Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing in cinemas July 11
Australian release date July 11
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Joss Whedon’s fresh take on William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing has received wide critical acclaim, praised for its humour and “inspired” interpretation of the Bard’s comedic play (Variety). Empire magazine described Whedon and Shakespeare as “a perfect match”.
Country of Origin: USA
Language: English
Duration: 107 minutes
Rating: TBC
Director: Joss Whedon
Producers: Joss Whedon, Kai Cole
Starring: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Sean Maher, Reed Diamond, Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk
Australian release: 11 July 2013
Joss Whedon’s (The Avengers, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, Cabin in the Woods, Toy Story) modern re-telling of Much Ado About Nothing stars Whedon film and television regulars Amy Acker (‘Angel’, ‘Dollhouse’), Alexis Denisof (‘Buffy’, ‘Angel’, ‘Dollhouse’), Clark Gregg (The Avengers), Fran Kranz (Cabin in the Woods, ‘Dollhouse’) and Nathan Fillion (‘Buffy’, ‘Firefly’, Serenity).
Using the original text, adapted by Joss Whedon, the story of sparring lovers Beatrice (Acker) and Benedick (Denisof) offers a dark, sexy, funny and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love.
Much Ado About Nothing was shot in and around Joss Whedon’s own home in Santa Monica, California, while he was still working on the blockbuster superhero film The Avengers. Co-produced by Whedon’s wife Kai Cole, the film was made with close friends and a sincere love for the classic text.
Sharmill Films will release MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING in Australian cinemas on July 11.
AUSTRALIAN TRAILER:
Alan Bennett’s PEOPLE – participating cinemas across Australia
People
a new play by Alan Bennett
Starring Frances de la Tour
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Screening: 20 & 21 April*
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
CLICK HERE FOR PARTICIPATING CINEMAS
Find a cinema near you at ntlive.com
Synopsis
People spoil things; there are so many of them and the last thing one wants is them traipsing through one’s house. But with the park a jungle and a bath on the billiard table, what is one to do? Dorothy (Frances de la Tour) wonders if an attic sale could be a solution.
Alan Bennett is one of Britain’s most celebrated playwrights, and the much anticipated People is the sixth of his plays to have its premiere at the National Theatre. Following its original run at the National Theatre, The History Boys transferred to Broadway, winning the Tony Award for Best Play in 2006, and toured internationally before being turned into a film, again directed by Nicholas Hytner and with a cast including Frances de la Tour.
Bennett and Hytner also collaborated on the award-winning play and film The Madness of King George and their last stage production, The Habit of Art, was broadcast as part of National Theatre Live in 2010.
Sleepwalk With Me – in cinemas from 4 April
PARTICIPATING CINEMAS FROM THURSDAY 4 APRIL
VIC: Cinema Nova
NSW: Dendy Cinemas Newtown, Chauvel Cinema, Cremorne Orpheum, Palace Byron Bay (from 2 May), Narooma Cinemas
QLD: Palace Centro Cinema
SA: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas
WA: Luna Palace Cinema Paradiso
TAS: State Cinema
Sleepwalk With Me
A comedy by Mike Birbiglia
Produced by Ira Glass of This American Life
A comedy for anyone who’s ever had a dream.
And then jumped out a window.
Country of Origin: USA
Language: English
Duration: 81 minutes
Rating: M
Director: Mike Birbiglia, co-directed by Seth Barrish
Producers: Ira Glass, Jacob Jaffke
Starring: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, James Rebhorn, Cristin Milioti, Loudon Wainwright III and special appearances by Kristin Schaal, Wyatt Cenac, Alex Karpovsky
Australian release: 4 April 2013
SYNOPSIS
‘I’m going to tell you a story, and it’s true… I always have to tell people that.’ So asserts comedian-turned-playwright-turned-filmmaker Mike Birbiglia directly to the viewer at the outset of his autobiographically inspired, fictional feature debut. Birbiglia wears his incisive wit on his sleeve while portraying a cinematic surrogate. We are thrust into the tale of a burgeoning stand-up comedian struggling with the stress of a stalled career, a stale relationship threatening to race out of his control, and the wild spurts of severe sleepwalking he is desperate to ignore.
Based on the successful one-man show, Sleepwalk With Me engages in a kind of passionate and personal storytelling that transfigures intimate anguish into comic art. Produced and co-written by Ira Glass (PRI’s ‘This American Life’), Sleepwalk With Me features a stellar supporting cast that includes Lauren Ambrose, (‘Six Feet Under’), Carol Kane (‘Taxi’), James Rebhorn (‘Meet the Parents’), Cristin Milioti (‘30 Rock’), and a sampling from the who’s who of today’s stand up scene including Kristin Schaal, Wyatt Cenac, Marc Maron, Jessi Klein, Henry Phillips, David Wain and Alex Karpovsky.
Bursting with sincerity, Mike Birbiglia’s foray into the medium marks the invigorating emergence of a strong and poignant American voice, at once hilarious and heartbreaking.
REVIEWS
FOUR STARS – Time Out New York
‘A funny and insightful movie. I could have watched it for ten hours’ – Judd Apatow (This is 40, Girls, Funny People)
‘One of the best films ever made on the subject of stand-up comedy’ – Jacob S. Hall, Movies.com
‘The funniest, most tender, thoughtful and downright brilliant comedy we’ve seen in years.’ – James Mullinger, GQ
‘I like this movie. More important, I like Mike Birbiglia.’ – Roger Ebert, Chicago SunTimes
‘Extremely funny’ – Liliana Greenfield-Sanders, Huffington Post
‘Grade: A. A charming odd-ball comedy.’ – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
‘Consistently amusing.’ – Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian
A ‘charming gem set in the world of stand-up comedy, co-produced and co-scripted by This American Life’s Ira Glass’ – Zach Udko, Huffington Post
‘Laugh-out-loud funny and somewhat melancholic’. – New York Observer
PARTICIPATING CINEMAS FROM THURSDAY 4 APRIL
VIC: Cinema Nova
NSW: Dendy Cinemas Newtown, Chauvel Cinema, Hayden Orpheum Cremorne, Palace Byron Bay (from 2 May)
ACT: Palace Electric Cinema
QLD: Palace Centro Cinema
SA: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas
WA: Luna Palace Cinema Paradiso
TAS: State Cinema
NT: Araluen Arts Centre
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SLEEPWALK WITH ME acquired by Sharmill Films for Australian cinema release April 4, 2013
Sharmill Films acquires SLEEPWALK WITH ME
A comedy by Mike Birbiglia
Produced by Ira Glass of This American Life
Sharmill Films is thrilled to announce their new acquisition, Sleepwalk With Me, a new comedy starring, written and directed by comedian Mike Birbiglia, and co-written and produced by Ira Glass of US radio program This American Life.
Winner of an audience award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Sleepwalk With Me is based on Mike Birbiglia’s off-Broadway show and bestselling book.
Sleepwalk With Me will be released by Sharmill Films in select cinemas on April 4, 2013.
When an aspiring stand-up fails to express his true feelings about his girlfriend and his stalled career, his anxiety comes out in increasingly funny and dangerous sleepwalking incidents. Sleepwalk With Me stars writer and director Mike Birbiglia and features Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”), Carol Kane (“Taxi”), James Rebhorn (“Meet the Parents”), Cristin Milioti (star of Broadway’s “Once”), Grammy Award-winning folk singer Loudon Wainwright III, plus comedians Marc Maron, Kristen Schaal, Wyatt Cenac, Jessi Klein, Henry Phillips and David Wain.
Speaking about the April 4 release of Sleepwalk With Me by Sharmill Films, Ira Glass says:
‘I’m thrilled that Australian fans of our radio show can finally see our film. God knows they heard me talk about it enough on radio and podcast. And I’m very glad for the super-competent partners we have bringing it to them around the country.’
Mike Birbiglia first visited Australia two years ago with his one man show for the Sydney Festival.
‘It was the time of our lives,’ he says. ‘We visited the Opera House, the aquarium and I even went down to Bondi Beach and got smacked around by the waves. Most of all we loved the people of Australia. It was so exciting to see American comedy translate there. It was almost as though we spoke the same language. Wait, do we? Anyway, the point is I’m so proud of Sleepwalk With Me. I’m also excited that it won’t need subtitles. Wait, will it?’
Described as ‘one of the best films ever made on the subject of stand-up comedy’ (Movies.com), the film is a favourite of filmmaker Judd Apatow (Funny People), who called Sleepwalk With Me ‘a funny and insightful movie. I could have watched it for ten hours.’ Prominent US film critic Roger Ebert proclaimed ‘I like this movie. More important, I like Mike Birbiglia in it.’
Sleepwalk With Me was named among the Top 10 Independent Films of 2012 by the National Board of Review. In its opening weekend in the US, it was reported that no first-time American director had ever earned as high a per-screen average at the box office.
As a joke, Joss Whedon, director of blockbuster hit The Avengers declared ‘war’ on Sleepwalk With Me, in a YouTube video that went viral, for fear that the indie film would detract from The Avengers’ massive box office in the US. Ironically, The Avengers’ opening weekend per screen average was significantly lower than Sleepwalk’s!
In 2012, Sharmill Films distributed the special cinema event This American Life- Live! to sold-out audiences across Australia. Entitled ‘The Invisible Made Visible’ this event included performances by Mike Birbiglia, David Sedaris, Tig Notaro and the late David Rakoff.
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program which debuted in 1995 on WBEZ Chicago. Now distributed by Public Radio International, it is broadcast to more than 500 radio stations reaching 1.7 million weekly listeners in the US. In Australia, This American Life is broadcast on ABC Radio National on Sundays at 7pm, and is one of the most downloaded podcasts nationally. The show has won major broadcasting awards including the Peabody, duPont-Columbia and Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2001, Time Magazine named Ira Glass the ‘best radio host in America’. Mike Birbiglia is a frequent contributor to This American Life.
www.facebook.com/SleepwalkMovie
Marketing contact: Kate McCurdy – Sharmill Films
61 3 9826 9077
kate@sharmillfilms.com.au
www.sharmillfilms.com.au
US trailer:
You Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet! – Alliance Française French Film Festival 2013
Alain Resnais’ YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET! (VOUS N’AVEZ ENCORE RIEN VU) screens as part of the 2013 Alliance Française French Film Festival across Australia in March-April.
To book tickets, click on the cinema links below, or visit the official website.
MELBOURNE
Wednesday 20 March 8:45pm
Tuesday 12 March 6:30pm
Monday 18 March 1:30pm
Sunday 17 March 8:30pm
Monday 11 March 6:00pm
Tuesday 19 March 6:00pm
Thursday 21 March 9:30pm
SYDNEY
Wednesday 6 March 9:00pm
Wednesday 13 March 1:30pm
Monday 18 March 8:45pm
Friday 22 March 1:30pm
Monday 11 March 9:15pm
Wednesday 13 March 8:45pm
Monday 18 March 9:00pm
CANBERRA
Monday 18 March 1:30pm
Thursday 21 March 8:30pm
Friday 22 March 1:30pm
ADELAIDE
Wednesday 20 March 9:00pm
Monday 25 March 1:30pm
Wednesday 27 March 8:45pm
Tuesday 2 April 6:45pm
BRISBANE
Tuesday 19 March 9:00pm
Monday 25 March 8:45pm
Tuesday 26 March 6:30pm
Sunday 31 March 9:00pm
Tuesday 2 April 4:00pm
Sunday 17 March 9:00pm
Thursday 21 March 9:00pm
Wednesday 27 March 1:30pm
Thursday 28 March 9:15pm
Monday 1 April 9:15pm
PERTH
Friday 22 March 11:30am
Thursday 28 March 11:30am
Saturday 30 March 4:00pm
Tuesday 2 April 6:30pm
Monday 25 March 6:30pm
Sunday 7 April 1:30pm
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet! (Vous n’avez encore rien vu)
The new feature by internationally-acclaimed veteran of French filmmaking, Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad), which screened in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012
Country of Origin: France
Language: French w/ English subtitles
Duration: 115 minutes
Rating: PG
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Lambert Wilson, Anne Consigny, Michel Piccoli
Australian release: June 13, 2013
Press kit
SYNOPSIS
From beyond the grave, celebrated playwright Antoine d’Anthac gathers together all his friends who have appeared over the years in his play ‘Eurydice’. These actors watch a recording of the work performed by a young acting company, La Compagnie de la Colombe. Do love, life, death and love after death still have any place on a theatre stage? It’s up to them to decide. And the surprises have only just begun…
REVIEWS
4 STARS The film is touching, but more than that it’s wise, witty and thought-provoking. – Geoff Andrew, Time Out London
Whether Resnais will complete another movie remains to be seen, but if this were by any chance to be his swansong, with its distant and resonant echoes of ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ (made 63 years earlier), it would certainly be a lovely one. – Geoff Andrew, Time Out London
Resnais undoubtably demonstrates his continuing power as a great cinematic auteur. – Ginette Vincendeau, Sight & Sound
Digital technology meets lyrical drama and classical myth in this puckishly daring, intricately original work of docu-theatre from the ninety-year-old director Alain Resnais. – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
A tour de force of directorial navigation in which Resnais suggests that the proper relation between the cinema and the theater is to throw it all together, take the best of both worlds and present it as pure showmanship. – Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine
Resnais fitfully achieves a fully emotive, self-aware form of art that realizes his lifelong search for a cinema that refracts and translates the range of human experience and “experience” alike. – Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine
Movingly sincere and personal – Little White Lies
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet is a veritable masterpiece on par with his major accomplishments. – Boris Nelepo , Notebook
Unashamedly experimental, the film is sumptuously, even rapturously mounted, with glowingly atmospheric photography by Eric Gautier, and imposingly protean design by Jacques Saulnier. (…) it’s still a film of bristling intelligence that will delight lovers of cerebral upmarket cinema. Jonathan Romney, Screen
The confluence of theater, memory and real life for a group of actors in an explicitly artificial world sparks rarefied aesthetic pleasures… this reflection on the past, love and death through the prism of layers of theatrical endeavour is both serious and frisky, engaging on a refined level… in all respects, the film is technically immaculate. Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
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In the Fog (V Tumane)
Co-winner of the FIPRESCI International Federation of Film Critics Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival
Based on the Russian novel by Vasili Bykov, In the Fog is a tale of morals in war-time, set in the German-occupied Western frontiers of the USSR in 1942. Directed by Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy).
Country of Origin: Russia
Language: Russian w/ English subtitles
Duration: 123 minutes
Rating: M
Director: Sergei Loznitsa
Starring: Vladimir Svirski, Vlad Abashin, Sergai Kolesov, Vlad Ivanov
Australian release: 14 March 2013
AUSTRALIAN CINEMAS
VIC: Cinema Nova
NSW: Hoyts Cinema Paris, Narooma Theatre
ACT: To be confirmed
QLD: Schonell Cinema (from April 11)
SA: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas
WA: Luna Cinemas Leederville
TAS: State Cinema
SYNOPSIS
Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation, and local partisans are fighting a brutal resistance campaign. A train is derailed not far from the village, where Sushenya, a rail worker, lives with his family. Innocent Sushenya is arrested with a group of saboteurs, but the German officer makes a decision not to hang him with the others and sets him free. Rumours of Sushenya’s treason spread quickly, and partisans Burov and Voitik arrive from the forest to get revenge. As the partisans lead their victim through the forest, they are ambushed, and Sushenya finds himself one-to-one with his wounded enemy. Deep in an ancient forest, where there are neither friends nor enemies, and where the line between treason and heroism disappears, Sushenya is forced to make a moral choice under immoral circumstances.
REVIEWS
FOUR STARS ‘Impressive…the film explores the thin line between courage and treachery…’ ‘…magnificent camerawork…’ David Stratton, At the Movies
FOUR STARS ‘The forest is the film’s world within a world.’ Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald
FOUR STARS ‘I recommend it most warmly.’ Evan Williams, The Weekend Australian
FOUR STARS ‘Sergei Loznitsa captures one of life’s true paradoxes: those certain situations where to resist fate is to all but seal it.’ Leigh Paatsch, Herald Sun/Daily Telegraph
FOUR STARS ‘It’s a haunting story that … grips the conscience.’ Nick Dent, Sunday Telegraph/Sunday Herald Sun
‘a must see’ Jason di Rosso, ABC Radio National
FOUR STARS Peter Galvin, SBS Film
‘Strong, naturalistic performances power the film and the mix of formal and informal framing gives the film visual texture – decorated with superb use of light.’ Andrew Urban, Urban Cinefile
FOUR STARS ‘In the Fog is an intense, slow-burning and haunting drama.’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
FOUR STARS ‘In the Fog is a war movie that foregrounds the emotions of individuals over the spectacle of battle’ Geoff Andrew, Time Out
‘Loznitsa knows that war exists and won’t go away; rather than indulging in patriotic or pacifistic platitudes, he tries to show what it might do to our souls. And, in this writer’s opinion, he succeeds.’ Geoff Andrew, Time Out
‘a universal meditation on the human condition, with war as an allegory for life, and fog as a metaphor for mankind’s stumbling progress into the unknown. …it is ultimately worth the journey.’ Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter
‘a beautifully rigorous piece which will delight cineastes’ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen
‘In The Fog is a carefully-calibrated three-hander from Sergei Loznitsa, its slow, precise rhythms playing out to compelling effect.’ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen
‘this very Russian tragedy is a jewel which will surely only burnish with time.’ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen
‘Classical in a good way, In the Fog explores the moralities of wartime with restraint and exacting execution’ Leslie Felperin, Variety
‘a delicately complex work of shifting perspectives, and… a contemplation on narrative and the act of storytelling.’ Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound
‘The film is extraordinarily acted’ Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound
‘among the handful of truly eloquent and moving films here [at Cannes]’ Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound
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Polluting Paradise
Villagers in Turkey’s Black Sea village of Çamburnu, the home town of Fatih Akin’s (Soul Kitchen, The Edge of Heaven) grandparents, struggle with the government’s decision to turn their community into a garbage dump. Polluting Paradise is a remarkable portrait of a Turkish community far removed from the major urban centres and a moving plea for civil courage.
Official Selection Festival de Cannes 2012
Country of Origin: Germany
Language: German w/ English subtitles
Duration: 93 minutes
Rating: PG
Director: Fatih Akin
Starring: Fatih Akin, the people of Camburnu, Turkey
Australian release: 2013
‘a heartfelt documentary’ – The Hollywood Reporter
SYNOPSIS
Çamburnu is a small mountain village in northeastern Turkey. Blessed with the Black Sea’s mild and humid climate, its villagers have lived for generations off tea cultivation and fishing in harmony with the nature surrounding them. But this idyllic landscape is threatened by the government’s decision ten years ago to build a garbage landfill directly above the village. Despite protests by the mayor and the villagers, a waste disposal facility has been built that does not comply with the most essential security and building standards and since then has continued to pollute the environment through persisting accidents and disasters. The air is polluting, the ground water is contaminated, the annual rains flush the waste down the slopes, and flocks of birds and stray dogs have besieged the village. The tea growers, whose plantations lie beneath the landfill, have love their livelihood. The consequences are devastating and clearly evident for everyone to see and yet tonnes of waste continues to be dumped in the landfill every day.
In 2006 award-winning filmmaker Fatih Akin (Head-On, Soul Kitchen) went to Çamburnu, his grandparents’ home village, for the first time to shoot the finale of his film The Edge of Heaven. When he learns of the impending environmental disaster, he decides to take action in the best way he knows how. Over a period of more than 5 years, he documents the small village’s struggle against the country’s powerful institutions and records the inevitable disasters that consistently plague this former paradise. Polluting Paradise is a remarkable portrait of a Turkish community far removed from the major urban centres and a moving plea for courage.
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The Bird (L’Oiseau)
Sandrine Kiberlain (Mademoiselle Chambon), in her finest performance yet, stars in this elegant portrait of Anne; she is discreet, secretive, a mystery to herself. She does without love and it suits her fine. However, an unexpected encounter finds Anne making her way back upstream, and we watch her joy for life return.
Country of Origin: France
Language: French w/ English subtitles
Duration: 93 minutes
Rating: To be confirmed
Director: Yves Caumon
Starring: Sandrine Kiberlain, Bruno Todeschini
Australian release: 2013
4 STARS ‘Impressively understated in last year’s Mademoiselle Chambon, the willowy Sandrine Kiberlain excels again in this delicate French drama.’ Total Film
‘A must-see for fans of quality art-house cinema.’ Metro (UK)