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AN
UNREASONABLE MAN
One of the most polarising figures in the political world
today, Ralph Nader is, for better or worse, An Unreasonable
Man. His impact on or world today is difficult to calculate,
whether as a consumer advocate watchdog, presidential candidate,
or public pariah. His refusal to support whatever or whomever
the lesser of the two evils is, and instead forge his own
crusade, has won him accolades from some, and attacks from
others. While some interpret his "unreasonableness"
as a brave stand against complacency, other accuse him of,
in part, ruining the democratic candidate's chances in the
last two presidential campaigns. An Unreasonable Man was rapturously
received at Sundance, and is receiving raves from critics
for it's frank, unflinching portrait of an unapologetic and
yes, unreasonable man.
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FACTORY
GIRL
After what seemed like endless delays, this tale of art imitating
life imitating art is finally set to pose and pout it's way
into theaters. Factory Girl is the tale of notorious Edie
Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), a beautiful and wealthy college
student who drops out of Radcliffe and moves to Manhattan.
There she meets Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), the Svengali who
ultimately turned her into a star of the New York 60s scene.
Directed by George Hickenlooper, Factory Girl is a companion
piece of sorts to his Mayor Of Sunset Strip, in it's explorations
of the fringe and the famous, and Edie is portrayed perfectly
by Miller, herself someone who is well aware of the joys and
costs of being an "it" girl.
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SUNDANCE
WRAPS
Following a Saturday evening awards ceremony, Sundance wrapped
its 10-day run today with a series of award-winner screenings
on Sunday. At the Saturday event, the drama Padre Nuestro,
directed by Christopher Zalla, was announced winner of the
Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The Documentary Grand Jury Prize
went to Jason Kohn's Brazil-set corruption saga Manda Bala
(Send a Bullet). Audience prizewinners included James C. Straus's
John Cusack-starrer Grace Is Gone for the Dramatic Audience
Award and Documentary Audience Award recipient Hear and Now
from Irene Taylor Brodsky. The complete list of awards is
available on the festival website.
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DOGGED
OUT
In the wake of the controversy involving Hounddog, the Sundance
premiere which featured a brief scene in which the character
played by young actress Dakota Fanning is raped, a North Carolina
politician is proposing that the state Senate review and approve
screenplays for films receiving the state filming tax incentive... |
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TEMPORARY
INSANITY
Mike White’s comedy The Year of the Dog, which premiered
in Sundance this week in the Premieres section, shares a premise
with the similarly titled Joan Didion memoir, The Year of
Magical Thinking. That is, when one is grieving, one experiences
a kind of insanity, the “magical thinking” of
Didion’s title. One’s relationship to the rest
of society as well as one’s self is occluded by the
memory of the deceased...
Read
the complete stories at Filmmakermagazine's Blog... |
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SEEING
IN THE DARK BY PETER BOWEN
Gary Tarn’s first feature Black Sun defies definition
and categorization. Mostly screened at documentary film festivals,
and soon to be shown on HBO, the film is more cinematic essay
or visual poem than traditional documentary. It ostensibly
tells the story of the French painter Hugues de Montalembert
who was permanently blinded in 1978 when, during a violent
scuffle, a mugger threw paint thinner in his face. In the
film, de Montalembert, who is never seen on camera, narrates
his own journey into blindness, partially by employing texts
from his memoir, Eclipse. His speech, edited and scored like
a piece of music, is laid by Tarn on top of a series of disparate
images from around the world –– closeups of passing
New York pedestrians, ritual dances from India, landscapes
of Maine, architectural animation. Mixing de Montalembert’s
voice, these images, as well as a haunting score composed
by Tarn, the film becomes as much a visual and emotional experience
for the viewer as it is a recapitulation of de Montalembert’s
own experiences...
Click
here for the rest of the article
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