Devon and Cornwall Film

Yeah, like it’s a metaphor. Fast Food Nation opens in Falmouth next Friday, Plymouth on June 15 and Exeter on June 22 and to celebrate, we’re bringing you a big helping of wholesome goodness - the sort you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite.

Tune into D+CFilm this weekend to read a two-part interview with director Richard Linklater and writer Eric Schlosser, and next week for an interview with stars Ethan Hawke and Catalina Sandino Moreno and to read our review of the film. Yum!

In the meantime, check out Bruce Willis below, or the Fast Food Nation website, for behind the scenes news, views and interviews, and your chance to win an organic hamper. Yum.

Posted by Cptn

Hullo viewer. We’ve just returned to D+CFilm Towers from the Plymouth College of Art and Design’s Splice festival launch. Yknow, we were telling you about it the other day? The story with the dodgy headline? Aw, click here to refresh yer memories, ya dunderheads!

They coulda done with pulling the blinds a bit (those tellies sure are shiny) but the stuff on display seemed pretty impressive.

As was the enthusiasm of all involved, from the students to the tutors, with the onus on independent filmmaking rather than local broadcasting. It verily made our hearts glad to witness such passionate and intelligent twoing-and-froing about the likes of This Is England and, erm, Cannibal Holocaust.

But what were filmmakers at the fest excited about? Here’s what they were excited about - in a cut-out-and-keep, top five stylee.

1. Shane Meadows
2. IPTV
3. Salad Fingers
4. 3D film headaches
5. Zombies

Cuh, kids today, eh? Anyway, we at D+CFilm are a little worried PCAD has underpromoted the event, so here’s what you can catch at the Viewpoint Gallery and Studio Theatre until next Wednesday.

Thursday, May 31 - 6pm: ND Media Year 2
Monday, June 4 - 6pm: FdA Moving Image Year 1
Tuesday, June 5 - 6pm: FdA Moving Image Year 2
Wednesday, June 6 - 6pm: Best Of The Fest Awards

It’s all good, as ver kids say. And the kids also say (according to our not-very-extensive research) - ‘click below to watch episode one of Salad Fingers’!

We’ll resist the urge to say we preferred Ren & Stimpy for fear of sounding like a Disco Dad. You’re not going out dressed like that, young lady!

Posted by Thin White Duke

We’ve mentioned First Light Movies a few times before, so we thought you’d like to know they’ve got a brand-spanking new website.

You can watch a selection of the films they’ve funded, pick up filmmaking tips, get the latest news and information and download First Light Movies grant applications - there’s even a place for young filmmakers to blog the progress of their project (probably best avoided if you’re a fan of good spelling and grammar, like what we are). 

Since launching in 2001, First Light Movies has enabled over 12,000 budding young filmmakers (aged five- to 18-years-old) throughout the UK to write, act, shoot, light, direct and produce over 800 films.

So why not click on this bit of underlined text and have a look round? And while you’re browsing, check out Eye On Cornwall, which has a little feature about our sexy D+CFree compo. Hooray!

Posted by Thin White Duke 

Students at Plymouth’s boffo College of Art and Design are set to can the Cannes (sorry) with their very own film festival.

The week-long shindig is called Splice and features flicks, animation and video work from the college’s undergraduate and further education peeps.

The whole thing kicks off at 6pm tomorrow and admission is absolutely free.

We don’t suppose you need any more information than that, but if you do, click here immediately.

Posted by Thin White Duke

They’ve got the key, they’ve got the secret. No, not the Urban Cookie Collective (ask yer dad), but the Reel Indi collective.

Their latest event, tomorrow at North Devon’s Tapeley Park, will apparently reveal the secret to everything - joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth, the Cutty Sark: you chuffing name it.

They’re showing a film called The Secret (as far as we can gather) which sees the world’s leading scientists, authors, and philosophers revealing the secret which transformed the lives of every person who ever knew it - we’re talking Plato, Newton, Carnegie, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Einstein.

We know what you’re thinking, though - the secret’s got to involve Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food. Well, you’re just gonna have to wait and see.

There’ll also be an exclusive screening of the latest Nathanial Lane flick, organic beer and cider from Marshford Organics, and lots of books, magazines and art for sale.

Click here for a little (but not much) more information on The Secret. We couldn’t get the trailer to work - is that a secret too? 

Posted by Thin White Duke

Okay, it’s a Bank Holiday, there’s nuttin on the telly and there’s no way you’re gonna even get near the bloody cinema, what with At World’s End flailing its kraken legs in all directions (we can’t remember if krakens have legs, but you get the idea).

Anyhoo, we though D+CFilm should come to the rescue, with a few things to have a look at when you have a spare coupla minutes.

First up, it’s a sneak peek of the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series (it’s so hardcore, it mentions ‘war’ twice in the title!).

Click here to have a squizz. Oh, and don’t get too excited - it’ll probably be shown at about 7am on a Saturday morning. In our day we had to make do with chuffing Timmy Mallett.

Next for your delectation, is a picture of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the forthcoming Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight.

Now, we weren’t especially keen on the casting of Ledger, who judging by Brokeback Mountain ignored Jack Joker’s advice to ’never rub another man’s rhubarb’, but we admit this image has got us pretty excited. Why can’t we
quit you?!

And that’s it for now. Sorry things have been a little raggedy the last few days - we will return to normal service tomorrow (we hope).

We’ll leave you with a clip of Nicholson in all his Joker glory. Those are some big boots Ledger has to fill. G’bye.

Posted by Thin White Duke

Hmm. There was a Bombs at Teatime nostalgic film programme shown at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth yesterday, which we were going to tell you about but we forgot.

Films included Tea Making Tips, with the the ’six golden tips’ for making the perfect cuppa, as well as other portraits of domestic life in Britain during the war.

We hope you’re not too disappointed you missed out (it probably woulda been really busy anyway) but to make up for it, here’s Tea Making Tips in all its glory. It’s hilarious stuff.

Now, excuse us while we rush off. We’ve just remembered we’ve stored our tea next to the disinfectant. Doh!

Posted by Thin White Duke

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Free Cinema movement and to celebrate, D+CFilm, in association with the People’s Republic Of South Devon, has launched a new competition encouraging local lensers to pick up a camera and document life as it is today.

Free Cinema saw UK filmmakers like Lindsay Anderson making documentary films outside the framework of the film industry. The movies all had a very low budget and featured ordinary, mostly working-class people at work and play.

The best short documentary films submitted to D+CFree will be put together and shown with Free Cinema 1, at Two Short Nights, the short film festival at the Exeter Phoenix, and be eligible for a unique award designed by Helen Snell.

The choice of subject is entirely up to the filmmaker, but should reflect modern life in Devon and Cornwall. Submitted movies must be no longer than 10 minutes and should be primarily dialogue-free. In the 1950s, the Free Cinema directors wouldn’t have been able to record a huge amount of sound on location. This situation still holds for people shooting on mobile phones, etc. So it isn’t really an aesthetic choice - it just levels the playing field a bit.

Perhaps fillmmakers will update Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson’s Momma Don’t Allow by taking cameras into the local nightclub, or reinvent Lindsay Anderson’s O Dreamland by filming at a funfair.

There are three age categories (eight-18; 18-55; and 55+). Entries can be shot on any medium and submitted on DVD to D+CFree competition, 19 Gloucester Road, Newton Abbot, TQ12 1AY. Mobile movies should be sent to ideas@dandcfilm.co.uk.

The closing date is November 5.

Prizes will reflect D+CFilm’s aim to stimulate the making and viewing of films, like vouchers, training courses, and use of professional editing suites.

Two Short Nights takes place at the Exeter Phoenix on December 6 and 7. The Free Cinema event, featuring D+CFree, will including a discussion on Free Cinema led by Christophe Dupin, who produced the BFI Free Cinema compilation, and chaired by Dan Paolantonio, film lecturer at Plymouth College of Art and Design.

If you have any questions or need more information, email info@dandcfilm.co.uk

Follow the main cinema links for dates, times and matinee screenings.
Follow the title links for movie details, friendship and maybe more.

PLYMOUTH ARTS CENTRE

After The Wedding (15) Click here to watch trailer

The Lives Of Others (15) Click here to watch trailer

TAVISTOCK WHARF  

Mr Bean’s Holiday (PG) Click here to watch trailer     

DARTINGTON ARTS/THE BARN

Curse Of The Golden Flower (15) Click here to watch trailer

Oliver Twist (U) Click here to watch trailer

The Asphalt Jungle (PG) Click here for Rotten Tomatoes reviews

Meet The Robinsons (U) Click here to watch trailer

TMNT (PG) Click here to watch trailer

EXETER PICTUREHOUSE     

My Best Friend (12A) Click here to watch trailer

At World’s End (12A) Click here to watch trailer

The Gigolos (12A) Click here to watch clips

The Lives Of Others (15) Click here to watch trailer

Mr Bean’s Holiday (PG) Click here to watch trailer 

The Wizard Of Oz (U) Click here to watch trailer

Meet The Robinsons (U) Click here to watch trailer

The Last Mimzy (PG) Click here to watch trailer

SAVOY, PENZANCE   

Bamako (PG) Click here to watch trailer

Tea With Mussolini (PG) Click here to watch trailer

Meet The Robinsons (U) Click here to watch trailer

TMNT (PG) Click here to watch trailer

Mr Bean’s Holiday (PG) Click here to watch trailer 

At World’s End (12A) Click here to watch trailer

Spider-Man 3 (12A) Click here to watch trailer

28 Weeks Later (18) Click here to watch trailer

Lovewrecked (PG) Click here to see website

THE POLY, FALMOUTH  

At World’s End (12A) Click here to watch trailer

If you want your local arthouse or cinema club featured in the Arthouse Roundup, send some details to info@dandcfilm.co.uk    

We don’t wanna keep harping on about South West Screen but we felt we should remind you the second edition of their Funding Your Feature podcast series is available now.

This time round, Avoiding the Pitfalls boasts Wiggin media lawyer Miles Ketley yapping about the dos and don’ts of film financing. Do pay Halle Berry squillions to get her dirty pillows out. Don’t pay Halle Berry to pretend to be a cat. That kinda thing (we suppose).

Click this bit of underlined text for more information or to subscribe.

Posted by Thin White Duke

Screenwriters get ready to poise your pens. South West Screen’s Screenwriter Development Competition has just been launched  - in Cannes of all places.

They launched it there to appeal to the grass-roots, of course, in front of a range of industry figures at the South West of England breakfast event at the UK Film Centre in the International Village of Cannes.

Now, is that aspirational or inspirational? Either way, this time next year you could be enjoying oeufs and bacon with the rest of them.

South West Screen is looking to develop a feature-length screenplay with mainstream appeal from a screenwriter based in the South West. Practise your French now - it’s as easy as un, deux, errrm…

The winner will get £3,000 and be mentored by Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Nicholson, of Gladiator and Shadowlands fame, and The Golden Age, to be released in November.

For more details, get in touch with South West Screen.

If want to write about film, email ideas@dandcfilm.co.uk

Posted by Cptn

Picture shows Mark Cosgrove, programmer of Encounters Film Festival and Watershed; Caroline Norbury, chief executive of South West Screen; and David Pearson, director of the International Screenwriters’ Festival.

D+CFilm isn’t just here for film news, reviews and cracking trailers - we’re actually sponsoring this year’s Two Short Nights at the Exeter Phoenix Media Centre and looking to inspire some of the super artists out there to boot.

This year’s Two Short Nights will be offering awards for the winning film in each of its categories and we’re looking for a Devon artist to design and create these awards. Cool non?

Professional as well as emerging artists, including students, are invited to submit, and you’ll get loads of coverage and be part of the emerging film scene. There will even be the eminently subversive and witty Alex Garnett on the panel to check out the feasibility of your wild ideas.

For more details, get in touch with ideas@dandcfilm.co.uk or download the complete press release.

Posted by Cptn

Dartington Arts’ Barn cinema is celebrating the centenary of John Wayne’s birth with a 50th anniversary screening of classic western The Searchers tonight.

The Duke plays barrel-chested loner Ethan Edwards, pursuing a five-year quest to track down the Commanches who have abducted his niece - not to rescue her you understand, but to kill her for hanging out with the Indians. As you do.

Directed by John Ford in glorious VistaVision, the flick makes full use of the Monument Valley setting and has influenced loads of films, from Taxi Driver to, erm, Attack Of The Clones.

It is, as they say, well worth a look. Click below to watch the trailer, then check out D+CFilm’s Arthouse Roundup for links to the Dartington Arts website.

Posted by Thin White Duke

One of Werner Herzog’s most accessible films (not counting that one where the bloke gets eaten by a bear), Fitzcarraldo sees the German director emulating Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in a mammoth epic set in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

The 25th Anniversary Edition DVD (Anchor Bay UK) is in the shops from today, and comes with Les Blank’s excellent feature-length ‘making of’ documentary Burden Of Dreams, detailing the movie’s famously nightmarish shoot (click the box below to see what we mean!).

But never mind all that behind the scenes stuff. Like the similarly troubled Apocalypse Now, Fitcarraldo is a stone-cold classic. Click here to watch Klaus Kinski in the famous bell-tower scene, or here to watch a clip starring Mick Jagger - cast as Fitcarraldo’s assistant before the character was dropped.

Posted by Thin White Duke

A professional crew filming a short in Exeter this summer is looking for youngsters to shadow them and learn the trade, and it promises to be more than just the trade of making tea.

The crew are looking for people with an interest in camera work, sound, direction, art direction, costume and production co-ordination. But what’s in it for you? Like duh! You’ll gain valuable experience of being on a shoot and will all receive a DVD of the completed three-minute film.

For more details, and to get in touch with the filmmakers, visit the jobs page.

Posted by Cptn