September 4th, 2009
Based on the novel by Robert Kaplow set during the Mercury Theatre’s famed production of Julius Caesar in 1937, “Me and Orson Welles,” the latest film from Richard Linklater, opens in November.
At the Empire blog, Helen O’Hara asks “Is low-budget sci-fi actually at an advantage?”
Director Margarita Jimeno spent more than five years following the Gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello, around the world from their earliest rumblings in New York City to international notoriety. From Hoptza Films, “Gogol Bordello Non-Stop” opens later this month.
Jen Phillips of Mother Jones chats with directors Sara Ziff and Ole Schell about “the ugly side of the modeling biz” exposed in their documentary, “Picture Me: A Model’s Diary.”
One Film Wonder: In 1952, three years after his astounding “The Bicycle Thief,” Vittorio De Sica released the heart-rending neorealist classic, “Umberto D.” The title role of Umberto Domenico Ferrari, a pensioner brought to the brink in post-war Rome, was played by Carlo Battisti, a 70-year-old renowned professor of glottology — the science of linguistics — at the University of Florence, appearing in his only film role. Umberto’s closest companion in his dog, Flike. The powerful, wrenching film was not released in the United States for several years; it earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing (Motion Picture Story) in 1956 for Cesare Zavattini.
Posted in Beyond the Reel |
Tagged Carlo Battisti, Cesare Zavattini, Empire, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop, Helen O'Hara, Hoptza Films, Jen Phillips, Margarita Jimeno, Me and Orson Welles, Mother Jones, Ole Schell, One Film Wonder, Picture Me: A Model's Diary, Richard Linklater, Robert Kaplow, Sara Ziff, The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D., Vittorio De Sica |
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May 1st, 2009
Opening this weekend on a limited basis before fanning across the country, “The Limits of Control” is the latest flick from the mercurial but always salient Jim Jarmusch. Appearing in the pivotal role of Lone Man is Isaach De Bankole, who starred with Alex Descas in the laconic No Problem vignette from the wonderful “Coffee and Cigarettes.”
In the May issue of Sight and Sound, Ginette Vincendeau commemorates the 50th anniversary of the French New Wave by observing the movement’s transmutating influence on The Star Reborn.
At the hazy dawn of an early morning in 1976, the prolific director Claude Lelouch buckled up and without a permit roared through the streets of Paris filming an uninterrupted eight-minute thrill ride that’s become a Gearheads classic. It was madly dangerous. (He’s copped to the recklessness.) But “Rendezvous” is breathtaking. And mesmerizing.
Following a 15-year self-imposed exile from directing since the notorious “Boxing Helena,” Jennifer Lynch shares a frank and sometimes peculiar exchange with Time Out London about the the 1990s critical beatdown, her father’s influence and the genesis of the new film, “Surveillance.”
One Film Wonders: Vittorio De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief” is a film of overwhelmingly powerful emotional potency. Much of the film’s poignancy resonates from the performances of Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio Ricci and Enzo Staiola as his son, Bruno. They were both non-actors when each was cast in this first film role — Staiola reportedly was chosen for his distinctive walk. In the next 20 years, Maggiorani snagged unassuming parts in 15 films with ungracious character names such as “lonely patient” and “poor man.” Staiola would recede in the subsequent 30 years into anonymous roles as well with monikers like “newspaper seller’s son” and “busboy.” But as this sequence in a restaurant so vividly demonstrates, the novices effortessly express a wealth of emotions as cinema’s most sublime father-son duo.
Posted in Beyond the Reel |
Tagged Alex Descas, Boxing Helena, Claude Lelouch, Coffee and Cigarettes, Enzo Staiola, Ginette Vincendeau, Isaach De Bankole, Jennifer Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Lamberto Maggiorani, One Film Wonder, Rendezvous, Sight and Sound, Surveillance, The Bicycle Thief, The Limits of Control, Time Out London, Vittorio De Sica |
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