Alternative Film Guide

I was in mid-teens when I first watched Edouard Molinaro’s 1978 film adaptation of La Cage aux folles. I found it hilarious; surely one of the best comedies I’d ever seen — and I’d seen a number of them by that time.
What a difference ten years make.
I was in my mid-20s when I [...]

Ingmar Bergman, one of the most influential and respected filmmakers of the 20th century, died today, July 30, at his home in Faro, Sweden. He was 89.
During his four-decade film career, Bergman created some of the most complex, most adult films ever made. Some of those were simply mind boggling, others were emotionally stirring, [...]

Le Mépris / Contempt (1963)
Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard, from Alberto Moravia’s novel Il Disprezzo. Cast: Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Giorgia Moll, Fritz Lang
 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Of the films I’ve seen so far of French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, his best is Le Mépris / Contempt (1963), adapted by [...]

The Godfather, Part III: Diane Keaton smiles after discovering the location of George Hamilton’s mafia-operated tanning salon. Al Pacino, for his part, is thinking of ways to take over the lucrative tanning business.
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1990 best picture nominee The Godfather, Part III will be the next feature presentation in the Academy of Motion Picture [...]

The Simpsons Movie rose to the top of the North American box office this weekend with an estimated US$71.9 million.
David Silverman’s big-screen adaptation of the famed TV series proved that after 18 years and more than 397 episodes, the Simpsons are as popular as ever. Opening at 3,922 sites on Friday, The Simpsons Movie [...]

VENICE 2007 - OUT OF COMPETITION LINE-UP
 
Venezia Maestri (Venice Masters)
Woody ALLEN Cassandra’s Dream - UK / USA, 108′
Colin Farrell, Sally Hawkins, Ewan McGregor, Tom Wilkinson
Julio BRESSANE Cleópatra - Brazil, 116′
Alessandra Negrini, Bruno Garcia, Miguel Falabella
Claude CHABROL La Fille coupée en deux / The Girl Cut in Half- France, 105′
Ludivine Saignier, Benoît Magimel, Mathilda [...]

GOLDEN LION - OFFICIAL COMPETITION LINE-UP
 
Joe WRIGHT Atonement - UK / USA, 123′(opening film)
Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave, Romola Garai, Brenda Blethyn
Wes ANDERSON The Darjeeling Limited - USA, 91′
Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray
Kenneth BRANAGH Sleuth - UK / USA, 86′
Michael Caine, Jude Law
Youssef CHAHINE Heya fawda (Le [...]

64th Venice Film Festival Awards - 2007 Golden Lion
The 2007 Venice Film Festival was held between Aug. 29-Sept. 8, 2007.
The 2007 Venice Film Festival winners were announced on Sept. 8, 2007.
Venice Film Festival 2007 Winners - Article
 

 
GOLDEN LION for Best Film: SE, JIE (LUST, CAUTION) by Ang LEE (USA/China/China, Taiwan)
SILVER LION for Best Director: Brian [...]

Undertow (2004)
Direction: David Gordon Green. Screenplay: David Gordon Green and Joe Conway, from an original story by Lingard Jervey. Cast: Jamie Bell, Josh Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, Devon Alan, Shiri Appleby
 

Devon Alan and Jamie Bell feel the pull in Undertow
 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
When does the seep of an artist’s talent get to be too much? [...]

Peter Martin in Cinematical:
"Maybe it’s just my limited knowledge of European filmmakers, but their take on science fiction seems to be more influenced by Stanley Kubrick than George Lucas. Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey excited a lot of Americans, of course, but how many dreamy, tripped-out speculations on the future of man came about as [...]

Stage, film, and television actor Ulrich Mühe, winner of last year’s European Film Award for best actor, died of stomach cancer at his home in Walbeck, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, on July 22. He was 54.
Mühe’s European Film Award was recognition for his excellent performance as a Stasi agent who, while spying on a [...]

In late August, the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program will present "Billy Wilder’s Europe," a seven-film series showcasing samples of the director’s movies with an European setting. The screenings will take place between Aug. 18-29 at the appropriately named Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood.
In the 1930 [...]

Via the London Times:
"[Lauren] Bacall still finds acting as satisfying as ever. But she gets short-tempered about some of the fuss that surrounds it. ‘I love my profession. I have tremendous respect for it. What I don’t have respect for is the red carpet and the celebrity scene. It’s become a zoo. It’s so stupid. [...]

The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) have joined forces to present the West Coast premiere of a new 16mm print of nouvelle vague filmmaker Jacques Rivette’s twelve-and-a-half-hour 1971 counterculture epic Out 1 / Out 1: Noli me tangere, described by Dennis Lim in the New York Times [...]

Via The Guardian:
"Last August, Michael Pritchard received an email from someone claiming to possess Charlie Chaplin’s movie camera. The owner wondered whether Christie’s auction house, where Pritchard has been the camera specialist for the past 20 years, would be interested in selling it.
…
"… The camera on offer was a a Bell and Howell 2709, [...]

Cyrus Amini’s 25 Cent Preview (left), the story of two down-and-out San Francisco street hustlers, was the Grand Jury’s choice for best American narrative feature at the 25th Outfest — the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The film’s stars, Merlin Gaspers and Dorian Brockington received a joint best actor prize.
The best international narrative [...]

All that ugly makeup for naught… Tom Cruise watches Daniel Day-Lewis run away with the best actor Oscar statuette of 1989.
Oliver Stone’s 1989 best picture nominee Born on the Fourth of July will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series on [...]

25th Outfest - Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Awards 2007
Outfest 2007 was held between July 12-23, 2007.
The winners of the 2007 Outfest Awards were announced on July 22, 2007.
Outfest 2007 Winners - Article
 

Grand Jury Awards:
Outstanding American Narrative Feature:
25 CENT PREVIEW directed by Cyrus Amini

Outstanding International Narrative Feature:
TULI directed by Auraeus Solito

Outstanding [...]

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry topped the North American box office this weekend with an estimated US$34.8 million.
The (sort of) marital comedy directed by Dennis Dugan and starring Kevin James and Adam Sandler opened at 3,495 locations on Friday, and managed to outperform Dugan’s previous film The Benchwarmers, which opened with $19.7 million. [...]

Karnataka State Film Awards - 2006-2007
The winners of the 2006-2007 Karnataka State Film Awards — the awards committee was headed by filmmaker Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar — were announced on July 20, 2007.
There were 37 films in competition. Karnataka is a state in southern India. Kannada is its most important language.

Best Film: Mungaru Male / Monsoon Showers
Runners-up: [...]

Head or Tails: Tori Spelling, James O’Shea, and Philipp Karner try to decide who will marry whom in C. Jay Cox’s Kiss the Bride.
Directed by C. Jay Cox and written by Tyler Lieberman, the romantic comedy Kiss the Bride will be Outfest’s closing night event (Monday, 8 p.m. at the Orpheum in downtown Los Angeles).
In [...]

A few Outfest titles screening on Saturday:

Zabou Breitman’s L’Homme de sa vie / The Man of My Life (7 p.m. at the Directors Guild in West Hollywood), which was screened at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, tells the story of a married man (Bernard Campan) who, while spending time in Provence, develops a strong bond [...]

A few titles screening on Friday at Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival:
Sean Abley’s Socket (8 p.m. at the Regent Showcase on La Brea) is described as "kinky, dark and joltingly sexual … a sci-fi/horror story about survivors of lightning strikes who develop an insatiable addiction to electric current." Joltingly sexual indeed. [...]

Here are a couple of photos taken at the Monday Nights with Oscar screening of the 1984 Academy Award winner Amadeus held this past July 16 in New York City.

Director Milos Forman signs an autograph

F. Murray Abraham, who plays Salieri, and Tom Hulce, who plays Mozart
Photos: Kevin Macdonald/©A.M.P.A.S.
 
Hollywood’s Home Movies Screening
Q&A with "Gay Kiss [...]

Rarely seen home movies from the personal collections of Alfred Hitchcock (right), Esther Williams (above), Steve McQueen, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart (top), and others will be screened at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ presentation of "Hollywood Home Movies: Treasures from the Academy Film Archive." The screenings will take place on Saturday, [...]