The 2000s was a strange time for genre filmmaking and especially science fiction. While sci-fi cinema was in theory thriving, that was mainly thanks to the presence of franchises that were, in fact, their own mini-genres (like Star Wars and Star Trek). Then there were superhero films, always sort of a cousin to sci-fi, with the X-Men and Spider-Man series both exploding and the Marvel Cinematic Universe making its debut with Iron Man (2008) just as the decade came to a close.
But there were some top-shelf literary adaptations as well. Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) was a flawed yet powerful expansion of a Brian Aldiss story while his War of the Worlds (2005) and Minority Report (2002) were outstanding takes on classic tales from H.G. Wells and Philip K. Dick (there might have been no sci-fi filmmaker more consistent at the time than The Beard). Other remakes or adaptations,...
But there were some top-shelf literary adaptations as well. Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) was a flawed yet powerful expansion of a Brian Aldiss story while his War of the Worlds (2005) and Minority Report (2002) were outstanding takes on classic tales from H.G. Wells and Philip K. Dick (there might have been no sci-fi filmmaker more consistent at the time than The Beard). Other remakes or adaptations,...
- 11/10/2023
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
UK-based sales outfit Phoenix Worldwide for international sales.
UK-based sales outfit Phoenix Worldwide has acquired Imelda –The Twelve Scores Of A Grumpy Grandma for international sales, from Canadian filmmaker Martin Villeneuve.
The French-language title is produced by Villeneuve and Benoit Beaulieu, and also stars Villeneuve, Ginette Reno and Robert Lepage.
Villeneuve – the brother of Dune director Denis Villeneuve – has spent 10 years making the comedy drama, that is based on the life of the director’s grandmother as she approaches her 100th birthday.
It was distributed last year in Canada by Maison 4:3 under the title The 12 Tasks Of Imelda.
The...
UK-based sales outfit Phoenix Worldwide has acquired Imelda –The Twelve Scores Of A Grumpy Grandma for international sales, from Canadian filmmaker Martin Villeneuve.
The French-language title is produced by Villeneuve and Benoit Beaulieu, and also stars Villeneuve, Ginette Reno and Robert Lepage.
Villeneuve – the brother of Dune director Denis Villeneuve – has spent 10 years making the comedy drama, that is based on the life of the director’s grandmother as she approaches her 100th birthday.
It was distributed last year in Canada by Maison 4:3 under the title The 12 Tasks Of Imelda.
The...
- 2/21/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The actors talk about applause, auditions, how they fell in love with the theatre – and the extraordinary high of delivering the perfect line
David Oyelowo and Alfred Molina have been friends since they appeared together on screen in As You Like It directed by Kenneth Branagh in 2006. Molina now has a role in Oyelowo’s directorial debut, The Water Man, for Netflix. They swap stories about their stints with the Royal Shakespeare Company, explain what they have missed during theatres’ closure and, to start, remember when they first fell in love with the stage.
David Oyelowo: As a kid on a council estate, Shakespeare felt like something for other people. Then I saw Robert Lepage’s version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the National Theatre when I was a teenager. Timothy Spall was Bottom, a Cirque du Soleil contortionist was Puck. We were in the nosebleed seats but I understood everything about the play.
David Oyelowo and Alfred Molina have been friends since they appeared together on screen in As You Like It directed by Kenneth Branagh in 2006. Molina now has a role in Oyelowo’s directorial debut, The Water Man, for Netflix. They swap stories about their stints with the Royal Shakespeare Company, explain what they have missed during theatres’ closure and, to start, remember when they first fell in love with the stage.
David Oyelowo: As a kid on a council estate, Shakespeare felt like something for other people. Then I saw Robert Lepage’s version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the National Theatre when I was a teenager. Timothy Spall was Bottom, a Cirque du Soleil contortionist was Puck. We were in the nosebleed seats but I understood everything about the play.
- 3/23/2021
- by Chris Wiegand
- The Guardian - Film News
“One’s brain needs to dream in order to reboot.”
Mars Et Avril screens March 4th at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood
Danger Diabolik, Tarantula, The Thing With Two Heads – You never know what’s brewing at Webster University’s Strange Brew cult film series. It’s always the first Wednesday evening of every month, and they always come up with some cult classic to show while enjoying some good food and great suds. The fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143).
This month (Wednesday March 4th) Strange Brew is offering up something I’ve never heard of….but it sure looks interesting! It’s the 2012 French-Canadian sci-fi mindbender Mars Et Avril
Plot synopsis for Mars Et Avril: As the first human prepares to touch down on Mars, a charismatic Montreal musician enters into a tempestuous love...
Mars Et Avril screens March 4th at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood
Danger Diabolik, Tarantula, The Thing With Two Heads – You never know what’s brewing at Webster University’s Strange Brew cult film series. It’s always the first Wednesday evening of every month, and they always come up with some cult classic to show while enjoying some good food and great suds. The fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143).
This month (Wednesday March 4th) Strange Brew is offering up something I’ve never heard of….but it sure looks interesting! It’s the 2012 French-Canadian sci-fi mindbender Mars Et Avril
Plot synopsis for Mars Et Avril: As the first human prepares to touch down on Mars, a charismatic Montreal musician enters into a tempestuous love...
- 2/25/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This year, Robert Lepage was honoured as the recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize awarded for “a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human conditions through the arts.” Previous winners include Leonard Cohen, Yo-Yo Ma, Oscar Peterson, and R. Murray Schafer. In association with The Glenn Gould Foundation, Tiff presented a retrospective on his directorial work. One of the most famed working filmmakers in Quebec, Lepage’s influence extends far beyond the screen and he is also one of the foremost directors of the stage. Considered an important figure in the theatrical avant-garde, he brings his multi-media and theatrical approach to the screen to create unique and layered visions of the world.
Back in 1995, Lepage made his feature film debut with Le Confessionnal, a post-modern Hitchcock pastiche set in Quebec. The film is the story of the Lamontagne family and spans two different eras and the issues and crises...
Back in 1995, Lepage made his feature film debut with Le Confessionnal, a post-modern Hitchcock pastiche set in Quebec. The film is the story of the Lamontagne family and spans two different eras and the issues and crises...
- 4/3/2014
- by Justine Smith
- SoundOnSight
In a year that saw François Delisle’s Le météore (Sundance and Berlin Film Festival accepted film) receive no love (zero nominations), and Denis Côté’s critically well-received Vic + Flo Saw a Bear was perhaps too askew for the voting clique (it did grab best Actress for Quebec’s “Melissa Leo” in Pierrette Robitaille), it was a bigger than life biopic by helmer Daniel Roby that flexed its muscles, beating out the comp. The high gloss Louis Cyr won in several tech categories and it’s strongman Antoine Bertrand won for Best Actor. Considered the favorite to win the top prize, Gabrielle was awarded the Best Director and Screenplay awards for Louise Archambault. Oddly, that film received no Best Actress consideration while it did net Gabrielle Marion-Rivard a Best Actress win at Canadian Screen Awards. Here are the noms and winners of the 16th edition.
Best Film
Catimini
Le démantèlement...
Best Film
Catimini
Le démantèlement...
- 3/24/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
With the dust fully settled on the Academy Awards, we point our attention northward with tonight’s 2014 Canadian Screen Awards. Many of the television winners have already been announced in glitzy fashion during this Canadian Screen Week, but with baited breath, we’re more keen on seeing how the film award honors will pan out. Last year’s Tiff saw Denis Villeneuve bring not one (Prisoners), but a pair of feature films and it is the offbeat, doppelgänger delight Enemy that should reap in the top awards of the evening. Here are my predictions of who will win, who should win, and who should have been nominated in each of the most anticipated film categories.
Best Motion Picture:
The nominees are: Enemy, The Dismantlement, Empire of Dirt, The F Word, Gabrielle, The Grand Seduction, Maina, Tom at the Farm
Screenie voters tend to favor Canada’s yearly submission for the...
Best Motion Picture:
The nominees are: Enemy, The Dismantlement, Empire of Dirt, The F Word, Gabrielle, The Grand Seduction, Maina, Tom at the Farm
Screenie voters tend to favor Canada’s yearly submission for the...
- 3/9/2014
- by Leora Heilbronn
- IONCINEMA.com
The 64th Berlinale ends today, and the awards have been announced!
In Competition
Golden Bear – Black Coal, Thin Ice, directed by Diao Yi'nan
Grand Jury Prize – The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by Wes Anderson
Alfred Bauer Prize – Life of Riley, directed by Alain Resnais
Best Director – Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Actor – Liao Fan, Black Coal, Thin Ice
Best Actress – Haru Kuroki, The Little House
Best Screenplay – Anna Brüggemann & Dietrich Brüggemann, Stations of the Cross
Outstanding Artistic Contribution – Cinematographer Zeng Jian, Blind Massage
Teddy Awards
Best Feature Film – The Way He Looks, directed by Daniel Ribeiro
Jury Award – Pierrot Lunaire, directed by Bruce Labruce
Best Documentary – The Circle, directed by Stefan Haupt
Best First Feature
Best First Feature – Gueros, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Fipresci
Fipresci Prize (Competition) – Life of Riley, directed by Alain Resnais
Fipresci Prize (Panorama) – The Way He Looks, directed by Daniel Ribeiro
Fipresci Prize (Forum) – Forma, directed by...
In Competition
Golden Bear – Black Coal, Thin Ice, directed by Diao Yi'nan
Grand Jury Prize – The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by Wes Anderson
Alfred Bauer Prize – Life of Riley, directed by Alain Resnais
Best Director – Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Actor – Liao Fan, Black Coal, Thin Ice
Best Actress – Haru Kuroki, The Little House
Best Screenplay – Anna Brüggemann & Dietrich Brüggemann, Stations of the Cross
Outstanding Artistic Contribution – Cinematographer Zeng Jian, Blind Massage
Teddy Awards
Best Feature Film – The Way He Looks, directed by Daniel Ribeiro
Jury Award – Pierrot Lunaire, directed by Bruce Labruce
Best Documentary – The Circle, directed by Stefan Haupt
Best First Feature
Best First Feature – Gueros, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Fipresci
Fipresci Prize (Competition) – Life of Riley, directed by Alain Resnais
Fipresci Prize (Panorama) – The Way He Looks, directed by Daniel Ribeiro
Fipresci Prize (Forum) – Forma, directed by...
- 2/16/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Other winners of the independent jury awards at the Berlin Film Festival include Stations of the Cross, At Home and documentary The Square.
Ahead of this evening’s glitzy Berlinale awards ceremony, when the winners of the coveted Golden and Silver Bears will be announced, the festival has revealed films chosen for additional prizes by the Independent Juries.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, which was shot over a 12-year period and topped Screen’s jury grid, picked up two awards: the Prize of the Guild Of German Art House Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award.
The Ecumenical Jury named Dietrich Brüggemann’s Stations of the Cross (Kreuzweg) best Competition film; John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary best film in the Panorama strand; and Athanasios Karanikolas At Home (Sto spiti) best Forum film.
Jehane Noujaim’s documentary The Square (Al midan), about the ongoing uprising in Egypt, added to its growing haul of festival prizes with the Amnesty...
Ahead of this evening’s glitzy Berlinale awards ceremony, when the winners of the coveted Golden and Silver Bears will be announced, the festival has revealed films chosen for additional prizes by the Independent Juries.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, which was shot over a 12-year period and topped Screen’s jury grid, picked up two awards: the Prize of the Guild Of German Art House Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award.
The Ecumenical Jury named Dietrich Brüggemann’s Stations of the Cross (Kreuzweg) best Competition film; John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary best film in the Panorama strand; and Athanasios Karanikolas At Home (Sto spiti) best Forum film.
Jehane Noujaim’s documentary The Square (Al midan), about the ongoing uprising in Egypt, added to its growing haul of festival prizes with the Amnesty...
- 2/15/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The national support body announced on January 30 its Ten Canadians to Watch list.
The selected individuals will attend the Berlinale and/or the European Film Market.
They are in alphabetical order:
Jennifer Baichwal, Watermark – European Premiere, Berlinale Special;
Paul Barkin, Afterlands – a participant with a project at the Berlinale Coproduction Market;
Adam Beach – a Producers Without Borders participant promoting the Adam Beach Film Institute;
Jean-François Caissy, Guidelines (La Marche À Suivre, pictured) – World Premiere, Forum;
Denis Côté, Joy Of Man’s Desiring (Que Ta Joie Demeure) – World Premiere, Forum;
Félize Frappier, Kuessipan – a participant with a project at the Berlinale Coproduction Market;
Phyllis Laing and Liz Jarvis, producers of Aloft – World Premiere, Competition (minority Canadian co-production with Spain and France);
Robert Lepage, Triptych (Triptyque) – European Premiere, Panorama;
Robert Morin, 3 Indian Tales (3 Histoires D’indiens) – World Premiere, Generation; and
Ingrid Veninger – a participant at the Berlinale Coproduction Market.
The selected individuals will attend the Berlinale and/or the European Film Market.
They are in alphabetical order:
Jennifer Baichwal, Watermark – European Premiere, Berlinale Special;
Paul Barkin, Afterlands – a participant with a project at the Berlinale Coproduction Market;
Adam Beach – a Producers Without Borders participant promoting the Adam Beach Film Institute;
Jean-François Caissy, Guidelines (La Marche À Suivre, pictured) – World Premiere, Forum;
Denis Côté, Joy Of Man’s Desiring (Que Ta Joie Demeure) – World Premiere, Forum;
Félize Frappier, Kuessipan – a participant with a project at the Berlinale Coproduction Market;
Phyllis Laing and Liz Jarvis, producers of Aloft – World Premiere, Competition (minority Canadian co-production with Spain and France);
Robert Lepage, Triptych (Triptyque) – European Premiere, Panorama;
Robert Morin, 3 Indian Tales (3 Histoires D’indiens) – World Premiere, Generation; and
Ingrid Veninger – a participant at the Berlinale Coproduction Market.
- 1/30/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
A total of 24 world premieres are included in the Berlinale’s Panorama selection, which has added a number of Asian productions.
Some 36 films from 29 countries will feature in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16), of which 24 will be world premieres.
Most recently invited are works from Norway, Ethiopia, Mexico, India, Iran, Georgia, Greece, Hungary and Austria – with returning filmmakers Elfi Mikesch and Umut Dağ, who opened Panorama 2012 with Kuma, his directorial debut.
New titles include a number of Asian productions. In Ieji (Homeland) by Japan’s Nao Kubota, a farmer’s son, who first fled to the city, explores his home village in the Fukushima district, an area that is actually still a no-go zone following the disaster at the region’s nuclear power plant.
In the South Korean film Night Flight, LeeSong Hee-il presents a duel between two schoolmates. LeeSong previously showed the films No Regret and White Night in Panorama...
Some 36 films from 29 countries will feature in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16), of which 24 will be world premieres.
Most recently invited are works from Norway, Ethiopia, Mexico, India, Iran, Georgia, Greece, Hungary and Austria – with returning filmmakers Elfi Mikesch and Umut Dağ, who opened Panorama 2012 with Kuma, his directorial debut.
New titles include a number of Asian productions. In Ieji (Homeland) by Japan’s Nao Kubota, a farmer’s son, who first fled to the city, explores his home village in the Fukushima district, an area that is actually still a no-go zone following the disaster at the region’s nuclear power plant.
In the South Korean film Night Flight, LeeSong Hee-il presents a duel between two schoolmates. LeeSong previously showed the films No Regret and White Night in Panorama...
- 1/17/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television has announced the Canadian Screen Awards nominees.
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz.
“This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The feature nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz.
“This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The feature nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
- 1/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television has announced its nominees.
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz. “This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The fearure nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt (pictured) – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz. “This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The fearure nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt (pictured) – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
- 1/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The 64th Berlin International Film Festival has announced the first set of screenings from the edition's Panorama section. 50 fictional and documentary films will be chosen to give the programme its distinctive profile between innovative mainstream and radical alternative. So far 19 films have been invited.
Fabio Audi, Ghilherme Lobo, Tess Amorim in Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way he Looks) von/by Daniel Ribeiro
If You Don't, I Will (Sophie Fillières, France)
The Rice Bomber (Cho Li, Taiwan)
Ice Poison (Midi Z, Taiwan/Myanmar)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, Ireland/Great Britain)
The Way He Looks (Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil)
Is the Tall Man Happy? (Michel Gondry, France)
The Man of the Crowd (Marcelo Gomes & Cao Guimarães, Brazil)
Papillio Buddha (Jayan Cherian, India/USA)
Quick Change (Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines)
Stereo (Maximilian Erlenwein, Germany)
Test (Chris Mason Johnson, USA)
The Better Angels (A. J. Edwards, USA)
The Lamb (Kutluğ Ataman, Germany/Turkey...
Fabio Audi, Ghilherme Lobo, Tess Amorim in Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way he Looks) von/by Daniel Ribeiro
If You Don't, I Will (Sophie Fillières, France)
The Rice Bomber (Cho Li, Taiwan)
Ice Poison (Midi Z, Taiwan/Myanmar)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, Ireland/Great Britain)
The Way He Looks (Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil)
Is the Tall Man Happy? (Michel Gondry, France)
The Man of the Crowd (Marcelo Gomes & Cao Guimarães, Brazil)
Papillio Buddha (Jayan Cherian, India/USA)
Quick Change (Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines)
Stereo (Maximilian Erlenwein, Germany)
Test (Chris Mason Johnson, USA)
The Better Angels (A. J. Edwards, USA)
The Lamb (Kutluğ Ataman, Germany/Turkey...
- 12/19/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Nineteen films have been announced for the Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama program. New films from Michel Gondry, Kutluğ Ataman, Robert Lepage, Sophie Fillières, Benjamin Heisenberg, Maximilian Erlenwein, John Michael McDonagh and Tsai Ming-liang are included in the list, while Jalil Lespert's "Yves Saint Laurent" has been announced as the opening night section. With "Yves Saint Laurent," Berlin’s flagship cinema, the Zoo Palast, will be re-inaugurated as a Berlinale venue after extensive renovations on February 7, 2014. Another notable relocation announced today was that the queer film-oriented Teddy Award ceremony will go down for the first time in its 28-year history in the "baroque setting" of the Komische Oper Berlin. Here's the first 19 films announced from the Panorama. This list will grow to around 50 in the coming weeks: Arrête ou je continue (If You Don't, I Will) France By Sophie Fillières With Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu...
- 12/19/2013
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary and new films by Michel Gondry, Kutlug Ataman and Robert Lepage are to feature in the Berlinale’s Panorama strand, which will open with Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent.Scroll down for first batch of titles
A total of 50 features will be chosen for the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlinale (Feb 6-16), films that “provide insight on new directions in art house cinema”, and the first 19 have been announced. A total of 11 of those selected are world premieres.
The opening film will mark the international premiere of Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent, a look at the life of the French designer from the beginning of his career in 1958 when he met his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge.
The opening screening on Feb 7 will see Berlin’s flagship cinema, the Zoo Palast, re-inaugurated as a Berlinale venue after extensive renovations.
Also in the line-up are new films from Michel Gondry, Kutluğ...
A total of 50 features will be chosen for the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlinale (Feb 6-16), films that “provide insight on new directions in art house cinema”, and the first 19 have been announced. A total of 11 of those selected are world premieres.
The opening film will mark the international premiere of Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent, a look at the life of the French designer from the beginning of his career in 1958 when he met his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge.
The opening screening on Feb 7 will see Berlin’s flagship cinema, the Zoo Palast, re-inaugurated as a Berlinale venue after extensive renovations.
Also in the line-up are new films from Michel Gondry, Kutluğ...
- 12/19/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
A few years ago I caught Pedro Pires' debut short film Danse Macabre which preceded a Canadian feature at Viff. I can't recall anything about the feature but I've never forgotten Pires' short. I looked up everything I could on the director and have been tracking his career since (his feature film debut Triptyque premiered at Tiff and was co-directed with Canadian legend Robert Lepage). I'm thrilled that everyone can now take in Pires' glorious short.
Phi Centre, who a few weeks ago released Denis Villeneuve's Next Floor, have released Pires' morbidly gorgeous short for free viewing. Watching this again, I'm stunned at how much of it I rememb [Continued ...]...
Phi Centre, who a few weeks ago released Denis Villeneuve's Next Floor, have released Pires' morbidly gorgeous short for free viewing. Watching this again, I'm stunned at how much of it I rememb [Continued ...]...
- 10/22/2013
- QuietEarth.us
The 42nd edition of the Festival du nouveau cinéma will be held in Montreal from October 9 to the 20th, showcasing the best new films and filmmakers from around the world. The festival which has often been described as ‘ baby-tiff’ picks up the best from Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and more. This new edition demonstrates the vibrancy of filmmaking in all its forms and for all audiences with an incredible 273 films (146 feature films and 124 shorts) from 47 countries – including (count them) 39 world premieres, 33 North American premieres and 47 Canadian premieres. I will be breaking down the line-up throughout the day, starting with the opening and closing films.
****
Opening and Closing Films
This year the Festival will open with the film Triptych by Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires (Quebec). Wednesday, October 9, the festival will have the chance to meet Robert Lepage at the opening of the event ten years after The Dark of...
****
Opening and Closing Films
This year the Festival will open with the film Triptych by Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires (Quebec). Wednesday, October 9, the festival will have the chance to meet Robert Lepage at the opening of the event ten years after The Dark of...
- 9/24/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Triptyque (Triptych) Written by Robert Lepage Directed by Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires Canada, 2013 - Quebecois cinema has always been a beast very much apart from the rest of the country. It has a long and proud history of being bolder, ballsier, and more artistically uncompromising than English Canadian film on the whole. Since Jésus de Montréal became the most widely-praised film to come out of the province (not directed by Denys Arcand, that is), Robert Lepage was a mainstay – that is, until he took a decade off to pursue other interests, particularly theater. Triptych marks his return, armed with a new collaborator, short-film director Pedro Pires, who assisted in bringing one of Lepage’s plays, Triptych, to the screen. The result avoids many of the commoner pitfalls that tend to befall stage-to-screen adaptations, but doesn’t quite gel into the sort of satisfying whole that would place it alongside Lepage’s past triumphs.
- 9/7/2013
- by Simon Howell
- SoundOnSight
Québecois filmmaker and theatre director Robert Lepage is one of Canada's truly great artists, a man of astonishing visual style. Since then he has achieved great acclaim, often playing larger on the international stage than he does in most of English Canada. For his latest film, Lepage has teamed up with award-winning short film director Pedro Pires to tell this tale of language and loss, of the intertwined stories of three people connecting in a variety of ways.Through the use of elegant transitions and some moments of startling, near genre film-worthy scenes, the film remains resolutely cinematic. This is all the more remarkable when it's recognized that this is based on one of Lepage's theatrical works. Despite the dialogue (and idea) heavy story, it never...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 9/7/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Toronto – The 38th Toronto International Film Festival® today announced the films in the Masters programme, which highlights the work of the world’s most compelling cinematic creators. The programme features a diverse collection of new films including world premieres from Quebecois directors Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires and Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo; and North American premieres by Jia Zhangke, Jafar Panahi, Kim Ki-duk, Edgar Rietz and Claire Denis.
One additional title has also been announced in the Midnight Madness programme: the world premiere of Alex de la Iglesia’s Witching & Bitching (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi).
A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) Jia Zhangke, China/Japan North American Premiere
An angry miner, enraged by the corruption of his village leaders, takes action. A rootless migrant discovers the infinite possibilities that owning a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist working in a sauna is pushed to the limit when a wealthy client assaults her.
One additional title has also been announced in the Midnight Madness programme: the world premiere of Alex de la Iglesia’s Witching & Bitching (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi).
A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) Jia Zhangke, China/Japan North American Premiere
An angry miner, enraged by the corruption of his village leaders, takes action. A rootless migrant discovers the infinite possibilities that owning a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist working in a sauna is pushed to the limit when a wealthy client assaults her.
- 8/21/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Hands up everyone who wants to see Jia Zhangke's wu xia effort A Touch Of Sin? Or how about Alex de la Iglesia's latest does of craziness, Witching And Bitching? Kim Ki-duk's controversial Moebius? Toronto audiences are going to be able to, with both included in the freshly released Masters lineup. Check the full list below! Toronto - The 38th Toronto International Film Festival® today announced the films in the Masters programme, which highlights the work of the world's most compelling cinematic creators. The programme features a diverse collection of new films including world premieres from Quebecois directors Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires and Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo; and North American premieres by Jia Zhangke, Jafar Panahi, Kim Ki-duk, Edgar Rietz and Claire Denis. One...
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[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/20/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Festival organisers announced the Discovery, Mavericks and Masters sections, details of the David Cronenberg: Transformation exhibition, a tenth Midnight Madness entry and introduced the Glenn Gould Studio to the festival’s stable of venues.
The programming strands feature new work from Catherine Breillat and on-stage conversations with Spike Jones, Irrfan Khan, Harvey Weinstein and Ron Howard.
The final entry in Midnight Madness will be the world premiere of Alex de la Iglesia’s Witching & Bitching (Las brujas De Zugarramurdi) (Spain-France).
The Glenn Gould Studio will serve as a venue for various public and industry programming during the festival and will function as a main location for the Tiff Industry Conference, set to run from Sept 6-12.
Programming will include the industry conference keynote session, Master Class, Moguls, Mavericks, Telefilm Canada Pitch This! on Sept 9 and the Doc Conference from Sept 10-11.
“As the jewel of the Canadian Broadcast Centre, Glenn Gould Studio...
The programming strands feature new work from Catherine Breillat and on-stage conversations with Spike Jones, Irrfan Khan, Harvey Weinstein and Ron Howard.
The final entry in Midnight Madness will be the world premiere of Alex de la Iglesia’s Witching & Bitching (Las brujas De Zugarramurdi) (Spain-France).
The Glenn Gould Studio will serve as a venue for various public and industry programming during the festival and will function as a main location for the Tiff Industry Conference, set to run from Sept 6-12.
Programming will include the industry conference keynote session, Master Class, Moguls, Mavericks, Telefilm Canada Pitch This! on Sept 9 and the Doc Conference from Sept 10-11.
“As the jewel of the Canadian Broadcast Centre, Glenn Gould Studio...
- 8/20/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Denis Villeneuve will have two films in the festival as it emerged that Canadian Features world premiere Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a man and his doppelganger [pictured] has joined the previously announced Prisoners, also starring Gyllenhaal.
The Canadian Features selection includes Michael Dowse’s Goon follow-up The F Word, Xavier Dolan’s Tom At The Farm and Chloe Robichaud’s Sarah Prefers To Run as well as work from Jeff Barnaby, Bruce McDonald and Bruce Labruce. Also receiving its world premiere is All The Wrong Reasons featuring the final performance by the late Glee star Cory Monteith.
Festival organisers also unveiled Producers Lab Toronto participants and Telefilm Canada Pitch This! finallists, the shorts programme and participants in the tenth Tiff Talent Lab.
“The scope of this year’s feature films is as broad as Canada’s filmmaking community and demonstrates the deep versatility of our filmmakers,” said Tiff senior programmer Steve Gravestock. “From clever...
The Canadian Features selection includes Michael Dowse’s Goon follow-up The F Word, Xavier Dolan’s Tom At The Farm and Chloe Robichaud’s Sarah Prefers To Run as well as work from Jeff Barnaby, Bruce McDonald and Bruce Labruce. Also receiving its world premiere is All The Wrong Reasons featuring the final performance by the late Glee star Cory Monteith.
Festival organisers also unveiled Producers Lab Toronto participants and Telefilm Canada Pitch This! finallists, the shorts programme and participants in the tenth Tiff Talent Lab.
“The scope of this year’s feature films is as broad as Canada’s filmmaking community and demonstrates the deep versatility of our filmmakers,” said Tiff senior programmer Steve Gravestock. “From clever...
- 8/7/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
This afternoon, with poutine and local wine to mark the occasion, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their Canadian film selections. Programmers Steve Gravestock and Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo proudly pronounced that this year both new and seasoned filmmakers had the “curiosity and courage to show troubling issues occurring in our country in new and exciting ways.” Past festival favorite (and one of my personal own as well) Xavier Dolan, the always controversial Bruce Labruce and Jennifer Baichwal’s films garnered applause from the crowd at the majestic Royal York ballroom. Titles sure to draw headlines and attention in the Canadian slate are Denis Villeneuve’s locally filmed ‘Enemy‘ which has Jake Gyllenhall playing a man with two identities, torn between a mistress and a wife. Villeneuve’s other recent feature ‘Prisoners‘ was previously announced as a festival title. It’s worth mentioning that two feature films being presented at...
- 8/7/2013
- by Leora Heilbronn
- IONCINEMA.com
Denis Villeneuve will have two films in the festival as it emerged on Wednesday [7] that Canadian Features world premiere Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a man and his doppelganger [pictured] has joined the previously announced Prisoners, also starring Gyllenhaal.
The Canadian Features selection includes Michael Dowse’s Goon follow-up The F Word, Xavier Dolan’s Tom At The Farm and Chloe Robichaud’s Sarah Prefers To Run as well as work from Jeff Barnaby, Bruce McDonald and Bruce Labruce.
“The scope of this year’s feature films is as broad as Canada’s filmmaking community and demonstrates the deep versatility of our filmmakers,” said Tiff senior programmer Steve Gravestock. “From clever, biting satire to intimate social commentary, powerful dramas and even a truly magical comedy, the settings and themes vary, but the perspectives are always uniquely Canadian.”
The City Of Toronto and Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film will be given to one of many outstanding...
The Canadian Features selection includes Michael Dowse’s Goon follow-up The F Word, Xavier Dolan’s Tom At The Farm and Chloe Robichaud’s Sarah Prefers To Run as well as work from Jeff Barnaby, Bruce McDonald and Bruce Labruce.
“The scope of this year’s feature films is as broad as Canada’s filmmaking community and demonstrates the deep versatility of our filmmakers,” said Tiff senior programmer Steve Gravestock. “From clever, biting satire to intimate social commentary, powerful dramas and even a truly magical comedy, the settings and themes vary, but the perspectives are always uniquely Canadian.”
The City Of Toronto and Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film will be given to one of many outstanding...
- 8/7/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The 2013 Toronto International Film Festival has announced its lineup of Canadian features, which includes The F Word from Michael Dowse (Goon) starring Daniel Radfliffe and Adam Driver ("Girls"), Xavier Dolan's new film Tom at the Farm and Denis Villeneuve's second film to be added to the festival Enemy, which stars one of his two leads in Prisoners (which is also premiering in Toronto), Jake Gyllenhaal. The F Word is also Daniel Radfliffe's third film in the fest after Horns from Alexandre Aja and Kill Your Darlings. F Word centers on Wallace (Radfliffe) who meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) and it would be love at first sight, except she lives with her long-term boyfriend. So Wallace, acting with both best intentions -- and maybe a little denial -- discovers the dirtiest word in romance: friends. Dolan is coming off the fantastic Laurence Anyways and again wrote, directed and stars in...
- 8/7/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its lineup of Canadian features, including new work from Bruce McDonald, Xavier Dolan, Denis Villeneuve (who has two films in the festival with "Prisoners" and "Enemy" -- both of which star Jake Gyllenhaal), Michael Dowse, Jennifer Baichwal with Edward Burtynsky, Bruce Sweeney, Robert Lepage with Pedro Pires, Peter Stebbings, Ingrid Veninger, Bruce Labruce, Richie Mehta, Jeff Barnaby and Louise Archambault. "The scope of this year's feature films is as broad as Canada's filmmaking community and demonstrates the deep versatility of our filmmakers," said Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer, Tiff. "From clever, biting satire to intimate social commentary, powerful dramas and even a truly magical comedy, the settings and themes vary, but the perspectives are always uniquely Canadian." Notable is that alongside the Canadian-made features are a bunch of previously announced films produced outside of Canada by Canuck directors, including...
- 8/7/2013
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
British composer Thomas Adès conducts the Met premiere of his contemporary masterpiece "The Tempest," an English-language opera based on Shakespeare.s final play. The Met.s fantastical new production by Robert Lepage airs on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, March 17 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). In New York, Thirteen will premiere the opera on Thursday, March 21 at 9 p.m., with an encore showing Sunday, March 24 at 12:30 p.m. From PBS Simon Keenlyside leads the cast as the exiled magician Prospero, a role he created at the opera.s 2004 world premiere. The opera also stars Isabel Leonard as Prospero.s daughter, Miranda; Alek Shrader as the shipwrecked prince, Ferdinand; Alan Oke as the monstrous island...
- 3/13/2013
- by April Neale
- Monsters and Critics
The latest attempt to bring Alfred Hitchcock's life to the screen paints the Master as a crafty hoodwinker triumphing over drab studio execs
F Scott Fitzgerald claimed that, back in 1920, he'd tried to persuade Dw Griffith that the film industry was a wonderful subject for the cinema. Griffith laughed at the idea, but not for the first time Fitzgerald was proved right. He went on to write a series of stories and a great unfinished novel on Hollywood, and since the silent era there has been no end to the making of movies about movie-making. Particular interest has recently been shown in Alfred Hitchcock, one of only two movie directors whose faces are immediately recognisable to popular audiences the world over. The other, of course, is Hitchcock's fellow working-class Londoner, Charlie Chaplin.
Last summer, Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo was voted the greatest film of all time in Sight...
F Scott Fitzgerald claimed that, back in 1920, he'd tried to persuade Dw Griffith that the film industry was a wonderful subject for the cinema. Griffith laughed at the idea, but not for the first time Fitzgerald was proved right. He went on to write a series of stories and a great unfinished novel on Hollywood, and since the silent era there has been no end to the making of movies about movie-making. Particular interest has recently been shown in Alfred Hitchcock, one of only two movie directors whose faces are immediately recognisable to popular audiences the world over. The other, of course, is Hitchcock's fellow working-class Londoner, Charlie Chaplin.
Last summer, Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo was voted the greatest film of all time in Sight...
- 2/10/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Our story opens in futuristic Montreal, as mankind embarks on a mission to Mars. Jacob Obus (Jacques Languirand) is a 70something musician who mesmerizes audiences with strange otherworldly music. The instruments he plays are inspired by the bodies of women, designed by his artist friend Arthur (Paul Ahmarani), and manufactured by Arthur's famous cosmologist father Eugène Spaak (holographic head played by Robert Lepage, body played by Jean Asselin.) Into this triangle arrives Avril (Caroline Dhavernas), a long-exposure photographer with breathing problems who is in love with Obus and feigning romantic interest in Arthur to get closer to him. Arthur designs his latest piece after Avril's likeness, and the resulting instrument vaguely corresponds to a natural topographical feature on Mars. However, Obus has trouble playing the new instrument, and as Avril's breathing problems diminish, he develops his own respiratory issues. It's revealed that the old man is a virgin, despite his...
- 12/10/2012
- QuietEarth.us
From Beijing to Berlin, a roundup of some of the events that have been wowing the crowds around the world this year
Kabul, Afghanistan
Afghanistan's first female rapper, musicians from nine countries, and the premiere of Oscar-shortlisted drama Buzkashi Boys drew hundreds to Sound Central, an international music festival held in a city more used to hosting military or aid conferences. For the mostly young crowd, it was a rare chance to let their hair down: there is little entertainment here beyond picnics, visits to friends or video games and films watched at home.
Sri Lankan band Paranoid Earthling brought music from another country that has endured years of bitter civil war. A day with only female performers gave hundreds of women, often barred from mingling with men, a chance to enjoy the music and art. And Buzkashi Boys, shot in Afghanistan with an all-Afghan cast, premiered to an enthusiastic...
Kabul, Afghanistan
Afghanistan's first female rapper, musicians from nine countries, and the premiere of Oscar-shortlisted drama Buzkashi Boys drew hundreds to Sound Central, an international music festival held in a city more used to hosting military or aid conferences. For the mostly young crowd, it was a rare chance to let their hair down: there is little entertainment here beyond picnics, visits to friends or video games and films watched at home.
Sri Lankan band Paranoid Earthling brought music from another country that has endured years of bitter civil war. A day with only female performers gave hundreds of women, often barred from mingling with men, a chance to enjoy the music and art. And Buzkashi Boys, shot in Afghanistan with an all-Afghan cast, premiered to an enthusiastic...
- 12/6/2012
- by Emma Graham-Harrison, Jason Farago, Tania Branigan, David Smith, Tom Kington, Kate Connolly
- The Guardian - Film News
The Observer's critics pick the season's highlights, from the Misanthrope to Johnny Marr, Lulu to Lichtenstein, H7steria to Hitchcock. What are you most looking forward to? Add your comments below and download a pdf of the calendar here
December | January | FebruaryDecember
1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)
Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.
3 Pop Scott Walker
The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.
3 Classical H7steria
World premiere of...
December | January | FebruaryDecember
1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)
Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.
3 Pop Scott Walker
The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.
3 Classical H7steria
World premiere of...
- 12/2/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
New York -- Cirque du Soleil will mark the 25th anniversary of its first trip to New York next year with a visit by its high-octane show "Totem."
The show will open March 14 at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.
Since its world premiere in 2010, "Totem," written and directed by Robert Lepage, has visited over 16 different cities in four different countries. After New York, it goes to Philadelphia in May.
According to Cirque, the show "traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly." It features acrobats on parallel bars, in aerial rings, on a trapeze, in roller skates and on unicycles.
The last Cirque show in New York was the summer return of "Zarkana."
___...
The show will open March 14 at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.
Since its world premiere in 2010, "Totem," written and directed by Robert Lepage, has visited over 16 different cities in four different countries. After New York, it goes to Philadelphia in May.
According to Cirque, the show "traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly." It features acrobats on parallel bars, in aerial rings, on a trapeze, in roller skates and on unicycles.
The last Cirque show in New York was the summer return of "Zarkana."
___...
- 11/19/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Wagner’S Dream The Metropolitan Opera Director: Susan Froemke Cast: Robert LePage, Deborah Voigt, Jay Hunter Morris, Peter Gelb, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, and the Metropolitan Opera Screened at: Dolby 24, NYC, 7/11/12 Opens: July 19, 2012 in NY; July 27, 2012 in L.A. Let me take a wild guess that more people have heard of Spider-Man than Götterdämmerung and that, further, more people have seen “Spider-Man-Turn Off the Dark” on Broadway this year than Richard Wagner’s 15-hour long Ring Cycle at the Met. What do they have in common aside from the sounds of music? Both productions embraced avant-garde staging that includes flying actors and singers. A month from its [ Read More ]...
- 7/13/2012
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Susan Froemke's documentary follows Robert Lepage's five-year journey as he stages Wagner's Ring Cycle for New York's Metropolitan Opera
Reading this on mobile? click here to view
Wagner's four-part 16-hour Ring Cycle is one of opera's most monumental challenges. Visionary director Robert Lepage has been on a five-year journey to create the most ambitious staging in Metropolitan Opera history, featuring a 90,000-pound set (c 41 tonnes) that was known as "the Machine" designed to realise all of Wagner's scenic instructions.
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view
This documentary follows Lepage, his creative team and his singers, and the challenges they faced realising the director's daring attempt to achieve Wagner's dream of a perfect Ring.
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view
Wagner's Dream is at cinemas internationally from 20 June, each opera in the Ring Cycle follows on subsequent weekends. UK details here.
Read more about the cycle here,...
Reading this on mobile? click here to view
Wagner's four-part 16-hour Ring Cycle is one of opera's most monumental challenges. Visionary director Robert Lepage has been on a five-year journey to create the most ambitious staging in Metropolitan Opera history, featuring a 90,000-pound set (c 41 tonnes) that was known as "the Machine" designed to realise all of Wagner's scenic instructions.
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view
This documentary follows Lepage, his creative team and his singers, and the challenges they faced realising the director's daring attempt to achieve Wagner's dream of a perfect Ring.
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view
Wagner's Dream is at cinemas internationally from 20 June, each opera in the Ring Cycle follows on subsequent weekends. UK details here.
Read more about the cycle here,...
- 6/20/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Rock Of Ages (12A)
(Adam Shankman, 2012, Us) Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones. 123 mins
Doing for 1980s hair metal what Mamma Mia! did for Abba, this glossy musical gives you the broad pleasures of pantomime rather than rock'n'roll danger, with theatrical star turns and a playlist of power ballads hung around an archetypal tale of a smalltown girl and a wannabe rock star boy on La's Sunset Strip. You can stop believin' now.
Cosmopolis (15)
(David Cronenberg, 2012, Fra/Can/Por/Ita) Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon. 109 mins
Don De Lillo's prescient novella makes for a cool Manhattan odyssey, centred on Pattinson's jaded banker and the Occupy zeitgeist.
Polisse (15)
(Maïwenn, 2011, Fra) Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Foïs. 128 mins
A Wire-like approach to a French child protection unit reaps dividends for this docu-style procedural.
Red Lights (15)
(Rodrigo Cortés, 2012, Us/Spa) Cillian Murphy, Robert De Niro,...
(Adam Shankman, 2012, Us) Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones. 123 mins
Doing for 1980s hair metal what Mamma Mia! did for Abba, this glossy musical gives you the broad pleasures of pantomime rather than rock'n'roll danger, with theatrical star turns and a playlist of power ballads hung around an archetypal tale of a smalltown girl and a wannabe rock star boy on La's Sunset Strip. You can stop believin' now.
Cosmopolis (15)
(David Cronenberg, 2012, Fra/Can/Por/Ita) Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon. 109 mins
Don De Lillo's prescient novella makes for a cool Manhattan odyssey, centred on Pattinson's jaded banker and the Occupy zeitgeist.
Polisse (15)
(Maïwenn, 2011, Fra) Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Foïs. 128 mins
A Wire-like approach to a French child protection unit reaps dividends for this docu-style procedural.
Red Lights (15)
(Rodrigo Cortés, 2012, Us/Spa) Cillian Murphy, Robert De Niro,...
- 6/15/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The close of the Metropolitan Opera season has given general manager Peter Gelb plenty of opportunity to mull the fate of oversensitive potentates. In Wagner’s Ring cycle, the god Wotan acts with intemperate stupidity, and four operas later, the world he has built collapses in flames. Critics reacted with jeers and disappointment to the Met’s $16 million staging, directed by Robert Lepage. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross memorably called it “the most witless and wasteful production in modern operatic history.”Gelb, the son of former New York Times managing editor Arthur Gelb and a former publicist himself, knows a thing or two about the free expression of critical thought, and he doesn’t like it. There was nothing he could do about Ross’s words, but when outlets over which he had some leverage began repeating them, Gelb, like Wotan, lashed out. Earlier this month, he called Laura Walker,...
- 5/22/2012
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
Mars et Avril Trailer. Martin Villeneuve‘s Mars et Avril (2012) movie trailer stars Caroline Dhavernas, Jacques Languirand, Robert Lepage, Jean Asselin, and Paul Ahmarani. Mars et Avril‘s plot synopsis: “Mars et Avril takes place in a Montreal of the future when humanity is ready to move to Mars. But, not everyone is ready to go. Jacob Obus, a charismatic and beloved septuagenarian, leader of the anti-cybernetic movement, takes pride in slowing down time. He plays captivating music on instruments inspired by women’s bodies and designed by his friend, Arthur.
It’s when Jacob and Arthur are smitten by Avril, a young and short-winded photographer, that the true nature of the old sex symbol is revealed. After making love for the first time in his life, Jacob is ready to leave for Mars in search of his muse. In the midst of everything arrives Eugène Spaak, inventor, cosmologist and Arthur’s father,...
It’s when Jacob and Arthur are smitten by Avril, a young and short-winded photographer, that the true nature of the old sex symbol is revealed. After making love for the first time in his life, Jacob is ready to leave for Mars in search of his muse. In the midst of everything arrives Eugène Spaak, inventor, cosmologist and Arthur’s father,...
- 12/22/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
Here's something that I think even the most ardent critics of 3D technology will have to appreciate.With music by Robert Lepage, Philippe Baylaucq's Ora is a dance film unlike any other. Shot without the use of any lighting at all, it is a 3D performance piece shot using thermal imaging technology to capture the performance using the heat given off by the dancers' bodies.Though there is no trailer for the short film yet the National Film Board of Canada has released a trio of clips, which you can see below....
- 9/1/2011
- Screen Anarchy
A few years ago, before a screening of something or other at a festival, I saw a short film that blew me away. A combination of arthouse, dance and morbid beauty, Pedro Pires' Danse Macabre was the only thing I remember of that night. I haven't had the opportunity to re-watch the film since I first saw it but the images and music and burned into my mind.
Pires has been busy with a number of projects, including work with Cirque du Soleil's "Totem" but he's found the time to re-team with Canadian film and heatre legend Robert Lepage for a new short.
Premiering at Tiff later this year, Hope is described as:
The fragmented violence of war seen through the eyes of a General on his deathbed. A mind accustomed to a life on the battlefield surrenders to a stream of consciousness, mixing death, brutality, and finally, one last gesture of hope.
Pires has been busy with a number of projects, including work with Cirque du Soleil's "Totem" but he's found the time to re-team with Canadian film and heatre legend Robert Lepage for a new short.
Premiering at Tiff later this year, Hope is described as:
The fragmented violence of war seen through the eyes of a General on his deathbed. A mind accustomed to a life on the battlefield surrenders to a stream of consciousness, mixing death, brutality, and finally, one last gesture of hope.
- 8/9/2011
- QuietEarth.us
Goethe cursed attempts to set Faust to music – but composers kept trying regardless. As Terry Gilliam's version opens, Stuart Jeffries recounts a litany of depression, devils and duels
There is a curse on any composer rash enough to set Goethe's Faust to music. The German literary genius declared only Mozart capable of adapting his epic drama of damnation, sexual betrayal, witchcraft and freeform philosophic meditation. Selfishly, Mozart had died in 1791, almost 20 years before Goethe completed part one. So forever after, we have been doomed to suffer Faustian adaptations that the author would have disdained.
Perhaps Goethe's curse was issued because of That Thing he had with Beethoven. When Goethe met Beethoven (What a film! Hugh Bonneville as genteel, bewigged Goethe; Russell Crowe as Beethoven, surly and spoiling for a fight), the former bowed like a courtier; the latter didn't even remove his hat. You can see how...
There is a curse on any composer rash enough to set Goethe's Faust to music. The German literary genius declared only Mozart capable of adapting his epic drama of damnation, sexual betrayal, witchcraft and freeform philosophic meditation. Selfishly, Mozart had died in 1791, almost 20 years before Goethe completed part one. So forever after, we have been doomed to suffer Faustian adaptations that the author would have disdained.
Perhaps Goethe's curse was issued because of That Thing he had with Beethoven. When Goethe met Beethoven (What a film! Hugh Bonneville as genteel, bewigged Goethe; Russell Crowe as Beethoven, surly and spoiling for a fight), the former bowed like a courtier; the latter didn't even remove his hat. You can see how...
- 5/2/2011
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Mars et Avril is a striking new Canadian science fiction film, currently in post-production. The feature film about a future where people are emigrating to Mars is based on the graphic novels of the same name and is written, produced and directed by newcomer Martin Villeneuve who was kind enough to pass along some stills from his film and give us an update on where production's at... and if you're wondering why the film looks so visually interesting, it's because Belgian comic book artist François Schuiten, who has worked on film's such as Golden Compass and Mr. Nobody) is on production design duties.
To get the world of Mars et Avril just right, the film was shot almost entirely on green screen and with a budget of $2 million - a decent size for a Canadian production - Villeneuve was actually able to do the technique justice.
Synopsis:
Mars et Avril...
To get the world of Mars et Avril just right, the film was shot almost entirely on green screen and with a budget of $2 million - a decent size for a Canadian production - Villeneuve was actually able to do the technique justice.
Synopsis:
Mars et Avril...
- 4/4/2011
- QuietEarth.us
Olivier; Donmar; Barbican, all London
In the centre of the Olivier stage is a pale disc like an enormous seed pod. Within it you can just make out a shadowy figure. It pulses, and the theatre reverberates to the beat of a heart. Serried ranks of bare bulbs sizzle, dip and flare, and out of the pod rips a pink, blotched, raw thing whose naked limbs have gone all wrong, as if they've been attached back to front: it slips around the stage in judders, as if it were allergic to the ground on which it has fallen. On one night that thing is Jonny Lee Miller; on the next, it is Benedict Cumberbatch.
The undoubted hit (real people, not just relatives and backers are up on their feet night after night at curtain call) that is Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstein depends on a gorgeously gargantuan feat of design by Mark Tildesley,...
In the centre of the Olivier stage is a pale disc like an enormous seed pod. Within it you can just make out a shadowy figure. It pulses, and the theatre reverberates to the beat of a heart. Serried ranks of bare bulbs sizzle, dip and flare, and out of the pod rips a pink, blotched, raw thing whose naked limbs have gone all wrong, as if they've been attached back to front: it slips around the stage in judders, as if it were allergic to the ground on which it has fallen. On one night that thing is Jonny Lee Miller; on the next, it is Benedict Cumberbatch.
The undoubted hit (real people, not just relatives and backers are up on their feet night after night at curtain call) that is Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstein depends on a gorgeously gargantuan feat of design by Mark Tildesley,...
- 2/27/2011
- by Susannah Clapp
- The Guardian - Film News
Lights, camera, arias! Sell-out shows bring in new audiences and serious cash for leading opera houses
Tonight, most British cinema audiences will be settling down with a Coke and a carton of popcorn for the weekend's big movies: the latest in the Narnia franchise, perhaps, or Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.
But not all of them. In around 80 UK cinemas, audiences will instead be preparing themselves for a performance, beamed in live by satellite from New York's Metropolitan Opera, of Verdi's Don Carlos.
You'd be lucky to get a ticket though, despite the £25 price tag (reflecting the double cinema slot occupied by these often lengthy works). Tickets are sometimes snapped up in just two hours for a screening nine months away, according to Lyn Goleby, managing director of the independent cinema chain Picturehouse. "Opera in cinema is," she says, "a phenomenon."
The Royal Opera House, eager...
Tonight, most British cinema audiences will be settling down with a Coke and a carton of popcorn for the weekend's big movies: the latest in the Narnia franchise, perhaps, or Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.
But not all of them. In around 80 UK cinemas, audiences will instead be preparing themselves for a performance, beamed in live by satellite from New York's Metropolitan Opera, of Verdi's Don Carlos.
You'd be lucky to get a ticket though, despite the £25 price tag (reflecting the double cinema slot occupied by these often lengthy works). Tickets are sometimes snapped up in just two hours for a screening nine months away, according to Lyn Goleby, managing director of the independent cinema chain Picturehouse. "Opera in cinema is," she says, "a phenomenon."
The Royal Opera House, eager...
- 12/11/2010
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
'If your reviews are good, you think, "Tonight I will go on repeating my brilliant performance." It's theatrical death'
What got you started?
Meeting Scottish variety star Tommy Morgan at the Palace theatre in Dundee when I was five. My uncle was a friend of the stage manager, so he took me backstage. I watched Tommy take his makeup off, fascinated by his transformation from the creature I'd seen under the lights, to an ordinary person like me.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
When Jonathan Kent and I ran the Almeida [in London] for about 13 years, we gave up everything: running a theatre is a 24-hour-a-day job.
If government funding was withdrawn, how would theatre evolve to cope?
It would cope somehow, because theatre always does: so many people just have to do it. One way could be to start using churches as theatres. They're not open 24 hours a day...
What got you started?
Meeting Scottish variety star Tommy Morgan at the Palace theatre in Dundee when I was five. My uncle was a friend of the stage manager, so he took me backstage. I watched Tommy take his makeup off, fascinated by his transformation from the creature I'd seen under the lights, to an ordinary person like me.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
When Jonathan Kent and I ran the Almeida [in London] for about 13 years, we gave up everything: running a theatre is a 24-hour-a-day job.
If government funding was withdrawn, how would theatre evolve to cope?
It would cope somehow, because theatre always does: so many people just have to do it. One way could be to start using churches as theatres. They're not open 24 hours a day...
- 8/23/2010
- by Laura Barnett
- The Guardian - Film News
In honor of Canada Day, we are republishing this post -- Ranylt's first on the site -- from Canada Day 2007.
July 1 is Canada Day, so while my compatriots are busy painting themselves red and perfecting their Maenadic howls in time for tonight's fireworks, I've been tasked with offering up a list of ten nifty Canadian films that are mostly off the radar outside of this country (and I throw my arms around you in delight if you're a foreigner who's actually seen any of these--French kisses for anyone who appreciates them, to boot).
Many readers seem familiar with Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire. And David Cronenberg's body of work needs no introduction thanks to The Fly, Naked Lunch, Scanners, Crash (the other Crash!) and Videodrome. As unnatural as it is to omit Egoyan, Arcand and Cronenberg from a Canadian film overview,...
July 1 is Canada Day, so while my compatriots are busy painting themselves red and perfecting their Maenadic howls in time for tonight's fireworks, I've been tasked with offering up a list of ten nifty Canadian films that are mostly off the radar outside of this country (and I throw my arms around you in delight if you're a foreigner who's actually seen any of these--French kisses for anyone who appreciates them, to boot).
Many readers seem familiar with Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire. And David Cronenberg's body of work needs no introduction thanks to The Fly, Naked Lunch, Scanners, Crash (the other Crash!) and Videodrome. As unnatural as it is to omit Egoyan, Arcand and Cronenberg from a Canadian film overview,...
- 7/1/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
Production begins this week in Connecticut on the psychological thriller We Need To Talk About Kevin, which is being directed by acclaimed filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar) and produced by Jennifer Fox (Michael Clayton, The Informant!), Luc Roeg (Mr. Nice) and Robert Salerno (21 Grams). We Need To Talk About Kevin was written by Ramsay and Rory Kinnear based on the novel by Lionel Shriver. The film stars Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller. Presented by BBC Films and the UK Film Council in association with Footprint Investments Llp, Caemhan Partnership Llp and Lipsync Productions, the film is an Independent / Jennifer Fox production in association with Artina Films and Forward Films. The announcement was made today by Independent, who also holds the international rights to the film.
The film was developed by BBC Films¹ Creative Director Christine Langan (The Damned United, Bright Star) with Paula Jalfon (In The Loop,...
The film was developed by BBC Films¹ Creative Director Christine Langan (The Damned United, Bright Star) with Paula Jalfon (In The Loop,...
- 4/23/2010
- by Staff
- Hollywoodnews.com
Hitchcock's Psycho gets a welcome cinematic rerelease, accompanied by the fascinating Double Take, which plays upon the Master's preoccupations to illuminating, often hilarious effect, writes Philip French
Eleven years after the celebration of his centenary, 30 years after his death, 50 years after the appearance of his most sensational movie, Hitchcock remains a subject of inexhaustible interest to critics, artists and fellow film-makers. The latest are Don DeLillo, whose novel, Point Omega, features a man obsessed with Douglas Gordon's art installation, 24 Hour Psycho, and the Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez whose Double Take, a fascinating film about Hitchcock, fear and the Cold War, is going around the country with the rereleased Psycho.
Grimonprez's movie is a riveting montage (and sometimes collage) of clips from Suspicion, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Birds, Topaz and the Master's often wildly funny trailers and introductions to his TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. They're accompanied by unintentionally...
Eleven years after the celebration of his centenary, 30 years after his death, 50 years after the appearance of his most sensational movie, Hitchcock remains a subject of inexhaustible interest to critics, artists and fellow film-makers. The latest are Don DeLillo, whose novel, Point Omega, features a man obsessed with Douglas Gordon's art installation, 24 Hour Psycho, and the Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez whose Double Take, a fascinating film about Hitchcock, fear and the Cold War, is going around the country with the rereleased Psycho.
Grimonprez's movie is a riveting montage (and sometimes collage) of clips from Suspicion, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Birds, Topaz and the Master's often wildly funny trailers and introductions to his TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. They're accompanied by unintentionally...
- 4/3/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The Infernal Comedy, based on true story of Austrian serial killer, among highlights of Barbican's plans for coming year
It might not be the cheeriest night out, watching John Malkovich as a resurrected Austrian serial killer on stage with a baroque orchestra and two sopranos singing arias about murder and abandonment, but it will, the Barbican's artistic director cheerfully suggests, be one of his personal highlights.
"It's a kind of 21st-century version of an 18th-century melodrama," said Graham Sheffield. "Absolutely brilliant and completely unique."
The Malkovich piece, The Infernal Comedy – part drama, part concert – is based on the true story of Jack Unterweger, who killed at least 11 prostitutes. "Probably not a thing to take a person on a first date," Sheffield conceded.
The show was announced today as part of the Barbican's plans for the coming year, along with the return of big-name regulars such as Peter Brook, with The Magic Flute; Michael Clark,...
It might not be the cheeriest night out, watching John Malkovich as a resurrected Austrian serial killer on stage with a baroque orchestra and two sopranos singing arias about murder and abandonment, but it will, the Barbican's artistic director cheerfully suggests, be one of his personal highlights.
"It's a kind of 21st-century version of an 18th-century melodrama," said Graham Sheffield. "Absolutely brilliant and completely unique."
The Malkovich piece, The Infernal Comedy – part drama, part concert – is based on the true story of Jack Unterweger, who killed at least 11 prostitutes. "Probably not a thing to take a person on a first date," Sheffield conceded.
The show was announced today as part of the Barbican's plans for the coming year, along with the return of big-name regulars such as Peter Brook, with The Magic Flute; Michael Clark,...
- 3/12/2010
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
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