Chinese director Wang Bing found joy in latest film “Youth (Spring),” focusing on young textile workers. But as he continues to work on his trilogy, things might get a bit darker.
“Their age is one of the factors here: they are so young and it’s just a happy time in your life. You are experiencing so many things, for example romantic relationships. Their actions are not entirely controlled by rationality, which made for vivid footage,” he tells Variety ahead of traveling to IDFA, where he is this year’s Guest of Honor.
“But here’s the thing – this trilogy is not finished yet. I will finish the second and third part by 2024 and they are not the same [as the first]. Maybe when it is completed, it will feel completely different?”
Despite winning multiple awards over the years, including Locarno’s Golden Leopard for “Mrs. Fang,” making films hasn’t necessarily gotten easier,...
“Their age is one of the factors here: they are so young and it’s just a happy time in your life. You are experiencing so many things, for example romantic relationships. Their actions are not entirely controlled by rationality, which made for vivid footage,” he tells Variety ahead of traveling to IDFA, where he is this year’s Guest of Honor.
“But here’s the thing – this trilogy is not finished yet. I will finish the second and third part by 2024 and they are not the same [as the first]. Maybe when it is completed, it will feel completely different?”
Despite winning multiple awards over the years, including Locarno’s Golden Leopard for “Mrs. Fang,” making films hasn’t necessarily gotten easier,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Icarus Films has taken North American rights to Youth (Spring), the newest feature from Venice prizer winner Wang Bing, which earlier this year became one of the first documentaries admitted to Cannes’ main competition in decades. A release date has not yet been disclosed.
Soon to screen at both the New York Film Festival and TIFF, the doc shot over the course of five years is set in Zhili, China, 120 miles from Shanghai. In this city dedicated to textile manufacturing, young workers come from rural regions crossed by the Yangtze River. They are in their early 20s, sharing dormitories and snacking in the corridors. They work tirelessly to be able one day to raise a child, buy a house, or set up their own workshop. Friendships and romantic affairs are made and unmade according to the seasons, financial difficulties, and family pressures.
The film from House on Fire, Gladys Glover Films,...
Soon to screen at both the New York Film Festival and TIFF, the doc shot over the course of five years is set in Zhili, China, 120 miles from Shanghai. In this city dedicated to textile manufacturing, young workers come from rural regions crossed by the Yangtze River. They are in their early 20s, sharing dormitories and snacking in the corridors. They work tirelessly to be able one day to raise a child, buy a house, or set up their own workshop. Friendships and romantic affairs are made and unmade according to the seasons, financial difficulties, and family pressures.
The film from House on Fire, Gladys Glover Films,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
One of the two documentaries selected for the competition (this is more of a traditional docu whereas the other is considered a hybrid), Wang Bing comes to Cannes packing two films with competition selected Youth (Spring) being joined by the much shorter Man in Black. Bing’s previous trips have been with a pair of Special Screenings at the fest with Fengming, Chronicle of a Chinese Woman (2007) and Dead Souls (2018). He was also part of the Directors’ Fortnight in 2007 with The State of the World and Brutality Factory.
Part of what the filmmaker is considering as the first part in a trilogy, this takes place in the city of Zhili, which is dedicated to textile manufacturing.…...
Part of what the filmmaker is considering as the first part in a trilogy, this takes place in the city of Zhili, which is dedicated to textile manufacturing.…...
- 5/19/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Documentary about rural Chinese people who move to work in a textile factory is currently on a 2.7 average.
Wang Bing’s documentary Youth (Spring) took the early lead on Screen’s 2023 Cannes jury grid, with a 2.7 average score.
A 212-minute chronicle of the lives of Chinese people who come from rural areas to work in a textile factory near Shanghai, it scored seven threes (good) from our critics, with one four (excellent) from Le Monde’s Clarisse Fabre. Scores of two (average) from The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin and Tim Robey, and Positif’s Michel Ciment, and a one (poor) from filfan.
Wang Bing’s documentary Youth (Spring) took the early lead on Screen’s 2023 Cannes jury grid, with a 2.7 average score.
A 212-minute chronicle of the lives of Chinese people who come from rural areas to work in a textile factory near Shanghai, it scored seven threes (good) from our critics, with one four (excellent) from Le Monde’s Clarisse Fabre. Scores of two (average) from The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin and Tim Robey, and Positif’s Michel Ciment, and a one (poor) from filfan.
- 5/19/2023
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Check the label on that garment hanging in your closet. If it reads “Made in China,” there’s a chance it was stitched together by one of the characters in Wang Bing’s documentary Youth (Spring), or someone like them.
Youth (Spring) – one of two documentaries admitted into main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which hadn’t welcomed a documentary into that prestige category in almost 20 years – was filmed over a five-year period in China’s Zhili City, known as the country’s capital of clothing manufacture. Every year young people from rural areas in Anhui and other provinces pour into the urban center looking for work. Thousands of privately owned garment “workshops” stand ready to employ them, or perhaps we should say exploit them.
‘Youth (Spring)’
Wang’s hand-held camera goes inside the cluttered, fluorescent-lit workshops where young men and women sew garments at a furious pace, their...
Youth (Spring) – one of two documentaries admitted into main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which hadn’t welcomed a documentary into that prestige category in almost 20 years – was filmed over a five-year period in China’s Zhili City, known as the country’s capital of clothing manufacture. Every year young people from rural areas in Anhui and other provinces pour into the urban center looking for work. Thousands of privately owned garment “workshops” stand ready to employ them, or perhaps we should say exploit them.
‘Youth (Spring)’
Wang’s hand-held camera goes inside the cluttered, fluorescent-lit workshops where young men and women sew garments at a furious pace, their...
- 5/18/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It is somehow emblematic of modern China — at least of its seamier side, as frequently explored in director Wang Bing’s unsparing documentaries — that the street on which his long, oppressive new film “Youth (Spring)” takes place should be called “Happiness Road.” A collection of clothing manufacturing workshops, arranged like a mall around a rubble-strewn central thoroughfare 150 miles and a world away from Shanghai, this semi-derelict location is so poorly described by its name that one could suspect its planners of having a little joke. Except that here in Zhili City, irony — like leisure time, fresh air and natural light — is a luxury few can afford, least of all the teens and twentysomethings spending 15-hour workdays on site before retiring to equally rundown flophouse dormitories.
Scored only to the ceaseless rattle of sewing machines and the pop songs blasted through the studios at top volume, “Youth (Spring)” follows a dozen...
Scored only to the ceaseless rattle of sewing machines and the pop songs blasted through the studios at top volume, “Youth (Spring)” follows a dozen...
- 5/18/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) is a relic of Generation X.It plays out like a hypnotic and wild teen magazine on acid, its TV aesthetic of the pre 9/11 era is fantastical and analog. The cut and paste sonics in the film create a 3D rollercoaster. Trent Reznor produced the soundtrack. It was 1994 and Nine Inch Nails were one of the hottest bands in the world and Reznor had helped create a new aesthetic and attitude. Pop was dark and serious, unafraid of overtly sexual and political language both musically and visually. And visuals were as important as the music. Reznor’s production credit from Natural Born Killers was the start of things to come. This soundtrack mix goes deep into the journey of Trent Reznor’s explorations in cinema. Alongside Natural Born Killers, included in this mix are two films that signified early on Reznor’s future relationship to film,...
- 4/18/2021
- MUBI
Franco-Egyptian filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeeh has teamed with Paris-based production outfit Les Films d’Ici for his next feature, the autobiographical hybrid-doc “Life After Siham.”
Building on themes he developed in his award-winning 2011 doc “The Virgin, the Copts and Me,” a self-reflexive exploration of family and identity that played in Cannes, Berlin and Copenhagen, among others, the filmmaker will once again take center stage in this follow-up, which will find the director grieving his mother’s passing and dealing with a creative impasse as he leads a writing workshop in Egypt.
Currently in pre-production and presented as part of the Visions du Réel project pitch session, the film will follow two parallel tracks, mixing family footage the director shot before and after his mother’s passing against the fictional backdrop of a creative retreat set at the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine’s one-time residence.
With the spirits of Messeeh’s mother,...
Building on themes he developed in his award-winning 2011 doc “The Virgin, the Copts and Me,” a self-reflexive exploration of family and identity that played in Cannes, Berlin and Copenhagen, among others, the filmmaker will once again take center stage in this follow-up, which will find the director grieving his mother’s passing and dealing with a creative impasse as he leads a writing workshop in Egypt.
Currently in pre-production and presented as part of the Visions du Réel project pitch session, the film will follow two parallel tracks, mixing family footage the director shot before and after his mother’s passing against the fictional backdrop of a creative retreat set at the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine’s one-time residence.
With the spirits of Messeeh’s mother,...
- 4/15/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Legendary documentarian Wang Bing is at Haf this year with his new project “I Come from Ikotun,” which follows two Nigerian families with a foothold in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou over the course of the pandemic.
Known for his epically long, unflinching works that have previously tackled sensitive issues like China’s brutal re-education camps, Wang will this time turn his lens on a more cross-cultural subject. In a statement, he said he wanted in this project to explore issues affecting Guangzhou’s African community “in the context of the China-Africa trade, the Covid-19 crisis, racism, colonialism and discrimination.”
One thread of the film follows Nigerian migrant Kingsley, who has worked long days as a barber in Guangzhou for four years yet still can’t afford to pay the $3,000 needed to register his shop and obtain the right work and residence permits. He lives out of a McDonald’s restaurant.
Known for his epically long, unflinching works that have previously tackled sensitive issues like China’s brutal re-education camps, Wang will this time turn his lens on a more cross-cultural subject. In a statement, he said he wanted in this project to explore issues affecting Guangzhou’s African community “in the context of the China-Africa trade, the Covid-19 crisis, racism, colonialism and discrimination.”
One thread of the film follows Nigerian migrant Kingsley, who has worked long days as a barber in Guangzhou for four years yet still can’t afford to pay the $3,000 needed to register his shop and obtain the right work and residence permits. He lives out of a McDonald’s restaurant.
- 3/17/2021
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The Locarno Film Festival is reinventing itself due to the coronavirus crisis by launching a plan B called Locarno 2020 — For the Future of Films, its core philosophy being to support global indie film directors hard hit by the pandemic as they toiled to bring their projects to the big screen.
“In April we were looking at a lot of different scenarios of what the festival could be,” says Lili Hinstin, artistic director of the Swiss event held in a lakeside town under the Alps in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland. Fest has long been a top notch haven for global auteurs. But the Swiss government didn’t want to take any chances with a physical edition Aug. 5-15.
Hinstin and her team felt that opting for the online festival route would go against the spirit of Locarno, known for packed nightly open-air screenings in its 8,000-seat Piazza Grande arena. So...
“In April we were looking at a lot of different scenarios of what the festival could be,” says Lili Hinstin, artistic director of the Swiss event held in a lakeside town under the Alps in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland. Fest has long been a top notch haven for global auteurs. But the Swiss government didn’t want to take any chances with a physical edition Aug. 5-15.
Hinstin and her team felt that opting for the online festival route would go against the spirit of Locarno, known for packed nightly open-air screenings in its 8,000-seat Piazza Grande arena. So...
- 8/3/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
On the heels of yesterday’s announcement about plans for the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival comes news about two more upcoming events: San Sebastian and Locarno. Variety reports Woody Allen’s new comedy-drama “Rifkin’s Festival” will open the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival in September. The event is celebrating its 68th edition this year. “Rifkin’s Festival” will mark Allen’s second San Sebastian opener after “Melinda and Melinda” at the 2004 festival, where he was also the recipient of the Donostia Award for career achievement. Other Allen films that have played San Sebastian include “Manhattan,” “Zelig,” “Match Point,” and “Irrational Man,” among others.
Many in the industry expected San Sebastian to host the world premiere of Allen’s new film as the director shot the project in and around the city last summer. “Rifkin’s Festival” centers around an American couple who travel to the San Sebastian Film Festival and are pulled in opposite directions.
Many in the industry expected San Sebastian to host the world premiere of Allen’s new film as the director shot the project in and around the city last summer. “Rifkin’s Festival” centers around an American couple who travel to the San Sebastian Film Festival and are pulled in opposite directions.
- 6/25/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Thompson on Hollywood
On the heels of yesterday’s announcement about plans for the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival comes news about two more upcoming events: San Sebastian and Locarno. Variety reports Woody Allen’s new comedy-drama “Rifkin’s Festival” will open the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival in September. The event is celebrating its 68th edition this year. “Rifkin’s Festival” will mark Allen’s second San Sebastian opener after “Melinda and Melinda” at the 2004 festival, where he was also the recipient of the Donostia Award for career achievement. Other Allen films that have played San Sebastian include “Manhattan,” “Zelig,” “Match Point,” and “Irrational Man,” among others.
Many in the industry expected San Sebastian to host the world premiere of Allen’s new film as the director shot the project in and around the city last summer. “Rifkin’s Festival” centers around an American couple who travel to the San Sebastian Film Festival and are pulled in opposite directions.
Many in the industry expected San Sebastian to host the world premiere of Allen’s new film as the director shot the project in and around the city last summer. “Rifkin’s Festival” centers around an American couple who travel to the San Sebastian Film Festival and are pulled in opposite directions.
- 6/25/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
New works by prominent auteurs Lucrecia Martel, Lav Diaz, Lisandro Alonso and Wang Bing grace the lineup of works-in-progress unveiled by the Locarno Film Festival.
The canceled Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema on Thursday announced 20 titles that made the cut for its innovative The Films After Tomorrow initiative that will provide support to filmmakers forced to stop working due to the global pandemic. Of these, 10 are international and 10 from Switzerland. Prizes will be awarded by juries made up by still unspecified filmmakers on Aug. 15.
“Our role is to act as a link between films, the industry and audiences, and so (when Locarno was canceled due to coronavirus concerns) we looked at alternative ways of carrying out that mission, assessing where our intervention could be most useful at this time,” said Locarno artistic director Lili Hinstin at a Zoom presentation during the Cannes Virtual Market. A total of 545 projects from 101 countries were submitted,...
The canceled Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema on Thursday announced 20 titles that made the cut for its innovative The Films After Tomorrow initiative that will provide support to filmmakers forced to stop working due to the global pandemic. Of these, 10 are international and 10 from Switzerland. Prizes will be awarded by juries made up by still unspecified filmmakers on Aug. 15.
“Our role is to act as a link between films, the industry and audiences, and so (when Locarno was canceled due to coronavirus concerns) we looked at alternative ways of carrying out that mission, assessing where our intervention could be most useful at this time,” said Locarno artistic director Lili Hinstin at a Zoom presentation during the Cannes Virtual Market. A total of 545 projects from 101 countries were submitted,...
- 6/25/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
To mark the 40th anniversary of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis’ death, Mark Lanegan teamed up with Cold Cave for an icy rendition of “Isolation,” a track off of Joy Division’s final album, 1980’s Closer.
Lanegan joined Cold Cave in a room for a live performance, singing side by side and trading vocals with the dark-wave band’s frontman, Wes Eisold. Lanegan nods along to the beat, looking as though he’s absorbing the vibe, as the group plays the tune’s skittery rhythms and chilly synth lines.
The...
Lanegan joined Cold Cave in a room for a live performance, singing side by side and trading vocals with the dark-wave band’s frontman, Wes Eisold. Lanegan nods along to the beat, looking as though he’s absorbing the vibe, as the group plays the tune’s skittery rhythms and chilly synth lines.
The...
- 5/19/2020
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
The Assistant (Kitty Green)
The silences last a lifetime in The Assistant, written and directed by Kitty Green. Starring Julia Garner as the titular character, the film plays out over one long day at an unnamed independent film studio. Light on dialogue with no real score to speak of, we follow our new assistant as she makes the coffee, cleans the dishes, prints the screenplays, and takes the phone calls for an unrelenting man in the office behind her. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Bad Education (Cory Finley)
I don’t know if the man at the top truly inspired this...
The Assistant (Kitty Green)
The silences last a lifetime in The Assistant, written and directed by Kitty Green. Starring Julia Garner as the titular character, the film plays out over one long day at an unnamed independent film studio. Light on dialogue with no real score to speak of, we follow our new assistant as she makes the coffee, cleans the dishes, prints the screenplays, and takes the phone calls for an unrelenting man in the office behind her. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Bad Education (Cory Finley)
I don’t know if the man at the top truly inspired this...
- 5/1/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWanuri Kahiu on the set of RafikiRafiki director Wanuri Kahiu has announced her latest project, an adaptation of Octavia Butler's 1980 Wild Seed, produced by Viola Davis and written by novelist Nnedi Okorafor. Butler's novel follows two immortal African beings whose tumultuous rivalry takes them across pre-colonial West Africa to a plantation in the American South. Recommended VIEWINGFrom March 20–April 2, Vdrome is screening Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil's documentary Inaate/Se/ [it shines a certain way. to a certain place/it flies. falls./]. The film "imagines new indigenous futures, looking simultaneously backward and forward." The new trailer for Hong Sang-soo's Grass is at once simple and cryptic, conveying one of many mysteries encountered by a young writer observing intimate interactions in a bustling cafe. The dreamy, video game-inspired images of Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel's Jessica Forever come to life in a new trailer.
- 3/27/2019
- MUBI
The world of documentary filmmaking is as diverse as that of its fiction sibling, although what’s regularly shown on television or in larger theater chains may lead you to believe otherwise. While fiction is seemingly freer to imagine different stories and forms, the culturally dominant approach to nonfiction cinema hardly suggests its possible dynamism. Since documentaries are often hamstrung by notions ironically imported from mainstream fiction filmmaking—character arcs, straight-forward storytelling, satisfying conclusions—the kind of nonfiction movies that achieve broader cultural interest tend to be neatly packaged delivery vehicles for information one could easily glean much more quickly from an article. This approach while most visible is hardly the norm, and the world is far too messy and filmmakers far too adroit at being inspired by this terrific confusion to be limited to the commercial standards of truth-telling. After all, while the truth is a necessary component of living,...
- 3/13/2019
- MUBI
“Share information, raise awareness, call for action”
The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, among the best documentary festivals of the European circuit, celebrates the art of documentary via a rich program of films, events and initiatives.
Tdf presents the International Competition for first or second feature documentaries, as well as the new Vr / Virtual Reality films Competition section. In addition, Tdf showcases various segments as well as the large annual Greek documentary production.
The festival’s industry section Agora Doc Market, a well-established meeting point of film professionals from all over the world presents the following sections: Docs in Progress, Edn Pitching Forum – Docs in Thessaloniki and Film Library. Last but not least, the Festival hosts a variety of parallel events -masterclasses, conversations, conferences and many more – attracting more than 80.000 spectators and visitors during its 10-day edition.
This year the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is to be held from the 1st to...
The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, among the best documentary festivals of the European circuit, celebrates the art of documentary via a rich program of films, events and initiatives.
Tdf presents the International Competition for first or second feature documentaries, as well as the new Vr / Virtual Reality films Competition section. In addition, Tdf showcases various segments as well as the large annual Greek documentary production.
The festival’s industry section Agora Doc Market, a well-established meeting point of film professionals from all over the world presents the following sections: Docs in Progress, Edn Pitching Forum – Docs in Thessaloniki and Film Library. Last but not least, the Festival hosts a variety of parallel events -masterclasses, conversations, conferences and many more – attracting more than 80.000 spectators and visitors during its 10-day edition.
This year the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is to be held from the 1st to...
- 2/20/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
20 of the contributors of Asian Movie Pulse have voted the 20 Best Films of 2018, resulting in what we consider a great selection, both regarding the top and the overall diversity, since the list includes films from Japan, S. Korea, China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, The Philippines Thailand, and even a France-Belgium-Luxembourg co-production with a Cambodian setting, while the genres include everything from extreme violence and mainstream films to art-house, documentaries and animation, and even a Netflix film.
Without further ado, here are the best films of 2018, in reverse order. Some films may have premiered in 2017, but since they mostly circulated in 2018, we decided to include them.
20. Buybust
All of the above make it quite clear that “BuyBust” presents a combination of “The Raid” and “The Villainess”, but I also thought that it shares some similarities with “Mad Max” particularly in the way the villains and the setting are presented. Nevertheless, in terms of presentation,...
Without further ado, here are the best films of 2018, in reverse order. Some films may have premiered in 2017, but since they mostly circulated in 2018, we decided to include them.
20. Buybust
All of the above make it quite clear that “BuyBust” presents a combination of “The Raid” and “The Villainess”, but I also thought that it shares some similarities with “Mad Max” particularly in the way the villains and the setting are presented. Nevertheless, in terms of presentation,...
- 1/3/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Evidently, not the most popular category of films out there; nevertheless, documentaries can offer as much entertainment as any movie, and in the process, educate, remind, and have a considerable impact on their audience.
This year’s selection entails a number of subjects that includes socieal, political, social media, music, art, humanistic and history themes, from countries that include a rather large part of the area.
Without further ado, here are the Best Asian (themed) Documentaries of 2018, in random order. Some may have premiered in 2017, but since they mostly circulated in 2018, we decided to include them.
1. Reason
Patwardhan’s vision invokes many concerns. Not only about future scenarios for India. Unfortunately, affairs such as religion interfering with swelling number of aspects of the public life’s, the national pride rhetoric combined with supremacy gripping over the majority of a population, and the revisionism hitting the history textbooks seem to become...
This year’s selection entails a number of subjects that includes socieal, political, social media, music, art, humanistic and history themes, from countries that include a rather large part of the area.
Without further ado, here are the Best Asian (themed) Documentaries of 2018, in random order. Some may have premiered in 2017, but since they mostly circulated in 2018, we decided to include them.
1. Reason
Patwardhan’s vision invokes many concerns. Not only about future scenarios for India. Unfortunately, affairs such as religion interfering with swelling number of aspects of the public life’s, the national pride rhetoric combined with supremacy gripping over the majority of a population, and the revisionism hitting the history textbooks seem to become...
- 1/3/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
For our most comprehensive year-end feature, we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2018. We’ve asked our contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions–those personal lists will be shared in the coming days–and, after tallying the votes, a top 50 has been assembled.
It should be noted that, unlike our previous year-end features, we placed no requirement on a selection being a U.S theatrical release, so you may see some repeats from last year and a few we’ll certainly be discussing more during the next twelve months. So, without further ado, check out our rundown of 2018 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2019.
50. Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
For over two decades the filmmaker Jia Zhangke has, through his movies,...
It should be noted that, unlike our previous year-end features, we placed no requirement on a selection being a U.S theatrical release, so you may see some repeats from last year and a few we’ll certainly be discussing more during the next twelve months. So, without further ado, check out our rundown of 2018 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2019.
50. Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
For over two decades the filmmaker Jia Zhangke has, through his movies,...
- 12/21/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Movie Review Director Balaji Mohan burdens our once 'evil' protagonist with unending attachments and emotions, giving him no space to actually be himself.Priyanka ThirumurthyIn 2015, when Maari first hit screens, Balaji Mohan brought to life a character encompassing several shades of grey. An actor like Dhanush, typically seen in the hero mould, was refreshing to watch as a thug who took extreme joy in torturing and extorting money from innocents, and scorning any form of attachment. Even the masses in the film hated him with passion. Maari's antics were thoroughly entertaining and it was this detached anti-hero that made a mark in what was otherwise an average movie. In the sequel, however, the director burdens our once unfeeling protagonist with unending attachments and emotions, giving him no space to actually be himself. Maari 2 picks up after the death of Velu, the gangster whom Maari was associated with in the...
- 12/21/2018
- by Prajwal
- The News Minute
Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.Animal World2018 has been a remarkably strong year for Chinese language cinema, in terms of films on the international festival and arthouse circuit, retrospectives across the United States, and commercial films exhibited at multiplexes in a handful of North American cities. New movies from Jia Zhangke, Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Wang Bing (Dead Souls), Hu Bo (An Elephant Sitting Still), Jiang Wen (Hidden Man) and Zhang Yimou (Shadow) electrified festival audiences around the globe, though none have as yet seen commercial release in North America. Rather than focus on these kinds of films, all of which have been covered elsewhere on the Notebook over the course of the year, this column has primarily been devoted to following those Chinese-language films that see small multiplex releases,...
- 12/17/2018
- MUBI
Anyone drawn to the protracted runtimes of Bela Tarr and Lav Diaz will likely be excited by the prospect of Wang Bing’s latest offering: “Dead Souls,” which clocks in at a prodigious 495 minutes. If you’ve never seen an eight-hour-plus documentary about China’s late-’50s re-education camps and the misery therein, this is surely the place to start.
Here’s the synopsis: “In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Deemed ‘ultra-rightists’ in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps. Dead Souls invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure, and what became their destiny.”
Bing’s most recent film, “Mrs. Fang,” won the Golden Leopard at last year’s...
Here’s the synopsis: “In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Deemed ‘ultra-rightists’ in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps. Dead Souls invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure, and what became their destiny.”
Bing’s most recent film, “Mrs. Fang,” won the Golden Leopard at last year’s...
- 12/14/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
"A monumental achievement: as a documentary, as a humanist tribute and as a [great] effort at historical rectification." Grasshopper Film + Icarus Films has released an official Us trailer for a documentary titled Dead Souls, the latest from prolific Chinese doc filmmaker Wang Bing. This documentary runs a total of 495 minutes, which comes out to about 8 hours, 15 minutes in total, and first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Dead Souls is about a lost generation of Chinese, deemed "ultra-rightists" in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, most of them starved to death in the Jiabiangou & Mingshui reeducation camps. This film spends time with the survivors, and has been compared to Claude Lanzmann's iconic doc Shoah in its grandeur, elegance, and ability to capture the voices lost to the atrocities of history. This is a very simple trailer, but it's compelling. Here's the official Us trailer ...
- 12/12/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Perhaps the most acclaimed epic-length documentary in recent memory is Dead Souls, the latest historical opus from heralded Chinese master Wang Bing. Numerous reviews published since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival have made comparisons to Claude Lanzmann’s landmark Shoah for a similar emphasis on voices lost to the atrocities of history — something for which you’ll perhaps need to be in a certain mood, but that’s why films don’t occupy a temporary state of existence.
It arrives in U.S. theaters this week courtesy Grasshopper Film and Icarus Films, and with it comes a trailer showcasing the mood and atmosphere. Our own review compared it to Ozu, saying “that Japanese master’s dedication to the elderly is stronger here, be it the many shots that conveyed simply a sense of immobility,” while also citing Wang’s “genuine need to document.”
See below:
Dead Souls will...
It arrives in U.S. theaters this week courtesy Grasshopper Film and Icarus Films, and with it comes a trailer showcasing the mood and atmosphere. Our own review compared it to Ozu, saying “that Japanese master’s dedication to the elderly is stronger here, be it the many shots that conveyed simply a sense of immobility,” while also citing Wang’s “genuine need to document.”
See below:
Dead Souls will...
- 12/12/2018
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Wang Bing’s landmark West of the Tracks and new feature, Dead Souls, screen this weekend in a rare Us retrospective.
Metrograph
Retrospectives of Wang Bing and Bill Duke run this weekend.
Newly restored, Chris Marker’s The Owl’s Legacy screens, as is a print of The Barefoot Contessa,...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Wang Bing’s landmark West of the Tracks and new feature, Dead Souls, screen this weekend in a rare Us retrospective.
Metrograph
Retrospectives of Wang Bing and Bill Duke run this weekend.
Newly restored, Chris Marker’s The Owl’s Legacy screens, as is a print of The Barefoot Contessa,...
- 11/16/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The social justice organisation has supported the Idfa fund since 2013.
The Idfa Bertha Fund, which supports documentaries made by filmmakers from developing countries, has secured €1.2m ($1.4m) in funding over the next three years (2019-2021) from the global social justice organisation the Bertha Foundation.
The Idfa Bertha Fund, previously, known as the Jan Vrijman Fund, was set up in 1998 and has long been an essential part of the activities of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (Idfa). This year’s festival takes place Nov 14-25 and the opening film - Aboozar Amini’s Kabul, City In The Wind – was backed by the fund.
The Idfa Bertha Fund, which supports documentaries made by filmmakers from developing countries, has secured €1.2m ($1.4m) in funding over the next three years (2019-2021) from the global social justice organisation the Bertha Foundation.
The Idfa Bertha Fund, previously, known as the Jan Vrijman Fund, was set up in 1998 and has long been an essential part of the activities of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (Idfa). This year’s festival takes place Nov 14-25 and the opening film - Aboozar Amini’s Kabul, City In The Wind – was backed by the fund.
- 11/8/2018
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Wang Bing’s 506-minute documentary ‘Dead Sousl’ fully captures the genuine stories of the people from the Chinese re-education camps through their own voices. Director Wang Bing jots down the governmental authority’s power-wielding backed by Maoism through his movie.
Dead Souls is available from Icarus Films
Before the Cultural Revolution, there was an undeveloped history of China in the 1950s when the authorities pressed a civilian, ‘anti-rightist’ campaign issued by the Chinese Communist Party. Many people were condemned as ‘rightists’ and sent to re-education camps. It was said that most of so-called ‘rightist’ prisoners were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment without legit trials, and they could not appeal to the higher court as other ordinary prisoners were able to do so.
This movie consists of the testimonials of the survivors from the re-education camps in the Mingshui and Jiabinggou in the Gobi desert, in the northwestern part of China. Director...
Dead Souls is available from Icarus Films
Before the Cultural Revolution, there was an undeveloped history of China in the 1950s when the authorities pressed a civilian, ‘anti-rightist’ campaign issued by the Chinese Communist Party. Many people were condemned as ‘rightists’ and sent to re-education camps. It was said that most of so-called ‘rightist’ prisoners were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment without legit trials, and they could not appeal to the higher court as other ordinary prisoners were able to do so.
This movie consists of the testimonials of the survivors from the re-education camps in the Mingshui and Jiabinggou in the Gobi desert, in the northwestern part of China. Director...
- 10/12/2018
- by Marie Lee
- AsianMoviePulse
Eight-hour Chinese documentary Dead Souls premiered in Cannes.
London-based distributor and exhibitor Ica Cinema has boarded UK rights to a pair of titles from Daniela Elstner’s Paris-based Doc & Film International.
The company has dated Bing Wang’s Chinese documentary Dead Souls for November 30. The 495-minute film, which premiered as a Special Screening at Cannes this year and also played Toronto and recently Busan, details the hardships endured by victims of China’s Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957.
The Ica has also taken RaMell Ross’s Hale County This Morning, This Evening and will release on January 18, 2019. The...
London-based distributor and exhibitor Ica Cinema has boarded UK rights to a pair of titles from Daniela Elstner’s Paris-based Doc & Film International.
The company has dated Bing Wang’s Chinese documentary Dead Souls for November 30. The 495-minute film, which premiered as a Special Screening at Cannes this year and also played Toronto and recently Busan, details the hardships endured by victims of China’s Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957.
The Ica has also taken RaMell Ross’s Hale County This Morning, This Evening and will release on January 18, 2019. The...
- 10/9/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Often when one is reviewing a film, there can be a need to ascribe some kind of motivation to a director. While yes, we have to admit that a film is often the collected works of many different artists, it’s hard not to think of the medium as wholly more interesting when the mad pursuits of one single creator’s vision are on screen. That’s why it’s so intriguing in the case of Wang Bing’s eight-hour, twelve-years-in-the-making epic Dead Souls, to come away with the feeling of what’s being projected onscreen is nothing other than humility. Naturally, one would have this thought when the majority of a behemoth running time is spent dedicated to elderly citizens recounting their harrowing experiences back in the 1950s and 60s.
The specific subject itself is the survivors of China’s “re-education” camps populated by those who were deemed rightists,...
The specific subject itself is the survivors of China’s “re-education” camps populated by those who were deemed rightists,...
- 9/8/2018
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Kelley Dong and Daniel Kasman.RomaDear Kelley,I’m excited to be here in Toronto again with you, though admittedly with melancholy feelings, for I must note with broken heart that our comrade Fernando F. Croce, who has been covering the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) with me for the last six years, had to cancel his trip last minute. But I very much look forward to you and I continuing the festival correspondence we began together with Fern last year, for this year’s event looks very promising indeed.It’s been an unexpectedly quiet international festival season so far in 2018, with Berlin, Cannes, and Locarno offering softer-than-normal premieres, many of which are now headed to North America.At Tiff from Berlin, we have written on and recommend: Transit (with a director interview), An Elephant Sitting Still. And...
- 9/6/2018
- MUBI
Wang Bing’s marathon Chinese documentary set for release later this year.
Icarus Films and Grasshopper Film have jointly acquired North American distribution rights to Dead Souls, the eight-hour documentary from Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing that had its premiere in a special screening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The film, handed by Doc & Film International, will have a limited North American release later this year. It will also be part of Icarus’ dGenerate Films Collection of films from mainland China.
Dead Souls focuses on the last survivors of the ‘re-education’ camps where political prisoners were held during the...
Icarus Films and Grasshopper Film have jointly acquired North American distribution rights to Dead Souls, the eight-hour documentary from Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing that had its premiere in a special screening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The film, handed by Doc & Film International, will have a limited North American release later this year. It will also be part of Icarus’ dGenerate Films Collection of films from mainland China.
Dead Souls focuses on the last survivors of the ‘re-education’ camps where political prisoners were held during the...
- 7/12/2018
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
The Festival de Cannes has announced the lineup for the official selection, including the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections, as well as special screenings, for the 71st edition of the festival:COMPETITIONEverybody Knows (Asghar Farhadi)At War (Stéphane Brizé)Dogman (Matteo Garrone)Le livre d'images (Jean-Luc Godard)Netemo Sameteo (Asako I & II) (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi)Sorry Angel (Christophe Honoré)Girls of the Sun (Eva Husson)Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)Shoplifter (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)Burning (Lee Chang-dong)BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell)Three Faces (Jafar Panahi)Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski)Lazzaro Felice (Alice Rohrwacher)Yomeddine (A.B. Shawky)Leto (Kirill Serebrennikov)Un couteau dans le cœur (Yann Gonzalez)Ayka (Sergei Dvortsevoy)The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)Out Of COMPETITIONSolo: A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard)Le grand bain (Gilles Lelouch)The House That Jack Built (Lars von Trier)Un Certain REGARDGräns (Ali Abbasi...
- 4/25/2018
- MUBI
The selection includes films by Jean-Luc Godard, Matteo Garrone, Eva Husson, Spike Lee and Pawel Pawlikowski.
The films chosen for the Cannes Film Festival 2018 Official Selection have been announced.
Festival President Pierre Lescure and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux revealed the line-up at a press conference, which was live-streamed on YouTube. More films will be added closer to the festival.
The selection includes films by Jean-Luc Godard, Matteo Garrone, Eva Husson, Spike Lee and Pawel Pawlikowski.
The 71st Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to run from May 8-...
The films chosen for the Cannes Film Festival 2018 Official Selection have been announced.
Festival President Pierre Lescure and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux revealed the line-up at a press conference, which was live-streamed on YouTube. More films will be added closer to the festival.
The selection includes films by Jean-Luc Godard, Matteo Garrone, Eva Husson, Spike Lee and Pawel Pawlikowski.
The 71st Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to run from May 8-...
- 4/19/2018
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Cannes Film Festival has finally revealed the full programme of its 71st edition and the small Asian selection is very promising and includes few regular participants along with some talented new newbies.
Let’s have a first look at the list.
Competition
“Burning” by Lee Chang-dong (South Korea)
This much anticipated adaptation of “Barn Burning”, a short story by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, is a tale of three young adults and – in full Murakami’s style – a mysterious accident. Back after a 7-year break, director Lee Chang-dong has summoned Yoo Ah-in (“The Throne” and “Veteran”), Steven Yuen (“Okja”) and pretty new actress Jeon Jong-seo for the roles.
“Ash is Purest White” by Jia Zhangke (China)
Jia Zhangke returns to Cannes with this big-budget and ambitious film; a love story set on the backdrop of China criminal world in the industrial town of Datong, spanning from 2001 to 2017. Within the cast the...
Let’s have a first look at the list.
Competition
“Burning” by Lee Chang-dong (South Korea)
This much anticipated adaptation of “Barn Burning”, a short story by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, is a tale of three young adults and – in full Murakami’s style – a mysterious accident. Back after a 7-year break, director Lee Chang-dong has summoned Yoo Ah-in (“The Throne” and “Veteran”), Steven Yuen (“Okja”) and pretty new actress Jeon Jong-seo for the roles.
“Ash is Purest White” by Jia Zhangke (China)
Jia Zhangke returns to Cannes with this big-budget and ambitious film; a love story set on the backdrop of China criminal world in the industrial town of Datong, spanning from 2001 to 2017. Within the cast the...
- 4/12/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The clutch of Asian films in this year’s Cannes Official Selection isn’t the biggest ever but may be one of the most anticipated in recent years.
Three of the four Asian titles in the main competition are by directors with a high-profile Cannes track record. The fourth is a competition first-timer.
The main competition lineup includes a long-awaited return for former Cannes juror Lee Chang-dong (“Secret Sunshine”) with “Burning.” The film is an adaptation of the short story “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami (“Norwegian Wood”), which was first published in the New Yorker. With Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yuen and Jeon Jong-seo in the three lead roles, the film’s trailer is currently scorching the Internet.
A record number of Chinese films were submitted to Cannes this year. Three were chosen, with one making it into the competition. Auteur Jia Zhangke is returning to the Croisette with his biggest-budget...
Three of the four Asian titles in the main competition are by directors with a high-profile Cannes track record. The fourth is a competition first-timer.
The main competition lineup includes a long-awaited return for former Cannes juror Lee Chang-dong (“Secret Sunshine”) with “Burning.” The film is an adaptation of the short story “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami (“Norwegian Wood”), which was first published in the New Yorker. With Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yuen and Jeon Jong-seo in the three lead roles, the film’s trailer is currently scorching the Internet.
A record number of Chinese films were submitted to Cannes this year. Three were chosen, with one making it into the competition. Auteur Jia Zhangke is returning to the Croisette with his biggest-budget...
- 4/12/2018
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
This morning, The line-up for one of the most prestigious films festivals in the festival calendar, Cannes, was revealed by Festival president Pierre Lescure and general delegate Thierry Fremaux.
Notable omissions from the 2000 strong submissions, is the lack of British offerings from the line-up and only a token amount of Us projects. The Cannes snobbery has gone into overdrive for 2018 with a number of shakes up, including the banning non-French theatrical releases from the main competition. This means that Netflix has refused to submit any of its films even though they were eligible to submit to the out of competition category.
The line-up includes the new films from directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars story – which features in the out of competition category – Pawel Pawlikowski, Jafar Panahi, Lee Chang-Dong, David Robert Mitchell, Matteo Garrone and Asghar Farhadi. The full list is below.
Notable omissions from the 2000 strong submissions, is the lack of British offerings from the line-up and only a token amount of Us projects. The Cannes snobbery has gone into overdrive for 2018 with a number of shakes up, including the banning non-French theatrical releases from the main competition. This means that Netflix has refused to submit any of its films even though they were eligible to submit to the out of competition category.
The line-up includes the new films from directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars story – which features in the out of competition category – Pawel Pawlikowski, Jafar Panahi, Lee Chang-Dong, David Robert Mitchell, Matteo Garrone and Asghar Farhadi. The full list is below.
- 4/12/2018
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Update: Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux presented the Official Selection lineup for next month’s 71st running this morning in Paris. There were no major bombshells in the mix, although it’s yet to be completed. Frémaux often reserves the weeks following the press conference and ahead of the fest to sprinkle in other titles. One highly expected film missing this morning was Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built, and Frémaux hinted that could change in a few days.
Among the U.S. filmmakers mentioned today, Spike Lee is in with Blackkklansman and David Robert Mitchell moves up to the competition with Under The Silver Lake, something we expected would come to pass after his previous two films ran in Directors’ Fortnight.
Other well-known names on the competition roster include Jean-Luc Godard (Le Livre D’Image), Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) and Kore-Eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters). Also notable,...
Among the U.S. filmmakers mentioned today, Spike Lee is in with Blackkklansman and David Robert Mitchell moves up to the competition with Under The Silver Lake, something we expected would come to pass after his previous two films ran in Directors’ Fortnight.
Other well-known names on the competition roster include Jean-Luc Godard (Le Livre D’Image), Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) and Kore-Eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters). Also notable,...
- 4/12/2018
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Cannes 2018 Lineup Includes New Films from Jean-Luc Godard, Spike Lee, Jia Zhangke, Bi Gan, and More
With a jury headed by Cate Blanchett, the main lineup for the 71st Cannes Film Festival has been unveiled, including Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Midnight, and Special screenings. This year’s competition lineup features some of our most-anticipated films of the year, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Le livre d’images, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, Jia Zhangke’s Ash is Purest White, Spike Lee’s BlackKkKlansman, Jafar Panahi’s recently unveiled Three Faces, David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, and more. The Un Certain Regard section also includes one title we hoped might make it into competition: Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues follow-up Long Day’s Journey into Night.
While it’s clear there was going to be no Netflix films, there were a handful of rumored films that didn’t make the cut, though there’s the possibility of being added later.
While it’s clear there was going to be no Netflix films, there were a handful of rumored films that didn’t make the cut, though there’s the possibility of being added later.
- 4/12/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
New movies from Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”), Jean-Luc Godard (“The Image Book”) and Oscar-winning “Ida” director Pawel Pawlikowski (“Cold War”) join previously announced “Solo: A Star Wars Story” at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, making for a lineup that’s considerably less starry — at least by Hollywood standards — than in years past.
At the press conference in Paris, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux suggested that several more titles may be announced in the days to come, reminding that 2017 Palme d’Or winner “The Square” was a late addition last year.
Scheduled to kick off a month after the inaugural television-focused Cannes Series event, the festival will unspool from May 8-19 — which is the earliest the festival has taken place in more than 20 years. The parallel Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week programs will take place during the same dates, but technically fall outside the “official selection,” and as such, will announce their lineups later in April.
At the press conference in Paris, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux suggested that several more titles may be announced in the days to come, reminding that 2017 Palme d’Or winner “The Square” was a late addition last year.
Scheduled to kick off a month after the inaugural television-focused Cannes Series event, the festival will unspool from May 8-19 — which is the earliest the festival has taken place in more than 20 years. The parallel Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week programs will take place during the same dates, but technically fall outside the “official selection,” and as such, will announce their lineups later in April.
- 4/12/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The 71st Cannes Film Festival has announced its official lineup in a morning press conference. The festival revealed the films in this year’s Competition lineup, as well as in sidebars such as Un Certain Regard, Midnight Section, and Special Screenings.
Read More: Asghar Farhadi to Open Cannes 2018 With ‘Everybody Knows,’ Starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem
The festival previously announced that the 2018 edition will open with the world premiere of Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows.” The director’s first Spanish-lanugage drama stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.
The official selection for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival is below. Additions will be made in the coming days.
Opening Night Film
“Everybody Knows,” Asghar Farhadi (In Competition)
Competition
“At War,” Stéphane Brizé
“Dogman,” Matteo Garrone
“The Picture Book,” Jean-Luc Godard
“Asako I & II,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi
“Sorry Angel,” Christophe Honoré
“Girls of the Sun,” Eva Husson
“Ash Is Purest White,” Jia Zhang-Ke
“Shoplifters,...
Read More: Asghar Farhadi to Open Cannes 2018 With ‘Everybody Knows,’ Starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem
The festival previously announced that the 2018 edition will open with the world premiere of Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows.” The director’s first Spanish-lanugage drama stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.
The official selection for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival is below. Additions will be made in the coming days.
Opening Night Film
“Everybody Knows,” Asghar Farhadi (In Competition)
Competition
“At War,” Stéphane Brizé
“Dogman,” Matteo Garrone
“The Picture Book,” Jean-Luc Godard
“Asako I & II,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi
“Sorry Angel,” Christophe Honoré
“Girls of the Sun,” Eva Husson
“Ash Is Purest White,” Jia Zhang-Ke
“Shoplifters,...
- 4/12/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been detained after state investigators and security forces raided his Moscow theater, the Gogol Center.
Serebrennikov, whose The Student won the Francois Chalais award in Cannes last year after competing in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, was arrested at his Moscow home Tuesday following the raid on the theater during a rehearsal for a performance of Nikolai Gogol's satire Dead Souls.
Around 50 actors and members of theater staff were held, and their mobile telephones confiscated during the raid, which investigators say is linked to a probe into suspected fraud between 2011 and 2014 of 200 million...
Serebrennikov, whose The Student won the Francois Chalais award in Cannes last year after competing in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, was arrested at his Moscow home Tuesday following the raid on the theater during a rehearsal for a performance of Nikolai Gogol's satire Dead Souls.
Around 50 actors and members of theater staff were held, and their mobile telephones confiscated during the raid, which investigators say is linked to a probe into suspected fraud between 2011 and 2014 of 200 million...
- 5/24/2017
- by Nick Holdsworth
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As far as “unsolved mystery” horror films go, The Axe Murders Of Villisca is nothing more than generic at best. Why prey on such a famed case in – wait, let’s rewind quick. Are you even aware of this tragic Iowa slaughterfest? Let’s revisit June 9th, 1912. According to legend, a family was brutally murdered at night by a axe-wielding maniac who was never arrested. One by one, the Moore family was beaten to death – some with the axe’s bluntest side, others hacked and slashed. A traveling Presbyterian minister confessed to the murders, claiming he heard windmills in his head before blacking out – but no convictions were made, and the deed went unpunished.
This brings us to writer/director Tony E. Valenzuela’s ghost story spinoff, which sees three modern-day teens sneak into one of America’s most haunted locations. Caleb (Robert Adamson) and Denny (Jarrett Sleeper) already had...
This brings us to writer/director Tony E. Valenzuela’s ghost story spinoff, which sees three modern-day teens sneak into one of America’s most haunted locations. Caleb (Robert Adamson) and Denny (Jarrett Sleeper) already had...
- 1/23/2017
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
Abattoir poses such a savage, provocative haunted house concept, but much like Brad Peyton’s Incarnate, this re-modeled genre construct is wasted on plodding execution that squanders any inherent excitement. Darren Lynn Bousman erects his very own funhouse amusement out of bloody murder locations, building a true-to-form haunted house without the haunts. Dead souls inhabit the very rooms they were slain in, all so an old, vengeful creep can make peace with his own family’s passing. It’s an architect’s dream hobby mixed with Satan’s own interior decorating, yet we’re never granted access to the horrors that pulsate from room to room. Tonal airlessness, momentum-halting CGI, disconnected storytelling – these are just a few of the code violations that stack against 2016’s most daunting renovation nightmare.
New English resident Jebediah Crone (Dayton Callie) acts as Bousman’s head designer, a cult leader who strengthens his connection to...
New English resident Jebediah Crone (Dayton Callie) acts as Bousman’s head designer, a cult leader who strengthens his connection to...
- 12/6/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
With September now almost half over, our thoughts are turning to the cooler months, which are perfect for huddling near the fireplace with a good novel. There’s a new one heading our way in a few days that promises to… Continue Reading →
The post J. Lincoln Fenn’s Dead Souls Want to Chill Your Bones appeared first on Dread Central.
The post J. Lincoln Fenn’s Dead Souls Want to Chill Your Bones appeared first on Dread Central.
- 9/13/2016
- by Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
The battle is about to begin when Project X Zone 2 comes out next week! In advance of this, we have a final trailer, featuring a few new characters. Take a look!
With less than a week until Project X Zone 2 hits the shelves, we get a final trailer of the massive Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Sega collaboration. The trailer gives us another preview of what we can expect from theturn-based strategy game, but it also introduces a couple of new characters from Fire Emblem Awakening and Xenoblade Chronicles of Nintendo!
Developed by Monolith Software Inc, Project X Zone 2 gives gamers the opportunity to play as their favorite characters from a multitude of franchises including the “Tekken” series, Tales Of Vesperia, and “.hack//” series from Bandai Namco; the “Resident Evil” series, “Devil May Cry” series, and “Megaman X” series from Capcom as well as Yakuza: Dead Souls, the “Sakura Wars” series,...
With less than a week until Project X Zone 2 hits the shelves, we get a final trailer of the massive Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Sega collaboration. The trailer gives us another preview of what we can expect from theturn-based strategy game, but it also introduces a couple of new characters from Fire Emblem Awakening and Xenoblade Chronicles of Nintendo!
Developed by Monolith Software Inc, Project X Zone 2 gives gamers the opportunity to play as their favorite characters from a multitude of franchises including the “Tekken” series, Tales Of Vesperia, and “.hack//” series from Bandai Namco; the “Resident Evil” series, “Devil May Cry” series, and “Megaman X” series from Capcom as well as Yakuza: Dead Souls, the “Sakura Wars” series,...
- 2/12/2016
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Matt Malliaros)
- Cinelinx
While the illusion of choice is somewhat waning now in Telltale Games, Game of Thrones: Episode Five – A Nest of Vipers proves that they can still tell a good story and kick you in the gut. More importantly, they can create a game that can stand tall in the world of Game of Thrones. Especially with the hard choices made in this episode.
Even before the theme music starts in this episode the tone is set in a gory way, and is fitting for what is to come. While the trailer for the episode may have felt quite serene, this is a trap as there is nothing serene here. This episode is violent, full of blood and has just the right level of political manipulation to keep the King’s Landing fans happy.
Without posting any spoilers, at this point in the game I feel like I have become a...
Even before the theme music starts in this episode the tone is set in a gory way, and is fitting for what is to come. While the trailer for the episode may have felt quite serene, this is a trap as there is nothing serene here. This episode is violent, full of blood and has just the right level of political manipulation to keep the King’s Landing fans happy.
Without posting any spoilers, at this point in the game I feel like I have become a...
- 7/23/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
A blast from the past keeps a close eye on a newly moved couple in The Gift, the directorial debut of Joel Edgerton, who also stars in the film alongside Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, as shown in the film's first trailer. We also have a look at a new promo for Salem Season 2 and two clips from Scream Factory's upcoming Blu-ray release of Deep in the Darkness.
The Gift: "Can you really go through life having never wronged anyone? Even if you are unaware of how, or when, and even who you may have wronged....chances are there is someone out there who won't ever forget it...or you.
Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) are a young married couple whose life is going just as planned until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from Simon's high school sends their world into a harrowing tailspin. Simon doesn't recognize Gordo (Joel Edgerton) at first,...
The Gift: "Can you really go through life having never wronged anyone? Even if you are unaware of how, or when, and even who you may have wronged....chances are there is someone out there who won't ever forget it...or you.
Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) are a young married couple whose life is going just as planned until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from Simon's high school sends their world into a harrowing tailspin. Simon doesn't recognize Gordo (Joel Edgerton) at first,...
- 4/3/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Welcome to another horror/sci-fi round-up! This time around we have word of two big cast confirmations for Independence Day 2, details on Scream Factory's Deep in the Darkness Blu-ray / DVD release, and information on the new Blanc/Biehn Productions film, Treachery.
Independence Day 2: Last night it was revealed that the first official cast member had signed on to star in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day 2, the sequel to his 1996 film that featured massive alien-induced destruction and larger-than-life characters. It's now been confirmed that one of those characters will be coming back, as Emmerich tweeted last night that Jeff Goldblum will appear in the sequel, likely reprising his role as the brainy and dryly humorous David Levinson, who teamed up with fighter pilot Captain Steven Hiller to take down the mothership in the original film. Smith will not be coming back to reprise his role as Steven.
Independence Day 2: Last night it was revealed that the first official cast member had signed on to star in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day 2, the sequel to his 1996 film that featured massive alien-induced destruction and larger-than-life characters. It's now been confirmed that one of those characters will be coming back, as Emmerich tweeted last night that Jeff Goldblum will appear in the sequel, likely reprising his role as the brainy and dryly humorous David Levinson, who teamed up with fighter pilot Captain Steven Hiller to take down the mothership in the original film. Smith will not be coming back to reprise his role as Steven.
- 3/4/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
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