Who needs Eeyore when you’ve got the lovely and witty Greta Gerwig feeling blue in black and white in this clip from Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha. Gerwig is Frances, a live-in-the-moment New Yorker with a knack for getting herself into awkward situations.
In this clip, Frances frets over whether she looks older than her 27 years, and her anxiety is helped along by Michael Zegen (The Walking Dead) who assures her that “27 is old, though.” Zegen’s character must be in his 20s, too, because most men know by the time they turn 30 that loaded questions like that should be avoided at all costs.
Frances Ha gets a limited release date on May 17. For reference, the poster is not black and white. It’s hot pink.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon’s Addiction will be among the headliners at the Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama program. Starring Gordon-Levitt along with Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Tony Danza, the feature revolves around a modern-day Don Juan who attempts to change his ways. The film will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next month.
The film joins the lineup in Panorama along with fourteen other fiction titles and seven documentaries announced Tuesday. Also in the roster is Noah Baumbach’s acclaimed Frances Ha with Greta Gerwig and Rob Epstein’s Lovelace.
Berlinale Panorama titles follow with information provided by the festival:
Fictional films in the Main Programme and Panorama Special (15)
Baek Ya (White Night) – Republic of Korea
By Hee-il LeeSong
With Tae-hee Won, Yi-kyung Yi
European premiere
Chemi Sabnis Naketsi (A Fold in My Blanket) – Georgia
By Zaza Rusadze
With Tornike Bziava, Tornike Gogrichiani, Zura Kipshidze, Avtandil Makharadze, Giorgi Nakashidze
World premiere
Dduit-dam-hwa: Gam-dok-i-mi-cheot-eo-yo (Behind the Camera) – Republic of Korea
By E J-Yong
With Yuh-jung Youn, Hee-soon Park, Hye-jung Gang, Jung-se Oh, Min-hee Kim
International premiere
Deshora (Belated) – Argentina/Columbia/Norway
By Barbara Sarasola-Day
With Luis Ziembrowski, Alejandro Buitrago, Maria Ucedo
World premiere
Don Jon’s Addiction – USA
By Joseph Gordon-Levitt
With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore
International premiere
Frances Ha – USA
By Noah Baumbach
With Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Charlotte D’Ambiose, Adam Driver
European premiere
Habi, la extranjera (Habi, the Foreigner) – Argentina/Brazil
By Maria Florencia Alvarez
With Martina Juncadella, Martin Slipak, Maria Luisa Mendonça, Lucia Alfonsin
World premiere
Inch´Allah – Canada
By Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
With Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Yousef Sweid, Sivan Levy,…
Onetime collaborators Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach each have a new DVD release this week. The two last worked together on Anderson’s gorgeous and witty Fantastic Mr. Fox, and their idiosyncratic proclivities and points of view are very much on display at both ends of the High/Low spectrum. (As a bonus, both films feature Frances McDormand!)
HIGH: Moonrise Kingdom ($29.98 DVD; $34.98 Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Combo)
Who’s Responsible: Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola; directed by Anderson; starring Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Bob Balaban
What’s It All About: Misunderstood lovers Suzy (Kara Hayward) and Sam (Jared Gilman) run away together. The fact that they’re both 12 years old and living on an island off the coast of New England doesn’t stand in the way of their plans. Their romantic escapade sets off a flurry of activity among the local adults, including Suzy’s parents (Murray, McDormand), Sam’s scoutmaster (Norton), the local law officer (Willis) and Social Services (Swinton), whom everyone calls “Social Services.”
Why It’s Schmancy: After turning off sections of his fanbase with the excessively twee The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson has definitely got his groove back with the one-two punch of Mr. Fox and this eccentrically charming love story. Our youthful protagonists take themselves and their relationship utterly seriously, and Anderson affords them the same dignity. From its tracking-shot close-ups to a memorable sequence of the lovers shimmying to ye-ye music, Moonrise Kingdom feels like Godardian amour fou filtered through Anderson’s visual (pop-up book) and emotional (Peanuts-esque melancholy) sensibilities.
Why You Should Own It: Given that Anderson’s first five features eventually got lovingly curated editions from The Criterion Collection, there’s a temptation not to shell…
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Also in Monday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, the Hamptons International Film Festival revealed its list of the “10 Actors to Watch” for this October’s event. Minnie Driver joins a “horror musical.” A Toronto and Cannes film is headed for U.S. theaters. Abbie Cornish joins a Fellini pic. And two jail-bound punks flee Russia after being convicted of Russian Orthodox Church offense.
Noah Baumbach, Brian De Palma, Abbas Kiarostami Set for NYFF Event
Noah Baumbach and Brian De Palma will take part in the “On Cinema” conversation while Abbas Kiarostami, David Chase and Robert Zemeckis will participate in the Directors Dialogues at the upcoming 50th New York Film Festival. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which organizes the annual festival also said that the the Director’s Cut of Frank Oz’s Little Shop of Horrors restored versions of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Laurence Olivier’s Richard III and Peter Whitehead’s The Rolling Stone – Charling is My Darling – Ireland 1965 will be presented as part of NYFF’s Masterworks program in addition to two sidebar presentations as part of the festival’s 50th Anniversary event.
Hamptons International Film Festival to Fete “10 Actors to Watch”
The October festival on Long Island’s East End will spotlight the “2012 ‘Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch: Breakthrough Performers’ at the upcoming 20th anniversary edition of HIFF taking place October 4 – 8. This year’s honorees include: Adam Driver (Inside Llewyn Davis), Domhnall Gleeson (Anna Karenina), Bella Heathcote (Not Fade Away), Dree Hemingway (Starlet), Boyd Holbrook (The Host), Elyas M’Barek (Turkish for Beginners), Scoot McNairy (Killing Them Softly), Nate Parker (Arbitrage), Imogen Poots (Knight of Cups) and Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina).
Minnie Driver Joins Horror Musical Stage Fright
…
Also in Wednesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Willie Nelson throws support behind the Weinstein Company’s Lawless, and production on Iron Man 3 is suspended after Robert Downey Jr. injures his ankle.
NY Film Festival Unveils Line-up
The Main Slate line-up for the 50th New York Film Festival will be comprised of 32 movies, including Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson, which stars Bill Murray as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, a comedy he wrote with actress Greta Gerwig about an aspiring dancer in New York City; and Brian De Palma’s thriller Passion, with Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams. The 1960s era rock ‘n’ roll film Not Fade Away, by The Sopranos creator David Chase will also premiere as the festival’s centerpiece. For the complete list, check out the NYFF website.
NY Times Columnist Booed By Pattinson Fans At Cosmopolis Q&A
New York Times reporter and columnist David Carr incurred the wrath of RPatz fans at a Times Talks Q&A session when he asked the British actor, “So, if you and Kristen have trouble, it’s like Charles and Di having trouble?” The New York Daily News reports.
Willie Nelson Down with Lawless
The Weinstein Company announced that country-music star Willie Nelson is lending his support to the movie distributor’s gangster bootlegger picture Lawless. Nelson performs the previously unreleased “Midnight Run” on the movie’s soundtrack and will appear at a special screening of the film on Aug. 25 at the Alamo Draft House in Austin, Texas. Lawless, which stars Tom Hardy , Jessica Chastain and Shia LaBeouf is based on a true story about the bootlegging Bondurant brothers.
Avengers Assemble! In 2015, That Is
Marvel’s Avengers 2…
Full Story »Also in Wednesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Willie Nelson throws support behind the Weinstein Company’s Lawless, and production on Iron Man 3 is suspended after Robert Downey Jr. injures his ankle.
NY Film Festival Unveils Line-up
The Main Slate line-up for the 50th New York Film Festival will be comprised of 32 movies, including Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson, which stars Bill Murray as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, a comedy he wrote with actress Greta Gerwig about an aspiring dancer in New York City; and Brian De Palma’s thriller Passion, with Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams. The 1960s era rock ‘n’ roll film Not Fade Away, by The Sopranos creator David Chase will also premiere as the festival’s centerpiece. For the complete list, check out the NYFF website.
NY Times Columnist Booed By Pattinson Fans At Cosmopolis Q&A
New York Times reporter and columnist David Carr incurred the wrath of RPatz fans at a Times Talks Q&A session when he asked the British actor, “So, if you and Kristen have trouble, it’s like Charles and Di having trouble?” The New York Daily News reports.
Willie Nelson Down with Lawless
The Weinstein Company announced that country-music star Willie Nelson is lending his support to the movie distributor’s gangster bootlegger picture Lawless. Nelson performs the previously unreleased “Midnight Run” on the movie’s soundtrack and will appear at a special screening of the film on Aug. 25 at the Alamo Draft House in Austin, Texas. Lawless, which stars Tom Hardy , Jessica Chastain and Shia LaBeouf is based on a true story about the bootlegging Bondurant brothers.
Avengers Assemble! In 2015, That Is
Marvel’s Avengers 2…
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One of North America’s biggest annual film events released details of its lineup Tuesday morning including 17 Galas and 45 “Special Presentations” that will screen in the 37th Toronto International Film Festival in September. Festival CEO and Director Piers Handling as well as TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey announced the lineup this morning in Toronto at a live event about this year’s festival, which includes 38 world premieres. As revealed earlier, Looper with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis will open the festival.
Debuts from directors worldwide including Andrew Adamson, Ben Affleck, David Ayer, Maiken Baird, Noah Baumbach, J.A. Bayona, Stuart Blumberg, Josh Boone, Laurent Cantet, Sergio Castellitto, Stephen Chbosky, Lu Chuan, Derek Cianfrance, Costa-Gavras, Liz Garbus, Dustin Hoffman, Rian Johnson, Neil Jordan, Baltasar Kormákur, Shola Lynch, Deepa Mehta, Roger Michell, Ruba Nadda, Mike Newell, François Ozon, Sally Potter, Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, Eran Riklis, David O. Russell, Tom Tykwer & Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski, Margarethe von Trotta, Joss Whedon and Yaron Zilberman are in the lineup.
TIFF takes place September 6 – 16. Today’s lineup follows. More details from the festival will be announced the coming weeks…
“We are thrilled to announce so many exciting and prestigious films today, with many more to follow,” said Handling in a statement. “This year’s Festival is looking particularly strong with bold, adventuresome work coming from established and emerging filmmakers.”
“This year we present our most diverse Gala programme to date with films from Japan, China, India, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, USA and Canada,” added Bailey. “Toronto’s red carpet is a global one and we’re excited to welcome some of the world’s best filmmakers and greatest stars to Canada.”
Toronto lineup details provided by the festival:
Galas:
Looper by Rian Johnson, USA…
Full Story »Both of the trailers that preceded the screening I attended of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted featured burps as punchlines. Like, each one built to and then peaked with a bug-eyed animated creature’s belch. After the first burp the little kids a few rows ahead of me erupted in jubilant, little kid laughter; the second was met with bored silence. If even your short-limbed target audience doesn’t like being played for a chump, how to keep them entertained across two previews, much less two sequels?
The Madagascar franchise offers a unique response to this problem in that it consistently borrows enough from the modern children’s movie playbook to get your guard up (or your eyes glazed), and yet it just as consistently manages to surprise with a charm and wit all its own.
Which is to say: Nobody burps in Europe’s Most Wanted. I felt pretty sure nobody would, having been drawn into the first movie, which I watched on a babysitting assignment back in 2005, despite myself. That movie had the shamelessly Shrek-derivative zebra voiced by Chris Rock and the reliance on pop-dance montages to fill the gaps, but there was also sharp writing, an actual storyline, and clean, distinctive computer animation. For its third installment, in addition to going 3-D, DreamWorks added Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2, Monsters Vs. Aliens) to the franchise’s directing team of Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, and Noah Baumbach, of all cats, was brought in to co-write the script with Darnell. The result is almost exactly as good as it needs to be – no better and no worse. Where the norm is grimly assembled factory line products, that counts as a success.
Structured more explicitly as a serial than most franchises, Europe’s Most Wanted begins right where the second film ended –…
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Current “It-Girl” Greta Gerwig, Joel Kinnaman and Zoe Lister Jones were among the cast who turned up for the New York premiere Tuesday night of director Daryl Wein’s Lola Versus, hosted by the Cinema Society. A bumper crop of other actors and socialites also joined in on the fun at the screening in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, including Zachary Quinto, Noah Baumbach, Olivia Munn, Parker Posey, Russell Simmons, Eve Plumb, Jesse Peretz, Gaby Hoffman, Ed Droste (lead singer of Grizzly Bear) for the screening and after-party at the Boom Boom Room atop the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District.
In the film, Gerwig plays Lola who is suddenly dumped by her fiance only weeks before their wedding. Her life slowly tailspins as she seeks out close friends for solace and sexual mishaps as she faces turning 30 and being suddenly single.
“Zoe [Lister Jones] and I were both single and interested in stories that were honest about break-ups and not just glorified versions of them,” Wein told ML at the Standard Tuesday night. He co-wrote the film along with Lister Jones who co-stars in the film with Gerwig. “Greta is great for the part because she is not an overly-polished lead. She’s vulnerable, likable but still at times unlikable,” he added.
Wein said the idea for Lola Versus came to him and Lister-Jones though in the interim other films that deal with being single have cropped up. “There are stories with a feminist [bent] that have come up since then, and we’re all for it. We want more realistic depictions of break-ups and being single to be out there.”
Not quite so single in real-life, Gerwig danced with her current beau Noah Baumbach at the party, which was co-hosted…
