Two of the hottest tickets in Hollywood, Jennifer Coolidge and Brian Cox (Succession), are about to be joined by Dustin Hoffman and Gabrielle Union for the crime comedy Riff Raff. Dito Montiel directs from a script by John Pollono (Stronger).
The star-studded project revolves around the ordinary life of a former criminal whose world turns upside down when his old family shows up for a long-awaited reckoning. With cameras ready to roll in September, Riff Raff heads to the Cannes market this week for international sales, with Capstone organizing domestic rights with CAA Media Finance and WME Independent. Noah Rothman produces through Canopy Partners, with Marc Goldberg and Sarah Gabriel producing via Signature Films.
“We are thrilled to partner with the producers and Dito on this project; we’ve loved it ever since we’ve read it. It embodies the type of crime comedies we grew up with – witty and entertaining.
The star-studded project revolves around the ordinary life of a former criminal whose world turns upside down when his old family shows up for a long-awaited reckoning. With cameras ready to roll in September, Riff Raff heads to the Cannes market this week for international sales, with Capstone organizing domestic rights with CAA Media Finance and WME Independent. Noah Rothman produces through Canopy Partners, with Marc Goldberg and Sarah Gabriel producing via Signature Films.
“We are thrilled to partner with the producers and Dito on this project; we’ve loved it ever since we’ve read it. It embodies the type of crime comedies we grew up with – witty and entertaining.
- 5/16/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
The Witcher universe is expanding even more at Netflix. With the upcoming third season, the departure of Henry Cavill as Geralt, and the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origins, fans are ever so curious about The Rats. Andrzej Sapkowski’s books go far beyond the title characters, including a misfit group of renegades. The Rats was announced as a hush-hush prequel spinoff series that Netflix has not yet confirmed. New details reveal the series is underway.
Ciri on a horse in ‘The Witcher’ Season 2 | via Netflix ‘The Rats’ is part of Ciri’s storyline in the original ‘The Witcher’ books
In November, Redanian Intelligence reported that a new The Witcher spinoff series was in the works. Tentatively titled The Rats, the spinoff would explore a lesser-known group of characters that the series has never introduced. The Rats are a group of Nilfgaardian youngsters who are renegades, thieves, and even killers.
Ciri on a horse in ‘The Witcher’ Season 2 | via Netflix ‘The Rats’ is part of Ciri’s storyline in the original ‘The Witcher’ books
In November, Redanian Intelligence reported that a new The Witcher spinoff series was in the works. Tentatively titled The Rats, the spinoff would explore a lesser-known group of characters that the series has never introduced. The Rats are a group of Nilfgaardian youngsters who are renegades, thieves, and even killers.
- 2/16/2023
- by Gabriela Silva
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Guns N’ Roses staged their first gig of 2022 Saturday night in Portugal, where the reunited rockers busted out a pair of classics for the first time in three decades as well as debuted a new AC/DC cover.
Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan and company — whose initial return to the stage at Welcome to Rockville was struck down by thunderstorms last week — delivered the first shakeup in their 2022 setlist when they ripped into “Reckless Life,” a fiery Hollywood Rose cut from the live half of their Lies EP, for the...
Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan and company — whose initial return to the stage at Welcome to Rockville was struck down by thunderstorms last week — delivered the first shakeup in their 2022 setlist when they ripped into “Reckless Life,” a fiery Hollywood Rose cut from the live half of their Lies EP, for the...
- 6/5/2022
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
German filmmaker R.W. Fassbinder once remarked, “I would like to build a house with my films. Throughout his career, Cannes staple Ken Loach, has likewise constructed a monument to the dignity of the working class. Building this metaphorical domicile since the 1960s, his corpus investigates the workers building that home and the families inhabiting it. This parable is at play in the literal construction in “Riff-Raff,” or the neighborly decorating that takes place in “My Name Is Joe.” Loach’s latest film “Sorry We Missed You”—the director’s 14th Competition selection at the Cannes Film Festival—is yet another look at the household of a family under great financial strain and dehumanizing labor standards.
Continue reading ‘Sorry We Missed You’: Ken Loach Is Back With A Tender, Devastating Working Class Drama [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Sorry We Missed You’: Ken Loach Is Back With A Tender, Devastating Working Class Drama [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.
- 5/17/2019
- by Bradley Warren
- The Playlist
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 12, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Robert Carlyle stars in Ken Loach's 1991 Riff-Raff.
Two gems from the great English realist auteur Ken Loach—the 1991 comedy Riff-Raff and the 1993 comedy-drama Raining Stones—make their Blu-ray debuts from Twilight Time.
Riff-Raff, Loach’s first comedy, concerns a gang of itinerant construction workers (including Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle) laboring under unspeakable conditions on luxury homes for London’s wealthy. Raining Stones, a Jury Prize-winner at the Cannes Film Festival, is about an earnest man (Bruce Jones) driven to desperate measures in an effort to buy his daughter a First Communion dress.
Both films feature scores by Stewart Copeland, which are offered on an isolated music and effects track.
As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time to order your Blu-ray discs directly from distributor Screen Archives is Now!
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Robert Carlyle stars in Ken Loach's 1991 Riff-Raff.
Two gems from the great English realist auteur Ken Loach—the 1991 comedy Riff-Raff and the 1993 comedy-drama Raining Stones—make their Blu-ray debuts from Twilight Time.
Riff-Raff, Loach’s first comedy, concerns a gang of itinerant construction workers (including Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle) laboring under unspeakable conditions on luxury homes for London’s wealthy. Raining Stones, a Jury Prize-winner at the Cannes Film Festival, is about an earnest man (Bruce Jones) driven to desperate measures in an effort to buy his daughter a First Communion dress.
Both films feature scores by Stewart Copeland, which are offered on an isolated music and effects track.
As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time to order your Blu-ray discs directly from distributor Screen Archives is Now!
- 7/25/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Ken Loach will receive an honorary Golden Bear award at the 64th Berlin Film Festival.
The event will pay tribute to Loach's life and career in February by screening his 1993 classic Raining Stones.
Berlin Film Festival director Dieter Kosslick has called Loach "one of Europe's great directors".
Kosslick went on to say: "Over his almost 50-year career, he has shown an extraordinary degree of continuity, while remaining innovative at all times. His profound interest in people and their individual fates, as well as his critical commitment to society have found expression in a variety of cinematic approaches.
"We are honouring Ken Loach as a director and greatly admire him for how he reflects on social injustices with humour in his films."
The 64th Berlin Film Festival will be held from February 6 to February 16.
Loach has directed many critically-acclaimed films throughout his career, including Cathy Home, Riff-Raff, The Angels' Share and Route Irish.
The event will pay tribute to Loach's life and career in February by screening his 1993 classic Raining Stones.
Berlin Film Festival director Dieter Kosslick has called Loach "one of Europe's great directors".
Kosslick went on to say: "Over his almost 50-year career, he has shown an extraordinary degree of continuity, while remaining innovative at all times. His profound interest in people and their individual fates, as well as his critical commitment to society have found expression in a variety of cinematic approaches.
"We are honouring Ken Loach as a director and greatly admire him for how he reflects on social injustices with humour in his films."
The 64th Berlin Film Festival will be held from February 6 to February 16.
Loach has directed many critically-acclaimed films throughout his career, including Cathy Home, Riff-Raff, The Angels' Share and Route Irish.
- 11/29/2013
- Digital Spy
Exclusive: Jimmy’s Hall, which has begun shooting in Ireland, is likely to be Ken Loach’s last narrative feature - but he will continue to direct documentaries.
Ken Loach’s upcoming drama, Jimmy’s Hall, will likely be his last, according to regular producer Rebecca O’Brien.
“This is probably the last narrative feature for Ken,” O’Brien told ScreenDaily. “There are a few documentary ideas kicking around, and that will probably be the way to go, but this is a serious period-drama with a lot of moving parts so it’s a big thing to put together. I think we should go out while we’re on top.”
O’Brien, who has produced more than a dozen features with Loach since 1990, said that the 77 year-old director is likely to continue to make documentaries and TV work but that he is “unlikely” to make another narrative feature.
“It’s such a huge operation and Ken doesn...
Ken Loach’s upcoming drama, Jimmy’s Hall, will likely be his last, according to regular producer Rebecca O’Brien.
“This is probably the last narrative feature for Ken,” O’Brien told ScreenDaily. “There are a few documentary ideas kicking around, and that will probably be the way to go, but this is a serious period-drama with a lot of moving parts so it’s a big thing to put together. I think we should go out while we’re on top.”
O’Brien, who has produced more than a dozen features with Loach since 1990, said that the 77 year-old director is likely to continue to make documentaries and TV work but that he is “unlikely” to make another narrative feature.
“It’s such a huge operation and Ken doesn...
- 8/8/2013
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Jimmy’s Hall, which has begun shooting in Ireland, is likely to be Ken Loach’s last narrative feature - but he will continue to direct documentaries.
Ken Loach’s upcoming drama, Jimmy’s Hall, will likely be his last, according to regular producer Rebecca O’Brien.
“This is probably the last narrative feature for Ken,” O’Brien told ScreenDaily. “There are a few documentary ideas kicking around, and that will probably be the way to go, but this is a serious period-drama with a lot of interconnecting elements so it’s a big thing to put together. I think we should go out while we’re on top.”
O’Brien, who has produced more than a dozen features with Loach since 1990, said that the 77 year-old director is likely to continue to make documentaries and TV work but that he is “unlikely” to make another narrative feature.
“It’s such a huge operation and Ken doesn...
Ken Loach’s upcoming drama, Jimmy’s Hall, will likely be his last, according to regular producer Rebecca O’Brien.
“This is probably the last narrative feature for Ken,” O’Brien told ScreenDaily. “There are a few documentary ideas kicking around, and that will probably be the way to go, but this is a serious period-drama with a lot of interconnecting elements so it’s a big thing to put together. I think we should go out while we’re on top.”
O’Brien, who has produced more than a dozen features with Loach since 1990, said that the 77 year-old director is likely to continue to make documentaries and TV work but that he is “unlikely” to make another narrative feature.
“It’s such a huge operation and Ken doesn...
- 8/8/2013
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Possibly having gotten its inspiration from the U.S.-based Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca; the critics group that hands out the Critics Choice Awards) or, just as possibly, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA; the organization that hands out the Golden Globes), the European Film Academy has added a new category to its European Film Awards roster: European Comedy. As per a press release, the new category was decided by Efa's board at its latest meeting in Berlin to “pay tribute to a genre which has proven that it is able to unite and entertain audiences across Europe and beyond.” (Pictured above: Daniel Brühl in Wolfgang Becker's 2003 comedy Good Bye, Lenin!, winner of that year's Best Film trophy.) The release adds that this year's three nominations for in the new category "will be decided by a special committee," while the eventual winner "will be voted for by the...
- 4/23/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From Meryl Streep's Iron Lady to Spitting Image and the Spice Girls, Observer writers and critics pick the films, books, art, music and TV that show Thatcher's lasting influence
Art, chosen by Laura Cumming
Treatment Room (1983)
In Richard Hamilton's installation, Thatcher administered her own harsh medicine from a video above the operating table with the viewer as helpless patient: a case of kill or cure.
Taking Stock (1984)
Hans Haacke portrayed Thatcher enthroned, nose in the air like a gun-dog, surrounded by images of Queen Victoria, the Saatchi brothers and, ominously, Pandora. Caused national furore.
In the Sleep of Reason (1982)
Mark Wallinger edited Thatcher's 1982 Falklands speech from blink to blink, fading to black in between, emphasising her solipsistic tendency to close her eyes when speaking as if nobody else existed.
The Battle of Orgreave (2001)
Jeremy Deller's restaged the worst conflict of the miners' strike from multiple viewpoints, uniting...
Art, chosen by Laura Cumming
Treatment Room (1983)
In Richard Hamilton's installation, Thatcher administered her own harsh medicine from a video above the operating table with the viewer as helpless patient: a case of kill or cure.
Taking Stock (1984)
Hans Haacke portrayed Thatcher enthroned, nose in the air like a gun-dog, surrounded by images of Queen Victoria, the Saatchi brothers and, ominously, Pandora. Caused national furore.
In the Sleep of Reason (1982)
Mark Wallinger edited Thatcher's 1982 Falklands speech from blink to blink, fading to black in between, emphasising her solipsistic tendency to close her eyes when speaking as if nobody else existed.
The Battle of Orgreave (2001)
Jeremy Deller's restaged the worst conflict of the miners' strike from multiple viewpoints, uniting...
- 4/13/2013
- by Robert McCrum, Kitty Empire, Philip French, Andrew Rawnsley, Euan Ferguson
- The Guardian - Film News
Ken Loach's The Angels' Share gets underway as a hard-hitting squint at the unemployed of Glasgow before rather perversely turning into an uplifting crime caper with a Disneyesque finale. But maybe, just maybe, a little Walt is what the have-nots are crying out for right now.
Loach, who has been zeroing in on the working class for over 45 years (Poor Cow (1967); Riff-Raff (1991)), and his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)) have concocted a group of societal misfits who've all wound up in court and sentenced to community service.
One, Albert (Gary Maitland), is a dull-witted hard drinker who's been arrested for plummeting onto some train tracks; another, kleptomaniac Mo (Jasmine Riggins), has filched a macaw; and a third, Rhino (William Ruane), has continuously affronted public statuary, sometimes with urine. But our main Cinderella/hero here is Robbie (Paul Brannigan).
With a scar down one cheek...
Loach, who has been zeroing in on the working class for over 45 years (Poor Cow (1967); Riff-Raff (1991)), and his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)) have concocted a group of societal misfits who've all wound up in court and sentenced to community service.
One, Albert (Gary Maitland), is a dull-witted hard drinker who's been arrested for plummeting onto some train tracks; another, kleptomaniac Mo (Jasmine Riggins), has filched a macaw; and a third, Rhino (William Ruane), has continuously affronted public statuary, sometimes with urine. But our main Cinderella/hero here is Robbie (Paul Brannigan).
With a scar down one cheek...
- 4/9/2013
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Few filmmakers bring to life social issues as vividly as Ken Loach. Whether helming grand historical dramas about family, love and civil war (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Land and Freedom) or character-driven films detailing the plight of the working class (Kes, Riff-Raff, Sweet Sixteen, Bread and Roses) Loach is a master of creating universal stories that are immensely relatable regardless of time or place. His latest effort, a documentary, The Spirit of ’45, which had its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, continues the grand tradition with a story as relevant today as it was over half a …...
- 3/27/2013
- by Ariston Anderson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In Clandestine Childhood (Infancia Clandestina), writer/director Benjamín Ávila drew inspiration from his personal exiled childhood during Argentina's Dirty War as the son of two Montoneros guerillas. The film, which took prizes at both San Sebastian and Havana Film Festivals last year, is set in 1979 during the family's return from Cuba to fight in the Montoneros counteroffensive operation under new assumed identities. Benjamín spoke to LatinoBuzz about what it meant to see memories from his formative years unfold on the big screen.
Clandestine Childhood is being released in NY and CA on Friday, January 11th, 2013.
LatinoBuzz: What did the actors take away from spending several days with former Montoneros?
Benjamín Ávila: I wanted the actors to have the chance to physically live that era. The most complex challenge for an actor is the ability to give dimension to the story from the time that it happened, not from the present. For them it was important to get rid of all the Whys and be able to answer them by themselves. So I decided to have the actors meet a couple of former guerrilla members to do a training drill for two days, the way it was done back then, as well as for them to have a chance to talk and for the actors to be able to ask anything they wanted.
It was very productive because their body changed, as well as their stand before history. It also helped me to confirm some doubts that had arisen during the process of writing the script. And from that moment on, the improvisations we did were very important in defining some scenes of the film. Particularly the argument scene between the grandmother and mother. That improvisation came after the work we did, and some glorious moments emerged as a result, very complex and incorrect that served to give another dimension to the movie.
LatinoBuzz: Was there a particular audience for this film that was most important for you to see it?
Benjamín Ávila: Not really. But firstly, it is a film that I made for my brothers. And for the children of the disappeared and those killed during the last dictatorship in Argentina. They are the primary audience, but the story is not constructed so that only they understand. On the contrary, I wanted the film to move people, to it would provoke feelings and ideas, without sacrificing the cinematic and artistic construction. Luckily, for all the feedback that I receive from the people who have seen it, I think we have achieved that goal. It's a film that provokes many emotions, that endures for days within the people who see it, and that generates the need to reiterate the questions that were supposedly already answered.
LatinoBuzz: When was the first time you realized that 'Infancia Clandestina' was the story you had to tell?
Benjamín Ávila: I always knew it. Since I was 13, I knew I wanted to work in film. I also knew back then that one day I would film my childhood. Somehow I made a tacit commitment at that time with myself, with my family, and with my own story. Therefore it is very important for me to have completed this process. It is a feeling of a debt paid, like I "had to do" this film. It was a duty rather than a necessity. Now that the film is finished I feel a relief, that of mission accomplished. Now I can be at peace.
LatinoBuzz: How much of what was going on were you very much aware of and how did you process that as a young boy?
Benjamín Ávila: My older brother and I were very aware, even though we were 7 and 8 years old at the time. I always think we were like the kids living in the street, who have a very conscious relationship with their environment. We knew what was happening, what we could and could not say. Although we were doing and saying what we were living, we could not have a dialectical discussion nor a real argument. We understood it all.
For us what we lived was not anything special, but it was normal. It was our life. We could not imagine anything different. This is why we were never traumatized. Even nowadays I miss that lifestyle. That clear and powerful bonding we all had. What was traumatizing was everything else: the absence, the persecution, the disappearance of my mother and not knowing anything to this day, not having been raised with my younger brother (Vicky in the movie). It was not until three yeas ago that we started having a life of ordinary siblings. And it cost a lot to have it...
LatinoBuzz: You were a child of Montoneros, so your childhood was unlike many others yet in the film we largely see this sweet portrayal of this blossoming first love between Juan and Maria –just like any teenager experiences. How much of that was Benjamín wishing that childhood was that innocent?
Benjamín Ávila: What you need to understand is that living in hiding was not something different to normality. It had parameters that were unusual, but we lived them like any other, even inside the house. I remember many common and normal family moments. Like waking up too late at night to watch the matches of the national team playing the World Cup youth soccer, Maradona’s first in Japan, and the matches were at 4 or 6 am. I remember going out at 7am in the morning with all the neighbors to celebrate the championship. My mother chastising me because I was late for school, or because I hadn't made my bed. Family barbecues, like any other Sunday, and so on, thousands of memories as normal as any other.
LatinoBuzz: What happened to “María”?
Benjamín Ávila: Maria never existed at that time. I had my Marías, but in other places and other times!
LatinoBuzz: In writing such a personal story what was the hardest thing to
write and did you avoid anything?
Benjamín Ávila: The most difficult part was at the beginning, trying to detach myself from my own history. Because several things were clear to me: the subject of film, that I did not want to be the protagonist of the story, that the most important part was the reconstruction of a routine
that has never been shown but that was not only mine but of many. That's why I took anecdotes and stories from others... Writing the script with Marcelo Muller, a dear Brazilian friend, helped me to achieve that distance I wanted for the construction of the story. With him I was able to rule out what wasn't important to the film’s story even if it was personally very important to me, and so we achieved that distance even though I deepened what remained. It was as if Marcelo pulled out to keep it to the essential, and I pulled inwards to deepen what remained.
LatinoBuzz: Was the casting difficult? Were you looking for yourself in
the Actor?
Benjamín Ávila: The casting of the children was complicated. We did it with María Laura Berch, an incredible casting director specializing in children, and we elaborated a very clear, yet complex, strategy. We saw over 700 children in total for all the roles, and it took us three months as planned.
But most importantly, we wanted to cast very homely, to give the kids the idea of what the shooting was going to be right from the beginning. And as I do my own camerawork every time I film, I decided I was going to shoot the casting so the kids could get used to my presence close to them and behind the camera from the beginning. And it worked really well.
With the adults it was very different. I saw Ernesto Alterio in the TV series "Vientos de Agua" by Campanella miniseries and compared to other roles I've seen him perform, I found the construction of his character wonderful. Something similar happened with Natalia Oreiro, she is very famous in Argentina but because of roles in comedies or romantic comedies, but seeing her in Caetano's "Francia" I noticed a dramatic profile in which I was very interested. With Cesar Troncoso, he was recommended by Luis Puenzo who had worked with him in "Xxy" the film he produced, directed by his daughter Lucía Puenzo. I had seen him in "The Pope's Toilet" and I had loved his role. And it was always a dream that Cristina Banegas play the role of the grandmother, and luckily we did it!
LatinoBuzz: Was seeing the film for the first time like looking at
photographs of your childhood?
Benjamín Ávila: No, this film has a lot of traits that belong to my childhood but they're for the most part, changed or modified. What does happen to me, is that I see through them my own memories. That happens to me, but it's something very intimate. The photos that appear at the end, which are from my family in reality, is the moment that moves me the most as I get haunted by the echoes of that wonderful past that was destroyed at the moment portrayed by the film.
My production company is called Room 1520 in tribute to the last scene of Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders, where the young kid (Hunter) is reunited with his mother after a long time in that same room... My childhood accompanies much of what I do.
LatinoBuzz: How many details from set design and wardrobe to how the actors who played your parents looked and acted did you involve yourself or were you able to separate yourself?
Benjamín Ávila: The shooting process was very intimate, intense and emotional. All of the staff, technicians and actors, we were involved in a special way. I have a way of working which at first puzzled the team. I like getting carried away by what is happening and then decide each scene based on the actors, the set and the light.
I operate the camera, I always do it when I'm the director, and I like to approach it as a documentary, finding the images based on what happens, as it happens. In that sense, each take was a particular universe of its own, unique and not replicable. Of course some takes came out really bad. But others were magical ... and those are the ones remained.
On the third day of filming something happened that made the whole team realize the scope of what we were doing, and from that moment on, everybody trusted my working technique. It happened that we were shooting Juan's (played by Teo Gutiérrez Moreno) first sequence where he burns the photos, near the end of the film. A tough sequence due to the mood that Juan had to reflect (as he just learns that his father was killed and had just hopelessly cried with his mother), and with children you don't work from a rational place but rather from the body directly, something very natural to them. So, I asked Natalia Oreiro to stand off-screen next to me, and that at moment I said 'action', for her to scream inconsolably, begging for help. On the other hand I told Teo that regardless of whatever was happening, he should not take his eyes off the fire, and that he should run out when I called his name. We got ready and at the moment of saying 'action' Natalia started to scream, heart wrenching, and all that I wanted to happen to Teo, started happening to me with the camera on my shoulder. I began to cry inconsolably (if you look carefully at the scene, the camera moves because I'm crying), as if it was an ancestral cry from some other time, and at some point I yelled at Teo and he perfectly did what he had to do, as usual, an he ran. I said 'cut', gave the camera to my assistant and as I was leaving I saw Natalia crying uncontrollably, everyone saw me and realized I was crying. I went to the video assist and as I entered everybody was very excited, they saw me crying. I asked to see the take… At that moment, everybody including actors, technicians and me, realized that we were doing something more than professional, but also very personal.
LatinoBuzz: Were there any films that influenced the look of the film?
Benjamín Ávila: Absolutely. For the tone of the performance and the gaze of the kids, "My Life as a Dog" by Lasse Halstrom. All of Krystof Kieslowski's filmography, and the political view of the films that Ken Loach made in
England such as "Raining Stones", "Riff-Raff" and "Hidden Agenda".
LatinoBuzz: What's the next project?
Benjamín Ávila: I am writing for a TV series of 40 single chapters. Additionally, I am adapting a novel by Elsa Osorio that I've been wanting to do for 12 years. I'm adapting it with her to make a miniseries of 13 chapters. It's about 40 years of history and involves many characters. A different look at the people who survived or were involved in Argentina's dictatorship.
For Screening times in NY and CA visit: http://www.filmmovement.com/theatrical/index.asp?MerchandiseID=314
Like em at: https://www.facebook.com/Infancia.clandestina
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on twitter.
Clandestine Childhood is being released in NY and CA on Friday, January 11th, 2013.
LatinoBuzz: What did the actors take away from spending several days with former Montoneros?
Benjamín Ávila: I wanted the actors to have the chance to physically live that era. The most complex challenge for an actor is the ability to give dimension to the story from the time that it happened, not from the present. For them it was important to get rid of all the Whys and be able to answer them by themselves. So I decided to have the actors meet a couple of former guerrilla members to do a training drill for two days, the way it was done back then, as well as for them to have a chance to talk and for the actors to be able to ask anything they wanted.
It was very productive because their body changed, as well as their stand before history. It also helped me to confirm some doubts that had arisen during the process of writing the script. And from that moment on, the improvisations we did were very important in defining some scenes of the film. Particularly the argument scene between the grandmother and mother. That improvisation came after the work we did, and some glorious moments emerged as a result, very complex and incorrect that served to give another dimension to the movie.
LatinoBuzz: Was there a particular audience for this film that was most important for you to see it?
Benjamín Ávila: Not really. But firstly, it is a film that I made for my brothers. And for the children of the disappeared and those killed during the last dictatorship in Argentina. They are the primary audience, but the story is not constructed so that only they understand. On the contrary, I wanted the film to move people, to it would provoke feelings and ideas, without sacrificing the cinematic and artistic construction. Luckily, for all the feedback that I receive from the people who have seen it, I think we have achieved that goal. It's a film that provokes many emotions, that endures for days within the people who see it, and that generates the need to reiterate the questions that were supposedly already answered.
LatinoBuzz: When was the first time you realized that 'Infancia Clandestina' was the story you had to tell?
Benjamín Ávila: I always knew it. Since I was 13, I knew I wanted to work in film. I also knew back then that one day I would film my childhood. Somehow I made a tacit commitment at that time with myself, with my family, and with my own story. Therefore it is very important for me to have completed this process. It is a feeling of a debt paid, like I "had to do" this film. It was a duty rather than a necessity. Now that the film is finished I feel a relief, that of mission accomplished. Now I can be at peace.
LatinoBuzz: How much of what was going on were you very much aware of and how did you process that as a young boy?
Benjamín Ávila: My older brother and I were very aware, even though we were 7 and 8 years old at the time. I always think we were like the kids living in the street, who have a very conscious relationship with their environment. We knew what was happening, what we could and could not say. Although we were doing and saying what we were living, we could not have a dialectical discussion nor a real argument. We understood it all.
For us what we lived was not anything special, but it was normal. It was our life. We could not imagine anything different. This is why we were never traumatized. Even nowadays I miss that lifestyle. That clear and powerful bonding we all had. What was traumatizing was everything else: the absence, the persecution, the disappearance of my mother and not knowing anything to this day, not having been raised with my younger brother (Vicky in the movie). It was not until three yeas ago that we started having a life of ordinary siblings. And it cost a lot to have it...
LatinoBuzz: You were a child of Montoneros, so your childhood was unlike many others yet in the film we largely see this sweet portrayal of this blossoming first love between Juan and Maria –just like any teenager experiences. How much of that was Benjamín wishing that childhood was that innocent?
Benjamín Ávila: What you need to understand is that living in hiding was not something different to normality. It had parameters that were unusual, but we lived them like any other, even inside the house. I remember many common and normal family moments. Like waking up too late at night to watch the matches of the national team playing the World Cup youth soccer, Maradona’s first in Japan, and the matches were at 4 or 6 am. I remember going out at 7am in the morning with all the neighbors to celebrate the championship. My mother chastising me because I was late for school, or because I hadn't made my bed. Family barbecues, like any other Sunday, and so on, thousands of memories as normal as any other.
LatinoBuzz: What happened to “María”?
Benjamín Ávila: Maria never existed at that time. I had my Marías, but in other places and other times!
LatinoBuzz: In writing such a personal story what was the hardest thing to
write and did you avoid anything?
Benjamín Ávila: The most difficult part was at the beginning, trying to detach myself from my own history. Because several things were clear to me: the subject of film, that I did not want to be the protagonist of the story, that the most important part was the reconstruction of a routine
that has never been shown but that was not only mine but of many. That's why I took anecdotes and stories from others... Writing the script with Marcelo Muller, a dear Brazilian friend, helped me to achieve that distance I wanted for the construction of the story. With him I was able to rule out what wasn't important to the film’s story even if it was personally very important to me, and so we achieved that distance even though I deepened what remained. It was as if Marcelo pulled out to keep it to the essential, and I pulled inwards to deepen what remained.
LatinoBuzz: Was the casting difficult? Were you looking for yourself in
the Actor?
Benjamín Ávila: The casting of the children was complicated. We did it with María Laura Berch, an incredible casting director specializing in children, and we elaborated a very clear, yet complex, strategy. We saw over 700 children in total for all the roles, and it took us three months as planned.
But most importantly, we wanted to cast very homely, to give the kids the idea of what the shooting was going to be right from the beginning. And as I do my own camerawork every time I film, I decided I was going to shoot the casting so the kids could get used to my presence close to them and behind the camera from the beginning. And it worked really well.
With the adults it was very different. I saw Ernesto Alterio in the TV series "Vientos de Agua" by Campanella miniseries and compared to other roles I've seen him perform, I found the construction of his character wonderful. Something similar happened with Natalia Oreiro, she is very famous in Argentina but because of roles in comedies or romantic comedies, but seeing her in Caetano's "Francia" I noticed a dramatic profile in which I was very interested. With Cesar Troncoso, he was recommended by Luis Puenzo who had worked with him in "Xxy" the film he produced, directed by his daughter Lucía Puenzo. I had seen him in "The Pope's Toilet" and I had loved his role. And it was always a dream that Cristina Banegas play the role of the grandmother, and luckily we did it!
LatinoBuzz: Was seeing the film for the first time like looking at
photographs of your childhood?
Benjamín Ávila: No, this film has a lot of traits that belong to my childhood but they're for the most part, changed or modified. What does happen to me, is that I see through them my own memories. That happens to me, but it's something very intimate. The photos that appear at the end, which are from my family in reality, is the moment that moves me the most as I get haunted by the echoes of that wonderful past that was destroyed at the moment portrayed by the film.
My production company is called Room 1520 in tribute to the last scene of Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders, where the young kid (Hunter) is reunited with his mother after a long time in that same room... My childhood accompanies much of what I do.
LatinoBuzz: How many details from set design and wardrobe to how the actors who played your parents looked and acted did you involve yourself or were you able to separate yourself?
Benjamín Ávila: The shooting process was very intimate, intense and emotional. All of the staff, technicians and actors, we were involved in a special way. I have a way of working which at first puzzled the team. I like getting carried away by what is happening and then decide each scene based on the actors, the set and the light.
I operate the camera, I always do it when I'm the director, and I like to approach it as a documentary, finding the images based on what happens, as it happens. In that sense, each take was a particular universe of its own, unique and not replicable. Of course some takes came out really bad. But others were magical ... and those are the ones remained.
On the third day of filming something happened that made the whole team realize the scope of what we were doing, and from that moment on, everybody trusted my working technique. It happened that we were shooting Juan's (played by Teo Gutiérrez Moreno) first sequence where he burns the photos, near the end of the film. A tough sequence due to the mood that Juan had to reflect (as he just learns that his father was killed and had just hopelessly cried with his mother), and with children you don't work from a rational place but rather from the body directly, something very natural to them. So, I asked Natalia Oreiro to stand off-screen next to me, and that at moment I said 'action', for her to scream inconsolably, begging for help. On the other hand I told Teo that regardless of whatever was happening, he should not take his eyes off the fire, and that he should run out when I called his name. We got ready and at the moment of saying 'action' Natalia started to scream, heart wrenching, and all that I wanted to happen to Teo, started happening to me with the camera on my shoulder. I began to cry inconsolably (if you look carefully at the scene, the camera moves because I'm crying), as if it was an ancestral cry from some other time, and at some point I yelled at Teo and he perfectly did what he had to do, as usual, an he ran. I said 'cut', gave the camera to my assistant and as I was leaving I saw Natalia crying uncontrollably, everyone saw me and realized I was crying. I went to the video assist and as I entered everybody was very excited, they saw me crying. I asked to see the take… At that moment, everybody including actors, technicians and me, realized that we were doing something more than professional, but also very personal.
LatinoBuzz: Were there any films that influenced the look of the film?
Benjamín Ávila: Absolutely. For the tone of the performance and the gaze of the kids, "My Life as a Dog" by Lasse Halstrom. All of Krystof Kieslowski's filmography, and the political view of the films that Ken Loach made in
England such as "Raining Stones", "Riff-Raff" and "Hidden Agenda".
LatinoBuzz: What's the next project?
Benjamín Ávila: I am writing for a TV series of 40 single chapters. Additionally, I am adapting a novel by Elsa Osorio that I've been wanting to do for 12 years. I'm adapting it with her to make a miniseries of 13 chapters. It's about 40 years of history and involves many characters. A different look at the people who survived or were involved in Argentina's dictatorship.
For Screening times in NY and CA visit: http://www.filmmovement.com/theatrical/index.asp?MerchandiseID=314
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Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on twitter.
- 1/9/2013
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
Last week saw the release of The Avengers here in the UK, the year’s biggest film to date, and the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Naturally, it was a pretty good week – somewhat marred, however, by the fact that the UK edition has a violent scene edited and Joss Whedon’s commentary track omitted.
Needless to say, I’ll be importing my copy from the Us sometime in the future, after its release there tomorrow. (It also means I’ll have the proper title – ‘The Avengers’ – on the cover, and not just ‘Avengers Assemble’, a name which I refuse to use, because ‘The Avengers’ is just way cooler.)
This week is just as big a week all round, with Whedon returning to the home entertainment market in the form of The Cabin in the Woods, along with the equally-praised Indonesian action film, The Raid, and many more excellent films.
Needless to say, I’ll be importing my copy from the Us sometime in the future, after its release there tomorrow. (It also means I’ll have the proper title – ‘The Avengers’ – on the cover, and not just ‘Avengers Assemble’, a name which I refuse to use, because ‘The Avengers’ is just way cooler.)
This week is just as big a week all round, with Whedon returning to the home entertainment market in the form of The Cabin in the Woods, along with the equally-praised Indonesian action film, The Raid, and many more excellent films.
- 9/24/2012
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Masterclass: Barry Ackroyd
“The most peaceful place you can be on a film set is when you put your eye to the camera.”
On Monday night at the BFI, British cinematographer Barry Ackroyd talked to Screen International Editor Mike Goodridge about his 30 years in film and TV. It’s a shame there wasn’t a full house in NFT3 and that I had to sit at an uncomfortable 45-degree angle to see the discussion. The good news was that Ackroyd’s eloquence matches his skills behind the camera and he sounded like a poet as he alluded to the “flow” of his work.
If there’s one word you probably wouldn’t use in association with Ackroyd’s recent films it’s peaceful. This is the guy who shot Ralph Fiennes’s Balkan-set Coriolanus, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and United 93. Given his talent for depicting war zones,...
“The most peaceful place you can be on a film set is when you put your eye to the camera.”
On Monday night at the BFI, British cinematographer Barry Ackroyd talked to Screen International Editor Mike Goodridge about his 30 years in film and TV. It’s a shame there wasn’t a full house in NFT3 and that I had to sit at an uncomfortable 45-degree angle to see the discussion. The good news was that Ackroyd’s eloquence matches his skills behind the camera and he sounded like a poet as he alluded to the “flow” of his work.
If there’s one word you probably wouldn’t use in association with Ackroyd’s recent films it’s peaceful. This is the guy who shot Ralph Fiennes’s Balkan-set Coriolanus, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and United 93. Given his talent for depicting war zones,...
- 10/20/2011
- by Susannah
- SoundOnSight
Peter Mullan was a studious kid who ran with a knife gang in Glasgow. So is his shocking new film Neds based on his life?
Peter Mullan's childhood has been trudged over in interviews ever since he starred in Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe in 1998, when he was already in his late 30s. He grew up in Glasgow, one of eight children in a poor family that lived under cosh of "a raping, bullying, alcoholic" father. Academically gifted, he dropped out of school at 14 to knock about with a knife-carrying gang. "I was a total tourist," he says. Although already a committed Marxist, he was aggressively lobotomising himself – while keeping up his reading on the sly. "You couldnae tell the gang you were reading Carl Jung." After a year or so, booted out of the gang, he went back to school, blitzed his highers and started at...
Peter Mullan's childhood has been trudged over in interviews ever since he starred in Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe in 1998, when he was already in his late 30s. He grew up in Glasgow, one of eight children in a poor family that lived under cosh of "a raping, bullying, alcoholic" father. Academically gifted, he dropped out of school at 14 to knock about with a knife-carrying gang. "I was a total tourist," he says. Although already a committed Marxist, he was aggressively lobotomising himself – while keeping up his reading on the sly. "You couldnae tell the gang you were reading Carl Jung." After a year or so, booted out of the gang, he went back to school, blitzed his highers and started at...
- 1/20/2011
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Populist: The column that's fed up of you telling it what it thinks
Ipad experiment of the week
Will It Shred's attempts to see if you can trick up an iPad and skate on it. Warning: warranty may be void. See it here.
Incongrous club name of the week
Stephen Hawking's Answer Phone Message featuring heavy rock and metal. Sat, London N1. Raaaaaaaagh!
YouTube Channel of the week
Ken Loach has uploaded full-length versions of Ae Fond Kiss, Kes, Cathy Come Home, Poor Cow, Riff-Raff, Hidden Agenda and Carry On Ken to YouTube. See youtube.com/user/KenLoachFilms
New trailer mystery of the week
Jj Abrams returns with a new Area 51 project titled Super 8. Steven Spielberg's on board, too. Internet explodes.
Fantasy fanzine of the week
Henry & Glenn Forever imagines what life would be like if Black Flag's Henry Rollins and Misfits' Glenn Danzig had been...
Ipad experiment of the week
Will It Shred's attempts to see if you can trick up an iPad and skate on it. Warning: warranty may be void. See it here.
Incongrous club name of the week
Stephen Hawking's Answer Phone Message featuring heavy rock and metal. Sat, London N1. Raaaaaaaagh!
YouTube Channel of the week
Ken Loach has uploaded full-length versions of Ae Fond Kiss, Kes, Cathy Come Home, Poor Cow, Riff-Raff, Hidden Agenda and Carry On Ken to YouTube. See youtube.com/user/KenLoachFilms
New trailer mystery of the week
Jj Abrams returns with a new Area 51 project titled Super 8. Steven Spielberg's on board, too. Internet explodes.
Fantasy fanzine of the week
Henry & Glenn Forever imagines what life would be like if Black Flag's Henry Rollins and Misfits' Glenn Danzig had been...
- 5/14/2010
- by The guide
- The Guardian - Film News
With movies like Riff-Raff, Raining Stones, and Ladybird Ladybird in the early ’90s, British director Ken Loach carved out a distinctive niche by fusing social realism with human comedy, adding a spoonful of sugar to make his class politics go down. Later in the decade, imitators like The Full Monty, Waking Ned Devine, and Billy Elliot found great commercial success in scaling back the politics while keeping the working-class backdrops more or less intact; at their worst, they suffered a serious case of the cutes. Now everything has come full circle: Following a run of serious dramas like The Wind ...
- 5/13/2010
- avclub.com
We all have film sequences that stick in our minds. Some are shared by many – such as the shower scene from Psycho – others are particular to us. Here our film critic and a panel of leading movie-makers reveal their favourites. What are yours?
Who will ever forget the first time they saw the 45-second shower-room murder in Hitchcock's Psycho? I remember 1959 and 1961 as the years when my first two children were born. But the first thing that comes to mind about the year in between was seeing Psycho, which I'd been looking forward to since a radio programme I'd produced the previous October, when Hitchcock had enticingly described Psycho as "my first real horror film". Entering the Plaza, Lower Regent Street, the day the film opened, I passed the cardboard cut-out of Hitchcock in the foyer, from which a tape recording of the Master's familiar Leytonstone undertaker's voice warned us...
Who will ever forget the first time they saw the 45-second shower-room murder in Hitchcock's Psycho? I remember 1959 and 1961 as the years when my first two children were born. But the first thing that comes to mind about the year in between was seeing Psycho, which I'd been looking forward to since a radio programme I'd produced the previous October, when Hitchcock had enticingly described Psycho as "my first real horror film". Entering the Plaza, Lower Regent Street, the day the film opened, I passed the cardboard cut-out of Hitchcock in the foyer, from which a tape recording of the Master's familiar Leytonstone undertaker's voice warned us...
- 3/15/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Leading light of social-realist British cinema receives accolade from Eric Cantona who hails 'genius' director
Grit, not glamour, proved the order of the day at the 22nd annual European film awards, which took place inside a former power station in Germany's industrial heartland, and handed a lifetime achievement award to the director Ken Loach.
The leading light of social-realist British cinema seemed to relish his trip to the Ruhr region, a landscape dominated by smokestacks and coal-mines. "It reminds me that we used to have an industrial heartland in my country too," he enthused. "Until Margaret Thatcher stuck a dagger through it."
Loach, 73, was honoured for a body of work that includes Kes, Riff-Raff, Land and Freedom and The Wind That Shakes the Barley. He received the award from Eric Cantona, the star of his latest film, Looking For Eric. The former footballer hailed Loach as "a genius" and added:...
Grit, not glamour, proved the order of the day at the 22nd annual European film awards, which took place inside a former power station in Germany's industrial heartland, and handed a lifetime achievement award to the director Ken Loach.
The leading light of social-realist British cinema seemed to relish his trip to the Ruhr region, a landscape dominated by smokestacks and coal-mines. "It reminds me that we used to have an industrial heartland in my country too," he enthused. "Until Margaret Thatcher stuck a dagger through it."
Loach, 73, was honoured for a body of work that includes Kes, Riff-Raff, Land and Freedom and The Wind That Shakes the Barley. He received the award from Eric Cantona, the star of his latest film, Looking For Eric. The former footballer hailed Loach as "a genius" and added:...
- 12/13/2009
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Rome -- Ken Loach's "Riff-Raff" and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rain People" are among the highlights of a handpicked sidebar selected by Italian auteur Nanni Moretti for this year's Locarno Film Festival.
The Aug. 6-16 event organizers gave Moretti, who currently serves as director of the Turin Film Festival, a free hand in selecting two sections.
The first will feature the director's favorite films shown at Rome's Nuovo Sacher, the cinema he owns; the second section will highlight films from the 1960s, when he was growing up.
Loach's 1991 "Riff-Raff" was the first film shown at the Nuovo Sacher. That section also will include "The Embalmer," from "Gomorra" director Matteo Garrone, and Dito Montiel's coming-of-age drama "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints."
The second group includes 1969's "The Rain People," along with "La Ricotta" from Pier Paolo Pasolini and Milos Forman's "The Loves of a Blonde."
Moretti, the subject of his own retrospective at Locarno, will be at the festival to discuss some of the films with audience members.
The Aug. 6-16 event organizers gave Moretti, who currently serves as director of the Turin Film Festival, a free hand in selecting two sections.
The first will feature the director's favorite films shown at Rome's Nuovo Sacher, the cinema he owns; the second section will highlight films from the 1960s, when he was growing up.
Loach's 1991 "Riff-Raff" was the first film shown at the Nuovo Sacher. That section also will include "The Embalmer," from "Gomorra" director Matteo Garrone, and Dito Montiel's coming-of-age drama "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints."
The second group includes 1969's "The Rain People," along with "La Ricotta" from Pier Paolo Pasolini and Milos Forman's "The Loves of a Blonde."
Moretti, the subject of his own retrospective at Locarno, will be at the festival to discuss some of the films with audience members.
- 8/4/2008
- by By Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Quick Links > The Wind that Shakes the Barley > Ken Loach > IFC First Take > Sweet Sixteen > Riff-Raff > Kes When Indie veteran Ken Loach steps up to the camera the industry tends to take pause. The outspoken 70 year old director has a proven track record that dates back four decades and includes five Cannes Special Jury awards and now the coveted Palme d’Or award for 2006. This year’s winning film The Wind that Shakes the Barley has reportedly just been picked up for Us distribution by IFC’s First Take program. IFC has chosen to promote the film in its controversial “day-and-date” model, with limited theatrical release to coincide with video-on-demand release in spring 2007. The film is a historical drama, written by Paul Laverty (Cargo, 2006/I) and starring Liam Cunningham, and Padraic Delaney and Cillian Murphy. The film depicts the story of Damien, a young doctor in 1920 Ireland, who
- 8/17/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
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