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15 articles from 2009
The best films of 2009
19 December 2009 9:39 PM, PST
| blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
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Since Moses brought the tablets down from the mountain, lists have come in tens, not that we couldn't have done with several more commandments. Who says a year has Ten Best Films, anyway? Nobody but readers, editors, and most other movie critics. There was hell to pay last year when I published my list of Twenty Best. You'd have thought I belched at a funeral. So this year I have devoutly limited myself to exactly ten films.
On each of two lists.
The lists are divided into Mainstream Films and Independent Films. This neatly sidesteps two frequent complaints: (1) "You name all those little films most people have never heard of," and (2) "You pick all blockbusters and ignore the indie pictures." Which is is my official Top Ten? They both are equal, and every film here is entitled to name itself "One of the Year's 10 Best!"
Alphabetically:
¶ The Top 10 Mainstream Films
Bad Lieutenant.
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- Roger Ebert
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Machan is streets ahead of any Hollywood product
19 November 2009 9:23 AM, PST
| The Guardian - Film News
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There is more ingenuity, guts and brilliance in the developing world as depicted in Uberto Pasolini's film than anything Hollywood can cobble together
Tomorrow sees the release of Machan, one of the most important films to come out of the developing world in recent years – and the best film about illegal immigration I've ever seen.
It's a topic that's been addressed by prominent western directors in recent times, with mixed results. In 2002, Michael Winterbottom's docudrama, In This World, concentrated on the dangerous journey of Afghan immigrants to London, portraying the exploitation and hardship they face without revealing their individuality and motivations.
That same year also saw the release of Dirty Pretty Things, Stephen Frears's earnest white liberal's attempt to unveil London's murky underbelly, depicting it as a melting pot of the marginalised and dispossessed. But it was driven by an implausible plot about illegal organ transplants in
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- Nirpal Dhaliwal
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Rumor: DiCaprio & Maguire Are Remaking The Third Man?
23 October 2009 2:35 PM, PDT
| firstshowing.net
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Another rumor to chew over this fine Friday afternoon. Chud is reporting that Canal+ from France is gearing up to remake Carol Reed's 1949 classic The Third Man that starred Orson Welles and Bernard Lee. Apparently none other than Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire are already cast and helping develop the project. While they say it doesn't have a director yet, the screenplay is being written by Steven Knight, of Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises. Sounds like a lot of great talent, but of course, is a remake of The Third Man even necessary or desired? It's a true noir classic that really can't be topped.
The Third Man is a noir mystery set in Austria's capital city Vienna, devastated and recovering from the World War II. An American pulp writer arrives in Vienna only to find that the friend who waited for him is killed under mysterious circumstances.
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- Alex Billington
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Peeking Behind the Doors of Seismic Change: Televisionary Talks to "Endgame" Star Chiwetel Ejiofor
20 October 2009 11:50 AM, PDT
| Televisionary
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Golden Globe nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor is perhaps best known for his work in such diverse films as American Gangster, Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, Love Actually, Redbelt, and Kinky Boots. The British actor has made a career of playing deeply complex individuals, from cross-dresser Lola in Kinky Boots to Dirty Pretty Things' cab driver and former doctor Okwe.
In PBS' gripping apartheid thriller Endgame, which airs Stateside this Sunday as part of the new season of Masterpiece Contemporary, Ejiofor, recently appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth, plays South African political figure Thabo Mbeki, a key player in secret negotiations between the African National Congress and the South African government that were brokered by Consolidated Goldfields. Remarkably these talks resulted in an end to apartheid in South Africa and Endgame, written by Paula Milne and directed by Pete Travis, dramatize the secret talks, which occurred at Mells Park, an estate in England.
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- Jace
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Film & Fashion: Coco Before Chanel
23 September 2009 7:00 AM, PDT
| TribecaFilm.com
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Note: Are you going to the 2009 Doha Tribeca Film Festival?
Coco Before Chanel is...
When we think of Coco Chanel, we envision a strong, powerful woman at the helm of a fashion empire. But what of her childhood - where did she come from? What was the foundation for her never-before-seen talent, ambition, and fortitude? Was she to the manor born?
The answers, found in Anne Fontaine's new film Coco avant Chanel (aka Coco Before Chanel), may just surprise you. The film focuses on her early life: Coco (nee Gabrielle) Chanel and her sister were abandoned in an orphanage at a young age. By young adulthood, the scrappy pair learned to scrape by, at times on sheer will alone. Part-time cabaret performer, part-time seamstress, Coco (Audrey Tautou: Amelie, The Da Vinci Code, Dirty Pretty Things) wormed her way (at great personal cost - she was a courtesan) into an aristocratic lifestyle,
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50 Essential Foreign Films 2000-2008 (Part 2) - Spotlight on Films from the UK
5 September 2009 9:38 AM, PDT
| The Movie Fanatic
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In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.
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Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?
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50 Essential Foreign Films 2000-2008 (Part 2) - Spotlight on Films from the UK
5 September 2009 9:38 AM, PDT
| The Movie Fanatic
| See recent The Movie Fanatic news
»
In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.
- - -
- - -
Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?
…
Permalink | Report a problem
50 Essential Foreign Films 2000-2008 (Part 2) - Spotlight on Films from the UK
5 September 2009 9:38 AM, PDT
| The Movie Fanatic
| See recent The Movie Fanatic news
»
In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.
- - -
- - -
Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?
…
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Stephen Frears to Direct Tamara Drewe Starring Gemma Arterton
2 September 2009 12:10 PM, PDT
| firstshowing.net
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British director Stephen Frears, who's directed a couple of my favorite films like High Fidelity and Dirty Pretty Things, has signed on to bring the live-action adaptation of Posy Simmonds' lauded graphic novel Tamara Drewe to the big screen, according to Variety. Posy Simmonds, a long time cartoonist for the UK's Guardian, first published the comic strips in the newspaper, then collected them into graphic novel form that is, itself, a modern reimagining of Thomas Hardy's classic novel Far From the Madding Crowd. The titular character is to be played by Gemma Arterton, who you'll recognize from Quantum of Solace.
The story follows Tamara, a sexy, post-plastic surgery beauty, who returns to her small, British village and stirs up dark passions among the otherwise frumpy locals. Leaving local men in her destructive wake, Tamara is used to lampoon the failings of contemporary feminism in Britain and satirizing contemporary literary life.
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- Brandon Lee Tenney
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Audrey Tautou in U.S. Trailer for 'Coco Avant Chanel'
11 July 2009 4:40 PM, PDT
| GetTheBigPicture.net
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This September, the gamine Audrey Tautou returns to American theaters with Coco Avant Chanel, her first major release in this country since The Da Vinci Code, although most movie fans in the states (rightly or not) just know her as Amélie.
If you have only seen her in either or both of those movies, there are a few perfomances you might want to check out, like Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement, an odd little number called He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not, and in Stephen Frear's underrated Dirty Pretty Things, although Amélie is among the most charming characters in I don't know how long.
In Coco Avant Chanel she's obviously portraying the legendary Coco Chanel, although the title tells us this is the famed designer's life before she became a brand name. We finally have a U.S. trailer for Coco, so take a look:
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- Colin Boyd
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Interview: 'Cheri' Director Stephen Frears
26 June 2009 7:02 PM, PDT
| Cinematical
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Multiple Oscar nominee Stephen Frears is a tough nut to crack. Amiable but terse, his excellent multilayered films do the talking for him, from his first collaboration with Christopher Hampton and Michelle Pfeiffer on 1998's Dangerous Liaisons to 2007's The Queen. In his latest film, Cheri (read Cinematical's review here), Frears turns his lens onto the cloistered and often duplicitous world of wealthy courtesans. Frears' films often focus on subversive outsiders who must make their own "family," as it were, such as Dirty Pretty Things, The Grifters, and My Beautiful Laundrette. But Cheri's delicious spin on sex, love, and aging is typical of its source material from author Colette, whose books Cheri and The Last of Cheri present a world of upside-down relationships and self-sufficient, frankly sexual women.
Michelle Pfeiffer leads the cast as the stunning Lea de Lonval, a famous courtesan whose friend Madame Peloux, played with busty abandon by Kathy Bates,
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- Jenni Miller
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At long last, a Martin Luther King jr. biopic is in the (Dream)Works
19 May 2009 4:57 AM, PDT
| The Cinema Post
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It has been years in the works, but there will finally be a major Hollywood production of the life and times of the late great Civil Rights pioneer and activist, Martin Luther King jr. According to Variety, DreamWorks have finally secured the rights to make a film about King’s life. Steven Spielberg will produce the film, no details regarding the cast or a director/writer have been announced yet.
In press comments, Spielberg said “We are all honored that the King Estate is giving us the opportunity to tell the story of these defining, historic events. It is our hope that the creative power of film and the impact of Dr. King’s life can combine to present a story of undeniable power that we can all be proud of.” A King biopic has been a personal priority for Spielberg for many years, and he has been working with
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- Paul Larn
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Extended 'Da Vinci Code' coming to Blu-Ray in the UK
12 March 2009 9:47 PM, PDT
| The Hollywood News
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Watch out for some exciting Blu-ray related news on the site from next
week (it's amazing). For now, here's news of an upcoming extended
edition of The Da Vinci Code, which is hitting the HD formate from May
4th. Official deets follow:
The mystery unfolds in a whole new way 4th May, 2009 when The Da Vinci
Code: Extended Cut is released on Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment. The two-disc extended cut will be available for the
first time ever, exclusively on Blu-ray High-Def. The Da Vinci Code:
Extended Cut includes 28 minutes of never-before-seen footage and
all-new special features including the interactive picture-in-picture
(I-PiP) feature .Unlocking the Code. which allows viewers to toggle
between eight simultaneous I-PiP streams, new commentary on select
scenes with director Ron Howard, and advanced Bd-Live features
including cinechat in-movie chat. The set also includes an exclusive
high-def first look at Angels & Demons
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Chiwetel Ejiofor Exclusive Video Interview Endgame -- He talks about Endgame, Sundance, Serenity, 2012, Children of Men, and a lot more!
5 February 2009
| Collider.com
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I believe I first saw Chiwetel Ejiofor in director Stephen Frears “Dirty Pretty Things”. At the time, I remember thinking this was someone that had some talent. And based on the amount of movies he’s worked on since then, I think many of Hollywood’s biggest director’s agree with me. Since you may not recognize Chiwetel’s name….perhaps you may have seen him in “Serenity”, “Inside Man”, “American Gangster”, “Talk to Me”, and one of my favorite films of the last decade…. “Children of Men”. And that’s just what he’s done in the past, as later this year he’s one of the leads in director Roland Emmerich’s next movie “2012”. Anyway, as a big fan of his work, when I was offered the chance to speak with him at this year’s Sundance Film Festival about his work in director Pete Travis’ new film
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First Look at Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel
5 January 2009 6:22 PM, PST
| GetTheBigPicture.net
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I think
Audrey Tautou and Amélie were robbed for some Oscar nominations several years ago.
Though she has popped up in a few major films since - think The Da Vinci Code and
Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things - she has kept a fairly low profile in the U.S.,
but then, she always maintained that she preferred to work in Europe, anyway.
How does that jive with playing one of the more high profile women of the 20th Century?
We'll find out, probably at the end of the year, when we see Tautou as designer Coco Chanel
in
Coco avant Chanel (Coco before Chanel), a biopic chronicling the early years in
the career of one of Time's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
The Bad and the Ugly has some new production photos of Tautou as Coco, and I think we call
all agree it's pretty terrific casting.
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- Colin Boyd
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15 articles from 2009
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