16 articles
First Person | Film Historian David Bordwell Releases His Authoritative History of the Digital Transition
49 minutes ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Film historian David Bordwell, who with his wife Kristin Thompson has written the popular intro to film textbook "Film Art" for several decades and was profiled on Indiewire several weeks ago in our Movie Lovers we Love column, has been investigating the digital transition in movie theaters for some time now on his blog. He's expanded his thoughts into an ebook, "Pandora's Digital Box: Films, Files, and the Future of Movies," available for purchase on his website. The introduction is below, reprinted with Professor Bordwell's permission, in which he provides the lay of the land in today's film -- no, video -- industry: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Historically, most major film technology has been introduced in the production sector and resisted in the exhibition sector. Exhibitors have been right to be conservative. Any tinkering with their business, »
- David Bordwell
'Aqui y Alla' Leads Critics' Week Winners
1 hour ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
"Aqui y Alla" -- the debut film from Spanish director Antonio Mendez Esparza -- has received the Nespresso Grand Prize from the 51st Critics' Week. The Critics' Week Visionary award went to "Sofia's Last Ambulance," a documentary about Sofia, Bulgaria (which has twelve ambulances and more than two million people). "God's Neighbors," an Israeli theological thriller from Meni Yaesch won Gaul's Society of Authors. "The Wild Ones," the directorial debut of Alejandro Fadel, received Acid/Ccas support for distribution. Critics' Week is the oldest parallel section at the Cannes Film Festival. The jury is mostly made up of critics, who were led this year by Bertrand Bonello. Its Visionary section was led by "Tomboy" director Celine Sciamma. »
- Austin Dale
Cannes 2012: Philip Kaufman Talks Tumultuous Romances and Trying Out TV With 'Hemingway & Gellhorn'
2 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
It's been almost five decades since Philip Kaufman first came to Cannes with his 1964 debut "Goldstein," an indie comedy co-directed by Benjamin Manaster. In the time since, his varied work has encompassed wide-ranging themes, from the multiple Academy Award-nominated test pilot saga "The Right Stuff" to the 1978 sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to the Nc-17-rated period drama "Henry & June." This year, Kaufman returns to the festival with what's his first feature since 2004 -- "Hemingway & Gellhorn," a sprawling romance tracking the relationship between Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen), already famous and twice married when the film starts in 1936, and Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman), a tireless war correspondent in an era when being a female in the field was unheard of. The two have a tumultuous, fiery connection that begins when they travel to cover the Spanish Civil War and »
- Alison Willmore
Cannes and Oscar – Most Likely to Succeed
4 hours ago | AwardsDaily.com | See recent AwardsDaily news »
The Cannes film fest doesn’t appear to have delivered any major Best Picture contenders, the way it did with last year’s The Artist, Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris. »
- Sasha Stone
2013 Oscar Predictions
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
With the 2012 Oscars now just a memory, the time has come to prematurely take on next year's season. It's been an annual tradition for me to take an ignorant stab at the following year well before there's any substantial evidence in its regard (Sundance aside, that is -- where this year it seems "The Surrogate" and to a lesser degree, "Beasts of the Southern Wild," are the safest bets for Oscar). Surprisingly, it's not always a total crapshoot. While last year I might have been significantly off the mark with "J. Edgar," "A Dangerous Mind" and "Young Adult" making the best picture lineup, I did manage to properly predict 5 of the 9 nominations (7 if you count the alternates). Moreover, I managed to get seven of the 20 acting nominees, and properly predicted both Meryl Streep and Christopher Plummer's wins. So before this column lies dormant until the fall... let's give it a shot. »
- Peter Knegt
'Martha Marcy May Marlene' Director Sean Durkin Making an 'Exorcist' TV Series
6 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Sean Durkin, the writer/director of last year's phenomenal debut "Martha Marcy May Marlene," is now working on a television show based on "The Exorcist," according to Vulture. The site reports that Durkin's adapting William Peter Blatty best-selling 1971 novel, on which William Friedkin's film was based, into a ten-episode series with Morgan Creek Productions and horror stalwart Roy Lee, and that it's not yet being shopped around to networks. Durkin’s version of The Exorcist follows the events leading up to a demonic possession and especially the after-effects of how a family copes with it: In short, not well, and when medical and psychiatric explanations fail, the desperate family turns to the church, with Father Damien Karras finally brought in to attempt the exorcism. While we may be experiencing mild exorcism exhaustion after recent bouts with "The Devil Inside," "The Last Exorcism" and »
- Alison Willmore
The Dark Knight Rises, new shots & TV spots
6 hours ago | AwardsDaily.com | See recent AwardsDaily news »
Two TV spots and 6 new stills (via Empire) remind us what’s coming July 20. »
- Ryan Adams
The Joy of 'Revenge': Why ABC's Prime Time Soap Needn't Be a Guilty Pleasure
6 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Summer is over, at least in the Hamptons of "Revenge," which winterized its summer cottages and packed up for the end of its first season last night in a flurry of confrontations, last-minute betrayals and possible deaths. It was a immensely satisfying 22-episode run for the new series, which was created by Mike Kelley and executive produced and sometimes directed by filmmaker Phillip Noyce, a modern day, female-centric reimagining of Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo." To call "Revenge" a guilty pleasure is to imply there's something to be embarrassed about -- the show's overcooked, but never anything less than solid, effortlessly establishing itself as prime trash TV with glancing moments of larger resonance. It's not "The Sopranos," but in its twisty tale of a young woman infiltrating the historic beachside enclave of New York's most wealthy and powerful with aims to bring down those who've never »
- Alison Willmore
2 clips from On the Road
7 hours ago | AwardsDaily.com | See recent AwardsDaily news »
The cinematography of Eric Gautier is one aspect consistently praised in the mixed reaction to On the Road coming from Cannes. At first glance this first clip might not look like a great example, »
- Ryan Adams
Cannes: Kino Lorber Goes 'In Another Country' With Isabelle Huppert
7 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to the Cannes competition entry "In Another Country," the latest film by South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo ("Night and Day"), that stars Isabelle Huppert. The film marks Sang-soo's first English-language film (it's also in Korean). Here's the desciption courtesy of Kino Lorber: "In Another Country" features Ms. Huppert playing three different characters in three different story segments - all of them spanning from the imagination of a young film student called Wonju (Jung Yumi). Kino Lorber plans to have the film tour U.S. festivals before a national theatrical rollout later this year. Full release below: Kino Lorber Acquires All Us Rights To Hong Sang-soo's New Film In Another Country (2012), Starring The Great Isabelle Huppert. Film Currently In Competition At Cannes Film Festival New York, NY - May 23, 2012 - Kino Lorber is proud to »
- Nigel M Smith
Futures: 'The Intouchables' Breakout Omar Sy Addresses the Film's Critics and Opens Up About His Remarkable Year
7 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Why He's On Our Radar: French actor Omar Sy did the unthinkable earlier this year: he beat Jean Dujardin at his own game. Days before "The Artist" swept the Oscars and snagged Dujadin the gong for best actor, Sy beat him in the same field at the 37th Cesar Awards, France's equivalent to the honor. The win came as a surprise to North Americans who had yet to see Sy's film "The Intouchables," but to anyone in Europe, chances are they saw this coup coming. Sure "The Artist" was an awards juggernaut at the time, but it didn't have "The Intouchables"' firepower at the European box office, where it grossed a staggering $281 million ($166 in France alone). The public had spoken, and Sy got his just reward for his crowd-pleasing turn as a rowdy Senegalese caretaker who befriends a handicapped white millionaire ("Tell No One" star François Cluzet). Ironically enough, »
- Nigel M Smith
Nantucket Film Festival Will Honor Frank Langella with Compass Rose Acting Award
7 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
The Nantucket Film Festival has announced Frank Langella will receive the Compass Rose Acting Award at this year's festvial. The honor recognizes "an outstanding performer whose contribution to the world of acting has been profound." Langella will be attending the festival with the film "Robot and Frank." "Langella is one of the most respected stage and screen actors working today," said Nff Artistic Director Mystelle Brabbée. "We are proud to honor him with this year's Compass Rose Acting Award. In his role in 'Robot and Frank,' he delivers some of his most robust work, playing the role with wry wit, making an authentic connection between human and machine." The festival also announced it will feature a stage reading of Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne's new script "The Lost Cause" and the return of the Fog and Flounder Radio Hour hosted by NPR's Tom Bodett. Full press release »
- Devin Lee Fuller
Project of the Day: Biblical Smackdown in 'Fight Church'
8 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "Fight Church" Tweetable Logline: A pastor holds Mma Fights in his church, raising the question, "Can you love your neighbor as yourself and then punch him in the face?" Elevator Pitch: Fight Church is mainly the story of Paul, a pastor/fighter who holds Mma style fights in his church. We follow him and several other Christian fighters in a quest to reconcile their faith with a sport that many consider violent and barbaric. Faith is tried and questions are raised. Can you really love your neighbor as yourself and then punch him in the face? The film is being directed by Oscar-winning director, Daniel Junge and his directing partner, »
- Indiewire
Cannes Review: Is Lee Daniels' 'The Paperboy' So Bad Its Good? Only If That's What You Want From It.
10 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy" is a rare case of serious commitment to outright silliness. The director's follow-up to "Precious" takes the mold of an investigative period piece set amid racial tensions in late-'60s Florida, but Daniels fries the dramatic content with a blazingly absurd grindhouse style as extreme as the humidity bearing down on his characters. It's possible to enjoy aspects of "The Paperboy" if you assume a certain self-awareness behind the campier bits, but even then, the movie drowns in an overwhelming barrage of excess. Daniels adapted the story from Peter Dexter's novel, but there's no doubting the filmmaker has taken the material into his own domain. Opening with a former black maid as its narrator, the movie flashes back to the experiences of newspaper reporter Ward James (Matthew McConaughey), a man driven to uncover the injustice behind the incarceration of death row inmate Hillary Van Wetter (John. »
- Eric Kohn
Cannes Review: Ben Wheatley's 'Sightseers' Finds the Romance, and His Voice, in a Horror-Comedy
14 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
British filmmaker Ben Wheatley has earned a following on the genre film festival circuit for a pair of distinctive movies with two very different moods. His 2009 debut "Down Terrace" followed a family of criminals through a series of amusing misadventures, suggesting Wheatley's proclivity for enlivening dreary circumstances with an odd sense of play. However, 2010's grave "Kill List," in which a jaded hit man struggles with marriage problems, went great lengths to expand his range. With the arrival of "Sightseers," Wheatley's aesthetic strengths finally start to fall into place. This hugely entertaining tale of serial killers in love neatly merges the neurotic black comedy of "Down Terrace" with the morbid twists of "Kill List," inching close to defining the director's overall style. As with his previous efforts, "Sightseers" was crafted in close collaboration with the lead actors, who share writing »
- Eric Kohn
Carlos Reygadas' 'Post Tenebras Lux' Is a Mess of Half-Baked Ideas
14 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
A key distinction between Mexican director Carlos Reygadas' completely baffling "Post Tenebras Lux" and his previous feature "Silent Light" comes from comparing their opening sequences. "Silent Light" begins with a supremely lyrical shot of natural imagery slowly fading into sunburst colors over a time-lapsed morning. "Post Tenebras Lux" follows a young girl's perspective as she wanders around a herd of cows in a muddy open field, then pauses to watch as an ominous storm rolls in. The title is Latin for "after darkness, light," although it should be the other way around; the movie is smothered in bleak sensibilities and eludes precision at every turn, eventually devolving into a jumble of absurd moments. At turns wildly beautiful and pointlessly nonsensical, "Post Tenebras Lux" is Reygadas' weakest movie, but frequently awe-inspiring nonetheless. The director's characteristically textured visual style »
- Eric Kohn
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