Showing all posts about film
Everything Went Fine, a film by François Ozon
16 May 2022
I don’t know what someone else would say, but if I had to describe the work of French filmmaker François Ozon in two words or less, I’d go for thought provoking. Look at Potiche, In the House, and The New Girlfriend, and tell me you disagree.
End of life plans, living wills, and euthanasia, are matters featuring prominently in Everything Went Fine (Tout s’est bien passé), trailer, the latest movie from Ozon:
When André, 85, has a stroke, Emmanuelle hurries to her father’s bedside. Sick and half-paralysed in his hospital bed, he asks Emmanuelle to help him end his life. But how can you honour such a request when it’s your own father?
Everything Went Fine opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 19 May 2022.
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No aliens: Carl Sagan’s big 2001: A Space Odyssey contribution
16 May 2022
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey were at loggerheads for years as to how to portray the highly advanced aliens who created the mysterious black monolith seen throughout the film.
Kubrick had been considering depicting the extra-terrestrials as human-like, until American cosmologist and author Carl Sagan suggested not showing them at all. Best idea ever. The approach created so much more intrigue.
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2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C Clarke, Carl Sagan, film, science fiction, Stanley Kubrick
Charli XCX: Alone Together, by Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler
13 May 2022
Charli XCX: Alone Together, trailer, a documentary by Los Angeles based director duo Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler, follows British singer and songwriter Charli XCX, as she goes about recording her fourth studio album How I’m Feeling Now, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s early 2020 and the world is thrust into lockdown, grinding everything to a halt – including pop superstar Charli XCX’s North American stadium tour. Stuck at home in LA and not working for the first time in her adult life, instead of bingeing both Netflix and junk food, Charli decides to push herself to her creative and physical limits by recording and releasing an entirely new record in just 40 days.
Armed with a producer sending her beats remotely, speedy Amazon deliveries of recording and filming equipment, a reluctant and utterly charming boyfriend and her legions of fans offering suggestions, video clips and adoration, Charli XCX embarks on both an introspective and deeply collaborative journey into the creation her widely celebrated album How I’m Feeling Now.
Charli XCX: Alone Together will screen in selected Australian cinemas, for a few days only, over the first weekend of June 2022.
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Bradley Bell, Charli XCX, film, music, Pablo Jones-Soler, trailer
Asghar Farhadi wins Cannes Grand Prix award for A Hero
11 May 2022
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival for his latest feature A Hero. Farhadi is the master of suspenseful drama, and A Hero — which opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 9 June 2022 — is said to be his best work since A Separation in 2011. Check out the trailer.
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The Hill Where Lionesses Roar, a film by Luàna Bajrami
10 May 2022
Luàna Bajrami first came to my attention in her role as Sophie, in Céline Sciamma’s stellar 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but the French-Kosovar actor is also a writer and director, and La Colline Où Rugissent Les Lionnes (The Hill Where Lionesses Roar), trailer, is her debut feature:
Best friends Jeta, Li and Qe live in a remote Kosovan village from which they see no way out. Bored and restless, the young women spend their days dreaming big but not living large – until, in a moment of aimless distraction, they rebrand themselves as a gang and fall into a life of crime. Exhilarated by the newfound sense of independence offered by their illegal pursuits, the trio soon discover that their ill-gotten gains come with some dangerous caveats.
The parallels between Bajrami’s film and Portrait of a Lady on Fire are intriguing, with — to be succinct — both stories featuring three women contravening social norms.
While The Hill Where Lionesses Roar screened at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, it didn’t appear to have a wider Australian theatrical release, so it looks like streaming may be the only option for seeing the film in this part of the world.
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Paul Kelly’s song How to Make Gravy to become a movie
9 May 2022
I don’t know how many songs end up being adapted to film, but Australian musician Paul Kelly’s 1996 composition How to Make Gravy, looks like it’ll join their ranks, after Australian film production company Speech & Drama Pictures acquired the song’s film rights.
Written from the perspective of a prisoner named Joe writing home to his brother Dan at Christmas time, the song has gathered momentum year on year as more people discover the plainspoken but emotionally profound work.
But will it be a case of the song is better than the movie? Let’s hope not…
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Mothering Sunday, a film by Eva Husson
4 May 2022
Mothering Sunday, trailer, by French film director Eva Husson, based on the 2016 novel of same name by English author Graham Swift, is a tale of secret love playing out on an unseasonably balmy March day, on an English country estate, in 1924.
The events of Graham Swift’s novel take place over the course of one day — the holiday Mothering Sunday. Maid Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) has the day off, as her employers, Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) are attending an event to celebrate the engagement of their neighbours’ son, Paul (Josh O’Connor). Jane is an orphan, so has no mother to spend the day with — but she does have Paul, with whom she’s been having a years-long secret affair. The story unfolds as they spend their final day together as lovers.
Mothering Sunday opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 2 June 2022.
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Eva Husson, film, Graham Swift, trailer
Martin Eden, a film by Pietro Marcello
3 May 2022
Martin Eden, portrayed by Italian actor Luca Marinelli in the 2019 film of the same name, trailer, directed by Pietro Marcello, is a barely literate sailor who decides he wants to become a writer.
Inspiration comes in the form of Elena Orsini (Jessica Cressy), the daughter of a well-off Neapolitan family, after a chance set of circumstances bring them together. Determined to become “worthy” of her hand in marriage, he devotes the next two years to self-education, while writing as much as he can.
But writing is not an occupation for the faint-hearted, and as the rejection letters pile up, he begins to wonder if he’s doing the right thing. But Martin Eden, loosely based on Jack London’s semiautobiographical 1909 novel, is perhaps a warning to be careful what you wish for.
You might attain what it is you aspire to, but at what cost? And might you lose sight of what it was you really wanted in the first place?
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film, Jack London, Pietro Marcello, trailer
Hello, Bookstore a documentary by A.b. Zax
30 April 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time for many people, particularly small businesses. Brick and mortar retailers, independent bookshops among them, struggled with lockdowns that kept customers away. Numerous operations were threatened with closure, and not all survived.
Hello, Bookstore, trailer, a documentary by American filmmaker A.b. Zax, looks at the impact of the pandemic on The Bookstore, in Lenox, a town in the American state of Massachusetts, which has been owned by Matthew Tannenbaum for over forty years.
In the shadow of the pandemic, a small town rallies to protect a beloved local bookstore in its hour of need. A landmark in Lenox, Massachusetts, The Bookstore is a magical, beatnik gem thanks to its owner, Matt Tannenbaum, whose passion for stories runs deep. Presiding at The Bookstore for over forty years, Matt is a true bard of the Berkshires and his shop is the kind of place to get lost in. This intimate portrait of The Bookstore and the family at its heart offers a journey through good times, hard times and the stories hidden on the shelves.
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A sequel for The Batman has been announced
28 April 2022
No surprises there, news of a follow up to The Batman. Robert Pattinson will reprise his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Matt Reeves will return to direct.
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