My initial disappointment about missing out on the Berlin Film Festival has certainly been helped by the repeated suggestion that almost everything showing there sucks.

But there was one film for which I had placed my selfish travel wants aside and hoped would be great anyway. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee features the first role with any real potential my beloved Winona Ryder had been given in almost a decade (sure, there was A Scanner Darkly, but she was animated and all so it doesnt 100% count, and while The Ten was fun, it certainly wasn’t up to par with my Winonaspectations).

Sundance after Sundance, we’ve watched every single movie she makes crash, burn and fail to get distribution (The Darwin Awards, The Last Word, The Informers), or just seen films shes made fail to get seen by anyone at all (Sex and Death 101, Water Pills), and probably with good reason.

But when I heard of her casting in Pippa, alongside Julianne Moore, Maria Bello and Robin Wright Penn, among others, my heart skipped: “She’s coming back! After basically wasting the entire ‘00s, probably because any decent film wouldn’t risk insuring her crazy ass, someone was taking a chance on her, and she was going to hit it out of the ballpark and return to form!” (more…)

AceShowbiz.com: The 59th Berlin International Film Festival has been kicked off and with it comes a promo trailer for “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee”. Shown at the festival, the preview of the drama movie, which narration is in Italian, displays the main character, Pippa Lee, in her present and past days as being portrayed by Robin Wright Penn and Blake Lively respectively.

A drama film written and directed by Rebecca Miller, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” centers on Pippa Lee’s present and past. When she finds out that her husband falls for a younger woman, 50-year-old Pippa, who is addicted to methamphetamine, indulges herself in an array of erotic adventures while heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown.

Aside from Robin Wright Penn and Blake Lively, the drama film also stars Keanu Reeves, Alan Arkin, Winona Ryder, Monica Bellucci, Julianne Moore and Maria Bello. This movie which is yet to have its release date has been screened at the Berlinale festival 2009 as one of the out of competition films.

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