| Lions Gate offers to combine with MGM By BARBARA ORTUTAY 2010-10-12T16:54:53ZNEW YORK (AP) -- Lions Gate is offering to combine its business with MGM in a deal supported by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who owns stakes in both studios.... hosted.ap.org |
In the Mood for Love: No 5 Wong Kar-wai, 2000Wong Kar-wai takes his time shooting a film, setting out without a conventional script and waiting to see where the mood takes him; his actors rarely have possession of the bigger picture. As it turned out, this is a sizzling romance about two cuckolded next-door neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who fall in love with one another. As rendered by Wong's regular cinematographer, Christopher Doyle (and his replacement, Mark Lee Ping-bin, who took over when the shooting schedule overran), the lush colours on screen are mellowed with nostalgia and ripened by sensuality. As much as this is the story of love blossoming out of rejection, it is also a testament to its director's ongoing infatuation with cinema. What he can do with a passage of music, a close-up or an adjustment in film speed makes most other directors look unfit to shoot a nativity play. Doyle observes the tentative encounters from behind lamps and cabinets, or from under a bed. If you didn't already know this cinematographer's work, you might assume Wong had hired a private detective for the job, so skilful are the furtive compositions.It is an unorthodox romance, widely regarded as the director's finest work. And it is as impeccably turned out as you would expect from a Wong Kar-wai film. Audiences might well emerge craving props and costumes featured in the movie – the silk and gossamer dresses worn with perfect Audrey Hepburn poise by the regal Cheung, or the brilliantine that gives Leung his authentic Clark Gable sheen, or the snazzy noodle-flasks with which these almost-lovers collect their supper from a basement cafe. Unlike its 2004 semi-sequel, 2046, there is more here than just style. A heartbreaking final scene more than substantiates the idea that it is a Brief Encounter for the 21st century.RomanceWong Kar-WaiWorld cinemaRyan Gilbeyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Days of Heaven: No 7 Terrence Malick, 1978Art for art's sake, and proud of it, Days of Heaven has no reason to exist beyond the fact that Terence Malick was determined to make it exist and, as with all Malick's movies, it finally came to exist entirely on his own terms.Using a story as wispy as a fable, Malick constructed one of the most mesmerisingly beautiful evocations of the past ever laid on celluloid. Set between 1916 and 1918, it follows three urban fugitives (Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Malick's wonderful discovery Linda Manz) as they flee smoky Chicago for the Texas panhandle and seasonal jobs as wheat harvesters.Days of Heaven takes time to linger on every exquisite image conjured up by Malick and his cinematographer, Néstor Almendros. A train loaded with harvest migrants sailing, it seems, over a high viaduct bridge; a locust storm that turns into a wheat-field inferno; the many harvest scenes shot at "the magic hour" after the sun has gone down and its last horizontal rays remain.Malick was determined to emulate the silent movies of the film's own historic setting, and therefore used many of the same methods, ordering his crew to turn off the lighting set-ups and allowing Almendros (and his replacement, Haskell Wexler) to use film stock that greedily drank up the meagre light available in the most gorgeously grainy ways. The interiors are not studio-shot, but take place inside the building whose exteriors one sees in the movie. Against such beauty the humans inevitably seem like small figures dwarfed by malign fate. But the performances are vividly real and Manz's narration is one of the universal benchmarks of the movie voiceover.DramaJohn Pattersonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Food Network's Lee gets a taste of NY politics By MIKE CIDONI 2010-10-22T20:30:53ZLOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Food Network star could be moving from the kitchen to the New York governor's mansion.... hosted.ap.org |
British Film Institute to oversee 60% rise in movie industry lottery funding Culture minister Ed Vaizey said the BFI would act as a 'single voice' for the film industry as it moved into a 'new chapter'• Read Ed Vaizey's speech in full The culture minister, Ed Vaizey, today said the British Film Institute would assume the lion's share of the responsibilities of the defunct UK Film Council and announced a 60% increase in lottery funding for the UK industry.Vaizey added that the BFI would be a "single voice" for British film and described it as an exciting new page in the history of the industry in the UK.He said the amount of lottery funding available to the UK film industry would increase from £27m today to £43m by 2014.He praised the contribution of the BBC and Channel 4 to UK film-making and called on BSkyB to invest in British movies as they had done in domestic television.Vaizey said the BFI would be in charge of delivering government policy on film and the distribution of lottery money.It remains unclear how much will be saved as a result of the controversial axing of the UK Film Council and the transfer of the majority of its powers to the BFI.But Vaizey said: "I am pretty certain that we are going to save significant amounts of money going forward and we will see a significant amount of those savings going into film production."He added that he did not want to "denigrate" the efforts of the UK Film Council, which had been a "great success", but said it was time for a "new chapter".The BFI will also take over responsibility for the tax credit certification of UK films; strategy and public funding support for the industry in the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and audience development and education.Film London will be responsible for promoting inward film investment to the UK from the Hollywood studios and other foreign producers and organisations.The body is to manage this investment through a public-private partnership with organisations including Pinewood Studios Group, US Screen Association and the Production Guild.Other measures announced today by Vaizey as part of the coalition government's plan for the UK film industry following the axing of the UK Film Council include:• Reform of the BFI's governance and management structures, details to be announced shortly.• The Department for Culture Media and Sport and the BFI will lead a review on how to build a more sustainable British film industry and how to develop audiences for British films in the UK. This will include a review of the priorities for lottery distribution and the recoupment policy, including proposals from the producers' trade body, Pact.• The BFI will work with Film London, Bafta and BBC Worldwide to consider the role the latter two organisations could play to support the distribution of British films abroad.• The English regional screen agencies outside London will reorganise their network into "Creative England", a move the government says will create a simpler, more efficient structure with an expanded remit to support the creative industries across England.Tim Cagney, managing director of the UK Film Council, said he was "relieved that, after over four months of uncertainty, the government has made up its mind on where public support for UK film will sit"."There are still many unresolved issues so, to benefit the industry and to protect our staff, we will continue to work with the relevant organisations on a smooth handover of film functions and expertise," Cagney added.Greg Dyke, chairman of the BFI, said the government's proposals were "a bold move to create a single champion for film in the UK and we welcome it"."We want to achieve greater coherence across the whole film sector and to strike a balance between cultural and commercial. We see an opportunity to reduce overhead costs which in turn will allow us to put more of the Lottery funds into frontline activities and provide greater public value," Dyke added. "It is our aim to increase the production budget for film from £15m to £18m in the coming year. This is possible because of the cut in overhead costs." Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London said the capital was home to about 75% of the UK's movie industry.Wootton added that his body already worked very closely with the industry "promoting London and the UK as well as constantly improving the infrastructure for filming"."Therefore we are well placed to take on this responsibility on a national level and welcome the valued expertise and investment from our commercial industry colleagues and our partners in the nations and regions, which will perfectly complement the skills we already house, in order to continue and develop this important work," he said.Media businessArts policyArts fundingUK Film CouncilFilm industryJohn Plunkettguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |