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Quick LinksBrady Corbet's Ominous and Unsettling Historical DramaCorbet Continues His Sensational Hollywood Takeover With 'The Brutalist'

Brady Corbet is steadily establishing himself as one of the silver screen's most innovative and refreshing filmmakers, with the talented director taking audiences all across the world by storm with his powerful, critically acclaimed epic period drama The Brutalist.Before he was the recipient of the Best Direction Golden Globe and had his gripping picture nominated for a whopping 10 Academy Awards, Corbet had made his directorial debut back in 2015 with the foreboding historical drama The Childhood of a Leader.

In the deeply unsettling film, Corbet chronicles the early life of a future fascist leader in the immediate aftermath of World War I, as the young boy begins to exhibit violent and downright disturbing behavior while being raised by his American diplomat father and German mother in the French countryside. The Childhood of a Leader...

Introduction Adaptations of the works of Charles Dickens are numerous. Like ‘Shakespeare,’ if you can think of an alteration to the text, it has been done. Dickens' characters have sung, worn modern clothing, and even been played by muppets. FX in partnership with Hulu, has recently released their newest version of ‘Great Expectations’. The show sets up the classic story in an engaging way. Dickens’ penchant for poetry shines through Pip, the orphan who dreams of a better life. ‘Great Expectations’ follows Pip as he tries to rise in the social hierarchy. Young Pip is played by Tom Sweet. He combines a poetic and romantic disposition with an ambition that makes him stand out. He is raised by his cruel sister Sarah, played by Hayley Squires, and his kind brother-in-law Joe, played by Owen McDonnell. These characters not only give Pip a template to contrast himself with, but they also use him to their advantage.

“If you want to make a TV drama about opium smokers, sadomasochists and imperial slavery in the 19th century, then write your own,” whines The Daily Mail‘s Peter Hitchens about Steven Knight’s new Great Expectations adaptation, presumably forgetting that in 2017, Knight did exactly that in 8-part Gothic Regency thriller Taboo.

Knight’s previous series starring Tom Hardy, bleeds into his take on Charles Dickens’ class and snobbery novel, which loses the comedy and grimes up the characters with the addition of adult content. Great Expectations returns to Knight’s constant theme of social mobility, moving away from ones roots, and the upper classes being mad, evil bastards, as explored in six series of Peaky Blinders.

Here’s the impressive cast amassed for this six-part drama.

Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham

Nobody needs an introduction to Olivia Colman, she’s been firmly in national treasure territory for years now,...

Warning: This review contains spoilers from the first two episodes of Great Expectations.

There have been plenty of good, and even great, adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations.

Unfortunately, this is not one of them.

Most recently, Mike Newell directed a film version in 2012 starring Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter.

BBC, one of the production companies behind this version (along with FX), produced a three-part miniseries in 2011-2012 starring Douglas Booth, Ray Winstone, and Gillian Anderson.

The most famous adaptation this side of the pond is probably Alfonso Cuarón's modern version in 1998, starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Anne Bancroft.

News of Steven Knight's version was exciting, particularly with the announcement of Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham.

If you're going to remake something that has been adapted so many times, you have to approach it from a new vantage point.

Cuarón's version, for example, didn't always work,...

Hulu’s content library is about to get a little more Dickensian. On Sunday, March 26, Hulu will premiere its newest historical drama, an adaptation of the classic Dickens tale “Great Expectations.” The series focuses on a young Englishman dead-set on improving his station in life, until he finds out what that improvement might cost him in the end. Set in a time where social class was everything, this tale still has resounding messages for modern life. You can watch Great Expectations with a 30-Day Free Trial of Hulu.

How to Watch ‘Great Expectations’ Series Premiere When: Sunday, March 26, 2023 Where: Hulu Stream: Watch with a 30-Day Free Trial of Hulu. 30-Day Free Trial$7.99+ / month hulu.com About ‘Great Expectations’ Series Premiere

“Great Expectations” is the coming-of-age story of “Pip,” an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life, until a twist of fate and the evil machinations of the mysterious...

In the very first scene of Hulu’s Great Expectations, a distraught and disheveled Pip (Fionn Whitehead) ties one end of a rope to a bridge, tightens the other around his neck, and leaps. What happens next won’t be revealed until much later in the six-hour miniseries, but what’s clear right away is the message being sent: This isn’t Great Expectations as you remember it.

This is a Great Expectations that’s willing to get dirty, to push the envelope, to take ample liberties with the source material beloved (or at the very least, tolerated in school) by millions. There’s more sex, more violence, more drugs. But with too little in the way of humanity, insight or entertainment to offer alongside them, what could have been a daring spin on a classic is transformed instead into a dreary slog.

The bare bones of the story remain much the same as always,...

"Great Expectations", the new FX, BBC 6-part limited series adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story, executive produced by Ridley Scott, starring Fionn Whitehead, Olivia Colman, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Laurie Ogden, Rudi Dharmalingam, Tom Sweet, Chloe Lea and Matt Berry, premieres March 26, 2023 on Hulu:

"...A young orphan takes great strides...

"...in order to change his life into that of a gentleman..."

Click the images to enlarge...

There's plenty to watch on TV this coming week!

The Roys return for one last hurrah on Succession Season 4, Kiefer Sutherland returns to the small screen, and Nancy Travis joins a cast of familiar faces on Ride.

Check out what we recommend you watch.

Saturday, March 25

8/7c Every Breath She Takes (Lifetime)

Castle's Tamala Jones stars in a mindbending thriller with Brian White, who expertly plays some of the worst spouses in film and television.

Jules feels she's finally free from her years of physical and emotional abuse from her husband when he dies in a house fire. Unfortunately, she's haunted by Billy, who may not actually be dead after all and is dead set on revenge.

Not only is Jules facing scrutiny as the woman who may have killed her husband by a determined detective (Tisha Campbell), but it's all the more maddening when it's evident that Billy is still alive.

The talent behind FX and BBC series “Great Expectations,” “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ literary masterpiece, has spoken about it ahead of its premiere.

“Great Expectations” is the coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life, until a twist of fate and the evil machinations of the mysterious and eccentric Miss Havisham shows him a dark world of possibilities. Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip will have to work out the true cost of this new world and whether it will truly make him the man he wishes to be. A critique of the class system, Dickens’ novel was published in 1861 after first releasing it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860.

Fionn Whitehead stars as Pip, leading a cast featuring Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell,...

Great Expectations arrives on FX on Hulu next month, and a trailer teasing the reimaging of the Charles Dickens classic novel has now been released. Starring Fionn Whitehead, Olivia Colman, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Laurie Ogden, Rudi Dharmalingam, Tom Sweet, Chloe Lea, and Matt Berry, the limited series comes from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders).

Read More…...

"Great Expectations", the new FX, BBC 6-part limited series adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story, executive produced by Ridley Scott, starring Fionn Whitehead, Olivia Colman, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Laurie Ogden, Rudi Dharmalingam, Tom Sweet, Chloe Lea and Matt Berry, premieres March 26, 2023 on Hulu:

"...A young orphan takes great strides...

"...in order to change his life into that of a gentleman..."

Click the images to enlarge...

FX’s official trailer for Great Expectations provides our first good look at Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) as Miss Havisham and Fionn Whitehead (Emily) as Pip. The six-episode limited series will premiere on Hulu on March 26, 2023.

Based on Charles Dickens’s classic novel, the limited series also features Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella, Ashley Thomas as Jaggers, Johnny Harris as Magwitch, Hayley Squires as Sara Gargery, and Owen McDonnell as Joe Gargery. Laurie Ogden plays Biddy, Matt Berry is Mr. Pumblechook, Trystan Gravelle is Compeyson, and Rudi Dharmalingam is Wemmick.

The cast also includes Tom Sweet as Young Pip, Chloe Lea as Young Estella, Matthew Needham as Mr. Drummle, and Parth Thakerar as Herbert Pocket.

Steven Knight adapted Dickens’s work and serves as an executive producer. Additional executive producers include Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, and Kate Crowe. Great Expectations is an FX production in association with the BBC,...

Great Expectations is coming soon to Hulu. The six-episode limited series is a remake of the Charles Dickens classic novel and is being produced by FX and BBC. In the United States, it will be released on the Hulu streaming service.

Fionn Whitehead, Olivia Colman, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Laurie Ogden, Rudi Dharmalingam, Tom Sweet, Chloe Lea, and Matt Berry star in the series from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders).

Read More…...

On the anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birthday, FX Has set the premiere date for Great Expectations, Steven Knight’s limited series adaptation of Dickens’ classic. The series’ key art was also released today. The six-part series from FX and BBC will premiere Sunday, March 26 exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. and feature the first two episodes. Great Expectations is produced in association with the BBC who will air the series in the UK. Internationally, it will be available to stream on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner at a later date. The newly released key art, true to FX and Steven Knight’s style, features one of literature’s most iconic characters, Miss Havisham ensnaring her pawns, Pip and Estella, in the headdress she still wears from her wedding that never was. Entangled in Miss Havisham’s bitter web are memorable elements from the...

FX announced today (Charles Dickens’ birthday) that it has set a premiere date of March 26 for “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight’s hotly anticipated six-part adaptation of the classic Dickens novel “Great Expectations” starring Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella and Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, with the first pair of episodes showing back to back at launch. The series will stream exclusively on Hulu in the United States and over BBC One in the UK.

Produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, the production is expected to be an Emmy dynamo in the limited series category later this year, poised for likely nominations in series, lead actor (Whitehead), lead actress (Brune-Franklin) and supporting actress (Colman) as well as for its writing and direction. Knight, the prolific British-born writer-director and an original screenplay Academy Award nominee in 2004 for “Dirty Pretty Things,” serves...

FX has finally set a premiere date for its Great Expectations limited series from writer/executive producer Steven Knight. The six-part adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic novel will premiere on Sunday, March 26, 2023 on Hulu with the release of the first two episodes.

The cast was announced in February 2022 and the first two official photos arrived in July 2022. FX chose to announce the premiere date on Charles Dickens’s birthday.

The premiere date announcement was accompanied by the series’ poster, along with a description of what the artwork represents:

“The newly released key art, true to FX and Steven Knight’s style, features one of literature’s most iconic characters, Miss Havisham ensnaring her pawns, Pip and Estella, in the headdress she still wears from her wedding that never was. Entangled in Miss Havisham’s bitter web are memorable elements from the tale including the decaying Satis House, clocks stopped at 20 minutes to nine,...

"Great Expectations", the new FX, BBC 6-part limited series adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story, executive produced by Ridley Scott, starring Fionn Whitehead, Olivia Colman, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Laurie Ogden, Rudi Dharmalingam, Tom Sweet, Chloe Lea and Matt Berry, premieres March 26, 2023 on Hulu:

"...A young orphan takes great strides...

"...in order to change his life into that of a gentleman..."

Click the images to enlarge...

On this, the anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birthday, a release date has been announced for Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight’s limited series adaptation of the classic novel Great Expectations.

The six-part series produced by FX and BBC will premiere Stateside on Hulu on Sunday, March 26, with its first two episodes. (The BBC will air the series in the UK, while other international releases via the likes of Star+ and Disney+ will be announced at a later date.)

More from TVLineTVLine Items: Superstore Reunion on Auto, Hit-Monkey Renewed and MoreThe King of the Hill Revival Needs to Address the Show's...

FX and BBC series “Great Expectations,” “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ literary masterpiece, has set a premiere date on Hulu.

The six-part limited series will premiere on March 26 exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. and feature the first two episodes on that date. FX made the date announcement on Feb. 7, Dickens’ 211th birth anniversary.

BBC will air the series in the U.K. and internationally, it will be available to stream on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner at a later date.

“Great Expectations” is the coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life, until a twist of fate and the evil machinations of the mysterious and eccentric Miss Havisham shows him a dark world of possibilities. Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip will have to work out the true cost...

Los Angeles, Feb 7 (Ians) Hollywood star Olivia Colman has had a creepy bridal makeover for her role as Miss Havisham in the BBC’s new adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’.

In a teaser trailer for the drama, adapted from Charles Dickens’ novel, Olivia, 49, sports yellow teeth, white hair, a floral head display and a stained wedding gown, reports Mirror.co.uk.

The short clip shows a young Pip, played by Tom Sweet, arrive at Satis House, to meet the vindictive Miss Havisham for the first time.

She says to Pip: “Let me see you, what a prize creature we have fished from the river.”

‘Great Expectations’ follows Pip as he strives to be a gentleman in the mid 1800s, and falls in love with Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter, Estella.

Mirror.co.uk further states that the reclusive Miss Havisham always wears her wedding dress after being jilted at the altar,...

The BBC has released the first teaser for Great Expectations, the new Charles Dickens adaptation from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman as the eccentric Miss Havisham. “What a prized creature we have fished from the river,” Colman’s Miss Havisham says in the clip (watch below) as she meets young Pip (Tom Sweet) for the first time. Pip looks surprised and even fearful of the reclusive woman as she emerges from the dark, with her yellowing teeth and tattered old wedding dress. The six-part series is set to debut in the spring on the BBC and will stream on Hulu in the United States. It will also be available on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner at a future date.  Great Expectations is an adaptation of one of Dickens’ most highly regarded novels, which tells the coming-of-age of Pip,...

Great Expectations, Steven Knight’s anticipated return to the world of Charles Dickens, has debuted its first teaser trailer (check it out above). The FX/BBC adaptation stars Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham and Fionn Whitehead as Pip along with Tom Sweet as the young Pip. In the brief look at the upcoming limited series, Miss Havisham meets young Pip when he arrives at Satis House for the first time, as she ominously grins, “What a prized creature we have fished from the river.”

The limited series is due to air in the spring on BBC One and iPlayer and will stream on Hulu in the U.S. Internationally, it will be available to stream on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner at a later date.

Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life until...

Exclusive: Great Expectations has found its Young Pip.

FX and the BBC’s upcoming adaptation from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has cast up-and-comer Tom Sweet in the role. He will star as the main character in the first two episodes mainly opposite Olivia Colman, who is playing Miss Havisham.

Sweet also starred as young Robert Catesby in the first three episodes of BBC One’s Gunpowder, which aired in 2017. Film credits include Where Hands Touch, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Enjoy.

Sweet will be replaced from episode three onwards by Black Mirror Bandersnatch star Fionn Whitehead, at which point Pip grows up.

The highly-anticipated Dickens’ adaptation’s cast also includes Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle and Matt Berry.

Knight is a huge Dickens fan who has said Peaky Blinders owes much to the author.

He is also exec producing the six-parter,...

The Childhood Of A Leader The Childhood Of A Leader, Mubi now

There's a dysfunctional mother and child relationship at the heart of Brady Corbet's debut chiller, a fable about fascism that unfolds episodically in moments from a young boy's life in rural France. The focus is the youngster's tantrums, which spiral increasingly as the film progresses, with Corbet careful to show that the kid (Tom Sweet) is as much of a victim as he is a villain, steeping in isolation and the stress of a household that is kept strictly in line by his father (Liam Cunningham). As Corbet told us: "He’s just a bit blank and I think that people find that incredibly unsettling." Featuring often disorienting camerawork from British cinematographer Lol Crawley and an emotionally turbulent score from Scott Walker, the film loops destructively forward, dragging us in its wake. You can also read what...

“Doctor Who” star Peter Capaldi and Raindance founder Elliot Grove have been honored at the first ever British Short Film Awards.

Capaldi was given the Icon Award while Grove was handed the Impact Award

The British Short Film Awards, in partnership with the HearArt Project, were hosted by presenter Alex Zane on Friday evening. The event streamed on YouTube due to pandemic restrictions.

The jury, who deliberated across 35 categories, were made up of Aimee Lou Wood (“Sex Education”), Samuel Adewumni (“The Last Tree”), Tom Rhys Harries (“White Lines”) and Elizabeth Lail (“You”) as well as Oscar-winning patron Rachel Shenton (“The Silent Child”).

Awards founder and short-film director Tommy Clark said in a statement: “Short films have been an incredible launchpad for some of the industry’s biggest actors and filmmakers today, yet there is no standalone awards ceremony in their honour. The British Short Film Awards aim to recognise, inspire...

Ten years ago, no one would believe — of all the franchises in Hollywood — the blockbuster movie series that would yield the most compelling actors would end up being “The Twilight Saga.” We all know about Kristen Stewart’s extraordinary arthouse endeavors, but the Edward to her Bella is every bit as committed to diving deep into character and working with visionary directors. Robert Pattinson made legions of young women swoon, but the roles he’s chosen since the Stephenie Meyer franchise ended have been as colorful as his romantic vampire was pale.

Like Robert Redford and Brad Pitt before him, Pattinson exudes a profound ambivalence about his heartthrob status and a desire to be thought of as far more than a handsome face. And, like his predecessors, he’s done the work to prove it. Even going back to his Ya origins as Cedric Diggory in the “Harry Potter” films or as Edward in “Twilight,...

Stars: Mackenzie Foy, Kiera Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Misty Copeland, Tom Sweet, Meera Syal, Ellie Bamber, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Mohammed, Charles Streeter, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Helen Mirren, Omid Djalili, Jack Whitehall, Eugenio Derbez, Richard E. Grant | Written by Ashleigh Powell | Directed by Lasse Hallström, Joe Johnston

Disney’s latest hollow attempt at once again crafting another franchise in the same vein as the early Pirates of the Caribbean, and Alice in Wonderland, A Wrinkle in Time pictures etc comes in the guise of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Directed by both Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston (don’t worry we’ll get onto that a little later) their dual attempt to craft something worthy of entertainment almost, not quite, but almost verges on a criminal offence to the eyes and ears of any audience subjected to it.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms takes all the worse attributes from Alice in Wonderland,...

Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a lavish production with a feeble script. The classic tale is brought to life with considerable artistry, but the filmmakers forgot the plot was equally as important. The visual effects, costumes, production design, and ballet choreography are icing on a bad cake. The surface qualities are good, with bland and uninspiring filler.

Mackenzie Foy stars as Clara Stahlbaum, a clever middle child living in Victorian London. Still mourning her recently deceased mother, she's forced to attend a Christmas ball with her father (Matthew Macfadyen) and two siblings. Clara brings along a locked present from her mother. She can't figure out how to open it. The inventor who raised her mother, Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman), dispatches her to his garden for a special key. Clara's search leads her to a magical world called the Four Realms; where a renegade regent, Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), threatens war.

The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Kelley Dong and Daniel Kasman.Dear Danny,I can assure you that the crowds of people surrounding the theatres still eagerly persist; some even arriving for only this weekend from other cities and countries. I have a handful of films remaining, and so much richness of material to peruse, so I look forward to exchanging more impressions and ideas with you even after the festival's conclusion. To alter your category a little, I'd say that there are plenty of directors whose works stem from admirable ambitions, but whose technical execution of these undercut whatever sincere convictions they might have. One of these is Amma Asante, a filmmaker with a curious fixation on adapting "true stories" of interracial romance between black and white people throughout history. There is certainly some merit to revivifying forgotten stories of love, and amplifying a...

Now is not the time to make a film romanticizing Nazism or allowing anyone who donned the swastika during World Was II a modicum of sympathy. I’d argue there could never be such a time — at least not for those who say they felt bad but still did nothing to stop the nightmare they helped usher into creation. Their cooperation in a genocidal extermination cannot be given a footnote for remorse. They cannot skate by on some notion that they participated unwillingly so as not to cement their own deaths and therefore be unable to “fight back.” The people dying didn’t have that choice. To say you killed some to save others is meaningless when your own life proves the first and only one to be guaranteed survival.

So it’s not surprising there’s been backlash to the trailer for Amma Asante’s latest Where Hands Touch.

Where Hands Touch Vertical Entertainment Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Amma Asante Screenwriter: Amma Asante Cast: Amandla Stenberg, George MacKay, Abbie Cornish, Christopher Eccleston, Tom Sweet Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 8/24/18 Opens: September 9, 2018 at Toronto Film Festival Once you get past the absurdity of Germans’ speaking only English in a film that […]

The post Where Hands Touch Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

With her 2013 period drama “Belle,” director Amma Asante deftly handled the social uncertainties of a mixed-race aristocrat in 18th-century England, caught between worlds without firmly belonging to any of them. Asante offers a similar predicament in “Where Hands Touch,” a World War 2 drama about a secret affair between a black German teenager and a member of the Hitler Youth, but her themes of identity and racial persecution are muddled by a star-crossed love that drifts from unlikely to absurdly implausible. Playing the daughter of a Senegalese father and an Aryan mother, Amandla Stenberg carries the magnetism she brought to her breakthrough role in the Ya romance “Everything, Everything,” but she’s betrayed by a stilted rendering of a rarely illuminated piece of history.

Of the approximately 25,000 black people living in Germany at the time, several hundred were called “the Rhineland bastards,” the offspring of black colonial troops fighting for the...

Where Hands Touch Trailer Amma Asante‘s Where Hands Touch (2018) movie trailer stars Amandla Stenberg, George MacKay, Abbie Cornish, Christopher Eccleston, and Tom Sweet. Where Hands Touch‘s plot synopsis: Inspired by a real-life 1940s-era photo of a young African-German girl, “Where Hands Touch is a coming of age story set in [...]

Continue reading: Where Hands Touch (2018) Movie Trailer: Amandla Stenberg is an Biracial Teen in Nazi Germany...

The film was backed by the BFI and Creative England.

Filming has wrapped in the UK on Ben Bond’s post-Brexit love story The Drifters, which is backed by Creative England and the BFI.

A quartet of rising stars head the cast: Lucie Bourdeu (Kings For A Day), Jonathan Ajayi (known for the stage play revival of Brothers Size by Moonlight’s Tarell Alvin McCraney), Tom Sweet (Childhood Of A Leader) and Ariyon Bakare (Star Wars: Rogue One).

The Drifters follows Kofi, an illegal African migrant, and Fanny, a French waitress, who both find themselves homeless.

The film is produced...

From the Berlin Film Festival comes the news that two young actors who made big splashes a few years back are set to star in new films: Bel Powley (“Diary of a Teenage Girl”) will headline Marius A. Markevicius’ “Ashes in the Snow,” while Ellar Coltrane of “Boyhood” is co-starring alongside John Cusack in Lucky McKee’s thriller “Misfortune.” Avail yourself of a photo from the latter below.

Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Berlinale Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival

Here’s the synopsis for “Ashes in the Snow”: “Based on the internationally best-selling novel ‘Between Shades of Gray’ by Ruta Sepetys, ‘Ashes in the Snow’ introduces us to Lina, a sixteen-year-old budding artist in 1941 Lithuania, who along with her mother and young brother are deported by the Soviets to a Siberian work camp. Faced with years of hard labor in an unforgiving climate, Lina...

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber...

We love to collectively pore over the biographies of history’s most monstrous figures, usually in search of both meaning and sensationalism. Our fantasies are full of vindictive parenting, traumatic events and uncanny brilliance. It’s as if we want to reverse Freud, using psychoanalysis as a tool to craft new mythology. And they certainly are myths: Fascism can’t be blamed on paternal cruelty alone.

But what if the protagonist weren’t real? With The Childhood of a Leader, Brady Corbet has contributed a fictional allegory to this evergreen genre. Loosely based on a short story by Jean-Paul Sartre and a novel by John Fowles, the film chronicles a short period in the life of Prescott (Tom Sweet), a very moody child. The year is 1919, in the midst of the post-Armistice treaty negotiations. The boy’s father...

For our buck, one of the most underrated actresses working today is Aussie Abbie Cornish. While she’s turned in some fabulous performances (“Somersault,” “Bright Star” and the extremely underseen “The Girl”), Cornish hasn’t quite caught on to the next level. But she is joining the already front-loaded cast of filmmaker Amma Asante’s “Where Hands Touch.”

Read More: Interview: ‘Belle’ Director Amma Asante On Her Charged & Groundbreaking Period Drama

Tantrum Films announced today that Cornish, Christopher Eccleston (“28 Days Later,“ ”Thor: The Dark World”) and Tom Sweet (the boy in “The Childhood of a Leader”) have joined the cast of Asante’s latest, alongside the previously announced Amandla Stenberg (“The Hunger Games,” “As You Are”) and George MacKay (“Captain Fantastic,” “Pride”).

Continue reading Abbie Cornish, Christopher Eccleston & Tom Sweet Join Amma Asante’s ‘Where Hands Touch’ at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Abbie Cornish, Christopher Eccleston, Tom Sweet join drama sold by Protagonist.

Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Christopher Eccleston (28 Days Later) and Tom Sweet (The Childhood of A Leader) have joined the cast of A United Kingdom director Amma Asante’s next film Where Hands Touch, alongside the previously announced Amandla Stenberg (As You Are) and George Mackay (Pride).

Set in Berlin in 1944, Where Hands Touch follows a bi-racial German teenager (Stenberg) who begins a friendship with a member of the Hitler youth (MacKay).

Asante wrote and will direct the project, which commenced shoot in Belgium this week.

Charlie Hanson (David Brent: Life on the Road) is producing with Remi Adefarasin (Elizabeth) on board as DoP. The film is a Tantrum Films / Pinewood Pictures Production, co-produced with UMedia and financed by BFI, Isle of Man, Head Gear and British Film Company.

World Sales are handled by Protagonist Pictures.

On the latest casting additions, Asante said: “I...

Cinematic wankery at its most puerile. Two hours of the sun setting revealing that this is why it gets dark at night would not have been more pointless. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

The Childhood of a Leader is would-be deep cinematic wankery at its most puerile. This is a two-hour-long attempt to construct a metaphor that ends at a place where it steps back and smugly makes a “shocking” pronouncement of something so concretely literal that it is, well, literally the fact of the matter that everyone already knows. If actor turned director (and screenwriter, with Mona Fastvold) Brady Corbet had, with his feature debut, given us 120 minutes of the sun setting and then boldly concluded that this is why it gets dark at night, he would not have been more obvious and inevitable and pointless.

Brady Corbet: 'The thing that’s quite interesting about Tom in the film is that there’s nothing inherently sinister about him in a way. He’s just a bit blank'

Brady Corbet's The Childhood Of A Leader is out in UK cinemas today (August 18) after Protagonist Pictures stepped in following the announcement that original distributor Metrodome had fallen into insolvency this week. The British distribution is being handled by Soda Pictures.

The film marks the culmination of 10 years of work for actor-turned-writer/director Corbet. The narrative follows the day-to-day goings on in a home where a young boy (Tom Sweet) lives with his doctrinaire mother (Bérénice Bejo) and diplomat father (Liam Cunningham), who has relocated his family to France while he works on the Treaty of Versailles. The austerity of the boy's relationship with his parents is shown in stark relief to the warmth of his friendship...

UK distributor Metrodome Group was placed in administration earlier this week.

Brady Corbet’s The Childhood of a Leader, which was set to be released in the UK this weekend by Metrodome, will now be handled by Soda Pictures. The switch is a result of Metrodome being placed in administration earlier this week.

Protagonist Pictures, which handles international sales on the period drama, stated “all parties have acted quickly to ensure that the film’s release will not be adversely affected”.

Soda will take over all responsibility for the film with immediate effect, and will work with exhibitors to ensure the film’s release is not impacted.

Edward Fletcher, managing director for Soda Pictures, said: “The circumstances surrounding Metrodome are deeply upsetting to all of us at Soda - as a fellow independent film distributor, we are acutely aware of the challenges faced in today’s marketplace, and we are completely committed to continuing their wonderful work.

“We...

Photo of Mussolini and his mother 'inspired a lot of the movie', including Tom Sweet's character, right Brady Corbet's The Childhood Of A Leader tells the story - in a series of episodes - of a child (Tom Sweet) in post-First World War France who goes on to be a prominent fascist. Elliptical and impressionistic, the narrative shows the day-to-day interactions the boy has with his fiercely religious and strict mother (Bérénice Bejo) and, frequently absent, diplomat father (Liam Cunningham), who is in France to work on the Treaty of Versailles. Taking both the best debut film and Orizzonti best director awards in Venice The Fits - it has a confidence and audacity rarely seen in first features.

Speaking to Corbet about the film at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival, he explained that it was a long-time coming but that it didn't matter because, as the film argues,...

If actor-turned-director Brady Corbet’s post-World-War-i saga, The Childhood of a Leader, did little more than send American readers to Jean-Paul Sartre’s lesser known short story of the same name, one would be thanking the cinematic gods for its appearance.

The final story in his Sartre’s 1939 collection, The Wall, “The Childhood of a Leader” chronicles the life of Lucien from his rebellious potty training days as a lovely, long-haired tot, son of a rich industrialist, to his transformation into anti-Semitic murderer. There goes Holden Caulfield but for the grace of God.

When we first meet Lucien, with his lustrous blond curls and attired in a blue angel’s costume, he is mistaken by his mother’s consorts as a girl.

“What’s your name? Jacqueline, Lucienne, Margot?”

The embarrassed boy blushes and sets the record right, but “[h]e was no longer quite sure about not being a little...

The Childhood of a Leader, the directorial debut of Funny Games and Melancholia star Brady Corbet, explores how the febrile atmosphere of post-first world war France creates the perfect conditions for a young American immigrant (Tom Sweet) to manipulate the adults around him. A hit at last year’s Venice film festival, The Childhood of a Leader stars Robert Pattinson, Stacy Martin and Bérénice Bejo. It is released in the UK on Friday 19 August

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The Childhood Of A Leader IFC Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Showbiz Grade: B Director: Brady Corbet Written by: Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet Cast: Tom Sweet, Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, Robert Pattinson, Rebecca Davan, Sophie Lane Curtis, Yolande Moreau, Caroline Boulton, Luca Bercovici Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 7/11/16 Opens: July 22, 2016 The film, which is a dramatic and sometimes cinematically stunning freshman contribution to studies of the origins of fascism, is loosely adapted from an uncredited 1939 story by Jean-Paul Sartre. The story, only a few pages long from a book called “The Wall” and difficult enough to appropriate to the cinema, is the tale of [ Read More ]

The post The Childhood of a Leader Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Welcome, one and all, to the newest episode of The Film Stage Show! This week, I am joined by Amanda Waltz and Bill Graham to discuss Brady Corbet‘s directorial debut The Childhood of a Leader, starring Bérénice Bejo, Robert Pattinson, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, Yolande Moreau, and Tom Sweet, which is now available to stream and in limited release.

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M4A: The Film Stage Show Ep. 198 – The Childhood of a Leader

0:00 – 1:09:32 – The Childhood of a Leader Discussion

Bonus: Watch a talk with Brady Corbet on the making of the film.

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Mark Harrison Aug 1, 2016

Fed up of big blockbusters right now? Here are some smaller movie treats to be found in August in UK cinemas...

Around this time of the year, we like to shine a spotlight on the slightly smaller films coming out after most of the box office juggernauts have been and gone. But with each annual feature, we've noticed that the year is filling up with blockbusters more and more. The year's first comic book movie was February's Deadpool, a surprise box office smash and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice got 2016's blockbuster season started much earlier than usual.

We're late enough in this elongated season that August will find the blockbuster schedule repeating itself - Ben Affleck's Batman will be back on screen for a cameo in DC Movies' Suicide Squad, Disney follows The Jungle Book with a live-action remake of Pete's Dragon, and Ricky Gervais...

Youthful innocents relish playing the part of amateur cartographer for school assignments, drawing prats, or, even more fun, molding contours from papier-mache. Seven-year-old Prescott (Tom Sweet), the subject of Brady Corbet’s astonishing debut feature, The Childhood of a Leader, is no innocent. The film, adapted from Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story of the same title and co-scripted by Norwegian Mona Fastvold, charts his rocky path from angel in his church’s Nativity play to one of the signature faces of the diabolical: totalitarianism. The scene in which the boy slides his fingers across a wall map of Europe just as it was […]...

An allegorical tale set in the shadow of Wwi Europe, The Childhood of a Leader is a very accomplished first feature from 27 year-old American actor Brady Corbet. Considering his face has been showing up in the films of who's who in European arthouse cinema over the years -- Haneke, von Trier, Bonello, Assayas, Hansen-Løve, just to name a few -- this exclusively European production (UK/Hungary/France) seems far less surprising. The film sees an American diplomat (played by Liam Cunningham) working for President Woodrow Wilson to end the most horrific war that the world has ever experienced. His newly transplanted family consists of an educated, worldly wife (Berenice Bejo, The Artist, The Past) and an effeminate young son (the amazing Tom Sweet), complete with bobcut...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Childhood of a Leader opens not on the angelic face of its sociopathic protagonist Prescott (Tom Sweet), but on real footage of the events that shape him. Bone-rattling music plays over silent films of the events surrounding the aftermath of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, introducing the viewer to the film’s background and the formation of its protagonist’s identity. Prescott will be affected by these events, even if he does not play a part in them – his is a world of uncertainty, repression, and repressed violence, the perfect breeding ground for a fascist leader.

Brady Corbet’s feature film debut tells of a formative period in Prescott’s life. The son of an American diplomat and his globally educated wife (Liam Cunningham and Bérénice Bejo), he lives with his parents and a few servants in a rundown villa in a village outside of Paris.