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In 1964, Leonard Cohen wrote a letter to a friend explaining that he’d sold what he called his manuscript “junk” to the University of Toronto, who shelled out $3,850 for the collection. How times have changed, especially in the rock memorabilia world. Next month, an auction of Cohen’s working drafts, correspondence and other items will include that letter, which auction organizers predict will likely go for multiples of that amount.

Sales of pop star items, alive or dead, are increasingly commonplace. In 2019, Christie’s auctioned off a collection of 50 love letters from Cohen to his muse,...

The Story: Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider), a helicopter pilot working for the LAPD, is selected to test pilot an experimental government helicopter called “Blue Thunder.” Highly sophisticated, and heavily armed, Murphy discovers the helicopter is being designed for urban use by a group within the government, headed by his old Vietnam nemesis, F.E Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell). Thought to be insane by his LAPD bosses thanks to his troubled history of war-related Ptsd, Murphy steals ”Blue Thunder” in an attempt to reveal the murderous conspiracy behind its creation, culminating in a series of spectacular dogfights in skies above downtown Los Angeles.

The Players: Director: John Badham. Writers: Dan O’Bannon, Don Jakoby. Starring: Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, & Warren Oates. Score by Arthur B. Rubinstein.

The History: During the early eighties, the comic book-style techno-thriller was in-vogue. Usually, these thrillers revolved around lone-wolf cops or military men given...

The 80s and 90s were a great time for character actors. Guys like Gene Hackman, Brian Dennehy, Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Morgan Freeman and many others occupied this really interesting place where they could lead their own movies and be just as comfortable playing supporting roles – whether large or small – in bigger films without worrying about things legit movie stars have to, such as bankability. Of that era, one of the biggest character actors was no doubt the fast-talking James Woods. In the eighties, his star rose thanks to movies like Videodrome, Salvador, True Believer and many others. While he never became a legit box office superstar, he was in that niche place where he could lead his own movies, such as the underrated Best Seller, while also playing plum supporting roles in movies like Chaplin, The Specialist and Casino. He was noted as one of the town’s biggest scene-stealers,...

In the first few minutes of his first Zoom casting call with actor Alex Wolff, Oystein Karlsen knew he had found his Leonard Cohen.

“He came on the screen like this,” the Norwegian director and screenwriter puts his hand over his face, with one eye poking out. “He said: ‘Sorry, I’m so hung over. I know I’m not going to get the role. I feel horrible.’ I thought: That’s Leonard!”

Karlsen already had his eye on Wolff to play the famously melancholic Canadian singer-songwriter in his new TV miniseries about Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, his great love, muse and the woman who inspired the song that gives the series its title: So Long, Marianne.

Alex Wolff as Leonard Cohen and Thea Sofie Loch Ness as Marianne Ihlen in So Long, Marianne.

“I wanted a professional musician and singer because I wanted our Leonard to really sing, to really play Cohen’s music,...

Patton Oswalt once sagely joked that science is "all about coulda, not about shoulda." History is riddled with examples confirming his premise: the development of the A-bomb, Project MKUltra, and the advent of biological warfare. The worst of these achievements are irrevocable threats to humankind; the threat of nuclear war — which, if waged at full scale, would likely render most of the planet uninhabitable — will always be with us. Other thresholds, once passed, would render life barely worth living.

The growing popularity of ChatGPT has been a societal litmus test. People are understandably curious about the hot new technology. Goldbrickers at the professional and academic levels are downright ecstatic about its effort-saving applications. As the Artificial Intelligence model becomes more sophisticated, it will likely be able to churn out A-level analyses and essays. In time, ChatGPT and AI programs like it will be capable of generating novels, screenplays and, most chillingly,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film Forum

A Preston Sturges retrospective continues, with The Palm Beach Story, The Lady Eve, and Sullivan’s Travels all playing on 35mm this weekend.

Roxy Cinema

35mm showings of Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse begin a Todd Solondz retro; the Leonard Cohen concert film Bird on a Wire screens this Saturday, as does Jonas Mekas’ Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol.

Museum of Modern Art

Always a highlight of the repertory year, To Save and Project presents the best in restored cinema; a Guillermo del Toro retrospective of his features and inspirations has its final weekend, marking your last chance to see Puss In Boots at MoMA.

Museum of the Moving Image

A series on awards-snubbed films continues with Sirk, Ray, and McCarey; the rare Greek feature My Friend, Lefterakis screens this Sunday.

IFC Center

28 Days Later,...

In the canon of great songwriters, few names loom as large as Leonard Cohen. The Canadian singer-songwriter pursued a career as a poet before pivoting to music later in life, and that sensibility comes through in his haunting, spiritual lyrics. While songs like “Hallelujah” and “Bird on a Wire” have permeated pop culture, largely as a result of other people covering them, Cohen’s own discography of albums provides a treasure trove of smart, poetic gems for music fans willing to look closely enough.

From folk-tinged classics like “Songs of Love and Hate” to his late-career, mortality-centric masterpieces like “Old Ideas” and “You Want It Darker,” Cohen’s unique voice never failed to captivate his legions of devoted fans. But while his literary prowess is rivaled by few, his enigmatic personality and relative lack of mainstream popularity make him something of a mystery to many music lovers.

“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen,...

NBCUniversal’s international flight plan for Peacock starts this week: Starting Nov. 16, Sky TV and Now customers in the U.K. and Ireland will get access to the streaming service for no additional fee.

Comcast had announced plans this summer to launch Peacock as a free add-on for Sky’s satellite TV customers in Europe, representing a base of close to 20 million households. According to NBCU, after the “soft launch” in the U.K. and Ireland, Peacock will continue to roll out across Sky platforms in territories including Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland in the next few months.

Sky TV customers and subscribers to the Now Entertainment package in the U.K. and Ireland will get “early access” to the new ad-supported Peacock destination, with original and library TV shows and movies from across NBCU although the content availability will differ from what’s available on Peacock in the U.

A couple of things have caught our eye in February’s Netflix UK line-up, first, the German dystopian sci-fi Tribes of Europa. After the success of sci-fi series Dark, the streaming service invested in a bunch of new German-language series, including the mega-successful historical Barbarians. Tribes was among them, and tells the story of a group of siblings in 2074, separated after a global disaster that leaves Europe riven by warring factions. Also sounding like a good time is South Korean comedy Space Sweepers, about a spaceship crew tasked with cleaning up intergalactic trash.

There’s also the arrival of Parks and Recreation in full – perfect for a lockdown rewatch, new stand-up, all of The Vampire Diaries, and Jason “It’s a megalodon” Statham in The Meg.

We’ll update this list with new arrivals as they’re confirmed.

1 February

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

The Family Fang (2015)

The House Arrest of Us...

Mike Fenton, the legendary casting director who worked on the “Back to the Future” franchise, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and scores of other classic movies and TV shows, has died. He was 85.

Fenton co-founded what is now known as Casting Society of America in 1982. He was a prominent casting director for more than 40 years, with a mile-long resume that stretched from “The Andy Griffith Show” and “That Girl” to “Chinatown,” “American Graffiti,” “The Godfather II,” “Blade Runner,” “A Christmas Story,” “Norma Rae,” “Footloose,” “Honeymoon in Vegas” and “Chaplin.”

“Working with Mike Fenton was like working in a candy store — he made casting a blast,” Steven Spielberg said in a statement. “His fervent support of actors was the stuff of legend, and after landing a part, any actor’s smile was rarely as wide as Mike’s. He didn’t just support actors, he launched crusades.

By Cai Ross

“Directing is so much more than staging scenes or moving the camera,” explains John Badham in the new edition of his last book. “It is how to make the impossible possible. It is storytelling, imagination, people managing, resource skills, physical stamina, so many things a director is called upon to be good at. Including accepting the blame for everything: the script, the performances, the camerawork etc., etc., etc. And yet, in spite of all those limitations, obstacles, and endless politics, we charge forward trying to make the very best of what we have to work with. Who else would do such a crazy thing? But how can we not?”

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, John Badham enjoyed something of the Midas Touch. A former actor - and brother of To Kill a Mockingbird actress Mary Badham - he had graduated at the same movie...

David Gilmour is finally giving a wide release to his first new song in five years, “Yes, I Have Ghosts.” Previously, the former Pink Floyd frontman released the tune via the audiobook edition of his wife and long-time collaborator Polly Samson’s novel, A Theatre for Dreamers.

Over a waltzing acoustic guitar line and harp played by Gilmour’s daughter, Romany, he sings about “specters of strangers” and fleeting faces in a crowd. “Yes, I have ghosts,” he sings, “Not all of them dead/Making dust of my dreams/Spinning round and around,...

David Gilmour will release his first new song in five years via an unusual format, the audiobook.

The track, “Yes, I Have Ghosts,” will be available initially only on the audio edition of A Theatre for Dreamers, the latest novel by Gilmour’s wife and long-time collaborator, Polly Samson. The recording also features music Gilmour wrote for the story to accompany Samson’s narration. The audiobook will come out on June 25th, and the wide release of “Yes, I Have Ghosts,” will be a week later.

“Polly’s vivid and poetic writing,...

If you’ve seen the trailers for “The Great,” or already begun watching the series (it premieres today on Hulu), you know that series creator Tony McNamara, who previously wrote “The Favourite,” has crafted a fun, somewhat silly at times story about the rise of Catherine the Great. That being said, there are moments of emotional heft and the music of the series follows the same push and pull between drama and comedy.

Continue reading ‘The Great’ Exclusive Music: Hear The Haunting Cover Of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Bird On A Wire’ From The Hulu Series at The Playlist.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues and millions remain quarantined around the globe, more and more musicians have joined the streaming trend — performing live from their couches, kitchens, and even bathrooms — while consoling fans. Even classic bands like the Grateful Dead are streaming archival concerts, reminding listeners of a time when we weren’t so full of uncertainty and fear. From David Gilmour to Residente, here’s a new list of the best streamed performances from the stay-at-home era.

Grateful Dead

Starting Friday, the Dead will kick off a weekly streaming series on their YouTube channel,...

Two romances anchor Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love.” Both bloomed on the sparkling Greek island Hydra, many years apart. One was the great love and muse of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s life, Marianne Ihlen, the subject of at least five of his songs, including “So Long Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” The other was Broomfield’s own, more brief affair at age 20 with Ihlen, who was 12 years his senior.

Ihlen stayed friends with both men through the years. As she battled leukemia at the end of her life in 2016, her friend Jan Christian Mollestad reached out to Cohen to let him know she was near the end. Cohen wrote an email back that Mollestand reads to Ihlen on video in “Marianne & Leonard”:

Dearest Marianne,

I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up,...

Two romances anchor Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love.” Both bloomed on the sparkling Greek island Hydra, many years apart. One was the great love and muse of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s life, Marianne Ihlen, the subject of at least five of his songs, including “So Long Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” The other was Broomfield’s own, more brief affair at age 20 with Ihlen, who was 12 years his senior.

Ihlen stayed friends with both men through the years. As she battled leukemia at the end of her life in 2016, her friend Jan Christian Mollestad reached out to Cohen to let him know she was near the end. Cohen wrote an email back that Mollestand reads to Ihlen on video in “Marianne & Leonard”:

Dearest Marianne,

I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up,...

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not watched Season 3 of “Stranger Things,” streaming now on Netflix.

Agents of the U.S. government have been a key part of the first two seasons of “Stranger Things,” but Season 3 of the Netflix series takes things in a very different direction.

Last chance to avoid spoilers.

From the opening moments of the season, fans learn that classic ’80s movie bad guys — the Russians — have been attempting to open their own gateway into the Upside Down with little luck. So they decide to attempt to reopen the gateway that was previously opened in Hawkins, covering up their efforts by building the Starcourt shopping mall over their underground base.

While most of the show’s younger stars are busy dealing with the return of the Mind Flayer, a new team of heroes assembles known as the Scoop Troop: Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Steve (Joe Keery...

In the 1960s, on the Greek island of Hydra, a Norwegian ex-pat met a young Canadian poet. She was shopping in a market when this dashing, mustachioed figure appeared in the doorway. “Would you like to join us?” the handsome silhouette asked her. “We’re sitting outside.” Their eyes met, and that was it: Welcome to the Mediterranean region of Smittensville. Her name was Marianne Christine Ihlen; his name was Leonard Cohen. You probably know the rest if you know Cohen’s story, or if you simply have a passing...

As high-ranking executives at the most famous record company in the world, it was essential for us to project the utmost professionalism at all times. We talked in hushed tones nodding politely at staff whom, when we approached lowered their heads once pass the whispered comments began.

Denys Cowan and I were walking the halls of Motown Records. Denys had just joined me at Motown Animation and Filmworks as Senior Vice President. I was giving him the ten-cent tour of Motown’s brand spanking new offices as we discussed plans to take over the world.

“My god, they nodded at us.”

“We’re so blessed.”

“Long live the saviors of Motown.”

“Nay, saviors of the entertainment industry!”

“Nay Nay The World!!”

“Why Y’All Keep Saying My Name?” Said, Nay Nay.

Nay Nay commented that we “Looked like GQ cover models.” Denys was in Armani, I wore Boss— we both...

Editor Emma E. Hickox comes from a showbiz legacy family. Her father was director Douglas Hickox (“Sitting Target”), and her mother, Ann V. Coates, won an Oscar for editing “Lawrence of Arabia.” Even though young Emma learned much about the industry as a child “through osmosis,” she says that it was important for her to make it on her own.

“I wanted to direct theater,” says the London native, who had worked in L.A. as an unpaid assistant. “When someone said they were looking for an apprentice editor, I wasn’t keen at all. Then they told me how much they were going to pay, and I said, ‘See you on Monday!’”

Once in the editing room, Hickox fell for the job. Hard. “I love filing and being organized,” she says. “I’m very precise, so I adored being an assistant editor.” Working under Frank Morriss, Hickox learned that...

Exclusive: Digital distributor Syndicado has struck a volume deal with Cineflix Rights to take a raft of documentary and factual entertainment titles into the U.S.

Syndicado, which recently acquired the rights to long-lost Leonard Cohen documentary Bird on a Wire, will represent around 100 hours of content from the Canadian company and sell it to digital platforms including Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

Titles include feature-length doc Battle of the Somme, produced by Yap Films for History in Canada that looks at whether the combat footage of the 1916 battle is real, Shaw Media’s food format The Delinquent Gourmet, and long-running British supernatural format Most Haunted, hosted by Yvette Fielding. Elsewhere, it has also picked up Animal Planet’s Wild Animal Rescue and TLC six-parter Is That A Nail In Your Head?

It is Syndicado’s latest international deal following agreements with Danish distributor Filmoption International and Russian producer Look Film.

Arriving in the midst of Goldie Hawn’s last real prolific period in the early-to-mid 1990s, the Damian Harris (son of actor Richard Harris and brother of Jared) directed thriller Deceived was an attempt to re-package the bubbly blonde’s rom-com reputation (which Hawn followed with the equally unsuccessful CrissCross in 1992). At the time, the film (originally titled The Mrs.) was an interesting package, however, considering the involvement of several key players.

While Hawn was hot off Bird on a Wire (1990), this was Brit director Harris’ follow-up to the well-received The Rachel Papers (1989), and scribe Mary Agnes Donoghue would…...

Exclusive: Long-lost Leonard Cohen documentary Bird on a Wire and The World of Peter Sellers, which was banned by the BBC in 1971, are set to see the light of day in the U.S. after North American distributor Synicado acquired U.S. rights. The Toronto-based digital distributor has struck a deal with director Tony Palmer and Isolde Films for the two films, as well as a raft of other docs. It has picked up the films to sell to major Svod services such as Amazon, Netflix…...

Tony Palmer told this story far better than I ever could when he was introducing his TV works, All My Loving and All You Need is Love (Episode 14), at the 2017 Hot Docs Film Festival, but I’m going to persist in telling it anyway… soon. Palmer was in town to receive Hot Docs’ 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award and present the festival with seven of his films. Considering that some of these films consisted of things like, Bird on a Wire: Leonard Cohen’s 1972 European tour, a vérité style collage-film of 60s pop via culture at large; The Beatles and the history of American music; The Beatles and WWII, and on, I wasn’t planning on missing out, nor did I intend to let the opportunity...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Author: Competitions

To mark the release of Bird On A Wire on 10th April, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Hiding under the FBI Witness Protection Program, Rick Jarmin (Mel Gibson) gets nervous when old flame Marianne Graves (Goldie Hawn) recognises him. But before he can assume a new identity, the man he put in jail is released and comes to pay his respects. Rick and Marianne find themselves thrown together on an exhilarating cross-country scramble, barely evading the gangsters, police and an amorous veterinarian. Their whirlwind travels eventually lead to an unforgettable climax in an elaborate zoo exhibit.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Small Print

Open to UK residents only The competition will close 13th April 2017 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

Celebrate the legendary singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen, when the fascinating and critically acclaimed documentary, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, arrives for the first time on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital HD) onFebruary 7 from Lionsgate. Narrated by Cohen himself, the film features performances of Leonard Cohen songs by such luminary artists as U2, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Antony, Martha Wainwright, and Beth Orton, among others. Bonus features on this Blu-ray™ include exclusive performances not seen in the movie by Martha Wainwright, Perla Batalla, The Handsome Family, and Teddy Thompson, as well as a conversation with Leonard Cohen and audio commentary with the director! Making its debut just before the 2017 Grammy® Awards, the Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man Blu-ray™ will be available for the suggested retail price of $14.99.

Sure to please both die-hard Cohen fans and the newly initiated, this film is full of captivating music and offers an...

Leonard Cohen's career was on the verge of complete disaster in late 1971. Songs of Love and Hate, his most recent record, peaked at #145 on the American charts – this despite containing future classics like "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "Joan of Arc." CBS was ready to cut their losses and drop him from the label. A tour would give him the chance to regain some momentum, though Cohen hated performing live; he only reluctantly agreed to a one-month run in Europe because Songs of Love and Hate found a much bigger...

Famed singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died Thursday at the age of 82. The iconic musician was known for hits including the oft-recorded "Hallelujah," "Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire," which he wrote for Judy Collins. Upon hearing the news, celebrities including Bette Midler, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sean Ono Lennon flocked to Twitter to leave tributes on behalf of the Grammy-winning songwriter. See the tweets below. "Like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried, in my way, to be free." -Leonard Cohen — Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel)

read more...

The world is mourning the death of Leonard Cohen, the iconic Canadian poet and singer-songwriter who brought us such timeless classics as “Hallelujah” and “Bird on a Wire” during a career that spanned six decades. He was 82. Cohen’s label, Sony Music Canada, confirmed the sad news in a post on his Facebook page, stating: […]...

Famed musician Leonard Cohen died Thursday, according to his website. He was 82. "I get tagged as an art-song intellectual," he observed during the early 1980s. "But I've always tried to have hits." Cohen didn't have any of those. But the poet, songwriter and singer wielded enormous influence as a kind of pop music laureate, writing literate, evocative material that was admired and frequently recorded by others. In some cases they even became hits — "Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire" for Judy Collins, for instance, or "Hallelujah" for the late Jeff Buckley — and other

read more...

The 1990s: a time when Sleepwalkers, Burt Reynolds, No Escape, Chevy Chase and F/X/2 could top the Us box office...

By the 1990s, studios were waking up to movie marketing, and the era of the blockbuster. Tim Burton's Batman, released in summer 1989, had introduced the idea of a big opening weekend, and modern movies now target their promotional work to get just that. As such, it's harder and harder for smaller films to snare the top slot at the Us box office, even for one weekend.

In the 1990s, particularly the first half of the 1990s, that wasn't so much the case though. In fact, many films that have long since fallen from the public conscious topped the chart. And in this piece, I've tried to capture some of them.

Inevitably, you're going to have heard of some of them, and what a UK dweller sees as a...

Nikki Rocco, one of the film industry’s game changers and revolutionaries, will retire from Universal Pictures tomorrow as its President of Distribution, a post she held for 19 years as part of her 47-year run with the studio that began at age 17 (Deadline announced the news back in April). Rocco is an anomaly: Not only has she survived countless regime changes in a dog-eat-dog business, but as the first female distribution head she rallied Universal past the $1B mark nine times (2000, 2003, 2005, 2007-08, 2011-14), with last year’s $1.42B haul marking an all-time high for the studio. Such box office feats have been achieved by Rocco not only by meeting moviegoers head-on during prime seasons such as summer and the year-end holidays but in her boldness to successfully launch titles and cater to crowds on weekends that rival distrib chiefs underestimated.

Before any Marvel film broke an opening record during the first weekend of May,...

Summer movie season is a magic time of year when Hollywood traditionally rolls out its most appealing merchandise. It’s true that some summer movie seasons are better than others. This is our ranking of all the summer movie seasons since 1980 from worst to best.

On January 20th, 1975, Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios released Jaws. The movie landscape would be forever changed from that date. Jaws is widely credited as being the first blockbuster film because it was the first movie to make over $100 million (non-adjusted). The fact that the film had a meager $8 million budget meant that it was a huge cash cow for the studio and rocketed Spielberg to the the forefront of a new generation of filmmakers for a new era of movie mass-consumption. George Lucas and Spielberg followed up in 1977 with Star Wars, which became a sensational and very profitable hit. It helped to convince production...

Oscar winning Composer Hans Zimmer has been in the film industry for 30 years churning out classic soundtrack after classic soundtrack. He may not be a name you’d recognise but his music most definitely will be having been responsible for movie scores which include Rain Man in the late 80s, Bird on a Wire, Days of Thunder, Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own, Backdraft, Muppet Treasure Island, The Rock (my personal favourite) in the 90s and more recently he’s worked on scores which include Gladiator, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Inception, Man of Steel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Intersteller. The list is literally endless with classic score after classic score.

Zimmer has never done a concert before in his 30 years of working…. until now. Thanks to our friends at Collider, we...

The mogwais are nearing middle age.

That's right, Steven Spielberg's magnificent horror comedy "Gremlins," about a bunch of cuddly creatures that turn into scaly monsters and overtake a small, Rockwellian town, is turning 30 this summer. And to celebrate, Warner Bros has a bunch of exciting things planned. The first of which has already happened: you can now own the movie digitally, for the first time ever (please, take the time to luxuriate in a wonderful clip from the movie, located below). Later this year, too, we will be getting a deluxe, 30th anniversary Blu-ray, complete with two brand-new featurettes featuring Steven Spielberg, alongside other creative principles (like director Joe Dante) and many members of the cast and crew.

We were lucky enough to chat with Zach Galligan, who played Billy Peltzer, the initial owner of Gizmo, the mogwai that inadvertently breeds the gremlin menace. Galligan has become something of a cult icon himself,...

Ireland's oldest cinema event, Cork Film Festival will run November 7-16, 2014. Last year James Mullighan was appointed Creative Director of the festival, which is not only one of the most important cultural events in the country but also the highest profile platform for the new talent discovery.

As part their latest efforts to create new distribution platforms to connect audience with content, James Mullighan and Head of Program and Editorial Don O’Mahoney attended this year's Cannes Film Festival, and announced that their Fest is launching its very first video on demand initiative. Their inaugural digital program is conformed of seven shorts and seven features being retailed on a pay what you want basis, alongside bonus content. The films can be digitally purchased viia the innovative platform Vodo, which careful curates themed bundles of content, and it's working with a film Fest for the first time. Vodo.net/cork.

The initiative has three tiers: Pay What you Want (four shorts and one feature, including Made in Cork prize winner Yvonne’ Keane’s Stolen, and Filmbase Ireland’s How to be Happy, starring Brian Gleeson); Beat the Average (three features and three shorts, including biopic of writer / chess master John Healy Barbaric Genius, and Cork Fest 2013 opening night short Mechanic, starring Syl Fox); and Beat the Premium (including Tony Palmer’s recently reissued 1974 Leonard Cohen doc Bird on a Wire, and John Kastner’s prize winner mental health sensational doc Not Criminally Responsible).

“We’ve been working with Jamie King and the team at Vodo since straight after the Fest last year”, said James Mullighan, Creative Director, Cork Film Festival.

“In this day of screeching web noise, I really admire the platform’s loving, carefully curated approach to films and more. They were the ideal choice to launch this experiment in distribution. I am hopeful it will be popular with the thousands and thousands of fans of the Cork Film Festival in Ireland, Europe and amongst the global Irish diaspora, who fondly wish they could attend the Fest, but cannot. I’m grateful to and proud of the independent directors and producers who lit up our Fest in November last year to trust Jamie and I with their babies”.

Once payment handling costs have been deducted, Vodo - who levy no extra charges other than their 25% sales fee - hand all the proceeds to Cork Film Festival. The Festival send 70% of that straight to the filmmakers, ringfencing 5% for its new €1,500 feature film Gradam Spiorad na Féile / Spirit of the Festival Award, which takes a bow during the Fest’s 59th Edition this year.

"Cork's Bundle shows a real engagement with online culture and experimentation in the transmedia sphere", commented Jamie King, CEO and Founder of Vodo, which has recently successfully promoted Not Safe for Work and Big Brother bundles.

“When you let customers set the price for themselves,’ says Vodo’s Jamie King, ‘they can turn out to be surprisingly generous. The average price paid for the Cork Bundle is currently $11.20. That's a win both for audiences and the filmmakers.”

"I had a wonderful time when I was honored to be invited to Cork last November as filmmaker in residence”, remembered Tony Palmer, celebrated British music film biographer and documentarian, whose Leonard Cohen film Bird on a Wire played at the Fest, as well as his new Benjamin Britten feature Nocturne, and his entire 7 hour, 46 minute dramatic reconstruction of the life of composer Richard Wagner, the last film Richard Burton even made.

“The Cork Film Festival is going out on a limb to bring its films to a wider audience. This should be celebrated, and I’m delighted to be involved.

The bundle went live on Wednesday 14 May, the opening day of Cannes International Film Festival, and runs until Tuesday 3 June.

Universal Pictures

Movies aren’t expected to represent life at its most accurate – and nor do they always intend to. But with movies purporting to be set in the “real world,” it helps a lot (for immersion purposes) if the fictional world resembles the actual world we live in as closely as possible. Over the years, we’ve all become accustomed to those little things that occur in “movie world” that never happen in real life – we forgive them because they’re used time and time again, and are usually employed to make a story more efficient. People not saying “goodbye” on the telephone, for example.

There are some things, however, that frequently occur in the realms of movies that we’ve all come to accept as normal, purely because filmmakers have reenforced them to such an extent that they’re generally accepted as being plausible. That includes things like...

By Alex Simon

John Badham cut his directorial teeth on ‘70s-era television shows like The Bold Ones, The Streets of San Francisco and Kung-Fu in the early ‘70s, before attaining A-list status with his second feature, Saturday Night Fever, in 1977. Films as diverse as WarGames, Blue Thunder, Nick of Time and Bird on a Wire kept John Badham one of the busiest directors in the biz, having literally not stopped working since 1971. His 2006 book I’ll Be in My Trailer (co-written with Craig Moderno) has become required reading for virtually every neophyte film director in the business.

2013 finds Badham releasing a follow-up volume, John Badham on Directing: Notes From the Set of Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, and More. The book offers an engaging look at the psychological, technical, and managerial elements that go into helming a film or TV show. A veteran of over 30 films and 45 TV episodes, Badham supports...

Filmmaker Tony Palmer has said that "the real Adele" would be a fascinating subject for a music documentary.

The Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire and The World of Liberace director also told Digital Spy that he turned down the chance to work with U2 before they made Rattle and Hum.

"I missed my chance with Adele," Palmer said.

"My wife had spotted Adele long before she had become really famous and said, 'You've got to listen to this voice, it's really amazing'.

"I agreed it was amazing, but I said, 'I don't make that kind of film anymore'. Then I saw a brief interview with her and I thought, my god this is a fascinating woman - to hell with the voice, it's a fascinating woman."

He added: "I immediately applied. I wrote to them, saying 'Would you ever consider...' I had a very good response from whoever looked after her then.

They were music megastars, and they all opened up to him. As Tony Palmer's best films resurface, the documentarian talks to Phelim O'Neill about Leonard Cohen's tears, John Lennon's fake beard – and the day Liberace invited him into his hot tub

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Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly. He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences,...

They were music megastars, and they all opened up to him. As Tony Palmer's best films resurface, the documentarian talks to Phelim O'Neill about Leonard Cohen's tears, John Lennon's fake beard – and the day Liberace invited him into his hot tub

Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video

Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly. He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences,...

Filmmaker Tony Palmer has said that recent Liberace biopic Behind The Candelabra did the musician a "monumental disservice".

The director of 1976 documentary The World of Liberace, based on the musician's own coffee table book The Things I Love, told Digital Spy that he had mixed feelings about the biopic.

"It's nowhere near as good a film as some people have said, and it's nowhere near as bad a film as many people who love Liberace have said," Palmer said.

"Steven Soderbergh is a very good director and its a very skilfully made film. I think Matt Damon has never given as good a performance as Scott Thorson. On one level, I was greatly relieved that it was nowhere near as bad as I feared it was going to be."

He continued: "Of course Michael Douglas does not look like Liberace, that's not his fault... I don't give a toss about that.

Filmmaker Tony Palmer has said that Leonard Cohen is as important a figure as Bob Dylan.

Palmer directed 1972 documentary film Bird on a Wire, which was shelved on completion before being discovered and reconstructed from its original rushes for its 2010 re-release.

"It's not every day you make a film some 38 years ago and then you suddenly manage to rescue it and piece it back together," Palmer told Digital Spy.

"People's reactions were amazing. I was absolutely gobsmacked. I really was... It actually took longer to piece the jigsaw back together again than it had done to make the original film."

He continued: "When we made it in 1972, Leonard was absolutely at the peak of his form. The great early songs. I thought he had a wonderful voice - he was always very dismissive about his voice.

"Although he's remained a fantastic performer, his voice is not what he was... this...

Even if we didn’t know going in that this was a season finale, you can tell immediately that Sons of Anarchy means business when it breaks out the Katey Sagal songs. “Ruby Tuesday,” “Bird on a Wire,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” and now “To Sir, With Love.” Not sure if it’s the most mood-catching songs for what’s to come, but it’s always nice hearing her voice, reminding us of the unassailable beauty Sagal is capable of producing, along with the malice and desperation that so often shows in her portrayal of Gemma. But, since this is a season finale, [...]...

She made her name by playing the ever-smiling ditzy blonde but has proved to be one of cinema's most enduring and loved stars. Now she plans to shape the way our children behave

What happens to Hollywood superstars when they semi-retire? They meditate, of course. And if anyone is going to do it with a smile on her face, it's Goldie Hawn. Except for her, inner peace has turned into an international mission. This week, Hawn will grace Waterstones Piccadilly, London, as part of her UK tour to promote her meditation manual, 10 Mindful Minutes. Already a New York Times bestseller, the book is aimed at parents and teachers in the hope that they will encourage children to practise the basics of yoga and meditation. Now she's taking the mission global.

In recent years, Hawn, 66, has reinvented herself as a philanthropist and sort of "mindfulness campaigner". Because if she wants such a job description to exist,...

Keswick Film Festival

The paparazzi won't exactly be beating a path to the Lake District for this, but it's a small festival with an agreeably broad outlook. The guest of honour is John Hurt, who's in conversation and introducing a number of movies from his prolific career, including his celebrated Quentin Crisp double bill. There's also a tribute to the versatile Tony Palmer, including his seminal Leonard Cohen movie Bird On A Wire, and a complete showing of his eight-hour Wagner series (starring Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier). Also in the mix are recent releases such as Tyrannosaur and Melancholia, award-winning world cinema and uplifting films about life-changing illnesses.

Various venues, Thu to 26 Feb, keswickfilmclub.org/kff

Exposures: New Talent In Moving Image, Manchester

God knows it's not easy being a student these days, but at least you get your own film festivals. This is the UK's largest, and therefore...

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently streaming on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to This Means War, The Secret World of Arrietty and Undefeated.

Tomorrow in theaters it’s spy versus spy when two secret agents become romantic rivals, a scrappy underdog team fights their way to football glory and a teeny teen discovers a grand new world. But if you want more action-romance-comedies, more heartwarming sports tales, and more spirited adventures with pint-sized protagonists , we’ve got you covered with the best titles Now Streaming.

Chris Pine and Tom Hardy play a brawny pair of debonair spies who turn into prank-prone rivals when they uncover they’re dating the same woman. Reese Witherspoon co-stars, McG directs.

Do you desire more love, action and laughs?

Charade (1963) In this cheeky classic, Audrey Hepburn stars as a...

Fire in Babylon and Storyville's Afghan Cricket Club take gongs at annual awards for excellence in documentary making

Two documentaries about cricket scooped prizes at the prestigious Grierson awards on the day the sport hit the headlines after three Pakistan players were found guilty of trying to rig a Test match.

The team behind BBC4's Storyville: Afghan Cricket Club – Out of the Ashes was judged best newcomer on Tuesday at the awards, which celebrate the best in documentary making.

Another winner, in the best historical documentary category, was Fire in Babylon, the theatrically released film about the rise to global dominance in the 1970s and 1980s of the West Indies cricket team.

The awards kicked off with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall winning the best documentary series prize for Channel 4 show Hugh's Fish Fight.

Jury chairman Emma Hindley said the judges agreed Hugh's Fish Fight was "a brilliant piece of campaigning journalism and,...

Our writers are picking their favourite albums. Here, Andrew Pulver explains how he fell for the dark charms of a figure who used to be a joke to him

I'd be lying if I said Leonard Cohen's records soundtracked my adolescence, or comforted me during student awkwardness. The sad truth is, as I suspect it was for most gormless teenagers growing up in 80s suburban Britain on a steady diet of post-punk, Berlin-era Bowie, and the Velvet Underground, Cohen was a joke.

Blame, if you will, The Young Ones. Looking back, I don't quite understand how, but the show was an early-80s religion, and their running gags at Cohen's expense (sample: "No one listens to me anyway. I may as well be a Leonard Cohen record.") Consequently, Cohen's actual music was a sealed book to me; if I ever thought about it, I suppose I assumed he was a hippy,...