2011 British Independent Film Awards Nominations Announced

At least for me, the 2012 movie award season (for movies released in 2011) has begun with the announcement yesterday (Monday, October 31, 2011) of the nominations for the 2011 British Independent Film Awards.

Created in 1998, The British Independent Film Awards, by its own description, celebrates merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, honor new film talent, and promote British films and filmmaking to a wider public.  Here, is the press release:

NOMINATIONS AND JURY REVEALED FOR THE MOËT BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS

The nominations and jury members for the 14th annual Moët British Independent Film Awards were announced today, Monday 31October at St Martins Lane, London by Helen McCrory.

Joint Directors, The Moët British Independent Film Awards’ Johanna von Fischer & Tessa Collinson said: “This year’s nominees really highlight the immense wealth of British talent in this country today. We are incredibly proud that the Awards have grown to a level that garners attention worldwide, helping to bring British talent and independent filmmaking to the international stage.”

The highest number of nominations this year goes to three films, Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Tyrannosaur, all with seven nods. All three titles are battling for the coveted Best British Film Award, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor or Actress awards. We Need to Talk About Kevin and Kill List each receive six nominations with Submarine following closely with five.

Nominations for Best Actress go to Rebecca Hall (The Awakening), Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) and Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin). Leading men hoping to take home the Best Actor award include Brendan Gleeson (The Guard), Neil Maskell (Kill List), Michael Fassbender (Shame), Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur).

Directors who have delivered dynamic debuts this year and are fighting for the Douglas Hickox Award are Joe Cornish (Attack The Block), Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus), John Michael McDonagh (The Guard), Richard Ayoade (Submarine) and Paddy Considine (Tyrannosaur).

Elsa Corbineau, Marketing Director Moët & Chandon commented: “Moët & Chandon is thrilled to continue to support the Awards this year. There are some truly remarkable films in today's nominations which reflect the talent of the British filmmakers. We look forward to celebrating all of the nominees and winners on 4 December."

The Raindance Award nominees for 2011 include: Acts of Godfrey, Black Pond, Hollow, Leaving Baghdad and A Thousand Kisses Deep. This Award honours exceptional achievement for filmmakers working against the odds, often with little or no industry support. Elliot Grove, Founder Raindance Film Festival and Moët British Independent Film Awards added: "Delighted to see that this year's nominations prove that once again British independent filmmakers have risen to the creative challenge of making astounding movies in the midst of economic chaos."

The Pre-Selection Committee of 70 members viewed nearly 200 films, out of which they selected the nominations, which were decided by ballot.

The winners of The Moët British Independent Film Awards are decided by an independent jury comprised of leading professionals and talent from the British film industry.

The Jury for 2011 includes:
Josh Appignanesi (Director / Writer), Lucy Bevan (Casting Director), Edith Bowman (Broadcaster), Mike Goodridge (Editor), Ed Hogg (Actor), Neil Lamont (Art Director), Mary McCartney (Photographer), Molly Nyman (Composer), Debs Paterson (Director / Writer), Tracey Seaward (Producer), Charles Steel (Producer), David Thewlis (Actor), Ruth Wilson (Actress) and Justine Wright (Editor).

The winners will be announced at the much anticipated 14th awards ceremony, which will take place on Sunday 4 December at the impressive Old Billingsgate in London.

Proud supporters and patrons of The Moët British Independent Film Awards include Mike Figgis, Tom Hollander, Adrian Lester, Ken Loach, Ewan McGregor, Helen Mirren, Samantha Morton, Michael Sheen, Trudie Styler, Tilda Swinton, Meera Syal, David Thewlis, Ray Winstone and Michael Winterbottom.

The Moët British Independent Film Awards would like to thank all its supporters, especially: Moët & Chandon, The British Film Institute, 3 Mills Studios, BBC Films, Deluxe142, The Creative Partnership, Exile Media, M.A.C, Raindance, Soho House, Studiocanal, Swarovski, Variety, Working Title and Zander Creative.


About BIFA
Created in 1998, The British Independent Film Awards set out to celebrate merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, to honour new talent, and to promote British filmmaking and British talent to a wider public.

In recognition of Moët & Chandon’s generous contribution as headline sponsor, the 2011 event is referred to as The MOËT British Independent Film Awards.

For further information on BIFA, visit http://www.bifa.org.uk/

Knowvember at Negromancer

Welcome to Negromancer, the rebirth of my former movie review website as a movie review and movie news blog. I’m Leroy Douresseaux, and I also blog at http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/ and write for the Comic Book Bin (which has smart phones apps).

And read a horror graphic novel in progress here.

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

Rob Zombie's "Halloween" Fueled by Brutal Violence

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 (of 2009) by Leroy Douresseaux


Halloween (2007)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language
DIRECTOR: Rob Zombie
WRITER: Rob Zombie (based upon the movie written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill)
PRODUCERS: Malek Akkad, Andy Gould, Rob Zombie, and Andy La Marca
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phil Parmet (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Glenn Garland

HORROR

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Hanna Hall, Ken Foree, Lew Temple, Danny Trejo, Danielle Harris, Kristina Klebe, Pat Skipper, Dee Wallace, and Tyler Mane

In 2007, musician turned movie director Rob Zombie already had two brutal horror films to his credit, House of 1000 Corpses and its sequel, The Devil Rejects, when he unleashed Halloween, a remake and re-imagining of director John Carpenter’s 1978 classic horror film of the same name. Zombie’s film followed the now familiar storyline, but went into the past to reveal some origins.

It’s Halloween, and 10-year-old Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) goes on a murderous rampage in the quiet town of Haddonfield, Illinois. He spends the next 17 years in the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium under the care of noted child behaviorist, Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Loomis seems to be the only person who can truly understand the evil of Michael’s nature.

After 17 years, the adult Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) escapes from the mental facility on the day of Halloween and begins a bloody trek back to Haddonfield. He stalks a high school girl, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), and her friends, Annie (Danielle Harris) and Lynda (Kristina Klebe). When Dr. Loomis hears about Michael’s escape, he races to Haddonfield and joins Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) to find Michael and to put an end to Michael’s reign of terror. There, Loomis discovers that Myers and Laurie Strode have ties to a similar past.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween is a prequel, a re-imagining, a reinvention, and a remake of the original film. This new film is partly a prequel because Zombie, as both writer and director, chose to begin the story earlier in Michael Myer’s life than the writers of the original movie, John Carpenter and the late Debra Hill, did. That the story begins before the scene in which Michael puts on the mask and kills his sister, which is where the first film began. Zombie’s film begins Halloween morning, at the breakfast table of a highly dysfunctional “white trash” family. The audience sees Myers the “perfect storm” as Dr. Loomis calls it: Myers’ destructive home environment and his murderous tendencies.

Zombie re-imagines the film in the way he presents Michael Myers. Michael is not something of supernatural force, as the first film suggest, but he is simply a human monster – a psychopath. In the original film and its sequels (in which John Carpenter was involved to some extent) Carpenter suggested that Michael Myer’s evil was in some way a reflection of the darkness that existed at the heart of small towns like Haddonfield. Zombie provides no such social context or metaphor. Myers is simply a bad-ass, evil killer dude.

The film is a re-invention of sorts because it presents the violent slasher film as sort of a reality show in which all the gushing fluids of violent murder must be on display before the voyeuristic audience. In the original Halloween, Carpenter showed no blood, although Myers’ attacks on his victims were quite violent. In Zombie’s hands, the attacks are rude and crude – exercises in blood and mayhem and in bloody mayhem.

This film remains a respectful remake. Scenes, sequences, and even certain shots are repeated from the original or are only slightly altered. Halloween 2007 can stand on its own. The acting wasn’t great, but Zombie chose a nice mixture of character actors for the major parts and some famous faces and somewhat cult figures to fill in the bit parts and cameos, and that works out well.

Towards the end, the film seems out of control, both in terms of Zombie’s usual excesses and the fact that the ending seems padded. Still, Halloween is a scary movie, a celebration of raw violent horror, and true to Zombie’s rebel spirit. It is scandalous and disrespectful of those “our values” about which so-called conservatives like to preach. It’s funny and scary – a black comedy and horror movie that is stained dark with a lot of blood.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Review: John Carpenter's "Halloween" is a Great Horror Movie and Great Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 112 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Halloween (1978)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
DIRECTOR: John Carpenter
WRITERS: Debra Hill and John Carpenter
PRODUCER: Debra Hill
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Cundey
EDITORS: Tommy Lee Wallace and Charles Bornstein

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles, Charles Cyphers, Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews, and Nick Castle

On Halloween night 1963 in Haddonfield, Illinois, six-year old Michael Myers stabbed his sister to death. Fifteen years later, Michael escapes from a mental institution in Smith’s Grove, IL, and he heads back to Haddonfield with his psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), hot on the trail. Halloween night 1978, Michael is about to go on a bloody rampage, and high school student and babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends are his targets.

John Carpenter’s Halloween, more than any other film, was responsible for the 1980’s slasher movie genre. Lunatic/spree killer Michael Myers would influence the horror movies psychos that would wield knives, axes, and assorted sharp and blunt instruments to kill their teenage and 20-something victims in such films as Friday the 13th and Prom Night, especially the characters that had sex sometime during the course of the movie.

Although slasher films are a particularly bloody movie genre, Halloween is relatively free of blood and gore. There are only four onscreen murders (one off screen), and one of those happens at the beginning of the film to establish Michael’s legend. Carpenter spends most of the films first 50 minutes or so establishing mood and atmosphere. Once night falls, Carpenter allows only minimal lighting, so that most of the violence occurs in near total night darkness, which only adds to the creepiness and heightens the scares.

Carpenter also scored the film, and his “Halloween theme” is one of the most famous scary pieces of movie music. The other element that helped Carpenter create such a great horror flick is actress Jamie Lee Curtis, whose appearances in scary movies in the late 70’s and early 80’s made her the quintessential scream queen. Here, she personifies suburban innocence and all-American teen beauty – a flower ready to be plucked – which makes her the perfect victim for a knife-wielding maniac.

9 of 10
A+

"Paranormal Activity 3" a Spine-Tingler for Real

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 88 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux


Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R for some violence, language, brief sexuality and drug use
DIRECTORS: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
WRITER: Christopher B. Landon (based on film created by Oren Peli)
PRODUCERS: Jason Blum, Oren Peli, and Steven Schneider
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Magdalena Gorka Bonacorso
EDITOR: Gregory Plotkin

HORROR

Starring: Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner, Jessica Tyler Brown, Chloe Csengery, Dustin Ingram, Hallie Foote, Johanna Braddy, Katie Featherston, and Sprague Grayden

Paranormal Activity 3 is a 2011 supernatural horror film, and it is also a prequel to the earlier films, Paranormal Activity (2009) and Paranormal Activity 2 (2010). Paranormal Activity 3 is set 18 years before the events depicted in the first two films and focuses on the two sisters at the heart of the series when they were children.

The main story opens in late summer of 1988 at the birthday party of Katie (Chloe Csengery), during which her younger sister, Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown), can be seen in the background talking to empty space. The girls live with their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner), and her boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith).

Dennis notices that strange things have begun to happen in the house ever since Kristi began interacting with an imaginary (or invisible) friend whose name she says is Toby. Dennis sets up cameras around the house to record these strange events. Through his investigations, Dennis discovers a strange symbol drawn on a wall in the house, which leads to an even more shocking discovery. As Dennis tries to learn more, the paranormal activity increases both in number and in intensity.

I compared the first two Paranormal Activity films to The Blair Witch Project, and the final act of this film has striking similarities to the end of the original Blair Witch film, which is a good thing in this instance. I really like Paranormal Activity 3 because it is genuinely scary. Several times, I hugged myself tightly in an anticipation of the next bump in the night or shadowy figure standing in the background. This movie delivers the chills. I was still thinking about it the morning after seeing it.

Still, it feels as if something is missing from Paranormal Activity 3. It’s as if there is a glitch in the storyline that runs through this film series and through the backstory that is the series’ spine. I won’t let that bother me. This movie is a real Halloween, scary movie thriller. Perhaps, it is because the entity seems angrier this time and because it threatens small children so much in this film. Whatever the reason, Paranormal Activity 3 is the real deal, and I’m looking forward to the next film.

7 of 10
A-

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Review: Will "I Am Legend" Smith - The Film Rests on His Shoulders

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 143 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

I Am Legend (2007)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
DIRECTOR: Francis Lawrence
WRITERS: Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman (based upon the 1971 screenplay by Joyce Hooper Corrington and John William Corrington and based upon the novel by Richard Matheson)
PRODUCERS: Akiva Goldsman, David Heyman, James Lassiter, Neal H. Moritz, and Erwin Stoff
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Lesnie
EDITOR: Wayne Wahrman
Image Awards nominee

SCI-FI/DRAMA/HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, and Willow Smith

I Am Legend is the third film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I Am Legend, following the 1961 film, The Last Man on Earth (starring Vincent Price), and the 1971 film, The Omega Man (starring Charlton Heston). The book also apparently influenced George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human survivor in what is left of New York City, and perhaps the last man on earth, after a manmade virus – unstoppable and incurable – ravages humanity. Neville, however, is not quite alone. He shares the city with “the Infected,” victims of the plague who were mutated into monstrously fast and powerful carnivorous beings, who can only exist in the dark (and look like the belong in a video game).

For three years, Neville, who is also a brilliant scientist and military virologist, has scavenged for food and supplies. He also sends radio messages hoping to find other human survivors – his only companion a faithful dog named Sam. Immune to the virus, he also continues to search for a cure to the virus, a way to reverse the effects to the virus. Meanwhile, the Infected are watching him, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake, and Neville knows that he is outnumbered and running out of time.

There’s something missing in I Am Legend, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I know what it does have in its favor – Will Smith, and that’s enough to carry the incomplete things and wash over the bad things. Neville played by Smith seems a powerful force in the lonely canyons and abandoned edifices of New York City – alone because man finally brought about Armageddon all on his own. It was the end of everything, and Satan didn’t have to break a sweat to bring it about, but here is the stubborn Smith-Neville, single-minded in his pursuit to survive and find a way to make hungry monsters human again. That makes him something like a persistent weed or an oblivious roach, or maybe he’s too clueless to remember that quite a bit of humanity was already trading in monstrosity before the virus wiped them out. This complexity of character and the ambivalence and stubbornness Smith gives Neville is what marks Will Smith as a great movie star and exceptional actor. His excellence is both in the process and in how he executes his preparation into fashioning engaging, riveting, mesmerizing characters.

Smith is glorious in a film that traffics in the mundane and sometimes makes intractable boredom the narrative, and what’s amazing is that he does it by playing a character that, while he may earn our sympathy, is largely unattractive. Neville is either slowly going crazy because he is lonely or has already been driven bonkers because he’s so desperate for human contact. He can’t be friends with the Infected who only want to eat him (although one could get the idea that he’d like to be friends). Smith presents Neville as someone, who because of his current state of affairs, should be avoided.

I Am Legend is well-served by the lovely German shepherd, Sam. In a world that has died, a dog is hope, love, friendship, and loyalty on four legs. Director Francis Lawrence, fortunate that Warner Bros. Pictures gave him another chance after Constantine, makes the best of this wonderful dog. Lawrence is also lucky for Smith’s masterful, rich performance and for the incredible CGI work that went into creating an empty NYC. That’s why “the whatever” that’s missing in I Am Legend seems like such a small thing, so Lawrence helms a film that is almost a great sci-fi movie, but is still a really good one.

7 of 10
A-

Sunday, December 16, 2007

NOTES:
2008 Image Awards: 2 nominations: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Will Smith) and “Outstanding Motion Picture”

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Vincent Price Carries "The Last Man on Earth"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 87 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Last Man on Earth (1964) – B&W
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
DIRECTORS: Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow
WRITERS: William Liecester, Furio M. Monetti, Ubaldo Ragona, and Logan Swanson (Richard Matheson); (based upon the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson)
PRODUCER: Robert L. Lippert
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Franco Delli Colli
EDITORS: Gene Ruggiero and Franca Silvi

HORROR/SCI-FI/DRAMA

Starring: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart

A worldwide plague (or pandemic) seemingly kills all of humanity, but it also causes the dead to arise and return as shambling, simple-minded, vampire-like creatures who want blood. Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is apparently the only human unaffected – the last man on earth. Every night a group of these “living dead” attack Morgan’s house, calling his name, and demanding his life. What makes it worse is that one of the creatures was Morgan’s best friend, Ben Cortman (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart). Eventually, Morgan encounters a young woman named Ruth Collins (Franca Bettoia), whom Morgan at first assumes to be another surviving human. However, there is more to Ruth than meets the eye, and it may mean there are others like her – others who want Morgan dead.

The Last Man on Earth was the first film adaptation of one of the most famous vampire novels of 20th century, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Stephen King claims that the book was a huge influence on him, and both Matheson’s book and this 1964 adaptation influenced George A. Romero’s seminal zombie film, Night of the Living Dead. This adaptation is a somber and occasionally creepy, if not chilling, film about loneliness and what it truly means to be “the only one.” Price ably carries the film practically by himself, as every other character only has a small part. The surreal black and white photography and the carefully designed sets give this film a forlorn mood. However, the locations, which feature abandoned cars, debris, and bodies scattered about the streets make this a depressing and haunting, but engaging apocalyptic film.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, April 22, 2006