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Admire the Criterion Collection, but can’t afford the thousands of dollars required to purchase all those DVDs? There’s a more elegant solution…just get a Max subscription. Warner Bros and HBO have announced a renewal of their deal with Criterion to keep decades of film classics in one streamable spot. “We are excited to continue to bring the Criterion Collection’s catalog of top-quality films to our audiences,” said Royce Battleman, Executive Vice President, Content Acquisitions, Warner Bros. Discovery. “Both the existing and new additions to the collection provide Max viewers with the opportunity to experience cinematic excellence as part of our offering.” Founded in 1984, the Criterion Collection is dedicated to the preservation, restoration and protection of the art of cinema. Their famous line of DVDs and Blu-Rays span a hundred years of moviemaking, publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world. The list is too long to mention here,...

Richard Gere began his professional film career in 1975, appearing in the crime thriller "Report to the Commissioner." In 1976 and 1977, he secured notable supporting roles in "Baby Blue Marine" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," before securing his first leading role in 1978's "Bloodbrothers," a coming-of-age drama about two Italian-American brothers living in the Bronx. That same year, Gere appeared in Terrence Malick's dreamy "Days of Heaven," more or less securing him as a permanent Hollywood fixture. Gere has been working steadily ever since, using his affable on-camera charm and approachable good looks to remain one of the industry's most reliable movie stars. His high-profile marriage to model Cindy Crawford in 1991 only added to the actor's status as a sex symbol.

Gere often takes roles that require more razzle-dazzle than deep acting range, but Gere has been nominated for Golden Globes and Emmys, and won a SAG Award, so he's no slouch as a thespian.

Denmark has selected Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With the Needle as its Oscar submission for the Best International Feature Film category.

Starring Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, The Girl With the Needle riffs on one of Denmark’s most notorious murder cases to weave a poetic and dark fairytale about the people living on the margins in the aftermath of the First World War. Deadline’s review called the film “an unequivocal and beguiling triumph.”

Karoline (Sonne), a young factory worker, is struggling to survive in post World War I Copenhagen. When she finds herself unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, she meets Dagmar (Dyrholm), a charismatic woman running an underground adoption agency, helping mothers to find foster homes for their unwanted children. With nowhere else to turn, Karoline takes on the role of a wet-nurse. A strong connection is formed between the two women, but Karoline’s world...

Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle will represent Denmark as its international feature submission for the 97th Academy Awards.

The black-and-white drama premiered at Cannes in Competition and has since screened at the Polish Film Festival and Pingyao.

Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne star in the story loosely inspired by a real-life serial killer in Copenhagen who murdered numerous babies from 1913-20.

Nordisk Film Creative Alliance’s Malene Blenkov, whose credits include Lone Scherfig’s The Kindness Of Strangers, produces together with Mariusz Włodarski for Lava Films with support from The Danish Film Institute, The Swedish Film Institute,...

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur made a handful of smaller films before bursting into mainstream Hollywood with the Mark Wahlberg action flick "Contraband" in 2012. He's stayed steadily busy ever since, cranking out the Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg actioner "2 Guns" in 2013, the ensemble mountain climbing thriller "Everest" in 2015, the Shailene Woodley/Sam Claflin survival movie "Adrift" in 2018, and the "Idris Elba fights a lion" movie "Beast" in 2022, plus directing a couple of television shows in between. As those credits indicate, Kormákur is primarily known to American audiences for his high-octane filmmaking style. His latest project, however, marks a significant change of pace.

"Touch," written by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson (based on a novel by Ólafsson), tells the story of Kristófer, an elderly Icelander whose wife has passed away. Spurred on by some health issues of his own and sense that he's running out of time, Kristófer sets out to find a woman named Miko,...

Tran Anh Hung’s simmering gastro-romance is the latest dish in a cinematic feast ranging from The Godfather to The Lunchbox

The term “gastroporn” got thrown around a lot when The Taste of Things was in cinemas recently, but I’m not sure it’s quite right for Tran Anh Hung’s sumptuous culinary romance, seductive as all the cookery on display is. Though it has many a languid, exquisitely lit pan over the finished dishes created by Benoît Magimel’s 19th-century gourmet – including a giant, glistening vol-au-vent that I’ve been thinking about for months – it’s less about money shots than it is about foodie foreplay. The film’s greatest pleasures are in its extended sequences of preparation and process; the silently, adoringly intuitive collaboration between Magimel and Juliette Binoche’s fellow cook; the thrill of watching experts at work. Ok, and there’s a near-seamless match-cut from...

Chicago – The great food movies of cinema history … think “Babette’s Feast” or “Big Night” … use food prep cinematically as a palette for the senses. A French/Belgium film from last year continues that tradition. “The Taste of Things,” featuring Oscar winner Juliette Binoche and written/directed by Ahn Hung Tran, is set in late 19th Century France within a romance between a chef and his muse.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Adapted from a popular French novel featuring Chef Dodin Bouffant (Benoit Magimel), and set in 1889, the story involves the developing love affair between Bouffant and his vital taster and sous chef Eugenie (Juliette Binoche). As Bouffant’s reputation grows, to a point where ambassadors and kings desire his meals, Eugenie continues to be his muse. Right at the height of their love and food creative relationship, Eugenie’s health becomes an obstacle.

Ahn Hung Tran and Benoit Magimel on the set of ‘The...

The Vietnamese-born director’s new film is a sumptuous love letter to French food culture starring former real-life couple Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. He talks about the formal appeal of haute cuisine and the poetry of an omelette

The current menu for film and TV stories about cuisine is all conflict and crisis – kitchens as battlefields, dishes forged in the white-hot skillet of raging tempers. But new French film The Taste of Things couldn’t be further from The Bear or Boiling Point. A controlled simmer is more the temperature of this piece by Vietnamese-born director Tran Anh Hung – the most rapturous hymn to culinary art since such beloved gourmet outings as Babette’s Feast or Eat Drink Man Woman.

Set in the 1880s, the film – which won Tran the best director award at Cannes last year – is about the relationship between cook Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) and her gourmet employer...

By now, even the most hardcore fans of French cuisine and “Chocolat” star Juliette Binoche can agree that Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” — rather than Tran Anh Hung’s “The Taste of Things” — was the one movie that could have given France its first Oscar win for best international feature in over 30 years, since Régis Wargnier’s “Indochine.”

Over the last three decades, a number of French movies have earned Oscar recognition, but none have been the official French Oscar submission. Michael Haneke’s “Amour” earned five Oscar noms in 2013 and even won the best foreign-language Oscar but it represented Austria. A year before, “The Artist,” a French-directed and produced silent movie, won five Oscars out of 10 nominations, including best picture. But the movie had come out in theaters in October, past the former Sept. 30 deadline (which has since then been extended in France) to submit films for...

If you are a filmgoer of a certain age, you will recall a heady time at the cinema when miraculous dishes were conjured up by beautiful people, rich aromas positively wafting out of the screen and onto the rapt audience, whose juices overflowed at the sight and imagined taste of the delectable dishes on show.

We’re not talking any old dinner here; we’re talking the likes of Babette’s Feast or Big Night. Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste of Things is part of that delicious lineage: the period costumes, the painstakingly prepared food, the romance and the beauty are all present and correct. His film – and I mean no disrespect by this – sticks to a tried and tested formula, and whilst watching it, it makes us realise that we had been nostalgic for exactly this type of cinema for quite some time.

The Taste of Things is set...

At the intersection of interests for cinephiles and foodies lie great movies about food. Films like "Big Night," "Ratatouille," "Babette's Feast," "Tampopo," and "The Trip" movies occupy a special place in the stomachs -- er, minds -- of viewers, and I'm pleased to report that another movie has instantly catapulted into that hallowed pantheon.

"The Taste of Things," from director Trần Anh Hùng, received a limited theatrical release earlier this year for awards consideration (it's the French contender for Best International Feature at the 2024 Oscars), but it won't actually receive a bigger release in the United States until February of 2024. Still, for those who vibe with the types of movies I listed above, this will be a major event at the movies. And aside from being only a great movie about food, it's also a great movie, period -- it's technically one of the best of 2023, but even if you...

Juliette Binoche is finding the flavor of new love in “The Taste of Things.”

Written and directed by Tran Anh Hung, the film is officially France’s Oscars submission for the Best International Film category. “The Taste of Things,” formerly known as “The Pot-au-Feu,” premiered at 2023 Cannes.

Binoche and her ex-partner Benoît Magimel star as two chefs fall in love across 20 years in the 19th century; Hung adapted the romance drama from Marcel Rouffe’s 1924 novel “The Passionate Epicure.” The film marks Hung’s second Oscar entry, following 1993’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” where Hung made history as the first Vietnamese nominee.

Set in France in the late 19th century, the film follows the life of Dodin Bouffant (Magimel) as the preeminent chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie (Binoche). Eugénie and Dodin share a long history of gastronomy and love. While emotions remain contained, the culinary discoveries are,...

Denmark has submitted Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land as its candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

The epic historic drama stars Mads Mikkelsen as the real-life Ludvig von Kahlen, a former soldier who tries to make his fortune by taming the then wild and lawless heath of the Danish Jutland peninsula, so it could be turned over to cultivation following a declaration by King Frederik V.

The film world premiered at Venice and then headed to Telluride and Toronto, is currently screening at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and will next screen at the Zurich Film Festival, Filmfest Hamburg, Hamptons International Film Festival, and the Mill Valley Film Festival.

The film was selected from a short list which also included Anders Walter’s Before It Ends and Lea Glob’s documentary Apolonia, Apolonia.

The Danish Film Institute-backed film produced by Louise Vesth for...

Cordon bleu is the warmest color in Tràn Anh Hùng’s long but surprisingly light soufflé of a movie The Pot-au-Feu (renamed The Taste of Things ahead of its U.S. release), a highly watchable Aga saga that’s so artful, charming and non-boat-rockingly old-school that it might make you wonder, even in a non-ironic way, what Lasse Hallström has been up to lately. In Cannes Film Festivals gone by, it could arguably have provoked the bidding war of the fortnight, given the track record of such foodie faves as Le Grand Bouffe, Babette’s Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman, which also debuted on the Croisette. But that’s faint praise for a story that, although it’s almost all about fillings, trimmings and toppings, doesn’t seem to have that much content or, more importantly, depth.

Set in late-19th century France, The Pot Au Feu is loosely based...

There’s food porn, which shows like Chef’s Table and Top Chef, not to mention last year’s horror hit movie The Menu, have turned into widely popular entertainment. And then there’s art house food porn, a subgenre that possibly dates back to Marco Ferreri’s 1973 satire La Grande Bouffe, and whose other examples include Babette’s Feast, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Tampopo, Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate. The latter films tend to be made in a language other than English, and they’re less about chefs competing for Michelin stars, or glowing reviews from Pete Wells, than about food as a way of life.

Where else but France, then, as the setting for the latest, and certainly one of the most appetizing, art house food porn flicks to come along in a while? Tràn Anh Hùng’s The Pot-au-Feu (La Passion du Dodin-Bouffant) is...

In the rose-gray light of dawn, Juliette Binoche strides through a verdant kitchen garden, wearing a straw hat as wide and undulating as an ocean wave. She plucks a majestically large, gnarled celeriac from the earth and sniffs it deeply and fondly, as if inhaling mythical ambrosia, and takes it back to the house. This is how Tràn Anh Hùng’s “The Taste of Things” opens, which is to say on a note of sensory reverence and a hint of kitsch, in knowing thrall to one of the less pretty vegetables in nature’s cornucopia. There are people — this critic included — who will watch this scene and immediately sense with a hungry tingle that the film to come has been made expressly for their palate, and there is everyone else. “The Taste of Things” is not for everyone else, and that’s just fine.

Thirty years after his first feature...

Grandave Intl. has acquired the international sales rights of sports drama feature film “Sweetwater,” starring Golden Globe winner and Emmy Award winner Jeremy Piven and Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss.

Other cast include SAG Award nominated actor Cary Elwes, SAG Award winner Kevin Pollak, and rising star Everett Osborne.

The film will be released in the U.S. by Universal and Briarcliff Entertainment, in partnership with the NBA. It is written and directed by Martin Guigui.

The producers are Tim Moore (“American Sniper”), Dahlia Guigui (“9/11”), Darren Moorman (“Blue Miracle”), and Josi Konski (“Babette’s Feast”).

Scott Pomeroy, Tom Ortenberg, Mike Durden, Scott Helms, David Cuddy, Craig Cheek, Stanley Preschutti and Ruben Islas are serving as executive producers.

“I am excited to screen this strong and commercial sports feature,” Tamara Nagahiro, Grandave Intl.’s head of sales, said.

Grandave Intl. will introduce the title to international buyers at the Cannes Film Market,...

[Warning: The following contains Major spoilers for The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen series premiere.] Connie Nielsen takes on a dream role in The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen. The Danish series premieres Thursday, March 30 on Nordic streamer Viaplay. In it, Nielsen is a far cry from the physical prowess of Wonder Woman‘s Queen Hippolyta, but the Danish actor displays an emotional strength as Denmark’s most famous modern writer who penned Seven Gothic Tales, Out of Africa, Babette’s Feast, and more (often under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen). The Dreamer “tells the story of one woman’s struggle to find her place in life while freeing herself from the expectations of family and society,” the logline describes. Set in the 1930s, the series begins with the end of the author’s time in East Africa. It was far from a happy ending. Divorced from her husband, her lover dead, and her Kenyan farm gone under, the penniless Blixen must return ...

How far would you travel across the face of the Earth to find yourself? That’s the question Karen Blixen must answer in “The Dreamer- Becoming Karen Blixen,” the new series coming to Viaplay on Thursday, March 30. The story follows Blixen as she travels thousands of miles, only to find that the real journey lies deep within herself. You can watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Viaplay.

How to Watch 'The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen' Premiere When: Thursday, March 30, 2023 Where: Viaplay Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Viaplay. 7-Day Free Trial$5.99 / month viaplay.com About 'The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen' Premiere

“The Dreamer- Becoming Karen Blixen” tells the story of one woman’s struggle to find her place in life while freeing herself from the expectations of family and society. The series takes place in the 1930s and follows Karen Blixen...

Much to our surprise, y'all selected the Kirsten Dunst/Michelle Williams comedy Dick (1999) as our film of the week in the readers poll. So watch it before Friday (it's on Pluto free with ads or rentable anywhere) so we can have a good conversation on March 31st. (Last week we devoured Babette's Feast) We should ask you to vote earlier each week so on Wednesday look for the poll for April 7th discussion to go up so you'll have more of a headstart on voting/watching. 

Fri March 31st - Dick (1999)

Fri April 7th -Tba voting starts Wednesday

Fri April 14th - Fatal Attraction (1987) since I owe a patient reader a piece on that.

This weekend's topic, currently streaming on HBOMax and Criterion Channel, was chosen by readers. This article contains spoilers so if you've never seen the film, correct that first.

for such a delicious movie, the first shot of people and food isn't very appetizing!by Nathaniel R

How far does the "foodie" movie subgenre stretch back? It's difficult to tell from the internet alone, which tends to think movies of all genres began in the 1980s; online "best of all time" lists are of little use when you're curious about film history. We know at least that the subgenre was in full swing by the 1990s with arthouse hits such as Like Water for Chocolate, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Big Night arriving semi-annually. Was the watershed moment, at least for US moviegoers, bout a half a year stretch between the fall of 1987 and the spring of 1988? In that time the...

Thank you for egging me on to finally watch Babette's Feast. T'was yummy. On April 14th we'll be discussing Fatal Attraction (1987) as there's a television adaptation coming up And I owe a reader a piece on that and he's not going to be ignored, Dan! But until then you can pick our film of the week collectively. What should we watch next week and discuss by Friday, March 31st? 

This time we'll do an early star vehicle from one of our recent Oscar players. To make it more unexpected the requirement is that the movie came out in the 1990s and have zero Oscar nods. So which will it be? 

online polls...

Thank you for voting in the readers poll about what movie we should talk about next week (Thursday March 23rd). So please watch Babette's Feast (1987) before that day. It's only 102 minutes long which used to be a normal movie length but now will feel like a short film! The Oscar-winning foodie classic is currently streaming on both HBOMax and Criterion and is also available to rent on most platforms if you don't have those services.

Somehow I've never seen it despite being a) really into Scandinavian things b) obsessed with the Best International Feature Film category and c) fascinated that Denmark has become Hollywood's "favourite" country other than Germany in the past two decades (if this keeps up those two countries will be to the 21st century what Italy/France were to the Oscars of the 20th century)...

Hey readers. Now that the Oscar coverage is wrapping let's return to our great love of Randomness. Let's watch something together and discuss. I want to see something I've never seen before so I looked at the current streaming crop and picked four I should catch up with. Decide which I have to write about by next Thursday March 23rd

online polls

Your choices are Denmark's first Oscar winner and foodie favourite Babette's Feast (1987), the Jayne Mansfield rom-com Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), the sleeper hit action flick John Wick (2014) starring Keanu Reeves, and Robert Altman's infamous Popeye (1980)... and yes, I too, think it's strange that I haven't seen any of these particular films which all have pockets of devout admirers. ...

The “Cinderella” story for “Drive My Car” has been one of the award season’s most enlightening. The Japanese submission captured a nom for best international feature, best picture, director and adapted screenplay. It became the eighth film in Oscars history to be nominated for both picture and international categories.

The others are “Z” (1969), “The Emigrants” (1971/72), “Life is Beautiful” (1998), “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), “Amour” (2012), “Roma” (2018) and “Parasite” (2019). “Emigrants” is the only one to have lost the international category. However, that’s due to it receiving nominations in different years. It represented Sweden at the 1972 awards before getting a U.S. release and qualifying for the following ceremony, picking up four noms for picture, directing, actress and adapted screenplay.

With a robust runtime of 179 minutes, “Drive My Car” has gotten over the hurdle of getting enough Academy attention to secure its noms. But, with over 9,400 eligible members able to vote in every category,...

Every so often, a movie comes along that sends culinarily inclined audiences into rapture — “Babette’s Feast,” “Big Night” or “Like Water for Chocolate” spring to mind — getting eyes glistening and mouths watering in anticipation of a meal that only the characters will ever taste. “Flux Gourmet” is not that foodie movie. In fact, “Flux Gourmet” may well send audiences running for the loo, or else reaching for the barf bag, coming about as close to triggering the gag reflux as a film can without actually jamming a finger down your throat.

It’s doubtful that was quite the intention of writer-director Peter Strickland, the content-with-cult-status auteur behind “Berberian Sound Studio” and “In Fabric.” And yet, somewhere around the scene where alimentary performance artist Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamad) unscrews a stool sample cup and smears the dark chocolaty goo all over her face, audiences will be making like the sickly green Nauseated Face emoji,...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards

Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...

by Nathaniel R

As we've long noted for the rest of the online world that doesn't pay super close attention to this category even if they'll dutifully share press release, Denmark is currently Oscar's favourite country (statistically speaking). In the past 12 years they've been nominated six times, won twice, and also made the finals twice more without actually snagging the nomination. That's the best run of any country in quite a long while in this category. They're the defending champion since the brilliant boozy Another Round took the gold at the 93rd Oscars. It's rare for countries to win this category in consecutive years but Denmark could given their hot streak. They've actually done that once before (1987 & 1988 with Babette's Feast and Pelle the Conqueror). Here are their three finalists for submission this time around...

Denmark is the current holder of the award with ‘Another Round’.

Denmark has announced a trio of films shortlisted for its submission for the international Oscar race.

The three finalists are:

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, the animated documentary about an Afghan refugee’s journey to Denmark - winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance, with Neon handling North American distribution. Charlotte Sieling’s Margrete - Queen of the North – a epic drama starring Trine Dyrholm as Margrete the First, who ruled Scandinavia in the early 1400s; Samuel Goldwyn will release in the US.

Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival has announced that it will extend its multi-year partnership with Variety for its 39th edition. The festival will partner with Variety’s Streaming Room on an International Feature Film Nominees Roundtable scheduled for next year before final voting begins on March 17, 2022. The five directors that receive Oscar nominations for the International Feature Films category will be invited to participate in a panel moderated by Variety’s Film Awards editor Clayton Davis. Additional panel details will be announced at a later date.

In addition, the festival’s Miami Gems will serve as a key fall showcase for International Feature Film contenders, this year moving to November 4-7, 2021. Confirmed titles for this year that are considered to be strong contenders for International Feature Film submissions are “Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World,” directed by Joachim Trier and Iran’s “A Hero,” directed by Asghar Farhadi.

Chloé Zhao becomes only second woman in history to win best director

Oscar favourite Nomadland and UK talent triumphed at the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday (April 25) as the most protracted season, and one shaped by the pandemic, came to an end.

Searchlight Pictures’ Nomadland was named best picture and also scored wins for Asian American best director Chloé Zhao – who became the first woman of colour and only the second woman in history to win the award after Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010 – and lead actress Frances McDormand, who competed in a particularly close contest.

McDormand fought...

The film medium, all too often, is boxed or labeled into specific genres, and when it comes time for awards, that’s the only place voters deem “appropriate” for recognition. This includes documentaries, international and animated features, as well big-budget blockbusters that only find distinction in sound and visual effects, or comedies in a rare instance of the screenplay and a supporting acting nomination.

We’ve seen an eclectic and vibrant selection of films unveiled in this unconventional year. While milestone recognitions look to be on the horizon, all awards voters still have work to do in getting a more dynamic number of films recognized in other key categories. We’ve seen AMPAS take an important step in the right direction with HBO’s “Welcome to Chechnya,” which made the shortlists for both documentary and visual effects. Like last year’s “Honeyland,” which was nominated for both international and documentary feature,...

Pop the champagne – the Danish Film Institute is sending Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round to the 2021 International Oscar race.

The pic stars Mads Mikkelsen as one of a group of high school teachers who test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood. It was a Cannes label selection and screened at Toronto, going on to win awards at the San Sebastian and London film festivals.

Another Round was selected ahead of Malou Reymann’s A Perfectly Normal Family and Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm’s Shorta by a Danish Film Institute committee, which wrapped its decisive meeting just now.

The committee was comprised of chairman Claus Ladegaard, Noemi Ferrer (Danish Producers), Ali Abbasi (Danish Directors), Mette Heeno (Danish Screenwriters), Jan Weincke (Danish Cinematographers), Nanna Frank Rasmussen (Danish Film Critics), Søren Søndergaard (Danish Cinema Owners...

The way to a man’s heart is allegedly through his stomach, but as with all things we love, this wisdom old as the patriarchy itself calls for the hashtag #itscomplicated. Whether this particular saying is true or not, many emotions are passed in our digestive system though tiny mechanisms in brain that make us crave for certain type of food, or avoid it at all costs.

“301,302” screened as part of the Korean Cultural Centre UK‘s “Trapped! The Cinema of Confinement” programme

Asian cinema has a very special relationship with food. For quite some time, dinning rooms or restaurant tables have been playing a crucial role in presenting the key movie characters, their milieus and thoughts, influencing the narrative, often turning into the main stage. It is very hard to imagine a Hong Sang-soo film without a variety of food and an impressive amount of Soju or Makgeolli flowing...

Danish writer Karen Blixen, whose memoir “Out of Africa” and short story “Babette’s Feast” were both turned into Academy Award-winning films, is now the subject of another big-screen makeover with an adaptation of her short story “The Immortal Story” set to be penned by Argentina’s Daniel Rosenfeld and Lucía Puenzo.

Argentine-French actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Bpm (Beats per Minute)”) and Leonardo Sbaraglia have signed letters of intent to head up the cast, along with an international actor and actress, which have yet to be confirmed, Rosenfeld told Variety.

Director-producer of Idfa player “Piazzola, the Years of the Shark,” which won best documentary at Argentina’s 2018 Academy Awards, Rosenfeld has purchased rights to the story, which was adapted by Orson Welles in 1968.

Rosenfeld is currently writing the screenplay adaptation with Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most courted film directors and showrunner on Amazon’s “La Jauría,” produced by Fabula and Fremantle.

The end of 2019 was pretty tumultuous for filmmaker Alexander Payne. Just weeks before he was set to direct a feature for Netflix, starring Mads Mikkelsen, the project was scrapped. Then, his film, “The Menu,” starring Emma Stone, ran into developmental issues. Finally, the filmmaker was able to sign on for a new remake of “Babette’s Feast” and an HBO series, so things seem to be going well.

Continue reading ‘Succession’ Director Mark Mylod Replaces Alexander Payne On ‘The Menu,’ Produced By Adam McKay at The Playlist.

With its moments of low-key culinary joy, the Danish gem offers a vital recipe for unity in times of austere hardship

At a time when basic grocery shopping is a military operation and many people’s incomes have been cut, an invitation to watch others eat a seven-course meal including caviar, foie gras and truffles might seem a bit rich, in more than one sense of the word. However, despite the incongruous luxuriousness of its eponymous climatic meal, Gabriel Axel’s 1987 masterpiece Babette’s Feast is the ideal lockdown movie.

Most of the film shows how the puritanical Danish Lutherans in the film lived before they sat down to turtle soup, blinis and quail in puff pastry. Life for them is a lot more austere than it is for most of us now. Many depend on the local equivalent of food banks: the meal delivery service provided by the two devout sisters Martine and Filippa.

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.

From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on Film Movement Plus and Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s the best of the best for February 2020.

“Close-Up”

The Criterion Channel invariably offers the deepest and most compelling slate of any streaming service, but this month’s additions almost border on overkill; how is anyone supposed to choose where to start? The programming lineup kicks off...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller)

It sounds almost too perfect: Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers, the beloved children’s entertainer. Of course, who else could it be, really? It is so seemingly predestined, in fact, that Hanks’s first onscreen appearance as Fred Rogers elicits knowing laughter from the audience. Yes, Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers looks and sounds exactly how you would imagine. Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, however, is much more than an obvious biopic. It’s not really a biopic at all. Nor is it a rehash of 2018’s much-heralded documentary profile of Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be MyNeighbor?...

Olivia Colman is on quite a roll this past year or so. After winning an Oscar for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” the actress once again killed it in the second season of “Fleabag” and, recently, in the third season of “The Crown.” And she’s not slowing down anytime soon, as Colman has apparently signed on to star in a new series titled “Landscapers.”

Read More: Alexander Payne To Direct A Remake Of The 1988 Film ‘Babette’s Feast’

According to Variety, Colman will star in the upcoming HBO series “Landscapers, which is set to be directed by none other than Alexander Payne.

Continue reading Olivia Colman Teaming With Director Alexander Payne On New HBO Crime Series ‘Landscapers’ at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Alexander Payne has hit a bit of a rough patch lately. His most recent movie, 2017’s Downsizing, made just $55 million worldwide on a reported $68 million budget, and though it seemed like he was lining up a new Netflix project earlier this year, that was abruptly cancelled in October due to a rights issue. […]

The post ‘The Descendants’ Director Alexander Payne Puts a ‘Babette’s Feast’ Remake on the Menu appeared first on /Film.

It was an unfortunate blow for Alexander Payne when, this past October, Netflix halted production on a father-daughter road movie the director was set to helm with star Mads Mikkelsen. However, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker has finally found his first project to take on since 2017’s “Downsizing.” As originally reported by Deadline, that film will be a reimagining of Gabriel Alex’s 1987 “Babette’s Feast,” which was the first Danish film to win the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

Payne’s version will transport the original’s 19th-century religious community setting to small-town Minnesota, where two spinster sisters take in a refugee who brings buried resentments and regrets to the surface over the course of a lavish meal. In the 1987 film written by Axel from a Karen Blixen short story, the pious Danish sisters take in a French refugee of the Franco-Prussian War. Payne’s take will be written by comedian Guy Branum,...

From an outsider’s perspective, 2019 has been a bit of a wild ride for Alexander Payne. Even though the filmmaker hasn’t released a new film since 2017’s “Downsizing,” this past year has seen Payne attached to a total of three films, including the most recent announcement, a remake of the 1988 film “Babette’s Feast.”

According to Deadline, Payne has agreed to direct a remake of “Babette’s Feast,” which will be scripted by Guy Branum.

Continue reading Alexander Payne To Direct A Remake Of The 1988 Film ‘Babette’s Feast’ at The Playlist.

It hasn’t been an easy last few years for Alexander Payne. After his misunderstood drama Downsizing didn’t connect with audiences, he recently tried to get a few projects off the ground to no avail. Earlier this fall, his Mads Mikkelsen-led road movie for Netflix was canceled a week before production due to rights issues, then we haven’t heard any updates about his Emma Stone- and Ralph Fiennes-led horror-comedy The Menu nor his true story drama The Burial. He now looks to be back on track with a new feature and it’s one that will have him rethinking a classic.

Deadline reports he’s set to direct a “re-imagining” of Gabriel Axel’s 1987 Oscar-winning masterpiece Babette’s Feast. Scripted by comedian-writer Guy Branum, this English-language version will take place in “a religious community in small-town Minnesota, where two older, unmarried sisters accept a refugee, who...

Exclusive: Alexander Payne has attached to direct a re-imagining of Babette’s Feast, the 1988 Oscar-winning Danish Film which Gabriel Axel wrote and directed from a story by Karen Blixen.

The project was set up by Unique Features, the production shingle that former New Line founder Bob Shaye created with his late partner Michael Lynne. Shaye will produce with Jennifer Wachtell under the Unique banner. The script will be written by Guy Branum, whose credits include The Other Two and The Mindy Project. Benni Korzen and Josi Konski will also produce.

The film will be set in a religious community in small-town Minnesota, where two older, unmarried sisters accept a refugee, who leads them to confront their regrets, over an extraordinary meal. It sounds right in the wheelhouse of Payne, Oscar winner for The Descendants and Sideways.

Payne is repped by CAA; Branum is managed by OmniPop Talent Group’s Zack Freedman.

Above: Chinese poster for Spirited Away; artist: Zao Dao.The most popular poster to date on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram, by a dragon’s length, with more than double the amount of likes of its closest contender, was this gorgeous Chinese poster (and its color variant which you can see here) for Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001), which apparently just got a Chinese theatrical release eighteen years after it was made. The posters were painted by the young Chinese comic book artist Zao Dao who you can, and should, read more about here.I was happy to see Renato Casaro’s prop poster for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood’s film-within-the-film Kill Me Now Ringo, Said the Gringo—which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago—make such an impression, as well as another of my favorite Casaros painted forty years earlier, for Screamers, a.k.

Despite its critical acclaim, Robin Campillo’s “Bpm (Beats per Minute),” was left out of the Best Foreign Language Film line-up at this year’s Golden Globes. While that snub was shocking, a Golden Globes bid is not essential for an Oscar win. Indeed, since the Golden Globes introduced this category in 1965, 19 of the 51 Academy Awards winners for Best Foreign Language Film were snubbed for this precursor prize:

1965: “The Shop on Main Street” (Czechoslovakia)

1971: “The Garden of the Finzi Continis (Italy)

1975: “Dersu Uzala” (Soviet Union)

1976: “Black and White in Color” (Ivory Coast)

1979: “The Tin Drum” (West Germany)

1980: “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” (Soviet Union)

1981: “Mephisto” (Hungary)

1982: “To Begin Again” (Spain)

1987: “Babette’s Feast” (Denmark)

1990: “Journey of Hope” (Switzerland)

1991: “Mediterraneo” (Italy)

1993: “Belle Époque” (Spain)

1994: “Burnt by the Sun” (Russia)

1995: “Antonia’s Line” (The Netherlands)

1997: “Character” (The Netherlands...

By Salim Garami

What's good?

I'll tell you what's good, Thanksgiving! Particularly the concept of a holiday where we can dream of feasts like those in Tampopo or Babette's Feast or Ratatouille and dig in surrounded by those we love, whether it be family or an extended definition of family.

Now, personally... I don't think 2017 is a year I'll look back on with much fondness. And that's just on account of the pop culture I consumed, not even reckoning with the exhausting political landscape or the misconduct ingrained within the film industry that is being brought to light.

In any case, this is making me sound like That Guy who's at every Thanksgiving dinner and that's not the point of this post. But the context of a year that didn't feel at the top of its game means the things I'm thankful for are wonders that stand out to me and I appreciate them further.

Today's Must Read

"Male Stars Are Too Buff Now," a great funny true read from E Alex Jung about Zac Efron in Baywatch and other visually alarming superhuman specimens. 

Linkage

Daily Actor Corey Hawkins on the Juilliard audition he almost failed

Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movies a "Medicine in the Movies" Blogathon - articles on Contagion, Night Nurse, Reversal of Fortune, The Fountain, and many more

Cartoon Brew Nigeria hopes to train 'an army of animation professionals' with the market for thoe films exploding

The Guardian Guy Lodge's latest DVD column on Toni Erdmann, The Salesman and more

Variety more 'sequels we don't need!' news. Boss Baby is getting one for 2021. Sigh. I actually thought that movie was unexpectedly good but most movies don't actually need sequels. Stop trying to make movies into big TV shows with multiple episodes! TV is great but Movies are not TV!

I Wouldn't Normally Link This But.

NEWSRaoul Coutard shooting BreathlessThe great cinematographer Raoul Coutard, legendary for his work shooting Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, and also a collaborator of Philippe Garrel, Nagisa Oshima, Costa-Gavras and François Truffaut, has died at the age of 92.Keep film alive! The New York non-profit film organization Mono No Aware has launched a Kickstarter to fund "the nation's first ever non-profit motion picture lab." An ambitious and worthy goal!Two film projects in the works we're very excited about: Claire Denis' High Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Patricia Arquette and co-written by Zadie Smith, and Leos Carax's Annette, a musical to star Adam Driver (everywhere these days!) and Rooney Mara.The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the first part of its retrospective devoted to exiled Chilean fabulist Raúl Ruiz, which will include new digital restorations of Bérénice (1983) and The Golden Boat (1990), as well as 35mm prints of such...