Film Focus

DCM’S resident films specialist, Tom Linay, takes a look ahead in the release schedule and guides us through some of the upcoming romantic movies.

There’s also a distinctly romantic feel to May and June with an all-star romantic comedy released and three distinctive art-house titles that promise to make a notable splash with an upmarket female audience.

On 29 May, The Big Wedding unleashes its all-star ensemble on an affluent, female audience. The cast has all bases covered with mainstay stars Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon and emerging talents such as Amanda Seyfried and Katherine Heigl.

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Although May to July is traditionally known as Summer blockbuster season, this year sees an unusually high number of upmarket arthouse releases.  Coming out on the same weekend as Iron Man 3 (April 26) are two all-star features with a strong comedic slant. Bernie earned a Golden Globe nomination for Jack Black’s performance and is [...]

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From Nirvana sticksman to Foo Fighters frontman, and with a musical legacy spanning collaborations with Killing Joke, Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures, Dave Grohl has already achieved a career of legendary status in music. Sound City sees him turn his assured hand to directing, documenting the life of LA’s legendary Sound City recording studio.

Opened by joint owners Joe Gottfried and Tom Skeeter in 1969, Sound City housed over four decades of recorded music, journeying a roller coaster ride of financial peaks and troughs along the way. The documentary is split into three parts opening with the history of the studio, progressing to the impact of technology and finishing with an emphasis on the principals of musical performance and songwriting.

Skeeter admits that to achieve their goal of attracting the best artists throughout the inaugural years of Sound City Studios, they knew that only the best recording equipment would entice them. The acquisition of a custom Neve Mixing Console was exactly the piece of kit to assume the role of their star magnet. The console – considered by many as the Rolls Royce of mixing desks – was priced at over $70k, double what Skeeter had paid for a house at the time.

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The top two films from last weekend held on to their places and both experienced strong holds on another impressive weekend for the box office. The snowy conditions last week obviously hampered Les Misérables as it bounced back easing a miniscule 9% to £4m and a huge cume of £24.6m. On Saturday it overtook High School Musical 3 (£22.8m) and now the only musical ahead of it on the all-time list is Mamma Mia with £68.5m. Django Unchained fell just 14% to £2.4m and now has a cume of £7.2m. Despite opening lower than Inglourious Basterds, its final total of £10.9m looks very achievable.

In third spot was another awards hopeful and the highest new entry, Lincoln, with £1.7m. That’s a very solid start and as the BAFTAs and Oscars get closer, it should continue to perform strongly. Fourth place was taken by Life of Pi 3D, which crossed the £25m mark with a further £1.1m and now stands on a spectacular £25.9m, a total that would have put it 8 on the list of 2012’s biggest films. Another new entry rounded out the top five, with Zero Dark Thirty opening with £1.1m. That’s significantly more than Kathryn Bigelow’s last film, The Hurt Locker, which opened with £309k in 2009.

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Despite the snowy conditions across the country the strength of the films currently on release was more than enough to tempt people into the warmth of the cinema. Les Misérables was once again the top film easing 46% to £4.4m and a very healthy cume of £17.4m. That’s already more than the entire run of Chicago (£16.4m) and closing in on Moulin Rouge’s final total of £18.5m. The highest new entry, in second spot was Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained with £2.8m. That’s a bit lower than Inglourious Basterds’ £3.6m debut but the adverse weather conditions wouldn’t have helped. Kill Bill Vol. 2 also opened with £2.8m in 2004.

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It’s now winter and Christmas is fast approaching so Roxanne, Richard and Tom crammed themselves into the smallest room at DCM for warmth and while they were there, they recorded the third edition of the DCM Podcast.

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Film fans and stars took to the red carpet on Sunday 21st October for the BFI’s glittering closing gala at London’s Odeon Leicester Square featuring the European Premiere of Great Expectations.

With a stellar cast showcasing Britain’s next generation of acting royalty, this home grown remake of the Dickens classic was a fitting conclusion to the London Film Festival 2012. David Lean’s 1946 version, starring John Mills, is viewed by some as one of the most perfect films ever made and there have been numerous TV and film adaptions since. The challenge for any director taking on the costume drama was therefore to bring something new and fresh to the Big Screen. Director Michael Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), however, draws on the rich tones and production values we see in Potter, reuniting some of the franchise’s stars Helena Bonham Carter (Miss Haversham), Ralph Fiennes (Magwitch) and Robbie Coltrane (Jaggers). This production style, combined with strong comedic performances from a supporting cast, including the superbly Pumblechookian David Walliams, delivers a movie that encapsulates the very best of Dickensian characterisation and spirit in a real, but raw environs. Jason Flemyng is likeable as the kind, but modest blacksmith Joe Gargery, who reminds Pip of his lowly origins as his city life of a gentleman distances him from those who brought him up.

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Last Thursday I was lucky enough to attend a media screening of the highly anticipated, 23rd Bond instalment, Skyfall. Whilst spending my lunchtime speaking to BT and reheating the previous night’s pasta bake was a flawless plan, I felt attending the screening was something I couldn’t pass up on.

Left with a sour taste in my mouth from the last bond venture, A Quantum of Solace, I was feeling sceptical about Skyfall. Whilst it’s been one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I was hesitant to throw my full enthusiasm into it in the interest of avoiding disappointment.

After entering the plush Sony screening room with dubiety squashing my child-like excitement, I am happy to confirm that I left the screening grinning like a 6 year old that’s overdosed on Sunny Delight.

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You attend the opening of a showcase such as this knowing you are going to witness something special but never truly expecting what your about to see.

Having seen the film at its premiere the previous week and loving every minute of it, seeing the ideas, creations and the making behind the film was even more fascinating (note to all potential attendees – see the movie first).

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The young characters of My Brother the Devil live in a world of perpetual violence, gang feuds and abuses both chemical and physical. It’s a world where a legitimate road to success is all-but invisible, and brash machismo – often backed-up by cold steel – is an ugly substitute for ambition. They’re pawns to their generals, men in their late-20s whose council houses are decked out like City Boy bachelor pads, except that for every set of iconic black-and-white photographs in a frame cluster, there’s a pair of antique machetes.

This is the world that Sally El Hosaini presents, and it’s one we’re all familiar with. Over the last decade, British cinema has indulged in something of an angry love affair with ‘the endz’, pushing out a steady stream of ‘gritty crime dramas’ with a tendency to feel like washed-out retreads of Boyz N the Hood with more muddled Afro-Caribbean patois and fewer barbeques. This recent tradition is carried over into My Brother the Devil but, thankfully, there’s something else going on underneath…

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