Category: media

Fantasy movies are the engine that drives the movie business these days. Why? Westerns have lost their appeal, war movies are too violent, and stories from ancient times look dated. Besides, the teenage boy market…

San Francisco supervisors are considering a ban of theatrical stage fog after complaints by chorus members of San Francisco Opera. But the movie industry warns that such a ban will discourage movies from being shot in the Bay Area city.

“Extras, those people behind the stars, who – despite appearing out of focus, without speaking and for all of a nanosecond – play as important a role in a film as the props or costumes or even musical score. In fact, extras are so necessary that they’ve opted for the far less marginal-sounding term of ‘background performer’ in hopes of getting a little more respect.”

Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York could be the most important movie released this year. Here’s why: Time was (back in the 70s) that directors were the main push behind what movies got made. Nowadays, a small number of A-list actors seems to call the shots. Scorcese’s $100-million Gangs is a director-driven project, and despite its long messy birth, if it sells, directors may get back some of the influence over what gets made…

“As moviemaking becomes increasingly high-tech, Hollywood film crews are finding themselves at odds with the technology that permeates everyday life. They sit on the cutting edge of a global laboratory in which millions of computer chips, hordes of wireless devices and even ordinary contraptions can wreak havoc on their productions.” But it’s not like the old days when if a mechanical camera broke, you got inside and fixed it…

The first movie to be made in Afghanistan since the Taliban is being made by an Iranian woman. “People here don’t understand the meaning of real cinema. They think it’s all like Indian movies: musicals, love stories, fighting and action. If we can make a film here and show them it’s something of a mirror, we can put the mirror of cinema in front of the people’s souls so little by little they can change themselves.”

How did a movie adaptation of a 1955 Graham Greene story go from being touted as Oscar-worthy before its planned September 2001 release to being all-but unreleaseable? September 11. “What freaked me out after the 10th was the 11th. I showed the film to some people and staff, and they said: ‘Are you out of your mind? You can’t release this now; it’s unpatriotic. America has to be cohesive, and band together.’ We were worried that nobody had the stomach for a movie about bad Americans anymore.”

The British film industry appears to be on the road to recovery after a dismal year in which investment fell off, writers and actors strikes (or the threat thereof) stalled production, and producers took their projects elsewhere. But things are definitely looking up: “More than £280m has been invested in the UK by foreign film companies so far this year compared to £230.4m in 2001, according to the Film Council, the government body which promotes the industry.”

“Competition for the best foreign-language film is stiffer than ever this year, with movies from a record 54 countries vying for an Oscar. Three countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Chad — entered films for the first time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday.”

Alexander Dovzhenko is a legend in Ukraine, but in the West, he’s about as well-known as, well, Ukraine itself. A new festival of Dovzhenko’s work at Washington’s National Gallery is designed to increase American appreciation of both the filmmaker and his homeland, and to that end, is being bankrolled in part by the Ukrainian government.