Sintel Short Film. Colin Levy‘s Sintel (2010) short film stars Thom Hoffman and Halina Reijn. Sintel‘s plot synopsis: “The film follows a girl named Sintel who is searching for a baby dragon she calls Scales. A flashback reveals that Sintel found Scales with its wing injured and helped care for it, forming a close [...]
Continue reading: Sintel (2010) Short Film: Halina Reijn Searches for Lost, Baby Dragon...
Continue reading: Sintel (2010) Short Film: Halina Reijn Searches for Lost, Baby Dragon...
- 3/3/2014
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Blender Foundation has officially premiere online its independently produced animated short Sintel.
This independent production was financed by the Blender community, supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, CineGrid Amsterdam, and with sponsorship from several international companies. The primary aim of the film is to showcase what Blender, an open source 3D animation package, is capable of but if the previous efforts of the Blender studio are anything to go by we can expect the results to be very entertaining indeed.
The script was inspired by a number of story suggestions by Martin Lodewijk around a Cinderella character (Cinder in Dutch is "Sintel"). Screenwriter Esther Wouda then worked with director Colin Levy to create a script with multiple layers, with strong characterization and dramatic impact as central goals.
In the film we meet a lonely girl - spoken by Halina Reijn - who is saved on a barren snowfield by a...
This independent production was financed by the Blender community, supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, CineGrid Amsterdam, and with sponsorship from several international companies. The primary aim of the film is to showcase what Blender, an open source 3D animation package, is capable of but if the previous efforts of the Blender studio are anything to go by we can expect the results to be very entertaining indeed.
The script was inspired by a number of story suggestions by Martin Lodewijk around a Cinderella character (Cinder in Dutch is "Sintel"). Screenwriter Esther Wouda then worked with director Colin Levy to create a script with multiple layers, with strong characterization and dramatic impact as central goals.
In the film we meet a lonely girl - spoken by Halina Reijn - who is saved on a barren snowfield by a...
- 9/30/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Dave from Victim of the Time again here... it seems I shower more at the weekend, for I'm supplying your Sunday night edition of April Showers too. We go from apparently unacceptable ass to... well, you'll see. I must atone for my sins after all.
When Nat posted on Changeling in this series, he gave you five types of "horror showers". We all know Paul Verhoeven's a bit of a nutjob, and in Black Book he can't just settle for one harrowing shower experience. He gives you three at once.
Ellis de Vries (the marvellous Carice van Houten), having spied from within on the Nazis, is now in a prison camp for collaborators, and, as you might expect, they aren't being treated nicely. Ever-resilient Ellis refuses to take off her clothes like the other obeying prisoners- which lands her in trouble with the drunken, angry officers. And beneath the...
When Nat posted on Changeling in this series, he gave you five types of "horror showers". We all know Paul Verhoeven's a bit of a nutjob, and in Black Book he can't just settle for one harrowing shower experience. He gives you three at once.
Ellis de Vries (the marvellous Carice van Houten), having spied from within on the Nazis, is now in a prison camp for collaborators, and, as you might expect, they aren't being treated nicely. Ever-resilient Ellis refuses to take off her clothes like the other obeying prisoners- which lands her in trouble with the drunken, angry officers. And beneath the...
- 4/20/2009
- by Dave
- FilmExperience
- Quick Links > Black Book > Paul Verhoeven > Sony Pictures Classics > Basic Instinct > Total Recall > The Fourth Man > Soldier of Orange One of the most sought after films of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) seems to have finally found a home. Sony Picture Classics, known for their ability to promote foreign language films, has reportedly reached an agreement to purchase Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book following an exceptional showing at Wednesday’s Gala Premier at Tiff. Paul Verhoeven has been a virtual outcast in Hollywood following several well publicized flops that included the epitome of movie failure 1995’s “Showgirls”. The latest project stars Carice van Houten as a Jewish cabaret singer who goes into hiding in the Netherlands during WWII and joins the Resistance movement against the Nazis. The suspense thriller, filmed in the Netherlands. The cast also includes Halina Reijn and Dutch actor Thom Hoffman.
- 9/21/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
VENICE, Italy -- Paul Verhoeven's World War II drama Black Book is an ambitious throwback to the days of rousing all-action wartime pictures in which an intrepid loner risks everything to fight a clearly defined enemy. It succeeds on almost all fronts. The epic film is a high-octane adventure rooted in fact with a raft of arresting characters, big action sequences and twists and turns galore as a group of Dutch resistance fighters combat the Nazis not knowing they have a traitor at their core.
Top-flight production values and a ripping yarn should mean major boxoffice returns anywhere there is a taste for old-fashioned big-screen entertainment.
Set in German-occupied Holland in 1944, the film follows a young woman named Rachel (Carice van Houten) as she attempts to flee the Nazis with her own and other Jewish families. Having purchased their river passage with all they own, they find the escape is a trap as they are intercepted by the Gestapo and mercilessly mown down.
All except Rachel, who finds her way to a group of resistance fighters run by man named Kuipers (Derek de Lint), who operates a soup kitchen as cover for his sabotage operations. Quickly recruited into the group's inner circle led by daredevil Hans (Thom Hoffman), Rachel demonstrates her bravery and resourcefulness in an encounter on a train with an SS officer named Muntze (Sebastian Koch).
Soon, Rachel is ensconced at the local Gestapo headquarters, sleeping with Muntze and working with a local floozy, Ronnie (Halina Reijn), in the office of a brutal officer named Franken (Waldemar Kopus).
Even though the end of the war is barely months away, the danger increases for the resistance group. When she discovers that there has been a plot involving both Nazis and Dutch in faking escape plans for Jewish families who are murdered and robbed, she finds herself with enemies on all sides.
Director Verhoeven, back on home turf after the Hollywood excesses of Starship Troopers and Showgirls, has fashioned an exciting tale with co-scripter Gerard Soeteman, who developed the original story. Production designer Wilbert Van Dorp and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub have done a great job in creating period detail and capturing fast-moving sequences and intimate moments. Editors Job ter Burg and James Herbert contribute fine work, and Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley's score complements it all effectively.
Van Houten makes a memorable heroine, a singer as well as a good actress, in what is a very punishing role. Koch and Hoffman do a lot to give their stereotyped roles some originality.
The filmmakers strive hard to root the picture in genuine drama. There are bookends set in Israel that add considerable emotional resonance. While the revelation of the traitor smacks of melodrama, the high adventure is mixed with moments of authentic wartime pathos.
BLACK BOOK
A Fu Works production in association with Egoli Tossell Film, Clockwork Pictures, Studio Babesberg AG, Motion Investment Group, Motel Films and Hector
A VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Screenwriters: Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Producers: San Fu Maltha, Jos van der Linden, Frans van Geste, Jeroen Baker, Teun Hilte, Jens Meurer
Executive producers: Andreas Grosch, Andrea Schmid, Marcus Schofer, Henning Molfenter, Carl Woebcken, Jamie Carmichael, Graham Begg, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Wilbert van Dorp
Music: Anne Dudley
Editors: Job ter Burg, James Herbert
Cast:
Rachel/Ellis: Carice van Houten
Ludwig Muntze: Sebastian Koch
Hans Akkermans: Thom Hoffman
Ronnie: Halina Reijn
Gunther Franken: Waldemar Kobus
Gerben Kuipers: Derek de Lint
Gen. Kautner: Christian Berkel
Notary Smaal: Dolf de Vries
Van Gein: Peter Blok
Rob: Michiel Huisman
Tim Kuipers: Ronald Armbrust
Kees: Frank Lammers
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 145 minutes...
Top-flight production values and a ripping yarn should mean major boxoffice returns anywhere there is a taste for old-fashioned big-screen entertainment.
Set in German-occupied Holland in 1944, the film follows a young woman named Rachel (Carice van Houten) as she attempts to flee the Nazis with her own and other Jewish families. Having purchased their river passage with all they own, they find the escape is a trap as they are intercepted by the Gestapo and mercilessly mown down.
All except Rachel, who finds her way to a group of resistance fighters run by man named Kuipers (Derek de Lint), who operates a soup kitchen as cover for his sabotage operations. Quickly recruited into the group's inner circle led by daredevil Hans (Thom Hoffman), Rachel demonstrates her bravery and resourcefulness in an encounter on a train with an SS officer named Muntze (Sebastian Koch).
Soon, Rachel is ensconced at the local Gestapo headquarters, sleeping with Muntze and working with a local floozy, Ronnie (Halina Reijn), in the office of a brutal officer named Franken (Waldemar Kopus).
Even though the end of the war is barely months away, the danger increases for the resistance group. When she discovers that there has been a plot involving both Nazis and Dutch in faking escape plans for Jewish families who are murdered and robbed, she finds herself with enemies on all sides.
Director Verhoeven, back on home turf after the Hollywood excesses of Starship Troopers and Showgirls, has fashioned an exciting tale with co-scripter Gerard Soeteman, who developed the original story. Production designer Wilbert Van Dorp and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub have done a great job in creating period detail and capturing fast-moving sequences and intimate moments. Editors Job ter Burg and James Herbert contribute fine work, and Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley's score complements it all effectively.
Van Houten makes a memorable heroine, a singer as well as a good actress, in what is a very punishing role. Koch and Hoffman do a lot to give their stereotyped roles some originality.
The filmmakers strive hard to root the picture in genuine drama. There are bookends set in Israel that add considerable emotional resonance. While the revelation of the traitor smacks of melodrama, the high adventure is mixed with moments of authentic wartime pathos.
BLACK BOOK
A Fu Works production in association with Egoli Tossell Film, Clockwork Pictures, Studio Babesberg AG, Motion Investment Group, Motel Films and Hector
A VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Screenwriters: Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Producers: San Fu Maltha, Jos van der Linden, Frans van Geste, Jeroen Baker, Teun Hilte, Jens Meurer
Executive producers: Andreas Grosch, Andrea Schmid, Marcus Schofer, Henning Molfenter, Carl Woebcken, Jamie Carmichael, Graham Begg, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Production designer: Wilbert van Dorp
Music: Anne Dudley
Editors: Job ter Burg, James Herbert
Cast:
Rachel/Ellis: Carice van Houten
Ludwig Muntze: Sebastian Koch
Hans Akkermans: Thom Hoffman
Ronnie: Halina Reijn
Gunther Franken: Waldemar Kobus
Gerben Kuipers: Derek de Lint
Gen. Kautner: Christian Berkel
Notary Smaal: Dolf de Vries
Van Gein: Peter Blok
Rob: Michiel Huisman
Tim Kuipers: Ronald Armbrust
Kees: Frank Lammers
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 145 minutes...
Director Rudolf van den Berg sketches a general outline of the hazardous lifestyle choices faced by his persnickety hero, but wastes too much time overstating the obnoxious behavior of the respectable types around him, time that could be better spent limning a more detailed portrait of the turbulent historical moment -- the end of 1946.
As a result, the film's appeal may be limited to those who can identify with, and thus fill in, the exact nature of the central character's struggle.
The film finds youthful Frits van Etgers (Thom Hoffman) wasting away his days with a dead-end filing job and suffering long silent evenings in the cramped apartment he shares with his overly domestic mom (Viviane de Muynck) and vaguely academic, unworldly father (Rijk de Gooijer).
Although an older brother has escaped these harrowing circumstances, Fritz's expulsion from a prestigious boys school has pretty much denied him the upwardly mobile path used by his sibling. So Fritz alternates his time between daydreams, during which his lusts for a more attractive way of life and attractive young men are fleetingly satisfied, and frantic and frustrating disruptions of the smug routines of the socially and psychologically secure people around him.
Too often, the film asks the audience to swallow stereotypes as The Real Thing, and, further, goes to tremendous lengths to make already distasteful characters even more repulsive.
Van den Berg, for example, is not above overmiking the eating sounds of Frits' parents in order to make them sound piggish, while settling for normal sound levels for Frits' mastications.
However, the film does brush Frits with a hint of moral culpability. His refusal to follow up an amorous hint from a former schoolmate to whom he is particularly attracted may have been part of what leads to the latter's suicide. And Frits' lack of self-understanding is underscored by the way he confuses the social status of a grimy, one-eyed lowlife with a similar sexual bent with acceptance of his own nature.
In the end, however, the film plumps for Frits' superiority to those around him simply because he is an artist and they are not.
Although some sets are skimpy and the streets deserted, the film's nighttime atmosphere is evoked well, and the idea of evening serving as a meeting ground for dream and reality is visually well served.
EVENINGS
No prod'n company
Director Rudolf van den Berg
From the novel by Gerard Reve
Color
Cast:
Frits Thom Hoffman
Father Rijk de Gooijer
Mother Viviane de Muynck
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
As a result, the film's appeal may be limited to those who can identify with, and thus fill in, the exact nature of the central character's struggle.
The film finds youthful Frits van Etgers (Thom Hoffman) wasting away his days with a dead-end filing job and suffering long silent evenings in the cramped apartment he shares with his overly domestic mom (Viviane de Muynck) and vaguely academic, unworldly father (Rijk de Gooijer).
Although an older brother has escaped these harrowing circumstances, Fritz's expulsion from a prestigious boys school has pretty much denied him the upwardly mobile path used by his sibling. So Fritz alternates his time between daydreams, during which his lusts for a more attractive way of life and attractive young men are fleetingly satisfied, and frantic and frustrating disruptions of the smug routines of the socially and psychologically secure people around him.
Too often, the film asks the audience to swallow stereotypes as The Real Thing, and, further, goes to tremendous lengths to make already distasteful characters even more repulsive.
Van den Berg, for example, is not above overmiking the eating sounds of Frits' parents in order to make them sound piggish, while settling for normal sound levels for Frits' mastications.
However, the film does brush Frits with a hint of moral culpability. His refusal to follow up an amorous hint from a former schoolmate to whom he is particularly attracted may have been part of what leads to the latter's suicide. And Frits' lack of self-understanding is underscored by the way he confuses the social status of a grimy, one-eyed lowlife with a similar sexual bent with acceptance of his own nature.
In the end, however, the film plumps for Frits' superiority to those around him simply because he is an artist and they are not.
Although some sets are skimpy and the streets deserted, the film's nighttime atmosphere is evoked well, and the idea of evening serving as a meeting ground for dream and reality is visually well served.
EVENINGS
No prod'n company
Director Rudolf van den Berg
From the novel by Gerard Reve
Color
Cast:
Frits Thom Hoffman
Father Rijk de Gooijer
Mother Viviane de Muynck
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 7/11/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.