Small MPU – Page 305
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Reviews
Go Go Tales
Dir/scr: Abel Ferrara. It/US. 2007. 96 mins Abel Ferrara , king of New York low-life drama, slips into more benign mode than usual with Go Go Tales, a good-natured but somewhat half-baked evocation of life backstage at a lap dancing club. The ensemble comedy, with its decided stylistic debt to ...
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News
New German $242m fund already backs 24 projects
The Germans were in bullish mood in Cannes yesterday, talking up their 'lean, straightforward' new Federal Film Fund to an audience of international producers. The Fund, worth $242m (180m) Euros from 2007 to 2009, is open to international co-productions. In the five months of its existence, it has already backed ...
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Reviews
Chop Shop
Dir: Ramin Bahrani. US. 2007. 84 mins A flawlessly observed piece of street realism, and an unforgiving parable of American economic reality, Chop Shop is a compelling follow-up to Man Push Cart, Ramin Bahrani's 2005 debut. Using a non-professional cast to convincingly natural effect, the film follows in the tradition ...
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Reviews
Silent Light (Stellet Licht)
Dir: Carlos Reygadas. Mex-Fr-Neth. 2007. 142 mins.Mexican auteurist Carlos Reygadas has lost nothing of the aesthetic austerity so magnificently, if exhaustingly, on display in his first two films, Japon (2002) and Battle In Heaven (2005). Both of those films proved exceptionally demanding on audiences, both narratively and psychologically, but for ...
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Reviews
Deficit
Dir: Gael Garcia Bernal. Mex. 2007. 75 minutes. If sincere commitment and high spirits were enough, this first film by the supremely accomplished - even though still quite young - Mexican actor and heartthrob, Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries, Bad Education) would be a masterpiece. Alas, ...
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News
Germans woo Cannes producers with film fund
The German film industry has been in Cannes bullishly promoting its 'lean, straightforward' new Federal Film Fund to an audience of international producers. The Fund, worth $240 (Euros 180m) from 2007 to 2009, is open to international co-productions. In the five months of its existence, it has already backed 24 ...
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News
Sales erupt on Polanski's Pompeii
Summit International has closed pre-sales on Roman Polanski's upcoming epic Pompeii to IDC in Mexico and Brazil and Mars in South Korea.Entertainment is understood to be the frontrunner for UK rights, however Summit could not confirm the deal last night.Meanwhile Summit Entertainment top brass and the film's producer Robert Benmussa ...
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News
IFC swoops on Cannes official selections
IFC has swooped on Cristian Mungui's Romanian competition entry 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Un Certain Regard opener Flight Of The Red Balloon.Both films will be released in North America through IFC'ssimultaneous theatrical and VOD distribution platform IFC First Take.Abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks ...
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News
Kimmel catches sales on Cannes slate
Kimmel International has closed key deals on its new Cannes films, kicking off with Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York which went to Asmik Ace in Japan and Bim in Italy.Meanwhile Kimmel sales chief Mark Lindsay reported that MovieEye in Japan and Senator in Germany bought Tarsem Singh's political ...
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News
Shunji, Zhang join line-up at third Pusan market
Several established Asian directors, including Japan's Iwai Shunji, Korea's Jang Sun-Woo and China's Zhang Yuan, will present projects at the third Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), which runs alongside this year's Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea.A total of 22 projects from 11 countries will be attempting to raise finance ...
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News
Ruiz ramps up $36m epic Love And Virtue
Raoul Ruiz has revealed further details of his $36.3m (Euros 27m) historical epic, Love And Virtue (on Echo Bridge Entertainment's slate). Damian Lewis, Saffron Burrows, John Malkovich, Virginie Ledoyen, Darryl Hannah, and Jonathan Rhys Meyer are all attached to appear in the film, scripted by Mia Sperber and Stefano Pratesi.The ...
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News
European film-makers debate digital future
European policy-makers and film-makers will debate the future of film in a digital world at an event on Europe Day in Cannes (Saturday May 26).The event is a chance to consider the rapid changes that have been or will be brough about by new media developments.The challenges of a new ...
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Reviews
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Dir: Gore Verbinski. US. 2007. 167mins.Disney's Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy coasts to its conclusion with At World's End, a third instalment that adds nothing very exciting to the franchise's formula but spins out the familiar elements with just about enough energy and inventiveness to warrant an almost three-hour running ...
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Reviews
The Pope's Toilet (El Bano del Papa)
Dir/scr: Enrique Fernandez, Cesar Charlone. Urug/Bra. 2007. 97 mins.Taking place in a poverty-stricken area between Brazil and Uruguay and shot on location with documentary-style grittiness, it is the kind of stuff that festivals concerned with social issues and the Third World should have a look at and Latin American minorities ...
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Reviews
Mister Lonely
Dir: Harmony Korine. UK/Fr/Ire/USA. 2006. 112 mins It's a playful, romantic Harmony Kormine who emerges for inspection with Mister Lonely, his first film as a director since Julien Donkey Boy in 1999. The story of a lonely Michael Jackson impersonator who finds a fleeting tenderness with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator ...
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Reviews
The Edge Of Heaven (Auf Der Anderen Seite)
Dir/scr: Fatih Akin. Ger/Tur. 2007. 122 mins. Though it's far below the level of his debut film, Head-On, which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2003, Fatih Akin's new film, once it comes together at the end and finally defeats the shagginess of his script, is a solid if ...
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Reviews
Back To Normandy (Retour A Normandie)
Dir: Nicolas Philibert. Fr. 2006. 113 mins Any documentary is an act of remembrance. Back To Normandy has a special personal significance for director Nicolas Philibert because it allows him to return to the scene of his earliest filmmaking experiences and also to pay homage to his mentor Rene Allio. ...
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News
Erik Lomis takes senior international role at MGM
Erik Lomis has been appointed executive vice president ofinternational theatrical and home entertainment at MGM.Lomis, who has served in a consultant capacity to MGM, joins thestudio formally to oversee the marketing and distribution of theinternational theatrical and home entertainment releases, which arehandled by Fox.He will be the primary executive working ...