News

Elle

Blu-ray

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

2017 / Color / 2.40:1 widescreen / Street Date March 14, 2017

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling.

Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine

Film Editor: Job Ter Burg

Written by David Birke

Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Michèle Leblanc, glamorous entrepreneur of a successful video game company, is the calm at the center of many storms. Her son’s girlfriend has given birth to another man’s child, an employee is stalking her with anime porn and her botox-ridden mother is betrothed to a male prostitute.

In the face of all this outrageous fortune, Michèle remains cool, calm and collected, even in the aftermath of her own harrowing sexual assault.

Elle, the new film from the Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, begins with that already infamous assault, our heroine struggling under the weight of her attacker while an unblinking cat perches nearby, watching.

The great man’s late career continues to baffle as he plays a widower lusting after bikini-clad young women on a road trip with grandson Zac Efron

This grossout comedy takes De Niro fans into a new emotional phase that I can only call “post-despair”. We are past being astonished and horrified. We are done with futile complaint. We are just numbly resigned to the great man continuing to do things like this, vaguely hoping that through sheer productivity he will have a “Blue Jasmine” moment and pull something out of the bag. Dirty Grandpa isn’t that something – but there are a few gags here, and though De Niro’s ability to play comedy is always debatable, he is more relaxed than we’ve seen him in a while.

Continue reading...

He's back and he's funnier than ever. The mischievous, cagey entertainer William Claude Dukenfield starred in some of the best comedies ever. This five-disc DVD set contains eighteen of his best, all the way from Million Dollar Legs in 1932 to Never Give a Sucker an Even Break in 1941. And we get to see all sides of W.C's talent -- he was a top-rank juggler, of just about anything. W.C. Fields Comedy Essentials Collection DVD Universal Studios Home Entertainment 1932-1941 / B&W / 1:37 Academy 1316 minutes (21 hours, 46 min) Street Date October 13, 2015 / 99.98 Starring Larson E. Whipsnade, T. Frothinghill Bellows, Egbert Sousé, Eustace P. McGargle, Harold Bissonette, Professor Quail, Augustus Winterbottom, Mr. Stubbins, Sam Bisbee, Ambrose Wolfinger, Cuthbert J. Twillie, Humpty-Dumpty. Written by Charles Bogle, Mahatma Kane Jeeves, Otis Criblecoblis

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In the late 1960s there were these things called Head Shops, see, where various hippie consumer goods were sold.

Sarah Leonor Discovers a Great Man

By Terry Keefe

Writer/director Sarah Leonor is one of France's most exciting new cinematic exports. Her latest film, The Great Man (Le Grand Homme), is an extraordinary drama depicting the traumas of war and immigration, and how they ricochet, opens on Friday, August 14 in New York at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Theater, then platforms wider on September 4. Starring Jérémie Rénier (The Dardenne Brothers' Palme D’or Winner L’Enfant), The Great Man is a powerful story about friendship and solidarity and takes a closer look at how men try to piece their lives back together when they’ve been shattered by war.

Hamilton (Jérémie Rénier) and Markov (Surho Sugaipov) are about to finish five years of service in the Foreign Legion. During their six-month posting in Afghanistan, they wind up amidst a crossfire while out on an impromptu and unauthorized leopard hunt.

Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man is hardly an overt political statement. Instead, like so much of the best French cinema, it avoids writ-large issues for a seemingly casual, non-melodramatic flow of events that stay on the microcosmic level of interlocking individual lives. And like many such films, its understatement has a stealth effect that in the end feels at least as powerful and memorable as anything a more conventionally case-pleading drama might have achieved.>> - Dennis Harvey...

Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man is hardly an overt political statement. Instead, like so much of the best French cinema, it avoids writ-large issues for a seemingly casual, non-melodramatic flow of events that stay on the microcosmic level of interlocking individual lives. And like many such films, its understatement has a stealth effect that in the end feels at least as powerful and memorable as anything a more conventionally case-pleading drama might have achieved.>> - Dennis Harvey...

Pacino – with waistcoat, fob watch and greasy hair – is the pining ex-coach at the heart of David Gordon Green’s gentle small-town drama

Al Pacino: ‘What’s the point of quitting?’

So they asked Al Pacino if he wanted to play a locksmith and he said: “Sure – I’ll make it low key.” The great man indeed takes it down a few notches in this gentle, oddball character study of a Texas small-town resident moping doggedly for a lost love. It’s hard to entirely buy his Manglehorn, though. With his waistcoat, fob watch and long, greasy hair, you can’t see Pacino as an ex-Little League coach; lording it over an East Village drama workshop, possibly.

Director David Gordon Green is a frustratingly erratic talent: this is one of his more serious films, close to his recent Nicolas Cage vehicle, Joe. It drifts at its own sweet pace, but eccentric,...

Philippe Garrel’s film set to open Directors Fortnight

Distrib Films Us has announced its acquisition of Us rights to Philippe Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women ahead of its premiere as the opening film of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this week.

The deal was negotiated between François Scippa-Kohn, president of Distrib Films Us, and Carole Baraton and Olivier Barbier of Wild Bunch.

In the Shadow of Women revolves around a low-budget documentary-maker who dumps his mistress after he discovers his long-term partner has a lover too.

Garrel is a Directors’ Fortnight habitué having screened his early film The Virgin’s Bed at the first edition of the then renegade parallel sidebar in 1969.

Distrib Films Us released Garrel’s previous film Jealousy last summer.

“We’re thrilled to continue to bring the films of Philippe Garrel to American audiences,” said Scippa Kohn.

“This is the first time we have acquired a film at script stage but the...

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Today is the 40th anniversary of William Hartnell’s passing. The great man, who played the First Doctor regularly between 1963 and 1966, died on 23rd April 1975, aged 67. But of course he’ll forever remain in the hearts of Whovians as the one who started it all. Here are just a few of his fine...

The post Remembering William Hartnell: Five Memorable Performances appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Peter Bradshaw salutes the Portuguese film-maker whose death at 106 robs cinema of an auteur who never stopped pursuing ideas

The first time I laid eyes on Manoel de Oliveira would have been way back in 1999; he was just 90 years old. It was at the Cannes film festival, where he was presenting his film, The Letter, in competition. The great man was announced by name as he entered the Grand Théâtre Lumière with his équipe for the official black-tie gala — part of the festival’s auteurist tradition. I craned my neck to get a glimpse of this near-legendary director. Would he be a tiny, wizened figure, dwarfed by the tanned Eurotrashy demi-monde that always seems to collect at Cannes occasions like these? Would he walk with a stick? In a wheelchair? Prostrate on a gurney with a nurse in tow?

Not a bit of it. De Oliveira was bald, tanned, vigorous-looking...

Alexander Skarsgård and Kristen Wiig in Marielle Heller's The Diary Of A Teenage Girl

Stevan Riley's Listen To Me Marlon, Simone Rapisarda Casanova's The Creation Of Meaning (La Creazione Di Significato), Lukas Valenta Rinner's Parabellum, and Goodnight Mommy directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz are films to look out for.

Bas Devos (Violet); Stéphane Lafleur (Tu Dors Nicole); Shim Sung-bo (Haemoo); Kornél Mundruczó (White God); Britni West (Tired Moonlight); Darhad Erdenibulag (K); Naji Abu Nowar (Theeb); Bill Ross and Turner Ross (Western); Yohei Suzuki (Ow); Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher); Benjamin Crotty (Fort Buchanan); Laura Citarella and Verónica Llinás (Dog Lady); Salomé Alexi (Line Of Credit); Chaitanya Tamhane (Court); Sarah Leonor (The Great Man); Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again); Oscar Ruiz Navia (Los Hongos) are filmmakers scheduled to participate in post-screening Q&As.

The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 44th...

The Museum Of Modern Art and the Film Society Of Lincoln Center have announced their initial selections ahead of the festival, set to run in New York from March 18-29.

The list includes Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again (Us); Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court (India); Rick Alverson’s Entertainment (Us); Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy (Austria); and Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man (France).

Rounding out the first nine are: Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher (Israel-France); Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb (Jordan-Qatar-uae-uk); Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe (Ukraine); and Kornél Mundruczó’s White God (Hungary, pictured).

New Directors/New Films is designed to unearth emerging artists. The selection committee comprises Jytte Jensen, Rajendra Roy, and Joshua Siegel from the The Museum Of Modern Art and Dennis Lim, Marian Masone and Gavin Smith from the Film Society Of Lincoln Center.

The Museum Of Modern Art and the Film Society Of Lincoln Center announced the first nine films in the long-lived showcase for new work. They include Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s winner of the Critics’ Week grand prize at Cannes, which is set in a Ukrainian school for deaf and mute coeds and is told entirely in sign language, with no subtitles. The Tribe is one of four films that will make their way to Manhattan from Park City, Utah, where they’re also on the Sundance roster: Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again, about a heartbroken Christmas-tree salesman; Rick Alverson’s Entertainment, a follow-up to The Comedy, about a broken-down comedian doing stand-up across the Mojave Desert and Kornél Mundruczó’s White God, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes about a dog’s journey back to its owner after being abandoned in the city.

Representing 11 countries from around the world,...

A More Accurate Title Might Have Been The “Good” or “Serviceable” Man

Much like Kathryn Bigelow does with many of her works or like Jasmine Yuen Currucan did with the underrated Australian thriller, Cactus, French helmer Sarah Leonor has focused the attention of her sophomore feature, The Great Man, entirely on men. It’s a decision that creates subtext in itself, raising questions about motivation and perspective on the subject and the characters. Is it, as the title suggests, a fantasy projection about an idealized performance of masculinity or could it be more facetious in nature?

In short, it doesn’t appear to be either; at least not directly. Divided into chapters, each titled with a different name, shifting character focus and reiterating the fluidity of identity consistent throughout, this socio-politically conscious drama starts amidst a trajectory defining situation. Legion soldiers Markov (Surho Sugaipov) and Hamilton (Jeremie Renier) wind up...

The lineups for the Mavericks, Discovery, and Tiff Kids parts of the Toronto Film Festival were announced, wrapping up a series of lineup announcements for the Toronto International Film Festival.

With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.

The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...

Bill Murray is coming to Toronto folks. Actually, the film he stars in (Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent) is having its official World Premiere launch at the jaw-dropping 285 feature film 2014 Tiff line-up. In the final batch of items we finally get the confirmation that 2014′s Palme d’Or Winner Winter Sleep (which gets added along with a trio of others to the Masters Programme) will show, and Tomm Moore’s highly anticipated Song of the Sea (among the four item line-up for Tiff Kids) also lands. Worth mentioning are the sprinkling of add-ons to the various other sections (Marjane Satrapi’s Sundance preemed The Voices, Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank and the world preem of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers) with a Studio Ghibli docu item being fitted into the Tiff Docs, but it is the Discovery Programme that finally takes shape.

The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...

The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival lineup is complete! With the event now just a little over two weeks away, the Discovery Program, the Kids Program and additional selections for other festival sections have been announced. James Franco’s The Sound and the Fury will have its North American premiere and the Bill Murray-starrer, St. Vincent, will get a world premiere in the Special Presentations section, ’71 featuring Jack O’Connell will play in the Discovery Program and Martin Scorsese’s The 50 Year Argument will screen in the Mavericks Program, just to name a few. On top of that, Mavericks is now also loaded with iconic talent set to take part in discussions including Denzel Washington, Antoine Fuqua, Juliette Binoche, Robert Duvall and more. Hit the jump to check out all of the new additions to the Tiff lineup. Mavericks Program Mavericks Conversation With… Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua Mavericks Conversation With…...

The 2014 Toronto Film Festival lineup got a lot stronger this morning by adding several new titles to the Special Presentations, Masters, Documentaries, Vanguard and Contemporary World Cinema selection as well as announcing the Mavericks and Discovery Programme picks. Most notable selections begin with Special Presentations additions of The Weinstein's St. Vincent starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarty and James Franco's The Sound and the Fury. The St. Vincent screening will be a world premiere and suggest Murray will be walking the Tiff red carpet... now that's a get for the fest I'm sure brings a smile to their face. In the Masters selection we have Studio Ghibli's The Tale of Princess Kaguya as well as the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep. The Vanguard selection has added The Voice, the lastest film from Persepolis helmer Marjane Satrapi and in the Mavericks selection...

Bill Murray starrer St. Vincent will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of this week’s wave of programming that includes Discovery.

The Discovery section includes the upcoming world premiere of Stories Of Our Lives, a portmanteau of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex testimonies by anonymous filmmakers from Kenya.

Selections include first-looks of Ross Katz’s Us comedy Adult Beginners, Sarah Leonor’s French Legion drama The Great Man, Isidora Marras’ Chile-Argentinian psychothriller I Am Not Lorena and UK drama X + Y.

“Christopher Nolan, Steve McQueen, Lynne Ramsay and David Gordon Green all presented their first features in our Discovery section,” said Tiff artistic director Cameron Bailey. “It’s a great place to spot new talent first.”

Besides St. Vincent, Festival Additions includes concert film cum road movie Roger Waters The Wall, while the world premiere of Krzysztof Zanussi’s Foreign Body takes its place among the Masters strand.

Tiff Docs arrivals...

The much-loved animator's Studio Ghibli has become part of the aesthetic fabric of Japan. But The Wind Rises will be Miyazaki's swansong as director. What happens next?

Half-hidden in a public park in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka, the Studio Ghibli museum is not quite Disneyland. It's not at all like it, in fact. The size of a large detached house, it has just 10 rooms and no rides, although you can board a stuffed-cat bus if you're small enough to fit inside the windows. The best exhibits are not much more than piles of overflowing ashtrays, jumbles of books, huddles of knick knacks and dozens and dozens of drawings. It's less like a theme park, more like an exhibition celebrating the Untidy Victorian Of The Year.

According to the museum's literature, the rooms belong to an anonymous individual. The abandoned offices are there simply to show visitors how animators work.

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Today, The Great Man of Doctor Who, Tom Baker, is 80. To commemorate the event, DoctorWho.TV has shared the interview below, in which Tom recalls how his life was very different before taking the role for which he became famous, and how once again his life has changed since joining Big Finish and appearing in

The post Tom Baker’s 80th Birthday Interview appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Okay, stop the internet. It's over. Vin Diesel has won. News, or perhaps 'scuttlebutt' is a better word, has him crystal ball gazing about his dream project. Responding to a fan's enquiry about what he'd most love to do once he's finished Fast 7ing and possibly popping up in the Marvelverse in some guise, his answer - "Kojak... New York... Ang Lee..." - has our heads spinning at the sheer possibilities.Vin Diesel and Ang Lee. Vin Diesel and Ang Lee. While we take a minute, consider that Lee's movie shapeshifting has already seen him tackle superheroes (Hulk), the Us Civil War (Ride Like The Devil), a Nixon-era family saga (The Ice Storm), a '60s Western (Brokeback Mountain), Jane Austen's England (Sense & Sensibility) and a movie starring a hyena (Life Of Pi), among others. The great man is nothing if not open to new experiences - and genres.

David Cronenberg's latest mind-warper, Maps To The Stars, is taking shape. The great man is back in business crafting what promises to be a darkly comic look at Hollywood, the darkly comic place known affectionately to locals as La-La Land.The project has reunited him with his Cosmopolis star Robert Pattinson, alongside John Cusack, Olivia Williams, Mia Wasikowska and Sarah Gadon, and gives him his first - yup, first - experience of shooting a movie in La, as well as back in his native Toronto. This new on-set pic gives a nice behind-the-scenes look at the Canadian auteur at work with his cast. Written by Bruce Wagner, Maps is a challenging, dark comic tale about two child actors who are ruined by Hollywood’s sleazier side. The Weiss family is a Hollywood dynasty comprising father Dr. Stafford (Cusack), an analyst and life coach, mother Christina (Williams) and son Benjie...

News Glen Chapman 3 Jul 2013 - 06:38

The man playing Shredder in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, William Fichtner, has been chatting about the project...

William Fichtner is one of the finest characters working today, so his addition to the cast of the Platinum Dunes' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is a very welcome one indeed. The great man has recently been chatting about his role as chief antagonist Shredder in the project, revealing that "I actually play a guy called Eric Sachs in the movie, and then he goes through a few stages in his existence..."

So it looks as though they're moving away from the traditional depiction of Shredder then, with Sachs replacing Oroku Saki or simply a western re-imagining of the name. Fichtner continued, adding "Turtles is coming together very, very cool. There is a whole interesting dynamic that happens in the world of the Turtles...

Michael Douglas is hilarious in Steven Soderbergh's blackly comic biopic of the hyper-kitsch piano wizard Liberace and his addictions to rings, plastic surgery and a buff Matt Damon

Steven Soderbergh's addictively funny and watchable Behind the Candelabra is about the love match between the pianist Liberace and his avowedly bisexual young companion Scott Thorson; they are brilliantly played by a reptilian Michael Douglas and monumentally buff Matt Damon. Their love emerges from this film as one of the most tempestuous affairs in showbusiness history, reeking with anxiety, unhappiness, passion and denial – probably topped only by the relationship between Elton John and Watford Football Club in the 1980s.

The movie takes us from the couple's ecstatic first meeting backstage in Las Vegas in 1976, right through to Scott having to be ejected, with zero dignity, from his kept-man apartment some years later. Since this premiered last month at the Cannes film festival,...

Bill Murray might be one of moviedom's greatest ever comic actors, but off-screen he's renowned for his phenomenal coolness and eccentricity. The stories are legendary: gatecrashing karaoke parties, larking about with David Letterman, Coen Brothers confusion... there really is nobody quite like Bill Murray.

To mark the release of his new movie Hyde Park on Hudson, Digital Spy has pulled together 10 amazing Bill Murray stories to show just why we love him so much...

He sings the Ghostbusters theme while strolling through New York...

Bill may not be too keen to come back for Ghostbusters 3, but he had a ball revisiting Peter Venkman for the Ghostbusters video game. Watch him recall making a fool of himself while strolling through Manhattan to lay down his voice track below...

He once gatecrashed a stranger's karaoke party...

Bill apparently bought everyone drinks and sang Elvis Presley's 'Marie's the Name'.

He signed up...

Brilliant photographer whose portraits were loved by international film stars

Cornel Lucas, who has died aged 92, was the doyen of still photography in the British film industry. Although his pictures were not destined for cinema screens, his artistry and technique were much respected by his film cameramen colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic.

During the 1940s, working at Denham Studios, in Buckinghamshire, Cornel became well known for his brilliant portraiture and as the master of a huge 12in x 10in plate camera, which gave a large negative area, capable of delivering unmatched image quality. When international superstars came to work on British productions, they were invariably photographed by Cornel to create the publicity stills.

When the film No Highway in the Sky was being made in 1948, a special session was arranged with Marlene Dietrich, resulting in a series of iconic photos. The success of the Dietrich work led to...

I don’t know how many young people are aware of the great W.C. Fields, but they ought to be. Two years ago, Zach Galifianakis wrote on his MySpace page, “Influences – my family, my friends and wc fields…” Contemporary comedy guru Judd Apatow has said, “W.C. Fields is the funniest guy of everybody, ever.” When Conan O’Brien was asked by James Lipton, “Who makes you laugh?” he replied, “W.C. Fields I think is maybe the funniest man that ever lived.” The great man’s grandchildren keep his flame alive around the world. Not long ago, Dr. Harriet Fields sent me this note: “I just returned from Rwanda,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...

The classic film theme will be very audible at the Olympics

Age: 31. And it shows.

Appearance: It's a piece of music. It has no visual likeness.

All right then. Sounds like? Athletes jogging along a beach in slow-motion.

Aha! The theme tune from that film about running? Or more specifically, Vangelis' score for Chariots of Fire, a film about the British runners at the 1924 Olympics.

The one that goes: Bom Bom – [beat] – la lala la-laaaaaa la-la la-la – [beat] – la lala la Laaaaaa? Hard to say, given that the typed word makes no sound. But for the sake of argument, yes, the one that goes like that.

Oh lovely. I always find it extremely motivational. Really? I find it cheesy and cliched. But it seems I'm in a minority.

How so? Well, this being an Olympic year, the country throbs to the synthesised sound of Vangelis. There's a stage adaptation on in the West End,...

As Vulture says: You Obsess About Movie Directors Because of Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris and his seminal survey, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968 were my earliest education about...

Any roundup of the day's news has to begin with Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. Following yesterday's release of the poster, France's Premiere broke the news that the tale set in the summer of 1965 and featuring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman would open this year's Cannes Film Festival on May 16. The Festival's quickly followed up with its official announcement. Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux: "Wes Anderson is one of the rising powers of American cinema, to which he brings a highly personal touch, particularly in Moonrise Kingdom, which once again is a testimony to the creative freedom in which he continues to evolve. Sensitive and independent, this admirer of Fellini and Renoir is also in his own right a brilliant and inventive filmmaker."

A couple of related items: At Open Culture, Colin Marshall argues that, with his two ads for the Hyundai Azera (which,...

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity   1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...

Lech Majewski's The Mill and the Cross is odd. More two hours of art appreciation than an conventional film, it tells the story (or possibly a story) of the artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder and what it was that led him to create his painting The Road to Calvary. The great man (played in a surprising turn by Rutger Hauer) sits behind his canvas, watching Flemish peasants go about their daily lives, and muses over how best he can get all of it into the finished piece. Sometimes the film treats the painting as a literal representation of what Bruegel observed, other times it's a strange mix of allegory and half-truth. The painter sees the arbitrary cruelties meted out by mercenaries loyal to the king...

Whether it was his movies, his moves or his mannerisms, Shammi Kapoor’s lasting effect on Bollywood is one that has been cemented on the walls of time. Generation after generation have seen, enjoyed and been mesmerised by an actor that taught them dance like no one is watching. Sadly, the actor passed away this morning at the age of 79.

Born Shamsher Raj Kapoor, the actor grew to the status heartthrob of the 1960’s with a string of hits including Junglee in which he is said to be romance personified. Films like Teesri Manzil, Dil Tera Diwana, Professor and An Evening In Paris are fresh in the minds of so many for the his outstanding acting and most of all, his charismatic dancing too. He proved his mark with his films like Hero, Vidhaata and Zameer as well, and even scored Filmfare Best Actor award in the 1968 film Brahmachari.

An...

The Astral, the latest novel from The Great Man author Kate Christensen, plunges a middle-aged poet into a midlife crisis, but his slow progress out resonates far beyond the terms of his particular arrangement. Harry Quirk has been thrown out of the Brooklyn apartment he shared for more than 20 years with his wife Luz. In spite of his protestations of innocence, he’s been tried and convicted for cheating on her with a longtime friend, Marion. Luz’s “evidence” for the crime Harry now wishes he had committed: an unfinished sonnet cycle meant to revitalize his career, but now ...

... while Transformers, Harry Potter and Kung Fu Panda 2 ensure Us box offices will enjoy a bumper blockbuster season

Word is that Michael Fassbender can pretty much take his pick of the roles after his electrifying turn as the young Magneto in 20th Century Fox's X-Men: First Class. James McAvoy isn't half bad either as the youthful embodiment of Charles Xavier, adversary to the metal-helmeted villain. Together, the European pair drew in the crowds as this latest entry in the canon launched in the Us on an estimated $56m (£34.2m).

The movie coaxed around $9m out of UK audiences too, and grossed around $64m outside of the Us for a solid $120m global opening weekend. The Us launch was good but not great, but let's see what word of mouth does in the coming days. Us critics loved the movie overall and Brit director Matthew Vaughn should have injected enough...

Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has admitted that she would love Glee bosses to dedicate a whole show to her colleague David Hasselhoff.

The larger than life star joined Holden on the judging panel of the ITV show earlier this year, after both Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan left to pursue other TV projects.

Impressed by his vibrancy, Amanda told The Sun’s Buzz magazine that he’d be fantastic on the hit musical show and added:

“He could sweep Sue Sylvester off her feet…The Hoff’s the only man tall enough to do it!”

The great man himself loved the the idea and laughed:

“I love Glee and listen to musical theatre a lot…I’ve even recorded songs from the musicals Dracula, and Jekyll & Hyde.”

Can you see The Hoff on Glee? We actually think it would make a really great episode!

View the original...

Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jean Claude Van Damme? It can only be Kung Fu Christmas on Syfy (Sky channel 129, Virgin Media channel 135, Talk Talk channel 22) from Dec 17th at 10pm

There won’t be many silent nights this December as Syfy turn the season of goodwill to all men – except those pesky bad guys – into a Kung Fu Christmas with a host of awesome martial arts movies. So, get writing to Santa to ask for a karate suit and a pair of nunchucks as they prepare to judo chop and high-kick their way into 2011.

If you’re dreaming of a fight Christmas, Santa’s got a real treat for you in the shape of a sack full of Jackie Chan movies. The great man is on a tour of Europe, looking for mysterious treasure that’s been protected by an order of monks in Armour Of God (Dec 21). In Police Story...

'Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.' —'Hamlet,' Act 3, Scene 2I discovered the above quotation 30 years ago in speech class and have been using it ever since. It is always pertinent to the work. Action is the key difference between a moment working and not. Suit the word to it. The moment fleshes itself out, feels right, and most of all affects the scene positively. It doesn't matter if it's a play, a film, or even a voiceover job; the action must always be suited to the word and vice versa.Objectives Lead to ActionsHow does one go about finding the action? To begin with, you must discover the objective. This is the overarching need of the character: What does he or she want in the play? It's an overriding need that propels the character forward. Consider Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire.

The great man speaks! Simon Cowell came down from the American Idol mountaintop yesterday for a telephone press conference with reporters, and while several reports announced that Cowell and his girlfriend Mezhgan Hussainy had recently gotten engaged, we were told he wouldn't answer any .personal questions.. So instead of rumor and innuendo about his personal life, Cowell faced rumor and innuendo about the world of Idol. Here's what Simon said...

"Judges on talent competition shows should know...  More >>...

Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks have picked up the rights to War Horse - a 1982 novel about a boy and his horse who are seperated but whose lives remain intertwined as they endeavour to survive the misery and bloodshed of the First World War. According to The Hollywood Reporter Spielberg and his producing partners have hired Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall to adapt the epic novel.

Having dropped his plans to helm Harvey, Spielberg is currently has an empty directorial slate, with commentators previously suspecting that The 39 Clues - another project in development at DreamWorks - would be the most likely target for his talents, now it looks like War Horse might attract his talent.

What do you think? The great man has never done WW1 and has expressed his love of the book. Have you read it? And could you imagine it getting the Spielberg treatment? Let us know in the normal place.

In case you hadn't spotted the link in the lower left corner of the Kasterborous website, Doctor Who #4 Tom Baker himself recently took the time to answer some questions put to him by editor Christian Cawley and occasional Kasterborous contributor Gareth Kavanagh. This was of course a huge delight for us, and while it's little more than a short question and answer session with The Great Man, he gave us a fantastic set of answers to questions covering the internet, The Boy Who Kicked Pigs,...