Catering directly to my interests, the Criterion Channel’s January lineup boasts two of my favorite things: James Gray and cats. In the former case it’s his first five features (itself a terrible reminder he only released five movies in 20 years); the latter shows felines the respect they deserve, from Kuroneko to The Long Goodbye, Tourneur’s Cat People and Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers. Meanwhile, Ava Gardner, Bertrand Tavernier, Isabel Sandoval, Ken Russell, Juleen Compton, George Harrison’s HandMade Films, and the Sundance Film Festival get retrospectives.
Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
Back By Popular Demand
The Graduate,...
Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
Back By Popular Demand
The Graduate,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Director and producer who supported the making of classic British films including Gregory’s Girl, Babylon and When the Wind Blows
The producer Mamoun Hassan, who has died aged 84, was a significant figure in British cinema of the 1970s and 80s, whose remarkable career, if not entirely satisfying his artistic gifts, was unusual in that it enabled so many other film-makers’ careers, and gave rise to numerous courageously non-commercial projects. What was notable was how commercial some of them turned out to be.
Although he was a talented director and screenwriter, it was in his roles as the first head of production of the British Film Institute (1971-74) and managing director of the National Film Finance Corporation that Mamoun was most influential, being instrumental in the making of such classic British films as Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl, Franco Rosso’s Babylon (both 1980) and the animated adaptation of Raymond Briggs’s When the Wind Blows,...
The producer Mamoun Hassan, who has died aged 84, was a significant figure in British cinema of the 1970s and 80s, whose remarkable career, if not entirely satisfying his artistic gifts, was unusual in that it enabled so many other film-makers’ careers, and gave rise to numerous courageously non-commercial projects. What was notable was how commercial some of them turned out to be.
Although he was a talented director and screenwriter, it was in his roles as the first head of production of the British Film Institute (1971-74) and managing director of the National Film Finance Corporation that Mamoun was most influential, being instrumental in the making of such classic British films as Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl, Franco Rosso’s Babylon (both 1980) and the animated adaptation of Raymond Briggs’s When the Wind Blows,...
- 8/17/2022
- by Kevin Brownlow
- The Guardian - Film News
Don Letts with music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman on Singers & Players War of Words (99-002 LP) and Adrian Sherwood’s label: “I mean all the early On-u stuff is absolutely essential.”
In There And Black Again: The Autobiography Of Don Letts (Omnibus Press) we learn the fate of a screenplay (“inspired by Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Five Nights of Bleeding”) bought by the adventurous producer Michael White (Gracie Otto’s The Last Impresario) and its connection to Franco Rosso’s Babylon, co-written with Martin Stellman, starring Brinsley Forde, and a soundtrack put together by Dennis Bovell (The Slits Cut producer). Martin Scorsese, The Punk Rock Movie, Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy, Jerry Lewis, and The Clash shows at Bonds also have a link to Don Letts.
Music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman met Don Letts at The Roxy 45 years ago and was invited by Bernie Rhodes...
In There And Black Again: The Autobiography Of Don Letts (Omnibus Press) we learn the fate of a screenplay (“inspired by Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Five Nights of Bleeding”) bought by the adventurous producer Michael White (Gracie Otto’s The Last Impresario) and its connection to Franco Rosso’s Babylon, co-written with Martin Stellman, starring Brinsley Forde, and a soundtrack put together by Dennis Bovell (The Slits Cut producer). Martin Scorsese, The Punk Rock Movie, Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy, Jerry Lewis, and The Clash shows at Bonds also have a link to Don Letts.
Music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman met Don Letts at The Roxy 45 years ago and was invited by Bernie Rhodes...
- 8/9/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Criterion Channel’s February Lineup Includes Melvin Van Peebles, Douglas Sirk, Laura Dern & More
Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. In accordance with Black History Month their selections are especially refreshing: seven by Melvin Van Peebles, five from Kevin Jerome Everson, and Criterion editions of The Harder They Come and The Learning Tree.
Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.
See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
Alan & Naomi, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992
All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955
The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970
Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980
Babymother, Julian Henriques, 1998
Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006
Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984
Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,...
Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.
See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
Alan & Naomi, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992
All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955
The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970
Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980
Babymother, Julian Henriques, 1998
Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006
Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984
Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,...
- 1/24/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Sheffield DocFest has unveiled its line-up for its 2021 programme that includes the World Premiere of the first instalment of Academy Award winner Steve McQueen’s new series for the BBC, ‘Uprising’.
For the first time, Sheffield DocFest goes nationwide with five premiere screenings showing in up to 16 partner cinemas in cities around the UK, and online, followed by pre-recorded Q&As. It also includes the previously announced Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
The celebration of Black British screen culture – curated by guest curators including David Olusoga. Films of all lengths will all be presented as part of the retrospective including titles such as ‘Burning An Illusion’ by Menelik Shabazz, ‘It Ain’t Half Racist’, ‘Mum’ by Stuart Hall, ‘Looking for Langston’ by Isaac Julien, ‘Second Coming’ by Debbie Tucker Green, ‘The Black Safari’ by Colin Luke, ‘Baby Mother...
For the first time, Sheffield DocFest goes nationwide with five premiere screenings showing in up to 16 partner cinemas in cities around the UK, and online, followed by pre-recorded Q&As. It also includes the previously announced Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
The celebration of Black British screen culture – curated by guest curators including David Olusoga. Films of all lengths will all be presented as part of the retrospective including titles such as ‘Burning An Illusion’ by Menelik Shabazz, ‘It Ain’t Half Racist’, ‘Mum’ by Stuart Hall, ‘Looking for Langston’ by Isaac Julien, ‘Second Coming’ by Debbie Tucker Green, ‘The Black Safari’ by Colin Luke, ‘Baby Mother...
- 5/17/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Steve McQueen’s Alex Wheatle, co-written with Alastair Siddons, shot by Shabier Kirchner with costumes by Jacqueline Durran is episode 4 of his Small Axe anthology. The title character ((Sheyi Cole) is brought to a prison cell where a foul smell awaits him, courtesy of his bunkmate Simeon (Robbie Gee). Remember how Peter Morgan in the very first scene of the first episode of season one of The Crown, directed by Stephen Daldry, repels us with the blood-spitting King George VI (Jared Harris), only to pull us in even more soon after? McQueen is equally good at provoking visceral reactions from the audience. Franco Rosso’s 1980 Babylon, starring Brinsley Forde with music by Dennis Bovell...
- 12/1/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
If his work on Skate Kitchen and Sollers Point didn’t yet clue you into the immense talents of cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, get ready for one of the greatest achievements in the field this year: Steve McQueen’s five-film anthology series Small Axe. From the immersive, ecstatic Lovers Rock is a Jubilant Portrait of Community”>Lovers Rock to the fiery, urgent Mangrove“>Mangrove, Kirchner brings an immaculate, varied eye to these stories of the West Indian community of London. Now, he’s set to embark on his directorial debut.
Screen Daily reports Kirchner will direct Augustown, adapting Kei Miller’s 2016 novel with a script by Courttia Newland and executive produced by Steve McQueen. Backed by Potboiler Productions and Rathaus Films, as well as BBC Film, the story is set in 1980s Jamaica.
According to the official synopsis, the “story begins when a teacher cuts off the dreadlocks of Kaia, a...
Screen Daily reports Kirchner will direct Augustown, adapting Kei Miller’s 2016 novel with a script by Courttia Newland and executive produced by Steve McQueen. Backed by Potboiler Productions and Rathaus Films, as well as BBC Film, the story is set in 1980s Jamaica.
According to the official synopsis, the “story begins when a teacher cuts off the dreadlocks of Kaia, a...
- 10/30/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Two films capture the volatile climate with race relations in Great Britain during the mid-Seventies into the early Eighties: Franco Rosso’s 1980 feature Babylon, starring Brinsley Forde with a score by Dennis Bovell, and Rubika Shah's ever more urgent White Riot (2019 London documentary winner). The latter focuses on the evolution of Rock Against Racism in 1976, which led to the 1978 Victoria Park concert, featuring Steel Pulse, The Clash, Tom Robinson, Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69, and Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex.
Steve McQueen’s Mangrove, co-written with Alastair Siddons, starring Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright, and Malachi Kirby, and shot by Shabier Kirchner, is neither of the period, nor a documentary, (as are the respective films mentioned above) and yet, it manages to convey a vivid sense of time, place, and community, plus the critical...
Steve McQueen’s Mangrove, co-written with Alastair Siddons, starring Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright, and Malachi Kirby, and shot by Shabier Kirchner, is neither of the period, nor a documentary, (as are the respective films mentioned above) and yet, it manages to convey a vivid sense of time, place, and community, plus the critical...
- 9/26/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Franco-uk event to include the European premiere of ‘Ammonite’.
The 31st Dinard Film Festival, the annual celebration of British cinema held in northern France, has unveiled its full line-up and secured the European premiere of Francis Lee’s Ammonite.
The festival is set to go ahead as a physical event from September 30-October 4 and its previews strand includes romantic drama Ammonite, which received a Cannes label and has its world premiere at TIFF today.
The six films in competition comprise Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses; Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d; Claire Oakley’s Make Up; Bassam Tariq’s...
The 31st Dinard Film Festival, the annual celebration of British cinema held in northern France, has unveiled its full line-up and secured the European premiere of Francis Lee’s Ammonite.
The festival is set to go ahead as a physical event from September 30-October 4 and its previews strand includes romantic drama Ammonite, which received a Cannes label and has its world premiere at TIFF today.
The six films in competition comprise Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses; Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d; Claire Oakley’s Make Up; Bassam Tariq’s...
- 9/11/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Independent film distributor Kino Lorber on Monday launched its own online movie rental and purchase platform with everything from silent classics “Battleship Potemkin” and “Nosferatu” to works by Jean-Luc Godard, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Rick Alverson.
Kino Lorber President and CEO Richard Lorber bills Kino-Now as a “kind of arthouse iTunes” where some of the most acclaimed films in history will be available at similar price points to Apple’s service. Ana Lily Amirpour’s Iranian vampire western “A Girl Walks Home at Night” is available now to buy for $9.99 or rent for $4.99, for example, and Lanthimos’ “Alps” for $9.99 and $1.99.
“We’ve been leaders in building a direct to consumer business with physical media and now is the time to assert our leadership in the direct to digital space,” Lorber said. “Our superb library will be continually enhanced by the coming of newly acclaimed and award winning theatrical releases. We believe...
Kino Lorber President and CEO Richard Lorber bills Kino-Now as a “kind of arthouse iTunes” where some of the most acclaimed films in history will be available at similar price points to Apple’s service. Ana Lily Amirpour’s Iranian vampire western “A Girl Walks Home at Night” is available now to buy for $9.99 or rent for $4.99, for example, and Lanthimos’ “Alps” for $9.99 and $1.99.
“We’ve been leaders in building a direct to consumer business with physical media and now is the time to assert our leadership in the direct to digital space,” Lorber said. “Our superb library will be continually enhanced by the coming of newly acclaimed and award winning theatrical releases. We believe...
- 10/1/2019
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
In today’s film news roundup, Kino Lorber has started a VOD platform, Tony Todd is starring in a horror-comedy, the Red Nation International Film Festival sets its lineup and ballet dancer Kirsten Bloom Allen starts a production company. VOD Distribution Arthouse distribution specialist Kino Lorber is launching VOD platform Kino Now with more than 600 new releases, classics and international films. Kino Now, announced Monday, will offer exclusive early access to new theatrical releases, festival hits and exclusive titles not available on other streaming platforms or not yet available on home video.
The platform will also include special “bundle” offerings of selected hard-to-find titles as well as collections from renowned filmmakers including international TV series such as “Deutschland 83” and “Bad Banks”; documentary series including Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”; auteur collections built around Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller and Fritz Lang; and pioneers of cinema restorations of the...
The platform will also include special “bundle” offerings of selected hard-to-find titles as well as collections from renowned filmmakers including international TV series such as “Deutschland 83” and “Bad Banks”; documentary series including Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”; auteur collections built around Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller and Fritz Lang; and pioneers of cinema restorations of the...
- 10/1/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, Sterling K. Brown is cast as a basketball coach, Kino Lorber hires a programming veteran and Imagine promotes Karen Lunder.
Casting
Sterling K. Brown will play the lead role of Coach Willie Davis in inspirational sports drama “Rise” for Sony’s faith-based Affirm Films, Crystal City Entertainment and Gulfstream Pictures.
Kevin Rodney Sullivan will start filming in May in Louisiana with a wide theatrical release on April 10, 2020. The script was written by Randy Brown and Gregory Allen Howard.
Davis, a junior high school janitor, seized the opportunity to head coach the school’s basketball team as the school was weighing the decision to cancel the program due to funding concerns. Davis stressed “The Lord, books and basketball” to the team and became a role model for many of the kids in the school and surrounding community.
Producers are Ari Pinchot, Stuart Avi Savitsky, Mike Karz and Bill Bindley.
Casting
Sterling K. Brown will play the lead role of Coach Willie Davis in inspirational sports drama “Rise” for Sony’s faith-based Affirm Films, Crystal City Entertainment and Gulfstream Pictures.
Kevin Rodney Sullivan will start filming in May in Louisiana with a wide theatrical release on April 10, 2020. The script was written by Randy Brown and Gregory Allen Howard.
Davis, a junior high school janitor, seized the opportunity to head coach the school’s basketball team as the school was weighing the decision to cancel the program due to funding concerns. Davis stressed “The Lord, books and basketball” to the team and became a role model for many of the kids in the school and surrounding community.
Producers are Ari Pinchot, Stuart Avi Savitsky, Mike Karz and Bill Bindley.
- 4/5/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
After a robust three-year run as the director of programming at New York City’s Quad Cinema, C. Mason Wells surprised the indie film world by announcing his departure earlier this week. Now we know why he’s leaving: Wells is joining Kino Lorber as director of theatrical sales, starting Monday April 8. He’ll be reporting directly to Wendy Lidell, Svp of theatrical, non-theatrical distribution and acquisitions.
When the Quad Cinema relaunched in 2016, it distinguished itself almost immediately with its extraordinary repertory lineups, including retrospectives of Alain Delon, Bob Fosse, and films that were rated X. Almost instantly, the Quad was as essential a part of the New York City film landscape as the IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and Bam Cinematek (for all three of which Wells had previously programmed lineups), as well as Film Forum and the Metrograph.
“I am delighted that Chris Wells will be joining our team,...
When the Quad Cinema relaunched in 2016, it distinguished itself almost immediately with its extraordinary repertory lineups, including retrospectives of Alain Delon, Bob Fosse, and films that were rated X. Almost instantly, the Quad was as essential a part of the New York City film landscape as the IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and Bam Cinematek (for all three of which Wells had previously programmed lineups), as well as Film Forum and the Metrograph.
“I am delighted that Chris Wells will be joining our team,...
- 4/4/2019
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Franco Rosso's Babylon star Brinsley Forde with Ed Bahlman and Dennis Bovell at Bam: "Let's be honest, a film like that had never been done before. We had The Harder They Come, the films from Jamaica, but nothing from the UK." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At the Brooklyn Academy of Music before the Us theatrical première of Babylon at BAMcinématek, Brinsley Forde spoke with me about the cast, which includes Trevor Laird, Brian Bovell, Archie Pool, Victor Romero Evans, Stefan Kalipha, Cosmo Laidlaw, Cynthia Powell, T. Bone Wilson, David N. Haynes, Mark Monero, Karl Howman, and Jah Shaka, and the film "presenting a life that the people who were in the movie, extras and all, were totally aware of."
Franco Rosso's powerful feature, with the camerawork of Chris Menges and a score by Dennis Bovell, takes you upfront into a world of survival that remains relevant today. Brinsley brings...
At the Brooklyn Academy of Music before the Us theatrical première of Babylon at BAMcinématek, Brinsley Forde spoke with me about the cast, which includes Trevor Laird, Brian Bovell, Archie Pool, Victor Romero Evans, Stefan Kalipha, Cosmo Laidlaw, Cynthia Powell, T. Bone Wilson, David N. Haynes, Mark Monero, Karl Howman, and Jah Shaka, and the film "presenting a life that the people who were in the movie, extras and all, were totally aware of."
Franco Rosso's powerful feature, with the camerawork of Chris Menges and a score by Dennis Bovell, takes you upfront into a world of survival that remains relevant today. Brinsley brings...
- 3/16/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Frank Rosso's Babylon (1980) is showing February 25 – March 26, 2019 on Mubi in the United Kingdom.Impressions of Franco Rosso’s Babylon (1980) extend past the boundaries of its 95-minute running time. Like the dub remixes its London characters’ lives revolve around, the movie plays with re-establishing identity and our experience of time. A narrative document of young, working class male Jamaican-British Londoners, Babylon doles out atmospheric city scenes of their place in the community: sons, brothers, boyfriends, small-time crooks, laborers, music lovers and producers. Privileging viewers with immersion into an insulated, under-documented immigrant community, the film provides a window into their daily lives. We are thrown into conversations and situations, intimately experiencing their patois their interactions with friends, their constant victimization by a dominantly racist white society, and the massive sound system parties they congregate to. A corrective to the British ignorance and fear of Jamaican immigrants, the film’s emphasis is on...
- 3/13/2019
- MUBI
Music legends Dennis Bovell and Ed Bahlman unite before the preview of Franco Rosso's powerful Babylon with Brinsley Forde at BAMcinématek Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
When I arrived with Ed Bahlman (99 Records) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for my conversations with Brinsley Forde and Dennis Bovell, two key figures for Franco Rosso's Babylon, co-written with Martin Stellman, produced by Gavrik Losey, and shot by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (for Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields and The Mission), Brinsley, Dennis, and Seventy-Seven founder Gabriele Caroti were standing in the lobby. Ed greeted Dennis and they immediately reconnected by sharing memories of The Slits, Viv Albertine's memoir, Chris Blackwell, Adrian Sherwood, Pop Group, Mark Stewart, Public Image Ltd, Bruce Smith, Neneh Cherry, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the Reggae Lounge, and of course, Ari Up and the making of Cut.
Brinsley Forde shines in Franco Rosso's Babylon Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze...
When I arrived with Ed Bahlman (99 Records) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for my conversations with Brinsley Forde and Dennis Bovell, two key figures for Franco Rosso's Babylon, co-written with Martin Stellman, produced by Gavrik Losey, and shot by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (for Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields and The Mission), Brinsley, Dennis, and Seventy-Seven founder Gabriele Caroti were standing in the lobby. Ed greeted Dennis and they immediately reconnected by sharing memories of The Slits, Viv Albertine's memoir, Chris Blackwell, Adrian Sherwood, Pop Group, Mark Stewart, Public Image Ltd, Bruce Smith, Neneh Cherry, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the Reggae Lounge, and of course, Ari Up and the making of Cut.
Brinsley Forde shines in Franco Rosso's Babylon Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze...
- 3/10/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria Bell handily took the best specialty debut mantle this weekend with one of the highest opening weekend per-theater averages for a limited release title this year.
The film dominated, as the specialty universe converged at the start of the weekend at SXSW. The A24 feature starring Julianne Moore, John Turturro and Michael Cera grossed an estimated $154,775 in the three-day, averaging $30,955. Gloria Bell is the re-imagined English-language and L.A.-set drama of a free-spirit, based on Lelio’s 2014 title, Gloria, set in Santiago, Chile, which took in over $2.1M via Roadside Attractions stateside.
The Us debut of Franco Rosso’s 1980 film, Babylon, had a solid start with its weekend exclusive at Bam in Brooklyn. Babylon grossed an estimated $20,096 over the weekend. The company also bowed 3 Faces by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi with an exclusive New York run over the weekend, taking in $7,196.
Lionsgate Premiere opened The Kid,...
The film dominated, as the specialty universe converged at the start of the weekend at SXSW. The A24 feature starring Julianne Moore, John Turturro and Michael Cera grossed an estimated $154,775 in the three-day, averaging $30,955. Gloria Bell is the re-imagined English-language and L.A.-set drama of a free-spirit, based on Lelio’s 2014 title, Gloria, set in Santiago, Chile, which took in over $2.1M via Roadside Attractions stateside.
The Us debut of Franco Rosso’s 1980 film, Babylon, had a solid start with its weekend exclusive at Bam in Brooklyn. Babylon grossed an estimated $20,096 over the weekend. The company also bowed 3 Faces by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi with an exclusive New York run over the weekend, taking in $7,196.
Lionsgate Premiere opened The Kid,...
- 3/10/2019
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
Nearly four decades ago when it was originally released co-writer/director Franco Rosso's explosive British musical drama Babylon tapped into the complicated mindset of a different kind of youth-fueled movement saddled with incidiary overtones of racial strife and cultural intolerance. Specifically, spotlighting the prominence of dreadlock-induced indifference concerning British-Jamaican musicians enduring xenophobia scorn is the foundation for Rosso's controversial expose chronicling the heavy-handed race-related bias around South London's bombastic boundaries in the early eighties. Babylon is revealing and raw in its political and sociological spectrum in reference to racial divide, reggae music, and the underbelly of ambition to succeed within the realm of doomsday disillusionment. Indeed, Babylon was destined to be a blistering commentary on black youth alienation upon its 1980 debut. Honest, gritty and vastly telling, Rosso and fellow scriber Martin...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/10/2019
- Screen Anarchy
There’s a scene in Babylon, the 1980 cult classic considered by many to be the great U.K. reggae movie, where a bunch of Brixton residents gather together in a rehearsal space. It’s the meeting place for their up-and-coming sound system, named Ital Lion; one of them has just procured a new dub from a shady record-store owner, who claims to have received the track “straight from the J.” (That’d be Jamaica.) The “harder than steel” tune is going to be their secret weapon when the Lion crew...
- 3/8/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Director Sebastián Lelio is revisiting a character that charmed audiences back in 2014. Gloria Bell, starring Oscar winner Julianne Moore, is the English-language reimagining of the filmmaker’s box office hit Gloria. A24 is opening the title in New York and L.A., which should be the headliner among the weekend’s specialty newcomers. Fellow Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons stars in drama I’m Not Here, heading out day-and-date from Gravitas Ventures. Documentary Ferrante Fever is doing exclusive showings in New York starting Friday before heading to L.A. later in the month, and KimStim is opening Golden Horse winner An Elephant Sitting Still by the late Chinese filmmaker Hu Bo.
Among other limited releases opening this weekend is Lionsgate’s The Kid starring Ethan Hawke, and the U.S. debut of Franco Rosso’s 1980 film Babylon is having its U.S. bow at Bam in Brooklyn.
Gloria Bell
Director-writer: Sebastián Lelio
Cast: Julianne Moore,...
Among other limited releases opening this weekend is Lionsgate’s The Kid starring Ethan Hawke, and the U.S. debut of Franco Rosso’s 1980 film Babylon is having its U.S. bow at Bam in Brooklyn.
Gloria Bell
Director-writer: Sebastián Lelio
Cast: Julianne Moore,...
- 3/8/2019
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
Franco Rosso’s Thatcher-era drama to premiere theatrically in March.
Nearly 40 years after it premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week, cult British reggae film Babylon will get its first Us release through Kino Lorber Repertory and new boutique distributor Seventy-Seven.
Franco Rosso’s Thatcher-era drama about racial tension and police brutality stars Brinsley Forde, founder of British reggae band Aswad, as a dancehall DJ in south London who battles xenophobia, neighbours, police, and the National Front.
The film was deemed so incendiary that after screenings on the Croisette and the Toronto International Film Festival, top brass at the New York Film Festival passed.
Nearly 40 years after it premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week, cult British reggae film Babylon will get its first Us release through Kino Lorber Repertory and new boutique distributor Seventy-Seven.
Franco Rosso’s Thatcher-era drama about racial tension and police brutality stars Brinsley Forde, founder of British reggae band Aswad, as a dancehall DJ in south London who battles xenophobia, neighbours, police, and the National Front.
The film was deemed so incendiary that after screenings on the Croisette and the Toronto International Film Festival, top brass at the New York Film Festival passed.
- 1/18/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
There can’t be many pairs of hands as safe as Don Letts’s when it comes to music knowledge. A cultural polymath who has been front-and-centre of the music scene for over 40 years – as a musician, DJ, radio presenter, Grammy Award-winning music video and film director. Letts was one of the key figures in the introduction of reggae to the punk movement, working particularly closely with The Clash.
He’s returned to reggae, celebrating his first love with a series of podcasts for Turtle Bay, and in his latest Reggae45 podcast, he has zeroed in on reggae’s place in Jamaican cinema. “With this episode Don takes the term soundtrack from a literal point of view, delving deep into the world of film and how the sound has a parallel connection with the story on the screen.”
The Citizen Kane of Jamaican cinema is Perry Henzell’s 1972 crime thriller...
He’s returned to reggae, celebrating his first love with a series of podcasts for Turtle Bay, and in his latest Reggae45 podcast, he has zeroed in on reggae’s place in Jamaican cinema. “With this episode Don takes the term soundtrack from a literal point of view, delving deep into the world of film and how the sound has a parallel connection with the story on the screen.”
The Citizen Kane of Jamaican cinema is Perry Henzell’s 1972 crime thriller...
- 11/26/2018
- by Cai Ross
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Witches (1967) is now available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy. It can be ordered Here
In the mid-sixties, famed producer Dino De Laurentiis brought together the talents of five celebrated Italian directors for an anthology film. Their brief was simple: to direct an episode in which Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Ludwig) plays a witch.
Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Death in Venice) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves) open the film with The Witch Burned Alive, about a famous actress and a drunken evening that leads to unpleasant revelations. Civic Sense is a lightly comic interlude from Mauro Bolognini (The Lady of the Camelias) with a dark conclusion, and The Earth as Seen from the Moon sees Italian comedy legend Totò team up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (Theorem) for the first time for a tale of matrimony and a red-headed father and son. Franco Rosso (The Woman in the Painting) concocts a...
In the mid-sixties, famed producer Dino De Laurentiis brought together the talents of five celebrated Italian directors for an anthology film. Their brief was simple: to direct an episode in which Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Ludwig) plays a witch.
Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Death in Venice) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves) open the film with The Witch Burned Alive, about a famous actress and a drunken evening that leads to unpleasant revelations. Civic Sense is a lightly comic interlude from Mauro Bolognini (The Lady of the Camelias) with a dark conclusion, and The Earth as Seen from the Moon sees Italian comedy legend Totò team up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (Theorem) for the first time for a tale of matrimony and a red-headed father and son. Franco Rosso (The Woman in the Painting) concocts a...
- 1/10/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Film-maker who co-wrote and directed the cult movie classic Babylon, 1980
The British film-maker Franco Rosso, who has died aged 75, always felt like an outsider, which may well account for the extraordinary empathy with the disaffected and marginalised that characterised his work. Beginning his career as an assistant editor on Ken Loach’s Kes (1969), he went on to create a series of hard-hitting documentaries and dramas, but it was arguably his first fiction film, Babylon (1980), that marked him out as a fearless chronicler of the dispossessed.
He was born in Turin to Angela (nee Cornaglia) and Egidio Rosso who, when Franco was eight, left their jobs at the Fiat motor factory and moved to London, where his grandfather had a cafe. They settled in Streatham, south-west London, and at the local schools he attended Franco developed a defiant, rebellious streak, a necessary defence, he said, against the postwar xenophobia he encountered:...
The British film-maker Franco Rosso, who has died aged 75, always felt like an outsider, which may well account for the extraordinary empathy with the disaffected and marginalised that characterised his work. Beginning his career as an assistant editor on Ken Loach’s Kes (1969), he went on to create a series of hard-hitting documentaries and dramas, but it was arguably his first fiction film, Babylon (1980), that marked him out as a fearless chronicler of the dispossessed.
He was born in Turin to Angela (nee Cornaglia) and Egidio Rosso who, when Franco was eight, left their jobs at the Fiat motor factory and moved to London, where his grandfather had a cafe. They settled in Streatham, south-west London, and at the local schools he attended Franco developed a defiant, rebellious streak, a necessary defence, he said, against the postwar xenophobia he encountered:...
- 1/2/2017
- by Martin Stellman
- The Guardian - Film News
From Kingston to Lewisham, here are five other must-see reggae movies
The Harder They Come (Dir. Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972)
Jamaica's first feature, and the one against which others are measured. The plot – poor country boy seeks fortune in city – is archetypal, but Henzell cleverly turns our admiration for hero Ivan (Jimmy Cliff in incendiary form) into revulsion, as the film shifts through melodrama, comedy and musical into tragedy. Immortal movie moments – "You think the hero can be dead before the last reel?" scoffs Ivan at one point – and a stunning soundtrack led by Cliff's title song make this a five-star classic.
Rockers (Dir. Ted Bafaloukos, Jamaica, 1979)
A "Dreadsploitation" flick that's now a vibrant time capsule of reggae's halcyon days. Drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace plays a hapless muso caught up in Kingston's music wars. The plot's paper thin, but there's a gallery of great cameo appearances – Jacob Miller and Gregory Isaacs...
The Harder They Come (Dir. Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972)
Jamaica's first feature, and the one against which others are measured. The plot – poor country boy seeks fortune in city – is archetypal, but Henzell cleverly turns our admiration for hero Ivan (Jimmy Cliff in incendiary form) into revulsion, as the film shifts through melodrama, comedy and musical into tragedy. Immortal movie moments – "You think the hero can be dead before the last reel?" scoffs Ivan at one point – and a stunning soundtrack led by Cliff's title song make this a five-star classic.
Rockers (Dir. Ted Bafaloukos, Jamaica, 1979)
A "Dreadsploitation" flick that's now a vibrant time capsule of reggae's halcyon days. Drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace plays a hapless muso caught up in Kingston's music wars. The plot's paper thin, but there's a gallery of great cameo appearances – Jacob Miller and Gregory Isaacs...
- 4/23/2012
- by Neil Spencer
- The Guardian - Film News
Trailer and clips for Babylon, directed by Franco Rosso (Dread Beat an' Blood), co-written (with Rosso) by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia; Defence Of The Realm; For Queen And Country), photographed by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (The Mission; The Killing Fields) and starring celebrated reggae star and Aswad frontman Brinsley Forde (Here Come The Double Deckers), Karl Howman (Brush Strokes; Mulberry) and Trevor Laird (Doctor Who; Quadrophenia).
The film is available on DVD from Italian distributor Raro Video and UK based Icon Home Entertainment.
Read More
tags: cult film, reggae...
The film is available on DVD from Italian distributor Raro Video and UK based Icon Home Entertainment.
Read More
tags: cult film, reggae...
- 10/5/2008
- by Leigh
- Latemag.com/film
One of the most highly regarded cult British films of the 1980s, Babylon comes to DVD for the first time ever in the UK this October courtesy of Icon Home Entertainment, boasting fully restored and remastered image and audio (personally overseen by Chris Menges) plus Audio Commentaries, Interviews and feature on the restoration.
Directed by Franco Rosso (Dread Beat an' Blood), co-written (with Rosso) by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia; Defence Of The Realm; For Queen And Country), photographed by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (The Mission; The Killing Fields) and starring celebrated reggae star and Aswad frontman Brinsley Forde (Here Come The Double Deckers), Karl Howman (Brush Strokes; Mulberry) and Trevor Laird (Doctor Who; Quadrophenia), Babylon is a raw and incendiary film employing an effective mix of music and social commentary to recount the everyday experiences of a small group of working class black youths living in South London in the early 1980s.
Directed by Franco Rosso (Dread Beat an' Blood), co-written (with Rosso) by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia; Defence Of The Realm; For Queen And Country), photographed by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (The Mission; The Killing Fields) and starring celebrated reggae star and Aswad frontman Brinsley Forde (Here Come The Double Deckers), Karl Howman (Brush Strokes; Mulberry) and Trevor Laird (Doctor Who; Quadrophenia), Babylon is a raw and incendiary film employing an effective mix of music and social commentary to recount the everyday experiences of a small group of working class black youths living in South London in the early 1980s.
- 10/4/2008
- by Leigh
- Latemag.com/film
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.