Features
New beginning for the master of reinvention
As Leonardo DiCaprio makes his sci-fi debut, the one-time heart-throb tells Lesley O'Toole why he's happy in darker roles
Inside Features
Star Wars - When the fans hit the Sith
Friday, 9 July 2010
In a new documentary, George Lucas is accused of ruining his Star Wars franchise with poor prequels and gratuitously tweaked reissues. James Mottram reports
Indy Choice: Best of the new films
Friday, 9 July 2010
Whether you want to take a trip to the cinema or save those pennies and stay at home with a DVD, here's a selection of the best films for you to watch this weekend.
Jeanloup Sieff's iconic images go under the hammer
Friday, 9 July 2010
A collection of work by iconic fashion photographer Jeanloup Sieff, including a photograph of Alfred Hitchcock posing as a zombie with model Ina Balke during filming for 'Psycho', is due to go under the hammer at Christie's Paris auction house today.
Screen Talk - Enemy agent
Friday, 9 July 2010
Following the death of Hollywood uber-agent Ed Limato a few days ago, the usual platitudes rolled in. But so did a slew of rather less kindly views on the 73-year-old agent's career, whose client roster has boasted some of the highest- profile actors in the business, including Richard Gere, Denzel Washington, Steve Martin and Mel Gibson.
Need a blockbuster on the cheap? Time to call in Robert Rodriguez
Friday, 9 July 2010
How much should a summer action movie cost? Lately, with the advent of 3D, and the ongoing love affair between studio execs and special effects, the figure has crept upwards. About $120m is the going rate. Sometimes two or three times that. Director Sam Raimi recently quit Spider-Man 4 after Sony cut his budget from $300m (£197m) to a mere $230m.
The Diary: Serpentine Gallery Summer Party; Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me; Jojo Moyes; Billy Collins; La Divina
Friday, 9 July 2010
Pixar: Small wonders
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Each of Pixar's blockbusters has come with a short film. Day & Night, which accompanies Toy Story 3, is the most extraordinary yet, says Guy Adams
Isabelle Huppert: 'I don't have a reputation for being difficult'
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Isabelle Huppert, that quintessentially French actress, is renowned for her sang-froid in front of the camera – and her refusal to talk about her life or art away from it. So it is with some excitement that we can report here her exclusive revelation of a most unexpected personal preference
Taking on powerful roles on screen: To play the king
Sunday, 4 July 2010
With news that Meryl Streep may portray the Iron Lady, Pavan Amara looks at actors with big political roles.
When the critics run out of insults
Saturday, 3 July 2010
M Night Shyamalan's new film has been hammered by the critics this week, but how does it compare with cinema's all-time turkeys? Arifa Akbar selects her top 10 worst-reviewed movies of all time
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Cinema Guide
Night out, a date, or city break, plan things to do and tell your friends.
Most popular in Arts & Entertainment
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2 Beryl Bainbridge on the art of facing death
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The Tempest, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford,
Henry VI, Parts 1-3, Courtyard, Stratford
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FIVE BEST FILMS
Shrek Forever After
(U, Mike Mitchell, 93mins)
The third and by far the best of the Shrek sequels to the irreverent, Disney-mockingdeconstructs the biggest fairy-tale myth of all – the one about living happily ever after. Married with three young children, Shrek is finding that domesticity ill-suited to an ogre’s nature. Unfortunately, His disillusionment leaves him vulnerable to the treacherous Rumpelstiltskin, with whom he makes a Faustian pact. Basically, it’s a surprisingly moving reworking of It’s a Wonderful Life, with better throwaway gags and extra musical numbers.
Nationwide
Went the Day Well? (PG, Alberto Cavalcanti, 92mins)
This 1942 Ealing thriller is one of the most remarkable slices of wartime propaganda ever filmed. Based on a story by Graham Greene, it tells the story of a unit of German parachutists who, disguised as British soldiers, infiltrate a quiet English village in preparation for a full-scale Nazi invasion. Its very oddness is magnificent, as though ‘Dad’s Army’ had suddenly morphed into a guerilla conflict of kill-or-be-killed.
Limited release
Leaving
(15, Catherine Corsini, 86mins)
Kristin Scott Thomas’s tour-de-force performance, as a woman who abandons her bourgeois family life for a passionate love affair with an immigrant builder, gives what might otherwise seem an over-familiar melodrama real heft and emotional intensity.
Limited release
Please Give
(15, Nicole Holofcener, 90 mins)
In Nicole Holofcener’s latest and best film, Catherine Keener plays Kate, a well-to-do New Yorker who worries herself to distraction about society’s unfortunates and expresses it in compulsive handouts to to street people. Holofcener depends on the lure of character and feeling to keep her audience involved, and her writing is so incisive that it’s no hardship to submit.
Nationwide
Ajami
(15, Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, 125 mins)
Set in the titular neighbourhood of Jaffa, in Israel, this riveting drama examines the violence and tension crackling through the city’s uneasy mix of Arabs, Jews and Christians. It’s harrowing at times, yet compassionate and clear-sighted, a double vision that feels even more plausible once you know that its directors are an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian.
Limited release