Cannes 2010

I have never been to Cannes, but everybody knows this is the world's biggest film festival. I will be in Barcelona during the festival, but I am planning on attending next year. The line-up for 2010 so far includes Mike Leigh's new film, ANOTHER YEAR, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's BITUFIUL, Takeshi Kitano's OUTRAGE, Abbas Kiarostami's THE CERTIFIED COPY, and Doug Liman's A FAIR GAME - out of competition, Hollywood rolls out the big guns with Ridley Scotts ROBIN HOOD, Oliver Stone's WALL STREET 2 and Woody Allen's YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER.
Sadly Terence Malick's TREE OF LIFE is not included. We'll try and get reports from our friends at the Croisette for you.

Cinemas in a Van

I just thought I would share with you a couple of projects from people I know which coincidentally happen to involve vans and cinemas. When I was a kid, my mom had a little project in Nicaragua where we took 16mm prints of films to neighborhoods in Esteli; we projected Chaplin classics, Cuban comedies (always comedies!) and audiences would sit on the street and watch it being projected onto a white sheet on a wall.

So the idea of taking movies to people (the mountain to Mohammed, if you will) is one I am completely behind. First there is Cannes in a Van, a motely crew of cinephiles who take cinema to the Croisette each year in a veg-oil powered transit van. Sam Clements (@sam_clements on Twitter), a projectionist, filmmaker and in general nice chap, is part of the crew.

And my good Dutch friend Maureen Prins (who I met in Venice last year) has a fantastic project, an entirely solar-powered van that travels around Europe showing films. CosyMo's Solar Cinema is exactly the kind of idea that keeps film culture alive - small but inventive, full of energey and enthusiasm. I am looking forward to Maureen's eventual arrival (and conquest) of England.

UK Box Office 9-11 April

This week continues to be dominated by family-friendly films, with CLASH, DRAGON, NANNY and ALICE all in the top 5. Drew Barrymore failed to make a big impression with her roller derby directorial debut WHIP IT!. Not in the Top 10 but with higher per screen averages this week are I AM LOVE (£4,500 per screen) and THE INFIDEL (£3,200 per screen average).

1 - CLASH OF THE TITANS (£2,434,983)
2 - HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (£1,396,100)
3 - KICK ASS (£1,186,450)
4 - NANNY MCPHEE & THE BIG BANG (£1,177,394)
5 - ALICE IN WONDERLAND (£673,300)
6 - BLIND SIDE (£537,821)
7 - REMEMBER ME (£519,325)
8 - WHIP IT! (£351,
9 - SHUTTER ISLAND (£336,155)
10 - BOUNTY HUNTER (£222,627)

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Trailer....

Digital Economy Bill

Even as I write this, there is a late night debate happening at the House of Commons on the Digital Economy Bill, which is being rushed through without proper scrutiny or debate. All you need to do is switch on BBC Parliament to see the small amount of MPs present.

There are many troubling aspects to this bill, most of which make record companies and movie studios happy but seem to punish collectively all Internet users. Now I am no expert on the technicalities, (you can find a great letter to Des Turner addressing the specifics here) but the biggest opposition to the bill regard the disconnection of Internet connections with no right to appeal if someone is suspected of copyright infringement (check details here), it turns ISP providers into spies on their own customers, and in general is a clampdown on internet freedom and a big stomp on the creative industries and their possibilities for new business models.

I am no advocate of piracy. I would never download a film for free and watch it at home, I understand that every cinema ticket sold, every rental of a DVD and every legal, copyright-protected viewing of a film makes sure that films get made. It makes sure cinemas stay open. It makes sure that my favorite filmmakers (from Michael Mann to Ken Loach) have a job. But at the same time, burying our heads in the sand and pretending that the way people consume entertainment isn’t changing radically would be a mistake.

I know for a fact that thousands of Brightonians, many of whom work in new media and the creative industries, have written to their MPs opposing the bill. I too oppose this bill not only for its sleazy stand on human rights, but also because I believe that the future for content providers is through the free flow of information on the internet, not the establishment of 20th century business models in a platform that will not and can not sustain them. If you want to find out more or get involved in protecting your digital rights, visit the Open Rights Group.

UK Box Office 2-5 April

The long weekend brought huge riches for cinemas across the country, with four full days in which to attract audiences and a varied slate of releases. The winner is CLASH OF THE TITANS, which despite terrible reviews and a lot of criticism about its retro-fitted 3D, proved once again that the appetite for 3D refuses to go away despite the cries of 'gimmick'. And it still left some space for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, which took what would in any other week be a number one spot gross. KICK ASS fared less well despite the really clever Universal campaign - its 15 certficate shut out a lot of the Easter holiday audience.

1- CLASH OF THE TITANS (£7,407,607)
2- HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (£5,647,789)
3- KICK ASS (£4,530,017 - this includes a whole week of previews)
4- NANNY MCPHEE 2 (£3,601,402)
5- ALICE IN WONDERLAND (£1,796,494)
6- THE BLIND SIDE (£1,339,391)
7- REMEMBER ME (£1,286,404)
8- SHUTTER ISLAND (£915,014)
9- BOUNTY HUNTER (£672,394)
10- THE SPY NEXT DOOR (£377,034)

iPad: game changer? - UPDATED

UPDATE: since my post, Slate have posted this: Taking the iPad Pill'

I'm no gadget expert - there are plenty of others in the blogosphere who can tell you all about what's hot and what's not in the world of technology. I am however interested in the way content is delivered. A couple of news stories on Deadline Hollwyood Daily caught my eye, as they point to the newly launched iPad as a game-changer in terms of being a new platform for cinema.

Warners, Netflix, ABC/Disney and Marvel Comics have all created iPad - specific applications which will push forward other content providers to do the same very quickly. iTunes obviously already has a movie content site, but the small iPhone screens are really not cutting it. The bigger iPad screens should incentivise consumers to download more films more frequently, potentially expanding the market for video on demand significantly.

As I have mentioned before, the world needs all the platforms it can get right now - and as long as the variety of titles available is as wide as something like Lovefilm or Netflix, it can only help the business. The faster producers and distributors embrace these changes and get in early (before Murdoch et al raise huge walls around the platforms) the better for diversity and arthouse films.