Lubitsch honor among Locarno innovations

September 03, 2009 The Locarno Film Festival announced Thursday that it would host what it called an "exhaustive" retrospective of pioneering film director Ernst Lubitsch in its 2010 edition, the first official move from new Locarno artistic director Olivier Pere. Pere, who came to Locarno from the Directors' Fortnight sidebar in Cannes and who started his new post only on Sept. 1, said in an interview that he plans to scale down the number of films at Locarno to around 70 (the festival has had twice that many in the past), eliminate at least one sidebar, and focus on furthering Locarno's reputation for discovering new talent. "With this retrospective we pay tribute to one of the greatest filmmakers and uncontested masters of comedy," said Pere, who replaces Frederic Maire, who headed Locarno for four years.

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