I was late to see Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight, only catching up to this astonishing and unexpectedly grim film this past week. It’s probably the first action film I’ve ever seen that’s exhausted me not by the intensity of its fight sequences but by its embedding of specific moral and philosophical dilemmas in all of its significant set pieces. Because I hadn’t seen the film, I avoided reading a lot about it, which means I missed the various pieces that have either celebrated (as in Andrew Klavan’s Wall Street Journal piece) or decried (as in Dave Kehr’s review) the […]
Here’s the fourth of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com.Laura Colella, writer/director, 2000: In 2000, I was gearing up for the Sundance Directing & Screenwriting Labs with my 2nd feature project Stay Until Tomorrow. After the amazing lab experience, I spent over a year trying in vain to get a company or established producer behind the project. Amy Geller, a great young producer, signed on. We set a date, were offered many substantial donations of equipment and […]
…the short answer provided by Scott Kirsner at his CinemaTech blog: “It’s not easy.” Still, Kirsner lays out the options in a comprehensive blog post in which he names all the various aggregators who sell content on Apple’s market-leading download service, discusses their various terms, and provides contact info links. Essential.
Over at The Circuit, Mike Jones reveals the possibility of a remake of the summer box office darling Man On Wire. According to him, Robert Zemeckis has the rights and could do a motion capture remake in the same style as The Polar Express and Beowolf. Man On Wire is one of the most powerful films I’ve seen this year and James Marsh‘s use of archival footage, the charisma of Philippe Petit and clever recreated scenes makes the doc more than, well, a doc, but a thrill ride. I can’t imagine why a remake is waranted, or how it could […]
I’ve been hooked on the free streaming video site Hulu the whole summer. And not just because I can watch episodes of The A-Team whenever I get a B.A. Baracus craving. Since June they’ve launched a new movie or TV show every weekday in their Days of Summer series (it ends in a few weeks). Today they premiered The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Not one of my favorites, but for the most part I’ve been impressed by their taste: Lost In Translation, The Three Stooges collection, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, (and that was just the first […]
Ronnie Bronstein’s Frownland opens this weekend at Facets Cinematheque in Chicaco, and Roger Ebert has written an extraordinary review in the Chicago Sun Times. After opening graphs where he describes the uncompromising nature of the film and the storyline, he ends with this: Now why would you want to see this film? Most readers of this review probably wouldn’t. I’m writing for the rest of us. It is a rebirth of the need for expression that inspired the American independent movement in the first place, 50 years ago. It was written, directed and edited by Ronald Bronstein, who had a […]
Directors Bradley Rust Grey and So Yong Kim just directed a short film for the Museum of Chinese in America Chinatown Film Project. Grey also acted as d.p. and shot the film on the new Red camera — the same camera Steven Soderbergh used to shoot his recent CHE. Grey plans to use the Red to shoot his next feature, which should begin this fall, and was kind enough to send us this entry for the blog in which he quickly summarizes his impressions of the experience. I haven’t written a blog before. So I’m just sort of thinking of […]
First you announce that you’re done teasing us and have begun the remake of The Inglorious Bastards, now you dangle a Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! update… with Britney Spears attached!!! Well, that’s the rumor on Ann Thompson’s blog and the blogsphere has been salivating about it since. Whether this is a calculated PR move by the Britney camp to actually get a project off the ground or just another one of QT’s chances to go nuts and remake every Grindhouse title that’s on his shelf, if I can be serious of a second, I do think this would really […]
After seeing Christopher Nolan’s dark and philosophically nimble The Dark Knight, I went back to our Winter, 2001 issue and read again Chuck Stephens’ cover interview with Nolan and his screenwriter brother Jonathan on the eve of the release of their breakthrough film, Memento. I was struck by how some of the same issues that elevate the latest Batman movie — its cinematic capturing of everyday dread, its interrogation of the role of the hero, and its clever use of film noir tropes — are discussed within the context of this earlier film. If you are a Nolan fan, check […]
PATTI SMITH IN DIRECTOR STEVEN SEBRING’S PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE. COURTESY PALM PICTURES. Since he first picked up a camera, Steven Sebring has been defying expectations and blurring genre boundaries. A South Dakota native who grew up in Arizona, Sebring taught himself photography during his teens and then honed his style during several years spent in Europe. Following his return to the States, the mix of glamor and grit he brought to his images made him an in-demand fashion photographer, and also distinguished himself as an inventive celebrity portraitist. His background in fashion and an interest in cinema led […]