Small MPU – Page 617

  • Reviews

    Sangre

    2005-06-07T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr: Amat Escalante.Mexico-Fr 2005. 90mins.Life's existentialgrimness, Mexican style, is the subject of Sangre, a moody, taut,elliptical but ultimately rather frustrating debut by Amat Escalante. One man'squiet but troubled life caves in on him dramatically - yet somehowundramatically - in a story of finely-observed domestic and character detailthat will fascinate some ...

  • Reviews

    Alice

    2005-06-07T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr:Marco Martins. Port-Fr. 2005. 103mins.Anatmospheric, yearning study of loss by first-time Portuguese director MarcoMartins, Alice was one of the strongest films in this year's Quinzainesidebar at Cannes. Sombre and dark in theme and look, this unflinching look ata father's search for his missing three-year-old daughter is not aSaturday-night-at-the-multiplex experience, but ...

  • Reviews

    Bittersweet Life (Dal Kom Han In-Saeng)

    2005-06-07T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr:Kim Jee-woon South Korea. 2005. 115mins.An ultra-violent actionnoir by Korean director Kim Jee-woon, A Bittersweet Life is a stylishstory of a faithful underworld lieutentant who crosses his boss and ends upfighting for his life against his own gang. As in his previous genre outing,the dark psycho-horror yarn A Tale Of ...

  • News

    Norton's Illusionist wraps in Prague

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    Director Neil Burger and producer Cathy Schulman have wrapped productionon The Illusionist after 46 days ofshooting in various locations in the Czech Republic.Burger (Interview With The Assassin) wrote the screenplay based onSteven Millhauser's short story EisenheimThe Illusionist. Shot by Dick Pope (VeraDrake), the film stars Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica ...

  • News

    Emilia Fox stars in Ellis' Cashback

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    The Pianiststar Emilia Fox has taken a lead role in director Sean Ellis' Cashback which is currently shooting inLondon.Fox stars as a supermarketclerk who becomes the love interest of main character Ben, played by SeanBiggerstaff (Harry Potter And The ChamberOf Secrets). Billed as a quirky comedy,the film is about an ...

  • News

    New Location Guide aims to improve producers' bottom-line

    2005-06-07T00:00:00Z

    The new edition of theinternational film industry handbook The Location Guide launches this week. An essential guide forlocation film-making worldwide, the new edition launches at a time whenproducers are being enticed by numerous financial incentives to shoot theirfilms in increasingly far flung locations.The guide spans over 100countries with new locations ...

  • News

    Pusan festival unveils expansion plans

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    The Pusan InternationalFilm Festival has unveiled a range of special events for its tenth anniversaryedition to be held in October, including an inaugural Asian Film Academy (AFA)modeled after the Berlinale Talent Campus and Sundance's Filmmakers Lab.Festival director KimDong-ho also says that PIFF will double its number of participating theatresfrom 16 ...

  • News

    South African film incentives in disarray say producers

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    SouthAfrican producers have accused the country's Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) of reneging on a pledge of $38m (R250m) to support the South African filmindustry. The country's Independent ProducersOrganisation (IPO) has written to the DTI's acting director general TsidisoMatona complaining that the motion picture rebate scheme "launched with muchfanfare" last ...

  • News

    Artisan, Miramax do some Dirty Dancing

    2000-05-12T16:54:00Z

    Two of the unlikeliest dance partners - US rivals Artisan Entertainment and Miramax Films - are teaming up to co-produce and co-finance Dirty Dancing 2, the sequel to one of the most successful independent films of all time.The film will be a 50/50 worldwide joint venture and Artisan will handle ...

  • News

    Zalica's Days And Hours wins Isola prize

    2005-06-07T00:00:00Z

    The 2ndInternational Film Festival in Isola, Slovenia, wrapped on May 31 with BosnianPjer Zalica's Days And Hours takingthe main prize. The festival'smain programme included titles such as Yasmine Kassari's Sleeping Child, Saman Salur's FromThe Land Of Silence, Josue Mendez's DaysOf Santiago, Pablo Trapero's RollingFamily, Amer Alwan's Zaman, Destiny'sMan, Lisandro Alonso's ...

  • News

    Chinese director Ning comes into Lau's Focus

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    China's Ning Hao has been selected as the sixth director toparticipate in the regional film project, Focus: First Cuts, which was launchedin March by Hong Kong star Andy Lau's Focus Films and Star Chinese Movies. Focusalso announced that it will co-produce Ning's as-yet-untitled film withBeijing-based Concord Creation International. The film, ...

  • News

    Taormina festival to showcase Batman, Costa-Gavras

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    Batman Begins and Costa-Gavras' Le Couperet are amongthe titles that will receive their European premiere at the 51stTaormina Film Festival (11-18 June).Guests who will attend the festival and give a cinemalesson include director Bob Rafelson, Andie MacDowell, Italian actresses VirnaLisi and Laura Morante, Malcolm MacDowell and Hugh Hudson.Taormina, directed for ...

  • News

    Glen Basner leaves Focus Features

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    Glen Basner has left hisposition as executive vice president of international sales and distribution atFocus Features. He has stepped down immediately from the company, although itis unclear as yet where he will land.Basner, one of themost accomplished sales executives in the business, had worked ininternational sales under David Linde at ...

  • News

    Koch Vision picks up Margaret Cho's Assassin

    2005-06-08T00:00:00Z

    Koch Vision has picked upNorth American home entertainment rights to Margaret Cho's one-woman show Assassin...aka...StateOf EmergencyKoch plans a Novemberrelease on the title, which will coincide with the publication of her novel "IHave Chosen To Stay And Fight" and follows the September broadcast of Assassin on the gay television network Here!Cho's ...

  • News

    Magnolia buys multiple territories from Miramax to Pulse

    2005-06-08T00:00:00Z

    Magnolia Pictures has pickedup all English-speaking territories as well as Mexico, Germany, Italy, Poland,and Spain on Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Japanese horror Pulse.The picture was acquiredfrom Dimension and Miramax, which still maintain an interest in the property asHarvey and Bob Weinstein recently began production on the remake based on ascreenplay by Wes ...

  • News

    Lin to direct Fast And The Furious 3 for Universal

    2005-06-08T04:00:00Z

    Justin Lin, the youngfilm-maker whose debut feature Better Luck Tomorrow was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002, haslanded the job as director of Universal Pictures' The Fast And The Furious 3 (tentative title).Neal H Moritz, who producedthe first two instalments in the series The Fast And The ...

  • News

    M:I 3 finally gets start date in July in Italy

    2005-06-08T00:00:00Z

    Mission: Impossible 3 will finally start principal photography on July 18in Italy, it was announced yesterday by Paramount Pictures chairman and CEOBrad Grey. The film will be shot on locations across Europe, the US and Asiaand will be released in US theatres on May 5, 2006.Tom Cruise will of coursestar ...

  • News

    Diller ends Vivendi feud with $3.4bn deal

    2005-06-08T00:00:00Z

    Barry Diller'sIAC/InterActive Corp. has agreed to sell its stake in Vivendi UniversalEntertainment (VUE) for $3.4 billion. The deal will see Diller handover his 5.4% stake in VUE to NBC Universal -a stake which has long been a bone of contention between Vivendi and Diller andwhich had threatened to derail Vivendi's ...

  • Reviews

    Habana Blues

    2005-06-08T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Benito Zambrano. Sp-Cuba-Fr. 2005. 110mins.Spanish director Benito Zambrano scored a surprise hit athome in 1999 with his first film, the intense mother-and-daughter drama Solas.Habana Blues is a very different product - a feelgood slice of raw Havanaenergy which uses its conventional but solid plot as a frame on which to ...

  • Reviews

    Invisible (Les Invisibles)

    2005-06-08T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Thierry Jousse.France 2005. 85mins.Sound, vision and obsession mix to stylish, provocativeeffect in Invisible, the debut film from former Cahiers Du Cinema editorThierry Jousse. The latest in a long line of that magazine's critics to turn todirecting, stretching from the nouvelle vague generation to the likes ofOlivier Assayas and Pascal ...