With enough passion and grit, powerful, personal stories made one-man-band style can stand up against the best work of top Hollywood talent with far greater budgets.
Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy,” inspired by his own experiences of being packed off to a Christian boarding school in Australia as a youngster, was in development for 18 years, finally coming together when Cate Blanchett read the script and suggested taking it on through her company Dirty Films. After working with him to adapt the lead role into the character of a nun who fills in for a priest whose death has been kept secret, the project began to come together, with newcomer actor Aswan Reid as the titular boy who begins to work wonders.
It just won the top Camerimage Film Festival prize, the Golden Frog, beating out work by some of Hollywood’s most lauded directors and cinematographers.
Thornton’s background...
Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy,” inspired by his own experiences of being packed off to a Christian boarding school in Australia as a youngster, was in development for 18 years, finally coming together when Cate Blanchett read the script and suggested taking it on through her company Dirty Films. After working with him to adapt the lead role into the character of a nun who fills in for a priest whose death has been kept secret, the project began to come together, with newcomer actor Aswan Reid as the titular boy who begins to work wonders.
It just won the top Camerimage Film Festival prize, the Golden Frog, beating out work by some of Hollywood’s most lauded directors and cinematographers.
Thornton’s background...
- 11/20/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Cinematographer and director Warwick Thornton scored top honors Saturday at the Camerimage cinematography film festival for his magical tale of an aboriginal youth, “The New Boy,” which film jurors called a distinctive “portrait of an extinguished spirituality.”
Thornton, in accepting the Golden Frog, said he had been so moved by the cinematography work onscreen at the fest, a top global event for directors of photography, he’d been “tearing for a week.”
Ed Lachman, director of photography for Pablo Larrain’s horror fantasy “El Conde,” inspired by the life of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet, won the Silver Frog for what the jury called “cinematic high poetry,” while the Bronze Frog and Audience Award went to cinematographer Robbie Ryan for his Gothic dream-like imagery in Emma Stone-starrer “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Actor Peter Dinklage, honored with a festival director’s prize, expressed his gratitude for the Frog statuette,...
Thornton, in accepting the Golden Frog, said he had been so moved by the cinematography work onscreen at the fest, a top global event for directors of photography, he’d been “tearing for a week.”
Ed Lachman, director of photography for Pablo Larrain’s horror fantasy “El Conde,” inspired by the life of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet, won the Silver Frog for what the jury called “cinematic high poetry,” while the Bronze Frog and Audience Award went to cinematographer Robbie Ryan for his Gothic dream-like imagery in Emma Stone-starrer “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Actor Peter Dinklage, honored with a festival director’s prize, expressed his gratitude for the Frog statuette,...
- 11/19/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Rocker and activist Bob Geldof made an appearance at this week’s EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival, where he reflected on his career and revealed that an Imax film about Live Aid, the 1985 benefit concert that he organized, may be on the way to theaters.
He also didn’t mince words when he talked about his dislike for 1982 musical film Pink Floyd-The Wall, a screening of which he helped to introduce at Camerimage in Torún, Poland, with his friend, cinematographer and Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Peter Biziou. “I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad. I’m not an actor, and I think it’s like an extended video,” he freely admitted of the Alan Parker film in which he starred. “I don’t think it’s a film, and I think that’s the nature of the exercise. It’s an album by Pink Floyd. I don’t like the record.
He also didn’t mince words when he talked about his dislike for 1982 musical film Pink Floyd-The Wall, a screening of which he helped to introduce at Camerimage in Torún, Poland, with his friend, cinematographer and Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Peter Biziou. “I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad. I’m not an actor, and I think it’s like an extended video,” he freely admitted of the Alan Parker film in which he starred. “I don’t think it’s a film, and I think that’s the nature of the exercise. It’s an album by Pink Floyd. I don’t like the record.
- 11/17/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Torun, Poland, is a quiet hamlet nearly three hours from Warsaw, and one of the hallmarks of the yearly Camerimage Film Festival—celebrating the best and brightest in the world of cinematography—is how tranquil and non-dramatic it is.
Until this year, that is.
After a not-having-it-at-all “Ferrari” star Adam Driver’s slyly profane rejection of a dopey audience query got the internet all hot and bothered, Boomtown Rats frontman and Live Aid mastermind basically Bob Geldof said “I can top that!” with a much more profane, much more indicting and all-around hilarious roasting of not only himself, but the film he was there to support: Alan Parker’s visually innovative 1982 rock opera “Pink Floyd the Wall,” one of several retrospective screenings celebrating the career of Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Peter Biziou, an Oscar-winning director of photography.
Of his performance as Pink in the fever-dream film based on Pink Floyd’s legendary 1979 album,...
Until this year, that is.
After a not-having-it-at-all “Ferrari” star Adam Driver’s slyly profane rejection of a dopey audience query got the internet all hot and bothered, Boomtown Rats frontman and Live Aid mastermind basically Bob Geldof said “I can top that!” with a much more profane, much more indicting and all-around hilarious roasting of not only himself, but the film he was there to support: Alan Parker’s visually innovative 1982 rock opera “Pink Floyd the Wall,” one of several retrospective screenings celebrating the career of Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Peter Biziou, an Oscar-winning director of photography.
Of his performance as Pink in the fever-dream film based on Pink Floyd’s legendary 1979 album,...
- 11/15/2023
- by Jason Clark
- The Wrap
Classic rocker Bob Geldof is the latest high-profile name to pass through what is turning out to be a bustling and A-list edition of Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, where he is presenting a screening of his 1982 feature Pink Floyd – The Wall.
Geldof plays the lead in the music drama, and he’s set to introduce the pic here at Camerimage with the film’s DoP Peter Biziou, who is the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement award.
When quizzed by journalists during a press Q&a whether he looked back on the feature, directed by Alan Parker, as a defining moment of his artistic career, Geldof’s response was definitive: “No, I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad.”
“I’ve seen the movie twice, and I was embarrassed,” Geldof continued, adding that he could only finish working on the film because Biziou made it “very easy.
Geldof plays the lead in the music drama, and he’s set to introduce the pic here at Camerimage with the film’s DoP Peter Biziou, who is the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement award.
When quizzed by journalists during a press Q&a whether he looked back on the feature, directed by Alan Parker, as a defining moment of his artistic career, Geldof’s response was definitive: “No, I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad.”
“I’ve seen the movie twice, and I was embarrassed,” Geldof continued, adding that he could only finish working on the film because Biziou made it “very easy.
- 11/14/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
A thick fog hung over Torun, Poland, this evening as the 31st edition of the city’s EnergaCamerimage Film Festival cruised into gear with a lengthy opening ceremony at the stylish Jordanki Culture Centre.
As always at Camerimage, proceedings on the eve began with a series of speeches from local politicians and dignitaries. These scripted interventions were followed by an emotional tribute to the late cinematographer and former Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president, John Bailey, who died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 81.
As a cinematographer, Bailey’s credits included the Oscar Best Picture-winning Ordinary People and The Big Chill. Bailey’s resume also included Silverado, The Accidental Tourist, Groundhog Day, In the Line of Fire, As Good as It Gets, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Must Love Dogs across a five-decade career.
Camerimage festival director Marek Zydowicz led tributes to Bailey,...
As always at Camerimage, proceedings on the eve began with a series of speeches from local politicians and dignitaries. These scripted interventions were followed by an emotional tribute to the late cinematographer and former Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president, John Bailey, who died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 81.
As a cinematographer, Bailey’s credits included the Oscar Best Picture-winning Ordinary People and The Big Chill. Bailey’s resume also included Silverado, The Accidental Tourist, Groundhog Day, In the Line of Fire, As Good as It Gets, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Must Love Dogs across a five-decade career.
Camerimage festival director Marek Zydowicz led tributes to Bailey,...
- 11/11/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Just weeks before the 31st edition of Poland’s EnergaCamerimage gets underway, there was a groundbreaking for the planned European Film Center Camerimage, a Pln 600 million (roughly ($144 million) cultural center that will be built in host city Toruń and used in future years as the international cinematography film festival’s main venue. Plans call for the center to include a main screening room with seating for roughly 1,500, as well as three 200-300-seat screening rooms, a soundstage for production and postproduction facilities.
The new center underscores the growth of the festival, which has become a bellwether for what’s to come in the cinematography Oscar race. In three of the past four years, the winner of Camerimage’s Golden Frog has gone on to earn an Oscar nomination in cinematography, including 2019’s Joker and 2020’s Nomadland and 2022’s Tár.
According to festival director Marek Żydowicz, more than 1,000 films were viewed...
The new center underscores the growth of the festival, which has become a bellwether for what’s to come in the cinematography Oscar race. In three of the past four years, the winner of Camerimage’s Golden Frog has gone on to earn an Oscar nomination in cinematography, including 2019’s Joker and 2020’s Nomadland and 2022’s Tár.
According to festival director Marek Żydowicz, more than 1,000 films were viewed...
- 11/11/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There was an emotional start to the 31st EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival as news spread that John Bailey — the cinematographer behind films such as Ordinary People, The Big Chill and As Good As It Gets, and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — died Friday at age 81.
During Saturday’s opening ceremony, festival director Marek Żydowicz gave a heartfelt tribute to the Dp as he opened Camerimage, which is held annually in Toruń, Poland. “It is very difficult for me to talk about it,” he said, introducing a black-and-while clip featuring portions of Bailey’s 2019 speech when he accepted the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award. Bailey and his wife, Oscar-nominated editor Carol Littleton, had attended the festival on multiple occasions. Żydowicz also emphasized the bond between Camerimage and the Motion Picture Academy that Bailey helped to strengthen. He said, “John, you will forever be in our hearts.
During Saturday’s opening ceremony, festival director Marek Żydowicz gave a heartfelt tribute to the Dp as he opened Camerimage, which is held annually in Toruń, Poland. “It is very difficult for me to talk about it,” he said, introducing a black-and-while clip featuring portions of Bailey’s 2019 speech when he accepted the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award. Bailey and his wife, Oscar-nominated editor Carol Littleton, had attended the festival on multiple occasions. Żydowicz also emphasized the bond between Camerimage and the Motion Picture Academy that Bailey helped to strengthen. He said, “John, you will forever be in our hearts.
- 11/11/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 31st edition of the Camerimage Film Festival, Europe’s top cinematography event, will welcome a host of stellar guests to the Gothic Polish town of Torun, including Adam Driver, Sean Penn and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer.
Driver and Penn will screen their latest films, respectively, the high-octane biopic “Ferrari” and the portrait of Eastern Europe’s most remarkable wartime president, Volodymyr Zelensky, “Superpower.”
As regular fest guests have learned, the calendar of film screenings is just as important to study as the schedule for panels, seminars and masterclasses. That’s because Camerimage, with limited event space for now, strategically holds filmmaker talks following film projections, often in the same hall of the Jordanki cinema space.
Which means opening-night audiences who linger after Camerimage screens Robbie Ryan-shot “Poor Things,” the Frankenstein-esque fairytale by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Emma Stone, will be able to...
Driver and Penn will screen their latest films, respectively, the high-octane biopic “Ferrari” and the portrait of Eastern Europe’s most remarkable wartime president, Volodymyr Zelensky, “Superpower.”
As regular fest guests have learned, the calendar of film screenings is just as important to study as the schedule for panels, seminars and masterclasses. That’s because Camerimage, with limited event space for now, strategically holds filmmaker talks following film projections, often in the same hall of the Jordanki cinema space.
Which means opening-night audiences who linger after Camerimage screens Robbie Ryan-shot “Poor Things,” the Frankenstein-esque fairytale by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Emma Stone, will be able to...
- 11/6/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Clockwise from top left: Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (Emi); Stop Making Sense (Palm Pictures); Prince: Sign O The Times (Cineplex Odeon Films); Madonna: Truth Or Dare (DVD: Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment); Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce (Netflix); U2: Rattle And Hum (Paramount Pictures)Graphic: Libby...
- 10/12/2023
- by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
- avclub.com
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things will be the opening night film at the 31st edition of EnergaCamerimage, the international cinematography film festival.
At Camerimage, Poor Things will also screen as part of the main competition. The film, which received the Golden Lion last month at the Venice Film Festival, stars Emma Stone (who also produced), Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo. Searchlight Pictures plans to release the awards contender on Dec. 8.
Poor Things cinematographer Robbie Ryan will introduce the film at the festival. Lanthimos and Ryan previously collaborated on The Favourite, which in 2018 was awarded Camerimage’s Audience Award.
Camerimage runs from Nov. 11-18 in Torun, Poland. As previously announced, British Dp Peter Biziou, who was Oscar-nominated for Mississippi Burning, is scheduled to accept the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Peter Zeitlinger and helmer Werner Herz are slated to be honored with the cinematographer-director duo award.
At Camerimage, Poor Things will also screen as part of the main competition. The film, which received the Golden Lion last month at the Venice Film Festival, stars Emma Stone (who also produced), Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo. Searchlight Pictures plans to release the awards contender on Dec. 8.
Poor Things cinematographer Robbie Ryan will introduce the film at the festival. Lanthimos and Ryan previously collaborated on The Favourite, which in 2018 was awarded Camerimage’s Audience Award.
Camerimage runs from Nov. 11-18 in Torun, Poland. As previously announced, British Dp Peter Biziou, who was Oscar-nominated for Mississippi Burning, is scheduled to accept the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Peter Zeitlinger and helmer Werner Herz are slated to be honored with the cinematographer-director duo award.
- 10/10/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” — his rapturously-received follow-up to 2018 awards darling “The Favourite” — has been selected as the opening-night film for the 31st EnergaCamerimage festival, which honors the best and the brightest in cinematography in Toruń, Poland every November. The film’s director of photography, Robbie Ryan, received the Camerimage Golden Frog — their top prize — for his moody black-and-white work on Mike Mills’ 2021 film “C’mon C’mon,” which also won the 2021 Audience Award.
The film has been on a roll since premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival, winning the Golden Lion and launching the notepads of awards prognosticators everywhere. It landed as a major contender for Searchlight Pictures in the top Oscar categories, including Best Picture — not to mention lots of buzz for stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe.
The 31st annual gathering has already announced Werner Herzog and his cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger will receive the Camerimage Duo Award,...
The film has been on a roll since premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival, winning the Golden Lion and launching the notepads of awards prognosticators everywhere. It landed as a major contender for Searchlight Pictures in the top Oscar categories, including Best Picture — not to mention lots of buzz for stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe.
The 31st annual gathering has already announced Werner Herzog and his cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger will receive the Camerimage Duo Award,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Jason Clark
- The Wrap
Celebrated director (and sometime actor) Werner Herzog and his longtime cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger will be bestowed with the Cinematographer-Director Duo Award at this year’s 31st EnergaCamerimage festival this fall in Toruń, Poland, a European celebration of the best-of-the-best cinematographers around the world. The honor will also include a retrospective of their work which will include narrative features as well as documentaries.
Herzog and Zeitlinger first collaborated on the 1995 German film “Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices” and have teamed up for many of the former’s most notable films, including “Grizzly Man,” “Rescue Dawn,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Into the Abyss.” It is expected a number of these films will be shown alongside the soon-to-be-announced competition films at Camerimage.
Joining Herzog and Zeitlinger for honors at the 2023 fest is the already-announced, Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Biziou, the lenser behind such films as “Time Bandits,” “The Truman Show,...
Herzog and Zeitlinger first collaborated on the 1995 German film “Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices” and have teamed up for many of the former’s most notable films, including “Grizzly Man,” “Rescue Dawn,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Into the Abyss.” It is expected a number of these films will be shown alongside the soon-to-be-announced competition films at Camerimage.
Joining Herzog and Zeitlinger for honors at the 2023 fest is the already-announced, Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Biziou, the lenser behind such films as “Time Bandits,” “The Truman Show,...
- 8/24/2023
- by Jason Clark
- The Wrap
Camerimage Film Festival, which is devoted to the art of cinematography, is to pay tribute to Peter Biziou. The British cinematographer, who won an Oscar for “Mississippi Burning,” and was BAFTA nominated for “The Truman Show,” will receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Biziou, the son of cinematographer-animator Leon Bijou, started his career at an animation company in London. In the mid-sixties, he started to light film sets for commercials and shorts, which helped foster “his innate intuition and his courage to implement innovation,” the festival said. He worked with the likes of Len Fulford, Bob Brooks, Terence Donovan, John Swannell and Frank Budgen.
His work with fashion photographer Robert Freeman brought an invitation for Biziou to be in charge of the visuals on Freeman’s fiction film debut, 1969’s “Secret World,” starring Jacqueline Bisset, which was well-received.
He then worked on Alan Parker’s “Bugsy Malone” (1976), Terry Jones...
Biziou, the son of cinematographer-animator Leon Bijou, started his career at an animation company in London. In the mid-sixties, he started to light film sets for commercials and shorts, which helped foster “his innate intuition and his courage to implement innovation,” the festival said. He worked with the likes of Len Fulford, Bob Brooks, Terence Donovan, John Swannell and Frank Budgen.
His work with fashion photographer Robert Freeman brought an invitation for Biziou to be in charge of the visuals on Freeman’s fiction film debut, 1969’s “Secret World,” starring Jacqueline Bisset, which was well-received.
He then worked on Alan Parker’s “Bugsy Malone” (1976), Terry Jones...
- 7/19/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Cinematographer Peter Biziou — who earned an Oscar and BAFTA for Alan Parker-directed 1988 film Mississippi Burning — will receive the lifetime achievement award at the 31st EnergaCamerimage international festival of cinematography, which returns to Turun, Poland, in November.
Biziou’s credits include Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, for which he earned an additional BAFTA nom, and several films with Parker, including Bugsy Malone (shared with Dp Michael Seresin) and Pink Floyd: The Wall.
His other notable credits also include Monty Python’s Life of Brian, helmed by Terry Jones; Time Bandits, directed by Terry Gilliam; Another Country, by Merek Kanievska; and In the Name of the Father, by Jim Sheridan.
Born in Wales in 1944, Biziou’s family was evacuated during WWII. His father, Leon Bijou, was a cinematographer, special effects, animation pro and an assistant director who worked with Richard Thorpe on 1952’s Ivanhoe.
Following his return to post-war London,...
Biziou’s credits include Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, for which he earned an additional BAFTA nom, and several films with Parker, including Bugsy Malone (shared with Dp Michael Seresin) and Pink Floyd: The Wall.
His other notable credits also include Monty Python’s Life of Brian, helmed by Terry Jones; Time Bandits, directed by Terry Gilliam; Another Country, by Merek Kanievska; and In the Name of the Father, by Jim Sheridan.
Born in Wales in 1944, Biziou’s family was evacuated during WWII. His father, Leon Bijou, was a cinematographer, special effects, animation pro and an assistant director who worked with Richard Thorpe on 1952’s Ivanhoe.
Following his return to post-war London,...
- 7/19/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
British Cinematographer Peter Biziou, known for his work on pics like The Truman Show and Mississippi Burning, is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award this year at Poland’s Camerimage film festival.
Biziou was born in 1944 in Bangor, Caernarvonshire County, Wales. His family had been evacuated during the Second World War. His father was the cinematographer and special effects artist Leon Bijou who worked with Richard Thorpe on Ivanhoe (1952) and Adrian Lyne on Foxes (1980).
Beyond The Truman Show, Biziou’s credits include Monthy Python’s Life of Brian, Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), Nine ½ Weeks Lyne (1986), Unfaithful (2002), and A World Apart (1987). Biziou has also lensed pics including Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), City of Joy (1992), Damage (1992), Richard III (1995), Ladies in Lavender (2004), Derailed (2005), and Mississippi Burning (1998), for which he won the Best Cinematography Oscar.
Peter Biziou
Biziou is set to attend the fest held in Torun, Poland, to accept the award...
Biziou was born in 1944 in Bangor, Caernarvonshire County, Wales. His family had been evacuated during the Second World War. His father was the cinematographer and special effects artist Leon Bijou who worked with Richard Thorpe on Ivanhoe (1952) and Adrian Lyne on Foxes (1980).
Beyond The Truman Show, Biziou’s credits include Monthy Python’s Life of Brian, Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), Nine ½ Weeks Lyne (1986), Unfaithful (2002), and A World Apart (1987). Biziou has also lensed pics including Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), City of Joy (1992), Damage (1992), Richard III (1995), Ladies in Lavender (2004), Derailed (2005), and Mississippi Burning (1998), for which he won the Best Cinematography Oscar.
Peter Biziou
Biziou is set to attend the fest held in Torun, Poland, to accept the award...
- 7/19/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Directors interested in important, ambitious subject matter didn’t all go extinct with the rise of the Star Wars Generation. Roland Joffé’s first four features are powerful pictures that tell truths that we ought not to forget, with a couple of Award-winning gems right up front. The star power is here as well — Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Patrick Swayze. The deluxe collector’s box caps a presentation with new extras for each title: The Killing Fields, The Mission, Fat Man and Little Boy and City of Joy.
Directed by Roland Joffé
Region-Free Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator 194, 185, 186, 187
1984 – 1992 / Color / Street Date December 7, 2022 / 525 minutes cumulative / Available from / au 179.95
Starring: Sam Waterston, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich; Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons; Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack; Patrick Swayze, Om Puri, Pauline Collins.
Cinematography: Chris Menges (2); Vilmos Zsigmond, Peter Biziou
Original Music: Mike Oldfield, Ennio Morricone (3)
Written by Bruce Robinson; Robert Bolt; Bruce Robinson,...
Directed by Roland Joffé
Region-Free Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator 194, 185, 186, 187
1984 – 1992 / Color / Street Date December 7, 2022 / 525 minutes cumulative / Available from / au 179.95
Starring: Sam Waterston, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich; Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons; Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack; Patrick Swayze, Om Puri, Pauline Collins.
Cinematography: Chris Menges (2); Vilmos Zsigmond, Peter Biziou
Original Music: Mike Oldfield, Ennio Morricone (3)
Written by Bruce Robinson; Robert Bolt; Bruce Robinson,...
- 12/20/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This past weekend, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Greig Fraser for his contribution to Lion as last year’s greatest accomplishment in the field. Of course, his achievement was just a small sampling of the fantastic work from directors of photography, but it did give us a stronger hint at what may be the winner on Oscar night. Ahead of the ceremony, we have a new video compilation that honors all the past winners in the category at the Academy Awards
Created by Burger Fiction, it spans the stunning silent landmark Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans all the way up to the end of Emmanuel Lubezki‘s three-peat win for The Revenant. Aside from the advancements in color and aspect ration, it’s a thrill to see some of cinema’s most iconic shots side-by-side. However, the best way to experience the evolution of the craft is by...
Created by Burger Fiction, it spans the stunning silent landmark Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans all the way up to the end of Emmanuel Lubezki‘s three-peat win for The Revenant. Aside from the advancements in color and aspect ration, it’s a thrill to see some of cinema’s most iconic shots side-by-side. However, the best way to experience the evolution of the craft is by...
- 2/6/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
By Lee Pfeiffer
By the late 1960s, Jacqueline Bisset was clearly one of the "It" girls among a bevy of starlets who crossed over from flash-in-the-pan status to becoming a genuine star in her own right. Her breakthrough role opposite Steve McQueen in the 1968 blockbuster "Bullitt" helped catapult the British beauty to the top ranks of actresses who were deemed to have international boxoffice appeal. Among her major Hollywood successes: "The Detective", "Airport" and "The Deep". In between, however, Bisset was open to appearing in off-beat films that were most suited for the art house circuit. One of the more unusual productions was "Secret World", a 1969 French film that was the antithesis of the commercial successes she was enjoying. The film was directed by Robert Freeman, a famed photographer who is credited with shooting many of the classic album covers for The Beatles. (Some sources credit Paul Feyder as co-director...
By the late 1960s, Jacqueline Bisset was clearly one of the "It" girls among a bevy of starlets who crossed over from flash-in-the-pan status to becoming a genuine star in her own right. Her breakthrough role opposite Steve McQueen in the 1968 blockbuster "Bullitt" helped catapult the British beauty to the top ranks of actresses who were deemed to have international boxoffice appeal. Among her major Hollywood successes: "The Detective", "Airport" and "The Deep". In between, however, Bisset was open to appearing in off-beat films that were most suited for the art house circuit. One of the more unusual productions was "Secret World", a 1969 French film that was the antithesis of the commercial successes she was enjoying. The film was directed by Robert Freeman, a famed photographer who is credited with shooting many of the classic album covers for The Beatles. (Some sources credit Paul Feyder as co-director...
- 3/9/2015
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Terry Gilliam’s second solo directorial effort, Time Bandits, remains an oddly hilarious bridge between his work with the Monty Python gang and his subsequent dystopian solo films like Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and even last year’s The Zero Theorem. Drenched in English dry wit and warped by the cartoonist’s soul that pervades all of Gilliam’s work, the film sees a gang of little people abandoning their posts as the creator’s right hand men to leap through the corridors of time pillaging as many treasures as they can drag with them, while a child gets wrapped up in the mischief along the way. Of its period in more ways that one, it feels a bit like a valiant attempt at emulating Spielberg with Gilliam-Goggles on.
With a stolen map of all time and space in hand, the little gang of burglars, led by Randall (played by a...
With a stolen map of all time and space in hand, the little gang of burglars, led by Randall (played by a...
- 12/16/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
DVD Release Date: May 7, 2013
Price: DVD $19.95
Studio: Hen’s Tooth
Rupert Everett (l.) and Colin Firth star in Another Country.
Rupert Everett (Hysteria) and Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) star in the 1984 biographical drama-romance Another Country, which marked Firth’s movie debut and one of Everett’s first starring roles.
Set in England in 1932, the film focuses on Guy Bennett (Everett), an upper classman attending an elite British boys’ school. Amid an atmosphere of wealth and privilege, the flamboyant Guy embraces awareness of his gay identity just as his best friend Tommy (Firth) faces a growing preoccupation with Karl Marx. Each rebels in his own way against the demands of social conformity. But it is Guy’s infatuation with an underclassman (Cary Elwes, No Strings Attached) that takes center stage as his contempt for authority clashes with the school’s rigid code of conduct.
The PG-rated Another Country was...
Price: DVD $19.95
Studio: Hen’s Tooth
Rupert Everett (l.) and Colin Firth star in Another Country.
Rupert Everett (Hysteria) and Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) star in the 1984 biographical drama-romance Another Country, which marked Firth’s movie debut and one of Everett’s first starring roles.
Set in England in 1932, the film focuses on Guy Bennett (Everett), an upper classman attending an elite British boys’ school. Amid an atmosphere of wealth and privilege, the flamboyant Guy embraces awareness of his gay identity just as his best friend Tommy (Firth) faces a growing preoccupation with Karl Marx. Each rebels in his own way against the demands of social conformity. But it is Guy’s infatuation with an underclassman (Cary Elwes, No Strings Attached) that takes center stage as his contempt for authority clashes with the school’s rigid code of conduct.
The PG-rated Another Country was...
- 2/15/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Derailed
The ads for "Derailed", starring Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston as a pair of doomed, illicit lovers, are accompanied by the tagline, "They Never Saw It Coming".
That would have to make them about the only ones.
Aiming for "Strangers on a Train" or "The Postman Always Rings Twice" but ending up looking a lot more like the lesser elements of "Unfaithful", this flaccid psychological thriller keeps spoiling its own surprise by constantly signaling the big plot twist.
And because that means they won't have to keep on guessing, audiences will have a lot of time on their hands noticing how Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom's first English-language feature never really ratchets up the suspense or how the casting of Aniston and Owen fails to generate those crucial sparks.
As a result, this debut release under the Weinstein Co. banner likely won't make the kind of splash it's looking for, though it could still conduct some moderate business with female-skewing thrill-seekers.
Adapted by Stuart Beattie ("Collateral") from a novel by James Siegel, the story centers on Charles Schine (Owen), a Chicago advertising man who finds himself on the commuter train to work one day without cash to pay for his ticket.
Springing for the nine bucks is alluring fellow passenger Lucinda Harris (Aniston), who, it turns out, works in the financial industry and, like Schine, is married with a child.
But that doesn't prevent them from taking more than a shine to each other, meeting for lunches and early evening cocktails, leading to a would-be tryst in a seedy hotel room that is rudely and fatefully interrupted by the intrusion of a brutal trespasser (Vincent Cassel) who holds them up at gunpoint, beats up Schine and sexually assaults Aniston.
A nasty game of blackmail escalates, leading to the intended big reveal, but truth be told, the plot jumped the tracks long before the train pulled into the station.
In the hands of director Hafstrom, whose previous film, "Evil" was a foreign-language Oscar nominee, "Derailed" telegraphs its every turn while never making a credible case for the characters' unfaithful behavior.
Part of the problem is in the casting of its two dependable leads who both bring very specific qualities to the table -- a fundamental decency with Aniston and a soulful melancholy with Owen -- and those attributes simply don't serve this type of story effectively. Their relationship never achieves that pulpy, darkly driven passionate intensity required to command an equally pounding punishment.
Also lacking is a distinct visual style, an attribute that the otherwise soapy "Unfaithful" had in spades (not to mention that terrific Diane Lane performance), leaving "Derailed", which happens to have been shot by "Unfaithful" cinematographer Peter Biziou, to chug along drearily to a long-awaited destination.
Derailed
The Weinstein Co.
The Weinstein Co. and Miramax Films present a di Bonaventura Pictures production in association with Patalex V Prods.
A film by Mikael Hafstrom
Credits:
Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie
Based on the novel by: James Siegel
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Executive producers: Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Jonathan Gordon
Director of photography: Peter Biziou
Production designer: Andrew Laws
Editor: Peter Boyle
Costume designer: Natalie Ward
Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast:
Charles Schine: Clive Owen
Lucinda Harris: Jennifer Aniston
Deanna Schine: Melissa George
La Roche: Vincent Cassel
Winston Boyko: RZA
Dexter: Xzibit
Amy Schine: Addison Timlin
Detective Church: Giancarlo Esposito
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 110 minutes...
That would have to make them about the only ones.
Aiming for "Strangers on a Train" or "The Postman Always Rings Twice" but ending up looking a lot more like the lesser elements of "Unfaithful", this flaccid psychological thriller keeps spoiling its own surprise by constantly signaling the big plot twist.
And because that means they won't have to keep on guessing, audiences will have a lot of time on their hands noticing how Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom's first English-language feature never really ratchets up the suspense or how the casting of Aniston and Owen fails to generate those crucial sparks.
As a result, this debut release under the Weinstein Co. banner likely won't make the kind of splash it's looking for, though it could still conduct some moderate business with female-skewing thrill-seekers.
Adapted by Stuart Beattie ("Collateral") from a novel by James Siegel, the story centers on Charles Schine (Owen), a Chicago advertising man who finds himself on the commuter train to work one day without cash to pay for his ticket.
Springing for the nine bucks is alluring fellow passenger Lucinda Harris (Aniston), who, it turns out, works in the financial industry and, like Schine, is married with a child.
But that doesn't prevent them from taking more than a shine to each other, meeting for lunches and early evening cocktails, leading to a would-be tryst in a seedy hotel room that is rudely and fatefully interrupted by the intrusion of a brutal trespasser (Vincent Cassel) who holds them up at gunpoint, beats up Schine and sexually assaults Aniston.
A nasty game of blackmail escalates, leading to the intended big reveal, but truth be told, the plot jumped the tracks long before the train pulled into the station.
In the hands of director Hafstrom, whose previous film, "Evil" was a foreign-language Oscar nominee, "Derailed" telegraphs its every turn while never making a credible case for the characters' unfaithful behavior.
Part of the problem is in the casting of its two dependable leads who both bring very specific qualities to the table -- a fundamental decency with Aniston and a soulful melancholy with Owen -- and those attributes simply don't serve this type of story effectively. Their relationship never achieves that pulpy, darkly driven passionate intensity required to command an equally pounding punishment.
Also lacking is a distinct visual style, an attribute that the otherwise soapy "Unfaithful" had in spades (not to mention that terrific Diane Lane performance), leaving "Derailed", which happens to have been shot by "Unfaithful" cinematographer Peter Biziou, to chug along drearily to a long-awaited destination.
Derailed
The Weinstein Co.
The Weinstein Co. and Miramax Films present a di Bonaventura Pictures production in association with Patalex V Prods.
A film by Mikael Hafstrom
Credits:
Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie
Based on the novel by: James Siegel
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Executive producers: Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Jonathan Gordon
Director of photography: Peter Biziou
Production designer: Andrew Laws
Editor: Peter Boyle
Costume designer: Natalie Ward
Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast:
Charles Schine: Clive Owen
Lucinda Harris: Jennifer Aniston
Deanna Schine: Melissa George
La Roche: Vincent Cassel
Winston Boyko: RZA
Dexter: Xzibit
Amy Schine: Addison Timlin
Detective Church: Giancarlo Esposito
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 110 minutes...
- 11/18/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ladies in Lavender
TORONTO -- There is nothing like a couple of dames -- especially when the ladies in question happen to be the divine Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.
So estimable are their talents that they could turn a reading of stock quotations into a major theatrical event. Fortunately they've been given something much more substantial to chew on with Ladies in Lavender.
A period piece based on a short story by a lesser-known English writer named William J. Locke, the handsomely crafted portrait of a pair of sisters whose peaceful, meticulously orchestrated lives are seriously affected by the arrival of a young houseguest, marks the feature directorial and screenwriting debut of veteran actor Charles Dance.
Looking to land a distributor following its Toronto screenings, the picture would definitely find favor with the Enchanted April set and students of exemplary acting.
Set in a tightly knit Cornish fishing village in the mid-'30s, the character-driven piece centers on the relationship between sisters Janet (Smith) and Ursula (Dench) Waddington, who live in an immaculate little cottage, tended to by their no-nonsense housekeeper, Dorcas (the equally irrepressible Miriam Margolyes).
Janet's a widow and Ursula's a spinster, but they've acquired the time-honed rhythm of an old married couple.
That rhythm is about to be jarred out of sync when the semi-conscious body of a young man ("Good bye, Lenin!'s" Daniel Bruhl) washes ashore following a violent storm.
Unable to speak English, the mystery man is cared for by the two sisters, who eventually discover that he's a Polish castaway named Andrea who was headed for America in search of a better life.
But even with the inevitable language barrier, Andrea's presence has a profound effect on the infatuated Ursula, opening up complicated, long locked-away feelings that go beyond maternal instincts.
Jealousy will also rear its green-eyed head in the presence of a visiting artist who goes by the name of Olga Danilof (Natascha McElhone), whose presence, along with that of Andrea, stirs up a little prewar xenophobia in the closely guarded community.
It is to Dance's considerable credit that he never lets the filmmaking overtake the understated storytelling. Instead, the fine cinematography (by Alan Parker collaborator Peter Biziou), production design (Caroline Amies) and score (Nigel Hess) serve as grace notes to those perfectly rendered performances.
Ladies in Lavender
Lakeshore Entertainment
Lakeshore International Presents a U.K. Film Council and Baker Street presentation in association with Future Films and Paradigm Hyde Films
A Take Partnership production of a Scala Prods. film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Charles Dance
Based on the short story Ladies in Lavender by William J. Locke
Producers: Nicolas Brown, Elizabeth Karlsen, Nik Powell
Executive producers: Robert Jones, Emma Hayter, Bill Allan, Charles Dance
Director of photography: Peter Biziou
Production designer: Caroline Amies
Editor: Michael Parker
Costume designer: Barbara Kidd
Music: Nigel Hess
Cast:
Ursula: Judi Dench
Janet: Maggie Smith
Dorcas: Miriam Margoyles
Andrea: Daniel Bruhl
Olga: Natascha McElhone
Doctor Mead: David Warner
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 103 minutes...
So estimable are their talents that they could turn a reading of stock quotations into a major theatrical event. Fortunately they've been given something much more substantial to chew on with Ladies in Lavender.
A period piece based on a short story by a lesser-known English writer named William J. Locke, the handsomely crafted portrait of a pair of sisters whose peaceful, meticulously orchestrated lives are seriously affected by the arrival of a young houseguest, marks the feature directorial and screenwriting debut of veteran actor Charles Dance.
Looking to land a distributor following its Toronto screenings, the picture would definitely find favor with the Enchanted April set and students of exemplary acting.
Set in a tightly knit Cornish fishing village in the mid-'30s, the character-driven piece centers on the relationship between sisters Janet (Smith) and Ursula (Dench) Waddington, who live in an immaculate little cottage, tended to by their no-nonsense housekeeper, Dorcas (the equally irrepressible Miriam Margolyes).
Janet's a widow and Ursula's a spinster, but they've acquired the time-honed rhythm of an old married couple.
That rhythm is about to be jarred out of sync when the semi-conscious body of a young man ("Good bye, Lenin!'s" Daniel Bruhl) washes ashore following a violent storm.
Unable to speak English, the mystery man is cared for by the two sisters, who eventually discover that he's a Polish castaway named Andrea who was headed for America in search of a better life.
But even with the inevitable language barrier, Andrea's presence has a profound effect on the infatuated Ursula, opening up complicated, long locked-away feelings that go beyond maternal instincts.
Jealousy will also rear its green-eyed head in the presence of a visiting artist who goes by the name of Olga Danilof (Natascha McElhone), whose presence, along with that of Andrea, stirs up a little prewar xenophobia in the closely guarded community.
It is to Dance's considerable credit that he never lets the filmmaking overtake the understated storytelling. Instead, the fine cinematography (by Alan Parker collaborator Peter Biziou), production design (Caroline Amies) and score (Nigel Hess) serve as grace notes to those perfectly rendered performances.
Ladies in Lavender
Lakeshore Entertainment
Lakeshore International Presents a U.K. Film Council and Baker Street presentation in association with Future Films and Paradigm Hyde Films
A Take Partnership production of a Scala Prods. film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Charles Dance
Based on the short story Ladies in Lavender by William J. Locke
Producers: Nicolas Brown, Elizabeth Karlsen, Nik Powell
Executive producers: Robert Jones, Emma Hayter, Bill Allan, Charles Dance
Director of photography: Peter Biziou
Production designer: Caroline Amies
Editor: Michael Parker
Costume designer: Barbara Kidd
Music: Nigel Hess
Cast:
Ursula: Judi Dench
Janet: Maggie Smith
Dorcas: Miriam Margoyles
Andrea: Daniel Bruhl
Olga: Natascha McElhone
Doctor Mead: David Warner
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 103 minutes...
- 9/20/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Festival Express
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- "Festival Express" should rightfully take its place in rock history as one of the great performance films of all time. Assembled by "Beatles Anthology" ringmaster Bob Smeaton from footage shot on the all-star Festival Express tour of 1970, the film features blistering live performances from Janis Joplin, the Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers and The Grateful Dead, to name a few.
But the real draw is the footage of some extended jam sessions that took place on the five-day train ride between gigs as the Festival Express tour organizers managed to persuade the acts to travel together on the same train. The carriages were wired for sound, with drum kits and amplifiers, so that the musicians could while away the time jamming. Talents as diverse as Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Buddy Guy passed the journey exploring one another's musical styles.
"Festival Express" will have no trouble attracting classic-rock fans in most Western countries, and DVD extras will give it a second lease on life on disc. Thinkfilm will release theatrically in the United States in mid-July.
The trans-Canada Festival Express tour got off to a bad start in 1970 when demonstrators in Toronto tried to close down the opening gig, demanding that the bands play for free. After Toronto, promoter Ken Walker realized he was going to make a loss, but he thought he'd continue the tour for the hell of it. The Festival Express traveled 2,150 miles across Canada. A young Peter Biziou (who went on to shoot "Mississippi Burning" and "The Truman Show") filmed the whole thing with another cameraman for a movie that didn't materialize at the time.
A standout performance is Joplin's wild and passionate rendition of "Cry Baby". Other highlights include the Band performing "I Shall Be Released" -- a version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was sadly omitted because there is no visual footage to match the audio -- and a late Burritos lineup grooving through "Lazy Day". Jam sessions feature all and sundry.
Recent interviews with surviving participants conducted by Smeaton add context. More importantly, Smeaton has worked hard to ensure that the finished work is more than just a collection of clips.
But the real draw is the footage of some extended jam sessions that took place on the five-day train ride between gigs as the Festival Express tour organizers managed to persuade the acts to travel together on the same train. The carriages were wired for sound, with drum kits and amplifiers, so that the musicians could while away the time jamming. Talents as diverse as Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Buddy Guy passed the journey exploring one another's musical styles.
"Festival Express" will have no trouble attracting classic-rock fans in most Western countries, and DVD extras will give it a second lease on life on disc. Thinkfilm will release theatrically in the United States in mid-July.
The trans-Canada Festival Express tour got off to a bad start in 1970 when demonstrators in Toronto tried to close down the opening gig, demanding that the bands play for free. After Toronto, promoter Ken Walker realized he was going to make a loss, but he thought he'd continue the tour for the hell of it. The Festival Express traveled 2,150 miles across Canada. A young Peter Biziou (who went on to shoot "Mississippi Burning" and "The Truman Show") filmed the whole thing with another cameraman for a movie that didn't materialize at the time.
A standout performance is Joplin's wild and passionate rendition of "Cry Baby". Other highlights include the Band performing "I Shall Be Released" -- a version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was sadly omitted because there is no visual footage to match the audio -- and a late Burritos lineup grooving through "Lazy Day". Jam sessions feature all and sundry.
Recent interviews with surviving participants conducted by Smeaton add context. More importantly, Smeaton has worked hard to ensure that the finished work is more than just a collection of clips.
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Festival Express
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Festival Express should rightfully take its place in rock history as one of the great performance films of all time. Assembled by Beatles Anthology ringmaster Bob Smeaton from footage shot on the all-star Festival Express tour of 1970, the film features blistering live performances from Janis Joplin, the Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers and The Grateful Dead, to name a few.
But the real draw is the footage of some extended jam sessions that took place on the five-day train ride between gigs as the Festival Express tour organizers managed to persuade the acts to travel together on the same train. The carriages were wired for sound, with drum kits and amplifiers, so that the musicians could while away the time jamming. Talents as diverse as Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Buddy Guy passed the journey exploring one another's musical styles.
Festival Express will have no trouble attracting classic-rock fans in most Western countries, and DVD extras will give it a second lease on life on disc. Thinkfilm will release theatrically in the United States in mid-July.
The trans-Canada Festival Express tour got off to a bad start in 1970 when demonstrators in Toronto tried to close down the opening gig, demanding that the bands play for free. After Toronto, promoter Ken Walker realized he was going to make a loss, but he thought he'd continue the tour for the hell of it. The Festival Express traveled 2,150 miles across Canada. A young Peter Biziou (who went on to shoot Mississippi Burning and The Truman Show) filmed the whole thing with another cameraman for a movie that didn't materialize at the time.
A standout performance is Joplin's wild and passionate rendition of Cry Baby. Other highlights include the Band performing I Shall Be Released -- a version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was sadly omitted because there is no visual footage to match the audio -- and a late Burritos lineup grooving through Lazy Day. Jam sessions feature all and sundry.
Recent interviews with surviving participants conducted by Smeaton add context. More importantly, Smeaton has worked hard to ensure that the finished work is more than just a collection of clips.
But the real draw is the footage of some extended jam sessions that took place on the five-day train ride between gigs as the Festival Express tour organizers managed to persuade the acts to travel together on the same train. The carriages were wired for sound, with drum kits and amplifiers, so that the musicians could while away the time jamming. Talents as diverse as Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Buddy Guy passed the journey exploring one another's musical styles.
Festival Express will have no trouble attracting classic-rock fans in most Western countries, and DVD extras will give it a second lease on life on disc. Thinkfilm will release theatrically in the United States in mid-July.
The trans-Canada Festival Express tour got off to a bad start in 1970 when demonstrators in Toronto tried to close down the opening gig, demanding that the bands play for free. After Toronto, promoter Ken Walker realized he was going to make a loss, but he thought he'd continue the tour for the hell of it. The Festival Express traveled 2,150 miles across Canada. A young Peter Biziou (who went on to shoot Mississippi Burning and The Truman Show) filmed the whole thing with another cameraman for a movie that didn't materialize at the time.
A standout performance is Joplin's wild and passionate rendition of Cry Baby. Other highlights include the Band performing I Shall Be Released -- a version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was sadly omitted because there is no visual footage to match the audio -- and a late Burritos lineup grooving through Lazy Day. Jam sessions feature all and sundry.
Recent interviews with surviving participants conducted by Smeaton add context. More importantly, Smeaton has worked hard to ensure that the finished work is more than just a collection of clips.
- 4/20/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
ThinkFilm boards 'Express' docu
NEW YORK -- Indie film unit ThinkFilm has sealed a deal to acquire North American rights to the rock documentary Festival Express, which played the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Express stars Janis Joplin, the Band and The Grateful Dead, among other classic rock legends, during the 1970 Canadian counterpart to Woodstock, called Festival Express. Express features largely unseen footage, shot by Peter Biziou, and also includes interviews with various participants, witnesses and survivors, assembled by director Bob Smeaton. Sales outfit Hanway reps worldwide rights to Express.
- 1/13/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'City of Joy'
In another life, Roland Joffe must have been a preacher. Three of his four films have braved extreme Third World locations to probe white guilt and cultural misunderstandings and to explore the resiliency of the disenfranchised. Yet he cannot resist the impulse to preach.
In ''City of Joy, '' which takes place in the teeming slums of Calcutta, little life lessons come with nearly every sequence. It takes a certain amount of intellectual arrogance to impose philosophical issues on a city where simple survival is the name of the game.
Dialogue runs amok with axioms, greeting-card homilies and earnest introspection. Characters explore their navels more thoroughly than the colorful world they inhabit.
''City of Joy'' does have the advantage of its source material -- Dominique Lapierre's novel, a Dickensian tale of an American doctor who finds spiritual salvation among the poor.
But in paring, telescoping and reducing the characters and plot lines, writer Mark Medoff simplified this world until it resembles old Hollywood attempts to film Dickens: great roles for actors but bad Dickens.
Strong performances by Patrick Swayze, Pauline Collins and several veteran Indian actors make virtually every scene compelling. But the preaching weighs down the drama and the sentimentality nearly kills it.
TriStar's marketing department has a tricky assignment. If enough emphasis is placed on the shamelessly uplifting nature of the story and on Swayze's first meaty role, then modest theatrical success may follow.
Swayze plays a lost soul who comes to India for enlightenment and ends up mugged by street toughs. The clinic to which a rickshaw puller (Om Puri) brings him is run by a tough Irish nurse (Collins), who immediately tries to recruit his services.
Through force of circumstances -- perhaps in India the word is fate -- he agrees. The doctor thus finds himself battling the passivity and resignation of the poor.
This he fights with an almost comical -- although little in a Joffe film is played for comedy -- Yankee bullheadedness. Over all this looms the ominous power of the local godfather (Shyamanand Jalan) and his bullying son (Art Malik).
Individual scenes and the work of designer Roy Walker and cinematographer Peter Biziou make this a film you watch intently.
But Joffe and Medoff never really penetrate the Indian character. Frankly, there are more cultural cliches -- Indian, American and Irish -- than insight.
The domineering performance belongs to Puri as the impoverished rickshaw puller, struggling to feed his family and enrich his daughter's dowry.
CITY OF JOY
TriStar Pictures
Producers Jake Eberts, Roland Joffe
Director Roland Joffe
Writer Mark Medoff
Based on the novel by Dominique Lapierre
Director of photography Peter Biziou
Production designer Roy Walker
Music Ennio Morricone
Editor Gerry Hambling
Costume designer Judy Moorcroft
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Max Lowe Patrick Swayze
Hasari Pal Om Puri
Joan Bethel Pauline Collins
Kamla Pal Shabana Azmi
Amrita Pal Ayesha Dharker
Poomina Suneeta Sengupta
Ashoka Art Malik
Anouar Nabil Shaban
Godfather-Ghatak Shyamanand Jalan
Running time -- 134 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
In ''City of Joy, '' which takes place in the teeming slums of Calcutta, little life lessons come with nearly every sequence. It takes a certain amount of intellectual arrogance to impose philosophical issues on a city where simple survival is the name of the game.
Dialogue runs amok with axioms, greeting-card homilies and earnest introspection. Characters explore their navels more thoroughly than the colorful world they inhabit.
''City of Joy'' does have the advantage of its source material -- Dominique Lapierre's novel, a Dickensian tale of an American doctor who finds spiritual salvation among the poor.
But in paring, telescoping and reducing the characters and plot lines, writer Mark Medoff simplified this world until it resembles old Hollywood attempts to film Dickens: great roles for actors but bad Dickens.
Strong performances by Patrick Swayze, Pauline Collins and several veteran Indian actors make virtually every scene compelling. But the preaching weighs down the drama and the sentimentality nearly kills it.
TriStar's marketing department has a tricky assignment. If enough emphasis is placed on the shamelessly uplifting nature of the story and on Swayze's first meaty role, then modest theatrical success may follow.
Swayze plays a lost soul who comes to India for enlightenment and ends up mugged by street toughs. The clinic to which a rickshaw puller (Om Puri) brings him is run by a tough Irish nurse (Collins), who immediately tries to recruit his services.
Through force of circumstances -- perhaps in India the word is fate -- he agrees. The doctor thus finds himself battling the passivity and resignation of the poor.
This he fights with an almost comical -- although little in a Joffe film is played for comedy -- Yankee bullheadedness. Over all this looms the ominous power of the local godfather (Shyamanand Jalan) and his bullying son (Art Malik).
Individual scenes and the work of designer Roy Walker and cinematographer Peter Biziou make this a film you watch intently.
But Joffe and Medoff never really penetrate the Indian character. Frankly, there are more cultural cliches -- Indian, American and Irish -- than insight.
The domineering performance belongs to Puri as the impoverished rickshaw puller, struggling to feed his family and enrich his daughter's dowry.
CITY OF JOY
TriStar Pictures
Producers Jake Eberts, Roland Joffe
Director Roland Joffe
Writer Mark Medoff
Based on the novel by Dominique Lapierre
Director of photography Peter Biziou
Production designer Roy Walker
Music Ennio Morricone
Editor Gerry Hambling
Costume designer Judy Moorcroft
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Max Lowe Patrick Swayze
Hasari Pal Om Puri
Joan Bethel Pauline Collins
Kamla Pal Shabana Azmi
Amrita Pal Ayesha Dharker
Poomina Suneeta Sengupta
Ashoka Art Malik
Anouar Nabil Shaban
Godfather-Ghatak Shyamanand Jalan
Running time -- 134 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 4/8/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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