CONTENTS Page 3 4-7
Editorial Frantz In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious Frenchman who visits the fiancé's grave to lay flowers.
8-11
Beatriz At Dinner A holistic medicine practitioner attends a wealthy client's dinner party after her car breaks down.
12-13
The Big Sick A couple deals with their cultural differences as their relationship grows.
14-15
Marjorie Prime A service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones and allows a man to come face-toface with the younger version of his late father-in-law.
16-17
A Ghost Story In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.
18-19
Bushwick When a Texas military force invades their Brooklyn neighborhood, 20-year-old Lucy and war veteran Stupe must depend on each other to survive.
20-31
70th Anniversary Cannes 2017 Retrospect
32-35
Dying Laughing The craft, creative process and complicated lives of stand-up comedians.
36-38
Film Fest Follower Edinburgh
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Extras DVD LA LA LAND
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Poster – Frantz
PHOTO CREDITS: ARTIFICIAL EYE:1,4,6,7,40 SUNDANCE LONDON: 8,10,11,14 STUDIO CANAL: 12 PICTUREHOUSE ENTERTAINMENT: 16 KETCHUP ENTERTAINMENT 18 Paul Smith/Feature Flash/Silv/REX/Shutterstock (88389481)31 (2ND Pic) SHUTTERSTOCK:26,27, CANNES 2017 Uncredited 28 (1st pic)29,30,31 LIONSGATE:39
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the following people for all help in providing images for this magazine: Chris Boyd at Organic Publicity.co.uk Emma Deakins at ap-pr.co.uk All the team at Premier Comms,com
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EDITORIAL Hello film lovers. With this issue, we are celebrating our 50th issue. Yes, in May 2013 Movies by Mills was born. We lifted off with Belgian actress Déborah François, co-star with Romain Duris of the charming French romantic comedy Populaire. I wanted to publicise this movie and able to interview the stars and the director of the film. The magazine included a feature on the London arthouse cinema the Electric in Notting Hill which showed how going out to see a movie can be a special event if seen in luxurious surroundings which from the images we used you can see it was just that. I wanted an online movie magazine that would guide filmgoers to films which are inspiring and share a passionate feeling for them which I hope would be reflected in the reviews and feature articles in the magazine. There was a feature on film festivals called FilmFest Follower Sundance, which you will see reviews of the current Sundance London Film Festival in these pages. What surprised me more than anything was the warm response I received from people in the industry as well as film lovers, which led me to earmark interviews in future issues as well as the first one, because besides the cover feature interviews relating to Populaire, there was an interview with Joe Rezwin director of the documentary Gazzara, as well as a review of the film. The first two issues were designed by Oliver Tang, editor of London’s free newspaper Laissez Faire, but when his heavy workload became too much he had to quit and that is when I was fortunate enough to have Paul Ridler come on board who expertly designed the look of the magazine and is a technical wizard. Movies by Mills is produced each month and as our slogan states is for discerning cinemagoers and filmmakers. I am not a film critic but a reviewer and editor and choose the films which are reviewed. Thank you to all those that share this magazine with their friends in or out of the industry and particularly to Susan Granger, Eric Pomert, Stephen Simon, Dee Meeden, Tim Baros, Paul Cracknell, David Mahoney, Margarita Chickunera, Anne Cairns, Cassie Ann Ross, Rik Swartzwelder, Peter Maguire, Darren Filkins, Terry Malloy, Tim Wheater, Peter Claridge, Rick Creswell, Barbara Winter, Jasmine Embrechts, Ollie Verschoyle, Steffi Pusch, Connie Sullivan, David Chambers, Tena Wallace, Simon & Josie Burgess, Maggie Wilkins, Ivo, Tony Dean Smith, Doreen Mills, Geno Andrews, Claire Leach, Mark Travis, Paul Smith, Susan Middler, James Du Cann, Britt Pfiger, Laura Waddell, Joe Rezwin, Sheenu Das… Here is to the next 50 issues! Enjoy the read.
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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FRANTZ Directed by Francois Ozon Starring: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stotzner. He’s come to Franz’s grave the past two days. - Anna Maybe he’s a French friend from before the war. - Magda Hoffmeister
Who are you? Why are you laying flowers at my loved one’s grave? Questions unspoken but expressed in the grief-stricken eyes of Anna as she peers at the stranger before her. Perpetual puzzlement permeates her saddened face adding weight to the sullen shadows. What empowers this film is the silence between the dialogue and Paula Beer and her co-star Pierre Niney can perfectly capture this. The story had previously been a play and then Ernst Lubitsch gave the story his romantic humour and knowledge of life’s bitter truths with his screen adaptation Broken Lullaby in 1932. Lubitsch’s version told of a young French soldier Paul Renard (Phillips Holmes) in World War 1 who is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man’s family. It is Fraulein Elsa (Nancy Carroll) who first spies Paul laying flowers at her lover’s grave. Francois Ozon’s version differs from Lubitsch’s original in that it tells the story from the perspective of the German woman and not the Frenchman. He was an Austrian who made a film about the French character and as a Frenchman I would make a film about the German character. By changing perspective, it introduces suspense. In the play and the Lubitsch film, you know from the start what happened. I knew the story would be more interesting from Anna’s point of view, so the audience, like her, wouldn’t know exactly what is coming next. For me, it’s a Hitchcockian approach to cinema. I want to play with the audience. They have some expectations, some desire and you play with that. I like it when the audience can project some ideas onto my images. The interaction between the audience and the story is compelling. 4
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Ozon’s first desire was to make a film about lies and secrets, to show that sometimes in very difficult situations they can help you to survive, to accept the difficulty of life and to mourn. I don’t have a moral position about lies, but it was interesting for me to show that beyond a lie there is a desire for fiction, like our desire for movies. It was a way to speak about cinema. We need art and fiction to survive. No two Ozon movies are the same and Frantz is a sweeping love story. In making it, he wasn’t particularly interested in the period but rather working on it through his elaborate research he consequently became fascinated with that era. He was curious to learn what happened in Germany, especially after the Great War and the humiliation of defeat, the fact that they lost the war and the penalties resulted in a desire for revenge. It’s the roots of the Nazis’ rise to power so it was interesting to Ozon as a French person to learn about the other side, especially in comparison with the Lubitsch movie. In his film, there is a happy ending, which is ironic for us today because Lubitsch didn’t know that another war was going to happen. He brought into the notion of a French-German relationship. Ultimately, France and Germany couldn’t come together properly until after the war. The majority of the film was shot in black and white, though it was Ozon’s original intention was to shoot in colour, but two weeks before shooting began, he decided to shoot in black and white because he had the feeling that he could be more realistic with the period because all the memories, all the documents we’ve got of this period are in black and white and he had the feeling that subconsciously colour didn’t exist during the war. He wanted to be realistic and Frantz is indeed that.
Pierre Niney: Known for the title role of Yves Saint Laurent. A look at the life of the French designer from the beginning of his career in 1958. Paula Beer: THE POLL DIARIES (2010) In the summer of 1914, thirteen year old Oda von Serling (Paula Beer) leaves Berlin to join her family and an assortment of German and Russian aristocrats on an estate in Estonia. Oda arrives there bearing her mother’s coffin and a gift requested by her surgeon father. THE DARK VALLEY (2014) Through a hidden path, a lone rider reaches a little town high up in the Alps. Nobody knows where the stranger comes from, nor what he wants there. But everyone knows that they don’t want him to stay. WERK OHNE AUTOR (Post Production) German artist Kurt Barneet has escaped from East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR – regime.
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Anna(Paula Beer) in Frantz .
Adrien (Pierre Niney) and Anna(Paula Beer) in Frantz . 6
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Anna (Paula Beer) and Adrian (Pierre Niney) in Frantz.
Magda Hoffmeister (Marie Gruder), Adrian (Pierre Niney) Anna (Paula Beer), Docktor Hans Hoffmeister (Ernst Stoller) in Frantz .
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BEATRIZ AT DINNER Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring: Selma Hayek, Chloe Sivigny, John Lithgow, Connie Britton. When I first came to the United States… Did you come legally? Yes
- Beatriz - Doug Strutt - Beatriz
It is quite strange yet refreshing to see a film where the protagonist is a New Age type Beatriz (Selma Hayak) and pitching her against a heavyweight ultrawealthy real estate developer Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), self-satisfied, self-made man prone to regurgitating his success to every acolyte he seemingly owns and those he doesn’t. From the off, the audience is going to root for Beatriz, a Mexican emigre who is a cancer-care worker, animal lover and a vegan. We first see her tending her pets, cats, dog, and a goat. She is on a visit to her wealthy client Cathy (Connie Britton) when her car unexpectedly breaks down leading to an invitation to dinner. She tries to find some connection with Cathy’s husband Grant (David Warshofsky), a situation that worsens once his filthy rich client Strutt and his wife (Amy Landecker) arrive along with a younger couple Alex (Jay Duplass) and his wife (Chloe Sevigny).
Strutt’s verbal verbosity is soon running over at dinner about his big game hunting and devil-may-care development plans, both of which come up against Beatriz’s ideals and she is soon expressing them come what may. As Strutt proudly shows off pictures of a dead rhinocerous which he bagged, Beatriz lets him know her feelings of disgust by flinging his mobile at him. There is also an imagined sequence where Beatriz takes a knife to Strutt’s neck and slices it open. It is a moment when Beatriz’s is in her lower self, but still understandable as by then the average person would form a queue to kill him and consider the act to be justifiable homicide. There is a parallel with the current President of the USA who has proudly shown in the past pictures of his sons with their wildlife trophies that they hunted down and slaughtered. Politically we know where director Miguel Arteta supports. 8
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Beatriz At Dinner is much more than a biting social satire until it pulls the rug out from under you and reveals that it has been a tragedy all along. Beatriz is a Latina holisticmedicine provider who works in a large Southern California cancer centre. She heals by taking the pain of others into herself. This ability goes beyond empathy, and she nears breaking point when a neighbour kills the white goat she raised from infancy. But her fury and despair pushes her over the edge when she meets Strutt at the dinner party which her wealthy client Cathy has invited her to. There is a similarity with the legendary production of Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of Sophocles’s Antigone, staged during the Nazi occupation of France. Beatriz and Antigone refuse to compromise their morality in order to survive a fascist regime. What makes Beatriz At Dinner out of the ordinary is Hayak’s performance and Wyatt Garfield’s cinematography, which punctuates the ugliness that money can buy with magicrealistic images of the natural world. So how did it come about to get Selma Hayek to play the title role of Beatriz? It was two weeks before my birthday and we’re talking about it and on my birthday two weeks later, Mike says Happy Birthday and told me about the script and when I did read it, I felt the luckiest person in the world. I could not believe my luck. You know I’m a veteran. I’ve been doing this for over thirty years and I just never had one of my heroes..two of my heroes. I’ve been trying to work with Miguel for twelve years and come over and give me this amazing jewel. And what about John Lithgow, what did he feel like about playing the despicable Strutt? I’m nowhere near a billionaire. I just read it, loved it. Knew. Yes, I would be able to play this.
What struck me about this language so well, and I mean we’re at an historical moment when the problem is that people in society are not conversing with each other. And this has incredible dialogue.
Beatriz at Dinner was one of the highlights of Sundance London.
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Strutt (John Lithgow)in Beatriz At Dinner .
Grant (David Warshofsky) Beatriz (Salma Hayek) Alex (Jay Duplass) Cathy (Connie Britton) in Beatriz At Dinner. 10
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Cathy (Connie Britton) and Beatriz (Salma Hayek) in Beatriz At Dinner.
Beatriz (Salma Hayek) in Beatriz At Dinner.
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THE BIG SICK Directed by Michael Showalter Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano. Let me give you some advice, Kumail. Love isn’t easy. That’s why they call it love. - Terry I didn’t really get that. - Kumail Damn. I thought I could start saying something and something smart would come out. - Terry This is an original romantic comedy/drama based on a true story of Kumail Nanjiani and his now-wife Emily Gardne; they co-wrote the script and Kumail stars as himself. The premise is the inherent difficulties of interracial, inter-religious relationship between a Pakistani-American comedian and a white woman in Chicago who face both the normal difficulties of relationships combined with the pressures of Kumail’s overbearing, but loving family who demand that he participate in an arranged marriage to a Pakistani girl. Kumail is caught between competing worlds. The situation gets out-ofcontrol when Emily becomes ill and Kumail has to deal with her parents. The film deals with a deeply serious subject but does so with humour and grace. The screenplay is remarkable and nuanced, but it is infused with a comedians sense of timing and manages to capture the real human comedy that exists in all personal relationships. You will laugh when Emily’s hopelessly bewildered father turns to Kumail in a hospital cafeteria and asks him “What do you think of 9/11?” and Kumail responds as a comedian should to such an outrageously stupid question. Though based on a true story there are parts of the story which are obviously fictionalised, but at its core is the real relationship between Kumail and Emily, which is extremely touching. Nanjani plays to his strengths, building his character as a likeable person and always accommodating to please as he is with Emily’s parents, why they still carry the baggage of a long marriage. The one thing that film shows more than any other is the absence of someone you love and the resulting effect that has on the loved one. When Emily becomes ill the doctors put her into an induced coma. We can empathise with Kumail who is missing her and slowly begins to realize how much he loves her. We have already fallen in love with her vulnerability and kookiness. Zoe Kazan is wonderful as Emily. She is an actress and a writer, granddaughter of Elia Kazan, and her father is Nicholas Kazan, writer and director. Her partner in life is Paul Dano. Together they wrote and starred in a magical, modern-day love story Ruby Sparks. The film was made by the directors of Little Miss Sunshine.
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Ruby Sparks was a charming and original film and told of a struggling writer with dreaded writer’s block and a lacklustre love life. Once a famous novelist Calvin (Paul Dano) creates a beautiful fictitious character named Ruby (Zoe Kazan) who inspires him. But not only does this bring his his work to life – it also brings Ruby to life – literally! Face-to-face with an actual relationship with his oncevirtual girlfriend, Calvin must now decide whether to pen this love story or let it write itself. The film became an instant classic that tugged at the heartstrings as a delightful romantic comedy. The Big Sick’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where the film was highly received and started a bidding war for the distribution between Sony, Focus Features, Amazon and Netflix. Co-creator of the film, Kumail wanted the film to have a theatrical distribution which eliminated Netflix from the bidding because they are not a proponent of theatrical distribution. Ultimately the film distribution rights were eventually bought for around $12 million by Amazon who is a big proponent of the theatrical experience, with all its films getting some kind of a theatrical run. The $12 million deal which Amazon made for the film is the largest deal in Sundance history. Is the film worth seeing? Definitely, and not only for Kumails’s and Zoe’s performances and chemistry, but for the fine supporting roles too. One of the many any highlights, is when Emily’s mother (Holly Hunter) wades in against a guy who has been heckling Kumail. He soon wishes he had kept his mouth shut. Holly Hunter is tiny and tough and makes an indelible impression in every scene she is in. Holly Hunter has had good training. Look at some of her earlier movies, they are quite impressive. RAISING ARIZONA Directed by the Coen Brothers. When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another’s family’s quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated. Holly played Ed. Co-star Nicolas Cage. BROADCAST NEWS Directed by James L Brooks. Take two rival TV reporters, one handsome, one talented, both male. Add on producer, female. Mix well and watch the sparks fly. Holly as Jane Craig. Co-star William Hurt. ALWAYS Directed by Steven Spielberg. A romantic adventure about |a legendary pilot’s passion for dare-devil firefighting and his girl. Co-star Richard Dreyfus. THE PIANO Directed by David Cronenberg. A mute woman is sent to 1850s New Zealand alone with her young daughter and a prized piano for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner. But she is soon lusted after by a local worker on the plantation. CRASH Directed by Jane Campion. After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife. For Michael Showater, The Big Sick is his first major feature film, having mainly worked in television.
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MARJORIE PRIME Directed by Michael Almereyda Starring; Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, Tim Robbins, Lois Smith. Lois Smith recreates her stage role as Marjorie Prime in the adapted screen version of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play, exploring memory and identity, love and loss. In the near future, a time of artificial intelligence, 86-year-old Marjorie is a jumble disparate, fading memories – has a handsome new companion who looks like her deceased husband and is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? The ideas are about a future time when AI has developed to the point that grieving people can buy a “prime” – a lifelike robot who can learn to remember your family memories. As the film opens, we have an old lady called Marjorie (Lois Smith) who interacts with a younger avatar of her dead husband (Jon Hamm). What is fascinating is that she is teaching him their shared memories but chooses to alter some of them – making his proposal more romantic so that becomes the version of events. And then, as her memory fades and he becomes her factual record, it’s the fake memory that becomes the shared history. Marjorie’s daughter (Geena Davis) is initially horrified by the concept of her mother having a relationship with a Prime, while her husband (Tim Robbins) sees it as a boon. But as the film develops, we see the two of them have their own relationships with Primes and the position shifts as they too re-interpret history through shared but altered memories. In the final scene of the film, we see the Primes themselves interact and share those memories, moving further away from the truth. The film raises important and nuanced questions about the nature of shared memory and the ethics of altering it. Should the truth be privileged or is it better to tell white lies to comfort people? The problem with the film is that it reads like a didactic treatise rather than a living and breathing drama. Matters aren’t helped by the fact that director Michael Almereyda largely keeps the action in the closed confines of the family home, paces the film slowly, and does little with his camera. To that end, the movie feels like a filmed stage play. You may admire the ideas it purports, but some of its performances are boring and leaves you with an urgent need to escape via the nearest exit.
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JON HAMM Mainly seen screen role to aspiring long as you
in TV series and played Don Draper in Mad Men. His big models are Jeff Bridges, Sam Elliott, Greg Kinnear. Advice actors: Don’t be afraid to fail. Being an actor is easy, as can memorize lines. First Feature Film: Space Cowboys.
GEENA DAVIS Debuted in Tootsie as April. First major role: David Cronenberg’s THE FLY as Veronica Quaife. A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. Barbara Maitland in Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE. A couple of recently deceased ghosts contract the services of a “BioExorcist” in order to remove the obnoxious new owners of their house. Muriel Pritchett in THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST. An emotionally distant writer of travel guides must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles. Thelma in Ridley Scott’s THELMA & LOUISE. An Arkansas waitress and a housewife shoot a rapist and take off in a ’66 Thunderbird. As Dottie Hanson in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their growing rivalry. TIM ROBBINS Favourite movie Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI On Clint Eastwood: He’s a revelation, a gem. A gentleman. A man who’s very loyal to people he works with. He makes you realize that you don’t need a lot of noise and bells and whistles to make a movie. You need simplicity of focus and professionalism. First Feature: TOY SOLDIERS as Boe. Major films: TOP GUN as Merlin. As students at the United States Navy’s elite fighter weapons school compete to be the best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom. BULL DURHAM as Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ Laloosh. A fan who has an affair with one minor league baseball player each season meets an up-and-coming pitcher and the experienced catcher assigned to him. JACOB’S LADDER as Jacob. Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam veteran attempts to discover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. THE PLAYER as Griffin Mill. When callous movie studio executive Griffin Mill starts receiving anonymous death threats from a rejected screenwriter, his already shaky career begins to crumble. Finally, his desperation drives him to kill. But did he kill the wrong writer? SHORT CUTS as Gene Shepard. The day-to-day lives of a number of suburban Los Angeles residents. THE HUDSUCKER PROXY as Norville Barnes. A naïve business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION as Andy Dufresne. Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventful redemption through acts of common decency. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION has one of the highest Internet Movie Data Base’s ratings ever. The film has become a classic. Unforgettable performances from Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Film and Best Actor. Andy learns that when you are in Shawshank State Prison for life, that is exactly what they take. He learns that survival comes down to a simple choice, get busy living or get busy dying. In MARJORIE PRIME, Tim Robbins brings all of his skills in the role of Jon It is just a shame that the film was not opened up with exteriors in an attempt to justify its cinematic format as a film rather than a play.
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A GHOST STORY Directed by David Lowery Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara. When I was little, we used to move all the time. I’d write these notes and I’d fold them really small and I would hide them. - M What did they say? - C Just things I wanted to remember, so if ever wanted to go back, there could be a piece of me there waiting. - M
In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife. The story follows the observation of the white sheeted ghost as he protects M (Rooney Mara) and sometimes lets his presence be known by moving objects, flickering the lights or smashing things to show his disapproval. The idea of the story came to David Lowery from when he and his wife had an argument about where they wanted to live -it sparked his imagination. The film was shot in 1.37-1 aspect ratio because it suited what he wanted to do giving the impression of being boxed in and looking like a photo album. Striking tableaux’s that lasted for a long period of time
Lowery had been trying to enter Sundance Film Festival with one of his films for fifteen years and he didn’t let the rejections bring him down, so he kept on progressing and he finally made it. The scene where M eats the pie is a case in point of a long take, showing her grief as tears roll down her face. She consumes her grief and begins to attack the pie until it is all gone, resulting in her running to the bathroom to throw up. She is watched as always by the ghost. Another scene is in the mortuary where C is lying beneath a white sheet. M enters uncovers the sheet and then slowly replaces it and leaves. But the camera stays and slowly we notice the sheet beginning to move. The ghost rises up and returns home to observe the grieving widow he left behind.
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It is moments like these that the film grabs you and never lets go. By establishing his unwavering commitment to lingering in this sole location, through many static shots, it makes Lowery’s expansive vision to come all the more affecting. A Ghost Story is a stunning meditation on the passage of time and is one of the most original, narratively audacious films you will probably ever see. The film was shot in Austin just a few days after Pete’s Dragon was completed, and the film is surprising at every single turn. Early introductions of a portal into the afterlife to ghosts speaking to each other about finding peace (with subtitles). It manages a variety of tones, from the otherworldly to the slyly funny to the emotionally devastating. Mara and Affleck collaborate in the stillness of grief. The initial inherent goofiness of the image of a caped Affleck with eye holes cut out as he stands around corners of their house quickly washes away when Lowery centres the focus on M’s devastation, rendered by Rooney Mara’s in one of her most affecting performances. An infatuation with our place in the universe has been in the writer-director’s other works, but the grappling with what awaits long after we’re six feet under is extraordinarily brought to life. The less known about the narrative turns, the better, as Lowery is gradually able to show the cyclical way of nature, and man altering it, in an astounding way. By framing the film around an intimate quarrel about the couple’s home, it helps give a personal attachment when the scale cosmically expands. The pristine cinematography of Andrew Droz Palermo, captured with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio and vignette corners, gives the feeling of each frame being a moving painting, especially the first half of the movie. As the Weerasethakul-inspired cinematography incrementally becomes more expansive and kinetic to fit the narrative turns of the story, Daniel Hart’s score – including Affleck’s effective rendition of his song “I Get Overwhelmed”, becomes more lyrical and emotionally stirring. The psychological weight of our certain death and the fact that life will go on long after we are departed is difficult to visually convey, but A Ghost Story is one of the most poignant films to ever tackle with this existential question. It’s a singular feat of enthralling storytelling that is going to leave a lasting impression centuries after everyone has passed away, but as the character Will Oldham ponders in this film, humanity will eventually perish. It is not a comforting thought, but A Ghost Story leaves enough room for the viewer to find peace in the reflection.
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BUSHWICK Directed by Cary Murnion & Jonathan Millot. Starring: Dave Bautista, Brittany Snow. Lucy was doing what Stupe was asking of her, but she didn’t know if she could do it. She was pulling out glass that was embedded in his leg and trying to follow his instructions. Oh My God!, had become a habitual scream. And then blood flooded from the wound as the glass was pulled out. Oh my God! Now, what was he telling her, as he handed her a red-hot knife. Do it! Do it! The smell of burning flesh. More glass, more blood, more hell. Oh my God! Oh My God! On the way to Grandma’s house with a new boyfriend in tow, Lucy (Brittany Snow) steps off the subway into an utter bloodbath on the streets of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighbourhood. Texas is attempting to secede from the Union, and militia forces have descended upon New York City to claim it as an East Coast base of operations and negotiation tool. Faced with a flurry of whizzing bullets and destruction around every corner, Lucy takes shelter in the basement of Stupe (Dave Bautista), a burly war veteran who reluctantly helps her traverse the treacherous five-block stretch of Bushwick to reach her destination – assuming it is still there. Directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Millot return to the screen with this intense and frenetic follow-up to their comedy/horror debut Cooties (2014 Sundance Film Festival). Bolstered by an immersive score from indie hip-hop mainstay Aesop Rock, Bushwick is an exhilarating thrill ride that is heart-pounding. The idea for the story was that the USA is always invading other countries, what if we were invaded by our own mercenaries. Co-directing a movie means that they have a set way of working. They plan, storyboard, lots of preparation, rehearsals with the cast. They used very long takes. They discussed everything. They make movies that they like and want to see and that surprise people. Murnion and Millot’s background is graphic design. They didn’t go to film school. It is obvious at times that the budget was tight and they got lucky with a crazy film score which helps emphasise the chaotic and horrific world that is going on around everyone.
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But when you break the whole film down, the one major thing it has going for it is its star Dave Bautista, the muscle-bound hero of the movie. Bautista is a professional wrestler, hence his size. His first feature was House of the Rising Sun. In the successful Guardians of the Galaxy, he plays the character Drax. He will also be seen in the highly anticipated Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049. Bushwick is a timely movie with political unrest and criticisms of the President of the United States, and often gung-ho theories. To therefore envision a second civil war where Texas, and other States want to build a ‘New America’ is not as it may first seem. After all there were reports that former Texas Governor Rick Perry was advocating the state secede from the Union after the election of President Obama, the invading military presence in Bushwick is a consortium of soldiers from multiple Southern states looking to force the government’s hand in ratifying a multi-state secession. The focus of Bushwick is Lucy (Brittany Snow) who is the protagonist of the story as she becomes our avatar into a disconcerting alternative universe in which Brooklyn is the focal point of the invasion, which starts with her boyfriend being shot as they are exiting a subway. Few citizens are fighting back against the black-garbed assailants, while others take the opportunity to loot. But the majority wind up dead. Fortunately for Lucy, she happens upon Stupe, an ex-Marine, who lives in the basement shelter and claims to be on his way to Hoboken, New Jersey, to reunite with his wife and child. Lucy begs him to help her get the five blocks to her grandmother’s apartment, and the pair bond when she helps to cauterize his wound. It is not until they meet up with Lucy’s pothead sister Belinda (Angelic Zambrana), and intercept one of the masked soldiers (Alex Breaux) that they and the audience realize what is really going on. The nightmarish vision Bushwick presents could theoretically hold bipartisan allure. But there is no question who the villains are here, and the film remains explicitly against both the idea of secession and the ugliness of war. Filmed by DP Lyle Vincent in a series of single takes, and cut together by Joe Hobeck to appear like a nearly unbroken shot (a couple of dissolves shatter the illusion, and numerous other cuts are hidden in plain sight, especially as they travel up and downstairs. The key becomes keeping the camera contained to Lucy and Stupe’s immediate field of vision and letting the sound design do a lot of the heavy lifting with an omnipresent assault of helicopters, tanks, and gunfire mainly off-screen. From the start of the film, the tension never lets up.
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7Oth Anniversary CANNES 2017 RETROSPECT We take a look at the film festival of festivals, the films that left a lasting impression with film critics and audiences. The jury was made up of Pedro Almodovar, Jessica Chastain, Paolo Sorrentino, Will Smith, Maren Ade, Fan Bingbing, Agnes Jaoui, Park Chan-wook and Gabriel Yared. Political correctness was reflected in both the awards and comments made by Pedro Almodovar and Will Smith, but one thing that remained as always was the glitz and glamour of Cannes. It began as always with the arrival of the jury, the stars and directors, and then posing for a group photo of past Palme d’Or winners. Some photo. Some winners. Added to the galaxy of stars were those who were invited to attend as guests. Once the interviews and photo-shoots had wrapped it was time for all of them to climb the twenty-four red-carpeted steps to the Palais and be greeted by the president of the festival and yes, more photos. As it is the 70th anniversary, there has never been so many celebrities in attendance and so much speculation as to what might win the Palme d’Or, but before that let us reflect on past winners: 1955 MARTY. 1956 THE SILENT WORLD. 1957 FRIENDLY PERSUASION. 1958 THE CRANES ARE FLYING. 1959 BLACK ORPHEUS. 1960 LA DOLCE VITA. 1961 THE LONG ABSENCE & VIRIDIANA. 1962 KEEPER OF PROMISES. 1963 THE LEOPARD. From 1964–74 The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film 1964 THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. 1965 THR KNACK…and HOW TO GET IT. 1966 A MAN AND A WOMAN & THE BIRDS, THE BEES AND THE ITALIANS. 1967 BLOWUP. 1968 No award this year because of the May 1968 events in France. 1969 IF…. 1970 MASH. 1971 THE GO-BETWEEN. 1972 THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN & THE MATTEI AFFAIR. 1973 THE HIRELING & SCARECROW. 1974 THE CONVERSATION. Palme d’Or 1975-present. 1975 CHRONICLE OF THE YEARS OF FIRE. 1976 TAXI DRIVER. 1977 PADRE PADRONE. 1978 THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS. 1979 APOCALYPSE NOW & THE TIN DRUM. 1980 ALL THAT JAZZ & KAGEMUSHA. 1981 MAN OF IRON. 1982 MISSING & THE WAY. 1983 THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA. 1984 PARIS, TEXAS. 1985 WHEN FATHER WAS AWAY ON BUSINESS. 1986 THE MISSION. 1987 UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN. 1988 PELE THE CONQUEROR. 1989 SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE. 1990 WILD AT HEART. 1991 BARTON FINK. 1992 THE BEST INTENTIONS. 1993 FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE & THE PIANO. 1994 PULP FICTION. 1995 UNDERGROUND. 1996 SECRETS & LIES. 1997 TASTE OF CHERRY & THE EEL. 1998 ETERNITY AND A DAY. 1999. ROSETTA. 2000 DANCER IN THE DARK. 2001 THE SON’S ROOM. 2002 THE PIANIST. 2003 ELEPHANT. 2004 FAHRENHEIT 9/11. 2005 THE CHILD. 2006 THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY. 2007 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS. 2008 THE CLASS. 2009 THE WHITE RIBBON. 2010 UNCLE 20 www.moviesbymills.com
BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES. 2011 THE TREE OF LIFE. 2012 AMOUR. 2013 BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR. 2014 WINTER SLEEP. 2015 DHEEPAN 2016 I, DANIEL BLAKE. 2017 THE SQUARE. In 2002 the festival began to sporadically award a non-competitive Honorary Palme d’Or to directors who had not achieved a notable body of work but who had never won a competitive Palme d’Or. The inaugural recipient was Woody Allen. In 2008 Manoel de Oliveira, Clint Eastwood in 2009, Bernardo Bertolucci 2011, Agnes Varda 2015, Jean-Pierre Leaud 2016. Jean-Pierre was the first person to be awarded solely for acting. Back with the 2017 festival, Clint Eastwood took the stage to give a Masterclass and be interviewed by Kenneth Turan. Actor and director Clint, stated how he loved France, the French, and their films. His presence was a welcome relief of political incorrectness. He spoke at length of his mentors: Don Siegal and Sergio Leone. He worked with Don Siegel on COOGANS’S BLUFF, TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA, THE BEGUILED, which has been remade and reworked in this festival by Sofia Coppola and winning her the prize of Best Director, becoming only the second woman director to win the award; the other being Jane Campion. The last film which Clint made with Don Siegal was DIRTY HARRY which introduced the character of Harry Calahan. With Sergio Leone, Clint was reluctant to go to Italy to make a film, and told the audience that he preferred to stay home and play golf, that was until he read the script of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. He signed on for that and two others, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; they became known as ‘Spaghetti Westerns’. It became a great working relationship between Eastwood and Leone. The part of ‘The Man With No Name’ was originally offered to Charles Bronson, but he had to turn it down because he was contracted to be in DIRTY DOZEN. Clint’s masterclass was a great success and one of the highlights of this year’s Cannes Film Festival programme.
And to this year’s films and MbM’s highs and lows.
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Opening Film ISMAEL’S GHOSTS Directed by Arnaud Desplechin Starring Mathieu Amalric, Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg. The expected booing after the screening of this film never came, instead it was met with stunned silence; a critical consensus that they had just seen a ‘stinker’. The story is about a filmmaker whose life is turned upside down when a former lover returns from the dead just as he is about to start on the shoot of a new film. The narrative goes off into so many directions that it is not worth the effort of following them. Cue the exit.
WONDERSTRUCK Directed by Todd Haynes Starring Oakes Fedley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams. The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from 50 years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. There are magical moments in the film, but more is expected and it becomes wonder less.
REDOUBTABLE Directed by Michel Hazanavicius Starring Louis Garrel, Anne Wazemsky, Berenice Bejo. During the making of one of his films, film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with a 17-year-old ad later marries her. Almost a tongue-in-cheek film but one that proves very entertaining.
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THE RIDER Directed by Chloe Zhao Starring Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau. After suffering a near fatal head injury, a young cowboy undertakes a search for a new identity. Chinese-born Chloe Zhao made a very impressive film feature debut two years ago with SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME which was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and now she returns to the same independent section of the festival with another absorbing indie-realist slice of Americana, a tale of cowboys, bull riders and bronco riders in South Dakota.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone. Lanthimos opens his latest intense drama by setting the tone of the impending darkness with choral music and by the very first image of a beating heart surrounded by the blue sheet of the operating theatre. The surgeon’s bloodied gloves are dropped into a bin.
The surgeon is Steven (Colin Farrell), He is a renowned cardiologist married to his job and to an ophthalmologist Anna (Nicole Kidman). They are a beautiful couple with two gorgeous children Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Sujic). But then Martin (Barry Keoghan) a teenager, visits Steven. They have covert meetings and Steven lavishes the boy with expensive gifts. It transpires that he is the son of a patient who dies on Steven’s operating table. And when Steven brings him into his home, the mysterious narrative becomes a thriller. There are twists and turns in the plot as is expected of Lanthimos, plus there is also a wonderful and comical cameo by Alicia Silverstone who plays Martin’s mother. Lanthimos has once again made a film that will have you gasping in surprise and horror.
THE FLORIDA PROJECT Directed by Sean Baker Starring Willem Dafoe, Brooklyn Prince. The story of a precocious six-year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer vacation is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a slice of adventure, while the adults around them struggle with hard times. Baker has a talent for finding the beauty in some of America’s biggest eyesore landscapes, and he gives his scenes a spontaneous documentary-like quality with loving care with every Steadicam shot. He’s also a skilful director of non-professionals, particularly the children, who are charismatic.
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VISAGES VILLAGES **** Directed by Agnes Varda & JR Documentary. The one film that received unanimous praise was this magical film by 88-year-old Agnes Varda and graffiti artist and photographer JR. They roam the various towns and spaces around France and find local people and places to photograph and then JR, working from his van, blows the pictures up from his huge photo printer and then pastes them on the sides of buildings, rocks on the beach, shipping containers It becomes an enchanting experience for them and for the viewer.
THE BEGUILDED Directed by Sofia Coppola Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst. A reworking of Clint Eastwood’s film of the same title but from the perspective of the women rather than the man. At a girls’ school in Virginia during the Civil War, where the women have been sheltered from the outside world, a wounded soldier is taken in. Soon the house is taken over with sexual tension, rivalries, and an unexpected turn of events.
LOVELESS Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev Starring Maryna Spivak, Aleksey Rozin, Matvey Novikov. A couple going through a divorce must team up to find their son who has disappeared during one of their bitter arguments. High visibility jackets can be seen traipsing through a misty winter wood. Searching, searching. Zvyagintsen has compiled a cinematic record of suffering, even the soundtrack adds to the agonising ambiance.
WIND RIVER Directed by Taylor Sheridan Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen. A FBI agent teams up with the town’s veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation. The body is found a long way from where she lived and in deep snow. What and who was she running from? A solid modern-day western filmed in the bleak wintry waste of Wyoming. Renner and Olsen prove to be perfect as the investigating team. 24
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YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE **** Directed by Lynne Ramsay Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) lives with his elderly mother in the house where he spent his traumatised childhood. A former soldier and law enforcement officer, Joe now works in the sleazy world of “private security”, carrying out jobs with unhesitatingly efficiency and brutality. He specialises in recovering runaway teenagers on behalf of wealthy parents who prefer not to involve the authorities. The opening sequence shows aspects of his latest job with memories of his own abuse which are always on his mind. His latest commission is to recover a young girl, the daughter of an ambitious politician who has joined the ticket as a running mate for the campaign of a certain Senator. Nina, the young girl, has apparently been lured into a sextrafficking ring and Joe’s employer wants Joe to rescue her and mete out his natural retributive violence. Joe sets up a meeting with the Senator in an anonymous hotel where he is confident he can deliver Nina. But things go horribly wrong.
Lynne Ramsay shared the Best Screenwriting Award, while Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor.
IN THE FADE Directed by Faith Akin Starring Diane Kruger, Numer Akar, Ulrich Tokar. Katja’s life collapses after the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After the time of mourning and injustice, comes the time of revenge. Brilliantly acted by Diane Kruger, which was recognized by the jury resulting in her winning the Best Actress award.
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Jessica Chastain.
Elle Fanning. 26
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Vanity Fair Party .
Berenice Bejo at photo shoot for Redoubtable.
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Sofia Coppola at photo shoot for The Beguiled.
Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst at photo shoot for The Beguiled. 28
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Elle Fanning.
Clint Eastwood.
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JR, Agnes Varda at Photo shoot for Visages Villages.
Primary Jury at press Conference. Park Chan-Wook, Maren Ade, Will Smith, Agnès Jaoui, Pedro Almodóvar, Jessica Chastain, Paolo Sorrentino, Fan Bingbing. 30
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Diane Kruger with Best Award.
Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara just before he is called up on stage to receive award for Best Actor.
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DYING LAUGHING Directed by Lloyd Stanton, Paul Toogood. Featuring: Jo Brand, Billy Connolly, Steve Coogan, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Izzard, Jerry Lewis, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Schumer, Gary Shandling. Comedy is purely a result of your ability to withstand self-torture. - Jerry Seinfeld
Memories came flooding back to me while watching this documentary on stand-up comedy, as I experienced it as a young man doing working men’s clubs in Manchester and Holiday Camps. Consequently, I totally resonate with this fine documentary. We hear comments from some of the greatest comedians and comediennes as they share their experiences with us.
This film reveals the hidden depths of stand-up comedy and has been cultivated from interviews with over 50 comedians with varying degrees of success searching for the key within the craziness of an oftenunderappreciated form of entertainment. Dying Laughing offers a thorough exploration into how these artists compose their respective acts, the stamina needed to withstand a tour, going from venue to venue, not knowing what reception they will receive…and of course confronting the dreaded heckler. It does not always clarify the ways that comedians tackle hecklers, and they all vary, but generally they try to make it appear as if they are ad-libbing when in fact it is all part of their act having specific gags to deal with hecklers like drunks: Go and lean against that wall – its plastered too. My favourite rebuff to a heckler was Oh, my God! This guy follows me everywhere. I call him Urinal because he always takes the piss! What I find quite endearing about this film is that it amounts to a collective voice of beginning with the question Why? Why would anyone even subject themselves to this? No matter how many times you do your act, you still get butterflies which are only stopped by the first sound of laughter and clapping, merely confirming that it is okay to do what you do. You are not crazy, and for a while you believe it. Applause is the biggest high you can get out of it.
For these professionals, comedy is about making people laugh, that is the challenge and, slowly through experience, they build a rapport with their audience, but it may take some time. 32
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It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing stand-up comedy. You are never exempt from a bad night. – Russell Peters It is definitely not a great way to invest in your romantic life. – Amy Schumer And as referred to in this film, if you have just bombed, then it is long lonely road back to your hotel. You enter an empty room after being in an auditorium full of, if you’re lucky, smiling, laughing people. The film is punctuated with the black and white close-ups broken-up with colour footage of cross-country highways, bright lights, demoralising motels and almost inedible food of showbiz life on the road for the stand-up comic. Added to this are times when things can go horribly wrong as Steve Coogan and Billy Connolly remind us. There was a guy who punched me on stage - Billy Connolly They literally threw chairs at you - Steve Coogan Anyone who has had any involvement in entertainment, directly or as a fan, will understand what it takes to carry the torch of a stand-up comedian and after seeing Dying Laughing will appreciate their life even more. Comedy is an undervalued art form. The philosophy of a comedian is summed up by Chris Rock, pointing to the sadness and a sense of disenfranchisement as key elements of the comic persona. Beyond their tenacity and their talents as entertainers and wordsmiths, stand-ups are, Rock says: the last philosophers. One would probably be inclined to investigate comedy further after seeing this documentary and Misery Loves Comedy which looked at the inner turmoil a comedian endures day-in-day-out. What I would like to have seen was more comedians reflecting on their career, even using films from comedic archives of the BBC: Bob Monkhouse, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Ken Dodd (who would have his wife sitting in the audience taking notes of the jokes that went well and those that bombed), Lenny Henry, Tommy Cooper, Dave Allen, Jimmy Carr, Jasper Carrott, Jim Davison, Dawn French, Michael McIntyre, Al Murray, Charlie Williams, Al Murray, Bernard Manning, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ken Goodwin, Jack Dee, Bill Bailey. Les Dawson. Jerry Seinfeld sums it up perfectly on what comedy meant to him: All the heralding, the awarding, the trumpeting, the lauding, who cares? That laugh is better than any trophy and that is what I live for.
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Billy Connolly.
Jamie Foxx. 34
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Jerry Lewis.
Steve Coogan.
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FILMFEST FOLLOWER
EDINBURGH ST
21
nd
June – 2
July
OPENING NIGHT GALA GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Directed by Frances Lee
BEST OF BRITISH THAT GOOD NIGHT
THE MARKER
Directed by Eric Styles
Directed by Justin Edgar
MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH
EDIE
Directed by Daniel Jerome
THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH Directed by Danny Huston
JUST CHARLIE Directed by Rebekah Fortune
DAPHNE
THE RECEPTIONIST Directed by Jenny Lu
ENGLAND IS MINE Directed by Mark Gill
BAD DAY FOR THE CUT Directed by Chris Baugh
Directed by Peter Mackie Burns
MY PURE LAND
THE PUGILIST Directed by Glen Kirby
KALEIDOSCOPE
THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC
Directed by Rupert Jones
Directed by Simon Aboud
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY
LONDON SYMPHONY
Directed by Frances Lee
Directed by Alex Barrett
Directed by Sarmad Masud
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Directed by Simon Hunter
JULIUS CAESAR
ACCESS ALL AREAS
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Directed by Bryn Higgins
LET ME GO
ROMANS
Directed by Polly Steele
Directed by The Shammasian Brothers
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AMERICAN DREAMS STORY OF A GIRL
IN DUBIOUS BATTLE
Directed by Kyra Sedgwick
Directed by James Franco
WHERE IS KYRA?
FREAK SHOW
Directed by Andrew Dosunmu
Directed by Trudie Styler
SWEET VIRGINIA
MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA
Directed by Jamie M Dagg
MAYA DARDEL Directed by Zachary Cotler & Magdalena Zyzak
LOVE AFTER LOVE Directed by Russell Harbaugh
PARIS CAN WAIT Directed by Eleanor Coppola
SONG TO SONG Directed by Terrence Malick
THE LAST WORD
Directed by Dash Shaw
MENASHE Directed by Joshua Z Weinstein
THE LITTLE HOURS Directed by Jeff Baena
WAKEFIELD Directed by Robin Swicord
STRANGE WEATHER Directed by Katharine Diekmann
Directed by Mark Pellington
EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVES SAMI BLOOD Directed by Amanda Kernell
THE KING’S CHOICE
PILGRIMAGE Directed by Brandan Muldowney
DARKLAND
Directed by Erik Poppe
Directed by Fenar Ahmad
ZER
WATERBOYS
Directed by Kazim Oz
Directed by Robert Jan Westdiijk
HALAL DADDY
THE OATH Directed by Baltasa Kormakur
Directed by Conor McDermottfoi
DALIDA
GLORY
Directed by Lisa Azuelos
FOG IN AUGUST Directed by Kai Wessel
Directed by Kristina Grozeva
ATTRACTION Directed by Fedor Bondarchuk
A WEDDING
HOSTAGES Directed by Rezo Gigineishvili
TOM OF FINLAND Directed by Dome Karukoski
GOODBYE BERLIN
Directed by Stephen Streker
INSYRIATED Directed by Phillipe Van Leuuw
THE MIDWIFE
Directed by Faith Akin
Directed by Martin Provost
R.A.I.D. SPECIAL UNIT
Directed by Pedro Aguilera
SISTER OF MINE 1945
Directed by Dany Boon
Directed by Ferenc Turok
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WORLD PERSPECTIVES GODSPEED Directed by Mong-Hong Chung
IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
SEXY DURGA Directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
MAUDIE Directed by Aisling Walsh
NEWTON Directed by Amit V Masurkar
WHITE SUN Directed by Derek Rauniyar
OKJA Directed by Bong Joon Ho
EMO THE MUSICAL Directed by Neil Triffett
SNOW WOMAN Directed by Kiki Sugino
I DREAM IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE Directed by Ernesto Contreras
RAGE Directed by Sang-il Lee
A QUIET HEART Directed by Eitan Anner
CLOSING NIGHT GALA ENGLAND IS MINE Directed by Mark Gill
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EXTRAS DVD OF THE MONTH
LA LA LAND Directed by Damien Chazelle Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, J K Simmons. Winner of 6 Oscars including Best Director for writer/director Damien Chazelle, and winner of a record-breaking 7 Golden Globe Awards, La La Land is more than the most acclaimed movie of the year – it’s a cinematic treasure for the ages that you’ll fall in love with again and again. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling star as Mia and Sebastian, an actress and a jazz musician pursuing their Hollywood dreams – and finding each other – in a vibrant celebration of hope, dreams and love. A bitter-sweet love letter to Los Angeles, the golden era of Hollywood musicals and the visual flair of French maestro Jacques Demy and inspired by his masterpiece The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress, barely holding down a day job on a studio lot while juggling auditions for second-rate parts. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a pianist struggling to keep his job at a family restaurant where he plays a freewheeling jazz instead of cheesy favourites. Mia and Sebastian are destined to meet as they are two of a kind, though their first encounter during a traffic jam on a LA fly-over holds little promise, but after a series of misunderstandings things begin to develop between them. The film is interspersed with some lovely songs and the whole movie begins to dazzle and pluck at your heartstrings leaving you with a magical movie memory.
SPECIAL FEATURES *Audio Commentary with Director Damien Chazelle and Composer Justin Hurwitz. *La La Land’s Love Letter to Los Angles. *Ryan and Emma: Third Time’s The Charm. *Song Selection.
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