wootmovie

“Looks like the inhabitants of Wonderland aren’t the only ones revolting against an evil tyrant. Theatre owners across the world are reportedly none too happy about Disney’s recently announced plans to push the DVD release date of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland up to within 12 weeks of the theatrical run, and they’re doing something about it. Disney hopes to increase sales of the DVD by having it out in time for the summer, a full 5 weeks earlier than the usual theatrical-to-DVD release window. In response, several cinema chains have threatened to boycott the film, voicing concerns about a potential loss of big screen revenue.
In the U.K., both Vue Entertainment and Odeon Cinemas have taken up arms, along with four of the major exhibitors in The Netherlands who have already decided not to carry the film. Now AMC in the U.S. is also staring down Disney; with less than two weeks before the movie’s scheduled release, they still have not agreed to screen it. If AMC were to boycott the movie it would be a huge blow, considering that they account for over 4500 screens worldwide. I don’t know if extra DVD sales could make up for a loss like that. It is expected that an agreement will be reached in the coming days, but it is unclear who will blink first. Who do you side with on this one, and does a shortened DVD release window make you less likely to see a movie in theatres?”

via moviefill

“La Jetée belongs to a genre that breeds opportunity for elaborate vision and little thought; the film is responsibly contrary to both assessments,” writes Rumsey Taylor at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. “Its strength is its simplification.”

“Lasting 29 minutes, shot in black and white and consisting almost entirely of still photographs – imaginatively blended with dissolves, wipes and fades – this is the bare bones of science fiction.” Simon Sellars at Ballardian: “It highlights why we are attracted to SF in the first place: not for bug-eyed aliens or galaxy-hopping spaceships, but for the way in which the form can twist our most cherished versions of reality inside out…. La Jetée’s influence is palpable. In a 1966 review for New Worlds magazine, JG Ballard considered it to be one of the few convincing acts of SF cinema, while a scene from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner – in which a photo of Rachel’s ‘mother’ animates for a second – is a direct homage to the truth and beauty at the core of this film (Blade Runner was co-scripted by David Peoples, and is famously about the unreliability of memory).”

And of course, Peoples co-wrote Twelve Monkeys, Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of La Jetée, today’s feature in the Recyclage de luxe Online Film Festival. For more on Chris Marker’s landmark work, see, for example, Nathan Lee in the Voice and Catherine Lupton at Criterion’s Current.”

via the auteurs