Just added a bunch of Chocolat reviews to the movie archive here.

I also translated a sweet and funny german interview about Chocolat that you can find here.

And then I stumbled across something totally amazing: Miramax is auctioning off props from their movie productions for a good cause. There are a few items from "The Shipping News" and also, of course, a few from "Chocolat".

Including the infamous skillet ( ), a few costumes aaaaand....that wonderful pink dress Lasse's wife Lena wore as Josephine.

The Chocolat items are here and the Shipping News ones here.

60 years ago a small boy was born in Stockholm. Little did his parents know back at that time what a gift they had just made to the world. Since then Lasse has grown up to one of the most talented directors around, has made lots of amazing movies and even has a website dedicated to him.

Okay, I'll stop.

Seriously now,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LASSE!!

You are a wonderful inspiring director who makes amazing movies that use to have a special "Lasse feeling" about them. Thanks so much for making the world a bit brighter through them. (Best receipt if you're in a bad mood for many people around here: Watch Chocolat, and you'll be feeling way better afterwards).

I wish you a wonderful day, have fun with your family, friends and whoever else calls or comes by, and celebrate the big 60!! (And let's hope there are at least 3 more "0"s to come! And somewhere in between them at least one Oscar! )

There are also a few more people who send you their birthday wishes over here!

(To the visitors: of course you can still add wishes there, belated birthday greetings are better than no birthday greetings)

I'm sorry this took such a long time. I was very unhappy with the old site structure and couldn't decide if I wanted to keep it or do something new alltogether. Decided for the latter in the end, but it took more time than it should have, so apologies and thanks to everyone who kept visiting!

As you can see, we have a new layout. I finally said Goodbye to tables and long loading times, and coded the whole site through css. It should work fine in all major browsers including Safari for our Mac Users. I also abandoned all php scripts except for the news system because they weren't customizable enough.

There are still some sections unfinished, and a few new ones were added. The most significant is The Movie Vault. I'm trying to focus even more on Lasse's movies, and the vault is supposed to become kind of an archive for everything about Lasse's movies.

It looks still a bit empty at the moment, but I wanted to get the site up and running before Lasse's birthday. The vault will get "filled up" literally within the next two months.

If you want to wish Lasse a Happy Birthday, you can do so over here by just replying to the thread.

So, have fun looking around and check back for updates!

LasseHallstrom.com is currently switching both providers and servers, but I hope to get through that within the next two weeks.

Apologies for any inconveniences during that time.

Also, people who are expecting emails from me and didn't get anything should check their spamfolders or spamfilters, normally I reply to everything I get sent.

If you haven' gotten a response it's either because I didn't receive your email at first, or my answer got lost on the way back to you.

Not only the Casanova DVD will be published in April, An Unfinished Life is also due for release!

According to amazon it will be released on April 11 and can already be preordered here.

Details:

# DVD Features:

* Available Audio Tracks: English (Unknown Format)
* Commentary by: Unknown Format
* The making of An Unfinished Life
* Training Bart the Bear
* Still gallery
* Feature commentary

I guess we will get more info on the "Unknown format" soon.

Also, according to Reuters, AUL is going to be honoured with a Genesis award, a prize that is given out for "positive treatment of animal issues in the news and entertainment media".

The awards will be presented on March 18 at the Beverly Hilton in LA, other winners are "Wallace and Gromit" and "Duma".

Read more here.

According to Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Casanova will be released on DVD on April 25.

Source

Here are the details:

DVD Details:

* 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
* English Dolby Digital 5.1
* Audio Commentary with Director Lasse Hallstrom
* Extended Sequence: "Hidden in Plain Sight"
* Featurettes:
-Creating an Adventure
-Visions of Venice
- Dressing in Style

Looks good, and I'm so excited to hear what Lasse will say in the audio commentary!

A really nice interview from December, about Casanova has just been uploaded here.

Enjoy!!!