Search results for: Yimou Zhang

Exploring the war with the Virgin and the Whore.

Running between August 31st and September 10th, the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival would be a dandy last edition for festival impresario Marco Muller even if he doesn't nab the likes of Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster, Walter Salles' On the Road, Fernando Meirelles' 360 and/or Zhang Yimou's Heroes of Naking. In his final year of contract, with approximately twenty-two competition slots (minus the already confirmed opening film from Italian res George Clooney and his TIFF-bound The Ides of March), this thursday's announcement should be heavy on items from the the U.K along with a robust presence from European filmmakers headed by Roman Polanski's Carnage.

We complete our look at the key players in the Cannes market with the sales agent that has the most number of highly anticipated film projects. Wild Bunch came to the fest with popular items such as Polisse, The Artist and The Kid With a Bike, and it looks like they might outfit Venice and TIFF with some premium titles with Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmasters being one of the most sought after titles this coming August/September.

This loose remake of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple employs an odd mix of broad comedy, frenetic action, and Zhang's familiar visual aesthetic. Somehow it manages to fit nicely together into a popcorn flick with flair, albeit one that will never be mistaken for a masterpiece.

Lu Chuan’s City of Life and Death will finally receive its theatrical release and it won't be via the National Geographic folks who originally picked up the film in 2009, but never released the film due to circumstances that appeared to fall into a grey zone. Kino International have grabbed the rights and have set the pic up with a May 11th release at Film Forum.