Small MPU – Page 281
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Reviews
Absolument Fabuleux
Dir: Gabriel Aghion. France. 2001. 105 mins.A French feature film remake of the iconic BBC TV series, Absolument Fabuleux replaces its source material's uniquely vivacious humour with hamfisted slapstick and overcooked farce. Despite many inventive touches and amusing French renderings of the series' hallmarks, it suffers acutely in the translation. ...
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News
Deanna Sanchez joins Myriad in business affairs
Deanna Sanchez has joined Myriad Pictures in Los Angeles as director of business affairs. She will be responsible for managing in-house business, operational and legal matters covering all aspects of theatrical features from development through distribution.She reports directly to David Miercourt, Myriad's senior vice president of business affairs.Prior to joining ...
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Reviews
Vidocq
Dir: Pitof. France. 100 mins.Last season it was Brotherhood Of The Wolf, a prototype for a new kind of European popular cinema, that attempted to makeover a French costume drama with the idiomatic layering of genre set-pieces (martial arts action movie, monster movie, etc.). This season we get Vidocq, a ...
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Reviews
Prozac Nation
Dir: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. US. 2001. 98 mins.As if proof were needed, Christina Ricci proves she is one of her generation's most fearless actors with a bold and nuanced performance in Prozac Nation, the film of Elizabeth Wurtzel's autobiographical book about youthful depression. Virtually on screen for the film's entire 98 ...
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News
German private film fund names strategic partners
Indigo Film, Claussen + Woebke Filmproduktion and Calypso Film have been named as the first strategic partners of the Berlin-based private media fund German Film Productions (GFP), which plans to raise Euros 11m for the financing of German language feature films and TV movies.According to GFP, "letters of intent" have ...
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News
French films see 40% leap in foreign revenues
Foreign theatrical revenues for French-language films has leapt 40% during the first seven months of 2001 compared to the same period last year.According to a Unifrance report, Germany saw the strongest rise (178%), of the seven countries considered (Germany, Spain, the US, the UK, Italy, Quebec and Switzerland) which together ...
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News
BSkyB goes all-digital as Vivendi sells 23% stake
Vivendi Universal has handed over its 23% stake in Europe's richest pay-TV group BSkyB to an unnamed investment firm, believed to be Deutsche Bank.The move came only hours before BSkyB announced that it would switch off its analogue signal at midnight (Sept 27), some 15 months ahead of its planned ...
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News
Canada's tax change closes expensive loophole
Toronto and London-based Grosvenor Park and Vancouver-based Sentinel Hill Alliance Atlantis Equicap Limited Partnership (SHAAELP), in which Alliance Atlantis Corp. holds a 30% stake, are two of the Canadian-based companies expected to be hardest hit by the Canadian government's closure in Jan 2002, of a loophole in its tax law ...
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News
Tokyo film fest selects 14th edition competitors
The 14th edition of the Tokyo Film Festival, which screens 140 films between October 27 and November 4, has selected the 14 films which will compete for the $42,700 (Y5m) Grand Prix and the $11,300 (Y2m) Jury Prize.Among the films in competition are Michel Gondry's Human Nature, starring Tim Robbins ...
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News
A.I. tops UK box office chart
Warner Bros. scored another hit in the UK at the weekend when A.I. Artificial Intelligence took the top chart position with $3.3m (£2.3m) from 428 sites, including previews of $424,616. With a site average of $7,819 the Steven Spielberg film had a strong opening weekend, the distributors second highest of ...
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News
Kathy Morgan reelected to chair of AFMA
Kathy Morgan, the veteran sales agent and head of Kathy Morgan International, was re-elected chairman of AFMA (aka the American Film Marketing Association) yesterday during the group's annual membership meeting. She will serve another two-year term alongside other newly elected vice chairman Robert Meyers of Meyers Film Entertainment and newly ...
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News
Hamburg's Digi@ward goes to Danish KAT
Filmfest Hamburg's first Digi@ward in recognition of the use of digital technology in film has gone to Henrik Danstrup, producer of Danish filmmaker Martin Schmidt's psycho-thriller KAT. Described as a cross between Cat People and Nightwatch, KAT received the first prize worth $30,652 (DM 65,000) and the promise of additional ...
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News
Vidocq tops French chart after slow start
After a slow start, UGC high-tech period/fantasy title Vidocq has attracted over 740,000 admissions in its first five days, topping the French charts at Sept 23The $21.4m (Ffr152m) title -- a first film by SFX specialist Pitof, which stars Gerard Depardieu and Guillaume Canet and was entirely digitally produced - ...
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News
Germany's H5B5 to make Oma Porat biopic
German media group H5B5 Media has acquired the exclusive rights to produce a biopic based on the eventful life of Israeli actress Orna Porat.Born as Irena Kline in Germany, she came to fame on the German stage in the 1930s and was an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth. Later, ...
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News
Premiere World carrying Fox News Channel
In response to the recent tragic events in the US, Germany's digital platform Premiere World has decided to carry the Fox News Channel from September 25 until further notice. "In view of the currently tense political situation, we want to offer our viewers a comfortable and direct access to US ...
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News
Drought and political conditions halt Indian fest
The 32nd edition of the International Film Festival of India has been cancelled due to a combination of worsening local weather conditions and the international political situation.The itinerant festival had been scheduled this year to be held in Bangalore (10-20 Oct) in Karnataka province. But the region has been struck ...
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News
Five nods each for three British films at BIFA
Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast, Joel Hopkins' Jump Tomorrow and Richard Parry's South West Nine lead the nominations for the fourth British Independent Film Awards held in London on Oct 24. Sexy Beast, one of the highlights of the recent resurrection of the British gangster genre, garnered a total of five ...
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News
Clouzot commits to Cannes Critics Week reforms
In Claire Clouzot, the Cannes Critics Week has appointed a new head who has vowed to continue the reforms of her predecessor Jose Maria Riba. Riba quit in a storm of dissent and his departure was followed by the exit of other leading members.Clouzot, the niece of Les Diaboliques director ...
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News
DVD fever spreads across European markets
The Charlie Chaplin classic The Great Dictator will be the closing film on February 17 at this year's Berlinale with members of the Chaplin family in attendance.In addition, a gala screening is being given of the director's cut of Milos Forman's 1984 Oscar-winning film Amadeus in the festival's Official Competition ...
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News
Moritzen appointed at Danish Film Institute
Marianne Moritzen has been appointed new head of development at the department for Production & Development at the Danish Film Institute following former head Lars Hermann's decision to move on to manage Egmont-owned Nordisk Film's new conglomeration of it's post-production in FilmTeknik A/S. Form Oct.1 she will be responsible for ...