The Open City Documentary Festival, taking place across London between the 5th and 10th of September 2017, will present three films by Belgian filmmaker Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd: Lost Land (2011), For the Lost (2014) and The Eternals (2017). The films, shot mostly on 16mm and Super 8, are poetic essays exploring the lives of those affected by exile, conflict, loss, and the ecology of harsh environments, hauntingly soundtracked by British Avant-Garde musician Richard Skelton. Ahead of the festival I interviewed Vandeweerd concerning the aesthetic and thematic connections between his films, his anthropological approach and the role of language in his cinema.Notebook: You’ve studied anthropology, amongst other subjects, and you’ve worked as a teaching assistant in a Philosophy and Literature department. What led you to utilize filmmaking as an extension of your research? Pierre-yves Vandeweerd: The first area I worked in as an anthropologist, at the beginning of the 90s, was Niger in West Africa.
- 9/4/2017
- MUBI
The classical western exists as an ideal sandbox for stories of heroism, in which white hats can immediately separate our protagonists from the black-hatted antagonists. Occasionally, though, we have a revisionist western that questions and defies the well-trodden patriarchal confines of the genre, as if looking at an old image from a tilted perspective and finding something new.
Sometimes, the characters don’t fit into the dusty old boxes occupied by so many western heroes and heroines. The hero robs and kills to stay alive, frightened and overwhelmed by this strange, new frontier. Other times, the stereotypical Western landscape disappears, blanketed in snow. Horses drive their hooves through ice-covered puddles. Wind screams past bone-thin trees — manifest destiny frozen over, encasing the American dream in ice.
In the case of Sofia Coppola’s newest, The Beguiled, gender and power roles reverse: an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) turns up at a girl’s school, an arrival which breeds intense sexual tension and rivalry among the women (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning). According to our review, the movie is “primarily based on the 1966 book by Thomas Cullinan,” and “appears, at first glance, to be a remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 film adaptation rather than any sort of new reading of the original text. Coppola, of course, is far too clever for that.”
In celebration of The Beguiled, we’ve decided to take a look at the finest examples of the revisionist western. Enjoy, and please include your own favorites in the comments.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) idolized the legendary outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt), growing up hearing campfire stories about the man. Ford loved James so much that he eventually willed himself into the man’s life story. You cannot tell James’s story without also telling Ford’s. These two tragic lives are irrevocably linked by Ford’s betrayal. The film’s dryly antiseptic voiceover narration confides that Ford grew to regret his violent ways. The same goes for James, who at one point beats a child and then weeps into his horse’s neck, unable to live with his own deeds. While James’ propensity for violence is a deeply cut character flaw, Pitt plays the outlaw like an emotionally wounded teenager. His jovial sense of humor cloaks a vindictive and self-loathing interior. Whether Jesse James hurts himself or someone else, there is always a witness looking on with wide eyes. After James’ murder, Ford became a celebrity, touring the country reenacting the shooting. But Ford gained his prominence by killing a beloved folk hero. And so, one day, a man named Edward Kelly walked into Ford’s saloon with a shotgun and took revenge for James’s murder. Unlike the aftermath of Ford’s deed, people leapt to Kelly’s defense, collecting over 7000 signatures for a petition, leading to his pardon. America hated Robert Ford because he killed Jesse James. They loved Edward Kelly because he killed Robert Ford.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (Robert Altman)
Robert Altman’s largely forgotten and often funny western about egotistical showman Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) treats its lead without respect, eagerly mocking him at every opportunity. Known across America as they best tracker of man and animals alive, Cody runs Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a rodeo-like performance of cowboy-feats, ranging from simple rope tricks to the trick-shots of the legendary Annie Oakley. However, Cody is a fraud, a walking accumulation of lies and tall-tales. When Cody gets the chance to hire Chief Sitting Bull, the man who defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn, he’s thrilled, until Sitting Bull refuses to participate in his offensive show. Contrasted with phony Buffalo Bill Cody, Sitting Bull drips with dignified authenticity, totally uninterested in living up to the ignorant public’s racist image of his people. While the manufactured “reality” of Cody’s shows gets applause from white audiences, the stoic realness of Sitting Bull initially receives jeers, until something occurs to the crowd: this isn’t showmanship; this is the real thing. Later, when Cody and his gang form a posse, he hastily removes his show attire and searches through his wardrobe, cursing: “Where’s my real jacket?” So utterly consumed by his own public image, Cody can no longer locate his true self. Altman’s film is a rare western with a lead character who never succeeds, changes, or learns from his mistakes, always remaining a hopelessly pompous horse’s ass.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)
As we meet the legendary Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) he’s scoping out a bank, recently renovated to include heavy iron bars over every window and bolted-locks on every door. He asks the guard what happened to the old bank, which displayed such architectural beauty. “People kept robbing it,” the guard says. “Small price to pay for beauty,” Butch replies. It’s a running theme in revisionist westerns to reveal the truth behind the legend. The changing times had rendered bandits on horseback obsolete. But Butch Cassidy and his partner, the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) didn’t see the end coming until the future was already upon them. After barely evading a super-posse (to use a term coined by screenwriter William Goldman) led by a ruthless bounty hunter, they escape to Bolivia with Etta (Katherine Ross) Sundance’s girl, where their criminal ways are similarly received. What began as a vacation away from their troubles slowly becomes a permanent getaway run, sowing seeds of inevitable tragedy. Etta sees what Butch and Sundance cannot: the end. “We’re not going home anymore, are we?” Etta tearfully asks Sundance, informing him that she has no plans to stick around to watch them die. George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a tearful celebration of a pair of old dogs too foolish to learn new tricks.
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
The gorgeous and haunting Dead Man opens with a soot-faced Crispin Glover trilling as he points out the window of a train: “They’re shooting buffalo,” he cries. “Government said, it killed a million of them last year alone.” The American machine greedily consumes the landscape, leaving smoldering devastation in its path, while a stone-faced accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels to the hellish town of Machine, where he’s promised a job. Unfortunately, there’s no job at the end of the line for this seemingly educated man, blissfully unaware of his namesake, the poet William Blake. After taking a bullet to the chest, Blake wanders this dying western landscape as if in a dream, guided by Nobody (Gary Farmer) a Native American raised in England after getting kidnapped and paraded around as a sideshow attraction for whites. At one point, Blake stumbles upon three hunters by a camp fire, one of which, played by Iggy Pop, wears a muddy dress and bonnet like a twisted schoolmarm. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s twist on the western (accompanied by Robby Müller’s flawless cinematography) hums with textured period detail and vivid costume design, the accumulation of which achieves an eerily stylized tone.
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
The spirit of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is in the sequence scored by Jim Croce’s “I’ve Got a Name.” Django (Jamie Foxx), now a free man, removes the old saddle from his horse’s back, a saddle originally procured by a white slaver, the animal’s previous owner. He then mounts in its place, his own saddle personalized with an embroidered D. His freedom is still new and unfamiliar but, Django is more than willing to grasp those reigns. What works best about the film is how Tarantino’s screenplay embraces the politics of the Antebellum South in a fashion carefully ignored by every other western of its time. The dialogue, Tarantino’s most applauded talent, wheels a careful turn between a sly comedy-of-manners and a bluntly provocative historical indictment, always landing on a shameless exploitation cinema influenced need for violent catharsis. Tarantino’s channeling of Spaghetti Western violence, with the gore cranked up to a level far beyond that of even Sergio Corbucci’s bloodiest work, delivers tenfold on that catharsis, splattering the pristine white walls of Candyland plantation bright red.
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Dripping with transgressive and bizarre imagery, El Topo embraces every taboo imaginable with a breathless zeal. Existing somewhere between Midnight Movie oddity and art-house epic, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second feature envisions the west as an unknowable landscape, dotted with peculiar and grotesque characters, such as a legless gunfighter who rides around on the back of an armless man. Describing the film in narrative terms, beat by beat, would be pointless, although we follow a rider in black, the titular El Topo (which means The Mole) who crosses the desert with a naked boy on the saddle. Though we spend more time with El Topo, his son is the heart of the film, this warped and subversive pseudo-fable exploring the cyclical nature of life. Jodorowsky’s painterly eye for composition lends individual shots with arresting and breathtaking resonance. With less than subtle biblical imagery scattered throughout, including a marvelous sequence involving a religion based around the game of Russian Roulette, Jodorowsky’s film feels at times like a twisted celebration of mysticism, sampling notes from Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. It’s ending, a chaotic, dream-like burst of violence, adds a scathing gut-punch to an already overwhelming experience. There is no other western quite like El Topo, to say the least.
Continue >>...
Sometimes, the characters don’t fit into the dusty old boxes occupied by so many western heroes and heroines. The hero robs and kills to stay alive, frightened and overwhelmed by this strange, new frontier. Other times, the stereotypical Western landscape disappears, blanketed in snow. Horses drive their hooves through ice-covered puddles. Wind screams past bone-thin trees — manifest destiny frozen over, encasing the American dream in ice.
In the case of Sofia Coppola’s newest, The Beguiled, gender and power roles reverse: an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) turns up at a girl’s school, an arrival which breeds intense sexual tension and rivalry among the women (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning). According to our review, the movie is “primarily based on the 1966 book by Thomas Cullinan,” and “appears, at first glance, to be a remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 film adaptation rather than any sort of new reading of the original text. Coppola, of course, is far too clever for that.”
In celebration of The Beguiled, we’ve decided to take a look at the finest examples of the revisionist western. Enjoy, and please include your own favorites in the comments.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) idolized the legendary outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt), growing up hearing campfire stories about the man. Ford loved James so much that he eventually willed himself into the man’s life story. You cannot tell James’s story without also telling Ford’s. These two tragic lives are irrevocably linked by Ford’s betrayal. The film’s dryly antiseptic voiceover narration confides that Ford grew to regret his violent ways. The same goes for James, who at one point beats a child and then weeps into his horse’s neck, unable to live with his own deeds. While James’ propensity for violence is a deeply cut character flaw, Pitt plays the outlaw like an emotionally wounded teenager. His jovial sense of humor cloaks a vindictive and self-loathing interior. Whether Jesse James hurts himself or someone else, there is always a witness looking on with wide eyes. After James’ murder, Ford became a celebrity, touring the country reenacting the shooting. But Ford gained his prominence by killing a beloved folk hero. And so, one day, a man named Edward Kelly walked into Ford’s saloon with a shotgun and took revenge for James’s murder. Unlike the aftermath of Ford’s deed, people leapt to Kelly’s defense, collecting over 7000 signatures for a petition, leading to his pardon. America hated Robert Ford because he killed Jesse James. They loved Edward Kelly because he killed Robert Ford.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (Robert Altman)
Robert Altman’s largely forgotten and often funny western about egotistical showman Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) treats its lead without respect, eagerly mocking him at every opportunity. Known across America as they best tracker of man and animals alive, Cody runs Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a rodeo-like performance of cowboy-feats, ranging from simple rope tricks to the trick-shots of the legendary Annie Oakley. However, Cody is a fraud, a walking accumulation of lies and tall-tales. When Cody gets the chance to hire Chief Sitting Bull, the man who defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn, he’s thrilled, until Sitting Bull refuses to participate in his offensive show. Contrasted with phony Buffalo Bill Cody, Sitting Bull drips with dignified authenticity, totally uninterested in living up to the ignorant public’s racist image of his people. While the manufactured “reality” of Cody’s shows gets applause from white audiences, the stoic realness of Sitting Bull initially receives jeers, until something occurs to the crowd: this isn’t showmanship; this is the real thing. Later, when Cody and his gang form a posse, he hastily removes his show attire and searches through his wardrobe, cursing: “Where’s my real jacket?” So utterly consumed by his own public image, Cody can no longer locate his true self. Altman’s film is a rare western with a lead character who never succeeds, changes, or learns from his mistakes, always remaining a hopelessly pompous horse’s ass.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)
As we meet the legendary Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) he’s scoping out a bank, recently renovated to include heavy iron bars over every window and bolted-locks on every door. He asks the guard what happened to the old bank, which displayed such architectural beauty. “People kept robbing it,” the guard says. “Small price to pay for beauty,” Butch replies. It’s a running theme in revisionist westerns to reveal the truth behind the legend. The changing times had rendered bandits on horseback obsolete. But Butch Cassidy and his partner, the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) didn’t see the end coming until the future was already upon them. After barely evading a super-posse (to use a term coined by screenwriter William Goldman) led by a ruthless bounty hunter, they escape to Bolivia with Etta (Katherine Ross) Sundance’s girl, where their criminal ways are similarly received. What began as a vacation away from their troubles slowly becomes a permanent getaway run, sowing seeds of inevitable tragedy. Etta sees what Butch and Sundance cannot: the end. “We’re not going home anymore, are we?” Etta tearfully asks Sundance, informing him that she has no plans to stick around to watch them die. George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a tearful celebration of a pair of old dogs too foolish to learn new tricks.
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
The gorgeous and haunting Dead Man opens with a soot-faced Crispin Glover trilling as he points out the window of a train: “They’re shooting buffalo,” he cries. “Government said, it killed a million of them last year alone.” The American machine greedily consumes the landscape, leaving smoldering devastation in its path, while a stone-faced accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels to the hellish town of Machine, where he’s promised a job. Unfortunately, there’s no job at the end of the line for this seemingly educated man, blissfully unaware of his namesake, the poet William Blake. After taking a bullet to the chest, Blake wanders this dying western landscape as if in a dream, guided by Nobody (Gary Farmer) a Native American raised in England after getting kidnapped and paraded around as a sideshow attraction for whites. At one point, Blake stumbles upon three hunters by a camp fire, one of which, played by Iggy Pop, wears a muddy dress and bonnet like a twisted schoolmarm. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s twist on the western (accompanied by Robby Müller’s flawless cinematography) hums with textured period detail and vivid costume design, the accumulation of which achieves an eerily stylized tone.
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
The spirit of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is in the sequence scored by Jim Croce’s “I’ve Got a Name.” Django (Jamie Foxx), now a free man, removes the old saddle from his horse’s back, a saddle originally procured by a white slaver, the animal’s previous owner. He then mounts in its place, his own saddle personalized with an embroidered D. His freedom is still new and unfamiliar but, Django is more than willing to grasp those reigns. What works best about the film is how Tarantino’s screenplay embraces the politics of the Antebellum South in a fashion carefully ignored by every other western of its time. The dialogue, Tarantino’s most applauded talent, wheels a careful turn between a sly comedy-of-manners and a bluntly provocative historical indictment, always landing on a shameless exploitation cinema influenced need for violent catharsis. Tarantino’s channeling of Spaghetti Western violence, with the gore cranked up to a level far beyond that of even Sergio Corbucci’s bloodiest work, delivers tenfold on that catharsis, splattering the pristine white walls of Candyland plantation bright red.
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Dripping with transgressive and bizarre imagery, El Topo embraces every taboo imaginable with a breathless zeal. Existing somewhere between Midnight Movie oddity and art-house epic, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second feature envisions the west as an unknowable landscape, dotted with peculiar and grotesque characters, such as a legless gunfighter who rides around on the back of an armless man. Describing the film in narrative terms, beat by beat, would be pointless, although we follow a rider in black, the titular El Topo (which means The Mole) who crosses the desert with a naked boy on the saddle. Though we spend more time with El Topo, his son is the heart of the film, this warped and subversive pseudo-fable exploring the cyclical nature of life. Jodorowsky’s painterly eye for composition lends individual shots with arresting and breathtaking resonance. With less than subtle biblical imagery scattered throughout, including a marvelous sequence involving a religion based around the game of Russian Roulette, Jodorowsky’s film feels at times like a twisted celebration of mysticism, sampling notes from Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. It’s ending, a chaotic, dream-like burst of violence, adds a scathing gut-punch to an already overwhelming experience. There is no other western quite like El Topo, to say the least.
Continue >>...
- 6/22/2017
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Dancing Ledge Productions developing “biblical Game Of Thrones”.
Fremantle-backed indie Dancing Ledge Productions and Sherlock and The Hobbit star Martin Freeman are in early development on what could become the first ever drama series adaptation of one of the most iconic works in literature: John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.
Freeman and Dancing Ledge CEO Laurence Bowen are currently discussing the project with writers and broadcasters in the UK and Us.
Freeman has a development deal with the fledgling UK film and TV outfit and is on board the project as an executive producer. His participation as an actor has yet to be decided.
The company has signed up Harry Potter, Gravity and Guardians Of The Galaxy post-house Framestore to produce the VFX.
The Eichmann Show producer Bowen told Screen: “Paradise Lost is like a biblical Games of Thrones transporting the reader into an internecine world of political intrigue and incredible violence. At stake? The...
Fremantle-backed indie Dancing Ledge Productions and Sherlock and The Hobbit star Martin Freeman are in early development on what could become the first ever drama series adaptation of one of the most iconic works in literature: John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.
Freeman and Dancing Ledge CEO Laurence Bowen are currently discussing the project with writers and broadcasters in the UK and Us.
Freeman has a development deal with the fledgling UK film and TV outfit and is on board the project as an executive producer. His participation as an actor has yet to be decided.
The company has signed up Harry Potter, Gravity and Guardians Of The Galaxy post-house Framestore to produce the VFX.
The Eichmann Show producer Bowen told Screen: “Paradise Lost is like a biblical Games of Thrones transporting the reader into an internecine world of political intrigue and incredible violence. At stake? The...
- 6/13/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Ten feature projects include drama about First World War camp for Muslim prisoners.
The writers on the inaugural Adapt to Film initiative in the UK are wrapping the five-month programme and pitched their projects to a group of invited industry experts such as producers and agents earlier this week in London.
The scheme, spearheaded by Broadway in Nottingham and run by script and talent development executives Anna Seifert-Speck and Caroline Cooper Charles, was designed for writers adapting source material for film. The scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
The ten writers and their projects are:
Raisah Ahmed presented Half-Moon Camp, which she is writing based on newspaper articles and original research about a prisoner of war camp in Germany that was home to Muslim prisoners in the First World War.
The Glasgow-based writer is also working on Meet Me By The Water, about a young...
The writers on the inaugural Adapt to Film initiative in the UK are wrapping the five-month programme and pitched their projects to a group of invited industry experts such as producers and agents earlier this week in London.
The scheme, spearheaded by Broadway in Nottingham and run by script and talent development executives Anna Seifert-Speck and Caroline Cooper Charles, was designed for writers adapting source material for film. The scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
The ten writers and their projects are:
Raisah Ahmed presented Half-Moon Camp, which she is writing based on newspaper articles and original research about a prisoner of war camp in Germany that was home to Muslim prisoners in the First World War.
The Glasgow-based writer is also working on Meet Me By The Water, about a young...
- 3/16/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Ten feature projects include drama about First World War camp for Muslim prisoners.
The writers on the inaugural Adapt to Film initiative in the UK are wrapping the five-month programme and pitched their projects to a group of invited industry experts such as producers and agents earlier this week in London.
The scheme, spearheaded by Broadway in Nottingham and run by script and talent development executives Anna Seifert-Speck and Caroline Cooper Charles, was designed for writers adapting source material for film. The scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
The ten writers and their projects are:
Raisah Ahmed presented Half-Moon Camp, which she is writing based on newspaper articles and original research about a prisoner of war camp in Germany that was home to Muslim prisoners in the First World War.
The Glasgow-based writer is also working on Meet Me By The Water, about a young...
The writers on the inaugural Adapt to Film initiative in the UK are wrapping the five-month programme and pitched their projects to a group of invited industry experts such as producers and agents earlier this week in London.
The scheme, spearheaded by Broadway in Nottingham and run by script and talent development executives Anna Seifert-Speck and Caroline Cooper Charles, was designed for writers adapting source material for film. The scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
The ten writers and their projects are:
Raisah Ahmed presented Half-Moon Camp, which she is writing based on newspaper articles and original research about a prisoner of war camp in Germany that was home to Muslim prisoners in the First World War.
The Glasgow-based writer is also working on Meet Me By The Water, about a young...
- 3/16/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Broadway’s inaugural initiative welcomes experienced writers to present their projects.
The writers on the inaugural Adapt to Film initiative in the UK are wrapping the five-month programme and pitched their projects to a group of invited industry experts such as producers and agents earlier this week in London.
The scheme, spearheaded by Broadway in Nottingham and run by script and talent development executives Anna Seifert-Speck and Caroline Cooper Charles, was designed for writers adapting source material for film. The scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
The ten writers and their projects are:
Raisah Ahmed presented Half-Moon Camp, which she is writing based on newspaper articles and original research about a prisoner of war camp in Germany that was home to Muslim prisoners in World War I. The Glasgow-based writer is also working on Meet Me By The Water, about a young...
The writers on the inaugural Adapt to Film initiative in the UK are wrapping the five-month programme and pitched their projects to a group of invited industry experts such as producers and agents earlier this week in London.
The scheme, spearheaded by Broadway in Nottingham and run by script and talent development executives Anna Seifert-Speck and Caroline Cooper Charles, was designed for writers adapting source material for film. The scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
The ten writers and their projects are:
Raisah Ahmed presented Half-Moon Camp, which she is writing based on newspaper articles and original research about a prisoner of war camp in Germany that was home to Muslim prisoners in World War I. The Glasgow-based writer is also working on Meet Me By The Water, about a young...
- 3/16/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
A version of this article originally appeared on ew.com.
Emma Watson loves to read.
The actress has that in common with her brainy Harry Potter character Hermione as well as bookish Belle, who she plays in the much-anticipated film Beauty and the Beast, out March 17. In addition to being a bookworm, Watson is also an outspoken feminist and as well as a Un Women Goodwill Ambassador and promoter of the organization’s HeForShe movement, which is dedicated to recruiting men into the movement for gender equality. As a response to her work with the Un, she launched the feminist...
Emma Watson loves to read.
The actress has that in common with her brainy Harry Potter character Hermione as well as bookish Belle, who she plays in the much-anticipated film Beauty and the Beast, out March 17. In addition to being a bookworm, Watson is also an outspoken feminist and as well as a Un Women Goodwill Ambassador and promoter of the organization’s HeForShe movement, which is dedicated to recruiting men into the movement for gender equality. As a response to her work with the Un, she launched the feminist...
- 2/21/2017
- by Madeline Raynor
- PEOPLE.com
I have been thrilled to bring readers to the Remedial Film School at Film School Rejects.
Here are a select few of the films that notable film personalities and critics have had me watch…
Drew McWeeny chooses Dead Man.
Drew McWeeny of Hitfix.com is our first guest, and he chose Dead Man, saying it somehow is connected to the Dreamworks animated film Home, which opens March 27.
It’s time to get things started.
McWeeny explains: So why Dead Man?
When I have the entire sum total of every movie Jeff Bayer has not seen to choose from, and I choose Dead Man, it’s a fair question. What makes that movie special? Why should that film be seen by everyone, much less by Bayer specifically?
For one thing, when I bitch in public about feeling let down by Johnny Depp’s choices for the last decade, Dead Man is...
Here are a select few of the films that notable film personalities and critics have had me watch…
Drew McWeeny chooses Dead Man.
Drew McWeeny of Hitfix.com is our first guest, and he chose Dead Man, saying it somehow is connected to the Dreamworks animated film Home, which opens March 27.
It’s time to get things started.
McWeeny explains: So why Dead Man?
When I have the entire sum total of every movie Jeff Bayer has not seen to choose from, and I choose Dead Man, it’s a fair question. What makes that movie special? Why should that film be seen by everyone, much less by Bayer specifically?
For one thing, when I bitch in public about feeling let down by Johnny Depp’s choices for the last decade, Dead Man is...
- 1/7/2017
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Paterson’ And ‘Gimme Danger’: How Two New Films Speak to the Artistic Process — Nyff
The following essay was written by a participant in the 2016 New York Film Festival Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring critics co-produced by IndieWire, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Film Comment.
Jim Jarmusch is no stranger to making films about artists or films that reference other works of art: “Dead Man’s” protagonist is named after the English poet William Blake, in “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai,” Jarmusch pays homage to Seijun Suzuki’s “Branded to Kill,” and “Only Lovers Left Alive” has a vampire protagonist who doubles as a famous rock musician. Jarmusch’s latest two films which, played at the New York Film Festival this year—“Gimme Danger” and “Paterson” — continue this pattern of making a film about artists. What ultimately ties all these works together is a nostalgic longing for old art, and this can be seen through references Jarmusch’s films make...
Jim Jarmusch is no stranger to making films about artists or films that reference other works of art: “Dead Man’s” protagonist is named after the English poet William Blake, in “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai,” Jarmusch pays homage to Seijun Suzuki’s “Branded to Kill,” and “Only Lovers Left Alive” has a vampire protagonist who doubles as a famous rock musician. Jarmusch’s latest two films which, played at the New York Film Festival this year—“Gimme Danger” and “Paterson” — continue this pattern of making a film about artists. What ultimately ties all these works together is a nostalgic longing for old art, and this can be seen through references Jarmusch’s films make...
- 10/19/2016
- by Anthony Dominguez
- Indiewire
When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do • William Blake
Last Thursday, the Guardian – last real newspaper on Earth – carried a story by Sian Cain revealing Alan Moore was retiring from comic books. I guess Alan was promoting his William Blake-inspired novel, Jerusalem in a unique manner.
Being a professional cynic, my initial thought was “hadn’t he done that already?” No, Alan has quite publicly left the services of various and sundry publishers – DC Comics, Marvel, Ipc – because he is a man of principle, and I mean that with the highest respect. And a reading of the piece reveals he hasn’t double-locked the door behind him, telling Cain “I may do the odd little comics piece at some point in the future, (but) I am pretty much done with comics.
Last Thursday, the Guardian – last real newspaper on Earth – carried a story by Sian Cain revealing Alan Moore was retiring from comic books. I guess Alan was promoting his William Blake-inspired novel, Jerusalem in a unique manner.
Being a professional cynic, my initial thought was “hadn’t he done that already?” No, Alan has quite publicly left the services of various and sundry publishers – DC Comics, Marvel, Ipc – because he is a man of principle, and I mean that with the highest respect. And a reading of the piece reveals he hasn’t double-locked the door behind him, telling Cain “I may do the odd little comics piece at some point in the future, (but) I am pretty much done with comics.
- 9/14/2016
- by Mike Gold
- Comicmix.com
If you ask comic book fans to list ten of the best comic book writers that ever existed, odds are good that Watchmen writer Alan Moore would fall somewhere on that list. Yes, the man has proven to be something of a recluse and embittered artist-type, but there’s no denying he knows his way around a keyboard.
Apart from Watchmen, Moore is also well known for such books as Batman: The Killing Joke, and V for Vendetta.
He’s definitely made his mark on the medium of comic books, but now, based on an interview he had with The Guardian while promoting his new novel, Jerusalem (a new 1,200+ page book set to hit shelves later this month), it sounds like he’s ready to move one from comics.
“[I have] about 250 pages of comics left in me,” he said.
He then added:
“And those will probably be very enjoyable. There are...
Apart from Watchmen, Moore is also well known for such books as Batman: The Killing Joke, and V for Vendetta.
He’s definitely made his mark on the medium of comic books, but now, based on an interview he had with The Guardian while promoting his new novel, Jerusalem (a new 1,200+ page book set to hit shelves later this month), it sounds like he’s ready to move one from comics.
“[I have] about 250 pages of comics left in me,” he said.
He then added:
“And those will probably be very enjoyable. There are...
- 9/9/2016
- by Joseph Medina
- LRMonline.com
Idris Elba is going to be on the May cover for the UK version of Esquire magazine, which also includes an interview with the actor "over drinks in his native East End," the magazine says. In the interview, which I'm sure will be an interesting read, Elba dishes on the "highs and lows of fame," as well as the speech he gave to the UK Parliament on diversity earlier this year, as well as those James Bond rumors that just won't go away. During the interview, Elba also took the time to recite a famous poem by William Blake, published in 1794, titled simply "London" - essentially an ode to his home city. Elba's recital was then used as a voice-over for a...
- 4/14/2016
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
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Our monthly round up of horror DVDs and Blu-rays, led by the wonderful and terrifying Audition...
So, it seems to be time once again to ask that age-old question: what’s your favourite cinematic depiction of conjoined twins? Ranging from the mutoid majesty of That Guy In Total Recall With The Talking Stomach Baby through to the Farrelly brothers’ gross-out gubbins Stuck On You, Hollywood has carved a progressive path in its depiction of wretched freaks of nature, magical otherworldly beings and monstrous killers. Following in this glorious tradition of stigmatising the disabled (insert Iain Duncan Smith reference here), this month sees the Bluray release of Frank Henenlotter’s classic splatter comedy Basket Case trilogy.
The director of the equally subtle Frankenhooker cut his teeth with his 1982 cult favourite Basket Case, which told the tale of the Bradley brothers, bemulleted Duane (Kevin van Hentenryck), the ostensibly ’normal...
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Our monthly round up of horror DVDs and Blu-rays, led by the wonderful and terrifying Audition...
So, it seems to be time once again to ask that age-old question: what’s your favourite cinematic depiction of conjoined twins? Ranging from the mutoid majesty of That Guy In Total Recall With The Talking Stomach Baby through to the Farrelly brothers’ gross-out gubbins Stuck On You, Hollywood has carved a progressive path in its depiction of wretched freaks of nature, magical otherworldly beings and monstrous killers. Following in this glorious tradition of stigmatising the disabled (insert Iain Duncan Smith reference here), this month sees the Bluray release of Frank Henenlotter’s classic splatter comedy Basket Case trilogy.
The director of the equally subtle Frankenhooker cut his teeth with his 1982 cult favourite Basket Case, which told the tale of the Bradley brothers, bemulleted Duane (Kevin van Hentenryck), the ostensibly ’normal...
- 3/15/2016
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
"Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth." -- Louis (Danny Aiello) in "Jacob's Ladder" I first viewed "Jacob's Ladder" on VHS several years after its release in theaters, when it received a lukewarm response from audiences (it grossed around $26 million by the end of its run) and received a polarizing response from critics: Roger Ebert called it "powerfully written, directed and acted" while The Washington Post's Hal Hinson charged it with being "garbled and cliched." My initial reaction to...
- 12/31/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
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The Frankenstein Chronicles feat. Sean Bean sets up some juicy complications in this week's murky William Blake-themed episode...
London, 1827 – Day
Officer John Marlott and his boss Sir Robert Peel are standing by the capital’s latest crime scene: another mutilated and stitched body has washed up on the bank of the Thames.
Sir Robert Peel
I don’t want any mistakes on this case, Marlott. I’m gonna be watching you so close you’ll think we’ve been stitched together.
Peel stalks away, leaving Marlott gazing into the grey city gloom.
John Marlott
Okay, Sir Robert…
Marlott turns and puts on an era-appropriate hat.
John Marlott
…suture self.
The Who
*Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*
The 19th century London locale still doesn’t look like CSI: Miami’s beaches, and John Marlott – seeking the one “out there doin’ murders” – sure ain’t Horatio Caine. It’s all grit in this cop show/Frankenstein riff,...
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The Frankenstein Chronicles feat. Sean Bean sets up some juicy complications in this week's murky William Blake-themed episode...
London, 1827 – Day
Officer John Marlott and his boss Sir Robert Peel are standing by the capital’s latest crime scene: another mutilated and stitched body has washed up on the bank of the Thames.
Sir Robert Peel
I don’t want any mistakes on this case, Marlott. I’m gonna be watching you so close you’ll think we’ve been stitched together.
Peel stalks away, leaving Marlott gazing into the grey city gloom.
John Marlott
Okay, Sir Robert…
Marlott turns and puts on an era-appropriate hat.
John Marlott
…suture self.
The Who
*Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*
The 19th century London locale still doesn’t look like CSI: Miami’s beaches, and John Marlott – seeking the one “out there doin’ murders” – sure ain’t Horatio Caine. It’s all grit in this cop show/Frankenstein riff,...
- 11/18/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
We’ve learned about Vega and the Precog’s history on Minority Report, but tonight’s episode is really going to introduce us to William Blake (played by Wilmer Valderrama). But before we learn more about Blake’s backstory, we’re going to see him discover the truth about Dash’s identity. How will this by-the-book cop deal with the secret […]...
- 11/16/2015
- by Clarissa
- The TV Addict
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Sean Bean watches a dead pig float down the Thames in new supernatural ITV drama, The Frankenstein Chronicles...
This review contains spoilers.
1.1 A World Without God
Frankenstein’s monster has never been quick on his feet, so, fittingly missing Halloween by a week, The Frankenstein Chronicles slowly shuffles its way onto ITV Encore. With parts harvested from history, fiction, and film, this Frankie follows in the footsteps of Sky’s Penny Dreadful and ITV’s recent Jekyll And Hyde – so far, so 'TV Execs are still mid-ransack over at the Waterstones’* Gothic fiction aisles' – but what has this show got in abundance that those others were lacking?
Sean. Bean.
*Other retailers are available.
First plus of the series: viewers used to Bean characters getting killed off have nothing to fear this time – some crazy bio-scientist can always just piece him back together during the next thunderstorm with...
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Sean Bean watches a dead pig float down the Thames in new supernatural ITV drama, The Frankenstein Chronicles...
This review contains spoilers.
1.1 A World Without God
Frankenstein’s monster has never been quick on his feet, so, fittingly missing Halloween by a week, The Frankenstein Chronicles slowly shuffles its way onto ITV Encore. With parts harvested from history, fiction, and film, this Frankie follows in the footsteps of Sky’s Penny Dreadful and ITV’s recent Jekyll And Hyde – so far, so 'TV Execs are still mid-ransack over at the Waterstones’* Gothic fiction aisles' – but what has this show got in abundance that those others were lacking?
Sean. Bean.
*Other retailers are available.
First plus of the series: viewers used to Bean characters getting killed off have nothing to fear this time – some crazy bio-scientist can always just piece him back together during the next thunderstorm with...
- 11/11/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Bryan Fuller and co. are master manipulators, as this week's truth-telling episode of Hannibal season 3 reveals...
This review contains spoilers.
3.10 And The Woman Clothed In Sun
Thomas Harris makes a fairly well known mistake in his Red Dragon novel. Throughout the book, the character of Francis Dolarhyde is obsessed with a work of art by William Blake which the author refers to as The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. This also happened to be the work referenced in the title of last week's episode of Hannibal: …And the Woman Clothed with the Sun. The true title of the piece at the heart of Dolarhyde’s mania is The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, and this week’s episode riffing off that title is intent on telling a few truths of its own.
Film has a way, and it’s utterly intentional,...
This review contains spoilers.
3.10 And The Woman Clothed In Sun
Thomas Harris makes a fairly well known mistake in his Red Dragon novel. Throughout the book, the character of Francis Dolarhyde is obsessed with a work of art by William Blake which the author refers to as The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. This also happened to be the work referenced in the title of last week's episode of Hannibal: …And the Woman Clothed with the Sun. The true title of the piece at the heart of Dolarhyde’s mania is The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, and this week’s episode riffing off that title is intent on telling a few truths of its own.
Film has a way, and it’s utterly intentional,...
- 8/12/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
“Did He who made the Lamb make thee?”
In the dark recesses of his attic, staring into a crack-crazed mirror, Francis Dolarhyde assembles one by one the parts of speech he’ll need to show himself to best advantage in his imminent conversation with a certain doctor. Re-approaching the Serial Killer Call, a stock element in crime procedurals, from Dolarhyde’s anxious perspective injects just enough humanity into the theatrical melodrama to completely and utterly sell the Miltonian horror of Hannibal’s vision of Dolarhyde as the Dragon. As in ‘The Tiger,’ the poem by William Blake (who also created the paintings around which Dolarhyde’s psyche revolves) from which the episode takes much of its structure and subject matter, Dolarhyde is both observer and observed over the conversation’s course. His self is split into an anxious, fearful incarnation and the infernal majesty of his draconic avatar. Hannibal even...
In the dark recesses of his attic, staring into a crack-crazed mirror, Francis Dolarhyde assembles one by one the parts of speech he’ll need to show himself to best advantage in his imminent conversation with a certain doctor. Re-approaching the Serial Killer Call, a stock element in crime procedurals, from Dolarhyde’s anxious perspective injects just enough humanity into the theatrical melodrama to completely and utterly sell the Miltonian horror of Hannibal’s vision of Dolarhyde as the Dragon. As in ‘The Tiger,’ the poem by William Blake (who also created the paintings around which Dolarhyde’s psyche revolves) from which the episode takes much of its structure and subject matter, Dolarhyde is both observer and observed over the conversation’s course. His self is split into an anxious, fearful incarnation and the infernal majesty of his draconic avatar. Hannibal even...
- 8/9/2015
- by Gretchen Felker-Martin
- Nerdly
Hannibal, Season 3, Episode 10, “And the Woman Clothed in Sun”
Written by Don Mancini and Bryan Fuller
Directed by Guillermo Navarro
Airs Saturdays at 10pm (Et) on NBC
Through the first half of season three, many fans of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon eagerly anticipated of the arrival of Frances Dolarhyde and Reba McClane. After “And the Woman Clothed in Sun”, it’s easy to see why. Richard Armitage made a big impression as Dolarhyde in his first episode, “The Great Red Dragon”, as did Rutina Wesley as Reba in “And the Woman Clothed with the Sun…”, but this episode brings them together powerfully, showing the beauty both are capable of and the strength of the connection they share, a connection with the potential to drown out the call of the Dragon. The series of paintings by William Blake which give the episodes of this arc their titles depicts a seven-headed, ten-horned...
Written by Don Mancini and Bryan Fuller
Directed by Guillermo Navarro
Airs Saturdays at 10pm (Et) on NBC
Through the first half of season three, many fans of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon eagerly anticipated of the arrival of Frances Dolarhyde and Reba McClane. After “And the Woman Clothed in Sun”, it’s easy to see why. Richard Armitage made a big impression as Dolarhyde in his first episode, “The Great Red Dragon”, as did Rutina Wesley as Reba in “And the Woman Clothed with the Sun…”, but this episode brings them together powerfully, showing the beauty both are capable of and the strength of the connection they share, a connection with the potential to drown out the call of the Dragon. The series of paintings by William Blake which give the episodes of this arc their titles depicts a seven-headed, ten-horned...
- 8/9/2015
- by Kate Kulzick
- SoundOnSight
A quick review of tonight's "Hannibal" coming up just as soon as I tickle the tiger... Press tour obligations are getting in the way of a full write-up of this one (and may prevent me from writing at all about next week's, but we'll see what happens), so let's straight to the bullets: * Reba touching the tiger is my favorite scene in "Manhunter," if not my favorite Michael Mann-directed scene, period, so the version here with these incarnations of Reba and Francis had a lot to live up to. Fortunately, this one didn't disappoint, as both Rutina Wesley and Richard Armitage conveyed the overwhelming emotions both were feeling in this unusual moment. Sensuality from unlikely sources has always been a "Hannibal" strength, so I didn't doubt they would do this moment right, but it was still great to see, hear, and feel. (And the emphasis on Dolarhyde's reaction to Reba touching the tiger's mouth,...
- 8/9/2015
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
To mark the release of Dead Man which is out now, we’ve been given 5 copies to give away on Blu-ray Steelbook. Dead Man tracks a young man’s Homeric odyssey through the nineteenth-century American West. Lost and badly wounded, William Blake (Johnny Depp) encounters an outcast Native American named ‘Nobody’ (Gary Farmer). Contrary to Blake’s nature, circumstances transform
The post Win Dead Man on Blu-ray Steelbook appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Win Dead Man on Blu-ray Steelbook appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 7/29/2015
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Richard Armitage's spectacular performance as Francis Dolarhyde completely reinvigorates Hannibal season three...
This review contains spoilers.
3.8 Great Red Dragon
I have something to confess, to those of you who have not already sussed it out: I am not a Brit. I am an American writing abroad, as it were, which may be my only excuse for the first half of this review. You’ve been warned.
You see, as an American, my exposure to Richard Armitage has been limited to what little of his work has crossed the pond and made itself easily accessible (thank you, BBC America), especially since my time living in England ended just as his star began to rise. Thus, short of his turns as Guy of Gisborne and Thorin, I haven’t had the opportunity to appreciate his skill as an actor.
And I enjoyed him a great deal in those roles. He’s...
This review contains spoilers.
3.8 Great Red Dragon
I have something to confess, to those of you who have not already sussed it out: I am not a Brit. I am an American writing abroad, as it were, which may be my only excuse for the first half of this review. You’ve been warned.
You see, as an American, my exposure to Richard Armitage has been limited to what little of his work has crossed the pond and made itself easily accessible (thank you, BBC America), especially since my time living in England ended just as his star began to rise. Thus, short of his turns as Guy of Gisborne and Thorin, I haven’t had the opportunity to appreciate his skill as an actor.
And I enjoyed him a great deal in those roles. He’s...
- 7/29/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
“There is no name for what this man is.”
Well, here’s a horse of a different color. Hannibal has jumped ahead three years, upending its status quo even as it calls back repeatedly to its pilot. Jack recruits Will to rejoin the FBI, Will visits Hannibal seeking an expert consultant, and Will visits a blood-spattered house and slips into the murderer’s mind. The game’s the same, but the players have changed. And what a difference it makes. Will, brittle and twitchy as ever, has found peace and family with Molly and her 11-year-old son. Hannibal, stripped of dignity and freedom as a result of his ploy to remain close to Will, is bumping up against the limits of his memory palace while a bitter Alana chafes at Chilton’s company at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
Hannibal‘s head-first plunge into its adaptation of Thomas Harris...
Well, here’s a horse of a different color. Hannibal has jumped ahead three years, upending its status quo even as it calls back repeatedly to its pilot. Jack recruits Will to rejoin the FBI, Will visits Hannibal seeking an expert consultant, and Will visits a blood-spattered house and slips into the murderer’s mind. The game’s the same, but the players have changed. And what a difference it makes. Will, brittle and twitchy as ever, has found peace and family with Molly and her 11-year-old son. Hannibal, stripped of dignity and freedom as a result of his ploy to remain close to Will, is bumping up against the limits of his memory palace while a bitter Alana chafes at Chilton’s company at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
Hannibal‘s head-first plunge into its adaptation of Thomas Harris...
- 7/26/2015
- by Gretchen Felker-Martin
- Nerdly
We are privy to a great Becoming:In a room of sallow lighting, a man named Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage) reads Time magazine. Embellishing the cover is William Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, an awe-inspiring, violently sexual painting of a muscle-threaded monster seen from behind, its wings protruding majestically, its tail wrapping around a young woman. Dolarhyde is inspired. The music pounds, percussive clattering that suggests a migraine slowly swelling. He trains his body, carves his muscles, arches his back while emitting an anguished groan, as if expecting wings to tear through his skin. A tattoo needle punctures his flesh, over and over, like a dragon’s tongue dripping blood. Dolarhyde visits an antique shop, daubed in neon red, where he buys a full set of crooked teeth. In his apartment, we see Dolarhyde, gleaming off the splinters of broken mirror, transforming. In less...
- 7/26/2015
- by Greg Cwik
- Vulture
A review of tonight's "Hannibal" coming up just as soon as the blood is from a cow, but only in the derogatory sense... "If I go... I'll be different when I get back." -Will Bryan Fuller has said that the plan was originally to devote the bulk of this season to Hannibal's fugitive adventures before he realized they couldn't sustain it that long. As it was, there was a definite strain just in the seven episodes we got of it, in part because the show grew even more abstract and philosophical than ever before, but more because the structure of the story — Hannibal free until almost the end, no Monster of the Week stories in between — reduced Will Graham into an incredibly passive figure. The show has two leads, and if anything, Hannibal was a supporting character for much of season 1, but the scales tipped way too much in favor of Hannibal,...
- 7/26/2015
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
As Only Connect and University Challenge return to the BBC for new series, we salute the geek comforts of UK TV quiz shows…
Never mind A.E. Housman’s maxim that “all human knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use”, no knowledge is really precious until it serves the slightest use watching a TV quiz. If you’ve ever moaned about not needing your schoolboy geometry in the real world, you’ve clearly never experienced the joy of shouting “Cartesian Plane” at BBC Two on a Monday night.
Quiz shows are a TV comfort blanket for trivia nerds. That instant sliding-into-a-warm-bath relaxation other people experience when they hear the first bars of a beloved soap theme is what the opening ‘dum’ of the University Challenge music does to us. You’re home now, says that music. Wherever you are, whatever’s going on in your life,...
Never mind A.E. Housman’s maxim that “all human knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use”, no knowledge is really precious until it serves the slightest use watching a TV quiz. If you’ve ever moaned about not needing your schoolboy geometry in the real world, you’ve clearly never experienced the joy of shouting “Cartesian Plane” at BBC Two on a Monday night.
Quiz shows are a TV comfort blanket for trivia nerds. That instant sliding-into-a-warm-bath relaxation other people experience when they hear the first bars of a beloved soap theme is what the opening ‘dum’ of the University Challenge music does to us. You’re home now, says that music. Wherever you are, whatever’s going on in your life,...
- 7/13/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
While the future of Hannibal lingers in limbo, #Fannibals can still lick their lips in anticipation of the upcoming Red Dragon arc, which will purportedly take up the second half of the third season. Bryan Fuller’s gorgeous Grand Guignol reimagining of the Hannibal Lecter mythos will return to Thomas Harris’ first Lecter novel, from which the Will Graham character comes (the first season is a sort of prologue to the novel). Red Dragon depicts the chilling exploits of a man named Francis Dolarhyde, slapped with the moniker The Tooth Fairy by the tabloids. Dolarhyde is (figuratively) transforming into a dragon, drawing inspiration from William Blake’s painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, misidentified in the novel as Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. He was brought to startling life by Tom Noonan in Michael Mann’s...
- 7/12/2015
- by Greg Cwik
- Vulture
We’re getting William Blake references in last week's and this week’s episode titles: What does it mean? A reminder that cruelty has a human heart, that secrecy has the human dress? Even your power ranker, an English major who, unlike our Liars, typically attended English class in high school, can only guess at this dual reference’s significance. Here’s what I do know: There are three weeks until graduation, the Liars were made to play a version of the Milgram experiment in prison (they thought they were shocking each other by pulling switches but no one ever actually got shocked), and Shay Mitchell still says “sorry” in a Canadian accent. Oh, and one more thing: I know who dominates this week’s Pretty Little Power Rankings.1. Jason (last week: not ranked)Legitimately useful, tells the truth to the people who need to hear it, levels with Spencer and Ali,...
- 6/17/2015
- by Jessica Goldstein
- Vulture
As Hannibal season 3 arrives, we chat to showrunner Bryan Fuller about origin stories, Francis Dolarhyde, David Bowie & more…
The long wait to find out who survived The Red Dinner (aka Hannibal’s spectacular season two finale, Mizumono) is almost over. Hannibal season three is nearly upon us, and to mark its arrival, we caught up with showrunner Bryan Fuller to find out what’s in store.
Firstly, we’re due to meet a different kind of Hannibal in a very different kind of setting. Fuller’s James Bond fandom has leached into the first seven-episode chapter of the season, which sees Mads Mikkelsen’s chicly dressed predator living undercover in the upper echelons of Italian society. The season’s second six-episode chapter introduces Richard Armitage as Francis Dolarhyde, a character familiar to Red Dragon fans.
We chatted to Fuller about the show’s revised take on Hannibal’s origin story,...
The long wait to find out who survived The Red Dinner (aka Hannibal’s spectacular season two finale, Mizumono) is almost over. Hannibal season three is nearly upon us, and to mark its arrival, we caught up with showrunner Bryan Fuller to find out what’s in store.
Firstly, we’re due to meet a different kind of Hannibal in a very different kind of setting. Fuller’s James Bond fandom has leached into the first seven-episode chapter of the season, which sees Mads Mikkelsen’s chicly dressed predator living undercover in the upper echelons of Italian society. The season’s second six-episode chapter introduces Richard Armitage as Francis Dolarhyde, a character familiar to Red Dragon fans.
We chatted to Fuller about the show’s revised take on Hannibal’s origin story,...
- 5/27/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
We're only a little over a month out from the June 4th premiere of the third season of NBC's "Hannibal" and Bryan Fuller has spoken with Digital Spy this week to offer a couple of new Minor Spoiler tidbits about the upcoming season.
Expect the premiere to play very much along the lines of Ridley Scott's "Hannibal" film:
"I love Ridley Scott's Hannibal, I just think it's such a fun, gruesome movie that kind of harkens back to Hammer films, and it's Hannibal as James Bond. There's qualities of that that we wanted to bring to the first chapter of the third season, which is the Italy-based material."
The premiere episode of the season will put the focus entirely on the years-long relationship that Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) shares with Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), and none of the other familiar characters are in it. The episode will...
Expect the premiere to play very much along the lines of Ridley Scott's "Hannibal" film:
"I love Ridley Scott's Hannibal, I just think it's such a fun, gruesome movie that kind of harkens back to Hammer films, and it's Hannibal as James Bond. There's qualities of that that we wanted to bring to the first chapter of the third season, which is the Italy-based material."
The premiere episode of the season will put the focus entirely on the years-long relationship that Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) shares with Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), and none of the other familiar characters are in it. The episode will...
- 4/27/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
There seems to be some kind of movement out there where low-key indie dramas of personal tragedy cloak themselves in the veneer of heady science fiction concepts: films like Mike Cahill's Another Earth, James Byrkit Ward's Coherence, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, and what is perhaps the sub-genres most recent peak, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color. Spaceships, laser guns and time portals are replaced with hand-wringing, self-doubt and self-destruction. There is metaphor aplenty. William Blake and his wife Jules are a seemingly normal, over-worked, slightly distracted parents. As the opening moments of The Reconstruction of William Zero unfold, he is distractedly scrambling to get to work, she is busy in the kitchen preparing a breakfast that nobody seems to want, and their son Kevin is itching to...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/9/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Exclusive: Paramount Pictures is talks to acquire feature-film rights for the classic sci-fi novel The Stars My Destination for producer Mary Parent. Written by Alfred Bester, the book (better known as Tiger! Tiger! in the U.K. for its opening-page reprint of a William Blake poem) follows a man who is shipwrecked in space for years when one day a rescue crew passes him by. Angered, he channels his energies into seeking revenge and begins scheming. The key art of the book…...
- 2/28/2015
- Deadline
The 1990′s introduced the world to Quentin Tarantino, saw the creation of the Nc-17 rating, and began the slow call toward fully computer animated films. It began the slow (still slow) movement toward a more diverse industry, with the first African-American director earning an Oscar nomination (John Singleton for “Boyz in the Hood”). And the year after one of the greatest years in the history of film, 1995 came plodding along, trying to keep up. So, for the first definitive list of 2015, we are going to look back 20 years at a year that, at first glance, doesn’t look so hot. It’s ripe with flops, but it’s also full of debuts, trailblazing beginnings, and better films than it gets credit for. But, the caveat still stands: this is not a “best of” list. In fact, there are a lot of bad movies on this list. But, they are movies that made a cultural impact,...
- 1/31/2015
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
Academy Awards for music have gone to some edgy and interesting performers in recent years, Trent Reznor and Eminem among them. But it’s hard to imagine that voters could do anything much cooler than nominating Patti Smith, the high priestess of punk rock and a singer, songwriter, poet and writer who has been doing challenging, provocative and beautiful work for more than 40 years.
And Smith, an unstoppable 67, is in the mix this year with “Mercy Is,” a lullaby from Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” that somehow manages to sound ancient but not dated.
“You have a sense of the future,...
And Smith, an unstoppable 67, is in the mix this year with “Mercy Is,” a lullaby from Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” that somehow manages to sound ancient but not dated.
“You have a sense of the future,...
- 1/2/2015
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Benedict Cumberbatch is officially on board as Marvel's Doctor Strange – and fans from across the cosmic abyss have been celebrating on Twitter.
Cumberbatch's casting as the Sorcerer Supreme brings to an end a year of speculation about every actor in Hollywood being linked to the project.
Digital Spy rounds up the interplanetary messages of rage and rejoice in the wake of Cumberbatch's confirmation for Marvel's Doctor Strange:
1. Behold the cosmic memes!
Benedict Cumberbatch's agent must be very proud. pic.twitter.com/7HMjHJEre0
— Sophie Hall (@SophLouiseHall) December 4, 2014
"Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange" pic.twitter.com/C7KwkIzH8v
— han (@petersquilIs) December 5, 2014
who looks at this and thinks ah yes the perfect doctor strange pic.twitter.com/o1NUybGt28
— christmas peaches (@militaryau) December 4, 2014
Omg! Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange?! pic.twitter.com/W5IYSiDnHJ
— Deathly tK (@DeathlyiAm) December 4, 2014
"Breaking: Benedict Cumberbatch officially cast as Doctor Strange!" pic.twitter.com/odA7gKwWs...
Cumberbatch's casting as the Sorcerer Supreme brings to an end a year of speculation about every actor in Hollywood being linked to the project.
Digital Spy rounds up the interplanetary messages of rage and rejoice in the wake of Cumberbatch's confirmation for Marvel's Doctor Strange:
1. Behold the cosmic memes!
Benedict Cumberbatch's agent must be very proud. pic.twitter.com/7HMjHJEre0
— Sophie Hall (@SophLouiseHall) December 4, 2014
"Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange" pic.twitter.com/C7KwkIzH8v
— han (@petersquilIs) December 5, 2014
who looks at this and thinks ah yes the perfect doctor strange pic.twitter.com/o1NUybGt28
— christmas peaches (@militaryau) December 4, 2014
Omg! Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange?! pic.twitter.com/W5IYSiDnHJ
— Deathly tK (@DeathlyiAm) December 4, 2014
"Breaking: Benedict Cumberbatch officially cast as Doctor Strange!" pic.twitter.com/odA7gKwWs...
- 12/5/2014
- Digital Spy
Robert Plant stopped by The Colbert Report to perform cuts off his new LP Lullabye and… The Ceaseless Roar – "a concept album about a white noise machine," as host Stephen Colbert called it – and talk about his musical journey and love of William Blake. He also gave Colbert a joint. The lunacy starts when Plant starts running around the stage after being introduced and knocking off his own portable microphone, which Colbert reapplies to the singer's waist. "I never thought I'd start an interview by saying 'I touched Robert Plant's butt,...
- 10/10/2014
- Rollingstone.com
Patti Smith loves movies. A few days before we chatted about her Best Original Song contender "Mercy Is" from Darren Aronofsky's "Noah," Smith and her friend Ralph Fiennes took in two screenings at the currently running New York Film Festival: Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner" followed by Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice." The double feature was "quite a juxtaposition," she says with a laugh (Smith enjoyed both films). And it's her taste for movie-going that landed her a job writing the haunting melody that underscores Aronofsky's film. The two first met when they bumped into each other at the Venice Film Festival, catching one another at films and chatting between screenings. Three years later, their off-the-cuff conversation is now an Oscar-eligible single. "Mercy Is" is not the first of Smith's songs to feature in a Hollywood picture, but it is her first original writing for screen. Below, she...
- 10/9/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
As you can probably tell, this list feels more arbitrary than others. That’s not by design, but the unfortunate premise of the list leaves some room for interpretation. As we move forward, we will start seeing the films that, if you asked a lay person to give an example, would probably be a response. In other words, more people have heard of them, which, in turn, often makes them more “definitive.” Don’t worry, though – there are still some underseen and underappreciated gems the rest of the way through.
40. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Directed by: Béla Tarr
It’s certainly not the swiftest film on the list, but you can’t expect much quick plot development from Béla Tarr. Wreckmeister Harmonies takes place in a tiny Hungarian town surrounded by nothing. The winter is incredibly cold, but it never snows. Yet the townspeople are excited in the middle of town as...
40. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Directed by: Béla Tarr
It’s certainly not the swiftest film on the list, but you can’t expect much quick plot development from Béla Tarr. Wreckmeister Harmonies takes place in a tiny Hungarian town surrounded by nothing. The winter is incredibly cold, but it never snows. Yet the townspeople are excited in the middle of town as...
- 8/24/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
There seems to be some kind of movement out there where low-key indie dramas of personal tragedy cloak themselves in the veneer of heady science fiction concepts: films like Mike Cahill's Another Earth, James Byrkit Ward's Coherence, and what is perhaps the sub genre's peak, Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Spaceships, laser guns and time portals are replaced with hand-wringing, self-doubt and self-destruction; and plenty of metaphor. William Blake and his wife Jules are a seemingly normal, over-worked, slightly distracted parents. As The Reconstruction of William Zero opening moments unfold, he is distractedly scrambling to get to work, she is busy in the kitchen preparing a breakfast that nobody seems to want, and their son Kevin is itching to get out and enjoy the sunshine on his bicycle. This...
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[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 7/21/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Town Hall's Broadway by the Year Series just took on The Broadway Musicals Of 1990-2014 featuring such performers as Aladdin star Adam Jacobs, Tony Award-nominee Chad Kimball Memphis, Jenn Gambatese Tarzan, All Shook Up, Cheryl Freeman Tommy, The Civil War, NaTashaYvette Williams A Night with Janis Joplin, Patti Murin Lysistrata Jones, Oliver Award-nominee Kyle Scatliffe The Scottsboro Boys, currently in Les Miserables, Morgan James Motown The Musical, Lucas Steele Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, Jeannette I. Bayardelle Hair,Mindy Wallace Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Mark Stuart Mark Stuart Dance Theatre, Drama Desk-nominee Jeremy Morse, Christine Aranda, Nightlife Award-winner William Blake and many more.Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the after party below...
- 6/25/2014
- by Genevieve Rafter Keddy
- BroadwayWorld.com
Town Hall's Broadway by the Year Series just took on The Broadway Musicals Of 1990-2014 featuring such performers as Aladdin star Adam Jacobs, Tony Award-nominee Chad Kimball Memphis, Jenn Gambatese Tarzan, All Shook Up, Cheryl Freeman Tommy, The Civil War, NaTashaYvette Williams A Night with Janis Joplin, Patti Murin Lysistrata Jones, Oliver Award-nominee Kyle Scatliffe The Scottsboro Boys, currently in Les Miserables, Morgan James Motown The Musical, Lucas Steele Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, Jeannette I. Bayardelle Hair,Mindy Wallace Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Mark Stuart Mark Stuart Dance Theatre, Drama Desk-nominee Jeremy Morse, Christine Aranda, Nightlife Award-winner William Blake and many more.Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos of the ladies in action...
- 6/25/2014
- by Genevieve Rafter Keddy
- BroadwayWorld.com
Town Hall's Broadway by the Year Series on Monday, June 23 at 8pm, The Broadway Musicals Of 1990-2014 has added to its cast Aladdinstar Adam Jacobs, Tony Award-nominee Chad Kimball Memphis, Jenn Gambatese Tarzan, All Shook Up, Cheryl Freeman Tommy, The Civil War, NaTasha Yvette Williams A Night with Janis Joplin, Patti Murin Lysistrata Jones, Oliver Award-nominee Kyle Scatliffe The Scottsboro Boys, currently in Les Miserables, Morgan James Motown The Musical, Lucas Steele Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, Jeannette I. Bayardelle Hair, Mindy Wallace Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Mark Stuart Mark Stuart Dance Theatre, Drama Desk-nominee Jeremy Morse, Christine Aranda, and Nightlife Award-winner William Blake.
- 6/18/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
We recently took a look back at the films of Jim Jarmusch and highlighted The 10 Best Performances in his movies, and make no mistake, Johnny Depp's turn as William Blake in "Dead Man" was right in there. Not only is it one of best turns in a Jarmusch film, it's one of the best of Depp's career. That being said, it's only one element of what makes "Dead Man" one of Jarmusch's most beloved films, and the director recently elaborated at length about the making of the movie. Earlier this month, The Film Society Of Lincoln Center presented the movie series, "Permanent Vacation: The Films of Jim Jarmusch," and had the director himself on hand for Q&A following a screening of "Dead Man." Now the 30-minute talk is online and it's well worth a watch. The director discusses a wide variety of topics from getting Neil Young to do the score,...
- 4/25/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Is it just us, or is The Originals really bloody good? And no, we're not sorry about the pun. The Vampire Diaries spinoff has been deliciously entertaining throughout its first season, and there was one mother of a twist last week. So we thought it was about time we sat down with star Joseph Morgan for a spoiler-free chat for newcomers about how much he's been enjoying playing Klaus, what the Original will be like as a daddy and, well, "raunch"...
How much fun are you having on the show?
"I'm having an enormous amount of fun. This show's been such a long time coming. I'd known about it for about a year and a half before we started shooting - but I'm having a really good time. I'm working with my favourite actors from The Vampire Diaries. Plus, we've got all these new actors coming in as well. We've...
How much fun are you having on the show?
"I'm having an enormous amount of fun. This show's been such a long time coming. I'd known about it for about a year and a half before we started shooting - but I'm having a really good time. I'm working with my favourite actors from The Vampire Diaries. Plus, we've got all these new actors coming in as well. We've...
- 3/18/2014
- Digital Spy
His new film, Only Lovers Left Alive, is a great romance between two vampires unanswerable to time. But Jarmusch doesn't want to live for ever – unless it's with Tilda Swinton or Patti Smith
'I've seen my dog dreaming," says Jim Jarmusch over lunch in New York on a snowy December day. His voice is sedate, but excitement pops in his eyes. Other animals have imaginations, too, he thinks. "Once I left a mop outside the window of my apartment, and I saw a sparrow examining it for several days. It kept coming back, and then it started biting through to take away some strands to build a nest. It was thinking, you know?" Jarmusch does a sparrow voice, which sounds identical to his usual voice: "Man, I think this might work …"
Speaking to Jim Jarmusch, it turns out, isn't so different from watching one of his films. His work, like his conversation,...
'I've seen my dog dreaming," says Jim Jarmusch over lunch in New York on a snowy December day. His voice is sedate, but excitement pops in his eyes. Other animals have imaginations, too, he thinks. "Once I left a mop outside the window of my apartment, and I saw a sparrow examining it for several days. It kept coming back, and then it started biting through to take away some strands to build a nest. It was thinking, you know?" Jarmusch does a sparrow voice, which sounds identical to his usual voice: "Man, I think this might work …"
Speaking to Jim Jarmusch, it turns out, isn't so different from watching one of his films. His work, like his conversation,...
- 2/21/2014
- The Guardian - Film News
At Sundance, zombie movies — like all horror films — are typically delegated to the Midnight section. This year, Sundance threw a curve-ball by programming Jeff Baena's gory debut "Life After Beth" in the narrative competition. The horror-comedy, centered on a mild mannered guy (Dane DeHaan) who discovers that his dead girlfriend (Aubrey Plaza) has come back from the dead, features plenty of zombie gore, but as Baena stressed during a Q&A following the film's second-to-last screening yesterday, "Life After Beth" has more to it guts and blood. (This shouldn't come as a complete shock — Baena co-wrote the philosophically adventurous script for David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabees.") "One of the things that informed me was this William Blake poem called 'Eternity,' which was about not holding stuff that you love, otherwise it destroys you. I also was reading some Jacques Derrida at the time." "This version of the zombie,...
- 1/24/2014
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
Founded by sculptor Nigel Humphreys, Sculptoria Studio currently has one goal in mind; to beef up your toy collection with awesome collectibles that you've only ever dreamed of owning. Nigel has got a slew of collectible dioramas in the works, including one of Captain William Blake from The Fog and the iconic 'Devil's Tower' from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and he's just kicked things off with the company's very first release, in tribute to another Steven Spielberg fan-favorite; Jaws.
Limited to only 200 pieces, as all of Sculptoria's collectibles will be, this awesome first release recreates the estuary attack scene from the film, where an unlucky victim meets a gruesome end. Titled the 'Jaws Estuary Attack Diorama,' the limited edition piece is the first of many Jaws collectibles Nigel plans on releasing, with another one in the works that depicts Ben Gardner's severed head emerging from...
Limited to only 200 pieces, as all of Sculptoria's collectibles will be, this awesome first release recreates the estuary attack scene from the film, where an unlucky victim meets a gruesome end. Titled the 'Jaws Estuary Attack Diorama,' the limited edition piece is the first of many Jaws collectibles Nigel plans on releasing, with another one in the works that depicts Ben Gardner's severed head emerging from...
- 1/9/2014
- by John Squires
- FEARnet
Cooking Channel's lineup next week has programming that will make you stray from your diet, just check this out:emeril's Florida“Orlando Farm to Table and Catching up with Norman Van Aken”Premiering Sunday, January 12thAt 2:30pm Et / 11:30am Pt Emeril meets some of the leaders in Orlando's farm-to-table movement. His first stop is Lake Meadow Naturals egg farm where he and owner Dale Volkert take a tour of the famous farm and then head to the kitchen to whip up a fresh omelet in his kitchen. Emeril then travels to The Rusty Spoon restaurant where he meets owners Kathleen and William Blake and chats about their leading roles in the farm-to-table movement and gets a taste of some of Chef...
- 1/9/2014
- by April Neale
- Monsters and Critics
It's a foregone conclusion that any campaign to build a statue of Satan on the steps of Oklahoma's State Capitol would be a magnet for apocalyptic controversy... but I totally saw this one coming. Image: The Satanic Temple Here's the backstory: in 2009, Oklahoma allowed a monument to the Bible's Ten Commandments to be placed on the Capital steps in Oklahoma City, which raised quite a furor among civil liberties groups, who asserted the structure violates the First Amendment. That monument remains in place, but a group calling themselves The Satanic Temple isn't letting it slide, and recently started crowd-sourcing funds to build a massive statue of their own in clear view of the first one. Having reached (and exceeded) their $20,000 goal, they finally revealed what the design will look like... and I've gotta admit it's pretty damn metal. Image: The Satanic Temple This model represents what would ultimately be a...
- 1/8/2014
- by Gregory Burkart
- FEARnet
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