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The ingredients are simple, the cooking process unhurried and the history rich. The Italian dishes honored in director Stephen Chbosky’s sentimental dramedy “Nonnas” don’t come from professionally trained chefs, but from women of Italian heritage whose flavors have been perfected over generations. Each forkful packs a tasty homage to where they come from and to the people who loved them. And some of the film’s components are indeed authentic: Liz Maccie’s screenplay provides a fictionalized take on how Jody Scaravella opened Enoteca Maria, a real-life Italian restaurant where grandmothers cook.

Mta worker Joe (Vince Vaughn) has just lost his mother. The opening sequence shows him as a child observing as his mother and “nonna” (or grandmother) cook a feast for friends and family. Those halcyon days appear soaked in an ethereal lighting to convey nostalgia. In the present, when everyone has left the funeral, it’s...

Dame Joan Plowright’s career spanned several decades, and she became one of the most celebrated actresses in Britain. She’s equally brilliant on stage and screen and has immensely contributed to the arts. Similarly, Cher, a pop culture icon and acclaimed actress has impressed everyone with her charisma and versatility throughout her career.

Joan Plowright in Enchanted April | Miramax

When these two legendary women came together for a film, their chemistry was unmatched. Their collaboration shows how a talented cast can bring a movie to life, and the fact that two amazing actresses can co-exist in a project, without trying to overshadow the other.

Joan Plowright and Cher’s beautiful chemistry in Tea with Mussolini Cher | Jimmy Kimmel Live / YouTube

Joan Plowright and Cher came together for a semi-autobiographical film, titled, Tea with Mussolini, and it was helmed by Franco Zeffirelli, who brought out the best in both actresses.

Her film breakthrough in 1960’s The Entertainer was a harbinger of the calmness and strength she brought as a distinguished character actor – and as her lovable self in Nothing Like a Dame

Joan Plowright dies aged 95Michael Billington: Plowright was a dynamic forceJoan Plowright: a life in pictures

One of Joan Plowright’s greatest screen performances came towards the very end of her career: a gloriously subtle, lovable appearance on Roger Michell’s documentary Nothing Likea Dame from 2018, with four great dames of the British acting profession – Plowright, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith – assembling like Marvel superheroes at the country home that Plowright shared with her late husband Laurence Olivier to drink tea and swap uproarious anecdotes and sharp observations about the acting profession and the sexism they and their younger colleagues continue to face.

The then 89-year-old Plowright, despite her failing health and eyesight, exchanges affectionate badinage...

Joan Plowright, UK star of stage and screen and widow of Laurence Olivier, has died aged 95.

Her 60-year spanning career included a Bafta-nominated role in 1960 film The Entertainer, an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for 1991 comedy drama Enchanted April and a Bafta nomination for a 1977 film version of Equus.

Stage roles included George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan in 1963 and 1977’s Filumena.

Plowright had been retired for 10 years, having lost her eyesight, but in 2018, appeared in Roger Michell’s film Nothing Like a Dame, looking back on her career alongside Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, her co-stars in 1999 comedy drama Tea With Mussolini.

Joan Plowright, UK star of stage and screen and widow of Laurence Olivier, has died aged 95.

Her 60-year spanning career included a Bafta-nominated role in 1960 film The Entertainer, an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for 1991 comedy drama Enchanted April and a Bafta nomination for a 1977 film version of Equus.

Stage roles included George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan in 1963 and 1977’s Filumena.

Plowright had been retired for 10 years, having lost her eyesight, but in 2018, appeared in Roger Michell’s film Nothing Like a Dame, looking back on her career alongside Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, her co-stars in 1999 comedy drama Tea With Mussolini.

Three prominent members of the filmmaking community are joining the board of directors of the nonprofit International Documentary Association.

The trio includes Bob Berney, CEO of Picturehouse, the marketing and distribution company founded in 2005; Paula Ossandón Cabrera, director of Chiledoc, an organization that “promotes Chilean talents, their films and series worldwide”; and Oscar-shortlisted producer Toni Kamau, founder of Kenya-based production company We Are Not the Machine.

They join an IDA board led by co-presidents Ina Fichman and Michael A. Turner, treasurer Chris Albert, treasurer Maria Agui Carter, and members Orwa Nyrabia, Alfred Clinton Perry, Amir Shahkhalili, Chris Pérez, Grace Lee, and Marcia Smith.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bob, Paula, and Toni to the IDA Board of Directors,” Fichman said in a statement. “Bob’s expertise in marketing and distribution, Paula’s work and understanding of the documentary ecosystem in Chile and South America, and Toni’s expertise in production...

Maggie Smith was a legend in her own right and had an illustrious career spanning several decades. All the Harry Potter fans would remember her as Professor Minerva McGonagall, a tough and rule-abiding witch. But in reality, Smith was the complete opposite of her character, widely beloved for her kind and composed demeanor. While the entire world was grieving the loss of such a talented actress, it was her friend, Judi Dench, whose reaction to Smith’s death further broke everyone’s heart.

Maggie Smith in a still from Harry Potter | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

The last couple of weeks have been quite tough on English actress Judi Dench, who lost not one but two of her closest friends, that too within a week. When she was asked the same question during a recent interview, her answer had everyone crying in the corner.

Actress Judi Dench’s Emotional Response to...

Her stage work in the 1970s in Canada gave her a chance to reinvent herself and reach wonderful levels of performance

Maggie Smith was an actor of legendary wit and style who, even off stage, seemed to have the capacity to deliver a one-line zinger. There’s a lovely moment in Roger Michell’s TV film Nothing Like a Dame in which the assembled quartet (including Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins) are asked to talk about the difficulty of living with a title. Joan Plowright says it’s worse for her because she not only has the handle of a Dame but that of a Lady through her marriage to Laurence Olivier. With exquisite timing and hitting the perfect verb, Maggie looks at her old friend and says: “Joan, darling, you’ll just have to grapple with it.”

Smith’s achievements on stage and screen are well documented, but I...

“She always looks so extreme,” a fellow teacher observes of Maggie Smith’s trademark rigidity in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969), putting her finger on the straight-backed, nose-high hauteur audiences enjoyed for more than half a century.

A shrill and tragically short-sighted instructor at a school full of impressionable-aged girls, Jean Brodie proved to be the defining credit of the English stage legend’s screen career, to the extent that her strict-but-caring Harry Potter character, deputy headmistress Minerva McGonagall, could be the selfsame martinet, curdled by several more decades of disappointment. (Kids who grew up on the J.K. Rowling adaptations will surely appreciate “Prime” once they’re older.)

That’s not to say she was never better. In fact, Smith, who died Friday, never gave a bad performance, and just as fine wines improve with age, that also goes for the legendary actor’s biting brand of vinegar, which...

Dame Maggie Smith leaves behind a towering legacy in the wake of her death at the age of 89. The legendary actress spent almost 70 years dominating the stage and screens big and small on both sides of the pond. She won two Oscars, five BAFTAs, four Emmys, and a Tony over the course of many decades, during which she never stopped working and never stopped stealing scenes. She was a generational talent who meant something different to each generation: one of the faces of the ‘60s British invasion of Hollywood; a theatrical legend; character actress; comedic gem; and everyone’s favorite wizarding school deputy headmistress. Smith worked until almost the very end, which included being a supermodel for a 2023 Loewe campaign.

But it was the scathingly witty Dowager Duchess who came to define the final years of her illustrious career and made her one of the most beloved TV stars of the 2010s.

Maggie Smith is remembered on social media after her death today at 89, and fans have shared several clips that have gone viral.

In a funny clip for a show called Tea with the Dames, the duo, also featuring Judi Dench, said they wanted to act as long as they could.

“We’re going to work forever if we’re asked,” Dench said, with Smith adding, “But you’re always asked first if I may say so.”

Dench laughed and said, “Don’t turn me on.”

“I’m turning on you…it’s all coming out now,” Smith quipped before they both laughed.

rip to one of the greatest, maggie smith, may you continue to be cutthroat wherever you may be pic.twitter.com/MVyEUpRd37

— amy elouise (@foxgrove_) September 27, 2024...

Dame Maggie Smith, the legendary British actor known for roles in A Room With A View, Downton Abbey, the Harry Potter franchise and more, has died. Her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin confirmed the news to the BBC. She was 89 years old.

"It is with great sadness we have...

Roger Michell’s blandly tasteful documentary uses found footage to trace the Queen’s reign, hitting all the familiar landmarks without creating one

The late Roger Michell’s final film has now been posthumously released. It is a blandly tasteful and celebratory BBC One-style documentary for the platinum jubilee, with a melancholy new relevance, as if we are entering a new “regency” age. Sad to say, it goes down like a cup of tepid, milky and over-sugared tea.

Michell’s previous cinema documentary, Nothing Like a Dame, about Britain’s brilliant theatrical dames, had been full of fun. This is merely reverent. There is no original material: the film is stitched together from existing footage, all of which is very familiar, but the found-footage approach (which Asif Kapadia used so intimately and vividly with Diego Maradona and Amy Winehouse) now looks like a retread. We go through the reign...

Exclusive: Roger Michell’s last movie, Elizabeth, about British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, has sold around the world for Embankment Films.

Following the pre-sales we revealed with A24 for the U.S. and Signature for the UK, pacts have also been set in in France (Originals Factory), Germany (Square One), Benelux (The Searchers), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (Vertice), Scandinavia (NonStop), Anz (Madman) and Canada (Mongrel).

Also picking up the movie are Japan (Tohokushinsha), Israel (United King), Singapore (Shaw), Middle East (Front Row), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo) and South Africa (Empire).

Signature will release the film in the UK on June 3, 2022, to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The film was described by BAFTA winner Michell as “a truly cinematic mystery tour, up and down the decades; playful, poetic, funny, disobedient, ungovernable, affectionate, inappropriate and mischievous but, in awe”.

The filmmaker completed the movie...

Exclusive: Former IFC Films Distribution Boss Justin Dipietro is heading to Cohen Media Group as their new Head of Marketing and Distribution.

Dipietro arrives to Cohen Media Group from Netflix where he served as their Director of Sales and Distribution. Dipietro managed theatrical sales for half of the U.S., including the Los Angeles market, and helped develop theatrical release plans and strategies for award-nominated titles, including two 2020 Best Picture Oscar nominees, Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

As the Cohen Media Group gears up for an active 4th quarter and 2022 release schedule, Dipietro will oversee the motion picture releases of critically acclaimed films such as Emmanuel Carrère’s Between Two Worlds starring Juliette Binoche; Memories of My Father directed by Academy Award winning Fernando Trueba; Uberto Pasolini’s Nowhere Special starring James Norton and Daniel Lamont; and the Greek Oscar submission, Apples, among many more.

Dipietro said, “Cohen...

Editor’s note: British director Roger Michell died this week at the age of 65. Here, Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker, who distributed several of Michell’s films — including the upcoming “The Duke” — remembers his colleague.

Life stopped for many of us this week when writer/director Roger Michell passed away suddenly at the age of 65. He was a gentle, warm, soft-spoken, eloquent, witty, beautiful human being, in addition to being a strong, uncompromising artist of range and brilliance.

Only three weeks ago, he was in Telluride with us accompanied by Helen Mirren and producer Nicky Bentham to present his latest wonderfully rich picture, “The Duke.” He was seen zipping up and down the streets of Telluride on his rented bicycle, his fifth time there (three of them with us), introducing his film, enjoying the company of locals whose friendships he had continued with each visit, at dinners trading legendary...

“Notting Hill” director Roger Michell’s last film — a documentary about Queen Elizabeth II — was completed before he died on Wednesday.

“Roger’s feature documentary about The Queen — ‘Elizabeth’ — will be out in the first half of 2022,” the film’s producer, Kevin Loader, told Variety. “We have a few technical processes to complete, but Roger supervised the final mix.”

In his director’s statement, published on a website for the film, Michell wrote: “She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch. Ever. She is the longest-serving female head of state in the history of the world, the world’s oldest living monarch, the longest-reigning current monarch, and the oldest and longest-serving current head of state. More people dream about the Queen than any other living person.”

“She’s the Mona Lisa, instantly recognisable, and yet elusively and perpetually unknowable. She’s more famous than The Beatles. She’s a Queen...

Acquisition

Abacus Media Rights (Amr) has picked up global distribution rights to BBC Two’s Joan Collins documentary, produced by Salon Pictures and commissioned by Mark Bell at BBC Arts. Promising to tell the life story of the Hollywood actor from her point of view, the 90-minute documentary will be narrated by Collins herself. Clare Beavan (“Bricks!”) will direct as well as co-produce with Karen Steyn, Nick Taussig and Annabel Wigoder. Karen Steyn (“Tea With the Dames”) is executive producer.

“National treasures don’t come more glamorous than Dame Joan Collins and after seven decades of stardom her shine remains undimmed,” said Bell. “Her story too is priceless; this film will be an account of the ups and downs of an entertainment career like no other – candid, revelatory and occasionally hilarious.”

Amr managing director Jonathan Ford added: “This will be the definitive story of Dame Joan Collins told in her...

In 1961, Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya?s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly – he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge – Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage – how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale. Roger Michell, the son of a British diplomat, was born in South Africa and as a child lived in Beirut, Damascus and Prague.

by Nathaniel R

Who do you suppose was in second place for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1965? We suspect Shelley Winters won in a landslide for her monster mom but perhaps Peggy Wood's Mother Superior was the runner up since The Sound of Music was so massive. What'cha think? We've noticed on the Smackdown posts that y'all don't really comment about the conversation of the podcast itself but just the write-up / blurb portion. We hope you're listening. The panelists (mwah) were super fun and lively. Here is the podcast again embedded below for your pleasure.

Podcast: 1 hour and 15 minutes

00.01 - Introductions: Spencer Garrett, Kayleigh Donaldson, Baby Clyde, Kevin Jacobsen, and Terence Johnson

06:30 - Othello , Laurence Olivier's "blackface", minstrelsy in that era, Dame Maggie Smith in her youth and today, and the documentary Tea with the Dames

27:00 - Shelley Winters in A Patch of Blue -- some people hate the performance,...

“The Duke” is a very British heist movie, a true-crime caper with no guns, no car chases, toad in the hole for dinner, and Gracie Fields warbling a song called “A Nice Cup of Tea” on the soundtrack. It’s so British, in fact, that its central character is named Kempton Bunton, but at least he has the good grace to joke about it. The film’s director is Roger Michell, best known for “Notting Hill”, and who recently made the luvvie love-in documentary, “Tea With The Dames”. The cast boasts two of the UK’s national treasures, Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. If you suspect “The Duke” is on the cosy and nostalgic side of the cinematic spectrum, you might be right. But it’s . This is the kind of British film with international appeal: the venerable cast, genial tone, inspirational story, and mischievous English eccentricity are all present and correct.

It’s always extra frustrating when a biopic falls short, especially if its subject is as compelling as the relationship between two brilliant iconoclasts like Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.

It’s a shame, too, that many in the audience will get their introduction to Sackville-West via “Vita and Virginia.” In reality, she was an extraordinarily complicated, trailblazing bisexual writer who lived on her own terms regardless of the price to herself or others in her orbit. Here, she comes across as a spoiled and superficial narcissist who is merely, as one character intones amid the film’s plethora of plummy accents, “rahthah hard work.”

As played by Gemma Arterton (also an executive producer), Vita is pure seductress: gorgeous and tempestuous and shockingly modern even by the most decadent standards of 1927. She’s irresistible, in other words, for the contemplative, always-questing Virginia. But Virginia’s Bloomsbury set isn’t as easily swayed.

German-Austrian media group buys independent distribution outfit.

Independent film and home entertainment distributor Koch Films has taken over 100% control of the Wiesbaden-based Ksm as a part of a strategy to raise the profile of the film division within the Koch Media Group.

According to Koch Films’ Jochen Walter, who will now assume management of Ksm with Stefan Kapelari from the hands of the company’s founder Benjamin Krause, this acquisition will enable Koch Films to expand its portfolio in Germany and add an anime-focused segment since the Ksm Anime label has developed into the second most important in German-speaking territories.

As 2019 marches along, Hulu has a couple original series that binge watchers will not want to miss in March. “Shrill,” starring “Saturday Night Live’s” Aidy Bryant, is a body-positive comedy that critiques society’s beauty standards and millennial culture. The entire season drops on March 15.

On March 20, fans of true crime will be able to relive the 2015 murder of Dee Dee Blanchard by her daughter, Gypsy, with “The Act.” Starring Patricia Arquette and Joey King as the mother and daughter pair, viewers will surely believe that truth can be stranger than fiction with the new crime anthology series.

Documentary buffs who are scared of heights may need to hold on to something because “Free Solo,” the Oscar winner for best documentary feature, will premiere on March 13. “Shoplifters,” an Academy Award-nominated foreign language film, offers a harrowing look at poverty in Japan, and debuts on March 14.

March will also be...

“One last job” takes on new meaning in the heist film, “King of Thieves,” populated by septuagenarians, octogenarians, and a sprightly 61-year-old Ray Winstone. Led by Michael Caine, the crew features more of Britain’s finest aging actors, providing a masculine alternative to every Anglophile’s dream movie, “Tea with the Dames.” His co-stars include Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, and Tom Courtenay, with “Daredevil” star Charlie Cox bringing down the arithmetic mean.

Continue reading ‘King Of Thieves’: Not Even Michael Caine & A Murderers’ Row Of Amazing British Actors Can Rescue This Heist Film [Review] at The Playlist.

Happy 84th birthday on December 28, 2018, to the one and only Dame Maggie Smith! In the current (and hilarious) documentary “Tea With the Dames,” Dame Maggie recalls the highlights (and a few lowlights) of her six-decade acting career on stage, on television and in films. Not only is the length of her career impressive, but the breadth of her performances is astonishing.

SEEOscar Best Actress Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

In awards alone, she is one of the most honored actresses currently working. Smith has been nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two. For her film roles, Smith has won two Golden Globes (for “California Suite” and 1986’s “A Room With a View”) from nine nominations, and she won a Screen Actors Guild Award (for 2001’s “Gosford Park”) out of three SAG noms. She has also earned four Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for three TV Golden Globes...

Happy 84th birthday on December 28, 2018. to the one and only Dame Maggie Smith! In the current (and hilarious) documentary “Tea With the Dames,” Dame Maggie recalls the highlights (and a few lowlights) of her six-decade acting career on stage, on television and in films. Not only is the length of her career impressive, but the breadth of her performances is astonishing.

In awards alone, she is one of the most honored actresses currently working. Smith has been nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two. For her film roles, Smith has won two Golden Globes (for “California Suite” and 1986’s “A Room With a View”) from nine nominations, and she won a Screen Actors Guild Award (for 2001’s “Gosford Park”) out of three SAG noms. She has also earned four Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for three TV Golden Globes (winning one for “Downton”) and nine SAG TV awards. To add to all that,...

In this fall’s delightful documentary, “Tea With the Dames,” Dame Judi Dench, who celebrates her 84th birthday on December 9, 2018, recalls being asked to play Cleopatra in London’s National Theatre production of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra.” Her response: “Are you sure you want a menopausal dwarf to play this part?”

Well, this menopausal dwarf has done pretty well for herself in an acting career that has lasted over half a century. For her film acting alone, Dench has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning one for her supporting performance in 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love.” She also earned nine Golden Globe noms for her film work (including a win for 1997’s “Mrs. Brown”) and three for her TV work, including a win for 2000’s “The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.” She has also received 13 nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award, winning twice (for “Shakespeare in Love” and...

Members of the Academy’s documentary branch received a generous gift from AMPAS on Friday: 77 new films that had qualified in this year’s Best Documentary Feature category.

And it turned what had been a modest year for docs — with a total of 83 films included in June, July, August and September groups — into one in which the number of eligible films that voters would need to watch nearly doubled.

The Academy also promised voters in the branch to expect a final batch of films in early November — which, if it hits double digits, will set a new record in the category.

Also Read: 'Free Solo' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations

The previous high, set last year, was 170 films. With 160 already on the Oscar eligibility list and one additional (though likely small) batch yet to come, this year’s crop will give voters a lot of work to do before...

Sundance Selects has acquired U .S. rights to Henry Barrial’s Uber-inspired “DriverX” starring Patrick Fabian (“Better Call Saul”) and Tanya Clarke (“Banshee”).

The movie stars Fabian as Leonard Moore, a 50-something stay-at-home dad in Los Angeles who is desperate to find a job and signs up to drive for the popular ride-share company DriverX, leading his marriage to fray at home. The film follows Leonard as he navigates L.A.’s late-night, Tinder-fueled party scene while adjusting to the new technology and the young millennials he drives around.

“The film was inspired by my own experiences as an Uber driver while waiting in vain for another movie to get green-lit,” said Barriel, who also wrote the script. “From the first moment where I was hired via text, without ever meeting or speaking to another human being, I felt something different was happening here that might be worth investigating in a film.

The marketplace can handle multiple robust openings on the specialty side. Bleecker Street’s Sundance debut Colette starring Keira Knightley, Dominic West and Denise Gough is estimated to have topped out the weekend with a $156,788 gross in four locations in New York and L.A. this weekend, averaging $39,197. Annapurna’s The Sisters Brothers with John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal, meanwhile, also pulled in solid numbers, taking in $122K in four theaters, averaging $30,507. Sundance Selects bowed Roger Michell doc Tea With The Dames, featuring several revered British Dames of stage and screen, opening with an exclusive New York engagement for an estimated three-day $15K. And Greenwich Entertainment also opened documentary Garry Wonogrand: All Things Are Photographable with an exclusive New York showing, grossing $9,538.

Typically, the specialty box office does not spotlight titles opening in over a thousand locations, but with Michael Moore and a new title from Neon,...

The specialized fall season, rife with awards contenders, launched in earnest this weekend. Two limited openings — “Colette” (Bleecker Street) with Keira Knightley as the legendary writer and western “The Sisters Brothers” (Annapurna), the first English-language film from director Jacques Audiard — notched bigger grosses than any platform debuts since early July.

This weekend also saw three recent high-profile festival titles — Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9,” Dan Fogelman’s “Life Itself,” and Sundance’s “Assassination Nation” — go wide nationally. All three found little interest, but provided more competition for specialized viewers who might otherwise have patronized more limited films.

Continuing the box office uptick for documentaries, three biodocs about creative figures found some initial response, with star-driven “Tea With the Dames” (IFC) showing particular strength in its New York exclusive. “Love, Gilda” (Magnolia) made a national big- city showing, while “Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable” (Greenwich) also saw significant opening interest in New York.

Jack Black’s “The House With a Clock in Its Walls” is ticking to a U.S. opening of $20 million-plus, early estimates showed on Friday.

Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s fantasy film is expected to debut at the higher end of estimates, which were projected to be between $18 million and $20 million at 3,500 North American locations. According to some estimates, the film could earn as much as $25 million in its debut.

The adaptation of John Bellairs’ children’s book is set to earn about $7 million on Friday, including the $840,000 it reeled in from Thursday night previews. The preview gross was comparable to another one of Black’s book-to-movie adaptations, “Goosebumps,” which earned $600,000 in late-night shows in October 2015 on its way to a $23.6 million launch.

“House With a Clock in Its Walls” follows 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), who goes to live with his goofy uncle (played by Black) in an old...

A consistently hilarious 90-minute chat that could have gone on for twice as long without ever feeling like too much of a good thing, “Tea With the Dames,” from director Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”), is as cozy and satisfying as its title suggests.

Simply, it consists of Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Joan Plowright and Dame Eileen Atkins gathering together at Plowright’s home and talking, and the verbal volleying, interruptions, sentence-finishing, and anecdotal confirmation of a 60-plus year friendship between the four only lags when the participants themselves look into the camera to tell the filmmakers that they’re tired.

Bracketed by theater-based vocal warm-up exercises, with all four women rapidly repeating chants such as “red lorry yellow lorry” (and a closing-credits attempt at a tongue twister that won’t be spoiled here), the conversation follows a loosely chronological trajectory — Atkins shares stories of her earliest years...

Here in the States, the populace worships the Kardashians. In the U.K., there’s nothing like a Dame. In a sane world, there’s no contest. So do have tea with the Dames: Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright. Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) has had the good sense to round up this quartet of acting royalty and listen to each of them dish about the highs and lows of their careers, theirs fears, their tears, and their love lives. From acting to aging, no subject is off limits.

Baykali Ganambarr.

Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale will open in Australian cinemas on January 24, the Australia Day weekend, as distributor Transmission Films aims to cash in on the film’s two prizes and glowing reviews at the Venice International Film Festival.

“Obviously screens are at a premium over summer but our plan is to emulate the Sweet Country release pattern,” Transmission joint MD Andrew Mackie tells If.

Produced by Kristina Ceyton of Causeway Films and Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky of Made Up Stories, the revenge thriller won the special jury prize in Venice and Baykali Ganambarr received the Marcello Mastroianni award for best new young performer.

Critics lauded the film, which will premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on October 13, as gripping and gut-wrenching yet also touching, leavened with laugh-out-loud moments.

In his screen debut Ganambarr plays an Aboriginal tracker named Billy who accompanies young Irish convict Clare (Aisling Franciosi...

There are some films that deliver with such literal-minded generosity on the promise of their titles that all you can do in response is applaud, and in that respect — if no other — “Tea With the Dames” is the new “Snakes on a Plane.” Roger Michell’s documentary offers dames and tea and pretty much nothing else. Happily, that turns out to be enough for a wholly delightful talkathon, shot on location in the rambling country pile that Plowright once shared with Laurence Olivier. For the tea in question is not so much the beverage as a warm, steady stream of gossip, spilled lavishly, as four of the pre-eminent British actors of their generation reflect mirthfully on their careers, their lives and lovers, their ongoing insecurities and some 60 years of friendship between them.

Devoid of technical fuss or ambition, “Tea With the Dames” is hardly vital cinema. In the U.K.

On a rather dreary day, Roger Michell and his crew sat down with Dames Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, and Judi Dench, and oh, what a joy it is to watch. Audiences familiar with the women should know what to expect with Michell’s delightful and touching “Tea with the Dames.” Bringing together the four extraordinary actresses, one could only hope for wisdom to be imparted and talent to be recognized.

Continue reading ‘Tea With The Dames’ Is A Delightful, Touching Retrospective On Four Living Legends [Review] at The Playlist.

Timing really is everything.

That seems especially true for Universal Pictures’ “The House With a Clock in Its Walls” as a mid-teens launch looks to be enough to top the domestic box office. After “The Meg” and “Crazy Rich Asians” led a roaringly successful August, the rest of September looks muted with just a few wide releases on the horizon.

Universal and Amblin Entertainment’s “The House With a Clock in Its Walls” hopes to earn between $18 million and $20 million when it launches in 3,500 North American locations. Studio insiders are cautiously anticipating the lower part of that range, though some estimates show it could make over $25 million. Based on the 1973 children’s book by John Bellairs, the fantasy film follows 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), who goes to live with his uncle (Jack Black) in an old house that has a mysterious ticking heart. Cate Blanchett plays a witch who lives next door.

What could be better than Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins and Dame Joan Plowright sipping tea together in the countryside? Answer: nothing.

The four actresses, who are also longtime friends, spent a weekend in the countryside filming the new documentary by Roger Michell, Tea With the Dames. The documentary follows the women as they sip tea and chat about their lives, careers, husbands and all sorts of other Hollywood gossip. The result is hilarious banter and juicy insights into the history of Hollywood.

Between them, the four women have scores of iconic roles, Oscars, Emmys and numerous other awards and accolades,...

"It's all coming out now!" IFC Films has debuted an official trailer for a documentary titled Tea with the Dames, a film that gets four great acting icons together for some afternoon tea. Similar to the discussion film Muppet Guys Talking, this brings together four ladies to let them chat about whatever they want from their past - their lives, their profession, and everything else. Dames Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith have let the cameras in on a friendship that goes back more than half a century. The four acting greats discuss their careers and reminisce about their humble beginnings in the theatre. This was released in the UK in May under the title Nothing Like a Dame, but I like Tea with the Dames a bit more, especially when they put in the bit at the end about her wanting champagne. Good times. Here's the...

Exclusive: One day after the acquisition of Nadine Labaki’s Cannes Competition entry Capernaum, UK buyer Picturehouse Entertainment has scored another of the festival’s best-reviewed movies in the shape of Critics’ Week hit Woman At War.

Picturehouse’s Clare Binns and Paul Ridd negotiated the deal with Thorsten Ritter of Beta Cinema. Benedikt Erlingsson’s (Of Horses And Men) Icelandic feature received raves last week and its German sales outfit has received plenty of interest.

The generically diverse movie, part comedy, part social-commentary, part action-thriller, revolves around a woman who goes on an environmental mission to protect the highlands of Iceland. Halldóra Geirhađsdóttir (Of Horses And Men) takes the lead role with cast also including Icelandic musicians Davíð Þór Jónsson, Magnús Tryggvason Eliasen and Ómar Guðjónsson, who play a Greek choir that represents the protagonist’s inner demons. Erlingsson co-wrote the script with Ólafur Egill Egilsson (Trapped).

A Woman...

Titles include coming-of-age romance The Song Of Sway Lake and thriller Habit.

London-based Kew Media Group has added eight titles to its international sales slate for Cannes.

They include Who We Are Now, a verité drama about a woman who is released from prison and tries to regain custody of her son. Julianne Nicholson stars alongside Zachary Quinto, Jess Weixler and Jason Biggs.

Also added is The Song Of Sway Lake, a coming-of-age romantic drama about a man searching for the truth behind an old hit record called ‘Sway Lake’. Ari Gold is directing, with Michael Bederman, Zak Kilberg and Allison Rose Carter producing.

New titles also include African elephant and rhino genocide doc The Last Animals.

Distributor Kew Media Group has filled out its slate ahead of next month’s Cannes Film Festival and acquired worldwide sales rights to six new titles. The films will be making their festival market debut at the Marche du Film.

The titles include Nothing Like A Dame, a conversation piece between four renowned British actresses – Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Playwright and Maggie Smith. Directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and produced by Sally Angel and Karen Steyn, the film sees the four ladies discuss their careers...

Kew Media Group has picked up international rights to six non-fiction films for Cannes including documentary Nothing Like A Dame, about the lives and careers of Brit actresses Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith. Directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and produced by Sally Angel (Night Will Fall) and Karen Steyn (Looking For Audrey), executive producers are Sally Angel and Debbie Manners for Field Day and Anthony Wall for the BBC.

Also new to the roster is Sam Rockwell-narrated One Million American Dreams, a history of the final resting place of over one million of New York’s unclaimed dead directed by Brendan J. Byrne (Bobby Sands: 66 Days); The Last Animals, an exposé on the crisis of the killing of African elephants and rhinos; Dealt, winner of the SXSW Audience Award for best documentary feature, about Richard Turner, one of the world’s great card...