The Criterion Channel’s July 2021 Lineup Includes Wong Kar Wai, Neo-Noir, Art-House Animation & More
The July lineup at The Criterion Channel has been revealed, most notably featuring the new Wong Kar Wai restorations from the recent box set release, including As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, and his shorts Hua yang de nian hua and The Hand.
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
- 6/24/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
An Irish bog consumes two men seeking revenge and redemption, in Ryan and Andy Tohill’s tense thriller
Twins Ryan and Andy Tohill’s distinctive homecoming parable, further proof of Irish cinema’s resurgent boldness and versatility, finds a striking visual metaphor for the emotional labours required to find peace of mind nowadays. In the prologue’s teachable example of show-don’t-tell film-making, rough-hewn, edgy Ronan (Moe Dunford) returns to the boarded-up farmhouse he once called home with an apparent eye to starting afresh. An obstacle to the quiet life soon emerges, in the form of a crumpled older man, Sean (Lorcan Cranitch), observed digging up the adjoining peat bog. Why his quest agitates the prodigal farmhand is but gradually revealed; yet with admirable economy the Tohills and screenwriter Stuart Drennan establish a stand-off between men in small, dark holes who have sublimated all feeling into obsessive, possibly futile activity.
Twins Ryan and Andy Tohill’s distinctive homecoming parable, further proof of Irish cinema’s resurgent boldness and versatility, finds a striking visual metaphor for the emotional labours required to find peace of mind nowadays. In the prologue’s teachable example of show-don’t-tell film-making, rough-hewn, edgy Ronan (Moe Dunford) returns to the boarded-up farmhouse he once called home with an apparent eye to starting afresh. An obstacle to the quiet life soon emerges, in the form of a crumpled older man, Sean (Lorcan Cranitch), observed digging up the adjoining peat bog. Why his quest agitates the prodigal farmhand is but gradually revealed; yet with admirable economy the Tohills and screenwriter Stuart Drennan establish a stand-off between men in small, dark holes who have sublimated all feeling into obsessive, possibly futile activity.
- 4/24/2019
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
Stage and screen actor known for playing battle-axe aunts, village gossips and servants
When Mel Brooks visited the film set of Up at the Villa (2000), in which his wife, Anne Bancroft, was starring, he proclaimed Barbara Hicks, who has died aged 89, the funniest woman he had ever met. This stalwart character actor, always lodged some way down any cast list as if to prove the truth of Stanislavski's dictum that there are no small parts, only small actors, was a fund of stories, many of them unprintable. And Hicks, though slight of build, with a long face and asymmetrical features, was certainly not a small actor.
As another admirer, Alan Bennett, once told her wistfully: "When you go, Barbara, there'll be a terrible hole in Spotlight." And so there is, for since first appearing on television in 1962 playing Miss Print, a comedy sidekick to Richard Hearne's popular Mr Pastry,...
When Mel Brooks visited the film set of Up at the Villa (2000), in which his wife, Anne Bancroft, was starring, he proclaimed Barbara Hicks, who has died aged 89, the funniest woman he had ever met. This stalwart character actor, always lodged some way down any cast list as if to prove the truth of Stanislavski's dictum that there are no small parts, only small actors, was a fund of stories, many of them unprintable. And Hicks, though slight of build, with a long face and asymmetrical features, was certainly not a small actor.
As another admirer, Alan Bennett, once told her wistfully: "When you go, Barbara, there'll be a terrible hole in Spotlight." And so there is, for since first appearing on television in 1962 playing Miss Print, a comedy sidekick to Richard Hearne's popular Mr Pastry,...
- 11/7/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
It’s spring in New York City, but winter – and fall and summer for that matter – are also currently staring down visitors at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Looming over the courtyard of the garden’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is a 15-foot-tall bust -- sculpted by film director-turned-artist Philip Haas – which casts a cold eye amid its fiberglass hair of tree limbs and ivy and skin of scabrous bark. Winter looks across the way at another towering sentry, Autumn, a visage composed of apples and root vegetables and ripe-to-the-point-
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- 5/24/2013
- by Degen Pener
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alessandro Cima wrote a new article inspired by my old “What’s an Underground Film, Anyway?” post. In it, Cima argues that the definition of “underground film” should include “a requirement of hostility.” I like what Cima is saying and I get where he’s coming from, but I haven’t decided if I totally agree with him yet. While I certainly like a little hostility in my underground films, the problem is that sustained hostility can a) get tiring; and b) leads to burnout. But, good stuff to contemplate in the article. (P.S. Driving or walking by a row of StarWagons never gets not-exciting to me.) Donna k. muses on why more filmmakers don’t tour with their films like Brent Green does. For what it’s worth, here’s my short answer: Most filmmakers don’t create the ancillary product that would make touring profitable. Green has it all: Music,...
- 10/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival lineup includes the main festival plus the sidebar which will be playing films like Yannick Dahan's gangster zombie flick The Horde.
In competition we have the long awaited scifi awesomeness from Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody and Shinya Tsukamoto's trfiecta Tetsuo the Bulletman.
Out of competition has [Rec] 2 and the Midnight section has Nicolas Refn's long awaited Valhalla Rising which was actually made before Bronson.
Man I wish I could go! Anyone want to cover the fest for us? Use the contact link at the bottom of the page. We'd be happy to do cross-posted reviews.
Full list after the break.
66Th Annual Venice Film Festival Lineup
Competition
"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)
"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)
"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)
"Between Two Worlds,...
In competition we have the long awaited scifi awesomeness from Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody and Shinya Tsukamoto's trfiecta Tetsuo the Bulletman.
Out of competition has [Rec] 2 and the Midnight section has Nicolas Refn's long awaited Valhalla Rising which was actually made before Bronson.
Man I wish I could go! Anyone want to cover the fest for us? Use the contact link at the bottom of the page. We'd be happy to do cross-posted reviews.
Full list after the break.
66Th Annual Venice Film Festival Lineup
Competition
"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)
"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)
"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)
"Between Two Worlds,...
- 7/30/2009
- QuietEarth.us
Rome -- Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" will headline a 24-film competition lineup at September's Venice Film Festival, which is heavy on first and second films from up-and-coming directors.
The lineup includes five U.S. films, four each from Italy and France, four from Asia, two from the Middle East -- with all 23 films named Thursday as world premieres.
A 24th surprise competition pic to be announced during the fest would also be a world premiere, officials said. The fest will feature 71 world premieres.
"We are very pleased and very honored to announce this lineup," Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said in a briefing Thursday, where Fatih Akin's comedy "Soul Kitchen"; "Accident," a thriller from China's Cheang Pou; and "A Single Man," a drama from Tom Ford starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, were revealed as part of the lineup.
All told, the fest will feature 16 first works and nine second works.
The lineup includes five U.S. films, four each from Italy and France, four from Asia, two from the Middle East -- with all 23 films named Thursday as world premieres.
A 24th surprise competition pic to be announced during the fest would also be a world premiere, officials said. The fest will feature 71 world premieres.
"We are very pleased and very honored to announce this lineup," Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said in a briefing Thursday, where Fatih Akin's comedy "Soul Kitchen"; "Accident," a thriller from China's Cheang Pou; and "A Single Man," a drama from Tom Ford starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, were revealed as part of the lineup.
All told, the fest will feature 16 first works and nine second works.
- 7/30/2009
- by By Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art's New Directors/New Films series will open with Courtney Hunt's top Sundance prizewinner Frozen River.
It's one of several recent Sundance entries (including Trouble the Water, Sleep Dealer and Ballast) in the 17-country, 26-feature lineup running March 26 to April 6 at Lincoln Center and MOMA.
Helmers set to speak at the New Directors and Beyond March 30 roundtable include Michael Almereyda, Su Friedrich, Philip Haas, Tamara Jenkins, Tom Kalin, Lodge Kerrigan and Jim McKay.
It's one of several recent Sundance entries (including Trouble the Water, Sleep Dealer and Ballast) in the 17-country, 26-feature lineup running March 26 to April 6 at Lincoln Center and MOMA.
Helmers set to speak at the New Directors and Beyond March 30 roundtable include Michael Almereyda, Su Friedrich, Philip Haas, Tamara Jenkins, Tom Kalin, Lodge Kerrigan and Jim McKay.
- 2/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PALM SPRINGS -- Part war drama, part political thriller, part romance -- and wholly uninvolving -- Philip Haas' "The Situation" might be among the first American features out of the gate to address the war in Iraq (as played by Morocco), but in the absence of a sufficient historical perspective, a far greater dramatic dynamic was required than what passes for international intrigue in this talky, stilted production.
The Shadow Distribution release was screened as part of the World Cinema Now section of this year's Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Connie Nielsen plays an American journalist struggling to find fresh perspectives in her coverage of day-to-day life in Iraq, and an opportunity presents itself after a group of American soldiers in Samarra throw two curfew-violating Iraqi teens off a bridge, leading to the drowning death of one of them.
The aftermath sets off yet another chain reaction of violence involving corrupt Iraqi police officials and insurgents, taking Nielsen's Anna deep into the danger zone, at least when she is not embedded in a little triangular romantic intrigue between an out-of-his-depth American intelligence official (Damien Lewis) and an intrepid Iraqi photographer (Mido Hamada).
Haas, who worked from adaptations of novels by W. Somerset Maugham ("Up at the Villa"), Paul Auster ("The Music of Chance") and A.S. Byatt ("Angels and Insects") and was presumably going for a Graham Greene "Quiet American" vibe here, is ill-served by journalist Wendell Steavenson's first screenplay, based upon her experiences living and working in the war-torn country.
While Steavenson's script and Haas' direction convey a necessary sense of urgency and confusion, both falter when it comes to creating compelling characters or building dramatic tension.
Instead, there are an awful lot of dull, purposeful conversations rudely interrupted by the blast of insurgent bombs or mortar fire that never seems to be as unsettling as they are obviously intended.
Nielsen's tentative performance is another problem. Neither she nor the filmmakers let the audience in on the motivating forces or underlying passion that would propel her character directly into the line of fire.
Lewis, who was so convincingly raw in 2005's "Keane", also gets a bit lost here as the misguided CIA man. Only Hamada makes a real impact as the charismatic photographer who opens Nielsen's eyes to the various complexities that are deeply entwined in the ongoing chaos.
THE SITUATION
Shadow Distribution
Credits:
Director: Philip Haas
Screenwriter: Wendell Steavenson
Producers: Liaquet Ahamed, Michael Sternberg, Neda Armian
Director of photography: Sean Bobbit
Editor: Curtiss Clayton
Costume designer: Anita Yavich
Music: Jeff Beal
Cast:
Anna: Connie Nielsen
Dan: Damien Lewis
Zaid: Mido Hamada
Colonel Carrick: John Slattery
Major Hanks: Tom McCarthy
Duraid: Muhmoud El Lozy
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The Shadow Distribution release was screened as part of the World Cinema Now section of this year's Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Connie Nielsen plays an American journalist struggling to find fresh perspectives in her coverage of day-to-day life in Iraq, and an opportunity presents itself after a group of American soldiers in Samarra throw two curfew-violating Iraqi teens off a bridge, leading to the drowning death of one of them.
The aftermath sets off yet another chain reaction of violence involving corrupt Iraqi police officials and insurgents, taking Nielsen's Anna deep into the danger zone, at least when she is not embedded in a little triangular romantic intrigue between an out-of-his-depth American intelligence official (Damien Lewis) and an intrepid Iraqi photographer (Mido Hamada).
Haas, who worked from adaptations of novels by W. Somerset Maugham ("Up at the Villa"), Paul Auster ("The Music of Chance") and A.S. Byatt ("Angels and Insects") and was presumably going for a Graham Greene "Quiet American" vibe here, is ill-served by journalist Wendell Steavenson's first screenplay, based upon her experiences living and working in the war-torn country.
While Steavenson's script and Haas' direction convey a necessary sense of urgency and confusion, both falter when it comes to creating compelling characters or building dramatic tension.
Instead, there are an awful lot of dull, purposeful conversations rudely interrupted by the blast of insurgent bombs or mortar fire that never seems to be as unsettling as they are obviously intended.
Nielsen's tentative performance is another problem. Neither she nor the filmmakers let the audience in on the motivating forces or underlying passion that would propel her character directly into the line of fire.
Lewis, who was so convincingly raw in 2005's "Keane", also gets a bit lost here as the misguided CIA man. Only Hamada makes a real impact as the charismatic photographer who opens Nielsen's eyes to the various complexities that are deeply entwined in the ongoing chaos.
THE SITUATION
Shadow Distribution
Credits:
Director: Philip Haas
Screenwriter: Wendell Steavenson
Producers: Liaquet Ahamed, Michael Sternberg, Neda Armian
Director of photography: Sean Bobbit
Editor: Curtiss Clayton
Costume designer: Anita Yavich
Music: Jeff Beal
Cast:
Anna: Connie Nielsen
Dan: Damien Lewis
Zaid: Mido Hamada
Colonel Carrick: John Slattery
Major Hanks: Tom McCarthy
Duraid: Muhmoud El Lozy
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/17/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- The Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs Oct. 19-22, has unveiled its lineup of 53 features, a conversation with Robert Altman, career achievement awards for Ellen Burstyn and Ted Hope and festival panels with Christine Vachon and Darren Aronofsky. The fest opens with Philip Haas' Iraq war drama The Situation and closes with the Polish brothers' sci-fi drama The Astronaut. Between those films are six features in the Golden Starfish Feature competition and five in the Golden Starfish Documentary race. Narrative features vying for more than $190,000 in goods and in-kind services to be used toward the filmmakers' next feature are Brad Gann's coming-of-age drama Black Irish; Jens Lien's existential Norwegian feature, The Bothersome Man; Sven Taddicken's German romance, Emma's Bliss; Guy Moshe's slavery study, Holly; Dina Zvi-Riklis' intergenerational Israeli saga, Three Mothers; and Rajnesh Domalpalli's exploration of class divisions, Vanaja.
- 9/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- The Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs Oct. 19-22, has unveiled its lineup of 53 features, a conversation with Robert Altman, career achievement awards for Ellen Burstyn and Ted Hope and festival panels with Christine Vachon and Darren Aronofsky. The fest opens with Philip Haas' Iraq war drama The Situation and closes with the Polish brothers' sci-fi drama The Astronaut. Between those films are six features in the Golden Starfish Feature competition and five in the Golden Starfish Documentary race. Narrative features vying for more than $190,000 in goods and in-kind services to be used toward the filmmakers' next feature are Brad Gann's coming-of-age drama Black Irish; Jens Lien's existential Norwegian feature, The Bothersome Man; Sven Taddicken's German romance, Emma's Bliss; Guy Moshe's slavery study, Holly; Dina Zvi-Riklis' intergenerational Israeli saga, Three Mothers; and Rajnesh Domalpalli's exploration of class divisions, Vanaja.
- 9/27/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- With a recurring theme of women and children caught in war zones, the 14th annual Hamptons International Film Festival unveiled a lineup of 18 features in competition and its opening-night film: the world premiere of Philip Haas' Iraq war drama The Situation. Six narrative and six documentary features will compete for Golden Starfish Awards, and six other pictures are part of the Films of Conflict and Resolution competition. "Submissions went up 30% this year, which has made it more competitive for our films," artistic director Rajendra Roy said. Brad Gann's Black Irish, Jens Lien's The Bothersome Man, Sven Taddicken's Emma's Bliss, Guy Moshe's Holly, Dina Zvi-Riklis's Three Mothers and Rajnesh Domalpalli's Vanaja will compete for the narrative award, which includes more than $190,000 in goods and in-kind services.
- 8/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the cablecast of "The Lathe of Heaven".
Just because a telefilm is about a particular topic, it doesn't follow that the production has to fall entirely into the style and pacing of that idea.
A&E's "The Lathe of Heaven" is a low-key, far too languid science fiction thriller starring James Caan, Lukas Haas and Lisa Bonet. The telefilm concerns a man (Haas) whose dreams can literally change reality.
Viewers may find themselves frustrated because the melancholy, fear and apocalyptic danger that could have saturated the telefilm are instead kept at arm's length. The notions of destiny, enduring love and ambition remain but in a watered-down sort of way.
In the story, Seattle resident George Orr (Haas) is caught using prescription drugs not approved for him and is ordered into therapy. His attorney, Heather LeLache (Bonet), can't do much to help him, so George finds himself in the office of Dr. William Haber (Caan), a therapist and dream specialist.
George confesses that he was taking the drugs to try to stop dreaming. He's afraid of his own dreams, which, he says sometimes come true.
Soon, Dr. Haber is controlling George's dreams via hypnosis and a special brain-wave machine. And these dreams change the world, but they bring some terrible side effects.
Despite the lack of emotional peaks found in the novel, "Lathe" is a smart, sleek, well-played drama with a great look and costumes that cleverly reflect the changing reality.
Caan, restrained and wonderfully effective as Haber, offers us tight, enigmatic glimpses of the interior life of a very ambitious scientist.
Lukas Haas as George, the dreamer, is directed too passively. Director Philip Haas and writer Alan Sharp have taken to heart the character as conveyed in the source novel, a blank slate who fears his own "special" dreams. But the character's arc into a man of action, as written in the classic novel by science fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin, is not satisfying. George's passion and courage could be more pronounced at the end -- and less tentative.
Bonet as the lawyer also is cast into a dreamlike, ambling mode, even as we want her to play it more dynamically and forcefully. She is, however, vivid and engaging.
Of note are the wonderful costumes by Liz Vandal, which appropriately reflect the changing mood of the people as the world changes drastically. Music by the talented Angelo Badalamenti catapults us into the strange, new settings.
Ultimately, there are some nice, gentle surprises that should please fans of the romance genre.
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN
A&E
An A&E Network and Alliance Atlantas presentation in association with Baumgarten Merims Prods.
Credits:
Director: Philip Haas
Teleplay: Alan Sharp
Executive producers: Craig Baumgarten, Allen Sabinson
Producer: Mark Winemaker
Co-producer: Bruce Davison
Casting: Avy Kaufman
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Costume designer: Liz Vandal
Production designer: Sylvain Gingras
Editor: Jean-Francois Bergeron
Director of photography: Pierre Mignot
Executive producer for A&E: Michael Weisbarth
Based on the novel by: Ursula K LeGuin
Cast:
Dr. William Haber: James Caan
George Orr: Lukas Haas
Heather LeLache: Lisa Bonet
Mannie: David Strathairn
Penny: Sheila McCarthy...
Just because a telefilm is about a particular topic, it doesn't follow that the production has to fall entirely into the style and pacing of that idea.
A&E's "The Lathe of Heaven" is a low-key, far too languid science fiction thriller starring James Caan, Lukas Haas and Lisa Bonet. The telefilm concerns a man (Haas) whose dreams can literally change reality.
Viewers may find themselves frustrated because the melancholy, fear and apocalyptic danger that could have saturated the telefilm are instead kept at arm's length. The notions of destiny, enduring love and ambition remain but in a watered-down sort of way.
In the story, Seattle resident George Orr (Haas) is caught using prescription drugs not approved for him and is ordered into therapy. His attorney, Heather LeLache (Bonet), can't do much to help him, so George finds himself in the office of Dr. William Haber (Caan), a therapist and dream specialist.
George confesses that he was taking the drugs to try to stop dreaming. He's afraid of his own dreams, which, he says sometimes come true.
Soon, Dr. Haber is controlling George's dreams via hypnosis and a special brain-wave machine. And these dreams change the world, but they bring some terrible side effects.
Despite the lack of emotional peaks found in the novel, "Lathe" is a smart, sleek, well-played drama with a great look and costumes that cleverly reflect the changing reality.
Caan, restrained and wonderfully effective as Haber, offers us tight, enigmatic glimpses of the interior life of a very ambitious scientist.
Lukas Haas as George, the dreamer, is directed too passively. Director Philip Haas and writer Alan Sharp have taken to heart the character as conveyed in the source novel, a blank slate who fears his own "special" dreams. But the character's arc into a man of action, as written in the classic novel by science fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin, is not satisfying. George's passion and courage could be more pronounced at the end -- and less tentative.
Bonet as the lawyer also is cast into a dreamlike, ambling mode, even as we want her to play it more dynamically and forcefully. She is, however, vivid and engaging.
Of note are the wonderful costumes by Liz Vandal, which appropriately reflect the changing mood of the people as the world changes drastically. Music by the talented Angelo Badalamenti catapults us into the strange, new settings.
Ultimately, there are some nice, gentle surprises that should please fans of the romance genre.
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN
A&E
An A&E Network and Alliance Atlantas presentation in association with Baumgarten Merims Prods.
Credits:
Director: Philip Haas
Teleplay: Alan Sharp
Executive producers: Craig Baumgarten, Allen Sabinson
Producer: Mark Winemaker
Co-producer: Bruce Davison
Casting: Avy Kaufman
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Costume designer: Liz Vandal
Production designer: Sylvain Gingras
Editor: Jean-Francois Bergeron
Director of photography: Pierre Mignot
Executive producer for A&E: Michael Weisbarth
Based on the novel by: Ursula K LeGuin
Cast:
Dr. William Haber: James Caan
George Orr: Lukas Haas
Heather LeLache: Lisa Bonet
Mannie: David Strathairn
Penny: Sheila McCarthy...
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