Silk Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Indies on DVD: 'Death at a Funeral,' 'Goya's Ghosts,' 'Silk,' 'Slipstream'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », MGM », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie »
My indie pick of the week is Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited; which our own Monika Bartyzel has already reviewed elsewhere. My next pick is a film that Cinematical's Scott Weinberg recommended: Death at a Funeral. The title may be misleading: it's a comedy directed by Frank Oz (Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob?) and Scott described it as "a very broad, very British and very funny farce ... that will definitely appeal to people over the age of 30." MGM's DVD includes an audio commentary by Mr. Oz, another by screenwriter Dean Craig and actors Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman, and a gag reel.New Oscar winner Javier Bardem also starred in last year's Goya's Ghosts, a bio-pic directed by Milos Forman; Ryan Stewart wrote: "It just comes across as odd and indicative of a serious lack of directorial focus." He further stated: "If it were not the work of a major director, it's hard to imagine why anyone would suffer the mental agitation of trying to figure out how its various pieces fit together ..." Ryan explained his disappointment very well, but if you're a glutton for punishment -- or a huge, huge fan of Bardem and co-star Natalie Portman -- you might decide to rent the DVD from Samuel Goldwyn, which includes a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Review: Silk
Filed under: Drama », Romance », Theatrical Reviews », Toronto International Film Festival », Picturehouse »
Silk demonstrates a growingly frequent conundrum of modern moviemaking -- namely, what do you do when the departures from the formulaic, repetitive, predictable mainstream are, in their way, just as formulaic, repetitive and predictable? Based on Allesandro Barrico's novel, Silk tells the story of a 19th-Century man who leaves France, and the woman he loves, to travel into the heart of Japan -- where few Westerners have been -- to bring back silkworm eggs to help stop a devastating plague that's wiping out the European industry. On his journeys to Japan, he becomes obsessed by the concubine of the local warlord -- so much that he returns again and again, despite the risk and expense, in the hopes of one more glimpse of her.
Silk is also, in less specific language, another in an endless series of pretty, vapid period pieces where the exquisitely tailored costumes hide racing hearts -- a by-now standard tale of passion under petticoats, strong connections under starched collars. It is also another period piece where a distant land and a distant love supposedly inflame our protagonist, but the ponderous, lumbering slow chill restraint in the staging sucks any connection and passion and heated risk out of the film. Finally, even with the stage set for globe-trotting clichés and reheated concepts, the film's dealt a mortal blow by the casting of actors who are, bluntly, out of their depth -- and not thrown a rope by director Francois Girard.
Indie Weekend Box Office: TIFF Buzz Edition
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », Music & Musicals », Box Office », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie », War »
Judging from the weekend box office estimates reported by Variety, David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises was the greatest beneficiary of positive buzz generated by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Earning $36,851 per screen, the film known alternately as "the Russian mobster movie" or "the one where Viggo Mortensen fights naked," Cronenberg's latest soared to the top of the specialty charts. You can catch up by reading the review by Cinematical's Ryan Stewart and listening to James Rocchi's interview with the director. As I noted yesterday, Eastern Promises won the People's Choice Award at TIFF.Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, driven by the music of The Beatles, drew some of the harshest reviews of any gala presentation at TIFF, though some, like Roger Ebert and Anne Thompson of Variety, vigorously defended it. Audiences flocked to see it, to the tune of an estimated $29,783 per screen. Trailing behind in third place, another TIFF gala presentation, Paul Haggis' war-themed drama In the Valley of Elah, still averaged a strong $16,666 per location. James Rocchi was not very enthusiastic, though: "You can tell everyone involved wanted to make an important statement. What they would end up making was a fairly indifferent movie."
Two other films that screened at TIFF also opened this weekend, though neither generated much buzz coming out of the festival. Mike Cahill's comedy King of California, with Michael Douglas and Even Rachel Wood, played at five locations and averaged $7,411 at five locations. While that's not terrific, it's far better than Francois Girard's period film Silk, with Keira Knightley, which tanked, earning just $1,058 per screen at 122 locales.
News Bites: Huang Shi, Steve Zahn and Keira's Toplessness
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Casting », RumorMonger », Distribution »
News bites for Tuesday:- Sony Pictures Classics grabbed the rights to the Chinese war drama, The Children of Huang Shi, which Chris Ullrich told us about in October. Based on actual events, the film centers on a British reporter (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who is in China when it was invaded by Japan in 1937. The man rescues 60 war orphans and leads them a feet-aching 1,000 miles to a village near the great wall. Chow Yun-Fat plays a political leader, Michelle Yeoh is an aristocrat and Radha Mitchell plays a nurse he falls for. The film should be released later this year.
- Another name has been added to the upcoming comedy, Sunshine Cleaning. Earlier this month, I shared news that Alan Arkin had joined Amy Adams and Emily Blunt in the movie about sisters who start a new business cleaning up crime scenes. Now Steve Zahn is a part of the cast, playing a married cop who is getting a little of Adams' character on the side. Now the question becomes: will this be a goofy cop, or will Zahn wow us with a little depth?
- Ms. Keira Knightley, the young, tough, sex symbol from Pirates of the Caribbean is baring all for her new film, Silk. According to MSN entertainment, her nudity is used to chastise her. A source is quoted as saying that during one of her two nude scenes, "she leans over her husband with her gown gaping open and he remarks that her breasts are small and like a little girl's." In the film, she plays the wife of a silkworm smuggler (Michael Pitt) from the 1800's who becomes obsessed with a concubine of a baron in Japan. Obviously, he's all sorts of charming and respectful.
Producer Procacci Translates to English
Filed under: Foreign Language », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
Domenico Procacci is a man of many talents. Well known for his producing abilities in Italy, he has now started up a production company in New York by the name of Last Kiss Productions. He created this company to continue to work in unison with director Gabriele Muccino in America -- of course, Muccino is the man responsible for The Pursuit of Happyness, last week's number one film. Muccino and Procacci are long time collaborators, although Procacci did not produce Happyness, yet still has no troubles applauding his colleague's success. Happyness marks the first time an Italian director has opened their film at number one in the United States.Procacci created Last Kiss Productions to go beyond his work in Rome with Fandango productions (he also owns a restaurant and a record company baring the same name). Fandango produces his native Italian language films but Last Kiss will work on bringing Italian-based stories to the English language -- no subtitles necessary. His first English-speaking film, giving him co-producer credits, is Silk starring Kiera Knightly, which will arrive sometime next year.
We have a lot to look forward to. Procacci has a slew of new projects that are in production; many based on books from Italian novelists such as Alessandro Baricco (also wrote the novel that Silk is based off of) and Walter Veltroni's (Rome's mayor) novel La scoperta dell'alba (The Dawn Discovery). La scoperta dell'alba is about a man who travels back in time to 'Italy's terror plagued "years of lead" all by incidentally picking up a phone. Needless to say, I already bought my ticket.
What more can we expect from Procacci? A lot. He is even making his directorial debut in February with Lesson 21 -- shot in English. Even though I love listening to his films in Italian, a language not even comparable to English in beauty, I look forward to seeing how he translates his stories without using his native tongue. You?
Ambitious Picturehouse picks up Silk
Filed under: Documentary », Drama », Romance », Deals », Distribution »
François Girard's Silk
- an adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel - has been acquired for
distribution by Picturehouse and New Line International (the two companies will share the rights). The movie, as we discussed last month, is a period piece set in 19th
century Japan, where a French silk merchant becomes involved with a woman he really shouldn't be seeing. As a result,
all sorts of hot and angry chaos starring Keira
Knightley and Michael
Pitt erupts. The film, which has a budget around $25 million, will be shot in Japan, Egypt, and Italy starting in
February.Picturehouse is heading into only its first full year of life, but has lined up quite a slate for the next 18 months or so. In addition to Silk. they also own or share distribution rights to Fur (a biopic starring Nicole Kidman as photographer Diane Arbus), The Notorious Bettie Page, and Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion.
Knightley in Silk
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Newsstand »
When she finally gets off those pirate boats, Keira
Knightley will probably be headed to Japan. She's in final talks to star in Silk, which will tell the
"story of a married silkworm smuggler...in 19th Century France traveling to Japan to collect a wormy cargo."
Mmm...worms. When the trader arrives in Japan, he meets a hot European concubine and the two begin an illicit affair.
Everything goes well until his wife gets suspicious, and I suppose at that point some sort of hell breaks lose.
Irritatingly, there are contradictory reports on which lead role Knightley will play - it seems likely, though, given
both her looks and big name, that she'll be the concubine. Michael
Pitt is currently the favorite to play the smuggler, but talks with him are less advanced.The movie is based on the well-respected, big-selling novella of the same name by Alessandro Baricco, and will be helmed by Canadian director François Girard. Shooting is expected to begin next spring.
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