Lamorne Morris and Iris Apatow are set to join the cast of Netflix’s “Unstable” for Season 2.
Morris will play recurring guest star Peter. The charismatic founder of a biotech start-up, Peter’s rising star manages to stoke the already intense rivalry between Ellis (Rob Lowe) and Jackson (John Owen Lowe).
Apatow will play recurring guest star Georgia, Anna’s (Sian Clifford) irreverent ex-stepdaughter turned unwilling Dragon intern. She copes with office life by stirring up trouble and making Anna’s life more difficult whenever possible.
In addition to the father-son duo, they’re joined by returning cast members Sian Clifford, Rachel Marsh, Emma Ferreira and Aaron Branch in the upcoming season. Fred Armisen will also reprise his guest starring role as Leslie, Ellis’s board-appointed therapist who is desperate to be liked and be friends with Ellis.
The comedy follows Ellis Dragon, a universally admired, eccentric, narcissist-adjacent biotech entrepreneur...
Morris will play recurring guest star Peter. The charismatic founder of a biotech start-up, Peter’s rising star manages to stoke the already intense rivalry between Ellis (Rob Lowe) and Jackson (John Owen Lowe).
Apatow will play recurring guest star Georgia, Anna’s (Sian Clifford) irreverent ex-stepdaughter turned unwilling Dragon intern. She copes with office life by stirring up trouble and making Anna’s life more difficult whenever possible.
In addition to the father-son duo, they’re joined by returning cast members Sian Clifford, Rachel Marsh, Emma Ferreira and Aaron Branch in the upcoming season. Fred Armisen will also reprise his guest starring role as Leslie, Ellis’s board-appointed therapist who is desperate to be liked and be friends with Ellis.
The comedy follows Ellis Dragon, a universally admired, eccentric, narcissist-adjacent biotech entrepreneur...
- 12/7/2023
- by BreAnna Bell
- Variety Film + TV
Blur’s comeback album, The Ballad of Darren, arrived this past summer, giving fans their first new release from the Britpop legends since they went on hiatus eight years prior. Now, frontman Damon Albarn has said that he’s done (for now) revisiting Blur, and is ready to get back to focusing on his other project, Gorillaz.
“It is time to wrap up this campaign,” Albarn told the French publication Les Inrockuptibles (via Far Out Magazine). “It’s too much for me. It was the right thing to do and an immense honor to play these songs again, spend time with these guys, make an album, blah-blah-blah… I’m not saying I won’t do it again, it was a beautiful success, but I’m not dwelling on the past.”
As for what he plans to do in lieu of further Blur work, Albarn expressed excitement for an “opera which...
“It is time to wrap up this campaign,” Albarn told the French publication Les Inrockuptibles (via Far Out Magazine). “It’s too much for me. It was the right thing to do and an immense honor to play these songs again, spend time with these guys, make an album, blah-blah-blah… I’m not saying I won’t do it again, it was a beautiful success, but I’m not dwelling on the past.”
As for what he plans to do in lieu of further Blur work, Albarn expressed excitement for an “opera which...
- 12/6/2023
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
Damon Albarn’s rock-centric outfit Blur are preparing to release The Ballad of Darren, their first album in eight years, yet the frontman recently revealed that he believes the title of “the last great guitar band” belongs to Arctic Monkeys.
In an interview on the music podcast Broken Record, Albarn shared, “I feel like there’s a bit more excitement about guitar music again, that can’t be a bad thing because it got so sterile. For me, the last great guitar band would have been Arctic Monkeys and I don’t really know if there’s anything as good as that since.”
Although his observation of rock’s recent past reads like a death knell, he appeared more optimistic for its future, noting that “there are bands with a huge amount of potential. It’s really dismantled itself — guitar music — and put itself back together again in a different form.
In an interview on the music podcast Broken Record, Albarn shared, “I feel like there’s a bit more excitement about guitar music again, that can’t be a bad thing because it got so sterile. For me, the last great guitar band would have been Arctic Monkeys and I don’t really know if there’s anything as good as that since.”
Although his observation of rock’s recent past reads like a death knell, he appeared more optimistic for its future, noting that “there are bands with a huge amount of potential. It’s really dismantled itself — guitar music — and put itself back together again in a different form.
- 7/14/2023
- by Bryan Kress
- Consequence - Music
The perpetually busy Damon Albarn has revealed he is working on another opera. As part of our latest cover story, the Blur and Gorillaz frontman tells Consequence he is putting German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Magic Flute Part Two to music for the first time.
“I got offered this amazing opportunity to set Goethe’s Magic Flute Part Two to music and song,” says Albarn, who previously created an opera based on Elizabethan scientist John Dee in 2011. “I’m kind of teaching myself Goethe, which is not as great a task as it would have been if I hadn’t done a lot of study about, you know, other Renaissance men like Dr. John Dee. I’ve got a lot of the bases because I had to go a long way back to even vaguely understand what that was about. So, I did a lot of that 10 years ago.
“I got offered this amazing opportunity to set Goethe’s Magic Flute Part Two to music and song,” says Albarn, who previously created an opera based on Elizabethan scientist John Dee in 2011. “I’m kind of teaching myself Goethe, which is not as great a task as it would have been if I hadn’t done a lot of study about, you know, other Renaissance men like Dr. John Dee. I’ve got a lot of the bases because I had to go a long way back to even vaguely understand what that was about. So, I did a lot of that 10 years ago.
- 7/13/2023
- by Eddie Fu
- Consequence - Music
Douglas Booth, Alison Pill and Iris Apatow have joined an adaptation of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe classic “The Sorrows of Young Werther.”
The film, simply titled “Young Werther,” is produced by Toronto-based film and TV outfit Wildling Pictures, which describes the project as a modern retelling of the book.
Booth (“That Dirty Black Bag”) and Pill (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) will take lead roles, with Apatow (“The Bubble”) also set to star along Patrick J. Adams (“Suits”). Production will begin this month in Toronto.
Drawing from Goethe’s passionate personal accounts, which were first published in letter form in 1774, “Young Werther” is the story of a charmingly irresponsible and enthusiastic young man named Werther (Booth) who finds himself at the mercy of Charlotte (Pill), whose allure and commitment to her impressive fiancé Albert turns Werther’s life upside down.
The project marks the feature directorial debut for José...
The film, simply titled “Young Werther,” is produced by Toronto-based film and TV outfit Wildling Pictures, which describes the project as a modern retelling of the book.
Booth (“That Dirty Black Bag”) and Pill (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) will take lead roles, with Apatow (“The Bubble”) also set to star along Patrick J. Adams (“Suits”). Production will begin this month in Toronto.
Drawing from Goethe’s passionate personal accounts, which were first published in letter form in 1774, “Young Werther” is the story of a charmingly irresponsible and enthusiastic young man named Werther (Booth) who finds himself at the mercy of Charlotte (Pill), whose allure and commitment to her impressive fiancé Albert turns Werther’s life upside down.
The project marks the feature directorial debut for José...
- 5/17/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Peter Bart: Hollywood Stars Get High Marks Returning To Fall Film Festivals And Hustling Their Wares
While the Emmys drew mixed reviews, the film festivals closed to strong applause this week, not only for their movies (we’d forgotten some) but for their star turnout.
Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Taylor Swift and Julianne Moore were out there giving interviews and courting critics as in years gone by. Some had become strangers due to a mix of Covid-caused delays and their own rigid rules of self-protection.
Movie stars once made three or four films a year and were constantly before us, pitching their wares. I once congratulated Tom Hanks three times in a week and the Damon-Affleck team seemed equally ubiquitous. Now even Jennifer Lawrence wants the spotlight again and Harrison Ford has also abandoned invisibility.
Of course, the presence of stars at premieres also guarantees some flying shrapnel on social media. At the Venice premiere of Don’t Worry Darling, did Florence Pugh,...
Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Taylor Swift and Julianne Moore were out there giving interviews and courting critics as in years gone by. Some had become strangers due to a mix of Covid-caused delays and their own rigid rules of self-protection.
Movie stars once made three or four films a year and were constantly before us, pitching their wares. I once congratulated Tom Hanks three times in a week and the Damon-Affleck team seemed equally ubiquitous. Now even Jennifer Lawrence wants the spotlight again and Harrison Ford has also abandoned invisibility.
Of course, the presence of stars at premieres also guarantees some flying shrapnel on social media. At the Venice premiere of Don’t Worry Darling, did Florence Pugh,...
- 9/15/2022
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Frances McDormand just wants to sing karaoke. She suggested this last night at the 2021 Oscars, a pretty lame evening save for her howling and unsurprisingly awesome acceptance speech for Best Actress — her third time winning the award. “When you’ve got voices like Leslie [Odom Jr.] and Marcus [Mumford], we should add a karaoke bar,” she said.
Twenty years ago last fall, McDormand starred in Almost Famous as Elaine Miller, a college professor who frequently told her budding music journalist son that rock & roll was about “drugs and promiscuous sex.” She was the...
Twenty years ago last fall, McDormand starred in Almost Famous as Elaine Miller, a college professor who frequently told her budding music journalist son that rock & roll was about “drugs and promiscuous sex.” She was the...
- 4/26/2021
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Celebrated Italian writer-director Vittorio Taviani, winner of the Palme d’Or and Berlin Golden Bear, has died aged 88. He passed after a long illness, his daughter has confirmed to Italian media.
The director formed one half an acclaimed filmmaking duo with his brother Paolo: the two were known as the Taviani Brothers. The siblings became household names in Italy in the 1960s and worked on more than 20 movies together including 1977 Palme d’Or winner Padre Padrone and docudrama Caesar Must Die, which won the Golden Bear for best film at Berlin in 2012.
The former charted the story of Gavino Ledda, the son of a Sardinian shepherd, and how he managed to escape his harsh, almost barbaric existence by slowly educating himself, despite violent opposition from his brutal father. Caesar Must Die is the story of inmates at a high-security prison in Rome who prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
The director formed one half an acclaimed filmmaking duo with his brother Paolo: the two were known as the Taviani Brothers. The siblings became household names in Italy in the 1960s and worked on more than 20 movies together including 1977 Palme d’Or winner Padre Padrone and docudrama Caesar Must Die, which won the Golden Bear for best film at Berlin in 2012.
The former charted the story of Gavino Ledda, the son of a Sardinian shepherd, and how he managed to escape his harsh, almost barbaric existence by slowly educating himself, despite violent opposition from his brutal father. Caesar Must Die is the story of inmates at a high-security prison in Rome who prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
- 4/15/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
After the best surprise possible to kick off the new year — the announcement that Claire Denis would be imminently beginning production on a new drama, one starring Juliette Binoche, Gérard Depardieu, and Xavier Beauvois — the Beau travail director was also able to finish it in in times for Cannes. Now set to open Directors’ Fortnight, the first look has arrived.
Adapted from Roland Barthes‘ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, which deconstructs the language of love, the film also has a new title after initially going by Dark Glasses. Screen Daily reports the English title is Let the Sunshine In (aka Un Beau Soleil Intérieur). Also starring Bruno Podalydès and Josiane Balasko, Directors’ Fortnight Artistic director Edouard Waintrop, says of the film. “What touched us is that it marks a radical change in tone for Claire Denis. We like it when film-makers try something new.”
See the Amazon synopsis for Barthes...
Adapted from Roland Barthes‘ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, which deconstructs the language of love, the film also has a new title after initially going by Dark Glasses. Screen Daily reports the English title is Let the Sunshine In (aka Un Beau Soleil Intérieur). Also starring Bruno Podalydès and Josiane Balasko, Directors’ Fortnight Artistic director Edouard Waintrop, says of the film. “What touched us is that it marks a radical change in tone for Claire Denis. We like it when film-makers try something new.”
See the Amazon synopsis for Barthes...
- 4/26/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
2017 just got a whole lot better. The last few years we’ve heard a handful of updates on what was thought to be Claire Denis‘ next film, High Life, an ambitious sci-fi drama starring Robert Pattinson. With shooting expecting to begin sometime this year, it looks like the project has been pushed back to make room for a smaller-scale feature from the White Material director, and one that’s just as enticing.
Juliette Binoche, Gérard Depardieu, and Xavier Beauvois will be leading the cast of Denis’ Les lunettes noir (translated to Dark Glasses), which kicks off a seven-week shoot in Paris and Guéret this month. Adapted from Roland Barthes‘ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, which deconstructs the language of love, the drama is expected to be completed in time for a fall premiere. [France 3/JulietteBinoche.net]
It’s still unclear in what form exactly Denis will adapt the material, which has already been...
Juliette Binoche, Gérard Depardieu, and Xavier Beauvois will be leading the cast of Denis’ Les lunettes noir (translated to Dark Glasses), which kicks off a seven-week shoot in Paris and Guéret this month. Adapted from Roland Barthes‘ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, which deconstructs the language of love, the drama is expected to be completed in time for a fall premiere. [France 3/JulietteBinoche.net]
It’s still unclear in what form exactly Denis will adapt the material, which has already been...
- 1/3/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A major talent of the New German Cinema finds his footing out on the open highway, in a trio of intensely creative pictures that capture the pace and feel of living off the beaten path. All three star Rüdiger Vogler, an actor who could be director Wim Wenders' alter ego. Wim Wenders' The Road Trilogy Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 813 1974-1976 / B&W and Color / 1:66 widescreen / 113, 104, 176 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 30, 2016 / 99.95 Starring Rüdiger Vogler, Lisa Kreuzer, Yetta Rottländer; Hannah Schygulla, Nasstasja Kinski, Hans Christian Blech, Ivan Desny; Robert Zischler. Cinematography Robby Müller, Martin Schäfer Film Editor Peter Przygodda, Barbara von Weltershausen Original Music Can, Jürgen Knieper, Axel Linstädt. Directed by Wim Wenders
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
This morning I 'fessed up to never having seen David Lynch's Lost Highway. Now I get to say that until now I've never seen Wim Wenders'...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
This morning I 'fessed up to never having seen David Lynch's Lost Highway. Now I get to say that until now I've never seen Wim Wenders'...
- 5/16/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The latest restoration of a German silent classic is F.W. Murnau's lavishly mounted version of the Goethe tale, starring Emil Jannings as Mephisto. It's an impressive drama but also has a sense of (Teutonic) humor here and there. Most every shot is a fantastic visuals, and the bigger scenes use visual designs worthy of fine art. Faust Blu-ray + DVD Kino Classics 1926 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 106, 116 min / Street Date November 17, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.96 Starring Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard, William Dieterle, Yvette Guilbert, Eric Barclay, Hanna Ralph, Werner Fuetterer. Cinematography Carl Hoffman Production Design Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig Film Editor Elfi Böttrich Written by Gerhart Hauptmann, Hans Kyser from plays by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Christopher Marlowe Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by F.W. Murnau
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back in film school, lecturers on cinema art of the 1920s claimed that Germany had an edge over Hollywood.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back in film school, lecturers on cinema art of the 1920s claimed that Germany had an edge over Hollywood.
- 1/1/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A major glossy magazine that used to be devoted largely to music -- but long ago fell under the spell of Hollywood celebrity -- still continues to cover music, specializing in listicles that seem designed mainly to provoke ire in those who care more about music than does said magazine (named after a classic blues song, in case you can't guess without a hint). This summer it unleashed a list of songs that, with that aging publication's ironically weak sense of history, managed to overlook the vast majority of the history of song. To put it bluntly, if you're claiming to discuss the best songs ever written and you don't even mention Franz Schubert, you're an ignoramus. My ire over this blinkered attitude towards music history festered for months, so I finally decided to do something about it by writing about some of the timeless songs omitted in the aforementioned myopic listicle.
- 10/25/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
This week's solid Supernatural episode comes with a Goethe-inspired suicide Macguffin. You can't say that about every fantasy show...
This review contains spoilers.
10.19 The Werther Project
The Werther Project opens with a gloriously macabre sequence as teenager Susie, back in the late 70s, finds the mysterious Werther Box and unwittingly unleashes a spell upon her family which causes them all to commit suicide. Susie survives the ordeal by virtue of being unconscious at the time and later runs into Sam and Dean, both seeking the box. Dean, unaware that the box contains the Codex that will translate the Book of the Damned, is infected himself and faces the decision of whether or not to end his own suffering. Sam, still stupidly working with Rowena, must decide whether sacrificing himself to save his brother is the right course of action as the witch watches over his shoulder.
Tying back into...
This review contains spoilers.
10.19 The Werther Project
The Werther Project opens with a gloriously macabre sequence as teenager Susie, back in the late 70s, finds the mysterious Werther Box and unwittingly unleashes a spell upon her family which causes them all to commit suicide. Susie survives the ordeal by virtue of being unconscious at the time and later runs into Sam and Dean, both seeking the box. Dean, unaware that the box contains the Codex that will translate the Book of the Damned, is infected himself and faces the decision of whether or not to end his own suffering. Sam, still stupidly working with Rowena, must decide whether sacrificing himself to save his brother is the right course of action as the witch watches over his shoulder.
Tying back into...
- 4/23/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
As an object, a letter is a lesson in immortality; it exists in a form of forgotten meanings that only change when the recipient allows them space to breathe. Its language is pure and uncorrupted by the corporeal, a beautiful (or horrible) surprise that will move to express what cannot be spoken; a link to our unconscious thoughts and desires. Once sent on its way to a potential explosion that may never arrive it seems to beckon a residual calm that allows cathartic contemplation and a sense of serene somnambulism that is broke only when the answer arrives. Epistolary novels reached their apogee in the 18th century with Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers.
- 12/16/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★★F.W. Murnau was a director who fused the sweeping atmosphere of silent film, with a visual poetry all of his very own and in doing so crafted some of the most incredible films ever made. Before heading to Hollywood in the late 1920s - where he would make the sensational Sunrise (1927) - his final film in his native Germany was the prestige horror classic Faust (1926), a reworking of the well-known legend using Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play as a starting point. A striking retelling, it explores the relationship of good and evil to stunning effect and has gone on to influence countless films since. It now arrives on UK Blu-ray for the first time courtesy of Eureka's Masters of Cinema label.
- 8/19/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Lilting is about loss times two. Mother and partner divided when their love object was alive. Battling still after his unexpected death. But although you will get teary eyed, the film is not depressive by any measure.
Why?
Writer/director Hong Khaou's debut feature is exhilarating in its craft, its performances, and its tale of the eventual fusing of two disparate hearts. Also, in its timeliness. Many ethic groups residing in Western countries are still more than a few steps behind in their acceptance of same-sex relationships.
The film commences with the handsome, lithe Kai (Andrew Leung) visiting his mother Junn (Cheng Pei Pei) in a London retirement home. Junn, of Cambodian-Chinese origin, although having lived in England for decades, has never bothered to become proficient in English. In fact, "Fuck you very much"is about her total vocabulary. A widow, Junn has consequently always depended on Kai for everything,...
Why?
Writer/director Hong Khaou's debut feature is exhilarating in its craft, its performances, and its tale of the eventual fusing of two disparate hearts. Also, in its timeliness. Many ethic groups residing in Western countries are still more than a few steps behind in their acceptance of same-sex relationships.
The film commences with the handsome, lithe Kai (Andrew Leung) visiting his mother Junn (Cheng Pei Pei) in a London retirement home. Junn, of Cambodian-Chinese origin, although having lived in England for decades, has never bothered to become proficient in English. In fact, "Fuck you very much"is about her total vocabulary. A widow, Junn has consequently always depended on Kai for everything,...
- 8/6/2014
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Sleepytime Drama: Bellocchio Messy Message Movie
After yet another career peak with his 2009 film Vincere, Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio continues his examination of Italian society with Dormant Beauty, a treatise on Italy’s hot button issue of euthanasia. Bellocchio managed to score one of the cinema’s most talented actresses ever to appear on screen when he signed French actress Isabelle Huppert (no stranger to Italian cinema (see a 1996 Goethe adaptation, Elective Affinities from Vittorio and Paolo Taviani), so it’s so unfortunate that this latest endeavor is so unconvincing in all regards.
At the core, based on a true story, the film revolves around three separate storylines, all going on in the last 8 days of Eluana Englaro’s life in February, 2009. Her father, Beppe Englaro, had decided to take his daughter off of life support after she’d been in a coma for 17 years, which divided the country concerning...
After yet another career peak with his 2009 film Vincere, Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio continues his examination of Italian society with Dormant Beauty, a treatise on Italy’s hot button issue of euthanasia. Bellocchio managed to score one of the cinema’s most talented actresses ever to appear on screen when he signed French actress Isabelle Huppert (no stranger to Italian cinema (see a 1996 Goethe adaptation, Elective Affinities from Vittorio and Paolo Taviani), so it’s so unfortunate that this latest endeavor is so unconvincing in all regards.
At the core, based on a true story, the film revolves around three separate storylines, all going on in the last 8 days of Eluana Englaro’s life in February, 2009. Her father, Beppe Englaro, had decided to take his daughter off of life support after she’d been in a coma for 17 years, which divided the country concerning...
- 6/6/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
As we continue on, I need to once again clarify that if this list was “Joshua Gaul’s 50 Favorite Movie Musicals,” it’d be a quite a different list. But, if my tastes determined what is definitive, I’d be asking you all to consider Aladdin as a brilliant piece of filmmaking and wax nostalgic about my love for Batteries Not Included and Flight of the Navigator (not for the musicals list, of course). Much to my dismay, my tastes are not universal. I’d like to think my research methods are.
courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk
30. Annie (1982)
Directed by John Huston
Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)
Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...
courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk
30. Annie (1982)
Directed by John Huston
Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)
Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...
- 5/12/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
The same team that brought you The Met’s recent hit production of Carmen returns with Massenet’s tragic romance Werther. The sublime new production comes to cinemas nationwide live on March 15th. For more information and participating theaters, visit http://www.fathomevents.com/event/werther
Two of opera’s greatest artists—Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch—appear together for the first time at the Met in Massenet’s sublime adaptation of Goethe’s revolutionary and tragic romance. It is directed and designed by Richard Eyre and Rob Howell, the same team that created the Met’s recent hit production of Carmen. Rising young maestro Alain Altinoglu conducts.
Don’t miss the chance to experience the excitement of the Metropolitan Opera, including interviews and behind-the-scenes features exclusive to The Met: Live in HD series, all at your neighborhood movie theater!
Enter To Win
A Pair Of Tickets To See This...
Two of opera’s greatest artists—Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch—appear together for the first time at the Met in Massenet’s sublime adaptation of Goethe’s revolutionary and tragic romance. It is directed and designed by Richard Eyre and Rob Howell, the same team that created the Met’s recent hit production of Carmen. Rising young maestro Alain Altinoglu conducts.
Don’t miss the chance to experience the excitement of the Metropolitan Opera, including interviews and behind-the-scenes features exclusive to The Met: Live in HD series, all at your neighborhood movie theater!
Enter To Win
A Pair Of Tickets To See This...
- 3/12/2014
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Opera is waking up to the power of video. For his new production of Don Giovanni, the Royal Opera House's Kasper Holten collaborated with a designer who turned U2 tours and the 2012 Olympics into visual spectaculars. Stuart Jeffries goes behind the screens
"Don Giovanni is called the director's graveyard," says Kasper Holten. "It's impossible to do a perfect production. The existential moral journey of the seducer to hell is hard enough to make convincing – without having to juggle all the farcical elements, too."
So why is Holten, the Royal Opera House's director of opera, returning to Mozart's work for the third time (he has already directed it on stage and on film)? And why is he ratcheting up the risk with some of the tricksiest, most perilous video design ever seen on the British opera stage?
"It makes sense marrying video technology and Mozart," he explains. "If he were alive,...
"Don Giovanni is called the director's graveyard," says Kasper Holten. "It's impossible to do a perfect production. The existential moral journey of the seducer to hell is hard enough to make convincing – without having to juggle all the farcical elements, too."
So why is Holten, the Royal Opera House's director of opera, returning to Mozart's work for the third time (he has already directed it on stage and on film)? And why is he ratcheting up the risk with some of the tricksiest, most perilous video design ever seen on the British opera stage?
"It makes sense marrying video technology and Mozart," he explains. "If he were alive,...
- 2/11/2014
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Moving bits of paper around (the old way) or painting with billions of pixels (the new) has conjured up some of the greatest films of all time. From The Iron Giant to Persepolis, Guardian and Observer critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• Top 10 movie adaptations
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. The Tale of the Fox
A sneaky fox plays a series of underhand tricks on his neighbours in the animal kingdom, among them a timorous hare and a gullible wolf. The king of the beasts, a lion, summons him to face charges but the fox proceeds to outwit everyone, including the king himself. When Ladislas Starevich told this tale in the 1930s it was by no means new – versions of the Reynard story had been circulating around Europe for the best part of a millennium – but the...
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• Top 10 movie adaptations
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. The Tale of the Fox
A sneaky fox plays a series of underhand tricks on his neighbours in the animal kingdom, among them a timorous hare and a gullible wolf. The king of the beasts, a lion, summons him to face charges but the fox proceeds to outwit everyone, including the king himself. When Ladislas Starevich told this tale in the 1930s it was by no means new – versions of the Reynard story had been circulating around Europe for the best part of a millennium – but the...
- 11/20/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Aleksandr Sokurov's tetralogy of power, previously dedicated to real biographical subjects (Lenin, Hitler, Hirohito), unexpectedly concludes with a legendary fictitious man: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust. The Russian director has loosely—one might even say wildly, fervently—adapted Goethe's play with a barely contained gleeful passion.
The mise en scène breaks out of the fetid, murmuring stasis so evocative of Molokh (1999), Taurus (2001) and The Sun (2005) and is freed to wander in a malleable, Ruizian manner around a sumptuously dirty and worn old German town of stone and earth. After beginning with a Forrest Gump-like descent of the camera from mirrored heavens, flying down to the grimy, sprawling town, the second shot after this luxurious, fantastical opening introduces Faust (Johannes Zeiler) via the decomposing ash-purple penis of a corpse he is dissecting in poverty and philosophical inquiry. With no money for food (let alone gravediggers), the doctor first approaches and then is chased,...
The mise en scène breaks out of the fetid, murmuring stasis so evocative of Molokh (1999), Taurus (2001) and The Sun (2005) and is freed to wander in a malleable, Ruizian manner around a sumptuously dirty and worn old German town of stone and earth. After beginning with a Forrest Gump-like descent of the camera from mirrored heavens, flying down to the grimy, sprawling town, the second shot after this luxurious, fantastical opening introduces Faust (Johannes Zeiler) via the decomposing ash-purple penis of a corpse he is dissecting in poverty and philosophical inquiry. With no money for food (let alone gravediggers), the doctor first approaches and then is chased,...
- 11/15/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Review Michael Noble 8 Oct 2013 - 10:15
German Romanticism in Atlantic City? Why not. This is after all, Boardwalk Empire...
This review contains spoilers.
4.5 Erlkonig
"Be calm, dearest child, thy fancy deceives;
the wind is sighing through withering leaves."
This week’s episode opens with a series of carefully mounted images. We’re in Eddie’s room, his bed undisturbed. The camera picks up two caged birds before alighting on a photograph of his two sons as boys. It then turns its gaze to some sheet music of Schubert’s Lieder and a couple of Western novels, symbolic of Eddie’s German past and his American present. The window is open and the wind breathes through the room, its whistle audible amid the sound of Nucky’s urgent phone call from Willie.
With that, Erlkönig sets out the symbolism that will dominate an episode concerned with temptation and the decisions the...
German Romanticism in Atlantic City? Why not. This is after all, Boardwalk Empire...
This review contains spoilers.
4.5 Erlkonig
"Be calm, dearest child, thy fancy deceives;
the wind is sighing through withering leaves."
This week’s episode opens with a series of carefully mounted images. We’re in Eddie’s room, his bed undisturbed. The camera picks up two caged birds before alighting on a photograph of his two sons as boys. It then turns its gaze to some sheet music of Schubert’s Lieder and a couple of Western novels, symbolic of Eddie’s German past and his American present. The window is open and the wind breathes through the room, its whistle audible amid the sound of Nucky’s urgent phone call from Willie.
With that, Erlkönig sets out the symbolism that will dominate an episode concerned with temptation and the decisions the...
- 10/8/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Boardwalk Empire, Season 4, Episode 5, “Erlkönig”
Written by Howard Korder
Directed by Tim Van Patten
Airs Sundays at 9pm Est on HBO
Kate is new to Boardwalk Empire this season and her reviews will approach the acclaimed series from the newbie’s perspective.
This week, on Boardwalk Empire: Gillian becomes desperate, Mueller moves up, and Eddie is taken by the Erlkönig
As many viewers will no doubt be aware, Der Erlkönig is a poem by Goethe based on Danish folklore that was adapted by the great (early) Romantic composer Franz Schubert into one of his most famous lieder, or art songs. To set the mood for the discussion of by far the best episode this season, so far:
Schubert’s “Erlkonig” tells the story of a father racing through the forest on horseback to get his young son home while the son shudders and cries out to his father about the spectral Erlkonig (trans.
Written by Howard Korder
Directed by Tim Van Patten
Airs Sundays at 9pm Est on HBO
Kate is new to Boardwalk Empire this season and her reviews will approach the acclaimed series from the newbie’s perspective.
This week, on Boardwalk Empire: Gillian becomes desperate, Mueller moves up, and Eddie is taken by the Erlkönig
As many viewers will no doubt be aware, Der Erlkönig is a poem by Goethe based on Danish folklore that was adapted by the great (early) Romantic composer Franz Schubert into one of his most famous lieder, or art songs. To set the mood for the discussion of by far the best episode this season, so far:
Schubert’s “Erlkonig” tells the story of a father racing through the forest on horseback to get his young son home while the son shudders and cries out to his father about the spectral Erlkonig (trans.
- 10/8/2013
- by Kate Kulzick
- SoundOnSight
"Hollywood Unplugged," a new series on HuffPost Entertainment, shows our culture's most influential figures in a new light. Instead of focusing on their accomplishments, it examines how they continue to thrive despite the inevitable stress.
Hilaria Baldwin may spend a lot of time in the yoga studio, but that doesn't mean she's a stranger to stress. The yoga instructor, "Extra" lifestyle correspondent, and wife of actor Alec Baldwin is getting ready for her biggest job yet: parenthood. The couple is expecting a baby girl later this year so when it comes to unwinding these day, Baldwin knows it's more important than ever.
The Huffington Post: How do you know when it's time to unplug and recharge?
Hilaria Baldwin: I love to work, and I work a lot, but this means I get overtired. I can always tell that I am stressed out and overwhelmed when I start making silly...
Hilaria Baldwin may spend a lot of time in the yoga studio, but that doesn't mean she's a stranger to stress. The yoga instructor, "Extra" lifestyle correspondent, and wife of actor Alec Baldwin is getting ready for her biggest job yet: parenthood. The couple is expecting a baby girl later this year so when it comes to unwinding these day, Baldwin knows it's more important than ever.
The Huffington Post: How do you know when it's time to unplug and recharge?
Hilaria Baldwin: I love to work, and I work a lot, but this means I get overtired. I can always tell that I am stressed out and overwhelmed when I start making silly...
- 5/13/2013
- by Kelly Fisher
- Huffington Post
In today's chapter of our ongoing tribute to horror's early days, we take a look at an epic dark fantasy from director F.W. Murnau, whom you may remember as the director of the 1922 film Nosferatu, the first – though unofficial – cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. (For a really cool fictionalized take on the making of that film, check out E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire.) When Murnau returned to horror four years later, he did so in a major way, with the most elaborate and expensive German film production to date; Fritz Lang's monumental Metropolis would edge it out of the top spot the following year. The story of Faust is universally known, but got a big boost from an adaptation by renowned German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which was published in the early 1800s. The legend itself involves a master alchemist (Gösta Ekman) who...
- 3/14/2013
- by Gregory Burkart
- FEARnet
Its wide range of contributors and influences make Lore something more than just another tale of post-Nazi Germany
Given its transnational provenance – its Anglo-German source novel adapted by a British-Bengali screenwriter, its Australian director and its bleak Nazi-era subject matter – I'm reluctant to dub Lore a straightforwardly German movie. This might seem counterintuitive given its story: a 14-year-old German daughter of prominent Nazis is left to trek northwards across a ruined Germany in the weeks after the Nazi collapse, her infant siblings and a displaced Jewish boy in tow, and her Nazi assumptions slowly unravelling.
That bald summary might induce one to categorise Lore in the long and honourable line of movies set against the death-seizures of Hitler's regime. That line stretched from Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, shot contemporaneously in 1947 in the actual smoking ruins, to 2008's Anonyma, in which sexual servitude is seen as one woman's only sane response...
Given its transnational provenance – its Anglo-German source novel adapted by a British-Bengali screenwriter, its Australian director and its bleak Nazi-era subject matter – I'm reluctant to dub Lore a straightforwardly German movie. This might seem counterintuitive given its story: a 14-year-old German daughter of prominent Nazis is left to trek northwards across a ruined Germany in the weeks after the Nazi collapse, her infant siblings and a displaced Jewish boy in tow, and her Nazi assumptions slowly unravelling.
That bald summary might induce one to categorise Lore in the long and honourable line of movies set against the death-seizures of Hitler's regime. That line stretched from Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, shot contemporaneously in 1947 in the actual smoking ruins, to 2008's Anonyma, in which sexual servitude is seen as one woman's only sane response...
- 2/18/2013
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★☆☆ Billed as a free interpretation of Goethe's original play, Alexander Sokurov's Faust (2011) sees the Russian auteur returning to his proclivity for challenging depictions of male protagonists, to somewhat perplexing results. Collating his traditional cinematic interests, namely the fragility and combined strengths and weaknesses of masculinity, Faust is a slow moving, murkily fascinating depiction of moral ambiguity, painted on a broad and visually operatic canvas that eschews straightforwardness in favour of a dreamlike narrative texture.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 8/20/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Dark Shadows (12A)
(Tim Burton, 2012, Us) Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jackie Earle Haley. 113 mins
Another expensive pop-gothic fantasy (remake) for Depp and Burton's gallery – how long before either they get bored or we do? This time Johnny's an effete 18th-century vampire, reawakened in 1972 to reunite with his dysfunctional Addams-like descendants and marvel at the modern world. Expect fish-out-of-water silliness, a light shade of darkness, and the usual descent into messiness.
Café De Flore (15)
(Jean-Marc Vallée, 2011, Can) Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Hélène Florent. 121 mins
Music and mystery add a great deal to this well-made emotional drama, which switches between a present-day DJ and a 1970s mother (Paradis) whose child has Down's syndrome.
Beloved (15)
(Christophe Honoré, 2011, Fra/UK/Cze) Chiara Mastroianni, Ludivine Sagnier, Catherine Deneuve. 139 mins
Using flashbacks and musical moments, Honoré tells the story of a former prostitute, her daughter and the men in their lives.
(Tim Burton, 2012, Us) Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jackie Earle Haley. 113 mins
Another expensive pop-gothic fantasy (remake) for Depp and Burton's gallery – how long before either they get bored or we do? This time Johnny's an effete 18th-century vampire, reawakened in 1972 to reunite with his dysfunctional Addams-like descendants and marvel at the modern world. Expect fish-out-of-water silliness, a light shade of darkness, and the usual descent into messiness.
Café De Flore (15)
(Jean-Marc Vallée, 2011, Can) Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Hélène Florent. 121 mins
Music and mystery add a great deal to this well-made emotional drama, which switches between a present-day DJ and a 1970s mother (Paradis) whose child has Down's syndrome.
Beloved (15)
(Christophe Honoré, 2011, Fra/UK/Cze) Chiara Mastroianni, Ludivine Sagnier, Catherine Deneuve. 139 mins
Using flashbacks and musical moments, Honoré tells the story of a former prostitute, her daughter and the men in their lives.
- 5/11/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Sokurov's version of Goethe's tragedy is part bad dream, part music-less opera, with hallucinatory flashes of fear
Aleksandr Sokurov's Faust is a version of Goethe's tragedy that won the Golden Lion at last year's Venice film festival; it is being presented as the last part of a "cinematic tetralogy" with three earlier films, Moloch (1999) about Hitler, Taurus (2001) about Lenin and The Sun (2005) about Hirohito. Generally, when directors claim this, it is a transparent ploy to shift the back-catalogue DVDs, but this surely can't be true of such a distinguished film-maker, and there is some dramatic interest in linking fictional Faust with three historical figures, each pondering power, destiny, heaven and hell.
The Austrian actor Johannes Zeiler is Faust, dissecting grisly corpses in a vaguely delineated central Europe in what looks like the 16th century of Marlowe's Faustus. He is brooding over the location of the soul (perhaps...
Aleksandr Sokurov's Faust is a version of Goethe's tragedy that won the Golden Lion at last year's Venice film festival; it is being presented as the last part of a "cinematic tetralogy" with three earlier films, Moloch (1999) about Hitler, Taurus (2001) about Lenin and The Sun (2005) about Hirohito. Generally, when directors claim this, it is a transparent ploy to shift the back-catalogue DVDs, but this surely can't be true of such a distinguished film-maker, and there is some dramatic interest in linking fictional Faust with three historical figures, each pondering power, destiny, heaven and hell.
The Austrian actor Johannes Zeiler is Faust, dissecting grisly corpses in a vaguely delineated central Europe in what looks like the 16th century of Marlowe's Faustus. He is brooding over the location of the soul (perhaps...
- 5/11/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Aleksandr Sokurov’s four-part meditation on the interplay between power and evil comes to a close with Faust, a challenging, dense take on Goethe’s famed text. With the previous three parts focusing on the travails of historical figures – Moloch on Hitler, Taurus on Lenin and The Sun on Hirohito – Faust might seem like a peculiar post-script, especially when it unfolds like a spiritual prequel, revealing just a little about what might have driven these men to unthinkable behaviours.
Sokurov’s film – which won the Golden Lion at least year’s Venice Film Festival – keenly plays fast and loose with the source material, changing plot structure, character machinations and location, rendering the project, for better and for worse, very much his own. The core premise of course remains the same; the well-meaning if frustrated Doctor Faust (Johannes Zeiler) visits a cantankerous moneylender (Anton Adasinsky), and after signing in his own blood,...
Aleksandr Sokurov’s four-part meditation on the interplay between power and evil comes to a close with Faust, a challenging, dense take on Goethe’s famed text. With the previous three parts focusing on the travails of historical figures – Moloch on Hitler, Taurus on Lenin and The Sun on Hirohito – Faust might seem like a peculiar post-script, especially when it unfolds like a spiritual prequel, revealing just a little about what might have driven these men to unthinkable behaviours.
Sokurov’s film – which won the Golden Lion at least year’s Venice Film Festival – keenly plays fast and loose with the source material, changing plot structure, character machinations and location, rendering the project, for better and for worse, very much his own. The core premise of course remains the same; the well-meaning if frustrated Doctor Faust (Johannes Zeiler) visits a cantankerous moneylender (Anton Adasinsky), and after signing in his own blood,...
- 5/11/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
★★★★☆ Making its way to UK cinemas eight months on from its Golden Lion win at last year's Venice Film Festival, Alexander Sokurov's Faust (2011) has lost little of its enigmatic zeal in the interim period. Critical opinion has been somewhat divided on this final chapter in the Russian director's tetralogy (which includes 1999's Moloch, 2000's Taurus and 2005's The Sun), yet for all its over-ambition and debatable inaccessibility, this unique take on Goethe's classic tale remains one of the most mesmeric, hypnotic cinematic experiences of the last twelve months.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 5/9/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
American Pie: Reunion (15)
(Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, 2012, Us) Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, Alyson Hannigan. 113 mins
It's rare to see teen-movie characters all grown up, and this illustrates the reason why: they just make us feel old. The gang's all here, reverting to their old non-pc habits even as they mourn their lost youth. It's patchy and often dodgy comedy, but there's still something heartening about Stifler's defiant idiocy and Jim's dad's middle-age second chance.
Safe (15)
(Boaz Yakin, 2012, Us) Jason Statham, Catherine Chan. 94 mins
Triads, Russian mobsters, cops and everyone else in New York falls foul of Statham in another ludicrous but fast-moving actioner.
Two Years At Sea (U)
(Ben Rivers, 2012, UK) Jake Williams. 90 mins
Extraordinary, otherworldly observation of a modern-day Scottish hermit.
Goodbye First Love (15)
(Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011, Fra/Ger) Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky. 111 mins
Heartfelt study of a young teen's formative romantic fortunes.
The Lucky One (12A)
(Scott Hicks,...
(Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, 2012, Us) Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, Alyson Hannigan. 113 mins
It's rare to see teen-movie characters all grown up, and this illustrates the reason why: they just make us feel old. The gang's all here, reverting to their old non-pc habits even as they mourn their lost youth. It's patchy and often dodgy comedy, but there's still something heartening about Stifler's defiant idiocy and Jim's dad's middle-age second chance.
Safe (15)
(Boaz Yakin, 2012, Us) Jason Statham, Catherine Chan. 94 mins
Triads, Russian mobsters, cops and everyone else in New York falls foul of Statham in another ludicrous but fast-moving actioner.
Two Years At Sea (U)
(Ben Rivers, 2012, UK) Jake Williams. 90 mins
Extraordinary, otherworldly observation of a modern-day Scottish hermit.
Goodbye First Love (15)
(Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011, Fra/Ger) Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky. 111 mins
Heartfelt study of a young teen's formative romantic fortunes.
The Lucky One (12A)
(Scott Hicks,...
- 5/4/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
DVD Release Date: April 24, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box
Alexander Fehling falls for Miriam Stein in Young Goethe in Love.
The 2011 German drama-romance filmYoung Goethe in Love examines the young adult years in the life of Germany’s revered writer, philosopher and poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe and the unrequited love that inspired him to greatness.
Young Goethe In Love follows the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Alexander Fehling, Inglourious Basterds) in 1772 as he struggles in his budding career as a lawyer even as he yearns to be a poet. After failing his law exams, he is sent by his father (Henry Huebchen) to the sleepy town of Wetzlar to toil as a law clerk and mend his ways. Soon after arriving, Johann meets the boisterous, crimson-tressed Lotte Buff (Miriam Stein), and the two fall in love. But their road to romance is filled with obstacles—employers to be obeyed, fathers to...
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box
Alexander Fehling falls for Miriam Stein in Young Goethe in Love.
The 2011 German drama-romance filmYoung Goethe in Love examines the young adult years in the life of Germany’s revered writer, philosopher and poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe and the unrequited love that inspired him to greatness.
Young Goethe In Love follows the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Alexander Fehling, Inglourious Basterds) in 1772 as he struggles in his budding career as a lawyer even as he yearns to be a poet. After failing his law exams, he is sent by his father (Henry Huebchen) to the sleepy town of Wetzlar to toil as a law clerk and mend his ways. Soon after arriving, Johann meets the boisterous, crimson-tressed Lotte Buff (Miriam Stein), and the two fall in love. But their road to romance is filled with obstacles—employers to be obeyed, fathers to...
- 3/15/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
There are multiple Fausts. Ever-multiplying, in fact, as if to outbreed all other fictional characters. The good doctor is unusual: Marlowe and Goethe's plays are both classics, and then there's Mann's novel; at least fifteen operas... In movies, Murnau rules supreme, but I like William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster just as much. René Clair's La beauté du diable is one of his best films, with Michel Simon and Gérard Philipe trading places as tempter and tempted, both utterly charming in their quite distinct ways. Sokurov just made another, well liked here at the Notebook. But for sheer visual rapture, Claude Autant-Lara's 1955 version Marguerite de la nuit takes the Technicolor cake and runs cackling all the way to perdition.
Based on a novel by author/songwriter Pierre Mac Orlan, who also provided source books for Le quai des brumes for Carné and La bandera for Duvivier,...
Based on a novel by author/songwriter Pierre Mac Orlan, who also provided source books for Le quai des brumes for Carné and La bandera for Duvivier,...
- 2/23/2012
- MUBI
We have added all six posters for Aleksandr Sokurov directed free interpretation of the Faust legend, a modern interpretation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s literary masterpiece on the search for knowledge. The film’s Faustian seeker is a professor, played by Johannes Zeiler who sells his soul for the love of Margarete (Isolda Dychauk). Also featured is the [...]
Continue reading Faust Movie Posters on FilmoFilia.
Related posts:Venice 2011: Faust Movie Photos and Clip 2011 Venice Film Festival Winners Venice Film Festival 2011 Announcements...
Continue reading Faust Movie Posters on FilmoFilia.
Related posts:Venice 2011: Faust Movie Photos and Clip 2011 Venice Film Festival Winners Venice Film Festival 2011 Announcements...
- 12/14/2011
- by Allan Ford
- Filmofilia
The retrospective Aleksandr Sokurov: A Spiritual Voice opens on Thursday at BFI Southbank in London and runs through December 30. For Steve Rose, who meets Sokurov for the Guardian, "overshadowing his entire career is his 'tetralogy of power,' a magnum opus conceived in 1980 and only completed this year. The first three films focused on 20th-century leaders — Hitler in 1999's Moloch, Lenin in 2001's Taurus, and Emperor Hirohito in 2005's The Sun — pinning them down in isolated, almost abstract domestic situations. The final movie, a loose adaptation of Goethe's Faust, is almost a complete departure…. Why make three movies on historical subjects and one on a fictional one? 'Why do you think?' I suggest Faust is a sort of prequel to the other three. 'Maybe,' he nods. Or is it that the first three deal with the death of power, whereas Faust addresses its acquisition? 'But he never gets this power,...
- 11/15/2011
- MUBI
He is the great Russian director who once shot a whole film in a single take. Aleksandr Sokurov talks to Steve Rose about Soviet spies, fallen dictators – and how he got Putin to fund his latest work
At the end of a challenging conversation that, conducted via a translator, strains my intellectual faculties to their limit but barely flexes his, Aleksandr Sokurov makes an astounding statement. "I'm a very literary person, not so much a cinematographic person. I don't really like cinema very much."
Pardon? He doesn't like cinema very much? That's like hearing David Attenborough say he's never really liked animals. Here is a man who was persecuted by the communists for his films; the man who gave us a miraculous feature conducted in one single, unbroken shot, 2002's Russian Ark; the man who is the custodian of Russia's great cinematic heritage. What would he have done if he did like cinema?...
At the end of a challenging conversation that, conducted via a translator, strains my intellectual faculties to their limit but barely flexes his, Aleksandr Sokurov makes an astounding statement. "I'm a very literary person, not so much a cinematographic person. I don't really like cinema very much."
Pardon? He doesn't like cinema very much? That's like hearing David Attenborough say he's never really liked animals. Here is a man who was persecuted by the communists for his films; the man who gave us a miraculous feature conducted in one single, unbroken shot, 2002's Russian Ark; the man who is the custodian of Russia's great cinematic heritage. What would he have done if he did like cinema?...
- 11/15/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Brett Ratner's timely Tower Heist taps into anti-Wall Street sentiment and is just what you'd expect: competent, breezy, escapist entertainment. The well-cast Madoff-inspired comedy--which stars Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, Tea Leoni, Alan Alda and Eddie Murphy in a supporting comeback bid--is expected to take in $29 million this weekend, while R-rated sequel A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D could score $15.5 million. In the mood for something smaller or more serious? Check out several indie documentaries (SXSW winner Dragonslayer, Charlotte Rampling: The Look and The Other F Word), dramas (Another Happy Day, Son of No One) and even a decadent-looking German period piece about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe--Young Goethe in Love. Reviews, details and trailers below: Dragonslayer, Drag City, Us | Director: Tristan Patterson ...
- 11/3/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
Filed under: Features, Movie News
Six movies open this weekend, but only two have unbelievably awful titles: 'Young Goethe in Love' and 'The Son of No One.' The first one is about a guy named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who's, y'know, in love! The second stars Channing Tatum and Al Pacino, and possibly features a guy who somehow materializes from thin air. Because he's the son of no one.
Continue Reading...
Six movies open this weekend, but only two have unbelievably awful titles: 'Young Goethe in Love' and 'The Son of No One.' The first one is about a guy named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who's, y'know, in love! The second stars Channing Tatum and Al Pacino, and possibly features a guy who somehow materializes from thin air. Because he's the son of no one.
Continue Reading...
- 11/3/2011
- by Moviefone Staff
- Moviefone
Though the title Young Goethe In Love is more descriptive than the film’s original German title, Goethe!, it suggests less about what viewers can expect from this story about the love life of a young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The film seems designed to ask a question no one was asking: “Could the events that inspired Goethe’s breakthrough work, The Sorrows Of Young Werther—a book that helped kick-start the Romantic movement, inspired a generation of young men to emulate its tortured hero, and possibly caused an uptick in European suicides—serve as fodder for a frolicsome costume ...
- 11/3/2011
- avclub.com
ComingSoon.net has your exclusive first look at a new clip from Young Goethe in Love , directed by Philipp Stolzl and starring Alexander Fehling, Miriam Stein, Moritz Bleibtreu and Volker Bruch. Germany 1772 . the young, dashing Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Alexander Fehling) aspires to be a poet, but, after failing his law exams, is sent by his father (Henry Huebchen) to a provincial court to mend his ways. Unsure of his talent and eager to prove himself, Goethe soon wins the praise and friendship of his superior, Kestner (Moritz Bleibtreu). Goethe soon falls madly in love with the pretty and free-spirited Lotte (Miriam Stein,) but their secret love affair is compromised as the young lovers are unaware that Lotte's father has already promised her hand to another man... Young...
- 11/1/2011
- Comingsoon.net
Jean-Marc Vallée's Café du Flore Chantal Akerman, Joseph Cedar, Béla Tarr, Nuri Bilge Ceylan: AFI Fest 2011 World Cinema Selections Arirang: Traumatized by a near-fatal accident during filming, director Kim Ki-duk offers a visionary self-portrait of a troubled artist reeling from an emotional breakdown. Dir Kim Ki-duk. South Korea. U.S. Premiere. CAFÉ Du Flore: In his follow-up to C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean Marc Vallée tells two parallel stories connected by music about a Montreal D.J. and a mother devoted to her special-needs son. Dir/Scr Jean-Marc Vallée. Cast Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Hélène Florent, Evelyne Brochu, Marin Gerrier. Canada. U.S. Premiere. Extraterrestrial: Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo’s surprising second feature finds an alien invasion providing the backdrop for one of the most delightful romantic comedies in years. Dir/Scr Nacho Vigalondo. Cast Julian Villagran, Michelle Jenner, Raul Cimas, Carlos Areces, Miguel Noguera. Spain. Faust: Russian Ark director...
- 10/23/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Simone Eder and Carlotta Corvi report from the Venice International Film Festival.
The 68th was certainly a memorable year with the overall quality of the films being very high and the films for the lineup well selected. Some films surprised while some films disappointed, and most of them will be talked about in the coming weeks and months.
Day 1
The longest running Film festival in the World kicked off its 68th Edition Festival at the Lido in Venice with the world premiere of George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March starring Ryan Gosling, Clooney himself, Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman,and was the first film shown in competition for the Golden Lion. Promoted as intense tale of sex, ambition, loyalty, betrayal and revenge the film was however less cynical and shocking than promised and contained a couple of weak plot points. The actors, especially the supporting cast,...
The 68th was certainly a memorable year with the overall quality of the films being very high and the films for the lineup well selected. Some films surprised while some films disappointed, and most of them will be talked about in the coming weeks and months.
Day 1
The longest running Film festival in the World kicked off its 68th Edition Festival at the Lido in Venice with the world premiere of George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March starring Ryan Gosling, Clooney himself, Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman,and was the first film shown in competition for the Golden Lion. Promoted as intense tale of sex, ambition, loyalty, betrayal and revenge the film was however less cynical and shocking than promised and contained a couple of weak plot points. The actors, especially the supporting cast,...
- 9/23/2011
- by Guest
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stepped in to help director Alexander Sokurov finance his critically-acclaimed Faust.
The Russian project, based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil, won over the jury at the Venice Film Festival in Italy and earned Sokurov the prestigious Golden Lion prize on Saturday, but the director admits Faust would never have been made if Putin had not offered his assistance following the global economic crisis of 2009.
The pair met to discuss the plans for the movie and Sokurov was shocked to receive an offer of $10.9 million (£6.8 million) from officials at the Fund for the Support of the Development of Mass Media just a month after their chat.
The filmmaker tells Afp, "The film would not have seen the light if Putin had not found the funding.
"I was astonished and never understood why Putin, who has never been a friend of mine, decided to support the film... (He) expressed only one wish: that the feature film, shot in German, should be a Russian production."...
The Russian project, based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil, won over the jury at the Venice Film Festival in Italy and earned Sokurov the prestigious Golden Lion prize on Saturday, but the director admits Faust would never have been made if Putin had not offered his assistance following the global economic crisis of 2009.
The pair met to discuss the plans for the movie and Sokurov was shocked to receive an offer of $10.9 million (£6.8 million) from officials at the Fund for the Support of the Development of Mass Media just a month after their chat.
The filmmaker tells Afp, "The film would not have seen the light if Putin had not found the funding.
"I was astonished and never understood why Putin, who has never been a friend of mine, decided to support the film... (He) expressed only one wish: that the feature film, shot in German, should be a Russian production."...
- 9/13/2011
- WENN
"Freshly awarded the Golden Lion at Venice, Sokurov's latest is pitched as an allegorical coda to his trilogy of historic tyrants (Moloch's Hitler, Taurus's Lenin, The Sun's Hirohito)," writes Fandor's Kevin B Lee at the top of our roundup following Daniel Kasman's review, wherein he notes that Faust "opens the group up, beginning and ending in a world outside man's spaces." Back to Kevin: "[H]ere the Faust legend is interpreted as a depressed Everyman's discovery of life's meaning through lust for sex and power. As Faust and Mephistopheles (bearing a tail shaped like a shriveled penis) walk and talk their way through several shaggy set pieces depicting worldly vanity, the meandering but playful proceedings at times evoke a Medieval Euro art film turned stoner movie (all the more amusing since Putin reputedly pushed this film to convey Russian values to European audiences.)"
"In some respects Sokurov's straightest, most linear effort,...
"In some respects Sokurov's straightest, most linear effort,...
- 9/13/2011
- MUBI
Another new shot from Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I and a poster for The Deep Blue Sea
"Aleksandr Sokurov‘s “Faust,” a retelling of Goethe’s tragedy, won the Golden Lion at Venice. Michael Fassbender won Best Actor for his role in “Shame", Coppa Volpi won Best Actress for “A Simple Life…" (full details)
"Hard Candy" and "30 Days of Night" director David Slade says that the "Daredevil" reboot hasn't moved forward much as "we are taking the time to get the script right. No casting, or other decisions will be made until then." Slade is working with "Fringe" scribe Brad Caleb Kane on the script…" (full details)
"CBS Films is in advanced negotiations to reel in U.S. distribution rights to "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", the Lasse Hallstrom-directed film that premiered over the weekend in Toronto. The film drew a rousing response after the screening…" (full details...
"Aleksandr Sokurov‘s “Faust,” a retelling of Goethe’s tragedy, won the Golden Lion at Venice. Michael Fassbender won Best Actor for his role in “Shame", Coppa Volpi won Best Actress for “A Simple Life…" (full details)
"Hard Candy" and "30 Days of Night" director David Slade says that the "Daredevil" reboot hasn't moved forward much as "we are taking the time to get the script right. No casting, or other decisions will be made until then." Slade is working with "Fringe" scribe Brad Caleb Kane on the script…" (full details)
"CBS Films is in advanced negotiations to reel in U.S. distribution rights to "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", the Lasse Hallstrom-directed film that premiered over the weekend in Toronto. The film drew a rousing response after the screening…" (full details...
- 9/12/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
68th Venice Film Festival Wrap Up
The 68th Venice Film Festival has wrapped up, with Aleksandr Sokurov's film Faust taking the top prize of the Golden Lion for Best Picture. The Russian director was given the award by the head of the year's jury Darren Aranofsky. This film is the fourth in the director's Goethe’s classic tragedy tetrology, following Molokh, Telets and The Sun. Faust however is the first in thet tetrology about a mythical person. His others films Moloch, was about Hitler, Taurus, about Lenin and The Sun, about Emperor Hirohito.
Thanks for reading We Got This Covered...
The 68th Venice Film Festival has wrapped up, with Aleksandr Sokurov's film Faust taking the top prize of the Golden Lion for Best Picture. The Russian director was given the award by the head of the year's jury Darren Aranofsky. This film is the fourth in the director's Goethe’s classic tragedy tetrology, following Molokh, Telets and The Sun. Faust however is the first in thet tetrology about a mythical person. His others films Moloch, was about Hitler, Taurus, about Lenin and The Sun, about Emperor Hirohito.
Thanks for reading We Got This Covered...
- 9/11/2011
- by Blake Dew
- We Got This Covered
Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson has passed away: "Cliff Robertson, who was 88 when he died Saturday at his Stony Brook, N.Y., home of natural causes, had not been a force in the film industry for years, and had not been in the top ranks of leading men even at his prime. But he made a difference nonetheless in his 50-plus-year career." USA Today Alexandr Sokurov's "Faust" bests Oscar hopefuls for top honors at the Venice Film Festival: "Aleksandr Sokurov‘s 'Faust,' a retelling of Goethe’s tragedy ... was awarded the Golden Lion by [lead juror Darren] Aronofsky a few minutes ago. We had to miss the film ourselves, but word was wildly divergent, with European critics raving, but British and American ones left distinctly cooler by the project." Indiewire Patrick Mullen praises "We Need to Talk About Kevin" at the Toronto Film Festival: "'We Need to Talk About Kevin' set an awfully.
- 9/11/2011
- Gold Derby
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