Filmmaker Wong Kar Wai exists in liminal spaces— the pauses between words, the gaps between cultures, the chance encounters between strangers who will become lovers or almost become lovers before they’re strangers again. His films are about potential, not expiation; his characters are each “about to,” and that they don’t know that is heartbreaking. He’s slippery, ephemeral, a warm smell carried on a spring breeze, the first maybe after a long winter. His films exist at the moment of change after lifetimes of stagnation and rigor; His interest isn’t drawn by any narrative force, but rather by how everything is essentially the same until something changes and then it’s the same again, but in this new way.

Continue reading Criterion Collection’s ‘World Of Wong Kar-Wai’ Box Set Captures The Poetic Rapture Of His Liminal Art at The Playlist.

64 years ago today, a one-of-a-kind film artist was born. Christopher Doyle, originally from Australia but wholeheartedly belonging to his adoptive Asian culture of Hong Kong and Taiwan, is one of the greatest living cinematographers working today. He’s also the first DP to come to mind if you’re ever thinking about having a drink with one, a plaudit he’d probably hold in higher regard than any praise of cinematic artistry laid on him.

Continue reading The 10 Best Shots: Celebrating The Eye Of Christopher Doyle at The Playlist.

The timing of the release falls in line with our previous report that Harvey is eyeing a cheap and dirty Oscar campaign for Tarantino’s latest indulgence that surprised pretty much everyone at the box office (taking in nearly $120 million in the United States alone), and also earned its fair share of critical plaudits.

Continue reading ‘Inglourious Basterds’ DVD & BluRay Confirmed For December 15th Release; No Deleted Scenes With Maggie Cheung Or Cloris Leachman at The Playlist.

Her character shelters the wanted Shosanna and then passes away from a fever, leaving the protagonist to take over running the cinema (don’t worry none of that is spoilers because none of it is in the actual film).

She was fine with the decision, Quentin Tarantino had to obviously cut something to take down the gargantuan length (it’s a necessary and unfortunate decision, here’s some more thoughts on the matter) and the excised scenes will eventually find their way onto the DVD.

Continue reading Melanie Laurent Laments Loss Of Maggie Cheung Sequences in ‘Inglourious Basterds’; Explains The Missing Scenes at The Playlist.

Cheung told Chinese press that her scenes had to be cut to ensure the film’s length, but she seemed to take it all in stride and said she, “really thought it was no big deal.”

But if Quentin has his way, you’ll eventually see the scene on DVD (though if it’s a special DVD, knowing Tarantino’s track record, you’ll have to wait until around 2015).

Continue reading Maggie Cheung’s Excised ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Scenes Might End Up On The DVD at The Playlist.

Continue reading Tarantino’s Added ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Scene Revealed at The Playlist.

Continue reading 8 Ways To Fix Tarantino’s WWII Film, ‘Inglourious Basterds’ at The Playlist.

Was the decidedly cool and mixed reactions to Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” (a film we honestly felt was uninspired filmmaking and going-through-the-motions page-to-screen transference) too lukewarm for Universal and The Weinstein Company?

Anne Thompson noted over the weekend that the two studios are “talking to [Tarantino] about returning to the editing room post-Cannes to make some edits that might include adding a scene, says [Quentin himself], who reminds us that the film, at two hours 27 minutes, is well under his contractual final cut length of two hours 48 minutes.”

Honestly we’re not surprised about adding and not subtracting from the film.

Continue reading Back To The Editing Room For Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’? Scene(s) <I>Added</I>? at The Playlist.

“City Of God” co-director Katia Lund is attached to direct an adaptation of “Dancing Arabs,” the story of an Arab-Israeli whose gains admission into a Hebrew boarding school whilst assuming the identity of a Jewish-Israeli friend. This will be Lund’s follow up to ‘God.’ [Variety]

The author of “Trainspotting,” Irvine Welsh will direct and co-write with father-son writing team Pete and John Adams on “The Magnificent Eleven,” a modernization of the “The Magnificent Seven” about a local amateur soccer team, a Tandoori restaurant and a group of menacing thugs.

Continue reading ‘Happy Tears’ Gets Picked Up By Roadside, ‘Trainspotting’ Author Irvine Welsh To Make His Feature Film Directorial Debut at The Playlist.

Ok, so unless you’re living under a rock, you read this morning that the line-up for the 62 Annual Cannes Film Festival was revealed and, to no one’s shock, Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” was announced as part of the festival.

And let it be known: we’re not afraid of calling ourselves out on our silly proclamations. We once said that there was no way Tarantino would ever have ‘Basterds’ ready for this year’s Cannes when he first announced his intentions for the film to debut there at the last Croisette in May 2008.

Continue reading Does ‘Basterds’ Screening <I>In</I> Competition Bode Well For Tarantino’s Campy WWII Epic? at The Playlist.

Why? Well, What transpired seems to be somewhat muddled, but the gist of it is: there is bad blood between Huppert and the motormouth American director.

Continue reading Isabelle Huppert Named Cannes ’09 Jury Head, Does This Spell Trouble For ‘Inglourious Basterds? at The Playlist.

Well, we learned this weekend that Deneuve actually was offered the part of Mimieux, a Parisian movie theater owner who gives shelter to the film’s protagonist Shosanna, but turned the role down.

Continue reading Catherine Deneuve Turned Down The Role Of Madame Mimeux In ‘Inglourious Basterds’ at The Playlist.

Wait, what’s left? Well, Maggie Cheung has evidently been cast as Madame Mimieux, the French matron of the Cinematheque that takes in the protagonist Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) when she is homeless and being sought by the Nazis.

Continue reading Exclusive: Samuel L. Jackson & Maggie Cheung Join Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ at The Playlist.