Bernard Werber’s OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS to open the 30th edition of the MWFFBernard Werber’s OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS will open the 30th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival on August 24, it was announced. Werber is the celebrated French author of the “Ants” trilogy and most recently of the novel Le Souffle des Dieux (The Breath of the Gods), the sequel to Nous les Dieux (We Gods). A "documentary" on Earth-dwellers made by extra-terrestrials, OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS was directed by Werber ...
Well, if one needed further proof of how far apart most film critics are from the cinematic tastes of the general public, you need look no further than THE DA VINCI CODE. The film, which famously opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was practically laughed at by assembled critics on the Croisette, who had come to bury the film, not praise it.
When the film opened internationally this past weekend, more film critics joined the chorus of nay-sayers, calling the film everything from “borin...
With the worldwide simultaneous release today of THE DA VINCI CODE across the globe, a question lingers in the air: Did Cannes kill The Code? Or more specificially, did the buildup and hype surrounding the Cannes opening create such a high expectation that the film will suffer from disappointed critics and viewers?While the mass hysteria over THE DA VINCI CODE has passed into memory in Cannes with all the subtlety of a hangover after too much champagne, the industry waits with bated breath the b...
As each day rolls on I notice just how early people arrive at the red carpet for each premiere. The Da Vinci Code premiere started filling up around 2:00pm when the "stars" weren't even scheduled to arrive until 6:30-7:00pm. And I have to admit, I was right there in the mix with them. There's something about the energy in the air at a premiere. Everyone is excited to see their favorite celebrities in person...even if it is only a fleeting glance. They say Hollywood is magic...and I believe it no...
With the worldwide simultaneous release today of THE DA VINCI CODE across the globe, a question lingers in the air: Did Cannes kill The Code? Or more specificially, did the buildup and hype surrounding the Cannes opening create such a high expectation that the film will suffer from disappointed critics and viewers?
While the mass hysteria over THE DA VINCI CODE has passed into memory in Cannes with all the subtlety of a hangover after too much champagne, the industry waits with bated breath th...
Cannes was in full swing Friday with the regulars – old ladies and their dogs – having all but disappeared, and swarms of tourists and film types taking their place for the twelve-day event.
Police were everywhere, as were the blue-suited men and women on hand to check badges and manage the herds of people streaming in and out of festival center, The Palais.
Regular sunbathers were relegated to the far end of the beach with lines of pristine tents, housing private clubs, taking up much of th...
Premiers
Volver staring Penelope Cruz as well as Fast Food Nation directed by Richard Linklater premier tonight in the Palais du Festival.
The Da Vinci Code Opens Worldwide
Since its premier on Wednesday, The Da Vinci Code has not received great reviews from critics. Today is its global debut. Despite its bad critical reviews, there is no doubt that the box office sales will hit a record high. It has been reported that The Da Vinci Code is responsible for selling over 81% in its advanced ti...
The critics may have not liked "The Da Vinci Code" but surely they have been able to handle complex material before. At least that is what they claim was the problem. After all, Fibonnaci numbers are only used to access a Swiss bank account.Todd McCarthy at Variety wrote a scanty review of little insight. Problem with pic is not the information but the potboiler approach by helmer Ron Howard. Second, there is NO chemistry between Hanks and Tatou. You can feel her warmth but Hanks is somewhere e...
Wednesday was the first official day of the festival, but to a few select few it really started on Tuesday.
Tuesday was the arrival of the Da Vinci Code Key Players: Dan Brown, Ron Howard, Paul Bettany (who also starred in Wimbledon...a quality piece of romantic comedy with a superb soundtrack in my opinion), Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, and Tom Hanks...to name a few. Unfortuantely, Hanks likes his privacy, so I only got a really good picture of the reflective window in his car.
They arrived ...
THE DA VINCI CODE COCKTAIL – FACT, MYTH, FICTION & RELIGION Fuelled by controversy both within its covers and in the courts, The Da Vinci Code arrives on our screens with its intoxicating mix of fact, myth, fiction and religion, crowned by the honour of opening the Cannes film festival. Andrew L. Urban explores the duality behind the phenomenon, and the filmmakers discuss the core elements that drive this religion flavoured adventure thriller.There’s nothing new about Jesus surviving the cru...
Did you ever see Bill Murray do the salsa? Or the mambo, rumba or any of that other Latin stuff? Well, let me tell you something. The guy’s got rhythm. I couldn’t help myself watching him in awe as he steered his way around the dance floor with a couple of breathless women. So, thinking I should get a firsthand experience, I navigated through the crowd of undulating bodies in a hope of being next in line. But woe is me, the music suddenly ended and Bill slipped off the floor.I found him in a...
“The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!”By Cassendra Gavawas all I could think of on that week leading up to the 4th annual RUSSIAN NIGHTS FILM and CULTURAL FESTIVAL, stationed in LA’s royal blue architectural gem, the Pacific Design Center. Now I love attending film festivals, especially exotic ones, but helping to organize them is another can of beans entirely. As a creative consultant to my “mad Russians”, as I tenderly refer to them, I was quickly driven to slurp the vo...
“The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!” was all I could think of on that week leading up to the 4th annual RUSSIAN NIGHTS FILM and CULTURAL FESTIVAL, stationed in LA’s royal blue architectural gem, the Pacific Design Center. Now I love attending film festivals, especially exotic ones, but helping to organize them is another can of beans entirely. As a creative consultant to my “mad Russians”, as I tenderly refer to them, I was quickly driven to slurp the vodka and guzzle t...
The crush to get a gander at HOFFMAN AS CAPOTE was so great yesterday that an extra press screening had to be improvised a half hour after the initially scheduled one in the Cinemaxx multi-screen theatre complex. Presumably, the half hour decollage allows reels of the film to be switched from one hall to the other without missing a beat. Unfortunately, the press conference time remained unchanged, so that those condemned to the later viewing (like myself), found the conference already well unde...
The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and John Calley for Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, will open the Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) on Wednesday May 17, 2006. The film will be presented Out of Competition.The Da Vinci Code was adapted from Dan Brown's esoteric thriller with more than 30 million copies sold throughout the world. Top billing goes to Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Jean Reno with Paris's Louvre and Saint-Sulpice Church among ...
The synopsis.In World War II England, the four Pevensie siblings - Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Susan (Anna Popplewell) and Peter (William Moseley) - are sent to the safety of the rural home of elderly professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent). While playing hide-and-seek, they accidentally enter the world of Narnia through the magical wardrobe in a spare room. In Narnia, the children discover that the once charming land, inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs and giants, ...
Eight new Nordic films have been chosen to take part in the Nordic Competition at the Göteborg Film Festival. The award consists of an award sum of 150 000 SEK and the statuette Filmdraken (the Film dragon) by Swedish artist Ernst Billgren. Göteborg Film Festival will be inaugurated January 27. Opening film will be the Viking drama Beowulf & Grendel by director Sturla Gunnarsson. Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård plays one of the main characters and will also be present on the Opening night. Ne...
For a certain niche group of cinephiles ever since the release of a film called "Shakespeare Wallah" in 1965, the "Merchant-Ivory" label has become synonymous with high-class rarified taste in cinema in some way associated with India ("A Passage to India", "Heat and Dust"), or, in the later collaborations of this producer-director team, with ultra refined literary adaptations set in Victorian England such as "The Remains of the Day", and "Howard's end". To be brutally frank, since "Merchant-Ivor...
Dropping in on the Hamburg film festival on the way back from San Sebastian is something like stopping off at a neighbourhood bar for a nightcap after a gala bash at the Waldorf. Which is not to say that Hamburg is not interesting or lacking in films of merit -- just that it's on a much smaller scale (although Hamburg, as a city, is far bigger than San Sebastian) and is geared to the tastes of the local film-buff public, rather than to industry professionals. Films are shown in five venues, mo...
Each year, Festival Directors Bill Pence and Tom Luddy invite one of the world’s great film lovers to join them in the creation of the Telluride Film Festival. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in all of the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride. Past Guest Directors include Salman Rushdie, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, and Stephen Sondheim. This year, we are proud to collaborate with a major figure in contemporary literature, aut...
DEAUVILLE TO HOST WORLD PREMIERE OF WARNER BROS. DIGITALLY REMASTERED FILM CLASSIC THE WIZARD OF OZ Deauville Film Festival will host the World Premiere of a wholly renovated and digitally remastered version of the original film classic THE WIZARD OF OZ. This much loved Award-winning film has received a stunning new digital transfer, using Warner's 'Ultra-Resolution' technology, plus a newly mastered soundtrack.Voted by the American Film Institute as the Best Family Film of all time, The Wizard ...
ITALY – GUEST OF HONOR AT THE 4TH EDITION OF THE CINEMA & LITERATURE INTERNATIONAL FORUM: MONTE CARLO, April 1–4, 2005The fourth edition of the Cinema & Literature International Forum will take place in Monte-Carlo from April 1 to 4, 2005 and Italy will be its Guest of Honor this year.This Forum is the unique international platform of the Literary Adaptation to cinema and television where authors, publishers, literary agents as well as film producers, directors, and screenwriters from the al...
