Ifc Films

Apparition "Bright Star" "The Young Victoria" Disney "Up" Elephant Eye Films "The Maid" First Look "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" Focus Features "Coraline" "A Serious Man" Fox Searchlight "Amelia" Freestyle Releasing "That Evening Sun" IFC Films "Antichrist" Lionsgate "Brothers" "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" Magnolia "Two Lovers" Miramax ...

Among the founding fathers of the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette, who turned 83 this month, has remained a relatively forgotten figure. His films were less fashionable and often more perplexing than those of his peers Jean Luc-Godard, Éric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. Not insignificantly, they were also a good deal longer. Rivette's movies typically run three or four hours ? the rarely screened "Out 1," from 1971, is 121/2 hours long ? and their marathon running times are intimately tied to his sense of narrative as a game, a force with a life of its own, a spell capable of overcoming actors and viewers alike.

The Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who turns 70 this month, was at the Cannes Film Festival recently with a movie that marked several firsts in a distinguished career. "Certified Copy," which will be released in the United States by IFC Films, is Kiarostami's first fiction feature to be shot outside Iran and his first with an internationally known star (Juliette Binoche, who won the best actress prize at Cannes). At first glance, this multilingual two-hander set in picturesque Tuscany has little to do with the postmodern neorealism that Kiarostami honed in such films as "Taste of Cherry" (1997)

Stephen Sondheim has received a belated birthday gift: his name on a Broadway theater. The 1,055-seat venue on West 43rd Street that had been named after actor-producer Henry Miller was formally renamed Wednesday night and had its marquee lit in Sondheim's honor. He turned 80 in March. "I'm deeply embarrassed. I'm thrilled, but deeply embarrassed," said Sondheim, who teared up as the sun fell over dozens of clapping admirers in Times Square. "I've always hated my last name.

Hollywood loves foreign-language films -- as long as it doesn't have to release them. American studios, producers and filmmakers are pursuing remakes of several prominent foreign titles -- including "Let the Right One In," "Tell No One" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- even as most domestic distributors steer clear of everything with subtitles. "It's funny how many remakes there are," says producer Rick Schwartz, who recently completed an English-language version of France's "13 (Tzameti)"

Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. Recounts the role of freedom songs in South Africa's fight against apartheid. Directed by Lee Hirsch. Artisan, Feb. 7 Blossoms of Fire. Maureen Gosling's film illuminates the colorful culture of Mexico's Isthmus Zapotecs, known for their work ethic and powerful matriarchy. New Yorker Films, July A Decade Under the Influence.

Hoping to bring more independent films to movie lovers, the Sundance Channel is launching a video-on-demand service dedicated to new titles that haven't received a theatrical release. Sundance Selects, as the new pay-per-view service is called, is scheduled to start Jan. 1 and will offer about 50 new movies a year that have been curated by Sundance Channel programmers. More than a third of the movies will be nonfiction films, and most (but not all) of the movies will never have made it into the multiplex.

In June, Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint 9" will be shown as part of a larger exhibit comprising paintings, drawings, videos, sculptures and photographs at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The installation will take up the entire fourth floor, with walls removed so that visitors can enjoy "a non-linear experience of the art," according to the museum's announcement. But first, IFC Films will provide the linear experience of watching the movie on its own in theaters.

A 15-year-old boy is befriended by the neighborhood pedophile. A team of transvestite volleyball players makes it to the national finals--in Thailand. A Jew becomes a Nazi and begins committing hate crimes. Those are the subjects of three fall films--"L.I.E.," "The Iron Ladies" and "The Believer," respectively--that truly fit the label of "independent." Independent films after all are expected to explore territory that's considered too risky for mainstream Hollywood.

"Winter's Bone" is no easy sell at the multiplex. Adapted from an acclaimed but little-read Daniel Woodrell novel, the low-budget movie unfolds in Missouri's impoverished Ozarks, its sometimes violent main characters subsist on methamphetamine and the R-rated film's protagonist is a 17-year-old girl played by the unheralded actress Jennifer Lawrence. Yet as soon as Roadside Attractions saw "Winter's Bone" at January's Sundance Film Festival, it knew it had to have the film that would go on to win the festival's top prize.

The Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who turns 70 this month, was at the Cannes Film Festival recently with a movie that marked several firsts in a distinguished career. "Certified Copy," which will be released in the United States by IFC Films, is Kiarostami's first fiction feature to be shot outside Iran and his first with an internationally known star (Juliette Binoche, who won the best actress prize at Cannes). At first glance, this multilingual two-hander set in picturesque Tuscany has little to do with the postmodern neorealism that Kiarostami honed in such films as "Taste of Cherry" (1997)

"Winter's Bone" is no easy sell at the multiplex. Adapted from an acclaimed but little-read Daniel Woodrell novel, the low-budget movie unfolds in Missouri's impoverished Ozarks, its sometimes violent main characters subsist on methamphetamine and the R-rated film's protagonist is a 17-year-old girl played by the unheralded actress Jennifer Lawrence. Yet as soon as Roadside Attractions saw "Winter's Bone" at January's Sundance Film Festival, it knew it had to have the film that would go on to win the festival's top prize.

Hollywood loves foreign-language films -- as long as it doesn't have to release them. American studios, producers and filmmakers are pursuing remakes of several prominent foreign titles -- including "Let the Right One In," "Tell No One" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- even as most domestic distributors steer clear of everything with subtitles. "It's funny how many remakes there are," says producer Rick Schwartz, who recently completed an English-language version of France's "13 (Tzameti)"

Apparition "Bright Star" "The Young Victoria" Elephant Eye Films "The Maid" First Look "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" Focus Features "A Serious Man" Fox Searchlight "Amelia" "Crazy Heart" "(500) Days of Summer" Freestyle Releasing "That Evening Sun" IFC Films "Antichrist" "Fish Tank" Lionsgate "Brothers" "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" Magnolia "Two Lovers" Miramax "Everybody's Fine" Monterey Media "Trucker" Oscilloscope "The Messenger" Paramount "The Lovely Bones" "Up in the Air" "Star Trek" Roadside Attractions "The Stoning of Soraya M."

It's the film festival that recently brought us "The Wrestler," "The Hurt Locker" and "The Visitor." But this year's Toronto International Film Festival delivered a departure: indifference. Along with the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto stands out as a must-visit destination for movie distributors looking to buy new, highbrow works. Yet as successful as the festival has been in premiering any number of art-house breakouts in recent years, the shopper silence at the just-concluded Canadian gathering was deafening.

There are two distinct classes of Cannes Film Festival visitors. A select few get invited to Paul Allen's yacht party, and most others don't. A handful of Cannes visitors stay in five-star beachfront suites, but pretty much everyone else squeezes into small apartments. And when it comes to buying films, the elite American distributors look for mainstream hits, while the masses are left to pick over the countless foreign-language titles, many of which will never be sold or seen.