Todd Field makes his long-awaited return with TÁR, the writer/director’s third narrative feature. The film stars Cate Blanchett as the titular (though fictitious) Lydia Tár, a world-renowned composer who becomes the first female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. TÁR comes 16 years after Field’s previous film, the 2006 psychological drama Little Children, and 21 years after his 2001 debut In the Bedroom (read our interview with Field from the Fall 2001 print issue). Though both films received several Oscar nominations (including Best Picture for In the Bedroom) and overwhelming critical acclaim, none of Field’s subsequent projects have materialized until […]

Ted Hope — producer, Good Machine co-founder, and now CEO of Fandor — is no tongue-tied wallflower in the independent film community. Indeed, his passionate commentary, counsel and editorializing on topics ranging from net neutrality to making better films to a “systems reboot” of the independent film economy seem to be everywhere these days. But while his website, Twitter account and frequent speeches at industry events may make it seem that his opinions have been enabled — or at least turbo-charged — by this current social media age, he has, in fact, been lobbing list-driven rhetorical broadsides for years. (Don’t […]

Opus Zine links to this article by Barbara Nicolosi in Christianity Today in which the author discusses the advice she gives to young Christian artists who want to be “the next Mel Gibson.” The advice contained in the article, itself an adaptation of material from her book Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film and Culture, is not what you’d expect. She disses A Walk to Remember (“…a banal, predictable story with underdeveloped characters, pedestrian acting, and saccharine dialogue”), praises In the Bedroom (which “deals with the spiritual and psychological urgency of forgiveness”) and offers — after answering the […]