All Screen articles in 17 June 2001 – Page 2

  • Reviews

    Pulse

    2001-06-14T12:07:00Z

    Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Japan. 118 minsKiyoushi Kurosawa's follow up to films like Cure and Charisma is his most commercial film and one that makes the current spate of teen-targeted shockers from Japan seem about as scary as the latest urban legend told around the school-lunch table. Watching Pulse is like ...

  • Reviews

    Hijack Stories

    2001-06-14T12:02:00Z

    Dir: Oliver Schmitz. South Africa. 2001. 94 mins A compelling focus on black identity in the new South Africa, Hijack Stories marks a welcome return to feature films from director Oliver Schmitz 14 years after his award-winning debut Mapantsula. The generally polished handling of topical, thought-provoking material means that it ...

  • News

    Canal Plus confirms 200-plus jobs to go in France

    2001-06-14T11:36:00Z

    Canal Plus has confirmed that it is to cut 217 jobs in France. The pay-TV operator, which is 49% owned by Vivendi Universal, said that it is restructuring its programming output in order to compensate for rising costs in its film and sports divisions.The French channel said yesterday that it ...

  • News

    Norwegian festival snubs its own Cannes entry

    2001-06-13T18:18:00Z

    The Norwegian short film festival in Grimstad (June 14-19) is coming under fire locally for having snubbed Norway's only official Cannes competition entry this year, Jens Lien's one minute short Natural Glasses. Festival officials have answered the criticism by urging the directors of the films refused to still bring their ...

  • News

    Australia moves towards film-friendly tax rules

    2001-06-13T18:15:00Z

    Taking a leaf out of film-friendly tax laws in countries such as Canada, Ireland and the UK, Australia has taken a first step towards film-specific legislation providing a clear-cut pathway for local taxpayers to invest in offshore films shooting in Australia. Australians, in theory at least, can invest in such ...

  • News

    Das Werk raises TV stakes with company acquisition

    2001-06-13T18:12:00Z

    German post-production specialist Das Werk is expanding is raising its stake in TV production outfit FFP Media by 30% to 81%.FFP, which specialises in handling programme commissions from German broadcasters, is working on four TV movie adaptations of novels by Rosamunde Pilcher and a TV movie based on a Barbara ...

  • News

    China opens up local distribution to competition

    2001-06-13T18:09:00Z

    China Film Group Corporation is to lose its dominant position in the handling of foreign-produced films in the People's Republic of China, opening up the local distribution system to internal competition.The move, announced by Yang Buting, chairman and chief executive of China Film, during the Shanghai International Film Festival, is ...

  • Reviews

    Lantana

    2001-06-13T17:30:00Z

    Dir: Ray Lawrence. Australia. 2001. 120 mins.Opening the 48th Sydney Film Festival, the world premiere of Lantana was received by a packed and celebrity-strewn audience with pin-drop intensity and warm regard. Ray Lawrence is an outstanding commercials director but this is his first feature since the highly regarded Bliss, the ...

  • Reviews

    Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

    2001-06-13T17:18:00Z

    Directed by Simon West. US 2001. 120 mins.Displaying boobs, brawn, and brain (in this order), Angelina Jolie renders such a splashy performance in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider that she not only elevates the video-game turned big-screen adventure a notch or two above its routine storyline, but also makes the entire ...

  • News

    INTERNATIONAL

    2001-06-13T17:04:00Z

    Despite dipping 50% in its second week in the US, Pearl Harbor has remained rather more buoyant in the UK in its second week, dropping only 21% with a three-day weekend gross of $2,863,772 on 455 screens. So far, the critically-panned Bay-Bruckheimer epic has grossed £8,913,994 in the UK.The Mummy ...

  • News

    French films smash records with 54% market share

    2001-06-13T14:14:00Z

    French films have carved out a massive 54% local market share in the first five months of 2001, according to new data released by the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC).The tally roundly beats the 34% recorded during the same period last year, itself well above the annual average market ...

  • Reviews

    Rain

    2001-06-13T11:16:00Z

    Rain could be an Antipodean companion piece to The Ice Storm, for the two films share quite a few things in common: an early 1970s setting, a literary source, an unsettled family, the confusing effects of the sexual revolution, particularly for women, a devastating death and - as ...

  • News

    Local films take 50% share as French BO grows

    2001-06-13T05:49:00Z

    Admissions in France grew 12% in the first five months of the year, hitting 86.5 million spectators.According to the new data from the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC) there were some 11 million tickets sold in May, an increase of 11%. Lifted by films such as Amelie From Montmartre ...

  • News

    UK film school unveils China fund

    2001-06-13T04:34:00Z

    The UK's National Film and Television School (NFTS) has set up a new scholarship programme for Chinese students to study in Britain.The award, which was unveiled in Shanghai by NFTS director Stephen Bayly, is worth $21,000 ($15,000) and will allow a film student from China to attend a one-year Advanced ...

  • News

    RKO plans to unfurl wings in China, Asia

    2001-06-13T04:32:00Z

    RKO, the once glorious Hollywood studio, is planning to resurrect itself as a foreign-language producer with outposts in China and other parts of Asia.Speaking during the Shanghai International Film Festival, RKO president Ted Hartley said: "we aim to be involved with three or four pictures a year from China, the ...

  • News

    Canadian cable operators get federal ruling boost

    2001-06-12T18:57:00Z

    Canada's media sector is likely to see further consolidation following a federal regulatory decision to allow the nation's cable companies to control speciality television channels.Companies such as Alliance Atlantis, which controls several such channels and which will be launching the Independent Film Channel later this year, and Astral Media, which ...

  • News

    James Cameron's TV debut screens at Cologne

    2001-06-12T18:41:00Z

    Dark Angel, James Cameron's first work for TV, Sidney Lumet's 100 Centre Street and Antonia Bird's Care are among 20 international fiction and non-fiction programmes selected this year to compete in the Cologne Conference's television festival.Also screening in competition is Dutch documentary maker Jeroen Berkven's A Skin To Few. Apart ...

  • News

    Australia's Southern Star posts 35% rise in sales

    2001-06-12T18:11:00Z

    Australia's Southern Star Group registered sales revenues of $101m (A$193m) in the 12 months to March 31, a 35% rise over the previous year. The company's operating profit before tax and abnormals was $4.4m, double the previous result. Executive chair Neil Balnaves attributed the improvement to better cost controls, foreign ...

  • News

    UK's Civilian cements TV aims by acquiring Isis

    2001-06-12T18:08:00Z

    Civilian Content, the UK media concern which owns National Lottery franchise The Film Consortium and sales outfit The Sales Co, has cemented its move into TV by agreeing to acquire Isis Productions.Civilian is buying the production company, which specialises in music programming such as the Classic Albums series, from its ...

  • News

    Italian arthouse buyer emerges from The Swamp

    2001-06-12T18:06:00Z

    Confirming its position as one of the more adventurous Italian distributors of arthouse fare, Rome-based outfit Teodora Film has picked up Italian rights to controversial Berlinale prizewinner The Swamp (La Cienaga).Argentinian newcomer Lucrecia Martel's drama about two large families trying to cope with each other during a long hot summer ...