COLOGNE, Germany -- Swedish public broadcaster SVT has announced plans to cut up to 400 staff in an effort to slash some $40 million from its budget over the next two years.
In a press conference on Thursday, SVT head Eva Hamilton justified the cuts, pointing to rising operation costs that are not being covered by revenues from SVT's license fee. An internal SVT memo published in the Swedish press estimated that the public broadcaster was losing around $13 million a year.
Hamilton on Thursday said SVT would streamline its production operations in order to economize. SVT's 24 local channels scattered across the country will chop all non-news programming from their production schedules.
Under the new structure, SVT Will Divide production into three divisions: news and sports headed by Olov Carlsson; fictional and entertainment production run by Johanna Frelin and a division for interactive services, headed by Lena Glaser.
Swedish commercial competitors have eaten into SVT's market dominance but the public broadcaster's five free-to-air channels still account for around 36% of the Swedish market.
In a press conference on Thursday, SVT head Eva Hamilton justified the cuts, pointing to rising operation costs that are not being covered by revenues from SVT's license fee. An internal SVT memo published in the Swedish press estimated that the public broadcaster was losing around $13 million a year.
Hamilton on Thursday said SVT would streamline its production operations in order to economize. SVT's 24 local channels scattered across the country will chop all non-news programming from their production schedules.
Under the new structure, SVT Will Divide production into three divisions: news and sports headed by Olov Carlsson; fictional and entertainment production run by Johanna Frelin and a division for interactive services, headed by Lena Glaser.
Swedish commercial competitors have eaten into SVT's market dominance but the public broadcaster's five free-to-air channels still account for around 36% of the Swedish market.
MADRID -- Spanish new technology powerhouse Avanzit Will Divide up 15% of its media subsidiary Cecsa among its shareholders in preparation for a public listing of its holdings later this year.
Avanzit president Javier Tallada made the announcement at Monday's general shareholders meeting.
The move increases the holding's value, which Tallada estimates will be about 6% of Avanzit's overall worth, making it equal to roughly €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion).
Avanzit owns 55% of Cecsa, with the remainder of the company's worth held by the former owners of film and TV production house Notro Films and mainstream film distributor Manga Films, both of which Avanzit has acquired in its campaign to go public.
Avanzit, which also owns production house Telespan 2000, has made no secret of its ambitions of becoming Spain's leading media group. Cecsa -- a name soon to be changed -- has sculpted itself into a formidable player in the industry and maintained its independence from any television channel or media group.
Avanzit president Javier Tallada made the announcement at Monday's general shareholders meeting.
The move increases the holding's value, which Tallada estimates will be about 6% of Avanzit's overall worth, making it equal to roughly €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion).
Avanzit owns 55% of Cecsa, with the remainder of the company's worth held by the former owners of film and TV production house Notro Films and mainstream film distributor Manga Films, both of which Avanzit has acquired in its campaign to go public.
Avanzit, which also owns production house Telespan 2000, has made no secret of its ambitions of becoming Spain's leading media group. Cecsa -- a name soon to be changed -- has sculpted itself into a formidable player in the industry and maintained its independence from any television channel or media group.
HONG KONG -- Malaysia made a splash Wednesday at the Hong Kong Filmart, with several companies signing animated entertainment content co-production deals.
Elemental Ventures of Kuala Lumpur and Los Angeles-based Thoren Entertainment agreed to produce "Ketchup and Mustard", a preschool animation series to be made in Malaysia with a U.S. production team for the global DVD and broadcast markets.
"It's our 'Dora the Explorer, '" said Terry Thoren, principal of the U.S. half of the deal. Thoren's previous projects include the animated hit "The Rugrats Movie".
Budget details were not announced, and how the partners' Will Divide potential profits and distribution duties is still under discussion, Elemental managing director Leon Tan said.
Also on the list of Malaysian co-productions in the works was a $4 million deal between Animasia Studio, a unit of MSC Malaysia Co., and Hong Kong-based Animation Services Ltd. to make the two 26-episode HDTV series "ABC Monster Detectives" and "Kung Fu Chicken".
Each series episode will be 22 minutes and expected to be completed in fourth-quarter 2008, the companies said.
Elemental Ventures of Kuala Lumpur and Los Angeles-based Thoren Entertainment agreed to produce "Ketchup and Mustard", a preschool animation series to be made in Malaysia with a U.S. production team for the global DVD and broadcast markets.
"It's our 'Dora the Explorer, '" said Terry Thoren, principal of the U.S. half of the deal. Thoren's previous projects include the animated hit "The Rugrats Movie".
Budget details were not announced, and how the partners' Will Divide potential profits and distribution duties is still under discussion, Elemental managing director Leon Tan said.
Also on the list of Malaysian co-productions in the works was a $4 million deal between Animasia Studio, a unit of MSC Malaysia Co., and Hong Kong-based Animation Services Ltd. to make the two 26-episode HDTV series "ABC Monster Detectives" and "Kung Fu Chicken".
Each series episode will be 22 minutes and expected to be completed in fourth-quarter 2008, the companies said.
- 3/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SYDNEY -- In what has been described as a landmark program supply deal, pay TV operator Foxtel and broadcaster Network Ten will share new first-run programming from 20th Century Fox Television beginning next year. Under the multiyear deal announced Wednesday, Ten and Foxtel Will Divide the Fox programs they select for premiere showings. While Ten has "preferential entitlements," the choice of premieres will be made under an agreed protocol. In a first for any market worldwide, Foxtel said it will premiere the Fox programs it licenses day-and-date with their U.S. runs. Ten also might choose to premiere Fox series day-and-date to capitalize on program hype and global marketing.
- 5/17/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mark Gooder has been named to the newly created position of president of film acquisitions and development of Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Prods. Gooder, CEO of Icon's Australian distribution company, will continue in his current role and expand his duties to include overall responsibility for international feature film acquisitions and development. Gooder, who will report to Davey, will relocate to Los Angeles next month but Will Divide his time between Sydney and the Santa Monica-based headquarters of the company. "This is a unique opportunity to integrate the skills and market knowledge I have accumulated over the past 15 years and work with the London and Los Angeles offices to source strong, commercial material for Icon in the international marketplace," Gooder said.
Mark Gooder has been named to the newly created position of president of film acquisitions and development of Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Prods. Gooder, CEO of Icon's Australian distribution company, will continue in his current role and expand his duties to include overall responsibility for international feature film acquisitions and development. Gooder, who will report to Davey, will relocate to Los Angeles next month but Will Divide his time between Sydney and the Santa Monica-based headquarters of the company. "This is a unique opportunity to integrate the skills and market knowledge I have accumulated over the past 15 years and work with the London and Los Angeles offices to source strong, commercial material for Icon in the international marketplace," Gooder said.
![Al Gore](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTY3NDcyMDQ2N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDQxMjgyMg@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR2,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Al Gore](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTY3NDcyMDQ2N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDQxMjgyMg@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR2,0,140,207_.jpg)
PARK CITY -- There are two agendas behind Davis Guggenheim's "An Inconvenient Truth". One is to bring to a much larger audience former Vice President Al Gore's fascinating multimedia presentation of the facts and issues arising from the phenomenon of global climate change. The other is to re-introduce to the American public a man we thought we knew but clearly did not. The film, which is screening in the Spectrum sidebar, succeeds on both counts.
The danger, of course, is that viewership for the film, which is looking for distribution, Will Divide along red state/blue state lines. Gore does make a strong argument that the need to address global warming is not a political but a moral issue. Time is running out as witnessed by the record number of tornadoes in the Midwest, the torrential flooding in Mumbai, India, and Hurricane Katrina all in one year.
What Gore strives to make crystal clear to anyone in opposition is that the tools and methods to reverse these calamitous changes are at hand -- no new inventions required -- and that the economic consequences of tackling the problem are positive rather than negative. The idea that responsible environmental protection is bad for the economy is exposed here through facts and science for what it is -- a Big Lie.
The film will need critics and op-ed page writers to get across the message that people of all political persuasions can risk exposure to Gore's message without fear of becoming tree-huggers. What they will become is alarmed.
The heart of the film is what Gore casually calls his "slide show." In fact, this is an ultrasophisticated use of charts, graphics, a cartoon, photos and other media to distill more than 30 years of research into the issue by Gore, dating back to his study under university professor Roger Revelle. This is a dynamic and at times humorous explanation of the link between carbon emissions and public health problems, insurance company costs, melting glaciers, shrinking lakes, rising sea levels, killer heat waves and, most dramatically, Katrina.
Interspersed through the lecture is footage of Gore traveling the world to meet with scientists, governmental officials and laypeople along with quieter moments where Gore reflects about growing up on a ranch and his own affinity with nature.
Gore traces his activism on the issue of climate change to the near-fatal accident of his young son in 1989. The possibility of losing a child devastated him but did confront him with the question of "how should I spend my time on this earth?" The fact that we're in real danger of losing that earth, just as he nearly lost his son, made the environment his cause.
The documentary is an act of political activism. Guggenheim and his politically conscious producers, Laurie David, Lawrence Bender and Scott Z. Burns, have no interest in either challenging Gore's viewpoint or giving opposing opinions equal time. The film is simply a conduit for Gore's message.
Along the way, though, we do see a different Al Gore than the one who conducted the 2000 presidential campaign. Instead of a stiff politician, seeming uncomfortable in crowds, Gore the activist is an earnest, passionate, funny and caring individual, determined to communicate with people about the most important issue facing our earth.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Participant Prods. presents a Lawrence Bender/Laurie David production
Credits:
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Producers: Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Z. Burns
Executive producers: Jeff Skoll, Davis Guggenheim
Co-producer: Lesley Chilcott
Directors of photography: Bob Richman, Davis Guggenheim
Music: Michael Brook
Editors: Jay Cassidy, Dan Swietlik
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 95 minutes...
The danger, of course, is that viewership for the film, which is looking for distribution, Will Divide along red state/blue state lines. Gore does make a strong argument that the need to address global warming is not a political but a moral issue. Time is running out as witnessed by the record number of tornadoes in the Midwest, the torrential flooding in Mumbai, India, and Hurricane Katrina all in one year.
What Gore strives to make crystal clear to anyone in opposition is that the tools and methods to reverse these calamitous changes are at hand -- no new inventions required -- and that the economic consequences of tackling the problem are positive rather than negative. The idea that responsible environmental protection is bad for the economy is exposed here through facts and science for what it is -- a Big Lie.
The film will need critics and op-ed page writers to get across the message that people of all political persuasions can risk exposure to Gore's message without fear of becoming tree-huggers. What they will become is alarmed.
The heart of the film is what Gore casually calls his "slide show." In fact, this is an ultrasophisticated use of charts, graphics, a cartoon, photos and other media to distill more than 30 years of research into the issue by Gore, dating back to his study under university professor Roger Revelle. This is a dynamic and at times humorous explanation of the link between carbon emissions and public health problems, insurance company costs, melting glaciers, shrinking lakes, rising sea levels, killer heat waves and, most dramatically, Katrina.
Interspersed through the lecture is footage of Gore traveling the world to meet with scientists, governmental officials and laypeople along with quieter moments where Gore reflects about growing up on a ranch and his own affinity with nature.
Gore traces his activism on the issue of climate change to the near-fatal accident of his young son in 1989. The possibility of losing a child devastated him but did confront him with the question of "how should I spend my time on this earth?" The fact that we're in real danger of losing that earth, just as he nearly lost his son, made the environment his cause.
The documentary is an act of political activism. Guggenheim and his politically conscious producers, Laurie David, Lawrence Bender and Scott Z. Burns, have no interest in either challenging Gore's viewpoint or giving opposing opinions equal time. The film is simply a conduit for Gore's message.
Along the way, though, we do see a different Al Gore than the one who conducted the 2000 presidential campaign. Instead of a stiff politician, seeming uncomfortable in crowds, Gore the activist is an earnest, passionate, funny and caring individual, determined to communicate with people about the most important issue facing our earth.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Participant Prods. presents a Lawrence Bender/Laurie David production
Credits:
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Producers: Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Z. Burns
Executive producers: Jeff Skoll, Davis Guggenheim
Co-producer: Lesley Chilcott
Directors of photography: Bob Richman, Davis Guggenheim
Music: Michael Brook
Editors: Jay Cassidy, Dan Swietlik
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 95 minutes...
- 1/25/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
![Tom Jacobson](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTRjMDllNjAtNzY3YS00NjJjLWJiNTMtODk0YWIzMmUzMmJiL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkzNDA3NTI@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,19,500,281_.jpg)
Opens
March 26
"The Ladykillers" represents the Coen brothers' first attempt at a movie remake and, boy, did they pick a tough nut.
The 1955 version is one of the comic gems of British comedy. The film was made at Ealing Studios, whose comedies were noted for their bizarre developments that always seemed to transpire amid ordinary, closely observed domestic settings.
Unfortunately, the strain in trying to match the original's peerless precision and stifled lunacy tells in every frame of the new movie. Where the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in "The Ladykillers" feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career and a host of character actors taking the word "character" a bit too far, the movie never finds its comic footing.
Hanks' mere presence will, of course, deliver a solid opening weekend. And the brothers' faithful fans might find enough things to like to sustain a decent boxoffice performance thereafter, especially among older audiences.
The premise remains the same. Once more, a professor with dubious credentials rents a room from an unsuspecting old lady. He and his cronies, all claiming to be musicians, use the house as a base of operations to commit a nefarious criminal deed. Once more, however, circumstances and the old lady foil them at every turn.
Only instead of the English suburbs, the Coens take us deep into the Southern Bible Belt. Professor G.H. Dorr (Hanks) rents a room from a black Baptist churchgoing lady named Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), who will allow neither "hippity-hop" music nor smoking in her domicile. With the cover of practicing medieval instruments in her basement, Dorr and his gang tunnel from that basement for several blocks to the cash storage office of a riverboat gambling casino.
The crew Dorr assembles gives new meaning to the expression "thick as thieves." Marlon Wayans' Gawain MacSam is the casino "inside" man, whose temper and foul mouth just naturally invite catastrophe, not to mention slaps by Mrs. Munson. His counterpart is J.K. Simmons' Garth Pancake, an explosives expert whose enthusiastic agreeability and aggressive friendliness drive Gawain crazy.
The General (Tzi Ma) says very little, preferring to dwell in a Zenlike state of borderline competence. Last and undoubtedly least is Ryan Hurst's Lump, a football player who, as the saying goes, has played too many downs without a helmet.
These caricatures are all over the top, but Hanks, in the Alec Guinness role, chooses to takes things to an even higher peak. This is a performance that Will Divide critics and admirers. Some will find hilarity in its artifice and fussiness
others will chafe at its complete self-consciousness. Let's start with the stilted accent: It sounds like an all-purpose Southern accent performed by a bad English actor. Then there are Hanks' clothes and florid manners, which are positively antebellum. Finally, the Coens' flowery 19th century dialogue doesn't exactly throw Hanks, but it does him no favors either.
Which leaves Hall, who delivers the movie's one truly outstanding performance. Called upon to play a simple soul with an unyielding sense of moral principles, the veteran actress turns Marva into a tower of homey virtues and small-town values.
The Coens' screenplay supplies the dark comedy and slapstick violence that is a hallmark of their films. This time, however, they do not feel organic to the story but rather self-consciously cute sequences imposed by the filmmakers. There is a creative lethargy to the running gags -- bodies are routinely disposed from a bridge with every death -- and the various circumstances that prevent the gang from killing Marva when she discovers her tenant's misdeeds and insists that he and his gang give the money back.
The film displays the typical technical brilliance of a Coen brothers movie. Cinematographer Roger Deakins and designer Dennis Gassner create an oh-so-precise visual design that makes the small Southern town feel as artificial as Hanks' accent. Music, as usual, plays a key role and produces yet another amazing soundtrack, this time built around toe-tapping gospel music.
THE LADYKILLERS
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents a Tom Jacobson production
Credits:
Screenwriter-directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Based on "The Ladykillers" by: William Rose
Producers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson
Director of photography: Roger Deakins
Production designer: Dennis Glassner
Music: Carter Burwell
Costume designer: Mary Zophres
Editor: Roderick Jaynes
Cast:
Professor G.H. Dorr: Tom Hanks
Marva Munson: Irma P. Hall
Gawain MacSam: Marlon Wayans
Garth Pancake: J.K. Simmons
General: Tzi Ma
Lump: Ryan Hurst
Mountain Girl: Diane Delano
Running time -- 104 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
March 26
"The Ladykillers" represents the Coen brothers' first attempt at a movie remake and, boy, did they pick a tough nut.
The 1955 version is one of the comic gems of British comedy. The film was made at Ealing Studios, whose comedies were noted for their bizarre developments that always seemed to transpire amid ordinary, closely observed domestic settings.
Unfortunately, the strain in trying to match the original's peerless precision and stifled lunacy tells in every frame of the new movie. Where the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in "The Ladykillers" feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career and a host of character actors taking the word "character" a bit too far, the movie never finds its comic footing.
Hanks' mere presence will, of course, deliver a solid opening weekend. And the brothers' faithful fans might find enough things to like to sustain a decent boxoffice performance thereafter, especially among older audiences.
The premise remains the same. Once more, a professor with dubious credentials rents a room from an unsuspecting old lady. He and his cronies, all claiming to be musicians, use the house as a base of operations to commit a nefarious criminal deed. Once more, however, circumstances and the old lady foil them at every turn.
Only instead of the English suburbs, the Coens take us deep into the Southern Bible Belt. Professor G.H. Dorr (Hanks) rents a room from a black Baptist churchgoing lady named Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), who will allow neither "hippity-hop" music nor smoking in her domicile. With the cover of practicing medieval instruments in her basement, Dorr and his gang tunnel from that basement for several blocks to the cash storage office of a riverboat gambling casino.
The crew Dorr assembles gives new meaning to the expression "thick as thieves." Marlon Wayans' Gawain MacSam is the casino "inside" man, whose temper and foul mouth just naturally invite catastrophe, not to mention slaps by Mrs. Munson. His counterpart is J.K. Simmons' Garth Pancake, an explosives expert whose enthusiastic agreeability and aggressive friendliness drive Gawain crazy.
The General (Tzi Ma) says very little, preferring to dwell in a Zenlike state of borderline competence. Last and undoubtedly least is Ryan Hurst's Lump, a football player who, as the saying goes, has played too many downs without a helmet.
These caricatures are all over the top, but Hanks, in the Alec Guinness role, chooses to takes things to an even higher peak. This is a performance that Will Divide critics and admirers. Some will find hilarity in its artifice and fussiness
others will chafe at its complete self-consciousness. Let's start with the stilted accent: It sounds like an all-purpose Southern accent performed by a bad English actor. Then there are Hanks' clothes and florid manners, which are positively antebellum. Finally, the Coens' flowery 19th century dialogue doesn't exactly throw Hanks, but it does him no favors either.
Which leaves Hall, who delivers the movie's one truly outstanding performance. Called upon to play a simple soul with an unyielding sense of moral principles, the veteran actress turns Marva into a tower of homey virtues and small-town values.
The Coens' screenplay supplies the dark comedy and slapstick violence that is a hallmark of their films. This time, however, they do not feel organic to the story but rather self-consciously cute sequences imposed by the filmmakers. There is a creative lethargy to the running gags -- bodies are routinely disposed from a bridge with every death -- and the various circumstances that prevent the gang from killing Marva when she discovers her tenant's misdeeds and insists that he and his gang give the money back.
The film displays the typical technical brilliance of a Coen brothers movie. Cinematographer Roger Deakins and designer Dennis Gassner create an oh-so-precise visual design that makes the small Southern town feel as artificial as Hanks' accent. Music, as usual, plays a key role and produces yet another amazing soundtrack, this time built around toe-tapping gospel music.
THE LADYKILLERS
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents a Tom Jacobson production
Credits:
Screenwriter-directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Based on "The Ladykillers" by: William Rose
Producers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson
Director of photography: Roger Deakins
Production designer: Dennis Glassner
Music: Carter Burwell
Costume designer: Mary Zophres
Editor: Roderick Jaynes
Cast:
Professor G.H. Dorr: Tom Hanks
Marva Munson: Irma P. Hall
Gawain MacSam: Marlon Wayans
Garth Pancake: J.K. Simmons
General: Tzi Ma
Lump: Ryan Hurst
Mountain Girl: Diane Delano
Running time -- 104 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
![Wallace Shawn at an event for Bernard and Doris (2006)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc3MDYzMDQ1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDQ3OTc1MQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Wallace Shawn at an event for Bernard and Doris (2006)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc3MDYzMDQ1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDQ3OTc1MQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
![Tom Jacobson](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTRjMDllNjAtNzY3YS00NjJjLWJiNTMtODk0YWIzMmUzMmJiL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkzNDA3NTI@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,19,500,281_.jpg)
Opens
March 26
"The Ladykillers" represents the Coen brothers' first attempt at a movie remake and, boy, did they pick a tough nut.
The 1955 version is one of the comic gems of British comedy. The film was made at Ealing Studios, whose comedies were noted for their bizarre developments that always seemed to transpire amid ordinary, closely observed domestic settings.
Unfortunately, the strain in trying to match the original's peerless precision and stifled lunacy tells in every frame of the new movie. Where the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in "The Ladykillers" feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career and a host of character actors taking the word "character" a bit too far, the movie never finds its comic footing.
Hanks' mere presence will, of course, deliver a solid opening weekend. And the brothers' faithful fans might find enough things to like to sustain a decent boxoffice performance thereafter, especially among older audiences.
The premise remains the same. Once more, a professor with dubious credentials rents a room from an unsuspecting old lady. He and his cronies, all claiming to be musicians, use the house as a base of operations to commit a nefarious criminal deed. Once more, however, circumstances and the old lady foil them at every turn.
Only instead of the English suburbs, the Coens take us deep into the Southern Bible Belt. Professor G.H. Dorr (Hanks) rents a room from a black Baptist churchgoing lady named Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), who will allow neither "hippity-hop" music nor smoking in her domicile. With the cover of practicing medieval instruments in her basement, Dorr and his gang tunnel from that basement for several blocks to the cash storage office of a riverboat gambling casino.
The crew Dorr assembles gives new meaning to the expression "thick as thieves." Marlon Wayans' Gawain MacSam is the casino "inside" man, whose temper and foul mouth just naturally invite catastrophe, not to mention slaps by Mrs. Munson. His counterpart is J.K. Simmons' Garth Pancake, an explosives expert whose enthusiastic agreeability and aggressive friendliness drive Gawain crazy.
The General (Tzi Ma) says very little, preferring to dwell in a Zenlike state of borderline competence. Last and undoubtedly least is Ryan Hurst's Lump, a football player who, as the saying goes, has played too many downs without a helmet.
These caricatures are all over the top, but Hanks, in the Alec Guinness role, chooses to takes things to an even higher peak. This is a performance that Will Divide critics and admirers. Some will find hilarity in its artifice and fussiness
others will chafe at its complete self-consciousness. Let's start with the stilted accent: It sounds like an all-purpose Southern accent performed by a bad English actor. Then there are Hanks' clothes and florid manners, which are positively antebellum. Finally, the Coens' flowery 19th century dialogue doesn't exactly throw Hanks, but it does him no favors either.
Which leaves Hall, who delivers the movie's one truly outstanding performance. Called upon to play a simple soul with an unyielding sense of moral principles, the veteran actress turns Marva into a tower of homey virtues and small-town values.
The Coens' screenplay supplies the dark comedy and slapstick violence that is a hallmark of their films. This time, however, they do not feel organic to the story but rather self-consciously cute sequences imposed by the filmmakers. There is a creative lethargy to the running gags -- bodies are routinely disposed from a bridge with every death -- and the various circumstances that prevent the gang from killing Marva when she discovers her tenant's misdeeds and insists that he and his gang give the money back.
The film displays the typical technical brilliance of a Coen brothers movie. Cinematographer Roger Deakins and designer Dennis Gassner create an oh-so-precise visual design that makes the small Southern town feel as artificial as Hanks' accent. Music, as usual, plays a key role and produces yet another amazing soundtrack, this time built around toe-tapping gospel music.
THE LADYKILLERS
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents a Tom Jacobson production
Credits:
Screenwriter-directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Based on "The Ladykillers" by: William Rose
Producers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson
Director of photography: Roger Deakins
Production designer: Dennis Glassner
Music: Carter Burwell
Costume designer: Mary Zophres
Editor: Roderick Jaynes
Cast:
Professor G.H. Dorr: Tom Hanks
Marva Munson: Irma P. Hall
Gawain MacSam: Marlon Wayans
Garth Pancake: J.K. Simmons
General: Tzi Ma
Lump: Ryan Hurst
Mountain Girl: Diane Delano
Running time -- 104 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
March 26
"The Ladykillers" represents the Coen brothers' first attempt at a movie remake and, boy, did they pick a tough nut.
The 1955 version is one of the comic gems of British comedy. The film was made at Ealing Studios, whose comedies were noted for their bizarre developments that always seemed to transpire amid ordinary, closely observed domestic settings.
Unfortunately, the strain in trying to match the original's peerless precision and stifled lunacy tells in every frame of the new movie. Where the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in "The Ladykillers" feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career and a host of character actors taking the word "character" a bit too far, the movie never finds its comic footing.
Hanks' mere presence will, of course, deliver a solid opening weekend. And the brothers' faithful fans might find enough things to like to sustain a decent boxoffice performance thereafter, especially among older audiences.
The premise remains the same. Once more, a professor with dubious credentials rents a room from an unsuspecting old lady. He and his cronies, all claiming to be musicians, use the house as a base of operations to commit a nefarious criminal deed. Once more, however, circumstances and the old lady foil them at every turn.
Only instead of the English suburbs, the Coens take us deep into the Southern Bible Belt. Professor G.H. Dorr (Hanks) rents a room from a black Baptist churchgoing lady named Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), who will allow neither "hippity-hop" music nor smoking in her domicile. With the cover of practicing medieval instruments in her basement, Dorr and his gang tunnel from that basement for several blocks to the cash storage office of a riverboat gambling casino.
The crew Dorr assembles gives new meaning to the expression "thick as thieves." Marlon Wayans' Gawain MacSam is the casino "inside" man, whose temper and foul mouth just naturally invite catastrophe, not to mention slaps by Mrs. Munson. His counterpart is J.K. Simmons' Garth Pancake, an explosives expert whose enthusiastic agreeability and aggressive friendliness drive Gawain crazy.
The General (Tzi Ma) says very little, preferring to dwell in a Zenlike state of borderline competence. Last and undoubtedly least is Ryan Hurst's Lump, a football player who, as the saying goes, has played too many downs without a helmet.
These caricatures are all over the top, but Hanks, in the Alec Guinness role, chooses to takes things to an even higher peak. This is a performance that Will Divide critics and admirers. Some will find hilarity in its artifice and fussiness
others will chafe at its complete self-consciousness. Let's start with the stilted accent: It sounds like an all-purpose Southern accent performed by a bad English actor. Then there are Hanks' clothes and florid manners, which are positively antebellum. Finally, the Coens' flowery 19th century dialogue doesn't exactly throw Hanks, but it does him no favors either.
Which leaves Hall, who delivers the movie's one truly outstanding performance. Called upon to play a simple soul with an unyielding sense of moral principles, the veteran actress turns Marva into a tower of homey virtues and small-town values.
The Coens' screenplay supplies the dark comedy and slapstick violence that is a hallmark of their films. This time, however, they do not feel organic to the story but rather self-consciously cute sequences imposed by the filmmakers. There is a creative lethargy to the running gags -- bodies are routinely disposed from a bridge with every death -- and the various circumstances that prevent the gang from killing Marva when she discovers her tenant's misdeeds and insists that he and his gang give the money back.
The film displays the typical technical brilliance of a Coen brothers movie. Cinematographer Roger Deakins and designer Dennis Gassner create an oh-so-precise visual design that makes the small Southern town feel as artificial as Hanks' accent. Music, as usual, plays a key role and produces yet another amazing soundtrack, this time built around toe-tapping gospel music.
THE LADYKILLERS
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents a Tom Jacobson production
Credits:
Screenwriter-directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Based on "The Ladykillers" by: William Rose
Producers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson
Director of photography: Roger Deakins
Production designer: Dennis Glassner
Music: Carter Burwell
Costume designer: Mary Zophres
Editor: Roderick Jaynes
Cast:
Professor G.H. Dorr: Tom Hanks
Marva Munson: Irma P. Hall
Gawain MacSam: Marlon Wayans
Garth Pancake: J.K. Simmons
General: Tzi Ma
Lump: Ryan Hurst
Mountain Girl: Diane Delano
Running time -- 104 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/19/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
![Wallace Shawn at an event for Bernard and Doris (2006)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc3MDYzMDQ1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDQ3OTc1MQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Wallace Shawn at an event for Bernard and Doris (2006)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc3MDYzMDQ1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDQ3OTc1MQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/21/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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