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+“Sometimes the class struggle is also the struggle of one image against another image, of one sound against another sound. In a film, this struggle is against images and sounds.”

- British Sounds

There was something in the air when Jean-Luc Godard took up the political banner of the late 1960s and shifted his filmmaking focus in terms of storytelling style and stories told, and in a general sense of formal reevaluation and reinvention. Always considered something of the enfant terrible of the French Nouvelle Vague, Godard was keen from the start to experiment with the conventional norms of cinematic aesthetics, from the jarring jump cuts of Breathless (1960), to the self-conscious playfulness of A Woman is a Woman (1961), to the genre deviations of Band of Outsiders (1964) and Made in USA (1966). But Godard was still, at a most basic level, operating along a fairly conventional plane of fictional cinema, one with...

Toronto — Hollywood has long embraced the trope of the suffering superstar. You know the story, don’t you? A talented but misunderstood singer or actor struggles with the downside of living in the spotlight. Often there is a parent trying to live dreams through his or her child’s adult career. There might even be a hero who will appear from outside the creative world to protect the artist from the perils of fame and fortune. Yes, this is a narrative idea that has been explored countless times in movies and TV shows. It’s also the very simple logline for the new Relativity Media drama "Beyond the Lights." Thanks to the masterful direction of Gina Prince-Bythewood, however, the film shatters these cliché origins and turns into an unexpectedly electric and moving romantic drama. “Lights” has three stars that allow it to transcend the genre. The first is British born actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw,...

The production team are hoping to get Australian status, and therefore the producer offset for the qualifying Australian expenditure, on director Bill Bennett's Defiant, which has Toni Collette and Dev Patel attached and is scheduled to start filming in India in October.

The thriller is one of a number of high-profile Australian films in planning that are being presented at the Cannes Film Festival next month by sales agents; in this case, The Little Film Company.

All the filming will happen in India with as many Australian heads of department as possible, and all the post in Australia.

Sydney-based Anupam Sharma, who is producing with Bennett, isn.t discussing financing sources in detail but said the budget will be in excess of $6 million and no Indian production partner is in place as yet.

Bennett has written the thriller, which was sparked by an article he saw in an Indian newspaper about five years ago.

With less than a month to go before Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life hits theaters, the first official review has landed, and it is quite positive. Sprouting from the French site Les Echos du Cinéma, we have a translation below from an IMDb user. They praise the film for its natural performances and beauty, but call out its Christian tones. It can be viewed below, followed by extensive production notes from All Things Shining. There are a lot of interesting tidbits in there, so I encourage you to read on.

In related news, the French distributor EuropaCorp have announced (via Blu-ray.com) a July 15th release date for the Blu-ray of The Tree of Life. No region coding is known yet, but that seems wildly early and highly unlikely. We’ll update the story if we hear any sort of confirmation or correction. For now, check out the review and productions.

The long arm of Warner Bros. law strikes again. For many years now, the studio has been known for being quite strict with their projects. I'm not sure if any property felt that quite so much as the television world of Buffy; numerous fan sites were shut down during the run of the show, and post-finale, the uber popular Musical events were nixed. Now it's happening to fans of our favorite young, big-screen wizards.

The BBC reports that a woman planning a couple Harry Potter supper club nights for Halloween has been told to stop infringing on the studio's rights. Ms. Marmite Lover runs a small restaurant of sorts out of her home -- selling tickets and then making food for her guests, sometimes themed. For Halloween, she chose to make a Harry Potter-themed meal with a Diagon Alley entrance with password, a sorting hat, and food that includes butterbear and Fizzpop chocolate frogs.

The bicycle has made its way through many cycles of its own. Vintage Bicycle Press' latest book, "The Competition Bicycle" combines the photography of Jean-Pierre Praderes with text by Jan Heine, editor of Bicycle Quarterly magazine, to explain the evolution of racing bikes from ancient high-wheelers to modern machines with carbon fiber disc wheels. Here are some highlights from the book.

The bicycle has made its way through many cycles of its own over the past hundred years, particularly those that have lead the pack in innovations in competitive racing. Vintage Bicycle Press' latest book, The Competition Bicycle combines the studio photography of Jean-Pierre Praderes with texts by Jan Heine, editor of Bicycle Quarterly magazine, to explain the evolution of these racing bikes from ancient high-wheelers to modern time-trial machines with carbon fiber disc wheels. Together with the publisher, we have prepared a slideshow with some of the highlights from the book.