Curtain Up on the Cannes Marche!Even though the Cannes Film Festival will not show the films they have selected, the Market marches on.Because the interconnectedness of audience, film industry, movie stars, press, cineastes and cinephiles and just plan gawking fans is so crucial to making the festival what it is, the Festival cannot take place, but the Cannes Marche was brave enough to take the bait and rise to the occasion with its Cannes Online.Visit for updates!
The conference schedule is packed and this first day has been exceptional.
Of the three conferences I attended, Meet the Streamers was the finest articulation of what is happening today which might point to a future that changes the personality of arthouse theater curation. Richard Lorber of Kino Lorber (USA), Olle Agebro of Draken Film (Sweden) and Jaume Ripoli of Filmin discussed the projects they launched to reply to the Covid 19 emergency,...
The conference schedule is packed and this first day has been exceptional.
Of the three conferences I attended, Meet the Streamers was the finest articulation of what is happening today which might point to a future that changes the personality of arthouse theater curation. Richard Lorber of Kino Lorber (USA), Olle Agebro of Draken Film (Sweden) and Jaume Ripoli of Filmin discussed the projects they launched to reply to the Covid 19 emergency,...
- 5/5/2020
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Oscar-nominated Bouchareb explores plight of parents who lose children to Isis.Elle Driver has boarded Jorge Michael Grau’s earthquake drama 7.19 am and Rachid Bouchareb’s Road to Istanbul [pictured], about a mother who goes in pursuit of her Isis recruit daughter, ahead of the American Film Market (Afm). The company also start pre-sales on Audrey Dana’s comedy If I Were a Boy, in which she stars as a woman who wakes up with a penis, and Harry Cleven’s fantasy romance Angel. Franco-Algerian Bouchareb’s Road to Istanbul stars Belgian actress Astrid Whettnall as a single mother on a quest to find her 18-year-old daughter after she leaves Belgium to join the Islamic State with a Jihadist boyfriend. “My goal is to film the incomprehension of a mother totally caught off guard by the changes in her daughter on reaching legal age… Alone, divorced and abandoned by the authorities, she must try...
- 11/3/2015
- ScreenDaily
"London River," directed by French-Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb ("Days of Glory," "Outside The Law"), is now on DVD and VOD in the USA. I was able to catch it via Amazon Instant Video. Aside from a few connection hiccups, I was able to fully appreciate this moving story of a market gardener from Guernsey, played by the magnificent Brenda Blethyn (1996 "Secrets and Lies"), and a Francophone African, the late Sotigui Kouyaté in a subdued yet superb performance, who arrive in London to search for their missing children in the aftermath of the 2005 train and bus terrorist bombings. Elisabeth (Blethyn) is a widow in the British Channel...
- 5/29/2015
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Everything from street hustlers and school teachers to Nobel prize winners and Islamist extremists in a feast of African film
We have selected eight films from five African countries to look out for in 2013 – the year of the 23rd edition of Fespaco – the bi-annual pan-African film and television festival of Ouagadougou.
Burn it up Djassa by Lonesome Solo (Cote d'Ivoire)
Labelled "a film by the people for the people", Burn it up Djassa is about a young street hustler in Abidjan looking for a break. After shooting his first feature, Lonesome Solo escaped the war torn Cote d'Ivoire and has not been seen since.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Biyi Bandele (Nigeria/UK)
The adaptation of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi-Adiche's Orange Prize-winning and bestselling epic, stars Thandie Newton and Chewitel Ejiofor. Nigerian investors contributed with 80% of the budget to fellow Nigerian director and writer Bandele's feature debut.
Jeppe on a Friday by Shannon Walsh,...
We have selected eight films from five African countries to look out for in 2013 – the year of the 23rd edition of Fespaco – the bi-annual pan-African film and television festival of Ouagadougou.
Burn it up Djassa by Lonesome Solo (Cote d'Ivoire)
Labelled "a film by the people for the people", Burn it up Djassa is about a young street hustler in Abidjan looking for a break. After shooting his first feature, Lonesome Solo escaped the war torn Cote d'Ivoire and has not been seen since.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Biyi Bandele (Nigeria/UK)
The adaptation of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi-Adiche's Orange Prize-winning and bestselling epic, stars Thandie Newton and Chewitel Ejiofor. Nigerian investors contributed with 80% of the budget to fellow Nigerian director and writer Bandele's feature debut.
Jeppe on a Friday by Shannon Walsh,...
- 1/23/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
For a full lineup of all the films scheduled to screen in the series, click Here - including documentaries on Frantz Fanon, Sotigui Kouyate, and Josefine Baker. The French Connection: A Film Series about "the Other France" Fri, June 1 to Sun, June 3, 2012; Teachers College, Columbia University; 525 West 120th Street; Tel: 212-864-1760; e-mail: info@Naydiff.org Today's France is a multiracial and multicultural space. It is a melting pot where African and Caribbean people and their descendants have lived for centuries - whether they arrived as immigrants or were born in colonies of the French Empire. The "French Connection"...
- 5/25/2012
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
DVD Playhouse—March 2012
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
- 3/7/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Rachid Bouchareb's "London River" is simultaneously quaint and far-reaching, a tension the filmmaker never fully resolves. Set in the immediate aftermath of the 2005 London bombings, the movie follows a pair of single parents -- a middle-class widow, Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn), who heads from her country home to the city in search of her grown daughter; and a soft-spoken African man, Ousmane (the late Sotigui Kouyaté), who seeks his estranged son. Drawn together in search of their missing children, they embark on a mission to follow their childrens' footsteps. The outcome of their investigation matters less than the cultural and ethnic tensions between them. While the conflicts are rooted in credibility, the story feels simplistic. A political filmmaker to the core (see the Algerian war drama "Days of Glory" for a better example of his strengths), Bouchareb litters news coverage throughout "London River," but he focuses soley on the...
- 12/8/2011
- Indiewire
I’m a day late, but, better late than never…
CinemAfrica is a nonprofit organization that works to distribute African films in Sweden (feature films, shorts, documentaries made by filmmakers of African descent). They hold an annual film festival, called the CinemAfrica International Film Festival, and its now in its 12th year!
A few familiar titles that we’ve talked about on this website will screen… notably Un Homme Qui Crie (A Screaming Man), Hors La Loi (Outside The Law), & Viva Riva (which I actually saw this morning, and will review later); but I also noted several films in the lineup that I’m seeing for the very first time, so I’ll certainly be giving those a look to profile here.
Several guest are expected to be in attendance, specifically the filmmakers and stars of some of the films, and a tribute to the late Malian actor, Sotigui Kouyaté,...
CinemAfrica is a nonprofit organization that works to distribute African films in Sweden (feature films, shorts, documentaries made by filmmakers of African descent). They hold an annual film festival, called the CinemAfrica International Film Festival, and its now in its 12th year!
A few familiar titles that we’ve talked about on this website will screen… notably Un Homme Qui Crie (A Screaming Man), Hors La Loi (Outside The Law), & Viva Riva (which I actually saw this morning, and will review later); but I also noted several films in the lineup that I’m seeing for the very first time, so I’ll certainly be giving those a look to profile here.
Several guest are expected to be in attendance, specifically the filmmakers and stars of some of the films, and a tribute to the late Malian actor, Sotigui Kouyaté,...
- 3/24/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Another one bites the dust! See you next year… maybe.
So, what did you all think? I live-tweeted the entire broadcast. Good times, as I’m sure those who were following me will agree
Not too many major surprises. I fully expected The Social Network to win, since it did so well in all the pre-Oscar awards ceremonies. In fact, I think the only major award it won was in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Aaron Sorkin.
It was a night fit for a king… The King’s Speech cleaned up nicely in the major categories… Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. As I said on Twitter last night, rumors of Harvey Weinstein’s strong-arm tactics are apparently true!
Inception did well… but in the technical categories, inspiring the ire of many fanboys and girls, many who felt that the film was robbed in the...
So, what did you all think? I live-tweeted the entire broadcast. Good times, as I’m sure those who were following me will agree
Not too many major surprises. I fully expected The Social Network to win, since it did so well in all the pre-Oscar awards ceremonies. In fact, I think the only major award it won was in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Aaron Sorkin.
It was a night fit for a king… The King’s Speech cleaned up nicely in the major categories… Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. As I said on Twitter last night, rumors of Harvey Weinstein’s strong-arm tactics are apparently true!
Inception did well… but in the technical categories, inspiring the ire of many fanboys and girls, many who felt that the film was robbed in the...
- 2/28/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
I’d forgotten about this contest! Terrible of me, I know!
It was likely because I only got 1 single entry. So, either most of you couldn’t identify all the film titles and faces in the video, or the $50 gift cert wasn’t enticing enough, or you just didn’t give a shit.
Regardless, as a refresher, I put together the below video compilation last month, highlighting black cinema in 2010. Your task was to name every film used in the video And the names of the faces in the Rip section towards the end of it.
As I stated then, all the answers could have been found right here on the blog, because we’ve talked about all of them.
I was later supposed to repost the video, along with a list of all the films and the RIPs in the video, so that you all can compare with your guesses.
It was likely because I only got 1 single entry. So, either most of you couldn’t identify all the film titles and faces in the video, or the $50 gift cert wasn’t enticing enough, or you just didn’t give a shit.
Regardless, as a refresher, I put together the below video compilation last month, highlighting black cinema in 2010. Your task was to name every film used in the video And the names of the faces in the Rip section towards the end of it.
As I stated then, all the answers could have been found right here on the blog, because we’ve talked about all of them.
I was later supposed to repost the video, along with a list of all the films and the RIPs in the video, so that you all can compare with your guesses.
- 1/14/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
"I need to wait a few years to make another movie like this," says Rachid Bouchareb, the director of "Outside the Law." It's a statement that doesn't need much explanation, though not for the reasons you might think. Roughly a thousand protesters came out of the woodwork to picket the "Outside the Law"'s premiere at Cannes this summer, a response to the film sight unseen by French nationalists who believed Bouchareb's portrayal of one of the nation's darkest hours as their occupation of Algeria violently came to an end during the mid- 20th century.
Months later, through a translator, Bouchareb appeared to shrug off the protests, saying, "France has been in this sort of debate about colonization and it's own past for many years. And that debate always sort of turns into a political one."
So what did intimidate the director about "Outside the Law"? Having to deal with...
Months later, through a translator, Bouchareb appeared to shrug off the protests, saying, "France has been in this sort of debate about colonization and it's own past for many years. And that debate always sort of turns into a political one."
So what did intimidate the director about "Outside the Law"? Having to deal with...
- 11/20/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Continuing on with my planned 2 1/2 week pre-coverage of the New York African Diaspora Film Festival, which begins on November 26th, and will run for about 2 1/2 weeks, through December 14th…
I said I’d profile at least 1 film screening at the upcoming festival, daily, until the festival actually begins. A couple of days ago, I profiled the festival opener, Africa United, which you can read Here.
Today, it’s a film called London River, which has been previously mentioned on this blog.
Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb’s drama which, thus far, has been well-received by critics and audiences alike, since its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, in February.
The film tells the story of Brit Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) and Malian Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté) – two parents from drastically different backgrounds, searching for their children in the wake of the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London.
Kouyaté won a...
I said I’d profile at least 1 film screening at the upcoming festival, daily, until the festival actually begins. A couple of days ago, I profiled the festival opener, Africa United, which you can read Here.
Today, it’s a film called London River, which has been previously mentioned on this blog.
Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb’s drama which, thus far, has been well-received by critics and audiences alike, since its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, in February.
The film tells the story of Brit Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) and Malian Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté) – two parents from drastically different backgrounds, searching for their children in the wake of the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London.
Kouyaté won a...
- 11/11/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
MacGruber; Villa Amalia; The Time That Remains; London River; StreetDance 3D
What is it about Saturday Night Live spin-off movies that induces such soul-crushing torpor? For every rare success (Wayne's World, The Blues Brothers) there are umpteen duffers (Coneheads, It's Pat, The Ladies Man, Blues Brothers 2000) which demonstrate just how poorly TV skits translate to the big screen.
Few SNL stinkers could be worse, however, than MacGruber, an execrable dirge which suffers not only from stretching a single joke over an excruciating hour and a half, but also from spoofing an 80s TV show (MacGyver) which few in the UK either saw or care to remember. "I'm proud of how bad this film is," announced Val Kilmer whose character name, Dieter von Cunth, is about as close as the script gets to humour. "In fact, I can't believe I just called it a film. It's a two-hour skit."
Just...
What is it about Saturday Night Live spin-off movies that induces such soul-crushing torpor? For every rare success (Wayne's World, The Blues Brothers) there are umpteen duffers (Coneheads, It's Pat, The Ladies Man, Blues Brothers 2000) which demonstrate just how poorly TV skits translate to the big screen.
Few SNL stinkers could be worse, however, than MacGruber, an execrable dirge which suffers not only from stretching a single joke over an excruciating hour and a half, but also from spoofing an 80s TV show (MacGyver) which few in the UK either saw or care to remember. "I'm proud of how bad this film is," announced Val Kilmer whose character name, Dieter von Cunth, is about as close as the script gets to humour. "In fact, I can't believe I just called it a film. It's a two-hour skit."
Just...
- 10/9/2010
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
The Loved Ones
DVD, Blu-ray, Optimum
Horror fans are used to adjusting their critical faculties, often accepting perhaps a little less in the acting and characterisation departments. It's a fair enough trade-off; the more intense the horror, the smaller the budget, so they seldom attract big names. It's a rare horror film that truly delivers on the acting front while keeping things nice and scary. This is one of those rarities. Director Sean Byrne lucked out with a uniformly great cast here, notably with lead actress Robyn McLeavy as the terrifying Lola; the other standout is Xavier Samuel (Twilight Saga: Eclipse) as Brent, her main victim (a tough role as he's rendered mute by an injection of detergent into his throat early on). Lola is the plain, almost invisible girl at school; when Brent politely turns down her invitation to the prom his fate is sealed. Lola holds her own...
DVD, Blu-ray, Optimum
Horror fans are used to adjusting their critical faculties, often accepting perhaps a little less in the acting and characterisation departments. It's a fair enough trade-off; the more intense the horror, the smaller the budget, so they seldom attract big names. It's a rare horror film that truly delivers on the acting front while keeping things nice and scary. This is one of those rarities. Director Sean Byrne lucked out with a uniformly great cast here, notably with lead actress Robyn McLeavy as the terrifying Lola; the other standout is Xavier Samuel (Twilight Saga: Eclipse) as Brent, her main victim (a tough role as he's rendered mute by an injection of detergent into his throat early on). Lola is the plain, almost invisible girl at school; when Brent politely turns down her invitation to the prom his fate is sealed. Lola holds her own...
- 10/8/2010
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
Is Rachid Bouchareb's 7/7-themed drama 'a film no Londoner should miss' or a morally bankrupt enterprise that uses the bombings as a gimmick?
The basics
In the aftermath of the 7/7 London bombings, two very different characters travel to London in search of their children, who they fear may have been caught up in the attacks. Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) is a mumsy Guernsey smallholder, while Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté) is an elderly African muslim who works as a forester in France. Director Rachid Bouchareb is best known for his Oscar-nominated epic tale of north Africans fighting to defend France in the second world war, Days of Glory. Here, he crafts a film with a narrower scope, which nevertheless aims high in its determination to expose the folly of prejudice, and the universal empathy of all human beings.
The stakes
Bouchareb is a favourite of the critics and something of a regular at Cannes and Berlin.
The basics
In the aftermath of the 7/7 London bombings, two very different characters travel to London in search of their children, who they fear may have been caught up in the attacks. Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) is a mumsy Guernsey smallholder, while Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté) is an elderly African muslim who works as a forester in France. Director Rachid Bouchareb is best known for his Oscar-nominated epic tale of north Africans fighting to defend France in the second world war, Days of Glory. Here, he crafts a film with a narrower scope, which nevertheless aims high in its determination to expose the folly of prejudice, and the universal empathy of all human beings.
The stakes
Bouchareb is a favourite of the critics and something of a regular at Cannes and Berlin.
- 7/13/2010
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
The tale of a British mother and a Malian father searching for their children after the 7/7 bombings is subtle but affecting
A recurrent theme in movies is that of strangers being suddenly brought together in the wake of a tragic event to examine, share and compare their lives. In Billy Wilder's bittersweet comedy Avanti!, starchy American businessman Jack Lemmon and plump English spinster Juliet Mills go to Ischia to pick up the bodies of parents killed in an accident only to discover that his father and her mother were secret lovers.
In Costa-Gavras's superb real-life thriller, Missing, Lemmon has a similar role as an uptight, middle-class American having the scales fall from his eyes over Us foreign policy and the CIA when he goes to Chile after Pinochet's 1973 coup. There, he meets his hippie daughter-in-law (Sissy Spacek) and they're drawn together as they investigate the disappearance of his political activist son.
A recurrent theme in movies is that of strangers being suddenly brought together in the wake of a tragic event to examine, share and compare their lives. In Billy Wilder's bittersweet comedy Avanti!, starchy American businessman Jack Lemmon and plump English spinster Juliet Mills go to Ischia to pick up the bodies of parents killed in an accident only to discover that his father and her mother were secret lovers.
In Costa-Gavras's superb real-life thriller, Missing, Lemmon has a similar role as an uptight, middle-class American having the scales fall from his eyes over Us foreign policy and the CIA when he goes to Chile after Pinochet's 1973 coup. There, he meets his hippie daughter-in-law (Sissy Spacek) and they're drawn together as they investigate the disappearance of his political activist son.
- 7/10/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Predators (15)
(Nimród Antal, 2010, Us) Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo. 107 mins.
Twenty-three years and three sequels after the original, the sub-Alien sci-fi movie at last gets a proper follow-up, and even if Brody barely has the bulk to fill one of Schwarzenegger's combat boots, this serves up the semi-guilty action pleasures you'd demand. Brody is one of a gang of random human badasses who wind up in a strange jungle and realise they're now training material for apprentice alien badasses. So who will survive to be the, er, worst ass?
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (12A)
(David Slade, 2010, Us) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner. 124 mins.
Another teen-conquering exercise in sexless erotica, but at least there's an actual film around it this time. A new vampire threat and Bella's love triangle won't be enough to entice newcomers, but fans will enjoy the unconsummated fantasy thrills they crave.
(Nimród Antal, 2010, Us) Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo. 107 mins.
Twenty-three years and three sequels after the original, the sub-Alien sci-fi movie at last gets a proper follow-up, and even if Brody barely has the bulk to fill one of Schwarzenegger's combat boots, this serves up the semi-guilty action pleasures you'd demand. Brody is one of a gang of random human badasses who wind up in a strange jungle and realise they're now training material for apprentice alien badasses. So who will survive to be the, er, worst ass?
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (12A)
(David Slade, 2010, Us) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner. 124 mins.
Another teen-conquering exercise in sexless erotica, but at least there's an actual film around it this time. A new vampire threat and Bella's love triangle won't be enough to entice newcomers, but fans will enjoy the unconsummated fantasy thrills they crave.
- 7/9/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
A decent French film about the capital's 7/7 suicide bombings. By Peter Bradshaw
With the conspicuous and magnificent exception of Chris Morris, film-makers here have shied away from the contemporary issue of 7/7 and suicide bombing on British soil. It falls to the French director Rachid Bouchareb to make what is, so far, the only substantial feature specifically on 7/7, and he brings to the subject an outsider's view – very different, I suspect, from how a self-consciously speechified, British-made drama might look. It is the story of two middle-aged people – prosperous Guernsey smallholder Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) and African migrant worker Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté) – who have come to London, suspecting that their missing children have been killed in the bombings, and desperate to find the truth. Between these two lost souls develops a hesitant, painful friendship. Bouchareb brings in two of his repertory équipe for supporting roles: Sami Bouajila is an imam, apparently at the Finsbury Park mosque,...
With the conspicuous and magnificent exception of Chris Morris, film-makers here have shied away from the contemporary issue of 7/7 and suicide bombing on British soil. It falls to the French director Rachid Bouchareb to make what is, so far, the only substantial feature specifically on 7/7, and he brings to the subject an outsider's view – very different, I suspect, from how a self-consciously speechified, British-made drama might look. It is the story of two middle-aged people – prosperous Guernsey smallholder Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) and African migrant worker Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté) – who have come to London, suspecting that their missing children have been killed in the bombings, and desperate to find the truth. Between these two lost souls develops a hesitant, painful friendship. Bouchareb brings in two of his repertory équipe for supporting roles: Sami Bouajila is an imam, apparently at the Finsbury Park mosque,...
- 7/8/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Our celebration of Indian cinema continues, with a look at differing conventions between East and West, plus a look back at classic 50s movie Pather Panchali
Continuing apace with my own trip through South India, here’s my second look at Indian cinema, which follows last time’s brief look at how film as a narrative experience in its own self-contained space is not necessarily the only way of viewing movies.
This time, I’m looking at how films are actually viewed by the audience, and how a cinema-watching experience that may seem completely alien to us is actually part of the enjoyment of the movies for some.
In the Western world, a trip to the cinema is pretty much the same all over. You pick a film you want to see, you book tickets, you turn up and buy your popcorn before settling into generally comfortable seats and engaging...
Continuing apace with my own trip through South India, here’s my second look at Indian cinema, which follows last time’s brief look at how film as a narrative experience in its own self-contained space is not necessarily the only way of viewing movies.
This time, I’m looking at how films are actually viewed by the audience, and how a cinema-watching experience that may seem completely alien to us is actually part of the enjoyment of the movies for some.
In the Western world, a trip to the cinema is pretty much the same all over. You pick a film you want to see, you book tickets, you turn up and buy your popcorn before settling into generally comfortable seats and engaging...
- 7/7/2010
- Den of Geek
How do you turn the July 7 London bombings into a film? Director Rachid Bouchareb tells Stuart Jeffries how it all started with two unlikely leads
The shoot should have been a disaster. The male lead was dying and wore an oxygen mask between takes. The female lead was struggling with a language she'd speed-learned over four weeks, and could barely communicate with her co-star. The director was French, the crew spoke little English and the plot centred on one of the most painful events in recent British history: the 7 July 2005 bombings that killed 56 people and injured more than 700. Moreover, there was little goodwill among the locals in Finsbury Park, north London, where filming took place; they were suspicious that a foreign crew would make a witless, sensationalist picture.
What made Rachid Bouchareb want to make this film? "I wanted to show that Muslims, as much as anyone else, are victims of terrorist attacks,...
The shoot should have been a disaster. The male lead was dying and wore an oxygen mask between takes. The female lead was struggling with a language she'd speed-learned over four weeks, and could barely communicate with her co-star. The director was French, the crew spoke little English and the plot centred on one of the most painful events in recent British history: the 7 July 2005 bombings that killed 56 people and injured more than 700. Moreover, there was little goodwill among the locals in Finsbury Park, north London, where filming took place; they were suspicious that a foreign crew would make a witless, sensationalist picture.
What made Rachid Bouchareb want to make this film? "I wanted to show that Muslims, as much as anyone else, are victims of terrorist attacks,...
- 7/7/2010
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Mosaïques Festival Of World Culture, London
World cinema festivals might be more common these days, but this one shows you the parts of the globe British festivals don't reach, ie: the French post-colonial landscape. There's quality cinema here from north and west Africa, south-east Asia and the Middle East, much of it produced with French support. Whisper With The Wind is set in Iraq, mind you, and deals with a clandestine radio messenger, while Brazil's The Famous And The Dead is a dreamy Bob Dylan-themed thriller. Closer to home there's London River, in which Brenda Blethyn and Malian actor Sotigui Kouyaté play parents brought together by the 7/7 bombings.
Ciné Lumière, SW7, Thu to 12 Jun, visit institut-francais.org.uk
Science On Film, London
Which would you rather watch, Craig Venter in a lab coat spending 10 years creating the world's first synthetic life form, or James Whale's crazed Dr Frankenstein screaming,...
World cinema festivals might be more common these days, but this one shows you the parts of the globe British festivals don't reach, ie: the French post-colonial landscape. There's quality cinema here from north and west Africa, south-east Asia and the Middle East, much of it produced with French support. Whisper With The Wind is set in Iraq, mind you, and deals with a clandestine radio messenger, while Brazil's The Famous And The Dead is a dreamy Bob Dylan-themed thriller. Closer to home there's London River, in which Brenda Blethyn and Malian actor Sotigui Kouyaté play parents brought together by the 7/7 bombings.
Ciné Lumière, SW7, Thu to 12 Jun, visit institut-francais.org.uk
Science On Film, London
Which would you rather watch, Craig Venter in a lab coat spending 10 years creating the world's first synthetic life form, or James Whale's crazed Dr Frankenstein screaming,...
- 5/28/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Malian actor renowned for his long association with the director Peter Brook and his work in film
The Malian actor Sotigui Kouyaté, who has died aged 73, was an important bridge between African and western culture for 40 years. He was best known for his collaborations with the director Peter Brook, in whose work he demonstrated an extraordinary range.
Kouyaté was one of the very few performers around whom Brook shaped particular projects at the Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris. Kouyaté played a resonant Prospero in a French-language Tempest (1990), bringing to the role the sensibility of a culture for whom the supernatural is a practical, everyday matter rather than distant folklore. In the Oliver Sacks-inspired play The Man Who (1993), he effectively effaced his origins, playing various patients (and the Jewish Sacks) with transparency and universality. In Qui Est Là? (1996), an improvisation based on Hamlet, he played Polonius, a gravedigger and a terrifying,...
The Malian actor Sotigui Kouyaté, who has died aged 73, was an important bridge between African and western culture for 40 years. He was best known for his collaborations with the director Peter Brook, in whose work he demonstrated an extraordinary range.
Kouyaté was one of the very few performers around whom Brook shaped particular projects at the Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris. Kouyaté played a resonant Prospero in a French-language Tempest (1990), bringing to the role the sensibility of a culture for whom the supernatural is a practical, everyday matter rather than distant folklore. In the Oliver Sacks-inspired play The Man Who (1993), he effectively effaced his origins, playing various patients (and the Jewish Sacks) with transparency and universality. In Qui Est Là? (1996), an improvisation based on Hamlet, he played Polonius, a gravedigger and a terrifying,...
- 5/2/2010
- by Andrew Todd
- The Guardian - Film News
MsWOO’s post earlier today on African films at the Cannes Film Festival this year, caused me to look up one of the filmmakers she mentioned – Rachid Bouchareb – the French-Algerian filmmaker, whose film, Hors-la-loi (Outside the Law), is screening in competition at the festival.
Bouchareb’s last film, 2009’s London River, which was indeed featured on this blog, starred Brit Brenda Blethyn and Malian Sotigui Kouyaté – two parents from drastically different backgrounds, searching for their children in the wake of the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London.
I never got to see London River, but it was well-reviewed by critics who attended the many film festivals in which it screened. In fact, Sotigui Kouyaté won a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for his performance.
Looking over his IMDb page, I immediately noticed, at the top of the page, that Kouyaté very recently died. Specifically, he died just this past Sunday,...
Bouchareb’s last film, 2009’s London River, which was indeed featured on this blog, starred Brit Brenda Blethyn and Malian Sotigui Kouyaté – two parents from drastically different backgrounds, searching for their children in the wake of the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London.
I never got to see London River, but it was well-reviewed by critics who attended the many film festivals in which it screened. In fact, Sotigui Kouyaté won a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for his performance.
Looking over his IMDb page, I immediately noticed, at the top of the page, that Kouyaté very recently died. Specifically, he died just this past Sunday,...
- 4/23/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Acclaimed Malian actor Sotigui Kouyate has passed away at the age of 74.
The former soccer star died on Saturday in Paris, France.
The son of director Dani Kouyate, Sotigui started out as a promising soccer player for the Burkina Faso national team.
He soon moved into acting and began his theatre career in 1966, before going on to establish his own stage company.
Kouyate was a longtime collaborator of British film and theatre director Peter Brook, and the pair worked together on the Indian epic The Mahabharata in 1983.
But it wasn't until 2009 that Kouyate gained more international acclaim with his portrayal of a French Muslim waiting for news of his son in the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 bombings on the London transport system in the movie London River.
The role won him the Best Actor title at last year's Berlin Film Festival in Germany and he was also awarded the French government's highest cultural honour at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, when he was made an officer of arts and letters.
The cause of death was unknown as WENN went to press.
The former soccer star died on Saturday in Paris, France.
The son of director Dani Kouyate, Sotigui started out as a promising soccer player for the Burkina Faso national team.
He soon moved into acting and began his theatre career in 1966, before going on to establish his own stage company.
Kouyate was a longtime collaborator of British film and theatre director Peter Brook, and the pair worked together on the Indian epic The Mahabharata in 1983.
But it wasn't until 2009 that Kouyate gained more international acclaim with his portrayal of a French Muslim waiting for news of his son in the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 bombings on the London transport system in the movie London River.
The role won him the Best Actor title at last year's Berlin Film Festival in Germany and he was also awarded the French government's highest cultural honour at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, when he was made an officer of arts and letters.
The cause of death was unknown as WENN went to press.
- 4/19/2010
- WENN
By Steve Pond
Hope springs eternal.
For evidence, head on out to Laemmle’s Town Center 5 theaters in Encino this weekend, where a couple of screens are devoted to what appear to be Oscar-qualifying runs by small films hoping to slip into the awards picture.
The highest-profile among them is “London River” (below), a film from “Days of Glory” director Rachid Bouchareb with a lead performance by Brenda Blethyn that is reportedly sensational. (Sotigui Kouyate won the best actor award at the Berlin Film Festival, but the stateside awards push is focused on Blethyn...
Hope springs eternal.
For evidence, head on out to Laemmle’s Town Center 5 theaters in Encino this weekend, where a couple of screens are devoted to what appear to be Oscar-qualifying runs by small films hoping to slip into the awards picture.
The highest-profile among them is “London River” (below), a film from “Days of Glory” director Rachid Bouchareb with a lead performance by Brenda Blethyn that is reportedly sensational. (Sotigui Kouyate won the best actor award at the Berlin Film Festival, but the stateside awards push is focused on Blethyn...
- 11/13/2009
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Back to the London Film Festival with Dave, with an actressing overload today. Coming within the next few days, sanity pending, will be thoughts on Precious (yes, again), A Prophet and, finally, The White Ribbon.
A vague plot synopsis, like the one found in the film festival's literature, makes Chloe's icy erotica seem coyly alluring. A full plot synopsis might reveal the more tawdry aspects of the film, but what delight there is within Atom Egoyan's latest may well remain within the unfolding, so I'll keep as mum as I can manage. But something doesn't feel right from the start. You can film a cold place but it takes something more to make the film cold itself - and Chloe is too heavily photographed, too close to really appropriate that at all. There's no law that says a film set in Canadian winter has to send chills down the back of your spine,...
A vague plot synopsis, like the one found in the film festival's literature, makes Chloe's icy erotica seem coyly alluring. A full plot synopsis might reveal the more tawdry aspects of the film, but what delight there is within Atom Egoyan's latest may well remain within the unfolding, so I'll keep as mum as I can manage. But something doesn't feel right from the start. You can film a cold place but it takes something more to make the film cold itself - and Chloe is too heavily photographed, too close to really appropriate that at all. There's no law that says a film set in Canadian winter has to send chills down the back of your spine,...
- 10/23/2009
- by Dave
- FilmExperience
London River is the newest feature from award-winning French-Algerian director Rachid "Days Of Glory" Bouchareb, starring actress Brenda Blethyn, screening @ Tiff 2009 September 17. The film previously won a 'Silver Bear' @ Berlinale 2009, awarded to Sotigui Kouyaté for best acting. "...Cities push strangers together, at times tragically, as in the London bombings of July 7, 2005. As hundreds went missing in the confusion of the aftermath, family and friends posted flyers all over the city with pictures of the loved ones they sought. Brenda Blethyn plays 'Mrs. Sommers', a farming woman with a simple rural routine. When her regular calls to her city-dwelling daughter go unanswered, she crosses the English Channel into the throng of north London. At first, news of the terror attacks are mere background noise to her, but as she continues to search for her daughter, fear sets in. At the same time, 'Ousmane' (Sotigui Kouyaté) an African farm worker has travelled...
- 9/16/2009
- HollywoodNorthReport.com
Hnr's Michael Stevens reporting from Toronto: Thanks go out to Martin & Ingrid's Tiff 09 Kick-Off Party, Wednesday, September 9th @ the Gat + M.Link Festival headquarters in downtown Toronto's Yorkville, providing select wines from Bryan J. Robertson's Kingsway Brokerage Ltd., on behalf of Wild Bunch, Elle Driver, Celluloid Dreams, Film&Doc, Capri Films, The Works International & UMedia, supporting the following films screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival: Contemporary Cinema : Rabia directed by Sebastian Cordero, will screen a world premiere with Cordero in attendance. "...South American immigrants working in Spain, builder José María and housekeeper Rosa have been together for a few weeks and are very much in love. Rosa's bosses, Señor and Señora Torres, leave their home on a trip, and the volatile José María spends a few days at the run-down mansion, fantasizing about what life with Rosa could be. When a violent confrontation with his foreman results in the other man's death,...
- 9/9/2009
- HollywoodNorthReport.com
- Presented at last year's Tiff as a soon to be lensed project, Leaves of Grass returns as a full fledged offering with Edward Norton to the power of two (see still). Also in the special presentation category we find Neil Jordan's Ondine, a fantasy pic that might remind some people out there of Splash. Leaves Of Grass - Tim Blake Nelson got to present his last picture as a director The Grey Zone only two days after 9/11. Norton is portraying twin brothers, one an Ivy League philosophy professor, the other a small-time and brilliant marijuana grower. London River - Rachid Bouchareb got to present this at Berlin. This is about the terror attacks in London on July 7, 2005. Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate star as strangers who come to London to find their son and daughter who have been missing since the bombings. They discover their children had been living
- 7/14/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
Berlinale 2009 winners cover a broad range of films whose central aim consists in exploring ways to further the interpretation and understanding of important topics of our time. Therefore the jury has decided to award prizes to those efforts which achieve a balance between the political statement and the poetic form.
Golden Bear for the Best Film La teta asustada (The Milk Of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa
Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade
ex aequo Award Gigante by Adrián Biniez
Silver Bear - Best Director Asghar Farhadi for Darbareye Elly (About Elly)
Silver Bear - Best Actress Birgit Minichmayr in Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade
Silver Bear - Best Actor Sotigui Kouyate in London River by Rachid Bouchareb
Silver Bear - Outstanding Artistic Contribution "We filmmakers, sometimes we forget the power of sound to create atmospheres and more often we use it in a predictable way. There’s a tremendous originality and risk in the experimental and original way this film builds up its somber narration around its powerful sound design." Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution to Gábor Erdély and Tamás Székely for the Sound-Design of Katalin Varga by Peter Strickland
Silver Bear - Best Script "The role of a film-script when telling human stories starts with the decision of whose eyes to look through in the first place. For a script that takes us into a particular experience – one all too often ignored and obscured from us - towards the encouragement of producers, distributors and audiences across the world to keep looking for a wider horizon and to honour the possibility that cinema holds for us to tell the stories that no other medium may be free enough to touch," Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger by Oren Moverman
Alfred Bauer Prize "The jury has unanimously this year decided to give the Alfred Bauer Prize to two films and two directors. One of these directors is an old master with 60 years of experience in film-making. But he is still young and courageous in mind when developing new ways of film-making. He does not even hesitate to involve himself in his movie.
The other director is a young man, here in Berlin with his first feature film, but imbued with the same passion to use cinema to do what cinema can do best: to tell important stories about our time and the human condition."
The jury awards the Alfred Bauer Prize to
Gigante by Adrián Biniez
ex aequo award Tatarak (Sweet Rush) by Andrzej Wajda...
Golden Bear for the Best Film La teta asustada (The Milk Of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa
Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade
ex aequo Award Gigante by Adrián Biniez
Silver Bear - Best Director Asghar Farhadi for Darbareye Elly (About Elly)
Silver Bear - Best Actress Birgit Minichmayr in Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade
Silver Bear - Best Actor Sotigui Kouyate in London River by Rachid Bouchareb
Silver Bear - Outstanding Artistic Contribution "We filmmakers, sometimes we forget the power of sound to create atmospheres and more often we use it in a predictable way. There’s a tremendous originality and risk in the experimental and original way this film builds up its somber narration around its powerful sound design." Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution to Gábor Erdély and Tamás Székely for the Sound-Design of Katalin Varga by Peter Strickland
Silver Bear - Best Script "The role of a film-script when telling human stories starts with the decision of whose eyes to look through in the first place. For a script that takes us into a particular experience – one all too often ignored and obscured from us - towards the encouragement of producers, distributors and audiences across the world to keep looking for a wider horizon and to honour the possibility that cinema holds for us to tell the stories that no other medium may be free enough to touch," Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger by Oren Moverman
Alfred Bauer Prize "The jury has unanimously this year decided to give the Alfred Bauer Prize to two films and two directors. One of these directors is an old master with 60 years of experience in film-making. But he is still young and courageous in mind when developing new ways of film-making. He does not even hesitate to involve himself in his movie.
The other director is a young man, here in Berlin with his first feature film, but imbued with the same passion to use cinema to do what cinema can do best: to tell important stories about our time and the human condition."
The jury awards the Alfred Bauer Prize to
Gigante by Adrián Biniez
ex aequo award Tatarak (Sweet Rush) by Andrzej Wajda...
- 2/17/2009
- Sydney's Buzz
Peruvian film "The Milk of Sorrow "(La Teta Asustada) has won the Golden Bear for best film at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday evening. Directed by Peruvian-born director Claudia Llosa's, the film is a drama about a young woman with a mysterious illness.
The film stars Magaly Solier as Fausta, who suffers from a disease she believes is transmitted through the breast milk of women who were raped in the Shining Path's war of terror in Peru. The condition is called teta asustada (frightened breast) and affects women who were raped during the insurgency in Peru
The protagonist's life starts to change direction after her mother dies and she goes to live in Lima. Llosa, now based in Spain, says she created the film after hearing about the impact of terrorism on women in the Andes mountain region of South America.
The Silver Bear for best...
The film stars Magaly Solier as Fausta, who suffers from a disease she believes is transmitted through the breast milk of women who were raped in the Shining Path's war of terror in Peru. The condition is called teta asustada (frightened breast) and affects women who were raped during the insurgency in Peru
The protagonist's life starts to change direction after her mother dies and she goes to live in Lima. Llosa, now based in Spain, says she created the film after hearing about the impact of terrorism on women in the Andes mountain region of South America.
The Silver Bear for best...
- 2/16/2009
- icelebz.com
Claudia Llosa's Peruvian drama "The Milk of Sorrow" (La teta asustada) won the Golden Bear for best film at the 59th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival.
The Silver Bear went ex aequo to Maren Ade's "Everyone Else" (Alle Anderen) and Adrián Biniez's "Gigante." Asghar Farhadi took home the Silver Bear for best director for "About Elly" (Darbareye Elly).
Birgit Minichmayr was named best actress for her role in "Everyone Else," while Sotigui Kouyate won best actor for his performance in Rachid Bouchareb's "London River."
The Silver Bear for best script went to Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for "The Messenger." Alfred Bauer Prize went ex aequo to Biniez for "Gigante" and Andrzej Wajda for "Sweet Rush" (Tatarak).
The International Jury of the 2009 Berlinale was presided by Tilda Swinton and included Isabel Coixet, Gaston Kaboré, Henning Mankell, Christoph Schlingensief, Wayne Wang and Alice Waters.
The Silver Bear went ex aequo to Maren Ade's "Everyone Else" (Alle Anderen) and Adrián Biniez's "Gigante." Asghar Farhadi took home the Silver Bear for best director for "About Elly" (Darbareye Elly).
Birgit Minichmayr was named best actress for her role in "Everyone Else," while Sotigui Kouyate won best actor for his performance in Rachid Bouchareb's "London River."
The Silver Bear for best script went to Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for "The Messenger." Alfred Bauer Prize went ex aequo to Biniez for "Gigante" and Andrzej Wajda for "Sweet Rush" (Tatarak).
The International Jury of the 2009 Berlinale was presided by Tilda Swinton and included Isabel Coixet, Gaston Kaboré, Henning Mankell, Christoph Schlingensief, Wayne Wang and Alice Waters.
- 2/16/2009
- by Franck Tabouring
- screeninglog.com
While we eagerly await more info (and trailers) for the films playing at Sundance (and hopefully news on where Cory McAbee's Stingray Sam is going), the first competition and out of competition titles have been announced for one of the other biggest fests on the planet, the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, and all I have to say is Wtf? Pink Panther II is playing out of competition?! Who's running this menagerie? They redid the entire program this year, so I hope they're still going to have the genre goods.
You can check out the real short list after the break or you can read the press release.
Alle Anderen Germany
by Maren Ade (The Forest for the Trees)
with Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Nicole Marischka
World premiere
Rage Great Britain / USA
by Sally Potter (The Tango Lesson, Orlando)
with Dame Judi Dench, Jude Law, Dianne Wiest,...
You can check out the real short list after the break or you can read the press release.
Alle Anderen Germany
by Maren Ade (The Forest for the Trees)
with Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Nicole Marischka
World premiere
Rage Great Britain / USA
by Sally Potter (The Tango Lesson, Orlando)
with Dame Judi Dench, Jude Law, Dianne Wiest,...
- 12/12/2008
- QuietEarth.us
- The terrorist bombings that rocked London on July 7, 2005 are still a touchy subject for many. 52 souls died that day in a series of coordinated attacks on the public transit system, leaving the city’s commuter and telecom infrastructures in taters – and its citizens shell shocked. No doubt the incident is fertile ground for storytelling, I’m a bit surprised that there hasn’t been a film on subject yet. That is about to change with London River, the latest film from heralded French filmmaker Rachid Bouchard (Dust of Life/Days of Glory). The pictures stars the seemingly omnipresent Brenda Blethyn (last seen in Atonement) and the criminally underused character actor Sotigui Kouyate (Dirty Pretty Things) as strangers drawn to London in search of their missing children following the attacks, in the process discovering that they had been living together. The film was developed as a TV project, but Bouchard
- 5/2/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
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