened! Freida Pinto stars as Miral in the movie, which is also set to play at the Toronto Film Festival later this fall.

The 67th Venice Film Festival runs September 1-11 this year. Freida Pinto Fan will have all the coverage for you when it happens.

Yes, it’s really happening! Earlier today, the Toronto Film Festival announced the first big chunk of their 2010 lineup, including not one but two movies starring Freida Pinto! Both Miral and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger are set to be screened at the film festival. This means that Freida is most likely to attend as well! Check out what the press release said of the two movies below.

Miral
Director: Julian Schnabel, UK/Israel/France, North American Premiere
A moving portrait of four Palestinian women since 1948, in the lyrical style Schnabel brought to “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Stars “The Visitor”’s Hiam Abbass and “Slumdog Millionaire”’s Freida Pinto.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Director: Woody Allen, USA/UK/Spain, North American Premiere
Woody Allen’s latest comic ensemble piece follows a group of Londoners struggling with failing marriages, restless libidos, the perils of aging, and desires that drive a series of decisions with unforeseen consequences.

How excited are you for this?!

Earlier today the first international trailer from Miral was released. I have now added screen captures of Freida Pinto as Miral in the movie, directed by Julian Schnabel. It truly looks like a great movie and it hits US cinemas in limited release on December 3rd.

Click on the preview above to see the screen captures, as per usual. Enjoy!

The first trailer from Miral is finally here! The film – starring Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Alexander Siddig and Makram Khoury – is an adaptation of Italo-Palestinian Rula Jebreal’s book about the real-life Palestinian woman Hind Husseini. She started the Dar Al-Tifl orphanage in Jerusalem in the wake of the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. The movie will span the years 1948-1994.

Judging by the trailer (and the fact that it’s directed by Julian Schnabel!), i looks to be a great movie. And Freida Pinto looks absolutely stunning as Miral. Check out the trailer below!

According to Variety, The Weinstein Co. has acquired North American rights to Miral, directed by Julian Schnabel.

The film centers on a real-life orphanage established in Jerusalem by Palestinian woman Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) following the 1948 creation of Israel. Freida Pinto stars as the title character who is sent to the orphanage in 1978, and later teaches at a refugee camp where she falls for an activist.

Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave co-star. Palestinian writer Rula Jebreal adapted the screenplay from her own novel.

Miral is expected to screen at the Venice Film Festival before TWC releases the film later this year in time for an awards push, which comes as no surprise considering its principals’ high-profile pedigree and the film’s politically charged subject matter.

“It is the first film I am involved in that shows the ‘other side’ of the Israel-Palestine conflict,” Harvey Weinstein told Variety. “As a staunch supporter of Israel, I thought this would be a movie I would have a hard time wrapping my head around. However, meeting Rula moved me to open my heart and mind and I hope we can do the same with audiences worldwide.”

Jon Kilik (Babel) produced the picture, which Pathe holds worldwide rights to, having sold the movie in several other international territories.

According to HollywoodNews.com, award winning director and famed artist Julian Schnabel will not be taking his new film – Miral – to the Cannes Film Festival. The festival announced its lineup this morning. Schnabel had previously debuted his Diving Bell and the Butterfly there, and Before Night Falls.

But he says the festival wanted him to screen Miral out of competition but in the main festival. He said thanks, but no. The result is that Miral will debut in Venice, and then go to Toronto back to back next September. In Toronto Schnabel, sources say, may also have a huge exhibition of his art simultaneously.

Too bad it won’t premiere at Cannes, but I’m sure it’ll do very well in venice and Toronto instead. Can’t wait for more information about Miral!