ZNAK SAGITE — više od fantastike — edicija, časopis, knjižara...

Novi Cronenbergov triler je završen i spreman za distribuciju! Znam da su mnogi bili razočaradni Davidovim poslednjim uratkom, ali evo prilike da se utisci poprave...

Ili, možda, ipak ne?

Evo mini rivjua : http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32917

i TRAILER-a: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809794102/video/3182401/

nisam verovo da će doći dan kad ću za novi kronenbergov film reći 'couldn't care less', ali taj dan je, avaj, došao – i to još onda kad sam prvi put pročito plot za ovo novo sočinjenije; a isto tako i danas, kad čitam rivju toga.

spajder je bio dobro napravljen film po scenariju nevrednom tolikog truda, a history of violets je, prosto, misguided skroz naskroz.
ovo... ovo novo... stvarno ne znam kome to treba.

NARAVNO da ću ga pogledati asap, ali, štono reče jedan na aicn forumu, 'it seems like something I might forget about.'

dimzel se nedavno uvredio kad mu rekoh da ne bih prešao ulicu da uzmem dvd sa anđelima 3.
ako će mu biti lakše, novi kronenberg ima JOŠ MALO, MADA NE BAŠ SASVIM taj isti status.
dakle, ok, za ovo bih prešao ulicu, ali ne po vrućini, ne po kiši, ne odmah, nego kad se setim, kad mi ćune...

poštujem kronijev trud da 'bude drugačiji', da se ne ponavlja, da ruši tuđa očekivanja – u teoriji.
ali, rezultati tih pokušaja da se otrgne etikete 'body horror' direktora su, najčešće, sasvim promašeni.
stoga je moj sentiment bliži jednom drugom aicn-eru koji reče:
'I'd let him inject me with a genetically-engineered sexual parasite or something as long as he promised to make a movie about it.'

PS: iduće nedelje na RTS-u, SPAJDER, u mom prevodu, koga zanima.

trailer za EP ne obećava klasičnog Cronenberga koga svi volimo i priželjkujemo - naprotiv. Pristup je, kao i prethodnog puta, manje-više srednjački. Ako niša, Naomi je lepa k'o slika, a ni Viggo nije za baciti.

Eastern Promises
(U.K.- Canada)
By TODD MCCARTHY


A Focus Features (in U.S.) release presented in association with BBC Films of a Kudos Pictures/Serendipity Point Films production in association with Scion Films, in association with Astral Media, Coros Entertainment and Telefilm Canada. Produced by Paul Webster, Robert Lantos. Executive producers, Stephen Garrett, David M. Thompson, Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman. Co-producer, Tracey Seaward. Directed by David Cronenberg. Screenplay, Steve Knight.

Nikolai - Viggo Mortensen
Anna - Naomi Watts
Kirill - Vincent Cassel
Semyon - Armin Mueller-Stahl
Helen - Sinead Cusack
Azim - Mina E. Mina
Stepan - Jerzy Skolimowski
Yuri - Donald Sumpter

A superbly wrought yarn set in the milieu of first-generation Russian mobsters in London that is simultaneously tough-minded and compassionate about the human condition, "Eastern Promises" instantly takes its place among David Cronenberg's very best films. Same could be said for Viggo Mortensen, whose tightly coiled star turn recalls the magnetic work of Hollywood's greats of yore. Appreciation by the director's fans and a wide specialized viewership is assured, but there's enough intrigue and blood and guts here for Focus to have a shot at an ever bigger audience.

The tale, which takes place almost entirely between Christmas and New Year's Day, starts with two deaths and a birth. The first victim gets his throat gruesomely cut in a Russian gangland job, while the second is a Russian girl who expires in childbirth. Helping oversee the latter is hospital midwife Anna (Naomi Watts), who quietly takes home the unfortunate teenager's diary.

The way screenwriter Steve Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things") spirals and layers his story out from this simple beginning is thrilling to behold. Having just split with a boyfriend, Anna is living with her mother (Sinead Cusack) and her late Russian father's brother, the cranky Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski). Anna finds a business card in the dead girl's diary for a local Russian restaurant, which she visits in the hopes of having the Russian-language diary translated and learning something about the girl.

The warm, old-fashion eatery is presided over by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a soft-voiced, twinkly-blue-eyed gent with courtly manners but just a tad pushy when it comes to the diary. It doesn't take long to glean that old Semyon is the boss of the vory v zakone, the Russian mafia, which operates from the restaurant. The gang was behind the opening murder, and working directly for the boss are his volatile son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), who drinks far too much, and Nikolai (Mortensen), a trim, sleekly dressed, self-contained man who's mostly a chauffeur but can do dirty work when needed.

The dead girl's diary turns out to reveal far too much about Semyon's criminal activities, about how he procures susceptible teens from the old country with promises of work, only to turn them into prosties and junkies, and about Kirill's misdeeds. It's all nasty stuff, and Nikolai, who has very gently expressed a certain interest in Anna, is eventually asked by Semyon to "deal" with her uncle Stepan, who has read the diary and doesn't hesitate to boast that he used to be affiliated with the KGB.

With Cronenberg spinning Knight's web at a cunningly measured pace, the insinuations, suspicions and threats grow knottier by the minute. The more Semyon becomes impressed with Nikolai's proficiency, the less confident he becomes in his wildman son. Russian-Chechen enmity, the breeding ground for criminals provided by old Soviet prisons, the degree to which Scotland Yard can deal with these immigrant gangs -- all are touched on while keeping the human drama to the fore.

Latter stretch features some great twists and turns-of-events, all the better for their subtlety, as well as an amazing set piece, a fight-to-the-death between two knife-wielding assassins and a nude Nikolai in an old London bathhouse. It's the one time Nikolai isn't prepared for what's happening, and the struggle seems so fierce, and the violence of it is so astounding in its realism, that it's breathtaking.

Another less showy but fascinating sequence has Nikolai being interviewed by mob hierarchy to determine his worthiness for promotion in the org, an event formalized by the application of star tattoos; one reason passed on for Russian mobsters' liking of bathhouses is that you can tell any man's status by his tattoos.

The surprises and revelations continue right up to the eminently satisfying ending; it's possible that Cronenberg has never made a film of such consistent tone and control. Helping enormously in this regard are the internationally diverse actors, who have been cast with brilliant imagination. Watts doesn't have any particularly showy scenes but again displays an emotional fluency and openness that invites instantaneous empathy.

Cassel is at the top of his game, unsurprisingly good at appearing out of control but very effective at conveying Kirill's insecurity and charged feelings for Nikolai. Mueller-Stahl might have been considered an unlikely candidate to play a Russian mob boss, but he's mesmerizing in his quiet authority, while Polish helmer Skolimowski was an inspired choice as the disagreeable but pivotal old uncle.

Still, it's Mortensen's picture, progressing from his work in Cronenberg's last film, "A History of Violence," to this riveting portrait of an observant man of few words who always bides his time, never shows his hand and at one point enigmatically says, "I live in the zone all the time"; in context, it makes sense.

Entirely shot in Britain, pic is beautifully crafted by mostly familiar Cronenberg hands, including longtime lenser Peter Suschitzky, production designer Carol Spier, costume designer Denise Cronenberg and editor Ronald Sanders. Howard Shore's score contributes mightily to the sense of intrigue and mystery.

Camera (Deluxe color), Peter Suschitzky; editor, Ronald Sanders; music, Howard Shore; production designer, Carol Spier; supervising art director, Nick Palmer; art director, Rebecca Holmes; set decorator, Judy Farr; costume designer, Denise Cronenberg; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS), Stuart Wilson; supervising sound editors, Wayne Griffin, Michael O'Farrell; assistant director, Walter Gasparovic; casting, Deirdre Bowen, Nina Gold. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 8, 2007. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 100 MIN.
(English, Russian dialogue)

Uh, ovo deluje da će biti sranje, čim je ovakva kritika...

A zašto taj Kronenberg više ne piše svoje scenarije i zašto ne pravi filmove sa zarazama? Koji mu je klinac?

bem li ga, meni se čini da bi ovo moglo biti za nijansu ili dve zabavnije od HISTORY OF VIOLETS – što još uvek nije dovoljno & crony is not getting any younger!

harv, bojim se da možemo da se oprostimo od nade da će crony ikada više da napravi neki sf-body-horror-parasite-disease-mindfuck-weirdo-lsd-trip; sad je otkrio sebe u 'realistićnim' dramama, šta li.
mora da služe mnogo dobre koktele na tim festivalima, usladilo mu se.
posle kana, toronta, berlina itd. da se spušta na nivo tamo neke fant-asie, fantasporta i sl? nema šansone.
voleo bih da grešim, al tako mi se javlja.

ako ti je za utehu, mislim da nije sasvim nemoguće da crony dođe na capajebo filmfest. to je sad ko za njega.

Meni se u HISTORY OF VIOLETS jedino svidja ono glumatanje Hurt-a na kraju,secam se da je moj smeh odzvanjao u praznom Odeonu (bilo nas je svega 6-7na projekciji)...valjda ce ovaj biti bolji.

Eastern Promises
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THRILLER
United Kingdom/Canada/United States, 2007
U.S. Release Date: 9/14/07 (limited)
Running Length: 1:36
MPAA Classification: R (Violence, profanity, nudity, sex)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack, Donald Sumpter
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenplay: Steve Knight
Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky
Music: Howard Shore
U.S. Distributor: Focus Features
 


---
Eastern Promises is the latest effort from acclaimed filmmaker David Cronenberg, whose recent work has elevated his status from that of a cult figure to someone in the mainstrem. Although the director has re-teamed with his The History of Violence star, Viggo Mortensen, the results aren't as satisfactory. Eastern Promises is a jumbled string of mob-related clichés that mesh into something that's derivative and at times uninteresting. Aside from two "Cronenberg" scenes, the movie is lifeless and concludes on a note that makes the movie feel unfinished. I have been complaining about a lot of the movies at this festival being needlessly long; Eastern Promises might have been a better production had it added another 15 or 20 minutes on the back end, beefing up an anticlimactic finale.

Naomi Watts is Anna, a midwife at a London hospital. After delivering a baby for an unwed mother who dies in childbirth, Anna goes in search of the girl's living relatives. Her quest unexpectedly brings her into contact with the Russian mob, presided over by the kingpin, a restaurant owner named Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), and his creepy son (Vincent Cassel). They pretend to be nice to her, but their goal is to obtain an incriminating diary possessed by the dead mother. To do their dirty work, they employ Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), whose official role is as Semyon's driver, but who is also referred to as "the undertaker." Nikolai has his own secrets, not the least of which is a desire to depose Semyon and replace him upon the throne of the Russian criminal underworld in London.

Eastern Promises concentrates on two basic plots, neither of which radiates originality. The first pertains to Anna's near-obsessive need to find a family for the motherless baby. We learn that she lost a child and so relates to the newborn on a maternal level. Then there's the crime element of the story, which includes gamesmanship among the gangsters to see who will ultimately end up on top. The "surprise" twist (which won't be unexpected to some viewers) introduces more problems than it solves and leads in part to the incomplete feeling that accompanies the ending.

Cronenberg delivers twice when it comes to gore and violence. The movie opens with one of these trademark scenes as a man's throat is slit while he's in a barber's chair. (Encouragement to tip well.) Later, there's a no holds-barred two-on-one between Nikolai and a couple of thugs. What makes this interesting is that Viggo Mortensen is naked for the entire battle. This is one of those rare movies when there's plenty of male nudity as Mortensen literally lets it all hang out. (Hetero men will be glad to know that there are a few bare breasts here and there, although none belongs to Naomi Watts.) Sadly, those are the only two sequences likely to remind the viewer that he or she is watching a Cronenberg movie. The rest of what's on offer - including everything related to Anna - is banal. Perhaps the director set the bar so high with The History of Violence (a flawed but at times brilliant motion picture) that there was no way he could equal it with Eastern Promises, but for him to fall so far short is nothing less than criminal.


© 2007 James Berardinelli

How like David Cronenberg -- the master of body horror as a path to the soul -- to begin his mesmerizing power-punch of a thriller with a hemorrhage. The bloody fetus that we watch a fourteen-year-old Russian girl's uterus struggle to expel is a child of rape. But in Cronenberg, be it the exploding heads of Scanners or the imploding ids of The Fly, brutality and beauty are inextricably linked. The baby becomes a promise and a threat in the eyes of the film's central characters. Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), a midwife at a London hospital, tries to unite the baby with its Russian family from clues she finds in the dead mother's diary. Her path leads to Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen), a driver and butcher for a Russian crime ring, led by Semyon (a magisterially scary Armin Mueller-Stahl), the owner of a chic trans-Siberian restaurant in London. Semyon, exuding grandfatherly charm to mask his sex trafficking for the Vory V Zakone syndicate, is a monster even to his psycho son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel excels). For Anna and Nikolai, Semyon will unlock secrets neither wants to face.


Brilliant film. Brilliant director. But you're probably thinking it's a linear plot for Cronenberg, who confounded audiences in Naked Lunch, Crash and eXistenZ. No worries. As in 2005's incendiary A History of Violence, Cronenberg subverts formula at every turn. Unlike Hollywood products that, in the words of David Lynch, "pop and evaporate," Cronenberg's films pop and resonate. For more than three decades, this innovator from Canada has been quietly breaking new ground. If you still don't see The Brood, The Dead Zone, The Fly and Dead Ringers as landmarks, accept the fact that you are just not paying attention.



The potent script for Eastern Promises is by Steve Knight, whose Dirty Pretty Things shockingly detailed the London black market in human organs. Cronenberg is too much of a visionary to take a documentary approach to Eastern European criminals in the U.K. His appeal is to the unconscious. What motivates Anna (Watts is extraordinary) to risk her life for someone's else's baby? Her mother (Sinead Cusack) offers clues. And her racist, Russian-born uncle (a sly turn from Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski) tells her that fornicating with a black man caused her own baby to die inside her belly. Watts uncovers a woman fighting her way out of a tragic trap by digging into her Russian heritage.

If anything, Nikolai is in a tighter spot. This driver has been to hell and has the scars to prove it. Or, in Nikolai's case, tattoos. In the Vory underworld, tattoos are your resume. Standing before a crime tribunal, Nikolai need not speak; his markings reveal the story of his life. Mortensen uses the accent, the posture, the eerie stillness to devastating effect. The bathhouse fight between Nikolai and two knife-wielding thugs is a balls-out showstopper. But the blood-freezer comes when Kirill tests Nikolai's manhood by forcing him to fuck a young girl while he watches. Nikolai takes the girl from behind so he can't see her face. But we can see his. And in that moment, when Nikolai's squint loses its hard focus, Mortensen reveals a haunted man. There is immense skill in his performance. It's a Mortensen tour de force.



In Eastern Promises, shot to envelop by the great Peter Suschitzky, Cronenberg brings us face to face with the horror of self. The film's bristling invention and biting with can't stave off the dread. Sure, it's hard to take. Consolation isn't Cronenberg's business. But art as a response to the terrors of modern life should be yours.



PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Sep 4, 2007)

Trijumf Kronenberga u Torontu

Film Dejvida Kronenberga (David Cronenberg) ,,Easter Promises" osvojio je glavnu nagradu međunarodnog filmskog festivala u Torontu.

Nagrada publike (People's Choice Award) otišla je Dejvidu Kronenbergu za njegov film ,,Eastern Promises", napetom i nasilnom trileru o ruskim mafijašima.

U filmu se pojavljuju Naomi Vots (Naomi Watts) i Vigo Mortensen (Viggo Mortensen), koji je već imao priliku da sarađuje sa Dejvidom Kronenbergom na njegovom ostvarenju ,,A History of Violence" 2005. godine.

Pored filma ,,Eastern Promises" nagrade su dobili i ostvarenje ,,Juno", kanadski film o tinejdžerima, kao i dokumentarni film ,,Body of War" bivšeg televizijskog voditelja Fila Donahjua (Phil Donahue).

Nagrada Međunarodnog udruženja filmskih kritičara otišla je režiseru Rodrigu Plau za njegov film ,,La Zona".

Kronenberg nije prisustvovao dodeli nagrada pošto se nalazi u Americi gde promoviše svoj novi film.

Na festivalu u Torontu, koji je trajao deset dana, prikazano je ukupno 349 filmova iz 55 zemalja

ma to je sve samo protekcija, pošto je kroni lokal boj iz kraja.
to je ko kad bih ja za film NAŽIVO dobio nagradu u nišu (pod uslovom da prvo odigram neku ulogu u njemu).

Pored toga, Kroni je jedini režiser svetskog glasa kojeg imaju. Opet, što ga nisu nagradili kad je snimio Shivers, The Brood, Videodrome, The Fly ili Crash?

Russians Mistook Mortensen for Tattooed Mobster


The 43 tattoos Viggo Mortensen displays on his body in new film Eastern Promises were so authentic, Russians really thought he was a Mafia heavyweight. The A History Of Violence star, who plays a Russian mobster in the new thriller, spent four hours in the make-up chair having the skin art applied and he realized it was worth it when he saw the looks of terror on Soviet youths he met in a London pub. He recalls, "They were looking at my hands and suddenly stopped talking. It was right when the Alexander Litvinenko(former lieutenant colonel of the Russian Federation's Federal Security Service) poisoning happened in 2006, and I looked very shady. So I got up and left. They were probably freaked out." Mortensen reveals he traveled through Russia, met with real gangland bosses and meticulously studied the Mafia's tattoo art to make sure his latest character was as authentic as possible.

Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises' Wins in Toronto


Canadian director David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises won the top People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival over the weekend, pushing it into early Oscar contention. The film, co-starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen, is also due to open the London Film Festival on October 17. The film packed the 14 North American theaters in which it played over the weekend, taking in a per-theater average of $36,000, the highest of any movie in current release. The film also drew high praise from critics. In the Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert commented that with Promises Cronenberg has emerged into "the top rank of directors." Acceding to Cronenberg's request to critics not to give away the plot, Ebert concluded his review by remarking intriguingly, "The actors and the characters merge and form a reality above and apart from the story, and the result is a film that takes us beyond crime and London and the Russian mafia and into the mystifying realms of human nature." In the New York Daily News, Jack Mathews wrote, "Eastern Promises is the first must-see adult film of the young fall." Desson Thomson in the Washington Post commented that Cronenberg "has created a movie that is contemporary storytelling at its finest." A.O. Scott in the New York Times concluded his review by remarking that Promises is "a movie whose images and implications are likely to stay in your head for a long time." But Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times, while calling the film "expertly realized and gunmetal slick," nevertheless commented that it "doesn't stir much in the way of visceral horror despite its penchant for treating the human body like a chicken carcass on a block." And Bruce Westbrook in the Houston Chronicle suggested that Cronenberg merely leads the moviegoer into "a stifling descent into grim shock and disturbing awe. For Cronenberg, such cheap sensationalism is business as usual, and this far into his career, that business has slipped into artistic bankruptcy."

UUU JEBOTE, ČAK I EBERT POMINJE FAMOZNU SCENU BROBE:

At a time when movie "fight scenes" are as routine as the dances in musicals, Nikolai engages in a fight in this film that sets the same kind of standard that "The French Connection" set for chases. Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark.

Kako bre Aleksandar Mikic Soyka,zar nije Zoran Cvijanovic Soyka?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765443/

David Cronenberg: interview
With David Cronenberg's new film 'Eastern Promises' opening the London Film Festival, the director gives Dave Calhoun his favourite films about the capital
Next week, the London Film Festival will open with David Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises', a story of Russian mobsters running amok on the streets of London – mainly Clerkenwell. The film, written by Steven Knight, the writer of Stephen Frears' 'Dirty Pretty Things', is a bloody and mysterious affair that imagines a network of criminals terrorising each other behind the closed doors of restaurants and steam-rooms and occasionally dumping bodies into the river at Deptford. The overriding sense is of a hidden world that's made unusually public for us when a nurse, played by Naomi Watts, becomes inquisitive about one of the female bodies that passes through her hospital.

It's the second time that Cronenberg, the 64-year-old director of 'The Fly', 'Crash' and 'A History of Violence', has shot a film in London. His first was 'Spider', an adaptation of a Patrick Macgrath novel set partly in the 1950s in which Ralph Fiennes plays a man released into the community after years in a mental hospital. Both 'Spider' and 'Eastern Promises' make imaginative use of the city, and Cronenberg, who was born and raised in Toronto, views both films as the expression of a lifetime spent visiting London and England – originally via films and books when he was a child and a young man.

'In a weird way, my head was in England even though I didn't get there physically until the mid-'60s,' he explains. 'I was raised reading "Captain Hornblower" stories, and my father was a huge Anglophile and bibliophile. He got all these serials and bound them, and they were all English. I had English science books too.'

When it was first announced in August that 'Eastern Promises' would open the London Film Festival, Cronenberg declared that London is the 'home of so many of my most potent film influences.' With that in mind, we asked him to share a few of those influences with us.





The Fallen Idol, 1948  
The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, 1948)
The son of the French ambassador to London is caught between telling the truth and betraying a confidence.
'I'm a big fan of Carol Reed, I love the way he directs. It's so precise, yet it's not restricting, it's a beautiful combination of precision and spontaneity. I've always been a big enthusiast for his films.

'We see the city and adult life through the eyes of a child. The adult world is always confusing and intriguing and dangerous – and so it is in reality. The fact that the child is a foreigner makes it even more delicious.'





Passport to Pimlico, 1949  
Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949)
The residents of Pimlico declare a free state.
'I saw this pretty close to its release date. It's really funny and engaging. When I saw it, I had no idea what Pimlico was. I had not been to London. I didn't get to London until the '60s and I was born in 1943. This was all rather magical to me, it was wonderful, eccentric stuff. Canada and the UK have a very different relationship to, say, the US and UK, having had no revolution and all that. I think a lot of British films were shown in Toronto that we were not shown in America.

'When I looked up the film on the net, I found strangely enough that it was inspired by a moment in Canadian history when Queen Julia of the Netherlands was in Toronto in refuge during the war and the Canadian government ceded her room, where she was giving birth, to the Netherlands, so that the child was legitimately born in the Netherlands and therefore could be the heir to the throne. Apparently, that was the inspiration for this story.'

A Kid for Two Farthings (Carol Reed, 1955)
A young boy in Petticoat Lane is caught up in his own imagination.
'Another film by Carol Reed and also another film in which the adult world, in this case east London, is seen through the eyes of a child. I must have been 14 when I saw that and I seem to recall seeing it on television. It's funny that I ended up making a movie in the East End, not quite the same East End though. "Spider" was set roughly around 1955, and I was thinking of Carol Reed's films when I made that. Also, oddly enough, I was thinking of his "Odd Man Out" too, even though that takes place in Belfast – it's the idea that you're floating through the city from person to person and each time you get involved in their lives.'




Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, 1960  
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)
Albert Finney is an angry young man in the Nottingham of the early '60s.
'In a strange way, all of England felt the same to me in the 1940s and '50s. Even films like "Look Back in Anger" and "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", which were set in towns that to Londoners were as foreign as everything was to me. They all had these accents and attitudes which were very English to me, even though I couldn't discern the differences between the Yorkshire version and the London version and all that.

'Films like "This Sporting Life" were all movies that made a huge impression on me. British cinema was a huge force at that time. I would go and see those films one after the other in Toronto when they came out. I had an inkling of what the British New Wave directors were doing, I could hear that the accents were different in their films. They sounded almost Scottish at times to my ear. I certainly got a strong feeling of the class structure and the resistance to it. But even things like "Room at the Top", even though it wasn't in London, blurred into one for me until I got to London in about 1966. It was then that I started to have a better understanding of London versus the rest of England.'

The Horse's Mouth (Ronald Neame, 1958)
Alec Guinness is an ageing painter let loose in the city.
'I almost can't separate the textures of the city from the textures of Alec Guinness' character, you know? Both of them are exaggerated and wonderful at the same time, the streets and locations and his character. I remember thinking he was very funny. I loved Alec Guinness, he became to me a classic English actor who could disappear into his role. There was a Guinness texture and a Guinness taste! I loved, too, that he could be a leading actor, he was a character actor who could also be a star and hold a movie on his own. It's rare. He could be funny and tragic. I remember him careening through the streets and lofts and buildings that were falling apart. It's decay, but it's cheerful decay, you know? Not depressing decay. I remember him painting walls and transforming that decay into art. I couldn't ever in any of these movies conceive of the geography of the city, I didn't understand the differences between Mayfair and Hackney at that time! It was all visual, it was all coming to me right out of the movie, I didn't have the context that someone who knew London would have.'





The Ipcress File, 1965  
The Ipcress File (Sidney J Furie, 1965)
Michael Caine is Harry Palmer, a MoD bureaucrat sucked into evil spy shenanigans.
'Here London is a place for, well, eastern promises, I guess – it's London as a place of danger and spies and undercover operations and things like that. It was directed by a Canadian too, Sidney Furie. It was the '60s, but it wasn't swinging London. It was all MI5 or MI6 or whatever. It has an interesting score, as I recall, and the character actors are great.'

The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1966)
James Mason falls foul of a spy ring in this Le Carré thriller.
'It's such an unknown movie, it's a really fantastic film, a wonderful thriller, as usual with John Le Carré. It's basically a George Smiley story but they changed the name for copyright reasons. James Mason, Maximilian Schell, Lynn Redgrave, Roy Kinnear, a wonderful cast. I think it's one of Sidney Lumet's best. I still remember there's a Docklands death when a police inspector played by Harry Andrews is murdered – and who knows if it wasn't in my head when I was filming at the Thames Barrier on 'Eastern Promises'? It was a scene that stayed with me because at that point you had great affection for Harry Andrews' character, and then he's murdered. It's quite horrifying to lose him.

'When we found Watergate Street in Deptford, which is where the body is dumped into the river during 'Eastern Promises', I found that very few Londoners knew of it. People who've seen the movie ask me where it is. It's a place where women and children came down to the river to say goodbye to sailors.'





Blow-Up, 1966  
Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
David Hemmings is a Bailey-esque photographer in swinging London.
'It was shot in London when I was there in 1966. I was a student who took a year off from the University of Toronto and decided to travel and so took a boat to Southampton from New York. I think it cost $169. I went with a friend and that was the beginning of my European year, when I ended up in Copenhagen. I saw the Rolling Stones at the London Palladium in '66 with the Moody Blues, the Unit 4 + 2 and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. I remember that very well. 'Satisfaction' was their hit at the time.


'Unfortunately, I didn't get into as much excitement as there is in 'Blow-Up'. I must say there was a tendency for Londoners to shut out colonials. I spent more time with Rhodesians and South Africans than I had intended, which is one of the reasons we ended up going to Copenhagen. But we went to clubs and everyone was singing 'In the Midnight Hour'. We made some in-roads into the Carnaby Street era. But you weren't going to get English people to take you home and show you around. You were still on the outside looking in.


'"Blow-Up" was the London I didn't get to see: where you're riding down the street drunkenly in your Rolls-Royce convertible and having sex with two young girls and taking photographs of them, one of whom happens to be Jane Birkin. I needed the movie to show me that side of London. It was a heightened version of London, but nevertheless it felt real, the giddiness of it and the excitement and the political tinge to everything. That felt accurate to me. The movies that are made now about the '60s are all pretty pathetic as far as I'm concerned, they don't really capture anything that I think was going on then.'


'Eastern Promises' opens on October 26.

pogledah... ovo, kurtesi of aca r.
ne znam čak ni da li da iskazujem kurtesi/ zahvalnost za gledanje ovog SRANJA; mislim, jeste mi čovek poklonio disk, ali to je bilo pola iz prijateljstva a pola u stilu 'nosi mi ovo iz kuće, ne želim više nikada da ga vidim!'
a sad, kad pogledah film, sasvim ga razumem.

ne, ovo je užasno.
ja zaista ne znam zašto ovaj 'film' uopšte POSTOJI.
čemu ovo?
zašto?
ZAAAAŠTOOOOOOOOOOOOO???!!!!!!!

u poređenju s ovim, history of violets je vintage cronenberg in his prime!

ovo ima možda maximalno 1 minut (napabirčen od 2 sekunde ovde, 10 sek onde, 22 sek tamo, 6 sek ovde) koji bi se, uz mnogo silovanja i mnogo (ničim zaslužene!) dobre volje mogao nazvati bar upola 'kronenbergovskim'.
sve ovo ostalo mogao je da potpiše bilo koji bezlični odradek, rediteljski ekvivalent morona koji je napisao ovaj isprazan i nebitan, idiotski scenario.

aca me je beskrajno zabavljao svojim energičnim tiradama protiv ovog filma, nepatvorenim iskazima gnušanja, usred noći mi je slao sms da podeli šok i nevericu i odvratnost prema... ovome.
samo neko koga toliko voliš –poput kronenberga – može TOLIKO da te naljuti kad uradi nešto... ovakvo.

ali ja nemam ni živaca ni volje niti vidim smisla da se uopšte upuštam u analizu... ovoga.

ako su violets bile limp dick od filma, ovo je - kastrat farineli!
neka vam ozbiljni kritičari ulaze u sitna crevca zašto je i da li je to baš tako kako tvrdim, ali ja sam sada u afektu izneverenog ljubavnika koji je video da je njegova nekad-obožavana i poštovana žena postala aktivistkinja b92, nataše kandić i žena u crnom sve odjednom, i zaista nemam snage da vam pišem 'kritiku', 'analizu', niti dajem 'argumente' za svoj sentiment.
take it for what it's worth.

ako je violets bio metallicin black album, onda su (empty) promises – load (of crap)!

čak ni mnogohvaljena scena borbe u sauni nije toliko spektakularno dobra koliko će vam svi na netu kazati: ona odskače samo zbog toga što je to jedina OK scena u nesnosno šupljem i irelevantnom filmu, pa onda na pozadini od takvog uninvolving sivila i bezdana deluje kao suva antologija.

ne, ovo je strašno, i ne želim ni trenutka više da uopšte promišljam ovaj sluzavi, degenerisani, mutirani albino abortus od filma!

Quote from: "Ghoul"

ne, ovo je užasno.
ja zaista ne znam zašto ovaj 'film' uopšte POSTOJI.
čemu ovo?
zašto?
ZAAAAŠTOOOOOOOOOOOOO???!!!!!!!

Dakle Ghoule, daješ mu ***(*)
     

Kuku... zar je moguće da je TOLKO loš????

ma nije tolko loš 100%

malo pretjeraš
malo pamtiš njegove dobre filmove od ranije
malo bijesa...

mislim da će biti 3-4/5

ili


6-7/10

Moze vec da se nabavi na ulici. Naravno, bioskopska kopija. Jos nisam skupio hrabrost da je uzmem.

A zasto uopste gledati uzasnu TS ili CAM verziju filma !!!!

tako je

hiljade filmova leže i čekaju
a ja da gledam užasne kino snimke

no vej hoze

...juče sam, at long last, pogledao EASTERN PROMISES i, nažalost, ustanovio da je Cronenberg nastavio, mada nešto usporenije, svoj kreativni strmoglav... EASTERN PROMISES deluje umivenije i ogu ugodnije od A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, ali ne bih se usudio da tvrdim koji je bolji... EP je mene šokirao samo svojom xxx mellow orijentacijom, koja se nije dala zabašuriti na prvi pogled ekstremnijim nasiljem i Viggovom ogoljenom aparaturom... priča je toliko naivna i predvidiva da sam u par navrata posumnjao da se ipak radi o planted autorskom konceptu ili subverziji...kada se podvuče crta, Cronenberg je spas od staračke demencije i dekandencije potražio u povlađivanju svojoj novoj publici, a mi, nešto prekaljeniji, imamo na raspolaganju žal za (još jednom) ugašenom zvezdom i stare uratke za povremene reprize...

Evo i ovde da udenem svoj osvrt, čisto ako je neko propustio...



Cronenberg je pod stare dane otkačio... Kažu da bez starca nema udarca, ali ovoga puta nije tako. Doduše, film je dosta solidno počeo, ja sam se taman obradovao, kad - PUF! - sve je skliznulo u najgoru melodramu. Dok sam gledao kao Cron ređa stereotip za stereotipom, shvatio sam da Fast Company i nije tako loš film. (Šalim se, naravno, FC jeste loš film)

Istočna obećanja su snimljena samo da bi se šokirala mediokritetska publika... U tkivo film aje ubačen po koji "neopdobni" prizor (higlight bi, valjda, bio scena u kojoj Viggo landara svojim vršnjakom tokom borbe u sauni), ali to ne menja činjenicu da je DC ovoga puta snimio film koji nije trebalo da snimi. Bolje da se posvetio PainKillers prijektu...

Doduše, film mucho bonito izgleda, i ima pola tuceta prizora koji podsećaju na dobra stara vremena. Zbog njih film valja pogledati... Evo, uštedeću vam trud:


TANATOS! (Nemojte se zavarati, ovo nije Cravenov Chiller.)


EROS! Uz pesmu In a Glade (Oy u hiayu pri Dunayu), koju je van granica Ukrajine proslavila Mila Jovović:

Oy u hiayu pri Dunayu solovey schebeche,
Vin svoyu vsyu ptashinu do gnizdechka kliche

Oy tyuch tyuch, E tyuch tyuch tyuch, solovey schebeche,
Vin svoyu vsyu ptashinu do gnizdechka kliche

Oy u hiayu pri Dunayu ta muzika grae,
Bas gude, skripka plache, miliy miy hiulyae

Oy tyuch tyuch, E tyuch tyuch tyuch, ta muzika grae,
Bas gude, skripka plache, miliy miy hiulyae

Oy tyuch tyuch, E tyuch tyuch tyuch, ta muzika grae,
Bas gude, skripka plache, miliy miy hiulyae

Oy u hiayu pri Dunayu tuzhu samotoyu, Plachu tu,
muzhu sche y ridayu miliy za toboyu

Oy tyuch tyuch, E tyuch tyuch tyuch, solovey schebeche,
Vin svoyu vsyu ptashinu do gnizdechka kliche

Oy tyuch tyuch, E tyuch tyuch tyuch, ta muzika grae,
Bas gude, skripka plache, miliy miy hiulyae

English: In the forest near the Danube river,
there is a nightingale singing,
he sings to gather everyone from his family

In the forest near the Danube river,
there is a bass vibrating and a fiddle crying,
I think of a place where my lovely one is strolling now

In the forest near the Danube river,
I am sick with my loneliness,
crying, I want to fly like a bird,
to where my lovely one is now


Klanje, a iza je gusto granje!


Još klanja, ovoga puta bez granja! (Trivia: žrtvu igra izvesni Aleksandar Mikić, gotovo izvesno naše gore list na radu u inostranstvu.)


Vigo se priprema za akciju. (Trivia: tetovaže su za ruske krimose najvažnija stvar u životu.


Viggo u akciji: Full Monty Revisited!


Viggo u akciji 2: Monica će se naljutiti.


Baby Shock! Pro life, bato!

Sta si mi pa bunimo?,na fotografijama se lepo vidi i body i horror

Quote from: "Alexdelarge"Sta se mi pa bunimo? Na fotografijama se lepo vidi i body i horror

Zapravo, da. To je ono što je najsmešnije od svega. Istočna obećanja sadrže elemente koji se mogu nazvati cronenbergovskim, ali u celini nema potrebnu atmosferu. Kao da je Cron snimio film namenjen za TV prikazivanje u udarnom terminu, a onda se setio da je on ipak Cronenberg, i ubacio par scena/prizora koji to treba da ilustruju.Ono štoj e Ging napisao stoji: priča je toliko naivna i predvidiva (ja bih dodao: patetična), da čoveku može od toga da pripadne muka tokom gledanja.

Da li se pojavio DVD rip?

Quote from: "taurus-jor"Da li se pojavio DVD rip?

Jeste

Ipak sam se odlucio za bioskop. Ali pravi.

Sreca da je bilo besplatno.

Ako jedan Kronenbergov film moze i ne mora da se pogleda/poseduje, to je ovaj. Ako sam pogledao jedan njegov film koji je zaboravljiv, onda je to ovaj.

Istina, Zakletva/Eastern promises nije dosadno ostvarenje (tacnije, odgleda se bezbolno). Ima savrsen kasting (standardno); pruza odlicnu glumu (Kroni je uvek umeo da izvuce maksimum iz glumaca) uz sigurnu reziju (to je Kroni) i Kronenbergovski izgled (na povrsini).

Sve drugo je chorak.

Nije (toliki) problem sto je ovo mejnstrimaski film. Problem je sto svoju temu obradjuje mlako, impotentno, cak umorno. Scenario je pun rupa; sto podjednako ide na dusu scenaristi i Kroniju, coveku koji je nekada umeo temeljno da preradi tudji tekst (Muva) i udari mu svoj pecat. Jedna (podgrejana) scena kronenbergovskog nasilja ne iskupljuje film, koji sav deluje kao da je "u pokusaju" - od price, preko zapleta, do likova. Gomila neiskoriscenih prilika, nerazradjena radnja, potpuno neiskoriscen obrt sa Mortensenom; naivan, neuverljiv, neprirodan kraj. Kada je krenula zadnja spica, u sali je zavladao muk. Ovo je trebalo da bude film o ruskoj mafiji? Ovo je trebalo da bude film o jednom posebnom mentalitetu, o posebnoj vrsti mesa i duse koja je toliko otvrdnula da ne oseca nista dok siluje/ubija? Ispalo je kao rezanac koji se raspao od kuvanja, i to u destilovanoj vodi. A kuvar kao da se ponadao da ce zabasuriti stvar ako doda malo kecapa, uz sos koji lici na meso a zapravo je soja.

Ne znam sta vise da kazem, osim da je Nasilnicka proslost klasika u odnosu na Zakletvu, i da mi je porasla u ocima.

Za one koji zele da se podsete pravog Kronenberga, i to na velikom platnu:

Muzej jugoslovenske kinoteke, 26. februar (program FEST-a):

15:00 - Scanners (1981)
17:30 - Spider (2002)
20:00 - Crash (1996)