British cinema (and to a certain extent, British pop-culture as a whole) has always had a strange relationship with screen portrayals of sex and sexuality. In the mid-1950’s, Britain’s film censorship board the BBFC passed a documentary about a naturist camp uncut, suitable for mainstream cinema release, leading to a wave of exploitation filmmakers using naturist camp settings in order to display as much nudity as possible onscreen. During this period, the BBFC’s guidelines clearly dictated that “breasts and buttocks, but not genitalia” were allowed to be displayed, as long as the naturist camp setting was clearly clarified to the audience- a guideline that unwittingly opened the floodgates to multiple films from opportunistic producers.
Despite the plethora of films showing the human body (almost) as nature intended, elsewhere British cinema was still offering archaic views of sexuality- the Carry On franchise, that begun in 1958 and still has...
Despite the plethora of films showing the human body (almost) as nature intended, elsewhere British cinema was still offering archaic views of sexuality- the Carry On franchise, that begun in 1958 and still has...
- 9/21/2015
- by Alistair Ryder
- SoundOnSight
It’s almost August and that means Netflix is about to give their content a refresh. Some of the notable titles leaving include: Family Ties: Season 1-7, Unbreakable, and Titanic. So if you haven’t seen some of these titles, plan your nights accordingly. We of course can look forward more than a few new titles including The Hurt Locker, White God (pictured above), and Girl Meets World season 1.
Available August 1
Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein (1999)
In this animated adventure, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore revel in their new gig at a movie theme park by wandering the grounds after hours. Among the attractions is the spooky Frankenstein’s Castle, where a real mad scientist is bringing the monster to life. But when the boys cross paths with the creature (Frank Welker), they soon learn that appearances can be deceiving, and Frankenstein is more misunderstood than malevolent.
Asylum (2005)
A...
Available August 1
Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein (1999)
In this animated adventure, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore revel in their new gig at a movie theme park by wandering the grounds after hours. Among the attractions is the spooky Frankenstein’s Castle, where a real mad scientist is bringing the monster to life. But when the boys cross paths with the creature (Frank Welker), they soon learn that appearances can be deceiving, and Frankenstein is more misunderstood than malevolent.
Asylum (2005)
A...
- 7/29/2015
- by Graham McMorrow
- City of Films
“The Look of Love” is a hilarious look at the life of club owner, pornographer and property developer Paul Raymond, is airing on FilmOn’s stream of Channel 4. The film, starring Steve Coogan and directed by Michael Winterbottom, brings the funny to this biopic of the “King of Soho.” Here’s more about the film: “Steve Coogan stars in Michael Winterbottom’s biopic comedy-drama as the ‘King of Soho’, Paul Raymond, who opened Britain’s first strip club, revolutionised the erotic entertainment industry and became the country’s richest man. The film balances its entertainment and humour – the cheeky ways in which Raymond circumvented prudish 1950s licencing laws and exploited newspapers’ moral superiority [ Read More ]
The post The Look of Love on Channel 4 via FilmOn appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Look of Love on Channel 4 via FilmOn appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 1/29/2015
- by monique
- ShockYa
Just when you thought that Stephen Frears’ latest film, Philomena, would be yet another questionable exercise from the once generally revered auteur, (judging from a recent string of misfires that resulted in his career worst with 2012’s unfathomably awful Lay the Favorite), he switches it up with his best work since The Queen. Presented at the Toronto Int. FIlm Festival, the Academy Award and BAFTA award-nominated crowd pleaser, to be sure, but despite its unavoidable pretense as an awards darling (of which there are bound to be several), a disavowal to wallow in chintzy schmaltz at least makes it deserving of praise in that it’s intelligently written (and based on a true story! Oh my!) and genuinely performed, even if the film is rather visually banal.
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, a 2009 book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, here portrayed by Steve Coogan, provides the basis for Stephen Frears’ treatment,...
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, a 2009 book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, here portrayed by Steve Coogan, provides the basis for Stephen Frears’ treatment,...
- 4/15/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Most Americans will probably know the distinctive comic delivery of actor Steve Coogan from his work with Ben Stiller, either in Tropic Thunder or the "Night at the Museum" movies. Cooler Americans will likely known him from his growing filmography with Michael Winterbottom, which began with 24 Hour Party People and has continued to grow with last year's Paul Raymond biopic The Look of Love and their ongoing travelogue show, which began with The Trip . More recently, Coogan got quite a bit of attention as the Oscar-nominated co-writer of Philomena , as well as co-starring in the movie with Dame Judi Dench as the title character. Long before being recognized on these shores, Coogan was hugely popular in England for playing a character called Alan Partridge, which...
- 4/3/2014
- Comingsoon.net
Last week we launched the inaugural Guardian Film Awards. This week, we take a closer look at the longlist in each category. Today: the best supporting actor nominees
• Vote now
You know the drill. Just as with best actor and best picture and all the rest of the categories, we need you to give this longlist a bit of a trim. You have until noon on 16 February to cast your vote; a primer is below, as well as five key contenders who failed to make the grade.
As ever, do chip into the comment thread with feedback and suggestions. And, as explained and still endlessly debated, our best actor and best supporting actor categories are open to both (all?) genders. Here's our longlist, in alphabetical order:
Amy Adams, Her
History will record that what Amy Adams was really good at this year was being fishy in a frock few loan managers could pull off.
• Vote now
You know the drill. Just as with best actor and best picture and all the rest of the categories, we need you to give this longlist a bit of a trim. You have until noon on 16 February to cast your vote; a primer is below, as well as five key contenders who failed to make the grade.
As ever, do chip into the comment thread with feedback and suggestions. And, as explained and still endlessly debated, our best actor and best supporting actor categories are open to both (all?) genders. Here's our longlist, in alphabetical order:
Amy Adams, Her
History will record that what Amy Adams was really good at this year was being fishy in a frock few loan managers could pull off.
- 1/23/2014
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
The prostitutes of London's red-light district are being evicted. Here, Rupert Everett argues, with wit and vehemence, that closing down the brothels has nothing to do with protecting women
The other night I watched Stephen Ward at the Aldwych Theatre, a morality musical about the destruction of an innocent man by the combined forces of Her Majesty's Government, her judiciary and her Metropolitan police force. Written by Lord Lloyd Webber, directed by Sir Richard Eyre, it is the best sort of British story, set against a world of stately homes and Soho drinking clubs, of peers, politicians, prostitutes and bent cops – with a few thrilling Jamaicans wielding guns thrown in – all ending up at the Old Bailey, where that deep wave of British hypocrisy (masquerading as fair play and crested by the usual police bullshit) drags Ward out to sea and drowns him. Convicted of being a pimp – he was...
The other night I watched Stephen Ward at the Aldwych Theatre, a morality musical about the destruction of an innocent man by the combined forces of Her Majesty's Government, her judiciary and her Metropolitan police force. Written by Lord Lloyd Webber, directed by Sir Richard Eyre, it is the best sort of British story, set against a world of stately homes and Soho drinking clubs, of peers, politicians, prostitutes and bent cops – with a few thrilling Jamaicans wielding guns thrown in – all ending up at the Old Bailey, where that deep wave of British hypocrisy (masquerading as fair play and crested by the usual police bullshit) drags Ward out to sea and drowns him. Convicted of being a pimp – he was...
- 1/19/2014
- The Guardian - Film News
Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 9 Jan 2014 - 06:25
We head back a decade to look at a few films that deserve more attention. Here’s our list of 25 underappreciated movies of 2004...
Think back to 2004, and you might dredge up hazy memories of the computer-generated fairytale sequel Shrek 2, Alfonso’s Harry Potter installment, The Prisoner Of Azkaban, or maybe Mel Gibson’s phenomenally successful Passion Of The Christ.
It’s rather less likely that you’ll remember some of the films on this list. You’re probably aware of the drill by now: we’ve gone back into our distant, beer-addled memories to find 25 of the less commonly-lauded movies from the year 2004.
Some of them did reasonably well at the time, but appear to have been forgotten since (especially the one eclipsed by its own internet meme), while others were coolly received by the public or critics (and sometimes...
We head back a decade to look at a few films that deserve more attention. Here’s our list of 25 underappreciated movies of 2004...
Think back to 2004, and you might dredge up hazy memories of the computer-generated fairytale sequel Shrek 2, Alfonso’s Harry Potter installment, The Prisoner Of Azkaban, or maybe Mel Gibson’s phenomenally successful Passion Of The Christ.
It’s rather less likely that you’ll remember some of the films on this list. You’re probably aware of the drill by now: we’ve gone back into our distant, beer-addled memories to find 25 of the less commonly-lauded movies from the year 2004.
Some of them did reasonably well at the time, but appear to have been forgotten since (especially the one eclipsed by its own internet meme), while others were coolly received by the public or critics (and sometimes...
- 1/8/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
So here we are in Christmas week, most of the usual streaming companies have done well for you so that you won’t be too bored post turkey when you have to tolerate the family. Apart from Now TV though, there is still a serious lack of Christmas themed films out there which is a disappointment unless you really like the Santa Clause movies because they are floating around Netflix somewhere.
Good news for 2014 though is that House of Cards season two debuts on Netflix in February and also the Breaking Bad/Bob Odenkirk spin-off “Better Call Saul” is going to make its way to Netflix at some point during the year as well. Netflix has agreed a deal where they will stream the show very soon after season one ends on AMC stateside but in Europe they will be the exclusive home of the show. This probably means that...
Good news for 2014 though is that House of Cards season two debuts on Netflix in February and also the Breaking Bad/Bob Odenkirk spin-off “Better Call Saul” is going to make its way to Netflix at some point during the year as well. Netflix has agreed a deal where they will stream the show very soon after season one ends on AMC stateside but in Europe they will be the exclusive home of the show. This probably means that...
- 12/23/2013
- by Chris Holt
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
This is the Pure Movies review of The Look of Love, directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Imogen Poots, Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Tamsin Egerton, Shirley Henderson, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Simon Bird, David Walliams, Sarah Solemani. A Citizen Kane of nipples and g-strings, The Look Of Love is the biopic of Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan): the tribulations and upward spiral of a man, humbly sired, who scrambles his way to success by flaunting rules. He builds an empire, becomes isolated in his wealth and misunderstood, and ruins his family through his obsession with wealth and his addiction to women (the wrong woman in Kane, a pretty good woman here). Like Kane, Raymond is hungry, clever, and opportunistic. Kane went into newspapers. Raymond went into sex.
- 12/11/2013
- by Dr. Garth Twa
- Pure Movies
Oscar (Jake Macapagal), Mai (Althea Vega) and Angel (Erin Panlilio) in Metro Manila - ' I wanted us to have empathy with them and understand the plight of their journey'. Metro Manila - a thriller about a family trying to survive on the breadline in the Phillippines - was the big winner at this year's British Independent Film Awards, picking up the trophies for Best Film, Best Director for Sean Ellis and Best Achievement in Production (you can read what Ellis told us earlier this year about the film here). For Those In Peril helmer Paul Wright was named Best Debut Director.
Lindsay Duncan was named Best Actress for her role as one half of a troubled married couple in Le Weekend, while James McAvoy was named Best Actor for his role as a damaged policeman in the big screen adapation of Filth.
Imogen Poots was named Best Supporting Actress...
Lindsay Duncan was named Best Actress for her role as one half of a troubled married couple in Le Weekend, while James McAvoy was named Best Actor for his role as a damaged policeman in the big screen adapation of Filth.
Imogen Poots was named Best Supporting Actress...
- 12/9/2013
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Other winners included actors James McAvoy and Lindsay Duncan, For Those In Peril director Paul Wright and Blue is the Warmest Colour.Scroll down for full list of winners
Philippines-set crime thriller Metro Manila has scooped the top prize at the 16th Moet British Independent Film Awards in London, beating box office hit Philomena as well as The Selfish Giant, Starred Up and Le Week-end.
Metro Manila led the pack on the night with three wins including Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Sean Ellis and Best Achievement in Production.
Clearly stunned, Ellis thanked Bifa for supporting “our little holiday film” when accepting the Best Film prize and - holding back tears - dedicated the award to his mother.
The crime drama, shot in the Philippine capital in the Tagalog language with a local cast and crew, debuted at Sundance in January and is the UK’s submission for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars...
Philippines-set crime thriller Metro Manila has scooped the top prize at the 16th Moet British Independent Film Awards in London, beating box office hit Philomena as well as The Selfish Giant, Starred Up and Le Week-end.
Metro Manila led the pack on the night with three wins including Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Sean Ellis and Best Achievement in Production.
Clearly stunned, Ellis thanked Bifa for supporting “our little holiday film” when accepting the Best Film prize and - holding back tears - dedicated the award to his mother.
The crime drama, shot in the Philippine capital in the Tagalog language with a local cast and crew, debuted at Sundance in January and is the UK’s submission for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars...
- 12/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom are an incendiary pair. From 24 Hour Party People to Tristram Shandy, the actor-director duo produce a potent synergy that is hard to pin down. Given the cult success of these earlier two films, it is surprising how conventional The Look of Love is by comparison. This is by no means detrimental to this incredibly lavish and emotionally bruising production, an effortless period piece that recounts the true story of Britain's richest man. Spanning decades it recounts his personal demons and familial woes that never seem to undermine his intrepid ambition.Paul Raymond's (Coogan) notorious journey to success began in 1958, when he opened a groundbreaking gentlemen's nightclub - the cornerstone of Raymond's Soho empire which included a men's magazine, nude...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 11/20/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Catholic Kisses: Frears’ Returns with a Loveable Crowd Pleaser
Just when you thought that Stephen Frears’ latest film, Philomena, would be yet another questionable exercise from the once generally revered auteur, (judging from a recent string of misfires that resulted in his career worst with 2012’s unfathomably awful Lay the Favorite), he switches it up with his best work since The Queen. A crowd pleaser, to be sure, but despite its unavoidable pretense as an awards darling (of which there are bound to be several), a disavowal to wallow in chintzy schmaltz at least makes it deserving of praise in that it’s intelligently written (and based on a true story! Oh my!) and genuinely performed, even if the film is rather visually banal.
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, a 2009 book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, here portrayed by Steve Coogan, provides the basis for Stephen Frears’ treatment, scripted by Coogan and Jeff Pope.
Just when you thought that Stephen Frears’ latest film, Philomena, would be yet another questionable exercise from the once generally revered auteur, (judging from a recent string of misfires that resulted in his career worst with 2012’s unfathomably awful Lay the Favorite), he switches it up with his best work since The Queen. A crowd pleaser, to be sure, but despite its unavoidable pretense as an awards darling (of which there are bound to be several), a disavowal to wallow in chintzy schmaltz at least makes it deserving of praise in that it’s intelligently written (and based on a true story! Oh my!) and genuinely performed, even if the film is rather visually banal.
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, a 2009 book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, here portrayed by Steve Coogan, provides the basis for Stephen Frears’ treatment, scripted by Coogan and Jeff Pope.
- 11/13/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Thor sequel posts biggest opening at UK cinemas since Despicable Me 2 in late June; Turbo and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 in a half-term animation score-draw
The winner
Whether you look at the three-day weekend takings for Thor: The Dark World or its previews-boosted five-day tally,it's the same good news for cinema-owners and Disney-owned Marvel: the film has posted the biggest opening at UK cinemas since the arrival of Despicable Me 2 in late June. With £5.57m for the three days, and £8.67m over the five, the superhero flick has also delivered a big improvement on the original Thor film, which debuted with £3.11m (£5.45m including previews) in April 2011.
The incredible success of 2012's The Avengers created a rising tide that has lifted all of the constituent parts in this particular universe. Earlier this summer, Iron Man 3 opened significantly bigger than any previous Iron Man...
The winner
Whether you look at the three-day weekend takings for Thor: The Dark World or its previews-boosted five-day tally,it's the same good news for cinema-owners and Disney-owned Marvel: the film has posted the biggest opening at UK cinemas since the arrival of Despicable Me 2 in late June. With £5.57m for the three days, and £8.67m over the five, the superhero flick has also delivered a big improvement on the original Thor film, which debuted with £3.11m (£5.45m including previews) in April 2011.
The incredible success of 2012's The Avengers created a rising tide that has lifted all of the constituent parts in this particular universe. Earlier this summer, Iron Man 3 opened significantly bigger than any previous Iron Man...
- 11/6/2013
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
Steve Coogan and Judi Dench make a terrific odd couple in this gripping account of the search for a long-lost child
Steve Coogan has long been a bruiser. But lately he's become a crusader. Watch him go into battle on Question Time or Newsnight, or at the Leveson inquiry, or in the papers, and the figure he cuts is not light entertainer but lay preacher – a fireball with bristles, angry and unabashed.
And just as his stomach for action has strengthened, so the tone of his work has changed. A few years ago he optioned a biography of Soho mogul Paul Raymond, which became The Look of Love – whose clear message was that we mustn't mistake free love for moral laxity, nor measure a man's nobility in threesomes alone. Even Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa was a cautionary tale about insufficient regulation of media conglomerates.
These twin indignations – sexual hypocrisy and...
Steve Coogan has long been a bruiser. But lately he's become a crusader. Watch him go into battle on Question Time or Newsnight, or at the Leveson inquiry, or in the papers, and the figure he cuts is not light entertainer but lay preacher – a fireball with bristles, angry and unabashed.
And just as his stomach for action has strengthened, so the tone of his work has changed. A few years ago he optioned a biography of Soho mogul Paul Raymond, which became The Look of Love – whose clear message was that we mustn't mistake free love for moral laxity, nor measure a man's nobility in threesomes alone. Even Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa was a cautionary tale about insufficient regulation of media conglomerates.
These twin indignations – sexual hypocrisy and...
- 11/3/2013
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
He's the tabloid whipping boy turned angel of vengeance; the TV comedian who's gone serious with his new film Philomena. At 48, Steve Coogan's career is going full tilt. So why does he have a massive chip on his shoulder, with 'mushy peas and a boat of gravy on the side'? Xan Brooks finds out
One rainy Friday in October, Steve Coogan takes a trip from the Lake District to an expensive part of London. He rolls into town a man in transit, still half-dressed for the country with a yellow tweed cap pulled down round his ears. The car ferries us through sodden streets to a private members club, where a table is booked in an upstairs room. But the hostess is stricken; the place has standards. She won't let him in until he takes off the cap.
It's fitting that Coogan doesn't pass for clubhouse material. His...
One rainy Friday in October, Steve Coogan takes a trip from the Lake District to an expensive part of London. He rolls into town a man in transit, still half-dressed for the country with a yellow tweed cap pulled down round his ears. The car ferries us through sodden streets to a private members club, where a table is booked in an upstairs room. But the hostess is stricken; the place has standards. She won't let him in until he takes off the cap.
It's fitting that Coogan doesn't pass for clubhouse material. His...
- 10/26/2013
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Bernie; The Look of Love; Compliance; Oblivion
"They're making it out worse than it really is. He only shot her four times..." If the idea of a whimsical, affectionate black comedy based on a real-life small-town murder case strikes you as tasteless, then Bernie (2011, Universal, 12) will make for oddly uncomfortable viewing. Golden Globe nominee Jack Black is in uncharacteristically restrained form as Bernie Tiede, the prim and proper mortician with a disarming affection for corpses and a flair for musical theatre, who becomes full-time companion/houseboy to Shirley MacLaine's wealthy widow.
Seduced by Marjorie Nugent's first-class lifestyle but driven to distraction by her overbearing hen-pecking, the beamingly creepy Bernie commits a monstrous act for which the good citizens of Carthage, Texas, seem more than happy to forgive him – the real dark heart of this not so wonderful life.
Pitched somewhere between the oddball romance of Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude...
"They're making it out worse than it really is. He only shot her four times..." If the idea of a whimsical, affectionate black comedy based on a real-life small-town murder case strikes you as tasteless, then Bernie (2011, Universal, 12) will make for oddly uncomfortable viewing. Golden Globe nominee Jack Black is in uncharacteristically restrained form as Bernie Tiede, the prim and proper mortician with a disarming affection for corpses and a flair for musical theatre, who becomes full-time companion/houseboy to Shirley MacLaine's wealthy widow.
Seduced by Marjorie Nugent's first-class lifestyle but driven to distraction by her overbearing hen-pecking, the beamingly creepy Bernie commits a monstrous act for which the good citizens of Carthage, Texas, seem more than happy to forgive him – the real dark heart of this not so wonderful life.
Pitched somewhere between the oddball romance of Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude...
- 8/17/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Michael Winterbottom is very adept at selling his movies, and this shallow, underwhelming biopic of Paul Raymond, peddler of smut and owner of much Soho property, was given a huge degree of hype. Steve Coogan, channelling Alan Partridge, is convincing as the innuendo-spouting porn merchant who made lots of dosh but was hopeless in his family affairs, particularly with his drug-addicted daughter (Imogen Poots, very much the best thing about this). An aimless drama that leaves very little impression.
- 8/16/2013
- The Independent - Film
The Lone Ranger limps into town, seven films enjoy £1m-plus weekends – and Despicable Me 2 is 2013's biggest film so far
Three kings
Just £100,000 separates the three films battling for the top spot in the weekend chart, with Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa edging out the competition to claim bragging rights. Literal bragging on this occasion, with distributor StudioCanal releasing the following statement from the North Norfolk Digital DJ: "Now is not a time for gloating or celebration, more a time for healing old wounds, a time to say: 'Let us join together in thanks that I am No 1 at the box office.' Hallelujah."
The comedy took £2.18m including £744,000 in Wednesday/Thursday previews, just ahead of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, with £2.14m including £861,000 in previews. However, it's the third-placed title – Grown Ups 2 – that won the battle over the Friday-to-Sunday weekend period, with £2.08m, including just £421,000 in previews.
Alpha...
Three kings
Just £100,000 separates the three films battling for the top spot in the weekend chart, with Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa edging out the competition to claim bragging rights. Literal bragging on this occasion, with distributor StudioCanal releasing the following statement from the North Norfolk Digital DJ: "Now is not a time for gloating or celebration, more a time for healing old wounds, a time to say: 'Let us join together in thanks that I am No 1 at the box office.' Hallelujah."
The comedy took £2.18m including £744,000 in Wednesday/Thursday previews, just ahead of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, with £2.14m including £861,000 in previews. However, it's the third-placed title – Grown Ups 2 – that won the battle over the Friday-to-Sunday weekend period, with £2.08m, including just £421,000 in previews.
Alpha...
- 8/14/2013
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
After a blustery day behind the scenes of Alpha Papa, the question remains: where does Steve Coogan end and his most famous creation begin?
A freezing winter day in Cromer and it is impossible to tell where reality stops and Alan Partridge's world starts. "The best smiles for miles," says an advert for Cromer pier. "If hearty fun is good for the ticker," suggests another, GPs should prescribe "a strong dose of Cromer's seaside special". These Partridge-esque pronouncements are real but the pier shooting gallery and Susan Boyle poster are not. Two of a phalanx of police officers who have sealed off the pier from the public are genuine but most are actors watching the denouement of the long-awaited Alan Partridge movie.
The sheepskin gloves Steve Coogan is wearing when we shake hands must be Alan's? "They are actually mine," says Coogan, a little defensively, "but there is an overlap.
A freezing winter day in Cromer and it is impossible to tell where reality stops and Alan Partridge's world starts. "The best smiles for miles," says an advert for Cromer pier. "If hearty fun is good for the ticker," suggests another, GPs should prescribe "a strong dose of Cromer's seaside special". These Partridge-esque pronouncements are real but the pier shooting gallery and Susan Boyle poster are not. Two of a phalanx of police officers who have sealed off the pier from the public are genuine but most are actors watching the denouement of the long-awaited Alan Partridge movie.
The sheepskin gloves Steve Coogan is wearing when we shake hands must be Alan's? "They are actually mine," says Coogan, a little defensively, "but there is an overlap.
- 8/2/2013
- by Patrick Barkham
- The Guardian - Film News
In addition to playing real-life porn baron Paul Raymond and fictional peacock Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan is also tackling the tragic true-life tale of Philomena Lee. The first still from Philomena is below. The script, which Coogan co-wrote with Jeff Pope, adapts Martin Sixsmith’s book The Lost Child Of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son And A 50 Year Search.Philomena is the tragic true story of how Lee (Judi Dench) became pregnant in 1950s Ireland and ended up giving birth at Sean Ross Abbey, a Catholic home for unmarried mothers in Tipperary. Three years into their life together, the nuns made her give the child up for adoption and he was sent to America. She was also forced to sign a pledge that she would never seek to find out what happened to him.Lee moved to England and ended up married with a family, but never forgot her firstborn.
- 7/12/2013
- EmpireOnline
The Look of Love marks Steve Coogan’s fourth collaboration with Michael Winterbottom and it’s an ideal companion piece to their 24 Hour Party People (2002), offering another decades-spanning look at a seminal, if lesser-known, British cultural figure. It’s a complex character study that offers some of Coogan’s most interesting work and another testament to Winterbottom’s knack for period naturalism. Here, Coogan plays Paul Raymond, who was dubbed the King of Soho for his property purchases, proprietorship of the U.K.’s first strip joint and publication of erotica magazines including Men Only and Escort. The film traces Raymond’s three decades or so as his nation’s Hugh Hefner, wheeling, dealing to amass his empire. The movie is a character study before it’s anything else, but Raymond’s story plays out against a stylized trip through some distinct periods in British history. The picture seamlessly transitions from moody black-and-white scenes of Raymond’s...
- 7/6/2013
- by Robert Levin
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The Look of Love opens today (expands on July 12th) and that’s exactly why we’re here – to take another look at King of Soho aka Steve Coogan and the rest of Michael Winterbottom‘s cast (which is awesome by the way). Sex sells, but as you’re about to see – these new pics are not so provocative. Unfortunately… I’m sure you know, but I will once again remind you that Winterbottom directed this biopic from a script written by Matt Greenhalgh, which chronicles the scandalous world of Paul Raymond, legendary gentleman’s club owner and erotic publisher in London. Beside Coogan who stars...
Click to continue reading 20 New Images & Clip From The Look Of Love, Opening Today on http://www.filmofilia.com...
Click to continue reading 20 New Images & Clip From The Look Of Love, Opening Today on http://www.filmofilia.com...
- 7/5/2013
- by Jeanne Standal
- Filmofilia
Michael Winterbottom brings a breezy touch to The Look of Love, a biopic of London's notorious nudie-club mogul Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan), whose Raymond Revue Bar and Men Only smut mag helped make him, by 2008, Britain's richest man. Unfortunately, Winterbottom only lightly enlivens what turns out to be a rote tale of a man who achieves his libertine dreams and, in the process, loses that which he holds most dear—in this case, his daughter, Debbie (Imogen Poots), whose tragic death looms over the told-in-flashback proceedings. An entrepreneur whose triumph was realizing that, no matter the era, men would pay handsomely to see unclothed women, Raymond is embodied by Coogan as a wife-abandoning playboy tycoon whose carnal appetites were matched by his ego—in a...
- 7/3/2013
- Village Voice
While stylishly capturing the verve, exotica, and free-spirited mojo of swinging '60s London, uber-prolific English director Michael Winterbottom's portrait of legendary U.K. smut impresario Paul Raymond is otherwise a shallow misfire. An all-too-familiar rise-and-fall story of opulence, wealth and arrogance, the picture begins in the 1950s, in black and white, and chronicles Raymond (Steve Coogan) as he starts to rule the red light district with gentleman's clubs, before he became known as "The King of Soho." While the clubs are questionable by conservative English standards, they're also considered chic and alluring and above some of the tasteless smutty sex parlors of Soho. While an affront to the sexual mores of the status quo, the publicity helps Raymond rake in the riches toute suite. His wife (Anna Friel) seems to be more than happy with his growing wealth and their expanding mansions and she's even tolerant of his...
- 7/2/2013
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
Paul Raymond was once the richest man in Britain. An adult entertainment mogul who rose to fame in the ‘60s, he was notorious for his private club, Raymond Revue Bar, and gentleman’s magazine, "Men Only"; and infamous for his business smarts, party habits and charm. Think Hugh Hefner with the pomp of an Englishman. In his latest film, "The Look of Love," starring Steve Coogan and Imogen Poots, director Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People," "The Trip") brandishes Raymond’s story, not without a dose of dry, British wit. But as much as the film dives into a glitzy pool of women and nightlife, it also treads in the vapidity of Raymond’s personal life. Here, Winterbottom discusses the dichotomous nature of making such a film. IFC Films opens "The Look of Love" theatrically this Friday, July 5th and on VOD, July 7th. Was adult entertainment ever a topic you...
- 7/2/2013
- by Gabrielle Lipton
- Indiewire
Zack Snyder.s reboot of the Superman franchise Man of Steel reigned at the Australian box-office last weekend, raking in $8.8 million plus about $600,000 in previews.
The four-day figure was below the opening weekend of Fast & Furious 6 and slightly below The Hangover Part 111.s debut.. But that was rated as an excellent result by one exhibitor who observed the Superman character isn.t as strongly entrenched in Australian pop culture as it is in the Us.
Given the man of steel.s invasion, zombie thriller World War Z held reasonably well in its second frame, down 48%.
The start of the school vacation ensured great turn-outs for the second weekends of Despicable Me 2 and Monster.s University.
But Blue Sky Studios. Epic, a 3D animated adventure comedy set in a suburban forest voiced by Colin Farrell, Jason Sudeikis, Christoph Waltz and Amanda Seyfried, opened weakly. The distributor will be hoping...
The four-day figure was below the opening weekend of Fast & Furious 6 and slightly below The Hangover Part 111.s debut.. But that was rated as an excellent result by one exhibitor who observed the Superman character isn.t as strongly entrenched in Australian pop culture as it is in the Us.
Given the man of steel.s invasion, zombie thriller World War Z held reasonably well in its second frame, down 48%.
The start of the school vacation ensured great turn-outs for the second weekends of Despicable Me 2 and Monster.s University.
But Blue Sky Studios. Epic, a 3D animated adventure comedy set in a suburban forest voiced by Colin Farrell, Jason Sudeikis, Christoph Waltz and Amanda Seyfried, opened weakly. The distributor will be hoping...
- 7/1/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Three's the magic number for Shane Black's superhero sequel as it doubles the takings of Iron Man 2. Meanwhile, Michael Winterbottom's Paul Raymond biopic heads south
The winner
After four days, Iron Man 3 was running just 13% behind The Avengers at the same stage of its UK run, suggesting that the film would finish a lot closer to the superhero team-up (£51.9m) than to either of the earlier Iron Man movies. Seven days later, and it's a similar story, with Iron Man 3 at an impressive £24.6m as of Sunday night, a slim 18% behind Avengers at the same point of release. If it continues at a similar pace, Iron Man 3 should end up around £42-43m here. The first Iron Man film maxed out at £17.4m, while the sequel made it to £21.3m, so the third episode looks set to double its predecessor.
With bank holiday takings added in,...
The winner
After four days, Iron Man 3 was running just 13% behind The Avengers at the same stage of its UK run, suggesting that the film would finish a lot closer to the superhero team-up (£51.9m) than to either of the earlier Iron Man movies. Seven days later, and it's a similar story, with Iron Man 3 at an impressive £24.6m as of Sunday night, a slim 18% behind Avengers at the same point of release. If it continues at a similar pace, Iron Man 3 should end up around £42-43m here. The first Iron Man film maxed out at £17.4m, while the sequel made it to £21.3m, so the third episode looks set to double its predecessor.
With bank holiday takings added in,...
- 5/8/2013
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
More like an Avengers Assemble sequel than a tired third instalment, the reinvigorated action hero powers in at No 1
The winner
As Disney prepared Iron Man 3 for release, the question was always: would it perform like the first two instalments in the Tony Stark series, or could it fly close to the astonishing success of The Avengers last summer? Iron Man opened in May 2008 with £5.47m including £667,000 in previews. Iron Man 2 followed two years later with £7.66m including previews of £877,000, an increase of 40%. Then April 2012 saw The Avengers soar away with £15.78m, including £2.55m in previews – more than double the Iron Man 2 debut.
With £13.71m including £2.32m in previews, Iron Man 3 is 79% up on the opening of Iron Man 2 and just 13% down on the equivalent number for Avengers. In other words, the film has performed more like a sequel to Avengers than to the Iron Man movies.
The winner
As Disney prepared Iron Man 3 for release, the question was always: would it perform like the first two instalments in the Tony Stark series, or could it fly close to the astonishing success of The Avengers last summer? Iron Man opened in May 2008 with £5.47m including £667,000 in previews. Iron Man 2 followed two years later with £7.66m including previews of £877,000, an increase of 40%. Then April 2012 saw The Avengers soar away with £15.78m, including £2.55m in previews – more than double the Iron Man 2 debut.
With £13.71m including £2.32m in previews, Iron Man 3 is 79% up on the opening of Iron Man 2 and just 13% down on the equivalent number for Avengers. In other words, the film has performed more like a sequel to Avengers than to the Iron Man movies.
- 5/2/2013
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
This biopic of Paul Raymond has about as much depth as a 1970s British sex comedy
Scripted by Matt Greenhalgh (who wrote the screenplays for the ambitious biopics of Ian Curtis and John Lennon, Control and Nowhere Boy), The Look of Love is a disappointingly crude and shallow biography of the self-made northern impresario Paul Raymond, who started out conducting a music hall mind-reading act and finished up as a multi-millionaire nightclub proprietor, pornographer, owner of much of Soho, and for a while the richest man in Britain. The film reunites Michael Winterbottom, director of 24 Hour Party People, and its star Steve Coogan, but whereas that wonderful portrait of the ebullient Tony Wilson and the vibrant Manchester music scene was a piece of imaginative social history, The Look of Love has about as much depth and style as a cheap British sex comedy like Can You Keep It Up for a Week?...
Scripted by Matt Greenhalgh (who wrote the screenplays for the ambitious biopics of Ian Curtis and John Lennon, Control and Nowhere Boy), The Look of Love is a disappointingly crude and shallow biography of the self-made northern impresario Paul Raymond, who started out conducting a music hall mind-reading act and finished up as a multi-millionaire nightclub proprietor, pornographer, owner of much of Soho, and for a while the richest man in Britain. The film reunites Michael Winterbottom, director of 24 Hour Party People, and its star Steve Coogan, but whereas that wonderful portrait of the ebullient Tony Wilson and the vibrant Manchester music scene was a piece of imaginative social history, The Look of Love has about as much depth and style as a cheap British sex comedy like Can You Keep It Up for a Week?...
- 4/29/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Iron Man 3 | The Look Of Love | Bernie | Scarecrow | In The Fog | The Lords Of Salem | The ABCs Of Death | White Elephant | I Love New Year
Iron Man 3 (12A)
(Shane Black, 2013, Us) Robert Downey Jr, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Rebecca Hall. 130 mins
Fears of post-Avengers superhero blowout fatigue are briskly swept away by Marvel's latest epic, whose snappy, poppy script packs in twists and quips between the bludgeoning (but technically seamless) action. It's Kingsley's Bin Laden-esque Mandarin and Pearce's creepy scientist who are out to de-swagger Tony Stark this time round, but there are surprises in store for everyone.
The Look Of Love (18)
(Michael Winterbottom, 2013, UK) Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Imogen Poots, Tamsin Egerton. 101 mins
Despite the Soho excess, the retro kitsch, the racy subject matter and the great cast, this biopic of Britain's pornographer-in-chief Paul Raymond somehow never feels like it's telling the full story.
Iron Man 3 (12A)
(Shane Black, 2013, Us) Robert Downey Jr, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Rebecca Hall. 130 mins
Fears of post-Avengers superhero blowout fatigue are briskly swept away by Marvel's latest epic, whose snappy, poppy script packs in twists and quips between the bludgeoning (but technically seamless) action. It's Kingsley's Bin Laden-esque Mandarin and Pearce's creepy scientist who are out to de-swagger Tony Stark this time round, but there are surprises in store for everyone.
The Look Of Love (18)
(Michael Winterbottom, 2013, UK) Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Imogen Poots, Tamsin Egerton. 101 mins
Despite the Soho excess, the retro kitsch, the racy subject matter and the great cast, this biopic of Britain's pornographer-in-chief Paul Raymond somehow never feels like it's telling the full story.
- 4/27/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Xan Brooks presents our weekly round-up of the big cinema releases. On the show this week, Steve Coogan plays adult entertainment entrepreneur Paul Raymond in The Look of Love, Michael Winterbottom's biopic; the world needs a saving a third time in the Marvel action film Iron Man 3; Jack Black kills Shirley MacLaine with kindness (and then a gun) in Bernie; and the dark days immediately after the second world war are illuminated by Sergei Loznitsa's drama In the Fog. With Catherine Shoard and Henry Barnes.
• This is the audio-only version of The Guardian Film Show
Xan BrooksHenry BarnesCatherine ShoardThibaut Remy...
• This is the audio-only version of The Guardian Film Show
Xan BrooksHenry BarnesCatherine ShoardThibaut Remy...
- 4/26/2013
- by Xan Brooks, Henry Barnes, Catherine Shoard, Thibaut Remy
- The Guardian - Film News
It’s more than a disappointment -- it’s a puzzlement. How did Michael Winterbottom, who’s made so many intriguing movies that veer well away from the cautious (Everyday, Code 46), make a film so tediously conservative as The Look of Love? Winterbottom’s ability to reject accepted social narratives is so much a part of why I love his work that I never could have imagined that he would make a movie about porn (and real-estate) mogul Paul Raymond -- at one point the richest man in Britain -- that so readily embraced status-quo assumptions about sexuality and conformity, or lack thereof. Raymond “himself” -- in the highly amusing form of Steve Coogan (Ruby Sparks, The Other Guys), who is all sorts of wonderful here, as he always is -- invites us into his “world of erotica”... and Winterbottom doesn’t appear to see anything at all ironic...
- 4/26/2013
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Michael Winterbottom doesn't delve too deeply into the psyche of Soho smut and property baron Paul Raymond
Michael Winterbottom's The Look of Love is a breezily affectionate if faintly incurious study of Paul Raymond: the Soho nudie-show entrepreneur and property baron who became Britain's richest man.
Dramas about the Soho smut business in its 1960s and 70s heyday tend to look for the dark side, but Winterbottom's movie searches for sympathy in showing Raymond's pitiable, or pitiful relationship with troubled daughter Debbie, played by Imogen Poots, the Cordelia-figure in whom he hoped to entrust his entire porn kingdom.
The sleazily bequiffed Raymond himself is played by Steve Coogan, who inevitably invests the part with Partridgean irony and comedy – or perhaps rather Cooganian irony and comedy, even doing a few impressions of Sean Connery and Marlon Brando.
Coogan always gives a technically accomplished performance, especially when he is playing a version of himself,...
Michael Winterbottom's The Look of Love is a breezily affectionate if faintly incurious study of Paul Raymond: the Soho nudie-show entrepreneur and property baron who became Britain's richest man.
Dramas about the Soho smut business in its 1960s and 70s heyday tend to look for the dark side, but Winterbottom's movie searches for sympathy in showing Raymond's pitiable, or pitiful relationship with troubled daughter Debbie, played by Imogen Poots, the Cordelia-figure in whom he hoped to entrust his entire porn kingdom.
The sleazily bequiffed Raymond himself is played by Steve Coogan, who inevitably invests the part with Partridgean irony and comedy – or perhaps rather Cooganian irony and comedy, even doing a few impressions of Sean Connery and Marlon Brando.
Coogan always gives a technically accomplished performance, especially when he is playing a version of himself,...
- 4/26/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Xan Brooks presents our weekly round-up of the big cinema releases. On the show this week, Steve Coogan plays adult entertainment entrepreneur Paul Raymond in The Look of Love, Michael Winterbottom's biopic; the world needs a saving a third time in the Marvel action film Iron Man 3; Jack Black kills Shirley MacLaine with kindness (and then a gun) in Bernie; and the dark days immediately after the second world war are illuminated by Sergei Loznitsa's drama In The Fog. With Catherine Shoard and Henry Barnes
Got no love for video? Listen to the audio version of this week's show Continue reading...
Got no love for video? Listen to the audio version of this week's show Continue reading...
- 4/26/2013
- by Xan Brooks, Catherine Shoard, Henry Barnes, Elliot Smith, Richard Sprenger and Thibaut Remy
- The Guardian - Film News
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
It’s said that Michael Winterbottom is one of the few directors to never repeat himself, though he comes his closest yet with The Look of Love, a frequently hilarious and unexpectedly poignant biopic of British sex mogul Paul Raymond, who opened the UK’s first strip club in London’s Soho, and went on to sell soft-core porn mags while establishing himself as a royal estate magnate. These combined factors caused him to become known as “The King of Soho” (the film’s original title) throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
Though the material is certainly ripe for a full-fat, seat-of-your-pants biopic, Winterbottom settles for something more lackadaisical and free-wheeling, feeling constantly reminiscent of his excellent 24 Hour Party People. Much of the early moments detail Raymond’s rise to prominence in the 1950s with his wife Jean (Anna Friel) at his side, as...
It’s said that Michael Winterbottom is one of the few directors to never repeat himself, though he comes his closest yet with The Look of Love, a frequently hilarious and unexpectedly poignant biopic of British sex mogul Paul Raymond, who opened the UK’s first strip club in London’s Soho, and went on to sell soft-core porn mags while establishing himself as a royal estate magnate. These combined factors caused him to become known as “The King of Soho” (the film’s original title) throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
Though the material is certainly ripe for a full-fat, seat-of-your-pants biopic, Winterbottom settles for something more lackadaisical and free-wheeling, feeling constantly reminiscent of his excellent 24 Hour Party People. Much of the early moments detail Raymond’s rise to prominence in the 1950s with his wife Jean (Anna Friel) at his side, as...
- 4/26/2013
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
Review Paul Martinovic 26 Apr 2013 - 06:15
Steve Coogan stars inthe biopic of Soho publisher Paul Raymond, The Look Of Love. Here's Paul's review of a rather flaccid comedy drama...
Sex on film is a tricky business. Orson Welles once argued that the 'physical act of love' was the one of only two things (along with praying) that you could never accurately depict on screen: and it remains true, even if in recent years all manner of actual unsimulated sex acts have slipped past the watchful eyes of a BBFC board determined to disarm film geeks who grew up on banned nunchucks and video nasties. It remains true because, of course, Welles wasn’t referring to actually showing the fleshy mechanics of sex – his argument was that the heady emotional cocktail you actually experience when you're having sex just isn’t something that will translate adequately into another medium.
Paul Raymond,...
Steve Coogan stars inthe biopic of Soho publisher Paul Raymond, The Look Of Love. Here's Paul's review of a rather flaccid comedy drama...
Sex on film is a tricky business. Orson Welles once argued that the 'physical act of love' was the one of only two things (along with praying) that you could never accurately depict on screen: and it remains true, even if in recent years all manner of actual unsimulated sex acts have slipped past the watchful eyes of a BBFC board determined to disarm film geeks who grew up on banned nunchucks and video nasties. It remains true because, of course, Welles wasn’t referring to actually showing the fleshy mechanics of sex – his argument was that the heady emotional cocktail you actually experience when you're having sex just isn’t something that will translate adequately into another medium.
Paul Raymond,...
- 4/25/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
The Sundance London Film and Music Festival returns to the capital this weekend and the lineup of film and music events looks to build on the solid foundation established last year.
It’s an exciting time for Independent film with the trailblazing success of the Sundance festival in Utah sparking off dozens of initiatives, the Raindance festival is a notable and vibrant example, and Sundance London is looking to do more than replicating the success of its American cousin.
When we reported on the lineup we singled out Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love, a biopic of self-styled King of Soho Paul Raymond, and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color, his highly anticipated follow-up film to 2004′s Primer. However there are many more excellent films playing across the various strands and we wanted to shine our spotlight on some of the films to look forward to.
All the films playing...
It’s an exciting time for Independent film with the trailblazing success of the Sundance festival in Utah sparking off dozens of initiatives, the Raindance festival is a notable and vibrant example, and Sundance London is looking to do more than replicating the success of its American cousin.
When we reported on the lineup we singled out Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love, a biopic of self-styled King of Soho Paul Raymond, and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color, his highly anticipated follow-up film to 2004′s Primer. However there are many more excellent films playing across the various strands and we wanted to shine our spotlight on some of the films to look forward to.
All the films playing...
- 4/24/2013
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
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