See a one of a kind film series curated by Quentin Tarantino
In the run-up to the release of his ninth feature film Quentin Tarantino has
personally curated a collection of 9 films from the Columbia Pictures library
to get you in the mood for Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
The nine films collection entitled “Swinging Sixties, A Movie Marathon” will allow viewers to immerse themselves into the world that influenced
Tarantino when creating Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. Swinging Sixties, A Movie Marathon will be screened on the
Sony Movie Channel from Monday 5 through to Monday 12th August.
I must confess to some shame on my part, despite many posts knocking on about great books delving into the making of film I discovered that I have only included mention of Sir Christopher Frayling only once.
That was in relation to a talk he was giving as part of a Sir Ken Adam Retrospective, as Sir Christopher is an authority on Ken Adams along with film, culture and history.
He is the man who who explained that Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is actually pronounced Dr Jeekle and Mr Hyde as in Hide and Seek. An English professor, who when knighted (for Services to Art and Design Education) decides that his badge is a Saguaro Cactus and the motto to adorn his coat of arms will be:
"Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit"
- a man with such wit and deep passion for film should be blogged about every day. But a man who can so succinctly deliver insight into a challenge of the arts that has been on my mind a lot lately, should surely be revered?
I explained that my teaching and my writing were crucially concerned with the ‘neogeneration’ of artists, designers, writers, and filmmakers: at a time when most commercial filmmakers are concerned with making films about films about films, I try to ask why there is this obsession with referring to other peoples' work in an explicit way.
Could it be that the artist's experience is increasingly limited to experience of other artists? Was it always like this?”
- Sir Christopher Frayling
Christopher Frayling's career is immense; spanning academia, consulting, broadcasting and presenting. He epitomises the word doyenne.
Yet he has found the time to author a staggering number of insightful books (between 18 – 20 depending on who you ask) across a vast variety of interests including translating the stories of Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon Wrote Fiction) through Strange Landscape: A Journey Through the Middle Ages via On Craftsmanship: Towards a New Bauhaus up to Ken Adam Designs the Movies: James Bond and Beyond and landing with The 2001 File: Harry Lange and the Design of the Landmark Science Fiction Film.
Frayling has written 3 books about Sergio Leone and the Italian Western genre; Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone (1981), Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death by Christopher Frayling (2000), Sergio Leone: Once Upon a Time in Italy (2005) as well as a Clint Eastwood biography (1993). So he knows something about the Western genre, the Italian spin off and particularly the great Sergio Leone.
With Leone's Dollars or the Man with No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More
(1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)) having just passed it's 50th anniversary and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West turning 50 this year.
Sir Christopher Frayling Once Upon A Time In The West Shooting a Masterpiece [+]
We are bringing back our news updates - as we have had a few requests and As I have too many incomplete posts that I lost interest in while trying to find the time to round them out. It's less time consuming to put together than some of the more requested features, besides it's fun to highlight the good stuff as well as hope for the best with others.
It's been awhile so there are lots of little news updates. I have tried to be brief but cover some really interesting news across two updates this one focussing on the more artistic and Cult side of things and a second post more focussed on the fun and crowd pleasing side of things. Sadly as it has taken some time to put this together some of the news and events may be dated - but still worth a read.
This time:
The Film Distributors’ Association Highlights Recent Feature Films With A Strong Focus On Those Shot In London
Secrets Of The Cinema Projection Box Revealed
The Battle To Save The Curzon Soho
Art House Film News
Peter Greenaway's Eisenstein In Guanajuato Is In Cinemas
Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups will be in UK cinemas 6 May
Don Cheadle's Miles Ahead Gets An Exciting New Clip That Demonstrates Why Don Cheadle Was Born For This Role
Paolo Sorrentino’s Critically Acclaimed, Youth Now Available On Digital Download, Dvd And Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment To Release Edvard Munch, Peter Watkins’ Astonishing 1974 Masterpiece About The Norwegian Expressionist Painter Of The Scream, On Blu-ray In The Uk On 13 June 2016
Arrow To Release Francesco Rosi's Three Brothers On Blu-ray
Eureka To Release Robert Altman's That Cold Day In The Park
Akira Kurosawa's Masterpiece Ran Returns Fully Restored In 4k
Studio Ghibli Forever Season At The Hackney Picturehouse
Cult Film & TV News: Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight Is Coming To The Small Screen 2 May, Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon Gets A Beguiling Teaser Trailer, Details Of Claire Denis' Sci-fi Film High Life Starring Robert Pattinson & Patricia Arquette Emerge, David Brent: Life On The Road - Teaser Trailer Released!, Steve Oram's Aaaaaaaah! Is Showing At The Bfi With A Cast Q&A, Digitally Restored In Hd The Professionals: Mkiv Is Out On Blu-ray, Arrow Video To Release The - Outlaw Gangster Vip: The Complete Collection, 70s Styled Psychological Drama Mojave Starring Oscar Isaac & Garrett Hedlund On Home Release 16 May, Jeremy Saulnier's Much Talked About Green Room Will Be In Uk Cinemas 13th May 2016, Arrow Release Bride Of Re-animator On Blu-ray & DVD, Nicholas Hoult Talks Kill Your Friends, Cell The Adaptation Of Stephen King Adaptation Novel Starring; John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman & Stacy Keach To Be Released August 26th, Purge Triquel Gets A Title And Trailer, Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Gets Release Date And Trailer, William Friedkin’s The Brink’s Job Out On DVD, UK Trailer For Safelight Starring Juno Temple And Evan Peters, Men & Chicken Releases In UK Cinemas June 2016, Trailer For Blake Lively's Shark Thriller The Shallows
Arrow Video Presents New Rainer Werner Fassbinder Titles, Ip Man 3 Out In The UK This Month
The Trust Releases In UK Cinemas & On Digital HD 27th May
Help Fund This
Stephen Graham & BAFTA/OSCAR Winning Team Searches For Atonement In Unique Crowd-funded Short Film - Being Keegan
Short Film Competitions News
Submit Your Shorts: The Shortest Nights '16 - Deadlines Looming!
Photography Exhibition News
citizenM Hosts Photography Exhibition By GSA Students During Photo London - 18th May - 9th June
Upcoming Richard Attenborough Events News
BAFTA & Chelsea Football Club To Host A Celebration Gala In Aid Of The Richard Attenborough Charitable Trust
So without out further ado here is a quick round-up of trailers, posters and news of /from films that have landed in our inbox and are on our radar.
The Film Distributors’ Association highlights recent feature films with a strong focus on those shot in LONDON FDA WELCOMES THE DIVERSE LINE-UP OF UK FILMS COMING TO CINEMAS AROUND EASTER
Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) celebrates the diverse line-up of films made wholly or partly in the UK which are opening for cinema audiences around Easter.
In 2015, UK films (including co-productions) achieved a high market share of 44% of cinema box-office receipts. This year to date, Dad’s Army and Grimsby have attracted a combined audience of more than a million UK cinemagoers.
The UK offers world-class film studio facilities and effects houses, a variety of unique locations, and experienced crews and support companies.
The following films took in London:
Bastille Day (opening in UK cinemas on 22 April): An action thriller starring Idris Elba, Richard Madden and Kelly Reilly, Bastille Day was shot in London and Paris. The principal London location was the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, which stood in for the streets of Paris around the Bank of France, the site of a huge riot sequence at the film’s climax.
Video: BASTILLE DAY - Interrogation Clip - In Cinemas April 22nd
I had hoped to end last year with what I would consider a proverbial bang discussing a my cinematic highlight of 2015, instead I'm kicking off 2016 with that bang of a standard that will hopefully continue throughout the year.
There are many reasons as to why it was my cinematic event of the year if you read The Establishing Shot you'll probably be aware that I am all about the immersive experience and it's unlikely that I'll have as great viewing of a film for a very long time, if ever.
For better or worse I often struggle to appropriately articulate some of what I consider highlight or milestone experiences - words don't fail me rather I feel that these experiences are somewhat diminished when curating them for a broader audience. I have been fortunate to enjoy a number of extremely exceptional experiences that I have kept to/for myself as I have felt that in the end - they mean more to me personally than they would as just another blog post on the web. The irony being that was one of the reasons I started The Establishing Shot in the first place (add something here about moving over the festive season and losing a laptop with the original draft of this post).
Towards the end of last year I was extraordinarily fortunate along with a handful of others to see Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight as it was meant to be seen in all it's gloriousness. That staggering experience was a highlight of 2015 for me and further turned into a milestone memory when I got to chat with Quentin Tarantino about the making of The Hateful Eight.
Ibraheem Youssef is a talented Toronto based Designer with an impressive portfolio. He has undertaken a number of awesome personal projects including a series of film posters. One of these is a spectacular Quentin Tarantino movie poster set.
"Camera Angel" is an extra on the Inglourious Basterds Blu Ray. It's a short clip compiling all the clapper board clap outtakes. Geraldine Brezca (the Clapper Loader and Tarantino's Camera Angel) would come up with names of filmmakers or relevant words to suit the numbers and letters on each slate.
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.
Mr. Quentin Tarantino names his 20 favorite movies released since the year he became a director himself.
Battle Royale
Anything Else
Audition
Blade
Boogie Nights
Dazed & Confused
Dogville
Fight Club
Fridays
The Host
The Insider
Joint Security Area
Lost In Translation
The Matrix
Memories of Murder
Police Story 3
Shaun of the Dead
Speed
Team America
Unbreakable
Tarantino's hotly anticipated new flic makes its way to us in this very special Movie Con II Preview. Set in war ravaged, Nazi-occupied France during WWII, US Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt) has assembled a Jewish-American guerrilla unit charged with the sole task of murdering Nazis. Meanwhile, in Paris Shosanna Dreyfus, manager of a cinema, plots revenge for her murdered Jewish family. When it is decided that a new Nazi propaganda film's premier is to be in Dreyfus' cinema, the perfect opportunity to wipe out the Nazi top brass is seized upon by both murderous bands. With a show stealing performance from new-comer Christoph Waltz as SS Colonel Hans Landa, Basterds presents Tarantino's ever uncompromising, stylised and visceral dialogue on cinema.
Movie Con II Preview: Inglourious Basterds
Sat 15 Aug 18:20 BFI
W e just left the UK Inglourious Basterds premiere. It was the first proper screening outside of it's Cannes debut. We really enjoyed it! It's a zany 70s style blood fest. It shows a more mature Tarantino - the guy is deep and there are so many references to the almost lost art of film it' s beautiful BUT he offers a bag of tricks for everyone!
Warner Brothers is pleased to invite you to the UK Premiere of Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds".
"In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.
The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a cinema in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers."
No names have been confirmed to attend, but we are hoping that attending will be: Pitt, maybe his equally famous lady love Angeline Jolie, and the movie’s other stars including Roth, Kruger, 300’s Michael Fassbender and Mike Myers (yes, he of the Austin Powers and Shrek movies).
UK Premiere Of Inglourious Basterds
Thursday July 23, 2009 at 6:00pm
Odeon Leicester Sq.
24-26 Leicester Square,
London, England WC2H 7JY
Double Bill: Preview screening of Sukiyaki Western Django & Django at Curzon Soho
The Curzon Soho is offering a double helping of Western madness.
First off, an exclusive preview of Takashi Miike’s (Audition, Visitor Q) Sukiyaki Western Django, followed by the cult classic that inspired it: Sergio Corbucci’s Django.
Proceedings will kick off with a Cowboy party in the bar from 9.30pm, before the films begin at 11.30pm!
Sukiyaki Western Django
As two gangs battle for control of a remote town, a deadly gunman comes to the aid of the residents. Making his Japanese cast speak English and with a cameo from Quentin Tarantino, this is one of Miike’s most bizarre films yet.
Please note this screening will not be subtitled!
Django
Legendary cult film about a coffin-dragging gunslinger who enters a town caught between the KKK and a gang of Mexican Bandits. Inspiration for the ear-cutting scene in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Django is a full-on, over-the-top Western epic.
I just saw "Being Michael Madsen" at its World Premier at the Raindance Film Festival in London - Madsen gives further straight talk on Inglorious Bastards & you heard it here first - "The Philistine" cometh.
After the screening the cast & crew attended & did a short Q&A afterwards. This is Bold & Ballsy independent film making. The film touches on many themes of celebrity culture whilst being engaging enough to keep you entertained (tongue firmly in cheek).
I'm not entirely sure how to define the film itself e.g. film within a film, contemporary Fellini on a shoe string (think La Dolce Vita), reality film, pseudo documentary - its all in there with a heavy dash of satire.
It is a lot of work but the performances from the cast are rock solid. This is a complete departure from Michael Madsen's usual hit or miss fare. It really shows many facets of the man beyond his Quentin Tarantino screen persona. I hope he gets some decent roles soon that do not involve throwing Segal out of windows :-). On the whole an enjoyable coaster ride but you do have to do some work - this is not just eye candy.
If I had to crit: The final scene (not the climax) may be a little weak - in the context of viewing it at the Raindance Film Festival with the cast & crew doing a Q & A afterwards it was awesome. However I suspect for anyone not watching the film with the live accompaniment may not be swept away by the final scene.
Standout performances by Virginia Madsen, Jason Alan Smith, Doug Tompos, Davis Mikaels & Kathy Searle. Harry Dean Stanton is hilarious.
I had the opportunity to ask the director Michael Mongillo what was next? To paraphrase he said he was keen on doing some action films and that his graphic novel "The Philistine" would be interesting to see on the screen. Now I had not heard of The Philistine previously but after a little net rummage discovered that The The Philistine is a highly rated graphic novel. With similar elements to Batman & The Punisher. After seeing Being Michael Madsen I can't wait to see Mongillo translate a clever caped crusader film to screen.
Naturally I asked Madsen about Inglorious Bastards, (which is listed on IMDB as having production kicked off in 2008). He played in coyly saying something to the effect that it's all in Quentin Tarantino's head/hands at this stage. He also mentioned that Tarantino was meant to be at the Premiere but was in Manila for a Death Proof screening.
Seriously cant you see Madsen in greens with one of those GI helmets (tilted to the side), holding a rifle in one hand and about to throw a pineapple grenade with the other - from behind a bunker while protecting his company?
Reservoir Dogs was, according to Tarantino, his version of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. Tarantino himself said that he "[...] didn't go out of my way to do a rip-off of `The Killing,' but I did think of it as my `Killing,' my take on that kind of heist movie". Reservoir Dogs Screenplay
Ibraheem Youssef is a talented Toronto based Designer with an impressive portfolio. He has undertaken a number of awesome personal projects including a series of film posters. One of these is a spectacular Quentin Tarantino movie poster set.
