Fin de Cinema (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
Les témoins [ The Witnesses ] – dir. André Téchiné Aided with a bit of melodramatic and nostalgic artifice, The Witnesses [ Les témoins ] actually chronicles the early days of the AIDS epidemic like an epic war film, with serious urgency and vigor, elements sorely lacking in André Téchiné’s literal war drama, Strayed [ Les égarés...
San Fransisco Chronicle (Free subscription) | 10/04/2009
Director André Téchiné loosely based this drama on a widely reported 2004 incident in France in which a non-Jewish young woman said she was the victim of an anti-Semitic attack. The lead character, Jeanne (Émilie Dequenne), is a jobless suburbanite fond of...
Londonist (Free subscription) | 09/25/2009
Those galas sell out fast, don’t they? But there’s plenty more on view at next month’s London Film Festival , especially for those of you who like your films with a side order of subtitles. The typically strong French selection includes Bluebeard , a dark fairytale by Catherine Breillat, Bellamy, which brings together Claude Chabrol and Gérard Depardieu for the first time,...
The House Next Door (Free subscription) | 09/14/2009
By Dan Callahan I first saw Juliette Binoche in Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), surely one of the most erotic mainstream films ever made. She seemed like a furtive-eyed little animal, bold but somehow hidden, even rigid, fiercely holding down Daniel Day-Lewis’ amusing womanizer Tomas until they achieve a brief moment of domestic...
Variety.com (Free subscription) | 09/08/2009
Exclusives: Shingle picks up U.S. rights to French film -- Strand Releasing has boarded Andre Techine's "The Girl on the Train," snapping up all U.S. rights to the French- language film.
Culture Monster (Free subscription) | 08/18/2009
Not one to rest on her acting laurels -- or her great beauty -- Juliette Binoche is risking the sting of U.S. art critics by showing a series of her portraits in New York this fall. In September, Binoche will...
BrontëBlog (Free subscription) | 08/10/2009
Via ohnotheydidnt we have discovered the new poster for Wuthering Heights 1939 created by TCM for its Summer under Stars series. William Wyler's film will be broadcast again next August 25 (11:30 PM). Today's crossword in the Mirror contains a Brontë entry: Husband of Catherine Earnshaw in the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights. A new bookstore in Ulmarra, Australia is the subject of this...
Fin de Cinema (Free subscription) | 08/08/2009
In addition to the DVD releases below, Sony will be releasing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein on Blu-ray on 13 October. There weren't any other exciting Blu-ray release announcements made, so I didn't create a section for it this time around. - Ace [ Asso ], 1981, d. Franco Castellano, Giuseppe Moccia, MVD, 11 August , w. Edwige Fenech - Hot Dogs on Ibiza [ On est venu là pour s'éclater ],...
Critic After Dark (Free subscription) | 06/13/2009
Ma saison preferee ( My Favorite Season, Andre Techine, 1993); Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat, 1991) Link good for a week, to be replaced by the full text. Excerpt: I haven't seen enough of critic-turned-filmmaker Andre Techine's films as I would like, but "Ma saison preferee" (My Favorite Season, 1993) is easily my favorite. The novelistic, episodic texture of his films, the deceptively simple...
WFMU's Beware of the Blog (Free subscription) | 06/09/2009
I have this awful habit of gushing affection whenever I run into one of my heroes. Worse, it's the sort of affection that strangers don't take kindly too. It's not exactly a King of Comedy moment, but some of the...
Variety.com (Free subscription) | 06/05/2009
Shanghai Film Festival: Chinese auds get eyeful of world cinema offerings -- The Shanghai Film Festival functions as a film master class for China's auds, hungry for instruction in the cinema they don't often get to see.
Fin de Cinema (Free subscription) | 06/02/2009
I figure that the further along I go on the Decade List, the more populated the Worst Films list will be. Some annotations to the list: I didn't place Gigli on the list out of some obligation; I think it's really tedious, though not the complete Thanksgiving dinner everyone else did, most of which I think came from wanting the film to fail because of the media's tiresome coverage of Ben Affleck and...
Variety.com (Free subscription) | 05/25/2009
International News: Festival unveils competition lineup -- Thesps Andie MacDowell and Komaki Kurihara, helmers Andrew Lau, Xavier Koller and Huang Jianxin and South Korean producer Oh Jung-wan will join Danny Boyle on the jury for the Golden Goblet Award, the organizing committee of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival said.
Variety.com (Free subscription) | 05/12/2009
Film Festivals: 'Slumdog' director to judge at film festival -- A jury led by Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" helmer Danny Boyle will judge 16 films from 16 territories competing for the Jin Jue (Golden Goblet) prize at the 12th Shanghai Film Festival, which runs June 13-21.
Variety.com (Free subscription) | 04/16/2009
City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival: Premieres, panels and discussions -- Colcoa festival highlights: premieres, panels and discussions.
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