All entries for Saturday 12 July 2008
July 12, 2008
Olivier Assayas (1955 – )
Olivier Assayas (1955- )
Poster for Summer Hours (Released in UK 18th July)
Introduction
Originally Olivier Assayas was a critic writing for Cahiers du cinéma for 10 years between 1975 - 1985 which is very similar to the famous critics and then directors of the French Nouvelle Vague. Assayas was born into a cinematic milieu being the son of Jaques Rémy who had changed his name to hide his Jewish identity, his real name being Rémy Assayas from Thessaloniki. Irma Vep (1996) starring Maggie Cheung whom he was married to for a time has been one of his most popular films. The film was metacinematic being a film about a remake of a 1915 series by Feuillades The Vampires. It was a commentary upon both the state of the French film industry at that time and also upon an outsider's position in Paris. Summer Hours (2008) was commissioned along with films by seven directors overall by Paris’s Musée D’Orsay to celebrate its twentieth anniversary that include Flight of the Red Balloon
Assayas Boarding Gate (2008)
YouTube Extract
YouTube extract from Irma Vep (1996)
YouTube Extract from Boarding Gate (2008)
Filmography
Summer Hours (L'Heure D'Ete) 2008
Boarding Gate (2008)
Paris Je T'Aime (2007)
Clean (2005)
Demonlover (2002)
Maggie Cheung in Irma Vep
L'Eau froide ( 1994)
Une nouvelle vie (1993)
Paris s'éveille (1991) [winner of Prix de Jean Vigo]
L' Enfant de l'hiver,(1989)
Désordre (1986)
Winston Tong en studio (1984)
Laissé inachevé à Tokyo (1982)
Rectangle - Deux chansons de Jacno (1980)
Copyright (1979)
Webliography
Peter Aspden Financial Times 12 / 07 / 08: French Film Global Culture. Assayas in Discussion about Summer Hours (you may need to disable or allow pop-ups)
David Thompson, Sight and Sound feature Olivier Assayas Power Games
Production Profile Summer Hours
Senses of Cinema Olivier Assayas (Very useful article with a good bibliography)
Harvard Film Archive: The films of Olivier Assayas
‘Just play yourself, "Maggie Cheung"’: Irma Vep, rethinking transnational stardom and unthinking national cinemas
Bilbliography
Sight and Sound August 2008. Family Ties: Ginette Vincendeau
Sight and Sound August 2008. Interview with Olivier Assayas by Nick James
Sight and Sound August 2008. Review of Summer Hours by Tony Rayns
12 Jul 2008 15:58
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Tags: Boarding Gate Ginette Vincendeau Irma Vep Maggie Cheung Olivier Assayas Summer Hours Tony Rayns
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Handmade Films: British Film Production Company
Handmade Films
Introduction
Handmade Films emerged in the late 1970s the brainchild of former Beatle George Harrison and also run by Denis O'Brien whom Walker (2003) has described as an American hyphenate lawyer-accountant-producer. The initial impetus for the company was to rescue the Monty Python film Life of Brian. Originally it was being financed by the conglomerate Thorn-EMI however Lord Delfont who ran the company wanted to dispose of the film as he thought there was a risk of running foul of the blasphemy laws. Eric Idle of the Monty Python team knew Harrison who read the script and decided to go for it. Life of Brian was subsequently bought by Handmade films for $2 million (Walker, 2003 ). It was sold on a country by country basis and was to become immensly profitable.
Handmade also brought what has turned out to be one of the best British gangster-thriller films ever made The Long Good Friday at around this time. Black Lion Films run by Lew Grade who was Delfont's brother had wanted to significantly tone down the violent scenes which would have seriously reduced the impact of the film. The film also dealt with IRA issues as well as corruption and Grade decided to sell it on.
Handmade films was capitalised in Luxembourg presumably for tax reasons and it was presumably bankrolled from Harison's resources. According to Walker (2003) they claimed they could make films for 60%-70% more cheaply than the major studios. It made Time-Bandits for £2.2 million and grossed £6.7 million in the US alone.
Many of its products were quirky and displayed an excellent feel for a British sense of humour which had revelled in The Goons, Monty Python and similar output. Films such as Withnail & I and Time-Bandits were of this ilk.
HandMade Films was eventually sold in 1994 due to falling profitability, making losses on American co-productions. There were also allegations of O'Brien embezzing the company leading to a split between Harrison and O'Brien. It was bought by Canada's Paragon Entertainment Corporation for $8.4 million. (Walker, 2003). It went on to make two films in 1995. Over the period of its existence under Harrison & OBrien it produced 23 films in all (Screenonline Handmade Films estimate) which was roughly 2 per year over the course of its existence. The comedy Nuns on the Run (1990) was effectively its last production.
The films produced were wide-ranging in terms of genres and many are recognised as some of the best British films made during the 1980s. Many were 'quirky', as Walker has noted for along with other emerging production companies:
The films they backed were irreverent, transgressive, contemporary (if not in period then in feel. Their marketing departments...aimed the product squarely , but with subtlety and wit , at intelligent if as yet undiscriminating young people in the fifteen - thirty age bracket weaned on the TV satire shows of earlier decades and nourished afressh by the present day Pythons. (Walker 2003, p 12)
Filmography
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979): Directed by Terry Jones
The Long Good Friday (1979). Directed John Mackenzie
Time-Bandits (1981): Directed by Terry Gilliam
The Missionary (1981): Directed by Michael Palin
Scrubbers (1982): Directed by Mai Zetterling
A Private Function (1984): Directed by Malcolm Mowbray
Withnail & I (1986): Directed by Bruce Robinson
Mona Lisa (1986): Directed Neill Jordan
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987): Directed by Jack Clayton
Track 29 (1988): Directed by Nicholas Roeg
Nuns on the Run (1990) Johnathan Lynn
Webliography
Bibliography
Walker Alexander. 2003. Icons in the Fire. London: Orion
12 Jul 2008 09:17
| Tags: Alexander Walker British Cinema British Cinema 1980S British Film Production Company Denis Obrien Eric Idle George Harrison And Handmade Films Handmade Films Icons In The Fire Life Of Brian Monty Python Films Terry Gilliam Terry Jones Withnail And I
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