The Holdovers director Alexander Payne (in Nirvana T-shirt) with Anne-Katrin Titze on Westward The Women: “It’s as though Jean Renoir and Akira Kurosawa got together to make a Western.”
In the first instalment with Alexander Payne on his intricately layered Golden Globe-nominated The Holdovers (screenplay by David Hemingson with an Oscar-shortlisted score by Mark Orton) we started out discussing a film he recommended, William A Wellman’s Westward The Women (screenplay by Frank Capra and Charles Schnee), starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel with a formidable supporting cast of women, led by Hope Emerson.
Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) with Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph)
From there we touched upon his longtime collaborators, Wendy Chuck and Nathan Carlson, production designer Ryan Warren Smith, a scene between (Golden Globe-nominated) Paul Giamatti and Carrie Preston leading to Slavoj Žižek’s comment in Sophie Fiennes’s The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology...
In the first instalment with Alexander Payne on his intricately layered Golden Globe-nominated The Holdovers (screenplay by David Hemingson with an Oscar-shortlisted score by Mark Orton) we started out discussing a film he recommended, William A Wellman’s Westward The Women (screenplay by Frank Capra and Charles Schnee), starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel with a formidable supporting cast of women, led by Hope Emerson.
Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) with Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph)
From there we touched upon his longtime collaborators, Wendy Chuck and Nathan Carlson, production designer Ryan Warren Smith, a scene between (Golden Globe-nominated) Paul Giamatti and Carrie Preston leading to Slavoj Žižek’s comment in Sophie Fiennes’s The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology...
- 12/24/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Art made during Covid––more specifically during quarantine and before / at the very beginning of the vaccine rollout––will surely hold an added weight as history is written. In those very hard times, what did we write? What did we read? What did we watch? T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, directed by Sophie Fiennes and performed by her brother Ralph, is a decidedly worthwhile artifact of this precarious time.
An adaptation of the series of four poems written just before––and then during––World War II by Eliot, the film is an elevated recording of the stage performance Ralph Fiennes took on in 2021. Fiennes himself is credited with the stage direction, his sister with the film direction, both working well. Hildegard Bechtler’s production design is spare yet effective, the lighting by Tim Lutkin pointed and emotional. The camera remains mostly stationary, though the editing jostles between full-frame wides and quietly intense close-ups.
An adaptation of the series of four poems written just before––and then during––World War II by Eliot, the film is an elevated recording of the stage performance Ralph Fiennes took on in 2021. Fiennes himself is credited with the stage direction, his sister with the film direction, both working well. Hildegard Bechtler’s production design is spare yet effective, the lighting by Tim Lutkin pointed and emotional. The camera remains mostly stationary, though the editing jostles between full-frame wides and quietly intense close-ups.
- 5/2/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
In college one night, I got very stoned and read T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.” I was gripped by it, and felt I understood it — a feat I’ve never come close to accomplishing since. Yet I don’t think I was under some delusion about having glimpsed the poem’s essence. Eliot was a mystic doomsayer whose verse was torn, as if by shrapnel, with fragments of misanthropy and heartbreak. He channeled the despair of the 20th century but did it with a glint of rapture (to contemplate it was to be alive). To connect with his poetry, you almost need to leave rationality behind, to give yourself over to the experiential quality of Eliot’s words. I think the reason I could grasp Eliot while stoned is that I forgot I was reading “poetry,” forgot that I was facing stanzas arranged in elegant pieces on a page. Instead I was living each word,...
- 4/26/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Sophie Fiennes on Ralph Fiennes starring and staging T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets: “The thing that Ralph does brilliantly is the distribution in the space of the ideas. How he places them.”
In the second instalment with Sophie Fiennes we discuss her superb and faithful capturing of Ralph Fiennes’ stage production of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Helen Gardner’s The Art Of T.S. Eliot, Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami, Samuel Beckett, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, Elizabethan and Metaphysical poetry.
Sophie Fiennes with Anne-Katrin Titze on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: “I possibly wouldn’t have been as interested in becoming a filmmaker if I hadn’t had become acquainted with that poem at a very early age.”
Within days of speaking with Sophie, by chance every film I happened to watch contained a quote from the Nobel Prize-winning poet.
In the second instalment with Sophie Fiennes we discuss her superb and faithful capturing of Ralph Fiennes’ stage production of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Helen Gardner’s The Art Of T.S. Eliot, Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami, Samuel Beckett, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, Elizabethan and Metaphysical poetry.
Sophie Fiennes with Anne-Katrin Titze on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: “I possibly wouldn’t have been as interested in becoming a filmmaker if I hadn’t had become acquainted with that poem at a very early age.”
Within days of speaking with Sophie, by chance every film I happened to watch contained a quote from the Nobel Prize-winning poet.
- 4/25/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Exclusive: Directors struggle to fund work because of risk-averse commissioners and lack of resources, she says
A leading director has warned that documentary film-making in the UK is in a state of crisis owing to a dearth of resources and risk-averse commissioning.
Sophie Fiennes said audiences are losing out because the sector is now suffering from an “absolute lack of resources” and commissioners who are wary of taking risks.
A leading director has warned that documentary film-making in the UK is in a state of crisis owing to a dearth of resources and risk-averse commissioning.
Sophie Fiennes said audiences are losing out because the sector is now suffering from an “absolute lack of resources” and commissioners who are wary of taking risks.
- 4/24/2023
- by Dalya Alberge
- The Guardian - Film News
Sophie Fiennes with Anne-Katrin Titze on Slavoj Žižek: “I absolutely love working with him. Just being immersed in those ideas.”
From her short, Lars From 1 - 10, with Lars von Trier on Dogma 95, to Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami with Grace Jones; The Pervert's Guide To Ideology and The Pervert's Guide To Cinema with Slavoj Žižek; Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow with Anselm Kiefer; a short in Hopper Stories (commissioned by Arte France and produced by Didier Jacob), inspired by the Edward Hopper painting First Row Orchestra, and now the remarkable documentary T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, starring Ralph Fiennes - Sophie Fiennes is one of the most discerning and astute filmmakers on the subjects she chooses to document.
Slavoj Žižek Cantor Film Center at NYU on October 14, 2015 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Slavoj Žižek's musings on our enjoyment of ideology, and the fact that stepping out of it hurts, were...
From her short, Lars From 1 - 10, with Lars von Trier on Dogma 95, to Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami with Grace Jones; The Pervert's Guide To Ideology and The Pervert's Guide To Cinema with Slavoj Žižek; Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow with Anselm Kiefer; a short in Hopper Stories (commissioned by Arte France and produced by Didier Jacob), inspired by the Edward Hopper painting First Row Orchestra, and now the remarkable documentary T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, starring Ralph Fiennes - Sophie Fiennes is one of the most discerning and astute filmmakers on the subjects she chooses to document.
Slavoj Žižek Cantor Film Center at NYU on October 14, 2015 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Slavoj Žižek's musings on our enjoyment of ideology, and the fact that stepping out of it hurts, were...
- 4/22/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Above: Original French release poster for Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Designer unknown.Jeanne Dielman wins again! Posted on the day that Chantal Akerman’s masterpiece was announced as the surprise come-from-behind winner of Sight and Sound’s decennial Greatest Films of All Time poll, the original poster for the film racked up close to 3,000 likes on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram (helped perhaps by being paired with this photo of Akerman pensively smoking in front of the same poster back in the day). I have no doubt that any poster for the film posted on that day would have gotten a lot of attention, but I’d like to believe that some of the likes were for the poster itself: unassuming yet elegant (like Jd herself), foregrounding that radically mundane title, and containing nothing surplus to requirements, just Mrs. Dielman at her dining room table, waiting patiently,...
- 4/6/2023
- MUBI
April is the cruelest month, but evidently not for one-man shows starring Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes.
The “Schindler’s List” and “Harry Potter” star’s sister Sophie Fiennes directs a film version of “T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets,” the stage production he brought to London and throughout the UK back in 2021. During the lockdown, Fiennes committed to memory the “Wasteland” poet’s four epic poems written during World War II about man’s relationship to time and the divine. His performance, praised as “magnetic” by The Telegraph, was filmed at the end of his run.
IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film version, opening April 28 at the IFC Center in New York City, courtesy of Kino Lorber. An expansion in theaters nationally will follow.
Fiennes’ filmed performance of Eliot’s masterworks is a co-production between The Bath Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Lone Star Productions, Amoeba Film and Lonely Dragon Films.
The “Schindler’s List” and “Harry Potter” star’s sister Sophie Fiennes directs a film version of “T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets,” the stage production he brought to London and throughout the UK back in 2021. During the lockdown, Fiennes committed to memory the “Wasteland” poet’s four epic poems written during World War II about man’s relationship to time and the divine. His performance, praised as “magnetic” by The Telegraph, was filmed at the end of his run.
IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film version, opening April 28 at the IFC Center in New York City, courtesy of Kino Lorber. An expansion in theaters nationally will follow.
Fiennes’ filmed performance of Eliot’s masterworks is a co-production between The Bath Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Lone Star Productions, Amoeba Film and Lonely Dragon Films.
- 4/5/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Kino Lorber has acquired all North American distribution rights to Four Quartets, the film version of the Ralph Fiennes-starring stage adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s seminal poem.
Directed by Sophie Fiennes, the film will get its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival later this week followed by a theatrical release this spring.
One of the giants of modern literature, the poet, playwright, critic, and editor T.S. Eliot is best known as one of the central figures of the Modernist movement in poetry. Consisting of four poems published over a six-year period – Burnt Norton, East Coker, The Dry Salvages, and Little Gidding, each titled after the landscape that inspired their writing – Four Quartets is widely considered Eliot’s masterpiece and the culminating achievement of his career as a poet, offering four interwoven meditations on the nature of time and the quest for spiritual enlightenment.
Directed by Sophie Fiennes, the film will get its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival later this week followed by a theatrical release this spring.
One of the giants of modern literature, the poet, playwright, critic, and editor T.S. Eliot is best known as one of the central figures of the Modernist movement in poetry. Consisting of four poems published over a six-year period – Burnt Norton, East Coker, The Dry Salvages, and Little Gidding, each titled after the landscape that inspired their writing – Four Quartets is widely considered Eliot’s masterpiece and the culminating achievement of his career as a poet, offering four interwoven meditations on the nature of time and the quest for spiritual enlightenment.
- 2/8/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
“There is an enormous amount of division within society,” Hilary Lawson, the founder of HowTheLightGetsIn festival, tells The Independent. “We need to talk about the ideas that underly those divisions rather than retreating to our different tribal identities.”
Lawson’s brainchild, which is the biggest philosophy and music festival in the world, is something of a panacea to the average literary festival. This is because first off, the festival has music, and secondly, the festival is centred around panel debates and discussions.
“We are fundamentally different to literary festivals in many ways, and that is centrally because we are about ideas and the edge of ideas,” Lawson, whose festival is due to take place at Kenwood House in north London this weekend, explains.
“It is very much about seeking to provide a framework outside of the literary celebrity game of providing authors with vehicles for promoting their book and selling them.
Lawson’s brainchild, which is the biggest philosophy and music festival in the world, is something of a panacea to the average literary festival. This is because first off, the festival has music, and secondly, the festival is centred around panel debates and discussions.
“We are fundamentally different to literary festivals in many ways, and that is centrally because we are about ideas and the edge of ideas,” Lawson, whose festival is due to take place at Kenwood House in north London this weekend, explains.
“It is very much about seeking to provide a framework outside of the literary celebrity game of providing authors with vehicles for promoting their book and selling them.
- 9/29/2022
- by Maya Oppenheim
- The Independent - Music
Exclusive: Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner Ralph Fiennes’ hit London stage production Four Quartets is getting a screen version directed by his sister Sophie Fiennes (The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema).
WestEnd Films is launching international sales on the project at the upcoming Cannes market.
Early in the pandemic, No Time to Die, Harry Potter and Schindler’s List star Fiennes set himself the challenge of committing T.S. Eliot’s classic poem Four Quartets to memory. The result was an acclaimed stage version which ran to packed houses across England and at the Harold Pinter Theater in London.
Written by Eliot in the shadow of the Second World War, the ever-relevant poem is a searching examination of who – and what – we are.
The idea for the film, which is currently in post, was developed alongside the rehearsals for the stage production. Martin Rosenbaum (The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology), Shani Hinton (Grace...
WestEnd Films is launching international sales on the project at the upcoming Cannes market.
Early in the pandemic, No Time to Die, Harry Potter and Schindler’s List star Fiennes set himself the challenge of committing T.S. Eliot’s classic poem Four Quartets to memory. The result was an acclaimed stage version which ran to packed houses across England and at the Harold Pinter Theater in London.
Written by Eliot in the shadow of the Second World War, the ever-relevant poem is a searching examination of who – and what – we are.
The idea for the film, which is currently in post, was developed alongside the rehearsals for the stage production. Martin Rosenbaum (The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology), Shani Hinton (Grace...
- 5/6/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Andrzej Munk Retrospective
An influence on the likes of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Roman Polanski, and Jerzy Skolimowski, and more, Andrzej Munk’s filmography is quite unspoken of here in the United States. Hopefully that will change with the arrival of new restorations, featuring his early political documentaries and his subsequent features including Bad Luck, Eroica, Man on the Tracks, and Passenger, which was finished after his untimely death in 1961.
Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema
Annette (Leos Carax)
In Annette, a provocative comedian (Adam Driver) and renowned opera singer (Marion Cotillard) fall in love and have a gifted child. Written and composed by Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, the singular rock band that formed in the early 1970s,...
Andrzej Munk Retrospective
An influence on the likes of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Roman Polanski, and Jerzy Skolimowski, and more, Andrzej Munk’s filmography is quite unspoken of here in the United States. Hopefully that will change with the arrival of new restorations, featuring his early political documentaries and his subsequent features including Bad Luck, Eroica, Man on the Tracks, and Passenger, which was finished after his untimely death in 1961.
Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema
Annette (Leos Carax)
In Annette, a provocative comedian (Adam Driver) and renowned opera singer (Marion Cotillard) fall in love and have a gifted child. Written and composed by Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, the singular rock band that formed in the early 1970s,...
- 8/20/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The line-up includes new films by Lech Kowalski, Lucy Walker, Mads Brügger, Jørgen Leth, Alisa Kovalenko, Sophie Fiennes, Radu Ciorniciuc, Margreth Olin and Eugene Jarecki. Cph:forum, the international financing and co-production event for creative documentaries, part of the leading Nordic documentary festival Cph:dox, has announced the 35 international projects that have been selected for this year's edition, plus another eight Nordic works in progress that will be presented in the Cph:wip section. Out of 422 submissions, Cph:forum picked projects by 43 filmmakers hailing from 27 countries. 46% of the directors are women, 43% are men, and the remaining 11% are co-directing teams of men and women. 34% of the stories are told by filmmakers of colour. The line-up includes new works from established and prominent filmmakers, such as Lech Kowalski's A Little Story About an Immeasurable Problem, Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed's Cold & Warm, Mads Brügger's Double Trouble, Alisa...
Line-up also includes the new project from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker.
Danish documentary festival Cph:dox has revealed the 35 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event that will take place online-only from April 26-30.
Scroll down for full list of titles
The selection includes new projects from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker (Waste Land), Sundance winners Mads Brügger (Cold Case Hammarskjöld) and Eugene Jarecki (The House I Live In), Berlin Crystal Bear winner Geneviève Dulude-De Celle (A Colony) and Venice Horizons winner Lech Kowalski (East Of Paradise).
Further notable filmmakers include Radu Ciorniciuc, whose Acasa,...
Danish documentary festival Cph:dox has revealed the 35 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event that will take place online-only from April 26-30.
Scroll down for full list of titles
The selection includes new projects from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker (Waste Land), Sundance winners Mads Brügger (Cold Case Hammarskjöld) and Eugene Jarecki (The House I Live In), Berlin Crystal Bear winner Geneviève Dulude-De Celle (A Colony) and Venice Horizons winner Lech Kowalski (East Of Paradise).
Further notable filmmakers include Radu Ciorniciuc, whose Acasa,...
- 3/3/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
David Zellner and Nathan Zellner with Anne-Katrin Titze: "We love Westerns and we always wanted to do one but we didn't want to just copy what's been done before." Photo: Ally Navolio
The Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter creators are back this time with a Western. David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's latest, shot by Adam Stone, stars Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, and a horse named Butterscotch with Robert Forster, Joseph Billingiere, and a Barrel Of Laughs cameo by Nichols' longtime composer David Wingo.
David Zellner (Parson Henry) and Nathan Zellner (Rufus Cornell) sat down with me for a Damsel conversation that took us through Sophie Fiennes' The Pervert's Guide To Ideology (in which Slavoj Žižek says that Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a remake of John Ford's The Searchers), Hayao Miyazaki's Totoro, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, a scene from Jane Campion's The Piano, the Zen-like Butterscotch played by Daisy,...
The Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter creators are back this time with a Western. David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's latest, shot by Adam Stone, stars Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, and a horse named Butterscotch with Robert Forster, Joseph Billingiere, and a Barrel Of Laughs cameo by Nichols' longtime composer David Wingo.
David Zellner (Parson Henry) and Nathan Zellner (Rufus Cornell) sat down with me for a Damsel conversation that took us through Sophie Fiennes' The Pervert's Guide To Ideology (in which Slavoj Žižek says that Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a remake of John Ford's The Searchers), Hayao Miyazaki's Totoro, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, a scene from Jane Campion's The Piano, the Zen-like Butterscotch played by Daisy,...
- 6/22/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The film takes in the struggle of Spanish citizens under Franco’s dictatorship.
The 25th edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest presented its winners on June 12, with The Silence Of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar taking the Grand Jury award.
The film takes in the struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, and their continued search for justice today. It was executive produced by Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustín.
Full list of winners below
Screen’s review described it as ‘a moving salute to the small victories of determined individuals’.
Supported by Screen International and sister publication Broadcast,...
The 25th edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest presented its winners on June 12, with The Silence Of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar taking the Grand Jury award.
The film takes in the struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, and their continued search for justice today. It was executive produced by Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustín.
Full list of winners below
Screen’s review described it as ‘a moving salute to the small victories of determined individuals’.
Supported by Screen International and sister publication Broadcast,...
- 6/13/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Over 200 projects announced, including 37 world and 70 UK premieres.
UK documentary festival Sheffield Doc/Fest has unveiled the programme for its 25th edition, which runs from June 7-12 this summer.
Amongst the titles are a screening of McQueen, Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s film about the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen composed of archival footage and personal testimonials.
Last month Sean McAllister’s A Northern Soul was announced as the opening night film.
Scroll down for the full list of films in competition
The 2018 official competition jury includes documentarian Mark Cousins, director Sophie Fiennes and artists Liv Wynter and Samson Kambalu.
UK documentary festival Sheffield Doc/Fest has unveiled the programme for its 25th edition, which runs from June 7-12 this summer.
Amongst the titles are a screening of McQueen, Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s film about the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen composed of archival footage and personal testimonials.
Last month Sean McAllister’s A Northern Soul was announced as the opening night film.
Scroll down for the full list of films in competition
The 2018 official competition jury includes documentarian Mark Cousins, director Sophie Fiennes and artists Liv Wynter and Samson Kambalu.
- 5/3/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Green joins from WestEnd Films.
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has appointed Sophie Green as its head of acquisitions and development.
Green joins from WestEnd Films where she held the same position since 2016. Before then, she had roles at Studiocanal, literary agency David Higham Associates, and TV companies Tiger Aspect and Company Pictures.
During her time at WestEnd she worked on Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami, Vicky Jewson’s Close starring Noami Rapace which was recently picked up by Netflix, and Agnieszka Holland’s Gareth Jones starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby.
Green joined Bankside this week and...
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has appointed Sophie Green as its head of acquisitions and development.
Green joins from WestEnd Films where she held the same position since 2016. Before then, she had roles at Studiocanal, literary agency David Higham Associates, and TV companies Tiger Aspect and Company Pictures.
During her time at WestEnd she worked on Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami, Vicky Jewson’s Close starring Noami Rapace which was recently picked up by Netflix, and Agnieszka Holland’s Gareth Jones starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby.
Green joined Bankside this week and...
- 4/27/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Grace Jones appeared in person after a Los Angeles screening of the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami last weekend. In the film, the enigmatic singer opens up before the cameras of her friend, Sophie Fiennes, who spoke with Monsters and Critics last week. The documentary shows Jones performing on stage, recording in the studio and traveling to Jamaica to see family. Asked if she always wanted to be a performer, Jones said she grew into it. “I just wanted to stand on my hands and walk across the room,” Jones said. “I just wanted to speak as many languages […]
The post Grace Jones speaks about her documentary Bloodlight and Bami appeared first on Monsters and Critics.
The post Grace Jones speaks about her documentary Bloodlight and Bami appeared first on Monsters and Critics.
- 4/25/2018
- by Fred Topel
- Monsters and Critics
Grace Jones has been an enigmatic performer for decades. Whether you know her from her music, or from her acting roles in Conan the Destroyer, A View to a Kill, Vamp or Boomerang, the mystery and unknown have been central to her mystique. Jones reveals herself in the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami. Filmmaker Sophie Fiennes, who has been friends with Jones for 15 years, filmed her recording and performing, while opening up on camera in between. Fiennes spoke with Monsters and Critics by phone this week before Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami opened. The film is in theaters […]
The post Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami director Sophie Fiennes on the real Grace Jones appeared first on Monsters and Critics.
The post Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami director Sophie Fiennes on the real Grace Jones appeared first on Monsters and Critics.
- 4/20/2018
- by Fred Topel
- Monsters and Critics
In today’s film news roundup, Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Olsen are set to be honored by the Environmental Media Association, David Ninh gets a new gig, and elephant documentary “Love & Bananas” gets a release.
Honors
The Environmental Media Association will honor Jane Fonda, Ray Halbritter, Mike Sullivan, and Elizabeth Olsen on June 9 at its Honors Benefit Gala in Los Angeles.
Fonda will receive the Female Ema Lifetime Achievement Award and Halbritter, CEO of Oneida Nation Enterprises, will be given the Male Ema Lifetime Achievement Award. Olsen will receive the Ema Futures Award. Sullivan, owner of LAcarGuy, has been selected for the Ema Corporate Responsibility Award.
Past Ema Honors recipients include Michael Bloomberg, Sir Richard Branson, Matt Damon, Elon Musk, Natalie Portman, Jaden Smith, Justin Timberlake, and Shailene Woodley.
Fonda and Halbritter are both longtime champions of the Environmental Media Association and Halbritter is a member of its board of directors.
Honors
The Environmental Media Association will honor Jane Fonda, Ray Halbritter, Mike Sullivan, and Elizabeth Olsen on June 9 at its Honors Benefit Gala in Los Angeles.
Fonda will receive the Female Ema Lifetime Achievement Award and Halbritter, CEO of Oneida Nation Enterprises, will be given the Male Ema Lifetime Achievement Award. Olsen will receive the Ema Futures Award. Sullivan, owner of LAcarGuy, has been selected for the Ema Corporate Responsibility Award.
Past Ema Honors recipients include Michael Bloomberg, Sir Richard Branson, Matt Damon, Elon Musk, Natalie Portman, Jaden Smith, Justin Timberlake, and Shailene Woodley.
Fonda and Halbritter are both longtime champions of the Environmental Media Association and Halbritter is a member of its board of directors.
- 4/17/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Kino Lorber documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami debuted to robust numbers over the weekend, grossing $60,442 in three locations, giving it an impressive $20,147 per theater average.
That’s the highest of the weekend and one of the best among all 2018 non-fiction openings. The same distributor also bowed Hitler’s Hollywood with an exclusive showing, taking in $10,177.
Sony Classics rode The Rider into a trio of runs starting Friday for a solid $45,268 start, averaging $15,089.
The weekend also saw a couple of semi-wide newcomers including Bleecker Street’s Sundance thriller Beirut with Rosamund Pike and Jon Hamm (which opened Wednesday), grossing an estimated $1.65M in the three-day span, while Fathom Events played The Met: Live in HD Luisa Miller in 900 locations, grossing $1.28M.
Amazon’s You Were Never Really Here expanded to 51 theaters in its second frame. The Joaquin Phoenix starrer grossed $324K Friday through Sunday. A24 also added locations for Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete,...
That’s the highest of the weekend and one of the best among all 2018 non-fiction openings. The same distributor also bowed Hitler’s Hollywood with an exclusive showing, taking in $10,177.
Sony Classics rode The Rider into a trio of runs starting Friday for a solid $45,268 start, averaging $15,089.
The weekend also saw a couple of semi-wide newcomers including Bleecker Street’s Sundance thriller Beirut with Rosamund Pike and Jon Hamm (which opened Wednesday), grossing an estimated $1.65M in the three-day span, while Fathom Events played The Met: Live in HD Luisa Miller in 900 locations, grossing $1.28M.
Amazon’s You Were Never Really Here expanded to 51 theaters in its second frame. The Joaquin Phoenix starrer grossed $324K Friday through Sunday. A24 also added locations for Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete,...
- 4/15/2018
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
wide
Truth or Dare [my review]
Lucy Hale, Violett Beane, and Sophia Taylor Ali costar in this horror movie about a college drinking game that goes wrong. Cowritten by Jillian Jacobs. (male director)
Rampage [my review]
Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, and Marley Shelton costar in this sci-fi action movie about genetically engineered monsters. (male writers and director)
limited
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami [IMDb]
Sophie Fiennes directs this documentary about the performance artist.
The Judge [IMDb]
Erika Cohn directs this documentary about a female adjudicator in the Middle East.
20 Weeks [IMDb]
Leena Pendharkar writes and directs this drama about a couple facing a difficult pregnancy. Costarring Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jocelin Donahue, and Michelle Krusiec.
The Rider [IMDb]
Chloé Zhao writes and directs this drama about a (male) rodeo rider recovering from a traumatic brain injury.
Zama [IMDb]
Lucrecia Martel writes and directs this historical drama about a (male) Spanish officer in 17th-century South America.
Nana [IMDb] pictured
Serena Dykman...
Truth or Dare [my review]
Lucy Hale, Violett Beane, and Sophia Taylor Ali costar in this horror movie about a college drinking game that goes wrong. Cowritten by Jillian Jacobs. (male director)
Rampage [my review]
Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, and Marley Shelton costar in this sci-fi action movie about genetically engineered monsters. (male writers and director)
limited
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami [IMDb]
Sophie Fiennes directs this documentary about the performance artist.
The Judge [IMDb]
Erika Cohn directs this documentary about a female adjudicator in the Middle East.
20 Weeks [IMDb]
Leena Pendharkar writes and directs this drama about a couple facing a difficult pregnancy. Costarring Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jocelin Donahue, and Michelle Krusiec.
The Rider [IMDb]
Chloé Zhao writes and directs this drama about a (male) rodeo rider recovering from a traumatic brain injury.
Zama [IMDb]
Lucrecia Martel writes and directs this historical drama about a (male) Spanish officer in 17th-century South America.
Nana [IMDb] pictured
Serena Dykman...
- 4/13/2018
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The first on-screen credit of “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” reads: “Hats designed by Philip Treacy.” It’s an entirely appropriate announcement of values, a reminder that style and substance are indistinguishable for Jones, the film’s enduring singer-actor-model-muse.
Treacy, millinery king of the outlandish fascinator (think Kate and William’s wedding and the late Isabella Blow), has no interest in understatement, and neither does the outlandishly fascinating woman whose body becomes a collaborating force with his work.
In addition to those never-wrong hat decisions, what follows in the winning documentary from Sophie Fiennes (“The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”) is two hours of contrasts that inform one another: sweat-inducing concert footage, intimate family reunion moments, steel-spine business negotiations, recording-studio drama, and a steadfast commitment to personal glamour that sees its subject in a Parisian hotel suite enjoying a champagne breakfast wearing nothing but a fur coat, as though this were a daily occurrence. (And it very well could be.)
Also Read: 'Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami' Gives Toronto a Big Dose of Disco Diva
At age 69, Jones remains an unclassifiable icon, a tireless CEO of her own aesthetic, and a willful iconoclast. We witness the recording artist who scolds legendary Jamaican music producer Robbie Shakespeare for not showing up to the studio when she needs him, the cultural force who mocks contemporary audiences’ unwillingness to party all night long, and the grandmother who coos over her son’s newborn.
We’re treated to the Studio 54 legend who harnessed a hurricane’s worth of nerve and seamlessly transitioned into 80s New Wave diva status, taking her worshipful Lgbtq audience along for the ride without ever succumbing to fuzzy nostalgia as the years went by. We travel with the devoted family member going home to Jamaica who picks up the beat of a lived-in domesticity with people who’ve known her since childhood. She’s somewhat more than one documentary can contain.
Fiennes knows this and doesn’t try to overstuff the film. Rather than cram seven decades’ worth of biographical events into 120 minutes — there’s a glimpse of Andy Warhol but you can forget learning anything new about Dolph Lundgren — Fiennes approaches Jones’ unique position with a clear, unsentimental directness, unburdened with shaping an easy narrative or lazy hagiography, resolutely concerned with the present. This means that longtime fans will enjoy a relatively demystifying glimpse into Jones’ private life as she lives it today, and newcomers will find themselves pleasantly confused.
Also Read: Grace Jones Throws Shade at Rihanna, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus for Being Copycats
The filmmaker allows Jones the space to be the crowd-pleasing singer in the concert hall whose expectations for herself “are much higher than [that of the audience],” the artist in the “bloodlight” of the recording studio working to create relevant new music, and the hometown hero sharing bami (a type of bread) with elderly Jamaican neighbors.
Jones, for her part, makes no qualitative distinctions between the spaces she occupies, not in the worlds of music, fashion, and art, nor in her day-to-day tending of a family and business. When she goes to a Jamaican church service and then, in another sequence, performs “Amazing Grace” with an attitude that may or may not be a little self-aggrandizing, it all feels exactly right. Fiennes frames Jones in collaboration with the artist’s own fluidly presentational sense of self: her shifting style, and often her very accent, dependent on her audience and location, as though performance is everything she knows.
Watch Video: First Trailer for Mister Rogers Doc 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?' Might Make You Cry
And because this sort of existence requires tenacity over the long haul, Jones is never without a point of view. She’s shown fighting a French TV producer who not only wants her to take off her face-obscuring hat, but also subjects her to unappealing set design and sexy background dancers. (“We are visual artists. We know what things look like,” she sniffs, the shade finely calibrated for the moment.) She’s seen ruminating on the abusive religious childhood foundations of her self-described “scary” public persona, all the while dealing tenderly with that same Pentecostal family.
It’s a life — and now a film about a life — built from disparate strands of experience, but one that makes sense exactly because she is Grace Jones, and being Grace Jones means synthesizing Grace Jones from all available material. That she continues to share this with audiences is a bonding act of disco generosity, one only appreciated with repeated nights out dancing to “Pull Up to The Bumper.”
And that’s not really something a documentary can do for you. Like Jones herself, you have to put in those late hours on your own.
Read original story ‘Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami’ Review: She’s Almost Too Much for One Film At TheWrap...
Treacy, millinery king of the outlandish fascinator (think Kate and William’s wedding and the late Isabella Blow), has no interest in understatement, and neither does the outlandishly fascinating woman whose body becomes a collaborating force with his work.
In addition to those never-wrong hat decisions, what follows in the winning documentary from Sophie Fiennes (“The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”) is two hours of contrasts that inform one another: sweat-inducing concert footage, intimate family reunion moments, steel-spine business negotiations, recording-studio drama, and a steadfast commitment to personal glamour that sees its subject in a Parisian hotel suite enjoying a champagne breakfast wearing nothing but a fur coat, as though this were a daily occurrence. (And it very well could be.)
Also Read: 'Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami' Gives Toronto a Big Dose of Disco Diva
At age 69, Jones remains an unclassifiable icon, a tireless CEO of her own aesthetic, and a willful iconoclast. We witness the recording artist who scolds legendary Jamaican music producer Robbie Shakespeare for not showing up to the studio when she needs him, the cultural force who mocks contemporary audiences’ unwillingness to party all night long, and the grandmother who coos over her son’s newborn.
We’re treated to the Studio 54 legend who harnessed a hurricane’s worth of nerve and seamlessly transitioned into 80s New Wave diva status, taking her worshipful Lgbtq audience along for the ride without ever succumbing to fuzzy nostalgia as the years went by. We travel with the devoted family member going home to Jamaica who picks up the beat of a lived-in domesticity with people who’ve known her since childhood. She’s somewhat more than one documentary can contain.
Fiennes knows this and doesn’t try to overstuff the film. Rather than cram seven decades’ worth of biographical events into 120 minutes — there’s a glimpse of Andy Warhol but you can forget learning anything new about Dolph Lundgren — Fiennes approaches Jones’ unique position with a clear, unsentimental directness, unburdened with shaping an easy narrative or lazy hagiography, resolutely concerned with the present. This means that longtime fans will enjoy a relatively demystifying glimpse into Jones’ private life as she lives it today, and newcomers will find themselves pleasantly confused.
Also Read: Grace Jones Throws Shade at Rihanna, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus for Being Copycats
The filmmaker allows Jones the space to be the crowd-pleasing singer in the concert hall whose expectations for herself “are much higher than [that of the audience],” the artist in the “bloodlight” of the recording studio working to create relevant new music, and the hometown hero sharing bami (a type of bread) with elderly Jamaican neighbors.
Jones, for her part, makes no qualitative distinctions between the spaces she occupies, not in the worlds of music, fashion, and art, nor in her day-to-day tending of a family and business. When she goes to a Jamaican church service and then, in another sequence, performs “Amazing Grace” with an attitude that may or may not be a little self-aggrandizing, it all feels exactly right. Fiennes frames Jones in collaboration with the artist’s own fluidly presentational sense of self: her shifting style, and often her very accent, dependent on her audience and location, as though performance is everything she knows.
Watch Video: First Trailer for Mister Rogers Doc 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?' Might Make You Cry
And because this sort of existence requires tenacity over the long haul, Jones is never without a point of view. She’s shown fighting a French TV producer who not only wants her to take off her face-obscuring hat, but also subjects her to unappealing set design and sexy background dancers. (“We are visual artists. We know what things look like,” she sniffs, the shade finely calibrated for the moment.) She’s seen ruminating on the abusive religious childhood foundations of her self-described “scary” public persona, all the while dealing tenderly with that same Pentecostal family.
It’s a life — and now a film about a life — built from disparate strands of experience, but one that makes sense exactly because she is Grace Jones, and being Grace Jones means synthesizing Grace Jones from all available material. That she continues to share this with audiences is a bonding act of disco generosity, one only appreciated with repeated nights out dancing to “Pull Up to The Bumper.”
And that’s not really something a documentary can do for you. Like Jones herself, you have to put in those late hours on your own.
Read original story ‘Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami’ Review: She’s Almost Too Much for One Film At TheWrap...
- 4/12/2018
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
She's been a Grammy nominee and a disco glamazon, a supermodel and a slave to the rhythm, a Bond femme fatale and Conan the Barbarian's cohort, a style icon and a Studio 54 habitué. She is Grace Jones, and this tall, fearsome Jamaican remains an instantly recognizable celebrity and a fertile creative force. But director Sophie Fiennes' immersive and intimate documentary, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, reveals a side of the artist rarely glimpsed by her legions of fans: unguarded, tender, down-home, vulnerable. Rather than follow the standard cradle-to-comeback trajectory of a music biodoc,...
- 4/11/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Oh, April – not quite the end of late-winter prestige section, not quite the official kick-off month of summer moviegoing! Assuming such seasonal categories even mean anything any more – the month's big-ticket events are no less than the Marvel Universe's ultra-mega-super-crossover-apalooza Avengers: Infinity War and the Rock and a giant ape fighting monsters courtesy of a vintage video-game adaptation. And arthouse movies like the Orthodox Jewish-meets-sapphic romance drama Disobedience and the neo-neorealistic gem The Rider could have easily held their own during rhymes-with-Schmoscarbait season. You get all this plus a tense-as-hell horror movie,...
- 3/29/2018
- Rollingstone.com
"Did you ever think that Grace would be a movie star?" "Sure, baby." Kino Lorber has revealed a brand new, full-length official Us trailer for the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami, from director Sophie Fiennes, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and already opened in Europe last fall. Originally titled Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, the film tells the life story of artist/dancer/actor Grace Jones, who some may recognize as May Day from A View to a Kill, though her career is much more diverse ranging from dance to art to music and much more. Described as an "electrifying journey through the public and private worlds of pop culture mega-icon Grace Jones contrasts musical sequences with intimate personal footage, all the while brimming with Jones’s bold aesthetic." The first two trailers didn't show much, but this one finally gives us a...
- 3/22/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Grace Jones takes viewers behind-the-scenes as well as onstage in the new trailer for Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami. The clip offers an intimate look at the icon's personal and public life.
Directed by Sophie Fiennes, the film comprises footage filmed over a decade. It traces her day-to-day life, from showcasing her roots to the world stage. Traveling the globe, she visits family in Jamaica and performs at various venues, where she appears onstage in myriad stunning costumes. The film features performances of her classic hits "Slave to the Rhythm...
Directed by Sophie Fiennes, the film comprises footage filmed over a decade. It traces her day-to-day life, from showcasing her roots to the world stage. Traveling the globe, she visits family in Jamaica and performs at various venues, where she appears onstage in myriad stunning costumes. The film features performances of her classic hits "Slave to the Rhythm...
- 3/22/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Kino Lorber has acquires North American rights from WestEnd Films.
Source: © Grace Jones / Sligoville Limited / Blinder Films Limited / The British Film Institute / British Broadcasting Corporation 2017
Grace Jones
Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Toronto title Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami and is lining up a theatrical release in early April with a VOD and home entertainment release set for autumn 2018.
WestEnd Films, which handles world sales, has also sold the documentary about the iconic singer and performer to Germany (Ascot Elite), Switzerland (Praesens), Italy (Offine Ubu), Benelux (Arti Film), China (Lemon Tree), Scandinavia and Baltics (Non Stop), Poland (Against Gravity), the Middle East (Front Row), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg) and Australia (Umbrella).
The well-received film, part music documentary and part biopic, was released by Trafalgar in the UK last October.
The deal between Kino Lorber and WestEnd Films was negotiated by Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber and Eve Schoukroun and Sofia Neves at WestEnd.
In addition to the...
Source: © Grace Jones / Sligoville Limited / Blinder Films Limited / The British Film Institute / British Broadcasting Corporation 2017
Grace Jones
Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Toronto title Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami and is lining up a theatrical release in early April with a VOD and home entertainment release set for autumn 2018.
WestEnd Films, which handles world sales, has also sold the documentary about the iconic singer and performer to Germany (Ascot Elite), Switzerland (Praesens), Italy (Offine Ubu), Benelux (Arti Film), China (Lemon Tree), Scandinavia and Baltics (Non Stop), Poland (Against Gravity), the Middle East (Front Row), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg) and Australia (Umbrella).
The well-received film, part music documentary and part biopic, was released by Trafalgar in the UK last October.
The deal between Kino Lorber and WestEnd Films was negotiated by Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber and Eve Schoukroun and Sofia Neves at WestEnd.
In addition to the...
- 1/11/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- ScreenDaily
Partycrashers is an on-going series of video dispatches from critics Michael Pattison and Neil Young.The stars align! Eventually: though we’ve notched up 40 film festivals between us this year (16 for me, contrary to the miscount offered in the video below), the fourth edition of Porto/Post/Doc was only the third we’d attended together—and the first proper opportunity to record a dispatch of this kind. As parties go, this one was easy to crash: ostensibly an event dedicated to nonfiction, Post/Doc, held in beautifully distinctive Porto, was also open to feature films such as The Beguiled, Lucky, and 120 Bpm, as well as more or less more straightforward documentaries like Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s An Inconvenient Sequel and Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami.The primary source of interest for us, however, was the festival’s main bulk: its competition, including Gürcan Keltek’s prize-winner Meteors,...
- 12/15/2017
- MUBI
Though the documentary itself is rather unfocused, the star at its centre is as compelling as ever
This portrait of performer and fashion icon Grace Jones is, unlike its subject, slightly flabby and undisciplined. It wanders off on tangents, following Jones on a family reunion in Jamaica, eavesdropping on childhood reminiscences and shared dinners. Director Sophie Fiennes makes the bold decision of not including any archive footage – this is Grace Jones as she is now. Fortunately, Grace Jones now – as always – is mesmerising. She’s a chameleon with quixotic moods and charm so intense, you worry it would singe your eyelashes if you got too close. The film works thanks to the intimacy of the material – Jones bares all to the camera – and to the dangerous drama of her live performances. It’s a celebration of defiant, uncompromising originality, a commodity which is all too rare in music these days.
This portrait of performer and fashion icon Grace Jones is, unlike its subject, slightly flabby and undisciplined. It wanders off on tangents, following Jones on a family reunion in Jamaica, eavesdropping on childhood reminiscences and shared dinners. Director Sophie Fiennes makes the bold decision of not including any archive footage – this is Grace Jones as she is now. Fortunately, Grace Jones now – as always – is mesmerising. She’s a chameleon with quixotic moods and charm so intense, you worry it would singe your eyelashes if you got too close. The film works thanks to the intimacy of the material – Jones bares all to the camera – and to the dangerous drama of her live performances. It’s a celebration of defiant, uncompromising originality, a commodity which is all too rare in music these days.
- 10/29/2017
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
Sophie Fiennes’ engaging documentary explores the showbiz excesses and the Jamaican background of a star who sparkles ever more intensely
At 69 years old – and looking at least 20 years younger – the singer Grace Jones is the subject of this documentary portrait by Sophie Fiennes. It’s a celebration of her musicality and extraterrestrial scariness, and a reminder that films about female singing stars need not be gallant tributes to tragically doomed fragility.
Jones looks like a mix of Liza Minnelli in Cabaret and Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. She has elaborate headgear that obscures her face, making her look all the more like an icon, or a weapon – and Fiennes’s film hints that this mannerism may be derived from hats favoured in the churches of her Jamaican childhood. (“Bloodlight” and “bami” are Jamaican words for the red studio light and bread.) We see her on tour, yelling at people over...
At 69 years old – and looking at least 20 years younger – the singer Grace Jones is the subject of this documentary portrait by Sophie Fiennes. It’s a celebration of her musicality and extraterrestrial scariness, and a reminder that films about female singing stars need not be gallant tributes to tragically doomed fragility.
Jones looks like a mix of Liza Minnelli in Cabaret and Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. She has elaborate headgear that obscures her face, making her look all the more like an icon, or a weapon – and Fiennes’s film hints that this mannerism may be derived from hats favoured in the churches of her Jamaican childhood. (“Bloodlight” and “bami” are Jamaican words for the red studio light and bread.) We see her on tour, yelling at people over...
- 10/25/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The sprawling Festival do Rio runs from October 5th to 15th this year and - as per usual - there is a generous assortment of genre titles both in the dedicated idnight lineups and spread throughout the program. Whether you're looking for Asian action or high energy music docs, Rio has your fix. Here's the lineup! Midnight Movies Brawl in Cell Block 99 (dir. S. Craig Zahler, USA) Let the Corpses Tan (dir. Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, France/Belgium) The Villainess (dir. Jung Byoung-Gil, Sputh Korea) Jailbreak (dir. Jimmy Henderson, Cambodia) Sweet Virginia (dir. Jamie M. Dagg, USA) Lake Bodom (dir. Taneli Mustonen, Finland/Estonia) Prevenge (dir. Alice Lowe, United Kingdom) The Misandrists (dir. Bruce Labruce, Germany) My Entire High School Is Sinking Into the Sea (dir. Dash Shaw, USA) Salt (dir. Diego Freitas, Brazil) Midnight Music Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (dir. Sophie Fiennes, Ireland/United...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/27/2017
- Screen Anarchy
"Been around the block too many times..." A brand new, full-length trailer has debuted for Sophie Fiennes' documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami, which is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend. Originally titled Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, the film tells the life story of artist/dancer/actor Grace Jones, who some may recognize as May Day from A View to a Kill, though her career is much more diverse ranging from dance to art to music and much more. Described as an "observational portrait" and "cinema verité-style film", the doc film combines intimate personal footage with unique staged musical sequences to give us a look at both her public and private life. This trailer shows more than the first teaser trailer, but it's still very short and ends rather abruptly. I'm still curious to see this film! Take a look below. Here's the...
- 9/10/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Grace Jones, the subject of Sophie Fiennes’ documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, which premiered Sept. 7 at Tiff, drew her first film-world blood with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1984’s Conan the Destroyer.
In this sequel to the 1982 blockbuster Conan the Barbarian, Schwarzenegger was teamed up with basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain, Sarah Douglas (who had played Kryptonian villainess Ursa in a pair of Superman movies) and Jones. The Hollywood Reporter said the pairing made the film “a bit reminiscent of The Professionals mixed with The Wizard of Oz.” However, THR gushed over Jones, saying she “proves [to be] the movie’s...
In this sequel to the 1982 blockbuster Conan the Barbarian, Schwarzenegger was teamed up with basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain, Sarah Douglas (who had played Kryptonian villainess Ursa in a pair of Superman movies) and Jones. The Hollywood Reporter said the pairing made the film “a bit reminiscent of The Professionals mixed with The Wizard of Oz.” However, THR gushed over Jones, saying she “proves [to be] the movie’s...
- 9/9/2017
- by Bill Higgins
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Documentary bookers at film festivals quickly learn that films about musicians tend to draw large, enthusiastic crowds, and that’s certainly a lesson that the Toronto International Film Festival learned long ago. This year’s Tiff doc subjects include Lady Gaga, Eric Clapton and Sammy Davis, Jr. But opening night belonged to Grace Jones, the imperious art-disco diva who holds court in Sophie Fiennes’ “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami.” And since she’s an art-disco diva, it makes sense that the film is an art-doc of sorts, doing away with the usual music-film staples in favor of a fragmentary portrait assembled from verite.
- 9/8/2017
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Now that Prince and David Bowie have departed this mortal plane, is there anyone left who still embodies that electrifying notion of star as otherworldly androgynous superfreak? Perhaps only Grace Jones, art-rock glamazon supreme, has the requisite reserves of impenetrable mystique and old-school majesty. British director Sophie Fiennes certainly finds Jones a spellbinding subject in Bloodlight and Bami, securing intimate access to the veteran diva over several years without ever quite managing to spill her secrets.
Best known for her two collaborative documentaries with philosopher Slavoj Zizek, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012),...
Best known for her two collaborative documentaries with philosopher Slavoj Zizek, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012),...
- 9/8/2017
- by Stephen Dalton
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Life in Grace Jones’ world is “a lonely place, but a fascinating lonely place,” the nightclubbing icon tells us in this exclusive new international trailer for Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, the WestEnd Films documentary making its world premiere as the opening film in the Toronto Film Festival’s Docs section. Directed by Sophie Fiennes, Grace Jones features the singer of “Slave to the Rhythm” and “Pull Up to the Bumper” in performance as well as in her private and…...
- 9/5/2017
- Deadline
SydneysBuzz New Report: 2017 Toronto By Numbers: Women, Lgbtq, African American, Mena, Asian, African Diaspora and More
Want to get a head start on your competition? The Toronto By Numbers Report gives you an easy organizing tool of all Tiff films, sortable by international sales agents, U.S., Canada and other territorial distributors and by categories such as language, country, female directors, Lgbtq, African and its diaspora, Asia and diaspora, Mena, Jewish, Latino, Indigenous. And all titles are linked to the Toronto online catalog which includes screening times.
After Tiff is over, look for the Rights Roundup which reports on sales made, again showing not only titles and sales agents, but distributors alson with contact information on all of the 252 feature films, a smaller line-up compared to last year but still vaunting some impressive figures, 147 of world premieres, 19 international and 72 North American premieres.
For $99.99 you can download into your own database...
Want to get a head start on your competition? The Toronto By Numbers Report gives you an easy organizing tool of all Tiff films, sortable by international sales agents, U.S., Canada and other territorial distributors and by categories such as language, country, female directors, Lgbtq, African and its diaspora, Asia and diaspora, Mena, Jewish, Latino, Indigenous. And all titles are linked to the Toronto online catalog which includes screening times.
After Tiff is over, look for the Rights Roundup which reports on sales made, again showing not only titles and sales agents, but distributors alson with contact information on all of the 252 feature films, a smaller line-up compared to last year but still vaunting some impressive figures, 147 of world premieres, 19 international and 72 North American premieres.
For $99.99 you can download into your own database...
- 8/28/2017
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Doug Nichol's California Typewriter brilliantly captures the percussion of the keys at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Antiquarian typewriter collector Martin Howard over brunch in the garden of Narcissa, next door to the Standard Hotel, joined me for a conversation on California Typewriter, Doug Nichol's documentary featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, Jeremy Mayer, Pulitzer Prize winners David McCullough and Sam Shepard, and a reenactment of Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams' Royal Road Test execution. Martin is the glue of the film as we are taken on an historical journey for his search to purchase a Sholes & Glidden typewriter.
Martin Howard on typewriter Betty Grable: "She uses a Sholes & Glidden in The Shocking Miss Pilgrim." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Wrong Box (John Mills, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore), Royal Flash (Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates, Florinda Bolkan, Oliver Reed), Waterloo (Rod Steiger,...
Antiquarian typewriter collector Martin Howard over brunch in the garden of Narcissa, next door to the Standard Hotel, joined me for a conversation on California Typewriter, Doug Nichol's documentary featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, Jeremy Mayer, Pulitzer Prize winners David McCullough and Sam Shepard, and a reenactment of Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams' Royal Road Test execution. Martin is the glue of the film as we are taken on an historical journey for his search to purchase a Sholes & Glidden typewriter.
Martin Howard on typewriter Betty Grable: "She uses a Sholes & Glidden in The Shocking Miss Pilgrim." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Wrong Box (John Mills, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore), Royal Flash (Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates, Florinda Bolkan, Oliver Reed), Waterloo (Rod Steiger,...
- 8/27/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Grace Jones and her enviable cheekbones are the focal point of a newly released trailer for the Sophie Fiennes-helmed documentary, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami. The film, which was created out of a decade's worth of footage, premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.
In the minute-and-a-half-long trailer, Jones can be seen applying makeup first in the back of what can be assumed to be a long black limo, and then in front of a backstage vanity. Set to the beat of Jones's single "Pull Up to My Bumper,...
In the minute-and-a-half-long trailer, Jones can be seen applying makeup first in the back of what can be assumed to be a long black limo, and then in front of a backstage vanity. Set to the beat of Jones's single "Pull Up to My Bumper,...
- 8/4/2017
- Rollingstone.com
By Thom Powers
“Resistance is a key theme in this year’s documentaries,” said Tiff Docs Programmer Thom Powers. “We pay witness to rebels challenging the status quo in art, politics, sexuality, religion, fashion, sports and entertainment. They speak powerfully to our times as audiences seek inspirations for battling powerful and corrupt systems.”
Tiff’s 2017 documentary lineup goes deep into the lives of boundary-pushing characters — Grace Jones, Jim Carrey, Jane Goodall, and Eric Clapton, to name only a few of the most famous. But the celebrity factor isn’t enough to make a great film. What sets these docs apart is their directors’ ability to a bring fresh perspective.
Azmaish: A Journey through the SubcontinentBoom For Real The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Then there are figures whose names you may not recognize, but they become unforgettable after you see them on screen. They include Scotty Bowers, who was...
“Resistance is a key theme in this year’s documentaries,” said Tiff Docs Programmer Thom Powers. “We pay witness to rebels challenging the status quo in art, politics, sexuality, religion, fashion, sports and entertainment. They speak powerfully to our times as audiences seek inspirations for battling powerful and corrupt systems.”
Tiff’s 2017 documentary lineup goes deep into the lives of boundary-pushing characters — Grace Jones, Jim Carrey, Jane Goodall, and Eric Clapton, to name only a few of the most famous. But the celebrity factor isn’t enough to make a great film. What sets these docs apart is their directors’ ability to a bring fresh perspective.
Azmaish: A Journey through the SubcontinentBoom For Real The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Then there are figures whose names you may not recognize, but they become unforgettable after you see them on screen. They include Scotty Bowers, who was...
- 8/3/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
ThelmaA selection of films from the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with new films by Sebastián Lelio, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Darren Aronofsky, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo Del Toro, Joachim Trier, Wim Wenders, and many more.Special PRESENTATIONSOpening Night: Ladybird (Greta Gerwig)Closing Night: Sheikh Jackson (Amr Salama)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton)Bpm (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)The Brawler (Anurag Kashyap)The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)Catch the Wind (Gaël Morel)The Children Act (Richard Eyre)The Current War (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)Disobedience (Sebastián Lelio)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie)The Guardians (Xavier Beauvois)Hostiles (Scott Cooper)The Hungry (Bornila Chatterjee)I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)Novitiate (Maggie Betts)Omerta (Hansal Mehta)Plonger (Mélanie Laurent)The Price of Success (Teddy Lussi-Modeste)Professor Marston & the Wonder Women...
- 8/3/2017
- MUBI
"You have to be a high-flyin' bitch sometimes!" An official trailer has arrived online for Sophie Fiennes' new documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami, which will be premiering at the Toronto Film Festival coming up next month. Originally titled Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, the film tells the life story of artist/dancer/actor Grace Jones, who some may recognize as May Day from A View to a Kill, though her career is much more diverse than that. Described as an "observational portrait", "cinema verité-style film", the doc combines intimate personal footage with unique staged musical sequences to give us a look at both her public and private life. This trailer doesn't show much footage, but I am very curious about it, there's something fierce about Grace Jones that's particularly alluring. I'm looking forward to seeing this doc soon. Here's the first festival trailer for Sophie Fiennes...
- 8/2/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Following an initial round of premieres and the announcement that Borg vs. McEnroe will open Toronto International Film Festival 2017, they’ve now announced their lineup for Midnight Madness and Documentaries. Leading the pack of our most-anticipated among midnight tiles is Brawl in Cell Block 99, which is S. Craig Zahler’s follow-up to Bone Tomahawk and will premiere at Venice beforehand. There’s also the latest film from Joseph Kahn, Bodied, which will open the sidebar, and the first trailer has landed.
On the documentary side, there is Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris – The New York Public Library, as well as new films from Morgan Spurlock, Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck), and more. Check out the new additions below, along with images and trailers where available.
Midnight Madness
Midnight Madness Opening Film
Bodied Joseph Kahn, USA
World Premiere
Our #TIFF17 Midnight Madness Opening Night Film is @JosephKahn’s Bodied,...
On the documentary side, there is Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris – The New York Public Library, as well as new films from Morgan Spurlock, Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck), and more. Check out the new additions below, along with images and trailers where available.
Midnight Madness
Midnight Madness Opening Film
Bodied Joseph Kahn, USA
World Premiere
Our #TIFF17 Midnight Madness Opening Night Film is @JosephKahn’s Bodied,...
- 8/2/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.
Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”
Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.
1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...
Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”
Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.
1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...
- 8/1/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.
Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”
Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.
1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...
Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”
Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.
1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...
- 8/1/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
A new documentary about Eric Clapton, Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before airing on Showtime in 2018.
Oscar winner Lili Fini Zanuck (producer, Driving Miss Daisy) directed Life in 12 Bars, which features extensive interviews with Clapton. The film chronicles the guitarist's remarkable career, from his time as a British rock journeyman in the Yardbirds and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers to his stints in Cream and Blind Faith, as well as his lengthy solo career. Life in 12 Bars will also explore how music has...
Oscar winner Lili Fini Zanuck (producer, Driving Miss Daisy) directed Life in 12 Bars, which features extensive interviews with Clapton. The film chronicles the guitarist's remarkable career, from his time as a British rock journeyman in the Yardbirds and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers to his stints in Cream and Blind Faith, as well as his lengthy solo career. Life in 12 Bars will also explore how music has...
- 8/1/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Morgan Spurlock re-engages with the food industry, James Franco digs into the ‘worst film ever made’.
Top brass at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) unveiled on Tuesday selections in the Tiff Docs, Midnight Madness, and Short Cuts programmes.
The Canadian titles that are part of this year’s programme will be announced on August 9. The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled to run from September 7-17 and will open with Borg/McEnroe.
Tiff Docs
The world premiere of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! joins a marquee Tiff Docs roster from renowned filmmakers that opens with Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami.
Selections include Brett Morgen’s profile of primatologist Jane Goodall in Jane; the story of three Hasidic Jews who attempt to join the secular world in One Of Us by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; Violeta Ayala’s Bolivian drug trade film Cocaine Prison; and Emmanuel Gras’ closing film Makala...
Top brass at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) unveiled on Tuesday selections in the Tiff Docs, Midnight Madness, and Short Cuts programmes.
The Canadian titles that are part of this year’s programme will be announced on August 9. The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled to run from September 7-17 and will open with Borg/McEnroe.
Tiff Docs
The world premiere of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! joins a marquee Tiff Docs roster from renowned filmmakers that opens with Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami.
Selections include Brett Morgen’s profile of primatologist Jane Goodall in Jane; the story of three Hasidic Jews who attempt to join the secular world in One Of Us by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; Violeta Ayala’s Bolivian drug trade film Cocaine Prison; and Emmanuel Gras’ closing film Makala...
- 8/1/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
They are two of the Toronto International Film Festival’s wildest sections — for very different reasons — and this year’s slate of both Midnight Madness and Documentary offerings appear to signal another strong lineup for the festival. Thrills, chills, terror, and scares await movie-goers, all care of unbelievable real-life stories and slightly less true tales for genre fans of all stripes.
This year’s Midnight Madness section will open with Joseph Kahn’s provocative World Premiere of “Bodied,” and also offers up the World Premiere of “The Disaster Artist,” directed by James Franco and based on the making of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult film, “The Room.” (The film previously screened as a work-in-progress at SXSW.)
Read MoreTIFF Reveals First Slate of 2017 Titles, Including ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Downsizing,’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’
In his first year as programmer, Peter Kuplowsky is also welcoming back several fest alumni, including David Bruckner,...
This year’s Midnight Madness section will open with Joseph Kahn’s provocative World Premiere of “Bodied,” and also offers up the World Premiere of “The Disaster Artist,” directed by James Franco and based on the making of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult film, “The Room.” (The film previously screened as a work-in-progress at SXSW.)
Read MoreTIFF Reveals First Slate of 2017 Titles, Including ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Downsizing,’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’
In his first year as programmer, Peter Kuplowsky is also welcoming back several fest alumni, including David Bruckner,...
- 8/1/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
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