While everyone is talking about the next live-action Lord of the Rings film, the Hunt for Gollum, which will include Peter Jackson making a comeback to the franchise, WB Animation has been quietly working on its previously announced Lord of the Rings animated picture.
First revealed in June 2021 during 20th anniversary celebrations of the film franchise, WB shared the first details on The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Described as an anime movie, the project was subsequently confirmed to be a collaboration between WB Animation and Tokyo-based Solo Entertainment.
Earlier this week, WB Animation confirmed that The War of the Rohirrim would be showcased at next month's Annecy Film Festival and also released three hi-res versions of previously released conceptual images from the film. Specifically, the first footage from the film will be showcased (and hopefully) uploaded near the time of the panel.
The film is...
First revealed in June 2021 during 20th anniversary celebrations of the film franchise, WB shared the first details on The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Described as an anime movie, the project was subsequently confirmed to be a collaboration between WB Animation and Tokyo-based Solo Entertainment.
Earlier this week, WB Animation confirmed that The War of the Rohirrim would be showcased at next month's Annecy Film Festival and also released three hi-res versions of previously released conceptual images from the film. Specifically, the first footage from the film will be showcased (and hopefully) uploaded near the time of the panel.
The film is...
- 5/15/2024
- ComicBookMovie.com
Everyone knows that it's an awfully self-destructive idea to let the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes drag on in perpetuity, harming countless below-the-line crew members, theater owners, and more who rely on the film and television industries to make a living -- everyone, that is, except for the AMPTP themselves, apparently. We recently wrote about one of the latest dominoes to fall as the highly-anticipated "Dune: Part 2" was pushed back to next year, becoming the latest casualty of the studios' abject refusal to present reasonable counterproposals in good faith as the sides struggle to work out a fair contract. Now, fantasy nerds are the latest fans to be victimized by the producers' unwillingness to, frankly, get their s*** together.
Deadline reports that the upcoming "The Lord of the Rings" anime film, "The War of the Rohirrim" (which /Film's Rafael Motamayor was lucky enough to preview footage from earlier this year...
Deadline reports that the upcoming "The Lord of the Rings" anime film, "The War of the Rohirrim" (which /Film's Rafael Motamayor was lucky enough to preview footage from earlier this year...
- 8/25/2023
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
New Line’s new animated movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is moving from its April 12, 2024 release date to Dec. 13 next year.
The move stems from a chain-reaction of Warner Bros re-dating today, spurred by Legendary Entertainment’s Dune: Part Two going from Nov. 3 this year to March 15, 2024, which then pushed that financier and producer’s other title, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire from that date to April 12, 2024. Dune: Part Two had to move had to shift on account of the unavailability of its cast to promote during the actors strike.
War of the Rohirrim will now face off on its new December date against Sony’s reboot of The Karate Kid.
The anime feature, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original New Line Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those Peter Jackson movies, in addition to his Hobbit trilogy,...
The move stems from a chain-reaction of Warner Bros re-dating today, spurred by Legendary Entertainment’s Dune: Part Two going from Nov. 3 this year to March 15, 2024, which then pushed that financier and producer’s other title, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire from that date to April 12, 2024. Dune: Part Two had to move had to shift on account of the unavailability of its cast to promote during the actors strike.
War of the Rohirrim will now face off on its new December date against Sony’s reboot of The Karate Kid.
The anime feature, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original New Line Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those Peter Jackson movies, in addition to his Hobbit trilogy,...
- 8/24/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
From its opening moments, of a girl jumping rope while counting and naming the stars in the nighttime sky, Peter Greenaway’s Drowning by Numbers is perhaps the most direct illustration of the filmmaker’s key thematic and aesthetic interest in ascribing structure to a chaotic universe. Throughout, the film slowly counts from one to 100 via a combination of character dialogue and visual markers sprinkled in frames like an elaborate game of I Spy. In deadpan voiceovers, a young boy also elaborates the byzantine rules of made-up games whose goals seem altogether too banal to be worth their complexity.
The plot that strings together these playful games involves three women, each named Cissie Colpitts, who drown their husbands and enlist the help of a coroner, Madgett (Bernard Hill), to cover up the crimes. In a relatively light preamble to the darker feminist revenge drama of Greenaway’s subsequent The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover...
The plot that strings together these playful games involves three women, each named Cissie Colpitts, who drown their husbands and enlist the help of a coroner, Madgett (Bernard Hill), to cover up the crimes. In a relatively light preamble to the darker feminist revenge drama of Greenaway’s subsequent The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover...
- 5/1/2023
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones” is coming to the small screen! The 1749 novel has been reimagined into a new PBS Masterpiece mini-series, retold in a total of four episodes. It stars Solly McLeod as Tom Jones, Sophie Wilde as Sophia Western, and Hannah Waddingham as Lady Bellaston. The first episode airs on Sunday, April 30 at 9 p.m. Et on PBS with new episodes premiering weekly. You can watch Tom Jones and PBS with a subscription to YouTube TV.
How to Watch ‘Tom Jones’ Premiere When: Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 9:00 Pm Edt TV: PBS Stream: Watch with a subscription to YouTube TV. Sign Up$72.99 / month tv.youtube.com About ‘Tom Jones’ Premiere
Set in mid-18th-century England, this reimagined version of “Tom Jones” is a fresh romantic comedy based on the classic tale. It follows the titular character as he falls in love with an heiress named Sophia. There’s a class difference between the two,...
How to Watch ‘Tom Jones’ Premiere When: Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 9:00 Pm Edt TV: PBS Stream: Watch with a subscription to YouTube TV. Sign Up$72.99 / month tv.youtube.com About ‘Tom Jones’ Premiere
Set in mid-18th-century England, this reimagined version of “Tom Jones” is a fresh romantic comedy based on the classic tale. It follows the titular character as he falls in love with an heiress named Sophia. There’s a class difference between the two,...
- 4/30/2023
- by Aubrey Chorpenning
- The Streamable
Exclusive: Brian Cox, Gaia Wise and Miranda Otto are just some of the names in the voice cast for New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Animation’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
The movie centers around the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the mighty King of Rohan, a character from the J.R.R. Tolkien book’s appendix. Succession actor Cox will provide the voice of that protagonist.
The anime feature, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg – a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation,...
The movie centers around the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the mighty King of Rohan, a character from the J.R.R. Tolkien book’s appendix. Succession actor Cox will provide the voice of that protagonist.
The anime feature, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg – a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation,...
- 6/15/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Hannah Waddingham, Emmy winner for Apple TV Plus series “Ted Lasso,” is joining leads Solly McLeod and Sophie Wilde in the cast of Masterpiece and U.K. broadcaster ITV’s literary classic adaptation, “Tom Jones.”
Waddingham has been cast as the seductive and vengeful Lady Bellaston in the miniseries, which is currently filming in Northern Ireland.
Based on Henry Fielding’s classic 1749 novel “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,” the series follows the romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted Tom Jones in 18th-century England.
McLeod (“The Rising”) plays the hero Tom, alongside Wilde (“You Don’t Know Me”) as the heroine Sophia Western. The cast also includes Pearl Mackie (“Doctor Who”) James Fleet (“Bridgerton”), Alun Armstrong (“Breeders”), Olivier winner Shirley Henderson (“Happy Valley”), Tamzin Merchant (“Carnival Row”), Julian Rhind-Tutt (“Britannia”), Susannah Fielding (“This Time With Alan Partridge”), BAFTA-winner Daniel Rigby (“Black Mirror”), James Wilbraham (“In My Skin”), Felicity Montagu (“The Durrells...
Waddingham has been cast as the seductive and vengeful Lady Bellaston in the miniseries, which is currently filming in Northern Ireland.
Based on Henry Fielding’s classic 1749 novel “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,” the series follows the romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted Tom Jones in 18th-century England.
McLeod (“The Rising”) plays the hero Tom, alongside Wilde (“You Don’t Know Me”) as the heroine Sophia Western. The cast also includes Pearl Mackie (“Doctor Who”) James Fleet (“Bridgerton”), Alun Armstrong (“Breeders”), Olivier winner Shirley Henderson (“Happy Valley”), Tamzin Merchant (“Carnival Row”), Julian Rhind-Tutt (“Britannia”), Susannah Fielding (“This Time With Alan Partridge”), BAFTA-winner Daniel Rigby (“Black Mirror”), James Wilbraham (“In My Skin”), Felicity Montagu (“The Durrells...
- 11/3/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) has joined Solly McLeod and Sophie Wilde in the cast of Tom Jones, a miniseries reimagining of Henry Fielding’s classic novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, for PBS’ Masterpiece, Mammoth Screen (Poldark) and ITV.
First published in 1749, Tom Jones is the scandalous tale of a young man’s attempt to find a place in the world. It is widely regarded as a British classic and has been adapted previously, most notably in the 1963 feature film version starring Albert Finney as the titular character.
Waddingham will play the seductive and vengeful Lady Bellaston.
She joins McLeod as the hero Tom, Wilde as the heroine Sophia Western and Pearl Mackie as Sophia’s trusted maid, Honour.
Cast also includes James Fleet, Alun Armstrong, Shirley Henderson, Tamzin Merchant, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Susannah Fielding, Daniel Rigby, James Wilbraham, Felicity Montagu, Janine Duvitski Dean Lennox Kelly and Lucy Fallon.
First published in 1749, Tom Jones is the scandalous tale of a young man’s attempt to find a place in the world. It is widely regarded as a British classic and has been adapted previously, most notably in the 1963 feature film version starring Albert Finney as the titular character.
Waddingham will play the seductive and vengeful Lady Bellaston.
She joins McLeod as the hero Tom, Wilde as the heroine Sophia Western and Pearl Mackie as Sophia’s trusted maid, Honour.
Cast also includes James Fleet, Alun Armstrong, Shirley Henderson, Tamzin Merchant, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Susannah Fielding, Daniel Rigby, James Wilbraham, Felicity Montagu, Janine Duvitski Dean Lennox Kelly and Lucy Fallon.
- 9/30/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Tom Hollander, Ian McShane and Alison Brie have been announced for Julian Fellowes's newest ITV drama.
Rebecca Front, Cressida Bonas, Richard McCabe and Phoebe Nicholls also form part of the cast of Doctor Thorne.
The three-part series centres on the titular Dr Thomas Thorne (Hollander), who lives with his penniless niece Mary (Stefanie Martini).
When Lady Arabella Gresham (Front) finds out that her son Frank (Harry Richardson) is in love with Mary, she is horrified and believes it is his duty to make a rich marriage to save their family estate - after her husband Francis Gresham Senior (McCabe) has frittered away their fortune.
Scheming with her sister-in-law (Nicholls) and niece (Kate O'Flynn), Arabella targets wealthy American heiress Martha Dunstable (Brie).
McShane is playing alcoholic railway millionaire Sir Roger Scatcherd, while Bonas will portray Mary's friend and confidante Patience Oriel.
Gwyneth Keyworth, Danny Kirane, Janine Duvitski and Tom Bell will also feature,...
Rebecca Front, Cressida Bonas, Richard McCabe and Phoebe Nicholls also form part of the cast of Doctor Thorne.
The three-part series centres on the titular Dr Thomas Thorne (Hollander), who lives with his penniless niece Mary (Stefanie Martini).
When Lady Arabella Gresham (Front) finds out that her son Frank (Harry Richardson) is in love with Mary, she is horrified and believes it is his duty to make a rich marriage to save their family estate - after her husband Francis Gresham Senior (McCabe) has frittered away their fortune.
Scheming with her sister-in-law (Nicholls) and niece (Kate O'Flynn), Arabella targets wealthy American heiress Martha Dunstable (Brie).
McShane is playing alcoholic railway millionaire Sir Roger Scatcherd, while Bonas will portray Mary's friend and confidante Patience Oriel.
Gwyneth Keyworth, Danny Kirane, Janine Duvitski and Tom Bell will also feature,...
- 9/16/2015
- Digital Spy
BBC Two's new sitcom Boy Meets Girl, touted as the first British comedy to prominently feature transgender characters, has begun filming.
The comedy follows Leo, who has a terrible day when he is fired from his job, given a hard time by his mother and forced to play gooseberry to his brother on a night out. However, his luck changes when he meets older woman Judy.
Leo finds himself deeply attracted to Judy and arranges to meet her again. Although his mother is unhappy about the age gap between the pair, Leo doesn't care what she thinks because he knows he has met somebody very special.
Harry Hepple (Misfits, Hustle) will play Leo, Rebecca Root (Normal) will play Judy and Denise Welch (Waterloo Road, Benidorm) is Leo's mother Pam.
The cast also includes Janine Duvitski (Benidorm), Nigel Betts (Emmerdale), Lizzie Roper (Hollyoaks) and Jonny Dixon (Coronation Street).
Boy Meets Girl...
The comedy follows Leo, who has a terrible day when he is fired from his job, given a hard time by his mother and forced to play gooseberry to his brother on a night out. However, his luck changes when he meets older woman Judy.
Leo finds himself deeply attracted to Judy and arranges to meet her again. Although his mother is unhappy about the age gap between the pair, Leo doesn't care what she thinks because he knows he has met somebody very special.
Harry Hepple (Misfits, Hustle) will play Leo, Rebecca Root (Normal) will play Judy and Denise Welch (Waterloo Road, Benidorm) is Leo's mother Pam.
The cast also includes Janine Duvitski (Benidorm), Nigel Betts (Emmerdale), Lizzie Roper (Hollyoaks) and Jonny Dixon (Coronation Street).
Boy Meets Girl...
- 2/2/2015
- Digital Spy
New pictures of Ben Miller and Stephen Fry in the second series of This Is Jinsy have been revealed.
Miller stars in the second episode of the show as the Chief Accountant of Jinsy, along with his sister - a drunk, hefty, buck-toothed accountant called Berpetta.
Fry appears in the first episode of the run as Dr Bevelspepp, a character who uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of Jinsy to help save the island from an invasion of rampaging hair.
The Sky Atlantic show returns on Wednesday, January 8 with a double bill at 10pm.
This Is Jinsy was created by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb and directed by Matt Lipsey. It follows Arbiter Maven (Chubb) and Sporall (Bran), the residents of an extraordinary island.
The first pictures of Greg Davies as "sinister figure" Jennitta Bishard were unveiled yesterday.
Other guest stars confirmed for the eight-episode second series include Katy Brand, Eilieen Atkins,...
Miller stars in the second episode of the show as the Chief Accountant of Jinsy, along with his sister - a drunk, hefty, buck-toothed accountant called Berpetta.
Fry appears in the first episode of the run as Dr Bevelspepp, a character who uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of Jinsy to help save the island from an invasion of rampaging hair.
The Sky Atlantic show returns on Wednesday, January 8 with a double bill at 10pm.
This Is Jinsy was created by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb and directed by Matt Lipsey. It follows Arbiter Maven (Chubb) and Sporall (Bran), the residents of an extraordinary island.
The first pictures of Greg Davies as "sinister figure" Jennitta Bishard were unveiled yesterday.
Other guest stars confirmed for the eight-episode second series include Katy Brand, Eilieen Atkins,...
- 12/12/2013
- Digital Spy
The first images of Greg Davies as Jennitta Bishard in This Is Jinsy have been released.
The comedian will appear across several episodes of the second series of the Sky Atlantic show, which returns on Wednesday, January 8 with a double bill at 10pm.
Bishard is described as "a delightfully sinister figure who delivers punishments to residents across the island from the safety of her TV studio".
This Is Jinsy was created by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb and directed by Matt Lipsey. It follows Arbiter Maven (Chubb) and Sporall (Bran), the residents of an extraordinary island.
Other guest stars confirmed for the eight-episode second series include Stephen Fry, Ben Miller, Katy Brand, Eilieen Atkins, Rob Brydon, Stephen Mangan, Derek Jacobi, Phil Davis and Olivia Colman, who join series regulars Alice Lowe as Soosan Noop, Janine Duvitski as Mrs Goadion and Geoff McGivern as Trince.
The details of the guest appearances...
The comedian will appear across several episodes of the second series of the Sky Atlantic show, which returns on Wednesday, January 8 with a double bill at 10pm.
Bishard is described as "a delightfully sinister figure who delivers punishments to residents across the island from the safety of her TV studio".
This Is Jinsy was created by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb and directed by Matt Lipsey. It follows Arbiter Maven (Chubb) and Sporall (Bran), the residents of an extraordinary island.
Other guest stars confirmed for the eight-episode second series include Stephen Fry, Ben Miller, Katy Brand, Eilieen Atkins, Rob Brydon, Stephen Mangan, Derek Jacobi, Phil Davis and Olivia Colman, who join series regulars Alice Lowe as Soosan Noop, Janine Duvitski as Mrs Goadion and Geoff McGivern as Trince.
The details of the guest appearances...
- 12/10/2013
- Digital Spy
Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon are among the stars who will feature in the second series of This Is Jinsy.
The comedy series from Chris Bran and Justin Chubb will return to Sky Atlantic in January 2014.
Olivia Colman, Sir Derek Jacobi and Stephen Mangan will also make guest appearances in the show.
This Is Jinsy centres around Arbiter Maven (Chubb) and Sporall (Bran) as they attempt to handle the residents of a unique island, based on the writers' experiences of living in Guernsey.
Consisting of eight episodes, the new series will see Stephen Fry portray Dr Bevelspepp, who uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of Jinsy to help save the island from an attack.
Katy Brand, Dame Eileen Atkins, Phil Davis, KT Tunstall and Greg Davies will also guest star throughout the series.
Among the returning stars are Alice Lowe as Soosan Noop, Janine Duvitski as Mrs Goadion and Geoff McGivern as Trince.
The comedy series from Chris Bran and Justin Chubb will return to Sky Atlantic in January 2014.
Olivia Colman, Sir Derek Jacobi and Stephen Mangan will also make guest appearances in the show.
This Is Jinsy centres around Arbiter Maven (Chubb) and Sporall (Bran) as they attempt to handle the residents of a unique island, based on the writers' experiences of living in Guernsey.
Consisting of eight episodes, the new series will see Stephen Fry portray Dr Bevelspepp, who uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of Jinsy to help save the island from an attack.
Katy Brand, Dame Eileen Atkins, Phil Davis, KT Tunstall and Greg Davies will also guest star throughout the series.
Among the returning stars are Alice Lowe as Soosan Noop, Janine Duvitski as Mrs Goadion and Geoff McGivern as Trince.
- 11/14/2013
- Digital Spy
Recently underway on Sky Atlantic, This is Jinsy is one of those comedy shows set in a surreal world of madness that you either get or you don’t. Frequently hilarious and always interesting, from a costume point of view this is retro fancy dress, deliberately mismatched and performance orientated. Yet everything in Jinsy makes sense within its own world.
The island of Jinsy is populated (791 residents) by all manner of weird and wonderful people. The locale has been likened to The Wicker Man’s Summerisle but is spiritually closer to the Village from Patrick McGoohan’s sixties TV series, The Prisoner. Everyone in Jinsy seems trapped there but somehow content. Episode one entitled ‘The Wedding Lottery’ introduces a lot of faces very quickly. All the inhabitants are broadly drawn, however, so relatively easy to fathom.
Justin Chubb as Maven, David Tennant as Mr Slightlyman and Chris Bran as Sporall.
The island of Jinsy is populated (791 residents) by all manner of weird and wonderful people. The locale has been likened to The Wicker Man’s Summerisle but is spiritually closer to the Village from Patrick McGoohan’s sixties TV series, The Prisoner. Everyone in Jinsy seems trapped there but somehow content. Episode one entitled ‘The Wedding Lottery’ introduces a lot of faces very quickly. All the inhabitants are broadly drawn, however, so relatively easy to fathom.
Justin Chubb as Maven, David Tennant as Mr Slightlyman and Chris Bran as Sporall.
- 9/23/2011
- by Chris Laverty
- Clothes on Film
TV favourite Ruby Bentall takes stage role with director who cast her mother 30 years ago in the classic comedy Abigail's Party
The distinctive plays and films of Mike Leigh have introduced many strong female characters to audiences down the years. In fact, the director has often returned to work with a small group of actresses whom he can trust to create memorable roles – Alison Steadman, Sheila Kelley, Lesley Manville and Imelda Staunton.
But this year, as he works on a new play for the National Theatre, Leigh has found a new star – the daughter of one of his funniest muses.
Ruby Bentall, whose mother is actress Janine Duvitski, will have a lead role at the National in the new play, which so far has no name or an announced subject, but will be written and directed by Leigh. Bentall is already known to viewers for playing Minnie in BBC1's...
The distinctive plays and films of Mike Leigh have introduced many strong female characters to audiences down the years. In fact, the director has often returned to work with a small group of actresses whom he can trust to create memorable roles – Alison Steadman, Sheila Kelley, Lesley Manville and Imelda Staunton.
But this year, as he works on a new play for the National Theatre, Leigh has found a new star – the daughter of one of his funniest muses.
Ruby Bentall, whose mother is actress Janine Duvitski, will have a lead role at the National in the new play, which so far has no name or an announced subject, but will be written and directed by Leigh. Bentall is already known to viewers for playing Minnie in BBC1's...
- 1/30/2011
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
ComingSoon.net has your exclusive first look at the trailer for IFC Films' Angel , written and directed by François Ozon. The romantic drama, opening in theaters on March 18th, stars Romola Garai, Sam Neill, Lucy Russell, Michael Fassbender, Charlotte Rampling, Jacqueline Tong, Janine Duvitski, Christopher Benjamin, Simon Woods and Jemma Powell. In the film, set in Edwardian England, a precocious girl from a poor background with aspirations to being a novelist finds herself swept to fame and fortune when her tasteless romances hit the best seller lists. Her life changes in unexpected ways when she encounters an aristocratic brother and sister, both of whom have cultural ambitions, and both of whom fall in love with her.
- 2/19/2009
- Comingsoon.net
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN
1:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m.
Spanish actress Carmen Maura takes a serious turn in Belgian filmmaker Marion Hansel's tale of a population crisis in the near future. The crisis, in a turnabout, isn't of overpopulation but of human extinction -- threatened when all across Europe every pregnancy becomes overdue and, when labor is medically induced, every baby is stillborn.
Maura plays a TV newswoman impregnated during an impulsive coupling in a stalled elevator. When she finally announces her condition at work, she is given an assignment on overdue pregnancies as a lead-up to her own pregnancy leave.
However, just as she realizes how widespread and cataclysmic the condition is -- both for the mothers and the population at large -- she begins to carry on telepathic communications with her own child who announces that he and all the other unborn children are refusing to live in a world without hope.
The film has several effective moments, particularly involving mothers frantic over their condition, but the larger points are watered down by Hansel's lack of specifics over the precise nature of the unborn's depression and her confusion of "universal'' with "European.'' -- Henry Sheehan
BROTHER'S KEEPER
1:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m.
The system works. When viewing the absorbing documentary "Brother's Keeper, '' that's the feeling you get about a simple farmer arrested for taking the life of his older brother. Viewers will likely be divided pro and con about the guilt or innocence of one Delbert Ward, an illiterate dairyman farmer who was charged with snuffing out the life of his Brother William, and brought to trial for what many considered an act of mercy.
Kindly put, The Ward Brothers were a dim lot: The four of them farmed in Upstate New York for their entire lives and were considered, basically, the village lunatics by their agricultural brethren. They were slovenly and kept pretty much to themselves, living together in a decrepit shack with no plumbing.
On the morning of June 6, 1990, one of the "boys'' was found dead in his bed. The coroner's report said the cause was suffocation.
Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky trace this strange human drama in its public unfoldings. We see a real-life trial told in its essential terms as Delbert Ward is brought to justice for what community leaders deemed, at worst, a mercy killing.
Skillfully juxtaposing private revelations with public documents, co-directors Berlinger and Sinofsky have created a mesmerizing portrait of the American justice system and revealed an insight into this country's nature -- throughout, there is the feeling that people take care of one another, and neither laws nor outsiders can quell inherent qualities of decency. -- Duane Byrge
GROWN-UPS
1:45 p.m., 7 p.m.
The social and the personal get all bound up -- make that messed up -- in this 1980 telefilm by Mike Leigh ("Life Is Sweet'') which builds from scenes of routine day-to-day interactions to a climax of calamitously unwelcome class interaction.
A young working-class couple (Phillip Davis and Lesley Manville) have moved into their own home, a comfortable, if cramped, semi-detached row house. Their hoped-for privacy is interrupted more or less continuously by the wife's sister (Janine Duvitski), an unmarried woman well on her way to spinsterhood, who is forever dropping over for endless cups of tea.
As it turns out, the young couple have the last state-subsidized "council house'' on the street; not only do the next-door couple own their own, but the husband turns out to have been the high school teacher of his new neighbors. This leads to cautious, reluctant hellos, which burst into convulsive, invasive intimacy when Duvitski, told she's not wanted as a guest anymore, has an attack of hysteria and pulls the neighbors into the family squabbles.
The film manages to be understanding towards some, though far from all, of the characters without ever being sympathetic for the moment. Leigh -- as he was doing in all of his films of this period -- ruthlessly exposes what he apparently believes is the inherent nastiness and philistinism of most of the English. -- Henry Sheehan
LABYRINTH
4 p.m., 9:15 p.m.
A notebook film built around the musings of a film director -- played by Maximilian Schell -- planning to make a biographical feature about Franz Kafka. As Schell's fictional filmmaker ponders various books and papers, or gazes out his Prague hotel window at a Jewish cemetary, actual co-writer/director Jaromil Jires cuts to dramatized portions of the life of Kafka (Christopher Chaplin), particularly his largely unrealized romantic life and an encounter with the police, re-created scenes of Prague's Jewish history, and even a pair of film versions of the Golem legend, which was set in Prague.
As the action progresses, it focuses increasingly on Kafka's Jewishness, the rise of Nazism and the death of his family in concentration camps after his own untimely passing. Jires does a good job of emphasizing Kafka's role as a social prophet, rather than as a purely personal and hallucinatory writer -- without disserving the latter. But like his fictional creation, he never does quite come up with a format that comfortably encloses all the points he wants to make while actually bringing us close to Kafka the man. -- Henry Sheehan
THE STRANGER
4:15 p.m., 9:30 p.m.
Sadly, "The Stranger'' lacks much of the charm and substance of Satyajit Ray's previous films. There are glimpses of his former mastery, and a snippet or two of biting humor, but for the most part this film is a tedious diatribe with almost no movement at all. It's literally a sleeper.
Not based on Camus' novel, this film centers around a pending visit from an uncle not heard from for 35 years. His niece, Anila Bose (Mamata Shankar), is excited at seeing the uncle she barely remembers. Her naturally suspicious husband, Sudhindra (Deepankar De), however, distrusts the man even before meeting him. He tells his wife he needs proof before he'll accept the man's claim to be her uncle.
Finally, this relative "stranger, '' Manomohan Mitra (Utpal Dutt), arrives and immediately charms Anila and her son, Satyaki (Bikram Bhattacharya). But even after producing his passport, Mitra assures Sudhindra that it could be a fake and that Sudhindra shouldn't believe him so easily. Mitra plays on Sudhindra's cynical nature, causing his host to doubt his own doubts.
It's a cute setup, but then things quickly deteriorate as Mitra is forced to enter into a L-O-N-G debate about religion, science, technology and cannibalism.
The film comes to an almost complete standstill, and it becomes a struggle to make it to the finish.
One should be kind to strangers, but chances are history will be kinder to Ray's other, and more approachable, films (HR 5/22). -- Jeff Menell
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
1:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m.
Spanish actress Carmen Maura takes a serious turn in Belgian filmmaker Marion Hansel's tale of a population crisis in the near future. The crisis, in a turnabout, isn't of overpopulation but of human extinction -- threatened when all across Europe every pregnancy becomes overdue and, when labor is medically induced, every baby is stillborn.
Maura plays a TV newswoman impregnated during an impulsive coupling in a stalled elevator. When she finally announces her condition at work, she is given an assignment on overdue pregnancies as a lead-up to her own pregnancy leave.
However, just as she realizes how widespread and cataclysmic the condition is -- both for the mothers and the population at large -- she begins to carry on telepathic communications with her own child who announces that he and all the other unborn children are refusing to live in a world without hope.
The film has several effective moments, particularly involving mothers frantic over their condition, but the larger points are watered down by Hansel's lack of specifics over the precise nature of the unborn's depression and her confusion of "universal'' with "European.'' -- Henry Sheehan
BROTHER'S KEEPER
1:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m.
The system works. When viewing the absorbing documentary "Brother's Keeper, '' that's the feeling you get about a simple farmer arrested for taking the life of his older brother. Viewers will likely be divided pro and con about the guilt or innocence of one Delbert Ward, an illiterate dairyman farmer who was charged with snuffing out the life of his Brother William, and brought to trial for what many considered an act of mercy.
Kindly put, The Ward Brothers were a dim lot: The four of them farmed in Upstate New York for their entire lives and were considered, basically, the village lunatics by their agricultural brethren. They were slovenly and kept pretty much to themselves, living together in a decrepit shack with no plumbing.
On the morning of June 6, 1990, one of the "boys'' was found dead in his bed. The coroner's report said the cause was suffocation.
Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky trace this strange human drama in its public unfoldings. We see a real-life trial told in its essential terms as Delbert Ward is brought to justice for what community leaders deemed, at worst, a mercy killing.
Skillfully juxtaposing private revelations with public documents, co-directors Berlinger and Sinofsky have created a mesmerizing portrait of the American justice system and revealed an insight into this country's nature -- throughout, there is the feeling that people take care of one another, and neither laws nor outsiders can quell inherent qualities of decency. -- Duane Byrge
GROWN-UPS
1:45 p.m., 7 p.m.
The social and the personal get all bound up -- make that messed up -- in this 1980 telefilm by Mike Leigh ("Life Is Sweet'') which builds from scenes of routine day-to-day interactions to a climax of calamitously unwelcome class interaction.
A young working-class couple (Phillip Davis and Lesley Manville) have moved into their own home, a comfortable, if cramped, semi-detached row house. Their hoped-for privacy is interrupted more or less continuously by the wife's sister (Janine Duvitski), an unmarried woman well on her way to spinsterhood, who is forever dropping over for endless cups of tea.
As it turns out, the young couple have the last state-subsidized "council house'' on the street; not only do the next-door couple own their own, but the husband turns out to have been the high school teacher of his new neighbors. This leads to cautious, reluctant hellos, which burst into convulsive, invasive intimacy when Duvitski, told she's not wanted as a guest anymore, has an attack of hysteria and pulls the neighbors into the family squabbles.
The film manages to be understanding towards some, though far from all, of the characters without ever being sympathetic for the moment. Leigh -- as he was doing in all of his films of this period -- ruthlessly exposes what he apparently believes is the inherent nastiness and philistinism of most of the English. -- Henry Sheehan
LABYRINTH
4 p.m., 9:15 p.m.
A notebook film built around the musings of a film director -- played by Maximilian Schell -- planning to make a biographical feature about Franz Kafka. As Schell's fictional filmmaker ponders various books and papers, or gazes out his Prague hotel window at a Jewish cemetary, actual co-writer/director Jaromil Jires cuts to dramatized portions of the life of Kafka (Christopher Chaplin), particularly his largely unrealized romantic life and an encounter with the police, re-created scenes of Prague's Jewish history, and even a pair of film versions of the Golem legend, which was set in Prague.
As the action progresses, it focuses increasingly on Kafka's Jewishness, the rise of Nazism and the death of his family in concentration camps after his own untimely passing. Jires does a good job of emphasizing Kafka's role as a social prophet, rather than as a purely personal and hallucinatory writer -- without disserving the latter. But like his fictional creation, he never does quite come up with a format that comfortably encloses all the points he wants to make while actually bringing us close to Kafka the man. -- Henry Sheehan
THE STRANGER
4:15 p.m., 9:30 p.m.
Sadly, "The Stranger'' lacks much of the charm and substance of Satyajit Ray's previous films. There are glimpses of his former mastery, and a snippet or two of biting humor, but for the most part this film is a tedious diatribe with almost no movement at all. It's literally a sleeper.
Not based on Camus' novel, this film centers around a pending visit from an uncle not heard from for 35 years. His niece, Anila Bose (Mamata Shankar), is excited at seeing the uncle she barely remembers. Her naturally suspicious husband, Sudhindra (Deepankar De), however, distrusts the man even before meeting him. He tells his wife he needs proof before he'll accept the man's claim to be her uncle.
Finally, this relative "stranger, '' Manomohan Mitra (Utpal Dutt), arrives and immediately charms Anila and her son, Satyaki (Bikram Bhattacharya). But even after producing his passport, Mitra assures Sudhindra that it could be a fake and that Sudhindra shouldn't believe him so easily. Mitra plays on Sudhindra's cynical nature, causing his host to doubt his own doubts.
It's a cute setup, but then things quickly deteriorate as Mitra is forced to enter into a L-O-N-G debate about religion, science, technology and cannibalism.
The film comes to an almost complete standstill, and it becomes a struggle to make it to the finish.
One should be kind to strangers, but chances are history will be kinder to Ray's other, and more approachable, films (HR 5/22). -- Jeff Menell
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 6/29/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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