by Nathaniel R
Madame Merle: I'd give a good deal to be your age again; to have my life before me.
Isabel Archer: Your life is before you yet.
This article was originally intended to grace our "How Had I Never Seen?" series. Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) has stubbornly remained on my "to see" list for nearly twenty years. I let it sit there, as a shamefully passive intent, not unlike the way Isabel Archer approached her own 'to experience' lists past the age of 24. That's when she marries Mr Osmond in Henry James "The Portrait of a Lady" and her idealism and ambition are utterly flatted by the limits of her imagination, courage, and self-possession. The novel first appeared in serialized form in 1880 and for the following century and a half, Isabel Archer has confounded and/or fascinated readers; Fellow artists, too, like auteur...
Madame Merle: I'd give a good deal to be your age again; to have my life before me.
Isabel Archer: Your life is before you yet.
This article was originally intended to grace our "How Had I Never Seen?" series. Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) has stubbornly remained on my "to see" list for nearly twenty years. I let it sit there, as a shamefully passive intent, not unlike the way Isabel Archer approached her own 'to experience' lists past the age of 24. That's when she marries Mr Osmond in Henry James "The Portrait of a Lady" and her idealism and ambition are utterly flatted by the limits of her imagination, courage, and self-possession. The novel first appeared in serialized form in 1880 and for the following century and a half, Isabel Archer has confounded and/or fascinated readers; Fellow artists, too, like auteur...
- 6/2/2024
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Bertrand Bonello’s head-spinning Henry James adaptation set in 1910 Paris, 2014 LA and an AI-controlled 2044 casts a dreamlike spell
The choking grip of artificial intelligence on humanity is the starting point for Bertrand Bonello’s wildly ambitious, century-spanning, French and English-language story of doomed romance, subconscious fears and pigeon-based symbolism. It’s a theme – AI, that is, not the pigeons – that has been thoroughly mined in cinema of late, perhaps not surprisingly. After all, AI poses one of the more significant threats to the future of humankind. It’s the dystopian sci-fi premise that – literally – writes itself, given half the chance. But the eponymous beast in this story is not AI, and Bonello’s approach to the subject is rather more eccentric and original. It’s certainly the most ambitious of his films, which include the fashion biopic Saint Laurent and The House of Tolerance, about a turn-of-the-century Parisian brothel.
Elliptical,...
The choking grip of artificial intelligence on humanity is the starting point for Bertrand Bonello’s wildly ambitious, century-spanning, French and English-language story of doomed romance, subconscious fears and pigeon-based symbolism. It’s a theme – AI, that is, not the pigeons – that has been thoroughly mined in cinema of late, perhaps not surprisingly. After all, AI poses one of the more significant threats to the future of humankind. It’s the dystopian sci-fi premise that – literally – writes itself, given half the chance. But the eponymous beast in this story is not AI, and Bonello’s approach to the subject is rather more eccentric and original. It’s certainly the most ambitious of his films, which include the fashion biopic Saint Laurent and The House of Tolerance, about a turn-of-the-century Parisian brothel.
Elliptical,...
- 6/2/2024
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
“Crimson Peak” is a movie directed by Guillermo del Toro starring Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston.
Guillermo del Toro is one of those directors who, in a world where everything seems to be mass-produced, has managed to forge his own signature style and aesthetic, captivated a loyal audience. Once again, he is not going to disappoint with “Crimson Peak” that not only features fantastic actors but is also an aesthetically first-rate piece of work.
Crimson Peak
“Crimson Peak” is one of those films that place Guillermo del Toro somewhat close to Tim Burton’s universe, very close to Coppola’s “Dracula” (1992), but still holding its unique touch of a universe filled with strange creatures, wonderful photography, and exceptional cinematography.
“Crimson Peak” is a feast for the eyes, where you can savor the elegance and effort in every shot. It’s a gothic tale situated in the nineteenth-century classicism of ghost stories and,...
Guillermo del Toro is one of those directors who, in a world where everything seems to be mass-produced, has managed to forge his own signature style and aesthetic, captivated a loyal audience. Once again, he is not going to disappoint with “Crimson Peak” that not only features fantastic actors but is also an aesthetically first-rate piece of work.
Crimson Peak
“Crimson Peak” is one of those films that place Guillermo del Toro somewhat close to Tim Burton’s universe, very close to Coppola’s “Dracula” (1992), but still holding its unique touch of a universe filled with strange creatures, wonderful photography, and exceptional cinematography.
“Crimson Peak” is a feast for the eyes, where you can savor the elegance and effort in every shot. It’s a gothic tale situated in the nineteenth-century classicism of ghost stories and,...
- 5/31/2024
- by Martin Cid
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
New Exorcist Director Mike Flanagan Is 'Terrified' To Be Taking On The Horror Classic [Atx Festival]
Earlier this month, horror mastermind Mike Flanagan was announced as the new heir apparent to the "Exorcist" franchise, assuming the reins from David Gordon Green in what's being described as a "radical new take" on the truly scary source material. Little is known about the "Haunting of Hill House" and "Midnight Mass" creator's plans for the long-running property, but at the annual Atx festival in Austin today, Flanagan spoke frankly about the pressure of crafting a new story in the shadow of one of the most frightening tales ever told.
"For 'The Exorcist' specifically, I'm f**king terrified," Flanagan admitted at a panel attended by /Film's Ryan Scott. A spotlight on adaptations titled "From Book To Script To Screen," the event also featured a number of other panelists, including the executive producers behind AMC's "Interview with the Vampire," ABC's "Will Trent," Netflix's "Black Mirror," and the Apple TV+ series "Silo.
"For 'The Exorcist' specifically, I'm f**king terrified," Flanagan admitted at a panel attended by /Film's Ryan Scott. A spotlight on adaptations titled "From Book To Script To Screen," the event also featured a number of other panelists, including the executive producers behind AMC's "Interview with the Vampire," ABC's "Will Trent," Netflix's "Black Mirror," and the Apple TV+ series "Silo.
- 5/31/2024
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
When we say that Netflix has something for everyone it is true for fans of all genres but especially true for the horror genre fans. With an incredible creator like Mike Flanagan who made brilliant horror shows and movies, Netflix has abundant peak horror content. So, today we thought of listing what we thought were the best horror shows on Netflix.
Midnight Mass
Midnight Mass is a gothic supernatural horror miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. The Netflix series is set in a small island town and it follows the story of a young returning to his hometown after spending four years in prison for a drunk-driving accident that killed someone. He arrives in the town at the same time as a mysterious priest who revives the faith of people in the town but what the town doesn’t know is that he is hiding something sinister. Midnight Mass stars Zach Gilford,...
Midnight Mass
Midnight Mass is a gothic supernatural horror miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. The Netflix series is set in a small island town and it follows the story of a young returning to his hometown after spending four years in prison for a drunk-driving accident that killed someone. He arrives in the town at the same time as a mysterious priest who revives the faith of people in the town but what the town doesn’t know is that he is hiding something sinister. Midnight Mass stars Zach Gilford,...
- 5/31/2024
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Before Bertrand Bonello transformed The Beast in the Jungle into a time-hopping, existentialist sci-fi melodrama, the most radical cinematic treatment of the work of Henry James was Peter Bogdanovich’s 1974 film maudit Daisy Miller. The adaptation is certainly faithful, with dialogue lifted directly from the text and the core narrative and themes understood and preserved by Bogdanovich and writer Frederic Raphael. But the film also filters James’s tale of a scandalously flirtatious 19th-century American woman in Europe through a screwball prism.
Here, the novella’s cool-tempered Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown) is left completely befuddled by the rapid-fire, monopolizing chatter of Daisy Miller (Cybill Shepherd). It’s an oddly compelling approach, but it only intermittently succeeds. When the film premiered, critics and even many of Bogdanovich’s friends and colleagues derided the entire project as a vain folly devoted to the star, the director’s then-girlfriend. The blatant sexism of the reaction aside,...
Here, the novella’s cool-tempered Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown) is left completely befuddled by the rapid-fire, monopolizing chatter of Daisy Miller (Cybill Shepherd). It’s an oddly compelling approach, but it only intermittently succeeds. When the film premiered, critics and even many of Bogdanovich’s friends and colleagues derided the entire project as a vain folly devoted to the star, the director’s then-girlfriend. The blatant sexism of the reaction aside,...
- 5/30/2024
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Opening with an actress screaming at an invisible attacker while filming a green-screen scene, The Beast immediately reveals its primary ideas: the eeriness of technological advancement, a feeling of deep anguish at a terror that isn’t really there, and the interaction between the two. Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi — in which two people, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), meet in different eras — is an extraordinary excavation of the role technology plays in causing emotional mayhem, and a clarion call to those who would use it as a stand-in during daily human life.
If that sounds complicated, then buckle up: with three timelines and endless recurring symbolism, The Beast is, well, a bit of a beast. We begin in 1910, where Gabrielle is a musician; in 2014, she’s a model and actor house-sitting in Los Angeles; in 2044, she is considering “purifying” her DNA in an attempt to get a job in an AI-riddled society.
If that sounds complicated, then buckle up: with three timelines and endless recurring symbolism, The Beast is, well, a bit of a beast. We begin in 1910, where Gabrielle is a musician; in 2014, she’s a model and actor house-sitting in Los Angeles; in 2044, she is considering “purifying” her DNA in an attempt to get a job in an AI-riddled society.
- 5/28/2024
- by Steph Green
- Empire - Movies
French director Christophe Honoré returns to Cannes Competition for a third time on Tuesday with comedy Mio Marcello, reuniting him with long time collaborator Chiara Mastroianni.
The comedy taps into the actress’ real-life complex reality of being the daughter of cinema icons Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.
In a fantasy scenario, Mastroianni hits a crisis point in her life and decides to adopt the look and persona of her late father, much to the surprise of her family and friends, as well as those who knew the legendary actor when he was alive.
Mastroianni is joined in the cast by her mother Deneuve, former partners Benjamin Biolay and Mevil Poupaud as well as Fabrice Luchini, Nicole Garcia, UK actor Hugh Skinner and Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli, who famously starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 classic Divorce Italian Style.
Deadline talked to Honoré ahead of the world premiere.
Deadline: What was...
The comedy taps into the actress’ real-life complex reality of being the daughter of cinema icons Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.
In a fantasy scenario, Mastroianni hits a crisis point in her life and decides to adopt the look and persona of her late father, much to the surprise of her family and friends, as well as those who knew the legendary actor when he was alive.
Mastroianni is joined in the cast by her mother Deneuve, former partners Benjamin Biolay and Mevil Poupaud as well as Fabrice Luchini, Nicole Garcia, UK actor Hugh Skinner and Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli, who famously starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 classic Divorce Italian Style.
Deadline talked to Honoré ahead of the world premiere.
Deadline: What was...
- 5/21/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
After breaking out as a wide-eyed soldier in 1917, the actor showed a darker side to masculinity as a closeted thug in Femme. Now he’s gone further, playing an incel in twisted sci-fi The Beast
George MacKay reaches into his backpack and pulls out a squeezy bottle of honey, squirting it into his americano. “It’s a bit eccentric,” he says sheepishly. He picked up the habit years ago on a shoot in Australia; recognising that requesting a pot of honey might be perceived as “a slightly wanky ask”, he carries his own supply instead. This is typical MacKay – charming, discreet, and more than a little concerned about giving others the wrong idea.
On screen, MacKay frequently plays characters who are suffocated by the codes of traditional masculinity, and turned cruel by them, too. The actor’s breakout role was in Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning war blockbuster 1917, which plays out as one dizzying,...
George MacKay reaches into his backpack and pulls out a squeezy bottle of honey, squirting it into his americano. “It’s a bit eccentric,” he says sheepishly. He picked up the habit years ago on a shoot in Australia; recognising that requesting a pot of honey might be perceived as “a slightly wanky ask”, he carries his own supply instead. This is typical MacKay – charming, discreet, and more than a little concerned about giving others the wrong idea.
On screen, MacKay frequently plays characters who are suffocated by the codes of traditional masculinity, and turned cruel by them, too. The actor’s breakout role was in Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning war blockbuster 1917, which plays out as one dizzying,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Simran Hans
- The Guardian - Film News
Vertigo Releasing has unleashed the trailer for the visionary sci-fi epic ‘The Beast’.
In a near-future world dominated by artificial intelligence, where human emotions are perceived as a threat, Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) embarks on a journey to purify her DNA by revisiting her past lives. During this process, she reconnects with Louis (George MacKay), her great love. However, a sense of foreboding and fear grips her as she anticipates an impending catastrophe.
The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival to great acclaim and was recently showcased at the London Film Festival. The thought-provoking film which spans three time periods, draws inspiration from Henry James’s evocative short story.
Directed by Bertrand Bonello, the movie stars BAFTA-nominated actors Léa Seydoux and George MacKay.
Also in trailers – Stephen Fry & Lena Dunham embark on an emotional journey in trailer for ‘Treasure’
The movie will be released in UK and Irish cinemas 31st May.
In a near-future world dominated by artificial intelligence, where human emotions are perceived as a threat, Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) embarks on a journey to purify her DNA by revisiting her past lives. During this process, she reconnects with Louis (George MacKay), her great love. However, a sense of foreboding and fear grips her as she anticipates an impending catastrophe.
The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival to great acclaim and was recently showcased at the London Film Festival. The thought-provoking film which spans three time periods, draws inspiration from Henry James’s evocative short story.
Directed by Bertrand Bonello, the movie stars BAFTA-nominated actors Léa Seydoux and George MacKay.
Also in trailers – Stephen Fry & Lena Dunham embark on an emotional journey in trailer for ‘Treasure’
The movie will be released in UK and Irish cinemas 31st May.
- 5/9/2024
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Beast.She was there on harder terms than any one; she was there as a consequence of things suffered, one way and another, in the interval of years, and she remembered him very much as she was remembered—only a good deal better.So says John Marcher of May Bartram in Henry James’s novella The Beast in the Jungle (1903). Everything coalesces for John and May to reconnect on an October afternoon, having met years prior. Their meeting again is “the sequel of something of which he had lost at the beginning.” What follows is a strained dalliance, never physically realized. John is transfixed by May’s knowledge of his “secret,” the feeling of an imminent doom that has tailed him his entire life. Something awaits him, like a beast in the jungle. And May—only May, whose illness brings her closer and closer to her own death—knows what it is.
- 5/3/2024
- MUBI
Jane Campion will be honored this year by the Locarno Film Festival, which will present the New Zealand director its Pardo d’Onore Manor Award for lifetime achievement.
Campion will receive the tribute at the 77th edition of the Swiss festival on Friday, Aug. 16.
Locarno will also screen two of Campion’s best-known films selected by the director herself for the tribute: Her 1990 feature An Angel at My Table and her 1993 Palme d’Or winning global breakout The Piano. The latter will be given a grand screening in a new 4K restoration at Locarno’s legendary Piazza Grande on the night of her award. Campion will also take part in a panel conversation at the festival on Saturday, August 17.
The Locarno Film Festival’s Pardo d’Onore Manor honor has previously been awarded to such filmmakers as Agnès Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Kelly Reichardt, and,...
Campion will receive the tribute at the 77th edition of the Swiss festival on Friday, Aug. 16.
Locarno will also screen two of Campion’s best-known films selected by the director herself for the tribute: Her 1990 feature An Angel at My Table and her 1993 Palme d’Or winning global breakout The Piano. The latter will be given a grand screening in a new 4K restoration at Locarno’s legendary Piazza Grande on the night of her award. Campion will also take part in a panel conversation at the festival on Saturday, August 17.
The Locarno Film Festival’s Pardo d’Onore Manor honor has previously been awarded to such filmmakers as Agnès Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Kelly Reichardt, and,...
- 4/24/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s been less than 12 years since Dan Stevens raised a middle finger to the British aristocracy, quitting “Downton Abbey” as the show neared its Emmy-amassing zenith and setting sail for America with his family. As he admits, he had “absolutely no idea” what was going to happen to him.
“There was no roadmap,” the 41-year-old actor explains with frank honestly about a decision that, at the time, was considered by many to be sheer lunacy. “I left ‘Downton’ with a blank slate. It was just, ‘I think I want to do other things.’ But I didn’t know what that looked like.”
To have an idea of what that currently looks like, anyone need just head to their nearest cinema, where Stevens is going head-to-head against himself in two of the biggest studio releases of the season. In what has become something of a calling card for the Brit...
“There was no roadmap,” the 41-year-old actor explains with frank honestly about a decision that, at the time, was considered by many to be sheer lunacy. “I left ‘Downton’ with a blank slate. It was just, ‘I think I want to do other things.’ But I didn’t know what that looked like.”
To have an idea of what that currently looks like, anyone need just head to their nearest cinema, where Stevens is going head-to-head against himself in two of the biggest studio releases of the season. In what has become something of a calling card for the Brit...
- 4/23/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
George MacKay became one Hollywood’s most sought after young actors after his starring role as a sweet-faced solider in Sam Mendes’ Oscar-winning “1917.”
But he’s looking much different in his latest film, “Femme.” He stars in the queer revenge thriller from directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping as a closeted street thug who begins a sexual relationship with Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), a man he doesn’t realize is the drag queen he once brutally gay-bashed.
For the film, MacKay’s body is ripped and covered in tattoos. His hair is shaved and slicked back. He wears tracksuits and garish gold chains and rings, and his working class accent can be hard to decipher.
It took him about eight weeks of “bulking” to get in shape. Even so, MacKay admits he did a lot of push-ups for scenes where he had to be particularly “big and scary.
But he’s looking much different in his latest film, “Femme.” He stars in the queer revenge thriller from directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping as a closeted street thug who begins a sexual relationship with Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), a man he doesn’t realize is the drag queen he once brutally gay-bashed.
For the film, MacKay’s body is ripped and covered in tattoos. His hair is shaved and slicked back. He wears tracksuits and garish gold chains and rings, and his working class accent can be hard to decipher.
It took him about eight weeks of “bulking” to get in shape. Even so, MacKay admits he did a lot of push-ups for scenes where he had to be particularly “big and scary.
- 4/8/2024
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
“The present came to a halt,” Bertrand Bonello writes in an ode to his teen daughter in his experimental feature Coma, “leaving us with the past and the future.” Much of this subtitled text refers to the specific circumstances of the film’s creation during the pandemic. Yet the French filmmaker’s follow-up, The Beast, which was developed before Coma but shot afterward, feels like a natural extension of his fascination with the scrambled perception of time in a digital era. In Bonello’s time-warping adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle, the present day is the Paris of 2044, where landscape and character have been warped by advances in artificial intelligence.
What’s evergreen, as a repeated aural motif so often reminds, is the twisted relationship of fear and love between Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay). Bonello gives us a glance at two of...
What’s evergreen, as a repeated aural motif so often reminds, is the twisted relationship of fear and love between Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay). Bonello gives us a glance at two of...
- 4/6/2024
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
The Tearsmith is a 2024 romantic movie on Netflix directed by Alessandro Genovesi starring Caterina Ferioli and Simone Baldasseroni.
This is a story brimming with romance, sentiment, and passion, distinctly crafted for teenagers. It’s a unique style, which we foresee, will be a massive hit among the younger, love-struck audience.
It’s got it all, a mix that fuses a nineteenth-century backdrop set in the present day.
Just to be clear: this movie is particularly designed for youths.
The Tearsmith Storyline
In a world where nobody could cry, there existed an artisan who could give crystal tears to a world devoid of emotions.
After an accident, Nika ends up orphaned as a child, raised in an orphanage. Upon reaching adolescence, a family adopts her along with another boy, quite mysterious with a special musical talent.
About the Movie
Yes, it’s targeted at youths, but it’s stylish, especially aesthetically.
This is a story brimming with romance, sentiment, and passion, distinctly crafted for teenagers. It’s a unique style, which we foresee, will be a massive hit among the younger, love-struck audience.
It’s got it all, a mix that fuses a nineteenth-century backdrop set in the present day.
Just to be clear: this movie is particularly designed for youths.
The Tearsmith Storyline
In a world where nobody could cry, there existed an artisan who could give crystal tears to a world devoid of emotions.
After an accident, Nika ends up orphaned as a child, raised in an orphanage. Upon reaching adolescence, a family adopts her along with another boy, quite mysterious with a special musical talent.
About the Movie
Yes, it’s targeted at youths, but it’s stylish, especially aesthetically.
- 4/4/2024
- by Liv Altman
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
It’s too bright, the sunshine is monotonous, it’s very isolating. Those were the reasons why Chloë Sevigny, in a recent viral interview, said she will never live in Los Angeles. Anyone who’s lived there can relate to the loneliness that blankets the fragmented city, a collection of neighborhoods strung together by cars in traffic, where nobody walks or talks to each other. And why does everyone flake on plans? What are we afraid of?
That’s much like the central dilemma in Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast,” a time-hopping sci-fi epic about the existential terrors of unrequited love, green-screen-acting, incel killers, artificial intelligence, and, oh, yes, Los Angeles. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play reincarnated almost-lovers across time who can never make it work: first, in fin-de-siècle Paris (she’s married); then, in 2014 Los Angeles (he’s a sociopathic virgin inspired by 2014 Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger...
That’s much like the central dilemma in Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast,” a time-hopping sci-fi epic about the existential terrors of unrequited love, green-screen-acting, incel killers, artificial intelligence, and, oh, yes, Los Angeles. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play reincarnated almost-lovers across time who can never make it work: first, in fin-de-siècle Paris (she’s married); then, in 2014 Los Angeles (he’s a sociopathic virgin inspired by 2014 Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger...
- 4/3/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
- 3/19/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Aurore (Louise Chevillotte) with André Masson (Alex Lutz) at Scottie’s in Pascal Bonitzer’s mysterious and witty Auction (Le Tableau Volé)
Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer starring Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher, and Olivier Rabourdin has received four César nominations: Best Director and Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Léa Drucker), Male Revelation (Samuel Kircher in competition with his brother Paul Kircher for Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom). In the first installment with Pascal Bonitzer, we start out discussing his work on Last Summer which is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 film Queen of Hearts and then delve into his latest film, Auction (Le Tableau Volé).
Pascal Bonitzer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Scottie’s in Auction: “It’s an allusion to Vertigo because it’s a great movie. Scottie’s, yes, it’s Sotheby’s, it’s Christie’s, it’s a big auction house.”
Pascal Bonitzer, who put a...
Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer starring Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher, and Olivier Rabourdin has received four César nominations: Best Director and Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Léa Drucker), Male Revelation (Samuel Kircher in competition with his brother Paul Kircher for Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom). In the first installment with Pascal Bonitzer, we start out discussing his work on Last Summer which is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 film Queen of Hearts and then delve into his latest film, Auction (Le Tableau Volé).
Pascal Bonitzer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Scottie’s in Auction: “It’s an allusion to Vertigo because it’s a great movie. Scottie’s, yes, it’s Sotheby’s, it’s Christie’s, it’s a big auction house.”
Pascal Bonitzer, who put a...
- 2/23/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A road trip. A mix-up. A fast-talking hero, prone to tossing off bewilderingly verbose sentences. Some criminals who run the gamut from eccentric to psychotic to painfully inept. (Sometimes, they’re all three at once.) Dangerously sudden violence. Dangerously dark humor. Dangerously outrageous hairdos. The feeling that you’re watching a vintage film noir story run through a Looney Tunes filter. You are in the presence of a Coen brothers movie — whaddaya need, a road map?!
Actually, some sort of Gps system would be a blessing for both you, the viewer,...
Actually, some sort of Gps system would be a blessing for both you, the viewer,...
- 2/23/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Bertrand Bonello’s sensual epic love story “The Beast” is finally landing stateside. The French-Italian film stars Léa Seydoux and George MacKay as two lovers who find one another across centuries, in different times, places, and lives.
“The Beast” premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and went on to screen at last year’s NYFF. Director Bonello told IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio at Venice that the film was rejected from the Cannes Film Festival, saying that the festival “didn’t like it.” “The best place for a film is where the film is wanted, and now we are doing, with this film, a huge fall release, so Venice, then Toronto, New York, Busan, stuff like that, so maybe it’s what’s best for the film,” Bonello said at the time.
Loosely inspired by the 1910 Henry James story “The Beast in the Jungle,” the official synopsis for “The Beast” is...
“The Beast” premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and went on to screen at last year’s NYFF. Director Bonello told IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio at Venice that the film was rejected from the Cannes Film Festival, saying that the festival “didn’t like it.” “The best place for a film is where the film is wanted, and now we are doing, with this film, a huge fall release, so Venice, then Toronto, New York, Busan, stuff like that, so maybe it’s what’s best for the film,” Bonello said at the time.
Loosely inspired by the 1910 Henry James story “The Beast in the Jungle,” the official synopsis for “The Beast” is...
- 2/13/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Opening in select cities on April 5, Crimes of the Future actress Léa Seydoux leads the cast of The Beast, and Janus Films has debuted the trailer through Vulture this morning.
The mind-bending sci-fi drama comes from French director Bertrand Bonello.
“The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely “erase” their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by their past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay).
“Set first in Belle Époque-era Paris Louis is a British man who woos her away from a cold husband, then in early 21st Century Los Angeles, he is a disturbed American bent on delivering violent “retribution.” Will the process allow Gabrielle to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are the two doomed to repeat their previous fates?”
Janus Films previews, “Visually audacious director Bertrand Bonello fashions...
The mind-bending sci-fi drama comes from French director Bertrand Bonello.
“The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely “erase” their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by their past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay).
“Set first in Belle Époque-era Paris Louis is a British man who woos her away from a cold husband, then in early 21st Century Los Angeles, he is a disturbed American bent on delivering violent “retribution.” Will the process allow Gabrielle to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are the two doomed to repeat their previous fates?”
Janus Films previews, “Visually audacious director Bertrand Bonello fashions...
- 2/13/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Probably you’ve noticed our enthusiasm over Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, a major evolution in genre and ambition for one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. There’s Léa Seydoux’s potentially career-best work; George MacKay vaulting above just about anyone of his generation with a bilingual, multi-headed turn; Bonello’s characteristically great soundtrack; and a final, terrifying stretch leaving me to wonder how who else is pushing images and montage to this director’s extent. What’s not to like? First-viewing reservations largely melted away on a second look, and my third can’t come sooner. Ahead of its April 5 release from Janus and Sideshow, the U.S. trailer is here.
David Katz was duly impressed out of Venice, writing, “Where to begin with Bertrand Bonello’s wonderful The Beast? It’s been so gratifying to see the initial reaction to the French filmmaker’s tenth feature, after...
David Katz was duly impressed out of Venice, writing, “Where to begin with Bertrand Bonello’s wonderful The Beast? It’s been so gratifying to see the initial reaction to the French filmmaker’s tenth feature, after...
- 2/13/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The BBC is celebrating the art of the literary adaptation by screening a variety of classics on BBC Four. More details here.
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
- 2/6/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
Something you often hear cinephiles proclaim is that “Every year is a good year in film.” Well, that’s obviously true––if one pays attention and knows where to look––but then there are also years that are simply better. To me, 2023 has turned out to be one of those.
It’s a year where the top festivals like Cannes, Berlin, and Venice all overperformed with stellar lineups. Geographically speaking, American/UK cinema can be proud of its output while productions from the rest of the world, especially France, Japan, Latin America, didn’t disappoint either. It’s also a year where not only indie/arthouse films delivered, but (some) blockbusters dared to get smart too. Even the presumed Oscar contenders this season include legitimate masterpieces in the mix.
Something you often hear cinephiles proclaim is that “Every year is a good year in film.” Well, that’s obviously true––if one pays attention and knows where to look––but then there are also years that are simply better. To me, 2023 has turned out to be one of those.
It’s a year where the top festivals like Cannes, Berlin, and Venice all overperformed with stellar lineups. Geographically speaking, American/UK cinema can be proud of its output while productions from the rest of the world, especially France, Japan, Latin America, didn’t disappoint either. It’s also a year where not only indie/arthouse films delivered, but (some) blockbusters dared to get smart too. Even the presumed Oscar contenders this season include legitimate masterpieces in the mix.
- 12/29/2023
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
The Mike Flanagan Netflix era has come to an end, as Flanagan and his partner Trevor Macy are leaving the streaming service behind for a new deal with Amazon. That means we likely won't ever get a third season of Flanagan's "Haunting" series, which kicked off with the excellent "The Haunting of Hill House" and continued with "The Haunting of Bly Manor." "Hill House" was a (loose) adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novel of the same name, while "Bly Manor" took inspiration from "The Turn of the Screw" and several other ghost stories penned by Henry James. But what tale of terror would Flanagan and company have relied on if the show had returned for a third season?
We now know the answer, thanks to Flanagan himself. The filmmaker has written an introduction for the new Suntup Editions release of Richard Matheson's "Hell House," and in said introduction, Flanagan...
We now know the answer, thanks to Flanagan himself. The filmmaker has written an introduction for the new Suntup Editions release of Richard Matheson's "Hell House," and in said introduction, Flanagan...
- 11/18/2023
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
This morning, Suntup Editions has announced a fine press limited edition of the 1971 novel Hell House by Richard Matheson, featuring new exclusive material including an introduction by R.C. Matheson, a foreword by Mike Flanagan and afterword by Nancy A. Collins.
In his foreword, Flanagan reveals that had there been a third season of his ‘Haunting’ series for Netflix, it would have been an adaptation of Hell House!
Flanagan explains, “When I adapted Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House as a Netflix series, there was much talk about how to continue the Haunting anthology. We followed Hill House with The Haunting of Bly Manor, based on numerous ghost stories by Henry James. Had there been a third season, I wanted that season to be The Haunting of Hell House. It was actually the first title we explored when Hill House was over, but the rights were spoken for and...
In his foreword, Flanagan reveals that had there been a third season of his ‘Haunting’ series for Netflix, it would have been an adaptation of Hell House!
Flanagan explains, “When I adapted Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House as a Netflix series, there was much talk about how to continue the Haunting anthology. We followed Hill House with The Haunting of Bly Manor, based on numerous ghost stories by Henry James. Had there been a third season, I wanted that season to be The Haunting of Hell House. It was actually the first title we explored when Hill House was over, but the rights were spoken for and...
- 11/16/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Spoiler warning: This article openly discusses the full plot of “The Others.”
It’s been said many times that every love story is a ghost story, and the pop art of the 21st century would seem to suggest that the opposite is also true.
The rise of “elevated horror,” the traumafication of genre narratives, and the ever-increasing role that supernatural forces appear to be playing in arthouse fare have combined to recenter the heartsick longing — romantic or otherwise — that has always haunted tales of grief and loss, even if only from the shadows or in the subtext. These days, a movie or TV show about ghosts is less likely to scare you than it is to make you cry, and the ones that manage to do both tend to rely on the former as a means of accomplishing the latter; look no further than the work of Mike Flanagan, whose...
It’s been said many times that every love story is a ghost story, and the pop art of the 21st century would seem to suggest that the opposite is also true.
The rise of “elevated horror,” the traumafication of genre narratives, and the ever-increasing role that supernatural forces appear to be playing in arthouse fare have combined to recenter the heartsick longing — romantic or otherwise — that has always haunted tales of grief and loss, even if only from the shadows or in the subtext. These days, a movie or TV show about ghosts is less likely to scare you than it is to make you cry, and the ones that manage to do both tend to rely on the former as a means of accomplishing the latter; look no further than the work of Mike Flanagan, whose...
- 10/30/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
When cinephiles of a certain sensibility talk about the best decades for horror, they’ll probably point to the 1980s with its explosion of cutting-edge special effects and home video-induced demand for material. Or they might point to the era of Universal Pictures’ domination in the 1930s, followed up then by the moody Val Lewton thrillers of the 1940s. Maybe even a very unpopular kid will try to make an argument for the 2010s, at least until everyone pulls the A24 hat over his eyes and kicks him out.
But moviegoers would be foolish to overlook the 1960s. The decade saw not only two amazing horror flicks from Alfred Hitchcock but also caught the genre in an interesting time of transition. Filmmakers built on the Gothic approach of previous decades by adding a psychological dimension, finding new chills in an established model. Furthermore, the decade saw the first steps toward the ho,...
But moviegoers would be foolish to overlook the 1960s. The decade saw not only two amazing horror flicks from Alfred Hitchcock but also caught the genre in an interesting time of transition. Filmmakers built on the Gothic approach of previous decades by adding a psychological dimension, finding new chills in an established model. Furthermore, the decade saw the first steps toward the ho,...
- 10/21/2023
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Acclaimed horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan wears his influences on his sleeve. Based on his prolific output of TV shows and films, Flanagan clearly loves: Stephen King, classic horror literature, and most touchingly, his wife Kate Siegel (who has appeared in nearly every Flanagan project thus far).
Real Flana-heads know, however, that there’s one other thing the writer-director can’t get enough of: monologues. Oh, the monologues! Flanagan’s suite of Netflix series, including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and most recently The Fall of the House of Usher have all been shockingly chatty endeavors. Though the horror maestro excels at conjuring dread with his camera work alone, Flanagan can’t seem to help himself from crafting bespoke, discursive diatribes around all the creepiness.
On the one hand, this is quite charming as Flanagan clearly loves watching his recurring crew of talented actors work at their craft.
Real Flana-heads know, however, that there’s one other thing the writer-director can’t get enough of: monologues. Oh, the monologues! Flanagan’s suite of Netflix series, including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and most recently The Fall of the House of Usher have all been shockingly chatty endeavors. Though the horror maestro excels at conjuring dread with his camera work alone, Flanagan can’t seem to help himself from crafting bespoke, discursive diatribes around all the creepiness.
On the one hand, this is quite charming as Flanagan clearly loves watching his recurring crew of talented actors work at their craft.
- 10/17/2023
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, like his four previous ones, is a supernatural horror series influenced and inspired by classic works of horror: Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House for Flanagan’s first miniseries, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw for the follow-up, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe, one of the pioneers of Gothic horror, for his fifth and last miniseries for Netflix. It might just be Flanagain's best. Each member of the Usher family, modeled on the likes of the Sacklers, the Koch Brothers, and, among others, the Trumps, represent unfettered, unregulated capitalism, of profit over people, of exploitation without consequence. Each, in turn,...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 10/12/2023
- Screen Anarchy
We’re just hours away from the premiere of Mike Flanagan‘s last series for the Netflix streaming service, the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired limited series The Fall of the House of Usher. The show is set to begin streaming this Thursday, October 12th… but if you want to know the episode titles, the runtimes, and the writing and directing credits before Usher is released, the folks at Mike Flanagan Source have us covered.
Here’s the line-up:
Episode 1: A Midnight Dreary (56 minutes) – Written and directed by Mike Flanagan
Episode 2: The Masque of the Red Death (61 minutes) – Directed by Mike Flanagan, written by Mike Flanagan and Emily Grinwis
Episode 3: Murder in the Rue Morgue (60 minutes) – Directed by Michael Fimognari, written by Mike Flanagan and Justina Ireland
Episode 4: The Black Cat (62 minutes) – Directed by Michael Fimognari, written by Mike Flanagan and Matt Johnson
Episode 5: The Tell-Tale Heart...
Here’s the line-up:
Episode 1: A Midnight Dreary (56 minutes) – Written and directed by Mike Flanagan
Episode 2: The Masque of the Red Death (61 minutes) – Directed by Mike Flanagan, written by Mike Flanagan and Emily Grinwis
Episode 3: Murder in the Rue Morgue (60 minutes) – Directed by Michael Fimognari, written by Mike Flanagan and Justina Ireland
Episode 4: The Black Cat (62 minutes) – Directed by Michael Fimognari, written by Mike Flanagan and Matt Johnson
Episode 5: The Tell-Tale Heart...
- 10/11/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Mike Flanagan‘s company Intrepid Pictures has moved on from the Netflix streaming service and is now set up with a multi-year deal at Amazon’s Prime Video, but there’s still one last Flanagan-produced series coming to Netflix. It’s the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired limited series The Fall of the House of Usher, which will be available to watch as of this Thursday, October 12th. With the release date just hours away, a new promo has arrived online to let us be warned that Carla Gugino’s character is coming to cause trouble. You can check it out in the embed above.
Here’s the set-up for Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher: Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the only two surviving members of the aristocratic Usher family. For many years, they have lived together in the ancient mansion which is their ancestral family home.
Here’s the set-up for Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher: Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the only two surviving members of the aristocratic Usher family. For many years, they have lived together in the ancient mansion which is their ancestral family home.
- 10/9/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s time-hopping cosmic romance starring Lea Seydoux and George MacKay, has been acquired by Sideshow and Janus Films for the U.S. A theatrical release is planned for 2024.
The film, which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, later screened in Toronto and has just had its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, was written and directed by Bonello (Saint Laurent), and is based on the Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle. Guslagie Malanda, Dasha Nekrasova, Martin Scali, Élina Löwensohn, Marta Hoskins, Julia Faure, Kester Lovelace, Félicien Pinot and Laurent Lacote also star.
Set in the near future where artificial intelligence reigns supreme and human emotions have become a threat, The Beast sees Gabrielle (Seydoux) attempt to purify her DNA by going back into her past lives. There, she reunites with Louis (MacKay), her great love. But she is overcome by fear,...
The film, which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, later screened in Toronto and has just had its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, was written and directed by Bonello (Saint Laurent), and is based on the Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle. Guslagie Malanda, Dasha Nekrasova, Martin Scali, Élina Löwensohn, Marta Hoskins, Julia Faure, Kester Lovelace, Félicien Pinot and Laurent Lacote also star.
Set in the near future where artificial intelligence reigns supreme and human emotions have become a threat, The Beast sees Gabrielle (Seydoux) attempt to purify her DNA by going back into her past lives. There, she reunites with Louis (MacKay), her great love. But she is overcome by fear,...
- 10/9/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay (original score by Bertrand and Anna Bonello), is a highlight in the Main Slate of the 61st New York Film Festival. In the 1903 novella The Beast, the female protagonist proclaims: “That’s it. It’s all that concerns me - to help you to pass for a man like another.” The male protagonist is happy to hear this and after a grave pause she continues, “By going on as you are.”
The Civil War mentioned as an aside in Bonello’s film, which takes place in three distinct points in time, is that of 2025. As musical variations on a theme, The Beast explores what Henry James diagnosed so devastatingly. The chill of egotism and the feverish dance around the void are...
The Civil War mentioned as an aside in Bonello’s film, which takes place in three distinct points in time, is that of 2025. As musical variations on a theme, The Beast explores what Henry James diagnosed so devastatingly. The chill of egotism and the feverish dance around the void are...
- 10/4/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Bertrand Bonello’s inspired The Beast (La Bête) is a highlight of the 61st New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Jonathan Glazer’s brilliant Cannes Grand Prix winner The Zone Of Interest (UK Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film) starring Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel (of the Babylon Berlin series), Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay (original score by Bertrand and Anna Bonello); Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves starring Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen (with a Bill Murray and Adam Driver scene from Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die) are three highlights from the Main Slate. Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron in the Spotlight programme round out the four early bird highlights of the 61st New York...
Jonathan Glazer’s brilliant Cannes Grand Prix winner The Zone Of Interest (UK Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film) starring Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel (of the Babylon Berlin series), Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay (original score by Bertrand and Anna Bonello); Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves starring Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen (with a Bill Murray and Adam Driver scene from Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die) are three highlights from the Main Slate. Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron in the Spotlight programme round out the four early bird highlights of the 61st New York...
- 9/27/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Gather around, children, and I shall tell you all about the horrors of generational trauma! Mike Flanagan ("Doctor Sleep" and so much more) has created his own little Netflix universe with a series of horror shows that share several cast members as well as several themes, specifically the idea of familial trauma being passed down through the ages and being intertwined with the supernatural.
Flanagan's latest Netflix series is "The Fall of the House of Usher," a spookshow heavily inspired by the works of the Godfather of Goth himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Like most of Flanagan's Netflix horrors, family tragedy plays a big part in the storytelling, which begs the question: How does "Usher" stack up when compared to what's come before? That's where this list comes in handy, as I've set out to rank Flanagan's five Netflix shows from worst to best.
To be clear, almost all of these...
Flanagan's latest Netflix series is "The Fall of the House of Usher," a spookshow heavily inspired by the works of the Godfather of Goth himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Like most of Flanagan's Netflix horrors, family tragedy plays a big part in the storytelling, which begs the question: How does "Usher" stack up when compared to what's come before? That's where this list comes in handy, as I've set out to rank Flanagan's five Netflix shows from worst to best.
To be clear, almost all of these...
- 9/25/2023
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Plot: In this wicked series based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, ruthless siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire of wealth, privilege and power. But past secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth.
Review: Since the premiere of Before I Wake and Hush on Netflix in 2016, Mike Flanagan has called the streaming platform his creative home. But, it was not until The Haunting of Hill House that Flanagan became a recognizable name to the masses. With an original film and four series for Netflix, Mike Flanagan’s final project under his overall deal may be his most ambitious until he rolls on his potential adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. Drawing inspiration from another master of the macabre, Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher...
Review: Since the premiere of Before I Wake and Hush on Netflix in 2016, Mike Flanagan has called the streaming platform his creative home. But, it was not until The Haunting of Hill House that Flanagan became a recognizable name to the masses. With an original film and four series for Netflix, Mike Flanagan’s final project under his overall deal may be his most ambitious until he rolls on his potential adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. Drawing inspiration from another master of the macabre, Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher...
- 9/23/2023
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
Mike Flanagan‘s company Intrepid Pictures has moved on from the Netflix streaming service and is now set up with a multi-year deal at Amazon’s Prime Video, but there’s still one last Flanagan-produced series coming to Netflix. It’s the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired limited series The Fall of the House of Usher, which will be available to watch as of October 12th – and today a clip has arrived online to give us an early look at the characters we’ll be following through the events of the show. You can watch it in the embed above.
Here’s the set-up for Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher: Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the only two surviving members of the aristocratic Usher family. For many years, they have lived together in the ancient mansion which is their ancestral family home. Madeline Usher...
Here’s the set-up for Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher: Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the only two surviving members of the aristocratic Usher family. For many years, they have lived together in the ancient mansion which is their ancestral family home. Madeline Usher...
- 9/20/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
The critic of The Critic is the type who might occasionally exist in real life, but seems to loom far larger in fictional tales by artists who evidently have little love for the profession. As played by Ian McKellen, Jimmy Erskine is an erudite brute. Whatever love he once held for the theater is less apparent these days than the savage delight he takes in ripping performers and productions to shreds, and the satisfaction he takes in the status and influence afforded him by his job.
The Critic, directed by Anand Tucker, is the story of how far he’ll go when that position is threatened. Given that the film is scripted by Patrick Marber (of Closer and Notes on a Scandal), it’s little surprise he’ll go very far indeed. And given that he’s performed by McKellen, it’s safe to bet on a ferocious lead turn.
The Critic, directed by Anand Tucker, is the story of how far he’ll go when that position is threatened. Given that the film is scripted by Patrick Marber (of Closer and Notes on a Scandal), it’s little surprise he’ll go very far indeed. And given that he’s performed by McKellen, it’s safe to bet on a ferocious lead turn.
- 9/15/2023
- by Angie Han
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“The great rooms caused so much poetry and history to press upon him that he needed some straying apart to feel in a proper relation with them,” wrote Henry James early in his 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle, the loose inspiration for writer-director Bertrand Bonello’s disquieting and spectacular The Beast. James is describing the house in which his protagonist, John Marcher, crosses paths with the woman, May Bertram, who will prove not to be the love of his life, mainly because of Marcher’s unwillingness to take a risk on intimacy. This is due to his fear of a “beast” that he feels could pounce at any moment.
That beast isn’t anything concrete or corporeal, but rather a metaphorical unease—a dread of all the terrible things that life could mete out. And as Marcher discovers at the end of James’s novella, the beast has struck without him ever realizing it.
That beast isn’t anything concrete or corporeal, but rather a metaphorical unease—a dread of all the terrible things that life could mete out. And as Marcher discovers at the end of James’s novella, the beast has struck without him ever realizing it.
- 9/12/2023
- by Keith Uhlich
- Slant Magazine
Gayle Hunnicutt, whose best-known work came as Vanessa Beaumont, the mother of J.R. Ewing’s illegitimate son, in the final three seasons of Dallas, has died per multiple U.K. reports. Hunnicutt died last Thursday at a hospital in London, according to her ex-husband Simon Jenkins. She was 80 years old.
That Hunnicutt would find fame playing Vanessa Beaumont, a Brit, on a TV show called Dallas was a bit ironic for a woman born in Fort Worth. But it was entirely sensible given that the actress spent much of her career in British TV and movies, even marrying the be-knighted Jenkins before returning to work in the U.S.
Her TV career began with a role on the shortlived small-screen adaptation of Mister Roberts and included roles on The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart and in Marlowe opposite James Garner.
In 1970, Hunnicutt met and later married David Hemmings, who himself...
That Hunnicutt would find fame playing Vanessa Beaumont, a Brit, on a TV show called Dallas was a bit ironic for a woman born in Fort Worth. But it was entirely sensible given that the actress spent much of her career in British TV and movies, even marrying the be-knighted Jenkins before returning to work in the U.S.
Her TV career began with a role on the shortlived small-screen adaptation of Mister Roberts and included roles on The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart and in Marlowe opposite James Garner.
In 1970, Hunnicutt met and later married David Hemmings, who himself...
- 9/6/2023
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
Although Mike Flanagan‘s company Intrepid Pictures has moved on from the Netflix streaming service and is now set up with a multi-year deal at Amazon’s Prime Video, there’s still one last Flanagan-produced series coming to Netflix. It’s the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired limited series The Fall of the House of Usher, which will be available to watch as of October 12th – and with that date just one month away, a poster for the series has been unveiled on social media! You can check it out at the bottom of this article.
Here’s the set-up for Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher: Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the only two surviving members of the aristocratic Usher family. For many years, they have lived together in the ancient mansion which is their ancestral family home. Madeline Usher has been ill for...
Here’s the set-up for Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher: Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the only two surviving members of the aristocratic Usher family. For many years, they have lived together in the ancient mansion which is their ancestral family home. Madeline Usher has been ill for...
- 9/5/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Editor’s Note: This interview originally ran during the 2023 Venice Film Festival. “The Beast” opens in U.S. theaters on April 5, 2024.
Fans of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” and its mystical loop through hell and horror that ends with a scream, charged by Tulpas and body-swapping and timelines that swallow each other up, might find their itch for the heartsick uncanny scratched by Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast.”
It’s the most formally daring, willing-to-alienate of any films to premiere out of the Venice Film Festival competition so far, shape-shifting from Belle Époque Paris in 1910 to a recognizable 2014 Los Angeles, and, finally, a sterile post-pandemic future somewhere in 2044. Léa Seydoux plays a woman named Gabrielle in all three periods — first, a miserably married fin-de-siècle pianist, then an aspiring actress in Los Angeles in the present day, and then a woman electing to have the leftover emotions from her...
Fans of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” and its mystical loop through hell and horror that ends with a scream, charged by Tulpas and body-swapping and timelines that swallow each other up, might find their itch for the heartsick uncanny scratched by Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast.”
It’s the most formally daring, willing-to-alienate of any films to premiere out of the Venice Film Festival competition so far, shape-shifting from Belle Époque Paris in 1910 to a recognizable 2014 Los Angeles, and, finally, a sterile post-pandemic future somewhere in 2044. Léa Seydoux plays a woman named Gabrielle in all three periods — first, a miserably married fin-de-siècle pianist, then an aspiring actress in Los Angeles in the present day, and then a woman electing to have the leftover emotions from her...
- 9/5/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the name of the Philip K. Dick novel that Ridley Scott famously adapted into Blade Runner. Wading into similar dystopian sci-fi waters, Bertrand Bonello’s latest feature, The Beast (La Bête), tosses together so many ideas, time periods and genres, its source material could have been called: Do French Girls Dream of Androids While Trying to Escape from Incels in L.A. After the 1910 Paris Flood?
In reality, the auteur’s ambitious new 146-minute film is a very loose adaptation of the 1903 Henry James novella, The Beast in the Jungle, about a man who never pursues the woman he loves because he fears a terrible fate will befall him — until he realizes, way too late, that he made his fate come true by never pursuing her. Bonello takes that initial conundrum, slices, dices and remixes it, then tosses it into a time machine.
In reality, the auteur’s ambitious new 146-minute film is a very loose adaptation of the 1903 Henry James novella, The Beast in the Jungle, about a man who never pursues the woman he loves because he fears a terrible fate will befall him — until he realizes, way too late, that he made his fate come true by never pursuing her. Bonello takes that initial conundrum, slices, dices and remixes it, then tosses it into a time machine.
- 9/3/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It does rather feel as if the universe — or at least the French film industry — is trying to tell us something when 2023 has turned up not one but two loose Gallic adaptations of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle.” That 1903 novella was about a man, John Marcher, who fails to fully live his life because he’s seized by premonitions of catastrophe that never visibly come to pass. It feels glumly relevant in an age of climate change, artificial intelligence and other obvious but indefinite signals of human demise; perhaps we should count this highly specific cinematic mini-trend as another.
Spare a thought for director Patric Chiha’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” a Berlinale premiere earlier this year, with an already modest profile about to be dwarfed by Bertrand Bonello’s starrier, bigger-swinging “The Beast” — a gender-switched James riff in which said catastrophe is very much happening,...
Spare a thought for director Patric Chiha’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” a Berlinale premiere earlier this year, with an already modest profile about to be dwarfed by Bertrand Bonello’s starrier, bigger-swinging “The Beast” — a gender-switched James riff in which said catastrophe is very much happening,...
- 9/3/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Venice film festival: Disaster appears imminent as Seydoux and an impressive George MacKay meet across three different eras in what is maybe Bertrand Bonello’s best movie yet
Bertrand Bonello’s new film is a vast unsettling dream of the future and the past; it stars Léa Seydoux, whose poise, creamy moue of discontent and gorgeous fashion sense are all part of the film’s enigma. The Beast is audacious and traumatisingly sexual, maybe Bonello’s best movie yet (and I have been agnostic about his work). It’s rich, strange, with a chilly indifference to your viewing comfort and a tremor of imminent disaster.
It is a film about the shock of the new, the realisation that technology is on the point of modifying and even abolishing humanity without our consent; it invites us to test our thumb on the cutting edge of modernity and draw blood. Director and...
Bertrand Bonello’s new film is a vast unsettling dream of the future and the past; it stars Léa Seydoux, whose poise, creamy moue of discontent and gorgeous fashion sense are all part of the film’s enigma. The Beast is audacious and traumatisingly sexual, maybe Bonello’s best movie yet (and I have been agnostic about his work). It’s rich, strange, with a chilly indifference to your viewing comfort and a tremor of imminent disaster.
It is a film about the shock of the new, the realisation that technology is on the point of modifying and even abolishing humanity without our consent; it invites us to test our thumb on the cutting edge of modernity and draw blood. Director and...
- 9/3/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Another year, another “strange time” for festivals. And yet, despite a pair of on-going strikes and an entertainment world that seems hellbent on remaining in flux, as the air turns chillier, it’s still time for the laurels to come out, and there are plenty of new films to get excited about seeing soon.
This year’s fall festival season includes new films from Hayao Miyazaki, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Ellen Kurras, Yorgos Lanthimos, Errol Morris, Pablo Larraín, Kitty Green, Andrew Haigh, Harmony Korine, and Anna Kendrick, and that’s only the start. There are films about everything from vampiric dictators to (actual) dicks, dumb money to stupid dreams, true stories of courage to fake stories of Nicolas Cage invading people’s minds, at least one very big suit, and so very much more.
And while a handful of films have opted to skip out on the festivals, like the...
This year’s fall festival season includes new films from Hayao Miyazaki, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Ellen Kurras, Yorgos Lanthimos, Errol Morris, Pablo Larraín, Kitty Green, Andrew Haigh, Harmony Korine, and Anna Kendrick, and that’s only the start. There are films about everything from vampiric dictators to (actual) dicks, dumb money to stupid dreams, true stories of courage to fake stories of Nicolas Cage invading people’s minds, at least one very big suit, and so very much more.
And while a handful of films have opted to skip out on the festivals, like the...
- 8/29/2023
- by Kate Erbland, Ryan Lattanzio and David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
After highlighting 40 titles confirmed to hit theaters this fall, we now turn our attention to the festival-bound films either without distribution or a confirmed fall release date. Looking over Venice, Toronto, and New York Film Festival selections, we’ve rounded up 20––most of which we’ll be checking out over the next few weeks––we can’t wait to see.
Find our 20 most-anticipated festival premieres below and return for our reviews, as well as news if some of these hit theaters this fall.
Aggro DR1FT
“I have never made anything like it. I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement,” Harmony Korine said of his shot-in-secret infrared action film Aggro DR1FT starring Travis Scott. Never one to repeat himself––regardless of how you may feel about the results––we’re mighty intrigued what...
Find our 20 most-anticipated festival premieres below and return for our reviews, as well as news if some of these hit theaters this fall.
Aggro DR1FT
“I have never made anything like it. I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement,” Harmony Korine said of his shot-in-secret infrared action film Aggro DR1FT starring Travis Scott. Never one to repeat himself––regardless of how you may feel about the results––we’re mighty intrigued what...
- 8/28/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
60 years ago, Doctor Who was created with a strong educational element, mixing science and history facts with adventure. Initially some stories featured no science-fiction elements outside of the Tardis and its crew. This story format petered out by the fourth season, and ′The Highlanders′ was the last example until ′Black Orchid′ in 1982.
The final story of the second season created the ′Pseudo-historical′ format – a story set in Earth′s history but with an additional science-fiction element to the Tardis crew. This format persists to the present day. By ′Best Historical Episodes′ here, we don’t mean the dozen or so purely historical stories, but are including pseudo-historical stories too.
Some of these stories have a historical setting based around a historical celebrity. Others are more intertwined with historical events and use that setting as a springboard for their stories, but they all represent the best the show has delivered so far.
The final story of the second season created the ′Pseudo-historical′ format – a story set in Earth′s history but with an additional science-fiction element to the Tardis crew. This format persists to the present day. By ′Best Historical Episodes′ here, we don’t mean the dozen or so purely historical stories, but are including pseudo-historical stories too.
Some of these stories have a historical setting based around a historical celebrity. Others are more intertwined with historical events and use that setting as a springboard for their stories, but they all represent the best the show has delivered so far.
- 8/14/2023
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
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