Denver based group DeVotchKa is set to release their new album 100 Lovers via Anti- Records on March 1st. For this, their fifth record, the band again headed to the vastness of the Arizona desert with producer Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Neko Case). The resulting work is as epic as the landscape in which it was recorded, the 15 new songs offering an emotionally charged sonic expansiveness while retaining all the heartfelt romance and celebratory energy for which the group is known. The record features guest percussions from Mauro Refosco of Thom Yorke’s band Atoms For Peace, and members of Calexico.
Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) joins an aging U.S. marshal (Jeff Bridges) and another lawman (Matt Damon) in tracking her father's killer into hostile Indian territory in Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Charles Portis' original novel. Sticking more closely to the source material than the 1969 feature adaptation starring Western icon John Wayne, the Coens' True Grit tells the story from the young girl's perspective, and re-teams the celebrated filmmaking duo with their No Country for Old Men producing partner Scott Rudin. Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper co-star.
One man's desire to better himself and improve his family's station in life has dire and unexpected consequences in this realistic thriller. Pierre (Gerald Laroche) is a worker in a glass factory whose small stature and quiet demeanor do not disguise the fact that he wants his wife Carole (Luce Mouchel) and son Victor (Bastien Le Roy) to have the good things in life, and he's not afraid to work hard to get them. When Pierre learns that a position is open on the plant's night shift that would pay better, he requests to be transferred, but he soon discovers that the late-shift staff is a different breed than the co-workers he's used to -- especially Fred (Marc Barbe), a large and arrogant man who alternately glad-hands Pierre for his friendship and treats him with contempt.Pierre takes great pains to be civil with Fred, but when Pierre gets a promotion and Fred does not, Fred explodes with rage, and the two find themselves in a vicious argument that stops just short of a fist fight. Before long, Pierre finds himself back in Fred's good graces, and the other workers are friendlier with him, even offering to help Pierre with a home improvement project. But in time Pierre discovers that what looks like friendship is actually part of a sinister and carefully orchestrated attempt on Fred's part to get revenge.
A handful of characters struggle to hold on to relationships with the people they care for in this collaboration between playwright Alan Ayckbourn and filmmaker Alain Resnais. Dan (Lambert Wilson) has recently finished up a hitch in the Army, but rather than deal with his emotional issues, Dan prefers to get drunk. While he barely communicates with his girlfriend, Nicole (Laura Morante), she's convinced they will still marry and opts to ignore his obvious problems. Lionel (Pierre Arditi) is a bartender who has become increasingly isolated and cut off from his friends as he looks after his father, Arthur. Arthur, however, is in failing health and has little appreciation of his son's sacrifices. Thierry (André Dussollier) is a real-estate salesman who has fallen for one of his co-workers, Charlotte (Sabine Azéma); however, Charlotte's mild-mannered exterior hides a personality that thrives on emotional gamesmanship. And Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré), Thierry's sister, is lonely and looking for a relationship, but her efforts bring her neither joy nor companionship. Coeurs (aka Petites Peurs Partagées) received its world premiere at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.
French superstar Catherine Deneuve stars in this downbeat drama about the fine line between love and need. Deneuve plays Hélène, an attractive but aging housewife who keeps a lover, a young artist named Paul (Xavier Beauvois). Hélène is strongly attracted to Paul, but isn't sure if he's interested in her mind, her body, or merely her checkbook. Paul, on the other hand, is attracted to Hélène, but finds her too clingy and possessive; he wants to get away, and sometimes uses heroin as a means of escape. One day, Paul meets Serge (Daniel Duval), a well-known artist Paul would like to work for some day. Paul learns Serge's story is a troubled one; he took part in the student uprisings of the May '68 General Strike, ended up in a mental hospital, and lost a wife to suicide. Le Vent de la Nuit (Night Wind) features an original score by John Cale, a founding member of the ground-breaking rock band the Velvet Underground.
Too many hours under the sun, artificial or not, might have warped this experimental work by Philippe Garrel. A young film director is turning a movie with his friend Christa (reminds us of the real-life relationship between Garrel and Nico). In the film-within-the-film there are two couples, one real, one imagined , and the film - told through five dreams - is as much the story of a film on-production, as the birth of a child. Soon director Garrel himself is in front of the camera, as the story turns into a film within a film, and other directors are brought in to salvage it: Chantal Ackerman and Jacques Doillon.
Alain Resnais, one of the towering figures of the French New Wave, demonstrates he still has plenty to say in this drama based on a novel by Christian Gailly. Marguerite (Sabine Azéma) is a successful dentist with a busy practice and an offbeat hobby, flying small airplanes. One day, while running errands, Marguerite loses her wallet, and it's found by Georges (André Dussollier), a seemingly happy man with a wife, Suzanne (Anne Consigny), and two children (Vladimir Consigny and Sara Forestier). As Georges looks through the wallet and examines the photos of Marguerite, he finds he's fascinated with her and her life, and soon his curiosity about her becomes an obsession. Georges' attempts to integrate himself into Marguerite's life begin to alarm her, and she hires a private security team (Mathieu Amalric and Michel Vuillermoz) to keep him away, but Georges is determined that his new love for her will not be denied. Les Herbes Folles (aka Wild Grass) received its world premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
The son of a same-sex couple seeks out the sperm donor who made his birth possible in this comedy from writer/director Lisa Cholodenko. The committed parents of two teenage children, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), are about to send their daughter, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), off to college when her younger brother, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), asks for her help in tracking down his biological father. Reluctantly inquiring with the sperm bank, Joni leaves her number so the office can pass it along to Laser's father. Enthusiastic at the thought of meeting his long lost offspring, Paul (Mark Ruffalo) musters the courage to reach out, and the family tree grows a new branch.
Adapted for the screen by David Lindsay-Abaire from his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, director John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole stars Oscar winner Nicole Kidman and Golden Globe-nominated Aaron Eckhart as a married couple who find their relationship on life support following the devastating loss of their young child. The further their relationship deteriorates, the harder the grieving parents fight to keep it alive.
Filmmaker Danny Boyle adapts the true-life story of Aron Ralston with this Fox Searchlight production detailing the hiker's harrowing quest for survival after losing an arm to a fallen rock and the grueling five-day ordeal that finally ended with his rescue. James Franco steps into the role of the unfortunate climber.
