Cannes 2009: Jane Campion, Alain Resnais, Brillante Mendoza, Johnnie To, Lou Ye
Peter Bradshaw on Bright Star (with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw, above) in The Guardian:
"Jane Campion has put herself in line for her second Palme d’Or here at the Cannes film festival with a film which I think could be the best of her career; an affecting and deeply considered study of the last years in the short life of John Keats, and the ecstasy of loss which suffuses his love affair with Fanny Brawne – a love thwarted not due to illness, but to a pernicious web of money worries, social scruples and irrelevant male loyalties."
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Maggie Lee on Kinatay in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Festival darling Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay is a long night’s journey into the [...]
by Massimo David | May 20, 2009
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Tags: Abbie Cornish, Alain Resnais, André Dussollier, Ben Whishaw, Bright Star, Brillante Mendoza, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Fanny Brawne, Film Festivals, Gay Interest, Howard Feinstein, indieWIRE, Jane Campion, Jean-Pierre Melville, John Keats, Johnnie To, Johnny Hallyday, Kinatay, Les Herbes folles, Lou Ye, Photos, Screen Daily, Spring Fever, The Hollywood Reporter, Thomas Sotinel, Vengeance, Wild Grass
Cannes 2009: Pedro Almodóvar’s BROKEN EMBRACES
Broken Embraces: Pedro Almodóvar on the set (top); Penélope Cruz as the heroine (bottom).
In the mystery-melodrama, a director and his female star begin a passionate love affair that leads to all sorts of trouble.
Wendy Ide in The [London] Times:
"Certainly, it is unmistakably an Almodovar film. Nobody else does richly-textured melodrama quite like him; nobody else can encourage such overwrought performances without unbalancing the film; nobody else shoots Penélope Cruz with a reverence which borders on fan-worship. But what’s missing here is the warmth and emotional honesty that infuses Almodovar’s most successful features. What’s missing is, arguably, Almodovar himself."
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Eric Kohn in indieWIRE:
"Pedro Almodovar offers nothing new in his [...]
by Massimo David | May 20, 2009
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Tags: Broken Embraces, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, Eric Kohn, Film Festivals, Gay Interest, indieWIRE, Kirk Honeycutt, Los Abrazos rotos, Melodrama, Mystery Movies, Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, The Hollywood Reporter, Thomas Sotinel, Wendy Ide, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Tribeca 2009: Woody Allen’s WHATEVER WORKS
Eric Kohn at indieWIRE:
"Marked by interchangeably trite and witty dialogue, Whatever Works is the definition of a minor Woody Allen movie. The director’s triumphant return to New York City after several years of European excursions finds him in familiar, if not exemplary, form. Most people on the Allen bandwagon will likely view this outing as a charming mediocrity."
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Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Marking Woody Allen’s first NYC-shot film in five years, Whatever Works, falls somewhere in between his lesser London efforts Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream and his return to form with Vicky Cristina Barcelona. While this comedy starring Larry David doesn’t break any new ground for its creator in either style [...]
by Anna Robinson | April 23, 2009
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Tags: Evan Rachel Wood, Film Festivals, Larry David, The Hollywood Reporter, Tribeca 2009, Tribeca Film Festival, Whatever Works, Woody Allen
Lee Madden
Lee Madden, best known for directing Hell’s Angels ‘69, died of complications from pneumonia on April 9 in Camarillo, a town north of Los Angeles. He was 82.
The American International Pictures release Hell’s Angels ‘69, the tale of two brothers who plan on robbing Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace, was the Brooklyn-born Madden’s first feature. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it is the only fiction film in which the Oakland Hell’s Angels, including leader Sonny Barger, appeared.
Madden’s other features were the bikers vs. rednecks adaptation of The Magnificent Seven, Angel Unchained (1970), starring Tyne Daly and Don Stroud, and which Madden also wrote and produced; The Night God Screamed (1971), starring 1940s Fox star Jeanne [...]
by Andre Soares | April 15, 2009
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Tags: American International Pictures, Angel Unchained, Biker Movies, Cade's County, Don Stroud, Donald Pleasence, Glenn Ford, Hell's Angels '69, Jeanne Crain, Lee Madden, Nancy Kwan, Night Creature, Ralph Bellamy, Sonny Barger, The Hollywood Reporter, The Magnificent Seven, The Night God Screamed, Tyne Daly
