Small MPU – Page 1711
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Reviews
Kiss Of Life
Dir: Emily Young. UK-Fr. 2003. 86minsA slender but soulful feature debut from award-winning shorts director Emily Young, Kiss Of Life attempts to grapple with the big issues of life, death, love and family. An overly cerebral approach to what could have been quite emotionally-charged material means that the film feels ...
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Reviews
For She's A Jolly Good Fellow (Elle Est Des Notres)
Dir: Siegrid Alnoy. France. 2003. 100minsA portrait of a woman ' indeed, a society ' on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Siegrid Alnoy's debut feature is ostensibly a variation on a familiar topic, but quickly establishes its vision with steely confidence. Coolly inventive and rigorous, Alnoy's debut is likely ...
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News
15 year old's Madness leads Venice Critic's Week
The 18th International Critics Week line-up at the Venice Film Festival (Aug 27-Sep 6) will feature eight films this year, including Joy Of Madness by 15-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf (pictured), daughter of Iranian director Moshen Makhmalbaf and younger sister of Samira.A documentary, Joy Of Madness was filmed in Afghanistan and tells ...
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Reviews
A Love Movie (Filme De Amor)
Dir: Julio Bressane. Brazil. 2003. 90minsThere is precious little love, even less sensuality and no passion at all in this experimental picture which marks Julio Bressane's return to the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes after more than 30 years. A little film on a vast subject, to quote the director himself, ...
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News
Film industry 'disappointed' by European VAT ruling
European film trade associations have reacted with "deep disappointment" to last week's European Commission (EC) ruling on value added tax (VAT), which keeps charges on DVDs and video cassettes at high levels.The EC's internal markets commission said that the objective of its sixth VAT revision was to simplify and rationalise ...
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News
Indian beer baron moves into film production
Indian beer baron Vijay Mallya has entered the Indian film business and is to produce his first Hindi film, Rakth. Mallya runs UB Group, whose best-known brand is Kingfisher beer. Kingfisher is the market leading beer in India and sells in 65 countries around the world. Rakth, which is about ...
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News
Vivendi offloads French animation business
Vivendi Universal is to sell animation studio Ellipse Animation, a division of television producer and distributor Studio Expand, to French comic-book publisher and cartoon producer Dargaud Marina. The deal will create the largest French animation company as well as one of the biggest European animation catalogues.Along with existing series like ...
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News
Spirited Away wins Cambridge audience prize
Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning Spirited Away picked up the audience award at the 23rd Cambridge Film Festival, which wrapped on July 20.The Japanese animated feature polled over 700 of the 4000 votes cast by festival goers to win the Q103 People's Choice Award. Spirited Away goes on general release in the ...
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News
France's GMT gears up for Napoleon four-parter
Leading French drama producer GMT Productions is developing a four-part mini-series, Napoleon, which is set to Christian Clavier (Asterix & Obelix, The Visitors) in the title role. The big-budget historical drama will be co-produced by French public broadcaster France 2 and will be filmed in both French and English. The ...
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News
APTN produces movie show for UK's ITV2
News agency APTN Entertainment and distribution partner MercuryMedia have been commissioned by the UK's ITV2 to produce a new 10-minute weekly movie preview and news programme for a 20-week run beginning on July 28.Movies Now! will give British audiences bite-sized previews of the big movies set for U.K. release in ...
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News
Toronto puts Canadian film-makers into Perspective
Canadian filmmakers Gary Burns, Deepa Mehta and Guy Maddin have been awarded prominent positions in the line-up of the Toronto International Film Festival, as the event announced its Perspective Canada programme. Burns' A Problem With Fear (pictured) will open the programme, Mehta's The Republic Of Love will be a ...
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News
Imax beefs up China presence
Imax Corp. has increased to ten the number of giant-screen cinemas set to open in China by the year 2005, signing a deal with Shanghai United Cinema for two Imax MPX theatre systems. MPX systems can screen both Imax 2D and 3D large-format films as well as its DMR-branded transfers ...
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News
Limited releases and holdovers make The Hulk somewhat green
Ang Lee's The Hulk topped the UK/Ireland chart this week but had a less spectacular opening than might have been hoped.The UIP-distributed comic-book film's $5.6m (£3.5m) from 500 venues opening weekend gross included three days of previews at some 450 sites. Without the inclusion of the $2.1m (£1.3m) generated from ...
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News
MGM in strongest ever position, says Yemenidjian
Fresh from the sale of its 20% equity stake in Rainbow CableNetworks, MGM's chairman and chief executive officer Alex Yemenidjian said thecompany was in its best ever financial shape as second quarter results wereunveiled.Company figures state that operating activities for the periodended Jun 30 generated $51.2m in net cash, compared ...
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News
Historias Minimas sweeps Los Premios Condor, Argentina's Oscars
Carlos Sorin's MinimalStories (Historias Minimas) made a sweep on Monday night of Argentina's Oscars, Los Premios Condor. The Spanish-Argentinian co-productiontook home eight awards from its twelve nominations, including trophies for bestpicture, director, original screenplay, new actor, cinematography and sound. Adrian Caetano's Un OsoRojo, won only one award out of anequal ...
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News
DPS buys into Vanguard Animation, forms co-production giant
Digital Production Studios(DPS), the New Jersey-based 3D animation subsidiary of IDT Media, has teamed upwith John Williams' UK-based Vanguard Animation in a major co-productionpartnership.The move paves the way foran animation giant following an eight-figure capital injection into Vanguardfrom the deep pockets of IDT Media's parent company IDT Corp, themultinational carrier, ...
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News
Warner International hits $1bn after seven months
Driven by the worldwide successes of Harry Potter And TheChamber Of Secrets, The Matrix Reloaded and Two Weeks Notice, Warner Bros Pictures International has passed $1bn inticket sales after just seven months of the year.The $1.012bn running total is the sixth time the distributor hasreached the $1bn mark (after 1993, ...
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News
MPAA unleashes nationwide anti-piracy campaign on Thursday
After months of apocalyptic warnings about the global threat ofpiracy the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is ready to unleash itsfirst nationwide US educational campaign.Starting on Thursday (July 24) a series of 30-second publicservice announcements produced by 20th Century Fox will air on more than 35network and cable outlets ...
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Reviews
Father And Son (Otets Y Syn)
Dir: Alexander Sokurov. Germany. 2003. 81mins.Alexander Sokurov's new film is the second part of a trilogy that began in 1996 with the esteemed Mother And Son, which brought the director to international attention. Subsequent appearances in Cannes competition have included Moloch (1999), Taurus (2000), and Russian Ark (2002), the last ...
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Reviews
All Tomorrow's Parties
Dir: Yu Lik Wai. China-France. 96minsShot digitally for the sake of flexibility and screened the same way in Un Certain Regard at Cannes - though a film version is in the making, to judge by the credits - Yu Lik Wai's second feature attempts to explore the near future ...