The Cannes Film Festival declared Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier a “persona non grata” and banned him from the festival Wednesday for saying he sympathizes with Hitler. The remarks came as the filmmaker told an awkward, rambling joke during a news conference to promote his film “Melancholia.” “What can I say? I understand Hitler, but [...]
More than 50 years after “Breathless” Cannes finally gave Jean-Paul Belmondo a Palme d’Or. Belmondo, one the biggest stars of The French New Wave was awarded the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honor Tuesday during a special evening devoted to his legacy, which included a screening of “Belmondo, The Career,” a documentary by Vincent Perrot and [...]
Zentropa released a new clip of Lars Von Trier’s upcoming apocalyptic drama “Melancholia” this week. The clip features sisters (played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg) discussing the nature of the life on earth while the specter of major catasrophe looms large. Watch:
Deadline reports that The Weinstein Company will distribute Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film — his first since 2007′s “There Will Be Blood.” After a furious bidding war the Weinstein’s won worldwide distribution rights to the untitled religious drama about a disenchanted WWII veteran who starts his own religion. Originally titled “The Master,” the film will [...]
LONDON — Vertigo Films and Embargo Films announced Tuesday that shooting will begin on the English language remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s drug film, “Pusher,” on May 8, 2011. Spanish director Luis Prieto (“Meno Male Che Ci Sei”) will direct the London-based remake, which stars Agyness Deyn, Richard Coyle, Bronson Webb and Paul Kaye. Refn [...]
Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi novel “Ender’s Game” is making its way to the big screen. THR reports that Summit Entertainment is in negotiations to acquire the U.S. rights and co-finance a live-action adaptation of the Hugo Award and Nebula Award-winning book. The deal was propelled by a script by “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” director Gavin Hood, [...]
NEW YORK – The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced several program award winners and grantees at the TFI Awards Luncheon at Riverpark NYC during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Two winners of the Tribeca All Access (TAA) Creative Promise Awards presented by Time Warner; seven new TAA alumni grants and fellowships; four winners of [...]
Self promotion and unfettered egotism have served director Lars Von Trier well. After he proclaimed himself “the greatest film director in the world” at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival premier of his controversial “Antichrist,” he enjoyed loads of press and a significant spike in interest in the film. Now, two years later, the Danish filmmaker’s [...]
LONDON – Terrence Malick’s long-awaited feature “The Tree of Life,” starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt, has hit a snag in its effort to secure distribution in the UK. Ostensible UK distributor Icon and producers River Road Entertainment are in arbitration just weeks away from the film’s screening at the Festival de Cannes. Points of [...]
Classics like “12 Angry Men,” “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Verdict” and “Network” would never have existed without Sidney Lumet. And now, we will be without the legendary New York director. He died Saturday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 86. “While the goal of all movies is to entertain,” Mr. Lumet once [...]
DIFF 2012 Reviews: ‘Cinema Six,’ ‘Compliance,’ ‘Faith, Love and Whiskey’
Things I Don’t Understand (2011)
Jiří Trnka: Animation Retrospective
Lowlights of Cinélatino
Brevity Pays Off
‘A Secret World’ at Cinélatino
‘Future Lasts Forever’ at Sofia
Two Treatments of Italy’s Fascist Past
‘The Leopard’: novel, opera, but above all, film
We’ll always have ‘Casablanca’
