Michael Haneke Makes A Loving Statement in Amour by Brad Balfour A cultivated couple in their 80s, retired music teachers Georges and Anne have a nice apartment in a fine Parisian neighborhood. One night, after seeing a former student perform, Anne blanks out at home, presaging the condition to come. Afterwards, surgery to correct her blocked … Continue reading
Asghar Farhadi Iranian Writer/Director Gets Oscar For A Separation & Retrospective at Lincoln Center by Brad Balfour Iranian director Asghar Farhadi manages to both enlighten and mystify. Maybe that’s why he’s been able to evade both the censors and jailers who police filmmakers for thought crimes against the mega-fascist Iranian state. Or maybe because this … Continue reading
Michel Hazanavicius Silences the Skeptics with the Oscar Favorite The Artist by Brad Balfour Wily provocateur and indie screen mogul Harvey Weinstein sees beyond the obvious and recognizes value in some rather offbeat films. Thankfully, that support has so far paid off. Four of Weinstein’s pictures won awards at this year’s Golden Globes, with a … Continue reading
ANNIE HALL (1977) Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher Walken, Donald Symington, Helen Ludlam, Mordecai Lawner, Joan Newman, Jonathan Munk, Ruth Volner, Martin Rosenblatt, Beverly D’Angelo, Shelley Hack, Jeff Goldblum, Lucy Lee Flippen, Gary Muledeer, Marshall McLuhan, Dick Cavett and Sigourney Weaver. Screenplay … Continue reading
Lee Unkrich A Dual Oscar Nominee, Toy Story 3‘s Director Muses on Childhood and the Future by Brad Balfour Now sitting before me is a big box – something like a Borg cube, but not one loaded up with malevolent androids wanting to absorb me into the collective. It is the box set of the … Continue reading
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008) Starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Mahur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Tanay Hemant Chheda, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail. Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy. Directed by Danny Boyle. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. 121 minutes. Rated R. British director Danny Boyle’s labor-of-love drama … Continue reading
MARTIN SCORSESE, LEONARDO DiCAPRIO, MATT DAMON, VERA FARMIGA AND WILLIAM MONAHAN MEETING WITH MARTIN AND THE DEPARTED BY BRAD BALFOUR The following documents two 40-minute press conference sessions merged together that tell the tale about Martin Scorsese’s latest elaborate feature, The Departed, one that finally has garnered him the top Oscar awards – Best Director and … Continue reading
THE STING (1973) Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan, Harold Gould, John Heffernan, Dana Elcar, Jack Kehoe, Dimitra Arliss, Robertearl Jones, James J. Sloyan, Charles Dierkop, Lee Paul, Sally Kirkland, Avon Long, Arch Johnson, Ed Bakey, Brad Sullivan and John Quade. Screenplay by David S. Ward. Directed by … Continue reading
Hilary Swank Hitting a Million by Brad Balfour When actress Hilary Swank won her Oscar for the indie film Boys Don’t Cry, it was feared she’d be cursed with too much success too early in her career. But given her exemplary performance as boxer wanna-be Maggie Fitzgerald in the Clint Eastwood-directed Million Dollar Baby, she’s proven to … Continue reading
CHICAGO (2002) Starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Colm Feore, Christine Baranski, Domenic West, Susan Misner, Deidre Goodwin, Denise Faye, Ekaterina Chtchelkanova, Chita Rivera and Mýa Harrison. Screenplay by Bill Condon. Directed by Rob Marshall. Distributed by Mirimax Pictures. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13. A film … Continue reading
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