https://www.scmp.com/rss/11084/feed Helen Barlow is a Paris-based Australian freelance critic and journalist who this year received La Plume d’Or for her services to French cinema. A dedicated Europhile, she recently was on the Series Jury at the Zurich Film Festival and has covered the Cannes and Berlin Festivals for 28 years and also loves covering the Venice and Sundance Festivals. She is a dedicated follower of fashion and lives in the Parisian fashion precinct. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In Prisoners of the Ghostland, the combination of renegade Japanese director Sion Sono, 59, and the ever-adventurous Nicolas Cage, 57, is a marriage made perhaps not in heaven – but in hell. It’s a kind of hell that Cage’s bank robber character, Hero, has found himself in – and his only means of escape from a post-apocalyptic jail, in an Old-West-style Japanese location called Samurai Town, is to rescue the Governor’s granddaughter, Bernice (Sofia Boutella), from the Ghostland. He turns into a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3120204/nicolas-cages-wildest-film-yet-cult-director-sion-sono?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3120204/nicolas-cages-wildest-film-yet-cult-director-sion-sono?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Feb 2021 09:45:11 +0000 Writing with Fire, the debut feature by New Delhi-based married couple Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, is a stand-out in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. The filmmakers have deftly woven the story of three brave, extraordinary young women journalists who have experienced unprecedented success via India’s first all-women news agency, Khabar Lahariya. What makes this all the more exceptional is that the women belong to the Dalit caste – the lowest caste in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3119572/women-journalists-who-rose-indias-lowest-caste-find-success?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3119572/women-journalists-who-rose-indias-lowest-caste-find-success?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Jan 2021 02:45:11 +0000 When James “Jamie” Redford, son of cinema legend Robert, wanted to make a film about Amy Tan, the Chinese-American author was not initially convinced. “I was reluctant to do this, because I’m trying to move toward more privacy as I get older,” Tan, 68, tells the Post from her home in Sausalito, California. “But Jamie was somebody I knew through friends and he was so compassionate, very kind. He was charming and persistent and he got me to agree, promising that everything would be subject to my... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3119239/chinese-american-author-amy-tan-film-her-life-unintended?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3119239/chinese-american-author-amy-tan-film-her-life-unintended?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Jan 2021 22:15:15 +0000 The announcement of which actor will next play James Bond is still some way off, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation about who it will be. Daniel Craig leaves big shoes to fill after his fifth and final turn as the British special agent in No Time to Die. Whether the lucky actor will be well known or a surprise pick, as Craig was, remains to be seen. Age is another factor, given that actors can spend a decade playing 007. As we wait for news, it is interesting to cast our minds back to a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3096790/who-will-be-next-james-bond-eight-candidates-007-after-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3096790/who-will-be-next-james-bond-eight-candidates-007-after-no?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:00:17 +0000 For some reason, Golshifteh Farahani feels really comfortable with guns. The Iranian-born actress played the leader of a group of Kurdish women fighters in the 2018 French film Girls of the Sun , and now appears alongside Chris Hemsworth in Netflix blockbuster Extraction. “Strangely, bows and arrows and guns are like instruments for me,” says Farahani, 36. “I can handle them, it feels like they’re part of me. I don’t know if it’s an ancient thing, maybe in my soul.” Perhaps it’s from her Iranian... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3080699/i-never-felt-way-american-movies-netflix-thriller-actress?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3080699/i-never-felt-way-american-movies-netflix-thriller-actress?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Apr 2020 11:00:20 +0000 Hiroyuki Sanada is a Japanese powerhouse and the 59 year-old, who has been based in Los Angeles for 20 years, doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to Hollywood superstars. In fact, he makes them look great, whether it be alongside Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine or Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai – and now Johnny Depp in the Berlin Film Festival stand-out Minamata. Sanada works behind the scenes too, as a kind of cultural adviser ensuring that the various productions in which he appears get the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3052406/japanese-actor-hiroyuki-sanada-working-johnny-depp-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3052406/japanese-actor-hiroyuki-sanada-working-johnny-depp-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Feb 2020 04:15:09 +0000 What can we expect in a new Bruce Lee documentary that we haven’t already seen in previous productions? By drawing on his own personal experience, Vietnamese-American director Bao Nguyen (Live from New York!), who lives between Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, has delivered something fresh with Be Water, a personal take on the challenges the martial arts superstar faced as he lived between Hong Kong and America. Having gained the family’s permission, Nguyen benefited from... https://www.scmp.com/arts/how-bruce-lee-was-champion-multiculturalism/article/3048886?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/arts/how-bruce-lee-was-champion-multiculturalism/article/3048886?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Feb 2020 10:30:54 +0000 What can we expect in a new Bruce Lee documentary that we haven’t already seen in previous productions? By drawing on his own personal experience, Vietnamese-American director Bao Nguyen (Live from New York!), who lives between Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, has delivered something fresh with Be Water, a personal take on the challenges the martial arts superstar faced as he lived between Hong Kong and America. When the film premiered last week in the US documentaries competition at... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3048737/whole-picture-bruce-lee-person-documentary-be-waters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3048737/whole-picture-bruce-lee-person-documentary-be-waters?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Feb 2020 21:00:17 +0000 Korean-American actor Steven Yeun, known internationally for his portrayal as Glenn Rhee in TV series the Walking Dead, is attracting some of the best reviews of his career for a major hit at the Sundance Film Festival in the American state of Utah. Minari, an immigrant story shot mostly in English, was written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Abigail Harm) and produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company. It is entered at Sundance in the US Dramatic Competition. Yeun, 36, who brought the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3048021/sundance-film-festival-steven-yeun-immigrant-story-minari?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3048021/sundance-film-festival-steven-yeun-immigrant-story-minari?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jan 2020 05:02:24 +0000 When Priyanka Chopra, one of the most influential and most beautiful women on the planet, married American pop star Nick Jonas last year, the wedding caused the kind of media frenzy that’s usually only associated with the nuptials of British royals. However, the Indian actress, who at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco was honoured for her contribution to cinema, says she was surprised by the attention her marriage in Jodhpur, Rajasthan received a year ago. “It was shocking,” says... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3041552/indian-actress-priyanka-chopra-her-marriage-nick-jonas-20?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3041552/indian-actress-priyanka-chopra-her-marriage-nick-jonas-20?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Dec 2019 11:00:13 +0000 Pierre Cardin was one of the first international fashion designers to go boldly into the markets of China, Japan and Russia. While other French designers still saw France as the centre of the sartorial universe, Cardin recognised the importance of more far-flung places, travelling to China every year. He wasn’t just a visionary either – Cardin was an astute businessman, too, and one of the first designers to apply his brand to a variety of products outside the fashion world. Given that not much... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3033586/house-cardin-film-fashion-designer-pierre-cardin-looks-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3033586/house-cardin-film-fashion-designer-pierre-cardin-looks-his?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Oct 2019 21:00:08 +0000 Spanish director Alice Waddington is a natural-born eccentric and a confessed genre-loving nerd. She also happens to be gorgeous and, having worked in the fashion world, wears the most original and stylish of clothes. With her raven hair and bright red lips she recalls a young Elizabeth Taylor. It was natural then that the 29-year-old, who came from advertising before making her well-received short film, Disco Inferno, should want to make a statement with an eclectic array of forceful stunning... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3033876/paradise-hills-how-awkwafina-and-alice-waddington-shaped?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3033876/paradise-hills-how-awkwafina-and-alice-waddington-shaped?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Oct 2019 17:00:13 +0000 The 2019 edition of the Sundance Film Festival was one of its best in recent years. The strength of that programme is reflected in the wide array of films on offer at Sundance’s annual Hong Kong event, which opens on September 19. Many of the films are based on real people and/or events inspired by real life, with stories often stranger than fiction. The festival opens with Honey Boy, Shia LaBeouf’s autobiographical story of his fraught relationship with his father, who he plays here. Over the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3027597/what-see-hong-kongs-sundance-film-festival-2019-honey-boy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3027597/what-see-hong-kongs-sundance-film-festival-2019-honey-boy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Sep 2019 07:00:07 +0000 Crazy Rich Asians star Awkwafina, aka Nora Lum, may be one of the funniest and most talented women on the planet. In showbiz parlance the 30-year-old Asian-American rapper, writer, YouTube sensation and actress is red hot, and is one of the biggest names at the Sundance Film Festival with two high-profile films in the programme. Crazy Rich Asians star: I didn’t grow up with a ‘tiger mom’ When we met for this interview at Sundance, held annually in Park City, Utah, Japan’s Naomi Osaka has just... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2183955/crazy-rich-asians-star-awkwafina-life-laughs-and-lucy-liu-sundance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2183955/crazy-rich-asians-star-awkwafina-life-laughs-and-lucy-liu-sundance?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:03:35 +0000 At the January premiere of Hearts Beat Loud, the closing film of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the director of the event, John Cooper, came up to a group of journalists and asked if there should be more films like that in the programme. The answer was a resounding yes. Hong Kong audiences will have the opportunity to see the crowd-pleasing film at Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong, which opens this week. On the programme are 10 feature films, two documentary features and a selection of... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2164742/what-see-hong-kongs-sundance-film-festival-2018-hearts-beat-loud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2164742/what-see-hong-kongs-sundance-film-festival-2018-hearts-beat-loud?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Sep 2018 10:57:12 +0000 Canadian filmmaker Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, has made his name creating character-driven dramas which he instils with a brand of wry humour all his own. His 2009 movie Up in the Air gave George Clooney one of his best roles and rocketed Anna Kendrick to stardom. He tailored 2005 film Thank You for Smoking perfectly to Aaron Eckhart’s smarts. But it was 2007 film Juno, his initial collaboration with scriptwriter Diablo Cody, that brought him to the world’s... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2161803/only-cool-thing-about-getting-older-tully-scriptwriter-diablo-cody?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2161803/only-cool-thing-about-getting-older-tully-scriptwriter-diablo-cody?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:01:10 +0000 Andy Serkis is known for his groundbreaking motion capture portrayals, as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises, the gigantic 150-year-old gorilla in King Kong, and as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes trilogy. He will next be seen via performance capture in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, reprising his role as Supreme Leader Snoke, the mysterious ruler of the First Order. It seemed natural that after his stint as second unit director on The Hobbit films, London-born Serkis, who... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2121871/biggest-star-youve-never-seen-andy-serkis-makes-his-directing-debut?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2121871/biggest-star-youve-never-seen-andy-serkis-makes-his-directing-debut?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Nov 2017 04:00:15 +0000 Nicholas Hoult, the 11-year-old kid who so endeared himself to the audience in 2002’s About A Boy, has matured. At 27 Hoult is reprising his Beast role in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but he is also in the throes of a defining moment of his career, portraying the early adulthood of a trio of monumental historical figures: J.D. Salinger in Rebel in the Rye, Nikola Tesla in The Current War and J.R.R. Tolkien in Tolkien, which is currently filming. “I like to play characters where I can... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2117636/nicholas-hoult-making-jd-salinger-biopic-rebel-rye-playing-tesla?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2117636/nicholas-hoult-making-jd-salinger-biopic-rebel-rye-playing-tesla?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Oct 2017 23:00:30 +0000 At film festivals during the 1990s it was impossible not to be bowled over by the grandeur of Chen Kaige’s vision. With Farewell My Concubine (1993), Temptress Moon (1996) and The Emperor and The Assassin (1998) the Beijing-born director’s colour-saturated period dramas presented a China that was full of life, and Western audiences revelled in his gorgeous images and film stars. Both Chinese society and the nature of filmmaking have vastly changed since, but whether it’s for the better, Chen... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2111677/legend-demon-cat-chen-kaige-adapts-chinas-changed-cinematic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2111677/legend-demon-cat-chen-kaige-adapts-chinas-changed-cinematic?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Sep 2017 09:33:20 +0000 Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto was at the Venice International Film Festival to present the world premiere of his new documentary, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, but the 65 year-old, who contracted throat cancer during the film’s production, is taking no chances in our interview. Sakamoto has before him an array of very healthy crudités and ample water to drink. In the film as in our interview he is open about his battle for life, which has placed him in a mood of quiet reflection. Ryuichi Sakamoto... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2110160/ryuichi-sakamoto-new-documentary-coda-beating-throat-cancer-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2110160/ryuichi-sakamoto-new-documentary-coda-beating-throat-cancer-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Sep 2017 12:00:47 +0000 When French filmmaker Luc Besson was directing The Fifth Element at London’s Pinewood Studios in 1996, his designer Jean-Claude Mézières asked why he wasn’t instead making a film of Mézières’ comic book series, Valerian and Laureline, of which Besson was, and still is, the world’s the biggest fan. “I didn’t know the answer,” recalls Besson, 58, who drew heavily on Mézières’ cityscapes for the US$90 million French production, then the biggest ever in Europe. “So I went back home and looked at the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2103611/luc-besson-director-valerian-and-city-thousand-planets-making?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2103611/luc-besson-director-valerian-and-city-thousand-planets-making?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jul 2017 03:00:30 +0000 Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung was not on stage when his new documentary film portrait, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, won the audience award in the World Cinema Documentary category in Sundance on Saturday. But his presence had already been felt at the independent film festival in Park City, Utah. “Thank you Sundance for giving us a venue to show this film about human rights violations going on halfway around the world in Hong Kong,” said the film’s American director, Joe Piscatella,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2066855/joshua-wong-hong-kong-human-rights-those-cia-rumours-and-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2066855/joshua-wong-hong-kong-human-rights-those-cia-rumours-and-his?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:00:15 +0000 James Franco likes to go where no other creative type has gone before. Sure he’s a Hollywood star and at 38 remains a heartthrob, yet he’s also prepared to cross every boundary, bend all the genders, play nasty and look downright ugly as he takes on his pantheon of eccentrics. When it comes to acting, Franco says the old formula of one for me, one for them, doesn’t quite work, because he does enjoy making studio movies, which include his stoner comedies with Seth Rogen like Pineapple Express ,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2057906/james-franco-how-his-hard-work-be-more-just-hollywood-heartthrob-has?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2057906/james-franco-how-his-hard-work-be-more-just-hollywood-heartthrob-has?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Dec 2016 00:00:45 +0000 As Dev Patel bounds up to the table it’s hard not to be bowled over by his boyish energy and charm. “Hi, I’m Dev,” chirps the 26-year-old Londoner, trying to make the interview process as informal as possible. Certainly we’re used to the actor, who is of Indian heritage, bouncing around on our screens in Slumdog Millionaire and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies as well as in the underrated Chappie. Yet we’ve never seen him be so restrained, in what he terms his first truly adult role, as... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/1978043/they-didnt-realise-i-was-lead-dev-patel-slumdog-millionaire-man-who?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/1978043/they-didnt-realise-i-was-lead-dev-patel-slumdog-millionaire-man-who?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Jun 2016 00:02:36 +0000 Given the rousing Sundance premiere of Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, the story of an 1831 slave rebellion that has been likened to 2013 Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave, it was a foregone conclusion that the film would emerge the big winner in Park City, Utah. Indeed it did, taking out both the grand jury prize and the audience award, as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Whiplash and Fruitvale Station had done in previous years. The big shock of the night was that Swiss Army Man, a repetitive... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/film-tv/article/1908106/best-sundance-big-winners-films-and-future-stars-watch?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/film-tv/article/1908106/best-sundance-big-winners-films-and-future-stars-watch?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Feb 2016 07:00:30 +0000 One of the best things about trekking to the Sundance Film Festival in the US state of Utah is that the films in the main American sections are mostly new – only select buyers have seen them, so there’s an excitement in the constant unveiling that happens less at other festivals.  After a lacklustre programme in 2014, this year the nation’s premiere independent film festival, which takes place amid the snows of January, delivered one of its best selections yet. Now many of the prizewinners will... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1854912/hong-kong-sundance-film-festival-2015-what-see?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1854912/hong-kong-sundance-film-festival-2015-what-see?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Sep 2015 04:30:15 +0000 Two of the mainland's most successful comedies in recent years were made, separately, by good buddies Xu Zheng and Ning Hao, with Huang Bo and the multi-talented Xu starring in both films. Directed and co-written by Xu, Lost in Thailand (2012) became the mainland's all-time top box office grosser with total takings of 1.26 billion yuan (HK$1.59 billion), while Ning's Breakup Buddies was the box office champ of the recent Golden Week, reaping 579 million yuan in its first six days of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1618395/ning-haos-comedy-takes-two-buddies-across-changing-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1618395/ning-haos-comedy-takes-two-buddies-across-changing-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:00:15 +0000 Many past winners of the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award have gone on to Academy Award glory - think last year's 12 Years a Slave and 2012's Silver Linings Playbook - so Oscar watchers will have taken note of Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game, the audience favourite at North America's largest film festival this year. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as British code-breaker Alan Turing, the biographical drama-thriller proved illuminating in its depiction of the real-life... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1595997/postcard-toronto?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1595997/postcard-toronto?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Sep 2014 03:07:03 +0000 At the world premiere of No Country for Old Men at Cannes in 2007, American filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen said they looked for Australian actors to portray tough guys in their film, because, as Joel Coen wryly put it, "they build 'em big down there". This is certainly true of Sydney-siders Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman. And now there's a new batch of hunky Aussies coming through in Hollywood. Just a year younger than Jackman, Jason Clarke is enjoying a career surge at the age of 45. A kind of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1569173/postcard-sydney?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1569173/postcard-sydney?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Aug 2014 04:46:15 +0000 Bill Gosden has spent the past 30 years as New Zealand's national film festival director and a few years before that, he was with the Wellington Festival. In 2009, the organisation, run as a charitable trust, was renamed the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF), and takes place in 13 towns and cities around the country, with the Auckland event kicking off this Thursday. Having a suitable screening venue in the towns and cities is a priority. Across the pond in Australia, the Sydney... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1551918/postcard-auckland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1551918/postcard-auckland?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jul 2014 12:37:01 +0000 The 61st edition of the Sydney Film Festival, which ran from June 4 to 15, had a selection of films from 47 countries. And China (and Chinese-language films) figured significantly. One of the festival's jury members, Canadian critic Shelly Kraicer, was also responsible for programming the "China: Rebels, Ghosts and Romantics" section. A resident of Beijing since 2003, Kraicer has been writing about Chinese-language cinema since the mid-1980s. "I was at the Toronto International Film Festival and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1536909/postcard-sydney?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1536909/postcard-sydney?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Jun 2014 04:18:05 +0000 At over two metres tall, Gareth Huw Evans looms. A gentle giant, some people may say. But the good-humoured Welshman has become known for movie mayhem since he released The Raid: Redemption three years ago. Like Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, who is also Welsh, Evans could have gone to Hollywood. Instead, he prefers to hone his skills in Jakarta, where he lives with his wife, Indonesian-Japanese film collaborator Rangga Maya Barack-Evans, and their young daughter. Blessed with a cinephile... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1531619/welsh-director-gareth-evans-second-raid-movie-all-action?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1531619/welsh-director-gareth-evans-second-raid-movie-all-action?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:52:53 +0000 GORO MIYAZAKI IS a serious man who has something to prove. It's hardly surprising, given the enormous shadow from which he's had to emerge to stake his claim as a filmmaker: Miyazaki is the son of Hayao Miyazaki - one of the most highly regarded animators in the world. Until now, the younger Miyazaki, 39, has successfully pursued a career as a construction consultant and designer, and was responsible for the overall design of the Ghibli Museum in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka. From 2001 to... https://www.scmp.com/article/568618/hand-rising-son?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/568618/hand-rising-son?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:00:00 +0000 'WHICH FILM?' was the near-unanimous refrain in the crowded press room of the Venice Film Festival as the Golden Lion for Best Picture was awarded to the Chinese movie Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) last Saturday night. Few of the attending critics had seen Jia Zhangke's winner, which screened at midnight as a surprise entry just as the festival was winding down. Last year's surprise movie, Takeshi Kitano's Takeshis' hadn't made much impact either - as is often the case with unheralded entries.... https://www.scmp.com/article/563866/lions-share?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/563866/lions-share?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000 IT'S EASY TO consider Juliette Binoche a regular player in Hollywood these days. She's appeared in an ever-wider array of mainstream fare, from Anthony Minghella's The English Patient - which won her a best supporting actress Oscar in 1997 - and Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat (2000) to last year's commercially and critically underwhelming The Bee Season, in which she plays the frustrated wife of Richard Gere's Jewish scholar. France's highest-earning actress, Binoche still leaves her schedule... https://www.scmp.com/article/555527/double-life-juliette?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/555527/double-life-juliette?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:00:00 +0000 WHEN BRUCE WILLIS talks about lending his voice for the first time to a cartoon character, one thing is clear. Following in the steps of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, who play Shrek and Donkey in Shrek, and Will Smith, who gave the edge to Oscar in Shark Tale, he wants to be Jeffrey Katzenberg's latest animation sensation. 'I wanted to be the cat in Shrek 2,' he said, at the film's press conference at Cannes last month, 'but Antonio Banderas beat me to it.' He then pretended to have a fur... https://www.scmp.com/article/554045/what-you-talkin-about-willis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/554045/what-you-talkin-about-willis?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jun 2006 16:00:00 +0000 PERCHED STRAIGHT ON a seat in a yellow frilly frock and pale pink, old-fashioned, high-heeled shoes, Miranda July seems a symbol of purity with her flawless complexion and wide, blue eyes. Beneath the pale. fragile appearance, however, lies vigorous creativity. A performance and video artist, July won the Camera d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival with her first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. Her unassuming appearance is possibly one of the reasons she was able to get away... https://www.scmp.com/article/552761/liaisons-lonely?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/552761/liaisons-lonely?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:00:00 +0000 ONE WOULD HAVE to have a heart of steel not to be deeply touched by the rousing singing, the heartfelt portrayals and - most importantly - the true story presented in Joyeux Noel, the French entry for best foreign film in next year's Oscars and a finalist in the race for the same gong at the Golden Globes. Recalling the events that took place on Christmas Eve in 1914, when the German, French and Scottish lieutenants spontaneously declared an armistice to celebrate Christmas, the film, which... https://www.scmp.com/article/530536/war-and-order?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/530536/war-and-order?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Dec 2005 16:00:00 +0000 SUCCESS ON STAGE is no guarantee of success at the cinema. But it can't hurt if you bring across the same director and leading lady - and that they've already got a major Oscar-winner under their belts. The film version of David Auburn's Tony Award-winning Proof reunites director John Madden and Gwyneth Paltrow, who not only worked together on the London stage production, but teamed up for Shakespeare in Love, which won seven Oscars. Madden took a risk casting Paltrow in the stage version,... https://www.scmp.com/article/525265/proof-positive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/525265/proof-positive?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000 WHEN HAYAO MIYAZAKI personally accepted the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival last weekend, observers were shocked. After all, the man rarely shows his face. This master of personal expression and beauty in hand-drawn animation has avoided promoting his films at festivals - such as in Venice last year, when Howl's Moving Castle premiered, or in 2002 when Spirited Away won the Berlin Festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. He didn't even attend the Oscars,... https://www.scmp.com/article/516729/master-class?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/516729/master-class?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Prince Rainier died on April 6, but his spirit lives on in his photographs, which adorn shop windows in his beloved principality of Monaco. He started the Monte Carlo Television Festival when his wife of 25 years, Princess Grace, was still alive and pictures of the prince with the former Hollywood star are plentiful around town. At the 45th festival, however, their son, Prince Albert, the festival's honorary president, was rarely seen as he must observe the traditional three-month period ... https://www.scmp.com/article/507697/lost-and-desperate-monte-carlo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/507697/lost-and-desperate-monte-carlo?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Jul 2005 16:00:00 +0000 IT WAS SOMETHING of a curiosity to meet one-time hellraiser Mickey Rourke at the Cannes Film Festival, because few actors have fallen so far from grace and managed to stage such a comeback. That he looks a little like the grotesque character in his new hit movie, Sin City, only adds to the curiosity. And that he stands out in the film among a large ensemble cast attests to his enduring talent. Dressed in a pointy-collared, brilliant yellow shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots and sporting... https://www.scmp.com/article/502793/sinful-ways?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/502793/sinful-ways?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Jun 2005 16:00:00 +0000 BROTHERS JEAN-PIERRE and Luc Dardenne's L'Enfant might have waltzed away with the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious Palme d'Or, but the fact that some of the limelight was shared by mainland director Wang Xiaoshuai reflected the general perception that Asian films, performers and producers are big news. Wang's Shanghai Dreams - which traces the movement of workers from Shanghai to Guizhou in the 1960s - picked up the Cannes Jury Award and the director said it was a special moment for... https://www.scmp.com/article/501701/out-shadows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/501701/out-shadows?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 May 2005 16:00:00 +0000 HE'S GERRY TO his mates and to almost everyone who comes in contact with him. Yet no matter how likable and affable Gerard Butler is in person, with his leading role in the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera, the 35-year-old Glaswegian is poised on a precipice. He might be thrust to stardom. Or he might not. Muscular, with an authoritative chin, piercing green eyes and a slow-burning masculinity that allows him to come across as sexy on screen, Butler might be compared to Russell Crowe.... https://www.scmp.com/article/483070/phantom-menace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/483070/phantom-menace?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:00:00 +0000 At the 61st Venice Film Festival's closing ceremony, Sophia Loren shines bright. Her radiant dyed hair and bronzed cleavage certainly draw the limelight from the compact British director standing beside her. But Mike Leigh couldn't be happier: the Italian actress has just presented him with the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion, for his latest movie, Vera Drake. 'Even if you make gritty down-to-earth movies like I do,' he says, 'when you've been watching Sophia Loren all your movie-going... https://www.scmp.com/article/470514/directors-day?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/470514/directors-day?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 PEDRO ALMODOVAR WASN'T ever going to let his big chance slip by. When his Bad Education became the first Spanish movie to open the Cannes Festival this year, the director was at his flamboyant best. Surrounded by drag queens and the actresses who have populated his movies - including Carmen Maura and Victoria Abril - he took to the stage lip-synching and simulating a pole dance to Hey Big Spender. The whole Cannes experience, he says, was like a dream. 'People had told me the Cannes audience... https://www.scmp.com/article/470513/frisky-priest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/470513/frisky-priest?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 TALL, DARK AND suave, British actor Clive Owen has resisted becoming part of anything too big - until now. Likened to Richard Burton because of his old-fashioned brooding screen presence and his smooth speaking voice, the 39-year-old takes on the title role in King Arthur, and his gravitas is palpable. It's ironic that the movie with such a potential to make Owen a major star is a Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster. After all, only a few years ago, when expressing his contempt for what he still... https://www.scmp.com/article/464601/role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/464601/role?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:00:00 +0000 QUEBECOIS ECCENTRIC Denys Arcand is in such fine form that, after two previous nominations, his French-language movie The Barbarian Invasions won this year's foreign film Academy Award, marking the first time the Oscar has gone to a Canadian production. This came hot on the heels of another unprecedented win, when The Barbarian Invasions scooped all three major French Cesar awards, for best film, best director and best writer. In Cannes last year, actress Marie-Josee Croze was a surprise... https://www.scmp.com/article/458881/barbarians-gates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/458881/barbarians-gates?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Jun 2004 16:00:00 +0000 THE SCENARIO SEEMS familiar: Holly Hunter stars in edgy movie directed by strong-willed, forthright woman and the movie becomes an award-winning hit. No, it's not The Piano, Jane Campion's high-profile 1993 film that won Hunter a best actress Oscar (after her nomination for Broadcast News). It's Thirteen, a tiny US$2-million movie by first-time director Catherine Hardwicke, where Hunter more often than not wears her own clothes. Academy voters have been impressed too, bestowing her with a best... https://www.scmp.com/article/444655/lucky-13?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/444655/lucky-13?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 AT LAST WEEK'S Golden Globes awards ceremony, Bill Murray was clearly pleased that his droll brand of comedy was finally getting kudos. Like presenter Jim Carrey, who followed him at the podium, he made jokes about why comedies traditionally fail to be taken seriously when it comes to handing out awards. While Carrey suggested the surprise US box-office hit, Elf, should have been nominated, a shaggy, grey-haired Murray, accepting the award for his Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his oddly... https://www.scmp.com/article/443007/funny-old-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/443007/funny-old-life?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000