Bill Gavin, the former Goldcrest executive and general manager of Australia’s Hoyts Theatres, has died at the age of 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, after a short illness.
Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.
In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.
Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.
In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.
- 5/28/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Gavin worked on films including ‘Gandhi’ and ‘Whale Rider’.
Bill Gavin, a former executive at the UK’s Goldcrest Films who worked on films including Gandhi and Whale Rider, has died aged 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand after a short illness.
The industry veteran worked on several award-winning features throughout his career as an independent sales agent, distributor, exhibitor and producer.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career as a motor racing journalist and moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to report on successful Kiwi Formula One drivers competing overseas.
Bill Gavin, a former executive at the UK’s Goldcrest Films who worked on films including Gandhi and Whale Rider, has died aged 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand after a short illness.
The industry veteran worked on several award-winning features throughout his career as an independent sales agent, distributor, exhibitor and producer.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career as a motor racing journalist and moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to report on successful Kiwi Formula One drivers competing overseas.
- 5/28/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Amid Canal Plus shake-up, parent company Vivendi ups stake in video games companies Ubisoft and Gameloft.
New Canal Plus CEO Maxime Saada has put out a call to the French cinema world to produce more action and adventure pictures and crime thrillers to fill the gap left by the Us Studios’ focus on superheroes and teenage audiences.
Speaking at a debate on the future of French cinema at the 25th edition of the Rencontres Cinématographiques de Dijon, running Oct 22-24, Saada said he was worried by the lack of mainstream films for older audiences in the pipeline.
“Through the agreements we have with most the Us studios, we get to see their line-ups into 2018 and 2019. It’s all heavily-skewed towards superheroes and adolescent audiences and this isn’t going to change anytime soon,” said Saada.
He said there was real demand for French genre pictures aimed an older audience.
“Our subscribers aren’t teenagers, well some of...
New Canal Plus CEO Maxime Saada has put out a call to the French cinema world to produce more action and adventure pictures and crime thrillers to fill the gap left by the Us Studios’ focus on superheroes and teenage audiences.
Speaking at a debate on the future of French cinema at the 25th edition of the Rencontres Cinématographiques de Dijon, running Oct 22-24, Saada said he was worried by the lack of mainstream films for older audiences in the pipeline.
“Through the agreements we have with most the Us studios, we get to see their line-ups into 2018 and 2019. It’s all heavily-skewed towards superheroes and adolescent audiences and this isn’t going to change anytime soon,” said Saada.
He said there was real demand for French genre pictures aimed an older audience.
“Our subscribers aren’t teenagers, well some of...
- 10/26/2015
- ScreenDaily
A Death in the Family: Pialat’s Subtle Masterpiece of Familial Anguish
French auteur Maurice Pialat, the famed Palme d’Or winner who resisted being defined by a particular time, movement, or theme, receives another retrospective in 2015. Of the ten titles in his filmography, five have been chosen on this tour, several of them notable restorations of works that have become increasingly difficult to track down over the years. While more notable titles, like 1983’s A nos amours and his 1968 debut L’enfance Nue have received widespread recuperations (thanks in part to their placement within the Criterion collection), Cohen Media Group resuscitates some lesser known works. One of the most exciting of these is his 1974 title The Mouth Agape, a portrait of familial woe a bit less histrionic than other examples of societal strains evidenced on Pialat’s famous nuclear units and troubled couples. Documenting the death of a mother,...
French auteur Maurice Pialat, the famed Palme d’Or winner who resisted being defined by a particular time, movement, or theme, receives another retrospective in 2015. Of the ten titles in his filmography, five have been chosen on this tour, several of them notable restorations of works that have become increasingly difficult to track down over the years. While more notable titles, like 1983’s A nos amours and his 1968 debut L’enfance Nue have received widespread recuperations (thanks in part to their placement within the Criterion collection), Cohen Media Group resuscitates some lesser known works. One of the most exciting of these is his 1974 title The Mouth Agape, a portrait of familial woe a bit less histrionic than other examples of societal strains evidenced on Pialat’s famous nuclear units and troubled couples. Documenting the death of a mother,...
- 9/25/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
After the most recent, scandal-plagued round of Euro Beat, it was a actually a bit of a relief that most of this week's noteworthy news concerned updates on new, potentially exciting films in various stages of production. Oh wait, what's that? Director Bob Swaim (La Balance) just went on trial in Paris for accusations of sexual assault against a girl to whom he was giving a cinema class five years ago? Oh, and Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp might or might not be splitting up? Ehh... let's go ahead and talk about those movies anyway. Read on and choose your most anticipated project. The Down DetectiveFrom director Bård Breien (The Art of Negative Thinking) comes a Norwegian hard-boiled detective story... only this time the detective...
- 6/26/2012
- Screen Anarchy
We take John Barry’s non-Bond retrospective into the 80s, with some of his epic scores of love, lust and loss…
John Barry’s love affair with cinema is well documented. One could not imagine such a torrent of melodic invention pouring forth with such vibrant intensity if he was not enraptured by the cinematic experience: the darkened periphery of the auditoria; the hushed reverence of another world; the minutiae of human emotion playing out on the big screen. Everything he did, from The Beat to Enigma, represented a direct and synchronous passion for lyrical expression alongside the visual language of film.
The young Prendergast got his love of film from his father, Jack Xavier, who was a cinema projectionist in the silent movie era and would subsequently own a chain of cinemas in the North East. One of Barry’s earliest memories was being carried on his dad’s...
John Barry’s love affair with cinema is well documented. One could not imagine such a torrent of melodic invention pouring forth with such vibrant intensity if he was not enraptured by the cinematic experience: the darkened periphery of the auditoria; the hushed reverence of another world; the minutiae of human emotion playing out on the big screen. Everything he did, from The Beat to Enigma, represented a direct and synchronous passion for lyrical expression alongside the visual language of film.
The young Prendergast got his love of film from his father, Jack Xavier, who was a cinema projectionist in the silent movie era and would subsequently own a chain of cinemas in the North East. One of Barry’s earliest memories was being carried on his dad’s...
- 9/5/2011
- Den of Geek
She pretty much defined French cinema in the 70s and 80s: intimate, kooky, charming. Now Nathalie Baye can add 'properly funny' to her CV
In Nathalie Baye's new film, there are lots of funny scenes, but this one's especially good: she hobbles fantastically through the streets of Sète one broiling summer morning, in bare feet and nightie, tailing a young man who has just deposited a love letter in her mailbox. (The love letter wasn't actually intended for her, or at least it was, but it isn't a real love letter. And the young man isn't supposed to have delivered it, still less been seen doing so. But more of that later.)
Anyway, there's one of the undisputed greats of French cinema, 63 years of age, 80-odd films to her name, an actor who has worked with Truffaut and Godard, Pialat, Chabrol and Tavernier, who has won four Césars and...
In Nathalie Baye's new film, there are lots of funny scenes, but this one's especially good: she hobbles fantastically through the streets of Sète one broiling summer morning, in bare feet and nightie, tailing a young man who has just deposited a love letter in her mailbox. (The love letter wasn't actually intended for her, or at least it was, but it isn't a real love letter. And the young man isn't supposed to have delivered it, still less been seen doing so. But more of that later.)
Anyway, there's one of the undisputed greats of French cinema, 63 years of age, 80-odd films to her name, an actor who has worked with Truffaut and Godard, Pialat, Chabrol and Tavernier, who has won four Césars and...
- 8/4/2011
- by Jon Henley
- The Guardian - Film News
Olivier Assayas's engrossing movie traces the life of one of the 20th century's most notorious terrorists
Conventional wisdom suggests that we look to America for the essential models of the crime movie, but in fact, in addition to providing a name for that most respected of Hollywood genres, the film noir, the French were way out front when, early in the last century, Louis Feuillade directed a succession of sophisticated, surreal serials of underworld activities that remain unsurpassed, among them Judex, Fantômas, Les vampires and Tih Minh.
This tradition was carried on in Marcel Carné's classics of the 1930s and after the second world war by Jacques Becker with Touchez pas au grisbi (based on a Série noire novel by Albert Simonin that was accompanied by a 14-page glossary of underworld argot) and Jean-Pierre Melville, who specialised in gangster movies of a purity unrivalled by Hollywood.
Numerous petits-maîtres...
Conventional wisdom suggests that we look to America for the essential models of the crime movie, but in fact, in addition to providing a name for that most respected of Hollywood genres, the film noir, the French were way out front when, early in the last century, Louis Feuillade directed a succession of sophisticated, surreal serials of underworld activities that remain unsurpassed, among them Judex, Fantômas, Les vampires and Tih Minh.
This tradition was carried on in Marcel Carné's classics of the 1930s and after the second world war by Jacques Becker with Touchez pas au grisbi (based on a Série noire novel by Albert Simonin that was accompanied by a 14-page glossary of underworld argot) and Jean-Pierre Melville, who specialised in gangster movies of a purity unrivalled by Hollywood.
Numerous petits-maîtres...
- 10/23/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
I’d love to be there for this; alas, I won’t be anywhere near Paris, France, this weekend. But maybe You will. It’s the France Noire, or Black France Film Festival, and it’ll be debuting this weekend, in Paris, running from Friday, May 21st through Sunday May 23rd, with a mixture of film screenings (both old and new) and panel discussions planned.
Luminaries expected to be present for screenings of their films, and/or to speak include Euzhan Palcy, Eriq Ebouaney, Isaach de Bankolé, & Alex Descas – all names you should be familiar with if you’ve been reading this blog!
In addition, the late Ousmane Sembene’s seminal 1966 film La Noire de (aka Black Girl), will screen, along with one of my favorite Claire Denis films, 1990’s S’en fout la mort (No Fear, No Die), which starred Isaach de Bankole and Ale Descas, and Aliker, a...
Luminaries expected to be present for screenings of their films, and/or to speak include Euzhan Palcy, Eriq Ebouaney, Isaach de Bankolé, & Alex Descas – all names you should be familiar with if you’ve been reading this blog!
In addition, the late Ousmane Sembene’s seminal 1966 film La Noire de (aka Black Girl), will screen, along with one of my favorite Claire Denis films, 1990’s S’en fout la mort (No Fear, No Die), which starred Isaach de Bankole and Ale Descas, and Aliker, a...
- 5/19/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
BIARRITZ, France -- Piracy remained uppermost in the minds of the 270 European home entertainment executives attending this year's industry conference in Biarritz last week. The two-day Perspectives in European Video (PEVE) event, which ran Dec. 2-3, heard from a range of sources about the debilitating effects of counterfeiting, but most eloquent were the comments of France-based American auteur director Bob Swaim (Nos Amis Les Flics). While happy to be at the event, he said he was "a little angry because it has taken about 14 years to invite me. It is so important that directors be with you because we are at a crossroads, a very important moment in our industry where people can steal our work. It is money out of your pocket, but it's a lot of money out of mine."...
- 12/7/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Set in a Baltimore suburb in 1959, Bob Swaim's "Straight Through the Heart" gives the usual, nostalgic coming-of-age story a bit of an edge.
The tale of a 12-year-old boy who comes to a new understanding of life via his experience of caring for a bitter neighbor dying of cancer, the film contains many heavy-handed, familiar elements but benefits greatly from finely textured performances by John Hurt, David Strathairn and Gregory Smith as the young boy. The French-New Zealand co-production was showcased recently at the 15th Miami Film Festival.
Danny (Smith), who spends much of his time avoiding neighborhood bullies, lives with his widower father (Strathairn) and Shakespeare-quoting sister, next door to the house in which Langer (Hurt) is preparing to die.
More than preparing, in fact; he's downright eager, so much so that when Danny's archery arrows accidentally fly into his bedroom, Langer stands by the window so they'll have a better chance of striking him. As punishment for a near-miss, Danny is ordered to spend time attending to Langer, whose primary interest is having Danny procure him cigarettes and whisky.
Danny's father, meanwhile, has his own problems, including an aggressively horny neighbor and another who is a near-psychotic World War II vet and accuses Danny's father of being a coward because he didn't serve in the military. The vet also has a disturbing habit of drunkenly firing his rifle on his front lawn at night.
Danny and Langer develop a close relationship, and soon Danny is wheeling the invalid around the neighborhood in his wagon. When Danny develops a desire to climb a nearby radio tower, Langer helps him devise a system of weights and pulleys to help him do it. The eventual attempt, in which Danny predictably runs into trouble, helps him realize the true extent of his father's courage.
Vince McKewin's screenplay plays much like a 1950s family sitcom, with the addition of then-forbidden topics such as adultery, attempted suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. Though its frequent lurches into melodrama are dismayingly predictable, the film benefits from well-developed characterizations and incisive dialogue.
As underplayed by ever-reliable Strathairn, Danny's sensitive father is a quietly compelling character, while Hurt pulls out all the stops and delivers a highly entertaining turn as the colorful Langer, who regales his young charge with stories of his carousing. And Smith's Danny is the rare screen adolescent who is both credible and interesting.
STRAIGHT THROUGH THE HEART
A Banner Entertainment release
Director: Bob Swaim
Screenplay: Vince McKewin
Producer: Tom Parkinson
Director of photography: Allen Guilford
Editor: Marie Sophie Dubus
Executive producers: Robert Rea, Mark McClafferty
Color/stereo
Cast:
Danny Himes: Gregory Smith
Earl Himes: David Strathairn
Langer: John Hurt
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The tale of a 12-year-old boy who comes to a new understanding of life via his experience of caring for a bitter neighbor dying of cancer, the film contains many heavy-handed, familiar elements but benefits greatly from finely textured performances by John Hurt, David Strathairn and Gregory Smith as the young boy. The French-New Zealand co-production was showcased recently at the 15th Miami Film Festival.
Danny (Smith), who spends much of his time avoiding neighborhood bullies, lives with his widower father (Strathairn) and Shakespeare-quoting sister, next door to the house in which Langer (Hurt) is preparing to die.
More than preparing, in fact; he's downright eager, so much so that when Danny's archery arrows accidentally fly into his bedroom, Langer stands by the window so they'll have a better chance of striking him. As punishment for a near-miss, Danny is ordered to spend time attending to Langer, whose primary interest is having Danny procure him cigarettes and whisky.
Danny's father, meanwhile, has his own problems, including an aggressively horny neighbor and another who is a near-psychotic World War II vet and accuses Danny's father of being a coward because he didn't serve in the military. The vet also has a disturbing habit of drunkenly firing his rifle on his front lawn at night.
Danny and Langer develop a close relationship, and soon Danny is wheeling the invalid around the neighborhood in his wagon. When Danny develops a desire to climb a nearby radio tower, Langer helps him devise a system of weights and pulleys to help him do it. The eventual attempt, in which Danny predictably runs into trouble, helps him realize the true extent of his father's courage.
Vince McKewin's screenplay plays much like a 1950s family sitcom, with the addition of then-forbidden topics such as adultery, attempted suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. Though its frequent lurches into melodrama are dismayingly predictable, the film benefits from well-developed characterizations and incisive dialogue.
As underplayed by ever-reliable Strathairn, Danny's sensitive father is a quietly compelling character, while Hurt pulls out all the stops and delivers a highly entertaining turn as the colorful Langer, who regales his young charge with stories of his carousing. And Smith's Danny is the rare screen adolescent who is both credible and interesting.
STRAIGHT THROUGH THE HEART
A Banner Entertainment release
Director: Bob Swaim
Screenplay: Vince McKewin
Producer: Tom Parkinson
Director of photography: Allen Guilford
Editor: Marie Sophie Dubus
Executive producers: Robert Rea, Mark McClafferty
Color/stereo
Cast:
Danny Himes: Gregory Smith
Earl Himes: David Strathairn
Langer: John Hurt
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/12/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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