Jordan Beswick, C.S.A.

The Swedish master of modern cinema, died Monday at his home in Faro, Sweden. He was 89 years old.

I agree 100% with Woody Allen’s assessment that he was “probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera.”

I treasure the countless hours I’ve spent with my friend Jone, spellbound by the genius of his work. The inspiration. In our business the term Artist is tossed around far too indiscriminately. Mr. Bergman was a bona fide Artist of the highest caliber.

There never was, nor will there ever be another like him.

Saluting Hector Lavoe

Leading Latin singer Marc Anthony belts out a tune at Thursday’s jumping after-party for “El Cantante” in New York City. Backed by a full salsa band, Anthony took the stage for a short, but powerful set of songs at Picturehouse’s Cipriani 42nd St. bash celebrating the movie. The story of famed Puerto Rican salsa singer Hector Lavoe, “El Cantante” (recut from the version that debuted last year at the Torontof fest) hits U.S. theaters on August 3rd with Anthony in the title role and his wife Jennifer Lopez starring as Lavoe’s second wife, Puchi. An interview with Puchi frames the film which delves into the rapid rise and tragic fall of the influential music figure. The passion project was shepherded by Lopez for six years and directed by Leon Ichaso. “Hector was a voice of the people, a jibaro, a boy from the sticks,” she says in notes on the production. “People identified with him.” Picturehouse planners pulled off Thursday night’s fiesta despite fears up to the very last minute that the event might have to move due to Manhattan’s recent, nearby steam pipe explosion. Instead, a large crowd — many decked out in bright, festive outfits — filled the historic Cipriani space on 42nd St. (in the massive Bowery Savings Bank building) as planned. The bash featured an assortment of Puerto Rican rums and a lavish spread of food and turned hot and sweaty once Anthony hit the stage and everyone started dancing. [Eugene Hernandez]

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I was lucky enough to catch the great Mr. Muhe in a devastating production of Sarah Kane’s “Blasted” (German title: Zerbombt) at the schaubuhne am lehniner platz, directed by the incomparable Thomas Ostermeier, while in Berlin for one of my intensive acting workshops. It was a truly memorable evening.

How wonderful that the world had the opportunity to experience his extraordinary work in “The Lives of Others”. He was an actor of tremendous depth, soul, and passion. He will be sorely missed.

by Brian Brooks (July 25, 2007)

At the Toronto International Film Festival in September ‘06, is the late actor Ulrich Muhe, star of “The Lives of Others” with the film’s director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard. Muhe, an acclaimed German actor who played a Stasi agent in the movie, died earlier this week of stomach cancer at the age of 54, five months after the film won the Oscar for best foreign language film. The Associated Press reported that Muhe died in Walbeck, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, quoting a town mayor. “Germany mourns an outstanding artist and a great personality,” wrote German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a condolence letter to Muhe’s widow, according to Spiegel Online. In the Guardian Unlimited, Shane Danielsen noted that Muhe is well known in his home country for “The Last Witness” (Der Letzte Zeuge), “a TV show screened on ZDF about a pathologist that’s widely regarded as Germany’s best crime series. For nine seasons, as the fastidious, melancholy Dr Robert Kolmaar, he displayed the same qualities of watchfulness and intelligence he bought to his role in ‘The Lives of Others’ - arguably the finest screen performance of 2006…”

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Shane Meadows’s “This Is England” by Nick Pinkerton (July 23, 2007)

It’s 1983, in the interminably gray council estates of the Midlands, and runty 12-year Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is in a dire spot. His father won’t be coming back from the Falklands War; at school, everyone else has adopted the uniforms of their respective clans - goths, mods, New Romantics - while he stands alone in raggedy bellbottoms. The only suggestion of respite from his outcast status comes on the last day of school, when he runs afoul of a local gang of skinheads, led by the perceptive and charismatic Woody (Joe Gilgun) - in short order, Shaun’s scalp is shorn and he’s outfitted in boots and braces, a part of something at last.

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Brian Brooks (July 22, 2007)

…it’s EDT Saturday night, and we just heard Tammy Faye Messner has died… To break it down, she found–perhaps–a whole new crowd at Sundance when she was the ‘belle of the ball’ at an ‘ice cream social’ in support of her doc The Eyes of Tammy Faye by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Fast forward a few years later, and we will always remember when Ms. Messner and her family spent an afternoon with the gays and friends at the DGA in L.A. for an Outfest event… it was so full of fun laughs…….. And she and her family were all about hanging out afterward giving hugs and kisses for all… it was kind of unbelievable… So, God bless you Tammy Faye…! God’s coolest fan is there now… We love you…

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(1942-2007)

“Don’t let fear rule your life,” she said. “Live one day at a time, and never be afraid.”

RIP

Popular French Fare Finds U.S. Audiences by Anthony Kaufman (July 11, 2007)

Bastille Day isn’t the only reason the French have to celebrate this coming Saturday. The French film industry has been enjoying a box office resurgence of late, both at home and aboard. During the first quarter of 2007, French films took a robust 58.4% market share in France, well outpacing their own averages of 30%-40% in recent years and U.S. productions (only 38.6%). Popular titles have included the fourth installment of the French action franchise “Taxi” as well as Olivier Dahan’s Edith Piaf bio-pic “La vie en rose” and Laurent Tirard’s “Moliere,” the latter of which will also soon be playing in the U.S., which has shown a steady taste for Gallic pictures over the last few months. Even Pixar’s summer juggernaut “Ratatouille” has embraced its Parisian setting. Freedom fries, be damned.

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San Francisco-based Anywhere Road has acquired all U.S. distribution rights to writer-director Brad Gann’s film “Black Irish,” the company announced Monday. Gann, who wrote the screenplay for the feature film “Invincible,” makes his directorial debut with this film, a contemporary Irish-American family drama set in South Boston. Fifteen-year-old Cole (Michael Angarano) is a sweet-natured, baseball-loving, obedient teenager who yearns for the attentions of his emotionally remote father (Kelly Gleeson). Cole is by turns nurtured and abandoned by the rest of his family; his pregnant unmarried sister (Emily Van Camp), a troubled bully for a brother (Tom Guiry) and his deeply…

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Maggie Gyllenhaal loves a challenge, whether it’s playing a submissive secretary or an ex-con trying to get her kid back. “When you are in every scene of a movie-which I must say I really much prefer–you have more control over the film that you’re making. Because the choices you make as an actor can’t help but change what the movie is saying.” She tells Jess Cartner-Morley what draws her to difficult roles….

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