Movies

In our ongoing quest to conquer the various indomitable beasts of World Cinema that have until now evaded us, Team Twitch has finally laid claim to works from venerable cinematic masters who span both the globe and most of the last century. May proves no exception, with acclaimed works from Martin Scorsese, Michelangelo Antonioni, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder and Charles Chaplin finally struck off our collective list of shame, feats that inch us ever closer to the elusive green light of cinephile completism.Raging Bull (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1980 USA)Winner of 2 Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Editing, winner of 2 BAFTAs, including Best Editing and Best NewcomerTodd Brown, Founder & Editor:Where to start with Raging Bull, a film I knew surprisingly little about... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Genre: Action/CrimeStarring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Luke Evans, Gina CaranoEvery time a movie in this franchisee comes out you always think that this might just be better than the previous movie although there is something at the back of your mind, reminding you not to keep your hopes too high. After Brazil, Hobbs (Johnson) asks Dominic Toretto (Diesel) to help him take down Shaw (Evans) a criminal who is after a computer component that can potentially put the world at risk and shows him a picture of his former girlfriend, Letty (Rodriguez) whom he thought was dead. After being promised a full pardon and a clean slate for him and his team, the group finds themselves in London, England to face their next adventure. Brian O'Conner (Waulker), Roman (Gibson), Han (Sung Kang), Gisele (Gadot), Tej (Bridges) and Riley (Carano) comprise of the team that would assist Hobbs and Toretto in this mission. The producers of the movie aimed at making the franchisee more like a heist movie with cars involved rather focusing purely on street racing. Hence the transition over the years to now have a complete action movie with fast cars. The movie does have enough juice for any car lover to drool and love but you can never compare it to the realism or originality that some of the more epic car scenes in movie history. Yes there are some over-the-top insane stunts, there is more than one unbelievable moment (take for example a never-ending runway, an Alfa Romeo capable of pulling down an army-spec cargo carrier, or jumping across bridges) but these moments seemed to have purposefully put in simply to create the entertainment value. If it is pure automobile action that you lust then the movie delivers, but if it is an action movie with a sensible story and plot that you demand then the movie would not live up to expectations. Enjoy the cars and the girls and forget all the rest.Thumbs up: Some great cars and good racingThumbs down: Somehow the movie expects you to remember every minute detail from the past three moviesRating: 6.0/10

Who will get the gold from Steven Spielberg and his fellow jurors?http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention

Buster Keaton wasn't the only filmmaker to suffer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's fanatic belief in the stardom of Jimmy (Schnozzle) Durante. Not only did the studio insert Durante into Keaton's films to make them funnier; M-G-M also felt that their dramatic pictures needed to be funnier as well. That's why, in the middle of a rather grim drama of submarine warfare in the Mediterranean, Schnozzle boxes a kangaroo. The kangaroo's winning before Durante breaks up the bout by attacking a toothy British spectator he's dubbed "the Elk." Jimmy fancies himself a dentist and has wanted a sample of this man's dentures since early in the picture. There are many opportunities to kill Durante in the film, but he makes it through intact. Sterling Holloway they can kill. The future Winnie the Pooh gets his leg crushed by a stray torpedo, then finds himself locked in a room filling rapidly with chlorine gas. With limited oxygen in their damaged sub, his crewmates have to watch him die rather than flood their own compartment with the stuff. Robert Young they can kill. He's sent to inspect a torpedoed and abandoned German warship but is himself abandoned when the sub has to submerge to escape aerial bombardment. He's strafed by fighters rather than bombed, however. Robert Montgomery they can kill -- and he's the star of the movie! The future real-life naval officer has to atone twice over to Walter Huston as his commanding officer: once for an insubordinately rash attempt to avenge Young or rescue a man who is certainly dead that results in the crisis that gets poor Holloway killed; then for trying to make time with Huston's daughter (Madge Evans), who happens to be married to a wounded officer. For such presumption, our hero turns a dangerous operation into a personal suicide mission. Hell Below is, in fact, an exceptionally grim war movie, and that only makes Durante's survival more galling. Schnozzle actually shares comedy-relief chores with Eugene Pallette, but the latter, playing an engineer, actually contributes practically to the dramatic moments, while Jimmy, playing a cook nicknamed Ptomaine, only coughs a little while keeping up with the wisecracks. For those who want to see Durante get his, I refer you to The Wet Parade, where his character actually dies, or Meet the Baron, where the Three Stooges beat him up.If you can overlook Durante, Hell Below boasts some impressive action at sea, under water and on board an actual submarine. There's indisputable vitality in scenes shot through a periscope on the deck of a just-surfaced sub, and there's plenty of stuff blowing up to keep war fans entertained. There's also a bombardment of an Italian city that appears to borrow destruction footage from the future-war prophecy picture Men Must Fight, which premiered just a few months earlier. Hell Below as we see it now seems to have been edited for Code-Enforcement re-release. I don't know if entire scenes were eliminated -- there's still a lot of shore-leave comedy left, not to mention the kangaroo fight -- but some lines of dialogue have been obviously muted. You'd think I might be grateful for a moment when Durante moves his lips but no noise is heard, but I can't help wondering what he might have said that had to be silenced when they let him talk the rest of the time. Not even counting Durante, the movie must have struck audiences as something of a bummer, given Montgomery's fate. When a character screws up as his does, and has a romantic interest, the idea usually is to let him redeem himself and earn the girl's love. Here, instead, the pathos of renunciation kicks in. Hell Below is no chick flick in which Evans's hubby will conveniently expire to clear the way for our hero. Rather, hubby's going in for surgery that will restore him to full health and manhood, leaving Montgomery with no hope of making it with Evans. His course is one of atonement rather than redemption, and to that extent the picture may have impressed some viewers as more hard

More Cannes prizes to discuss. We'll illustrate with Jessica Chastain at Cannes because.... she pretty! Always prizeworthy Mmmmmcccchastainy! poll by twiigs.com FIPRESCI -International Federation of Film CriticsCOMPETITION  Blue is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche (France, 2013)This three hour lesbian coming of age drama stars newcomer Adele Exarchopoulos and the ever more impressive Léa Seydoux (Farewell My Queen, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Midnight in Paris ...and many more recently). It's considered a threat for tomorrow's awards from the competition jury, too. Wouldn't you just love to listen to Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Christoph Waltz and Nicole Kidman arguing about its graphic 20 minute lesbian sex scene and whether that's just exploitative titillation or artistically justified storytelling?UN CERTAIN REGARD  Manuscripts Don't Burn by Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran, 2013)PARALLEL SECTIONS Blue Ruin by Jeremy Saulnier (USA, 2013), a noirish revenge thriller, which played in Directors Fortnight. Radius/The Weinstein Co. picked it up for distribution CANNES Ecumenical JuryWINNER The Past by Asghar Farhadi (Iran, 2013)COMMENDATIONS Miele by actress Valeria Golino (her directorial debut!) and Like Father Like Son by the acclaimed Hirokazu Kore-eda

This past April marked the 10th anniversary of the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) and the festival celebrated it by having the strongest lineup in their history. The remarkable aspect about the selection was that it felt like someone read my mind in booking the films. 7 titles from my must-see list played at the festival. I had been eagerly waiting to see Berberian Sound Studio, Computer Chess, Frances Ha, Pieta, Sightseers, The Act of Killing and Upstream Color. So I was delighted CUFF booked them. Unfortunately in the end, I could only see 5 of those titles: Berberian Sound Studio (2012, UK, Peter Strickland) Upstream Color (2013, USA, Shane Carruth) Pieta (2012, South Korea, Kim-ki Duk) The Act of Killing (2012, USA, Joshua Oppenheimer) Computer Chess(2013, USA, Andrew Bujalski) I also missed out on Clip, Vanishing Waves, The Rambler and The Final Member, films that got really strong word of mouth buzz. Here are some brief notes on the films, arranged in order of preference. 1) The Act of Killing Even though the documentary is rooted in Indonesia, it is universal in depicting how men kill with the aid of media and politicians. The depiction of torture/killing could easily be set in Latin/South America/Africa while the media manipulation applies to most nations. But no individuals will ever admit their crime with such brutal honesty as those in The Act of Killing, making it a living digital document. The killers walk about the city freely, sometimes boasting about their murders. Such honesty ensures the film hits like a ton of bricks but it is one of the most essential and relevant docs ever made. 2) Computer Chess A playful look at various computer programmer personalties, ranging from the very shy to those whose supreme confidence borders on arrogance. The black and white visuals coupled with the video footage give the film a 1980’s look and feel, at a time when computers were bulky machines that required some effort to transport from room to room. The humor is derived from the collection of eccentric personalities and as a result, the scenarios feel natural and not forced. As a bonus, the film also literally depicts HAL's birth. 3) Berberian Sound Studio An eerie slow-burning film that smartly uses sound manipulation & cues to abstract a horror genre. As a result, one can appreciate the few elements that make a horror film nerve racking and terrifying. This aspect is reinforced by the decision to not show the film-within-film, thereby letting viewers fill in their own worst images. 4) Upstream Color A multi-shaped puzzle that assembles the look and feel of a Lynchian nightmare with a Malickian landscape. The film manages to find a balance between sci-fi, horror and nature by rapid fire editing and a score that contrasts the mood of the images that the viewer is seeing. The film’s two editors, Shane Carruth and David Lowery, cover a lot of ground in the opening minutes. One can make 2-3 features from the opening 20 minutes of Upstream Color. After the fast paced opening, the film settles down a little, allowing viewers to get a brief footing before heading off in a different direction altogether. Credit must be given to Andrew Sensenig whose wordless performance speaks volumes and lends the film a graceful covering. Also, Upstream Color also extends Godard's quote: "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl" plus some pigs & worms. 5) Pieta I believe Kim Ki-duk made this film on a bet. He must have wagered with friends that he could make a sloppy film in a few days and throw enough heavy references to fool critics into thinking the film meant something. And his ploy appears to have paid off with the top prize at Venice 2012, even though festival rules prevented The Master from getting that prize. Still, it is hard to imagine that jury, which consisted of Michael Mann, Matteo Garrone, Pablo Trapero, Marina Abramovic, Ursula Meier, Ari Folman, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Laet

Sarah may prefer to run, but she doesn’t get anywhere particularly notable in this determinedly flat character study from debuting Quebecois writer-director Chloe Robichaud. Sophie Desmarais gives a precisely tuned performance as a gifted young runner whose commitment to the activity has obliterated any vestiges of a personality or social life, a condition that Robichaud... Read more »

Cambodian film 'The Missing Picture' wins Un Certain Regard sectionhttp://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention

Gay erotic thriller Stranger by the Lake wins Queer Palm at Cannes Film Festival (photo: Pierre de Ladonchamps, Christophe Paou in Stranger by the Lake) Writer-director Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake / L’inconnu du lac has won the 2013 Queer Palm handed out to Cannes Film Festival movies featuring gay, lesbian, bi, tri, multi, transgender, etc. characters. Stranger by the Lake was screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Set near an idyllic lake where hot-and-heavy gay cruising takes place during the summer season, Guiraudie’s sexually charged thriller revolves around Franck (Pierre de Ladonchamps), a young man who falls in lust with brawny suspected murderer Michel (Christophe Paou). Strand Releasing will handle the distribution of Stranger by the Lake in North America. Stranger by the Lake: Mixing explicit sex with explicit love As quoted by Agence France Presse, Alain Guiraudie explained the (purportedly) graphic sex scenes in Stranger by the Lake as a cinematic union of romantic love and sex. "I wanted to mix the two," said Guiraudie. "I wasn’t looking to have beautiful love scenes interrupted by pornographic vignettes. I wanted to mix all that, so that it all goes together, that the sex be beautiful." That in 2013 people are still (or pretend to be) shocked by graphic on-screen sex, whether gay or hetero or both, says a lot more about early 21st century prudishness and emotional retardation than about either Stranger by the Lake or Abdellatif Kechiche’s potential Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Color / La vie d’Adèle, starring Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. Kechiche’s latest effort offers what has been described — possibly by someone with no access to a computer, on-demand programming, or a DVD store — as "the most explosively graphic lesbian sex in recent memory." Something else that’s positive about Stranger by the Lake: whatever its sociopolitical intentions, if any, Alain Guiraudie’s film shows that, for better or for worse, there’s much more in gay men’s minds and lives than the desire of becoming accepted into mainstream society’s traditional institutions. Now, I should add that gay marriage became law in France just this past week. A few days later, Christian far-right figure Dominique Venner, formerly a member of the nationalist terrorist group OAS, shot himself dead in protest at Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral. Organized by France’s far-right Christians, an anti-gay marriage march is in the works. Stranger by the Lake cast Besides Pierre de Ladonchamps (TV’s L’amour en jeu; The Rebel, Louise Michel) as the man in lust and Christophe Paou (The Chef, Happy End) as the dangerous object of his desire, Stranger by the Lake features Patrick d’Assumçao, Jérôme Chappatte, Mathieu Vervisch, Gilbert Traina, Emmanuel Daumas, Sébastien Badachaoui, and Gilles Guérin. Sylvie Pialat, the late filmmaker Maurice Pialat’s companion and, with him, co-screenwriter of 1987 Palme d’Or winner Under the Sun of Satan, produced Stranger by the Lake through Les Films du Worso. Queer Palm winners The nasty-sounding Queer Palm — surely the French could have come up with a better word than "queer" — is not sponsored by the Cannes Film Festival itself; it was created by journalist Franck Finance-Madureira in 2010. This year’s Queer Palm jury was headed by Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues, of the erotic psychological drama O Fantasma. Besides Blue is the Warmest Color, another gay-themed film bypassed by the 2013 Queer Palm jury was Steven Soderbergh’s high-profile Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover-chauffeur Scott Thorson. Also: Arielle Dombasle’s Opium, with Dombasle, Niels Schneider, Julie Depardieu, and veteran Marisa Berenson; Chloé Robichaud’s Sarah Would Rather Run / Sarah préfère la course, with Sophie Desmarais; Anurag Kashyap, Djbakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar’s omnibus Bollywood celebrat

India is “regressive for women” and a “depressing” place to be, says Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat, explaining why she divides her time between India and the US. She was speaking the 66th Cannes International Film Festival, at an interaction at The Variety Studio. Mallika has flaunted the link of her interview on her Twitter page. [...]