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CONTENTS Page 4 5-8
Editorial Birdman A washed-up actor who once played an iconic superhero must overcome his ego and family trouble as he mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory.
9-12
Big Eyes A drama about the awakening of the painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
13-16
The Theory of Everything The amazing story of physicist Stephen Hawking and the struggle he had to continue with his ground-breaking work after succumbing to motor neurone disease and the support and love of his wife Jane.
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Q & A Derek Malcolm
19-23
Favourite Films – 2014
24-26
Film Fest Follower
27-28
Favourite Actors Actresses Directors Arthouse Cinemas
29-31
Extras – DVDS/Blu-rays www.moviesbymills.com
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EDITORIAL Our 21st issue is here and heralds the beginning of a very exciting start of a new year. Come, let’s flip through the pages and finger-walk together. This month’s major feature review is BIRDMAN, starring Michael Keaton, who we see rising skywards on our cover in this quite amazing feature, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The film offers a new way of filming which will be explained in the review. The Theory of Everything the film biopic of physicist extraordinaire Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane, is yet another film that critics are predicting Oscar announcements for in March and is a feature review. And Big Eyes is the third feature selected and is about the controversy associated with the legal battle over the paintings of the artist Margaret Keane. A brief review of these films has been added along with a contents page. Film Fest Follower looks ahead at this year’s first major film festival of the year – Sundance. MbM has scoured the programme for you to pinpoint those features which we feel will be worth seeing and even memorable. Many of these, if not all, will find distribution in the UK later in the year; and there are some gems. We were very happy to accept the invitation to interview the former film critic of The Guardian and the London Evening Standard newspapers Derek Malcolm, which was both enlightening and entertaining. Taking first steps into another year one cannot help but look back at what one has passed and so it feels fitting to reflect on what we have seen and praised by giving generous space to MbM’s Favourite Films, Actors, Actresses, Directors and Arthouse Cinemas of the year. These listicles will hopefully provide you with a bit of fun time to browse and tick those that you agree or disagree with, seen or not seen; the list of art house cinemas is long but if your favourite cinema is not listed and you think it should be... email me at brian@movies-by-mills.com and let me know and I will investigate. Finally, a big thank you to all of you who have commented or liked the magazine, please tell your friends and keep reading. Thanks to the team at PremierComms.Com for their invaluable help, Curzon Cinemas, thanks to Gate Picturehouse, Notting Hill , Derek Malcolm, 20th Fox Pictures and our designer Paul Ridler for his expertise and dedication.
MbM wishes you all a Very Happy New Year! 4
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BIRDMAN
or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Starring: Michael Keaton. Zach Galifianakis. Edward Norton. Andrea Riseborough. Amy Ryan. Emma Stone. Naomi Watts. Listen to me, you were the original man. Just like a come-back. That’s what I’m talking about! You are Birdman. You are a God. The expectations based on publicity hype that you may take in with you when seeing this film is that Keaton gives his career best and that the palms of his hands are likely to be gripping Oscar come Hollywood’s glitzy night in March. Rest comfortably with the first, but don’t place bets on the second, as the Academy voters are likely to favour Eddie Redmayne for his performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Riggan Thomas presents Michael Keaton with a dream role as a one-time screen hero called the “The Birdman,” who has just turned down a fourth instalment of the franchise. The opening shot is of Riggan levitating crossed legged in front of a window while his superheroego’s voice reminds him of his supernatural powers. It is a war of divided personalities and when screen hero one dominates he is able to www.moviesbymills.com
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destroy or cause accidents with a click of his fingers. While the other realizes he is a has-been and decides to try to open his first play on Broadway to try to salvage his past cinematic glory, staging a new retelling of a classic drama called “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.� Problems begin to occur with the play, the first being that it loses its leading man and Riggan is forced to bring in a stranger named Mike (Edward Norton) who is a Method actor who worships at its throne, causing serious disruption to the play and denting his fragile ego which has already been hit by a verbal avalanche from his daughter, Sam (*Emma Stone). The film sits perilously close between being an arthouse film and a main stream one, though the former wins because the director is **Inarratu, Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Bieutiful amongst memorable films he has directed. Keaton soared to recognition with the film Night Shift, and his filmography was further enhanced with Mr Mom, Beetlejuice, Clean and Sober. He was the eponymous Batman and again in its sequel Batman Returns. There was an interesting digression when he starred and directed The Merry Gentleman. He played a suicidal hitman who forms a relationship with a woman who has just left an abusive partner; a film worth seeing and totally underrated. *Emma Stone practically steals the acting honours from Keaton. **Inarratu. The look of the film is down to the way the film was shot as it appears to be one continuous tracking shot but the effect was achieved by him in post production editing. 6
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Michael Keaton & Edward Norton
Edward Norton & Emma Stone
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Michael Keaton & Edward Norton
Zack Galifianakis 8
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BIG EYES Directed by Tim Burton Starring: Amy Adams. Christoph Waltz. This is what it has come to, eh? You are the only living soul I can tell my secret to. I painted every single one of them, every Big Eye. Me, and no one will ever know but you. Popularity is the vulgar cousin of art and prints of paintings like The Green Woman were seen in many working class homes in the fifties. Big-eyed children were the chosen subject of artist Margaret Keane and provide the focus in this film by *Tim Burton. She, Margaret (Amy Adams) has left her husband and taken their daughter to San Francisco and starts painting children with dominatingly huge eyes, selling her first picture for a dollar at an art fair. She meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) who is a painter of average Paris street scenes. Margaret falls brush, canvas and easel over Walter and they get married. He then begins promoting his wife’s work around galleries in North Beach’s culture spots to no avail but pesters Enrico Banducci (Jon Polito) to hang some paintings in his nightclub the hungry i. He signs his own paintings as Keane, but admits that the “hobo kids” portraits are his wife’s work until they start selling and then he claims them as his own. A natural gift of salesmanship mixed with a dubious penchant for emotional manipulation has the boggledeyed pictures selling at an enormous rate and thousands of prints of them too with even celebrities like Joan Crawford, Natalie Wood, Kim Novak collecting them. All the while Margaret feebly www.moviesbymills.com
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observes her husband’s thirst for power and recognition, while seeing her daughter alienated and her only friend walk away from her after confronting Walter with the truth. There is a poignant scene which shows that Margaret is on the verge of a nervous breakdown when we see her in a supermarket and suddenly other shoppers start to stare back at her with huge big eyes. Only when Walter threatens Margaret with a contract on her life if she dares to expose the truth of who the true artist is, does she retaliate and leaves him. It is later in Hawaii where Margaret moved to with her daughter that she admitted in a radio broadcast that “she was the only painter in the family,” prompting Walter to take legal action. Big Eyes is both an intriguing film and a frustrating one. An almost unbelievable story of a woman who fails to take credit as the creator of her work while accepting the financial rewards and lifestyle it brings her, and the blatantly underwritten viewpoint of a serious gallery owner Reuben (Jason Schwartzman) who refuses Walter Keane’s persistent requests to stock the pictures because they are not real art. Developing Reuben’s part could have led to the interesting prospect of Margaret taking her art more seriously and establishing a reason why she painted big-eyed children in the first place. The film provides brilliant performances by Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. The film will obviously be compared to Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, about the worst film director of all-time, but the film definitely makes a statement too about women and art and that people don’t take women’s art seriously.
*Tim Burton is a collector and has commissioned Keane portraits of former girlfriend Lisa Marie and wife Helena Bonham Carter.
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Amy Adams
Amy Adams
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Amy Adams & Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz & Amy Adams 12
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THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Directed By: JAMES MARSH Starring: EDDIE REDMAYNE & FELICITY JONES
I know what you think that I don’t look like a terribly strong person, but I love him and he loves me and we are going to fight this illness together. The long awaited biopic of the extraordinary physicist Stephen Hawking is a fitting tribute due to the amazing performance of Eddie Redmayne as the great man. The film is adapted from Jane Hawking’s memoirs of her life with her husband, and their struggles together following the diagnosis at the age of 21 of motor-neurone disease, which doctors predicted would kill him in two years. Though the film is about a scientific genius it concentrates on the relationship between Stephen and Jane and her continual support and love for her husband despite the daily hardships. It is not so much a story about the science of the mind but rather a story about the science of the heart – for this is first and foremost a love story and a beautiful one at that. Ironically it is Stephen’s mind that first attracts Jane to him. You see the men’s shirts glow more than the women’s dresses? Yes. Do you know why? Why? Tide. The washing powder. The fluorescent in the washing powder is caught by the UV light. Why do you know that? It is often daunting for an actor to have the person you are actually playing appear on set, but really it was a great compliment to Redmayne’s portrayal of Stephen Hawking when he did so. In an email which Hawking sent to director James Marsh, he said there were certain points www.moviesbymills.com
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when he thought he was watching himself. At the screening, a nurse was seen wiping a tear from his eye. There is no doubt that Eddie Redmayne will be nominated for an Oscar for his brilliant performance and be odds on favourite to win it. Never once does Redmayne forget that you are watching a brilliant mind that lies behind that sly smile, that indomitable spirit, that quirky sense of humour. For some viewers, it may appear that Eddie Redmayne is an overnight sensation but he has been around quite awhile if you rewind your screen memories you will recall him giving riveting performances as Alex in Like Minds, as Gordy playing opposite Kristin Stewart in the wonderful The Yellow Handkerchief, as Marilyn Monroe’s lover Colin Clark in My Week with Marilyn, or as Marius in Les Miserables. He can next be seen in the Wachowski’s Jupiter Rising. Felicity Jones has appeared in this magazine on more than one occasion: first appeared on the July 2013 cover from the film Breathe Again which was screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and was a MbM’s Special Edition from the festival. Likewise, Felicity Jones is almost certain for nomination too as Jane Hawking in which she seems to play with ease and triumphantly winning our hearts with her natural underplaying of her character. Like Crazy impressed audiences and critics alike at its initial opening at the Sundance Film Festival. Felicity played a British college student who falls in love with an American student and is then banned from the US after overstaying her visa. In Albatross she was Beth who makes friends with an aspiring novelist who then commences to have an affair with her father. And in The Invisible Woman, Felicity was cast as Charles Dicken’s secret lover. Whatever role this young actress takes you can be assured that it will be challenging and worth your time and money to see it. Director James Marsh made the compelling documentary Man on Wire about Phillipe Petit’s high-wire routine performing between New York City’s World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in 1974. Marsh also directed the accomplished feature, Shadow Dancer about an acting member of the IRA who becomes an informant for M15 in order to protect her son’s welfare. It starred Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough. But to end where we begun with The Theory of Everything, let us hear another snippet of enlightenment from the film: If you reverse time, the universe is getting smaller. If I reverse the process all the way back to see what happened at the beginning of time itself: wind back the clock until you get a universe born from a black hole in space. 14
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Harry Lloyd & Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne & Felicity Jones
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Eddie Redmayne
Felicity Jones & Eddie Redmayne 16
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Q & A DEREK MALCOLM Former film critic of The Guardian and the London Evening Standard. Author of “A Century of Films.” Q: Derek, how do you see your role as a film critic and what influence do you think your reviews have on your readers? A: Critics influence fewer and fewer people these days since newspapers and magazines are no longer well read and the internet provides only a mass of contrary opinions. But we still have a role to play, especially as far as independent films are concerned. They need all the help they can get, and sometimes critics can provide it. Q: Of the thousands of films which you have reviewed, has there been any that on a subsequent viewing would have changed your opinion about them? A: Probably quite a few. Mistakes can easily be made in the context of a crowded festival or even the huge weekly schedule we have to suffer these days. Fellini’s “Casanova” was a case in point for me. I disliked it when I saw it at Venice, but a second viewing in London persuaded me that it was one of the director’s most intriguing films. I apologised in print. Q: There are so many options in the way we see films today: television, DVDs, computer, IPod, streaming, internet, or in a cinema? What are your feelings about that and do you think these options threaten the future of theatrical screenings? A: The future of theatrical screenings is safe to some extent because films have to open somewhere and it is in the cinema that they make their first impression. Otherwise I much don’t mind how I see a film. If it’s good, it’s good. If it’s bad, it’s bad. Q: Are we going back to a time when cinema going was an event not just a night out, but an experience in opulent surroundings? A: Not really, though some arthouses are making an effort to provide some sort of special occasion. Opulent surroundings? Try the Warner West End for that one! Q: Nowadays cinemagoers are far more knowledgeable about films and filmmakers which in this country have www.moviesbymills.com
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meant an increase in art-house cinemas opening across the country. As a film critic do you find that encouraging? A: If true, I do find it encouraging, but arthouses have been hit by the recession harder than commercial venues, which suggests that filmgoers have the same tastes as ever, and not very critical ones at that! Q: Some films never get a theatrical screening beyond film festivals, and may never be seen by the general public. What do you think could be done to alter that situation? A: Not much since money rather than quality defines most things. Help, though, could come from the same source that bolsters the other arts. Not, however, under this government. Q: Do you have a favourite film genre and if so why? A: No, though I do prefer Westerns to Musicals! People sometimes accuse me of only liking sub-titled movies. And it is true I tend to specialise in nonEnglish speaking films. Q: Have there been any instances where filmmakers have thanked you for promoting their film and giving it exposure that it may not have otherwise had? A: Yes, a few over the years. And some who accuse me of the reverse! Being a critic occasionally seems like a worthwhile job but, alas, not very often nowadays. Q: If there was one film that you were denied of ever seeing again and would mourn its loss – what would it be? A: Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” or any film by Laurel and Hardy, whom I once met as a small boy and have never forgotten. Q: Do you have a film that despite its critical flaws you love watching as a purely joyful indulgence? A: Plenty. There are good bad films and bad good films. I prefer the former. There are a good many of those. Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a professional film critic? A: Don’t. A fish and chip shop would be more profitable and just as satisfying; particularly if you didn’t dump the chips in lousy fat. 18
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Favourite Films Of 2014
No 10 If I Stay
No 9 Gone Girl
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No 8 Life Itself
No 7 I Origins 20
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No 6 Begin Again
No 5 Birdman
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No 4 God Help the Girl
No 3 Big Eyes
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No 2 A New York Winter’s Tale
No 1 Mood Indigo
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FILM FEST FOLLOWER SUNDANCE 2015 MbM Recommends DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL
Directed by Marielle Helier Starring: Bel Powley. Alexander Skarsgard The coming-of-age adventures of Minnie Goetze, a San Francisco teenager growing up in the counter culture haze of the 1970s.
STOCKHOLM, PENNSYLVANIA
Directed by Nicole Beckwith Starring: Saoirse Ronan. Cynthia Nixon. Jason Isaacs. A young woman is reunited with her parents, Marcy and Glen, after being abducted 17 years earlier. Raised in a suburban basement and renamed Leia by her kidnapper, Ben, she was told the outside world had come to an end and now she must completely reevaluate her perception of it.
PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS Directed by Jacqueline Kim Starring: James Urbaniak
From the moment graphic novelist Will Henry walks in on his wife, Charlie, with another man, his life officially begins to suck.
UNEXPECTED
Directed by Kris Swanberg Starring: Cobie Smulders. Anders Holm. Samantha is a high school science teacher at a lowincome school about to close, and she’s found out she’s pregnant. Though her boyfriend, John, proposes and is thrilled to begin a new life together, Sam struggles with the idea of halting her career to be a full-time mother. 24
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RESULTS
Directed by Andrew Bujalski Starring: Guy Pearce. Kevin Corrigan. Cobie Smulders. Recently divorced, newly rich, and utterly miserable, Danny would seem to be perfect test subject for a definitive look at the relationship between money and happiness. Danny’s well-funded ennui is interrupted by a momentous trip to the gym, where he meets self-styled guru/owner Trevor and irresistibly acerbic trainer Kat. Soon, their three lives are inextricably knotted, both professionally and personally.
I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
Directed by Brett Haley. Starring: Blythe Danner. Sam Elliott. Carol is a retired schoolteacher and a longtime widow in her 70s. She enjoys tranquil routine playing cards with close friends, keeping up her garden, and relaxing with a glass of wine. When her beloved dog dies, there’s a mourning vacuum that draws her to a speed dating shindig. And then there’s the gravelly-voiced exuberant gentleman, Bill, who comes out of nowhere.
MISTRESS AMERICA
Directed by Noah Baumbach Starring: Greta Gerwig. Lola Kirke. Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is having neither the exciting university experience nor the glamorous metropolitan lifestyle she envisioned. But when she is taken in by her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke, she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes.
CHRISTMAS AGAIN
Directed by Charles Poekel Starring: Kentucker Audley. Hannah Gross. For a fifth consecutive December, a heartbroken Noel returns to New York City to work the night shift at a sidewalk Christmas tree lot, devoid of any holiday spirit, he struggles to stay awake during the long, chilly nights in his trailer. Slowly he spirals into despair, but comes to the aid of a mysterious young woman in the park. Her warming presence, matched with some colourful customers, help rescue him from self-destruction. www.moviesbymills.com
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LISTEN TO ME MARLON
Directed by Steven Riley. Featuring Marlon Brando only. This documentary sheds light on the artist and the man, charting Brando’s exceptional career and extraordinary personal life with the actor himself as guide. The film explores his complexities, telling the story entirely in his own voice. No talking heads. No interviewees; just Brando on Brando.
STRANGERLAND
Directed by Kim Farrant Starring: Nicole Kidman. Joseph Fiennes. Hugo Weaving. New to a remote Australian desert town, the Parker family is thrown into crisis when Catherine and Matthew discover that their two teenage kids have mysteriously disappeared just before a massive dust storm hits the town.
CLORO
Directed by Lamberto Sanfelice Starring: *Sara Serraicco. Andrea Vergoni. Giorgio Colangeli. Jenny is seventeen and dreams of becoming a synchronized swimmer, but her carefree adolescent life in Ostia, a seacoast town near Rome, is shaken by the sudden death of her mother. With a sick father and a nine years old brother to look after, Jenny is forced to move to a mountain village in Abbruzzi. Soon she begins to feel the weight of these responsibilities, while the desire to resume running after her dreams. *Made a startling feature film debut in “Salvo” which was reviewed and acclaimed in Movies by Mills.
CALL ME LUCKY
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait Featuring: Barry Crimmins with interviews with comics like Margaret Cho and Marc Mason. A documentary on stand-up comedian Barry Crimmins who had a hellfire brand of comedy that rained on American audiences and politicians like lightning bolts. 26
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FAVOURITE ACTORS
FAVOURITE ACTRESSES
ROMAIN DURIS
AUDREY TAUTOU
MOOD INDIGO
MOOD INDIGO
BEN AFFLECK
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY BEGIN AGAIN
GONE GIRL
CHLOE GRACE MORETZ
COLIN FARRELL
IF I STAY
A NEW YORK WINTER’S TALE
BRIT MARLING I ORIGINS
RUSSELL CROWE A NEW YORK WINTER’S TALE
WILLIAM HURT
ROSAMUND PIKE GONE GIRL
FELICITY JONES THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
A NEW YORK WINTER’S TALE
SALLY HAWKINS
EDDIE REDMAYNE
THE PHONE CALL
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
AMY ADAMS
MICHAEL KEATON
ROBIN WRIGHT
BIRDMAN
BIG EYES THE CONGRESS
CHRISTOPH WALTZ
EMILY BROWNING GOD HELP THE GIRL
BIG EYES
ANNE HATHAWAY
MARK RUFFALO
INTERSTELLAR
BEGIN AGAIN
EVA GREEN THE SALVATION
STACY KEACH IF I STAY
JESSICA BROWN FINDLEY A NEW YORK WINTER’S TALE
FAVOURITE DIRECTORS MICHEL GONDRY MOOD INDIGO
JAMES MARSH THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
BEN AFFLECK GONE GIRL
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN INTERSTELLAR
TIM BURTON BIG EYES
ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU BIRDMAN
RICHARD LINKLATER BOYHOOD
JOHN CARNEY BEGIN AGAIN
STUART MURDOCH GOD HELP THE GIRL
ARI FOLMAN
MIKE CAHILL
THE CONGRESS
I ORIGINS
R J CUTLER
AKIVA GOLDSMAN
IF I STAY
A NEW YORK WINTER’S TALE
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FAVOURITE ART HOUSE CINEMAS ABBEYGATE PICTUREHOUSE, BURY ST EDMONDS ARTS PICTUREHOUSE CAMBRIDGE BARBICAN CENTRE BELMONT PICTUREHOUSE ABERDEEN CAMEO PICTUREHOUSE EDINBURGH CINE LUMIERE SOUTH KENSINGTON CINEMA CITY NORWICH CITY SCREEN PICTUREHOUSE YORK CLAPHAM PICTUREHOUSE *CORONET NOTTING HILL *CLOSED FOR TOTAL REFURBISHMENT DUE TO REOPEN SPRING 2015
*CURZON CANTERBURY OPENED IN OCTOBER 2014
CURZON CHELSEA CURZON KNUTSFORD CURZON MAYFAIR *CURZON MONDRIAN HOTEL
*OPENED THE 56 SEATER ON OCTOBER 2014 IN THE HOTEL LOCATED IN SEA CONTAINERS HOUSE, SOUTH BANK, WATERLOO, LONDON
*CURZON RENOIR
*CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT AND TO REOPEN FEBRUARY 2015 AS THE CURZON BLOOMSBURY
CURZON RICHMOND CURZON SHEFFIELD CURZON SOHO *CURZON VICTORIA *CURZON’S LATEST LONDON CINEMA OPENED IN 2014
DOMINION EDINBURGH DUKE’S @ KOMEDIA BRIGHTON ELECTRIC NOTTING HILL *ELECTRIC SHOREDITCH *ORIGINALLY THE AUBIN CINEMA NOW TOTALLY REBURBISHED AND RENAMED TO MATCH THE LUXURY STANDARDS OF THE ELECTRIC NOTTING HILL.
EVERYMAN BAKER STREET EVERYMAN BELSIZE PARK EVERYMAN HAMPSTEAD EVERYMAN LEEDS EVERYMAN MAIDA VALE *EVERYMAN MAILBOX BIRMINGHAM *OPENING IN 2015
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EVERYMAN OXTED EVERYMAN REIGATE EVERYMAN SCREEN ON THE GREEN ISLINGTON *EVERYMAN @ SELFRIDGES *SITUATED ON THE LOWER GROUND FLOOR OF LONDON’S FAMOUS OXFORD STREET DEPARTMENT STORE
EVERYMAN WALTON-ON-THAMES EVERYMAN WINCHESTER EXETER PICTUREHOUSE FILMHOUSE EDINBURGH GATE PICTUREHOUSE NOTTING HILL GREENWICH PICTUREHOUSE HACKNEY PICTUREHOUSE HARBOUR LIGHTS SOUTHAMPTON HMV/CURZON WIMBLEDON THE LEXI CINEMA KENSAL RISE THE LITTLE THEATRE BATH NATIONAL FILM THEATRE WATERLOO ODEON THE LOUNGE BAYSWATER *THE ODYSSEY ST ALBANS
*OFFICIALLY OPENED IN NOVEMBER 2014. THE CINEMA OCCUPIES THE ORIGINAL SITE OF THE ODEON CINEMA WHICH HAD BEEN DERELICT FOR OVER 19 YEARS. IT IS NOW A LUXURY CINEMA AND HAS HAD MASSIVE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM THE PUBLIC TO ENSURE A DREAM IS REALISED.
OLYMPIC STUDIOS BARNES PICTUREHOUSE at FACT LIVERPOOL PHOENIX PICTUREHOUSE OXFORD PHOENIX PORTOBELLO ROAD REGAL PICTUREHOUSE HENLEY THE REX BERKHAMPSTEAD RIVERSIDE HAMMERSMITH RITZY PICTUREHOUSE BRIXTON STRATFORD EAST PICTUREHOUSE STRATFORD-UPON-AVON PICTUREHOUSE THE TRICYCLE CINEMA KENSAL RISE
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EXTRAS
DVDS OF THE MONTH
HARRY DEAN STANTON: PARTLY FICTION Directed by Sophie Huber Featuring: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Sam Shepard, Wim Wenders, Deborah Harry, Kris Kristofferson.
FILM **** This was for me the highlight of the 2013 Edinburgh Film Festival, a totally riveting documentary on the great actor who has appeared in over 250 films and is highly respected by his peers. What starts out to be an interview punctuated by cigarette smoke, with each inhalation he draws on another memory, slowly changes when he starts strumming a guitar and vocalises his answers with American folk songs. Deep intimate moments are evoked when a lost romance is recalled or regrets he has had about the relationship with his mother, but humour is never far away when happier times are sung about. This film is a coveted experience and Sophie Huber deserves every accolade for capturing it.
EXTRAS The whole film is the extras. www.moviesbymills.com
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FRANCES HA Directed by Noah Baumbach Starring: Greta Gerwig. Mickey Summer.
FILM **** Greta Gerwig is radiant, as Frances, a woman in her late twenties in contemporary New Yorker trying to sort out her ambitions, her finances, and above all her intimate but shifting bond with her best friend, Sophie (Mickey Summer). Frances Ha totally won me over at the Edinburgh Film Festival. This film has now been released as part of the Criterion Collection and therefore is perfect for film buffs as the extras on the DVD will show. It goes without saying that if one has a DVD from Criterion amongst your films then you are serious about film.
EXTRAS Director-Approved Special Edition New high-definition digital master, approved
by co-writer and director Noah Baumbach, with 5.1 DTS-HD master audio on the Blu-ray. New conversation between filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and Baumbach New conversation between actor and filmmaker Sarah Polley and the film’s co-writer and star, Greta Gerwig. New conversation about the look of Frances Ha between Baumbach and director of photography Sam Levy, and Pascal Dangin, who did the film’s colour mastering. Trailer. A booklet featuring an essay by playwright, Annie Baker. NB: Criterion will play on all multi-regional players.
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EXTRAS *FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG This is a bio-pic about actress Jean Seberg which is presented in first-person, with Seberg being played by Mary Beth Hurt. The director, Mark Rappaport, interweaves cinema, politics, American society and culture, and film theory to inform, entertain, and move the viewer. Seberg’s many marriages, as well as her film roles, are discussed extensively. A lot of the film is based on conjecture. *Only one new DVD is available of this film from www.amazon.co.uk Cost £462.94 There are no extras on the DVD. www.moviesbymills.com
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Movies by Mills is an independent production for the promotion of Art House Movies around the world.
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