Small MPU – Page 556
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News
Warner Bros, Italia head appointed president of Anica
PaoloFerrari, the head of Warner Bros. Italia, has been appointed president of Anica, Italy's national film body.Hereplaces Gianni Massaro, the Italian entertainmentlawyer and former head of European production fund Eurimages,who has lead Anica since 2001.Ferrariwill head the powerful Italian organization until the end of 2007."Ihave a specific task, which is ...
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News
Eagle unwraps theatrical slate; $60m drama
In a bid to stamp its mark on Italy's turbulent distribution scene, recapitalised distributor Eagle Pictures has unveiled its first full theatrical slate and also announced development of $60m medical drama, The Lazarus Child.Eagle secured a $300m war chest to invest in film and TV productions and acquisitions last year ...
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Kelly Reichardt, Manuel Nieto Zas and Han Jie win Tigers
Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, Manuel Nieto Zas's The Dog Poundand Walking On The Wild Side, by Han Jie, have won the three VPRO Tiger Awards at this year'sRotterdam International Film Festival.A total of 14 films competed forthe awards, which are given annually to first or second-time film-makers. The 35th Rotterdam ...
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Ireland revamps production tax breaks
A vociferous chorus of approval has greeted the Irishfinance minister's radical overhaul of the Section 481 tax break for filmproduction. The maximum threshold for Irish spend has been raised from 55%-66%to 80% of budget, for all productions irrespective of size. And the cap on thetotal amount that may be raised ...
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Istvan Szabo defends past involvement with communist police
Friday morning at Budapest's Millenium Theatre, Istvan Szabo spoke with journalists in an attempt to shed morelight on his involvement with the state police in the 1950s.With classmates Judit Elek,Eva Singer Karmento, Zsolt Kezdi-Kovacs and Janos Rosza, Szabo related thecircumstances that led to his unwilling cooperation with the communistauthorities: Police ...
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Shooting yet to start on Luhrmann's Australian epic
Actor Russell Crowe is talking about it on red carpets, manyare hoping that principal photography will start in July or August, but thereis still no green light from 20th Century Fox for a fourth feature by Baz Luhrmann.Crowe and Nicole Kidman are billed as the leads and insiderssay that Catherine ...
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Argentinian New Wave looks beyond home for financing
During the 1990s, awave of young film-makers emerged in Argentina who gained comparison on thefestival circuit with similar movements in Iran, Hong Kong, Thailand, Finlandand South Korea.Now severaldirectors from the group known as New Argentine Cinema - such as LisandroAlonso (The Dead), Martin Rejtman (Silvia Prieto) and Lucrecia Martel (Holy ...
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Reviews
Curious George
Dir: Matthew OCallaghan. US. 2005. 77mins.Curious George, the mischievous monkey known togenerations of kids from the classic picture books by Margretand H A Rey, finally makes it to the big screen inthis slight but sweet animated tale from Imagine and Universal.Aimed firmly at youngerchildren (probably in the three- to eight-year-old ...
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Reviews
Firewall (Firewall)
Dir: Richard Loncraine. US. 2005. 100mins.Though it boasts a rare star turn by Harrison Fordand a strong supporting cast, Firewallis a kidnap thriller that's driven more by its high tech gadgets than by itsunder-pressure characters. Ford's presence, the story's family theme and theappeal to digital age paranoia could help the ...
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Reviews
Lunacy (Sileni)
Dir/scr: Jan Svankmajer. Czech Rep/Slovakia.2005. 118mins.The latest nightmare from veteran Czech surrealistJan Svankmajer is, as the director puts it, "aninfantile tribute to Edgar Allen Poe and the Marquis de Sade."But audiences will also see affinities with various cinematic specialists indream logic, notably Luis Buñuel and Walerian Borowczyk.An exploration of madness,sanity ...
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Reviews
One Last Dance
Dir: Max Makowski.Singapore. 2006. 100mins.Here's a puzzle: Brazil-born film-maker Makowski (The PigeonEgg Strategy, Taboo) makes hisfirst film in Cantonese - a Singapore-set crime thriller which is soaked in thevisual stylistics and artificial dialogue one has come to expect from homages to Hong Kong action films.But One Last Dance delivers an ...
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Reviews
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Dir/scr GoranDukic. US. 2006.91mins.Croatian director Goran Dukic's endearingly oddball Wristcutters: A Love Story is a strange, somewhat unaccountable mess sharpenedby a brainy conceit and some wonderfully underplayed acting.It's an overstuffed roadmovie brimming with ideas and feeling about a lost world of disaffected souls. Steepedin a mordant black humour about suicide ...
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News
Italy's 'plex operators form breakaway trade body
Italy's largest multiplex operators, including Warner Village Cinemas, De Laurentiis Cineplex and United Cinemas International, have split from exhibitor trade association, ANEC, to form their own organisation, ANEM.ANEM spokesman Carlo Bernaschi said that Italy's single-screen exhibitors want to obstruct the rights and interests of multiplex operators, but claimed that the ...
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Reviews
Salvage
Dirs/scr: Joshua and Jeffrey Crook. US. 2006. 79mins.The brothers Crook, Joshua and Jeffrey,previously made an urban thriller, SuckerPunch, and the title is dismayingly consistent with their new feature Salvage. In producing a structuralhorror movie, freely mixing the irrational and the incoherent, the brothers offer conflicted scenarios in relating the story ...
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Italian film body Filmitalia loses chief executive
AdrianaChiesa has stepped down from her position as CEO of Italian promotional body,Aip-Filmitalia.Chiesa'sresignation comes just ahead of the Academy Awards next month, which seesItaly's candidate Don't Tell shortlisted in the best foreign film category. Itis the first time an Italian film has made it to the last five since Life ...
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Nielsen NRG and Arts Alliance form research alliance
NielsenNRG and Arts Alliance Media have formed a strategic alliance to offer newresearch services to film distributors.Theresearch will use databases from Arts Alliance's consumer online DVD rentalservice LoveFilm and its cinema management service Newman.Forexample, film distributors will be able to see consumer behaviour andpreferences from the 400,000-plus UK households that ...
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Stranger top at North American box office
Screen Gems' horror-thriller When a StrangerCalls was the box office champion in North America over the traditionallyslow Super Bowl weekend, opening with an estimated gross of $22m.Fox's Big Momma's House 2, last week'sleader, dropped to second, with an estimated $13.4m, and Universal's NannyMcPhee came in third with an estimated $9.9m. ...
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News
Stranger tops US box office
Screen Gems' horror-thriller When a StrangerCalls was the box office champion in North America over the traditionallyslow Super Bowl weekend, opening with an estimated gross of $22m.Fox's Big Momma's House 2, last week'sleader, dropped to second, with an estimated $13.4m, and Universal's NannyMcPhee came in third with an estimated $9.9m. ...
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News
Stranger top at North American box office
Screen Gems' horror-thriller When a StrangerCalls was the box office champion in North America over the traditionallyslow Super Bowl weekend, opening with an estimated gross of $22m.Fox's Big Momma's House 2, last week'sleader, dropped to second, with an estimated $13.4m, and Universal's NannyMcPhee came in third with an estimated $9.9m. ...
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News
Munich leads international box office field
Major Oscar nominees dominated the international box officethis weekend, with Munich holding on at the head of the pack, Memoirsof a Geisha expanding well and Walk the Line making a good start.Over the second weekend of its international rollout,Universal's Munich - which got five Academy Award nominations last week,including a ...