Small MPU – Page 1214
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Reviews
At Five In The Afternoon (Panj E Asr)
Dir: Samira Makhmalbaf. Iran-France. 2003. 106minsAlthough dialogue-heavy longueurs that are endemic to Iranian cinema will make Samira Makhmalbaf's film - which won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes - trying for some, adepts will welcome it with open arms. It is filmed in traditional Makhmalbafian family style, in which ...
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News
The Cave opens Utrecht on young, local note
Martin Koolhoven's The Cave (De Grot) is to open this year's Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht.This is the second year running that the festival, this year celebrating its 21st edition, has chosen a film by a young local director to kick off proceedings. Last time out, the festival opened with ...
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News
France's Le Sabre readies English-language slate
French high-end TV production outfit Le Sabre is preparing four English-language film projects, including Cheri, to star Jessica Lange, and a $16m ice age epic The Mammoth Hunters. The company is part of the Expand group, which has just been taken over by StudioCanal (see Screendaily, June 18).Lange herself initiated ...
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News
PACT, Equity draw lines in payment negotiations
UK producers body PACT yesterday appeared to be sticking to its line that it would not agree to profit sharing for actors, despite claims from performer's union Equity that it had "dropped its objections in principle" to additional payments for its members.The assertion was made by Andy Prodger, Equity's assistant ...
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News
Kinowelt shares go into freefall on Neuer Markt
No end seems to be in sight for the downward slide of troubled German media concern Kinowelt Medien's shares, which went into freefall yesterday (June 19) on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt. By the close of business, shares in the company stood 25.37% down on the previous day at Euros2.50.The business news ...
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News
Gershon, Nielsen, Sevigny to star in Demonlover
Gladiator's Connie Nielsen, American indie muse Chloe Sevigny and Showgirls star Gina Gershon are to join the cast of Demonlover, a French-produced thriller to be directed by festival favourite Olivier Assayas.Producer Edouard Weil, co-founder of up-and-coming production company Elisabeth Films, confirmed that the trio of US actresses will begin shooting ...
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News
Overseas cinema triumphs at Newport festival
Foreign-language features dominated the prize-giving ceremony at the Newport International Film Festival, with the best feature award going to Japanese director Masato Harada's haunting horror-romance, Inugami.Together, by Swedish director Lukas Moodyson, took the runner-up jury award in the feature competition. A special mention went to the French film Girls Can't ...
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News
Apocalypse Now takes centre stage at Taormina
Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now Redux will screen at the Taormina Film Festival on July 4 in the Sicilian town's spectacular 7,000 seater Greek amphitheatre. Other high-profile titles at the non-competitive festival, which runs June 29-July 7, include Ivan Reitman's Evolution and Michael Apted's Enigma. On July 4, the ...
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News
Germany's Brainpool expands overseas web
German comedy powerhouse Brainpool TV has taken another step in its strategy of establishing an international network of companies, acquiring 50% of French light entertainment outfit Show Devant Productions (SDP).Together with its Swiss subsidiary Gregoire Furrer Productions (GFP), Brainpool paid $2.6m for the stake in SDP. Half of this is ...
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News
Indie Get Over It takes on studio heavyweights
Although still led by seasonal behemoths Pearl Harbor and The Mummy Returns the UK box office is coming under attack from strong releases from independent distributors such as Momentum's Get Over It. Taking advantage of audiences looking for an alternative to the summer blockbusters, both major and independent distributors are ...
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Reviews
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Dir: Steven Spielberg.US. 2001. 144 minAlways captivating towatch, and often emotionally touching, Steven Spielberg's A.I.: ArtificialIntelligence is one of hismost ambitious, intelligent, and problematic films, and not only due to itsvaliant effort to blend two disparate cinematic sensibilities. Easily thissummer's most eagerly awaited movie, A.I. qualifies as a media ...
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News
Thomas Garry joins Lew Horwitz Organization
Thomas Garry has been named vice president and entertainment banker at LA-based independent film lending outfit The Lewis Horwitz Organization. Garry, formerly with Union Bank Of California and Sumitomo Bank, joins after arranging financing at Union Bank for films including Three Kings, End Of Days, The Hurricane, Nurse Betty, Thirteen ...
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News
Schneider quits as Disney studio chairman
Peter Schneider has stepped down as chairman of Walt Disney Studios less than one week after Atlantis:The Lost Empire suffered the lowestsummer opening box office gross in the US of any Disney cartoon feature since GreatMouse Detective, which came out justa year after he first joined the studio's animation division ...
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Reviews
The Fast And The Furious
Dir: Rob Cohen. US. 2001. 108 mins.From the first frame to the last, Rob Cohen's The Fast And The Furious is a B- movie, elevated by A-level stunt work and roaring cars that test the limit, but dragged down to C-level characterisation with a formulaic plot and schematic hero, anti-hero ...
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News
Telefonica weathers stock market buffeting
Spanish giant Telefonica looks set to emerge from a rocky week on the stock exchange with solid new plans for future media and telecoms growth in Latin America and Spain.Mirroring telecoms companies' performances across Europe, shares in Telefonica dipped dramatically over the last week in response to concerns that its ...
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News
European exhibition sector heads for firm ground
The western European exhibition sector may at last be starting to reach an even keel, according to a new report by film industry analyst Dodona Research. While screen growth in the region is set to slow to a trickle over the next four years, cinema admissions will continue to rise ...
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UIP leads international summer race
UIP's Shrek and Bridget Jones's Diary have entered the summer races in the international markets against early leaders, fellow UIP release The Mummy Returns and BVI's Pearl Harbor, although these two behemoths still hold many of the major territories.Shrek, the DreamWorks-produced animated hit, which became the first film to cross ...
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Canadians embracing satellite as cable subs slip
Canadians are embracing satellite delivery of television services, with the sector growing by more than 500% over the past five years, according to figures released by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). There are just under 1m customers with satellite dishes or multipoint distribution systems, up from just over ...
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Bob Levin named MGM distribution & marketing chief
Bob Levin, the former head of marketing at both Sony Pictures and The Walt Disney Co, has been named president, worldwide theatrical marketing and distribution, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Distribution Co, uniting into a single job the posts currently held by Larry Gleason, head of worldwide distribution, and Gerry Rich, head ...
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News
$17m Hero to bring together top Asian talent
Of all the film projects floated at last week's Shanghai International Film Festival, the most mouthwatering had to be Zhang Yimou's $17m Hero, a 'wuxia'-inspired historical adventure that is set to bring together many of Asia's top talents, both in front and behind the camera when shooting starts as early ...