I was standing outside the hotel room of a movie icon, unsure quite what I would find on the find on the other side of the door. It was the final day of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and after a week of frantic coordinating with various schedulers, I’d finally managed to land an interview with Jean-Pierre Léaud. He had just played the lead role in “The Death of Louis Xiv,” and still endured the impact of enacting his death for the cameras.
Léaud became one of international cinema’s most famous faces at 14, when he starred in Francois Truffaut’s seminal French New Wave debut “The 400 Blows.” As the adolescent Antoine Doinel, who spends much of the movie acting out at school and at home while witnessing the dissolution of his parents’ marriage, Léaud quickly became the defining face of angst-riddled youth. The movie’s memorable closing freeze-frame...
Léaud became one of international cinema’s most famous faces at 14, when he starred in Francois Truffaut’s seminal French New Wave debut “The 400 Blows.” As the adolescent Antoine Doinel, who spends much of the movie acting out at school and at home while witnessing the dissolution of his parents’ marriage, Léaud quickly became the defining face of angst-riddled youth. The movie’s memorable closing freeze-frame...
- 3/31/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Editor’s Note: Alex Horwitz had no way of knowing “Hamilton” would become a cultural phenomenon that would change Broadway and launch his friend Lin-Manuel Miranda into super-stardom. Early on, however, the genre filmmaker (“Alice Jacobs is Dead”) and documentary film editor (“Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger”) could tell Miranda was onto something special. Specifically drawn to the way Miranda was bringing history to life through hip-hop in his early tracks, Horwitz picked up a camera and started capturing the creation of the musical, while joining Miranda on his research and exploration of the Founding Fathers.
In anticipation of the “Hamilton’s America” premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1 and its television premiere on PBS’s “Great Performances” on October 21, IndieWire reached out to Horwitz to find out more about his new film, backed by RadicalMedia. What we got was this detailed...
In anticipation of the “Hamilton’s America” premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1 and its television premiere on PBS’s “Great Performances” on October 21, IndieWire reached out to Horwitz to find out more about his new film, backed by RadicalMedia. What we got was this detailed...
- 9/20/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
This kitty needs no introduction: Simone Simon is the purring-sweet immigrant with a dark atavistic secret. It's Val Lewton's debut smash hit. The real hero is director Jacques Tourneur, who conveys a feeling of real life being lived that won over audiences of 1942 and drew them into his web of fantasy. Cat People Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 833 1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 73 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 20, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Elizabeth Russell, Theresa Harris. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Art Direction Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller Film Editor Mark Robson Original Music Roy Webb Written by De Witt Bodeen Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Val Lewton never had to be 'discovered,' actually. Life magazine awarded him his own photo layout and the critics praised him as the maker of a new brand of psychologically based horror films.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Val Lewton never had to be 'discovered,' actually. Life magazine awarded him his own photo layout and the critics praised him as the maker of a new brand of psychologically based horror films.
- 9/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2015?Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2015—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2015 to create a unique double feature.All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2015 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
- 1/4/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Above: Alternative poster for Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, Australia/USA, 2015). Artist: Signalstarr.Movie Poster of the Week was on vacation for the past few weeks and for the first time in three and a half years I took a break from posting a poster a day on Tumblr. Since getting back I have been posting the best new posters that I missed while I was away, one of which—the teaser for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight which was unveiled at Comic-Con last week—has racked up more likes in a single day than almost anything else I’ve posted in the past three months.The standout favorite of the past quarter however—with over 1400 likes and re-blogs to date—was this stunning alternative poster for Mad Max: Fury Road by the British artist known as Signalstarr, a.k.a. Nick Stewart Hoyle. As a rule I...
- 7/24/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Well folks, after a rather long and brutal winter (at least for me here in Buffalo), we are finally heading into the wonderful warmth of summer, but with that blast of sunshine and steamy humidity comes the mid-year drought of major film fests. After the Sheffield Doc/Fest concludes on June 10th and AFI Docs wraps on June 21st, we likely won’t see any major influx in our charts until Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Tiff announce their line-ups in rapid succession. In the meantime, we can look forward to the intriguing onslaught of films making their debut in Sheffield, including Brian Hill’s intriguing examination of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Sean McAllister’s film for which he himself was jailed in the process of making, A Syrian Love Story, the only two films world premiering in the festival’s main competition.
- 6/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It should come as no surprise that Cannes Film Festival will play host to Kent Jones’s doc on the touchstone of filmmaking interview tomes, Hitchcock/Truffaut (see photo above). The film has been floating near the top of this list since it was announced last year as in development, while Jones himself has a history with the festival, having co-written both Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. and Martin Scorsese’s My Voyage To Italy, both of which premiered in Cannes. The film is scheduled to screen as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar alongside the likes of Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, which will play as part of the festival’s tribute to the late starlet, and Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna’s Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (see trailer below). As someone who grew up watching road races with my dad in Watkins Glen,...
- 5/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Now that the busy winter fest schedule of Sundance, Rotterdam and the Berlinale has concluded, we’ve now got our eyes on the likes of True/False and SXSW. While, True/False does not specialize in attention grabbing world premieres, it does provide a late winter haven for cream of the crop non-fiction fare from all the previously mentioned fests and a selection of overlooked genre blending films presented in a down home setting. This year will mark my first trip to the Columbia, Missouri based fest, where I hope to catch a little of everything, from their hush-hush secret screenings, to selections from their Neither/Nor series, this year featuring chimeric Polish cinema of decades past, to a spotlight of Adam Curtis’s incisive oeuvre. But truth be told, it is SXSW, with its slew of high profile world premieres being announced, such as Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs...
- 2/27/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...
- 11/27/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
They often get quite a bit less attention than their fictional brethren, and it doesn’t help that many films fly under the radar while development and filming is underway. To chart this course with a little more precision, I’m launching Ioncinema.com’s latest feature, What’s Up Doc?, our monthly Top 50 Most Anticipated films, a sort of hitlist and/or snapshot of the most alluring, the most promising documentary film projects from the established documentarian guard, the new crop of future voices or the fiction filmmakers who on occasion dip their toes in the form. Curated by me, Jordan M. Smith, you’ll find docu items that are in their beginning stages to being moments away from their film festival berth. Like any such list, we can expect film items to fluctuate in ranking, with the cut-off being publicly items — such recent examples include Laura Poitras’s white hot Edward Snowden project,...
- 10/23/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Edited by Adam Cook
Film festival programmers from around the world are joining in signing a Statement of Support for the Beijing Independent Film Festival:
"As independent film festivals and supporters of independent cinema, we have learned with deep concern that the Chinese government and police authorities have prevented the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival based in Songzhuang, Beijing, from opening last weekend, August 23rd, and detained its organizers Wang Hongwei, Fan Rong, and Li Xianting for several hours. We are also deeply concerned that Biff’s sponsoring organization, the Li Xianting Film Fund, has been raided, and the entirety of its invaluable archives of independent Chinese cinema have reportedly been confiscated.
We call upon the relevant Chinese authorities to permit the Beijing Independent Film Festival to pursue its mission to nurture and exhibit a full range of alternative cinematic voices in China, to allow the festival to operate without interference,...
Film festival programmers from around the world are joining in signing a Statement of Support for the Beijing Independent Film Festival:
"As independent film festivals and supporters of independent cinema, we have learned with deep concern that the Chinese government and police authorities have prevented the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival based in Songzhuang, Beijing, from opening last weekend, August 23rd, and detained its organizers Wang Hongwei, Fan Rong, and Li Xianting for several hours. We are also deeply concerned that Biff’s sponsoring organization, the Li Xianting Film Fund, has been raided, and the entirety of its invaluable archives of independent Chinese cinema have reportedly been confiscated.
We call upon the relevant Chinese authorities to permit the Beijing Independent Film Festival to pursue its mission to nurture and exhibit a full range of alternative cinematic voices in China, to allow the festival to operate without interference,...
- 8/27/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The first review of note for Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring is by Kent Jones for Film Comment, calls it among her best, alongside Lost in Translation and Somewhere: Like Somewhere,...
- 5/5/2013
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
A Planet Fury-approved selection of notable genre DVD releases for the month of January.
Lightning Bug (2004) Image Entertainment Blu-ray and DVD Available Now
Effects guru Robert Hall’s semi-autobiographical film about a small town teen (Reaper's Bret Harrison) who has aspirations to become a special effects artist. An opportunity to manage the town’s local haunted house is thwarted by his alcoholic stepfather and the staunchly religious views of the surrounding population. The solid supporting cast includes That 70’s Show’s Laura Prepon, Hellraiser’s Ashely Lawrence and Kevin Gage. Written and directed by Hall, it’s an affectionate coming-of-age drama that works in spite of an uneven narrative that falls apart in the final half hour. Hopefully this new extended cut will remedy the scripting problems of the original release.
Special Features include:
* Never-before-released extended cut of the film.
* Making-of Featurette
* Audio commentaries with the writer/director and cast.
Lightning Bug (2004) Image Entertainment Blu-ray and DVD Available Now
Effects guru Robert Hall’s semi-autobiographical film about a small town teen (Reaper's Bret Harrison) who has aspirations to become a special effects artist. An opportunity to manage the town’s local haunted house is thwarted by his alcoholic stepfather and the staunchly religious views of the surrounding population. The solid supporting cast includes That 70’s Show’s Laura Prepon, Hellraiser’s Ashely Lawrence and Kevin Gage. Written and directed by Hall, it’s an affectionate coming-of-age drama that works in spite of an uneven narrative that falls apart in the final half hour. Hopefully this new extended cut will remedy the scripting problems of the original release.
Special Features include:
* Never-before-released extended cut of the film.
* Making-of Featurette
* Audio commentaries with the writer/director and cast.
- 1/22/2013
- by Bradley Harding
- Planet Fury
By Lee Pfeiffer
The Cohen Media Group is a relatively new company that, over the last four years, has produced and distributed primarily highly acclaimed international art house films. The company's latest release on DVD and Blu-ray is Farewell, My Queen, director Benoit Jacquot's French-language 2012 period costume drama that centers on the outbreak of the French Revolution, as experienced by Sidonie (Lea Seydoux), a young woman who has the seemingly enviable position of being "The Queen's Reader". Her primary responsibility is to literally read books to Marie Antoinette (that's right, the nobility didn't even have to strain their eyes). Sidonie, a twenty-something country girl, is in awe of the Queen and is slavishly devoted to her needs. As played by Diane Kruger, Marie Antoinette is presented as the undeniably spoiled wife of Louis XVI, but the portrayal humanizes her. Marie Antoinette, like so many famous (or infamous) historical figures, has...
The Cohen Media Group is a relatively new company that, over the last four years, has produced and distributed primarily highly acclaimed international art house films. The company's latest release on DVD and Blu-ray is Farewell, My Queen, director Benoit Jacquot's French-language 2012 period costume drama that centers on the outbreak of the French Revolution, as experienced by Sidonie (Lea Seydoux), a young woman who has the seemingly enviable position of being "The Queen's Reader". Her primary responsibility is to literally read books to Marie Antoinette (that's right, the nobility didn't even have to strain their eyes). Sidonie, a twenty-something country girl, is in awe of the Queen and is slavishly devoted to her needs. As played by Diane Kruger, Marie Antoinette is presented as the undeniably spoiled wife of Louis XVI, but the portrayal humanizes her. Marie Antoinette, like so many famous (or infamous) historical figures, has...
- 1/13/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
By Allen Gardner
Pier Paolo Pasolini’S Trilogy Of Life (Criterion) Pier Paolo Pasolini was Italy’s last Neo-Realist, a product of post-ww II Europe who was fervently Catholic, openly gay, defiantly Marxist, and one of the most original voices of the 20th century’s second half. Before his brutal murder in 1975 (after the premiere of his still-controversial swan song, “Salo”), Pasolini directed a trilogy of films based on masterpieces of medieval literature: Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” and “The Thousand and One Nights (also known as “The Arabian Nights”). The three films celebrate the uninhibited, earthy, raw carnal nature of the original texts, leaving little to the imagination, but also offering Pasolini’s own very unique and pointed views on modern society, consumerism, religious and sexual mores (and hypocrisies), and an unexpurgated celebration of the human body, both male and female. Extraordinary production design by Dante Ferretti and another evocative,...
Pier Paolo Pasolini’S Trilogy Of Life (Criterion) Pier Paolo Pasolini was Italy’s last Neo-Realist, a product of post-ww II Europe who was fervently Catholic, openly gay, defiantly Marxist, and one of the most original voices of the 20th century’s second half. Before his brutal murder in 1975 (after the premiere of his still-controversial swan song, “Salo”), Pasolini directed a trilogy of films based on masterpieces of medieval literature: Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” and “The Thousand and One Nights (also known as “The Arabian Nights”). The three films celebrate the uninhibited, earthy, raw carnal nature of the original texts, leaving little to the imagination, but also offering Pasolini’s own very unique and pointed views on modern society, consumerism, religious and sexual mores (and hypocrisies), and an unexpurgated celebration of the human body, both male and female. Extraordinary production design by Dante Ferretti and another evocative,...
- 11/14/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
News.
You're probably already aware, but there turned out to be some controversy over the awarding of the Golden Lion in Venice last week. Apparently the jury had decided to give it, in addition to the Silver Lion and Best Actor prize, to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, but were told they could not give a single film three awards, resulting in their choice—arrived at through heated debate from the sound of it—to instead give it to Kim Ki-duk's Pieta. Tiff is roughly at the halfway mark and David Hudson has an index of coverage for those eager to catch-up and/or follow along. The full line-up for this year's Vancouver International Film Festival has been unveiled, and it's massive: chock-full of the best films on the festival circuit as well as the impressive offering of East Asian films that characterizes the 2nd biggest fest in North America.
You're probably already aware, but there turned out to be some controversy over the awarding of the Golden Lion in Venice last week. Apparently the jury had decided to give it, in addition to the Silver Lion and Best Actor prize, to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, but were told they could not give a single film three awards, resulting in their choice—arrived at through heated debate from the sound of it—to instead give it to Kim Ki-duk's Pieta. Tiff is roughly at the halfway mark and David Hudson has an index of coverage for those eager to catch-up and/or follow along. The full line-up for this year's Vancouver International Film Festival has been unveiled, and it's massive: chock-full of the best films on the festival circuit as well as the impressive offering of East Asian films that characterizes the 2nd biggest fest in North America.
- 9/12/2012
- MUBI
The first item that needs mentioning is Sight & Sound's followup to last week's tweets and sneak peeks, "2011 in review: The full poll," 101 critics and curators listing their top five films and generally reflecting on the year that was. Editor Nick James introduces the bundle.
The second order of business would be the obligatory mention of David Fincher's commenting on the David Denby vs Scott Rudin brouhaha (briefly: the New Yorker critic reneged on his promise not to run a review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before the embargo would be lifted on December 13; the producer blew his top). Talking to Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald, Fincher naturally comes down on the side of his producer, but also adds: "Embargoes… look, if it were up to me, I wouldn't show movies to anybody before they were released…. But by the same token, when you agree to go...
The second order of business would be the obligatory mention of David Fincher's commenting on the David Denby vs Scott Rudin brouhaha (briefly: the New Yorker critic reneged on his promise not to run a review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before the embargo would be lifted on December 13; the producer blew his top). Talking to Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald, Fincher naturally comes down on the side of his producer, but also adds: "Embargoes… look, if it were up to me, I wouldn't show movies to anybody before they were released…. But by the same token, when you agree to go...
- 12/7/2011
- MUBI
Where Nabokov's ape drew the bars of its own cage, the simian insurrectionists of Rise of the Planet of the Apes prefer to throw them like spears. The progress of the protagonist, a chimp named Caesar whose scientifically-engineered intelligence enhances the delight of discovery and the awareness of pain, is measured in the animal’s green eyes: A teen-misfit melodrama and a jailhouse saga, Rupert Wyatt's film is about the hardening of a juvenile gaze as a worldview widens and darkens. However, despite the vivid peepers—and Andy Serkis’ motion-captured body movements, which at times reach Denis Lavant-worthy levels of physical expressiveness—the digitally composed critter remains too weightless to fill the screen, its streamlined CGI presence lacking the tangible pantomime of the earlier Apes installments, where straight presentations of Pierre Boulle’s science-fiction parables could drift irresistibly into droll tableaux of aging Shakespearean pros trying to orate through layers of rubbery makeup.
- 8/20/2011
- MUBI
A man who works with his hands is a laborer;
a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;
but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
Louis Nizer
In his indispensable film study text, Understanding Movies, Louis Gianetti held forth on what separated craftsmanlike directors from those who rise above the norm:
“…what differentiates a great director from one who is merely competent is not so much a matter of what happens, but how things happen…”
In other words, Gianetti continued, the difference was in how effectively the director used form – visual style, composition, editing, mise en scene, and the rest of the directorial toolbox – to “…embody (a film’s) content.”
But with the rise of big budget blockbusters in the 70s and 80s, there came the ascendancy of a breed of director for whom content mattered less than form.
a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;
but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
Louis Nizer
In his indispensable film study text, Understanding Movies, Louis Gianetti held forth on what separated craftsmanlike directors from those who rise above the norm:
“…what differentiates a great director from one who is merely competent is not so much a matter of what happens, but how things happen…”
In other words, Gianetti continued, the difference was in how effectively the director used form – visual style, composition, editing, mise en scene, and the rest of the directorial toolbox – to “…embody (a film’s) content.”
But with the rise of big budget blockbusters in the 70s and 80s, there came the ascendancy of a breed of director for whom content mattered less than form.
- 5/16/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
"Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death has the title and the feel of a monument," writes J Hoberman in the Voice. "This widescreen, austerely monochromatic, two-hour-plus collective drama — depicting the worst indignity inflicted by foreigners on modern China, as well as the most terrible atrocity in the run-up to World War II — might have been hewed from rock and colored by soot."
Further in, he notes that the film "frequently, if superficially, adopts a Japanese point of view, something that evidently infuriated a sizable chunk of the Chinese audience. (The movie would have been pulled from theaters after one week were it not for the protection of the Communist Party's chief propagandist; although a popular hit, it received no official awards.) On the festival circuit since 2009, the film has been well-received by foreign critics, recognizing a historical epic in the Griffith-Lean-Spielberg tradition."
This reception bugs Michael Joshua Rowin, writing...
Further in, he notes that the film "frequently, if superficially, adopts a Japanese point of view, something that evidently infuriated a sizable chunk of the Chinese audience. (The movie would have been pulled from theaters after one week were it not for the protection of the Communist Party's chief propagandist; although a popular hit, it received no official awards.) On the festival circuit since 2009, the film has been well-received by foreign critics, recognizing a historical epic in the Griffith-Lean-Spielberg tradition."
This reception bugs Michael Joshua Rowin, writing...
- 5/11/2011
- MUBI
With 2010 only a week over, it already feels like best-of and top-ten lists have been pouring in for months, and we’re already tired of them: the ranking, the exclusions (and inclusions), the rules and the qualifiers. Some people got to see films at festivals, others only catch movies on video; and the ability for us, or any publication, to come up with a system to fairly determine who saw what when and what they thought was the best seems an impossible feat. That doesn’t stop most people from doing it, but we liked the fantasy double features we did last year and for our 3rd Writers Poll we thought we'd do it again.
I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.
I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.
- 1/10/2011
- MUBI
The full lineup for this year's Venice film festival has been announced – but there's a no show for the new Terrence Malick
The full programme for this year's Venice film festival has been announced and, as predicted, many film-makers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes will debut on the Lido. Somewhere, a Hollywood-set drama from Sofia Coppola, is amongst the premieres, likewise Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny sequel, Promises Written in Water, apparently a black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness.
Julian Schnabel's Miral, which follows Hind Husseini's efforts to set up an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine, also finds a home. However, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which many had predicted would screen at the festival, is not on the list; nor that for the Toronto film festival, which directly follows Venice.
Other hotly tipped titles include Meek's Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt...
The full programme for this year's Venice film festival has been announced and, as predicted, many film-makers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes will debut on the Lido. Somewhere, a Hollywood-set drama from Sofia Coppola, is amongst the premieres, likewise Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny sequel, Promises Written in Water, apparently a black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness.
Julian Schnabel's Miral, which follows Hind Husseini's efforts to set up an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine, also finds a home. However, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which many had predicted would screen at the festival, is not on the list; nor that for the Toronto film festival, which directly follows Venice.
Other hotly tipped titles include Meek's Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt...
- 7/30/2010
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
And the film I'm most looking forward to seeing (like I'm going to be there) is Vincent Gallo's Promises Written in Water. Someone send me a screener, asap! What else?
Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky.
Somewhere by Sofia Coppola.
13 Assassins by Takashi Miike.
Full list after the break.
In Competition
"Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky, U.S. (Opening Film)
"La Pecora Nera," Ascanio Celestini, Italy
"Somewhere," Sofia Coppola, U.S.
"Happy Few," Antony Cordier, France
"The Solitude of Prime Numbers," Saverio Costanzo, Italy, Germany, France
"Silent Souls," Aleksei Fedorchenko, Russia
"Promises Written in Water," Vincent Gallo, U.S.
"Road To Nowhere," Monte Hellman, U.S.
"Balada Triste de Trompeta," Alex de la Iglesia, Spain, France
"Venus Noir," Abdellatif Kechiche, France
"Post Mortem," Pablo Larrain, Chile, Mexico, Germany
"Barney's Version," Richard J. Lewis, Canada, Italy
"We Believed," Mario Martone, Italy, France
"La Passione," Carlo Mazzacurati, Italy
"13 Assassins," Takashi Miike, Japan, U.
Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky.
Somewhere by Sofia Coppola.
13 Assassins by Takashi Miike.
Full list after the break.
In Competition
"Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky, U.S. (Opening Film)
"La Pecora Nera," Ascanio Celestini, Italy
"Somewhere," Sofia Coppola, U.S.
"Happy Few," Antony Cordier, France
"The Solitude of Prime Numbers," Saverio Costanzo, Italy, Germany, France
"Silent Souls," Aleksei Fedorchenko, Russia
"Promises Written in Water," Vincent Gallo, U.S.
"Road To Nowhere," Monte Hellman, U.S.
"Balada Triste de Trompeta," Alex de la Iglesia, Spain, France
"Venus Noir," Abdellatif Kechiche, France
"Post Mortem," Pablo Larrain, Chile, Mexico, Germany
"Barney's Version," Richard J. Lewis, Canada, Italy
"We Believed," Mario Martone, Italy, France
"La Passione," Carlo Mazzacurati, Italy
"13 Assassins," Takashi Miike, Japan, U.
- 7/29/2010
- QuietEarth.us
The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of... festival season. Two days ago Toronto announced a big chunk of its line-up, and now the Venice Film Festival has unveiled its own. Joining Darren Aronofsky ballerina drama "Black Swan," announced earlier as the opening night film, are Sofia Coppola's Hollywood saga "Somewhere" (trailer); Takashi Miike's samurai tale "13 Assassins" (trailer); "Meek's Cutoff," Kelly Reichardt's new film, once again starring Michelle Williams; Vincent Gallo's long-awaited follow-up to "The Brown Bunny" "Promises Made In Water," reportedly a 16-millimeter black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness; "Road to Nowhere," a thriller from Monte Hellman (!); and "Three," the latest from "Run, Lola, Run"'s Tom Tykwer, about how the two halves of a middle-aged couple fall in love with the same man.
Out of competition, the Affleck brothers will screen Ben's "The Town" and Casey's Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary,...
Out of competition, the Affleck brothers will screen Ben's "The Town" and Casey's Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary,...
- 7/29/2010
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
This morning the Venice Film Festival announced the line-up for their 2010 Festival which will run from September 1-11, and a lot of hot titles and directors are set to be on hand including the already announced festival opener Black Swan from Darren Aronofsky and closer, The Tempest from Julie Taymor. In competition, Aronofsky's feature is joined by titles from Sofia Coppola, Vincent Gallo, Julian Schnabel, Francois Ozon, Abdellatif Kechiche, Takashi Miike and Tom Tykwer. Also, making a midnight Lido appearance will be Robert Rodriguez with his grindhouse thriller Machete. One other notable title is the inclusion of the Casey Affleck-directed Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary I'm Still Here, which will be screening out of competition.
Unfortunately I won't be able to cover this one, but one of these years I would like to find a way to pull a triple play and cover Cannes, Venice and Toronto in the same year...
Unfortunately I won't be able to cover this one, but one of these years I would like to find a way to pull a triple play and cover Cannes, Venice and Toronto in the same year...
- 7/29/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Rome -- Sofia Coppola's comedic drama "Somewhere" and "Road to Nowhere," a romantic thriller from veteran director Monte Hellman, were among the highlights of the main competition lineup for the 67th Venice Film Festival, which was released Thursday.
Other in-competition films include Vincent Gallo's "Promises Written in Water"; "Meek's Cutoff," a western from Kelly Reichardt; and Athina Racehel Tsangari's drama "Attenberg."
Artistic director Marco Mueller said that -- notwithstanding the presence of the 78-year-old Hellman -- the competition lineup was the youngest ever in the storied history of the festival, with the average age among the directors of the 22 in-competition films just 47.
"I think this is evidence of a new and dynamic kind of cinema that is being produced," Mueller told a standing-room-only crowd of reporters and industry players at Rome's Excelsior Hotel Thursday.
All told, the festival will include 79 world premieres, including the entire in-competition lineup for...
Other in-competition films include Vincent Gallo's "Promises Written in Water"; "Meek's Cutoff," a western from Kelly Reichardt; and Athina Racehel Tsangari's drama "Attenberg."
Artistic director Marco Mueller said that -- notwithstanding the presence of the 78-year-old Hellman -- the competition lineup was the youngest ever in the storied history of the festival, with the average age among the directors of the 22 in-competition films just 47.
"I think this is evidence of a new and dynamic kind of cinema that is being produced," Mueller told a standing-room-only crowd of reporters and industry players at Rome's Excelsior Hotel Thursday.
All told, the festival will include 79 world premieres, including the entire in-competition lineup for...
- 7/29/2010
- by By Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button made the #2 slot on my list of top ten films of 2008, but when my review copy arrived I couldn't help but feel a little concerned it may not live up to what I remembered. I have already given the film an A and written two commentaries about it. My stance is there for everyone to read in digital black-and-white, but was it all just a matter of seeing it at the right time? This is hardly a film that fits into any one genre and is a tricky one to fall in love with, which is evident from the mixed feelings audiences came out of the theater with. Fortunately for me, my concern was much ado about nothing as my memories are just as intact as they were after walking out of the theater last December. I absolutely love this film and the Criterion...
- 5/4/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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