Closing out an epilogue that, in turn, caps the 3.5-hour experience that is “The Brutalist,” a certain character looks straight to the camera to deliver a kind of valediction. “It is the destination, not the journey,” they say, though the sentiment doesn’t wholly ring true. Far from it, for the journey is every bit as enthralling in this American epic of assimilation, immigration and industry, while the peculiar rhythms and idiosyncrasies of director Brady Corbet’s storytelling make the film a real standout of this year’s Venice Film Festival.
Split between two chapters, bookended by overture and epilogue and divided by an intermission, “The Brutalist” could be described as novelistic in both form and function. Following a digressive approach more common to the page, Corbet and co-screenwriter Mona Fastvold (who directed the 2020 Venice standout “The World to Come”) embroider a sprawling narrative with quirks and asides, using a...
Split between two chapters, bookended by overture and epilogue and divided by an intermission, “The Brutalist” could be described as novelistic in both form and function. Following a digressive approach more common to the page, Corbet and co-screenwriter Mona Fastvold (who directed the 2020 Venice standout “The World to Come”) embroider a sprawling narrative with quirks and asides, using a...
- 9/1/2024
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
We’re just about five weeks away from the opening of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, the oldest such celebration of international cinema and the official kickoff to awards season in earnest. A gondola loaded with news about this year’s titles washed up on our shores this morning, and this year’s competition slate is packed.
It’s no surprise that Todd Phillips will bring his “Joker” sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” back to the late-summer Italian event. The first dark comic book film won the top prize there in 2019, slapping a huge international halo on it released to the public, eventually netting Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar, as well as a Best Original Score trophy for Hildur Guðnadóttir and nine other nominations, including Best Picture. The sequel, which was not a foregone conclusion when the first movie was made, but a Mack truck of Warner Bros....
It’s no surprise that Todd Phillips will bring his “Joker” sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” back to the late-summer Italian event. The first dark comic book film won the top prize there in 2019, slapping a huge international halo on it released to the public, eventually netting Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar, as well as a Best Original Score trophy for Hildur Guðnadóttir and nine other nominations, including Best Picture. The sequel, which was not a foregone conclusion when the first movie was made, but a Mack truck of Warner Bros....
- 7/23/2024
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
The Oscars are one of the most prestigious events in the field of cinema and few award ceremonies hold the level of honor that the Academy Awards. The ceremony ends the coveted awards season and has been the aim for many of the greatest films of the year. However, the biggest awards show has been tainted by several events that occurred during the ceremony.
While events such as Envelope Gate and Will Smith slapping Chris Rock were moments of embarrassment for the Academy, one particular decision made by the organizers and Hollywood, in general, can be called the ceremony’s most disgusting moment. The decision in question is when Roman Polanksi, a fugitive on the run for s*xually assaulting a minor was awarded the Best Director Oscar for The Pianist.
The Oscars Have Been Tainted Due To Roman Polanski’s Academy Award Win A still from The Pianist which...
While events such as Envelope Gate and Will Smith slapping Chris Rock were moments of embarrassment for the Academy, one particular decision made by the organizers and Hollywood, in general, can be called the ceremony’s most disgusting moment. The decision in question is when Roman Polanksi, a fugitive on the run for s*xually assaulting a minor was awarded the Best Director Oscar for The Pianist.
The Oscars Have Been Tainted Due To Roman Polanski’s Academy Award Win A still from The Pianist which...
- 3/10/2024
- by Nishanth A
- FandomWire
Adrien Brody on Winning the Oscar, Catching a Train with Wes Anderson, and Making Music With Popcorn
“The Pianist” and “King Kong” star Adrien Brody spoke at the Red Sea Film Festival Friday about a wide variety of creative pursuits, including making music from popcorn in the 1990s.
“I liked the sound of the kernels of popcorn hitting the aluminium lid of the pan and so I set my microphone up and recorded it and then I sampled it and put on some reverb,” he told the audience in Saudi Arabia. “It went pok-a-pok-a-pok.”
Something of a prodigy, he was cast as a lead in a TV movie “Home at Last” when he was only 15 and later became the youngest actor to win the best male lead Oscar.
Hailing from Queens, New York, the child of a celebrated photographer and a painter, Brody’s love for acting was kindled when he was enrolled by his mother in an acting school — the American Academy of Dramatic Arts — where she had been photographing.
“I liked the sound of the kernels of popcorn hitting the aluminium lid of the pan and so I set my microphone up and recorded it and then I sampled it and put on some reverb,” he told the audience in Saudi Arabia. “It went pok-a-pok-a-pok.”
Something of a prodigy, he was cast as a lead in a TV movie “Home at Last” when he was only 15 and later became the youngest actor to win the best male lead Oscar.
Hailing from Queens, New York, the child of a celebrated photographer and a painter, Brody’s love for acting was kindled when he was enrolled by his mother in an acting school — the American Academy of Dramatic Arts — where she had been photographing.
- 12/8/2023
- by John Bleasdale
- Variety Film + TV
Who doesn’t love watching a series that tells the true-life (or at least somewhat true-life) stories of real people? That’s what HBO’s hit series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” provides for NBA fans, Angelenos and TV viewers alike.
“Winning Time” doesn’t feature any of the real-life people that the series depicts, though some of the actors bear striking resemblances to their counterparts.
The show has a massive cast, with Quincy Isaiah (Earvin “Magic” Johnson”), John C. Reilly (Jerry Buss), Adrien Brody (Pat Riley) and others taking center stage as leads. There were also newcomers who stepped onto the court as guest stars for the second season, included Joel Allen as Kurt Rambis, Jay Davis as Byron Scott, Quentin Shropshire as James Worthy, Matthew Barnes as Mitch Kupchak, Darryl Reynolds as Robert Parish, Andrew Stephens as Kevin McHale and Larry C. Fields III as Eddie Jordan.
“Winning Time” doesn’t feature any of the real-life people that the series depicts, though some of the actors bear striking resemblances to their counterparts.
The show has a massive cast, with Quincy Isaiah (Earvin “Magic” Johnson”), John C. Reilly (Jerry Buss), Adrien Brody (Pat Riley) and others taking center stage as leads. There were also newcomers who stepped onto the court as guest stars for the second season, included Joel Allen as Kurt Rambis, Jay Davis as Byron Scott, Quentin Shropshire as James Worthy, Matthew Barnes as Mitch Kupchak, Darryl Reynolds as Robert Parish, Andrew Stephens as Kevin McHale and Larry C. Fields III as Eddie Jordan.
- 9/9/2023
- by Raquel 'Rocky' Harris
- The Wrap
It’s showtime! Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jerry Buss and the rest of the Lakers squad is back for a second season of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.”
Viewers got to get a glimpse into executive producer Adam McKay’s portrayal of the Lakers golden era and the drama that came with it. This time around fans will get to see even more of the Lakers legacy. Newcomers are stepping onto the court as guest stars, including Joel Allen as Kurt Rambis, Jay Davis as Byron Scott, Quentin Shropshire as James Worthy, Matthew Barnes as Mitch Kupchak, Darryl Reynolds as Robert Parish, Andrew Stephens as Kevin McHale and Larry C. Fields III as Eddie Jordan.
The show announced on Aug. 24, 2022 that it started production, and it’s making its return on Sunday, Aug. 6 at 9:00 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO and will also be available to stream on Max.
Viewers got to get a glimpse into executive producer Adam McKay’s portrayal of the Lakers golden era and the drama that came with it. This time around fans will get to see even more of the Lakers legacy. Newcomers are stepping onto the court as guest stars, including Joel Allen as Kurt Rambis, Jay Davis as Byron Scott, Quentin Shropshire as James Worthy, Matthew Barnes as Mitch Kupchak, Darryl Reynolds as Robert Parish, Andrew Stephens as Kevin McHale and Larry C. Fields III as Eddie Jordan.
The show announced on Aug. 24, 2022 that it started production, and it’s making its return on Sunday, Aug. 6 at 9:00 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO and will also be available to stream on Max.
- 8/5/2023
- by Raquel "Rocky" Harris
- The Wrap
Adrien Brody is an American actor and producer who has captivated audiences with his unforgettable performances in a variety of genres. With a career spanning over two decades, Brody has proven time and time again that he is a versatile and talented actor, capable of bringing depth and nuance to every role he takes on. From his breakthrough role in Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” to his recent work in Wes Anderson’s whimsical universe, Brody has consistently demonstrated his ability to adapt to different styles and stories, making him one of the most respected and sought-after actors in Hollywood today.
In this article, we will take a closer look at Brody’s life and career, delving into the depth and range of his iconic roles. We will also explore his work with renowned directors and co-stars, as well as his impact on the film industry and the awards and...
In this article, we will take a closer look at Brody’s life and career, delving into the depth and range of his iconic roles. We will also explore his work with renowned directors and co-stars, as well as his impact on the film industry and the awards and...
- 4/21/2023
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
Will Smith flouncing onto the Dolby Theatre stage, winding up, and walloping host Chris Rock is a moment that will live in Oscar-night infamy, but it’s far from the most egregious episode in the ceremony’s 94-year history. This is an event, after all, that made nominee Hattie McDaniel sit at a segregated table, far from the rest of the Gone with the Wind cast, because she was Black, and had Seth MacFarlane do a song-and-dance to the tune “We Saw Your Boobs.” Its long, ignominious history of misfires...
- 3/7/2023
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
Oscar flashback 20 years ago to 2003: Adrien Brody, Nicole Kidman, Eminem and a ‘Chicago’ domination
It was a night of surprise wins, of records being broken or tied, of Oscar firsts and of honoring acting legends. On March 23, 2003, Steve Martin hosted the 75th Academy Awards ceremony, which had the lowest viewership of any Oscar telecast up to that point. Even though there were memorable moments, it was a more somber ceremony, as the war on Iraq had been declared a few days prior, and the event was nearly delayed. It was decided to carry on with less fanfare and a less extravagant red carpet, and a few actors chose to bow out of presenting. Let’s flashback 20 years to 2003 and revisit that event on ABC.
Five films were up for Best Picture, with two coming into the night with strong leads in nominations; one ended the night at the forefront with six wins, and the other left empty-handed. Martin Scorsese‘s historical epic “Gangs of New York...
Five films were up for Best Picture, with two coming into the night with strong leads in nominations; one ended the night at the forefront with six wins, and the other left empty-handed. Martin Scorsese‘s historical epic “Gangs of New York...
- 2/27/2023
- by Susan Pennington
- Gold Derby
The most fun moments of watching the Oscars are always the surprises.
The unexpected wins from dark horses are always so much more thrilling than predictable outcomes.
It's not that the winners were undeserving -- it's often that their wins seemed to come out of nowhere.
With prognosticators having Oscar predictions down to a science, anything remotely surprising is a rare treat.
Here are some of the most shocking wins that left us with our jaws on the floor!
Adrien Brody (Best Actor In A Leading Role) in The Pianist
Brody was the only Oscar-less member of his cohort when he won for his role as Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman.
Up against Jack Nicholson, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, and Daniel Day-Lewis, Brody's win made him the youngest Best Actor in the history of the Oscars, at age 29.
Unfortunately, his behavior is what most people remember about his win -- when...
The unexpected wins from dark horses are always so much more thrilling than predictable outcomes.
It's not that the winners were undeserving -- it's often that their wins seemed to come out of nowhere.
With prognosticators having Oscar predictions down to a science, anything remotely surprising is a rare treat.
Here are some of the most shocking wins that left us with our jaws on the floor!
Adrien Brody (Best Actor In A Leading Role) in The Pianist
Brody was the only Oscar-less member of his cohort when he won for his role as Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman.
Up against Jack Nicholson, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, and Daniel Day-Lewis, Brody's win made him the youngest Best Actor in the history of the Oscars, at age 29.
Unfortunately, his behavior is what most people remember about his win -- when...
- 1/30/2023
- by Mary Littlejohn
- TVfanatic
A stage adaptation of The Pianist, based on the Władysław Szpilman memoir that was the source of the Oscar-nominated 2002 film, is being developed by director Emily Mann with an eye toward Broadway. An industry reading is set for New York City this month with Tony Award winner Santino Fontana (Tootsie) starring as Szpilman.
The project was announced today by producers Robin de Levita Productions, Gorgeous Entertainment, and Wolk Transfer Company. Described as a play with music, The Pianist features an original score by Dutch concert pianist Iris Hond.
The invitation-only industry reading is set for June 23, with Fontana leading a company that includes Richard Topol, Georgia Warner, Claire Beckman, Arielle Goldman, Paul Spera, Addison Finley, Jordan Lage, Robert David Grant and Tina Benko.
The Pianist tells the true story of Szpilman, a survivor of Nazi-occupied Warsaw in World War II. The 2002 film adaptation of Szpilman’s 1946 memoir won Adrien Brody...
The project was announced today by producers Robin de Levita Productions, Gorgeous Entertainment, and Wolk Transfer Company. Described as a play with music, The Pianist features an original score by Dutch concert pianist Iris Hond.
The invitation-only industry reading is set for June 23, with Fontana leading a company that includes Richard Topol, Georgia Warner, Claire Beckman, Arielle Goldman, Paul Spera, Addison Finley, Jordan Lage, Robert David Grant and Tina Benko.
The Pianist tells the true story of Szpilman, a survivor of Nazi-occupied Warsaw in World War II. The 2002 film adaptation of Szpilman’s 1946 memoir won Adrien Brody...
- 6/21/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Best Actor Oscar category has seen plenty of long performances win in its 92-year history. To date, four dozen have surpassed the category’s one-hour, nine-minute, and nine-second average, all of which are considered to be undoubtedly lead roles. Here is a look at the 10 longest winners of all time. (And here’s the list of the 10 shortest winning performances for Best Actor.)
10. Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”)
1 hour, 36 minutes, 52 seconds (86.85% of the film)
After garnering five Oscar nominations over the course of 38 years, Bridges scored a win in 2010 for his role as struggling country singer Bad Blake. In terms of percentage, the performance became the second longest to win in any acting category. Bridges earned another Best Actor nomination the very next year for playing Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit,” a role with nearly half the amount of screen time (49 minutes and 43 seconds).
9. Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”)
1 hour, 37 minutes,...
10. Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”)
1 hour, 36 minutes, 52 seconds (86.85% of the film)
After garnering five Oscar nominations over the course of 38 years, Bridges scored a win in 2010 for his role as struggling country singer Bad Blake. In terms of percentage, the performance became the second longest to win in any acting category. Bridges earned another Best Actor nomination the very next year for playing Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit,” a role with nearly half the amount of screen time (49 minutes and 43 seconds).
9. Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”)
1 hour, 37 minutes,...
- 12/31/2020
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Ronald Harwood, a South African screenwriter most known for The Pianist has died. The Oscar-winning writer was 85.
Harwood, who also wrote The Dresser and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, died Tuesday of natural causes in his Sussex home.
The writer was born in South Africa in 1934. His first credit was for 1961’s Playdate. Throughout the sixties he went on to write a number for a number of titles including TV series ITV Television Playhouse, Knock on Any Door and ITV Play of the Week.
As his career progressed he went on write films, ranging from the 1966 film Arrivederci, Baby! to the 1981 picture Evita Peron. In 1983 Harwood wrote the screenplay for The Dresser, which follows a personal assistant’s struggle to help a veteran actor get through a difficult performance of King Lear. The film, which starred Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay, received five nominations in 1984 included a nod for best Harwood’s screenplay.
Harwood, who also wrote The Dresser and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, died Tuesday of natural causes in his Sussex home.
The writer was born in South Africa in 1934. His first credit was for 1961’s Playdate. Throughout the sixties he went on to write a number for a number of titles including TV series ITV Television Playhouse, Knock on Any Door and ITV Play of the Week.
As his career progressed he went on write films, ranging from the 1966 film Arrivederci, Baby! to the 1981 picture Evita Peron. In 1983 Harwood wrote the screenplay for The Dresser, which follows a personal assistant’s struggle to help a veteran actor get through a difficult performance of King Lear. The film, which starred Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay, received five nominations in 1984 included a nod for best Harwood’s screenplay.
- 9/9/2020
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
What do “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Joker,” “Judy,” “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “Rocketman,” “Marriage Story,” “Pain and Glory” and “Bombshell” have in common? That is, beyond their makers wanting to hear their movie’s title when the Academy Awards are announced February 9?
The answer? They all reflect various aspects of the world of show business. This is not a new development. The first-ever winner of a Best Picture Oscar was the 1927 World War I action drama “Wings.” But the second was 1929’s “The Broadway Melody,” a soap-operatic backstage look at a theatrical revue in progress. Thus began the Academy Awards love affair with movies and performances that reflect the voter’s own preoccupation with the performing arts.
Other notable Best Picture winners whose themes spotlight the entertainment industry include 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld,” 1950’s “All About Eve,” 1952’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” 1965’s “The Sound of Music,...
The answer? They all reflect various aspects of the world of show business. This is not a new development. The first-ever winner of a Best Picture Oscar was the 1927 World War I action drama “Wings.” But the second was 1929’s “The Broadway Melody,” a soap-operatic backstage look at a theatrical revue in progress. Thus began the Academy Awards love affair with movies and performances that reflect the voter’s own preoccupation with the performing arts.
Other notable Best Picture winners whose themes spotlight the entertainment industry include 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld,” 1950’s “All About Eve,” 1952’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” 1965’s “The Sound of Music,...
- 1/14/2020
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Scarlett Johansson has never been nominated for an Oscar, not even for 2003’s “Lost in Translation,” Sofia Coppola‘s riff on her own failed marriage to fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze. In Netflix’s “Marriage Story,” Johansson similarly is caught up in a film about another director’s marial situation gone bad — namely, director Noah Baumbach‘s failed marriage to actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.
It’s one thing to be suffocating in a relationship with priorities that lean in the direction of self-absorbed, unfaithful New York City theater director-husband (Adam Driver) — as is the case when it comes to Scarlett Johansson‘s actress and muse Nicole. But when she gets a chance to star in a TV pilot in Los Angeles and revive her career beyond her spouse’s stage productions, she decides to pursue a divorce. Yes, it puts her young son in the terrible spot of being a pawn in a broken union,...
It’s one thing to be suffocating in a relationship with priorities that lean in the direction of self-absorbed, unfaithful New York City theater director-husband (Adam Driver) — as is the case when it comes to Scarlett Johansson‘s actress and muse Nicole. But when she gets a chance to star in a TV pilot in Los Angeles and revive her career beyond her spouse’s stage productions, she decides to pursue a divorce. Yes, it puts her young son in the terrible spot of being a pawn in a broken union,...
- 12/18/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
The way Rami Malek got under Freddie Mercury’s skin and brought him to life again in “Bohemian Rhapsody” was no small miracle. It is similar to how Gary Busey became a star when he uncannily channeled the‘50s rock icon in 1978’s “The Buddy Holly Story.” Or when Joaquin Phoenix was able to capture Johnny Cash’s charisma and his tumultuous dark side in 2005’s “Walk the Line.”
But neither Busey nor Phoenix won in their years. In fact, besides Malek, only five lead actors have been given an Oscar for playing real-life music makers – although it interesting that Mahershala Ali earned a corresponding supporting statuette as concert pianist Don Shirley in “Green Book” this year as well.
Who are these fellows and what traits might their roles have in common?
First was James Cagney as George M. Cohan in 1942’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Cagney, best known for his gangster roles,...
But neither Busey nor Phoenix won in their years. In fact, besides Malek, only five lead actors have been given an Oscar for playing real-life music makers – although it interesting that Mahershala Ali earned a corresponding supporting statuette as concert pianist Don Shirley in “Green Book” this year as well.
Who are these fellows and what traits might their roles have in common?
First was James Cagney as George M. Cohan in 1942’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Cagney, best known for his gangster roles,...
- 2/26/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
We all know that the academy loves when actors portray real people. Two years ago was the first time in 19 years that all four acting Oscar winners — Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”), Emma Stone (“La La Land”), Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”) and Viola Davis (“Fences”) — won for playing fictional characters, which was frankly a minor miracle. But of the four categories, there is one where voters favor real-to-reel performances the most: Best Actor. And that love affair will continue if Rami Malek wins for his turn as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody” as expected.
Malek would be the 12th Best Actor champ this century to win for playing a real person or a character based on a real person and the second in a row following Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour” (2017). The other 10 since 2000 are:
1. Adrien Brody (Wladyslaw Szpilman), “The Pianist” (2002)
2. Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles), “Ray” (2004)
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman...
Malek would be the 12th Best Actor champ this century to win for playing a real person or a character based on a real person and the second in a row following Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour” (2017). The other 10 since 2000 are:
1. Adrien Brody (Wladyslaw Szpilman), “The Pianist” (2002)
2. Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles), “Ray” (2004)
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman...
- 2/22/2019
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Among this year’s leading Oscar contenders for Best Actor is Emmy winner Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”) for his star turn as the late Freddie Mercury, the legendary lead vocalist of the rock band Queen, in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Should Malek reap an Oscar bid, he will mark the 12th leading man to date recognized for his portrayal of a real-life musician.
First to achieve this feat was James Cagney, nominated for his lively depiction of Broadway composer and performer George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942). On Oscar night, Cagney was triumphant, scoring the lone Oscar of his storied career.
Later in the decade, a pair of actors earned recognition for portraying real-life musicians, the first being Cornel Wilde, up for his performance as Polish pianist Frederic Chopin in “A Song to Remember” (1945). The following year, Larry Parks was a nominee for portraying singer and actor Al Jolson in “The Jolson Story...
First to achieve this feat was James Cagney, nominated for his lively depiction of Broadway composer and performer George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942). On Oscar night, Cagney was triumphant, scoring the lone Oscar of his storied career.
Later in the decade, a pair of actors earned recognition for portraying real-life musicians, the first being Cornel Wilde, up for his performance as Polish pianist Frederic Chopin in “A Song to Remember” (1945). The following year, Larry Parks was a nominee for portraying singer and actor Al Jolson in “The Jolson Story...
- 9/21/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
Our countdown of the 100 best films of the 21st century continues. This is Part 2 #75 through 51.
Click here for Part 1 (#100-76)!
The first decade and a half of the 21st century has brought a lot of changes to the landscape of film. The advancement and sophistication of computers has made realistic computer generated effects a mainstay in both big-budget and small-budget films. The internet and streaming technologies have given big Hollywood new competition in films produced independently and by non-traditional means. We went from purchasing films on yards of tape to plastic disks, and now we can simply upload them to the cloud. Advertisements for films have reached a higher, more ruthless level where generating hype through trailers and teasers is crucial for a film’s commercial success. Movie attendance has fluctuated along with the economy, but that hasn’t stopped films from breaking box office records, including having films gross...
Click here for Part 1 (#100-76)!
The first decade and a half of the 21st century has brought a lot of changes to the landscape of film. The advancement and sophistication of computers has made realistic computer generated effects a mainstay in both big-budget and small-budget films. The internet and streaming technologies have given big Hollywood new competition in films produced independently and by non-traditional means. We went from purchasing films on yards of tape to plastic disks, and now we can simply upload them to the cloud. Advertisements for films have reached a higher, more ruthless level where generating hype through trailers and teasers is crucial for a film’s commercial success. Movie attendance has fluctuated along with the economy, but that hasn’t stopped films from breaking box office records, including having films gross...
- 1/13/2016
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (G.S. Perno)
- Cinelinx
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Only one of this year’s adapted screenplay nominees isn’t adapted from a book, and that’s Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, which is adapted from his short film of the same name that took home the jury prize for short film from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The other four adaptations all come from books, three non-fiction and one fiction.
American Sniper is based on Chris Kyle’s (portrayed in the film by Bradley Cooper) autobiography of the same name, which he wrote with Scott McEwan and Jim DeFelice.
The Imitation Game is adapted from Alan Turing: The Enigma, written by Andrew Hodges, a mathematician and author. Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film.
Adapted from Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen Hawking by Jane Hawking, The Theory of Everything explores Stephen Hawking’s relationship with his ex-wife. The couple is played...
Managing Editor
Only one of this year’s adapted screenplay nominees isn’t adapted from a book, and that’s Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, which is adapted from his short film of the same name that took home the jury prize for short film from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The other four adaptations all come from books, three non-fiction and one fiction.
American Sniper is based on Chris Kyle’s (portrayed in the film by Bradley Cooper) autobiography of the same name, which he wrote with Scott McEwan and Jim DeFelice.
The Imitation Game is adapted from Alan Turing: The Enigma, written by Andrew Hodges, a mathematician and author. Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film.
Adapted from Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen Hawking by Jane Hawking, The Theory of Everything explores Stephen Hawking’s relationship with his ex-wife. The couple is played...
- 1/28/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Studio Babelsberg may not be a film studio that you’re familiar with by name but if we were to mention some of the movies that have been made at Germany’s premiere film studio, it would become clear that it’s been an integral part of your film-watching experience. At time we visited the studio, George Clooney was there shooting his new movie Monuments Men and Ryan Reynolds was also on the premises shooting his latest film The Voices. It wasn’t until we got to watch the following reel that I truly realised the scale that Studio Babelsberg had in the world of filmmaking…. it was where Metropolis was made!
We got to visit Babelsberg which only last year celebrated it’s 100th anniversary to mark the release of Cloud Atlas (out today on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital download), it started to become clear as to why Directors Tom Tykwer,...
We got to visit Babelsberg which only last year celebrated it’s 100th anniversary to mark the release of Cloud Atlas (out today on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital download), it started to become clear as to why Directors Tom Tykwer,...
- 7/1/2013
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"And the Oscar goes to…" Five words that will send nervous tingles through even the coolest of Hollywood customer. Winning an Academy Award can prompt tears of joy, euphoria, the desire to kiss whoever crosses your path or, in the case of Joe Pesci, extreme terseness.
As the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Affleck ready themselves for the big night on Sunday (February 24), Digital Spy takes a look back at 20 of the most memorable acceptance speeches in Oscars history.
20. Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose (2007)
"Thank you life, thank you love. It is true, there are some angels in this city!" So usually a calm and restrained presence in interviews, Marion Cotillard let her emotions run free as she picked up a much-deserved Oscar for her barnstorming turn as Édith Piaf.
> Watch Marion Cotillard's Oscars acceptance speech
19. Joe Pesci - Goodfellas (1991)
"It's my privilege.
As the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Affleck ready themselves for the big night on Sunday (February 24), Digital Spy takes a look back at 20 of the most memorable acceptance speeches in Oscars history.
20. Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose (2007)
"Thank you life, thank you love. It is true, there are some angels in this city!" So usually a calm and restrained presence in interviews, Marion Cotillard let her emotions run free as she picked up a much-deserved Oscar for her barnstorming turn as Édith Piaf.
> Watch Marion Cotillard's Oscars acceptance speech
19. Joe Pesci - Goodfellas (1991)
"It's my privilege.
- 2/18/2013
- Digital Spy
Shia Labeouf might not get an Oscar for taking LSD for his role in the upcoming film The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, but he might get us to consider buying a ticket. “I’d never done acid before. I remember sending Evan tapes. I remember trying to conjure this and sending tapes. And Evan being like ‘That’s good, but that’s not but, that is,’” Labeouf told MTV about dropping acid to prepare for his character’s drug trip. “You reach out to friends and gauge where you’re at. I was sending tapes around and I’d get 50 percents from people and that just starts creeping me out. I was getting really nervous toward the end. Not cause I wanted to be on drugs — I’m not trying to mess with the set or anything like that. It’s really just fear that propels people.” Maybe it was fear,...
- 1/23/2013
- by Halle Kiefer
- TheFabLife - Movies
Since winning his Oscar at 29, Adrien Brody has refused to be typecast. He talks about his unexpectedly diverse career, the debt he owes his parents and how to run away from a gorilla
"This is the most intimate interview I've ever done," whispers Adrien Brody, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear when you're inches away from an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor who's interrupted his holiday to chat to you. And when the two of you are sitting on a baking-hot day in an upscale beach complex in Monaco that is part Stella Artois advert and part Jg Ballard novel, without a PR person in sight to chivvy things along and prevent you from asking impertinent questions. So who are you to quibble if the sotto voce intimacy is down to your subject having lost his voice?
"I have laryngitis – did they tell you?" he'd mouthed when...
"This is the most intimate interview I've ever done," whispers Adrien Brody, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear when you're inches away from an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor who's interrupted his holiday to chat to you. And when the two of you are sitting on a baking-hot day in an upscale beach complex in Monaco that is part Stella Artois advert and part Jg Ballard novel, without a PR person in sight to chivvy things along and prevent you from asking impertinent questions. So who are you to quibble if the sotto voce intimacy is down to your subject having lost his voice?
"I have laryngitis – did they tell you?" he'd mouthed when...
- 7/9/2012
- by Alex Clark
- The Guardian - Film News
Everett Adrien Brody in “Ten Benny” (1998)
Before he could be seen onscreen as the tortured Wladyslaw Szpilman in “The Pianist” or the effervescent Salvador Dali in “Midnight in Paris,” actor Adrien Brody was better known as “the Amazing Adrien.”
He was 11 years old when he first performed for others. “I did a birthday party for a younger kid and I made $50. I though I was legit,” said Brody.
“I think boys especially love magic and there’s something very powerful at that age,...
Before he could be seen onscreen as the tortured Wladyslaw Szpilman in “The Pianist” or the effervescent Salvador Dali in “Midnight in Paris,” actor Adrien Brody was better known as “the Amazing Adrien.”
He was 11 years old when he first performed for others. “I did a birthday party for a younger kid and I made $50. I though I was legit,” said Brody.
“I think boys especially love magic and there’s something very powerful at that age,...
- 3/28/2012
- by Alexandra Cheney
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Warsaw, Poland — She was a coloratura soprano who spurned opera for popular music, a Polish singer who became a cabaret star in Las Vegas, an artist trapped for years behind the Iron Curtain when she flew home to tend to her dying mother.
Singer Violetta Villas, 73, died late Monday at her home in Lewin Klodzki, a village in southern Poland, local police spokesman Pawel Petrykowski told The Associated Press. Prosecutors have ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death, he said Tuesday.
Villas was born Czeslawa Cieslak in 1938 to a Polish coal miner's family in Belgium.
A unique talent with a trademark cascade of curly blond hair, Villas had a voice that spanned four octaves. Rather then pursue an operatic career, she preferred popular music, a genre that brought her wide popularity in Poland – where the family returned in 1948 after World War II – and abroad.
She once said her...
Singer Violetta Villas, 73, died late Monday at her home in Lewin Klodzki, a village in southern Poland, local police spokesman Pawel Petrykowski told The Associated Press. Prosecutors have ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death, he said Tuesday.
Villas was born Czeslawa Cieslak in 1938 to a Polish coal miner's family in Belgium.
A unique talent with a trademark cascade of curly blond hair, Villas had a voice that spanned four octaves. Rather then pursue an operatic career, she preferred popular music, a genre that brought her wide popularity in Poland – where the family returned in 1948 after World War II – and abroad.
She once said her...
- 12/6/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Conviction is an inspirational tour-de-force, hitting cinemas on 14th January. Based on the true story, it stars Hilary Swank as a working mother called Betty Anne Waters who puts herself through law school to defend her brother who was falsely accused of murder. It stars Sam Rockwell as Betty-Anne’s brother Kenny Waters and Minnie Driver as her best friend Abra Rice. It is the latest in a long line of double Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank’s films to deal with significant real-world issues and make a difference.
Here are 10 other recent films that go beyond entertainment and actually try to improve the world we live in.
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Also starring Swank, this film tells the story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teenager who identified as a male but was actually born female. Teena has to overcome adversity to be accepted as a man.
A Mighty Heart (2007)
Angelina Jolie plays Marianne Pearl,...
Here are 10 other recent films that go beyond entertainment and actually try to improve the world we live in.
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Also starring Swank, this film tells the story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teenager who identified as a male but was actually born female. Teena has to overcome adversity to be accepted as a man.
A Mighty Heart (2007)
Angelina Jolie plays Marianne Pearl,...
- 1/10/2011
- by Kat
- Nerdly
Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman in Roman Polanski's The Pianist The story of Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who survived World War II against all odds, Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002) was sold as a motion picture about the "triumph of the human spirit." For those who believe that human survival instinct is somehow "spiritual" — I'm assuming most people do; I'm not one of them — The Pianist rehabilitated Polanski at least in terms of his filmmaking abilities, following a string of generally dismissed efforts such as Pirates, Bitter Moon, and The Ninth Gate. Eventually, The Pianist went on to receive three Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Actor for Adrien Brody for his highly Americanized portrayal of the Polish Szpilman, and for Ronald Harwood's adaptation of Szpilman's book of memoirs. Now comes Polish journalist Agata Tuszynska, who claims in a biography of the late cabaret singer Wiera Gran that her...
- 11/21/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Exploits of Wladyslaw Szpilman retold in Oscar-winning film The Pianist, but new book claims he was a 'Gestapo man'
He became a national hero after his story of survival in the Warsaw ghetto was immortalised in the Oscar-winning film The Pianist – but the wartime exploits of the late Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman are at the centre of a row following accusations, from beyond the grave, that he collaborated with the Gestapo.
Szpilman's son Andrzej is taking legal action to force the recall of a book containing allegations by Wiera Gran, a Polish singer famed for her pre and postwar cabaret acts, who claimed that Szpilman "formed a gang" that tried to kill her.
Gran, who died in 2007, also accused him of collaborating with the Gestapo when they were both held – along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews – in the Warsaw ghetto during Nazi occupation of the Polish capital.
Szpilman's autobiography The Pianist,...
He became a national hero after his story of survival in the Warsaw ghetto was immortalised in the Oscar-winning film The Pianist – but the wartime exploits of the late Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman are at the centre of a row following accusations, from beyond the grave, that he collaborated with the Gestapo.
Szpilman's son Andrzej is taking legal action to force the recall of a book containing allegations by Wiera Gran, a Polish singer famed for her pre and postwar cabaret acts, who claimed that Szpilman "formed a gang" that tried to kill her.
Gran, who died in 2007, also accused him of collaborating with the Gestapo when they were both held – along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews – in the Warsaw ghetto during Nazi occupation of the Polish capital.
Szpilman's autobiography The Pianist,...
- 11/1/2010
- by Kate Connolly
- The Guardian - Film News
James quakes at the sight of the mutant creature in Splice, and concludes that the world’s worst monsters are rarely the most obvious…
Despite all the head spinning, green vomit and profanity, Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist was a pretty sweet little girl. She may have been a deadly devil child rattling the bed and defiling crucifixes, but every kid goes through a ‘difficult' phase, right? It just so happens that Regan's involved satanic seizures and possession by Pazuzu.
Likewise, I bet the eponymous diabolical infant of Rosemary's Baby was a beautiful miracle of fresh life despite his mother's howls of horror.
Babies are amazing creatures that should be cherished and adored, even if they do have devil horns and bear the marks of Satan.
What I'm getting to is a couple of key issues that I feel need addressing. Firstly, nappy companies need to push for equality and...
Despite all the head spinning, green vomit and profanity, Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist was a pretty sweet little girl. She may have been a deadly devil child rattling the bed and defiling crucifixes, but every kid goes through a ‘difficult' phase, right? It just so happens that Regan's involved satanic seizures and possession by Pazuzu.
Likewise, I bet the eponymous diabolical infant of Rosemary's Baby was a beautiful miracle of fresh life despite his mother's howls of horror.
Babies are amazing creatures that should be cherished and adored, even if they do have devil horns and bear the marks of Satan.
What I'm getting to is a couple of key issues that I feel need addressing. Firstly, nappy companies need to push for equality and...
- 7/2/2010
- Den of Geek
The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films, as ranked by the users of the biggest movie Internet site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of The Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.
It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case, we, is myself and Gary) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list! We’ve frozen the list as of 1st January this year. It’s not as simple as it sounds, as we’ll be watching them in one year, 125 each.
This is our fifteenth update, a rundown of my next five movies watched for the project.
(You can find last week...
It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case, we, is myself and Gary) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list! We’ve frozen the list as of 1st January this year. It’s not as simple as it sounds, as we’ll be watching them in one year, 125 each.
This is our fifteenth update, a rundown of my next five movies watched for the project.
(You can find last week...
- 5/3/2010
- by Barry Steele
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Writer whose accounts of postwar working-class life included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Alan Sillitoe, who has died of cancer aged 82, was one of the most important British writers of the postwar era. He made his name with the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) and the collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1959), and he is still routinely perceived as a member of the kitchen-sink branch of the Angry Generation. Such characterisations obscure the breadth and originality of his writing.
Among his 53 volumes – including novels, short stories, plays, children's fiction, poetry, travel books, drama, memoirs and criticism – there are works that defy classification. A Start in Life (1970) and Life Goes On (1985) marry a picaresque style with the drabness of post-1950s Britain. Travels in Nihilon (1971), inspired by his experiences in the Ussr, invokes the tradition of Orwell's...
Alan Sillitoe, who has died of cancer aged 82, was one of the most important British writers of the postwar era. He made his name with the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) and the collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1959), and he is still routinely perceived as a member of the kitchen-sink branch of the Angry Generation. Such characterisations obscure the breadth and originality of his writing.
Among his 53 volumes – including novels, short stories, plays, children's fiction, poetry, travel books, drama, memoirs and criticism – there are works that defy classification. A Start in Life (1970) and Life Goes On (1985) marry a picaresque style with the drabness of post-1950s Britain. Travels in Nihilon (1971), inspired by his experiences in the Ussr, invokes the tradition of Orwell's...
- 4/26/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
We continue our look at the Top 50 best films of the decade.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
- 12/29/2009
- by rlpolo04@aol.com (David DiMichele)
- The Movie Fanatic
We continue our look at the Top 50 best films of the decade.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
- 12/29/2009
- by rlpolo04@aol.com (David DiMichele)
- The Movie Fanatic
We continue our look at the Top 50 best films of the decade.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
- 12/29/2009
- by rlpolo04@aol.com (David DiMichele)
- The Movie Fanatic
We continue our look at the Top 50 best films of the decade.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
- 12/29/2009
- by rlpolo04@aol.com (David DiMichele)
- The Movie Fanatic
We continue our look at the Top 50 best films of the decade.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
#50-41
#40-31
Click through for the next installment.
30. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Helpless minds that stray in a direction far from its capable mass and souls that get eaten away by an urge that’s far more grateful than what it can handle: Four people, all dealing with these difficulties, plan to capture and secure the American Dream; fame and fortune. These four people – boyfriend and girlfriend (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly) who are drug addicts, their friend who’s both seller and addict (Marlon Wayans) and Leto’s mother (Ellen Burnstein) who’s losing her grip on reality – all have in mind that the American dream should be spoon-fed to them. Dreams that include being on television, owning a fashion shop and living like rock-stars are all bogged down by each of the dreamer’s economic situation or their appearance.
- 12/29/2009
- by rlpolo04@aol.com (David DiMichele)
- The Movie Fanatic
Not sure what to watch? We can help with our comprehensive guide to the best films on TV this Christmas and new year
Choose a date
Saturday 19 December | Sunday 20 December | Monday 21 December | Tuesday 22 December | Wednesday 23 December |Christmas Eve | Christmas Day | Boxing Day | Sunday 27 December | Monday 28 December | Tuesday 29 December | Wednesday 30 December | New Year's Eve | New Year's Day
Saturday 19 December
Yes Man (Peyton Reed, 2008)
10am, 8pm, Sky Movies Premiere
Remember Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar, where he forces himself to tell the truth for 24 hours? Well, here Jim Carrey forces himself to answer yes to any request, for a year. Which is upping the ante somewhat, but doesn't make it a better film. This is a return to the manic, gurning, not-very-funny Carrey, as if The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine etc hadn't happened. Just say no.
The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007)
11.40am, 8pm, Sky Movies Family
What with Harry Potter, Narnia, Lemony Snicket and all,...
Choose a date
Saturday 19 December | Sunday 20 December | Monday 21 December | Tuesday 22 December | Wednesday 23 December |Christmas Eve | Christmas Day | Boxing Day | Sunday 27 December | Monday 28 December | Tuesday 29 December | Wednesday 30 December | New Year's Eve | New Year's Day
Saturday 19 December
Yes Man (Peyton Reed, 2008)
10am, 8pm, Sky Movies Premiere
Remember Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar, where he forces himself to tell the truth for 24 hours? Well, here Jim Carrey forces himself to answer yes to any request, for a year. Which is upping the ante somewhat, but doesn't make it a better film. This is a return to the manic, gurning, not-very-funny Carrey, as if The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine etc hadn't happened. Just say no.
The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007)
11.40am, 8pm, Sky Movies Family
What with Harry Potter, Narnia, Lemony Snicket and all,...
- 12/18/2009
- by Paul Howlett
- The Guardian - Film News
Remember Adrien Brody? He’s the chap who played Wladyslaw Szpilman in the Pianist for which he won an Oscar. The Pianist is up there as one of my all-time favourite movies. He has also appeared in The Village and King Kong. This news today has surprised me a bit since it’s so different to the roles he normally plays.
Variety are reporting that Brody wants to reinvent himself as an action hero and has signed up for the lead role in ‘Predators’, the prequel to the movie made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987.
Variety: Brody and his Paradigm reps lobbied hard for the role. Fox has high hopes to spring a new franchise, and Brody has signed options to return for future installments, sources said.
I have no doubt he’ll do well in the role as every other film I’ve seen him in, he’s excelled in.
Variety are reporting that Brody wants to reinvent himself as an action hero and has signed up for the lead role in ‘Predators’, the prequel to the movie made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987.
Variety: Brody and his Paradigm reps lobbied hard for the role. Fox has high hopes to spring a new franchise, and Brody has signed options to return for future installments, sources said.
I have no doubt he’ll do well in the role as every other film I’ve seen him in, he’s excelled in.
- 10/7/2009
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Pianist Hero Honoured In Berlin
A German army officer who found international fame in Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist has been honoured by Jews in Berlin, Germany.
Capt. Wilhelm Hosenfeld saved the life of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during the Nazi genocide in Poland. He was portrayed by Thomas Kretschmann in the acclaimed movie.
Hosenfeld was posthumously honoured as one of the few German soldiers who aided Jews during the Holocaust. His son was present to receive the Righteous Among The Nations certificate and medal on Friday.
His son Detlev said, "We're aware of the fact that this is the highest honour the state of Israel awards to non-Jews."
The kin of Szpilman, portrayed by Oscar winner Adrien Brody in The Pianist, also attended the ceremony in Berlin. The late musician's son, Andrzej, told reporters, "He (Hosenfeld) was a person who helped very many different people from the beginning of the war."
Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison in 1952.
Capt. Wilhelm Hosenfeld saved the life of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during the Nazi genocide in Poland. He was portrayed by Thomas Kretschmann in the acclaimed movie.
Hosenfeld was posthumously honoured as one of the few German soldiers who aided Jews during the Holocaust. His son was present to receive the Righteous Among The Nations certificate and medal on Friday.
His son Detlev said, "We're aware of the fact that this is the highest honour the state of Israel awards to non-Jews."
The kin of Szpilman, portrayed by Oscar winner Adrien Brody in The Pianist, also attended the ceremony in Berlin. The late musician's son, Andrzej, told reporters, "He (Hosenfeld) was a person who helped very many different people from the beginning of the war."
Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison in 1952.
- 6/20/2009
- WENN
Brody inks CAA for agency rep
Oscar winner Adrien Brody has signed with CAA for agency representation. Brody, who continues to be managed at the Firm by his longtime rep JoAnne Colonna, had been without an agent for several years. The actor won an Academy Award in March for his portrayal of Wladyslaw Szpilman in director Roman Polanski's The Pianist. He is onscreen in Love the Hard Way and will be seen in the fall in Dummy and The Singing Detective. Brody's credits include The Affair of the Necklace, Summer of Sam and The Thin Red Line.
- 6/19/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Pianist/Talk to Her
Universal Studios Home Video ("The Pianist")
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment ("Talk to Her")
Roman Polanski was returning to hell, and he needed a companion. He chose screenwriter Ronald Harwood.
"Better to have someone you trust to go through all of this," Polanski says of the task of re-creating his childhood horrors in the holocaust drama "The Pianist".
"You study the (Nazi) films, the archives -- there are masses of them -- and this is very hard," the Polish director says. "It's a very difficult period for the head."
Harwood, the South African writer of "Cry, the Beloved Country", was the perfect man for the job, Polanski says. "We used to laugh all the time", exorcising some of the demons the men had to confront throughout the making of the film. Both men won Oscars for their efforts as "The Pianist" became the story of this year's Academy Awards.
Polanski's comments come in a compelling 40-minute documentary that's the sole extra of note on the DVD of "The Pianist". Billed as a making-of featurette, "A Story of Survival" transcends that reliably lightweight genre on the power of Polanski's words and vivid recollections. No one who cares about the director's work should miss it.
Universal presents "The Pianist" in its original aspect ratio (1.85:1) and in pan-and-scan, both DVDs retailing for $26.98. "The Pianist" looks fine, up to major studio standards. Audio is generally OK, in DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1, with a fairly tame mix that makes little use of the rear soundstage. Center-speaker dialog is noticeably muffled at times. The DVD opens with the studio's usual ads for upcoming films, particularly obtrusive given this film's subject matter and tone.
Polanski says he chose the autobiography of Polish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman because it was written right after the war, when the memories were fresh. The book's detail of the Nazi occupation was "vividly true to me, a child of the same period," Polanski says.
Szpilman's tale was largely set in the Warsaw ghetto walled off by the Nazis; Polanski escaped from the nearby Krakow ghetto at age 7. Szpilman lost his family to the death camps; Polanski's mother perished at Auschwitz. "There were a lot of similarities but great differences, too," Polanski notes.
The director tells his own story clear-eyed, almost matter-of-factly, but with heart. As he speaks, images from Nazi camera crews are intercut with nearly identical clips from "The Pianist", showing how director and writer used WWII film archives to ensure authenticity of their movie. Of the Nazis who shot the footage, Polanski says, "They were actually recording their masterpiece" -- the Holocaust. The director's only flash of anger comes as he recalls nearby Russian troops doing nothing as Polish freedom fighters were crushed.
The director says he and screenwriter Harwood found the pianist's book was "written like a journal, therefore unfilmable. So we had to give it a shape." Nonetheless, he maintains, the film is quite faithful to the autobiography.
Harwood and other co-workers say Polanski demanded that all elements in the film -- story, costumes, design, sets -- be 100% true to his memory. "Roman, of course, was a wonderful touchstone because it had happened to him," Harwood says. Costume designer Anna Sheppard, who often butted heads with Polanski on the set, agreed: "Instinctively, he will know if it is right or wrong."
"We were trying to rebuild the world exactly as it was," Polanski says. "Making this type of film, it is extremely important to step aside with your bright ideas and just tell the things as they were." Cinematographer Pawell Edelman says his orders were "everything should be invisible -- all technique, all our tricks we should forget." Even Oscar winner Adrien Brody was ordered to play his role flat.
The making-of includes recent footage of the real-life Szpilman playing a Chopin nocturne (the pianist died in 2000). Another ad pushes the soundtrack CD. Limited bios, filmographies and a trailer complete the disc.
'Talk to Her'
Pedro Almodovar's "Talk to Her", another film that provided a pleasant surprise on Oscar night, comes to market with commentary from the "chatterbox" Spanish director and one of his stars, Geraldine Chaplin.
The disc retails for $26.95 and is available only in widescreen (2.35:1, as shot). The picture seems flatter and softer than in the theatrical version. Interior scenes are often dark but with handsome colors. The Spanish-language film comes in adequate Dolby Digital 5.1. English subtitles are in bright yellow, clear and easy to follow. Almodovar and Chaplin's commentary is in Spanish, also with subtitles.
Almodovar, suffering from a cold, does most of the talking, laughing at his own torrent of words and at one point promising Chaplin, "I'll be silent at any moment". His chipper chat is in contrast to the film's mostly downbeat tale of two women who end up in comas. Veteran actress Chaplin is respectful of her director and seems there mostly to keep him company.
Almodovar, who won an Oscar for "Talk to Her"'s original screenplay, spends a lot of time describing the obvious, but the commentary does have its moments. The director ("Matador") returned to the bullfighting arena in this film and displays a detailed knowledge of the blood sport's rituals. The director does not address the animal-rights protests of "Talk to Her"'s bullfighting scene but does describe the sport as "brutal and extreme." Actress Rosario Flores spent four months learning how to fight, Almodovar says, and actually received offers for representation as a matador.
Flores and co-star Leonor Watling spent four months in intensive yoga training in order to prepare for the scenes in which they are in comas. "To play the role of a woman in a coma, it is not sufficient just lying in bed," Almodovar says. "The body must give the impression of being alive -- in a remote (mysterious) place."
Almodovar tries to engage his co-commentator in a discussion of her father's work, talking about how one scene reminded him of "The Circus", but Charlie Chaplin's daughter lets it go without comment.
Almodovar says the film's party scene was shot at his house, with his circle of friends. As the camera pans the crowd, the director tells who the guests are in real life and what they mean to him. One couple conceived a baby that night. It's an odd mix of reality and fiction that adds offbeat charm to the proceedings, an Almodovar specialty.
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment ("Talk to Her")
Roman Polanski was returning to hell, and he needed a companion. He chose screenwriter Ronald Harwood.
"Better to have someone you trust to go through all of this," Polanski says of the task of re-creating his childhood horrors in the holocaust drama "The Pianist".
"You study the (Nazi) films, the archives -- there are masses of them -- and this is very hard," the Polish director says. "It's a very difficult period for the head."
Harwood, the South African writer of "Cry, the Beloved Country", was the perfect man for the job, Polanski says. "We used to laugh all the time", exorcising some of the demons the men had to confront throughout the making of the film. Both men won Oscars for their efforts as "The Pianist" became the story of this year's Academy Awards.
Polanski's comments come in a compelling 40-minute documentary that's the sole extra of note on the DVD of "The Pianist". Billed as a making-of featurette, "A Story of Survival" transcends that reliably lightweight genre on the power of Polanski's words and vivid recollections. No one who cares about the director's work should miss it.
Universal presents "The Pianist" in its original aspect ratio (1.85:1) and in pan-and-scan, both DVDs retailing for $26.98. "The Pianist" looks fine, up to major studio standards. Audio is generally OK, in DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1, with a fairly tame mix that makes little use of the rear soundstage. Center-speaker dialog is noticeably muffled at times. The DVD opens with the studio's usual ads for upcoming films, particularly obtrusive given this film's subject matter and tone.
Polanski says he chose the autobiography of Polish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman because it was written right after the war, when the memories were fresh. The book's detail of the Nazi occupation was "vividly true to me, a child of the same period," Polanski says.
Szpilman's tale was largely set in the Warsaw ghetto walled off by the Nazis; Polanski escaped from the nearby Krakow ghetto at age 7. Szpilman lost his family to the death camps; Polanski's mother perished at Auschwitz. "There were a lot of similarities but great differences, too," Polanski notes.
The director tells his own story clear-eyed, almost matter-of-factly, but with heart. As he speaks, images from Nazi camera crews are intercut with nearly identical clips from "The Pianist", showing how director and writer used WWII film archives to ensure authenticity of their movie. Of the Nazis who shot the footage, Polanski says, "They were actually recording their masterpiece" -- the Holocaust. The director's only flash of anger comes as he recalls nearby Russian troops doing nothing as Polish freedom fighters were crushed.
The director says he and screenwriter Harwood found the pianist's book was "written like a journal, therefore unfilmable. So we had to give it a shape." Nonetheless, he maintains, the film is quite faithful to the autobiography.
Harwood and other co-workers say Polanski demanded that all elements in the film -- story, costumes, design, sets -- be 100% true to his memory. "Roman, of course, was a wonderful touchstone because it had happened to him," Harwood says. Costume designer Anna Sheppard, who often butted heads with Polanski on the set, agreed: "Instinctively, he will know if it is right or wrong."
"We were trying to rebuild the world exactly as it was," Polanski says. "Making this type of film, it is extremely important to step aside with your bright ideas and just tell the things as they were." Cinematographer Pawell Edelman says his orders were "everything should be invisible -- all technique, all our tricks we should forget." Even Oscar winner Adrien Brody was ordered to play his role flat.
The making-of includes recent footage of the real-life Szpilman playing a Chopin nocturne (the pianist died in 2000). Another ad pushes the soundtrack CD. Limited bios, filmographies and a trailer complete the disc.
'Talk to Her'
Pedro Almodovar's "Talk to Her", another film that provided a pleasant surprise on Oscar night, comes to market with commentary from the "chatterbox" Spanish director and one of his stars, Geraldine Chaplin.
The disc retails for $26.95 and is available only in widescreen (2.35:1, as shot). The picture seems flatter and softer than in the theatrical version. Interior scenes are often dark but with handsome colors. The Spanish-language film comes in adequate Dolby Digital 5.1. English subtitles are in bright yellow, clear and easy to follow. Almodovar and Chaplin's commentary is in Spanish, also with subtitles.
Almodovar, suffering from a cold, does most of the talking, laughing at his own torrent of words and at one point promising Chaplin, "I'll be silent at any moment". His chipper chat is in contrast to the film's mostly downbeat tale of two women who end up in comas. Veteran actress Chaplin is respectful of her director and seems there mostly to keep him company.
Almodovar, who won an Oscar for "Talk to Her"'s original screenplay, spends a lot of time describing the obvious, but the commentary does have its moments. The director ("Matador") returned to the bullfighting arena in this film and displays a detailed knowledge of the blood sport's rituals. The director does not address the animal-rights protests of "Talk to Her"'s bullfighting scene but does describe the sport as "brutal and extreme." Actress Rosario Flores spent four months learning how to fight, Almodovar says, and actually received offers for representation as a matador.
Flores and co-star Leonor Watling spent four months in intensive yoga training in order to prepare for the scenes in which they are in comas. "To play the role of a woman in a coma, it is not sufficient just lying in bed," Almodovar says. "The body must give the impression of being alive -- in a remote (mysterious) place."
Almodovar tries to engage his co-commentator in a discussion of her father's work, talking about how one scene reminded him of "The Circus", but Charlie Chaplin's daughter lets it go without comment.
Almodovar says the film's party scene was shot at his house, with his circle of friends. As the camera pans the crowd, the director tells who the guests are in real life and what they mean to him. One couple conceived a baby that night. It's an odd mix of reality and fiction that adds offbeat charm to the proceedings, an Almodovar specialty.
- 6/3/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Pianist
This review was written for the festival screening of "The Pianist".
CANNES -- Roman Polanski, who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland as a young boy, has finally made a film about this horrifying period in that country's history. Because he didn't want the film to be autobiographical, he and writer Ronald Harwood selected as source material a 1946 memoir by Jewish pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, "Death of a City", a book noted for the detached tone of its recollection of misery, disease and near starvation in Warsaw. Polanski takes a similar tack, which makes for a remote emotional experience. What Szpilman goes through is beyond incredible. Yet "The Pianist" recounts those torments less through his eyes than in a cool third-person narration, keenly observing but uninvolved.
Too many books, documentaries and features already have told this story for Polanski's version to have the international boxoffice impact it deserves. His name will, of course, attract many. But you can't help feel disappointed that one of the few directors who actually lived through this tragic period isn't able to personalize the material more.
The scale of this production is epic. Entire streets of a now vanished city are re-created in Berlin's Babelsberg Studios and miniatures and digital effects later portray a city turned into an uninhabitable wasteland.
In the central role, Adrien Brody does his best with a highly educated character who is initially aloof to the coming trouble and then, as his dilemma becomes painfully obvious, scared and reactive.
When Germany invades Poland in September 1939, Wladyslaw is literally blown off the air when a bomb drops near a Warsaw radio studio while he plays Chopin. He returns home, where his parents (Frank Finlay and Maureen Lipman) are packing to leave, but their grown children prefer to stay, especially hot-headed brother Henryk (Ed Stoppard), who wants to fight. News of Britain and France's declaration of war against Germany causes everyone to stay, but soon the family has no choice. The Nazis enter the city on October 1.
The film charts the now all-too-familiar outrages. Initially forbidden to eat here or stroll there, Wladyslaw's family and all the Jews are eventually herded into a walled ghetto created by the Germans. Here Wladyslaw is able to find work playing piano in a restaurant. Then in 1942, whole blocks are marched into cattle cars and shipped to the Treblinka death camp.
An acquaintance in the Jewish police pulls Wladyslaw from his family's march and saves his life. He is anything but free, though. A three-year odyssey takes him from one hiding place to the next. People help him, perhaps out of friendship or kindness or perhaps -- the movie never really gets into it -- because of his celebrity status as a top Warsaw musician.
As his ordeal nears its end, a German officer (Thomas Kretschmann) comes to his rescue with food and even the gift of his coat. You never understand why this helping hand comes from an enemy. Perhaps the captain simply got tired of killing. He then disappears, evidently doomed to die in a Soviet POW camp.
Working with cinematographer Pawel Edelman and designer Allan Starski, Polanski re-creates the sweep of history. Color drains away and Wojciech Kilar's music grows increasingly solemn. But the movie lacks those specific personal moments that pull an audience into a story and let them identify with a character. Other than his musical skills, Wladislaw is a little too much the all-purpose victim-survivor.
In fact, as other Jews and Poles get executed right and left, you wonder why you are supposed to care so mightily for this particular man. He never even experiences any guilt that a seemingly invisible protective cloak around him benefits no one else.
Since Wladislaw is often alone, how he feels about what is happening to him other than such primal emotions as hunger and fear isn't always clear. The movie recounts its tales of horror and triumph, but never makes the viewer experience them.
THE PIANIST
R.P. Productions/Heritage Films/Studio Babelsberg/Runteam Ltd.
Credits:
Director: Roman Polanski
Writer: Ronald Harwood
Based on the book by: Wladyslaw Szpilman
Producers: Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde
Director of photography: Pawel Edelman
Production designer: Allan Starski
Costume designer: Anna Sheppard
Co-producer: Gene Gutowski
Music: Wojciech Kilar
Editor: Herve De Luze
Cast:
Wladyslaw Szpilman: Adrien Brody
Captain Wilm Hosenfeld: Thomas Kretschmann
The father: Frank Finlay
The mother: Maureen Lipman
Dorota: Emilia Fox
Henryk: Ed Stoppard
Regina: Julia Raayner
Halina: Jessica Kate Meyer
Running time -- 148 minutes
No MPAA rating...
CANNES -- Roman Polanski, who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland as a young boy, has finally made a film about this horrifying period in that country's history. Because he didn't want the film to be autobiographical, he and writer Ronald Harwood selected as source material a 1946 memoir by Jewish pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, "Death of a City", a book noted for the detached tone of its recollection of misery, disease and near starvation in Warsaw. Polanski takes a similar tack, which makes for a remote emotional experience. What Szpilman goes through is beyond incredible. Yet "The Pianist" recounts those torments less through his eyes than in a cool third-person narration, keenly observing but uninvolved.
Too many books, documentaries and features already have told this story for Polanski's version to have the international boxoffice impact it deserves. His name will, of course, attract many. But you can't help feel disappointed that one of the few directors who actually lived through this tragic period isn't able to personalize the material more.
The scale of this production is epic. Entire streets of a now vanished city are re-created in Berlin's Babelsberg Studios and miniatures and digital effects later portray a city turned into an uninhabitable wasteland.
In the central role, Adrien Brody does his best with a highly educated character who is initially aloof to the coming trouble and then, as his dilemma becomes painfully obvious, scared and reactive.
When Germany invades Poland in September 1939, Wladyslaw is literally blown off the air when a bomb drops near a Warsaw radio studio while he plays Chopin. He returns home, where his parents (Frank Finlay and Maureen Lipman) are packing to leave, but their grown children prefer to stay, especially hot-headed brother Henryk (Ed Stoppard), who wants to fight. News of Britain and France's declaration of war against Germany causes everyone to stay, but soon the family has no choice. The Nazis enter the city on October 1.
The film charts the now all-too-familiar outrages. Initially forbidden to eat here or stroll there, Wladyslaw's family and all the Jews are eventually herded into a walled ghetto created by the Germans. Here Wladyslaw is able to find work playing piano in a restaurant. Then in 1942, whole blocks are marched into cattle cars and shipped to the Treblinka death camp.
An acquaintance in the Jewish police pulls Wladyslaw from his family's march and saves his life. He is anything but free, though. A three-year odyssey takes him from one hiding place to the next. People help him, perhaps out of friendship or kindness or perhaps -- the movie never really gets into it -- because of his celebrity status as a top Warsaw musician.
As his ordeal nears its end, a German officer (Thomas Kretschmann) comes to his rescue with food and even the gift of his coat. You never understand why this helping hand comes from an enemy. Perhaps the captain simply got tired of killing. He then disappears, evidently doomed to die in a Soviet POW camp.
Working with cinematographer Pawel Edelman and designer Allan Starski, Polanski re-creates the sweep of history. Color drains away and Wojciech Kilar's music grows increasingly solemn. But the movie lacks those specific personal moments that pull an audience into a story and let them identify with a character. Other than his musical skills, Wladislaw is a little too much the all-purpose victim-survivor.
In fact, as other Jews and Poles get executed right and left, you wonder why you are supposed to care so mightily for this particular man. He never even experiences any guilt that a seemingly invisible protective cloak around him benefits no one else.
Since Wladislaw is often alone, how he feels about what is happening to him other than such primal emotions as hunger and fear isn't always clear. The movie recounts its tales of horror and triumph, but never makes the viewer experience them.
THE PIANIST
R.P. Productions/Heritage Films/Studio Babelsberg/Runteam Ltd.
Credits:
Director: Roman Polanski
Writer: Ronald Harwood
Based on the book by: Wladyslaw Szpilman
Producers: Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde
Director of photography: Pawel Edelman
Production designer: Allan Starski
Costume designer: Anna Sheppard
Co-producer: Gene Gutowski
Music: Wojciech Kilar
Editor: Herve De Luze
Cast:
Wladyslaw Szpilman: Adrien Brody
Captain Wilm Hosenfeld: Thomas Kretschmann
The father: Frank Finlay
The mother: Maureen Lipman
Dorota: Emilia Fox
Henryk: Ed Stoppard
Regina: Julia Raayner
Halina: Jessica Kate Meyer
Running time -- 148 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/27/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Polanski To Make Holocaust Epic About His Native Poland
Renegade movie director Roman Polanski will face the horrors of his childhood when he returns to his native Poland to make a movie about the Holocaust. Eccentric Polanski intends shooting the $40 million drama The Pianist early next year based on the memoirs of Polish writer Wladyslaw Szpilman, who witnessed the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and survived the concentration camps. It will be the first time Polanski - still wanted on statutory rape charges in America - has re-visited Poland to make a film. As a child, he survived the ghetto in Cracow before his family fled to France where they were hidden by the underground.
- 7/12/2000
- WENN
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