Filmmaking

IS THIS THE FUTURE OF THEATRICAL EXHIBITION?

Over at his CinemaTech blog, Scott Kirsner posts a video interview with Mark Stern, owner of Big Picture, the Seattle-based company that runs “21 and older” theaters that are more like private clubs or studio screening rooms than today’s multiplexes.

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 31, 2007 Filmmaking
MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI, 1912-2007

The great Michelangelo Antonioni, director of such films as L’Avventura, Red Desert, Blow-Up and The Passenger, died in Italy yesterday. He was 94. The New York Times in its obituary quotes Jack Nicholson’s remarks on the director when he presented him with a career Oscar: ‘In the empty, silent spaces of the world, he has found metaphors that illuminate the silent places our hearts, and found in them, too, a strange and terrible beauty: austere, elegant, enigmatic, haunting.” As they did for Ingmar Bergman, another art-house titan who, stunningly, died just a few hours before Antonioni, The Guardian has set […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 31, 2007 Filmmaking
INGMAR BERGMAN, 1918- 2007

One of the titans of 20th century cinema has passed away. Ingmar Bergman died at his home off the coast of Sweden at 89. Here’s the AP report. A growing list of links at GreenCine offers many perspectives on and remembrances of the great director, including the following passage from Mervyn Rothstein’s obituary in the New York Times: Mr. Bergman dealt with pain and torment, desire and religion, evil and love; in Mr. Bergman’s films, “this world is a place where faith is tenuous; communication, elusive; and self-knowledge, illusory,” Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times Magazine in a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 30, 2007 Filmmaking
PERSONALITY BECOMES YOUR STYLE

There’s a new issue of Sight and Sound up and now the BFI has posted selected pieces online. One is a great interview Amy Taubin did with Gus Van Sant about Van Sant’s thoughts on — and similarities to — Andy Warhol. While Taubin refers to Van Sant as “the most Warhol-like filmmaker around,” Van Sant says his original inspirations were quite different than the work of the great conceptual and Pop artist. When I started to try to make films, though, the scripts I wrote were John Cheever-esque stories about the place I came from – upper middle class, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 28, 2007 Filmmaking
ZERO!

On the day of its opening the new Lindsay Lohan movie, I Know who Killed Me, has managed to score a big fat zero on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe as the critics who were denied permission by Tri-Star to pre-screen the movie for reviews catch up with it the score will edge up… but, for the moment, the pic seems to have scored the unattainable. In our long-tailed world of a million and one tastes, it would seem impossible to make a film that simply nobody likes. If you believe the tomato squad, however, it’s been done. As for me, well, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2007 Filmmaking
NYSE: LGF

Maybe companies have been doing this for a while, but I’d never seen it before until tonight. On the subway poster for the live-action Bratz movie, there’s a tag at the bottom where a website URL might normally be. “NYSE:LGF” it says, handily giving the tween girl Bratz audience the stock market symbol for distributor Lion’s Gate Films. Other news from Lions Gate: the distributor has purchased a stake in indie distributor Roadside Attractions, which previously released its films through the IDP partnership. Shares of Lions Gate moved up by almost a point today to close at 11.21.

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 26, 2007 Filmmaking
BLADE RUNNER’S HAPPY ENDING

After years of fanboy speculation and internet chatter, Blade Runner: The Final Cut will debut theatrically in New York and L.A. on October 5 and on DVD from Warner Home VideoDecember 18. The slow-burning classic will receive three separate DVD editions: a two-disk Special Edition, a four-disk Collector’s Edition, and a five-disk Ultimate Collectors Edition. I first saw Blade Runner on its theatrical release many years ago. At the time I was underwhelmed. As a big Philip K. Dick fan, I didn’t like the noir tone that replaced the schlubby melodrama and cosmic satire of Dick’s novel. Over the years, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 25, 2007 Filmmaking
PICTURE NEW YORK SITE LAUNCHES

Picture New York, the group mobilizing to oppose the new regulations restricting the right of filmmakers, photographers, and amateur videomakers to shoot on the streets of New York, has launched their website. The site includes information about the proposed changes as well as details of an upcoming rally and other events staged to demonstrate the community’s opposition to the rules. They also have an online petition you can sign to register your own opposition. So far, the petition has drawn a great cross section of people, from documentarians to IA d.p.’s to people from the tourism industry. The site also […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 25, 2007 Filmmaking
LAURA SMILES SCREENING IN NYC

For those looking to do something later this week in New York, Emerging Pictures will be holding a special screening for their upcoming film Laura Smiles Thursday, July 26th @ 7:30 at Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick St.). To RSVP call 212-245-6767 or email distribution@emergingpictures.com. Here’s a brief synopsis: The film tells the story of one woman’s attempt to reinvent her life after a personal tragedy. It takes many years, but finally the dormant emotions that this tragedy has inspired find their way to the surface, causing Laura’s life to spiral out of control. Violence, sex and other forms of self-destructive […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jul 24, 2007 Filmmaking
JEM COHEN EVENING AT THE IFC CENTER

If you’re in New York tomorrow night come and check out an evening we are co-hosting with the IFC Center that’s dedicated to one of the most vital film artists working in New York City today: Jem Cohen. Here’s what the press release says: “An Evening with Jem Cohen” features the acclaimed filmmaker of Chain, Benjamin Smoke, and Lost Book Found in person to present the New York premiere of his new documentary BUILDING A BROKEN MOUSTRAP, a portrait of the Dutch band The Ex, which Cohen describes as “Concert film. City film. Protest film.” With a stylistically unique but […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2007 Filmmaking

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