Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Roundtable Roundup: Woody Allen Blows Kisses At Paris

A Look At What's Making News Today

Woody Allen's "love letter to Paris"

Woody Allen's 41st feature film, "Midnight in Paris," will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 11. As usual, the film boasts a strong and eclectic cast, including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, and Adrien Brody, not to mention Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French president.

We're great admirers of Woody Allen here at Roundtable Pictures, but it's no secret that Allen's career has been erratic over the last 20 films or so. "Midnight in Paris" is described by the festival as "love letter to Paris," and, again as usual, explores familiar themes for Allen: art, relationships and pleasure.

We'll be looking forward to it. In the meantime, read what Roundtable Pictures' Lars Trodson has to say about Woody Allen.

Doc that inspired "The Fighter" is a true contender

David O Russell's Oscar-nominated film "The Fighter," starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, owes much to a little-seen 1995 HBO documentary "High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell." The doc features the real-life boxer Micky Ward (played by wahlberg in "The Fighter") and his half-brother and trainer, Dicky Eklund (played by Bale in "The Fighter"), who box opponents alongside a vicious addiction to crack cocaine.

The documentary can be seen for free on Snag Films. The story is tough and certainly tragic, but also instructive on how Hollywood remolds fact as fiction.

See "High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell" here.

Save time on your next film thesis

Writing a thesis can be a chore... until now. Mike Lacher over at Wonder Tonic offers up the Film School Thesis Generator, which makes short work of the task. Simply plug in your chosen flick and it churns out your thesis. We tested it on one of our favorite Orson Welles' pics, "F For Fake," and it spit out this: "F for Fake fragments the containment of visual pleasure through its use of telling jump cuts."

If you're bored, try it out here.


-- Mike Gillis