Cinemascope

The 500 million dollar writers

Yair Raveh — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:40:17 +0000

By the time summer 2009 will be over, I estimate that the films of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will have earned over 500 million dollars. Maybe more. They are credited as the writers as both “Star Trek” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, and they are co-creators of Fox’s “Fringe”, not bad for two guys who started out writing “Hercules”, and still share one desk. In this Time.com video they are amusingly silly.

Israel’s “Ajami” to close Cannes’ directors’ fortnight

Yair Raveh — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:49:39 +0000

A fourth Israeli entry to the Cannes film festival: After “The Time That Remains” in the competition, “Jaffa” in the official selection but out-of-competition, and “Eyes Wide Open” in the Un Certain Regard side bar, it was just announced that the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar’s closing film will be “Ajami”, a long gestating project co-directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian.
Interestingly, the titles for both “Jaffa” and “Ajami” are the names of the south side territories of Tel-Aviv, were Jews and Arabs live side by side in a tense poverty and crime-ridden environment (Jaffa is actually a city onto itself - and an ancient one at that - that was annexed to Tel Aviv, and Ajami is a neighborhood inside Jaffa. Tel Aviv - which is where I live - is celebrating its centennial this very month). So expect to see the exact same locations in both “Jaffa” and “Ajami”.

Oh, yeah: Francis Ford Coppola’s film will open the sidebar, and is it me or does this edition of the Directors’ Fortnight look like a Sundance spin-off?

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT LINEUP
“La Pivellina,” Austria, Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
“The Alasness of Things,” Belgium-Netherlands, Felix van Groeningen
“Eastern Plays,” Bulgaria-Sweden, Kamen Kalev
“Carcasses,” Canada, Denis Cote
“J’ai tue ma mere,” Canada, Xavier Dolan
“Polytechnique,” Canada, Denis Villeneuve
“Navidad,” Chile, Sebastian Lelio
“Oxhide II,” China, Liu Jia Yin
“La famille Wolberg,” France-Belgium, Axelle Ropert
“Land of Madness,” France, Luc Moullet
“Le roi de l’evasion,” France, Alain Guiraudie
“Les beaux gosses,” France, Riad Sattouf
“Yuki & Nina,” France-Japan, Nobuhiro Suwa, Hippolyte Girardot
“Ajami,” Israel-Germany, Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani (closer)
“Daniel & Ana,” Mexico-Spain, Michel Franco
“Karaoke,” Malaysia, Chan Fui (Chris) Chong
“Ne change rien,” Portugal-France, Pedro Costa
“Here,” Singapore-Canada, Tzu-Nyen Ho
“Like You Know It All,” South Korea, Hong Sang-soo
“Amreeka,” U.S., Cherien Dabis
“Go Get Some Rosemary,” U.S.-France, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
“Humpday,” U.S., Lynn Shelton
“I Love You Phillip Morris,” U.S.-France, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
“Tetro,” Argentina-Spain-Italy, Francis Ford Coppola (opener)

Depeche Mode performing “Wrong” live

Yair Raveh — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:37:29 +0000

We’re 16 days away from Depeche Mode kicking off their 2009 world tour right here in Israel, and I’m glad to see they’re doing some warm-up shows ahead of time. Here, from yesterday’s free concert at Hollywood and Vine, is “Wrong”:

Cannes unveil 2009 line up. Blogger drools

Yair Raveh — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:29:49 +0000

The official line up of the Cannes film festival, announced an hour ago, contains perhaps the list of the best directors alive today, and whose works I’m aching to see. Here’s the complete list. Analysis below:

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

OPENER
“Up,” U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

CLOSER
“Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky,” France, Jan Kounen

IN COMPETITION
“Bright Star,” Australia-U.K.-France, Jane Campion
“Spring Fever,” China-France, Lou Ye
“Antichrist,” Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier
“Enter the Void,” France, Gaspar Noe
“Face,” France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang
“Les Herbes folles,” France-Italy, Alain Resnais
“In the Beginning,” France, Xavier Giannoli
“A Prophet,” France, Jacques Audiard
“The White Ribbon,” Germany-Austria-France, Michael Haneke
“Vengeance,” Hong Kong-France-U.S., Johnnie To
“The Time That Remains,” Israel-France-Belgium-Italy, Elia Suleiman
“Vincere,” Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
“Kinatay,” Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
“Thirst,” South Korea-U.S., Park Chan-wook
“Broken Embraces,” Spain, Pedro Almodovar
“Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” Spain, Isabel Coixet
“Fish Tank,” U.K.-Netherlands, Andrea Arnold
“Looking for Eric,” U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy, Ken Loach
“Inglourious Basterds,” U.S., Quentin Tarantino
“Taking Woodstock,” U.S., Ang Lee

OUT OF COMPETITION
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” Canada-France, Terry Gilliam
“The Army of Crime,” France, Robert Guediguian
“Agora,” Spain, Alejandro Amenabar

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“A Town Called Panic,” Belgium, Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar
“Ne te retourne pas,” France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Italy, Marina de Van
“Drag Me to Hell,” U.S., Sam Raimi

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“Petition,” China, Zhao Liang
“L’epine dans le coeur,” France, Michel Gondry
“Min ye,” France-Mali, Souleyumane Cisse
“Jaffa,” Israel-France-Germany, Keren Yedaya
“Manila,” Philippines, Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin
“My Neighbor, My Killer,” U.S., Anne Aghion

Is it me, or on the basis of the names alone this could be the most violent and bloodiest Cannes festival ever? Park Chan-Wook, Tarantino, Raimi, Haneke, Noe, Mendoza and Campion together? There will Be Blood!

First off: a rather poor showing for Israeli films. Only one sort-of Israeli co-production in competition: Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains. I loved Sulieman’s two previous features, the magnificent “Chronicle of a Disappearance” and the more blunt “Divine Intervention”, and although I’m looking forward to seeing his latest effort, It’ll be hard for me to tag his film “Israeli”‘ as Sulieman himself tries to distance himself from this country: as a Gallilee born Israeli-Citizen-Christian-Arab he prefers to be identified as a Palestinian and live and work abroad. Frankly, I don’t care, as long as he continues making great angry movies.
The second is the out-of-competition screening of “Jaffa”, the second feature by Keren Yedaya, whose previous effort, “Or”, won Cannes’ Camera D’or.
And in the Spanish “Agora”, set in ancient Egypt, several Israeli actors are featured.

But, the rest of the crop is truly mouth watering. The Cannes line-up features some of my favorite living directors: Jane Campion, Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noe, Tsai Ming-liang, Jacques Audiard, Park Chan-wook, Pedro Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, Sam Raimi, Terry Gilliam, Alejandro Amenabar.

And I definitely appreciate - on a film-by-film basis, also: Alain Resnais, Michael Haneke, Robert Guediguian, Johnnie To, Isabel Coixet, Marco Bellocchio, Ken Loach.

Great names. I hope their movies don’t suck.

Depeche Mode, a month away

Yair Raveh — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:01:58 +0000

The Israeli Box Office chart: “Fast and Furious” on top

Yair Raveh — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:30:22 +0000

“Fast and Furious” had an outstanding debut, single-handedly earning as much as all the rest of the movies combined. With 56,000 admissions this is not only the year’s biggest opener, but also the best debut for a movie in Israel since last year’s “The Dark Knight”, which sold the same amount of tickets in its first four days in release.
A possible reason for this: the role played by Former Miss Israel, Gal Gadot, in the movie, and the considerable amount of press her nascent Hollywood career has earned.
Next up is the May release of “Angels And Demons”, another Hollywood destined-to-be-a-blockbuster with an Israeli actress in a leading role (Ayelet Zurer).
With the School Holiday kicking off, family films spiked this weekend: “Monsters vs. Aliens” rose by 37%, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” rose by 31% and “Hotel For Dogs” bounced up 84%.
All in all the top 10 movies earned $835,646 an amazing improvement of 124% over last week.

1. “Fast and Furious” $424,482. 29 screens. $14,637 average. $424,482 cume. Week 1
2. “Monsters Vs. Aliens” $161,470. 55 screens. $2,936 average. $371,351 cume. Week 2
3. “Duplicity” $54,788. 28 screens. $1,957 average. $314,553 cume. Week 3
4. “Race to Witch Mountain” $53,214. 24 screens. $2,217 average. $93,543 cume. Week 1
5. “Marley and Me” $40,560. 19 screens. $2,135 average. $349,829 cume. Week 4
6. “Gran Torino” $28,199. 19 screens. $1,484 average. $526,108 cume. 6 weeks.
7. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” $26,378. 28 screens. $942 average. $402,979 cume. week 5
8. “Hotel for Dogs” $23,999. 15 screens. $1,600 average. $244,158 cume. Week 4.
9. “Watchmen” $12,554. 19 screens. $661 average. $255,784 cume. Week 5
10. “He’s Just Not That Into You” $10,002. 12 screens. $834 average. $642,751 cume. Week 9

Still no Disney for Israeli critics

Yair Raveh — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:20:35 +0000

Right on time for the Passover school holiday, two Disney family films are released simultaneously in Israel by local distributor, Forum Film: “Race To Witch Mountain” and “Hanna Montana, The Movie”. Apart for the utter silliness of releasing two competing movies for the exact same crowd by the exact same studio on the same day, the release brings to light once again the bizarre distribution pattern the Israeli firm has adopted three years ago: film critics are not welcome.
Local Disney distributor has banned film critics from preview screening three years ago, allowing attendance only to those who agree to obey to an odd embargo: no reviews before the Sunday after opening weekend. Oddly still: some critics, forgetting which side their journalistic ethics lies on, actually agreed. (Making not only their ethics but also their timing obsolete: online critics can easily catch an opening day matinee and have a review up by noon).
Local distributor maintains that reviews on opening day are bad for business.

And so, while competing family film “Monsters Vs. Aliens” gets a slew of reviews and interviews, these two Disney movies get zero press coverage (check out my Box Office Chart on Wednesday to see if this helped or hurt either movie).

So, international “Cinemascope” readers, if either “Witch Mountain” or “Hanna Montana” was screened in your territory, help Israeli readers bypass the embargo and share your comments: are these movies good or bad?

Bruno-esque

Yair Raveh — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:40:09 +0000

“Borat” was my favorite movie for 2006. Will Sacha Baron Cohen do it again with Bruno in 2009?

The Israeli box office chart: “Monsters Vs. Aliens” leading

Yair Raveh — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:44:27 +0000

The last weekend before a 16 days school break posted slow box office receipts in Israel. 16% off from last week. Even “Monsters Vs. Aliens”, leading the pack. got off slowly (50% of the tickets sold were for the 3D shows, although 3D screens are one-fifth of all of “MVA”’s screen count).

Israeli-French production of “Comme Ton Pere”, directed by Marco Carmel, posted even weaker numbers in its opening weekend, coming in at number 7.

It should be noted that the best selling movie in Israel right now is “Slumdog Millionaire”, with receipts of over 2.4 million dollars (over 300,000 tickets sold, nearly as much as last year’s box office champ, “Kung Fu Panda”). But the film’s distributor, Lev Cinemas, refuses to disclose actual figures, so it’s off the chart.

And as usual in Israel: animation, family movies and romantic comedies are at the lead. Horror movies and comic book adaptations are terrible with local crowds.

Here are the top 12 movies at the Israeli box office for the weekend of 26-29 March, 2009:

1 Monsters Vs. Aliens, $117,057. 55 screens. $2,128 average. $117,057 Cume. Week 1
2 Duplicity, $73,267. (change: -38.8%). 29 screens. $2,526 average. $230,042 cume. Week 2
3 Marley and Me, $42,198. (change: -33.9%). 19 screens. $2,221 average. $286,939 cume. Week 3
4 Gran Torino, $32,190. (change: -30.5%). 19 screens. $1,694 average. $484,410 cume. Week 5
5 Beverly Hills Chihuahua, $19,992 (change: -30.2%). 28 screens. $714 average. $375,482 cume.
6 Watchmen, $18,196. (change: -43.1%). 19 screens. $958 average. $235,819 cume. Week 4
7 Comme Ton Pere, $16,000. 19 screens. $842 average. $16,000 cume. Week 1.
8 He’s Just Not That Into You, $14,456 (chnge: -31.6%). 12 screens. $1,205 avrg. $630,868 cume.
9 Hotel for Dogs, $13,043 (change: -32.9%), 15 screens. $870 average. $202,031 cume. Week 3
10 Friday the 13th $7,774 (change: -52.0%), 10 screens. $777 average. $70,012 cume. Week 3
11 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, $2,725 (change: -76.7%). $545 average. $16,919 cume. Week 2
12 Rachel Getting Married, $1,909 (change: -5.1%). 1 screen. $1,909 average. $12,229 cume. Week 4

The trailer for Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wilds Things Are”

Yair Raveh — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:33:44 +0000

Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” is the song. This is utterly lovely: