John Bleasdale
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Cannes 2012: ‘Like Someone in Love’ preview
In a world dominated by sequels, reboots, remakes and even films based upon amusement park rides and board games, the death of original filmmaking and the concept of cinema as an art form seems closer than ever. Yet Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who returns to the 65th Cannes Film Festival this year with Like Someone…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Rust and Bone’ preview
Swelling the ranks of the French directorial presence at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Audiard returns this year with Rust and Bone (De Rouille et d’Os, 2012), his follow-up the triumphant prison drama A Prophet (Un Prophète) – which picked up the Jury Prize in 2009 along with a host of other awards, nominations…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Cosmopolis’ preview
If A Dangerous Method (2011) had been made by Stephen Frears, no one would have battered an eyelid, but coming from Canadian body horror master David Cronenberg meant a fairly decent if dull costume drama suffered for simply not being Videodrome (1983). However, the announcement that Cronenberg’s next feature Cosmopolis (2012), an adaptation of the…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Amour’ preview
Austrian auteur Michael Haneke returns to French language cinema this year with his new film Amour (Love, 2012), which will premiere in competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Haneke has long been a favourite with the festival – The Piano Teacher won the Grand Prix back in 2002. He has since won the Palme d’Or…
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Cannes 2012: ‘Killing Them Softly’ preview
One of the most eagerly-anticipated films of the 65th Cannes Film Festival has to be Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (2012). Based on the 1974 George V. Higgins novel Cogan’s Trade, the film stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer who is called in when a gang-run poker game gets ripped off. The…
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Cannes 2012: Competition jury announced plus more films added
The 65th Cannes Film Festival today announced the main competition jury members who will be joining head juror, Italian film director Nanni Moretti, in presiding over the festival and ultimately awarding the coveted Palme d’Or prize. Foremost amongst the newly announced jurors are European actresses Diane Kruger and Emmanuelle Devos, who will join Scottish actor…
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Special Feature: The case of Joe Eszterhas vs. Mel Gibson
A film was released last week that wasn’t projected at any cinema. There was no poster, nor advertising campaign, although there have been some trailer teasers available on the internet. It starred Mel Gibson in a role madder than Mad Max or Martin Riggs, and was scripted by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, which exposed anti-Semitism (like…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Life is Beautiful’
★★★★☆ Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful (1997) won three Oscars at the 1999 Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Benigni’s performance and Best Original Score for Nicola Piovani’s sumptuous soundtrack, and achieved the kind of commercial success and international visibility that Italian cinema only sporadically enjoys. Benigni himself already had some fame on the world…
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Cannes 2012: Lineup rumours
Although the official lineup for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival (16-27 May) won’t actually be announced until 19 April, speculation has already begun about which films might screen at the world’s premiere new cinema showcase. First of all, we know that Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (2012) will open the festival. Starring Edward Norton and Bruce…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’
★★★★★ The American writer Chuck Klosterman once wrote how that are things which were over-rated (e.g. Adele), things that were under-rated (e.g. Cat Power) and things that were rated correctly (e.g. The Beatles) – and so it is with Monty Python. The comedy troupe, which began its TV series in the late 1960s and went…