Sebastián Muñoz’s drama “El Principe” has closed key major territory deals before its European Film Market premiere, licensing North America (Artsploitation Films) and Germany/Austria (Salzgeber).
Sold by Patra Spanou, “El Princípe,” which proved a standout at works-in-progress strands of Chile’s Sanfic and Spain’s San Sebastián festival, has also sold to Poland (Tongariro Releasing). Chilean production house Jirafa, which runs a highly select distribution operation, will release “El Príncipe” in its native Chile.
Starring Gastón Pauls (“Nine Queens”) and Alfredo Castro, “El Principe” is set in 1970 Chile as Jaime enters prison, having murdered his best friend, and establishes a bond with “El Potro,” one of the jail’s most powerful inmates.
“El Principe” turns on two universal concepts, Muñoz told Variety: “Desire” and “human beings’ need to love and be loved.” The film is set in prison because “locked-up men only have each other and seek affection...
Sold by Patra Spanou, “El Princípe,” which proved a standout at works-in-progress strands of Chile’s Sanfic and Spain’s San Sebastián festival, has also sold to Poland (Tongariro Releasing). Chilean production house Jirafa, which runs a highly select distribution operation, will release “El Príncipe” in its native Chile.
Starring Gastón Pauls (“Nine Queens”) and Alfredo Castro, “El Principe” is set in 1970 Chile as Jaime enters prison, having murdered his best friend, and establishes a bond with “El Potro,” one of the jail’s most powerful inmates.
“El Principe” turns on two universal concepts, Muñoz told Variety: “Desire” and “human beings’ need to love and be loved.” The film is set in prison because “locked-up men only have each other and seek affection...
- 2/10/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment has acquired world sales rights to “The Consequences” (“Las consecuencias”), writer-director Claudia Pinto Emperador’s follow-up to her 2013 feature debut, “The Longest Distance,” which marked out the Spanish-Venezuelan writer-director as a talent to track.
A Spain-Netherlands-Belgium co-production, “The Consequences” won a €330,000 conditionally repayable non-interest loan for co-production from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund in its latest allocation, announced Oct. 22. That followed on a Eurimages Co-production Development Award at last year’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum.
Described by Variety as an “accomplished debut,” thanks to its “well-drawn characters, engaging performances and a convincingly rooted storyline,” “The Longest Distance” won the Glauber Rocha Award for best Latin American film at 2013’s Montreal World Film Festival.
“The Longest Distance” used stunning landscape – Venezuela’s Gran Sabana region – and genre – a road movie – to frame a story of bedrock family relations – a young boy...
A Spain-Netherlands-Belgium co-production, “The Consequences” won a €330,000 conditionally repayable non-interest loan for co-production from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund in its latest allocation, announced Oct. 22. That followed on a Eurimages Co-production Development Award at last year’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum.
Described by Variety as an “accomplished debut,” thanks to its “well-drawn characters, engaging performances and a convincingly rooted storyline,” “The Longest Distance” won the Glauber Rocha Award for best Latin American film at 2013’s Montreal World Film Festival.
“The Longest Distance” used stunning landscape – Venezuela’s Gran Sabana region – and genre – a road movie – to frame a story of bedrock family relations – a young boy...
- 10/29/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Chile’s Storyboard Media, a leader in production and distribution in that country, have given Variety exclusive access to the heartwarming first trailer for the sophomore feature from director Shawn Garry, “After Elena.”
The film tells the story of Roberto, a man in his 70s who has just lost the love of his life, Elena. The typically stoic character breaks down when forced to sell his business which stands in the way of the development of a new shopping center. To get away, Roberto plans a trip which is interrupted before it has the chance to begin when his children, now in their 30s with kids of their own, return home.
In the trailer we see Roberto, clearly out of sorts, as he tries to cope with the now overflowing house and mundane issues that confront large families with children, issues he hasn’t had to deal with for 15 years.
The film tells the story of Roberto, a man in his 70s who has just lost the love of his life, Elena. The typically stoic character breaks down when forced to sell his business which stands in the way of the development of a new shopping center. To get away, Roberto plans a trip which is interrupted before it has the chance to begin when his children, now in their 30s with kids of their own, return home.
In the trailer we see Roberto, clearly out of sorts, as he tries to cope with the now overflowing house and mundane issues that confront large families with children, issues he hasn’t had to deal with for 15 years.
- 10/19/2018
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
“Cruise,” written and directed by Robert Siegel, is its own intoxicating brand of youth nostalgia film. It’s set in the outer boroughs of New York in 1987, and it’s every bit as fresh and authentic about the period as a movie like “Adventureland” was — it gets the big hair and the bangles, the mall-boutique “street” fashions and greasy-synth-pop optimism, the whole dressed-in-attitude vibe of kids who’ve had five years of MTV to model themselves on. But “Cruise” also feels like a 1980s movie. That may sound like a contradiction in terms: How can an ’80s nostalgia film be authentic if it’s also mining our affectionate kitsch memories of what the ’80s looked like at the multiplex?
The reason it’s not a contradiction is that Siegel, who wrote the superb screenplays for “The Wrestler” and “The Founder,” isn’t interested in microwaving John Hughes tropes. He has...
The reason it’s not a contradiction is that Siegel, who wrote the superb screenplays for “The Wrestler” and “The Founder,” isn’t interested in microwaving John Hughes tropes. He has...
- 9/27/2018
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Chile’s Santiago-based international film festival, Sanfic, has shared with Variety its list of seven films set to participate in the 2018 Sanfic Industria Latin American Works in Progress section.
The films will compete for the following prizes: The Chemistry Award – $50,000 worth of post-production services towards color correction in HD or 2k resolution; the Avid Media Composer Licensing Software Award – a license for perpetual access to the Avid Media Composer post-production editing software valued at $1,800; Yagan Films Award – sound post-production services valued at $23,000; and the new-to-this-year Malaga Festival Award – guaranteed participation at the 2019 Malaga Festival to be held next March.
A highly-anticipated entry at this year’s Wip is the latest from Chile’s Alejandro Fernández Almendras. Produced by Jirafa Films in Chile, one of the country’s very top film outfits, Paris-based Arizona Films and Film & Roll in the Czech Republic, “Hra” (“The Play”) tells the tale of a small-town Czech playwright,...
The films will compete for the following prizes: The Chemistry Award – $50,000 worth of post-production services towards color correction in HD or 2k resolution; the Avid Media Composer Licensing Software Award – a license for perpetual access to the Avid Media Composer post-production editing software valued at $1,800; Yagan Films Award – sound post-production services valued at $23,000; and the new-to-this-year Malaga Festival Award – guaranteed participation at the 2019 Malaga Festival to be held next March.
A highly-anticipated entry at this year’s Wip is the latest from Chile’s Alejandro Fernández Almendras. Produced by Jirafa Films in Chile, one of the country’s very top film outfits, Paris-based Arizona Films and Film & Roll in the Czech Republic, “Hra” (“The Play”) tells the tale of a small-town Czech playwright,...
- 7/31/2018
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Some of the most iconic hair fashion statements of all time are movie hair. Cher Horowitz in “Clueless.” Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” David Bowie’s hair in “Labyrinth.” The list goes on. And then there’s the not so good hair moments in the movies. Arguably the most famous of those is having its 20th anniversary this week, the infamous “hair gel” scene from “There’s Something About Mary.” In honor of that classic and unfortunate hair gag, we decided to look at some of the other times that things in movies got a little hairy.
“There’s Something About Mary”
Why does this scene work as well as it does? The gag isn’t especially plausible, but it taps into that crippling fear that the world somehow knows the dirty deed you’ve just done in the privacy of your own bathroom. And Cameron Diaz’s hair,...
“There’s Something About Mary”
Why does this scene work as well as it does? The gag isn’t especially plausible, but it taps into that crippling fear that the world somehow knows the dirty deed you’ve just done in the privacy of your own bathroom. And Cameron Diaz’s hair,...
- 7/11/2018
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
More than 40 years since he strutted down a Brooklyn street in Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta returned to Bensonhurst recently wearing a white suit jacket that would have done his character Tony Manero proud. At the "John Travolta Day" celebration, John and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, greeted fans, posed for pictures, and danced to the Bee Gees. "They looked very happy," noted an onlooker. It wasn't just a show for the crowd. John, 64, and Kelly, 55, have a solid, happy union. The couple, who met while filming 1989's The Experts and married in 1991, have never let their romance falter, even in hard times. "A relationship doesn't just happen," Kelly exclusively confided to Closer Weekly. "You've got to work at it — keep it honest and communicate — and you've got to keep it fun." (Photo Credit: Getty Images) For John and Kelly, that means taking pleasure in working together. The pair currently...
- 7/4/2018
- by Closer Staff
- Closer Weekly
Career Watch is a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there.
Thanks to strong recognition overseas, at 64 John Travolta still carries the clout that gets movies made. But this is not always a good thing: Travolta’s passion project, “Gotti,” debuted in Cannes but opened to $1.7 million amid derisive reviews (Tomatometer: 0%).
Bottom Line: After strutting out of Broadway and television into ’70s movie stardom, the Irish-Italian Travolta languished in the ’80s until Quentin Tarantino gave him his 1994 comeback as hitman Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction.” That movie returned Travolta’s swagger and while he hasn’t topped it, Travolta has surfed many career dips and swells without completely alienating his aging fan base. But “Gotti” may be the tipping point.
Read More: ‘Gotti’ Review: John Travolta, Pitbull, and E from ‘Entourage’ Team Up for an Incoherent Mob Biopic — Cannes 2018
Career Peaks: Born in Englewood,...
Thanks to strong recognition overseas, at 64 John Travolta still carries the clout that gets movies made. But this is not always a good thing: Travolta’s passion project, “Gotti,” debuted in Cannes but opened to $1.7 million amid derisive reviews (Tomatometer: 0%).
Bottom Line: After strutting out of Broadway and television into ’70s movie stardom, the Irish-Italian Travolta languished in the ’80s until Quentin Tarantino gave him his 1994 comeback as hitman Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction.” That movie returned Travolta’s swagger and while he hasn’t topped it, Travolta has surfed many career dips and swells without completely alienating his aging fan base. But “Gotti” may be the tipping point.
Read More: ‘Gotti’ Review: John Travolta, Pitbull, and E from ‘Entourage’ Team Up for an Incoherent Mob Biopic — Cannes 2018
Career Peaks: Born in Englewood,...
- 6/18/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Career Watch is a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there.
Thanks to strong recognition overseas, at 64 John Travolta still carries the clout that gets movies made. But this is not always a good thing: Travolta’s passion project, “Gotti,” debuted in Cannes but opened to $1.7 million amid derisive reviews (Tomatometer: 0%).
Bottom Line: After strutting out of Broadway and television into ’70s movie stardom, the Irish-Italian Travolta languished in the ’80s until Quentin Tarantino gave him his 1994 comeback as hitman Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction.” That movie returned Travolta’s swagger and while he hasn’t topped it, Travolta has surfed many career dips and swells without completely alienating his aging fan base. But “Gotti” may be the tipping point.
Read More: ‘Gotti’ Review: John Travolta, Pitbull, and E from ‘Entourage’ Team Up for an Incoherent Mob Biopic — Cannes 2018
Career Peaks: Born in Englewood,...
Thanks to strong recognition overseas, at 64 John Travolta still carries the clout that gets movies made. But this is not always a good thing: Travolta’s passion project, “Gotti,” debuted in Cannes but opened to $1.7 million amid derisive reviews (Tomatometer: 0%).
Bottom Line: After strutting out of Broadway and television into ’70s movie stardom, the Irish-Italian Travolta languished in the ’80s until Quentin Tarantino gave him his 1994 comeback as hitman Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction.” That movie returned Travolta’s swagger and while he hasn’t topped it, Travolta has surfed many career dips and swells without completely alienating his aging fan base. But “Gotti” may be the tipping point.
Read More: ‘Gotti’ Review: John Travolta, Pitbull, and E from ‘Entourage’ Team Up for an Incoherent Mob Biopic — Cannes 2018
Career Peaks: Born in Englewood,...
- 6/18/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
John Travolta returned to Lenny’s Pizza in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, on Tuesday, over 40 years after his Saturday Night Fever character Tony Manero made the establishment famous.
Dressed in a white suit jacket and black shirt that mimicked the iconic outfit he wore in the 1977 film, the actor was all smiles as he was honored by the borough in what was dubbed “John Travolta Day.”
Wife Kelly Preston was by his side at the event, dressed in a long-sleeve black patterned dress. The two danced to the Bee Gees’ music from the film’s best-selling soundtrack, and sampled slices from Lennys...
Dressed in a white suit jacket and black shirt that mimicked the iconic outfit he wore in the 1977 film, the actor was all smiles as he was honored by the borough in what was dubbed “John Travolta Day.”
Wife Kelly Preston was by his side at the event, dressed in a long-sleeve black patterned dress. The two danced to the Bee Gees’ music from the film’s best-selling soundtrack, and sampled slices from Lennys...
- 6/13/2018
- by Dave Quinn
- PEOPLE.com
Fabula’s Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, producers of Academy Award winner “A Fantastic Woman,” have appointed seasoned former Paramount exec Geoff Stier as CEO of Fabula in North America.
Paramount Pictures Evp of production from 2009, where he developed and managed feature projects such as “True Grit” and “World War Z,” Stier will begin to head up Fabula in North America from the second week of April, still based out of Los Angeles where Chile’s Larraín brothers established a production company last year.
Fabula’s first full-on U.S. production, a remake of “A Fantastic Woman’s” director Sebastian Lelio’s “Gloria” starring Julianne Moore and directed by Lelio himself, went into production late last year. Stier will report to the Larraín brothers.
“We have found a wonderful partner who is brilliant, great fun and an extraordinary professional, has a great background and sensibility and understands what we want to do,...
Paramount Pictures Evp of production from 2009, where he developed and managed feature projects such as “True Grit” and “World War Z,” Stier will begin to head up Fabula in North America from the second week of April, still based out of Los Angeles where Chile’s Larraín brothers established a production company last year.
Fabula’s first full-on U.S. production, a remake of “A Fantastic Woman’s” director Sebastian Lelio’s “Gloria” starring Julianne Moore and directed by Lelio himself, went into production late last year. Stier will report to the Larraín brothers.
“We have found a wonderful partner who is brilliant, great fun and an extraordinary professional, has a great background and sensibility and understands what we want to do,...
- 3/29/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Maybe if it wasn't a holiday, Lucifer Season 3 Episode 11 would have been more fun.
Then again, fun is fun, and given the opportunity to go back to the beginning, there wasn't a whole lot of it considering.
"City of Angels" was obviously another of the standalone episodes shoveled into Lucifer Season 3 because there was nothing else to do here while we're anxiously awaiting news on Cain.
I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to see Tom Ellis strutting down the Venice promenade like Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. If anyone could wear that suit today and get away with it, it would be Ellis. He looked damn good.
Nothing was important enough to drag me to work before my holiday was over, though.
Did I really want to watch and review this on New Year's Day? No. I didn't. It should have been a helluva lot more entertaining...
Then again, fun is fun, and given the opportunity to go back to the beginning, there wasn't a whole lot of it considering.
"City of Angels" was obviously another of the standalone episodes shoveled into Lucifer Season 3 because there was nothing else to do here while we're anxiously awaiting news on Cain.
I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to see Tom Ellis strutting down the Venice promenade like Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. If anyone could wear that suit today and get away with it, it would be Ellis. He looked damn good.
Nothing was important enough to drag me to work before my holiday was over, though.
Did I really want to watch and review this on New Year's Day? No. I didn't. It should have been a helluva lot more entertaining...
- 1/2/2018
- by Carissa Pavlica
- TVfanatic
Saturday Night Fever is one of those films you look back on and then look to the current culture of today and then spend a few minutes trying to reconcile how such things could have possibly been considered normal back then. It’s hitting its 40th anniversary this week since being released and while a lot of people have kind of forgotten a great deal about it there are areas around the Us that still idolize Tony Manero for their own reasons. The reason I find this disturbing is that while he was guy disillusioned by his life spent at a
10 Things You Didn’t Know about “Saturday Night Fever”...
10 Things You Didn’t Know about “Saturday Night Fever”...
- 12/27/2017
- by Wake
- TVovermind.com
The year was 1977. It was a time marked by perms and afros, huge flares and sweet dance moves – not to mention John Travolta’s first blockbuster hit, Saturday Night Fever. This classic film, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary this month, is widely renowned as the quintessential story of 1970s Brooklyn. In fact, the movie was added to the National Film Registry in 2010 – a section of the Library of Congress reserved for movies deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The movie exposed the gritty reality of disco culture, following the story of dance enthusiast Tony Manero (played by
Saturday Night Fever Turns 40: The Top Five Movie Moments...
Saturday Night Fever Turns 40: The Top Five Movie Moments...
- 12/18/2017
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
Stayin’ Alive: 40 Years of Saturday Night FeverStayin’ Alive: 40 Years of Saturday Night FeverKurt Anthony12/15/2017 10:31:00 Am
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, everybody knows Saturday Night Fever!
Strutting into theatres on December 16, 1977, the iconic disco drama celebrates its 40th anniversary today and we’ve got boogie fever!
Directed by John Badham (Dracula, WarGames), Saturday Night Fever was inspired by a New York Magazine article titled “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” and went on to become a massive box office success. Shot on a modest budget of $3M, the film has since earned over $237M worldwide!
Starring John Travolta as the groove-shakin’ Tony Manero, Saturday Night Fever served as a breakout role for the talented triple-threat and even earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 1978 Academy Awards.
Of course, there wouldn’t be much dancing without music! One of the best-selling soundtracks of all time,...
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, everybody knows Saturday Night Fever!
Strutting into theatres on December 16, 1977, the iconic disco drama celebrates its 40th anniversary today and we’ve got boogie fever!
Directed by John Badham (Dracula, WarGames), Saturday Night Fever was inspired by a New York Magazine article titled “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” and went on to become a massive box office success. Shot on a modest budget of $3M, the film has since earned over $237M worldwide!
Starring John Travolta as the groove-shakin’ Tony Manero, Saturday Night Fever served as a breakout role for the talented triple-threat and even earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 1978 Academy Awards.
Of course, there wouldn’t be much dancing without music! One of the best-selling soundtracks of all time,...
- 12/15/2017
- by Kurt Anthony
- Cineplex
The AppleThe musical possesses a unique form of power rarely afforded to other Hollywood genres. In the words of film scholar Rick Altman, “The musical invites us to forget familiar notions of plot, psychological motivation, and causal relationships.” In contrast to other commercial genres, the musical is almost one-of-a-kind in its ability to arrest time and space, to suspend disbelief, to defy our lived understanding of human relationships and even the very conventions of filmgoing. In what other mainstream genre can fictional characters get away with looking into the camera lens so often? Dramatic logic is replaced in the Hollywood musical by spectacle and raw emotional appeal, with singing as the defining device for such purely cinematic priorities.But what happens to the musical when singing is taken out of it? This was the conundrum of the short-lived disco musical, a sub-genre that ended as soon as it began.Popular...
- 7/10/2017
- MUBI
Vroom! Vroom! Ansel Elgort, the cute-as-cute-can-be lead of the cancer romance, The Fault in Our Stars, bops around Baby Driver like Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero, with his ear buds semi-glued in. You keep expecting a few disco balls to pop into view while the Bee Gees let loose on the soundtrack.
Sadly, no balls. No white suit. And not much of a credible plot in this frenetic crime/coming-of-age hybrid.
What we do get is a rhythmic youth delivering coffee and pizza, driving getaway cars, caring for a deaf, mute, disabled older gent, and falling in love with Debora (Lily James), a singing waitress, to the throbbing beats of Queen’s "Brighton Rock," The Champs' "Tequila," and Barry White's "Never Never Gonna Give Ya Up." Imagine Derek Hough in Pulp Fiction.
A masterwork??? Some media folks have been raving over Baby Driver weeks before its release date.
Sadly, no balls. No white suit. And not much of a credible plot in this frenetic crime/coming-of-age hybrid.
What we do get is a rhythmic youth delivering coffee and pizza, driving getaway cars, caring for a deaf, mute, disabled older gent, and falling in love with Debora (Lily James), a singing waitress, to the throbbing beats of Queen’s "Brighton Rock," The Champs' "Tequila," and Barry White's "Never Never Gonna Give Ya Up." Imagine Derek Hough in Pulp Fiction.
A masterwork??? Some media folks have been raving over Baby Driver weeks before its release date.
- 7/2/2017
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Stars: Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Space, John Hamm, Jamie Foxx | Written and Directed by Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright’s return to American moviemaking is a more earnest and coherent foray than 2010’s Scott Pilgrim, and it’s a blast of pure positive energy after the relatively dour The World’s End. It opens with the eponymous Baby (Ansel Elgort) rocking in his car to The John Spencer Blues Explosion, and it never stops dancing.
Baby is a guy with a permanent Tony Manero swagger. He’s under the wing of gangster boss Doc (Kevin Spacey), who’s both a mentor and gaoler. But Baby has almost paid off his debt and he’s approaching the “one last job” cliché, after which he hopes to hit the road and leave his Atlanta life behind.
Then Baby meets a beautiful waitress, Debora (Lily James). They quickly fall in love. However, the freeway out of the crime world is not clear. Doc needs Baby for yet another last job, working alongside the hyper-macho Buddy (John Hamm) and his scheming girlfriend Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), and the batshit crazy Bats (Jamie Foxx).
Can Baby finish his getaway driver stint and find freedom and a future with Debora? Or is he on a road to oblivion?
Life is a playlist for Baby. A childhood accident left him with tinnitus, and now he drowns out the whining through the power of the iPod, wearing earbuds 23 hours a day and moving to the thrum of the music. (He even samples real-world conversations and mixes them into bad hip-hop.) Wright’s penchant for rhythmic editing has reached its natural zenith, and it’s exhilarating. The British auteur has compiled a soundtrack – and frankly a narrative brevity – of which Tarantino can only dream. And it’s not just the music but the sound design, which is astonishingly detailed and well-choreographed, whether it’s the percussive crack of gunfire, the sad ring of tinnitus, or the intimate singing of wine glasses.
The marketing may have overtones of classic car capers like Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway or Walter Hill’s The Driver, but really Baby Driver is a mashup of the last few decades of modern action movies. It takes in the muscular physicality and mute cool of the ‘70s; the efficiency and the gaudy aesthetic of the ‘80s and ‘90s; and in its hero shaped by formative tragedy, even includes some of the comic book sensibility of the new century. It also feels like the greatest Grand Theft Auto movie never made. (If only Baby could learn from GTA that sometimes the best way to evade the cops is to stay still until the heat is off.)
Elgort is charming and tragic in a way that he totally wasn’t in The Fault in Our Stars, and he has a great chemistry with James, who pulls off blue collar Georgian with effortless aplomb. In supporting roles, Spacey brings gravitas and grades of grey to his deadpan mobster, while Foxx is genuinely funny and menacing.
But Hamm is the real psychotic of the troupe. Unlike Bats, Buddy comes in the guise of a friend, before finally actualising his rage and cruelty. It’s disappointing that the final showdown descends into a mindless macho wrestle, but the storytelling is movingly redeemed in the epilogue.
As ever, Wright is constantly imaginative in deploying his action beats and setpieces. For him, it’s not enough to give us a scuzzy warehouse gun deal, so he delivers it as if a group of bankers are being presented with a fine dining experience. Wright gleefully toys with our expectations throughout, whether it means building to the ultimate car chase, only to show us a foot race; giving us musical intros we think we know but we don’t; or inverting the mentor role by making the kid the carer.
A very welcome stem of morality runs through the movie. It is made abundantly – perhaps excessively – clear that Baby is a boy with a good heart, a million miles from the French Connection-type antihero. Yet, ever the optimist, Wright’s fable is as much a reflection of the countercultural mood of its time as any film from the Nixon era. He is right-on when he proposes that real heroism in the modern age is in decency, accountability and humility – an implicit indictment, perhaps, of today’s prevailing political bleakness.
What a rush this movie is, and what a work of authorship. Employing style in the service of soulfulness, Baby Driver is like Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive shot through with the sensibility of a Hollywood musical. It’s absolutely an Edgar Wright joint and it’s an absolute joy, and if it isn’t on my end-of-year best-of list then I’ll eat my driving gloves.
Baby Driver is out in cinemas on 28th June 2017.
Edgar Wright’s return to American moviemaking is a more earnest and coherent foray than 2010’s Scott Pilgrim, and it’s a blast of pure positive energy after the relatively dour The World’s End. It opens with the eponymous Baby (Ansel Elgort) rocking in his car to The John Spencer Blues Explosion, and it never stops dancing.
Baby is a guy with a permanent Tony Manero swagger. He’s under the wing of gangster boss Doc (Kevin Spacey), who’s both a mentor and gaoler. But Baby has almost paid off his debt and he’s approaching the “one last job” cliché, after which he hopes to hit the road and leave his Atlanta life behind.
Then Baby meets a beautiful waitress, Debora (Lily James). They quickly fall in love. However, the freeway out of the crime world is not clear. Doc needs Baby for yet another last job, working alongside the hyper-macho Buddy (John Hamm) and his scheming girlfriend Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), and the batshit crazy Bats (Jamie Foxx).
Can Baby finish his getaway driver stint and find freedom and a future with Debora? Or is he on a road to oblivion?
Life is a playlist for Baby. A childhood accident left him with tinnitus, and now he drowns out the whining through the power of the iPod, wearing earbuds 23 hours a day and moving to the thrum of the music. (He even samples real-world conversations and mixes them into bad hip-hop.) Wright’s penchant for rhythmic editing has reached its natural zenith, and it’s exhilarating. The British auteur has compiled a soundtrack – and frankly a narrative brevity – of which Tarantino can only dream. And it’s not just the music but the sound design, which is astonishingly detailed and well-choreographed, whether it’s the percussive crack of gunfire, the sad ring of tinnitus, or the intimate singing of wine glasses.
The marketing may have overtones of classic car capers like Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway or Walter Hill’s The Driver, but really Baby Driver is a mashup of the last few decades of modern action movies. It takes in the muscular physicality and mute cool of the ‘70s; the efficiency and the gaudy aesthetic of the ‘80s and ‘90s; and in its hero shaped by formative tragedy, even includes some of the comic book sensibility of the new century. It also feels like the greatest Grand Theft Auto movie never made. (If only Baby could learn from GTA that sometimes the best way to evade the cops is to stay still until the heat is off.)
Elgort is charming and tragic in a way that he totally wasn’t in The Fault in Our Stars, and he has a great chemistry with James, who pulls off blue collar Georgian with effortless aplomb. In supporting roles, Spacey brings gravitas and grades of grey to his deadpan mobster, while Foxx is genuinely funny and menacing.
But Hamm is the real psychotic of the troupe. Unlike Bats, Buddy comes in the guise of a friend, before finally actualising his rage and cruelty. It’s disappointing that the final showdown descends into a mindless macho wrestle, but the storytelling is movingly redeemed in the epilogue.
As ever, Wright is constantly imaginative in deploying his action beats and setpieces. For him, it’s not enough to give us a scuzzy warehouse gun deal, so he delivers it as if a group of bankers are being presented with a fine dining experience. Wright gleefully toys with our expectations throughout, whether it means building to the ultimate car chase, only to show us a foot race; giving us musical intros we think we know but we don’t; or inverting the mentor role by making the kid the carer.
A very welcome stem of morality runs through the movie. It is made abundantly – perhaps excessively – clear that Baby is a boy with a good heart, a million miles from the French Connection-type antihero. Yet, ever the optimist, Wright’s fable is as much a reflection of the countercultural mood of its time as any film from the Nixon era. He is right-on when he proposes that real heroism in the modern age is in decency, accountability and humility – an implicit indictment, perhaps, of today’s prevailing political bleakness.
What a rush this movie is, and what a work of authorship. Employing style in the service of soulfulness, Baby Driver is like Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive shot through with the sensibility of a Hollywood musical. It’s absolutely an Edgar Wright joint and it’s an absolute joy, and if it isn’t on my end-of-year best-of list then I’ll eat my driving gloves.
Baby Driver is out in cinemas on 28th June 2017.
- 6/22/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Author: Jo-Ann Titmarsh
Fatih Akin has had a directorial trajectory that oscillates between the compelling and raw Head-On to the less successful Armenian genocide movie The Cut via the joys of Soul Kitchen. In the Fade sees Akin in his native Hamburg tackling racism and the burgeoning far right extremism.
The film opens with Nuri Sekerci (Numan Acar), wearing a white suit and black shirt reminiscent of Tony Manero, is heading out of his prison cell and into marriage with Katja (Diane Kruger). The jostling and joshing inmates cheering him on his way is a joy. From here we jump ahead a few years and see the two happily ensconced in a beautiful home with a lovely six-year-old son Rocco. Nuri has a legitimate business and Katja is a stay-at-home mum. But when a bomb explodes and kills her family, we wonder how legitimate Nuri was and where all the money came from.
Fatih Akin has had a directorial trajectory that oscillates between the compelling and raw Head-On to the less successful Armenian genocide movie The Cut via the joys of Soul Kitchen. In the Fade sees Akin in his native Hamburg tackling racism and the burgeoning far right extremism.
The film opens with Nuri Sekerci (Numan Acar), wearing a white suit and black shirt reminiscent of Tony Manero, is heading out of his prison cell and into marriage with Katja (Diane Kruger). The jostling and joshing inmates cheering him on his way is a joy. From here we jump ahead a few years and see the two happily ensconced in a beautiful home with a lovely six-year-old son Rocco. Nuri has a legitimate business and Katja is a stay-at-home mum. But when a bomb explodes and kills her family, we wonder how legitimate Nuri was and where all the money came from.
- 5/26/2017
- by Jo-Ann Titmarsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Robert Keeling Apr 25, 2017
Saluting the movie characters who make an impression, the minute they appear on the screen...
One thing that unites all of cinema’s most iconic characters is that they were able to make a memorable first impression. Whether it’s bursting onto the scene in a flurry of noise or slowly skulking their way into shot, there’s a fine art to ensuring a character makes an instant impact on screen. An iconic entrance is not just about a momentary impact however, it can also emphasise a character’s importance and help to cement their influence over the rest of the movie.
See related Westworld episode 10 review: The Bicameral Mind Westworld episode 9 review: The Well-Tempered Clavier
There are any number of contributory factors that can be blended together in order to make an entrance truly memorable. These include the accompanying music, the choice of camera shot, the...
Saluting the movie characters who make an impression, the minute they appear on the screen...
One thing that unites all of cinema’s most iconic characters is that they were able to make a memorable first impression. Whether it’s bursting onto the scene in a flurry of noise or slowly skulking their way into shot, there’s a fine art to ensuring a character makes an instant impact on screen. An iconic entrance is not just about a momentary impact however, it can also emphasise a character’s importance and help to cement their influence over the rest of the movie.
See related Westworld episode 10 review: The Bicameral Mind Westworld episode 9 review: The Well-Tempered Clavier
There are any number of contributory factors that can be blended together in order to make an entrance truly memorable. These include the accompanying music, the choice of camera shot, the...
- 4/16/2017
- Den of Geek
The iconic filmmaker will receive the Writers Guild Of America, West’s 2017 Laurel Award for screenwriting achievement in recognition of his body of work.
Stone, whose latest film Snowden has earned plaudits, will be honoured at the Guild’s awards show in Beverly Hills on February 19.
“Oliver Stone may be our most committed screenwriter, using an unparalleled sense of conflict and drama to define the past half century,” said Wgaw president Howard A. Rodman. “Stone’s Vietnam trilogy – Platoon, Born On The Fourth Of July, Heaven & Earth– not only illuminated the war, but made us face its consequences.
“His unofficial and extraordinary history of the 1960s and 1970s – from JFK and The Doors through Nixon and Wall Street – wove a coherent narrative from incoherent facts. His dialogue is always memorable: think of Gordon Gekko’s ‘greed is good,’ or Tony Manero’s 182 ‘fucks’ in Scarface.
“But even Stone’s most amoral characters are, in the end...
Stone, whose latest film Snowden has earned plaudits, will be honoured at the Guild’s awards show in Beverly Hills on February 19.
“Oliver Stone may be our most committed screenwriter, using an unparalleled sense of conflict and drama to define the past half century,” said Wgaw president Howard A. Rodman. “Stone’s Vietnam trilogy – Platoon, Born On The Fourth Of July, Heaven & Earth– not only illuminated the war, but made us face its consequences.
“His unofficial and extraordinary history of the 1960s and 1970s – from JFK and The Doors through Nixon and Wall Street – wove a coherent narrative from incoherent facts. His dialogue is always memorable: think of Gordon Gekko’s ‘greed is good,’ or Tony Manero’s 182 ‘fucks’ in Scarface.
“But even Stone’s most amoral characters are, in the end...
- 12/15/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
From blockbusters like Saturday Night Fever to obscurities such as Derek Jarman shooting a night in a London club, a New York film festival hits the floor
Titled after Donna Summer’s deliciously suggestive dance floor hit from 1979, Dim All the Lights: Disco and the Movies is a tightly curated repertory programme of disco-inspired cinema running at New York’s Metrograph from 5 to 11 August.
This thematically and stylistically wide-ranging collection of films reaches well above and beyond the widespread perception of the disco scene as a gaudy, lycra-slathered vessel for peppy escapism to explore its complicated relationship to gender, race, sexuality and memory. That’s not to say it ignores disco’s main draw: the music. Whether it’s Summer’s unbound performance of Last Dance in the La-set rarity Thank God its Friday (1978), or John Travolta, as white-suited jiver Tony Manero, tearing it up to the Bee Gees’ Stayin...
Titled after Donna Summer’s deliciously suggestive dance floor hit from 1979, Dim All the Lights: Disco and the Movies is a tightly curated repertory programme of disco-inspired cinema running at New York’s Metrograph from 5 to 11 August.
This thematically and stylistically wide-ranging collection of films reaches well above and beyond the widespread perception of the disco scene as a gaudy, lycra-slathered vessel for peppy escapism to explore its complicated relationship to gender, race, sexuality and memory. That’s not to say it ignores disco’s main draw: the music. Whether it’s Summer’s unbound performance of Last Dance in the La-set rarity Thank God its Friday (1978), or John Travolta, as white-suited jiver Tony Manero, tearing it up to the Bee Gees’ Stayin...
- 8/5/2016
- by Ashley Clark
- The Guardian - Film News
From Star Wars to RoboCop, this mash-up of every club scene in a movie ever is amazing.
Cinema's greatest badasses – including Darth Vader, Scarface and Blade – are united under one roof at the appropriately-titled Hell's Club, all thanks to a brilliant short film which uses computer-generated footage.
Only in Hell's Club can you find jedis Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker searching for Boogie Nights' Rollergirl – although it looks like Anakin has caught the eye of Saturday Night Fever's Tony Manero.
It's also risky business when two versions of Tom Cruise come face-to-face on the dancefloor and a pair of Al Pacinos square off.
Watch closely and you'll also spot international man of mystery Austin Powers, the club-hopping Roxbury Guys, The Terminator and even that smooth criminal Michael Jackson – just to name a few.
If you're itching to get into Hell's Club, you better book ahead. It looks crowded!
This amazing...
Cinema's greatest badasses – including Darth Vader, Scarface and Blade – are united under one roof at the appropriately-titled Hell's Club, all thanks to a brilliant short film which uses computer-generated footage.
Only in Hell's Club can you find jedis Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker searching for Boogie Nights' Rollergirl – although it looks like Anakin has caught the eye of Saturday Night Fever's Tony Manero.
It's also risky business when two versions of Tom Cruise come face-to-face on the dancefloor and a pair of Al Pacinos square off.
Watch closely and you'll also spot international man of mystery Austin Powers, the club-hopping Roxbury Guys, The Terminator and even that smooth criminal Michael Jackson – just to name a few.
If you're itching to get into Hell's Club, you better book ahead. It looks crowded!
This amazing...
- 9/4/2015
- Digital Spy
Tony Manero--of Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group's Ateg 2015 Asian touring production of Saturday Night Fever Snf, which is based on John Badham's '70s landmark film of the same name--would have succumbed to the evil oblivion of his own fever had it not been for one simple--yet pivotal--plot deviation. The inevitable loss that awaited him is not alien but one all too familiar to all those coming of age--and it is through recognizing this evil that he realizes, it is better not to struggle against it but to just flow with it.
- 7/26/2015
- by Rocky Christopher Fajardo
- BroadwayWorld.com
There's nothing like a good dance flick to bring people together. Catchy tunes, sweet moves, and the inevitable romance that follows have made for entertaining and touching stories since the earliest days of cinema. Whether you’re a professional dancer or the owner of two left feet, here are 20 fun and inspiring dance films to get you moving this summer! “Shall We Dance”This 1937 dance love story tells the tale of ballet dancer Peter P. Peters (Fred Astaire) and his passionate pursuit of tap dancer Linda Keene (Ginger Rogers). With a score by George Gershwin and plentiful dance numbers in numerous styles, it’s a can’t-miss classic for actors and dancers alike. “The Red Shoes”Loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name, this 1948 classic follows a talented ballerina as she chooses between the love of her composer husband and the artistic power of a jealous director.
- 5/26/2015
- backstage.com
Jimmy Fallon's Lip Sync Battle, a Spike spinoff of The Tonight Show's wildly popular segment where celebrities mime along to popular hits, premiered Thursday night with an epic showdown between Fallon and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. At stake: The championship Lsb belt.
The Rock, fresh off his fantastic turn as SNL host, opened things up with a spirited, albeit ridiculous, rendition of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Up," which Fallon followed with an unexpected choice: Harry Belafonte's calypso classic "Jump in the Line" (Aka the song that closes Beetlejuice). However,...
The Rock, fresh off his fantastic turn as SNL host, opened things up with a spirited, albeit ridiculous, rendition of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Up," which Fallon followed with an unexpected choice: Harry Belafonte's calypso classic "Jump in the Line" (Aka the song that closes Beetlejuice). However,...
- 4/3/2015
- Rollingstone.com
Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group, Ten Bridges Media Corp., London's Robert Stigwood Organisation, and New York's Tara Rubin Casting, announced yesterday, March 19, that New York-based actors Brandon Rubendall 'Spider-man Turn Off The Dark,' 'Broadway Bares Rock Hard' and Jenna Rubaii 'American Idiot,' 'Fifty Four Forever' will star as Tony Manero originally played by John Travolta in the film adaptation and Stephanie Mangano, respectively, in the 2015 Asian Tour of the hit West End and Broadway musical Saturday Night Fever.
- 3/20/2015
- by Erickson Dela Cruz
- BroadwayWorld.com
What do we know about San Diego, California? SeaWorld & Shamu. But wait, that’s not all! The San Diego Latino Film Festival is back with its 22 nd edition and they went all kindsa crazy. New venue, new vibe and jam packed with the best Latino film has to offer. As one of the last Latino film festivals still standing they really made a point to accentuate the spectrum of filmmakers coming out of Latin America and the Us. San Diego Latino has always been a favorite festival of mine as they run on community love and deserve to be celebrated. So, what happens when you abandon Chilenos, Peruanos, Mexicanos, Domincanos, Argentinos y Venezolanos on a deserted island and only allow them one book, an album, a film and a companion from the movies? Read on.
Bernardo Quesney - "Desastres Naturales" (Chile)
Book: The Cement Garden (Ian McEwan). I don´t know if this is my favorite book but it was very important in my adolescence. I felt very close to the main character. Loved by my friends and hated by our parents.
Film: "El Angel Exterminador" by Luis Buñuel. Buñuel is the film director that I want to imitate. I think he is perfect - his sense of humor, his Mexican films. Nothing is "normal" in his cinema. When I read his memoirs I felt that I knew him.
Album: Love in C Minor – Cerrone. Uff! Cerrone is the soundtrack of my everyday walk. It´s simply marvelous. When I put Cerrone in my bedroom I start to dance like John Travolta as Tony Manero. Naked or with boxers.
Companion: Raul Peralta from "Tony Manero." This is a character I feel respects life. It’s so amazing that Raul knows every phrase of that movie. Being Chilean and imitating something from a distant culture is a representation of the Chilean culture. Our nation is an imitation. It’s like we need role models.
Guillermo Zouain - "On the Road, Somewhere" (Algún lugar) (Dominican Republic)
Film: When people ask me what my favorite film is I usually tend to go for "Jaws," "Seven Samurai"or "The Royal Tenenbaums." In this case however I would have to choose "The Breakfast Club," John Hughes is a genius and this movie in particular he guarantees to keep his audience feeling happy, young and rebellious no matter what.
Album: It would be Paul Simon’s Graceland. I think surviving is all about the mood and keeping it happy in my deserted island. Graceland always makes me smile. I’ve been listening to this album since I was a kid and have never grown tired of it. The whole album has a kinetic feel that exudes, transmits and inspires movement. Paul Simon, by Paul Simon, Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan and Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround part 1 by the Kinks would follow.
Book: Palomar: the Heartbreak Soup Stories, A Love and Rockets Book by Gilbert Hernandez. The good thing about this comic book is that it will give you an array of things: length, many characters, even more details and above all drama and gossip. Palomar’s community of characters will also keep me company while rescue comes. I spent a year reading this book just because I didn’t want it to end.
Companion: I would have to go with Dr. Who, come on the guy speaks all the languages in the universe, has centuries of experience, has been in all kinds of trouble and has a time machine. His sonic screwdriver doesn’t work on wood though.
Enrica Perez - "Climas" (Peru)
Film: If you twist my arm I'd have to pick Almodovar's "Talk to Her." It's not only one of my favorites but the film has also this fate "anything-can-happen" quality and I'm such a drama lover! It would be perfect to be stuck with it on a deserted island. I would never get sick of it.
Album: Without a doubt: The Very Best of Maria Callas. The voice of this woman and the arias of this album on an island… what can I say?… I would wake up in heaven every single day.
Book: I would pick Ernesto Sabato's On Heroes and Tombs. It turned my life upside down when I first read it as a teenager and every time I've read it again I understood something completely different. This book tends to transform and change with time. It's kind of frightening and fantastic at the same time.
Companion: I read in a past quiz someone picked Mary Poppins… damn! That was a good one!!! But to avoid repetition, I would pick Indiana Jones. I mean, c'mon… do I have to explain why?
Gilberto González Penilla - "Los Hamsters" (Mexico)
Film: There are many films I consider favorites but If I had to take just one film to a deserted Island it would be "Cinema Paradiso" for the simple reason it reminds me of the love for cinema and is a film that I can tire of easily.
Album: It would be a Pink Floyd album. That would make me happy and would be perfect for a deserted island to reminisce of my adolescence.
Book: I had it in my mind to choose between a novel or a book of stories, but for the occasion the ideal book would be Notes on Cinematography by Bresson. It’s a book of small notes and thoughts by Bresson. The more I read it I find different meanings of cinema and life itself.
Companion: It would certainly be without doubt Woody Allen. He’s a director whom I admire and surely on a island it would be fun and full of anecdotes.
Humberto Hinojosa – "I Hate Love" (Mexico)
Book: Count of Monte Cristo . It was my first book when I was a child and I have very good memories of it. I enjoy it every time I read it again.
Album: The Beatles Abbey Road. I've heard it my entire life and I have never gotten tired of it. I think it works on an island. I also listen to it with my wife and kids so it would give me hope of rescue.
Companion: Wall-e. I'm sure we would be best friends forever.
Film: If I'm going to be on an island with Wall-e, I'm sure we will have a great time watching "The Party" by Peter Sellers over and over again which would be my choice of a film.
Andrea Herrera Catalá - "Nena, Saludame Al Diego" (Venezuela)
Film: It is an established fact: I can watch "Streets of Fire" five hundred times, and I'll never get bored. Besides, with this film I would bring a little more music to the island!
Companion: Rob Gordon from "High Fidelity." He is quite talkative and he could tell me tons of stories about his life, his girlfriends, the concerts he's been to... He would bring lots of records inside his head, and anecdotes and fun facts about them. It would be like having a never ending music magazine. We would compose new songs, we would do vocal jam sessions and Air Band contests... Until I wanted to kill him, or maybe the other way round.
Book: Cosimo Piovasco, Italo Calvino's Baron in the Trees. I could find new advice from Cosimo every time I read it, on how to live in peace with myself. This book has love, ideology, adventure, battles, joy and sorrow. Everything mixed up in just one big story. I recall I enjoyed a lot when I first read it. I'll let you know how is it going in reading number 1743.
Album: Bocanada by Gustavo Cerati. It is a gem, an amazing record. It is a pleasure listening to it next to the sea, lying under the sun. Cerati deserves a thousand and one tributes.
Emiliano Romero – "Topos" (Argentina)
Book: I feel the need to mention that this list changes permanently, depending entirely on my metamorphosis as a human being. Tengo Miedo Torero (My Tender Matador) by Pedro Lemebel. I would choose this book because it merges social and political reality with fiction. It depicts sensitive characters that have to cope with desires and ideologies. The book makes me want to embrace every single detail of life. It also encourages everyone to defend their right to be whatever they want to be.
Film: "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf" (The Lovers on the Bridge) by Leos Carax. This film manages to transform ugliness and pathos into beauty. Each scene makes me feel the magic of cinema. It really blows people's minds. The actors play their parts in a grotesque-acting style, yet with profound truth.
Album: Transa by Caetano Veloso. This album makes me feel happy. While I listen to it, I realize that the mixture of the different world cultures is really enlightening. Jazz, Rock, Bossa Nova, Tango, lots of talent and Latin blood.
Companion: Cosmo Kramer from TV series "Seinfeld." I would choose him because he always does what he feels. He never censors himself, nor thinks twice about things. He loves what he does and does what he loves to do, always. Besides, I think that the physical work of the actor is absolutely brilliant.
Check out the roster: http://sdlatinofilm.com/2015/
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
Bernardo Quesney - "Desastres Naturales" (Chile)
Book: The Cement Garden (Ian McEwan). I don´t know if this is my favorite book but it was very important in my adolescence. I felt very close to the main character. Loved by my friends and hated by our parents.
Film: "El Angel Exterminador" by Luis Buñuel. Buñuel is the film director that I want to imitate. I think he is perfect - his sense of humor, his Mexican films. Nothing is "normal" in his cinema. When I read his memoirs I felt that I knew him.
Album: Love in C Minor – Cerrone. Uff! Cerrone is the soundtrack of my everyday walk. It´s simply marvelous. When I put Cerrone in my bedroom I start to dance like John Travolta as Tony Manero. Naked or with boxers.
Companion: Raul Peralta from "Tony Manero." This is a character I feel respects life. It’s so amazing that Raul knows every phrase of that movie. Being Chilean and imitating something from a distant culture is a representation of the Chilean culture. Our nation is an imitation. It’s like we need role models.
Guillermo Zouain - "On the Road, Somewhere" (Algún lugar) (Dominican Republic)
Film: When people ask me what my favorite film is I usually tend to go for "Jaws," "Seven Samurai"or "The Royal Tenenbaums." In this case however I would have to choose "The Breakfast Club," John Hughes is a genius and this movie in particular he guarantees to keep his audience feeling happy, young and rebellious no matter what.
Album: It would be Paul Simon’s Graceland. I think surviving is all about the mood and keeping it happy in my deserted island. Graceland always makes me smile. I’ve been listening to this album since I was a kid and have never grown tired of it. The whole album has a kinetic feel that exudes, transmits and inspires movement. Paul Simon, by Paul Simon, Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan and Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround part 1 by the Kinks would follow.
Book: Palomar: the Heartbreak Soup Stories, A Love and Rockets Book by Gilbert Hernandez. The good thing about this comic book is that it will give you an array of things: length, many characters, even more details and above all drama and gossip. Palomar’s community of characters will also keep me company while rescue comes. I spent a year reading this book just because I didn’t want it to end.
Companion: I would have to go with Dr. Who, come on the guy speaks all the languages in the universe, has centuries of experience, has been in all kinds of trouble and has a time machine. His sonic screwdriver doesn’t work on wood though.
Enrica Perez - "Climas" (Peru)
Film: If you twist my arm I'd have to pick Almodovar's "Talk to Her." It's not only one of my favorites but the film has also this fate "anything-can-happen" quality and I'm such a drama lover! It would be perfect to be stuck with it on a deserted island. I would never get sick of it.
Album: Without a doubt: The Very Best of Maria Callas. The voice of this woman and the arias of this album on an island… what can I say?… I would wake up in heaven every single day.
Book: I would pick Ernesto Sabato's On Heroes and Tombs. It turned my life upside down when I first read it as a teenager and every time I've read it again I understood something completely different. This book tends to transform and change with time. It's kind of frightening and fantastic at the same time.
Companion: I read in a past quiz someone picked Mary Poppins… damn! That was a good one!!! But to avoid repetition, I would pick Indiana Jones. I mean, c'mon… do I have to explain why?
Gilberto González Penilla - "Los Hamsters" (Mexico)
Film: There are many films I consider favorites but If I had to take just one film to a deserted Island it would be "Cinema Paradiso" for the simple reason it reminds me of the love for cinema and is a film that I can tire of easily.
Album: It would be a Pink Floyd album. That would make me happy and would be perfect for a deserted island to reminisce of my adolescence.
Book: I had it in my mind to choose between a novel or a book of stories, but for the occasion the ideal book would be Notes on Cinematography by Bresson. It’s a book of small notes and thoughts by Bresson. The more I read it I find different meanings of cinema and life itself.
Companion: It would certainly be without doubt Woody Allen. He’s a director whom I admire and surely on a island it would be fun and full of anecdotes.
Humberto Hinojosa – "I Hate Love" (Mexico)
Book: Count of Monte Cristo . It was my first book when I was a child and I have very good memories of it. I enjoy it every time I read it again.
Album: The Beatles Abbey Road. I've heard it my entire life and I have never gotten tired of it. I think it works on an island. I also listen to it with my wife and kids so it would give me hope of rescue.
Companion: Wall-e. I'm sure we would be best friends forever.
Film: If I'm going to be on an island with Wall-e, I'm sure we will have a great time watching "The Party" by Peter Sellers over and over again which would be my choice of a film.
Andrea Herrera Catalá - "Nena, Saludame Al Diego" (Venezuela)
Film: It is an established fact: I can watch "Streets of Fire" five hundred times, and I'll never get bored. Besides, with this film I would bring a little more music to the island!
Companion: Rob Gordon from "High Fidelity." He is quite talkative and he could tell me tons of stories about his life, his girlfriends, the concerts he's been to... He would bring lots of records inside his head, and anecdotes and fun facts about them. It would be like having a never ending music magazine. We would compose new songs, we would do vocal jam sessions and Air Band contests... Until I wanted to kill him, or maybe the other way round.
Book: Cosimo Piovasco, Italo Calvino's Baron in the Trees. I could find new advice from Cosimo every time I read it, on how to live in peace with myself. This book has love, ideology, adventure, battles, joy and sorrow. Everything mixed up in just one big story. I recall I enjoyed a lot when I first read it. I'll let you know how is it going in reading number 1743.
Album: Bocanada by Gustavo Cerati. It is a gem, an amazing record. It is a pleasure listening to it next to the sea, lying under the sun. Cerati deserves a thousand and one tributes.
Emiliano Romero – "Topos" (Argentina)
Book: I feel the need to mention that this list changes permanently, depending entirely on my metamorphosis as a human being. Tengo Miedo Torero (My Tender Matador) by Pedro Lemebel. I would choose this book because it merges social and political reality with fiction. It depicts sensitive characters that have to cope with desires and ideologies. The book makes me want to embrace every single detail of life. It also encourages everyone to defend their right to be whatever they want to be.
Film: "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf" (The Lovers on the Bridge) by Leos Carax. This film manages to transform ugliness and pathos into beauty. Each scene makes me feel the magic of cinema. It really blows people's minds. The actors play their parts in a grotesque-acting style, yet with profound truth.
Album: Transa by Caetano Veloso. This album makes me feel happy. While I listen to it, I realize that the mixture of the different world cultures is really enlightening. Jazz, Rock, Bossa Nova, Tango, lots of talent and Latin blood.
Companion: Cosmo Kramer from TV series "Seinfeld." I would choose him because he always does what he feels. He never censors himself, nor thinks twice about things. He loves what he does and does what he loves to do, always. Besides, I think that the physical work of the actor is absolutely brilliant.
Check out the roster: http://sdlatinofilm.com/2015/
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
- 3/19/2015
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
A star is born: With the run at the Public Theater sold out and arrival on Broadway this summer assured, the producers of Hamilton unveiled their striking new logo for the show. Striking because Miranda, the unofficial mayor of Washington Heights who wrote the book and hip-hop score and plays the title role of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, looks in the poster a bit like the brother from another borough—Tony Manero in silhouette. Like, 1776 meet 1976. John Travolta…...
- 3/3/2015
- Deadline
Ah, the sweet sound of success! Even more relevant in this movie article is the sweet movement of success. Thus, Shake A Tail Feather: Top Ten Dance Moments in the Movies will highlight some of the top-notch dance steps where moving your feet to the music is essential. Now this does not have to necessary be exclusive to musical-oriented films or dance-related flicks but hey…it could not hurt either, right?
Nevertheless folks, how about we take a free-wheeling look at some of the selections that were memorable (some more than others) spotlighted here in Shake A Tail Feather: Top Ten Dance Moments in the Movies were your finger-snapping, feet-stomping urges overcome you. Perhaps you have your brand of acceptable dance moments not included in this group? Well, let your thoughts be known if you feel compelled to do so. In the meantime, sit back and check out some of...
Nevertheless folks, how about we take a free-wheeling look at some of the selections that were memorable (some more than others) spotlighted here in Shake A Tail Feather: Top Ten Dance Moments in the Movies were your finger-snapping, feet-stomping urges overcome you. Perhaps you have your brand of acceptable dance moments not included in this group? Well, let your thoughts be known if you feel compelled to do so. In the meantime, sit back and check out some of...
- 2/22/2015
- by Frank Ochieng
- SoundOnSight
Dancefloors were never the same after John Travolta became a hip-swivelling, jacket-throwing icon in the movie that launched the disco craze. Thanks to The Bee Gees' timeless soundtrack, you can tell by the way he walks he's a woman's man - but Brooklyn boy Tony Manero's ego takes a pricking when he gets serious with dance partner Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney). But their moves dazzle like a glitterball.
- 10/1/2014
- Sky Movies
As we’ve learned from Beverly Hills Pawn, it’s not easy to find a signature piece of jewelry. After all, it has to be simple enough to be worn everyday but unusual enough that everyone else isn’t wearing. That’s why we decided to give recognition to those characters from the silver screen who really know how to do a signature piece right.
The Glamorous Side of Pawn
New Episode Wednesdays at 9p Et/Pt
Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City
A piece of jewelry that looks as good with a vintage cocktail dress as it does with a t-shirt and jeans is hard to find, but Carrie’s “Carrie” necklace fits the bill. We love it for being affordable and a piece that no one else she knows would wear, but it loses points because it’s a little too literal of an interpretation of the phrase “signature piece.
The Glamorous Side of Pawn
New Episode Wednesdays at 9p Et/Pt
Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City
A piece of jewelry that looks as good with a vintage cocktail dress as it does with a t-shirt and jeans is hard to find, but Carrie’s “Carrie” necklace fits the bill. We love it for being affordable and a piece that no one else she knows would wear, but it loses points because it’s a little too literal of an interpretation of the phrase “signature piece.
- 6/25/2014
- by Mandy McAdoo
- Reelzchannel.com
The end is here – if someone asked you what the most important movie musical of all time was, it would come from this portion of the list. Obviously, it’s all subjective, but it’s difficult to make a case against the influence of these films on our culture and the industry as a whole. So, cue the orchestra and practice your dance moves, because the closing number is here.
courtesy of rowthree.com
10. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Directed by John Badham
Signature Song: “Stayin’ Alive” (http://youtu.be/Fa9n7GirhsI)
After making a name for himself with TV’s “Welcome Back Kotter,” John Travolta became a star with 1977′s cultural landmark Saturday Night Fever, a dance musical where Travolta plays Tony Manero, a young man who works a dead-end job, but spends his weekends as the king of the dance floor at a Brooklyn disco. The soundtrack, which was...
courtesy of rowthree.com
10. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Directed by John Badham
Signature Song: “Stayin’ Alive” (http://youtu.be/Fa9n7GirhsI)
After making a name for himself with TV’s “Welcome Back Kotter,” John Travolta became a star with 1977′s cultural landmark Saturday Night Fever, a dance musical where Travolta plays Tony Manero, a young man who works a dead-end job, but spends his weekends as the king of the dance floor at a Brooklyn disco. The soundtrack, which was...
- 5/26/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
The “International Indian Film Academy Awards” (Iifa), also known as the “Bollywood Oscars”, was visited by one iconic star in particular.
Saturday Night Fever…
Grease Lightning!
You guessed it!
John Travolta!
The song and dance, a famous aspect of the Bollywood film is certainly no stranger to Travolta. John Travolta is indeed the man who mesmerised the world in the late 1970’s through his avatars Tony Manero (Saturday Night Fever; 1977) and Daniel “Danny” Zuko (Grease; 1978).
In fact, Travolta told media present at a press conference on the 25th of April 2014, that simply acting is not enough; he emphasised that when acting is combined with song and dance, it becomes the complete deal:
“I’ve always felt that acting with song and dance (is) … a more complete communication,”
Travolta added that Bollywood could teach Hollywood a lesson or two- indeed a refreshing comment as Bollywood has usually been accused of imitating Hollywood.
Saturday Night Fever…
Grease Lightning!
You guessed it!
John Travolta!
The song and dance, a famous aspect of the Bollywood film is certainly no stranger to Travolta. John Travolta is indeed the man who mesmerised the world in the late 1970’s through his avatars Tony Manero (Saturday Night Fever; 1977) and Daniel “Danny” Zuko (Grease; 1978).
In fact, Travolta told media present at a press conference on the 25th of April 2014, that simply acting is not enough; he emphasised that when acting is combined with song and dance, it becomes the complete deal:
“I’ve always felt that acting with song and dance (is) … a more complete communication,”
Travolta added that Bollywood could teach Hollywood a lesson or two- indeed a refreshing comment as Bollywood has usually been accused of imitating Hollywood.
- 4/29/2014
- by Aashi Gahlot
- Bollyspice
If there’s a moral to the story, or a lesson to be learned from last night’s episode of Supernatural, it’s that humanity isn’t so bad after all! How’d I figure that? Well, Castiel seems to be acclimating, heck, even enjoying it, and unless I’m misreading that last shot we got of Crowley, he’s chasing after his humanity too.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – before we get there we have a very hot special angel to deal with.
We start off with some good news. Kevin has managed to translate the angel tablet! Of course, he’s translated it into a dead language that scholars have attempted to decipher for centuries with no luck but hey, it’s still progress. The collective light bulb goes off, though, and the boys decide to ask Crowley for help, figuring he might recognize the “doodles.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – before we get there we have a very hot special angel to deal with.
We start off with some good news. Kevin has managed to translate the angel tablet! Of course, he’s translated it into a dead language that scholars have attempted to decipher for centuries with no luck but hey, it’s still progress. The collective light bulb goes off, though, and the boys decide to ask Crowley for help, figuring he might recognize the “doodles.
- 11/13/2013
- by Arik Littrell
- The Backlot
Some of the greatest musical moments don’t even come from musicals, did you know that? Below you will find a list of some of my favorite random acts of music found in non-musical movies.
You’ve seen such moments in movies like My Best Friends Wedding [watch the scene] where a table of strangers will start singing (and they all know the words obviously). A less annoying example would be in The Big Chill where a group of friends cleans up the kitchen with a little help from The Temptations [watch the scene]. Did you notice that sometimes the music doesn’t even come from a source, it’s just there!
The random parades, dance floor choreography and romantic serenades, it’s just movie magic sometimes. My selection below of Random Acts of Music From Non-Musical Movies are some of my favorites, enjoy and comment or join us on Facebook and Twitter for a chin wag.
You’ve seen such moments in movies like My Best Friends Wedding [watch the scene] where a table of strangers will start singing (and they all know the words obviously). A less annoying example would be in The Big Chill where a group of friends cleans up the kitchen with a little help from The Temptations [watch the scene]. Did you notice that sometimes the music doesn’t even come from a source, it’s just there!
The random parades, dance floor choreography and romantic serenades, it’s just movie magic sometimes. My selection below of Random Acts of Music From Non-Musical Movies are some of my favorites, enjoy and comment or join us on Facebook and Twitter for a chin wag.
- 8/28/2013
- by Graham McMorrow
- City of Films
John Travolta clearly remembers the last time he saw "Saturday Night Fever," mainly because it was hardly a typical situation.
"I always catch a part of it here or there on TV," the enduring star tells Zap2it of the disco-crazy 1977 classic that heralded his big-screen career, "but the last time I saw the whole movie was with Oprah Winfrey. For my 50th birthday, she bought a week on a boat for me and my family, and she took another boat.
"And she said, 'I just want to ask you one thing ... that you will sit with me in a theater and watch "Saturday Night Fever."' That was her favorite movie, so we watched it together in a theater on one of the islands in the Caribbean. That was eight or nine years ago."
About to be seen opposite Robert De Niro when the drama "Killing Season" opens in theaters Friday,...
"I always catch a part of it here or there on TV," the enduring star tells Zap2it of the disco-crazy 1977 classic that heralded his big-screen career, "but the last time I saw the whole movie was with Oprah Winfrey. For my 50th birthday, she bought a week on a boat for me and my family, and she took another boat.
"And she said, 'I just want to ask you one thing ... that you will sit with me in a theater and watch "Saturday Night Fever."' That was her favorite movie, so we watched it together in a theater on one of the islands in the Caribbean. That was eight or nine years ago."
About to be seen opposite Robert De Niro when the drama "Killing Season" opens in theaters Friday,...
- 7/3/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Karlovy Vary – John Travolta says he owed his success as disco king Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever to Robert De Niro, his co-star 37 years later in the action flick Killing Season. During a press conference in Karlovy Vary, the Hollywood star said that De Niro taking his method acting to the extreme by learning to play the saxophone for real in the 1977 musical drama New York, New York had him soon after training to become a real dancer for Saturday Night Fever. “He [De Niro] was setting a trend in the United States for a
read more...
read more...
- 6/29/2013
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...
- 6/28/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Future Cinema is back. Would ya just watch the hair!
Garish three-piece suits, lashings of leopard print leotards and dazzlingly kitsch jumpsuits are just a few of the questionable fashion choices you’ll be greeted with when you step through the doors of Odyssey 2001. With the likes of Daft Punk leading a mini revival of disco at the moment, Future Cinema’s funky seventies-themed Saturday Night Fever evenings couldn’t have come at a better time.
Once again giving London’s East End venue Troxy a dazzling cinematic make-over (a similarly impressive feat was achieved there in February with Casablanca) the aforementioned Brooklyn discothèque weekend hangout for the ridiculously coiffured Tony Manero and his buddies has been brought to vivid life once more. Complete with illuminated flooring for the revellers to strut their stuff (spurred on by an enthusiastic, leather-clad DJ), the atmosphere for the evening had an altogether looser...
Garish three-piece suits, lashings of leopard print leotards and dazzlingly kitsch jumpsuits are just a few of the questionable fashion choices you’ll be greeted with when you step through the doors of Odyssey 2001. With the likes of Daft Punk leading a mini revival of disco at the moment, Future Cinema’s funky seventies-themed Saturday Night Fever evenings couldn’t have come at a better time.
Once again giving London’s East End venue Troxy a dazzling cinematic make-over (a similarly impressive feat was achieved there in February with Casablanca) the aforementioned Brooklyn discothèque weekend hangout for the ridiculously coiffured Tony Manero and his buddies has been brought to vivid life once more. Complete with illuminated flooring for the revellers to strut their stuff (spurred on by an enthusiastic, leather-clad DJ), the atmosphere for the evening had an altogether looser...
- 6/20/2013
- by Adam Lowes
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Actor to receive Crystal Globe at the festival, which will screen his latest film, Killing Season.
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has announced that the 2013 recipient of its Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic contribution to World Cinema will be actor John Travolta.
The star of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction will attend the festival in the Czech Republic to accept the award.
The festival, which runs June 28 to July 6, will also host a gala screening of Travolta’s latest film, Killing Season.
Jiří Bartoška, Kviff President said: “John Travolta is an artist of incredible versatile talent. Aside from extraordinary popularity, he has gained particular recognition within the industry’s professional circles. His contribution to world cinema is unquestionable and we are incredibly honoured to host him at Karlovy Vary 2013 and premiere his latest film.”
Millennium Films’ Killing Season, which Nu Image is handling worldwide, is an action drama from Ghost Rider director [link=nm...
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has announced that the 2013 recipient of its Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic contribution to World Cinema will be actor John Travolta.
The star of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction will attend the festival in the Czech Republic to accept the award.
The festival, which runs June 28 to July 6, will also host a gala screening of Travolta’s latest film, Killing Season.
Jiří Bartoška, Kviff President said: “John Travolta is an artist of incredible versatile talent. Aside from extraordinary popularity, he has gained particular recognition within the industry’s professional circles. His contribution to world cinema is unquestionable and we are incredibly honoured to host him at Karlovy Vary 2013 and premiere his latest film.”
Millennium Films’ Killing Season, which Nu Image is handling worldwide, is an action drama from Ghost Rider director [link=nm...
- 6/18/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Actor to receive Crystal Globe at the festival, which will host the world premiere of his latest film, Killing Season.
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has announced that the 2013 recipient of its Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic contribution to World Cinema will be actor John Travolta.
The star of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction will attend the festival in the Czech Republic to accept the award.
The festival, which runs June 28 to July 6, will also host a gala screening of Travolta’s latest film, Killing Season.
Jiří Bartoška, Kviff President said: “John Travolta is an artist of incredible versatile talent. Aside from extraordinary popularity, he has gained particular recognition within the industry’s professional circles. His contribution to world cinema is unquestionable and we are incredibly honoured to host him at Karlovy Vary 2013 and premiere his latest film.”
Millennium Films’ Killing Season, which Nu Image is handling worldwide, is an action...
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has announced that the 2013 recipient of its Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic contribution to World Cinema will be actor John Travolta.
The star of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction will attend the festival in the Czech Republic to accept the award.
The festival, which runs June 28 to July 6, will also host a gala screening of Travolta’s latest film, Killing Season.
Jiří Bartoška, Kviff President said: “John Travolta is an artist of incredible versatile talent. Aside from extraordinary popularity, he has gained particular recognition within the industry’s professional circles. His contribution to world cinema is unquestionable and we are incredibly honoured to host him at Karlovy Vary 2013 and premiere his latest film.”
Millennium Films’ Killing Season, which Nu Image is handling worldwide, is an action...
- 6/18/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Together at last, the screen titans play two ex-soldiers at cross purposes. Imagine the You're the One That I Want scene from Grease but with Travis Bickle instead of Olivia Newton John
Reading on mobile? Click here to view
Even if you forget any of the terrible films they've made over the course of the last decade, you have to admit that the thought of seeing Robert De Niro and John Travolta onscreen together is still a tiny bit exciting. Imagine: the raw ferocity of Travis Bickle combined with the lithe athleticism of Tony Manero. The unflappable cool of Vincent Vega combined with the ungoverned id of Jake Lamotta. The bloke from The Big Wedding combined with the guy from Old Dogs. Together. At last.
And now it's happening. De Niro and Travolta will soon appear together in a thriller called Killing Season. Imagine the scene between De Niro and Pacino in Heat,...
Reading on mobile? Click here to view
Even if you forget any of the terrible films they've made over the course of the last decade, you have to admit that the thought of seeing Robert De Niro and John Travolta onscreen together is still a tiny bit exciting. Imagine: the raw ferocity of Travis Bickle combined with the lithe athleticism of Tony Manero. The unflappable cool of Vincent Vega combined with the ungoverned id of Jake Lamotta. The bloke from The Big Wedding combined with the guy from Old Dogs. Together. At last.
And now it's happening. De Niro and Travolta will soon appear together in a thriller called Killing Season. Imagine the scene between De Niro and Pacino in Heat,...
- 6/11/2013
- by Stuart Heritage
- The Guardian - Film News
Some six years after first coming down with Saturday Night Fever, disco king Tony Manero (John Travolta) is still dreaming of Broadway stardom while giving dance classes and working in a bar. Sylvester Stallone is not the most obvious choice as director, but he draws inspiration from perspiration and, of course, the The Bee Gees' irresistible tunes. On the dance floor, Travolta is first-rate and Cynthia Rhodes (doing all her own singing and dancing) is more than a match for his moves as his long-suffering girlfriend.
- 4/9/2013
- Sky Movies
While we know him well as Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction,” Danny Zuko in “Grease” and Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever,” how much do we really know about John Travolta…as John Travolta?
On his 59th birthday today, we are counting down facts you might not have known about this actor/dancer/singer. Which fact are you most surprised by? Let us know in the comments section.
Happy birthday John Travolta!
On his 59th birthday today, we are counting down facts you might not have known about this actor/dancer/singer. Which fact are you most surprised by? Let us know in the comments section.
Happy birthday John Travolta!
- 2/18/2013
- by Rebecca Klein
- Huffington Post
We've had the usual rotten start to moviegoing in 2013, but this Friday brings the first truly great film of 2013 in the shape of Pablo Larrain's "No." The third film from Chilean director Pablo Larrain following the excellent "Tony Manero" and "Post Mortem," it again delves into the history of the country during the time when it was ruled by the dictator General Pinochet. But in something of a break from his previous work, the film is a warm and human comedy that follows an advertising executive (Gael García Bernal) who's enlisted to aid the campaign to vote 'No' in the 1988 referendum to keep Pinochet as leader. The film -- shot on video cameras of the time, giving it a unique and brilliant aesthetic -- has won rave reviews since debuting at Cannes last May, with ours calling it "extraordinarily well-made, superbly acted, funny, human, warm, principled and, yes,...
- 2/12/2013
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Today I finally felt like I was hitting my stride. I found a parking place on the street this early Sunday morning and made my 8:30am screening of What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love which takes place in a special school for the mute, deaf and blind in Indonesia. A series of love stories told with a gentleness most easily summarized by one of its characters, Boys love what they see and girls love what they hear. The film is a sweet look — not always innocent — at love inside this special school, told with a narrative style and rhythm dictated by its actors being mostly blind, deaf or mute. Kiril Razlogov, Artistic Director of the Moscow Film Festival, and I had a great long talk about Russia, the new Ministry of Culture and how film fits into its political system and what is happening today with Russian films as we walked to the Glbt annual brunch at the Grub Steak (I can no longer recall who sponsors this I have been going to it for such a long time) I had thought it started at 10am but at 10:30am the line to get in was down the block and no one was going in until 11am, so we made our own party greeting those in line whom we knew. It was great to see Marie from Wolfe Releasing along with her colleague and to hear about the great response they have been getting internationally to their online movies. Kiril and she discussed Russian films and digital delivery. She is still deciding whether to go to Berlin as she is so busy at the home office. I looked for Jenny Olsen whom I always see there if no where else but she was not there yet. We visited with a few other friends and acquaintances and then Kiril and I parted ways as he went to see a film (he's concentrating on seeing the U.S. Films and I'm concentrating on international and particularly Latino and Eastern European films). I went to interview director Sebastian Silva whose Old Cats was in Sundance 2009 and The Maid which won the Dramatic Jury Award here in 2011 and whose film Crystal Fairy so impressed me this year. I will write about this wonderful interview after I have seen the second film he has here, Magic Magic, produced by Frida Torresblanco and Christine Vachon. My discussion after the interview with producer rep and publicist, Stephen Raphael of Required Viewing, who also happens to have been born in Chile, about the film's producers, Fabula, the company of Pablo and Claude Lorrain (No, Tony Manero) and the line producer who also line produced Il Futuro, the Chile-Italian coproduction film I also saw today verged on the weird for the number of coincidences and inter-relationships. The oddest coincidence was that while Stephen was awaiting his two Chilean clients to arrive at Sundance from Santiago, his luggage was lost and they discovered it had been sent mistakenly to Santiago! Between films I went to parties: UCLA / The Wrap party where I did not see Teri Schwartz, Dean of the UCLA film school or Sharon Waxman of The Wrap, Texas Party, but I was unable to squeeze in the Ida cocktail to which Laurie Ann Schag of Netflix and the the Ida Treasurer invited me as I had to run back to the Holiday Village to see The World According to Dick Cheney, a 110 minute life saga of this man who ran our government into the ground as told by himself, a man unable to think of a single fault in his own character when asked the question along with other questions about himself, all of which he could answer with a flawless alacrity – except for that one. He could only conclude that his only fault was not being able to name one. I went to see the Serbian film Circles at the urging of my friend Geno Lechner who played the wife of the protagonist. The fault of this film was in identifying characters 12 years after a horrible incident that took place among the characters which determined the story. I still do not know who was who and yet I understood the relevance of the story very much, especially because I was just in Sarajevo for the Festival and Talent Campus this summer and loved it so very much. This played out the tragedy of a man whose good deed in saving a Muslim cigarette vendor in Croatia during the Serbian Croatia War created circles of greater import like a stone which is dropped in the water. Finally, I changed my mind from seeing Wajma to going with the flow and seeing Escape from Tomorrow which is receiving lots of press because of possible copyright infringement of Walt Disney's IP. This surreal comedy of a man going insane at Disneyland or Disney World left me feeling dizzy and surreal myself. I think it is good as a work of art but without any commercial potential. I think, like the Barbie Doll enactment of the Karen Carpenter Story so many years ago, Sundance may be the only chance for anyone to see this film. With that as my finale for the evening, I drove home feeling disoriented to meet a depressed Harlan who had been unable to procure any tickets for the evening screenings. For having done a full day's work without a flaw, the evening's films and lack thereof left the two of us out of sorts. Oh well, there's always tomorrow, but I'm already undecided about whether to attend Acme PR's inaugural breakfast or go to see The Lifeguard. I've had enough docs on political issues and so will skip 99% The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film. There is always so much to do that no matter what you choose, you wonder if you should be somewhere else; that is the dilemma of these festivals with so many choices! See you tomorrow!
- 1/21/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Completing his triptych of films set during Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule (Tony Manero, Post Mortem), Pablo Larrain’s No examines the inner-machinations of one particularly tricky advertising campaign, as Pinochet’s opposition desperately seeks to expose his horrific human rights abuses. Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal) is the savvy advertising exec tasked with heading up the tricky task, fleeting as he does between confidence, cynicism, fear and self-doubt throughout the tumultuous creative period.
Shot on the U-matic used by TV stations of the period, No is presented in a 4:3 screen ratio, and absolutely won’t look great on Blu-Ray; Larrain’s images, somewhat aptly, are peppered with garish artifacts and trails that only accentuate and further immerse us in the late-80s feel. At once a bizarre and brilliant conceit, Larrain free-wheels between a committed verite style and scenes which are quite obviously camera set-ups,...
Completing his triptych of films set during Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule (Tony Manero, Post Mortem), Pablo Larrain’s No examines the inner-machinations of one particularly tricky advertising campaign, as Pinochet’s opposition desperately seeks to expose his horrific human rights abuses. Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal) is the savvy advertising exec tasked with heading up the tricky task, fleeting as he does between confidence, cynicism, fear and self-doubt throughout the tumultuous creative period.
Shot on the U-matic used by TV stations of the period, No is presented in a 4:3 screen ratio, and absolutely won’t look great on Blu-Ray; Larrain’s images, somewhat aptly, are peppered with garish artifacts and trails that only accentuate and further immerse us in the late-80s feel. At once a bizarre and brilliant conceit, Larrain free-wheels between a committed verite style and scenes which are quite obviously camera set-ups,...
- 10/21/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
The director of A Prophet reveals plans for a musical, a chance encounter with John Landis, and free G&Ts for Python fans
Audio Audiard
French director Jacques Audiard is set to surprise fans by making his next film a musical. The film-maker who, through films such as The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet, has become one of the most exciting talents in world cinema, told me he'd been working on the idea for some years. "Oh yes, it will have big dance numbers, choreography, the whole thing. I have always loved the MGM films and also Jacques Demy – my problem is I don't write lyrics or music, so I have to rely on others." Audiard was at the Lff with Rust and Bone in the official competition, a film featuring a terrific performance by Marion Cotillard and a score by Alexandre Desplat as well as some...
Audio Audiard
French director Jacques Audiard is set to surprise fans by making his next film a musical. The film-maker who, through films such as The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet, has become one of the most exciting talents in world cinema, told me he'd been working on the idea for some years. "Oh yes, it will have big dance numbers, choreography, the whole thing. I have always loved the MGM films and also Jacques Demy – my problem is I don't write lyrics or music, so I have to rely on others." Audiard was at the Lff with Rust and Bone in the official competition, a film featuring a terrific performance by Marion Cotillard and a score by Alexandre Desplat as well as some...
- 10/20/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
San Sebastian is celebrating six decades in the film festival business with the insistence that “60 years is nothing.” In their welcome guide this year, the organizers say: “As far as a film festival is concerned, 60 years shouldn’t be concealed with facelifts, but should be flaunted proudly.” There’s little doubt that the ever-increasing leviathan that is the Toronto International Film Festival is having an effect on any festival close to its dates — and San Sebastian follows hot on its heels. But José Luis Rebordinos’s second edition as director shows this Basque country old lady has plenty of life in her yet, with the program bringing together the cream of Cannes, films fresh from Toronto and plenty of star quality — from the likes of Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon to some of the leading lights of Latin America.
But if the biggest Spanish-speaking film event in the world is...
But if the biggest Spanish-speaking film event in the world is...
- 9/24/2012
- by Amber Wilkinson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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