Small MPU – Page 605
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News
Italy mourns death of Nino Manfredi
Nino Manfredi, one of Italy's most prolific and popularactors, has died in Rome after a long illness. He was 83.Manfredi was often described as one of Italy's four greatacting musketeers, the other three commedia all'italiana legends being the lateUgo Tognazzi, Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman.The Roman actor appeared in more ...
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Artificial Eye takes Holy Girl for UK
Artificial Eye has acquired TheHoly Girl for the UK.Artificial Eye bought thefilm from HBO London, which is handling worldwide sales. The Spanish-languagefeature played in last month's Cannes competition.Directed by Lucrecia Martel,it tells the story of a young girl trying to save a man from sin.
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Von Trier pulls out of Wagner opera project
Despite already spending more than two years onpreparations, Danish director Lars von Trier has decided to pull out of theopera production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Opera Festival inSouthern Germany.Von Trier's adaptation of Richard Wagner's mammoth 15hour opera cycle was meant to premiere in 2006 and would ...
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Top Cannes titles find Hungarian home
Hungary'spremiere art house distributor Budapest Film has acquired local rights forseveral high profile Cannes titles, including Pedro Almodovar's BadEducation, EmirKusturica's Life Is A Miracle, Wong Kar Wai's 2046 and Agnes Jaoui's Look At Me.Budapest Film alsopicked up Hungarian rights to three other competition titles: Korean directorPark Chan-Wook's Old Boy, Hirokazu ...
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News
M-Net strikes output deal with Columbia TriStar
Africa's leading pay-TV broadcaster, M-Net, has renewed its long-term, exclusive output deal with Columbia TriStar International Television (CTIT) giving it access to titles such as The Mask of Zorro, Stepmom and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.M-Net has distribution in 42 countries on the African continent, including South Africa. The ...
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Chabrol's Flower to blossom with UK's CineFile
Edinburgh-based CineFile has picked up the UK rights to TheFlower Of Evil, venerable French auteurClaude Chabrol's 50th feature, and will be releasing the film next monththrough its subsidiary, CineFrance. This is the second Chabrol picture thecompany has acquired. (It also released The Colour Of Lies.)CineFileis one of an increasing number ...
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Dutch broadcasters pledge to boost film spend
Dutch public broadcasters have pledged to invest Euros 9m ayear on Dutch films from 2005.The money will be spent on 18 to 19 feature lengththeatrical films and six telefilms: films produced for television but with achance of a theatrical release as well.Another Euros 2.5m will remain available for so-calledtelescoop-films: 2 ...
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Spring, Summer surprise winner at Korean awards
Kim Ki-duk's Spring,Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring was named the surprise winner of the 41st Grand Bell Awards, SouthKorea's oldest awards ceremony.This marks the second major local honour for the film after it won BestPicture at the rival Blue Dragon Awards held last December.The Korea-Germanco-production beat out popular favorite and ...
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Fahrenheit 9/11 to open Paris Cinema festival
The organisers of Paris Cinema unveiled plans Friday for thefestival's second run from June 30 to July 13 in the capital. Thefestival is supported by the city of Paris and organized by formerDirectors' Fortnight artistic director Marie-Pierre Macia and filmmakerCosta-Gavras.At a press conference at City Hall Friday afternoon,filmmaker Oliver Stone, ...
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News
Azkaban a critical and box office triumph for Warner Bros
Warner Bros' decision to release Harry Potter And The PrisonerOf Azkaban in the summerpaid off handsomely as the third instalment in the children's series opened topat the weekend on a franchise record $92.7m estimated gross.Despite opening in more theatres than its predecessors, this was atriumphant bow for the studio as ...
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$114m international opening for Harry in 24 territories...
Harry Potter And ThePrisoner Of Azkaban cast a spell over theinternational box office at the weekend, conjuring up a superb $114.1m from7,804 screens in 24 countries for Warner Bros.The figure includes the UK's Monday-Thursday $26.3m opening hauland Warner is claiming the third biggest international opening ever behind TheLord Of The ...
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...while Day After Tomorrow sweeps up a further $55m
Fox International's The Day After Tomorrow followed up last weekend's record bowfor a non-sequel with an impressive $55m, raising the picture's internationalrunning total to $178.5m.Without Japanese previews the weekend haul was $53.3m. Opening topin Japan, the picture grossed $8m including previews on 631 screens for Fox'sthird biggest ever bow excluding ...
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Jailbait wins top feature prize at Lake Placid Film Festival
Brett C Leonard's prison two-hander Jailbait won the best feature prize at the 2004Lake Placid Film Festival, while Gretchen Berland and Mike Majoros' Rolling won the best documentary award for itsexploration of wheelchair-bound people's fight for dignity.A special jury prize went to Brant Sersen's paintball mockumentaryBlackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story.Novelist ...
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UIP box office on Van Helsing reaches $140m
Universal's Van Helsing raised its international running total by $4m through 2,600screens in 37 UIP markets to $130m, with the total from all distributors risingto $139m.The picture added $670,000 from303 in the UK after a 56% drop to rank fourth on $26.2m, and overtook the finalgrosses of Jurassic Park and ...
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Tchenguiz offers $644m for UK's Odeon cinemas
Robert Tchenguiz has offered $644m (£350m) to buy the Odeoncinemas in a move to prevent the company being auctioned, according to the UK'sSunday Times.The deal has the support of German bank WestLB, whichcontrols 43% Odeon and whose stake was set to be auctioned, according to theSunday Times.Tchenguiz, who already owns ...
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Daily takes up Universal Video marketing post
Universal Pictures International Video (UPIV) has appointed Mary Daily to the post of president of marketing.Daily will be based in London and report to UPIV president Peter Smith. She will be responsible for all marketing activity on Universal, DreamWorks and third-party acquisitions video product.Daily joins UPIV from 20th Century Fox ...
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AUSTRALIA 7 June
There are four newfilms in the top ten but Fox's The DayAfter Tomorrow, in its second week on release, and Roadshow's Troy, in its fourth week, have held onto the two top spots.The best of theopeners, BVI's Raising Helen, took$1,353,609 from 199 screens to claim the third spot and Columbia ...
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Reviews
Woman Is The Future Of Man (La Femme Est L'avenir De L'homme)
Dir:Hong Sang-soo. S Korea/France. 2004. 88mins.Unfortunately,the best thing about Korean director Hong Sang-soo's Cannes competition film WomanIs The Future Of Man is its title, taken from the poet Aragon. The film ishandsomely mounted, and the glittery shine and tawdry dirt of contemporaryurban South Korea is always fascinating to behold, but ...
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Reviews
Welcome To Switzerland (Bienvenue En Suisse)
Dir/scr:Lea Fazer. Fr-Switz. 2004. 107mins.Awould-be crowd-pleasing comedy, Lea Fazer's one-joke comedy of culturalmisunderstandings squanders a talented cast and quickly wears out its welcome.Ahighly inappropriate selection to open the Un Certain Regard section at Cannesthis year, the film is too broad to appeal on the festival circuit, and is tooculturally specific ...
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Eisner 'willing to consider' Miramax sale
Walt Disney chief executiveMichael Eisner is willing to consider selling its Miramax division back tofounders and co-chairmen, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, according to a report yesterday in The New York Times.Quoting "close associates"and "friends and executives who have discussed the issue" with Eisner, thepaper says that the Disney chief is ...