Shelly Johnson has been elected the 47th president of the American Society of Cinematographers. He succeeds Stephen Lighthill, who reached his term limit, having completed his second consecutive two-year term as president (and third overall).
The ASC Board also elected a slate of officers that includes VPs Charlie Lieberman, John Simmons and Patti Lee; treasurer Charles Minsky; secretary Dejan Georgevich; and sergeant-at-arms Chris Chomyn.
The members of the board, elected by the organization’s active membership, also include Mandy Walker (who became the first woman to win the ASC Award in features earlier this year for her lensing of Elvis), former Academy president John Bailey, Patrick Cady, Steven Fierberg, Michael Goi, Charles Minsky, Lowell Peterson, Lawrence Sher, Eric Steelberg, John Toll and Amy Vincent. Alternate members of the board are Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Georgevich, Denis Lenoir, Steven Poster and Mark Irwin.
Johnson, a California native, graduated from the Art Center College of Design...
The ASC Board also elected a slate of officers that includes VPs Charlie Lieberman, John Simmons and Patti Lee; treasurer Charles Minsky; secretary Dejan Georgevich; and sergeant-at-arms Chris Chomyn.
The members of the board, elected by the organization’s active membership, also include Mandy Walker (who became the first woman to win the ASC Award in features earlier this year for her lensing of Elvis), former Academy president John Bailey, Patrick Cady, Steven Fierberg, Michael Goi, Charles Minsky, Lowell Peterson, Lawrence Sher, Eric Steelberg, John Toll and Amy Vincent. Alternate members of the board are Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Georgevich, Denis Lenoir, Steven Poster and Mark Irwin.
Johnson, a California native, graduated from the Art Center College of Design...
- 5/22/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Thanks to “Game of Thrones,” there’s no longer a gap in visual effects quality between high-end features and episodic TV, despite disparities in budgets and schedules. The HBO landmark fantasy-drama set the standard early in its run, winning seven Emmys for bone-crunching battles and medieval world building, and the industry stepped up and has continued raising the bar ever since.
It’s an efficient, global workforce that keeps improving and adjusting, especially during the lockdown, when it was forced to work even more remotely in post-production. Just look at the stunning work among this season’s Emmy contenders: “The Mandalorian,” “Watchmen,” “Westworld,” “Stranger Things,” “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” “Altered Carbon,” “Lost in Space,” and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds.”
“One of the keys now in our industry is to keep pushing the limits of what we are doing,” said Martin Pelletier, VFX supervisor for RodeoFX, who oversaw the complex...
It’s an efficient, global workforce that keeps improving and adjusting, especially during the lockdown, when it was forced to work even more remotely in post-production. Just look at the stunning work among this season’s Emmy contenders: “The Mandalorian,” “Watchmen,” “Westworld,” “Stranger Things,” “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” “Altered Carbon,” “Lost in Space,” and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds.”
“One of the keys now in our industry is to keep pushing the limits of what we are doing,” said Martin Pelletier, VFX supervisor for RodeoFX, who oversaw the complex...
- 7/13/2020
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
We live in a world beset by major problems: the coronavirus pandemic, systemic racism and, as if those weren’t troubling enough, the threat of climate change. But Emmy-winning producer, director and author Ann Druyan maintains optimism about human potential. You might say she takes a cosmic view.
“What gives me hope is that our ancestors had their backs to the wall on countless occasions…and they suffered tremendous hardships and managed to endure and even to flourish,” Druyan tells Deadline. “This is true of our species…We have what it takes.”
She adds quickly that what she believes in is “evidence-based hope.”
“We have the means to get through these terrible troubles, but we have to get our act together,” Druyan insists. “And one of the ways, in my view, is to spread the knowledge of science and high technology to the widest possible public once again.”
Druyan has...
“What gives me hope is that our ancestors had their backs to the wall on countless occasions…and they suffered tremendous hardships and managed to endure and even to flourish,” Druyan tells Deadline. “This is true of our species…We have what it takes.”
She adds quickly that what she believes in is “evidence-based hope.”
“We have the means to get through these terrible troubles, but we have to get our act together,” Druyan insists. “And one of the ways, in my view, is to spread the knowledge of science and high technology to the widest possible public once again.”
Druyan has...
- 7/3/2020
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
"Brahms: The Boy II" is a hastily and lazily-crafted sequel of the 2016-released horror film, "The Boy". It brings back the creepy doll who ended up having a twisted secret in the earlier edition.
The narrative begins in staccato manner. After an untoward incident that affects Liza (Katie Holmes) and her young son Jude (Christopher Convery), Sean (Owain Yeoman) decides to give his disturbed family a well-deserved break. They move into the guest house of the erstwhile Heelshire Mansion, unaware of its terrifying history.
It is only after Jude gets attached to the eerily life-like doll he finds half buried on the estate that his behaviour changes drastically. The doll, who calls himself Brahms, communicates with "the damaged ones," in this case - Jude. And, like in the previous edition, the doll relays a list of rules to be followed, failing which the obvious would occur.
Worried about the wellbeing of her son,...
The narrative begins in staccato manner. After an untoward incident that affects Liza (Katie Holmes) and her young son Jude (Christopher Convery), Sean (Owain Yeoman) decides to give his disturbed family a well-deserved break. They move into the guest house of the erstwhile Heelshire Mansion, unaware of its terrifying history.
It is only after Jude gets attached to the eerily life-like doll he finds half buried on the estate that his behaviour changes drastically. The doll, who calls himself Brahms, communicates with "the damaged ones," in this case - Jude. And, like in the previous edition, the doll relays a list of rules to be followed, failing which the obvious would occur.
Worried about the wellbeing of her son,...
- 2/22/2020
- GlamSham
“Cosmos: Possible Worlds” finally has a premiere date at National Geographic. The 13-episode season will debut March 9, 2020 on the cable channel and is set to air on Fox next summer.
“National Geographic is proud to be the world’s leading destination for viewers who are passionate about science and exploration,” Courteney Monroe, president of global television networks at National Geographic, said in a statement Thursday. “Which is why we’re excited for the next chapter of the most-beloved and most-watched science show to date, ‘Cosmos,’ to return to our air. ‘Cosmos: Possible Worlds’ takes complex themes from astrophysics, astronomy and anthropology and makes them accessible and entertaining for millions of people around the world to devour.”
Fox and Nat Geo, which share the series, pulled their respective scheduled March 2019 premieres of “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” — a follow-up to 2014’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”– back in February, amid an investigation into sexual...
“National Geographic is proud to be the world’s leading destination for viewers who are passionate about science and exploration,” Courteney Monroe, president of global television networks at National Geographic, said in a statement Thursday. “Which is why we’re excited for the next chapter of the most-beloved and most-watched science show to date, ‘Cosmos,’ to return to our air. ‘Cosmos: Possible Worlds’ takes complex themes from astrophysics, astronomy and anthropology and makes them accessible and entertaining for millions of people around the world to devour.”
Fox and Nat Geo, which share the series, pulled their respective scheduled March 2019 premieres of “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” — a follow-up to 2014’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”– back in February, amid an investigation into sexual...
- 11/7/2019
- by Jennifer Maas
- The Wrap
National Geographic will bring viewers on a journey through time and space in the long-awaited “Cosmos: Possible Worlds,” which will debut March 9, 2020.
The new 13-episode edition of “Cosmos” is part of the revival of astronomer Carl Sagan’s beloved 1980 show “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” which covered all manner of scientific subjects. A second season, “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” introduced the series to a new generation in 2014 and brought astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on board to host.
Tyson will return to host “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” and he’ll kick off the season on the show’s iconic “Ship of the Imagination” to explore different time periods and a variety of far-flung planets. The show will venture through both time and space, starting at the dawn of the universe and moving to a futuristic 2039 New York World’s Fair, before moving further into the future.
The series is the brainchild of Emmy and Peabody Award-winner Ann Druyan,...
The new 13-episode edition of “Cosmos” is part of the revival of astronomer Carl Sagan’s beloved 1980 show “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” which covered all manner of scientific subjects. A second season, “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” introduced the series to a new generation in 2014 and brought astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on board to host.
Tyson will return to host “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” and he’ll kick off the season on the show’s iconic “Ship of the Imagination” to explore different time periods and a variety of far-flung planets. The show will venture through both time and space, starting at the dawn of the universe and moving to a futuristic 2039 New York World’s Fair, before moving further into the future.
The series is the brainchild of Emmy and Peabody Award-winner Ann Druyan,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Tyler Hersko
- Indiewire
Who is more of a fascinating individual than John DeLorean? The maker of the automobile of the same name is just as well known for that car as being involved in shady drug dealings. Some remember him as a genius in the auto field, but most think of him either for flopping with his company or being put on trial. That intrigue helps fuel the new film Driven, which presents DeLorean as a side character to the life of Jim Hoffman, who befriended and then potentially betrayed him. If that sounds like the set up for a dark flick, you’d be mistaken. This is far more lighthearted than you might initially think, though the seriousness if the matters at hand are never too far from the spotlight. The movie is a mix of comedy, crime, drama, and thriller. Taking place in San Diego in the early 1980’s, the story...
- 8/15/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Cinematographers guild board also votes in officers for 2017-18 term.
The American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) has re-elected Kees van Oostrum for a second term as president.
The Asc board met on Monday night and also voted in the officers for the 2017-18 term.
They are: Bill Bennett, John Simmons and Cynthia Pusheck as vice-presidents; Levie Isaacks as treasurer; David Darby as secretary; and Isidore Mankofsky as sergeant-at-arms.
“As an organisation, we are focused on education, international outreach, diversity and preservation of our heritage,” van Oostrum said. “Over the past year, we expanded our Master Class programme internationally to Toronto and China. We launched a Chinese version of American Cinematographer magazine. We are preparing for a third International Cinematography Summit, which sees attendees from several other societies around the world.
“And our Vision Committee has many initiatives planned after presenting two very successful ‘Day of Inspiration’ events in Los Angeles and New York, which were designed...
The American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) has re-elected Kees van Oostrum for a second term as president.
The Asc board met on Monday night and also voted in the officers for the 2017-18 term.
They are: Bill Bennett, John Simmons and Cynthia Pusheck as vice-presidents; Levie Isaacks as treasurer; David Darby as secretary; and Isidore Mankofsky as sergeant-at-arms.
“As an organisation, we are focused on education, international outreach, diversity and preservation of our heritage,” van Oostrum said. “Over the past year, we expanded our Master Class programme internationally to Toronto and China. We launched a Chinese version of American Cinematographer magazine. We are preparing for a third International Cinematography Summit, which sees attendees from several other societies around the world.
“And our Vision Committee has many initiatives planned after presenting two very successful ‘Day of Inspiration’ events in Los Angeles and New York, which were designed...
- 6/6/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The History Channel has released a full trailer for their new four-hour Houdini miniseries. The show will follow the life of the legendary magician from his beginnings in desperate poverty to the worldwide fame that he gained. The series stars Adrien Brody, and it looks like it's going to be pretty damn good.
Before David Blaine and David Copperfield, there was one man whose name was synonymous with being the master of illusion and escape - Harry Houdini. Houdini follows the man behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era, from U.S. presidents to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Grigori Rasputin. The drama will chronicle the life of a man who can defy death through his stunts, his visions and his mastery of illusion.
Houdini stars Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) as the ace magician...
Before David Blaine and David Copperfield, there was one man whose name was synonymous with being the master of illusion and escape - Harry Houdini. Houdini follows the man behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era, from U.S. presidents to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Grigori Rasputin. The drama will chronicle the life of a man who can defy death through his stunts, his visions and his mastery of illusion.
Houdini stars Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) as the ace magician...
- 8/11/2014
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
The board of governors at the American Society Of Cinematographers (Asc) has appointed its new officers.
Current incumbent Crudo has been re-elected president and will embark on his fifth term. He also served from 2003-05.
Newly elected vice-presidents are Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson; treasurer is Matthew Leonetti; secretary is Fred Goodich; and sergeant-at-arms is Isidore Mankofsky.
The board members, elected in May by the Asc’s active membership, are: John Bailey, Bill Bennett, Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Michael Goi, Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Daryn Okada, Michael O’ Shea, Lowell Peterson, Rodney Taylor, van Oostrum, and Haskell Wexler.
Alternates are Mankofsky, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Robert Primes, Steven Fierberg and Kenneth Zunder.
“I’m profoundly humbled that my colleagues have once again chosen me to serve in this position,” said Crudo. “Right now, the organisation is stronger than ever and we look forward to continuing our mission of promoting the role...
Current incumbent Crudo has been re-elected president and will embark on his fifth term. He also served from 2003-05.
Newly elected vice-presidents are Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson; treasurer is Matthew Leonetti; secretary is Fred Goodich; and sergeant-at-arms is Isidore Mankofsky.
The board members, elected in May by the Asc’s active membership, are: John Bailey, Bill Bennett, Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Michael Goi, Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Daryn Okada, Michael O’ Shea, Lowell Peterson, Rodney Taylor, van Oostrum, and Haskell Wexler.
Alternates are Mankofsky, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Robert Primes, Steven Fierberg and Kenneth Zunder.
“I’m profoundly humbled that my colleagues have once again chosen me to serve in this position,” said Crudo. “Right now, the organisation is stronger than ever and we look forward to continuing our mission of promoting the role...
- 6/10/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
As we all know, it isn’t over until the final announcement and rumors abound as who is in the lead to land one of the most coveted roles in an upcoming epic film. We are talking about Ashutosh Gowariker’s next film. Reportedly set during the Indus Valley civilization (3300–1300 Bce) and titled Mohanjodaro, we know that Hrithik Roshan will be the hero in the period love story, but the question of the hour is who will he romance.
An industry source told us exclusively that it seems that all the actresses from A-list as well as the younger, relatively newer actresses are all desperately vying for this role especially considering the combination of Gowariker with Hrithik Roshan as the lead. Add in music by A R Rahman and a top international crew working on the film including German cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Independence Day, Stargate, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian...
An industry source told us exclusively that it seems that all the actresses from A-list as well as the younger, relatively newer actresses are all desperately vying for this role especially considering the combination of Gowariker with Hrithik Roshan as the lead. Add in music by A R Rahman and a top international crew working on the film including German cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Independence Day, Stargate, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian...
- 3/24/2014
- by Stacey Yount
- Bollyspice
History is officially in business with Houdini. The cable network announced Monday that it has ordered a four-hour miniseries about the famed magician and his wife. Adrien Brody (The Pianist) will play Houdini in the Lionsgate/A&E Studios co-production, with House of Cards' Kristen Connolly playing his wife, Bess. Oscar nominee Uli Edel will direct the project, which hails from exec producers Gerald W. Abrams (Nuremberg, Modern Marvels) and Andras Hamori (Sunshine). Nicholas Meyer (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution) will pen the series, with Patrizia von Brandenstein (Amadeus) on board as production designer. Karl Walter Lindenlaub will serve as cinematographer. The
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- 8/19/2013
- by Lesley Goldberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Former president of the American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) Richard Crudo has been voted to the post for the fourth time.
Crudo previously served in the capacity from 2003-05 and said he was honoured for another opportunity, adding: “As always, we will be aggressively promoting our art and craft, as well as the related interests of cinematographers everywhere.”
The Asc board of governors annual vote elected vice- presidents Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson, treasurer Victor J Kemper, secretary Fred Goodich, and sergeant-at-arms Isidore Mankofsky.
The members of the board, elected in May by the body’s active membership, are: Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Fred Elmes, Francis Kenny, Matthew Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Michael O’Shea, Rodney Taylor and Haskell Wexler. Alternate Board members consist of Kenneth Zunder, Steven Fierberg, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, and Sol Negrin.
Crudo previously served in the capacity from 2003-05 and said he was honoured for another opportunity, adding: “As always, we will be aggressively promoting our art and craft, as well as the related interests of cinematographers everywhere.”
The Asc board of governors annual vote elected vice- presidents Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson, treasurer Victor J Kemper, secretary Fred Goodich, and sergeant-at-arms Isidore Mankofsky.
The members of the board, elected in May by the body’s active membership, are: Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Fred Elmes, Francis Kenny, Matthew Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Michael O’Shea, Rodney Taylor and Haskell Wexler. Alternate Board members consist of Kenneth Zunder, Steven Fierberg, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, and Sol Negrin.
- 6/5/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Former president of the American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) Richard Crudo has been voted to the post for the fourth time.
Crudo previously served in the capacity from 2003-05 and said he was honoured for another opportunity, adding: “As always, we will be aggressively promoting our art and craft, as well as the related interests of cinematographers everywhere.”
The Asc board of governors annual vote elected vice- presidents Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson, treasurer Victor J Kemper, secretary Fred Goodich, and sergeant-at-arms Isidore Mankofsky.
The members of the board, elected in May by the body’s active membership, are: Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Fred Elmes, Francis Kenny, Matthew Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Michael O’Shea, Rodney Taylor and Haskell Wexler. Alternate Board members consist of Kenneth Zunder, Steven Fierberg, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, and Sol Negrin.
Crudo previously served in the capacity from 2003-05 and said he was honoured for another opportunity, adding: “As always, we will be aggressively promoting our art and craft, as well as the related interests of cinematographers everywhere.”
The Asc board of governors annual vote elected vice- presidents Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson, treasurer Victor J Kemper, secretary Fred Goodich, and sergeant-at-arms Isidore Mankofsky.
The members of the board, elected in May by the body’s active membership, are: Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Fred Elmes, Francis Kenny, Matthew Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Michael O’Shea, Rodney Taylor and Haskell Wexler. Alternate Board members consist of Kenneth Zunder, Steven Fierberg, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, and Sol Negrin.
- 6/5/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, Plus Camerimage, is the greatest and most recognized festival dedicated to the art of cinematography and its creators - cinematographers. Plus Camerimage contributes to the growth of cinematographers' prestige. The unconventional format of the Festival, which awards films according to their visual, aesthetic and technical values, has turned out to be an alternative for traditional film festivals. As all our guests emphasize - Plus Camerimage is unique. The Festival proves to be a great forum not only for presentation but also for further development of international moviemaking. Plus Camerimage helps young filmmakers and integrates the community of those already recognized, allowing them to explore new artistic areas.
The following competition winners for Plus Camerimage, were revealed in grand fashion as the milestone 20thanniversary edition came to a close at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz:
Student Films Competition
Golden Tadpole winner: Blackstory
The most original and innovative film that opens the gate to the future. Christoph Brunner and Stefan Brunner directors, Robert Oberreiner, cinematographer. Institut fur Film und Fersehen Filmakadmie Wien, Austria and Switzerland.
Silver Tadpole winner: The Zone
Brave, bold story, told with cinematographic teamwork. Lauri Randla, director, Mikko Kaumunen, cinematographer. University of Art and Design, Finland.
Bronze Tadpole winner: Without Snow
A gentle, beautifully told story, made with sensibility and maturity. Magnus von Horn, director & Magnus Borge, cinematographer. PWSFTiT, Łódź, Poland.
Directors’ Debuts Competition
For having the confidence to trust the audience and to tell a story of unflinching honesty with the simplicity and grace of an artist, the Directors’ Debuts Competition Award goes to Miguel Angel Jimenez for the film Chaika.
Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition
The Golden Frog Award goes to Chaika. This film deserves the award for the best cinematographer’s debut, because it dares to fulfill the dream of cinema on the big canvas that takes your breath away with beautifully composed vistas in which an intimate human drama unfolds.
Best Music Video
For the best music video award the jury chose a unique video that is using simple means to achieve complex ends, and a startlingly coherent effect. The Best Music Video Award goes to: Roger Ballen and Ninja for Die Antwoord ‘I Fink U Freeky’
Best Cinematography in Music Video
Best Cinematography in a Music Video award goes to an extraordinary video – poetic and with beautiful and original imagery – transcending its location and bitter history. Best Cinematography in a Music Video Award for goes to: Matthew J. Lloyd for Flying Lotus ‘Until The Quiet Comes’
Documentary Shorts Competition
The Jury awards the Golden Frog – Grand Prix to Lorenzo Castore and Adam Cohen for their originality, fearlessness and disturbing weirdness in: No Peace Without War.
The Jury awards the Special Mention to Jacek Bławut and Paweł Chorzępa for a film that captured the madness, mystery and paranoia of art in: The Loneliness Of Sound.
Documentary Features Competition
The Jury awards the Golden Frog – Grand Prix to the Cinematographer Seung-Jun Yi and Director Seung-Jun Yi for the sensitive camera work and intimate approach to the subject in: Planet Of Snail.
The Jury awards the Special Mention to Ester Martin Bergsmark and Minka Jakerson for their extraordinary accomplishment of director’s vision and their creative approach to questions of identity in: She Male Snails
Polish Films Competition
This emotionally compelling film, open to complex interpretations along with outstanding performances and craftsmanship, makes the Jury’s choice for the Best Polish Film at Plus Camerimage 2012: To Kill A Beaver.
Main Competition
Golden Frog winner: War Witch
Director: Kim Nguyen / Canada / 2012 / Cinematographer: Nicolas Bolduc
Silver Frog winner: Holy Motors
Director: Leos Carax / France / 2012 / Cinematographer: Caroline Champetier
Bronze Frog winner: Rhino Season
Director: Bahman Ghobadi / Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq / 2012 / Cinematographer: Touraj Aslani
As promised, the 20th edition of the Festival was the biggest yet, with a lineup of hot new films and considerable star power. 314 films from around the world were showcased from November 24 to December 1 as industry attention turned to Bydgoszcz for a Festival that has earned its stature as one of Europe’s marquee film festivals and destinations for the biggest films, most recognizable talent and the best cinematographers in the world.
The Festival began last Saturday with Keanu Reeves’ new documentary “Side by Side”, followed by the Polish premiere of Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed “Life of Pi.” Both Reeves and ”Life of Pi” cinematographer Claudio Miranda were in attendance for the exciting opening gala.
Special guests this year included four-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer David Lynch (“Mulholland Dr.,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet”); Academy Award®winning film editor Alan Heim (“All That Jazz,” “Network,” “The Notebook,” “American History X”);Academy Award® winning director Steven Okazaki (“Day of Waiting,” “The Mushroom Club,” “Unfinished Business”); and Two-time Primetime Emmy nominated director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (“Let It Be,” “The Object of Beauty,” “Master Harold…and the Boys”).
Two-time Academy Award® nominee Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting,” “Milk,” “Elephant”) was present to accept the Festival’s Director Duo Award on behalf of his late friend, Harris Savides (“American Gangster,” “Zodiac,” “The Game,” “Milk”).
The 20th Plus Camerimage Film Festival was proud to have an illustrious jury that included Joel Schumacher, two-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer Alan Parker, Primetime Emmy nominated director and producer Roger Spottiswoode, Primetime Emmy nominated director Michael Lindsay, award-winning director Paweł Łoziński, Academy Award®winning director Steven Okazaki, Academy Award® winning film editor Alan Heim and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub.
About Plus Camerimage
Celebrating its landmark 20th anniversary this year, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, Plus Camerimage is the most recognized festival dedicated to the art of cinematography and the biggest international film festival in Poland. The unconventional format of the Festival, which awards films according to their visual, aesthetic and technical values, is a unique alternative to traditional film festivals.
Plus Camerimage proves to be a great forum not only for presentation but also for further development of international moviemaking and provides a platform for young filmmakers to explore new artistic areas.
In addition to the main competition, the Festival offers a Polish Films Competition, Student Etudes Competition, Documentary Films Competition, Feature Debuts Competition, Music Videos Competition, Plus Camerimage Market, Plus Camerimage Forum, special screenings and premieres, various reviews, retrospectives, meetings and also accompanying events such as art exhibitions and music performances.
Various presentations of modern film equipment and of the latest production and postproduction technologies (both traditional and digital) are also an inherent aspect of the Festival and have been organized with cooperation from companies such as Plus, Arri, Panavision, Kodak, Hawk, K5600, J.L. Fisher, Sony, Panasonic, KinoFlo, Technicolor and Zeiss.
Plus Camerimage is an extraordinary event where art and technology meet, creating a unique and unforgettable atmosphere. Please visit http://www.pluscamerimage.pl for more information.
The following competition winners for Plus Camerimage, were revealed in grand fashion as the milestone 20thanniversary edition came to a close at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz:
Student Films Competition
Golden Tadpole winner: Blackstory
The most original and innovative film that opens the gate to the future. Christoph Brunner and Stefan Brunner directors, Robert Oberreiner, cinematographer. Institut fur Film und Fersehen Filmakadmie Wien, Austria and Switzerland.
Silver Tadpole winner: The Zone
Brave, bold story, told with cinematographic teamwork. Lauri Randla, director, Mikko Kaumunen, cinematographer. University of Art and Design, Finland.
Bronze Tadpole winner: Without Snow
A gentle, beautifully told story, made with sensibility and maturity. Magnus von Horn, director & Magnus Borge, cinematographer. PWSFTiT, Łódź, Poland.
Directors’ Debuts Competition
For having the confidence to trust the audience and to tell a story of unflinching honesty with the simplicity and grace of an artist, the Directors’ Debuts Competition Award goes to Miguel Angel Jimenez for the film Chaika.
Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition
The Golden Frog Award goes to Chaika. This film deserves the award for the best cinematographer’s debut, because it dares to fulfill the dream of cinema on the big canvas that takes your breath away with beautifully composed vistas in which an intimate human drama unfolds.
Best Music Video
For the best music video award the jury chose a unique video that is using simple means to achieve complex ends, and a startlingly coherent effect. The Best Music Video Award goes to: Roger Ballen and Ninja for Die Antwoord ‘I Fink U Freeky’
Best Cinematography in Music Video
Best Cinematography in a Music Video award goes to an extraordinary video – poetic and with beautiful and original imagery – transcending its location and bitter history. Best Cinematography in a Music Video Award for goes to: Matthew J. Lloyd for Flying Lotus ‘Until The Quiet Comes’
Documentary Shorts Competition
The Jury awards the Golden Frog – Grand Prix to Lorenzo Castore and Adam Cohen for their originality, fearlessness and disturbing weirdness in: No Peace Without War.
The Jury awards the Special Mention to Jacek Bławut and Paweł Chorzępa for a film that captured the madness, mystery and paranoia of art in: The Loneliness Of Sound.
Documentary Features Competition
The Jury awards the Golden Frog – Grand Prix to the Cinematographer Seung-Jun Yi and Director Seung-Jun Yi for the sensitive camera work and intimate approach to the subject in: Planet Of Snail.
The Jury awards the Special Mention to Ester Martin Bergsmark and Minka Jakerson for their extraordinary accomplishment of director’s vision and their creative approach to questions of identity in: She Male Snails
Polish Films Competition
This emotionally compelling film, open to complex interpretations along with outstanding performances and craftsmanship, makes the Jury’s choice for the Best Polish Film at Plus Camerimage 2012: To Kill A Beaver.
Main Competition
Golden Frog winner: War Witch
Director: Kim Nguyen / Canada / 2012 / Cinematographer: Nicolas Bolduc
Silver Frog winner: Holy Motors
Director: Leos Carax / France / 2012 / Cinematographer: Caroline Champetier
Bronze Frog winner: Rhino Season
Director: Bahman Ghobadi / Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq / 2012 / Cinematographer: Touraj Aslani
As promised, the 20th edition of the Festival was the biggest yet, with a lineup of hot new films and considerable star power. 314 films from around the world were showcased from November 24 to December 1 as industry attention turned to Bydgoszcz for a Festival that has earned its stature as one of Europe’s marquee film festivals and destinations for the biggest films, most recognizable talent and the best cinematographers in the world.
The Festival began last Saturday with Keanu Reeves’ new documentary “Side by Side”, followed by the Polish premiere of Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed “Life of Pi.” Both Reeves and ”Life of Pi” cinematographer Claudio Miranda were in attendance for the exciting opening gala.
Special guests this year included four-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer David Lynch (“Mulholland Dr.,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet”); Academy Award®winning film editor Alan Heim (“All That Jazz,” “Network,” “The Notebook,” “American History X”);Academy Award® winning director Steven Okazaki (“Day of Waiting,” “The Mushroom Club,” “Unfinished Business”); and Two-time Primetime Emmy nominated director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (“Let It Be,” “The Object of Beauty,” “Master Harold…and the Boys”).
Two-time Academy Award® nominee Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting,” “Milk,” “Elephant”) was present to accept the Festival’s Director Duo Award on behalf of his late friend, Harris Savides (“American Gangster,” “Zodiac,” “The Game,” “Milk”).
The 20th Plus Camerimage Film Festival was proud to have an illustrious jury that included Joel Schumacher, two-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer Alan Parker, Primetime Emmy nominated director and producer Roger Spottiswoode, Primetime Emmy nominated director Michael Lindsay, award-winning director Paweł Łoziński, Academy Award®winning director Steven Okazaki, Academy Award® winning film editor Alan Heim and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub.
About Plus Camerimage
Celebrating its landmark 20th anniversary this year, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, Plus Camerimage is the most recognized festival dedicated to the art of cinematography and the biggest international film festival in Poland. The unconventional format of the Festival, which awards films according to their visual, aesthetic and technical values, is a unique alternative to traditional film festivals.
Plus Camerimage proves to be a great forum not only for presentation but also for further development of international moviemaking and provides a platform for young filmmakers to explore new artistic areas.
In addition to the main competition, the Festival offers a Polish Films Competition, Student Etudes Competition, Documentary Films Competition, Feature Debuts Competition, Music Videos Competition, Plus Camerimage Market, Plus Camerimage Forum, special screenings and premieres, various reviews, retrospectives, meetings and also accompanying events such as art exhibitions and music performances.
Various presentations of modern film equipment and of the latest production and postproduction technologies (both traditional and digital) are also an inherent aspect of the Festival and have been organized with cooperation from companies such as Plus, Arri, Panavision, Kodak, Hawk, K5600, J.L. Fisher, Sony, Panasonic, KinoFlo, Technicolor and Zeiss.
Plus Camerimage is an extraordinary event where art and technology meet, creating a unique and unforgettable atmosphere. Please visit http://www.pluscamerimage.pl for more information.
- 12/21/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Kill The Irishman is a film based on the true story of Danny Greene, a Cleveland man of humble origins and Irish ancestry. Greene never graduated high school, but had an abundance of both street smarts and intelligence, known for his impressive reputation for reading books. Greene was also a man who had both an intense, fundamental good nature matched only by his intimidating toughness and confidence. These traits would combine to mold the man into a legend on the streets of 1970.s Cleveland.
Written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, best known for 2004.s The Punisher starring Thomas Jane, Kill The Irishman has another connection with the popular Marvel Comics vigilante in it.s star Ray Stevenson, who played the anti-hero Frank Castle in 2008.s Punisher: War Zone. not written or directed by Hensleigh. Neither film pale in comparison to this slice of reality, based on recent history but spiced...
Written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, best known for 2004.s The Punisher starring Thomas Jane, Kill The Irishman has another connection with the popular Marvel Comics vigilante in it.s star Ray Stevenson, who played the anti-hero Frank Castle in 2008.s Punisher: War Zone. not written or directed by Hensleigh. Neither film pale in comparison to this slice of reality, based on recent history but spiced...
- 4/8/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Last week, the 2010 Student Academy Awards winners spent time with members of the American Society of Cinematographers. The Student Academy Awards ceremony took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Saturday, June 12. Presenters at the ceremony included Jeremy Renner, Henry Selick, and Penelope Spheeris. Seated (left to right): Asc members Jonathan Erland, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Daryn Okada, Woody Omens, Michael Goi, Victor Kemper and Isidore Mankofsky. Standing (left to right): Student Academy Award winners and their cinematographers: Andres Salaff, Emily Henricks, Rebekah Meredith, Jeremy Casper, Ruth Fertig, Maria Royo, Varathit Uthaisri, Jun Oshimi, Bobby Webster, Luke Matheny, Rasto Trizma, Stuart Bury, Lubomir Kocka, Kevin Gordon, Jennifer Bors, Isaiah Powers, Tanel Toom and Kim Spurlock. Photo: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
- 6/15/2010
- by Zhea D.
- Alt Film Guide
If the kind of team Ashutosh Gowariker is collaborating with on his next period epic, Buddha, is any indication, looks like he’s not sparing anything to ensure that it is a world-class product. Apart from bringing in acclaimed cinematographer, Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Independence Day, The Jackal, Maid in Manhattan, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian), the filmmaker has brought on board many other renowned names. Joining them as co-producer and line producer is Dileep Singh Rathore who has two decades of experience, having handled movies such as City of Joy and Blood Diamond. April Ferry, who has been nominated at the Oscars, ...
- 5/25/2010
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
Even before his next film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey releases, Ashutosh Gowariker has already moved on to his big budget project Buddha. Produced by Dr.Bhupendra Kumar Modi and directed by Gowariker, Buddha tells the journey of Gautam Buddha right from when he was known as Prince Siddhartha to his moment of enlightenment when he became Buddha. While the hunt for the actor who will play the lead role is still on, it's quite interesting to note that the film will primarily have an all-international crew except production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai who has worked with Gowariker on most of his films. Some of the international crew members are:. David S. Ward (USA) - Screen writer (best known for his Oscar winning screenplay in The Sting and Sleepless in Seattle) Michel Shane (USA) - Executive Producer (who is known for having worked on films like I Robot and Catch Me If You Can...
- 5/22/2010
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
Even before his next film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey releases, Ashutosh Gowariker has already moved on to his big budget project Buddha. Produced by Dr.Bhupendra Kumar Modi and directed by Gowariker, Buddha tells the journey of Gautam Buddha right from when he was known as Prince Siddhartha to his moment of enlightenment when he became Buddha. While the hunt for the actor who will play the lead role is still on, it's quite interesting to note that the film will primarily have an all-international crew except production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai who has worked with Gowariker on most of his films. Some of the international crew members are:. David S. Ward (USA) - Screen writer (best known for his Oscar winning screenplay in The Sting and Sleepless in Seattle) Michel Shane (USA) - Executive Producer (who is known for having worked on films like I Robot and Catch Me If You Can...
- 5/22/2010
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
German cinematographer, Karl Walter Lindenlaub has been signed by director, Ashutosh Gowarikar to work on his epic, Buddha. Lindenlaub is responsible for Hollywood films like Independence Day, The Jackal, Up Close & Personal, The Haunting, Black Book and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
In a statement, Gowarikar described the past two months of pre-production as ‘exciting and exhilarating’ to work with a renowned Dop. He says that the films Lindenlaub have been involved in are movies he has seen over and over again and has admired. “I feel privileged to be working with him on Buddha,” he said.
He went on to say that the first important decision that had to be taken by the producer, Bhupender Modi was to make Buddha in English. The director says that he has always felt that religion should cater to an international audience.
Modi hopes that Lindenlaub’s involvement with the film will help with its international appeal.
In a statement, Gowarikar described the past two months of pre-production as ‘exciting and exhilarating’ to work with a renowned Dop. He says that the films Lindenlaub have been involved in are movies he has seen over and over again and has admired. “I feel privileged to be working with him on Buddha,” he said.
He went on to say that the first important decision that had to be taken by the producer, Bhupender Modi was to make Buddha in English. The director says that he has always felt that religion should cater to an international audience.
Modi hopes that Lindenlaub’s involvement with the film will help with its international appeal.
- 5/14/2010
- Bollyspice
Ashutosh Gowariker has teamed up with Hollywood cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub on his latest film Buddha. The director claimed that he had a thrilling time collaborating with Lindenlaub, who has worked on Independence Day, The Chronicles of Narnia, Stargate, Up, Close and Personal and The Jackal. "The past two months of pre-production have been exciting. It has been exhilarating to be working with the Karl (more)...
- 5/13/2010
- by By Will Astbury
- Digital Spy
Director Ashutosh Gowarikar has signed German cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, the man behind Hollywood projects like Independence Day and The Jackal, for his epic Buddha. Lindenlaub has also shot Hollywood blockbusters like Up Close & Personal, The Haunting, Black Book and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. "The past two months of pre-production have been exciting. It has been exhilarating to be working with the Dop Karl Walter Lindenlaub (The Chronicles of Narnia, Independence Day, Stargate). These are movies that I have admired and seen over and over again. So, I feel privileged to be working with him on Buddha," Gowarikar ...
- 5/13/2010
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
New Delhi, May 13 – Ashutosh Gowariker is still searching for an actor to play the title role in his film ‘Buddha’, but has finalised German cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub of ‘Independence Day’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ fame to work on the movie.
‘ ‘Buddha’ is a truly global film and we needed a team that would have a global sensibility and transcend language barriers,’ said B.K. Modi whose Spice Entertainment is producing the film.
Lindenlaub has also worked in films like.
‘ ‘Buddha’ is a truly global film and we needed a team that would have a global sensibility and transcend language barriers,’ said B.K. Modi whose Spice Entertainment is producing the film.
Lindenlaub has also worked in films like.
- 5/13/2010
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
Ashutosh Gowariker is upping the meter for his latest vehicle Buddha. He has signed Karl Walter Lindenlaub, a German cinematographer, who has shot major Hollywood blockbusters like Independence Day, Stargate, Up-close & Personal, The Jackal and Chronicles of Narnia.Producer Dr Bhupender Modi confirms the announcement about Karl Walter and says, "Buddha is a truly global film and we needed a team that would have the right sensibility and can transcend language barriers."After the box-office dud What's Your Rashee, this upgrade must be a welcome breather for Ashutosh Gowariker, who adds, "The first important decision that Dr Modi took was to make Buddha in English. And that got me interested because I have always felt that when it comes to religion, you must cater to an international audience.The past two months of pre-production have been exciting. It is exhilarating to be working with Dop Karl Walter Lindenlaub.
- 5/12/2010
- Filmicafe
Ninja Assassin is one bloody martial arts epic that might be a little light on story, but is still fun to watch . as long as you aren.t expecting too much. The film was produced by the Wachowskis and features the slick style the two are known for despite being directed by someone else. James McTeigue (who worked with the Wachowskis as a second unit director on Speed Racer and all three Matrix films) steps into the directing position for the film - which features a screenplay by Matthew Sand (who also wrote the story) and the great J. Michael Straczynski. It features slick cinematography work by Karl Walter Lindenlaub and fast paced editing by Gian...
- 4/26/2010
- by Patrick Luce
- Monsters and Critics
Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer will play the leads in "The Irishman," a crime story that Jonathan Hensleigh will direct.
Code Entertainment is producing the action movie, which is based on the real story of mobster Danny Greene (Stevenson). Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters ("Dali") wrote the script, inspired by the book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia" by Rick Porrello.
Greene was a violent Irish-American gangster who competed with the Italian mob in 1970s Cleveland and ended up provoking a countrywide turf war that crippled the mafia. Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, and Kilmer is a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene.
Code's Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso are producing, along with Dundee Entertainment's Tommy Reid and Tara Reid, who brought the property to Code. Jonathan Dana, Peter Miller and Porrello are exec producers, with George Perez serving as co-producer.
Code Entertainment is producing the action movie, which is based on the real story of mobster Danny Greene (Stevenson). Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters ("Dali") wrote the script, inspired by the book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia" by Rick Porrello.
Greene was a violent Irish-American gangster who competed with the Italian mob in 1970s Cleveland and ended up provoking a countrywide turf war that crippled the mafia. Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, and Kilmer is a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene.
Code's Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso are producing, along with Dundee Entertainment's Tommy Reid and Tara Reid, who brought the property to Code. Jonathan Dana, Peter Miller and Porrello are exec producers, with George Perez serving as co-producer.
- 5/6/2009
- by By Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens: Friday, May 16 (Walt Disney Pictures)The lion is back, the witch puts in an appearance, but that musty old wardrobe has been put out of commission in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," a worthy if somewhat less wondrous successor to that 2005 phenomenon.
Several shades darker in tone than the previous edition -- which, to be fair, didn't carry the burden of expectation that a sequel must bear -- the return to Narnia still casts a transporting spell that should nicely build on that $745 million worldwide foundation.
The second installment in C.S. Lewis' seven-part fantasy series, Prince Caspian finds the four Pevensie siblings (Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell) a year older and quite a bit wiser when they're summoned back to Narnia.
But 1,300 years have passed in their beloved home away from home, which has become a more savage place under the tyrannical reign of the evil King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), who plots to ensure that the rightful heir to the throne will no longer be his nephew, Prince Caspian (British stage actor Ben Barnes), but his own newborn son.
Having fled his would-be killers, Caspian joins forces with Narnia's youthful kings and queens to take down Miraz, with a little help from Trumpkin the Red Dwarf (a heavily disguised Peter Dinklage) and Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard), a valiant mouse rather reminiscent of "Shrek's" Puss in Boots.
Given that the sequel is again directed by Andrew Adamson, who also was behind those first two Shrek movies, that shouldn't come as a complete surprise, but the more somber Caspian also shares elements with the second Lord of the Rings installment, The Two Towers, as well as the later, moodier Harry Potter editions.
The loss-of-innocence theme of the first Narnia is significantly deepened in the script, written again by Adamson along with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, lending itself to that darker look.
But there's still much to appreciate in those gorgeous special effects and grand-scale battle sequences, not to mention Dinklage's terrific turn as the curmudgeonly Red Dwarf who handily manages to outmaneuver the title character as Narnia's most colorful new inhabitant.
Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, Mark Johnson/Silverbell Films
Cast: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklage.
Director: Andrew Adamson; Screenwriters: Andrew Adamson & Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely; Executive producer: Perry Moore; Producers: Mark Johnson, Andrew Adamson, Philip Steuer; Director of Photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub ; Production Designer: Roger Ford; Music: Harry Gregson-Williams; Costume Designer: Isis Mussenden; Editor: Sim Evan Jones.
Rated PG, 137 minutes.
Several shades darker in tone than the previous edition -- which, to be fair, didn't carry the burden of expectation that a sequel must bear -- the return to Narnia still casts a transporting spell that should nicely build on that $745 million worldwide foundation.
The second installment in C.S. Lewis' seven-part fantasy series, Prince Caspian finds the four Pevensie siblings (Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell) a year older and quite a bit wiser when they're summoned back to Narnia.
But 1,300 years have passed in their beloved home away from home, which has become a more savage place under the tyrannical reign of the evil King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), who plots to ensure that the rightful heir to the throne will no longer be his nephew, Prince Caspian (British stage actor Ben Barnes), but his own newborn son.
Having fled his would-be killers, Caspian joins forces with Narnia's youthful kings and queens to take down Miraz, with a little help from Trumpkin the Red Dwarf (a heavily disguised Peter Dinklage) and Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard), a valiant mouse rather reminiscent of "Shrek's" Puss in Boots.
Given that the sequel is again directed by Andrew Adamson, who also was behind those first two Shrek movies, that shouldn't come as a complete surprise, but the more somber Caspian also shares elements with the second Lord of the Rings installment, The Two Towers, as well as the later, moodier Harry Potter editions.
The loss-of-innocence theme of the first Narnia is significantly deepened in the script, written again by Adamson along with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, lending itself to that darker look.
But there's still much to appreciate in those gorgeous special effects and grand-scale battle sequences, not to mention Dinklage's terrific turn as the curmudgeonly Red Dwarf who handily manages to outmaneuver the title character as Narnia's most colorful new inhabitant.
Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, Mark Johnson/Silverbell Films
Cast: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklage.
Director: Andrew Adamson; Screenwriters: Andrew Adamson & Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely; Executive producer: Perry Moore; Producers: Mark Johnson, Andrew Adamson, Philip Steuer; Director of Photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub ; Production Designer: Roger Ford; Music: Harry Gregson-Williams; Costume Designer: Isis Mussenden; Editor: Sim Evan Jones.
Rated PG, 137 minutes.
VENICE, Italy -- Paul Verhoeven's World War II drama Black Book is an ambitious throwback to the days of rousing all-action wartime pictures in which an intrepid loner risks everything to fight a clearly defined enemy. It succeeds on almost all fronts. The epic film is a high-octane adventure rooted in fact with a raft of arresting characters, big action sequences and twists and turns galore as a group of Dutch resistance fighters combat the Nazis not knowing they have a traitor at their core.
Top-flight production values and a ripping yarn should mean major boxoffice returns anywhere there is a taste for old-fashioned big-screen entertainment.
Set in German-occupied Holland in 1944, the film follows a young woman named Rachel (Carice van Houten) as she attempts to flee the Nazis with her own and other Jewish families. Having purchased their river passage with all they own, they find the escape is a trap as they are intercepted by the Gestapo and mercilessly mown down.
All except Rachel, who finds her way to a group of resistance fighters run by man named Kuipers (Derek de Lint), who operates a soup kitchen as cover for his sabotage operations. Quickly recruited into the group's inner circle led by daredevil Hans (Thom Hoffman), Rachel demonstrates her bravery and resourcefulness in an encounter on a train with an SS officer named Muntze (Sebastian Koch).
Soon, Rachel is ensconced at the local Gestapo headquarters, sleeping with Muntze and working with a local floozy, Ronnie (Halina Reijn), in the office of a brutal officer named Franken (Waldemar Kopus).
Even though the end of the war is barely months away, the danger increases for the resistance group. When she discovers that there has been a plot involving both Nazis and Dutch in faking escape plans for Jewish families who are murdered and robbed, she finds herself with enemies on all sides.
Director Verhoeven, back on home turf after the Hollywood excesses of Starship Troopers and Showgirls, has fashioned an exciting tale with co-scripter Gerard Soeteman, who developed the original story. Production designer Wilbert Van Dorp and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub have done a great job in creating period detail and capturing fast-moving sequences and intimate moments. Editors Job ter Burg and James Herbert contribute fine work, and Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley's score complements it all effectively.
Van Houten makes a memorable heroine, a singer as well as a good actress, in what is a very punishing role. Koch and Hoffman do a lot to give their stereotyped roles some originality.
The filmmakers strive hard to root the picture in genuine drama. There are bookends set in Israel that add considerable emotional resonance. While the revelation of the traitor smacks of melodrama, the high adventure is mixed with moments of authentic wartime pathos.
BLACK BOOK
A Fu Works production in association with Egoli Tossell Film, Clockwork Pictures, Studio Babesberg AG, Motion Investment Group, Motel Films and Hector
A VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Screenwriters: Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Producers: San Fu Maltha, Jos van der Linden, Frans van Geste, Jeroen Baker, Teun Hilte, Jens Meurer
Executive producers: Andreas Grosch, Andrea Schmid, Marcus Schofer, Henning Molfenter, Carl Woebcken, Jamie Carmichael, Graham Begg, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Wilbert van Dorp
Music: Anne Dudley
Editors: Job ter Burg, James Herbert
Cast:
Rachel/Ellis: Carice van Houten
Ludwig Muntze: Sebastian Koch
Hans Akkermans: Thom Hoffman
Ronnie: Halina Reijn
Gunther Franken: Waldemar Kobus
Gerben Kuipers: Derek de Lint
Gen. Kautner: Christian Berkel
Notary Smaal: Dolf de Vries
Van Gein: Peter Blok
Rob: Michiel Huisman
Tim Kuipers: Ronald Armbrust
Kees: Frank Lammers
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 145 minutes...
Top-flight production values and a ripping yarn should mean major boxoffice returns anywhere there is a taste for old-fashioned big-screen entertainment.
Set in German-occupied Holland in 1944, the film follows a young woman named Rachel (Carice van Houten) as she attempts to flee the Nazis with her own and other Jewish families. Having purchased their river passage with all they own, they find the escape is a trap as they are intercepted by the Gestapo and mercilessly mown down.
All except Rachel, who finds her way to a group of resistance fighters run by man named Kuipers (Derek de Lint), who operates a soup kitchen as cover for his sabotage operations. Quickly recruited into the group's inner circle led by daredevil Hans (Thom Hoffman), Rachel demonstrates her bravery and resourcefulness in an encounter on a train with an SS officer named Muntze (Sebastian Koch).
Soon, Rachel is ensconced at the local Gestapo headquarters, sleeping with Muntze and working with a local floozy, Ronnie (Halina Reijn), in the office of a brutal officer named Franken (Waldemar Kopus).
Even though the end of the war is barely months away, the danger increases for the resistance group. When she discovers that there has been a plot involving both Nazis and Dutch in faking escape plans for Jewish families who are murdered and robbed, she finds herself with enemies on all sides.
Director Verhoeven, back on home turf after the Hollywood excesses of Starship Troopers and Showgirls, has fashioned an exciting tale with co-scripter Gerard Soeteman, who developed the original story. Production designer Wilbert Van Dorp and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub have done a great job in creating period detail and capturing fast-moving sequences and intimate moments. Editors Job ter Burg and James Herbert contribute fine work, and Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley's score complements it all effectively.
Van Houten makes a memorable heroine, a singer as well as a good actress, in what is a very punishing role. Koch and Hoffman do a lot to give their stereotyped roles some originality.
The filmmakers strive hard to root the picture in genuine drama. There are bookends set in Israel that add considerable emotional resonance. While the revelation of the traitor smacks of melodrama, the high adventure is mixed with moments of authentic wartime pathos.
BLACK BOOK
A Fu Works production in association with Egoli Tossell Film, Clockwork Pictures, Studio Babesberg AG, Motion Investment Group, Motel Films and Hector
A VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Screenwriters: Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Producers: San Fu Maltha, Jos van der Linden, Frans van Geste, Jeroen Baker, Teun Hilte, Jens Meurer
Executive producers: Andreas Grosch, Andrea Schmid, Marcus Schofer, Henning Molfenter, Carl Woebcken, Jamie Carmichael, Graham Begg, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Wilbert van Dorp
Music: Anne Dudley
Editors: Job ter Burg, James Herbert
Cast:
Rachel/Ellis: Carice van Houten
Ludwig Muntze: Sebastian Koch
Hans Akkermans: Thom Hoffman
Ronnie: Halina Reijn
Gunther Franken: Waldemar Kobus
Gerben Kuipers: Derek de Lint
Gen. Kautner: Christian Berkel
Notary Smaal: Dolf de Vries
Van Gein: Peter Blok
Rob: Michiel Huisman
Tim Kuipers: Ronald Armbrust
Kees: Frank Lammers
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 145 minutes...
"Because of Winn-Dixie", based on the popular young people's novel by Kate DiCamillo, can't decide what it wants to be when it grows up.
It starts off as a gently amusing girl-and-her-dog story before awkwardly shifting gears into a more maudlin portrait of a town and its sorrows, then keeps attempting to backpedal into cute animal mode whenever the prolonged downbeat elements threaten to send kids screaming for their Game Boy Advance SPs.
Despite director Wayne Wang's flair for vehicles about characters seeking to fill a void in their lives ("The Joy Luck Club", "Smoke"), he never achieves the right balance here, struggling throughout with an episodic script by first-time screenwriter and former Warner Bros. executive Joan Singleton.
Given the film's tendency toward sermonizing, it's understandable that 20 Century Fox is playing up the lovable-pooch angle in its advertising. In print ads, they've even cut the young female protagonist off above her sneakers so as not to discourage the potential boy-and-his-dog demo.
Even so, the picture will prove to be a tough theatrical proposition, but those complaining that they don't make family movies with good old-fashioned values anymore could give it a boost when it arrives on home video.
Set in fictional, sleepy Naomi, Fla. (played by Napoleonville, La.), the redemptive story is narrated by India Opal Buloni (newcomer Annasophia Robb), a lonely 10-year-old who was abandoned by her mother at age 3.
As the new kid in town whose emotionally closed-off preacher dad (Jeff Daniels) has set up a church in an empty convenience store, India is finding it difficult making friends.
But she finds a kindred spirit in a big, dirty abandoned dog she names Winn-Dixie, after the supermarket in which the wayward mutt was generating mass chaos.
Little by little, and glory be, India and her faithful companion manage to shake the town out of a deep, melancholic funk.
There's always room in the movie market for an emotionally uplifting family story, but "Winn-Dixie"'s book of redemption is short a few green stamps.
Aside from navigating the wildly uneven tonal shifts, the inhabitants of Naomi have been reduced to the most cardboard of stock characters -- the spinster librarian Eva Marie Saint), the eccentric town outcast (Cicely Tyson), the mysterious drifter (singer Dave Matthews) -- and the actors playing them are wasted by those one-dimensional limitations.
Behind the scenes, establishing the comfortably worn-in look of the production are cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, production designer Donald Graham Burt and costume designer Hope Hanafin, while Rachel Portman, who has scored several of Wang's films, contributes another subtly orchestrated composition.
Because of Winn-Dixie
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox and Walden Media present a Wayne Wang film
Credits:
Director: Wayne Wang
Screenwriter: Joan Singleton
Based on the novel by: Kate DiCamillo
Producers: Trevor Albert, Joan Singleton
Executive producer: Ralph Singleton
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Donald Graham Burt
Editor: Deirdre Slevin
Costume designer: Hope Hanafin
Music: Rachel Portman
Cast:
Preacher: Jeff Daniels
Gloria Dump: Cicely Tyson
Otis: Dave Matthews
Miss Franny: Eva Marie Saint
India Opal Buloni: AnnaSophia Robb
Sweetie Pie Thomas: Elle Fanning
MPAA rating: PG
Running time -- 109 minutes...
It starts off as a gently amusing girl-and-her-dog story before awkwardly shifting gears into a more maudlin portrait of a town and its sorrows, then keeps attempting to backpedal into cute animal mode whenever the prolonged downbeat elements threaten to send kids screaming for their Game Boy Advance SPs.
Despite director Wayne Wang's flair for vehicles about characters seeking to fill a void in their lives ("The Joy Luck Club", "Smoke"), he never achieves the right balance here, struggling throughout with an episodic script by first-time screenwriter and former Warner Bros. executive Joan Singleton.
Given the film's tendency toward sermonizing, it's understandable that 20 Century Fox is playing up the lovable-pooch angle in its advertising. In print ads, they've even cut the young female protagonist off above her sneakers so as not to discourage the potential boy-and-his-dog demo.
Even so, the picture will prove to be a tough theatrical proposition, but those complaining that they don't make family movies with good old-fashioned values anymore could give it a boost when it arrives on home video.
Set in fictional, sleepy Naomi, Fla. (played by Napoleonville, La.), the redemptive story is narrated by India Opal Buloni (newcomer Annasophia Robb), a lonely 10-year-old who was abandoned by her mother at age 3.
As the new kid in town whose emotionally closed-off preacher dad (Jeff Daniels) has set up a church in an empty convenience store, India is finding it difficult making friends.
But she finds a kindred spirit in a big, dirty abandoned dog she names Winn-Dixie, after the supermarket in which the wayward mutt was generating mass chaos.
Little by little, and glory be, India and her faithful companion manage to shake the town out of a deep, melancholic funk.
There's always room in the movie market for an emotionally uplifting family story, but "Winn-Dixie"'s book of redemption is short a few green stamps.
Aside from navigating the wildly uneven tonal shifts, the inhabitants of Naomi have been reduced to the most cardboard of stock characters -- the spinster librarian Eva Marie Saint), the eccentric town outcast (Cicely Tyson), the mysterious drifter (singer Dave Matthews) -- and the actors playing them are wasted by those one-dimensional limitations.
Behind the scenes, establishing the comfortably worn-in look of the production are cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, production designer Donald Graham Burt and costume designer Hope Hanafin, while Rachel Portman, who has scored several of Wang's films, contributes another subtly orchestrated composition.
Because of Winn-Dixie
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox and Walden Media present a Wayne Wang film
Credits:
Director: Wayne Wang
Screenwriter: Joan Singleton
Based on the novel by: Kate DiCamillo
Producers: Trevor Albert, Joan Singleton
Executive producer: Ralph Singleton
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Donald Graham Burt
Editor: Deirdre Slevin
Costume designer: Hope Hanafin
Music: Rachel Portman
Cast:
Preacher: Jeff Daniels
Gloria Dump: Cicely Tyson
Otis: Dave Matthews
Miss Franny: Eva Marie Saint
India Opal Buloni: AnnaSophia Robb
Sweetie Pie Thomas: Elle Fanning
MPAA rating: PG
Running time -- 109 minutes...
The closing-night film of the Deauville American Film Festival on Sept. 8 and slated soon for a theatrical release by Fox Searchlight, The Banger Sisters is an uneven comedy about two old girlfriends -- once legendary groupies -- reuniting in an initially unpleasant fashion when one of them is financially down-and-out and the other is trying to forget their wild pasts. It's got more frank talk about sex than most youth comedies, while its portrayal of a model American family almost disintegrating is some kind of new boomer fantasy/nightmare.
Starring Goldie Hawn -- in one of her best performances -- and Susan Sarandon as the title characters who are not related but teamed up to seduce many of the rock music icons of the 1960s, writer-director Bob Dolman's first feature manages to celebrate middle-aged women and revel in them as fully dimensional and sensual while also making a welcome defense of the era in which they flourished.
Its commercial prospects are subject to the vagaries of critical response, marketing department patience and awards consideration.
Where the film fails to find many contrasts between people and things from then and now beyond the transformation of Sarandon's character into a strict mom, Sisters lets clunky plotting and an uninteresting character creep into a potentially funnier and more endearing scenario. Not to knock the professionalism of Geoffrey Rush, but his performance as a depressed screenwriter who hasn't had sex in 10 years is a mood killer.
Much of the mood of Sisters is orchestrated by Suzette (Hawn), a big-hearted honey who never settled down. Still working on the Sunset Strip at the Whisky a Go Go, where decades before she had as lovers the likes of Jim Morrison and Jimmy Page, Suzette is like an old baseball catcher watching younger players run on and off the field. Her glory days are over, but with a little money, maybe she can hang around and keep watching.
With no advance warning, Suzette drives to Phoenix to borrow money from Lavinia (Sarandon). The two haven't seen each other in 20 years, and each is surprised by how the other has turned out. But first, cashless Suzette takes on a passenger who offers to pay for gas. A fussy eccentric who quickly gets the picture that Suzette is a frank-talking, aggressive female who feels sorry for him, Harry (Rush) has an old manual typewriter and a gun with one bullet.
To his credit, Harry comes around and realizes what a grand time a loveless guy like him can have with Suzette, but the plot machinations needed to keep him in the picture underscore Dolman's overall lack of a strong central theme. Similarly, though individual scenes are hilarious and the performances are more than adequate, the way Suzette crashes into Lavinia's life and causes turmoil is satire reminiscent of American Beauty but with even less cogent results.
When it's Goldie vs. Susan, with the former's character scoring many points early for being upfront and genuine, Sisters has the feel of a classic movie in the making, but Dolman and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub are unable to keep the momentum going. Eventually, in a partly successful scene, Lavinia can't bear it when her teenage daughters, Hannah (Erika Christensen) and Ginger (Eva Amurri), and lawyer husband Raymond (Robin Thomas) laugh at the thought that she was ever rebellious or "less than perfect."
Snapping back to her old ways, Lavinia cuts her hair, borrows some clothes and goes dancing with Suzette. Getting in the groove with the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House," Lavinia proves that Bob Seger was right: "Rock 'n' roll never forgets." Later, she brings out a box of mementos, including an old joint and a fistful of Polaroids. The latter, rock star "cock" shots, are the stuff of a straitlaced clan's meltdown, which almost occurs when the rest of Lavinia's family bursts in on the stoned gals.
Although Raymond is largely silent and unseen, Lavinia's daughters provide an easy entry into the less-than-perfect younger generation. Hannah is on every page of the high school yearbook and pessimistic on the eve of delivering the school's graduation speech. In their somewhat forced introduction at a hotel, Suzette helps her get through a bad acid trip and later checks out the tush of her boyfriend (Matthew Carey) when the youngsters are caught making love in the family pool.
Sarandon's daughter in real life, Amurri in Sisters plays a much shriller sibling than the charmingly upbeat daughter she plays in the upcoming Made-up. Here, she's loud and physical and almost steals the show. As for the big sisters, Sarandon goes through a bigger transformation, but she has less raw charisma than Hawn, who dominates the film. It's impossible not to think of Kate Hudson, Hawn's daughter, in Almost Famous. Only in movies can one cheer a mother for burning up the screen as a sexy woman, showing one way to survive in a tough business.
THE BANGER SISTERS
Fox Searchlight
A Gran Via/Elizabeth Cantillon production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Bob Dolman
Producers: Mark Johnson, Elizabeth Cantillon
Executive producer: David Bushell
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Maia Javan
Editor: Aram Nigoghossian
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Music: Trevor Rabin
Casting: Sheila Jaffe, Georgianne Walken
Cast:
Suzette: Goldie Hawn
Lavinia: Susan Sarandon
Harry: Geoffrey Rush
Hannah: Erika Christensen
Ginger: Eva Amurri
Raymond: Robin Thomas
Jules: Matthew Carey
Running time -- 98 minutes
MPAA rating R...
Starring Goldie Hawn -- in one of her best performances -- and Susan Sarandon as the title characters who are not related but teamed up to seduce many of the rock music icons of the 1960s, writer-director Bob Dolman's first feature manages to celebrate middle-aged women and revel in them as fully dimensional and sensual while also making a welcome defense of the era in which they flourished.
Its commercial prospects are subject to the vagaries of critical response, marketing department patience and awards consideration.
Where the film fails to find many contrasts between people and things from then and now beyond the transformation of Sarandon's character into a strict mom, Sisters lets clunky plotting and an uninteresting character creep into a potentially funnier and more endearing scenario. Not to knock the professionalism of Geoffrey Rush, but his performance as a depressed screenwriter who hasn't had sex in 10 years is a mood killer.
Much of the mood of Sisters is orchestrated by Suzette (Hawn), a big-hearted honey who never settled down. Still working on the Sunset Strip at the Whisky a Go Go, where decades before she had as lovers the likes of Jim Morrison and Jimmy Page, Suzette is like an old baseball catcher watching younger players run on and off the field. Her glory days are over, but with a little money, maybe she can hang around and keep watching.
With no advance warning, Suzette drives to Phoenix to borrow money from Lavinia (Sarandon). The two haven't seen each other in 20 years, and each is surprised by how the other has turned out. But first, cashless Suzette takes on a passenger who offers to pay for gas. A fussy eccentric who quickly gets the picture that Suzette is a frank-talking, aggressive female who feels sorry for him, Harry (Rush) has an old manual typewriter and a gun with one bullet.
To his credit, Harry comes around and realizes what a grand time a loveless guy like him can have with Suzette, but the plot machinations needed to keep him in the picture underscore Dolman's overall lack of a strong central theme. Similarly, though individual scenes are hilarious and the performances are more than adequate, the way Suzette crashes into Lavinia's life and causes turmoil is satire reminiscent of American Beauty but with even less cogent results.
When it's Goldie vs. Susan, with the former's character scoring many points early for being upfront and genuine, Sisters has the feel of a classic movie in the making, but Dolman and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub are unable to keep the momentum going. Eventually, in a partly successful scene, Lavinia can't bear it when her teenage daughters, Hannah (Erika Christensen) and Ginger (Eva Amurri), and lawyer husband Raymond (Robin Thomas) laugh at the thought that she was ever rebellious or "less than perfect."
Snapping back to her old ways, Lavinia cuts her hair, borrows some clothes and goes dancing with Suzette. Getting in the groove with the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House," Lavinia proves that Bob Seger was right: "Rock 'n' roll never forgets." Later, she brings out a box of mementos, including an old joint and a fistful of Polaroids. The latter, rock star "cock" shots, are the stuff of a straitlaced clan's meltdown, which almost occurs when the rest of Lavinia's family bursts in on the stoned gals.
Although Raymond is largely silent and unseen, Lavinia's daughters provide an easy entry into the less-than-perfect younger generation. Hannah is on every page of the high school yearbook and pessimistic on the eve of delivering the school's graduation speech. In their somewhat forced introduction at a hotel, Suzette helps her get through a bad acid trip and later checks out the tush of her boyfriend (Matthew Carey) when the youngsters are caught making love in the family pool.
Sarandon's daughter in real life, Amurri in Sisters plays a much shriller sibling than the charmingly upbeat daughter she plays in the upcoming Made-up. Here, she's loud and physical and almost steals the show. As for the big sisters, Sarandon goes through a bigger transformation, but she has less raw charisma than Hawn, who dominates the film. It's impossible not to think of Kate Hudson, Hawn's daughter, in Almost Famous. Only in movies can one cheer a mother for burning up the screen as a sexy woman, showing one way to survive in a tough business.
THE BANGER SISTERS
Fox Searchlight
A Gran Via/Elizabeth Cantillon production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Bob Dolman
Producers: Mark Johnson, Elizabeth Cantillon
Executive producer: David Bushell
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Maia Javan
Editor: Aram Nigoghossian
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Music: Trevor Rabin
Casting: Sheila Jaffe, Georgianne Walken
Cast:
Suzette: Goldie Hawn
Lavinia: Susan Sarandon
Harry: Geoffrey Rush
Hannah: Erika Christensen
Ginger: Eva Amurri
Raymond: Robin Thomas
Jules: Matthew Carey
Running time -- 98 minutes
MPAA rating R...
As with last year's "Monster's Ball", there's an aching sins-of-the-father theme running deeply through "City by the Sea", an exceptionally acted, quietly affecting cop drama set against the decaying backdrop of the once bustling resort destination of Long Beach, Long Island.
Taking its cue from a 1997 Esquire magazine article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael McAlary, the scenario concerns a veteran New York City homicide detective who finds himself having to do the right thing as both a law enforcer and a parent when a murder suspect turns out to be his estranged junkie son.
Despite an exceptional cast -- headed by Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand and James Franco -- that has been beautifully directed by Michael Caton-Jones, the picture's rather bleak subject matter makes for a tough sell for Warner Bros. Pictures, which, after the disastrous "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" and the anemic "Blood Work", is looking to get back into the boxoffice groove.
De Niro, reuniting with his "This Boy's Life" director, is in fine, introspective form as Detective Vincent LaMarca, a man whose committed career with the NYPD has served to help block out a painful personal past.
His steady girlfriend, Michelle (McDormand), knows about an ex-wife (Patti LuPone) who lives back in Long Beach. But she's unaware of the young son he had left behind and of the emotionally distant LaMarca's own traumatic childhood -- his father was given the electric chair for kidnapping a baby from a wealthy family. The child accidentally suffocated in the back seat of his father's car while he was waiting for the ransom money.
But when LaMarca's now drug-addicted son, Joey (Franco), is at first implicated in the murder of a dealer and then is the prime suspect in a cop killing, his long-buried past comes back to haunt him, with the news media floating the notion of the existence of a "murder gene" that is passed down through the generations.
The turn of events has brought father and son face to face for the first time in 14 years, but the tricky outcome depends on the choices the elder LaMarca must make as a parent and an officer of the law.
What starts out as a generic, gritty crime thriller gets more interesting as it goes along as Caton-Jones and screenwriter Ken Hixon ("Inventing the Abbotts") carefully add on all the layers of intrigue.
Hitting it all home in expertly modulated performances is a uniformly excellent cast. While De Niro and McDormand are a treat to watch together -- as fascinating for the choices they don't make as the ones they do -- the always interesting Franco, who made for such a convincing James Dean in the TNT movie of the same name, is equally believable as De Niro's son. He also manages to avoid the usual physical tics that go with the junkie turf.
Also doing fine work are LuPone, George Dzundza as De Niro's partner and Eliza Dushku (who also appeared in "This Boy's Life") as the struggling mother of Franco's young son.
On the technical end, cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub and production designer Jane Musky take effective advantage of the dilapidated seaside setting (with neighboring Asbury Park, N.J., subbing for the similarly shabby Long Beach), while John Murphy's low-key score gently rocks the emotional boat.
CITY BY THE SEA
Warner Bros. Pictures
Franchise Pictures presents a Brad Grey Pictures production
A film by Michael Caton- Jones
Credits: Director: Michael Caton-Jones; Screenwriter: Ken Hixon; Based on the article "Mark of a Murderer" by: Michael McAlary; Producers: Brad Grey, Elie Samaha, Michael Caton-Jones, Matthew Baer; Executive producers: Andrew Stevens, Dan Kores, Don Carmody, Roger Paradiso; Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub; Production designer: Jane Musky; Editor: Jim Clark; Costume designer: Richard Owings; Music: John Murphy; Casting: Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond. Cast: Vincent LaMarca: Robert De Niro; Michelle: Frances McDormand; Joey LaMarca: James Franco; Gina: Eliza Dushku; Spyder: William Forsythe; Reginald Duffy: George Dzundza; Maggie: Patti LuPone.
MPAA rating R, running time 108 minutes.
Taking its cue from a 1997 Esquire magazine article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael McAlary, the scenario concerns a veteran New York City homicide detective who finds himself having to do the right thing as both a law enforcer and a parent when a murder suspect turns out to be his estranged junkie son.
Despite an exceptional cast -- headed by Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand and James Franco -- that has been beautifully directed by Michael Caton-Jones, the picture's rather bleak subject matter makes for a tough sell for Warner Bros. Pictures, which, after the disastrous "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" and the anemic "Blood Work", is looking to get back into the boxoffice groove.
De Niro, reuniting with his "This Boy's Life" director, is in fine, introspective form as Detective Vincent LaMarca, a man whose committed career with the NYPD has served to help block out a painful personal past.
His steady girlfriend, Michelle (McDormand), knows about an ex-wife (Patti LuPone) who lives back in Long Beach. But she's unaware of the young son he had left behind and of the emotionally distant LaMarca's own traumatic childhood -- his father was given the electric chair for kidnapping a baby from a wealthy family. The child accidentally suffocated in the back seat of his father's car while he was waiting for the ransom money.
But when LaMarca's now drug-addicted son, Joey (Franco), is at first implicated in the murder of a dealer and then is the prime suspect in a cop killing, his long-buried past comes back to haunt him, with the news media floating the notion of the existence of a "murder gene" that is passed down through the generations.
The turn of events has brought father and son face to face for the first time in 14 years, but the tricky outcome depends on the choices the elder LaMarca must make as a parent and an officer of the law.
What starts out as a generic, gritty crime thriller gets more interesting as it goes along as Caton-Jones and screenwriter Ken Hixon ("Inventing the Abbotts") carefully add on all the layers of intrigue.
Hitting it all home in expertly modulated performances is a uniformly excellent cast. While De Niro and McDormand are a treat to watch together -- as fascinating for the choices they don't make as the ones they do -- the always interesting Franco, who made for such a convincing James Dean in the TNT movie of the same name, is equally believable as De Niro's son. He also manages to avoid the usual physical tics that go with the junkie turf.
Also doing fine work are LuPone, George Dzundza as De Niro's partner and Eliza Dushku (who also appeared in "This Boy's Life") as the struggling mother of Franco's young son.
On the technical end, cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub and production designer Jane Musky take effective advantage of the dilapidated seaside setting (with neighboring Asbury Park, N.J., subbing for the similarly shabby Long Beach), while John Murphy's low-key score gently rocks the emotional boat.
CITY BY THE SEA
Warner Bros. Pictures
Franchise Pictures presents a Brad Grey Pictures production
A film by Michael Caton- Jones
Credits: Director: Michael Caton-Jones; Screenwriter: Ken Hixon; Based on the article "Mark of a Murderer" by: Michael McAlary; Producers: Brad Grey, Elie Samaha, Michael Caton-Jones, Matthew Baer; Executive producers: Andrew Stevens, Dan Kores, Don Carmody, Roger Paradiso; Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub; Production designer: Jane Musky; Editor: Jim Clark; Costume designer: Richard Owings; Music: John Murphy; Casting: Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond. Cast: Vincent LaMarca: Robert De Niro; Michelle: Frances McDormand; Joey LaMarca: James Franco; Gina: Eliza Dushku; Spyder: William Forsythe; Reginald Duffy: George Dzundza; Maggie: Patti LuPone.
MPAA rating R, running time 108 minutes.
- 8/26/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As with last year's "Monster's Ball," there's an aching sins-of-the-father theme running deeply through City by the Sea, an exceptionally acted, quietly affecting cop drama set against the decaying backdrop of the once bustling resort destination of Long Beach, Long Island.
Taking its cue from a 1997 Esquire magazine article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael McAlary, the scenario concerns a veteran New York City homicide detective who finds himself having to do the right thing as both a law enforcer and a parent when a murder suspect turns out to be his estranged junkie son.
Despite an exceptional cast -- headed by Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand and James Franco -- that has been beautifully directed by Michael Caton-Jones, the picture's rather bleak subject matter makes for a tough sell for Warner Bros. Pictures, which, after the disastrous The Adventures of Pluto Nash and the anemic Blood Work, is looking to get back into the boxoffice groove.
De Niro, reuniting with his "This Boy's Life" director, is in fine, introspective form as Detective Vincent LaMarca, a man whose committed career with the NYPD has served to help block out a painful personal past.
His steady girlfriend, Michelle (McDormand), knows about an ex-wife (Patti LuPone) who lives back in Long Beach. But she's unaware of the young son he had left behind and of the emotionally distant LaMarca's own traumatic childhood -- his father was given the electric chair for kidnapping a baby from a wealthy family. The child accidentally suffocated in the back seat of his father's car while he was waiting for the ransom money.
But when LaMarca's now drug-addicted son, Joey (Franco), is at first implicated in the murder of a dealer and then is the prime suspect in a cop killing, his long-buried past comes back to haunt him, with the news media floating the notion of the existence of a "murder gene" that is passed down through the generations.
The turn of events has brought father and son face to face for the first time in 14 years, but the tricky outcome depends on the choices the elder LaMarca must make as a parent and an officer of the law.
What starts out as a generic, gritty crime thriller gets more interesting as it goes along as Caton-Jones and screenwriter Ken Hixon (Inventing the Abbotts) carefully add on all the layers of intrigue.
Hitting it all home in expertly modulated performances is a uniformly excellent cast. While De Niro and McDormand are a treat to watch together -- as fascinating for the choices they don't make as the ones they do -- the always interesting Franco, who made for such a convincing James Dean in the TNT movie of the same name, is equally believable as De Niro's son. He also manages to avoid the usual physical tics that go with the junkie turf.
Also doing fine work are LuPone, George Dzundza as De Niro's partner and Eliza Dushku (who also appeared in "This Boy's Life") as the struggling mother of Franco's young son.
On the technical end, cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub and production designer Jane Musky take effective advantage of the dilapidated seaside setting (with neighboring Asbury Park, N.J., subbing for the similarly shabby Long Beach), while John Murphy's low-key score gently rocks the emotional boat.
CITY BY THE SEA
Warner Bros. Pictures
Franchise Pictures presents a Brad Grey Pictures production
A film by Michael Caton- Jones
Credits: Director: Michael Caton-Jones; Screenwriter: Ken Hixon; Based on the article "Mark of a Murderer" by: Michael McAlary; Producers: Brad Grey, Elie Samaha, Michael Caton-Jones, Matthew Baer; Executive producers: Andrew Stevens, Dan Kores, Don Carmody, Roger Paradiso; Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub; Production designer: Jane Musky; Editor: Jim Clark; Costume designer: Richard Owings; Music: John Murphy; Casting: Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond. Cast: Vincent LaMarca: Robert De Niro; Michelle: Frances McDormand; Joey LaMarca: James Franco; Gina: Eliza Dushku; Spyder: William Forsythe; Reginald Duffy: George Dzundza; Maggie: Patti LuPone.
MPAA rating R, running time 108 minutes.
Taking its cue from a 1997 Esquire magazine article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael McAlary, the scenario concerns a veteran New York City homicide detective who finds himself having to do the right thing as both a law enforcer and a parent when a murder suspect turns out to be his estranged junkie son.
Despite an exceptional cast -- headed by Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand and James Franco -- that has been beautifully directed by Michael Caton-Jones, the picture's rather bleak subject matter makes for a tough sell for Warner Bros. Pictures, which, after the disastrous The Adventures of Pluto Nash and the anemic Blood Work, is looking to get back into the boxoffice groove.
De Niro, reuniting with his "This Boy's Life" director, is in fine, introspective form as Detective Vincent LaMarca, a man whose committed career with the NYPD has served to help block out a painful personal past.
His steady girlfriend, Michelle (McDormand), knows about an ex-wife (Patti LuPone) who lives back in Long Beach. But she's unaware of the young son he had left behind and of the emotionally distant LaMarca's own traumatic childhood -- his father was given the electric chair for kidnapping a baby from a wealthy family. The child accidentally suffocated in the back seat of his father's car while he was waiting for the ransom money.
But when LaMarca's now drug-addicted son, Joey (Franco), is at first implicated in the murder of a dealer and then is the prime suspect in a cop killing, his long-buried past comes back to haunt him, with the news media floating the notion of the existence of a "murder gene" that is passed down through the generations.
The turn of events has brought father and son face to face for the first time in 14 years, but the tricky outcome depends on the choices the elder LaMarca must make as a parent and an officer of the law.
What starts out as a generic, gritty crime thriller gets more interesting as it goes along as Caton-Jones and screenwriter Ken Hixon (Inventing the Abbotts) carefully add on all the layers of intrigue.
Hitting it all home in expertly modulated performances is a uniformly excellent cast. While De Niro and McDormand are a treat to watch together -- as fascinating for the choices they don't make as the ones they do -- the always interesting Franco, who made for such a convincing James Dean in the TNT movie of the same name, is equally believable as De Niro's son. He also manages to avoid the usual physical tics that go with the junkie turf.
Also doing fine work are LuPone, George Dzundza as De Niro's partner and Eliza Dushku (who also appeared in "This Boy's Life") as the struggling mother of Franco's young son.
On the technical end, cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub and production designer Jane Musky take effective advantage of the dilapidated seaside setting (with neighboring Asbury Park, N.J., subbing for the similarly shabby Long Beach), while John Murphy's low-key score gently rocks the emotional boat.
CITY BY THE SEA
Warner Bros. Pictures
Franchise Pictures presents a Brad Grey Pictures production
A film by Michael Caton- Jones
Credits: Director: Michael Caton-Jones; Screenwriter: Ken Hixon; Based on the article "Mark of a Murderer" by: Michael McAlary; Producers: Brad Grey, Elie Samaha, Michael Caton-Jones, Matthew Baer; Executive producers: Andrew Stevens, Dan Kores, Don Carmody, Roger Paradiso; Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub; Production designer: Jane Musky; Editor: Jim Clark; Costume designer: Richard Owings; Music: John Murphy; Casting: Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond. Cast: Vincent LaMarca: Robert De Niro; Michelle: Frances McDormand; Joey LaMarca: James Franco; Gina: Eliza Dushku; Spyder: William Forsythe; Reginald Duffy: George Dzundza; Maggie: Patti LuPone.
MPAA rating R, running time 108 minutes.
- 8/26/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A war between style and substance breaks out in the very first minutes of "Isn't She Great", and style wins at every turn.
Only the style of this particular film rarely suits its substance, which turns "Isn't She Great" into a weird hybrid -- the celebrity biopic as musical, only without music.
What today's audiences are going to make of this gloss on the life of best-selling trash novelist Jacqueline Susann is hard to tell. "Valley of the Dolls" was a long time ago, so the film will have to rely largely on middle-age moviegoers and Bette Midler fans. That may not be enough in theatrical release, but the movie could be a lively performer in downstream markets.
The film derives from a 1995 New Yorker magazine piece by book editor and memoirist Michael Korda. In "Wasn't She Great", Korda told the unconventional love story of Susann, an ambitious Jewish girl who just wanted to be famous, and Irving Mansfield, the manager and publicist who adored her, married her and made her dream come true before she died of cancer at an early age.
Writer Paul Rudnick's take on this tale, ably abetted by the smart filmmaking team of director Andrew Bergman and producer Mike Lobell, views Susann as one of those wildly eccentric, larger-than-life great dames of musical theater, having more in common with Dolly Levi or Auntie Mame than Danielle Steel. When she walks into Lindy's, you half expect the waiters to break into a chorus of "Isn't She Great!"
And with Midler playing Jackie and Broadway star Nathan Lane playing Irving and Burt Bacharach aboard as composer, why not? Yet except for Midler teaming with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme (played by their son, David Lawrence, and Debbie Gravitte), the two singers warble nary a note.
In a movie Bergman admits is only "loosely based" on Susann's life, Jackie is transformed into a crass, spotlight-loving funny girl in danger of drifting from show business wannabe into never-was before Irving rescues her and turns her into a best-selling writer. In the Mansfields' opulent Manhattan apartment, actors and editors dash in and out with comic fury, joke lines hit with staccato intensity -- "Irving, can I write about orgasms?" -- and the only deep, dark secrets in their lives are Jackie's cancer and their autistic son.
Jettisoned from this sanitized account are Jackie's drug binges, her innumerable affairs with the famous and infamous, her strange relationship with her father and the true horror of the institution that housed her son. Even some of its "facts" get misstated. Truman Capote did indeed say of a rival author, "That isn't writing. That's typing." Only he said it of Jack Kerouac, not Jackie Susann.
The film does touch briefly on Susann's marketing genius, her willingness to hit the road and hustle "Valley of the Dolls" with the personal touch at even the smallest bookseller. (The book did sell 19 million copies.) But as with her cute conversations with God, held periodically at a well-lit tree in Central Park, her hustle is seen only in the context of lovably eccentricity.
Central to "Isn't She Great" is the love story between Jackie and Irving. Yet the film never quite gets around to a love scene. The closest Rudnick and Bergman come is a negotiation, again in Central Park, in which Jackie sweet talks Irving into becoming her agent.
Indeed Midler and Lane rarely stand close to one another. Did they suspect their own show business personas would not mesh in this particular story?
One thing the movie does not lack is energy. Stockard Channing, looking like she dropped in from a valley of the dolls holiday, is ever supportive and wisecracking -- as best girl pals always are. John Cleese and David Hyde Pierce make an amusing comic duo as the buoyant publisher and prissy editor who come to adore their gutsy authoress.
Amanda Peet, as an early supporter of Jackie's at the publishing house, is highly animated though without a distinct role to play. Even Jackie's poodle brightly jumps into people's arms on cue.
On the technical side, designer Stuart Wurtzel and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub go for Day-Glo colors and high key lighting to emphasize the cheery side of the Jackie-Irving love tale.
There's no denying "Isn't She Great" is trashy fun (and could have been much trashier if the filmmakers have been so inclined). But, ultimately, the viewer can't help feeling that Jacqueline Susann is largely irrelevant to her own celebrity biopic.
ISN'T SHE GREAT
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures and Mutual Film Co. present a Lobell/Bergman production
Producer:Mike Lobell
Director:Andrew Bergman
Screenwriter:Paul Rudnick
Based on an article by:Michael Korda
Executive producers:Ted Kurdyla, Gary Levinsohn, Mark Gordon
Director of photography:Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer:Stuart Wurtzel
Music:Burt Bacharach
Costume designer:Julie Weiss
Editor:Barry Malkin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jacqueline Susann:Bette Midler
Irving Mansfield:Nathan Lane
Florence Maybelle:Stockard Channing
Michael Mastings:David Hyde Pierce
Henry Marcus:John Cleese
Debbie:Amanda Peet
Maury Manning:John Larroquette
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Only the style of this particular film rarely suits its substance, which turns "Isn't She Great" into a weird hybrid -- the celebrity biopic as musical, only without music.
What today's audiences are going to make of this gloss on the life of best-selling trash novelist Jacqueline Susann is hard to tell. "Valley of the Dolls" was a long time ago, so the film will have to rely largely on middle-age moviegoers and Bette Midler fans. That may not be enough in theatrical release, but the movie could be a lively performer in downstream markets.
The film derives from a 1995 New Yorker magazine piece by book editor and memoirist Michael Korda. In "Wasn't She Great", Korda told the unconventional love story of Susann, an ambitious Jewish girl who just wanted to be famous, and Irving Mansfield, the manager and publicist who adored her, married her and made her dream come true before she died of cancer at an early age.
Writer Paul Rudnick's take on this tale, ably abetted by the smart filmmaking team of director Andrew Bergman and producer Mike Lobell, views Susann as one of those wildly eccentric, larger-than-life great dames of musical theater, having more in common with Dolly Levi or Auntie Mame than Danielle Steel. When she walks into Lindy's, you half expect the waiters to break into a chorus of "Isn't She Great!"
And with Midler playing Jackie and Broadway star Nathan Lane playing Irving and Burt Bacharach aboard as composer, why not? Yet except for Midler teaming with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme (played by their son, David Lawrence, and Debbie Gravitte), the two singers warble nary a note.
In a movie Bergman admits is only "loosely based" on Susann's life, Jackie is transformed into a crass, spotlight-loving funny girl in danger of drifting from show business wannabe into never-was before Irving rescues her and turns her into a best-selling writer. In the Mansfields' opulent Manhattan apartment, actors and editors dash in and out with comic fury, joke lines hit with staccato intensity -- "Irving, can I write about orgasms?" -- and the only deep, dark secrets in their lives are Jackie's cancer and their autistic son.
Jettisoned from this sanitized account are Jackie's drug binges, her innumerable affairs with the famous and infamous, her strange relationship with her father and the true horror of the institution that housed her son. Even some of its "facts" get misstated. Truman Capote did indeed say of a rival author, "That isn't writing. That's typing." Only he said it of Jack Kerouac, not Jackie Susann.
The film does touch briefly on Susann's marketing genius, her willingness to hit the road and hustle "Valley of the Dolls" with the personal touch at even the smallest bookseller. (The book did sell 19 million copies.) But as with her cute conversations with God, held periodically at a well-lit tree in Central Park, her hustle is seen only in the context of lovably eccentricity.
Central to "Isn't She Great" is the love story between Jackie and Irving. Yet the film never quite gets around to a love scene. The closest Rudnick and Bergman come is a negotiation, again in Central Park, in which Jackie sweet talks Irving into becoming her agent.
Indeed Midler and Lane rarely stand close to one another. Did they suspect their own show business personas would not mesh in this particular story?
One thing the movie does not lack is energy. Stockard Channing, looking like she dropped in from a valley of the dolls holiday, is ever supportive and wisecracking -- as best girl pals always are. John Cleese and David Hyde Pierce make an amusing comic duo as the buoyant publisher and prissy editor who come to adore their gutsy authoress.
Amanda Peet, as an early supporter of Jackie's at the publishing house, is highly animated though without a distinct role to play. Even Jackie's poodle brightly jumps into people's arms on cue.
On the technical side, designer Stuart Wurtzel and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub go for Day-Glo colors and high key lighting to emphasize the cheery side of the Jackie-Irving love tale.
There's no denying "Isn't She Great" is trashy fun (and could have been much trashier if the filmmakers have been so inclined). But, ultimately, the viewer can't help feeling that Jacqueline Susann is largely irrelevant to her own celebrity biopic.
ISN'T SHE GREAT
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures and Mutual Film Co. present a Lobell/Bergman production
Producer:Mike Lobell
Director:Andrew Bergman
Screenwriter:Paul Rudnick
Based on an article by:Michael Korda
Executive producers:Ted Kurdyla, Gary Levinsohn, Mark Gordon
Director of photography:Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer:Stuart Wurtzel
Music:Burt Bacharach
Costume designer:Julie Weiss
Editor:Barry Malkin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jacqueline Susann:Bette Midler
Irving Mansfield:Nathan Lane
Florence Maybelle:Stockard Channing
Michael Mastings:David Hyde Pierce
Henry Marcus:John Cleese
Debbie:Amanda Peet
Maury Manning:John Larroquette
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/28/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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