John Horn talks about Michael Moore’s upcoming documentary, tentatively titled "While America Slept," in the Los Angeles Times:
"Even though he says the new film ‘isn’t about Bush,’ the president is clearly a central target.
"’He and his cronies and his supporters literally got away with murder,’ Moore says. But it is also obvious that the country’s [...]
Posted in Directors, Film on May 16th, 2008 No Comments »
James Mottram on Woody Allen in the [London] Times:
"This weekend Vicky Cristina Barcelona [above], the 38th film of Allen’s 42-year career, has its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, in an out-of-competition slot. The story of two American students on holiday in Spain, it stars three of Hollywood’s hottest current stars: the recent Oscar winner [...]
The Iraq War documentaries presenting the point of view of U.S. soldiers, The War Tapes (above) and The Ground Truth, will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Spring 2008 "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, May 28, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
Patricia Foulkrod, [...]
Eleven students from eight US colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. The winners will take part in a week of industry-related activities and social events, culminating in the awards ceremony on June 7 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater [...]
The Gang’s All Here (1943)
Direction: Busby Berkeley. Screenplay: Walter Bullock; from a story by Nancy Wintner, George Root Jr., and Tom Bridges. Cast: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, James Ellison, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton, Sheila Ryan, Eugene Pallette, Tony De Marco, Bando da Lua
From the moment The Gang’s All Here opens [...]
IN COMPETITION
Laurent Cantet - Entre les murs / The Class
Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Three Monkeys
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne -Le Silence de Lorna
Arnaud Desplechin - A Christmas Story
Clint Eastwood - Changeling
Atom Egoyan - Adoration
Ari Folman - Waltz with Bashir
Philippe Garrel - La Frontiere de l’Aube
Matteo Garrone - Gomorra
Charlie Kaufman -Synecdoche, New York
Eric Khoo - My Magic
Lucretia [...]
CANNES CLASSICS 2008
Synopses/intros from the Cannes Film Festival press release.
Main event: LOLA MONTÈS by Max Ophüls
The Technicolor restoration of LOLA MONTÈS, directed by Max Ophüls in 1955, is to have its world premiere, presented by the Cinémathèque française, on Saturday May 17th.
Documentaries about cinema
NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: LASZLO & VILMOS (2008,105′, USA) by James Chressanthis. [...]
"Watching the film I want the audience to embrace the journey of being a girl. Everyone in the room has to identify [with] a fifteen-year-old teenage girl. That’s why there are no adults in the movie, nor boys."
That’s screenwriter-director Céline Sciamma, talking about her widely praised first film, Naissance des pieuvres / Water Lilies. Initially [...]
The Kid (1921)
Direction and Screenplay: Charles Chaplin. Cast: Charles Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance, Carl Miller
Although I have never been much of a Charles Chaplin fan, The Kid is one sweet picture. In fact, it is the only Chaplin vehicle I would want to see over again.
The story, also penned by Chaplin, is simple: a [...]
Laura Bialis‘ well-received documentary Refusenik chronicles the thirty-year grassroots movement to free Soviet Jews. (Read Ella Taylor’s positive — if sobering — review in The Village Voice.)
Refusenik is told through the eyes of the activists, among them those then living in the Soviet Union — some of whom were punished for their efforts. Much [...]
The Great Gabbo (1929)
Direction: James Cruze. Screenplay: Story by Ben Hecht; Continuity and Dialogue by Hugh Herbert. Cast: Erich von Stroheim, Betty Compson, Donald Douglas, Marjorie Kane
The Great Gabbo is one terrific early talkie. Sure, the film is old and creaky, while its technical aspects are cheap and primitive. But the story, the music, and [...]
Naissance des pieuvres / Water Lilies (2007)
Direction and Screenplay: Céline Sciamma. Cast: Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachère, Adele Haenel, Warren Jacquin, Christelle Baras
Writer-director Céline Sciamma’s Naissance des pieuvres / Water Lilies is a film about teens beginning to discover who they are. It is also a film that actually stars teens — as opposed to mid-twenty-year-olds [...]
Curtis Hanson’s 1997 Best Picture nominee L.A. Confidential will be the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The neo-noir crime drama will be screened on Monday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, cast member [...]
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Direction: Fred Niblo. Directorial Associates: Alfred L. Raboch and B. Reeves Eason (and Christy Cabanne, uncredited). Screenplay: Carey Wilson and Bess Meredyth, based on June Mathis’s adaptation of General Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel. Titles: Katherine Hilliker and H. H. Caldwell. Cast: Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy, Francis X. Bushman, Betty [...]
The Penalty (1920)
Direction: Wallace Worsley. Screenplay: Charles Kenyon and Philip Lonergan; from Gouverneur Morris’ novel. Cast: Lon Chaney, Kenneth Harlan, Ethel Grey Terry, Doris Pawn, Charles Clary, Jim Mason, Milton Ross, Claire Adams
Lon Chaney was more than just an actor. He was a magician. Like a chameleon, he could morph into a character.
In the gruesome [...]
Dan Callahan takes a look at Gloria Grahame’s life and career in a lengthy article at Brights Lights:
"Grahame lives on the edges of most of her films, too disturbing an image, too turbulent a consciousness to ever really play a lead role. She could look severe, even plain, when she wasn’t overly made up for [...]
Paul Valley on Harrison Ford in The Independent:
"On his politics he is more public. A lifelong Democrat, he publicly condemned the invasion of Iraq, calling for ‘regime change’ in the United States. He has also criticised his own industry for the violence of much of its output and has called for greater gun control in [...]
Geoffrey Macnab’s "The Day Cannes Burned," a highly entertaining look back at Cannes ‘68, in The Independent:
"Film-makers ‘occupied’ the festival’s Grande Salle, partly to prevent screenings and partly to hold a prolonged, open-ended debate. ‘Imagine a cinema about the size of a medium Odeon,’ the British journalist Peter Forster wrote of the scenes inside the [...]
My Little Chickadee (1940)
Direction: Edward Cline. Screenplay: Mae West, W. C. Fields. Cast: Mae West, W. C. Fields, Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran, Ruth Donnelly, Margaret Hamilton, Donald Meek, Jackie Searl
Mae West and W.C. Fields. The teaming of these two comedy titans in My Little Chickadee must not have been very easy, but director Edward [...]
World Cinema Clips: Carlos Diegues‘ road movie Bye Bye Brasil / Bye Bye Brazil (1979) is possibly the best Brazilian film I’ve seen. (Admittedly, I’ve seen only about 70 or so Brazilian productions.)
Set in the Amazonian region, Bye Bye Brasil follows a troupe of down-and-out itinerant entertainers as they attempt to sort through their emotional [...]
Andrew Collins Remembers David Lean in a lengthy piece in the London Observer/Guardian:
"If it’s David Lean, we must start with a bold, widescreen establishing shot that sets out our stall. A vast expanse of grey tarmac, viewed dramatically from above, bordered by asymmetric shadows and a single motorcycle. A blonde figure in grey jacket carefully [...]
Dave Graham reports in Reuters that later this year what appears to be the first biography of silent-film actor Max Schreck, in my view the most effective movie vampire of them all, will be published in Germany.
Schreck starred in F.W. Murnau’s excellent 1922 horror drama Nosferatu, presumably the first feature film based on Bram Stoker’s [...]
Inspired by the "Red Roofs" segment from Dan Verete’s 2002 three-part Israeli drama Yellow Asphalt, which revolves around the lives of Bedouins in the Judean desert, the visually lush Before the Rains, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, follows the self-destructive path of a British farmer intent on creating a "spice" road [...]
Although it gets off to a slow start, Go West Young Man is one of Mae West’s better Post-Code efforts for Paramount. Directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Mae West herself (from Lawrence Riley’s play), Go West Young Man stars West (get it?) as temperamental film star Mavis Arden, who is at odds with [...]
The Straddler offers a lengthy essay on Ridley Scott’s American Gangster:
"American Gangster illuminates in its failure. Earnest and workmanlike in its effort to earn a place among the venerated films in its genre, it does not succeed. A better than average film in terms of the average film — a "B" perhaps; three out of [...]
