The other film news stories of the week...
Applauded film gets around
The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is nearly over, but fear not. If you live near Galway or Waterford you can avail of Access Cinema's scheme (concocted in conjunction with the festival) to bring award-winning Danish film Applauseto those cities. The flick will be at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Sunday, February 28th and the Storm Cinema, Waterford on Tuesday, March 2nd.
A critic finds his voice
Roger Ebert has got his voice back. The veteran film critic, long an institution on US television and in the Chicago Sun Times, lost the ability to speak in 2007 following an operation for thyroid cancer. Now boffins at a Scottish institute have provided him with a communication system that – unlike Stephen Hawking's more robotic device – generates a voice very like his own. Good for Roger. His reviews have been a bit too forgiving of late, but he still writes as well as anybody else in the business.
French film fest goes first class
Take note that the 21st Cork French Film Festival begins on Sunday. Among this year's attractions will be the premiere of a specially commissioned score for Marcel L'Herbier's silent classic L'Homme du Largeby Irish fiddler Caoimhín O'Raghallaigh. The festival runs in various venues, including the Gate Cinema, Cork Opera House and – hey, why not? – the Pavilion Night Club. A luxury option includes a gala evening at Ballymaloe House featuring a top-notch feedbag and a screening of Julie & Julia. Corkfrenchfilmfestival.com.
Junk science, junk movies
Sick of bad science in movies? We have excellent news for you. The Science and Entertainment Exchange, a new enterprise by physics professor Sidney Perkowitz, seeks to ensure that mainstream movies obey the basic laws of science.
“I am not offended if they make one big scientific blunder in a given film,” Perkowitz said. “You can have things move faster than the speed of light if you want. But after that I would like things developed in a coherent way.”
When asked to point out recent outrages against nature, the boffin homed in on the use of antimatter in Angels & Demons. "The amount of antimatter they had was more than we will make in a million years of running a high-energy particle collider," said Perkowitz. Yeah, doc, that was the main problem with Angels & Demons.
Chains get with Disney tea party
Last week, we reported on the fascinating ongoing tussle between Walt Disney and the exhibition chains over the release of Alice in Wonderland. A formidable coalition of cinema chains (Odeon, Vue, Cineworld) was threatening to boycott the film in reaction to Disney's plans to severely slash the gap between theatrical and DVD releases. At time of writing, it seems as if the boycott is crumbling. Vue and Cineworld have admitted they will show the film. Ward Anderson, Ireland's largest cinema chain, has yet to respond to our inquiries, but it looks as if you will be able to catch Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter somewhere nearby.
