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 July 3, 2008 "Ballast" Steadies Course Alone: Sundance Winner Chooses Self-Distribution
Lance Hammer is going solo, of sorts, with his 2008 Sundance stunner "Ballast." The producer-director-writer, whose powerful debut wowed critics at January's prestigious Park City festival and won prizes for best director and cinematography, pulled out of a distribution deal with IFC Films in order to retain rights to the movie himself. Now the film's production entity, Alluvial Film Company, along with Steven Raphael's Required Viewing, will release "Ballast" at New York's Film Forum on October 1, followed by a national rollout. [ read more in Biz ] [ 1 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Trends ] July 2, 2008 DISPATCH FROM SWEDEN | Bergman Island: "Faro Document," "Persona," "Summer Interlude," and More from Faro
A film festival unlike any other, Bergmanvecken (or Bergman Week), now in its fifth year in operation and its first incarnation since the death of the man at its center last July, is a celebration of location as much as film. For Swedish cinema, Ingmar Bergman was always a one-man-show, its industry glue, its irreproachable standard-bearer, its looming demon genius -- and he has been resented throughout the industry for the past half-century nearly as often as he's been embraced. Not so on Faro, the island located on the northern tip of Gotland, where he made his permanent residence for decades even as he lived and worked in Stockholm during the off seasons. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story, World Cinema ]  REVIEW | House of Cards: Terry Kinney's "Diminished Capacity"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] One could surmise the mediocrity of "Diminished Capacity" from reading the synopsis alone: Cooper (Matthew Broderick), a small-town-boy-made-good in the big city but lately suffering from the lasting effects of a serious concussion, heads back home to visit his fading Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda). As Cooper's mother explains of the latter's condition in a letter, "Dr. Hoyt calls it 'diminished capacity'; that's the legal term for a man who thinks that fish are typing poetry out on the end of his pier." Got that last bit? To clarify: Rollie connects fishing lines to each letter on his typewriter, the nibbling of which results in a jumble of words (Rollie edits). [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] July 1, 2008 REVIEW | High Times in the 90's: Jonathan Levine's "The Wackness"
Park City coverage sponsored by BE KIND REWIND. [ read more in Movies ] [ 4 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Park City, Reviews ]  REVIEW | Best Kept Secret: Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One" begins with a certain nonchalance that one wouldn't ordinarily expect from a suspense thriller, least of all one that adapts Harlan Coben's multi-twist mystery plotting with the brio of a distinctly "Bourne"-again action film. In its first minutes, the film draws us into a group of French yuppies summering enviably in woody Rambouillet. Kristin Scott-Thomas rolls a joint, someone passes a baby around, and all seems serene enough for Dr. Alex Beck to take his wife Margot for a languorous, moonlit skinny-dip at a nearby lake where they used to swim as children. How cruel it seems of Canet to ruin this moment, allowing Dr. Beck to be beaten unconscious and left naked on the dock, while Margot falls prey to a knife-wielding, cat-murdering serial killer. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews, World Cinema ] June 30, 2008 DISPATCH FROM SCOTLAND | "Somers Towns" Leads Winners in Edinburgh
The 62nd annual Edinburgh International Film Festival came to a close this weekend, after screening over 130 films over the course of 12 days, throughout the cobblestoned medieval cluster of the Scottish capital. Founded in 1947 in conjunction with Edinburgh Festival in August, the festival was intended to help revive the city's post-war economy. This year marked the first year the film festival ran at a different time and the event had tremendous help in smoothing the transition from its dedicated patrons, Sean Connery and Tilda Swinton, who were present throughout the EIFF's duration at many screenings, dinners and gatherings. Connery hosted the awards ceremony on Sunday night, presenting the Michael Powell Award, named for Britain's leading golden-era director, to the best in British cinema. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story, World Cinema ]  indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Tell No One" Director Guillaume Canet
It's not exactly clear when the trend started, but French filmmakers are currently making the best old-style Hollywood thrillers. The caffeinated pace, requisite chase scenes, intricate plots are all there. But Gallic filmmakers bring something more to the party: distinctive camera work along with a social critique and complex characters who resonate with the over-thirteen crowd. Claude Lelouche's recent thriller "Roman de Gare" plumbed the darker corners of the fame game and a writer's ego. Now comes "Tell No One" from actor-turned-director Guillaume Canet, a major hit in France and winner of two Cesars. Adapted from the novel by Harlan Coben - six million copies sold, translated in twenty-seven languages - "Tell No One" essentially hangs an action thriller and police procedural on a story of romantic obsession. [ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, World Cinema ] June 28, 2008 LAFF '08 NOTEBOOK | Top Docs: "Trinidad," "No Name," "Pressure Cooker," "Loot" and "Boogie Man"
Los Angeles Film Festival coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in Movies ] [ 2 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Festival Dispatch, Lead Story, Los Angeles Film Festival ] June 27, 2008 DISPATCH FROM LOS ANGELES | An Evening With Sheila Nevins
Los Angeles Film Festival coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Festival Dispatches, Lead Story, Los Angeles Film Festival ] June 26, 2008 DISPATCH FROM SCOTLAND | Hop Scotch: Edinburgh Fest Moves Out On Its Own
The city of Edinburgh holds endless treasures. The dense, medieval city center, built in the crater of an ancient volcano, breathes history from the massive Edinburgh Castle, down the gothic Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyrood. The beautifully planned "New City" remains one of the best examples in the world of Georgian architecture, and throughout, the city is interrupted vivid green hills and cliffs. It is also known for the annual Edinburgh Festival in August, a massive conglomeration of arts and music events that has made up the largest arts festival in the world since its founding in 1947. This year, the 62nd annual Edinburgh International Film Festival struck out on its own, moving to June; ever since it opened on Wednesday, the 18th, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story, World Cinema ]  DISPATCH FROM LOS ANGELES: Insiders, Observers, and Many Others Wonder: Is the Sky Really Falling?
Los Angeles Film Festival coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in Biz ] [ 2 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Los Angeles Film Festival, Trends ] June 25, 2008 Zeitgeist Films at 20 Years: Building a Boutique Brand
"One thing we didn't have was a business plan, per se," recalled Zeitgeist Films co-president Emily Russo, "or deep pockets." Last week, she was seated alongside co-president Nancy Gerstman on a small sofa inside the compact but quite comfortable Lower Manhattan office where the two women have run the successful film distribution company together. Back in 1991, Gerstman and Russo moved to their Centre St. location -- into a space with large desks facing each other -- from a Waverly Place spot, and they've been there ever since. Zeitgeist's full-time staff, made up mostly of women, includes another eight people who handle the five or so films that the company releases each year. Most are documentaries these days, some are foreign language films, and a few additional titles are acquired each year for their home video label. [ read more in Biz ] [ 1 comments ] [ filed under Companies, Lead Story ]  REVIEW | Found and Lost: Peter Tolan's "Finding Amanda"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Over the years, it's been both disconcerting and somehow satisfying to watch Matthew Broderick gradually morph from a lithe, cocky teen heartthrob to a pudgy, middle-aged sad sack. The puppy-dog eyes have sunken deeper into down-turned crevices of disappointment, and he seems lost in his burly torso, often vacuum-packed into tucked shirts and constricting ties. Broderick's onscreen persona has come to embody early forties despair, when fading youth has given way to ambivalence about the future; this seems to have been a long, slow journey, which began somewhere around Alexander Payne's superlative "Election." [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] June 24, 2008 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Full Grown Men" Director David Munro
The arrival of "Full Grown Men" in limited release this week marks a belated emergence for a film not unlike the delayed maturity of the film's downtrodden protagonist. Directed by David Munro, "Full Grown Men" (the winner of this year's indieWIRE: Undiscovered Gems audience award, sponsored by Sundance Channel and presented by The New York Times and Emerging Pictures) tracks the psychological progress of Alby (Matt McGrath), a thirty-year-old stargazer woefully nostalgic for his salad days. Abandoning his wife before the opening credits, Alby finds his old childhood pal Elias (Judah Friedlander of "30 Rock") and together they take a road trip that allows both to work through their various neuroses. [ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story ]  REVIEW | Staged Craft: Peter Askin's "Trumbo"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] "Trumbo" tells the eventful story of the best-known name in the Hollywood Ten, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, with an unsurprising emphasis on the leftist's misadventures with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Famous and well-paid before HUAC sentenced him and nine other fellow Communist sympathizers and members to jail, Trumbo toiled for years afterward to win back his career, returning to the movies under pseudonyms and "fronts" designed to keep a blacklisted name unconnected to the scripts he was working on ("Roman Holiday" and "The Brave One," for which his front, Robert Rich, won the 1957 Academy Award) and then being the first to break the blacklist by taking unconcealed credit for "Spartacus" and "Exodus." [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Lead Story, Reviews ] June 23, 2008 DISPATCH FROM MARYLAND | Silverdocs: Telling the Truth
If there's an aesthetic lesson conveyed by the premieres at AFI Silverdocs this year, it's that cinema verite continues to thrive -- and the classical approach to documentary filmmaking hasn't frayed with age. Not that it had been showing signs of a slow demise, but the ongoing talk of meager box office prospects for the form -- coupled with Herzogian declarations of "ecstatic truth" and projects like "Chicago 10" trying to take the practice in new directions -- suggested a demand for evolution that doesn't actually exist. As it turns out, great stories work when they're told well. That shouldn't come as a surprise, but last year's oft-repeated trend piece about lukewarm box office reception for documentary releases suggested a broken system in need of revitalization. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ]  Alex Gibney v. ThinkFilm: Claiming Botched "Taxi" Release, Oscar Winning Filmmaker Seeking $1 Million From Distributor
Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney is seeking more than $1 million in damages from ThinkFilm, distributor of his recent Oscar-winning film, "Taxi to the Dark Side." Late last week X-Ray Productions, producers of Gibney's film, charged that ThinkFilm fradulently hid the fact that it could not properly release the film in theaters, in a complaint filed with the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the organization agreed upon by both sides to arbitrate any dispute. Responding to Gibney's claims and the request for arbitration, ThinkFilm president Mark Urman this weekend defended his company and its work on the film and sharply criticized Gibney. [ read more in Biz ] [ 7 comments ] [ filed under Companies, Documentary, Lead Story ] June 22, 2008 FIRST PERSON | Film Department's Mark Gill: "Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling."
Los Angeles Film Festival coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in Biz ] [ 6 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Los Angeles Film Festival, Trends ] June 20, 2008 DISPATCH FROM MARYLAND | Considering the Confounding State of Nonfiction: Spike Lee and Alex Gibney at Silverdocs
The truth is out there, but only certain people know where to find it. In downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, that's the driving sentiment behind AFI Silverdocs, a healthy alternative to the industry festivities currently unfolding on the other coast at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Now in its fifth year, the calmest of the AFI-branded gatherings hosts a refreshingly specific program of discussions, workshops, and screenings featuring many of the finest recent accomplishments in nonfiction cinema. Where other festivals derive much of their appeal from a sense of discovery, Silverdocs feels more like an annual canonization of the documentary form, highlighting some of the best practitioners of the art while observing the bigger picture presented by the industry around them. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ] June 19, 2008 As ThinkFilm's Cash Crunch Continues, Urman and Company Try to Keep Filmmakers, Creditors at Bay
"May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you're dead." The Irish saying, which inspired the title of ThinkFilm's highest-grossing release "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" is an apt one for the specialized distributor, which is currently facing the worst financial crisis of its seven-year history. If last year's release of the acclaimed Sidney Lumet drama marked the heavenly highpoint of the company's career, now Lucifer appears to be breathing down its neck. [ read more in Biz ] [ 4 comments ] [ filed under Companies, Lead Story ]  NY NY | Human Rights Watch and Newfest Continue Spring Festival Season, BAM Does Director's Fortnight, and Nakadi Is Saluted at Film Forum
On The Scene coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, New York Weekly ] June 18, 2008 DISPATCH FROM LAS VEGAS | CineVegas Showcases Small Films Under Big Lights
On The Scene coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ]  indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Brick Lane" Director Sarah Gavron
The theme of the immigrant experience has become a burgeoning sub-genre in both cinema and literature. The latest such film on tap is "Brick Lane," a debut feature helmed by Sarah Gavron, who previously had mainly a BAFTA-winning TV movie to her credit. The project presented multiple challenges. Writers Laura Jones and Abi Morgan had to compress the acclaimed 500 page novel by Monica Ali (short listed for Britain's Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003). Gavron needed to devise a visual equivalent for the rich inner life of a notably silent heroine. The filmmakers scoured the world in search of actors to play the Bangladeshi characters. Add to that, Gavron, who's Caucasian, was making a movie about Bangladeshis. [ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, World Cinema ] June 17, 2008 DISPATCH FROM SYDNEY | A Comeback For Australia's Troubled Fest?
Having suffered from a decade of leadership that ranged from lackluster to inept, and eclipsed during that time by rival events in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, 2008 ranked as something of a make-or-break year for the Sydney Film Festival. It saw, among other things, a substantial rise in state funding, and, as an emblem of this renewed confidence, the launch of a new international competition. It also marked the sophomore outing for new Artistic Director Clare Stewart, upon whose shoulders many hopes for the festival's resurrection have come to rest. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story, World Cinema ]  DISPATCH FROM SEATTLE | The Real Story Is Between the Margins at Seattle Fest
On The Scene coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ]  TORONTO '08 | "Passchendaele" To Open 2008 Toronto International Film Festival
Canadian filmmaker Paul Gross' "Passchendaele" will open the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival with its world premiere on September 4, 2008. Set during World War I, the film follows a wounded Canadian solider who falls in love on the homefront and then returns to the battlefield for the third battle of Ypres, also knows as "Passchendaele." Co-produced by Niv Fichman, Frank Siracusa and Francis Damberger, the film stars filmmaker Gross, Caroline Dhavernas, Gil Bellows and Joe Dinicol. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival News, Lead Story, Toronto ] June 16, 2008 DISPATCH FROM HAWAII | Nature and Film Combine for Celestial Maui Fest
On The Scene coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ]  iW BOT | "Mongol" Continues Its Summer Invasion
Box Office coverage presented by Rentrak Theatrical [ read more in Biz ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Box Office, Lead Story ] June 15, 2008 DISPATCH FROM LAS VEGAS | CineVegas Turns out a Strange Splashy Mix for 10th Edition
On The Scene coverage sponsored by Stella Artois. [ read more in On The Scene ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ] June 14, 2008 REVIEW | Buy the Book: Sarah Gavron's "Brick Lane"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Sarah Gavron's "Brick Lane" is the kind of movie a critic would just as soon let pass without comment. Unchallenging and inoffensive, it gives little to work with, its soft-focus take on a rich novel less outrageous than enervating. The potential for a banalized transposition was always there. Monica Ali's bestseller approached issues of cultural dislocation and female empowerment with sensitivity and nuance, but faint whiffs of Lifetime wafted through at certain moments. In Gavron's hands, those shortcomings find their full flowering. If you had never read Ali's novel, no one would blame you if after Gavron's movie you thought it was a high-toned, paperback romance for housewives. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] | |
