Small MPU – Page 276
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Reviews
Tosca
Dir: Benoit Jacquot. France-Italy-Germany-UK. 2001. 120mins.The latest director to accept the challenge of filming opera - a notoriously difficult genre - is French director Benoit Jacquot (Sade, Pas de Scandale). Jacquot has taken on Puccini's Tosca - a smart choice, as it is not only a crowd-pleaser, but also one ...
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Reviews
Light Of My Eyes (Luce Dei Miei Occhi)
Dir: Giuseppe Piccioni. Italy. 2001. 108mins.In the run-up to Venice there were hopes that Giuseppe Piccioni might pull off the big one-two for Italian cinema, after Nanni Moretti's Cannes success. But the optimism soon evaporated. Not that Light Of My Eyes is a bad film; it's just that it fails ...
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Reviews
One Man Up (L'Uomo In Piu)
Dir: Paolo Sorrentino. Italy. 2001. 100mins.Paolo Sorrentino's first full-length feature, which screened in the Cinema del Presente competition at Venice, shows promise. Its tight budget is betrayed by the flat, TV-style camerawork and one or two amateurish moments; and it is quite a conventional work to come out of ...
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Reviews
Hollywood, Hong Kong
Dir: Fruit Chan. Hong Kong, Japan, UK, France. 2001. 108 mins.Director Fruit Chan is living proof that there is more to Hong Kong cinema than Kung Fu actioners. Hollywood, Hong Kong is the second of a planned trilogy of films dealing with prostitutes from mainland China; the first was Durian, ...
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Reviews
Lovely And Amazing
Dir: Nicole Holofcener. US. 2001. 90 minutesNicole Holofcener's Lovely And Amazing, her second picture, goes for the same art-house audience that supported her impressive 1996 debut Walking And Talking, and will probably reach the same modest level of success. It's a clever and witty movie, about such contemporary issues as ...
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Reviews
Sex And Lucia (Lucia Y El Sexo)
Dir: Julio Medem. Spain. 2001. 127mins.Although Sex And Lucia (Lucia Y El Sexo) lives up to its name and won't disappoint audiences looking for erotic material, it is first and foremost a romantic film, weaving a captivating tale which ends on a pleasingly optimistic note after dropping to some pretty ...
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News
Italy's Telepiu and Stream merger threatened
Italy's antitrust watchdog has cast a deep shadow over the planned merger of Italian cable TV giants, Telepiu and Stream. Despite widespread industry confidence that the merger would receive swift regulatory approval, the antitrust authority has opened an investigation into the deal which had been agreed by the pay-TV groups' ...
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News
...as European merger & acquisition activity dives
Merger and acquisitions (m&a) activity in Europe's media sector boomed during 2000, but is set to halve in the current year, being replaced by traditional alliances and joint-ventures. A new report from the corporate finance arm of accounting giant Andersen says that consolidation between firms and convergence of old and ...
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News
Stars cancel San Sebastian appearances
Julie Andrews, who was scheduled to receive the Donostia Award at this year' s San Sebastian International Film Festival, has cancelled her trip to Spain "in light of the recent events" in New York and Washington. The festival, which begins next Thursday and runs through September 29, issued a statement ...
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News
Mueller prepares international production slate
Marco Mueller, producer of Babak Payami's Venice prize winner Secret Ballot and executive producer of Sarajevo winner and Cannes favourite No Man's Land, says he will soon start producing Italian feature films in addition to lining up South American and African titles for the production slate that will launch his ...
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News
Spain's Ensueno reveals grand co-production plans
Ensueno Films, the fledgling film division of Spanish free-to-air broadcaster Antena 3 Television, has confirmed plans to co-produce as many as ten feature films per year.So far this year, the company, which launched in November 2000, says it has invested more than $27.6m (pts 5,100m) in the co-production or acquisition ...
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News
Mediaset posts first half profit dip of 3.3%
Mediaset, the leading private Italian broadcaster founded by Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, has posted first half losses in gross profits of 3.3% to Euros 450.3m. The company's consolidated balance, however, was up 6% to Euros 500.3m, with total turnover rising 6.5% to Euros 1.37 billion.Meanwhile, the broadcaster posted record audience ...
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News
Two Spanish festivals announce programmes
The Gijon International Film Festival (Nov 23-30) and the Valencia Mediterranean Film Showcase (Oct 18-25) have both unveiled the first details of their forthcoming editions.Continuing its focus on international independent cinema, Gijon is planning retrospectives of Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin, New York filmmaker Richard Kern and Japanese director Seijun ...
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News
BBC, BSkyB get development approval
The Independent Television Commission has given the go-ahead for BSkyB to offer a full range of multichannel TV service over networks in Britain, on top of its existing digital satellite service. BskyB's arrival into the UK TV market will significantly increase existing competition between existing operators like ITV Digital, owned ...
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News
Germany's VCL restructures subsidiary Scanbox
Germany's VCL Film + Medien has begun a finance restructuring of its subsidiary Scanbox Entertainment after talks with Danish banks to increase credit facilities ended without results. As a consequence, VCL and Scanbox's board agreed to transfer all operational assets of Scanbox into a new 100% subsidiary. An ad-hoc release ...
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News
The Hole attracts Italian audiences
UK production The Hole is turning heads at the Italian box office where it continues to perform well despite strong competition from Hollywood fare including Jurassic Park III, Heartbreakers and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. After opening on August 31 for a debut weekend gross of $440,000 (L 944.7m), the ...
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News
London Film Festival secures major premieres
Robert Altman's Gosford Park will world premiere as opening night film at November's London Film Festival, while Iain Softley's K-PAX will close proceedings as an international premiere.Marking something of a coup for the festival, Gosford Park is the biggest budget film supported by Governement-backed UK support body the Film ...
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Reviews
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too)
Dir: Alfonso Cuaron. Mexico. 2001. 105 mins. After working successfully for a decade in the US, Alfonso Cuaron returns briefly to his homeland, abandoning the highly crafted look of his two Hollywood studio features, A Little Princess and Great Expectations, to make a vibrant, gritty road movie which is also ...
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News
Bridget Jones's Diary crosses $200m worldwide
Bridget Jones's Diary was set to cross the $200m barrier in worldwide box office this weekend as it continues to pull in audiences across the globe. With an international running total of $125.4m to add to its $71.5m North American receipts, the romantic comedy needed to make just $3.05m internationally ...
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News
French box office heads for vintage year
2001 is looking likely to become a vintage year for the French cinema sector. Since January 1, admissions in the territory have reached 122 million, a 9.9% increase on the same period last year.According to estimates by the CNC (Centre National de la Cinematographie) French films have enjoyed a 42.5% ...