Chronicle Of A Summer Blu-Ray Review

Made during the summer of 1960 by anthropologist filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin, Chronicle of a Summer set out to record the everyday lives of a diverse array of Parisians through an highly influential approach to documentary filmmaking that made use of an original mixture of intimate interviews, debates, and observation.

The idea for the film arose when Rouch and Morin served as members of the jury for the first International Festival of Ethnographic Film in Florence, 1959. Rouch remembers Morin approaching him with the following question: “You have made all your films abroad; do you know anything about contemporary France?” Morin then proposed that Rouch should move away from his devotion to African rituals and customs and instead turn his gaze onto the Parisians “and do anthropological research about my own tribe.”

The film hinged on a simple theme: ‘How do you live?’ For Morin, this was a question that “should encompass not only the way of life (housing, work) but also ‘How do you manage in life?’ and
'What do you do with your life?’” These questions were tackled through the film’s redefined approach to the documentary form which was, as the opening voice-over announces, “made without actors but lived by men and women who devoted some of their time to a novel experiment of film-truth’,” or, as it is more commonly known, cinéma vérité.

The film’s interviews, debates, and observations reveal many fascinating insights into Parisian society at the onset of the 1960s. We witness factory workers and mechanics who talk about the oppressive nature of daily work and life; with one interviewee evoking the words of Albert Camus as read in his The Myth of Sisyphus. Then there are the debates surrounding the independence wars in Algeria and Congo which situate the film within discussions of racism and decolonisation.

More recently, Chronicle of a Summer has been read by Richard Brody as “one of the greatest, and perhaps the primordial, Holocaust film.” This interpretation of Rouch and Morin’s documentary as a ‘Holocaust film’ can be seen in the story of Marceline. We are first introduced to Marceline at the beginning of the film; first as an interviewee for the filmmakers’ as they make a first attempt at their experimental documentary technique, and then as an interviewer asking random passers-by: “Are you happy?” It isn’t until much later in the film that the numbered tattoo on her arm is revealed.

Immediately after the revelation that Marceline was a Holocaust survivor, the film presents us with its most intense, haunting, beautiful, and powerful scene. Marceline walks along an almost deserted Place de la Concorde, reminiscing about her experience of the Occupation. Far from making this film one about the Holocaust, what this scene demonstrates is a direct link between the legacy of the Second World War and France’s position as a colonial power clinging onto its territories during a time of decolonisation.

As this review as shown, it is often the filmmakers themselves who can provide the best analysis of their film. So I will end this piece on the excellent Chronicle of a Summer with two quotes by Morin. The first quote relates to the films questioning of how much reality and truth is presented in documentary filmmaking: “I thought we would start from a basis of truth and that an even greater truth would develop. Now I realise that if we achieved anything, it was to present the problem of truth.”

The final quote is taken from the films end in which Rouch and Morin pace up and down the Musée de l’Homme before Morin states: “We wanted to make a film about love, but it turns out to be about indifference.”

★★★★½

Shane James

Rating: 12
DVD/BD Release Date: 27th May 2013 (UK)
Director: Edgar Morin, Jean Rouch
Cast: Marceline Loridan Ivens, Landry, Régis Debray

Buy: Chronicle of a Summer (DVD + Blu-ray)

John Cassavetes' Opening Night Blu-Ray Review

Opening Night is the latest John Cassavetes film BFI being re-released on a dual format blu-ray/dvd combo. They started they’re reissues back in April 2012 with the landmark films Shadows and Faces (which I just picked up the other day). One of the very first reviews I did for the people’s movies / cinehouse was Shadows which to this day remains my favourite Cassavetes directorial effort.

Opening Night is a later Cassavetes film in that golden period of American cinema known as the New Hollywood of the 1970s. Cassavetes was one of the first truly independent American directors of feature films (sometime mistaken as the first but Sam Fuller was a decade before). John would act or sometimes direct Hollywood films so he could fund (and distribute) his more personal improvisational melodramas. John Sayles would later do a similar thing but in that case screenwriting.

Opening Night is very much A Woman Under the Influence (one of Cassavetes’ best films and most well known) goes Broadway. Like A Woman Under the Influence it’s stars John Cassavetes’ real life wife Gena Rowlands who plays the central character Myrtle Gordon, a actress who is rehearsing for her latest play. The play is about a woman unable to admit she is aging and it has many parallels to her own mid-life crisis. Myrtle witnesses a young woman who gets killed after trying to meet her after a preview of the play and this deeply troubles her and she feels responsible for her death. Her feelings of guilt start to interfere with her professional work but she also has a serious drinking problem as well. The film deals with her very complicated relationships with the stage director (played by frequent Cassavetes collaborator Ben Gazzara) producer, fellow actors (including one played by John Cassavetes) etc. She also starts having hallucinations of the dead girl near the end of the film, which reminds you of Black Swan, a similar themed film about the parallels of a stage life and personal life and the eventual merging of the 2.

Like many of Cassavetes films he could certain use with some reigning in during the editing process (many of his films have went though many cuts and released and then withdrawn and re-released) and the film suffers from many way too long. It’s round the 2 hour and 30 minute mark with many scenes of the play wasting the running time and being pretty obvious with it’s parallels with Myrtle’s life. Cassavetes was first and foremost an actor and all his films are very much actor’s pieces and he is great and bringing out great performances but they can become too actory and stagey (most evident in this film for obvious reasons). Cassavetes has always struggled with pacing in his films and this is no exception but it has a great performance by Gena Rowlands. I would recommend seeing A Woman Under the Influence before you see this, which is the superior film and performance.

★★★½☆

Ian Schultz

DVD/BD Release Date:27th May 2013 (UK)
Director: John Cassavetes
Cast:John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell

Buy: Opening Night (DVD & Blu-ray)

HEALTH AND SAFETY NIGHTMARES Power Tool Abuse, Hollywood Style!

Horror films have long been criticised as immoral, inspiring all manner of antisocial behaviour in their impressionable audiences. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in particular was singled out as a bad influence: Banned by the British censors in the 70s, several of its sequels were caught up in the ‘video nasties’ panic of the subsequent decade. Yet surely this was unfair. For The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was actually a public information film in many respects; warning viewers of the hazards of picking up hitchhikers, while highlighting the issue of rural unemployment. In particular, the film led the way in stressing the perils of being careless with power tools.

So, to celebrate the release of the newest, nastiest entry into the Massacre family, Texas Chainsaw, we’ve thrown together a brief list of the most memorable moments of power tool misuse in cinema history: The trail of electric and petrol-driven destruction that leads us to Texas today if you will. It’s kind of like the Oscars, only if the Academy gave out awards for the most irresponsible use of industrial and home machinery. While we’d be the first to admit that this is a quirky line-up, we can only assure you that this list truly comes from the heart. There’s a fair amount of kidney, liver and headcheese in there too mind…

Fight with Sledgehammers (1902)
Kickin’ it old school…
While a sledgehammer might not technically be a power tool, it was the closest our great-great-grandparents could lay their hands on, featuring in this now – sadly lost –pioneering British short in which two blacksmiths settle their differences in dramatic style. Incidentally, there are actually more people sledgehammered than chainsawed in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre…


Dark of the Sun (1969)
The first cut is the deepest…
An early example of the graphically violent, gritty action films that came to dominate the thriller genre in the 70s, Dark of the Sun is a saga of dodgy diamonds and double-crossing in deepest, war-torn Congo. It’s also probably the first example of chainsaw misuse on film, in one of several scenes that helped earn Dark of the Sun widespread condemnation as gratuitously brutal, as a retired Nazi attacks our hero with a power tool.



The Wizard of Gore (1970)
In devastating colour…
Perhaps the best film by B-movie pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis, who introduced explicit splatter into cheap horror with Blood Feast in 1963. The Wizard of Gore features Lewis’s trademark blend of graphic gore and disarming incompetence in this tale of a magician whose grisly tricks include sawing a woman in half with a chainsaw, likely the first chainsaw killing in horror cinema.



I Drink Your Blood (1970)
Satan was an acidhead…
One of a number of exploitation movies inspired by the Manson murders of 1969, there’s plenty to savour in this pungent slice of grindhouse cheese, featuring a gang of devil-worshipping hippies, infected with rabies by an iffy meat pie. Look out for the two innocuous-seeming flower children who give a kindly old lady an early lesson in how not to use an electric carving knife…



The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
You like head cheese?…
A movie that changed the face of a genre – banned, celebrated, analysed, adored, and reviled – the idea for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre came to Tobe Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store. The moment when Leatherface first cranks up his chainsaw is the moment the traditional horror film enters the machine age, that high-pitched roar, the sound of the birth pangs of post-industrial Gothic.



Frightmare (1974)
Driller killer cougar…
Made by the UK’s unsung hero of 70s exploitation cinema, Pete Walker, and starring his greatest leading lady, Sheila Keith, who plays a cannibal granny who makes memorable use of a Black and Decker in order to satisfy her killer munchies. Even by Walker’s grim standards, Frightmare’s a bleak, nasty little flick, a gruesome satire of the conservative celebration of traditional family values.



City of the Living Dead (1980)
Cranial trauma Italian style…
The first of the notorious ‘Gates of Hell’ trilogy by Italy’s master of surreal splatter Lucio Fulci, City of the Living Dead features several examples of his trademark nauseating excess, such as one poor actress literally chucking her guts up. It’s the scene where the village idiot is given an impromptu lobotomy with an industrial drill that most excited the gorehounds and outraged the censors.



Scarface (1983)
White powder wipe out…
Chainsaws soon became standard issue for any filmmaker wanting to up the ante in the nastiness stakes. So it was that when Brian de Palma decided to update the gangster film to reflect the increasing brutality of organised crime, he cast Al Pacino at his most unhinged in the lead, while Oliver Stone wrote a power tool torture scene into the script which still makes audiences squirm thirty years on.



Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Mayhem on autopilot…
Stephen King’s first – and to-date only – stint in the director’s chair, even by the author’s own estimation, this tale of machines running amuck is a mess, King later confessing that he was ‘coked out of my mind’ during the shoot. But surely no film that features an AC/DC soundtrack, an ATM calling a customer (King himself) an ‘asshole’, and Emilio Estevez being menaced by a malevolent electric carving knife can be all bad.



Evil Dead II (1987)
Who’s laughing now…
While some purists prefer its less comical predecessor, the second Evil Dead film not only puts its chainsaw centre-stage, but in the hands – or more accurately instead of the hand – of its indomitable wisecracking hero Ash. This surely inspired games designers to make chainsaws the melee weapon of choice for computer game protagonists, from the influential FPS Doom onwards.



Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
They charge an arm and a leg…
While hardly Citizen Kane, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers does have a few things going for it, not least a robed Gunnar Hansen – the original Leatherface – presiding over disrobed scream queen Linnea Quigley, gamely performing the Virgin Dance of the Double Chainsaws. By this point, Brit censors had become so paranoid, even the word ‘chainsaw’ was taboo, and the film was released in the UK as Hollywood Hookers, with a silhouette of a chainsaw overlaid on the title.



Frankenhooker (1990)
Wanna date?…
NYC exploitation king Frank Henenlotter gives his version of Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel Frankenstein, bringing it up-to-date with buckets of sex, drugs and general sleaze. It makes our list courtesy of the opening scene, where an unfortunate incident with a lawnmower he’s customised obliges our hero, bumbling mad scientist Jeffrey Franken, to literally try and rebuild his girlfriend from spare parts.



Braindead (1992)
Kicking ass for the Lord…
An early film from Kiwi director Peter Jackson, before he wussed out and starting making movies about pixies and wizards, Braindead treats its audience to a delirious explosion of rat-monkeys, disintegrating relatives, and kickboxing priests. Highlights include a notably messy confrontation between a rotary lawnmower and a roomful of zombies.



American Psycho (2000)
Die yuppie scum…
Patrick Bateman, everyone’s favourite upwardly mobile psychopath, murders people in a wide variety of fashions to a selection of toe-tapping AOR. Notable power tool employment includes the stylish despatch of a hooker using a dropped chainsaw, and menacing his secretary with a nail gun (Patrick later confesses to having successfully killed an ex with the same device).



Switchblade Romance (2003)
Gender-bending Gallic gore…
Known elsewhere as High Tension, this was among the most successful of the ‘new French extremist’ thrillers, where horror collides with art-house cinema to satisfyingly messy effect, even if plausibility is often an early casualty. Confirming the sub-genre’s reputation for violent excess, the enigmatic killer in Switchblade Romance includes a concrete saw in their repertoire.



Hostel (2007)
Caution, floor slippery when wet…
While many agree that Hostel represented a cinematic landmark of sorts, whether that was a good thing remains more controversial, earning itself the ambivalent (and inaccurate) ‘torture porn’ tag. Certainly, Hostel pioneered new levels of graphic onscreen sadism, including a nod to Texas Chainsaw, in the shape of a blackly comical power tool mishap.



Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (2010)
You want a killer hillbilly?…
It’s a sign a film has become iconic when it becomes a target for affectionate, intelligent satire (Scary Movie 3 need not apply), and Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil does a beautiful job of sending up The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and its numerous offspring. The scene, where Tucker inadvertently terrifies the college kids after sawing into a bees-nest – slyly parodying Leatherface’s famous chainsaw-brandishing swagger – is pure gold.




Lionsgate UK releases Texas Chainsaw on DVD, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and download on 27th May 2013.

Gavin Baddeley

Cannes 2013: Sundance Winning Ain't Them Bodies Saints Trailer

Love develops in all kinds of places and situations if its meant to be it will happen no matter the outcome. David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints an award winning hit at this years Sundance Film Festival (Grand Jury Prize winner) seems to be making similar noise at Cannes Film Festival and now we can admire the beauty of it's first trailer.

Set in the 1970's starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as Bob Muldoon &Ruth Guthrie a young impoverished couple ho are caught up in a shootout with local police. A Policeman ends up wounded and Bob takes the blame who is then sent to jail leaving Ruth on her own to raise their soon to be daughter on her own. Four years own Bob escapes prison in a search for Ruth however during this time she has grown closer to Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster) with an unexpected reunion destined to be an unhappy one.

Once again you get a feel of Terence Malick (Badlands era) especially in the cinematography, it's stylish, engrossing stuff which looks to intertwine between the intense manhunt and the drama between Bob, Ruth. David Lowery is been tipped for big things in film and Ain't Them Bodies Saints looks the near perfect introduction for the director who is hoping remake Pete's Dragon as well Graphic Novel movie adaptation of Torso. If going by the buzz this film is making Lowery should achieve those projects and become a big name in film for years to come.


Ain't them Bodies Saints boasts a fantastic support in the shape of Keith Carradine, Rami Malek and Nate Parker, the film has no confirmed UK&Irish release date but will be out out in USA 16th August.

Synopsis

Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara), an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration. Set against the backdrop of 1970's Texas Hill Country, director David Lowery paints a poetic picture, evoking the mythology of westerns and saturating the dramatic space with an aching sense of loss. Featuring powerful performances by Affleck, Mara as well as Ben Foster and Keith Carradine, AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS is a story of love, motherhood, and searching for peace while faced with an unrelenting past.

Win One Piece Collection 1 Anime On DVD

Shiver me timbers, if it isn’t the UK’s most requested anime series! Featuring the first 26 episodes of the smash hit anime, One Piece: Collection 1 follows rubber-limbed Monkey D. Luffy and his crew of Straw Hat Pirates as he searches for the fabled One Piece treasure in a bid to become the next King of the Pirates. Super-powered action, barrels of laughs and occasional tear-jerking moments await Luffy and friends as they set sail on the ultimate of sea adventures. A true anime classic!

To celebrate the release of One Piece (out on DVD from 27th May 2013) and courtesy of Manga Entertainment, we have a DVD of Collection 1 to give away!

Monkey D. Luffy is a boy with big dreams. This daring rubber-man refuses to let anyone or anything stand in the way of his quest to become king of all pirates. With a course charted for the treacherous waters of the Grand Line, Luffy strikes out in search of a crew – and a boat. Along the way he’ll do battle with scallywag clowns, fishy foes, and an entire fleet of marines eager to see him walk the plank. The stakes are high, but with each adventure, Luffy adds a new friend to his crew of Straw Hat Pirates! Like his hero Shanks, this is one captain who’ll never drop anchor until he’s claimed the greatest treasure in the world – the Legendary One Piece!

To Win One Piece Collection 1 on DVD please answer the following question:

Q.What is the name of One Piece's lead character?

A.Monkey D.Puffy
B.Monkey C.Luffy
C.Monkey D Luffy

Send your name, address, and answer to winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com  label email 'one piece'
Deadline is Sunday 16th June (2359) You Must be 12 or older to enter.

Double your chances by liking us at our Facebook Page  (if you already like us thank you all we ask is you re-tweet this)


Term&Conditions:

1.The competition is not opened to employees, family, friends of The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse, Manga Entertainment employees who have the right to alter, change or offer alternative prize without any notice.2.All entries must include full name, address, answer including any other instructions emailed to winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com  (label 'one piece')dealine Sunday 16th June (23:59pm) 12 years or older to enter 3.Failure to include any information required to enter could result in your entry been void. 4.automated entries are not allowed and will be disqualified, which could result you been banned, DO NOT INCLUDE telephone numbers as for security reason your entry will be deleted.5.If you are friend or like us at facebook for every competition you enter you get double entry, but you must stay stay friend/like us all the time,or future entries maybe considered one entry if you are liking us share the post on facebook and re-tweet the post.6.The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse takes no responsibility for delayed, lost, stolen prizes 7.Prizes may take from days to a few months for delivery which is out of our control so please do not complain 8.The winning entries will be picked at random and contacted by email or announced via facebook, sometimes we are unable to confirm winners.

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Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service / Grave Of Fireflies To be Released on Doubleplay July

Studiocanal have announced this July will see them release Studio Ghibli's latest Double Play on Blu Ray, Kiki's Delivery Service and Grave Of The Fireflies

The re-releases of the classic animes is to coincide with upgrading the great films to blu ray and you can add this upcoming release from 1st July.

KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE out on Double Play on July 1st
It’s witch meets world, as teenage Kiki chooses to live on her own in a new town, using her magical powers to get by. But Kiki is poor with potions and second-rate at spells- instead, she sets up a courier service, using her broomstick to deliver everything from pies to pets. At first with only her sarcastic cat Jiji for company, she soon discovers that she has more friends than she ever thought possible.

Adapted by Hayao Miyazaki from the children’s book by Eiko Kadono, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE is one of the best-loved animated features in Japan and elsewhere.

Featuring the voices of Kirsten Dunst, Janeane Garofalo and Debbie Reynolds, Kiki’s Delivery Service is superb entertainment from start to finish.

Extras: Complete Feature Length Storyboards / Ursula’s Painting / Creating Kiki’s Delivery Service (new!) / Kiki & Jiji (new!) / Flying with Kiki & Beyond (new!) / Producer’s Perspective: Collaborating with Miyazaki (new!) / The Locations of Kiki (new!) / Beyond the Microphone (new!) / Original Japanese Theatrical Trailers / Studio Ghibli Trailer Reel



GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES out on Double Play on July 1st
Set in Japan during World War II, the film focuses on Seita and his little sister Setsuko. After their mother is killed in an air raid and with their father serving in the navy, they are forced to fight for survival in the devastated Japanese countryside. Food and shelter are scarce, and even their own relatives are too concerned with their own survival. Allthey have is each other and their belief that life must carry on.
Takahata and his team, including character animator Yoshifumi Kondo (who has subsequently worked on other acclaimed Ghibli films from director Hayao Miyazaki) have created a visually stunning and emotionally powerful film and that meditates on the devastating consequences of war and has rightly earned a reputation as an anime classic.

Featuring the voices of J Robert Spencer, Rhoda Chrosite, Veronica Taylor and Amy Jones.

Extras: Interview with Director Isao Takahata / Japanese Release Promo Featuring Interview with Director Isao Takahata and Writer Akiyuki Nosaka / Deleted Scenes Storyboards (some new!) / Interview with Film Critic Roger Ebert / Historical Perspective Documentary / Trailers



We will be reviewing the films closer to the time, stay tuned for that review

These Boys Are Mad For It in Trailer for Spike Island

Every decade had it's moments which you could look back and say "where you there?" 1970's Glam Rock, Punk early days of dance music. 1980's new romantics, dance and late 1980's /early 1990's we had the Madchester scene. Spike Island is an coming of age story set in 1990 in the middle of the Madchester music scene of 5 young guys in a band determined to break into the music buy heading to Stone Roses legendary gig at Spike Island by handing their demo to lead singer Ian Brown.

Synopsis

Shadowcaster are a four-piece band from Manchester. Or more accurately, they are five lads with guitars and a garage and an ambition to forget school, forget their troubled home lives, forget GCSEs and see their heroes, The Stone Roses, as they play the biggest gig of their career.
As the defining concert of their generation is announced, the band are convinced that all they need is to get tickets, get to the gig, meet Ian Brown, give him their demo tape, and the rest, as the saying goes, will be history.
A simple enough plan, right? But with no tickets and a sold out gig to contend with, the boys embark on a road trip in a “borrowed” florist’s van to Spike Island. Along the way friendships are tested and their futures shaped – together or apart.
Consistently hilarious and heart-warming, Spike Island perfectly captures a defining era in British music history.

The Madchester scene is an era I can relate too as I was of similar age as the characters of the film, no matter what part of UK you came from, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing one band from the scene. Spike Island is looks like a love letter to Madchester or to be more precise Stone Roses which will be like a nostalgic ride down memory lane for fans. The film also stars Game Of Thrones Emilia Clarke which has put some weight behind the film however if your a fan of  British Independent films you'll want to check this one out.



Spike Island stars Elliott Tittensor, Nico Mirallegro, Jordan Murphy, Adam Long and the film arrives in UK&Irish cinemas from 21st June.

Gemma Arterton – Her Career So Far In Pictures (Byzantium Feature)

Gemma Arterton will be next appearing on cinema screens as Clara Webb, a centuries-old young mother who also happens to be a cool and sexy vampire, in Neil Jordan's alternative vampire flick Byzantium. We've taken this opportunity to take a look at some of Gemma's diverse roles - including some you'll know and some you may not. This one-time Bond girl has the acting skills, looks, and sensibilities for a long and successful career in the movies. Let's see what Arterton has been up to so far...

Capturing Mary

Gemma Arterton's first screen credit was in Stephen Poliakoff's Capturing Mary - a co-production of the BBC and HBO. In this made-for-TV movie, Gemma plays Liza - alongside Maggie Smith, and Ruth Wilson (who we'll see in August in The Lone Ranger).

St. Trinian's

One of the top grossing independent British films of the last decade, St. Trinian's sees Gemma's big screen debut playing the role of St. Trinian's Head Girl 'Kelly Opposum Jones'. This prominent role allowed Arterton to show off her skills and cemented her place among the rising stars of British cinema.

Quantum of Solace

Fast forward one year and Arterton is gracing the silver screen worldwide as 'Strawberry Fields' - the beautiful MI6 agent sent to assist Daniel Craig's second James Bond in The Quantum of Solace. By playing the sophisticated British Bond girl, akin to Eva Green's Vesper - and to many out-sexy-ing Olga Kurylenko's Bond girl - Gemma secured a place in the minds of moviegoers across the globe. Reviving Goldfinger's famous 'gold dipped murder' - this time with oil - was a masterstroke.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Staying loyal to the British film industry, Gemma took the title role of Alice Creed in this 2009 kidnap thriller. Tied to a bed, often naked, for a lot of the film, Arterton's role wasn't the easiest, but she brought a convincing level of anguish to the kidnapped Creed - playing devilishly good in the film's final act.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Who would turn down a Hollywood Disney film alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Sir Ben Kinglsey? Not anyone serious about raising their profile in Hollywood and certainly not Gemma Arterton. Gemma's Tamina is an action-packed role that saw her show off a wide range of talent and prove she has what it takes to nail a Jerry Bruckheimer film!

Tamara Drewe

In 2010 Stephen Frears brought much-loved comic staple Tamara Drewe to the big screen with Gemma Arterton as the titular character. A role that could have been written for Gemma - the hot-pant wearing city girl returning her to countryside home, mingling with writers, and setting aging hearts aflutter - Tamara again showed the unique creativity of the British industry, and Gemma's fondness for home-grown projects.

Byzantium

Neil Jordan returns to the vampire-genre 19 years after Interview With The Vampire with this wildly different, fresh take on the vampire myth. Arterton plays Clara, a vampire struggling with the aches and pains of a normal society in decline. Clara and her teenage (200 year old) daughter Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) are poor, homeless, and doing what they have to in order to survive. Arterton's Clara is a sexy and determined young woman who isn't afraid to take what she needs.



Byzantium arrives in UK&Irish cinemas from 31st May.

Download The Summer Edition of The Big Picture Magazine

The Big Picture is one of the best independent film magazines and its fantastic they are making new issues after a short spell out. The Big Picture is a fantastic visually dynamic film magazine provides an original take on the cinematic experience delivering great articles and features through it's visual power rather than wall to wall text.

The Summer 2013 issue is now available the theme of the new issue is 'Escape' with a varied selection of movies that all feature escapes – physical, emotional and spiritual - as their driving narrative force.

Along with the roundup of regular sections, features include an interview with Belgian illustrator and film-poster creator Laurent Durieux, a look at Charlie's Golden Ticket in Willy Wonka &The Chocolate Factory as an evocative cinematic object, a location focus on Marseilles and 1000 words on the lasting legacy of James Williamson's seminal 1901 film Fire!.

Print copies of the magazine will be circulated around arthouse and independent cinemas in the UK, USA and China in the next couple of weeks. Click on the link below for a direct download of the new issue.

Download The Big Picture Magazine Issue 20 Here

Pace To Present James Franco's First UK Art Exhibition

The artists first collaborated on Rebel, an exhibition presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2012. In Rebel, Franco acted as a producer for Gordon, while in this exhibition Gordon has acted as a curator and teacher for Franco.

He's turning into a bit of a renaissance man Hollywood actor James Franco will be showing off his multimedia skills when Pace Gallery in London exhibits the actor's latest multimedia installation  Psycho Nacirema. Curated by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon this June  until  August will be on view to general public, the actor's first major exhibition in the UK

Psycho Nacirema presents a mise-en-scène of director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho, remodelling the infamous Bates Motel where the intrigue of the film takes place, intertwined with the 1920’s Arbuckle scandal.

In Psycho Nacirema, James Franco uses the motel structure as both a physical and literal framework,
reinterpreting iconic scenes from the original film through evocative details such as the motel neon signage or the infamous shower room where the film character Marion Crane, is murdered.One of Gordon’s most well-known works is 24 Hour Psycho (1993), a projection of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film slowed down to last an entire day which also sparked inspiration for the exhibition

Franco’s installations heighten the psychological entrapment set out by Hitchcock, beckoning the audience to become a participating character within the plot. Split Marion, 2013 a diptych mirror installation, prompts the viewer to join the artist to gaze and be gazed upon, projecting themselves as the characters of Marion Crane and Norman Bates. Compelled to identify with them, the audience is forced to recognise their own neurosis and psychological inadequacies generated by the silver-screen.

Psycho Nacirema makes numerous trans-historical juxtapositions. Principally using Hitchcock’s film as a starting reference, Franco twists it together with the real-life scandal of Fatty Arbuckle, the Hollywood star and first one-million-dollar paid actor charged with the death of the American model and silent film actress Virginia Rappe in September 1921. The Arbuckle case was filled with murky evidence and media speculations which shed a harsh light on the cinema industry.

Franco’s fascination with the subject leads to the final room of the exhibition. A four-way projected film which shows the re-enactment of the scenario that supposedly took place in Room 1219 where Arbuckle was found with Rappe who was mysteriously injured and distressed. Marrying the Psycho thriller with the Arbuckle scandal, the exhibition performs interplay of reality with fiction, compelling the viewers to address how cinema is entrenched in the modern collective consciousness.

“Film is the medium that employs all art forms, but it is contained within the screen. We take this multi-form idea and pull it through the screen, so that the different forms are once again fully dimensional and a new nexus of interaction and significance is created. In this show, we go back to the original locations and images of Psycho and alter them so that once again the viewer's relationship with the material changes. One becomes an actor when interacting with this work. Film becomes raw material and is sculpted into new work.” James Franco, May 2013.

Psycho Nacirema will be accompanied by a catalogue that features a discussion between both artists and Russell Ferguson, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programmes and Chief Curator at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

Psycho Nacirema will be on view at Pace London, 6-10 Lexington Street, from 6 June to 3 August.

More information on the event can be found here at pacegallery.com

All Images from Psycho Nacirema © 2013, James Franco, courtesy Pace Gallery