While we’re still waiting for the first teasers to release for Irreversible director Gaspar Noe’s latest film, Enter the Void, a brand new still has just become available along with a more detailed synopsis.
Oscar, (20), and his sister Linda (18), are recent arrivals in Tokyo. Oscar sells drugs for a living, and Linda works as a nightclub stripper. One night, Oscar goes to a bar to make a deal. But the cops are waiting, and in the panic that ensues he is accidentally shot.
As Oscar lies dying, his perception grows distorted. Swept along a limitless tunnel of memories, he witnesses again the death of his parents in a car crash when he was five years old, and the promise he made to his little sister – that he would never abandon her. A dazzling light tears him from these memories but Oscar cannot abandon the world of the living. Like a disembodied spirit, his vision flies through the city and around those close to him. But despite all his efforts, he cannot communicate with them. Not even with Linda. Magnificent coloured lights appear again, and try to pull him away from the world, but he rejects them, true to his promise and a prisoner to his desires and his fears … Oscar’s perceptions grow evermore distorted, his visions evermore chaotic and nightmarish. Past, present and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom.
Shot from start to finish from the subjective point of view or mental perspective of its leading character, ENTER THE VOID is a hallucinatory film, a melodrama of altered states of consciousness.
Hit the link below to check the new still!
Big thanks here go out to regular Twitch reader Vladimir for this one.
I am a big, big fan of Philip Yankovsky’s Sword Bearer, an arty super power film that to my mind still stands as the best of the recent wave of Russian genre film. Yankovsky is one of the brightest lights of current Russian film, a smart writer who shorts gorgeous film and we’ve been anxiously tracking his upcoming Rock Head for months now, ever since the day we first heard of it. A psychological crime thriller that stars real life heavyweight boxer Nikolay Valuev - a truly fearsome looking man - in the lead role as an amnesiac boxer reconstructing his own past while on a quest for revenge.
We’ve run a series of impressive production stills and some behind the scenes footage in the past and Vladimir has just pointed the way to the brand new, just released first trailer for the picture. Though it appears that this was cut with footage before it was fully through the post production process - the sound is a dead giveaway and the color correction seems slightly off - it is still looking very, very good. Check it out below the break in the Twitch Player.
Continue Reading "First Trailer For Philip Yankovsky’s ROCK HEAD!"...
Put this one in the ‘it’s about bloody time’ file. I am an absolutely huge fan of Gonzalo López-Gallego’s King of the Hill (El Rey de la Montana), a film I fell in love with at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and have been singing the praises of ever since. Thing is there hasn’t been a trailer for it so I haven’t been able to actually show anybody any of what I’ve been talking about. I’ve written sales agents, I’ve written rights holders in four different countries, I’ve asked the director and tried to track down producers but no luck. A trailer simply didn’t exist. But now one does. It actually arrived online last month but snuck out so quietly that I missed it until now. You can find it below the break in the Twitch Player.
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Oh you lucky, lucky people. The first wave of titles for this year’s edition of the Toronto After Dark Festival was announced today and you are in for a treat this year! Festival director Adam Lopez and his team, including our lord and master Todd, have put together another fine selection of films for your viewing pleasure and horror and wonder. These titles will already be familiar to Twitch viewers and if you haven’t had the chance to catch yet you can do so in October.
In its first wave of film titles revealed for 2008, Toronto After Dark Film Festival is proud to announce a selection of eight outstanding new horror, sci-fi, action and cult feature films that will have their Toronto Theatrical Premieres at the festival this October 17-24. The initial lineup includes a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning films from around the world including the much-anticipated new sci-fi horror musical REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA, Sundance selection revenge thriller RED based on Jack Ketchum’s novel, cult horror action movie TOKYO GORE POLICE, celebrated vampire feature LET THE RIGHT ONE IN which won Best Picture at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton’s dark and twisted modern fairytale, IDIOTS & ANGELS.
For more information on the complete lineup of films at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival, to watch trailers, or to buy advance festival passes which are now on sale, visit the festival website.
All eight title descriptions after the jump. We’ll see you in the dark!
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The French make some of the most beautiful DVD-packaging in Europe, and my home would be full of them if I wasn’t so terrible at speaking or understanding French. For they hardly ever deign to put English subtitles on their movies. I always hope they’ll use Dutch ones so you can cover the whole Belgian market but alas, that business model has apparently no merit.
It’s not just the French either: many European distributors just don’t believe in an international market.
Because of this, I often check the far East to score decent versions of European movies on DVD. Want the Scandinavian puppet epic “Strings” English-friendly, in widescreen and with decent sound? Go to China!
So even though I was delighted to see Michel Ocelot’s recent stunningly beautiful movie “Azur et Asmar” get a UK release, old habits die hard and I checked our friendly Asian affiliate as well.
“Azur & Asmar” was championed and distributed in Japan by Studio Ghibli, and the Ghibli Museum even held an exhibition of Ocelot’s art for the movie! This made him pretty well-known in Asia amongst animation fans, so lo and behold: the Koreans had copied one of the French special editions, adding English friendliness to a killer French packaging!
I just couldn’t resist buying it and after watching it several times I couldn’t resist writing a review either.
We like us some Ocelot here at Twitch: Todd already gave his pretty spot-on review last week, and GhibliWorld.com’s Peter van der Lugt had a very extensive interview with the man himself.
But if you’re curious what (else) I thought about “Azur & Asmar”, or are interested in this specific edition, then read on after the break!
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So ... back in late July news surfaced of a potential big budget France-Korea co-production of Yoo Gwang-Soo’s acclaimed novel The Qin Shi Huang Project, a time hopping mystery / action / conspiracy theory sort of film revolving around the quest for the fountain of youth. Korea’s Odyssey Pictures hold the rights and, at the time, they were telling people that a number of French companies were on board, prime among them Luc Besson’s Europa Corp. Only problem? Seems they forgot to actually, you know, mention it to Besson, who has just disavowed any knowledge of the project whatsoever. Whoopsie. So all those reports and rumors floating around about how Besson vets Natalie Portman and Milla Jovovich had been cast in the film? Yeah, those are totally false. My thanks to Grozilla, who passed along the French press release that Europa have sent around on the matter. You’ll find it below the break.
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And he doesn’t mean that in a good way. Oh, no. Mathieu Kassovitz has just torn a massive strip off of his own film in a no-holds-barred interview that appears over at AMC. How he’s able to say this stuff without being in breach of contract while the film is still so fresh is beyond me. Again, in his own words: “The script wasn’t respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience.” Zowie. Directors generally just go mum when asked about their unsuccessful films not only because it takes a bigger man than most to stand up and admit they just made a piece of junk but because they are generally contractually forbidden from saying anything negative about their work while it’s still being actively promoted. Either Kassovitz doesn’t have that particular clause in his contract or he’s so unhappy about the movie he just doesn’t care ...
Back in July we posted the first teaser for upcoming German true-life action drama Der Baader Meinhof Komplex. The film tells the real story of the Red Army Faction, a terrorist group that plagued Germany throughout the late sixties and early seventies, orchestrating assassinations and bombings throughout the nation. That early teaser was impressive enough in its own right but the full theatrical trailer has now also arrived and it is absolutely jaw dropping. Not only does this look to be a complex treatment of a serious and topical issue but it is blessed with a stellar cast and the technical end - the film is evidently loaded with enough gun play, car chases and explosions to keep even those raised on the films of Michael Bay happy - is positively astounding. This looks stunning. Absolutely stunning. You’ll find both the teaser and trailer below the break in the Twitch Player.
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Now here is a real treat, people.
GhibliWorld’s Peter van der Lugt (friend of our site and occasional contributor) visited Michel Ocelot in his studio in Paris, and had a loooong talk with him about, well, all things animated. So if you have any interest in the subject, head over to GhibliWorld.com and read!
Michel Ocelot is of course the creator of “Kirikou and the Sorceress” and recently the absolutely stunning “Azur et Asmar”.
Amongst the many things being discussed are a short movie Mr. Ocelot created which plugs a big gap in “Azur et Asmar”, and the inspiration for it was…
...but that’s too cool a story to ruin.
Birdsong (El Cant dels Ocells)—Albert Serra, Spain. Stunningly shot using only natural light, El Cant dels Ocells is a contemplative reinterpretation of the Biblical journey of the Three Wise Men in search of the newborn Messiah. With a cast of non-professionals performing an improvised script, Albert Serra’s second feature builds on his ongoing interest to cinematically express real time through the exquisite exploration of earth and sky. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08, where El Cant dels Ocells screened in the Directors’ Fortnight. Robert Koehler reviews El Cant dels Ocells for Cinema Scope and—though not available online—in the same issue Mark Peranson (who portrays Joseph in the film) diaries on his participation with the project. At l’Humanité, Jean Roy declares “this contemplative, sensitive film takes us on a quest for the essence of cinema.” Duane Byrge drivels alliterative disdain at The Hollywood Reporter, describing the film as “tiresome twaddle” and “pretentious piffle.” North American Premiere.
Continue Reading "TIFF08—VISIONS"...
What constitutes a “master” and why should I submit or—in some cases—resubmit? If ever a sensual power exchange between filmmaker and audience comes into play, it’s in this auteurist arena. Without question, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata is my most anticipated cinematic experience from TIFF08 and—if an interview opportunity lifts its head—I will be in bliss. From my mouth to the ears of angels.
Most of these films are North American premieres which had buzz-drenched critical runs at Cannes08 and, of those, I most certainly will catch Lorna’s Silence, Of Time and the City, Three Monkeys, and—of course!—24 City. As if these riches aren’t enough, I’ll return from Toronto just in time to appreciate the Pacific Film Archive’s Jia Zhang-ke’s retrospective!
The World Premiere of Paul Schraeder’s Adam Resurrected likewise has my complete attention, as does Agnès Varda’s Les Plages d’Agnès.
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Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs has been making waves, creating buzz and dividing audience since it’s very first market screening in Cannes. In short order it has become by far the most talked about and debated horror film of the year with everybody who has seen it having strong opinions in one direction or the other. But most have not yet had the chance to see it. That is about to change however, with audiences here in North America getting their first crack when it premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival. But before it arrives here in Toronto the film is screening as part of the Film Four Fightfest in London. And with the film now out in public those of us here who have seen it can freely share our thoughts. You want to know if it’s worth the hype? We want to tell you. We’ve got a number of Martyrs related interviews in progress right now, so expect those to be arriving on the site shortly, but in the meantime you can hit the links below for reviews and trailers.
The recent crop of French genre films like Frontière(s) and À l’intérieur (Inside) has been both condemned and praised for embracing new levels of graphic content. Whether one is a critic or supporter of this trend, one of the most obvious questions to arise after watching these films is how far can these filmmakers go with hard-edged realism? Pascal Laguier’s Martyrs answers this question in forceful fashion. In Martyrs, Laguier has created a film that is obviously rooted in genre conventions but transcends the boundaries of genre to achieve something unique and unforgettable.
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Like Nacho Cerda’s Aftermath, Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs is destined to acheive instant notoriety worldwide thanks to its unflinching, shockingly realistic depiction of some truly unsavory behavior. Also like Cerda’s Aftermath, Martyrs will no doubt be lumped in with a group of far lesser films - films with less understanding of the material they’re handling and films that cannot hold a candle to this one when it comes to intelligent layering in of subtext and issues of substance. Yes, kids, expect the torture-porn labeling and Hostel comparisons to be flying fast and thick. And then be prepared to ignore every one of them because graphic content or no - and Martyrs is, indeed, a stunningly graphic film - Martyrs has virtually nothing in common with the films it will be compared to. In fact you could argue that Martyrs is an anti-exploitation exploitation film, a film filled with incredibly extreme elements, true, but a film that has no interest in using those elements to titillate or fill the audience with vicarious thrills. No, the shock elements are there to open the door to something far more substantial.
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While I find it amusing that Canadian pop artist Feist is featured prominently in a film celebrating the boroughs and atmosphere of New York City, the trailer for New York, I Love You (making its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in a few weeks) is embedded after the Jump.
Like Paris je t’aime before it, the director and actors involved this thing is incredible. The full actor/director list is here. Twitch regulars should be interested that Park Chan-Wook, Faith Akin, Jiang Wen, Shunji Iwai, Yvan Attal, and Andrei Zvyanginstev are directing segments; and a variety of actors are involved, including Shu Qi, Maggie Q, John Hurt, Carla Gugino, Eli Wallach and James Caan
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