Read this article (it is quite short) about Michael Moore’s next movie.

Independent film is thriving on television thanks to video on demand.

Read more about it here

Here is the New Moon trailer,
the second episode of the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer,
which will be released in November 2009.

Watch it !

Independent film is thriving on television thanks to video on demand

Read this article about films and video on demand.

from : http://www.economist.com

CANNES was quiet this week. Although the stars and the paparazzi went through the usual red-carpet routine, there was less extravagance and a smaller contingent of film-buyers than usual. Yet for makers of independent films, that was not the end of the world. In their business the action increasingly takes place not on the French Riviera but in American living rooms. Tricky, intelligent films are finding a home in the least glamorous corner of the television business.

Getting independent films into cinemas, never easy, has become much harder in the past year. Some specialist distributors, such as Warner Independent Pictures, have closed and others are buying fewer films. The credit crunch and the strong dollar have cut foreign sales. Meanwhile cheap digital-video cameras and editing software have produced a flood of content. Some 5,500 films are chasing buyers in Cannes this year. Last year just 606 new films were released in American cinemas. Many lost money. “The economics just do not make sense,” says Jonathan Sehring of IFC Films, an independent distributor.

Hence the rapid growth of an alternative. This year IFC will release about 100 films “on demand”, meaning they can be called up for a fee in most households that get their television via cable or satellite.

The reason for the rush is that, for low-budget films, the economics of video on demand do make sense. Cable companies, which take a cut when they sell a film, help with advertising. Mr Sehring says IFC makes about as much when a film is sold on demand as when a punter buys a cinema ticket, even though the ticket costs almost twice as much. He reckons he recoups his costs and returns money to filmmakers more than half the time—not bad for films that might otherwise have disappeared without trace.

It also makes sense to concentrate on a single marketing push. Heavy advertising helps keep blockbusters in people’s minds. But small, independent films are easily forgotten.

EPAThe action is on TV

By launching their creations on cable, filmmakers must give up the dream of creating a hugely profitable surprise hit like “Napoleon Dynamite”.

Distributors are learning what kinds of films are best suited to video on demand. Eamonn Bowles, Magnolia’s president, says it helps greatly if films are susceptible to brief synopsis. That means well-known names and obedience to genre conventions.  Documentaries may be better suited to the internet, since it caters so well to special-interest groups.

Whether accessed via cable television or the internet, video on demand is likely to grow. America’s suburbs are becoming much more diverse places, with more ethnic minorities, more people with degrees and more gays, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles. The potential audience for independent films is thus dispersing beyond the places where independent cinemas are concentrated. Not everybody lives near an art-house cinema, but almost everybody has a remote control.

This week I highly recommend : “Good Morning England” .

A great movie, fantastic music (I’m definitel buying the soundtrack !) and great actors (Bill Nighy, Philip Syemour Hoffman, Kenneth Brannagh, Emma Thompson, … an amazing cast !)  . Watch the trailer :

‘I’ll keep doing Bond until my knees go’

Here’s what Daniel Craig said about his role. Read more in this interview.

Are you a James Bond fan ?

Which actor do you prefer to play Bond ?

Which is your favourite James Bond film ?

Quels effets peut produire un mois de régime 100 % McDonald’s ? Un pamphlet horriblement efficace, qui a fait le tour du monde – comme MCDo.

You HAVE to watch this movie !

Regardez le jusqu’au 18 Avril en ligne sur ARTE (qui a passé toute une série de films et documentaires sur la malbouffe, dont “We Feed The World” que vous DEVEZ voir !)

lien : http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/detailPage/1697660,CmC=2535786.html

I may go and watch this movie soon.

It is in fact adapted from a short story by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. You have to know this famous (and great) American writer because he actually wrote his masterpiece (= chef d’oeuvre) “Tender is The Night”  in Saint Raphaël !

For the Terminale pupils, we’ll be studying “The Great Gatsby” soon in our “Money” theme.

This is the film I watched last week-end, this is definitely a great movie, go and see it if you have some time !

This is the next movie I want to watch :