SPLENDOR CINEMA

David Fincher: Some Thoughts

2012-01-19T21:52:00.006Z

On Saturday Rob Beames and I will be recording one of our 'pantheon' podcasts, where we look at a director we both like and discuss their work. We chose Fincher to coincide with the release of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO but the homework took a bit longer than we expected. Rob watched a lot of his films for the first time and I revisited all of them.

In many ways, Fincher's film career started exactly like Ridley Scott's and James Cameron: taking on an ALIEN film for Fox while still being an unknown, untested. This experience, unlike Scott and Cameron, nearly destroyed his career and he still disowns the film. But you can see, even in that flawed feature, the seeds of his future career.

For me, Fincher is the master of two things: night time cinematography and unnerving tension. Like a goth version of Hitchcock, he builds uneasiness into his films, and at the end of a Fincher you feel unsettled, shaken. This atmosphere exists in all his work, even his lesser features (Benjamin Button, Alien 3) and is the foundation of his best films (Zodiac, Se7en, Fight Club).

His technical know-how and narrative grip puts him in the camp of efficient manipulators in Hollywood, which starts with Hitchcock but also runs through Spielberg and De Palma. But apart from his capacity to grab you by the throat through the medium of cinema, he also betrays an ambition to say something. Fight Club, Zodiac and The Social Network are works of an artist struggling to break free from the 'head in the box' syndrome post-Se7en, a genre he has returned to again and again (Panic Room, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). Does he enjoy the down and dirty serial killers or is he paying the mortgage?

If we were looking for auterist signature preoccupations, the one that I find over and over again is his interest in research. From Morgan Freeman's long hours in the library to Daniel Craig's looking at pictures over and over again, his love of looking stuff up reached its zenith in Zodiac, a film that resembles more a puzzle than a movie.

I think that given the right material, Fincher could produce a series of masterpieces of the caliber of Zodiac - but his next project doesn't inspire confidence: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a big Disney property which will have to adhere to strict market rules.

In a relatively short career he has achieved quite a lot. Here's to a long and puzzled career.

Film Policy Review Notes

2012-01-17T15:22:00.005Z

Here’s my take on the new Film Policy Review after having read it all. First of all, it strikes me as a mistake to include two heads of companies who benefit from the current disfunction. The CEOs of Sony Pictures UK and Vue Cinemas are part of the problem and can't be part of the solution.

As pointed out by Jim Barratt in Bigger Picture Research, this review treads upon previously debated points, initiatives and former reviews, like A Bigger Picture from 1998. That report led directly to the creation of the UKFC). So while the 56 recommendations contain lots of common sense ideas, there is nothing revolutionary about it.

What this writer would have liked to see is a radical approach to the lack of British success in cinemas like a quota system, or a tax on audiovisual product, or a network of publicly funded cinemas (or at least public support for companies like Picturehouses, who open cinemas in city centres across the country).

The report acknowledges the market failures presented by the film business but then recoils from presenting honest ways of dealing with them, i.e. government intervention and protectionism. Where in other sectors the government will happily protect medical research, automotive industry or agricultural exports, film is seen to have to live and die on its own feet.

At the same time, what little intervention is allowed is concentrated on the production end, with no attention to the other ends of the film value chain.

One dangerous statement: ‘ensuring filmmakers start with audiences” – anytime a government agency prescribes where and how filmmakers should operate it’s a slippery slope to committee-agreed films that are neither art nor commerce – just products.

If commercial success is what we want, then the current (not classic) US studio model is the best bet: pre-existing properties (TV shows, sequels, best-sellers, comic books) turned into generically made films that appeal to the widest international audience. This is how studios control international markets, combining the safest possible material with a carpet-bombing approach to marketing.

If we decide that this is the way forward, we have a lot of catching up to do – Hollywood has over 100 years of experience.

If, on the other hand, we look the the continent for inspiration (France for example) we find a successful industry, producing a wide variety of films, from small aueterist pieces to big blockbusters. How did they achieve it?

- With protectionist policies, like excluding culture as a commodity from the WTO negotiations, despite heavy pressure from the US. Allowing culture to be traded as freely as any other commodity would only further intensify the US’s grip on worldwide cinema culture and markets.
- Taxing all audiovisual products, creating a fund (the CNC) which helps all layers of the industry, from production to exhibition. This ensures a steady flow of capital to the industry.
- A quota system that applies to all cinemas, meaning there is a steady demand for French product.
- Intense film education throughout the whole educational system, which creates film-literate audiences who then becomes customers for homegrown cinema.

That Hollywood will dominate film culture for the foreseeable future is a given. The only thing countries that wish to preserve an industry, a culture and an identity can do is put in place defenses that will slightly tip the balance in the other direction. In France, American films still account for the majority of the market – but somewhere nearer 60%, not 90%, like the UK.

But what’s good about this report? There are some good ideas here:

- Reccomendation no. 3 is the best thing in the report “creating a UK-wide film network”. Too bad it’s not too specific.
- Recommendation no. 5 is more detailed, saying film socities and film clubs should receive more support. Absolutely.
- Recommendation no .7 is a small step towards doing what I say the French have been doing for decades…teach cinema in schools!
- Recommendation no. 13 identifies the problem with the current VPF model but offers no solution.
- Recommendation 32 – asking, then forcing, TV and cable providers to support British cinema is brilliant.

What’s outright awful?

- Recommendation no. 2 (and the heart of this review) – building a British ‘brand’ sounds like a bad idea. What is British? How do you identify it? Because the British brand that sells abroad is not one we want to be proud of internally. Also ‘British Film Week’ is gimmicky.
- Recommendation no. 24 – encouraging test screenings is a bad idea. They don’t even work in Hollywood.
- Recommendation no. 55 – why not encourage private investment and philanthropy in distribution and exhibition as well?

Of course the Government might choose to ignore all of these ideas. We’ll have to wait a couple of months to see what their response is….

Splendor Cinema Podcast 84

2012-01-16T09:14:00.005Z

In a new tradition, I shall be posting here every time we record a podcast in order to create a stronger link between this blog and our podcast.

This week, Rob and I sat down and played catch up as we hadn't done a straight review show in some time. There's a lot of films out there right now, and we've seen a bunch of them. So we reviewed SHAME, THE IRON LADY, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4, MARGIN CALL, CORIOLANUS and THE ARTIST.

The glut of 'quality' films is overwhelming this time of year and is a real distortion of the calendar created just to generate awards buzz. Come summer time and the Olympics we'll be craving adult dramas.

That said, you'll never guess from the list above which was our favorite of the list!

Listen on iTunes: Splendor Cinema
Or on the Picturehouse website: Splendor Cinema

Cameron Vs Loach

2012-01-12T17:32:00.007Z

Yesterday all hell broke loose as David Cameron made some remarks on the state and future of the film industry, remarking that support for more 'commercial' projects was needed. Ken Loach came on to the BBC to fly the flag for smaller, more niche films. This oversimplification played straight into the hands of the news media, who don't understand the film business, as the terrible Newsnight piece (which featured a smart statement by my boss Lyn Goleby) demonstrated.

The reality is neither Cameron nor Ed Vaizey (or Jeremy Hunt) have a clue what to do with the UK film industry. Labour didn't either but at least they threw some money at it, which, although mostly a failure, did help. The reality is that we have an industry completely controlled by US studios, and the language issue binds us tighter to Hollywood than our European counterparts. As early as the 1920s the UK government was struggling with this problem and established levies on ticket prices to support Pinewood. But the approach has always been production-centered, as if making a lot of movies would magically solve the problem.

The key to success are audiences, not filmmakers, and in that respect, Cameron's remarks are not far off. We obviously have a huge pool of incredible talent. What we're missing are audiences for anything that isn't a 'property' like Bond or Potter. How do you build audiences, you ask? Well, you'll be surprised to hear, as an exhibitor, it all starts with cinemas. No matter how brilliant you think THE KING'S SPEECH is, you need a cinema close to your customers in order to truly maximise its market share. Like any service industry, you need to be on the high street in order to deliver your product. Just ask Tesco, or Starbucks. If you build it, they WILL come. I am talking about interesting looking cinemas, in good looking buildings, staffed by knowledgable film lovers, with cafes and restaurants, not conveyor belts for teenagers. In other words, I am talking about Picturehouses. Why not fund a network of regional film theatres dedicated to interesting and challenging programming?

The French have been smart about this, not just with quotas, but also by having vertically integrated film companies that make, distribute and exhibit films - this has ring fenced their industry, creating a wide and diverse range of films, from big homegrown blockbusters to small arthouse films, with an audience at home and abroad.

I know it grinds British people but we do have so much to learn from the French in this respect. And we need to start re-opening and building new cinemas!

Image stolen from the GQ website.

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2011-12-31T10:38:00.004Z

The last year was one of huge personal and professional changes for me, and although change can be painful, it was also necessary and has set me on a new course in many ways.

I started a new job at the Stratford Picturehouse in London, as Business Development Manager, working on consolidating the Picturehouses' position in Stratford in light of the new competition and huge developments happening in East London (Olympics, Westfield, etc). The job has been challenging but hugely educational.

My job at the Dukes continued, and we experienced one of our most succesful years ever, with growing audiences and amazing events, like the Brighton Rock Premiere, the Steve Coogan/Rob Brydon Q&A, and great gigs from artists like 65daysofstatic and WHY?.

I also spent a lot of the year travelling to festivals, including the Berlinale in February, the Toulouse Latin American festival, I served on the CICAE jury at the Sarajevo Film Festival, attended the Venice Mostra, and finally the San Sebastian festival. I've become a real festival addict, and in 2012 I'll be re-visiting Berlin, Toulouse, and also reprising my CICAE Jury role, this time at the Vilnius Film Festival in Lithuania. Where else the year will take me is yet unknown.

This blog has taken a back seat in my life, due to lack of time, and also a re-definition of what it's for. The podcast I record with Robert Beames almost every week is the more regular outlet for opinions and rants, and after two years recording it, I think we've actually gotten good at it.

I'll post festival updates and reviews through here, and ocassional pieces if I feel the need. My twitter feed @splendorcinema is pretty active too.

Have a great year!

Best of 2011

2011-12-17T11:22:00.007Z

The year, cinematically, was dominated for me, as for many people, with the release of Terence Malick's long-awaited TREE OF LIFE. Beyond that, traveling to a few amazing festivals (Berlin, Venice, Sarajevo, Toulouse, San Sebastian) afforded me opportunities to see work overlooked or just unreleased in the UK (MARIMBAS FROM HELL for example). My Top 10 might be different if I'd had a chance to see films like WEEKEND, MARGARET, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Fincher's version), A SEPARATION or MONEYBALL. Below the Top 10 is also a list of some runners up in no particular order.

1 - TREE OF LIFE
Any year that includes a Terence Malick film is going to be a good one. This film is pure Malick, distilled, a true expression of all the ideas that percolate throughout his career. It was a moving, beautiful, powerful, astonishing piece of work. Primarily about memory, I cried, laughed and was blown away. Films like this make the word masterpiece easy to use.

2 - MARIMBAS FROM HELL
A gem from Guatemala. Saw this in Toulouse and spent a good part of the year trying to get others to watch it and love it. In a world with hundreds of copycat films, all a replica of something else, a true orginial emerges. Funny and moving, real and staged, intense and light all at once.

3 - WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Andrea Arnold's flawed masterpiece is a giant 'fuck you' to the legion of boring, safe heritage films that constitute the British film 'industry'. Fresh, raw, moving, and in gorgeous 1.33 aspect ratio.

4 - PINA
Wenders' best film in a couple of decades is the best use of 3D up to now in any feature film. A poem to Pina Bausch wrapped in superb stereoscopic set pieces. A landmark in film history.

5 - THE CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Watching Herzog's doc alone at The Dukes one morning was one of the most powerful cinematic experiences of my life. With his trademark humour and smart observation, he unravels the origin of art in the medium's latest gimmick: 3D.

6 - THE GUARD
This came as a huge relief, sandwiched between the generic gloom of the Berlinale. A sharp shotgun of a dark comedy with hugely quotable dialogue and Brendan Gleason in his most memorable performance ever. To be re-watched ad nauseum.

7 - HUGO
Martin Scorsese delivers a film history lesson wrapped in a family-friendly package, using 3D technology to drive home the point that cinema itself is the biggest 'gimmick'. Everything THE ARTIST wishes it could be.

8 - WE HAVE A POPE
As a long standing admirer of Nanni Moretti, I was always going to love this, but its a particularly well executed piece of high concept comedy from Italy's answer to Woody Allen. The message being that often stupidity and inefficiency can be as pernicious as pure evil.

9 - BEGINNERS
If you can avoid knee-jerk reactions to the 'quirk' in this film, and embrace its very personal and human story, it's heartbreaking. If you can't, then you have no heart. Ewan McGregor has never been better and Christopher Plummer confirms his status as global treasure.

10 - RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
A surprising entry - I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. Embracing the political allegory of the 1970s Planet movies it delivers a strong action film which never compromises its message or meaning. Can't wait for the sequel.

Amongst my runners-up are Julie Deply's third outing as director, SKYLAB, Chilean romance BONSAI, Woody Allen's light and fluffy MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, Asif Kapadia's doc SENNA, Lars Von Trier's depression-as-end-of-world MELANCHOLIA, the hilarious BRIDESMAIDS, Serbian documentary CINEMA KOMUNISTO, Aki Kaurismaki's sweet LE HAVRE, Crialese's beautiful TERRAFERMA and the kick-ass Samurai flick 13 ASSASSINS.

Cine-Files

2011-10-27T12:04:00.003+01:00

On Tuesday The Guardian's Film website published a review I wrote for their Cine-Files blog, a weekly look at cinemas across the world. My review was for the Amsterdam cinema Kriterion, a beautiful cinema in a city filled with gorgeous cinemas.

Kriterion is at the heart of the film industry in Amsterdam, and everyone I know in that city has worked there at some point or another.

You can read the article here.

The day we met Mark

2011-10-18T11:47:00.006+01:00

Last night, Robert Beames and I recorded a podcast with Mark Kermode, Britain's most popular film critic, who was at the cinema for his book tour. The show was sold out and we didn't have a lot of time, so we were ready for him to be stressed and not very amenable to talking on our little podcast.

We were wrong - he was not only amenable, but went on for longer than we expected, and answered our very non-sycophantic questions with wit and verve. I disagree with almost everything he says (and I told him so on the podcast) but compulsively listen in every week anyway. He does make talking about film, discussing it, and arguing about it, exciting, and although I wish he was paired up with a serious film critic instead of Simon Mayo, I do enjoy it.

His book, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE MULTIPLEX is a collection of his most famous thoughts (3D is bad, projectionists are good, multiplexes are bad, indies are good) and I was ready to dismiss it until one of the chapters where he argues for public funding for independent and arthouse cinemas. This is something close to my own heart and I have been arguing for it for years. So it was nice to be confounded by my own expectations.

You can listen on iTunes here: Splendor Cinema Podcast

San Sebastian/Donostia Roundup

2011-09-27T12:54:00.005+01:00

Sorry for the delayed update but I hit the ground running straight after landing and haven't had a moment free since. Enough excuses. I attended this year's edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival (or Donostia Zinemaldia in Basque) for its 59th edition, as a guest of the CinemaLab programme, which seeks to create better links between European exhibitors and distributors and Latin American films.

It was my first time at this Festival but not my first in San Sebastian, a city not too far from Bilbao, where my father is from and where I attended University many moons ago - essentially I am half Basque.

I was only in town for 3 nights, and had two meetings to attend, so the filmgoing was sparse. But I did get in six films altogether. Four of those were titles from Cinema en Construccion, the movies-in-progress strand of the festival which focuses on Latino films. The quality was high, and I saw real gems. But it's not fair to review unfinished films. The two others were competition features, and both were excellent.

RAMPART, starring Woody Harrelson in an Oscar-worthy performance, is about a corrupt police officer in the infamous Rampart district headquarters of Los Angeles, home to a lot of the evidence-planting, police brutality and other naughty stuff the LAPD was up to. Harrelson, a terrific performer who has been underrated and underused in the past, takes what is a fairly generically-filmed movie and turns it into an epic character study that is complex, funny and terrifying all at once. This will get Awards buzz.

LE SKYLAB is the third feature from actress (and now director) Julie Delpy, best known for BEFORE SUNRISE/SUNSET. A hilarious French family comedy like only the French could produce, it's sprawling, with over 20 speaking parts, all of them performing at top notch level. I saw this in the Teatro Victoria Eugenia, a Belle Epoque palace turned into a cinema for the night, with a 4K projector beaming crisp-clean images onto a giant screen. A fantastic film and an amazing screening experience.

San Sebastian is one of my favorite film festivals (I've been to six this year) because it doesn't have a huge amount of corporate sponsorship, it's situated in an amazing city by the sea, all the venues are within walking distance of each other, and as a class A fest is has access to top notch competition features and juries. Just popping into bars in the Old Town I ran into Catherine Deneuve, Michael Fassbender and Rita Wilson (?!).

This is the end of my Festival tour for the year - it started with the Berlinale in February, and took me to Toulouse in March, Pula/Sarajevo in July, Venice in August and finishing in San Sebastian last week. Now on to focus to my own Festival, the Cinecity Brighton Film Festival, starting 17 Nov!

Venice, Day 5

2011-09-07T14:47:00.006+01:00

No matter how much I plan, I always end up on a sleep deficit in Venice. Maybe it's the heat or the screening schedule, but I am struggling to stay awake, particularly when the films are not great.

The surprise film this year was PEOPLE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE SEA, a Chinese feature from Cai Shangjun, a dark and nihilistic violent thriller which is not the usual fare you get from China in the festival circuit. The false fire alarm which interrupted the screening provided some well needed relief from the bleakness. I'm still not sure what I think of the film, but it was certainly very well made.

Francesco convinced me to attend the homage to Armenian documentary filmmaker ARTAVAZD PELESJAN, which included two of his shorts (SEASONS and LIFE) and a documentary about him from an Italian filmmaker, THE SILENCE OF PELESJAN. The original shorts were beautiful, the tribute doc at the end less so. It certainly made me want to seek out his other work.

Gianni Mina is an acclaimed journalist who has traveled to Cuba over the last 30 years, and he has a clear love and affection for the island and the revolution, as I do. So I went into CUBA IN THE AGE OF OBAMA, PART 1 with high expectations. Unfortunately, like the Jonathan Demme doc, the filmmaker let its subject down, with poor camera work, lazy journalism and cloying use of music. A missed opportunity.

Following the international success of THE BAND'S VISIT, Eran Kolirin delivers a boring film about boredom - THE EXCHANGE. Following a university professor as he engages in bizarre behavior with a neighbor, this has moments of humour and originality but ultimately is a short film blown up to feature length.

The buzz on the lido has died off significantly, with screenings half empty and fewer people around in general. You can actually find a seat on a vaporetto! I guess this is the Toronto exodus that happens every year. Perhaps someone needs to reschedule?

Venice, Day 4

2011-09-06T12:44:00.003+01:00

In 2009, I saw Todd Solondz’s LIFE DURING WARTIME in Venice and it was my favorite thing that year. So I was understandably excited to see his latest film, DARK HORSE, in competition. It starts off in pure Solondz style, with biting satire of the blandness and crassness of America mixed with genuine affection for the damaged souls he portrays, but ultimately runs out of steam in the second half and becomes almost sentimental in its final minutes, a first for this director. Unlike most of his other films, this one follows only one story as opposed to an ensemble cast of fuck-ups, which perhaps explains the disappointing second half.

Swedish drama PLAY was a gamble, a film we decided to see because of a gap in the schedule. Not knowing anything, we encountered a stylish, formalist piece (the whole film consists of probably no more than 40 static shots) about bullying and petty criminal activity amongst children in Gottenberg, Sweden. It was genuine, tense and thought provoking, but ultimately unsatisfying, as it never seemed to go anywhere.

This highly anticipated film is yet another where I know, as with SHAME, I’ll be at odds with both audiences and critics: TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY was an efficient, well acted, tight spy thriller whose existence is caused only by a cynical opportunity to exploit an existing literary property. There is no need for this movie and frankly, I was bored by it. Perhaps I am prejudiced as I have never been a fan of the story to begin with – I find Smiley dull (I know that’s the point) and I never found the tale compelling.

Jonathan Demme does a great disservice to what could have been a heartbreaking masterpiece in I’M CAROLYN PARKER, a documentary about the titular character, a black woman living in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. Her story is the story of thousands of black families who lost their homes and were scattered across the country – but Carolyn stayed behind and slowly rebuilt her home. She is dynamic and funny, but Demme’s shaky, amateur camera and wedding video style techniques betray his lack of effort. Shame.

Andrea Arnold’s version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS couldn’t be more dissimilar: a big, towering masterpiece that should be the template for all English period pieces: unconventional, bold, innovative, brave – and above all, moving. The film reminded me a lot of Malick’s THE NEW WORLD in the way that the love story is intertwined with the natural landscape, and the lack of score is filled by the sounds of the moors – the howling winds, the pouring rain, the dogs and the crickets. This is exactly the kick up the ass a classic like this needs – a necessary, fresh approach. One of my favorite films of the year.

Venice Days 1,2 & 3

2011-09-04T14:30:00.003+01:00

My third Mostra in a row, and finally I have some time to watch films. For the past two years I have attended Venice in official capacity as part of the CICAE Art Cinema Management course, and this time, I rocked up just for the movies. Here's a round-up of what I have seen so far:

ALPS is the follow up from DOGTOOTH director Yorgos Lathimos, and follows the same twisted logic of that first film, but fails to bottle the same tension the second time around.

David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD is a very un-Cronenberg-like film in its execution, an elegant period piece with a sharp script by Christopher Hampton. Its themes, though, are thoroughly in the vein of the Canadian filmmakers’ oeuvre: sex, violence and psychology. It was enjoyable despite some heavy handed acting from Keira Knightley, complete with dodgy Russian accent.

PERSEPOLIS was one of the most entertaining films of 2009, so I was looking forward to Strapjani’s follow up, CHICKEN WITH PLUMS, a foray into live action with one of the most talented actors around, Matthew Almaric. It was a huge disappointment – sentimental, clichéd and very much attempting to pull off a Jeneut-sense of wonder without the skills to do so.

Al Pacino is this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and he’s brought a film with him: WILD SALOME, an essay-film very much like his directorial debut, LOOKING FOR RICHARD, in which the actor explores the process of putting on Oscar Wilde’s play Salome. It was self-indulgent and had true moments of Spinal Tap-ness about it, but Pacino still has an electric face and voice.

Fassbender is everywhere. Within 24 hours of his turn as Carl Jung, he shows up here in Steve McQueen’s follow up to HUNGER, as an executive with a predilection for prostitutes and porn. SHAME suffers in comparison to HUNGER because of its almost purposefully low-stakes plot, and Carey Mulligan is miscast as his troubled sister. There are a few moments of humour and originality, but overall its just too lightweight and familiar ground.

My favorite film so far has been Emmanuelle Crialese’s TERRAFERMA (pictured), a gentle and straightforward story about a Sicilian island and the struggles of its inhabitants in the age of tourism, dwindling fishing stocks and increasing African immigration. The characters were funny, interesting and real, and the director of THE GOLDEN DOOR has a sharp eye and ear for the Sicilian people and landscape.

Watch this space for more reviews throughout the week.

Sarajevo - Final Day

2011-07-30T10:03:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I awarded the CICAE Prize to BREATHING, an Austrian film by first time director Karl Markovics (better known as an actor from COUNTERFEITERS). It's a beautifully engaging film, full of emotions but lacking any sentimentality or cliche. Austere and rigorous in its realisation, it's also surprisingly funny. The story of a 19 year old struggling to reintegrate into society while serving time in a juvenile detention center, it stood out far above all the other films in the competition.

The only other film that was considered for the prize was AMNESTY, an Albanian film which was solid throughout but let itself down with a melodramatic ending and a jarring harmonica score.

All the films in competition were interesting, but if there was one common complaint it was that the stories and scripts were seriously undercooked. Slovenian drama THE TRIP and Croatian drama SPOTS suffered from an amateur style which hampered the best efforts of its young cast. BROKEN MUSSELS, a Turkish attempt at neo-realism, benefited from likable child actors and great locations but lacked real dramatic drive and was clumsy at times. WASTED YOUTH was a PARANOID PARK style Greek feature which featured some fantastic skating footage in Athens but like many of the others, concluded with a over the top ending which made no sense. Finally LOVERBOY was a well-crafted Romanian drama which failed to ignite me emotionally but looked great, and AVE, a very slow Bulgarian film which featured Bruno S's final performance.

My Balkan experience has been fantastic - I've seen some beautiful places, met some wonderful people and spent time with some of my favorite friends. Thanks to Tanja in Pula and to the Sarajevo Film Festival for hosting us. Back to work now.

Sarajevo Day 7

2011-07-29T09:42:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was my first day without my fellow Jury members and without any 'homework' cinema to watch, so I scheduled myself for two films I'd been looking forward to seeing for a while, THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD, which Rob Beames saw in Berlin and really liked, and the Dardenne Brothers' THE KID WITH A BIKE, which premiered at Cannes.

THE KID WITH A BIKE was typical of the Dardennes' in that it focused on an underprivileged kid, this time a young boy who's been abandoned by his dad in an orphanage and fostered by a kind hairdresser. A simple, straightforward plot that is executed flawlessly and dramatically. Incredible moving and with unbelievable performances, particularly from the lead.

THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD is directed by Joshua Marston, an American filmmaker, but set in rural Albania, against a backdrop of blood feuds based on centuries-old traditions. The two young leads are non professional actors who give fresh, realistic performances and the story is unusual enough and interesting that you are constantly engaged. Solid all around.

I also went on a 'Mahala' tour of the city, which focused on tightly-knit neighborhood in Sarajevo, usually around a mosque, synagogue, orthodox or catholic church. This really highlighted the incredible multicultural nature of this city, which has embraced people from all faiths and ethnicity for centuries, ages before the modern metropolitan melting pots of today.

Tonight we hand over our awards and tomorrow I'll be able to discuss freely the competition programme.

Sarajevo Day 6

2011-07-28T08:55:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we didn't watch anything other than competition films as we had to decide on our winner, which we did in a hotel conference room. It didn't take long, as we were all convinced of the quality of our winner, which is to be announced tomorrow at the awards ceremony.

The whole Sarajevo experience has been amazing and slightly surreal, hanging out at parties with Wim Wenders, breakfast with Bela Tarr, red carpet walks with Michael Fassbender and taxi rides with Ari Folman, the head of the Jury (pictured). The festival has really high profile guests and films while also being small city festival (Sarajevo only has 500,000 inhabitants) so you don't get such a 'VIP' feel as in other festivals.

My jury colleagues Francesco and Ruta departed today but I have the award-giving responsibility for Friday, so I'll stay on and watch a few more films and explore the city.

Sarajevo Day 5

2011-07-27T12:28:00.005+01:00

It was with great anticipation that we entered the Open Air Screening last night to see Nanni Moretti's latest, HABEMUS PAPA (WE HAVE A POPE), and despite some really poor projection quality (focus and out of rack), the film was hilarious and all 2000 people in attendance were laughing in unison. Unexpectedly, Nanni Moretti himself showed up at the end of the screening for an awkward self-Q&A. He was clearly upset by the poor presentation and seemed baffled that no one was interviewing him on stage.

Earlier we saw French animation A CAT IN PARIS, which, despite a poor DVD presentation, no English subtitles, and Bosnian subtitles that didn't work half the time, at least had beautiful animation.

In the morning we saw two more competition films, BROKEN MUSSELS from Turkey and BREATHING, an Austrian film. Today we see the final two films, LOVERBOY and WASTED YOUTH, and then decide the winner. Prizes are awarded on Friday.

This is my final day with my fellow jurors Francesco and Ruta as they depart early tomorrow morning and I am left alone to hand out the awards. I hope the sun stays out.

Sarajevo Day 4

2011-07-26T19:16:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we saw another competition film, PLACES, from Croatia. And then we went to the Cinema City multiplex for a screening of the fascinating documentary CINEMA KOMUNIST, the story of the state-funded film industry from the creation of Yugoslavia in 1941 until its fall in 1991. It's an incredible documentary, which details the close personal involvement of the Yugoslavian leader Tito in the film industry, and serves as an in-depth look at life in his time.

It was an early night then as Festival exhaustion caught up with us and we recharged our batteries. Today, four films: two competition features (BREATHING, BROKEN MUSSELS), animation from France CAT IN PARIS and Nanni Moretti's WE HAVE A POPE.

Bigger updates tomorrow!

Sarajevo, Day 3

2011-07-25T07:38:00.002+01:00

"There are three things we're known for: killing Franz Ferdinand, the Winter Olympics of '84, and the siege' said our guide, Mohammed, as we set off on a tour of the tunnel built during the war in order to smuggle weapons into the city. Although Sarajevo is now a bustling metropolis, with a world-class film festival, the spectre of the war is on every street, with the scars visible on almost every wall and sidewalk.

From 1992 till 1996 the city was under siege, and 11,000 people were killed from the snipers, shelling and bombing from the Serbian forces. While the complex politics of that conflict still escape me, it was clearly a humanitarian disaster right in the heart of Europe. The Festival started in the middle of that siege, both as defiant gesture and effort to regain normality, and has grown ever since. That gives this film festival a special quality not found elsewhere.

Before we set off on that tour we experienced MELANCHOLIA, Von Trier's latest provocation. The cinema we saw it in was so full, there were dozens of people sitting on the floor and the aisles. Enough to make any health-and-safety conscious cinema manager shudder. But it certainly added a certain 'gig' like atmosphere to the screening. The opening doesn't disappoint - a combination of spectacular cinematography and special effects combined with classic Von Trier family dynamics. But the ambitious storyline and science fiction elements come off the rails in the second half and I was left cold in the end. It seems Von Trier doesn't take his storytelling seriously, and really doesn't have a lot of respect for the audience. Comparisons to TREE OF LIFE are certain to emerge.

We also saw, as part of the competition, AMNESTY, an Albanian feature which, again, I shan't review as I need to judge it. Today, apart from my obligatory competition homework, I'll be watching documentary CINEMA KOMUNISTO, about the Yugoslavian film industry.

Sarajevo, Day 2

2011-07-24T06:38:00.007+01:00

Yesterday was a film-filled day, as we caught up with our competition programme homework and saw two of the eight we have to judge. First off was THE TRIP, a Slovenian debut about three high school friends who reunite for a trip to the seaside. Then we saw AVE, from Bulgaria, another first feature.I won't really review the competition films here as we have to award a prize and it just wouldn't be right.

In the strictly fun category we saw Argentinian film LAS ACACIAS, from first time director (a lot of those here) Pablo Giorgelli, and I can tell you what I think about it: it's fantastic. A small, gentle two-hander that takes place almost entirely in the cabin of a truck, it features a very endearing baby and top notch performances from the leads.

We also popped into the KRITERION cinema, which is an offshoot of its namesake in Amsterdam, a wonderful, student-run venue that is a source of much of the most talented Dutch distributors and exhibitors. We had dinner with the other Juries, the Festival Director and Bela Tarr, who is presenting Turin Horse here.

Sarajevo is a city pulsating with a raw energy that you can feel everywhere, from the hard partying on the streets to the wee hours, to the men playing life-sized chess in the square and shouting like it was football, to the fresh memory of the siege with bullet holes in almost every building. A very special place.

Goodbye Pula, Hello Sarajevo

2011-07-23T08:20:00.004+01:00

Yesterday we arrived in Sarajevo after three very relaxing nights in Pula, Croatia, where my friend Tanja Milicic runs the fantastic PULA FILM FESTIVAL, which provided us with the unique experience of seeing the latest HARRY POTTER film under the stars in a Roman Arena with about 8,000 people. But it was a strictly pleasure, not business trip, and the serious work begins in Sarajevo, where my friends Francesco, Ruta an I are the CICAE Jury members for the SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL.

CICAE, faithful readers will recall, is the international network of arthouse cinemas to which the Dukes belongs and who organised the Venice training I attended in 2009. Our job is to give the award to a film that will then be promoted by the network, and help its chances of reaching more cinemas. We're the 'junior' jury if you like, and live below the main festival jury, which is headed by filmmkaer Ari Folman (WALTZ WITH BASHIR).

After an 11 hour train journey from Zagreb, we rolled in just in time for opening night film, Aki Kaurismaki's LE HAVRE. The film was essential Kaurismaki, with his unique way of staging performances and delivering deadpan laughs while saying a lot about the human condition, and immigration politics too. We were then whisked to the opening night party, where we brushed with Wim Wenders (in town for a 3D panel discussion) and the American ambassador (?).

More posts to follow as the days go - on top of the competition films, I am really looking forward to seeing Von Trier's MELANCHOLIA, Tarr's TURIN HORSE, Moretti's WE HAVE A POPE and other surprises I am sure we'll encounter.

THE TREE OF LIFE

2011-07-10T23:17:00.003+01:00

Terrence Malick is a director whose work I anticipate the way some people anticipate having children or getting married. It's a huge event for me, and because they come so infrequently, it makes it even more exciting when they finally arrive. THE TREE OF LIFE has now finally opened after much wrangling about its release date (ICON were originally meant to be the distributors, before they breached their contract, some say on purpose, and then Fox picked it up), and I have now seen it twice.

It's already my favorite film of the year, one that affected me emotionally above all and then hit me on many technical and 'film geek' levels too. It's an incredible experience, a transcendental, ambitious, epic masterpiece that deserves to be seen on the big screen. I understand it's not for everyone. But if you get it, it'll devastate you.

Rob Beames and I recorded a podcast about it (his opinion on the film is a lot less enthusiastic than mine) and we were joined by ocassional guest Craig Munro, who sits somewhere in between our opinions. You can subscribe and listen on iTunes here.

ICO Cultural Exhibition Course, Day 5: The End

2011-05-28T10:51:00.006+01:00

Yesterday was the final day in the ICO Cultural Exhibition Course and we finished with an overview of the marketplace and looking towards the future.

To this end, we had a panel discussion titled ‘The Way Forward for Cultural Cinema” with Eddie Berg (pictured), Artistic Director of the BFI, Ed Fletcher, from Soda Pictures, and Ian Christie, respected film historian and Vice-President of Europa Cinemas. It started with Ian’s presentation, which in true academic style, delivered no strong opinions, but asked a lot of questions; good questions. “Does film education translate into cinema admissions?” “Will alternative content spell the end of arthouse cinema?”

Ed Fletcher, never a man to withhold his opinions, presented the antithesis of Ian’s own talk with a strong rant about the difficult arthouse market, placing a lot of the blame for things at exhibitors door. He pointed to the change in ownership of many of the main exhibitors as an explanation for what he sees increasingly commercial programming. I found his talk quite condescending and arrogant, but a lot of that might have to do with his own personality.

Eddie Berg followed with a very different approach. He speaks in the way that people in very senior executive positions do, in small sentences that are loaded with meaning, a very logical (and some would say dry) and circular way that you really have to focus to get your head around. He talked about three different venues, the Bell Light box in Toronto, the Eye in Amsterdam and the American Museum of Moving Image in New York. He then explained the BFI’s own plans for a National Film Centre and the balance between the need for a monolithic center and the lack of regional film centers and even screens.

After our break we presented our fictional projects to the class, but I think fatigue had set in, especially as we were locked in the awful basement spaces all day with no air. The class looked a bit ragged and was aching for our final drinks, which followed in the studio space upstairs.

Overall, I think that given my master’s degree and my experience in Venice, I didn’t get as much out of this course as some of the others, but I met some fantastic people and witnessed some lively debates about the industry in the UK. I was also trying to gather as much info and contacts ahead of my new job in Stratford, which starts next week.

We need more, not less exhibitor training, so I hope that Skillset continue to support this important work in the future and there is a Cultural Exhibition Course in 2012.

ICO Cultural Exhibition Course, Day 4

2011-05-26T20:28:00.003+01:00

Today was all about marketing and PR and we kicked off with a talk by Julia Short, former MD for Verve Pictures. She presented a case study of how they handled the release of THE ARBOR. She was terrifically candid, with many of the best things she said preceded by “I really shouldn’t tell you this”, which is exactly the kind of thing the trainees are looking for. Some of the best anecdotes came from her time at Polygram, when too much money was paid for mediocre films (MULHOLLAND FALLS, anyone?).

After that Clare Wilford, a freelance publicist who has worked on our own CINECITY Film Festival, outlined her ‘rules of the game’ when it came to generating press coverage and interest in your event/venue/festival. Her approach is very straight-forward and rooted in real-life experience. I attended a course with Clare some years ago and although it was familiar territory, it reminded me of some fundamentals.

The post-lunch slot was a workshop on solving fictional press problems, with a Ken Russell retrospective being my group’s homework. Somehow we ended up proposing that staff dress as nuns. Don’t ask.

Finally, the groups formed yesterday to workshop the course’s project reunited and we started working on our fictional programming exercise, which is a lot of fun because it’s basically just a group of smart, film-literate people brainstorming fun programming, marketing and event ideas. Something I usually do in my own head.

After class I popped into the BFI Filmstore and picked up an Eisenstein box set (yesterday I bought Ballad of a Soldier and Destiny of Man, two other Soviet classics) – thank goodness the course is over tomorrow or I would spend too much money.

Tomorrow: Ed Flechter from Soda Pictures discusses the future of cultural cinema, and we present our homework!

ICO Cultural Exhibition, Day 3

2011-05-25T20:25:00.004+01:00

Our third day on the course brought an area that perhaps is my weakest link: short, archive and moving image films. I’m a feature guy. We’ve shown some of these things in the past at the Dukes, mostly because of our relationship with the Screen Archive South East. Frank Gray, the archive director and also co-director of our Cinecity Film Festival, was here today to talk – and as always he was engaging and very non-didactic. Sue Porter, from the Moving Image Archive for Central England, made the somewhat arguable claim that “archive film has never been sexier”.

Then followed perhaps the juiciest bit of the day: Sandra Hebron, the director of the London Film Festival, pulled the curtain on how the UK’s largest international film festival is put together. What I didn’t realize is how much the LFF relies on sponsorship money: 50% of its budget. She then described the ‘arduous’ task of traveling the world’s best film festivals scouting for films all year long. The feeling in the room was not one I would describe as pity. One of the most interesting things she said was that the UK culture was undergoing a ‘festivalisation’, not just in film, but literature, music and art.

Mark Cosgrove from Watershed joined the discussion halfway through and described how the Encounters Short Film Festival was created and where it stands now. He resents the thematisation of programming and described his approach as ‘pix n’mix”.

We were then moved into the basement for a talk with Adam Pugh, former director of the AURORA animation festival in Norwich who derisorily described Cinema City as ‘conventional’ which didn’t impress a City Screen man like me. Straight afterwards we were ushered into NFT3 for a screening of short films. Apart from the first two films, The Anthem by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Guest of Honor by Miguel Calderon, every single one of the films confirmed all my prejudices about artist moving image and short films.

Things got practical after that: we’ve been broken up into groups and have some workshop homework to do. That’s always the best part about any course like this because you get to know your cohort and become animated and inspired.

Tomorrow it’s all about marketing and PR. Stay tuned!

Culural Exhibition, Day 2

2011-05-25T07:03:00.003+01:00

Our second day kicked off with one of my main areas of interest: audience development. David Sin walked us through the basics, and I took advantage and tried to gather as much knowledge as I could in advance of the new challenges we’ll be facing in Stratford. He underlined the importance of market research and audience surveys, which I think should be at the heart of any venue’s work. Being audience-led is key.

Gaylene Gould (pictured) joined us for a talk on Cultural Diversity, a topic that makes most people’s eyes roll because it has become synonymous with public policy talk, and often is not rooted in real work and/or results. But Gaylene brought a fresh and smart approach which made us gasp and laugh in equal measures. “Film, of all art forms, I find is the most bigoted and the most racist.” She said, right before I asked how to connect with black audiences in East London. She gave me some top notch pointers. “For starters, if you’re whole team looks like you, you’re in trouble.” Noted.

Then we had very interesting panels on accessing disabled audiences, young people and children. Cathy Poole from the Curzon in Clevedon showed us an amusing home video which revealed that they have the same exact ancient ticket machine (AUTOMATIC) that we have! This session also gave us one of my favorite quotes of the day, courtesy of Martin Grund from Leeds Young People’s Festival: “you wouldn’t expect the world to only read books from one city in one country” on Hollywood’s film dominance.

The last session for the day was the distributor’s perspective: Dave Jarmain from Universal (my favorite major), Matt Smith from Lionsgate and Colin Burch from Verve. They outlined their business models and then we got on to the juicy stuff: distributors versus exhibitors. While they bemoaned the existence of windows, I pointed out that flexibility is needed both ways, specially when asking for all shows for weeks at a time. As always when you pit these two groups together, it gets fun, tense and “a little passive aggressive” as another trainee mentioned.

We finished off with a tour of the Roxy Bar and Screen near Bourough Market, an innovative and cool venue which, as it names suggests, is a bar first and a screen second. The owner and manager Phil Wood was a gracious host and apparently is a reader of this blog. Hi Phil!

Tomorrow, on Cultural Exhibition: Programming shorts, archive, festivals, moving image…

ICO Cultural Exhibition Course, Day 1

2011-05-23T22:17:00.003+01:00

Today was the beginning of the Independent Cinema Office’s Cultural Exhibition Course, held at the BFI Southbank. It runs till Friday, and I’ll be tweeting (via @splendorcinema) and blogging about it.

After a basic outline of the ins and outs of exhibition and distribution from the ICO’s David Sin (who was best when he went off script and told us the implications of the European Court case of pub landlady versus Sky), we had an interesting talk from Julie Pierce, Head of Programme Planning for the BFI.

As a massive fan of the BFI’s retrospectives and seasons, it was fascinating to hear how they put the programme together, with some of the seasons (like Godard) taking up to two years to research and book. They have 9 programmers for 4 screens, which is a luxurious amount of staff, and which allows them to put on such magnificent films.

Then we had an amusing presentation from Richard Boyd, Technical Manager at the BFI, who again, amazed us with the ridiculous amount of resources this venerable institution (rightly) has: £200,000 spent recently on two film projectors, and weekly testing of all equipment. Interesting to hear that the BFI Southbank has the only public license in the UK to screen nitrate film, a very flammable (and familiar to anyone who’s seen Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds) and dangerous substance that hasn’t been used in film prints for 60 years.

After some lunch, former Dukes programmer and friend Jason Wood (now head of programming at Curzon) joined Tracey Hyde from Saffron Screen for a panel on programming. Jason is always a funny, engaging speaker, and he knows his stuff. He outlines some of the ambitious plans Curzon has in store: putting other distributor’s films on their On Demand service, programming the Cornerhouse in Manchester, opening new Curzon sites in University towns across the UK, and also their recent acquisitions in Cannes: Artificial Eye (Curzon’s sister company) will be distributing the Von Trier, the Dardennes, the Kaurismaki, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. That’s an impressive lineup.

Some of Jason’s pearls of wisdom for the day: “There’s a danger that cinema will become alternative content”. And “A Judi Dench film means an onslaught of comfortable shoes” and when talking about the danger of losing young audiences to On Demand: “ There’s no audience to be lost, cause they’re not there”.

We finished the day with an interesting panel on non-theatrical exhibition, which included the Flatpack Festival, the ‘open-source’ Star and Shadow venue in Newcastle and the Slough Film Society (which is apparently filled with Communists!).

Next, on Cultural Exhibition: Audience Development. Cutural Diversity, Programming for children and the distributor’s perspective!

Eastbound and Up

2011-05-15T19:20:00.004+01:00

Last week I was offered a new position as Business Development Manager at the Stratford Picturehouse in East London. I'll be working there three days a week, retaining my General Manager job at the Dukes.

It's an exciting new challenge, one I have been waiting for. I love the Duke of York's Picturehouse and I remain devoted to its success, but it's time to take on new ventures, and develop as a manager.

The Stratford Picturehouse opened in August 1997, and is a very interesting purpose-built building which now sits right next door to the 2012 Olympic Site. My job is help build new audiences and revenues for the cinema, which faces some new competition.

My entries on this blog will become even less frequent, and I'll probably take a break from it until I attend the Pula and Sarajevo Film Festival in July. Until then, happy moviegoing!

Terrence Malick Pantheon

2011-04-30T20:22:00.006+01:00

A couple of days back Rob and I sat down to record one of our now legendary Pantheon podcasts, where we look at one single director that we both love and place them in the pantheon of all time greats. That was an easy task with Terrence Malick, whom I consider one of the all-time and living best directors out there. Rob was less familiar with his work, but quickly caught up and shared (most) of my enthusiasm. We also had a lot of speculation and comments on the ongoing drama with the release of TREE OF LIFE, hopefully coming to a cinema near you soon. But why read about it here in boring words and stuff, when you can listen to it on our podcast:

Splendor Cinema Podcast 55: Terrence Malick

The Newer, Slimmer Splendor

2011-04-10T08:42:00.004+01:00

I've decided to stop posting the box office figures on Monday. I started posting them a couple of years ago, and at that time no one else posted the Top 10 on a Monday morning. About a year ago, Charles Gant started his really well written column in the Guardian where he breaks down the week's releases by numbers on Tuesdays. Now IMDB.co.uk also posts the figures on a Monday, so the purpose of the posts (to provide industry with a top 10 with some analysis) is being covered by others.

In fact, my whole relationship to this blog has changed recently as my workload increases. I post a lot less, and I am sorry for those regular readers. I will still post reports from Festivals, and when something in the industry happens that grabs my attention you will hear from me.

I spend a lot more time on Twitter these days, posting from the cinema's account: @Dukeofyorks and my own: @splendorcinema. The podcast is still going strong, now 53 episodes in, and you can download that on iTunes or at the Picturehouse website.

Hasta pronto!

Toulouse Roundup

2011-03-29T13:57:00.007+01:00

Last week I attended the Cine Latino Film Festival in Toulouse, France. It's an annual showcase of the best in Latin American cinema, one of the biggest in the world. I attended as a guest of the CINEMA EN CONSTRUCCION strand, which is a competition for unifinished films looking for post-production money.

The Festival is very relaxed, laid back, and the beer is cheap. The anti-Cannes, if you will. Lots of directors from Latin America fly in and the atmosphere is positively latino. Last year I attended as part of the CINE SIN FRONTERAS (now CINEMALAB) programme, with the CINE ESTELI project.

I saw seven films in two days, including opener from Argentina ROMPECABEZAS, a tired collection of cliches about a woman who obsesses over puzzles (the title of the film). Not a great beginning. This was a finished film which competed the year before for the CONSTRUCCION prize.

Another finished film I saw was LAS MARIMBAS DEL INFIERNO, from Guatemala, which can only be described as Central America's answer to ANVIL, about a poor marimba player who joins a heavy metal band. This is one of the best films I have seen all year: moving, hilarious, beautifully shot. A real original crowd pleaser, and made in the docu-drama style of ALAMAR.

I won't bore you with the collection of unfinished films because it's not really fair to review something which doesn't even have a sound design, but suffice to say, most were done in the 'slow cinema' style that has completely taken over all festivals worldwide, and they bored me to death. Except one: BONSAI, a Chilean film from Cristian Jimenez (pictured), a director from Valdivia (where I was last year), also produced by Bruno Bettati, a friend and director of the Valdivia Festival. BONSAI, as I tweeted, was like 500 DAYS OF SUMMER with a PhD in Proust. As the director himself sais before the screening, it's a film about love, books and plants. It's also gorgeously shot (in Valdivia and Santiago), well acted, cleverly written and genuinely erudite in its use of literary references (a cat is called Gogol). It should be a festival hit and might even be a minor commercial success in selected territories. This film won the Best Film Prize at the Construccion competition, which ensures its post-production and distribution in France (TONY MANERO was a previous winner).

UK Box Office 25-27 March

2011-03-28T12:01:00.008+01:00

Replicating its debut in the US, LIMITLESS takes the number one spot with a healthy screen average. Although out of the Top 10, Herzog's CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (distributed by Picturehouse Entertainment, the Dukes' sister company) opened with the second largest screen average (over £3k) of any film out. With only 23 sites, it grossed over £100K. Not a bad beginning to the 3D arthouse revolution.

1- LIMITLESS (£2,078,211)(New)
2- THE EAGLE (£1,036,688)(New)
3- A TURTLE'S TALE (£1,119,577)(New)
4- RANGO (£669,250) (4 weeks, total £5,890,532)
5- UNKNOWN (£476,260)(4 weeks, total £5,358,987)
6 -BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (£427,388)(3 weeks, total £4,270,480)
7- ANUVAHOOD (£391,812)(2 weeks, total £1,207,454)
8- CHALET GIRL (£339,328)(2 weeks total £1,305,404)
9- THE LINCOLN LAWYER (£323,163) (2 weeks, total £1,273,691)
10-HALL PASS (£303,699)(£2,609,822)

UK Box Office 18-20 Mar

2011-03-21T12:31:00.004Z

The overall box office is significantly down as spring kicks in, scaring the hell out of exhibitors who've had a great first quarter. All the new entries failed to ignite ticket sales, including high profile Matthew 'shirtless' McCougnaghey vehicle THE LINCOLN LAWYER which was outgrossed by CHALET GIRL.

1-RANGO (£1,044,696)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £5,020,115)
2-BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (£874,199) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,453,441)
3-UNKNOWN (£775,258)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £4,492,646)
4-CHALET GIRL (£681,405)(NEW)
5-THE LINCOLN LAWYER (£571,833)(NEW)
6-HALL PASS (£554,444)(2 WEEKS TOTAL £1,991,478)
7-ANUVAHOOD (£536,815)(NEW)
8-THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (£532,655)(11 WEEKS, TOTAL £4,094,452)
9-THE KING'S SPEECH (£349,836) (11 WEEKS, TOTAL £44,011,080)
10- A TURTLE'S TALE (£324,545)(NEW)

UK Box Office 11-13 March

2011-03-14T21:54:00.004Z

New entry WAR OF THE WORLDS-esque BATTLE: LOS ANGELES takes the top spot with a solid if unimpressive 1.7 million. The other two new releases in the top 10, HALL PASS & FAIR GAME fail to attract much of an audience. THE KING'S SPEECH, at its lowest position ever on this chart, clocks another 700K into its mountain of cash.

1- BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (£1,790,894)(NEW)
2- RANGO (£1,536,888)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,612,765)
3- UNKNOWN (£1,037,502) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,157,009)
4- THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (£910,729)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,080,931)
5- HALL PASS (£899,280)(NEW)
6- THE KING'S SPEECH (£689,299)(10 WEEKS, TOTAL £43,256,669)
7- PAUL (£559,411) (4 WEEKS, TOTAL £13,230,514)
8- GNOMEO AND JULIET (£551,802)(4 WEEKS, TOTAL £14,744,764)
9- FAIR GAME (£302,704)(NEW)
10- WEST IS WEST (£248,424)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £2,091,615)

UK Box Office 4-6 March

2011-03-07T10:24:00.004Z

PIRATES collaborators Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp took top spot with animated (and 2D) flick RANGO, with solid but not spectacular results. Matt Damon, in one of two films out bearing his name (the other being INSIDE JOB, no. 25 on the chart) hit the second spot with the hard-to-market BUREAU. Incredibly, THE KING'S SPEECH is still within the top 5, and has now a lifetime gross of £42 million. This exceeds Charles Gant's predictions - could it become the no. 2 film of all time at the UK box office?

1- RANGO (£1,629,345) (New)
2- THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (£1,392,625)(New)
3- UNKNOWN (£1,350,247)(New)
4- PAUL (£1,107,407)(3 weeks, total £12,204,690)
5- THE KING'S SPEECH (£1,072,130)(9 weeks, total £41,924,349)
6- GNOMEO & JULIET (£834,888)(4 weeks, total £14,067,243)
7- I AM NUMBER FOUR (£498,352)(2 weeks, total £2,590,583)
8- TRUE GRIT (£461,697)(4 weeks, total £7,472,755)
9- WEST IS WEST (£453,493) (2 weeks, total £1,620,958)
10- YOGI BEAR (£433,748)(4 weeks, total £8,215,536)

Uk Box Office 25-27 Feb

2011-02-28T11:36:00.002Z

Half term holidays meant that GNOMEO & JULIET climbed back to the top of the charts, wiht other family titles still playing strong. Eight weeks after release, and with four Oscars in the bag, THE KING'S SPEECH is the film playing in most theatres across the UK. New openers failed to ignite interest.

1- GNOMEO AND JULIET (£2,497,665) (3 WEEKS, TOTAL £12,885,321)
2- PAUL (£2,079,226) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £10,146,390)
3- YOGI BEAR (£1,463,297)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £7,630,225)
4- TANGLED (£1,351,039)(5 WEEKS, TOTAL £19,150,591)
5- THE KING'S SPEECH (£1,207,962)(8 WEEKS, TOTAL £39,850,418)
6- I AM NUMBER FOUR (£1,628,522)(NEW)
7- BIG MOMMAS: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (£993,484)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £4,079,795)
8- TRUE GRIT (£862,259)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £6,426,423)
9- NO STRINGS ATTACHED (£978,974) (NEW)
10- WEST IS WEST (£753,698)(NEW)

UK Box Office 18-20 Feb

2011-02-21T10:51:00.002Z

UNIVERSAL will be pleased with the very strong opening of PAUL, which despite a terrible poster and trailer scooped up £5.5 million, in an incredibly competitive chart. The overall box office is very healthy and will only get better as we approach half-term, with lots of family-friendly fare on offer. Bieber-mania fails to make a splash. The King's Speech continues its inexorable march towards world domination (and after winning all the Oscars, we'll be talking about it here for weeks to come.)

1- PAUL (£5,511,325) (NEW)
2- GNOMEO & JULIET (£2,216,219) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £6,355,211)
3- THE KING'S SPEECH (£1,679,683) (7 WEEKS, TOTAL £37,122,370)
4- TRUE GRIT (£1,463,170) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £4,553,805)
5- YOGI BEAR (£1,366,965)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,858,744)
6- TANGLED (£1,291,618) (4 WEEKS, TOTAL £15,343,329)
7- BIG MOMMA'S: LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (£1,430,789)(NEW)
8- JUST GO WITH IT (£1,236,916) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,766,221)
9- JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER (£817,894)(NEW)
10- BLACK SWAN (£692,531)(5 WEEKS, TOTAL £14,277,888)

Berlinale Roundup

2011-02-18T20:59:00.006Z

Yesterday I returned from Berlin where I spent a week at the Berlinale, my second visit. Last year I blogged that the festival was a real downer in both tone and content, with a dominance of slow cinema, and frankly, unremarkable films. I thought it might have been an off year, but 2011 was yet another collection of mostly dour movies (with some exceptions, which I will talk about further ahead.)

This year I was there with two colleagues from the cinema, Rob Beames (Dukes staff member and writer for Obsessed with Film, Picturehouse Blog and his own, Beames on Film) and with Duty Manager Carina Volkes. You can listen to a podcast we all recorded together in Berlin at iTunes or at the Picturehouse website. Another podcast shall be recorded next week with a roundup of the festival.

One of the biggest stories at this year's festival is the presence of so many 3D features, many by acclaimed arthouse filmmakers: Wim Wenders' PINA, Herzog's CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS and Ocelot's TALES OF THE NIGHT being the three highest profile ones. This festival may mark a new beginning in the use of 3D outside of the blockbuster genre, as acclaimed filmmakers take on this new tool and apply it in unusual ways. Wenders has created a revolutionary performance piece with PINA, pushing the medium to maximum effect - I still haven't seen the Herzog, but we're installing 3D at The Dukes in order to screen it. Picturehouse Entertainment, a division of City Screen, our parent company, is distributing it in the UK and many of the cinemas in the group are installing 3D equipment ahead of this release. I believe this is a game-changing moment for the arthouse scene and 3D in this country, and eventually, in Europe.

Other highlights in the festival included THE GUARD, a hilarious comedy with Brendan Gleeson as a corrupt, perverse Irish cop; MAMA AFRICA, a documentary about Miriam Makeba, and THE DAY IS DONE, an experimental moving image project from Switzerland; and sitting next to Isabella Rossellini at the Bergman reception.

UK Box Office 4-6 Feb

2011-02-07T11:08:00.005Z

The chart is largely unchanged from last week, with Disney's TANGLED and Momentum's THE KING'S SPEECH holding the top two spots. New entries included James Cameron's latest 3D venture, SANCTUM, which had a decent debut. BRIGHTON ROCK opened with nearly £3k screen average, not bad for a film with a negative critical reception. Almost 10% of that gross came from Brighton, where audiences flocked to see themselves on the big screen. THE FIGHTER comes out punching above its weight at number three. RABBIT HOLE debuted at number 20, the single Oscar nomination not being sufficient to boost its box office.

1- TANGLED (£4,551,739) (2 weeks, total £10,724,869)
2- THE KING'S SPEECH (£2,727,445) (5 weeks, total £29,993,376)
3- THE FIGHTER (£2,107,277) (New)
4- BLACK SWAN (£1,719,895) (3 weeks, total £10,638,321)
5- SANCTUM (£857,961) (New)
6- THE MECHANIC (£532,238)(2 weeks, total £1,936,562)
7- A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN (£442,098) (New)
8- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (£394,607)(6 weeks, total £14,913,487)
9- BRIGHTON ROCK (£336,617) (New)
10- GREEN HORNET (£302,167) (4 weeks, total £5,422,401)

UK Box Office 28-30 Jan

2011-01-31T11:02:00.003Z

Disney shows it still dominates the family market with a spectacular opening for TANGLED, buoyed by 3D ticket prices and the lack of animation or child-friendly product out there. A superb £11k screen average. THE KING'S SPEECH shows no signs of letting up on its fourth week, with minimal drop in takings. Of the new releases, only macho actioneer THE MECHANIC showed any power, with HEREAFTER & HOW DO YOU KNOW? limping out of the gate. BIUTIFUL and BARNEY'S VERSION did OK business for arthouses.

1- TANGLED (£5,095,736) (New)
2- THE KING'S SPEECH (£3,623,234)(4 weeks, £24,894,347)
3- BLACK SWAN (£2,563,245) (2 weeks, total £7,299,437)
4- THE MECHANIC (£919,366) (New)
5- THE DILEMMA (£669,367) (2 weeks, total £2,292,011)
6- THE GREEN HORNET (£655,628) (3 weeks, total £4,909,200)
7- HEREAFTER (£598,686) (New)
8- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (£581,849) (5 weeks, total £14,453,679)
9- 127 HOURS (£408,585)(4 weeks, total £6,604,451)
10- HOW DO YOU KNOW? (£374,340) (New)

Oscar Nominations

2011-01-25T14:07:00.003Z

The Oscar nominations were announced just over an hour ago, and no big surprises were revealed, with THE KING'S SPEECH leading the way with twelve nods, including Best Picture, Actor and Director. THE SOCIAL NETWORK picked up ten nominations and TRUE GRIT eight. Nice to see WINTER"S BONE on the Best Picture list.

The full list:

BEST PICTURE

TRUE GRIT
THE FIGHTER
TOY STORY 3
INCEPTION
THE KING'S SPEECH
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
WINTER'S BONE
BLACK SWAN
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
127 HOURS

BEST DIRECTOR

DAVID FINCHER
DAVID O. RUSSELL
DARREN ARONOFSKY
TOM HOOPER
JOEL & ETHAN COEN

BEST ACTOR

COLIN FIRTH
JAVIER BARDEM
JESSE EISENBERG
JAMES FRANCO
JEFF BRIDGES

BEST ACTRESS

ANNETTE BENNING
NICOLE KIDMAN
JENNIFER LAWRENCE
NATALIE PORTMAN
MICHELLE WILLIAMS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

CHRISTIAN BALE
JOHN HAWKES
JEREMY RENNER
MARK RUFFALLO
GEOFFREY RUSH

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS
HELENA BONHAM CARTER
MELISSA LEO
HAILEE STANFIELD
JACKI WEAVER

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
TOY STORY 3
THE ILLUSIONIST

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

DOGTOOTH (GREECE)
BIUTIFUL (MEXICO)
OUTSIDE THE LAW (ALGERIA)
INCENDIES (CANADA)
IN A BETTER WORLD (DENMARK)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

TOY STORY 3
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
127 HOURS
WINTER'S BONE
TRUE GRIT

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ANOTHER YEAR
THE FIGHTER
INCEPTION
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
THE KING'S SPEECH

Uk Box Office 21-23 Jan

2011-01-24T11:23:00.003Z

The phenomenon that is THE KING'S SPEECH rolls on with no signs of letting up. As Oscar time approaches, the buzz will become a fever and then, presumably, an epidemic. Its weekend gross was only very slightly down from last week's, showing the legs the film has. In any other week, BLACK SWAN's opening would have been a number one spot (specially with a near £8K screen average). High concept and star driven films THE DILEMMA and MORNING GLORY fail miserably, proving that churning out generic product only works if you have a recognisable property attached to it. N.E.D.S. had a robust opening with nearly £4K screen average, third highest average in the top 10.

1- THE KING'S SPEECH (£4,193,961) (3 weeks, total £18,272,615)
2- BLACK SWAN (£2,704,406) (New)
3- GREEN HORNET (£1,187,393) (2 weeks, total £3,830,737)
4- THE DILEMMA (£1,101,561) (New)
5- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (£986,918) (4 weeks, total £13,726,584)
6- 127 HOURS (£803,929) (3 weeks, total £5,799,821)
7- LITTLE FOCKERS (£684,926) (5 weeks, total £18,250,519)
8- MORNING GLORY (£524,072)(New)
9- HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 (£339,940)(10 weeks, total £51,850,426)
10- N.E.D.S.(£281,855)(New)

UK Box Office

2011-01-17T11:43:00.004Z

Momentum was popping champagne as THE KING'S SPEECH conquered the box office for a second weekend in a row, this time with even an even higher gross and screen average. With a Golden Globe in the bag, and Oscars surely on their way, this film has 'legs' and could run for months. Many arthouse cinemas across the country were also celebrating in-house box office records (including the Dukes), wishing there were more adult crossover hits like these.

1- THE KING'S SPEECH (£4,390,184) (2 weeks, total £10,739,800)
2- THE GREEN HORNET (£1,876,030) (New)
3- 127 HOURS (£1,339,954) (2 weeks, total £4,364,963)
4- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (£1,247,401) (3 weeks, total £12,490,712)
5- LITTLE FOCKERS (£1,219,165) (4 weeks, total £17,154,981)
6- LOVE & OTHER DRUGS (£603,513) (3 weeks, total £4,689,964)
7- THE NEXT THREE DAYS (£538,118) (2 weeks, total £1,997,035)
8- HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 (£529,785) (9 weeks, total £51,325,438)
9- CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF DAWN TREADER (£407,421) (6 weeks, total £13,547,819)
10- TRON LEGACY (£330,423) (5 weeks, total £9,753,146)

Golden Globes

2011-01-17T07:53:00.004Z

In a foreshadowing of what is to come at the Oscars, THE SOCIAL NETWORK swept all the top categories at this year's Golden Globes, including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. Colin Firth, unsurprisingly, took the top Actor prize, and Natalie Portman Best Actress. Here's the full list:

BEST PICTURE, DRAMA
The Social Network

BEST PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
The Kids Are All Right

ACTOR, DRAMA
Colin Firth - The King's Speech

ACTRESS, DRAMA
Natalie Portman - The Black Swan

ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right

ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Paul Giamatti - Barney's Version

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Toy Story 3

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
In A Better World (Denmark)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE
Melissa Leo - The Fighter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE
Christian Bale - The Fighter

BEST DIRECTOR, MOTION PICTURE
David Fincher - The Social Network

BEST SCREENPLAY, MOTION PICTURE
Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, MOTION PICTURE
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross - The Social Network

BEST ORIGINAL SONG, MOTION PICTURE
"You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me" - Burlesque

UK Box Office 7-9 Jan

2011-01-10T13:16:00.005Z

This weekend British cinema triumphed with the universally acclaimed THE KING'S SPEECH, which boosted the fortunes of arthouse cinemas who'd been waiting for a hit this size for ages. 127 HOURS, although less seismic, also helped out specialised cinemas with a solid £5,261 per screen opening figure. Star vehicles for Crowe and Cage fail to capture anyone's attention.

1- THE KING'S SPEECH (£3,523,011)(New)
2- 127 HOURS (£2,166,828)
3- LITTLE FOCKERS (£1,798,670)(3 weeks, total £15,282,285)
4- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (£1,554,255)(2 weeks, total £10,881,578)
5- THE NEXT THREE DAYS (£1,046,300)(New)
6- LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (£805,621)(2 weeks, total £3,583,900)
7- HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 (£710,181)(8 weeks, total £
8- TRON LEGACY (£639,903)(4 weeks, total £9,072,983)
9- CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF DAWN TREADER (£618,726)(total £12,973,840)
10-SEASON OF THE WITCH (£559,766)(New)

Best of 2010

2010-12-22T18:04:00.007Z

Later this week Rob and I will record our 'Best Of' podcast - exactly one year ago, our very first podcast was a summary of 2009. Back then, I had probably seen more films than Rob had- now that ratio has reversed radically, with Rob having seen hundreds of films at the Dukes and festivals. My record is much poorer and therefore my list is less authoritative - but somehow I feel like my list wouldn't be too different anyway. Deciding what to include is difficult, and for me, it's just everything I've seen in the year, including things that haven't been released in 2010 (or might never get a release here).

Listen to an audio version of this and Rob's list on iTunes or on the Picturehouse site.

1- ALAMAR
One of the most moving films I have seen in years. Simple, beautiful, perfect.
2- BLACK SWAN
A mashup of Polanski, Cronenberg and Powell - yet completely at home in Aronofsky's obsession with self-destruction.
3- THE SOCIAL NETWORK
The most relevant of all films released this year - media and business exposed in a Citizen Kane-style tableau of greed and ambition.
4- SHUTTER ISLAND
Nobody can create a film history pastiche like Scorsese and still move you. His best in years.
5- MOTHER
Further proof that Korea (and its protectionist film policies) are near the top of the pile when it comes to talent. Gripping, surprising, completely original
6- DOGTOOTH
A disturbing, powerful and wonderfully allegorical story that can be interpreted in a million ways.
7- LIFE DURING WARTIME
As good as HAPPINESS - scary, poignant and brave.
8 - GREENBERG
A great 1970s movie - with a different production date this would be a New Hollywood classic.
9- SONS OF CUBA
A tiny film that proves you really don't need much money to create drama - just an eye and a subject.
10- REVOLUCION (compilation of short films, Carlos Reygadas' episode)
The Reygadas episode of this portmanteau is controlled chaos and cinematic genius. Proves he can do so more than 'slow' cinema.

Honorable mentions: INCEPTION, THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF THE DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, THE MAID, THE GHOST.

UK Box Office 17-19 Dec

2010-12-20T11:36:00.003Z

Disney opened TRON: LEGACY after an expensive budget ($170 million) and an equally expensive worldwide campaign ($150 million), and although I am skeptical about the legs on this title, it certainly did OK: nearly £2 million, and an over 4K screen average is nothing to be sniffed at. BURLESQUE, on the other hand, struggled out of the gate and stumbled along with just over £1K sreen average. Park Circus reissued IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, doing its 158th week of business and still going strong!

1- TRON: LEGACY (£1,954,589)(NEW)
2- CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF DAWN TREADER (£1,224,507)(2 weeks, total £4,773,562)
3- HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 1 (£870,110)(5 weeks, total £44,317,641)
4- THE TOURIST (£716,661)(2 weeks, total £2,913,208)
5- MEGAMIND (£566,806)(3 weeks, total £5,542,603)
6- BURLESQUE (£425,787)(New)
7- ANIMALS UNITED (£306,156)(New)
8- FRED: THE MOVIE (£252,117)(New)
9- UNSTOPPABLE (£157,051)(4 weeks, total £4,404,584)
10- DUE DATE (£75,227) (7 weeks, total £10,476,443)

New BFI

2010-12-17T10:27:00.005Z

The BFI announced yesterday a series of restructuring measures ahead of their new lead role in shaping film policy in the UK. One of the key decisions was to close the current gallery at the BFI Southbank and replace it with the BFI Library. This will come as a blow to moving image practitioners and enthusiasts, as there are few spaces like this, specially in such high profile locations. The rest of the announcement holds few surprises, with cost-cutting measures across the board, and a 'research centre' at Berkhamstead - an odd location for such a centre.

Here is what the BFI said in its announcement:

"At the core of the proposals are:

1) A plan to bring greater coherence to the cultural programme across the whole of the BFI, a move which will also reduce costs and create more incentives for fundraising and philanthropy. A new post of Director of BFI Public Programmes will lead a unified team of programmers across cinemas, festivals, distribution, digital and print.

2) An aim to further increase the number of people across the UK and internationally who can engage with the BFI's public programme and film culture. Digital technologies will play a critical part in this and the BFI proposes renewing infrastructure and investing in new skills.

3) Closure of the BFI Gallery at BFI Southbank as part of the prioritisation on those activities that only the BFI can deliver.

4) A proposal to move the BFI Library and reading room from its current location and create new facilities at BFI Southbank in the space currently used for the BFI Gallery.

5) Establishing a bespoke research centre for academics, the film industry and researchers in the heart of the BFI National Archive at Berkhamsted.

6) A stringent review of procurement processes to achieve economies; reducing overheads by making savings in support costs; boosting new business through the development of commercial opportunities both within the UK and internationally; a drive to increase fundraising income and philanthropy."

What this actually means in the short or even long term remains to be seen. Let's hope Greg Dyke knows what he's doing.

Uk Box Office 10-12 Dec

2010-12-13T10:44:00.003Z

Another chapter in the NARNIA franchise rolls out, knocking POTTER out of the top spot but not out of the game. THE TOURIST opens stronger here than in the US, and SOMEWHERE makes a modest entry in the Top 10 with nearly 2K screen average. Look at the drop off in takings after MEGAMIND - the box office is up, but at the expense of the little guys.

1- CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF DAWN TREADER (£2,066,507)(NEW)
2- HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 (£1,847,697)(4 weeks,total £42,389,209)
3- THE TOURIST (£1,298,193) (New)
4- MEGAMIND (£1,160,002)(2 weeks, total £4,500,086)
5- UNSTOPPABLE (£395,263)(3 weeks, total £3,978,235)
6- DUE DATE (£188,331)(6 weeks, total £10,259,040)
7- MONSTERS (£147,966)(2 weeks, total £678,083)
8- SOMEWHERE (£115,728)(New)
9- NO PROBLEM (£107,340) (New)
10 - THE AMERICAN (£107,020)(3 weeks, total £1,173,565)

Disney Trade Show '10

2010-12-10T10:29:00.005Z

Yesterday I attended the annual Walt Disney Exhibitor's Trade Show, which is a chance for the company to show exhibitors upcoming 'product', as they like to call films, and take the temperature on their slate. I find these events interesting as they give you a good insight into the inner workings of one of the biggest distributors in the UK, and obviously, one of the biggest entertainment companies worldwide. The UK film division is but a small part in a global corporation which has dominated family entertainment for decades.

Recently, Disney has undergone some corporate restructuring, with changes of power at the top and some aggressive acquisitions. Dreamworks studios and Marvel are shiny new items in their baskets, and they were keen to show these purchases off. The Marvel stock, particulary, will provide huge profits for Disney. Their first film from this new brand will be AVENGERS, and subsequently all the sequels and spin-offs from that property.

We had a chance to see some early footage from CARS 2, trailers and 'sizzles' for REAL STEEL, THE HELP, WINNIE THE POOH (my personal favorite), JOHN CARTER OF MARS, I AM NUMBER FOUR, PROM, PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN and of course TRON. Apart from Winnie, none of these releases really excited me at all and really don't belong in any arthouse/indie cinema.

TRON, on which Disney seems to be betting a lot, looks to me like a dud. The 23 minutes we saw are visually impressive, but (like the original) lacks any humour or life in it. There is nothing inherently wrong with that as I admire the original, but I don't see hordes of teenagers coming out for it.

Finally we had a screening of TANGLED (originally titled RAPUZNEL, as it's based on that fairy tale). The film has impressive 3D animation, probably the best I have seen so far (including Pixar's UP and TOY STORY 3) and plenty of witty dialogue and sight gags, but I am really not the target audience for this film. I am not a big fan of the 'canonical' Disney feature stuff (bar the classics from the 1930s-1940s) and the soppy songs just put me to sleep - literally. But it's a classy piece of 'product' and will most likely do very well.

UK Box Office 3-5 Dec

2010-12-06T13:36:00.003Z

Another week, another HARRY POTTER dominated box office. MEGAMIND took a big chunk of that family audience away, and homegrown indie genre flick MONSTERS came in strong at over £2K screen average.

1- HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 (£3,723,710) (3 weeks, total £39,129,043)
2- MEGAMIND (£1,913,050) (New)
3- UNSTOPPABLE (£859,201) (2 weeks, total £3,146,342)
4- DUE DATE (£389,875)(5 weeks, total £9,858,564)
5- MONSTERS (£336,390)(New)
6- THE AMERICAN (£283,417)(2 weeks, total £909,972)
7- LONDON BOULEVARD (£253,622)(2 weeks, total £1,059,713)
8- DESPICABLE ME (£136,282)(8 weeks, total £19,585,837)
9- THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (£113,957)(2 weeks, total £418,787)
10- THE WARRIOR'S WAY (£105,132)(New)

Ed Vaizey's Speech

2010-11-30T21:14:00.005Z

After yesterday's announcement which I summarised here, it's interesting to read through Culture Minister's Ed Vaizey's statement. One of the strangest elements of the statement was this section:

I want to continue to encourage other parts of the private sector to support British film as much as they can. I am therefore delighted that Odeon is announcing today a series of proposals to support the industry. They will reward Odeon Premiere Card holders with additional points every time they go to see a British Film; use their website to promote British films; and become a regular source of online information for British Film fans, including ODEON’s recommended “British Film Of The Month”. They will also consider giving guaranteed on-screen support to a British Film Of The Month, with a view to showing a wider choice of British films as a result.

Vaizey chose to highlight this quite paltry offer from Odeon as some kind of proof of the role that private business plays in our 'Big Society'. That this scheme will make no difference at all to the success of British film doesn't matter.

The minister on probably the most important topic of all for the industry:

In converting to digital technology, the cinema sector is experiencing its most significant change in perhaps 80 years. While this offers huge opportunities, we know it also represents a significant financial challenge to a large number of small independently-run cinemas across the country. That is why I am delighted that - with the support of the major cinema operators and studios – the industry is seeking its own solution through the UK Digital Funding Partnership. Recognising the social, cultural and economic value that many of these sites provide for their local communities, the Government very much supports the work of the Partnership in seeking to ensure that no cinema is left behind during this momentous change.

Unfortunately, a very vague statement that makes no commitments and offers no support beyond lip service. Leaving it only to the industry will guarantee that hundreds of cinemas will not be able to afford the equipment and risk closing down.

And finally, the most telling of all his statements:

Some people think there are two film industries in this country – the US film industry, and the UK film industry - and that somehow one side’s success is dependent on the other side’s failure. I do not share that view. I believe that the two industries are two sides of the same coin. We benefit massively from Hollywood’s investment in this country.

So no hope there for a homegrown, healthy, commercially robust UK film industry unless it's completely reliant on the studios. No chance of building a French-style business model that can enhance the British film profile at home and internationally unless it has a Warners logo on it.

If we have the properties (Potter, Bond, Narnia, etc), the actors, the writers, the directors, the studios, the locations, the tax credits - why aren't the projects originating here, with profits staying here beyond contractual work? Simply because the capital is missing. Maybe that's what a government strategy should persue: bringing the capital into the the equation.

David Thomson Vs Orson Welles

2010-11-30T17:53:00.006Z

In this month’s issue of Sight and Sound, David Thomson makes his case for why he thinks Citizen Kane shouldn't win best film of all time once again in S&S’s 10 year all time critics poll in 2012.

For those not familiar with this particular poll, it’s a far cry from your normal film magazine’s 100 best films of all time, which are written by three people in an magazine office. This is a comprehensive poll of the world’s leading film critics (and in 2002, the world’s leading filmmakers) on their choice of the top 10 films of all time. It’s only conducted once a decade, and Citizen Kane has been named Best in every poll since 1962.

David Thomson belongs to a group of people (which includes the actor and writer Simon Callow, the late critic Pauline Kael and others) dedicated to promote the idea that Orson Welles was a ‘flash in the pan’ director that peaked with Kane and then mostly created unfinished mediocre work that was a product of his ‘troubled’ personality.

On the other hand, there is a group of people (which includes director Peter Bogdanovich, critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and Joseph McBride, and of course, myself) that find Welles’ work fascinating in all its forms and decades, from his radio and theatre work in the 1930s to his ground-breaking cinematic work from Kane to F for Fake.

David Thomson, in his piece, offers no other evidence for ‘toppling’ Citizen Kane other than he thinks it’s been at the top for too long. In Thomson-esque fashion he writes a lot without saying much. What is evident from his article is that his vendetta against Orson Welles (even more perverse because it’s disguised as admiration) has not stopped, and will not stop until Kane is stripped of its title as the best film of all time.

Whatever your opinion of Orson Welles and Citizen Kane is, the poll is there as a serious, authoritative survey of critical opinion on what we call the canon. David Thomson can vote like everyone else in 2012. Why try and persuade voters to pursue a strategic vote policy? If we can’t vote with our hearts for things like films, what’s left? And what interest does Thomson have in knocking Citizen Kane?

UK Box Office 26 -28 Nov

2010-11-29T11:03:00.003Z

In an ironic counterpoint to the confusion and mess that the publicly funded UK film industry finds itself in, Harry Potter, that very British franchise, takes its second week at the top of the box office with a gargantuan £8 million. A glut of new releases were unleashed in the wake of Potter, but none of them really broke out. Momentum's THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST failed to ignite the box office the way the previous two episodes of the trilogy did, a sign perhaps that the franchise has run its course.

1- HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (£8,195,294)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £33,084,467)
2- UNSTOPPABLE (NEW) (£1,269,356)
3- DUE DATE (£895,078) (4 WEEKS, TOTAL £9,169,166)
4- LONDON BOULEVARD (£555,087)(NEW)
5- THE AMERICAN (£437,781)(NEW)
6- DESPICABLE ME (£241,465) (TOTAL £19,394,155)
7- THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (£198,568)(NEW)
8- JACKASS 3D (£119,217) (TOTAL 5,437,504)
9- SKYLINE (£92,930) (TOTAL £2,645,266)
10-MACHETE (£90,144)(NEW)

UPDATED - The UKFC Outcome

2010-11-29T10:23:00.008Z

This morning Ed Vaizey announced what would happen with the Lottery funds that the UK Film Council (UKFC) used to administrate. Ever since the UKFC got the boot in the summer, everyone has been speculating about where the cash would go. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has come under heavy criticism for abolishing the body without a plan for what to do next, which threw a lot of uncertainty and instability into an already fragile industry.

So today's announcement was heavily anticipated. Many already had predicted the main responsibilities would go to the British Film Institute (BFI), and they weren't wrong.
The main points are:

- The BFI gets £43 million for investment in film, an increase in the total Lottery sum.
- Regional screen agencies are gone, replaced by something called Creative England. (They take over responsibility for video games, too.) There will be three regional hubs as opposed to eight offices.
- Film London stays and gets the responsibility for inward investment in the UK.
- The Certification Unit (which decides how much money foreign film investors get) goes to the BFI.
- The tax credit that keeps American productions in the UK continues.

What does it mean? Well, the BFI are going to have to hire a bunch of people for starters. They are not really set up for distributing funds, so they'll need the right people and probably some bigger offices. What shape exactly Creative England will take is unsure, and of course, for the poor boy in the corner, exhibition, no news. Most likely the few funds that were available will disappear in the handover.

Another missing piece is a coherent digital strategy - what about new technologies for distribution/exhibition? The digital transition? The Digital Screen Network? Watch this space for some answers in the coming days.

UK Box Office 19-21 Nov

2010-11-22T11:31:00.003Z

Harry Potter kicked off with its biggest opening anywhere, with over £18 million in the UK, $330 million globally, and $125 million in the US. Imagine what the gross would have been in 3D? The average in the UK was a staggering £31,000 per screen. Ouch. It doesn't hurt that, for example, our local Odeon is playing it 26 times a day in seven of their eight screens. Warners was even pressuring cinemas to drop their own release DUE DATE to make way for Potter. Shock and awe.

1- HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (£18,216,658) (NEW) (Charles Gant will tell us tomorrow if this is the biggest opening ever in the UK)
2- DUE DATE (£1,215,337)(3 weeks, total £8,020,713)
3- DESPICABLE ME (£645,611)(6 weeks, total £19,063,963)
4- SYLINE (£512,510)(2 weeks, total £2,331,091)
5- JACKASS 3D (£348,172) (3 weeks, total £5,067,365)
6- RED (£218,208) (5 weeks, total £6,817,108)
7- ALPHA AND OMEGA (£192,352)(5 weeks, total £2,872,642)
8- GUZAARISH (£171,017) (New)
9- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (£169,608)(6 weeks, total £10,158,437)
10-ANOTHER YEAR (£161,958)(3 weeks, total £1,246,578)

The rise of the film festival

2010-11-19T12:19:00.003Z

The Festival circuit has grown incredibly over the last ten years. Britfilms.com lists over 250 Festivals in the UK, and the list is probably not up to date. This explosion has a two-fold root cause: cinemas seeking to programme films they can't schedule under a normal commercial programme, and the public funding available for Festivals that has become available.

Festivals, not only in the UK, but across the world, serve as a form of distribution for films that don't have a chance in the brutally competitive commercial marketplace. Some features never make it beyond that circuit, and while some may consider these failures, the growth in festivals means that they can now reach very wide audiences without ever playing in your local multiplex.

The CINECITY Film Festival allows Brightonians to explore cinema otherwise overlooked, and helps distributors promote upcoming films (for example, last night's preview of Momentum's THE KING'S SPEECH). Nicaraguan flick LA YUMA, for example, would be hard pressed to find a screening in Brighton without CINECITY. It also creates a sense of ocassion and excitement about cinema that you can't get in a normal week.

I've been lucky enough in recent years to be able to visit a wide variety of festivals, from Venice to Valdivia, and I have now understood their role and place in the film world. So while some may bemoan the explosion, I welcome this growth as it fulfills what any festival's core mission should be: bringing more films to more audiences.

UK Box Office 12-14 Nov

2010-11-15T17:12:00.001Z

This week releases were thin on the ground - one week ahead of the HARRY POTTER release. Picturehouses (my employer) took their first venture into distribution, with French film MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE. It took a decent £1400 per site, which given that most of the sites showing the film were also showing the Met Opera, is not bad at all. It should hold and build as people try to escape the POTTER-mania...

1- DUE DATE (£3,854,554) (2 weeks, total £5,740,152)
2- SKYLINE (£1,206,207) (New)
3- DESPICABLE ME (£1,089,300) (5 weeks, total £18,171,991)
4- JACKASS 3D (£1,059,713)(2 weeks, total £4,001,399)
5- SAW 3D (£537,911) (total £7,571,924)
6- RED (£506,113)(4 weeks, total £6,344,974)
7- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (£422,845) (5 weeks, total £9,762,369)
8- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (£392,008)(4 weeks, total £10,606,731)
9- ALPHA AND OMEGA (£297,718)(4 weeks, total £2,633,612)
10- ANOTHER YEAR (£292,987)(2 weeks £885,834)

Woody Allen Podcast & Free Membership!

2010-11-08T11:08:00.005Z

Rob and me have recorded a 'pantheon' podcast where we examine the life and work of Woody Allen, one of our favorite directors. You can download it at iTunes or at the Picturehouse website.

We are giving away a double membership to the Duke of York's Picturehouse, worth £55, to the best answer to the following question:

- What is your favorite Woody Allen movie and why?

All replies to splendorcinema@gmail.com, with Woody Allen in the subject please.

UK Box Office 5-7 Nov

2010-11-08T10:19:00.003Z

The power of comedy rules this week's box office, with the HANGOVER -style comedy DUE DATE taking the top spot, followed by gross-out shocker JACKASS 3D. The American remake of the Swedish vampire flick LET ME IN failed to fulfill its purpose of bringing the original to wider audiences. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT also fails to take off, perhaps because it opened too wide, not allowing it to build on a platform -style release.

1- DUE DATE (£2,336,882) (New)
2- JACKASS 3D (£1,624,153) (New)
3- DESPICABLE ME (£1,175,849) (4 weeks, total £16,861,243)
4- SAW 3D (£1,066,839) (2 weeks, total £6,406,516)
5- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (£685,885)(3 weeks, total £9,874,392)
6- RED (£588,659)(3 weeks, total £5,536,624)
7- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (£540,785) (4 weeks, total £9,028,547)
8- LET ME IN (£487,785) (new)
9- BURKE AND HARE (£332,595) (2 weeks, total £1,738,128)

Next week we have CITY SCREEN distributed MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE, and Paramount's SKYLINE, so the numbers shouldn't look too different.

Uk Box Office 28 Oct - 31 Oct

2010-11-01T10:51:00.003Z

Halloween weekend is SAW territory as the seventh (!) episode of the gruesome series ran, this time in 3D, right to the top. Oscar-favorite THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT opened with a solid 2K average, and I reckon it'll build word of mouth despite a terrible trailer. BURKE & HARE debuts at a dissapointing 6th place, and DESPICABLE ME continues its very succeful run at the family audience.

1- SAW 3D (£3,825,743) (NEW)
2- DESPICABLE ME (£2,577,257) (3 weeks, total £15,065,461)
3- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (£1,838,213) (2 weeks, total £8,294,348)
4- RED (£1,170,769) (2 weeks, total £4,330,383)
5- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (£1,070,714) (3 weeks, total £7,868,168)
6- BURKE AND HARE (£762,632) (New)
7- LEGEND OF GUARDIANS (£571,088) (2 weeks, total £2,430,571)
8- ALPHA AND OMEGA (£457,686) (2 weeks, total £2,001,401)
9- THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (£407,367) (New)
10- VAMPIRES SUCK (£313,426) (3 weeks, total £2,990,207)

The Social Network

2010-10-25T21:02:00.005+01:00

“This is OUR time” says Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake, in a key scene in THE SOCIAL NETWORK. This film is definitely the film of OUR time. It captures, with great skill and precision, the new world ahead of us, where the ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’ control the social networks that we all use and that define our lives, and the old rules don’t apply. But some things are always the same.

An traditional tale of the American dream, complete with ambition, greed, betrayal, sex, and men of great vision, THE SOCIAL NETWORK is one of the seminal movies about the capitalist system, the way CITIZEN KANE was in the 1940s or NETWORK in the 1970s or even THE INSIDER in the 1990s. It works so brilliantly because, like the films referenced above, it brings top-level screenwriters with complete command of their craft in touch with accomplished, even masterful directors for a cinematic marriage made in heaven.

Sorkin’s signature dialogue sizzles against a perfectly controlled and beautifully photographed backdrop, courtesy of Fincher’s near-perfect directorial skills. The context, our modern, networked world, is so meta as to become one with the audience. Eisenberg’s Zuckberg, real or not, represents the Bill Gates-sation of the western world, where command of the right algorithm is enough to create one of the planet’s largest fortunes. This realisation, that technological capitalism, at the beginning of this new century, knows no bounds and takes no prisoners, is both frightening and exhilarating.

Most films I watch make a definite and concrete impression on me, and I can feel my opinion of them being formed as I see them - THE SOCIAL NETWORK unpacked itself in my brain little by little, like a Trojan virus slowly but completely dominating my movie-centric brain. I left the screening confused and baffled, and throughout the evening realised the different levels at which it had affected me. I am writing this review and I can sense more meanings rolling out even as I type.

This film will require multiple viewings, but I have no desire to see it anytime soon. A masterpiece that will be required viewing for decades to come, this is the film of the year. Move over, BLACK SWAN.

Uk Box Office 22-24 Oct

2010-10-25T11:27:00.004+01:00

This weekend the sequel to one of the most profitable films of all time takes the top spot, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, with an incredible per screen average of over £8K. The takings on this will only continue to roll in as this weekend is Halloween. On the other side of the audience segment, DESPICABLE ME picks up another £2.5 million in receipts. The action movie geared towards the post-40 generation, RED, gathered a respectable £1.6 million, proving not all blow 'em ups need to be geared towards teens. Further proof that adults like movies comes from THE SOCIAL NETWORK's healthy gross.

1- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (£3,756,788)(NEW)
2- DESPICABLE ME (£2,574,511) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £7,569,824)
3- RED (£1,654,835) (NEW)
4- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (£1,531,098) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £5,354,684)
5- THE LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS (£747,374) (NEW)
6- ALPHA AND OMEGA (£644,522)
7- VAMPIRES SUCK (£528,625)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £2,023,209)
8- EASY A (£275,450) (NEW)
9- LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (£256,749) (3 WEEKS, TOTAL £2,912,651)
10- WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (£255,058) (3 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,695,078)

Cut!

2010-10-21T23:07:00.002+01:00

The Government, as we all know by now, has announced massive cuts in spending, including drastic and unprecedented cuts in the culture sector. Roughly speaking, this means cuts in the order of 50% of administrative cuts for the Arts Council, 30% of their overall funding, and 15% cuts in the regularly funded organisations (RFOs). The British Film Institute will experience 15% cut in funding. This comes on top of the abolition of the UK Film Council announced in the summer. What this means on the ground for arts and cultural organisations, to be honest, I don’t think anyone really knows yet. Of course, we all know it’s bad - it’s the extent of the damage done which is still unclear.

This comes within the context of cuts across the board in all sectors, and which is part of a wave of governments retreating throughout Western Europe. This consensus has been reached by the decision makers as their ‘cure’ for the excesses of the past decade, of which we were rudely awakened by the financial collapse of 2008. But not everyone around the world is adopting the same policies in order to deal with the hangover left by the bubble.

In the US, on top of the bank bailout, Obama injected 800 million dollars into the economy, in China, over 500 million was invested - in countries like Venezuela, Argentina and other Latin American countries, the world financial calamity has been avoided by huge government investment. This shows, simply, that there are other ways of handling this crisis, which incidentally, was brought on by none of the people affected by the alleged solution.

These cuts don’t only mean (from a cultural perspective) less money for the production and practice of arts, but also the space and the regard that as a society we give culture. In order for a developed nation like the UK to compete in a multipolar world where China, India and Brazil are investing tons of cash and energy in technology, culture and renewable energy, a post-industrial UK will have to rely on culture and technology in order to survive this global transition.

The only upside I can see from this is a political awakening of the cultural practitioners, a new understanding, after a decade of a sympathetic Labour government, that what happens politically and economically is completely and inexorably linked to the cultural sphere. We have to become better at talking to politicians, lobbying, protesting, legislating, and forming networks to find strength amongst each other. We can also make our organisations more profitable - finding ways to make cash without public support. That doesn't mean we shouldn't also appeal for that very support. We can double track our policies. The very survival of art and culture in this country might depend on it.

UK Box Office 15-17 Oct

2010-10-18T11:12:00.002+01:00

Back to business then...the box office heats up in the UK with the release of product for all demographics: DESPICABLE ME for kids, THE SOCIAL NETWORK for adults and VAMPIRES SUCK for teens. The results for all three were pretty good:

1- DESPICABLE ME (£3,448,702)(New)
2- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (£2,100,648)(New)
3- VAMPIRES SUCK (£1,086,717) (New)
4- WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (£675,343)(2 weeks, total £3,083,707)
5- LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (£623,028)( 2 weeks, total £2,261,269)
6- THE TOWN (£342,173)(4 weeks, total £4,441,668)
7- MADE IN DAGENHAM (£338,160) (3 weeks, total £2,557,018)
8- THE OTHER GUYS (332,026)(5 weeks, total £7,782,048)
9- DEATH & LIFE OF CHARLIE ST CLOUD (£314,401) (2 weeks, £1,297,876)
10- APLHA AND OMEGA (£177,072)(new)

Valdivia: the end

2010-10-16T14:51:00.003+01:00

In a few hours I depart on my 28 hour journey back to the UK. The Cine Sin Fronteras sessions concluded yesterday after we all presented our projects and received feedback and help from the professionals and other trainees. In the end I didn't manage to see any films, as our schedule and the amount of networking events to attend took over.

One of the most interesting aspects of this training was meeting film producers and distributors from Latin America and learning how they do their job. For example, Fiorella Moretti from Mantarraya Films (they produce and distribute films in Mexico) who works with acclaimed Cannes-winning Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas (BATTLE IN HEAVEN, SILENT LIGHT) and who also releases arthouse films in Mexico like UNCLE BOONMEE. I also met Uruguayan producer Fernando Epstein, who produced WHISKY and GIGANTE (winner in Berlin this year). Florencia Schapiro from Lat-E, a sales agent and distributor, looks after the Argentinian arthouse market - check her blog out here.

The challenges they face are huge compared to the issues we face in Western Europe, in what is called 'mature markets': lack of audiences, lack of cinemas, lack of incentives, lack of cash, lack of any coherent cultural policy....these are all problems affecting Europeans, but on a very different scale.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Venezuela seems like an exciting place because of the new laws that have been adopted recently which create incentives (very much in the model of Europa Cinemas) for cinemas to show national, Latin American and European cinema. There is also extensive funding for Venezuelan cinema, and hopefully we'll see the effects of these measures reaching our shores soon.

So thanks to our very lovely hosts in Valdivia who have been sweet from day one, and I shall definitely be returning as soon as I can...

I am heading back to Brighton with a ton of ideas and contacts for the CINE ESTELI project but also keen to get back to work at the Dukes, and catch up with all my favorite customers. See you there!

Valdivia Day 3

2010-10-14T19:13:00.004+01:00

As I write we are still in the middle of the training sessions that comprise the work of Cine Sin Fronteras, and tomorrow we present our projects. The days are long and hard, but very productive - and what's the point in sleeping when you travel across the world?

I've made some important contacts that will hopefully help me take the CINE ESTELI project forward, including key funding bodies and festivals. I've also heard some really interesting presentations, including one from Paula Astorga, who is the head of the Cineteca in Mexico City. She talked in depth about audience segmentation and it reminded me of something that I think I already knew: that understanding who your audience is key.

A company called BRAZUCA also presented the work they do in Universities in Brazil, which is much more sophisticated than I expected to find in South America, but that says more about my poorly informed expectations than about the level of the market down here.

Based on my very limited experience and knowledge of Chile, I can categorically say (without trying to sound like a suck up to my gracious hosts) that Chileans are the most polite collection of people I have ever encountered in my travels.

Tonight we finally see a film, Sebastian Silva's GATOS VIEJOS (OLD CATS). Full review to follow tomorrow.

Valdivia, Day 2

2010-10-13T11:57:00.002+01:00

Would more cinemas increase admissions? This very theory was presented by Patrice Vivancos, a media expert/consultant yesterday at our first full day of work for the CSF workshops. Using the US market as a model, where there is a screen per each 7,800 inhabitants (and consequently has the highest visit per capita worldwide), he argues that if the industry wants more customers, it needs to start re-opening or building new cinemas. This sparked quite a debate, as the US model is not seen as particularly an enlightened one by arthouse operators, particularly since its the French model that is being presented here as the panacea to all our problems.

The French system taxes all movies, TV and any other audiovisual commercial activities to the tune of half a billion euros each year and then reinvests this money in their national industry. This is a hugely privileged position that few countries can afford, if only because 21st century WTO rules prohibit such protectionism. But in another sign that the world is changing and the Washington consensus is not so consensual, Venezuela have just passed a law (our Venezuelan colleagues tell me) that makes it a legal requirement for multiplexes to play national cinema, and injects a lot of money into production, distribution and exhibition of national and Latin American cinema.

After the sessions we were given a tour of Teatro Cervantes, a 1940s theater that is closed permanently but re-opened each year just for the Festival dates. They have a collection of ancient projectors and were busy making the space safe and ready for audiences when the fest opens tomorrow. They clearly had heard of my obsession with historic cinemas.

As always with these events, the real reward is in meeting likeminded colleagues doing the same work in a different country - with different markets, cultures, and laws. Some of the best debates about the future of arthouse happened over a quinoa risotto (a local speciality).

Valdivia Day 1

2010-10-12T12:54:00.005+01:00

After a grueling 20-hour journey with four different flights, we arrived in Valdivia, Chile, yesterday, as part of the Cine Sin Fronteras workshops I am attending here until Saturday. The Valdivia Film Festival doesn't kick off till Thursday (opening film will be OLD CATS, from Sebastian Silva, director of LA NANA, which I saw in Toulouse in March) and I am hoping we'll see a few other films before my departure.

Chile has a long and strong cinematic tradition, linked most notably in the past to its political backdrop. The superb documentary THE BATTLE OF CHILE (PARTS 1, 2 & 3) by Patricio Guzman was the definitive account of the Allende presidency and his demise after the Pinochet-led coup in 1973. Miguel Littin contributed to this genre with the doc COMPANERO PRESIDENTE about Allende. 20 years of Pinochet's rule silenced the industry but recently the country has come back with a vengeance: Pablo Lorrain (TONY MANERO, POST MORTEM), Andres Wood (MACHUCA) and Sebastian Silva (LA NANA) are all filmmakers dealing in new ways with the political realities of Chile. Alejandro Jodorowsky (EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN) is a Chilean filmmaker more known for his Mexican-set films.

Last night we met our Latin American counterparts, which include Venzuelans, Chileans, Mexicans, Argentinians and Uruguayans. We also have observers and presenters from Brazil and Peru. Over dinner last night I heard about the new laws coming into effect in Venezuela, where exhibitors will be forced to show Venezuelan films and multiplexes will have to dedicate one of their screens permanently to non-Hollywood product. This has created a surge in homegrown productions, which the state is funding. We might see in the next few years a new wave of Venezuelan cinema, spurred by direct government intervention.

I shall keep you posted in the next few days. Hasta pronto!

Heading South

2010-10-09T17:10:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow I fly to Valdivia, Chile, to attend the second part of the Cine Sin Fronteras workshops that started in March in Toulouse at the Cine Latino Film Festival, where European and Latin American exhibitors get together to present their projects, network and help where possible.

My project is CINE ESTELI, the beleaguered Nicaraguan cinema I am working to bring back to life. In March, I got a lot of great ideas and contacts that have helped me with my work, and I hope this trip will be as fruitful. The Valdivia Film Festival is happening in the background, but one look at our programme tells me we won't have much time to watch films.

I'll update the blog from Valdivia in the coming days so stay tuned. Hasta pronto!

Digital Europe

2010-10-07T15:42:00.003+01:00

The European Commission made an announcement last week that represents the first formal commitment to digitally converting cinemas. Money has been used of course for these projects through regional funds, but the EC has now committed 4 million Euros towards the initiative, recognising that arthouse cinemas are vulnerable and that the digital conversion, as many benefits as it brings, can also mean the consolidation of the sector, and the squeezing out of many indies.

The UKFC's effort to digitise cinemas was only partially successful, as they equipped multiplexes that were going to upgrade anyway due to 3D. That left around 300 cinemas in the UK vulnerable and in danger of closing.

The same process has been replicated in the continent, with large operators purchasing equipment to make sure they can screen AVATAR and ALICE while independent cinemas are left in the 35mm past.

Left to the market forces, small independent arthouse cinemas will simply vanish. Despite the tough climate, exhibitors need to be lobbying and campaigning for funds, while at the same time being as commercially savvy as possible and exploiting every avenue for income.

Flick's Flicks - October

2010-10-06T09:04:00.000+01:00

Kaunas International Film Festival

2010-10-05T16:21:00.005+01:00

Today I returned from the Kaunas International Film Festival in Lithuania, where I was invited by the Festival Director, Ilona Jurkonyte, whom I met in Venice last year.

I was invited to speak on a panel/seminar called Cinemas in Community, and my fellow guests were two philosphers and an architect, people far more qualified than me to talk about the social theory and physical history of cinema, so I came with a very practical and down-to-earth approach. It was a fascinating day which ended in a debate about the future of arthouse cinema and arthouse cinemas, with me (as always) arguing for networks and more commercial common sense on the behalf of exhibitors.

Rob Beames accompanied me on the trip, and we both saw the Palme D'Or winner UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES as part of the Festival lineup. Unfortunately we didn't have any more time to see any of the other interesting things on offer, and we left too early to catch the Bela Tarr retrospective (and visit from the filmmaker) that follows tomorrow. Our thoughts on UNCLE BOONMEE will follow in Splendor Podcast #35.

While we were there, Ilona received the keys to Romuva, a historic cinema from the 1930s which she has been battling to save from a developer for the last four years. We received a tour of the beautiful building and discussed her plans for its future.

The festival organisers and staff were delightful, helpful and very welcoming, and we were also visited by some of our friends in Vilnius, who have made me promise to return and visit their arthouse cinemas (Skalvija & Pasaka), which I look forward to doing soon.

Tony Curtis 1925-2010

2010-09-30T12:24:00.003+01:00

Tony Curtis died today aged 85. One of the most beloved classic Hollywood stars, he was an actor of limited range but who nevertheless gave some landmark performances. He was both a matinee idol and later on a gay culture icon, father of Jamie Lee Curtis and husband to Janet Leigh. My favorite Curtis moments include his turn in THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS:

And of course in Kubrick's SPARTACUS:

He tried to stretch his range by taking on the role of the killer in THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968) and his only Academy Award nomination came from that quintessential liberal 1950s Stanley Kramer movie THE DEFIANT ONES. But his most remembered, quoted and loved role came from Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT, where he parodied one of his early heroes, Cary Grant:

UK Box Office 24-26 Sep

2010-09-27T14:20:00.003+01:00

Will Ferrell's comedy continues to run the box office two weeks in, while two new entries post decent but not breakout performances. THE TOWN could have legs though and if cinemas keep it on, I reckon it could build word of mouth. Joe Dante's THE HOLE will most likely acquire cult status.

1 - THE OTHER GUYS (£1,291,826) (2 weeks, Total £4,410,165)
2 - EAT PRAY LOVE (£1,158,976) (New)
3 - THE TOWN (£997,087) (New)
4 - THE HOLE (£900,460) (New)
5 - DEVIL (£528,396) (2 weeks, total £1,849,497)]
6 - TOY STORY 3 (£461,116)(10 weeks, total £70,681,495)
7 - GROWN UPS (£383,686) (5 weeks, total £6,911,411)
8 - RESIDENT EVIL 3 (£367,673) (3 weeks, £4,125,208)
9 - TAMARA DREWE (£253,471) (3 weeks, £2,111,787)
10 - MARAMADUKE (£244,285) (6 weeks, £4,800,307)

The Next 100 Years

2010-09-22T08:21:00.007+01:00

Today the Duke of York's Picturehouse turns 100. When I started the job in 2004, this anniversary seemed a million miles away, and it lingered in the back of my mind for about four years. Then in 2008 we started slowly planning our celebrations, and two years later, here we are.

The Duke of York's has been more than my workplace for the past six years - it's been the place that has allowed me to do everything else: pursue my MA, travel to festivals, write this blog, record our podcast, work with extraordinary people, with artists, performers, musicians, comedians and above all the core staff that has been with me since the beginning: Flick, Tora and Jimmy. And of course talking to our wonderful customers. For all of that I owe the Duke a lot.

So although today is all about looking backwards to our history, I want it also to be an opportunity to look to the future of our little cinema. For some time we have been pursuing the expansion of the Duke of York's into the Fire Station next door, and recently there have been some developments which give us hope. Our plans include building a few more screens, a bigger cafe/bar, even a restaurant, and perhaps a partnership with another cultural organisation in town which would significantly expand the amount of arts on offer in Brighton & Hove. As soon as we can, we'll announce more.

Until then, do pop by this week to wish us a happy birthday and leave your own memories of coming to the Dukes. If you're farther away, check out our history website and send us a message.

Uk Box Office 17-19 Sep

2010-09-20T16:20:00.002+01:00

Will Ferrell comedy THE OTHER GUYS takes the top spot this weekend while across the pond Ben Affleck's THE TOWN takes number one. DEVIL opens in the second slot in what is a slow week for exhibitors. The only other release to even crack a significant screen average was arthouse film WINTER'S BONE which opened on 50 prints, an ambitious release for specialist distributor Artifical Eye.

1- THE OTHER GUYS (£1,971,275) (New)
2- DEVIL (£806,779) (New)
3- RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (£686,243) (2 weeks, total £3,150,061)
4- TOY STORY 3 (£570,649) (9 weeks, £71,806,688)
5- GROWN UPS (£511,616) (4 weeks, total £6,303,744)
6- TAMARA DREWE (£431,900) (2 weeks, total £1,547,744)
7- THE LAST EXORCISM (£320,315) (3 weeks, total £3,167,101)
8- MARMADUKE (£273,101) (5 weeks, total £4,523,266)
9- DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (£238,087) (4 weeks, total £2,053,198)
10- SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (£232,355) (4 weeks, total £4,813,232)

Uk Box Office 10-12 Sep

2010-09-13T10:55:00.002+01:00

This week 3D gorefest RESIDENT EVIL captures the top spot without much difficulty. Also, a success for British cinema: TAMARA DREWE opens strong (albeit very widely for a homegrown film) with around £2K screen average.

1- RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE 3D (£1,705,201)
2- GROWN UPS (£734,960)
3- TOY STORY 3 (£733,695)
4- THE LAST EXORCISM (£721,960)
5- TAMARA DREWE (£601,678)
6- SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (£433,960)
7- GOING THE DISTANCE (£431,792)
8- CYRUS (£424,911)
9- DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (£396,882)
10- THE EXPENDABLES (£362,539)

Venice: Postscript

2010-09-09T15:49:00.004+01:00

I returned from Venice yesterday after a fortnight on the island of San Servolo. I didn't get to enjoy the Mostra di Cinema as much as I would have liked to, but I did see three films: Darren Aronofsky's BLACK SWAN, which me and Rob Beames agreed is a masterpiece, Catherine Breillat's SLEEPING BEAUTY, a monumental failure, and John Turturro's PASSIONE, a sweaty, funny, energetic and beautiful document of the Naples music scene.

At the CICAE training, it was my job to keep notes of all the English language sessions, and we had some interesting ones. Kelly Bagely, from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in Manchester, had some radical ways of looking at venues from the audience perspectives. Based on extensive audience research, her company help organisations like TATE understand what audiences want from them. I found it fascinating!

Another interesting session was held by Patrice Vivancos, an expert for the European Commission, who talked about the need for more cinemas and why, making a convincing argument for higher screen density and its relationship to cinema admissions.

The most important element of all, of course, was meeting all the new trainees, 51 of them from 27 different countries, including Daryl Els from Johanesburg and Roy Dib from Beirut. Some of the interesting people (I couldn't possibly list them all) I spoke to included Meryl Moser from Switzerland, Martyna Lach from Warsaw, Dirk Van Der Straaten from Amsterdam and Ivea Bužinskaitė from Lithuania. They all had backgrounds and experiences that aroused my interest, and now I can count them as friends too. One year ago this led to many projects and ideas - who knows what will come out of this year's training.

Uk Box Office 3-5 Sep

2010-09-07T06:50:00.002+01:00

Another week of box office figures from Venice...as the school holidays end you see the rise in non-family films, which dominated the charts for so many weeks. It's also a shrunken market, with films that opened in July (INCEPTION, TOY STORY 3) still in the chart.

1- THE LAST EXORCISM (£1,066,324)
2- TOY STORY 3 (£920,998)
3- GROWN UPS (£860,533)
4- SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (£689,992)
5- DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (£625,302)
6- THE EXPENDABLES (£620,271)
7- SALT (£503,692)
8- THE SWITCH (£468,313)
9- PIRANHA 3D (£443,795)
10 - INCEPTION (£411,743)

Venice: All the Days

2010-09-03T06:54:00.003+01:00

Training work has kept me too busy to blog, but there is a lot going on: I saw two movies in the Mostra, BLACK SWAN and SLEEPING BEAUTY, recorded a podcast with Rob Beames, and have been meeting the new trainees from the CICAE workshops. BLACK SWAN is, in my view, Darren Arronofsky's first masterpiece. He blends the techniques from REQUIEM FOR A DREAM with the narrative drive of THE WRESTLER to create a mind-blowing experience, a total cinematic event that will not leave my head. Superb from beginning to start, I really can't think of a flaw. A perfectly constructed and realised piece of work, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a hit in the UK< and gathered some Oscar nominations (specially for Natalie Portman, who is at her career best).
Last night we saw Catherine Breillat's SLEEPING BEAUTY, which was an embarrassing mess of a movie (made worse by the director's presence in the Sala Darsena) which starts off as a funny, quirky take on the fairy tale and about 15 minutes in jumps the boat with so many ludicrous and poorly acted turns that we all were checking our clocks to see when the 82 minute disaster would finally and mercifully come to an end.

You can read all of Rob's coverage at the Picturehouse Blog, his own blog and at Obsessed With Film. You can also listen to our special Venice podcast on itunes her, and on the Picturehouse website here.

UK Box Office 27 -31 Aug

2010-08-31T18:50:00.003+01:00

This week analysis is thin as I have very little time - here are the final numbers for the extended weekend:

1- TOY STORY 3 (£2,009,826)
2- GROWN UPS (£1,913,148)
3- THE EXPENDABLES (£1,666,139)
4- SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (£1,405,560)
5- SALT (£1,243,510)
6- PIRANHA 3D (£1,121,117)
7- INCEPTION (£898,519)
8- MARMADUKE (£750,163)
9- AVATAR 3D (£654,098)
10-DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (£577,433)

Venice Days 1 &2

2010-08-29T17:48:00.008+01:00

I arrived in Venice yesterday for the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Training and was reunited with some of my colleagues from last year: Francesco, Maureen, Julie, Cathleen, Silvia and Sylvie. We spent most of the day organising things for the trainees, who all start arriving tomorrow: Mostra accreditation, and less glamourous things like their meal tickets. When collecting the accreditation earlier we took a tour behind the scenes of the industry offices in the Pallazzo, and even though we are 48 hours away from opening night, it feels like a war zone.

Last night while walking on the Bridge of Sighs, I was telling Sylvie all about the wonderful CINEVILLE network in Amsterdam, and I suddenly heard my name being called out: "Jon?" - it was Niels Bueller, the director of the Dutch network, who is in town for the festival, and who'd overheard the name of his Amsterdam scheme. Tomorrow Niels and 50 other arthouse cinema managers from all over Europe (and South Africa and Lebannon) will be joining us for a welcoming party called "One Nation, One Bottle" where, irresponsibly in my opinion (as a non drinker) we encourage each participant to bring a bottle of liquor from their country. As a multinational myself, I chose to represent England best with a bottle of Pimms....we'll see how it goes down.

Venezia 2010

2010-08-26T08:58:00.005+01:00

On Saturday I depart for Venice for the annual CICAE (International Federation of Arthouse Cinemas) traning course. It's a unique event, in that it gathers around fifty arthouse cinema managers from all over Europe, from Lithuania to the UK, and proceeds to work, for ten days, through every aspect of the business of running an arthouse cinema (marketing, programming, management, etc).

Last year I attended as a student, and this year I return as part of the coordinating team, organising workshops, taking notes and 'entertaining' the lecturers. Amongst the group of returnees, we jokingly refer to San Servolo (the island off Venice where the course takes place) as Shutter Island, as it's a former mental institution and is a self-contained rock. It is certainly a magical and mysterious place, and it all runs parallel to the Mostra di Cinema, the Venice Film Festival.

My colleague Robert Beames (co-host of our podcast) will be there reporting for Obsessed with Film and the Picturehouse Blog, and we hope to be recording at least a couple of podcasts talking about the films on show at the festival. Check back here for blogging updates.

Ciao!

UK Box Office 20-22 Aug

2010-08-23T11:39:00.002+01:00

This week the macho fest that is the EXPENDABLES opened, providing the testosterone that has been absent from the family-friendly charts. SALT also opened strong, and the TOY STORY 3 juggernaut carries on. INCEPTION is holding up, benefitting from repeat viewings. The real success story is THE ILLUSIONIST, which Warner/Pathe released on just 42 prints, with a nearly £4K screen average. The Dukes average was about twice that!

1- THE EXPENDABLES (£3,877,201) (New)
2- SALT (£2,142,841) (New)
3- TOY STORY 3 (£2,102,831) (5 weeks, Total £63,844,837) - Now the 5th biggest film of all time in the UK!
4- PIRANHA 3D (£1,490,348) (New)
5- INCEPTION (£996,591) (6 weeks, Total £30,056,496)
6- KNIGHT & DAY (£819,914) (3 weeks, Total £7,946,529)
7- MARMADUKE (£628,581)(New )
8- THE LAST AIRBENDER (£618,047) (2 weeks, Total £3,313,496)
9- STEP UP 3 (£510,985) (3 weeks, £6,639,658)
10- SORCERER'S APPRENTICE (£443,807) (2 week, Total £2,374,814)

We Need a Manager!

2010-08-20T22:37:00.006+01:00

The Duke of York's Picturehouse is Britain's oldest cinema. Not only a cultural gem in Brighton, but one of the UK's most succesful and acclaimed arthouse cinemas too.

We're looking for a new Duty Manager.

We need a film-obsessed, self-motivated person, who loves to interact with customers.

Our ideal person will be a film buff, with management experience and top-notch customer service skills. You'll need to be full of energy and ideas. A genuine self-starter who can remain calm in a crisis.

On a day-to-day basis, you'll be responsible for running every aspect of the cinema's operations, from projection to stock control, from health & safety to maintenance, all the while delivering award-winning customer service.

Key skills:

- Customer Service experience
- Cinema or venue experience
- Management experience
- Extensive film knowledge

Bonus skills:

- Cafe/bar experience
- Administration/Health and Safety experience
- Projection experience

All CV's, along with a cover letter, should be sent to: jon.b@picturehouses.co.uk by the 8th of September.

Ed Vaizey Vs Dirty Harry

2010-08-18T10:22:00.007+01:00

The announcement of the abolition of the UK Film Council has created a lot of heat for the new Culture Minister Ed Vaizey. Perhaps unsurprinsignly, actors, directors and producers on both sides of the Atlantic have written letters to the Governement protesting the move (including Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg), and a wide public campaign against the closure has swept Facebook and other social media platforms.

Ed Vaizey has reprimanded the UKFC for using public funds to lobby against its own closure, writing a letter to Chairman John Woodward. Apparently the UKFC PR machine has been briefing Hollwyood figures about the implications of the closure in terms that endanger future American productions in this country.

Whatever you think of the role of the UKFC, it would seem to this blogger that the UKFC is simply looking out to save its own jobs, and the Government got itself into a fight that it wasn't prepared for. You don't want Dirty Harry saying you've made a mistake.

The real questions should be about public funding, and where is it going? Will the BFI receive the cash once allocated to the UKFC? Will the 20% tax benefit remain in place (the biggest chunk of public funding for film comes from this tax credit)? The debate has gotten lost in the celebrity-driven furore and the clever press manipulation by the UKFC. Show us the money!

UK Box Office 13-15 Aug

2010-08-16T11:40:00.002+01:00

Two box office milestones were reached this week: INCEPTION reached $500 million worldwide and TOY STORY became the biggest animated feature of all time in the US and in the UK. For once, critical opinion is in step with popular taste. You'll notice from now on, I shall include the accumulated takings and week on release figures for a fuller perspective on the numbers.

1- TOY STORY 3 (£3,162,471) (4 weeks, Total £45, 758,989)
2- INCEPTION (£1,583,229) (5 weeks, Total £27,852,777)
3- KNIGHT AND DAY (£1,517,676) (2 weeks, Total £5,896,704)
4- THE LAST AIRBENDER (£1,293,472) (New)
5- STEP UP 3 (£1,078,100) (2 weeks, Total £4,946,688)
6- THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE (£851,380) (New)
7- KARATE KID (£736,667) (3 weeks, Total £10,599,042)
8- THE A-TEAM (£761,269) (3 weeks, Total £8,890,552)
9- TINKER BELL & THE GREAT FAIRY RESCUE (£761,269)(New)
10- CATS & DOGS 2 (£269,186) (2 weeks, Total £2,012,626)

UK Box Office 6-8 August

2010-08-09T11:55:00.002+01:00

The box office is on fire as school's out and family-friendly films fill the multiplexes. The fight for 3D screens hurt the chances of new entries STEP UP 3 and CATS & DOGS 2 as TOY STORY 3 held on to most of its screens. Tom Cruise still has some pulling power, and if it weren't for the Pixar monster, he'd have had a respectable number one. GAINSBOURG hanging in the Top 10.

1- TOY STORY(£4,641,352)
2- KNIGHT & DAY (£2,388,240)
3- INCEPTION (£2,250,991)
4- STEP UP 3 (£2,000,887)
5- KARATE KID (£1,404,687)
6- THE A-TEAM (£1,370,832)
7- CATS & DOGS 2 (£739,861)
8- SHREK FOREVER AFTER (£357,341)
9- TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE (£321,163)
10- GAINSBOURG (£86,253)

London Film Festival - Opening Film

2010-08-06T13:11:00.003+01:00

The London Film Festival announced its opening film today. NEVER LET ME GO, directed by Mark Romanek (ONE HOUR PHOTO), based on the bestselling novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The film stars Keira Knightley and everyone's favorite Brit girl right now Carey Mulligan, and the new Spider-man, Andrew Garfield.

This 54th edition of the Festival should be an interesting one, as its principal funder is the now dead-man-walking UKFC. It's also a strange festival as it has no market, no big prizes, just a lot of movie stars, but strangely none of the glamour associated with their presence, the way you get in Venice or Cannes. Kind of like the BAFTAs, it feels slightly superfluous.

Uk Box Office 30 Jul - 1 Aug

2010-08-02T10:14:00.004+01:00

Pixar rules the school holiday slot easily, with another £8 million for TOY STORY 3 in the bank for an astonishing £39.8 million in just two weeks. INCEPTION shows it has lots of legs as it holds on to the number two spot despite fierce competition from KARATE KID and THE A TEAM, which disappoint in their debuts. Yet another French film makes it to the Top 10, as GAINSBOURG manages a decent £2,196 screen average in a crowded marketplace.

1- TOY STORY 3 (£8,039,573)
2- INCEPTION (£3,199,047)
3- KARATE KID (£2,564,547)
4- THE A-TEAM (£2,481,325)
5- SHREK FOREVER AFTER (£891,844)
6- TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE (£773,877)
7- THE REBOUND (£177,096)
8- GAINSBOURG (£152,313)
9- PREDATORS (£111,079)
10- ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI (£53,068)

Uk Box Office 23-25 July

2010-07-28T08:24:00.003+01:00

The UKFC's demise on Monday distracted me from my box office duties. Here they are:

1- Toy Story 3 (£21,187,264)
2- Inception (£4,172,568)
4- Shrek Forever After (£1,223,759)
5- The Rebound (£360,015)
6- Predators (£305,424)
7- Khatta Meetha (£124,104)
8- Get Him To The Greek (£119,424)
9- Splice (£110,225)
10- Leaving (£39,409)

No surprises there: TOY STORY 3 wipes the floor clean with everyone, taking more than the rest of the list combined. INCEPTION holds up very well - proving that word of mouth is all you need sometimes.

The End of An Era

2010-07-26T15:14:00.003+01:00

In 2000, the Labour government created the UK Film Council in the midst of a frenzy of spending in the arts that was welcome by every creative person in this country after the Thatcher era, in which the arts were left to wither in the marketplace. Of course there were complaints about the projects funded, the distribution of the funding, and the quality of the content that was created in its aftermath, but the idea was a good one.

Script development, post-production, prints and advertising, digital projection, were among the things that the UKFC funded, and the Digital Screen Network, was, in my opinion, the single best capital project they ever financed. It created an advance post for digital projection in the UK, giving us an advantage over our European neighbours, the effects of which we can still feel in the specialised sector to this day. They also created the Statistical Yearbook, an invaluable resource filled with facts and figures about the film industry that was a godsend to people like me.

While the dissolution of the UKFC might seem like a small dot in the larger scale of cutbacks that are yet to come, with millions facing unemployment and reduced benefits, the UKFC had a multiplier effect, as it promoted (through the P&A fund) foreign language films, documentaries and British cinema that might not otherwise be able to reach a wide audience.

That said, I have been one of many critics of the UKFC – you can see my track record here. There are certainly elements of a safe, generic approach to filmmaking that produced some awful (and often unreleased) films. It also spent far too little on exhibition (about 5% of its total spend). The UKFC was also its own best advocate, and sensing impending doom, last year spent a lot of time and money preparing a document on the economic effects of the film industry. The Statistical Yearbook too, was full of self-promotion, and hid some of the uglier sides of the industry: the consolidation of the multiplexes, the decline of the arthouse sector, the precarious state of the independents, and the lack of a sustainable production industry.

For a far more eloquent breakdown of everything that was wrong with the Film Council, read Colin McCabe’s article here. On the other hand, you can also read Charles Gant's defense of the UKFC here. They both make good points.

So a whole decade and £300 million later, the UKFC disappears in the wake of an aggressive Tory plan to cut all public bodies, leaving behind some good movies, some digital projectors (including one for the Duke of York’s) and quite a few unreleased films. What will replace it? I understand the BFI has had to resort to major corporate sponsorship to ensure its survival and of course its dreams of a major Film Centre will have to be postponed indefinitely.

As always, we’re faced with a false choice – a dysfunctional organisation or nothing at all. Why not a third option, a properly funded BFI, with wide consultation in the film industry, producing both commercial hits and experimental work, supporting distribution and exhibition, and with a less London-centric view? If the BBC can do it, why can’t they?

UKFC Statistical Yearbook 2010

2010-07-22T19:31:00.003+01:00

This week the UK Film Council put the latest Statistical Yearbook online. For someone interested in the nuts and bolts of the UK film industry, this is an important document. It offers, free of charge, a vast amount of data and research related to every aspect of the British film scene, from production to exhibition, from TV to 3D.

I always jump straight to the exhibition chapter, as this is the area in which I work in, and in many ways, not much has changed. The figures are roughly the same as last year. The other area I like to examine is the specialised cinema section, which details the fate of the types of films we like to show at the Dukes. The market share for this sector is up significantly, but only because 'specialised' includes things like Michael Jackson's This Is It and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

An intriguing section is the public funding bit - it lists the amount of government money given to the film industry - unfortunately it lumped Distribution and Exhibition together into the same pile.

So I asked them to break it down: according to the UKFC, "Of the £31.6 m total (D&E), £17.0m went to the BFI, which we can't separate into Distrib and Exhib. Of the remaining £14.6m (spent by the UKFC, Regional Agencies etc) we estimate £10.1m went to Exhib, with the remainder to Distrib." but that really doesn't tell me anything so I queried it yet again. They kindly agreed to furnish me with more information: "The figure for distribution includes the P&A Fund, EU Media scheme's support for distribution, and a number of smaller sources of support for the distribution sector. The figure for exhibition comes from a far wider range of sources and covers support including:
·the UK Film Council's digital screen network
·investment in the film society movement, grants to film festivals
·a range of investment in the programming and outreach of art house cinemas all across the UK"

So the mystery remains - where is all this money being spent on exhibition? Since the Digital Screen Network scheme, which finalised in 2008, there has been no investment in cinemas in this country.

Nearly 60% of all the public funding for film went to production, with films like Nativity receiving £500,000 and Centurion receiving £1,200,000, to name but just two. And those are the films that were released. There are dozens of titles supported by public money that you'll never see in your local cinema. And now the big Tory axe comes along to cut, and the UK film industry can look back at a wasted decade producing films people have never seen.

Flick's Flicks - August

2010-07-21T08:08:00.000+01:00

UK Box Office 16-18 July

2010-07-19T10:04:00.002+01:00

The box office continues its upward trend, and to the relief of the adult moviegoer, a serious blockbuster opened: INCEPTION cracked the number one spot without much difficulty. TOY STORY 3 will obviously dominate the charts tomorrow, but Warners will be happy to dominate the non-kiddie, non-tweenie market for a few weeks. The interesting thing about this chart is the incredible divide between the top three films and the rest of the chart.

1- INCEPTION (£5,903,779)
2- SHREK FOREVER AFTER (£4,189,666)
3- TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE (£3,376,216)
4- PREDATORS (£892,602)
5- GET HIM TO THE GREEK (£440,075)
6- KILLERS (£71,487)
7- HEARTBREAKER (£67,521)
8- SEX AND THE CITY 2 (£50,812)
9- LEAVING (£50,444)
10- I HATE LUV STORIES (£36,679)

Uk Box Office 9-11 July

2010-07-12T10:36:00.003+01:00

These figures include the TWILIGHT previews, which add about £6 million to its overall figures. Nonetheless, its impressive. The real winner this weekend is HEARTBREAKER, which on its second week saw a £4,423 screen average. This shows that foreign language need not be a barrier at the box office if the film is appealing to audiences. This coming week, the box office is coming back with a vengeance, as the World Cup is over, and big budget adult films like INCEPTION open.

1- TWILIGHT (£13,686,987)
2- SHREK FOREVER AFTER (£4,565,635)
3- PREDATORS (£1,644,386)
4- GET HIM TO THE GREEK (£606,965)
5- KILLERS (£157,603)
6- SEX AND THE CITY 2 (£103,332)
7- HEARTBREAKER (£85,527)
8- I HATE LUV STORIES (£78,353)
9- PRINCE OF PERSIA (£48,268)
10- THE TOOTH FAIRY (£45,180)

Sons of Cuba

2010-07-05T22:05:00.005+01:00

I usually don't make it a habit to review films on this blog, my colleague Rob Beames does a better job of that on his blog. But I saw SONS OF CUBA the other night and my desire to spread the word about this wonderful documentary means I am breaking my own rules.
The premise is pretty straightforward: the crew followed a group of kids from Havana's under-12 boxing academy in their intense training and then journey to the National Boxing Tournament. The film is simple in its realisation, and the filmmakers wisely dispense with much editorialising - the subject matter does all the heavy lifting here. The context is the political situation in Cuba, where Fidel Castro is handing over the reins of power due to ill health; and the defection of prominent Cuban boxers to the professional world.

The children featured are emotional, eloquent, talented, and carry on their faces the subtle expressions of adults, not children. Their lives are light years away from the children in the UK or the US, with the wealth of material goods and distractions that are a blessing and a curse. The Cuban children value the team above the individual, and are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. The toughness on the surface doesn't disguise frequent outbursts of tears not just from the little ones, but from parents and coaches too - tears of happiness, sadness, pride or just pain.
This film does exactly what you want from a documentary: it informs, it takes you to a world very unlike your own, it's moving, exciting, and says a lot without preaching. I highly recommend you try and catch this film when it plays at The Dukes next week.

Check here for times and tickets.

Uk Box Office 2-4 July

2010-07-05T10:09:00.002+01:00

Finally some juice into the box! TWILIGHT and SHREK bring audiences back into cinemas. It probably helps that England are out of the World Cup. The figures below don't include TWILIGHT previews, which are pretty spectacular and sapped ticket sales from every other release.

1- SHREK FOREVER AFTER (£5,947,369)
2- GET HIM TO THE GREEK (£1,041,847)
3- KILLERS (£273,034)
4- SEX AND THE CITY 2 (£209,945)
5- I HATE LUV STORIES (£200,744)
6- HEARTBREAKER (£105,612)
7- PRINCE OF PERSIA (£91,723)
8- DEATH AT A FUNERAL (£66,740)
9- THE COLLECTOR (£64,421)
10- WHATEVER WORKS (£48,807)

Michael Mann

2010-07-02T13:22:00.003+01:00

Regular readers of this blog (and anyone who knows me) are aware of my obsession with two living filmmakers: Terrence Malick and Michael Mann. Unfortunately, Malick produces on average one film per decade, so that has forced me to spend a lot more time enthusing and discussing the work of Michael Mann.

Rob Beames and I will be recording a podcast this weekend discussing his work, and my capacity to explain why I think Michael Mann is so good will be put to the test, as Rob doesn't have such a high opinion of him. After making him watch all of the director's filmography, I am resigned to the fact that he'll never be the Mannista I am.

Orson Welles once said that a filmmaker should have the eye of a poet. Certainly Welles' own films, as flawed as many of them are, are pure poetic expressions of the themes that haunted him as an artist: betrayal, power, time, illusions. Mann's set of preoccupations are a little more specific, but no less valid: he has an almost fetishistic obsession with thieves specifically, and with men with strong work ethics more generally.

When I think of aueturs, I think of directors addressing the same concerns over and over again through different stories: Woody Allen talking about love and death in Manhattan, Bergman addressing the very meaning of life, Fellini dealing with the male Italian psyche, Kurosawa deconstructing Japanese society, Mike Leigh investigating families, Loach researching class warfare - all of these guys have their motifs. Mann, from his feature film debut, THIEF, has stuck to that very template; a man, good at this job, bound to no one, with a strong moral code, faces an adversary. Some might see that as repetitive, I find it fascinating.

His TV work is probably where he has made the most impact at least culturally; MIAMI VICE was THE show of the 1980s and the stylised mix of rock music and violence has pervaded (for better or worse) every level of TV and film. More significantly, artistically speaking is CRIME STORY, the sprawling saga of gangsters set in the early 1960s. Look out for it if you haven't seen it.

My first encounter with a Mann film was a late night TV showing of THE KEEP, which terrified me. He's basically disowned the film now and it's almost impossible to get hold of. From that job for hire to the pinnacle of his career, HEAT, my appreciation of his work extends all the way to last year's PUBLIC ENEMIES, which I found not only technically dazzling, but also moving and exciting. I can't wait for the next Mann project, and I live safe in the knowledge that he has another towering masterpiece like HEAT inside him, just waiting to come out.

Walker: Cine Esteli Fundraiser

2010-06-30T22:04:00.007+01:00

The next fundraiser for the Nicaraguan cinema, CINE ESTELI, will be a screening of Alex Cox's seminal acid western WALKER. A film that was neglected upon its release, it's a Herzogian cult classic starring Oscar-winners Ed Harris and Marlee Matlin, and features a fantastic score (and cameo) from Clash frontman Joe Strummer. The film was written by Rudy Wurlitzer, who also wrote Peckinpah's PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID. Peckinpah's spirit lives on in WALKER in the slow motion, the dust, and the madness that takes over a band of mercenaries in pursuit of cash and glory. The screening will be preceded by a video introduction from filmmaker Alex Cox, also a patron of Cine Esteli.

The campaign for CINE ESTELI has raised around £1,500 and our objective is £5,000 for the end of the year. Many other elements are in motion to save the endangered historical cinema: we are applying for European funds to restore the building, and a recent visit from the Mayor of Esteli was quite promising, with assurances that the local Esteli authority would help protect the building. Other partners in the project include Nicaragua's Ministry of Culture and Cinemateque; and filmmaker Florence Jaguey, whose feature LA YUMA will play as part of the CINECITY Film Festival.

Get your tickets