Tag Archives: Filmmaking

Telluride, Toronto International Film Festival

Critically Acclaimed Film ‘Moonlight’ Coming to U.K., Ireland

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Reuters and Variety

Altitude Film Distribution has acquired distribution rights in the U.K. and Ireland to Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed movie “Moonlight,” which is expected to be an awards contender. Altitude will release the film in early February, allowing the pic to be eligible for the BAFTAs.

screen-shot-2016-11-09-at-9-39-32-amAltitude chief Will Clarke said: “‘Moonlight’ is one of those life-affirming films that immerses you in its universal themes and kaleidoscopic view of life, but told with such emotional intimacy, delicacy and beauty that no one could fail to be moved in a way that is surprising and unforgettable. It is pure cinema and a milestone in independent film.”

A24 is handling international sales on the film, and is also distributing in the U.S., where it has grossed $1.47 million to date from a limited release. A24 will expand the release in the coming weeks.

“Moonlight,” the second feature from writer-director Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”), was a hit with critics at its premiere at Telluride Film Festival and subsequent festival screenings at Toronto and London.

The pic — about a young gay African-American man growing up in a tough neighborhood of Miami — won the Gotham Special Jury Award for the performances of its cast, including a breakout performance by former athlete Trevante Rhodes (“Westworld”) as the lead character, Chiron. Also starring are Andre Holland (“The Knick”), Janelle Monae (“The Equalizer”), Naomie Harris (“Skyfall”), Ashton Sanders (“Straight Outta Compton”), Jharrel Jerome (“Monster”) and Mahershala Ali (“House of Cards”).

The producers are Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, and Adele Romansk.

(Source:www.nbcnews.com)

Hollywood, Oscar

Jackie Chan reflects on 50-year career and honorary Oscar

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Sandy Cohen, Ap Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As an action star, Jackie Chan never expected to get an Oscar.

So he considers receiving an honorary Academy Award from the film academy’s Board of Governors his proudest professional achievement.

Chan will accept his Oscar statuette Saturday at the eighth annual Governors Awards. Film editor Anne Coates, casting director Lynn Stalmaster and documentarian Frederick Wiseman are also receiving honorary Academy Awards, which recognize lifetime achievement and contributions to the film industry.

“I never imagined that I’d receive such an award,” Chan said. “I still remember my very first proudest moment was when I received an award for stunt choreography. At that time, I didn’t know much about directing, I just knew how to do action and fighting sequences and stunts. Receiving this honorary award has raised my feelings to another level.”

The 62-year-old writer, director, producer and actor reflected on his career in an email interview with The Associated Press from his home base in Hong Kong. He plans to be in Los Angeles to accept his award in person.

AP: What was your most challenging film to make and why?

Chan: “Rumble in the Bronx” had a lot of action choreography, fighting sequences, and dangerous stunts. In “Operation Condor” I filmed in extreme temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius in the desert. I had a near-death accident while doing a stunt in “Armor of God.” In “Rush Hour,” I found the English dialogue most challenging.

AP: How does making movies in Hong Kong differ from Hollywood’s approach to film?

Chan: I find Hollywood’s approach to film production very systematic and organized. Of course, being organized is a good thing, but sometimes I feel restrained within set rules. Hong Kong filmmaking is more dynamic because things can be changed on the set while we’re still filming. It’s more flexible and encourages creativity, and if we think of something that might work, we try it right away.

AP: What changes in the industry have been most surprising to you?

Chan: Because I’ve been in the film industry for over 50 years, the most significant change I’ve noticed is the change from using 35mm film to digital technology, and even 3D filming. The improvement of technology has changed how films are now made. What we used to use back then is now part of history. I’m still fascinated by digital technology and the amount of work that can be done in post-production with CG (computer-generated) effects.

AP: What has been was your most exciting Hollywood experience?

Chan: All my experiences in Hollywood have been interesting and exciting. I’ve learned so many new things in Hollywood, made new friends and family, such as my American Chinese brother Brett Ratner. I’ve had many great memorable moments while working in Hollywood. I guess the most fun was making the “Rush Hour” series.

*Featured photo: Photo: Lai Seng Sin, AP

(Source: http://www.thehour.com)

 

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Feature Film, Hollywood

FILM REVIEW: R100 (Matsumoto, 2013): Japan

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Reviewed by Larry Gleeson. Viewed during the AFI Filmfest 2013.

“R100,” directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto, half of the Japanese comedic phenomenon, Downtown, is an absurdist Japanese comedy about an average, everyday family man, Takafumi Katayama, played by Nao Ohmori, leading an average everyday hum-drum, existence who decides one day to join a rather unusual club, a BDSM (Bondage and Discipline Sadism and Masochism) club surreptitiously named “Bondage.” Bondage has some rather interesting rules. For example, all activities must take place outside the club in real life settings, the customers must be submissive at all times and no touching allowed. The “masochist manifesto” promises to lead to “a revelation of the self.” Furthermore, the club” membership is for one year and once entered into cannot be cancelled under any circumstances.

True to its original roots, the club and its employees, a slew  of dominatrices known as “Queens” begin a wide range of orchestrated hi-jinks  upon an unwitting Mr. Takafumi Katayama. He is punched, kicked, whipped until achieving an erotic release visualized by a rippling effect upon Mr. Katayama’s aural body.

At first the practices and the situations have a fairly unobtrusive element but it doesn’t take long before they penetrate Mr. Katayama’s inner circle of family and employer.  The public humiliations and the physical abuse wear heavily on Mr. Katayama as his employer witnesses a particularly offensive restroom scene against the submissive Katayama. The line is crossed when the Bondage bounds Mr. Katayama’s young son.

Deciding enough is enough, Katayama makes the call to terminate his membership. The club, however, has other ideas and begins sending very dangerous and bizarre characters to eliminate Katayama. Here the storyline goes into warp drive with characters and situations passing through absurdity into irrationality. One character, Queen Big Mouth, devours another human being in a snake-like fashion. Another scene shows a group of businessmen producers exiting the theater discussing what they’ve just seen trying to make sense of the director’s over-the-top choices. The film the audience is seeing becomes a rough cut film in post-production. All the while, the screen depiction of a filmmaker director at age 100 exploring his sexual fantasies in a movie theater through a film underscores the absurdity of the  Japanese social mores of acceptable behavior. Point in case, when Mr. Katayama tries to report the club’s unlawful sexual activities to the police, he’s mocked and dismissed handily for getting what seems to be too much of a good thing.

In my opinion, Matsumoto is just throwing the kitchen sink at the audience landing bits and pieces trying to hit the mark with as many patrons as possible. He blends aspects of film noir, slapstick, zen and S&M. It’s not so much quality as it is quantity. Seemingly, being present and in the moment is a requirement for enjoying Matsumoto’s midnight submission, “R100.” Admittedly, I found many of the scenes quite funny and found myself laughing joyously. I also found many scenes that weren’t so funny and found myself scratching my head. So I guess it stands to reason (or does it?) why the show won the Midnight Category at the Toronto International Film Festival. Unfortunately for me, I saw the film on a Monday afternoon, Veterans Day to be more specific. Warmly recommended for mature audiences.

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Feature Film, Hollywood

The AFI FEST Interview: THE EYES OF MY MOTHER Director Nicolas Pesce

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Beautifully lensed in black and white, Nicolas Pesce’s debut feature THE EYES OF MY MOTHER immediately immerses the viewer in its Gothic atmosphere with a jarring act of violence that disrupts the seemingly bucolic life of a Midwestern Portuguese-American family. Francisca, the young daughter of a farmer and his surgeon wife, carries the effects of witnessing this terrible event into adulthood and perpetuates the cycle of violence to a chilling degree. Played with magnetic intensity by Kika Magalhães, the character of Francisca provides an uncommonly personal look at psychosis. While Pesce never pretends to understand or explain the roots of her actions, by planting the film squarely in Francisca’s point of view, he gives us an uncomfortable yet enthralling experience with this unique horror film.

AFI spoke with Pesce about the film.

Nicolas Pesce
Nicolas Pesce

AFI: This is an austere, minimalist horror movie fable told from the point of view of an increasingly extreme serial murderer. How did you make your protagonist sympathetic?

Nicolas Pesce: There was a constant balance we all had to maintain to tread this line between sympathy and disgust. For us, it was all about showing the audience every aspect of the character’s life, good and bad. You may not agree with Francisca’s actions, but a glimpse of understanding helps to make the character more sympathetic. The film is not about an evil woman. It’s about a lonely woman, and that’s how we always handled it.

AFI: Why shoot in black and white? It’s interesting that, though there are period elements in the film, the time and place are never immediately clear. 

NP: The black and white instantly tells the audience what type of horror movie is in store for them. It puts the film into a different lexicon of movies, and whether you’re familiar with American Gothic or not, the visual style creates a moody atmosphere that’s an extension of the main character’s psyche.

AFI: While THE EYES OF MY MOTHER is indeed disturbing, much of the violence takes place off-screen. Why?

NP: If I showed the violence on screen, you could look away and protect yourself from the imagery. But if I only give you a hint as to what’s happening, you’re mind fills in all the gaps, and suddenly without even trying, you’ve got this horrible image in your mind’s eye, and you can’t look away from that. It’s about making the audience scare themselves rather than me doing it for them. We’re all the best at scaring ourselves in exactly the way that scares us. I set up the scare, and you do the rest.

AFI: You wear your influences on your sleeve — David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Takashi Miike and even Michael Haneke. What attracts you to this kind of extreme filmmaking? 

NP: All those filmmakers have one very important thing in common. They have the ability to make the most banal, ordinary thing frightening. Whether it’s the actor’s performance or the music or the movement of the camera work, these filmmakers manage to unsettle in really abstract ways, manipulating the audience’s mood unknowingly and in oddly ordinary ways.

AFI: THE EYES OF MY MOTHER was the first project of Borderline Presents, the collective of established indie directors Josh Mond, Sean Durkin and Antonio Campos. How did this collaboration begin?

NP: I met Josh Mond while he was in post on his film JAMES WHITE. I helped him edit for a few weeks, but we became fast friends. I was soon welcomed into the family and they helped me put this film together. They saw a like-minded collaborator in me, but also a filmmaker who had a different voice than the three of them. They oversaw the project every step of the way from prep to production to post. Their experience, advice and opinions were invaluable. To have such brilliant filmmakers, whom I respect so much, looking out for the good of the film was more than I could ever ask for. They did everything in their power to help me make the best possible movie I could make, always trying to find the core of what I was trying to do, and getting the best version of it out of me.

THE EYES OF MY MOTHER screens at AFI FEST 2016 on Tuesday, November 15 and Wednesday, November 16 as part of the festival’s American Independents section.

(Source:www.blog.afi.com)

#SBIFF, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Showcase Series

Note from Roger – Tampopo

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Before sharing Roger’s note and the Los Angeles Times review, I’d like to share a few words. I saw Tampopo yesterday at a 2:00 PM matinee screening at the Riviera Theatre in the hills above Santa Barbara. As I live close by, I arrived at or near showtime. Much to my surprise a line of filmgoers was still formed outside at the box office. On a warm, sunny, Sunday afternoon, waiting in line for a few minutes isn’t the end of the world. Santa Barbara International Film Festival Executive Director Roger Durling was outside the theater greeting and cajoling members of the line on upcoming screening at the Riviera Theater, the new home of the Santa Barbara Film Festival. After securing a ticket, I exchanged pleasantries with Mr. Durling and quickly made my way into the theater bypassing the concession line (Concessions are a favorite of mine!) Inside I spotted seats up front. Without much adieu, I planted myself in the middle of the row – front and center. What I saw and experienced over the course of the next nearly two hours was a lush, sensuously orchestrated film that left me delighted – albeit at times in stitches. Happy to say, I wasn’t the only one enjoying the film with raucous and clear audibles of laughter emanating from the seats behind me and from the few seats to the front of me.(Larry Gleeson)

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Dear Cinephiles,

You can’t be glued to fivethirtyeight.com or CNN for the next 48 hours.

Come distract yourself and see the glorious restoration of TAMPOPO, the funny, sexy and affectionate celebration of food. But please come see this with a full stomach.

It plays tonight at 7:30pm, election night at 5:00pm – and Wednesday at 7:30pm at the Riviera Theatre. We’re attaching the LA Times review on the film’s restoration and importance.

See you at the movies!
Roger Durling

Click here for tickets

tampopo_bowlsTo slurp with love: ‘Tampopo’ makes a welcome return

By Justin Chang – Los Angeles Times

The surreally amusing vignette that opens the great 1985 Japanese comedy “Tampopo” now plays, more than 30 years later, like a remarkably prescient public-service announcement. A gangster in a white suit (Koji Yakusho) takes his seat in the front row of a movie theater and addresses us through the screen, warning us not to even think about crunching potato chips and crumpling wrappers once the film has started.

Had “Tampopo” been made today, the gangster might well have thrown in a message about the rudeness of talking, texting and other 21st-century breaches of moviegoing etiquette — and with good reason. Making a welcome return to theaters in a 4k digital restoration courtesy of Janus Films, Jûzô Itami’s art-house hit offers the kind of sensory experience that demands a viewer’s complete surrender — to its sumptuous culinary imagery, to the subliminal aromas that seem to come wafting off the screen, and to a soundtrack alive with the sounds of food being prepared, cooked and devoured.

Naturally, too, “Tampopo” demands to be experienced on at least a partially filled stomach — not so empty as to turn the film into a torturous deprivation exercise, but not too stuffed to enjoy the bowl of ramen noodles that will almost certainly be your first post-screening meal. (Conveniently enough for Angelenos, the film is screening at the Nuart Theatre, a few blocks away from the ramen-packed stretch of Sawtelle Boulevard known as Little Osaka.)

An early scene laying out the proper way to approach a bowl of ramen — complete with foreplay-like instructions to “first caress the surface with the chopstick tips” and “then poke the pork” — sets the tone for a movie with an intuitive understanding of the chemical bond between food and sex, of the sensual circuitry that connects all human appetites.

There are many love stories folded into this film’s enjoyably meandering two hours, but “Tampopo” is above all about the romance of food, and the joyous, agonizing devotion and hard work required to tease out its manifold mysteries.

Setting herself to that task with good-humored determination is Tampopo herself (played by Itami’s wife, Nobuko Miyamoto), a widow and single mother who runs a failing noodle shop in Tokyo. With the help of Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a truck driver who wears his cowboy hat even in the bath, and his trusty sidekick, Gun (a very young Ken Watanabe), Tampopo sets out to turn her shop into a thriving, world-class establishment.

Her story becomes a sort of western spoof (“Once Upon a Time in the West,” anyone?) as she and her growing band of business partners visit rival restaurants, sniffing out secrets, comparing recipes and inevitably making a few enemies. And so begins a rigorous crash course in the culinary arts, for Tampopo and the audience: the ingredients of a perfect broth, the secret of rolling perfectly smooth noodles, the right slicing proportions for pork and scallions, the trick to keeping customers’ individually tailored orders straight.

Even as the movie playfully lampoons the obsessiveness with which Tampopo pores over these details — her boot camp consists of transferring a stock pot of water repeatedly from one stovetop to the next — its satire originates from a place of the utmost sincerity. “Tampopo” doesn’t just take food seriously; it grasps the foundational roles that food plays in every culture, and Itami’s curiosity about these roles, as well as his bottomless appetite for narrative incident, lead him away from Tampopo’s story and in search of other epicurean adventures.

As the movie drifts from one anecdote to another, pausing every so often to check in on its heroine’s progress, it shows how cuisine is both the great social leveler and a significant delineator of class. Its pleasures are at once elitist and egalitarian. A junior executive outclasses the high-powered dolts at a business lunch with his superior knowledge of French cooking; meanwhile, at the same restaurant, a group of young women practicing refined dining habits give in to their natural impulses, slurping down their spaghetti alle vongole as noisily as possible.

The screen becomes an international smorgasbord, the camera lingering over a deftly prepared dish of ketchup fried rice, over slices of Korean-style beef sizzling on a tabletop grill, and — most heart-stoppingly — over a freshly shucked oyster glistening with a single, Sriracha-hued drop of blood. The erotic undertones in that latter image are taken to particularly runny extremes by the gangster and his moll (Fukumi Kuroda), who turn a raw egg yolk into the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Cinematic fusion cuisine par excellence, “Tampopo” mixes genres and styles with similar gusto: It’s a western one minute, a yakuza thriller the next, with ample downtime for dream sequences and grotesque interludes.

Whether they’re played for irony, suspense, tragic farce or bawdy humor, these subplots suggest a stream of endlessly refillable side dishes — some more piquant than others, but all of them in service of a robustly satisfying main course. The thrill of Tampopo’s end goal — to earn the sort of respect rarely accorded a woman in a male-dominated profession — is only mildly diluted by the fact that her quest for the perfect ramen requires about an hour’s worth of group mansplaining. The final triumph is hers, and ours.

Released in American theaters in 1987, “Tampopo” predated a number of foodie cinema classics, such as “Babette’s Feast,” “Big Night” and “Eat Drink Man Woman.” It was the second and most popular of the 10 features that Itami directed before his death in 1997 — an apparent suicide that has since been shrouded in rumors of foul play. His 1992 anti-yakuza satire “Minbo, or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion,” made him enemies in Japan’s criminal underworld, five of whom attacked and wounded him days after the film’s premiere.

The social critique in “Tampopo” is gentler and more dispersed, but it animates every scene, and it accounts for why — even in an era of celebrity chefs, food-porn Instagram accounts and cookery-as-contact-sport reality shows — the movie has lost none of its power to revivify the senses, not least of all one’s sense of humor. It has the irresistible freshness of a recipe that many have tried to copy and none have matched: a barbed, sprawling, scintillating vision of a society happily in thrall to its taste buds.

distribution, Venice International Film Festival

AFM: Jonathan Lipnicki Horror Film ‘Circus Kane’ Finds Distribution (Exclusive)

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Circus Kane is going to be frightening moviegoers with help from Uncork’d Entertainment, which has secured worldwide distribution rights to the circus-themed horror film.

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The film from DeInstitutionalized stars Jonathan Lipnicki, and sees sees a reclusive circus master invite a group of social media stars to his house of haunts. Anyone who can make it out before being scared into submission will earn $250,000 — but the social media stars soon learn they are not only competing for money, but also fighting their lives.

The film is being directed by Christopher Douglas-Olen Ray from a script by James Cullen Bressack and Zack Ward, based on a story by Sean Sellars.

“I’ve worked with James on two films (Restoration and Bethany), and have followed Chris and his body of work for some time so the opportunity to work with both of them couldn’t be passed up” said Uncork’d President Keith Leopard.

DeInstitutionalized’s Gerald Webb and Christopher Ray are producing the project along with Bressack.

“We are very excited to work with Keith and the team at Uncork’d Entertainment. Their experience and relationships across all platforms make them the perfect partner to distribute Circus Kane.” Producers Webb, Ray and Bressack said in a joint statement.

At the top of the post, check out the first production still from Circus Kane, which features actor Bill Voorhees as one of circus master Kane’s horde of demented henchmen. The production team promises that’s just a small taste of the horrors to come from the film.

uncorked-logo

(Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com)

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Documentary, Feature Film, Hollywood

AFI FEST 2016 World Cinema Lineup

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AFI FEST 2016 presented by Audi has unveiled its expansive, annual World Cinema lineup. World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year and features 33 films from 28 countries, including seven official Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® entries: DEATH IN SARAJEVO (DIR Danis Tanović), THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MÄKI (DIR Juho Kuosmanen), IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD (DIR Xavier Dolan), JULIETA (DIR Pedro Almodóvar), LAND OF MINE (DIR Martin Pieter Zandvliet), NERUDA (DIR Pablo Larraín) and THE SALESMAN (DIR Asghar Farhadi).

Pictured above: THE SALESMAN

WORLD CINEMA

AFTER LOVE (L’ÉCONOMIE DU COUPLE) – Joachim Lafosse returns to AFI FEST with his latest feature, which follows a married couple going through the turmoil of divorce in full view of their twin daughters. DIR Joachim Lafosse. SCRS Mazarine Pingeot, Fanny Burdino, Joachim Lafosse. CAST Bérénice Bejo, Cédric Kahn, Marthe Keller, Jade Soentjens, Margaux Soentjens. Belgium | France

ALBÜM – In this surreal comedy, things go awry when a Turkish couple tries to cover up the fact that they are adopting their new child as opposed to having a natural birth. DIR Mehmet Can Mertoğlu. SCR Mehmet Can Mertoğlu. CAST Şebnem Bozoklu, Murat Kılıç, Rıza Akın, Mihriban Er, Ali Meriç, Müfit Kayacan, Sencar Sağdıç, Şafak Karali. Turkey | France | Romania

BORIS WITHOUT BEATRICE (BORIS SANS BÉATRICE) – Upon receiving a mysterious letter, a proud, wealthy man must reassess who he is in this existential thriller. DIR Denis Côté. SCR Denis Côté. CAST James Hyndman, Simone Élise-Girard, Denis Lavant, Isolda Dychauk, Dounia Sichov, Laetitia Isambert-Denis, Louise Laprade, Bruce LaBruce. Canada

THE COMMUNE (KOLLEKTIVET) – Thomas Vinterberg returns to AFI FEST with this 1970s-set ensemble piece looking at a young couple who start a collective in the big vintage house where the husband grew up. DIR Thomas Vinterberg. SCRS Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm. CAST Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen, Lars Ranthe, Fares Fares, Magnus Millang, Julie Agnete Vang, Anne Gry Henningsen. Denmark | Sweden | Netherlands

CROSSCURRENT (CHANG JIANG TU) – A cargo ship captain falls under the spell of a mysterious book of poetry, and it sends him on an unexpected journey up the Yangtze River. DIR Yang Chao. SCR Yang Chao. CAST Qin Hao, Xin Zhilei, Wu Lipeng, Wang Hongwei, Jiang Hualin, Tan Kai. China. This screening is co-presented by the China Onscreen Biennial (COB) 2016 and is the closing night screening of their Los Angeles series.

DEATH IN SARAJEVO (SMRT U SARAJEVU) – Director Danis Tanović turns the luxurious Hotel Europa in the heart of Sarajevo into an ideological battleground in this Silver Bear winner out of the Berlinale. DIR Danis Tanović. SCR Danis Tanović. CAST Jaques Weber, Snežana Vidović, Izudin Bajrovic, Vedrana Seksan, Muhamed Hadžović, Faketa Salihbegović-Avdagić, Edin Avdagić, Aleksandar Seksan. France | Bosnia and Herzegovina

THE DEMONS (LES DÉMONS) – A 10-year-old boy begins to act out in frightening ways in this coming-of-age horror film. DIR Philippe Lesage. SCR Philippe Lesage. CAST Edouard Tremblay-Grenier, Pier-Luc Funk, Yannick Gobeil-Dugas, Vassili Schneider, Sarah Mottet, Mathis Thomas, Victoria Diamond, Laurent Lucas. Canada

A DRAGON ARRIVES! (EJHDEHA VARED MISHAVAD!) – This unique postmodern pastiche reenacts the confounding circumstances surrounding the 1965 suicide of an exiled political prisoner. DIR Mani Haghighi. SCR Mani Haghighi. CAST Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol, Nader Fallah, Ali Bagheri, Kamran Safamanesh, Javad Ansari. Iran

FRANCA: CHAOS AND CREATION – In this incisive documentary, director Francesco Carrozzini creates an intimate portrait of his mother, Franca Sozzani, the legendary editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue. DIR Francesco Carrozzini. FEAT Franca Sozzani, Karl Lagerfeld, Bruce Weber, Baz Luhrmann, Courtney Love. Italy | USA

GRADUATION (BACALAUREAT) – When a doctor’s bright young daughter is assaulted the day before her final exams, he will do anything to make sure her scholarship to Cambridge isn’t jeopardized. DIR Cristian Mungiu. SCR Cristian Mungiu. CAST Adrian Titieni, Maria Drăguș, Lia Bugnar, Mălina Manovici, Vlad Ivanov, Gelu Colceag, Rareș Andrici, Petre Ciubotaru. Romania

THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MÄKI – Based on a true story, Finland’s official Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® entry follows boxer Olli Mäki as he prepares for the 1962 world featherweight championship match. DIR Juho Kuosmanen. SCRS Mikko Myllylahti, Juho Kuosmanen. CAST Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola, Eero Milonoff, Joanna Haartti, Esko Barquero, Elma Milonoff, Leimu Leisti, Hilma Milonoff. Finland

HARMONIUM (FUCHI NI TATSU) – A Japanese couple’s quiet life is disrupted by the arrival of an old acquaintance recently released from prison. DIR Koji Fukada. SCR Koji Fukada. CAST Tadanobu Asano, Mariko Tsutsui, Kanji Furutachi, Taiga, Momone Shinokawa, Kana Mahiro. Japan | France

HOME – When a teen recently released from a juvenile detention center befriends another troubled young man, their shared alienation threatens to erupt in violence. DIR Fien Troch. SCR Fien Troch, Nico Leunen. CAST Sebastian Van Dun, Mistral Guidotti, Loïc Batog, Lena Suijkerbuijk, Karlijn Sileghem, Els Deceukelier, Robbie Cleiren, Yavuz Saçikara. Belgium

I, DANIEL BLAKE – In Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner, an ailing carpenter and struggling single mother join forces against the bureaucratic system keeping them down. DIR Ken Loach. SCR Paul Laverty. CAST Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Dylan McKiernan, Briana Shann, Kate Rutter, Sharon Percy, Kema Sikazwe. UK | France | Belgium

IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD (JUSTE LA FIN DU MONDE) – Xavier Dolan’s latest stars Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux as a volatile family reeling from the bad news brought home by an estranged son. DIR Xavier Dolan. SCR Xavier Dolan. CAST Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard. Canada | France

JULIETA – In Pedro Almodóvar’s latest, a woman is left to navigate tragedy and survival with her daughter after the death of her husband. DIR Pedro Almodóvar. SCR Pedro Almodóvar. CAST Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao, Inma Cuesta, Dario Grandinetti, Rossy de Palma. Spain

LAND OF MINE – Tense and thrilling like THE HURT LOCKER, this film follows the adolescent German soldiers assigned to clear a Danish beach of its buried mines after World War II. DIR Martin Zandvliet. SCR Martin Zandvliet. CAST Roland Møller, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman, Emil Belton, Oskar Belton. Denmark

LAYLA M. – When a young Muslim woman radicalizes and moves from Amsterdam to Jordan, she discovers a very different situation than she anticipated. DIR Mijke de Jong. SCRS Jan Eilander, Mijke de Jong. CAST Nora El Koussour, Ilias Addab. Netherlands l Belgium l Germany l Jordan

MALGRÉ LA NUIT – A man must descend into the world of pornographic snuff films in search of his lost love. DIR Philippe Grandrieux. SCRS Philippe Grandrieux, Bertrand Schefer, Rebecca Zlotowski, John-Henry Butterworth. CAST Kristian Marr, Ariane Labed, Roxane Mesquida, Paul Hamy, Johan Leysen, Sam Louwych, Aurélien Recoing. France | Canada

MISTER UNIVERSO – In this charming documentary and fiction hybrid, a young man of the circus embarks on a quest to find a legendary strongman. DIRS Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel. SCR Tizza Covi. CAST Tairo Caroli, Arthur Robin, Wendy Weber. Austria | Italy

NERUDA – Chile’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® centers on poet and senator Pablo Neruda, who went into hiding to escape arrest. DIR Pablo Larraín SCR Guillermo Calderón CAST Luis Gnecco, Gael García Bernal, Mercedes Morán, Diego Muñoz, Pablo Derqui, Michael Silva, Jamie Vadell, Alfredo Castro, Marcelo Alonso, Francisco Reyes, Alejandro Goic, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba. Chile

THE NET (GEUMUL) – Kim Ki-duk’s most controversial film to date centers on a North Korean fisherman who inadvertently drifts into South Korean waters, altering the course of his life forever. DIR Kim Ki-duk. SCR Kim Ki-duk. CAST Ryoo Seung-bum, Lee Won-gun, Kim Young-min, Choi Guy-hwa. South Korea

NOCTURAMA – Bertrand Bonello’s latest follows a pack of Parisian teenagers over the course of one day as they carry out a series of planned attacks throughout the city. DIR Bertrand Bonello. SCR Bertrand Bonello. CAST Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Guyot, Jamil McCraven, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laure Valentinelli, Ilias Le Doré, Robin Goldbronn, Luis Rego, Hermine Karagheuz, Adèle Haenel. France l Germany l Belgium

OLD STONE (LAO SHI) – When a timid cab driver helps an accident victim to the hospital, his decency is rewarded with a nightmarish decent into an unforgiving bureaucratic machine. DIR Johnny Ma. SCR Johnny Ma. CAST Chen Gang, Nai An, Wang Hongwei, Zhang Zebin, Luo Xue’er. China | Canada

THE ORNITHOLOGIST (O ORNITÓLOGO) – In the latest fever dream from João Pedro Rodrigues, an ornithologist is tossed from his kayak and finds himself on a wild, mesmerizing, blood-soaked journey downriver. DIR João Pedro Rodrigues. SCRS João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata CAST Paul Hamy, Xelo Cagiao, João Pedro Rodrigues, Han Wen, Chan Suan, Juliane Elting. Portugal | France | Brazil

PANAMERICAN MACHINERY (MAQUINARIA PANAMERICA) – In this witty and comedic debut, a group of Mexican workers stage a dysfunctional showdown when their factory goes bankrupt. DIR Joaquín Del Paso. SCRS Joaquín Del Paso, Lucy Pawlak. CAST Javier Zaragoza, Ramiro Orozco, Irene Ramirez, Edmundo Mosqueira, Delfino López, Cecilia Garcia, Cesar Panini, Javier Camacho, Israel Ruiz. Mexico | Poland

THE RED TURTLE – In Studio Ghibli’s beautiful first co-production, a shipwrecked man struggles to escape a deserted island but he’s kept from doing so by a giant sea turtle. DIR Michael Dudok de Wit. SCR Michael Dudok de Wit. France | Japan

THE SALESMAN – In Asghar Farhadi’s latest, a husband seeks revenge against the perpetrator who attacked his wife in their apartment. DIR Asghar Farhadi. SCR Asghar Farhadi. CAST Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi, Farid Sajjadi Hosseini, Mina Sadati, Maral Bani Adam, Mehdi Kooshki, Emad Emami. Iran l France

THINGS TO COME (L’ AVENIR) – Isabelle Huppert plays a passionate philosophy professor dealing with two quietly monumental life events. DIR Mia Hansen-Løve. SCR Mia Hansen-Løve. CAST Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, Sarah Le Picard, Solal Forte, Elise Lhomeau, Lionel Dray, Grégoire Montana-Haroche, Lina Benzerti. France | Germany

THE UNTAMED (LA REGIÓN SALVAJE) – The lives of a young mother, and her husband and brother are thrown into upheaval with the arrival of a mysterious woman who shows them how to access the most intense pleasure they’ve ever known. DIR Amat Escalante. SCRS Amat Escalante, Gibrán Portela. CAST Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio, Jesús Meza, Edén Villavicencio, Andrea Peláez, Oscar Escalante, Bernarda Trueba. Mexico | Denmark | France | Germany | Norway | Switzerland

THE WOUNDED ANGEL (RANENYY ANGEL) – Four adolescent boys in rural Kazakhstan deal with the harsh realities of post-Soviet life in this second feature by the director of HARMONY LESSONS. DIR Emir Baigazin. SCR Emir Baigazin. CAST Nurlybek Saktaganov, Madiyar Aripbay, Madiyar Nazarov, Omar Adilov, Anzara Barlykova, Timur Aidarbekov, Kanagat Taskaraev, Rasul Vilyamov. Kazakhstan | France | Germany

WÙLU – An honest but frustrated worker living in Mali resorts to drug-running to make ends meet, and soon finds himself embroiled in a conflict that stretches all the way to Al Qaeda. DIR Daouda Coulibaly. SCR Daouda Coulibaly. CAST Ibrahim Koma, Inna Modja, Ismaël N’Diaye, Jean-Marie Traoré, Habib Dembélé, Mariame N’Diaye, Quim Gutierrez, Olivier Rabourdin. France | Senegal

YOURSELF AND YOURS (DANGSINJASINGWA DANGSINUI GEOT) – In the latest from Hong Sang-soo, one painter searches for the woman he has just broken up with, while she — or her dopplegänger — pursues quasi-romantic encounters with other men. DIR Hong Sang-soo. SCR Hong Sang-soo. CAST Kim Jooh-yuck, Lee You-young. South Korea

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(Source: http://www.blog.afi.com)

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Feature Film, Hollywood

FILM CAPSULE: Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013): USA

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By Larry Gleeson.

Viewed during the AFI Filmfest 2013.

Nebraska, written by Bob Nelson, is the latest film from two-time Oscar winning screenwriter and acclaimed director, Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt, Election, Citizen Ruth). Nebraska, takes us on a 750-mile black and white journey from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska. Along the way, an emotional healing occurs amid some exceptional dialogue and strong character development.

The character arc of the protagonist, Woody Grant, an elderly man with a touch of dementia, played by veteran journeyman and Hollywood legend, Actor Bruce Dern, an elderly man with a touch of dementia, is fully realized, in my opinion, as we see his willingness to fight for what is his and his ultimate acceptance of his lot in life.  And, much like his 2004 Sideways,  Payne utilizes the road trip structure to bond the two main characters and he also revisits the cantankerousness of character eccentricities as in his 2002 film About Schmidt. 

Nevertheless, it’s the performance of Dern as Woody Grant that makes the film what it is. Throughout his career, Dern has played a plethora of despicable characters and lays a claim to being the only actor to kill Hollywood legend, John Wayne on screen  in The Cowboys, (1972). Before the screening at the Graumann’s Chinese TCL Theater Mr. Dern was given a Hollywood tribute. Quentin Tarantino gave an introduction to the “acting national treasure.”

The film opens with Woody walking on the shoulder of a well-traveled highway. He tromps up towards  the camera and before long the police arrive and escort Woody home to his antagonistic wife Kate, played by June Squibb. She’s at wits end with Woody’s antics and his adamant, persistent posture in going to Lincoln to get his million dollar prize money which turns out to be nothing more than a Publisher’s Clearinghouse type of sweepstakes notification enticing the recipient to order magazine subscriptions. Kate unable to deal with her husband calls upon her sons, David, a local electronics salesman played very convincingly by Will Forte,  and Ross, a back-up local newscaster, played by Bob Odenkirk. As siblings often do, the two disagree on their father’s situation with David, recently put off by his girlfriend who decided to move out leaving David by his lonesome, seizing the moment to spend time with his dad by driving him to Lincoln so Woody can collect his million dollars but also so he can get to know his dad again.

Along the way the two make a stop after an accident in the town where Woody grew up complete with the relatives and locals who stayed and who believe Woody has become a millionaire. Mr. Payne born in Omaha, Nebraska paints quite a caricature of the local populace. The small town is believable enough. Yet, the characters that inhabit the town might be a stretch. For example, Woody’s two nephews draw a strong resemblance to Disney’s Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Adding into the mix is Kate Grant’s full on personality, an overly harsh, yet comedic, belittling better-than-thou Catholic, in a most memorable graveyard scene. On the other hand, Stacy Keach who plays Woody’s former business partner, Ed Pegram delivers with the utmost believability the dark side of a partnership/friendship when he believes Woody’s come into some easy money.

Overall, Alexander Payne delivers a film in black and white that not only entertains but also delivers a visual portrait of a small Midwestern town in an economic downturn, bypassed by mainstream America while showcasing the sense of loneliness and the eccentricities it has caused.

distribution, Irish Film

‘The Young Offenders’ Secures Second International Distribution Deal

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Nathan Griffin

Carnaby International is the latest distributor to acquire the Irish box office hit The Young Offenders.

The Irish cocaine comedy, The Young Offenders, has already successfully grossed over €1mscreen-shot-2016-11-06-at-10-51-19-am domestically and is now set to be distributed in a number of countries internationally, following Vertigo Releasing’s acquirement of the film late last month.

The UK Film and Distribution Company obtained the sales rights for Canada, US, UK and Australian/New Zealand in October after the movie’s hugely successful opening weekend.

The film took in €202k on its opening weekend and ranks as the most successful Irish film of the year. It has also become the fastest grossing Irish-made film to reach the coveted €1m milestone, placing it alongside Irish classics such as The Guard and Man about Dog.

In the film, Writer-Director Peter Foott showcases Irish acting debutantes and leads, Alex Murphy and Chris Walley who are supported by Hilary Rose (The Republic of Telly) and Comedian PJ Gallagher (Naked Camera).

Inspired by the true story of Ireland’s biggest cocaine seizure in 2007, The Young Offenders is a comedy road movie about two inner-city teenagers who look to cash in when a drug-trafficking boat capsizes off the coast of West Cork spilling 61 bales of cocaine.

Carnaby International Sales and Distribution is a UK film company specialising in worldwide sales based out of Soho London and are recognised by all major motion picture and television festivals and markets worldwide.

The deal was brokered by Carnaby International’s Head of Acquisitions, Lorianne Hall, together with Peter Foott of Vico Films.

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(Source: http://www.iftn.ie)

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Hollywood

How AFI Fest honors trailblazing women along with its gala premieres

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News

 The 30th AFI Fest hits Hollywood Boulevard Thursday with, appropriately enough, a strong emphasis on movie history.

Of course, the American Film Institute’s L.A. film festival will also bring its usual program of glitzy award season premieres, fantastic foreign and independent productions, new discoveries and live talent from all over the world to the Chinese Theatre complex and other venues along the boulevard by the time it concludes on Nov. 17.

But from its opening night gala premiere — Warren Beatty’s ode to Howard Hughes’ Hollywood of the 1950s Rules Don’t Apply — to the local bow of acclaimed contemporary musical La La Land and even a 75th anniversary restoration of the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane, AFI Fest 2016 will be honoring the past while looking toward the future.

“Showing Rules Don’t Apply and La La Land together is almost like fish in a barrel,” notes the fest’s director of programming, Lane Kneedler. “They’re about our town.”

And then there’s the event’s most beloved tradition: Once again this year, AFI Fest will be free to the public.

 

“There’ll be a few other things that are special,” festival director Jacqueline Lyanga understates about the 30th anniversary edition. “We’re featuring three trailblazing women from cinema history; Ida Lupino, Anna May Wong and Dorothy Dandridge; we’ll be showing their films in our Cinema’s Legacy section.”

Asked if the honoring of pioneering actress-turned-director Lupino and early Asian- and African-American stars Wong (an L.A. native, by the way) and Dandridge indicated an emphasized diversity theme this year, Lyanga provided perspective.

“For us, it really represents the scope and the range that is showcased at AFI Fest,” she explains. “Across the program, we have a remarkable amount of diversity in terms of women (33 of the nearly 120 features and shorts were female-directed) and in terms of filmmakers and artists and actors of color. It’s not something that’s special, actually, for this year, it’s something that we’ve seen in the programming year after year. We just look for great work; we don’t look for specific quotas.”

Among the splashier stuff they’ve come up with, AFI Fest’s programming team has added

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Natalie Portman portrays Jacqueline Kennedy in the Kennedy biopic, Jackie.

the Natalie Portman-starring Kennedy biopic Jackie, a tribute to Annette Bening with a screening of her upcoming 20th Century Women, another tribute to French national treasure Isabelle Huppert with her Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle and, for closing night, Mark Wahlberg’s Boston Marathon bombing docudrama Patriots Day to its Galas list.

The festival’s Special Screenings section offers the first local glimpses of other upcoming hot properties such as the Robert De Niro-starring The Comedian, Jessica Chastain’s showcase as a high-powered D.C. lobbyist Miss Sloane, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest creepfest Split, acclaimed German comedy and Oscar entry Toni Erdmann and the premiere of Disney’s animated Polynesian spectacular Moana.

“ Moana is going to be a fantastic evening,” Kneedler promises. “We’re going to have all of Hollywood Boulevard Moana’d-out that night.”

Anticipated international auteur films making their L.A. debuts at AFI include Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation from Romania, Brit Ken Loach’s Cannes Film Festival prize-winner I, Daniel Blake, Spanish bad boy Pedro Almodovar’s latest Julieta, Pablo Larrain’s Chilean biopic Neruda, Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman, South Koreans Kim Ki-duk’s The Net and Hong Sang-soo’s Yourself and Yours and the Philippines’ Lav Diaz’s Venice Film Fest winner The Woman Who Left.

And many, many more. Plus a lot of stuff even the most devoted followers of the international movie scene probably haven’t heard about. There are films from 46 countries at AFI this year.

“One of the goals of the festival is to contextualize the year in cinema as best we can, in a place where people who are in the industry, the filmmakers, the general public, the cinephiles, the movie fans, everyone can come together and talk about movies,” Lyanga explains. “And, also, to not only think about the films that have won awards and are known about and lauded at Sundance, Berlin, Cannes or Telluride, but to bring to light films that we think are incredible that may have been off the radar. That’s part of what you’ll see in our New Auteurs, American Independents and World Cinema sections.”

Some titles Kneedler and Lyanga advise checking out include the American indies Always Shine by Sophia Takal, Buster’s Mal Heart by Sarah Adina Smith and starring Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek, and the Kris Avedisian-directed and -starring Donald Cried. They also suggest sampling Brazil’s Kill Me Please, Kenya’s Kati Kati, the French/Qatari co-production Divines and the Austrian/Italian Mister Universo amid the bounty of imported offerings.

The festival also will host a technology showcase, panels with the year’s outstanding indie and documentary talents, family- and student-oriented programs and, in case you need more classic movie connections, documentaries on film’s ultimate samurai Toshiro Mifune and mother/daughter icons Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.

For the full schedule, to reserve tickets and all other stuff, go to afifest.afi.com.

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(Source: http://www.presstelegram.com)