The great Chilean director Raul Ruiz died before filming began on his latest epic. Now it's about to get its Venice premiere, with his widow in the director's chair
You wouldn't have put it past Raul Ruiz to direct a film from beyond the grave. The Chilean master was hard at work on a new feature, The Lines of Wellington, at the time of his death last August, aged 70. This was a Napoleonic-era epic, a "Portuguese War and Peace", set in 1810 as the French troops battled with a British and Portuguese army commanded by General Wellington. At Wellington's bidding, a daunting system of fortifications – the so-called Lines of Torres Vedras – was secretly built to repel the French invaders. Wellington pursued a scorched earth policy, which displaced huge numbers of Portuguese and British; it's their story the film tells.
The cast for Lines of Wellington, led by John Malkovich, Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve,...
You wouldn't have put it past Raul Ruiz to direct a film from beyond the grave. The Chilean master was hard at work on a new feature, The Lines of Wellington, at the time of his death last August, aged 70. This was a Napoleonic-era epic, a "Portuguese War and Peace", set in 1810 as the French troops battled with a British and Portuguese army commanded by General Wellington. At Wellington's bidding, a daunting system of fortifications – the so-called Lines of Torres Vedras – was secretly built to repel the French invaders. Wellington pursued a scorched earth policy, which displaced huge numbers of Portuguese and British; it's their story the film tells.
The cast for Lines of Wellington, led by John Malkovich, Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve,...
- 8/22/2012
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- The Guardian - Film News
"Gilbert Adair, the acclaimed critic who had some of his own novels turned into successful films, has died aged 66," reports Catherine Shoard in the Guardian. "Adair won the respect of cineastes with volumes such as A Night at the Pictures (1985), Myths & Memories (1986), Hollywood's Vietnam (1981), Flickers (1995), Surfing the Zeitgeist (1997) and with his translation of the letters of François Truffaut (published in 1990). He was a prolific journalist, writing a regular column for the Sunday Times in the 1990s, as well as for this paper — last year he interviewed the French filmmaker Alain Resnais."
As a screenwriter, Adair will be remembered for his collaborations with Raúl Ruiz (The Territory in 1981, Klimt in 2006, Blind Revenge in 2010) and Bernardo Bertolucci (The Dreamers in 2003, based on his own novel, The Holy Innocents). Richard Kwietniowski's Love and Death on Long Island (1997) is based on Adair's novel.
In January 2010, Adair wrote in the Guardian, "I yield to...
As a screenwriter, Adair will be remembered for his collaborations with Raúl Ruiz (The Territory in 1981, Klimt in 2006, Blind Revenge in 2010) and Bernardo Bertolucci (The Dreamers in 2003, based on his own novel, The Holy Innocents). Richard Kwietniowski's Love and Death on Long Island (1997) is based on Adair's novel.
In January 2010, Adair wrote in the Guardian, "I yield to...
- 12/11/2011
- MUBI
Prolific journalist and author whose novels were often adapted for the big screen, has died
Gilbert Adair, the acclaimed critic who had some of his own novels turned into successful films, has died aged 66.
Adair won the respect of cineastes with volumes such as A Night at the Pictures (1985), Myths & Memories (1986), Hollywood's Vietnam (1981), Flickers (1995), Surfing the Zeitgeist (1997) and with his translation of the letters of François Truffaut (published in 1990). He was a prolific journalist, writing a regular column for the Sunday Times in the 1990s, as well as for this paper – last year he interviewed the French film-maker Alain Resnais.
It was in cinematic adaptation that he found wider fame: the 1997 film Love and Death on Long Island, starring John Hurt as mordant writer Giles De'Ath, and Jason Priestley as the teen star he strikes up a friendship with, was based on Adair's 1990 novel of the same name.
Bernardo Bertolucci's successful 2003 film The Dreamers,...
Gilbert Adair, the acclaimed critic who had some of his own novels turned into successful films, has died aged 66.
Adair won the respect of cineastes with volumes such as A Night at the Pictures (1985), Myths & Memories (1986), Hollywood's Vietnam (1981), Flickers (1995), Surfing the Zeitgeist (1997) and with his translation of the letters of François Truffaut (published in 1990). He was a prolific journalist, writing a regular column for the Sunday Times in the 1990s, as well as for this paper – last year he interviewed the French film-maker Alain Resnais.
It was in cinematic adaptation that he found wider fame: the 1997 film Love and Death on Long Island, starring John Hurt as mordant writer Giles De'Ath, and Jason Priestley as the teen star he strikes up a friendship with, was based on Adair's 1990 novel of the same name.
Bernardo Bertolucci's successful 2003 film The Dreamers,...
- 12/9/2011
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: Ruiz's La recta provincia (2007).
Notebook is unfurling a series of tributes to Raúl Ruiz entitled Blind Man's Bluff: along with some previously published articles, here in English for the first time, the bulk a compilation of new, shorter pieces from a few generous critics and Ruizians on favorite moments from a vast, subterranean filmography. For more from Raúl Ruiz: Blind Man's Bluff see the Table of Contents.
Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody (2002)
There's a scene in Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody, the series of documentaries (?) for which Ruiz returned to Chilean filmmaking in 2002, that seems fascinating to me for its strangeness. Without any rational justification, Ruiz, who acts in the film, takes a TV remote and talks into it as if it were a cordless phone. It's one of those scenes that seem to have been dreamt by the viewer, but turn out to be revealing of different aspects of Ruiz as filmmaker.
Notebook is unfurling a series of tributes to Raúl Ruiz entitled Blind Man's Bluff: along with some previously published articles, here in English for the first time, the bulk a compilation of new, shorter pieces from a few generous critics and Ruizians on favorite moments from a vast, subterranean filmography. For more from Raúl Ruiz: Blind Man's Bluff see the Table of Contents.
Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody (2002)
There's a scene in Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody, the series of documentaries (?) for which Ruiz returned to Chilean filmmaking in 2002, that seems fascinating to me for its strangeness. Without any rational justification, Ruiz, who acts in the film, takes a TV remote and talks into it as if it were a cordless phone. It's one of those scenes that seem to have been dreamt by the viewer, but turn out to be revealing of different aspects of Ruiz as filmmaker.
- 10/20/2011
- MUBI
Above: La chouette aveugle (The Blind Owl, 1987)
Over the next couple weeks, Notebook will be unfurling a series of tributes to Raúl Ruiz: along with some previously published articles, here in English for the first time, the bulk a compilation of new, shorter pieces from a few generous critics and Ruizians on favorite moments from a vast, subterranean filmography. This small, mock-filmography shouldn’t be taken as anything like a comprehensive grip on Ruiz’s films or even incomprehensive grip: the Rouge annotated filmography remains the essential, critical card catalogue. Instead, something like this collection of close-readings can probably only show the ways Ruiz eludes chronology and anything but a kaleidoscopic perspective onto his work. Hopefully it can hint at the many phantom Ruizes unconsidered here while pin-pointing some pivotal moments in a pivoting career.
As we publish the pieces in batches by decade, the links below will be...
Over the next couple weeks, Notebook will be unfurling a series of tributes to Raúl Ruiz: along with some previously published articles, here in English for the first time, the bulk a compilation of new, shorter pieces from a few generous critics and Ruizians on favorite moments from a vast, subterranean filmography. This small, mock-filmography shouldn’t be taken as anything like a comprehensive grip on Ruiz’s films or even incomprehensive grip: the Rouge annotated filmography remains the essential, critical card catalogue. Instead, something like this collection of close-readings can probably only show the ways Ruiz eludes chronology and anything but a kaleidoscopic perspective onto his work. Hopefully it can hint at the many phantom Ruizes unconsidered here while pin-pointing some pivotal moments in a pivoting career.
As we publish the pieces in batches by decade, the links below will be...
- 9/28/2011
- MUBI
Chilean director Raoul Ruiz has passed away at the age of 70.
The moviemaker died at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, France following complications from a pulmonary infection.
Famed for adapting novels for the big and small screen, he worked on Marcel Proust's Time Regained, Shakespeare's Richard III and Dante's Inferno in a 1991 TV series.
He also was behind several English language movies, such as Klimt, which starred John Malkovich, and A Closed Book, with Daryl Hannah and Tom Conti.
Producer pal Francois Margolin says, "He was one of our greatest living filmmakers, who left considerable work and will remain a reference in the history of cinema."
After fleeing Chile in the 1960s, Ruiz settled in France and made close to 100 films. He will be buried in his homeland.
The moviemaker died at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, France following complications from a pulmonary infection.
Famed for adapting novels for the big and small screen, he worked on Marcel Proust's Time Regained, Shakespeare's Richard III and Dante's Inferno in a 1991 TV series.
He also was behind several English language movies, such as Klimt, which starred John Malkovich, and A Closed Book, with Daryl Hannah and Tom Conti.
Producer pal Francois Margolin says, "He was one of our greatest living filmmakers, who left considerable work and will remain a reference in the history of cinema."
After fleeing Chile in the 1960s, Ruiz settled in France and made close to 100 films. He will be buried in his homeland.
- 8/22/2011
- WENN
Hype is rising more this week for Christopher Nolan's 'Batman' trilogy finale The Dark Knight Rises, with filming well underway, and of course the first official still revealing 'Bane.' And now, Variety has revealed three latecomers to the ensemble cast. Matthew Modine & Tom Conti have joined “The Dark Knight Rises,” Variety's Jeff Sneider exclusively reports. In keeping with the Christopher Nolan tradition, there wasn't a chance in hell we were going to be able to figure out who they'd play. Kid actor Joey King has also joined the cast. More on that in a bit. Matthew Modine, 59, is known for Full Metal Jacket and his Oscar-nominated performance in Reuben, Reuben. And Tom Conti, 69, has appeared in vintage flicks - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Shirley Valentine and more recently Blind Revenge. And rising star Joey King, 11, has appeared in this year's Battle: Los Angeles. With little to speculate...
- 5/20/2011
- ComicBookMovie.com
The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming (1939)
In America they show The Wizard of Oz every year around the holidays. Before you could rent the movie any time you wanted, watching it was almost an annual event. I loved the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man but I was never a little girl to pretend to be Dorothy. It was the idea of another world existing beyond our own that appealed to me, and I loved going to magical places like these in my imagination.
There were a couple of other movies that helped me to do that as well – the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks – but The Wizard of Oz was the main one that inspired me in my life, because after watching that film I read Judy Garland's autobiography and then started reading the life stories of the other actors in movies I liked.
In America they show The Wizard of Oz every year around the holidays. Before you could rent the movie any time you wanted, watching it was almost an annual event. I loved the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man but I was never a little girl to pretend to be Dorothy. It was the idea of another world existing beyond our own that appealed to me, and I loved going to magical places like these in my imagination.
There were a couple of other movies that helped me to do that as well – the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks – but The Wizard of Oz was the main one that inspired me in my life, because after watching that film I read Judy Garland's autobiography and then started reading the life stories of the other actors in movies I liked.
- 3/14/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
London, Mar 4 – Daryl Hannah, who is nearing 50, has bared all in her new film ‘A Closed Book’.
The ‘Kill Bill’ actress stars as the assistant of a blind writer, played by Tom Conti, in the psychological thriller.
Her character becomes Conti’s eyes as he recollects his past for his autobiography, reports the Sun.
The film has been written by Gilbert Adair and directed by Raoul Ruiz. (Ani)...
The ‘Kill Bill’ actress stars as the assistant of a blind writer, played by Tom Conti, in the psychological thriller.
Her character becomes Conti’s eyes as he recollects his past for his autobiography, reports the Sun.
The film has been written by Gilbert Adair and directed by Raoul Ruiz. (Ani)...
- 3/4/2010
- by News
- RealBollywood.com
Tom Conti and Daryl Hannah star in this ludic thriller with as many twists and turns as Sleuth
Adapted by Gilbert Adair from his witty 1999 novel, A Closed Book is a ludic thriller in the manner of Sleuth, but far superior to the recent remake of the Anthony Shaffer play scripted by Harold Pinter and starring Michael Caine and Jude Law. Tom Conti plays Paul, a rich, witty, peremptory writer and art historian recently blinded in a driving accident in Thailand, who hires Jane Ryder (Daryl Hannah), an American banker and former painter, to help write his autobiography. In the book the amanuensis is male, and Paul lives in a Cotswolds cottage rather than a mansion that resembles Knebworth House (indeed it is Knebworth House), and the erotic thrust is now more ambiguous.
Jane is not of course all she appears to be, but to say more would be to spoil the considerable fun.
Adapted by Gilbert Adair from his witty 1999 novel, A Closed Book is a ludic thriller in the manner of Sleuth, but far superior to the recent remake of the Anthony Shaffer play scripted by Harold Pinter and starring Michael Caine and Jude Law. Tom Conti plays Paul, a rich, witty, peremptory writer and art historian recently blinded in a driving accident in Thailand, who hires Jane Ryder (Daryl Hannah), an American banker and former painter, to help write his autobiography. In the book the amanuensis is male, and Paul lives in a Cotswolds cottage rather than a mansion that resembles Knebworth House (indeed it is Knebworth House), and the erotic thrust is now more ambiguous.
Jane is not of course all she appears to be, but to say more would be to spoil the considerable fun.
- 2/21/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Crazy Heart (15)
(Scott Cooper, 2009, Us) Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall. 112 mins
Everyone loves Jeff Bridges, don't they? And everyone would like to see him win an Oscar this year, it seems, just like we did with Mickey Rourke last year. Ok, so that didn't work out, but here's this year's Wrestler: another tale of a weary, all-American icon in need of rehabilitation. Bridges's washed-up country singer is drowning his regrets with whisky and playing bowling alleys, until he finds the love of a good (young) woman and confronts his demons. It's not quite the same old story, if only because of Bridges. And the basic plot gives him plenty of room to stretch out and charm us all. How can the Academy resist?
The Lovely Bones (12A)
(Peter Jackson, 2009, Us/UK/Nz) Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Rachel Weisz. 135 mins
Jackson looks to have spent too long chewing over his next masterpiece here,...
(Scott Cooper, 2009, Us) Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall. 112 mins
Everyone loves Jeff Bridges, don't they? And everyone would like to see him win an Oscar this year, it seems, just like we did with Mickey Rourke last year. Ok, so that didn't work out, but here's this year's Wrestler: another tale of a weary, all-American icon in need of rehabilitation. Bridges's washed-up country singer is drowning his regrets with whisky and playing bowling alleys, until he finds the love of a good (young) woman and confronts his demons. It's not quite the same old story, if only because of Bridges. And the basic plot gives him plenty of room to stretch out and charm us all. How can the Academy resist?
The Lovely Bones (12A)
(Peter Jackson, 2009, Us/UK/Nz) Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Rachel Weisz. 135 mins
Jackson looks to have spent too long chewing over his next masterpiece here,...
- 2/20/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Daryl Hannah could make her return as Bill's loyal swordswoman, Elle Driver, in "Kill Bill 3". The actress who won Saturn Award's Best Supporting Actress for the role teased on the possibility of her slipping into the character once again when talking to Film24 on Wednesday, February 3 to promote her latest film "A Closed Book".
Discussing on the matter, the director/producer of short film titled "The Last Supper" pointed out although her character was left blind and stuck in a room with a poisonous snake in volume two of "Kill Bill", no one sees her actual death. "Think about it. There's always been a tradition of blind Samurais and you never actually saw her expire in the other film," she stated.
During the interview, the actress known for her works in "Roxanne" and "Wall Street" also confirmed director Quentin Tarantino's plan in bringing forth the third "Kill Bill". "He...
Discussing on the matter, the director/producer of short film titled "The Last Supper" pointed out although her character was left blind and stuck in a room with a poisonous snake in volume two of "Kill Bill", no one sees her actual death. "Think about it. There's always been a tradition of blind Samurais and you never actually saw her expire in the other film," she stated.
During the interview, the actress known for her works in "Roxanne" and "Wall Street" also confirmed director Quentin Tarantino's plan in bringing forth the third "Kill Bill". "He...
- 2/4/2010
- by celebrity-mania.com
- Celebrity Mania
I have expressed my opinion regarding new Quentin Tarantino projects multiple times: you simply can't trust a word he says. The man has the worst case of Add ever seen and has a brain that runs at about 2,000 mph. There will always be another project (though there was some doubt between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill) and said project may even get mentioned in the thousands of other ideas the director throws to the press during the time between production schedules. So what if word comes down from one of the stars of the supposed film instead? During an interview discussing her new film, A Closed Book, with Film24, Daryl Hannah began to discuss plans for the third episode in Tarantino's Kill Bill series, not only confirming that the project will happen, but that he character, Elle Driver, will be playing a key role. It has been rumored since 2004, when...
- 2/3/2010
- cinemablend.com
Quentin Tarantino's World War II fairy tale "Inglourious Basterds" may be among the year's top Academy Award nominees, but his fans are still dying to know what's next. And while that remains something of a mystery, there are some hints floating around on a project that Tarantino told us will come after what's next.
I'm speaking of course about the third "Kill Bill" movie, which will obviously have to be retitled since the titular murder is executed in the second film. Daryl Hannah is one of the series' antagonists, an assassin whom Uma Thurman's appears to take out in "Volume 2." Well she's currently out promoting her new movie, "A Closed Book," and she's spilled a little bit about Tarantino's plans.
"He always meant it as a trilogy," Hannah said in an interview with Film24. We've known as much for awhile now, but Hannah goes a bit further.
In...
I'm speaking of course about the third "Kill Bill" movie, which will obviously have to be retitled since the titular murder is executed in the second film. Daryl Hannah is one of the series' antagonists, an assassin whom Uma Thurman's appears to take out in "Volume 2." Well she's currently out promoting her new movie, "A Closed Book," and she's spilled a little bit about Tarantino's plans.
"He always meant it as a trilogy," Hannah said in an interview with Film24. We've known as much for awhile now, but Hannah goes a bit further.
In...
- 2/3/2010
- by Adam Rosenberg
- MTV Movies Blog
There's been even more gossip about a projected third Kill Bill film from Quentin Tarantino than about his long-delayed Whole Bloody Affair recut of the first two parts. The latest loose-lipped culprit to go sowing wild rumours is Daryl Hannah. Hannah was speaking to UK TV channel Film 24 about her role in Raoul Ruiz' A Closed Book when they got her on the topic of Tarantino's Bride movies. In the first two films she played Elle Driver, the eye-patched Deadly Viper Assassin that we last saw losing her one good peeper. It was safe to assume she'd been offed, though apparently that's not Daryl's take. She told the channel: He always meant it as a trilogy... Think about it. There's always been a tradition of blind Samurais and you never actually saw her expire in the other film. Does this mean we're any closer to a Kill Bill threeque or spin-offl?...
- 2/3/2010
- by Brendon Connelly
- Slash Film
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