Small MPU – Page 1515
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Reviews
Il Mestiere Delle Armi (The Profession of Arms)
Dir: Ermanno Olmi. Italy/France/Germany, 2001. 104 mins.Veteran Italian auteur Ermanno Olmi has come up with a hermetically-sealed historical epic that some will find ravishingly poetic, others merely boring. Not a few viewers will shuttle between these two states: something of an Italian Tarkowsky, Olmi has the rare talent of transfixing ...
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ROBERTO SUCCO
Dir: Cedric Kahn. France. 2001. 124 mins. An immensely detailed study of a notorious mass murderer and his hunters, Roberto Succo is an impressive but subdued piece of work which, despite an extraordinary central performance, never delivers on the director's promise to slip the audience inside the mind of a ...
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Swordfish tops US box office, Shrek still hot
Warner Bros' R-rated action thriller Swordfish was number one at the North American box office over a static weekend, taking an OK $18.4m over its first three days on release although the generally poor reviews for the film and heavyweight action competition next week from Tomb Raider don't bode well ...
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Chinese industry ready to take on the world
After a decade in which admissions have collapsed from 16 billion a year to some 2.1 billion, the Chinese film industry is now facing up to the challenges of globalisation.Worried by the perceived threats to the film industry brought on by the opening of its borders, the Chinese central government ...
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Sales Co confirms Aline Perry appointment
UK media outfit Civilian Content has confirmed former PolyGram Film International chief Aline Perry as chief executive of its overseas sales operation, The Sales Co.BBC Films business development head Jane Wright, who became acting chief executive last year after the departure of Alison Thompson, is to return to BBC Films ...
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DNA unveils First Draft script prize winners
UK National lottery franchise DNA Films has unveiled the five winners of its First Draft scheme for new writers, this year run with training body The Script Factory.Aimed at encouraging writing at grass roots level, the scheme has selected Elizabeth Clarke Melville's All Rise, a true story about a young ...
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Kingsley joins Karlovy Vary festival guestlist
Actor Ben Kingsley is expected to join Nastassja Kinski and others at this year's Karlovy Vary International film festival in July, festival organisers have announced. A newly unveiled list of guests at the Czech festival also includes director Bille August, who will present his competition film Song For Martin (En ...
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Partington steps into Preston's shoes at Metrodome
UK media concern the Metrodome group has promoted Alan Partington to the post of managing director of film distribution arm Metrodome Distribution, replacing Rupert Preston who resigned last week.Partington will take overall responsibility for both theatrical distribution and the video rental and sales operations. He joined Metrodome in April 1999 ...
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No Man's Land set to open Sarajevo Film Festival
Bosnian director Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land, which won the best screenplay award in Cannes last month, will open the seventh Sarajevo Film Festival on August 17.Although municipal and higher level government ministries have been slow to respond to the festival organisers' applications for financial support, preparations are nevertheless in ...
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Former Sky Pictures exec Mellor joins WAVEpictures
Danish-UK production company WAVEpictures has appointed Nadine Mellor, formerly at Sky Pictures, as head of creative affairs.Mellor joins WAVE's European co-production and financing department, currently run by Luke G-Jones in the UK and Andrea Cecilia Sterll and Bo Christensen in Denmark. Also new to the company is finance director Erik ...
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Krevoy to partner Germany's IWP on third project
US producer Brad Krevoy's feature project Basshole is being lined up as his third production to be backed this year by private German film fund IWP International West Pictures as part of its six/seven-picture production slate for 2001.Krevoy's Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA) has already partnered with IWP on ...
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Norway shuts door on Swedish exhibitor SF
Sweden's largest exhibitor, Svensk Filmindustri (SF), the exhibition arm of the media giant Bonnier Group, has been refused a licence to establish a multiplex in Norway's third largest city, Trondheim, by local authorities. The main argument of local politicians is that cinemas run by the municipality better serve the local ...
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Tartan's Teddy puts Bundy into production
Tartan Films, the production offshoot of UK specialist distributor Metro Tartan, is in production on Bundy, a biopic about the notorious mass-murderer. The film is backed by Overseas FilmGroup, which is also handling international sales. Bundy, currently shooting in California, will be the second instalment in Tartan Films' serial killer ...
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DVD price probe stirs up Hollywood hornets' nest
Brusselsregulators are to investigate why European customers tend to pay more for thesame recent Hollywood movies on DVD than their counterparts do in the US andCanada. They are also opening a potential hornets' nest by questioning thepractice of charging full price for DVD re-issues of old catalogue titles.The EuropeanUnion probe, ...
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Miramax sues Abraham over remake rights
Miramax Films has filed a complaint in the New York District Court against English producer Eric Abraham, claiming that Abraham fraudulently inflated the prices for remake and/or sequel rights to 1995 foreign-language film Kolya and yet to be released Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman."It has now become apparent," says the ...
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Italian arthouse buyer emerges from The Swamp
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 ...
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UK's Civilian cements TV aims by acquiring Isis
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 ...
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Australia's Southern Star posts 35% rise in sales
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 ...
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James Cameron's TV debut screens at Cologne
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 ...
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Canadian cable operators get federal ruling boost
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 ...