Today, after a six month-press war launched by filmmaker Abel Ferrara against his chief financier, Vincent Maraval (French distributor Wild Bunch's head honcho) and IFC Films, the R-rated cut of Ferrara’s originally unrated “Welcome to New York” is opening theatrically—to Ferrara’s chagrin—in the US.

It is, however, only showing at one theater: The Roxie, in San Francisco.

You can flashmob to Pharrell ‘til you’re blue in the face, but, in terms of things we do en masse nothing gets people gathering ‘round in the soothing glow of community like outdoors movie night. Even if it’s a subtitled movie.

That seems to be the wager made by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, the city’s Parks Department and FACE foundation in presenting FILMS ON THE GREEN

Hotels provide the perfect backdrop for filmmaking: they’re anonymous and […]

In about an hour I’ll be getting ready to get over to the Champs Elysées cineplex where the Cannes Festival's Thierry Frémaux and Gilles Jacob will be holding their press conference. Just a few last minute thoughts about the would-be selection; it appears that the French will make a strong showing this year (Screen Comment is based in Paris, can't hardly start an article without mentioning this country's eminent cinema first) with

With two first-round picks in the 2012 NFL draft the Cleveland Browns were favorites to trade up to the number two overall pick and land the rights to Heisman trophy-winner Robert Griffin, III. They were outbid by the Washington Redskins, whom Griffin would lead to the playoffs. The Browns kept their picks and chose running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden. Two short years later, neither

A great film school does not a great filmmaker make, but it helps. And in terms of academic cred Rebecca Zlotowski is a force to be reckoned with. She attended the two best schools in France, La Femis (France’s best film school) and the renowned Ecole Normale Supérieure where she was a Lit. major.

Sometimes last year Zlotowski (picture Sylvia Plath crossed with Amélie

Alain Resnais, master of irony and, in his last decades, of whimsical comedy, would have appreciated the fact that his latest oeuvre, “Aimer, Boire, Chanter,” opened in Paris on March 26, not even a month after he himself took his final bow at age 91, on March 1st (see our OBITUARY)

The romp, set in the English countryside and based on an Alan Ayckbourn play, “Life of Riley” never introduces

"This picture was going to change the public's perceptions" (Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Alejandro Jodorowsky's "Dune" project is a sci-fi geek's ultimate fantasy, the holy grail of genre movies. And yet, "Dune" exists only in the imagination: it's such a broad and complicated project (think "Avatar" crossed with Terry Gilliam's "Don Quixote") that it was never actually made.