Book author Léo (Damien Bonnard), is conducting research on wolves in the Lozère region of Southern France. It’s hill country, where grassy plateaus are dotted by the occasional rock formation and sheep farms, just like the one Leo encounters on his path, complete the landscape. Leo meets a shepherd by the name of Marie (India Hair). Nine months later, their baby is born. What could possibly go wrong with such a quaint pastoral tableau?
The Cannes Festival opened today with the best possible film it could open with: the buoyant and lighthearted “Cafe Society,” directed by Woody Allen. I walked out of this morning’s screening with my spirits raised. But, then became quickly hungry for lunch. In Allen’s perfectly-told, jaunty tale a young man, played by Jesse Eisenberg, moves to L.A. from New York to find work. He meets the boss’s secretary and falls in love with her
As the first lady of cinema gets dressed and ready for her close-up, a brief look at the lineup seems appropriate just before I board my train to Cannes. The selection of the 69th Cannes Festival, which opens tomorrow, is the strongest one in years. Paul Verhoeven's "Elle," starring Isabelle Huppert, holds the promise, for better or worse, of vanquishing the extremes of sadism and survivalism. France's Bruno Dumont
To most people Benjamin Millepied is both the choreographer of Darren Aronofsky’s Oscar-nominated film "Black Swan" and the husband of Oscar-winner Natalie Portman, for the same film. In the world of ballet, however, Benjamin Millepied has been a trailblazer for young dancers as the Director of the Paris Opera Ballet during a span of two years starting in 2014.
I fear I might suffer from a certain cultural disconnect reviewing Halkawt Mustafa’s “El Clásico,” the winner of Tribeca’s 2016 award for Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film. The film hinges on a presumption that football, or “soccer” as it’s known here in the States, is a powerful enough force that the goodwill of one of its players can literally be enough to dissuade deeply-felt prejudices
The Cannes Festival just announced who this year’s jury will […]
The pregnant women in the marketplace avoid her foodstand, afraid […]
Who is Jeremiah Tower? Does anyone know? Jeremiah Tower is the first American celebrity chef, a culinary pioneer of American cuisine who started rising to fame in the seventies and has been recognized amongst foodies and culinary circles as the genius behind the style of cooking known as California cuisine. A solitary, outrageous and charismatic figure, Jeremiah Tower makes for a fascinating documentary subject
I remember how many people were caught totally off guard by Ricky Gervais’s “The Invention of Lying” (2009), a film with a simple premise about a man who could lie in a world where nobody else could, when it suddenly became a vicious condemnation of religion. Gervais’s character, the liar, invented the concept of a “Man in the Sky” who would take good people to an afterlife if they followed “ten rules.”
As the credits rolled for Tom Tykwer’s “A Hologram for the King,” my friend and colleague Hubert Vigilla from over at Flixist.com leaned over and whispered, “This is the film Cameron Crowe has been trying to make for years.” “Yeah,” I replied. “If Samuel Beckett had written the first act.” I suspect many people might be put off from the film’s tonal whiplash. What begins as an Absurdist (in the theatrical sense) fever dream