Film
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The Great Beauty Wins Golden Globe
Best Foreign Film Also Oscar Nominated
By: - Jan 13th, 2014In the Italian film “The Great Beautyâ€, which screened at the just concluded Palm Springs International Film Festival, young Italian director Paolo Sorrentino set out to pay homage to his great predecessors and the country that inspired their work. Rome is one of the great cities of the world and its art, sculpture, architecture and splendor are nonpareil.
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Documentary of Gypsies or The Travelers
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker
By: - Jan 12th, 2014Documentary filmmaker Danis Tanovic spent just $50,000 to create the documentary on the itinerat Roma people commonly know as Gypsies. He has produced a compelling film mainly using non-actors to tell the story of one Bosnian Roma family.
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Palestinian Film Omar
A Violent and Graphic Look at West Bank
By: - Jan 12th, 2014As in all spy thrillers, it’s a difficult world where one is trying to tell the good guys from the bad guys. It’s a story of counter-intelligence agents (the Israeli’s) trying to be a step ahead of the local Al-Aqsa Brigade, in the West Bank, and in this case, three radicalized young Palestinian men: Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) Amjad (Samer Bisharat) and Omar (Adam Bakri) who grew up together as boyhood friends.
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Two Lives a German Thriller
Directed by George Maas Starring Liv Ullman
By: - Jan 12th, 2014Germany’s 2014 Oscar submission “Two Lives†has the taste of an old wine in a new bottle. The performances are finely judged, along with the personal vision of director Maas, but the smooth, satisfying, after-taste of a fine vintage wine is illusive and found wanting.
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British Costume Movie Belle
Launched 25th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival
By: - Jan 07th, 2014The selection of the opening night film for the 25th annual Palm Beach International Film Festival sets the tone and quality of the films that follow over the next ten days. “Belle†didn’t disappoint the audience. It’s nicely directed by British writer/director Amma Asante, who is on Variety’s “Top Ten Director’s to Watch†list. “Belle†is her second feature film.
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Belgian Film The Broken Circle Breakdown
Oscar Contender for Best Foreign Landuage Film
By: - Jan 07th, 2014“Broken Circle Breakdownâ€, masterly and sensitively directed by Felix Van Groeningen, from a script written with Carl Joos, is a story that resonates with audiences in a bitter/sweet way. Potent forces and emotions are unleashed in this film concerning the healing power of the grieving process, the role of guilt in personal relationships, the part played by unconditional love, and the reality and finality of death.
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Palm Springs International Film Festival
25th Festival Launches January 3
By: - Dec 30th, 2013Palm Springs is not only a world-class tourist attraction, it becomes the center of world cinema for a ten-day period every January as it hosts more than 135,000 movie fans and film junkies from all over the globe as they try and spot the stars, directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, and distributors amid the glitz and glitter of its star-studded 1200 Gala attendees on Saturday, January 4th, at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
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Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen Brothers
A Small Dark Folkie Film Getting Huge Hype
By: - Dec 26th, 2013Inside Llewyn Davis is a dark, moody, misanthropic take on a failed folkie bumming around Greenwich Village in 1961. It is being hailed as another work of genius, arguably the best film, by the Academy Award winning Coen Brothers. It's a nice little film that has some charming moments but let's leave it at that.
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The Coolidge Appoints Katherine Tallman
New Executive Director at Landmark Theatre
By: - Dec 23rd, 2013The Board of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation recently appointed Katherine Tallman as its new executive director. She replaces Denise Kasell who served in the post for the past five years. Founded in 1933, The Coolidge is New England's most vital and successful nonprofit film center exhibiting the best and most current independent films, revivals and film festivals.
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Judi Dench in Philomena
On the Road Again
By: - Dec 22nd, 2013The odyssey-saga of “Philomenaâ€, wonderfully portrayed by Academy Award winning actor Judi Dench, and her co-star, a wry, world-weary Steve Coogan (who also co-wrote the screenplay with writer Jeff Pope) sends these two unlikely “detectives†on a journey to track down Philomena’s son Mark Anthony, the baby she gave up for adoption fifty years ago.
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Dallas Buyers Club a Film Scorcher
Matthew McConaghey As a Wasted Hustler Dying of AIDS
By: - Dec 06th, 2013Don’t miss the gritty, grungy, and f-bomb laden film “ Dallas Buyers Club†starring Matthew McConaghey. McConaghey, a Hollywood handsome, leading man, lost more than 40 pounds in order to play the role of Ron Woodroof, a Texas hustler and rodeo rider/electrician with Aids, who turned drug dealer in the recently released “Dallas Buyers Clubâ€.
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Book Thief Steals Hearts and Minds
Forbidden Literacy in Nazi Germany
By: - Dec 06th, 2013“The Book Thief†based on the international best selling novel of the same name by Markus Zusak, is intelligently and sensitively directed by Brian Percival, from a wonderfully crafted screenplay by Michael Petroni. It’s a small, touching story with large emotional issues that is flawlessly and understatedly performed by a cast led by Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, and Oscar nominee Emily Watson, and stars young French-Canadian teen actress Sophie Nelisse in the title role as Liesel Meminger.
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The Zen of Watching Westerns
When Contemplating Art Just Ain't Enough
By: - Nov 12th, 2013Artist and theorist Martin Mugar is taking a break from his usual beat to explore the philosophical nuances and cult implications of watching Westerns. The discourse ranges from Hopalong Cassidy, to the Marklborough Man as a hacking and coughing paradigm of manhood, and the ultra vi of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Here he gets his kicks on Route 66. With a left turn through Monument Valley.
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Nail Biting Captain Phillips
Tom Hanks and Unknowns Battle on the High Seas
By: - Nov 11th, 2013As good as Tom Hanks is, and he’s very good, he shares the screen with first time actors: Barkhad Abdi as Muse, the leader of the pirates; Barkhad Abdirahman as Bilal, the loose cannon of the four, Faysal Ahmed as Najee, and Mahat M. Ali as Elmi, the teenaged pirate. This high seas thriller will be a likely Oscar contender.
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12 Years a Slave
Film a Sure Oscar Contender
By: - Nov 09th, 2013The film is not the tale of the Old South that your grandparents remember when viewing “Gone With the Windâ€. This is an unflinchingly brutal, cruel story told from the point of view of the thousands of black slaves who have endured two hundred and fifty years of living lives devoid of basic humanity and denied the dignity that all humans deserve.
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The Fifth Estate Flops
Julian Assange Drama Under House Arrest
By: - Oct 21st, 2013On the upside: The acting is splendid. The performances are first rate, with a possible Oscar nomination in 2014 for Benedict Cumberbatch for his eerily accurate portrayal of mysterious, conflicted, and idiosyncratic computer genius-with-an-obsession, Julian Assange.
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Wild Girl Waltz by Mark Lewis
Indy Film Shot in Pioneer Valley
By: - Sep 13th, 2013With just $10,000 and an eight day shooting schedule in Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts Mark Lewis created Wild Girl Waltz a charming and goofy film. It will be screened on October 12 at the annual Filmshift Film Festival in Somerville, Mass.
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Is Cate Blanchett a Lock for an Oscar
Stars in Blue Jasmine Woody Allen's 44th Film
By: - Sep 04th, 2013Based on a stunning performance in Woody Allen's 44th film, Blue Jasmine, odds are that the 44-year-old Australian born actress, Cate Blanchett, is a strong contender for her second Oscar. In his cost effective, low key, Indy manner it seems that Allen just turned on the camera and with little or no direction she dug deeply to reveal her heart and soul as a fallen woman of a certain age.
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Palm Springs International Film Festival
19th Annual Event
By: - Jun 24th, 2013ShortFest, as it is known in the movie industry, is the largest short film festival in North America. It’s a must stop for filmmakers, movie producers, directors, writers, and film distributors looking for short movies to represent. Those distributors that do attend, will have a veritable feast of films and deals from which to select what they hope will go on to attract worldwide audiences.
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2012 Film Mighty Fine
Written and Directed by Debbie Goodstein Rosenfeld
By: - Jun 10th, 2013The 2012 film “Mighty Fineâ€, written and directed by Debbie Goodstein Rosenfeld, stars Academy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri, Andie McDowell of “Groundhog Dayâ€; beautiful, new-comer Rainey Qualley, and Jodelle Ferland. The story revolves around the Jewish family, the Fine’s, who have just moved from Brooklyn to New Orleans in the 1970s.
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Tiny: A Story About Living Small
BIFF Screening by Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith
By: - Jun 04th, 2013In a era of staggering average student debt and few substantial job options for graduates is living small the best revenge? For just $28,000 Christopher and Marete built their dream house with spectacular views of the western landscape. With an amusingly miniscule 120 square feet of home sweet home.
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2013 BIFF and That
8th Annual Berkshire International Film Festival
By: - Jun 03rd, 2013During the four day festival with 75 screenings we managed three days with seven films and one short film. So we review only a slice of the 8th annual Berkshire International Film Festival. Even with limited exposure it was an intense and absorbing experience.
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Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival
13th Annual in Palm Springs California
By: - May 31st, 2013The 13th Annual Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, California that just concluded its most successful festival to date. Producer and Festival Host Alan K. Rode, kept beaming to full houses for four days in the Camelot’s 500-seat theatre as he welcomed and thanked new and old noir aficionados for coming to year “lucky thirteenâ€. Some came from as far away as the East coast and Canada.
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Berkshire International Film Festival
Documentary Highlights May 30 to June 2
By: - May 21st, 2013From May 30 to June 2 the Berkshire International Film Festival will be simultaneously be screened with many additional special events at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington and The Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, The festival combines feature fikms and documentaries. There will be some 15 documentaries in the categories of Celebrity and Politics.
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The Sweetest Embrace: Return to Afghanistan
Second Film: Herders’ Calling
By: - May 21st, 2013Najeeb Mirza has filmed, directed and produced a series of documentaries set in Central Asian countries of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgystan. They tell stories of lives well lived in cultures and landscapes so different from our own, yet the human condition of yearnings for love and a meaning of life remain the same.
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