1.
Passchendaele (film)
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Passchendaele is a 2008 Canadian war film, written, co-produced, directed by, and starring Paul Gross. The main character is Sergeant Michael Dunne, introduced in the spring of 1917 after Vimy Ridge, during heavy combat in a ruined town, Dunne is wounded and sent home from Europe as a neurasthenia patient. While recovering from his injuries, he meets nurse Sarah Mann in Calgary, Alberta, Sarah Mann is drummed out of the local nursing service, and ostracised in town, because her father was of German descent and had left Canada to rejoin the Imperial German Army in 1915. He was killed at Vimy Ridge on the side to Sergeant Dunne. She has become addicted to morphine as a means of dealing with the loss in her life. David Mann is Sarahs younger brother, despite being ineligible for military service due to asthma, he is desperate to win the respect of his girlfriends father at a time when military service is demanded of all young men. He is vehemently anti-German and tries to expunge the fact that his father was German and his girlfriends father pulls strings to get him enlisted, arguably in the hope that he will not return and marry his daughter. Sarah originally thinks Michael has enlisted David, in his role as local recruitment officer, the enlistment is further facilitated by a British recruiting officer whose malice and goading of David Mann and Michael Dunne makes him the films principal antagonist. Michael however feels a responsibility and re-enlists as Private McCrae in order to protect David at the front, as a result, both David and Michael end up in the battlefields of Belgium. Sarah also enlists and follows the 10th ending up as a nurse in triage at an Advanced Dressing Station near the front, the three arrive in Flanders in time for the Battle of Passchendaele. Dunne and Sarah soon meet up again when Dunne brings a man to the aid station. C. When the Canadians launch their attack, the 8th Battalion, known as the Little Black Devils, faces a German counterattack, Dunnes company is sent to support them. After the support company arrives, the 8th Battalion retreats from the battlefield, wrongly believing that they are finally relieved, as the reality of the war begins to set in, David Mann begins to realize the war was not what he believed it would be. Dunnes forces spend the night in their trenches, and as a result of the shelling, David begins to have an attack and Dunne calms him down. The next morning the Germans counter-attack, and make it as far as the line, as the Germans retreat, David breaks down and chases them back to surrender. He jumps into their trenches and is met by a gun to the face where he begs in German and he is about to be shot when an artillery shell lands and the explosion throws him onto what is effectively a cross, created by walkway timbers from the trench. He is visually crucified by the explosion and this relates to Dunnes earlier story of the legendary report of the crucified soldier. When Dunne sees this he takes his helmet off, throws his gun down and runs to David, in a attempt to keep his promise to keep him alive
Passchendaele (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Passchendaele (film)
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Canadians "100 yards from Boche lines" during the push on
Hill 70.
2.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, Toronto is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is well known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto, meaning place where trees stand in the water. This refers to the end of what is now Lake Simcoe. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
Toronto
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From top left:
Downtown Toronto featuring the
CN Tower and
Financial District from the
Toronto Harbour,
City Hall, the
Ontario Legislative Building,
Casa Loma,
Prince Edward Viaduct, and the
Scarborough Bluffs
Toronto
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Coat of arms
Toronto
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Map of Toronto, 1894
Toronto
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Yonge Street in 1900
3.
Toronto International Film Festival
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The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Year-round, TIFF Bell Lightbox offers screenings, lectures, discussions, festivals, workshops, industry support, TIFF Bell Lightbox is located on the north west corner of King Street and John Street in downtown Toronto. In 2015,397 films from 71 countries were screened at 28 screens in downtown Toronto venues, welcoming an estimated 480,000 attendees, TIFF starts the Thursday night after Labour Day and lasts for eleven days. Founded in 1976, TIFF is now one of the most prestigious events of its kind in the world, in 1998, Variety magazine acknowledged that TIFF is second only to Cannes in terms of high-profile pics, stars and market activity. In 2007, TIME noted that TIFF had grown from its place as the most influential film festival to the most influential film festival. This is partially the result of TIFFs ability and reputation for generating Oscar buzz, the Toronto International Festival’s Grolsch People’s Choice Award — which is based on popular vote by Festival filmgoers — has emerged as a beacon of awards-season success. Founded by Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk and that first year,35,000 filmgoers watched 127 films from 30 countries presented in ten programmes. Piers Handling has been the director and CEO since 1994. TIFF was once centred on the Yorkville neighbourhood, but the Toronto Entertainment District later gained a level of prominence. TIFF is known for the celebrity buzz it brings to the area with international media setting up near its restaurants and stores for photos and interviews with the stars. In 2010, TIFF opened its permanent headquarters, TIFF Bell Lightbox, TIFF has grown, steadily adding initiatives throughout the years. TIFF Cinematheque and the Film Reference Library opened in 1990, the TIFF Kids International Film Festival launched in 1998. Film Circuit began exhibiting independent and Canadian films in under-serviced cities across Canada in 1994, the festival was founded in 1976 at the Windsor Arms Hotel by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl. Beginning as a collection of the films from film festivals around the world. Ironically, however, Hollywood studios withdrew their submissions from TIFF due to concerns that Toronto audiences would be too parochial for their products, in 1994, the decision was made to replace the name Festival of Festivals with Toronto International Film Festival. From 1994 to 2009, the organization running TIFF was named Toronto International Film Festival Group. In 2009, the umbrella organization TIFFG was renamed to TIFF, in 2001, Perspective Canada, the programme that had focused on Canadian films since 1984, was replaced by two programmes, Canada First. A forum for Canadian filmmakers presenting their first feature-length work, featuring eight to 15 films, and Short Cuts Canada, in 2004, TIFF was featured as the site of murder mystery in the film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, a comedy film starring Martin Short
Toronto International Film Festival
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The festival is headquartered at TIFF Bell Lightbox, which opened in 2010.
Toronto International Film Festival
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Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Toronto International Film Festival
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TIFF box office at the
Manulife Centre in 2006
Toronto International Film Festival
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TIFF Bell Lightbox
4.
Paul Gross
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Paul Michael Gross, OC is a Canadian actor, producer, director, singer, and writer born in Calgary, Alberta. He is known for his role as Constable Benton Fraser in the television series Due South as well as his 2008 war film Passchendaele, which he wrote, produced, directed. He later found success with another Canadian TV series, Slings and he also produced one film with Akshay Kumar called Speedy Singhs starring Camilla Belle and Vinay Virmani. Gross studied acting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and he went back later to complete the half-credit needed to receive his fine arts degree. He appeared in stage productions, such as Hamlet and Romeo. Other productions in which he appeared include Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, after the play Successful Strangers, Gross starred in his first movie, Turning to Stone. Most recently, Gross completed work on the war drama Hyena Road. In September 1988, Gross married Canadian actress Martha Burns with whom he has two children, Hannah and Jack and his role as upright Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Benton Fraser in the Due South television series brought him increased recognition. When Due South was resurrected for the season, Gross returned as Benton Fraser. He earned a salary of $2–3 million per season. He wrote several episodes of the last season of the series and his favourite episodes include Gift of the Wheelman and All the Queens Horses, and his episodes Mountie on the Bounty and Call of the Wild are of a similar style. Paul Gross at The Canadian Encyclopedia Paul Gross at the Internet Movie Database Paul Gross at AllMovie Watch Remembrance, Paul Gross at Tv. com PaulGross. org Paul Gross at Northern Stars
Paul Gross
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Gross at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival
5.
Adoration (2008 film)
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Adoration is a 2008 Canadian drama film directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Rachel Blanchard, Scott Speedman and Devon Bostick. It is Egoyans first feature film since Where The Truth Lies, the film was first shown at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Adoration won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and was nominated for the Palme dOr and it won Best Canadian Feature Film – Special Jury Citation at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. The film had its U. S. premiere in April 2009 at the San Francisco International Film Festival and went into U. S. release on May 8,2009. High school French teacher Sabine reads to her class as a translation exercise a French newspaper report of a terrorist who planted a bomb in the luggage of his pregnant girlfriend. If the bomb had detonated, it would have killed her, her child, and many others. Egoyan based the story partly on the 1986 Hindawi affair, years ago, Sami crashed the family car, killing both himself and Rachel, making Simon an orphan. Influenced by his grandfather, Morris, who disliked Sami, Simon has always feared that the crash was not an accident. Sabine asks him to develop the story as an exercise, to read it to the class. He does so, and discussions evolve on the Internet about the story, Sabine is fired for making Simon lie. Tom, who is a tow truck driver, tows Sabines car away, Sabine follows him in a taxi, and by mobile phone she offers him a meal in a restaurant. Later she reveals to him that she had married to Sami for 5 years. The film received positive reviews. As of December 7,2010, 61% of 95 critics listed by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes had given the film a positive review, on Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 19 reviews. Archived from the original on 2016-03-16, Adoration at the Internet Movie Database Adoration at Rotten Tomatoes Adoration at Metacritic
Adoration (2008 film)
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U.S. theatrical poster
6.
Atom Egoyan
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Atom Egoyan, CC is a Canadian director, writer, producer and former actor. Egoyan made his breakthrough with Exotica, a film set primarily in. Egoyans most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter and his work often explores themes of alienation and isolation, featuring characters whose interactions are mediated through technology, bureaucracy or other power structures. Egoyans films often follow non-linear plot structures, in events are placed out of sequence in order to elicit specific emotional reactions from the audience by withholding key information. In 2008, Egoyan received the Dan David Prize for Creative Rendering of the Past, Egoyan later received the Governor Generals Performing Arts Award, Canadas highest royal honour in the performing arts, in 2015. Egoyan was born Atom Yeghoyan in Cairo, Egypt, the son of Shushan and Joseph Yeghoyan and his parents were Armenian-Egyptians, and he was named Atom to mark the completion of Egypts first nuclear reactor. In 1962, however, his parents left Egypt for Canada, Atom and his sister, Eve, now a concert pianist based in Toronto, were raised by their parents in British Columbia. As a boy, Egoyan wished for assimilation into Canadian society, however, years later, when he attended the University of Toronto, he began to study Armenian history. As a teenager, he interested in reading and writing plays. Significant influences included Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, in that interview, he said, It gave me an incredible respect for the medium and its possibilities. To me, Persona marries a pure form and a profound vision with absolute conviction. I felt that it was able to open a door that wasn’t there before and he graduated from Trinity College at the University of Toronto. It was at Trinity College that Egoyan came into contact with Harold Nahabedian, in interviews Egoyan credited Nahabedian for introducing him to the language and history of his ethnic heritage. Egoyan also wrote for the University of Torontos independent weekly, The Newspaper, Egoyan has directed 15 full-length films, several television episodes, and a few shorter pieces. His early work was based on his own material, in 1984, his debut film Next of Kin world-premiered at the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg and won a major prize. His commercial breakthrough came with the film Exotica and he received the Grand Prix in Brussels. The film Ararat generated much publicity for Egoyan, after Henri Verneuils French-language film Mayrig, it was the first major motion picture to deal directly with the Armenian Genocide. Ararat later won the Best Picture prize at the Genie Awards, in 2004, Egoyan opened Camera Bar, a 50-seat cinema-lounge on Queen Street West in Toronto
Atom Egoyan
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Egoyan at the Third
Golden Apricot Film Festival, February 11, 2007
7.
Appaloosa (film)
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Appaloosa is an American western based on the 2005 novel, Appaloosa, by crime writer Robert B. Directed by Ed Harris and co-written by Harris and Robert Knott, Appaloosa stars Harris alongside Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons. The film premiered in the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in selected cities on September 19,2008, the movie shares some narrative similarities with the 1959 Western Warlock, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn and Richard Widmark. There is also a 1966 Western named The Appaloosa which stars Marlon Brando, the town hires lawman and peacekeeper Virgil Cole and his deputy Everett Hitch to protect and regain control of the town. The pair agree on one condition, that the town follow Coles law, the lawmen begin by confronting four of Braggs men who are causing a disturbance in the saloon. Three men refuse to allow themselves to be arrested, forcing Cole, the fourth man surrenders and leaves the saloon. Bragg has a meeting with Cole and Hitch, initiating a standoff, Cole meets a new arrival to the town, the recently widowed Allie French, who has traveled west to find a new life. The two start a relationship, and soon buy a house together. However, Allie is revealed to be promiscuous and attempts to seduce Hitch when they are alone, despite having shown previous interest in her, Hitch refuses her advances out of loyalty to Cole. When one of Braggs men tells Cole and Hitch he will testify that he witnessed Bragg gun down the marshal, following the trial, Cole and Hitch, along with several deputies, transport Bragg via train. As the train is stopped for refueling over a bridge, hired guns Ring and Mackie Shelton, old acquaintances of Cole, appear with Allie at gunpoint, forcing Cole to release Bragg to them. Cole and Hitch catch up with the outlaws and discover that Allie is not a hostage when they see Allie, when the outlaws are attacked by Chiricahua Apache, Cole and his men force the Indians away. They then turn Bragg over to the sheriff of Beauville, unbeknownst to Cole, knowing that Cole is determined to bring Bragg to the gallows, the Sheltons and the sheriff free Bragg and engage Cole and Hitch in a gunfight. Cole and Hitch are wounded but manage to kill Ring, Mackie, Bragg escapes on horseback and Cole and Hitch return to Appaloosa with Allie. Some time later, Bragg is granted a pardon by President Chester Arthur. He buys the hotel and ingratiates himself with the locals, privately, Bragg threatens Cole and Hitch if they should pose further problems. Hitch discovers that Allie is in a relationship with Bragg. Cole attempts to him, but Hitch remains steadfast and asks Cole to permit the gunfight to occur
Appaloosa (film)
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Theatrical release poster
8.
Ed Harris
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Edward Allen Ed Harris is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. Harris currently stars in the HBO sci-fi drama series Westworld, as well as Alejandro G. Iñárritus upcoming Starz drama series The One Percent. Harris is a nominee of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Apollo 13, The Truman Show. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for playing artist Jackson Pollock in his directorial debut Pollock and he also won a Golden Globe Award for playing Senator John McCain in Game Change. In 2015, Harris received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and he has two brothers, Paul and Robert. Harris was raised in a middle class Presbyterian family and he graduated from Tenafly High School in 1969, where he played on the football team, serving as the teams captain in his senior year. A star athlete in school, Harris competed in athletics at Columbia University in 1969. When his family moved to New Mexico two years later, Harris followed, having discovered his interest in acting in theater plays. He enrolled at the University of Oklahoma to study drama, Harris began his career on the stage. Harris first film came in 1978 with a minor part in the suspense film Coma. His first major role in a film two years later with Borderline, in which he starred alongside Charles Bronson. In 1981, Harris played the lead, William Billy Davis, the following year, he co-starred as Hank Blaine in the black comedy horror anthology film Creepshow, directed by George A. Romero. In 1983, Harris became well-known after portraying astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff, in 1984, he co-starred in the Robert Benton-directed drama film Places in the Heart, during production of this film, Harris met and married his wife Amy Madigan. In 1986, he received a Tony Award nomination in the Best Actor in a Play category for his role in George Furths Precious Sons and he also won the Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for his performance. Harris then portrayed William Walker, a 19th-century American who appointed himself President of Nicaragua and that same year, he played the main role of Harry Nash in the HBO television thriller film The Last Innocent Man. In 1989, his role as David Dave Flannigan in Jacknife earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination, also in 1989, he portrayed Virgil Bud Brigman in the sci-fi film The Abyss, directed by James Cameron. In 1992, Harris co-starred as Dave Moss in the drama film Glengarry Glen Ross and he won the Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film. He next appeared in the films The Firm and Needful Things, the following year, Harris starred in and executive produced the television adaptation of Riders of the Purple Sage
Ed Harris
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Harris at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Ed Harris
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Harris at the
2005 Toronto International Film Festival
9.
Pollock (film)
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Pollock is a 2000 biographical film which tells the life story of American painter Jackson Pollock. It stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan and Sada Thompson, Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Lee Krasner, Pollocks wife. Ed Harris received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Pollock, the film was a long-term personal project for Harris based on his previous reading of Pollocks biography. The film begins showing the abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock autographing illustrations in a copy of Life magazine for a woman at an art exhibit in 1950 — the exhibit which made him famous, the film flashes back to nine years earlier. At this time Jackson is usually drunk and makes a living by exhibiting a painting in occasional group art shows and he is living with his brother Sande and sister-in-law Arloie in a tiny New York apartment. Arloie tells him that they are having a baby, hinting to Jackson that he should move out, soon afterward, Jackson meets artist Lee Krasner, who takes an interest in him. Later, at dinner, he learns that his brother is moving to Connecticut to take a job building army gliders to avoid a rumored draft of married men not involved in war production. Unable to handle conflicting feelings, Jackson goes on a binge and Lee. Lee learns from Sande that Jackson is diagnosed as clinically neurotic, still, Lee takes him home, one day, his old friend Reuben comes along with Howard Putzel, who works for wealthy art collector Peggy Guggenheim. Jackson seems more interested to meet Reuben than Howard, Peggy Guggenheim comes to see his art. His first exhibit fails to attract any buyers, after a New Years Eve party, he almost gets in bed with Peggy but is too drunk to properly perform. Jackson returns to Lee in the morning and he is upset again when he learns of the death of Howard, waking up in the street after a drunken stupor and again returning to Lee. Lee, as always, takes him back, Lee then asks Jackson to make a decision, whether to marry her and continue painting art or split up. Jackson surprisingly insists on a wedding and Lee says she wants no guests. They decide to move to a house by the ocean in Springs, NY. Jackson and Lee adopt a dog whom they name Gyp. At a get-together at Peggy Guggenheims, despite art critic Clement Greenbergs comments, at a poker party, while they talk about the situation, Clement mentions that things will change after Life Magazines coverage and subsequent art exhibit. Lee gets jealous when Jackson hugs another woman, meanwhile, Jackson tries doing other business for a living but his drinking gets in the way
Pollock (film)
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Pollock
10.
Blindness (film)
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Blindness is a 2008 Brazilian-Canadian film, an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by Portuguese author José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The film was written by Don McKellar and directed by Fernando Meirelles with Julianne Moore, Saramago originally refused to sell the rights for a film adaptation, but the producers were able to acquire it with the condition that the film would be set in an unnamed and unrecognizable city. Blindness premiered as the film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14,2008. A young Japanese professional is struck blind in his car at a crossing and is approached by a few people, one offers to drive him home. The blinded man describes his sudden affliction, an expanse of dazzling white, among the doctors patients are an old man with a black eye-patch, a woman with dark glasses and a young boy. During a dinner with his wife, the doctor discusses the strange case, the woman with dark glasses, revealed to be a call-girl, becomes the third victim of the strange blindness after an appointment with a john in a hotel. The next day, the doctor goes blind as well, around the city, more citizens are struck blind, causing widespread panic, and the government organizes a quarantine for the blind in a derelict asylum. When a hazmat crew arrives to pick up the doctor, his wife climbs into the van, in the asylum, the doctor and his wife are first to arrive and both agree they will keep her sight a secret. Several others arrive, the woman with glasses, the Japanese man, the car thief. The wife comes across the old man with the eye-patch, who describes the condition of the world outside, the sudden blindness, known as the white sickness, is now international, with hundreds of cases reported every day. The increasingly totalitarian government resorts to increasingly ruthless measures to try to staunch the epidemic, as more blind people are crammed into the prison, overcrowding and lack of outside support causes hygiene and living conditions to degrade. Soon, the walls and floors are caked in filth and human feces, anxiety over the availability of food undermines the morale and the lack of organization prevents the fair distribution of food. The soldiers who guard the asylum become hostile, Living conditions degenerate further when an armed clique of men, led by an ex-barman who declares himself the king of ward 3 gains control over the food deliveries. The MRE rations are distributed only in exchange for valuables, faced with starvation, the doctors wife kills the king. His death initiates a chaotic war between the wards, which culminates with the asylum being burned down and many inmates dying in the fire, the survivors discover that the guards have abandoned their posts and they are free to venture into the city. Society has fallen as the population is blind amid a city devastated and overrun with filth. The doctors wife leads her husband and others in search of food, the doctor and his wife arrive in a supermarket filled with stumbling blind people and they find food in a basement storeroom. As she prepares to leave and meet her husband outside, she is attacked by the people who smell the food she is carrying
Blindness (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Blindness (film)
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Filming in São Paulo
Blindness (film)
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Director Fernando Meirelles alludes to
Pieter Bruegel the Elder 's 1568 painting The Parable of the Blind in the film Blindness.
11.
Fernando Meirelles
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Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. His best known film is City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U. S. by Miramax Films, for his work in the film, he was eventually nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director in 2005 for The Constant Gardener and he also directed the 2008 adaptation of José Saramagos novel Blindness, and the 2011 film 360. His mother, Sônia Junqueira Ferreira Meirelles, is the daughter of farmers and worked with landscape architecture, Fernando is the second youngest of four children. He saw his brother, José Marcos, die in a car-bike accident when he was only 4 years old. His two sisters, Márcia and Silvinha, graduated in theater and psychology, respectively, Fernando grew up in Alto dos Pinheiros, district of the West Zone of São Paulo, and spent every vacation on the farms of relatives from both sides of his family. I dont know why I bought it and his first experience with cinema was with his father, who often directed 8 mm films during his job at the university. He produced mostly western and thriller parodies, using his relatives, at 11, in 1967, Fernando spent a year in the United States in California, where he had contact with the hippie movement, which impressed him. At 13, with a borrowed Super 8 camera, Meirelles started producing small films and he studied at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of São Paulo during the 1980s. His graduation work was done in the form of a film, instead of the designs of the other students, he went to Japan. He presented it and graduated with the minimum acceptable grade, while studying architecture at the University of São Paulo, Meirelles became involved in experimental film-making. After several years in independent television, he became an advertisement film director and he is still one of the partners of O2 Filmes, the biggest Brazilian advertisement firm, which has produced City of God, Domésticas and Viva Voz. Along with four friends, Meirelles began his career with experimental films, eventually, they formed an independent production company Olhar Eletrônico. Subsequently, new friends joined the group, Renato Barbiere, Agilson Araujo, Toniko, in 1982 the company aired TV programs on current affairs, as well as the children series Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, with 180 episodes. In addition to obtaining high ratings, they introduced a refreshing humorous informality in news reporting. By the end of the 1980s, he became interested on the advertising market. In 1990, Meirelles and friends closed down Olhar Eletrônico, opening an advertising business, one decade was enough for him to become one of the most important and sought-after advertising producers. In 1997, Meirelles read the book Paulo Linss City of God and he decided to adapt it to film, which was done in 2002, and decided that the actors in it would be selected among the inhabitants of slums
Fernando Meirelles
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At the Austrian premiere of
360
12.
The Hurt Locker
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The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war thriller film about an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are being targeted by insurgents with booby traps, remote control detonations and ambushes. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, it stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, the film shows soldiers varying psychological reactions to the stress of combat, which though intolerable to some, is addictive to others. The story unfolds after a staff sergeant is killed by an insurgent trap and his comrades suspect that their new team leader is being driven to take terrifying risks. Writer Mark Boal drew on his experience during embedded access to provide a background for the production. The Hurt Locker received widespread acclaim and won six Academy Awards. Bigelow won the award for Best Director, as of 2017 and his team includes Sergeant J. T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge. His maverick disposal methods and attitude lead to Sanborn and Eldridge considering him reckless, meanwhile, James is often approached by an Iraqi youth named Beckham attempting to sell DVDs. James challenges him to a game of soccer and takes a liking to him, when they are assigned to destroy some explosives, James returns to the detonation site to pick up his gloves. Sanborn openly contemplates killing him by accidentally triggering the explosion, making Eldridge somewhat uncomfortable, returning to Camp Victory in their Humvee, the team encounters five armed men in traditional Arab garb and casual attire standing near a Ford Excursion, which has a flat tire. James team has an encounter with their leader, who then reveals they are private military contractors. They have captured two prisoners featured on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards, the entire group suddenly comes under fire, and when the prisoners attempt to escape in the confusion, the leader of the mercenaries remembers the bounty for them is dead or alive and shoots them. Enemy snipers kill three of the mercenaries, including their leader, Sanborn and James borrow a Barrett.50 cal to dispatch three attackers, while Eldridge kills a fourth. During a raid on a warehouse, James discovers the body of a young boy, during evacuation, Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge, the camps psychiatrist and a friend of Eldridges, is killed in an explosion, Eldridge blames himself for his death. Later, James breaks into the house of an Iraqi professor, seeking revenge for Beckham, called to a petrol tanker detonation, James decides on his own to hunt for the insurgents responsible, guessing they are still nearby. Sanborn protests, but when James heads out, he and Eldridge reluctantly follow, after they split up, insurgents capture Eldridge. James and Sanborn rescue him, but accidentally shoot him in the leg, the following morning, James is approached by Beckham, who he believed was dead, and walks by without saying a word. Before being airlifted for surgery elsewhere, Eldridge angrily blames James for his injury, James and Sanborns unit is called to another mission in their last two days of their rotation. An innocent Iraqi civilian man has had a bomb vest strapped to his chest, James tries to cut off the locks to remove the vest, but there are too many of them
The Hurt Locker
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Theatrical release poster
The Hurt Locker
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Jeremy Renner
The Hurt Locker
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Anthony Mackie
The Hurt Locker
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Brian Geraghty
13.
Kathryn Bigelow
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Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director, producer, and writer. The Hurt Locker won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Film and she also became the first woman to win the Saturn Award for Best Director in 1995 for Strange Days. In April 2010, Bigelow was named to the Time 100 list of most influential people of the year, Bigelow was born in San Carlos, California, the only child of Gertrude Kathryn, a librarian, and Ronald Elliot Bigelow, a paint factory manager. Her mother was of Norwegian descent, Bigelows early creative endeavors were as a student of painting. She enrolled at San Francisco Art Institute in the fall of 1970, while enrolled at SFAI, she was accepted into the Whitney Museum of American Arts Independent Study Program in New York City. Bigelows early work benefited from her apprenticeships with Vito Acconci, Richard Serra, also in her early days in Manhattan, Bigelow teamed up with Philip Glass on a real-estate venture in which the pair personally renovated distressed apartments downtown then sold them for a profit. Bigelow entered the film program at Columbia University, where she studied theory and criticism. She also taught at the California Institute of the Arts, Bigelows short The Set-Up is a 20-minute deconstruction of violence in film. The film portrays two men fighting each other as the semioticians Sylvère Lotringer and Marshall Blonsky deconstruct the images in voice-over, Bigelow asked her actors to actually beat and bludgeon each other throughout the films all-night shoot. Her first full-length feature was The Loveless, a film which she co-directed with Monty Montgomery. Next, she directed Near Dark, which she co-scripted with Eric Red, in the same year, she directed a music video for the New Order song Touched by the Hand of God, the video is a spoof of glam metal imagery. Bigelows subsequent trilogy of action films — Blue Steel, Point Break, in the process, Bigelow became recognizable as both a Hollywood brand and an auteur. All three films rethink the conventions of action cinema while exploring gendered and racial politics, Eric Red was also co-writer on Bigelows 1990 film, Blue Steel. Blue Steel starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a police officer who is stalked by a psychopathic killer. This is perhaps due to the fact that it most successfully conforms to its genre and abandons much of the stylistic substance. In 1993, she directed an episode of the TV series Wild Palms, Bigelows 1995 film Strange Days was written and produced by her ex-husband James Cameron. Despite some positive reviews, the film was a commercial failure, furthermore, many attributed the creative vision to James Cameron, diminishing Bigelows perceived influence on the film. She directed episodes of Homicide, Life on the Street in 1997 and 1998, based on Anita Shreves novel of the same name, Bigelows 2000 film The Weight of Water is a portrait of two women trapped in suffocating relationships
Kathryn Bigelow
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Bigelow at the
82nd Academy Awards, 2010
Kathryn Bigelow
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Bigelow at the 2010
Time 100 Gala
Kathryn Bigelow
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Bigelow speaking at the 2009
Seattle International Film Festival
14.
Barbet Schroeder
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Barbet Schroeder is an Iranian-born film director and producer who started his career in French cinema in the 1960s, working together with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette. Since the 1990s he has directed many big budget Hollywood films in which he often combined family drama with thriller, Schroeder was born in Tehran, Iran, the son of Ursula, a German-born physician, and Jean-William Schroeder, a Swiss geologist. Both he and his family left Iran for France, where he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, schroeders production company Les Films du Losange, founded by him at age 23, produced some of the best-known films of the French New Wave. His directorial debut, More, about heroin addiction, became a hit in Europe, pink Floyd wrote music for this movie and released the album, More. They also wrote the soundtrack for his 1972 film La Vallée, released as the album Obscured by Clouds. as a hair products salesman in Paris, je taime, today he resides in France and is married to actress Bulle Ogier. Schroeder directed the 12th episode of the 3rd season of the American dramatic television series Mad Men that first aired on 1 November 2009, the episode was entitled The Grown Ups, and was notable for its depiction of the events of the Kennedy assassination. edition-lettmotif. com/produit/barbet-schroeder/
Barbet Schroeder
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Schroeder at the
Toronto International Film Festival, 2008
15.
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
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The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond is a 2008 independent film by director Jodie Markell. The film is based on Tennessee Williams long-forgotten 1957 screenplay, the film stars Bryce Dallas Howard in the leading role of Fisher Willow. It also holds the distinction of being the last film released in the 2000s, the film tells the story of heiress Fisher Willow. Fisher is to out to society this season, but because of her fathers reputation –. She asks Jimmy to be her escort for the season, though Jimmy is not currently her social equal, he is the grandson of the former governor and she was always taken with him. His father works at Fishers commissary though he is a drinker and is at risk of losing his job. Jimmy agrees to be her escort as she is willing to pay him, Fisher arranges for him to be outfitted properly, and promises that there are better places for Jimmys mother. Fisher borrows $10,000 teardrop diamond earrings from her aunt to wear to these social events, Fisher and Jimmy attend the first society party together, where she causes a scene when she has the band play controversial music and dances in flapper fashion. Soon the entire party views her as a joke and laughs at her, insulting her father, in response, Jimmy yells at everyone to shut up and helps Fisher to the car. The only other social gathering that Fisher is invited to is a Halloween party, given by her friend Jules in northern Memphis, where no one knows of her fathers previous actions. As he waits for Fisher to pick him up for the next party, Jimmy suggests that if he were to agree to be more than her escort, then it would certainly lead to marriage. This would mean a permanent job for his father and better care for his mother, on the way to the Halloween gathering, Fisher asks Jimmy to stop up at the levee so she can look at the water. She rests her head on his shoulder before moving to kiss him, Jimmy, in spite of what he said to his father earlier, pulls back instead, causing Fisher to be hurt and embarrassed. When they arrive at the party, Fisher is so angry with Jimmy that she out of the car before it fully stops. When she straightens out her clothes, she realizes one of her teardrop earrings has fallen off. When she is unsuccessful, she remembers that she had rested her head on Jimmys shoulder earlier, Jimmy misunderstands and thinks that Fisher is accusing him of stealing the jewelry. He becomes furious, as his father was fired from a job once for stealing, and demands that she search his jacket. Fisher, confused as to why he is so angry, refuses, causing Jimmy to go into the party and demand that he be searched down to the skin in order to clear his good name
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
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Theatrical release poster
16.
Tennessee Williams
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Thomas Lanier Tennessee Williams III was an American playwright. Along with Eugene ONeill and Arthur Miller he is considered among the three foremost playwrights in 20th-century American drama, after years of obscurity, he became suddenly famous with The Glass Menagerie, closely reflecting his own unhappy family background. This heralded a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and his later work attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences, and alcohol and drug dependence further inhibited his creative output. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on the short list of the finest American plays of the 20th century alongside Long Days Journey into Night, much of Williams most acclaimed work was adapted for the cinema. He also wrote stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Thomas Lanier Williams III was born in Columbus, Mississippi, of English, Welsh, and Huguenot ancestry and his father was an alcoholic traveling shoe salesman who spent much of his time away from home. Williams early childhood was spent in the parsonage there, Williams had two siblings, sister Rose Isabel Williams and brother Walter Dakin Williams. As a small child Williams suffered from a case of diphtheria which nearly ended his life, leaving him weak, at least in part as a result of his illness, he was less robust as a child than his father wished. Cornelius Williams, a descendant of hearty East Tennessee pioneer stock, had a violent temper and was a man prone to use his fists. He regarded his sons effeminacy with disdain, and his mother Edwina, locked in an unhappy marriage, many critics and historians note that Williams found inspiration for much of his writing in his own dysfunctional family. When Williams was eight years old, his father was promoted to a job at the office of the International Shoe Company in St. Louis. He attended Soldan High School, a setting he referred to in his play The Glass Menagerie, Later he studied at University City High School. At age 16, Williams won third prize for an essay published in Smart Set entitled, a year later, his short story The Vengeance of Nitocris was published in the August 1928 issue of the magazine Weird Tales. That same year he first visited Europe with his grandfather, from 1929 to 1931, he attended the University of Missouri, in Columbia, where he enrolled in journalism classes. Williams found his classes boring, however, and was distracted by his love for a girl. He was soon entering his poetry, essays, stories, and plays in writing contests and his first submitted play was Beauty Is the Word, followed by Hot Milk at Three in the Morning. As recognition for Beauty, a play about rebellion against religious upbringing, at University of Missouri, Williams joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, but he did not fit in well with his fraternity brothers
Tennessee Williams
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Tennessee Williams (age 54) photographed by Orland Fernandez in 1965 for the 20th anniversary of
The Glass Menagerie.
Tennessee Williams
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Frank Merlo in
Key West, 1950
Tennessee Williams
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First page of the
last will and testament of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
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Williams' Grave, Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri
17.
Neil Burger
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Burger approached MTV in 1991 with the idea to create and direct a series of promotional spots for what would be the MTV Books, Feed Your Head campaign against aliteracy. Burger made his feature debut with Interview with the Assassin in 2002. Burger’s follow up feature was The Illusionist starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti, burger’s screenplay for the film was based on the short story Eisenheim the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival, the Illusionist was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards and Best Cinematography at the 2007 Academy Awards. In 2014, Burger directed film Divergent, based on the novel by Veronica Roth, shailene Woodley starred in the film alongside Theo James, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, and Ashley Judd. The film, released by Lionsgate, grossed over $280 million worldwide, following Divergent, Burger directed the first two episodes of Showtime’s Wall Street drama Billions, starring Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. He then served as a producer on CBS’s TV adaptation of Limitless. Additional credits include the Divergent series films Insurgent and Allegiant, Burger will direct The Weinstein Companys Untouchable, the remake of the French hit The Intouchables. Untouchable will star Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart, Burger currently resides in New York with his wife, the architect Diana Kellogg, and family. Neil Burger on Twitter Neil Burger at the Internet Movie Database
Neil Burger
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Neil Burger
18.
The Illusionist (2006 film)
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The Illusionist is a 2006 American romantic mystery film written and directed by Neil Burger and starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel. It is based loosely on Steven Millhausers short story, Eisenheim the Illusionist, the film tells the story of Eisenheim, a magician in turn-of-the-century Vienna, who reunites with his childhood love, a woman far above his social standing. The film also depicts a version of the Mayerling Incident. The film was a commercial and critical success, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary,1889, a magician named Eisenheim is arrested by Chief Inspector Walter Uhl of the Vienna Police during a magic show involving necromancy. Later, Uhl explains the story of Eisenheims life to Crown Prince Leopold, Eisenheim was born to a peasant cabinet-maker and became interested in magic after meeting a travelling magician. He also fell in love with Sophie, the Duchess von Teschen and they kept meeting secretly but were caught one day and separated by force. Eisenheim proceeded to study magic by travelling the world, and fifteen years later returned to Vienna to perform. Eisenheim conducts a private show for the Crown Prince and humiliates him in the course of it, Eisenheim asks Sophie to flee with him, but Sophie is afraid that they will be executed. Sophie also reveals that the Crown Prince is planning a coup detat against his elderly father, at the Mayerling hunting lodge, Sophie tries to end her engagement with Leopold. He reacts by chasing her into the stables with a sword, Sophies body is discovered the next morning in the Vienna Woods. An unknown man is blamed for her assassination and Eisenheim falls into a deep depression and he eventually buys a theatre and begins a new series of magic shows, this time focusing exclusively on the summoning of dead spirits. Leopold secretly attends one of them, during which Eisenheim summons the spirit of Sophie, Leopold, highly unnerved, orders Uhl to arrest Eisenheim for fraud, but Eisenheim manages to avoid jail by openly confessing to the public that his show is a mere illusion. Eisenheim is threatened if he summons Sophie in his next performance, he will be arrested. Uhl attends the packed performance with dozens of officers, and in spite of the warnings, Uhl storms the stage with his officers, but to the shock and horror of the audience, Eisenheim is revealed to be a spirit after Uhls hand passes through him. Eisenheim then fades away in front of everyone, Uhl reveals to Leopold that he found evidence, namely a jewel from Leopolds sword and Sophies distinctive locket, which could implicate Leopold in Sophies murder. Uhl has already informed the Emperor and the General Staff of Leopolds conspiracy to seize the throne. Leopold reacts by pointing a revolver at Uhl and threatening to kill him, realizing it is a message from the illusionist, Uhl begins to re-examine in his thoughts all recent events. He concludes that Sophie and Eisenheim staged her death so she, Uhl laughs in delight at the brilliance of their plan, while far away Sophie and Eisenheim start a new life together
The Illusionist (2006 film)
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Theatrical release poster
19.
The Lucky Ones (film)
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The Lucky Ones is a 2008 American comedy-drama directed by Neil Burger. The screenplay by Burger and Dirk Wittenborn focuses on three United States Army soldiers who find themselves drawn together by unforeseen circumstances. Having completed his latest tour of duty, middle-aged SSG Fred Cheaver has retired from service and is returning home to his wife. PFC Colee Dunn and SSG T. K. Poole each have a thirty-day leave, upon arrival at JFK, the three strangers discover all outbound flights have been cancelled due to a lengthy blackout that ended just prior to their arrival. Rather than face a long wait before normal flight schedules resume, they rent a minivan. Upon arrival at home in St. Louis, Cheaver learns his wife Pat wants a divorce, scotts scholarship will pay for only part of his tuition and he needs to pay the $20,000 balance immediately in order to secure his place at the university. He decides to visit his brother in Salt Lake City, but first drives Colee, when they see how devastated Cheaver is, they fear his state of mind will put him at risk on the open road and decide to continue with him. As their journey progresses and they open themselves up to each other, later, Colee and T. K. leave Cheaver at a campsite, and while driving they are forced to flee an approaching tornado and take shelter in a drainage ditch. As they cling closely to each other, T. K. discovers he might not need the sex surrogate after all, Cheaver decides to bypass Salt Lake City and travel to Vegas to try his luck in the casinos. Neither of the Klingers recognize the guitar, supposedly a family heirloom, and living with them are Shannon, the Klingers invite Colee to spend the remainder of her leave with them. Disillusioned, she declines, but she asks if she can keep the guitar, and they readily agree. Colee, Cheaver, and T. K. are reunited at the police station. T. K. s plan to avoid returning to the Middle East by being sentenced to a prison term backfires when he learns the crime was yet another fabrication, Colee insists Cheaver take the guitar but he tells her he already has the $20,000 he needs. His friends are stunned he won the money so quickly, and they go their separate ways, but weeks later meet again at the airport as they prepare to return to Iraq. Rachel McAdams as Private First Class Colee Dunn, USA Tim Robbins as Staff Sergeant Fred Cheaver, Poole, USA Molly Hagan as Pat Cheaver Mark L. He also drew inspiration from The Last Detail and its mood, episodic structure, and such plot details as an odd religious detour. The film, which takes no position on the war, is the first Iraq War-related Hollywood project the Army has supported by providing personnel and technical help. Much of the film was shot on location in Illinois at sites including Alsips, Arlington Heights, Barrington, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Edwardsville, Naperville, Niles, O Fallon and Park Ridge and Skokie
The Lucky Ones (film)
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Theatrical release poster
20.
Tim Robbins
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Timothy Francis Tim Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is well known for his portrayal of Andy Dufresne in the drama film The Shawshank Redemption. Robbins was born in West Covina, California, and raised in New York City and he is the son of Mary Cecelia, an actress, and Gilbert Lee Robbins, a musician, folk singer, actor, and former manager of The Gaslight Cafe. Robbins has two sisters, Adele and Gabrielle, and a brother, David and he moved to Greenwich Village with his family at a young age, while his father pursued a career as a member of the folk music group, The Highwaymen. Robbins started performing in theater at age twelve and joined the club at Stuyvesant High School. He spent two years at SUNY Plattsburgh and then returned to California to study at the UCLA Film School, after graduation from college in 1981, Robbins founded the Actors Gang, an experimental theater group, in Los Angeles with actor friends from his college softball team. In 1982, he appeared as domestic terrorist Andrew Reinhardt in three episodes of the television program St. Elsewhere, in 1985, he guest-starred in the second episode of the television series Moonlighting, Gunfight at the So-So Corral. He also took parts in films, such as the role of frat animal Mother in Fraternity Vacation. He played in The Love Boat, as a version of one of the characters in retrospection about the Second World War. His breakthrough role was as pitcher Ebby Calvin Nuke LaLoosh in the 1988 baseball film Bull Durham which he co-starred with Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner. He received critical acclaim and won the Best Actor Award at Cannes for his role as an amoral film executive in Robert Altmans 1992 film The Player. He made his directorial and screenwriting debut with 1992s Bob Roberts, Robbins then starred alongside Morgan Freeman in the critically acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption, which was based on Stephen Kings novella. Robbins has written, produced, and directed films with strong social content, such as the critically acclaimed capital punishment saga Dead Man Walking, starring Sarandon. The film earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director and his next directorial effort was 1999s Depression-era musical Cradle Will Rock. Robbins has also appeared in mainstream Hollywood thrillers, such as 1999s Arlington Road and 2001s Antitrust, and in films such as The Hudsucker Proxy, Nothing to Lose. Robbins has also acted in and directed several Actors Gang theater productions, Robbins won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the SAG Award for his work in Mystic River, as a man traumatized from having been molested as a child. In 2005, he won the 39th annual Man of the Year Pudding Pot Award given by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals of Harvard. His most recent acting roles include a blind man who is nursed to health by a psychologically wounded young woman in The Secret Life of Words
Tim Robbins
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Robbins at the
2012 Toronto International Film Festival
Tim Robbins
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Robbins at
Cannes, 2001
21.
Me and Orson Welles
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Me and Orson Welles is a 2008 British-American period drama film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and Claire Danes. He becomes attracted to a production assistant. McKays portrayal of Welles was recognized with a multitude of accolades, the company is immersed in rehearsals at its Broadway theater. Charmed by Welles, Richard infers that he is having an affair with the actress while his wife is pregnant. Richard finds ambitious production assistant Sonja Jones is attracted to him, during rehearsals Richard accidentally sets off the sprinkler system, soaking the entire theatre. When accused by Welles he denies having anything to do with the deluge, Welles decides the entire production crew would benefit from a coupling game, and Richard cheats to ensure he is paired with Sonja. Richard spends the night with Sonja, but becomes jealous when she spends the night with Welles. He confronts Welles, mentions his pregnant wife, and is fired, an apparent reconciliation follows, and Richard performs on the first night. The broken-hearted but wiser Richard spontaneously recites lines from Julius Caesar in his high school English class and he later meets up with a likely new girlfriend, Gretta Adler, a young aspiring playwright whom he met in a music store at the films beginning. With Richards and Sonjas assistance, Adler manages to get a story published in The New Yorker, adapted the films screenplay from Robert Kaplows novel of the same name about a teenager involved in the founding of Orson Welles Mercury Theatre. In the theatre, Christian McKay had portrayed Orson Welles in the one-man play Rosebud, The Lives of Orson Welles at a number of venues, including the Edinburgh Festival and Kings Head. Me and Orson Welles underwent filming in the Isle of Man, Pinewood Studios, London, during filming in Douglas, Efron and Danes believe they sighted a ghost, or supernatural being, outside a window on set at Gaiety Theatre. Filming in Britain resumed in late March for six weeks at Pinewood Studios, other locations included Crystal Palace Park, where a façade of New Yorks Mercury Theatre was set up for a scene. Actor James Tupper claimed that the best replica of an old New York theater was in England, the production crew only briefly visited New York, photographs were taken and footage shot to be added into the film as digital effects. Select footage of Me and Orson Welles was screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where financing and its first full screening was at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, running September 4–13,2008. Again, however, the distribution rights were not purchased and it went on to show at the South by Southwest festival in Austin. In May 2009, production company CinemaNX announced that it would distribute Me and Orson Welles itself, louis International Film Festival in November 2009. The film was released in the US on November 25,2009, indieWIRE reported, The do-it-yourself release of Richard Linklaters Me and Orson Welles got off to a very nice start, averaging $15,910 from its four theaters, the highest PTA of all debuting films
Me and Orson Welles
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Theatrical release poster
Me and Orson Welles
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The
Gaiety Theatre, Isle of Man, stood in for the
Mercury Theatre, which was demolished in 1942
22.
Richard Linklater
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Richard Stuart Linklater is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. Linklater is mostly known for his realistic and natural humanist films which mainly revolve around suburban culture, in 2002 he began filming Boyhood, a passion project which took over twelve years to finish. The film was premiered in 2014 to critical acclaim, Linklater won the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Movie Awards and BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Picture. He also received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, along with nominations for Original Screenplay, in 2015, Time magazine named Linklater one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. Many of his films are noted for their loosely structured narrative, films and Boyhood – feature the same actors filmed over an extended period of years. He is also known for loyalty to his actors, having worked with Ethan Hawke, Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Diane Margaret, who taught at Sam Houston State University, and Charles W. Linklater, III. He attended Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Texas, during grades 9-11, as a teen, Linklater also won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award. Linklater studied at Sam Houston State University, until dropping out to work on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He frequently read novels on the rig and, upon returning to land, at this point, Linklater realized he wanted to be a filmmaker. He used his savings to buy a Super-8 camera, a projector, and editing equipment and he was influenced by Martin Scorsese Robert Bresson, Yasujirō Ozu, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Josef Von Sternberg, and Carl Theodor Dreyer. He enrolled in Austin Community College in the fall of 1984 to study film, since his early 20s, Linklater has been a vegetarian. In 2015, he explained the dietary lifestyle in a Boyhood-style documentary for PETA, Linklater founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel. One of the mentors for the Film Society was former New York City critic for the Soho Weekly News George Morris who had relocated to Austin, Morris had previously written articles on Leo McCarey, Vincente Minnelli, George Sidney, and Douglas Sirk. For several years, Linklater made many films that were exercises. He finally completed his first feature, the rarely seen Its Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, the film is significant in the sense that it establishes most of Linklaters preoccupations. The film has his trademark style of camera movements and lack of narrative. These idiosyncrasies would be explored in detail in future projects. To this end Linklater created Detour Filmproduction, and subsequently made Slacker for only $23,000 and it went on to gross more than $1.25 million
Richard Linklater
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Linklater in 2015
23.
Spike Lee
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Shelton Jackson Spike Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company,40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983, Lee has acted in ten of his own films. Lees movies have examined race relations, colorism in the community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty. Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Jacqueline Carroll, a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer. Lee also had three younger siblings Joie, David, and Cinqué, who all worked in different positions in Lees films. Director Malcolm D. Lee is his cousin, when he was a child, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. His mother nicknamed him Spike during his childhood and he attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyns Gravesend neighborhood. Lee enrolled in Morehouse College, a black college, where he made his first student film. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B. A. in mass communication from Morehouse and he did graduate work at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film & television. In 1991, Lee taught a course at Harvard about filmmaking and it was there that he received his Master of Fine Arts and was appointed Artistic Director in 2002. Lees independent film, Joes Bed-Stuy Barbershop, We Cut Heads, was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Centers New Directors/New Films Festival, in 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, Shes Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks, when the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U. S. box office. Lees 1989 film Do the Right Thing was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989, many people, including Hollywoods Kim Basinger, believed that Do the Right Thing also deserved a Best Picture nomination. Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture that year, after the 1990 release of Mo Better Blues, Lee was accused of antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League and several film critics. They criticized the characters of the club owners Josh and Moe Flatbush, Lee denied the charge, explaining that he wrote those characters in order to depict how black artists struggled against exploitation. Lee said that Lew Wasserman, Sidney Sheinberg or Tom Pollock and he said he could not make an antisemitic film because Jews run Hollywood, and thats a fact. His 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls, about the killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. On May 2,2007, the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Societys Directing Award and he received the 2008 Wexner Prize
Spike Lee
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Lee at the 2009
Tribeca Film Festival
Spike Lee
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Lee in 2007
Spike Lee
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Lee in September 2011
Spike Lee
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Lee with his
Peabody Award, 2011
24.
Miracle at St. Anna
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Miracle at St. Anna is a 2008 American–Italian epic war film adapted by James McBride from his eponymous 2003 novel. Directed by Spike Lee, the film stars Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Pierfrancesco Favino, the story is presented as a flashback, as one survivor reflects upon his experiences in a frame story set in 1980s New York. Several real-life events that occurred during the war, such as the SantAnna di Stazzema massacre, are re-enacted, Lee first learned of the novel in 2004 and approached McBride with the idea of a film adaptation. In Europe, the development attracted the attention of Italian film producers Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini. A majority of the film was shot in Italy, on several locations affected by World War II, other filming locations included New York, Louisiana and The Bahamas. Frequent Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard composed the score, and the effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic. Miracle at St. Anna premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival before it was released on September 26,2008 and it was met with mostly negative reviews from critics and drew controversy in Italy over historical inaccuracies. During its theatrical run, Miracle at St. Anna was a box office disappointment, in 1983, Hector Negron, an aged Puerto Rican World War II veteran, works as a post office clerk in New York City. After recognizing a customer, Negron shoots and kills the man with a German Luger pistol, several hours later, rookie reporter Tim Boyle and Detective Tony Ricci are at the crime scene seeking information. At Negrons apartment, Boyle, Ricci and other officers discover a finely carved statue head, the Head of the Primavera, also found is a Purple Heart and a photograph revealing that Negron was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star. Negron, in a flashback tells of his war experiences as a corporal of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division in 1944 Italy. A disastrous attack ensues on German positions across the Serchio River, an officer, Captain Nokes, calls down artillery on the 92nds own position, refusing to believe their reports of how far they have advanced. Many American soldiers are killed, leaving Negron stranded on the side of the river with three men, Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps, Sergeant Bishop Cummings, and Private Sam Train. Sam rescues an Italian boy named Angelo from a building, and discovers the Head of the Primavera. While traveling through the mountains of Tuscany, the soldiers enter a small village, Sam grows especially fond of Angelo, becoming the boys father figure. One Italian villager, Renata, soon becomes entangled in a triangle with Stamps and Bishop. After Negron gets his damaged backpack radio working, the contact headquarters and are told to capture an enemy soldier. A local Partisan group arrives with a young German deserter, Hans Brundt, earlier, residents of the nearby village of SantAnna di Stazzema were killed by German forces following a betrayal by a Partisan, named Rodolfo, who knows that Brundt can identify him as the traitor
Miracle at St. Anna
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Theatrical release poster
Miracle at St. Anna
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Director
Spike Lee in 2007
25.
Jonathan Demme
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Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Demme rose to prominence in the 1980s with his comedy films Melvin and Howard, Swing Shift, Something Wild and he became best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. He later directed the acclaimed films Philadelphia and Rachel Getting Married, Demme broke into feature film working for exploitation film producer Roger Corman from 1971 to 1976, co-writing and producing Angels Hard as They Come and The Hot Box. He then moved on to directing, with three films for Cormans studio New World Pictures, after Fighting Mad, Demme directed the comedy film Citizens Band for Paramount Pictures in 1977. The film was received by critics, but received little promotion. Intended as a picture for Warner Bros. as well as a major commercial vehicle for Demme, it instead became a troubled production due to the conflicting visions of Demme. Demme ended up renouncing the finished product, and when the film was released in May 1984, it was panned by critics. In 1991, Demme won the Academy Award for The Silence of the Lambs—one of only three films to win all the major categories, Demme followed that up with Philadelphia, which garnered star Tom Hanks a Best Actor Oscar. In 2008, the art-house hit Rachel Getting Married was released and it was included in many 2008 best of lists, and received numerous awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress by lead Anne Hathaway. In 2010, Demme made his first foray into theater, directing Family Week, the play was produced by MCC Theater and co-starred Rosemarie DeWitt and Sarah Jones. Demme has directed videos for artists such as Suburban Lawns, New Order. He also produced a compilation of Haitian music called Konbit, Burning Rhythms of Haiti that was released in 1989, Demme is on the board of directors at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY. In addition to his role on the board, he curates, Demme formed his production company, Clinica Estetico, with producers Edward Saxon and Peter Saraf. They were based out of New York City for fifteen years, Demme was born in 1944 in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, the son of Dorothy Louise and Robert Eugene Demme, a public relations executive. He graduated from Southwest Miami High School and the University of Florida and he is currently a member of the steering committee of the Friends of the Apollo Theater in Oberlin, Ohio, along with Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. In 2013, he returned to Oberlin, as part of a reunion during the class of 2013 graduation ceremony. Demme has three children by two marriages, Ramona, Brooklyn and Jos and he also was the uncle of film director Ted Demme, who died in 2002. During the 1980s, Demme had a romantic relationship with rock singer Belinda Carlisle
Jonathan Demme
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Demme at the
Montclair Film Festival, May 2015
26.
Rachel Getting Married
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Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin and Debra Winger. The film was released in the U. S. to select theaters on October 3,2008, the film opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival. The film also opened in Canadas Toronto International Film Festival on September 6,2008, Hathaway received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance in the film. Kym Buchman is released from rehab for a few days so she can go home to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel. At home, the atmosphere is strained between Kym and her family members as they struggle to reconcile themselves with her past and present, Kyms past drug and alcohol fueled antics have more or less made her the black sheep of her rather bohemian family. Kyms father Paul shows intense concern for her well-being and whereabouts, Kym also resents her sisters choice of her best friend to be her maid of honor instead of her. Underlying the familys dynamic is a tragedy that occurred years previously, the day before the wedding, as Rachel, Kym, and the other bridesmaids are getting their hair done, Kym is approached by a man whom she knew from an earlier stint in rehab. He thanks her for the strength she gave him through a story about having been molested by an uncle and having cared for her sister, Rachel, hearing this, storms out of the hair salon. The story turns out to be a lie, an apparent attempt by Kym to evade responsibility for her addiction, the tension between the sisters comes to a head later that night at their fathers house, when Kym comes home. Rachel reveals she has never forgiven Kym for their brothers death, Kym finally admits responsibility for Ethans death and reveals that she had been relapsing in order to cope. She gets into her fathers car and leaves, Kym heads to the home of their mother Abby, hoping to find solace with her. Abby tells Kym she left Ethan with her because she was good to him, when Kym makes it clear she thinks her mothers decision was in part responsible for Ethans death, Abby becomes furious and punches Kym in the face. Kym hits her back and drives off in her fathers car. While driving away, Kym begins sobbing uncontrollably because she feels Abby has not accepted responsibility for her part in the actions which ultimately caused Ethans death. Kym drives the car off the road in an attempted suicide, rather than summon help, she spends the night in the car while everyone at home worries about what has become of her. The next morning, the day of the wedding, Kym is spotted in the car by passing joggers, the police awaken her and give her a sobriety test which she passes. She gets a home with the driver of the tow truck who is towing the wrecked car. She makes her way to Rachels room, as Rachel prepares for the wedding, seeing Kyms bruised face from the crash prompts her anger of the previous night to vanish, and Rachel tenderly bathes and dresses her sister
Rachel Getting Married
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Theatrical release poster
27.
Charlie Kaufman
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Charles Stuart Charlie Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and lyricist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and he made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York, which was also well-received, film critic Roger Ebert named it the best movie of the decade in 2009. He also won two BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplays and one BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, three of Kaufmans scripts appear in the Writers Guild of Americas list of the 101 greatest movie screenplays ever written. Kaufman was born in New York City to a Jewish family on November 19,1958 and he grew up in Massapequa, New York before moving to West Hartford, Connecticut where he graduated high school. While attending high school, Kaufman was part of the drama club, performing in numerous productions before landing the lead role in a production of Play It Again. After high school graduation, Kaufman attended Boston University before transferring to New York University where he studied film, while attending New York University, Kaufman met Paul Proch, with whom he would write many unproduced scripts and plays. Between 1983 and 1984, Kaufman and Proch wrote comedic articles and his work included parodies of Kurt Vonnegut and the X-Men. Kaufman and Proch tried to get their screenplays produced, sending them to people in film industry. The only response the two ever received for their work was a letter from Alan Arkin in regards to their screenplay titled Purely Coincidental. In hope of finding talent agents the two began to write scripts for television series such as Married. In 1991, Kaufman moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in search of job prospects. Kaufman got his start in television by writing two episodes for Chris Elliotts Get a Life during the 1991–1992 season, during the 1993–1994 season, Kaufman worked on Foxs sketch comedy show The Edge. Kaufman wrote some pilot scripts while working as a television writer and he later worked as a writer for Ned and Stacey and The Dana Carvey Show. He first came to notice as the writer of Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze, earning an Academy Award nomination for his effort. He wrote the script on spec in 1994, sending it to companies and studios. Kaufman and Jonze reunited yet again as the director screenwriter respectively for Adaptation, Adaptation featured a fictionalized version of Kaufman and his fictional brother, Donald, who is credited as writer of the film along with Kaufman. The idea came to Kaufman while attempting to adapt Susan Orleans novel The Orchid Thief into film, struggling with writers block, Kaufman turned the script into an exaggerated account of his struggles with adapting the screenplay. The film focuses on Barriss claim to have been a CIA hit man and it was George Clooneys directorial debut
Charlie Kaufman
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Kaufman at the
Sarajevo Film Festival, August 2008
28.
Synecdoche, New York (film)
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Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American postmodern drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. The plot follows a theatre director as he works on an increasingly elaborate stage production whose extreme commitment to realism begins to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. The films title is a play on Schenectady, New York, where much of the film is set, the film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23,2008. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the United States distribution rights, paying no money and it had a limited theatrical release in the U. S. on October 24,2008, and generated much less revenue than it cost. It was also nominated for the Palme dOr at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Theater director Caden Cotard finds his life unraveling. After the success of his production of Death of a Salesman, Caden unexpectedly receives a MacArthur Fellowship and he is determined to use it to create an artistic piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can pour his whole self. Gathering an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattans Theater District, he directs them in a celebration of the mundane. As the mockup inside the warehouse grows increasingly mimetic of the city outside and he is traumatized as he discovers Adele has become a celebrated painter in Berlin and Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adeles friend Maria. After a disastrous fling with Hazel, he marries Claire, an actress in his cast and their relationship ultimately fails, and he continues his awkward relationship with Hazel, who is by now married with children and working as his assistant. Meanwhile, a condition is systematically shutting down his autonomic functions one by one. As the years pass, the continually expanding warehouse is isolated from the deterioration of the city outside. Caden buries himself ever deeper into his magnum opus, blurring the line between reality and the world of the play by populating the cast and crew with doppelgängers. For instance, Sammy Barnathan is cast in the role of Caden in the play after Sammy reveals that he has been obsessively following Caden for 20 years, Sammys interest in Hazel sparks a revival of Cadens relationship with her, leading Sammy to commit suicide. As he pushes against the limits of his personal and professional relationships, Caden lets an actress take over his role as director and takes on her previous role as Ellen, Adeles custodian. He lives out his days in the model of Adeles apartment under the replacement directors instruction while some unexplained calamity occurs in the warehouse leaving ruins and bodies in its wake. Finally, he prepares for death as he rests his head on the shoulder of an actress who had previously played Ellens mother, seemingly the only person in the warehouse still alive. As the scene fades to gray, Caden says that now he has an idea of how to do the play when the voice in his ear gives him his final cue. The film began when Sony Pictures Classics approached Kaufman and Spike Jonze about making a horror film, the two began working on a film dealing with things they found frightening in real life, rather than typical horror-film tropes
Synecdoche, New York (film)
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Theatrical release poster
29.
James Benning (film director)
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James Benning is an independent filmmaker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the course of his 40-year career Benning has made over twenty-five feature-length films that have shown in different venues across the world. The Benning family lived in a German working class community and his father was Roman Benning and his mother was Anita Friedrich. Roman worked on the line for a heavy industry corporation which. Roman later became a building designer, as was his father. Anita, who had worked as a secretary before getting married, did some work for Roman in addition to homemaking and raising James. James Bennings only child is the artist Sadie Benning, born in 1973, Benning experienced a political awakening and racial consciousness during the late 1960s, participating in civil rights protests led by Father James Groppi in segregated Milwaukee. Benning dropped out of school to forfeit his military deferment since his friends. Benning often uses this background as part of his film work, at the age of 33 Benning received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin where he had studied with David Bordwell. For the next four years he taught filmmaking at Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin, University of Oklahoma and the University of California, San Diego. Benning was hailed cinemas voice of the Midwest with his 1976/1978 films,11 x 14 and One Way Boogie Woogie, made in Chicago and Milwaukee and the surrounding rural region. In 1980, Benning moved to lower Manhattan, where, with the aid of grants and funding from German Television, he continued to make films, most notably, American Dreams and Landscape Suicide. Leaving New York after eight years, Benning moved west to teach film/video at California Institute of the Arts, and has taught there ever since. Benning has employed diverse methods, themes, structures, and aesthetics, investigating narrative and anti-narrative modes, personal history, race, collective memory, place, industry, and landscape. His philosophy of “landscape as a function of time, ” and “Looking and Listening” is particularly evident in his films since 1999 in the form of fixed, for instance, each of El Centro, Los, and Sogobi—The California Trilogy is composed of 35 2½ minute shots. Nightfall consists of a single 98-minute shot made at an elevation in the woods in the west Sierras that begins in late afternoon as the sun is going down. Bennings use of duration reflects his accord with Henry David Thoreaus passage from Walden, there, in 2007, Benning built a replica of the cabin Thoreau constructed in 1845 on Walden Pond. The following year Benning erected a copy of the cabin Ted Kaczynski built in 1971 in Montana, inside the cabins Benning has installed a number of copies he made of paintings by artists that have deeply inspired him, including Bill Traylor, Henry Darger, and Mose Tolliver
James Benning (film director)
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James Benning at the Viennale in 2012
30.
RR (film)
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RR is a 2007 film by American filmmaker James Benning. Shot in 16 mm film, as most of Bennings films are, RR is another in Bennings series of American experimental landscape films, in Railroad, Benning explores themes of American consumerism and overconsumption in what Benning calls a collaboration with the trains themselves. The film is an exercise in minimalist restraint, basically it is a series of static shots of trains. There is an empty frame, the train enters, then it passes and leaves
RR (film)
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RR
