By Robert Kenneth Dator. ‘#1 Film Documentation!’ Anyone in the business has been here before. “Here” is The Twilight Zone of the runaway production. This is the one where any number of joint producers call the shots without talking to each other and never such incidental types as director and […]
All American Zombie Drugs (2013)
By Robert Kenneth Dator. “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Among the last quips of genius from the lips of Oscar Wilde, truer words than these were never spoken. With his absolute dying breath he is supposed to have said: “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the […]
Passion (2012)
By Gaël Schmidt-Cléach. For his first film since 2007’s Redacted, Brian De Palma returns to his Hitchcockian obsession, this time by way of Alain Corneau. A loose remake of Corneau’s final film, Love Crime (Crime d’amour, 2010), Passion feels very much like a De Palma flick from the ‘80s, with […]
Bristol Radical Film Festival 2013: 25th Feb-4th March
By Anthony Killick. The success of the 2012 Bristol Radical Film Festival proved how the demand for socially and politically engaged film hasn’t dwindled, despite attempts by those in power to abstract politics away from the day-to-day lives of the public. The festival showed how film is one of the […]
Annie and the Gypsy: Interview with Russell Brown
By Gary M. Kramer. Writer/director Russell Brown makes short, sharp films that investigate how and why friends treat each other badly. His enjoyable feature debut Race You to the Bottom (2005) had two BFFs taking a tour through wine country and cutting each other down over the course of their […]
Berlinale Report, 7 February – 17 February 2013
By Yun-hua Chen. Against a backdrop of the Berlinale bear, the film festival opens with Wang Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster (2012), the five-year’s lavish-looking work of the president of the international jury. During the ten-day celebration of cinema, the city was honoured by the glamorous presence of international stars every […]
Film Scratches Blog #4
By Liza Palmer, Review Section Editor. The long-awaited call for reviews is finally here. Film International is actively seeking reviews for publication online or in print (at our discretion) of the following books and DVDs: Books Bollywood: Gods, Glamour and Gossip, Kush Varia (Wallflower) — TAKEN The Cinema of Michael […]
Black Biscuit (2012)
By Robert Kenneth Dator. “Featuring Enfant Terrible Street Superstars” This is not so much a title as a claim from director-producer Fabrizio Federico. Yes, there is a cast of dozens in Black Biscuit, street people all, and the disenfranchised, and those just slightly round the bend, and some who appear […]
Magpie: Interview with Marc Price
By Leo Collis. In his follow up to critically acclaimed budget-zombie movie Colin, Marc Price is set to release new project Magpie to the festival circuit. Known as the £45 film, Colin made waves when screened at Cannes in 2009 and created a huge buzz about the bright filmmakers future. […]
After Fall, Winter: An Interview with Eric Schaeffer
By Gary M. Kramer. Eric Schaeffer did not plan to make a sequel to his 1997 film Fall but fourteen years later, he wrote, directed, produced and starred in After Fall, Winter, now out on DVD. The film continues the story of Michael Shiver (Schaeffer), an author who is deeply […]