Ken Loach
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“I’m Not Even Sure Satire Exists Anymore”: Writer/Director Tom Gilroy Talks with Jim McKay About His Dystopic — and Timely — Short, #WaynesvilleStrong
With the rallying cry of its hashtagged title, Tom Gilroy’s #WaynesvilleStrong is a darkly comic and scarily plausible vision of a very near future in which low-wage work, enforced patriotism and the panoptic powers of the internet combine to create a pandemic hellscape that one laid-off meatpacking worker must delicately navigate, one videocall prompt at a time. The short was made quickly, in May and during quarantine, with everyone appropriately socially distanced, and to its great credit that what was political satire just two months ago is now turning into, with the current battles over “reopening,” political reality. The short […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 21, 2020 -
Trailer Watch: I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or Winner
The new film by British filmmaker Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and now it’s got a trailer (above) in advance of its U.K. release on October 21. The film stars Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old in the North-East of England who falls ill and applies for unemployment benefits only to get caught in a mess of red tape. Along the way, he meets a single mother and her two children who are dealing with their own challenges. Sundance Selects has U.S. rights to the film, but no release date has […]
by Paula Bernstein on Jun 15, 2016 -
Cannes Dispatch #4: Thoughts on Awards, I, Daniel Blake, Risk, Elle
I won’t spend too much time bemoaning the Competition prizes handed out last night by George Miller’s jury. Their decisions sucked, just as the Coen brothers’ jury’s did, just as Campion’s did, just as Spielberg’s kinda did, just as Moretti’s very much did, and okay fine I’ll stop there. The best film way more often than not goes home empty-handed from these things, and it rarely matters. Maybe a few less people sought out Holy Motors because Nanni Moretti thought Leos Carax didn’t spend enough time developing his characters, or a few more people were curious to discover whatever the […]
by Blake Williams on May 23, 2016 -
Ken Loach, Xavier Dolan Top Surprising Cannes Awards Ceremony; Andrea Arnold’s American Honey Wins Jury Prize
One of the more surprising Cannes awards ceremonies has just ended, with Ken Loach becoming a two-time Palme d’Or winner with his I, Daniel Blake, about a 59-year-old carpenter battling England’s health care system following a heart attack, winning the top prize. (The director’s The Wind that Swept the Barley won the Palme in 2006.) I, Daniel Blake, while not one of the buzzier titles in the Competition, was generally well received; the same can’t be said for the jury’s Grand Prix, awarded to Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World. Variety’s Guy Lodge tweeted, “Giving Xavier Dolan […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 22, 2016 -
Railway Ties: The Golden Dream
Like us, objects and events can be photogenic–or not. Boxing matches, galloping horses, and speeding trains, for example, have proven ideal fodder for the motion-picture camera. The last of these subjects is also the oldest, going back to the pioneering Lumiere Brothers’ doc, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat. It was made and first shown in 1896, the first year that film was projected. The narrative of this 50-second actualité is simple. A train pulls into the station and stops; anonymous passengers disembark with the help of people standing on the platform, a few of whom then climb aboard. […]
by Howard Feinstein on Sep 4, 2015 -
Christopher Nolan, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach on the Painters That Inspire Them
The Tate Gallery in London launched a great little series of videos today entitled Film meets Art, in which prominent U.K. directors discuss their appreciation for and how they were influenced by a particular British artist. Above, Christopher Nolan talks about his love of Francis Bacon’s work and how it shaped his rendition of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.Nolan says that Bacon was his favorite artist from a young age, which I find to be very unusual and striking idea. (What kind of a childhood did Nolan have that this was how he saw the world?) Mike Leigh […]
by Nick Dawson on Nov 26, 2013 -
10 Lessons on Filmmaking from Director Ken Loach
Few filmmakers bring to life social issues as vividly as Ken Loach. Whether helming grand historical dramas about family, love and civil war (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Land and Freedom) or character-driven films detailing the plight of the working class (Kes, Riff-Raff, Sweet Sixteen, Bread and Roses) Loach is a master of creating universal stories that are immensely relatable regardless of time or place. His latest effort, a documentary, The Spirit of ’45, which had its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, continues the grand tradition with a story as relevant today as it was over half a […]
by Ariston Anderson on Mar 27, 2013 -
Angela Ismailos, Great Directors
A curious celebration of cinema and the mix of craft, history and ideology that goes into its making, Angela Ismailos’ Great Directors provides a chance to travel into the minds of ten of the world’s most celebrated film directors. In conversations with Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles, Ismailos probes these directors for the secrets of their success while recounting much of the history of post-War world cinema via archival footage, occasionally ponderous black-and-white B-roll of the filmmakers, and mostly insightful voice over commentary. Detailed and […]
by Brandon Harris on Jun 30, 2010 -
Ray Lawrence, Jindabyne
GABRIEL BYRNE AND LAURA LINNEY IN RAY LAWRENCE’S JINDABYNE. COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS. Ray Lawrence pulled one of world cinema’s most surprising disappearing acts. His debut film, Bliss (1985), an adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel co-written by Lawrence and Carey himself, played in competition at Cannes, garnered rave reviews and dominated the Australian film awards. Lawrence joined Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi and Bruce Beresford as an Australian director worthy of global attention – but then did not make another film for 16 years. However, when his sophomore effort, Lantana, finally came out in 2001, it cemented Lawrence as one of […]
by Nick Dawson on Apr 27, 2007
