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There ain’t no party like a Werner Herzog party. His latest, Salt and Fire, feels like a mashup of his current preoccupations – combining philosophical volcanology (Into the Inferno and Encounters at the End of the World), ecological apocalypticism (Lessons of Darkness), historical/cultural analysis (Cave of Forgotten Dreams), and his penchant for having very intense men delivering very cryptic dialogue (basically everything he’s ever done).

The narrative centres on a team of scientists travelling to Chile to deliver a report on an ongoing ecological disaster. They’re Professor Laura Sommerfeld (Veronica Ferres), Doctor Cavani (Gael Garcia Bernal), and Doctor Meier (Volker Michalowski), who are on a Un mission and are expecting to be met by government officials once they land.

Unfortunately for them, they’re actually met by a team of black-clad paramilitary soldiers who kidnap them and whisk them away to an isolated villa. They’re led...

Editor’s Note: This article is presented in partnership with Bleecker Street’s release of “Anthropoid,” directed by Sean Ellis and starring Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy. “Anthropoid” is now playing in theaters.

This week, “Anthropoid” looks to join the ranks of a rich and complex cinematic history: films about World War II. A global conflict that has yielded global stories, World War II continues to be the basis for films that challenge our perceptions. “Anthropoid” uncovers an episode from before the fighting stopped, focusing on the attempt to assassinate high-ranking SS General Reinhard Heydrich. Writer/Director Sean Ellis uses the true-life mission as a backdrop for a talented ensemble, including Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan and Toby Jones.

The best of these modern WWII films never lose sight of the idea that this was a conflict fought by individuals. Their weapons and their ideologies were varied, but this was history...

They say Cannes "stays in your blood" and it's true! Three weeks later, here's the final interview from my trip. I wanted to finish my interview tour of the movie business with a real blue collar film festival so I sat down for a drink with Rachel Richardson-Jones, aka "Lady Grimm"; a film producer and director of the Grimm Up North International Film Festival of Horror and Cult Films.

How long has your festival been running and how did it get started?

Grimm is now in its fourth year and was born out of shameless self promotion for our first feature "Splintered". Sadly our executive producer Clive Parsons, a veteran British film producer who made such classics as Scum and Gregory's Girl and I might add was a true gentleman, passed away shortly after completion, leaving us without a clue of how to get distribution in our own territory. So we decided to put on a little showcase of three movies over one day in our home town of Manchester and call it Grimm up North. After a successful week in London I managed to not only acquire distribution for Splintered, but also a number of movies to screen from various distributors and Grimm Up North turned out to be three crazy days of 28 movies, twelve of which were premiers, not to mention a plague of Cenobites. Although we vowed "never again" the day after the festival, there did seem to be a lot of love for it and we've been growing steadily each year.

What brings you to Cannes?

This was an extremely exciting year for us, as it was Grimm Up North's first year as a buyer at Cannes, we were looking for films to screen at the festival in October. In addition to this we have also raised the bar with our brand new distribution label Grimm Entertainment. We have partnered with Koch media in the UK and have already acquired rights to several films which we are releasing in Early October 2012. We are to release a minimum of eight movies in our first year so we were looking for movies that would play well at the festival and also have UK rights available for distribution.

So what's the ultimate goal with the festival? Do you plan on growing into a market or another Sundance?

It would be an interesting idea to grow Grimm to the stage whereby, if you produce, write, sell, buy, promote or just love to watch genre material, people can come to Manchester to do just that and get to cuddle lots of lovely northern folk, as we are very friendly in the North.

What kind of films do you like personally?

Wow my taste is so diverse, I do have a penchant for Sci-Fi, but also love to watch films from all over the world, I love films with a great story, so for me it can be any genre from ‘The Lives of Others’ to ‘Martyrs’ to ‘How to Train Your Dragon’.

How many submissions do you normally get and how do you go through them all?

This year we had over 100 submissions. We have a dedicated team of volunteers who help us view material. But essentially it comes down to Myself, Simeon Halligan who is co-director of the festival and Steve Balshaw our film programmer and founding member of Grimm who make the decisions, and if we can't all agree on a film it doesn't go in the festival.

A lot of people say the festival process is inherently political, what are your thoughts on that and do you have advice for filmmakers?

This is a very good point, running our own festival has really given us a great insight as filmmakers of how important it is to make sure either the producer or sales agent make a big noise about a film. It is essential to get it into the press and give your movie as much profile as possible. There are so many films to watch you end up being drawn to the ones listed in the trades and there starts the merry go round, with all the usual suspects being shown in all the various festivals. Whilst we at Grimm do like to have a number of festival circuit films we have seen at the markets, we do get quite excited by the submissions we get to the festival. Steve Balshaw was a big advocate of the Soska sisters' submission ‘Dead Hooker in a Trunk’ it got great coverage at Grimm and really helped to build a following for them in the UK. Similarly we hope to do the same with Ryan Levin’s 'Some Guy Who Kills People' which screened really well at last year's festival and that we will be releasing later on in the year under the Grimm label.

Did you have a "Cannes moment"?

Meeting Zack Coffman at the Estonian Drinks Party and scoffing all their chocolate which we just couldn't get enough of!

Well, there you have it. I've finally worked Cannes out of my system.

Written by Zack Coffman. Follow Zack's film marketing tips and adventures @choppertown on Twitter.

So I’ve been out of town for the past week, and I missed the epic lists that everyone else in the office produced. I thought I’d add my two cents as well, because I have watched a bazillion movies this year and I felt left out! Not really, but I just wanted to throw some stuff out there. Also, I was too intimidated by a top 20 of the decade list, so instead I’m just going to add a “Top 10 Suckiest Movies of ‘09″ list – which may or may not be 10 movies.

Caitlin’S Top 10

These are kind of based more on my initial reaction upon seeing them, which also includes surrounding crowd, location, etc.

1. Zombieland

If you got to see this at the Paramount during Fantastic Fest last year, then many of you may agree with me. I went into this movie with absolutely no expectations.. well, actually,...

The picture to the left has nothing to do with anything released in the last ten years, but it is from a movie.

Here in the Alamo programming office, movies are a big deal. We each watch approximately 215 movies per day, seven days a week, no holidays.

It’s a tough job…especially when it comes time to narrow down our favorites at the end of each year. It’s even more difficult to figure out what the best 20 films were in the past decade. But we do it all for you.

The lists below represent the most powerful and/or entertaining films of 2009, plus the finest we’ve seen since Y2K destroyed civilization. Take a look, disagree, get furious and attack us on the street.

Warning: We’ve got switchblades.

* * * * * *

Tim League

1) Mother -

I saw Mother at Cannes this year and it blew me out of the water.

Rob Hunter loves movies.  He also loves hunting Nazis. These two joys come together in the form of cash money payments that he receives every week and immediately uses to buy more DVDs. So join us each week as he takes a look at new DVD releases and gives his highly unqualified opinion as to which titles are worth BUYing, which are better off as RENTals, and which should be AVOIDed at all costs. Click on any of the titles below to magically head over to Amazon.com and pick up the DVD.  And don't forget to check out Neil Miller's hilariously titled This Week In Blu-ray column for reviews on the latest high definition Blu-ray releases! The Hangover Pitch: The funniest movie released this past June... Why Buy? Personally, I think it's probably funnier than anything else this year, but comedy is subjective so I scaled the pitch back a bit. The...

Happy Thanksgiving to all! This year we thought we would take sometime to look at ten of the films we are most thankful for. They might not be the best movies of the year, as this is not the point of the list, but rather the ones that we really enjoyed and are thankful for being made, thankful for their lessons, thankful for their addition to a series and whatever other reasons we can give for being thankful for these movies. Some of these movies you may have not seen and there is some movies in 2009 we have yet to see that we know we will be thankful, one in particular, Avatar. We hope that you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

#1 – Up

Personifying a wonderful adventure mixed with a tale about life and love, Disney/Pixar’s magic of storytelling continues bringing us the most unlikely hero combination,...

Today over on MTV.com, Larry Carroll has a report filed from the red carpet of the "Inglourious Basterds" premiere. He got to chat with the various cast members as they strolled by, and the one question he made sure to hit them all with was "which Quentin Tarantino character is your favorite?" The answers are all over the place, from Eli Roth's half-dozen or so choices to -- including Brad Pitt's "True Romance" stoner Floyd! -- to Brad Pitt's humble nod to his "Basterds" co-star Christopher Waltz, who plays "the Jew Hunter."

It's hard to narrow down a single favorite, but I have to go with Robert Forster's bail bondsman Max Cherry, from "Jackie Brown." By far Qt's most underrated effort, Forster's top-notch role is just one among many in the movie. Still, it's his character who sticks with me the most. As all of...