Film

Film

In a career retrospective talk at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Mamoru Oshii spoke, if not regretfully, mournfully about "Angel's Egg." The legendary Japanese writer and director-who secured his place in animation history with "Ghost in the Shell"-said that his dreamlike, allegorical 1985 OVA film nearly killed his career: "After that, nobody gave me jobs for three years," he said.

We finally got a sneak peak, albeit an unofficial one, of the upcoming Legend of Zelda movie. Over the weekend, footage of the film's production in New Zealand leaked on social media. It's a short clip, and nothing can be heard over the sound of the wind, but they hint that the princess' Sheikah bodyguard Impa will have a role to play in the live-action adaptation.

At some point in late 1975 or early 1976, I became aware of "Opening Soon at a Theater Near You," a monthly review program on WTTW-Channel 11. The show featured Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert and Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel talking about new releases in the low-key but instantly engrossing style that made you feel like you were eavesdropping on your two favorite teachers as they verbally sparred between classes. (Roger was 33 when the show debuted; Gene was just 29.)

Over Thanksgiving, Disney+ will serve up a delicious treat for Beatles fans: a newly restored and remastered version of The Beatles Anthology documentary film will be released with the addition of a new ninth episode. Marking its streaming debut, the film will debut on Disney+ over three nights: episode 1-3 will launch on November 26th, followed by episodes 4-6 on the 27th, and episodes 7-9 on the 28th.

"adorable," adding: "I think she's much cuter than me."

Star Wars was also making moves in the gaming space. Earlier that year, Electronic Arts announced a 10-year deal with Disney, giving them the exclusive rights to make Star Wars games. There was rightful trepidation among players. Considering how poorly the company's other multi-year agreements have gone, another 10-year deal wasn't reassuring. However, the first game announced under the deal helped this bitter pill go down a little easier: a new Star Wars Battlefront.

I used to watch Breaking Glass when I worked a very corporate job in the City. With its vision of London at the end of punk and the beginning of the Winter of Discontent, the film provided me a blast of gritty, unvarnished relief in the light of endless training courses and encouraged groupthink. Released in September 1980, it was disliked by critics (Q magazine memorably quipped: Breaking Glass? More like Breaking Wind ) but through today's eyes feels relevant again.

When "The Importance of Being Earnest," by Oscar Wilde, opened, on February 14, 1895, in London, the date was well chosen. It was the Victorians, after all, who decisively turned the feast of St. Valentine into a mass commercial celebration, with would-be lovers concealing their identities behind an anonymous exchange of greeting cards and other tokens of desire. "Earnest," the fourth drawing-room comedy that Wilde had produced within three years, centered on the courtship of two young women, Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew, by two young men, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff.

Flophouse America is the unnervingly intimate feature debut of Monica Strømdahl, an internationally award-winning photographer who spent 15 years documenting the impoverished communities that have sprung up in rundown motels throughout the US. Which is how she met Mikal, an energetic, 11-year old boy who's called home the hotel room he's shared with his parents since the day he was born.

Yes, she is young, beautiful, rich and talented, but she has also been getting it from all sides this week. Her passion project has bombed at the box office; she is still paying for a jeans advertisement she did four months ago, and being called on to address charges of having joked about eugenics; and fellow members of the Hollywood elite are breaking ranks to express their disdain (in one case, with a vomiting emoji).

Simultaneously, Jackson also broke records for receiving 116m views in 24 hours for the trailer of a new biopic, Michael, set for release in April. Millions of fans may be excited and primed for a Jackson biopic. For comparison, the trailer beat out Taylor Swift's Eras tour preview and it will join a procession of recent music biopics about Bruce Springsteen, Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and Elton John.

Back to selectionEvery Contact Leaves a Trace, its title alluding to a basic principle of forensic science, is the latest cinematic exploration from experimental filmmaker and poet Lynne Sachs. Pairing this concept with seven (of the 600) business cards she's collected over the years, Sachs embarks on an investigation into "how an encounter with someone seeps into your way of thinking" (as she explains in a VO that runs throughout the film).

I felt like it was kind of a homework assignment. I had to like turn it in at the end of the day and see if I got any good feedback.

LOS ANGELES -- You could say it was a "zoo" in Hollywood! The area near the famous El Capitan Theatre was closed Thursday for the world premiere of "Zootopia 2," and yes, it was protected for Southern California's rain! In the long-awaited sequel, Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin are back as rookie cops Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. This time, they're dealing with a new mystery in their animal metropolis.

I really hope my casting sets precedent, says Bode, adding: It's just navigating a world and a system that we have just not been acknowledged in as we should be.

On Pelayo street, in Madrid's trendy neighborhood of Chueca, the production company left a letter-size sheet of paper stuck to a plastic fence alerting residents to the fact that on the night of June 17 and 18 there would be a film shoot in the area. At 8.30 p.m. on the 18th, there were more than 40 people filling 100 meters of sidewalk as they prepared to start shooting, while the actors, already in makeup and wardrobe, chatted in a circle.

In the Now You See Me movies, the so-called explanations for the big tricks are even more ridiculous than the tricks themselves; they're not built on the characters' skill or determination or cleverness, but on narrative convenience and screenwriter contrivance. These films are anti-magic: They quash the wonder of both a perfectly executed trick and its oh wow reveal. (This also makes them bad heist movies, by the way.)

The James Bond movies are the longest running film franchise in cinema history. It is estimated that over half the world's population have seen 007 in action in one of his 25 adventures. The series is known for its jet-setting format and with the trend of visiting iconic screen destinations showing no sign of slowing down, Culture Trip caught up with authors (and fans) Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury to pick out their favourite locations

A host of Hollywood celebrities will meet Pope Leo on Saturday, a gathering Vatican observers say is aimed at giving some star power to the pontiff, who is the first US pope in the history of the Catholic church. Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, Chris Pine and Adam Scott are among the actors who will join a special audience with Leo at his Apostolic Palace residence, along with the Oscar-winning directors Spike Lee, George Miller and Gus Van Sant.

Gene wanted to direct, and play Hannibal Lecter, Harris's agent, Robert Bookman, told Deadline in 2017. Work on a screenplay was under way when Hackman suddenly got cold feet and abandoned the project, apparently because it was too dark. Bookman recalled: Gene Hackman's daughter read the book. And she called her father and said, Daddy, you're not making this movie.' The Silence of the Lambs was released in 1991, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anthony Hopkins, and won all five of the top Oscars.

The first is that they all should have spawned gratuitously sleazed out direct-to-video sequels that recast Amy Adams in the lead role and aired on Cinemax every other night for the entirety of my high school years (shout out to Roger Kumble, the James Mangold of Adrian Lynes). The second - and perhaps more broadly relevant - aspect that binds those movies together is that Hollywood is currently in the process of remaking each and every one of them.

Scored to the upbeat romantic sounds of Mickey & Sylvia's "Love is Strange, a brief collage from a ghostly POV hops and skips through time, as various women across the decades and centuries become enamored with some ghostly, unseen figure, but each romance soon curdles. Awkward silences abound, speaking volumes even in musical montage. These things happen, after all. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They drift apart. It ends in bloodshed.