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THE
LIVES OF OTHERS
With the Berlin Film Festival almost upon us, one of the their
most celebrated titles of last year, The Lives Of Others,
finally lands on US shores. Having gained momentum with a
rapturous critical response and an Oscar nomination for Best
Foreign Language Film, Lives is the tale of a long time couple,
a dramatist and an actress, who are part of the intelligentsia
elite of their socialist state in the East Berlin of the 1984.
But when the Minister of Culture becomes enamored of the actress,
and begins spying on the couple, their loyalties to each other
and to East Berlin are called into question. Like Goodbye,
Lenin! before it, The Lives Of Others deftly balances the
inherent humour and pathos that romance and politics can create.
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HANNIBAL
RISING
Hannibal is back! Well, sort of… There’s no Anthony
Hopkins this time, as we go back to Lecter’s youth to
trace the experiences that made him the monster we know and
fear, from his World War II childhood in Lithuania, to his
time as a teenager living in Paris with his late uncle’s
widow Lady Murasaki Shikibu (Gong Li), and finally his first
years in America. Despite this being outright Hollywood fare,
Hannibal Rising has a strong arthouse cachet: Lecter is played
by Gaspar Ulliel (who came to prominence as Audrey Tatou’s
love interest in A Very Long Engagement), there is solid supporting
cast of British actors (Rhys Ifans, Dominic West, Kevin McKidd),
and the film is directed by Peter Webber, who wowed the critics
with his debut feature, Girl with a Pearl Earring. File alongside
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days and Exorcist: The Beginning.
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VIVA
PEDRO!
If you missed it in theaters late last year (or if you just
want to build up your home library) out on DVD is the Pedro
Almodóvar Classics Collection. Released by Sony Pictures
Classics, the eight films include Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown (1988), All About My Mother (1999), Talk
to Her (2002), Flower of My Secret (1995), Live Flesh (1996),
Law of Desire (1987), Matador (1986) and Bad Education (2004).
It is a must have for the Almodóvar fan. |
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FASCINATING
FASCINATION
Steve Loff and Prichard Smith, the filmmakers behind Mr. Fascination,
a doc in post-production, have launched a MySpace page full
of clips and info about their film, which tells the story
of a man obsessed with a vintage boardwalk game... |
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ONCE
BOUGHT BY FOX SEARCHLIGHT
Ann Thompson is reporting that Fox Searchlight has bought
Sundance audience fave Once. The no-budget Irish musical (it
was made for a reported $100,000) features members of the
band The Frames, which director John Carney played bass in
in the early '90s...
Read
the complete stories at Filmmakermagazine's Blog... |
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AFTERSHOCKS
- BY HOWARD FEINSTEIN
Karen Moncrieff’s The Dead Girl examines the emotional
repercussions of a prostitute’s murder on five troubled
L.A. women.
When a performer moves behind
the camera, it’s often a dodgy proposition. An actor
on mostly forgettable soaps and drama series in the ’80s
and ’90s, Karen Moncrieff is more than an exception;
having made just two features, she’s become a star filmmaker...
Click
here for the rest of the article
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