THE BLUE VELVET PROJECT
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THE ‘BLUE VELVET’ PROJECT, #78
Fri Feb 10, 2012
Second #3666, 61:06 After Frank and his gang leave the Slow Club, Jeffrey follows them. He is a detective, now. The scene is bathed in hellish red. The slow rumble of thunder ratchets up the tension. There is no one for Jeffrey, neither Dorothy nor Sandy. Not now, in the silence of his car. In ...read more
DIRECTOR INTERVIEWS
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LIZA JOHNSON, “RETURN”
Wed Feb 08, 2012
A low-key drama that articulates the ennui of a returning servicewoman after a tour in the Middle East, Liza Johnson’s Return strikes a delicate balance between familial melodrama and suffering vet pic. Light on exposition and heavy on expert thesping, it features a striking performance by ...read more
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BEN WHEATLEY, “THE KILL LIST”
Wed Feb 01, 2012
A rising star of the under-40 British indie director set, Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace) may not yet be a recognizable name in the States, but years from now his latest film, the brain-bending, spookily enigmatic The Kill List may well be regarded as a milestone in the horror genre. It isn’t just ...read more
WEB EXCLUSIVES
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“MY HEART OF DARKNESS”: AN INTERVIEW WITH MARIUS VAN NIEKERK
Sat Feb 11, 2012The journey of an international documentary to the United States is an uncertain one. Make its subject a lesser-known foreign war and the post-traumatic effects thereof, and you’ve got what an American agent calls a “hard sell.” My Heart of Darkness, a brooding foray into four ...read more
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KIRSTEN SHERIDAN AND THE FACTORY: ASSEMBLING IRELAND’S ACTORS
Fri Feb 10, 2012
Talk to Kirsten Sheridan, director of August Rush and her latest Dollhouse (pictured and premiering in the Panorama section of the 2012 Berlinale) about The Factory, the collective she co-founded with fellow filmmakers John Carney (Once) and Lance Daly (Kisses), and it soon becomes apparent that ...read more
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CANNES DIRECTOR THIERRY FREMAUX ON THE FUTURE OF FILM FESTIVALS
Thu Feb 09, 2012To have the presence of Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux at your festival is like getting a seal of approval from the godfather of cinema himself. Arguably one of the most important players in the film industry today, Frémaux arrived by helicopter with French actress Isabelle Huppert to ...read more
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“BITTER SEEDS”: AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR MICHA X. PELED
Thu Feb 09, 2012Monsanto, the agriculture biotech company maligned in such docs as Food, Inc. and King Corn, found renewed opposition this month with the launch of an online petition gone viral called “Tell Obama to Cease FDA Ties to Monsanto.” The petition protests the president’s 2009 ...read more
COLUMNS
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THE MICROBUDGET CONVERSATION: THE SUCCESS OF FAILURE
Tue Jan 31, 2012
Well after a great holiday, and another Sundance, we are back for a new season of the conversation. This year we’re going to try and expand the definition of micro and see it as more of a state of mind and community, as oppose to a budget. I’m looking to hear from more filmmakers, see ...read more
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TONEELGROEP AMSTERDAM STAGES “CRIES AND WHISPERS” AND “DISGRACE”
Sat Jan 28, 2012One of my biggest complaints about Broadway theater is the lack of artistic risk. (Indeed, one could make the case that Julie Taymor’s cursed production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark had the media riveted more by its performers’ injuries than by its Hollywood blockbuster budget. The safe ...read more
OUR VIDEOS
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IRA GLASS ON THE STRANGE LIFE OF THE PRODUCER
Sat Jan 21, 2012When Mike Birbiglia asked This American Life‘s Ira Glass to produce his first feature, Sleepwalk with Me, premiering here at Sundance, Glass thought it sounded like it might be fun. “I’d read a couple of scripts, look at a couple of rough cuts,” he remembers thinking. ...read more
