Wes Anderson
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Watch Wes Anderson’s Charming Prada Short Castelo Cavalcanti
I’m not totally optimistic about Wes Anderson’s upcoming The Grand Hotel Budapest — which will open the Berlinale early next year — but watching his latest offering has somewhat raised my hopes. Castelo Cavalcanti, a short film made for Prada, is a charming, self-contained little effort about a racecar driver (Jason Schwartzman) who crashes in the tiny Italian village of Castelo Cavalcanti, which just happens to be his ancestral home. Written and directed by Anderson, it was shot by Darius Khondji and filmed at Rome’s legendary studio, Cinecittà.
by Nick Dawson on Nov 13, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson’s sensibility has, I suppose, always been somewhat “European,” so it’s not a big stretch for him to be extending his storytelling realm to include one of the great cities of Central Europe in The Grand Budapest Hotel. And he certainly seems to be having fun with this star-studded, 1920s-era romp, which may be the most visually lavish and designed film of his career to date. On the surface, the film looks like a companion piece to Jiri Menzel’s I Served the King of England, which tackles similar subject matter but with a comic bite and political engagement that […]
by Nick Dawson on Oct 17, 2013 -
Cutting for Story: Editor Andrew Weisblum in Conversation
Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese. Walter Murch and Francis Ford Coppola. Tim Squyres and Ang Lee. For many an editor, these longtime creative partnerships represent the most alluring and elusive of career ideals. For editor Andrew Weisblum, that ideal is well on the way to becoming a reality — twice over. Since 2007, Weisblum has cut all of both Wes Anderson’s and Darren Aronofsky’s feature films, ranging in style from the witty charm of Fantastic Mr. Fox to the demented psychodrama of Black Swan (for which Weisblum was Oscar nominated). Kicking off this year’s Manhattan Edit Workshop series “Inside the […]
by Heather von Rohr on Feb 27, 2013 -
The Pact: Miguel Gomes on Cinema and Tabu
Part realism and part fantasy, half 35mm and half 16mm, part post-colonial and part colonial, half a swooning love story and half a clear-eyed political assessment, Miguel Gomes’s Tabu functions, as he puts it in this interview, within a structure of oppositions. Simultaneously a rebuke – and vindication – of the concept that “the personal is the political,” Tabu is a carefully constructed film in two halves, each of which comments upon the absences articulated in the other. We start in present-day Portugal, with Pilar (Teresa Madruga), a middle-aged woman who works for an unidentified lefty non-profit. Pilar is of […]
by Zachary Wigon on Dec 26, 2012 -
Sights and Sounds of the IFP Gotham Awards
Disclaimer: I attended last night’s Gotham Awards in various capacities: as a journalist, as a Best Film Not Playing at a Theatre Near You jury member, and as an IFP staff member involved in the behind-the-scenes running of the show. So my perspective on the event is somewhat fractured. As the Gothams is the first award show of the season, people are always looking to it as a bellwether for the future. Last night, Beasts of the Southern Wild — although not nominated in the Best Feature category — came away with the headlines and further awards momentum, having won two statuettes […]
by Nick Dawson on Nov 27, 2012 -
Susan Youssef, Habibi
Nearly 10 years in the making, Habibi is the semi-autobiographical first feature from 2010 “25 New Face” Susan Youssef, a tale of forbidden love between two Palestinian students who find it impossible for their affection to overcome the rigid conventions of class in Palestinian life and Israel’s ironclad security regime. With Israelis and Palestinians again in actively violent conflict, the film couldn’t be more newsworthy, but Youssef’s low-budget aesthetic ingenuity (she couldn’t shoot in Gaza, but faked it admirably) and a remarkable performance from Maisa Abd Elhadi, as the young woman at the center of multiple circles of conflict (family […]
by Brandon Harris on Nov 16, 2012 -
Love on the Run: Wes Anderson on Moonrise Kingdom
Set in and around a children’s summer camp off the coast of New England in 1965, Wes Anderson’s captivating Moonrise Kingdom is a movie about two 12-year-olds, young lovers who escape the adult world of counselors, parents and social workers to find a few magical moments in the film’s eponymous beachside paradise. A movie about childhood, Moonrise Kingdom is also, more importantly, a movie that feels of childhood. With its evocatively off-scale production design, tempered adult performances and moments of playful abandon, Moonrise Kingdom is stuffed with feelings and visions that, no matter what your age, transport you through time […]
by Walter Donohue on Oct 17, 2012 -
WHEN KENTUCKER AUDLEY MET WES ANDERSON
Two figures from different ends of the independent film spectrum have a chance meeting in 1998. For the story behind the picture, visit Kentucker Audley’s Tumblr.
by Nick Dawson on Jun 12, 2012 -
WIN “MOONRISE KINGDOM” SWAG!
We’re all caught up in the spirit of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (read this, if you don’t believe me!), so we’re excited to be able to give away a bunch of rather cool (and also very useful) swag related to the movie, which opens in selected cities this Friday through Focus Features. The two Filmmaker readers who are quickest on the (email) draw can get their hands on: a T-Shirt, a set of two patches, a cooler, a canteen and a Moonrise Kingdom soundtrack. All you have to do is email nick@filmmakermagazine.com and tell me which Hollywood movie star appeared […]
by Nick Dawson on May 23, 2012 -
BILL MURRAY’S SLIGHTLY TIPSY TOUR OF “MOONRISE KINGDOM”
Bill Murray has been in every Wes Anderson movie bar one (“Bottle Rocket, still not seen that one”), so who better to give you a tour of the set of Anderson’s latest opus, Moonrise Kingdom, than Murray himself. The film — which received rave reviews when it opened Cannes last week, and we love so much that we put Anderson on the cover of our Spring issue — opens stateside on Friday. Keep your eyes peeled for a Moonrise Kingdom giveaway in this space later in the week. Oh, and just to warn you, Murray was under the influence of […]
by Nick Dawson on May 22, 2012
