Most movie trailers start off with a green band, which means that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA.  This includes limitations on foul language and sexual or other objectionable imagery.  The 30 Days of Night trailer, however, has been given a red band, which basically means that they don’t follow the guidelines and that the trailer is a bit more graphic.

Red band trailers are only allowed to be shown before R-Rated, NC-17 rated, or unrated movies, but most theaters don’t run them at all.  Most of the time you need to hunt down the red band trailers online, but before you can watch them you have to verify that you are over the legal age.

30 Days of Night is a horror flick about a group of vampires who take over an Alaskan town where there is 30 days of night.  With 30 days of continual darkness, the vampires are free to roam and hunt their human prey in public all day and for the entire 30 day period.  Taking a peak at the trailer, I can already see that this will be a pretty graphic film - gory, gruesome, and intense.Because the trailer has restrictions for viewing, we’re not able to put it up on this site, but you can view it at the Sony site.

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It’s not a good week for fans of international cinema. Not only has the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman passed away, but Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni also died, on the very same day.

Antonioni begand his directorial career in the 1950s (although he worked beforehand with Roberto Rossellini). But his first major success was L’Avventura, a 1960 film which received a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. If Bergman dealt more with human interaction through dialogue and emotion, than Antonioni did the opposite. His films were more visual, and less dialogue based. In L’Avventura, the camera very much is telling its own story, setting itself apart from the characters involved. The camera is often distanced, almost alone, in an effort to represent human alienation. It is a style that came to define European art-house cinema, and has rarely been replicated in such an effective manner.

The director went on to direct 3 English-language films, such as the popular Blow-Up, the orgy-tastic Zabriskie Point, and The Passenger, which starred Jack Nicholson and has finally received a DVD release.

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Keira Knightley will be get in touch with her British roots, playing the role of an 18th century aristocrat, Georgiana, the duchess of Devonshire, in film The Duchess. The movie is based on Amanda Foreman’s biography of the duchess.

Georgiana has been compared by many as being the Princess Diana of her generation. Not surprisingly, Georgiana was actually an ancestor of the late Princess Di, who like her, lived a life of “political and romantic intrigue.”

Writing The Duchess script will be Jeffrey Hatcher. Knightley, is no stranger to period pieces such as this, having filmed Pride & Prejudice and King Arthur.

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One of the greatest filmmakers, Ingmar Bergman, died at age 89. While his last theatrical film, Fanny and Alexander was made in 1982, Bergman continued making films for Swedish television through 2005. One of his more recent television films, Saraband received wide theatrical distribution. Bergman’s influence was most notable on Woody Allen who both spoofed the master filmmaker, and made films about existential angst in a similar style. The two actors most associated with Bergman, Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman became international film stars in their own right. Bergman was nominated for an Academy Award nine times, both as a writer and director. The following is my list of the best of Ingmar Bergman. If you are not familiar with any of his films, this list should be a good place to start. The films are all available on DVD.

1. Persona (1966). Two women alone on an island, a nurse and a mute actress. Bibi Andersson talks, while Liv Ullman stays silent. A film about identity as indicated by the title. My nomination for Bergman’s best film.

2. Wild Strawberries (1957). Former pioneer Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjostrom plays a professor looking back at his life. The film is less depressing than it sounds. Max Von Sydow has a brief part as a gas station attendant.

3. The Seventh Seal (1957). A knight in the Middle Ages plays chess with Death. That image has become indelible and influenced Roger Corman on The Masque of Red Death.

4. Fanny and Alexander (1982). The story of a young boy and girl in early 20th Century Sweden, bookmarked by two big Christmas gatherings. This was a mini-series in Sweden, with the full version available on DVD. A shorter three hour version played theatrically.

5. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). Bergman never made a laugh out loud comedy, but this film should at least put a smile on your face. Woody Allen did his own version as A Midsummer’s Night’s Sex Comedy. The film was also the basis for the musical A Little Night Music.

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Today, on July 30th 2007, one of cinema’s remaing great directors passed away. For six decades Swedish director Ingmar Bergman made sometimes difficult, often beautiful, and always powerful films. We should regard his “track record” of awards, which include 9 Oscar nominations, and be more concerned with his influence. Kubrick said he was one of the few directors who were not “artistic opportunists”, referring to Bergman’s regularity and consistent quality throughout his lifetime. Woody Allen considered him a “genius”, and often copied Bergman’s style for his own dramas. For Ang Lee, Bergman was “number one”, Ebert called him the greatest living filmmaker, and Spielberg was intimidated by him.

I remember my first true experience with a Bergman film. My local arthouse cinema had a retrospective on the man. I picked Persona. It’s a film that is both difficult and profound. It retains an experimentalism and prowess that left me reeling as I left the cinema. Persona remains one of my favourite films to date. The film has inspired directors from Woody Allen to David Lynch.

But Bergman is more than what some may consider inaccessible art-house. For the director’s main strength was his ability to understand and chart human feelings and interactions. His TV drama Scenes from a Marriage is a stark and raw portrayal of a relationship. And Fanny and Alexander is a glorious celebration of the imagination. As he said in an introduction to his Four Screenplays:

People ask what are my intentions with my films — my aims. It is a difficult and dangerous question, and I usually give an evasive answer: I try to tell the truth about the human condition, the truth as I see it.

Bergman’s most famous film is The Seventh Seal, where a knight plays chess with death as he struggles to find meaning in existence. It’s a rare film that is not only visually stunning and iconic, but is meaningful in an accessible manner. If you like cinema in any form, do yourrself a favour and watch this film. At the very least, you’ll understand the reference in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.

Bergman died at the age of 89.

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I admit to being a fan of classic cartoons, the kind that were drawn by hand, especially those made either by the crew at Warner Brothers or those produced by Max Fleischer, seen in this photo with his biggest star. This Tuesday, Warner Brothers will be releasing the four disc set Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Vol. 1.

For those who only know the spinach eating sailor from the more recent cartoons shown on television, these older cartoons are worth checking out. One of the hallmarks of the Fleischer produced cartoons was that everything was animated - not only the characters, but the backgrounds as well. While almost all of the sixty cartoons in the set are black and white, there are two Popeye cartoons made with the original Technicolor process, “Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor”, and “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves”.

The cartoons are all completely restored, including the opening Paramount logos. Included in the DVD set are documentaries on Popeye and Max Fleischer, as well as a boatload of audio commentaries. This DVD release is recommended for those who have never seen the early Popeye cartoons or have never seen Popeye at all, as well as those who love classic animation when everything was lovingly crafted.

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With the movie opening this weekend and the hype at a fever pitch, it’s entirely possible that you’ve had just about enough of The Simpsons. Indeed, the Onion’s AV Club is currently featuring an interesting debate about whether or not the show should be put out to pasture. (Sample argument: “The advantage The Simpsons had for years over other family sitcoms—the characters never age—has became a disadvantage. These characters, so iconic, have no room to grow.”)

Regardless of whether you think the show is over the hill or not, Vanity Fair has brought together an impressive list of past and present cast and crew to talk about the show’s genesis, its growing pains, and more, giving one of the most comprehensive looks at the show’s history I’ve ever seen. Even former Fox Network Prez Barry Diller and media magnate Rupert Murdoch get in on the action. What’s more, the online version is expanded from the print version, and free! Some of the highlights and nuggets of new (to me, anyway) information include discussions of creator Matt Groening’s ongoing feud with early show runner Sam Simon:

Jay Kogen: It was clear that there was animosity back and forth. It was a tough position for Sam to be in, because Matt was getting all the accolades. I would think that if you were pouring your life’s blood into something and getting none of the credit, it would be irritating. If you look at the original Simpsons cartoons, those are closer to Matt’s drawings, but Sam reshaped them and re-drew them. He had experience in sitcoms. He had also worked in animation. He’s also a very talented cartoonist himself. He’s really smart, and handled storyboards and all that stuff.

Read on »

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While many people are looking forward to the many films premiering at the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival, there is also a sidebar event for those who love horror movies. It has been recently announced that George Romero’s newest zombie film, Diary of the Dead will be one of the new films at the Midnight Madness series. The film is about a group of film students who are making a zombie film who find themselves caught in a real zombie invasion. Romero has gone back to his indie roots with this film which has no U.S. release date set.

One of the other films scheduled, Stuck, stars Mena Suvari, who may be best known for her role in American Beauty, the Oscar winning film that was launched several years ago at the TIFF. In Stuck, Suvari plays a woman who hits Stephen Rea while driving after a night of partying. She finds her fate is linked to the accident victim. The film was directed and co-written by Stuart Gordon, famed for the cult films Re-Animator and From Beyond. To the best of my knowledge this film was not inspired by any stories recently making headlines.

One of the non-horror films in the series worth mentioning is Flash Point from Hong Kong, directed by Wilson Yip. The film stars Donnie Yen, one of the best martial arts stars around, and a pretty good filmmaker as well. Yen, who has also done action choreography for a number of films, also worked in that capacity on this film which has also been known by the title, City without Mercy.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 through the 15th.

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