In a packed edition of Horror Highlights, we have a clip from Crystal Eyes, details on the To Your Last Death Blu-ray release, info on The Year Without Halloween book, the short film We Got a Monkey's Paw, details on Joe Bob Brigg's drive-in event, and the trailer for Chop Chop!
Watch a Clip from Crystal Eyes: September's Arrow Video Channel offerings bolster the already great lineup with an eclectic mix of titles that include Crystal Eyes, Graveyard of Honor, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and more. Here's a look at a clip from Crystal Eyes and more details on Arrow's September lineup:
"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the September slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including the Argentinian giallo homage Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's Graveyard of Honor, and Miike's 2002 remake. The stylish slasher Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's classic crime thriller Graveyard of Honor...
Watch a Clip from Crystal Eyes: September's Arrow Video Channel offerings bolster the already great lineup with an eclectic mix of titles that include Crystal Eyes, Graveyard of Honor, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and more. Here's a look at a clip from Crystal Eyes and more details on Arrow's September lineup:
"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the September slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including the Argentinian giallo homage Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's Graveyard of Honor, and Miike's 2002 remake. The stylish slasher Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's classic crime thriller Graveyard of Honor...
- 9/21/2020
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Danny Huston in Ivansxtc will be available on Blu-ray September 29th From Arrow Video
Danny Huston, Peter Weller and Lisa Enos star in this biting satire on the behind-the-scenes of the Hollywood film industry, with all its drink and drug-fueled excess, from director Bernard Rose.
Opening with the death of its titular protagonist, ivansxtc goes back in time to chart the final days of hot-shot Tinseltown agent Ivan Beckman (Huston) and his fast-paced, wheeler-dealer lifestyle, which will ultimately lead him to an early grave after a shock cancer diagnosis.
Loosely based on Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and featuring a searing performance by Danny Huston at its core and wonderfully sleazy turn from Peter Weller as Ivan s biggest client, ivansxtc is a powerful meditation on life, death and morality set against the glitzy backdrop of La La Land.
Special Edition Contents
High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p...
Danny Huston, Peter Weller and Lisa Enos star in this biting satire on the behind-the-scenes of the Hollywood film industry, with all its drink and drug-fueled excess, from director Bernard Rose.
Opening with the death of its titular protagonist, ivansxtc goes back in time to chart the final days of hot-shot Tinseltown agent Ivan Beckman (Huston) and his fast-paced, wheeler-dealer lifestyle, which will ultimately lead him to an early grave after a shock cancer diagnosis.
Loosely based on Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and featuring a searing performance by Danny Huston at its core and wonderfully sleazy turn from Peter Weller as Ivan s biggest client, ivansxtc is a powerful meditation on life, death and morality set against the glitzy backdrop of La La Land.
Special Edition Contents
High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p...
- 9/4/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
September's Arrow Video Channel offerings bolster the already great lineup with an eclectic mix of titles that include Crystal Eyes, Graveyard of Honor, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and more:
"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the September slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including the Argentinian giallo homage Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's Graveyard of Honor, and Miike's 2002 remake. The stylish slasher Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's classic crime thriller Graveyard of Honor and Miike's reimagining lead a selection of cult classics, hidden gems and iconic horror films coming to the Arrow Video Channel September 1st.
Crystal Eyes, Graveyard of Honor (1975), and Graveyard of Honor (2002) will be available September 1st on the Arrow Video Channel in the US and the UK. Additional new titles available September 1st include Ivansxtc (UK/US), The Holy Mountain (UK), Fando Y Lis (UK), El Topo (UK), and Return of the Killer...
"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the September slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including the Argentinian giallo homage Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's Graveyard of Honor, and Miike's 2002 remake. The stylish slasher Crystal Eyes, Fukasaku's classic crime thriller Graveyard of Honor and Miike's reimagining lead a selection of cult classics, hidden gems and iconic horror films coming to the Arrow Video Channel September 1st.
Crystal Eyes, Graveyard of Honor (1975), and Graveyard of Honor (2002) will be available September 1st on the Arrow Video Channel in the US and the UK. Additional new titles available September 1st include Ivansxtc (UK/US), The Holy Mountain (UK), Fando Y Lis (UK), El Topo (UK), and Return of the Killer...
- 8/26/2020
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
September will be another banner month for Arrow Video! This fall sees a 25th anniversary edition of Kevin Smith's slacker classic, Mallrats (Us/Can), a box set of both Fukasaku Kinji and Takashi Miike's versions of Graveyard of Honor (Us/Can/UK), a special edition of Miquel Llansó's Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway, and Bernard Rose's (Candyman) 2000 indie drama, Ivansxtc (Us/Can/UK). Check out the details and some gorgeous artwork below!...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/26/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Notes from Hollywoodland: Rose’s Heady, Meaningful Tolstoy Update
“It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up,” realizes the titular protagonist of Leo Tolstoy’s famed novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Considered a masterpiece of Russian literature and published in 1886, director Bernard Rose takes the text and transposes it to the turn of the following century in Hollywood with his 2000 film Ivans xtc., an undertaking that sounds tedious but actually makes for quite an apt and inspired adaptation. One hardly needs to be readily familiar with Tolstoy’s novella to appreciate or understand what the film is ultimately up to, but doing so provides an alternative subtext in approaching what Rose is doing—specifically that one of humankind’s most enduring tragedies is to embrace the superficialities of existence instead of building a meaningful life, just as as Tolstoy’s character...
“It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up,” realizes the titular protagonist of Leo Tolstoy’s famed novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Considered a masterpiece of Russian literature and published in 1886, director Bernard Rose takes the text and transposes it to the turn of the following century in Hollywood with his 2000 film Ivans xtc., an undertaking that sounds tedious but actually makes for quite an apt and inspired adaptation. One hardly needs to be readily familiar with Tolstoy’s novella to appreciate or understand what the film is ultimately up to, but doing so provides an alternative subtext in approaching what Rose is doing—specifically that one of humankind’s most enduring tragedies is to embrace the superficialities of existence instead of building a meaningful life, just as as Tolstoy’s character...
- 8/15/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Us actor/director to curate the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation award and present new feature Tigers alongside director Danis Tanovic.
Danny Huston has been named the curator for the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Katrin Cartlidge Foundation and will present this years award.
The actor and director, currently in post production on The Last Photograph, will present the Foundation’s annual bursary to “a new voice in cinema” on Aug 21 in Sarajevo.
Previous curators include Charlotte Rampling, Emily Watson, Jeremy Irons, Danny Glover and Stellan Skarsgard, directors Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Simon McBurney and Danis Tanović, as well as John Lyons, Annie Nocenti and photographer Juergen Teller.
Huston will also present Danis Tanović’s Tigers, with the Director and Producers. The film will be screened within the Open Air Programme at the festival’s largest venue.
His other recent work in front of the camera includes Marc Forster’s “All I See Is You”, “Monster”, directed by Bernard Rose, “[link...
Danny Huston has been named the curator for the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Katrin Cartlidge Foundation and will present this years award.
The actor and director, currently in post production on The Last Photograph, will present the Foundation’s annual bursary to “a new voice in cinema” on Aug 21 in Sarajevo.
Previous curators include Charlotte Rampling, Emily Watson, Jeremy Irons, Danny Glover and Stellan Skarsgard, directors Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Simon McBurney and Danis Tanović, as well as John Lyons, Annie Nocenti and photographer Juergen Teller.
Huston will also present Danis Tanović’s Tigers, with the Director and Producers. The film will be screened within the Open Air Programme at the festival’s largest venue.
His other recent work in front of the camera includes Marc Forster’s “All I See Is You”, “Monster”, directed by Bernard Rose, “[link...
- 8/6/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Film House Germany (Fhg) announced today that Alchemy has secured the Us rights to horror legend Bernard Rose’s (Candyman, Ivansxtc) Frankenstein, from Summerstorm Entertainment following it’s highly acclaimed World Premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival where it was awarded the grand prize, the Golden Raven Award.
Frankenstein is produced by Gabriela Bacher for Summerstorm, Heidi Jo Markel for Eclectic Pictures, Jennifer Holliday Morrison for Bad Badger, and Summmerstorm’s parent company, Film House Germany’s Christian Angermayer and Klemens Hallmann. Conor Charles is co-producing for Eclectic Pictures. Avi Lerner is executive producing and Nu Image is handling international sales.
On confirming the sale, producers Gabriela Bacher and Heidi Jo Markel said: ‘Alchemy is the perfect partner to bring this modern take on a timeless story to American audiences. Alchemy’s acquisition is testament to the worldwide demand and hunger for new, contemporary visions and well-crafted filmmaking...
Frankenstein is produced by Gabriela Bacher for Summerstorm, Heidi Jo Markel for Eclectic Pictures, Jennifer Holliday Morrison for Bad Badger, and Summmerstorm’s parent company, Film House Germany’s Christian Angermayer and Klemens Hallmann. Conor Charles is co-producing for Eclectic Pictures. Avi Lerner is executive producing and Nu Image is handling international sales.
On confirming the sale, producers Gabriela Bacher and Heidi Jo Markel said: ‘Alchemy is the perfect partner to bring this modern take on a timeless story to American audiences. Alchemy’s acquisition is testament to the worldwide demand and hunger for new, contemporary visions and well-crafted filmmaking...
- 4/22/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Books and films have been joined at the hip ever since the earliest days of cinema, and adaptations of novels have regularly provided audiences with the classier end of the film spectrum. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
- 11/15/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Bernard Rose's fourth film adaptation of a Leo Tolstoy work has found a distributor in the United States. "2 Jacks" -- starring Sienna Miller and Danny Huston -- has been picked up for release by Breaking Glass Pictures for a fourth quarter of 2013 release. Negotiations began at the Cannes Film Festival for the modern drama based on Tolstoy's short story, "The Two Hussars." Rose previously directed "The Kreutzer Sonata," "Ivansxtc," and a 1997 version of "Anna Karenina" — all based on Tolstoy novels and all featuring the acting talents of Danny Huston. His latest adaptation tells a two-part story of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. Danny Huston plays Jack Hussar, a film director who returns to Los Angeles hoping to raise money for his next film. Along the way, he meets Diana (Sienna Miller) and woos her. The second part of the film picks up years later when Jack Hussar Jr.
- 6/26/2013
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Ape & Essence: Rose’s Latest Another Profound Tolstoy Exercise
Like Branagh’s penchant for bringing Shakespeare to celluloid, British director Bernard Rose has steadily amassed a collection of Tolstoy’s works for several adaptations. His latest, Boxing Day, would seem to cap a quadrilogy of films based on the literary icon’s works all starring Danny Huston (and don’t forget, before Joe Wright’s version last year, Rose had the most recent Anna Karenina with the 1997 Sophie Marceau topliner). This latest, based on Tolstoy’s story “Master and Man,” has been updated to reflect an economic crisis inspired road movie, with capitalism, class issues and Christmas infecting the toxic mix. For the most part, the rather blandly observed scenario is kept sharply afloat by the two lead performers playing broken, beat down bastards.
Pretentious and pompous Basil (Danny Huston) flies from Los Angeles to Denver, leaving behind his wife...
Like Branagh’s penchant for bringing Shakespeare to celluloid, British director Bernard Rose has steadily amassed a collection of Tolstoy’s works for several adaptations. His latest, Boxing Day, would seem to cap a quadrilogy of films based on the literary icon’s works all starring Danny Huston (and don’t forget, before Joe Wright’s version last year, Rose had the most recent Anna Karenina with the 1997 Sophie Marceau topliner). This latest, based on Tolstoy’s story “Master and Man,” has been updated to reflect an economic crisis inspired road movie, with capitalism, class issues and Christmas infecting the toxic mix. For the most part, the rather blandly observed scenario is kept sharply afloat by the two lead performers playing broken, beat down bastards.
Pretentious and pompous Basil (Danny Huston) flies from Los Angeles to Denver, leaving behind his wife...
- 6/25/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Transplanted Brit writer-director Bernard Rose and Hollywood scion Danny Huston have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship. Casting Huston in "Ivansxtc," a little-seen 2002 success d'estime that in many ways presaged the indie digital age, jump-started the would-be director's career as an actor. Huston keeps coming back for more, because with Rose he winds up doing his best acting. (Trailer below.) So far the two men have collaborated on four unfettered, unsupervised collaborations of micro-budget Leo Tolstoy adaptations, updated to modern La. "Ivansxtc" was the first ("The Death of Ivan Ilitch"), followed by relationship drama "The Kreutzer Sonata," about a wealthy man who falls for a concert pianist, and the upcoming "Boxing Day" ("Master and Man"), produced by Luc Roeg’s Independent and the BFI, which world premiered in Venice last year in advance of a UK late December opening. The well-reviewed film, which seeks U.S. distribution, will make its North American debut on.
- 6/12/2013
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Life Of Pi | West Of Memphis | Pitch Perfect | Boxing Day | Dabangg 2
Life Of Pi (PG)
(Ang Lee, 2012, Us) Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon, Rafe Spall, 127 mins
All that was missing from Yann Martel's 2001 novel was the visuals, and boy does this provide them. In Lee's hands the tall tale of an Indian boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger is credible, captivating and, above all, ravishing to behold. It's rare to see big special effects seriously applied to something so non-generic, and the result is a one-off story teeming with life, colour and action – from gripping shipwreck action to close-up tiger terror to hallucinogenic ocean wonders.
West Of Memphis (15)
(Amy Berg, 2012, Nz/Us) 147 mins
Viewers of the Paradise Lost trilogy will already be familiar with the case of the West Memphis Three: teens accused, then convicted, of killing three young boys in a supposed Satanic ritual in 1993 despite highly questionable evidence.
Life Of Pi (PG)
(Ang Lee, 2012, Us) Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon, Rafe Spall, 127 mins
All that was missing from Yann Martel's 2001 novel was the visuals, and boy does this provide them. In Lee's hands the tall tale of an Indian boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger is credible, captivating and, above all, ravishing to behold. It's rare to see big special effects seriously applied to something so non-generic, and the result is a one-off story teeming with life, colour and action – from gripping shipwreck action to close-up tiger terror to hallucinogenic ocean wonders.
West Of Memphis (15)
(Amy Berg, 2012, Nz/Us) 147 mins
Viewers of the Paradise Lost trilogy will already be familiar with the case of the West Memphis Three: teens accused, then convicted, of killing three young boys in a supposed Satanic ritual in 1993 despite highly questionable evidence.
- 12/22/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Danny Huston taking the lead role in a Bernard Rose adaptation of a Leo Tolstoy novel has become something of a familiarity, following on previous projects Ivansxtc (2000) and The Kreutzer Sonata (2008). The pair reunite once more for Boxing Day (2012), based on Tolstoy's Master and Man, as we follow a ruthless proprietor named Basil (Huston) who, alongside his chauffeur Nick (Matthew Jacobs), travels through a blizzard to purchase property. Basil is a conceited property owner, and one who is always looking for a hard bargain, so much so that he ditches his family and ventures out on Boxing Day to search for a cheap woodland estate.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 12/20/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
His Ivansxtc was a searing indictment of Hollywood. Now Bernard Rose has adapted another Tolstoy story – and turned it into an indictment of capitalist America
Ten years ago, Bernard Rose proclaimed that digital technology would change the face of movie-making, and he made a film to prove it. Ivansxtc, released in 2000, wasn't just a calling card for digital cinema: it was also Rose's goodbye card to the industry that had previously shackled him – a scathing critique of Hollywood rendered in a new, raw aesthetic.
Ivansxtc chronicled the final days of a Hollywood agent, played by Danny Huston and based on Rose's real-life agent, Jay Moloney, a cocaine-addicted golden boy who killed himself in 1999, aged 35. Faced with death, Huston consoles himself with drugs and prostitutes, while his colleagues treat his impending exit as an inconvenience and an opportunity. The film is a glorious mix of sleaze and grace, a tragedy and...
Ten years ago, Bernard Rose proclaimed that digital technology would change the face of movie-making, and he made a film to prove it. Ivansxtc, released in 2000, wasn't just a calling card for digital cinema: it was also Rose's goodbye card to the industry that had previously shackled him – a scathing critique of Hollywood rendered in a new, raw aesthetic.
Ivansxtc chronicled the final days of a Hollywood agent, played by Danny Huston and based on Rose's real-life agent, Jay Moloney, a cocaine-addicted golden boy who killed himself in 1999, aged 35. Faced with death, Huston consoles himself with drugs and prostitutes, while his colleagues treat his impending exit as an inconvenience and an opportunity. The film is a glorious mix of sleaze and grace, a tragedy and...
- 12/18/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
By setting much of Tolstoy's masterpiece inside a theatre, Joe Wright both dazzles and distances the viewer
Tom Stoppard, a fluent and sensitive adaptor, has made a distinguished job of carving a workable screenplay from Tolstoy's 950-page novel, and Joe Wright has found a distinctive way of bringing it to the screen with Keira Knightley as Anna, Jude Law as her middle-aged, cuckolded husband, Karenin, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as her dashing lover, Count Vronsky. The last serious attempt to film Anna Karenina was by Bernard Rose in 1997, a lumbering work shot largely on Russian locations in the style of Dr Zhivago, with Sophie Marceau hopelessly inadequate as Anna, James Fox inexpressive as Karenin and Sean Bean virile in a rather unaristocratic way as Vronsky.
Having felt with some justification that he hadn't done justice to this towering masterpiece, Rose subsequently set about making innovative, low-budget versions of lesser Tolstoy fictions.
Tom Stoppard, a fluent and sensitive adaptor, has made a distinguished job of carving a workable screenplay from Tolstoy's 950-page novel, and Joe Wright has found a distinctive way of bringing it to the screen with Keira Knightley as Anna, Jude Law as her middle-aged, cuckolded husband, Karenin, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as her dashing lover, Count Vronsky. The last serious attempt to film Anna Karenina was by Bernard Rose in 1997, a lumbering work shot largely on Russian locations in the style of Dr Zhivago, with Sophie Marceau hopelessly inadequate as Anna, James Fox inexpressive as Karenin and Sean Bean virile in a rather unaristocratic way as Vronsky.
Having felt with some justification that he hadn't done justice to this towering masterpiece, Rose subsequently set about making innovative, low-budget versions of lesser Tolstoy fictions.
- 9/8/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Bernard Rose updates Tolstoy's mysterious tale Master and Man and delivers a shrewd and intimate slow-burner
Here is the latest movie in Bernard Rose's fascinating, ongoing Tolstoy project – sharply intelligent, ingenious and insightful modern-day adaptations of Tolstoy stories, featuring Danny Huston in the leading role. The Death of Ivan Ilych became Ivansxtc in 2000, with Ivan as a hubristic Hollywood agent; The Kreutzer Sonata came out in 2008, a portrait of a toxic marriage in contemporary California. (Rose directed a more straightforwardly conventional Anna Karenina in 1997.) Now Rose has tackled Tolstoy's mysterious and resonant tale Master and Man, from 1895, about a rapacious landowner who journeys to a remote town in a terrible blizzard to purchase a woodland at a bargain price, taking with him a humbly loyal peasant, and ignoring the dangerous weather.
The tale has been turned by Rose into a shrewd and cerebral picture, an intimate slow-burner which does...
Here is the latest movie in Bernard Rose's fascinating, ongoing Tolstoy project – sharply intelligent, ingenious and insightful modern-day adaptations of Tolstoy stories, featuring Danny Huston in the leading role. The Death of Ivan Ilych became Ivansxtc in 2000, with Ivan as a hubristic Hollywood agent; The Kreutzer Sonata came out in 2008, a portrait of a toxic marriage in contemporary California. (Rose directed a more straightforwardly conventional Anna Karenina in 1997.) Now Rose has tackled Tolstoy's mysterious and resonant tale Master and Man, from 1895, about a rapacious landowner who journeys to a remote town in a terrible blizzard to purchase a woodland at a bargain price, taking with him a humbly loyal peasant, and ignoring the dangerous weather.
The tale has been turned by Rose into a shrewd and cerebral picture, an intimate slow-burner which does...
- 9/3/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
This week on Film Weekly, Jason Solomons meets Bernard Rose to discuss Howard Marks and the screen adaptation of his memoir Mr Nice. The British director talks about the thematic links in his films, from horror flick Candyman to lo-fi collaborations with Danny Huston, Ivansxtc and The Kreutzer Sonata.
Jason also talks to Tim Hetherington, winner of the 2007 World Press Photography prize for his images of Us soldiers in Afghanistan. Hetherington has turned his work with Vanity Fair colleague, writer Sebastian Junger into a compelling documentary, Restrepo, about a year with one platoon in the most dangerous valley in Afghanistan.
Xan Brooks pops in to review some of this week's other releases, including the return of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Zac Efron in The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud and bonkers Belgian animation A Town Called Panic.
Jason SolomonsXan BrooksJason Phipps...
Jason also talks to Tim Hetherington, winner of the 2007 World Press Photography prize for his images of Us soldiers in Afghanistan. Hetherington has turned his work with Vanity Fair colleague, writer Sebastian Junger into a compelling documentary, Restrepo, about a year with one platoon in the most dangerous valley in Afghanistan.
Xan Brooks pops in to review some of this week's other releases, including the return of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Zac Efron in The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud and bonkers Belgian animation A Town Called Panic.
Jason SolomonsXan BrooksJason Phipps...
- 4/21/2011
- by Jason Solomons, Xan Brooks, Jason Phipps
- The Guardian - Film News
Peter Weller looks like an android. On the surface he has movie star good looks – tall, blue eyes, square jaw – but examine him closer and you’ll see none of it quite fits. His face is taut and angular, his eyes set deep in his skull and his skin looks like it’s made out of moulded plastic. His voice too is monotone and he reads lines like it’s in his programming. He was made to play Robocop (1987).
As Alex Murphy, the police officer executed by street hoods and then resurrected as a mechanical super cop, he stomps through the streets of Old Detroit like a technological knight in shining armour. “Dead Or Alive,” he utters to criminals in an unemotive, basso voice. “You’Re Coming With Me.”
With his face hidden, Weller learnt to act through his body, training for months with a mime artist and devouring books of robotics.
As Alex Murphy, the police officer executed by street hoods and then resurrected as a mechanical super cop, he stomps through the streets of Old Detroit like a technological knight in shining armour. “Dead Or Alive,” he utters to criminals in an unemotive, basso voice. “You’Re Coming With Me.”
With his face hidden, Weller learnt to act through his body, training for months with a mime artist and devouring books of robotics.
- 3/27/2011
- by Tom Fallows
- Obsessed with Film
Jason Solomons on Sarah Jessica Parker's latest big-screen role, Mr Nice director Bernard Rose's fascination with drugs, and an unexpected outburst at the Screen International awards
Carrie becomes Kate
Sarah Jessica Parker has seen off Nicole Kidman to land the big-screen role of Kate Reddy, heroine of Allison Pearson's 2002 novel I Don't Know How She Does It. Sj, as she always tells me to call her, will be playing Kate as an American because the action has been entirely transposed from the book's London setting to Manhattan. I'm told Sj was handed the role after the book's fans responded negatively to rumours that Kidman was in line to play over-stretched working mum, Kate. The film is being overseen by producer Harvey Weinstein and directed by Douglas McGrath, the urbane director who co-wrote Bullets Over Broadway with Woody Allen and most recently made the "o for the lead?...
Carrie becomes Kate
Sarah Jessica Parker has seen off Nicole Kidman to land the big-screen role of Kate Reddy, heroine of Allison Pearson's 2002 novel I Don't Know How She Does It. Sj, as she always tells me to call her, will be playing Kate as an American because the action has been entirely transposed from the book's London setting to Manhattan. I'm told Sj was handed the role after the book's fans responded negatively to rumours that Kidman was in line to play over-stretched working mum, Kate. The film is being overseen by producer Harvey Weinstein and directed by Douglas McGrath, the urbane director who co-wrote Bullets Over Broadway with Woody Allen and most recently made the "o for the lead?...
- 10/9/2010
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Rhys Ifans was born to play drug trafficker Howard Marks in this amusing if hardly trustworthy biopic, writes Peter Bradshaw
In repose, Rhys Ifans's face seems naturally to settle into a half-smile of insinuation: a "you-know-you-want-me" leer. It's probably entirely appropriate for his latest role – and really, no other casting was possible. He plays Howard Marks, the Oxford-educated Welshman who, chaotically and bizarrely, stumbled into the game of importing hashish from Pakistan to the UK in the early 70s, back in the days when this lucrative and unexplored market was still open to gentleman amateurs.
The movie is based on the tall tales in Marks's 1996 memoir Mr Nice. That title, taken from an alias he once assumed, cheerfully invites us to take seriously the idea that he is, indeed, Mr Nice, that the drugs he was importing were the nice, soft, hippyish ones – distinct from harder substances – and that...
In repose, Rhys Ifans's face seems naturally to settle into a half-smile of insinuation: a "you-know-you-want-me" leer. It's probably entirely appropriate for his latest role – and really, no other casting was possible. He plays Howard Marks, the Oxford-educated Welshman who, chaotically and bizarrely, stumbled into the game of importing hashish from Pakistan to the UK in the early 70s, back in the days when this lucrative and unexplored market was still open to gentleman amateurs.
The movie is based on the tall tales in Marks's 1996 memoir Mr Nice. That title, taken from an alias he once assumed, cheerfully invites us to take seriously the idea that he is, indeed, Mr Nice, that the drugs he was importing were the nice, soft, hippyish ones – distinct from harder substances – and that...
- 10/7/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
As the Edinburgh film festival kicks off, Peter Bradshaw chooses his top 10 movies
The Edinburgh international film festival is now settling nicely into its new slot in June, away from the city's many August festivals. Under artistic director Hannah McGill, the event is consolidating its reputation as the equal of Sundance and SXSW, a place where young film-makers can make a name for themselves, alongside the big hitters and some fascinating retrospective strands. Here are my 10 films to watch out for from next week.
The Illusionist
Dir. Sylvain Chomet
Chomet's animation is based on an unfilmed script by Jacques Tati, with the action transplanted to 1950s Scotland. Accompanied by a starstruck little girl, an over-the-hill magician treks wearily to Edinburgh, where he hopes to find work and an audience for his old-school entertainment. The director will be attending the festival.
My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done?
Dir. Werner Herzog
Herzog's latest project,...
The Edinburgh international film festival is now settling nicely into its new slot in June, away from the city's many August festivals. Under artistic director Hannah McGill, the event is consolidating its reputation as the equal of Sundance and SXSW, a place where young film-makers can make a name for themselves, alongside the big hitters and some fascinating retrospective strands. Here are my 10 films to watch out for from next week.
The Illusionist
Dir. Sylvain Chomet
Chomet's animation is based on an unfilmed script by Jacques Tati, with the action transplanted to 1950s Scotland. Accompanied by a starstruck little girl, an over-the-hill magician treks wearily to Edinburgh, where he hopes to find work and an audience for his old-school entertainment. The director will be attending the festival.
My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done?
Dir. Werner Herzog
Herzog's latest project,...
- 6/10/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Sci-fi gives birth to its very own Smurfs in James Cameron's ponderous epic
What is there left to be said about Avatar? Its record-breaking box-office success has surely vindicated writer-director James Cameron's creative arrogance, making him the auteur of not one but two of the most financially successful movies of all time. As a piece of spectacular cinema entertainment, it undeniably has the "wow" factor, with interludes of impressively verdant digital landscaping giving way to moments of genuinely jaw-dropping sci-fi action. There's plenty here that you simply won't have seen before – most notably an impressively fluid interaction between the real and virtual worlds that rivals Peter Jackson's work in Middle-earth. Nor is the film lacking in bald subtextual substance, with its tail of thuggish humans merrily ploughing down interstellar tree-huggers in the pursuit of "Unobtanium" being variously read as a parable of American imperialism, European colonialism, or...
What is there left to be said about Avatar? Its record-breaking box-office success has surely vindicated writer-director James Cameron's creative arrogance, making him the auteur of not one but two of the most financially successful movies of all time. As a piece of spectacular cinema entertainment, it undeniably has the "wow" factor, with interludes of impressively verdant digital landscaping giving way to moments of genuinely jaw-dropping sci-fi action. There's plenty here that you simply won't have seen before – most notably an impressively fluid interaction between the real and virtual worlds that rivals Peter Jackson's work in Middle-earth. Nor is the film lacking in bald subtextual substance, with its tail of thuggish humans merrily ploughing down interstellar tree-huggers in the pursuit of "Unobtanium" being variously read as a parable of American imperialism, European colonialism, or...
- 4/24/2010
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Green Zone (15)
(Paul Greengrass, 2010, Us/Fra/Spa/UK) Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Khalid Abdalla, Amy Ryan. 115 mins
Hoping to graft his shakycam Bourne aesthetic on to real-world politics, Greengrass wades into the Iraq fray and pulls no punches. Damon plays an honest grunt whose search for Saddam's WMDs turns into a rogue quest for the truth about dodgy Us dealings. Except this isn't the truth – it's a fictionalised version of the real events, which creates some problems. The convincing chaos of post-invasion Iraq is steadily compromised by the action plot mechanics, stranding the pic in no man's land. Still, Greengrass gets to exorcise his demons, as well as exercise his Damon.
Shutter Island (15)
(Martin Scorsese, 2010, Us) Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams. 138 mins
Scorsese tackles this convoluted mystery in the manner befitting a Big Director: with a bloated running time, and an overheated visual style and...
(Paul Greengrass, 2010, Us/Fra/Spa/UK) Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Khalid Abdalla, Amy Ryan. 115 mins
Hoping to graft his shakycam Bourne aesthetic on to real-world politics, Greengrass wades into the Iraq fray and pulls no punches. Damon plays an honest grunt whose search for Saddam's WMDs turns into a rogue quest for the truth about dodgy Us dealings. Except this isn't the truth – it's a fictionalised version of the real events, which creates some problems. The convincing chaos of post-invasion Iraq is steadily compromised by the action plot mechanics, stranding the pic in no man's land. Still, Greengrass gets to exorcise his demons, as well as exercise his Damon.
Shutter Island (15)
(Martin Scorsese, 2010, Us) Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams. 138 mins
Scorsese tackles this convoluted mystery in the manner befitting a Big Director: with a bloated running time, and an overheated visual style and...
- 3/13/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Danny Huston stars in another intelligent film transposing Tolstoy to La. By Peter Bradshaw
British-born director Bernard Rose, known as a horror specialist for his 1992 shocker Candyman, is showing some stunning form with his modern adaptations of Tolstoy. After a conventional account of Anna Karenina, Rose brought off a brilliant version of The Death Of Ivan Ilych in 2000; set in modern Hollywood, and entitled Ivansxtc, it starred Danny Huston as Ivan, the agent and Tinseltown power-player, confronting the awful truth about his approaching death. Now Rose has adapted Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata, again starring Huston, again set in contemporary Los Angeles. The result is bold, brilliant and exhilarating: an intimately horrible, sexually explicit and black-comic portrait of a toxic marriage that is closer to the spirit of the original than any number of costume dramas. It is not merely a study of jealousy and obsession, but a profoundly pessimistic...
British-born director Bernard Rose, known as a horror specialist for his 1992 shocker Candyman, is showing some stunning form with his modern adaptations of Tolstoy. After a conventional account of Anna Karenina, Rose brought off a brilliant version of The Death Of Ivan Ilych in 2000; set in modern Hollywood, and entitled Ivansxtc, it starred Danny Huston as Ivan, the agent and Tinseltown power-player, confronting the awful truth about his approaching death. Now Rose has adapted Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata, again starring Huston, again set in contemporary Los Angeles. The result is bold, brilliant and exhilarating: an intimately horrible, sexually explicit and black-comic portrait of a toxic marriage that is closer to the spirit of the original than any number of costume dramas. It is not merely a study of jealousy and obsession, but a profoundly pessimistic...
- 3/11/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
This week's podcast meets The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Aka Swedish actor Noomi Rapace, talks La and Tolstoy with Danny Huston, and reviews Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island and Paul Greengrass's Green Zone.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Swedish author Stieg Larsson's literary sensation about a crack computer hacker who teams up with a disgraced journalist to solve a 40-year-old murder, has sold over 1m books in the UK alone. Now the film is set to make a star of Noomi Rapace, who plays its sultry, charismatic title character. The actor tells Jason Solomons about transforming herself physically for the role (Thai boxing came in handy) and discusses the new wave of Swedish films breaking out in the wake of Let the Right One In.
Xan Brooks then joins in to run the rule over the week's big releases: the pacy-despite-its-length Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Swedish author Stieg Larsson's literary sensation about a crack computer hacker who teams up with a disgraced journalist to solve a 40-year-old murder, has sold over 1m books in the UK alone. Now the film is set to make a star of Noomi Rapace, who plays its sultry, charismatic title character. The actor tells Jason Solomons about transforming herself physically for the role (Thai boxing came in handy) and discusses the new wave of Swedish films breaking out in the wake of Let the Right One In.
Xan Brooks then joins in to run the rule over the week's big releases: the pacy-despite-its-length Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...
- 3/11/2010
- by Jason Solomons, Iain Chambers, Observer
- The Guardian - Film News
Part of a film dynasty, he's unforgettable on screen, but has never had an acting lesson. Is it all in the genes for John's late-flowering son, asks John Patterson
If you don't already know whose son Danny Huston is, the fastest way to figure it out is to close your eyes and listen to him speak. The words waft towards you on a breathy cloud, lent colour and character by a detectable lifelong smoking habit (no emphysema like the Old Man had, though, not yet). In a faded American accent that sounds as if it's been acquired or borrowed or even half-forgotten in exile. All inflected with an Irishman's love of words-as-song and a bullshitter's devotion to the art of speech. Every so often a story – and they're all well-told, like dad's were – will resolve itself into a generous, wheezy burst of laughter that's like an invitation to intimacy and friendship.
If you don't already know whose son Danny Huston is, the fastest way to figure it out is to close your eyes and listen to him speak. The words waft towards you on a breathy cloud, lent colour and character by a detectable lifelong smoking habit (no emphysema like the Old Man had, though, not yet). In a faded American accent that sounds as if it's been acquired or borrowed or even half-forgotten in exile. All inflected with an Irishman's love of words-as-song and a bullshitter's devotion to the art of speech. Every so often a story – and they're all well-told, like dad's were – will resolve itself into a generous, wheezy burst of laughter that's like an invitation to intimacy and friendship.
- 2/25/2010
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
Film has a really cool interview with Rob. Ive not seen these questions asked before. Enjoy!Film Whats the movie that youve seen the most do you think in your lifetime?Robert Pattinson I go through periods where I just watch the same thing again and again and again. Ive been watching this movie called Ivansxtc. Its a Danny Huston movie. I watched it like 50 times this year.Film Why were you so attracted to that film?Robert Pattinson If you watched it youd understand. It starts off kind of stupid but it ends up being Danny Huston. Its kind of transcendent. He lifts the whole movie. Its like when you just see an actor and theyve got the part of their career and the scene and theyre not messing up. Its an amazing amazing movie. I dont even think you can buy it in America.Film I havent even heard of this one.
- 11/22/2008
- twilightersanonymous.com
By Stephen Saito
Usually when an actor or filmmaker reveals who inspired them in their creation of a character, it's the type of politically correct answer sure to offend no one. Johnny Depp had no problem explaining how he channeled Keith Richards for his role as Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean"; Dustin Hoffman sent up his pal, producer Robert Evans, in "Wag the Dog." But in a business where backbiting is common and screenwriters are urged to "write what you know," it's been a longstanding tradition to say the cruelest things about others under the guise of art. In a summer that will have Tom Cruise applying his considerable cackle to a Sumner Redstone surrogate in "Tropic Thunder" and a manscaping-derelict Bruce Willis doing his meanest Alec Baldwin impression in the adaptation of producer Art Linson's Hollywood tell-all, "What Just Happened?", we thought it was high time...
Usually when an actor or filmmaker reveals who inspired them in their creation of a character, it's the type of politically correct answer sure to offend no one. Johnny Depp had no problem explaining how he channeled Keith Richards for his role as Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean"; Dustin Hoffman sent up his pal, producer Robert Evans, in "Wag the Dog." But in a business where backbiting is common and screenwriters are urged to "write what you know," it's been a longstanding tradition to say the cruelest things about others under the guise of art. In a summer that will have Tom Cruise applying his considerable cackle to a Sumner Redstone surrogate in "Tropic Thunder" and a manscaping-derelict Bruce Willis doing his meanest Alec Baldwin impression in the adaptation of producer Art Linson's Hollywood tell-all, "What Just Happened?", we thought it was high time...
- 7/28/2008
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.