News

Some people meet on dating apps. Others meet through friends. Aaron Taylor-Johnson met his wife through… a decaying fruit bowl and a biro pen. No, we’re not hallucinating; this is an actual love story, not a surrealist short story or an abandoned Wes Anderson script. It’s the fact that someone fell in love with a woman 23 years older before he even knew her name.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, now 35, married Sam Taylor-Johnson, now 58, after meeting on Nowhere Boy in 2009. But their connection started earlier, invisibly, like a premonition framed in fruit and mold. Is it odd? Yes. Is it enviable? Strangely, also yes. What began as a profound, almost psychic connection to a piece of art, Still Life, ended in a marriage built not on spectacle but on synchronicity.

Did Aaron Taylor-Johnson fall for his wife before they even met? Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars in Kraven the Hunter | Credit: Sony Pictures

Now,...

Caught by the Tides.Jia Zhangke grew up in Fenyang, where the north winds blew cold fronts from Inner Mongolia over the medieval walls. Fenyang is in Shanxi province, China’s coal country, one of the nation’s most polluted regions; when Jia was a child, most of the buildings dated to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and you could bike across town in ten minutes and find yourself in the countryside. His father was a teacher, and his mother worked at the state store that sold liquor and cigarettes; in the 1970s, when food was still rationed by family size, they would send their children to school on a meager breakfast of cornmeal buns. The family all slept in the same bed, and Jia would play in the neighborhood courtyards, surrounded by stone walls. In Walter Salles’s documentary portrait Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang (2014), Jia returns to...

In the early months of 2003, a film that had been building buzz on the festival circuit the year before began to make its way to American arthouses. A story of twentysomethings caught up in petty crime and the punishment of perpetual restlessness — and blessed with the English title Unknown Pleasures — it was the fourth feature from writer-director Jia Zhangke. The movie sprinkled flecks of genre flicks into a narrative rendered with a no-frills realist aesthetic; the fact that Jia shot it using early 2000s digital video made you feel like...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus Films release “Caught by the Tides” in select theaters Friday, May 9, 2025.

A searching and scattershot portrait of displacement that’s as likely to resonate with Jia Zhang-ke devotees as it is to mystify those who are new to his work, “Caught by the Tides” finds the Chinese auteur returning the most pivotal characters and locations that have defined his movies over the last two decades. Then again, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he never left them.

Tracing the faintest contours of a scripted love story around the scaffolding of some documentary footage that Jia has collected over the course of 22 years, this elusive chimera of a film strains to literalize the delicate relationship between time and memory — a theme that has become increasingly central to the director’s work since...

A quarter of the way through the 21st century, filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke has emerged as the foremost cinematic chronicler of contemporary China. His latest film, Caught by the Tides, ought to silence any doubts to the contrary. In a miraculous medley spanning over two decades of his country’s history, Jia excavates hidden stories within his past filmography while simultaneously casting his glance toward the future.

While it’s not necessary to know the background on the origins of Caught by the Tides to understand it, the context of its creation can only help enrich the experience. Like many during the pandemic, Jia looked inward at his own material as the outside world remained closed. Among footage used and unseen from his films like Unknown Pleasures, Still Life, and Ash Is Purest White, a larger story began to emerge on both a micro and macro scale. Once lockdowns lifted, he...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Being Maria (Jessica Palud)

Last Tango in Paris was both a breakout role and turning point in the life and career of Maria Schneider––a traumatic filming experience that inspired her to become an advocate for women in the film industry, and the often redundant depictions of female characters in cinema. Her steadfastness and increasing ability to not suffer fools gladly after her experiences with Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando saw her walk out on several major directors midway through shooting, earning her a reputation for being difficult, frustrations largely ignored as this behavior coincided with her own battles with mental health and drug addiction, both of which were weaponized as reasons to not hire her. Any writing on Schneider characterizes her...

Ralph Fiennes has been the talk of the town lately thanks to his recent Oscar-nominated performance in Conclave, but he also recently starred in another movie that’s become a hit on streaming. Fiennes can be seen playing the legendary Odysseus in The Return, the R-rated adventure drama that tells the story of Odysseus’ return to Ithaca, where he finds his wife held prisoner by those with desires to be king.The Return recently premiered on Paramount+, where it’s streaming as part of the Showtime extension plan, and it has made a swift run into the top 10, sitting at #4 at the time of writing. The film earned strong scores of 77% from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and it grossed just over $2 million at the box office during an extremely limited theatrical run.

The Return is the perfect watch for fans who are excited to see Christopher Nolan...

Director Jia Zhang-Ke returns with a sprawling portrait of romantic destiny culled from 22 years of footage with “Caught by the Tides,” his latest collaboration with his wife and muse Zhao Tao.

Here, she plays Quiaoqiao, who drifts through decades of Chinese history while witnessing its profound and turbulent political changes. Sideshow and Janus Films open “Caught by the Tides” in select theaters May 9, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer premiere below.

Here’s a synopsis courtesy of the New York Film Festival: “The preeminent dramatist of China’s rapid 21st-century growth and social transformation, Jia Zhang-ke has taken his boldest approach to narrative yet with his marvelous ‘Caught by the Tides.’ Assembled from footage shot over a span of 23 years—a beguiling mix of fiction and documentary, featuring a cascade of images taken from previous movies, unused scenes, and newly shot dramatic sequences — ‘Caught by the Tides’ is a free-flowing work of unspoken longing,...

As the 15th Beijing International Film Festival (Bjiff) commences on April 18, the annual event is presenting an array of riches for cinephiles and industry professionals alike, marking a trifecta of milestones: the 130th anniversary of world cinema, the 120th anniversary of Chinese cinema, and the festival’s own 15th year.

Headlining this year’s Workshop & Masterclass series is a triumvirate of cinematic heavyweights. French acting legend Isabelle Huppert, who has appeared in over 100 films and earned multiple accolades including best actress at Cannes for “The Piano Teacher” and a Golden Globe for “Elle,” will explore “The Undercurrent Beneath the Ice” – an examination of her distinctive artistic approach that has made her a force in European cinema. The masterclass promises insights into her celebrated collaborations with directors like Claude Chabrol and Michael Haneke.

Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, whose works like “Still Life” and “Ash Is Purest White” have earned him acclaim at Cannes and Venice,...

We’ve always loved setting trends at The Film Stage and are accordingly chuffed that, nine months after we screened a 35mm print at the Roxy, Roman Polanski’s late-career triumph The Ghost Writer comes to the Criterion Channel in next month’s Coastal Thrillers, a series that does what it says on the tin: The Lady from Shanghai, Key Largo, The Long Goodbye, The Fog, and the other best film of 2010, Scorsese’s Shutter Island. It pairs well with Noir and the Blacklist featuring films by Joseph Losey, Fritz Lang, Jules Dassin, and so on. Retrospectives are held for Terry Southern, Kathryn Bigelow, Jem Cohen, and (just in time for Caught By the Tides) Jia Zhangke, while Spike Lee gets his own Adventures In Moviegoing.

For recent restorations, Antonioni’s Il Grido and Anthony Harvey’s Dutchman appear. Criterion Editions include The Runner, Touchez pas au grisbi, Godzilla vs.

Jia Zhang-ke‘s early films consistently blended fiction with a documentary-like approach, as seen in movies like “Platform” and “Still Life”. However, in “24 City“, Jia took this approach a step further by directly combining documentary footage with fiction. The movie primarily consists of five real and four fictional interviews with people connected to Factory 420, a facility that once produced war equipment. In the present-day setting of the story, the factory is being demolished to make way for the titular redevelopment project.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image below

Through interviews with workers, managers, specialists, and security personnel, Jia Zhang-ke traces the history of the factory, from its construction by former members of Factory 111 to its eventual demolition. Testimonies about the forced relocation of workers set the tone for the film. The community that formed around the factory, including a school and a cinema, are thoroughly explored, with the...

Jonathan Swift’s classic satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels is getting a fresh, ambitious retelling for the small screen, with Italian filmmakerUberto Pasoliniattached as the showrunner. The series aims to provide a fun, feel-good vibe to the 18th-century tale, whilst keeping its sharp social commentary. Pasolini, a former investment banker cum director best known for his work on the 2013 drama Still Life and the 1997 hit The Full Monty (as producer), appears to be a fitting choice to steer the revival of Gulliver’s Travels.

Published in 1726, Gulliver’s Travels follows the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver, an intrepid voyager who encounters various societies, including the diminutive Lilliputians, the giant Brobdingnagians, the scientifically-obsessed Laputans, and the noble yet detached Houyhnhnms. A classic part of English literature, the four-part book combines adventure with savage satire, mocking English customs and the politics of the day.

British writer William Ivory has been tapped to pen the screenplay for the six-episode project.

Renowned Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke held a masterclass during Fica Vesoul, offering insights into his journey, the evolution of independent cinema in China, and the socio-political role of filmmaking. Known for capturing the realities of contemporary China, Jia spoke candidly about his early influences, creative challenges, and his vision for the future of cinema.

From VHS Tapes to Independent Filmmaking

Jia’s passion for cinema began in his school years, watching films in small VHS cabins outside the official circuit. This early exposure to Hong Kong and Taiwanese cinema, including King Hu, Johnny To, and Ann Hui, shaped his cinematic sensibilities. However, his true awakening came in 1991 when he watched Chen Kaige‘s “Yellow Earth“, a film that revealed to him how cinema could express social reality beyond traditional storytelling.

His first feature, “Xiao Wu”, was made without script approval or official authorization—a defining moment in his commitment to independent filmmaking.

Filmed in HD digital video, “Dong” is a documentary about artist and actor Liu Xiaodong, who invited Jia Zhang-ke to film him as he painted two groups of subjects: laborers near the Three Gorges Dam and later, sex workers in Bangkok. “Still Life” was shot simultaneously, sharing the same setting and, in some instances, even the same shots. Han Sanming, one of “Still Life”‘s leads, also appears (in ‘character’) within “Dong”, along with other figures from that film, further emphasizing the connection between the two works.

Dong is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas

Expectedly, the documentary is split into two parts, each set in one of the aforementioned locations. The first takes place in the Three Gorges Region in 2005, documenting Liu Xiaodong’s process as he creates “Hot Bed”, a painting depicting 11 dam workers, most of whom are stripped to the waist (to say the least). During filming,...

A farming family in rural China gets a rich, warm portrait in Huo Meng’s picturesque second feature Living the Land, set in the early 1990s in a country on the cusp of vast change. Rather than a static tribute to the countryside, Huo’s lovely roving eye for composition and gentle hand with drama trace the challenges and enduring bonds among several hard-working generations of farmers.

The parents of sweet 10-year-old Chuang (Wang Shang) left him at birth with their clan (the Li’s) in order to seek jobs south in Shenzhen. The village will undergo shifts of its own, but an early sequence of burial and mourning rituals around their grandparents underlines the traditions that still hold sway, with public laments and white mourning hats. There’s an omnipresent drive to keep tending to the wheat and cotton harvests that are the Li livelihood, requiring days and nights of labor and attention.

T.O.P Denies Bigbang Reunion ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

After people slammed singer-cum-actor T.O.P for rejoining his group Bigbang, he addressed the speculations and denied all the rumors. Read ahead.

Recently, many news reports claimed that Squid Game 2 actor T.O.P. (Choi Seung-Hyun) might rejoin his band Bigbang. The reports further stated that Bigbang has added T.O.P. ’s name and photo to their official YouTube channel. When people noticed that on his Instagram account, he put his stage name (T.O.P.) in front of his name, it fueled the speculations even more.

Netizens started to lash out at the actor for doing such a thing, while some claimed these were false rumors and that his name has always been on Bigbang’s official channel. A few even mentioned that he had no intention to rejoin the group. In his interview for Netflix’s Squid Game, the...

Quick Links Clint Eastwood Coproduced The Brides of Madison Country With Kathleen Kennedy The Bridges of Madison Country Was Somewhat Against Type for Clint Eastwood The Bridges of Madison Country Earned a PG-13 Rating

1995's The Bridges of Madison County was a romantic drama film starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. The movie begins with two adult children going through the belongings of their mother (Streep) after her death. To their shock and surprise, they discover she had a short-lived love affair with a photographer (Eastwood) passing through town years before. What follows is a retrospective look back on the love story that unfolded between a small-town housewife rediscovering herself and a deep, albeit passing, connection between two people. The movie was based on a 1992 bestselling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller.

But it wasn't just the big talent of Streep and Eastwood that were involved in...

The concept of urban development in China has been repeatedly explored in the mainland’s arthouse cinema, with the impact it had on the people who see their houses demolished and new neighbors erected, posing a rather intriguing theme, as we have seen in movies like Jia Zhang-ke “Still Life” for example. Ding Wenjian, himself an architect, presents his take on the subject through a story that looks distinctly personal.

on CathayPlay by clicking on the image below

A successful Singapore-based architect, Wen Xin, is forced to return to his hometown, a small city he has not seen in years, to bury his mother’s ashes. Upon his return, he finds the old neighborhood facing a decision between preservation and demolition. Li Mei, his childhood crush who is now living with a man with a gambling problem, among other things, is running a small diner in the area,...

Τoday comes out in France «Caught by the Tides » by Jia Zhang-ke. He will be the president of the international jury at the 31st Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (11-18 February 2025), during which an exceptional tribute will be paid to him in the presence of his muse, the actress Zhao Tao:

Two Golden Cyclos of Honor will be awarded to Jia Zhang-ke and Zhao Tao, Retrospective of his full-length films:

1997 : Xiao Wu, artisan pickpocket

2000 : Platform

2002 : Plaisirs inconnus

2004 : The World

2006 : Dong – inédit

2006 : Still Life

2007 : Useless

2008 : 24 City

2010 : I Wish I Knew

2013 : A Touch Of Sin

2015 : Au-delà des montagnes

2018 : Les Éternels

2020 : Swimming Out Til the Sea Turns Blue – inédit

2024 : Caught by the Tides...

Squid Game season two cranked up the drama with new players and test that also means a new set of antagonists including Thanos, player 230, a self-absorbed rapper with purple hair. Fun fact, Thanos is actually played by Choi Seunghyun, better known as T.O.P. from Bigbang, the K-pop legends who ruled the 2000s and 2010s.

Choi Seunghyun’s Thanos in Squid Game Season 2 Credits: Netflix

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, his viral moments definitely will, and believe it or not, one of his wildest things on the show actually happened in real life!

This Squid Game moment actually happened in real life!!

In Squid Game Season 2, one of the standout moments came during the finale when Lee Myung-gi, aka Player 333, calls out Choi Seunghyun’s character named after the Avengers villain, Thanos, Player 230, for forgetting his own lyrics mid-rap.

Related Squid Game Season 2 Mid Credits: The Jack and...

There have been plenty of films that have mined the stories of Odysseus, often concentrating on the more iconic adventures of his youth, his travails in Troy, and other elements considered worthy for such a mythologically resonant heroic figure. What sets The Return apart, as the title suggests, is that it strips the man from the earlier exploits, crafting a deeply humanist, and in turn deeply effective, portrait of a man in the final chapters of the grand story of his life. Directed by Uberto Pasolini (Still Life), the majority of the film rests upon the shoulders of two key characters. We first see a man stripped of all his glory, literally. Naked on a beach, washed to shore and bleeding from various contusions, he appears to be at death’s door lying there baking in the sun. He’s soon rescued by a local slave farmer who helps bring him back to health,...

On Friday 6 December 2024, Sky Arts broadcasts Artist of the Year: Masterclass!

Introduction to Still Life Season 1 Episode 9 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Artist of the Year: Masterclass,” titled “Introduction to Still Life,” promises an engaging experience for art enthusiasts. This episode will air on Sky Arts and features live tutorials from skilled artists who have previously participated in the “Artist of the Year” programs.

In “Introduction to Still Life,” the talented artists will share their knowledge and demonstrate simple techniques that anyone can follow. This episode aims to inspire those at home who are eager to explore their artistic side. Viewers can expect clear guidance and helpful tips, making it easier for budding artists to create their own still life compositions.

The episode will cover various aspects of still life art, including composition, lighting, and color choices. Each artist will bring their unique style and approach, offering a diverse range of insights.

Ralph Fiennes stars as Odysseus in the upcoming drama The Return, a new take on Homer’s Odyssey. Trailer here!

Ralph Fiennes will soon star in Conclave, the Vatican-set drama in which he struggles to juggle conspiracy and politicking during a papal election. That film comes courtesy of All Quiet On The Western Front's Edward Berger and lands in UK cinemas on the 29th of November. Fiennes takes the lead in a very starry ensemble.

If that’s not enough Ralph Fiennes looking intense and careworn for you then fear not, because December will bring you more in The Return. It’s a new take on Homer’s Odyssey, the ancient Greek epic poem that is one of the oldest works of literature in the world.

The film is set to take on the part of the tale where Odysseus, now a veteran of the Trojan War, returns to find...

Returning to Greece with the historical drama “The Return” proved an emotional affair for Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and director-producer Uberto Pasolini. “Meeting this dream, this need inside Uberto and his passion for the story… We were really moved,” said Binoche before bursting into tears alongside her co-star and director at the film’s press conference at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

“It was moving because that is what you wish for as an actor,” continued Binoche with a quavering voice, while a visibly teary-eyed Pasolini sat alongside her. “We know how difficult it is [to get a film made]. When we had [Pasolini] go home with the hard drives he could work with and complete this wish, it felt like we were okay. We’re okay.”

“The Return,” based on Homer’s ancient Greek poem “Odyssey,” is a passion project 30 years in the making for the “Still Life” and “Nowhere Special” director, best known as the...

“Sorry… Forget this is New York, not Beijing,” laughed Jia Zhang-Ke, a titan of Chinese cinema’s post-1990 “Sixth Generation” of directors, to a packed house inside Alice Tully Hall for the New York Film Festival on Tuesday.

In a Q&a after the U.S. premiere of his latest film, Caught by the Tides, Jia’s English translator could barely keep up as he effusively spoke about the 23-year journey to bring his new project to the big screen. While many in the audience understood the director’s native Mandarin, his translator transcribed as quickly as possible for the English speakers. One thing that needed no translation was Jia’s passion for providing a world view on contemporary China through a cinematic lens.

Caught by the Tides follows Qiaoqiao (played by the director’s real-life wife and muse Zhao Tao), a lovelorn singer who traverses miles across her northern...

Premiering at Cannes earlier this year, Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides” is another entry in the filmmaker’s indie career that serves to mystify viewers as much as it seeks out answers to the questions it asks. Utilizing documentary footage Zhangke has collected throughout his career, as well as characters he’s explored in previous films, “Caught by the Tides” capitalizes on the themes of time and memory the writer/director has been exploring since his 2006 Golden Lion-winning drama “Still Life.” As reported on by Variety, speaking at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, Zhangke shared that he plans to continue studying these concepts and finding ways to incorporate them on screen, both in a historical context and a futuristic sense.

“I have so much interest in the current China that I’m sure to make other films on the subject,” said Zhangke of planning his next projects.

Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught by the Tides attests to the fact that making art under the most adverse conditions can prove to be serendipitous. If shooting a film from scratch wasn’t feasible under China’s restrictive Covid lockdowns, Jia viewed the situation as a formal constraint, in the same way a poet might approach the rules of a sestina. Turning to his existing body of work, he recycled earlier material, editing together unused footage with what could be shot under the circumstances. The result is a bricolage of documentary, minimalist drama, and experimental remake. As Jia’s filmography is inseparable from the career of his spouse and longtime collaborator, actress Zhao Tao, the film also operates as a dual retrospective.

In execution, Jia doesn’t blend genres so homogenously as to obscure their distinctions. He prefers to shift the balance over the course of Caught by the Tides, allowing...

After weaving together footage shot over 20 years to create the expansive Caught By The Tides, veteran Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke said that he wants to return to his pre-pandemic “routines and rhythms” and make a film every two years.

Jia also told Deadline that he is set to begin production on his next film in October or November this year, which will be a “road, travelogue film” following a “female character who will travel from a place that is extremely cold, to a place that is extremely warm.”

Jia won Venice’s Golden Lion for Still Life in 2006 and Best Screenplay in Cannes for A Touch of Sin in 2013.

Caught By The Tides had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year, before having its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Chinese auteur said that the foundations for Caught By The Tides were laid more than 20 years ago,...

Anyone familiar with the filmography of Jia Zhangke will easily recognize “Caught by the Tides” as one of the celebrated director’s features. Such familiarity may well create interest and pleasure at seeing Jia revisit the characters, locales and subjects that made him famous. But this atmospheric film, in which mood and visuals prevail over plot, might also disorient and bemuse viewers who are not already intimate with his work.

Subscribe to Amp newsletter by clicking on the image below

The film has been described as a career retrospective for the director, and with good reason. Stuck at home during the Covid 19 pandemic, Jia decided to review the enormous amount of footage he had shot since 2001. The images could be documentary-style footage capturing slices of life that had caught Jia’s ever-alert attention: singing crowds, swirling dancers, young people going to their favorite places, in Datong, Zhuhai, or many other places across China.

The trailer for “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” the directorial debut of artist Titus Kaphar, has been unveiled, featuring stars André Holland and Andra Day.

The drama follows acclaimed painter Tarrell (Holland), whose life is upended by an unexpected visit from his estranged father (John Earl Jelks) who is desperate to reconcile with him. In the trailer, Tarrell grapples with his mother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) about their reconnection, as she pushes him to speak to his dad.

“If you don’t forgive others for their past sins, then you can’t be forgiven,” she tells Tarrell.

“‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’ was produced by Stephanie Allain, Derek Cianfrance, Jamie Patricof and Sean Cotton. Kaphar also penned the screenplay for the film.

The film is set for a theatrical release on Oct. 18. Watch the trailer below.

Visual Effects Society Announces Special 2024 Honorees

The Visual Effects Society has unveiled its newest lifetime members, hall of fame inductees and the 2024 Ves Founders Award recipient.

This morning, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their list of speaker engagements for the 49th edition in the In Conversation With… series, TIFF Industry Conference panels, and events designed to inspire and spark future collaborations. TIFF runs Sept. 5–15.

TIFF’s In Conversation With… (Icw) this year counts 2x Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (who is receiving a TIFF award this year), Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldaña, Steven Soderbergh, and Hyun Bin and Lee Dong-wook.

“TIFF 2024’s stellar lineup of speakers for our iconic In Conversation With… series reflects our vision that film and creative culture have the power to open minds, spark new ideas, and impact the world around us,” said Anita Lee, TIFF’s Chief Programming Officer. “We are thrilled to connect our public audiences with a dynamic roster of global trailblazers through these in-depth conversations.”

In TIFF’s Visionaries section, the onstage conversation series counts Alfonso Cuarón, Pete Docter,...

Monica Sorelle’s Mountains is a film about work that nonetheless champions leisure. As Esperance (Sheila Anozier) suggests to her husband Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), “If work was a good thing, the rich would have taken it for themselves.” Mountains interprets leisure not so much as the opposite of work or struggle, but a stance that can and should suffuse each moment of life, not discounting those we sell to make a living.

Xavier and Esperance are Haitian immigrants living with their adult son, Junior (Chris Renoir), in Miami’s rapidly gentrifying Little Haiti neighborhood. Whether recompensed or not, each has their work: Xavier is a demolition worker, Esperance a crossing guard and dressmaker, and Junior, to the consternation of his parents, aspires to be stand-up comedian. An incident of on-the-job racism, complicated in that it involves a Cuban immigrant (Yaniel Castillo) tussling with Xavier’s Black American coworker (Roscoè B. Thické III...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.Find all of our Cannes 2024 coverage here.Those fearing cinema’s obsolescence in the face of more popular media—an anxiety that now seems an existential characteristic of the art—will be glad to find in Cannes the obligatory films that court relevance and awards by centering on an Important Topic. These are the loud films, which anticipate being pounced upon with flash-pan hot takes. But other movies at the festival are playing a longer and subtler game. They’re not necessarily quiet—in fact, one is a knockabout martial-arts film—but what they do, they do with deceptive ease, without any pandering or grandstanding. Their ambition creeps up on you. Their subjects are inextricable from their forms; rather than a plug-and-play insertion of topic into narrative, there appears only this way of telling such a story. The stories themselves, whether told by classical or more radical means,...

The Chinese title of Jia Zhangke’s mesmerizing “Caught by the Tides,” a masterfully poetic and pioneering fusion of the old and the new, can be translated in several ways. Jia himself suggests “The Drifting Generation,” but it can also mean “The Romantic Generation” with the etymology of “romantic” lying in the Chinese words for wind and current. The restless motion of the natural world is certainly captured in the English title’s reference to an ocean’s ebb and flow. But what that version cannot adequately convey is the airiness and the yearning that Jia whips in to “Caught by the Tides” — quite miraculously considering he is largely working with repurposed footage from across the last 23 years of his justly celebrated career.

Loosely speaking a love story, “Tides” is also perhaps the most definitive national portrait that Jia, modern China’s foremost cinematic chronicler, has ever delivered. This is...

Rm’s solo album Right Place, Wrong Person is just one week away. On Friday, the BTS star’s team revealed the names of the 11 tracks included on his project, with songs featuring Little Simz and Moses Sumney.

Army was able to reveal the track titles — songs such as Nuts,” “Out of Love,” “Groin,” and Lost! — by completing a digital puzzle on Rm’s website. Little Simz is featured on Track 4, “Domdachi,” while Moses Sumney joins Rm on “Around the World in One Day.”

“Right Place, Wrong Person embodies facets...

BTS member Rm has dropped a new single, “Come Back To Me,” alongside a music video for the track. The song previews the singer’s forthcoming solo album, Right Place, Wrong Person, out May 24.

Rm first revealed “Come Back To Me” last summer with a surprise performance at BTS bandmate Suga’s encore concert in Seoul. At the time, he introduced the track as one of his favorites from his new project despite not yet having a title. Rm wrote the lyrics for the song, while Ohhyuk from South Korean...

China- and Netherlands-based sales firm Fortissimo Films has picked up the international rights to new Chinese sports feature film “Wild Punch.” It will launch the film in territories outside mainland China next week at the Cannes Market.

Co-directed by well-established director Yu Lik-wai and Wang Jing (“The Best Is Yet to Come”), “Wild Punch is a sports and action drama about a top mixed martial arts athlete who has passed the peak of his career and faces competition from his young and gifted trainee. Both with something to prove, the two will have to face each other in the ring.

Yu has directed four feature films, including Cannes competition title “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Venice title “Plastic City.” He is also well-established as a cinematographer who has worked on films including “Still Life,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart” by Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye’s “Love...

Uberto Pasolini, who wrote and directed the James Norton-starring Nowhere Special that opened this weekend, says, rightfully, the film’s power emanates from the tangible bond you feel between father and son. Norton – the BAFTA-nominated British actor (Bob Marley: One Love, Little Women, Happy Valley) – is John a 35-year old window washer and single father to four-year old Michael (BIFA-nominated Daniel Lamot). John has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is on a quest to place his son in a loving home.

Norton “understood that the film lived or died — would have lived or died — on the relationship and on the connection between the two. And so he came over to Belfast before we started shooting and spent an enormous amount of time with the family, with the boy himself. Sitting down on the floor of Daniel’s room and playing with his toys and going out for chicken nuggets,...

There’s a nice trio of specialty films to highlight this weekend from Joanna Arnow, Uberto Pasolini and Caitlin Cronenberg’s feature directorial debut.

Joanna Arnow’s micro-budget comedy The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. It follows a thirtysomething New York woman as time passes in her long-term casual Bdsm relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family. Arnow writes, directs and stars. And that’s Bdsm, as in bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism.

The helmer is thrilled to see her feature (after 2017’s i hate myself :), and a handful of well-received shorts) launch a theatrical run, with Magnolia distributing. “That’s how I dream of my movies being seen,” Arnow tells Deadline. “It’s also so important to see comedies (on the big screen) Shared laughter with strangers is quite beautiful and healing in a way.

Uberto Pasolini’s “Nowhere Special” is delicately tinted by profound shades of imminent grief. As a 35-year-old, terminally ill single father in Northern Ireland, John (a quietly powerful James Norton) grieves his impending demise and the inevitable fact that he will vacate his four-year-old son Michael’s (Daniel Lamont) life permanently and prematurely. A Belfast window washer, John sees the reflections of his grief everywhere as he scrubs and shines surface after surface. In one scene, it’s the headstones on display in the window of a funeral parlor. In another, it’s a dad happily picking up his baby inside a restaurant. That’s just John’s every day on the other side of a glass facade, with stark glimpses into what’s coming and what he will soon lose.

Meanwhile, his often silent and always observant toddler Michael deals with his own share of grief, at an age...

Despite stepping away from performing together to complete their military duties, the boys of BTS are finding ways to keep their fans connected through their music. On Thursday, BTS’ label Bighit Music announced that it’ll be releasing BTS leader Rm’s 11-track album Right Place, Wrong Person on May 24, marking his second solo album release.

“Right Place, Wrong Person embodies facets of Rm as a solo artist, distinct from albums released under BTS,” said BigHit Music in a statement. “[We] would appreciate the attention and support from many for this...

Sporting a warm smile and a pair of sunglasses – “Sorry, I’ve been busy editing and my eyes hurt,” he explained – one of China’s leading indie directors Jia Zhangke, whose upcoming film “Caught by the Tides” will be vying for the Palme d’or in Cannes next month, was guest of honor at the 55th edition of Swiss doc festival Visions du Réel this week.

Finished just in time for submission to Cannes, the film features his wife Zhao Tao, his muse over the last two decades, and tells the story of a couple spanning 20 years. (Jia previously spoke with Variety about the film in February when it still went under the working title “We Shall Be All.”)

Explaining how the pandemic gave him the opportunity to review his footage all the way back to 2001, he described his new film as “a concentration of 20 years’ experience,” which blends footage...

Six 8mm shorts by Bill Douglas were shown at the opening Gala of 2024's Glasgow Short Film Festival. Many had not been seen since the late 1960s when they were made, though clips from some do appear in Bill Douglas: My Best Friend.

Though Bill Douglas would argue that Come Dancing was his first 'proper' film there's so much of his later work in Still Life that the counter might need set back. Based on a story of Peter Jewell's about a visit to the house of a woman that died intestate, this is an abstract, experimental piece, telling story through objects and allusion. There are some moments of motion among its tableaux vivant but a sequence of photographs is a masterclass in montage, not just editorially but in composition. Never did a doily indicate such doom, nor the vain hope of a banner on a Coronation mug convey such gloom.

Exclusive: Nowhere Special by director Uberto Pasolini, and starring James Norton, is set for theatrical release on April 26.

The film from Cohen Media Group had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2020 and comes back around after Norton’s recent appearance as Chris Blackwell in box office hit One Love, the Jamaican-British record producer who introduced Bob Marley and the Wailers to international stardom.

In Nowhere Special, Norton stars as John, a 35-year-old window cleaner who has dedicated his life to bringing up his young son Michael after the child’s mother abandoned them soon after giving birth. When John is given only a few months left to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for Michael, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation. Although initially certain of what he is looking for,...

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, who “humanizes China’s modern history – and turns it into poetry,” according to one critic, will be the guest of honor at Visions du Réel. The documentary film festival’s 55th edition runs April 12-21 in Nyon, Switzerland.

Jia, a leading figure in independent Chinese cinema, will present a masterclass exploring his body of work, and a retrospective of his films will run throughout the edition. The tribute is made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse and Ecal, the university of art and design in Lausanne.

“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, I haven’t left China for almost four years,” Jia said. “I feel like embracing the world again, as excited as a child about to go on a long trip for the first time. I am heading to Nyon for cinema that reveals the world as it really is.”

Jia belongs to...

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke is set to receive an honorary award at the 55th edition of documentary festival Visions du Reel, taking place in Nyon, Switzerland from April 12-21.

Jia will attend the festival in person, marking his first visit to Europe since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, and is set to present a masterclass exploring how his work explores the history of China and its people.

The festival will host a retrospective of Jia’s work, which has included Still Life, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2006, and A Touch Of Sin, which won best screenplay at...

"A family is haunted by what appears to be the ghost of their youngest daughter. Now they must try to figure out why she is trying to communicate with them and if it's really her." From writer Katski Flores (Still Life) and Filipino director Erik Matti (On the Job), The Entity will be released on digital later this month and we have an exclusive look at the brand-new poster for the upcoming film.

Starring Sharon Cuneta, John Arcilla, Kent Gonzales, Pam Gonzales, Guila Alvarez, and Coohleene Cabasag, The Entity will be available on August 22nd on digital platforms, including Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play, and DirecTV. Take a look at the poster below and we also a look at the trailer that was exclusively shared by Bloody Disgusting yesterday.

Trailer via Bloody Disgusting:

The post Exclusive Poster Reveal: “Darkness Will Test the Strenth of This Family” in The...

British actors Julia Ormond (“Ladies in Black”) and Lydia Page (“Blue Jean”) are set to soon appear in psychological horror movie “Home Education” directed by Italy’s Andrea Niada.

Set in the scenic Sila plateau in Italy’s Southern Calabria region, “Home Education” revolves around a family that are followers of an esoteric cult and live in a secluded house deep in the woods.

Warner Bros Entertainment Italia, Italy’s Indiana Production and BlackBox Multimedia are producing with support from the Calabria Film Commission. Germany’s SquareOne Productions is co-producing and handling international sales. Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film in Italian theaters.

Page plays Rachel, a teenager raised according to the cult’s beliefs. When her father Philip dies, Rachel’s domineering mother, Carol, played by Ormond (see first look image), driven by the belief that Philip’s lifeless body will revive itself, forces her daughter to live with the corpse.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)

James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel finally arrived. If not to just wax poetic on the photo-realistic Na’vi and the water they inhabit, one has to admire the megalomaniac yet compassionate director’s knack for a satisfying narrative. Culminating in a perfectly constructed final act which shifts from about four different kinds of action sequence, constantly escalating the stakes and managing to conclude with a lovely, Miyazaki-like grace note… well, you can’t help but admire a blockbuster that has the whole package. – Ethan V.

Where to Stream: VOD

Creed III (Michael B. Jordan)

Just to get it out of the way: the first Creed is the best Rocky film. They share the same formula,...

Origins is a recurring series giving artists a space to break down everything that went into their latest release. Today, Atmosphere’s Slug digs into their new single, “Okay.”

Minnesota hip-hop duo Atmosphere have announced their new album, So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously, out May 5th via Rhymesayers Entertainment. As a preview, they’ve released the lead single, “Okay,” and its accompanying video. What’s more, they’ve announced an upcoming tour (grab your seats here).

After releasing over two dozen studio albums in their more than 25-year career, Atmosphere’s newest album explores areas of discomfort unprecedented to the group. The impact of the 2020 lockdown and American civil unrest weaves together a narrative throughout the album of tension and paranoia.

“Okay” relays a message of comfort to those who are struggling in the current state of our world. The duo, made up of rapper Slug and producer Ant,...