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This looks rad!! Deaf Crocodile Films & Vinegar Syndrome have announced a restoration Blu-ray re-release of a long lost, rarely seen Romanian animated film called The Son of the Stars. This originally debuted in 1985 and showed up in the US in 1987, but hasn't been seen since. The film is getting an HD version based on a new 4K scan from the original 35mm negative and sound elements, with a digital restoration by Deaf Crocodile Films. From the same filmmakers as the marvelous Delta Space Mission, The Son of the Stars gets more freakadelic as Dan grows up ala Luke Skywalker, encountering giant disembodied eyeballs, a world of massive decaying Cubist structures, floating purple tentacles, and alien-headed cosmic flowers, and even a sword-wielding medieval Space Knight in armor. Using the voices of Mircea Albulescu, Mihai Cafrita, Ion Caramitru, Mirela Gorea-Chelaru, and Virgil Ogasanu. "His visions of his lost parents and the missing cosmonaut are especially psychedelic,...

Title: Charlie Countryman Director: Fredrik Bond Starring: Shia Labeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Rupert Grint, James Buckley, Til Schweiger, Melissa Leo, Vincent D’Onofrio Running Time: 108 min, Rated R, Available on DVD Special Features: Deleted Scenes and Making of Featurette Charlie (Shia Labeouf) just lost his mother; watched her lover hold her hand as she slipped away…then he had a conversation with his dead mother out in the hallway where she tells him to go to Bucharest. Charlie boards a plane headed to Romania where his seat buddy is an eccentric older man named Victor (Ion Caramitru)who suddenly dies on the trip. Charlie is forced to sit next to [ Read More ]

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Editor’s note: Our review of what was then called The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman originally ran during this year’s Sundance film festival, but we’re re-posting it now as the film opens in limited release today. A close up of a beaten and bloodied Shia Labeouf (who plays the title character) hanging upside down is the first image of The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and brings one question to mind: what did Charlie do? A voice over (from John Hurt) explains simply that “love is pain” as the story takes us “back to the beginning” to a stark hospital room where Charlie’s mother (Melissa Leo) lies dying. As she takes her final breath, something strange happens, and suddenly a healthy looking Leo sits next to Charlie to impart some last words and wisdom. This idea that Charlie can hear from the dead (complete with a tongue-in-cheek joke about The Sixth Sense) is...

Love is a dangerous, ancient city in Charlie Countryman.

The hectic action-romance begins in the hospital, where a ponytailed dork with the children's book name of Charlie Countryman (Shia Labeouf) watches a doctor remove his mother (Melissa Leo) from life support. When he exits the hospital, though, she's there again. "Tell me what to do," he pleads. "Go to Bucharest," she suggests. She probably meant Budapest, jokes the Romanian mobster (Ion Caramitru) next to him on the plane. Moments later, that unlikely seatmate dies, and Charlie takes it upon himself to deliver a gift the departed had intended for Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood), the mobster's daughter.

If Charlie's meant to learn who he is in Bucharest, he better be prepared to not like the answer, as it turns ou...

Charlie Countryman Movie Review Millennium Entertainment Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on RottenTomatoes.com Grade: C- Director: Fredrik Bond Screenwriter: Matt Drake Cast: Melissa Leo, Shia Labeouf, Mads Mikkelsen, Evan Rachel Wood, Rupert Grint, Vincent D’onofrio, James Buckley, Ion Caramitru Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 10/30/13 Opens: November 15, 2013 We in the U.S. do get a few arty movies from Romania, but rarely before now has a Romanian-based movie enjoyed (I use the word loosely) an American in two starring roles—plus a Dane and a Brit. “Charlie Countryman” is a prime candidate for one award nomination, and that’s the Golden Raspberry for the most dreadful movies of the [ Read More ]

The post Charlie Countryman Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Influential Romanian film and theatre director Liviu Ciulei has died at the age of 88.

Ciulei, who had been battling ill health, passed away in his hometown of Munich, Germany on Monday, according to his actor pal Ion Caramitru.

He began his 50-year career as an actor before making a name for himself as a filmmaker.

He won the prestigious Palme d'Or award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival in France for his work on The Forest of the Hanged, and went on to serve as the artistic director at Bucharest's Bulandra Theater for 10 years, during which time he became an icon of the Romanian theatre world.

Ciulei later held a similar position at the Gunthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the 1980s and he gave lectures at Columbia University and New York University.

"Romanian film and theater director Liviu Ciulei, whose career spanned 50 years and included winning a top award at the Cannes Film Festival, has died at 88," reports the AP. "Ciulei, as an actor, director and set designer, was the most influential figure of Romanian theater and film in a generation." Actor Ion Caramitru is said to have exclaimed today, "An era has died! A genius had died!"

Ciulei's 1964 film Forest of the Hanged (Padurea Spânzuratilor, clip) won Best Director in Cannes and was slated for restoration by the World Cinema Foundation. Adapted from the novel by Liviu Rebreanu, it "tells the story of a young man, Apostol Bologa, from Transylvania, part of the Austria-Hungary Empire, during the First World War," notes CinEast, Festival du Film d'Europe Centrale. "The kingdom of Romania (Moldavia and Wallachia) was on the opposite side, so Apostol Bologa finds himself in the difficult situation of fighting other Romanians.

Writer and director Jamie Hannigan has now made his sci-fi short Two Point Five Billion available for everyone to see online.

Synopsis: A scientist working in a revolutionary new field of quantum mechanics volunteers for a risky new experiment – despite the strong objections of his wife and misgivings of his colleagues.

Initially, the experiment appears to have been a success, but quickly it appears that the Scientist has been afflicted by an unforeseen side-effect: cut off from his anchor in the ‘present’, his consciousness is struggling to deal with the strain of experiencing every moment of his life at once…

Watch the short film after the break. Enjoy! via Twitch

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visit the official website

Credits

Directed by Jamie Hannigan

Produced by Shirley Weir

Written by Jamie Hannigan & Shirley Weir

Story by Jamie Hannigan

Director of Photography Patrick Jordan

Editor Frank Reid

Composer Alex Leonard

Production Design Ben Gough

Casting...