Olivier Assayas fidgets endlessly. On the finer nuances of 1970s radicalism, the French director swivels around with unflappable urgency and a staccato delivery to his response. Such as the characters in his semi-autobiographical movie, Something in the Air (2012), Assayas exudes this infectious youthful dynamism, coupled with a profound understanding of leftist politics. While not exclusively a sequel to his unruly examination of teenage unrest, Cold Water (1994), Something in the Air assesses the coming-of-age genre during a time of left-leaning apathy. Following the official release of his latest film, Assayas sat down with Tom Watson to discuss music, 'Situationist International' theory and the death of storytelling.
Tom Watson: Following on from your last project, Carlos, did you find it almost restricting returning to a more traditional narrative format?
Olivier Assayas: After Carlos, you couldn't go much further in scope. I knew I had to downsize, which I did quite radically.
Tom Watson: Following on from your last project, Carlos, did you find it almost restricting returning to a more traditional narrative format?
Olivier Assayas: After Carlos, you couldn't go much further in scope. I knew I had to downsize, which I did quite radically.
- 5/24/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ "Vive la révolution!" No single culture betters leftist subculture than the aged liberals of France. Many would refer to it all as misguided historic romanticism. But there are those like Olivier Assayas where their movies echo an intrinsic disconnection with conservative oppression. Assayas' semi-autobiographical opus, Cold Water (1994), delved blind into the heady instability of teenage rebellion. The freedom Assayas shot encapsulated a period of sexual and political discovery unmatched by mainstream standards. Now, Assayas latest feature, Something in the Air (Après mai, 2012), elaborates on the thematic self-rule of Cold Water.
Set in the clamorous heat of the early 1970s, Assayas, again, seeks to capture the belligerency of Parisian youth in revolt. A group of depressingly attractive students allow their enviable desires and aggressive nature to guide them through a world of bourgeois dictated dissonance. After waging war with the local authorities, the sprightly free thinkers flee their desensitised Paris to...
Set in the clamorous heat of the early 1970s, Assayas, again, seeks to capture the belligerency of Parisian youth in revolt. A group of depressingly attractive students allow their enviable desires and aggressive nature to guide them through a world of bourgeois dictated dissonance. After waging war with the local authorities, the sprightly free thinkers flee their desensitised Paris to...
- 5/22/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The Ufc returned to England this past weekend with a huge card (12 fights!), but unfortunately the overwhelming majority ended in decisions. English Thom Burton joins me to dissect the card and pick out the gems.
The highlight of the night was certainly the fourth fight in the prelims. It featured Southampton’s own Tom Watson (16-5) earning a 2nd round Tko victory in a back and forth fight over Stanislav Nedkov (12-1, 1), making his Middleweight debut. The key to victory for Watson was undoubtedly his proficiency in the clench, landing several clean short elbows and multiple unanswered knees before the massive Bulgarian crumpled to the canvas, unable to continue. The fight earned a double bonus with Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night honors, netting Watson an additional $100,000.
The second fight to distinguish itself pitted Kiwi James Te-Huna (16-5) against Canadian slugger Ryan Jimmo (17-2). Even after eating...
The highlight of the night was certainly the fourth fight in the prelims. It featured Southampton’s own Tom Watson (16-5) earning a 2nd round Tko victory in a back and forth fight over Stanislav Nedkov (12-1, 1), making his Middleweight debut. The key to victory for Watson was undoubtedly his proficiency in the clench, landing several clean short elbows and multiple unanswered knees before the massive Bulgarian crumpled to the canvas, unable to continue. The fight earned a double bonus with Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night honors, netting Watson an additional $100,000.
The second fight to distinguish itself pitted Kiwi James Te-Huna (16-5) against Canadian slugger Ryan Jimmo (17-2). Even after eating...
- 2/20/2013
- by Robert Curtis
- Obsessed with Film
For the upcoming Ufc on Fuel TV 7 card in Wembley Arena, I called upon our British Mma correspondent and co-host, English Thom Burton to help me breakdown the event. We cover all 12 fights with particular emphasis on the interim championship match between Renan Barao (29-1, 1) and Michael McDonald (15-1). Barao is easily one of the most talented fighters in the Ufc and a legitimate threat to Dominick Cruz’s stranglehold on the Bantamweight division when he returns from injury.
The other notable fights include a battle between Cub Swanson () and Dustin Poirier () at Featherweight, which promises to be a contender for Fight of the Night. Also expect big knockouts in the Lhw Jimi Manuwa (12-0) vs. Cyrille Diabate and the James Te-Huna (15-5) vs. Ryan Jimmo (17-1) matches. These fighters have an amazing 36 knockouts between them.
If submissions are your thing, then Paul Sass (13-1) takes on Danny Castillo (14-...
The other notable fights include a battle between Cub Swanson () and Dustin Poirier () at Featherweight, which promises to be a contender for Fight of the Night. Also expect big knockouts in the Lhw Jimi Manuwa (12-0) vs. Cyrille Diabate and the James Te-Huna (15-5) vs. Ryan Jimmo (17-1) matches. These fighters have an amazing 36 knockouts between them.
If submissions are your thing, then Paul Sass (13-1) takes on Danny Castillo (14-...
- 2/15/2013
- by Robert Curtis
- Obsessed with Film
Film-maker joins union leaders demanding transparency in 1972 builders' strike case that saw Ricky Tomlinson imprisoned
Film-maker Ken Loach joined union leaders and actor Ricky Tomlinson today to step up the pressure on the government to release documents relating to the case of 24 building workers arrested four decades ago after taking part in a strike.
Loach said the case, which saw Tomlinson imprisoned in 1972, was one of the "great causes of our time".
"It is an absolutely clear case so see let's see the strength of the trade union movement mobilised in the way it can be mobilised," he told a packed meeting in Westminster on Wednesday.
Earlier this week it emerged that Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, had told surviving members of the "Shrewsbury 24" that documents relating to the case will be withheld for a further 10 years because of national security concerns. The ban will be reviewed again in 2021.
But...
Film-maker Ken Loach joined union leaders and actor Ricky Tomlinson today to step up the pressure on the government to release documents relating to the case of 24 building workers arrested four decades ago after taking part in a strike.
Loach said the case, which saw Tomlinson imprisoned in 1972, was one of the "great causes of our time".
"It is an absolutely clear case so see let's see the strength of the trade union movement mobilised in the way it can be mobilised," he told a packed meeting in Westminster on Wednesday.
Earlier this week it emerged that Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, had told surviving members of the "Shrewsbury 24" that documents relating to the case will be withheld for a further 10 years because of national security concerns. The ban will be reviewed again in 2021.
But...
- 1/23/2013
- by Matthew Taylor
- The Guardian - Film News
Brad Pitt is developing a feature based on Edwin Black’s 2001 bestseller "Ibm and the Holocaust" about the computer giant’s role in facilitating the Third Reich’s Jewish extermination program reports Vulture.
In 1933, Ibm's CEO Thomas Watson formed a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany. Punch cards were used to help sort through and cross-reference mountains of German census information.
As a result, the Nazis were able to quickly and ruthlessly identify, ghettoize, deport and ultimately wipe out millions of European Jews.
Marcus Hinchey ("All Good Things") penned the script with the project originally setup at HBO. Having now departed the cable channel, Pitt’s Plan B production company is shopping it around and Pitt has attached himself to star in order to attract directors.
In 1933, Ibm's CEO Thomas Watson formed a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany. Punch cards were used to help sort through and cross-reference mountains of German census information.
As a result, the Nazis were able to quickly and ruthlessly identify, ghettoize, deport and ultimately wipe out millions of European Jews.
Marcus Hinchey ("All Good Things") penned the script with the project originally setup at HBO. Having now departed the cable channel, Pitt’s Plan B production company is shopping it around and Pitt has attached himself to star in order to attract directors.
- 9/13/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
There are a lot of companies around today that helped the Nazis during WWII. Brad Pitt is now developing a movie based on Edwin Black's 2001 best-seller "Ibm and the Holocaust," to tells the story of IBMs involvement with the extermination of the Jews. The book answers the question: How did the Nazis identify and round up so many Jews with such precision and speed? They accomplished this with the help of Ibm's CEO Thomas Watson, who formed an alliance with Nazi Germany in 1933. Punch cards were used to help sort through mountains of German census information, cross-referencing data about religion, nationality, profession, and location of 66 million Germans to quickly and ruthlessly identify, tax, ghettoize, deport, and ultimately exterminate Europe's 6 million Jews. Sources familiar with the project say that Pitt has attached himself to star in order to attract directors. Many are already calling this movie the Holocaust version of Pitt's "Moneyball.
- 9/13/2012
- WorstPreviews.com
Brad Pitt has just attached himself to a very interesting film project called Ibm and the Holocaust, which he will produce and star in. I imagine the title grabbed your attention, and the story is about exactly what the title says.
The movie is based on a book of the same name written by Edwin Black, and it examines Ibm's indispensable role in facilitating the Third Reich’s extermination of the Jews. The book answers the following question.... How did the Nazis identify and round up so many Jews with such precision and speed?
According to Vulture, "The short answer is that Ibm’s then-chief executive, Thomas Watson, formed a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany starting in 1933. Punch cards were used to help sort through mountains of German census information, cross-referencing data about the mother tongue, religion, nationality, profession, and location of 66 million Germans to quickly and ruthlessly identify, tax,...
The movie is based on a book of the same name written by Edwin Black, and it examines Ibm's indispensable role in facilitating the Third Reich’s extermination of the Jews. The book answers the following question.... How did the Nazis identify and round up so many Jews with such precision and speed?
According to Vulture, "The short answer is that Ibm’s then-chief executive, Thomas Watson, formed a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany starting in 1933. Punch cards were used to help sort through mountains of German census information, cross-referencing data about the mother tongue, religion, nationality, profession, and location of 66 million Germans to quickly and ruthlessly identify, tax,...
- 9/12/2012
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
The events of the Holocaust have been depicted thousands of times on film before in everything from Schindler's List to X-Men, but here's a fresh take on some familiar subject matter. How were the Nazis able to locate and single out so many Jews during the 30s and 40s amid political upheaval? Vulture reports that Brad Pitt will produce and possibly star in Ibm and the Holocaust, a historical drama based on Edwin Black's book that chronicles the true story of how computer giant Ibm's chief executive Thomas Watson contributed to the eradication of Jews in Europe years before the personal computer arrived. More below! According to Black's book, Watson entered into a deal with the Nazis in 1933 and used his influence and power at Ibm to create technologies that enabled the Third Reich to identify, track, categorize, deport, and sequester millions of Jews before working them to death in...
- 9/12/2012
- by Ben Pearson
- firstshowing.net
Brad Pitt enjoyed plenty of success shepherding and starring in Moneyball, so you can see why he might be looking to repeat the trick with another based-on-truth tale, albeit a slightly more controversial one. He’s currently shopping an adaptation of Edwin Black’s bestselling book Ibm And The Holocaust.The tome chronicles the true tale of how Ibm’s 1933 chief executive Thomas Watson entered into a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany, which resulted in a punch card method of sorting through the data mined from years of German census results.What the regime learned, it put to horrific use, identifying, taxing, ghettoizing and ultimately exterminating millions of Jews.Black’s book hit shelves in 2001, but Pitt has held the rights for the last couple of years. He and his production company, Plan B, initially approached HBO with an idea for a TV movie with a script by All Good Things’ Marcus Hinchey,...
- 9/12/2012
- EmpireOnline
Well this is certainly a fascinating story for the big screen, and one that is also incredibly bleak. Vulture is reporting that Brad Pitt and his Plan B production outfit are developing a feature film based on the 2001 New York Times Best Seller "Ibm and the Holocaust," by Edwin Black. The book chronicles the efforts of Ibm's then-chief executive Thomas Watson, who formed an alliance with the Nazis and facilitated the Holocaust by implementing a series of punch cards based on national census data. Ah, the genius of evil. According to the Vulture story, Pitt has been working on the project at HBO since at least the beginning of the year, using a script by Marcus Hinchey (who wrote the Ryan Gosling true crime movie "All Good Things"). Recently, though, the project has moved on from HBO and the production company is currently shopping it to other television networks or,...
- 9/12/2012
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
Brad Pitt killed a lot of Nazis as Lt. Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and now it looks like he's changing gears a bit by taking an interest in the way that the Third Reich made use of the earliest computers. Plan B, Pitt's production company, is now planning an adaptation of Ibm and The Holocaust, a new film based on the 2001 New York Times bestseller written by Edwin Black. While Ibm's personal computers obviously weren't around during World War II, in 1933 Ibm CEO Thomas Watson actually formed an alliance with Nazi Germany and created a punch card system that allowed the fascist party an easier way to sort through German census information and learn which of the citizens were of Jewish descent. Vulture says that the technology that Watson gave the Nazis allowed them to cross-reference data about "the mother tongue, religion, nationality, profession, and location...
- 9/12/2012
- cinemablend.com
Brad Pitt is taking the Moneyball approach to explaining the Holocaust. Our spies tell us that Pitt is developing a feature based on Edwin Black’s New York Times bestseller Ibm and the Holocaust, a 2001 book that examined the computer solutions giant’s indispensible role in facilitating the Third Reich’s extermination of European Jewry.While the Holocaust obviously predates the personal computer, it did not precede the information age, and Black’s book answers one of the Holocaust’s most obvious questions: How did the Nazis identify and round up so many Jews with such precision and speed? The short answer is that Ibm’s then-chief executive, Thomas Watson, formed a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany starting in 1933. Punch cards were used to help sort through mountains of German census information, cross-referencing data about the mother tongue, religion, nationality, profession, and location of 66 million Germans to quickly and ruthlessly identify,...
- 9/12/2012
- by Claude Brodesser-Akner
- Vulture
After a summer dominated by big budget Hollywood blockbusters, we could all use a film that reminds us of the humanity and joy of the medium. Teal Greyhavens’ Cinema is Everywhere follows actors and directors from four disparate cultures, creating an interwoven narrative fabric that lovingly renders the importance of film across the globe. Greyhavens’ documentary makes effort to explore cinema in countries where social and political barriers limit or restrict free speech; often, movies are the best opportunities people have to express their thoughts, fears and hopes. With such an ambitious scope the film could easily spread itself too thin, but the director tells each story with simplicity and grace, and succeeds in crafting a work that feels authentic in its universality.
Greyhavens, who filmed the documentary in 2009 while travelling on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, below talks about the literal and figurative journey of making Cinema is Everywhere.
Greyhavens, who filmed the documentary in 2009 while travelling on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, below talks about the literal and figurative journey of making Cinema is Everywhere.
- 9/5/2012
- by Sam Eisen
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Thousands back Wikipedia founder's call to oppose extradition of British student to Us over alleged internet copyright offences
A petition launched by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to halt the extradition to the Us of Sheffield Hallam University student Richard O'Dwyer has garnered 160,000 signatures in less than five days.
O'Dwyer, 24, faces up to 10 years in Us prison for alleged copyright offences relating to TVShack.net, a website that provided links to places where users could watch TV shows and films online.
Wales's petition, which calls on the home secretary, Theresa May, to revoke her permission to extradite O'Dwyer, has picked up more than 75,000 signatures in the last 24 hours alone after being circulated among Us supporters of Change.org.
The petition is now the fastest-growing Change.org petition in the UK. In the Guardian article that launched the campaign, Wales said the extradition represented a battle between the film industry and general public.
A petition launched by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to halt the extradition to the Us of Sheffield Hallam University student Richard O'Dwyer has garnered 160,000 signatures in less than five days.
O'Dwyer, 24, faces up to 10 years in Us prison for alleged copyright offences relating to TVShack.net, a website that provided links to places where users could watch TV shows and films online.
Wales's petition, which calls on the home secretary, Theresa May, to revoke her permission to extradite O'Dwyer, has picked up more than 75,000 signatures in the last 24 hours alone after being circulated among Us supporters of Change.org.
The petition is now the fastest-growing Change.org petition in the UK. In the Guardian article that launched the campaign, Wales said the extradition represented a battle between the film industry and general public.
- 6/29/2012
- by James Ball
- The Guardian - Film News
This year GameCity – the UK’s biggest indie games festival – will be running for a mammoth 7 days, from 20th-27th October. Now entering its 7th year, the GameCity team have already announced some of the attractions for this year’s festival with a full lineup to follow in the run-up to the Nottingham event, but here are 7 things I’d personally love to see (some more likely than others).
1. Charlie Brooker to Judge the GameCity Prize
The desire of festival fans to see self-proclaimed gamer Charlie Brooker sit on the GameCity Prize judging panel has been knocking round the Twittersphere since last year’s festival, and since this year’s judges are still closely under wraps it remains a tantalising possibility.
The jury for last year’s inaugural GameCity Prize was drawn from a broad spectrum of figures outside of the game industry itself – ranging from musician Nitin Sawhney to...
1. Charlie Brooker to Judge the GameCity Prize
The desire of festival fans to see self-proclaimed gamer Charlie Brooker sit on the GameCity Prize judging panel has been knocking round the Twittersphere since last year’s festival, and since this year’s judges are still closely under wraps it remains a tantalising possibility.
The jury for last year’s inaugural GameCity Prize was drawn from a broad spectrum of figures outside of the game industry itself – ranging from musician Nitin Sawhney to...
- 5/6/2012
- by Emma O Sullivan
- Obsessed with Film
The rise of the movie knock-off, the trials of Claude the giant crab – and the further rise of Noma, the world's best restuarant
Mockbusters
The studio behind Battleships is suing the makers of a straight-to-dvd imitator titled American Battleship. There's a gallery of other hilarious movie knock-offs at guardian.co.uk/film.
Long haul
Claude the giant crab has apparently been suffering from jet lag after flying from Tasmania to his new home at the Weymouth Sea Life centre. They could have put him in Business.
Noma stampede
World's best restaurant for the third year running + London popup branch taking bookings from 9 May = imminent reservations meltdown.
Dylanology
Judges quote Bob's lyrics all the time, according to the La Times. When the Commons select committee reported on phone hacking yesterday, Tom Watson reached for The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.
Just For Men
As used by Osama bin Laden, according to...
Mockbusters
The studio behind Battleships is suing the makers of a straight-to-dvd imitator titled American Battleship. There's a gallery of other hilarious movie knock-offs at guardian.co.uk/film.
Long haul
Claude the giant crab has apparently been suffering from jet lag after flying from Tasmania to his new home at the Weymouth Sea Life centre. They could have put him in Business.
Noma stampede
World's best restaurant for the third year running + London popup branch taking bookings from 9 May = imminent reservations meltdown.
Dylanology
Judges quote Bob's lyrics all the time, according to the La Times. When the Commons select committee reported on phone hacking yesterday, Tom Watson reached for The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.
Just For Men
As used by Osama bin Laden, according to...
- 5/1/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.