Contents Page 3 Editorial 4-7 Love Sarah A young woman wishes to fulfil her mother’s dream of opening her own bakery in Notting Hill, London. To do this, she enlists the help of an old friend and her grandma.
8-11 A White, White Day An off-duty police officer begins to suspect a local man for having an affair with his recently dead wife. Gradually, his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones.
12-15 Emma In 1800s England, a well meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends.
16-19 The Way Back Jack Cunningham was an HS basketball phenom who walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Years later when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater, he may get one last last shot at redemption.
20-23 Storm Boy When Michael Kingley, a successful retired businessman starts to see images from his past that he can’t explain, he is forced to remember his childhood and how, as a boy, he rescued and raised an orphaned pelican Mr. Percival.
24 DVDS of the Month Hereafter 25 Only You 26 Paris, Texas 27 Contagion 28 Knives Out 29 Paris 30 A Little Princess 31 Ballad of Narayama 32 Poster (Storm Boy) PHOTO CREDITS: Parkland Entertainment: 1,4,6,7 Peccadillo Pictures: 8,10,11 United International Pictures: 12,14,15 Warner Bros: 16,18,19 Lighthouse Film Distribution: 20,22,23,32
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We would like to thank the following people for their help in providing material for this magazine: Emma Deakins @ Strike Media, Kate Riddell @ Warner Bros Clare Leach and team @ Premier Comms.Com
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EDITORIAL Hello film lovers, you will notice a in this issue due to the lockdown of imposed by the government because of and consequently resulting in movies at home.
few changes cinemas Coronavirus being shown
Each month our feature on DVDs of the Month will increase its entries to accommodate films that are being digitally released to Home Cinema led by Curzon Home Cinema. Our film reviews will continue as usual, led this month by our cover feature Love Sarah. Other reviews are A White, White Day, Emma, The Way Back, Storm Boy. There are 8 DVD/Blu-Ray features reviewed and recommended for all our followers so though cinemas are closed you can still enjoy the best of film releases from your armchair. So, stay at home, order your films online and adhere to the government’s advice and be safe when you do have to go out for essentials: you should distance yourself from people, but you don’t have to distance yourself from films. And may we bring you the ultimate reminder of the greatest escapism in the world of entertainment – Movies.
Enjoy the read Magazine Editor Brian Mills
Magazine Designer Paul Ridler
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LOVE SARAH Directed by Eliza Schroeder Starring: Celia Imrie, Rupert Penry-Jones, Shelley Conn, Bill Paterson, Shannon Tarbet, Grace Calder, Lucy Fleming We make our bakery to remind them of something at home. — Sarah A young woman wishes to fulfill her mother’s dream of opening her own bakery in Notting Hill, London. To do this, she enlists the help of an old friend and her grandma. Sarah (Candice Brown) the titular protagonist, dies before opening her bakery, which leaves her 19-year-old daughter Clarissa (Shannon Tarbet), her grandmother Mimi (Celia Imrie) and her mothers best friend Isabella (Shelley Conn) to decide what is going to happen to the store. Clarissa convinces Isabella to open the pastry shop regardless and to name the shop Love Sarah in honor of her mother and her dream. Her grandmother Mimi (Celia Imrie) invests in the shop and Sarah’s childhood friend Matthew (Rupert Penry-Jones) is keenly welcomed as he is a baker with a highly gifted and creative imagination that provides the visual and taste-watering delights that the bakery needs to attract its customers. Sarah had already rented the shop before her unexpected and fatal bicycle accident which is the opening sequence of the film which leads to the narrative of what follows now. One of the main reasons that Clarissa wanted to make her mother’s dream come true was she had lost her job and been kicked out by her boyfriend. So, at night she sleeps in the dilapidated shop that should have served Sarah as a bakery. She then entices her mother’s best friend on board and persuades her headstrong grandmother Mimi to contribute money and start the business moving. These three women from three generations work well together. They renovate the shop, furnish it, and work out baking recipes adroitly enhanced by Matthew, who had just lost his job in a first-class restaurant. Matthew was once in love with Sarah, but the relationship fell through. Isabella is still angry with him, while Matthew has his own reasons why he wants to get involved in Clarissa’s project.
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In Love Sarah, the women must get along before they can build on anything. The screenplay builds on this as its structure: Clarissa has not visited her grandmother for a very long time, which is why the screenplay must labour the point: with an acrobatic course, her old profession. It is an original idea, more out of curiosity than anything else.
CELIA IMRIE: who plays Mimi has established herself as an actress of high standing as her filmography clarifies. She began her ascent as an actress when in 1994 she appeared as Mrs Moritz in Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which starred Robert De Niro. The following year she was again in a film directed by Branagh: A Midwinter’s Tale, which starred Richard Briers. Celia was cast as Fadge. It was not until 2011 that she got a gem of a role as Madge Hardcastle in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The storyline was about British retirees who travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than advertised, The Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways.
RUPERT PENRY-JONES: Love Sarah, reminds us how good an actor Rupert is. We need to go back a small supporting role he had as Henry in Woody Allen’s Match Point. There is a scene where he consoles Chis Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) “Hey, look. I understand. It beats getting your heart broken all the time by the top seeds.”
BILL PATTERSON: A long-established actor spanning theatre, film, television and radio. In 1994 he starred in two highly acclaimed films: Comfort and Joy and The Killing Fields. 1990: Truly Madly Deeply, Directed by Anthony Minghella. Bill co-starred with Juliet Stevenson. In Love Sarah, Bill is cast as Felix, friend, loyal supporter and connoisseur of fine bakery. CONCLUSION: Food for Thought: The only distraction to the viewing of this film is to your taste buds and one’s immediate desire after leaving the cinema to find the nearest bakers.
Due to Coronavirus lockdown of theatres LOVE SARAH will be digitally released to Cinemas at Home www.moviesbymills.com
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Mimi (Celia Imrie) in Love Sarah
Mimi (Celia Imrie) in Love Sarah 6
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Mimi (Celia Imrie) in Love Sarah
Mimi (Celia Imrie) in Love Sarah
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A WHITE, WHITE DAY Directed by Hlynur Palmason Starring: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ida Mekkin Hlynsdottir, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason “Grandpa, can you tell me a story?” - Salka “Do you want a nice one or a scary one?” - Ingimunder An off-duty police officer begins to suspect a local man for having an affair with his recently dead wife. Gradually his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved one. This is a story about Ingimundur (Ingvar Sugurdsson)a man who represses his emotions after his wife drives off the side of a road and smashes through a barrier and disappearing into a foggy freezing whiteness of nothingness. He never imagined life without his wife. He struggles to carry on, describing himself to the therapist that he has been told to visit that he is a father and a grandfather and a policeman. It is the latter job that will prove the most troublesome to him and others. The director Hlynur Palmason told me that it was very difficult story to tell of a protagonist who finds that he has not only lost his wife but also begins to suspect that she was having an affair. By beginning to investigate the possibility of unfaithfulness, he questions how well he knew her. Was the man she was seeing involved in her death? Suddenly he begins to have violent outbursts of temper towards the man of killing him. What we have here is a richly detailed character study of a man who had always thought that the love for his wife was a pure as snow and he cannot understand anything that demolishes those feelings. The only person who is honest with him is his granddaughter Salka (Ida Mekkin Hlynsdottir). There is an emotional equanimity between them which Ingimundur desperately needs if he is to overcome the semblance of insanity that is raging inside of him. Palmason’s direction is adroitly executed with a superb cast and makes the film something exceptional and the ending is remarkable.
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AWARDS: Cannes Film Festival 2019 Louis Roederer Foundation Winner Rising Star Award
INGVAR SIGURDSSON Nominee Critics’ Week Grand Prize
HLYNUR PALMASON
Hamptons International Film Festival 2019 Golden Starfish Award Winner Narrative Feature
HLYNUR PALMASON Golden Starfish Award Honorable Mention Narrative Feature
IDA MEKKIN HLYNSDOTTIR
Montreal Festival of New Cinema Winner Best Actor
INGVAR SIGURDSSON Nominee Best Film
HLYNUR PALMASON
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2020 Nominee Best Foreign Language Film
HLYNUR PALMASON
Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018 Winner ARTE International Prize
HLYNUR PALMASON
Torino Film Festival 2019 Winner AVANTI Award
HLYNUR PALMASON Prize of the City of Torino Winner Best Feature Film
HLYNUR PALMASON Special Mention Scuola Holden Award
HLYNUR PALMASON www.moviesbymills.com
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Salka (Ida Mekkin Hiynsdottir) & Ingimunder(Ingvar Sigurdsson) in A White White Day
Salka (Ida Mekkin Hiynsdottir) & Ingimunder (Ingvar Sigurdsson) in A White White Day
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Police Officer (uncredited) in A White, White Day
Ingiimunder (Ingvar Sigurdsson) in A White, White Day
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EMMA Directed Autumn de Wilde Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth, Angus Imrie, Bill Nighy Emma, you should not make match, or foretell things. Whatever you say, always comes to pass! You must not make any more. - Mr. Woodhouse I promise to make none for myself, Papa, but I must indeed for other people. Tis the greatest amusement in the world, and after such success you know… - Emma Woodhouse Jane Austen’s beloved comedy about finding equal and earning your happy ending, is reimagined in this handsome, clever rich version. Emma Woodhouse is a restless queen but without rivals in her sleepy little town. In this glittering setting of social class and the pain of growing up, Emma must adventure through misguided matches and romantic missteps to find the love that has been there all along. Anya Taylor-Joy offers an entertaining and amusing performance in the title-role, but good as she is, she does not match Gwyneth Paltrow who played Emma in the 1996 film. Paltrow perfectly personified Emma Woodhouse as the self-appointed matchmaker. You totally empathize that here is a young woman Emma who is so concerned with what is right for others that she neglects what and who is right for her. The backbone of any movie is the screenplay which being it is based on a classic novel of such a high standard cannot fail and it doesn’t. It is worth looking deeper into the casting and cherish some of these supporting players. BILL NIGHY (Mr. Woodhouse) A highly respected actor with an enviable filmography. In 2004 – Bill won awards for Richard Curtis’s his role in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy: Love Actually. BAFTA BEST PERFORMANCE AS AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE. EVENING STANDARD BRITISH FILM AWARDS: PETER SELLERS AWARD FOR COMEDY LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE FILM AWARDS BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS 12
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BILL NIGHY Bill started out in theatre as an actor passing an audition at The Everyman in Liverpool, gaining the experience of working with the theatre’s resident writers: Willy Russell and Alan Beasdale. From The Everyman he progressed to the National Theatre, where he worked with David Hare, Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter. It was in 2003 that he became highly sought after when he won two Baftas for playing a newspaper editor in the TV drama State of Play, and another for his endearing, but washed-up, rock star in Love Actually. His film career continued to thrive with roles in About Time, which starred Domnhall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams.
Nighy played the father of Tim (Domnhall Gleeson) and when his son reaches the age of 21, tells him a secret; that all the men in his family have the ability to relive their past. He can revisit any moment in his life to try things differently until he gets them perfectly right. Tim decides to use his special gift to win the heart of the beautiful Mary (Rachel McAdams), but finds that the course of true love can be hilariously difficult – even with the ability to try, try and try again. Another film that engaged our attention was Their Finest. It really showed how brilliantly funny Bill Nighy can be. The film is set in 1940, London, during the Blitz. The country’s morale is at stake. Inexperienced screenwriter, Catrin (Gemma Arterton: Tamara Drewe) and a makeshift cast and crew, work under fire to make a film to lift the country’s flagging spirits and inspire America to join the war. Alongside fellow screenwriter, Buckley (Sam Claflin) and a gloriously egotistical actor, Ambrose (Bill Nighy) they set off to make a film that will warm the hearts of a nation Their Finest was based on the novel Their Finest Hour and a Half. The versatility of Bill Nighy can be seen when he starred as Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. The reason why it is worth laboring the point of Bill Nighy’s performance in Emma is because the film would not be the same without him, and in no way does that undermine Anya Taylor-Joy and the rest of the cast.
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Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Miss Bates (Miranda Hart) in Emma
Charles (Edward Davis) in Emma 14
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Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) Mr Elton (Josh O’Connor) Mr Woodhouse (Bill Nighy) in Emma
Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Mr Knightley (Johnny Flynn) in Emma
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THE WAY BACK Directed by Gavin O’Connor Starring: Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Janina Gavankar I promise you that they are not a better team. They haven’t been through what we’ve been through. They don’t know the first things. They don’t know what it’s like to get knocked down, to get back up again. They don’t know what it is to fight. - Jack Jack Cunningham was an HS basketball phenom who walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job by his alma mater, he may get one last shot at redemption. This film relies so much on Ben Affleck and works because he has been through the ups and downs of the protagonist in his own life as an actor and consequently the personification of a basketball coach is real in such a way that it is almost like watching a docu/drama. As long as Ben could remember he had always wanted to be an actor and his first acting experience came when he appeared in a Burger King commercial, when he was on the PBS mini-series, “The Voyage of the Mimi” in 1984. In the same year that he met his lifelong friend and fellow actor Matt Dillon, they took drama classes together. His teen years consisted mainly of TV movies and minor television roles. It was in 1993 he was cast in the feature film “Dazed and Confused”. After that came mostly independent films, which helped his career but that didn’t last, and things became a little shaky. He was living in an apartment with his younger brother Casey and friend Matt and was getting tired of being turned down for the big roles in films and being given the forgettable supporting ones. As Matt was experiencing the same problems, they decided to write their own screenplay for “Good Will Hunting” Their agent showed it to some Hollywood studios before it was finally accepted by Castle Rock, but they were not willing to give Ben and Matt the control over the project they wanted. It was friend Kevin Smith who took it to the head Miramax who bought the script and gave Ben and Matt the control they wanted and, in December 5, 1997, “Good Will Hunting” was released, making the two unknown actors famous. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ben and Matt. It was Ben’s breakthrough role, in which he was given for the first time the chance to choose roles instead of constantly having to go through auditions. 16
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The downturn in his career came in the mid-2000s with films like “Gigli” and “Surviving Christmas”, “Smokin’ Aces”. Jack, the character Ben plays in “The Way Back” is based on Ben’s downturn in his career and what he did to pick himself up and learn from those disappointments and fight back. It is all in Jack: teaching his team of underdogs that they can win by learning what it is to be beaten and rise to the top. It is a film of redemption. Jack tells his team; “You want to know why they’re leaving you open? It’s because they don’t think you can hit the ocean from the beach”.
Gavin O’Connor left “The Suicide Squad” to finish working on this movie.
The movie’s original title was “The Has-Been”.
Like Jack, Ben Affleck, has also struggled with alcoholism.
Just like every single movie at the box office on the weekend of March 13th-15th, “The Way Back” suffered a horrible second weekend dropping 70%. Every movie suffered a drop of over 60%. This is Ben Affleck and Gavin O’Connor’s first collaboration outside of the “The Accountant” movies.
SOUNDTRACK CREDITS: Backsliding Fearlessly Written by Ian Hunter (as Ian Hunter Patterson) Performed by Mott the Hoople. Courtesy of Island Records Ltd. And Atlantic Recording Corp.
We’re Not Gonna Take It Written by Dee Snider
Brand New Written by De Angelo Samuel Performed by Nyzzy Nice Courtesy of Position Music
Na Na Hey Kiss Him Goodbye Written by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer
Louie Louie Written by Richard Berry
Down and Our Blues Written by Richard Sanders Lewis Performed by Ricky Lewis Band Courtesy of Bizgit Records
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Jack (Ben Affleck) in The Way Back
Jack (Ben Affleck) in The Way Back 18
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Angela (Janina Gavankar) and Jack (Ben Affleck) in The Way Back
Jack (Ben Affleck) in The Way Back
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STORM BOY Directed by Shawn Seet Starring: Finn Little, Jai Courtney, Geoffrey Rush, Erik Thomson I was cut off from the world and one day the world came to me. - Michael Kingley A beautiful and contemporary retelling of Colin Thiele’s classic ‘Storm Boy’ has grown up to be Michael Kingsley, a successful retired businessman and grandfather. When Kingley (Geoffrey Rush) starts to see images from his past that he can’t explain, he is forced to remember his long-forgotten childhood, growing up on an isolated coastline with his father. He recounts to his granddaughter, how as a boy, he rescued and raised an extraordinary orphaned pelican, Mr Percival. Their remarkable adventures and very special bond have a profound effect on all their lives. Director Shawn Seet said: “I was born in Australia but grew up in Malasia and came when I was twelve to live with my mother’s family. My uncle educated me by taking me to see Australian films and one of the first he took me to was “Storm Boy”. It was the era of the film renaissance in Australia, and there was a great optimism and pride in local films. I still have the film poster at home, so when Michael told me he wanted to make this film. I felt it was meant to be.” Of the training of the pelicans, the film’s pelican trainer, Paul Mander, explained: “The behaviors are trained with food rewards, so it’s positive reinforcement. Every time they do a desired behavior, we give them a fish. Pelicans have very good memory retention, so what they learn carries over into the next day.” It was crucial that actor Finn Little who plays the title role of Storm Boy, merge himself into the pelican group, so he first met the birds when they were just six weeks old. Each week, Finn would come and do bonding sessions with the pelicans and spend time with them, socialize with them, so that they would associate him as being friendly and part of the group. The birds formed a strong affinity with Finn and vice versa. Of the pelicans’ actions and behavior on set, producer Michael Boughen said: “We had to adapt the script to their performances, but their performances were amazing. We were only imagining what we might get on the page, but these are personalities, these are characters and they brought so much more to it. CGI was used in a few limited specific moments, but basically everything you see was real and was spectacular.” There is a scene in which Fingerbone Bill (Trevor Jamieson) started dancing, it was like the pelicans had read the script. They turned and
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looked at him and wandered over and stood in a row and watched him. One magical moment amongst so many. Director Shawn Seet reflects on young actor Finn Little. “He was an absolute necessity. I can’t imagine how we would have the film without him. He is Storm Boy. He’s one of the most sensitive, open actors that I’ve ever worked with, young or old, completely in touch with his emotions.” Of Finn’s experience of working with his feathered co-stars, “They were so amazing. I could hold them on my lap and pat them. While co-star Jai Courtney (Hideaway Tom) stated: “I’ve ridden a horse in a film before, but I’d done very little work with animals. The bird squad, the trainers, did an incredible job working with them: the pelicans…they were really: beautiful, and you got what you were given, but that sometimes meant that you captured magic. I’ll never forget working with them.” Producers Matthew Street and Michael Boughen both had seen the 1976 film adaptation of “Storm Boy” and strongly recalled the emotional connection they had with it. “I was probably the age of ‘Storm Boy’ at the time, maybe a little younger,” said Street, and the film was dealing with life issues that were relatable to me, as a kid, but to adults as well.” To showcase the incredible region of the Coorong, as well as the characters, director Shawn Seet and cinematographer Bruce Young decided to partly shoot with an 18mm lens – a very short lens. “Bruce and I wanted a shooting style that would showcase the landscape but also allow us to get close enough to the characters to forge a real emotional connection with them, “explained Seet. “What the 18mm lens enabled us to do was to capture extreme close-ups on Storm Boy or the pelicans, but still see the whole landscape, so that the characters were always figures with the landscape.” The film has a lot of exterior scenes, but the primary production design element that production designer Melina Doring would need to tackle was Hideaway Tom (Jai Courtney)’s shack. Doring considered all the little details about ‘the back story’ of the shack, conceiving that Hideaway Tom would have found an existing shack and added onto it. In the Coorong, there are shacks that went back at least to the 1920s, so Hideaway Tom might have added the bathroom and Storm Boy’s sleeping area. Hideaway Tom and Storm Boy don’t have a lot of money, they’re isolated, so what Storm Boy has in his room are bits of driftwood, shells he’s collected on the beach, little toys that he’s got from cereal packets. They would have had to been very practical and reusable materials. The structure of the shack set was partially built in a studio in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, the dismantled, moved to Coorong in the south of the Australian state, and then constructed ‘in situ’, then dismantled and rebuilt in the studio again, for night scenes. The structure was aged twice – rust applied to the corrugated iron and the weatherboards aged – to match its states in 1959 and in 2017. One unusual consideration for production designer Melinda During in designing set pieces was ‘pelican accessibility’ – whether there was enough room for the birds to move in Hideaway Tom’s shack, and whether there was enough landing and take-off room on certain props. Like the final cut of the film showed – everything worked in every detail and resulted in a magnificent film that can be watched again and again.
Storm Boy Will Be Digitally Released On Curzon Home Cinema. www.moviesbymills.com
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Michael Kingley (Geoffrey Rush) in Storm Boy
Hideaway Tom (Jai Courtney) in Storm Boy 22
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Storm Boy (Finn Little) in Storm Boy
Michael Kingley (Geoffrey Rush) in Storm Boy
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DVD’s OF THE MONTH HEREAFTER Directed By Clint Eastwood Starring: Matt Damon, Cecile De France, Jay Mohr, Bryce Dallas Howard George (Matt Damon) is a blue-collar American with a special connection to the afterlife dating back from his childhood. French journalist Marie (Cecile de France) has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when London schoolboy Marcus (Frankie and George McLaren) loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each seeking the truth, their lives will intersect forever changed by what they believe might – or must – exist in the hereafter. Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood directs this haunting original tale from a screenplay by two-time Oscar nominee Peter Morgan.
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ONLY YOU Directed By Harry Wootliff Starring: Laia Costa, Josh O’Connor, Natalie Arle-Toyle Elena (Laia Costa) and Jake (Josh O’Connor) meet by chance on New Year’s Eve, fighting for the same taxi. But instead of going their separate ways after sharing a ride, a passionate relationship blossoms intoxicating every facet of their lives. Within weeks they are living together, and not long after they talk about starting a family. But as the seasons past reality catches up with them. Falling in love was the easy part. Can love remain when life doesn’t give them everything they hoped for? Only You is the astonishing debut feature from writer-director Harry Wootliff who jolts the romance genre into new life with a beautiful observational realism that inspires and stirs the soul.
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PARIS, TEXAS Directed By Wim Wenders. Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell With his outsider’s view of America, Wim Wenders transforms Paris. Texas into a haunting tale of loss, redemption and the ties that bind families together and is arguably Wenders’ greatest achievement. Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) walks out of the desert after four years, to the amazement of his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell). Reunited with Hunter, his seven-year-old son, Travis decides that they should search for his ex-wife (Nastassja Kinski) so that they can be a family once again. Beautifully shot by Robbie Muller, Sam Shepard’s beguiling simple story is stunningly realized by Wenders, whose stark imagery is accompanied by Ry Cooder’s acclaimed score. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and the Best Director prize at Bafta in 1985, Paris, Texas is rightly regarded as one of the artistic triumphs of contemporary world cinema.
SPECIAL FEATURES • • • •
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COMMENTARY WITH WIM WENDERS DELETED SCENES WITH COMMENTARY HOME MOVIES TRAILER CANNES FILM FESTIVAL FOOTAGE ENGLISH SUBTITLES
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CONTAGION Directed By Steven Soderbergh Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne Soon after her return from a business trip to Hong Kong, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) dies from what is a flu or some other type of infection. Her young son dies later the same day. Her husband Mitch however seems immune. Thus, begins the spread of a deadly infection. For doctors and administrators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, several days pass before anyone realizes the extent or gravity of this new infection. They must first identify the type of virus in question and the find a means of combating it, a process that will likely take several months. As the contagion spreads to millions of people worldwide, societal order begins to break down as people panic. This edge-of-your-seat thriller follows the deadly path od a virus that is beyond containment. Researchers for disease control, the military, the World Health Organization and ordinary civilians mobilize to try and find a cure before it’s too late. The film examines how courage pulls us together‌while society is falling apart.
SPECIAL FEATURE CONTAGION: HOW A VIRUS CHANGES THE WORLD
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KNIVES OUT DIRECTED By Rian Johnson STARRING: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in KNIVES OUT: a suspenseful, twist-filled whodunnit where everyone is a suspect. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death.
SPECIAL FEATURES • • • •
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AUDIO COMMENTARY DELETED SCENES RIAN JOHNSON: PLANNING THE PERFECT MURDER FEATURETTE MEET THE THROMBEYS VIRAL ADS
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PARIS DIRECTED By Cedric Klapisch STARRING: Romain Duris, Juilette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, Francois Cluzet, Karin Viard, Melanie Laurent, Gilles Lellouche, Zinedine Soualem, Julie Ferrer Pierre (Romain Duris) is a professional dancer who’s suddenly diagnosed with a serious heart disease that could cost him his life. While waiting to receive the news as to whether he can receive a heart transplant, Pierre can do nothing bus pass the time sitting on the balcony of his apartment and watch the world go by without him. The more he observes, the more he realizes the subtle and sublime beauty hidden beneath the depths of everyday occurrences, as the real Paris slowly begins to reveal itself and the complex tapestry of its inhabitants.
Also starring the radiant Juliette Binoche as his concerned sister. “Paris” is director Cedric Klapisch’s tribute to his own beloved city. Within a series of interwoven vignettes, “Paris” captures the heart and soul of a unique destination and celebrates those fleeting moments that make up a lifetime.
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DVD OF THE MONTH A LITTLE PRINCESS Directed by Alfonso Cuaron Starring: Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Liesel Matthews From the beloved classic by the author of “The Secret Garden” comes “A Little Princess” filled with storytelling magic to unlock imaginations and inspire dreams. Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) shares a life of wonder in exotic India with her devoted father (Liam Cunningham). But war draws Sara’s father into the military and Sara is sent to a New York boarding school run by the strict by Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron), to whom exuberant Sara is a troublemaker. But with courage, imagination and kindness, Sara overcomes her hardships – and changes her life and the fortunes of those around her. Experience this ‘jewel of a movie’.
SPECIAL FEATURES • •
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DVD OF THE MONTH BALLAD OF NARAYAMA Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita Starring: Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari, Aki Takejo In a small village in a valley, everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse, he or she would disgrace their family. Old Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to mountain. But she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei (Ken Ogata) finds a wife. Alongside contemporaries Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro, director Keisuke Kinoshita is regarded as one of the greats in Japanese cinema. Combining Tabuchi theatre and masterful cinematic techniques, “Ballad of Narayama� is a beautiful and meditative tale of love and humanity that explores traditional Japanese cultural values.
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Movies by Mills is an independent production for the promotion of Art House Movies around the world.
For more information about Movies by Mills please contact us. Also if you have any information about Art House Movies or you would like to advertise with us. Please use the email address below. You could of course Tweet: or Facebook: bajmills@facebook.com info@movies-by-mills.co.uk www.moviesbymills.com
