Article: Volkswagon unveils their “Star Wars” Super Bowl commercial
There’s a cute dog in there too.
Track premiere: Good Old War “It Hurts Every Time”
Lost Memories: Our 10 favorite amnesia movies
Call-In Commentary: Watch the “Rampart” trailer with writer-director Oren Moverman
The rise of the film critic filmmaker
Videos
Article: Watch: Dogs bark out “Star Wars” Imperial March to tease VW Super Bowl ad
This time, it’s dogs barking the “Imperial March.” Yes, it’s as awesome as it sounds.
Article: Communicating the “Magic and Light” of Spielberg
The team over at Press Play is in the midst of an impressively comprehensive study of director Steven Spielberg. Each chapter of their “Magic and Light” series deals with another facet of the popular filmmaker’s career. They started with a video essay about the depiction of violence in Spielberg’s work; later they examined the roles…
Article: Robert Pattinson Knows “How To Be”
Robert Pattinson, the star of “Twilight,” talks about going indie and playing music in his new film “How To Be,” which recent made its premiere on VOD.
Article: SXSW 2009: Arm Wrestling in Austin
John Brzenk, legendary professional arm wrestler and subject of the doc “Pulling John,” takes on all challengers on the street of Austin before sitting down with us to explain the ins and outs of the sport with director Sevan Matossian and producer Navid Khonsari. //
Article: Takashi Miike on “Yatterman”
Takashi Miike, the both famous and infamous director of such beloved family-unfriendly fare as “Audition,” “Ichi the Killer” and “Visitor Q,” takes a step toward the Japanese mainstream with his new film “Yatterman,” which had its world premiere at this year’s New York Comic Con. Starring pop star Sho Sakurai, the film’s an adaptation of…
Article: The Yes Men Fix… The Boiler?
Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, otherwise known as the Yes Men, stopped by our comfy utility closet to talk about the Sundance premiere of their new documentary “The Yes Men Fix The World.” The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.ifc.com/swf/ifc_generic_blog.swf”, “yesmencloset”, “500″, “375″, “8″, “#ffffff”); so.addParam(“wmode”, “transparent”); //change player width…
Article: Cary Fukunaga and “Sin Nombre”
How does a first-time filmmaker get Focus Features to fund a Spanish-language thriller with a cast of actors unknown to the U.S.? Cary Fukunaga, director of “Sin Nombre,” explains. The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.ifc.com/swf/ifc_generic_blog.swf”, “caryfukunaga2009″, “500″, “375″, “8″, “#ffffff”); so.addParam(“wmode”, “transparent”); //change player width so.addVariable(“pwidth”, 500); //change player…
Article: RJ Cutler, Sundance Fashion Critic
RJ Cutler, director of “The September Issue,” a documentary about Anna Wintour and the production of Vogue magazine’s most important issue in the year, takes to the Park City streets to critique fashion at the Sundance Film Festival. The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.ifc.com/swf/ifc_generic_blog.swf”, “rjcutlerfashion”, “500″, “375″, “8″, “#ffffff”);…
Article: The Broken Lizard Strikeforce
The Broken Lizard comedy group returns to their indie roots and to Park City, where they premiered their first two films, for the Slamdance premiere of their new film “The Slammin’ Salmon.” The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.ifc.com/swf/ifc_generic_blog.swf”, “brokenlizard2009″, “500″, “375″, “8″, “#ffffff”); so.addParam(“wmode”, “transparent”); //change player width so.addVariable(“pwidth”,…
Article: Putty In Their Hands: How to Give Yourself a Black Eye
For the final day of our Halloween celebration of horror movie makeup, IFC.com’s Alison Willmore meets up with Rachel Pagani, a makeup and special effects artist who, among her many credits, did creature effects work on Larry Fessenden’s “Wendigo,” to learn from an expert how to make it look like you’re sporting a wicked shiner…
Article: Video: Lars Ulrich Loves Indie Film
Apropos of nothing in particular, here’s Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich talking with IFC’s music blogger Jim Shearer about indie film, of which he’s a huge fan, his friendship with Thomas Vinterberg and why there’s still hope for low-budget cinema. For the record, he’s thinks “Man on Wire” is “one of the best documentaries I’ve seen…
Article: Video: “A Christmas Tale” at the New York Film Festival
“It could be sort of a slogan for this family: ‘Let’s get rid of melancholy’… They don’t have time for melancholy. All of them are good fighters,” said French director Arnaud Desplechin of his new film, an at turns lighthearted and deeply dramatic portrait of a family during the holidays that he compared in structure…
Article: Video: “Waltz With Bashir” at the New York Film Festival
“This film was always meant to be an animated film. I never thought there was a chance to do it any other way — not as a fiction film, and definitely not as a classic documentary film.” Ari Folman, the writer/director of “Waltz with Bashir,” described his unconventional and powerful doc about the 1982 Sabra…
Article: Video: “Changeling” at the New York Film Festival
“I didn’t know anything about it until I read the script,” admitted Clint Eastwood at the New York Film Festival’s press conference for “Changeling,” his highly anticipated film based on the 1920s Wineville Chicken Murders and an incident in which the police tried to convince a single mother that the boy they had brought to…
Article: Video: “Ashes of Time Redux” at the New York Film Festival
“It was almost like an odyssey, because we spent five years — the first few years we had to retrieve material from different parts of the world.” Wearing his signature sunglasses, Wong Kar-wai addressed the press after a New York Film Festival screening of “Ashes of Time Redux,” the restored and recut version of his…
Article: Video: “The Wrestler” at the New York Film Festival
“If I knew it was going to take me 15 years to get back in the saddle and work again because of the way I handled things, I really would have handled things differently… Change, for me, didn’t come easily. I didn’t want to change, until I lost everything.” Mickey Rourke’s role as faded professional…
Article: Video: “Che” at the New York Film Festival
“It wasn’t until the film was finished, right around Cannes, that I realized… it was about engagement versus disengagement,” Steven Soderbergh told the press after a screening of his four-hour bio-epic “Che,” which will make its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival later this week. In the video below, he speaks about the…
Article: Video: “Happy-Go-Lucky” at the New York Film Festival
Poppy, the main character of Mike Leigh’s latest film, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” is a 30-year-old elementary school teacher who lives in London and who’s irrepressibly, almost unnaturally cheerful. As played by Sally Hawkins, she’s a fascinating and divisive figure, endearing to some and grating to others. In the video below, Leigh and Hawkins, taking questions from the…
Article: Video: “Hunger” at the New York Film Festival
Steve McQueen (not to be confused with the late “Bullitt” star) went from Turner Prize-winning artist to lauded filmmaker with his directorial debut “Hunger,” about the 1981 Irish hunger strike in which IRA prisoners, led by Bobby Sands, tried to win political status by refusing food. “Hunger,” which won the Caméra d’Or prize at Cannes,…
Article: Ludivine Sagnier Gets Cut in Two
Ludivine Sagnier is a superstar in her native France who has in her young career worked with the country’s most prominent directors, including François Ozon, for whom she’s been a bit of a muse, playing memorable roles in films like “Swimming Pool.” But in the U.S., the only role she’s chosen to take was one…
Article: Video: “The Wolf Man” at Comic-Con 2008
“I’ve been making myself up as a wolf man since I was ten years old,” claimed legendary make-up artist Rick Baker, who’s won six Oscars for his work in films as varied as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Ed Wood” and “An American Werewolf in London.” He’s a natural fit, then, for director Joe Johnston’s…
Article: Video: “The Spirit” at Comic-Con 2008
“I first met Will Eisner on a street in Vermont, when I was bicycling back home with a bunch of new comic books,” began Frank Miller, comic book artist turned co-director, alongside Robert Rodriguez, with 2005′s “Sin City.” “The Spirit,” an adaptation of Eisner’s long-running crime-fighter comic strip, finds Miller going solo behind the camera…
Article: Video: “Watchmen” at Comic-Con 2008
“That seems like… a crazy idea,” “300″ director Zack Snyder said upon being offered the adaptation of “Watchmen,” Alan Moore’s revered graphic novel that’s defied all earlier attempts to be brought to the big screen. “Once they asked me, I kinda felt responsible — even if I said no, they would have moved on, and…
Article: Video: “RocknRolla” at Comic-Con 2008
Stars Gerard Butler, Jeremy Piven, Idris Elba and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges joined director Guy Ritchie for yesterday’s presentation on “RocknRolla,” Ritchie’s first film since infamous bomb “Revolver,” which took two years to reach U.S. shores. “RocknRolla,” which is about the Russian mob in London, is the film that everyone’s hoping represents a return to form…
