Photo: Stanley Weber, Bethany Joy Lenz Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Eric Caro
Hallmark Channel’s Passport to Love programming event is coming in June, including the movie, Savoring Paris. Filmed partly in the City of Light, Bethany Joy Lenz, Stanley Weber and Ben Wiggins star in a story of love, fashion and food. Read on to find out more about the movie and its stars, view beautiful images captured on the film set and a trailer.
Savoring Paris on Hallmark Channel Photo: Lucy Newman-Williams, Bethany Joy Lenz, Ben Wiggins Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Elena Nenkova
Part of Hallmark’s Passport to Love programming event, the new, original movie, Savoring Paris was partly filmed in the iconic City of Light. According to the official synopsis, the movie tells the story of Ella (Lenz), a burned-out executive of an American food change. She realizes the happiest time of her life during a trip to Paris after college.
Hallmark Channel’s Passport to Love programming event is coming in June, including the movie, Savoring Paris. Filmed partly in the City of Light, Bethany Joy Lenz, Stanley Weber and Ben Wiggins star in a story of love, fashion and food. Read on to find out more about the movie and its stars, view beautiful images captured on the film set and a trailer.
Savoring Paris on Hallmark Channel Photo: Lucy Newman-Williams, Bethany Joy Lenz, Ben Wiggins Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Elena Nenkova
Part of Hallmark’s Passport to Love programming event, the new, original movie, Savoring Paris was partly filmed in the iconic City of Light. According to the official synopsis, the movie tells the story of Ella (Lenz), a burned-out executive of an American food change. She realizes the happiest time of her life during a trip to Paris after college.
- 5/24/2024
- by Anne King
- Celebrating The Soaps
Nicole Kidman has been an international treasure going on four decades. Whether you’re tracking her many wigs (“The Undoing” is our favorite), admiring her textured and committed performances, or just standing up and saluting before every AMC Theatres showing, you’re probably honoring her in some way.
While five best actress Oscar nominations and one win (for “The Hours”) have been adequate markers of her success and endurance, conversations have been brewing for years about a lack of recognition for her remarkable artistic consistency.
“How many times does Nicole Kidman have to prove herself?” asked author Anne Helen Peterson in a 2017 essay for BuzzFeed, one that examined how esteem is or isn’t doled out to women in Hollywood, using Kidman as a template.
“While male actors coast on the brilliance of a single performance for years, female stars have to reapply for greatness on a yearly basis, fighting...
While five best actress Oscar nominations and one win (for “The Hours”) have been adequate markers of her success and endurance, conversations have been brewing for years about a lack of recognition for her remarkable artistic consistency.
“How many times does Nicole Kidman have to prove herself?” asked author Anne Helen Peterson in a 2017 essay for BuzzFeed, one that examined how esteem is or isn’t doled out to women in Hollywood, using Kidman as a template.
“While male actors coast on the brilliance of a single performance for years, female stars have to reapply for greatness on a yearly basis, fighting...
- 4/27/2024
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
“The Invisible Man” star Oliver Jackson-Cohen and “Grantchester’s” Jeremy Neumark Jones have been tapped to lead upcoming World War II feature “The World Will Tremble.”
Written and directed by Lior Geller, the film tells the true story of a group pf prisoners who broke out of the Third Reich’s first Nazi death camp, Chelmno.
Jackson-Cohen plays Solomon Wiener while Neumark Jones takes on the role of Michael Podchlebnik.
They are joined by Anton Lesser (“Andor”), David Kross (“The Reader”), Michael Fox (“Dunkirk”), Charlie MacGechan (“We Die Young”), Michael Epp (“The Beekeeper”), Danny Scheinmann (“Stan & Ollie”), Tim Bergmann and George Lenz.
Of the more than 320,000 Jews sent Chelmno, only four are known to have survived. Two of them attempted an escape — Wiener and Podchlebnik – to expose the truth and bear witness to the barbarity they witnessed.
Geller spent a decade researching and writing the film and renowned historian Dr.
Written and directed by Lior Geller, the film tells the true story of a group pf prisoners who broke out of the Third Reich’s first Nazi death camp, Chelmno.
Jackson-Cohen plays Solomon Wiener while Neumark Jones takes on the role of Michael Podchlebnik.
They are joined by Anton Lesser (“Andor”), David Kross (“The Reader”), Michael Fox (“Dunkirk”), Charlie MacGechan (“We Die Young”), Michael Epp (“The Beekeeper”), Danny Scheinmann (“Stan & Ollie”), Tim Bergmann and George Lenz.
Of the more than 320,000 Jews sent Chelmno, only four are known to have survived. Two of them attempted an escape — Wiener and Podchlebnik – to expose the truth and bear witness to the barbarity they witnessed.
Geller spent a decade researching and writing the film and renowned historian Dr.
- 12/18/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Isabel Coixet, the Spanish director of My Life Without Me, Things I Never Told You, The Bookshop and It Snows in Benidorm, will be honored by the European Film Academy with this year’s European Achievement in World Cinema award for her life’s work.
Coixet has carved out an impressive career in what could be called pan-Atlantic cinema, making mainly English-language features with international casts but with a strongly European sensibility. She followed up her promising 1989 debut Demasiado viejo para morir joven (which won the best new director prize at Spain’s Goya awards) with the U.S.-shot drama Things I Never Told You, starring Andrew McCarthy and Lili Taylor. The film premiered in Berlin, a favorite launching pad for Coixet, who returned the German festival in 2003 with My Life Without Me, a romantic drama starring Sarah Polley as a young mother diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides...
Coixet has carved out an impressive career in what could be called pan-Atlantic cinema, making mainly English-language features with international casts but with a strongly European sensibility. She followed up her promising 1989 debut Demasiado viejo para morir joven (which won the best new director prize at Spain’s Goya awards) with the U.S.-shot drama Things I Never Told You, starring Andrew McCarthy and Lili Taylor. The film premiered in Berlin, a favorite launching pad for Coixet, who returned the German festival in 2003 with My Life Without Me, a romantic drama starring Sarah Polley as a young mother diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides...
- 11/15/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cult Horror Masterpiece, The Wicker Man, Arrives on a SteelBook in 4K Ultra HD October 17: "The cult horror masterpiece, The Wicker Man, arrives on a SteelBook® in 4K Ultra HD™ (+ Blu-ray™ + Digital) on October 17th from Lionsgate. Directed by Robin Hardy (The Fantasist), the film follows Police Sergeant Howie, as he investigates Lord Summerisle and his secretive pagan society. The Wicker Man will be available for the suggested retail price of $27.99."
Official Synopsis
When a young girl mysteriously vanishes, Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate. But the seemingly quiet community is not as it appears, as the detective uncovers a secretive pagan society led by the strange Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). While the townsfolk tempt and threaten him with bizarre rituals and wanton lust, Howie must race to discover the truth behind the girl's disappearance before his clash with Lord Summerisle builds...
Official Synopsis
When a young girl mysteriously vanishes, Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate. But the seemingly quiet community is not as it appears, as the detective uncovers a secretive pagan society led by the strange Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). While the townsfolk tempt and threaten him with bizarre rituals and wanton lust, Howie must race to discover the truth behind the girl's disappearance before his clash with Lord Summerisle builds...
- 8/24/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
When your scary secret admirer hacks into your home and computer, it’s time to fight back. On August 25, FilmRise, the New York-based film and television studio and streaming network, will bring The Admirer, a new tech thriller from award-winning filmmaker Martin Makariev (In The Heart of the Machine), to all major streaming and VOD platforms.
The thriller stars Roxanne McKee, Richard Fleeshman and Tina Casciani.
The Admirer follows a woman desperately searching for answers when her life is hacked by a mysterious person from her past harboring a dangerous obsession.
“A year after her fiancé’s death, Nancy (McKee) is trying to move forward with her life. But when her smart house and social media are hacked, Nancy’s mind goes into overdrive. She witnessed her fiancé’s murder, and now she believes the culprit has returned. When more lives are taken and the killer closes in on her,...
The thriller stars Roxanne McKee, Richard Fleeshman and Tina Casciani.
The Admirer follows a woman desperately searching for answers when her life is hacked by a mysterious person from her past harboring a dangerous obsession.
“A year after her fiancé’s death, Nancy (McKee) is trying to move forward with her life. But when her smart house and social media are hacked, Nancy’s mind goes into overdrive. She witnessed her fiancé’s murder, and now she believes the culprit has returned. When more lives are taken and the killer closes in on her,...
- 8/22/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Stars: Claire Forlani, Jamie Bamber, Riley Jackson, Isaac Rouse, Nigel Barber, Atanas Srebrev, Nathan Cooper, Lorina Kamburova, Delly Allen, J.R. Esposito | Written by Regina Luvitt, Phillip J. Roth | Directed by Eric Summer
Disaster strikes a downtown skyscraper when a gas leak causes a ferocious explosion setting ablaze the towering mass of metal and glass. On the 60th floor Brianna (Forlani) and Tom (Bamber) a couple in the middle of a divorce settlement are forced to work together to help save their two children, Anne and Ben, who are both trapped in the building’s elevator hovering 20 stories above ground. Together Brianna and Tom must fight to stay alive while teaming up to save their children and escape the towering inferno.
Hmmmm, Inferno: Skyscraper Escape? Sounds very much like a product of The Asylum, timed to cash in on That other big-budget Skyscraper movie releasing in July. It’s not though.
Disaster strikes a downtown skyscraper when a gas leak causes a ferocious explosion setting ablaze the towering mass of metal and glass. On the 60th floor Brianna (Forlani) and Tom (Bamber) a couple in the middle of a divorce settlement are forced to work together to help save their two children, Anne and Ben, who are both trapped in the building’s elevator hovering 20 stories above ground. Together Brianna and Tom must fight to stay alive while teaming up to save their children and escape the towering inferno.
Hmmmm, Inferno: Skyscraper Escape? Sounds very much like a product of The Asylum, timed to cash in on That other big-budget Skyscraper movie releasing in July. It’s not though.
- 6/29/2018
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
This year, we've asked 10 writers to pick some of their favorite TV episodes from 2017 and weigh in on why they were great stand-alone eps and the highlights of our viewing year. First up: Sean T. Collins on Girls' "American Bitch."
When 2017 lies dead and buried in the ground, "Separate the art from the artist" will be chiseled on its tombstone. But what will we find in the grave?
If it's the idea that creators are shielded from scrutiny by the strength of their creations, then goodbye and good riddance.
When 2017 lies dead and buried in the ground, "Separate the art from the artist" will be chiseled on its tombstone. But what will we find in the grave?
If it's the idea that creators are shielded from scrutiny by the strength of their creations, then goodbye and good riddance.
- 12/11/2017
- Rollingstone.com
The lineup for Ismael’s Ghosts: Director’s Cut - Mathieu Amalric with Anne-Katrin Titze and director Arnaud Desplechin Photo: Lilia Blouin
Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts: Director's Cut (Les Fantômes D'Ismaël), screenplay by the director with Léa Mysius and Julie Peyr, cinematography by Irina Lubtchansky (My Golden Days, La forêt), stars Mathieu Amalric, Marion Cotillard and Charlotte Gainsbourg with Louis Garrel, László Szabó, Alba Rohrwacher, and Hippolyte Girardot.
On the afternoon before the New York Film Festival premiere, Arnaud Desplechin and Mathieu Amalric discussed with me what to do with a phantom, Woody Allen's Bananas and the theme from Marnie, a touch of Claude Lanzmann (Fours Sister - Special Event), de-whispering with Rilke, suffering with Philip Roth, Jackson Pollock and the "real pleasure to do too much", Jacques Lacan's Seminar VIII in Tel Aviv, loving someone like an apple, what makes a good dreamer, second chances, and never abandoning Vertigo.
Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts: Director's Cut (Les Fantômes D'Ismaël), screenplay by the director with Léa Mysius and Julie Peyr, cinematography by Irina Lubtchansky (My Golden Days, La forêt), stars Mathieu Amalric, Marion Cotillard and Charlotte Gainsbourg with Louis Garrel, László Szabó, Alba Rohrwacher, and Hippolyte Girardot.
On the afternoon before the New York Film Festival premiere, Arnaud Desplechin and Mathieu Amalric discussed with me what to do with a phantom, Woody Allen's Bananas and the theme from Marnie, a touch of Claude Lanzmann (Fours Sister - Special Event), de-whispering with Rilke, suffering with Philip Roth, Jackson Pollock and the "real pleasure to do too much", Jacques Lacan's Seminar VIII in Tel Aviv, loving someone like an apple, what makes a good dreamer, second chances, and never abandoning Vertigo.
- 10/15/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A poison-tipped portrait of living through his parents’ divorce, “The Squid and the Whale” has long been understood to be Noah Baumbach’s most explicitly autobiographical film. And yet, so much of his subsequent work — from the slapstick solipsism of “Mistress America” to the generational broadside of “While We’re Young” — is snagged on the perils of letting other people determine one’s self-worth. A Barnard freshman is desperate for the approval of her school’s most exclusive literary society. An esoteric director feels attacked when his new documentary about a leftist intellectual isn’t as warmly received as his doting protege’s dumb movie about some guy he knows on Facebook. Even “De Palma” hinges on an artist having the opportunity to reckon with his own reputation; it’s an extremely generous gift from one filmmaker to another.
So while “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),” which premiered to...
So while “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),” which premiered to...
- 10/13/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
It’s odd to see Philip Roth marshaled, too, to shore up a novel that reads like self-help.
- 9/13/2017
- by Christian Lorentzen
- Vulture
If you’ve had occasion to regret that your short story was published in The New Yorker to widespread acclaim but then had to face the wrath of friends and loved ones offended by the characters you’ve written based on them, then Xavier Manrique’s debut feature will be your cup of tea. Resembling a Philip Roth novel that the author had the good sense to leave unpublished, Chronically Metropolitan leaves no cliché unturned in its depiction of the social and romantic travails of a group of Upper East Side New Yorkers. They’re the sort of characters who lament how the city...
- 8/3/2017
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kirk Simon: "You walk down the hall of Princeton and the first office is Toni Morrison, then it's Tracy K Smith, then it's Jeffrey Eugenides."
In the third and final installment of my conversation with Kirk Simon on The Pulitzer At 100, we discuss filming Natalie Portman in Paris for her reading of Jorie Graham's The Dream of the Unified Field, Liev Schreiber (who played Martin Baron in Tom McCarthy's Spotlight) picking Death Of A Salesman and The Grapes Of Wrath, Ken Burns and The Statue of Liberty, Toni Morrison (Beloved), Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex), photographers John Filo (Kent State) and Nick Ut (Napalm Girl), finding Kim Phuc, Maureen Corrigan on Philip Roth, and the man who started it all - Joseph Pulitzer.
Anne-Katrin Titze: Did you direct the actors who were doing the readings at all?
Liev Schreiber chose Death Of A Salesman and The Grapes Of Wrath...
In the third and final installment of my conversation with Kirk Simon on The Pulitzer At 100, we discuss filming Natalie Portman in Paris for her reading of Jorie Graham's The Dream of the Unified Field, Liev Schreiber (who played Martin Baron in Tom McCarthy's Spotlight) picking Death Of A Salesman and The Grapes Of Wrath, Ken Burns and The Statue of Liberty, Toni Morrison (Beloved), Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex), photographers John Filo (Kent State) and Nick Ut (Napalm Girl), finding Kim Phuc, Maureen Corrigan on Philip Roth, and the man who started it all - Joseph Pulitzer.
Anne-Katrin Titze: Did you direct the actors who were doing the readings at all?
Liev Schreiber chose Death Of A Salesman and The Grapes Of Wrath...
- 7/24/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Welcome to PeekTV, your daily look at the best that television has to offer. In each installment, we make three picks for the best shows to watch and…toss in a little extra.
Tuesday, May 23 What Happened Last Night?!
Whose wedding made it into last night’s TV picks? (Side note: some Philip Roth made it in, too.)
“The Flash”
“Finish Line,” CW – 8:00 p.m.
Synopsis: With nothing left to lose, Barry takes on Savitar in an epic conclusion to season three.
Why You Should Watch: The CW continues to delight with its DC TV offerings. “The Flash” has long been a subject of critical championing, and we’re intrigued to see what a potential Season 4 might have in store. At the very least, this seems to be a climactic showdown worthy of Barry Allen’s comic book forebears (even if this episode won’t have any musical numbers...
Tuesday, May 23 What Happened Last Night?!
Whose wedding made it into last night’s TV picks? (Side note: some Philip Roth made it in, too.)
“The Flash”
“Finish Line,” CW – 8:00 p.m.
Synopsis: With nothing left to lose, Barry takes on Savitar in an epic conclusion to season three.
Why You Should Watch: The CW continues to delight with its DC TV offerings. “The Flash” has long been a subject of critical championing, and we’re intrigued to see what a potential Season 4 might have in store. At the very least, this seems to be a climactic showdown worthy of Barry Allen’s comic book forebears (even if this episode won’t have any musical numbers...
- 5/23/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Filmmaker Oren Moverman has never shied away from tackling difficult, seemingly impossible material to adapt to film with some of his writing work including the screenplays for Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There and the equally intriguing Brian Wilson biopic, Love and Mercy.
As a director and producer he’s followed suit with his 2nd film Rampart starring Woody Harrelson as an L.A. police officer with questionable motives, followed by a meditative look at homelessness with Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind.
For his latest movie, The Dinner, Moverman adapts Dutch author Herman Koch’s novel, which on the surface is about a dinner between two related couples with all the requisite food porn. As it progresses, it explores a variety of topics including mental illness and the battle of Gettysburg.
At the core of the film is Steve Coogan and Richard Gere playing brothers, the former a history professor,...
As a director and producer he’s followed suit with his 2nd film Rampart starring Woody Harrelson as an L.A. police officer with questionable motives, followed by a meditative look at homelessness with Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind.
For his latest movie, The Dinner, Moverman adapts Dutch author Herman Koch’s novel, which on the surface is about a dinner between two related couples with all the requisite food porn. As it progresses, it explores a variety of topics including mental illness and the battle of Gettysburg.
At the core of the film is Steve Coogan and Richard Gere playing brothers, the former a history professor,...
- 5/2/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Few Cannes titles intrigue as highly as the festival’s opener, Ismael’s Ghosts, which writer-director Arnaud Desplechin (following up My Golden Days) told me takes inspiration primarily from Hitchcock (Vertigo) and Philip Roth (Sabbath’s Theater), with (of course) Mathieu Amalric at the center of it all. Anchored also by Marion Cotillard, Cuharlotte Gainsbourg, and Louis Garrel, it’s the story of, as he told me at a later date, people “fighting for a new life, to reinvent themselves,” and possibly with some Kendrick Lamar thrown in for good measure.
Its first trailer has arrived sans subtitles, but with numerous gorgeous images and, let’s say, the implication of fine turns from its very great ensemble — a guess based on intimations of what’s being said and a study of the non-verbal, which I think, for now, is good enough. Better yet: Mangolia has already acquired Ismael’s Ghosts for a U.
Its first trailer has arrived sans subtitles, but with numerous gorgeous images and, let’s say, the implication of fine turns from its very great ensemble — a guess based on intimations of what’s being said and a study of the non-verbal, which I think, for now, is good enough. Better yet: Mangolia has already acquired Ismael’s Ghosts for a U.
- 4/20/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
In its final season, Girls doesn't seem to be slowing down at all with its string of incredibly strong installments.
Girls Season 6 Episode 3 was a tour de force, another of the show's brilliant "bottle episodes" constrained to one character and one location. It tackled the topics of sexual assault and sexism.
"American Bitch" was buoyed by great writing, great direction, and stunning performances by both Lena Dunham and guest star Matthew Rhys.
The concept and set-up of this half-hour was deceptively simple.
Hannah, after writing a takedown piece of author Chuck Palmer (a former literary hero of hers) for a "small feminist blog," was invited by Palmer himself to his apartment. He was hoping that they could hash out the allegations, and, clearly, he wanted to "prove" to her that they were untrue.
Of course, what actually happened was much, much darker and more complex, but that was the beauty...
Girls Season 6 Episode 3 was a tour de force, another of the show's brilliant "bottle episodes" constrained to one character and one location. It tackled the topics of sexual assault and sexism.
"American Bitch" was buoyed by great writing, great direction, and stunning performances by both Lena Dunham and guest star Matthew Rhys.
The concept and set-up of this half-hour was deceptively simple.
Hannah, after writing a takedown piece of author Chuck Palmer (a former literary hero of hers) for a "small feminist blog," was invited by Palmer himself to his apartment. He was hoping that they could hash out the allegations, and, clearly, he wanted to "prove" to her that they were untrue.
Of course, what actually happened was much, much darker and more complex, but that was the beauty...
- 2/27/2017
- by Caralynn Lippo
- TVfanatic
Last Week’S Review: ‘Hostage Situation’ Has A Horror Movie Premise
[Editor’s note: Major spoilers for “Girls” Season 6, Episode 3, “American Bitch” follow. The episode airs Sunday, February 26 on HBO, but is now available to stream via HBO Now and HBO Go.]
Love Her or Hate Her
Love her. If there were ever an episode of “Girls” that Lena Dunham was meant to write, this is it. At first glance the bottle episode seems to be a throwback to the second season’s “One Man’s Trash,” thanks to the set-up, but it quickly veers into much different territory. Hannah visits famed author Chuck Palmer (Matthew Rhys) in his fancy New York apartment to discuss an article she wrote about him and the four women who accused him of sexual abuse.
“American Bitch” then delves into a considerate and in-depth conversation about consent, what it means, “grey areas” and a slew of other insightful thoughts surrounding the subject matter. It’s a timely offering featuring a more adult version of Hannah than we’ve ever seen before from “Girls.” Sure,...
[Editor’s note: Major spoilers for “Girls” Season 6, Episode 3, “American Bitch” follow. The episode airs Sunday, February 26 on HBO, but is now available to stream via HBO Now and HBO Go.]
Love Her or Hate Her
Love her. If there were ever an episode of “Girls” that Lena Dunham was meant to write, this is it. At first glance the bottle episode seems to be a throwback to the second season’s “One Man’s Trash,” thanks to the set-up, but it quickly veers into much different territory. Hannah visits famed author Chuck Palmer (Matthew Rhys) in his fancy New York apartment to discuss an article she wrote about him and the four women who accused him of sexual abuse.
“American Bitch” then delves into a considerate and in-depth conversation about consent, what it means, “grey areas” and a slew of other insightful thoughts surrounding the subject matter. It’s a timely offering featuring a more adult version of Hannah than we’ve ever seen before from “Girls.” Sure,...
- 2/24/2017
- by Amber Dowling
- Indiewire
Being in The Netherlands is like a homecoming for me. My first real job in the film industry was with City Fox Films and 20th Century Fox International here in Amsterdam in 1975. What a job that was! Now with the Dutch election coming March 17, the equivalent to our past one, in a world where the center has already shifted beneath us several degrees to the right…which most of us did not notice on the day after September 11, 2001 but now can see as if the moon, orbiting around earth, is about to block out the sun completely for one of the worst eclipses we have experienced in our lifetime…
“Damnation Karhozat” 1988 Courtesy of Bela Tarr
Just saw Bela Tarr’s “Til the End of the World” exhibit at the Eye Institute and I am still under its intense influence. Wow! He sees the world and with his renowned black and white longshots,...
“Damnation Karhozat” 1988 Courtesy of Bela Tarr
Just saw Bela Tarr’s “Til the End of the World” exhibit at the Eye Institute and I am still under its intense influence. Wow! He sees the world and with his renowned black and white longshots,...
- 2/8/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This post originally appeared on Entertainment Weekly.
Whether he’s reading to kids at the White House, hitting up local bookstores on Black Friday, or giving recommendations to his daughters, President Barack Obama may as well be known as the Commander in Books.
Potus is an avid reader and recently spoke to the New York Times about the significant, informative and inspirational role literature has played in his presidency, crediting books for allowing him to “slow down and get perspective.” With his presidency coming to an end this Friday, EW looked back at Obama’s lit picks over the years...
Whether he’s reading to kids at the White House, hitting up local bookstores on Black Friday, or giving recommendations to his daughters, President Barack Obama may as well be known as the Commander in Books.
Potus is an avid reader and recently spoke to the New York Times about the significant, informative and inspirational role literature has played in his presidency, crediting books for allowing him to “slow down and get perspective.” With his presidency coming to an end this Friday, EW looked back at Obama’s lit picks over the years...
- 1/19/2017
- by Mark Marino
- PEOPLE.com
Chicago – It’s that time of the film year, the “Ten Best” lists. In representing my 2016 picks – as “Patrick McDonald” – I looked for the emotional experience as much as anything. I think every filmgoer, from the most casual to the ardent buff, adhere to their favorites through that feeling of connection.
There are honorable mentions all over the place, often just missing the 10th spot – I like to characterize them as all tied for eleventh. My favorite superhero film was “Captain America: Civil War,” for the Marvel Comics angst that works best in this genre of movies. The dramas “Arrival,” “Elle,” “Little Men” and “A Monster Calls” were excellent and heartfelt experiences. I loved the wacky tribute that writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen gave to 1950s Hollywood in “Hail, Caesar!” And after watching it again after initial reservations, I realized and connected to the ardent celebration in the musical “La La Land.
There are honorable mentions all over the place, often just missing the 10th spot – I like to characterize them as all tied for eleventh. My favorite superhero film was “Captain America: Civil War,” for the Marvel Comics angst that works best in this genre of movies. The dramas “Arrival,” “Elle,” “Little Men” and “A Monster Calls” were excellent and heartfelt experiences. I loved the wacky tribute that writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen gave to 1950s Hollywood in “Hail, Caesar!” And after watching it again after initial reservations, I realized and connected to the ardent celebration in the musical “La La Land.
- 1/5/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
“The guy is a god. If you have any interest in American theater, you know this guy. You know and fear him.”
These are the first words director James Schamus had to say when asked for his thoughts on Tracy Letts. Indeed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Tony Award-winning actor is a legend of the stage, but only recently has he broken into film and television — as an actor. His latest role is on the HBO series, “Divorce,” and it’s a part that was only supposed to last one episode.
“I died in the pilot,” Letts bluntly put it, when IndieWire spoke with him in his Chicago home.
“But they liked him so much, they asked him to come back,” added Carrie Coon, Letts’ wife, former co-star on stage, and the current star of HBO’s “The Leftovers.”
Indeed, Letts’ character — the brash and successful Nick, married to Molly Shannon...
These are the first words director James Schamus had to say when asked for his thoughts on Tracy Letts. Indeed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Tony Award-winning actor is a legend of the stage, but only recently has he broken into film and television — as an actor. His latest role is on the HBO series, “Divorce,” and it’s a part that was only supposed to last one episode.
“I died in the pilot,” Letts bluntly put it, when IndieWire spoke with him in his Chicago home.
“But they liked him so much, they asked him to come back,” added Carrie Coon, Letts’ wife, former co-star on stage, and the current star of HBO’s “The Leftovers.”
Indeed, Letts’ character — the brash and successful Nick, married to Molly Shannon...
- 12/10/2016
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Director Larry Peerce’s 1969 adaptation of Philip Roth’s 1959 debut novella stars Richard Benjamin as the librarian lucky/unlucky enough to fall into an affair with nouveau riche Ali McGraw (also her debut in a lead role). With the help of Arnold Schulman’s (Oscar-nominated) script and a solid supporting cast (including Jack Klugman) the film offers up a admirable approximation of Roth’s finely observed prose.
- 11/28/2016
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Denis Villeneuve’s smart sci-fi epic starring Amy Adams soars, as Ewan McGregor’s Philip Roth adaptation stumbles
Arrival was the only film released at the weekend in more than 100 prints, and it enjoyed plenty of attention from cinemagoers, pushing Doctor Strange off the top spot. Opening at 561 cinemas, the brainy sci-fi took £2.57m, with Thursday takings pushing the total to £2.92m. The Jk Rowling-created Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them arrives this week, which explains why Arrival was given such a clear field – distributors in general were reluctant to release a film and then have it clobbered after seven days.
Continue reading...
Arrival was the only film released at the weekend in more than 100 prints, and it enjoyed plenty of attention from cinemagoers, pushing Doctor Strange off the top spot. Opening at 561 cinemas, the brainy sci-fi took £2.57m, with Thursday takings pushing the total to £2.92m. The Jk Rowling-created Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them arrives this week, which explains why Arrival was given such a clear field – distributors in general were reluctant to release a film and then have it clobbered after seven days.
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- 11/15/2016
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
Ewan McGregor struggles to put his own stamp on this adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer-winning novel
For his directing debut, Ewan McGregor has chosen a project that is nothing if not challenging. The complex and abrasive books of Philip Roth are notoriously difficult to adapt for cinema and this Pulitzer prize-winning period drama about a New Jersey family rent apart by the political actions of the daughter is no exception. You get the sense that McGregor is too in thrall to the authoritative voice of the material to put much of his own stamp on to the film. It’s visually polished, drenched in the kind of Edward Hopper Americana that the militant daughter of McGregor’s character rails against. But there’s a crippling lack of emotional depth and honesty – it’s hard to decide which is more stridently melodramatic, the bombast of the score or the shrill performances.
For his directing debut, Ewan McGregor has chosen a project that is nothing if not challenging. The complex and abrasive books of Philip Roth are notoriously difficult to adapt for cinema and this Pulitzer prize-winning period drama about a New Jersey family rent apart by the political actions of the daughter is no exception. You get the sense that McGregor is too in thrall to the authoritative voice of the material to put much of his own stamp on to the film. It’s visually polished, drenched in the kind of Edward Hopper Americana that the militant daughter of McGregor’s character rails against. But there’s a crippling lack of emotional depth and honesty – it’s hard to decide which is more stridently melodramatic, the bombast of the score or the shrill performances.
- 11/13/2016
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
The actor’s heavy-footed directorial debut, in which he also stars, is an odd, tortured drama of postwar domestic tragedy
The engaging actor Ewan McGregor has made a high-minded but misjudged and heavy-footed directorial debut in which he also stars. It’s an odd, tortured and self-torturing postwar drama hitting a note of grandiose domestic tragedy, adapted from Philip Roth’s award-winning 1997 novel, though often more resembling something by John Irving.
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The engaging actor Ewan McGregor has made a high-minded but misjudged and heavy-footed directorial debut in which he also stars. It’s an odd, tortured and self-torturing postwar drama hitting a note of grandiose domestic tragedy, adapted from Philip Roth’s award-winning 1997 novel, though often more resembling something by John Irving.
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- 11/10/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
James Schamus’ Symbolic Exchange, along Germany’s X-Filme, France’s Haut et Court, and the U.K.’s Potboiler, will produce an adaptation of Mary Gabriel’s book “Love and Capital,” about Karl Marx as a limited TV series. It will be written by playwright and screenwriter Alice Birch, who recently wrote the script for William Olroyd’s feature debut “Lady Macbeth” set for U.S. release in 2017.
Read More: ‘Indignation’ Review: James Schamus’ Philip Roth Adaptation, Starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon, Resurrects the Focus Features Legacy
Published in 2011, “Love and Capital” follows the lives of Jenny and Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and the two sisters — Mary and Lizzie Burns — whom he loved and who loved him, as well as the Marx daughters. It was a National Book Award finalist, a National Book Critics Circle finalist, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
“By allowing us to experience this...
Read More: ‘Indignation’ Review: James Schamus’ Philip Roth Adaptation, Starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon, Resurrects the Focus Features Legacy
Published in 2011, “Love and Capital” follows the lives of Jenny and Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and the two sisters — Mary and Lizzie Burns — whom he loved and who loved him, as well as the Marx daughters. It was a National Book Award finalist, a National Book Critics Circle finalist, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
“By allowing us to experience this...
- 11/10/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
This year, there have been two major Philip Roth film adaptations, both of which were directorial debuts: Ewan McGregor’s poorly received “American Pastoral” and James Schamus’ “Indignation,” which was better received by critics. Based on Roth’s 2008 novel, the film follows Marcus (Logan Lerman), an intelligent working-class Jewish student from New Jersey who attends a small, conservative college in Ohio. While at school, he experiences a sexual awakening after meeting the beautiful Olivia (Sarah Gadon), but their love affair sparks disastrous consequences. Watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip from the film’s home video release below, which delves deep into the film’s acclaimed centerpiece scene between Marcus and the college’s Dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts).
Read More: ‘Indignation’ Director James Schamus: Film Is Dead, And That’s Okay
Schamus is best known as a producer and writer for some of the most acclaimed films of the last two decades.
Read More: ‘Indignation’ Director James Schamus: Film Is Dead, And That’s Okay
Schamus is best known as a producer and writer for some of the most acclaimed films of the last two decades.
- 10/27/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Plot: The story of Seymour "Swede" Levov (Ewan McGregor), a former golden-boy athlete, whose picturesque life is ruined when his activist daughter (Dakota Fanning) participates in a political act of terrorism. Review: Despite the works of Philip Roth being notoriously difficult to translate to film, the author still casts a spell over Hollywood, with this year alone seeing not one, but... Read More...
- 10/26/2016
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
The better the book, the worse the movie – that sad-but-true rule has few exceptions. And American Pastoral, first-time director Ewan McGregor's calamitous take on Phillip Roth's Pulitzer-winning 1997 novel, is awful enough to cement the rule in stone. McGregor and screenwriter John Romano misread the novel at every turn, draining it of life, power and purpose. Curiously, the Scottish actor-turned-filmmaker has miscast himself in the lead role of Seymour Irving Levov, a Jewish athlete from Newark, New Jersey, who is nicknamed the Swede because of his Nordic good looks – blond hair,...
- 10/19/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Transitioning from actor to director is no easy task, but it helps to surround yourself with strong talent, and that’s just what Ewan McGregor has done for “American Pastoral.” Based on the book by Phillip Roth, McGregor stars in the picture along with Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Uzo Aduba and David Strathairn, and helping to pull all the elements together is a score by Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat.
Continue reading Exclusive: Preview Stream Of Alexandre Desplat’s Score For Ewan McGregor’s ‘American Pastoral’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Exclusive: Preview Stream Of Alexandre Desplat’s Score For Ewan McGregor’s ‘American Pastoral’ at The Playlist.
- 10/18/2016
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Hollywood may be known for its storytellers, but the greatest of them never wrote a script, cast an actor or called “action!” to put his tales on the big or small screen. That’s because Vin Scully only needed a microphone to tell his stories. In a sport, baseball, that produced many of sport’s best chroniclers – Roger Angell in the New Yorker, Doris Kearns Goodwin in memoir, Ken Burns in documentaries, Harry Caray in the broadcast booth, W.P. Kinsella and Philip Roth in novels – Scully, who will retire at the end of the season after an astounding 67 years as.
- 9/19/2016
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Indignation is indeed one theme in the movie Indignation, based on Phillip Roth’s 2008 novel of the same name, along with death, life, and the “what if” of choices made. Set in 1951, young college freshman Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) is filled with indignation on several levels, even before coming to Winesburg College in Ohio from his working-class home in Newark, New Jersey. The Korean War, which Marcus avoids with his college deferment, is a looming presence throughout the story.
Indignation perfectly captures both the look and the feel of a repressive, restrictive, conformist 1950s America. It was a buttoned-down time of tightly controlled emotions, with World War II still in the near past, Cold War commie-hunting in full swing and women safely back in traditional roles, and the youth culture and freethinking of the 1960s still in the future. .
The film beautiful recreates the look of the period, from costumes...
Indignation perfectly captures both the look and the feel of a repressive, restrictive, conformist 1950s America. It was a buttoned-down time of tightly controlled emotions, with World War II still in the near past, Cold War commie-hunting in full swing and women safely back in traditional roles, and the youth culture and freethinking of the 1960s still in the future. .
The film beautiful recreates the look of the period, from costumes...
- 8/12/2016
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Linda Emond, Logan Lerman, James Schamus, Sarah Gadon and Danny Burstein Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Brokeback Mountain - The Ice Storm - Eat Drink Man Woman and Lust, Caution producer, James Schamus, becomes a director to take on Philip Roth's Indignation, starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon with Linda Emond and Danny Burstein (Justin Bateman's The Family Fang), Ben Rosenfield and Pico Alexander (Jc Chandor's A Most Violent Year), Noah Robbins, Philip Ettinger, and August: Osage County playwright Tracy Letts.
James Schamus and Ang Lee share a laugh with Roadside Attractions founders Howard Cohen and Eric D'Arbeloff Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Lyrics to Jay Wadley's Is It Love, sung by Jane Monheit, Jacques Demy's Umbrellas Of Cherbourg wallpaper, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and a Caspar David Friedrich image appeared in my conversation with James Schamus.
Producer Anthony Bregman, Rebecca Luker, Annette Insdorf,...
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Brokeback Mountain - The Ice Storm - Eat Drink Man Woman and Lust, Caution producer, James Schamus, becomes a director to take on Philip Roth's Indignation, starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon with Linda Emond and Danny Burstein (Justin Bateman's The Family Fang), Ben Rosenfield and Pico Alexander (Jc Chandor's A Most Violent Year), Noah Robbins, Philip Ettinger, and August: Osage County playwright Tracy Letts.
James Schamus and Ang Lee share a laugh with Roadside Attractions founders Howard Cohen and Eric D'Arbeloff Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Lyrics to Jay Wadley's Is It Love, sung by Jane Monheit, Jacques Demy's Umbrellas Of Cherbourg wallpaper, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and a Caspar David Friedrich image appeared in my conversation with James Schamus.
Producer Anthony Bregman, Rebecca Luker, Annette Insdorf,...
- 7/26/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Two Phillip Roth books set for release this year. James Schamus’ excellent Indignation, which is a film everyone must see, and now, Ewan McGregor’s feature debut, American Pastoral. They...
- 7/26/2016
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
In the time since I last spoke to Arnaud Desplechin — nine months, to be exact — his latest feature, My Golden Days, has gone from a celebrated theatrical release here in the U.S. to, on this very day, a title anyone can access via VOD services and DVD. Just as important, I think is word of his next feature, Les Fantomes d’Ismaël — though American press and Magnolia, its future distributor, use Ismael’s Ghosts in writing, the man himself calls it The Ghosts of Ismaël when speaking in English — a Sabbath’s Theater– and Vertigo-inspired drama concerning “a filmmaker whose life is sent into a tailspin by the return of a former lover just as he is about to embark on the shoot of a new film.” This sounds great on paper; that it’s to star Mathieu Amalric, Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Louis Garrel doesn’t make matters much worse.
- 7/12/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Lionsgate and Lakeshore Entertainment have posted the first trailer for Ewan McGregor's directorial debut "American Pastoral".
Based on Phillip Roth's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the story follows a family whose seemingly idyllic existence is shattered by the social and political turmoil of the 1960s.
McGregor plays a once legendary high school athlete now successful businessman married to Dawn (Jennifer Connelly), a former beauty queen. When his beloved teenage daughter (Dakota Fanning), disappears after being accused of committing an act of political terrorism, he dedicates himself to finding her and what he discovers shakes him to the core.
David Strathairn, Peter Riegert, Uzo Aduba and Valorie Curry also star in the film which John Romano adapted and both Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi produced. The film kicks off a limited release on October 21st.
Based on Phillip Roth's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the story follows a family whose seemingly idyllic existence is shattered by the social and political turmoil of the 1960s.
McGregor plays a once legendary high school athlete now successful businessman married to Dawn (Jennifer Connelly), a former beauty queen. When his beloved teenage daughter (Dakota Fanning), disappears after being accused of committing an act of political terrorism, he dedicates himself to finding her and what he discovers shakes him to the core.
David Strathairn, Peter Riegert, Uzo Aduba and Valorie Curry also star in the film which John Romano adapted and both Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi produced. The film kicks off a limited release on October 21st.
- 6/24/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Actor Ewan McGregor makes a startling directorial debut a film adaptation of Phillip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, American Pastoral. The wide-ranging film revolves around a family caught up in the social and political whirl of the 1960s. McGregor stars as Seymour “Swede” Levov, a former star high school athlete-turned-successful businessman, father and husband to a former beauty queen named Dawn (Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly). Dakota Fanning plays his teenage…...
- 6/24/2016
- Deadline
It seems impossible, or maybe just stupid: adapt what is perhaps the most acclaimed novel by perhaps our greatest living novelist as your directorial debut, which you’ll also star in as a character with whom, based on the many and very critical descriptions from said most-acclaimed-novel-by-greatest-living-novelist, you don’t even have the greatest resemblance. Here we are, then, with Ewan McGregor‘s American Pastoral, an adaptation of Philip Roth‘s Pulitzer-winning, meta-fictional masterpiece of grieving, complex generational rifts, and glove-making — not exactly a Sundance-premiering dramedy.
I very much hope not to look like a fool in four months’ time when I say, now, that the first preview points towards something with character — perhaps rather good, even. Early days, yes (hence the disclaimer), yet this is a fine sampling of period-evoking design, shots and palette that evoke some sense of visual purpose — hello, The American and Control Dp Martin Ruhe — and,...
I very much hope not to look like a fool in four months’ time when I say, now, that the first preview points towards something with character — perhaps rather good, even. Early days, yes (hence the disclaimer), yet this is a fine sampling of period-evoking design, shots and palette that evoke some sense of visual purpose — hello, The American and Control Dp Martin Ruhe — and,...
- 6/23/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
How exciting to see the great James Schamus behind the camera for his debut feature. Indignation, adapted by Schamus from the Phillip Roth novel, stars Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon.
- 5/13/2016
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
Here’s a look at the Philip Roth adaptation marking producer/writer James Schamus’ debut as director: An intense drama set in 1951, when young Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman; Fury, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), brilliant son of a Jewish butcher from Newark, NJ, travels to a small, conservative college in Ohio as most young men are being drafted to serve in the Korean War. Once there, the shy, non-religious Marcus's growing infatuation with his beguiling, troubled…...
- 5/13/2016
- Deadline
In the Qumra Master Class 2016 where James Schamus and Richard Peña, former long-time head of Lincoln Film Society in NYC, carried on an informal and open-ended discussion, James gave a personal view of himself before going into the professional ins and outs of his film production and distribution life.
I was surprised to hear that James, who seems like a quintessential New Yorker, is not a native New Yorker but is an Angeleno and attended Hollywood High in Los Angeles.
When I spoke with him afterward, he said that he actually was from North Hollywood but had attended Jd Melton at Hollywood High. On looking the school up for this article, I was even more pleasantly surprised to see that their branding is serendipitously, “Home of the Sheiks”.
James grew up in L.A. in the 70s and Hollywood High was equivalent to Jodie Foster’s school in “Taxi Driver” only it was in L.A. It was a working class and poor school where only half of the student body took the SATs (College qualifying exams), and he was definitely the nerd in the herd. He would spend his Friday nights watching a little known TV show on the local Channel 13 moderated by the L.A. Times critic Charles Champlin. The show was of silent films and there he saw “Birth of a Nation” and the German Expressionist movies among others. Later he wrote his PhD dissertation Carl Theodor Dreyer's ‘Gertrud’: The Moving Word, and it was published by the University of Washington Press. He moved to New York to write it after completing his Bachelors, Masters and PhD studies at Uc Berkeley.
He said he does not remember much about his high school days, but recently as he was unpacking some old boxes, he came across his high school yearbook.
You know how people signed with little paragraphs? One of these said ‘Thanks for persuading me to skip school with you and going on the 93 bus to see movies’ and it was signed ‘Frank’. I had no idea who Frank was but as I tried to remember, I recalled skipping school to go to L.A.’s only film festival which was new and called ‘Filmex’.
(Editor’s note: Filmex was the creation of ‘The two Garys’, Gary Essert and Gary Abrahams, both of whom died of Aids during the Aids epidemic. Gary Essert was a UCLA Film School student in the 60s where he started Filmex with marathon screenings in the Quonset hut which was the film school. The two Garys are both vividly remembered today by the American Cinematheque crews and others of us from L.A. because the Cinematheque was their creation.)
It was at Filmex that I saw a film made by a film student from USC. It was a sci-fi film and there was a Q&A afterward. The film was called ‘Thx-1138’ and it was by George Lucas. Then I remembered! Frank was Frank Darabont! And we were now sharing the same agent, so I gave him a call and yes, he went to Hollywood High too.
James combines his acclaimed filmmaking career with other roles within the industry: he is a revered film historian and academic. He is also a multi award-winning screenwriter, director and leading U.S. indie producer, best known for his long creative collaboration with Taiwanese director Ang Lee. He has worked with Lee on nine films, including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), which won four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography, and remains the highest-grossing non-English-language film in the U.S. He was the screenwriter for Lee's “The Ice Storm”, for which he won the award for Best Screenplay at the Festival de Cannes in 1997 and co-wrote “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994), the first of Lee’s films to achieve both critical and commercial success.
As producers, Schamus and Ted Hope (today head of production at Amazon) co-founded the U.S. low- to no-budget production company Good Machine in the early 1990s.
It was macho to brag about how we made films with no money. ‘I made my movie for $5,000.’ ‘Well, I made mine for $4,000.’
Ted also loves lists and he made a list of all the short films made in the past 10 years by filmmakers who had yet to make feature films. We got the VHS tapes and one of the films we saw was by Ang Lee when he was studying at Nyu. It was called “Fine Line” and was Chazz Palminteri’s first film.
“Fine Line” was about an Italian guy on the run from the mob. It takes place in New York’s Little Italy and Chinatown. Ang Lee had an agent and we called him. He said Ang Lee was working on three great films before hanging up on us…
To hear James tell this story, watch him speaking here with Richard Peña.
What was cut out of the above online story was that at the time of “Pushing Hands”
Ang had no idea we had just contacted his agent and he also thought we would steal all his money. He was 38 years old, an unemployed stay-at-home parent with a working wife and two kids living in a little apartment in New York. In his spare time he had become a great cook. He came in and pitched a comedy for one hour. It was awful. We were such no-money producers; our office was upstairs from a strip club and the music would blast into our offices starting at 2:00 every day. With this pounding beat, he pitched the worst pitch we ever heard. But there was a $5,000 fee for us. I then said that though his pitch was poor he had actually described the entire movie in his head to us scene by scene. He was not trying to sell the film.
So we made the film and then made his second film “Wedding Banquet” which shared a first prize in Berlin. The third film was “Eat Drink Man Woman” from an original idea with a Taiwanese writer, very TV in the open-endedness of all the characters feeling the push and pull of letting it happen. But in this was a Hollywood 40s style screwball comedy that could be imposed.
Again, when James and I spoke together, I challenged him on the claim that “Dim Lake” was Chazz’s first film because my own partner in life and business, Peter Belsito, claims to have produced Chazz’s first film, “Home Free All” at which time Chazz took Peter aside and said, 'I am not just a dumb guinea hoodlum, I am a real actor destined for better roles. I can act serious.' So James and I checked IMDb to see and sure enough, “Dim Lake” was his first film and “Home Free All” was his second, but it was Chazz’ first feature film. We then looked at the rest of his 68 film credits and in every single one, he is playing the Italian.
Doing this with James gave me a momentary feel of his love for research.
“For my first time writing with Ang I needed to research food in Taiwan for ‘Pushing Hands’, the position and placement of food, families and food….The script would be translated from English to Chinese, but Ang was not satisfied with it. I was having trouble tapping into the mentality of the Chinese family so I took all the characters’ names and changed them to Jewish names and rewrote the script totally as a Jewish family. Then I changed the names back to their Chinese names. Ang read the script and said ‘This is really Chinese!’ And so I got ‘the cross-cultural idea’ -- not really…I still don’t get that.
The first day in Taiwan we were shooting the film in a fast food restaurant and I as I watched the rushes, one of the character’s name was Rachel and I realized I had forgotten to change the name back. I asked if we needed to reshoot, but at that time it was a fad to change Chinese names to Anglo names and no one thought it was out of place, and so it stayed.
The most difficult part of the film was shooting the opening title sequence of the father cooking a meal. It went over schedule because it had to be perfect. We used the food so many times it was held together by glue by the end.
Preparing a shot list is very important for Ang and he constantly reduces the list and his vision jells as he does this. By his third film, the process was very internalized. Next he had to communicate it. The plan is always the result of the overall idea. That’s why his style always changes.
As he shoots, the relationship with the editor is very close. He has a long-time relationship with his editor Tim Squyres.
The “Wedding Banquet” was the first film edited on Avid. Before “Wedding Banquet”, four minutes was the full length of films edited on Avid which is now ancient technology.
Tim cuts several versions and talks them through with Ang. They have spent more time in the dark together than most married people. Ang is in the editing room from the beginning to the end. Tim talks very directly, like he might say Ang should have spent more time on a scene or should have shot a scene from a different angle. I used to watch Ang’s face tense up as he listened to Tim’s criticism and often they would fight, but they have spent 25+ years together.
On the transnational global reach of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”:
Critics said it was not an authentic chop-socky movie. But the Hong Kong chop-socky genre itself was a regional hybrid. The origins of chop-socky were from Shanghai and Singapore. It was not so “Cantonese” as critics claimed. Bruce Lee himself was U.S. based. So the transnational aspect was already there.
From 2002 to 2014 Schamus was CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing and worldwide distribution company whose films during his tenure included Wes Anderson's “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Roman Polanski's “The Pianist “ (2002), Henry Selick's “Coraline” (2009) and Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003).
On actors:
Character is secondary to the action. You only have action and words in a script. Working with good actors, you need images.
Actors are at such high risk, they are very vulnerable. They need respect. Sometimes they act out.
On casting and directors:
During the casting process, the director must direct the actor, set the tone for the part. Most of the film’s directing can be done during the casting process.
On storyboarding:
“Ride with the Devil” was the first film Ang Lee storyboarded. He also storyboarded “Life of Pi”. Storyboarding could take the life out of a movie.
On production design:
It takes lots of research. It includes the worldview of the film and everything ties in to that. It first starts with costumes. Research is not done only by the department but by everyone.
On film distribution and Focus:
Where is distribution now for specialized films? Focus was everything, attached to the studio system as its specialized film division, Focus’ model was not Fox Searchlght’s which is locked into the domestic U.S. market. Seachlight bought global rights and produced by way of its international TV deals. Focus didn’t have that. It had to presell theatrical rights to independent distributors worldwide. Driven primarily by the international marketplace, it could not be driven by U.S. Its primary focus for production was London. It was all international but also driven by flagship releases in the U.S.
In 2014, Schamus turned his hand to directing with the short documentary “That Film About Money” (2014).
Paul Allen of Microsoft started Vulcan with a commitment to shorts. I did a doc with a crew of people I had never worked with before. And it was about people like Paul.
In 2016 James made his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Philip Roth's “Indignation”. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and screened at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section.
Schamus is also Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory.
On Doha’s newest foray into Hollywood:
Doha-based beIN Media Group’s acquiring Miramax could be a great deal depending on the price paid.
Much of the 600-plus films in the Miramax library is probably locked into licensing deals already around the globe, but depending on when those deals are up for renewal and what other rights can be exploited, if the price point was right, it’s a great way to get into the game because they are sitting on top of so much intellectual property.
Just integrating into the deal structures and understanding the economics, from the end point where the money is coming from to the rights holder, is a good idea.
Miramax, under the leadership of Zanne Devine, has also co-acquired with Roadside Attractions, the 2016 Sundance premiering feature, “Southside with You”, the narrative feature of Barak Obama and Michelle’s first date. That will bring beIN into the Roadside Attraction/ Lionsgate sphere of distribution and international sales.
On Hollywood interest in territories like China, India and the Middle East:
The less successful pattern is to find a Hollywood producer who flies in on his private jet and give him hundreds of millions (ed: Stx?) to make movies. This is a very different version, this is owning intellectual property - it’s a good first step.
On moviegoing in the Gulf:
The next step is to build a cinema culture that makes movie-going a practice in the region far more than it is now - movie exhibition and movie-going as a power lever.
On TV in the Middle East:
My intuition says new media, television in particular, is going to be a space that is very dynamic once it breaks open, here in the Gulf or elsewhere.
During this week at Qumra, James is also mentoring 10 filmmakers working on five Dfi-backed projects: Mohamed Al Ibrahim’s “Bull Shark”; Hamida Issa’s “To The Ends Of The Earth”; Sherif Elbendary’s “Ali, The Goat And Ibrahim”; Mohanad Hayal’s “Haifa Street” aka “Death Street”; and Karim Moussaoui’s “Till The Swallows Return”.
Elia Suleiman, the Artistic Advisor to Doha Film Institute, recalls how he and James “grew up together” in New York as long-time friends. James introduced him to the Chilean master filmmaker Raul Ruiz. While at Good Machine, Schamus helped him with his short film. He helped edit the script and was his guardian angel helping with his first contract. They even had a code for “urgent”. When Elia was in Jerusalem and James in London, they used the code whenever Elia was overwhelmed by the paperwork needed. James would answer within 15 minutes. Now James has come full circle on his own, from being one of the most important producers of the decade to directing his own film.
When asked by Qumra what was most important, he said “first time filmmakers are the most important”. And he has always been able to spot the most talented of emerging filmmakers.
I was surprised to hear that James, who seems like a quintessential New Yorker, is not a native New Yorker but is an Angeleno and attended Hollywood High in Los Angeles.
When I spoke with him afterward, he said that he actually was from North Hollywood but had attended Jd Melton at Hollywood High. On looking the school up for this article, I was even more pleasantly surprised to see that their branding is serendipitously, “Home of the Sheiks”.
James grew up in L.A. in the 70s and Hollywood High was equivalent to Jodie Foster’s school in “Taxi Driver” only it was in L.A. It was a working class and poor school where only half of the student body took the SATs (College qualifying exams), and he was definitely the nerd in the herd. He would spend his Friday nights watching a little known TV show on the local Channel 13 moderated by the L.A. Times critic Charles Champlin. The show was of silent films and there he saw “Birth of a Nation” and the German Expressionist movies among others. Later he wrote his PhD dissertation Carl Theodor Dreyer's ‘Gertrud’: The Moving Word, and it was published by the University of Washington Press. He moved to New York to write it after completing his Bachelors, Masters and PhD studies at Uc Berkeley.
He said he does not remember much about his high school days, but recently as he was unpacking some old boxes, he came across his high school yearbook.
You know how people signed with little paragraphs? One of these said ‘Thanks for persuading me to skip school with you and going on the 93 bus to see movies’ and it was signed ‘Frank’. I had no idea who Frank was but as I tried to remember, I recalled skipping school to go to L.A.’s only film festival which was new and called ‘Filmex’.
(Editor’s note: Filmex was the creation of ‘The two Garys’, Gary Essert and Gary Abrahams, both of whom died of Aids during the Aids epidemic. Gary Essert was a UCLA Film School student in the 60s where he started Filmex with marathon screenings in the Quonset hut which was the film school. The two Garys are both vividly remembered today by the American Cinematheque crews and others of us from L.A. because the Cinematheque was their creation.)
It was at Filmex that I saw a film made by a film student from USC. It was a sci-fi film and there was a Q&A afterward. The film was called ‘Thx-1138’ and it was by George Lucas. Then I remembered! Frank was Frank Darabont! And we were now sharing the same agent, so I gave him a call and yes, he went to Hollywood High too.
James combines his acclaimed filmmaking career with other roles within the industry: he is a revered film historian and academic. He is also a multi award-winning screenwriter, director and leading U.S. indie producer, best known for his long creative collaboration with Taiwanese director Ang Lee. He has worked with Lee on nine films, including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), which won four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography, and remains the highest-grossing non-English-language film in the U.S. He was the screenwriter for Lee's “The Ice Storm”, for which he won the award for Best Screenplay at the Festival de Cannes in 1997 and co-wrote “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994), the first of Lee’s films to achieve both critical and commercial success.
As producers, Schamus and Ted Hope (today head of production at Amazon) co-founded the U.S. low- to no-budget production company Good Machine in the early 1990s.
It was macho to brag about how we made films with no money. ‘I made my movie for $5,000.’ ‘Well, I made mine for $4,000.’
Ted also loves lists and he made a list of all the short films made in the past 10 years by filmmakers who had yet to make feature films. We got the VHS tapes and one of the films we saw was by Ang Lee when he was studying at Nyu. It was called “Fine Line” and was Chazz Palminteri’s first film.
“Fine Line” was about an Italian guy on the run from the mob. It takes place in New York’s Little Italy and Chinatown. Ang Lee had an agent and we called him. He said Ang Lee was working on three great films before hanging up on us…
To hear James tell this story, watch him speaking here with Richard Peña.
What was cut out of the above online story was that at the time of “Pushing Hands”
Ang had no idea we had just contacted his agent and he also thought we would steal all his money. He was 38 years old, an unemployed stay-at-home parent with a working wife and two kids living in a little apartment in New York. In his spare time he had become a great cook. He came in and pitched a comedy for one hour. It was awful. We were such no-money producers; our office was upstairs from a strip club and the music would blast into our offices starting at 2:00 every day. With this pounding beat, he pitched the worst pitch we ever heard. But there was a $5,000 fee for us. I then said that though his pitch was poor he had actually described the entire movie in his head to us scene by scene. He was not trying to sell the film.
So we made the film and then made his second film “Wedding Banquet” which shared a first prize in Berlin. The third film was “Eat Drink Man Woman” from an original idea with a Taiwanese writer, very TV in the open-endedness of all the characters feeling the push and pull of letting it happen. But in this was a Hollywood 40s style screwball comedy that could be imposed.
Again, when James and I spoke together, I challenged him on the claim that “Dim Lake” was Chazz’s first film because my own partner in life and business, Peter Belsito, claims to have produced Chazz’s first film, “Home Free All” at which time Chazz took Peter aside and said, 'I am not just a dumb guinea hoodlum, I am a real actor destined for better roles. I can act serious.' So James and I checked IMDb to see and sure enough, “Dim Lake” was his first film and “Home Free All” was his second, but it was Chazz’ first feature film. We then looked at the rest of his 68 film credits and in every single one, he is playing the Italian.
Doing this with James gave me a momentary feel of his love for research.
“For my first time writing with Ang I needed to research food in Taiwan for ‘Pushing Hands’, the position and placement of food, families and food….The script would be translated from English to Chinese, but Ang was not satisfied with it. I was having trouble tapping into the mentality of the Chinese family so I took all the characters’ names and changed them to Jewish names and rewrote the script totally as a Jewish family. Then I changed the names back to their Chinese names. Ang read the script and said ‘This is really Chinese!’ And so I got ‘the cross-cultural idea’ -- not really…I still don’t get that.
The first day in Taiwan we were shooting the film in a fast food restaurant and I as I watched the rushes, one of the character’s name was Rachel and I realized I had forgotten to change the name back. I asked if we needed to reshoot, but at that time it was a fad to change Chinese names to Anglo names and no one thought it was out of place, and so it stayed.
The most difficult part of the film was shooting the opening title sequence of the father cooking a meal. It went over schedule because it had to be perfect. We used the food so many times it was held together by glue by the end.
Preparing a shot list is very important for Ang and he constantly reduces the list and his vision jells as he does this. By his third film, the process was very internalized. Next he had to communicate it. The plan is always the result of the overall idea. That’s why his style always changes.
As he shoots, the relationship with the editor is very close. He has a long-time relationship with his editor Tim Squyres.
The “Wedding Banquet” was the first film edited on Avid. Before “Wedding Banquet”, four minutes was the full length of films edited on Avid which is now ancient technology.
Tim cuts several versions and talks them through with Ang. They have spent more time in the dark together than most married people. Ang is in the editing room from the beginning to the end. Tim talks very directly, like he might say Ang should have spent more time on a scene or should have shot a scene from a different angle. I used to watch Ang’s face tense up as he listened to Tim’s criticism and often they would fight, but they have spent 25+ years together.
On the transnational global reach of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”:
Critics said it was not an authentic chop-socky movie. But the Hong Kong chop-socky genre itself was a regional hybrid. The origins of chop-socky were from Shanghai and Singapore. It was not so “Cantonese” as critics claimed. Bruce Lee himself was U.S. based. So the transnational aspect was already there.
From 2002 to 2014 Schamus was CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing and worldwide distribution company whose films during his tenure included Wes Anderson's “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Roman Polanski's “The Pianist “ (2002), Henry Selick's “Coraline” (2009) and Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003).
On actors:
Character is secondary to the action. You only have action and words in a script. Working with good actors, you need images.
Actors are at such high risk, they are very vulnerable. They need respect. Sometimes they act out.
On casting and directors:
During the casting process, the director must direct the actor, set the tone for the part. Most of the film’s directing can be done during the casting process.
On storyboarding:
“Ride with the Devil” was the first film Ang Lee storyboarded. He also storyboarded “Life of Pi”. Storyboarding could take the life out of a movie.
On production design:
It takes lots of research. It includes the worldview of the film and everything ties in to that. It first starts with costumes. Research is not done only by the department but by everyone.
On film distribution and Focus:
Where is distribution now for specialized films? Focus was everything, attached to the studio system as its specialized film division, Focus’ model was not Fox Searchlght’s which is locked into the domestic U.S. market. Seachlight bought global rights and produced by way of its international TV deals. Focus didn’t have that. It had to presell theatrical rights to independent distributors worldwide. Driven primarily by the international marketplace, it could not be driven by U.S. Its primary focus for production was London. It was all international but also driven by flagship releases in the U.S.
In 2014, Schamus turned his hand to directing with the short documentary “That Film About Money” (2014).
Paul Allen of Microsoft started Vulcan with a commitment to shorts. I did a doc with a crew of people I had never worked with before. And it was about people like Paul.
In 2016 James made his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Philip Roth's “Indignation”. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and screened at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section.
Schamus is also Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory.
On Doha’s newest foray into Hollywood:
Doha-based beIN Media Group’s acquiring Miramax could be a great deal depending on the price paid.
Much of the 600-plus films in the Miramax library is probably locked into licensing deals already around the globe, but depending on when those deals are up for renewal and what other rights can be exploited, if the price point was right, it’s a great way to get into the game because they are sitting on top of so much intellectual property.
Just integrating into the deal structures and understanding the economics, from the end point where the money is coming from to the rights holder, is a good idea.
Miramax, under the leadership of Zanne Devine, has also co-acquired with Roadside Attractions, the 2016 Sundance premiering feature, “Southside with You”, the narrative feature of Barak Obama and Michelle’s first date. That will bring beIN into the Roadside Attraction/ Lionsgate sphere of distribution and international sales.
On Hollywood interest in territories like China, India and the Middle East:
The less successful pattern is to find a Hollywood producer who flies in on his private jet and give him hundreds of millions (ed: Stx?) to make movies. This is a very different version, this is owning intellectual property - it’s a good first step.
On moviegoing in the Gulf:
The next step is to build a cinema culture that makes movie-going a practice in the region far more than it is now - movie exhibition and movie-going as a power lever.
On TV in the Middle East:
My intuition says new media, television in particular, is going to be a space that is very dynamic once it breaks open, here in the Gulf or elsewhere.
During this week at Qumra, James is also mentoring 10 filmmakers working on five Dfi-backed projects: Mohamed Al Ibrahim’s “Bull Shark”; Hamida Issa’s “To The Ends Of The Earth”; Sherif Elbendary’s “Ali, The Goat And Ibrahim”; Mohanad Hayal’s “Haifa Street” aka “Death Street”; and Karim Moussaoui’s “Till The Swallows Return”.
Elia Suleiman, the Artistic Advisor to Doha Film Institute, recalls how he and James “grew up together” in New York as long-time friends. James introduced him to the Chilean master filmmaker Raul Ruiz. While at Good Machine, Schamus helped him with his short film. He helped edit the script and was his guardian angel helping with his first contract. They even had a code for “urgent”. When Elia was in Jerusalem and James in London, they used the code whenever Elia was overwhelmed by the paperwork needed. James would answer within 15 minutes. Now James has come full circle on his own, from being one of the most important producers of the decade to directing his own film.
When asked by Qumra what was most important, he said “first time filmmakers are the most important”. And he has always been able to spot the most talented of emerging filmmakers.
- 4/3/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This is one of those times when I’ve got nothing. Maybe it’s because I spent the last week sick as a dog, as the saying goes. I wonder what the origin of that axiom is – why not “sick as a cat?” Or a horse, or an elephant? Anyway, I’m still feeling kind of tired and worn out, and I’ve had a headache all day, and I’ve sat down to write the column and gotten up and walked away about a million times, or I’ve started and deleted about a hundred paragraphs.
I keep dwelling on Donald Trump’s campaign. It reads like a political satire, doesn’t it? Or worse, a political dystopian warning, something on the order of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, or The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I know just what the book jacket copy would...
I keep dwelling on Donald Trump’s campaign. It reads like a political satire, doesn’t it? Or worse, a political dystopian warning, something on the order of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, or The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I know just what the book jacket copy would...
- 3/14/2016
- by Mindy Newell
- Comicmix.com
The second edition of Qumra, March 4 - 9, the industry development event organized by the Doha Film Institute to nurture emerging voices in cinema with a focus on first and second-time filmmakers, will include as Masters, James Schamus and Joshua Oppenheimer along with Naomi Kawase, Aleksandr Sokurov and Nuri Bilge Ceylan participating in a series of master classes and one-on-one sessions with selected Qumra filmmakers and their projects along with screenings and Q&A sessions for Doha audiences throughout the week.
Read about previously announced Qumra Masters.
Held at the incredibly beautiful Museum of Islamic Art, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, and a cultural partner of the Doha Film Institute, Qumra supports the development of emerging filmmakers from Qatar, the Arab region and around the world. Dfi has arranged a “rainbow of colors in a bouquet of participants and masters”. Elia Suleiman, Artistic Advisor for the Doha Film Institute says, “each master is very different and the event looks like an edition of poetry.”
Due to unforeseen circumstances, previously announced Qumra Master Lucrecia Martel is no longer able to participate this year.
Directors and producers attached to up to thirty three projects in development or post-production are invited to participate in Qumra, named from the Arabic term ‘qumra’ popularly said to be the origin of the word ‘camera’ and used by the scientist, astronomer and mathematician Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham, 965-c.1040 Ce), whose work in optics laid out the principles of the camera obscura.
Qumra includes a number of emerging filmmakers from Qatar, as well as recipients of funding from the Institute’s Grants Program. The robust program features industry meetings designed to assist with propelling projects to their next stages of development, master classes, work-in-progress screenings, matchmaking sessions and tailored workshops with industry experts. This creative exchange takes place alongside a program of public screenings curated with input from the Qumra Masters.
Especially appealing about this event, seen in light of mega-events as Berlin, Cannes, Tiff and Sundance is the intimacy of everyone sharing meals, attending the same party, staying at the same hotel within the famed souk and in walking distance to the museum. Only 150 people, all working hard and all meeting every day as they work with 23 features, 11 of which are in development and 12 in post whose program has been guided by Elia Suleiman and Qumra Deputy Director Hanaa Issa. The Qumra team will also help us navigate the souk to find the best bargains in spices like saffron and sumac and tumeric, textiles and other middle eastern treasures from the silk road!
Qumra has come a long way in one year; where last year there was only one documentary, this year there are eight documentary features – four in development and four works-in-progress - and four short documentaries in development. Five of them are Qatari, five are from the Mena region and two international. There are 23 features of which five are from Qatar and 10 shorts, all from Qatar. Each Master will meet with four to five filmmakers formally but the collaboration among mentors and emerging filmmakers will extend far beyond such formal meetings.
There are also three great moderators of panels: Richard Pena, the longtime chief for the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York, Jean Michel Poignet and Paolo Bertolini of the Venice Film Festival.
Also included is a highly engaging selection of movies by the five Qumra Masters and from a selection of emerging talent during daily screenings and Q&A sessions. The selection includes Academy Award, Cannes Film Festival and Ajyal Youth Film Festival award winners.
Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Al Remaihi said: “This year, the Qumra Screenings will showcase the work of five esteemed masters of cinema alongside some tremendously talented emerging filmmakers. By presenting these two spectrums of cinematic works, Qumra will offer audiences highly engaging film experiences that will present new insights into the language of cinema and the process behind the creation of compelling films. They will also be educational and inspirational, underlining our commitment to strengthening film culture in Qatar by promoting access to and appreciation of world cinema.”
The Masters screenings, accompanied by Q&A sessions with the visiting Qumra Masters linked to each film are “The Look of Silence” (Denmark, Indonesia, Finland, Norway, UK / Indonesian, Javanese /2014) by Qumra Master Joshua Oppenheimer, “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina / Turkish / 2011) by Qumra Master Nuri Bilge Ceylan; “The Russian Ark” (Russian Federation, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan / Russian / 2002) by Qumra Master Aleksandr Sokurov; “The Mourning Forest” (Japan, France / Japanese / 2007) by Qumra Master Naomi Kawase; and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (Taiwan, Hong Kong, USA, China / Mandarin / 2001) by Ang Lee, co-written and produced by Lee’s longtime collaborator and Qumra Master, James Schamus.
The ‘New Voices in Cinema’ screenings include two feature films granted by the Doha Film Institute: “ Mediterranea” (Italy, France, Germany, Qatar/ Arabic, English, French, Italian; 2015) by Jonas Carpignano being sold internationally by Ndm and Wme; “Roundabout in my Head”/ “Fi rassi roun-point” (Algeria, France, Qatar/Arabic/2015); and two award-winning short films “Waves 98” by Ely Dagher (Lebanon, Qatar / Arabic / 2015), winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and “The Palm Tree ” (Qatar, No Dialogue, 2015) by Jasim Al Rumaihi, winner of the 2015 Ajyal Youth Film Festival Made in Qatar Award for Best Documentary.
“We are privileged to have James Schamus and Joshua Oppenheimer participate as Qumra Masters this year,” said Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Al Remaihi. “Both filmmakers, while very different in style, are truly ground-breaking in their fields and bring a wealth of experience to Qumra that will be invaluable for the young filmmakers participating.”
“We look forward to welcoming James and Joshua to the Gulf region for the first time and enabling our Qumra 2016 participants to establish a connection with these two leaders of independent filmmaking in the Us.”
Both Schamus and Oppenheimer were born in the Us and combine their acclaimed filmmaking careers with other roles within the industry: Schamus as a revered film historian and academic; and Oppenheimer as Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster in London.
Schamus, a multi award-winning screenwriter, director and leading Us indie producer, is best known for his long creative collaboration with Taiwanese director Ang Lee. He has worked with Lee on nine films, including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), which won four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography, and remains the highest-grossing non-English-language film in the Us. He was the screenwriter for Lee's “The Ice Storm”, for which he won the award for Best Screenplay at the Festival de Cannes in 1997 and co-wrote “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994), the first of Lee’s films to achieve both critical and commercial success.
As a producer, Schamus co-founded the Us powerhouse production company Good Machine in the early 1990s, and then from 2002 to 2014 was CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing and worldwide distribution company whose films during his tenure included Wes Anderson's “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Roman Polanski's “The Pianist “(2002), Henry Selick's Coraline (2009) and Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003).
In 2014, Schamus turned his hand to directing with the short documentary “That Film About Money” (2014), and in 2016 made his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Philip Roth's “Indignation," which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and is screening at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section.
Schamus is also Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory, and is the author of 'Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud: The Moving Word', published by the University of Washington Press.
Elia Suleiman , the Artistic Advisor to Doha Film Institute, recalls how he and James grew up together in New York as long-time friends. James introduced him to the Chilean master filmmaker Raul Ruiz. Schamus helped him with his short film while at Good Machine. He helped edit the script and was his guardian angel helping with his first contract. They even had a code for “urgent”. When Elia was in Jerusalem and James in London they used the code whenever Elia was overwhelmed by the paperwork needed. James would answer within 15 minutes. Now James has come full circle on his own, from being one of the most important producers of the decade to directing his own film. When asked by Qumra what was most important, he said first time filmmakers were the most important. And he has always been able to spot the most talented of emerging filmmakers.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut feature-length film, “The Act of Killing” (2012) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, named Film of the Year by The Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll, and won 72 international awards, including a European Film Award, a BAFTA, an Asia Pacific Screen Award, a Berlin International Film Festival Audience Award, and the Guardian Film Award for Best Film.
His second film, “The Look of Silence” (2014) had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it won five awards including the Grand Jury Prize, the Fipresci Prize and the Fedeora Prize. It was nominated for the 2016 Oscar for Best Documentary Film, and has received 66 international awards, including an International Documentary Association Award for Best Documentary, a Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and three Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking.
Oppenheimer is a partner at the Final Cut for Real production company in Copenhagen, and Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster, London.
Many of the industry guests include returnees as well as the new guests which count Bero Beyer, Rotterdam; Tine Fisher, Cph Dox; Christophe Le Parc, Director’s Fortnight, Cannes; Vincenzo Bugno, World Cinema Fund, Berlinale; Cameron Bailey, Tiff and Carlo Chatrian, Locarno here for their second time; Sundance for its first year; Matthijs Wouter Knol, European Film Market; Mike Goodridge, Protagonist; Memento Films, Arte; Michael Werner, Fortissimo; Alaa Karkouti, Mad Solutions and Selim El Azar, Gulf Films.
Also attending for the first time will be Netflix who picked up “Under the Shadow” an elevated horror/ thriller partially funded by the Doha Film Institute, Film Movement and the Ford Foundation.
Previous Qumra Masters include Mexican actor, director and producer Gael Garcia Bernal (“Amores Perros”; “No”; “Deficit”), Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu - nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Academy Awards); Romanian auteur and Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”; “Beyond the Hills”); and Bosnian writer/director Danis Tanović (“An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker”; “Tigers”, “No Man’s Land” - winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001).
Read about previously announced Qumra Masters.
Held at the incredibly beautiful Museum of Islamic Art, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, and a cultural partner of the Doha Film Institute, Qumra supports the development of emerging filmmakers from Qatar, the Arab region and around the world. Dfi has arranged a “rainbow of colors in a bouquet of participants and masters”. Elia Suleiman, Artistic Advisor for the Doha Film Institute says, “each master is very different and the event looks like an edition of poetry.”
Due to unforeseen circumstances, previously announced Qumra Master Lucrecia Martel is no longer able to participate this year.
Directors and producers attached to up to thirty three projects in development or post-production are invited to participate in Qumra, named from the Arabic term ‘qumra’ popularly said to be the origin of the word ‘camera’ and used by the scientist, astronomer and mathematician Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham, 965-c.1040 Ce), whose work in optics laid out the principles of the camera obscura.
Qumra includes a number of emerging filmmakers from Qatar, as well as recipients of funding from the Institute’s Grants Program. The robust program features industry meetings designed to assist with propelling projects to their next stages of development, master classes, work-in-progress screenings, matchmaking sessions and tailored workshops with industry experts. This creative exchange takes place alongside a program of public screenings curated with input from the Qumra Masters.
Especially appealing about this event, seen in light of mega-events as Berlin, Cannes, Tiff and Sundance is the intimacy of everyone sharing meals, attending the same party, staying at the same hotel within the famed souk and in walking distance to the museum. Only 150 people, all working hard and all meeting every day as they work with 23 features, 11 of which are in development and 12 in post whose program has been guided by Elia Suleiman and Qumra Deputy Director Hanaa Issa. The Qumra team will also help us navigate the souk to find the best bargains in spices like saffron and sumac and tumeric, textiles and other middle eastern treasures from the silk road!
Qumra has come a long way in one year; where last year there was only one documentary, this year there are eight documentary features – four in development and four works-in-progress - and four short documentaries in development. Five of them are Qatari, five are from the Mena region and two international. There are 23 features of which five are from Qatar and 10 shorts, all from Qatar. Each Master will meet with four to five filmmakers formally but the collaboration among mentors and emerging filmmakers will extend far beyond such formal meetings.
There are also three great moderators of panels: Richard Pena, the longtime chief for the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York, Jean Michel Poignet and Paolo Bertolini of the Venice Film Festival.
Also included is a highly engaging selection of movies by the five Qumra Masters and from a selection of emerging talent during daily screenings and Q&A sessions. The selection includes Academy Award, Cannes Film Festival and Ajyal Youth Film Festival award winners.
Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Al Remaihi said: “This year, the Qumra Screenings will showcase the work of five esteemed masters of cinema alongside some tremendously talented emerging filmmakers. By presenting these two spectrums of cinematic works, Qumra will offer audiences highly engaging film experiences that will present new insights into the language of cinema and the process behind the creation of compelling films. They will also be educational and inspirational, underlining our commitment to strengthening film culture in Qatar by promoting access to and appreciation of world cinema.”
The Masters screenings, accompanied by Q&A sessions with the visiting Qumra Masters linked to each film are “The Look of Silence” (Denmark, Indonesia, Finland, Norway, UK / Indonesian, Javanese /2014) by Qumra Master Joshua Oppenheimer, “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina / Turkish / 2011) by Qumra Master Nuri Bilge Ceylan; “The Russian Ark” (Russian Federation, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan / Russian / 2002) by Qumra Master Aleksandr Sokurov; “The Mourning Forest” (Japan, France / Japanese / 2007) by Qumra Master Naomi Kawase; and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (Taiwan, Hong Kong, USA, China / Mandarin / 2001) by Ang Lee, co-written and produced by Lee’s longtime collaborator and Qumra Master, James Schamus.
The ‘New Voices in Cinema’ screenings include two feature films granted by the Doha Film Institute: “ Mediterranea” (Italy, France, Germany, Qatar/ Arabic, English, French, Italian; 2015) by Jonas Carpignano being sold internationally by Ndm and Wme; “Roundabout in my Head”/ “Fi rassi roun-point” (Algeria, France, Qatar/Arabic/2015); and two award-winning short films “Waves 98” by Ely Dagher (Lebanon, Qatar / Arabic / 2015), winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and “The Palm Tree ” (Qatar, No Dialogue, 2015) by Jasim Al Rumaihi, winner of the 2015 Ajyal Youth Film Festival Made in Qatar Award for Best Documentary.
“We are privileged to have James Schamus and Joshua Oppenheimer participate as Qumra Masters this year,” said Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Al Remaihi. “Both filmmakers, while very different in style, are truly ground-breaking in their fields and bring a wealth of experience to Qumra that will be invaluable for the young filmmakers participating.”
“We look forward to welcoming James and Joshua to the Gulf region for the first time and enabling our Qumra 2016 participants to establish a connection with these two leaders of independent filmmaking in the Us.”
Both Schamus and Oppenheimer were born in the Us and combine their acclaimed filmmaking careers with other roles within the industry: Schamus as a revered film historian and academic; and Oppenheimer as Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster in London.
Schamus, a multi award-winning screenwriter, director and leading Us indie producer, is best known for his long creative collaboration with Taiwanese director Ang Lee. He has worked with Lee on nine films, including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), which won four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography, and remains the highest-grossing non-English-language film in the Us. He was the screenwriter for Lee's “The Ice Storm”, for which he won the award for Best Screenplay at the Festival de Cannes in 1997 and co-wrote “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994), the first of Lee’s films to achieve both critical and commercial success.
As a producer, Schamus co-founded the Us powerhouse production company Good Machine in the early 1990s, and then from 2002 to 2014 was CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing and worldwide distribution company whose films during his tenure included Wes Anderson's “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Roman Polanski's “The Pianist “(2002), Henry Selick's Coraline (2009) and Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003).
In 2014, Schamus turned his hand to directing with the short documentary “That Film About Money” (2014), and in 2016 made his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Philip Roth's “Indignation," which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and is screening at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section.
Schamus is also Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory, and is the author of 'Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud: The Moving Word', published by the University of Washington Press.
Elia Suleiman , the Artistic Advisor to Doha Film Institute, recalls how he and James grew up together in New York as long-time friends. James introduced him to the Chilean master filmmaker Raul Ruiz. Schamus helped him with his short film while at Good Machine. He helped edit the script and was his guardian angel helping with his first contract. They even had a code for “urgent”. When Elia was in Jerusalem and James in London they used the code whenever Elia was overwhelmed by the paperwork needed. James would answer within 15 minutes. Now James has come full circle on his own, from being one of the most important producers of the decade to directing his own film. When asked by Qumra what was most important, he said first time filmmakers were the most important. And he has always been able to spot the most talented of emerging filmmakers.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut feature-length film, “The Act of Killing” (2012) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, named Film of the Year by The Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll, and won 72 international awards, including a European Film Award, a BAFTA, an Asia Pacific Screen Award, a Berlin International Film Festival Audience Award, and the Guardian Film Award for Best Film.
His second film, “The Look of Silence” (2014) had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it won five awards including the Grand Jury Prize, the Fipresci Prize and the Fedeora Prize. It was nominated for the 2016 Oscar for Best Documentary Film, and has received 66 international awards, including an International Documentary Association Award for Best Documentary, a Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and three Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking.
Oppenheimer is a partner at the Final Cut for Real production company in Copenhagen, and Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster, London.
Many of the industry guests include returnees as well as the new guests which count Bero Beyer, Rotterdam; Tine Fisher, Cph Dox; Christophe Le Parc, Director’s Fortnight, Cannes; Vincenzo Bugno, World Cinema Fund, Berlinale; Cameron Bailey, Tiff and Carlo Chatrian, Locarno here for their second time; Sundance for its first year; Matthijs Wouter Knol, European Film Market; Mike Goodridge, Protagonist; Memento Films, Arte; Michael Werner, Fortissimo; Alaa Karkouti, Mad Solutions and Selim El Azar, Gulf Films.
Also attending for the first time will be Netflix who picked up “Under the Shadow” an elevated horror/ thriller partially funded by the Doha Film Institute, Film Movement and the Ford Foundation.
Previous Qumra Masters include Mexican actor, director and producer Gael Garcia Bernal (“Amores Perros”; “No”; “Deficit”), Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu - nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Academy Awards); Romanian auteur and Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”; “Beyond the Hills”); and Bosnian writer/director Danis Tanović (“An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker”; “Tigers”, “No Man’s Land” - winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001).
- 2/24/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
When HBO announced last month that Girls would end after its sixth season, that seemed about right. Some TV shows are built to run forever, because they have a premise and/or characters who transcend the particular moment in their story in which the show began. Louie (a show that was a big influence on Girls) is on an indefinite hiatus, but is an elastic enough idea that the head of FX recently suggested Louis C.K. could return to it periodically in his 50s, 60s, and 70s. Rumors persist that NBC will revive the original Law & Order at some point, and Sam Waterston has at least another decade of self-righteous reactions in him. Girls, though, is about a very specific time in the lives of its four title characters, and about telling their stories in a very specific — and, always, polarizing — way. Lena Dunham and company have presented the early-mid...
- 2/18/2016
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
Us and Hong Kong producers joined by European distributor.
Independent filmmakers and distributors must change with their audience and embrace new platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, according to Michael Weber, managing director of German sales agency The Match Factory.
Speaking on a panel titled “The Creative Thunder of Cinema” at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), Weber said: “Ultimately, we want our movies to be seen by people. While I am very passionate about all of the films we sell, some of the films never make it to the cinema outside of festivals or, if they do make it to the cinema, they are often kicked out within a week by the bigger films.
“So if I sell to Netflix or to Amazon, it’s likely more people will see that movie. And companies like Amazon understand there is value to a cinematic experience. I wouldn’t say it’s all a bad thing.”
Weber...
Independent filmmakers and distributors must change with their audience and embrace new platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, according to Michael Weber, managing director of German sales agency The Match Factory.
Speaking on a panel titled “The Creative Thunder of Cinema” at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), Weber said: “Ultimately, we want our movies to be seen by people. While I am very passionate about all of the films we sell, some of the films never make it to the cinema outside of festivals or, if they do make it to the cinema, they are often kicked out within a week by the bigger films.
“So if I sell to Netflix or to Amazon, it’s likely more people will see that movie. And companies like Amazon understand there is value to a cinematic experience. I wouldn’t say it’s all a bad thing.”
Weber...
- 2/2/2016
- ScreenDaily
Sundance Film Festival marks a fresh start to the film calendar. Just as awards season is winding down, new artistic agendas are kicking off all over Park City.
Sundance is a festival unsullied by headline-sucking studio ‘out-of-competition’ launches, making it purely about the programming line-up, split neatly between docs and dramatic, world and Us, premieres and competitive. In that sense, there was one big winner: Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the Us Dramatic section and also walked away with the Audience Award and a record-breaking $17.5m deal from Fox Searchlight.
Netflix had actually offered more for the confrontational, provocative, agenda-changing film which will be pushed for next year’s awards to put a halt to Oscars-being-so-white. In fact, Netflix and Amazon were active throughout Sundance, chasing down quality, prestige English-language projects as opposed to bulk-buying. (This isn’t cable programming; this is taste-making. If a film...
Sundance is a festival unsullied by headline-sucking studio ‘out-of-competition’ launches, making it purely about the programming line-up, split neatly between docs and dramatic, world and Us, premieres and competitive. In that sense, there was one big winner: Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the Us Dramatic section and also walked away with the Audience Award and a record-breaking $17.5m deal from Fox Searchlight.
Netflix had actually offered more for the confrontational, provocative, agenda-changing film which will be pushed for next year’s awards to put a halt to Oscars-being-so-white. In fact, Netflix and Amazon were active throughout Sundance, chasing down quality, prestige English-language projects as opposed to bulk-buying. (This isn’t cable programming; this is taste-making. If a film...
- 1/31/2016
- by finn.halligan@screendaily.com (Fionnuala Halligan)
- ScreenDaily
James Schamus makes his directorial debut with this well-acted adaptation of a novel about a Jewish man at odds with the morals of his Christian college
Screenwriter James Schamus has cultivated a remarkable career, largely thanks to his collaborations with director Ang Lee, with whom he worked with on The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
With his directorial debut Indignation, Schamus aims for the rafters by adapting Philip Roth’s complex and deeply personal novel about a stalwart young man coming into his own in closed-minded 50s America.
Continue reading...
Screenwriter James Schamus has cultivated a remarkable career, largely thanks to his collaborations with director Ang Lee, with whom he worked with on The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
With his directorial debut Indignation, Schamus aims for the rafters by adapting Philip Roth’s complex and deeply personal novel about a stalwart young man coming into his own in closed-minded 50s America.
Continue reading...
- 1/25/2016
- by Nigel M Smith in Park City, Utah
- The Guardian - Film News
James Schamus makes his directorial debut with this well-acted adaptation of a novel about a Jewish man at odds with the morals of his Christian college
Screenwriter James Schamus has cultivated a remarkable career, largely thanks to his collaborations with director Ang Lee, with whom he worked with on The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
With his directorial debut Indignation, Schamus aims for the rafters by adapting Philip Roth’s complex and deeply personal novel about a stalwart young man coming into his own in closed-minded 50s America.
Continue reading...
Screenwriter James Schamus has cultivated a remarkable career, largely thanks to his collaborations with director Ang Lee, with whom he worked with on The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
With his directorial debut Indignation, Schamus aims for the rafters by adapting Philip Roth’s complex and deeply personal novel about a stalwart young man coming into his own in closed-minded 50s America.
Continue reading...
- 1/25/2016
- by Nigel M Smith in Park City, Utah
- The Guardian - Film News
James Schamus’ feature directorial debut has gone to the studio in a North American deal in the mid-$2m range.
Summit has not yet set a release date and will likely weigh up critical response before orchestrating a campaign. CAA represented the filmmakers in the deal and FilmNation handles international sales.
Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon star in the 1951-set Philip Roth adaptation about the idealistic son of a kosher butcher who leaves New Jersey for a conservative Ohio college where he encounters anti-semitism, sexual repression and lusts after a troubled girl.
Schamus adapted the screenplay and produced with Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman and Rodrigio Teixeira.
Likely Story’s Avy Eschenasy and Stefanie Azpiazu served as executive producers.
The former Focus Features CEO earned Oscar nods for best picture on Brokeback Mountain and for adapted screenplay for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Summit has not yet set a release date and will likely weigh up critical response before orchestrating a campaign. CAA represented the filmmakers in the deal and FilmNation handles international sales.
Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon star in the 1951-set Philip Roth adaptation about the idealistic son of a kosher butcher who leaves New Jersey for a conservative Ohio college where he encounters anti-semitism, sexual repression and lusts after a troubled girl.
Schamus adapted the screenplay and produced with Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman and Rodrigio Teixeira.
Likely Story’s Avy Eschenasy and Stefanie Azpiazu served as executive producers.
The former Focus Features CEO earned Oscar nods for best picture on Brokeback Mountain and for adapted screenplay for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
- 1/25/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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