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This June, Movistar Plus+ will unveil “Pedro x Javis,” a three-part documentary series paying tribute to the life and work of celebrated Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. Created and hosted by celebrated filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known locally as Los Javis, the series blends documentary storytelling with musical performances and reimagined scenes from Almodóvar’s films in a bold new format.

At the heart of “Pedro x Javis” is an intimate, in-depth conversation between the three directors. Filmed over several days, their exchanges are rich with unexpected confessions, emotional memories, and previously unrevealed insights into the two-time Academy Award winner’s creative journey. “I think I’ve talked too much,” Almodóvar wryly commented on the process.

The series features contributions from many of Almodóvar’s most iconic collaborators, including actresses Penélope Cruz, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, Bibiana Fernández, Loles León, Carmen Machi, Lola Dueñas and Leonor Watling. It...

by Cláudio Alves

Starting yesterday, Strange Way of Life is streaming on Netflix. To commemorate the occasion, I thought about diving into the collaboration between Pedro Almodóvar and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, a recurring creative partner since they filmed Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown back in the late 80s. Even though I had issues with the short film, its lensing wasn't one of them. Indeed, playing with Western iconography and Saint Laurent fashions, Strange Way of Life is as visually enchanting as one would expect from something bearing the Spanish auteur's signature. When everything else fails, Alcaine creates hyper-artificial frames, popping with bright colors and luster…...

Renowned filmmaker and Jury Chairperson Shekhar Kapur on Monday said that India has unparalleled content and technological prowess which enriches the global cinema.

Shekhar Kapur, on Monday along with other International Jury Members of 54th International Film Festival of India interacted with delegates.

They shared their profound experiences and insights on watching the films nominated for the Golden Peacock Award of Iffi.

Kapur said that the selection committee has done a remarkable curation of films.

“India’s unparalleled content and technological prowess enriches global cinema. India has the world’s largest base of content and technology and festivals like Iffi help the rest of the world understand the culture of India,” Shekhar Kapur said.

Speaking about the growing use of Artificial Intelligence in film making in India, he said “there is no final authority in a creative work.”

Jerome Paillard said that discovering diverse films and networking for collaborations is...

Renowned filmmaker and Jury Chairperson Shekhar Kapur on Monday said that India has unparalleled content and technological prowess which enriches the global cinema.

Shekhar Kapur, on Monday along with other International Jury Members of 54th International Film Festival of India interacted with delegates.

They shared their profound experiences and insights on watching the films nominated for the Golden Peacock Award of Iffi.

Kapur said that the selection committee has done a remarkable curation of films.

“India’s unparalleled content and technological prowess enriches global cinema. India has the world’s largest base of content and technology and festivals like Iffi help the rest of the world understand the culture of India,” Shekhar Kapur said.

Speaking about the growing use of Artificial Intelligence in film making in India, he said “there is no final authority in a creative work.”

Jerome Paillard said that discovering diverse films and networking for collaborations is...

Stuart Gatt’s “Catching Dust,” which premiered at Tribeca earlier this year, will open the 54th International Film Festival of India (Iffi), Goa.

Robert Kolodny’s “The Featherweight,” which bowed at Venice, will close the festival. Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” for which Merve Dizdar won best actress at Cannes, will be the mid-festival gala.

The fiction feature strand of the Indian panorama showcase will open with Anand Ekarshi’s “Aattam” and the documentary strand with Longjam Meena’s “Andro Dream.” The panorama will screen 25 fiction features, including five mainstream films, plus 20 documentaries.

Michael Douglas will deliver the key festival masterclass. The international competition jury will be led by eminent filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”) and also includes producers Catherine Dussart (“Silence in the Dust”) and Helen Leake (“Carnifex”), former Cannes market chief Jerome Paillard and Pedro Almodovar’s long-standing cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, P.K. Atre’s “Shyamchi Aai...

The upcoming 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India, which is set to be held in Goa, has announced its International Jury panel. The jury will be headed by acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who is known for films like ‘Bandit Queen’, ‘Mr. India’ and ‘Masoom’.

The international jury members include Spanish cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine, who is known for his collaborations with Pedro Almodovar, producer Jerome Paillard, producer Catherine Dussart and producer Helen Leake.

They will judge the International Competition and Best Debut Feature Film of a Director Award at the Festival.

The ‘International Competition’ is a selection of 15 acclaimed feature films of important genres, representing the emerging trends in the aesthetics sense and politics of film as envisioned by masters and young voices alike.

The international jury will select the winner of the coveted Best Film Award which includes the Golden Peacock, Rs 40 lakh monetary component and...

The upcoming 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India, which is set to be held in Goa, has announced its International Jury panel. The jury will be headed by acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who is known for films like ‘Bandit Queen’, ‘Mr. India’ and ‘Masoom’.

The international jury members include Spanish cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine, who is known for his collaborations with Pedro Almodovar, producer Jerome Paillard, producer Catherine Dussart and producer Helen Leake.

They will judge the International Competition and Best Debut Feature Film of a Director Award at the Festival.

The ‘International Competition’ is a selection of 15 acclaimed feature films of important genres, representing the emerging trends in the aesthetics sense and politics of film as envisioned by masters and young voices alike.

The international jury will select the winner of the coveted Best Film Award which includes the Golden Peacock, Rs 40 lakh monetary component and...

Whether Pedro Almodóvar is expressing regret over turning down Brokeback Mountain all those years ago, continuing to dip his toes in English-language projects after The Human Voice or reclaiming the place of gay cowboys in America’s Old West, I am here for it and most definitely won’t be alone.

Premiering in a Special Screening slot in Cannes, Strange Way of Life (Extraña forma de vida) runs a skimpy half-hour but packs that fleet running time with greater depth of feeling and evocative atmosphere than most directors manage in a full feature. Stir in smoldering turns from Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal and you get a flavorful bite to be savored.

How Sony Classics will maximize the commercial theatrical potential of a film running the length of a TV episode remains a curious question. But the potent combination of two gifted lead actors and a director who’s among...

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long: Draft, Pre-Season, Regular Season and Post Season. The eligibility calendar and dates of awards will determine how long each phase lasts and is subject to change.

To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Oscars Collective

Visit each category, per the individual awards show from The Oscars Hub

Revisit the prediction archive of the 2021 season The Archive

Link to television awards is atTHE Emmys Hub

2022 Oscars Predictions:

Best Cinematography

Updated: Jan 30, 2022

Awards Prediction Commentary: The ASC Awards recognized Ari Wegner in the theatrical...

Two strangers’ lives intertwine in Parallel Mothers, the latest film from Pedro Almodóvar. Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) are single mothers who give birth in the same hospital, forming a friendship that changes them both.

From its sterling cast to its sensational production design, Parallel Mothers is filled with Almodóvar’s characteristic touches. It’s also the most politically engaged film he’s made in years, one that asks viewers to come to grips with Spain’s troubled past.

Cinematographer José Luis Alcaine has collaborated with Almodóvar on landmark films like Bad Education, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and more recently The Human Voice. He spoke with The Film Stage at the ENERGACamerimage festival in Toruń, Poland, published now as the film continues its U.S. theatrical run.

The Film Stage: At the Parallel Mothers screening yesterday, cinematographers Robert Yeoman and Xavier Grobert were amazed...

At six of the last nine Oscars, Best Cinematography has gone hand-in-hand with Best Director: Claudio Miranda and Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” (2013); Emmanuel Lubezki and Alfonso Cuaron for “Gravity” (2014); Lubezki and Alejandro G. Inarritu for both “Birdman” (2015) and “The Revenant” (2016); Linus Sandgren and Damien Chazelle for “La La Land” (2017); and Cuaron doing double duty on “Roma” (2019). Will that trend hold true this year? (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Cinematography.)

The academy usually regards award-winning cinematography as pretty pictures within an epic technical feat of filmmaking. While great lighting and framing are laudable on their own, having a movie that looks like it was difficult to shoot goes a long way to snagging an Oscar. Recent lensing winners “Avatar” (2009), “Inception” (2010), “Hugo” (2011), “Life of Pi” (2012), “Gravity” (2013), “Blade Runner 2049” (2018) and “1917” (2020) also took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

While the lensers of “Inception...

Pedro Almodóvar’s exploration of motherhood and family, Parallel Mothers (“Madres paralelas”), is a vivid and wonderfully acted piece of filmmaking that, again, showcases the director’s favorite muse – Penélope Cruz – and allows the filmmaker to fully explore his fascination with the stories of women.

In this story, two pregnant women – Janis (Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) – meet and befriend each other in the hospital room they share prior to giving birth to their children. Both Janis and Ana are single mothers having unplanned children. Middle-aged Janis is thrilled with the prospect of being a mother while the much younger Ana is much less enthusiastic, almost to the point of regretting her pregnancy. During their hospital stay, the women bond over walks through the hospital corridors, before giving birth to their daughters. Then, after being released from the hospital, the two women reconnect and their relationship, and that of their daughters,...

The 29th edition of the EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, one of the world’s leading events dedicated to cinematography, returned to fully live status Saturday amid tributes to the power of the image and an homage to the life and work of cinematographer Philippe Rousselot.

The Dp for “A River Runs Through It” and “Dangerous Liaisons” commended his fellow cinematographers for work that transcends culture, border and languages.

Welcoming an audience made up of many of the most celebrated DPs working today, fest director Marek Zydowicz offered historical context at the Jordanki cultural center in the Gothic Polish city of Torun.

Pointing out that “after plagues come a renaissance in art,” he shared with the audience an image of the Beautiful Madonna of Torun, a revolutionary work of sculpture created amid the current of artistic expression that followed the plague of the 1300s.

And again, he told the audience, after the Spanish Flu of 1918 killed millions,...

Closing out the New York Film Festival, Pedro Almodóvar’s newest venture, “Parallel Mothers,” debuted with an endearing and scintillating turn from Penélope Cruz and newcomer Milena Smit, both of whom will be angling for much-deserved awards attention. But can it go any further than that?

Fresh off winning the prestigious Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival, it’s easy to see why Cruz was a jury favorite. While it’s not the best work of her career, Cruz makes all of her acting interpretations and choices look effortless. The ability to drop tears, invoke an undeniable sex appeal, and command the camera lens is not something many actresses of her caliber can do. Her Oscar journey began in the hands of the Spanish auteur. She received her first nom for “Volver” (2006), though the film wasn’t nominated in the foreign-language category. This catapulted her into an awards magnet:...

The Power of the Dog This time last year, hopping out of a ferry and onto a sun-scorched Lido, I remember the air above me crackled with a strange kind of static. Barely six months had passed since the world shut down in early 2020 and the Venice Film Festival announced its 77th edition would take place as a physical, analogue, offline event. It was, against all odds, a success. Minor blips notwithstanding, Venice showed that things could go back to normal. Slowly, the festival shed the ominous atmosphere of its early days to embrace the sort of optimism that tricked you into thinking the worst was officially over—even as the several temperature checkpoints and countless face masks around you suggested otherwise. A year later, what’s changed?Very little, if anything at all. The pandemic’s still raging, and the festival kicked off its 78th edition rolling out the...

The festival will also world premiere Tippett’s long-awaited personal project Mad God.

US special effects producer Phil Tippett will receive the Locarno Film Festival’s Vision Award Ticinomoda at its upcoming 74th edition, which is due to run from August 4-14 this year.

Tippett is due to attend the Swiss festival in person and will receive his award in a ceremony on the Piazza Grande on August 5.

This will be followed on August 6 by an in-conversation event and screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop and Starship Troopers, for which he created key effects.

The festival will also world premiere...

There she is, stepping out from behind a screen and seen in glorious close-up: the vibrant red dress, the half-shadowed face, the untamed tangle of ginger hair. (We Stan an icon.) For the next half-hour, you’ll see Tilda Swinton’s spurned woman — she is merely referred to as “Woman” — shop for axes at a hardware store in Madrid, attack an empty suit on a bed, try on several gorgeous outfits, beg and plead for a lover’s return over the phone, hang out with a dog named Dash and...

It immediately says something about the differences between Jean Cocteau’s brilliant 1928 dramatic monologue The Human Voice — as first put on screen in 1948 by Roberto Rossellini with the immortal Anna Magnani — and Pedro Almodovar’s new version of it starring Tilda Swinton, that the latter features six costume changes within the first six minutes, while the original was content with a single drab bit of wardrobe.

There are few single-character pieces of 20th century theater as mesmerizing and emotionally intricate as Cocteau’s soliloquy in which a woman spends a half-hour on the phone with her lover coping with the devastating news that he’s about to marry someone else. Swinton indisputably belongs in the select group of actresses who could pull this off, but the ever-arresting Spanish director, in his first English-language outing, is preoccupied with other issues as well, notably the notion of the fine, if not (for...

The Human Voice Trailer — Pedro Almodovar‘s The Human Voice (2020) short film trailer has been released by Sony Pictures Classics and stars Tilda Swinton, Agustín Almodóvar, Pablo Almodóvar, and Miguel Almodóvar. Crew Almodóvar wrote the screenplay for The Human Voice. Alberto Iglesias created the music for the film. José Luis Alcaine crafted [...]

Continue reading: The Human Voice (2020) Short Film Trailer: Pedro Almodovar directs Tilda Swinton’s Descent into Depression over an Ex-lover...

Yes, that headline is correct. Orson Welles, who passed away 35 years ago this fall, has a newly completed film and it’s coming to fall festivals. Hopper/ Welles features never-before-seen footage resurrected by producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski during their dig into the archives to complete The Other Side of the Wind. Featuring a fireside chat between Dennis Hopper and the Citizen Kane director, the first clip has now arrived ahead of premieres at Venice and NYFF.

Also playing at both festivals is Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, a 30-minute short film adapting Jean Cocteau’s one-act play The Human Voice and starring Tilda Swinton. The gorgeous first clip has landed for the film, which features an isolated Swinton in the kind of vivid garb only the Spanish director could dream up.

Check out the clips below, along with New York Film Festival‘s complete, recently unveiled Spotlight section lineup,...

One of the splashiest debuts of the upcoming, and notably reduced, fall festival scene is Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Human Voice.” His first English-language project is a short film, shot in Madrid in July in full PPE regalia, starring Tilda Swinton as a woman who needs to make an important phone call. The director’s brother and production partner Agustín Almodóvar, via their El Deseo banner, tweeted tantalizing first footage from the film this week. See below.

“The Human Voice” is based on a one-act play by Jean Cocteau, written in 1928 and first mounted in France in 1930. It concerns one woman’s final phone conversation with her longtime lover, who has plans to marry another woman. The clip shows Swinton looking sad in a dazzling red ball gown, compelled behind an opaque sheet by the strings of Almodóvar’s longtime musical collaborator Alberto Iglesias. This woman has something on her mind.

Tilda Swinton in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice Photo: El Deseo / Iglesias Más

Film at Lincoln Center has announced the six Spotlight selections of the 58th New York Film Festival. They are Sofia Coppola’s On The Rocks, starring Rashida Jones, Marlon Wayans and Bill Murray; David Dufresne’s title The Monopoly Of Violence which quotes Max Weber; Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film The Human Voice, his adaptation of the Jean Cocteau play, which centres on Tilda Swinton’s performance, is shot by José Luis Alcaine and is scored by Alberto Iglesias; Hopper/Welles, Orson Welles’ conversation with Dennis Hopper, resurrected by producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski; All In: The Fight For Democracy, directed by Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus, and Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia.

David Byrne’s Broadway hit, American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee is a Spotlight selection Photo:...

Killer kids have been in cyclical fashion ever since The Bad Seed (1956), as little Rhoda found that the best way to eliminate family problems was to eliminate the family; from that was born the blonde moppets in Village of the Damned (1960) and an attempt to attach a sci-fi explanation behind the killings. Onto the turmoil of the ’70s then, as a political and philosophical bent was applied to Who Can Kill A Child? (1976), with lingering and devastating results.

Wckac? was released in its native Spain in April, and rolled out to various parts of the world under different titles thereafter: Trapped, Would You Kill A Child?, The Hex Massacre, Island of Death, Billy’s Got a Sickle and He Looks Kinda Mad, and most commonly Island of the Damned were all used to sell a film that is pretty hard to sell. This is a film filled with kids killing...

Madrid — Jose Luis Moreno, a Spanish TV institution whose “Escenas de Matrimonio,” comic sketches of marital life, were adapted in France by M6 as “Escènes de menage,” which proved a French TV phenomenon, is back behind the camera with a star English-language cast for the now-filming period drama “Glow and Darkness,” presented at a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday.

Writer and poet Alejandro Gillermo Roemmers created the series and co-wrote the first season with Moreno, whose his Madrid-based company Dreamlight International Productions co-produces.

Notably, the series does not yet have distribution, which according to Moreno is by design.

“We hope distributors see our work and, if they value it, will start speaking with us,” he explained.

Moreno brought with him just part of the series’ substantial international cast, headlined by two former Bond girls in two-time Golden Globe-winner Jane Seymour and Denise Richards as well as Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Davison.

by Cláudio Alves

Pedro Almodóvar might be known for his brilliant reds, but his latest and most autobiographical film starts in blue. Submerged in blue, as it happens. In the bottom of a swimming pool tiled in shades of cyan, we find our blue-clad protagonist, underwater, pensive as he is enveloped by diluted chlorine and the memories of a distant past. They are remembrances of maternal warmth and white linens drying in the sun, shots so beautiful they seem more real than the present life for which they are prologue. Color theory has its limitations, of course, and Almodóvar's brush is guided more by emotion than by dogmatic rules. José Luis Alcaine's photography follows the same logic…...

Other nominees include ‘Intemperie’, ’The Endless Trench’ and ’Fire Will Come’.

Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War leads the nominations for Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards but will face-off against Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory at the ceremony on January 25 in Malaga.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Amenábar’s Spanish Civil War drama has secured 17 nominations while Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical film has 16 nods.

While At War has proved a box office hit following its debut at Toronto, ranking as Spain’s third highest-grossing domestic film of 2019 and taking more than $11.3m to date.

Pain and Glory...

Throughout his career, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has explored a number of ideas over and over again. His cinematic obsession has defined him, arguably fueling what makes him one of the greats. This week, the legend not only reunites his his longtime male muse Antonio Banderas, but turns his lens on himself in a way with Pain and Glory, the closest thing to an autobiography you’re likely to see from the man. While not at the pinnacle of his filmic output, this is still very fine work, with a tremendous lead performance at its core. In some ways, it’s the film he’s been building up towards making for years. The movie is a drama, one that takes a number of cues from the filmmaker’s life. Here, we follow Salvador Mallo (Banderas), a film director in failing health, as he thinks back on a number of encounters/moments from his past.

How fitting that Antonio Banderas, 59, is delivering the performance of his career in a movie loosely based on the life of the director who gave him his breakthrough role in 1982’s Labyrinth of Passion. In Pain and Glory, the 21st movie for the 69-year-old Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, the actor plays Salvador Mallo, a former cinematic enfant terrible who, once upon a time, took on the country’s repressive attitudes. Now in his autumn years, he is longer the renegade who splashed the screen with color and waved the flag...

The Spanish auteur’s finest film in years, Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” is also his most personal, a colorful vivisection of the director’s life and work, his regrets and achievements. No doubt playing a version of the Academy Award-winning director himself, Antonio Banderas stars as Salvador Mallo, a film director in creative crisis who begins experimenting with drugs in the lead-up to a local career retrospective of his work. Banderas won the 2019 Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal, which is the Spanish actor’s most sensitive performance in many years. With the Cannes prize under his belt, Banderas has a strong shot at his first Oscar nomination ever, especially since this is one of Almodóvar’s more accessible efforts.

“Pain and Glory” features several breakouts in the cast, including Asier Etxeandia as Alberto, Salvador’s former onscreen muse who’s now a high-functioning heroin addict.

Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar goes on a personal journey in this first trailer for Sony Classics Pain And Glory, starring Antonio Banderas.

Salvador Mallo is a veteran film director, afflicted by multiple ailments, the worst of which is his inability to continue filming. His physical condition doesn’t allow it and, if he can’t film again, his life has no meaning. The mixture of medications, along with an occasional flirtation with heroin, means that Salvador spends most of his day prostrate. This drowsy state transports him to a time in his life that he never visited as a narrator. His childhood in the 60s, when he emigrated with his parents to Paterna, a village in Valencia, in search of prosperity. His mother is the beacon of that era, struggling and improvising so that the family can survive.

Also, the first desire appears. His first adult love in the Madrid of the 80s.

Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Carice van Houten, Guy Pearce, Søren Malling, Nicolas Bro, Eriq Ebouaney, Ella-June Henrard, Paprika Steen, Jacob Lohmann, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Younes Bachir, Diem Camille G. | Written by Petter Skavlan | Directed by Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma, “sort of”, returns to cinematic screens with Domino after a seven-year hiatus after his Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace starring feature Passion, released in 2012. I say “sort of” because De Palma’s latest hasn’t had the most conventional release. Originally shot in 2017, Domino has had a tirade of troubles during post-production and has ultimately distanced himself from the final product. Leading to a very limited cinema release and landed without a thud on most On Demand services.

It’s a strange consequence from De Palma to cut ties with his feature because after viewing said film there isn’t much difference in the crafting of Domino from what the...

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

Cannes 2019 Shorts

Following last week’s batch of Cannes Critics’ Week shorts now available to stream, this week brings Directors’ Fortnight selections. Available for free through June 16, Festival Scope is now presenting seven short premieres from the Cannes sidebar, including Ariane Labed’s Olla, Pham Thien An’s prizewinner Stay Awake, Be Ready, and more.

Where to Watch: Festival Scope

Domino (Brian De Palma)

The latest from Brian De Palma hits film culture not unlike a moody son trudging to their graduation party at a parent’s behest, a master of big-screen compositions relegated to VOD for those who bother plunking down. That tussle between pedigree of...

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is dangling off a rooftop. To his left, he can see his best friend through a window, dying from a slit throat. To his right, he can see the murderer, also hanging for dear life. It’s a hell of a scene, a hell of an image, and yet — we feel nothing.

That’s “Domino,” a couple of interesting set pieces in search of a reason to exist, from director Brian De Palma. For most of his career, De Palma has been hailed as a modern master of suspense, or at least a dynamite visual stylist. And although many of his films — including “Carrie,” “Blow Out” and “Dressed to Kill” — are now classics, even misfires like “Snake Eyes” and “Passion” usually have some bravura cinematic showpieces that make them worth watching.

The best that “Domino” can boast are some general concepts for exciting set pieces. Moments like the...

Even more than his studio-dominating, awards-securing, and fiercely independent (or so the canonized story goes) New Hollywood contemporaries, it could be said that Brian De Palma (save one or two studio jobs he’s since downplayed) makes movies exclusively for himself. His interests so clearly front-and-center, appreciation has become a kind of plug-and-play auteurist game: the pieces–the split diopters, slow zooms, split-screen, Pov shots, etc.–are ready to run, spark a smile or a groan, and spur comments about the nature of voyeurism, visual storytelling, etc.

It’s tempting, and not exactly inaccurate, to commend Domino, his first feature since 2012, by winnowing down myriad complications to the notion that merely looking at it is to feel his presence. But what are we looking at here? Impulses to just review what’s on the screen–in the case of un film de Brian De Palma, the screen, the screen-within-the-screen, for...

Look what we’ve got here: Two married Oscar winners, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, costarring in a movie written and directed by Iranian master Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman). How do you miss with that combo? Consider this Exhibit A. Working in Spanish for the first time, the filmmaker somehow allows the interweaving threads of his plot to get tangled into a jumble even he can’t satisfactorily unravel. It’s a damn shame.

The drama centers on a wedding, always an emotional flashpoint for families. Cruz plays Laura,...

The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critics Lawrence Garcia and Daniel Kasman.Dear Danny,It's truly a pleasure to plunge into the jarring bustle of the Croisette once again—though Cannes, with its predilection for pomp, inevitably feels less like a familiar friend than an acquaintance that periodically seems to forget you exist. Still, for a non-veteran like myself, the luster has yet to fade—and if Cannes does, indeed, go on the offensive, it will be a more than welcome change. The excitement is high, the potential for failure, even higher, but the chances of a serendipitous discovery—the kind of cinematic encounter that makes, or should make, every festival experience worth it—are perhaps highest of all. At the very least, it’s a chance to learn some new names.First, though, an instantly recognizable one: Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, here with the aptly,...

That’s the way Cannes is supposed to go: Debut your film on opening night at Cannes, sell it to Focus Features overnight, launch well in theaters in France, and meet cheers at the press conference the following day. Spain’s power couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz (who have been working together since “Jamón Jamón” in 1992), anchor Asghar Farhadi’s kidnap thriller “Everybody Knows,” which they helped him to develop over five years. Part of the appeal for Focus was its potential for Hispanic audiences.

At the Wednesday morning press conference, the Spanish stars thanked their Iranian director, whose films have won two foreign-language Oscars (“A Separation” and “The Salesman”), for his hard work, attention to detail, and ability to listen and observe.

“He has a lie detector,” said Cruz, who saw the film for the first time last night and also shared that she and Bardem accepted equal pay for the work.

That’s the way Cannes is supposed to go: Debut your film on opening night at Cannes, sell it to Focus Features overnight, launch well in theaters in France, and meet cheers at the press conference the following day. Spain’s power couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz (who have been working together since “Jamón Jamón” in 1992), anchor Asghar Farhadi’s kidnap thriller “Everybody Knows,” which they helped him to develop over five years. Part of the appeal for Focus was its potential for Hispanic audiences.

At the Wednesday morning press conference, the Spanish stars thanked their Iranian director, whose films have won two foreign-language Oscars (“A Separation” and “The Salesman”), for his hard work, attention to detail, and ability to listen and observe.

“He has a lie detector,” said Cruz, who saw the film for the first time last night and also shared that she and Bardem accepted equal pay for the work.

The Criterion Collection is going bowling. Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning documentary “Bowling for Columbine” will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Collection this June, ditto “Manila in the Claws of Light,” “El Sur,” “Female Trouble,” and a new edition of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring.”

16 years later, Moore’s take on America’s gun culture in general and the aftermath of the school shooting at Columbine in particular feels more relevant than ever, making this new release nothing if not timely. More information — and, as ever, cover art — below.

Manila in the Claws of Light

“Lino Brocka broke through to international acclaim with this candid portrait of 1970s Manila, the second film in the director’s turn to more serious-minded filmmaking after building a career on mainstream films he described as ‘soaps.’ A young fisherman from a provincial village arrives in the capital on a quest to track down his girlfriend,...

Asghar Farhadi took home an Oscar this year for “The Salesman” without stepping a foot inside the Dolby Theater. His refusal to attend the ceremonies due to the President’s proposed Muslim ban spoke volumes, but now he’s putting politics aside, and to work on his next film.

So far we’ve known that Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Ricardo Darin are starring in picture, with Pedro Almodovar regulars composer Alberto Iglesias (who has scored nearly a dozen Almodovar films) and cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine (“Volver,” “The Skin I Live In,” and other Almodovar movies lending their talents.

Continue reading Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Everybody Knows’ With Penelope Cruz & Javier Bardem Starts Filming, Synopsis Revealed at The Playlist.

As new Academy president John Bailey opens up about what he plans to do in his new job, we read the tea leaves. He faces an unusually tumultuous time, as the Academy confronts multiple challenges, from the industry’s transition to digital, and pressures from ABC to increase viewership of the Oscar show, to the need to raise more funding to build the troubled $400 million Academy Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Here are Bailey’s main concerns. So far, he seems more than up to meeting this new assignment.

1. Will the Academy change its diversity outreach?

No. As someone who has long hired men and women of different ethnic, socio- economic, and racial backgrounds, Bailey supports Academy CEO Hudson’s outreach imperative via the A2020 program which is designed to double the Academy’s diverse membership by 2020. He’s proud of such Academy efforts as the Academy Gold internship program,...

As new Academy president John Bailey opens up about what he plans to do in his new job, we read the tea leaves. He faces an unusually tumultuous time, as the Academy confronts multiple challenges, from the industry’s transition to digital, and pressures from ABC to increase viewership of the Oscar show, to the need to raise more funding to build the troubled $400 million Academy Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Here are Bailey’s main concerns. So far, he seems more than up to meeting this new assignment.

1. Will the Academy change its diversity outreach?

No. As someone who has long hired men and women of different ethnic, socio- economic, and racial backgrounds, Bailey supports Academy CEO Hudson’s outreach imperative via the A2020 program which is designed to double the Academy’s diverse membership by 2020. He’s proud of such Academy efforts as the Academy Gold internship program,...

The Locarno Festival will pay tribute to Spanish cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine on Aug. 10.

Organizers said Tuesday that he will get the Vision Award, a prize honoring technical achievements and advancements in film.

Alcaine is best known for his work with Pedro Almodovar, defining the strong colors and high-contrast landscapes in films including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), Bad Education (2004), Volver (2006) and The Skin I Live In (2011).

He is credited with helping to define the look of Spanish cinema in the 1980s, also working with directors from...

Asghar Farhadi‘s been spending some time on a (still-untitled) Spanish-language debut that’ll feature Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem — so much so that, when he last began production on a feature, it wasn’t entirely clear whether it’d be this or what would become The Salesman. A year after that picture’s debut, things are moving full steam ahead: Screen Daily tells us he’s added Ricardo Darin, a.k.a. the actor in virtually every contemporary Argentinian film, and has a plan to begin shooting in a few months for a proposed Cannes 2018 premiere. He’s also lost Pedro Almodóvar as a producer, but that might be okay.

If nothing else, Farhadi will use the talents of frequent Almodóvar Dp José Luis Alcaine, along with composer Alberto Iglesias. Producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy (of The Salesman and The Past) says this will be the writer-director’s “most commercial film to date,...

Exclusive: Pedro and Agustin Almodovar exit movie set to shoot in August.

Two-time Oscar winner and festival favourite Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman) was due to fly into Cannes last night to take part in tonight’s 70th edition opening ceremony as a special guest and talk to buyers about his upcoming, currently untitled Spanish-language thriller.

Argentine superstar Ricardo Darin has joined Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in the hotly anticipated project, which is due to shoot in Madrid from mid-August.

Darin is set to play Cruz’s husband from Buenos Aires in the family drama and psychological thriller which will explore how the kidnapping of a young girl leads to the unraveling of family secrets.

However, Pedro and Agustin Almodovar’s Spanish outfit El Deseo are no longer on board to produce the movie.

The $12-13m project is now being made as a French-Spanish-Italian co-production with French producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy (producer of Farhadi’s The Past...

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 855

1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 89 min. / Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 39.95

Starring Carmen Maura, Fernando Guillén, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, María Barranco, Kiti Manver, Guillermo Montesinos, Chus Lampreave, Yayo Calvo, Loles León, Ángel de Andrés López, José Antonio Navarro.

Cinematography: José Luis Alcaine

Film Editor: José Salcedo

Original Music: Bernardo Bonezzi

Produced by: Augustin Almodóvar

Written and Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Connected film festival attendees learned about Pedro Almodóvar before everybody else, especially if they had an understanding of new developments in Spanish cinema. Film school had shown us nothing but the very exceptional work of Luis Buñuel, most of which is really from Mexico and France. In the 1980s we Angelenos were just getting access to films by the old-school ‘traditional’ rebel Spaniards Carlos Saura and Juan Antonio Bardem.

First image released of period drama from Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson.

Principal photography has begun on period drama Altamira, directed by Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, Greystoke) and starring Antonio Banderas.

Production will take place on location in Northern Spain.

The English-language production also stars Golshifteh Farahani, Nicholas Farrell, Henry Goodman, Pierre Niney, Clément Sibony, Tristan Ulloa, Irene Escolar and Rupert Everett. British actress Allegra Allen makes her film debut.

The screenplay is by Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring; Wuthering Heights) and Jose Luis Lopez-Linares. José Luis Alcaine (The Skin I Live In) is the cinematographer.

Producers are Lucrecia Botín, Alvaro Longoria from Spain’s Morena Films and Andy Paterson from the UK’s Sympathetic Ink. Alexandra Lebret, of France’s Mare Nostrum co-produces with Laura Bickford as executive producer.

The film tells the true story of nine-year old Maria (Allen) and her father Marcelino (Banderas) who, in 1879, found...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 19, 2014

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril get to know each other in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

The rambunctious 1990 dark comedy Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s (Broken Embraces) colorful and controversial tribute to the pleasures and perils of Stockholm syndrome.

The film stars Antonio Banderas (Haywire) as an unbalanced but alluring former mental patient and Victoria Abril (Walking Vengeance) as the B-movie and porn star he takes prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him.

A highly unconventional romance that came on the spike heels of Almodóvar’s international sensation Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, this is a splashy, sexy central work in the career of one of the international cinema’s most beloved and provocative auteurs, radiantly shot by the director’s great cinematographer José Luis Alcaine...

Passion

Written and directed by Brian De Palma

France/Germany, 2012

Noomi Rapace gracefully, viciously owns her role as the ambitious Isabelle;, ascending a multinational company ladder one rung below the sociopathic succubus Christine (a sinisterly focused McAdams, as though Mean Girls grew up). Professional power plays of catty words and sexual possession are maneuvered, and soon love, humiliation, hallucination and murder are on the table. Contemporary life’s integration with communication technology grows exponentially treacherous as the characters manipulate it against one another – a motif Sound on Sight learned during a post-show Q&A that the auteur conjured when in a café, hearing a phone ring and ring and ring while its owner sifted through a multitude of devices to determine which needed answering.

Aided by a delicious Pino Donaggio score and José Luis Alcaine’s genius cinematography, De Palma conducts this rousingly sensual caper from frame one to final...

Following an extensive stint during the 1980’s and early 1990’s purveying iconic crime dramas – works that would all but define his career – Brian De Palma as of late seems infatuated with deeply seeded noir and twisting thrillers with a noticeable erotic leaning. Passion is his third late stage foray (after both Femme Fatale and The Black Dhalia) into this sordid world. And while not as woefully misguided as that latter period effort, this remake of the 2010 French film Crime d’amour is more laughable than thrilling. As the dunderheaded revelations pile up against its debauched backdrop, Passion plays out more like a made for television adaptation of an erotic novel than a riveting tale of corporate backstabbing and misplaced trust.

Forever the visual storyteller, De Palma and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine certainly don’t skimp on style and unique, expressive shots and interesting alterations to the colour palates of different scenes.