Todd Haynes says LGBTQ people in the U.S. are currently living in a “culture that just seems to be becoming more infantile in every conceivable way” and that has resulted in an “open season on queer and trans bodies, identities and youth.”
Haynes spoke about the current political and cultural climate for LGBTQ people while accepting the NewFest35 Queer Visionary Award last Thursday at New York’s Sva Theater. As the May December director sat down for a brief, career-spanning discussion ahead of the screening of his new film, he addressed his work on Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and Velvet Goldmine; making art — especially queer-centric art — across several challenging decades; and his longstanding relationships with collaborators like Julianne Moore, Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon.
At one point, Haynes reflected on his decades-long career in filmmaking, starting when the LGBTQ community was “under attack” in the ’70s and ’80s to now,...
Haynes spoke about the current political and cultural climate for LGBTQ people while accepting the NewFest35 Queer Visionary Award last Thursday at New York’s Sva Theater. As the May December director sat down for a brief, career-spanning discussion ahead of the screening of his new film, he addressed his work on Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and Velvet Goldmine; making art — especially queer-centric art — across several challenging decades; and his longstanding relationships with collaborators like Julianne Moore, Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon.
At one point, Haynes reflected on his decades-long career in filmmaking, starting when the LGBTQ community was “under attack” in the ’70s and ’80s to now,...
- 10/23/2023
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Christine Vachon and her Killer Films productions are regulars on the festival circuit, with 2023 being no different. Vachon started the year at Sundance, with festival break-out Celine Song’s Past Lives, and then headed to Cannes with her latest collaboration with director Todd Haynes, May December, which screened in competition at the Palais.
At 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, it isn’t just one film, but Vachon’s career and her status as one of the film industry’s preeminent independent producers that will be feted. The festival is honoring Vachon with a screenings of Past Lives and You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder, starring Ewan McGregor, who will also be honored by the fest.
Vachon talked to The Hollywood Reporter about her relationship with Haynes, having her films picketed, and why she isn’t a fan of looking back: “I’m not nostalgic.”
You have movies out this year...
At 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, it isn’t just one film, but Vachon’s career and her status as one of the film industry’s preeminent independent producers that will be feted. The festival is honoring Vachon with a screenings of Past Lives and You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder, starring Ewan McGregor, who will also be honored by the fest.
Vachon talked to The Hollywood Reporter about her relationship with Haynes, having her films picketed, and why she isn’t a fan of looking back: “I’m not nostalgic.”
You have movies out this year...
- 7/1/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Academy Board of Governors voted to present Academy Honorary Awards to Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks and editor Carol Littleton and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter. They will accept the four Oscars at the Academy’s 14th Governors Awards event on Saturday, November 18, 2023, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” said Academy President Janet Yang in a statement. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her. A...
“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” said Academy President Janet Yang in a statement. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her. A...
- 6/26/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
At the Cannes press conference for Todd Haynes’ “May December,” nobody mentioned the real-life relationship between schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her former student, Vili Fualaau, which started when he was 12 years old. But the movie, which stars Julianne Moore as a fictional schoolteacher years after a similar tabloid scandal and Natalie Portman as an actress attempting to play her, has clear ties to a real-life situation even if the project doesn’t serve as an official biopic.
Just as Letourneau and Fualaau ultimately raised the two children conceived while he was a minor, Moore’s character Gracie remains married to thirtysomething Joe (Charles Melton) when Portman’s arrival at their home to research the part complicates the dynamic. “The reason this movie feels so dangerous is because people don’t know where anyone’s boundaries are,” Moore said. “An age gap is one thing, but a relationship between an...
Just as Letourneau and Fualaau ultimately raised the two children conceived while he was a minor, Moore’s character Gracie remains married to thirtysomething Joe (Charles Melton) when Portman’s arrival at their home to research the part complicates the dynamic. “The reason this movie feels so dangerous is because people don’t know where anyone’s boundaries are,” Moore said. “An age gap is one thing, but a relationship between an...
- 5/21/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne will be awarded a Golden Eye for his career achievements during the 18th Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 22-Oct. 2). The British actor will receive the award in person on Sept. 25 prior to presenting the European premiere of Tobias Lindholm’s thriller “The Good Nurse,” in which he plays a nurse who poses a deadly threat to his patients. He will also participate in a Zff Masters session.
Redmayne is one of his generation’s leading character actors. The broader public will recognize him as Newt Scamander from the fantasy franchise “Fantastic Beasts,” the arthouse crowd will know him from more challenging dramas like “Trial of the Chicago 7.” Redmayne won the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the paralysed physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” (2014).
Redmayne will be accompanied at the screening of “The Good Nurse” by Lindholm.
“Eddie Redmayne is one of...
Redmayne is one of his generation’s leading character actors. The broader public will recognize him as Newt Scamander from the fantasy franchise “Fantastic Beasts,” the arthouse crowd will know him from more challenging dramas like “Trial of the Chicago 7.” Redmayne won the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the paralysed physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” (2014).
Redmayne will be accompanied at the screening of “The Good Nurse” by Lindholm.
“Eddie Redmayne is one of...
- 9/6/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Among the pandemic’s many side effects, it created a unique capacity to force even the most august institutions to experience identity crises and growing pains. And in the film industry, perhaps no organization has felt this syndrome more acutely than the Sundance Institute.
“We have to look back at how do we sustain Sundance, for the future,” Michelle Satter, director of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, told me. “We’re in a moment of stepping back and making tough decisions. You have to prioritize, and build back.”
After longtime festival director John Cooper left in 2020, Sundance veteran Tabitha Jackson took over; she stepped down June 7 and the festival now seeks a new leader. Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam left in 2021; Joana Vicente, who helped guide the Toronto International Film Festival during the pandemic, is now tasked with putting Sundance on its feet. Two years of a virtual Sundance...
“We have to look back at how do we sustain Sundance, for the future,” Michelle Satter, director of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, told me. “We’re in a moment of stepping back and making tough decisions. You have to prioritize, and build back.”
After longtime festival director John Cooper left in 2020, Sundance veteran Tabitha Jackson took over; she stepped down June 7 and the festival now seeks a new leader. Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam left in 2021; Joana Vicente, who helped guide the Toronto International Film Festival during the pandemic, is now tasked with putting Sundance on its feet. Two years of a virtual Sundance...
- 6/23/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The Criterion Channel’s July 2021 Lineup Includes Wong Kar Wai, Neo-Noir, Art-House Animation & More
The July lineup at The Criterion Channel has been revealed, most notably featuring the new Wong Kar Wai restorations from the recent box set release, including As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, and his shorts Hua yang de nian hua and The Hand.
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
- 6/24/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Every June, a barrage of LGBTQ media and news coverage arrives to announce the beginning of Pride month. The final season of FX’s groundbreaking drama “Pose” debuted in May, and Hulu’s adorable teen coming out story “Love, Victor” will return in two weeks. But for those seeking an engaging and accessible history lesson in the LGBTQ movement, FX’s six-part docuseries “Pride” is a delightful and substantive addition to the canon of Pride-related content. By giving queer filmmakers full creative control, “Pride” goes way beyond the conventional narrative of LGBTQ history.
Part political history, part cultural record, each of “Pride’s” six episodes follow a single decade, beginning with the McCarthyism of the 1950s and ending with the growing mainstream acceptance of the 2000s. Produced by FX, Vice, and Killer Films, each episode is directed by different queer filmmakers who were given full creative license on what to feature.
Part political history, part cultural record, each of “Pride’s” six episodes follow a single decade, beginning with the McCarthyism of the 1950s and ending with the growing mainstream acceptance of the 2000s. Produced by FX, Vice, and Killer Films, each episode is directed by different queer filmmakers who were given full creative license on what to feature.
- 5/29/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Almost 35 years on, Howard the Duck still holds the crown of Marvel’s weirdest movie to date.
“Over 20 years before Iron Man kick-started what’s now the Marvel Cinematic Universe—the pop-culture juggernaut that devours so much of the box office—another Marvel hero got his chance to save the world. Big difference, though: the star of Howard the Duck didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his efforts.”
Read more at Gizmodo.
Few novels are as universally loved as Pride and Prejudice, but even Jane Austen’s most famous work had its contemporary critics.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that few books are as beloved as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which was published on January 28, 1813. It appears on best-loved literature lists across the globe, is a fixture in high school classrooms, and has spawned a rabid fan base and countless film and television adaptations.
“Over 20 years before Iron Man kick-started what’s now the Marvel Cinematic Universe—the pop-culture juggernaut that devours so much of the box office—another Marvel hero got his chance to save the world. Big difference, though: the star of Howard the Duck didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his efforts.”
Read more at Gizmodo.
Few novels are as universally loved as Pride and Prejudice, but even Jane Austen’s most famous work had its contemporary critics.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that few books are as beloved as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which was published on January 28, 1813. It appears on best-loved literature lists across the globe, is a fixture in high school classrooms, and has spawned a rabid fan base and countless film and television adaptations.
- 5/17/2021
- by Ivan Huang
- Den of Geek
It’s a truism that coming of age as a young queer person is a challenge in part because one’s own cultural heritage is not, in the mainstream, commonly taught. The AIDS epidemic wiped out so much life, so much culture, and so many potential guides; before that, the private lives of queer people looked unintelligible to those in the position to record history.
Into this gap strides FX’s “Pride,” a series of six documentaries. All running around 45 minutes, these films, together, attempt to tell the story of LGBTQ life in America in the late 20th century through the early 21st century. It’s an earnest goal, met with talent, ingenuity and seriousness of purpose. Only the reactions from cis and straight people have changed. Queer and trans Americans have always been here.
The six films, produced by Vice and Christine Vachon’s Killer Films, each appraise a different decade,...
Into this gap strides FX’s “Pride,” a series of six documentaries. All running around 45 minutes, these films, together, attempt to tell the story of LGBTQ life in America in the late 20th century through the early 21st century. It’s an earnest goal, met with talent, ingenuity and seriousness of purpose. Only the reactions from cis and straight people have changed. Queer and trans Americans have always been here.
The six films, produced by Vice and Christine Vachon’s Killer Films, each appraise a different decade,...
- 5/14/2021
- by Daniel D'Addario
- Variety Film + TV
FX is kicking off Pride Month a few weeks early with its upcoming documentary series Pride. A six-part documentary that spotlights the fight for LGBTQ civil rights across the decades, Pride comes from LGBTQ filmmakers Tom Kalin, Andrew Ahn, Cheryl Dunye, Anthony Caronna, Alex Smith, Yance Ford and Ro Haber as they examine the history of LGBTQ pride from the 1950s through the 2000s. Watch the Pride first look […]
The post ‘Pride’ First Look: FX Documentary Series Spotlights the Fight for LGBTQ Civil Rights appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Pride’ First Look: FX Documentary Series Spotlights the Fight for LGBTQ Civil Rights appeared first on /Film.
- 5/10/2021
- by Hoai-Tran Bui
- Slash Film
FX’s upcoming docuseries about the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights in America, “Pride,” has set its full director slate and lined up a May premiere date at the cable network.
The six-part series, which will begin with the 1950s and work forward through the decades, will see six LGBTQ+ directors explore stories ranging from the FBI surveillance of homosexuals during the 1950s Lavender Scare to the “Culture Wars” of the 1990s and beyond. Civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin, writer Audre Lord and Senators Tammy Baldwin and Lester Hunt are among those interviewed for the series.
Directors include Tom Kalin (“Swoon”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), Cheryl Dunye (“The Watermelon Woman”), Anthony Caronna and Alex Smith (“Susanne Bartsch: On Top”), Yance Ford (“Strong Island”) and Ro Haber (“Pose”).
The series will premiere with its first three episodes airing back-to-back on May 14. The second half of the series will air the following week...
The six-part series, which will begin with the 1950s and work forward through the decades, will see six LGBTQ+ directors explore stories ranging from the FBI surveillance of homosexuals during the 1950s Lavender Scare to the “Culture Wars” of the 1990s and beyond. Civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin, writer Audre Lord and Senators Tammy Baldwin and Lester Hunt are among those interviewed for the series.
Directors include Tom Kalin (“Swoon”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), Cheryl Dunye (“The Watermelon Woman”), Anthony Caronna and Alex Smith (“Susanne Bartsch: On Top”), Yance Ford (“Strong Island”) and Ro Haber (“Pose”).
The series will premiere with its first three episodes airing back-to-back on May 14. The second half of the series will air the following week...
- 3/30/2021
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap
In a world where only 18 (a number that’s doubled in the last seven years) of the 390 members of the American Society of Cinematographers are women, the trailblazing career of Ellen Kuras has long been a guiding light, but not simply because of the odds she overcame, but the work itself.
“Her work told me it was possible not just to be a female Dp, because all that is is a gender, but she’s good at what she does,” said “Black Panther” cinematographer and devoted Kuras fan Rachel Morrison. “Her work really spoke to me and spoke to the masses, and I liked that the work wasn’t gendered.”
Kuras has given us cinematography as bold as the films she’s drawn to, and the directors who are drawn to her. When we look back at what was best about independent films from the 1990s it’s often best...
“Her work told me it was possible not just to be a female Dp, because all that is is a gender, but she’s good at what she does,” said “Black Panther” cinematographer and devoted Kuras fan Rachel Morrison. “Her work really spoke to me and spoke to the masses, and I liked that the work wasn’t gendered.”
Kuras has given us cinematography as bold as the films she’s drawn to, and the directors who are drawn to her. When we look back at what was best about independent films from the 1990s it’s often best...
- 12/3/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
30 Major Filmmakers Salute Strand Releasing’s 30 Years of Arthouse Distribution With New Short Films
For three decades, Strand Releasing has remained at the cutting-edge of arthouse distribution in America. Now, many of those filmmakers are returning the favor. For its 30th anniversary this fall, the company has commissioned 30 new short films shot on iPhones directed by world-class filmmakers. Entitled “30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing,” the shorts will screen at several venues around the country this fall. The selection of shorts was produced by filmmaker Connor Jessup (“Simon’s Forest”), who also contributed to the selection.
Each short runs around one minute. Contributors include auteurs such as John Waters, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Catherine Breillat, in addition to emerging filmmakers like Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), and Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”). Two shorts from the project, from filmmakers Karim Ainouz and Fatih Akin, can be viewed here.
Strand Releasing was founded in 1989 by partners Jon Gerrans, Marcus Hu, and Mike Thomas. The company took...
Each short runs around one minute. Contributors include auteurs such as John Waters, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Catherine Breillat, in addition to emerging filmmakers like Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), and Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”). Two shorts from the project, from filmmakers Karim Ainouz and Fatih Akin, can be viewed here.
Strand Releasing was founded in 1989 by partners Jon Gerrans, Marcus Hu, and Mike Thomas. The company took...
- 9/18/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Mary Harron speaks about Charles Manson with the detached empathy of a psychiatrist. In discussions with Matt Smith, who transforms wildly from the Prince Philip we know and love to hate on “The Crown” into the famed cult leader in “Charlie Says,” Harron’s new film, the director emphasized Manson’s tough upbringing. Manson was institutionalized from a young age, having “grown up in prison” from the age of 12. He was raped and beaten up due to the fact that he was “small and weedy.” Her insights about him are intensely precise, displaying an almost intimate knowledge of this larger than life figure’s innermost psyche.
“[Manson] learned to survive by manipulating others,” said Harron. “He was, in some ways, completely feral. He was animal in his instincts, because he’d grown up, for the vast majority of his life, in a place of danger. And so, like a wild animal,...
“[Manson] learned to survive by manipulating others,” said Harron. “He was, in some ways, completely feral. He was animal in his instincts, because he’d grown up, for the vast majority of his life, in a place of danger. And so, like a wild animal,...
- 5/10/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
The following profile of production designer Thérèse DePrez was written by producer Ted Hope for Filmmaker‘s Spring, 1994 issue, and is being rerun on the sad occasion of DePrez’s passing this week in New York. After the standard art school stint, and the pay-your dues Pa/grip/electric rigmarole, Thérèse DePrez nabbed her first designer gig on Tony Jacobs’s low-budget consumer/horror send-up, The Refrigerator, which sent her further down the blood-spewed path to art direct three straight-to-video horror pics. The creepy crawlers allowed DePrez to hone the “specialty prop” and set design skills she would later call on for Tom Kalin’s Swoon, […]...
- 12/22/2017
- by Ted Hope
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Here’s how studios say they see it: Sure, we really want to hire women directors. But there’s almost no studio movie that isn’t big budget, and we can’t find women who have the experience necessary to handle the really big movies. (Never mind Colin Trevorrow. Or Marc Webb. Or Gareth Edwards. Or Jon Watts.)
Of course, that logic is a vicious cycle at best, but here’s a chance to break it. Director Reed Morano’s dazzling execution of the first three episodes of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” suggests another excellent source for future women directors: top cinematographers.
Read More: 7 Female Genre Filmmakers You Should Get to Know Right Now
Women cinematographers work harder, longer, and have to be gifted and tough in order to keep landing jobs. As a cinematographer, make one mistake and you’re through. Any working cinematographer has more than...
Of course, that logic is a vicious cycle at best, but here’s a chance to break it. Director Reed Morano’s dazzling execution of the first three episodes of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” suggests another excellent source for future women directors: top cinematographers.
Read More: 7 Female Genre Filmmakers You Should Get to Know Right Now
Women cinematographers work harder, longer, and have to be gifted and tough in order to keep landing jobs. As a cinematographer, make one mistake and you’re through. Any working cinematographer has more than...
- 5/10/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
This first feature of Kirsten Tan premiered in Sundance ‘17 World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Its provenance is Singapore but it takes place in Thailand. It continued onward to the Hivos Tiger Competition at Iffr (R’dam).
The thrill of interviewing here in Sundance is that you see a film; you have an impression and while it is still fresh you meet the filmmakers without having much time for any research or reflection. And then you get to see them again as “old friends” when you meet again in Rotterdam.
As Kirsten, her producer Weijie Lai and I sat down at the Sundance Co-op on Main Street here in Park City, I really had little idea of where the interview would take us, somewhat analogously to her film in which an architect, disenchanted with life in general, being put aside as “old” in his own highly successful architectural firm and in a stale relationship with his wife,...
The thrill of interviewing here in Sundance is that you see a film; you have an impression and while it is still fresh you meet the filmmakers without having much time for any research or reflection. And then you get to see them again as “old friends” when you meet again in Rotterdam.
As Kirsten, her producer Weijie Lai and I sat down at the Sundance Co-op on Main Street here in Park City, I really had little idea of where the interview would take us, somewhat analogously to her film in which an architect, disenchanted with life in general, being put aside as “old” in his own highly successful architectural firm and in a stale relationship with his wife,...
- 2/7/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
There’s a scene in Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking 1996 debut, “The Watermelon Woman” in which Dunye is hassled by two police officers. Playing a fictionalized version of herself, the black lesbian endures their harassment as they mistake her for a man and call her a “crackhead.” The scene is a short one; after the cops search her, they let her go, and she doesn’t mention the encounter again. It’s a moment of head shaking, not skull cracking.
Read More: National Coming Out Day: 5 Online Shorts That Celebrate Queer Lives
In a recent conversation, Dunye recalled a Q&A in which a young viewer marveled at how the filmmaker could have been so prescient in trumpeting “Black Lives Matter” issues. “That was an issue then!” She laughed, not dwelling on the pain underlying her statement. “I think that speaks to the power and the double-edged nature of this moment.
Read More: National Coming Out Day: 5 Online Shorts That Celebrate Queer Lives
In a recent conversation, Dunye recalled a Q&A in which a young viewer marveled at how the filmmaker could have been so prescient in trumpeting “Black Lives Matter” issues. “That was an issue then!” She laughed, not dwelling on the pain underlying her statement. “I think that speaks to the power and the double-edged nature of this moment.
- 11/14/2016
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Watch this full episode of The Jess Cagle Interview, available now, on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (Pen). Go to People.com/Pen, or download the Pen app on Apple TV, Roku Players, Amazon Fire TV, Xumo, Chromecast, iOS and Android devices.
Nearly a decade before he was winning an Oscar or stepping into the world of Harry Potter, Eddie Redmayne was a struggling actor whose big film break included incest, murder, and Julianne Moore.
Ahead of the Nov. 18 release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Redmayne, 34, sat down with People and EW editorial director Jess Cagle,...
Nearly a decade before he was winning an Oscar or stepping into the world of Harry Potter, Eddie Redmayne was a struggling actor whose big film break included incest, murder, and Julianne Moore.
Ahead of the Nov. 18 release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Redmayne, 34, sat down with People and EW editorial director Jess Cagle,...
- 11/10/2016
- by jodiguglielmi
- PEOPLE.com
A lot of things were lost in the shuffle when those Trump tapes hit the internet on Friday afternoon, but one of them was a story that would undoubtedly have made bigger waves in the film community if not for the unfortunate timing of its announcement: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is being turned into a television show. That’s right, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s wickedly creative and widely beloved modern classic is being developed for the small screen, and — unsurprisingly — neither of them will be involved in this new take on their high-concept romantic drama. In fact, very little is known about the project, which will be produced by Anonymous Content and written by “Chuck” scribe Zev Borow.
Needless to say, we’re a bit trepidatious about the whole idea — it worked out well for “Fargo” (and potentially “Westworld”), but not every movie can be so easily distilled,...
Needless to say, we’re a bit trepidatious about the whole idea — it worked out well for “Fargo” (and potentially “Westworld”), but not every movie can be so easily distilled,...
- 10/10/2016
- by Indiewire Staff
- Indiewire
Photo by Donnacha Kenny"Congratulations, Tom; you're one of the lucky eight per cent!" —Stir of Echoes (1999)Joliet, Illinois is probably the American city which more people have dreamed more fervently of escaping than any other. But after spending four hours in 'Prison Town'—long synonymous far and wide with incarceration—I was sad to leave; I'll be glad one day to return. Fortunately, such matters are questions of personal choice. Many of the area's residents, including those not serving custodial sentences, have little realistic option but to remain—trapped by personal, social and/or economic circumstances that can feel as confining as any 6-by-8 cell. "Joliet, or "J-Town", is racially diverse and is known as a crime-ridden city, although the area has shown much improvement since the 1990's... The east side is generally known as the ghetto side and the west side is known as middle class, even though...
- 2/29/2016
- by Neil Young
- MUBI
Monopoly enthusiasts will one day receive their money’s worth with the unknown backstory to their beloved game. Deadline reports that Big Beach’s Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf will produce alongside Diane Nabatoff (Dancing in Jaffa) and have set Howard A. Rodman to adapt not one, but a pair of books: Mary Pilon’s best selling non-fiction book The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game and Ralph Anspach’s The Billion Dollar Monopoly (R) Swindle.
Gist: This is about the unknown David and Goliath story of S.F. State Universal economist Ralph Anspach, who invented the game Anti-Monopoly as a cry against rampant capitalism, and was promptly sued by Parker Brothers and was shored up against the game invented by Elizabeth Magie, a stenographer who hatched The Landlords Game to lash out against slumlords and other monopolists of the early 20th Century.
Gist: This is about the unknown David and Goliath story of S.F. State Universal economist Ralph Anspach, who invented the game Anti-Monopoly as a cry against rampant capitalism, and was promptly sued by Parker Brothers and was shored up against the game invented by Elizabeth Magie, a stenographer who hatched The Landlords Game to lash out against slumlords and other monopolists of the early 20th Century.
- 10/27/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
No film buff wants to see a promising, or prominent filmmaker pull a disappearing act a la Terrence Malick, (though it seems he isn’t keen to repeat another lapse like the one between Days of Heaven to The Thin Red Line), but whether they’re dealing with unforeseeable professional (endless pre-production woes, writer’s block) or personal issues, sometimes there is a considerable time between projects.
With John Cameron Mitchell, Charlie Kaufman, Rebecca Miller, Patty Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan and more recently, Barry Jenkins recently moving out of the so called “inactive” period, we decided to compile a list of the top ten American filmmakers who, for the most part, we’ve lost sight of and would like to see get back in the director’s chair again. Most of the filmmakers listed below have gone well over half a decade without a substantial movement in this category. Here is...
With John Cameron Mitchell, Charlie Kaufman, Rebecca Miller, Patty Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan and more recently, Barry Jenkins recently moving out of the so called “inactive” period, we decided to compile a list of the top ten American filmmakers who, for the most part, we’ve lost sight of and would like to see get back in the director’s chair again. Most of the filmmakers listed below have gone well over half a decade without a substantial movement in this category. Here is...
- 10/26/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The former CEO of Focus Features who was until recently tipped to take over as head of Film4 will collect the 18th annual Outfest Achievement Award.
The producer of Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm, whose writing credits include the latter as well as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution, will collect the body’s highest honour on July 10.
It comes in recognition of “a body of work that has made a significant contribution to Lgbt film and media.”
Schamus will receive the award prior to the Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala screening of Life Partners.
“The scope and the depth of James’ work as a writer, producer and studio head, has had a tremendous impact on the Lgbt community,” said Outfest executive director Kirsten Schaffer.
“He has shepherded stories and storytellers who have defined the Lgbt experience for three decades – from the new queer cinema films of Tom Kalin and Todd Haynes...
The producer of Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm, whose writing credits include the latter as well as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution, will collect the body’s highest honour on July 10.
It comes in recognition of “a body of work that has made a significant contribution to Lgbt film and media.”
Schamus will receive the award prior to the Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala screening of Life Partners.
“The scope and the depth of James’ work as a writer, producer and studio head, has had a tremendous impact on the Lgbt community,” said Outfest executive director Kirsten Schaffer.
“He has shepherded stories and storytellers who have defined the Lgbt experience for three decades – from the new queer cinema films of Tom Kalin and Todd Haynes...
- 6/24/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
At the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival there was a rescreening of the film And the Band Played On, a film based on a novel of the same name. The film (and book) goes into detail about the mysterious deaths of gay men during the time right before HIV and AIDS research had started. Starring Alan Alda and Mathew Modine as the film’s main characters, it was made during a time when the two viruses were still new to the public and difficult to understand.
In attendance at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month for the event were Tom Kalin, David France, and Doron Weber. The trio would join the film’s actor Mathew Modine as well as Ron Nyswaner (known for writing Philidelphia) after the film’s rescreening for a question and answer session discussing the role of science in discovering new cures for certain diseases, at most focus being HIV and AIDS.
In attendance at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month for the event were Tom Kalin, David France, and Doron Weber. The trio would join the film’s actor Mathew Modine as well as Ron Nyswaner (known for writing Philidelphia) after the film’s rescreening for a question and answer session discussing the role of science in discovering new cures for certain diseases, at most focus being HIV and AIDS.
- 2/22/2014
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
“I’ve been around so long that I’ve seen the ‘death’ of independent film at least three times” – Christine Vachon, Producing Masterclass Widely regarded as one of the key figures in American independent cinema, Christine Vachon is now well into her fourth decade of film production. Her first feature film as a producer was Todd Haynes’ corrosive, Jean Genet-inspired Poison (1991), which set the tone for the host of fearlessly confrontational films that followed, including Tom Kalin’s Swoon (1992) and Larry Clark’s Kids (1995). In 1996, alongside Pamela Koffler, Vachon co-founded the NYC-based production company Killer Films, which has been […]...
- 11/21/2013
- by Ashley Clark
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“I’ve been around so long that I’ve seen the ‘death’ of independent film at least three times” – Christine Vachon, Producing Masterclass Widely regarded as one of the key figures in American independent cinema, Christine Vachon is now well into her fourth decade of film production. Her first feature film as a producer was Todd Haynes’ corrosive, Jean Genet-inspired Poison (1991), which set the tone for the host of fearlessly confrontational films that followed, including Tom Kalin’s Swoon (1992) and Larry Clark’s Kids (1995). In 1996, alongside Pamela Koffler, Vachon co-founded the NYC-based production company Killer Films, which has been […]...
- 11/21/2013
- by Ashley Clark
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Glenn here discussing queer cinema. Or should I say “queer cinema”? The term has kind of lost its meaning these days where those words are used to describe anything with homosexuality at its core. Gone are the days of directors like Gregg Araki, Todd Haynes and Tom Kalin making confronting, even angry films about sexuality that were heralded under the banner of “New Queer Cinema”. As I discussed just last week, there appears to be less of a need for that type of transgressive filmmaking anymore in our culture (although I’d certainly take it over some of the films discussed below) so if society’s going to change then I guess cinema has to change with it.
Beginning tomorrow in New York City is Newfest, the city's “premier Lgbt film festival”. Just as an aside, wasn’t one of Gayby’s (mini-reviewed here) best jokes the one about the ever-expanding acronyms of gay culture?...
Beginning tomorrow in New York City is Newfest, the city's “premier Lgbt film festival”. Just as an aside, wasn’t one of Gayby’s (mini-reviewed here) best jokes the one about the ever-expanding acronyms of gay culture?...
- 9/5/2013
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to Dark Shadows, God Bless America and Hick.
Tim Burton brings the peculiar tale of the Collins clan to the big screen. Johnny Depp stars as Barnabas Collins, a long-imprisoned vampire unleashed on the 1970s, where he discovers a colorful batch of dysfunctional descendants. Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter co-star.
Prefer camp with your macabre?
Dark Shadows (1966) Check out the cult classic that started it all. Originally conceived as a moody melodrama, this groundbreaking gothic soap found success following the introduction of tormented vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). From there the Collins family regularly crosses the paths of ghosts, werewolves, and witches. Oh my.
Edward Scissorhands (1990) Or revisit Burton and Depp’s first collaboration, the tale of a modern Frankenstein’s monster with scissors for hands.
Tim Burton brings the peculiar tale of the Collins clan to the big screen. Johnny Depp stars as Barnabas Collins, a long-imprisoned vampire unleashed on the 1970s, where he discovers a colorful batch of dysfunctional descendants. Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter co-star.
Prefer camp with your macabre?
Dark Shadows (1966) Check out the cult classic that started it all. Originally conceived as a moody melodrama, this groundbreaking gothic soap found success following the introduction of tormented vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). From there the Collins family regularly crosses the paths of ghosts, werewolves, and witches. Oh my.
Edward Scissorhands (1990) Or revisit Burton and Depp’s first collaboration, the tale of a modern Frankenstein’s monster with scissors for hands.
- 5/10/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
New York. The Last Modernist: The Complete Works of Béla Tarr opens today at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and runs through Wednesday, and R Emmet Sweeney has a wide-ranging talk with the retired filmmaker. "Whether or not The Turin Horse turns out to be Béla Tarr's last film, as the gnostic, gnomic Hungarian master has claimed it will be, the sense of finality is absolute," writes the L's Mark Asch. Aaron Cutler for Moving Image Source: "Primo Levi writes in Survival in Auschwitz that the lowest point a human can reach is when he or she is forced to act without choice, performing tasks purely for his or her own survival. Freedom of choice is what separates humans from other animals. The Tarr crew (which, beginning with him and partner, Ágnes Hranitzky, has gone on to include a regular screenwriter [László Krasznahorkai], composer [Mihály Vig], and cinematographer [Fred Kelemen]) began by comparing humans to each other,...
- 2/3/2012
- MUBI
Between Yesterday and Tomorrow
The Berlinale rounds out its Forum program today with the announcement of a series of Special Screenings, a couple of world premieres and a batch of revivals. Combine this list with the titles announced last week and those in Forum Expanded and you're looking at the complete program.
World Premieres:
in arbeit / en construction / w toku / lavori in corso (in the works) by Minze Tummescheit/Arne Hector, Germany. The festival notes that this documentary project is "structured according to the principle of the chain interview, with the first interview partner leading the film team on to the second and so on. What all of their number have in common are the cooperative structures in which they work. Yet the most important question they debate is that of their own legitimacy: does it make sense or is it even possible to position oneself outside of industrial progress,...
The Berlinale rounds out its Forum program today with the announcement of a series of Special Screenings, a couple of world premieres and a batch of revivals. Combine this list with the titles announced last week and those in Forum Expanded and you're looking at the complete program.
World Premieres:
in arbeit / en construction / w toku / lavori in corso (in the works) by Minze Tummescheit/Arne Hector, Germany. The festival notes that this documentary project is "structured according to the principle of the chain interview, with the first interview partner leading the film team on to the second and so on. What all of their number have in common are the cooperative structures in which they work. Yet the most important question they debate is that of their own legitimacy: does it make sense or is it even possible to position oneself outside of industrial progress,...
- 1/26/2012
- MUBI
Park City – Breaking new ground in contemporary American gay cinema, Ira Sachs’ deeply personal drama Keep the Lights On examines a volatile 10-year relationship between two divergently addictive personalities, observed in a style that is loose and impressionistic, while at the same time microscopic in its intimate detail. A stiff central performance diminishes its emotional impact, but the visually alluring film’s sensuality and tenderness give it a lingering spell. During the explosion of New Queer Cinema in the early 1990s, a talented crop of directors emerged, including Todd Haynes, Tom Kalin, Gregg Araki and Rose Troche, bringing boldly
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- 1/21/2012
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After a brief detour into universal critical acclaim with a 'dark, serious' film, Gregg Araki returns to familiar territory making a horny, druggy college caper
Rumours that Gregg Araki has finally grown up appear to have been greatly exaggerated. They started in 2004 with his extraordinary movie Mysterious Skin, in which two young men struggle to process the sexual abuse they suffered years before at the hands of their baseball coach. Bold, sensitive and, yes, mature, the film won Araki more critical and festival acclaim than the rest of his work combined. At last, it seemed, Araki was ready to join his contemporaries Gus van Sant and Todd Haynes in the fold of "serious" film-makers. So how did he follow up Mysterious Skin? With Smiley Face, a goofy stoner movie in which Anna Faris eats too many hash cookies. In terms of critical expectation, it was the equivalent of Scorsese following up Raging Bull with Dude,...
Rumours that Gregg Araki has finally grown up appear to have been greatly exaggerated. They started in 2004 with his extraordinary movie Mysterious Skin, in which two young men struggle to process the sexual abuse they suffered years before at the hands of their baseball coach. Bold, sensitive and, yes, mature, the film won Araki more critical and festival acclaim than the rest of his work combined. At last, it seemed, Araki was ready to join his contemporaries Gus van Sant and Todd Haynes in the fold of "serious" film-makers. So how did he follow up Mysterious Skin? With Smiley Face, a goofy stoner movie in which Anna Faris eats too many hash cookies. In terms of critical expectation, it was the equivalent of Scorsese following up Raging Bull with Dude,...
- 6/2/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This is not your father's Western. One of the things I like about the poster for Kelly Reichardt’s new film, Meek’s Cutoff, is that it isn't quite what you'd expect and it lets you know that the film is going to be similarly unique. It took me a while to come around to it. Though I liked the illustration—and I always feel that there isn't enough illustration in contemporary movie posters—I wasn't immediately sold on the typography: I think I wanted something more traditionally Western perhaps, something with a weathered woodcut feel, something more obvious. The "Cutoff" and much of the other type looked right, but that sans serif "Meek's" bothered me. The UK version of the poster is nicely done (weathered woodcut type and all), and might sell more tickets, but it is also much more conventional. It doesn't tell you that Meek's Cutoff is...
- 4/8/2011
- MUBI
(1959, 12, Second Sight)
As a student in the 1930s, Richard Fleischer switched from medicine to drama and later, between skilful genre movies and historical blockbusters, he directed four remarkable studies of famous, real-life murderers, all male, all insane : The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), Compulsion, The Boston Strangler (1968) and 10 Rillington Place (1971). Unlike the others, Compulsion is in black and white and adapted from a novel by Meyer Levin, but despite changing the characters' names and inventing some subsidiary figures, it sticks closely to the notorious 1924 case of Nathan Leopold (Dean Stockwell) and Richard Loeb (Bradford Dillman). Brilliant University of Chicago graduate students from wealthy Jewish families, they murdered a 14-year-old schoolboy as a way of establishing their indifference as Nietzschean supermen to conventional morality. Orson Welles dominates the film as Clarence Darrow, the great liberal attorney who defended them, his flowery 12-hour speech reduced to 10 minutes. The same case...
As a student in the 1930s, Richard Fleischer switched from medicine to drama and later, between skilful genre movies and historical blockbusters, he directed four remarkable studies of famous, real-life murderers, all male, all insane : The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), Compulsion, The Boston Strangler (1968) and 10 Rillington Place (1971). Unlike the others, Compulsion is in black and white and adapted from a novel by Meyer Levin, but despite changing the characters' names and inventing some subsidiary figures, it sticks closely to the notorious 1924 case of Nathan Leopold (Dean Stockwell) and Richard Loeb (Bradford Dillman). Brilliant University of Chicago graduate students from wealthy Jewish families, they murdered a 14-year-old schoolboy as a way of establishing their indifference as Nietzschean supermen to conventional morality. Orson Welles dominates the film as Clarence Darrow, the great liberal attorney who defended them, his flowery 12-hour speech reduced to 10 minutes. The same case...
- 10/9/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
This week is the final airing of the syndicated movie review program At The Movies, marking a true end-of-an-era for those of us who grew up eagerly anticipating the weekly thumb wrestling of critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
In September of 1975 Chicago Tribune writer Gene and Chicago Sun-Times writer Roger were reluctantly paired for the monthly PBS show Opening Soon at A Theater Near You, which ran for two seasons before being renamed Sneak Previews.
The show became a huge hit for PBS, which decided to syndicate it with Gene and Roger remaining as hosts until 1982, when contract negotiations fell through. They were replaced by liberal commentator Neal Gabler and human block of wood Jeffrey Lyons, who would become best known for siring a quote whore (more on that later.)
Gabler left after three years, unhappy with the direction of the show, and was replaced by Michael Medved, who...
In September of 1975 Chicago Tribune writer Gene and Chicago Sun-Times writer Roger were reluctantly paired for the monthly PBS show Opening Soon at A Theater Near You, which ran for two seasons before being renamed Sneak Previews.
The show became a huge hit for PBS, which decided to syndicate it with Gene and Roger remaining as hosts until 1982, when contract negotiations fell through. They were replaced by liberal commentator Neal Gabler and human block of wood Jeffrey Lyons, who would become best known for siring a quote whore (more on that later.)
Gabler left after three years, unhappy with the direction of the show, and was replaced by Michael Medved, who...
- 8/23/2010
- by michael
- The Backlot
Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Today’s is Spring, 1994. The first ticking clock…. Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner’s Go Fish was our cover story, Spring, 1994, and I think may have been our first original piece of cover photography. Holly Willis’s story was a comprehensive account of the film’s production and sales process, charting the film’s beginnings as a no-budget feature begun alone by Troche and Turner to one produced by Christine Vachon and Tom Kalin and sold by famed producers’ rep John Pierson to Goldwyn in a Sundance bidding war. (The lesbian feature would go on to be the “dykes” in Pierson’s...
- 8/8/2010
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Cinematic birthdays for Nov. 19th, this time with lighter loafers.
1889 Clifton Webb, reportedly as out as an actor could be back in the day but Oscar never gave him their top prize. They never give out actors the statue. Sad, but true. Classic films include Oscar favorites like Laura and Three Coins in the Fountain (review) but he's most famous for playing Mr. Belvedere, the uptight gentlemen bachelor of a certain obvious if unspoken persuasion. I saw the first of the three Belvedere films Sitting Pretty (1948) a few years ago and it was quite an... unh... time capsule.
1933 Larry King, asker of inane questions
1942 Calvin Klein makes pretty things
1938 Ted Turner took Jane Fonda away from me (the movies... same thing) ages ago and I've never forgiven him.
1954 Kathleen Quinlan an actress I don't really get
1958 Charlie Kaufman mindbender
1961 Meg Ryan have you ever noticed how people turn on actresses...
1889 Clifton Webb, reportedly as out as an actor could be back in the day but Oscar never gave him their top prize. They never give out actors the statue. Sad, but true. Classic films include Oscar favorites like Laura and Three Coins in the Fountain (review) but he's most famous for playing Mr. Belvedere, the uptight gentlemen bachelor of a certain obvious if unspoken persuasion. I saw the first of the three Belvedere films Sitting Pretty (1948) a few years ago and it was quite an... unh... time capsule.
1933 Larry King, asker of inane questions
1942 Calvin Klein makes pretty things
1938 Ted Turner took Jane Fonda away from me (the movies... same thing) ages ago and I've never forgiven him.
1954 Kathleen Quinlan an actress I don't really get
1958 Charlie Kaufman mindbender
1961 Meg Ryan have you ever noticed how people turn on actresses...
- 11/19/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Mother’s Day. Of our many Hallmark holidays, this is the one that’s easiest to get on board with. Mothers are the unsung superheroes of this world. They raise us and they feed us. Their love is unconditional. Even the troublemaker who leaked that workprint of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” online has a mother who loves him. Probably.
So we all agree: moms rock. That doesn’t mean they’re always welcome though. You probably don’t want to bring her to the bar or to some friend’s house party. You definitely don’t want to bring her along on a date. And unless you get a thrill from squirming around in embarrassment, there are at least a few movies that are best left for occasions other than Mother’s Day. Movies like these…
“Savage Grace”
Director Tom Kalin’s “Savage Grace” is all about the naughty mommy love.
So we all agree: moms rock. That doesn’t mean they’re always welcome though. You probably don’t want to bring her to the bar or to some friend’s house party. You definitely don’t want to bring her along on a date. And unless you get a thrill from squirming around in embarrassment, there are at least a few movies that are best left for occasions other than Mother’s Day. Movies like these…
“Savage Grace”
Director Tom Kalin’s “Savage Grace” is all about the naughty mommy love.
- 5/10/2009
- by Adam Rosenberg
- MTV Movies Blog
- 1. The Secret of the Grain 2. Hunger 3. Silent Light 4. Still Life 5. Ballast 6. Gomorrah 7. The Class 8. Synecdoche, New York 9. Chop Shop 10. Up the Yangtze 11. Paranoid Park 12. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 13. Waltz with Bashir 14. Doubt 15. The Wrestler 16. Milk 17. Savage Grace 18. Snow Angels 19. Encounters at the End of the World 20. Shotgun Stories I’m not sure what to make of this – but this year Top 20 batch of film’s have death as a focal point in the plot or use bereavement thematically: death of a dream, death of a soul, death out of defiance and death of a culture, society and way of life. I don’t really have a fascination with death, but I’ve noticed that my own mortality and the eventual passing of my loved ones seem to have embedded itself in some aspects of my daily routine. Death is predominant discourse and acts as a tragic aftermath
- 1/3/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
When writer-director Tom Kalin brought his first feature, "Swoon," to the Independent Feature Project's 1991 Independent Feature Film Market, he recalls attending "a charming, homespun affair" with his fellow producers, Christine Vachon and James Schamus. While there, a three-minute reel of "Swoon's" best images and moments at the market captured the attention of acquisitions execs from Fine Line and PBS' "American Playhouse." As a result, Kalin headed off to Sundance the following January with the film presold and on its way to being viewed as a milestone of "new queer cinema."That was then. Today, the Big Apple's Ifp market celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new name -- Independent Film Week, running Sept. 14-19 -- and is a mix of old visions and new strategies. Through the years, however, Ifp's goal has remained consistent: to open doors and create possibilities for aspiring filmmakers with plenty of talent but little money and few connections.
- 9/15/2008
- by Andrew O'Hehir
- backstage.com
- Opening today at the IFC Center is Tom Kalin's long awaited second feature film after Swoon. Savage Grace tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class into the Brooks Baekeland clan. Spanning from the late 40's to the early 70's, the film describes a mother and son's heady rise and tragic fall against the backdrop of world locations including New York, Paris, Cadaques, Mallorca and London. While a period tragedy, the story is embued with contemporary significance, as well as humor, light and life. Below you'll find some shaky and choppy video I captured during the Director's Fortnight press conference at the Cannes Film Festival back in 2007. Clip 1: Here Tom Kalin discusses the on screen treatment and representation of mental illness and how, here viewers will discover the gravity of it once the story unfolds and places the characters well beyond normality.
- 5/30/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
By Neil Pedley
There's something for everyone this week at the multiplex, what with Carrie and company offering something for the ladies with "Sex and the City," the Tae Kwon Do comedy "The Foot Fist Way" being an alternative for the guys, and "Savage Grace"... well, again, let's just say there's something for everyone.
"Bigger, Stronger, Faster*"
With everyone from Little League coaches to members of the U.S. Congress weighing in on the issue of performance enhancing drugs in sports, body builder (and former user) Christopher Bell injects his own story into this documentary that explores America's obsession with excellence and what it realistically takes to achieve it. Bell chronicles his own family's history of steroid use as a jumping off point to explore the wider love/hate relationship between professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs in a culture where winning is everything and there are no points for second place.
There's something for everyone this week at the multiplex, what with Carrie and company offering something for the ladies with "Sex and the City," the Tae Kwon Do comedy "The Foot Fist Way" being an alternative for the guys, and "Savage Grace"... well, again, let's just say there's something for everyone.
"Bigger, Stronger, Faster*"
With everyone from Little League coaches to members of the U.S. Congress weighing in on the issue of performance enhancing drugs in sports, body builder (and former user) Christopher Bell injects his own story into this documentary that explores America's obsession with excellence and what it realistically takes to achieve it. Bell chronicles his own family's history of steroid use as a jumping off point to explore the wider love/hate relationship between professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs in a culture where winning is everything and there are no points for second place.
- 5/26/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
- Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal Pictures)Kate Winslett in "Revolutionary Road" (Paramount Vantage)Nicole Kidman in "Australia" (20th Century Fox)Cate Blanchett in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Paramount Pictures)Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax Films) Comments: They might just be calling 2008 - the year of the heavyweights when it comes to summing up the Best Actress category. The candidates of A-list of talents begins with Angelina Jolie playing depression-era, deperate mother Christine Collins in the Eastwood picture. Instead of a mother, Meryl Streep plays a "sister" in Doubt. Her take at being a nun will certainly get her a nom and perhaps a 20-1 chance to get yet another trophy. Kate Winslet is perhaps the actress in the category that has the edge in this category and it's not because she won the award but because
- 4/1/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
NEW YORK -- Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art's New Directors/New Films series will open with Courtney Hunt's top Sundance prizewinner Frozen River.
It's one of several recent Sundance entries (including Trouble the Water, Sleep Dealer and Ballast) in the 17-country, 26-feature lineup running March 26 to April 6 at Lincoln Center and MOMA.
Helmers set to speak at the New Directors and Beyond March 30 roundtable include Michael Almereyda, Su Friedrich, Philip Haas, Tamara Jenkins, Tom Kalin, Lodge Kerrigan and Jim McKay.
It's one of several recent Sundance entries (including Trouble the Water, Sleep Dealer and Ballast) in the 17-country, 26-feature lineup running March 26 to April 6 at Lincoln Center and MOMA.
Helmers set to speak at the New Directors and Beyond March 30 roundtable include Michael Almereyda, Su Friedrich, Philip Haas, Tamara Jenkins, Tom Kalin, Lodge Kerrigan and Jim McKay.
- 2/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
At the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the gala Premieres, which used to take place in the chilly nighttime, will begin as early as 3 p.m. And there will be more Premieres than ever.
As the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening out of competition at its 2008 edition, organizers said that the Premieres section has significantly expanded. This year, 24 films will play as galas, occupying the 3, 6 and 9:30 p.m. slots at the Eccles Theater in Park City, the festival's largest venue. By contrast, there were 17 Premieres at this year's Sundance.
Although he admitted he was tempted, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said the size of Sundance has not expanded. The festival will again screen 121 feature films, which includes 81 world premieres. What organizers have done, director of programming John Cooper said, is to reposition films in the Spectrum category, which previously played in the 3 p.m. slot, into the Premiere section.
"These are films that deserve that (Premiere) position inside the Eccles," Cooper said.
The announcement rounds out the rest of the 2008 program, which includes Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight sections. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
The Premieres section showcases highly anticipated films from the American indie world and from international filmmakers. Perhaps the two most highly anticipated films are music related.
Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington's 3-D film of U2's Vertigo world tour -- snippets of which were shown in May at the Festival de Cannes -- will be presented in its entirety. The only question is: What 3-D glasses will be used?
Gilmore said the festival must decide between two different kinds of glasses or goggles. "Either way, there will be a single projector putting a split film image on the screen that are read by the (3-D) goggles," he said.
This year's closing-night film will be the world premiere of Bernard Shakey's CSNY Deja Vu, which looks at the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young reunion tour and the musicians' connection to its audience in political and musical terms. Young is credited as a co-writer on the project.
Pellington performs a twofer this year as his Henry Poole Is Here also is in the Premieres section. After discovering he has a mere six weeks to live, Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) retreats from his everyday life for the comfort of booze, junk food and solitude until a "miracle" and his oddball neighbors intervene.
Another person who will be doing Q&As more than once will be actress-director Amy Redford, daughter of Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. As an actress, she stars in Sunshine Cleaning, an irreverent comedy that will play in Dramatic Competition. As a first-time director, she will present The Guitar, which like Henry Poole, centers on a person diagnosed with a terminal illness. Amos Poe's Guitar screenplay is about a woman (Saffron Burrows) without long to live who blows her savings to pursue her dreams.
Michel Gondry came to Sundance two years ago with his mind-blowing The Science of Sleep. He now returns with his Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black plays a man whose brain has become magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of all the movies in a friend's video store. In order to keep the store's one loyal customer, the pair re-create a long line of films including The Lion King, Rush Hour and Ghostbusters.
" 'Be Kind Rewind' will tax people's patience but has a wonderful payoff," Gilmore said.
As previously announced, the festival opens Jan. 17 in Park City with the world premiere of In Bruges, written and directed by first-time filmmaker and award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh. The film, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, revolves around two hitmen ordered to take a forced holiday in Bruges, Belgium.
Two films about filmmaking should amuse the in-crowd. In Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? Robert De Niro plays a desperate producer struggling with a desperate film shoot. In Steven Schachter's The Deal, William H. Macy co-writes and stars in a tale about another similarly desperate producer who cons a studio into financing a film that actually has no script.
The tongue-in-cheek latter film "brings back Meg Ryan to the kind of romantic roles she plays so well," Gilmore said.
Premieres also is the section containing several films seen at earlier festivals such as writer-director Tom McCarthy's The Visitor and Alan Ball's Nothing Is Private -- movies that deal with immigrants in America -- which debuted at Toronto, and Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, which rocked Cannes with its themes of dynastic decline, incest, madness and death.
Sundance 2008 will throw an even brighter spotlight on documentaries by creating a sidebar within the Spectrum category for seven docus.
"The professional career of documentarians has changed dramatically," Gilmore said. "Documentaries were once a small world. Now it's a much broader spectrum of professionals and of people who move back and forth between features and documentaries, making films on subjects they are passionate about."
The Spectrum section also is where returning Sundance alums are to be found. To wit, Made in America by Stacy Peralta, who enjoyed a hit at the 2001 festival with Dogtown and Z-Boys; Blind Date from Stanley Tucci, who has come to Sundance with such interesting films as Big Night (1996) and Joe Gould's Secret (2000); August from Austin Chick, who made 2002's "XX/XY"; Baghead by writer-directors Mark and Jay Duplass, who brought Scrapple in 2004; and Bottle Shock, a retelling of the famous 1976 blind wine tasting in Paris that rocketed California wines to fame and glory, from Randall Miller, whose Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School played in 2005.
Park City at Midnight usually is the repository of the strange and the bloody. This year, though, Gilmore insisted, "the genre films are very fresh with a strong quality of execution."
Quentin Tarantino, absent from Park City for a few years, returns to "present" Larry Bishop's modern-day take on 1960s biker flicks, Hell Ride. A German-Canadian Midnight entry, Otto (Up With Dead People), is described by Gilmore as "an incredibly odd but interesting mix of gay zombies and a European setting."
The British Donkey Punch, named after a risky sexual practice, is a thriller that takes place aboard a luxury yacht. And Michael Haneke will bring Funny Games, an almost shot-by-shot remake of his 1997 Austrian chiller, only this time in English and in a Long Island setting.
As the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening out of competition at its 2008 edition, organizers said that the Premieres section has significantly expanded. This year, 24 films will play as galas, occupying the 3, 6 and 9:30 p.m. slots at the Eccles Theater in Park City, the festival's largest venue. By contrast, there were 17 Premieres at this year's Sundance.
Although he admitted he was tempted, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said the size of Sundance has not expanded. The festival will again screen 121 feature films, which includes 81 world premieres. What organizers have done, director of programming John Cooper said, is to reposition films in the Spectrum category, which previously played in the 3 p.m. slot, into the Premiere section.
"These are films that deserve that (Premiere) position inside the Eccles," Cooper said.
The announcement rounds out the rest of the 2008 program, which includes Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight sections. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
The Premieres section showcases highly anticipated films from the American indie world and from international filmmakers. Perhaps the two most highly anticipated films are music related.
Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington's 3-D film of U2's Vertigo world tour -- snippets of which were shown in May at the Festival de Cannes -- will be presented in its entirety. The only question is: What 3-D glasses will be used?
Gilmore said the festival must decide between two different kinds of glasses or goggles. "Either way, there will be a single projector putting a split film image on the screen that are read by the (3-D) goggles," he said.
This year's closing-night film will be the world premiere of Bernard Shakey's CSNY Deja Vu, which looks at the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young reunion tour and the musicians' connection to its audience in political and musical terms. Young is credited as a co-writer on the project.
Pellington performs a twofer this year as his Henry Poole Is Here also is in the Premieres section. After discovering he has a mere six weeks to live, Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) retreats from his everyday life for the comfort of booze, junk food and solitude until a "miracle" and his oddball neighbors intervene.
Another person who will be doing Q&As more than once will be actress-director Amy Redford, daughter of Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. As an actress, she stars in Sunshine Cleaning, an irreverent comedy that will play in Dramatic Competition. As a first-time director, she will present The Guitar, which like Henry Poole, centers on a person diagnosed with a terminal illness. Amos Poe's Guitar screenplay is about a woman (Saffron Burrows) without long to live who blows her savings to pursue her dreams.
Michel Gondry came to Sundance two years ago with his mind-blowing The Science of Sleep. He now returns with his Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black plays a man whose brain has become magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of all the movies in a friend's video store. In order to keep the store's one loyal customer, the pair re-create a long line of films including The Lion King, Rush Hour and Ghostbusters.
" 'Be Kind Rewind' will tax people's patience but has a wonderful payoff," Gilmore said.
As previously announced, the festival opens Jan. 17 in Park City with the world premiere of In Bruges, written and directed by first-time filmmaker and award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh. The film, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, revolves around two hitmen ordered to take a forced holiday in Bruges, Belgium.
Two films about filmmaking should amuse the in-crowd. In Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? Robert De Niro plays a desperate producer struggling with a desperate film shoot. In Steven Schachter's The Deal, William H. Macy co-writes and stars in a tale about another similarly desperate producer who cons a studio into financing a film that actually has no script.
The tongue-in-cheek latter film "brings back Meg Ryan to the kind of romantic roles she plays so well," Gilmore said.
Premieres also is the section containing several films seen at earlier festivals such as writer-director Tom McCarthy's The Visitor and Alan Ball's Nothing Is Private -- movies that deal with immigrants in America -- which debuted at Toronto, and Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, which rocked Cannes with its themes of dynastic decline, incest, madness and death.
Sundance 2008 will throw an even brighter spotlight on documentaries by creating a sidebar within the Spectrum category for seven docus.
"The professional career of documentarians has changed dramatically," Gilmore said. "Documentaries were once a small world. Now it's a much broader spectrum of professionals and of people who move back and forth between features and documentaries, making films on subjects they are passionate about."
The Spectrum section also is where returning Sundance alums are to be found. To wit, Made in America by Stacy Peralta, who enjoyed a hit at the 2001 festival with Dogtown and Z-Boys; Blind Date from Stanley Tucci, who has come to Sundance with such interesting films as Big Night (1996) and Joe Gould's Secret (2000); August from Austin Chick, who made 2002's "XX/XY"; Baghead by writer-directors Mark and Jay Duplass, who brought Scrapple in 2004; and Bottle Shock, a retelling of the famous 1976 blind wine tasting in Paris that rocketed California wines to fame and glory, from Randall Miller, whose Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School played in 2005.
Park City at Midnight usually is the repository of the strange and the bloody. This year, though, Gilmore insisted, "the genre films are very fresh with a strong quality of execution."
Quentin Tarantino, absent from Park City for a few years, returns to "present" Larry Bishop's modern-day take on 1960s biker flicks, Hell Ride. A German-Canadian Midnight entry, Otto (Up With Dead People), is described by Gilmore as "an incredibly odd but interesting mix of gay zombies and a European setting."
The British Donkey Punch, named after a risky sexual practice, is a thriller that takes place aboard a luxury yacht. And Michael Haneke will bring Funny Games, an almost shot-by-shot remake of his 1997 Austrian chiller, only this time in English and in a Long Island setting.
- 11/30/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Tom Kalin's long awaited sophomore feature (a Cannes Director's Fortnight feature) Savage Grace has finally landed a domestic distribution deal -apparently the folks over at IFC have been working on the some legal issues with the film that I described as "a poetic rendering of antithetical bourgeoisie distractions and self destruction. Daggers aimed from the eye level, brushes with nudity and plenty of polite social banter before heading into uncharted waters will guarantee that most viewers squirm".With the same sort of discomfort level as many of you might have felt with Happiness, this is based on the winning Mystery Writers of America in award for Best Fact Crimebook written by Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson, this tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland (Moore), the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Beautiful, red-headed, charismatic, Barbara
- 9/20/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
- On the Menu:Yesterday I opted to see two titles (both book to film adaptations) that I’ve been looking forward to seeing. First on the slate was Tom Kalin’s Savage Grace, a provocative and stirring dysfunctional family portrait, the sort that I like and don’t see enough of – more in the dramatic vine. Julianne Moore is exceptional good in this one. Right after the screening I went on over to the crappy little tent for the Q and A – (I’m slowly figuring out that being pushy is good). Kalin and Moore and the producer were at the table, while Christine Vachon was nearby.Next up would be No Country for Old Men at the Debaussy. One of Coen bros. best folks – easily up there with Blood Simple and Fargo. I put an X on Magnus – the Estonian film selected for Un Certain Regard section. I didn
- 5/19/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
- Studios spend tons of money to pollute the skyline and color the croisette with upcoming outdoor ads to spruce upcoming releases, while sellers might use it as a tool to add a little more oomph to their sales slate. Jerry Seinfeld uses it to make a public appearance much like a certain Borat did during the exact time last year. This high end graffiti for the flocks of folk that come here do the same thing I do – allow the assault to occur and publish the report. Scrolling down you’ll find a slew of high end publicity which is then converted into free publicity by people like me looking to add photo content to the site. Don't have a (cash) cow!: The Simpsons Movie awaiting its world summer release.The total cost of this pub (Evan Almighty) = my total net worth. After Layer Cake can Matthew Vaughn find glory with Stardust?
- 5/18/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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