NYFF: "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn"

by Jason Adams

Emi (Katia Pascariu) is having what you might call a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. A respected and talented history teacher at an elite Romanian private school, she's just been notified that an amateur porn video she made with her husband has been seen by her entire classroom of students, their parents, her co-workers and principal -- basically everybody, sitting as it does spread-eagled there on the world wide web for all to take a good long look at. After making some phone calls and visits to involved parties she's forced to sit down in front of an angry mob of parents and teachers and defend herself in order to keep her job. And this is what you would call the "plot" of Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Romanian provocateur Radu Jude's latest film which won the Golden Bear in Berlin earlier this year and is screening at NYFF this week...

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Albania, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia, and Ukraine choose their Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

We have five more Oscar submissions for the Best International Feature Oscar to share, all from countries that have never been nominated. With 13 official contenders we're probably around 15% there -- we don't even have enough "official" contenders for a full finalist list (of 15) yet...

ALBANIA is going with Jonid Jorgji's road trip comedy Three Lions Heading to Venice about filmmakers headed to the festival who meet adult movie actresses on the way, derailing their plans...

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Dan Stevens is a tempting romantic ideal in "I'm Your Man"

by Matt St Clair

Despite having otherworldly leading man looks, Dan Stevens has a clear affinity for playing eccentric character roles. That being said, some of those roles that he’s played, like flamboyant, implicitly gay Russian singer Alexander Lemtov in Eurovision Song Contest and the enigmatic titular character from The Guest, have allowed him to play into his sex appeal. The German sci-fi romance I’m Your Man, which is opening today in US movie theaters, is a continuation of that trend. 

Stevens plays Tom, an android designed to be the perfect companion, someone with perfect looks who is programmed to fulfill the every need of their human partner...

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Weekend @ 10: A Modern Gay Classic

by Cláudio Alves

Ten years ago, Andrew Haigh's Weekend opened in American theaters after a long travail through international film festivals. The director's second feature put his name on the map and opened up an artistic path that would bring us such precious cinematic gems as 45 Years and Lean on Pete, as well as the televisual delights of Looking. Contextualizing the work in such ways makes it seem even smaller than it already is, a miniature of gay urbanite life and the emotional ties that blossom from a night of casual sex. Despite the limited scope of all his projects, everything Haigh has done since Weekend feels much larger, more conspicuously ambitious. And yet, a decade later, that small British indie still stands as the director's most remarkable achievement…

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1937: Lucille La Verne in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

The 1937 smackdown arrives on Sunday October 3rd. Before each Smackdown Nick Taylor suggests alternates to Oscar's Supporting Actress ballot. 

by Nick Taylor

The Evil Queen of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first character in any animated feature to speak on screen. Her voice is provided by Lucille La Verne, a storied theatre actress who’d gone on to have a wildly successful career in silent cinema, and who would ultimately give her final performance for this film. It’s about as iconic a farewell as one could hope for. Her rendering of the Queen is one of the many achievements that would make Snow White an instant classic, and Walt Disney Animation into a medium-defining juggernaut. With so much of The Queen’s impact derived from Snow White’s groundbreaking visual elements, there’s a degree to which the character would shine even without such a commanding voice. Yet, by the same token, La Verne’s contribution would flourish even in a less auspicious version of this tale, endowing her Evil Queen with a ruthless, unrepentant menace and villainous glee. Her look is immortal, but where would she be without her laugh?

It’s almost beside the point to offer any kind of plot summary on Snow White, but allow me a brief retelling...

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