by Allison Leu Film today reflects today’s world, one that is constantly looking forward, making improvements and advancements. The big blockbusters in Hollywood typically fall under the category of big budget action franchises that utilize all the latest technology. Just look at the 3D craze of recent years.  I won’t say I wasn’t sitting in that theatre for M-I 4: Ghost Protocol or Captain America. Those CGI-laden, explosion-filled movies are perfect for the big screen. But ...

2011 has been a good year for cinemas, movie theaters and art houses. In 2011, over 30 million people purchased a movie ticket. That is a number that has not been achieved since 1978. Box-office receipts increased to almost € 240 million. To cap it all, for the first time since 1986 (Flodder) the Dutch feature film Gooische Vrouwen attracted a record attendance of over 1.9 million movie-goers, making it the number one movie at the box office in 2011. Despite the success, however, the cinema in...

Belgrade’s Author Film Festival hosted Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon and gave a couple of screenings of The Fairy (La Fee) to a festival audience, including the screening of their previous film Rumba. The actually amazing Belgian based filmmaking trio Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy are back with their second (actually third) old school approach film The Fairy (La Fee). Even if the film is firmly grounded in dedication to the artwork of Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, authors here g...

ÉCU's top 5 things to do in Paris in November Although the beginning of November is another milestone on the way to the deep midwinter, don’t despair! ÉCU has come up with a calendar of great things to do in and around Paris in the world of cinema. Even though the arrival of autumn spells the end of our Indian summer, thanks to the Festival d’Automne there will be lots to keep everyone’s mind off the gloom outside. Since 1972, the festival has offered challenging contemporary cul...

 Monday, September 8----------From October 18–21, BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Rose Cinemas will present the  Pordenone Silent Film Weekend,  featuring highlights from the legendary Pordenone Silent Film Weekend in Italy, the world's most prestigious film festival devoted to the art of the silent cinema.  The series, which is celebrating its sixth anniversary at BAM, focuses this year on the early silent classics from the Danish film studio ...

Saturday, December 9-----Cinema of the early part of the twentieth century existed on two sides of a divide. Silent or sound. Pre-Code and Code. The sexual frankness, moral corruption and sometimes kitchy melodrama of the early sound films of the 1930s have become a kind of treasure of American cinema. The Film Forum, New York's stellar arthouse complex, is currently presenting some of these tawdry treasures in their December film series, FOX BEFORE THE CODE. The FOX, of course, is Twentieth C...