LISTEN up, Woody Allen. A talented young actress named Nadja Hupscher has entrusted Cine File with an important message for you. Here goes:
‘Let’s talk! I know that hundreds and thousands of actresses want to be in your movies. But I’m special. Just give me a chance.”
Hupscher, 26, gave us the message one afternoon over coffee at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands. The night before, we had been impressed by her sexy performance in the Dutch casting-couch comedy, ‘Based on the Novel.” She plays one of three women vying for the same movie role.
Hupscher, who lives in Amsterdam, has done film, TV and stage work in Holland. But her big dream is to make a movie in the U.S., especially for Allen. After all, she reasons, he used another Dutch actress, Famke Janssen, in ‘Celebrity.” If Woody were wise, he’d check out Nadja.
n The 28th edition of the Rotterdam festival – one of Europe’s most important cinema gatherings – screened Jan. 27 through Feb. 7. More than 300 features, documentaries, shorts and videos, many of them making their world debut, unspooled on 14 screens. Most shows were sold out.
Unlike some other fests, Rotterdam encourages a laid-back atmosphere.
‘The tradition of Rotterdam,” says its black-clad director, Simon Field, ‘has been supportive of filmmakers. There isn’t the pressure that exists in Berlin or Sundance or Cannes.”
n The closest Rotterdam got to Hollywood glitz was a visit by Bridget Fonda to promote ‘A Simple Plan.” The NYU grad, who splits her time beween New York and L.A., told us she ‘loves The Post.”
n One of the most talked about films was ‘Romance,” by respected French helmer Catherine Breillat. Caroline Ducey stars as an attractive young woman whose boyfriend refuses to have sex with her. So she gets it from anyone else she can.
The movie pushes the envelope about as far as possible, with explicit nudity and sex. Some festival-goers called it a ‘Last Tango in Paris” for the ’90s. Others called it trash.
‘Romance” probably will make its way to New York, but just how many scenes will survive intact is anybody’s guess.
n Another controversial French film in Rotterdam was ‘Sitcom,” Francois Ozon’s follow-up to See the Sea,” which screened too briefly in New York last year.
His new one is a black comedy about a white rat that ruins a well-to-do family. ‘This is my family,” he told viewers, without elaborating.
n New York director Lodge ‘Clean, Shaven” Kerrigan was represented by the excellent ‘Claire Dolan.” Katrin Cartlidge, of (Breaking the Waves” fame, is superb as the title character, an immigrant from Dublin who works as a high-priced call girl to pay off a debt to her pimp (Colm Meaney). Vincent D’Onofrio plays a cabby who befriends Claire.
Kerrigan says he’s having trouble finding a U.S. distributor. With all the garbage stinking up moviehouses, it’s tragic that a worthwhile movie can’t get an outlet.
V.A. Musetto is film editor of The Post. He can be e-mailed at vam@nypost.com(MD-IT)