http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/gothic-shocker-lars-von-trier-is-up-to-his-old-tricks-1739904.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/gothic-shocker-lars-von-trier-is-up-to-his-old-tricks-1739904.html ]]> <p> A colleague of mine is convinced that Lars von Trier makes films for one reason alone: to antagonise critics. This would be a reckless and expensive hobby. But if it were true, and if the Danish director truly is the arch-manipulator he's widely considered, then critics are always liable to fall into his trap. Damn a Von Trier film to hell, and you give him what he wants; rave about it, and he's also won. The only appropriate response, my friend argues, is to wax lukewarm, to award a cautious three out of five each time. But while you might regard the devious Dane's films as masterpieces or monstrosities, no one ever seriously considered a Von Trier film merely not bad.</p> Features Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/party-of-the-week-raindrops-and-broomsticks-1739636.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/party-of-the-week-raindrops-and-broomsticks-1739636.html ]]> <p> Umbrellas were the fashion accessory of choice at the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in London this week. </p> Features Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/meet-the-squeaky-clean-movie-teens-1739712.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/meet-the-squeaky-clean-movie-teens-1739712.html ]]> <p>I don't drink, I've never smoked a cigarette in my life and I don't take drugs. I tried a drink a few years ago but it just wasn't my thing so I simply stopped. I prefer to go out clubbing without having a drink," says Harry Potter newcomer, Freddie Stroma, 22, matter-of-factly over salad at the sedate Mulholland Tennis Club in Los Angeles.</p> Features Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ryan-reynolds--canadian-beatific-1739720.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ryan-reynolds--canadian-beatific-1739720.html ]]> <p>Sandra Bullock knows exactly who to thank for the most successful American opening of any of her films ever ($33m plus). Women of most ages are lapping up The Proposal, in which Bullock's Devil Wears Prada-esque Canadian boss dupes her American assistant into marriage to avoid deportation. It's not that they don't still appreciate the slightly daffy Bullock, but they seem to like her assistant, played by the 32-year-old, effortlessly winning, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds even more.</p> Features Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/live-fast-act-young-the-stars-who-dont-act-their-age-1737709.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/live-fast-act-young-the-stars-who-dont-act-their-age-1737709.html ]]> <p> Childhood has always been a negotiable concept for Hollywood marketing chiefs. </p> Features Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:46 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/sodankyla-films-where-the-sun-never-sets-1736015.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/sodankyla-films-where-the-sun-never-sets-1736015.html ]]> <p>In faraway Finnish Lapland, around 120km from Rovaniemi (the official residence of Santa Claus), and above the Arctic Circle, sits the village of Sodankyla. It is not an especially prepossessing place. It's here that 24 years ago, the Midnight Sun Film Festival was set up. The name refers to the fact that in June, it never gets dark. Even at midnight, the skies have the greyish pallor of an English winter afternoon.</p> Features Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-ten-best-bollywood-movies-1734047.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-ten-best-bollywood-movies-1734047.html ]]> <p> I love Bollywood. I remember being twelve, standing in front of the mirror, physically dressing up in a Shalwar Kameez, lip synching to a song picturised on Shahrukh Khan and dreaming of becoming a Bollywood star. </p> <p></p> Features Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:27:34 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/credo-ron-jeremy-porn-star-56-1727729.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/credo-ron-jeremy-porn-star-56-1727729.html ]]> Features Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/cad-files-sam-west-turns-supervillain-in-a-new-play-about-the-collapse-of-energy-titan-enron-1727749.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/cad-files-sam-west-turns-supervillain-in-a-new-play-about-the-collapse-of-energy-titan-enron-1727749.html ]]> <p> What must it be like to have achieved all one's ambitions? Sam West has just turned 43 and discovered he has done everything he thought he had wanted: "I've played Hamlet, been in Doctor Who and read the shipping forecast. I'm having to draw up a new list." Luckily, there is plenty he still wants to do (including the shipping forecast on Radio 4 proper, as his first go was only in a play).</p> Features Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/closeup-teddy-nygh-1729193.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/closeup-teddy-nygh-1729193.html ]]> <p>The youth of today: hoodied thugs standing threateningly on street corners... and making rhymes. Which is exactly the urban sub-culture of poetry and beats that first-time film-maker and hip-hop artist Teddy Nygh has spent the past three years documenting in Britain and further afield.</p> Features Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/whatever-happened-to-the-great-american-film-director-1728883.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/whatever-happened-to-the-great-american-film-director-1728883.html ]]> <p>This summer, among all the anonymous blockbusters, remakes and sequels filling the multiplexes, only one American movie will open on the strength of its director – Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Yet even as Tarantino continues to be feted – first at Cannes and soon in cinemas across the world – there's a creeping, worrisome sense that a dearth of young American directors have the necessary clout to open a movie. At this year's Tribeca film festival in New York, it was the endlessly prolific Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh and Spike Lee who made the headlines as they each unveiled yet another film. Not one director was being pushed as their natural successor. </p> Features Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/observations-a-band-of-two-halves-1728887.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/observations-a-band-of-two-halves-1728887.html <p>Football is a game of two halves, and now a Mancunian quartet are releasing their debut album in two parts. Like many north-west brethren, Kid British, aptly named given their fresh-faced youthfulness, share an unhealthy interest in the beautiful game.</p> Features Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/observations-clint-eastwood-a-fistful-of-muscle-carsand-that-pink-cadillac-1728886.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/observations-clint-eastwood-a-fistful-of-muscle-carsand-that-pink-cadillac-1728886.html ]]> <p> If you are the kind of gnarly old Hollywood grand-daddy who seems to have been hewn from the very rock on which America was built – in other words, Clint Eastwood – your film career can probably be oversimplified to three or four props. In his case these might be: horses, guns, stubble and cars. Automobiles have always been central to Eastwood's machismo, as important to his masculine image as the once-ever-present cheroot hanging from his mouth. </p> Features Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/shane-meadows-all-you-need-to-make-a-movie-1729329.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/shane-meadows-all-you-need-to-make-a-movie-1729329.html ]]> <p>What can you do in five days? Play a game of test-match cricket, maybe, or take a city break to Europe. If you're Shane Meadows, you could crank out a film. The Uttoxeter-born director unveiled his latest work, Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival two weeks ago. Meadows shot it for around &pound;30,000, and he claims the film took less than a week to make. If not quite a record – Roger Corman shot his 1960 version of The Little Shop of Horrors in two days and a night – it's a breakneck pace at which to shoot a movie. But, as far as Meadows is concerned, this shouldn't be a one-off: in his mind, anyone with a camera, an idea and some willing volunteers can do the same.</p> Features Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/keanu-reeves--an-alist-slacker-grows-up-1729319.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/keanu-reeves--an-alist-slacker-grows-up-1729319.html ]]> <p>It's quite disconcerting meeting Keanu Reeves in the flesh. The 44-year-old looks at least a decade younger than his age, with his prominent cheekbones, flowing locks and smooth, other-worldly complexion. Deflecting questions with a mysterious gleam in his eye, there's something of the teenager about him. </p> Features Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/peter-tatchell-brno-will-both-incite-homophobia-and-make-bigots-squirm-1727873.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/peter-tatchell-brno-will-both-incite-homophobia-and-make-bigots-squirm-1727873.html ]]> <p>Sacha Baron Cohen's movie Borat was a masterpiece of comedy; arguably the most inventive satire for many years. Its unique genre of wicked, sophisticated parody set the bar very high; so high that Cohen's latest comedic outing, Brüno, is something of a letdown. After all the hype, I feel cheated.</p> Features Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-heat-is-on-our-essential-summer-arts-guide-1717607.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-heat-is-on-our-essential-summer-arts-guide-1717607.html ]]> Features Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/credo-guillermo-del-toro-1717612.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/credo-guillermo-del-toro-1717612.html ]]> Features Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/toby-young-how-brno-creates-his-buzz-1717614.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/toby-young-how-brno-creates-his-buzz-1717614.html ]]> <p>Is there anyone better at creating buzz around his own movies than Sacha Baron Cohen? He did a good job of publicising Borat three years ago, but it was nothing compared to his efforts to promote Brüno. His surprise appearance at the MTV Awards earlier this month was watched by 100 million people – and countless more on YouTube.</p> Features Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/cultural-life-ralf-little-actor-1719363.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/cultural-life-ralf-little-actor-1719363.html ]]> Features Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/party-of-the-week-the-credits-roll-and-the-stars-roll-up-for-shane-meadows-edinburgh-credit-crunch-party-1719372.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/party-of-the-week-the-credits-roll-and-the-stars-roll-up-for-shane-meadows-edinburgh-credit-crunch-party-1719372.html <p>Most parties at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) are prim and held in hotels – but not director Shane Meadows' party. After the screening of his new mockumentary, Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, the party on Tuesday night at St Peter's Church Hall was just plain silly. Invitations were sent out from Le Donk, a rock roadie, played in the film by Paddy Considine, inviting everyone to his credit crunch party. Considine, in character, arrived at the party in a rickshaw, while the Nottingham rapper Scor-Zay-Zee (aka Dean Palinczuk), who plays himself, pulled up in a pink limousine. Guests paid 75 pence to get into the party and the BAFTA-winning director Meadows took on the role of DJ. The tombola had a variety of prizes, including a hamburger in a can and a blow-up banana. </p> Features Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/burma-vj--candid-cameras-1719694.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/burma-vj--candid-cameras-1719694.html ]]> <p> The first film ever to be screened at No. 10 Downing Street was not an exclusive preview of the next summer blockbuster. </p> Features Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/screen-talk-the-ward-goes-to-1719706.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/screen-talk-the-ward-goes-to-1719706.html <p>Horror hit-maker John Carpenter is lining up a bevy of beauties for his latest psychological fright-fest. </p> Features Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/blake-lively-i-felt-like-i-fooled-them-1719692.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/blake-lively-i-felt-like-i-fooled-them-1719692.html ]]> <p>When the actress Blake Lively arrives to meet me, she's flushed and breathless, having been marshalled through a mob of screaming fans camped outside the hotel she is staying in. Lively is in town to promote her new film, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, but they're not here because of that. They're here because Lively is one of the stars of the hit US teen drama Gossip Girl. If you're unfamiliar with it, think Sex and the City (satirical, inappropriate, fabulously fashionable) meets The O.C. (genetically blessed teens who run amok) meets Dynasty (OTT storylines). The show is a look at the debauched lives of moneyed teens at a private high school in Manhattan. Lively plays Serena van der Woodsen, one of the queen bees.</p> Features Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/guy-adams-weinstein-denies-cutting-tarantinorsquos-basterds-1718547.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/guy-adams-weinstein-denies-cutting-tarantinorsquos-basterds-1718547.html <p> Few of this summer&rsquo;s upcoming films have quite so much riding on them as Quentin Tarantino&rsquo;s Inglorious Basterds, which could end up making or breaking the finances of its colourful producer, Harvey Weinstein </p> Features Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:48:26 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-ten-worst-rock-star-actors-1717658.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-ten-worst-rock-star-actors-1717658.html ]]> <p> With news that Liam Gallagher is set for his first movie role, we take a look back at other rock stars turned actors. </p> Features Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:56 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/dame-helen-is-live-and-in-hd-as-national-theatres-phegravedre-is-beamed-into-cinemas-worldwide-1717792.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/dame-helen-is-live-and-in-hd-as-national-theatres-phegravedre-is-beamed-into-cinemas-worldwide-1717792.html ]]> <p>Tonight, when Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre production of Racine's Ph&egrave;dre, starring Helen Mirren, is broadcast via satellite from the Lyttelton to 70 cinemas in the UK, and 200 around the world, a 21st-century solution will be provided to a perennial question. It has been pondered by every NT director, from Laurence Olivier in the 1960s to Nicholas Hytner today: "How do we ensure that as many people as possible can see live performances that can play only to around 1,000 at a time?"</p> Features Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/toby-young-is-art-buchwald-the-man-behind-harrison-fords-success-1707695.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/toby-young-is-art-buchwald-the-man-behind-harrison-fords-success-1707695.html ]]> <p>The news that Harrison Ford is Hollywood's highest-earning actor may come as a surprise to some. After all, isn't he a bit of a has-been? His last film, Crossing Over, grossed less than $500,000 at the US box office. Yet according to Forbes, the 66-year-old action star earned nearly $65m in the 12 months between June 2008 and 2009. How did he manage it?</p> Features Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/parties-a-fivestar-night-out-at-the-langham-hotel-london-1707703.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/parties-a-fivestar-night-out-at-the-langham-hotel-london-1707703.html ]]> <p>As taxis parked up for the "Grand Unveiling" of the &pound;80m rebirth of the Langham Hotel London, a cool Bill Nighy sauntered by on foot, smoothly unaffected by the Tube strike that had caused such mayhem earlier in the day.</p> Features Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/emmanuelle-bart-sometimes-you-feel-more-naked-when-youre-totally-dressed-than-the-other-way-round-1707652.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/emmanuelle-bart-sometimes-you-feel-more-naked-when-youre-totally-dressed-than-the-other-way-round-1707652.html ]]> <p>Were you ever to need reminding of the effect Emmanuelle Béart has on men, you'd do well to recall the time she appeared on the cover of French Elle magazine, in 2003. With the actress pictured naked on a Mauritian beach, Frenchmen flocked in their droves to their nearest news-stand. The entire print-run of 550,000 copies sold out in just three days, making it the biggest-selling issue in the fashion glossy's long history. For Béart, the explanation was simple: "It was to say, 'Look, I'm 40, this is my body, these are my curves, I like them and I'm proud of them.'"</p> Features Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mendes-beats-scorsese-to-middlemarch-movie-1710734.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mendes-beats-scorsese-to-middlemarch-movie-1710734.html <p>It is a hefty tome of more than 800 pages, set in a fictitious town in the Midlands and written as a penetrating study of provincial life, religion and political reform.</p> Features Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/edinburgh-film-festival-inside-the-art-house-1709388.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/edinburgh-film-festival-inside-the-art-house-1709388.html ]]> <p> Filmmaking is ponderous by its very nature. The process of screenwriting, development, funding, shooting and editing can take years. So to make anything that feels vaguely topical, you need to either position a crystal ball next to your camera or be extremely lucky. But, arriving a week after Banksy staged his own audacious exhibition in Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery, two films due to be unveiled at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in the next few days suddenly feel remarkably timely. </p> Features Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:38:58 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/screen-talk-reuniting-for-love-and-drugs-1709382.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/screen-talk-reuniting-for-love-and-drugs-1709382.html <p> Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, who played a doomed husband and wife in 'Brokeback Mountain', are in negotiations to reunite for 'Love and Other Drugs' directed by Ed Zwick. </p> Features Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:37 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ben-barnes-prince-of-hearts-1709371.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ben-barnes-prince-of-hearts-1709371.html ]]> <p> It can be hard work being a Hollywood hero. Just ask Ben Barnes, a.k.a. Prince Caspian, star of the billion-dollar-grossing Chronicles of Narnia franchise. </p> Features Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/guillermo-del-toro-the-monster-man-1706792.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/guillermo-del-toro-the-monster-man-1706792.html ]]> <p>Guillermo del Toro is sorry that we are meeting at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel. He'd prefer to have hooked up at the "Man Cave", a famous property five blocks from his LA home, which is filled with his vast collection of fantasy memorabilia and functions both as a source of inspiration, and a shrine to his standing as one of contemporary cinema's most original story-tellers.</p> Features Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0100