Sherrybaby
Sherrybaby is a 2006 American drama film written and directed by Laurie Collyer. Screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2006, the film received a limited release in the United States on September 8, 2006. Sherry Swanson, a young woman, released from prison and is recovering from a heroin addiction, is trying to rebuild her life on the outside. Above all, she wants to repair her relationship with her young daughter, but finds the challenges more daunting than she had expected, her daughter recognizes her and no longer calls her "mommy", the halfway house where she lives has a curfew that interferes with her ability to visit her family, her relationship with her family has become tense and strained. The story takes place in New Jersey. Several towns are mentioned during the film, including Mountainside and South Kearny. A NJ Transit bus and New Jersey license plates were visible during the movie. In between trips to visit her daughter and her job at a youth center, Sherry attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in an effort to beat back her addiction to heroin.
She strikes up a relationship with a fellow addict she meets at Alcoholics Anonymous. The stresses of her damaged relationships with her family, satisfying her parole officer, finding a way to reconnect with her daughter soon prove overwhelming. Sherry soon starts using drugs again, putting her parole at risk. Struggling to maintain a grip on her life, Sherry breaks down and admits to her brother that she knows she needs help. Maggie Gyllenhaal as Sherry Swanson Brad William Henke as Bobby Swanson Sam Bottoms as Bob Swanson, Sr. Kate Burton as Marcia Swanson Giancarlo Esposito as Parole Officer Hernandez Danny Trejo as Dean Walker Michelle Hurst as Dorothy Washington Caroline Clay as Parole Officer Murphy Bridget Barkan as Lynette Swanson Ryan Simpkins as Alexis Parks Stephen Peabody as Mr. Monroe Sherrybaby received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 74% of 66 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus is that "Maggie Gyllenhaal delivers riveting performance as a recovering drug addict in a depressing and believable movie."
Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a "generally favorable" average score of 66, based on 18 reviews. Entertainment Weekly praised the film as "emotionally arresting" and "authentic and moving", describes Gyllenhaal as "such a miracle of an actress that she makes you respond to the innocence of Sherry's desperate, selfish destruction." The Christian Science Monitor gave a positive review of the film, complimenting Collyer's "vivid eye for detail and the small, telling human moments that make a movie resonate with audiences". Sherrybaby on IMDb Sherrybaby at AllMovie Sherrybaby at Box Office Mojo Sherrybaby at Rotten Tomatoes Sherrybaby at Metacritic
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, takes place annually in Park City, the largest independent film festival in the United States with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. It is held in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as at the Sundance Resort, it is a showcase for new work from international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Midnight and Documentary Premieres; the 2019 Sundance Film Festival began January 24 and ran through February 3. Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978, as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah, it was founded by John Earle. The 1978 festival featured films such as Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, The Sweet Smell of Success. With chairman Robert Redford, the help of Utah Governor Scott M. Matheson, the goal of the festival was to showcase American-made films, highlight the potential of independent film, to increase visibility for filmmaking in Utah.
At the time, the main focus of the event was to conduct a competition for independent American films, present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions, to celebrate the Frank Capra Award. The festival highlighted the work of regional filmmakers who worked outside the Hollywood system; the jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison, included Verna Fields, Linwood G. Dunn, Katharine Ross, Charles E. Sellier Jr. Mark Rydell, Anthea Sylbert. In 1979, Sterling Van Wagenen left to head up the first-year pilot program of what was to become the Sundance Institute, James W. Ure took over as executive director, followed by Cirina Hampton Catania as executive director. More than 60 films were screened at the festival that year, panels featured many well-known Hollywood filmmakers; that year, the first Frank Capra Award went to Jimmy Stewart. The festival made a profit for the first time. In 1980, Catania left the festival to pursue a production career in Hollywood. Several factors helped propel the growth of Utah/US Film Festival.
First was the involvement of actor and Utah resident Robert Redford, who became the festival's inaugural chairman. By having Redford's name associated with the festival, it received great attention. Secondly, the country was hungry for more venues that would celebrate American-made films as the only other festival doing so at the time was the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Response in Hollywood was unprecedented, as major studios did all they could to contribute their resources. In 1981, the festival moved to Park City and changed the dates from September to January; the move from late summer to midwinter was done by the executive director Susan Barrell with the cooperation of Hollywood director Sydney Pollack, who suggested that running a film festival in a ski resort during winter would draw more attention from Hollywood. It was called the US Video Festival. In 1984, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival. Gary Beer and Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural US Film Festival presented by Sundance Institute, which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby.
The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc. by appointment of Robert Redford. In 1991, the festival was renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redford's character the Sundance Kid from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. UK-based publisher C21 Media first revealed in October 2010 that Robert Redford was planning to bring the Sundance Film Festival to London, in March the following year, Redford announced that Sundance London would be held at The O2, in London from 26–29 April 2012. In a press statement, Redford said, "We are excited to partner with AEG Europe to bring a particular slice of American culture to life in the inspired setting of The O2, in this city of such rich cultural history, it is our mutual goal to bring to the UK, the best in current American independent cinema, to introduce the artists responsible for it, in essence help build a picture of our country, broadly reflective of the diversity of voices not always seen in our cultural exports."The majority of the film screenings, including the festival's premieres, would be held within the Cineworld cinema at The O2 entertainment district.
The 2013 Sundance London Festival was held 25–28 April 2013, sponsored by car-maker Jaguar. Sundance London 2014 took place on 25–27 April 2014 at the O2 arena; the Sundance London 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on 16 January 2015. Sundance London returned to London from 2–5 June 2016 and again 1–4 June 2017, both at Picturehouse Cinema in London's West End. Inaugurated in 2014, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong took place from 22 September to 2 October 2016 and is scheduled again for 21 September to 1 October 2017, it is held at The Metroplex in Kowloon Bay each year. From 2006 through 2008, Sundance Institute collaborated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music on a special series of film screenings, panel discussions, special events bringing the institute's activities and the festival's programming to New York City. M
The Unforgettable Year 1919 (film)
The Unforgettable Year 1919 is a 1951 Soviet biopic directed by Mikheil Chiaureli. It is considered an important representation of Joseph Stalin's cult of personality. May 1919; the city of Petrograd, the Bolsheviks' stronghold in Russia, is attacked by the counter-revolutionary White Army of General Nikolai Yudenich, supported by the imperialist British, by the warmongering Winston Churchill. The city's High Soviet is demoralized and about to order an evacuation, while the White fifth column inside it plots an insurrection; the Krasnaya Gorka fort dispatches a detachment of Baltic Fleet sailors to assist Petrograd, among them the young Vladimir Shibaev. As the Red Army faces defeat by the Whites, Joseph Stalin arrives on the battlefield, rallies the communists and routs the enemy, saving the city. Mikheil Gelovani as Joseph Stalin Pavel Molchanov as Vladimir Lenin Boris Andreyev as Shibaev Gavriil Belov as Mikhail Kalinin Victor Stanitsin as Winston Churchill Gnat Yura as Georges Clemenceau Viktor Koltsov as Lloyd George Nikolai Komissarov as General Neklyudov Yevgeny Samoylov as Alexander Neklyudov Sergei Lukyanov as General Rodzyanko Pavel Massalsky as Colonel Vadbolsky Vladimir Ratomsky as Potapov Gleb Romanov as commander of the armored vehicles Marina Kovalyova as Katya Danilova Angelina Stepanova as Olga Butkevich Yevgeny Morgunov as Anarchist Vsevolod Sanayev as Boris Savinkov Vladimir Kenigson as Paul Dukes The script was adapted from a play by the same name, composed by Vsevolod Vishnevsky for Stalin's 70th birthday in 1949 and won the Stalin Prize.
Ronald Hingley wrote that Vishnevsky's play "magnified Stalin's Russian Civil War record beyond all recognition". Chiaureli's work was one of the only nine Soviet pictures produced during 1951. With a budget of nearly 11,000,000 rubles, it was the most expensive film made in the Soviet Union up to that time. In addition, it was the last of Chiaureli's "super-productions about Stalin." The Unforgettable Year 1919 was promoted by the Soviet press months before its release. It was watched by 31.6 million people in the USSR, becoming the country's fifth highest-grossing picture of 1952, coming behind four old American Tarzan movies from the 1930s. The film won the Crystal Globe in the 1952 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Olga Romanova wrote that Stalin was not pleased by the portrayal of his youthful self by Mikheil Gelovani, therefore did not award The Unforgettable Year 1919 a Stalin Prize. In 1952, a Der Spiegel critic wrote that, in 1919, "Young Stalin stands in white-silk armor and arranges the defense of Leningrad...
While the traitors receive their deserved bullet in the head". He added. In 1953, the picture was criticized by the Central Committee for "having significant shortcomings and lower ideological-artistic merits than those released by the director." In the summer of 1953, after Stalin's death, it was removed from circulation. In February 1956, Premier Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech condemning Stalin's cult of personality in front of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he told the audience: "Stalin loved to see the film The Unforgettable Year of 1919, in which he was shown on the steps of an armored train and where he was vanquishing the foe with his own saber. Let Kliment Voroshilov, our dear friend, find the necessary courage and write the truth about Stalin. In March, the pro-Stalin protesters in the 1956 Georgian demonstrations included re-screenings of the film in their list of demands. Peter Kenez noted that the film was the last made about the October Revolution and Civil War in the Stalinist period.
Louis Menashe regarded 1919 as one of the post-war pictures in which "Stalin monopolized all heroism". William Luhr described it as "a elaborate and costly production... Another attempt at myth-making... In which Stalin is given the sole credit for crushing the anti-Bolshevik uprising." Ann Lloyd and David Robinson referred to the film as "the eminently forgettable The Unforgettable Year 1919."Denise J. Youngblood commented that "as absurd" as Stalin's role was in Chiaureli's last film, The Fall of Berlin, it still contained "a grain of historical truth... Stalin was the USSR's leader during World War II." But in 1919, he was depicted in a ahistorical manner: "he was not the head of the party at 1919, nor was he a Civil War hero." John Riley added that during the relevant period in the Civil War, Stalin was stationed in Moscow, where he functioned as the People's Commissar for Nationalities. Nikolas Hüllbusch, who researched Stalin's representations in cinema, wrote that the portrayal of premier's propagandistic "screen alter-ego" reached its "zenith" in The Fall of Berlin, "this development marked its atrophic crisis."
According to Hüllbusch, the sanctioned artistic line took a turn in 1952, the attempts to use Stalin's figure were frowned upon. The Unforgettable Year 1919 and other Stalinist works from that year "had little notability... And were forgotten after the political reshuffle of 1953." A suite drawn from the film score by Dmitri Shostakovich, arranged by Lev Atomyan, was prepared in 1954 and recorded in 1956 by Melodiya with Alexander Gauk as conductor. The suite's fifth movement has been described as "a mini-piano concerto, in the style of, but more Hollywood-like than, Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto of 1941.". It describes the attack on the Krasnaya Gorka fort. Through mistranslation the movement is sometimes referred to as "The Attack on Beautiful Gorky"; the Unforgettable Year 1919 on the IMDb
Jerusalem Film Festival
The Jerusalem Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem. The festival was the brainchild of Lia van Leer, who inaugurated it on May 17, 1984. Feature films and documentaries from all over the world are screened, awards are presented in many categories. After serving as a judge at the Cannes film festival, Lia van Leer decided to organize a similar event in Israel. Jeanne Moreau, Lillian Gish, Warren Beatty and John Schlesinger arrived in Israel to attend the debut. In 1989, van Leer persuaded American philanthropist Jack Wolgin to set up a competition bearing his name for the best Israeli films; the Wolgin Prize has become the country's most prestigious feature film award. In 2008, van Leer, 84, stepped down as director of the festival and turned the job over to a new CEO, Ilan de Vries. Competitions at the festival include the Wolgin Award for Israeli Cinema, the Anat Pirchi Drama Award, the Spirit of Freedom Awards, the Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Memory in Israel Award for the Creative use of Archival Footage and the FIPRESCII competition for first time filmmakers.
Culture of Israel Cinema of Israel Official site
46th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The 46th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took place from 1 to 9 July 2011. The Crystal Globe was won by Restoration, an Israeli drama film directed by Yossi Madmoni; the second prize, the Special Jury Prize was won by Gypsy, a Slovakian drama film directed by Martin Šulík. Hungarian film director and opera director István Szabó was the Grand Jury President of the festival; the following people formed the juries of the festival: The following feature films and people received the official selection awards: Crystal Globe - Restoration by Yossi Madmoni Special Jury Prize - Gypsy by Martin Šulík Best Director Award - Pascal Rabaté for Holidays by the Sea Best Actress Award - Stine Fischer Christensen for her role in Cracks in the Shell Best Actor Award - David Morse for his role in Collaborator Special mention of the jury - Ján Mižigár for his role in Gypsy by Martin Šulík Other statutory awards that were conferred at the festival: Best documentary film - Familia by Mikael Wiström & Alberto Herskovits Special Mention - Tinar by Mahdi Moniri Best documentary film - The River by Julia Gruodienė & Rimantas Gruodis East of the West Award - Aurora by Cristi Puiu Special Mention - The Temptation of St.
Tony by Veiko Õunpuu Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema - Nikita Mikhalkov, Juraj Herz Festival President's Award - Jude Law Právo Audience Award - Oldboys by Nikolaj Steen The following non-statutory awards were conferred at the festival: FIPRESCI International Critics Award: Hitler in Hollywood by Frédéric Sojcher Ecumenical Jury Award: Another Sky by Dmitri Mamulia FICC - The Don Quixote Prize: Gypsy by Martin Šulík Special Mention: Lollipop Monster by Ziska Riemann FEDEORA Award: Marija´s Own Europa Cinemas Label: Gypsy by Martin Šulík NETPAC Award: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Amélie
Amélie is a 2001 French romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre, it tells the story of a shy waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while struggling with her own isolation. The film was a co-production between companies in Germany. Taking in over $33 million in a limited theatrical release, it is to date the highest-grossing French-language film released in the United States, one of the biggest international successes for a French movie; the film was a major box office success. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards. Amélie Poulain is born in June 1974 and raised by eccentric parents who – incorrectly believing that she has a heart defect – decide to home school her. To cope with her loneliness, Amélie develops a mischievous personality; when Amélie is six, her mother, Amandine, is killed when a suicidal Canadian tourist jumps from the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris and lands on her.
As a result, her father Raphaël withdraws more from society. Amélie leaves home at the age of 18 and becomes a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre, staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics, she is single but not a virgin. On 31 August 1997, startled by the news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Amélie drops a plastic perfume-stopper which dislodges a wall tile and accidentally reveals an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who had lived in her apartment decades earlier. Amélie resolves to return the box to him, she promises herself that if it makes him happy, she will devote her life to bringing happiness to others. After asking the apartment's concierge and several old tenants about the boy's identity, Amélie meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, an artist with brittle bone disease who repaints Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir every year, he recalls the boy's name as "Bretodeau". Amélie finds the man, Dominique Bretodeau, surreptitiously gives him the box.
Moved to tears by the discovery and the memories it holds, Bretodeau resolves to reconcile with his estranged daughter and the grandson he has never met. Amélie embarks on her new mission. Amélie secretly executes complex schemes, she escorts a blind man to the Métro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes. She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having a flight attendant friend airmail pictures of it posing with landmarks from all over the world, she starts a romance between her hypochondriacal co-worker Georgette and Joseph, one of the customers in the bar. She convinces Madeleine Wallace, the concierge of her block of flats, that the husband who abandoned her had sent her a final conciliatory love letter just before his accidental death years before, she uses gaslighting tactics on the nasty greengrocer. Mentally exhausted, Collignon no longer abuses his good-natured assistant Lucien. A delighted Lucien takes charge at the grocery stand.
Mr. Dufayel, having observed Amélie, begins a conversation with her about his painting. Although he has copied the same painting 20 times, he has never quite captured the look of the girl drinking a glass of water, they discuss the meaning of this character, over several conversations, Amélie begins projecting her loneliness onto the image. Dufayel recognizes this and uses the girl in the painting to push Amélie to examine her attraction to a quirky young man, Nino Quincampoix, who collects the discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths; when Amélie bumps into Nino a second time, she realizes. He accidentally drops a photo album in the street. Amélie retrieves it. Amélie plays a cat-and-mouse game with Nino around Paris before returning his treasured album anonymously. After arranging a meeting at the 2 Moulins, Amélie tries to deny her identity, her co-worker, concerned for Amélie's well-being, screens Nino for her. It takes Dufayel's insight to give her the courage to pursue Nino, resulting in a romantic night together and the beginning of a relationship.
Amélie finds happiness for herself. In his DVD commentary, Jeunet explains that he wrote the role of Amélie for the English actress Emily Watson. However, Watson's French was not strong, when she became unavailable to shoot the film, owing to a conflict with the filming of Gosford Park, Jeunet rewrote the screenplay for a French actress. Audrey Tautou was the first actress he auditioned having seen her on the poster for the 1999 film Venus Beauty Institute; the movie was filmed in Paris. The Café des 2 Moulins where
Jar City (film)
Jar City is a 2006 Icelandic film directed by Baltasar Kormákur. It is based on a novel written by Arnaldur Indriðason and released in English as Jar City. Kormákur is in the midst of producing an English-language remake called Jar City, which will be set in Louisiana. A world-weary cop comes to believe a recent murder of a middle-aged man is linked to a case of possible rape three decades earlier by a group of friends and a corrupt cop. Working through, he finds it linked to a rare disease among Nordics. One thing leads to another and he puts the pieces together. A geneticist father loses his child to neurofibromatosis and his search for answers leads to his degenerate father and unravels many missing person cases during the decade. Like the book on which it is based, the film is implicitly a semi-critique to the gene-gathering work of the Icelandic company deCODE genetics. Ingvar E. Sigurðsson as Erlendur Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir as Eva Lind Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as Sigurður Óli Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir as Elínborg Atli Rafn Sigurðsson as Örn Kristbjörg Kjeld as Katrín Þorsteinn Gunnarsson as Holberg Theódór Júlíusson as Elliði Þórunn Magnea Magnúsdóttir as Elín Guðmunda Elíasdóttir as Theodóra Walter Grímsson as Handrukkarar Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson Magnús Ragnarsson as Lögfræðingur Rafnhildur Rósa Atladótir as Kola Jón Sigurbjörnsson as Albert The score was composed by Mugison.
Track listing: "Til eru fræ" "Sveitin milli sanda" "Bíum bíum bambaló" "Erlendur" "Elliði" "Á Sprengisandi" "Fyrir átta árum" "Áfram veginn – Nikka" "Áfram veginn" "Halabalúbbúlúbbúlei" "Malakoff" "Bí bí og blaka I" "Myrra" "Kirkjuhvoll" "Bí bí og blaka II" "Dagný" "Heyr, Ó Gud raust mína" "Lyrik" "Nú hnígur sól" "Sofðu unga ástin mín" "Ódur til Hildigunnar" "Svefnfræ" "Fræsvefn" "Svefnfræ, söngur" "Nú legg ég augun aftur"Incidental music: Extract from George Frideric Handel's "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" from the oratorio Solomon The film was awarded the 2007 Crystal Globe Grand Prix at the 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It won the Breaking Waves Award at the 15th Titanic International Film Festival in Budapest with a €10,000 prize. A Blockbuster Exclusive Region 1 DVD was released in the U. S. and Canada. Otherwise, the film was not released commercially in America, it has been released on DVD in Europe and is available on iTunes. Jar City on IMDb Jar City at AllMovie
