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Almost three years after it was first announced and with radio silence since then, “June & John” — Luc Besson’s secret project that he shot during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 — has re-emerged with guns blazing (literally). Variety can exclusively reveal a trailer and posters for the feature that appear to take the French director back to the slick and stylized filmmaking that would first make his name.

“June & John,” which will have its market premiere at the European Film Market in Berlin on Thursday, is described as a “love story for the ages,” and stars newcomers Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy. Kinology — which first introduced the project to buyers at the 2022 edition of Cannes — is handling sales and says several distributors have already committed to releasing the film in spring 2025.

The plot — which had remained under wraps until now — follows John, a young man stuck in a monotonous routine,...

The highly acclaimed 1990s American police drama Homicide: Life On The Street will finally be available to stream in the UK thanks to Sky.

While late and much missed Andre Braugher may have won legions of fans in recent years for his pitch-perfect comic performance as Sgt Raymond Holt in sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it is his towering performance as Detective Frank Pendleton in Homicide: Life On The Street that he made his name.

The show was created by Paul Attanasio, who went on to become Oscar nominated for writing the screenplays for Robert Redford’s Quiz Show and Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco. Attanasio based the show on the book Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets by journalist David Simon, who himself went on to have huge success in television after creating The Wire.

According to Deadline, fans in the UK will now be able to watch the show,...

Emily in Paris season 4, part 2 has viewers wondering more about the newly introduced Genevive and the actor who plays her, Thalia Besson. For the most part, Emily in Paris' cast of characters didn't change too much in the fourth outing. Aside from Genevive, Laurent G's (Arnaud Binard) daughter, Emily's new love interest, Marcello Muratori (Eugenio Franceschini), was the biggest addition to the rom-com's ensemble. Given Emily in Paris season 4, part 2's ending, it seems like both Genevive and Marcello will have even more significant roles in the show's fifth season.

In the wake of a devastating breakup with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), Emily (Lily Collins) tries even harder to keep her personal and professional lives separate. Although that seems to work for a little while, Marcello's family business, the Umberto Muratori cashmere company, complicates things. With Sylvie's encouragement, Emily winds up pitching the Agence Grateau marketing form to the Muratori family.

For over 15 years, a remake of “The Crow” has been in development with countless directors and stars cycling in and out. A new spin on the stylistically influential comic book movie from 1994 that is mostly remembered for the tragic on-set death of star Brandon Lee would fall apart just as quickly it would generate heat or a star to coalesce in some way. At various points in time actors like Bradley Cooper, Jason Momoa and Luke Evans were attached to prior iterations of the project. All of them went away.

But now, a new version of “The Crow” finally opens wide courtesy of Lionsgate Friday, with Bill Skarsgård as the doomed title character and pop star FKA Twigs as Shelly, his equally doomed fiancée. The story follows these doomed lovers who are murdered, only for Skarsgård’s character to get a chance at revenge by sacrificing himself, traversing the lands...

The peak television renaissance didn't happen overnight. A decade prior to the epochal debut of "The Sopranos" on HBO, series as disparate in their aims as "The Simpsons," "Twin Peaks" and "The Larry Sanders Show" were challenging the industry's notions of what the broadcast medium could accomplish. Dramatic story arcs began to stretch out over a season or longer, while sitcoms got edgier and less hidebound to the multi-camera format. These successes emboldened major filmmakers to try their hand at episodic TV, which didn't always pan out. But it was always thrilling to see great artists romp about in a medium Hollywood once considered beneath them.

Of these efforts, it's possible none had a greater influence on the peak era than NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street." When Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon began shopping his book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," an account of his time...

To the White House staffer who tried to book Chappell Roan, all we can say is, “Good luck, babe!” During her attention-grabbing set at Governors Ball 2024, the former Consequence CoSign recipient revealed that she had been asked to perform at a White House Pride event — an offer she declined.

“In response to the White House who asked me to perform for pride, we want liberty, justice, and freedom for all,” she said directly into the camera during “My Kink Is Karma.” “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”

Get Chappell Roan Tickets Here

Elsewhere, the rising star addressed her drag-inspired Statue of Liberty outfit while leading into “Hot To Go!” with a speech that touched on trans rights, women’s rights, and oppressed populations.

“I am in drag of the biggest queen of all, but in case you had forgotten what’s etched on my pretty little toes,...

During her Governor’s Ball performance on Sunday, Chappell Roan told a packed crowd that she rejected an offer to perform at the White House for a Pride month event. Roan, dressed as a chapless, Statue of Liberty, looked straight into the cameras to announce that her next song, “My Kink Is Karma,” was “a response to the White House, who asked me to perform for Pride.”

“We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, that’s when I’ll come,” she continued.

@rollingstone

“We want liberty,...

In deciding on our next Wtf celebrity to cover, we passed around several names but in the end we all decided that: There could be only One! Despite being basically blind, Christopher Lambert made a name for himself as the king of Sci-Fi action films. One could say he single-handedly kept Blockbuster Video in business as most of his output in the 90’s debuted on the bottom shelves of the video rental chain. But few performers have made their mark on the international stage like Christopher Lambert, alternating between North American schlock and more prestigious French fare. Despite most of us knowing Lambert mainly for two iconic roles, there is much more to know about this American-born French actor; it’s time we find out just Wtf Happened to Christopher Lambert.

Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

But as always, we must begin at the beginning, and...

"Dogs have a real sense of family. So they rally around in the bad times and form a solid united entity." Briarcliff Ent. has revealed the official US trailer for Luc Besson's movie DogMan, which first premiered last year at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. This was supposed to open earlier in 2023, then they held it for the festival premiere, and it opened in Europe quickly after. "Wherever there is an unfortunate, God sends a dog." DogMan tells the incredible story of a child – bruised by life – who will find his salvation through the love of his dogs. Caleb Landry Jones stars as its fragile yet resilient protagonist who bends societal rules as he makes his own way. The film has "an edgy, indie feel reminiscent of Besson's debut feature Subway" and his other early films like The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, & Leon. The cast also includes Christopher Denham,...

Andre Braugher’s cause of death has been revealed to be lung cancer, his rep has confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Braugher died Monday at 61 after what his rep then said was a “brief illness.”

He starred as master interrogator Det. Frank Pembleton on NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street for the first six seasons of the show’s acclaimed run, then played another cop, Capt. Raymond Holt — this time against type and for laughs — on the 2013-21 Fox-nbc sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

He won his first Emmy in 1998 for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Homicide after a season that featured one of its most memorable episodes, “Subway.” That was a two-hander in which Pembleton tries to unearth whether a man (Vincent D’Onofrio) pinned between a Baltimore subway train and the platform was pushed onto the track — while also trying to comfort him in his dying moments.

The first time I interviewed Andre Braugher, he was uncertain and uncomfortable. It was hard to process, coming from an actor who had made certitude into his calling card. Braugher was righteous and righteously correct or he was nothing, but it took the courage and conviction of an Andre Braugher character to shift that image as wildly and vividly as the actor did in the last third of his career.

It was the fall of 2014, just weeks after the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. With two earlier wins already to his credit, Braugher had been nominated for the first season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, his first nod in a comedy category. His performance as Capt. Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine was rooted in the years he’d spent playing stern authority figures, but at the same time, this version of the Braugher persona seemed revelatory. It opened the comedy doors sufficiently that...

Andre Braugher, the dynamic actor known for his outstanding work on such shows as Homicide: Life on the Street and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, has died. He was 61.

Braugher died Monday after a brief illness, his longtime rep Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter. The cause of death turned out to be lung cancer.

Braugher starred as master interrogator Det. Frank Pembleton on NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street for the first six seasons of the show’s acclaimed 1993-99 run, then played another cop, Capt. Raymond Holt — this time against type and for laughs — on the 2013-21 Fox-nbc sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

He won his first Emmy in 1998 for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Homicide after a season that featured one of its most memorable episodes, “Subway.” That was a two-hander in which Pembleton tries to unearth whether a man (Vincent D’Onofrio) pinned between a Baltimore subway train...

Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" might be the daffiest Hollywood sci-fi flick ever made (at least until Besson made the even daffier "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" 20 years later). The film had movie-star insurance in Bruce Willis, and the trailers promised a surfeit of futuristic eye candy, but what exactly was this zany-looking movie about?

The film may be visually cluttered, but its premise is fairly simple. Every 5,000 years, a force of tremendous evil emerges out of space and tries to destroy Earth. Fortunately, an alien race known as the Mondoshawns and a clandestine religious order are in possession of the only weapon that can repel this evil. This weapon consists of four stones which represent the five classical elements of earth, wind, fire, water, and Philip Bailey. Actually, the fifth element is a humanoid named Leelo, and, as embodied by Milla Jovovich, she is a lethal warrior,...

"As far as I can tell, they only have one flaw: they trust humans." EuropaCorp has revealed the trailer for Luc Besson's new film DogMan, which is set to debut later this year at the fall film festivals. Apparently this was supposed to open in France in April but they delayed it because reactions from the EFM at Berlinale were great. "Wherever there is an unfortunate, God sends a dog." –Lamartine. DogMan tells the incredible story of a child – bruised by life – who will find his salvation through the love of his dogs. Caleb Landry Jones stars as its fragile yet resilient protagonist who bends societal rules as he makes his own way. The film is said to have "an edgy, indie feel reminiscent of Besson's debut feature Subway" and his other early films like The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, and Leon. The cast includes Christopher Denham, Marisa Berenson,...

Natalie Portman, who starred in 1994's Léon: The Professional, addressed how abuse allegations made against director Luc Besson have changed her personal view of the film that launched her career.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Portman was asked about the allegations of sexual abuse against Besson by multiple women, which the actor described as "devastating" and surprising. "I really didn’t know. I was a kid working. I was a kid. But I don’t want to say anything that would invalidate anyone’s experience," Portman said. "It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made, and it gave me my career, but it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it’s complicated for me.

Related: An Angry...

The Cannes Film Festival is about to get even more fashionable, as two short films – including Pedro Almodóvar’s highly anticipated “Strange Way of Life” – will debut next month from the newly formed Saint Laurent Productions, a film production banner led by its artistic director Anthony Vaccarello.

Saint Laurent Productions is being described as the first production banner operated by a fashion house, the new outfit is also developing projects by a wide range of diverse filmmakers including Paolo Sorrentino, David Cronenberg, Abel Ferrara, Wong Kar Wai, Jim Jarmusch and Gaspar Noé. The second short film hitting Cannes hasn’t been announced yet; let the speculation begin. The plan is produce two or three films each year, with a possible expansion after that.

Vaccarello became the artistic director of Saint Laurent in 2016. In 2019 “Lux Æterna,” a strobe-heavy 51-minute film directed Noé, premiered at Cannes. Vaccarello was one of the credited...

Luc Besson’s ”Dogman,” starring Caleb Landry Jones, wowed buyers at the Berlin’s European Film Market, where it was screened for select buyers.

“We hosted only one private screening of the completed film and buyers were stunned, they all came out saying that it was Luc Besson’s best film to date, his most mature movie and some even called it a masterpiece,” said Gregoire Melin, founder of Kinology, which is handling sales on the film.

On the heels of the screening, Kinology closed deals with some of the biggest distributors in key international territories, including Italy (Lucky Red), Germany and Austria (Capelight Pictures), Spain and Latin America (Sun Distribution Group), Scandinavia (Svensk Filmindustri), Benelux (Belga Films), Switzerland (Elite Film), Middle East (Front Row), Poland (Monolith), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aqs) and former Yugoslavia (Blitz).

Kinology is in active talks to close deals for the U.

After winning best actor at Cannes with Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram,” Caleb Landry Jones is poised to gain further international recognition with another towering and intense performance in “DogMan.”

The anticipated movie, which is now in post and will mark Luc Besson’s directorial comeback after his 2019 film “Lucy,” was teased with a trailer at a private exhibition event in Paris, at the Grand Rex theater, on Jan. 24.

Introduced on stage by Besson, the trailer delivers a glimpse at the movie’s emotionally charged scenes with Landry Jones filling nearly every frame. The Texas-born musician and actor stars as Douglas, a man who was abused as a child by his violent father and viciously thrown to dogs. Instead of attacking him, the dogs came to protect him and became his allies in life. On a journey to heal from childhood trauma and physical injury, Douglas seeks to find his own path,...

Jean-Pierre Bacri, the French actor and screenwriter known for his collaborations with Agnès Jaoui, has died at the age of 69. He died after a battle with cancer according to multiple French reports which cited his agent Anne Alvares-Correa.

Bacri broke out on the stage and screen in the 1980s, including appearing in Luc Besson’s 1985 thriller Subway alongside Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert. It was in that decade that he also first met Jaoui, and the pair would go on to have a vibrant creative partnership that spanned films including the multi-Cesar Award-winning Smoking / No Smoking, Family Resemblances and The Taste Of Others, with the latter also nominated for the foreign language film Oscar in 2001.

The duo’s work for the stage was also highly regarded, with their play Cuisine Et Dépendances winning then a Molière Award before they adapted it for the big screen. Their writing also won prizes...

Infinity Ward’s latest patch notes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone are highlighted by a long-awaited way to reduce Call of Duty‘s file size on PC.

By following these steps listed on the Infinity Ward website, players are able to selectively uninstall parts of the Call of Duty package on PC. While the website notes that you’re not able to uninstall Warzone as part of this method (which is interesting), you are able to uninstall Modern Warfare‘s campaign, multiplayer, and Special Ops modes. That’s big news for Warzone players who only play the battle royale as well as Call of Duty multiplayer fans who no longer need the campaign on their computers.

The rest of the patch notes are fairly uneventful:

Playlist Update:

Modern Warfare:

Ground WarGunfightDeathmatch Domination + Drop ZoneGun Game Tdmhq Firefight – teams can add to their score by capturing the headquarters...

Episode two of Netflix's docuseries Trial by Media is dedicated to the 1984 New York City subway shooting and Bernhard Goetz. Goetz, who became known as the Subway Vigilante, shot four Black teenagers in a subway car in 1984 after claiming they were going to mug him. After the shooting, some praised him as a hero for using self-defense and playing a vigilante role, but many called it a racial hate crime.

On the night of Dec. 22, 1984, Goetz was on a New York City subway train in lower Manhattan when four teenagers boarded his train: Barry Allen, Troy Canty, Darrell Cabey, and James Ramseur. Goetz, who had been mugged a few years earlier and carried a gun because of it, claimed they asked him for $5 but he saw a certain look in their eyes and assumed he was about to get mugged. He pulled out a gun and shot them all before making an escape.

Many people know James Murray as “Murr” from Impractical Jokers, but he’s tackling serious horror / sci-fi in his upcoming book, Awakened, due out on June 26th. Ahead of the book's release, I caught up with James to talk about his favorite movies, starting Awakened 14 years ago, teaming up with Darren Wearmouth, and the Awakened Experience taking place in New York City:

You’re obviously well-known for your comedy work, but it sounds like you’ve always had a love of horror and sci-fi. What are some of your favorites and what did you watch growing up?

James Murray: I was obsessed with Alien and Aliens, of course, and The Terminator and Terminator 2—that’s one of the only movies that are better than the original. I would argue that Superman 2 is better than Superman as well, but hey. Event Horizon is one of my favorite movies.

It’s so under-appreciated.

Besson in Locarno in 2014 Photo: Richard Mowe French director Luc Besson has been accused of rape by an actress.

Police are investigating the allegation, which was filed in Paris on Friday.

The Associated French Press news agency reported that the Valerian director's lawyer said: "Luc Besson categorically denies these fantasist accusations.

"[The complainant] is someone he knows, towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately."

Four-times married Besson, 59, is one of France's best known modern directors, having helmed films including The Fifth Element, Lucy and Subway. He is currently married to producer Virginie Besson-Silla....

James Corden tried to pull off the greatest New York City moment, but it backfired on the 2018 Grammys host in the most hilarious way.

Attempting to create a viral “Subway” Carpool Karaoke moment at the awards show, Corden had great company in singers Shaggy and Sting. Together they attempted to convince subway riders that their musical tunes were worth listening to.

Singing The Police’s classic “Every Breath You Take,” the trio was quickly shushed by a commuter. Switching gears, they crooned Shaggy’s 2000 hit “It Wasn’t Me.”

Be sure to check out People’s full Grammys coverage to...

Iconic actress Jeanne Moreau’s death this week at 89 received muted American coverage, with remembrances that hardly captured Moreau’s essential presence and influence in world cinema. Overshadowed by the passing of Sam Shepard the day before (more contemporary, American, prominent in multiple fields, and younger), she received back-page obituaries in major papers. Her lack of any Oscar nominations, or a deserved honorary award, didn’t help the cause.

Even more unfortunate is the treatment of her death reflects American audiences’ ever-increasing disinterest in French-language film. Jeanne Moreau is significant for her transcendent artistry and the directors with whom she worked, but she also represented the iconic qualities of her country’s cinema.

Though the boom in “art houses” (a term popularized in the late 1940s) came more from Italian films (“Rome, Open City,” “Shoe Shine,” and particularly “Bicycle Thief”), French film became a steady part of the subtitled market by the mid-1950s.

Confession: There are times when I've been loyally in Luc Besson's corner – the visual splendor of Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988) and La Femme Nikita (1990) established him as a master of what the French call Cinéma du Look. And 1994's The Professional – with Jean Reno teaching the assassin's game to a very young Natalie Portman – went deeper, blending style with a nurturing sense of humanity. Plus, there's a lot to be said in favor of both his sci-fi extravaganza The Fifth Element (1997) and last year's next-level ScarJo-evolution whatsit Lucy.

One of France’s more exotic actresses, Isabelle Adjani was born to an Algerian father and German mother near Paris, where she was raised. So her presence at this year’s Marrakech International Film Festival (December 2-10, 2016), where she received a tribute for her body of work, is something of a homecoming of sorts. (Algeria borders Morocco, after all.)

Read More: Paul Verhoeven Talks ‘Elle,’ ‘RoboCop’ As Jesus Metaphor, The Infamous Scene In ‘Basic Instinct’ & More [Interview]

Becoming the youngest nominee for a Best Actress award at the Oscars, when she was 19, for the film “The Story of Adele H” directed by François Truffaut, she was soon offered a huge number of roles in films as diverse as Werner Herzog‘s “Nosferatu the Vampyre” and Luc Besson’s “Subway,” and she’s since gone on to win five César awards.

Continue reading Isabelle Adjani Talks ‘Carole Matthieu,’ Her Relationship To Cinema...

on this day in history as it relates to the movies...

Dolores Del Río auditioning for Catwoman. No wait that's not right. Dolores Del Rio in Journey Into Fear (1943)1885 Carlo Montuori, famed cinematographer of Italian neorealism is born. He went on to lens the essential Bicycle Thief (1948)

1904 Dolores del Río, one of the first three Mexican actors to become movie stars in Hollywood (the others being her cousin Ramon Novarro and Lupe Vélez - they all started in silent films and moved into talkies), after which she used her fame and beauty as part of Mexican cinema's Golden Age with the occasional Hollywood film thrown in. Credits include: Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down To Rio (1933), Journey Into Fear (1943), Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and multiple Best Actress winning films in Mexico:  Las Abandonadas (1944), El Niño y la Niebla (1953), and Doña Perfecta (1951).

1906 Alexandre Trauner, Oscar winning production designer. His credits include The Nun's Story...

Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced this year’s two retrospectives will be Look Again: A Celebration of Cinéma Du Look, exploring the wave of 1980s and early 1990s French filmmaking, and Pow!!! Live Action Comic Strip Adaptations: The First Generation, delving into the evolution of the live-action comic strip adaptation in cinema.

Artistic director Mark Adams said: “The Cinéma du Look retrospective marks 30 years since Eiff opened with the UK premiere of Jean Jaques Beineix’s iconic Betty Blue, so it is a real thrill to be able to screen this selection of iconic films.”

Focusing on the work of Jean Jaques Beineix, Luc Besson, and Leos Carax, the directors around whom the Cinéma Du Look revolved, titles will include Betty Blue and Beineix’s Diva (1981), Besson’s Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988) and La Femme Nikita (1990) and Carax’s Mauvais Sang (1986) and...

Michel Galabru (right) and Louis de Funès in 'Le gendarme et les gendarmettes.' 'La Cage aux Folles' actor Michel Galabru dead at 93 Michel Galabru, best known internationally for his role as a rabidly reactionary politician in the comedy hit La Cage aux Folles, died in his sleep today, Jan. 4, '16, in Paris. The Moroccan-born Galabru (Oct. 27, 1922, in Safi) was 93. Throughout his nearly seven-decade career, Galabru was seen in more than 200 films – or, in his own words, “182 days,” as he was frequently cast in minor roles that required only a couple of days of work. He also appeared on stage, training at the Comédie Française and studying under film and stage veteran Louis Jouvet (Bizarre Bizarre, Quai des Orfèvres), and was featured in more than 70 television productions. Michel Galabru movies Michel Galabru's film debut took place in Maurice de Canonge's La bataille du feu (“The Battle of Fire,...

It’s the most uncomfortable type of horror scene, but if done correctly, can pack a gut punch. The violation scene is the moment when the character’s vulnerability is betrayed and our empathy immerses us deeper into their dreadful ordeal. The young child possessed by an evil spirit. The unlucky bystander assaulted in a tunnel. The crazed woman submitting to a creature of non human origin. The violation scene can be emotional or it can be exploitative, but it’s almost always guaranteed to get us talking.

*****

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)- Cesare abducting Jane

Even though it was one of the originators of German Expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is often regarded as the pinnacle for the movement. Two of the movement’s basic tenets were distorted lines and shapes and overly theatrical movements from the actors, and both are well on display in this creepy scene.

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...

20th Century Fox

Public transport is a reluctant necessity for most of us. It’s a dull, dreary, forgettable everyday experience for thousands of commuters all over the world, whose minds are clouded with a thousand other thoughts about anything other than the journey they’re taking. When it comes to the movies though, commuting can look a little different.

Public transport has a natural gravitational pull for the movies, given how it sandwiches a bunch of strangers together in an enclosed space. All that’s missing is for some sort of disaster to strike and Bam! – you’ve got yourself a Hollywood thriller screenplay.

There have been some distinctly memorable individual scenes on public transport in film; from the rapid subway fight scenes in The Matrix, all the way back to where two strangers met on a train in Hitchcock’s classic from 1951. There have even been some movies...

As The Hunger Games nears its end with Mockingjay - Part 1, James looks at the side effects of the billion-dollar franchise...

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is now in the cinemas and that means that we've reached the beginning of the end. With the climactic novel of Suzanne Collins' trilogy split into two movies, this first part will take eager audiences into the end game and start to detail a denouement that, frustratingly, we'll have to wait until next autumn to finally witness.

I have no idea what's going to happen because I haven't read the books. (It's keeping the movies surprising, I guess.) Still, what I do know is that things are building up in Panem and that Mockingjay will up the stakes and drama several notches in what has already been a gripping series. We have rebellion against the Capitol! We have heartrending separations! We...

Once upon a time, Luc Besson was a kind of anomaly. A popular director from France whose visually ravishing films featured both expertly made action scenes and doses of dreamy lyricism, he transcended cultural boundaries. Back then, of course, films like Subway, La Femme Nikita, and Léon: The Professional stood in sharp contrast to movies starring macho men like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Even his sci-fi action epic The Fifth Element, with its poetic flourishes and offbeat sense of fun, was nothing like the sci-fi blockbusters Hollywood churned out.Over the years, Besson has become a successful producer of more bread-and-butter hits like the Taken and Transporter franchises, but now, with the Scarlett Johansson sci-fi flick Lucy, he returns to the world of stylized, lyrical action. Besson takes an enticingly silly premise — Lucy (Johansson) is a hapless drug mule who accidentally ingests a powerful new drug that allows her...

Limitless, Transcendence and now Lucy - Hollywood’s continuing fascination with the underused brain seems especially ironic when you consider that none of these films’ screenwriters used more than 10% of theirs. Yes, I’m sorry to report that Lucy is not the mind-bending, heart-pounding thriller that the trailers had made us hope it would be. Instead, the Luc Besson-directed and scripted flick arrives as a curiously deformed mess, one filled with plainly bad ideas stretched out long past the point of admissability and a stunningly flat performance from lead Scarlett Johansson.

I’m not going to hate on the actress too much, though – after all, Johansson is just employing the same vacant stares and chatbot-esque speech patterns I loved when I saw her in Under the Skin. The fault is really with Besson’s script for hobbling her Lucy with interminable dialogue so baffling and rambling that you can...

When I spoke to Luc Besson at Wonder-Con this year, we had a fair amount of time aside from the panel I moderated and the interview we did. At that point, we discussed the entire premise of his new film, "Lucy," and how it's based on a myth. If you've seen the trailer for the movie, you've seen Morgan Freeman as Professor Norman lecturing to a room full of people. "Imagine if we could access 100% [of our brains]. Interesting things begin to happen." Great line. Totally wrong. Evolution has actually increased the size of our brains because we use them so much, and so efficiently. We use way more than 10% of our actual brain capacity, and we use our brains in ways that science barely understands. So we are starting from a preposterous place with "Lucy," and if that's going to drive you crazy, then I would skip it completely. The film starts there and gets way sillier.

Director worked on more than 80 pictures in prolific career.

Swiss-born cinematographer Carlo Varini, best known for The Chorus, The Big Blue and Subway, has died in a house fire.

The 67-year-old cinematographer, who shot more than 80 pictures throughout his career, started out as a calibrator at the Schwarz-Film laboratory in Berne.

After cinema studies at the Zurich University of Arts he became a news cameraman, moving into fiction as the assistant cameraman of celebrated Italian cinematographer Renato Berta.

He branched out on his own in the early 1980s to work with Luc Besson on his early features The Last Combat, Subway and The Big Blue. He was nominated for a Cesar for the latter two.

More recently, he gained recognition for his work on Christophe Barratier’s The Choir for which he was nominated for Camerimage’s Golden Frog alongside Dominique Gentil.

He was due to work on Canadian director Francesco Lucente’s upcoming feature Starbright.

According...

It was a jam-packed week for television with the fall 2013 TV season officially kicking off on with last Sunday's (Sept. 22) Primetime Emmy Awards. With nearly all of our favorite characters (and the brilliant writers who tell them what to say) back on the small screen, Zap2it continues its celebration of our favorite lines from the past seven days' programming.

From Merritt Wever's infamous acceptance speech at the Emmys to Tina Fey's triumphant return to Studio 8H as the host of the Season 39 premiere of "Saturday Night Live," it was a good, good week in terms of notable quotable.

So, without any further ado, here are 15 of the best lines on television the week of Sept. 22:

* "Thank you so much. I gotta go -- bye." - The entirety of Merritt Wever's acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy

* "Welcome to New Hampshire." - the...

A few weeks ago our UK readers got the good news that Andrzej Zulawski's Possession is on its way to Blu-ray from Second Sight, and today we have a trailer, a couple of stills, and some new artwork to share.

As for why Second Sight made the sleeve change, the company's rep Chris Holden stated, "We were able to access a higher quality theatrical poster image and have decided to stay truer to the original colours. We're really pleased with the result!"

The disc releases with an amazing array of extras on July 29th.

Synopsis

A horror film like no other, Possession, directed by Andrzej Zulawski, is an intense and shocking experience that was originally banned in the UK on the notorious ‘Video Nasties’ list. Possession was nominated for a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or and stars Isabelle Adjani (Subway, La Reine Margot), whose astonishing performance earned her...

Andrzej Zulawski's Possession is a movie that's pretty hard to track down in its uncut form. Sure, expensive bootlegs are floating around the usual haunts, but our friends across the pond are now Officially getting the goods while we sit on our thumbs here Stateside.

From the Press Release

A horror film like no other, Possession, directed by Andrzej Zulawski, is an intense and shocking experience that was originally banned in the UK on the notorious ‘Video Nasties’ list. Now this hugely controversial film makes its long-awaited Blu-ray debut courtesy of Second Sight Films.

Possession was nominated for a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or and stars Isabelle Adjani (Subway, La Reine Margot), whose astonishing performance earned her Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the French Césars, alongside Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, Omen III – The Final Conflict). The film features stunning special effects by Carlo Rambaldi (Alien,...

Catalina Denis cast in Paul Walker thriller Model and film actress Catalina Denis has been cast as the female lead opposite Paul Walker (Fast & Furious 6) and David Belle (Malavita) in Camille Delamarre’s Brick Mansions. The action thriller is EuropaCorp and Relativity Media’s English-language remake of the 2004 French-made action / thriller District B13. In Brick Mansions, Paul Walker incarnates an undercover cop out to defuse a bomb in possession of drug warlord RZA. Catalina Denis will play David Belle’s romantic interest. Luc Besson, who specializes in run-of-the-mill, Hollywood-style French-made action thrillers, is one of the film’s producers. Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, From Paris with Love), and co-written by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri, District B13 / Banlieue 13 stars David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Dany Verissimo-Petit, and co-screenwriter Naceri. The film performed modestly at the French box office; according to Box Office Mojo, District B13 was no. 51 on France’s 2004 box-office chart,...

During rush hour, the London Underground is as populous as Glasgow. What happens to us when we travel on the tube, and how is this linked to its strange absence from film, TV and novels? John Lanchester investigates

The first District line train out of Upminster in the morning is the first train anywhere on the underground network. It leaves the depot at 4.53, the only train anywhere in the system to set out from its base before 5am. That's a kind of record: if you catch that train, you might be tempted to say ta-dah! – except you probably wouldn't, because nobody is thinking ta-dah! at seven minutes to five in the morning; certainly nobody on this train. People look barely awake, barely even alive. They feel the same way they look; I know because, this morning, I'm one of them.

I've lived in London for more than quarter of a century now,...

The Intouchables tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a paralyzed aristocrat (Francois Cluzet), and the young African man from the projects (Omar Sy) who is hired to take care of him. Nominated for nine French Oscars (called the Cesars), the film is the second most successful movie of all time at the French box office. It was picked up by The Weinstein Company around the same time that previous Oscar-winner The Artist picked up critical and audience raves.

The story is based on the true relationship that was covered in a 2004 French documentary called A La Vie, A La Mort. In real life, the aristocrat is named Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, who was paralyzed in a paragliding accident. He became very close friends with his unlikely caretaker Abdel, who is Arabic and from the projects.

I sat down with Olivier Nakache (who was without co-director Eric Toledano) to...

Now that the Razzie Awards for the worst films of the year have devolved into cheap shots at easy targets, perhaps it's time for their foreign equivalents to carry on the torch. Consider France's Gérard Awards, which, at the very least, have a lot more fun with the titles of their prizes. They also manage to put a few awards-darlings in their place. For example, The Artist's Jean Dujardin can now add a Gérard trophy to his shelf for "Actor who we hope you like a lot because you're about to see his face everywhere for the next thirty years." Other highlights include Jean-Pierre Bacri's (Subway) win for "cult actor who played in good movies and then one day, apparently got bored." Also, Hollywoo (not...

At her best, Adjani was always a victim going over the edge of sanity, and that seems to match Truffaut's account of her at work

It has never been safe to predict what Isabelle Adjani was going to do, or why. In 1974, François Truffaut was planning to make The Story of Adele H, about a daughter of Victor Hugo who falls in love with a young army officer and goes mad in her efforts to get him to return the love. He wanted someone new for the lead role, and was intrigued by Adjani in a recent hit comedy called La Gifle. Adjani was 19 and ravishing; but she was under contract as a stage actress to La Comédie-Française.

Truffaut pursued her. The theatre company declined to release her. The matter went to law. Adjani stayed quiet – but in the end she had her way. She would do Adele H. Truffaut...

My love of Luc Besson's films began with The Professional, and I'm sure I'm not all that different than most people in that regard. That led me to seeking out his earlier stuff, like his breathtaking The Big Blue and 1985's Subway.  But it was the oft-imitated assassin flick, La Femme Nikita that really put him over the top for me. Lately, Besson has been mostly in a producer and writer role,...

The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-sec, the new film from Luc Besson (Leon, The Fifth Element) comes to UK cinemas on 22 April 2011. To mark the occasion we have a Luc Besson DVD collection, consisting of Leon, The Big Blue, Subway, Nikita, Atlantis and The Last Battle to give away.

The year is 1912. Adèle Blanc-Sec, an intrepid young reporter, will go to any lengths to achieve her aims, including sailing to Egypt to tackle mummies of all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, in Paris, it’s panic stations! A 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg on a shelf in the natural history museum has mysteriously hatched, and the bird subjects the city to a reign of terror from the skies. But nothing fazes Adèle Blanc-Sec, whose adventures reveal many more extraordinary surprises…

To be in with a chance of winning, just answer this question using the form below:

In which Luc Besson film stars Gary Oldman,...

The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-sec, the new film from Luc Besson (Leon, The Fifth Element) comes to UK cinemas on 22 April 2011. To mark the occasion we have an Adele Blanc SEC poster and a Luc Besson Blu Ray collection, consisting of Leon, The Big Blue, Subway, Nikita, Atlantis and The Last Battle to give away.

The year is 1912. Adèle Blanc-Sec, an intrepid young reporter, will go to any lengths to achieve her aims, including sailing to Egypt to tackle mummies of all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, in Paris, it’s panic stations! A 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg on a shelf in the natural history museum has mysteriously hatched, and the bird subjects the city to a reign of terror from the skies. But nothing fazes Adèle Blanc-Sec, whose adventures reveal many more extraordinary surprises…

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do to win...

From the pioneers of the silver screen to today's new realism, French directors have shaped film-making around the world

France can, with some justification, claim to have invented the whole concept of cinema. Film historians call The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, the 50-second film by the Lumière brothers first screened in 1895, the birth of the medium.

But the best-known early pioneer, who made films with some kind of cherishable narrative value, was Georges Méliès, whose 1902 short A Trip to the Moon is generally heralded as the first science-fiction film, and a landmark in cinematic special effects. Meanwhile, Alice Guy-Blaché, Léon Gaumont's one-time secretary, is largely forgotten now, but with films such as L'enfant de la barricade trails the status of being the first female film-maker.

The towering achievement of French cinema in the silent era was undoubtedly Abel Gance's six-hour biopic of Napoleon (1927), which...