News

Hmmm, just a few more days until the last Summer holiday, so there’s still time for a vacation, or at least a vicarious one with a very funny duo. Here’s their third cinematic excursion together, so let’s just go ahead and call it a movie franchise. And a most welcome, entertaining one at that. As long as there are countries that cook, it could go on for a long, long time (if we’re lucky). Under the pretense of a newspaper writing assignment we first got to accompany Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as they traveled their native Britain, dashing from one splendid restaurant, while enjoying very plush accommodations at first class inns and hotels, in 2011’s The Trip. The two played heightened versions of themselves (much like Larry David in HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the celeb guests on the much-missed “The Larry Saunders Show...

We're still coming down from the high that is the long Fourth of July weekend, and some of your favorite celebrities celebrated America in style! From beach getaways to family barbecues, Hollywood showed off its patriotism in fun and and creative ways. While Christina Aguilera hung out by the water, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard rocked matching onesies. Keep reading to see how all of your favorite stars spent the Summer holiday. Related38 Sexy Swimsuit Moments Guaranteed to Make Your Summer Even Hotter...

Den Of Geek Aug 9, 2016

With a budget of £5 at their local pound shop, we set three of our writers the challenge of building a Dalek. Did they manage it? Er…

Channelling the spirit of summer school holiday classic Why Don’t You?, Den Of Geek decided its writers should just switch off their television sets and go out and do something less boring instead. That thing would be to construct a home-made Dalek to the best of their abilities, using a budget of £5* and items purchased at their local pound shop.

Here’s what happened.

*We were allowed to go up to £7 if required. Anyone that chose to go up to £7 definitely did not cheat - Lm

Entry 1: Carley Tauchert-Hutchins - Freelance Contributor/Dawson's Creek Fan

Can you build a Dalek for £5 using just items from your local poundshop? It wasn’t a question I was ever expecting to...

hostess vibes. Happy 4th everyone! A video posted by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Jul 4, 2016 at 8:26pm Pdt Selena Gomez wasn't in attendance at her Bff Taylor Swift's annual Fourth of July bash this year, probably due to the fact that she was hosting her own party to celebrate the Summer holiday. On Monday, Selena shared an Instagram video showing herself in short shorts and a sports bra while walking through a house full of guests and jumping backwards into a pool. A Snapchat clip also showed the singer and her friends belting out Katy Perry's "Firework" while lighting sparklers. Selena, who is in the middle of her Revival tour, likely opted out of Taylor's party in Rhode Island due to her busy traveling schedule. See how more stars celebrated the Fourth of July!

Vanessa Williams tied the knot in a stunning July 4 ceremony, and now the world is finally getting a peek at her wedding video. The actress, who married Jim Skrip in Buffalo, NY, on the Summer holiday, stunned during her Egyptian-themed ceremony and reception. In the video, Vanessa is seen getting ready before walking down the aisle toward Jim. The priest's emotional speech can also be heard as more footage of the pair's big day is played. Vanessa announced her engagement during an appearance on The Queen Latifah Show in September 2014, about two years after she and Jim started dating. Keep reading to watch the video and see stunning photos of her 14-carat gold-plated extravagant invites by Adorn.

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

No more working for a week or two; fun and laughter on our – – c’mon everyone! Join in! No? Okay, so maybe you need a bit of inspiration, get you into the summery mood. Yeah, I prefer winter, but taking a break from things can be good for you. Yesterday, we looked at how...

The post We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday: 12 Times the Doctor Took a Break – Part Two appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

A large part of Doctor Who is the enthusiasm and enjoyment of life. The Doctor strives to explore as much as he can, and find the most amazing things in every dark corner of the universe. There’s a joyfulness and optimism running through many serials throughout the show’s (near) 52-year history. But facing up against...

The post We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday: 12 Times the Doctor Took a Break – Part One appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

One Floor Below

Director: Radu Muntean // Writers: Radu Muntean, Rãzvan Rãdulescu, Alexandru Baciu.

With his four previous features, this Romanian director was flying under the shadow of some of the more notable New Romanian Wave names until the premiere of his last title, 2010’s Tuesday, After Christmas, (we interviewed him here) unveiled in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. While it went home empty handed, its slow international roll out snagged Muntean an increased reputation, eclipsing the solid reception of previous titles like Summer Holiday (2008), The Paper Will Be Blue (2006) and Furia (2002). His latest, One Floor Below, stars Teodor Corban (from 12:08 East of Bucharest) and concerns a middle-aged man who is the sole witness to a domestic quarrel that ends in murder.

Cast: Teodor Corban, Iulian Postelnicu

Producers: Multimedia East’s Dragos Valcu (Tuesday, After Christmas), Les Films de l’Apres-midi’s Francois D’Artemare (Children of Sarajevo), Beck Film...

Seventeen-year-old Isabelle (Marine Vacth) is deflowered during her family's Summer holiday in the south of France, and by the time Autumn rolls around she has taken up a career as a prostitute. With an online profile that lists her age as 20, the underage call girl quickly builds a client base of wealthy old men. Unafraid to meet these strange men in hotel rooms, Isabelle does not seem to comprehend the inherent risks of her career. All the while, Isabelle's mother (Géraldine Pailhas) and step-father (Frédéric Pierrot) are utterly clueless about her secret life. Writer-director François Ozon's Young & Beautiful intimately observes Isabelle during the four seasons of the seventeenth year of her life, separating each season into a distinct chapter featuring a song by Françoise Hardy -- "The Love Of A Boy," "When Even Try?," "First Encounter," and "I Am Me." Ozon focuses the eerily nonchalant attitude of a modern teenager,...

The Bradford International Film Festival is typically an underground-friendly fest. This year appears to be no exception with two very special experimental film retrospectives, as well as a few modern underground-type flicks.

The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.

Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.

From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...

Currently broadcasting its Fifth Series, I can’t help but wonder what the shelf-life of Jersey’s Shore British remake, Geordie Shore. Although it has only been on the air less than two years, reality shows often burn bright and fast, especially those which are spin-offs/adaptations of others.

Although I’ve watched Geordie Shore from the beginning I’m only really continuing to invest in it to make the transition to post-Jersey Shore life more bearable. However, I’m finding, more and more, Geordie Shore is providing very little solace. The remake is, sadly, unable to match the success of its predecessor and although it continues to be a ratings hit for MTV UK, there are several aspects of the show’s premise which really annoy me, even though I enjoy it for the most part.

5. Jersey Shore is a Summer Holiday

Jersey Shore, both the show and the location,...

Join us lurking in the gloom as we seek out the best film scenes involving shadows – from the sinister to the comforting

This week's clip joint is by MisterIks. Think you can do better? Email your idea for a future Clip joint to adam.boult@guardian.co.uk

From the claustrophobic dread of gothic silents to the psychological shadows scattered through more modern cinema, shadows have been cast on walls, haunted the past, concealed what we may not want to see or allowed somebody (or something) to emerge into view.

The use of shadows to enrich the a film's atmosphere or narrative has been with us since the earliest cinema. For this Clip joint, I would like your favourite scenes involving shadows. My chosen scenes tend towards the horror genre, so it would to great to also see some clips where shadows offer lighter entertainment, or where shade brings respite...

Dr Seuss' The Lorax (U)

(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.

Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.

Searching For Sugar Man (12A)

(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.

An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...

Swedish hard-core punk band play two sold-out shows at Terminal 5 following 14-year hiatus.

By Brian Phares

Dennis Lyxzen of The Refused

Photo: FilmMagic

New York — On Monday night, Swedish hard-core punk band Refused played the second of two back-to-back NYC shows at Terminal 5 to a sold-out crowd of rabid, die-hard fans. This marks the first time Refused have played on the East Coast since their final outing in a crowded Virginia basement in 1998. It would seem that for Refused, absence indeed did make the heart grow fonder.

Since reuniting for the first time in 14 years to play in front of thousands at the Coachella music festival this year, the band has been seeing more success than they ever had in their heyday. The band was even set to make their television debut on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" immediately following Monday's set but postponed the show due to unforeseen circumstances.

Reviewer: James van Maanen

Rating (out of five): **** 1/2

The Romanian hits just keep on coming. One of the latest to garner theatrical release here in the USA (and now on DVD) is Tuesday, After Christmas (Marti, dupa craciun) from Radu Muntean, the man who gave us Boogie (Summer Holiday) back in 2008. His new one is one of the leanest (only 99 minutes), most realistic-yet-refined, and utterly poised probings of the dissolution of a marriage that I've yet seen. Easily holding your attention from moment to moment, the movie still sneaks up on you. Only at the end -- maybe quite awhile afterward -- will you fully realize what an accomplishment is this graceful, sad, caring-but-unsentimental film.

Summer holiday success for The Inbetweeners Movie confirms that 2011 is the year of comedies and British films – One Day possibly not included

The winner

When The Inbetweeners Movie opened in the UK with a five-day tally of £13.22m, there was ample proof that the show's avid TV audience had a healthy and impatient desire to see the big-screen version. But would the film prove a quick burn at the box-office, once the core fanbase had been served? The answer is a resounding no. The past eight days have seen the comedy add another £14.5m, for a 13-day total of £27.72m. (Our chart below excludes takings on bank holiday Monday.)

The film is the fastest-grossing live action comedy in box-office history. The Hangover: Part II stood at £21.01m after two weekends of play, and Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason had reached £20.69m. Hancock was at £16.76m at this stage of its run,...

Gavin Rossdale brought his sons, Kingston and Zuma, to the grand reopening of The Malibu Inn last night. The Stefani-Rossdales have a special link to the seaside town - Zuma is named for one of its most popular beaches! Gavin carried his youngest as Kingston followed close by, and once inside, the hot dad took the stage solo to perform a few songs. The guys' night out followed some family fun with Gwen Stefani earlier this week, when the foursome stepped out for lunch together. The proud parents have been spending the first days of Summer close to home, although Gavin taped a guest role on Burn Notice just a few weeks ago in Miami. The weather in La is due to heat up for the Fourth of July weekend, so perhaps the Stefani-Rossdales will hit the beach in honor of the Summer holiday. View Slideshow ›...

"Romanian films set in the era after the fall of Communism suggest the nation suffers a hell of a hangover from the ideology," writes Steve Erickson in Gay City News. "For instance, Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective attacks draconian drug laws left over from the old regime. Tuesday, After Christmas presents a very different vision of Romania. Its characters can afford to buy expensive Christmas gifts; one of them picks up a 3,300 Euro telescope. It may not be entirely accurate to call the film apolitical, but the most political thing about it is its avoidance of Eastern European miserabilism and its depiction of people who could be living much the same lifestyles in Western Europe."

Damon Smith introduces an interview with director Radu Muntean for Filmmaker: "Tuesday, After Christmas, which premiered at Cannes last year, opens on a dreamy scene: sunlight bathes a naked couple, middle-aged Paul (Mimi Branescu) and pretty,...

Too often in the movies, affairs are either blithely romanticized in the grand European tradition of middlebrow “passion” films (The French Lieutenant’s Woman comes to mind) or used as a teaching tool to bludgeon audiences into accepting a damning moral perspective on the consequences of extramarital activity. (See Little Children, for instance.) Life has its own current, though, and the nature of relationships sometimes follows a pattern that is chaotic and irrational, messy and perturbing, where the boundaries between love and naked contempt (ah, Godard!) are no longer discernible. Movies from Voyage to Italy all the way down to Maren Ade’s Everyone Else have portrayed intra-relationship dynamics with emotional honesty and astute insight, leaving us with memorable impressions of love in a state of deterioration, or foundering on the shoals of time. In his fourth feature film, Romanian filmmaker Radu Muntean (Boogie, The Paper Will Be Blue) again...

Rare artefacts, replicas and costumes from past and present sci-fi and superhero movies will be on display in a new exhibition.

Running from tomorrow (February 19) until September 4, Sci-Fi at the Movies will showcase some of the most popular and iconic superheroes and villains from films such as Star Wars, E.T., Harry Potter, Aliens, Batman, Spider-Man and Superman.

This exhibition, at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, south Warwickshire, will showcase these iconic characters complete with weaponry and costumes and offers an insight into film history and movie trivia.

All the items are on loan from the private collection of Skywalkers Promotions and would not normally be available for public view.

Visitors will be able to wander through six different zones. The Creature Zone will display creatures from the friendly E.T. to the rebellious Gremlins. Replicas of the famous crew uniforms will be displayed in the Star Trek Zone.

Slapstick, Bristol

The country's top silent comedy festival has dug up so many cinematic artefacts over the past seven years, it's in danger of running out. That could explain why the remit has broadened to include Shaun The Sheep (he is a local creation at least, and there's an animation workshop next Sat) and Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein – accompanied by Tim Brooke-Taylor reminiscing on Marty Feldman, his one-time comic partner and a man whose eyeballs were funnier than most people's whole bodies. You'll still get good old-time hilarity, including Friday's gala at Colston Hall with Bill Oddie, Paul McGann and Neil Innes, Italian and Russian silents and lots of Chaplin.

Watershed, Thu to 30 Jan

Waves, Storms And Horizons: Cinema Romania Now, Belfast

It's not exactly breaking news that Romania is putting out some remarkable films, but since 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2007, it's...

"If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, Romania's official submission for the best foreign-language film Oscar, is a study in confinement," writes Ao Scott in the New York Times. "Like many other recent Romanian films — Cristi Puiu's Stuff and Dough, Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days or Radu Muntean's Boogie — it trails after a young protagonist whose choices are drastically limited and not very promising. Silviu, an 18-year-old inmate at a juvenile prison in a drab rural area, is a few weeks from the end of a four-year sentence, but the idea that his release will bring any kind of freedom seems like a delusion or a cruel joke."...

2010 has been another good year for Romanian cinema. Lots of awards and many new young directors that confirmed films like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu or Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective weren't accidents. As some people call it, the "Romanian New Wave", continued to gain the world’s attention at film festivals through 2010, featuring new filmmakers that have just made their first feature film. Florin Şerban’s If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, Bogdan George Apetri’s Periferic or Marian Crişan’s Morgen are among the highlights of the year. For the next year, there are many films waiting an international film festival and domestic release: Adrian Sitaru’s second feature From Love, with Best Intentions (Din dragoste, cu cele mai bune intenții), Virgil Nicolaescu’s The Godmother (Nașa), Alexandru Maftei’s Hello! How are you? (Bună! Ce faci?), Cătălin Mitulescu’s second feature Loverboy, another...

Sunday, December 5th concludes the 5th annual Romanian Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. This year hosts The Romanian Cultural Institute and curator Mihai Chirilov added the moniker “A New Beginning,” in appreciation of the recent success of what has been dubbed the “Romanian New Wave.” This year, Cristi Puiu, arguably the one who started it all with his 2006 debut The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, returns with his second feature Aurora. The three-hour long film premiered earlier this year at the New York Film Festival to resoundingly positive reviews. Also returning from Nyff are Radu Montean’s Tuesday, After Christmas (opening May 25 at Film Forum) and Andrei Ujica’s The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, which opened the festival. All three were standouts this past May on the Croisette. Bobby Paunescu, producer of “Aurora” and “Lazarescu”, screens his directorial debut Francesca. Rounding out the “Romanian New Wave” roster of attendees is Razvan Radulescu,...

Three films, three very distinctly different visions, the New African Cinema strand at London Film Festival comprised short films from the Africa First development program run annually by Focus Features, and which we’ve mentioned several times here on S&A.

Collectively, and to varying degrees, these films go a great way to address the call for more varied and diverse images of Africa that we often ask for on this site and which many of our readers seek. I’d recommend seeing them all if you get the chance, whether individually or as a package, as they offer the familiar with a soupcon of the surreal and, if Focus Features continues to provide opportunities for these filmmakers, or indeed, if the filmmakers capitalize on the opportunity they’ve been given to showcase their talent, then their efforts bode well for the future of African cinema.

The Tunnel (Writer/Director – Jenna Bass,...

On the eve of it's North American Nyff premiere, Lorber Films have scooped up the rights to Tuesday, After Christmas, and are setting it up with a May release (at the Film Forum). For those who might be wondering why the portrait is showing in May, and say, not December, is because the Cannes-selected film isn't a holiday-themed picture but instead, a marriage drama. Directed by Radu Muntean, the film contains some impressive performances from actresses Mirela Oprisor and Maria Popistasu and I personally thought was a several grades better than Muntean's previous picture Boogie. In my review I mentioned that "Muntean refrains from taking a moral stance and is more curious about what a cerebral, adulterous behaviour looks and feels like, it is in the poignant announcement sequence that is the cherry of the film -- we are treated to a long take that culminates in years of one's...

Romanian cinema at 58th San Sebastian Festival will be represented by Principles of Life (Principii de viață). Constantin Popescu's sophomore feature has been selected to compete in the Zabaltegi-New Directors Section. The film examines the rapport between father and son, and in a nutshell is about the generation gaps and the inability to communicate. Emilian Velicanu, 43, considers his life positively full: he has money, a new villa, he is married for the second time to a young woman with whom he has a baby and has a son from his first marriage. Before the holidays arrive, he makes plans to leave his business on autopilot during his time off, but complications ensue, and this end of the day crisis makes him wonder if he's really happy and fulfilled. The screenplay for Principles of Life has had a story of its own. It failed to win at a previous edition...

Our friends at Upbeat have created this eight minute video with details of what movies are coming out over the 2010 Summer Holiday season. The show, called “Cinema Scoop” and presented by Kylie Olsson, has been commissioned by the Film Distributors Association in which we get to see an 8 min round-up looking at all the movies that are coming out in the UK this summer. Some are already in the cinema and some are coming shortly.

Cinema Scoop looks at Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson), Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Knight and Day (starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Nicolas Cage), Grown Ups (Adam Sandler), Salt (Angelina Jolie), Going the Distance (Drew Barrymore), The Karate Kid (Jaden Smith & Jackie Chan), The A-Team (Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley), Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender (Directed by M. Night Shyamalan), Step Up 3d,...

Video of the day. First Full Trailer for David Fincher's "The Social Network"

Video of the day. New Film by Kenneth Anger

Image of the day. Marilyn Monroe

Miriam Bale

The Game

David Cairns

The Forgotten: The Filth

The Forgotten: Lady Killer

The Forgotten: Dance of Death

The Forgotten: One Way Street

The Forgotten: Swift Boat Veterans

Doug Cummings

The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival Shifts Direction

Adrian Curry

Movie Poster of the Week: "Independence Day"

Movie Poster of the Week: The Movie Posters of Norman Rockwell

Movie Poster of the Week: "Life During Wartime"

Movie Poster of the Week: "Betty Blue"

Movie Poster of the Week: "Summer Holiday"

Doug Dibbern

Jimmy Stewart: Angel of Death

Philippe Garrel

Quote of the day

Leo Goldsmith

Robert Flaherty Seminar 2010, Part 2: Work Forces

S. Hahn

Telling Pictures

Darren Hughes

The Details: "Les rendez-vous d'Anna" (Akerman, 1978)

Daniel Kasman

Image of the Day.

Family Friendly Film Festival, Manchester

Summer holiday's sorted for Manchester parents for the next fortnight. And you don't even need to feel guilty about plonking the kids in front of a screen with some popcorn. There are previews, like the Nic Cage-starring Sorcerer's Apprentice, and free outdoor screenings at Spinningfields (Up, Spirited Away, Jurassic Park, Madagascar), but more brain-fuelling and calorie-burning are the themed days and tie-ins with local museums. See films like Fantastic Mr Fox and The Princess And The Frog in fancy dress (the kids, not the parents); take in aquatic movies like Ponyo or The Little Mermaid, plus themed activities, at the Bolton Aquarium; have an arty Mad Hatter's tea party at the Whitworth Art Gallery … you get the picture. And you get the parental brownie points.

Various venues, Fri to 15 Aug, visit familyfriendlyfilmfestival.org.uk

Film4 Summer Screen, London

It's a joy to watch any...

Above: Mimi Branescu (left) in Tuesday, After Christmas.

Eyes crammed with images, ears filled to the brim with sound, and the brain jet-lagged, over-tired, over-joyed, and over-wearied—instant festival criticism is a talent of the rare stalwart few. This year I'm thinking of a different approach, leaving to the inexhaustible and comprehensive David Hudson the brilliant but unenviable task of up to the minute roundups of all from that Croisette that's fit to print (on your screen). Centering our on the ground coverage of the festival will take the form primarily of my favorite moment missives—the festival being such a sloppy, overwhelming explosion of cinema that anything but short impressions of memory seems imprecise and over-eager. So stay tuned til after the fest for a more indepth rundown. But for now, cine-critique fired from the hip!

***

On Tour (Mathieu Amalric, France): Behind the Looking Glass

The first film I caught at the festival,...

Former Hear'Say star Suzanne Shaw has been cast in ITV soap Emmerdale. The ex-pop singer, who has established a successful theatre career in recent years, is to play Edna Birch's (Shirley Stelfox) "feisty and flirtatious" granddaughter Eve on the long-running programme. Shaw first found fame by appearing on ITV1 reality competition Popstars in 2001. The show saw her winning a place in the band Hear'Say, who remained active for nearly two years. More recently, the 28-year-old has triumphed on Dancing On Ice and starred in a number of West End musicals, including Chicago, Summer Holiday, The Rocky Horror Show and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Speaking of her new role, Shaw commented: "I am so excited to be joining the cast of such a popular and long-standing (more)...

“Hey, let’s go! Hey, let’s go! I’m happy as can be…“

Welcome to the wonderful world of Hayao Miyazaki, world-renowned Japanese Animation Director and creator of award-winning animated films such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro), undoubtedly has brought Miyazaki well-deserved global recognition and international acclaim. It truly is one of those films that adults and children alike, can, will and do fall in love with year after year after year. The essence of childhood, the freedom to express it and it’s uninhibited lust for adventure, are quintessential characteristics which have contributed to the success of it’s broader appeal here. There is no doubt that this story has fast become a a classic amongst children, and Totoro himself an iconic figure to so many.

Immediately, we’re introduced to the Kusakabe family. Little Mei and her older sister Satsuki,...

House (Hausu)

DVD, Eureka

To get a good idea of just how unhinged and bizarre this lost 1977 classic is, one only needs to look at the DVD's chapter headings. They start off quite innocently - "Summer Holiday", "Journey", "Supper" - but for the closing quarters of the film they are reduced to: "Not Good", "Blimey", "Indescribable" and "...!!!". When you watch the film you'll see these descriptions are perfectly accurate. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi managed to convince producers that his debut movie would be as entertaining as Jaws, hence the vogueish one-word title. Instead of a shark, though, he relied on suggestions from his 13-year-old daughter as to what would supply the scares. Her list included a piano that bites fingers off and a severed head dropped down a well. He did the right thing listening to her. The story concerns a group of schoolgirls with names that sum up their character traits – Prof,...

At the beginning of every month, Ioncinema.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that we feel are worth signaling out and that are moments away from lensing. As we get closer to holiday dates productions tend to drop, so this November we are keeping tabs on only a handful of projects. - At the beginning of every month, Ioncinema.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that we feel are worth signaling out and that are moments away from lensing. As we get closer to holiday dates productions tend to drop, so this November we are keeping tabs on only a handful of projects. Mike Mills is finally getting to work on his sophomore feature which would see Ewan McGregor play a young man rocked by two announcements from his elderly father (Christopher Plummer)…one, that he has terminal cancer, and two, that he...

There may not be a whole lot of action in this, the first clip from First of All, Felicia ("Felicia inainte de toate"), but it’s an amazingly effective three minutes which boil the film to a fine point.

Co-written and directed by noted Romanian “new wave” screenwriter Razvan Radulescu (the man behind the pen for The Death of Mister Lazarescu and Summer Holiday) and Dutch new comer Melissa de Raaf, First of All, Felicia is the intimate story of a woman and her mother spending the afternoon together at an airport, an afternoon that is bound to end in tears.

Forty year old Felicia lives with her son in Amsterdam. While he is away at summer school, Felicia takes the opportunity to visit her parents and sister in Romania. On the day of her flight home after a two week stay, her sister Iulia can’t take her to...

With a new film from Sally Potter arriving online and John Boorman and Peter Greenaway's latest work exclusively hitting DVD shelves, enjoying a night at the movies no longer necessarily means at your local theater (though we've got the lowdown of what's playing there as well). From August to October, one doesn't need to move from the couch to see a Val Kilmer double bill, a James Franco-Sienna Miller romantic comedy and the last performance from the late, great Natasha Richardson, not to mention Robert Pattinson and Jet Li imports and a host of foreign films and documentaries well worth your time on demand, online and on DVD.

More Fall Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]

[Repertory Calendar] [Breakout Performances]

On Demand The slow days of summer may be drawing to an end, but our sister company IFC Films is already ramping up for the fall with a slate heading straight from the festivals to the...

• Radu Muntean's Cannes entry Boogie, saw popular Romanian actor Dragos Bucur take on the role of the husband who after a a quarrel with the wife, hooks up with some old buddies and loses focus for an evening. Variety reports that Muntean's next feature will touch upon similar themes of guilt and “choices”. Scripted by Muntean, Alexandru Baciu and Razvan Radulescu, Tuesday, After Christmas will start shooting in November (they probably need some snow). Set one week before Christmas, "Tuesday" focuses on marital crisis -- that of Paul and Adriana, who've been married for 10 years and have an 8-year-old daughter. Paul decides to leave his wife for his mistress. He informs his wife, who gives him until the Tuesday after Christmas to tell his daughter.. Currently, Bucur is working on Peter Weir's The Way Back, but by all logic should take the lead role....

...

Chicago – The final week of the 12th Annual EU Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center perfectly illustrates the main strength of this festival - amazing diversity. From what we had time to see of the final stretch of films, the four highlights couldn’t be more diverse, featuring movies from four different countries with four completely different tones and styles.

The highlights of the first three weeks of EU included a coming-of-age drama from Ireland (“Kisses”), a sexy romantic comedy from France (“The Girl From Monaco”), an amazing Danish drama (“Worlds Apart”), and a very interesting horror film from Belgium (“Left Bank”). Read more here, here, and here)

The final week takes us back to two of those countries - Belgium and France - and also features a fascinating Finnish shocker before closing with a gentle and sweet film from Sweden. Overall, it’s been a fantastic festival for...

Actor Jake Abel has been dubbed a rising star, but he knows when to be humble — like, for example, when he meets Frances McDormand later this week at the 16th annual Hamptons International Film Festival, which opens today on the eastern end of New York's Long Island."McDormand's been in the business a lot longer than me, and she knows a lot more than I do," says Abel. "Whatever it is they have us doing with her, it's a shut-your-mouth-and-listen-to-the-master-speak situation."Abel, a 21-year-old actor from Ohio, is one of three American actors who are part of the festival's Rising Stars program, designed to draw attention to actors on the brink of success. He has featured roles in Flash of Genius, which will be shown at the festival, and the upcoming Lovely Bones, starring Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz and directed by Peter Jackson. Other Rising Stars are Taylor Kitsch...

The 4th CentEast Market Warsaw, organized by the Warsaw Film Foundation October 15-19, 2008, is an event for film professionals involved and/or interested in films from Eastern Europe, held during the Warsaw Film Festival. Producers, sales agents, distributors, TV buyers, festival programmers, and representatives of film funds and institutions meet every year in Warsaw and attend: – screenings of completed films – screenings of works-in-progress – panel discussions – workshops.

The main theme of this year’s CentEast will be international distribution and sales of Eastern European films. The panel discussions will deal with the following subjects:

Oct. 17 – ‘Tricks’, the success story – with the team behind the Polish film, directed by Andrzej Jakimowski, which got numerous international awards and has been released theatrically in several countries;

Oct. 18 – The Sales of Eastern European Films – with the Europe’s leading sales agents;

Last year’s works-in-progress ‘Lejdis’ by Tomasz Konecki and ‘The Karamazov Brothers’ by Petr Zelenka (world premiere at Karlovy Vary 08) already opened theatrically, while ‘Boogie’ by Radu Muntean (world premiere at Cannes 08) will be presented at the Warsaw Film Festival.

Content of the market is by selection aiming for quality over quantity. By Eastern European is meant films from Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland.

Integrated in the CentEast Market Warsaw are the Warsaw Screenings, where professionals can watch selected new Polish films. Apart from the October dates, a summer edition of the Warsaw Screenings (June/July) is aimed at programmers of film festivals held in the autumn. This year , among others, the following films showed and were invited afterwards to the most important events: ‘33 Scenes From Life’ by Małgorzata Szumowska, ‘Four Nights With Anna’ by Jerzy Skolimowski, ‘Mr Kuka’s Advice’ by Dariusz Gajewski, ‘Scratch’ by Michał Rosa.

The full program of CentEast will be announced early October.

Contact: Katarzyna Nowicka, media department of WFF, tel: +48 605 289 794, e-mail: media@wff.pl Dorota Kwint...

London -- The European Film Academy unveiled the 44 movies on this year's long list for the upcoming European Film Awards, scheduled for Dec. 6 in Copenhagen.

The 44 titles come from 27 countries across the continent including four from the U.K.

Joe Wright's "Atonement," Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Steve McQueen's "Hunger" will all hope to make the nominations' list with titles such as Kornel Mundruczo's "Delta" from Hungary and Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" from Poland vying for a place.

In the 20 countries with the most Efa Members, members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.

To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa board members and invited experts have included 24 other titles.

Over the next few weeks, the 1,800 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories.

The nominations will then be announced Nov.

• Romanian director Radu Muntean talks with Variety about mixing business with family when he cast his four-year-old son, Vlad, in his third feature film, Boogie. • Variety's Todd McCarthy raves that Clint Eastwood's film Changeling is "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed." As if we had any doubt. • Anne Thompson reports that due to unstable economic circumstances, buyers are cautious at Cannes this year. Except for Transporter 3 starring...

• Canada's New kid on the block, is the brainchild of Robert Lantos.  Maximum Films has the Romanian film Boogie in the Director's Fortnight and Egoyan's latest in the comp. Here are three I'm looking forward to: the Ioncinema.com profiled Sophie Barthes and Cold Souls, the Sundance docu favorite Trouble the Water and of course the Egoyan film. Adoration by Atom Egoyan - Completed     American Trap (Piege Americain)  - Completed     Americaneast  by Hesham Issawi - Completed     Before The Rains  by Santosh Sivan - Completed     Boogie by Radu Muntean - Completed     Chicago 10  by Brett Morgan - Completed     Cold Souls  by Sophie Barthes - Post-Production     Fugitive Pieces  by Jeremy Podeswa - Completed     Otto; Or, Up With People  by Bruce Labruce - Completed     Real Time  by Randall Cole - Completed     The Guitar  by Amy Redford - Completed     The Waiting Room  by Roger Goldby - Completed     Trouble The Water  by Carl Deal,

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• Highlighted by the presence of Jim Jarmusch (who will be receiving a special award called the Carrosse d’Or), the 40th year of the Director's Fortnight doesn't look as strong on paper as the previous edition, but the quality of this year's fair will be better determined in ten days or so. Containing a good amount of French productions, the section offers many first time efforts from filmmakers who get to tell their children that they took part in an event that showcases auteur cinema from the greats. Here are five to look out for. Boogie (Radu Muntean) It seems that every year a Romanian film shows up at Cannes andt steals the thunder away from other eastern European producing countries. After her career-defining role in 4 months..., Anamaria Marinca next stars in Radu Muntean's portrait - think a coming-of-age film for a grown up male who hasn't got his yeah yeahs out.

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• Offering no shortage of world premieres from auteur filmmakers, the 40th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight contains exactly half of the films being produced or co-produced from the fest’s home turf, this year it will be a mostly French affair. Among the more popular names we find the festival opener slot (announced yesterday) belonging to the long-awaited return of Jerzy Skolimowski and his latest and we also find the likes of former folk who’ve contributed to the section in the past: Joachim Lafosse (Private Property) and Bertrand Bonello (Tiresia) and Claire Simon (Ça brûle). A common meeting place for auteur cinema, a special film was designed to recall the history of the section with testimonies from a who's who of favorite directors in Todd Haynes, Jacques Rozier, Costa Gavras, Michael Raeburn, Ken Loach, Alain Tanner, Carlos Diegues, Werner Herzog, Theo Angelopoulos, André Téchiné, Chantal Akerman, the Taviani brothers,

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