Jay Alvarez’s “Something’s More Than One Thing,” executive produced by the Russo Brothers, has unveiled its first trailer.
The film will have its world premiere at the 32nd Raindance Film Festival in London, where it is also nominated for the Spirit of Raindance Award. It stars comic Devan Costa, Alex Sgambati (“The Walking Dead”), James Scully (“You”), César-winning actor and musician Soko (“In the Beginning”) and longtime Alvarez collaborator, Will Hand (“I Play With the Phrase Each Other”).
Styled as a contemporary satire, the ensemble cast of over 300 actors aims to portray the multifaceted nature of online life, exploring modern-day dating and hyperconnected existence.
The plot follows Caitlin and her boyfriend Dylan, whose relationship unravels after a disturbing revelation. Seeking advice online, they encounter conflicting guidance — Dylan delves into the manosphere (online communities discussing men’s rights and masculinity) while Caitlin faces online mobs demanding the relationship’s end.
The film will have its world premiere at the 32nd Raindance Film Festival in London, where it is also nominated for the Spirit of Raindance Award. It stars comic Devan Costa, Alex Sgambati (“The Walking Dead”), James Scully (“You”), César-winning actor and musician Soko (“In the Beginning”) and longtime Alvarez collaborator, Will Hand (“I Play With the Phrase Each Other”).
Styled as a contemporary satire, the ensemble cast of over 300 actors aims to portray the multifaceted nature of online life, exploring modern-day dating and hyperconnected existence.
The plot follows Caitlin and her boyfriend Dylan, whose relationship unravels after a disturbing revelation. Seeking advice online, they encounter conflicting guidance — Dylan delves into the manosphere (online communities discussing men’s rights and masculinity) while Caitlin faces online mobs demanding the relationship’s end.
- 5/29/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
It was only a few days ago that the Criterion Collection had a surprise flash sale. The home video company’s entire catalog was slashed down to 50% off list prices. While that sale only lasted for 24 hours, there are a number of titles that are still on sale for half-off at Amazon.
We rounded up the best deals on Criterion Collection releases, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” and much more. In fact, even a few boxed sets are half off, such as Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “The Dekalog” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.
Ahead, check out the best Criterion Blu-ray discs currently on sale for 50% off at Amazon:
‘Do the Right Thing...
It was only a few days ago that the Criterion Collection had a surprise flash sale. The home video company’s entire catalog was slashed down to 50% off list prices. While that sale only lasted for 24 hours, there are a number of titles that are still on sale for half-off at Amazon.
We rounded up the best deals on Criterion Collection releases, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” and much more. In fact, even a few boxed sets are half off, such as Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “The Dekalog” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.
Ahead, check out the best Criterion Blu-ray discs currently on sale for 50% off at Amazon:
‘Do the Right Thing...
- 10/20/2023
- by Anna Tingley and Rudie Obias
- Variety Film + TV
Summer is long gone and it’s time to look beyond the blockbuster. Our latest study of recent books about or related to the world of filmmaking is full of artistic titans––Sofia Coppola, Whit Stillman, Clint Eastwood, Christian Petzold, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Wes Anderson. This column also boasts a lengthy rundown of noteworthy novels, many of which will surely be brought to large and small screens in years to come.
Archive by Sofia Coppola (MacK)
In recent years this column has covered several books focused on the iconic, inimitable Sofia Coppola, including a hardcover career overview and interview collection. Archive is constructed from the personal collection of the writer-director of The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette herself. And as one would expect from a filmmaker known for her sense of style, fashion, and design, the result is positively gorgeous. It is packed with photos, ephemera, collages, and text––nearly 500 pages’ worth.
Archive by Sofia Coppola (MacK)
In recent years this column has covered several books focused on the iconic, inimitable Sofia Coppola, including a hardcover career overview and interview collection. Archive is constructed from the personal collection of the writer-director of The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette herself. And as one would expect from a filmmaker known for her sense of style, fashion, and design, the result is positively gorgeous. It is packed with photos, ephemera, collages, and text––nearly 500 pages’ worth.
- 10/18/2023
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
Jean-Michel Basquiat in Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat
In the first instalment with author, critic and artist Lucy Sante we touch on transitioning and two of the documentaries she has been interviewed for - Andrew Rossi’s The Andy Warhol Diaries and Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat. William Burroughs and crime novels, Whit Stillman and Steiff animals, writing lyrics for The Del-Byzanteens led us to music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman.
Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman: “99 Records was the most perfect single-model representation of the zeitgeist in my youth.”
From there we go back in time to Ed producing and mastering Bush Tetras’ iconic Two Many Creeps (99-02), Lucy’s memories of 99 and her friendships with Pat Place and Cynthia Sley (Bush Tetras), Richard McGuire, and the late inventive photographer...
In the first instalment with author, critic and artist Lucy Sante we touch on transitioning and two of the documentaries she has been interviewed for - Andrew Rossi’s The Andy Warhol Diaries and Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat. William Burroughs and crime novels, Whit Stillman and Steiff animals, writing lyrics for The Del-Byzanteens led us to music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman.
Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman: “99 Records was the most perfect single-model representation of the zeitgeist in my youth.”
From there we go back in time to Ed producing and mastering Bush Tetras’ iconic Two Many Creeps (99-02), Lucy’s memories of 99 and her friendships with Pat Place and Cynthia Sley (Bush Tetras), Richard McGuire, and the late inventive photographer...
- 9/15/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In 1989, with a budget of a quarter-million dollars, Whit Stillman couldn’t afford to make a true period piece, which is why Metropolitan is vaguely set “not so long ago.” This phrase, tinged with the melancholy that imbues the film, also serves as the title for a modest new companion to Stillman’s career, Whit Stillman: Not So Long Ago, which features a long interview, critical essays by Serge Bozon, Charlotte Garson, Félix Rehm, and Beatrice Loayza, and a dossier of materials from the production of Metropolitan put together by Haden Guest.
Also included in the book are some of Stillman’s writings from various magazines (mostly book reviews), but anyone hoping for a fount of the filmmaker’s prose waiting to be discovered will be disappointed, as these brief pieces are mostly disposable. The real value of Not So Long Ago is found in the lengthy conversation between Stillman and the book’s editor,...
Also included in the book are some of Stillman’s writings from various magazines (mostly book reviews), but anyone hoping for a fount of the filmmaker’s prose waiting to be discovered will be disappointed, as these brief pieces are mostly disposable. The real value of Not So Long Ago is found in the lengthy conversation between Stillman and the book’s editor,...
- 9/7/2023
- by Seth Katz
- Slant Magazine
Lila Aviles received best director in the international competition.
Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and Juraj Lerotic’s Safe Place lead the winners of the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which handed out 1m Ils in prizes this evening (July 20).
Ama Gloria, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, won the best international film award. The film depicts the last summer between a six-year-old girl and her nanny Gloria, before the latter returns to Cape Verde to care for her own children.
Scroll down for the full list of feature winners
A jury led by Claire Denis and consisting of Whit Stillman,...
Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and Juraj Lerotic’s Safe Place lead the winners of the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which handed out 1m Ils in prizes this evening (July 20).
Ama Gloria, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, won the best international film award. The film depicts the last summer between a six-year-old girl and her nanny Gloria, before the latter returns to Cape Verde to care for her own children.
Scroll down for the full list of feature winners
A jury led by Claire Denis and consisting of Whit Stillman,...
- 7/20/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria has won the Best International Film Prize at the 40th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival, running from July 13 to July 26.
The feature, which world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Critics’ Week in May, revolves around a motherless six-year-old girl who travels to Cape Verde to reunite with her longtime nanny.
The jury presided over by Claire Denis, and also figuring Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Joana Vicente, and Maria Schrader praised the film’s “extraordinary poignancy, beauty and insight”.
Ama Gloria is produced by Bénédicte Couvreur, the long-time producer of Céline Sciamma and her films Petite Maman and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.
Other winners in the International Competition include Best Director for Mexico’s Lila Avilés for Berlinale-selected family drama Totem and a Special Mention for the ensemble cast of Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, which debuted in Un Certain Regard this year.
The feature, which world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Critics’ Week in May, revolves around a motherless six-year-old girl who travels to Cape Verde to reunite with her longtime nanny.
The jury presided over by Claire Denis, and also figuring Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Joana Vicente, and Maria Schrader praised the film’s “extraordinary poignancy, beauty and insight”.
Ama Gloria is produced by Bénédicte Couvreur, the long-time producer of Céline Sciamma and her films Petite Maman and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.
Other winners in the International Competition include Best Director for Mexico’s Lila Avilés for Berlinale-selected family drama Totem and a Special Mention for the ensemble cast of Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, which debuted in Un Certain Regard this year.
- 7/20/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Last Days of Disco. Barely a few minutes into Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco (1998), a young Manhattanite refers to the city’s bustling nightclub scene as a full-blown movement—partying is not a lifestyle nor a hobby, but a kind of mission. His name is Josh (Matt Keeslar), a recent graduate who still cringes at the “social wasteland” of his college years, and evidently thought clubs would fix that overnight. “What I found so encouraging,” he tells a pal, “was the idea that when the time came to have a social life, there’d be all these places where people could go to.” Except the right places are impossible to get into. Ironically, the disco enthusiast has never actually stepped foot inside a disco, and as he sneaks his way into one of New York’s most iconic, he marvels at the neon-lit world as if...
- 7/10/2023
- MUBI
Jurors include Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Maria Schrader, Joana Vicente.
French filmmaker Claire Denis will lead the international competition jury for the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which runs from July 13-23.
Denis will be joined by directors Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller and Maria Schrader on the jury, plus Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente.
Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo will preside over the Israeli competition jury. Directors make up the majority of the jurors across the competitive sections, including Jasmila Zbanic, Ali Abbasi, Sebastian Meise, Julian Rosefeldt, Joseph Cedar, Sebastien Lifshitz, Barbara Albert, Alexandru Belc and Manuela Martelli, plus Mathilde Henrot from Locarno Film Festival.
French filmmaker Claire Denis will lead the international competition jury for the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which runs from July 13-23.
Denis will be joined by directors Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller and Maria Schrader on the jury, plus Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente.
Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo will preside over the Israeli competition jury. Directors make up the majority of the jurors across the competitive sections, including Jasmila Zbanic, Ali Abbasi, Sebastian Meise, Julian Rosefeldt, Joseph Cedar, Sebastien Lifshitz, Barbara Albert, Alexandru Belc and Manuela Martelli, plus Mathilde Henrot from Locarno Film Festival.
- 7/7/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning director and playwright of “The Father” and “The Son,” received the Medal of Honor, France’s highest decoration, at an intimate ceremony in Paris on Wednesday.
The event, hosted in the gardens of the French authors and composers guild (Sacd), gathered a flurry of talent and luminaries from the worlds of film, TV, theater and literature — reflecting the breadth of Zeller’s body of work. Zeller was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor by France President Emmanuel Macron.
Guests included Isabelle Huppert, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Frot and Elodie Navarre who have starred in Zeller’s plays; Christopher Hampton, with whom he shares a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “The Father;” “Simone” actor Elsa Zylberstein; Mediawan boss Pierre-Antoine Capton, with whom he launched the L.A.-based company Blue Morning Pictures; Victoria Bedos (“La famille Belier”); Orange Studio’s Kristina Zimmermann and Sebastien Cauchon, who distributed...
The event, hosted in the gardens of the French authors and composers guild (Sacd), gathered a flurry of talent and luminaries from the worlds of film, TV, theater and literature — reflecting the breadth of Zeller’s body of work. Zeller was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor by France President Emmanuel Macron.
Guests included Isabelle Huppert, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Frot and Elodie Navarre who have starred in Zeller’s plays; Christopher Hampton, with whom he shares a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “The Father;” “Simone” actor Elsa Zylberstein; Mediawan boss Pierre-Antoine Capton, with whom he launched the L.A.-based company Blue Morning Pictures; Victoria Bedos (“La famille Belier”); Orange Studio’s Kristina Zimmermann and Sebastien Cauchon, who distributed...
- 7/6/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Greenbird Flies To New Owner
Scotland’s Stv Studios has acquired the 15 companies operated by “Lego Masters” company Greenbird Media for £21.4 million ($27.3 million). Israel’s Keshet International acquired 60% of Greenbird five years ago. Stv Studios has now acquired 100% of Greenbird, including Keshet’s stake.
Greenbird founders, Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin, will join the Stv Studios board in the roles of chief commercial officer and finance and integration director respectively, working alongside COO, Paul Sheehan, and under the leadership of MD, David Mortimer.
The deal boosts the number of labels within Stv Studios from nine to 24. As a result of the acquisition, Stv Studios now has expanded bases in Glasgow and London, as well as offices in Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton and Manchester.
Hit shows made by the producers in Greenbird’s cluster include: “Lego Masters” (Tuesday’s Child for Channel 4/Fox) and “The Hit List” (Tuesday’s Child for BBC One...
Scotland’s Stv Studios has acquired the 15 companies operated by “Lego Masters” company Greenbird Media for £21.4 million ($27.3 million). Israel’s Keshet International acquired 60% of Greenbird five years ago. Stv Studios has now acquired 100% of Greenbird, including Keshet’s stake.
Greenbird founders, Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin, will join the Stv Studios board in the roles of chief commercial officer and finance and integration director respectively, working alongside COO, Paul Sheehan, and under the leadership of MD, David Mortimer.
The deal boosts the number of labels within Stv Studios from nine to 24. As a result of the acquisition, Stv Studios now has expanded bases in Glasgow and London, as well as offices in Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton and Manchester.
Hit shows made by the producers in Greenbird’s cluster include: “Lego Masters” (Tuesday’s Child for Channel 4/Fox) and “The Hit List” (Tuesday’s Child for BBC One...
- 7/6/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran and Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
German director Angela Schanelec to head international competition jury.
The Marseille International Film Festival (FIDMarseille) has selected 45 films for its competition sections, of which 34 are world premieres.
World premieres in the international competition include An Evening Song (For Three Voices) by US director Graham Swon, who previously directed 2018 feature The World Is Full Of Secrets.
Germany’s Khaled Abdulwahed also world premieres Background, having formerly co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea.
FIDMarseille, which takes place July 4-9, bills itself as a pioneering festival, championing new styles and ways of production, and puts its First Film Competition and films by young filmmakers...
The Marseille International Film Festival (FIDMarseille) has selected 45 films for its competition sections, of which 34 are world premieres.
World premieres in the international competition include An Evening Song (For Three Voices) by US director Graham Swon, who previously directed 2018 feature The World Is Full Of Secrets.
Germany’s Khaled Abdulwahed also world premieres Background, having formerly co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea.
FIDMarseille, which takes place July 4-9, bills itself as a pioneering festival, championing new styles and ways of production, and puts its First Film Competition and films by young filmmakers...
- 6/6/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.Extra! Extra!A new Notebook publication has been released into the world! Our limited-edition, print-only Notebook Cannes Special is exclusively available at the Cannes Film Festival. It includes interviews with Souleymane Cissé and Alice Rohrwacher, an insider’s guide to the festival, a crossword, a comic, and much more. The publication is pictured above, but the bright red Pantone color must be seen on the page to be truly appreciated! (As an online preview: Yasmina Price's interview with Souleymane Cissé is available online.)NEWSIn production news, writer Durga Chew-Bose will make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, starring Chloë Sevigny and Claes Bang (The Square). Filming began last week in the south of France.Noémie Merlant (of...
- 5/17/2023
- MUBI
Miss Whit Stillman and his charming, highly literate cinema? Well, not to worry: the filmmaker has his first project since 2016’s “Love & Friendship” lined up. And it’s Stillman’s first foray into TV, too.
Read More: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2023
Stillman will team up with Infinity Hill, Lauranne Bourrachot, and Global Screen for “The Splendid Affinities,” a European-set romantic comedy adventure series.
Continue reading ‘The Splendid Affinities’: Whit Stillman’s Next Project Will Be A Rom-Com Adventure TV Series Set In London, Paris & Madrid at The Playlist.
Read More: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2023
Stillman will team up with Infinity Hill, Lauranne Bourrachot, and Global Screen for “The Splendid Affinities,” a European-set romantic comedy adventure series.
Continue reading ‘The Splendid Affinities’: Whit Stillman’s Next Project Will Be A Rom-Com Adventure TV Series Set In London, Paris & Madrid at The Playlist.
- 2/16/2023
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Oscar-nominated director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan) is turning his hand to big budget rom-com adventure TV with The Splendid Affinities, a series set across Paris, Madrid and London.
Global Screen is co-producing and will feature The Splendid Affinities on its Berlinale slate and Stillman has teamed with Argentina 1985 producer Infinity Hill and Lauranne Bourrachot (A Prophet) on the project, which is one of Stillman’s first major TV offerings.
The show is set 30 years after the end of the Soviet era, where the fictional Baltic republic of Vronyia is under threat along with the life of its beloved Prince Michael, elder statesman of the country’s return to democracy. Violence extends to London, Paris and Madrid and the main characters have to save the nations in the most stylish way possible, with dreams of finding love while doing so.
Stillman said the once popular rom-com adventure genre has “become rarer.
Global Screen is co-producing and will feature The Splendid Affinities on its Berlinale slate and Stillman has teamed with Argentina 1985 producer Infinity Hill and Lauranne Bourrachot (A Prophet) on the project, which is one of Stillman’s first major TV offerings.
The show is set 30 years after the end of the Soviet era, where the fictional Baltic republic of Vronyia is under threat along with the life of its beloved Prince Michael, elder statesman of the country’s return to democracy. Violence extends to London, Paris and Madrid and the main characters have to save the nations in the most stylish way possible, with dreams of finding love while doing so.
Stillman said the once popular rom-com adventure genre has “become rarer.
- 2/16/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Widely translated since its initial publication 16 years ago, Colombian novelist Hector Abad Faciolince’s “Oblivion: A Memoir” was an acclaimed reminiscence of his father Hector Abad Gomez. That crusading academic’s public criticism of institutionalized inequities led to his 1987 murder by paramilitary assassins. Retitled “Memories of My Father” for a belated U.S. release, veteran Spanish director Fernando Trueba’s screen version plays to his own familiar strengths, creating what’s primarily a nostalgic flashback to the author’s boisterous family life in 1970s Medellin.
The sharp political divisions and dangerous climate for dissent that ultimately claimed Gomez’s life become a somewhat vague backdrop in this warm-and-fuzzy approach. It does not make for the most penetrating history lesson. Still, those seeking a pleasantly expansive, somewhat old-school dose of laughter and tears — one not so distant from the director’s Oscar-winning “Belle Epoque” three decades ago — will enjoy this handsomely produced tale.
The sharp political divisions and dangerous climate for dissent that ultimately claimed Gomez’s life become a somewhat vague backdrop in this warm-and-fuzzy approach. It does not make for the most penetrating history lesson. Still, those seeking a pleasantly expansive, somewhat old-school dose of laughter and tears — one not so distant from the director’s Oscar-winning “Belle Epoque” three decades ago — will enjoy this handsomely produced tale.
- 11/18/2022
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Fernando Trueba, director of the Oscar-winning Belle Époque and, more recently, The Queen of Spain, The Artist and the Model, and Chico & Rita, is back this year with the U.S. release of Memories of My Father. Set for a release on November 16—alongside the Quad Cinema’s retrospective “The Ages of Trueba: From Opera Prima to Memories of My Father,” taking place Nov. 14-17—we’re pleased to exclusively debut a new poster and clip from the acclaimed drama.
Based on Héctor Abad Faciolince’s book Oblivion. A Memoir, the film dramatizes the true story of Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara), a renowned Colombian doctor and human-rights activist in Medellín during the violent 1970s. Driven by sadness and rage after cancer takes the life of one of his daughters, he devotes himself to social and political causes without regard to his personal safety.
Also starring Whit Stillman, Patricia Tamayo,...
Based on Héctor Abad Faciolince’s book Oblivion. A Memoir, the film dramatizes the true story of Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara), a renowned Colombian doctor and human-rights activist in Medellín during the violent 1970s. Driven by sadness and rage after cancer takes the life of one of his daughters, he devotes himself to social and political causes without regard to his personal safety.
Also starring Whit Stillman, Patricia Tamayo,...
- 11/10/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Poland’s American Film Festival readies for its — lucky — 13th edition, unspooling Nov. 8-13 in Wrocław.
The fest, which will open with “Bones and All” and close with Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” will once again combine classics with contemporary titles, for instance pairing Nancy Buirski’s doc “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winner, or introducing retrospectives dedicated to Robert Altman and Nina Menkes.
Menkes — behind “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” — will also get Aff’s Indie Star Award. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz, David Gordon Green, Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, Rosanna Arquette and John Waters, who came to Poland last year.
“It was amazing,” Waters tells Variety, and he was “pleasantly surprised and flattered” by the local audience’s knowledge of his work.
“They really knew who I was! My favorite thing happened during a Q&a, when this man, who looked like an old Communist,...
The fest, which will open with “Bones and All” and close with Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” will once again combine classics with contemporary titles, for instance pairing Nancy Buirski’s doc “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winner, or introducing retrospectives dedicated to Robert Altman and Nina Menkes.
Menkes — behind “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” — will also get Aff’s Indie Star Award. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz, David Gordon Green, Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, Rosanna Arquette and John Waters, who came to Poland last year.
“It was amazing,” Waters tells Variety, and he was “pleasantly surprised and flattered” by the local audience’s knowledge of his work.
“They really knew who I was! My favorite thing happened during a Q&a, when this man, who looked like an old Communist,...
- 11/3/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
When Chloë Sevigny found herself walking the Oscars red carpet nominated for her work in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” it was surprising, to say the least. Her brand of indie film anarchy, which she shared with her sometime boyfriend Harmony Korine, wasn’t really Oscar material. “I remember like the year before Harmony and I watching and being like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we could like nuke the Oscars and like just wipe away all the status quo?,'” she told IndieWire during a recent interview.
Sevigny’s 1990s in film started with her breakout role in Larry Clark’s ever-controversial 1995 “Kids” and ended with her at the Academy Awards, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, playing the girlfriend of Brandon Teena. It was a journey from the sensational fringes of the avant-garde to the biggest platform imaginable. “I told my publicist that the minute I’m in People magazine,...
Sevigny’s 1990s in film started with her breakout role in Larry Clark’s ever-controversial 1995 “Kids” and ended with her at the Academy Awards, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, playing the girlfriend of Brandon Teena. It was a journey from the sensational fringes of the avant-garde to the biggest platform imaginable. “I told my publicist that the minute I’m in People magazine,...
- 8/19/2022
- by Esther Zuckerman
- Indiewire
“Mr. Malcolm’s List” has a scrumptious light charm. It’s a Regency romance set in London in 1818, where someone in the film is being fooled at every moment. The deceptions and symmetries are standard, but this is the kind of movie that rises or falls on whether the actors can carry the duplicity — and the innocence — aloft. And the actors here are marvelous: tart, stylish, emotionally vibrant, never more knowing than when they’re being duped.
The film, directed with an alluring blend of badinage and upper-crust sensuality by Emma Holly Jones, is based on a novel by Suzanne Allain (who wrote the screenplay), which was published in 2020 and designed to be a playful riff on Jane Austen. Yet it’s funny how big-screen adaptations in the “Masterpiece Theatre” genre can work. “Mr. Malcolm’s List” is Jane Austen Lite, but if you watch, say, the 2005 film version of “Pride and Prejudice,...
The film, directed with an alluring blend of badinage and upper-crust sensuality by Emma Holly Jones, is based on a novel by Suzanne Allain (who wrote the screenplay), which was published in 2020 and designed to be a playful riff on Jane Austen. Yet it’s funny how big-screen adaptations in the “Masterpiece Theatre” genre can work. “Mr. Malcolm’s List” is Jane Austen Lite, but if you watch, say, the 2005 film version of “Pride and Prejudice,...
- 7/2/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
In a British cinema scene increasingly dominated by multiplexes, Islington’s Screen on the Green remains something of a landmark. It may no longer be the independent it once was — having been bought 14 years ago by the boutique Everyman chain — but the North London stalwart still stands out, its quirky half-moon facade, red neon signage and pun-heavy marquee beckoning audiences into its single, intimate auditorium.
The programming these days mixes artsy discernment with commercial necessity: this week’s bill, for example, balances “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,” with an offbeat short film screening and album launch on the weekend. That balance of inclusivity and eccentricity has kept it a go-to venue for London film lovers, and is very much the legacy of its former owner, British exhibition and distribution legend Romaine Hart, who passed away last December at the age of 88.
In...
The programming these days mixes artsy discernment with commercial necessity: this week’s bill, for example, balances “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,” with an offbeat short film screening and album launch on the weekend. That balance of inclusivity and eccentricity has kept it a go-to venue for London film lovers, and is very much the legacy of its former owner, British exhibition and distribution legend Romaine Hart, who passed away last December at the age of 88.
In...
- 5/22/2022
- by Guy Lodge and Mike Kaplan
- Variety Film + TV
The latest in our series of writers highlighting lesser-seen gems is a recommendation of Whit Stillman’s acerbic Jane Austen adaptation
Though the novels of Jane Austen positively drip with witticisms, catty descriptive asides and zingy ironies, their film versions all too often tend to soft-sell the comedy. Emma Thompson’s elegant adaptation of Sense and Sensibility was wry and knowing, though only the most hopeful of high-school English teachers would argue for it as genuinely side-splitting; Joe Wright’s take on Pride and Prejudice played up swooning romance over barbed interplay. Both the Paltrow- and Taylor-Joy-starring iterations of Emma are light, pastel-hued baubles, but more feathery than they are genuinely funny; the laughs only came with a rewrite as drastic as Amy Heckerling’s Clueless.
Love & Friendship, then, is a delicious rarity: an Austen interpretation taken on by an established, distinctive comic film-maker, bent to his cockeyed sensibility even as it honours the zesty,...
Though the novels of Jane Austen positively drip with witticisms, catty descriptive asides and zingy ironies, their film versions all too often tend to soft-sell the comedy. Emma Thompson’s elegant adaptation of Sense and Sensibility was wry and knowing, though only the most hopeful of high-school English teachers would argue for it as genuinely side-splitting; Joe Wright’s take on Pride and Prejudice played up swooning romance over barbed interplay. Both the Paltrow- and Taylor-Joy-starring iterations of Emma are light, pastel-hued baubles, but more feathery than they are genuinely funny; the laughs only came with a rewrite as drastic as Amy Heckerling’s Clueless.
Love & Friendship, then, is a delicious rarity: an Austen interpretation taken on by an established, distinctive comic film-maker, bent to his cockeyed sensibility even as it honours the zesty,...
- 5/10/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Metropolitan"
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max, Criterion Channel
The Pitch: Whit Stillman has built a career on exploring the humor and hypocrisies of the privileged class. Through just five feature films over the last 32 years, he has crafted a collection of prickly egoists enclosed in a social bubble who are just counting down the days before it is popped. His directorial debut, 1990's "Metropolitan," takes aim at the old money, preppy young...
The post The Daily Stream: Metropolitan Takes Aim At The Bourgeoisie And Its Critics appeared first on /Film.
The Movie: "Metropolitan"
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max, Criterion Channel
The Pitch: Whit Stillman has built a career on exploring the humor and hypocrisies of the privileged class. Through just five feature films over the last 32 years, he has crafted a collection of prickly egoists enclosed in a social bubble who are just counting down the days before it is popped. His directorial debut, 1990's "Metropolitan," takes aim at the old money, preppy young...
The post The Daily Stream: Metropolitan Takes Aim At The Bourgeoisie And Its Critics appeared first on /Film.
- 4/26/2022
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
Tributes are pouring in after director and standard-bearer for classic Hollywood moviemaking Peter Bogdanovich died today at 82.
Francis Ford Coppola gave the following statement to Deadline:
Oh dear, a shock. I am devastated. He was a wonderful and great artist. I’ll never forgot attending a premiere for The Last Picture Show. I remember at its end, the audience leaped up all around me bursting into applause lasting easily 15 minutes. I’ll never forget although I felt I had never myself experienced a reaction like that, that Peter and his film deserved it. May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever.
Barbra Streisand starred the director’s 1972 comedy What’s Up Doc?. “Peter always made me laugh!” she wrote today in remembrance. “He’ll keep making them laugh up there too. May he rest in peace.”
Friend and fellow director Guillermo del Toro called...
Francis Ford Coppola gave the following statement to Deadline:
Oh dear, a shock. I am devastated. He was a wonderful and great artist. I’ll never forgot attending a premiere for The Last Picture Show. I remember at its end, the audience leaped up all around me bursting into applause lasting easily 15 minutes. I’ll never forget although I felt I had never myself experienced a reaction like that, that Peter and his film deserved it. May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever.
Barbra Streisand starred the director’s 1972 comedy What’s Up Doc?. “Peter always made me laugh!” she wrote today in remembrance. “He’ll keep making them laugh up there too. May he rest in peace.”
Friend and fellow director Guillermo del Toro called...
- 1/6/2022
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Metrograph
Tsai Ming-liang’s masterpiece Goodbye, Dragon Inn has been restored and begins a run, while also streaming on their site. “Holidays at Metrograph” has a delectable selection: Eyes Wide Shut, Carol, Phantom Thread, Elle, and Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan.
Film Forum
Newly restored, Powell & Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going! is now playing, while The Harvey Girls and a 16mm print of Lady Windermere’s Fan screen this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
A prints of Speed Racer screens on Sunday.
IFC Center
Peas in a pod? A Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka are available for a double feature,...
Metrograph
Tsai Ming-liang’s masterpiece Goodbye, Dragon Inn has been restored and begins a run, while also streaming on their site. “Holidays at Metrograph” has a delectable selection: Eyes Wide Shut, Carol, Phantom Thread, Elle, and Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan.
Film Forum
Newly restored, Powell & Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going! is now playing, while The Harvey Girls and a 16mm print of Lady Windermere’s Fan screen this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
A prints of Speed Racer screens on Sunday.
IFC Center
Peas in a pod? A Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka are available for a double feature,...
- 12/31/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
- 12/20/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Roadside Attractions, the Oscar winning distributor of such movies as Judy and Manchester by the Sea, saw a shake-up today with two of its longtime executives, Marketing Boss Dennis O’Connor and SVP of Publicity, David Pollick departing the company, in addition to other cuts in their departments.
Also departing is Head of Field Publicity Ronit Vanderlinden and David Hawkins in Distribution, we hear.
Roadside Attractions Co-Presidents and Co-Founders Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff tell Deadline, “As we emerge from Covid and assemble a new slate of films for the changing theatrical marketplace, we have decided to restructure Roadside’s marketing and distribution organization for the near-term future.”
Lionsgate continues to maintain a 40% stake in Roadside Attractions, and the distributor remains one committed to theatrical with their releases seeing subsequent PVOD, DVD and streaming windows.
“A number of veteran team members at Roadside will be taking on additional responsibilities:...
Also departing is Head of Field Publicity Ronit Vanderlinden and David Hawkins in Distribution, we hear.
Roadside Attractions Co-Presidents and Co-Founders Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff tell Deadline, “As we emerge from Covid and assemble a new slate of films for the changing theatrical marketplace, we have decided to restructure Roadside’s marketing and distribution organization for the near-term future.”
Lionsgate continues to maintain a 40% stake in Roadside Attractions, and the distributor remains one committed to theatrical with their releases seeing subsequent PVOD, DVD and streaming windows.
“A number of veteran team members at Roadside will be taking on additional responsibilities:...
- 11/5/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
[This post originally appeared as part of Recommendation Machine, IndieWire’s daily TV picks feature.]
Where to Watch ‘The Pursuit of Love’: Amazon Prime Video
It should be impossible to condense a single life (much less a pair of them) into three hours, but Emily Mortimer gets about as close as you can get in “The Pursuit of Love.” The two in question: a couple of cousins, Linda (Lily James) and Fanny (Emily Beecham), who journey from growing up together on the comfortable estate of Linda’s family to diverging lives that test the strength of their deep bond.
Linda soon finds herself caught in a middle ground between yearning for a marriage of swoon-worthy love and being drawn in by the various libertines who flit through her social circle. Fanny, narrating this story in retrospect, is spooked in part by the reputation of her mother, who left her behind to chase an endless string of flings that burn bright and short.
Where to Watch ‘The Pursuit of Love’: Amazon Prime Video
It should be impossible to condense a single life (much less a pair of them) into three hours, but Emily Mortimer gets about as close as you can get in “The Pursuit of Love.” The two in question: a couple of cousins, Linda (Lily James) and Fanny (Emily Beecham), who journey from growing up together on the comfortable estate of Linda’s family to diverging lives that test the strength of their deep bond.
Linda soon finds herself caught in a middle ground between yearning for a marriage of swoon-worthy love and being drawn in by the various libertines who flit through her social circle. Fanny, narrating this story in retrospect, is spooked in part by the reputation of her mother, who left her behind to chase an endless string of flings that burn bright and short.
- 10/13/2021
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the richest medieval texts, a delightful story one could spend hours discussing with no possible end to the interpretations available in its verse. To watch David Lowery’s adaptation The Green Knight, with or without having read the Gawain poet’s brilliant work, is to witness a mess of scenes that infer depth but hold none.
To put the story simply: both tales cover the aftermath of Sir Gawain accepting a challenge from the Green Knight, who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will do the same in exchange in a year and a day. Upon beheading the Green Knight (who promptly picks up his head and moves on), Gawain must take a journey of growth through a series of challenges and offbeat experiences.
From the get-go, Lowery seems determined to set himself apart from this source material.
To put the story simply: both tales cover the aftermath of Sir Gawain accepting a challenge from the Green Knight, who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will do the same in exchange in a year and a day. Upon beheading the Green Knight (who promptly picks up his head and moves on), Gawain must take a journey of growth through a series of challenges and offbeat experiences.
From the get-go, Lowery seems determined to set himself apart from this source material.
- 7/30/2021
- by Juan Barquin
- The Film Stage
While Netflix is far from being a haven for admirers of classic cinema, they thankfully are backing strong repertory programming in New York City. After acquiring The Paris Theater, located on 58th Street in Manhattan, and briefly reopening with some runs of Netflix features and other specialty programming, they are now officially opening their doors again on August 6 with a more substantial slate of classic cinema.
Featuring two programs, one curated by Radha Blank and another by the theater’s programmer David Schwartz, the reopening lineup features work by John Cassavetes, Kathleen Collins, Luis Buñuel, Mira Nair, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ingmar Bergman, Terence Davies, and much more––with many on film prints.
One can also enter to win a pass for Schwartz’s series “The Paris is For Lovers,” with a newly-unveiled scavenger hunt tied to Ira Deutchman’s new documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which opens on August 13 and is part of the lineup.
Featuring two programs, one curated by Radha Blank and another by the theater’s programmer David Schwartz, the reopening lineup features work by John Cassavetes, Kathleen Collins, Luis Buñuel, Mira Nair, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ingmar Bergman, Terence Davies, and much more––with many on film prints.
One can also enter to win a pass for Schwartz’s series “The Paris is For Lovers,” with a newly-unveiled scavenger hunt tied to Ira Deutchman’s new documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which opens on August 13 and is part of the lineup.
- 7/28/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Paris Theater, an NYC cinematic landmark rescued by Netflix in 2019, will officially reopen August 6 with the streamer’s The Forty-Year-Old Version by Radha Blank and a week of repertory films programmed by the director.
The only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan and the borough’s largest, with 545 seats, has hosted limited theatrical engagements since March that included Netflix’ 17 Oscar-nominated films, retrospectives of Charlie Kaufman and Orson Wells, zombie movie classics and a Bob Dylan film series.
The Paris closed in August of 2019 after its lease with City Cinemas expired. That November, Netflix entered an extended lease agreement, said to be for ten years with owner the Solow Family, to keep the theater open and use it for events, screenings and theatrical releases of its films. The first was Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. The theater was shuttered by Covid-19 last spring.
(In May of 2020, Netflix acquired another storied theaters,...
The only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan and the borough’s largest, with 545 seats, has hosted limited theatrical engagements since March that included Netflix’ 17 Oscar-nominated films, retrospectives of Charlie Kaufman and Orson Wells, zombie movie classics and a Bob Dylan film series.
The Paris closed in August of 2019 after its lease with City Cinemas expired. That November, Netflix entered an extended lease agreement, said to be for ten years with owner the Solow Family, to keep the theater open and use it for events, screenings and theatrical releases of its films. The first was Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. The theater was shuttered by Covid-19 last spring.
(In May of 2020, Netflix acquired another storied theaters,...
- 7/28/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Kate Beckinsale will star in the Catherine Hardwicke-helmed family drama Prisoner’s Daughter, penned by Mark Bacci.
“Mark Bacci’s script is a raw, personal look at a deeply fractured family, similar to my first film Thirteen (with Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter.) With Prisoner’s Daughter, I want to fully immerse the viewer in Kate’s character’s intense world as she, her father, and her young son try to heal generational family trauma and find a new way forward,” said Hardwicke.
The film tells the story of a tough but proud ex-con who’s struggling to find a way to reconnect with his only daughter and grandson; once he begins an attempt at reconciliation, his violent past once again catches up to him.
“We are committed to making films that reflect the struggles and issues faced by not only Americans but worldwide audiences. We are...
“Mark Bacci’s script is a raw, personal look at a deeply fractured family, similar to my first film Thirteen (with Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter.) With Prisoner’s Daughter, I want to fully immerse the viewer in Kate’s character’s intense world as she, her father, and her young son try to heal generational family trauma and find a new way forward,” said Hardwicke.
The film tells the story of a tough but proud ex-con who’s struggling to find a way to reconnect with his only daughter and grandson; once he begins an attempt at reconciliation, his violent past once again catches up to him.
“We are committed to making films that reflect the struggles and issues faced by not only Americans but worldwide audiences. We are...
- 6/1/2021
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Nothing happens in James Vaughn’s Friends and Strangers in the same way that nothing happens in the films of Hong Sangsoo. The people navigating this entrancing debut feature (a lively pantheon of Australian twenty-somethings plus the occasional grownup proper) meet and talk; couples come together and drift apart; plans are shared and swiftly abandoned. But even a non-event can have its own sense of happening, and even a maze of chance encounters can reveal its own intelligent design. Populated by young adults fumbling after a coherent identity, Friends and Strangers behaves like them. It is a film of detours, digressions, and everyday surrealism––one that draws its unsettling allure from the angst that comes when you realize the path you’ve walked along isn’t paved anymore, and the future you’re venturing into will be entirely your own making.
At the center of it is Ray (Fergus Wilson). A videographer in his twenties,...
At the center of it is Ray (Fergus Wilson). A videographer in his twenties,...
- 2/15/2021
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
With the Super Bowl behind us and the Oscars looming (and a pandemic-dampened Valentine’s Day as a marketing peg), American distributors are releasing their most robust slate of new releases in months this weekend.
Awards contenders “Judas and the Black Messiah” (about the FBI-sanctioned murder of Fred Hampton) and “Land” (starring and directed by Robin Wright) arrive in theaters, hot off their premieres at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. Also on the awards-worthy indie front, A24 releases last year’s Sundance winner “Minari” on demand. Steven Yuen stars in this immigrant story with universal appeal. And if theaters are open (and safe) near you, consider catching Michelle Pfeiffer in the wickedly funny “French Exit.”
Targeting teens with Valentine’s offerings, Amazon delivers the “Groundhog Day”-esque romance “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” to Prime subscribers, while Netflix completes its “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy with “Always and Forever.
Awards contenders “Judas and the Black Messiah” (about the FBI-sanctioned murder of Fred Hampton) and “Land” (starring and directed by Robin Wright) arrive in theaters, hot off their premieres at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. Also on the awards-worthy indie front, A24 releases last year’s Sundance winner “Minari” on demand. Steven Yuen stars in this immigrant story with universal appeal. And if theaters are open (and safe) near you, consider catching Michelle Pfeiffer in the wickedly funny “French Exit.”
Targeting teens with Valentine’s offerings, Amazon delivers the “Groundhog Day”-esque romance “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” to Prime subscribers, while Netflix completes its “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy with “Always and Forever.
- 2/13/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The Sundance Film Festival has always been one of the premiere places for discovery, providing a launching pad for breakout films en route to mainstream acclaim and awards. But oftentimes, the best of Sundance — films that are truly original, fresh, and worthy — go on to smaller victory laps. These are the festival’s hidden gems, and though they might not be getting Oscar nods, they’re just as deserving of our attention. In advance of this year’s virtual fest, we’ve partnered with AMC+ to assemble a varied list of past Sundance stunners. Featuring early films from the likes of Miranda July and the Safdie’s to Spike Lee’s adaptation of a hit Broadway musical, all of these gems are available via AMC+ streaming platform.
“Daddy Longlegs”
The brothers Safdie are, by now, an indie household name — but a decade ago, they burst onto the map with this captivating dramedy.
“Daddy Longlegs”
The brothers Safdie are, by now, an indie household name — but a decade ago, they burst onto the map with this captivating dramedy.
- 1/29/2021
- by IndieWire Staff
- Indiewire
English-language political thriller takes inspiration from events in the aftermath of tragic crash.
Revolver Amsterdam has acquired adaptation rights to Dutch writer A.F.Th. van der Heijden’s novel Play Dead (Mooi doodliggen) to produce the Netherlands’ first feature based on the case of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster.
Van der Heijden’s novel does not deal directly with the tragic plane crash in Ukraine in 2014 but is inspired by its aftermath as state-backed investigators and bereaved relatives of the victims attempted to discover what happened and who was responsible for the tragedy.
“The novelist has taken events...
Revolver Amsterdam has acquired adaptation rights to Dutch writer A.F.Th. van der Heijden’s novel Play Dead (Mooi doodliggen) to produce the Netherlands’ first feature based on the case of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster.
Van der Heijden’s novel does not deal directly with the tragic plane crash in Ukraine in 2014 but is inspired by its aftermath as state-backed investigators and bereaved relatives of the victims attempted to discover what happened and who was responsible for the tragedy.
“The novelist has taken events...
- 12/24/2020
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Dutch production house Revolver Amsterdam has acquired the film rights to A. F. Th. van der Heijden’s novel “Mooi doodliggen” (Play Dead), inspired by the 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster, and is developing it as a feature.
MH17 was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on July 17, 2014, while flying over Eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed.
Dutch director Rolf van Eijk (“My Foolish Heart”) and screenwriter Roelof Jan Minneboo (“Pomegranate Orchard”) are attached to develop the project.
Producers Germen Boelens and Raymond van der Kaaij of Revolver said: “The MH17 disaster is etched in our national memory, a national trauma. Making a film about this is not an easy task, but A.F.Th. Van der Heijden’s novel turned out to be the perfect foundation. It paints a striking and highly topical picture of a political world where everyone is a victim.
MH17 was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on July 17, 2014, while flying over Eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed.
Dutch director Rolf van Eijk (“My Foolish Heart”) and screenwriter Roelof Jan Minneboo (“Pomegranate Orchard”) are attached to develop the project.
Producers Germen Boelens and Raymond van der Kaaij of Revolver said: “The MH17 disaster is etched in our national memory, a national trauma. Making a film about this is not an easy task, but A.F.Th. Van der Heijden’s novel turned out to be the perfect foundation. It paints a striking and highly topical picture of a political world where everyone is a victim.
- 12/21/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Frances Price married well, if one’s notion of success in that department is defined more by financial comfort than by romance. Her marriage wasn’t so much loveless as moneyful, and that arguably works out better for the wealthy Manhattan wife Michelle Pfeiffer so memorably embodies in Azazel Jacobs’ “French Exit,” a sophisticated closing night choice for this year’s virtual-hybrid New York Film Festival, which “The Sisters Brothers” author Patrick deWitt adapted from his own novel.
After the death of her husband — whose corpse she left to rot for several days, giving herself time to take a short ski vacation in Vail, before reporting it to the authorities — Frances pulled her son, Malcolm, out of boarding school, drove him home in her silver Rolls-Royce, and decided to express an interest in his life. “Did you drink to the brink of sound reasoning?” she queries her son (now a...
After the death of her husband — whose corpse she left to rot for several days, giving herself time to take a short ski vacation in Vail, before reporting it to the authorities — Frances pulled her son, Malcolm, out of boarding school, drove him home in her silver Rolls-Royce, and decided to express an interest in his life. “Did you drink to the brink of sound reasoning?” she queries her son (now a...
- 10/11/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
In her new film “On the Rocks” — premiering at the New York Film Festival on its way to AppleTV+ in October — writer-director Sofia Coppola may well have crafted the quintessential Bill Murray role. But this is a father-daughter story, and the daughter is no less important; it helps, obviously, that both Coppola and co-lead Rashida Jones know a thing or two about larger-than-life dads, but it also matters that Jones is enough of a skilled actor and comic that she more than holds her own opposite the equally larger-than-life Murray.
Murray’s Felix is an old-school charmer, a deadpan wit, and a bon vivant, but he’s also an adoring father and grandfather, and he’s capable of accessing and acknowledging regret and loss. It would be a banquet for any actor, but the character has been so crafted for this particular performer that one suspects we will think of...
Murray’s Felix is an old-school charmer, a deadpan wit, and a bon vivant, but he’s also an adoring father and grandfather, and he’s capable of accessing and acknowledging regret and loss. It would be a banquet for any actor, but the character has been so crafted for this particular performer that one suspects we will think of...
- 9/23/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray deliver a soft-focus view of a Manhattan that now almost seems like a dream
Dir: Sofia Coppola. U.S. 2020. 96 mins
Nostalgia is a dangerous temptation, but Sofia Coppola’s comedy On the Rocks, premiering at the New York Film Festival, makes it easy to surrender to. Spun mostly of sugar and air, this film is a lightweight, but mostly sweet, treat – and a lovely reminder of when pictures could just be low-key amusements, and the pandemic hadn’t yet turned cities into ghost towns.
Coppola hands Bill Murray every scene and he simply slips it...
Dir: Sofia Coppola. U.S. 2020. 96 mins
Nostalgia is a dangerous temptation, but Sofia Coppola’s comedy On the Rocks, premiering at the New York Film Festival, makes it easy to surrender to. Spun mostly of sugar and air, this film is a lightweight, but mostly sweet, treat – and a lovely reminder of when pictures could just be low-key amusements, and the pandemic hadn’t yet turned cities into ghost towns.
Coppola hands Bill Murray every scene and he simply slips it...
- 9/22/2020
- by Stephen Whitty
- ScreenDaily
Like most film festivals this year, Locarno Film Festival will not be moving ahead as usual. However, they’ve found inventive ways to both celebrate filmmakers they’ve long admired and present films physically and digitally. After announcing a new initiative to support new films by Lucrecia Martel, Lisandro Alonso, Lav Diaz, Wang Bing, Miguel Gomes, and more, they’ve asked this class of talented directors to select their favorite films in Locarno history.
A Journey in the Festival’s History is devoted to Locarno’s 73-year history of showing the best in international cinema. Made up of twenty films, a selection will screen online for those in Switzerland as well as Mubi internationally. On August 5-15, they will also screen in person at Locarno’s theaters.
Lili Hinstin, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, said, “It would be an impossible task to present a review of the history...
A Journey in the Festival’s History is devoted to Locarno’s 73-year history of showing the best in international cinema. Made up of twenty films, a selection will screen online for those in Switzerland as well as Mubi internationally. On August 5-15, they will also screen in person at Locarno’s theaters.
Lili Hinstin, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, said, “It would be an impossible task to present a review of the history...
- 7/21/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Films by Roberto Rossellini, Chantel Akerman and Marguerite Duras feature in selection.
The Locarno Film Festival has unveiled the selection of 20 classic film titles that will be showcased in its A Journey In The Festival’s History sidebar as part of its special hybrid edition running August 5 to 15.
The line-up is part of the festival’s ’Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films’ edition which was created after it was forced to cancel its 73rd edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The titles have been selected by the directors taking part in its festival’s exceptional The Films After Tomorrow initiative...
The Locarno Film Festival has unveiled the selection of 20 classic film titles that will be showcased in its A Journey In The Festival’s History sidebar as part of its special hybrid edition running August 5 to 15.
The line-up is part of the festival’s ’Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films’ edition which was created after it was forced to cancel its 73rd edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The titles have been selected by the directors taking part in its festival’s exceptional The Films After Tomorrow initiative...
- 7/20/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
High-profile filmmakers including Lucrecia Martel and Lav Diaz have contributed to a retrospective program for the Locarno Film Festival (August 5-15), selecting 20 titles from the event’s 74-year history that will have online and physical screenings next month.
Due to ongoing pandemic disruption Locarno shifted the majority of its festival online this year, though ten of the below list of titles will still have physical screenings in Switzerland. The entire program will be shown online for free in Switzerland by the fest, while it is partnering with streamer Mubi to stream the films outside of the country.
Ranging from 1948 (Locarno’s third edition) to 2018 (its 71st), the titles offer a broad insight into the fest’s history and are directed by filmmakers such as Roberto Rossellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, and Whit Stillman. The selectees are all participating in Locarno’s ‘The Films After Tomorrow’ initiative this year,...
Due to ongoing pandemic disruption Locarno shifted the majority of its festival online this year, though ten of the below list of titles will still have physical screenings in Switzerland. The entire program will be shown online for free in Switzerland by the fest, while it is partnering with streamer Mubi to stream the films outside of the country.
Ranging from 1948 (Locarno’s third edition) to 2018 (its 71st), the titles offer a broad insight into the fest’s history and are directed by filmmakers such as Roberto Rossellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, and Whit Stillman. The selectees are all participating in Locarno’s ‘The Films After Tomorrow’ initiative this year,...
- 7/20/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
As theaters tentatively start to reopen around the U.S. without the usual glut of studio product to fill their screens, there’s an opportunity for filmmakers who previously might not have edged their way very deeply into U.S. cinemas to find a wider audience. That’s particularly true of Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald, whose fantasy crime comedy “Dreamland” is being released by Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures on June 5, day and date with VOD.
McDonald, known for films like “Roadkill,” “Hard Core Logo” and “Pontypool,” which mash up humor with adventure, music or horror — and sometimes all of these — felt that for “Dreamland,” he needed to venture outside the familiar environs of Canada to find the right locale to bring the story to life. The movie, which reunites the director with “Pontypool” novelist and screenwriter Tony Burgess, follows a hitman tasked with obtaining the pinkie finger of...
McDonald, known for films like “Roadkill,” “Hard Core Logo” and “Pontypool,” which mash up humor with adventure, music or horror — and sometimes all of these — felt that for “Dreamland,” he needed to venture outside the familiar environs of Canada to find the right locale to bring the story to life. The movie, which reunites the director with “Pontypool” novelist and screenwriter Tony Burgess, follows a hitman tasked with obtaining the pinkie finger of...
- 6/5/2020
- by Todd Gilchrist
- Variety Film + TV
Bill Gavin in Cannes in 1988 (Photo credit: © Richard Blanshard).
Former producer, exhibitor and sales agent Bill Gavin has died in Auckland after a short illness, aged 83.
“Bill Gavin’s long career touched on almost every aspect of the screen industry and he was great friend to the many filmmakers whose careers benefited from his touch,” the New Zealand Film Commission said.
A former journalist who covered motor racing in Auckland and internationally, his entrée into filmmaking came when he wrote the narration for John Frankenheimer’s sports drama Grand Prix, which starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford and Jessica Walter, in 1966.
In the early 1970s he moved into the music business, joining Gto in the UK where he managed a number of acts including Sweet and The New Seekers.
At Gto he helped set up Gto Films to make movies promoting its musical acts and later into distribution,...
Former producer, exhibitor and sales agent Bill Gavin has died in Auckland after a short illness, aged 83.
“Bill Gavin’s long career touched on almost every aspect of the screen industry and he was great friend to the many filmmakers whose careers benefited from his touch,” the New Zealand Film Commission said.
A former journalist who covered motor racing in Auckland and internationally, his entrée into filmmaking came when he wrote the narration for John Frankenheimer’s sports drama Grand Prix, which starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford and Jessica Walter, in 1966.
In the early 1970s he moved into the music business, joining Gto in the UK where he managed a number of acts including Sweet and The New Seekers.
At Gto he helped set up Gto Films to make movies promoting its musical acts and later into distribution,...
- 5/29/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Bill Gavin, the former Goldcrest executive and general manager of Australia’s Hoyts Theatres, has died at the age of 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, after a short illness.
Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.
In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.
Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.
In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.
- 5/28/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Gavin worked on films including ‘Gandhi’ and ‘Whale Rider’.
Bill Gavin, a former executive at the UK’s Goldcrest Films who worked on films including Gandhi and Whale Rider, has died aged 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand after a short illness.
The industry veteran worked on several award-winning features throughout his career as an independent sales agent, distributor, exhibitor and producer.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career as a motor racing journalist and moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to report on successful Kiwi Formula One drivers competing overseas.
Bill Gavin, a former executive at the UK’s Goldcrest Films who worked on films including Gandhi and Whale Rider, has died aged 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand after a short illness.
The industry veteran worked on several award-winning features throughout his career as an independent sales agent, distributor, exhibitor and producer.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career as a motor racing journalist and moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to report on successful Kiwi Formula One drivers competing overseas.
- 5/28/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
System Crasher Photo: Kineo Film/Weydemann Bros/Yunus Roy Imer In response to the UK cinema closures, Curzon Home Cinema service has announced a virtual cinema film series that will be followed by an exclusive live interview with directors including Andrew Haigh, Whit Stillman and Celine Sciamma.
The series will kick off on March 27 with the release of System Crasher, which will be followed by a live Q&a with director Nora Fingscheidt. The live Q&a will begin at 9pm (GMT), and Curzon encourages people at home to watch along together from 6.45pm (GMT).The film will be available for streaming from the morning of March 27.
Other films and directors to be included in the series:
45 Years, Andrew Haigh
Bait, Mark Jenkin
Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman
Only You, Harry Wootliff
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Celine Sciamma
The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg
Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund
Things To Come,...
The series will kick off on March 27 with the release of System Crasher, which will be followed by a live Q&a with director Nora Fingscheidt. The live Q&a will begin at 9pm (GMT), and Curzon encourages people at home to watch along together from 6.45pm (GMT).The film will be available for streaming from the morning of March 27.
Other films and directors to be included in the series:
45 Years, Andrew Haigh
Bait, Mark Jenkin
Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman
Only You, Harry Wootliff
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Celine Sciamma
The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg
Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund
Things To Come,...
- 3/25/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Surely the last thing we needed was another Jane Austen adaptation. Every few years, some new studio tries to capitalize on the ever-growing group of American Anglophiles by producing some reverent version of the English legend’s romances. While there are some gems among the pile (Whit Stillman‘s Love and Friendship chief among them), they tend to […]
The post ‘Emma’ Movie Review: Autumn de Wilde Breathes New Life Into Austen Classic appeared first on uInterview.
The post ‘Emma’ Movie Review: Autumn de Wilde Breathes New Life Into Austen Classic appeared first on uInterview.
- 2/21/2020
- by Harrison Whitaker
- Uinterview
We never knew we needed one more “Little Women” until Greta Gerwig flexed her adaptive smarts. Now, freshness and fizz has been applied to another oft-filmed classic, Jane Austen’s adored novel “Emma,” which in the hands of photographer-turned-filmmaker Autumn de Wilde, screenwriter Eleanor Catton, and a stellar cast led by rising star Anya Taylor-Joy, is once again a deeply satisfying blend of cross-purposed manners and romantic mismanagement.
Arriving a quarter-century after Amy Heckerling’s delightful Beverly Hills update (“Clueless”) and the shiny 1996 bauble that bolstered Gwyneth Paltrow’s ascendancy, the latest rendering of literature’s most elegantly deluded and self-satisfied female Cupid feels like a flinty, intelligent engagement with Austen’s nuanced characters and lasting ironies rather than a slick excuse to keep “Downton Abbey” fans happy with more English finery and frippery.
Not that this “Emma.” — it’s not just a period piece; there’s a period in...
Arriving a quarter-century after Amy Heckerling’s delightful Beverly Hills update (“Clueless”) and the shiny 1996 bauble that bolstered Gwyneth Paltrow’s ascendancy, the latest rendering of literature’s most elegantly deluded and self-satisfied female Cupid feels like a flinty, intelligent engagement with Austen’s nuanced characters and lasting ironies rather than a slick excuse to keep “Downton Abbey” fans happy with more English finery and frippery.
Not that this “Emma.” — it’s not just a period piece; there’s a period in...
- 2/3/2020
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
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