flying : confessions of a free woman is a 2006 documentary film by jennifer fox .

in six one-hour episodes , fox travels from country to country with her camera recording numerous candid conversations , mostly with women .

its autobiographical dramatic narrative acts as a starting point to introduce reflections on various social and political issues of a modern female life , including marriage , reproductive rights , divorce , childbirth , sexual abuse , and female genital mutilation .

the film is notable for its conversational " pass the camera " filming technique and is an example of cinéma vérité .

flying : confessions of a free woman

flying : confessions of a free woman <EOT> jennifer fox , director / producer of flying : confessions of a free woman . photo : zohe films

please talk about how the idea for “flying : confessions of a free woman” came about and evolved .

filmmaker jennifer fox in a scene from “flying : confessions of a free woman . ” image courtesy of film forum .

the director jennifer fox , as she appears in her documentary flying : confessions of a free woman ,  after a positive pregnancy test .

“absolutely , ” ms . fox said with a smile . “or we could call it ‘confessions of an imprisoned woman trying to be free . ’ ”

2007–2009 : lecturer and ran master classes at universities , tv stations and festivals around the world combined with the screening and theatrical release of my film series , “flying : confessions of a free woman . ”

in g2 today , zoe williams speaks with us film - maker jennifer fox about her documentary series , flying : confessions of a free woman , a quest which took new yorker fox across the globe to learn about the lives of women , and herself in the process .

jennifer fox dvd package . receive signed editions of jennifer fox’s previous films : beirut : the last home movie , an american love story and flying : confessions of a free woman . your name will also appear on the donor wall and you will receive exclusive project updates and the email newsletter . ( 145 euro est . )

flying : confessions of a free woman , the new groundbreaking 2 part documentary film in which critically acclaimed filmmaker jennifer fox lays bare her own turbulent life to penetrate what it means to be a free woman today . she travels to over 17 countries to understand how diverse women define their lives , when there is no map . the film is a cross - cultural story about common experiences of modern female life . part delectable soap opera , sociopolitical inquiry , and narrative experiment , flying sweeps us up into an addictive international adventure chronicled with sincerity , innovation and elegance . urltoken

“flying : confessions of a free woman , ” a documentary made for television in six one - hour segments , will open as a two - part film starting wednesday at film forum in new york . the documentary is a delicate construction asking a delicate question : is there anything in common between ms . fox , a liberal , middle - class manhattanite , and , say , a prostitute in cambodia ?

for most people , one therapist is enough ; for jennifer fox , a manhattan filmmaker in her 40s , exploring what she cheerfully calls her “messed - up self” required a bit more input . in “flying : confessions of a free woman , ” ms . fox takes her issues on the road , soliciting advice from female friends in more than a dozen countries . in the process , she learns that she is not unique .

a 42 - year - old woman is discussing dating in new york . she agonises about whether or not to stay with her married south african lover or commit to a new relationship with a swiss film - maker called patrick . sound familiar ? the show has already been described by candace bushnell of sex and the city fame as " required viewing for every woman " . but flying : confessions of a free woman is not a drama or soap opera ; rather the two - parter , filmed over the course of five years by the american director jennifer fox , is going out tonight as part of bbc4 ' s storyville documentary strand .

i had never filmed myself before . i had never wanted to put myself in a film , but now i picked up the camera , because it felt like the only way i figure out how to see myself in the world as a woman–literally place myself in my house , on the street , in a city . my need to find out who i was as a woman became the key to make a film about female life today and the way women speak . ( and of course , i had to call it “confessions of a free woman” because i had to laugh at my own slavery ! )

65 . flying : confessions of a free woman ( jennifer fox , 2006 ) . an amazing six - hour , six - part , documentary of epic proportions in which we follow the filmmaker as she travels around the world asking her women friends how they construct and imagine their lives as she struggles to figure out her own . in her attempt to capture how women talk , fox filmed her conversations with friends using a technique she calls “passing the camera . ” read my post on the film , “ flying takes documentary form to new heights . ”

fascinated by stories of the aristocratic bustros family , who remained in their large 19th century mansion in the mostly deserted downtown section of beirut during the lebanese civil war , director jennifer fox ( flying : confessions of a free woman , an american love story ) leaves n . y . u . film school to document her good friend gabby bustros ' return to her family home . filming everything from an auto race to an elaborate family wedding , from a festive costume party to a group sailboat outing , beirut : the last home movie

director jennifer fox ‘s “ flying : confessions of a free woman ” is a six hour - long film ( divided into one hour episodes ) that maps the world of female life and sexuality today–from the dramatic turns in her own life to the stories of women around the globe that shed light on the “universal issues all women face . ” the film uses a “groundbreaking” camera technique , called “passing the camera , ” creating a new type of documentary language and storytelling that mirrors the “special way” women communicate . the sundance ’07 film opens at new york’s film forum on july 4th .

fox is a serious film - maker . she won the grand jury prize at sundance for her film beirut : the last home movie . for the tv series an american love story she lived with a mixed - race couple and their children for two years . and in flying : confessions of a free woman , she doesn ' t just hang out in her tribeca loft with her sex and the city girlfriends . she visits women around the world , from new york to south africa , britain to cambodia , russia to pakistan .

she co - produced , directed and shot the acclaimed six - part film , flying confessions of a free woman through a unique danish co - production , funded by the danish film institute , tv - 2 denmark , bbc , arte , yle - 1 , sbs , svt , icon & humanist channels netherlands , the sundance channel , and a creative capital grant . flying premiered at the international documentary film festival in amsterdam ( idfa ) in 2006 and the sundance film festival in 2007 and did a 20 - city theatrical tour in north america before airing on the bbc , svt , tv - 2 , yle , sbs , and the sundance channel in 2008 .

her last work , the cutting edge , six - part , “flying confessions of a free woman” was made through a unique danish co - production , funded by the danish film institute , tv - 2 denmark , bbc , arte , yle - 1 , sbs , svt , icon & humanist channels netherlands , the sundance channel , and a creative capital grant . flying premiered at the international documentary film festival in amsterdam ( idfa ) in 2006 , the sundance film festival in 2007 and did a 20 - city theatrical tour in north america before airing on the bbc , svt , tv - 2 , yle , sbs , and the sundance channel in 2008 . it is currently available on dvd and in educational release .

fast - forward 34 years . for flying : confessions of a free woman , director jennifer fox spent five years visiting 17 countries , making countless women friends , and shooting 1 , 700 hours of film in her search into the identity of contemporary women . using her own life and loves as the film ' s central conceit , fox sought not to create a film about herself , but to weave a connection with other women and their stories . the wingspan of this audacious and exhilarating six - part , six - hour series stretches from phnom penh to islamabad , from lapland to capetown , and effectively employs flying metaphors throughout . chapter titles include " test piloting , " " experiencing turbulence , " " crash and burn , " " walking away from the wreck " and " breaking the sound barrier . " appropriately , flying opens at the film forum in new york city on independence day and screens through july 17 .

filmmaker jennifer fox ' s six - hour documentary flying : confessions of a free women , represents the first time the acclaimed director has allowed herself to step in front of the camera , baring ( almost ) all about her family , friendships , and romantic relationships . she ' s already detailed here at huffpo her evolution as a feminist , and the film takes the phrase " the personal is political " and mines it for all it ' s worth . fox begins each of the six segments that make up the film with old movies from her childhood , setting the stage for her desire , above all else , to be " free . "

in our post - 9 / 11 world , the phrase " fear of flying " has a very different meaning from the one championed by erica jong in her 1973 bra - burning manifesto of liberation . jong ' s iconic fear of flying examined the female psyche ( primarily hers ) through the man - woman conundrum , sex , marriage , divorce , motherhood and that elusive shangri - la , freedom . and jong modernized the quotidian sexual fantasy into a rousing " zipless fuck . "

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years passed and i continued to try to imagine how my new idea could be conceived . meanwhile i entered my forties and a major love affair with a man who was supposed to be “my one and only” ended abruptly . when he bailed on me , all my ideas about relationships , love , the rules of life and even god fell apart . suddenly i understood that i had been carrying around all these old values of what a woman should be like , while externally defying all those values . people thought of me as a “free” woman , but i knew inside i wasn’t free at all . i felt invisible because i wasn’t married and didn’t have kids–even though i had never wanted those things !

but even the people most intimately involved with “flying” are surprised by ms . fox’s candor . “we shared intimacies in a very typically girl - talk way , ” said caroline goldie , a berlin filmmaker whose bout with cancer became a piece of the “flying” fabric , “although i must be honest , i was a bit more guarded than jen about what i was prepared to say on camera . ”

07 . pay for the creation of an educational guide to accompany the film to schools and universities . the educational guide will also be made available for free download from the website .

as one of the greatest works of english literature and names his son robert louis . maltby’s choice of favourite book is a reflection of his own character : he is a free spirit who leads an unconventional life of poverty and intellectual curiosity ( followed by his son until the latter goes to school and the weight of social disapproval leads to the end of their idyll ) .

and indeed there are great levelling moments in flying that stop us being cultural tourists . many of the women she interviews around the world , especially those in poor rural areas , give her tough - love advice about flaky married lover , kai . and fox likes the fact that many of them laugh about her obsession with being a free , hyper - sexual woman . there are other things to worry about – work , family , survival – not just orgasms , they remind her . researching the whole issue of sex trafficking , too , makes fox confront the fact that she herself was pressured into having sex by a sports coach when she was only 13 .

the irony is that in hating her as a child , i too had ended up with a bellyful of rage that i carried everywhere ! during the making of flying , i started to let go of my anger towards my gram . i thought if i could break free of some of the shackles passed down generation to generation by the women in my family , than i could actually change history backwards . suddenly i felt part of the tree of women in my family ; my gram was my roots , my mother and aunt the trunk , and i the branches . if any one part of the tree could be rejuvenated than the rest of the tree would become healthier . i think my journey towards liberation as a woman actually helped my grandmother , mother , and aunt become freer . although i suspect this idea must sound a little mad !

has written narratives in the tradition of stevenson , e . g . le chercheur d’or ( 1985 , which includes a relationship between the narrator and the indigenous woman ouma , a name borrowed from ‘falesá’ ) , la quarantaine ( 1995 ) , and poisson d’or ( 1997 ) .

this film premiers july 4th - 17th at the film forum in nyc . it is going to be an exciting and groundbreaking film that i ' m sure will create quite a buzz . i ' ve seen the film and was truly awestruck by its profundity and brave exploration of women all over the world . the filmmaker , jennifer , bares her soul as she uses herself as a tool to address the issues that face women no matter their background or ethnicity . it is a film that all should see , male or female , to better understand the world around us and the strides that still need to be taken to ensure equality and peace . besides , its political and societal significance , flying : confessions of a free women , is also a compelling and soap opera like film that , despite its length , flies by in a whirlwind of emotional drama and hilarity . thank you to jennifer fox for giving so many different women a voice . this film is a must see !

by turns playful , sexy , tragic and contemplative , “flying” is an addictive soap about sexuality and sisterhood . and if that makes the average man’s eyeballs roll , all the more reason for his honey to buy him a ticket .

jennifer fox ' s flying is quite an honest search into the hearts and minds of women around the world on the subject of love , men , and children . it is fascinating to hear women ' s perspectives and to simultaneously see the unfolding of one woman ' s journey into learning about herself and what she thought was her idea of love at the same time . heartwarming and thoughtful , it is a candid and vulnerable auto - videography that stays with you long after you have viewed it . it also encourages discussion afterwards .

“i could really see this being a book , ” ms . fox , 47 , said of her latest documentary , which is scheduled for several european television outlets late this summer . “flying , ” made over five years , is part personal memoir , feminist manifesto and diagnosis of the state of global woman . it is also an eclectic mix of film languages , including vérité , self - shooting , diaries , narration and what ms . fox calls “passing the camera , ” in which her subjects shoot one another as well as her .

declared himself a ‘stevenson worshipper’ , praised his ‘marvellous lightness’ , and wrote : ‘i love stevenson because he gives the impression he is flying’ ( calvino 1955 / 1995 : 968 - 9 , calvino 1959 / 1995 : 1528 - 9 ) .

according to the publicity , flying tackles questions that are at once personal and universal . does choice equal happiness ? what does it mean to be a free woman today ? i ' m not quite convinced . yes , there are moving moments – when fox films pat in remission ; or visits a berlin - based film - maker who has fallen in love again during treatment for ovarian cancer – but they often feel pretty incidental to jennifer ' s big love story . when she meets two women in rural pakistan – who humblingly have given up the chance of marriage in order to study and campaign – you think , " oh god , she ' s not going to bang on about her love triangle again , is she ? "

you know , it ' s funny why people don ' t end up in a film─and why they do . in flying , people assumed that my lover kai didn ' t want to be filmed , but in fact i never asked him . he was married , he had a family , and i never thought to expose his face , because that would be a complete act of betrayal . whereas with patrick i pushed quite hard to let me film him as you see in the film . it ' s not very nice of me to have done that , but i wanted you ( the audience ) to know that i can be a very driven woman─a woman for whom work is everything . but the stakes for filming patrick were much lower than if i filmed my lover , kai . i couldn ' t live with myself and reveal his face on screen .

men dominate much of the talk in “flying , ” whether the topic is new love , old love , child support or paternal influence . for her part ms . fox makes it clear throughout the film that as a girl she wanted a life like her father’s ; he was a pilot , among other things , a man with a career and a life outside the home . her mother , on the other hand , was busy rearing five children .

part personal diary , part transglobal slumber party , “flying” is a six - hour exploration of modern womanhood humming with talk of men . during kitchen - table chats and late - night meltdowns , women as diverse as an egyptian journalist and an indian civil rights lawyer struggle to control their finances and their fertility .

ida presents a special screening of mcqueen with moderated q & a . the film is a personal look at the extraordinary . . .

he argues that we need more confessional documentaries , not fewer . " i think you could do good confessions or bad confessions . documentary isn ' t de facto worthy . we always try to buck this trend : in fact , we say you should enjoy storyville as you would grazia or the independent , there ' s no difference . " he argues that the slot is a place for any sort of programme – different styles , different attitudes , different subjects – the only requirement being that they should all be strongly narrative . and he points out that the most powerful section of the film – the death of fox ' s grandmother and her rapprochement with her mother and aunt – doesn ' t have a single boyfriend in shot .

a traveling program of films opens tonight in nyc presented by what moves you ? , cinema tropical and the center for latin american and caribbean studies at nyu . the documentary film series is committed to enriching the discussion on a wide variety of issues pertaining to mexican immigration to the us . all films are in spanish with english subtitles and all screenings are free and open to the public .

in this two part documentary , master storyteller jennifer fox lays bare her own turbulent life to penetrate what it means to be a free woman today . as her drama of work and relationships unfolds over four years , our protagonist travels to over seventeen countries to understand how diverse women define their lives when there is no map . employing an ingenious new camera technique called " passing the camera " , fox creates a documentary language that mirrors the special way women communicate . over intimate conversations around kitchen tables from south africa and russia to india and pakistan , she initiates a groundbreaking dialogue among women , illuminating universal concerns across race , class and nationality .

the filmmaker traveled alone through what are often considered some of the most dangerous regions on the planet , but because of the nature of her project , she always made advance arrangements with the women she planned to meet . " and being under the care and guidance of a local woman meant that i was much safer than i would have been had i been on my own , " she concedes .

this will be the lazy woman ' s version of jennifer merin ' s very cool top 25 list of docs by and / or about women that she feels are must - sees . here , instead of a description by me , you get a link to the film ' s website , or to a site that says something interesting about the film - - infinite numbers of worlds to choose from , that i would never deny anyone . writing film synopses right now , not so much .

in explaining her chosen style , fox says : " this is a real life , i ' m sick of fake lives being shown . this is a real female life , you may hate it , you may think i ' m self - involved , i am . you may think i ' m confused , i am . but this is actually exposing the inside of one woman ' s real life and not a fantasy . "

the central board of film certification ( cbfc ) cleared the film with a u / a certificate after a total of eight cuts designed to tone down the action sequences and mute a particular word . tanuj garg , representative of balaji motion pictures stated the cuts were less than a minute of screen time . [ 9 ]

a year - and - a - half in the lives of an interracial couple and their two biracial daughters .

the professional and personal life of a sexual surrogate begins to unravel when she starts working with a new client .

jennifer has executive produced many award - winning films including : “love & diane , ” “on the ropes , ” “double exposure , ” “project ten : real stories from a free south africa , ” “cowboys , lawyers and indians” , “absolutely safe ? ” , and presently the fiction feature film , “upstate” and “cat scratch fever” .

wrote a short text of praise ( 7 december 1896 ) to the members of a stevenson memorial committee for the erection of a stevenson monument or memorial in edinburgh ( mallarmeé 1896 / 1979 : 879 - 80 ) .

in flying , the " passing the camera " technique becomes the great equalizer , as no one person in the conversation has more power than the other . both film each other , both can ask questions of the other , both people are equally on the line . " on top of that , " fox adds , " the whole question , ‘can a layperson shoot with a camera ? ' is so obviously answered in the film . my camera instruction to each woman took about 30 seconds , and within 30 seconds they were filming me , often quite beautifully . this was true whether it be women in new york , britain , india or pakistan - - virtually anywhere . "

director jennifer fox does a q & a after a sold - out screening of my reincarnation at the singapore film festival and explains the importance of the film ' s kickstarter campaign ( urltoken ) .

the journey of flying was literally sewing myself─and my mother , my grandma and my aunt─into a fabric of history , way beyond our personal experiences . suddenly , i understood that my gram , for example , whom i felt terribly hurt by as a child , was acting out very universal patterns of female life . her role in life was prescribed from birth because of her gender . part of why she hurt me was to make sure that i would become a " good girl , " meaning prim and proper and essentially sexless─so that ultimately i would be accepted by society through a " good " marriage . during flying , i understood that the tiny , suffocating role she was trying to shove me into was the role she had been forced to fit into when she was a child . it was the only role she could imagine for me─the role that women have been forced to play throughout history and in almost every society on the planet .

“flying“ is a particularly well - suited teaching tool because of its experimental camera techniques accompanied with strong narrative storytelling and editing . i have taught hundreds of classes using excerpts of the film to incorporate the camera methods and demonstrations into class participation . it is also an excellent launch to talk about international fundraising and distribution as it was a danish co - production and was pre - sold to seven television stations internationally . ( complete teaching engagement list available upon request ) .

the last straw came when i hit my own " middle - age - single - woman - crisis " in my early forties . for all i had accomplished , i felt none of it mattered because i hadn ' t married and didn ' t have kids . now the complication was : i didn ' t ever want to marry or have children , but that didn ' t stop me from feeling i should have these things ! and even more i felt that because i didn ' t have a family , my life was invisible . i kept thinking of all the relationships i had over the past 20 years that had come and gone , yet i was the only one who carried my history . the whole crisis made me realize that i had never faced the issues i had as a result of being a woman . all my life i had rejected all the traditional female values , only to be stabbed in the back by my own conformist subconscious mind at age forty ! i had to do something to understand myself as a woman ! after 20 years of psychotherapy , suddenly filming myself seemed like the only way out of my depression . what ' s a more perfect mirror , but a video camera ? beside which , it was the only tool i knew well .

the technical limitations were a means of lightening the process and getting around the critical mind , both my own and that of the other woman . i wanted to force myself to work fast and light ; i wanted to throw the camera on a table , a basin or a countertop . it should all have the feeling of : “oh we’re just fooling around and having fun ! ” equally , i decided that i would allow myself to film enormous amounts of footage ( we ended up with 1600 hours ) knowing that i would only use a small portion of the footage in the film . i accepted that a lot of the footage would be crap , but i knew by lessening the importance of any given shooting day , i would relax and overall i would get those few authentic moments in return .

aileen : life and death of a serial killer , nick broomfield , 2003 .

of lion and of unicorn : essays on anglo - scottish literary relations in honour of prof . john macqueen

53 . this is what democracy looks like ( jill friedberg & rick rowley , 2000 ) . edited from footage shot by over a hundred media activists , this film presents a political and emotional account the 1999 wto protests in seattle . an important example of the power of collaborative filmmaking . presents a unique point of view made possible by weaving together footage from a hundred cameras . a glimpse of the future of documentary film made possible by collaboration on a grand scale .

34 . hearts of darkness : a filmmaker’s apocalypse ( fax bahr , george hickenlooper , and eleanor coppola , 1991 ) . a film about the making of apocalypse now and among the best “making of” documentaries .

the premiere of a new restoration by anthology film archives of the independent documentary from 1959 , the cry of jazz , with filmmaker , edward o . bland .

we are pulling this article from the archive to promote our upcoming doc u : shooting overseas : making your doc on foreign soil at the afci locations show at the l . a . convention center . on friday , june 15 , we are hosting a panel of doc filmmakers who have traveled the globe and film commissioners whose job it is to make filming in their countries as straightforward as possible . register for the afci locations show and rsvp for this free doc u today !

11 . tokyo olympiad ( kon ichikawa , 1965 ) . a montage of the 1964 olympics . a large number of camerapeople captured the event which through editing become cinematic poetry .

51 . buena vista social club ( wim wenders , 1999 ) . a poetic documentary wherein guitarist ry cooder gathers together twelve legendary musicians and resurrects the music of pre - revolutionary cuba for a series of recording sessions and performances . a variety of performances and observational footage are inter - cut with interviews of the musicians reminiscing in a backdrop of a decaying but colorful havana . the lush and colorful images were captured using a mix of minidv and digital betacam in the pal format , helping to de - stigmatize the use of video for films destined for theatrical release .

while critics rejected stevenson as a major writer for many decades , creative writers continued to admire the work of this ‘writers’ writer’ . what follows is only the start of a collection of observations on stevenson by writers .

’s essay la pensée radicale ( 1994 ) centred on the relationship of thought and the real has as an epigraph a quotation from ‘a humble remonstrance’ ( ‘the novel is a work of art not so much because of its inevitable resemblance with life but because of the insuperable differences that distinguish it from life’ ) .

) : strunsky was to deliver a speech on w . e . henley to the woman’s press association ; it was later published as ‘on the principle of loyalty in biography’ , impression quarterly , march 1902 . in it , she defended henley ’s biographical sketch of stevenson , ‘r . l . s . , ’ pall mall magazine , december 1901 , against charges of disloyalty . henley was responding to sir graham balfour’s the life of robert louis stevenson ( 1901 ) , which he considered false but which was loved by stevenson’s admirers . ]

33 . american dream ( barbara kopple , 1990 ) . a good example of a respectful filmmaker - subject relationship , the antithesis of moore’s style as exemplified in roger & me .

for example , arriving in india , she met with paromita , a 32 - year - old activist , and was " amazed " at how few people bothered her on the street because paromita served as a guardian of sorts . fox had traveled in india many times as a single woman and had been " constantly harassed and even got into some pretty awful situations . " thanks to paromita , fox was able to integrate into indian culture " in a really wonderful and seamless manner . this vision of another culture was great for the film , but it was also great for me personally because i had the best experience of india that i ever had . "

of all this group [ writers of ‘critical and miscellaneous prose’ in the victorian age ] , the greatest was robert louis stevenson . versatility was one of stevenson’s most conspicuous qualities , for , besides being the foremost essayist since lamb and a master of fiction , whether in the form of romance or in that of short story , he was also a dramatist and a poet . [ … ]

i admire some of his poems and a great deal of his prose’ ; in another letter of the same year he says ‘i think it was stevenson ' s method of describing action without adjectives or adverbs which taught me a good deal . ’ ( urltoken )

there are never pat answers or neat resolutions on offer , although he does go see his mother after eighteen years and walks away better understanding her side of things , as do we . she is a woman who , with the help of a new husband and her steadfast faith , has moved on , forgiven . but not forgotten . there is no tearful family reunion ; there is no contrived circle of love and healing at the end of the film ; there is no simplistic redressing of the morass of plain wrongness that has transpired between this parent and his female children . there is just moving on , living , dealing . some might say there are massive amounts of denial on display . this viewer thought there was very little of that , actually .

teaching a six - week intensive program for new filmmakers to create their first documentary short during the class period . students are taken through all aspects of documentary , from developing language and picking a subject to the craft of editing a scene and storytelling . students end up with a finished short documentary film of 5 - 10 minutes .

jennifer is the author of the screenplays , lila : a fairtale , a feature , co - written with oren moverman , and the short films , the woman with one breast and birdie in paradise . she has just completed the television pilot , the good egg , co - written with deborah copaken kogan . she wrote and is developing the fiction feature screenplay , the tale , for which she was chosen for a dutch binger directing lab fellowship in 2012 and in 2013 to participate in trans - atlantic partners ( tap ) , a co - production development program between europe , canada and the usa .

sim : i see this kind of nuance in the work of your cinematographer , rein kotov . his camera work is really extraordinary . these quiet , formally framed moments become so vital to a viewer’s emotional journey with these characters . we really get a sense of where we are and what it feels like . and a lot of it is really ugly . he bothered to go and find a good amount of beauty there .

, in a letter to the times 18 april 1922 talks of ‘the stevenson cult’ and the reaction to it in the article by maurice hewlett on 13 th april . ‘a few charming essays in a minor key , some short stories – not all of them first rate – a quantity of indifferent verse , and a couple of excellent books for boys – these it [ criticism today ] says are not so wonderful a performance after all’ . ‘two books – “kidnapped” and “ treasure island ” ( with “weir of hermiston” a problematic third ) – are linked to stevenson’s supreme achievement . to these i should add “thrawn janet” , a story seldom mentioned by critics’ .

jennifer has executive produced many award - winning films including : love & diane ; on the ropes ; double exposure ; cowboys , lawyers and indians ; absolutely safe ? ; the ten part television series , project ten : real stories from a free south africa , and the fiction feature film , upstate . she has consulted on numerous documentaries , including the sundance grand prize winner , southern comfort and the slamdance grand prize winner , stone reader .

61 . born into brothels ( zana briski and ross kauffman , 2004 ) . a portrait of children of prostitutes living in calcutta’s red - light district , a slickly produced documentary with beautiful images .

jennifer fox is an internationally acclaimed director , producer , camera - woman and educator . her first film , beirut : the last home movie was broadcast in twenty countries , released theatrically in nine , and won seven international awards , including best documentary film and best cinematography at the 1988 sundance film festival and best documentary at the 1988 cinema du reel festival , paris .

, not only philosopher and critic but one of the great german prose writers of the twentieth century , thought highly of stevenson .

47 . little dieter needs to fly ( werner herzog , 1997 ) . this film tells the story of dieter dengler , vietnam veteran who grew up in a germany . dengler recalls an early memory of american fighter - bombers destroying his village in which he saw one of the pilots and from that day forward he had to be a pilot . he eventually became a u . s . navy pilot and while flying in vietnam he was forced to make a crash landing in laos . he was captured and became a prisoner of war . eventually dengler escaped . for the film dengler returns to laos and thailand with herzog in order to recreate his experiences . a character based documentary done in a manner only herzog could make . but wait , there’s more . herzog also made a fiction film based on the story titled rescue dawn , providing an opportunity to reflect on the differences between documentary and narrative filmmaking ( especially since herzog often makes documentaries with narrative elements as well as narratives with documentary elements ) .

the spring 2010 issue of documentary magazine , the publication of the international documentary association , focuses on festivals and film distribution - - two things of which i know a thing or two .

she calls it " radical honesty " . there could be no preparation : no make - up , no fixing up clothing , or adjusting her emotional state . when , in the middle of filming , she found herself in a deep personal crisis , it had to be reflected on screen . " i thought : ' ok , i will use myself as a guinea pig . ' after all , how could i ask another woman to go on the line if i wasn ' t prepared to go on the line myself ? "

an homage to swedish filmmaker roy andersson ' s songs from the second floor , living room is a poetic tribute to every day finns , six of whom are shown in captivity in their living rooms . humorous , touching , irreverent and profound , the film is beautifully shot in wide - angle , static portraiture with the subjects ( all men ) acting out their stories in mini - passion plays . these are human stories of life changes , loneliness and the irrevocable passage of time . these men are in different phases of life , each of them looking for understanding and communion . you can watch the trailer here . the screening is free and you can drink booze while watching !

57 . the wild parrots of telegraph hill ( judy irving , 2003 ) . delightful story of a modern - day st francis and his relationship with a flock of wild parrots in san francisco . beautifully shot on 16mm film , it’s not only a great story , but a feast for the eyes , the soft image with rich colors does justice to the story .

, t . s . eliot praises the ebb - tide ( ' a triumph ' which combines ' truth and strangeness ' ) and later in a review of chesterton ( 1927 ) he is disappointed that no - one has produced ' a critical essay showing that stevenson is a writer of permanent importance , and why ' .

volume ; calvino’s preference for the revised version . calvino says ‘i consider this one of the best of stevenson’s short stories’ [ considero questo racconto uno dei più belli di stevenson ] . stevenson’s uncertainty about how to shape the story ‘is to a certain extent part of the quality of this game of hide - and - seek with oneself in this story of a childhood that one would like

director / producer jennifer fox has offered three new beautiful incentives to choose from , in order : chenrezig thangka ( authenticated on the back by chogyal namkhai norbu ) , wrathful guardian thangka ( authenticated on the back by chogyal namkhai norbu ) , and this museum quality painting of flying dakinis by esteemed artist and buddhist teacher dugu choegyal rinpoche to benefit the film ' s completion costs . ( see sidebar below for more information )

when i finally started making flying , i always thought she would be in the film─naturally she had to be ! she was my muse ! but when i brought out the camera i could see her discomfort─and when i tried to keep filming her she got really angry . she didn ' t want her story on film ; she wasn ' t comfortable with how others would perceive her life because she was in her fifties and didn ' t have kids . no amount of cajoling would change her mind . i had to put the camera away , but it changed our relationship , because as i pursued the film i had less and less time for her . the only woman i began to spend time with were the ones i was filming . it ' s so ironic , don ' t you think ?

at the end of his period as a schoolboy at eton ( 1917 - 21 ) had chosen a passage from stevenson at an annual public reading , but in his first novel burmese days ( 1934 ) , the protagonist , mr . flory , ‘pays a visit to the house of an indian doctor , and discovers a “rather unappetising little library , books of essays , of the emerson - carlyle - stevenson type . ”

now is a crucial moment for tibet , as the last of the great non - monastic tibetan trained reincarnate teachers remain alive ; if we don’t capture some of their true spiritual heritage now—more than just a few esoteric scenes , but a living tradition—it will be lost forever .

d . i . y . or die : how to survive as an independent artist is a low - budget documentary film released by music video distributors in 2002 . the film is a " celebration of the underdog " and deals with why artists do what they do , regardless of the lack of a continuous paycheck .

at the time of his death film director robert altman was developing a feature film based on the documentary .

the notices written of him at his death will give a good idea of his standing at the time , e . g . in the illustrated london news dec . 22 , 1894 : 769 : ‘he is gone , our prince of storytellers—such a prince , indeed , as his own florizel of bohemia , with the insatiable taste for weird adventure , for diablerie , for a strange mixture of metaphysics and romance’ .

there are those who think him a minor writer and those who see him as one of the great writers . i agree with the latter , because of the clean , light clarity of his style , but also because of the moral nucleus of all his narratives ] . ( 1 )

while looking for a producing partner that would inspire the language of the film she was planning , fox felt the documentary film work coming out of denmark was closest to her " aspirations for this new language i wanted to work in for flying . " so she partnered with a danish producer , easy film , and together funded the film through a grant from the danish film institute ( similar to the national endowment for the arts in the us ) . as a danish co - production , the key personnel were required to be danish , including the editor . " this meant that the film was an artistic collaboration between an american and danish sensibility , " says fox . she believes the project benefited tremendously from that fusion .

gustav deutsch ' s film ist . a girl and a gun ( 2009 ) , a narrative collage constructed using fragments from several european film archives , as well as the kinsey institute .

‘i have had one great pleasure . i have read stevenson . he is great : a storyteller , a thinker , a realist , a visionary , poet , philosopher , simple and complicated ; he has the grip of a master when he begins and his hold never slackens . he is new , original , but of the type that could just as well have been born 300 years earlier or later .

because “flying” was such a wide open premise about the nature of modern female life around the world , i stole from the danish dogma tradition , the idea of making rules to contain the work and give it structure . my rules were very simple : 1 . the camera must be passed at all times ; 2 . everyone in the room must agree to be on film or leave the room ; 3 . no tripods ; 4 . no lights ; 5 . no radio mics ; mic on camera only ; and 6 . no additional camera people .

aparna mudi of zee news gave the film a rating of 2 . 5 / 5 stars , concluding her review that " the unveiling of the visceral saga has a lot of strong characters and mohit has done a good job in adapting a foreign film and complimenting it with the drama that the indian audience is used to . but he has gone a tad over in making a thriller . maybe , filmmakers should step out of this trap more often and we wouldn ` t be too far from making beacons of world cinema . " [ 29 ] rajeev masand of cnn - ibn stated that " i ' m going with two - and - a - half out of five for ' ek villain ' . if you ' re still wondering , the real villain here is the lousy script " . [ 30 ]

“a writer called mr . robert louis stevenson who makes the most delicate inlay - work in black and white , and files out to the fraction of a hair . ” oscar

48 . fast , cheap , and out of control ( errol morris , 1997 ) . presents the profiles of four men with intense passion for their chosen careers : a robotics scientist , a mole - rat expert , a lion tamer , and a topiary artist . as he did in “first person” and “the fog of war , ” morris used the “interrortron” to film the interviews in the film .

) did not include a section devoted to stevenson ( he was admitted to the eighth edition of 2006 ) .

44 . fear of a black hat ( rusty cundieff , 1994 ) . a mockumentary on the evolution and state of american hip hop music in the spirit of this is spinal tap . rusty cundieff , the director and writer also was the lead actor ( ice cold ) .

as a storyteller there isn’t his equal ; the same thing might almost be said of his essays . while the fascination of his other works is simply irresistible , to me , the most powerful of all is his

38 . man bites dog ( remy belvaux & benoit poelvoorde , 1992 , french title : c’est arrivé près de chez vous ) . a mockumentary that takes a satirical look at how media promotes violence as a documentary crew follows a serial killer on his murderous activities .

direktorenhaus is a newly - renovated art and performance space " where a simulation of a temporary gesamtkunstwerk , the total artwork , is explored . traditional methods are coupled with analogue technology and digital media , presenting an experimental directive with social resonances , breaking down the boundaries between art and design . " it also happens to be located in a super sexy spot , housed in a big mansion that sits directly on the riverbank of the spree .

niederhoff , burkhard ( 2005 ) . “robert louis stevenson’s arrival on the academic scene : a survey of recent studies” .

after the cacophony and chaos of a series of scenes of police brutality – the rioting young people are thrown on the cement , kicked , dragged into a van , truncheoned and bloodied and thrown in a dark cellar with no air to breathe – petru is brought to the major’s office for interrogation , the supposition that if he confesses , he will be sent home . gently stirring his tea ceremonially and speaking to the 22 - year - old in a soft “reasonable” voice , using the diminutive of petru ' s name like a scolding papa , the major quickly begins to splutter and rage , intermittently commanding himself to stay calm . he cannot . he speaks with disdain at the privileged , ignorant boy before him . as he devolves into near parodic rage , things tip over into hysteria when he discovers that petru ' s girlfriend is a puerto rican mulatta . when he interprets that to mean that moldavan women are not good enough for petru , and he has a woman also being held captive brought in for petru to rape , we quickly discern that the young man ' s fate is irrevocably sealed .


the duelist ( russian : дуэлянт ) is a 2016 russian adventure drama film directed by aleksey mizgirev .

the film stars pyotr fyodorov , vladimir mashkov , and sergei garmash .

this is the russian third feature film produced using the imax format .

it was released in russia on september 29 , 2016 in full imax .

an adventure film , with dramatic and thriller elements set against the backdrop of palaces and the noble view of the russian capital , the movie centers on yakovlev , a retired officer , who returns to st. petersburg from a long exile .

while in the city , he fights as a duelist ’s representative .

during nineteenth-century russian duel law allowed for a duelist to be replaced by any one person .

though yakovlev fights for money , he also seeks honor and revenge against those who disgraced him , therein , challenging the russian providence .

the duelist is written & directed by indie russian filmmaker aleksey mizgirev , made by non-stop productions and produced by alexander rodnyansky .

the duelist ( 2016 film )

the duelist ( 2016 film ) <EOT> looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing the duelist ( 2016 ) near you .

will be digitally supersized by imax for a giant screen engagement starting in oct . 2016 .

reviewed at toronto film festival ( special presentations ) , sept . 13 , 2016 . running time : 109 min . ( original language title : " duelyant " )

the genre movie from alexander rodnyansky ' s non - stop productions and director aleksey mizgirev will be digitally supersized by imax for a giant screen engagement starting in oct . 2016 . the duelist marks the third russian - language film to be released on imax screens .

from fox international productions and fox star , this biopic of the eponymous cricket legend became the no . 2 opener of 2016 in

the title character in “the duelist” claims , repeatedly , that he doesn’t much like dueling .

aleksey mizgirev ' s film looks at the life of yakovlev ( pyotr fyodorov ) , a professional duelist in 19th century russia . the film ( shot in imax ) looks great , but the story is convoluted .

eye for detail makes the duelist ' s protagonists just as compelling as their setting .

review : ‘the duelist’ is a good shot . a very good shot . - the new york times

. the $ 8 . 4m launch is the top industry bow of 2016 . play will continue strongly with tomorrow a public holiday . disney strategically slotted

the duelist ' s chinese release is scheduled for 2017 , with a precise date to be determined later .

, senior executive vice president , imax corp . and ceo of imax entertainment . " imax enjoys a strong presence in the russian market and this exciting film will provide russian audiences with one of their most anticipated movies of 2016 . "

a retired officer returns from exile and takes up arms as a duelist ' s representative for hire .

the distributor expects that the film will set a record for the highest - grossing russian movie in china .

guardians , that film being dubbed “russia’s avengers movie , ” isn’t the only genre flick to hail from the country . sony’s international division has released a new english - dubbed trailer for the duelist , a work that garnered some buzz in 2015 after it was announced to be the third russian - language film will be digitally re - mastered for imax in 2016 . the duelist is bound for imax theaters in russia and select international markets later this year , but it remains to be seen whether or not the u . s . will have that privilege . however , genre - lovers can at least get a look at the visually compelling tale about a the vengeful duelist who never loses , thanks to this new trailer .

there are no featured audience reviews yet . click the link below to see what others say about the duelist ( duelyant ) !

“the duelist” is rated r ( under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian ) for violence , nudity and merciless aleutians .

gorgeously empty , the duelist is more interesting as a reflection of the russian sociopolitical climate today than it is as an actual goddamn movie .

the russian pic the duelist , from the studio behind stalingrad and the oscar - nominated leviathan , is to screen on imax screens in russia and select international markets .

china , france and germany are among the few territories not covered by a global distribution deal between the duelist ' s producers and sony pictures .

china’s sea & shell film ltd . has picked up the russian movie duelyant ( the duelist ) for a theatrical release in the world ' s second - largest box - office market and predicted it would become the highest - grossing russian movie in china ever .

despite promising elements of mixed - genre thrills , the film is finally the underwhelming sum of too many plot devices .

one technical note : the film was shot in imax format , meant for a 40 - foot screen .

imax ' s interest in the duelist follows the giant screen exhibitor ' s increasing investment in non - hollywood films , especially local language pics for the chinese market .

for sony , the local - language play this week was russia entry the duelist . from super - producer alexander rodyansky , the period thriller bowed at no . 1 .

in 2016 , the cast of the classic yu - gi - oh ! anime would return once more , in a film called yu - gi - oh ! : the dark side of dimensions . this film follows the events of the anime , with the pharaoh having recovered his memories and finally passing on into the afterlife . kaiba is mad that he never got a chance to defeat the pharaoh in battle , so he wants to rebuild the millennium puzzle , and bring him back for one more card game . . .

in italy , finding dory continued to lead the box office by a considerable margin in the 3rd weekend . to boot , in local currency ( 13 . 3m euros ) , dory is now the no . 1 animated title of 2016 there .

imax ' s interest in ? ? the duelist follows the giant screen exhibitor ' s increasing investment in non - hollywood films , especially local language pics for the chinese market .

that said , the look of the movie is still the most appealing thing about it . whether you watch a film on a giant screen or an iphone , the format doesn’t untangle messy plot threads . “the duelist” looks good no matter how you watch it . just don’t take the story too seriously while you’re watching .

the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .

it ' s an impressionistic film , and most people want what they ' re accustomed to ; movies .

an adventure film , with dramatic and thriller elements set against the backdrop of palaces and the noble view of the russian capital , the duelist centers on yakovlev , a retired officer , who returns to st . petersburg from a long exile . while in the city , he fights as a duelist’s representative . ( nineteenth - century russian duel law allowed for a duelist to be replaced by any one person . ) though yakovlev fights for money , he also seeks honor and revenge against those who disgraced him , therein , challenging the russian providence . yakovlev fearlessly plays with destiny as an example of traditional romantic characters from the russian classics .

an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film , " sorry to bother you . "

the duelist , which had its world premiere at the toronto international film festival earlier this month , opens in russia on sept . 29 . it will also be released in imax theaters in russia , becoming only the third russian movie in that format after stalingrad and this year ' s ekipazh ( crew ) .

" we are sure that this bold and artfully executed picture will allow chinese viewers to enjoy russian culture and feel the touching power of one of the best russian cinema examples , " said cheng yuhai , the founder of sea & shell film . he added that he believes the duelist has the potential to break the record for the highest - grossing russian movie in china .

right , because a lot of people compare the visuals to something you ' d see in a pixar film . that ' s quite the compliment !

fedor bondarchuk ' s stalingrad , the first russian film imax released , went on to become the highest - grossing film of all time in russia and played on imax screens in the u . s . and china . " after the very successful russian release of stalingrad in imax , we are excited to partner again with alexander and our friends at non - stop productions on the duelist , " said greg foster , ceo of imax entertainment , in a statement on wednesday .

a controversial thriller about a hitman forced to undergo gender reassignment surgery has been added to the lineup of next month’s toronto international film festival .

starring : pyotr fyodorov , vladimir mashkov , and yuliya khlynina the duelist official trailer 1 ( 2016 ) - pyotr fyodorov movie set in 19th century imperial russia , the story revolves around a retired army veteran who makes a good living by settling duels for aristocrats , a common practice of the era . shot in imax . cast petr fedorov , vladimir mashkov , martin wuttke , julia khlynina , yuri kolokolnikov director alexey mizgirev subscribe to indie & film festivals : urltoken subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken we ' re on snapchat : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken follow us on twitter : urltoken you ' re quite the artsy one , aren ' t you ? fandango movieclips film festivals & indie trailers is the destination for . . . well , all things related to film festivals & indie films . if you want to keep up with the latest festival news , art house openings , indie movie content , film reviews , and so much more , then you have found the right channel .

m . c . escher’s brain - bending paintings are a natural port of call for visual designers , and have cropped up in endless tv shows and games . on film his often - surreal inversions of natural laws have been more difficult to use , and aside from a memorable tip of the hat in labyrinth , inception is the film that’s made best use of them . in retrospect , of course a film set “within the architecture of the mind” would reference escher , since his etchings are dream architecture brought to life and given that they can support the film’s twisting perspectives and competing gravity wells .

but here ' s the thing : financial success of a film gives all the people who entertained me a better chance to win some money back for all the effort they spent on the endeavour . it also allows a better chance , for example , for that director to get his / her next film financed more quickly .

the look of the movie is still the most appealing thing about it . whether you watch a film on a giant screen or an iphone , the format doesn ' t untangle messy plot threads .

" the ballad of narayama " is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…

( re ) assignment , formerly known as tomboy , a revenger’s tale , stars michelle rodriguez as a male assassin who undergoes a transition against his will at the hands of a rogue surgeon , played by sigourney weaver . the film , which is directed by the warriors’ walter hill , was criticised last year by the lgbt group glaad , which called the premise “sensationalistic” and said the film undermined the progress of transgender rights . the film festival’s press release makes no mention of the transgender theme , describing the story as “a trail of self - discovery and redemption against a criminal mastermind opponent” .

much like the pokémon movies before it , the first yu - gi - oh ! film gave away trading cards with each showing . you would receive one of four random cards for each ticket you bought to see the film . the four cards were pyramid of light , sorcerer of dark magic , watapon , and blue - eyes shining dragon .

went on to become the highest - grossing film of all time in russia and played on imax screens in the u . s . and china . " after the very successful russian release of

from a long exile . while in the city , he fights as a duelist ' s representative . ( nineteenth - century russian duel law allowed for a duelist to be replaced by any one person . ) though yakovlev fights for money , he also seeks honor and revenge against those who disgraced him , therein , challenging the russian providence . yakovlev fearlessly plays with destiny as an example of traditional romantic characters from the russian classics .

globally . directed by guo jingming , the live - action / cgi fantasy was the no . 2 film in china this weekend where it booked over 35 % of available screenings . we do not have a confirmed figure out of china , although local reports put it at about $ 29m . of that , 325 imax plays were worth $ 2 . 3m in the middle kingdom where 15 of the film’s top 20 runs were imax . the film will continue to benefit from the national day golden week holiday there . lionsgate is reporting

two of the recurring villains from the duelist kingdom arc in yu - gi - oh ! were pegasus and bandit keith . pegasus forced yugi to enter his duel monsters tournament by stealing the soul of his grandfather . he also stole the souls of both mokuba and seto kaiba . this was all part of his plan for resurrecting his dead wife . bandit keith was the best duel monsters player in america . he was embarrassed by pegasus at a tournament , and he came to the duelist kingdom to seek revenge .

sushant singh rajput , kiara advani and anupam kher star in the biopic whose trailer generated some 22m views . the film was released in hindi , tamil , telugu , and marathi versions .

no sure shot : ' the duelist ' is a good - looking mess if you can keep up with the increasingly convoluted story , that ' s a plus , but mostly it ' s worth watching for the visuals . check out this story on urltoken urltoken

in india and the uk , fox international productions and fox star , released cricketer biopic m . s . dhoni : the untold story , batting $ 14 . 5m . the india bow is particularly remarkable as the second biggest opening of 2016 — after salman khan’s recent smash sultan . rather than rely on marquee name bollywood stars , m . s . dhoni ‘s key attraction is its legendary subject .

insomniac games ' staff has likely been living up to its name more than usual over the past month . with the announcement of two new titles for the oculus rift and release of the game and film of ratchet & clank , the veteran developer has been burning the midnight oil to say the least . therefore , it ' s no wonder that it should take some respite from the daily grind and mingle with fans , and that ' s exactly what the north carolina division of the studio did on the opening night for its film .

mizgirev ' s script is an indigestible , soap - operatic mess of backstories , clichés , and the kind of ambiguous mystic overtones that have become an unbreakable addiction for russian film .

i still believe inherent vice is misunderstood . i have film friends whose opinions i respect that hate the film . i guess when you are an auteur like pta an 8 million return on a 20 million budget won ' t hurt your future projects too much . the man translated a thomas pynchon novel to the screen and nobody was interested in seeing how he did it . plus , the soundtrack is amazing . 20th century women is my runner up . that was my favorite film from last year and completely accessible to a wide audience . should have been a huge hit .

also appearing at the festival is brain on fire , director gerard barrett’s film about a new york post journalist ( chloë grace moretz ) who experienced seizures , hallucinations and violent outbursts . meanwhile , in the exception offers mind games with higher stakes as rival agents wrestle over the fate of the abdicated german kaiser ( christopher plummer ) in the middle of the second world war . it also stars lily james , jai courtney and janet mcteer , and is the feature - film debut of the theatre director david leveaux .

stalingrad , from director fedor bondarchuk , was the first russian - language film to get its imax release , and it’s also a product of non - stop productions . the other one is more known in the mainstream thanks to its oscar nomination , the leviathan .

what we now know as the yu - gi - oh ! card game did not appear until later episodes , where it was called magic and wizards , and was in a much more primitive form . the anime followed the story of the original manga , with the much darker version of the pharaoh ( and his murderous antics ) . early versions of characters like kaiba and bakura also appeared in this series . this season of the anime had its own film , called yu - gi - oh ! the movie . the character designs in the film more closely resembled the ones seen later in the duel monsters version of the anime .

the imax® release of the duelist will be digitally re - mastered into the image and sound quality of the imax experience® with proprietary imax dmr® ( digital re - mastering ) technology . the crystal - clear images , coupled with imax ' s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio , create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie .

a tale of honor , revenge and violence in czarist russia , the imax - shot “the duelist” is a spectacular , impressively realized period drama that’s notable not only for the talents of writer - director aleksey mizgirev but also the sponsorship of producer alexander rodnyansky . the latter may be the most ambitious and savvy of current russian producers , having shepherded andrey zvyagintsev ’s “ leviathan ” to international success and an oscar nomination two years ago . with “the duelist , ” rodnyansky is taking a more commercial turn , one that depends less on art - house refinements than on plush production values , action - movie tropes and a couple of stellar lead performances .

the film’s leads are also major assets . both are stars in russia and look like they have considerable international potential . with the smoldering dark looks of the young mel gibson or colin farrell , fyodorov could well have a future as a cosmopolitan romantic lead or marvel superhero . and mashkov , who’s already appeared in “mission impossible – ghost protocol , ” would be a great candidate if james bond needs any more russian villains . with these stars and its other strengths , “the duelist” is a welcome indication of the current russian cinema’s commercial ambitions and potential .

it’s a pity that certain epochs tend to get relegated to polite , slightly stuffy “masterpiece theater” terrain in screen translation . but if the alternative is something as strained as “the duelist” — which tries to impose megaplex macho - action spectacle on the upper echelons of 19th - century czarist russian society — then sticking to the status quo [ … ]

it ' s not entirely forgettable , yet in our current world where even big stars don ' t sell movie tickets , the duel had to have something more in order to really be successful . the film is an unfortunate misfire .

so i dislike seeing a personal favorite underperforming at the box office , it sucks . which brings me to my question of the week : which film , in your opinion , should have become a far bigger hit than it did ?

of course films are works of art , rather than contestants in a running match . if i got to see a film and loved it , what should i care about its success with the masses , right ?

it’s interesting to contemplate the film’s appeal to contemporary russian audiences since it leapfrogs over the communist era to evoke a time when the country was ruled by a proud and wealthy aristocracy . distinctions of class , in fact , are paramount in this tale , which is solely concerned with the prerogatives of the nobility .

we took a look at the film script in its earliest stage and we outlined what we needed to do to hit the major story beats for ratchet & clank . the film tells a version of the origin story that ' s streamlined and cleaned up relative to the original game . the basics are all there but it rambles a bit , almost like we made it up as we went along . . . which we kind of did . so now we ' re able to look at it with the benefit of everything we ' ve learned over the years , and craft a much sturdier beginning for the series .

mahendra singh dhoni is one of the highest paid athletes in the world and a gentleman cricketer who was captain of india’s team , leading it to world cup victory in 2011 . the film , directed by neeraj pandey , recounts his life story from the dusty roads of his origins in ranchi to the sacred grounds of the wankhede stadium in mumbai .

the duelist is written and directed by indie filmmaker alexey mizgirev , is produced by alexander rodnyansky , and boasts a cast that includes pyotr fyodorov ( stalingrad ) , vladimir mashkov ( mission : impossible – ghost protocol ) , yuri kolokolnikov ( game of thrones ) , and martin wuttke ( inglorious basterds ) .

unlike christophe gans’ 18th century martial - arts - horror hybrid the brotherhood of the wolf , which similarly tried to sex up an era usually reserved for middlebrow costume dramas , the duelist refuses to acknowledge fun . it is humorless and portentous . but can something so overwrought , so far off the deep end of macho fantasy really be called boring ? bringing to mind an imperfect clone of colin farrell cruelly robbed of the ability to smile , fyodorov glowers , broods , and furrows his thick eyebrows through every scene . duels staged behind paper screens , unfeasible secret conspiracies and identities , con games based on aristocratic honor—it’s the duelist ’s inability to recognize its own ludicrousness that makes it , in spots , delectable as camp .

– that have been explicitly framed as film noir or east asian noir , or that acquire legibility as noir texts through reception discourse and other critical activity . contributors look at historical and contemporary cases to understand the terms on which national , regional and transnational cinemas conceive artistic expression . their conceptualization and articulation of an internationally situated ‘east asian film noir’ helps raise questions around the politics of representation , authorial activity , generic and modal positioning and local and cross - cultural reception .

it’s a pity that certain epochs tend to get relegated to polite , slightly stuffy “masterpiece theater” terrain in screen translation . but if the alternative is something as strained as “the duelist” — which tries to impose megaplex macho - action spectacle on the upper echelons of 19th - century czarist russian society — then sticking to the status quo will do just fine , thanks . this ludicrous costume shoot - ’em - up only inflates its whopping clichés and anachronisms by placing them in the incongruously deployed imax format . despite the alluring novelty of watching a costume narrative in that supersized mode , alexey mizgirev ’s film is unlikely to find much welcome beyond former soviet territories .

aleksey mizgirev’s film is set in 19th century russia , a time in which , we learn , duels among noblemen were frequent . and if you didn’t want to fight the duel yourself , you could get someone to do it for you .

the major markets to open were the uk , russia and mexico . while the

mizgirev orchestrates all this with steady skills in handling small moments as well as the huge canvas that an obviously ample budget has allowed him . cinematographer maksim osadchiy favors crisp , dark images that bring out expanse of luxury and squalor in andrey ponkratov’s superlative production design ; by any measure , “the duelist” offers the most sumptuous evocation of czarist russia seen in any recent movie .

really hits the ground running . the time is 1860 , and the location is st . petersburg , where young nobleman , yakovlev ( pyotr fodorov ) is a relentless and evidently professional duelist . yakovlev has a fearsome reputation as a “death machine” , notwithstanding the fact that he claims to detest duelling . his opposite number is count graf beklemishev ( vladimir mashkov ) , an apparent cad whom we’re not supposed to like .

it was really cool and collaborative . we didn ' t know at first what we were getting ourselves into . syncing up the game with the feature film brought a lot of variables that we don ' t usually have , but thankfully it turned out to be a breath of fresh air . the animation teams were very willing to cooperate . they consulted with us about a whole lot of decisions because longtime series writer tj fixman co - wrote the film script , so we had a lot of different connecting points . and the animation director for the movie is oliver wade , who is a former insomniac and good friend .

despite all of the new series , cards , and characters , there are fans who long for the days of yugi and his friends . it is because of this nostalgia that a 2010 movie called yu - gi - oh ! : bonds beyond time was released . the film unites the protagonists of the first three yu - gi - oh ! seasons , through the aid of a time - travelling villain .

so when we finished the game we ended up with all - new bosses , a bunch of new planets , a new weapon arsenal , new clank gameplay , new ship combat – not to mention the completely reworked visuals and an hour plus of new cinematics . it felt like we needed to get back to the core and soul of ratchet & clank and redefine it for the ps4 and 2016 . at this point we feel like we have a sturdy foundation to work from . maybe it goes forward from here , but we don ' t know yet ! we ' re still basking in the warm reception to this one .

in 2016 , microsoft released a development kit for a product called the hololens . it is similar to a vr headset in appearance , except that it has a clear visor over the eyes . its purpose is to show high quality augmented reality images , so that they appear to exist in real life . fans have been working on creating a yu - gi - oh ! game using the hololens , which displays images of the cards and monsters in a way that makes them look real . while still early in development , the dream of one day being able to play yu - gi - oh ! like they did on the show may become a reality .

and . . . well , when i love a film i just want as many people as possible to go see it . it ' s one of the most important reasons for me why i write on this site , and why i write so many positive reviews ( if i dislike a film , it must be really very newsworthy before i start to write about it ) . for some of my most beloved films i ' ve even secretly bought a second copy just to lend out to people .

the film on this list with the deepest roots in art history is , perhaps surprisingly , alien . you already knew that h . r . giger designed the xenomorph , based on his own nightmarish and surrealistic work . but what you may not have known is that he was inspired by francis bacon’s melty - faced study of pope innocent x , itself based on the portrait of that pontiff by spanish master diego velázquez . so the genesis of this film sees two of the 20th century’s masters and one 17th century legend conspire to bring us an acid - blooded nightmare monster . in any battle between alien and predator , therefore , alien should rest assured of the full support of the art community – although it boggles the mind to imagine what velázquez would have made of the creation .

yu - gi - oh ! the movie : pyramid of light was actually the second yu - gi - oh ! film . there had been an earlier movie based on season zero of the anime that was only released in japan . pyramid of light was about the resurrection of anubis , the egyptian lord of the dead . as with all yu - gi - oh ! villains , he only wanted to beat the main characters in a card game .

by the time the next season of the anime was released ( the one that was released in america ) , the duel monsters card game had been fleshed out . it became the central focus of the story , and was entwined with the story of the millennium items .

after losing to joey wheeler , bandit keith threatened pegasus , and is dropped through a trapdoor , which slid him straight out of the duelist kingdom . he would later show up under the control of marik , during the battle city arc . after being beaten by yugi , pegasus had his millennium eye stolen by bakura . he later became a recurring character in several of the movies , filler seasons , and yu - gi - oh ! gx .

update , writethru : the international box office got a boost this weekend , jumping 110 % from last frame across the top 10 titles , and dipping just 6 % versus the similar session last year . there were two major overseas openings for hollywood , with a raft of hot local movies in the mix around the globe — many with savvy studio participation . there are also a series of key milestones as finding dory finally splashed into germany and set a new bar for 2016 as well as crossing $ 500m internationally — putting the $ 1b worldwide mark within fin’s reach . and , there are no growing pains for bridget jones’s baby with a 3rd straight no . 1 in the uk as it cozies up to $ 100m overseas .

holdovers / expansions bridget jones’s baby universal , miramax and studiocanal’s presentation of this working title production is growing up nicely . with a $ 19m 3rd frame , renee zellweger and co have cumed $ 99 . 9m overseas for $ 120 . 9m in the worldwide buggy . by the time it reaches term , bridget should be looking at around $ 200m global — a nice bundle for a film that stumbled in the u . s . it’s getting a lot of mileage out of the uk where it is the no . 1 film for a third week in a row with a fantastic $ 6 . 7m frame and a 17 - day total of $ 41 . 1m .

. in the former , a 1m swiss franc bow is the biggest ever in the region .

american 20th century artist edward hopper’s paintings have an empty , desolate quality that fitted the isolated motel of psycho rather well . this particular 1925 painting , of a gothic farmhouse on a lonely plain , informed the look of the bates house in some detail , with the steps up the hill from the motel even offering a visual nod to the railroad of the painting . hopper was a keen fan of cinema and was apparently delighted that his painting had contributed to the film . hollywood has generally repaid the compliment , with this painting in particular also a huge influence on terrence malick’s days of heaven and a clear model for the homestead there .

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this is the first of several duels we see the film’s protagonist fight , and it’s soon clear that he’s at once skilled , shrewd and lucky . his intrepid and very illegal business is conducted with the help of a partner , baron staroe ( martin wuttke ) , who arranges yakovlev’s assignments . ( this character and one or two others speak german throughout the film , for reasons that one assumes are mainly commercial . ) and behind staroe , there’s the shadowy figure of count beklemishev ( vladimir mashkov ) , who has secretly masterminded yakovlev’s recent career while also attempting to woo wealthy princess martha tuchkova ( yuliya khlynina ) , whose younger brother prince tuchkov ( pavel tabakov ) is soon to face yakovlev in a duel .

really ? well there is a little badass film called dredd . . . . don ' t know if anyone out there has heard of it . . . it ' s just . . . . you know . . . . one of the unapologetic badass comic book films that also gets everything right .

it’s hard not to imagine “the duelist” as vladimir putin’s fantasy of imperial russia , in which men endlessly talk about honor while staring daggers and aiming firearms at each other , and where there’s nothing at all gay about a hero spending so much time impressively shirtless . naturally , women both virginally blonde and strumpetly red - headed tremble with yearning at the proximity of such masculine magnificence , resulting in the film’s single most howl - inducing setpiece : when not long after telling our protagonist “i hate you ! ” princess martha naturally finds herself boinking him . what’s more , she does it naked , in a carriage with big exposing windows , in the middle of a busy daytime city street . how did such episodes not manage to find their way into the pages of dostoevsky and tolstoy ? perhaps only because the latter lacked inspirational access to “emmanuelle” movies , not to mention the michael bay oeuvre .

the duelist , by russian director alexey mizgirev , is about a st petersburg gun - for - hire who takes on other people’s fights , while rage , directed by sang - il lee , is a grisly three - part thriller that hops between japanese cities and stars ken watanabe . the long excuse , also set in japan , is a comedy - drama about a man ( masahiro motoki ) who offers to care for the children of another man who is widowed by the same crash that killed his own wife .

while sporadically impressive as spectacle , particularly given its imax boost , “the duelist” often plays fast and loose with period accuracy , not just in terms of character behavior but in details of costume and production design . it is unclear whether this is because the filmmakers simply don’t care , or are going for any effect that might appeal to a modern action audience . ( for instance , yakovlev’s customary black - tunic garb makes it look like he just stepped out of “the matrix . ” )

i don ' t have any crazy hollywood stories about that or anything . we get together because we love making games ; we ' re a studio of people who are big fans of science fiction : star wars , back to the future , ghostbusters . we love brainstorming for games like this . we participated in weekly reviews , but were pretty insulated from day - to - day film production . developing the game was hard , just like it always is . we had the challenge of figuring out how to structure it , how to make it amazing with the limited time we had , just like always . we faced some new challenges in working out the macro around the film story , but that was no easier or more difficult than it ever is . just different .

last years the nice guys , i really don ' t get what is not to like about that film , great throwback feel to all those pulpy / sleezy films of the 70 ' s / 80 ' s . such a shame that it didn ' t catch on , seems like everyone i have talked to that did see it really enjoyed it .

if this plot’s tangle of euro - russian relations , financial debts , and fates is supposed to be a metaphor , it hasn’t been thought through . but mizgirev , who is best known for bleak exercises like tambourine , drum and the convoy , has somehow figured out how to make a visually incoherent movie without resorting to quick cuts . the duelist is being distributed in imax , and its aesthetic is all oomph : inertly acted , bombastically scored , and filmed from low and canted angles on sets so cavernous and so lavished with decay and water damage that much of the action appears to take place underground . that a movie called the duelist can’t get two shots of men pointing flintlock pistols at each other to match appears to be a secondary concern ; mizgirev is more interested in his collection of fetish - wear - esque period costumes , rain machines , crumbling textures , gruesome injuries , and self - loathing sex scenes .

so why watch ? because it’s so ridiculously overstuffed it’s kind of fun . that extends to , or perhaps begins with , the look of the film . it’s rich , overripe , yet still kind of seedy . lots of peeling paint and rain , rain , rain . the views of russia are fascinating , though the thought of living in such a place at such a time is not exactly appealing , unless you were a good shot .

if you were to suspect that yakovlev has big secrets in his past , that he and beklemishev have a history , and that the puppet master and the puppet will eventually face each other on the dueling floor—you would of course be correct . “the duelist” is , quite appropriately , one of those movies that resembles a russian doll : there are machinations within machinations , plots within plots , secret agendas within secret agendas . though the narrative conceits can sometimes begin to feel overly ornate , they generally adduce the kinds of pleasures such storytelling at its best entails , and occasionally touch on some genuine profundities of character and destiny .

we started with the main film locations : ratchet ' s home on veldin , aleero city on planet kerwan , drek ' s warbot factory on quartu , and drek and nefarious ' deplanetizer space station . some of these had a basis in the original game , but some we constructed from scratch . then we chose planets from the original game to push the action between the major story scenes . we tied it all together with the progression scheme of weapon levelling that we ' ve evolved over the years . at the end of it , we have in - game progression tied to the clarity of ratchet and clank ' s new story .

i ' m worried that his next one - annihilation - is going to tank . having read the book ( which i loved ) , it doesn ' t feel like it ' s going to have a very broad appeal to mainstream audiences . not that ex machina did either , but i ' m thinking that annihilation is a bigger budget film .

this was a very " feel - good " production in a lot of ways that led to all kinds of things like sharing models . we ' d send a model from one of the playstation 3 games to rainmaker , and they would up - res it , get it ready for the big screen , and send it back to us for the game . then we ' d change the shaders to get it ready for our proprietary engines . a lot of times the model that we see in the film is exactly the same as the model that ' s in the game . this is the first hardware generation where that sort of thing is possible . it speaks to how closely interwoven these two projects are .

in 52 markets — the uk , russia and mexico being the key plays .

the duellists - - the insult . harvey keitel keith carradine early and excellent roles

slifer the sky dragon entered the possession of yugi moto , who used it the during the final tournament of battle city . in the original japanese language version of the game , slifer was called osiris . the reason for this change is because he was named after roger slifer , one of the employees at 4kids entertainment , who worked on the english dub of the yu - gi - oh ! anime .

sofia coppola’s punk biopic of the doomed french queen may have included some distinctly anachronistic pairs of converse and manolo blahnik shoes , but she also took inspiration from the court portraits of the queen painted by rococo artist louise élisabeth vigée le brun . yes , a woman ! overcoming the sexism of the time in part thanks to family connections and also thanks to talent , the artist left more than 30 portraits of the queen and her family , and went on to travel around europe and paint russian royalty after the french revolution made her native land a less - than - hospitable place for a court painter . vigée le brun’s sugary palette and pastel colours are clearly visible in the film , and a scene showing a woman painting the queen is even included in the final cut .

film noir has been understood as a genre exclusive to hollywood . but classical us noir’s downbeat sensibility also finds expression in later films from japan , south korea and greater china ( including hong kong ) and taiwan that have both participated in and been excluded from circuits of global - noir traffic , past and present . noir is a form of generic expression , an international filmic sensibility and a discourse loosely joining innumerable texts and a range of production and reception phenomena . however defined and categorized , the genre offers a compelling frame through which to view individual works , looming political and cultural contexts , film industry and reception activity , and wider circuits and frictions of global screen - media flow . this anthology looks at a range of east asian films from the 1950s to the present – including

a bit of a cheat considering that this 1956 melodrama is a formal biopic of van gogh , but the great dutchman’s work also inspired the look of vincent minnelli’s film and warrants a place on the list . for one thing , minnelli deepened the yellows of his fields to match the artist’s palette using that friend of the auteur , spray paint ; for another , there’re plenty of scenes in which kirk douglas portrays the anguished van gogh at work , not least in painting his last great work , the brooding , menacing wheatfield with crows . anthony quinn steals the show with an oscar - winning turn as tough - guy ladies’ man paul gauguin , but only because there’s no award for best supporting landscape .

the film does what films do best , and that ' s follow the arcs of the main characters . there are more characters and time spent establishing character traits and connections as emotional content . for the game , we have some of that , but we ' re also filling in the gaps between major sequences with game mechanics and game pacing . we focus on what feels fun to do for 15 minutes at a time while doing things like upgrading ratchet ' s weapon arsenal throughout the game . i see it as each of these media doing the thing they ' re really good at , each tackling the same subject matter in a way that plays to their unique strengths .

the duel is an entertaining period film about keeping law in the old west . when a mexican general ' s nephew is found murdered in the rio grande river texas ranger david kingston is tasked with going undercover to investigate a known vigilante called the preacher . woody harrelson , liam hemsworth , and alice braga lead the cast and deliver solid performances . and the director does an impressive job at setting an authentic tone , and at creating tension and suspense . but the storytelling is rather weak and can drag at times . also , there ' s a little too much ambiguity to some of the character subplot . it can be a little slow and listless at times , but overall the duel is an interesting character drama .

the physical world of the movie teems with diverting period detail , which , along with the always interesting looking and sometimes very attractive members of the cast , are well shot by the cinematographer maksim osadchiy . not well enough to redeem the movie , however .

the game is told from qwark ' s point of view . it matches the film story , but qwark adds commentary and it ' s his version of events to a certain extent . at the same time , we think that the main story beats are there ; the big tentpoles – like ratchet ' s origin as a lombax orphan , clank ' s origin as a factory defect – are still there , and none of it invalidates later games . we didn ' t set out to rework the canon . in other words , the future series is still canon with everything else subsequently assuming part of the canon as well . the new game is just more of a cleaner retelling of sorts . don ' t freak out !

how smooth was the process of working with rainmaker and blockade entertainment on bringing this beloved video game series to the big screen while making the game based on the movie . . . er , based on the game ?

chad dezern : sure , well , we know we have the feature film coming out , and to us that represented a golden opportunity to tell the ultimate version of ratchet and clank ' s origins story . we knew we wanted to make the game on playstation 4 and hit a visual bar that ' s a lot higher than anything we ' ve been able to achieve before on previous platforms , but at the same time we never wanted to make just a " remaster " . we knew from day one that we wanted to effectively make a new game that was built on top of the foundation of the old game .

among those , we learn as the film begins , are the rules governing dueling , the standard means for an offended noble to defend his honor . the code lays down an intricate array of rituals and restrictions , but allows that one party may sometimes be replaced by another nobleman . thus do we enter the story of one yakovlev ( pyotr fyodorov ) , a professional duel fighter . when we first see him , yakovlev is facing off against another man in an elegant room , accompanied by their seconds and those conducting the duel . yakovlev apparently has nerves of steel : after the two men choose pistols , he offers his temple to his opponent . the man pulls the trigger and his gun doesn’t fire . yakovlev then raises his pistol to the man’s forehead , fires and puts a bullet through his head .

the battle city arc of yu - gi - oh ! introduced a new set of cards that had the potential to bring about the end of the world . they were called the " egyptian god cards " in the english dub , and the three of them were said to be overwhelmingly powerful . the three egyptian gods were called obelisk the tormentor , the winged dragon of ra , and slifer the sky dragon . these cards required three sacrifices in order to be summoned , and each of them had unique abilities that could swing the match in favour of the player who summoned them .

the four cards that were given away at showings of the movie are actually part of the plot . both yugi and kaiba used these cards in battle . the blue - eyes shining dragon was meant to be the most powerful variant of the blue - eyes type monsters .

while the finished film moved in a slightly edgier direction ( pictoral references on the walls of the production office included the princess bride ) , the original look for disney’s take on the rapunzel story was built around this painting by french painter jean - honoré fragonard . known for his hedonistic themes and chocolate - box cuteness , fragonard flourished in pre - revolutionary france but was all but forgotten for the century that followed the terror . it turns out paintings of flowers are instruments of aristocratic oppression , innit . still , that didn’t stop disney and its animators using this painting , in particular , to build their rapunzel story around . the only real difference is that they replaced the swing with some really , really long hair , and dressed their leading man in rather less girly clothing than was popular in france ' s ancien regime .