Every year, the European Audio-Visual Observatory publishes its annual review of film industry trends in time for the Cannes Film Market. You can download the Focus 2010 report as a free pdf. I thought it would be helpful to ‘re-present’ some of the figures in a variety of ways. Over the last few years there … Continue reading
It was heartening to see that a new film from the increasingly beleaguered group of filmmakers working in Sub-Saharan Africa was in competition at Cannes this year. A Screaming Man by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun from Chad screened last week and won the Jury Prize. Here’s the synopsis: Present-day Chad. Adam, sixty something, a former swimming champion, … Continue reading
This is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of rock biopics and archive features covering bands from the 1960s, 70s etc. The short (60 mins) documentary was shown on BBC1 last night, will be on iPlayer in the UK for the next 6 days and re-broadcast on BBC2 on Saturday 29 May. It’s certainly … Continue reading
I remember Russell Crowe in The Insider, a movie in which he successfully represented a three-dimensional human being – a vulnerable central character in a wonderful male melodrama. He also rose to the challenge in Master and Commander. American Gangster was worth watching for Denzel (and Chiwetel Ejiofor) rather than Mr. Crowe and I thought … Continue reading
Cards on the table first – although I was a big fan of the early work of Chris Morris on UK radio and TV (On The Hour and The Day Today), I haven’t seen much of his later work. I’ve also avoided the whole Sacha Baron-Cohen thing, so I can’t make comparisons. I came to … Continue reading
The World Cinema Directory is an ambitious project set up by the UK publishing house, Intellect. It aims to publish print volumes on every national/regional film industry/culture over a period of 3 years. The innovative idea is that each volume will first appear as a FREE download for a limited period, after which the print … Continue reading
