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TALKING PICTURES

An intelligent look at film, TV and mass media.


 
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For news about latest releases and film events visit our blog site at:
www.talkingpix.blogspot.com

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nigelwatson1@gmail.com

Talking Pictures is edited and produced by Nigel Watson

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Latest additions to TALKING PICTURES
Alan Pavelin reviews:
The Times BFI 53rd Film Festival 2009
The Taking of Power by Louis XIV
The Man From London
The Art of Andrei Tarkovsky
Silent Light
Obituary for Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni
The Tarkovsky Companion

Jamie Garwood, reviews:
District 9
Bones 4
Crank 2
Religulous
The Red Shoes
Night At The Museum 2
The Good German
17 Again
Meet Danny Wilson
Boston Legal Season 5 dvd
Changeling
Role Models
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Escape From Huang Shi
Aliens vs Monsters
Watchmen
Fighter
American Dad

Yes Man
Wall.E
Hancock
The Crew
Taken

Howard Schumann, our incredible phantom of the cinema, reviews:
Moon
Food, Inc
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Brothers Bloom
The Limits of Control

Mamma Mia!
Doubt
Dead Man's Shoes
Dark City
2012: Science or Superstition


Danny Parker reviews:
Ghost Town
IGOR
Eagle Eye
Drag me to Hell
Night at the Museum 2
Angels and Demons
Taken

Emma Farley looks at:
Let the Right One In
(Låt den rätte komma in)
Kate Winslet's Road to Success
From Book to Big Screen
Don't Forget The Breakfast Club
Audrey Hepburn: The Fairest Lady
Teen Speak: Do Teen Movies Still Put Bums on Seats?



The Alien DeceptionMy latest book The Alien Deception is now available on the Amazon US or Amazon UK website. The Alien Deception: An Exploration of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon read more...

Steven Gerard Farrell, M.A., assistant professor at Greenville Technical College
looks at:

Galloping Gallagher Deserves the Gallows: The Irish Rogue on the Silver Screen
and
Mickey Machine Gun Is Back! The return of the Irish American gangster to the silver screen.


The Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) were presented in London on Sunday night, 08 February 2009.
More information and Fearne Cotton
interviewing Freida Pinto and Dev Patel, plus Mickey Rourke can be viewed at:

http://video360.world-television.com/ORANGEBAFTA/index.html

Fearne interviews more stars from the red carpet at www.orange.co.uk/bafta


Compare UK DVD Rental with: www.choosedvdrental.co.uk
 
"The best DVD Rental comparison site in the UK", says WebUser magazine and the BBC. All UK DVD and Games rental companies tested, rated and reviewed. Search for the right package for your own viewing needs using the web's most powerful rental search tool.  Now includes the world's first 'Switch' tool for DVD rental as well as a dedicated 'Free Trial' zone where you can find the best and longest free trials.




Foyle’s War – The Complete Fifth Series

The hugely popular and successful, long running ITV series created by renowned scriptwriter and novelist Anthony Horowitz (Midsomer Murders, Stormbreaker) comes to an end with three exciting new adventures; Plan of Attack, Broken Souls and All Clear.

Set towards the end of World War II, Foyle’s War - The Complete Fifth Series stars the fantastic Michael Kitchen (Fallen, The World Is Not Enough) as the irrepressible Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle investigating crimes on the South Coast of
England. He is aided by Sergeant Paul Milner played by Anthony Howell and his determined driver Sam, played by Honeysuckle Weeks.

The three disc box set was released on 28 April 2008 and features Foyle investigating a massive fraud case which has cost the War Office thousands of pounds, brutal murders and the mystery of a missing telegraph boy, all the while preparing for the end of a turbulent and difficult period in his personal and professional life.

Foyle’s War became an instant hit on its debut in 2002. The first series won the Lew Grade Audience Award at the 2003 BAFTA Television Awards, the second series was nominated for a BAFTA for best television series and Series Five looks to
set to perplex and delight audiences.

More than a period whodunnit, Foyle's War is redolent with rich human drama subtly revealed through the lives of these main characters who make up the heart of the series.

Extras include an exclusively filmed behind the scenes documentary, cast filmographies and a stunning picture gallery.

Cat. No: AV9644


Film director Anthony Minghella's death (18 March 2008) reminds us
of Jaap Mees' extensive interview with him several years ago. On the same day the science
fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke also died. He will be best remembered for anticipating the use of
communications satellites, and for his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick in the creation of 
2001: A Space Odyssey. See Nigel Watson's article Two Views of 2001 and his article about 
Clarke's Minehead home town.

Peter Tonks reviews:
Volver
Intimate Strangers
A Prairie Home Companion
Cul de Sac
A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiancailles)
Hollywoodland

Nigel Watson writes about:
Evening
The Thing From Another World
Growing Up and Keeping Safe a new CD-ROM for children

Film Censorship - Some Notes which includes a few classroom activites and debating points

There are a bewildering variety of digital cameras & camcorders on the market today, to help you select the right camera see our latest article:
Things to Look For in a Digital Camcorder – Some Thoughts

Sharon Casey reviews:
The Magic Flute

Kayleigh Lewis reviews:
American Gangster

Roger Burton examines the reality and fiction used in: 
Monster

Shaun McDonald contributes:
A Scanner Darkly
Dumplings (Gaau Ji)
Panic Room
Destricted
Louis Bunuel - Religion, Sex and Politics
Sound in the Films of David Lynch

Louise Causon reviews:
Halloween

Jack Gibson, reviews:
Intolerable Cruelty
Walking Tall
Scarface

Carina Platt reviews:
The Man Who Fell To Earth

Cody Cagle adds to our Thomas the Tank Engine debate
 


Gauche Encounters   Bad films and the UFO Mythos by Martin Kottmeyer. This is a classic and much quoted essay that has never been published before. I'll be adding some pictures to this soon.
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INDIEPIX.NET - UK LAUNCH 
report by Jamie Garwood

bfi Monday 17th Septemeber 

A new company incorporating Indiepix and NetworkedPlanet has been launched in the UK this morning, Tuesday 18th September, with the target of re-organising the economic distribution and commercial transaction of films  making productions more profitable for the film-maker and gaining greater access and visibility for the audience who want to see these films. 

Bob Alexander who has previously worked in consultancy companies in New York City comes across as a passionate individual for independent film and he took the stand first explaining how it is an aim to connect the film-maker with his audience, the audience with more films and making it more cost effective for all parties. 

Mr. Alexander explained how the user would log onto the website and would pay to download a film that is on the extensive catalogue which is close to 3000 titles currently - another aim is to eventually reach 10,000 - pay $15 or equivalent to buy or view the title, $10 of this goes directly back to the film-maker, so they get immediate results and continued support and purpose.  The program has the ability to download in a one button transaction, download a film legally. 

‘Independent cinema has been relegated in the league of audience expectations’, to illustrate this point and blame Hollywood for sucking the room out of the competition Bob uses the examples of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ and ‘The Lives of Others’.  Bourne had a budget of $138m plus an ad spend of $50m and in the first six weeks of release has gained approximately $500m worldwide.  The Lives of Others had a budget of $2m and so far grossed $25m worldwide.  In its 6th week in the US, ‘Lives’ took $800,000 its best week on release, ‘Bourne’ took that in the first 36 minutes of release.  So there is a necessity to combat the mainstream market which is seemingly aimed towards bigger Hollywood productions, but as Bob made the point it does not seem financially viable to be involved in Hollywood.

So which films are put onto the site? ‘There is no current criteria; if the film represents the world of independent film, has performed on the blossoming festival network, screened by an expert panel, examined by an expert jury and been successful, but generally we are open to all submissions. And we welcome short films, where there has never been a commercial opportunity for them and this is an alternative to the film being a calling card.’  He adds that they are in collaboration with NetFlix to create a short film compilation DVD in production with Ingrooves.com, based in San Francisco. 

Kal Ahmed, the founder and co-creator of NetworkedPlanet (a 3 year old company from Oxford) that focuses on connecting concepts and content, talks to us about how the search engine works. Unlike tags used on search engines like YouTube, this site uses topics as its search engine giving content to the tag and becoming bi-directional - for example, a film is directed by ... and he directed...- therefore hooking concepts of films together.  So it was a big process using all the metadata, mapping them into the network, analysing the network before refining.  It is a system that is not patronising towards its audience and does not seem to point you in a certain direction, the system wants the audience to find something new and different.  'This is a system for an informed consumer', says Ahmed in reaction to an audience that is culturally relevant and prevelant.  Ahmed is an ambitious person and says that the turnover of going live with this website from the actual greenlight was three months, extraordinary turnover for a new project of this scale. 

Attempting to create connections

Currently the website gains 120,000 hits a month, a growth of 30% a month.  With purchases up 25-30% a month.  Monetary objectives is to work towards a target of $5-7m within two to three years, they are now working at $1m/year.  'And if 60% of that income goes back to the filmmaker, that is a significant source of income for the individual so this is a change of direction in film-making and production in reflection of the filmmaker's voice', explains Alexander. 

This was the UK Launch, in fact it was the worldwide launch of this collaboration with three launches occuring in the US in October in New York, Pacific-Northwest and San Francisco.  The project is ambitious and i think will be capable to succeed, there is a passion amongst the people involved for film and for the film-makers to get greater recognition for there films on a national, international even global scale - which can only be good for filmmaking in general. 

All the films are able to view, research, explore or even purchase now at www.indiepix.net
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