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Actress-producer Cate Blanchett and director Guy Maddin shared about their paths into the film industry as well as their experiences of “flow” in making art, while at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). They took the stage in front of more than 800 guests at the Oude Luxor Theater, shortly after a festival screening of their film Rumours.

“I never, ever thought I could work in the film industry,” said Blanchett. “I was resigned happily to having a career in the theater. I didn’t think that I was that girl, and at the time, there was certainly a sense that women had a certain shelf life in the film industry, and a certain type of woman got to parade on screen. But I loved watching films, and I had such an eclectic taste. I think it’s the benefit of growing up with four Australian terrestrial channels.”

The two-time Oscar-winner...

A specter is haunting the rules-based liberal world order: The specter of shambling, moaning, masturbating bog zombies, rising from the German countryside to terrorize the leaders of the world’s foremost democracies. There’s a giant brain in the forest, the Italian prime minister keeps pulling deli meat out of his pockets,...

World leaders at a G7 conference politely bicker, copulate in the bushes and work on wafty, content-free speeches while a worldwide apocalypse commences — politicians, they’re just like us! — in collaborating Canadian directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson’s frequently hilarious latest feature.

Although they’ve kept busy with a steady stream of shorts, the trio haven’t made a feature with actors since the fantastical The Forbidden Room from 2015. With a proper beginning, middle and end, and barely any tributes to silent cinema or interactive tricksiness, Rumours may arguably be Maddin’s most conventional film ever, or at least since The Saddest Music in the World (2003). That is, if you can call a film conventional that’s got furiously masturbating bog zombies, a giant brain the size of a hatchback, and an AI chatbot that catfishes pedophiles. All the same, it’s a hoot, even if the energy flags in the middle.

Cate Blanchett’s new film “Rumours” took its name from the iconic Fleetwood Mac album, it was revealed on Sunday at a Cannes Film Festival press conference.

The dark comedy, directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, follows a group of world leaders who meet at the G7 — a political and economic meeting of the minds between Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — but get lost in the woods while trying to compose a joint statement. Debauchery ensues, and there are romantic connections between a few of the politicians.

“I did confirm something with Galen last night, and it’s weird that it never came up in rehearsal, which is: ‘Why the hell is this movie called Rumours?'” Blanchett said at the presser. “And my husband had said, ‘Is that after the Fleetwood Mac album?’ And you said, ‘Yes it was.

Cate Blanchett blew kisses to the Cannes Film Festival audience as her new film, “Rumours,” earned a four-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night.

The crowd welcomed the film’s dark humor, laughing throughout the entirety of the late-night screening. While some of the auditorium emptied out while the credits rolled, the majority of filmgoers waited patiently to pay their respects to the film’s stars. Blanchett’s “Rumours” co-star Alicia Vikander was notably not in attendance.

The film’s trio of directors — Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson — seemed surprised by Cannes’ relatively new tradition of handing the filmmaker(s) a microphone for post-screening remarks. They made a speech together after the applause wrapped, thanking the audience and quoting their own film by saying “it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

The dark comedy follows a group of world leaders who meet...

The Cannes Film Festival launches auteur filmmakers, and the best among them have known scenes of triumph at the iconic French seaside festival.

But not Guy Maddin, who for all his accolades as an original and idiosyncratic auteur prized for titles like The Forbidden Room and The Saddest Music in the World, has never — until now, that is — brought a film to the Croisette.

It took Maddin and co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson casting Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander and getting the backing of executive producer Ari Aster to get their absurdist political satire Rumours to the Cannes red carpet.

“Once we got some legitimate Oscar-winning movie stars, and other movie stars that are amazing, all of a sudden Cannes cleaned its glasses off for a closer look,” Maddin tells The Hollywood Reporter of the stars aligning ahead of a May 19 world premiere at the Lumière theater. Rumours...

Bleecker Street has landed U.S. rights to Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin’s ensemble comedy Rumours starring Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander.

Maddin wrote and directed the feature with longtime collaborators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, with the project recently having wrapped filming in Hungary. Bleecker Street is eyeing a theatrical release later this year for the indie project that co-stars Roy Dupuis, Charles Dance, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira and Zlatko Burić.

Rumours centers on the leaders of the seven nations comprising G7, who meet for their annual summit but get lost in the woods and must still draft a statement addressing a worldwide crisis.

Serving as producers are Liz Jarvis for Buffalo Gal Pictures, Philipp Kreuzer for Maze Pictures and Lars Knudsen for Square Peg. Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy negotiated the deal for Bleecker Street, while CAA Media Finance represented the filmmakers.

Rumours marks...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Can You Spoil Something This Surreal?

Few experiences surpass stumbling onto a jaw-dropping moment in film totally unspoiled. The big twist in “One Cut of the Dead.” The Fern Mayo reveal in “Jawbreaker.” Top to bottom, every second of “Titane.” These are scenes across varying genres and eras that live in my bones as electric moments I didn’t expect to see, but that reminded me why I whole-heartedly love the movies when I did. Hence, this column’s spoiler-free/spoiler-filled bifurcation.

Guy Maddin’s “The Saddest Music in the World” contains one such moment,...

Cate Blanchett has boarded arthouse favorite Guy Maddin’s latest movie, Rumours, which is set to start shooting on Oct. 9, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The indie has been written and will be directed by Maddin with longtime collaborators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson. Their last joint film was The Green Fog, an experimental feature that combed through San Francisco-produced films and TV shows as it followed the structure of Vertigo.

Blanchett played a composer-conductor whose reputation is suddenly shattered by revelations of her personal life in Tár. Her other film credits include The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, for which she won Oscars, as well as Elizabeth, Notes on a Scandal, I’m Not There and Carol.

Her star turn in Rumours is seen as the latest A-lister and auteur collaboration as Canadian indie film looks to break out into the global market with distribution and critical acclaim. Maddin’s latest...

Filmmakers Charlie Shackleton, Wu Tsang also to present works.

The world premiere of Guy Maddin’s Haunted Hotel – A Melodrama In Augmented Reality will headline the programme of BFI London Film Festival 2022’s Lff Expanded strand, for immersive art and extended realities.

A 20-minute immersive experience commissioned by the festival, German production Haunted Hotel will play at the BFI Southbank throughout the festival, and until October 30. It will use clippings from Maddin’s personal archive in “a surreal paper world”; viewers will look through virtual peep holes and “rooms filled with longing, hysteria and madness”, in what the festival describes...

In Akira Kurosawa’s 1982 autobiography (Something Like an Autobiography) his film Ikiru only gets a passing mention in a chapter dealing with the filming of his cinematic masterpiece, Rashomon. Ikiru, which roughly translates as “To Live”, is one of the director’s most loved masterpieces. Roger Ebert himself claimed that he loved the film so much that he would revisit it every five years; each time, becoming more and more empathetic to the plight of Ikiru’s male protagonist (originally played by Takashi Shimura). However, as good as this 1952 classic may be, it is also a film that is more beloved by extreme cinephiles and graduate level film professors than anyone else. After all, who wants to sit through a two hour plus tale dealing with existential musings on the nature of morality and human decency?

It seems that Hollywood would much rather sit through violent re-renderings of films like Yojimbo or Seven Samurai.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

17 Films by Anand Patwardhan

One of the greatest chroniclers of Indian history over the past half-century, Anand Patwardhan has caused controversy in his native country for his searing, in-depth political documentaries . Now, his complete filmography is available to view, from his first film Waves of Revolution made in 1974 through his most recent film Reason completed in 2018.

Where to Stream: Ovid.tv

Ammonite (Francis Lee)

Calling a Kate Winslet performance career-best is no easy statement, but her turn as 19th-century English paleontologist Mary Anning in Ammonite is certainly in consideration. Few writer-directors trust their actors to do so much with so little dialogue as Francis Lee. Like Josh O’Connor’s Johnny in Lee’s debut,...

After unveiling the discs that will be arriving in April, including Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder, Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep, and more, Criterion has now announced what will be coming to their streaming channel next month.

Highlights include retrospectives dedicated to Guy Maddin, Ruby Dee, Lana Turner, and Gordon Parks, plus selections from Marlene Dietrich & Josef von Sternberg’s stellar box set. They will also present the exclusive streaming premieres of Bill Duke’s The Killing Floor, William Greaves’s Nationtime, Kevin Jerome Everson’s Park Lanes, and more.

Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, which recently arrived on the collection, will be landing on the channel as well, along with a special “Lovers on the Run” series including film noir (They Live by Night) to New Hollywood (Badlands) to the French New Wave (Pierrot le fou) to Blaxploitation (Thomasine & Bushrod) and beyond. Also...

Iconoclastic filmmaker Guy Maddin, known for his inspired weirdness in films like The Forbidden Room and The Saddest Music in the World, insists his Berlin Forum entry The Green Fog is perhaps his most commercial movie to date.

It’s a bold statement considering the film’s backstory: Maddin and co-directors Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson set themselves the challenge of using Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to create a montage-like tribute to the iconic city where the auteur’s masterpiece takes place, after being commissioned by Stanford Live and the San Francisco International Film Festival.

There was just one catch: “We weren’t allowed to...

It’s usually unwise to remake a masterpiece, but Guy Maddin has something different planned for “The Green Fog,” a meditation on Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” Unlike Gus Van Sant’s much-maligned 1998 shot-for-shot remake of “Psycho,” the Canadian director has revisited the 1958 thriller as an assemblage of old footage from San Francisco, the city where “Vertigo” takes place.

However, the project was never intended to have anything to do with “Vertigo.”

In “The Green Fog — A San Francisco Fantasia,” commissioned by San Francisco Film Society and set to close the San Francisco International Film Festival’s 60th edition on April 16, Maddin and co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson explore what Maddin has called “a rhapsody” on the Hitchcock movie. Set to an original score by composer Jacob Garchik that will be performed live by the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet, the 63-minute “The Green Fog” reimagines the movie through an assemblage of...

April event celebrates 150th anniversary of Canada.

A celebration of Canadian cinema will take place in Los Angeles from April 18-23 with a variety of screenings at The Cinefamily and The Aero.

The Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles will celebrate Canadian Film Day 150 (Ncfd 150), presented by Reel Canada, with a free marathon of films to mark Canada’s sesquicentennial.

The event will run on April 18 and 19 at The Cinemafamily theatre in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles screenings will kick-off on April 18 with Polytechnique from Denis Villeneuve and continue with The Saddest Music In The World, Meatballs, Strange Brew, and Villeneuve’s Incendies, followed by a Q&A with the director.

Canada Now: Best New Films 2017, presented by Telefilm Canada, will feature eight new Canadian films from the festival circuit and will screen from April 20–23 at the Aero theatre in Santa Monica, with several post-screening discussions.

Anne Émond’s biopic Nelly, about Quebec...

Looking back on this still-young century makes clear that 2007 was a major time for cinematic happenings — and, on the basis of this retrospective, one we’re not quite through with ten years on. One’s mind might quickly flash to a few big titles that will be represented, but it is the plurality of both festival and theatrical premieres that truly surprises: late works from old masters, debuts from filmmakers who’ve since become some of our most-respected artists, and mid-career turning points that didn’t necessarily announce themselves as such at the time. Join us as an assembled team, many of whom were coming of age that year, takes on their favorites.

It’s some time after midnight, and you’re riding the bus. The rehearsed movements from here to bed are already running through your head: ten or eleven more blocks, fifty steps to the building door, up two flights of stairs,...

With Paula Bernstein writing today about Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World, I was reminded to post about a cool internet essay/music project by Ander Monson with Megan Campbell, March Sadness. For those a bit blue, and no following college basketball — and, probably, more than a few who do — the month-long series has paired off sad songs for voters to up and downvote, mixing in essays on the music by Rick Moody, Juan Diaz, Megan Campbell and others. Explains Monson: So this March I’ve been running this project called March Sadness. Well, I’m already oversimplifying: we […]...

It only seemed fitting that Portland-based folk musician Michael Hurley would perform a short set of sad songs before the screening of Guy Maddin’s 2003 experimental melodrama The Saddest Music in the World on Friday, March 25 at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. Maddin himself was in attendance for the sold-out screening, which was presented as part of the Hollywood’s Mississippi Records Music & Film Series. In introducing the film, Maddin said it was a treat to “show this movie I barely remember making. I think what I recall is the movie is about a sad song contest, so Michael [Hurley], I […]...

It's a collision of seemingly disparate but each compellingly odd and wonderful forces of the Canadian film scene with word that the madmen at Astron 6 (Father's Day, The Editor) have teamed up with Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music In The World) and Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) to create upcoming web series Divorced Dad. Divorced Dad is a love letter to the endearingly incompetent cable access television shows created by far from screen-ready small town celebrities during the 1980’s and 90’s. Divorced Dad, a post-marriage professional, hosts a well meaning but disastrously inept self-help talk show intended to help guide newly single fathers through the difficulties and fun of single life. Airing on the first and third weekend of every...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

His new film, The Forbidden Room, features amnesiac chanteuses, a jungle vampire and tormented buttock obsessives. So business as usual, then, for the cult auteur

Apart from the fact that the action begins underwater – in a submarine facing certain doom – Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room is something of an underground movie. All the Canadian director’s films are, in a sense. They’re made beyond the mainstream of art cinema, usually on scrimp-and-save budgets, and display the exalted amateur obsessiveness that marks the true outsider film-maker. And Maddin’s work has another quintessentially underground quality: the sense that he’s mining the unconscious not only of his perverse psyche but of cinema itself.

The Forbidden Room is the culmination of the 59-year-old’s 30-year career that began when Maddin would make eerie pastiches of silent-era cinema in his mother’s old hair salon, part of his family’s Winnipeg home.

Dreams! Visions! Madness!: Maddin & Johnson’s Extravagant Symphony of Silent Cinema Fantasia

Those familiar with the works of auteur Guy Maddin, sometimes referred to as the Canadian David Lynch, know to expect strange hybrids of silence film techniques mixed with zany weirdness that often reflect delightfully perverse and sometimes queer dynamics mixed in with its dashes of visual inventiveness and extreme narrative playfulness. While he still creates a healthy amount of short film projects and is involved with other installations in-between feature films, including several notable unions with actress Isabella Rossellini, who has starred in The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Keyhole (2011) and as narrator of the brilliant Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), his latest has been in gestation over a period of several years, at one point known as Seances and Spiritismes, and it was uncertain whether this would ever be a theatrical release. Known finally as The Forbidden Room,...

The 44th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema has just announced their entire lineup and it’s pretty insane! The festival which takes place in Montreal from October 7 to 18 is screening nearly 400 films and events in only 11 days. This includes 151 feature films and 203 short films from 68 countries – 49 world premieres, 38 North American premieres and 60 Canadian premieres. Give credit to the team of programmers: Claude Chamberlan, Dimitri Eipides Julien Fonfrède, Philippe Gajan, Karolewicz Daniel, Marie-Hélène Brousseau, Katayoun Dibamehr and Gabrielle Tougas-Frechette.

Below is the lineup. There’s a lot to process so take your sweet time!

Opening and closing

The whole New Testament directed by Jaco Van Dormael (Toto the Hero, Mr Nobody, The Eighth Day), will kick off this 44th edition.

After its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last May, the new opus unconventional Belgian director, starring Benoît Poelvoorde (Three Hearts, Ransom of Glory), Yolande Moreau (Mammuth,...

Art house distributor Kino Lorber has an outstanding lineup at Tiff 2015 that includes some of the most acclaimed international films of the year. Miguel Gomes' "Arabian Nights," which Volume 2 (The Desolate One) was just announced as Portugal's Oscar entry; Guatemala's "Ixcanul," which will also represent the Central American country at the Academy Awards; and Jafar Panahi's latest clandestine feature ,"Taxi," made under incredibly difficult conditions and winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, are among their upcoming titles.

Take a look at when and where you can catch some of these films while you are at Tiff this week.

"Arabian Nights Trilogy" [Wavelengths]

A major hit at this year's Cannes, this epic, three-part contemporary fable by Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes ( "Tabu" ) adopts the structure from "Arabian Nights" in order to explore Portugal's plunge into austery.

Directed by Miguel Gomes

Screening with Volume 1-3,

381 minutes

Screening Date:

9/19/15, Public Screening, 1pm, Jackman Hall

"Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One" [Wavelengths]

Directed by Miguel Gomes

North American Premiere, 125 minutes

Opens Dec. 4th in New York (Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Upcoming Screening:

9/19/15, Public Screening, 11:45am, Jackman Hall

"Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One" [Wavelengths]

Directed by Miguel Gomes

North American Premiere, 131 minutes

Opens Dec. 11th in New York (Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Upcoming Screening:

9/19/15, Public Screening, 3pm, Jackman Hall

"Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One" [Wavelengths]

Directed by Miguel Gomes

American Premiere, 125 minutes

Opens Dec. 18th in New York (Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Upcoming Screenings:

9/14/15, P&I 1, 7:15pm, Scotiabank 6

9/16/15, Public Screening, 6:15pm, Jackman Hall

"Ixcanul" [Discovery]

In this dreamlike fusion of documentary and fable, two young, impoverished Mayan lovers escape from their servitude on a remote Guatemalan coffee plantation and attempt to make their way to the United States.

Directed by Jayro Bustamante

Canadian Premiere, 93 minutes

Upcoming Screenings:

9/16/15, Public Screening, 6:30pm, Tiff Bell Lightbox 2

9/18/15, Public Screening, 9:30am, Tiff Bell Lightbox 2

9/20/15, Public Screening, 9:30pm, Scotiabank 2

"Jafar Panahi's Taxi" [Masters]

Shooting almost entirely within a cab circling the streets of Tehran, the great director Jafar Panahi ( "Offside," "This Is Not a Film") offers a multilayered mosaic of life in today's Iran.

Directed by Jafar Panahi

Canadian Premiere, 82 minutes

Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival

Opens Oct. 2nd in New York (IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas)

Upcoming Screenings:

9/17/15, Public Screening, 5pm, Winter Garden Theatre

9/19/15, Public Screening, 3:30pm, Cinema 1

"Mountains May Depart" [Masters]

The new film from Mainland master Jia Zhangke ("A Touch of Sin") jumps from the recent past to the speculative near-future as it examines how China's economic boom has affected the bonds of family, tradition, and love.

Directed by Jia Zhangke

North American Premiere, approximately 131 minutes

Upcoming Screenings:

9/14/15, Public Screening, 9:30pm, Princess of Wales

9/15/15, Public Screening, 11:45am, Cinema 1

"The Forbidden Room" [Wavelengths]

Evan Johnson and Winnipeg’s wizard of the weird Guy Maddin ("My Winnipeg," "The Saddest Music in the World") plunge us into celluloid delirium with this mad, multi-narrative maze of phantasmal fables.

Directed by Guy Maddin and co-directed by Evan Johnson.

North American Premiere, 119 minutes

Opens Oct. 7th at New York's Film Forum.

Upcoming Screenings:

9/16/15, Public Screening, 9:15pm, Tiff Bell Lightbox 2

9/18/15, Public Screening, 3:15pm, Jackman Hall

"The Pearl Button" [Masters]

The great Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán ("The Battle of Chile," "Nostalgia for the Light") chronicles the history of the indigenous peoples of Chilean Patagonia, whose decimation by colonial conquest prefigured the brutality of the Pinochet regime.

Directed by Patricio Guzman

North American Premiere, 82 minutes

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival

Opens Oct. 23rd in New York City (IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas)

Upcoming Screenings:

9/13/15, Public Screening, 11:30am, Tiff Bell Lightbox 3

9/18/15, Public 3Screening, 3pm, Tiff Bell Lightbox 2...

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its industry programme and added three innovative film-makers to new strand Lff Connects.

Industry talks Lff Connects, which aim to explore the future of film and how film engages with other creative industries, has added writer, director, visual artist and vocalist Laurie Anderson; filmmaker and artist Guy Maddin; and virtual reality maestro Chris Milk.

This is on top of the previously announced talk featuring Interstellar director Christopher Nolan and artist Tacita Dean.

Us artist Anderson is best known for her multimedia presentations and innovative use of technology. As writer, director, visual artist and vocalist she has created ground-breaking works that span the worlds of art, theatre and experimental music.

Her new documentary Heart of the Dog, which screens as a new programme addition at Lff, is her first feature since the 1986 concert movie Home of the Brave. At Lff Connects, Anderson will talk about her creative approach to filmmaking and how...

Tiff is about to kick off, and it wouldn’t be Tiff without a new film from Guy Maddin. The Canadian filmmaker, the man behind “Twilight Of The Ice Nymphs,” “The Saddest Music In The World” and “My Winnipeg,” among many others, is one of the country’s great arthouse exports, a filmmaker whose work both celebrates and examines film history while delving into all kinds of different subjects. Maddin’s latest is “The Forbidden Room,” and it’s heading to Tiff from Berlin and Sundance. To mark the occasion, Entertainment Weekly have debuted a new trailer for the film. Co-directed with his student Evan Johnson, the film is firmly in the phantasmagoric tradition of Maddin’s earlier work, with the usual silent cinema nods, a loose plot involving a submarine crew, and a starry cast featuring Mathieu Amalric, Geraldine Chaplin, Caroline Dhavernas, Charlotte Rampling, Ariane Labed and more. Maddin’s not for everyone,...

Kino Lorber has announced the acquisition of all Us rights to Guy Maddin’s (My Winnipeg, The Saddest Music in the World) The Forbidden Room (2015), following the film’s world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

The Forbidden Room was produced by Phi Films, Buffalo Gal Pictures and the National Film Board of Canada (Nfb), with the participation of Telefilm Canada and with the financial investment of Manitoba Film & Music and Sodec.

“I feel fantastic about Richard Lorber and his team handling The Forbidden Room,” wrote director Guy Maddin. “When we first met, before he saw the movie, I felt that rare pleasure of tastes synching up every second moment, but immediately after the screening we connected with wondrous electrified crackles! It was like we were giddily letting this film finish each other’s sentences for us! Our movie instantly galvanized a shared experience. It’s only right, and extremely thrilling,...

With January being the traditional low point of the movie season, cinephiles from around the world look to the Sundance Film Festival for some glimmer of hope. America’s preeminent independent film festival has graduated some heavy-hitters over the years, including Whiplash, Ida, and Boyhood from last year’s class. 2015’s program boasts an unprecedented balance between drama and comedy premieres, ensuring that everyone from general audiences to discerning film students will leave happy. Like any good buffet table, however, Sundance simply has too much good stuff to consume, unless you don’t mind unbuckling your belt in a crowded movie theater. With that in mind, here are a few of the more hotly-anticipated titles from this year’s festival.

The Psychology Triumvirate

Psychology buffs rejoice! This year’s Sundance is presenting three movies that might someday be found in a Psych 101 course syllabus. From the U.S. Dramatic Competition,...

Jonathan Lethem's reviewed David Cronenberg's first novel, Consumed, for the New York Times. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Morgan Meis on David Lynch's paintings and films; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World (2003); Adrian Martin on Emir Kusturica's Arizona Dream (1993); Reverse Shot on three films by Martin Scorsese; Nick Pinkerton on Hype Williams's Belly (1998); and from the New Yorker's archive, six classic profiles: Diane Keaton, Angela Bassett, Julia Roberts, Tilda Swinton, Katharine Hepburn and Cate Blanchett. » - David Hudson...

Jonathan Lethem's reviewed David Cronenberg's first novel, Consumed, for the New York Times. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Morgan Meis on David Lynch's paintings and films; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World (2003); Adrian Martin on Emir Kusturica's Arizona Dream (1993); Reverse Shot on three films by Martin Scorsese; Nick Pinkerton on Hype Williams's Belly (1998); and from the New Yorker's archive, six classic profiles: Diane Keaton, Angela Bassett, Julia Roberts, Tilda Swinton, Katharine Hepburn and Cate Blanchett. » - David Hudson...

Main Street during The Telluride Film Festival

The Telluride Film Festival seemingly appears overnight against the gorgeous backdrop of rugged mountains. It lasts just four days but in fact it takes more than a month of intensive labor to transform the elementary school, high school, hockey rink, library, the park in the middle of town and a masonic temple into theaters. Now in its 41st year,up until recently this hallowed Labor Day weekend event has long been a quiet fixture on the festival circuit. As most of the festival world knows, the escalating word of mouth about the quality of Telluride’s unofficial premieres caused the Toronto International Film Festival to issue an ultimatum to those hoping to land choice spots in the fall line-up: if you choose to screen at Telluride first, your film will be pushed back on Tiff’s slate. Realistically- Toronto has little to fear from Telluride besides buzz.

The Telluride Film Festival announced today Guy Maddin and Kim Morgan as the 2014 guest directors. The husband and wife duo will select and present a series of films at the 41st Telluride Film Festival running over Labor Day Weekend, August 29 - September 1, 2014. Maddin is screen-writer, director, author, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist. He is known for works such as "My Winnipeg" (2007) and "The Saddest Music in the World" (2003). Morgan is a film, music and culture writer who has written for Salon, GQ, La Weekly, Criterion, MSN Movies, Huffington Post, IFC, Entertainment Weekly, The Dissolve, Playboy, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Garage Magazine. Both commented jointly,"We are honored and thrilled to be guest directors at Telluride, by far the most concentrated, smartly curated, and enchanting of all the film festivals." Festival passes are now available at the Telluride Film.

Perhaps not as sturdy or as developed as it is with Cannes or Tiff, Atom Egoyan’s relationship with Sundance remains a good one when you double his output of films directed (Next of Kin and Exotica) with films that he exec-produced in The Saddest Music in the World and Away From Her. Formerly going by the title of “Queen of the Night,” The Captive features Ryan Reynolds, Egoyan lucky charm Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson, Mireille Enos, Kevin Durand, Alexia Fast and the almost always dependable Bruce Greenwood in what should be some welcome genre diversion at the fest and one that will make us forget about the poorly executed Devil’s Knot.

Gist: Written by Egoyan & David Fraser, a pick up truck pulls off the highway at a diner. Confident that his young daughter is safe in the back seat and promising to return with ice cream, the father...

Anna Karenina; Taken 2; Keyhole; Hotel Transylvania; Barbara

After a sojourn away from the somewhat staid literary adaptations (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) with which he made his name, Joe Wright returns to another classic text, clearly invigorated by the audience-pleasing lessons learned on the somewhat sentimental The Soloist and the full-on action-romp Hanna. For all its flaws, his adaptation of Anna Karenina (2012, Universal, 12) is a laudably full-throttle affair, packed with unembarrassed flourishes of Russellian visual invention, theatrical daring and even dance.

Using a proscenium arch device to circumvent the problems and/or expenses of location shooting, Wright's rendering of a well-worn but still thorny narrative boasts splendidly fluid cinematography by Seamus McGarvey, a swoony score from Dario Marianelli, and an especially fine turn from Jude Law as Anna's unloved husband. That the film itself should be perhaps more cerebrally impressive than emotionally engaging is partly a result of Anna's frosty...

The avant-garde director's new film is a woozy homage to Homer and gangster movies. He explains his vision

Even with a new film to sell, Guy Maddin is not your standard-issue eager-to-please director. "So many people are baffled," he says, with well-practised irony. "The movie will be crystal-clear upon your third viewing." This is Keyhole, Maddin's ninth full-length film since 1988; and against all the odds it's secured a theatrical release in the UK. Most of Maddin's work simply doesn't get to Britain, so resolutely has he followed his own path.

If you know him at all, it is probably for his ballet film Dracula: Pages from a Virgin Diary, or just possibly My Winnipeg, his heartfelt docu-essay tribute to his Canadian hometown. More energetic cineastes may remember 2003's The Saddest Music in the World, Maddin's most determined shot at the mainstream, an elaborate parody musical starring Isabella Rossellini. The...

Following our looks at actors, actresses, screenwriters and directors to watch in recent months, when the time came to put together a list of cinematographers (as we did two years ago), we went in with an open mind. But what was interesting is realizing, after the fact, that in an era where 35mm film is allegedly being phased out, that all five have done perhaps their most distinctive work on old-fashioned celluloid, rather than digital.

All have worked in digital of course, at least in the commercial world, and some have done hugely impressive work on new formats. But most of our five are fierce advocates for good 'ol 35mm, and it's another sign that the death knell shouldn't be rung for the old ways just yet. As long as there are talented DoPs like the ones below, and on the following pages, working closely with filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson,...

This is a reprint of our review from Tiff.

Let us pause, then, to contemplate the fate and fortunes of the director who does not have his or her eye set on the five-picture deal, the glossy franchise, the production wing in the bungalow offices of some major studio; what becomes of the director who only wants to make art and make it well? Canada's Guy Maddin clearly has no eye on commercial success -- rumor has it that his next feature might actually be in color -- and instead prefers to stand at the edge and peer into the abyss to look for what's next. This is a unique vantage point, to be sure, but it's also perilous if one should fall; "Keyhole" is both too much and too little, a crowded smorgasbord of genre picture tropes and haunted house tricks that leaves your eyes and brain distended with...

If you've been at a film festival at the last few months, chances are you've bumped into Guy Maddin. The idiosyncratic Canadian director of "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs," "The Saddest Music In the World" and "My Winnipeg" has a new film, the offbeat haunted house tale "Keyhole" starring Jason Patric and Isabella Rossellini. And he's been on the festival circuit in a big way, debuting the film at Tiff (read our review from there), before heading to Halifax's Atlantic Film Festival, and then last month in Berlin (where we interviewed the director) before landing in the last week at SXSW.

We were able to talk to the filmmaker in Austin about the project, as well as what he's working on at the moment, an intriguing-sounding tribute to lost cinema named "Spiritismes." Maddin told us,"I just wrapped the first stage of an insanely over-ambitious project, the first eighteen days...

This is a reprint of our review from Tiff.

Let us pause, then, to contemplate the fate and fortunes of the director who does not have his or her eye set on the five-picture deal, the glossy franchise, the production wing in the bungalow offices of some major studio; what becomes of the director who only wants to make art and make it well? Canada's Guy Maddin clearly has no eye on commercial success -- rumor has it that his next feature might actually be in color -- and instead prefers to stand at the edge and peer into the abyss to look for what's next. This is a unique vantage point, to be sure, but it's also perilous if one should fall; "Keyhole" is both too much and too little, a crowded smorgasbord of genre picture tropes and haunted house tricks that leaves your eyes and brain distended with...

You could forgive Guy Maddin for feeling a little put out at the moment. The Canadian filmmaker has, for nearly 25 years, been faithfully paying homage to the early days of cinema with films like "Archangel," "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" and "The Saddest Music In The World" to little commercial success, only to see "The Artist" become an awards-laden phenomenon this year. But actually (as we'll see) Maddin hasn't been paying much attention. Instead, he's been focused on his latest film, the gangster memory tale, "Keyhole," with Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier, among others. Having premiered at Toronto last year, the film made its European bow at the Berlin Film Festival this week, and we were lucky enough to sit down with Maddin to discuss the new film, whether or not he's seen "The Artist," and being the coolest man in the world. "Keyhole" will next be shown at SXSW next March,...

The Berlin International Film Festival has just announced the first five films lined up for the Competition and five more for the Berlinale Special. The 62nd edition runs from February 9 through 19.

Update: The Berlinale's also announced that the members of the International Jury, presided over by Mike Leigh, will be Anton Corbijn, Asghar Farhadi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jake Gyllenhaal, François Ozon, Boualem Sansal and Barbara Sukowa.

Competition

Captive

France/Philippines/Germany/Great Britain

By Brillante Mendoza (Serbis, Kinatay, Lola)

With Isabelle Huppert, Katherine Mulville, Marc Zanetta

World premiere

From Ioncinema: "Based on a real-life event that occurred in 2001. It centers on Thérèse Bourgoin (Huppert), a French woman who works for a humanitarian organization on Palawan Island in the Philippines. While she is transporting equipment to Puerto Princesa, she is kidnapped by mistake with a colleague by Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, who are fighting for Mindanao independence."

Dictado (Childish Games)

Spain

By Antonio Chavarrías (Susanna,...

Now that the fall “awards festival” circuit is finally at a close — but with Sundance looming in the distance — it’s easy to forget about Biff — the Berlin International Film Festival, that is. (See, I even have to give the name.) This might have something to do with their less-than-huge lineup; in terms of films playing in competition, last year’s biggest art house title was The Turin Horse, while the most mainstream was probably Margin Call. Nothing too slim, but not much compared to Cannes, Venice, or Tiff.

The first round of titles to play this coming February (via Twitch) do carry a few major titles, though. Among them are The Flowers of War (which we were quite ecstatic about), Guy Maddin‘s Keyhole, Extremely Loud…, Kevin Macdonald‘s Bob Marley documentary, and an expansion of Werner Herzog‘s Into the Abyss. A few other foreign titles carry potential,...

So Michael Fassbender isn’t the only male actor appearing i movies completely nude this year. Check out this very strange clip from Guy Maddin’s Keyhole (via Twitch). And if that ins’t enough, I’ve included a second clip for the film below. Keyhole had mixed reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival and a swarm of walkouts. Strangely, some of my colleagues who love Madden’s previous, work disliked Keyhole, while some of my other peers who are not usually fans, ended up liking it. Judge for yourself. Here are the clips.

Synopsis: A gangster and deadbeat father, Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), returns home after a long absence. He is toting two teenagers: a drowned girl, Denny, who has mysteriously returned to life; and a bound-and-gagged hostage, who is actually his own teenage son, Manners. Confused Ulysses doesn’t recognize his own son, but he feels with...

"Whispers that the latest from Winnipeg's favourite son had been rebuffed at European festivals before landing on Toronto's doorstep engender a suspicion towards it, as if it's typically Maddinesque gestures were just that: typical, tired, by the numbers." John Semley in Cinema Scope: "Granted, Maddin is once again working through his favorite hang-ups here: memory, family, and odes to forgotten film genres so consigned to oblivion that they never existed at all (in this case the Joycean gangster-haunted house picture). But Maddin finds new footing here, and his best leading man since Careful's Kyle McCulloch in Jason Patric, whose classic, rock-jawed good looks and tendency to play the silliness and surrealism totally straight, as if he's just happy for the job, make Keyhole feel like considerably more than another exercise in Maddinalia."

James Rocchi for the Playlist: "Maddin's usual fondness for the (soap) operatic and the melodramatic are both in play here,...

The saddest movie in the world isn't Guy Maddin's follow up to The Saddest Music in the World, it's Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 family drama about an ex-boxer and his son -- played by the kid with the silver spoon in his mouth, Ricky Schroder. Sound plausible to you? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley are reporting they have evidence that Zeffirelli's The Champ is the flick that produces the most tears [there are spoilers as to why in the last paragraph]. A study was conducted between 1988 through 1995 with nearly 500 participants who attended group film-viewing sessions. Psychology professor Robert W. Levenson his grad student James J. Gross tested for a variety of emotions including amusement, anger, and fear -- but as their...

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The saddest movie in the world isn't Guy Maddin's follow up to The Saddest Music in the World, it's Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 family drama about an ex-boxer and his son -- played by the kid with the silver spoon in his mouth, Ricky Schroder. Sound plausible to you? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley are reporting they have evidence that Zeffirelli's The Champ is the flick that produces the most tears [there are spoilers as to why in the last paragraph]. A study was conducted between 1988 through 1995 with nearly 500 participants who attended group film-viewing sessions. Psychology professor Robert W. Levenson his grad student James J. Gross tested for a variety of emotions including amusement, anger, and fear -- but as their...

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The new, Nsfw action movie Hobo With a Shotgun is so extreme even star Rutger Hauer thinks it goes too far. How did a fake trailer made for just $150 become the year’s maddest movie?

Canadian director Jason Eisener originally wanted to make his debut feature film Hobo With a Shotgun a couple of years ago. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids. The (fictional) children in question played a small but crucial part in the script for Hobo that Eisener, his producer Rob Cotterill, and his writer John Davies...

Whenever I'm asked to name a great director who always manages to stay off the popular radar, Guy Maddin is the first who comes to mind. He makes films to appeal to the hardcore film nerd: things that look like broken artifacts once buried under the foundation of an old hotel in the middle of nowhere. Most of his movies are black and white and often shot on 8mm or 16mm film with in-camera effects techniques that would have been current around the time King Kong made his first trip up the Empire State building. Guy Maddin's stories follow their own very strange logic, but despite a deliberately unusual approach to narrative, he creates characters that are effective and memorable. The people in his movies want the same things we all want; they just live in worlds where the rules are a little different from ours. His last few...

The first images from Guy Maddin’s (The Saddest Music in the World) latest film Keyhole have hit the web. The film stars Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier (Blade) and Kevin McDonald (Kids in the Hall) and tells the vastly twisted tale of a deadbeat father/gangster on an odyssey to his bedroom. So, “vastly twisted” may have been a bit of a understatement. Hit the jump to check out some of the images as well as a synopsis for the flick. Here are the images from Keyhole (via Twitchfilm): To check out the rest of the images, head over to Twitchfilm. Here’s the synopsis for Keyhole: A gangster and deadbeat father, Ulysses Pick (Patric), returns home after a long absence. He is toting two teenagers: a drowned girl, Denny, who has mysteriously returned to life; and a bound-and-gagged hostage, who is actually his own teenage son,...

These first pictures from Guy Maddin’s Keyhole truly have me mesmerized. I have been literally staring at them for what seems like ages taking in their beauty. Keyhole stars Maddin favorite Isabella Rossellini (her third film with Maddin; she starred in Brand Upon The Brain and The Saddest Music In The World), Jason Patric, Udo Kier, and Kevin McDonald (“Kids In The Hall”).

Read more on First images from Keyhole starring Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, and Udo Kier are mesmerizing…...