Leo Bankersen has been writing about film since Chinatown and Night of the Living Dead. Reviewed as a freelance film journalist for the GPD for a long time. Is now, among other things, one of the regular contributors to De Filmkrant. Likes to break a lance for children's films, documentaries and films from non-Western countries. Other specialities: digital issues and film education.
It gets crazier and crazier with The Interview, the US comedy in which the CIA wants to implicate two television journalists in an assassination attempt against the leader of North Korea.
You could almost say that film has once again been overtaken by reality.
Morgan Knibbe doesn't do that badly at all. Graduated from the Film Academy two years ago, already on equal footing with the world's best documentary filmmakers at IDFA. Those Who Feel the Fire Burning is his unconventional portrayal of the world of refugees who ventured across to Europe. Now nominated for IDFA's top prize, the award for best feature-length documentary. It...
Film-making used to be a man's business. Men made films about men watching women - something like that. In 1975, film scholar Laura Mulvey launched the famous notion of 'The Male Gaze'. Last year, it resurfaced in the heated debate surrounding La vie d'Adèle, that wonderful film by Abdellatif Kechiche (male) about a lesbian love affair. So how about before? This year, IDFA has...
"Theo van Gogh tried so hard to be an enfant terrible that we almost forgot that he was one of the Netherlands' most creative and productive filmmakers." I wrote this for the GPD papers on 2 November 2004, after an editor called me with the terrible news of the filmmaker's violent death. Soon, that murder was exactly ten...
Scene 1 - Expectations The main hall of film theatre 't Hoogt was filled with people from the film sector on Wednesday afternoon at the invitation of the Film Fund. The subject of the meeting is the chronically low attendance of more artistic Dutch films. This has been the case for a long time, by the way, and not only in the Netherlands. Should new avenues be explored? Should expectations be...
With five nominations, the comedy Aanmodderfakker by Michiel ten Horn most likely to win Golden Calfs. Including those for best film, director and screenplay. Close on his heels, incidentally, are
At the presentation at the Netherlands Film Festival of the Louis Hartlooper Prize for Film Journalism will not be handed a Golden Calf, but a Black Mirror. In ancient times a tool for viewing, now a token of appreciation for a contribution to written film culture.
Members of various film trade associations will designate the winner. Some believe there is no such thing,
Barely recovered from the shock following the death of Robin Williams, there is the news that Lauren Bacall (89) has also left us. Icon of film noir, that dark and influential genre of Hollywood's heyday. Her first films, in which she played Humphrey Bogart (she married him...
Beloved American actor Robin Williams certainly was. This is evident from the copious reactions following his unexpected death. Extra tragic that it is believed to be suicide, having struggled with depression and drink and drug problems. But it is also wry that the much-loved Williams has not had the chance to shine in a memorable leading role since 2002....
From 2007, video artist Matthew Barney (The Cremaster Cycle) and composer Jonathan Bepler on a free adaptation of Norman Mailer's most maligned book Ancient Evenings. To Mailer's mythology of ancient Egypt, they added the equally mythical American automobile industry in an ambitious and operatesque film project with a demanding length of 5 hours 11 minutes.
From February River of Fundament on world tour and the Holland Festival
78 Million euros is the turnover lost by the film and DVD industry in the Netherlands due to illegal downloading. This was recently revealed in a press release announced. Yesterday, it was also one of the topics at a discussion afternoon organised by Film Producers Netherlands (FPN) on copyright developments.
The Holland Festival presents Abel Gance's restored film epic on Sunday Napoleon, with live orchestra. A rare event, for the first time in this form on mainland Europe. In 1927, Gance had performed with Napoleon delivered a groundbreaking and monumental piece of work that made unusual demands on the projection (three canvases) and went out into the world in a variety of severely shortened versions after the first performances.
Napoleon at Ziggo Dome promises to be spectacular, but who was That ambitious loner Abel Gance?
In cinemas this week: In the Name of, an old-fashioned solid Polish drama about a priest who tries in vain to escape his homosexuality through celibacy. He works in a village in the province with difficult-to-educate teenagers. "I would like to fuck all those boys," he exclaims
The digital canvass battle in cinema is still some time away. For now, moviegoers are benefiting, according to research.
About two years ago, the digitisation of the Dutch cinema business was completed. All cinemas and film houses have been projecting digitally since 2012. In the projection booth, the disappearance of 35mm equipment meant a landslide.
Tonight, the 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opens with Grace of Monaco, a biopic with a major lead role for Nicole Kidman. Jury president of the world's premier film event is New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion. Three of the other six jury members also
his women. Does Cannes have something to make up for?
Film tip for this week: Spies & Glistrup, a Danish shell comedy with a dark edge about the heyday of an illustrious anarchist duo from the 1970s. Even for the broad-minded Denmark of the time, they were extreme. According to director Christoffer Boe, they left a lasting mark on Danish society.
Because yes, the good Danes had not experienced anything like this before. Simon Spies, made stone-faced with a holiday travel empire and always surrounded by pretty girls,
Contrary to what some expected a few years ago, 3D in artistic film is still a rarity. So then, when something pops up in this corner again, it immediately makes one curious. And so I don't mean Cathedrals of Culture, the 3D film project by Wim Wenders and five other filmmakers starring buildings. That Wenders is a 3D believer we already knew.
I mean that other 3D premiere at the Berlin festival: Above Us All of the Dutch
Lars von Trier is present at the Berlinale, wearing a T-shirt with the Cannes logo and the text 'persona non grata'. This refers to the riot at Cannes after his failed joke about Hitler. Since then, he has said nothing to the press. So we see on the monitor in the press room on Sunday afternoon
Imagine an old-fashioned sophisticated comedy, but filmed with modern speed, in the colourful and baroque style of a richly detailed comic strip full of plots and escapes, rounded off with a perfume of melancholy. Then you come close to The Grand Budapest Hotel, the new film by
9,000 euros was the amount with which Indian director Anup Singh's Qissa got off the ground a decade ago. That money came from the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) affiliated Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), which has been supporting filmmakers in developing countries for 25 years now. Last night, Qissa opened the 43rd edition of the Rotterdam festival. This makes the port city
world capital for independent film for ten days, as business director Janneke Starink stated at the opening in the Doelen.
Video on Demand (VoD) is a growth market, we learned at the cinema industry's New Year's meeting this week. Despite this, Ximon, one of the Dutch pioneers in this field, is forced to to close shop at the end of this month.
Christmas saved the 2013 cinema year. While it seemed that cinema attendance was going nowhere at the beginning of December, the last three weeks of the year made up for a lot - thanks to Hobbit 2.
2013 closed with 30.8 million visitors, Wilco Wolfers, president of the Dutch Cinematography Federation announced at the cinema industry's New Year's meeting. Best-attended film
Members of the Dutch Circle of Film Journalists (KNF) and other film critics reviewed the Italian tragicomedy La Grande Bellezza voted best cinematic film of 2013. According to the same critics, Borgman by Alex van Warmerdam the best Dutch film of this year, the KNF announced.
La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino received the most points after
We congratulate Marwan Kenzari! He has been selected as one of the Shooting Stars, the ten best young European actors to be showcased at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival.
This annual showcase of new talent could, with some luck
With the crowning of Song from the Forest by Michael Obert, the jury chose a poetic film essay that combines a very personal account with reflection on our culture. Samedi is a 13-year-old Bayaka Pygmy from Central Africa who here travels to his American father's homeland for the first time.
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