You can approach old classics just like new films, argued participants during Locarno’s Heritage Monday panel.
“I talked to an exhibitor in Paris and they don’t consider repertory cinema to be different from contemporary cinema. They are collapsing both models into one and it’s very interesting,” said K.J. Relth-Miller of the Academy Museum.
Swiss Film Archive director Frédéric Maire noted that they also mix “fresh” films with older titles. “This idea of separating them can be useful for communication, but we try to avoid it. Yesterday, I was watching [Daniel Schmid’s 1974 film] ‘La Paloma’ [at the festival] and it felt modern and new. I don’t want to make these distinctions in terms of cultural perspective,” he said.
Such an approach can be beneficial also when it comes to raising audience’s awareness, argued Film Movement’s Erin Farrell.
“When we talk about ‘heritage films’ in the same breath as our new releases,...
“I talked to an exhibitor in Paris and they don’t consider repertory cinema to be different from contemporary cinema. They are collapsing both models into one and it’s very interesting,” said K.J. Relth-Miller of the Academy Museum.
Swiss Film Archive director Frédéric Maire noted that they also mix “fresh” films with older titles. “This idea of separating them can be useful for communication, but we try to avoid it. Yesterday, I was watching [Daniel Schmid’s 1974 film] ‘La Paloma’ [at the festival] and it felt modern and new. I don’t want to make these distinctions in terms of cultural perspective,” he said.
Such an approach can be beneficial also when it comes to raising audience’s awareness, argued Film Movement’s Erin Farrell.
“When we talk about ‘heritage films’ in the same breath as our new releases,...
- 8/8/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Black Bear’s management arm has signed Danish-American actor Elliott Crosset Hove for representation.
Hove is best known for the well-received Danish/Icelandic feature Godland, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
His lauded performance in the picture earned him Best Male Actor at Denmark’s 2023 Bodil Awards, as well as a Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards.
Hove’s previous feature roles include Rasmus Heisterberg’s 2016 feature film In the Blood, for which Hove was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Bodil Awards, and Hlynur Pálmason’s Winter Brothers, which won him a Danish Robert Award and Best Actor at the Locarno Film Festival. He has also appeared in Journal 64, Before the Frost, Parents and Wildland.
Most recently, Hove starred in Katrine Brocks’ The Great Silence and Simon Jaquemet’s Electric Child, which is currently in post-production, alongside Rila Fukushima.
Hove is best known for the well-received Danish/Icelandic feature Godland, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
His lauded performance in the picture earned him Best Male Actor at Denmark’s 2023 Bodil Awards, as well as a Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards.
Hove’s previous feature roles include Rasmus Heisterberg’s 2016 feature film In the Blood, for which Hove was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Bodil Awards, and Hlynur Pálmason’s Winter Brothers, which won him a Danish Robert Award and Best Actor at the Locarno Film Festival. He has also appeared in Journal 64, Before the Frost, Parents and Wildland.
Most recently, Hove starred in Katrine Brocks’ The Great Silence and Simon Jaquemet’s Electric Child, which is currently in post-production, alongside Rila Fukushima.
- 7/11/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The first titles to be released under the deal will be Cannes 2022 selection Godland.
Scanbox Entertainment has added Aurora Studios as its exclusive Finnish theatrical distribution partner through its distribution subsidiary Cinemanse.
The deal covers all Scanbox titles, both acquisitions (usually made on a pan-Nordic basis) and its in-house productions, which are ramping up.
The collaboration will boost Scanbox’s connections to local productions in Finland while giving Aurora and Cinemanse an expansion of their theatrical slate.
The first titles to be released under the deal will be Cannes 2022 selection Godland by Hlynur Pálmason followed by The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Hettie Macdonald.
Scanbox Entertainment has added Aurora Studios as its exclusive Finnish theatrical distribution partner through its distribution subsidiary Cinemanse.
The deal covers all Scanbox titles, both acquisitions (usually made on a pan-Nordic basis) and its in-house productions, which are ramping up.
The collaboration will boost Scanbox’s connections to local productions in Finland while giving Aurora and Cinemanse an expansion of their theatrical slate.
The first titles to be released under the deal will be Cannes 2022 selection Godland by Hlynur Pálmason followed by The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Hettie Macdonald.
- 2/9/2023
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Monolit Film, the Danish banner behind “The Great Silence,” is developing “Wannabe,” the feature debut of “Bad Bitch” director Patricia Bbaale Bandak, and “After the Sun,” a dystopia based on a short story featured in The New Yorker in 2021.
“Wannabe,” which was pitched at the Nordic Film Market in Goteborg as part of the Discovery program, is inspired by Bbaale Bandak’s own life. The film follows Patricia, a 13 year-old Ugandan refugee who moves into an underprivileged town of Denmark. Over the course of a summer in 1995, Patricia, who is eager to fit in, joins a group of girls to participate in a look-alike music contest launched by a popular kids TV show.
“The story is told through the eyes of this 13 year-old girl and tells her coming of age but it also talks about the brutality of assimilation and the complexity of Danish society,” said Victor Rocha da Cunha,...
“Wannabe,” which was pitched at the Nordic Film Market in Goteborg as part of the Discovery program, is inspired by Bbaale Bandak’s own life. The film follows Patricia, a 13 year-old Ugandan refugee who moves into an underprivileged town of Denmark. Over the course of a summer in 1995, Patricia, who is eager to fit in, joins a group of girls to participate in a look-alike music contest launched by a popular kids TV show.
“The story is told through the eyes of this 13 year-old girl and tells her coming of age but it also talks about the brutality of assimilation and the complexity of Danish society,” said Victor Rocha da Cunha,...
- 2/5/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Festival runs October 12-23.
Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, and Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction are among the international competitions line-up at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival next month.
This year’s competitions include 10 films receiving their North American premiere and 17 getting their US premiere as the entries vie for the festival’s Gold Hugo award in the categories of international feature, international documentary, and new directors.
The festival runs October 12-23. The full international competition line-ups are below.
Playing in International Feature Competition are: The Beasts (Sp-Fr), Rodrigo Sorogoyen, US premiere; Before,...
Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, and Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction are among the international competitions line-up at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival next month.
This year’s competitions include 10 films receiving their North American premiere and 17 getting their US premiere as the entries vie for the festival’s Gold Hugo award in the categories of international feature, international documentary, and new directors.
The festival runs October 12-23. The full international competition line-ups are below.
Playing in International Feature Competition are: The Beasts (Sp-Fr), Rodrigo Sorogoyen, US premiere; Before,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
After several acclaimed shorts, Katrine Brocks’ feature film debut “The Great Silence” (“Den Store Stilhed”) is set to premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival in competition at the New Directors strand.
The film follows Alma who is about to take her vows as a nun in a Catholic convent, when her estranged brother Erik arrives. His presence unearths a tragedy from their past and with the ceremony approaching, Alma is increasingly haunted by resurfacing trauma.
The cast includes Kristine Kujath Thorp (“Ninjababy”), Elliott Crosset Hove (“Godland”) and Karen-Lise Mynster (“C4”).
The film’s central themes stem from Brocks’ upbringing in a Christian community, where Jesus was the ultimate role model.
“With ‘The Great Silence’ I want to explore the existential struggle between the flawed and the flawless, the saint and the sinner and the basic human instinct to hide our ugliest, darkest sides away. Clinging to the light in...
The film follows Alma who is about to take her vows as a nun in a Catholic convent, when her estranged brother Erik arrives. His presence unearths a tragedy from their past and with the ceremony approaching, Alma is increasingly haunted by resurfacing trauma.
The cast includes Kristine Kujath Thorp (“Ninjababy”), Elliott Crosset Hove (“Godland”) and Karen-Lise Mynster (“C4”).
The film’s central themes stem from Brocks’ upbringing in a Christian community, where Jesus was the ultimate role model.
“With ‘The Great Silence’ I want to explore the existential struggle between the flawed and the flawless, the saint and the sinner and the basic human instinct to hide our ugliest, darkest sides away. Clinging to the light in...
- 9/13/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
For many years now Venice has been a respectful platform for those big-name directors of the 1970s and early ’80s who are happy to go back into the fray long after those juicy studio budgets dried up: Brian De Palma, William Friedkin, Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter and — to a lesser extent — George Romero all found a home here for their late-period passion projects. Walter Hill, now 80, joins their ranks with an improbably youthful horse opera, and while it shows up the limitations of both writing and shooting a Western in the modern age, it’s nevertheless a wickedly enjoyable genre romp and full of violent surprises.
Hill dedicates his film to Budd Boetticher, which is a shame as it has already given critics permission not to think any harder...
Hill dedicates his film to Budd Boetticher, which is a shame as it has already given critics permission not to think any harder...
- 9/8/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Abel Ferrara, Shia Labeouf And Steve Buscemi Head To Venice Sidebar Giornate Degli Autori
Abel Ferrara’s Padre Pio, starring Shia Labeouf as the controversial 20th-Century monk, will be among the 10 films world premiering in competition in parallel Venice sidebar Giornate degli Autori (August 31 to September 10). Other contenders include Canadian filmmaker Graham Foy’s teen tragedy The Maiden, U.K.-Moroccan director Fyzal Boulifa’s mother and son tale The Damned Don’t Cry; Algerian costume drama The Last Queen by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri and opening film Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous, a Beirut-set love story involving a Syrian refugee and Eritrean careworker tale by French-Lebanese director Wissam Charaf. The films will compete for the GdA Director’s Award, which is decided by a jury of 27 young European cinephiles, presided over this year by French director Céline Sciamma, under the coordination of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) director Karel Och.
Abel Ferrara’s Padre Pio, starring Shia Labeouf as the controversial 20th-Century monk, will be among the 10 films world premiering in competition in parallel Venice sidebar Giornate degli Autori (August 31 to September 10). Other contenders include Canadian filmmaker Graham Foy’s teen tragedy The Maiden, U.K.-Moroccan director Fyzal Boulifa’s mother and son tale The Damned Don’t Cry; Algerian costume drama The Last Queen by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri and opening film Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous, a Beirut-set love story involving a Syrian refugee and Eritrean careworker tale by French-Lebanese director Wissam Charaf. The films will compete for the GdA Director’s Award, which is decided by a jury of 27 young European cinephiles, presided over this year by French director Céline Sciamma, under the coordination of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) director Karel Och.
- 7/28/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Thirteen productions from 15 countries are in the running for this year’s Kutxabank-New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Festival, Spain’s premiere film festival.
San Sebastian on Thursday unveiled its New Directors lineup of titles from first and second-time directors. The 2022 program features 12 debuts from across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Indian moviemaker Parth Saurabh heads to San Sebastian with On Either Side of the Pond, a drama that follows a couple forced by the economic difficulties caused by the pandemic to return from Delhi to their hometown, who sees their relationship start to unravel.
European first-timers in the lineup include the 90s-set black comedy Carbon from Moldovan director Ion Borș, which won last year’s Wip Europa Industry and Wip Europa awards; The Great Silence from Danish director Katrine Brocks, the story of a novice nun who receives an awkward visit...
Thirteen productions from 15 countries are in the running for this year’s Kutxabank-New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Festival, Spain’s premiere film festival.
San Sebastian on Thursday unveiled its New Directors lineup of titles from first and second-time directors. The 2022 program features 12 debuts from across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Indian moviemaker Parth Saurabh heads to San Sebastian with On Either Side of the Pond, a drama that follows a couple forced by the economic difficulties caused by the pandemic to return from Delhi to their hometown, who sees their relationship start to unravel.
European first-timers in the lineup include the 90s-set black comedy Carbon from Moldovan director Ion Borș, which won last year’s Wip Europa Industry and Wip Europa awards; The Great Silence from Danish director Katrine Brocks, the story of a novice nun who receives an awkward visit...
- 7/28/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Award comes with €50,000 prize.
Thirteen films will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, which runs from September 16-24.
More titles are expected to be added to the competition, which comes with a €50,000 prize to be divided equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain.
Turkey’s Jeanne Aslan and France’s Paul Saintillan co-directed Spare Keys, the tale of a teenager who establishes a relationship with her girlfriend’s brother during summer.
Nicaragua’s Laura Baumeister Daughter Of Rage is the story of an eight-year-old girl who gets by as...
Thirteen films will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, which runs from September 16-24.
More titles are expected to be added to the competition, which comes with a €50,000 prize to be divided equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain.
Turkey’s Jeanne Aslan and France’s Paul Saintillan co-directed Spare Keys, the tale of a teenager who establishes a relationship with her girlfriend’s brother during summer.
Nicaragua’s Laura Baumeister Daughter Of Rage is the story of an eight-year-old girl who gets by as...
- 7/28/2022
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Three buzzy titles, all turning on women carving out their own destinies – Carmen Jaquier’s “Thunder,” Laura Baumeister’s “Daughter of Rage” and Dinara Drukarova’s “Grand Marin” – feature in the 13-title lineup of San Sebastian’s 2022 New Directors section.
Also making the New Directors’ cut – now firmly consolidated as the most important sidebar at the highest-profile film festival in the Spanish-speaking world – is “Tobacco Barns,” the awaited and second feature from Spain’s Rocío Mesa, as well as Jeong Ji-hye’s Jeonju Festival winner “Jeong-sun” which has its director hailed as a talent to track.
Eight of the 13 features are directed by women who also serve as protagonists in most of the section’s films. Their themes range wide, however, from the absurdity of Moldova’s past (“Carbon”) to an allegorical portrait of civil conflict (“Carbide”) to cybershaming (“Jeong-sun”) and women’s love of literature (“To Books and Women...
Also making the New Directors’ cut – now firmly consolidated as the most important sidebar at the highest-profile film festival in the Spanish-speaking world – is “Tobacco Barns,” the awaited and second feature from Spain’s Rocío Mesa, as well as Jeong Ji-hye’s Jeonju Festival winner “Jeong-sun” which has its director hailed as a talent to track.
Eight of the 13 features are directed by women who also serve as protagonists in most of the section’s films. Their themes range wide, however, from the absurdity of Moldova’s past (“Carbon”) to an allegorical portrait of civil conflict (“Carbide”) to cybershaming (“Jeong-sun”) and women’s love of literature (“To Books and Women...
- 7/28/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, based in Los Angeles, brings dark humor – and body horror – to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with “Sick of Myself.” The film was acquired by Memento International.
Signe and Thomas (“Ninjababy” breakout Kristine Kujath Thorp and Eirik Sæther) are an attractive young couple in Oslo. They also happen to bring out the worst in each other. When his career starts to take off, Signe tries to get some attention as well – by making herself sick.
“I definitely recognize the pettiness, the competitiveness, all of these things. I have experienced mini-versions of these arguments and these feelings,” says Borgli, also behind 2017 curio “Drib” combining fact and fiction, and an energy drink campaign.
“I wanted them to be watchable, not likeable. Also, I find it much funnier when the characters in the movie are not in on the joke. When they are stuck inside all this drama the audience...
Signe and Thomas (“Ninjababy” breakout Kristine Kujath Thorp and Eirik Sæther) are an attractive young couple in Oslo. They also happen to bring out the worst in each other. When his career starts to take off, Signe tries to get some attention as well – by making herself sick.
“I definitely recognize the pettiness, the competitiveness, all of these things. I have experienced mini-versions of these arguments and these feelings,” says Borgli, also behind 2017 curio “Drib” combining fact and fiction, and an energy drink campaign.
“I wanted them to be watchable, not likeable. Also, I find it much funnier when the characters in the movie are not in on the joke. When they are stuck inside all this drama the audience...
- 5/12/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Cast includes Kristine Kujath Thorp (Ninjababy) and Elliott Crosset Hove (Winter Brothers)
TrustNordisk has boarded international sales on Danish writer/director Katrine Brocks’ debut feature The Great Silence, now in post.
Kristine Kujath Thorp (Ninjababy) and Elliott Crosset Hove (Winter Brothers) star in the story of a 29-year-old woman about to take her perpetual vows at a convent, whose alcoholic brother unexpectedly shows up, unearthing a secret family tragedy.
Pernille Tornøe of Copenhagen-based Monolit Film produces; the script is co-written with Marianne Lentz.
The Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen is backing the film, which Scanbox will release locally...
TrustNordisk has boarded international sales on Danish writer/director Katrine Brocks’ debut feature The Great Silence, now in post.
Kristine Kujath Thorp (Ninjababy) and Elliott Crosset Hove (Winter Brothers) star in the story of a 29-year-old woman about to take her perpetual vows at a convent, whose alcoholic brother unexpectedly shows up, unearthing a secret family tragedy.
Pernille Tornøe of Copenhagen-based Monolit Film produces; the script is co-written with Marianne Lentz.
The Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen is backing the film, which Scanbox will release locally...
- 4/13/2022
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
With a top prize of $44,000 it is one of the world’s most lucrative film awards.
Denmark won big with the two Dragon awards handed out in Goteborg on February 5, with Tea Lindeburg’s As In Heaven winning the prize for best Nordic film. With a prize of $44,000, it is one of the world’s most lucrative film awards.
The film, which previously won best director and best actress at San Sebastian, is about a girl in the 19thcentury who hopes to leave her family’s farm to be the first in her family to study. Her future prospects change...
Denmark won big with the two Dragon awards handed out in Goteborg on February 5, with Tea Lindeburg’s As In Heaven winning the prize for best Nordic film. With a prize of $44,000, it is one of the world’s most lucrative film awards.
The film, which previously won best director and best actress at San Sebastian, is about a girl in the 19thcentury who hopes to leave her family’s farm to be the first in her family to study. Her future prospects change...
- 2/7/2022
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
18 works in progress by some of the Nordic region’s biggest names – Bille August, Björn Runge, the multi-prized Jp Valkeapää and Malou Reymann will be showcased at the hybrid Nordic Film Market (Feb. 3-6), along with some Sundance and Rotterdam competition entries.
The Nfm runs parallel to the final stretches of the Göteborg Film Festival (Jan.28-Feb.6).
So far, over 450 international delegates have signed up for the major Nordic film confab. Only 250 will be able to attend in-person, due to Covid restrictions in Sweden.
“We’ve received a huge interest from professionals to attend in-person, following the decision of Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin’s European Film Market to go online. It’s been very difficult to say ‘no’ to people, but our priority is to guarantee a safe event,” said Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström who underlines the various safety measures to be implemented at the Nfm, from vaccination checks,...
The Nfm runs parallel to the final stretches of the Göteborg Film Festival (Jan.28-Feb.6).
So far, over 450 international delegates have signed up for the major Nordic film confab. Only 250 will be able to attend in-person, due to Covid restrictions in Sweden.
“We’ve received a huge interest from professionals to attend in-person, following the decision of Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin’s European Film Market to go online. It’s been very difficult to say ‘no’ to people, but our priority is to guarantee a safe event,” said Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström who underlines the various safety measures to be implemented at the Nfm, from vaccination checks,...
- 1/21/2022
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
Recently spotlighted at the Finnish Film Affair, where it was given the Best Nordic Project Award, Danish production “The Great Silence” will head straight to the convent, where Sister Alma (played by “Ninjababy” lead Kristine Kujath Thorp) is preparing to take her perpetual vows. But once her recovering alcoholic brother shows up, stirring up memories of a family secret, Alma begins to question her choices.
The film, currently shooting in Copenhagen and produced by Pernille Tornøe of newly founded Monolit Film, will mark helmer Katrine Brocks’ feature debut, inspired by her religious upbringing in a Christian community and co-written with Marianne Lentz, also behind her Robert Award-winning short “In the Blink of an Eye.”
“My parents met at a Bible camp. Religion has always been the backdrop of my childhood, it was the foundation of everything” she says, admitting that her “very personal relationship with God” changed once she started her teens.
The film, currently shooting in Copenhagen and produced by Pernille Tornøe of newly founded Monolit Film, will mark helmer Katrine Brocks’ feature debut, inspired by her religious upbringing in a Christian community and co-written with Marianne Lentz, also behind her Robert Award-winning short “In the Blink of an Eye.”
“My parents met at a Bible camp. Religion has always been the backdrop of my childhood, it was the foundation of everything” she says, admitting that her “very personal relationship with God” changed once she started her teens.
- 9/25/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
The 10th edition of the Finnish Film Affair took place as a hybrid event from Helsinki.
Denmark’s The Great Silence was inaugural winner of the best Nordic project award at the 10th edition of the Finnish FIlm Affair (Ffa) which took place as a hybrid event from Helsinki this week,
The Great Silence is the directorial debut of Katrine Brocks and is produced by Pernille Tornøe of Monolit Film. The pair pitched remotely because they are currently shooting the film The drama is about siblings , played by Ninjababy’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and Winter Brothers’ Elliott Crosset Hove, coming...
Denmark’s The Great Silence was inaugural winner of the best Nordic project award at the 10th edition of the Finnish FIlm Affair (Ffa) which took place as a hybrid event from Helsinki this week,
The Great Silence is the directorial debut of Katrine Brocks and is produced by Pernille Tornøe of Monolit Film. The pair pitched remotely because they are currently shooting the film The drama is about siblings , played by Ninjababy’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and Winter Brothers’ Elliott Crosset Hove, coming...
- 9/24/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
The Finnish Film Affair industry event awarded the upcoming feature “Bubble” with top honors for its fiction in progress pitch on Thursday, capping a competition in which six projects presented a wide range of stories, settings and styles.
Mainly Finnish productions pitched their films, some seeking international partners, with most hoping for sales, festival and distribution deals.
“Bubble,” the story of a teenage girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother announces she is divorcing her father to be with her lesbian lover, was described by director Aleksi Salmenperä as a heartwarming dramedy focusing on the challenges facing teens in dealing with departures from their comfort zones.
While the protagonist of the story, 16-year-old Eveliina, is, like most teens, liberal in her beliefs, “this liberal thinking doesn’t extend to her parents,” as producer Minna Haapkylä put it.
In scenes that are both tense but also tinged with ironic humor,...
Mainly Finnish productions pitched their films, some seeking international partners, with most hoping for sales, festival and distribution deals.
“Bubble,” the story of a teenage girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother announces she is divorcing her father to be with her lesbian lover, was described by director Aleksi Salmenperä as a heartwarming dramedy focusing on the challenges facing teens in dealing with departures from their comfort zones.
While the protagonist of the story, 16-year-old Eveliina, is, like most teens, liberal in her beliefs, “this liberal thinking doesn’t extend to her parents,” as producer Minna Haapkylä put it.
In scenes that are both tense but also tinged with ironic humor,...
- 9/24/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
WarnerMedia’s New Singapore Base
WarnerMedia has unveiled its new regional hub for Asia (excluding China and Japan). Officially opened today by Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, the office signals the full integration of WarnerMedia’s business in the region that includes Warner Bros., HBO and Turner brands. It also houses HBO Max, which is expected to launch in its first Asian markets in the near future. The 40,000sq ft office sits across two floors at Solaris in Fusionopolis, the city state’s media and tech business park. Clement Schwebig, Managing Director of WarnerMedia for India, Southeast Asia and Korea, said: “Our new flagship office is truly spectacular. More than just a new workspace, it brings together the most incredible parts of our diverse business – from Harry Potter’s Wizarding World to Looney Tunes, Game of Thrones and Wonder Woman – under one roof for the first time.
WarnerMedia has unveiled its new regional hub for Asia (excluding China and Japan). Officially opened today by Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, the office signals the full integration of WarnerMedia’s business in the region that includes Warner Bros., HBO and Turner brands. It also houses HBO Max, which is expected to launch in its first Asian markets in the near future. The 40,000sq ft office sits across two floors at Solaris in Fusionopolis, the city state’s media and tech business park. Clement Schwebig, Managing Director of WarnerMedia for India, Southeast Asia and Korea, said: “Our new flagship office is truly spectacular. More than just a new workspace, it brings together the most incredible parts of our diverse business – from Harry Potter’s Wizarding World to Looney Tunes, Game of Thrones and Wonder Woman – under one roof for the first time.
- 9/24/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
As the end of the first decade of the Finnish Film Affair nears, the industry event’s director, Maria Pirkkalainen, who also heads Nordic Flair, notes its phenomenal growth, with more than 200 Finnish film projects showcased, more than 500 international guests brought to Helsinki, and the establishment of a major platform and networking forum for locals.
And things keep evolving, she says: “We are thrilled to now branch out to offer this to filmmakers from our neighboring Nordic countries as well. Not to mention we’ve curated over 2,000 meetings between our guests during all these years. And introduced hundreds of people to the art of sauna.”
The traditional sweat-soaked industry mixer, just one of the signature events of Finnish Film Affair, is typical of the creative approaches Pirkkalainen and her team have embraced in her three years leading the event.
The key driver, she says, is a focus on learning and...
And things keep evolving, she says: “We are thrilled to now branch out to offer this to filmmakers from our neighboring Nordic countries as well. Not to mention we’ve curated over 2,000 meetings between our guests during all these years. And introduced hundreds of people to the art of sauna.”
The traditional sweat-soaked industry mixer, just one of the signature events of Finnish Film Affair, is typical of the creative approaches Pirkkalainen and her team have embraced in her three years leading the event.
The key driver, she says, is a focus on learning and...
- 9/16/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Sergio Corbucci, described by Quentin Tarantino in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” as the second-best director of Italian westerns, sure knew how to end a movie. He could serve up thrillingly bloody catharsis in the original “Django,” his 1966 breakout that proved the global commercial viability of spaghetti westerns extended beyond the films of Sergio Leone. He could do an operatically sprawling three-way shootout on Leone’s level, as with the ending of “The Mercenary.” He could end his films with a punchline, like the comedic Mexican Revolution tale “Compañeros.” Or he could serve up the most grim, depressing denouement you’ve ever seen for any “hero’s journey” tale, like he did with the “The Great Silence.”
But knowing how to end a movie is not a skill demonstrated in “Django & Django,” a new documentary about the spaghetti auteur by Luca Rea at its best when Quentin Tarantino gives...
But knowing how to end a movie is not a skill demonstrated in “Django & Django,” a new documentary about the spaghetti auteur by Luca Rea at its best when Quentin Tarantino gives...
- 9/8/2021
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Italian sales company True Colours has secured a seven-title slate of pics premiering in Venice across various sections, including Mario Martone’s competition entry “The King of Laughter” and high-profile doc “Django and Django: Sergio Corbucci Unchained,” in which Quentin Tarantino talks about the influential Spaghetti Westerns director.
Martone (“Capri Revolution”), who is a Lido aficionado, will once again vye for the Golden Lion with “King of Laughter,” a drama about Neapolitan theatre luminary Edoardo Scarpetta, played by Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”). Italy’s 01 Distribution will release the film in Italian theaters in September.
Another Venice competition title that True Colours is handling –– in this case in tandem with Rai Com –– is “Freaks Out,” the new genre-bender by Gabriele Mainetti, known for off-kilter 2016 superhero pic “They Call Me Jeeg.” Mainetti’s latest is set in 1943 Rome where four “freaks” who work in a circus are left to their...
Martone (“Capri Revolution”), who is a Lido aficionado, will once again vye for the Golden Lion with “King of Laughter,” a drama about Neapolitan theatre luminary Edoardo Scarpetta, played by Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”). Italy’s 01 Distribution will release the film in Italian theaters in September.
Another Venice competition title that True Colours is handling –– in this case in tandem with Rai Com –– is “Freaks Out,” the new genre-bender by Gabriele Mainetti, known for off-kilter 2016 superhero pic “They Call Me Jeeg.” Mainetti’s latest is set in 1943 Rome where four “freaks” who work in a circus are left to their...
- 7/29/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
When it comes to releasing unique and collectible Blu-ray box sets (such as their Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection), Severin Films has done an amazing job preserving horror history, and this summer they'll continue to do so with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, featuring Umberto Lenzi's collaborations with Carroll Baker:
"On June 30th, Severin Films is bringing together the complete collaborative works of two cult film legends with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, which includes superlative editions of Orgasmo, So Sweet… So Perverse, A Quiet Place To Kill, and Knife Of Ice.
Italian writer/director Umberto Lenzi helmed popular peplums, created extreme poliziotteschi, and invented the Italian cannibal phenomenon. Hollywood actress Carroll Baker was the Golden Globe® winning/Academy Award® nominated star of Baby Doll, Giant and The Carpetbaggers. Together in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, they made four landmark films that changed the erotic thriller and giallo genres forever.
"On June 30th, Severin Films is bringing together the complete collaborative works of two cult film legends with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, which includes superlative editions of Orgasmo, So Sweet… So Perverse, A Quiet Place To Kill, and Knife Of Ice.
Italian writer/director Umberto Lenzi helmed popular peplums, created extreme poliziotteschi, and invented the Italian cannibal phenomenon. Hollywood actress Carroll Baker was the Golden Globe® winning/Academy Award® nominated star of Baby Doll, Giant and The Carpetbaggers. Together in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, they made four landmark films that changed the erotic thriller and giallo genres forever.
- 5/1/2020
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
"What's the plan? You always have a plan..." An official trailer has debuted online for an indie drama titled Before the Fire, formerly called The Great Silence, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Charlie Buhler. This just premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival and is still looking for distribution. The plot couldn't be more coincidental with what's happening in the world right now. Which might be why they're releasing this trailer. When a global pandemic forces a TV actress to escape to her rural hometown, an intruder from her past proves as dangerous as the encroaching virus. "The viruses in the present and of her past both lurk around." Sounds extra frightening. Before the Fire stars Jenna Lyng Adams, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, as Ava, plus Jackson Davis, Ryan Vigilant, Charlie Buhler, and Tim Driscoll. Looks exactly like what you'd expect - a woman trying...
- 3/19/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
By Fred Blosser
In Sergio Corbucci’s 1967 Italian Western, “The Hellbenders” (1967), now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, embittered Colonel Jonas (Joseph Cotten) devises a plan to avenge the outcome of the Civil War. Where today’s cultural conservatives mostly express their nostalgia for the Old South by gathering to protest the removal of Confederate monuments, Jonas takes more extreme measures. He and his three sons -- the remnant of his old command, known as the Hellbenders -- ambush a military convoy transporting $1.5 million in greenbacks. Slaughtering the convoy’s cavalry escort, they transfer the stolen money to a makeshift coffin supposedly containing the remains of Jonas‘ “son-in-law” Ambrose Allen, another Confederate officer killed in action at the Battle of Nashville. In truth, an officer named Ambrose Allen died at Nashville, but he wasn’t Jonas’ son-in-law, and his corpse isn’t in the coffin. Jonas picked his name off...
In Sergio Corbucci’s 1967 Italian Western, “The Hellbenders” (1967), now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, embittered Colonel Jonas (Joseph Cotten) devises a plan to avenge the outcome of the Civil War. Where today’s cultural conservatives mostly express their nostalgia for the Old South by gathering to protest the removal of Confederate monuments, Jonas takes more extreme measures. He and his three sons -- the remnant of his old command, known as the Hellbenders -- ambush a military convoy transporting $1.5 million in greenbacks. Slaughtering the convoy’s cavalry escort, they transfer the stolen money to a makeshift coffin supposedly containing the remains of Jonas‘ “son-in-law” Ambrose Allen, another Confederate officer killed in action at the Battle of Nashville. In truth, an officer named Ambrose Allen died at Nashville, but he wasn’t Jonas’ son-in-law, and his corpse isn’t in the coffin. Jonas picked his name off...
- 2/18/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
How does Hollywood sell a gritty, realistic western? With a sexy shot of star Tina Louise! Viewers will be surprised: this fine western is a showcase for the elemental ruthlessness we associate with director André de Toth — its convincing snowbound setting is so intense, we can almost feel the cold. Slick writer Philip Yordan sets up an impossible conflict as a blizzard moves in on a tiny town… Robert Ryan must sort out his feelings for the town beauty Tina Louise, as he negotiates with the he-boss of the killer crooks, Burl Ives. It looks as if Ryan has no choice but to volunteer for a suicide journey — but nature has the last word.
Day of the Outlaw
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date August 27, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal, Venetia Stevenson, David Nelson, Nehemiah Persoff, Jack Lambert,...
Day of the Outlaw
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date August 27, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal, Venetia Stevenson, David Nelson, Nehemiah Persoff, Jack Lambert,...
- 8/20/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We've teamed up with Film Movement Classics to offer up to you one of three copies of Sergio Corbucci's classic Western, The Great Silence. Widely recognized as one of the greatest spaghetti Westerns ever made, The Great Silence has been remastered by Film Movement from a brand new 2K scan and released on Blu-ray this month. Here are the details of this marvelous disc: Synopsis This June, Film Movement Classics commemorates the landmark spaghetti western, The Great Silence, with a stunning 50th Anniversary Restoration. Restored in 2K from original elements, the film, heralded as "one of the finest westerns ever[1]," directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski will be available for cineastes everywhere in both Blu-ray and DVD formats. The...
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[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/27/2018
- Screen Anarchy
We've teamed up with Film Movement Classics to offer up to you one of three copies of Sergio Corbucci's classic Western, The Great Silence. Widely recognized as one of the greatest spaghetti Westerns ever made, The Great Silence has been remastered by Film Movement from a brand new 2K scan and released on Blu-ray this month. Here are the details of this marvelous disc: Synopsis This June, Film Movement Classics commemorates the landmark spaghetti western, The Great Silence, with a stunning 50th Anniversary Restoration. Restored in 2K from original elements, the film, heralded as "one of the finest westerns ever[1]," directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski will be available for cineastes everywhere in both Blu-ray and DVD formats. The...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/27/2018
- Screen Anarchy
“They call him “Silence.” Because wherever he goes, the silence of death follows.”
The Great Silence (1968) directed by Sergio Corbucci, screens Friday June 29th through Sunday July 1st at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The film starts at 7:30pm all three nights.
Sergio Corbucci’s masterpiece The Great Silence (1968) is more than just one of the greatest Westerns of all-time. Unlike Corbucci’s earlier classic Django (which recenetly played as part of Webster U’s ‘Strange Brew’ series), a violent Spaghetti Western filled with dark humor, The Great Silence is a downbeat and completely serious movie from beginning to end, a brutal tale about misery, greed and selfishness, about injustice and the desire for revenge.
The Great Silence is set in the winter of 1898, in the mountain town of Snow Hill, Utah. People who were forced to steal in order to survive an ice cold winter, are...
The Great Silence (1968) directed by Sergio Corbucci, screens Friday June 29th through Sunday July 1st at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The film starts at 7:30pm all three nights.
Sergio Corbucci’s masterpiece The Great Silence (1968) is more than just one of the greatest Westerns of all-time. Unlike Corbucci’s earlier classic Django (which recenetly played as part of Webster U’s ‘Strange Brew’ series), a violent Spaghetti Western filled with dark humor, The Great Silence is a downbeat and completely serious movie from beginning to end, a brutal tale about misery, greed and selfishness, about injustice and the desire for revenge.
The Great Silence is set in the winter of 1898, in the mountain town of Snow Hill, Utah. People who were forced to steal in order to survive an ice cold winter, are...
- 6/26/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns with coverage of two well-regarded wuxia films (period martial arts movies set in ancient China). One is an intense action flick from the Shaw Brothers Studio that places a heavy emphasis on bloody and gory depictions of swordplay. The second is a wuxia film with a difference: rather than fancy sword moves or flamboyant punching techniques, the mystical fighters attack each other with incantations and magical musical instruments.
One-Armed Swordsman
Region B Blu-ray
88 Films
1967 / Color / 2.35 / 111 min. / Du bei dao / Street Date, 26 March 2018 / £12.99
Starring: Yu Wang, Chiao Chiao, Ti Tang, Chih-Ching Yang, Feng Tien, Yin-Tze Pan, Feng Ku.
Cinematography: Yuan Chen San
Film Editor: Chiang Hsing-Loong
Art Director: Ching-Shen Chen
Original Music: Foo-Ling Wang
Written by Cheh Chang, Kuang Ni
Produced by Runme Shaw
Directed by Cheh Chang
Reviewed by Lee Broughton
The bandit leaders Long-Armed Devil (Chi-Ching Yang) and Smiling Tiger (Ti Tang) are determined...
One-Armed Swordsman
Region B Blu-ray
88 Films
1967 / Color / 2.35 / 111 min. / Du bei dao / Street Date, 26 March 2018 / £12.99
Starring: Yu Wang, Chiao Chiao, Ti Tang, Chih-Ching Yang, Feng Tien, Yin-Tze Pan, Feng Ku.
Cinematography: Yuan Chen San
Film Editor: Chiang Hsing-Loong
Art Director: Ching-Shen Chen
Original Music: Foo-Ling Wang
Written by Cheh Chang, Kuang Ni
Produced by Runme Shaw
Directed by Cheh Chang
Reviewed by Lee Broughton
The bandit leaders Long-Armed Devil (Chi-Ching Yang) and Smiling Tiger (Ti Tang) are determined...
- 6/19/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Sergio Corbucci’s landmark Spaghetti Western, The Great Silence, will make its North American Blu-ray debut on June 5th from Film Movement Classics just in time for the film’s 50th anniversary. The release features a brand-new 2K restoration from the original film elements and a load of special features that will include rarely seen alternate endings. Given that The […]...
- 5/17/2018
- by Chris Coffel
- bloody-disgusting.com
Fresh from its critically lauded theatrical revival, Sergio Corbucci's classic Spaghetti Western The Great Silence is heading to home video from Film Movement Classics this June. Starring the great Klaus Kinski and Jean-Louis Trintignant in one of the bleakest of the Italian westerns ever made, The Great Silence has long been underappreciated in favor of the grander films of Sergio Leone and even Corbucci's flashier work, like Django. However, The Great Silence is often mentioned among the titans of the genre by fans who know, so it is very exciting to see this 2K restoration on its way to Blu-ray and DVD on June 5th. Take a look at what's in store from the press release below "[Corbucci's] West was the most violent, surreal and...
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- 5/16/2018
- Screen Anarchy
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Quad Cinema
Some of the best films ever made are about Joan of Arc, and they’re now playing at the Quad.
Films starring Alain Delon and American tough guys are screening.
Metrograph
Retrospectives on Grace Jones and Morris Engel take place, while Jafar Panahi’s debut, The White Balloon, plays on Saturday and Sunday.
Quad Cinema
Some of the best films ever made are about Joan of Arc, and they’re now playing at the Quad.
Films starring Alain Delon and American tough guys are screening.
Metrograph
Retrospectives on Grace Jones and Morris Engel take place, while Jafar Panahi’s debut, The White Balloon, plays on Saturday and Sunday.
- 4/6/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” (Fox Searchlight) showed crossover strength as it widened on its second weekend to more major markets. And “Death of Stalin” (IFC) continues strong on the arthouse circuit.
Both added a much-needed boost to the anemic specialty market. Only three holdovers after their third week grossed over $50,000, including the final dates for Oscar-winner “The Shape of Water.” This marks the lowest numbers in years, and exposes the feast-or-famine nature of the current specialized box office.
The widest new opener, Roadside Attraction’s British senior romance “Finding Your Feet,” drew a mixed response in multiple initial cities.
Of the three new U.S. indies arriving with past festival branding, only Gemini (Neon) has a chance at real theatrical legs; “Love After Love” (IFC) is already streaming, and “Outside In” (The Orchard) hits Svod on April 3 before Netflix availability on June 1. The theatrical business is shifting: only...
Both added a much-needed boost to the anemic specialty market. Only three holdovers after their third week grossed over $50,000, including the final dates for Oscar-winner “The Shape of Water.” This marks the lowest numbers in years, and exposes the feast-or-famine nature of the current specialized box office.
The widest new opener, Roadside Attraction’s British senior romance “Finding Your Feet,” drew a mixed response in multiple initial cities.
Of the three new U.S. indies arriving with past festival branding, only Gemini (Neon) has a chance at real theatrical legs; “Love After Love” (IFC) is already streaming, and “Outside In” (The Orchard) hits Svod on April 3 before Netflix availability on June 1. The theatrical business is shifting: only...
- 4/1/2018
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Tilda Swinton stars in Venice 1991 Golden Lion nominee.
Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Derek Jarman’s Edward II and plans to give the 1991 drama a limited theatrical release on its Film Movement Classics reissue label, with digital and home entertainment releases to follow.
Tilda Swinton and Steven Waddington star in Jarman’s highly stylised adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s 16th century play about Britain’s only openly gay monarch.
Featuring modern costumes and settings, the film relates how Edward II, a weak monarch with a tenuous grasp on the throne, rejects his wife Queen Isabella and takes a male lover,...
Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Derek Jarman’s Edward II and plans to give the 1991 drama a limited theatrical release on its Film Movement Classics reissue label, with digital and home entertainment releases to follow.
Tilda Swinton and Steven Waddington star in Jarman’s highly stylised adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s 16th century play about Britain’s only openly gay monarch.
Featuring modern costumes and settings, the film relates how Edward II, a weak monarch with a tenuous grasp on the throne, rejects his wife Queen Isabella and takes a male lover,...
- 3/30/2018
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
Above: Us festival one sheet for Hal (Amy Scott, USA, 2018). Designed by Midnight Marauder.One of the best and most inventive movie poster designers currently at work, the L.A.-based artist known as Midnight Marauder should be no stranger to followers of my Movie Poster of the Day Tumblr and annual top 10 lists. A graphic designer for some 20 years, Mm a.k.a. Emmanuel, has been designing movie posters for the past five years. He has had two very fruitful collaborations in that time, first with Terrence Malick for whom he has designed a number of posters, most notably the teaser for Knight of Cups, and more recently with the great Berlin-based Italian illustrator Tony Stella with whom he has been producing beautiful alternative posters for films like The Phantom Thread. Together they also designed the poster for the 50th anniversary release of The Great Silence, which opens in theaters today.
- 3/30/2018
- MUBI
Shirô Toyoda's Jigohuken or Portrait of Hell (1969) builds steadily to a shattering penultimate sequence, then peters out in a disappointing denouement. If you cut the climax off, I bet it would haunt people forever, and such is the power of its individual high points that it still commands attention.The great Tatsuya Nakadai (Harakiri, Ran) plays a Korean painter at the court of a nasty lord who fancies his daughter. Both men are tyrants: Nakadai forbids his daughter to marry her lover because he's not Korean, but then has her taken away from him by the corrupt and lascivious ruler. He then conceives the idea of a painting of the inferno: his patron/tormentor, the lord, doubts his ability to render so abstract a concept, but Nakadai says he sees Hell all around him, so it will be no particular challenge.This is all good stuff. Nakadai is superhumanly intense,...
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
Guest Reviewer Lee Broughton is back, with another Italo Western double bill DVD review. Wild East’s ongoing Spaghetti Western Collection continues to grow and this double bill release is particularly welcome since it features two obscure and wholly idiosyncratic genre entries from 1969. Italian Western directors had found it relatively easy to appropriate key plot points and ideas from Sergio Leone’s Dollars films during the genre’s early years but when Leone’s sprawling, mega-budgeted, meta-Western Once Upon a Time in the West was released in 1968 it was clear that this was one genre entry that local filmmakers would not be able to easily emulate.
With scriptwriters and directors now essentially being forced to come up with their own ideas and generic trends, a new wave of Spaghetti Westerns were produced that effectively took the genre in a multitude of new directions. The two films featured here were part of that wave.
With scriptwriters and directors now essentially being forced to come up with their own ideas and generic trends, a new wave of Spaghetti Westerns were produced that effectively took the genre in a multitude of new directions. The two films featured here were part of that wave.
- 10/21/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Welcome to the University of Qt.
Without question or the slightest hint of a doubt, I feel wholly comfortable saying that there are more video essays, compilations, montages, and supercuts dedicated to the work of Quentin Tarantino than any other director out there. He has been an object of fascination bordering obsession from the first scene of Reservoir Dogs, and with each new film he releases, the fervor surrounding his mythos only increases. Largely this is due to Qt himself, who’s as good a hype-man as he is a filmmaker, but that’s just one more reason we love him: confidence. Qt knows he’s the shit and he’d be the first person to tell you that if the rest of us would ever shut up about it.
Bottom line, not since perhaps Kubrick has the totality of a director’s career been held in such high regard, nor...
Without question or the slightest hint of a doubt, I feel wholly comfortable saying that there are more video essays, compilations, montages, and supercuts dedicated to the work of Quentin Tarantino than any other director out there. He has been an object of fascination bordering obsession from the first scene of Reservoir Dogs, and with each new film he releases, the fervor surrounding his mythos only increases. Largely this is due to Qt himself, who’s as good a hype-man as he is a filmmaker, but that’s just one more reason we love him: confidence. Qt knows he’s the shit and he’d be the first person to tell you that if the rest of us would ever shut up about it.
Bottom line, not since perhaps Kubrick has the totality of a director’s career been held in such high regard, nor...
- 3/17/2017
- by H. Perry Horton
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
“Revenge never dies” in Dead West, the new film from writer/director Jeff Ferrell. And with the road trip revenge thriller coming out on DVD via Rlj Entertainment this Tuesday, we caught up with Ferrell for our latest Q&A feature. In today’s Horror Highlights, we also have photos from last week’s Los Angeles fan screening of Rings and the trailer and release details for The Burningmoore Deaths.
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Jeff. How and when did you first come up with the idea for Dead West?
Jeff Ferrell: The idea for Dead West was born during the shooting of my first movie, Ghostlight. One night after filming, I was with the lead actor, Brian Sutherland, in his hotel room. We were drinking beers and throwing ideas around, when he suddenly said, “I really wanna play a serial killer. Write...
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Jeff. How and when did you first come up with the idea for Dead West?
Jeff Ferrell: The idea for Dead West was born during the shooting of my first movie, Ghostlight. One night after filming, I was with the lead actor, Brian Sutherland, in his hotel room. We were drinking beers and throwing ideas around, when he suddenly said, “I really wanna play a serial killer. Write...
- 2/6/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
The unpleasant truth exposed by The Hateful Eight is that Quentin Tarantino’s wit and craftsmanship — his artistic soul — are inextricable from his sadism. He has gone to elaborate lengths to make the movie look like a classic widescreen Western, in 70mm, with a thunderously lyrical overture by the great Ennio Morricone and an intermission, but there’s nothing widescreen about his story. It seems perversely crabbed, nihilistic, and shot through with cruelty for cruelty’s sake. I suppose there are precedents among spaghetti Westerns of the ’60s (like The Great Silence), but Italians are stoic about their violence, whereas Tarantino seems to be whacking off to his own mayhem.As usual, his foreplay is brilliant. Hell, most of what he does is brilliant. Samuel Jackson is bounty hunter Marquis Warren, who gets caught in a blizzard en route to Red Rock and begs a ride in a stagecoach with another hunter,...
- 12/23/2015
- by David Edelstein
- Vulture
"Get Mean" (1975), the most obscure and final entry in the series of "Stranger" Westerns starring Tony Anthony is getting a long-awaited release in North America thanks to the new deluxe edition Blu-ray that is jam-packed with extras including an insightful collector's booklet written by Cinema Retro columnist Howard Hughes.
Here are the details from the official press release:
The Stranger’s Thrilling Final Adventure!
When an American cowboy stumbles upon a gypsy family in a wind-swept ghost town, they offer him a fortune to escort a princess back to her home in Spain. But this silent Stranger finds himself in over his head (and strung up by his feet) when he gets caught in the middle of an epic battle involving Vikings, the Moors, brutal barbarians, evil spirits, a raging bull, and a diabolical Shakespeare-quoting hunchback. Tired of their never-ending attempts to kill him, the cowboy arms himself to the teeth with guns,...
Here are the details from the official press release:
The Stranger’s Thrilling Final Adventure!
When an American cowboy stumbles upon a gypsy family in a wind-swept ghost town, they offer him a fortune to escort a princess back to her home in Spain. But this silent Stranger finds himself in over his head (and strung up by his feet) when he gets caught in the middle of an epic battle involving Vikings, the Moors, brutal barbarians, evil spirits, a raging bull, and a diabolical Shakespeare-quoting hunchback. Tired of their never-ending attempts to kill him, the cowboy arms himself to the teeth with guns,...
- 10/11/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Kino Lorber brings the infamous 1967 Spaghetti western Navajo Joe to Blu-ray, an overlooked gem of the genre that’s long been shadowed by its troubled reputation and the continual disparagement of its lead star, Burt Reynolds. In retrospect, this Italian/Spanish co-production promises to be a bit too politically incorrect to be taken seriously considering the casting of American star Reynolds as a Navajo Indian (he is, in fact, partly of Cherokee descent, though not enough to avoid the necessity of bronzer and a black wig).
It’s hardly the first or last time we’ve seen whitewashed casting of Native Americans (Audrey Hepburn in John Huston’s 1960 western The Unforgiven comes to mind), and to many the casting seems to compromise the integrity of the title. Instantly reviled and dismissed by Reynolds in his second starring role during his transition from television to film, it is, nevertheless, a very...
It’s hardly the first or last time we’ve seen whitewashed casting of Native Americans (Audrey Hepburn in John Huston’s 1960 western The Unforgiven comes to mind), and to many the casting seems to compromise the integrity of the title. Instantly reviled and dismissed by Reynolds in his second starring role during his transition from television to film, it is, nevertheless, a very...
- 9/1/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A while back, when we released the 400th episode of the Sound On Sight podcast, a few close friends and longtime listeners requested we compile a list of our favorite shows we recorded over the years. Now that the podcast has officially come to an end, I decided to finally set aside some time in my schedule and give them what they want. Initially, I set out to pick ten, but after 500 recordings and 8 long years, it was simply too hard to choose so few, so I opted for 20 instead. In selecting these episodes, I tried to show the wide range of genres we covered over the years, including Spaghetti Westerns, Italian Horror, Southern Gothic, underground cult, family friendly, foreign language and even Hollywood classics. We’ve been blessed with several guest hosts and interviews with many filmmakers including genre legends George A. Romero and John Landis, to name a few.
- 8/23/2015
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Filmed during the height of the Euro Western craze of the late 60’s, Robert Hossein’s Cemetery Without Crosses is an obscure gem rejuvenated by Arrow Video. A French production, the title was actor/director Hossein’s first Western, obviously influenced by Sergio Leone, whom the film is dedicated to (Leone was in the midst of production on Once Upon a Time in the West when Hossein was underway with his feature). A simplistic and familiar narrative is enhanced by its inspired set designs and notable production value, featuring a winning score. Existing on the bleak end of the Spaghetti Western spectrum (or perhaps more aptly the ‘Baguette Western,” an Alex Cox coined term Ginette Vincendeau discusses in an included insert essay), it’s an entertaining bit of style over substance, and is an uncommon French entry in otherwise familiar climate. However, as much as Hossein pays homage to Leone,...
- 7/28/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Quentin Tarantino will be on hand at this year's Comic Con with his new film, The Hateful Eight. The pic is his second western in a row and he seems quite proud of it. "I can definitely say that as bleak as our movie is, we are definitely the funniest snow Western ever made," he told Entertainment Weekly. "This is funnier than The Great Silence, it's funnier than Day of the Outlaw. Oh, yeah, funnier than McCabe & Mrs. Miller." Of course, Tarantino is speaking with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, though it does speak yet again to some of the films that influenced him this time around. However, Tarantino says just as much as we may find cinematic references in this one, small screen Westerns served as more of an inspiration, specifically the likes of "The Virginian" and "Bonanza". "You wait the whole episode to find out, 'Are...
- 7/2/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Quentin Tarantino is going to light up San Diego Comic-Con in a couple of weeks when he struts into town with his western "The Hateful Eight," and one wonders how many of the fanboys will have seen the Robert Altman, Sergio Corbucci, or André de Toth films he references in chatting with EW. Not that it matters. Half of the fun of any Tarantino flick is tracking down the genre gems he mentions as influences. Read More: Quentin Tarantino Saddles Up To Bring 'The Hateful Eight' To Comic-Con His star-studded western about a bunch of rogues facing off in a snow blasted waystation sounds grim, but Tarantino promises it'll have a spark of life to it as well. “I can definitely say that as bleak as our movie is, we are definitely the funniest snow Western ever made. This is funnier than 'The Great Silence,' it...
- 7/2/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Quentin Tarantino is bringing The Hateful Eight to Comic-Con next week, but until the Western’s anticipated panel takes place, here’s another image from the star-studded pic, courtesy of EW.
Kurt Russell plays bounty hunter John Ruth, while Samuel L. Jackson is playing Major Marquis Warren. Both are definitely the kinds of guys you don’t want to end up stranded with – but that’s exactly what happens in the film, when a blizzard traps Ruth and Warren in a stagecoach stopover with an assortment of other rogues. Bloodshed ensues, but Tarantino assures the mag that there’s some humor on screen, too:
“I can definitely say that as bleak as our movie is, we are definitely the funniest snow Western ever made. This is funnier than The Great Silence, it’s funnier than Day of the Outlaw.”
The director also cites Bonanza and The Virginian as two influences on his latest movie,...
Kurt Russell plays bounty hunter John Ruth, while Samuel L. Jackson is playing Major Marquis Warren. Both are definitely the kinds of guys you don’t want to end up stranded with – but that’s exactly what happens in the film, when a blizzard traps Ruth and Warren in a stagecoach stopover with an assortment of other rogues. Bloodshed ensues, but Tarantino assures the mag that there’s some humor on screen, too:
“I can definitely say that as bleak as our movie is, we are definitely the funniest snow Western ever made. This is funnier than The Great Silence, it’s funnier than Day of the Outlaw.”
The director also cites Bonanza and The Virginian as two influences on his latest movie,...
- 7/2/2015
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
When other filmmakers do it it's most often considered a fun homage, but when Quentin Tarantino does it seems to rile people up a bit more to the point they say he's stealing. Personally I found Tarantino's visual references in his films to be endlessly entertaining and eye-opening. I can't tell you how many films I've watched merely because Tarantino references them in his films or mentions them as inspirations for his movies and today we have a new video from Jacob T. Swinney, whose work I've featured several times before, offering a few side-by-side looks at Tarantino's work opposite the films that influenced it. All of Tarantino's films are included from Reservoir Dogs to Django Unchained with films that influenced several shots in each from City on Fire (which people contend Tarantino ripped off entirely for Reservoir Dogs), 8 1/2, Kiss Me Deadly, Lady Snowblood, The Great Silence, Miller's Crossing and many more.
- 6/8/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Die Falle
(La morte ha fatto l’uovo a.k.a Death Laid an Egg, A Curious Way to Love & Plucked)
1968, dir: Giulio Questi
Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Great Silence) stars as Marco, a wealthy man who runs a high-tech chicken farm (living the dream right there!) with his wife Anna, played by Gina Lollabrigadia (Beat the Devil). When not taking care of business, Marco has a nasty little habit. He likes to murder prostitutes. Yep, a guy who breeds chickens with no bones or heads for a living needs some sort of distraction right? Not only that, but he also has a thing for his lovely young and nubile secretary Gabrielle, played by Ewa Aulin (Death Smiles at Murder). She lives with the married couple in their grandiose estate. Unsurprisingly, Anna is rather suspicious of her husband and his hobbies. Uncertainty in relationships becomes a running theme with pretty much...
(La morte ha fatto l’uovo a.k.a Death Laid an Egg, A Curious Way to Love & Plucked)
1968, dir: Giulio Questi
Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Great Silence) stars as Marco, a wealthy man who runs a high-tech chicken farm (living the dream right there!) with his wife Anna, played by Gina Lollabrigadia (Beat the Devil). When not taking care of business, Marco has a nasty little habit. He likes to murder prostitutes. Yep, a guy who breeds chickens with no bones or heads for a living needs some sort of distraction right? Not only that, but he also has a thing for his lovely young and nubile secretary Gabrielle, played by Ewa Aulin (Death Smiles at Murder). She lives with the married couple in their grandiose estate. Unsurprisingly, Anna is rather suspicious of her husband and his hobbies. Uncertainty in relationships becomes a running theme with pretty much...
- 4/2/2015
- by Mondo Squallido
- Nerdly
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