Do You Have Secrets? Watch the New Trailer for Neil Jordan's Byzantium

From Interviewing vampires to dancing with wolves, Byzantium is Neil Jordan's long awaited return to the horror genre which has given the Irish director his better critical moments and tonight we get another look at the film in a new UK trailer.

Byzantium is an new look on the vampire genre from a female perspective , its a look into an ancient world that follows no popular crazes or even traditional/familiar  constraints you expect from the genre. Starring Gemma Arterton, Saorise Ronan as Clara and Elanor mother/ daughter on the run from the male only Brotherhood which sees the pair constantly on the run. They find refuge in a small coastal run down hotel (Byzantium), things start to look up for Clara&Elanor however as Elanor decides to reveal her secret to a local ill stricken boy (Caleb Landry Jones ) their 200 year secret comes under threat which sees the past catch up on them.

I was fortunate to see the UK premiere which took place at Film 4 Glasgow Frightfest back in February, I did enjoy it, an ambitious, visually wonderful looking film, it wasn't just quite there in terms to regard it as a classic like Jordan's previous stint in the genre.The trailer does reveal some new footage not seen in the last trailer, showcasing the films atmospheric and melancholic tone. In this video you even get a homage to another 'vampire' legend from Vlad Impaler times Countess Bathory when Gemma Arterton baths in blood.

Byzantium opens in UK&Ireland on 31 st May (28th June USA) co-starring Sam Riley,Jonny Lee Miller,Tom Hollander and Barry Cassin.

Synopsis

Two mysterious women seek refuge in a run-down coastal resort. Clara meets lonely Noel, who provides shelter in his deserted guesthouse, Byzantium. Schoolgirl Eleanor befriends Frank and tells him their lethal secret. They were born 200 years ago and survive on human blood. As knowledge of their secret spreads, their past catches up on them with deathly consequence.

[Update 19th April 2013 - Studiocanal have sent us a brand new UK Quad poster check it out below]

source: Yahoo! (via The Peoples Movies)

Teen In Trouble For Tiff Winning Blackbird Trailer

Alot of films win awards at film festivals but when its one of the big Festivals such as Toronto you have to take notice. Jason Buxton's Blackbird was that film winning Best Canadian film at last year's festival a joint win with Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral and tonight before the film starts its tour of the American/Canadian cinemas a brand new trailer has been released.

Blackbird tells the story of an alienated teenager's online threat ignites fear in a small community, in this disturbing and perceptive look at how our media-fuelled, post-Columbine culture can transform typical teen angst into intimations of murder.

How ironic most of all relevant Blackbird plot line to whats happening with Social media right now  and the dangers that occur using it. Let's be honest we've all experienced teen angst in our lives some of us suppressed others let it out but no technology has evolved and so are the way frustrated souls let out their anger too.

No word on a UK release but Blackbird will be released in Canada 10th May 2013. The film also stars Connor Jessup, Alexia Fast, Michael Buie, and Alex Ozerov.


source:Thefilmstage

Thoughts on Spring Breakers

Harmony Korine has finally made his pop movie and it might just be the most definitive piece of art made about this sweaty, writhing, ritualistic mass of American grotesquery known as spring break.

What goes on at places like St. Pete Beach is a truly surreal subcultural phenomenon ripe for documenting, and Korine does this sun-kissed Sodom and Gomorrah justice by not only surveying its obvious seductive hedonism, but also the complex moral implications of those who willingly participate. His four female leads act almost as Dantean test subjects, descending further into the dark heart of spring break until only those who prove amorally pure can subsume the true mantle of “Spring Breaker”.

Korine frames this the only way he knows how, through a heightened form of reality whose guiding mantra dictates: “Just pretend it’s like a videogame; like it’s a movie”. In what may be his only transparently drawn social critique, he flattens the moral landscape in accordance to its perceived value. The iconography of Scarface and flashy boardwalk arcades bleeds through the hyper-saturated neon, and in true videogame fashion there is a final boss and an orgiastic gun-battle finale, which takes place at a Tony Montana-styled criminal fortress.

But are the Breakers who emerge from the bloodbath victorious to be celebrated or reviled? This is where Korine shows surprising amounts of restraint, unwilling to deem the gat-toting avenging angels as either fallen souls or empowered saints outright. The real answer is somewhere between the two. The Breakers’ telephoned check-ins with mum and dad in the closing scenes are hilariously deceptive; a possible indication of their ultimate disillusionment from reality. But they also read like the calming assurances of girls who have made peace with the monster within. The girls who manage to shoot their way to the finish line do so out of free will and determination, and considering the materialistic and nihilistic lifestyle they fought to defend, that’s as scary as it is admirable.



It’s a stroke of genius not to have all the girls be four parts of the same whole; an agency-robbing hive mind. Selena Gomez’s Faith quickly finds that what was initially sold to her as a spiritual quest has indeed led to spiritual destitution, where rooms are rife with skeezy guys asserting their male gaze in uncomfortable, genuinely threatening ways. That pool hall scene simmers with enough racial/sexual subtext to fuel its own movie (we’ll leave it to Larry Clark to tackle that one). Her hasty departure from the group subsequently feels completely justified—that point is probably where most sane people would yell “Stop the ride. I want to get off.” Unfortunately for her, spring break isn’t for sane people—and that’s where Korine’s fascination begins.

Korine’s ambiguity, or rather his non-committal stance towards moralising, allows the film to toe a tricky line between relish and repulsion: the adrenaline rush of a crime spree or an occasional drunken hotel fuckfest isn’t denied. Yet there’s no escaping the self-destructive pall that hangs over the mounting excess.

“Look at all my shit,” I imagine the film saying to us. “Redistribution of phallic symbolism y’all. Undressing the hedonist fantasy up on screen, y’all. Pretty lights in every colour, y’all.” This collective dream of the MTV generation, powered by sexual and societal liberation, which adheres to its own warped logic and holds its cherished cultural signifiers dear, is an endlessly fascinating, quintessentially American concoction. Essentially a designated window for primal transgressions that somehow snuck up the ranks to become a legitimate rite-of-passage, spring break is loud and obnoxious and bizarre and singular and I can’t look away.

★★★★☆

Pierre Badiola

Only God Forgives To Bling Ring: The 2013 Cannes Film Festival Line Up

You always know the summer is virtually upon us when the granddaddy of film festivals launches their programme and today 2013 Cannes Film Festival line up was unveiled.

As previous announced the festival will open in a party mood when Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby opens the festival on 15th May an unusual move as the film is out in USA 5 days before. Jérôme Salle‘s Zulu starring Forrest Whittaker and Orlando Bloom will have the honour of closing the festival.

The usual array of expected films and surprise choices make up this years line up with Nicholas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives expected to excites the Cannes audiences.Sofia Coppola's Bling Ring headline's Un Certain Regard section with James Franco's As I Lay Dying,Claire Denis Les Salaud also making up the numbers.

In the Competition the film that's too 'gay' to be shown on American Cinemas steven Soderbergh's Liberace pic Behind the Candelabra will be screened on the big screen. This film will only be screened on HBO Stateside as will Stepan Frear's Muhammad Ali's Final Fight (Frank Langella, Danny Glover)but here it'll get a cinematic outing.

Roman Polanski this year has the luxury of having 2 films with Venus In Furs and motor racing documentary Week End Of A Champion. So Are you thinking is that it? Fear not the full list of 2013 Cannes Film Festival  films you can be find below...



In Competition
Only God Forgives, dir Nicolas Winding Refn
Borgman, dir Alex Can Warmerdam
La Grande Bellezza, dir Paulo Sorrentino
Behind the Candelabra, dir Steven Soderbergh
La Venus a la Fourrure, dir Roman Polanski
Nebraska, dir Alexander Payne
Jeune et Jolie, dir François Ozon
La Vie d'Adele, dir Abdellatif Kechiche
Wara No Tate, dir Takashi Miike
Soshite Chichi Ni Naru, dir Kore-Eda Hirokazu
Tian Zhu Ding, dir Jia Zhangke
Grisgris, dir Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
The Immigrant, dir James Gray
Heli, dir Amat Escalante
Le Passe, dir Asghar Farhadi
Michael Kohlhaas, dir Arnaud Despallieres
Inside Llewyn Davis, dir Ethan and Joel Coen
Un Chateau en Italie, dir Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi

Un Certain Regard
The Bling Ring, dir Sofia Coppola
L'Inconnu Du La, dir Alain Guiraudie
Bends, dir Flora Lau
L'Image Manquante, dir Rithy Panh
La Jaula De Oro, dir Diego Quemada-Diez
Anonymous, dir Mohammad Rasoulof
Sarah Préfère La Course, dir Chloé Robichaud
Grand Central, dir Rebecca Zlotowski
Fruitvale Statio, dir Ryan Coogler
Les Salauds, dir Claire Denis
Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan, dir Lav Diaz
As I Lay Dying, dir James Franco
Miele, dir Valeria Golino
Omar, dir Hany Abu-Assad
Death March, dir Adolfo Alix Jr

Cinefondation
Special Screenings
Weekend Of A Champion, dir Roman Polanski
Seduced And Abandoned, dir James Toback
Otdat Konci, dir Taisia Igumentseva
Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, dir Stephen Frears
Stop The Pounding Heart, dir Robero Minervini

Midnight Screenings
Monsoon Shootout, dir Amit Kumar
Blind Detective, dir Johnnie To
Homage To Jerry Lewis
Max Rose, dir Daniel Noah

Out Of Competiton
All Is Lost by J.C Chandor
Blood Ties by Guillaume Canet

66TH Cannes International Film Festival takes place between 15th until 26th May.
source: Thepeoplesmovies

Nicholas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives To Screen At Cannes Film Festival

Nicolas Winding Refn’s hotly-anticipated ONLY GOD FORGIVES, confirmed to screen in Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will open across the UK and Ireland in summer 2013, through Icon Film Distribution and Lionsgate.

Bangkok. Julian (Ryan Gosling) runs a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. He has everything he wants for and is respected in the criminal underworld though, deep inside, he feels empty.
When Julian’s brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance (Vithaya Pansringarm). Chang allows the father to kill his daughter’s murderer, then ‘restores order’ by chopping off the man’s right hand. Julian’s mother Jenna (Kristin Scott Thomas) - the head of a powerful criminal organization - arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and ‘raise hell’.
Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release… but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who won Best Director at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival for the international box office smash Drive. The film reunites Refn with Drive star Ryan Gosling (The Place Beyond The Pines, Gangster Squad) and also features Kristin Scott Thomas (In The House, The English Patient), Vithaya Pansringarm (The Hangover Part II), Tom Burke (Donkey Punch) and Thai pop star Yayaying. The film’s score is by award-winning Drive composer Cliff Martinez (Spring Breakers, Contagion).

Stay tuned we'll bring you news on the line up today when we get it. Whilst we wait have another look at the Red Band Trailer For Only God Forgives here.

John Cassavetes Opening Night To Get BFI UK Home Release This May

The latest release in the BFI’s John Cassavetes Collection, out on 27 May 2013, is the award-winning Opening Night (1977), starring Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes and Ben Gazarra.

Released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, it is presented in a Dual Format Edition (also contains a DVD disc). Numerous extras include an audio commentary, a documentary – Memories of John and Peter Falk (Columbo) talking about John Cassavetes.

Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play about a woman in denial at the onset of her autumn years. When Myrtle witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, it leads to a crisis of confidence in both her professional and her personal life which threatens to undermine the whole production.

Featuring a startling and compelling performance by Gena Rowlands, which won her the Silver Bear for Best Actress in 1978, Opening Night is arguably one of John Cassavetes’ most self-reflexive works and offers an insightful and intriguing evocation of the theatrical experience from both sides of the proscenium.

Click here to see Peter Falk talking about the director, along with a short clip from the film:

Special Features

• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
• Audio commentary by Tom Charity, Mike Ferris and Bo Harwood;
• Memories of John (DVD only, 29 mins);
• Falk on Cassavetes: the later years (DVD only, 14 mins);
• Illustrated booklet featuring interviews and essays from Tom Charity, Al Ruban and Peter Bogdanovich

Pre-Order/Buy: Opening Night (DVD & Blu-ray) 1977

The Complete (Existing) Films of Sadao Yamanaka To Get Masters of Cinema DVD Release

Eureka Entertainment have announced the long-awaited follow up to one of the earliest MoC DVD titles — Humanity and Paper Balloons, THE COMPLETE (EXISTING) FILMS OF SADAO YAMANAKA featuring the aforementioned film alongside rare footage of other lost Yamanaka films - overall includes the complete surviving works from this legendary director. The set will be released in a 2-disc DVD edition on 20 May 2013.

The brief but prodigious career of Japanese director Sadao Yamanaka resulted in a catalogue of work characterised by an elegant and unforced visual style, fluid editing, and a beautiful attention to naturalistic performances. Although he made 22 films over a six-year period (before dying of dysentery in a Japanese Imperial Army outpost in Manchuria at the age of 28), only three of them survive, collected here for the first time in the West.

Tange Sazen: The Million Ryô Pot is a gloriously comic adventure yarn as the titular one-eyed, one-armed swordsman becomes embroiled in the hunt for a missing pot that points the way to hidden treasure. In Kôchiyama Sôshun, a subversively humanistic adaptation of a classic kabuki play, a small but invaluable knife stolen from a samurai leads to a chain of an increasingly complex and troublesome set of circumstances. His last film, Humanity and Paper Balloons, is an unsparing ensemble drama set among the lowest rungs of Japanese society in the 18th century.

The Masters of Cinema Series is delighted to present these treasures of world cinema in a long-awaited two-disc DVD set, including rarely-seen fragments of two other lost Yamanaka films.

“Humanity and Paper Balloons is a beautifully shot and well told story” – DVD Times

“There really isn't any questions whether this should be part of your cineaste DVD collection. It is tantamount to being imperative.” – DVD Beaver

“Humanity and Paper Balloons is a fascinating time capsule of a movie that not only reframes the feudal period in which it is set to present a harsh critique of the social and political conditions of the time it was made, but also demonstrates just how tight, coherent, and entertaining films from this period actually were.” – Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye

SPECIAL TWO-DISC DVD EDITION:
• New digital transfers of all three films
• New English subtitle translations
• Rare fragments of other lost Yamanaka films
• A lengthy booklet, including Yamanaka's will, excerpts from his diaries, essays by Tony Rayns, Shinji Aoyama, Kimitoshi Satô, and more
• More extras to be announced closer to release date

Pre-Order/Buy The Complete (Existing) Films of Sadao Yamanaka: THE COMPLETE (EXISTING) FILMS OF SADAO YAMANAKA (Masters of Cinema) (DVD)

Sundance London Festival 2013 - Our Top 5 Picks

We are just over a week away from the second Sundance festival in London, taking place at the O2 in Greenwich. Robert Redford’s celebration of all things independent leaves it’s home of Utah to bring a selection of films to the cinema fans of England. Last year’s big winner, Beasts of the Southern Wild, used Sundance as the base upon which to launch it’s year of acclaim and awards culminating in a handful of Oscar nods. Is there similar success to be had from this year’s batch? Here’s a pick of just 5 to keep an eye out for.

The Kings of Summer

Harking back to those teenage threats to run away, The Kings of Summer brings us the story of Joe Toy, an adolescent fed-up with his life being dictated to him by his single father. Along with best friend Patrick and fellow outsider Biaggio he flees to the woods where the three go about building their own house where they can live freely, away from the trials of chores and homework. Billed as Superbad meets Stand By Me, this coming-of-age comedy was a big hit at the festival’s US incarnation.

Blackfish

Sundance is renowned for it’s support of documentary’s with last years Queen of Versailles and Chasing Ice both premiering at the festival and this year is no exception. Blackfish looks into the case of Tilikum, a killer whale at SeaWorld responsible for the death of three people. This hard-hitting film suggests the finger of blame should be pointed at the water park itself and the methods it uses to catch and train these wild creatures.

Touchy Feely

The Mumblecore movement may well be closer associated with the SXSW festival but its fingerprints are all over the current wave of American independent cinema. One of the movement’s breakout directors, Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister) brings her latest film to Sundance telling the tale of a massage therapist who becomes stricken with a sudden and somewhat problematic aversion to touch.

Upstream Colour

Writer-director Shane Carruth’s debut film Primer took home the Grand Jury Prize in 2004 baffling the audience with a physics heavy time-travel conundrum. His follow-up Upstream Colour is similarly, if not more, abstract. A man and a woman are drawn together in their awareness of life’s bigger picture, the world connected in one organism. Visually striking and wildly original, this is likely to be a big festival talking point.

Sleepwalk with me

Adapted from his own one-man show, Sleepwalk with me sees former stand-up comedian and playwright Mike Birbiglia wrestle with a struggling career, a failing relationship and the continuous bouts of sleepwalking of the title. Already victorious in the NEXT category of the American Sundance, this debut feature is being praised for both its humour and heart.



Matthew Walsh will be attending The Sundance London Film Festival which opens 25th April until 28th April, so stay tuned for some rather nice reviews!

Clouzot's The Murderer Lives At Number 21 (L'assassin habite... au 21) To Get Masters Of Cinema Treatment

Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing the long-awaited release of Henri-Georges Clouzot's (Les diaboliques, The Wages of Fear) debut film THE MURDERER LIVES AT 21 [L'ASSASSIN HABITE AU 21]. The film is a brilliant hybrid of crime thriller and comedy, and will be released in a breathtaking high-definition restoration by Gaumont in a Blu-ray & DVD edition on 20 May 2013.

One of the most revered names in world cinema, Henri-Georges Clouzot, made a remarkably self-assured debut in 1942 with the deliciously droll thriller The Murderer Lives at 21 [L'Assassin habite au 21].

A thief and killer stalks the streets of Paris, leaving a calling card from "Monsieur Durand" at the scene of each crime. But after a cache of these macabre identifications is discovered by a burglar in the boarding house at 21 Avenue Junot, Inspector Wenceslas Vorobechik (Pierre Fresnay) takes lodging at the infamous address in an undercover bid to solve the crime, with help from his struggling-actress girlfriend Mila (Suzy Delair).

Featuring audacious directorial touches, brilliant performances, and a daring tone that runs the gamut from light comedy to sinister noir, as well as a subtle portrait of tensions under Nazi occupation, this overlooked gem from the golden age of French cinema is presented in a beautiful new high-definition restoration.

“good fun for whodunit fans” – The New York Times

“clever cocktail of humour and drama” - Le Miroir de l'Ecran

SPECIAL BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITIONS:

• Gorgeous new Gaumont restoration of the film in its original aspect ratio, presented in 1080p HD on the Blu-ray
• New and improved English subtitles
• A fully-illustrated booklet, including the words of Henri-Georges Clouzot and rare imagery

Pre-Order/Buy The Murder Lives At Number 21 (L'assassin habite... au 21): DVD / Blu-ray

Love Crime (Crime d’amour) DVD Review

The final film of late French filmmaker, Alain Corneau receives a posthumous British cinematic release this month. Love Crime (Crime D'amour) remains a testament to the high quality of Corneau's work.

Christine, a controlling business executive (Kristin Scott Thomas), leads a young associate, Isabelle, (Ludvine Sagnier) into a controlling game of manipulation and domination. After embarrassing her at a staff function, Isabelle vows deadly revenge on Christine.

Love Crime boasts a near Hitchcockian narrative, proving to be a completely unpredictable ride. Corneau's film opens with a meeting between Christine and Isabelle,  which verges on seduction - we see the young associate drawn to magnetic persona of Christine.  As this character dynamic builds we gradually see this idolisation turn into a passionate contempt between both women, as Christine continually toys with Isabelle's emotions - this cat and mouse relationship makes Love Crime a truly absorbing watch. We see the tension build between the pair until Isabelle  reaches breaking point in a twist that completely overturns the narrative of the whole film. This twist creates dozens of questions and mysteries throughout the remainder of the film, which gradually get unravelled in Corneau and Nathalie Carter's sharp script. The pair pay a strong attention to detail, with meticulous answers to any plot-hole or inconsistency, a viewer may attempt to pick. However, one small flaw lies in Love Crime's ending which feels too outlandish and contrived to be wholly satisfying, yet is unlikely to spoil your enjoyment of Cournea's film.

Corneau is a master of crafting intrigue and suspense, allowing us to empathise with Isabelle but keeping us distanced from her motivations, gradually unravelling them by the conclusion of Love Crime.  This allows for a magnificent performance from Sagnier as we see the character turn from vulnerable underdog to a more-than-fitting opponent of Christine.  The actress is equally convincing as both victim and challenger, boasting her finest performance since Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool.  Kristin Scott-Thomas brings a cold, self-satisfying presence to the role of Christine, truly commanding the screen.

Love Crime may not cover any new ground to a traditional euro-thriller, but proves engaging, sharp and fast paced enough to  prove completely enjoyable, particularly thanks to performances from Sagnier and Scott Thomas.

★★★★☆

Andrew McArthur

Stars: Ludvine Sagnier, Kristin Scott Thomas,;Patrick Mille
Director: Alain Corneau
Release: 22nd April  2013 (UK)
Certificate: 15 (UK)
Buy: Love Crime On DVD

[repost of the cinema review]