The new year got off to an amazing start with the brand new Coen brother’s film, “True Grit”, which will definitely be on next year’s list, but along with that brilliant film, 2011 looks to be a fantastic year with a number of great directors releasing their brand new films.
These include films from the always controversial Lars Von Trier (“Melancholia”), Terrence Malick (“The Tree Of Life”), two films from Steven Soderbergh (“Haywire” and “Contagion”), Wes Craven (“Scream 4”), John Carpenter (“The Ward”), Joe Wright (“Hanna”), David Cronenberg “A Dangerous Method”) and the one-two punch from Steven Spielberg (“The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn” and “War Horse” – amazingly these come out on the same day in the U.S). One of the films that was on this list last year, but still hasn’t come out yet, but should in 2011 is the French adult fairytale “Livid”, and I should finally get to see Alex De La Iglesia’s lastest, which the title of is a mystery, in Spain it is definitely called “Balada Triste De Trompeta”, while the English title is either “The Last Circus” or “A Sad Trumpet Ballad”, whatever it is called I can not wait to see it.
I’m also looking forward to Christopher Doyle’s cinematography in a film called “Passion Play”, plus there is the new Robert Pattison film “Water For Elephants” (that was for my wife to see if she read this thing, but it does actually look quite good), but the four titles I am most looking forward to are the following:
THE SKIN THAT I INHABIT (aka La Piel Que Habito)
This is the brand new film from Spanish filmmaking legend Pedro Almodovar, and it is what he calls his first “terror” picture. The film is a revenge tale about a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the man who raped his daughter, and once catching up with him,...[deleted due to spoiler].
This is the brand new film from Spanish filmmaking legend Pedro Almodovar, and it is what he calls his first “terror” picture. The film is a revenge tale about a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the man who raped his daughter, and once catching up with him,...[deleted due to spoiler].
I know, it sounds insane, but this is Almodovar so I am sure that it will be amazing. The big thing about this film is that Almodovar is working with Antonio Banderas (who plays the lead) for the first time in twenty years, since 1990’s “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”. Until Banderas left for Hollywood, he appeared in the majority of Almodovar’s early films and it is fantastic to see them working together again.
Almodovar is another of my big cinematic heroes, and yet his last film “Broken Embraces” I thought was his worst film in the past twenty years, but testament to his skill as a director and the quality of his films, I believe that most directors would dream of having a film as good as “Broken Embraces” (I gave the film 3 and a half stars) in their filmography. Interestingly, he was originally planning on doing “The Skin That I Inhabit” before “Broken Embraces” so my anticipation for this film can not be higher, I can not wait to see it.
TWIXT NOW AND SUNRISE
Very little is known about this film other than the fact that Francis Ford Coppola was secretly shooting it, and that it stars Val Kilmer. Coppola has since revealed that it is a horror film with strong thriller elements. Even more interestingly, is the fact that he has shot some scenes in 3-D. If you look at the page for this film at the internet movie database, you will also see that Ben Chaplin is playing Edgar Allen Poe.
Very little is known about this film other than the fact that Francis Ford Coppola was secretly shooting it, and that it stars Val Kilmer. Coppola has since revealed that it is a horror film with strong thriller elements. Even more interestingly, is the fact that he has shot some scenes in 3-D. If you look at the page for this film at the internet movie database, you will also see that Ben Chaplin is playing Edgar Allen Poe.
What is this film? I do not know, but I can not wait to find out as I was a big fan of Coppola’s previous film “Tetro”, it appears he has some of his old magic back. Actually it is just great to have one of the masters back making films again, after the decade gap between “The Rainmaker” and “Youth Without Youth”, this will now be his third film in four years.
THE GRANDMASTERS
Any Wong Kar-Wai film would make this list, because his films are always so anticipated, and with good reason too. He is one of the most sensual filmmakers working in the world today, but he is also one of the slowest. This is due to the way he creates his films which is purely organic.
Any Wong Kar-Wai film would make this list, because his films are always so anticipated, and with good reason too. He is one of the most sensual filmmakers working in the world today, but he is also one of the slowest. This is due to the way he creates his films which is purely organic.
He will start with a minimal script and then film what feels right and the film just evolves until it becomes its own natural thing. The biggest example of this is “2046” which started life as a sci-fi film, but by the time the film was finished and released, it had turned into a sequel of his previous film “In The Mood For Love”, and only ended up having a minor sci-fi element to it. “2046”, by the way, took him five years to finish (and was the reason behind the working relationship break-up between himself and cinematographer Christopher Doyle).
Anyway, it has been four years since Wong Kar-Wai’s last film, and seven years since his last Chinese language film. “The Grandmasters” is his latest and it is something of a departure for him, because the film is a bio-pic of Ip Man, who was a martial arts master, as well as Bruce Lee’s teacher in the style of Wing Chun. The interesting thing about this film is that since this film was announced, three (!) other films about Ip Man have been released in Hong Kong (I told you that he was slow making films). The film reunites Wong Kar-Wai with his favourite actor, Tony Leung who plays Ip Man in the film, with Zhang Ziyi also playing an unknown role. The fight choreography is done by legend Yuen Woo-Ping, but what is interesting is that the fight scenes in Wong Kar-Wai’s only other martial arts film, “Ashes Of Time”, were handled by Sammo Hung, who choreographed the fights in two of those three other Ip Man films.
Anyway, I just hope that the film ends up being released in 2011, as it was originally meant to come out in 2010, but as of now, he is still filming. Still he is always worth the wait, and it will be nice to see something different from Wong Kar-Wai too.
HUGO CABRET
This film is my most anticipated film of 2011, and why you ask?, simply because it is the new film from Martin Scorsese. This film has a few firsts to it too, with this film being the first in a decade from Scorsese that doesn’t star Leonardo DiCaprio. It is also his first children’s film and the first time he has shot in 3-D. “Hugo Cabret” is set in 1930’s Paris, and it involves an orphan boy who lives in the walls of a train station, who gets caught up in a mystery involving the boy’s late father and a robot.
This film is my most anticipated film of 2011, and why you ask?, simply because it is the new film from Martin Scorsese. This film has a few firsts to it too, with this film being the first in a decade from Scorsese that doesn’t star Leonardo DiCaprio. It is also his first children’s film and the first time he has shot in 3-D. “Hugo Cabret” is set in 1930’s Paris, and it involves an orphan boy who lives in the walls of a train station, who gets caught up in a mystery involving the boy’s late father and a robot.
The cast for this film is amazing with both Ben Kingsley and Emily Mortimer returning from “Shutter Island”, Jude Law, Hit-Girl herself, Chloe Moretz, Michael Pitt, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee and relative newcomer Asa Butterfield as the title character. What a cast! The cinematographer on the film is again the brilliant Robert Richardson, and I can not wait to see the way he will bring 1930’s Paris to life. The plot of this film actually sounds really cool, and this may be one of those great children’s films that no longer seem to get made anymore, like “Mary Poppins”. The way Martin Scorsese has been talking about shooting in 3-D is so enthusiastically that it can only help the project. I truly believe that Scorsese is on a winner here, and that is why it is my most anticipated film of 2011.
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