AFI FEST 2009: A SINGLE MAN, THE SINGULARITY
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore in A Single Man (top); Steve Evets, Eric Cantona in Looking for Eric (bottom)
AFI FEST 2009 highlights on Thursday, Nov. 5:
Robert Barry Ptolemy’s The Singularity sounds fascinating: Futurist Ray Kurzweil discusses the just-around-the-corner impact of human technology, which has been growing exponentially. Imagine a world without death, hunger, disease. (Well, I’m assuming all those great things will happen if humans don’t self-destruct first. After all, all lab studies indicate that human imbecility is growing even faster than the species’ technological advances — talk about a scientific paradox; someone should come up with a documentary about that.)
Directed by Tom Ford, A Single Man stars Venice 2009 winner Colin Firth, who’ll quite likely receive an Oscar nod come [...]
by Andre Soares | November 4, 2009
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Tags: A Single Man, AFI FEST, AFI FEST 2009, Colin Firth, Eric Cantona, Film Festivals, Gay Interest, Ken Loach, Looking for Eric, Los Angeles Screenings, Petition, The Singularity, Tom Ford
Cannes 2009: Best Screenplay Favorites
Best Screenplay
Any of those listed for best film, in addition to:
Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere (co-written by Bellocchio and Daniela Ceselli), about how Benito Mussolini mistreated his first wife (Giovanna Mezzogiorno, top photo) and son while millions of Italians thought he was just the greatest guy around.
Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric (written by Paul Laverty), about a postman who gets soccer player Eric Cantona (middle photo) to become his life coach.
Writer-director Xavier Giannoli’s In the Beginning (bottom photo), in which a con man gets a small town to build a highway.
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
by Massimo David | May 22, 2009
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Tags: Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Daniela Ceselli, Eric Cantona, Film Awards, Film Festivals, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, In the Beginning, Ken Loach, Looking for Eric, Marco Bellocchio, Paul Laverty, Vincere, Xavier Giannoli
Cannes 2009: Ken Loach, Ang Lee, Andrea Arnold, Jacques Audiard
Derek Elley on Looking for Eric (above, Ken Loach and Eric Cantona) in Variety:
"… helmer Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty’s ninth feature together is a curious hybrid: Three movies — boilerplate, socially aware Loach; personal fantasy; romantic comedy — wrap around a central core of a hopeless soccer fanatic who’s given a second chance to sort out his life. As in many of Laverty’s scripts, problems of overall tone and character development aren’t solved by Loach’s easygoing direction, though when it works, Eric has many incidental pleasures."
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Anthony Kaufman on A Prophet at indieWIRE:
"If James Toback’s petty-criminal tale Fingers inspired Jacques Audiard’s previous The Beat That My Heart Skipped, it’s Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas [...]
by Massimo David | May 20, 2009
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Tags: A Prophet, Allan Hunter, Andrea Arnold, Ang Lee, Anthony Kaufman, Brokeback Mountain, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Dave Calhoun, Derek Elley, Emile Hirsch, Eric Cantona, Film Festivals, Fingers, Fish Tank, Goodfellas, indieWIRE, Jacques Audiard, James Toback, Katie Jarvis, Ken Loach, Looking for Eric, Martin Scorsese, Paul Laverty, Taking Woodstock, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Time Out, Variety
Irish Film Awards 2007 Winners
Even though it failed to get nominated in the best director (Ken Loach) and best screenplay (Paul Haverty) categories, 2006 Cannes winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley was chosen best Irish film at the 2007 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards ceremony held in Dublin.
Starring Cillian Murphy (above, left), The Wind That Shakes the Barley follows members of the Irish Republican Army as they fight the British in the early 20th century. Liam Cunningham, as a train driver who becomes an activist, was chosen best supporting actor.
Cillian Murphy, for his part, was the winner of the best actor award for his role as a transvestite cabaret singer in Neil Jordan’s sociopolitical comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (above). [...]
by Andre Soares | February 10, 2007
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Tags: Breakfast on Pluto, Cillian Murphy, Eva Birthistle, Film Awards, Irish Film Awards, Ken Loach, Liam Cunningham, The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Irish Film Awards 2007: Nominations
The nominees for the 2007 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards have been announced.
Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto, the tale of an Irish transvestite cabaret singer in the London of the 1960s and 1970s, dominated the list with a total of 10 nominations, including best film, best director, best actor (Cillian Murphy, above, with Gavin Friday) and best screenplay (Jordan and Pat McCabe).
Other top nominees were Brian Kirk’s Middletown, about a borderline-fanatical Catholic priest who believes it’s his mission to save the souls of a small Irish town (9 nods); veteran John Boorman’s The Tiger’s Tail, about a businessman (best actor nominee Brendan Gleeson, above, with Kim Cattrall) stalked by his down-and-out twin (7 nods); and Ken Loach’s [...]
by Andre Soares | January 9, 2007
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Tags: Breakfast on Pluto, Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Film Awards, John Boorman, Ken Loach, Kim Cattrall, Neil Jordan, The Tiger's Tail, The Wind That Shakes the Barley
