Small MPU – Page 430
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News
Messier wins again in quest for severance from Universal
Former Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier scoredanother round of victory in his ongoing battle to secure a severance payment onMonday in New York. Following an arbitration court's decision that Messier was owed$23.5 million in exit monies and Vivendi Universal's appeal against thefindings, state supreme court justice Marilyn Shafer said the ...
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UK/IRELAND
Optimum Releasing saw a strong debut for its Oscar-winning Japanese animated feature Spirited Away this weekend. Hayao Miyazaki's blockbuster fantasy opened in 13th place in the UK/Ireland top 20 with a good $4,800 (£2,990) average.In Ireland alone, it placed 15th but scored a powerful average of $6,710 (Euros 5,939) after ...
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Reviews
8.17pm, Darling Street (20.17, Rue Darling)
Dir: Bernard Emond. Canada. 2003. 101minsInexplicable tragedy prompts a soul-searching quest for the meaning of life in 8.17pm Darling Street, a modestly effective but resolutely glum second feature from writer-director Bernard Emond whose debut, La Femme Qui Boit also screened in Critics' Week in 2001. Addressing the guilt of those ...
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Reviews
Sansa
Dir: Siegfried. France. 2003. 115minsSansa wants to be a profound and moving cinematic experience, perhaps something like a hyped-up tone poem. It is even called 'an essay' rather than a film. Toward that end, writer-director Siegfried employs every trick he can that is available in the panoply of the ...
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Reviews
Arimpara
Dir: Murali Nair. India-Jap. 2003. 90minsDirector Murali Nair's Throne Of Death and A Dog's Day were feted at Cannes, the former with the coveted Camera d'Or for best first feature. But Arimpara, which screened in Un Certain Regard, has not gone down so well, and it certainly has its problems. ...
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Reviews
The Soul Of A Man
Dir: Wim Wenders. Germany. 2003. 100minsWim Wenders' The Soul Of A Man, which screened earlier this year at Sundance and played at Cannes as a special screening, is the first in a series of seven films about that quintessential American art form, the blues. Other notable directors taking part are ...
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News
Hilltop debut slate boasts Miller, Leven
In an attempt to become a new supplier of studio-level pictures, Hilltop Entertainment has unveiled a debut slate featuring Gone To Earth - the second film from director Rebecca Miller starring Oscar nominee Samantha Morton - and Lovers Liars And Thieves which marks the first feature from writer/director Jeremy Leven ...
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Reviews
A Little Bit Of Freedom
Dir: Yuksel Yavuz. Germany. 2003. 101minsAwell-intentioned attempt to explore the fate of Kurdish immigrants, both legal and illegal, living on the streets of Hamburg and the illusion of freedom they enjoy there, Yuksel Yavuz's second feature seeks to cover too much ground and ultimately delivers too little for its efforts. ...
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Reviews
La Chose Publique
Dir: Mathieu Amalric. France. 2003. 85minsAnd you thought they didn't make them like this any more' an old-fashioned political essay in film-on-film, the latest from director Mathieu Amalric - better known as an actor, though he does not cast himself here - wears its Godard influences proudly on its sleeve, ...
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Reviews
Mike Brant: Laisse Moi T'Aimer
Dir. Erez Laufer. Israel/France. 2002. 101mins.A natural for French markets, this account of the meteoric rise and fatal crash of Israeli performer Mike Brant, who became one of Paris's shiniest stars in the early 1970s, is more than a nostalgia piece. Instead it plays as a cautionary tale about a ...
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News
SWITZERLAND
Buena Vista International scored a hit in the German region of Switzerland this weekend with its release of UK film Calendar Girls. The first territory outside the UK to receive the film (on the same weekend it went wide at home) Switzerland proved a good start for the comedy which ...
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Reviews
Raja
Dir: Jacques Doillon. France-Morocco. 2003. 112mins.The latest excursion by the director of Ponette - which scooped a Venice Best Actress prize in 1996 for underage star Victoire Thivisol - is a prickly and at times inaccessible meditation on the nature of colonial and sexual power in present-day Morocco. Though its ...
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Reviews
The Boys From County Clare
Dir: John Irvin. Ireland/UK/Germany. 2003. 90 minsWarm in spirit but slight in terms of substance, The Boys From County Clare is a lightweight period charmer. Attractively photographed and ably performed, it is a nice little inoffensive film that lacks the bite or grit to make much headway in theatrical terms. ...
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News
UK Film Council calls on distributors to apply for support
The UK Film Council has called on film distribution companies planning to release British films at UK cinemas between Dec 1 and March 31, 2004 to apply for support from its UK Film Distribution Programme.The £1m funding programme is retrospective and aims to reward distributors who release British films in ...
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ITALY
BVI's Johnny Depp vehicle Pirates Of The Caribbean continued its stellar performance at the Italian box office on its second weekend, grossing a massive screen average of $6,056 from 531 screens, which brings its running total to $11,968,867.Medusa's newcomer Confidence, a thriller starring Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman and ...
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News
Michell embarks on Enduring Love shoot
Shooting has started on Enduring Love, an adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel directed by Roger Michell. Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans and Samantha Morton star in the project, produced by Free Range Films and backed by Pathe Pictures, Inside Track, FilmFour, Ingenious Media and the UK Film Council. Pathe Distribution will ...
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News
Veteran Russian director shoots with terrorist biopic
One of Russia's most well known directors Karen Shakhnazarov is in production on a new film that takes the audience inside the mind of the world's earliest terrorist's.The Pale Horse, based on the life of Russian author and terrorist movement leader Boris Savinkov, is produced by Mosfilm Cinema Concern and ...
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News
AFM: Harrison Ford drops out of Traffic
Harrison Ford has dropped out of Traffic, the highly publicised drug trafficking movie to which Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) bought international rights last week. Director Steven Soderbergh, domestic distributor Fox Searchlight and IEG are already talking to other major male stars with a view to replacing him and are hoping ...
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UK producers pair up for Magic Light Pictures
UK producers Martin Pope and Michael Rose have joined forces to launch a new UK based film company Magic Light Pictures which they will jointly own and run.Specialising in comedy and family entertainment, Magic Light Pictures aims to produce talent driven, quality feature films for a worldwide, commercial audience - ...
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Hot Swedish newcomer readies Disease debut
Swedish newcomer Daniel Espinosa will make his feature debut under Nordisk Film's low-budget label, Director's Cut, with Babylonsjukan (literally The Babylon Disease), a look at the world as seen through the eyes of a thirteen year-old girl in Stockholm. The film will be the first of its kind in Sweden, ...