Robey will start in her role in January 2024.
Rachel Robey, producer at UK company Wellington Films, is to join the the UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) as head of producing.
Robey will start in the role in January 2024. Her role will involve leading the producing department, overseeing the production of the school’s films, as well as guiding students on the Producing degrees as they learn project development and financing skills.
She takes over from Chris Auty, who left the Nfts in September to become CEO at the London Film School.
Robey will continue working at Wellington Films in a key role,...
Rachel Robey, producer at UK company Wellington Films, is to join the the UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) as head of producing.
Robey will start in the role in January 2024. Her role will involve leading the producing department, overseeing the production of the school’s films, as well as guiding students on the Producing degrees as they learn project development and financing skills.
She takes over from Chris Auty, who left the Nfts in September to become CEO at the London Film School.
Robey will continue working at Wellington Films in a key role,...
- 11/28/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The London Film School (Lfs) has been hit with a new round of senior managerial exits.
Dan Lawson, the school’s Chief Operating Officer, and Véronique Fricke, the longstanding Head of Marketing and Student Recruitment, have resigned from their positions. The pair announced their departures at a recent managerial meeting. The rest of the school and staff have yet to be informed of Lawson’s resignation.
Lawson will leave the school on October 31. An interim COO will be appointed. Veronique will leave on November 1 for a new position at a higher education institution. Senior Communications Manager Holly Blake will be appointed Acting Head of Marketing.
The exit of Lawson and Fricke comes shortly after Neil Peplow resigned from his position as CEO just ten months after taking the post. Peplow has been replaced by Chris Auty, who joins from the National Film and Television School, where he has been...
Dan Lawson, the school’s Chief Operating Officer, and Véronique Fricke, the longstanding Head of Marketing and Student Recruitment, have resigned from their positions. The pair announced their departures at a recent managerial meeting. The rest of the school and staff have yet to be informed of Lawson’s resignation.
Lawson will leave the school on October 31. An interim COO will be appointed. Veronique will leave on November 1 for a new position at a higher education institution. Senior Communications Manager Holly Blake will be appointed Acting Head of Marketing.
The exit of Lawson and Fricke comes shortly after Neil Peplow resigned from his position as CEO just ten months after taking the post. Peplow has been replaced by Chris Auty, who joins from the National Film and Television School, where he has been...
- 10/11/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
“It’s absolutely clear, there is a real appetite for British independent cinema in France,” said artistic director Dominque Green.
Sasha Polak’s Silver Haze scooped the top prize at this month’s Dinard Film Festival, the French seaside festival that spotlights UK and Irish cinema for French audiences, that ran from September 27 to October 1.
Berlinale Panorama title Silver Haze won the Golden Hitchcock for best film. Polak’s feature reunites the Dutch filmmaker with UK actor Vicky Knight, after working together on Dirty God in 2019. It is loosely based on Knight’s own experience as a child, in which she survived an arson attack.
Sasha Polak’s Silver Haze scooped the top prize at this month’s Dinard Film Festival, the French seaside festival that spotlights UK and Irish cinema for French audiences, that ran from September 27 to October 1.
Berlinale Panorama title Silver Haze won the Golden Hitchcock for best film. Polak’s feature reunites the Dutch filmmaker with UK actor Vicky Knight, after working together on Dirty God in 2019. It is loosely based on Knight’s own experience as a child, in which she survived an arson attack.
- 10/2/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The London Film School has appointed Chris Auty as its new Director. He will take over from Neil Peplow and start his new role in November.
Auty has been a senior Head of Department at the National Film and Television School for the past ten years. He ran the school’s two-year Ma producing program and was responsible for designing, validating, and running new Ma courses.
Prior to taking up his role at the Nfts, Auty worked several roles within the industry. He was the founder and CEO of The Works plc, and before that, Managing Director of the Recorded Picture Company. He has worked with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, Michael Winterbottom, and Vincent Ward.
“I’m delighted to be taking on the leadership of this renowned film school in the heart of London. It happens to be the place where my own journey into film began...
Auty has been a senior Head of Department at the National Film and Television School for the past ten years. He ran the school’s two-year Ma producing program and was responsible for designing, validating, and running new Ma courses.
Prior to taking up his role at the Nfts, Auty worked several roles within the industry. He was the founder and CEO of The Works plc, and before that, Managing Director of the Recorded Picture Company. He has worked with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, Michael Winterbottom, and Vincent Ward.
“I’m delighted to be taking on the leadership of this renowned film school in the heart of London. It happens to be the place where my own journey into film began...
- 9/26/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
He takes over the role in November.
Chris Auty, a senior head of department at the UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts), is taking over from Neil Peplow as CEO and director at the London Film School (Lfs).
Auty has been at the Nfts for the past 10 years, where he has been head of producing, supervising the development and production of up to 30 short films a year; running the two-year Ma producing programme; and responsible for designing, validating and running Ma courses such as an Ma in entrepreneurship for the arts and marketing across film, television and games.
Chris Auty, a senior head of department at the UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts), is taking over from Neil Peplow as CEO and director at the London Film School (Lfs).
Auty has been at the Nfts for the past 10 years, where he has been head of producing, supervising the development and production of up to 30 short films a year; running the two-year Ma producing programme; and responsible for designing, validating and running Ma courses such as an Ma in entrepreneurship for the arts and marketing across film, television and games.
- 9/26/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
He takes over the role in November.
Chris Auty, a senior head of department at the UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts), is taking over from Neil Peplow as CEO and director at the London Film School (Lfs).
Auty has been at the Nfts for the past 10 years, where he has been head of producing, supervising the development and production of up to 30 short films a year; running the two-year Ma producing programme; and responsible for designing, validating and running Ma courses such as an Ma in entrepreneurship for the arts and marketing across film, television and games.
Chris Auty, a senior head of department at the UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts), is taking over from Neil Peplow as CEO and director at the London Film School (Lfs).
Auty has been at the Nfts for the past 10 years, where he has been head of producing, supervising the development and production of up to 30 short films a year; running the two-year Ma producing programme; and responsible for designing, validating and running Ma courses such as an Ma in entrepreneurship for the arts and marketing across film, television and games.
- 9/26/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Gameplay has emerged for the two-man horror hunting game, Hunt: Showdown. Watch the 10-minute demo to experience how unique this game will be.
Hunting the undead in a Louisiana swamp has never looked as terrifying as it does watching this gameplay trailer for Hunt: Showdown, from E3 2017. Hunt: Showdown is a Pvp Monster Hunter game by Crytek, the studio better known for the Crysis series. Today, Crytek is showing how gamers can complete the main objective of the game while fending off monsters and competing gamers.
The voices you heard were from Hunt creative director Magnus Larbrant and level design director Chris Auty as they tried navigating through the Louisiana swamp to find the vicious spider, banish it, and collect the bounty. Despite it being edited down for time, you can see that a lot goes into completing your objective during each 20-40 minute match.
Using a variety of stealth,...
Hunting the undead in a Louisiana swamp has never looked as terrifying as it does watching this gameplay trailer for Hunt: Showdown, from E3 2017. Hunt: Showdown is a Pvp Monster Hunter game by Crytek, the studio better known for the Crysis series. Today, Crytek is showing how gamers can complete the main objective of the game while fending off monsters and competing gamers.
The voices you heard were from Hunt creative director Magnus Larbrant and level design director Chris Auty as they tried navigating through the Louisiana swamp to find the vicious spider, banish it, and collect the bounty. Despite it being edited down for time, you can see that a lot goes into completing your objective during each 20-40 minute match.
Using a variety of stealth,...
- 6/20/2017
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Matt Malliaros)
- Cinelinx
Pig Heart Boy writer Malorie Blackman was presented with an honorary Nfts fellowship.
The National Film and Television School (Nfts) has revealed the winners of its 2017 prizes for graduating students.
Presented at the annual Nfts graduate show – taking place at Picturehouse Central in London between February 20-21 – the awards highlight the last 12 months of graduate productions from Nfts students.
The most promising Nfts student prize went to Andrew Oldbury, whose numerous short film credits include Faithful, which was nominated for best short film at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Oldbury also took a prize handed out for health and safety management in film production, shared with Aaron Hillier.
Chris Auty, Nfts head of producing praised Oldbury: “During his time at Nfts, Andrew has been known for his generosity, persistence and willingness to reach out beyond his area doing stellar work across live fiction as well as projects outside his comfort zone including games and television entertainment.”
The...
The National Film and Television School (Nfts) has revealed the winners of its 2017 prizes for graduating students.
Presented at the annual Nfts graduate show – taking place at Picturehouse Central in London between February 20-21 – the awards highlight the last 12 months of graduate productions from Nfts students.
The most promising Nfts student prize went to Andrew Oldbury, whose numerous short film credits include Faithful, which was nominated for best short film at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Oldbury also took a prize handed out for health and safety management in film production, shared with Aaron Hillier.
Chris Auty, Nfts head of producing praised Oldbury: “During his time at Nfts, Andrew has been known for his generosity, persistence and willingness to reach out beyond his area doing stellar work across live fiction as well as projects outside his comfort zone including games and television entertainment.”
The...
- 2/21/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Updated (gallery/official winners book): The Screen Awards has unveiled its 2014 winners, recognising excellence in UK marketing, distribution and exhibition.Scroll down for full list of winnersBrowse the Screen Awards book Heregallery: Click here for pictures from the night
The awards were handed out at a glamorous ceremony at The Brewery in London last night, before 500 assembled guests. Broadcaster Edith Bowman hosted the event for the third year.
Twentieth Century Fox took home the hotly contested studio distributor of the year award, while Curzon Artificial Eye won the best independent distributor prize.
Prison drama Starred Up, from Twentieth Century Fox, took home theatrical campaign of the year, with a highly commended notice for Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger By The Lake.
Twentieth Century Fox scored a further four wins including 3D campaign for How To Train Your Dragon 2 and prizes for best marketing team, online campaign for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with Think Jam...
The awards were handed out at a glamorous ceremony at The Brewery in London last night, before 500 assembled guests. Broadcaster Edith Bowman hosted the event for the third year.
Twentieth Century Fox took home the hotly contested studio distributor of the year award, while Curzon Artificial Eye won the best independent distributor prize.
Prison drama Starred Up, from Twentieth Century Fox, took home theatrical campaign of the year, with a highly commended notice for Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger By The Lake.
Twentieth Century Fox scored a further four wins including 3D campaign for How To Train Your Dragon 2 and prizes for best marketing team, online campaign for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with Think Jam...
- 10/24/2014
- ScreenDaily
Updated (gallery/official winners book): The Screen Awards has unveiled its 2014 winners, recognising excellence in UK marketing, distribution and exhibition.Scroll down for full list of winnersBrowse the Screen Awards book Heregallery: Click here for pictures from the night
The awards were handed out at a glamorous ceremony at The Brewery in London last night, before 500 assembled guests. Broadcaster Edith Bowman hosted the event for the third year.
Twentieth Century Fox took home the hotly contested studio distributor of the year award, while Curzon Artificial Eye won the best independent distributor prize.
Prison drama Starred Up, from Twentieth Century Fox, took home theatrical campaign of the year, with a highly commended notice for Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger By The Lake.
Twentieth Century Fox scored a further four wins including 3D campaign for How To Train Your Dragon 2 and prizes for best marketing team, online campaign for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with Think Jam...
The awards were handed out at a glamorous ceremony at The Brewery in London last night, before 500 assembled guests. Broadcaster Edith Bowman hosted the event for the third year.
Twentieth Century Fox took home the hotly contested studio distributor of the year award, while Curzon Artificial Eye won the best independent distributor prize.
Prison drama Starred Up, from Twentieth Century Fox, took home theatrical campaign of the year, with a highly commended notice for Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger By The Lake.
Twentieth Century Fox scored a further four wins including 3D campaign for How To Train Your Dragon 2 and prizes for best marketing team, online campaign for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with Think Jam...
- 10/24/2014
- ScreenDaily
LONDON -- A slew of heavyweights from the British cultural establishment, including the BBC's Alan Yentob, actor John Hurt and Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas, are throwing their weight behind a 7 million pound ($14.4 million) appeal for the London Film School.
The school governors, chaired by Mike Leigh, said Thursday that they hope to raise the money to pay for a brand new school in the West End of London.
The proposed new home for the LFS will come complete with teaching and filmmaking facilities alongside public access cinemas, a bar and meeting spaces.
Other LFS patrons backing the appeal are Chris Auty, Tony Elliott, Roger Graef, Christopher Hird, Hanif Kureishi, Charlie Parsons, Franc Roddam, Anthony Smith, Iain Smith and Tilda Swinton.
"The London Film School is going to create a permanent center which will bring together film students, graduates, industry professionals and others who are generally passionate about film culture from all over the world," said Leigh, who attended the school.
The school governors, chaired by Mike Leigh, said Thursday that they hope to raise the money to pay for a brand new school in the West End of London.
The proposed new home for the LFS will come complete with teaching and filmmaking facilities alongside public access cinemas, a bar and meeting spaces.
Other LFS patrons backing the appeal are Chris Auty, Tony Elliott, Roger Graef, Christopher Hird, Hanif Kureishi, Charlie Parsons, Franc Roddam, Anthony Smith, Iain Smith and Tilda Swinton.
"The London Film School is going to create a permanent center which will bring together film students, graduates, industry professionals and others who are generally passionate about film culture from all over the world," said Leigh, who attended the school.
- 11/30/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Chris Auty, one of the most recognizable faces on the international film scene, is quitting his post as CEO of the Works Media Group.
Auty will leave after more than five years with the group, which now includes a U.K. distribution operation along with sales arm and film market regular the Works International.
The executive -- who has steered the group alongside group finance director Norman Humphrey through corporate changes including a strategic withdrawal from direct film production and a listing here on the Alternative Investment Market -- will remain a consultant with the group for three months.
Humphrey is stepping into the vacated role. Auty said in an interview that we wants to spend more time with his children. "I'll be 50 in June and want to see more of my two young children," Auty said. "Norman and I have worked really closely together for five years and I know he will take the business on."
Said Humphrey: "This is a step change in Chris' life but it is not a step change for the Works Media Group.
Auty will leave after more than five years with the group, which now includes a U.K. distribution operation along with sales arm and film market regular the Works International.
The executive -- who has steered the group alongside group finance director Norman Humphrey through corporate changes including a strategic withdrawal from direct film production and a listing here on the Alternative Investment Market -- will remain a consultant with the group for three months.
Humphrey is stepping into the vacated role. Auty said in an interview that we wants to spend more time with his children. "I'll be 50 in June and want to see more of my two young children," Auty said. "Norman and I have worked really closely together for five years and I know he will take the business on."
Said Humphrey: "This is a step change in Chris' life but it is not a step change for the Works Media Group.
- 3/13/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- "The Proposition" is a fascinating, mythological western set in the hot, dusty, fly-infested desolation of the Australian Outback of the 1880s. The violence of the landscape reflects the violence of the savage men, who roam this frontier devoid of civilization and of God. The film is the creation of music icon Nick Cape, who wrote the script and composed much of the music, and director John Hillcoat, a top music video director who made his feature debut with "Ghosts...of the Civil Dead" in 1988. The film deals with morally compromised characters, who fight against but finally yield to destinies over which they have no control.
The film's bloodiness, both suggested and depicted, could limit its appeal. But a western, especially an Australian one, may just seem new again to audiences. That and an outstanding cast, which includes Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and William Hurt could lead to international boxoffice strength.
The story takes place in the aftermath of an outrageous act of violence. The perpetrators are a gang of ruthless bushrangers lead by three Irish brothers named Burns, who see all English and all law officers as their enemy. But the slaughter has so horrified Charlie Burns (Pearce) that he quits the gang in order to protect his mentally fragile and innocent brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) from their psychotic older brother Arthur (Huston).
In a furious gunfight, Capt. Stanley (Winstone), an English policeman brought to the Outback to "civilize this land," captures the two brothers. Knowing he will never be able to track down Arthur in his hiding place in the badlands, the captain makes an despicable proposition to Charlie: To save Mikey from the gallows, he must track down and kill Arthur.
As Charlie heads into the unforgiving desert, the story splits in two to witness what happens to both men. In town, locals are enraged to learn that Stanley released a killer he had in custody. His superior, Fletcher (David Wenham), not only pressures Stanley to do something about the renegade Aborigines, but incites a mob into flogging Mikey nearly to death, which dooms the proposition.
Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to shield his innocent wife Martha Watson) from the harsh realities of this brutal land. Mostly, he wants to keep from her the truth about what happened to her friend during the Burns gang's slaughter.
In the desert, Charlie is attacked and wounded by Aborigines but saved by Arthur, who takes Charlie to his hideout. A bounty hunter (Hurt) nearly captures the entire gang before Arthur again saves his brother. When Charlie finally tells Arthur that Mikey will be hung, the gang rides back to town for a showdown.
Cave's story unfolds with the unmistakable rhythms of a tragedy foretold: Characters advance toward destinies they cannot avoid. Given these people and these circumstances, things are inevitable.
The actors make the most of these juicy roles. Pearce plays things close to his chest, unwilling to show his hand until the last moment, yet grim certitude is writ large on his face. Huston is a larger-than-life figure, a villain of Shakespearian proportions, who glories in blood and needs his enemies as much as his friends. He is a man unhinged long ago by the desert and English oppression.
Winstone unravels shockingly when he comes to realize the untenable nature of this predicament of his own choosing. Long accustomed to separating his humanity, represented by his wife and home, from the authoritarian nature of his job of knocking heads and working with sadists, he falls apart when that division falls apart.
Watson brightens a fairly minor role as a woman who discovers her backbone in this cruel frontier.
Benoit Delhomme's cinematography makes one feel the heat and oppression of the environment. The music by Cave and Warren Ellis has a haunting edge that isn't quite western or blues or period music but a beautiful, original work that supports the action yet stands completely on its own.
THE PROPOSITION
U.K. Film Council presents a Surefire production of an Autonomous and Jackie O Prods. production
Credits:
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Nick Cave
Producers: Chiara Menage, Cat Villiers
Executive producers: Sara Giles, Michael Hamlyn, Chris Auty, Norman Humphrey, James Atherton, Michael Henry, Robert Jones
Director of photography: Benoit Delhomme
Production designer: Chris Kennedy
Costumes: Margot Wilson
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Editor: Jon Gregory
Cast:
Charlie: Guy Pearce
Captain Stanley: Ray Winstone
Arthur: Danny Huston
Jellon Lamb: John Hurt
Fletcher: David Wenham
Martha: Emily Watson
Stoat: Tom Budge
Mikey: Richard Wilson
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film's bloodiness, both suggested and depicted, could limit its appeal. But a western, especially an Australian one, may just seem new again to audiences. That and an outstanding cast, which includes Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and William Hurt could lead to international boxoffice strength.
The story takes place in the aftermath of an outrageous act of violence. The perpetrators are a gang of ruthless bushrangers lead by three Irish brothers named Burns, who see all English and all law officers as their enemy. But the slaughter has so horrified Charlie Burns (Pearce) that he quits the gang in order to protect his mentally fragile and innocent brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) from their psychotic older brother Arthur (Huston).
In a furious gunfight, Capt. Stanley (Winstone), an English policeman brought to the Outback to "civilize this land," captures the two brothers. Knowing he will never be able to track down Arthur in his hiding place in the badlands, the captain makes an despicable proposition to Charlie: To save Mikey from the gallows, he must track down and kill Arthur.
As Charlie heads into the unforgiving desert, the story splits in two to witness what happens to both men. In town, locals are enraged to learn that Stanley released a killer he had in custody. His superior, Fletcher (David Wenham), not only pressures Stanley to do something about the renegade Aborigines, but incites a mob into flogging Mikey nearly to death, which dooms the proposition.
Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to shield his innocent wife Martha Watson) from the harsh realities of this brutal land. Mostly, he wants to keep from her the truth about what happened to her friend during the Burns gang's slaughter.
In the desert, Charlie is attacked and wounded by Aborigines but saved by Arthur, who takes Charlie to his hideout. A bounty hunter (Hurt) nearly captures the entire gang before Arthur again saves his brother. When Charlie finally tells Arthur that Mikey will be hung, the gang rides back to town for a showdown.
Cave's story unfolds with the unmistakable rhythms of a tragedy foretold: Characters advance toward destinies they cannot avoid. Given these people and these circumstances, things are inevitable.
The actors make the most of these juicy roles. Pearce plays things close to his chest, unwilling to show his hand until the last moment, yet grim certitude is writ large on his face. Huston is a larger-than-life figure, a villain of Shakespearian proportions, who glories in blood and needs his enemies as much as his friends. He is a man unhinged long ago by the desert and English oppression.
Winstone unravels shockingly when he comes to realize the untenable nature of this predicament of his own choosing. Long accustomed to separating his humanity, represented by his wife and home, from the authoritarian nature of his job of knocking heads and working with sadists, he falls apart when that division falls apart.
Watson brightens a fairly minor role as a woman who discovers her backbone in this cruel frontier.
Benoit Delhomme's cinematography makes one feel the heat and oppression of the environment. The music by Cave and Warren Ellis has a haunting edge that isn't quite western or blues or period music but a beautiful, original work that supports the action yet stands completely on its own.
THE PROPOSITION
U.K. Film Council presents a Surefire production of an Autonomous and Jackie O Prods. production
Credits:
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Nick Cave
Producers: Chiara Menage, Cat Villiers
Executive producers: Sara Giles, Michael Hamlyn, Chris Auty, Norman Humphrey, James Atherton, Michael Henry, Robert Jones
Director of photography: Benoit Delhomme
Production designer: Chris Kennedy
Costumes: Margot Wilson
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Editor: Jon Gregory
Cast:
Charlie: Guy Pearce
Captain Stanley: Ray Winstone
Arthur: Danny Huston
Jellon Lamb: John Hurt
Fletcher: David Wenham
Martha: Emily Watson
Stoat: Tom Budge
Mikey: Richard Wilson
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/12/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH -- A working-class tomboy on a moped with no motor meets a young patrician beauty on horseback in the Yorkshire countryside. They begin an unlikely friendship and it is no surprise, given the film's title, that it becomes something a little more than that. But what could so easily have been a predictable and tired rehash of youthful Sapphic exploration turns out to be engagingly fresh not least because of the captivating performances of the two leads.
Boxoffice prospects are not huge but the picture should be well received on the festival and art house circuit and properly promoted could do well on television.
Press plays Mona, a sparky and quizzical young woman whose fate appears to be tied inextricably to her brother Phil, a petty crook whose born-again Christianity has made him empty their pub of booze and turn it into a place for prayer meetings. Mona's mood is not improved by being dumped by a crude older boyfriend.
When she tips off her moped in a country field and opens her eyes to find a beautiful girl peering down at her from atop a horse, she is immediately curious. Tamsin (Blunt) has the lazy hauteur of the carelessly rich and her invitation to Mona to visit her at her parents' swanky home is more like an order.
When Mona dares to accept, she finds a world foreign to her existence. Tamsin plays the cello, listens to Edith Piaf and drinks red wine. She speaks of Nietzsche and Freud and worships the memory of her equally glamorous older sister who she says died of anorexia. With her parents away, Tamsin urges Mona to stay. They talk and talk and swear eternal allegiance as friends.
That leads to tentative explorations of their sexuality, although these scenes are handled delicately and without the taint of voyeurism. Tamsin at first appears stronger than Mona, and they embark on adventures of revenge against Tamsin's cheating father and Mona's faithless boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Mona's brother is building a giant cross that he plans to erect on a hill overlooking their village. He cautions Mona about behavior he views as reckless, but falls prey to the confidence of Tamsin who easily reveals the frailty of his conversion.
Pawlikowski is working on ambitious themes having to do not only with the passage of youth but also the conflicts of faith and fantasy. Mona's world is hard but she dreams of beautiful things like love and fidelity. Tamsin, well educated and spoiled, spins a fanciful image of faux nihilism and doom. Brother Phil's attempts to fight his own violent nature are under constant threat. As the three begin to pull in separation directions, this summer of love comes apart at the seams.
Some of the metaphors are a bit too literal but the director largely succeeds with his story and the surprises are convincing. Best of all the film has a terrific sense of humor and the young actresses exploit it delightfully. The scenes in which Mona reprises the devil's voice from The Exorcist are priceless.
MY SUMMER OF LOVE
ContentFilm
BBC Films and the Film Consortium with Baker Street present in association with U.K. Film Council a Take Partnerships production of an Apocalypso Picture
Credits:
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Screenplay: Pawlikowski, Michael Wynne, based on the novel by Helen Cross
Producers: Tanya Seghatchian, Christopher Collins
Executive producers: David M. Thompson, Chris Auty, Emma Hayter
Director of photography: Ryszard Lenczewski
Production designer: John Stevenson
Costume designer: Julian Day
Music: Alison Goldfrapp, Will Gregory
Editor: David Charap.
Cast:
Mona: Nathalie Press
Tamsin: Emily Blunt
Phil: Paddy Considine
Ricky: Dean Andrews.
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 86 minutes...
EDINBURGH -- A working-class tomboy on a moped with no motor meets a young patrician beauty on horseback in the Yorkshire countryside. They begin an unlikely friendship and it is no surprise, given the film's title, that it becomes something a little more than that. But what could so easily have been a predictable and tired rehash of youthful Sapphic exploration turns out to be engagingly fresh not least because of the captivating performances of the two leads.
Boxoffice prospects are not huge but the picture should be well received on the festival and art house circuit and properly promoted could do well on television.
Press plays Mona, a sparky and quizzical young woman whose fate appears to be tied inextricably to her brother Phil, a petty crook whose born-again Christianity has made him empty their pub of booze and turn it into a place for prayer meetings. Mona's mood is not improved by being dumped by a crude older boyfriend.
When she tips off her moped in a country field and opens her eyes to find a beautiful girl peering down at her from atop a horse, she is immediately curious. Tamsin (Blunt) has the lazy hauteur of the carelessly rich and her invitation to Mona to visit her at her parents' swanky home is more like an order.
When Mona dares to accept, she finds a world foreign to her existence. Tamsin plays the cello, listens to Edith Piaf and drinks red wine. She speaks of Nietzsche and Freud and worships the memory of her equally glamorous older sister who she says died of anorexia. With her parents away, Tamsin urges Mona to stay. They talk and talk and swear eternal allegiance as friends.
That leads to tentative explorations of their sexuality, although these scenes are handled delicately and without the taint of voyeurism. Tamsin at first appears stronger than Mona, and they embark on adventures of revenge against Tamsin's cheating father and Mona's faithless boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Mona's brother is building a giant cross that he plans to erect on a hill overlooking their village. He cautions Mona about behavior he views as reckless, but falls prey to the confidence of Tamsin who easily reveals the frailty of his conversion.
Pawlikowski is working on ambitious themes having to do not only with the passage of youth but also the conflicts of faith and fantasy. Mona's world is hard but she dreams of beautiful things like love and fidelity. Tamsin, well educated and spoiled, spins a fanciful image of faux nihilism and doom. Brother Phil's attempts to fight his own violent nature are under constant threat. As the three begin to pull in separation directions, this summer of love comes apart at the seams.
Some of the metaphors are a bit too literal but the director largely succeeds with his story and the surprises are convincing. Best of all the film has a terrific sense of humor and the young actresses exploit it delightfully. The scenes in which Mona reprises the devil's voice from The Exorcist are priceless.
MY SUMMER OF LOVE
ContentFilm
BBC Films and the Film Consortium with Baker Street present in association with U.K. Film Council a Take Partnerships production of an Apocalypso Picture
Credits:
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Screenplay: Pawlikowski, Michael Wynne, based on the novel by Helen Cross
Producers: Tanya Seghatchian, Christopher Collins
Executive producers: David M. Thompson, Chris Auty, Emma Hayter
Director of photography: Ryszard Lenczewski
Production designer: John Stevenson
Costume designer: Julian Day
Music: Alison Goldfrapp, Will Gregory
Editor: David Charap.
Cast:
Mona: Nathalie Press
Tamsin: Emily Blunt
Phil: Paddy Considine
Ricky: Dean Andrews.
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 86 minutes...
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
LONDON -- Writer-director Stephen Fry's "Bright Young Things" is a Jazz Age English period comedy full of frightfully keen chaps and their ever-so-dotty girlfriends who spend all their time dashing from one society party to another for no particular purpose. In his novel "Vile Bodies", on which the film is based, Evelyn Waugh called them bright young "people," not the patronizing "things." Their furious pursuit of gaiety is cast in the grave shadow of World War I, when the looming sense that even more devastating conflict lie ahead gives way to ceaseless frivolity and an almost lunatic carelessness. In the movie, they are merely the unspeakable in pursuit of the unedifying.
Fry is a noted British writer, actor, raconteur and all-around wit who wrote and makes his feature film-directing debut with "Bright Young Things". The result will be judged on two levels: as an adaptation of Waugh's classic novel and as a film on its own merits. Possibly torn between the two, Fry fails at both. Noisy and giddy, the film makes a stab at "Moulin Rouge" territory but ends up as a very trite story of boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It is also stridently camp -- not so much roaring '20s as screaming. It will take an extremely focused marketing campaign for the film to find any kind of substantial audience.
Waugh made his intentions reasonably clear, populating his satirical landscape with such characters as Lady Fanny Throbbing, Lady Circumference and Mrs. Melrose Ape, and Fry follows that path too. Many of his scenes are almost word-for-word from the original. It's where he deviates from Waugh's subtle and fragile construction that things go wrong. Adam Fenwick-Symes Stephen Campbell Moore) indeed returns from the continent only to have his memoirs, for which he has already been paid, confiscated by a moralistic customs man. He duly informs his unfazed sweetheart, Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer) that as he is now impecunious, they may not be married.
Adam retreats to the seedy Shepheard's Hotel, run by the reliably generous Lottie Crump (Julia McKenzie), where he performs a piece of legerdemain to win £1,000 from a gullible fellow and promptly telephones Nina that the wedding is back on. Deep into Lottie's bottomless champagne, however, Adam hands his £1,000 over to a "drunk major" (Jim Broadbent), who says he will place it on a sure thing in the November Handicap horse race. The major disappears and Adam is on the phone again to Nina with the bad news.
Their on-again, off-again love affair and Adam's search for the drunk major and his winnings are played out against the adventures of the chinless wonders, empty-headed heiresses, lecherous lords and doughty dowagers as recorded in the highly imaginative gossip columns of Mr. Chatterbox, published by newspaper mogul Lord Monomark (Dan Aykroyd).
So influential was Waugh that we have seen many of these characters in English movies before, especially those from Ealing Studios, played deliciously by a roster of such great character actors as Alastair Sim, Alec Guinness, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Katie Johnson and Margaret Rutherford. Only two players in "Bright Young Things" demonstrate similar ability. Broadbent's drunk major suffers from overfamiliarity only because John Cleese rendered the character so effectively in "Fawlty Towers" (Ballard Berkeley as Maj. Gowen). Sadly, Peter O'Toole is given only one, marvelous scene as Col. Blount, Nina's father, who mistakes his daughter's beloved, Adam, for a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Fry's choice is to pump up the unfunny Aykroyd as Lord Monomark and eliminate the book's entire sequence that has Col. Blount making a film about the life of John Wesley at his seen-better-days estate, Doubting Hall. Even worse is the way Fry ends the film. Waugh titled his final chapter "Happy Ending", but, writing in 1930, he famously closed with the bleakest imaginable setting by a splintered tree stump in the biggest battlefield in the history of the world. Suffice to say that Fry doesn't.
Bright Young Things
The Film Consortium presents in association with the U.K. Film Council and Visionview
and Icon Film Distribution a Revolution Films/Doubting Hall production
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Stephen Fry
Based on the novel "Vile Bodies" by: Evelyn Waugh
Producers: Gina Carter, Miranda Davis
Executive producers: Andrew Eaton, Michael Winterbottom, Stephen Fry, Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Jim Reeve, Steve Robbins
Co-producer: Caroline Hewitt
Director of photography: Henry Braham
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Alex Mackie
Composer: Anne Dudley
Costume designer: Nic Ede
Cast:
Adam: Stephen Campbell Moore
Nina: Emily Mortimer
Agatha: Fenella Woolgar
Simon: James McAvoy
Miles: Michael Sheen
Ginger: David Tennant
Archie: Guy Henry
Lord Monomark: Dan Aykroyd
Drunk Major: Jim Broadbent
Mrs. Melrose Ape: Stockard Channing
Col. Blount: Peter O'Toole
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Fry is a noted British writer, actor, raconteur and all-around wit who wrote and makes his feature film-directing debut with "Bright Young Things". The result will be judged on two levels: as an adaptation of Waugh's classic novel and as a film on its own merits. Possibly torn between the two, Fry fails at both. Noisy and giddy, the film makes a stab at "Moulin Rouge" territory but ends up as a very trite story of boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It is also stridently camp -- not so much roaring '20s as screaming. It will take an extremely focused marketing campaign for the film to find any kind of substantial audience.
Waugh made his intentions reasonably clear, populating his satirical landscape with such characters as Lady Fanny Throbbing, Lady Circumference and Mrs. Melrose Ape, and Fry follows that path too. Many of his scenes are almost word-for-word from the original. It's where he deviates from Waugh's subtle and fragile construction that things go wrong. Adam Fenwick-Symes Stephen Campbell Moore) indeed returns from the continent only to have his memoirs, for which he has already been paid, confiscated by a moralistic customs man. He duly informs his unfazed sweetheart, Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer) that as he is now impecunious, they may not be married.
Adam retreats to the seedy Shepheard's Hotel, run by the reliably generous Lottie Crump (Julia McKenzie), where he performs a piece of legerdemain to win £1,000 from a gullible fellow and promptly telephones Nina that the wedding is back on. Deep into Lottie's bottomless champagne, however, Adam hands his £1,000 over to a "drunk major" (Jim Broadbent), who says he will place it on a sure thing in the November Handicap horse race. The major disappears and Adam is on the phone again to Nina with the bad news.
Their on-again, off-again love affair and Adam's search for the drunk major and his winnings are played out against the adventures of the chinless wonders, empty-headed heiresses, lecherous lords and doughty dowagers as recorded in the highly imaginative gossip columns of Mr. Chatterbox, published by newspaper mogul Lord Monomark (Dan Aykroyd).
So influential was Waugh that we have seen many of these characters in English movies before, especially those from Ealing Studios, played deliciously by a roster of such great character actors as Alastair Sim, Alec Guinness, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Katie Johnson and Margaret Rutherford. Only two players in "Bright Young Things" demonstrate similar ability. Broadbent's drunk major suffers from overfamiliarity only because John Cleese rendered the character so effectively in "Fawlty Towers" (Ballard Berkeley as Maj. Gowen). Sadly, Peter O'Toole is given only one, marvelous scene as Col. Blount, Nina's father, who mistakes his daughter's beloved, Adam, for a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Fry's choice is to pump up the unfunny Aykroyd as Lord Monomark and eliminate the book's entire sequence that has Col. Blount making a film about the life of John Wesley at his seen-better-days estate, Doubting Hall. Even worse is the way Fry ends the film. Waugh titled his final chapter "Happy Ending", but, writing in 1930, he famously closed with the bleakest imaginable setting by a splintered tree stump in the biggest battlefield in the history of the world. Suffice to say that Fry doesn't.
Bright Young Things
The Film Consortium presents in association with the U.K. Film Council and Visionview
and Icon Film Distribution a Revolution Films/Doubting Hall production
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Stephen Fry
Based on the novel "Vile Bodies" by: Evelyn Waugh
Producers: Gina Carter, Miranda Davis
Executive producers: Andrew Eaton, Michael Winterbottom, Stephen Fry, Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Jim Reeve, Steve Robbins
Co-producer: Caroline Hewitt
Director of photography: Henry Braham
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Alex Mackie
Composer: Anne Dudley
Costume designer: Nic Ede
Cast:
Adam: Stephen Campbell Moore
Nina: Emily Mortimer
Agatha: Fenella Woolgar
Simon: James McAvoy
Miles: Michael Sheen
Ginger: David Tennant
Archie: Guy Henry
Lord Monomark: Dan Aykroyd
Drunk Major: Jim Broadbent
Mrs. Melrose Ape: Stockard Channing
Col. Blount: Peter O'Toole
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski follows his bold 1994 foreign-language Oscar nominee "Before the Rain" with a sophomore effort that is nothing if not wildly audacious.
A British-German-Italian-Macedonian co-production, "Dust" is a time-shifting Balkan Western that features turn-of-the-20th century American cowboys, Greek and Albanian paramilitary gangs and contemporary New York crooks.
In short, it's got more personalities than Sybil.
Manchevski's fondness for shaking up the conventional narrative form makes for compelling viewing up to a point, but the constant period pingponging ultimately makes it difficult to muster up much in the way of viewer engagement.
By the time "Dust" cleared at one of its initially full Toronto screenings, there were noticeable wide-open spaces in the theater.
Its commercial potential, at least on North American soil, would appear rather muddy.
All of the storytelling begins in a drab New York apartment that has just been broken into by a street punk ("Primary Colors'" Adrian Lester) who is swiftly incapacitated by the flat's elderly but by no means feeble occupant (a gutsy Rosemary Murphy).
Rather than turning her intruder in to the police, the lonely Angela regales him with a sprawling yarn that begins a century earlier in the Wild West, where bickering brothers Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) and Luke (David Wenham) are fighting for the affections of a French whore, Lilith (Anne Brochet).
When Elijah wins out, making Lilith his wife, a bitter Luke travels the world with his trusty rifle and ends up in the middle of the Macedonian revolution, joining a group of cattle raiders-turned-mercenaries.
While Angela's tale seems to grow taller by the minute, Edge, as her newfound companion likes to be known, is held captivated by the mention of a hoard of rare gold coins that she has apparently stashed somewhere in the apartment.
Buried beneath all of Manchevski's jarringly intrusive, overlapping shifts back and forth in time, there's actually an intriguing concept about the tradition of oral history and how the years can warp perspectives and sepia tint the truth.
But it's hard to notice under all the epic restlessness.
That all-over-the-place vibe also extends to the performances, with Fiennes and Aussie Wenham in squinty spaghetti Western mode affecting twangs that should have gone back to the "drawling" board, while Lester and a fearless, feisty Murphy attempt to keep things real, raw and amusingly quirky all at once.
In the end, "Dust"'s dizzyingly disparate elements seem to be on different planets, let alone timelines.
DUST
The Film Consortium presents
a History Dreams/ena Film/
Fandango production with Shadow Films
in association with South Fork Pictures
a Milcho Manchevski film
Director-screenwriter: Milcho Manchevski
Producers: Chris Auty, Vesna Jovanoska, Domenico Procacci
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production designer: David Munns
Editor: Nic Gaster
Costume designers: Ane Crabtree, Anne Jendritzko
Music: Kiril Dzajkovski
Color and black and white/stereo
Cast:
Elijah: Joseph Fiennes
Luke: David Wenham
Edge: Adrian Lester
Lilith: Anne Brochet
Neda: Nikolina Kujaca
Angela: Rosemary Murphy
Running time -- 127 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A British-German-Italian-Macedonian co-production, "Dust" is a time-shifting Balkan Western that features turn-of-the-20th century American cowboys, Greek and Albanian paramilitary gangs and contemporary New York crooks.
In short, it's got more personalities than Sybil.
Manchevski's fondness for shaking up the conventional narrative form makes for compelling viewing up to a point, but the constant period pingponging ultimately makes it difficult to muster up much in the way of viewer engagement.
By the time "Dust" cleared at one of its initially full Toronto screenings, there were noticeable wide-open spaces in the theater.
Its commercial potential, at least on North American soil, would appear rather muddy.
All of the storytelling begins in a drab New York apartment that has just been broken into by a street punk ("Primary Colors'" Adrian Lester) who is swiftly incapacitated by the flat's elderly but by no means feeble occupant (a gutsy Rosemary Murphy).
Rather than turning her intruder in to the police, the lonely Angela regales him with a sprawling yarn that begins a century earlier in the Wild West, where bickering brothers Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) and Luke (David Wenham) are fighting for the affections of a French whore, Lilith (Anne Brochet).
When Elijah wins out, making Lilith his wife, a bitter Luke travels the world with his trusty rifle and ends up in the middle of the Macedonian revolution, joining a group of cattle raiders-turned-mercenaries.
While Angela's tale seems to grow taller by the minute, Edge, as her newfound companion likes to be known, is held captivated by the mention of a hoard of rare gold coins that she has apparently stashed somewhere in the apartment.
Buried beneath all of Manchevski's jarringly intrusive, overlapping shifts back and forth in time, there's actually an intriguing concept about the tradition of oral history and how the years can warp perspectives and sepia tint the truth.
But it's hard to notice under all the epic restlessness.
That all-over-the-place vibe also extends to the performances, with Fiennes and Aussie Wenham in squinty spaghetti Western mode affecting twangs that should have gone back to the "drawling" board, while Lester and a fearless, feisty Murphy attempt to keep things real, raw and amusingly quirky all at once.
In the end, "Dust"'s dizzyingly disparate elements seem to be on different planets, let alone timelines.
DUST
The Film Consortium presents
a History Dreams/ena Film/
Fandango production with Shadow Films
in association with South Fork Pictures
a Milcho Manchevski film
Director-screenwriter: Milcho Manchevski
Producers: Chris Auty, Vesna Jovanoska, Domenico Procacci
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production designer: David Munns
Editor: Nic Gaster
Costume designers: Ane Crabtree, Anne Jendritzko
Music: Kiril Dzajkovski
Color and black and white/stereo
Cast:
Elijah: Joseph Fiennes
Luke: David Wenham
Edge: Adrian Lester
Lilith: Anne Brochet
Neda: Nikolina Kujaca
Angela: Rosemary Murphy
Running time -- 127 minutes
No MPAA rating...
CANNES -- Kiefer Sutherland, Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison will headline Vincent Ward's new historical drama River Queen, set to start shooting June 28 in New Zealand. Negotiations also are under way for Samantha Morton to star in the feature, which is being financed by the New Zealand Film Production Fund, the New Zealand Film Commission (now rebranded as New Zealand Film), the Film Consortium, the U.K. Film Council and British financing outfits Invicta and Endgame. It's being produced by Chris Auty of the Film Consortium and Don Reynolds, representing Auckland-based Silverscreen Films. Executive producers are James Stern, Neil Peplow and Geoff Dixon.
- 5/16/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
LONDON -- Writer-director Stephen Fry's "Bright Young Things" is a Jazz Age English period comedy full of frightfully keen chaps and their ever-so-dotty girlfriends who spend all their time dashing from one society party to another for no particular purpose. In his novel "Vile Bodies", on which the film is based, Evelyn Waugh called them bright young "people," not the patronizing "things." Their furious pursuit of gaiety is cast in the grave shadow of World War I, when the looming sense that even more devastating conflict lie ahead gives way to ceaseless frivolity and an almost lunatic carelessness. In the movie, they are merely the unspeakable in pursuit of the unedifying.
Fry is a noted British writer, actor, raconteur and all-around wit who wrote and makes his feature film-directing debut with "Bright Young Things". The result will be judged on two levels: as an adaptation of Waugh's classic novel and as a film on its own merits. Possibly torn between the two, Fry fails at both. Noisy and giddy, the film makes a stab at "Moulin Rouge" territory but ends up as a very trite story of boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It is also stridently camp -- not so much roaring '20s as screaming. It will take an extremely focused marketing campaign for the film to find any kind of substantial audience.
Waugh made his intentions reasonably clear, populating his satirical landscape with such characters as Lady Fanny Throbbing, Lady Circumference and Mrs. Melrose Ape, and Fry follows that path too. Many of his scenes are almost word-for-word from the original. It's where he deviates from Waugh's subtle and fragile construction that things go wrong. Adam Fenwick-Symes Stephen Campbell Moore) indeed returns from the continent only to have his memoirs, for which he has already been paid, confiscated by a moralistic customs man. He duly informs his unfazed sweetheart, Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer) that as he is now impecunious, they may not be married.
Adam retreats to the seedy Shepheard's Hotel, run by the reliably generous Lottie Crump (Julia McKenzie), where he performs a piece of legerdemain to win £1,000 from a gullible fellow and promptly telephones Nina that the wedding is back on. Deep into Lottie's bottomless champagne, however, Adam hands his £1,000 over to a "drunk major" (Jim Broadbent), who says he will place it on a sure thing in the November Handicap horse race. The major disappears and Adam is on the phone again to Nina with the bad news.
Their on-again, off-again love affair and Adam's search for the drunk major and his winnings are played out against the adventures of the chinless wonders, empty-headed heiresses, lecherous lords and doughty dowagers as recorded in the highly imaginative gossip columns of Mr. Chatterbox, published by newspaper mogul Lord Monomark (Dan Aykroyd).
So influential was Waugh that we have seen many of these characters in English movies before, especially those from Ealing Studios, played deliciously by a roster of such great character actors as Alastair Sim, Alec Guinness, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Katie Johnson and Margaret Rutherford. Only two players in "Bright Young Things" demonstrate similar ability. Broadbent's drunk major suffers from overfamiliarity only because John Cleese rendered the character so effectively in "Fawlty Towers" (Ballard Berkeley as Maj. Gowen). Sadly, Peter O'Toole is given only one, marvelous scene as Col. Blount, Nina's father, who mistakes his daughter's beloved, Adam, for a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Fry's choice is to pump up the unfunny Aykroyd as Lord Monomark and eliminate the book's entire sequence that has Col. Blount making a film about the life of John Wesley at his seen-better-days estate, Doubting Hall. Even worse is the way Fry ends the film. Waugh titled his final chapter "Happy Ending", but, writing in 1930, he famously closed with the bleakest imaginable setting by a splintered tree stump in the biggest battlefield in the history of the world. Suffice to say that Fry doesn't.
Bright Young Things
The Film Consortium presents in association with the U.K. Film Council and Visionview
and Icon Film Distribution a Revolution Films/Doubting Hall production
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Stephen Fry
Based on the novel "Vile Bodies" by: Evelyn Waugh
Producers: Gina Carter, Miranda Davis
Executive producers: Andrew Eaton, Michael Winterbottom, Stephen Fry, Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Jim Reeve, Steve Robbins
Co-producer: Caroline Hewitt
Director of photography: Henry Braham
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Alex Mackie
Composer: Anne Dudley
Costume designer: Nic Ede
Cast:
Adam: Stephen Campbell Moore
Nina: Emily Mortimer
Agatha: Fenella Woolgar
Simon: James McAvoy
Miles: Michael Sheen
Ginger: David Tennant
Archie: Guy Henry
Lord Monomark: Dan Aykroyd
Drunk Major: Jim Broadbent
Mrs. Melrose Ape: Stockard Channing
Col. Blount: Peter O'Toole
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Fry is a noted British writer, actor, raconteur and all-around wit who wrote and makes his feature film-directing debut with "Bright Young Things". The result will be judged on two levels: as an adaptation of Waugh's classic novel and as a film on its own merits. Possibly torn between the two, Fry fails at both. Noisy and giddy, the film makes a stab at "Moulin Rouge" territory but ends up as a very trite story of boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It is also stridently camp -- not so much roaring '20s as screaming. It will take an extremely focused marketing campaign for the film to find any kind of substantial audience.
Waugh made his intentions reasonably clear, populating his satirical landscape with such characters as Lady Fanny Throbbing, Lady Circumference and Mrs. Melrose Ape, and Fry follows that path too. Many of his scenes are almost word-for-word from the original. It's where he deviates from Waugh's subtle and fragile construction that things go wrong. Adam Fenwick-Symes Stephen Campbell Moore) indeed returns from the continent only to have his memoirs, for which he has already been paid, confiscated by a moralistic customs man. He duly informs his unfazed sweetheart, Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer) that as he is now impecunious, they may not be married.
Adam retreats to the seedy Shepheard's Hotel, run by the reliably generous Lottie Crump (Julia McKenzie), where he performs a piece of legerdemain to win £1,000 from a gullible fellow and promptly telephones Nina that the wedding is back on. Deep into Lottie's bottomless champagne, however, Adam hands his £1,000 over to a "drunk major" (Jim Broadbent), who says he will place it on a sure thing in the November Handicap horse race. The major disappears and Adam is on the phone again to Nina with the bad news.
Their on-again, off-again love affair and Adam's search for the drunk major and his winnings are played out against the adventures of the chinless wonders, empty-headed heiresses, lecherous lords and doughty dowagers as recorded in the highly imaginative gossip columns of Mr. Chatterbox, published by newspaper mogul Lord Monomark (Dan Aykroyd).
So influential was Waugh that we have seen many of these characters in English movies before, especially those from Ealing Studios, played deliciously by a roster of such great character actors as Alastair Sim, Alec Guinness, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Katie Johnson and Margaret Rutherford. Only two players in "Bright Young Things" demonstrate similar ability. Broadbent's drunk major suffers from overfamiliarity only because John Cleese rendered the character so effectively in "Fawlty Towers" (Ballard Berkeley as Maj. Gowen). Sadly, Peter O'Toole is given only one, marvelous scene as Col. Blount, Nina's father, who mistakes his daughter's beloved, Adam, for a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Fry's choice is to pump up the unfunny Aykroyd as Lord Monomark and eliminate the book's entire sequence that has Col. Blount making a film about the life of John Wesley at his seen-better-days estate, Doubting Hall. Even worse is the way Fry ends the film. Waugh titled his final chapter "Happy Ending", but, writing in 1930, he famously closed with the bleakest imaginable setting by a splintered tree stump in the biggest battlefield in the history of the world. Suffice to say that Fry doesn't.
Bright Young Things
The Film Consortium presents in association with the U.K. Film Council and Visionview
and Icon Film Distribution a Revolution Films/Doubting Hall production
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Stephen Fry
Based on the novel "Vile Bodies" by: Evelyn Waugh
Producers: Gina Carter, Miranda Davis
Executive producers: Andrew Eaton, Michael Winterbottom, Stephen Fry, Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Jim Reeve, Steve Robbins
Co-producer: Caroline Hewitt
Director of photography: Henry Braham
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Alex Mackie
Composer: Anne Dudley
Costume designer: Nic Ede
Cast:
Adam: Stephen Campbell Moore
Nina: Emily Mortimer
Agatha: Fenella Woolgar
Simon: James McAvoy
Miles: Michael Sheen
Ginger: David Tennant
Archie: Guy Henry
Lord Monomark: Dan Aykroyd
Drunk Major: Jim Broadbent
Mrs. Melrose Ape: Stockard Channing
Col. Blount: Peter O'Toole
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Michael Winterbottom's powerful road movie traces the painful overland journey of two Afghan refugees as they make their way from Pakistan to London. A late addition to the Regus London Film Festival, "In This World" makes for compulsive and thoughtful viewing. Fresh off the front pages, the film will undoubtedly be a must for the festival circuit and deserves limited theatrical exposure.
Winterbottom and his tiny production team traveled to the Pakistani town of Peshawar, which also plays home to the sprawling Shamshatoo refugee camp and its 53,000 Afghan refugees. They selected a cast of real people, and used them in writer Tony Grisoni's loose story line, which he penned after a series of interviews with refugees based at the Sangatte camp in northern France. Using a small DV camera, real locations and available light, Winterbottom and his crew construct a remarkable fictional document of an all-too-real drama.
In Peshawar, his father decides that Enayatullah (his real name) should travel to London and a better life. His companion is to be his streetwise young orphaned cousin Jamal, who most importantly happens to speak English. Enayatullah's father pays off a people smuggler to arrange the trip and asks his son to call him when he arrives in London.
They travel from Pakistan to Iran, sometimes hidden in the back of a truck, sometimes on a bus and sometimes in a car, but always with the very real chance that they will be caught and sent back. From Iran they trek over snow-capped mountains into Turkey, where, for a brief moment of almost-happiness, they find work in a sweatshop before being packed into a container lorry along with other refugees for a ferry trip to Italy. In the cramped space inside the container, air begins to run out. Only Jamal and a crying baby are alive at the end of the trip.
He runs away and finds work selling trinkets to Italian tourists. After stealing money, he eventually makes his way to the Sangatte refugee camp in France. With another man, he hides on board a truck entering the Eurotunnel and eventually makes it to London. From there, he calls Enayatullah's father.
Winterbottom's DV camera often works undercover, enabling the crew to present a frank portrait of the real world of Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, while Grisoni's story allows the actors to provide their own lines. In contrast to the gritty DV widescreen camerawork is a lush score by Dario Marianelli that helps gives the film a theatrical feel. "In This World" has a raw, realistic edge, and though it's clearly political, Winterbottom manages to steer clear of preachiness.
After filming, the real-life Jamal made his own refugee journey to England and is currently campaigning for permission to stay in London. The film briefly carried the title "M1187511", a reference to his Home Office visa application number.
IN THIS WORLD
Revolution Films, BBC Films and the Film Consortium
Credits:
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Screenwriter: Tony Grisoni
Producers: Andrew Eaton, Anita Iverland
Executive producers: Chris Auty, David M. Thompson
Director of photography: Marcel Zyskind
Music: Dario Marianelli
Editor: Peter Christelis
Cast:
Jamal: Jamal Edin Torabi
Enayatullah: Enayatullah
Enayatullah's Father: Jamau
Travel Agent: Imran Paracha
Behrooz: Hossain Baghaeian
Yusif: Nabil Elouahabi
Running time -- 88 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Winterbottom and his tiny production team traveled to the Pakistani town of Peshawar, which also plays home to the sprawling Shamshatoo refugee camp and its 53,000 Afghan refugees. They selected a cast of real people, and used them in writer Tony Grisoni's loose story line, which he penned after a series of interviews with refugees based at the Sangatte camp in northern France. Using a small DV camera, real locations and available light, Winterbottom and his crew construct a remarkable fictional document of an all-too-real drama.
In Peshawar, his father decides that Enayatullah (his real name) should travel to London and a better life. His companion is to be his streetwise young orphaned cousin Jamal, who most importantly happens to speak English. Enayatullah's father pays off a people smuggler to arrange the trip and asks his son to call him when he arrives in London.
They travel from Pakistan to Iran, sometimes hidden in the back of a truck, sometimes on a bus and sometimes in a car, but always with the very real chance that they will be caught and sent back. From Iran they trek over snow-capped mountains into Turkey, where, for a brief moment of almost-happiness, they find work in a sweatshop before being packed into a container lorry along with other refugees for a ferry trip to Italy. In the cramped space inside the container, air begins to run out. Only Jamal and a crying baby are alive at the end of the trip.
He runs away and finds work selling trinkets to Italian tourists. After stealing money, he eventually makes his way to the Sangatte refugee camp in France. With another man, he hides on board a truck entering the Eurotunnel and eventually makes it to London. From there, he calls Enayatullah's father.
Winterbottom's DV camera often works undercover, enabling the crew to present a frank portrait of the real world of Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, while Grisoni's story allows the actors to provide their own lines. In contrast to the gritty DV widescreen camerawork is a lush score by Dario Marianelli that helps gives the film a theatrical feel. "In This World" has a raw, realistic edge, and though it's clearly political, Winterbottom manages to steer clear of preachiness.
After filming, the real-life Jamal made his own refugee journey to England and is currently campaigning for permission to stay in London. The film briefly carried the title "M1187511", a reference to his Home Office visa application number.
IN THIS WORLD
Revolution Films, BBC Films and the Film Consortium
Credits:
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Screenwriter: Tony Grisoni
Producers: Andrew Eaton, Anita Iverland
Executive producers: Chris Auty, David M. Thompson
Director of photography: Marcel Zyskind
Music: Dario Marianelli
Editor: Peter Christelis
Cast:
Jamal: Jamal Edin Torabi
Enayatullah: Enayatullah
Enayatullah's Father: Jamau
Travel Agent: Imran Paracha
Behrooz: Hossain Baghaeian
Yusif: Nabil Elouahabi
Running time -- 88 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/10/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The prospect of more New Zealand-European co-productions will be high on the agenda of the annual Screen Production and Development Assn. conference, Small Country, Big Picture, which runs Nov. 15-17 in Auckland. Nine leading European producers are attending to discuss co-production opportunities with local filmmakers, invited by the New Zealand Film Commission and government agency Investment NZ. The lineup includes several with a New Zealand film track record: Chris Auty, chief executive of the Film Consortium, whose sales division, the Works, is handling Niki Caro's Whale Rider; Karl Baumgartner, co-founder of German distributor Pandora, which released Jane Campion's An Angel at My Table and The Piano; Isabel Begg, head of business and legal affairs for BBC Films, which is producing New Zealand director Christine Jeffs' first film since Rain, Ted and Sylvia; Nik Powell of Scala Prods., which is developing Harry Sinclair's fourth feature, Surprising New Zealand; and Max Saidel who, before becoming director of feature film co-production and acquisition at TF1 in Paris, helped to acquire Peter Jackson's Braindead (known in the U.S. under the title Dead Alive) for release in Italy.
- 10/29/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski follows his bold 1994 foreign-language Oscar nominee "Before the Rain" with a sophomore effort that is nothing if not wildly audacious.
A British-German-Italian-Macedonian co-production, "Dust" is a time-shifting Balkan Western that features turn-of-the-20th century American cowboys, Greek and Albanian paramilitary gangs and contemporary New York crooks.
In short, it's got more personalities than Sybil.
Manchevski's fondness for shaking up the conventional narrative form makes for compelling viewing up to a point, but the constant period pingponging ultimately makes it difficult to muster up much in the way of viewer engagement.
By the time "Dust" cleared at one of its initially full Toronto screenings, there were noticeable wide-open spaces in the theater.
Its commercial potential, at least on North American soil, would appear rather muddy.
All of the storytelling begins in a drab New York apartment that has just been broken into by a street punk ("Primary Colors'" Adrian Lester) who is swiftly incapacitated by the flat's elderly but by no means feeble occupant (a gutsy Rosemary Murphy).
Rather than turning her intruder in to the police, the lonely Angela regales him with a sprawling yarn that begins a century earlier in the Wild West, where bickering brothers Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) and Luke (David Wenham) are fighting for the affections of a French whore, Lilith (Anne Brochet).
When Elijah wins out, making Lilith his wife, a bitter Luke travels the world with his trusty rifle and ends up in the middle of the Macedonian revolution, joining a group of cattle raiders-turned-mercenaries.
While Angela's tale seems to grow taller by the minute, Edge, as her newfound companion likes to be known, is held captivated by the mention of a hoard of rare gold coins that she has apparently stashed somewhere in the apartment.
Buried beneath all of Manchevski's jarringly intrusive, overlapping shifts back and forth in time, there's actually an intriguing concept about the tradition of oral history and how the years can warp perspectives and sepia tint the truth.
But it's hard to notice under all the epic restlessness.
That all-over-the-place vibe also extends to the performances, with Fiennes and Aussie Wenham in squinty spaghetti Western mode affecting twangs that should have gone back to the "drawling" board, while Lester and a fearless, feisty Murphy attempt to keep things real, raw and amusingly quirky all at once.
In the end, "Dust"'s dizzyingly disparate elements seem to be on different planets, let alone timelines.
DUST
The Film Consortium presents
a History Dreams/ena Film/
Fandango production with Shadow Films
in association with South Fork Pictures
a Milcho Manchevski film
Director-screenwriter: Milcho Manchevski
Producers: Chris Auty, Vesna Jovanoska, Domenico Procacci
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production designer: David Munns
Editor: Nic Gaster
Costume designers: Ane Crabtree, Anne Jendritzko
Music: Kiril Dzajkovski
Color and black and white/stereo
Cast:
Elijah: Joseph Fiennes
Luke: David Wenham
Edge: Adrian Lester
Lilith: Anne Brochet
Neda: Nikolina Kujaca
Angela: Rosemary Murphy
Running time -- 127 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A British-German-Italian-Macedonian co-production, "Dust" is a time-shifting Balkan Western that features turn-of-the-20th century American cowboys, Greek and Albanian paramilitary gangs and contemporary New York crooks.
In short, it's got more personalities than Sybil.
Manchevski's fondness for shaking up the conventional narrative form makes for compelling viewing up to a point, but the constant period pingponging ultimately makes it difficult to muster up much in the way of viewer engagement.
By the time "Dust" cleared at one of its initially full Toronto screenings, there were noticeable wide-open spaces in the theater.
Its commercial potential, at least on North American soil, would appear rather muddy.
All of the storytelling begins in a drab New York apartment that has just been broken into by a street punk ("Primary Colors'" Adrian Lester) who is swiftly incapacitated by the flat's elderly but by no means feeble occupant (a gutsy Rosemary Murphy).
Rather than turning her intruder in to the police, the lonely Angela regales him with a sprawling yarn that begins a century earlier in the Wild West, where bickering brothers Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) and Luke (David Wenham) are fighting for the affections of a French whore, Lilith (Anne Brochet).
When Elijah wins out, making Lilith his wife, a bitter Luke travels the world with his trusty rifle and ends up in the middle of the Macedonian revolution, joining a group of cattle raiders-turned-mercenaries.
While Angela's tale seems to grow taller by the minute, Edge, as her newfound companion likes to be known, is held captivated by the mention of a hoard of rare gold coins that she has apparently stashed somewhere in the apartment.
Buried beneath all of Manchevski's jarringly intrusive, overlapping shifts back and forth in time, there's actually an intriguing concept about the tradition of oral history and how the years can warp perspectives and sepia tint the truth.
But it's hard to notice under all the epic restlessness.
That all-over-the-place vibe also extends to the performances, with Fiennes and Aussie Wenham in squinty spaghetti Western mode affecting twangs that should have gone back to the "drawling" board, while Lester and a fearless, feisty Murphy attempt to keep things real, raw and amusingly quirky all at once.
In the end, "Dust"'s dizzyingly disparate elements seem to be on different planets, let alone timelines.
DUST
The Film Consortium presents
a History Dreams/ena Film/
Fandango production with Shadow Films
in association with South Fork Pictures
a Milcho Manchevski film
Director-screenwriter: Milcho Manchevski
Producers: Chris Auty, Vesna Jovanoska, Domenico Procacci
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production designer: David Munns
Editor: Nic Gaster
Costume designers: Ane Crabtree, Anne Jendritzko
Music: Kiril Dzajkovski
Color and black and white/stereo
Cast:
Elijah: Joseph Fiennes
Luke: David Wenham
Edge: Adrian Lester
Lilith: Anne Brochet
Neda: Nikolina Kujaca
Angela: Rosemary Murphy
Running time -- 127 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/5/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.