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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 174
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Reviews
Ex Drummer
Dir: Koen Mortier. Bel. 2007. 101mins. The most controversial film to have emerged from Belgium since Man Bites Dog, Koen Mortier's Ex Drummer is an exercise in Flemish shock tactics. Adapted from a novel by Herman Brusselmans, the film strives hard to be as provocative as possible. Its tone varies ...
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Reviews
The Aerial (La Antena)
Dir: Esteban Sapir. Arg. 2007. 90mins.Esteban Sapir's second feature is an intriguing and beautifully-made oddity - a largely silent, black-and-white fantasy that seems inspired in equal measure by Fritz Lang's Metropolis, FW Murnau's The Last Laugh, 1920s surrealism and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Made for a reported budget of ...
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News
Rotterdam director bemoans lack of local films in festival
Where have the Dutch films gone' With 44 world premieres, the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam is showcasing a wealth of new work, but the line-up is notably light on local movies. Speaking today to ScreenDaily.com, festival director Sandra Den Hamer has bemoaned the absence of strong Dutch features available ...
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News
Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund refused funding
'Stormy weather is expected,' Festival director Sandra Den Hamer warned yesterday at the opening of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. The cause of the disquiet is the growing uncertainty that surrounds Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund, which supports filmmaking in developing countries. The Fund, named after festival founder Hubert Bals ...
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News
Ex Drummer stirs controversy among Belgian exhibitors
In advance of its world premiere in the Tiger Competition in Rotterdam this weekend, Koen Mortier's Ex Drummer is provoking controversy in Belgium. One leading arthouse exhibitor, Studio Skoop in Ghent, has refused to show the film, which features scenes of graphic violence, rape and self mutilation. Industry sources have ...
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Features
Netherlands Production - In search of Dutch masters
From the outside, it looks as if these are boom times for Dutch production. Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, released in the Netherlands by A-Film in the autumn, is closing in on a million admissions at home and has been sold around the world by London-based sales agent ContentFilm International. Oscar ...
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Features
Co-production markets - 'A good hub where people can meet'
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Rotterdam's CineMart must be one of the most admired events in the film world.Now in its 24th edition, the co-production market has spawned a host of similar events. These range from the Berlinale Co-Production Market to the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), and ...
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Reviews
The Monastery: Mr Vig & The Nun
Dir Pernille Rose Gronkjaer. Den. 2006. 84mins A slow burning, lovingly crafted documentary with a melancholy undertow, The Monastery benefits from a wonderfully eccentric protagonist. JorgenLauersen Vig is an 82-year-old Dane whose last goal in life is to turnhis castle into a monastery. If Spike Milligan and Andrei ...
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News
BAFTA reaches for operatic heights
If you are looking for a Wagnerian spectacle, the next Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) may well provide it.
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News
International rescue: UIP's history and new reorganisation
'If there is any growth in this business globally it's in international,' says Tim Bevan of the UK's Working Title Films. One company that has consistently underlined the truth in Bevan's remark over the last 25 years is United International Pictures (UIP).In late 1981, when UIP was formed in London, ...
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News
Michael Apted: master of adaptability
Michael Apted is something of a chameleon of the film world: the 65-year-old director changes colours with remarkable facility. On the one hand, he is a member of the Hollywood establishment - a Brit who has blossomed in the studio system and currently serves as president of the Director's Guild. ...
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Reviews
4 Elements
Dir/scr: Jiska Rickels. Neth. 2006. 89mins.Jiska Rickels' makes an impressive debut with feature-documentary 4 Elements, a self-consciously poetic film essay that has limited narration and little in the way of dialogue. Consisting of four self-contained segments, each representing one of the four elements - fire, water, earth and air - ...
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Reviews
Miss Potter
Dir: Chris Noonan. UK-US. 2006. 93mins.A period feature about a popular children's writer enduring a traumatic life, Chris Noonan's Miss Potter may follow in the footsteps of Shadowlands (about CS Lewis) and Marc Forster's Finding Neverland (about JM Barrie), but it lacks the emotional depth of either. Very handsomely crafted, ...
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Reviews
Dragon Tiger Gate (Lung Fu Mun)
Dir: Wilson Yip. HK. 2006.94mins.Adapted from a popular comic book, Dragon Tiger Gate is a slick butsuperficial martial arts adventure that boasts tremendous fight sequences(choreographed by co-star and co-producer Donnie Yen), colourful productiondesign and appealing central performances that cannot mask the flimsy andderivative storytelling.The film has already openedrobustly in Asia ...
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Reviews
Notes On A Scandal
Dir: Richard Eyre. UK-US.2006. 91mins.Judi Dench's superbperformance galvanises Notes On A Scandal, Richard Eyre's impressive and acutelyobserved adaptation of the Booker-nominated novel. Probing away relentlessly atsuch uncomfortable issues as paedophilia, class envy, sexual jealousy andblackmail, it is a film that has the same queasy, claustrophobic feel as such 1960sBritish films ...
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News
Danes dominate IFDA doc prizes
The 19th International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), proveda triumph for Danish documentary makers.IDFA's most prestigious prize, The VPRO Joris Ivens Award, went to Danish feature doc The Monastery - Mr Vig And The Nun, directed byPernille Rose Gronkjaer. (The Monastery was also selected last weekfor The World Cinema Documentary Competition ...
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News
Greenaway plans doc and game after Nightwatching
Peter Greenaway is preparingJ'Accuse, an 80-minute featuredocumentary and a computer game to complement his new film Nightwatching, which recently finished shooting in Poland and Wales (and is being sold internationally by ContentFilm.)Both the doc and thecomputer game are being produced by Amsterdam-based Submarine, run by FemkeWolting and Bruno Felix. The ...
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News
IDFA launches with film by new talent Rickels
The 19th InternationalDocumentary Film Festival Amsterdam began last night (Thursday) with ascreening of Jiska Rickels' 4 Elements. The film, a debut feature, was producedand partly financed by Black Book producer San Fu Maltha through his company FuWorks. Along with 17 other feature documentaries, it is in contention forIDFA's most prestigious ...
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News
Almodovar and Loach head EFA nominations
Nominations for the European Film Awards were announced on November 4, with Pedro Almodovar's Volver leading the field, appearing in six of the seven major categories. The Wind That Shakes The Barley , which surprised many by taking beating the much-fancied Volver for the Palm d'Or, has five nominations, including ...
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News
Producers warn next Bond film may be shot outside UK
There is no guarantee that the next James Bond film will shoot in the UK. That was the message today from Casino Royale producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli."We're going to have to make that decision again," Wilson toldScreenDaily. "London is the most expensive city in the world ...