In the past decade Andrea Arnold has emerged as a promising art-house filmmaker, even if she has only two features to her name. Her 2009 film Fish Tank rightfully impressed many, thanks in no small part to Michael Fassbender’s effective performance. (His follow-up to Hunger.) And if her 2006 film Red Road is less impressive overall, it is photographed and assembled so beautifully that I couldn’t help but be drawn in to the dour, lonely world it depicts. Track down her Oscar-winning 2005 short film, Wasp, too.
Arnold’s command of visual language is enough to make me automatically interested in any new film she delivers, even if said new film is a version of the well-worn Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights. The picture premiered at Venice and played TIFF, where it was picked up by Oscilloscope for US distribution. That means we’ll get a chance to see it at some point in the next year. For now take a look at a dreamy, seemingly Malick-influenced teaser trailer, below. Read More »
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Hot on the heels of the release of a massive batch of films that will appear in the Toronto Film Festival, we’ve got the main lineup for the 68th Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 31 to September 10.
We knew that George Clooney‘s The Ides of March would open the fest (the trailer premiered last night and you can see it here) and this list confirms quite a few films that we imagined would be playing Venice. Our very much anticipated spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson is on the list, as is Roman Polanski‘s tense closed-room drama Carnage, starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz. And there is Alps, the second film from polarizing Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, whose film Dogtooth shocked, entertained and angered festival audiences in 2009.
The full list is after the break. Read More »
Making a small film in the US means raising money by whatever means are necessary, but other countries actually support the arts. Crazy idea, right? I’m sure there are issues with how public arts funding is doled out in the UK, but I love the fact that small films from proven talent can get some public money to help them along. The UK Film Council recently released information on what films are receiving grants from the council this year, and there are some interesting details in the list.
Some of the projects — and the ones getting the most funding — are ones we already knew about, like Joe Cornish‘s Attack the Block and Mike Leigh‘s Another Year. But in the list of funded films there are also quite a few new projects or things that we’ve only heard rumblings about. Much more detail after the break. Read More »
The Brontë family is coming back to movie screens in a big way. There’s the new version of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, to be directed by Sin Nombre‘s Cary Fukunaga. And now a long in development revamp of Wuthering Heights, the only novel by Charlotte’s sister Emily Brontë, has its own director. Andrea Arnold, currently getting attention for her Cannes hit Fish Tank (see the new trailer here) has signed on to direct the film. Read More »
One of the things I really love about my film festival trips is that I get to discover some great small indie gems to share with you guys. Films that probably wouldn’t otherwise get exposure on a mainstream film blog like /Film. The film which most fits that bill from 2009′s Telluride Film Festival is a coming of age movie titled Fish Tank. The film is from Academy Award-winning short film writer and director Andrea Arnold, who won the 2006 Cannes Jury Prize with Red Road. Here is the official plot synopsis for Fish Tank:
In Fish Tank (which is not about Fish or tanks for that matter), 15 year old Mia’s life is turned on its head when her mom brings home a new boyfriend. Arnold casts the same unflinching, unprejudiced gaze and touches on the themes of her Oscar-winning short Wasp to create an original and unsettling tale for our age.
Following his acclaimed central performance in Hunger, Michael Fassbender (300, Inglourious Basterds) stars opposite talented newcomer Katie Jarvis. Rounding out the principal cast are BAFTA-nominated Kierston Wareing (Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World), Harry Treadaway (Control, Brothers of the Head) and 12 year old Rebecca Griffiths making her film debut.
Fish Tank is an outstanding character piece with powerful performances, more than anything else — which is to say that if you require a story with big plot points, this may not be your thing. It’s a coming of age story with a strong female protagonist, something you don’t often see in Hollywood now-a-days. The film hits theaters in the UK on September 11th 2009, but IFC has yet to announce details about the U.S. release. We previously featured an international trailer for the film on the site. IFC Films have finally released a trailer for the domestic release, which you can watch embedded after the jump. The movie hits theaters on January 15th, and will be available on demand on January 13th.
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While at the Telluride Film Festival, I had the chance to talk to Academy Award-nominated director Jason Reitman about his new, and much buzzed about film, Up in the Air. I conducted the interview in conjunction with my friend Alex from FirstShowing, filmed “up in the air,” (get it?) in a gondola traveling up and down the mountains of Telluride Colorado. This is probably the most unique interview I’ve ever been apart of, and it turned out pretty well. It’s a definite must watch, even if you haven’t seen the film (no spoilers are discussed). Watch the interview now embedded after the jump.
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One of the things I really love about my film festival trips is that I get to discover some great small indie gems to share with you guys. Films that probably wouldn’t otherwise get exposure on a mainstream film blog like /Film. The film which most fits that bill from this year’s Telluride Film Festival is a coming of age movie titled Fish Tank. The film is from Academy Award-winning short film writer and director Andrea Arnold, who won the 2006 Cannes Jury Prize with Red Road. Here is the official plot synopsis for Fish Tank:
In Fish Tank (which is not about Fish or tanks for that matter), 15 year old Mia’s life is turned on its head when her mom brings home a new boyfriend. Arnold casts the same unflinching, unprejudiced gaze and touches on the themes of her Oscar-winning short Wasp to create an original and unsettling tale for our age.
Following his acclaimed central performance in Hunger, Michael Fassbender (300, Inglourious Basterds) stars opposite talented newcomer Katie Jarvis. Rounding out the principal cast are BAFTA-nominated Kierston Wareing (Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World), Harry Treadaway (Control, Brothers of the Head) and 12 year old Rebecca Griffiths making her film debut.
The film is an outstanding character piece with powerful performances, more than anything else — which is to say that if you require a story with big plot points, this may not be your thing. It’s a coming of age story with a strong female protagonist, something you don’t often see in Hollywood now-a-days. The film hits theaters in the UK on September 11th 2009, but IFC has yet to announce details about the U.S. release. You can watch the trailer embedded after the jump.
Read More »
So, I’ve been at the Telluride Film Festival for about 24 hours, and have found little time to post any updates. I’ve decided to record a quick video blog with Alex from FirstShowing while in line to get into the sneak preview premiere of Jason Reitman‘s Up in the Air. We talk about the hype going into Reitman’s third film, which is evidenced by the three plus hour long line. We also discuss two films we liked.
- The first of which is the uk coming of age drama Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold, who won an Academy Award for her 2003 short film Wasp.
- The second of which is A Prophet (which I incorrectly call “The Prophet” in the video), a french crime film which can be simply described as “Scarface in a French Prison”. The film won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes this year.
Both films are recommended, and the more I think about Fish Tank, the more I would love to see people discover this wonderful indie character drama. Watch the video blog embedded after the jump.
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