News

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)

Kirsten Johnson brings us her memoirs by way of a videographic scrapbook. Bits and pieces of the numerous documentaries she’s shot in her years as a Dp have been woven together into a travelogue / ethnographic study / commentary on the nature of cinematic framing. What was an establishing shot in one doc becomes, here, a study of the vagaries of a camera operator’s job. Documentary...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This July will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces

What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).

Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*

Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...

I was 12 years old in 1968. One of my favorite places was the library, in those days the closest library to us was the Tesson Ferry Branch in South St. Louis County. My most prized possession was my library card.

My Mother used to drop me off there on a Saturday or a summer weekday and I would spend the whole day reading. One of those days I pulled a book off the shelf called Hitchcock/Truffaut and sat down to read it. I knew who Alfred Hitchcock was from his television show, and from his monthly Mystery Magazine as well as anthologies that I was reading avidly, Tales That Frightened Even Me, More Tales for the Nervous and, my favorite, Stories to be Read After Dark.

I was aware that Alfred Hitchcock was most renowned for directing movies. I had seen a few on television, Saboteur was a mainstay on Kplr TV,...

Exclusive: Staff, slate segue to existing UK sales and production outfit.

UK sales and distribution outfit High Point Films & TV has merged with existing UK production and sales company Starline Entertainment in a bid to grow and bring fresh impetus to both companies.

Key staff to transition to Starline as part of the rebrand include High Point MD Carey Fitzgerald, Julie Delaney, who becomes director of worldwide distribution, and Piers Nightingale, who assumes the role director of acquisitions.

Industry veteran Fitzgerald will remain MD of High Point, whose catalogue will be managed by Starline, while Delaney and Nightingale will work closely with existing Starline MD Ronald de Neef, himself a non-executive chair of High Point. All four will be shareholders in Starline.

In its new guise Starline will continue to handle features for international sales but will also take on more alternative content such as transmedia and web series and will look to pursue more direct and event-based...

Rank the week of August 9th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Paul

(DVD & Blu-ray | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #764

Win Percentage: 55%

Times Ranked: 7626

Top-20 Rankings: 22

Directed By: Greg Mottola

Starring: Simon Pegg • Nick Frost • Seth Rogen • Jane Lynch • Sigourney Weaver

Genres: Adventure • Comedy • Road Movie • Science Fiction • Sci-Fi Comedy • Adventure Comedy

Rank This Movie

Super

(DVD & Blu-ray | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2200

Win Percentage: 54%

Times Ranked: 2471

Top-20 Rankings: 11

Directed By: James Gunn

Starring: Rainn Wilson • Ellen Page • Liv Tyler • Kevin Bacon • Michael Rooker

Genres: Action • Action Comedy • Black Comedy • Comedy • Comedy Drama • Comic-Book Superhero Film • Drama • Satire • Based-on-Comics

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Jumping The Broom

(DVD & Blu-ray | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #16475

Win Percentage: 32%

Times Ranked: 46

Top-20 Rankings: 2

Directed By: Salim Akil

Starring: Angela Bassett • Paula Patton • Meagan Good • Laz Alonso • Julie Bowen

Genres: Comedy • Comedy Drama • Domestic Comedy • Drama

Rank This Movie

Your Highness

(DVD & Blu-ray | R...

Title: Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff Director: Craig McCall Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Martin Scorsese, Lauren Bacall, Kim Hunter, Thelma Schoonmaker, Freddie Francis and more Above-the-line stars get most of the credit and glory for Hollywood successes, but dozens if not hundreds of other specially gifted artisans labor on most big-budget productions, often going their entire careers without so much as an acknowledged tip of the proverbial cap from the moviegoing public at large. Director Craig McCall’s fascinating documentary ‘Cameraman’, then, attempts to right this wrong, shining a light on Jack Cardiff, who on March 25, 2001 — more than five decades after winning...

This weekend at the box office it's a battle between the first big comedy of the summer and the second comic book movie of the summer. Will Bridesmaids be able to attract both men and women? Will Priest be any better than Legion? It seems unlikely that either film will bring down Thor, but hey, you never know. In select theatres, look for the Will Ferrell dramedy Everything Must Go, Sundance hit Hesher starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, and the underground dancing drama Go For It!. What will you be checking out this weekend? Priest [1] Bridesmaids [2] Everything Must Go [3] (limited) Hesher [4] (limited) Go For It! [5] (limited) Skateland [6] (limited) Cameraman: The Work and Life of Jack Cardiff [7] (limited) The First Grader [8] (limited) How to Live Forever [9] (limited) L'amour fou [10] (limited) City of Life and Death [11] [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0822847/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478338/ [3] http://www.imdb.

Cannes. Here, the Cicae Award winner at this year.s Berlin Film Festival has sold to Strand Releasing for distribution in the Us.

Co-written and directed by hotly tipped Us filmmaker Braden King, produced by Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen and starring Ben Foster (The Mechanic, The Messenger) and Lubna Azabal (Incendies, I Am Slave), Here is a beautifully realised road movie that chronicles a brief but intense romantic relationship between an American satellite-mapping engineer (Foster) and an expatriate Armenian photographer (Azabal), who impulsively decide to travel together into uncharted territory.

The first American film produced in the country of Armenia, Here was a buzz title at Sundance before securing the Cicae Award at Berlin in February.

.It’s been gratifying to see Here connect so strongly with international audiences on the festival circuit,. says co-writer/director King. .The ways in which the film has resonated with disparate audiences transcends borders,...

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek

(May 2011)

Directed by: Craig McCall

Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and John Mills

An official selection of the Cannes Classics component of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, “Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff” begins with footage from an Academy Awards tribute by Dustin Hoffman, elucidating the impact of the legendary cinematographer. In “Cameraman,” director Craig McCall cleverly gives Cardiff carte blanche to share his tales from a variety of locations, including his home, where the cameraman scouts the room and the legacies of those stars who’ve died around him. In this way, McCall deftly and compellingly captures the cinematographer who made his mark on cinema’s landscape for 70 years.

Kid actor, runner, clapper boy and camera operator, Cardiff shares the secrets behind stars who knew their lighting, Marlene Dietrich first and most of all.

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek

(May 2011)

Directed by: Craig McCall

Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and John Mills

An official selection of the Cannes Classics component of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, “Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff” begins with footage from an Academy Awards tribute by Dustin Hoffman, elucidating the impact of the legendary cinematographer. In “Cameraman,” director Craig McCall cleverly gives Cardiff carte blanche to share his tales from a variety of locations, including his home, where the cameraman scouts the room and the legacies of those stars who’ve died around him. In this way, McCall deftly and compellingly captures the cinematographer who made his mark on cinema’s landscape for 70 years.

Kid actor, runner, clapper boy and camera operator, Cardiff shares the secrets behind stars who knew their lighting, Marlene Dietrich first and most of all.

The African Queen. The Red Shoes. Black Narcissus. hat do these films all have in common? Stunning cinematography from one Jack Cardiff, that’s what.

Now, thanks to director Craig McCall, Cardiff’s life and work are the center of a new documentary, entitled Cameraman: The Life And Work Of Jack Cardiff, and in turn, Strand Releasing have given us the film’s first trailer. Featuring interviews with the likes of Kirk Douglass, Charlton Heston, and Martin Scorsese, the film looks at the life of the iconic cameraman, who helped usher in various trends and game changing aspects of the craft throughout his career, which spanned an insane eight decades. The grandfather of Technicolor filmmaking, Cardiff is synonymous with the art of cinematography.

Read more on Trailer for Cameraman: The Life And Work Of Jack Cardiff hits...

This iconic cinematographer behind such classics as The Red Shoes, The African Queen and Black Narcissus has received much-deserved documentary treatment. Jack Cardiff became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar in 2001. We gave Craig McCall‘s doc a mixed review at New York Film Festival last year, but now you can see it for yourself this month. Check out the trailer for the film featuring Martin Scorsese, Kirk Douglass, Charlton Heston, and Lauren Bacall below via Apple.

Synopsis:

Jack Cardiff’s career spanned an incredible nine of moving picture’s first ten decades and his work behind the camera altered the look of films forever through his use of Technicolor photography. Craig McCall’s passionate film about the legendary cinematographer reveals a unique figure in British and international cinema.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff hits theaters May 13th,...

Hey there kids! Here is an updated list of releases for 2011 by Strand Releasing. Enjoy!

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Drama/Fantasy)

Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Syndromes and a Century, Tropical Malady, Blissfully Yours). Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave . the birthplace of his first life. In his signature cinematic style, the acclaimed Thai filmmaker delivers a strange and mystical world of visionary beauty. Winner of the Palme d.Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Thailand.s Official Selection for Best Foreign Language Film for the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, directed by Craig McCall, is a tour of the work, more than the life, of Cinematographer Jack Cardiff. It is definitely better suited for Turner Classic Movies than a theatrical or even DVD release. Perhaps the best part of Cameraman is that it gets to highlight so many films of such quality, giving much credit to how brilliant and prolific Jack Cardiff actually was. His collaboration with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger in films like The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and A Matter of Life and Death comprise about one third of the running time. The latter of those three will be screening alongside this documentary at the festival. McCall does a decent job of shaping the film as a tour of cinematic history as it applies to Cardiff, rather than a biography of the cinematographer. He stays away from narration, and instead goes with interviews.

Note: This is the first review in a series of upcoming reviews covering the New York Film Festival, which opens this Friday (September 24th). Stay tuned for more movie coverage.

Jack Cardiff was one of the most ambitious, most accomplished cinematographers in the history of cinema, largely responsible for the lush, vibrant look of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger‘s early films (A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes), the man behind the camera of John Huston’s acclaimed The African Queen and Joe Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa. And that only touches the surface of his range and talent.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, directed by Craig McCall, is quick to show and tell you all of the above plus a whole lot more, and from the lips of film greats such as Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese.

The 46th Chicago International Film Festival is coming, and The Scorecard Review will be there will exclusive interviews, movie reviews and red carpet events beginning October 7, 2010.

Here is the news release on the documentaries at this year’s festival.

Chicago, September 7, 2010 – As documentary films gain ever-increasing recognition in theaters around the world, the 46th Chicago International Film Festival announces the 2010 lineup of its Docufest documentary program and new series for true movie buffs, “Film on Film.” Sponsored by DePaul University, Docufest and the Film on Film program feature four world premieres, one international premiere, two North American premieres and two USA premieres.

Special guests attending this year range from award-winning filmmakers Alex Gibney and Lucy Walker to debuting directors making bold first impressions and even troupes of circus performers, slam poets, and a “minuteman” border guard. Twelve countries are represented across these 17 films. The Docufest competition jury includes the winner...

London -- L.A.-based Strand Releasing has snapped up all North American rights to documentary "Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff," in a deal struck by U.K. sales and finance label High Point Films.

The doc unspooled during this year's Cannes Classics and is described by director Craig McCall as "a conversation" with the Oscar-winning cinematographer who died last year.

Strand Releasing co-president Jon Gerrans secured rights to the doc after seeing it during last month's Festival de Cannes in a deal negotiated with High Point sales director Elisar Cabrera.

"Of the several U.S. companies clambering for North American rights, we believe that Strand Releasing demonstrates a key understanding in the film that sets them apart from the crowd, and we have every confidence they will do an excellent job," said High Point managing director Carey Fitzgerald.

Four Lions (15)

(Chris Morris, 2010, UK) Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Arsher Ali. 102 mins

Still grasping the nettles others would rather strim over, Morris returns with a suicide-bomb-com that both makes you laugh, and makes you wonder if you should be laughing. Tracking an inept Sheffield terrorist cell with big plans, it's packed with priceless lines and inspired absurdity in an Ealing comedy-meets-In The Loop sort of way. But we're not let off that lightly. These are more than simple caricatures, and as their mission becomes increasingly real, in every sense, we laugh at our peril.

The Back-Up Plan (12A)

(Alan Poul, 2010, Us) Jennifer Lopez, Alex O'Loughlin. 104 mins

J-Lo returns to reclaim her title as lightweight romcom champion, with another surreally dumb relationship souffle that should have Jennifer Aniston quaking in her fluffy slippers.

Cameraman: The Life And Work Of Jack Cardiff (Nc)

(Craig McCall, 2010, UK) 90 mins

Self-explanatory doc about the pioneering British cinematographer,...

Mrinal Sen’s Khandahar will be screened in Cannes Classics 2010. Cannes Classics, created in 2004, accompanies contemporary films from the Official Selection with a programme of restored films and lost films that have been found again, as part of their re-release in cinemas or on DVD.

The film has been restored by Reliance MediaWorks with the support of the National Film Archive of India. Mrinal Sen will attend the screening of Khandahar at Cannes.

Programme - La Bataille Du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) (France, 1946, 82’) by René Clément, awarded the Jury Prize in 1946, restored by Ina and Full Images, will be screened in the presence of Mrs. Johanna Clément.- Boudu Sauve Des Eaux (Boudu Saved from Drowning) by Jean Renoir (France, 85’, 1932), a restoration presented by Pathé in a never-before-seen version that includes scenes that were cut in the original. A Pathé restoration in association with the laboratries L’immagine...