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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 184
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News
The Sun rises in Japan for The Works
On the eve of thisyear's Toronto Festival, UK sales agent The Works has closed a deal with Japanfor Alexander Sokurov's The Sun, his film about Emperor Hirohito's last days of power beforeJapan's surrender to the US in 1945. Kabocha hastaken Japanese rights to The Sun and will be giving it ...
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Reviews
Goal!
Dir: Danny Cannon. UK.2005 110minsGoal! is the first episode in a planned football trilogyabout a 19-year-old Latino Santiago plucked from LA to play in the EnglishPremiership. The second film - to be shot by House Of Wax director JaumeCollet Serra from next month - will see him play on a ...
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News
Sienna Miller signs for Golconda's Camille
Golconda Films, the London-based production and financing company headed by Gregory Mackenzie and Brett Walsh, has recruited rising British actress Sienna Miller to star in its forthcoming dark comedy, Camille. Harvey Keitel is also attached to the project, to be exec-produced by Charles Finch. The UK-Canadian co-production is in advanced ...
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Reviews
Citizen Dog (Ma Nakorn)
Dir/scr: WisitSarasatieng. Thai-Fr. 2004. 100mins.Co-produced by LucBesson's EuropaCorp, Wisit Sasanatieng's follow-up to Tears Of The BlackTiger is a film of undeniable charm: a romantic fantasy already touted bysome as a Thai equivalent to Amelie. Shot in the same iridescent coloursas Black Tiger, full of surrealistic humour and musical interludes, itis ...
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Reviews
The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes
Dirs: The Brothers Quay.UK-Ger-Fr. 2005. 99mins.A decade after theirdebut feature Institute Benjamenta (1994), Stephen and Timothy Quay havemade their second full-length film. As one might expect from film-makers widelyacknowledged as masters of stop-motion and miniaturisation, this is a richlydetailed affair. It is crammed full of literary, cinematic and fine artreferences. ...
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News
Jeremy Thomas readies Royle's Director's Cut
Britishproducer Jeremy Thomas, who picks up the Locarno Film Festival's prestigiousRaimondo Rezzonico award today, has revealed further details of what looks setto be his second film as a director.The Director's Cut is an adaptation of NicholasRoyle's novel. Royle has already written a draft of the screenplay and Thomashopes to shoot ...
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News
Dellal readies On A Clear Day follow-ups
British filmmaker Gaby Dellal, whose film On A Clear Dayscreened to an enthusiastic response at the Locarno Film Festival at theweekend, is to team up with producers Dorothy Berwin and Sarah Curtis on asecond project. The new film, again to be scripted by Alex Rose, has theworking title Excess Baggage. ...
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Reviews
20 Centimetres (20 Centimentros)
Dir/scr: Ramon Salazar.Sp-Fr. 2005. 113mins.A bawdy, picaresque Spanish yarn about a transvestite whoyearns for a sex change operation (she has 20cm she wishes to dispense with -hence the title), Ramon Salazar's second feature carries obvious echoes of theearly work of Pedro Almodovar. There is the same irreverent humour, a sharedfascination ...
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News
Grosvenor Park weighs in behind Highlander trilogy
The new trilogy of Highlander films being prepared byDavis-Panzer Productions and Sequence Films are to use a "one-stop"financing structure created by Grosvenor Park.Highlander V,budgeted between $12-$14m, is due to start shooting in Lithuania inOctober. Although there will be some Lithuanian backing, Grosvenor Park is effectively fully financing theproject. Bret Leonard ...
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News
Da Vinci Code set to join Maltese influx
The Malta FilmCommission Act, which came into force on July 15, has already attracted a raftof high-profile international films to the island, led by Steven Spielberg's Munichand now a confirmed one-week shoot for The Da Vinci Code thisNovember.Under the terms of theAct, the Malta Film Commission is empowered to grant ...
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News
UK announces new tax proposals: Section 42 to go
The UK Government has signaled its intent to do awaywith Section 42 as well as Section 48 in a set of long-awaited proposals fornew tax incentives for the British film industry. In future, low- andhigh-budget films would be be dealt with under a "single coherent regime".At the same time, the ...
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Reviews
On A Clear Day
Dir: Gaby Dellal. UK2005. 99mins.British cinema has alwaysloved its underdogs. Gaby Dellal's big-hearted debut feature is yet anotheryarn about a small-timer fighting back against a society that marginalises him.In this case, the protagonist is a 55-year-old newly unemployed Glaswegian whostrives to redeem his life by swimming the English Channel.Confidently directed, ...
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News
UK announces new tax proposals: Section 42 to go
The UK Government has signaledits intent to do away with Section 42 as well as Section 48 in a set of long-awaitedproposals for new tax incentives for the British film industry. In future, low-and high-budget films would be bedealt with under a "single coherent regime".At the same time, theDepartment for ...
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News
UK Film Council boss responds to 'unrealistic' Kuhn speech
UK FilmCouncil chief executive John Woodward has written a strongly worded letter toMichael Kuhn following the ex-Polygram Filmed Entertainment boss' speech to UKproducer's association, PACT. In his Mayspeech, titled 'UK Film Crisis And What Can Be Done', Kuhn argued that Britishproducers currently face the "bleakest prospects" since the mid-1980s.In ...
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Reviews
The Skeleton Key
Dir: Iain Softley. US.2005. 104mins.Iain Softley'sLouisiana-set The Skeleton Key is a horror film which does not alwaysseem to know which doors it is trying to unlock. The film is at once apsychological chiller in similar vein to Amenabar's The Others, a ratheroverwrought and inadvertently comic slice of Southern Gothic, and ...
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Reviews
Festival
Dir/scr: Annie Griffin.UK. 2005 107mins.Festival is a deceptive affair. Early on, as we're introduced to agallery of aspiring comedians and actors, Annie Griffin's debut feature looksset to turn into a grating celebration of the Edinburgh Festival (the largestarts festival in the world) in all its full carnivalesque glory. There issomething ...
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Reviews
The Descent
Dir/scr: Neil Marshall.UK. 2005. 96mins.The Descent, Neil Marshall's follow-up to 2002 hit DogSoldiers, is superior British genre fare: unashamedly gory but handsomelycrafted and inventive too, and with some gallows humour to leaven the moreextreme moments. Marshall's influences are wide-ranging. He has pitched thefilm as 'Deliverance goes underground', but he seems ...
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News
London Film Focus closes on a high
The second London UK Film Focus (LUFF) has closed on a generally upbeat note.Screenings were well attended and buyers clearly supported the event, which nowlooks set to become an annual fixture in the calendar"I do think we've stepped up a rung this year. The quality of the filmswas better by ...
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News
Rourke, Nighy, McGregor enlist for Stormbreaker
An impressive cast isgathering for the $40m-plus teen superspy adventure Stormbreaker, whichbegins shooting in the Isle of Man next week.Alex Pettyfer (pictured), who was TomBrown in UK TV series Tom Brown's Schooldays, will play 14-year-old specialagent Alex Rider. Mickey Rourke will star as Alex's nemesis, megalomaniacbusinessman Darrius Sayle. Bill Nighy ...