New on Kamera: Cecil B. DeMille

Our latest article on Kamera is a review of a mammoth biography of Hollywood's unreplaceable emperor, Cecil B. DeMille, called 'Cecil B. DeMille and The Golden Calf' and written by Simon Louvish. We did some digging around looking for stuff related to one of DeMille's most famous creations, Gloria Swanson (she of Sunset Boulevard fame), and see what we found on YouTube:

Gloria Swanson UK TV interview (1978):



Gloria Swanson and Janis Joplin! On Dick Cavett

Trailer: Silent Light

Carlos Reygadas' follow up to Battle in Heaven (Kamera interviewed Reygadas on occasion), Silent Light is opening in the UK on 7 December. Tartan has put together a nice-looking website for the film, which snatched the Prix Gu Jury at the last Cannes festival.

With his third feature film (the first was Japón, 2002), Reygadas is establishing himself as one of the leading voices in experimental cinema and definitely one to watch out for. He surely is very self-confident and focused on creating an auteurial signature.

New on Kamera:Asian extreme cinema

Our horror film specialists, who've got a new title on the genre coming up on Kamera Books, Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell, have penned a couple of DVD reviews on the latest releases of Asian action fare. Check them out.

New on Kamera: Romanian and German cinema

Check out Kamera for some news on the Romanian and German film festivals that take place in London in November.

New on Kamera: Killer of Sheep

We have a great review of the DVD release of American classic Killer of Sheep, by Charles Burnett, one of the first 50 (out of only 450) films to be preserved in America's Library of Congress National Film Registry. Sarah Manvel penned the text.

And here's the trailer:

The New Czech Cinema

The New Czech Cinema season highlights the best films from the Czech Republic over the last two years. At London's Riverside tonight the season begins with a screening of the animated feature One Night in One City by Jan Balej, followed by David Ondricek's Grandhotel. The director will also be present for a Q&A after the film.

Following more screenings on Friday, on Saturday the season continues with Oscar nominated director Jan Hrebejk's latest film Beauty in Trouble. Set against the backdrop of the Prague floods in 2002, the film looks at contemporary relationships based on the hectic life of a young mother. Melodrama combines with humour in a well scripted film. Read my review here

Immediately following its season in London, the New Czech Cinema programme plays many major Art Houses Cinemas across Britain.

Trailer: What Would Jesus Buy?

Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) is back as producer of What Would Jesus Buy? Directed by Rob VanAlkemade, the film examines the commercialiaation of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands – Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement.

Here's the trailer.

New on Kamera: media art

Fancy getting your work shown at one of the biggest media art events in the world? Find out how here.

Online viewing: Love & Hate

Tank.tv is currently showing videos by artists from the former Yugoslavia, encompassing Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Curated by the artist Nada Prlja, it includes works by Nemanja Cvijanović, Olgica Dimitrovska, Vesna Miličević, Nada Prlja, Nikola Uzunovski, Škart and Žaneta Vangeli.

According to the website, the region was chosen "because of the unique political and economic situation that has evolved since the death of President Tito in 1980 and the subsequent dissolution of the former nation state. These ex-Yugoslav countries now find themselves in what is popularly known as the phase of “Transition”. It is a state brought about by the transformation of a socialist society into one of (apparent) liberal democracy but also related to the recent sectarian civil wars, and how their aftermath has contributed to a sense of ‘incompleteness’ for these new societies. "

To 15 November.

Czech Cinema: The Old and The New

A festival representing the best new films from the Czech Republic over the last two years starts on the 8th November at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London. It is preceded by a rare showing of the 1967 film Marketa Lazarová, directed by Frantisek Vlacil and widely considered the best ever Czech film. Introduced by renowned Czech Cinema writer Peter Hames (with Mehelli Modi), the screening will take place at the Curzon Cinema, in London’s Mayfair, on 4th November.

Marketa Lazarová is set in the 13th Century and adapted from a 1931 best-selling novel by avant-garde writer Vladislav Vančura. Inspired by a true Middle Ages story of the conflict between Christianity and paganism, against the backdrop of the royal Bohemian town of Mladá Boleslav, it depicts the rival clans of the Kozlíks and the Lazars, particularly the doomed love affair between Mikoláš Kozlík and Markéta Lazarová. It was the most expensive film ever made in Czechoslovakia, taking three years to complete. For two years, the director took his cast and crew into the Šumava forest to live by primitive means, all claiming the experience was invaluable. The result was an experimental black and white avant-garde film with a multi-layered symbolic style. Though the film was enormously popular at home and the Czechs always holding it in high esteem, it has rarely been screened abroad and usually greeted with critical indifference.

The screening is to coincide with its release on DVD by Second Run

For the forthcoming New Czech Cinema programme click here

Orson Welles´ War of the Worlds

On 30 October 1938 - that's 69 years ago - Orson Welles dramatised the Martian invasion of Earth during an episode of his popular radio show. Many listeners believed the invasion was real, triggering a mass panic.

Adapting freely from H.G. Wells' science fiction novel War of the Worlds, Welles and his Mercury Theatre On the Air actors recast the story as a realistic sounding news broadcast.

Via Wired magazine.

New on Kamera: Malick

Fans of Terrence Malick's cinema, check out Sarah Manvel's review of Wallflower's title on the auteur, edited by Kamera Books' editor Hannah Patterson. We also have news on a festival in Bristol that is reviving the cinema of resistance, The Compass of Resistance International Film Festival.

British Independent Film Awards announce 2008 nominations

The nominations and jury members for the tenth annual British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were announced today in London. The BIFA pre-selection committee viewed more than 150 films, out of which they selected the nominations with a handful of titles dominating most categories.

Anton Corbijin’s Control leads with ten nominations, And When Did You Last See Your Father? receives seven nominations, Hallam Foe follows with six, followed by Eastern Promises (five nominations), Notes on a Scandal (four) and Garbage Warrior (three). Other films to receive multiple nominations include Brick Lane, Black Gold, It’s A Free World, Sunshine, Exhibit A and 28 Weeks Later.

First time BIFA actor nominees include Anne Hathaway, Sam Riley, Kierston Wareing, Sophia Myles, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Imogen Poots, Matthew Beard, Bradley Cole, Armin Muehler Stahl and 2004 jury member Cate Blanchett. This year sees repeat nominations for actors Jamie Bell, Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Samantha Morton, Cillian Murphy and Toby Kebbell.

BIFA Directors, Johanna von Fischer & Tessa Collinson say: “For the 10th year, the BIFA Nominations throw the spotlight on the UK’s wealth of new emerging talent. At the same time we are very proud to be honouring two very different and special British acting talents and careers with The Richard Harris Award and The Variety Award. All these ingredients promise to make our 10th anniversary a celebration of British film and filmmakers to remember.”

Ray Winstone is the recipient of The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor. Winstone, who is a three time BIFA nominee, won Best Actor for Nil by Mouth at the first Awards in 1998. Also this year, The Variety Award honours Daniel Craig for his contribution to bringing the international spotlight to the British film industry. Craig has also been nominated at BIFA three times and won Best Actor for his role in Some Voices.

BIFA’s new jury is comprised of professionals and talents from across the British film industry including: actresses Hayley Atwell, Archie Panjabi and Kathy Burke, actors Tony Curran, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew Macfadyen, directors Annie Griffin, Menhaj Huda, Neil Marshall and Peter Webber, LFF Artistic Director Sandra Hebron, producer Mark Herbert, cinematographer Brian Tufano, distributor Will Clarke and musician Nitin Sawhney.

The 10th awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 28 November 2007 at the Roundhouse in London and will be hosted by James Nesbitt.

New on Kamera: be a curator

Ever fancied curating a video art show? Now you can.

New on Kamera: young film critics in Rotterdam

Aspiring film critics take note: the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the International Film Festival Rotterdam are inviting applications for a scheme that gives critics younger than 30 years old the chance to mingle with the big boys and witness firsthand the mechanics of press coverage of a film festival. Full article here.

New on Kamera: The Times BFI 51st London Film Festival

Kamera's correspondent John Atkinson previews the 2007 edition of the London Film Festival, which starts today. Speaking of which, Naomi Watts will be interviewed on the stage of the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre on Friday, 19 October, at 6:30pm. Watts starts in the festival's Opening Night Gala Eastern Promises and Michael Haneke's American remake of Funny Games.

New on Kamera: Africa in Motion

Fresh content alert! Those of us who often wish we could see more of African cinema, should check out the news page to find out more about the upcoming African in Motion film festival.

Xala (1975, Ousmane
Sembene)

New on Kamera: Fast Food Nation

We have a review of Richard Linklater´s Fast Food Nation, which is out on DVD on Tartan.

Shooting of The Reader starts in Berlin

News has it that Bernard Schlink's lean, unadorned and haunting novel The Reader is being turned into a movie and shooting has just started in Berlin. The novel is a memoir of a German lawyer whose first love turned out be an ex-Nazi who then goes on trial. The choice of cast is somewhat at odds with the physical description of the book characters, with Nicole Kidman probably in the role of the narrator's object of love and Ralph Fiennes as, I would imagine, the narrator/protagonist - IMDB still doesn't mention which characters the actors are playing. Stephen Daldry directs. I'm curious to see how he will cinematically treat this difficult book to visualise. We shall see, as it were.

Latin American win at San Sebastian Film Festival

The FIPRESCI Prize (the Prize of the International Critics) went to the film "Encarnación" by Anahí Berneri (Argentina, 2007) at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, which closed this weekend. The festival's website has a nice TV section where you can watch videos of the festival itself, which counted on the presence of stars like Demi Moore and Liv Ullman. Click here for more.