“But the question that everyone wanted answered was whether I would have the nerve and the strength to start the whole process from scratch. I said yes; otherwise I would be someone who had no dream left, and without dreams I would not want to live.” From Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo, by Werner Herzog… Read more »
Telling a story about success through a biographical account of someone famous and contextualizing influences on their work with a backstory can be a difficult task. Making films about distinguishing musicians is no exception, with their delicate personalities and powerful impact that complex mechanisms of show business have on them. Combining visual with auditory in way of telling a compelling… Read more »
Would one be excited at the prospect to point out their newfound discovery toward a modern Hollywood trend, exclusive to this contemporary climate of elongated, convoluted theatrical video game cut scenes and roundtable marketing morning meetings to determine what a 2010’s audience will lap off many a cinematic artist’s coveted silver screen? How about the discovery, the jaded realisation, toward… Read more »
Hollywood is a glamour machine that spews out our greatest hopes, our highest ambitions, and our most personal dreams. More often than not, Hollywood films show us the world as we want it to be, ignoring the harsh realities that might leave us depressed or, even worse, leave producers with poor ticket sales to their latest release. It’s a place… Read more »
Since winning the Rising Star Award at the 2010 BAFTAs, Tom Hardy has been gaining international exposure best known for playing dark, sinister characters, mostly villains, in action and sci-fi films. After a brief modeling stint at age 21, Tom Hardy joined the Drama Center London and got his first acting debut in 2001 in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down…. Read more »
For the past 100 years, Indian cinema has been a mirror of its vast culture and has partially, if not completely reflected the way the Indian society has transformed in terms of its culture, traditions and the general way of life. While films in Hindi (the primary language) have made waves across the globe, films in regional languages have not… Read more »
Horror as a genre has remained to this day primarily trapped in the shadow of the Western world, at least in the public consciousness. The fact is, however, an appreciation and thrill for the sensation of a chill down the spine is a universal desire, almost a drive, and areas all over the world have produced their own corpus of… Read more »
There is something undeniably romantic about the notion of falling deeply in love with someone, flipping a huge middle finger to society together, and running off on a blood-splattered joyride to nowhere in particular while hoards of angry parents, policemen, or bounty hunters try to hunt you down. Criminal couples in love only have each other to count on as… Read more »
North Carolina-born Julianne Moore has just received her fifth Academy Award nomination for “Still Alice” and could very well be on her way to winning for the first time. But her career has already extended far beyond awards recognition, providing some of the greatest performances of the past three decades of film. Having graduated from Boston University, Moore’s career began… Read more »
Humans love closure, feeling a need for everything in the world to make sense or offer resolution. Telling stories is one of the ways we pass on information and create catharsis, learning from the successes and failures of others and the movies are the leanest and meanest form of storytelling. There is less room for experimentalism in Hollywood, as confusing… Read more »
Innovation is nothing new. Almost since its conception, documentary has been reinventing itself, and many conventions of the genre, that we take for granted, were borne out of innovative evolutions of the form. Perhaps a development happening right now will become an expectation of future non-fiction films. Most attempt to find some kind of truth, however constructed or indirect, and… Read more »
Tim Robbins has proved himself to be an actor who handles comedy and drama with equal facility, be it a farce like “The Player” or a mature drama like “The Shawshank Redemption”. He has also produced and directed films, and has even proved himself as a singer and songwriter, a talent he inherited from his father, who was a member… Read more »
The 1970s, was an incredibly exciting period in film making. Relaxations in censorship lead to film makers exploring subject matter which was once strictly off limits. The result of this was an explosion of challenging films, some which remain controversial to this day. Of course, relaxed attitudes toward on screen sex and violence were not the only factors which made… Read more »
With awards season in full-swing, there’s a lot of talk about who was the best director, who wrote the best screenplay and who gave the best on-screen performances in 2014. But the element that brings together the storytelling, cinematography and editing into a world of cinematic wonder is sometimes taken for granted: the music. Soundtracks help set the pace and… Read more »
William Hurt, a virtual unknown, shot onto the big screen in 1980 with Altered States and quickly became one of the most important actors of the decade. He starred in some of the biggest and most thoughtful films of the time. However by the end of the decade, severe personal problems including a highly publicized palimony case, allegations of abuse,… Read more »
In the 1960s, a large number of new, young directors in France started making films that offered a fresh perspective on existing techniques and attitudes about the medium of film itself. They influenced the rest of the world with their interest in film history and created reflexive, modernist work that pushed the boundaries of the medium and arguably changed the… Read more »
A movie poster full of stars with different outfits and peculiarities is very tempting for the audience. But even more so, for the producer, who thinks that casting a variety of attractive actors, giving at least one good scene each and scattering thin stories together can deliver a hit. That may be true, but it doesn´t mean that the result… Read more »
As a late outcome of the lax censorship forced by the decade’s countercultural manifestations, the increasing recurrence of films to violence in the late 60’s anticipated the experimentation with extremism next decade’s cinema carried. Sometimes consciously, others as a mere result of circumstances, the 70’s were rich in productions that transgressed even more the already transgressed boundaries of good taste… Read more »
Cate Blanchett, born in Melbourne, Australia in 1969, became a star in her native Australia almost as soon as she graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1992. She starred in several stage plays and television shows before making her first film in 1997. As early as 1998, she was seen as a star thanks to her Academy… Read more »
