Once again, Michael Hawley helps the Twitch readership keep abreast of one film festival after the other in the San Francisco / Bay Area. Thanks, Michael!
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) turns a ripe young age of 29 this year, continuing its reign as the oldest and largest festival of its kind in the world. Over the course of 18 days (July 23 to August 10) SFJFF will present 71 films from 18 countries—showcasing the best Israeli and Jewish Diasporan cinema to emerge in the past year. Although I missed last week’s press conference announcing the line-up, I’ve poured over the catalog and compiled this list of ten programs I don’t want to miss.
Continue Reading "SFJFF09—Michael Hawley Anticipates the Line-Up"...
The San Francisco Film Society’s longstanding working relationship with Film Movement ensures the theatrical exhibition of several festival-lauded films on the Sundance Kabuki’s SFFS Screen. For this, Bay Area audiences should be especially grateful. Recently, Film Movement’s collaboration with SFFS provided Munyurangabo; this week they’re providing Eldorado (July 3-9); and in future weeks they’ll be providing encore screenings of both La Ventana (July 17-23) and Lake Tahoe (July 24-30), which were featured at the 52nd edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
This week’s entry, Belgian director Bouli Lanners’ Eldorado—a “small but damn-near perfectly formed serio-comedy” (Leslie Felperin, Variety)—was selected for the 40th anniversary of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) at the 2008 61st Cannes Film Festival where it won Best European Film. Eldorado was likewise the official entry from Belgium for the 81st Annual Academy Awards (Oscars®), received a special mention at Italy’s Pesaro Film Festival, and was nominated for a César for Best Foreign Feature.
Continue Reading "REVIEW of ELDORADO"...
Soon to make its world premiere at the Film4 Frightfest in London, the producer of Wolf Creek will be making waves again with Coffin Rock - the feature debut from writer-director Rupert Glasson. Here’s how the festival describes it:
In the small coastal town of Coffin Rock, Rob and Jess live an almost idyllic life, their relationship marred only by their inability to have children. In a weak moment Jess sleeps with a stranger and later learns she’s pregnant. But the shocking truth is Evan targeted her the moment she walked into the fertility clinic where he worked. Now Jess’ guilt turns to full-blown horror as Evan begins a petrifying transformation from menacing stalker to unhinged psychopath….
But don’t take their word for it, we’ve got the trailer below the break and it’s truly unsettling stuff!
Continue Reading "Obsession Turns Ugly In Australian Thriller COFFIN ROCK"...
Oh, my ... this year marks the 10th anniversary of the London’s Film4 Frightfest and with the jam-packed lineup just announced I think it’s safe to say that they’ve outdone themselves. Examples? Take a deep breath: Indonesia’s Macabre, France’s La Horde, Norway’s Dead Snow, Japan’s Vampire Girl Versus Frankenstein Girl, Spain’s Hierro, Canada’s Smash Cut, the UK’s Triangle and a screening of the brand new, fully restored version of John Landis’ classic An American Werewolf in London! And, frankly, that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg ...
The festival runs from August 27th - 31st, check the full announcement below the break!
Continue Reading "Film4 Frightfest Is Packed With Goodness!"...
Yes, it’s still a couple of months until Fantastic Fest 2009 rolls around but a limited run of the official festival t-shirt - limited, as in fifty - have just been released early. They’re tentacle-y goodness and will not last long, so if you want to claim uber-geek bragging rights you’ll need to act fast. And speaking of rampant geekiness, you can expect official Twitch gear to be coming down the line within the next couple weeks ...
[Our thanks to Christopher Bourne for the following review.]
Koki Mitani’s latest film The Magic Hour is an entertaining and beautifully designed tribute to movies and movie-making that revels in its artificiality. Early in the film, Natsuko (Haruka Ayase), a nightclub waitress, remarks that the elements of the story – gangsters, guns, cement overshoes, a boss’ moll – all make the town seem like a movie set. At the film’s outset, nightclub manager Bingo (Satoshi Tsumbuki) has run afoul of yakuza boss Teshio (Toshiyuki Nishida) by having an affair with the boss’ girlfriend Mari (Eri Fukatsu). Bingo saves them both from being the proverbial feed for the fishes by claiming to be an acquaintance of Della Togashi, a famous hit man known as the “Phantom Assassin,” whom Teshio would like to meet. Not actually knowing the assassin at all, and unable to find the real deal, he comes up with the idea of asking Murata (Koichi Sato), a stuntman, bit part actor, and aspiring star player, to stand in for the assassin. Bingo must keep up a double ruse, convincing Teshio that the actor is the hit man, and also making Murata believe he is in a film. The film’s scenario echoes other films such as Bowfinger and, more recently, Tropic Thunder, in which much humor is mined from the idea of tossing actors unknowingly into dangerous real-life situations. All the complications that one would expect, and then some, ensue. All the visual elements of this film – its cinematography, production design, and canny recreations of old movies – are top notch, as are the spirited performances of its cast, especially Koichi Sato, Eri Fukatsu, and Haruka Ayase.
Continue Reading "NYAFF 09 Review: THE MAGIC HOUR"...
Imagi Studios has set up a booth at the Anime Expo 2009 in Los Angeles and “Anime3000” has capture on camera the Gatchaman promo being on display on the floor. Of course, the video quality ain’t so great as typical with any cam-job. We have to bear with it until a proper version comes along. Hopefully, more news update on this promising superhero film will emerge soon.
You’ll find the promo after the break.
Continue Reading "Cam-Job Promo for Imagi’s GATCHAMAN"...
Bunny And The Bull is a comedy road movie set entirely in a flat. Stephen Turnbull hasn’t been outside in months and when he finds his mind hurtling back to the disastrous trek he took around Europe with his friend Bunny, a catalogue of adventures unfold. Starring Edward Hogg (Brothers Of The Head ) and Simon Farnaby (‘The Mighty Boosh’, ‘Jam & Jerusalem’), Bunny And The Bull promises to be a touching journey to the end of the room.
I am disappointed in you, Britain. Very disappointed, indeed. The promo reel for Paul King’sBunny and the Bull remains the favorite thing that I saw during my time in Cannes this year and I have been anxiously awaiting the chance to share King’s lo-fi Gonry-esque fantasy with the likes of all you Twitch readers. But, alas, despite an upcoming autumn release date in the UK there is no trailer yet released officially anywhere online and apparently, there’s not a soul alive who managed to capture the trailer when it aired on the UKs Channel Four a couple weeks back. Foresight, people! Foresight!
But all is not lost as the good people at Channel 4 have, at least, seen fit to release a new block of stills from the picture online and they’re looking fantastic. With its cardboard and duct tape approach to special effects and the imaginary road trip that propels the story, this is one that fans of Michel Gondry and Spike Jonez are going to die for ...
My biggest gripe with animated films in Hollywood today is the lack of mature or edgy content for adults. Most of the animated films getting produced are driven by slapstick gags and the characters are drawn in cartoony fashion. Creative studio Nathan Love, in collaboration with Perspective Studios, has completed a three-minute trailer for Blood Trail that utterly go against this convention. Its a horror piece based on writer Matt Cochran’s screenplay of the same name and its expected to be developed into a feature film, video game and/or graphic novel. Before you watch this trailer, I must warn you that it contains extreme gore and graphic violence in full CG animated glory. This is definitely not safe for work so keep your kids away. What transpire in the last half had me going “oh shit!”.
You’ll find the trailer embedded below after the break.
Continue Reading "Trailer for CG Animated Horror BLOOD TRAIL"...
While in New York a week or so back I had a friend ask if I’d seen the new French trailer for Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak 2. As with the original Ong Bak Luc Besson’s Europa Corp have gotten their hands on this one and while the rumor is that there has been a mild re-cut of the film to tighten things up a bit - I’m hearing six minutes have been removed - and some changes to the score - though nothing as drastic as the hip hop version done for the original - the new French trailer, I was told, makes Ong Bak 2 look like “the greatest action film ever made”. I hadn’t seen it at the time, but now I have and I have to say I pretty much agree.
What do you say? Was it the argument between Tony Jaa the director and Tony Jaa the actor over whether he really needed to get into that pit of water with a live crocodile that drove Tony to go hide in the jungle for two months? Check the French trailer out below the break along with the extended Thai promo reel!
Continue Reading "It’s Tony Jaa Versus Crocodile In the French Trailer For ONG BAK 2!"...
With the announcement that [REC]2 will be opening Sitges 2009 the PR train is getting rolling with the first in a planned series of behind the scenes videos. It’s in SPanish only but it does provide a good look on set of the sequel to the hit Spanish horror picture and directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza hard at work.
The Eternal director Justin McConnell just passed along five new teaser posters for his developing vampire flick. He also let us know that at this year’s edition of Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear they will be in the house and hosting a contest for visitors to their booth that weekend. Things are still at the developing stages for Justin’s film but as soon as things start rolling again I’m sure he’ll have more news for us to pass on to you.
The Eternal will be once again represented at this year’s Rue Morgue Festival of Fear in Toronto (August 28 – 30). We urge all attending to swing by the Unstable Ground booth to grab some free swag, meet the crew and lead actor Adam Kenneth Wilson, preview the entire first issue of the graphic novel The Eternal: Final Dawn, and enter to win one 3 of “The Eternal” prize packs.
First Prize - A “one-of-a-kind” painting by co-creator Kevin Hutchinson (www.secondskincreations.net), a copy of the printed limited edition first issue of “The Eternal: Final Dawn” (only 20 of this version of the pressing will ever be made!), a “Final Dawn” T-shirt, and the short film prequel “Ending the Eternal” on DVD.
Second Prize – A “The Eternal: Final Dawn” T-shirt, copy of the printed limited edition first issue, and the short film prequel on DVD.
Third Prize – A copy of the printed limited edition first issue, and the short film prequel on DVD.
And The Eternal film synopsis…
Samuel Gradius has lived too long. In his 500 years on earth he has seen empires rise and fall, changed the course of history with his bare hands and experienced countless revolutions first hand. Samuel Gradius is a vampire, perhaps the only vampire, and he’s had enough. He wants to die. No longer content with the idea of simple suicide, he makes the decision to go out in the ways of old. He wants a warrior’s death. THE ETERNAL follows Samuel on the pursuit of his own personal oblivion, he hopes, at the hands of someone worthy.
Oh, I should have seen this coming. I really should have. A new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film is a big, big deal in France and I should have known that the folks behind the scenes would not have been content with just the one brief teaser for the film that appeared a few days ago. No, that would not nearly be enough. And so now there are more. Lots more. As in seven brand new teasers, each of them dedicated to a different character for the film. And all of them look like gold.
Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, even if it means you might drop dead any time? Or would you rather have the bullet taken out and live the rest of your life as a vegetable? Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is scrap metal worth more than landmines? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? What’s the human cannonball world record? Find out answers to these questions and more. A comedy in the vein of Delicatessen and Amélie.
You’ll find all eight teasers below the break! And, for fans, the Dominique Pinon one is number seven.
Continue Reading "More Of Jeunet’s MICMACS! Lots More!"...
It’s kind of funny how easily the reptile part of the brain can take over. It makes us do odd things, makes us fixate on the things that make our nether regions tingle, to the exclusion of all else. Makes us so focused - for example - on a certain Oscar-winning director casting a porn star in one feature that we cmpletely miss the fact that he’s working on another one as well, this one starring an actor with more than a little bit of awards hardware on his shelf at home. A well ... I guess I just don’t find Matt Damon as attractive as Sasha Grey. Such is life.
The director, of course, is Steven Soderbergh, and the film - the new one - is The Informant!, a based- on-a-true-story tale of quite possible the least competent corporate whistle-blower in the history of ever. i can’t help but feel that the Coen Brothers stole a little bit of the stylistic thunder on this one with Burn After Reading but Damon looks fantastic in it - as, bizarrely enough, does Scott Bakula - and I got more than one good laugh out of it when I caught it screening before Public Enemies. And, yep, it’s online now so I rather suggest checking it out.
[Udated with fresh trailers]
It aint just America making throwbacks to the blaxploitation era right now, a point well made by French effort Black, a more modern spin on the genre that we’ve been covering here for quite some time. Starring French musician MC Jean Gab’1 - also featured prominently in Banlieue 13 Ultimatum - as a Senegalese-French thief travelling to Africa for a heist where he’ll not only have to deal with local law enforcement but also Russian mercenaries and a flamboyant arms dealer who seems to be slowly turning into a snake, Black had its premiere at SXSW earlier this year. And with the French release right around the corner - July 15th in France for those keeping track, August for Canada - the PR train is rolling full speed. The first proper French teaser was released in mid-June and has since been followed by a second teaser and - just now - a full theatrical trailer.. You’ll find them all along with the earlier sales trailer - English subtitled, no less - below the break.
Continue Reading "No Dynamite, Just BLACK *UPDATE*"...
[Our thanks to Christopher Bourne for the following review.]
Hajime Kadoi’s contemplative second feature Vacation explores the relationship between Toru (Kaoru Kobayashi), a prison guard at a high-security facility, and Kaneda (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a condemned prisoner soon to be executed for murder, who has spent most of his years in prison appealing to the authorities for clemency. The “vacation” of the title is granted to Toru for volunteering for the traumatic task of assisting in Kaneda’s execution by leading him to the death chamber and holding his legs as he is hanged. Making this much harder for Toru is the fact that he has developed an unexpressed fondness for this quiet prisoner, who spends his days in his immaculately furnished cell drawing in his sketchbook. For his efforts, Toru is given a week off to have a brief honeymoon with his new bride, divorced single mother Mika (Nene Otsuka), accompanied by her young son Tatsuya (Shusei Ito).
Continue Reading "NYAFF 09 Review: VACATION"...
[Our thanks to Dustin Chang for conducting the following interview.]
Actor So So Ji-Sub plays a gangster with movie star aspirations in Rough Cut, a metaphysical contemplation on acting and real life, directed by newcomer Jang Hoon and written by Kim Ki-Duk. It was a surprise hit in Korea last fall. I was quite intimidated by the thought of meeting him, having just seen the movie where he plays a ruthless criminal. He was tall, humble and soft-spoken, not unlike his character Gangpae (“gangster” in Korean) - sans the violence, of course. His thoughtful responses and unassuming nature soon won me over. Introduced by the ever enthusiastic and personable Grady Hendrix, director of Subway Cinema, we shook hands and sat down in a café in Midtown. I indicated to Mr. Woo, the interpreter from Korean Society, that I’d conduct the interview in Korean. I realized that my Korean was a little rusty during the interview, and was glad Mr. Woo stuck around to help for our brief session. Thank you Mr. Woo.
Continue Reading "NYAFF 09 Interview: ROUGH CUT’s So Ji-Sub"...
To the surprise of pretty much nobody [REC]2 - the sequel to the Spanish zombie hit that spawned Quarantine as an English language remake - has just been announced as the opening night film for the 2009 edition of Sitges. Sitges was the launching site for the original so expectations have always been that the sequel would take its bow there as well but just because a piece of news is expected doesn’t mean it’s not good.
Check the trailer and clips from [REC]2 below the break!
Continue Reading "[REC]2 To Open Sitges 2009!"...
It is obvious to any Twitchfilm reader who has been around long enough that we are big fans of English director Shane Meadows and his films A Room For Romeo Brass, Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England. His latest film Le Donk & Scoz-ayz-ee just premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival but he gave Empire the skinny on his next big film, a horror film, and one we’ve known about for a while now, Beware the Devil...
“It’s based on a book of the same name, based on the life of a guy who, by getting involved with Ouija boards and the occult by trying to disprove it, trying to take the piss out of it, got possessed, had to be exorcised, and later became an exorcist himself. The guy it happened to has died, but his son’s a novelist, and he helped him turn it into a book before he passed away, and now I’m working with him to turn it into a film.” Empire also said Meadows described Beware the Devil to us as “making Dead Man’s Shoes look like Play School”
If you went to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs at the theaters, chances are you might have caught the second trailer for Ilion Studios’ Planet 51. Its a sci-fi animated comedy that has been on my radar for so long. With animation that looks just as good as any other heavyweight studios, Ilion from Spain may prove to be a major contender.
Planet 51 is a galactic sized animated alien adventure comedy revolving around American astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker, who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first person to step foot on it. To his surprise, he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world reminiscent of a cheerfully innocent 1950s America, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders…like Chuck! With the help of his robot companion “Rover” and his new friend Lem, Chuck must navigate his way through the dazzling, but bewildering, landscape of Planet 51 in order to escape becoming a permanent part of the Planet 51 Alien Invaders Space Museum.
The release date is on November 20th. You’ll find both the trailers below after the break
Continue Reading "Second Trailer for Ilion Studios’ PLANET 51"...
The man with 30 films somewhere in the production ether has just added another project to his list. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of the Transformers films and the upcoming G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra feature has dipped his grubby hands once again into the 80s properties pool and won a bidding war- A BIDDING WAR!!! for the rights to make an Asteroids movie. Yes, yes, the game where you, a small triangle, shoot and destroy asteroids of varying shapes and sizes until you are mercilessly crushed by one of them yourself. Insert another quarter and go again!
Now, given that Asteroids was around in the days where back story and characters didn’t matter, we were too caught up in the actual state of the art video game action back then, this gives the script writer Matthew Lopez [Bedtime Stories and Race to Witch Mountain... I know] pretty much free reign to do what he wants and create an exciting world around the simple concept of blowing up Asteroids.
So let’s theorize and make up our own script shall we? Here’s what I can make up off the top of my head. Aliens have redirected asteroids from the belt in orbit around the Sun, that one between Mars and Jupiter, and they are launching them at Earth, hoping to wipe out the human race from a distance. It’s up to the Asteroid Defense Human Defenders [ADHD - get it?], a collection of young, hot, thrill seeking space pilots to intercept these Asteroids before they become Meteorites and plunge into the soft recesses of our fragile Earth. They’ll be doing some plunging into some soft recesses of their own because they are so young and hot and thrill seeking. Either an Asteroid will get through their defenses, kill millions, and one of the pilots will have this big emotional moment where they torture themselves in grief only get their vindication when Earth can finally launch an assault on this Alien race and these pilots will be asked to lead the charge once they arrive at the belt. Or, one of their pilots will die, planting themselves on the front side of a massive Asteroid, and everyone will have a joined emotional moment then everyone can get their vindication when Earth can finally launch an assault on this Alien race and these pilots will be asked to lead the charge once they arrive at the belt. There will be lots of special effects and lots of explosions [which you must have even though there is no sound in the vacuum of space] and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is done in Real 3D. After all, it’s Asteroids damnit!
What say you?
We are mighty big fans of Nimrod Antal‘s 2003 Hungarian subway drama, Kontroll, which at the time, due to its sense of style, humour and intensity, besides being a breath of fresh air in the stuffier Hungarian Cinema circles, also seemed like a Hollywood calling card of sorts. That proved true and resulted in the enjoyable thriller Vacancy and the decidedly more generic-looking Armoured which is on its way to the multiplex presently. But here is the blockbuster big-time moment for Antal, as he is being handed the keys to the Predator franchise. Hmmm, I find this to be pretty exciting. Antal had to beat out some tough competition, namely Neil Marshall, for the gig.
The 1987 original is practically canonized as one of the great 1980s beef-cake action pictures with great action and macho humour and sensibility. And the awesomeness of Predator 2 is often overlooked? I mean that quite seriously, Predator 2 rocks. Can Nimrod Antal and producer Robert Rodriguez stuff lightning in a bottle for a third go-around?
Either way, Robert Rodriguez‘s Troublemaker Studios is aiming for a fall start on Predators with elements of his 1994 screenplay draft and the KNB group practical special effects philosophy. Excited? Ready to wash the bile of the AVP films out of your craw?
Because Fantasia program director Mitch Davis is incredibly proud of and excited by this event and will positively explode if somebody doesn’t show it some love soon, I present the following:
HELL ON EARTH: THE FILMS OF BUDDY GIOVINAZZO
A special tribute to one of the USA’s most unsettling independent voices, known for his haunting depictions of everyday horrors: poverty, addiction, violence and abandonment. Enormously powerful, honest and raw, the shattering work of filmmaker and novelist Buddy Giovinazzo has rarely been shown in this country. To right this wrong, we’ll be paying special tribute to the man with the International Premiere of his new feature, LIFE IS HOT IN CRACKTOWN, and a special screening of the filmmaker’s own 16mm answer print of his seldom-seen director’s cut of COMBAT SHOCK. Giovinazzo will be in town to host both screenings. CRACKTOWN, which stars Kerry Washington, Illeana Douglas, Brandon Routh, RZA and Lara Flynn Boyle, opened this past Friday (July 26) in the United States, to critical acclaim, albeit in a version that needed to be toned down before it could get into theatres. We will be screening Giovinazzo’s original cut, the first time the complete version will have been seen anywhere in the world.
[Our thanks to Christopher Bourne for the following review.]
A very lengthy feature (three hours and fifteen minutes) which, like Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s film All Around Us (also screening as part of Japan Cuts), deals with the criminal justice system in Japan, and that is as deliciously engrossing as it is disturbing, Gen Takahashi’s Confessions of a Dog is perhaps the most devastating indictment of Japan’s police ever committed to film. Following in the great tradition of, and likely inspired by, Sidney Lumet’s stories of police corruption such as Serpico and Prince of the City (which this film is most analogous to), Confessions of a Dog maps out with surgical precision the anatomy of police crimes, and the system which supports and enables them.
Continue Reading "Japan Cuts Review: CONFESSIONS OF A DOG"...
[Our thanks to Christopher Bourne for the following review.]
One of the best selections this year of both the New York Asian Film Festival and the Japan Cuts Festival is Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s All Around Us, a beautifully observed film that examines the vicissitudes of the relationship between a married couple – Kanao (Lily Franky), a courtroom sketch artist, and Shoko (Tae Kimura), an editor at a publishing house – against the backdrop of the larger Japanese society from 1993 to 2001. At the film’s outset, the tone is lightly comic, as Shoko puts Kanao on a strict schedule of sex three times a week, and also a curfew, because of her suspicions that he is cheating on her – which are probably not unfounded, as evidenced by early scenes in which Kanao openly flirts with women at his shoe-repair shop. Kanao is a somewhat isolated person, estranged from his own family and saddled with in-laws who don’t show him much respect. During a family dinner, Shoko’s mother (Mitsuko Baisho) leans toward her daughter and whispers, “You can do better.” Shoko resists her family’s opposition, perhaps sensing that Kanao’s easygoing nature balances out her control-freak tendencies. Soon after, a friend of Kanao’s introduces him to a new line of work, as a courtroom artist for a local television station. At first, this promises to be the latest in a series of jobs Kanao casually drifts into, but he soon takes to the work, and he now spends his days in the courtroom observing trials for some of the most heinous crimes: serial killers, cannibals, cult mass murderers, as well as their victims, fall under his artist’s gaze, as he picks up the telling details that he sketches and presents to the public to satisfy their insatiable curiosity. While Kanao becomes a more responsible, stable person due to his new calling, Shoko begins making an opposite trajectory, unable to cope with the death of their infant daughter and sinking into a deep depression. Kanao, as much as he wants to help her, is ultimately at a loss as to how to do so, and can only observe his wife getting worse, much as he observes the criminals in the courtroom.
Continue Reading "NYAFF 09 Review: ALL AROUND US"...
Not technically film news here - though given the history his books have of being adapted to film, it’s just a matter of time - but news of Koji Suzuki’s latest work is just too bizarre to pass up. Suzuki, of course, is the author of The Ring and Dark Water, books that proved hugely influential on the world of horror after both were adapted into hugely successful films by Hideo Nakata. His latest? Drop, the “alarming story of an evil spirit that inhabits a toilet bowl” - try not to think about that description in context of the title - recently published in Japan by Hayashi Paper. And Hayashi Paper? They specialize in one specific type of paper. Toilet paper. Yes, the latest Suzuki story has been published on rolls of toilet paper, perfect for a bit of private-time reading.
Twitch has not as yet given the work of Jonathan Nix any attention. That will change. Better late than never, right? Jonathan’s work producing animated shorts and soundtracks for the same has won him critical acclaim at festivals across his native Australia and beyond, and his latest project is the very wonderful-looking The Missing Key. This planned 25-minute short appears to build on the whimsical baroque setting for his earlier piece Hello (2003), a melancholy Italianate fantasy world with a distinctive touch of the surreal, and so far it looks to be absolutely gorgeous. Find the synopsis and a two-minute preview trailer from YouTube embedded after the break.
Continue Reading "Gramophone! Teaser for Jonathan Nix’s THE MISSING KEY"...
My review for Public Enemies is now available over at Showcase, so I’m bumping this back up with a link included below.]
Yes, I’ve just returned home from a screening of Michael Mann’s Public Enemies - my full review will be up as my column at Showcase tomorrow, I’ll link to it then - and this is the official place for those who have seen the film to discuss it as loud and long as they want. Spoilers are okay here, so if you don’t want to know, don’t read.
As for me? There are certainly flashes of Michael Mann’s particular brilliance - lots of ‘em - but on the whole this doesn’t really live up to his body of work as a whole. Bale is bland and the film as a whole suffers from an extreme case of bloat. Depp is great, though, as are Stephen Graham and Billy Crudup in support roles. On the whole I rate it just okay, which is a pretty major disappointment considering I was expecting excellence.
Michael Mann returns to (true) crime with the sprawling thirties period piece Public Enemies, dealing with the life and death of John Dillinger in another of the epic crime dramas that have won the veteran director so many fans. If you already know how the legendary bank robber met his end – or you don’t mind finding out – find out how Mann attempts to make the story his own after the break.
Continue Reading "PUBLIC ENEMIES review"...
Shortly before the hordes began chanting, “The Daily is dead; long live The Daily”, David Hudson gathered reviews of Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, first from its Cannes debut, and then later mid-June when it opened stateside. Here in San Francisco, Coppola met with his audience at the film’s first screening at the Sundance Kabuki.
Outlining how The Godfather created a “tsunami of success” that irrevocably changed his life and filmmaking, Coppola has gleaned from the passing of years a restoration of creative spirit leaning into what he admits is his “second career.” Tetro is, in fact, the second film of his second career; Youth Without Youth being the first. Lustrously shot in digital and projected in 35mm, the film is a rapture to watch, even as its rich visuals disguise an anemic narrative that doesn’t quite ring true. One is grateful for what one has seen; but, not completely satisfied. I’m not a huge Vincent Gallo fan so I place the blame there—for me, he just couldn’t carry the movie—but, Coppola’s “discovery” Alden Ehrenreich has charisma to spare in his debut role and is a talent to watch in future years.
* * *
Michael Guillén: One of the images I’m going to carry away with me from Tetro is that of the staged dance sequence near the edge of the sea. It reminded me of One From the Heart for being thrillingly artificial; the kind of artifice that lends itself in some odd way to emotional authenticity. Can you speak to your use of theatrical artifice to create emotion in your films?
Francis Ford Coppola: Of course. Just as the story implies, when Bennie [Alden Ehrenreich] was a little kid, his older brother Tetro [Vincent Gallo] used to take him to movies that were a little bit advanced for a seven-year-old kid and gave him some books to read and what have you and that’s why the boy idolized his brother so much. It’s true, in my own life I have an older brother who took me to see the Korda films, The Red Shoes—of which there’s an excerpt in Tetro—and also Tales of Hoffmann, which is much stranger for a young kid. Just as the character Bennie says, whenever he thought of his brother he always thought of Tales of Hoffmann.
My idea was that—when Bennie is reading [Tetro’s] cryptic notes and writings—that he imagines the story as though it’s scenes from a Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger dance film. The version of the story that the boy understands is as though it’s told in dance. It’s great that film is one of those mediums that can use different art forms to do different things. It was also fun for me—as someone who has admired The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus and all those beautiful Technicolor films—to get to fool with telling this little story in those images. The image you mentioned of the dancers on the stage with the sea coming in is very much inspired by the dance in The Red Shoes, as you can imagine.
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
