If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
It's really quite sad if you think about it; not so long ago, Baz Luhrmann was the darling of Hollywood, a breath of fresh air in an increasingly formulaic industry. Audiences aren't so easily distracted these days by shiny colours and slick cinematography. More and more, they crave inner beauty over outer beauty. And perhaps it is that Baz Luhrmann hasn't quite realised this yet.
The collective worship of millions - even billions - across the planet is bound to send you a tiny bit peculiar. Maybe that's what prompted John Lennon to say that the Beatles were 'more popular than Jesus'. Could it be? Is Justin Bieber bigger than God?
Some people may dread that women will come on and talk about periods. I don't. I dread that the next 20 something white middle class male will come on and do some inadvisable and ill-conceived material on rape or pedophilia or something being LITERALLY the funniest thing that ever happened, when it LITERALLY is not.
Recent statistics suggest that 82% of people think it's acceptable to watch pirated TV shows, and the growing piracy rates back this up: the season premiere of Game of Thrones was watched illegally over one million times, compared to just over four million legitimate views, with foreign interest in the series being a large cause.
So your kid likes acting and singing and wants to be famous? You want them to be the next Harry Potter? Justin Bieber? Well, as a film director I have to say that the first thing you need to do is... STOP!
But in these austere times she also asked for better evidence of the value of culture. In short, her point was that if we want UK Government to continue investing in culture - as public spending gets the squeeze - we in the cultural industries need to demonstrate a return on that investment
Staring death right in the face though is the theme of photographer Rankin's new project 'ALIVE', which is part exhibit and part documentary, exploring the personal stories of subjects across the UK who have dealt with the prospect of dying or been survivors of terminal illnesses, living to tell their tale.
With this year's Cannes film festival now in full swing, thought it was worth sharing a Cannes travel story with a difference. In 2012, we dared to dream the impossible dream. From a wet and windy West Yorkshire all the way to the world's most glamorous film festival.
Bafta is known for celebrating excellence at ceremonies such as Sunday's Arqiva British Academy Television Awards, but it also engages in activity to help a diverse range of talented people to develop and grow in their careers.
It was a Paralympics where spectators finally started to focus on ability rather than disability, a request many Paralympians have always made. Come As You Are, which will be released in the UK on 7 June, could not have chosen better timing.
One of the problems with adapting a famous literary work for film is that there is a lot of subtext and nuance to try and capture in a visual super-text medium. This problem is compounded when the director is known for his visual flair rather than his subtlety.
Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby is like a fast-spinning glitterball of excess on the cinema screen.
If a film ultimately about emptiness leaves you 142 lavish minutes later feeling thoroughly depleted, does that mean it's a brilliant film? Discuss.
We're currently in the throes of a Great-Gatsby mania; beaded flapper dresses, tipped blazers and straw boaters are suddenly the height of fashion and Gatsby-themed, well, anything - charity galas, cocktails, pop-up speakeasies, even hotel suites.
The Great Gatsby is stunning, but it's meaningfully, provocatively stunning. This isn't just awesome spectacle for spectacle's sake. Luhrmann uses sensory overload in a similar way to Harmony Korine in Springbreakers - to disorientate the audience and send them reeling into a hallucinogenic whirl.
I think we can all agree that the last thing the film world needs as another tale of mopey, bloodsucking teenagers, but Neil Jordan's latest vampirical tale, Byzantium, is clearly doing everything it can to distance itself from the world of Stephanie Meyer.
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