News

An adaptation of Edith Wharton novel The Custom Of The Country by Mary Queen Of Scots director Josie Rourke is among 16 new projects backed by the Düsseldorf-based regional film fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw (Fms).

€600,000 in production funding was allocated by Fms to Rourke’s planned adaptation of Wharton’s 1913 novel.

The tragicomedy of manners about a Midwestern girl attempting to ascend in New York society is currently structured as a German-uk co-production between Cologne-based Mo Co-Production, a single purpose company set up by augenschein Filmproduktion, with Charles Finch’s Rabbit Foot Films.

Finch was recently a co-producer of the...

Das Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg vergibt aktuell 8,2 Millionen Euro Förderung. David Wnendt erhält mit seinem Filmprojekt die größte Einzelsumme. Es sind aber auch die neuen Serienprojekte der HaRiBos und der Neuesuper dabei.

David Wnendt inszeniert „Athos 2643“ nach eigenem Drehbuch (Credit: Andreas Höfer)

Das Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg unterstützt in seiner aktuellen Förderrunde 42 neue Film- und Serienprojekte mit insgesamt 8,2 Millionen Euro. Darunter befinden sich neue Projekte von internationalen Stars wie Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst, Ruben Östlund oder Isabelle Huppert. Ebenso die neuen Projekte von Sandra Hüller, David Wnendt oder Laura Lackmann sind dabei.

Die größte Einzelsumme geht mit 1,4 Millionen Euro an David Wnendts neues Filmprojekt „Athos 2643“ (Produktionsfirma Seven Elephants). Die zweithöchste Einzelsumme geht an das Serienprojekt „Consultants“ von Regisseur Lars Kraume und den HaRiBos. Violet Pictures produziert. Drehbuchautor Richard Kropf ist auch an der neuen Serie „Westend Girl“ beteiligt, bei der Pola Beck und Stefan Schaller Regie führen.

Komplizen Film arbeitet mit Regisseur Simon Verhoeven an „Ach,...

4,5 Mio. Euro Förderunterstützung für 16 Projekte vermeldet die Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw aktuell. Die höchste Produktionsförderung ging diesmal an „Spaziergang nach Syrakus“, knapp dahinter liegen mit je 700.000 Euro „Die Stille liebt es und die Nacht“ sowie „Extrawurst“.

Walid Nakschbandi, Geschäftsführer der Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw (Credit: Nrw/Hojabr Riahi)

Rund 4,5 Mio. Euro an Förderung für 16 Projekte – diese Nachricht kommt von der jüngsten Fördersitzung der Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw. Eine Nachricht, die mit der Erklärung eingeleitet wird, dass der Länderförderer auch „in schwierigem Marktumfeld“ eine „starke und zuverlässige Unterstützerin und Partnerin der Filmschaffenden und Produzent:innen in Nrw sowie deutschlandweit“ bleibe.

Die höchste Fördersumme (750.000 Euro) ging an Pandora Film (Koproduzent ist Florida Film) für die Bestselleradaption „Spaziergang nach Syrakus“ mit Charly Hübner, den Lars Jessen nach einem Drehbuch von Heide und Rainer Schwochow nach dem Roman von F.C. Delius verfilmt. Ebenfalls an Bord: Jördis Triebel und Lina Beckmann.

700.000 Euro Förderung fließen aus Nrw...

German acting legend Hanna Schygulla will be honored this year with a lifetime achievement award at the German Film Awards.

Best known for her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), and Lili Marleen (1981), Schygulla’s career has included collaborations with the likes of Wim Wenders (1975’s Wrong Move), Jean-Luc Godard (1982’s Passion) and Fatih Akin (2007’s The Edge of Heaven). More recently, the 80-year-old actress has a scene-stealing cameo in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-winner Poor Things as Martha von Kurtzroc, the eccentric woman Emma Stone’s character befriends on the cruise ship.

“Hanna Schygulla is an institution of German and European cinema,” said Alexandra Maria Lara, president of the German Film Academy, explaining the decision of the honorary jury. “Through her long-standing collaboration with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, she wrote herself into film history. She became an icon of German auteur cinema with international appeal.

Action-paced, international intrigue ensues when a Swiss bank president hires an American investigator to ferret out a group of blackmailers who have been terrorizing his clients in The Swiss Conspiracy, available 20th February 2024 in a special collector’s edition on Blu-ray and DVD from Film Masters.

Scanned in 4K from original 35mm archival elements, The Swiss Conspiracy has never seen a high-quality release to date. Film Masters has enlisted colorist and restoration expert Marc Wielage to painstakingly bring back vibrant and original colors that have not been seen since this film made its original debut in 1976.

Shot entirely in and around Zurich, The Swiss Conspiracy, based on the hit novel by Michael Stanley, was directed by Jack Arnold, best known for B horror/cult movie classics such as The Incredible Shrinking Man, Tarantula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came from Outer Space and The Tattered Dress. One of the...

Stars: James Coburn, Maximillian Schell, James Mason, David Warner, Senta Berger | Written by Julius J. Epstein, Walter Kelley, James Hamilton | Directed by Sam Peckinpah

Cross of Iron might not be as well-known or well-reviewed as some of the most popular World War II films. If you Google this subgenre you will soon see the likes of The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Thin Red Line, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. But whilst Cross of Iron might not be on the list, it’s worthy of every film fan’s attention and the new 4K release is a perfect way to do that.

Set on the Eastern Front in World War II during the Soviet’s Caucasus operations against the German Kuban bridgehead in late 1943. But interestingly, the story focuses on the class conflict in the German army and it is all the more interesting for it. It’s...

To celebrate the release of Studiocanal’s Cross Of Iron stunning new 4K restoration coming to Uhd Steelbook, Blu-Ray & DVD and with new bonus material, on 31st July, we have a Blu-Ray to give away!

Studiocanal are thrilled to announce the return of 1970s war-action classic Cross Of Iron by The Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah in a stunning new 4K restoration coming to Uhd Steelbook, Blu-Ray & DVD and with new bonus material, on 31st July as part of Studiocanal’s iconic Vintage Classics brand.

Boasting a first-rate cast including acting stalwarts James Coburn (The Magnificent Seven), James Mason (The London Nobody Knows) and David Warner (Perfect Friday), alongside international stars Maximilian Schell (A Bridge Too Far) as the standout Battalion Commander and Senta Berger (The Glory Guys), this important anti-war film, based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Willi Heinrich, is a visually captivating and authentic portrayal of the horrors of war,...

German cinema is in Cannes with new works by Wim Wenders and films that explore Nazi propaganda, gender identity, economic crisis, romance, betrayal and fast cars.

In addition to domestic films, a dozen German co-productions are screening in this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup, including major works from the likes of Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki and Jessica Hausner.

Wenders is in Cannes with “Perfect Days,” which is vying for the Palme d’Or, and the documentary “Anselm” in Special Screenings.

“Perfect Days” tells the story of a Tokyo janitor (Kôji Yakusho) who seems very content with his simple life, structured routines and passion for music, books and photography. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. The Japanese-German co-production is sold by the Match Factory.

“Anselm” explores the work of artist Anselm Kiefer, shedding light on his life, inspirations and creative process. Shot in 3D,...

‘I’m Your Man’ Tops German Film Awards

Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man won four awards at the Lolas, Germany’s national film awards, on Saturday evening. The film won best film plus prizes for screenwriting, directing and for lead actress Maren Eggert. The awards were held physically this year with more than 1,000 attendees in Berlin, though Schrader is currently in New York so attended remotely. Also winning on the night were Oliver Masucci as best actor for his performance in Enfant Terrible, and Mr. Bachmann and His Class, which won best documentary. Senta Berger received the lifetime achievement award. I’m Your Man is Germany’s entry to the Oscars this year. Director Schrader recently won an Emmy for her work on Unorthodox.

Zurich Fest Winners

This year’s Zurich Film Festival has crowned its award winners. A Golden Eye apiece went to the films La Mif by Fred Baillif...

The Berlin ceremony brought together the German industry for the first time in 18 months.

Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man was the big winner at the Lolas, the German Film Awards in Berlin on October 1, winning best film, best director, best screenwriter for Schrader and Jan Schomberg and best actress for Maren Eggert.

I’m Your Man is produced by Lisa Blumenberg’s Hamburg-based Letterbox Filmproduktion. It is Germany’s entry to the best international film category at the Oscars. I’m Your Man had its world premiere in competition at the Berlinale in March where Eggert also won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for her performance.

Chryssos won the best director award for ‘A Pure Place’.

World premieres by Nikias Chryssos and Franziska Stünkel were among the winners of the German Cinema New Talent Awards at this year’s Filmfest München, which wrapped at the weekend.

Chryssos won the best director award for his second feature A Pure Place, an offbeat coming-of-age tale about two young siblings engulfed in a secret community obsessed with soap, located on a remote Greek island. He was selected by a jury comprised of actors Sophie von Kessel and Komi M. Togbonou, and Barbara Mundel, artistic director of the Münchner Kammerspiele.

It’s a new deluxe Limited Edition of Sam Peckinpah’s mangled masterpiece, the third fancy boxed set in as many years. Arrow’s presentation is certainly got the edge in graphic elegance. They’ve also strived to include as many earlier extras as possible, plus new analytical-critical takes on the picture, and an excellent (and wickedly funny) visual essay from David Cairns. The disc has both of my commentaries, including the comprehensive one that details the missing scenes with information taken directly from Sam Peckinpah and Oscar Saul’s screenplay. And hey, you never know: this could be the year that Mitch Miller’s Singalong Gang makes an incredible comeback, and we can All fall in behind the Major.

Major Dundee

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 136, 122 min. / (2-Disc Limited Edition) / Street Date June 29, 2021 / 59.95

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters,...

Severin continues to impress with their incredible box set releases and their latest announcement was an instant pre-order for me: a collection of five remastered Christopher Lee movies and a rarely seen, Christopher Lee-hosted, anthology horror TV series:

(Los Angeles, CA) On May 25th, Severin Films is releasing a box set of buried gems from one of cinema’s most seminal figures - Sir Christopher Lee. He remains one of the most beloved horror/fantasy icons in US/UK pop culture history, but Christopher Lee delivered several of the most compelling, acclaimed and bizarre performances of his entire career in 1960s Europe. The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee brings together five of these Lee classics - the 1964 gothic shocker Crypt Of The Vampire; the 1964 cult hit Castle Of The Living Dead co-starring an unknown Donald Sutherland; 1962's celebrated Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace; 1967's lurid favorite The Torture Chamber Of Dr.

The new [Imprint] label turns its attention to the Sam Peckinpah favorite, the almost-classic that suffered a number of setbacks — a studio regime change, impractical remote locations, the wrong producer — and a director with zero diplomatic skills, who couldn’t finish his script and fought political battles when his movie needed his full attention. That the finished film shows so much brilliance is a tragedy, as this could have been a landmark epic, Charlton Heston’s best. CineSavant turns its attention to a favored film one more time — to play imagination games with re-cuts. Viavision [Imprint]’s lavish boxed set is said to be sold out, but that may only be at the company source.

Major Dundee

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 11

1965 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 136, 122 min. / Street Date October 28, 2019 / available at [Imprint] / $79.95 au

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong,...

German Films has released a list of ten films that were submitted by German producers for consideration to become the country’s International Feature Oscar contender.

Among the front-runners for selection are likely to be Julia Von Heinz’s And Tomorrow The Entire World, Caroline Link’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Burhan Qurbani’s Berlin Alexanderplatz and Christian Petzold’s Undine.

The ten films:

• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Caroline Link (Sommerhaus Filmproduktion)

• Berlin Alexanderplatz – Burhan Qurbani (Sommerhaus Filmproduktion)

• Crescendo #Makemusicnotwar – Dror Zahavi (Ccc-Filmkunst)

• Curveball – Johannes Naber (Bon Voyage Films)

• A Wet Dog – Damir Lukacevic (Carte Blanche International)

• Enfant Terrible – Oskar Roehler (Bavaria Filmproduktion)

• Fritzi – A Revolutionary Tale – Ralf Kukula, Matthias Brun (Balance Film)

• I’Ve Never Been To New York – Philipp Stölzl (Ziegler Film/UFA Fiction)

• Undine – Christian Petzold (Schramm Film Koerner + Weber)

• And Tomorrow The Entire World – Julia von Heinz (Seven Elephant Pictures)

An independent jury will select the German contender,...

Producer-star Richard Widmark may have thought he was inventing a new kind of spy film but his adaptation of an Alistair MacLean novel just grinds the Cold War grist, mixing good atmosphere with unconvincing action derring-do. The handsome production makes good use of Austrian and Swiss locations and the unfamiliar cast is a big assist. German star Sonja Ziemann gets the plum role, but Hollywood’s discovery is the lovely Senta Berger.

The Secret Ways

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1961 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 27, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Richard Widmark, Sonja Ziemann, Charles Regnier, Walter Rilla, Senta Berger, Howard Vernon, Hubert von Meyerinck, Oskar Wegrostek, Stefan Schnabel, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Ady Berber, Jochen Brockman, Reinhard Kolldehoff, Herbert Fux.

Cinematography: Max Greene

Film Editor: Aaron Stell

Original Music: Johnny Williams

Written by Jean Hazelwood from the novel by Alistair MacLean

Produced by Richard Widmark

Directed by Phil Karlson...

When “Curb Your Enthusiasm” returns for its much-anticipated 10th season it does so with it a musical theme that’s a prime example of recognizable sonic branding and has become synonymous with comedy in our complicated times: “Frolic” by composer Luciano Michelini.

But surprisingly, this comic march for tuba, mandolin and piano wasn’t specifically written for the series. Rather, it was composed as a throwaway piece for an obscure Italian film, wound up in a music library and was accidentally discovered by comedian-writer Larry David.

In a previous recounting, David spoke of hearing it in a bank commercial. “I love that, where’d they get that from?” he thought at the time. “The commercial ran for a week and I never saw it again. Then I had my assistant research it — it became this whole ordeal to get the name of the bank and the music, and finally she tracked it down.

Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Mangled Masterpiece’ gets a new lease on life with this Austrian import, which corrects all the things that bugged me about Twilight Time’s impressive Blu-ray back in 2013. This is the first time that the original uncut Preview-International version of Major Dundee has come to Blu-ray with its original soundtrack intact. The Two-Disc set includes a longform making-of docu from the prolific producer Mike Siegel, and the other extras make an extensive raid of our combined Dundee photo archives.

Major Dundee (Sierra Charriba)

Region-Free Blu-ray Mediabook

Explosive Media GmbH

1965 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 136, 121 min. / Sierra Charriba / Street Date December 12, 2019 / available at Amazon.de / 21,99 €

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, Dub Taylor, Michael Pate, Karl Swenson, Begonia Palacios, Aurora Clavell.

Cinematography: Sam Leavitt

Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Don Starling, Howard Kunin...

Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Mangled Masterpiece’ gets a new lease on life with this Austrian import, which corrects all the things that bugged me about Twilight Time’s impressive Blu-ray back in 2013. This is the first time that the original uncut Preview-International version of Major Dundee has come to Blu-ray with its original soundtrack intact. The Two-Disc set includes a longform making-of docu from the prolific producer Mike Siegel, and the other extras make an extensive raid of our combined Dundee photo archives.

Major Dundee (Sierra Charriba)

Region-Free Blu-ray Mediabook

Explosive Media GmbH

1965 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 136, 121 min. / Sierra Charriba / Street Date December 12, 2019 / available at Amazon.de / 21,99 €

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, Dub Taylor, Michael Pate, Karl Swenson, Begonia Palacios, Aurora Clavell.

Cinematography: Sam Leavitt

Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Don Starling, Howard Kunin...

Michael Anderson directs a classy slice of ’60s spy-dom. In West Berlin, George Segal’s Quiller struggles through a near- existential battle with Neo-Nazi swine more soulless than his own cold-fish handlers. Harold Pinter supplies the circular dialogue, Alec Guinness the charming insincerity and Max von Sydow a devilish menace. Quiller is mesmerized by the seductive ambiguity of lovely Senta Berger. Does she love Quiller? Or is love dead in this brave world of deceit and subterfuge?

The Quiller Memorandum

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger, George Sanders, Robert Helpmann, Robert Flemyng, Peter Carsten.

Cinematography: Erwin Hillier

Film Editor: Frederick Wilson

Original Music: John Barry

Written by Harold Pinter from the novel by Adam Hall

Produced by Ivan Foxwell

Directed by Michael Anderson

The ’60s spy movie craze was a copycat game.

On Monday, August 28, 2017, Turner Classic Movies will devote an entire day of their “Summer Under the Stars” series to the late, great Louis Burton Lindley Jr. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, well, then just picture the fella riding the bomb like a buckin’ bronco at the end of Dr. Strangelove…, or the racist taskmaster heading up the railroad gang in Blazing Saddles, or the doomed Sheriff Baker, who gets one of the loveliest, most heartbreaking sendoffs in movie history in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Lindley joined the rodeo circuit when he was 13 and soon picked up the name that would follow him throughout the length of his professional career, in rodeo and in movies & TV. One of the rodeo vets got a look at the lank newcomer and told him, “Slim pickin’s. That’s all you’re gonna get in this rodeo.

Comedy and romance bookend the 2017 Stony Brook Film Festival presented by Island Federal Credit Union. The 22nd Annual Sbff opens on July 20th at Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University. U.S. premiere screening of Welcome to Germany (Willkommen bei den Hartmanns), a feature written and directed by Simon Verhoeven (Men in the City), opens the Festival. Welcome to Germany is a timely comedy about a well-off Munich family who offer to take in a refugee. The film stars Senta Berger, Heiner Lauterbach, Palina Rojinski, Elyas M'Barek and Eric Kabongo. The film from Picture Tree, produced by Quirin Berg, Michael Verhoeven, Simon Verhoeven and Max Wiedemann, is being shown in its first screening in North America. A romantic comedy, Text for You, from...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Chamber of Horrors

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber

1940 / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date March 21, 2017

Starring: Lilli Palmer, Leslie Banks.

Cinematography: Alex Bryce, Ernest Palmer

Film Editor: Ted Richards

Written by Gilbert Gunn, Norman Lee

Produced by John Argyle

Directed by Norman Lee

Near the turn of the century a struggling war correspondent named Edgar Wallace began churning out detective stories for British monthlies like Detective Story Magazine to help make the rent. Creative to a fault, his preposterously prolific output (exacerbated by ongoing gambling debts) soon earned him a legion of fans along with a pointedly ambiguous sobriquet, “The Man Who Wrote Too Much.”

A reader new to Wallace’s work could be excused for thinking the busy writer was making it up as he went along… because that’s pretty much what he did. He dictated his narratives, unedited, into a dictaphone for transcription by his secretary where they would then...

By John M. Whalen

Back in the 1950s, before he became a legend, filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch,” “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,” and “The Killer Elite”) wrote scripts for TV westerns, including “Gunsmoke,” “The Rifleman,” and “Tombstone Territory.” His reputation grew and in 1957 he wrote his first screenplay entitled “The Glory Guys” which was based on Hoffman Birney’s novel, “The Dice of God.” The book was a fictional account of Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, with all names changed. The script went unproduced for almost eight years, and in the meantime Sam had moved on, directing features including “The Deadly Companions” (1960), “Ride the High Country” (1962) and “Major Dundee” (1965).

You would think that with that growing resume, Peckinpah would have been able to direct anything he wanted to, but such was far from the case. “Bloody Sam,” as he was called, affectionately by his fans,...

Three UK features among first 15 films selected for Berlin’s Generations programme.Scroll down for list

The 2017 Berlin Film Festival has revealed the first raft of titles selected for its Generations sidebar, which features youth and children’s films.

Michael Winterbottom’s music documentary On The Road [pictured], which follows the band Wolf Alice on tour, will open the Generation 14plus programme this year.

Also playing in that strand will be Dash Shaw’s My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea, which features the voices of Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph, Lena Dunham and Susan Sarandon.

Further UK features playing in 14plus include the world premieres of Carol Salter’s Almost Heaven and Rafael Kapelinski’s Butterfly Kiss.

Titles selected for the separate GenerationKplus strand include the European premiere of Kriv Stenders’s Australian family feature Red Dog: True Blue.

The 2017 Berlin Film Festival takes place February 9-19.

Selected titles

Synopses provided by Berlinale press office.

Generation14plus

On The Road...

A broad comedy about the European refugee crisis has become Germany's top local-language film of the year, earning more than $20 million to date.

Welcome to the Hartmanns, directed by Simon Verhoeven, earned a further $2.1 million over the weekend with some 230,000 admissions, taking its total to 2.1 million admissions. It is on track to shoot by Verhoeven's top-grossing film, Men in the City (2009), which earned $20.3 million in Germany.

The movie stars veteran actor Senta Berger as Angelika Hartmann, a well-to-do Munich socialite who decides, in the wake of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-border policy of 2015,...

Do you like my choice of leading image?  'We're the Glory Guys! Eee-Yow!' What is surely the most generic cavalry western of all time is actually from a screenplay by Sam Peckinpah. Twilight Time's extras have a lot to say about that, and so does Savant. The Glory Guys Blu-ray Twilight Time 1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date September 6, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Tom Tryon, Harve Presnell, Senta Berger, James Caan, Andrew Duggan, Slim Pickens, Peter Breck, Jeanne Cooper, Michael Anderson Jr., Adam Williams, Wayne Rogers, Michael Forest, Paul Birch, Stephen Chase, Claudio Brook. Cinematography James Wong Howe Cinematography Ernst R. (Tom) Rolf, Melvin Shapiro Original Music Riz Ortolani Written by Sam Peckinpah from the novel by Hoffman Birney Produced by Arthur Gardner, Arnold Laven, Jules V. Levy Directed by Arnold Laven

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The Glory Guys is as generic and standard-issue...

New Roy Andersson feature About Endlessness also gets backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Terrence Malick is lining up WWII drama Radegund (aka Jägerstätter), about the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II who was executed by the Nazis in 1943 aged 36.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI declared Jägerstätter a martyr and he was beatified by the Catholic Church.

Set to play Jägerstätter is August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds, The Counterfeiters), while Valerie Pachner (Jack) is also due to join.

The project was announced by the German funding body the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, which is backing it with €400,000.

The drama is reportedly set to shoot at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, this summer and marks Malick’s return to the WWII era following acclaimed 1998 title The Thin Red Line.

The title Radegund refers to the Thuringian princess and Frankish queen from the 6th century who found protection under the Church after fleeing her marriage when her husband had her...

'Affliction' movie: Nick Nolte as the troubled police officer Wade Whitehouse. 'Affliction' movie: Great-looking psychological drama fails to coalesce Set in a snowy New Hampshire town, Affliction could have been an excellent depiction of a dysfunctional family's cycle of violence and how that is accentuated by rapid, destabilizing socioeconomic changes. Unfortunately, writer-director Paul Schrader's 1998 film doesn't quite reach such heights.* Based on a novel by Russell Banks (who also penned the equally snowy The Sweet Hereafter), Schrader's Affliction relies on a realistic wintry atmosphere (courtesy of cinematographer Paul Sarossy) to convey the deadness inside the story's protagonist, the middle-aged small-town sheriff Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte). The angst-ridden Wade is intent on not ending up like his abusive, alcoholic father, Glen (James Coburn), while inexorably sliding down that very path. Making matters more complicated, Wade must come to terms with the fact that his ex-wife, Lillian (Mary Beth Hurt), will never return to him,...

'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' 2015: Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' movie is a domestic box office bomb: Will it be saved by international filmgoers? Directed by Sherlock Holmes' Guy Ritchie and toplining Man of Steel star Henry Cavill and The Lone Ranger costar Armie Hammer, the Warner Bros. release The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has been a domestic box office disaster, performing about 25 percent below – already quite modest – expectations. (See also: “'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' Movie: Bigger Box Office Flop Than Expected.”) This past weekend, the $80 million-budget The Man from U.N.C.L.E. collected a meager $13.42 million from 3,638 North American theaters, averaging $3,689 per site. After five days out, the big-screen reboot of the popular 1960s television series starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum has taken in a mere $16.77 million. For comparison's sake:...

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' with Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' box office: Bigger domestic flop than expected? Before I address the box office debacle of Warner Bros.' The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I'd like remark upon the fact that 2015 has been a notable year at the North American box office. That's when the dinosaurs of Jurassic World smashed Hulk and his fellow Halloween-costumed Marvel superheroes of Avengers: Age of Ultron. And smashed them good: $636.73 million vs. $457.52 million. (See also: 'Jurassic World' beating 'The Avengers' worldwide and domestically?) At least in part for sentimental (or just downright morbid) reasons – Paul Walker's death in a car accident in late 2013 – Furious 7 has become by far the highest-grossing The Fast and the Furious movie in the U.S. and Canada: $351.03 million. (Shades of Heath Ledger's unexpected death...

'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' with Henry Cavill. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' box office: Hollywood's third domestic bomb in a row Right on the heels of Chris Columbus-Adam Sandler's Pixels and Josh Trank's Fantastic Four comes The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a big screen adaptation of the 1960s television series, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Man of Steel hero Henry Cavill and The Lone Ranger costar Armie Hammer. (See updated follow-up post: “'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' Movie Box Office: Bigger Bomb Than Expected.”) Budgeted at a reported $88 million, to date Pixels has collected a mere $61.11 million in North America. Overseas things are a little better: an estimated $73.6 million as of Aug. 9, for a worldwide total of approx. $134.71 million. Sounds profitable? Well, not yet. First of all, let's not forget that distributor...

Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson on the Oscars' Red Carpet Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson at the Academy Awards Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson are seen above arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The 95-year-old Wallach had received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2010. See also: "Doris Day Inexplicably Snubbed by Academy," "Maureen O'Hara Honorary Oscar," "Honorary Oscars: Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo Among Rare Women Recipients," and "Hayao Miyazaki Getting Honorary Oscar." Delayed film debut The Actors Studio-trained Eli Wallach was to have made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1953 blockbuster From Here to Eternity. Ultimately, however, Frank Sinatra – then a has-been following a string of box office duds – was cast for a pittance, getting beaten to a pulp by a pre-stardom Ernest Borgnine. For his bloodied efforts, Sinatra went on...

Asia was the big winner at the 64th Berlin Film Festival, taking home four Bears, including the Golden Bear for Best Film and Silver Bear for Best Actor (Liao Fan) for Diao Yinan’s Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai Ri Yan Huo).Click here for full list of winners

Another of the three Chinese titles, Blind Massage, picked up the Silver Bear for Outstanding Achievement, which again went to a cinematographer, Zeng Jian. Last year had seen DoP Aziz Zhambakiyev receive the prize for his camerawork on Harmony Lessons.

At the ceremony on Saturday night, the Silver Bear for Best Actress was presented to Haru Kuroki for her performance in The Little House by veteran Japanese director Yoji Yamada.

There were a further six prizes or special mentions for films from Asia in the decisions of the Generation and independent juries (Fipresci and Netpac).

Black Coal, Thin Ice is the fourth Chinese film to win the Golden...

‘La Cage aux Folles’ director Edouard Molinaro, who collaborated with Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, dead at 85 Edouard Molinaro, best known internationally for the late ’70s box office comedy hit La Cage aux Folles, which earned him a Best Director Academy Award nomination, died of lung failure on December 7, 2013, at a Paris hospital. Molinaro was 85. Born on May 31, 1928, in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, to a middle-class family, Molinaro began his six-decade-long film and television career in the mid-’40s, directing narrative and industrial shorts such as Evasion (1946), the Death parable Un monsieur très chic ("A Very Elegant Gentleman," 1948), and Le verbe en chair / The Word in the Flesh (1950), in which a poet realizes that greed is everywhere — including his own heart. At the time, Molinaro also worked as an assistant director, collaborating with, among others, Robert Vernay (the 1954 version of The Count of Monte Cristo, starring Jean Marais) and...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Twilight Time has released the 2005 restored version of Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee as on Blu-ray, providing both the "improved" version of the film along with the controversial original cut. Peckinpah had won respect as a fine director of TV Westerns and his 1962 feature film, Ride the High Country, earned critical praise, particularly in Europe. Columbia hired Peckinpah to direct his first big budget film, Major Dundee, which top-lined two big stars: Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. As would prove to be the case throughout his career, Peckinpah's fiercely independent nature, combined with his propensity for snaring defeat from the jaws of victory, found him over his head on the production even before shooting started. Filmed in some inhospitable areas of Mexico, Peckinpah began shooting before the script was finalized (always a recipe for disaster). Midway through the film, Columbia was going to fire him for going...

Charlton Heston movies: ‘A Man for All Seasons’ remake, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ (photo: Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur) (See previous post: “Charlton Heston: Moses Minus Staff Plus Chariot Equals Ben-Hur.”) I’ve yet to watch Irving Rapper’s melo Bad for Each Other (1954), co-starring the sultry Lizabeth Scott — always a good enough reason to check out any movie, regardless of plot or leading man. A major curiosity is the 1988 made-for-tv version of A Man for All Seasons, with Charlton Heston in the Oscar-winning Paul Scofield role (Sir Thomas More) and on Fred Zinnemann’s director’s chair. Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Thomas More’s wife in the TV movie (Wendy Hiller in the original) had a cameo as Anne Boleyn in the 1966 film. According to the IMDb, Robert Bolt, who wrote the Oscar-winning 1966 movie (and the original play), is credited for the 1988 version’s screenplay as well. Also of note,...

The Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its opening today, on February 7, 2013 at 7.30 pm. After a few words of greeting from Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann and Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, the Festival will be officially opened by Jury President Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, China) and Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick. The International Jury – whose other members are Susanne Bier (Denmark), Andreas Dresen (Germany), Ellen Kuras (USA), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Tim Robbins (USA) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece) – will also be introduced during the gala. Anke Engelke will again host the evening. This year’s music will be provided by Ulrich Tukur & Die Rhythmus Boys. 3sat will be broadcasting the opening live. Ziyi Zhang in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Wong Kar Wai Following the gala, Wong Kar Wai’s epic martial-arts drama The Grandmaster will have its international premiere. The director and his leading actors,...

by Marcey Papandrea, MoreHorror.com

What is a ‘giallo’? – Giallo is Italian for yellow; a term which came from crime/mystery paperbacks with the yellow toned covers. In turn, highly stylized films of the same genre with elements of eroticism became known as ‘giallo’ films themselves.

Why did you pick this film? – I have been interested in the giallo genre for a long time, ever since I saw my first Dario Argento film. As part of this series I wanted to expose myself to many different gialli as possible, so I sought out a lesser-known one. The title of L’Uomo Senza Memoria really caught my attention, and with a giallo film that is all you need.

Who is behind this one? – It was directed by Duccio Tessari, his previous giallo was The Bloodstained Butterfly. It stars Luc Merenda, Anita Strindberg, Senta Berger, Umberto Orsini, Bruno Corazzari, Manfred Freyberger and Rosario Borelli.

Cinema Sex Sirens, published by Omnibus Press,  is a unique collection of photographs of female stars of the '60s and '70s.

That period marked a new era of frankness in society and the movie industry lost no time in following suit after some 25 years of censorship and self-imposed regulations. The women who became the new erotic goddesses also became world-famous and defined a generation's view of sexuality.

Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer's gallery illustrates a luminous collection of idealized women and offers a fascinating insight into the movies' depiction of female sexuality during the '60s and '70s. From the indisputable legends to actresses whose used their beauty to gain fame in the short-term through exploitation movies, this book provides little-known insights into their lives and careers.

Foreword by Sir Roger Moore

Chapters include:

Hollywood Or Bust: The Early Years

...And God Created the Sex...

Through his films Sam Peckinpah frequently explored the relationships between men and violence and the relationships between men thrust together, but Cross of Iron stands out as being his only foray into the war film genre, although films such as The Wild Bunch and Major Dundee certainly flirt with similar thematic concerns.

In venturing into the then somewhat overstuffed area of WWII war films Peckinpah unsurprisingly chose to do something a little different, framing the conflict not from the side of the Allied forces but making a film that embeds us in the trenches with the German troops. Shot mostly on location in Yugoslavia Cross of Iron reconstructs the Eastern Front circa 1943 and centres on the German troops fighting there.

Arriving at the front-line early in the film is Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), a stuffy Prussian officer desperate to win the prestigious Iron Cross. At the front he finds a...

Father’s day is on the horizon and a whole bunch of cool Blu-ray’s are being released to celebrate that fact, a few films of which are particularly some of my Dad’s favourites.

Sam Peckinpah’s bloody anti-war movie Cross of Iron (out June 3rd), the British Wwi classic The Cruel Sea (June 13th) and the excellent Ice Cold Alex (June 13th), all digitally restored and available on the first time in Blu-ray. Excitedly if you are in London on father’s day weekend, the Odeon Panton St are showing Cross of Iron and Ice Cold in Alex from June 17th!

Owf have three copies of all three films to give away…

6 June: Cross Of Iron – Only On Bluray – Digitally Restored

Heralded as the most anti-war war film ever made, Cross Of Iron is a bloody and thought-provoking depiction of the horrors of war featuring an epic battle...

To celebrate the release of Cross of Iron on 6th June, Optimum Home Entertainment have given us three copies of the movie to give away on Blu-ray.

Synopsis: Heralded as the most anti-war war film ever made, Cross Of Iron is a bloody and thought-provoking depiction of the horrors of war featuring an epic battle of wills between aristocratic Prussian Officer Stransky (Maximilian Schell) and gutsy Sergeant Rolf Steiner (James Coburn). Director Sam Peckinpah has served as an inspiration for everyone from Tarantino to Kathryn Bigelow.

Extras: All New! Passion & Poetry – Sam Peckinpah’s War (46:00): A documentary by Mike Siegel featuring James Coburn, Senta Berger, David Warner, Vadim Glowna, Roger Fritz, Katy Haber & Sam Peckinpah. 5 featurettes with 1976 on set audio interviews: Sam Peckinpah (5:06) / James Coburn (5:30) / James Mason (6:05) / Maximilian Schell (4:35) / David Warner (3:14) / Featurette KRÜGER Kisses Kern (8:27) / Letters From Vadim & Sam Featurette (3:48) / Vadim...

I understand it’s an important find and all, but you’ve gotta admit this “gay caveman” story that made the news last week is also pretty hilarious. A gay caveman? That’s a stand-up comedy routine, not an archaeological discovery!

AfterElton.com already took on the problems with how the media reported the story, plus we also provided our own proof that us ‘mos have always been around – even during the Stone Age.

Nevertheless, since the word “caveman” somehow never fails to bring to my mind the image of a hot Abercrombie & Fitch model posing in a loincloth, the story inevitably got me to thinking of the dozens of Hollywood-ized interpretations of early humans that moviegoers have been treated to over the past several decades.

True, the majority of these interpretations aren’t exactly, shall we say, accurate (to my knowledge, they didn’t actually have laser-whitening capabilities back...

Cologne, Germany -- Isabel Kleefeld's adaptation of "Ruhm" (Fame) from best-selling author Daniel Kehlmann ("Measuring the World") received €1.28 ($1.72 million) million in production financing from regional film subsidy body Filmstiftung Nrw.

The novel, one of the top ten bestsellers in Germany last year, is a series of nine interconnected stories about people taking on new identities. "Ruhm" is set to begin shooting this September as a co-production between Germany's Little Shark Entertainment, Austria's Dor Film and Switzerland's Hugofilm. The large ensemble cast includes German actors Heino Ferch and Senta Berger.

Another Kehlmann project is currently in development: the drama "Me and Kaminski," which Wolfgang Becker ("Good Bye, Lenin!") will direct with Daniel Bruhl ("Inglourious Basterds") to star.

The International Rome Film Festival, which comes to a close tomorrow, announced its winner tonight in an awards ceremony in the Parco della musica, the festival’s labyrinthine main hub on the outskirts of the Eternal City. This year’s jury included president Milos Forman as well as Italian director Gabriele Muccino, Italian architect Gae Aulenti, French screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, Russian director Pavel Lungin and Austrian actress Senta Berger. It is the first …...

Cologne, Germany -- History repeated itself in several ways at this year's German TV Awards, held Saturday night in Cologne. Public broadcasters ZDF and ARD once again swept the honors, taking 16 of 21 trophies, and all the main winners were historic dramas looking at Germany's recent past.

ZDF's "Die Wolfe" (The Wolves), a docu-drama set in the 1940s, won three TV awards, helping the channel to a final tally of 10, far ahead of all competitors.

But it was ARD's "Mogadischu," a "Flight 93"-style drama tracking the infamous 1977 terrorist hijacking of a Lufthansa flight, that scooped the evening's top prize as best TV movie. Produced by Berlin-based teamWorx, the movie stars Thomas Kretschmann, Nadja Uhl and Said Taghmaoui.

For a change, the top winner was also a ratings hit. Roland Suso Richter's drama scored a 21% share in its first airing last November, with 7.3 million Germans tuning in.

Along with ARD and ZDF,...

With its Wait Until Dark nods, underwater sea helmut night lights, chainsaw action, amnesia, bad guys with nonstop colds and a tiny dog named Whisky all in tow, the 1974 Duccio Tessari giallo Puzzle (L’ Uomo senza memoria) manages to weave around its budget shortcomings with plenty of offbeat fun. Luc Merenda (Violent Professionals) is the central character with amnesia that has no idea what the hell is going on. He wakes up one day and slowly learns he has a wife and life, but no clue where they are. Suddenly fate kicks in and he finds himself on the run and put back in touch with his wife, played by Senta Berger (Quiller Memorandum). The title comes into play as the layers of the story slowly start peeling back revealing more and more clues, along with numerous red herrings as to why he has amnesia and why the bad guys...

BERLIN -- Weeks after being fired from her own talk show, anchorwoman Eva Herman managed to find her way back into the limelight by walking off somebody else's talk show.

Herman, who was fired by public broadcaster NDR after making sympathetic statements about the Nazis' family values while promoting her newest book, had been invited to the popular "Die Johannes B. Kerner Show" on Tuesday to address the issues surrounding her forced retirement. Instead of backpedaling, however, she proceeded to stand by her remarks and even volunteered a new incendiary sound bite, this time referring to Hitler's building of the Autobahn.

After protests from two of the other three guests -- television host Margarethe Schreinemakers and actress Senta Berger -- Herman departed with little prompting by host Kerner.

Herman, whose biggest achievement was as an anchorwoman on German television, has recast herself as Germany's answer to Ann Coulter: blond, blue-eyed and brazen. Her two books, "The Eva Principle" and "The Noah's Ark Principle -- Why We Must Save the Family," are populist tomes celebrating the sanctity of motherhood and the decline of family values.