Year: 2016

TIFF 2016 Movie Review: DIVINES (France/Qatar 2016) ****

festreviews 2016 movies, movie, Movie Review, TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews , , , , , ,

Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

divines_poster.jpgDIVINES (France/Qatar 2016) ****
Directed by Houda Benyamina

Starring: Oulaya Amamra, Déborah Lukumuena, Kevin Mishel

Review by Gilbert Seah

DIVINES is the much acclaimed surprise film at this year’s Cannes and the winner of the grand Camera d’Or Prize, the first to be won by an Arab director.

Houda Benyamina’s debut feature follows the hard lives of two young women who become embroiled in the criminal world of the Parisian neighbourhoods. Teenager Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) dreams of having it all: money, power, and a man. But she is saddled with a drunken and whorish mother.

At school, she freaks out and walks out of her well-intentioned teacher, swearing that she will make more money than her teacher will ever dream of. That she does with her friend, Maimouna (Déborah Lukumuena) by dealing drugs but not without dire consequences.

DIVINES is also a coming-of-age story and a very violent and hard look at the alternatives out there and there are not that many. Benyamina’s no-nonsense film is highly spirited and also full of music and dance with a little lost romance.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Zp_FM9Yug

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: L’AVENIR (THINGS TO COME) (France/Germany 2016) ****

festreviews 2016 movies, movie, Movie Review, TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

things_to_come_poster.jpgL’AVENIR (THINGS TO COME) (France/Germany 2016) ****
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka

Review by Gilbert Seah

Director Hansen-Løve’s (LA PERE DE MES ENFANTS, UN AMOUR DE JEUNESSE, EDEN) latest feature is again a film about life and living. Like in the other 3 films mentioned, her protagonist undergoes a major change in life in the midst of the movie.

Nathalie (another excellent performance by Isabelle Huppert) is a dedicated and demanding teacher, wife, and mother whose life is jolted when her husband of many years leaves her for another woman. As her life slowly crumbles (she loses her publications as well), Nathalie slowly adapts using her background in philosophy.

Nathalie is not as assured and confident as she is in the past. Her black, obsess cat, Pandora stands also as a metaphor for her life. But Nathalie, at least finds an unlikely friend in a former student, the radical young communist Fabien (Roman Kolinka).

The film is also beautifully shot in Normandy in a beautiful vacation house where the tides waters of the sea come into the backyard (my personal dream home). The musical score ranging from classical (Schubert) to folk (Woody Guthrie) is marvellous.

There are lots more to relate, reference and to enjoy in Hansen-Løve’s film such as a short clip seen of her husband Olivier Assaya’s film in one scene. As in all of Hansen-Løve’s films, L’AVENIR is an intelligent, handsomely mounted production that is an entertaining and insightful look on life and living.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhErAqJ8HGE

Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.

Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month: http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

Died Today (September 9th): Burgess Meredith (1907–1997)

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burgessmeredith.jpgBurgess Meredith (1907–1997)

Born: November 16, 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Died: September 9, 1997 (age 89) in Malibu, California, USA

Married:
Kaja Sundsten (8 January 1951 – 9 September 1997) (his death) (2 children)
Paulette Goddard (21 May 1944 – 8 June 1949) (divorced)
Margaret Perry (10 January 1936 – 19 July 1938) (divorced)
Helen Derby Berrien (1932 – 20 August 1935) (divorced)

[on his childhood] All my life, to this day, the memory of my childhood remains grim and incoherent. If I close my eyes and think back, I see little except violence and fear. In those early years, I somehow came to understand I would have to draw from within myself whatever emotional resources I needed to go wherever I was headed. As a result, for years, I became a boy who lived almost totally within himself.

Advise and Consent
1962
dir. Otto Preminger
starring
Henry Fonda
Meridith		 Batman 1966Batman
1966
dir. by Leslie H. Martinson
starring
Adam West
Burt Ward
ROCKYRocky
1976
dir. John G Avildsen
starring
Sylvestor Stallone
Tia Shire
Burt Young		 Burnt OfferingsBurnt Offerings
1976
dir. by Dan Curtis
starring
Karen Black
Oliver Reed
Rocky II
1979
dir. Sylvestor Stallone
starring
Sylvestor Stallone
Carl Weathers		 ROCKY IIIRocky III
1982
dir. Sylvestor Stallone
starring
Sylvestor Stallone
Talia Shire
Mr. T
SANTA CLAUSSanta Claus
1985
dir. Jeannot Szwarc
Starring
Dudley Moore
John Lithgow		 ROCKY VRocky V
1990
dir. John G Avildsen
starring
Sylvestor Stallone
Tommy Morrison
MOVIE POSTERGRUMPY OLD MEN
1993
dir. Donald Petrie
Stars:
Jack Lemmon
Walter Matthau

THE HINDENBURG
1975
dir. Robert Wise
Starring:
George C. Scott
Anne Bancroft

Happy Birthday: Michael Bublé

festreviews Uncategorized , ,

michaelbubleMichael Bublé

Born: September 9, 1975 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Married to:
Luisana Lopilato (31 March 2011 – present) (1 child)

[on producing a more costly and extravagant stage show] Listen, I should be able to go on stage and entertain you with just a chair and a balloon. If you’re a good entertainer you don’t need a bunch of stuff. But I also feel that if you’re going to ask people to come to an arena to see you, that it’s kind of the artist to give them a great production and great production value. A lot of people are far away, so you want to give them some beautiful eye candy that doesn’t take away from what you do, but really enhances it.

Happy Birthday: Tom Wopat

festreviews Happy Birthday , ,

tomwopat.jpgTom Wopat

Born: September 9, 1951 in Lodi, Wisconsin, USA

He’ll forever be remembered as strapping, good ol’ boy Luke Duke, the virile, blue-eyed, dark-haired, plaid-shirted rascal (equally good-looking John Schneider was the strapping, plaid-shirted blond cousin) on the rough-and-tumble bucolic 80s series The Dukes of Hazzard (1979). Where others may have fallen by the TV wayside, however, after the cancellation of such a popular series, Wopat moved on and reverted back to his first true love – music – successfully refocusing as a recording artist and musical leading man of Broadway and regional shows.

As far as The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) goes, it was what it was. It was a huge phenomenon. If you have a success of that stature you should embrace it. And you shouldn’t deny it. Some people who have a popular television show will tell you that they wanted to “be more artistic” and deny that that TV show was what they wanted to do, but to me it’s all work.

Happy Birthday: Cliff Robertson (1923–2011)

festreviews Happy Birthday , , ,

cliffrobertson.jpgCliff Robertson (1923–2011)

Born: September 9, 1923 in La Jolla [now in San Diego], California, USA
Died: September 10, 2011 (age 88) in Stony Brook, New York, USA

[on being blacklisted in Hollywood after exposing David Begelman in 1977] People told me I set a dangerous precedent. My ex-wife said that if I had played the game I would have owned the town, but I was always too independent.

Happy Birthday: Henry Thomas

festreviews Happy Birthday , ,

henrythomas.jpgHenry Thomas

Born: September 9, 1971 in San Antonio, Texas, USA

I understood why films were made, and if they made a lot of money, they were successful. All of these things I knew. As a ten-year-old boy, I didn’t really think a lot about finances or celebrity. I always viewed films as kind of what I imagined a summer camp to be like.

Suicide Kings
1997
dir. Peter O’Fallon
starring
Christopher Walken
Denis Leary
11:1411:14
2003
dir. Greg Marcks
Starring
Thomas
Blake Heron

E.T -the Extra Terrestrial
1982
dir. Steven Spielberg
Stars:
Henry Thomas
Peter Coyote

Happy Birthday: Eric Stonestreet

festreviews Happy Birthday , ,

ericstonestreet.jpgEric Stonestreet

Born: September 9, 1971 in Kansas City, Kansas, USA

My dad had a retail business in Leavenworth, Kansas, and there’s a whole bunch of prisons there, so it was a backdrop of my childhood, these ominous prisons sitting off the road.

IDENTITY THIEF
2013
dir. Seth Gordon
Stars:
Jason Bateman
Melissa McCarthy		 SwingersAlmost Famous
2000
dir. Crowe
starring
Billy Crudup
Kate Hudson

bad teacherBAD TEACHER
dir. Jake Kasdan
Stars:
Cameron Diaz
Lucy Punch
The Island
2005
dir. Bay
starring
Ewan McGregor
Scarlett Johansson
Steve Buscemi
revengeBest of AMERICAN HORROR STORY

 

Happy Birthday: Hugh Grant

festreviews Happy Birthday , ,

hughgrant.jpgHugh Grant

Born: September 9, 1960 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK

[on playing “the bad guy” in films] Now, I quite like it. For years I sat in these interviews and everyone said, “You’re always Mister Nice Guy, why don’t you ever play someone nasty?” So in fact it’s been a relief to be . . . for the real me to come out more on camera. I don’t have any particular burning desire to go back to being cuddly. Not really.

BITTER MOONBitter Moon
1992
dir. RomanPolanski
starring
Grant
Peter Coyote		 EXTREME MEASURES MOVIE POSTERExtreme Measures
1996
dir. Michael Apted
Starring
Grant
Gene Hackman
About a Boy
2002
dir. Paul Weitz
Chris
Starring
Grant
AMERICAN DREAMZ
2006
dir. Paul Weirz
Stars:
Hugh Grant
Dennis Quaid		 Love ActuallyLove Actually
2003
dir. Richard Curtis
starring
Grant
Bill Nighy
Two Weeks Notice
2002
dir. Marc Lawrence
starring
Sandra Bullock
Grant		 DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS Movie PosterDid You Hear About the Morgans?
dir. Marc Lawrence
Stars:
Grant
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sam Elliott

MOVIE POSTERTHE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS
dir. Peter Lord
Jeff Newitt
Stars:
Hugh Grant
Salma Hayek

MOVIE POSTERCLOUD ATLAS
2012
dir. Tom Tykwer
Andy Wachowski
Lana Wachowski