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In Álvaro López Alba’s “Three Summer Days” (“Tres días de verano”), a vacationing family’s dissimilar takes on an event threatens to drive them apart. It follows a father and his two kids on a beach holiday, the young girl, Cris, has fallen for a boy, causing a rift in her friendship with pal Miri. Her brother Dani, feeling isolated, spends the summer confined to his room, fixated on Miri.

Meanwhile, their father is engaged in a secret affair he desperately tries to conceal from them. Over these three days at the beach, the family will struggle to reconnect as insecurities, jealousy and hidden truths unravel their close-knit world.

“I’ve based the story on personal experiences and that of my family and people around me,” López Alba told Variety, who only started making short films some six years ago, and in earnest over the past three.

Given his experience as a psychologist,...

MK2 Films has closed a raft of major deals on “Peacock” which world premieres at the Venice Film Festival in the Critics’ Week section.

“Peacock” marks the directorial debut of rising Austrian filmmaking Bernhard Wenger and is headlined by “All Quiet on the Western Front” star Albrecht Schuch.

The quirky tragicomedy revolves around the “Rent a Friend” concept prevalent in Japan and the U.S. and serves up a satirical view of societal values.

“Peacock” tells the story Matthias (Schuch) who works at a rent-a-friend agency and finds it increasingly difficult to open up again and be authentic in his private life. Wenger noted he had the idea of making a film about the subject after a research trip to Japan and that the character of Matthias was based on an agency employee he met there.

The movie has sold to Pyramide (France), I Wonder (Italy), O Brother (Benelux), Another World...

Beloved French actor Isabelle Huppert will receive the Lumière Award in the city of Lyon in October.

Created by Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux, the Lumière Film Festival celebrates classic and contemporary cinema each fall. The Lumière Award honors a leading figure in the world of cinema and their entire body of work.

Huppert succeeds German director Wim Wenders who was awarded the prize in 2023. Former recipients include Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach, Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, Pedro Almodóvar, Miloš Forman, the Dardenne brothers and Wong Kar-wai, among others.

“It’s a great honor for me to receive the Lumière Award. It’s a magnificent prize, and so is its festival. It’s an award that bears the name of the inventors of cinema! Receiving it fills me with joy and pride,” said Huppert.

A prolific actor who shoots an average...

After teaming with Noah Baumbach to direct one of the best-ever documentaries about filmmaking, De Palma, Jake Paltrow is back with a new feature. June Zero is a vividly textured telling of the preparations for the 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann through a triptych of perspectives––a Jewish Moroccan prison guard, an Israeli police investigator (and Holocaust survivor), and a clever and precocious 13-year-old Libyan immigrant. In advance of the June 28 release from Cohen Media Group, we’re pleased to exclusively reveal a series of influences the director has programmed for NYC’s Quad Cinema.

“Origin Stories: Jake Paltrow’s Notes on June Zero,” which runs June 21-27, features seven films that informed and influenced June Zero, with titles spanning humanist deep-cuts of world cinema from the likes of Miloš Forman and Abbas Kiarostami to underscreened classics of 1970s Israeli cinema. Watch the exclusive trailer for the series below, along with...

Spanish director Jonás Trueba’s The Other Way Around has sold widely for Memento International, after receiving the Europa Cinemas Label award for best European Film at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Wanted Cinema has snapped up the film for Italy, Piffl Medien will release it in Germany, Panda Lichtspiele Filmverleih in Austria, Vedette in Benelux, Leopardo in Portugal, Rosebud in Greece, New Horizons in Poland, Hugoeast in China, Kino Pavasaris in the Baltics, Discovery for ex-Yugoslavia and Pt Falcon in Indonesia. Elastica and Filmin are handling Spanish distribution and Arizona Distribution will distribute the film in France.

Trueba’s eighth feature...

Charles Dance is opening up about his love life.

The 77-year-old Game of Thrones actor said his marriage of 34 years ended after he “succumbed to some temptations.”

In a podcast interview with Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud podcast, he spoke about the dissolution of his marriage to Joanna Haythorn.

Keep reading to find out more…

“For the most part it was a wonderful marriage,” he said.

“But then, unfortunately, I succumbed to some temptations along the way and the marriage ended because of my behaviour really.”

The couple, who have one son and a daughter, married in 1970. They remained married until he was forced to “come clean” about his indiscretion, which led to their separation in 2004.

“We were living in Somerset, in this enormous place, and Jo had her study at one end and I had mine at the other end, and we became a bit like George and Martha...

Whenever your Sims need cash quick, just input the "motherlode" cheat code for an instant 50,000 simoleons. Sims have no sense of self-preservation, so be prepared to guide them to eat, sleep, and use the toilet. Relationships can be ruined by spam clicking actions - a funny quirk the movie could explore to build connections.

Margot Robbie is set to produce a movie based on The Sims, which will need to include some references fans of the game will immediately connect with. Coming off the success of the Barbie movie, Robbie's track record for brilliant and insightful movies is outstanding. Having already tapped into the market of movies based on incredibly pivotal childhood memories, Robbie is now moving forward with another project that could reach a whole new audience.

The first Sims game was SimCity, released in 1989. However, the mainline games that are so familiar and iconic first came out in 2000. Since then,...

Few shows or movies are so hugely popular, so incredibly influential, that they change our day-to-day vernacular. Sure, there are memorable quotes that we now associate primarily a particular title even decades after their release, like "I am your father," or "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." 

Then there's "The Simpsons." The longest-running American scripted primetime TV series is not only the best TV show of all time, but has so many popular catchphrases and memorable quotes you could hold entire conversations using only quotes from the show. Even after three decades, the animated sitcom keeps finding new ways to reinvent itself. It's also one of few TV shows that has changed the English language. Even outside of how the word "d'oh" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001, "The Simpsons" has given us many new words that are used in day-to-day language. Words like "cromulent,...

Meg Remy, who performs as U.S. Girls, has tied a bow on the past five years of her life with the release of Lives, a surprise concert album she just released. The record, available on major streaming services, features music she performed with three different iterations of the U.S. Girls live band.

She included recordings of songs by what she calls “the Poem Band” version of U.S. Girls, which focused on “outsider jazz-funk,” as well as the “Heavy Light Band,” which focused on female vocal harmonies. The newest version,...

"If The Headline Is Big Enough, It Makes The News Big Enough." - Citizen Kane explores the power of media sensationalism and manipulating public perception. "I Only Saw Her For One Second." - The quote reflects the lasting impact of a beautiful moment and the power of memory in a person's life. "I Just Try Everything I Can Think Of." - Kane's ambitious and reckless approach to media and life ultimately costs him happiness and contentment.

Citizen Kane is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, and it's filled with iconic and memorable quotes. The film is largely the product of Orson Welles, the 20th-century film icon who wrote it, produced it, directed it, and starred in it as the titular character. Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane from the perspective of a reporter investigating his life after he's passed away, exploring the meaning of his enigmatic final words.

The meaning behind "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane is a mystery that is only revealed at the end, showing the tragic loss of innocence and happiness in the life of Charles Foster Kane. The movie's structure, with flashbacks and rumors building up Kane as a mythic figure, serves to tear him down and reveal the true tragedy of his life. Despite his immense wealth and power, Kane dies alone and unloved, longing for his childhood sled as a symbol of the happiness and purity he lost along the way.

More than 80 years after the release of Citizen Kane, and the mystery surrounding the meaning of "Rosebud" is still debated by first-time watchers and repeat viewers alike. No matter what one might have heard about the greatness of Citizen Kane, it's still impossible to describe the vast impact it had on filmmaking, or the extend to which it's influenced Hollywood storytelling since...

Citizen Kane follows the rise and fall of ambitious publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, and its ending brings the story back to the start in a well-structured mystery narrative. The lead character, played by Orson Welles, who also directed the 1941 feature, dies at the beginning of the plot, breathing his last breath as he says the ominous word "rosebud." His last word leads to an investigation deep into his scandalous life, but only the film's audience is treated to a definitive, albeit still puzzling answer.

Called the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane plays out as a pseudo-biopic as viewers are led through Kane's entire life story, from his childhood in Colorado to his rise as a yellow journalism tycoon and a politician in New York, eventually building up to his demise at his colossal mansion, Xanadu. The way “rosebud” links the beginning to the end was quite a unique plot point in its time,...

“jeen-yuhs” codirectors Coodie and Chike were smart to break up their documentary on Kanye West into three parts, especially where they did: “Act I: Vision” covers the earliest days of a future legend, “Act II: Purpose” zeroes in on the pivotal moment that he became a megastar, and “Act III: Awakening” explores the repercussions of that explosive success.

The only problem is that, as the insiders who made the first two acts, Coodie and Chike got kicked outside for the third — a perhaps natural progression for the inner circle of an artist who, as an underdog, wanted every moment of his life documented but now, as a superstar, almost certainly does not. Particularly, that is, in the current climate, when the rest of the media hangs on his every public act or social-media missive.

As a result, “Awakening” feels more forlorn and distant than its predecessors, unsure of how to...

It is nighttime on the periphery of a sprawling estate; sinister music accompanies the camera as it scrolls up over many yards of fence, chain link giving way to curlicues of wrought iron, punctuated with ominous cautions to prying eyes: "Warning Keep Out" and "Trespassers Will Be Shot," before arriving at a paper note reading "Free Kittens, Inquire Within."

We are, of course, talking about the opening to "Rosebud," the episode-length parody of "Citizen Kane" in "The Simpsons." Orson Welles' influential and much-referenced masterpiece needs little introduction, one of those films where most people know the iconography, even if they haven't seen the movie itself.

The...

The post The John Ford Western That Inspired Citizen Kane appeared first on /Film.

French actor Isabelle Huppert is set to receive the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Her films will also be honored as part of a special Homage section.

Huppert will be awarded the prize for lifetime achievement. In conjunction with the awards on Feb. 15 at the Berlinale Palast, the festival will screen her latest movie, Laurent Larivière’s “À propos de Joan” — unveiled on Wednesday in the fest’s first batch of titles — as a special gala premiere.

Huppert has a longstanding relationship with Berlin, and has starred in seven competition films to date. She was first a guest in Berlin with Jacques Doillon’s “La vengeance d’une femme” before appearing in Francois Ozon’s “8 Femmes” as an unprepossessing woman who emerges in the end as a confident beauty. The ensemble cast was awarded a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic accomplishment.

Cheat codes may not be as prominent in video games as they once were, but there was a time when entire magazines, TV shows, and websites were dedicated to sharing these commands, codes, and tactics that would change the way you played your favorite games.

The thing about cheat codes is that they’re rarely just about the “cheat.” Yes, there’s a certain joy to becoming invincible, unlocking new items, or just skipping a few levels, but the thing that separates the best cheat codes from an endless selection of similar cheats is the way they would often go on to define the games they were in to such a degree that it almost feels stranger to think of playing those games without cheats enabled.

From tanks that appear out of thin air to secrets that made you the most popular kid in the neighborhood, these are the absolute...

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By Fred Blosser

“Rosebud” (1975), Otto Preminger’s next-to-last film, has been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in a 2K Blu-ray restoration. In the political thriller, a terrorist cell kidnaps five teenaged girls from a luxury yacht, the “Rosebud” of the title. The kidnappers are members of Black September, an extremist Palestinian faction -- a reference that would have been better known by audiences then than now. Their reasons for seizing the young women become clearer as they open communications with the girls’ parents, an international power elite of politicians, industrialists, and financiers. Sending along a film of the five young women on the deck of the commandeered yacht, nude and shivering, the terrorists dictate that it be televised as a prelude to a series of demands that will demean Israel and it allies on the global stage. If the demands aren...

No director of the classical Hollywood studio era capitalized on hot-button social issues or pushed the boundaries of censorship as successfully as Otto Preminger, who scored artistic and commercial triumphs with a number of films that addressed rape, homosexuality, drug addiction, and various political and religious controversies at a time when few other filmmakers would dare. By the 1970s, however, Preminger became a victim of his own reputation; when young auteurs of the New Hollywood like Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Bogdanovich […]

The post Rosebud, Buried Alive and the Women Filmmakers of New World Pictures: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

No director of the classical Hollywood studio era capitalized on hot-button social issues or pushed the boundaries of censorship as successfully as Otto Preminger, who scored artistic and commercial triumphs with a number of films that addressed rape, homosexuality, drug addiction, and various political and religious controversies at a time when few other filmmakers would dare. By the 1970s, however, Preminger became a victim of his own reputation; when young auteurs of the New Hollywood like Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Bogdanovich […]

The post Rosebud, Buried Alive and the Women Filmmakers of New World Pictures: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

It’s been six years since Shin Min-ah (“A Bittersweet Life”) was last seen on the big screen, having taken some time off work to take care of Kim Woo-bin as he recovered from nasal cancer. While she has been in a couple k-dramas since, she makes her comeback in films with debutante director Jo Seul-ye’s psychological thriller “Diva”.

Synopsis

Skill, beauty, personality, ‘Diving Diva’ Yi-yeong has it all. Not being able to be with her best friend Soo-jin is the only thing that gets in her way. Just so she can help Soo-jin out, she changes her event to synchronizing swimming. While pouring everything to Olympics selection practice, Soo-jin and Yi-yeong are involved in a freak accident. Soo-jin disappears without a trace, while Yi-yeong survives but loses her memory. Her memory slowly comes back to her but remembers strange side of Soo-jin. Her iron will begins to shake on the diving board.

A million dollars isn’t cool anymore. You know what’s cool? A seal of approval from Quentin Tarantino. That’s what’s cool. It’s also what The Social Network received nearly 10 years after its release. Making a splash at the box office—if not with Oscar voters—the arguably first major film about the millennial generation was a pop culture touchstone in 2010 that’s aged like fine wine. With its haunting visuals masterminded by director David Fincher, razor sharp dialogue from Aaron Sorkin, and moody score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network remains a potent work, and clearly a favorite for the Pulp Fiction writer-director.

“It is number one because it’s the best, that’s all!” Tarantino told Premiere (via The Guardian). “It crushes the competition.” Tarantino’s suggestion of the competition also seems to be a thinly veiled reference to how the movie...

The following story contains spoilers from The Good Fight‘s Season 4 ‘finale’ — proceed at your own peril

We didn’t get a concrete answer to the peksy Memo 618 question but The Good Fight did manage to solve another high-profile mystery in its makeshift Season 4 finale: We now know who really killed Jeffrey Epstein (well, at least we do in the series’ hilariously heightened universe).

More from TVLineWill The Good Fight's Makeshift Season Finale Resolve the Memo 618 Mystery?The Good Fight: Hugh Dancy Discusses 'Taboo' Romance With Audra McDonald and the Appeal of Playing Someone Who Is Decent and...

The great Saul Bass—to my mind the greatest graphic designer of the 20th century—was born 100 years ago today, on May 8, 1920. In over a decade of writing about movie posters I’ve only really written about Bass once—in an article about the evolution of designs for Vertigo—which is surprising because he was undoubtedly the first poster designer I ever knew the name of, and of the six movie posters hanging in my apartment two are by Bass: those for Seconds and The Man With the Golden Arm. Saul Bass is just too well known, and has been written about so widely, that I never felt I had much to add to the discussion. And when Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham’s extraordinary Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design was published in 2011 there seemed little more left to say.But I can’t let this centenary pass unremarked.

The Rosebud Motel is closing its doors for good next month, and Pop TV is marking the occasion with an hourlong special. Immediately after the Schitt’s Creek series finale at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, the cable net will air Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell.

Watch a promo for the docu-special above.

More from Deadline'Schitt's Creek' Trailer: The Rosebud Motel Is Open For Business One More Season'Flack': Producers "Confident" Of Finding New U.S. Home For Anna Paquin Dark Comedy'Happiest Season': Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, Dan Levy & More Round Out TriStar Comedy

“As we celebrate the end of Schitt’s Creek, we couldn’t do it without creating a special TV moment to send this historic series out on top,“ Pop TV president Brad Schwartz said. “This must-watch behind-the-scenes doc is the perfect way to honor a series that has made an impact in so many people’s lives,...

Jon Stewart and Steve Carell are back together for Focus Features’ “Irresistible,” and the mini-“Daily Show” reunion might just be as the title suggests.

Stewart wrote, directed and produced the upcoming movie, which stars Carell as a Democratic political consultant who helps a retired ex-Marine colonel (Chris Cooper) run for mayor in a small Wisconsin town. In the process, Carell will have to contend with cows in addition to the other bull that comes with local politics.

The comedy also stars Rose Byrne as Carell’s Republican counterpart and face-licking rival, as well as Topher Grace, Natasha Lyonne, Mackenzie Davis, C.J. Wilson and Will Sasso. Those other five don’t do any face-licking, as far as we can tell.

Also Read: 'Morning Show' Producer Says 'No Update' on Steve Carell Returning for Season 2, But They're 'Exploring' It

Watch the movie’s trailer in the video above. Budweiser is a twist-off,...

Some of us have spent nearly as much time in Springfield as we have in our own actual hometowns. So much has changed in the 30 years since The Simpsons debuted in 1989, but some things never grow old. Which led to an even more important conversation: Of the 670-plus episodes that have aired since its beginning, which would you show to the few who remain unconverted to the show’s genius? What, essentially, are the greatest Simpsons’ episodes of them all?

So after hours of arguing, several bouts of fisticuffs, many...

The Italian-French co-production signed Scirocco Films and Rosebud is being shot between Puglia and Senegal and tells the story of two African boys in search of a better future. Two African children look up at the stars and dream of travelling to Italy: this image perfectly encapsulates Alessandro Valenti’s first work, Oltre il confine, which is now being filmed in Salento. Having previously written screenplays for numerous other movies – ranging from Edoardo Winspeare’s titles to Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli’s next film Gli indifferenti, based upon Alberto Moravia’s book of the same name – and having helmed several documentaries, short films and music videos, Valenti is now taking his first steps in the world of feature film. Following a few weeks in Puglia, travelling between Lecce, Otranto and Alessano, the crew led by Valenti will then head to Senegal where filming is set...

“That’s all he ever wanted out of life… was love. That’s the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn’t have any to give.”

Citizen Kane comes to life on the big screen Monday August 5th as part of the ‘Classics on the Loop’ series. Showtimes are 4pm and 7pm. Admission is $7.A Facebook invite can be found Here

Citizen Kane (1941) Directed by Orson Welles Shown from left, front: George Coulouris, Buddy Swan; rear: Harry Shannon, Agnes Moorehead

Is Citizen Kane the greatest film ever made? On a technical level, it may as well be. It’s at least the most groundbreaking film ever made. On a storytelling level, it’s an amazing achievement itself in that Orson Welles used such avant-garde techniques yet maintained an engrossing story. It’s a film full of contradictions and works perfectly because of them. Its over-the-top yet subtle,...

Gary Oldman has signed on the dotted line to take the lead role in the biopic of ‘Citizen Kane’ screenwriter, Herman Mankiewicz, in ‘Mank’.

‘Gone Girl’ directed, David Fincher has also been announced to direct the film which is said to follow Mankiewicz’s tumultuous development of the ‘Kane’ script alongside director Orson Welles. Despite its critical success, the script was the only part of the film to win an Oscar.

The script had been written by Fincher’s father Jack before he passed away in 2003. Fincher will produce alongside producing partner Cean Chaffin and Douglas Urbanski. The film will be in black and white, with production due to commence in November.

Also in news – Felicity Jones joins cast of George Clooney’s ‘Midnight’

Considered by many to be the greatest film ever made, ‘Citizen Kane’ examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a character...

Credit where credit’s due: The Loudest Voice, Showtime’s seven-part miniseries about the rise and fall of Fox News chairman/alleged chronic sexual harasser Roger Ailes, is dedicated to living up to its name. From the moment that Russell Crowe’s jowly, handsy version of the political consultant-turned-conservative kingmaker shows up in a diner, predicting how his epitaph will read — “right-wing, paranoid, fat” — you have the distinct feeling you are being yelled at. And not just by the Oscar-winning actor, though he does unleash hell via a variety of high-volume bellows,...

Mirovision’s new global contents division also selling O Muel’s upcoming drama ’Pamir’.

Studio Bonanza, the global contents arm of Korean sales agent Mirovision, has picked up international rights to Lent, the first horror film from Filipino filmmaker Erik Matti.

Produced by Manila-based Reality Entertainment, the film follows a college student who rushes back to the family home when he learns that his twin sister has died. But when he finds himself being violently haunted, he starts to investigate the true nature of his sister’s death.

Matti is well known internationally for On The Job (2013), which premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight,...

October marks the one-year anniversary from #MeToo going viral on social media, and “Saturday Night Live” checked in on the movement through its recurring “Film Panel” sketch, this time featuring guest host Awkwafina as Sandra Oh and of course Kate McKinnon as the “legend” Debette Goldry.

When Aidy Bryant, who played the moderator of the panel, asked what still had to change in Hollywood, answers ranged from the serious to the expectedly absurd.

Goldry took accusations a step farther when describing the parties “at a house in Palm Springs [where] some girl takes a nap in the pool.”

“Then they’re all, ‘Please, baby, just touch the knife, I’ll but you a sweater, be a pal.'”

When Awkwafina’s Oh said she had never experienced anything like that, McKinnon’s Goldry took it as a sign of progress.

Awkwafina as Oh also commented on how the conversation around #MeToo...

“Hey, did you see that new documentary? The one about that great performer who died really young? And the other one about the musician/actor/comedian who was tragically taken too soon from us? Yeah, it was really sad — you think these talented people have these amazing lives, but I guess some artists are just really tormented by their demons.”

If you overheard someone saying the above, what movies would you guess they were talking about? Would they be 2015’s one-two punch of Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, about...

“It’s impossible to really tell the story of somebody’s life, and the most we can hope to convey here is a very abstract ‘Rosebud,’” David Lynch writes near the very end of Room To Dream, marveling at the failure of the preceding 500 pages to truly capture him. This is the inevitable upshot of all biographies, of…

Read more...

A boldly unconventional woman gets a crushingly conventional biopic with “Lou Andreas-Salomé, The Audacity to Be Free.” Such a heavy-handed title fits the film perfectly, far more than the original English-language handle, “In Love With Lou,” which confusingly made the movie sound like a sitcom. In her feature debut, director and co-writer Cordula Kablitz-Post clearly decided that Andreas-Salomé, famed author, philosopher and psychoanalyst, needed to be treated not just with kid gloves, but with pristine laminated mitts, robbing her subject of humor, let alone the charm that bewitched the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke and Sigmund Freud. This one’s strictly for audiences who love historical name-dropping; German box office following its June 2016 opening was negligible.

Kablitz-Post set herself the admirable task of rescuing Andreas-Salomé from being relegated to the role of muse, recognizing that her name is more often featured as an adjunct to famous men rather...

Talking with Tiff CEO Piers Handling, Huppert discussed her career, which includes over 100 film credits.

Isabelle Huppert is in focus at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival (Tiff), with the French actress starring in three films in this year’s programme: Elle, Souvenir and Things To Come.

Speaking to festival director and CEO Piers Handling in a masterclass on Saturday (Sept 10), Huppert – whose resume includes over 100 films, television and theatre productions, peppered with a bevy of awards recognition including 15 Cesar nominations – spoke candidly about the highs and lows of her career.

Michael Haneke, Michael Cimino, Claude Chabrol and Claire Denis were among the list of directors she gave credit for helping her to grow as an actress. French New Wave director Chabrol, she said, gave her little direction, in turn granting her almost complete artistic license.

“Working with a director is like building a strong friendship. There is desire, there is love – and for me, reality and truthfulness...

Exclusive: Les Films du Losange secures key deals; Matthieu Kassovitz joins cast also featuring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert.

Paris-based Les Films du Losange has unveiled pre-sales on Michael Haneke’s next film Happy End as the first day of shooting begins in the northern French region of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais today.

Few details on the production have been revealed publicly bar that the film will revolve around a well-off French family living in a bourgeois bubble in northern France, oblivious to the human misery unfolding in migrant camps around the port town of Calais, a few miles from their home.

As previously reported by one French media outlet, Matthieu Kassovitz has recently joined the cast which also features the previously announced Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert as well as a host of younger new faces.

A number of distributors who released Haneke’s 2013 Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning Amour – which made $34m at global box office — have...

Exclusive: Les Films du Losange secures deals; Matthieu Kassovitz joins cast also featuring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert.

Paris-based Les Films du Losange has unveiled pre-sales on Michael Haneke’s next film Happy End as the first day of shooting begins in the northern French region of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais today.

Few details on the production have been revealed publicly bar that the film will revolve around a well-off French family living in a bourgeois bubble in northern France, oblivious to the human misery unfolding in migrant camps around the port town of Calais, a few miles from their home.

As previously reported by one French media outlet, Matthieu Kassovitz has recently joined the cast which also features the previously announced Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert as well as a host of younger new faces.

A number of distributors who released Haneke’s 2013 Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning Amour – which made $34m at global box office — have signed...

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In Dimitri Kirsanoff's Menilmontant a destitute waif, betrayed and abandoned by the man who seduced her, sits on a park bench with her newborn infant. Beside her is an old man eating a sandwich. This wordless exchange is one of the greatest moments ever committed to film. Nadia Sibirskaia’s face reveals all of life’s cruel mysteries as she gazes upon a crust of bread.

The persistence of hope is the dark angel that underlies despair, and here it taunts her mercilessly. A whole series of fluctuations of expression and movement in reaction to anguish, physical pain involving hesitation, dignity, ravenous hunger, survival, self-contempt, modesty, boundless gratitude. All articulated with absolute clarity without hitting notes (without touching the keys). Chaplin could have played either the old man on the bench (his mustache is a sensory device!) or Nadia. And it would have been masterful and deeply affecting,...

The new horror anthology "The ABCs of Death" wants to give gorehounds what they want in alphabetical order by representing each of their 26 segments with a letter. That's fine with us, since we always have plenty of death scenes organized with the Dewey Decimal System, and here are 15 of the most memorable, bloody, and enjoyable ones in the bunch.

Oh yeah, um, spoilers.

Taketoki Washizu in 'Throne of Blood' (1957)

'A' is for 'Arrows'

In one of Akira Kurosawa's many samurai epics with star/badass supreme Toshiro Mifune, the two of them created the kind of arrow-related death that "Lord of the Rings" elf Legolas must dream about at night. By the time this Macbeth stand-in is done for he's got more wood in him than Jenna Jameson and resembles a stoned porcupine. Sayonara, sucker!

High Treason

Throne of Blood at Movieclips.com Jaws in 'Jaws'...

Hey everybody. Michael C here fresh from seeing one of the legends of the cinema sing and dance his way through his life story.

At one point during Chaplin, The Musical which opens tonight on Broadway, a troop of Little Tramps march on stage to perform a chorus line version of the classic dinner roll dance from Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. It was at this point that I began to suspect that the show had not quite licked the problem of how to adapt the life and times of the silent film genius to the Great White Way.

Trying to cram anybody’s life into a coherent story structure is always going to be a daunting task. Chaplin, The Musical attempts to compensate for the familiarity of their approach with heaping helpings of Broadway razzle-dazzle. And while there is an undeniable thrill to watching performers executing in real time...

New York City saw the continuation of a steep decline under the mayorship of John Lindsay, who reigned over the city from 1966-1973. Teachers went on strike, riots were fought and mounds of garbage filled the city streets.

Turns out he had some sanitation problems in his personal life, too.

Florence Henderson, most famous for her run as Carol Brady on the campy TV classic, "The Brady Bunch," reveals in her new memoir that she had a one-night stand with the Mayor while they were both in Beverly Hills. Henderson was married to Ira Bernstein at the time.

"I was lonely. I knew it wasn't the right thing to do. So, what did I do? I did it," she writes in "Life Is Not A Stage," the NY Daily News reports. And, following a night's sleep at home, she found out the hard way about the City that Never Sleeps.

Cinema Retro reader Harvey Chartrand has a bone to pick with Cinema Retro's Dean Brierly regarding his cover story in our latest issue:

Dean Brierly has an obvious hate-on for Candy which is unwarranted. His critique is unbalanced and excessively negative. I do not consider Candy an “all-star fiasco” or one of the worst movies ever made. Far from it. If you want to see a bad movie, check out Otto Preminger’s Middle East “thriller” Rosebud with Peter O’Toole (who looks like a dying man in this picture). Sure, Candy isn’t as good as the book, but so what? Neither was Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, now acknowledged to be superior to the more faithful Stephen King-scripted TV-movie adaptation with Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay.

I do recall enjoying Candy as a cultural artifact of its era (and I saw it quite recently). It’s emblematic of the swinging sixties.

No sub-genre is so rife with mediocrity as the celebrity bio-pic. The plot structure is absurd: portray a star from their birth to their death while hitting every famous moment they’ve ever had, their childhood, their love life, and their art/sport/money making, oh, and do it all in 2 hours. Every life, reduced to 2 hours, looks the same. It’s not that you can’t make an interesting film about a popular figure (although I’ve never seen a great one), but you have to either pick a single defining moment in his life (Capote, Good Night and Good Luck), or just get weird with it (I’m Not There, Last Days). But honestly, Ray, Walk the Line, Amelia, Ali, Finding Neverland, or La Vie En Rose? They’re all the same movie.

And don’t try and tell me about the lead actor’s great performance. That...

Christian McKay has been teased about his uncanny resemblance to Orson Welles, a comparison he did not like. He wanted to be compared to Richard Burton. Still, when he found himself relegated to playing eunuchs in Shakespearean productions—"and that's several rungs lower than spear carriers," he says—followed by 18 months of unemployment, he reappraised the idea of Welles as a kind of alter ego. McKay performed the one-man show "Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles," by his pal Mark Jenkins, at the Edinburgh Festival and in London, Toronto, and New York. In Gotham, the actor was seen by Richard Linklater, who cast him as Welles in his film "Me and Orson Welles." McKay admits it's a meteoric career leap. Nevertheless, he acknowledges there's something to be said for being an unknown. "Audiences aren't going to say, 'There's so-and-so trying to be so-and-so,' " says the 36-year-old Lancashire, England,...

Families arriving at the multiplex for a little pre/post-turkey entertainment have two choices -- separate off into your respective age/gender demographics and indulge yourselves, or stick together in a tragic statement of family unity and purchase seven tickets for "Old Dogs." The choice, it is yours.

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A selection at Cannes 2008 and this year's Swiss Oscar hopeful, the sophomore feature from Ursula Meier centers on a middle class couple (Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Gourmet) that enjoys bringing up their children away from urban life in the French countryside. However, the construction of a highway near their home leads to a divide between the two on what's best for their family as the pollution from the cars and the incessant noise begins to drive them a little mad.

Opens in New York; opens in Los Angeles on December 18th.

Life is political. Hollywood is political. And yesterday in the U.S., the state elections were very political in the broad sense of the term, since many pundits kept arguing that they served as a referendum on President Obama and his policies.

We make no such claims. We're not here to talk U.S. politics specifically, but with all this political fever in play, what better time than to reflect back on what we believe are the ten best movies about American politics?

There are some terrific contenders here; not surprisingly some from decades gone by. But in most, the themes of power and corruption going hand-in-hand is front and center. It's material that's inherently rife with conflict, making for some of the best drama to be found anywhere.

So have a look at the following pages and our selections for the best movies about American politics. And when you're finished,...

Back in 1986, Starlog found Big Trouble on the set of Little China.

Not long ago an “underground movie” was what you called something shot quietly for a $1.98, shown accidentally in a theater everyone thought had shut down years ago, and then raved about by a critic who usually hates these unheard-of little films.

Now, an underground movie is something else entirely—films like Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, The Goonies, A View To A Kill, Young Sherlock Holmes, Return To Oz and the Invaders From Mars remake are all big-budget fantasy flicks set in elaborate subterranean worlds beneath our biggest cities and smallest towns. Now “going underground” means production design gone wild.

It also means that Big Trouble In Little China, a $25 million investment for 20th Century Fox (and just out on Blu-ray this week), isn’t nearly as unique as it might have been years ago. It means that the film,...

Kim Cattrall almost quit acting before she hit the big time after a cruel director made her cry by telling her her she needed to lose weight.

The Sex And The City star was cast in 1975 movie Rosebud when she was just 20 years old, but her joy was wrecked by movie mogul Otto Preminger, who told her she needed to lose 14 pounds (6.35 kilograms) for the part.

Cattrall says, "I have never been overweight a day in my life. He scared the hell out of me... I can look back and laugh. I'm still the same weight I was."

But she's still grateful to Preminger for giving her her big break: "I was waitressing at night and barely making enough to eat anything."...