Last week, we celebrated both the 45-year anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, and what would have been the 86th birthday of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. While those things might seem completely unrelated to most of us, conspiracy theorists have seen a link for years, claiming we never actually landed on the moon and that the government hired Kubrick to film the fake moon landing here on Earth. While French filmmaker William Karel is not a moon-landing denier, he’s not above having a little fun with the idea of Kubrick being the visual genius who duped the entire world into believing that we actually walked on the surface of that floating white orb in the sky. Karel’s Dark Side of the Moon is a 2002 parody that posits that Kubrick did indeed film the fake moon...
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- 7/30/2014
- by Mike Bracken
- Movies.com
Odd List Ryan Lambie 12 Feb 2014 - 06:36
From faked lunar landings to invisible WWII warships, here are six conspiracy theories and the genre films they inspired...
"Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face," Sterling Hayden's General Jack D Ripper coldly announces in Stanley Kubrick's breathtakingly funny satire, Dr Strangelove.
Ripper's conspiracy theory, that the commies are secretly trying to compromise our "precious bodily fluids", becomes his harebrained reason for unleashing a missile strike on the Ussr. And just as Ripper was inspired by this strange notion to trigger a nuclear apocalypse, so filmmakers have been inspired by conspiracy theories to make all kinds of science fiction and horror movies - some funny, some tense and absorbing, others terrifying.
Here, then, is a selection of six real-world conspiracy theories and the varied movies they inspired - and funnily enough, Stanley Kubrick...
From faked lunar landings to invisible WWII warships, here are six conspiracy theories and the genre films they inspired...
"Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face," Sterling Hayden's General Jack D Ripper coldly announces in Stanley Kubrick's breathtakingly funny satire, Dr Strangelove.
Ripper's conspiracy theory, that the commies are secretly trying to compromise our "precious bodily fluids", becomes his harebrained reason for unleashing a missile strike on the Ussr. And just as Ripper was inspired by this strange notion to trigger a nuclear apocalypse, so filmmakers have been inspired by conspiracy theories to make all kinds of science fiction and horror movies - some funny, some tense and absorbing, others terrifying.
Here, then, is a selection of six real-world conspiracy theories and the varied movies they inspired - and funnily enough, Stanley Kubrick...
- 2/10/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Philip Roth: Unmasked, the latest entry in the long-running American Masters series, arrives just after the Newark-born author’s 80th birthday. The documentary, premiering on PBS tonight, is fascinating for its relatively unmediated portrait of the normally reticent Roth. Yet, as written and directed by French documentarian William Karel and Italian journalist Livia Manera, it is a deeply puzzling and contradictory piece of filmmaking. Fans of the author (and even critics) will likely find something of value in Roth’s surprisingly direct statements on his life, work, and mortality. And yet everything surrounding those moments seems to have been placed there by filmmakers uninterested in venturing past the surface or in exploring what their subject is actually saying. Watching the film, for which Roth sat for ten hours worth of on-camera interviews at his homes in Manhattan and rural Connecticut, is a bit like being a fly on the wall...
- 3/29/2013
- by Max Winter
- Vulture
Livia Manera and William Karel don’t take many stylistic chances in their new documentary. But why would they? Granted extraordinary access to Philip Roth, one of the world’s greatest living writers and a man who’s never granted an abundance of interviews, the directors simply sat their subject in front of a camera and let him talk. Philip Roth: Unmasked finds the decorated author reflecting on every major development in his long career, from his prizewinning 1959 debut Goodbye, Columbus to the stardom that followed the publication of 1969’s Portnoy’s Complaint to the remarkably fruitful spell which has seen him publish …...
- 3/12/2013
- by Kevin Canfield
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare Head-on, Javier Bardem, Imelda Staunton: European Film Awards 2004 European Film Academy Documentary – Prix Arte Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer by Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill / UK * Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper / Austria / France / Belgium Die SPIELWÜTIGEN (Addicted to Acting) by Andres Veiel / Germany La Pelota Vasca, La Piel Contra La Piedra (Basque Ball, Skin Against Stone) by Julio Medem / Spain Le Monde Selon Bush (The World According to Bush) by William Karel / France Mahssomim (Checkpoint) by Yoav Shamir / Israel The Last Victory by John Appel / The Netherlands Touch The Sound by Thomas Riedelsheimer / Germany / UK / Finland European Film Academy Short Film – Prix Uip * Prix Uip Ghent: J'attendrai le suivant… by Philippe Orreindy / France Prix Uip Valladolid: Les Baisers des Autres by Carine Tardieu / France Prix Uip Angers: Poveste La Scara "C" by Cristian Nemescu / Romania Prix Uip Berlin: Un Cartus De Kent Si Un Pachet De Cafea...
- 11/26/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Yesterday, the nominees for the Globe de cristal were announced. The purpose of this event is to allow the French press hand out awards in arts and culture. The artistic domains in question are cinema, television, architecture/design, literature, music, fashion, cultural exhibitions (read: museums) and stage shows.
1. Cinema:
Best film of 2009:
* Un prophète, by Jacques Audiard.
* Welcome, by Philippe Lioret.
* Oss 117: Rio ne répond plus, by Michel Hazanavicius.
* Le concert, by Radu Mihaileanu.
* À l'origine, by Xavier Giannoli.
Best actress of 2009
* Isabelle Adjani in La journée de la jupe.
* Chiara Mastroianni in "Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser".
* Kristin Scott Thomas in Partir.
* Marie-Josée Croze in Je l'aimais.
* Maïwenn Le Besco in Le bal des actrices.
Best actor of 2009
* Vincent Lindon in Welcome.
* Tahar Rahim in Un prophète.
* Yvan Attal in Partir.
* Jean Dujardin in Oss 117: Rio ne répond plus.
* François Cluzet in À l'origine.
1. Cinema:
Best film of 2009:
* Un prophète, by Jacques Audiard.
* Welcome, by Philippe Lioret.
* Oss 117: Rio ne répond plus, by Michel Hazanavicius.
* Le concert, by Radu Mihaileanu.
* À l'origine, by Xavier Giannoli.
Best actress of 2009
* Isabelle Adjani in La journée de la jupe.
* Chiara Mastroianni in "Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser".
* Kristin Scott Thomas in Partir.
* Marie-Josée Croze in Je l'aimais.
* Maïwenn Le Besco in Le bal des actrices.
Best actor of 2009
* Vincent Lindon in Welcome.
* Tahar Rahim in Un prophète.
* Yvan Attal in Partir.
* Jean Dujardin in Oss 117: Rio ne répond plus.
* François Cluzet in À l'origine.
- 12/30/2009
- by anhkhoido@hotmail.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
Based almost entirely on found footage — and a clever script to thread that footage together — Empire State Building Murders is a loving tribute to classic Hollywood films.
French director William Karel, who co-wrote the script with Jerome Charyn, has crafted a film in which they've pulled footage from classic films and edited them together to tell a completely original story.
It's a mashup, a remix of some of the best gangster and noir films from the '30s, '40s and '50s. "Starring" Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and James Cagney as the main players in a love triangle set in post-Second World War New York, when the movies of the time would have us believe the Mob was in complete control.
Douglas is the face of Jim Kowalski, a former New York cop who receives a letter addressed to him but postmarked Aug. 17, 1949, some 60 years earlier, that has been...
French director William Karel, who co-wrote the script with Jerome Charyn, has crafted a film in which they've pulled footage from classic films and edited them together to tell a completely original story.
It's a mashup, a remix of some of the best gangster and noir films from the '30s, '40s and '50s. "Starring" Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and James Cagney as the main players in a love triangle set in post-Second World War New York, when the movies of the time would have us believe the Mob was in complete control.
Douglas is the face of Jim Kowalski, a former New York cop who receives a letter addressed to him but postmarked Aug. 17, 1949, some 60 years earlier, that has been...
- 10/4/2009
- CinemaSpy
The 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (Viff) will be held October 1-16, 2009. Founded in 1982, Viff's mandate is "...to encourage the understanding of other nations through the art of cinema, to foster the art of cinema, to facilitate the meeting in British Columbia of cinema professionals from around the world and to stimulate the motion picture industry in British Columbia and Canada..." Over 150,000 people are expected to attend 640 screenings of 360 films from 80 countries. Here is an up-to-date list of directors, confirmed to attend Viff 2009, along with their films : "1428" Du Haibin "1999" Lenin Sivam "65_RedRoses" Philip Lyall & Nimisha Mukerji "Adelaide" Liliana Greenfield-Sanders "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" Vikram Jayanti "Ana & Arthur" Larry Young "The Anchorage" Anders Edström & Curtis Winter "Antoine" Laura Bari "Argippo Resurrected" Dan Krames "The Art of Drowning" Diego Maclean "At Home By Myself... With You" Kris Booth "At The Edge Of The World" Dan Stone...
- 9/27/2009
- HollywoodNorthReport.com
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- The world could learn a thing or two about getting along from Esther and Halima, the two ladies in question in Philippe Faucon's nicely observed little film about an unlikely friendship.
In the Moroccan-born filmmaker's Dans la vie (Two Ladies), which screened at Toronto without a distributor, Selima, a young Arab nurse (Sabrina Ben Abdallah) takes a job attending to the needs of Esther, an ill-tempered paraplegic Jewish woman (Ariane Jacquot).
Despite her reputation for being difficult, Esther ends up getting along well enough with Selima--the two both share an Algerian background despite their different cultures and religions--that she also agrees having the young woman's devout Muslim mother, Halima (Zohra Mouffok), come in to cook for her.
So far, so good, but when circumstances require Esther moving in with Halima's family for a month, long-held prejudices on both sides come rushing to the forefront.
Fortunately the elderly women ultimately discover that their similarities outweigh their differences, and, despite what Halima's family and neighbors may think, they find themselves bonding.
Director Faucon, who also wrote the script along with Amel Amani, William Karel and Sarah Saada, has woven this multicultural tapestry with a great deal of warmth and humor, while sidestepping the twin traps of caricature and sanctimoniousness that too often go with the territory.
And what his cast of nonactors may lack in screen experience they more than compensate for in personality and an engaging naturalness that makes this 73-minute film an especially satisfying slice of contemporary French life.
TORONTO -- The world could learn a thing or two about getting along from Esther and Halima, the two ladies in question in Philippe Faucon's nicely observed little film about an unlikely friendship.
In the Moroccan-born filmmaker's Dans la vie (Two Ladies), which screened at Toronto without a distributor, Selima, a young Arab nurse (Sabrina Ben Abdallah) takes a job attending to the needs of Esther, an ill-tempered paraplegic Jewish woman (Ariane Jacquot).
Despite her reputation for being difficult, Esther ends up getting along well enough with Selima--the two both share an Algerian background despite their different cultures and religions--that she also agrees having the young woman's devout Muslim mother, Halima (Zohra Mouffok), come in to cook for her.
So far, so good, but when circumstances require Esther moving in with Halima's family for a month, long-held prejudices on both sides come rushing to the forefront.
Fortunately the elderly women ultimately discover that their similarities outweigh their differences, and, despite what Halima's family and neighbors may think, they find themselves bonding.
Director Faucon, who also wrote the script along with Amel Amani, William Karel and Sarah Saada, has woven this multicultural tapestry with a great deal of warmth and humor, while sidestepping the twin traps of caricature and sanctimoniousness that too often go with the territory.
And what his cast of nonactors may lack in screen experience they more than compensate for in personality and an engaging naturalness that makes this 73-minute film an especially satisfying slice of contemporary French life.
- 9/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Jean-Francois Lepetit, producer of Le Monde Selon Bush (The World According to Bush) has taken legal action against Google France and Google Inc. for distributing the film free of charge, citing "copyright infringement and parasitism," Lepetit's French production company Flach Film announced Thursday.
Lepetit granted Editions Montparnasse distribution rights to William Karel's documentary in video and VOD formats, but Google Video France currently allows free access to the feature-length film simply by clicking and downloading.
The film, a controversial close-up of George W. Bush's presidency, has already received over 43,000 hits in "a very short period," Google's sources claim. Lepetit has appealed to the Paris Commercial Court, accusing Google of violating the Intellectual Property Code pertaining to copyright and annex rights, and is seeking compensation for the offense.
Flach Film maintains that Google "has not acted as a simple host but as a fully responsible publisher."
"The legal Internet broadcast of films cannot be developed as long as sites such as Google offer such downloads free of charge," said Lepetit.
Lepetit granted Editions Montparnasse distribution rights to William Karel's documentary in video and VOD formats, but Google Video France currently allows free access to the feature-length film simply by clicking and downloading.
The film, a controversial close-up of George W. Bush's presidency, has already received over 43,000 hits in "a very short period," Google's sources claim. Lepetit has appealed to the Paris Commercial Court, accusing Google of violating the Intellectual Property Code pertaining to copyright and annex rights, and is seeking compensation for the offense.
Flach Film maintains that Google "has not acted as a simple host but as a fully responsible publisher."
"The legal Internet broadcast of films cannot be developed as long as sites such as Google offer such downloads free of charge," said Lepetit.
- 11/24/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Michael Moore's award-winning documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 will be released in France on July 7, by Mars Distribution, two weeks after its U.S. release, the StudioCanal subsidiary said on Wednesday. The Palme d'Or winner will be released on 200 screens, making it one of the widest initial releases for a documentary in France, Mars said. The film's success at Cannes has prompted other documentary film producers to release their films theatrically. Swiss writer-director William Karel's (CIA: Secret Wars), documentary The World According to Bush, produced by Jean-Francois Lepetit's Paris-based Flach Film will be released on 20 screens in France on June 23. The film, which is a strong indictment of President Bush's first 1,000 days in power, will be premiered on pubcaster France 2, for whom the film was initially made.
- 6/17/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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