Jerry Seinfeld calls him ‘the most idolised comedian ever’. Yet after five decades at the top, success still makes him cringe. He discusses doubting himself, starring in a documentary – and that Dennis Pennis encounter
I didn’t expect Steve Martin to be funny. Sure, it was his skewwhiff sensibility that made The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, LA Story and Bowfinger so deliriously inspired. And he was comedy’s first double-platinum-record-selling, stadium-touring megastar; he began wearing a white suit on stage only so that he could be seen by fans in the cheap seats several postcodes away. He crafted riotous slapstick crescendos in All of Me and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and displayed a literary flair even at his silliest. No one who has seen Roxanne, the modern-day interpretation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac that found Martin investing his comedy with emotional weight for the first time, will...
I didn’t expect Steve Martin to be funny. Sure, it was his skewwhiff sensibility that made The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, LA Story and Bowfinger so deliriously inspired. And he was comedy’s first double-platinum-record-selling, stadium-touring megastar; he began wearing a white suit on stage only so that he could be seen by fans in the cheap seats several postcodes away. He crafted riotous slapstick crescendos in All of Me and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and displayed a literary flair even at his silliest. No one who has seen Roxanne, the modern-day interpretation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac that found Martin investing his comedy with emotional weight for the first time, will...
- 3/22/2024
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Berlin-based producer/distributor Dcm has taken a sake in Wim Wenders’ production company Road Movies, creating an “equal, strong partnership” between the two firms, Wenders and Dcm said Friday.
Dcm, which has released several of Wenders’ films in Germany, including the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, will buy into Road Movies in the first quarter of this year. Dcm partners Dario Suter, Christoph Daniel, Marc Schmidheiny and Joel Brandeis described the move as a strategic expansion of the company’s film production business. Schmidheiny will be named Road Movies’ managing director.
Schmidheiny described the partnership as “a dream come true,” saying Dcm would handle the financial and day-to-day management of Road Movies to “to create the space for Wim to bring his seemingly inexhaustible creative power to the screen.”
“It has been on the agenda for years that we would work together with a strong partner,” said Wenders. “As Road Movies, we...
Dcm, which has released several of Wenders’ films in Germany, including the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, will buy into Road Movies in the first quarter of this year. Dcm partners Dario Suter, Christoph Daniel, Marc Schmidheiny and Joel Brandeis described the move as a strategic expansion of the company’s film production business. Schmidheiny will be named Road Movies’ managing director.
Schmidheiny described the partnership as “a dream come true,” saying Dcm would handle the financial and day-to-day management of Road Movies to “to create the space for Wim to bring his seemingly inexhaustible creative power to the screen.”
“It has been on the agenda for years that we would work together with a strong partner,” said Wenders. “As Road Movies, we...
- 2/15/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…
Phil Shelly...
Phil Shelly...
- 2/3/2024
- by Theodore Bond
- JoBlo.com
Nighthawks in Hopper: An American Love Story Photo: Edward Hopper, courtesy of Aic Chicago
The Lavender Hill Mob, 5.05pm, Film4, Monday, January 22
Some people think of black and white films as boring, artefacts of the past to which they could not possibly relate. There’s nothing like an Ealing comedy to set them right. This one’s a classic, with Alec Guinness’ charming, silver-tongued bank clerk hatching a scheme to embezzle gold by meltimg it down and disguising it in the form of tourist souvenirs. When a party of schoolgirls unwittingly acquire those souvenirs, however, getting them back proves much more of a challenge. Tightly plotted and full of twists and turns, it mingles elements of farce with deliciously dark wit, and there’s no shortage of thrills.
Fallen Leaves, Mubi, Tuesday, January 23
Once upon a time declaring oneself an admirer of the work of Aki Kaurismäki meant no longer getting invited to parties,...
The Lavender Hill Mob, 5.05pm, Film4, Monday, January 22
Some people think of black and white films as boring, artefacts of the past to which they could not possibly relate. There’s nothing like an Ealing comedy to set them right. This one’s a classic, with Alec Guinness’ charming, silver-tongued bank clerk hatching a scheme to embezzle gold by meltimg it down and disguising it in the form of tourist souvenirs. When a party of schoolgirls unwittingly acquire those souvenirs, however, getting them back proves much more of a challenge. Tightly plotted and full of twists and turns, it mingles elements of farce with deliciously dark wit, and there’s no shortage of thrills.
Fallen Leaves, Mubi, Tuesday, January 23
Once upon a time declaring oneself an admirer of the work of Aki Kaurismäki meant no longer getting invited to parties,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Delve into the captivating world of art with “American Masters” as it presents Season 37 Episode 10, titled “Hopper: An American Love Story.” Airing on PBS at 9:00 Pm on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, this episode offers an intimate look into the life, work, and relationships of the renowned artist Edward Hopper.
The episode explores Hopper’s early career as an illustrator, providing insights into the formative years that shaped his artistic journey. Viewers can anticipate a comprehensive exploration of Hopper’s critical and commercial acclaim, unraveling the layers of his creative process and the impact of his evocative work on the art world.
“Hopper: An American Love Story” is a must-watch for art enthusiasts and those curious about the intricacies of one of America’s most celebrated artists. Tune in to PBS for a visually stunning and emotionally resonant episode that pays homage to Edward Hopper’s enduring legacy in the world of art.
The episode explores Hopper’s early career as an illustrator, providing insights into the formative years that shaped his artistic journey. Viewers can anticipate a comprehensive exploration of Hopper’s critical and commercial acclaim, unraveling the layers of his creative process and the impact of his evocative work on the art world.
“Hopper: An American Love Story” is a must-watch for art enthusiasts and those curious about the intricacies of one of America’s most celebrated artists. Tune in to PBS for a visually stunning and emotionally resonant episode that pays homage to Edward Hopper’s enduring legacy in the world of art.
- 12/26/2023
- by Jules Byrd
- TV Everyday
If there’s one director whose entire filmography is consistently horror-adjacent, it would have to be Yorgos Lanthimos. The Athenian filmmaker is mostly known for his absurdist dramas, but nearly all of his movies feature some form of horrific undercurrent beneath the offbeat dialogue and odd characters. And while his 2023 feature Poor Things wears its horror influences on its Frankenstein-inspired sleeves, today I’d like to look back on the director’s most effortlessly terrifying film – 2017’s psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
After reaching mainstream critical acclaim with 2015’s The Lobster, Lanthimos was basically given carte blanche on his next strange project. Borrowing the premise of an ancient Greek play, his next film would be a modern-day tragedy co-written by Efthymis Filippou and financed by Irish and British production companies. And like Yorgo’s previous English-language project, The Killing of a Sacred Deer would also benefit...
After reaching mainstream critical acclaim with 2015’s The Lobster, Lanthimos was basically given carte blanche on his next strange project. Borrowing the premise of an ancient Greek play, his next film would be a modern-day tragedy co-written by Efthymis Filippou and financed by Irish and British production companies. And like Yorgo’s previous English-language project, The Killing of a Sacred Deer would also benefit...
- 12/8/2023
- by Luiz H. C.
- bloody-disgusting.com
For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…
Steve Berry
Steve Berry...
Steve Berry
Steve Berry...
- 9/2/2023
- by Theodore Bond
- JoBlo.com
The ’80s was a decade of movies that you can hear at a roar even on mute. A screenshot of Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay aboard the train in “Risky Business” has a sound to it. The same goes for a still image of Kaneda riding towards Neo-Tokyo in “Akira,” or Jack Nicholson’s car snaking its way up the mountains towards the Overlook Hotel during the opening titles of “The Shining.”
It was a decade of synths and sad jazz; a decade of legends reaching the height of their powers (e.g. John Williams and Ennio Morricone), and of newcomers from other disciplines becoming cinematic virtuosos in their own right (e.g. Ryuichi Sakamoto and Philip Glass). The movies had never sounded that way before, but the best film scores of the ’80s — our picks are listed below — continue to echo in our minds as if they’ve always been there.
It was a decade of synths and sad jazz; a decade of legends reaching the height of their powers (e.g. John Williams and Ennio Morricone), and of newcomers from other disciplines becoming cinematic virtuosos in their own right (e.g. Ryuichi Sakamoto and Philip Glass). The movies had never sounded that way before, but the best film scores of the ’80s — our picks are listed below — continue to echo in our minds as if they’ve always been there.
- 8/15/2023
- by David Ehrlich and Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
The Film
Neo-Noir has always been a sweaty genre. Body Heat, which drips with heat, tension and sex, may be the sweatiest of them all, but The Hot Spot isn’t far behind.
One hot day, Harry Maddox (Don Johnson) shows up in a tiny Texas town. He gets a job as a car salesman by simply walking on to the lot and selling one. Set up, he turns his eyes first to the beautiful young receptionist (Jennifer Connelly) at a neighbouring business, then to his boss’ wife (Virginia Madsen) and finally to the local bank, staffed entirely by volunteer firefighters; a detail that gives Harry an idea.
There could have been few films more suited to screening during the heatwave we’re having than this one. During the daytime, director Dennis Hopper’s whole colour scheme is bright and sun-scorched, the heaviness of the heat is palpable, and that...
Neo-Noir has always been a sweaty genre. Body Heat, which drips with heat, tension and sex, may be the sweatiest of them all, but The Hot Spot isn’t far behind.
One hot day, Harry Maddox (Don Johnson) shows up in a tiny Texas town. He gets a job as a car salesman by simply walking on to the lot and selling one. Set up, he turns his eyes first to the beautiful young receptionist (Jennifer Connelly) at a neighbouring business, then to his boss’ wife (Virginia Madsen) and finally to the local bank, staffed entirely by volunteer firefighters; a detail that gives Harry an idea.
There could have been few films more suited to screening during the heatwave we’re having than this one. During the daytime, director Dennis Hopper’s whole colour scheme is bright and sun-scorched, the heaviness of the heat is palpable, and that...
- 6/15/2023
- by Sam Inglis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Sophie Fiennes with Anne-Katrin Titze on Slavoj Žižek: “I absolutely love working with him. Just being immersed in those ideas.”
From her short, Lars From 1 - 10, with Lars von Trier on Dogma 95, to Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami with Grace Jones; The Pervert's Guide To Ideology and The Pervert's Guide To Cinema with Slavoj Žižek; Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow with Anselm Kiefer; a short in Hopper Stories (commissioned by Arte France and produced by Didier Jacob), inspired by the Edward Hopper painting First Row Orchestra, and now the remarkable documentary T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, starring Ralph Fiennes - Sophie Fiennes is one of the most discerning and astute filmmakers on the subjects she chooses to document.
Slavoj Žižek Cantor Film Center at NYU on October 14, 2015 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Slavoj Žižek's musings on our enjoyment of ideology, and the fact that stepping out of it hurts, were...
From her short, Lars From 1 - 10, with Lars von Trier on Dogma 95, to Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami with Grace Jones; The Pervert's Guide To Ideology and The Pervert's Guide To Cinema with Slavoj Žižek; Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow with Anselm Kiefer; a short in Hopper Stories (commissioned by Arte France and produced by Didier Jacob), inspired by the Edward Hopper painting First Row Orchestra, and now the remarkable documentary T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, starring Ralph Fiennes - Sophie Fiennes is one of the most discerning and astute filmmakers on the subjects she chooses to document.
Slavoj Žižek Cantor Film Center at NYU on October 14, 2015 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Slavoj Žižek's musings on our enjoyment of ideology, and the fact that stepping out of it hurts, were...
- 4/22/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In Sophie Barthes’ third feature, sci-fi satire “The Pod Generation,” which plays in the Premieres strand at the Sundance Film Festival, the French-born director explores A.I., commodification, motherhood and our relationship to both technology and nature, as well as critiquing progress, consumerism and our way of life.
“The Pod Generation,” which Barthes also wrote and exec produced is the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Winner, and follows Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to take their relationship to the next level and start a family, embarking on a pregnancy journey via detachable artificial wombs.
“Although we conceived the technology, it should be here to help us, but I actually think it’s making us disconnect from our instincts” Barthes tells Variety. “We tend to put so much faith now in the fact that technology can do so many things for us.
“The Pod Generation,” which Barthes also wrote and exec produced is the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Winner, and follows Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to take their relationship to the next level and start a family, embarking on a pregnancy journey via detachable artificial wombs.
“Although we conceived the technology, it should be here to help us, but I actually think it’s making us disconnect from our instincts” Barthes tells Variety. “We tend to put so much faith now in the fact that technology can do so many things for us.
- 1/21/2023
- by Tara Karajica
- Variety Film + TV
David Lachapelle Has a flight to catch. This flight is leaving imminently, and its imminence is made highly apparent by people associated with Lachapelle, within earshot of Lachapelle, who nonetheless settles deeper into a chartreuse velvet sofa near the crackling fire of the Greenwich Hotel and orders tea and scones. “The crazy ones with the truffle oil,” he specifies, before turning to me with delight. “You have to try one. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Which, of course, is what people tend to say about Lachapelle’s body of work,...
Which, of course, is what people tend to say about Lachapelle’s body of work,...
- 11/29/2022
- by Alex Morris
- Rollingstone.com
“I don’t necessarily associate the 80s with a period piece because it just doesn’t feel that long ago to me,” admits production designer Happy Massee as he reflects on his work on “Armageddon Time.” The new James Gray film takes place in Queens, New York, in 1980, and centers on the friendship between two middle-school students across social divisions of race and class. The set decorator lived in New York in the 80s, so bringing that period to life did not take an inordinate amount of research. He shares, “The research were my personal experiences. I sort of re-lived something that I lived when I was in my early 20s.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Armageddon Time” is Massee’s third collaboration with Gray on a feature, having previously worked with the director on “Two Lovers” and “The Immigrant.” He recounts meeting the writer-director for the first time,...
“Armageddon Time” is Massee’s third collaboration with Gray on a feature, having previously worked with the director on “Two Lovers” and “The Immigrant.” He recounts meeting the writer-director for the first time,...
- 11/18/2022
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Also out this weekend: ’Decision To Leave’ and ‘The Gravedigger’s Wife’.
Warner Bros’ Black Adam is this weekend’s widest UK-Ireland release, playing at 664 sites.
Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra reunites with Jungle Cruise star Dwayne Johnson for this latest outing from the DC Extended Universe, that follows a Middle Eastern slave who is transformed into a god, with Sarah Shahi, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo and Pierce Brosnan also starring.
DC’s 2022 releases kicked off with The Batman in March, a record wide release for Warner Bros, playing at 709 locations. It took £13.5m in its opening weekend. DC League Of Super-pets...
Warner Bros’ Black Adam is this weekend’s widest UK-Ireland release, playing at 664 sites.
Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra reunites with Jungle Cruise star Dwayne Johnson for this latest outing from the DC Extended Universe, that follows a Middle Eastern slave who is transformed into a god, with Sarah Shahi, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo and Pierce Brosnan also starring.
DC’s 2022 releases kicked off with The Batman in March, a record wide release for Warner Bros, playing at 709 locations. It took £13.5m in its opening weekend. DC League Of Super-pets...
- 10/21/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Look at an Edward Hopper painting and you may initially be struck by its realism. The light and colour are striking. The body language and expressions of the people, even when obscured, hint at poignant stories. Look a little closer, however, and the pictures become stranger. Why are city streets so quiet, even in the daytime? Why do the buildings whose interiors we focus on appear to offer no ways in or out?
Hopper’s work is is often celebrated as the apogee of American realism, but in fact it captures a very distinct slice of American life, and then obliquely. This does not make it less interesting but, rather, offers up the artist’s own story for examination in a similar manner to those of this characters. In this film, the always impressive Exhibition On Screen team get to grips with that story and endeavour to open some doors which will give.
Hopper’s work is is often celebrated as the apogee of American realism, but in fact it captures a very distinct slice of American life, and then obliquely. This does not make it less interesting but, rather, offers up the artist’s own story for examination in a similar manner to those of this characters. In this film, the always impressive Exhibition On Screen team get to grips with that story and endeavour to open some doors which will give.
- 10/17/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A documentary that pays loving attention to the artist’s most significant works doesn’t skirt around his spitefulness, particularly towards his wife
The Exhibition on Screen has done sterling work over the years offering cinemagoers and TV viewers an excellent simulacrum to the experience of visiting a major art gallery. While its output has generally concentrated on the blockbuster names of the art world – a commercially potent mix of impressionism, post-impressionism and the high Renaissance – here is a welcome deviation from the norm: an impressive biography of American master Edward Hopper, whose quiet, precise and somehow otherworldly painting responds particularly well to Exhibition on Screen’s house style.
This Hopper documentary is not anchored to a specific exhibition, but still presents the customary mix of loving close-ups of the paintings, knowledgeable talking heads, and voiceover readings of original letters and diary entries. Hopper’s difficult early years are described,...
The Exhibition on Screen has done sterling work over the years offering cinemagoers and TV viewers an excellent simulacrum to the experience of visiting a major art gallery. While its output has generally concentrated on the blockbuster names of the art world – a commercially potent mix of impressionism, post-impressionism and the high Renaissance – here is a welcome deviation from the norm: an impressive biography of American master Edward Hopper, whose quiet, precise and somehow otherworldly painting responds particularly well to Exhibition on Screen’s house style.
This Hopper documentary is not anchored to a specific exhibition, but still presents the customary mix of loving close-ups of the paintings, knowledgeable talking heads, and voiceover readings of original letters and diary entries. Hopper’s difficult early years are described,...
- 10/17/2022
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Click here to read the full article.
Empire of Light, a drama set in the early 1980s within and against the backdrop of a grand old British seaside cinema, had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival’s Herzog Theatre on Saturday afternoon, and proved to be the fest’s biggest crowd-pleaser so far.
A smart, understated, old-fashioned movie that doesn’t aim to set the world on fire, but is solid and satisfying, Empire of Light, which Searchlight will release on Dec. 9, looks to be a formidable Oscar contender given its reception here; the track records of its writer/director, Sam Mendes, and its leading lady, Olivia Colman; and the fact that the Academy loves few things more than a good movie about the movies.
Mendes, who introduced the film (with Colman and her up-and-coming costar Micheal Ward joining via Zoom), would have fit in perfectly during Hollywood’s Golden Age,...
Empire of Light, a drama set in the early 1980s within and against the backdrop of a grand old British seaside cinema, had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival’s Herzog Theatre on Saturday afternoon, and proved to be the fest’s biggest crowd-pleaser so far.
A smart, understated, old-fashioned movie that doesn’t aim to set the world on fire, but is solid and satisfying, Empire of Light, which Searchlight will release on Dec. 9, looks to be a formidable Oscar contender given its reception here; the track records of its writer/director, Sam Mendes, and its leading lady, Olivia Colman; and the fact that the Academy loves few things more than a good movie about the movies.
Mendes, who introduced the film (with Colman and her up-and-coming costar Micheal Ward joining via Zoom), would have fit in perfectly during Hollywood’s Golden Age,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alfred Hitchcock’s magnum opus film, Psycho is returning to cinemas from today, 27th May. This stunning 4K restoration of the original theatrical cut includes an extra 13 seconds of restored footage – so it can once again be seen as it was originally shown in cinemas back in 1960, exactly as intended by Hitchcock. To celebrate, here are ten things you probably didn’t know about Psycho:
Melon-terror! What did Alfred Hitchcock use to create an authentically terrifying stabbing sound? A melon. Specifically, a casaba melon. Hitchcock and his sound guy are said to have tested all kinds of melons before settling on the casaba – its thick skin gives a denser sound than other varieties. This, combined with a slab of steak, proved the perfect combination. Body Double: in the iconic shower scene, Playboy cover girl Marli Renfro had the uncredited role of Janet Leigh’s body double – and it is her...
Melon-terror! What did Alfred Hitchcock use to create an authentically terrifying stabbing sound? A melon. Specifically, a casaba melon. Hitchcock and his sound guy are said to have tested all kinds of melons before settling on the casaba – its thick skin gives a denser sound than other varieties. This, combined with a slab of steak, proved the perfect combination. Body Double: in the iconic shower scene, Playboy cover girl Marli Renfro had the uncredited role of Janet Leigh’s body double – and it is her...
- 5/27/2022
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen director Daniel Raim on the casting of Tevye for Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof: “Until I talked with Norman I didn’t know that Frank Sinatra’s manager had called Norman. And Danny Kaye, what a great story!”
Daniel Raim’s Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, co-written with Michael Sragow, produced by Sasha Berman, executive produced by Matthew H. Bernstein and narrated by Jeff Goldblum, takes us on the remarkable odyssey of Norman Jewison and how he became the director of the multiple Oscar-winning Fiddler On The Roof.
Daniel Raim with Anne-Katrin Titze on Robert F Boyle: “He was my professor and I knew he loved Edward Hopper, so for Christmas I got him, when I was a student, a book on Hopper paintings.”
On-camera interviews with Topol, Rosalind Harris (Tzeitel), Michele Marsh (Hodel), Neva Small (Chava), composer John Williams,...
Daniel Raim’s Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, co-written with Michael Sragow, produced by Sasha Berman, executive produced by Matthew H. Bernstein and narrated by Jeff Goldblum, takes us on the remarkable odyssey of Norman Jewison and how he became the director of the multiple Oscar-winning Fiddler On The Roof.
Daniel Raim with Anne-Katrin Titze on Robert F Boyle: “He was my professor and I knew he loved Edward Hopper, so for Christmas I got him, when I was a student, a book on Hopper paintings.”
On-camera interviews with Topol, Rosalind Harris (Tzeitel), Michele Marsh (Hodel), Neva Small (Chava), composer John Williams,...
- 4/28/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A version of this story about “Flee” first appeared in the Down to the Wire of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
In terms of making history at this year’s Oscars, no film matches the three-peat achieved by Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee.”
The Danish documentary about the life of an Afghan refugee named Amin is not simply the first animated film nominated for Best Documentary Feature, which would be remarkable enough – but it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film. The movies “Honeyland” (2019) and “Collective” (2020) were the first to be nominated in the documentary and international categories. “Flee” matched that record and beat it.
“It’s just crazy and amazing,” said Danish director Rasmussen. “This film started just as a conversation between two friends. In the beginning, I brought up the idea of maybe making it as a short documentary, and back then, nearly 10 years ago,...
In terms of making history at this year’s Oscars, no film matches the three-peat achieved by Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee.”
The Danish documentary about the life of an Afghan refugee named Amin is not simply the first animated film nominated for Best Documentary Feature, which would be remarkable enough – but it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film. The movies “Honeyland” (2019) and “Collective” (2020) were the first to be nominated in the documentary and international categories. “Flee” matched that record and beat it.
“It’s just crazy and amazing,” said Danish director Rasmussen. “This film started just as a conversation between two friends. In the beginning, I brought up the idea of maybe making it as a short documentary, and back then, nearly 10 years ago,...
- 3/16/2022
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Lisa Hurwitz with Anne-Katrin Titze on Mel Brooks’s original song with composer Hummie Mann for The Automat: “He composed Mel’s films Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving it, and so it was all kind of perfect.”
In the second instalment with The Automat director Lisa Hurwitz we discuss her work with writer and editor Michael Levine, the interview with Colin Powell, Mel Brooks and composer Hummie Mann’s collaborations, the well-chosen clips in her film, including Sylvia Sidney and Peter Lawford, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature, a Jack Benny party, Tweety Bird and The Flintstones at the Automat, an Edward Hopper painting, and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman’s childhood fondness for the baked beans at the Automat.
Lisa will participate in three in-person post-screening Q&As this weekend for the theatrical opening at Film Forum in New York of The Automat.
Mel Brooks recording...
In the second instalment with The Automat director Lisa Hurwitz we discuss her work with writer and editor Michael Levine, the interview with Colin Powell, Mel Brooks and composer Hummie Mann’s collaborations, the well-chosen clips in her film, including Sylvia Sidney and Peter Lawford, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature, a Jack Benny party, Tweety Bird and The Flintstones at the Automat, an Edward Hopper painting, and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman’s childhood fondness for the baked beans at the Automat.
Lisa will participate in three in-person post-screening Q&As this weekend for the theatrical opening at Film Forum in New York of The Automat.
Mel Brooks recording...
- 2/18/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The influences behind "The Batman" run the gamut from movies to art to books, with David Fincher's "Zodiac," Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," and even Stephen King's "Christine" being sources of inspiration. Above all, there is the film's comic book source material, which director Matt Reeves has been citing since the days back when Ben Affleck was still attached to the project, before Robert Pattinson was even cast as Batman.
According to Reeves, "The Batman" is not an adaptation of any particular comic, but it does draw loose inspiration from several tales published by DC. As he was headed into the Batcave to co-write the script with Peter Craig, Reeves said, "I went on a deep dive...
The post 5 Comics to Read Before Watching The Batman appeared first on /Film.
According to Reeves, "The Batman" is not an adaptation of any particular comic, but it does draw loose inspiration from several tales published by DC. As he was headed into the Batcave to co-write the script with Peter Craig, Reeves said, "I went on a deep dive...
The post 5 Comics to Read Before Watching The Batman appeared first on /Film.
- 2/10/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Bix Beiderbecke with his cornet and the Wolverine Orchestra featured in Brigitte Berman’s superb Bix: 'Ain't None Of Them Play Like Him Yet' Photo: courtesy of Brigitte Berman
Bix Beiderbecke, called a “born genius” by his friend Louis Armstrong, who also provided the quote in the film’s title, died far too young at the age of 28 in 1931. Almost half a century later, between 1978 and 1980, Brigitte Berman interviewed family, friends, and many of the musicians and admirers, including Hoagy Carmichael, Bill Challis, Charlie Davis, Artie Shaw, Spiegle Willcox, Fred Bergin, Doc Cheatham, Matty Malneck, Esten Spurrier, and many more who played with Bix to get a sense of the man who left behind this remarkable music that borders on the otherworldly. A very impressive array of paintings by Edward Hopper visually doubles the effect of the experience.
Brigitte Berman with Anne-Katrin Titze on Wim Wenders: “His films have...
Bix Beiderbecke, called a “born genius” by his friend Louis Armstrong, who also provided the quote in the film’s title, died far too young at the age of 28 in 1931. Almost half a century later, between 1978 and 1980, Brigitte Berman interviewed family, friends, and many of the musicians and admirers, including Hoagy Carmichael, Bill Challis, Charlie Davis, Artie Shaw, Spiegle Willcox, Fred Bergin, Doc Cheatham, Matty Malneck, Esten Spurrier, and many more who played with Bix to get a sense of the man who left behind this remarkable music that borders on the otherworldly. A very impressive array of paintings by Edward Hopper visually doubles the effect of the experience.
Brigitte Berman with Anne-Katrin Titze on Wim Wenders: “His films have...
- 2/8/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Guillermo del Toro’s ghoulish “Nightmare Alley” was really two movies in one for Oscar-contending production designer Tamara Deverell with its carnival and Art Deco environments. But both were constructed as places of entrapment for Bradley Cooper’s ruthless grifter, Stanton Carlisle, who gets in over his head with his mentalist “spook show.”
“Once you decide to build something with Guillermo, it gets bigger, and Guillermo’s theme is we’re all in a prison,” said Deverell. The first part takes place in a traveling carnival in 1939, which afforded the production designer the opportunity to build her own carnival from the ground up in the parking lot field of Markham Fairground in Toronto. The color palette resembled the stark hopelessness of Edward Hopper’s paintings, while the shape language consisted of circular patterns and hallways as dead end metaphors.
The banners, meanwhile, were patterned after Fred Johnson, who was the Picasso of that design world.
“Once you decide to build something with Guillermo, it gets bigger, and Guillermo’s theme is we’re all in a prison,” said Deverell. The first part takes place in a traveling carnival in 1939, which afforded the production designer the opportunity to build her own carnival from the ground up in the parking lot field of Markham Fairground in Toronto. The color palette resembled the stark hopelessness of Edward Hopper’s paintings, while the shape language consisted of circular patterns and hallways as dead end metaphors.
The banners, meanwhile, were patterned after Fred Johnson, who was the Picasso of that design world.
- 1/31/2022
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
When the Oscar nominations are announced on Feb. 8 Flee could pull off an unprecedented trifecta—becoming the first film nominated as Best Documentary Feature, Best International Film and Best Animated Feature.
Not bad for a project that began with modest ambitions.
“It started out with me wanting to do a short animated doc about a friend of mine,” director Jonas Poher Rasmussen says. “In the beginning I just thought it would be like 20 minutes, and then from there it grew and grew.”
The film resulted from a bond between Rasmussen and Amin Nawabi forged a quarter century ago when a teenage Amin arrived as an Afghan refugee in the small Danish town where Rasmussen grew up. Flee is Denmark’s official entry in the International Film category, and in December it made that category’s shortlist.
“I think it’s the first documentary that’s a Danish entry, so it...
Not bad for a project that began with modest ambitions.
“It started out with me wanting to do a short animated doc about a friend of mine,” director Jonas Poher Rasmussen says. “In the beginning I just thought it would be like 20 minutes, and then from there it grew and grew.”
The film resulted from a bond between Rasmussen and Amin Nawabi forged a quarter century ago when a teenage Amin arrived as an Afghan refugee in the small Danish town where Rasmussen grew up. Flee is Denmark’s official entry in the International Film category, and in December it made that category’s shortlist.
“I think it’s the first documentary that’s a Danish entry, so it...
- 1/31/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Guillermo del Toro’s visually striking “Nightmare Alley” straddles two worlds, the grit and grime of a post-World War II carnival that has suffered wear and tear traveling from city to city, before jumping a few years ahead to a lush and sleek world.
Connecting the two is Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle, a down on his luck guy who uses the carnival as his ticket out. As Stanton plots a new con, he encounters Cate Blanchett’s Dr. Lilith Ritter, a mysterious psychiatrist, in whom he might have met his match.
Renowned for his lavish world-building, del Toro called on production designer Tamara Deverell to build the look of the film. Deverell has yet to land an Adg or Academy Award nomination, but things could change for her as she gains praise for her work. Deverell says she and del Toro didn’t talk about film noir, but rather...
Connecting the two is Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle, a down on his luck guy who uses the carnival as his ticket out. As Stanton plots a new con, he encounters Cate Blanchett’s Dr. Lilith Ritter, a mysterious psychiatrist, in whom he might have met his match.
Renowned for his lavish world-building, del Toro called on production designer Tamara Deverell to build the look of the film. Deverell has yet to land an Adg or Academy Award nomination, but things could change for her as she gains praise for her work. Deverell says she and del Toro didn’t talk about film noir, but rather...
- 1/13/2022
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Jonathan Taplin with Anne-Katrin Titze on Wim Wenders and Edward Hopper: “Obviously Wim is a student of Hopper in every possible way.”
During my conversation with film producer (and so much more) Jonathan Taplin on his terrific memoir, The Magic Years: Scenes From A Rock-And-Roll Life (Heyday), we discussed his working with Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders (Until The End Of The World); Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre; Aretha Franklin in Amazing Grace; Eric Clapton and faith; Quentin Tarantino, Charles Manson and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood; Robert Frank and The Rolling Stones; Leni Riefenstahl, Jodie Foster, and John Hinckley, and Scott Hicks, Shine, and Harvey Weinstein.
Julie Christie in John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Edward Hopper and Wim Wenders, Katharine Hepburn and his mother, the joyous rebellion of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis turning into Bob Dylan and The.
During my conversation with film producer (and so much more) Jonathan Taplin on his terrific memoir, The Magic Years: Scenes From A Rock-And-Roll Life (Heyday), we discussed his working with Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders (Until The End Of The World); Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre; Aretha Franklin in Amazing Grace; Eric Clapton and faith; Quentin Tarantino, Charles Manson and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood; Robert Frank and The Rolling Stones; Leni Riefenstahl, Jodie Foster, and John Hinckley, and Scott Hicks, Shine, and Harvey Weinstein.
Julie Christie in John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Edward Hopper and Wim Wenders, Katharine Hepburn and his mother, the joyous rebellion of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis turning into Bob Dylan and The.
- 7/21/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Curated by the IndieWire Crafts team, Craft Considerations is a platform for filmmakers to talk about recent work that we believe is worthy of awards consideration. In partnership with HBO, for this edition we look at the creation of “Perry Mason” with executive producer and director Tim Van Patten, costume designer Emma Potter, and composer Terence Blanchard.
Terence Blanchard grew up watching the original “Perry Mason” series with his father. When the composer began working on HBO’s “Perry Mason” reboot, he was struck by creators Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones’ new origin story for Perry (Matthew Rhys).
“I remember when I finally started to see something from the show, I was just totally blown away,” said Blanchard. “Immediately, I started telling people, ‘This is not your daddy’s ‘Perry Mason,’ this is something else.’”
From exploring how a downtrodden Perry was haunted by the war, or showing how a...
Terence Blanchard grew up watching the original “Perry Mason” series with his father. When the composer began working on HBO’s “Perry Mason” reboot, he was struck by creators Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones’ new origin story for Perry (Matthew Rhys).
“I remember when I finally started to see something from the show, I was just totally blown away,” said Blanchard. “Immediately, I started telling people, ‘This is not your daddy’s ‘Perry Mason,’ this is something else.’”
From exploring how a downtrodden Perry was haunted by the war, or showing how a...
- 6/3/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
In the opening scene of Chino Moya’s grimmer-than-Grimm dystopian fairy tale collection, “Undergods,” a pair of grungy near-future garbagemen scour the ruins of a ghostly former metropolis looking for bodies. Like the Black Plague cleanup crew in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” — the occasionally too-efficient “bring out your dead!” guys — it doesn’t matter whether the corpses they come across are even fully deceased: The collectors toss the bodies into the back of their cart either way. Should the poor souls turn out to still be alive, they can always sell them for precious cans of scarce food back at the depot.
Moya’s vision may be bleak — and “vision” is the right word to describe the Spanish-born director’s stunning capacity to create images and atmosphere — but there’s something unnervingly familiar about the world he creates in his feature debut. Between that twisted introductory vignette and...
Moya’s vision may be bleak — and “vision” is the right word to describe the Spanish-born director’s stunning capacity to create images and atmosphere — but there’s something unnervingly familiar about the world he creates in his feature debut. Between that twisted introductory vignette and...
- 5/9/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Xiaofan (“Quentin”) Shi is a Chinese visual artist and photographer who lives between New York and Beijing. He has previously directed three short films – “A Parisian Movie” (2011), “In a Lovely Place” (2017) and “Love Letter” (2019). In his directorial long feature film debut “Café by the Highway” which has just had its international premiere in the main competition of the Moscow International Film Festival, Shi’s artistic background takes over, with the film taking shape of neatly arranged artistic ideas that fill the holes in the script.
After being sacked from her barista job in Shanghai, Yuanfang (Yase Liu) returns to her hometown Baima to make peace with her estranged father. But once she gets home, there is neither sign of him, nor her cats. The old man is somewhere “on a top secret special task”, she is told, and almost like he knew she was coming, he arranged her a job.
After being sacked from her barista job in Shanghai, Yuanfang (Yase Liu) returns to her hometown Baima to make peace with her estranged father. But once she gets home, there is neither sign of him, nor her cats. The old man is somewhere “on a top secret special task”, she is told, and almost like he knew she was coming, he arranged her a job.
- 4/30/2021
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
This Shameless review contains spoilers.
Shameless Season 11 Episode 10
“Why is everybody running? Nobody is chasing you fuckers.”
Shameless was designed to reflect a more unpolished and realistic class of society that often gets overlooked or marginalized. It’s a show that sets out to humanize the alleged derelicts of society and showcase the grounded and prevalent difficulties that plague these types of people. Shameless has done an excellent job at representation towards lower class families and communities for over a decade, which makes it so thoroughly perplexing that as Shameless heads into its final episodes that a major plot revolves around the Gallaghers disposing of Edward Hopper’s iconic Nighthawks painting to avoid federal incarceration.
That’s a realistic, pulled from the headlines style problem that most of Chicago’s South Side loses sleep over, right? I’d honestly like to believe that the true reason that John Wells’ American...
Shameless Season 11 Episode 10
“Why is everybody running? Nobody is chasing you fuckers.”
Shameless was designed to reflect a more unpolished and realistic class of society that often gets overlooked or marginalized. It’s a show that sets out to humanize the alleged derelicts of society and showcase the grounded and prevalent difficulties that plague these types of people. Shameless has done an excellent job at representation towards lower class families and communities for over a decade, which makes it so thoroughly perplexing that as Shameless heads into its final episodes that a major plot revolves around the Gallaghers disposing of Edward Hopper’s iconic Nighthawks painting to avoid federal incarceration.
That’s a realistic, pulled from the headlines style problem that most of Chicago’s South Side loses sleep over, right? I’d honestly like to believe that the true reason that John Wells’ American...
- 3/29/2021
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
The director hopes to shoot Armageddon Times starring Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Oscar Isaac and Cate Blanchett latet this year.
James Gray has revealed he is setting his sights on an autumn start for his aptly titled project Armageddon Times, set to star Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Oscar Isaac and Cate Blanchett.
The New York-based filmmaker’s everyday existence has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns but he remains confident his cast will be vaccinated and ready to hit the set.
Written and directed by Gray, the feature is produced by his Ad Astra partner,...
James Gray has revealed he is setting his sights on an autumn start for his aptly titled project Armageddon Times, set to star Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Oscar Isaac and Cate Blanchett.
The New York-based filmmaker’s everyday existence has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns but he remains confident his cast will be vaccinated and ready to hit the set.
Written and directed by Gray, the feature is produced by his Ad Astra partner,...
- 3/17/2021
- by Stuart Kemp
- ScreenDaily
Another special edition of “Euphoria” is arriving early on HBO Max (January 22) ahead of an official airing on HBO January 24. This time around, the special episode centers entirely on the character Jules (Hunter Schafer), last seen bidding Rue (Zendaya) farewell at a train station in the Season 1 finale. Watch the trailer for the episode, titled “F–k Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob,” below. The episode, like December’s hour-long special centered on Zendaya’s character in the aftermath of her relapse, will also take place over the Christmas holiday, with Jules reflecting on her year.
The new “Euphoria” episode is coming after the show’s strong showing at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, where the Sam Levinson-created high school drama took home three of the night’s prizes. The series’ biggest Emmy win was for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, which made Zendaya the category’s youngest winner in history.
The new “Euphoria” episode is coming after the show’s strong showing at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, where the Sam Levinson-created high school drama took home three of the night’s prizes. The series’ biggest Emmy win was for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, which made Zendaya the category’s youngest winner in history.
- 1/19/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Euphoria,” Special Episode – Part 1, Rue, “Trouble Don’t Last Always.”]
The holiday season is a two-sided coin. For some, the world is filled with twinkly lights, family celebrations, and people spreading cheer. But for others, winter is hard. Those lights barely brighten these long, cold nights. Lost loved ones aren’t around to celebrate, and remembering as much can make their absence heavier. All that superficial cheer — or even the genuine kind — spurs pain in anyone struggling with depression or general hardship.
2020 has offered more hardship than usual, and the idea that “Euphoria,” of all things, would lighten the load with two mysterious holiday specials was, well, hard to imagine. Sam Levinson’s HBO drama broke out in its first season with three main waves:
Zendaya’s amazing, Emmy-winning performance A killer soundtrack (both score and compiled) Scaring the shit out of parents everywhere
The first eight episodes are a blur of neon lights,...
The holiday season is a two-sided coin. For some, the world is filled with twinkly lights, family celebrations, and people spreading cheer. But for others, winter is hard. Those lights barely brighten these long, cold nights. Lost loved ones aren’t around to celebrate, and remembering as much can make their absence heavier. All that superficial cheer — or even the genuine kind — spurs pain in anyone struggling with depression or general hardship.
2020 has offered more hardship than usual, and the idea that “Euphoria,” of all things, would lighten the load with two mysterious holiday specials was, well, hard to imagine. Sam Levinson’s HBO drama broke out in its first season with three main waves:
Zendaya’s amazing, Emmy-winning performance A killer soundtrack (both score and compiled) Scaring the shit out of parents everywhere
The first eight episodes are a blur of neon lights,...
- 12/4/2020
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Writer-director Thomas Bezucha clearly flourishes under a big sky: Returning to Montana for “Let Him Go,” he fulfills the promise of his acclaimed debut feature, 2000’s “Big Eden,” also shot in the Treasure State. But where his earlier film was a lovely romantic comedy about the power of community, this new film (based on the novel by Larry Watson) is a nail-biting thriller about a couple rescuing their young grandson from a terrible new family.
Between its taut script and some indelible performances, “Let Him Go” succeeds both as a low-key character study and as a breathlessly intense thriller about the clash between good (but not perfect) people and bad people, none of whom are to be trifled with.
Bezucha opens with some idyllic images right out of Norman Rockwell, and only subtly does an undercurrent of Edward Hopper become visible. Retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife...
Between its taut script and some indelible performances, “Let Him Go” succeeds both as a low-key character study and as a breathlessly intense thriller about the clash between good (but not perfect) people and bad people, none of whom are to be trifled with.
Bezucha opens with some idyllic images right out of Norman Rockwell, and only subtly does an undercurrent of Edward Hopper become visible. Retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife...
- 11/2/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Christos Nikou couldn’t have anticipated the almost unrecognizable world into which he would be releasing his debut feature, “Apples,” but it’s a testament to the strength of this lonely and aloof tragicomedy’s central allegory that it adapts so well to our pear-shaped times. as reality aligns with the speculative world Nikou imagined.
Tipped to play the fall-fest trifecta of Telluride, Venice and Toronto, “Apples” takes place amid what sounds suspiciously like a pandemic — an unexplained spike in sudden, seemingly irreversible amnesia cases — although the scientists and media are predictably unclear about what’s happening. This isn’t the near future but a sort of eerily simplified recent past, a nostalgically analog civilization before cell phones and social media, when human connections had to be forged the old-fashioned way. Something is selectively wiping people’s memories, although in certain cases, it can be a blessing to forget, like...
Tipped to play the fall-fest trifecta of Telluride, Venice and Toronto, “Apples” takes place amid what sounds suspiciously like a pandemic — an unexplained spike in sudden, seemingly irreversible amnesia cases — although the scientists and media are predictably unclear about what’s happening. This isn’t the near future but a sort of eerily simplified recent past, a nostalgically analog civilization before cell phones and social media, when human connections had to be forged the old-fashioned way. Something is selectively wiping people’s memories, although in certain cases, it can be a blessing to forget, like...
- 9/2/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWith the eyebrow-raising working title of Soggy Bottom, Paul Thomas Anderson's new 70s-set project has quietly begun shooting in Los Angeles with Bradley Cooper, and possibly Alana Haim of the band Haim. Speaking of new projects, the next feature by Hirokazu Kore-eda will be a Korean production starring Bae Doona (who previously starred in his film Air Doll) and Song Kang-ho. Entitled Broker, the film is about characters linked by a "baby box," a place where parents may anonymously drop off babies they are unable to raise. Berlinale has announced plans for its 2021 edition, which will be a physical festival. For the first time, performance awards will be gender neutral, replacing the awards for the Best Actor and the Best Actress with a Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance and a Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance.
- 8/26/2020
- MUBI
IMy first encounter with an Edward Hopper painting took the form of a postcard-sized reproduction of Cape Cod Sunset. It was not long after searching and finding other works by him that I began to consider Hopper to be “my” painter. Even after subsequent encounters with Hopper’s works, both in books and in museums, it is still that initial coming together that endures the most in my memory. Closing my eyes, I can still see the painting’s afterimage imprinted on the underside of my lids: A two-story greyish house set down lonely at the edge of a field of yellowing-blue grass underneath a crepuscular sky, shading from light blue to green-yellow with bands of orange settling over the uncannily blurred pine forest that encircles the house. The house itself shows no signs of life, the windows muted and opaque; a mysterious house amongst the pines to dream oneself into; an image of calm,...
- 8/25/2020
- MUBI
Even prior to the pandemic, Technicolor was developing a new mobile post suite app called TechStream, because remote color timing and sound mixing — particularly for episodic TV — had become too expensive and inconvenient. Fortunately, for HBO’s “Perry Mason,” TechStream was launched just in time to finish the Depression-era origin story, starring Matthew Rhys as Erle Stanley Gardner’s legendary defense attorney.
“The idea was to have a [real-time] product that was simple and flawless to operate,” said Pankaj Bajpai, Technicolor VP, finishing artist and business development. “If you can use an iPhone, then that was the requirement that would allow people to collaborate, especially when working on episodics, where DPs can’t physically be with you in the color suites. Now, of course, with the pandemic, all of a sudden we can’t live without Zoom and Teams. But a year ago, the way I was doing remote grading sessions...
“The idea was to have a [real-time] product that was simple and flawless to operate,” said Pankaj Bajpai, Technicolor VP, finishing artist and business development. “If you can use an iPhone, then that was the requirement that would allow people to collaborate, especially when working on episodics, where DPs can’t physically be with you in the color suites. Now, of course, with the pandemic, all of a sudden we can’t live without Zoom and Teams. But a year ago, the way I was doing remote grading sessions...
- 7/23/2020
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Amazon's sci-fi series Tales From the Loop is loosely based on the book of the same name by Simon Stålenhag — but it's really a televisual interpretation of the Swedish artist's paintings that depict picturesque landscapes punctuated by robots or futuristic technology; Edward Hopper with a sci-fi flair.
Creator Nathaniel Halpern told The Hollywood Reporter that he was "quite taken" by Stålenhag's unique aesthetic when producer Matt Reeves (Batman) and his partners first introduced him to the painter's work.
"He has this wonderful marriage between the ordinary and the extraordinary and it's ...
Creator Nathaniel Halpern told The Hollywood Reporter that he was "quite taken" by Stålenhag's unique aesthetic when producer Matt Reeves (Batman) and his partners first introduced him to the painter's work.
"He has this wonderful marriage between the ordinary and the extraordinary and it's ...
There’s a town in East Texas where the local Nissan dealership gives away a new pickup to whoever can hold on to it the longest. The event starts with 20 contestants, who take their places around the vehicle, keeping one hand on the vehicle at all times until their sanity snaps or their legs give out. The publicity stunt repeated every year for two decades straight, until the 2005 edition took a horrible turn. But before it turned tragic, the “hands on” competition was the stuff of legend — the modern-day equivalent of the desperate Depression-era dance marathons depicted in “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” — giving ordinary folks an opportunity to change their lives: All you had to do was outlast everyone else, and the truck was yours.
In 1997, S.R. Bindler made a legendary documentary about the peculiar Texas tradition, a feisty cult favorite called “Hands on a Hard Body,” and Robert Altman...
In 1997, S.R. Bindler made a legendary documentary about the peculiar Texas tradition, a feisty cult favorite called “Hands on a Hard Body,” and Robert Altman...
- 4/2/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Above: From Tomorrow on, I WillThe finely scaled body of a green serpent coiled against a white background adorned the posters across the capital city of this year’s Vienna International Film Festival. More than mere ornamentation, it is an image meant to symbolize the renewal process of the festival shedding off old skin, while maintaining a continuity to its past under the still relatively new artistic direction of Eva Sangiorgi, who took charge of the festival early last year. It suggests the Viennale wanting to definitively emerge out of the shadow of Hans Hurch, who ran the festival for twenty-one years until his unexpected death in June 2017. No doubt, the reputation of the Viennale as a sensitively and concisely curated bastion of a particular cinema, one that is at once political, formally explorative, and fiercely resistant to the self-satisfied middlebrow, is much the doing of Hurch’s work and temperament as artistic director.
- 11/22/2019
- MUBI
Spirited Away
Blu ray
Gkids/Shout! Factory
2001/ 1:85 / 125 min.
Starring Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The story of a lonely child lost in a beautiful and bizarre dreamscape, Spirited Away naturally begs comparison to Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. But in contrast to those frenetic classics, Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece is cooly meditative – a serene head trip.
At first sight Miyazaki’s Wonderland is not so wonderful – it’s an abandoned theme park discovered by ten year old Chihiro and her parents at the end of a secluded country road (Miyazaki’s version of a rabbit hole). Though the paint is peeling and the sidewalks cracked, the barren mall maintains a suspiciously well-stocked food court. Chihiro’s folks dig right in and find out the hard way that there’s no such thing as a free lunch – soon enough mom and dad are transformed...
Blu ray
Gkids/Shout! Factory
2001/ 1:85 / 125 min.
Starring Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The story of a lonely child lost in a beautiful and bizarre dreamscape, Spirited Away naturally begs comparison to Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. But in contrast to those frenetic classics, Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece is cooly meditative – a serene head trip.
At first sight Miyazaki’s Wonderland is not so wonderful – it’s an abandoned theme park discovered by ten year old Chihiro and her parents at the end of a secluded country road (Miyazaki’s version of a rabbit hole). Though the paint is peeling and the sidewalks cracked, the barren mall maintains a suspiciously well-stocked food court. Chihiro’s folks dig right in and find out the hard way that there’s no such thing as a free lunch – soon enough mom and dad are transformed...
- 11/9/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Edward Norton wrote, directed, produced and stars in Warner Bros.’ “Motherless Brooklyn,” but he’s quick to give credit to his behind-the-camera collaborators. Norton told Variety: “I think this is career-best work for some of these people.” The film is set in 1950s New York, and the team accomplished a lot on a budget of $26 million and a shooting schedule of 46 days.
Joe Klotz, editor
“I said to Joe, ‘I want to start things off with a bang. I want a great car chase through north Manhattan, over the bridge and into Queens. Also, you have to introduce
an unusual character, Lionel [played by Norton], and get the audience to understand a condition that they haven’t seen much of [Tourette’s syndrome]. Also, you have to set up the emotional relationship with his boss and then plant noir-style clues that will become clearer later. And we need to do all that in the first 15 minutes.
Joe Klotz, editor
“I said to Joe, ‘I want to start things off with a bang. I want a great car chase through north Manhattan, over the bridge and into Queens. Also, you have to introduce
an unusual character, Lionel [played by Norton], and get the audience to understand a condition that they haven’t seen much of [Tourette’s syndrome]. Also, you have to set up the emotional relationship with his boss and then plant noir-style clues that will become clearer later. And we need to do all that in the first 15 minutes.
- 10/23/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
An anti-corporate fable produced by a massive conglomerate that’s monopolizing the film industry while pawning chintzy reproductions of the precious jewels from its own vault, “Dumbo” isn’t exactly Disney’s finest hour. And yet, it’s almost certain to be the most creatively inspired of the “live-action remakes” the studio is releasing this year. For one thing, Ehren Kruger’s otherwise unremarkable script begins where the 1941 original ends, and dares — in its own tepid way — to add a human element to a story that never really had one. For another, you can only go so wrong with a cast that includes Danny DeVito as a two-bit P.T. Barnum, and a larger than life Michael Keaton as the best villain that a “Bioshock” game never had (brace yourselves for a “Batman Returns” rematch 27 years in the making).
But to the limited extent that “Dumbo” works, it ultimately does...
But to the limited extent that “Dumbo” works, it ultimately does...
- 3/26/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Sigrid dances in an empty room in her new video for “Don’t Feel Like Crying.” As soon as the pop singer lays on a mustard yellow rug in shimmering disco pants, the saturated interiors change colors—the mod chairs transition from red to blue, as does the window curtains—signifying a change of heart. “I know I should be ordering takeout/Sitting on my couch, that’s what you do,” she admits, before cathartically grooving against the string-heavy beat. “Wallowing in it would be such a waste/That isn’t gonna fix it anyway.
- 3/22/2019
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
[Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead for “Dumbo.”]
Ben Davis’ versatility was pushed to new heights in “Captain Marvel” and “Dumbo.” Good thing the British cinematographer can easily pivot from the McU (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) to indies because he incorporated a multitude of looks for directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (“Captain Marvel”) and Tim Burton (“Dumbo”). In fact, both movies (shot with the large-format Alexa 65) demanded dual aesthetics: naturalism and hyper-realism for “Captain Marvel” and surrealism and expressionism for “Dumbo.”
“Superhero movies work when you make a personal connection with the protagonist,” Davis said. “Anna and Ryan come from indies [‘Mississippi Grind’], and the idea of the film was Brie Larson’s journey as Captain Marvel. We wanted a naturalistic look and the camera to be very close to her, so we shot a lot of hand-held work, which intimately helps with that connection. The effects, the fights, the CG work, are always going to be there,...
Ben Davis’ versatility was pushed to new heights in “Captain Marvel” and “Dumbo.” Good thing the British cinematographer can easily pivot from the McU (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) to indies because he incorporated a multitude of looks for directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (“Captain Marvel”) and Tim Burton (“Dumbo”). In fact, both movies (shot with the large-format Alexa 65) demanded dual aesthetics: naturalism and hyper-realism for “Captain Marvel” and surrealism and expressionism for “Dumbo.”
“Superhero movies work when you make a personal connection with the protagonist,” Davis said. “Anna and Ryan come from indies [‘Mississippi Grind’], and the idea of the film was Brie Larson’s journey as Captain Marvel. We wanted a naturalistic look and the camera to be very close to her, so we shot a lot of hand-held work, which intimately helps with that connection. The effects, the fights, the CG work, are always going to be there,...
- 3/15/2019
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Casey Davies may be the least macho man you’ve ever met. When Casey Davies answers the phone, he is seldom surprised when the caller asks, “May I speak with Ms. Casey Davies?” Callers often assume that Casey Davies is a woman because Casey Davies is a woman’s name. When Casey Davies goes to work, his male co-workers sit around and read manly magazines and talk about manly things. When Casey Davies goes to the grocery store late at night to buy dog food, he is beaten and mugged by thugs on motorbikes. Casey Davies hardly puts up a fight.
Dark, sinister, and disarmingly hilarious, “The Art of Self-Defense” tells the story of how someone like Casey Davies learns to stand up for himself by signing up for karate classes. But it’s hardly that simple: Once enrolled, he starts to feel more confident in his personal life, even...
Dark, sinister, and disarmingly hilarious, “The Art of Self-Defense” tells the story of how someone like Casey Davies learns to stand up for himself by signing up for karate classes. But it’s hardly that simple: Once enrolled, he starts to feel more confident in his personal life, even...
- 3/11/2019
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Imagine a shrink being driven nuts by characters from 13 of the world’s most famous paintings, each of whom want to attack him. That’s the premise of this mesmerizing mindbender and the fiction feature debut of Slovenian-born artist Milorad Krstic, who’s starting his potently promising film career at the ripe young age of 66. Produced in Hungary, this English-language film thrusts us into the world of Ruben Brandt (voiced by Ivan Kamaras), a psychotherapist with nightmares he can’t explain or control. In the first dream scene, set on...
- 2/12/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist — moving an audience through a movie […] making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark,” said the late, great Gordon Willis. As we continue our year-end coverage, one aspect we must highlight is, indeed, cinematography. From talented newcomers to seasoned professionals, we’ve rounded up the examples that have most impressed us this year. Check out our rundown below and, in the comments, let us know your favorite work.
Araby (Leonardo Feliciano)
An epic travelogue of Sisyphean proportions zeroing in on the beguilingly ordinary, meandering life of a Brazilian ex-con trying to make ends meet by working any job imaginable, Affonso Uchoa and João Dumans’ Araby features several stunning vistas of the Brazilian South, but Leonardo Feliciano’s cinematography crafts a lot more than a travelogue. Alternating the lush palettes of the sprawling Brazilian countryside with the darker,...
Araby (Leonardo Feliciano)
An epic travelogue of Sisyphean proportions zeroing in on the beguilingly ordinary, meandering life of a Brazilian ex-con trying to make ends meet by working any job imaginable, Affonso Uchoa and João Dumans’ Araby features several stunning vistas of the Brazilian South, but Leonardo Feliciano’s cinematography crafts a lot more than a travelogue. Alternating the lush palettes of the sprawling Brazilian countryside with the darker,...
- 12/17/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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