Wednesday, November 12, 2014

2015 Oscar Foreign Language Entry (Full List) | Spotlight | Variety

Wild Tales from Argentina is one of the 2015 Oscar Foreign Language category front runner

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/oscars-record-83-films-submitted-for-foreign-language-prize-1201326138/ 

Happy New Year enter 200 Crore Club | Box Office | Filmfare

http://www.filmfare.com/news/happy-new-year-enters-the-200-crore-club-7698.html

Arjun Kapoor's Latest Tevar | TRAILER | Filmfare

http://www.filmfare.com/videos/theatrical-trailer-of-tevar-7677.html

Selma | Reviews | Variety

A half-century on from Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic voting-rights march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery, director Ava DuVernay revisits those events with startling immediacy, dramatic force and filmmaking verve in “Selma.” A far cry from the dutiful biopic or ossified history lesson it could have become in lesser hands (or the campy free-for-all the project’s original director, Lee Daniels, might have made of it), DuVernay’s razor-sharp portrait of the civil rights movement — and Dr. King himself — at a critical crossroads is as politically astute as it is psychologically acute, giving us a human-scale King whose indomitable public face belies currents of weariness and self-doubt. Bolstered by Paul Webb’s literate, well-researched script and David Oyelowo’s graceful, majestic lead performance, DuVernay has made the kind of movie that gives year-end “prestige” pics a good name, which should equate to considerable box-office and awards-season gold for this Dec. 25 Paramount release. 

http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-selma-1201354433/ 










2014 Hawaii Audience Award Winner | Festival | Variety

Taika Waititi's What We Do In The Shadows won Audience Award at 2014 Hawaii Film Festival

Haemoo Won Best Narrative Feature in Hawaii | Festival | FBA

Haemoo won Best Narrative Film at 2014 Hawaii Film Festival and It is become South Korean official entry to the Oscar Best Foreign Language Selection

 http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/haemoo-wins-best-narrative-feature-in-hawaii

Takeshi Kitano's Ryuzo | Coming Soon | FBA

http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/kitano-takeshi-returns-with-yakuza-comedy
Takeshi Kitano's Ryuzo

Stephen Frears' Florence | Coming Soon | Variety

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/meryl-streep-pic-florence-sells-worldwide-for-pathe-1201354374/


American Sniper | Reviews | Variety

http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-american-sniper-1201354123/
A superb performance by Bradley Cooper anchors Clint Eastwood's harrowing and thoughtful dramatization of the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.

Roy Andersson Interviews at 2014 Stockholm Film Festival | Interviews | Variety

http://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/stockholm-festival-director-roy-andersson-qa-1201353699/
Pictured above from left: Stockholm Festival director Git Scheynius, helmers Pascale Ferran (“Bird People”), July Jung (“A Girl at My Door”), Roy Andersson, Celine Sciamma (“Girlhood”), Bitte Andersson (“Dyke Hard”), Guy Myhill (“The Goob”) and program director George Ivanov.

Variety Spotlight Rising Scandinavian Talent

http://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/stockholm-festival-variety-spotlights-rising-scandinavian-talent-1201353802/

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Pigs and Battleships | Andik's Take

Shohei Imamura's Pigs and Battleships is about a young couple who tries to survive in a small Japanese port town after WW II. As the young man attracted to the underworld life, the young woman must decide to compromise her virtue or leave town. The film won Best Film at 1962 Blue Ribbon Award.

Magnolia bought Gentlemen

Magnolia has acquired U.S. rights to Mikael Marcimain's "Gentlemen" from Wild Bunch at AFM. For the script, author Klas Östergren adapted his novel of the same name, which tells the autobiographical story of his time spent with gangsters and gals in the Swedish post-WWII era of economic boom and rampant corruption.

IFC bought Backcountry


Adam MacDonald's Backcountry

2014 Top Oscar Contender by Variety

https://variety.com/2014/film/news/oscars-best-pic-contenders-the-race-is-far-different-from-2013-but-1201352621/
Clint Eastwood's American Sniper starring Bradley Cooper

Stolen Desire I Andik's Take

One of Shohei Imamura's early films is about a young college graduate who join a troupe of traveling actors as a director, but his involvement with a married actress and her sister complicate matters. The film won Best New Director Award at 1959 Blue Ribbon Award.

IFC Midnight bought Dupieux's Reality

IFC Midnight has acquired U.S. rights to Quentin Dupieux’s “Reality” following its screening at AFI fest on Saturday.

Corrections Class wins four at Cottbus | News | Screen

Corrections Class wins four at Cottbus | News | Screen

Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s Corrections Class

Le Pacte takes Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune | News | Screen

Le Pacte takes Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune | News | Screen

The story explores the clash between personal desires, solidarity and tolerance in a 1970s commune. The ensemble cast is led by Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, Fares Fares and Lars Ranthe.

My Mistress | Reviews | Screen

My Mistress | Reviews | Screen

There’s no lack of major talent working on Stephen Lance’s debut
feature. The young director of notable short films and music videos has
recruited leading French actress/beauty Emmanuelle Béart to play the
title dominatrix. And he has wrangled top costume designer Angus
Strathie to provide stunning latex, PVC and leather creations for her;
plus there is veteran cameraman Geoffrey Simpson and editor Jill
Bilcock. Béart plays Maggie, high-class, high-heeled prostitute, dab hand with a
whip, who is somehow marooned in an empty gated mansion with a tangled
rain forest backyard and a swimming pool.

Endless Desire I Andik's Take

Shohei Imamura's  first film is a slow burning but powerful study on greed.  Ten years after World War II, five people set out dig up a stash of morphine buried under a butcher shop. this film won 1959 Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Director and Best Supporting Actress. 

The Hunger Game - Mockingjay Part 1 I Reviews I Variety

https://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1-1201352024/
Katniss Everdeen becomes the face of a revolution in “Mockingjay — Part 1,” a tricky transitional episode of “The Hunger Games” franchise that abandons the reality-TV bloodsports of the first two movies to conjure a dour, grimly escalating vision of all-out war. Unsubtly resonant, at times quite rousing and somewhat unsatisfying by design, this penultimate series entry is a tale of mass uprising and media manipulation that itself evinces no hint of a rebellious streak or subversive spirit: Suzanne Collins’ novels may have warned against the dangers of giving the masses exactly what they want to see, but at this point, the forces behind this hugely commercial property are not about to risk doing anything but. It’s a sensible if not exactly inspired strategy, and with Jennifer Lawrence once more carrying the proceedings and director Francis Lawrence (no relation) dutifully replicating the elements of an inherently cinematic story, Lionsgate’s plans for worldwide B.O. domination look secure.

Sundance Selects takes Zentropa trio | News | Screen

Sundance Selects takes Zentropa trio | News | Screen

The Gambler | Reviews | Screen

http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/the-gambler/5079877.article?blocktitle=REVIEWS&contentID=40296

Tone trumps all in The Gambler, an exercise in studied
cool that’s commendably idiosyncratic, although ultimately not to any
great effect. Chronicling a week in the life of a gambling addict whose
mounting debts may finally prove his undoing, this character drama is
more a meditation on existential despair than a traditional crime
thriller. To be sure, The Gambler follows its own rhythm,
sometimes delightfully, but one can’t shake the feeling that producer
and star Mark Wahlberg simply isn’t the right man to portray such a
weary neo-noir figure, failing to plumb the depths necessary to give
this meandering film its magnetic centre.
Even if not a lot happens in The Gambler, its low-key pace is refreshing, peculiar, almost subversive.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Interstellar

Interstellar Christopher Nolan US 2014 9/10 - As earth resources are dwindling down, scientist and astronauts join together to explore the possibility of finding a place beyond earth that could sustain life. Once again Christopher Nolan give a though provoking element in otherwise regular Hollywood blockbuster for the masses. This all star casts space opera is definitely one of the best film of the year