In Simon Pegg’s immortal comedy series Spaced, his character Tim declares: “Every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is shit.” This is, of course, hilarious today, because Pegg was in two odd-numbered Trek films, and even co-wrote the 13th movie, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. But, the fandom myth of the odd-numbered Star Trek “curse” almost certainly begins with 1984’s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Released in movie theaters on June 1, 1984, the third Star Trek feature film was really the second part of what would become a trilogy of films, concluding with The Voyage Home in 1986. But, more than that, The Search for Spock was a pivotal moment in which the more mature aesthetic of Star Trek truly came into its own. Despite the unkind things said about The Search for Spock over the years, the truth is, the movie is perhaps more representative of the franchise as a whole...
- 6/3/2024
- by John Saavedra
- Den of Geek
The Zone of Disinterest: Hazanavicius Reanimates the Holocaust in Moral Fable
What’s most interesting about director Michel Hazanavicius are his valiant attempts at dabbling in multiple genres and styles, clearly exemplifying a broad taste in cinematic subjects and inspirations. Unfortunately, most of these attempts often feel as if they’re missing key ingredients to make them noteworthy. After an earnestly disastrous remake of Fred Zinneman’s The Search (2014), a curiously dull biopic with Godard Mon Amour (2017) and a remake of a meta Japanese zombie comedy in Final Cut (2022), it would seem Hazanvicius works best when navigating humorous elements (like his Oss Bond spoofs from earlier in his career).…...
What’s most interesting about director Michel Hazanavicius are his valiant attempts at dabbling in multiple genres and styles, clearly exemplifying a broad taste in cinematic subjects and inspirations. Unfortunately, most of these attempts often feel as if they’re missing key ingredients to make them noteworthy. After an earnestly disastrous remake of Fred Zinneman’s The Search (2014), a curiously dull biopic with Godard Mon Amour (2017) and a remake of a meta Japanese zombie comedy in Final Cut (2022), it would seem Hazanvicius works best when navigating humorous elements (like his Oss Bond spoofs from earlier in his career).…...
- 5/27/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Of all the films premiering at Cannes this year, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is both an anomaly (the first animated feature to compete for the Palme d’Or since “Persepolis” in 2007) and the most likely to become a classic. Blending the heavy lines of early-20th-century woodcuts with the gentle pastels of watercolor painting, “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius finds a poignant way to address not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but the kindness that combated it, crafting an indelible parable destined to be watched and shared by generations to come.
The polar opposite of “The Zone of Interest,” his hand-drawn adaptation of the slender but impactful novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg engages audiences at the gut, rather than in some abstract intellectual way. It focuses on neither the culprits nor the victims, but average folk who tried to remain neutral — as if such a thing were possible — until...
The polar opposite of “The Zone of Interest,” his hand-drawn adaptation of the slender but impactful novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg engages audiences at the gut, rather than in some abstract intellectual way. It focuses on neither the culprits nor the victims, but average folk who tried to remain neutral — as if such a thing were possible — until...
- 5/24/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Pema Tseden's second feature film is a landmark for Tibetan cinema, being the first ever film from the country to be shot entirely with a Tibetan crew in the Tibetan language, while it is also noteworthy that the production was supported by renowned Chinese 5th Generation filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang.
The Search is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase
A director, a cinematographer and a producer drive through the Amdo region of Tibet, scouting actors for the “Drime Kunden” opera, which is traditionally performed for the Tibetan New Year and revolves around a prince who, selflessly, gives away his wife, his children and his own eyes to those in need. Eventually, they reach a village where they find the perfect actress to play Made Zangmo, Drime Kunden's wife. However, the girl is very shy, and furthermore, will not perform unless her boyfriend, who has left the village...
The Search is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase
A director, a cinematographer and a producer drive through the Amdo region of Tibet, scouting actors for the “Drime Kunden” opera, which is traditionally performed for the Tibetan New Year and revolves around a prince who, selflessly, gives away his wife, his children and his own eyes to those in need. Eventually, they reach a village where they find the perfect actress to play Made Zangmo, Drime Kunden's wife. However, the girl is very shy, and furthermore, will not perform unless her boyfriend, who has left the village...
- 4/16/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" told a complete and epic story across three seasons and 61 episodes, from 2005 to 2008. Now, it's been confirmed the Netflix-helmed live-action remake of "Avatar" will get to carry this story to the finish line once more.
The 2012-2014 sequel series "The Legend of Korra" showed what happened decades later, but there are other stories following the original Team Avatar after the series' wrap-up. And no, I don't mean the upcoming animated "Avatar" movie, releasing in 2025, that will follow these heroic kids as adults.
Since 2012, Dark Horse Comics has been publishing licensed "The Last Airbender" graphic novels, varying in length from trilogies to 80-page one-shots. The comics were first written by cartoonist Gene Luen Yang and drawn in the style of the animated series by artist duo Gurihiru (the same comic-creating team that went on to make "Superman Smashes The Klan"). Control has since been handed over...
The 2012-2014 sequel series "The Legend of Korra" showed what happened decades later, but there are other stories following the original Team Avatar after the series' wrap-up. And no, I don't mean the upcoming animated "Avatar" movie, releasing in 2025, that will follow these heroic kids as adults.
Since 2012, Dark Horse Comics has been publishing licensed "The Last Airbender" graphic novels, varying in length from trilogies to 80-page one-shots. The comics were first written by cartoonist Gene Luen Yang and drawn in the style of the animated series by artist duo Gurihiru (the same comic-creating team that went on to make "Superman Smashes The Klan"). Control has since been handed over...
- 3/12/2024
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
This article contains spoilers for Netflix's "Avatar: The Last Airbender."
Adaptations and re-imaginings are a tricky thing. They have to capture and recreate the essence of the original while also making changes for (potentially) a new medium, different times, and a new audience. The best ones recognize this and rebuild and remix the original until they end up improving it and making something that feels fresh and brand-new, like HBO's "Watchmen" series or Netflix's animated series "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off." Another opportunity with adaptations is the benefit of hindsight. Even the most meticulous authors and creators cannot possibly think of absolutely everything ahead of time. This offers an opportunity for re-tellings to bring elements that were introduced later in the original story to the forefront.
Netflix's "One Piece" does this. The live-action adaptation of the legendary and long-running manga by Eiichiro Oda introduces the character of Garp much earlier...
Adaptations and re-imaginings are a tricky thing. They have to capture and recreate the essence of the original while also making changes for (potentially) a new medium, different times, and a new audience. The best ones recognize this and rebuild and remix the original until they end up improving it and making something that feels fresh and brand-new, like HBO's "Watchmen" series or Netflix's animated series "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off." Another opportunity with adaptations is the benefit of hindsight. Even the most meticulous authors and creators cannot possibly think of absolutely everything ahead of time. This offers an opportunity for re-tellings to bring elements that were introduced later in the original story to the forefront.
Netflix's "One Piece" does this. The live-action adaptation of the legendary and long-running manga by Eiichiro Oda introduces the character of Garp much earlier...
- 2/22/2024
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
John Oliver was on NBC’s Today Show when he learned that his former boss Jon Stewart was returning to host The Daily Show.
Stewart was unveiled by Comedy Central earlier today as the Monday night host for the late-night show through the election with the news team correspondents handling the other days.
Oliver said he was “surprised” to hear the news, but said it will be “exciting to see what he does” and compared him to Michael Jordan.
Related: ‘The Daily Show’: Inside The Search For A New Host As Duos Behind The Desk Take Center Stage
The Last Week Tonight host added that he believes The Daily Show needs a permanent host and threw his weight behind former correspondent Roy Wood Jr., who quit the show last year, or Amber Ruffin.
“I mean, that’s, that is a surprise,” Oliver said. “That’s a show that needs a host.
Stewart was unveiled by Comedy Central earlier today as the Monday night host for the late-night show through the election with the news team correspondents handling the other days.
Oliver said he was “surprised” to hear the news, but said it will be “exciting to see what he does” and compared him to Michael Jordan.
Related: ‘The Daily Show’: Inside The Search For A New Host As Duos Behind The Desk Take Center Stage
The Last Week Tonight host added that he believes The Daily Show needs a permanent host and threw his weight behind former correspondent Roy Wood Jr., who quit the show last year, or Amber Ruffin.
“I mean, that’s, that is a surprise,” Oliver said. “That’s a show that needs a host.
- 1/24/2024
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Jon Stewart will make a surprising return to The Daily Show, 25 years after starting on the show. He will host the Comedy Central late-night show one night a week through the 2024 election cycle.
The news comes eight years after he stepped down from hosting the show, which revolutionized late-night television and brought through the likes of Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Samantha Bee and Steve Carell.
Here it is, your Moment of Zen pic.twitter.com/Y6AFBkJtOx
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 24, 2024
Deadline told you back in November that one of the ideas floated for a new host was to bring in a major name to front the show through the election. Stewart will host on Monday nights, which are believed to be the show’s most watched day and gives him plenty of news from the weekend to catch up.
Related: ‘The Daily Show’: Inside The Search For...
The news comes eight years after he stepped down from hosting the show, which revolutionized late-night television and brought through the likes of Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Samantha Bee and Steve Carell.
Here it is, your Moment of Zen pic.twitter.com/Y6AFBkJtOx
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 24, 2024
Deadline told you back in November that one of the ideas floated for a new host was to bring in a major name to front the show through the election. Stewart will host on Monday nights, which are believed to be the show’s most watched day and gives him plenty of news from the weekend to catch up.
Related: ‘The Daily Show’: Inside The Search For...
- 1/24/2024
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
On Saturday, December 30, 2023, an intense and compelling story unfolds on 48 Hours. Debbie Boyd, tormented by uncertainty for a staggering 15 years, relentlessly pursued the whereabouts of her daughter Christie Wilson’s body, whose killer was none other than Mario Garcia, a convicted murderer. With unwavering determination and resourcefulness, and with the assistance of two relentless investigators, she ultimately obtained the answers she sought.
Join correspondent Erin Moriarty and the 48 Hours team as they delve into Debbie Boyd’s remarkable journey in an encore presentation of 48 Hours: “The Search for Christie Wilson.” This special episode will air on Saturday, December 30, at 9:00 Pm, both Eastern Time and Pacific Time, on the CBS Television Network.
Join correspondent Erin Moriarty and the 48 Hours team as they delve into Debbie Boyd’s remarkable journey in an encore presentation of 48 Hours: “The Search for Christie Wilson.” This special episode will air on Saturday, December 30, at 9:00 Pm, both Eastern Time and Pacific Time, on the CBS Television Network.
- 12/27/2023
- by Alex Matthews
- TV Regular
Graphic: Images: IMDBAmerican Beauty (1999)
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s best friend.
Rating: 8.3/10
Stars: Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham), Annette Bening (Carolyn Burnham), Thora Birch (Jane Burnham), Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts)
20th Century Women (2017)
The story of a teenage boy, his mother,...
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s best friend.
Rating: 8.3/10
Stars: Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham), Annette Bening (Carolyn Burnham), Thora Birch (Jane Burnham), Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts)
20th Century Women (2017)
The story of a teenage boy, his mother,...
- 11/4/2023
- avclub.com
The Tibetan-language film will premiere out of competition.
Beijing-based Rediance has acquired worldwide rights to Snow Leopard, the final film completed by late Tibetan director Pema Tseden, ahead of its premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
The company has also secured worldwide rights to Short Story, a short film from Absence director Wu Lang, which will play in Venice’s Horizons Short Films Competition.
Snow Leopard will screen Out of Competition and centres on an argument between a father and son after a snow leopard breaks into the sheep pen of a nomad and kills nine rams. The...
Beijing-based Rediance has acquired worldwide rights to Snow Leopard, the final film completed by late Tibetan director Pema Tseden, ahead of its premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
The company has also secured worldwide rights to Short Story, a short film from Absence director Wu Lang, which will play in Venice’s Horizons Short Films Competition.
Snow Leopard will screen Out of Competition and centres on an argument between a father and son after a snow leopard breaks into the sheep pen of a nomad and kills nine rams. The...
- 7/25/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
What’s there to say about French director Michel Hazanavicius? His two “Oss 117” films with Jean Dujardin are foreign cult comedies. And then the duo struck gold stateside with “The Artist,” which won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor at the 2012 Oscars. But Hazanavicius hasn’t caught on with US audiences since then: not with 2014’s “The Search” with his wife Bérénice Bejo, or 2017’s “Redoubtable,” a regrettable biopic dramedy about Jean-Luc Godard.
Continue reading ‘Final Cut’ Trailer: Michel Hazanavicius’ Zombie Remake Screens At Tribeca Next Week, Hits Theaters On July 14 at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Final Cut’ Trailer: Michel Hazanavicius’ Zombie Remake Screens At Tribeca Next Week, Hits Theaters On July 14 at The Playlist.
- 6/8/2023
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
Pema Tseden, a Tibetan filmmaker of Chinese citizenship whose films regularly played at Venice film festival, has died aged 53. His death was reported by Chinese media today. No cause of death was given but unverified Chinese media reports said he had a heart attack.
Widely regarded as China’s leading filmmaker working in the Tibetan language, Tseden’s credits include Jinpa, produced by Wong Kar Wai, which won best screenplay when it premiered in the Horizons section of Venice in 2018.
Tseden was working on two films at the time of his death: Snow Leopard, which is in post-production after being filmed last year in the Three-River Source National Nature Reserve, and another film that he was in the process of shooting.
Born in 1969, in the the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Qinghai Province, Tseden studied at Beijing Film Academy and made his directing debut in 2005 with The Silent Holy Stones.
Widely regarded as China’s leading filmmaker working in the Tibetan language, Tseden’s credits include Jinpa, produced by Wong Kar Wai, which won best screenplay when it premiered in the Horizons section of Venice in 2018.
Tseden was working on two films at the time of his death: Snow Leopard, which is in post-production after being filmed last year in the Three-River Source National Nature Reserve, and another film that he was in the process of shooting.
Born in 1969, in the the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Qinghai Province, Tseden studied at Beijing Film Academy and made his directing debut in 2005 with The Silent Holy Stones.
- 5/8/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
On the Billboard 200 albums chart for the tracking week that ended April 13, Morgan Wallen‘s “One Thing at a Time” continued its run at number-one, claiming the top spot for the sixth straight week. Read more about this week’s chart here at Billboard.com.
“One Thing at a Time” dropped only three-percent from week to week to achieve 167,000 equivalent album units based on its combined album sales, individual track sales, and online streams. Streaming represented the vast majority of the album’s activity: 158,500, or over 211 million streams of tracks from the album. Album sales accounted for 6,000 units. And track sales accounted for 2,500 units.
SEEPost Malone shows a softer side with new single and video ‘Chemical’ [Watch]
That was good enough to hold off this week’s top debut: Nf‘s “Hope.” The rapper came in at number-two with 123,000 units, mostly from sales. That follows two previous albums that launched at...
“One Thing at a Time” dropped only three-percent from week to week to achieve 167,000 equivalent album units based on its combined album sales, individual track sales, and online streams. Streaming represented the vast majority of the album’s activity: 158,500, or over 211 million streams of tracks from the album. Album sales accounted for 6,000 units. And track sales accounted for 2,500 units.
SEEPost Malone shows a softer side with new single and video ‘Chemical’ [Watch]
That was good enough to hold off this week’s top debut: Nf‘s “Hope.” The rapper came in at number-two with 123,000 units, mostly from sales. That follows two previous albums that launched at...
- 4/17/2023
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
What is the best "Star Trek" movie? There are a handful of options that Trekkies tend on agree on being acceptable answers to this question. Their ranks include often "Galaxy Quest," itself a loving sendup of "Star Trek: The Original Series" that, in some ways, honors the spirit of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's utopian sci-fi vision better than many actual "Star Trek" films.
Directed by Dean Parisot, the beloved 1999 film follows the washed-up stars of a popular "Star Trek"-style 1980s sci-fi series as they're pulled away from their monotonous routine of fan conventions and promotional work and into a real-life interplanetary conflict. Parisot had mostly worked in TV prior to making the movie and had recently called the shots on "Home Fries," the 1998 Drew Barrymore dramedy that's only really notable for being one of "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan's early writing credits. The film was also produced by Mark Johnson,...
Directed by Dean Parisot, the beloved 1999 film follows the washed-up stars of a popular "Star Trek"-style 1980s sci-fi series as they're pulled away from their monotonous routine of fan conventions and promotional work and into a real-life interplanetary conflict. Parisot had mostly worked in TV prior to making the movie and had recently called the shots on "Home Fries," the 1998 Drew Barrymore dramedy that's only really notable for being one of "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan's early writing credits. The film was also produced by Mark Johnson,...
- 10/28/2022
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Heeere comes Brendan Fraser’s teary-eyed response to the six-minute ovation following “The Whale,” nipping at the heels of the six-minute-plus “TÁR” ovation that greeted Cate Blanchett… But wait… Timothée Chalamet’s cannibal romance “Bones and All” eats its way into the lead with a stunning 10-minute explosion, and… “Banshees of Inisherin” gets 12 minutes! It’s a photo finish! Meanwhile, looks like “Don’t Worry Darling” is in a tailspin, flagging behind with a perfunctory four minutes… But wait! It’s a frantic last-minute finish for the ages as the cast milk the moment for awkward viral potential, and…was that spit? Let’s take a look at the replay!
Any fragment of culture can be reduced to a bite-sized clip, and now it’s the standing ovation. The formal act of appreciation that dates back to Ancient Rome now dominates the news cycle at major festivals with a temporal rigor of Kentucky Derby proportions.
Any fragment of culture can be reduced to a bite-sized clip, and now it’s the standing ovation. The formal act of appreciation that dates back to Ancient Rome now dominates the news cycle at major festivals with a temporal rigor of Kentucky Derby proportions.
- 9/7/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Has the Cannes Film Festival developed an unexpected taste for human flesh?
There were no flesh-eating ghouls wandering the Croisette as this year’s festival kicked off on Tuesday, of course, unless you’re speaking metaphorically. But for the second time in three festivals, Cannes’ opening-night attraction was a zombie comedy, bringing lots of blood and a few severed heads to a seriously classy cinema house, the Grand Theatre Lumiere, that is more accustomed to tonier fare.
Michel Hazanavicius’ “Final Cut” kicked off this year’s festival, just as Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” did in 2019. In between those two zombie flicks, Cannes canceled the 2020 festival because of Covid and then came back from the dead in 2021 with Leos Carax’s “Annette,” which didn’t have zombies but was pretty kinky and creepy on its own.
But maybe it’s better to look at “Final Cut” less as...
There were no flesh-eating ghouls wandering the Croisette as this year’s festival kicked off on Tuesday, of course, unless you’re speaking metaphorically. But for the second time in three festivals, Cannes’ opening-night attraction was a zombie comedy, bringing lots of blood and a few severed heads to a seriously classy cinema house, the Grand Theatre Lumiere, that is more accustomed to tonier fare.
Michel Hazanavicius’ “Final Cut” kicked off this year’s festival, just as Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” did in 2019. In between those two zombie flicks, Cannes canceled the 2020 festival because of Covid and then came back from the dead in 2021 with Leos Carax’s “Annette,” which didn’t have zombies but was pretty kinky and creepy on its own.
But maybe it’s better to look at “Final Cut” less as...
- 5/17/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Usually, the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival is a glamorous celebration of cinema. Director Michel Hazanavicius has very different expectations for “Final Cut,” which kicks off the 75th edition this week.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if some people whistle or boo after 20 minutes,” he told IndieWire over Zoom from Paris, and grinned. “I would be very happy if somebody did that.”
That’s because “Final Cut” isn’t an obvious crowdpleaser — at least not at first. An adaptation of the 2017 Japanese comedy “One Cut of the Dead,” the movie borrows the format of Shin’ichiro Ueda’s original by opening with a half-hour zombie B-movie all shot in a single long take. A very obviously bad long take. And then, it becomes…something else.
It would be a spoiler to reveal the full scope of both “One Cut of the Dead” and “Final Cut,” but the bulk...
“I wouldn’t be surprised if some people whistle or boo after 20 minutes,” he told IndieWire over Zoom from Paris, and grinned. “I would be very happy if somebody did that.”
That’s because “Final Cut” isn’t an obvious crowdpleaser — at least not at first. An adaptation of the 2017 Japanese comedy “One Cut of the Dead,” the movie borrows the format of Shin’ichiro Ueda’s original by opening with a half-hour zombie B-movie all shot in a single long take. A very obviously bad long take. And then, it becomes…something else.
It would be a spoiler to reveal the full scope of both “One Cut of the Dead” and “Final Cut,” but the bulk...
- 5/17/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Hey, "Good Witch" fans. We hope you guys enjoyed watching episode 8 tonight, especially since it got delayed last week. Now that it's all wrapped up, we are back on here to tell you what will be happening in the next, new episode 9 of Good Witch's current season 7 when it debuts next Sunday night, July 18, 2021. The terrific folks over at Hallmark served up a teaser description for one of episode 9's main storylines via their episode 9 press release. So, we're going to go over it right now. Let's get it done. First thing's first. Hallmark's episode 9 press release let us know that episode 9 of Good Witch's current season 7 is officially labeled/titled, "The Search." It sounds like episode 9 will feature some very interesting, intense, dramatic and possible suspenseful scenes.
- 7/11/2021
- by Chris
- OnTheFlix
Wild Bunch International handles sales on remake of Japanese cult film One Cut Of The Dead.
Michel Hazanavicius’ zombie comedy Final Cut, his French-language remake of the 2017 cult Japanese hit One Cut Of The Dead, has begun filming in the outskirts of Paris.
Its previously announced lead Romain Duris will be joined by Bérénice Bejo, Grégory Gadebois, Finnegan Oldfield, Matilda Lutz, Sébastian Chassagne and Raphaël Quenard as well as emerging talents Jean-Pascal Zadi, Lyes Salem, Simone Hazanavicius and Luana Bajrami.
Set against the backdrop of a B-movie shoot that is descending into disaster, Duris plays the director who seems to...
Michel Hazanavicius’ zombie comedy Final Cut, his French-language remake of the 2017 cult Japanese hit One Cut Of The Dead, has begun filming in the outskirts of Paris.
Its previously announced lead Romain Duris will be joined by Bérénice Bejo, Grégory Gadebois, Finnegan Oldfield, Matilda Lutz, Sébastian Chassagne and Raphaël Quenard as well as emerging talents Jean-Pascal Zadi, Lyes Salem, Simone Hazanavicius and Luana Bajrami.
Set against the backdrop of a B-movie shoot that is descending into disaster, Duris plays the director who seems to...
- 4/30/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The long-awaited release of The Other Side of the Wind wasn’t the only piece of Orson Welles history that cinephiles have been clamoring for in the decades since the legendary director’s passing. While many directors are still obsessed with recreating moments of his life on the big screen, one of his actual films has yet to see the light of day in its fully realized form. The film in question is, of course, The Magnificent Ambersons, and now the best chance yet of finding the lost footage is on the horizon.
For a quarter of a century, Joshua Grossberg has attempted to track down the footage, amounting to 43 minutes in length, cut by Rko when Welles lost control of post-production. Now, as others attempt to recreate some of the footage using animation, Grossberg has received the backing of none other than TCM to actually find the lost prints.
For a quarter of a century, Joshua Grossberg has attempted to track down the footage, amounting to 43 minutes in length, cut by Rko when Welles lost control of post-production. Now, as others attempt to recreate some of the footage using animation, Grossberg has received the backing of none other than TCM to actually find the lost prints.
- 4/15/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Hello, Jake Kanter here, and welcome to the latest edition of International Insider. This week, we ponder Mipcom’s slim pickings and examine the problems of production in a pandemic. Scroll on for news and analysis.
A Quiet Cannes
Modest Mip: And so, we have reached the end of perhaps the strangest Mipcom market ever. There is no doubt that coronavirus killed the buzz of this year’s Cannes gathering, despite the best efforts of organizer Reed Midem to capture the spirit of the market online. While there were some impressive speakers (special nod to a news-stuffed Q&a with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos) and some smart ways to interact via the Mipcom Online+ platform, it was clear that nothing can replicate the heat and light of a physical event.
Slow news week: One way of measuring the success of Mipcom is by the strength of news and gossip emanating from the market.
A Quiet Cannes
Modest Mip: And so, we have reached the end of perhaps the strangest Mipcom market ever. There is no doubt that coronavirus killed the buzz of this year’s Cannes gathering, despite the best efforts of organizer Reed Midem to capture the spirit of the market online. While there were some impressive speakers (special nod to a news-stuffed Q&a with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos) and some smart ways to interact via the Mipcom Online+ platform, it was clear that nothing can replicate the heat and light of a physical event.
Slow news week: One way of measuring the success of Mipcom is by the strength of news and gossip emanating from the market.
- 10/16/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Production on BBC One talent show “Little Mix The Search” has been postponed after a “small number of people” tested positive for coronavirus.
The production tweeted a statement on Wednesday that said: “We can confirm that a small number of people on Little Mix The Search production have tested positive for coronavirus and they are now self-isolating following the latest government guidelines.”
“Due to the format of the show we have made the decision to postpone Saturday’s programme. There are rigorous protocols in place to manage Covid-19 as the safety of all those involved in the production is paramount,” the statement added.
“We hope to be back on air Saturday 24th October.”
Statement from production#LittleMixTheSearch pic.twitter.com/7NVtceqknT
— Little Mix The Search (@LMTheSearch) October 14, 2020
The news comes just one day after crew members on the Christmas special edition of “Britain’s Got Talent” contracted coronavirus and production was halted.
The production tweeted a statement on Wednesday that said: “We can confirm that a small number of people on Little Mix The Search production have tested positive for coronavirus and they are now self-isolating following the latest government guidelines.”
“Due to the format of the show we have made the decision to postpone Saturday’s programme. There are rigorous protocols in place to manage Covid-19 as the safety of all those involved in the production is paramount,” the statement added.
“We hope to be back on air Saturday 24th October.”
Statement from production#LittleMixTheSearch pic.twitter.com/7NVtceqknT
— Little Mix The Search (@LMTheSearch) October 14, 2020
The news comes just one day after crew members on the Christmas special edition of “Britain’s Got Talent” contracted coronavirus and production was halted.
- 10/14/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
We're watching all 17 of Montgomery Clift's films for his centennial. Here's Juan Carlos...
After starring in The Search, Red River, The Heiress, and The Big Lift, all but one of them either a critical or commercial success, Montgomery Clift reached an even great peak in 1951 with George Stevens’ A Place in the Sun. It was the adaptation of a novel and play, both called An American Tragedy, that were in turn inspired by the real-life murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in 1906. The story, already made into a 1931 pre-Code drama as An American Tragedy, took on a life of its own in its 1951 form. A Place in the Sun's now classic tale of doomed romance and class divide proved a crucial success in the careers of all of its key players, winning six Oscars in a tight battle for Best Picture with An American in Paris.
Shelley Winters...
After starring in The Search, Red River, The Heiress, and The Big Lift, all but one of them either a critical or commercial success, Montgomery Clift reached an even great peak in 1951 with George Stevens’ A Place in the Sun. It was the adaptation of a novel and play, both called An American Tragedy, that were in turn inspired by the real-life murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in 1906. The story, already made into a 1931 pre-Code drama as An American Tragedy, took on a life of its own in its 1951 form. A Place in the Sun's now classic tale of doomed romance and class divide proved a crucial success in the careers of all of its key players, winning six Oscars in a tight battle for Best Picture with An American in Paris.
Shelley Winters...
- 10/6/2020
- by Juan Carlos Ojano
- FilmExperience
Academy Award-winning French director Michel Hazanavicius will lead the jury of the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival. The festival will run from Aug. 14 to 21, 2020.
After breaking out in France with the Jean Dujardin-led spy farces “Oss: 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies,” and “Oss: 117: Lost in Rio,” the French director broke onto the international stage with 2011’s “The Artist,” which took home four Academy Awards, including prizes for best picture and best director. Hazanavicius brought his 2014 follow-up, “The Search,” to the Sarajevo Festival.
“Hazanavicius is an author known for his strong stylistic expression who always reexamines relationship with film, its language and history,” said Mirsad Purivatra, the Sarajevo Film Festival director. “Let’s remember that in a new millennium his film ‘The Artist’ has made the whole world enjoy once again a supposedly outdated film format – silent film.”
Hazanavicius’ most recent outing, the Omar Sy-led family comedy “The Lost Prince,...
After breaking out in France with the Jean Dujardin-led spy farces “Oss: 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies,” and “Oss: 117: Lost in Rio,” the French director broke onto the international stage with 2011’s “The Artist,” which took home four Academy Awards, including prizes for best picture and best director. Hazanavicius brought his 2014 follow-up, “The Search,” to the Sarajevo Festival.
“Hazanavicius is an author known for his strong stylistic expression who always reexamines relationship with film, its language and history,” said Mirsad Purivatra, the Sarajevo Film Festival director. “Let’s remember that in a new millennium his film ‘The Artist’ has made the whole world enjoy once again a supposedly outdated film format – silent film.”
Hazanavicius’ most recent outing, the Omar Sy-led family comedy “The Lost Prince,...
- 2/18/2020
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
The Tibetan road movie is screening in the Orrizonti.
In a rare move into third-party production, Wong Kar Wai is producing Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s latest film Jinpa, which will make its world premiere in the Orizzonti at Venice. Wong’s Hong Kong-based Block 2 Distribution has also picked up worldwide rights to the film.
Wong told Screen he has long admired the work of Tseden and he described him as “an important auteur of his generation”.
Jinpa is a road movie filmed in extreme conditions – set in deep winter and at 5,000m above sea level on the Tibetan plains.
In a rare move into third-party production, Wong Kar Wai is producing Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s latest film Jinpa, which will make its world premiere in the Orizzonti at Venice. Wong’s Hong Kong-based Block 2 Distribution has also picked up worldwide rights to the film.
Wong told Screen he has long admired the work of Tseden and he described him as “an important auteur of his generation”.
Jinpa is a road movie filmed in extreme conditions – set in deep winter and at 5,000m above sea level on the Tibetan plains.
- 8/14/2018
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
The Tibetan road movie is screening in the Orrizonti.
Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films has boarded Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s latest film Jinpa, which will make its world premiere in the Orizzonti at Venice. Wong’s Hong Kong-based Block 2 Distribution has also picked up worldwide rights to the film.
Wong told Screen he has long admired the work of Tseden and he described him as “an important auteur of his generation”.
Jinpa is a road movie filmed in extreme conditions – set in deep winter and at 5,000m above sea level on the Tibetan plains. Based on two...
Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films has boarded Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s latest film Jinpa, which will make its world premiere in the Orizzonti at Venice. Wong’s Hong Kong-based Block 2 Distribution has also picked up worldwide rights to the film.
Wong told Screen he has long admired the work of Tseden and he described him as “an important auteur of his generation”.
Jinpa is a road movie filmed in extreme conditions – set in deep winter and at 5,000m above sea level on the Tibetan plains. Based on two...
- 8/14/2018
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Horror rules as wide-release “A Quiet Place” topped the overall box office, while on the indie side, British horror flick “Ghost Stories” (IFC) — also opening on Video on Demand–delivered a surprisingly strong showing. But that fright-fest, along with William Friedkin’s exorcism documentary “The Devil and Father Armouth” (which The Orchard will also stream later this week) won’t go far beyond core arthouses.
On a broader scale, Fox Searchlight continues to expand Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs,” the standout among 2018 specialized films this year. While Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” (Amazon Studios) isn’t a breakout, strong reviews are boosting its exposure. On its second weekend, Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” (Sony Pictures Classics) found mixed results, but might have a bigger impact as it reaches more areas.
Opening
Ghost Stories (IFC) – Metacritic: 69; Festivals include: London 2017, South by Southwest 2018; also available on Video on...
On a broader scale, Fox Searchlight continues to expand Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs,” the standout among 2018 specialized films this year. While Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” (Amazon Studios) isn’t a breakout, strong reviews are boosting its exposure. On its second weekend, Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” (Sony Pictures Classics) found mixed results, but might have a bigger impact as it reaches more areas.
Opening
Ghost Stories (IFC) – Metacritic: 69; Festivals include: London 2017, South by Southwest 2018; also available on Video on...
- 4/22/2018
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Back in 2012, “The Artist” was the darling of the awards season. Picking up tons of accolades, including five Oscars, the French film turned filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius into one of the most recognizable filmmakers on the planet. That’s what made 2014’s “The Search” such a disappointment. After the highest of highs in 2012, Hazanavicius came back down to Earth in 2014 to tons of harsh criticism.
- 4/20/2018
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius knows about extreme reactions. His film “The Artist” was a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival, and with the support of The Weinstein Company, swept the 2012 Academy Awards. Two years later, his remake of the Fred Zinneman’s classic 1948 film “The Search” was trashed by the press at Cannes and barely received a theatrical release. With “Godard Mon Amour,” his playful look at a young Jean-Luc Godard (Louis Garrel), he landed somewhere in the middle of the spectrum: It divided critics at Cannes and will receive a limited theatrical release in the U.S. almost a year later.
You can’t please everyone all the time and neither has Jean-Luc Godard, as Hazanavicius’ film explains with scenes involving the political radicalization of the character that led some to charge him with anti-Semitism. Sitting down in a New York hotel with IndieWire, Hazanavicius mused on Godard’s modern...
You can’t please everyone all the time and neither has Jean-Luc Godard, as Hazanavicius’ film explains with scenes involving the political radicalization of the character that led some to charge him with anti-Semitism. Sitting down in a New York hotel with IndieWire, Hazanavicius mused on Godard’s modern...
- 4/20/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero: Filmed mostly on the streets in newly-liberated territory, Roberto Rossellini’s gripping war-related shows are blessed with new restorations but still reflect their rough origins. The second picture, the greater masterpiece, looks as if it were improvised out of sheer artistic will.
Roberto Rosselini’s War Trilogy
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 500 (497, 498, 499)
1945-1948 / B&W / 1:37 & 1:33 flat full frame / 302 minutes / Street Date July 11, 2017 / available from the Criterion Collection 79.96
Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani; Dots Johnson, Harriet White Medin; Edmund Moeschke, Franz-Otto Krüger.
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata; Otello Martelli; Robert Julliard.
Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma
Original Music: Renzo Rossellini
Written by Sergio Amidei, Alberto Consiglio, Federico Fellini; Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes, Vasco Pratolini; Max Kolpé, Carlo Lizzani.
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Criterion released an identical-for-content DVD set of this trilogy in 2010; the new Blu-ray...
Roberto Rosselini’s War Trilogy
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 500 (497, 498, 499)
1945-1948 / B&W / 1:37 & 1:33 flat full frame / 302 minutes / Street Date July 11, 2017 / available from the Criterion Collection 79.96
Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani; Dots Johnson, Harriet White Medin; Edmund Moeschke, Franz-Otto Krüger.
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata; Otello Martelli; Robert Julliard.
Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma
Original Music: Renzo Rossellini
Written by Sergio Amidei, Alberto Consiglio, Federico Fellini; Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes, Vasco Pratolini; Max Kolpé, Carlo Lizzani.
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Criterion released an identical-for-content DVD set of this trilogy in 2010; the new Blu-ray...
- 6/19/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One of the best international thrillers ever has almost become an obscurity, for reasons unknown – this Blu-ray comes from Australia. Edward Fox’s wily assassin for hire goes up against the combined police and security establishments of three nations as he sets up the killing of a head of state – France’s president Charles de Gaulle. The terrific cast features Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig and Cyril Cusack; director Fred Zinnemann’s excellent direction reaches a high pitch of tension – even though the outcome is known from the start.
The Day of the Jackal
Region B+A Blu-ray
Shock Entertainment / Universal
1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99
Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...
The Day of the Jackal
Region B+A Blu-ray
Shock Entertainment / Universal
1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99
Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...
- 4/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The great Fred Zinnemann's last feature is a very personal story, a fairly uncomplicated drama with a mountain climbing backdrop. Sean Connery plays older than his age as a Scotsman on an Alpine vacation, toying with social disaster. With excellent, non- grandstanding performances from Betsy Brantley and Lambert Wilson. Five Days One Summer DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1982 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 108 96 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Sean Connery, Betsy Brantley, Lambert Wilson, Jennifer Hilary, Isabel Dean, Gérard Buhr, Anna Massey, Sheila Reid, Emilie Lihou. Cinematography Giuseppe Rotunno Film Editor Stuart Baird Original Music Elmer Bernstein Written by Michael Austin from the story 'Maiden Maiden' by Kay Boyle Produced and Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Fred Zinnemann is a filmmaker that I've come to admire, as much for his personal integrity as for the movies he made. He could be inconsistent and...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Fred Zinnemann is a filmmaker that I've come to admire, as much for his personal integrity as for the movies he made. He could be inconsistent and...
- 10/17/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
At one point in Ira Sachs’ Little Men, the young Jake (Theo Taplitz) explains to his parents (played by Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle) how they can avoid evicting their tenant, Leonor (Paulina García), from the store she’d been renting from his late grandfather for years. Jake’s simple economic plan makes the heart ache because of how perfect it is: it calls for empathy, equality, and, without being completely naive, proposes something that could be achievable within the right political system. But his plan is even more heartbreaking because he knows it’s his last chance to salvage his friendship with Tony (Michael Barbieri), Leonor’s adolescent son, who’s become his closest, dearest friend. As the adults stand in disbelief of Jake’s plea, is he addressing their inner child or are they merely getting a preview of the troublesome teenage years ahead? Sachs makes us wonder...
- 8/8/2016
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
One of the best-remembered dramas of the '70s gives us controversial actresses, a lavish production and a story by the even more controversial Lillian Hellman. Director Fred Zinnemann makes it into a suspenseful, deeply affecting experience. Julia Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1977 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Ship Date April 12, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell, Hal Holbrook, Meryl Streep, Rosemary Murphy, Dora Doll, Elisabeth Mortensen, John Glover, Lisa Pelikan, Susan Jones, Cathleen Nesbitt, Maurice Denham. Cinematography Douglas Slocombe Film Editor Walter Murch Original Music Georges Delerue Written by Alvin Sargent based on the story by Lillian Hellman Produced by Richard Roth Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Fred Zinnemann was a cinema activist from way back, a filmmaker of uncompromising convictions. His most frequent theme is anti-fascism, although he began with a very Soviet-styled pro-union film in Mexico, Redes.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Fred Zinnemann was a cinema activist from way back, a filmmaker of uncompromising convictions. His most frequent theme is anti-fascism, although he began with a very Soviet-styled pro-union film in Mexico, Redes.
- 4/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
With the DGA Award in hand, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has become a frontrunner in the best director Oscar race for Birdman.
Only seven winners of the DGA Award have not won the best director Oscar in the 66 years that the Directors Guild of America has given the award. The most recent case was two years ago, when Ben Affleck wasn’t even nominated for the best director Oscar for Argo, which won best picture.
No American has won for best director since 2011 and if Inarritu, who is from Mexico, takes the Oscar this year, the trend will continue. Inarritu could become the second Latin American director to win for best director, following Alfonso Cuaron’s win last year.
In the 86 years since the Academy Awards’ inception, 89 Oscars have been given for best director. Twenty-six awards (29 percent) went to non-American born directors.
At the first annual...
Managing Editor
With the DGA Award in hand, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has become a frontrunner in the best director Oscar race for Birdman.
Only seven winners of the DGA Award have not won the best director Oscar in the 66 years that the Directors Guild of America has given the award. The most recent case was two years ago, when Ben Affleck wasn’t even nominated for the best director Oscar for Argo, which won best picture.
No American has won for best director since 2011 and if Inarritu, who is from Mexico, takes the Oscar this year, the trend will continue. Inarritu could become the second Latin American director to win for best director, following Alfonso Cuaron’s win last year.
In the 86 years since the Academy Awards’ inception, 89 Oscars have been given for best director. Twenty-six awards (29 percent) went to non-American born directors.
At the first annual...
- 2/11/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
In discussions regarding the beginnings of onscreen method acting, Montgomery Clift is often unfairly shunted away in favor of Marlon Brando and James Dean. The actor first came to prominence in 1948, courtesy of lead roles in both Fred Zinnemann’s WWII film “The Search” and opposite John Wayne in Howard Hawks’s "Red River." Clift went on to celluloid immortality via films like "From Here To Eternity," "I Confess," "Judgment At Nuremberg" and "A Place In Sun," earning four Oscar nominations along the way. A documentary examining Clift's life and work from the early nineties has surfaced, and is an excellent primer for his exceptional and yet underexamined career. Despite his distaste for "business as usual" in Hollywood and some poor career choices, Clift could very well have been as celebrated as the two famous contemporaries mentioned above. But a near-fatal car crash in 1956...
- 8/12/2014
- by Cain Rodriguez
- The Playlist
Good Intentions Cobbled: Hazanavicius Chokes on War Story Update
It’s clear to see that there were good intentions behind the making of Michael Hazanavicius latest film, The Search, a follow-up to his 2011 Best Picture winner, The Artist. Heretofore a director of silly or lighter themed fare, many of which showcase actress and wife Berenice Bejo, he dives headfirst into roiling dramatic waters with this update of Fred Zinneman’s 1948 film, headlining Montgomery Clift in his first theatrically released role (which snagged the actor an Oscar nod, as well as a win for its screenwriters and a special Oscar for child actor Ivan Jandl). Whereas the original dealt with a lost boy in an internment camp searching for his mother shortly after the end of World War II, aided by a friendly American G.I., Hazanavicius updates the tale to the 1999 Russian invasion of Chechnya, tacking on an additional perspective...
It’s clear to see that there were good intentions behind the making of Michael Hazanavicius latest film, The Search, a follow-up to his 2011 Best Picture winner, The Artist. Heretofore a director of silly or lighter themed fare, many of which showcase actress and wife Berenice Bejo, he dives headfirst into roiling dramatic waters with this update of Fred Zinneman’s 1948 film, headlining Montgomery Clift in his first theatrically released role (which snagged the actor an Oscar nod, as well as a win for its screenwriters and a special Oscar for child actor Ivan Jandl). Whereas the original dealt with a lost boy in an internment camp searching for his mother shortly after the end of World War II, aided by a friendly American G.I., Hazanavicius updates the tale to the 1999 Russian invasion of Chechnya, tacking on an additional perspective...
- 5/24/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
★★☆☆☆"This isn't Saving Private Ryan," a Russian soldier remarks to camera as one of his comrades films the aftermath of a battle and an ensuing massacre with a video camera. Yet, for all his latest offerings's fleeting moments of gritty realism, Oscar-winning The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius' The Search (2014) is a gruesomely sentimental piece, whose clumsiness and good intentions get in the way of drama itself. A loose remake of Fred Zinnemann's 1948 Academy Award-winning movie of the same name, the action has been moved to the Second Chechen War. Following the murder of his parents, nine-year-old Hadji (Abdul Khalim Mamutsiev) flees his home with a packed bag and his baby brother.
- 5/22/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Director: Michel Hazanavicius; Screenwriter: Michel Hazanavicius; Starring: Bérénice Bejo, Annette Bening, Maksim Emelyanov, Abdul Khalim Mamutsiev; Running time: 149 mins; Certificate: Tbc
Imagine the polar opposite of Michel Hazanavicius's sly, silent Oscar-winning gem The Artist, and you may well come up with something like this worthy but taxing follow-up. Set during the Second Chechen War in 1999, The Search paints a compelling portrait of a war-torn nation but labours its points too heavily, its gait stiff and lumbering where The Artist was joyfully fleet of foot.
One uniting factor between the two films is an effervescent performance from Bérénice Bejo, here playing a Chechnya-based Ngo worker named Carole, who spends her days writing detailed and largely ignored reports about the atrocities that surround her. Increasingly disheartened by how little impact her work is having on the United Nations' foreign affairs committee, and the general indifference of those around her, she's abruptly...
Imagine the polar opposite of Michel Hazanavicius's sly, silent Oscar-winning gem The Artist, and you may well come up with something like this worthy but taxing follow-up. Set during the Second Chechen War in 1999, The Search paints a compelling portrait of a war-torn nation but labours its points too heavily, its gait stiff and lumbering where The Artist was joyfully fleet of foot.
One uniting factor between the two films is an effervescent performance from Bérénice Bejo, here playing a Chechnya-based Ngo worker named Carole, who spends her days writing detailed and largely ignored reports about the atrocities that surround her. Increasingly disheartened by how little impact her work is having on the United Nations' foreign affairs committee, and the general indifference of those around her, she's abruptly...
- 5/22/2014
- Digital Spy
Filmmakers at Cannes beware. Make an unpredictable movie well outside your comfort zone and sometimes, critics will heap you with praise, as they did when comedy director Michel Hazanavicius went dramatic with "The Artist" at Cannes and went on to win a bevy of prizes including the Best Picture Oscar. So with that success behind him, he took his one-shot chance to shoot a hard-to-finance passion project, a remake of Fred Zinnemann's 1948 classic "The Search," updated from World War II to the 1999 Chechnyan conflict. He intertwines parallel stories of a young Russian-turned-soldier and a 9-year-old orphan. After the boy's parents are gunned down by Russian troops, the boy runs away with his baby brother, sadly deposits him on a neighbor's doorstep, and then is scooped up by a truck ferrying refugees. He runs away from the town orphanage and, near starving, is fed and taken home by a compassionate...
- 5/22/2014
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Following his breakout film The Artist, which won Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards, Michel Hazanavicius is remaking the 1948 Fred Zinnemann film The Search. The film details the struggles of a young Auschwitz survivor and his mother who search for each other across post-World War II Europe. Zinnemann’s movie is famous for shooting against the ruins of postwar German cities. Clint Eastwood has even cited star Montgomery Clift’s performance as the single greatest influence on his career. Hazanavicius' version stars Abdul Kahlim Mamutsiev as Hadji, orphaned during the Second Chechan War in the 1990s. Ngo worker Carole (Berenice Bejo, who also happens to be Hazanavicius’ wife) takes him in. Meanwhile, Hadji’s older sister...
Read More...
Read More...
- 5/22/2014
- by Alison Nastasi
- Movies.com
Every May, I fly all the way across the Atlantic to Cannes Film Festival just to watch good films. Films that are interesting, invigorating, exciting, entertaining, moving, no matter what they may be or who may have directed them, as along as they are good. Even those that are stories we may have seen before in other films, it doesn't matter, I'm not here to see failed experiments, I'm here to watch well-made, well-meaning movies. Ever since The Artist won the Best Picture Oscar in 2011, critics have been unnecessarily hating on director Michel Hazanavicius. I believe he's a great filmmaker and his latest, The Search, is another solid film. A sort-of remake of Fred Zinnemann's 1948 WWII film The Search, this new version is updated in setting and story, taking place during the Russia-Chechnya conflict in the 90s. With two separate storylines, one of them follows a young boy whose...
- 5/21/2014
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
One of the high-profile premieres at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is The Search, an update of the classic Fred Zinnemann war film starring Montgomery Clift. Although it received mixed reviews, it could have been due to high expectations. The Search‘s director, Michel Hazanavicius, arrived on the world cinema plateau three years ago when The Artist debuted at Cannes. 10 months later, he had a Best Director Oscar in his hand.
While The Search did not receive much critical adoration, it still looks riveting enough to check out when it arrives in theatres later this year. The film stars Bérénice Bejo as an Ngo worker who forms a relationship with a young, displaced boy named Hadji (Abdul Khalim Mamutsiev) in Chechnya after Russian troops invaded the country in 1999. The film also has various subplots, one involving Hadji’s older sister, Raïssa, who is searching for him in the wartorn region.
While The Search did not receive much critical adoration, it still looks riveting enough to check out when it arrives in theatres later this year. The film stars Bérénice Bejo as an Ngo worker who forms a relationship with a young, displaced boy named Hadji (Abdul Khalim Mamutsiev) in Chechnya after Russian troops invaded the country in 1999. The film also has various subplots, one involving Hadji’s older sister, Raïssa, who is searching for him in the wartorn region.
- 5/21/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Promoting new movie set during the Chechen war, The Search director expresses scepticism at the efficacy of peace-keeping bodies and explains how the success of The Artist enabled him to make a movie he felt was necessary
Peter Bradshaw's review of The Search
When your last film came from nowhere, cost peanuts, seduced critics, made a mint and won five Oscars (including best film), you can write your own cheque for the next one. What Michel Hazanvicius, whose 2011 black-and-white silent comedy The Artist is the most awarded in French history, chose to spend it on was an earnest anti-war epic about the trauma of modern conflict and the impotence of the liberal west.
"It felt the right thing to do," he said, following the film's first screening in Cannes, where it earned notices markedly less enthusiastic than those dished out to The Artist on its premiere here three years ago.
Peter Bradshaw's review of The Search
When your last film came from nowhere, cost peanuts, seduced critics, made a mint and won five Oscars (including best film), you can write your own cheque for the next one. What Michel Hazanvicius, whose 2011 black-and-white silent comedy The Artist is the most awarded in French history, chose to spend it on was an earnest anti-war epic about the trauma of modern conflict and the impotence of the liberal west.
"It felt the right thing to do," he said, following the film's first screening in Cannes, where it earned notices markedly less enthusiastic than those dished out to The Artist on its premiere here three years ago.
- 5/21/2014
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Cannes - At the risk of being unkind about a filmmaker who delighted me (and many others) so unequivocally with his last feature, it's probably tempting fate to open any film with the words, "What is this piece of shit?” That's not an entirely fair assessment of “The Search,” Michel Hazanavicius' follow-up to his unlikely, Oscar-garlanded 2011 hit “The Artist,” but it does roughly sum up the jaded bafflement with which it was received by journalists in Cannes this morning. A stiff, lumbering humanitarian drama that works obtusely and tirelessly against its director's spryest skills, it's proof positive that good intentions pave not only the road to hell, but the one to dreary mediocrity as well. Whatever road it's on, “The Search” sits squarely in the middle of it. Fred Zinnemann's 1948 Oscar-winner of the same title was a Hollywood studio film that depicted contemporary casualties of war with then-uncommon fortitude and frankness.
- 5/21/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
How do you follow up one of the most unusual and unlikely Oscar winners in recent memory? If you're Michel Hazanavicius, you make a movie that seemingly screams “nominate me!” Ironically, it seems as if “The Search,” which premiered on Wednesday at Cannes, falls short of its very serious goals. Also read: ‘The Search’ Takes Michel Hazanavicius From a Silent Movie to a Bloody War Reports are that there was some hearty booing after the screening, and critics are split on the film, both amongst themselves and even within their own reviews. “The Search,” which is a sort of remake...
- 5/21/2014
- by Jordan Zakarin
- The Wrap
With the festival hitting the final straight, we've yet to see a runaway champion, and Michel Hazanavicius's hubristic follow-up to The Artist is unlikely to win anyone's vote
Inside the Cannes Palais, the excited delegates are still searching for their masterpiece: a film to fire the senses and snap their eyelids up like roller-blinds. Hope springs eternal; the day dawns full of promise. But The Search is emphatically not the one we were looking for.
A few days ago, the cast of The Expendables 3 drove a tank clear up the Croisette. Naturally this was a spectacularly crass and cheesy stunt and yet it seems positively nuanced and restrained compared with Michel Hazanavicius's hubristic follow-up to his Oscar-winning The Artist. A loose remake of the old Fred Zinnemann movie, updated to the 1999 Chechen war, The Search proceeds to make an overcooked drama out of a humanitarian crisis. Bérénice Bejo plays the beautiful,...
Inside the Cannes Palais, the excited delegates are still searching for their masterpiece: a film to fire the senses and snap their eyelids up like roller-blinds. Hope springs eternal; the day dawns full of promise. But The Search is emphatically not the one we were looking for.
A few days ago, the cast of The Expendables 3 drove a tank clear up the Croisette. Naturally this was a spectacularly crass and cheesy stunt and yet it seems positively nuanced and restrained compared with Michel Hazanavicius's hubristic follow-up to his Oscar-winning The Artist. A loose remake of the old Fred Zinnemann movie, updated to the 1999 Chechen war, The Search proceeds to make an overcooked drama out of a humanitarian crisis. Bérénice Bejo plays the beautiful,...
- 5/21/2014
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Why bother updating a good movie? Michel Hazanavicius' "The Search" implicitly asks this question and never finds a sufficient answer. Fred Zinneman's 1948 drama revolved around the plight of a child concentration camp survivor separated from his mother in postwar Berlin and aided by a benevolent American private memorably portrayed by Montgomery Clift. In his 2014 remake, "The Artist" director Hazanvicius upgrades the story to Second Chechen War in 1999, swapping the Clift role for a Human Rights Committee representative played by Hazanvicius muse Berenice Bejo. Instead of a mother searching for her son, young Chechen refugee Hadji (Abduel Khalim Mamutsiev) winds up being cared for by Carole (Bejo) while his older sister Raissa (Zukhra Duishvili) follows his trail after Russian soldiers murder their parents. Hazanvicius, who also wrote the screenplay, compounds these ingredients with a separate narrative involving the experiences of a young Russian named Kolia (Maksim Emelyanov)...
- 5/21/2014
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
For his follow-up to breakout international hit The Artist, director Michel Hazanavicius has chosen a project that could not be more different. Chechen war drama The Search does, however, once again star Berenice Bejo, with support this time from Annette Bening. Tying in with its debut at Cannes, the first trailer has just arrived.The Search takes as a template the 1948 film of the same name, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Montgomery Clift. That version was about a young Auschwitz survivor and his mother, separated in WWII Europe. Hazanavicius' update involves the orphaned Hadji (Abdul Kahlim Mamutsiev) during the Second Chechan War in the 1990s. He comes under the protective wing of EU delegation head Carole (Bejo) while his elder sister Raissa (Zukhra Duishvili) searches for him among the civilian exodus. Interwoven with their story is that of struggling Russian army recruit Kolia (Maksim Emelyanov).Hazanavicius has been able...
- 5/21/2014
- EmpireOnline
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.