Film Buzz

Kinoteka: The Polish Film Festival

Peter Culshaw Thursday, 14 March 2013

Over the last few years the Poles have been pumping money into the arts, partly as a way of branding the country (it works according to their research – many of us are now as likely to think of jazz musicians as plumbers when we think of the country).There was Polska!

Oscars 2013

theartsdesk Friday, 15 February 2013

Film fans will not need reminding that next weekend knees all over Tinseltown start quivering at the prospect of the Academy Awards. To get you in shape for the big night, theartsdesk is running a week's worth of Oscar-related features starting on Monday.

Local Hero's 30th birthday

theartsdesk Thursday, 14 February 2013

“I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight.” This weekend is the 30^th anniversary of one of the best-loved films in British cinematic history. There are louder movies than Local Hero, comedies with bigger laughs and more telegraphic intentions. But one of the reasons Bill Forsyth’s pocket masterpiece has earned a place in so many hearts is the gentleness of wry wit, the modesty of its wisdom, and underpinning it all a profound humanity.

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Woodystock and LOCO London Comedy Festival

Karen Krizanovich Thursday, 29 November 2012

LOCO London’s "four days of the world’s best funny films" is one of those about-time ideas, because London needs a great comedy film festival. As a warmup, this Saturday 1 December at 6pm, LOCO London and the Hackney Picturehouse are holding Woodystock, celebrating Woody Allen’s birthday with a big screen blow-out of Manhattan – one of Woody’s best.

theartsdesk Olympics: Let The Games Begin

theartsdesk Sunday, 15 July 2012

Even in this year of years, it has to be accepted that not everyone has a soft spot for sport. Anyone answering to that description may well attempt to sprint, jump or pedal away from the coming onslaught, but if you are anywhere near a television, radio or computer, the five-ring circus is going to be hard to avoid for the next few weeks.

Diana The Movie: From the Bunker to Buck House

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 04 July 2012

Shooting is underway on Diana the movie and, as the producers did with Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, a snap of the star in full fig and wig has been launched upon the world. Naomi Watts, whose previous love interests have included Laura Harring in Mulholland Drive and a sizeable ape in King Kong, plays the spurned wife of the heir to the throne and lover of the son of the owner of Harrod's in a film to be directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.

Cannes 2012: Heavyweights on La Croisette

Demetrios Matheou Wednesday, 16 May 2012

The 65^th edition of the Festival de Cannes opens today, with Wes Anderson’s latest slice of leftfield whimsy, Moonrise Kingdom, and continues for almost two weeks of frantic film-going, star-spotting, wheeler-dealing and beach partying. For these days in May a usually somnolent seaside town becomes the cinema city that never sleeps.

theASHtray: Walliams on Dahl, Gill vs. Beard, and a new (old) play by Eugene O'Neill

ASH Smyth Saturday, 28 April 2012

There’s something in the water at the commissioning editors’ local, I think, resulting, of late, in a rash of rather good arts-n-culture biopics. This week, it was the turn of Roald Dahl, the Big Friendly Giant who made an absolute shit-load of cash telling really not-very-bedtime stories to young children.

Chariots of Fire is coming!

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 18 April 2012

There'll be no avoiding Chariots of Fire this summer. The Olympics being shortly upon us, Hampstead Theatre are soon to launch a stage verison of the Oscar-winning 1981 film.

BFI celebrates ‘The Genius of Hitchcock’ in a major new retrospective

Emma Simmonds Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Launched to the press today with an hour-long presentation and Hitchcockian lunch, the British Film Institute proudly unveiled a fittingly hefty programme of screenings, events, exhibitions and publications celebrating the work of Alfred Hitchcock - inarguably Britain’s most iconic and influential film director. Hailing from London’s East End, Hitchcock worked in the British film industry for two decades before signing a deal with David O.

Ken Russell Forever

Veronica Lee Friday, 09 March 2012

Ken Russell fans within reach of the capital will have a surfeit of goodies from tomorrow as London films clubs in the Scala Forever network open a tribute season devoted to the iconic British film director, who died last November.

A Spoonful of Sugar: Robert Sherman, 1925-2012

Jasper Rees Tuesday, 06 March 2012

Robert Sherman, who has died at the age of 86, was three years older than his brother Richard, and much quieter.

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FW Murnau's Faust, Royal Festival Hall

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Silent movies are currently the rage of Tinseltown, so what better moment to brush up on one of the treasures of the pre-talkie era? Top movie-ologists now contend that FW Murnau's 1926 film of Faust is a neglected all-time great ("one of the most beautifully crafted films ever made," according to Theodore Huff in Sight & Sound).

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Your complete guide to which awards have (some) credibility

Ismene Brown Sunday, 26 February 2012

First it's Golden Globes, then Oscars, or it's Grammys, then Brits - you can hardly go by a Sunday this time of year without another set of awards. But which ones count? Who are the judges?

Max Von Sydow: Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Personable

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 15 February 2012

He played chess with Death in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, was crucified as Jesus in George Stevens’s The Greatest Story Ever Told and diced with the devil in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. There’s something magnicent and elemental about the life and work of Max Von Sydow. Born in 1929, he has looked like a craggy old monument for at least 30 years.

Silence is golden as The Artist sweeps film BAFTAs

Ismene Brown Monday, 13 February 2012

The Artist was showered with awards by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts last night in an elegant occasion at the Royal Opera House, London, hosted by Stephen Fry. Director Michel Hazanavicius won for Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Music, Cinematography and Costume Design, while Jean Dujardin's extraordinary silent performance was judged Best Actor.