Large MPU – Page 2140

  • Reviews

    Alexei's Spring (Alexei To Izumi)

    28 January 2002

    Dir: Sei'ichi Motohashi. Japan. 2001. 104mins.Located deep in a Belarus pine forest , the village of Budische was devastated when radiation from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power station fell from the skies on April 26, 1986. Most villagers left, but when documentarian Sei'ichi Motohashi arrived in Budische in early 2000, ...

  • Reviews

    America So Beautiful

    8 February 2002

    Dir: Babak Shokrian. US. 2001. 91mins.There's an incontestable topical relevance to this tale of young Iranians in Los Angeles in 1979 whose dream of owning their own disco evaporates after the fall of the Shah and the American Embassy hostage drama in Tehran. Having studied in California and worked there ...

  • Reviews

    Bad Guy (Na Bun-Na Ja)

    30 January 2002

    Dir. Kim Ki-Duk. South Korea. 2001. 101mins.Certainly one of the most provocative filmmakers around, Korea's Kim Ki-Duk seems to be also one of the most prolific. After two consecutive years in Venice (The Isle in 2000 and Address Unknown in 2001) here he is in the Berlinale race, as unsettling, ...

  • Reviews

    Beneath Clouds

    2 February 2002

    Dir: Ivan Sen. Australia, 2001. 87 mins.Billed as the first feature film by an indigenous Australian director, Beneath Clouds is a promising debut, although its tight-lipped sense of cool tips over into pretension on more than one occasion. It deals with race relations in modern Australia without stridency and without ...

  • Reviews

    Big Fat Liar

    15 February 2002

    Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2002. 87 mins.The appeal of rising teen stars Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes, coupled with some broad comedy and a parent-friendly moral message, have already been enough to give Big Fat Liar a good start at the US box office, taking $13.5m from 2,531 sites in ...

  • Reviews

    Tanguy

    21 January 2002

    Dir: Etienne Chatilliez. France. 2001. 108 mins.With more than 3.6 million admissions after eight weeks - and still going strong - Tanguy confirms director Etienne Chatiliez as one of France's surefire comedy bets, despite an unprolific output (four features in 12 years, beginning with the 1988 smash Life Is A ...

  • News

    Canada's Remstar signs output deal with Transfilm

    14 June 2002

    Canada's Remstar Distribution has signed a four-year output deal with Quebec producer Claude Leger's Transfilm that will see the Montreal company distribute all Transfilm's film and television productions in Canada. Included in the deal are the Canada-France mini-series Napoleon, starring Isabella Rossellini, Gerard Depardieu, John Malkovich, Anouk Aimee and Christian ...

  • News

    Gilles Jacob decides against Canal Plus appointment

    14 June 2002

    Cannes Festival head, Gilles Jacob has decided not to join Canal Plus' supervisory board as had been announced earlier this week (Screendaily, June 10). The decision was taken by Jacob after a specially-called meeting of the Cannes Festival's administrative board. The board did not rule out his joining Canal ...

  • News

    France's TF1 considers KirchMedia buy

    14 June 2002

    French broadcasting group TF1 is currently 'taking a look at' KirchMedia, the rights trading division of the collapsing Kirch empire, a TF1 representative told the French news service AFP.KirchMedia filed for insolvency in April (TaurusHolding, which holds a 73% stake in KirchMedia also recently sought protection from creditors in a ...

  • News

    PiFan festival unveils fantastic line-up

    14 June 2002

    Gurinder Chadha's hit movie Bend It Like Beckham has been chosen as the opening film of the 6th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan), which runs from July 11-20 in South Korea. One Korea's top film events, PiFan will feature 170 films from 38 countries under the theme "Romance, ...

  • News

    Phoenix TV boss buys major stake in Hong Kong's ATV

    14 June 2002

    Mainland China-based entrepreneur and Phoenix Satellite TV chairman, Liu Changle, has grabbed a controlling stake in Hong Kong free-to-air broadcaster Asia Television (ATV).A company controlled by Liu, Vital Media Holdings (VMH), has acquired a 46% stake in ATV from Dragon Viceroy Ltd - a joint venture between Liu and ATV ...

  • News

    Dibildos mourned by Spain's film industry

    14 June 2002

    Spain Thursday mourned the sudden death of veteran scriptwriter and producer Jose Luis Dibildos, a key figure in Spanish cinema of the last half century.Last year Dibildos (pictured) was the recipient of an Honorary Goya Award from the Spanish Cinema Academy for his illustrious career, which spanned more than 40 ...

  • News

    UK's Civilian Content posts $7.6m pre-tax loss

    14 June 2002

    Civilian Content, the UK media concern which owns National Lottery franchise The Film Consortium, on Thursday posted a group loss before tax of $7.6m (£5.2m) for last year.The AIM-listed company, which has $20m (£13.6m) left of the Consortium's original lottery grant of some $44.1m (£30m), recorded a total operating loss ...

  • News

    South African broadcaster makes first film investment

    14 June 2002

    For years, the major South African broadcasters, like M-Net, the SABC and free to air Channel e-TV have resolutely avoided investing in feature films - a move many local producers claim has prevented the rise of a viable local film industry.In an unprecedented move, however, South African cable station M-Net ...

  • News

    Norwegian Film Fund banks on The Beautiful Country

    14 June 2002

    The Norwegian Film Fund, which is shortly to celebrate its first birthday, is spreading its money widely in its latest funding round, backing two international projects as well as four local productions.The $6.3m English language drama The Beautiful Country, starring Nick Nolte and Harvey Keitel and directed by Hans Petter ...

  • News

    Disney, Admira team up on Mexican-set chick flick

    13 June 2002

    Miravista, thefledgling co production venture created by Walt Disney's Latin Americanoperation and Telefonica Spain's Admira, have signed up Argentine-born LosAngeles resident Gabriela Tagliavini to direct its debut feature, Ladies'Night. A co production with Mexico's Televisa and ArgosComunicacion, the $1.5m - $2m romantic comedy is scheduled to start principalphotography this fall. ...

  • News

    Artisan buys South African music doc Amandla!

    14 June 2002

    Artisan Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to the award-winning documentary Amandla! A Revolution In Four Part Harmony which was produced in association with HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films. The theatrical sale marks a departure for HBO which traditionally premieres its documentaries on its own channel."We're excited about the opportunity to ...

  • News

    Moscow Festival welcomes back Russian films

    15 June 2002

    Three Russian titles feature in this year's Moscow International Film Festival competition line-up, after last year's total lack of any local films in competition at all. The Festival, which runs June 21-30, this week unveiled its competition programme of sixteen feature films including, Alexander Rogozhkin's Cuckoo, Roman Pregunov's Solitude Of ...

  • Reviews

    Travelling Birds (Le Peuple Migrateur)

    8 February 2002

    Dir: Jacques Perrin. Fr/Ger/Sp. 2001. 97mins.Travelling Birds offers audiences a rare chance to fly like a bird without recourse to mind-expanding drugs. This is the third in a trilogy of big-screen nature films produced - and in this case directed - by former French matinee idol Jacques Perrin. Microcosmos, the ...

  • Reviews

    The Tracker

    21 March 2002

    Dir: Rolf de Heer. Australia. 2002. 98minsThe flood of Australian features with Aboriginal themes financed, coincidentally, two years ago are now finding their way to cinema screens. Philip Noyce's eagerly awaited Rabbit-Proof Fence has chosen to expose Australia's dirty laundry with its portrait of a 1930s government attempting to assimilate ...