Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) DVD Review

Rating: U
DVD Release Date: 
26th November 2012
Directed By: 
Georges Méliès
Cast:
Georges Méliès, Victor André ,Bleuette Bernon
Buy: [DVD] [1902]


I can say without a doubt that A Trip to the Moon is one of the most intriguing films I've ever seen. Clocking in at about 16 minutes, Georges Méliès' seminal work bristles with imagination and invention. It's weird to see common film techniques pioneered this early on. Matte paintings, jump cut effects and the like are all here, a few years after the medium was invented. These types of effects were very common until about 15 years ago when CGI started hogging the spotlight. The film's most iconic image of the Man in the Moon getting a rocket stuck in his eye is still as striking today as it ever was, with the influence of that one image alone being felt in everything from Futurama to The Mighty Boosh.

So, what can I say about it? Well, the plot is easy enough to grasp hold of. Some astronomers want to go to the Moon. They built a rocket that looks like a bullet and shoot themselves out of a massive cannon. They land on the Moon and soon discover it's filled with aliens known as Selenites. After they defeat them, the astronomers and a captured Selenite journey back to Earth and are met with a heroes' welcome. The end. It's all very charming. The creativity is the thing that struck me the most about it. I can't imagine what audiences back in 1902 thought of it, I bet it blew their minds clean across the room. Some of the tricks implemented here (such as an umbrella turning into a huge mushroom that grows) must have left them scratching their heads. Kinda throws how spoiled we are in terms of presentation and effects in this day and age into sharp focus. There's a bit after the astronomers are captured and led to the Selenite leader. One of the astronomers picks him up and dashes him on the floor where he explodes into a cloud of smoke. I let out a little chuckle and realised I was laughing at a 110 year old joke. That's pretty special.

The version sent to me was the recently restored colourised version of the film, complete with the previously lost ending and a new soundtrack by French band Air. The colourisation can be distracting at times, but it's nice enough. It's cool to know the intentions for costume colours and things. Without colourisation, I wouldn't have known that the moon bleeds red blood after getting shot with the rocket. Not being an expert on the film, I'm not sure if the film was accompanied by live piano music when it was projected and if so, I would have preferred that but the Air score is decent enough.

A Trip to the Moon is one of those films that managed to capture just what was possible with the new and exciting world of cinema at just the right time. You can easily see how it inflamed the imagination and inspired audiences for generations. On top of all that, it's arguably the first science-fiction film, so think about that when you sit down to watch your precious Blade Runner or whatever. It's really difficult to talk about the film without sounding like some kind of pipe-puffing loser professor, but it's one of the most important films in cinematic history. It's good to remember your roots.

★★★★★

Ben Browne

The Czechoslovak New Wave: A Collection DVD Review

Second Run has released a limited-edition three-disk set, The Czechoslovak New Wave: A Collection, which features three films from the 1960s: Diamonds of the Night (Jan Němek, 1964), Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, 1965) and The Cremator (Juraj Herz, 1968). The Czech New Wave was a very brief episode in European cinema that is probably best known for the fact that Milos Forman came out of it (Forman later directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus).

During the short five-year period from 1963 to 1968, the finest films of this movement were very much influenced by surrealism or were, conversely, very light comedies. It’s a strange mixture but it works. This box set is a good introduction to both sides of this dichotomy. Diamonds of the Night is an almost silent film about two teenage boys who take a train from one concentration camp to another. There is a spell-binding tracking shot that follows the boys as they escape the train, which goes on for at least three minutes. After their escape, the rest of story is told through fragmented memory and fantasy sequences of before they were captured, their capture, escape and re-capture. It was based on a then-unpublished survivor’s book: in the true story, the person was captured and escaped three times and had no memory of how he made his final escape.

Němek owes a huge debt to Robert Bresson, the minimalist French director, but also his direct opposite, the surrealist Luis Buñuel. The film has a very overt homage to Un Chien Andalou (1929) in a fantasy sequence where the boys are lying on the ground and one’s hand is covered by ants and later face. This juxtaposition of surrealism and realist/minimalist filmmaking is very interesting—it’s just a fantastic, moving, hour-long film.

Intimate Lighting is the “worst” film of the collection, but only because the other two are so much better. It is a light comedy about a group of classical musicians who are in a house rehearsing for an upcoming concert performance, and concerns their interactions with each other. Director Ivan Passer is better-known for his early collaborations with Milos Forman, whose early films he wrote, but he also directed the fantastic neo-noir Cutter’s Way (1981). His directing career seems to have taken off much more in America than in Czechoslovakia: most of his films have been in English.

The Cremator is quite possibly the best film in the collection. It follows a professional cremator in Nazi-occupied Prague. He becomes increasingly deranged, and then gets involved with the Nazis. It is a black comedy: a surreal and unsettling film with a great performance by Rudolf Hrusínský, who resembles an Asian Peter Lorre (although he is not, in fact, Asian.) This film has some of the most impressive use of fish-eye lens shooting in cinema, right up there with Citizen Kane and Seconds, as well as some truly astonishing tracking shots and angles, and imagery that will never leave you.

The director Juraj Herz was a puppeteer and animator before becoming a filmmaker, making him an outcast amongst the Czech New Wave crowd as he had not attended film school with the rest. This background gave him a surrealist animator’s look at film. The dvd also an introduction by the Brothers Quay. The Cremator really must be seen to believed it’s indescribable.

Overall, the box set is a very good value for money: two excellent films and one good one. After the failed Czech Uprising of 1968, the majority of New Wave filmmakers left Czechoslovakia, some going to America and others to Europe. Once you’ve watched these, it would also be worth having a look at Cutter’s Way to see how practices that originated in the Czech New Wave impacted American film. Interesting, the director of Diamonds of the Night has recently stated making low-budget/no-budget digital films that hearken back to the experimental nature of this early work, so the story does not end here.

Ian Schultz

Diamonds of the night (15)
★★★★★

Intimate Lighting (PG)
★★★1/2☆

The Cremator (15)
★★★★★

Directed By: Jan Nemec, Ivan Passer, Juraj Herz
Cast:  Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlasta Chramostová , Zdenek Bezusek, Karel Blazek, Ladislav Jánsky, 

Buy: The Czechoslovak New Wave - A Collection (3 Film Box Set) [DVD]

The Passion of Joan Arc Blu-Ray Review

Made in 1928 by the legendary Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc has recently been remastered by Eureka Entertainment for its Masters of Cinema Range. It had previously only been available to English-speaking viewers as a Criterion release. The film charts the final days of Joan of Arc: her trial, the suffering she went through physically and mentally, and obviously ends with her execution by being burned at the stake for being a witch.

The film is truly relentless throughout. The Masters of Cinema DVD includes 97- and a 84-minute versions; the difference between the two is the frame rate (speed), not the footage. The release also includes the Lo Duca version, which was the cut most widely distributed and was famously used in Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa Vie (1962), probably the first introduction most people have had to this film. This was the version most people will have seen until the complete cut was found in, fittingly enough, in a Danish mental hospital in 1981.

The actress who plays Joan of Arc, Maria Falconetti, is seen here in her second and last film role. She was mostly known as a stage actress and her presence is stagey: she speaks little, but there are extraordinary close-ups of her eyes throughout the film. However, it is probably one of the five greatest performances ever committed to film. Unlike Florence Delay in Robert Bresson’s later attempt to film the Joan of Arc story, Falconetti has a shaven head (this is one of the biggest flaws of Bresson’s film as it is historically inaccurate.) The also includes Antonin Artaud as the monk Massiou. Artaud later stated the film was meant to reveal Joan as a victim of one of the most terrible perversions of justice committed by state or church.

When the film came out it was very controversial in France, partly because Dreyer was Danish and not Catholic, and partly because of the rumoured casting of Lillian Gish as Joan. Gish was then most well known for her role in Birth of a Nation (she later in life starred in Night of the Hunter) It was edited by the Archbishop of Paris and government censors against Dreyer’s will, leaving the director very angry.

The Passion of Joan of Arc clearly owes some debt to German expressionism, which was even more obvious in Dreyer’s next film, Vampyr (1932). Visually it is certainly the greatest silent film ever made due to the lead performance and the incredible set designs. It was shot by Rudolph Maté, who later became very well known for his work as a film noir director, most notably D.O.A. (1950), and also shot for Hitchcock, Welles and Lubitsch. Paul Schrader has praised “the architecture of Joan's world, which literally conspires against her; like the faces of her inquisitors, the halls, doorways, furniture are on the offensive, striking, swooping at her with oblique angles, attacking her with hard-edged chunks of black and white."

This is a film that should be watched continuously, so it is gratifying that it is now available on home video again. It was voted into the top 10 in the Sight and Sound critics’ greatest films poll in 2012, and has recently been shown at the Leeds Film Festival and elsewhere with a live score. If you are a major fan like me, you may also want to have the Criterion version, which has the superior “Voices of Light” score (one of many scores that have been composed for it over the years.) Dreyer never selected a definitive score for The Passion of Joan of Arc, so unlike some other films of that era (such as Nosferatu and Metropolis) it was left open to interpretation by classical and pop composers – there have been many scores made, even one by Nick Cave.

Ian Schultz

★★★★★

Rating:PG
Re-Release BD/DVD Date: 26th November 2012 (UK&Ireland)
Directed By: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Cast:  Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain , André Berley
Buy The Passion of Joan Arc: Blu-ray / DVD / Double Play (Blu-ray + DVD) - Steelbook

Southern Comfort Blu-Ray Review

Southern Comfort (1981) is a film directed by Walter Hill, best known for The Warriors, The Driver and his long-lasting involvement in the Alien series. The film is very influenced by Deliverance (1972), which is not unsurprising since Hill has said numerous times that John Boorman’s earlier film Point Blank (1967) and especially its screenplay was a revelation for him—so obviously he had also seen Boorman’s Deliverance.

In a nutshell, the story is about patrol of the Louisiana Army National Guard who are out on training maneuvers in the swamps. They deeply upset the local Cajun population, so badly that eventually the swap-dwellers want to kill the Guardsmen, who then need to evade capture (in other words, not dissimilar to the rafters versus hillbillies plot in Deliverance). It stars Keith Carradine, Powers Booth and Fred Ward, and also features Peter Coyote. Southern Comfort is one of the last American films of that era to touch on the post-Vietnam conflict.  Co-screenwriter David Giler said he knew from the get-go that it would be seen as a metaphor for Vietnam. Giler has worked continuously with Hill, most notably on Alien.

It is a well-shot film, and also notable for its good score by Ry Cooder. Cooder has collaborated with Hill several times, and is also well-known for his score for Paris, Texas (1985). The cinematography of the Louisiana bayou is excellent, making you feel that you are actually there.

Southern Comfort is a solid man-against-nature and man-against-man thriller with obvious political undertones. When it came out it was not very successful, much like most of Walter Hill’s films with the obvious exception of his work on the Alien franchise, but over the years it has grown in stature. Many people consider it a superior film to Deliverance. Although I would not put it above Deliverance, it is well worth watching, especially for a very good early performance by Powers Boothe, who later starred in Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980: another little-seen film that deserved to be better known.) Hill remains an underrated director whose early films should be re-evaluated (The Driver, for example, was obviously a major inspiration for last year’s Drive). This is one of his very finest films, and is certainly better to watch in its new Blu-Ray format release from Second Sight Films, which includes a good-quality interview with Walter Hill.

Ian Schultz

★★★★☆

Rating:15
BD/DVD Release Date: 26th November 2012 (uk)
Directed By:Walter Hill
Cast:Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote,
Buy Southern Comfort: (Limited Edition packaging) [Bluray] / DVD

Stanley Kubrick's Fear And Desire To Get Masters Of Cinema Release

Stanley Kubrick’s FEAR AND DESIRE will be released as part of Eureka Entertainment’s MASTERS OF CINEMA Series on Blu-ray & DVD on 28 January 2013

Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing on Blu-ray and DVD a new restoration in a proper release for the first time ever in the UK of the legendary Stanley Kubrick's debut feature, FEAR AND DESIRE, available from 28 January 2013.  It is the only Kubrick film besides A Clockwork Orange that was nearly impossible to see in the UK for several decades. 

This release completes the fact that now every single one of Stanley Kubrick's films will be available on Blu-ray/DVD.  Full details of the special features have just been released.  The Masters of Cinema edition will contain Stanley Kubrick's complete early shorts (Day of the Fight, Flying Padre & The Seafarers) made in the run-up to FEAR AND DESIRE, presented completely for the first time on an official release.  In addition to the shorts, there will also be a new and exclusive video introduction to the films by Kubrick scholar, film-critic, and Cahiers du cinéma American correspondent Bill Krohn shot in LA in November 2012 & a packed booklet featuring new and exclusive essays on FEAR AND DESIRE and the early shorts by Kubrick scholar, professor, and film critic James Naremore. 

“[A] highly promising first effort by one of America's premiere filmmakers.” - TV Guide's Movie Guide  

From the director of such classic masterworks as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey , A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. 

Independently financed with contributions from Stanley Kubrick's family and friends in an era when an "independent cinema" was still far from the norm, Fear and Desire first saw release in 1953 at the Guild Theater in New York, thanks to the enterprising distributor Joseph Burstyn. Now, with this new restoration carried out in 2012 by The Library of Congress, a film that for decades has remained nearly impossible to see will at last appear in a proper release in the United Kingdom.

Kubrick's debut feature tells the story of a war waged (in the present? in the future?) between two forces. In the midst of the conflict, a plane carrying four soldiers crashes behind enemy lines. From here out, it is kill or be killed: a female hostage is taken on account of being a potential informer; an enemy general and his aide are discovered during a scouting mission... What lies in store for this ragtag group of killers, between their perilous landing in the forest, and the final raft-float downstream... all this constitutes the tale of Kubrick's precocious entry into feature filmmaking. 

Bringing into focus for the first time the same thematic concerns that would obsess the director in such masterworks as Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket, Fear and Desire marks the outset of the dazzling career and near-complete artistic freedom which to this day remains unparalleled in the annals of Hollywood history. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Stanley Kubrick's Fear and Desire in its gorgeous new restoration on both Blu-ray and DVD.

SPECIAL BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITIONS:

• New HD restoration of the film by The Library of Congress, presented in 1080p on the Blu-ray. 

• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. 

• Stanley Kubrick's complete early shorts, made in the run-up to FEAR AND DESIRE, presented completely for the first time on an official release: Day of the Fight, Flying Padre & The Seafarers 

• A new and exclusive video introduction to the films by Kubrick scholar, film-critic, and Cahiers du cinéma American correspondent Bill Krohn shot in LA in November 2012 

• A packed booklet featuring new and exclusive essays on FEAR AND DESIRE and the early shorts by Kubrick scholar, professor, and film critic James Naremore 

Pre-Order/Buy Fear And Desire: DVD / Blu-ray

The Muppet Christmas Carol Review

2012 has seen not only the bi-centenary of Charles Dickens' birth, but also celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the strangest screen adaptations of perhaps his most famous ghost story (of which he wrote several), A Christmas Carol. Directed by Brian Henson, the son of the late Muppet master Jim Henson,The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), starring Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat, as well as a wonderfully sour Michael Caine, is sheer bliss from start to finish.

Charles Dickens' seasonal tale, which is not only a warning against greed and the love of money, but also a classic example of the benefits of doing good to your fellow man, is brought to life by noneother than that loveable team of misfits, the Muppets.

No matter who you are or where you come from Jim Henson's mad offspring have an indefinable quality which has universal appeal. As their successful reinvention in The Muppets (2011) proved, their brand of magic is timeless, which also means now is the ideal opportunity to reissue one of their most succeful and best loved big screen outings.

The quirky characteristics of the various members of the Muppet troupe make them the perfect candidates to bring Dickens' supernatural tale to life. The role of the quick tongued and buxom Emily, matriarch of the Cratchit family was tailormade for Miss Piggy whilst Kermit is ideal as her kind hearted husband Bob. There are a few diviations from Dickens' original version, but giving Scrooge's dead partner Jacob Marley a brother called Robert, allows for grouchy Muppet regulars Statler and Waldorf to perform their popular rountine of putdowns and corny jokes. The casting as a whole is pure genius on the part of Casting Directors Suzanne Crowley, Mike Fenton and Gilly Poole, and brings a breath of fresh air to a story which often appears stale through overfamiliarity.

The humans, though mainly in supporting roles, add believability to the whole affair whilst not detracting from the impact of the film's main stars. Other than Steven Macintosh as Scrooge's nephew Fred, Caine is the only other human to play a major role in the film. His interpretation of Scrooge, the crotchety and miserable moneylender, is marvelously chilling yet pitiful, inducing sympathy from the viewer as he is shown the mess he has made of his life and given one last chance to mend his ways before his time runs out.

If there was to be any downside to the film one would imagine it would result from the addition of the sacharine and fluffy songs without which no Muppet production would be complete. However the clever placement of these serves to strengthen the storyline, bringing a lighter touch to what can sometimes be a brooding and cautionary tale.

Christmas is ultimately a time for children, and the rerelease of this magical family treat will be the perfect antidote to the big budget blockbusters which take over many local multiplexes at this time of year.

Cleaver Patterson

★★★★★

Rating: U
Re-Release Date: 23rd November 2012 (UK)
Directed By: Brian Henson
Cast: Michael Caine, Steven Mackintosh, Kermit, Miss Piggy

UK Trailer + Release Details For Midnight Son

Monster Pictures present MIDNIGHT SON, the story of a young man's thirst for human blood which threatens to destroy his relationship with the woman he loves. The film is set to receive a limited UK theatrical release on 11 January 2013.

From the director of The Blair Witch Project, MIDNIGHT SON is the story of Jacob (Zak Kilberg,Zombie Strippers!, Lincoln Heights), a young man confined to a life of isolation, due to a rare skin disorder that prevents him from being exposed to sunlight. His world opens up when he meets Mary (Maya Parish, How I Met Your Mother), a local bartender, and falls in love. Tragically, Jacob’s actions become increasingly bizarre as he struggles to cope with the effects of his worsening condition.

Forced by the disease to drink human blood for sustenance, he must control his increasingly violent tendencies as local law enforcement narrow their focus on him as a suspect in a series of grisly murders.

Directed by Scott Leberecht, a well-known name on the festival circuit, MIDNIGHT SON is a twisting, terrifying tale of vampirism and humanity and how the two conditions can intertwine. Having wowed audiences when it received its UK premiere at Frightfest, the film was recently screened to a packed audience at Horrorthon in Dublin. The film receives a limited UK theatrical release on 11 January 2013 followed by a DVD release in time for Valentine’s Day on 11 February 2013.

Pre-Order Midnight Son: DVD

Dingly Dells, National Trust & Pasta Sauce. Watch New Sightseers Clips

Caravaning will never be the same when Ben Wheatley's dark comedy horror Sightseers is released in UK&Ireland next Friday 30th November. If you ever had the idea holidays in our fine lands was dull, boring thanks to our anti heros Chris and Tina (Chris Oram & Alice Lowe) you may now think twice in jumping a plane over to Benidorm or Torremolinos. Tonight our friends over at Studiocanal  have sent us over a brand new clip entitled 'Dingly Dell' which sees our protagonists roam the countryside for an ideal pitch for the caravan, Alice writes a postcard for her mother telling her about Chris and  the availability of her pasta sauce packets in Yorkshire! But as Chris finds an ideal spot to park he might have someone else determined to get that elusive caravan spot! Just below the new we have another new clip called 'National Trust' plus a quick tv spot that slipped under the radar last week.

Here at The People's Movies & Cinehouse The Kill List unfortunately didn't go down too well, more frustration than total resentment for the film.A couple weeks ago we had 2 reviewers (1 for each site, reviews online next week) and though both reviewers had different opinions on the film but the outcome is Sightseers looks the better film. What we do love is Chris' (Oram) 'their not human, their Daily Mail readers' which went down well, I'm really looking forward to seeing Sightseers as the cinema I volunteer at there is a few 'non-humans' there!

Sightseers will be released in UK&Ireland 30th November, 2013 USA.

Chris (Steve Oram) wants to show Tina (Alice Lowe) his world and he wants to do it his way – on a journey through the British Isles in his beloved Abbey Oxford Caravan. Tina’s led a sheltered life and there are things that Chris needs her to see – the Crich Tramway Museum, the Ribblehead Viaduct, the Keswick Pencil Museum and the rolling countryside that accompanies these wonders in his life.But it doesn’t take long for the dream to fade. Litterbugs, noisy teenagers and pre-booked caravan sites, not to mention Tina’s meddling mother, soon conspire to shatter Chris’s dreams and send him, and anyone who rubs him up the wrong way, over a very jagged edge…

tv spot

Barry Levinson's The Bay Gets UK Release Date

It's this time of the year you wonder if certain films shown across the Atlantic will ever make it to the UK. Next Spring Momentum Pictures will bring one of the films to blighty, Barry Levinson's 

The Bay

The Bay comes from the team that brought us the horror hits “Sinister” and “Insidious” and the award-winning director of “Rain Man” team up to deliver a stark, disturbing and truly nerve-shredding tale of an ecological nightmare.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, you find out you can’t even drink it! Veteran Hollywood blockbuster director Barry Levinson brings a rare pedigree to the horror genre utilising a variety of footage formats – from mobile phones, TV reports and CCTV to 911 recordings and web cam transmissions – to present a realistic and totally believable shocker. An intelligent and thought-provoking horror movie with enough gore and stomach-churning imagery to satisfy even the most hardened horror fans, “The Bay” could put you off seafood and even drinking water for quite some time after the credits roll.

The quaint coastal town of Claridge, Maryland thrives on the safe, tranquil and abundant waters of Chesapeake Bay. During their annual Independence Day celebrations, a gruesome plague is unleashed, quickly infecting the residents and turning them against each other. A brutal and harrowing creature feature for the 21st century, “The Bay” graphically chronicles the descent of a small town into absolute terror.

The Bay is directed by Academy Award winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man; Sleepers), produced by  Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity; Sinister; Insidious), Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity; Insidious), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity; Insidious) and rising star Kristen Connolly (The Cabin In The Woods).The Bay is going to be released cinematically and be prepared to be very scared of water when it arrives on  1st March 2013

Jude Law And Michael Gambon To Be Honored At British Independent Film Awards

Recipients of both The Richard Harris Award and The Variety Award were announced today by Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson, joint Directors, The Moët British Independent Film Awards.

Sir Michael Gambon will receive the Richard Harris Award and Jude Law The Variety Award at the awards ceremony on Sunday 9^thDecember at Old Billingsgate.

The Richard Harris Award was introduced in 2002 in honour of Richard Harris and recognises outstanding contribution to British film by an actor.  Previous winners have included John Hurt, David Thewlis, Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter and most recently Ralph Fiennes in 2011.

The honour this year is a poignant one, given that it was Richard Harris’s role of the beloved Hogwarts headmaster, ‘Dumbledore’ in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which Sir Michael Gambon bravely stepped into, following Harris’ passing in 2002.

Sir Michael Gambon’s career as an actor spans six decades, working across theatre, radio, television and cinema. Gambon’s iconic role in the television serial The Singing Detective won him his first of four Best Actor BAFTA TV Awards and roles in dramas such as Maigret made him a household name. The controversial The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; The Wings of the Dove; Mary Reilly; Sleepy Hollow; Gosford Park; Layer Cake; Charlotte Gray and The King’s Speech are just a few of the credits that have established Gambon as a leading light of the British film industry.

His work in Hollywood includes Michael Mann’s The Insider; Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd. Since staring in the Harry Potter franchise, Gambon is known by audiences of all ages around the globe. Sir Michael Gambon’s most recent film role was in Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet which will be released in the UK in January. He is currently on stage starring in All That Fall at The Arts Theatre.

Jude Law will pick-up the Variety Award which recognises an actor, director, writer or producer who has helped to focus the international spotlight on the UK.  The Variety Award was received last year by Kenneth Branagh and has previously been awarded to Liam Neeson, Sir Michael Caine, Daniel Craig, Dame Helen Mirren and Richard Curtis to name a few.

Jude Law is a quintessentially British actor who has become a truly international star. Never afraid to challenge himself, Law has worked with some of the world’s most respected filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg (AI: Artificial Intelligence); Martin Scorsese (Hugo & Aviator); David Cronenberg (eXistenZ); Sam Mendes (The Road To Perdition) Steven Soderbergh (Contagion) and Clint Eastwood (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). Jude Law made a huge international impression with his performance as Dickie Greenleaf in Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley for which he was nominated for Academy and Golden Globe Awards and was awarded a BAFTA for “Best Supporting Actor”. He again received Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his role in Minghella’s Cold Mountain.

In 2009 he took on Hamlet in the West End and later on Broadway.  He was nominated for an Olivier and a Tony Award as Best Actor. He was multi-nominated again for “Anna Christie” at the Donmar Warehouse in 2011 and will return to the stage in 2013 as Henry V for director Michael Grandage.  Law has consistently proved himself to be a versatile actor and has worked with a host of international filmmakers such as Wong Kar Wai (My Blueberry Nights), Jean-Jacques Annaud (Enemy at The Gates) and Fernando Meirelles (360). Yet Law constantly has a foot firmly planted in the British film industry with roles in Anna Karenina and Minghella’s Breaking & Entering, as well as playing the ever popular Dr Watson in Guy Ritchie’s hugely successful Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which has reinforced his status as one of the most bankable British actors working in cinema today. Jude is currently shooting the very British dark comedy Dom Hemingway in which he plays the title role. His other forthcoming projects include Side Effects - his second collaboration with Steven Soderbergh; Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Both Michael Gambon and Jude Law will be present at Old Billingsgate on the 9^th December to receive their awards.

Previous winners of the prestigious Best British Independent Film award include Tyrannosaur, The King’s Speech, Moon, Control, Slumdog Millionaire, The Constant Gardener and This Is England.