Last month, Matthew McConaughey’s wife Camila Alves revealed that her mother-in-law used to “test” her at the start of their relationship; now, McConaughey is reacting to his mom’s former strategy.
02.09.2023 - 05:01 / variety.com
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “City of Wind” depicts a version of Mongolian everyday life that is both traditional and modern. Ulaanbaatar is shown as messy and sprawlingly urban in a fashion that will be familiar to millions of city dwellers in Asia — even if there are yurts in the front garden. Presented in Venice’s Horizons section, and then Toronto, “City” starts as a story of a shaman, who is still of school age.
Its opening scenes deliver a deliciously slow reveal of the boy savant and, soon after, a challenge to his supposed authority. But by the second reel, it has done away with much of the exploration of the contradiction between the boy’s age and inexperience and his apparent insight. Instead, he fights with his catty sister and falls in love with the teen-girl who previously called him out.
What follows is a wider, but milder, exploration of the juxtaposition of modernity and tradition. The film’s director, Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, is both a feature film debutant and a well-versed (and well-traveled) media professional. She has studied film and screenwriting in Turkey, Prague and Portugal, made shorts that went to Cannes and Sundance, and has taught history of film and film direction at the Mongolian School of Film, Radio and Television.
Despite that trajectory, she says she didn’t overthink her choices for a first film. “The idea appeared suddenly because it was based on a real experience. I was running late and didn’t get to see the shaman before the ceremony.
And afterwards, while I was waiting my mother to come out, this young kid came and sat next to me. I found out he was the shaman only after leaving the apartment,” Purev-Ochir says. “It was the contrast between these two identities that suddenly
.Last month, Matthew McConaughey’s wife Camila Alves revealed that her mother-in-law used to “test” her at the start of their relationship; now, McConaughey is reacting to his mom’s former strategy.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Fandango Sales has taken international distribution rights to quirky comedy “Volare” about the fear of flying that marks the directorial debut of actor Margherita Buy. Buy is known internationally for frequent roles in Nanni Moretti movies, most recently in “A Brighter Tomorrow” that launched from Cannes. Her smart concept movie is being lead-produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, the company founded by veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio.
Spain has selected J.A. Bayona’s latest film, Society Of The Snow, which debuted last month at the Venice Film Festival, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ‘Expendables 4’ narrowly took top place at the mainland China box office on a quiet weekend preceding the National Day holiday season at the end of the month. “A Haunting in Venice” opened outside the top five. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “Expendables 4” earning $10.9 million (RMB78.6 million) over its debut weekend.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two Hollywood new releases, “A Haunting in Venice” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem” failed to make much of an impression on the South Korean box office in their opening weekend. Instead, local fantasy drama “Sleep” headed the chart for a second time. “Sleep” earned $2.38 million in its second weekend, a creditably modest 20% weekend-on-weekend decline, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).
School Of Rock, saying it “didn’t feel like a hit” when he first approached the project.Starring Jack Black as a struggling guitarist who poses as a substitute teacher, the comedy film grossed over $130million worldwide on a $35million budget when it released in 2003. It’s since spawned a stage adaptation and a TV spin-off on Nickelodeon.Speaking to NME about the film, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, director Linklater said: “I loved working on that movie and I loved Jack, and the whole process.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief That the Toronto world premiere of “The Movie Emperor” is sponsored by high-end home appliance manufacturer Dyson is deliciously and understatedly ironic. In the movie, innocuous-seeming domestic equipment — from the humble suitcase to floor sweeping robots — run quietly amok.
EXCLUSIVE: Fran Drescher is less concerned with meeting of several showrunners with WGA leadership this week and more concerned with studios and streamers getting back to the bargaining table to make a fair deal.
Sophia Scorziello editor All Art’s upcoming non-fiction feature “Manhattan Theatre Club, a Home for Artists” will explore the 50-year history of one of the most impactful off-Broadway theaters in New York. Helmed by the club’s very own Lynn Meadow and Barry Grove, the film stitches together archival footage and photos and interviews with stars like Laura Linney, Edie Falco, Sam Waterston and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Fall Spoilers are out, and just as most would expect, the change of seasons will bring more than cooler weather to the residents of Genoa City. Doom and Gloom will roll into town just in time to wreak havoc on a few key members of the city’s most prominent families.Here is what looks to be brewing on the surface so far for “Young and the Restless” fans to look forward to in the upcoming weeks. Victor Newman knows that his time as king is somewhat limited at his age, so he plans to make every moment count.Victor has tried to slowly step aside and let his children try to step in and start to take over Newman Enterprises.
With three competition titles across the last four editions, no contemporary filmmaker has been more present on the Venice Lido than director Michel Franco.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.
When Venice head Alberto Barbera announced his competition lineup in July, he confessed that he and his selection team were surprised to see one submission in their database: a feature project by Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.
Alissa Simon Film Critic As you read this, new titles from filmmakers of Tunisian, Moroccan and Franco-Palestinian-Algerian heritage are making their mark at the Venice Film Festival, while Toronto Film Festival will premiere a trio of first features from Saudi Arabia, along with discoveries from the UAE and Palestine, plus a handful of Arab titles screened at Cannes and Venice. Those in the know say that the annual number of Arab films produced has increased along with the emergence of new filmmakers, and that fall festivals such as El Gouna, Marrakech, Cairo and Red Sea will be chockablock with fresh regional titles.
A quote by William Friedkin himself opens “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” describing the film, as well as all the filmmaker’s other works, as being about “the thin line between good and evil.” This line is all the thinner here, in the American director’s final feature, for it is entirely a matter of opinion. We are not given to see the facts of this story as they unfolded; we cannot watch and make up our own minds as to whether the people involved were right or wrong to act the way they did.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Renowned Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai ditched his quiet, brooding persona on Saturday in Venice, where he is to receive a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. Instead, at a press conference in his honor, Leung positively gushed about his upcoming first European movie role and about the strengths of the “golden era” acting training he received in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Leung has made a speciality of saying little in many of his films.
Anna Marie de la Fuente In the debut feature of Mexican filmmaker-siblings Mariana and Santiago Arriaga, revenge is indeed a dish best served cold. Competing at the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti sidebar, the coming-of-age road movie “A Cielo Abierto” turns on two teen brothers who are bent on avenging the death of their father in a road accident. They are joined by their new stepsister who, unaware of their intentions at first, later becomes a willing accomplice.
A 10-year-old girl in Texas went into protective mode and helped her mother during an assault.
It’s been 11 years since Mads Mikkelsen starred in Nikolaj Arcel’s Danish period drama A Royal Affair, one of 2012’s most raved about international films which also went on to an Oscar nomination.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “The Sea Beyond,” the Naples-set prison drama that has become a pop culture phenomenon in Italy, has been bought by U.S. streamer MHz Choice for North America.