Large MPU – Page 1956
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Reviews
The 51st State
Dir: Ronny Yu. UK/Canada. 2001. 92minsA lurid, laddish, bad ass romp, 51st State is so primed and pumped up that It's almost laughable. A wild-eyed enthusiasm for the delights of bloodshed, body fluids and expletive-filled banter should hit the mark with a target audience of young males who like their ...
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News
Amelie walks off with European film academy crown
As widely anticipated, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie was the big winner at the 14th European Film Awards in Berlin's new Tempodrom venue on Dec 1, taking home four separate prizes, comprising: best European film, best director, cinematographer as well as the people's choice award for best director.Indeed, it was very much ...
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News
Festival heads criticise industrialisation, press
At an unprecedented meeting of selectors and officials in Berlin, top film festival directors from three continents bemoaned the industrialisation of festivals and the increasing difficulty of getting press coverage they feel their events deserve. Toronto's Piers Handling described how both Europe's major state-founded festivals and North America's private-backed events ...
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News
Italian film distributors unveil their 2002 slates
Italian state distributor Istituto Luce, whose president Angelo Guglielmi recently stepped down, has unveiled its 2002 distribution slate which includes Wong Kar-Wai's widely anticipated new film 2046, Theo Angelopoulos's upcoming film about Greek exiles, The Weeping Field, and French actor-writer-director Michel Blanc's Embrassez Qui Vous Voulez. Other distributors who unveiled ...
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News
Controversy looms at Italy's state-backed orgs
A high ranking member of Silvio Berlusconi's Italian government has openly criticized Cinecitta Holding's decision to appoint Antonio More managing director of state-run distributor Istituto Luce, after president Angelo Guglielmi stepped down last week. Leading Italian daily La Repubblica quoted Culture under-secretary Nicola Bono as saying: "The fairness which the ...
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News
EM.TV re-enters programme production
Following its radical programme of restructuring under the new CEO Werner Klatten, EM.TV & Merchandising is now planning to re-enter the arena of production in the field children's and family programming.In future, the Munich-based company intends to be involved annually in up to six animated or live-action series geared to ...
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News
Bank files insolvency suit against Kinowelt
The embattled German media group Kinowelt Medien reported that the restructuring measures aimed at streamlining operations had an "adverse effect" on its results for the first nine months of 2001.In an official communique, the company reported that the termination of the Warner Bros film package deal this week had ...
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News
Germany's Senator issues surprise profit warning
German market analysts have been caught unawares by Senator Entertainment's profit warning for the financial year 2001 - reducing its targetted revenues from Euros 197.1m to Euros 125m-130m and its EBIT from Euros 40m to Euros 2m-5m.As Markus Wallner and Marc Roehder of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt observed, "the profit ...
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News
ABC acquires two Potters for reported $130m
US TV network ABC has acquired the television rights to Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the US) and its sequel, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets for a reported total of $130m, making it one of the most expensive such deals in TV history.The deal ...
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News
World mourns death of Beatle George Harrison
Tributes from around the world have been pouring in for former Beatle and film producer, George Harrison who died, aged 58, following a long illness.Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying that the Queen was "very sad" to hear the news, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "I think people ...
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News
Harry flies past $200m, still at the top
Despite a strong assault by 20th Century Fox of patriotic war actioner Behind Enemy Lines (pictured), Warner Bros held on to the top spot for the third consecutive weekend with its blockbuster Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone which took an estimated $24.1m over the three days.Harry Potter's 17-day total ...
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News
Benicio Del Toro to receive Sundance Indie tribute
Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro will receive the Piper-Heidsieck Tribute to Independent Vision at next year's Sundance Film Festival. The tribute, which will be presented to Del Toro on Jan 13, 2002, during the festival, was created to honour a film artist "who has made a significant and unique ...
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News
ContentFilm buys Wendigo, Magnolia to release it
ContentFilm, the New York independent recently formed by Edward R Pressman and John Schmidt, has acquired worldwide rights to Wendigo, a supernatural thriller starring Patricia Clarkson, and has enlisted Eamonn Bowles' brand new distribution outfit Magnolia Pictures to distribute it in the US.Written, directed and edited by Larry Fessenden, a ...
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Reviews
Mad Love (Juana La Loca)
Dir: Vicente Aranda. Sp-It-Port. 117mins. A costume drama driven by lead Pilar Lopez de Ayala's impacting central performance, Mad Love (Juana La Loca) is Spain's official entry for the foreign language Oscar nominations, having beaten out sexier options such as Penelope Cruz film No News From God and Julio ...
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News
Overseas records fall as Harry conjures up $60.9m
It was another magical weekend for Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone in the international market, as the Warner Bros film grossed $60.9m in 31 territories on 6,574 prints to bring its total take to $152.75m after just three weekends. Over the weekend, the film opened in 14 more countries ...
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News
Japan's Gaga posts $10.8m pre-tax profit
Gaga Communications, one of Japan's leading distributors, has recorded a pre-tax operating profit of $10.8m (Y1.34 billion) in the fiscal year 2001, ended Sept 30, up by 209% from the previous year. Gaga attributed this increase largely to the success of The Mexican which grossed $21m (Y2.6 billion), and summer ...
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News
Local witch-doctor outperforms Potter's wizard
Harry Potter has met his match in South Africa. A local film has achieved the seemingly impossible feat of displacing Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone from its pole position immediately upon release - as well as outperforming Potter's opening gross of one week earlier.Mr Bones, (pictured) produced by Videovision ...
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News
Intercartel increases its co-production activity
Spain's Valencia-based Intercartel, co-producer of this year's foreign-language Oscar candidate for Venezuela, is stepping up its co-production plans and shaping up as a key player in the growing Valencia media market. "My objective is to make three or four films per year between national and international co-productions," says Intercartel president ...
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News
South African producers team to form D-V-8
Independent South African producers Jeremy Nathan of Avatar Digital, Joel Phiri of ICE Media and Kobus Botha of Ballistic Pictures have formed an alliance to make up to eight feature films to be produced on digital over the next two years. The alliance, called D-V-8 Films, announced last week that ...
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News
Lanzarote screenings bask in calendar shade
The third annual Spanish Film Screenings at Lanzarote (Nov 29-Dec 1) established the event as a valuable showcase for Spanish productions and talent but not a marketplace for closing deals."People see films here; the reaction comes later," said Antonia Nava, head of international sales and co-productions at Filmax.Nevertheless, growing interest ...