The Spanish TV station Cuatro recently pranked hotel guests by dressing a young girl up as a spooky character and secretly filming their reactions.
The reactions are great – like a cross between The Shining (1980) and Ring (1998)
Keep an eye out for housekeeping at 1.35 and the final guest at 1.58.
> The Shining and Ring at the IMDb
> More on Cuatro at Wikipedia
Angel Heart (1987) remains of the more underrated films of the late 1980s, and around its US release director Alan Parker gave a lengthy interview about it and his career up to that point.
Adapted from William Hjortsberg‘s novel Falling Angel, it is a dark thriller set during the 1950s about a Brooklyn private eye (Mickey Rourke) hired by a mysterious man (Robert De Niro) to locate a singer.
At the time it divided critics and a rough sex scene ruffled feathers at the MPAA, but over time it has become something of a cult favourite with directors such as Christopher Nolan singing its praises (he has admitted it was an influence on Memento).
The interview was part of a series conducted by John A Gallagher and contains some interesting nuggets of information including:
> Buy Angel Heart on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon UK
> Alan Parker at the IMDb and MUBi
This is the first trailer for Attack the Block, the new horror-comedy directed by Joe Cornish about aliens attacking a council estate in South East London.
Is it just me, or does it seem like a gigantic piss-take of Noel Clarke‘s films?
Attack the Block comes out on in the UK on Friday 13th May
> Official site
> Joe Cornish at the IMDb
NATIONAL RELEASES
The Adjustment Bureau (Universal): Sci-fi drama/thriller based on a Philip K Dick story in which the affair between a New York politician (Matt Damon) and a dancer (Emily Blunt) is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart.
Directed by George Nolfi and co-starring Jon Slattery, Anthony Mackie and Terence Stamp this is a mostly disappointing affair, enlivened only by the two leads and the occasional visual flourish. Audiences will likely be turned off by middling reviews and the fact that it is anything but ‘Bourne Meets Inception’ as the poster promises with a silly quote from Total Film. [Odeon Leicester Square & Nationwide / 15] [Read our full review here]
Rango (Paramount): Animated film about a chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who aspires to be a swashbuckling hero and finds himself in a Western town plagued by bandits and is forced to literally play the role in order to protect it.
Directed by Gore Verbinski it also features the voices of Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina and is produced by Nickelodeon Movies. Early reviews are very positive, which suggests this could be a big hit and an audience favourite. [Nationwide / PG]
Unknown (Optimum Releasing): After the surprise 2008 hit Taken, Liam Neeson stars in another thriller in which he kicks the crap out of dodgy Europeans. This time he plays a man who awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him.
Mixed reviews might hamper the box office slightly but given that this is basically an unofficial sequel to Taken, it should lure in male audiences eager for some undemanding action. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, it co-stars Diane Kruger and January Jones. [Nationwide12A]
Ironclad (Warner Bros.): Medieval action film set in the 13th century about a determined group of Knights who defend Rochester Castle against the tyrannical King John.
Directed by Jonathan English, it stars Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Mackenzie Crook and Kate Mara. It has 18 credited producers, which suggests the financing was a tricky affair. [Nationwide / 15]
The Tempest (Walt Disney): Julie Taymor’s version of Shakespeare’s play reverses the gender of the lead character to Prospera (Helen Mirren) and stars David Strathairn as King Alonzo, Djimon Hounsou as Caliban, and Russell Brand as Trinculo.
Early buzz on this from the festival circuit has been terrible and it is likely to have a short life at the UK box office, before becoming of interest to academics and teachers. [Key Cities / PG]
ALSO OUT
Archipelago (Artificial Eye): Joanna Hogg’s latest film sees middle class people arguing about things on the Isles of Scilly. [Key Cities / 15]
Client 9 (Dogwoof): The latest documentary from Alex Gibney explores the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer, the former New York Attorney General brought down after a scandal involving a prostitute. [Key Cities]
Patagonia (Verve Pictures): The stories of two women travelling are intercut as one goes through Wales, whilst the other is in Argentina. Directed by Marc Evans, it stars Matthew Rhys, Nia Roberts and Duffy, in her acting debut. [Odeon Covent Garden & Key Cities / 15]
Babies (Optimum Releasing): A look at one year in the life of four babies from around the world, from Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco to Tokyo. [Key Cities]
The Insatiable Moon (Blue Dolphin Films): A drama about a self-proclaimed ‘son of god’, directed by Rosemary Riddell.
The African Queen (Park Circus): BFI reissue for the 1951 drama about two missionaries (Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn) in East Africa during World War I. Directed by John Huston.
Eleanor’s Secret (Soda Pictures): French animated film.
> Get local cinema showtimes at Google Movies or FindAnyFilm
> UK DVD & Blu-ray releases for Monday 28th February 2011, including Another Year and Waste Land
An uneven hybrid of drama, romance and sci-fi turns out to be a good deal less than the sum of its parts.
Loosely based on a Philip K. Dick short story called ‘Adjustment Team‘, it involves the chance meeting of a New York politician, David Norris (Matt Damon) and a dancer named Elise (Emily Blunt) as they deal with various mysterious men who have an interest in keeping them apart.
As the film develops we gradually learn more about these shadowy figures, which include Anthony Mackie, John Slattery and Terence Stamp, why they wear Trilby hats and how they mysteriously appear at random.
To say more them would venture too far into spoiler territory but parts of it cover similar ground to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Dark City (1998) and Wings of Desire (1987).
Written and directed by George Nolfi (better known until now as the screenwriter of Ocean’s Twelve) it has an intriguing setup that quickly morphs into a bizarre science-fiction romance.
Despite its problems, there are certain elements which resonate: Damon is highly convincing as an aspiring politician, with scenes of him on the campaign trail featuring expertly woven in cameos from the likes of Mayor Bloomberg, Jon Stewart and James Carville, whilst Blunt makes for a charming romantic foil.
Contemporary New York is also shot in a distinctive way with several real life locations effectively blended into Kevin Thompson’s production design, even though they opted for a drab, wintry feel.
It also deals with some intriguing themes such as fate and the role of chance in our lives and Thomas Newman has a typically polished score with his trademark hanging strings and tasteful electronic flourishes.
Unfortunately the overall film is undermined by a shaky approach to the subject matter as it seems Nolfi was unsure as to what kind of story he was trying to tell.
By playing around with so many different genres, it ends up with an unsatisfactory mix of them: the thrills aren’t exciting enough, the romance is underdeveloped and ultimately the story just doesn’t engage as it should.
The men in suits seem to personify the film’s problems. Crucial to the narrative, they are never satisfactorily explained and their funny hats and flashing notebooks come across as unintentionally funny.
Furthermore, actors who play these mysterious agents, such as John Slattery, Anthony Mackie and Terence Stamp are wasted in one-note roles with lame, expository dialogue. Slattery in particular is a mere clone of his character in Mad Men.
The central concept is also never fully realised on screen. Mostly Nolfi and DP John Toll have gone for a naturalistic look but – apart from some slick use of green screen near the end – there aren’t enough compelling visual ideas, compared to films exploring similar territory like Inception (2010) or The Matrix (1999).
Much of the action is explained away as soon as it happens and the climax to which it builds is underwhelming, to say the least. You know there is a major problem when a key scene feels like a cheap copy from Monster’s Inc (2001).
To be fair, the film deserves credit for trying something different from the usual Hollywood formula (it was funded independently by Media Rights Capital and only distributed by Universal) but Dick’s provocative ideas have been lost in this underwhelming adaptation.
The Adjustment Bureau opens in the UK and the US on Friday 4th March
> Official site
> Reviews of The Adjustment Bureau at Metacritic and MUBi
> More on the Philip K Dick story at Wikipedia
The Documentary Channel has posted a fascinating round table discussion of the Civil Rights movement from 1963.
Hosted by David Schoenbrun of CBS, it took place on that day of March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th 1963. and features James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sidney Poitier.
Brando talks about his awakening and how it will affect other dispossessed minorities, saying the march is:
“one step closer to understanding the human heart”
Heston talks about picketing restaurants in Oklahoma and how he could no longer pay lip service to:
“a cause that is so urgently right in a time that is so urgently now”
When the discussion broadens out to the wider subject of human freedoms around the world, the parallels with recent protests in the Middle East are hard to ignore.
> The Documentary Channel
> Find out more about African-American Civil Rights Movement at Wikipedia
The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival starts next week and more details have emerged of the full program.
Part of a broader annual event that takes in music and interactive, the festivals and conferences take place every spring in Austin, Texas.
The film festival runs relatively independently from the music and tech events, but in recent years it has become a place to watch for breakout films such as Monsters, Tiny Furniture, various Judd Apatow-produced comedies (Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and for being the spiritual home of the mumblecore movement.
This year, some of the films to look out for include:
There are also numerous panels at the Austin Convention Center featuring filmmakers, journalists, bloggers – for more details check out the online schedule.
Here are details of the major film strands:
HEADLINERS
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
MIDNIGHTERS
You can check out other strands at the festival which include: Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal, SXFantastic, Festival Favorites and Special Events.
> SXSW 2011
> Find out more about the history of the festival at Wikipedia
Werner Herzog’s latest documentary is an awe-inspiring 3D exploration of the ancient Chauvet cave in France.
Almost working as a companion piece to Encounters at the End of the World (2007), which explored the vastness exteriors of the South Pole, this film takes an interior look at a truly remarkable place.
The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France was discovered in 1994 and contains paintings and markings dating back thousands of years to the Paleolithic era.
Enter Herzog, a filmmaker with a knack of unearthing the poetic in nature, who became interested in filming inside the carefully preserved caves, which the public are not allowed to enter.
Unlike his documentaries about eccentric individuals (e.g. Grizzly Man or The White Diamond), this is more about a place and the dream-like feelings which it inspires.
Filled with stalactites, pawprints and the bones of extinct animals, the interior of the caves are hypnotic, filled with charcoal drawings which suggest Paleolithic people were practising an early form of visual entertainment, or ‘proto-cinema’ as Herzog calls it.
After receiving special permission from the French government to film inside – albeit with some heavy restrictions – the German director and his small crew used specially modified 3D cameras and lights to capture the extraordinary images inside.
This adds another layer to the project as it becomes about the actual filming, as well as what the images captured might mean, and the crew and their equipment become part of the action, giving the whole thing a vérité feel.
We see Herzog and regular DP Peter Zeitlinger navigate the metal walkways inside the caves and some of the artwork is fascinating, providing glimpses of another era.
As experts talk about what’s inside, this is intercut with footage of academics talking about their findings.
The German auteur brings his probing curiosity to the interviews, discovering that a scientist used to be a circus juggler and also finding some gentle comedy in how hunting with spears might have worked thousands of years ago.
Using graphics and computer models, the film also details the relative flurry of activity that has taken place since the mid-90s as scientists have mapped the dimensions of the cave and the nature of the rock inside.
What prevents the film from being just another nature programme is Herzog’s unique presence, as his distinctive voice and working methods lend a quirky gravity to proceedings.
He seems equally absorbed by the challenges of filming outside and inside the caves, at one point using a prototype remote controlled drone (operated by Jonathan Watts) to capture shots of the local landscape.
For such a veteran director, the use of 3D cameras might seem a radical departure but it is far removed from the CGI spectacle of mainstream features using the format and enhances the claustrophobic beauty of the caves.
When the film ventures outside, the effect is less dramatic although a scene where someone literally pokes a spear towards the camera may suggest Herzog is having a laugh at Hollywood’s current adoption of the format (he has since stated that he will never use 3D again).
The atmosphere is enhanced considerably by Ernst Reijseger‘s score, which fuses strings and choral singing to compelling effect and helps create the sense of awe the film reaches for.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is more restrained than Herzog’s previous documentaries, even though he still crams in a segment involving a radioactive albino crocodile, but the awe-inspiring subject matter and the maverick sensibilities of the director make for a perfect match.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams opens in the UK on March 25th
> Official site
> More reviews and links about Cave of Forgotten Dreams at MUBi
> Find out more about Werner Herzog and the Chauvet Cave at Wikipedia
> Find out what UK cinemas are showing the film at Picturehouse and Find Any Film
> Facebook group
> Details of a live Q&A with Herzog (via satellite) on March 22nd
Twitter reaction to the 83rd Oscars didn’t prove as popular as The Grammys or the Superbowl but there were some surprising trends.
The online social network was gauged last night by the firms Mass Relevance and TweetReach, and Techcrunch posted a data map of what was being said on the popular micro-blogging service.
Unsurprisingly, the most mentioned accounts were @TheAcademy, @JamesFranco (who was busy posting backstage all night long) but people who won such as @Trent_Reznor and @LeeUnkrich also rated highly.
Surprisingly, amongst the most re-tweeted accounts were @TheOnion and @KeithObermann, which suggests online satirical news sites and former MSNBC presenters wield a lot of clout in the online Oscar world.
It is also interesting to note that the tweets spiked when Inside Job won Best Documentary, which could have been because of the reaction to the auto-tune montage sequence, the presence of Oprah Winfrey, the anticipation of Banksy appearing on stage or Charles Ferguson’s comments about Wall Street getting away with criminal activity.
Techcrunch report that the Oscar ceremony didn’t spark anywhere near the same level of interest as comparable televised events like the Superbowl or The Grammys:
Davis told me that the event paled in comparison to the Super Bowl and The Grammy, where TweetReach saw 17,000 tweets in a single minute. In contrast, the spikes topped out at 12,000 at the Oscars.
Twenty Oscar-related terms (e.g. Oscars, #Oscars, Academy) were tracked as the show went out live and there were 1,269,970 tweets, 1,663,458,778 potential impressions, and 388,717 users tweeting.
Here is the data map:
Actor and Oscars co-host James Franco recorded a lot of the backstage action last night on his mobile.
When he came out for the opening with Anne Hathaway, you may have noticed him filming the audience on his phone.
He posted a collection of the photos and videos during the ceremony last night, under the name of Oscars Real Time, and they give an interesting glimpse to what goes on backstage at a big TV event like the Oscars.
Video Intro:
Getting in a lift before the show:
Walking Backstage (a Spinal Tap ‘Hello Cleveland‘ vibe to this one):
More walking backstage:
Famous last words right before the show begins (‘it might be bad’):
Entering the stage and filming the audience:
Showing Anne Hathaway something funny on his phone backstage:
Backstage with Anne Hathaway and Oprah Winfrey:
Backstage in drag whilst David Seidler wins for The King’s Speech:
Walking out on stage with the phone in his pocket whilst he introduces Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey:
Backstage with the head writer of the show Jordan:
Laughing backstage with Anne Hathaway:
‘What am I doing?’:
Posing with Billy Crystal and Anne Hathaway:
Backstage whilst Randy Newman plays the song from Toy Story:
‘Are you filming again?’:
Anne Hathaway tells the audience that the nominees have power bars under their seats:
Oscar writer Bruce Villanch backstage:
Florence:
The Best Actor bit with Sandra Bullock:
Anne Hathaway gives him a hand massage (not what it sounds like):
At the airport heading back to college:
> See more Franco photos and videos here
> James Franco at Wikipedia
DVD PICKS
Another Year (Momentum): Mike Leigh’s latest film is a pitch-perfect ensemble piece revolving around the friends and family of an ageing married couple.
Nearing retirement age, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) live in North London and seem genuinely happy as they work, tend to their allotment and play host to an array of characters who come in and out of their lives.
These include: their son Joe (Oliver Maltman), who is still close to them; Mary (Lesley Manville), a needy divorcee with relationship problems; Ken (Peter Wight), an old friend with a taste for food and alcohol; and Katie (Karina Fernandez), a therapist who forms a relationship with Joe.
Each section of the film is titled with a season and as they change, so do the characters to varying degrees as they deal with the stuff of life: love, death, humour, despair, loneliness and friendship.
It follows the familiar Leigh formula of finding drama in lives of distinctive characters in a particular setting and, like his previous films, relies heavily on the actors to make it work.
The good news is that nearly all the cast bring something distinctive to their roles, creating a rich tapestry of emotions and memorable situations.
After opening at Cannes in May, it deservedly garnered great reviews (some of the best of Leigh’s career), although the expected awards nominations didn’t really happen, which is a shame because Lesley Manville gave one of the great performances in recent memory.
Unfortunately, Momentum haven’t done a Blu-ray release for this title (presumably for cost reasons) which is a shame because DP Dick Pope shot it beautifully and captured the everyday world with a keen eye for detail.
Extra features are hard to come by, but presumably feature a trailer and short making of featurette.
> Buy Another Year on DVD at Amazon UK
> Longer review of Another Year
> More reviews of Another Year at Metacritic and MUBi
Waste Land (Entertainment One): Lucy Walker’s inspiring documentary charts the journey of Brazilian artist Vik Muniz who goes back to Brazil to literally create art out of rubbish.
Recruiting garbage pickers from Rio’s largest landfill site he makes re-creations of paintings, and provides a fascinating glimpse into his creative process and the people who join him in his project.
Director Lucy Walker manages to capture the humanity of everyone involved without ever patronising them and the film deservedly received acclaim at Sundance and was Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary.
Again, cost considerations appear to have prevented a Blu-ray release and details of extras are thin on the gound.
> Buy Waste Land on DVD from Amazon UK
> Official Site
> Reviews of Waste Land at Metacritic
ALSO OUT
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) [Blu-ray / with DVD – Double Play]
Battle Royale (Arrow Video) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Bedevilled (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Brighton Rock (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Remastered]
Cronos (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Special Edition]
Cuckoo (Verve Pictures) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Due Date (Warner Home Video) [Blu-ray / + DVD and Digital Copy]
Episodes (2 Entertain) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Pan’s Labyrinth (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Special Edition]
Paranormal Activity 2 (Paramount Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Primal Kaleidoscope (Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Bicycle Thieves (Arrow Video) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Devil’s Backbone (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Special Edition]
The Promise (4DVD) [Blu-ray / Normal]
> UK cinema releases for Friday 25th February 2011
> > The Best DVD & Blu-ray releases of 2010
Here are tonight’s winners:
BEST PICTURE
THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co)
A See-Saw Films and Bedlam Production Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
BEST ACTOR
COLIN FIRTH – THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Company)
BEST ACTRESS
NATALIE PORTMAN – BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight)
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
CHRISTIAN BALE – THE FIGHTER (Paramount)
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MELISSA LEO – THE FIGHTER (Paramount)
BEST ANIMATED PICTURE
TOY STORY 3 (Walt Disney)
BEST DIRECTOR
TOM HOOPER – THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co.)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE KING’S SPEECH, David Seidler (The Weinstein Co)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Aaron Sorkin (Sony Pictures)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Denmark, In a Better World (Sony Pictures Classics) – A Zentropa Production
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Inception (Warner Bros.) – Wally Pfister
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Inside Job (Sony Pictures Classics) – A Representational Pictures Production Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Strangers No More – A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Inception (Warner Bros) – Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) – Production Design: Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) – Colleen Atwood
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
The Wolfman (Universal) Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) – Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment) – A Passion Pictures Australia Production Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
God Of Love – A Luke Matheny Production – Luke Matheny
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Inception (Warner Bros) – Richard King
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Inception (Warner Bros) – Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
As the awards season comes to a close, let’s forget about the campaigning and debate about what would or should win and reserve a special mention for some of tonight’s nominees.
In what has been a strong year these are various people I think deserve special mention, regardless of whether they win tonight.
SPECIAL MENTIONS
Javier Bardem in Biutiful: The most powerful performance of the year was Bardem’s searing portrait of a decent man on the edges of modern Barcelona.
Although the film’s relentless focus on death turned off dweeby critics, Bardem’s acting will be remembered for years to come.
Christopher Nolan for Writing and Directing Inception: The enormous commercial success of Nolan’s career has strangely obscured his very real creative accomplishments. Fashionable contrarians and elederly members of the Academy were turned off by the gorgeous labyrinth that was Inception, mainly because it was ‘too loud’ or ‘too clever for its own good’.
The fact that Nolan (as director) and his veteran editor Lee Smith were snubbed still hints that some Academy members don’t get his films. But for a generation of filmmakers it will be discussed, analysed and appreciated for years to come.
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for editing The Social Network: One of the crucial aspects of Fincher’s drama that makes it work is the phenomenal edit job by Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter.
It might take a couple of viewings to fully appreciate, but the criss-crossing timelines and overall construction of sequences is masterful. Some Academy voters might not have got the film on first viewing but repeated viewings highlight the dazzling, but often understated, work that went into it.
Roger Deakins’ cinematography for True Grit: Although already something of a legend for his amazing body of work, Deakins managed capture the haunting beauty of the west in True Grit whilst providing some indelible images.
Many people think it is his time to be awarded an Oscar and who would begrudge him a statuette this year?
The Visual Effects in Inception: The team at British SFX house Double Negative who worked on Nolan’s film (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, and Peter Bebb) deserve a lot of credit for helping build convincing dreamscapes through live action and CGI.
The inventive blend of real locations, stuntwork and CGI were stunning and in the hotel fight sequence, limbo city and the overturning of Paris have set a new standard for effects work at this level.
The score for The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross: One of the most startling and arresting scores in recent memory was this wonderfully discordant electronic score. The way in which the dialogue driven opening scene gives way to the unsettling title sequence is one of the most memorable film transitions of the year.
Just a few minutes later the urgency of the Face Smash sequence is powered by an unforgettable frenzy of beats and noise. In some ways the score to the film is what gives the film it’s unique flavour, with no cliched strings or cliched tracks from the time, it gives the story a distinct and original feel.
The Sounds of Inception: People always get confused between sound mixing and sound editing. To simplify, editing involves how the parts are assembled, whilst mixing is about the whole soundscape is put together.
It is a crucial and often undervalued aspect of movies and in the case of Inception, Richard King did an incredible job of recreating the sounds of all the different dream levels, which involve trains, guns, explosions, punches, car chases. The construction of the audio landscape in Inception was one of the great unsung reasons as to why it worked so well.
Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job: The documentary category this year is incredibly strong but Charles Ferguson’s documentary about the financial crisis deserves special mention.
Brilliantly dissecting the way Wall Street has essentially captured a generation of politicians and held society hostage for their own ends, it is a chilling reminder of how the political orthordoxies of the last 30 years have wreaked havoc but largely gone unpunished.
> Full list of Oscar nominations for 2010-11
> Official Oscars site
> 83rd Academy Awards at Wikipedia
> Analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention
Black Swan was the big winner at this year’s Indie Spirit Awards, claiming Best Feature, Best Director, Best Female Lead and Best Cinematography beating out the hotly tipped Winter’s Bone.
The show highlights independent films produced for under $20 million, and the list of full winners are below.
BEST FEATURE
Black Swan
BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronfosky, “Black Swan”
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Get Low
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Daddy Longlegs
BEST SCREENPLAY
“The Kids Are All Right”
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
“Tiny Furniture”
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
BEST MALE LEAD
James Franco, “127 Hours”
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Dale Dickey, “Winter’s Bone”
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
John Hawkes, “Winter’s Bone”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through The Gift Shop
BEST FOREIGN FILM
The King’s Speech
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
“Please Give”
PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Anish Savjani (“Meek’s Cutoff”)
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Mike Ott (“Little Rock”)
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Jeff Malmberg (“Marwencol”)
You can watch red carpet coverage of the Indie Spirit Awards via Livestream below.
> Indie Spirit Awards
> Follow the action on Twitter via #spiritawards
Here are my predictions for the 83rd Academy Awards which will take place this Sunday.
This year there appear to be less certainties and the only major category I would bank on would be Best Actor.
The big debate for most of the awards season has been the battle between The King’s Speech and The Social Network: whilst David Fincher’s drama about the creation of Facebook is the superior film, the moving qualities of Tom Hooper’s period piece will probably give it the edge.
However, I would be surprised if the Academy didn’t award David Fincher Best Director over Tom Hooper, even though the latter surprisingly won the DGA Award, which is usually an indicator for the Oscars.
In the major acting categories Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) is a near-certainty and although Natalie Portman (Black Swan) is still the favourite, look out for Annette Benning (The Kids Are Alright) to cause a possible upset.
The supporting acting slots are fiendishly hard to call this year, so I’m going with the obvious front-runners in Christian Bale (The Fighter) and Melissa Leo (The Fighter). However, Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech), Haileee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Helena Bonham-Carter (The King’s Speech) are strong contenders.
In other categories, Inception to seems favourite to nab a few technical awards in visual effects and sound, which will make up for it being criminally overlooked in Direction and Editing.
The Best Documentary category could see Banksy appear on stage if Exit Through The Gift Shop wins. In truth I thing Inside Job will win, but Waste Land and Restrepo are also strong contenders in a very good year for documentaries.
Make sure to check back on Monday, to see how right (or wrong) I was.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS
> Full list of Oscar nominations for 2010-11
> Official Oscars site
> 83rd Academy Awards at Wikipedia
> Analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention
NATIONAL RELEASES
I Am Number Four (Walt Disney): A sci-fi drama aimed at the Twilight demographic about nine alien teens who come to Earth after their planet is destroyed by an enemy species.
Directed by D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye) it stars Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron and Timothy Olyphant. Negative reviews in the US suggest this is a film for undiscerning teenagers. [Apollo West End, Cineworld Shaftsbury Avenue, BFI Imax Waterloo & Nationwide / 12A]
Drive Angry (Lionsgate UK): The latest action film starring Nicolas Cage sees the actor in full-on pay cheque mode (see The Wicker Man remake and Next) as he plays a character who breaks out of Hell (!) so he can stop a cult from sacrificing his infant granddaughter.
Directed by Patrick Lussier and co-starring William Fichnter and Amber Heard, this promises to shamelessly exploit every 3D trick in the book and, if successful, allow Cage buy a few more castles. [Vue West End & Nationwide / 18]
No Strings Attached (Paramount): Romantic comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher as two friends who have sex one morning and make a pact to casual sex with “no strings attached”.
Directed by Ivan Reitman, this seems like more Judd Apatow influenced ‘raunchy’ comedy that only succeeds in embarrassing all concerned. Ironically, it opens in the UK on the weekend when Portamn may win an Oscar for her work in Black Swan. [Vue West End & Nationwide / 15]
The Rite (Warner Bros.): Horror film about a young priest (Colin O’Donoghue) who travels to Rome where goes to study exorcism under the guidance of an elderly Father (Anthony Hopkins).
Directed by Mikael Hafstrom and co-starring Ciaran Hinds and Alice Braga, this has got negative reviews in the US and would appear to be early year nonsense designed for the easily pleased horror fan. [Nationwide / 15]
ALSO OUT
Animal Kingdom (Optimum Releasing): Outstanding Australian crime drama about a young man who joins a Melbourne crime family headed by a sinister matriarch (Jackie Weaver) and the cop (Guy Pearce) who tries to tempt him away.
An astonishing debut feature for David Michôd, it is filled with excellent performances, especially Ben Mendelsohn as a creepily psychotic villain, and the writing, music and visuals are all first class. Optimum will be hoping the strong reviews and festival buzz over the past year will translate into respectable art-house business. [Curzon Soho & Nationwide / 15] [Read our full review here]
Waste Land (Entertainment One): Oscar-nominated documentary that follows Brazilian artist Vik Muniz as he goes back to Rio and recruits garbage pickers from a landfill site to create art out of rubbish.
Directed by Lucy Walker, it is an accessible and inspiring look at an unlikely and fascinating subject. Critical buzz and Oscar recognition could provide a boost to its art-house prospects. [Apollo West End & Key Cities / PG]
Howl (Soda Pictures): The life of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (played by James Franco) is recounted through his Six Gallery debut and the 1957 obscenity trial related to his poem Howl.
Written and directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, it co-stars Jon Hamm and David Strathairn. After opening at Sundance in 2010 it has got middling reviews and may struggle to break out of its arthouse niche. [Soho, Wimbledon Curzon, Notting Hill Gate, Ritzy Brixton & Key Cities / 15]
West Is West (Icon): The long-delayed sequel to East is East (1999), is set four years after that film in 1975 as Father George Khan takes his youngest son, Sajid (now 15) to Pakistan.
Directed by Andy DeEmmony, it stars Aqib Khan, Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Ila Arun and Jimi Mistry. Lack of critical buzz and a general sense of ‘why are they making this now?’ could hamper its commercial prospects. [Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide / 15]
> Get local cinema showtimes at Google Movies or FindAnyFilm
> UK DVD & Blu-ray releases for Monday 21st February 2011, including Raging Bull and All About Eve
Lucy Walker’s inspiring documentary Waste Land explores the work of Brazilian artist Vik Muniz as he creates art with the cooperation of garbage pickers at a landfill site just outside of Rio.
The film portrays their lives and working conditions as well as Muniz’s efforts to help them to gain recognition and better living conditions.
Nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, the soundtrack features many tracks from Moby’s latest album ‘Wait For Me’, and he has announced that he will add this album to his free film music site, www.mobygratis.com, making the full track listing available for all independent film makers to use for free.
You can watch many of the films at the Mobygratis Vimeo channel by clicking here.
Walker has also given the following interviews to PBS and MCN about the film:
Waste Land is out in selected UK cinemas from Friday 26th February
> Vik Muniz at Artsy
> More on Lucy Walker and Vik Muniz at Wikipedia
Soundworks have posted a lengthy interview with John Midgley on the sound of The King’s Speech.
Sound is obviously crucial to the story of the film and in this 30 minute interview the production sound mixer explains how the soundscape of the film was achieved.
Midgley worked on the first three Harry Potter films, Children of Men (2006) and Hotel Rwanda (2004) and was
The King’s Speech marks his second Oscar nomination and he was previously recognised for his work on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999).
> My LFF review of The King’s Speech
> John Midgely at the IMDb
The first image from Terrence Malick’s new film starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams has surfaced online.
It is a basic poster-type shot that has a Days of Heaven vibe to it.
[Click here for the large version]
Just to clarify, this is from his untitled 2012 film and not The Tree of Life, which is due to be released later this year.
The IMDb is currently listing this film as Untitled Terrence Malick Project, although Wikipedia seems to think it is called The Burial.
Last September Rockvill Music Magazine posted photos of a sequence featuring Olga Kurylenko that was shot in Oklahoma.
[Via Hollywood Elsewhere]
> Trailer for The Tree of Life
> IMDb entry for Untitled Terrence Malick Project
A recently released film from the late 1950s demonstrates the possible outcome of a Cold War nuclear strike.
The U.S. Air Force produced it during 1956-1957 at the request of S.A.C. (Strategic Air Command) and it was presuambly intended as a training film to prepare troops for a Doomsday scenario.
Unseen for years, it was only recently made public by the National Security Archive and is from a DVD supplied by the U.S. National Archives’ motion picture unit.
A grim but fascinating document of the Cold War, it feels like the kind of film Stanley Kubrick would have wanted to see in his research for Dr Strangelove (1964).
It says a lot about the era when the death of 60,000,000 citizens is described as a ‘success’.
You can view the complete film here.
> More about the Cold War at Wikipedia
> Download or watch the film at the Internet Archive
> The National Security Archive
> Read the Air Force Descriptive Index Card
A superbly crafted Australian crime drama filled with excellent performances marks a stunning debut feature for director David Michôd.
Set in Melbourne, and loosely based on real events, it tells the story of Joshua Cody (James Frecheville), a teenager who joins a crime family headed by his grandmother, Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (Jacki Weaver).
We gradually realise that his new suburban home is a snake pit of illegality featuring a sinister eldest son Pope (Ben Mendelsohn), his business partner Baz (Joel Edgerton), the livewire drug dealer Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) and the quiet Darren (Luke Ford).
When a local police officer (Guy Pearce) engaged in a lengthy battle with the family tries to tempt Joshua to help him bring down the Cody family, things start to escalate.
Skilfully avoiding crime movie clichés, Animal Kingdom has a distinctive, brooding menace that you rarely see in modern cinema, let alone the crime genre.
This is a claustrophobic and unpredictable world in which hardly anyone can be trusted and where slow burning tensions instantly explode.
Interestingly, the focus is kept mostly on the Cody clan and the police form a shadowy background presence, popping up like eagles snatching eggs from the family nest.
It works more as a riveting character study than a conventional crime film and features some brilliant ensemble acting: Frecheville is quietly brilliant as the protagonist; Weaver is wonderfully charismatic as the Lady Macbeth matriarch and Mendelsohn is hypnotic as one of the creepiest villains in recent film history.
Michôd must be given huge credit for the fact that this is a crime movie with no obvious influences. At times it appears to be channelling Michael Mann and Michael Haneke, but it has its own unique flavour.
Part of what makes the film so effective is that terror can lurk in the most everyday places, so the audience – like the protagonist – is always kept on edge and doesn’t quite know who to trust.
One scene in which a car reverses out of a suburban garage is masterfully wrought with dread and tension.
The confident, widescreen visuals by DP Adam Arkapaw are highly effective, contrasting the shadowy, interior worlds of bungalows and offices with the harsh exterior light of Southern Australia.
A distinctive score by Antony Partos adds to the atmosphere of dread and overall Michôd has crafted one of the most accomplished films to come out of Australia in recent years.
> Official site
> Reviews of Animal Kingdom at Metacritic and MUBi
> David Michôd at the IMDb
Apocalypse Now appears to be getting a UK Blu-ray release on June 13th.
New artwork and details have surfaced over at Blu-ray.com and it would appear that Optimum are basically releasing the same 3-disc set that came out in the US last October.
If that is the case then the extras will be:
> Apocalypse Now at Wikipedia and IMDb
> Details of the US Blu-ray of Apocalypse Now
DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS
Raging Bull (20th Century Fox Home Ent.): Martin Scorsese’s classic 1980 biopic of Jake La Motta is a brilliant study of a flawed man in a ruthless profession.
In the lead role Robert De Niro gives one of the greatest screen performances in cinema history and Scorsese pulls out all the stops with stunning contributions by cinematographer Michael Chapman and editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
A word of warning though, as this is essentially the same Blu-ray that came out in February 2009, featuring the same HD transfer and lossless audio track, but with four new featurettes on the bonus materials.
If you don’t own the film, it is an essential purchase – but if you do, I’m not sure if the added extras are enough to justify buying it again. [Read the full review here]
All About Eve (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment): The classic 1950 film about Broadway betrayal, is the story of an aspiring actress named Eve (Anne Baxter) who gradually usurps her idol Margo Channing (Bette Davies) and disrupts the lives of Margo’s director boyfriend (Gary Merrill), her playwright (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife (Celeste Holm).
Only the cynical drama critic (George Sanders) sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and pattern of deceit. Thelma Ritter and Marilyn Monroe co-star in this brilliantly scripted classic, which won six Academy Awards and received the most nominations (fourteen) in film history.
The film still holds up remarkably well, with the script featuring some sparkling one liners, and the HD transfer is excellent.
Extras are as follows:
ALSO OUT
Airwolf: The Movie (Fabulous Films) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Alpha and Omega (Lionsgate UK) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Burke and Hare (EV) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Cyrus (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Despicable Me (Universal Pictures) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Dinosaurs – Giants of Patagonia (BPDP) [Blu-ray / with 3D Version]
Game of Death (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Normal]
High Hopes (Fabulous Films) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Human Planet (2 Entertain) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Operation Endgame (Anchor Bay Entertainment UK) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Primeval: The Complete Series 4 (2 Entertain) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Rain Man (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Sympathy for the Devil (Fabulous Films) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Buddy Holly Story (Fabulous Films) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Vamp (Arrow Video) [Blu-ray / Normal]
When Saturday Comes (Fabulous Films) [Blu-ray / Normal]
With Blockbuster in serious difficulties, this infographic explains how Netflix became the dominant home entertainment company.
Raging Bull (20th Century Fox Home Ent.): Martin Scorsese’s classic 1980 biopic of Jake La Motta is a brilliant study of a flawed man in a ruthless profession.
In the lead role Robert De Niro gives one of the greatest screen performances in cinema history and Scorsese pulls out all the stops with stunning contributions by cinematographer Michael Chapman and editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
A word of warning though, as this is essentially the same Blu-ray that came out in February 2009, featuring the same HD transfer and lossless audio track, but with four new featurettes on the bonus materials.
If you don’t own the film, it is an essential purchase – but if you do, I’m not sure if the added extras are enough to justify buying it again.
The extras for this 30th Anniversary Edition are as follows:
New Material
Previously Released Features
> Buy Raging Bull on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon UK
> Find out more about Raging Bull at Wikipedia
This 42-minute documentary explores the making of the famous 1969 western and is narrated by director George Roy Hill.
Although it is a lot rougher than the slick promotional EPKs used today, it features a lot of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage.
George Roy Hill is wonderfully open and frank about various aspects of the production, including:
His final line of commentary is priceless:
“I have now spent exactly a year and three months on this film and at this point I don’t know how it is going to be received. I think it’s a good film, I think the guys are great in it, and I think the relationships work. It was a helluva lot of hard work doing it …and if the audiences don’t dig it I think I’ll go out of my fu*king mind”
The documentary is interesting as it was made before the film became a huge box-office success and the highest grossing film of 1969.
It was also important for a young David Fincher, who explained why in a 2009 Guardian interview:
“The eureka moment was when I saw a behind-the-scenes making-of about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was kind of a shabby EPK that had been cobbled together, but it was narrated by the director, George Roy Hill. And it was the first time I’d ever conceived that films didn’t happen in real time. I was about seven years old, and I thought, “What a cool job.” You get to go on location, have trained horses and blow up trains and hang out with Katharine Ross. That seemed like a pretty good gig”
> Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at Wikipedia
> George Roy Hill at the IMDb
> William Goldman on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
NATIONAL RELEASES
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (Paramount): A 3D documentary about the teen pop sensation features footage of performances from his 2010 world tour and includes home videos of Bieber as a young child.
Directed by Jon Chu, it also features Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Jaden Smith. The hordes of young fans (or ‘Beliebers’) are likely to make this a financial success and some surprisingly strong reviews are going to provide some degree of comfort for parents dreading the thought of watching it alongside screaming kids. [Nationwide / U]
Big Momma’s: Like Father, Like Son (20th Century Fox): Martin Lawrence reprises his role as an FBI agent who disguises himself in drag for a third time.
Directed by John Whitesell and co-starring Brandon T. Jackson, this is going to get scathing reviews but its very existence confirms the appetite for lame slapstick. [Nationwide / PG]
Inside Job (Sony Pictures): One of the most important documentaries in years explores the deeply troubling relationship between financial and political elites which triggered the global economic crisis.
Narrated by Matt Damon, it includes several highly revealing interviews and manages to clearly explain the underlying causes of how Wall Street persuaded successive governments to turn a blind eye to their practices. Nominated for an Oscar, it should do solid arthouse business on the back of great reviews and word of mouth. [Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide / 12A] [Read the full review here and listen to our interview with director Charles Ferguson here]
ALSO OUT
Confessions (Third Window Films): This startling Japanese drama is the story of a teacher (Takako Matsu) who reveals that her daughter was killed by two pupils in her class and explores the consequences of her revenge as we see the aftermath through a series of first-person narratives.
Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima and co-starring Yoshino Kimura and Masaki Okada it is similar in style and substance to films like Oldboy (2004) although has its own peculiar charms and qualities, which have helped it get nominated for the Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. A brief arthouse run will probably create some buzz before the DVD and Blu-ray release in April. [ICA, Ritzy, Genesis & Key Cities / 15]
Day for Night (BFI): A re-issue of the Francois Truffaut film about the making of a film, stars Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud. [BFI Southbank, Filmhouse Edinburgh & Key Cities]
> Get local cinema showtimes at Google Movies or FindAnyFilm
> UK DVD & Blu-ray releases for Monday 14th February 2011, including The Social Network and The Illusionist
Soundworks have a new video showing how the Oscar nominated sound design of Unstoppable was done.
The action thriller, directed by Tony Scott, has been nominated for Best Sound Editing and here Mark P. Stoeckinger and his team describe how they achieved the soundscape of the film.
In what is the most unusual awards campaign in years, if not ever, more Banksy murals have cropped up in Hollywood as the renegade street artist hopes to get Oscar attention for his documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop.
> The bizarre viral video ‘Exit Through The Pet Shop’
> Buy Exit Through The Gift Shop on Blu-ray or DVD
Following a crowdsourced campaign on Kickstarter, the City of Detroit will erect a Robocop statue.
If you have seen the film, it paints a bleak depiction of a dystopian Detroit where crime is so out of control (ring any bells?) the privatised police force have to ressurect a barely alive police officer and transform him into a super-human cyborg.
The campaign began last week when someone suggested on Twitter to the city’s mayor (the wonderfully named Dave Bing) that a statue of the character from Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film was needed.
When Mayor Bing, or someone working for him, tweeted back an internet campaign gathered steam via a Facebook group and Kickstarter (a site used to raise small donations online) was used to realise the dream of casting a big metal Robocop in the city.
The organisers recently said:
The financial goal? $50,000, which was reached today. It took just a week to raise that money, thanks in part to a big donation from Pete Hottelet at Omni Consumer Products Corporation (yeah, that’s right) and more than 1700 other people who pledged cash.
And here is the latest update on Kickstarter:
We’ve reached the $50,000 goal with the help of many many supporters and a very generous contribution from Pete Hottelet at www.omniconsumerproductscorporation.com, but you can still contribute, so please keep backing the project. All the reward levels still stand, and we’re currently discussing how to branch this project and fundraising into bigger and bigger things with a better and better impact on Detroit. Thank you, everybody! Wow.
Now all they have to do is build the statue, which might not be as easy as they initally thought:
None of us have ever made a giant solid metal permanent sculpture before. It turns out to be a pretty expensive process (who would have thought?), but not too much for the world to fund. After talking to numerous sculptors and metal workers, the current game plan is this: We can take a relatively small figure of RoboCop (conceivably even an action figure), have it 3D scanned by lasers (cool!) and scale its form to create a light-weight model of any size we’d like, which can then be used to pour and cast liquid metal. Casey V. Westbrook and crew are currently leading the charge to create a weatherized 7 foot tall iron statue.
What next? A statue of ED-209?
> Kickstarter page for the campaign
> More about Robocop and Detroit at Wikipedia
The BBC have released a lot of their audio and visual archives online and it includes a treasure trove of interviews with Hollywood legends.
The scope is pretty breathtaking and includes interviews with icons such as Charlie Chaplin, Rita Hayworth, John Huston, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, James Stewart, Ingrid Bergman and Katharine Hepburn.
Of particular note are those we don’t often hear on the TV or radio, such as Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford and Boris Karloff.
Here is an index of the current available interviews, which you can listen to by clicking on the relevant links below.
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s-
> BBC Archive and follow them on Twitter
> Photo galleries of stars at the BBC 1930-1950 and 1950-70
> James Bond archive at the BBC
One of the basic rules in filmmaking is the 180 degree rule, which prevents audience confusion.
The rule is a basic guideline which states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.
This video explains it using a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) as an example:
> Other rules in Editing
> Vertigo at Wikipedia
Warner Home Video have announced details of 9-film Stanley Kubrick Blu-ray box-set and a new anniversary edition of A Clockwork Orange (1971) to come out in May.
The collection includes Blu-ray debuts for Lolita (1962) and Barry Lyndon (1975), premium packaging, new bonus features and a special hard cover book.
The 9-film DVD collection features the films and includes 40-page book.
A Clockwork Orange: 40th Anniversary Edition will be a 2-disc affair featuring a new 25 minute documentary.
The good news for Kubrick fans is that Lolita (1962) and Barry Lyndon (1975) will be available for the first time on Blu-ray, whilst the bad news is that you’ll have to shell out for the full set as Warner Bros don’t initially appear to be releasing them as single editions (although I’m sure that will happen at some point).
At the moment these details are for the US only release but it is highly likely it will be the same set for the UK.
Amazon UK has a release date of May 23rd on their site with artwork to be confirmed.
Below are the details in full.
BLU-RAY & DVD COLLECTIONS
Bonus features are included in the Stanley Kubrick: Limited Edition Blu-ray Collection whilst the Stanley Kubrick: The Essential Collection on DVD includes the films only.
Spartacus (1960): This genre-defining epic is the legendary tale of a bold gladiator (Kirk Douglas) who led a triumphant Roman slave revolt. Filmed in glorious Technicolor, the action-packed spectacle won four Academy Awards® including Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Cinematography Costume Design and Art Direction. This is the first time the film has been included in a Warner Bros. Kubrick Collection.
Lolita (1962) *NEW ON BLU-RAY*: Humbert, a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze, his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman’s 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): The cold war satire is a chilling dark comedy about a psychotic Air Force General unleashing an ingenious, foolproof and irrevocable scheme sending bombers to attack Russia, as the U.S. President works with the Soviet premier in a desperate effort to save the world. The film stars Peter Sellers, in multiple roles, George C. Scott, and Sterling Hayden.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Stanley Kubrick’s dazzling, Academy Award®-winning achievement (Special Visual Effects) is an allegorical puzzle on the evolution of man and a compelling drama of man vs. machine. Featuring a stunning meld of music and motion, the film was also Oscar®-nominated for Best Director, Art Direction and Writing. Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) first visits the prehistoric age-ancestry past, then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted space, perhaps even into immortality.
Special Features
Barry Lyndon (1975) *NEW ON BLU-RAY*: Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) is a young, roguish Irishman who’s determined, in any way, to make a life for himself as a wealthy nobleman. Enlisting in the British Army and fighting in Europe’s Seven Years War, Barry deserts, then joins the Prussian army, gets promoted to the rank of a spy, and becomes a pupil to a Chevalier and con artist/gambler. Barry then lies, dupes, duels and seduces his way up the social ladder, entering into a lustful but loveless marriage to a wealthy countess named Lady Lyndon. He takes the name of Barry Lyndon, settles in England with wealth and power beyond his wildest dreams, before eventually falling into ruin.
The Shining (1980): From a script he co-adapted from the Stephen King novel, Kubrick melds vivid performances, menacing settings, dreamlike tracking shots and shock after shock into a milestone of the macabre. The Shining is the director’s epic tale of a man in a snowbound hotel descending into murderous delusions. In a signature role, Jack Nicholson (“Heeeere’s Johnny!”) stars as Jack Torrance, who’s come to the elegant, isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd).
Special Features:
Full Metal Jacket (1987): A superb ensemble falls in for Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant saga about the Vietnam War and the dehumanizing process that turns people into trained killers. The scathing indictment of a film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Joker (Matthew Modine), Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin), Gomer (Vincent D’Onofrio), Eightball (Dorian Harewood) and Cowboy (Arliss Howard) are some of the Marine recruits experiencing boot-camp hell under the punishing command of the foul-mouthed Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermy). The action is savage, the story unsparing, and the dialogue is spiked with scathing humor.
Special Features:
Eyes Wide Shut (1999): Kubrick’s daring and controversial last film is a bracing psychosexual journey through a haunting dreamscape, a riveting suspense tale and a career milestone for stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Cruise plays a doctor who plunges into an erotic foray that threatens his marriage – and may ensnare him in a murder mystery – after his wife’s (Kidman) admission of sexual longings. As the story sweeps from doubt and fear to self-discovery and reconciliation, Kubrick orchestrates it with masterful flourishes. His graceful tracking shots, rich colors and startling images are some of the bravura traits that show Kubrick as a filmmaker for the ages.
Special Features:
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The 40th Anniversary Blu-ray features the following:
Disc 1
Disc 2
> Stanley Kubrick at Wikipedia and MUBi
> 2004 Guardian Article on Kubrick’s Boxes
One of the most impressive elements of The Social Network was the visual effects that allowed one actor to play twins.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were the twin brothers who claimed that Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) stole their idea for Facebook.
However, director David Fincher had a problem when he couldn’t find a pair of twins that matched the real world Harvard rowers.
So, a solution was hatched where a combination of visual effects and another fill-in actor (Josh Pence) was used to create the illusion.
A visual effects team from Lola (a company that specialises in human face and body manipulation) essentially painted a digital version of Hammer’s face on to Pence’s.
This video shows how they did it:
> Detailed explanation of the process at FX Guide
> Buy The Social Network on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon UK
This Saturday Night Live spoof of British gangster movies starring Bill Hader, Russell Brand and Fred Armisen hits all the right notes.
A fake trailer for a film called Don’ You Go Rounin’ Roun to Re Ro it nails the gloomy cliches, thick dialects and general air of naffness that surrounds the genre.
Compare it to the actual trailers of recent crap like Bonded by Blood (2010) and Rise of the Footsoldier (2007) and you’ll get an idea of how spot on it is: warehouse shootings, cockney aggression and overblown acting are all par for the course.
> Saturday Night Live
> Possibly the worst British gangster film ever
This week sees the UK release of Inside Job, a documentary which examines the global financial crisis.
Directed by Charles Ferguson it explores the deeply troubling relationship between financial and political elites which triggered the current recession.
Opening with a startling prologue about how Iceland’s economy was ruined, it sets up in microcosm the wider story of how, over a period of 30 years, successive governments have allowed large financial institutions to inflate an economic system until it eventually burst in the autumn of 2008.
One of the most important documentaries in years, it was the most critically acclaimed film at the Cannes film festival last May and has been nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar.
I spoke with director Charles Ferguson and producer Audrey Marrs at the London Film Festvial last October and we discussed how they made the film and the issues it raises.
You can listen to the interview by clicking here:
Or here:
[audio:http://filmdetail.receptionmedia.com/Charles_Ferguson_on_Inside_Job.mp3]You can also download our interview podcast via iTunes by clicking here.
Inside Job opens in selected UK cinemas from Friday 18th February
> Download this interview as an MP3 file
> Full Inside Job review from the LFF
> Official site
> Detailed press notes for the film (essential reading)
> Reviews of the film at Cannes from MUBi and Metacritic
> Get local cinema listings for the film via Google or FindAnyFilm
In 1962 François Truffaut carried out a series of extensive interviews with Alfred Hitchcock at his offices in Universal Studios.
Recorded to audio tape, the content was eventually edited down into Truffaut’s famous book Hitchcock.
A landmark meeting of two great directors, the conversations cover Hitchcock’s life and career in great detail as they discuss films such as Blackmail (1929), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1939), Rebecca (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Birds (1963), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960).
Truffaut did not speak much English, so he hired Helen Scott of the French Film Office in New York to act as the translator for the sessions.
The half hour sessions were subsequently broadcast on French radio and in 2006 Tom Sutpen started posting audio files on his blog ‘If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats‘.
HIGHLIGHTS
FULL LENGTH AUDIO
You can listen to the 25 parts individually below (just click on the relevant links to download as single tracks):
PART 1: Childhood through to his early years in the film industry (26 mins) [MP3]
PART 2: Mountain Eagle through to the end of the silent era (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 3: Blackmail through to a discussion about American audiences (26 mins) [MP3]
PART 4: Rich and Strange through to realism in films (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 5: The 39 Steps through to plausibility in film and film critics (28 mins) [MP3]
PART 6: Secret Agent and Sabotage (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 7: Young and Innocent and The Lady Vanishes (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 8: Final years in Britain through to his move to America (28 mins) [MP3]
PART 9: Rebecca (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 10: Discussion about Hollywood through to Notorious (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 11: Mr and Mrs Smith through to Suspicion (26 mins) [MP3]
PART 12: Saboteur through to Shadow of a Doubt (26 mins) [MP3]
PART 13: Lifeboat through to Spellbound (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 14: Notorious through to The Paradine Case (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 15: Rope (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 16: Rope and Under Capricorn (26 mins) [MP3]
PART 17: Stage Fright through to Strangers on a Train (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 18: Strangers on a Train through to I Confess (28 mins) [MP3]
PART 19: Notorious through to a discussion about suspense (27 mins) [Mp3]
PART 20: Initial discussion about the The Birds through to Rear Window (27 mins) [Mp3]
PART 21: The Wrong Man through to Vertigo (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 22: North by Northwest through to Psycho (26 mins) [MP3]
PART 23: Psycho (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 24: The Birds (27 mins) [MP3]
PART 25: Psycho through to characterisation in films (27 mins) [Mp3]
> Find out more about Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut at Wikipedia
> Buy Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut from Amazon UK
BAFTA have posted a series of backstage interviews from last nights awards, including backstage chats with Colin Firth, Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Aaron Sorkin and Sir Christopher Lee.
N.B. The sound in some of these clips isn’t exactly awards worthy as Edith Bowman’s microphone doesn’t appear to be working properly.
Just click on the following links:
DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): The story of the creation of Facebook and the subsequent legal battles between founders Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), Eduardo Severin (Andrew Garfield) and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake).
Directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, it is one of the outsatanding films of the past year and comes with an array of in-depth features. [Read the full review here]
The Illusionist (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment): Director Sylvian Chomet’s latest animated film is based on an unproduced script by Jacques Tati and is about a struggling magician in 1950s Scotland who meets a young woman convinced he is a real magician.
Superbly crafted, it features some wonderful visuals, including a gorgeous period recreation of Edinburgh. With hardly any dialogue it plays like a silent movie and the elegiac tone is incredibly moving. (Sadly there is no Blu-ray release in the UK just yet).
