THE LIMEY d: Steven Soderbergh

The Limey (1999)
Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay: Lem Dobbs
Cast: Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzman, Peter Fonda, Barry Newman, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Amelia Heinle, Melissa George

 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Director Steven Soderbergh’s 1999 so-called crime drama The Limey is easily the best Soderbergh effort I’ve seen. That’s partly due to the innovative narrative structure, which makes all but the last few minutes of this great film a flashback. The rest is due to an excellent script by Lem Dobbs, whose other great success came a year earlier, in Alex Proyas’ sci-fi thriller Dark City. Both films, despite their apparent differences, are acutely focused on human memory and [...]

THE LIMEY II – Terence Stamp

THE LIMEY – Part I
Aside from memory, there are superbly rendered details that distill the characters: Wilson radiates affection for Eduardo’s help in tracking down Valentine by fondly calling him Sancho (as in Panza). All of these things — along with Eduardo’s and Elaine’s motivations, and the portrayal of the relationship between the hitmen — work well. In fact, they work so well precisely because there are no specifics, but generalities sharply etched so that the viewer ‘feels,’ as well as understands, the motivations and relationships. That allows the viewer to feel what goes on inside Wilson, thus creating a stronger identification with him than would be gotten were all things laid [...]

Torino GLBT Film Festival 2009: Q&A with Festival Director Giovanni Minerba

 
Giovanni Minerba (above), director of the Torino GLBT Film Festival, and his staff have been busy selecting entries for the 24th edition of Turin’s annual gay & lesbian film event, which will take place April 23-30.
In addition to competition and out-of-competition screenings, the festival will feature homages, retrospectives, and assorted sidebars, including a tribute to Spanish director Ventura Pons, best known internationally for the touching Food of Love; a screening of the films of author-filmmaker Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, whose best-known directorial effort is probably ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore; and a sidebar featuring several entries handpicked by filmmaker Ferzan Ozpetek and another showcasing campy sword-and-sandal epics of the early ’60s.
Festival director Minerba has kindly agreed to answer [...]

VALKYRIE: German Reactions

Tom Cruise in Valkyrie

Via "Muted Praise for Valkyrie From German Critics" in Der Spiegel:
"How could [Tom] Cruise, the all-American action hero, play Germany’s only hero of the 20th century, Claus Count Schenk von Stauffenberg, the man who came close to killing Hitler and ending World War II on July 20, 1944? Cruise’s membership in the Church of Scientology, seen by German authorities as little more than a money-making operation, fuelled doubts about his suitability.
"Now Valkyrie, named after the plot by German military officers to overthrow the Nazi leadership, has had its world premiere in New York, and German film critics are less damning than might have been expected."
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Kevin McNally, Christian Berkel, Bill Nighy, [...]