Cannes film festival
Loosely based on fact, Magnus van Horn’s fictionalised true crime nightmare leaves you with a shiver of pure fear
Just in case you were thinking that this is an upbeat story of a sweet young seamstress winning BBC TV’s The Great British Sewing Bee, the needle in question is in fact a knitting needle for giving yourself an abortion in a public bath-house in post-first world war Copenhagen. This film from Poland-based Swedish director Magnus van Horn – making his Cannes competition debut – is a macabre and hypnotic horror, a fictionalised true crime nightmare based on Denmark’s baby-killer case from 1921, shot in high-contrast expressionist monochrome and kept at an almost unbearable pitch of anxiety by Frederikke Hoffmeier’s nerve-abrading musical score.
I was unconvinced by Van Horn’s previous film, the social media satire Sweat, but this new one is horribly effective grand guignol, made with enormous technical flair,...
Loosely based on fact, Magnus van Horn’s fictionalised true crime nightmare leaves you with a shiver of pure fear
Just in case you were thinking that this is an upbeat story of a sweet young seamstress winning BBC TV’s The Great British Sewing Bee, the needle in question is in fact a knitting needle for giving yourself an abortion in a public bath-house in post-first world war Copenhagen. This film from Poland-based Swedish director Magnus van Horn – making his Cannes competition debut – is a macabre and hypnotic horror, a fictionalised true crime nightmare based on Denmark’s baby-killer case from 1921, shot in high-contrast expressionist monochrome and kept at an almost unbearable pitch of anxiety by Frederikke Hoffmeier’s nerve-abrading musical score.
I was unconvinced by Van Horn’s previous film, the social media satire Sweat, but this new one is horribly effective grand guignol, made with enormous technical flair,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Savannah, Georgia is an appropriate setting for a conversation with filmmaker Emerald Fennell about her newest film “Saltburn,” which follows an Oxford student who becomes enmeshed with a wealthy classmate’s eccentric family during a summer at their country estate. “It’s fully Gothic, especially at Halloween, so it’s really my favorite kind of place,” said the director to IndieWire during a recent interview. Though, in an interview setting that featured walls that alternated between hard, slate gray panels, and thin, beaming bars of fluorescent lighting, Fennell joked that the whole thing felt a bit like “a ‘John Wick’ interrogation.”
In town to accept the Spotlight Director Award at the Scad Savannah Film Festival, Fennell denied feeling a daunting amount of pressure around what to follow up her Academy Award-winning debut “Promising Young Woman” with. “I usually have a few things going on, but I don’t write them down.
In town to accept the Spotlight Director Award at the Scad Savannah Film Festival, Fennell denied feeling a daunting amount of pressure around what to follow up her Academy Award-winning debut “Promising Young Woman” with. “I usually have a few things going on, but I don’t write them down.
- 11/16/2023
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
Unless you are a Dr. Who fan — in which you'd immediately recognize him as the ninth version of the time-traveling doctor — Christopher Eccleston is one of those character actors who usually prompts a "where have I seen him before?" reaction. It might have been as the flatmate whose greed drives him insane in Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave (1994) or as the powermad military man fighting off the infected in 28 Days Later... (2002). He may be familiar to you as a metaphorically ghostly presence in The Others (2001) or a literal invisible man from the NBC show Heroes.
- 7/14/2014
- Rollingstone.com
Happy birthday to Christopher Eccleston, who turns 50 today (Sunday, February 16).
A stalwart of television, film and theatre, Chris has played some of television's most iconic characters (from Our Friends in the North's Nicky Hutchinson to Doctor Who's titular hero), brought life to numerous 'everyman' roles with extraordinary performances and used his work to explore themes of justice, loyalty and friendship.
To celebrate Christopher's half-century, Digital Spy has chosen ten standout performances from his film and television work, presented in chronological order. Given his acting career spans almost 25 years, a few didn't make our personal top ten, but as always, do tell us about your favourites in the comments section...
Shallow Grave (1994)
Danny Boyle's dizzying breakthrough movie Shallow Grave not only launched the career of Ewan McGregor, it propelled Christopher Eccleston - already an established TV star - into the big league.
Chris's portrayal of chartered accountant...
A stalwart of television, film and theatre, Chris has played some of television's most iconic characters (from Our Friends in the North's Nicky Hutchinson to Doctor Who's titular hero), brought life to numerous 'everyman' roles with extraordinary performances and used his work to explore themes of justice, loyalty and friendship.
To celebrate Christopher's half-century, Digital Spy has chosen ten standout performances from his film and television work, presented in chronological order. Given his acting career spans almost 25 years, a few didn't make our personal top ten, but as always, do tell us about your favourites in the comments section...
Shallow Grave (1994)
Danny Boyle's dizzying breakthrough movie Shallow Grave not only launched the career of Ewan McGregor, it propelled Christopher Eccleston - already an established TV star - into the big league.
Chris's portrayal of chartered accountant...
- 2/16/2014
- Digital Spy
Happy birthday to Christopher Eccleston, who turns 50 today (Sunday, February 16).
A stalwart of television, film and theatre, Chris has played some of television's most iconic characters (from Our Friends in the North's Nicky Hutchinson to Doctor Who's titular hero), brought life to numerous 'everyman' roles with extraordinary performances and used his work to explore themes of justice, loyalty and friendship.
To celebrate Christopher's half-century, Digital Spy has chosen ten standout performances from his film and television work, presented in chronological order. Given his acting career spans almost 25 years, a few didn't make our personal top ten, but as always, do tell us about your favourites in the comments section...
Shallow Grave (1994)
Danny Boyle's dizzying breakthrough movie Shallow Grave not only launched the career of Ewan McGregor, it propelled Christopher Eccleston - already an established TV star - into the big league.
Chris's portrayal of chartered accountant...
A stalwart of television, film and theatre, Chris has played some of television's most iconic characters (from Our Friends in the North's Nicky Hutchinson to Doctor Who's titular hero), brought life to numerous 'everyman' roles with extraordinary performances and used his work to explore themes of justice, loyalty and friendship.
To celebrate Christopher's half-century, Digital Spy has chosen ten standout performances from his film and television work, presented in chronological order. Given his acting career spans almost 25 years, a few didn't make our personal top ten, but as always, do tell us about your favourites in the comments section...
Shallow Grave (1994)
Danny Boyle's dizzying breakthrough movie Shallow Grave not only launched the career of Ewan McGregor, it propelled Christopher Eccleston - already an established TV star - into the big league.
Chris's portrayal of chartered accountant...
- 2/16/2014
- Digital Spy
Whether he is gaining publicity for the right or wrong reasons, Jude Law is ever-present. The actor's private life has sometimes overshadowed his achievements, yet he is still going strong both on screen and stage.
With his new film Dom Hemingway, in which he plays a destructive safecracker, hitting cinemas next week, we round up ten facts about Mr. Law.
1. Jude Law was born on December 29, 1972 to teachers Margaret Anne and Peter Robert in Lewisham, South London. His older sister, Natasha, is a renowned painter and graphic designer. Their parents now run a theatre company in France.
2. The actor's name derives from Beatles song 'Hey Jude' and Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure. He also has a tattoo on his arm of lyrics from the Fab Four's 'Sexy Sadie': "You came along to turn on everyone Sexy Sadie", which is purportedly meant to link to ex-wife Sadie Frost.
3. Law started...
With his new film Dom Hemingway, in which he plays a destructive safecracker, hitting cinemas next week, we round up ten facts about Mr. Law.
1. Jude Law was born on December 29, 1972 to teachers Margaret Anne and Peter Robert in Lewisham, South London. His older sister, Natasha, is a renowned painter and graphic designer. Their parents now run a theatre company in France.
2. The actor's name derives from Beatles song 'Hey Jude' and Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure. He also has a tattoo on his arm of lyrics from the Fab Four's 'Sexy Sadie': "You came along to turn on everyone Sexy Sadie", which is purportedly meant to link to ex-wife Sadie Frost.
3. Law started...
- 11/8/2013
- Digital Spy
Feature Louisa Mellor 28 Jun 2013 - 11:30
The BBC is having its own celebrations, but what are fans doing to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who?
Plenty of posh things are going on this year to mark Doctor Who’s 50th year, some, like the BFI season, Mark Gatiss docudrama, and of course the anniversary special are already in full swing, while others are being kept under wraps until closer to November the 23rd.
The glossy, official celebrations are one thing of course, and they’ll receive publicity aplenty. Alongside those, we want to highlight the smaller stuff, to support the publications, plans, and events being organised here in the UK and abroad by Doctor Who fans. To this end, here’s the first of our soon-to-be regular Doctor Who 50th anniversary local round-ups…
Comics & Magazines
Launched next week on Wednesday the 3rd of July is an ace-sounding magazine created by Ysgol-Pen-y-Bryn special school in Swansea.
The BBC is having its own celebrations, but what are fans doing to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who?
Plenty of posh things are going on this year to mark Doctor Who’s 50th year, some, like the BFI season, Mark Gatiss docudrama, and of course the anniversary special are already in full swing, while others are being kept under wraps until closer to November the 23rd.
The glossy, official celebrations are one thing of course, and they’ll receive publicity aplenty. Alongside those, we want to highlight the smaller stuff, to support the publications, plans, and events being organised here in the UK and abroad by Doctor Who fans. To this end, here’s the first of our soon-to-be regular Doctor Who 50th anniversary local round-ups…
Comics & Magazines
Launched next week on Wednesday the 3rd of July is an ace-sounding magazine created by Ysgol-Pen-y-Bryn special school in Swansea.
- 6/28/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Feature Louisa Mellor 15 Apr 2013 - 07:00
With two episodes to go, we round-up the remaining question marks in the Broadchurch case. Speculation ahoy...
Spoiler warning: as ITV has kept episodes seven and eight of Broadchurch under wraps, the below contains no actual spoilers, just plenty of speculation on how the ending might unfurl.
At 10pm this evening, we’ll be one hour closer to finding out who killed Danny Latimer. Like those of Nanna Birk Larsen and Laura Palmer before her, young Danny’s murder has preoccupied the minds of a healthy chunk of TV viewers for the past six weeks, keeping us guessing, theorising, and mumbling about poor Vince the Labrador in our sleep.
With just two episodes of the Scandi-inflected small town murder remaining then, let’s put our heads together on the vital answers needed to deduce the identity of Broadchurch’s killer…
Before we start, it...
With two episodes to go, we round-up the remaining question marks in the Broadchurch case. Speculation ahoy...
Spoiler warning: as ITV has kept episodes seven and eight of Broadchurch under wraps, the below contains no actual spoilers, just plenty of speculation on how the ending might unfurl.
At 10pm this evening, we’ll be one hour closer to finding out who killed Danny Latimer. Like those of Nanna Birk Larsen and Laura Palmer before her, young Danny’s murder has preoccupied the minds of a healthy chunk of TV viewers for the past six weeks, keeping us guessing, theorising, and mumbling about poor Vince the Labrador in our sleep.
With just two episodes of the Scandi-inflected small town murder remaining then, let’s put our heads together on the vital answers needed to deduce the identity of Broadchurch’s killer…
Before we start, it...
- 4/14/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Pauline Quirke hiding in dark corners. Arthur Darvill snooping in the night. David Bradley burning incriminating photos. Episode four of ITV's Broadchurch was the most revealing and darkest so far, gently tugging us further into the lies and secrets of the seaside town.
If you're confused and pulling your hair out over the ever-increasing list of suspects and whopping great pile of red herrings, here's our quick guide to the latest developments into the case of Danny Latimer.
Clues and Suspects
If last week's episode was all about Mark Latimer (Andrew Buchan) squirming and coming under the spotlight, this week's episode brought David Bradley's dishevelled corner shop owner Jack Marshall into the frame.
A loner who works with young kids in the sea brigade, a keen amateur photographer who has a prior conviction for sex offences, he's a Daily Mail editor's dream to have lurking around the scenes of a child murder.
If you're confused and pulling your hair out over the ever-increasing list of suspects and whopping great pile of red herrings, here's our quick guide to the latest developments into the case of Danny Latimer.
Clues and Suspects
If last week's episode was all about Mark Latimer (Andrew Buchan) squirming and coming under the spotlight, this week's episode brought David Bradley's dishevelled corner shop owner Jack Marshall into the frame.
A loner who works with young kids in the sea brigade, a keen amateur photographer who has a prior conviction for sex offences, he's a Daily Mail editor's dream to have lurking around the scenes of a child murder.
- 3/26/2013
- Digital Spy
Depressing films. There is something about them that paradoxically appeals to me. Give me a film like American Pie or Meet the Fockers and I will be morbidly depressed. Feed me Robert Bresson or Ingmar Bergman and I will grin with happiness like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.
This is probably an anomaly of my psyche on my part but I loooove depressing films. A good old wallow in misery does wonders for the soul and it can be really cathartic if you have pent up emotions to vent.
I have presented for you a catalogue of ten depressing films in order to rain on your parade and spread gloom all over your happy day. I send you virtual Kleenex in order to prepare yourself for this cavalcade of melancholy…
10. Jude (1996)
Jude is a clever young lower class man who desperately wants to go to university but he is held back...
This is probably an anomaly of my psyche on my part but I loooove depressing films. A good old wallow in misery does wonders for the soul and it can be really cathartic if you have pent up emotions to vent.
I have presented for you a catalogue of ten depressing films in order to rain on your parade and spread gloom all over your happy day. I send you virtual Kleenex in order to prepare yourself for this cavalcade of melancholy…
10. Jude (1996)
Jude is a clever young lower class man who desperately wants to go to university but he is held back...
- 3/18/2013
- by Clare Simpson
- Obsessed with Film
Laura Miller at Salon wondered recently whether we’re missing something essential from our stories today: These days, it’s the rare filmmaker who chooses to adapt a classic novel in the tragic vein — the current version of “Anna Karenina” is a notable exception. Whether it’s “Pride and Prejudice,” “Bleak House” or Gaskell’s cozy Cranford stories, the source material almost always ends in heartwarming reconciliation and at least one wedding. When it comes to popular entertainment, we live in a post-tragic age. There’s nothing wrong with a happy ending, of course, and both Dickens and Austen wrote in literary genres that call for just such a conclusion. But romance and comedy are only one portion of the literary and dramatic spectrum, and neglecting the more somber, less reassuring reaches of that spectrum only leaves us with a thinner culture overall. It was not ever thus, either: Tragedy...
- 12/20/2012
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Seeing as his work was published back in the 1800′s, Thomas Hardy probably isn’t much of a household name these days. But people who were English majors in college still know him, due to the class or two where they were likely assigned works like “The Return of the Native” or “Jude the Obscure.” He’s like Wordsworth, just a little less famous. Thomas Vinterberg, similarly, isn’t much of a household name. But he’s a name that film students probably recognize, due to his being one of the co-founders of the Dogma 95 movement of minimalist filmmaking. Also, several of his works, like The Celebration or, more recently, The Hunt, have made decent waves in the insular worlds of film festivals and awards shows. Basically he’s like Lars Von Trier, just a little less famous. We’re discussing these two Thomases because their work is about to collide in an interesting way. According...
- 9/25/2012
- by Nathan Adams
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Trishna
Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom
UK, 2011
Among contemporary cinema’s more versatile and prolific directors, one of the few sources of inspiration Michael Winterbottom has repeatedly returned to is the work of Thomas Hardy. Jude, his 1996 adaptation of Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, was effectively his breakthrough film; 2000’s The Claim, meanwhile, was loosely based on The Mayor of Casterbridge, applying content from that novel’s Victorian England setting to an American western. Winterbottom’s latest Hardy adaptation, Trishna, has more in common with that latter film in that it transfers the source material of Tess of the d’Urbervilles to a different setting and culture. Set in India, Trishna differs from both of the director’s previous Hardy adaptations in that it tries to apply the source’s themes and narrative to the contemporary version of its setting. The result is not very successful.
While it would...
Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom
UK, 2011
Among contemporary cinema’s more versatile and prolific directors, one of the few sources of inspiration Michael Winterbottom has repeatedly returned to is the work of Thomas Hardy. Jude, his 1996 adaptation of Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, was effectively his breakthrough film; 2000’s The Claim, meanwhile, was loosely based on The Mayor of Casterbridge, applying content from that novel’s Victorian England setting to an American western. Winterbottom’s latest Hardy adaptation, Trishna, has more in common with that latter film in that it transfers the source material of Tess of the d’Urbervilles to a different setting and culture. Set in India, Trishna differs from both of the director’s previous Hardy adaptations in that it tries to apply the source’s themes and narrative to the contemporary version of its setting. The result is not very successful.
While it would...
- 7/22/2012
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- SoundOnSight
This is the truth.
The truth love has taught me.
My love, you showed me how the world really is.
(from one of Amit Trivedi’s very fine original songs from Trishna)
Michael Winterbottom’s latest film, Trishna, is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Winterbottom, of course, is no stranger to Hardy’s stories, having previously adapted both Jude the Obscure (Jude) and The Mayor of Casterbridge (The Claim). Whereas Jude was a fairly faithful retelling of the book, at least as far as the setting was concerned, The Claim played with the setting, moving it to California during the 19th century gold rush. And such is the case with Trishna, too. Winterbottom retains the essential theme, that of a young woman whose life is controlled by social constraints and the vagaries of fate, but he takes the brilliant step of moving it...
The truth love has taught me.
My love, you showed me how the world really is.
(from one of Amit Trivedi’s very fine original songs from Trishna)
Michael Winterbottom’s latest film, Trishna, is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Winterbottom, of course, is no stranger to Hardy’s stories, having previously adapted both Jude the Obscure (Jude) and The Mayor of Casterbridge (The Claim). Whereas Jude was a fairly faithful retelling of the book, at least as far as the setting was concerned, The Claim played with the setting, moving it to California during the 19th century gold rush. And such is the case with Trishna, too. Winterbottom retains the essential theme, that of a young woman whose life is controlled by social constraints and the vagaries of fate, but he takes the brilliant step of moving it...
- 7/13/2012
- by Katherine Matthews
- Bollyspice
Over his career, Michael Winterbottom has hopped frequently from genre to genre, from subject matter to subject matter, rarely covering the same territory twice. But one of the few things he has returned to is the work of Thomas Hardy. The late 19th century British author has so far inspired two of the director's films: 1995's "Jude," an adaptation of "Jude the Obscure" with Kate Winslet, and "The Claim," a version of "The Mayor of Casterbridge" moved to a Californian mountain Western setting. Both are very strong, firmly in tune with Hardy's bleak originals, so when it was announced that Winterbottom was going back to the well for "Trishna," a loose adaptation of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (a Hardy novel previously done by Roman Polanski in "Tess" and more recently, a BBC miniseries starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Redmayne) for a version set in contemporary India, hope was high that it'd.
- 7/12/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom is no stranger to a good Thomas Hardy novel. Trishna, his adaptation of Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, is the third time the director has scripted films from the famed British novelist's works. Winterbottom first received widespread attention for Jude, his adaptation of Jude the Obscure, which starred Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet as the tragic cousins. He next tackled Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge in The Claim, featured Wes Bentley, Milla Jovovich and Sarah Polley. In Trishna, Winterbottom transplants Hardy's famous story from the sweeping moors of England to modern day Mumbai. Winterbottom's Tess is Trishna (Frieda Pinto), a maid working in a luxury hotel where she meets Jay (Riz Ahmed), an amalgam of two Hardy characters, the pious Angel and the licentious Alec. Brillantly playing off the difference between rural India and the teeming Mumbai, Wintterbottom brings a modern dynamic to Hardy's bleak romantic classic.
- 7/11/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
★★☆☆☆ For the third time, British director Michael Winterbottom once again attempts to breathe cinematic life into the works of 19th century author Thomas Hardy, one of the countries most beloved writers. Having previously adapted Jude The Obscure (given the cut-down title, Jude, in 1996) and transported The Mayor of Casterbridge to 19th century America in 2000 with The Claim, he now turns to Tess of the D'Urbervilles, transplanted to modern day Indian in the form of Trishna (2011).
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 7/10/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
He is a strong adapter, whether he takes a film project from a paper-thin and easily deconstructed source, or from one more profound and multi-layered. He is a master of transposition, revising—shall we say renewing?—for example, foreign, century-old material more compatible with the mores of a later era and its audiences. He would be prolific British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, one of the few directors inspired by texts and visual arts created by others who can reshape them to fit into credible film universes that feel as if all had originated with him. The themes and ideological positions to which he is regularly drawn form a superstructure upon which he builds the final product.
Among this director’s almost shockingly diverse works are adaptation of two novels by Thomas Hardy: Jude (from Jude the Obscure); and, a looser rendering, The Claim (from The Mayor of Casterbridge). He recently revisited Hardyland,...
Among this director’s almost shockingly diverse works are adaptation of two novels by Thomas Hardy: Jude (from Jude the Obscure); and, a looser rendering, The Claim (from The Mayor of Casterbridge). He recently revisited Hardyland,...
- 7/9/2012
- by Howard Feinstein
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto captivates in Michael Winterbottom's bold reading of Hardy's tragedy
"In this life," Sir Thomas Beecham is said to have advised us, "try everything once, except incest and morris dancing" – an admonition that Michael Winterbottom, Britain's most prolific and versatile director, has followed. Indeed after 9 Songs, his venture into unsimulated sex between consenting actors, he may well be contemplating an excursion into cinematic incest. Winterbottom's movies have ranged from the music scene in Manchester to incarceration in Guantánamo, and at regular intervals he has made versions of Thomas Hardy novels on three continents.
In 1996, quite early in his career, he adapted Jude the Obscure with some fidelity to its plot and its Victorian times with Christopher Eccleston as the doomed Wessex stonemason and Kate Winslet as his deranged second wife. In 2000 he transposed The Mayor of Casterbridge to the Californian gold rush of the 1860s as The Claim,...
"In this life," Sir Thomas Beecham is said to have advised us, "try everything once, except incest and morris dancing" – an admonition that Michael Winterbottom, Britain's most prolific and versatile director, has followed. Indeed after 9 Songs, his venture into unsimulated sex between consenting actors, he may well be contemplating an excursion into cinematic incest. Winterbottom's movies have ranged from the music scene in Manchester to incarceration in Guantánamo, and at regular intervals he has made versions of Thomas Hardy novels on three continents.
In 1996, quite early in his career, he adapted Jude the Obscure with some fidelity to its plot and its Victorian times with Christopher Eccleston as the doomed Wessex stonemason and Kate Winslet as his deranged second wife. In 2000 he transposed The Mayor of Casterbridge to the Californian gold rush of the 1860s as The Claim,...
- 3/11/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Over his career, Michael Winterbottom has hopped frequently from genre to genre, from subject matter to subject matter, rarely covering the same territory twice. But one of the few things he has returned to is the work of Thomas Hardy. The late 19th century British author has so far inspired two of the director's films: 1995's "Jude," an adaptation of "Jude the Obscure" with Kate Winslet, and "The Claim," a version of "The Mayor of Casterbridge" moved to a Californian mountain Western setting. Both are very strong, firmly in tune with Hardy's bleak originals, so when it was announced that…...
- 10/22/2011
- The Playlist
Michael Winterbottom avoids Slumdog-style kitsch to create an Indian Tess of the d'Urbervilles as compelling as Hardy's
Toronto film festival's co-director Cameron Bailey hit the nail on the head introducing Michael Winterbottom's new film, a two-hander shot in Rajasthan and Mumbai over seven weeks earlier this year. He described Winterbottom as "protean", and, if nothing else, Winterbottom will go down in British film history as one of the country's most versatile directors.
Last year he was at the Toronto international film festival with the film version of his BBC comedy The Trip, and 18 months ago he was in Sundance with his ultraviolent neo-noir The Killer Inside Me. And here he is now, returning to his roots with another riff on the work of Thomas Hardy, who inspired his 1996 film Jude, a take on Jude the Obscure, and also The Claim, an adaptation of The Mayor Of Casterbridge, relocated to a Californian mining town.
Toronto film festival's co-director Cameron Bailey hit the nail on the head introducing Michael Winterbottom's new film, a two-hander shot in Rajasthan and Mumbai over seven weeks earlier this year. He described Winterbottom as "protean", and, if nothing else, Winterbottom will go down in British film history as one of the country's most versatile directors.
Last year he was at the Toronto international film festival with the film version of his BBC comedy The Trip, and 18 months ago he was in Sundance with his ultraviolent neo-noir The Killer Inside Me. And here he is now, returning to his roots with another riff on the work of Thomas Hardy, who inspired his 1996 film Jude, a take on Jude the Obscure, and also The Claim, an adaptation of The Mayor Of Casterbridge, relocated to a Californian mining town.
- 9/11/2011
- by Damon Wise
- The Guardian - Film News
Continuing his mission to do strange and interesting things with Thomas Hardy novels, here's a trailer for Michael Winterbottom's Trishna, which transposes Tess of the d'Urbervilles to modern-day India.Following his reasonably straight adaptation of Jude the Obscure, and The Claim, which turned The Mayor of Casterbridge into a Western, Trishna stars Freida Pinto as the titular primitive creature of the heath (or its Rajasthan equivalent), who gets into relationship difficulties with Riz Ahmed's Jay Singh. Trishna goes to work for him after an accident destroys her father's jeep (it's a horse in the book) but the pair's love is complicated by the clash between Trishna's rural roots and the urbanity and education that Jay represents.That's the official plot summary at least, which doesn't cover Tess' rape and the lengthy aftermath which forms the core of Hardy's novel. There's no trace of that in the trailer either,...
- 8/22/2011
- EmpireOnline
Jude Law has been one of Britain's foremost actors. But with fame came intense press scrutiny of his private life. Now, at 38, he says he is looking forward to his 'most productive decade' – starting with a West End play
Jude Law can't speak about phone hacking. I'm told this by his publicist before the interview. And when I bring it up during our chat – it's the day after the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks have given testimonies to the Commons committee – Law smiles and makes a zipping action with his finger across his lips. "I just can't because I'm in legal proceedings and it's in various stages with various people, and part of that is classified, and they've promised to keep it quiet if I keep it quiet, so I've got to be really careful. But believe me, there's an awful lot I want to say, though. An awful lot."
But...
Jude Law can't speak about phone hacking. I'm told this by his publicist before the interview. And when I bring it up during our chat – it's the day after the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks have given testimonies to the Commons committee – Law smiles and makes a zipping action with his finger across his lips. "I just can't because I'm in legal proceedings and it's in various stages with various people, and part of that is classified, and they've promised to keep it quiet if I keep it quiet, so I've got to be really careful. But believe me, there's an awful lot I want to say, though. An awful lot."
But...
- 7/30/2011
- by Carole Cadwalladr
- The Guardian - Film News
The Slumdog Millionaire actress starts shooting an Indian version of the classic Thomas Hardy tragic novel on location in Rajasthan and Mumbai on February 28th. Riz Ahmed (Four Lions) will co-star as the son of a wealthy property developer who falls for the daughter of an auto rickshaw driver. Trishna will be directed by Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart). Sales agent Bankside has begun selling the film in Berlin. This is the 3rd time that Michael Winterbottom has turned to author Thomas Hardy for his source material. First he made Jude (1996), starring Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston, then he made The Claim (2000), a Klondike version of The Mayor of Casterbridge. Winterbottom’s producer partner Andrew Eaton tells me that Winterbottom has always been a big Hardy fan. He made a short at university based on the pig-sticking scene in Jude The Obscure and then got to film it for real 10 years later.
- 2/16/2011
- by TIM ADLER in London
- Deadline London
Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman in "Barney's Version"
Canadian author Mordecai Richler’s telling of Barney Panofsky’s crazy life was released fourteen years ago. And much like the events of Barney, a man with three wives and an accusation of murder to his name, the journey for his film adaptation has been eventful to say the least. Conceived by producer Robert Lantos and eventually captained by Richard J. Lewis, Barney’s Version started off as Lantos’ dream, and became an award-winning drama/comedy starring three names known by Oscar, Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, and Minnie Driver. Last Sunday, Paul Giamatti won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film.
To help make sense of it all, I sat down with director Richard J. Lewis to discuss all of the elements that went into telling Barney’s Version after so many years.
Barney’s Version opens in Chicago on January 21st.
Canadian author Mordecai Richler’s telling of Barney Panofsky’s crazy life was released fourteen years ago. And much like the events of Barney, a man with three wives and an accusation of murder to his name, the journey for his film adaptation has been eventful to say the least. Conceived by producer Robert Lantos and eventually captained by Richard J. Lewis, Barney’s Version started off as Lantos’ dream, and became an award-winning drama/comedy starring three names known by Oscar, Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, and Minnie Driver. Last Sunday, Paul Giamatti won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film.
To help make sense of it all, I sat down with director Richard J. Lewis to discuss all of the elements that went into telling Barney’s Version after so many years.
Barney’s Version opens in Chicago on January 21st.
- 1/21/2011
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
Italian screenwriter who worked with directors such as Visconti and Zeffirelli
The Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who has died aged 96, collaborated on the scripts of more than 100 films, including Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948), William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953), Mario Monicelli's I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) and Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano (1962). She also worked with Michelangelo Antonioni on Le Amiche (The Girlfriends, 1955) and Franco Zeffirelli on Jesus of Nazareth (1977), but she was best known for her creative contribution to the films of Luchino Visconti, including Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963).
She was born Giovanna Cecchi in Rome to a Tuscan painter, Leonetta Pieraccini, and the literary critic Emilio Cecchi, a major figure in 20th-century Italian letters. For a few years in the early 1930s, before the Cinecittà studios were built in Rome, her father had been entrusted by Mussolini's government with...
The Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who has died aged 96, collaborated on the scripts of more than 100 films, including Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948), William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953), Mario Monicelli's I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) and Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano (1962). She also worked with Michelangelo Antonioni on Le Amiche (The Girlfriends, 1955) and Franco Zeffirelli on Jesus of Nazareth (1977), but she was best known for her creative contribution to the films of Luchino Visconti, including Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963).
She was born Giovanna Cecchi in Rome to a Tuscan painter, Leonetta Pieraccini, and the literary critic Emilio Cecchi, a major figure in 20th-century Italian letters. For a few years in the early 1930s, before the Cinecittà studios were built in Rome, her father had been entrusted by Mussolini's government with...
- 8/1/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Michael Winterbottom is one of Britain's most original film-makers - no rehearsals, actors who improvise and subjects that range from lesbian serial killers to torture in Guantanamo. His latest film – with its graphic and prolonged sex and murder scenes – has audiences reeling in horror. What's all the fuss about, he wonders
Is Michael Winterbottom merely in deep denial about what he has done with his new film, The Killer Inside Me, or is it more that, in the course of a long career, some vital part of his film-making soul has become so inured to violence that he is unable to grasp quite how abhorrent parts of his movie are? I'm not sure. The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of a pulpy 1952 novel by Jim Thompson, had its world premiere at the Sundance festival last January where, as the credits rolled, a member of the audience stood up and screamed:...
Is Michael Winterbottom merely in deep denial about what he has done with his new film, The Killer Inside Me, or is it more that, in the course of a long career, some vital part of his film-making soul has become so inured to violence that he is unable to grasp quite how abhorrent parts of his movie are? I'm not sure. The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of a pulpy 1952 novel by Jim Thompson, had its world premiere at the Sundance festival last January where, as the credits rolled, a member of the audience stood up and screamed:...
- 5/22/2010
- by Rachel Cooke
- The Guardian - Film News
Had your fill of romance? Indulge in a delicious British satire about a smart city girl (Kate Beckinsale) who saves her gothic Wuthering Heights-y family (Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, and more) with good common sense. Cold Comfort Farm Dir. John Schlesinger (1995) Sure, you could spend your Valentine's Day wallowing in the most gothic of English Romances, the likes of Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, or the Bronte sisters. (In fact, the 1996 adaptation of Hardy's Jude the Obscure, retitled Jude and featuring Kate Winslet, is now available on Hulu.) But for all those romantics out there, here's a better option: the smart and cheeky British adaptation of Stella Gibbons' comic novel Cold Comfort Farm. Made for British TV (but released theatrically in America), John Schlesiinger's (Midnight Cowboy) adaptation features an all star cast (Kate Beckinsale, Absolutely Fabulous' Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Ian...
- 2/12/2010
- by Tribeca Film
- Huffington Post
Cold Comfort Farm Dir. John Schlesinger (1995) Sure, you could spend your Valentine's Day wallowing in the most gothic of English Romances, the likes of Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, or the Bronte sisters. (In fact, the 1996 adaptation of Hardy's Jude the Obscure, retitled Jude and featuring Kate Winslet, is now available on Hulu.) But for all those romantics out there, here's a better option: the smart and cheeky British adaptation of Stella Gibbons' comic novel Cold Comfort Farm. Made for British TV (but released theatrically in America), John Schlesiinger's (Midnight Cowboy) adaptation features an all star cast (Kate Beckinsale, Absolutely Fabulous' Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, and Eileen Atkins), doing proper tribute to this parody of the English country novel. In this film, smart city girl Flora Poste (Beckinsale, in her ingenue years), recently orphaned, moves to the country to live with her crazy relatives on Cold Comfort Farm.
- 2/12/2010
- TribecaFilm.com
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