Features
• Pete Hammond reports from on the ground at Saturday night’s DGA awards. [Notes on a Season] • Dave McNary from the angle of each nominee’s speech detailing the need for maintaining believability in their films. [Variety] • On the heels of Kathryn Bigelow’s big win, Kira Cochrane wonders why there are so few female […]
2/1 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:05 am · February 1st, 2010
Filed in: Daily
WEEKLY WRAP: Guild awards, pre-nomination jitters
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:17 am · January 30th, 2010
• In the biggest upset of the season so far, “The Hurt Locker” came up trumps at the PGA Awards. • “Inglourious Basterds” took the top prize at the SAG Awards, which also gave another boost to Sandra Bullock. • With Oscar nominations out next week, we listed some of the greatest nominee fields in […]
Filed in: Daily
End of an era
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:10 am · January 28th, 2010
I received my last correspondence from Miramax publicity yesterday. Today, the company has effectively been shuttered, and it is, without question, the end of an era. When things were streamlined for the brand back in October, I wrote a brief remembrance. But how ironic that, as the latest and greatest in independent cinema looks for […]
Filed in: Daily
Daniel Battsek leaves Miramax
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:13 pm · October 30th, 2009
This seemed to be in the offing for a while, but it’s always disconcerting to hear of major upheaval at a Hollywood institution like Miramax. The studio is folding its New York office, while Daniel Battsek, who has headed the Weinstein brothers’ former empire since 2005, will leave the company in January. Battsek announced the […]
Filed in: Daily
A new, diminished Miramax era
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:20 pm · October 2nd, 2009
I’ll have to just say it: this is sad. Just from a movie-goer, awards-watcher standpoint. Miramax has indeed been “folded-in” at Disney for about a year, as David Poland notes in his characteristic “nothing surprises me” fashion. And Greg Ellwood has put together a nice analysis of the event over at his Awards Campaign blog […]
Filed in: Daily
Scratch Mirren, Powell
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:12 pm · August 25th, 2009
One of the films I’ve been keeping an eye on as we march up to the awards season is Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” a re-imagining of the William Shakespeare yarn with a female lead rather than male. Helen Mirren seemed a great bet in the lead actress race and of course design heads Sandy Powell […]
Filed in: Daily
How Harvey corrupted Oscar
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:37 pm · July 19th, 2009
It’s a little over a week old, but I only just noticed Mike Goodridge’s rather interesting column at ScreenDaily, in which he offers yet another take on the Academy’s expanded Best Picture field. (Is it even a month since the announcement? It feels like we’ve been talking about this forever.) Unlike many, Goodridge is wholeheartedly […]
Filed in: Daily
‘Chéri’ website launched
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:50 pm · May 27th, 2009
As you know, despite a mixed critical reception over here in the UK, I was quite taken with Stephen Frears’ “Chéri,” a tarter-than-expected Belle Epoque romance that showcases the director’s best work in nine years, and Michelle Pfeiffer’s best work in … well, longer than that. I’m not sure how the film, a rather subtle […]
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American ‘Chéri’ poster
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:54 pm · May 17th, 2009
Unlike the appropriately sober (if aesthetically half-assed) UK poster, this U.S. one-sheet for “Chéri” does much the same thing as the trailer in selling the film as an effervescent romantic comedy. The film plays along for its first half, though as I said in my review, the chick-lit crowd may find themselves surprised by the […]
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‘Chéri’ trailer … finally
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:29 pm · March 18th, 2009
I wrote about this trailer after being surprised by it at the cinema almost two weeks ago. Now it’s finally appeared online, you can see for yourselves. I’m still a little uncertain of the brittle, faintly campy comic tone present here — Colette’s novella (which I’ll get into when our Page to Screen series begins) […]
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In search of ‘Chéri’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:56 am · March 8th, 2009
I can’t remember the last time I first laid eyes on a trailer for a prestige film in the cinema rather than on a computer screen. I kind of miss it — as a kid, the unexpectedness of such sightings, combined with the darkness of the theatre, made trailers something of an event for me. […]
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2/12 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:16 am · February 12th, 2009
(Kind of quiet out there…) • David Carr addresses the “some stars won’t walk the red carpet” talk, slams fashionistas as being “pilot fish on a big whale.” Ooooooohhhhh. [The Carpetbagger] • Rebecca Ascher-Walsh talks to double nominee Kate Winslet. [The Envelope] • Dave Karger says it’s Harvey vs. Miramax in the ladies’ acting fields. […]
Filed in: Daily
2/5 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:37 am · February 5th, 2009
• Patrick Goldstein, in a well-reasoned piece that even I — a dedicated Boss fan — can’t disagree with, says Bruce Springsteen “had to stoop to conquer” Sunday night. [The Big Picture] • Jeffrey Wells bizarrely reviews Best Live Action Short nominee “New Boy.” Beware careless spoilers. [Hollywood Elsewhere] • Michael Cieply, reports on the […]
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OFF THE CARPET: Enough foreplay
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:59 am · January 19th, 2009
What else is there to say? Tomorrow we’ll have a new president and the last eight years will, hopefully, start to fade away. In four days we’ll have a fresh slate of Oscar nominees and the last four months of awards speculation will suddenly be a distant memory. The big wheel keeps on turning. I […]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
1/6 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:46 am · January 6th, 2009
• Patrick Goldstein busts Miramax’s balls for fudging a “Doubt” praise quote. [The Big Picture] • David Poland analyzes the top 10 collective for Oscar tea leaves. [The Hot Blog] • Sam Thielman reports from the NYC Lincoln Center Q&A with David Fincher… [Variety] • …and Lane Brown gives the director some more grief for […]
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Too many independents?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:38 pm · October 21st, 2008
I know I’m just one of many who have been concerned about the future of independent film, following the closing in quick succession of Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, and the incorporation of Paramount Vantage into the main body of the studio. Someone who has a different perspective on matters, however, is Miramax head Daniel […]
Filed in: Daily
OFF THE CARPET: Holding back
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:01 am · October 20th, 2008
Every Oscar season is about managing expectations. Studios, of course, want to keep the murmurs to a minimum whether they have the goods or not because the peril of peaking too early is just as bad as the sting of negative word-of-mouth. Similarly, being “the one to beat” sets a film up to rise to […]
Filed in: Featured · Off the Carpet
Miramax Highlights goes live
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:05 pm · October 6th, 2008
First Paramount Vantage, then Universal, and now Miramax Films. Studios are leaping into the online FYC phase of campaigns this season. MiramaxHilights.com is showcasing three modest enterprises for contention: John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” (with a new poster I haven’t seen yet) and “Fernando Mereilles’s “Blindness.” There isn’t anything available for each film […]
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