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Modern Western films in the 2010s are critical of the genre's flaws and push boundaries. The Beguiled and The Salvation offer unique takes on the Western genre, exploring new territory. Films like Bone Tomahawk and Meek's Cutoff challenge traditional Western narratives and highlight diverse perspectives.

The Western movies that premiered in the 2010s are some of the most interesting and special, despite so few audience members having seen the films. As the Western genre moves into the contemporary era, fans most familiar with Westerns are keenly aware of the problems and attributes that accompany these films. When I watch classic Western movies, I'm not afraid to critique them, as being a fan of something means being aware of its flaws. Recent Westerns share this love and similarly look back at their legacy with a critical eye.

While some audiences might think of the Coen Brothers when contemplating the modern Western,...

There are lots of Bollywood movies all about making the most of your final days by finding peace before you die. Films like The Sky is Pink, October, and The Salvation all talks about the same message: To live your life to the fullest while you can. But what about those who had lost everything and everyone, and are now just waiting to die? That’s the story of the Japanese movie All Lives, directed by Ryuichi Hiroki. It’s all about Dr. Sakura and his patient, Naruse. Naruse’s in a lot of pain from his terminal illness, and he’s ready to end his life. But instead of trying to talk him out of it, Dr. Sakura suggests that if Naruse truly feels that way, he should die at his will. But before that Sakura encourages him to make the most of the time left. And their journey...

Exclusive: Nick and Jon Hamm’s Free Turn Entertainment has announced a hybrid game-podcast murder mystery as its next project.

The indie has partnered with Spotify for distribution of Cold Tapes: Winter Over, which it has described as a “true-crime style audio game set in the frozen and isolated world of an Antarctic winter.”

Listeners have to figure out the mystery by wading through a cache of audio files, including police interviews, victim’s audio diaries and evidence in the immersive series.

The story follows the intertwined lives and relationships of a small group of international scientists and crew stationed on Bowers Wilson, a remote research station in Antarctica. Protagonist Dci Tessa McCallister will attempt to solve the mysterious death of 33-year-old behavioural scientist Andrew Fairfield from 9000 miles away in the UK. Those who correctly identify the murderer can enter a competition to have a chance of winning a £10,000 cash...

Peter Garde, European film financing vet and frequent collaborator of filmmakers like Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, has died aged 67 in Fakse, Denmark, after a long battle with cancer. Garde’s wife, Nanna, confirmed the news to Deadline alongside his close associates, Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Anders Kjærhauge.

Garde began his education in finance in the small town of Store Heddinge in Denmark, where he was a student set to become a banker. He ultimately went on to start his own financial exchange company.

After the success of Lars Von Trier’s Breaking The Waves, Garde was convinced by his close friend producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen to join Zentropa and help manage all the money that was pouring into the studio, which ultimately became the beginning of Garde’s long career with Lars Von Trier and Zentropa Studios’ films. He joined the company in 1997.

Garde was responsible for piecing...

International filmmakers brought a fresh, critical perspective to the American western genre, showcasing morally gray antiheroes and blood-soaked violence. Films like Sukiyaki Western Django and El Topo took the western genre to new, dark, and twisted places, blending different cultural influences and unconventional storytelling. Directors like Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone pushed the boundaries of the western genre, creating subversive and truly iconic films like The Great Silence and Once Upon a Time in the West.

The western is a traditional American genre, but from The Salvation to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, some of the greatest westerns ever made were produced internationally. The earliest westerns directed by American pioneers like John Ford and Howard Hawks told clear-cut black-and-white stories about good triumphing over evil. When international filmmakers got their hands on the western genre, they had no emotional connection to the United States and therefore depicted the...

Exclusive: A trio of British actors is leading The Salvation, an Audible sci-fi podcast drama. Ariyon Bakare, Rose Leslie and Toby Jones will star in the time-travel series, which is from musical artist and writer Justin Lockey.

The Salvation drops on Audible on Thursday (October 5), directed by Boz Temple-Morris and recorded in London. A.K. Benedict and Jeffrey Aidoo have provided additional writing on the eight-part series, which comes from audio-first entertainment company Fresh Produce Media and London-based producer Free Turn Entertainment.

The story follows David Miller (Bakare), a war-scarred veteran grappling with Ptsd, who discovers his traumatic flashbacks are gateways to time travel. Recruited by the shadowy Fallen Arrow, he undergoes a surreal transformation into a time agent, wielding a unique power triggered by ‘The Lullaby.’ He is told to...

"Nocebo" is an equally psychological and physical horror movie. It's mind and body horror, both surreal and all too realistic. Director Lorcan Finnegan's film takes a horrific part of the world, which is best not to spoil, and turns it into a suitably nightmarish setting featuring stars Eva Green and Chai Fonacier. 

The home is another cage in Finnegan's new film. "Lorcan explored that a bit in "Vivarium,'" Green told us in a recent interview, referencing Finnegan's 2019 sci-fi mystery. "It was something like being the perfect house, but it's too perfect and you choke. There's something when everything is too perfect, it's not right."

Green is an actor who works with true independent spirits. The "Penny Dreadful" star has made some box office hits, like "Casino Royale," but she's also made several out-of-the-box films, such as "Franklyn," "Perfect Sense," and "The Salvation." With "Nocebo," Green stars in another...

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has added to its European Film Market slate “Love Thing,” starring top German actor Elyas M’Barek, whose credits include “The Collini Case.” Also on the slate is “Soul of a Beast,” which debuts its trailer below.

Despite the virtual nature of the EFM, the company has taken additional office space at the Marriott Hotel in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.

“Love Thing,” which also stars Lucie Heinze, Peri Baumeister and Alexandra Maria Lara, is directed and written by Anika Decker, whose last feature “High Society” sold widely. Decker scripted box office successes like “Rabbit Without Ears,” which grossed $85 million.

“Love Thing” is produced by German production-distribution powerhouse Constantin Film, which has set its release for July 7. The producers are Rüdiger Böss and Philipp Reuter; the co-producers are Anika Decker and Jan Decker; and the executive producer is Martin Moszkowicz. Picture Tree will present a first teaser trailer to select buyers.

French soccer player-turned-actor Eric Cantona (“Looking for Eric”) is set to star in “Giant With Feet of Clay” (“Le Colosse aux pieds d’argile”), a television drama about sexual harassement and abuse in sports.

The movie is about to start shooting in Southwestern France with French director Stéphanie Murat; and is being produced by Sydney Gallonde’s Make It Happen Studio and Tetra Media Studio (“Paris Police 1900”).

Aude Marcle penned the script which is loosely based on the true story of Sébastien Boueilh, who penned the book “Le Colosse aux pieds d’argile” with Thierry Vildary. The timely movie has been commissioned by French TV network TF1 which is also co-producing.

Cantona as Sébastien, a successful former rugbyman who was raped by someone close to his parents for four years when he was a teenage athlete and has been unable to tell anyone what happened to him. Torn by...

The familiar vengeance payback genre has some goofy and entirely welcome top-spin applied to it in Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders Of Justice. The Danish film also features a version of Mads Mikkelsen — currently at a career peak — that we’ve never seen before, with his handsome face hidden behind an Ozark-style full beard as a tough army officer ill-prepared to console his bereft teenaged daughter in the wake of her mother’s violent death.

Writer-director Jensen knows Mikkelsen well, having written previous films for the actor including The Salvation, After The Wedding and Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself. Jensen has also enjoyed good fortune at the Oscars — directing 1998 Best Short Subject winner, Election Night; as co-writer of the 2009 winner in the same category, The New Tenants; and as screenwriter of Suzanne Bier’s 2011 Best Foreign Language Film laureate, In A Better World.

At the outset, Riders Of Justice, which...

Sisse Graum Jørgensen, the Zentropa producer behind Thomas Vinterberg’s BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated “Another Round,” spoke to Variety about working with Vinterberg, making her TV debut, as well as opportunities and challenges ahead for independent producers.

Graum Jørgensen is primarily known for her long and successful partnerships with some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Denmark, including Vinterberg and Susanne Bier, whose film “In a Better World” won an Oscar in 2011, Anders Thomas Jensen (“Riders of Justice”), Kristian Levring (“The Salvation”), Tobias Lindholm (“A War”), and Kim Fupz Aakeson (“Perfect Sense”). Graum Jørgensen produced the top of highest-grossing Danish films during the pandemic: “Another Round” and Jensen’s “Riders of Justice,” two of which star Mads Mikkelsen. “Riders of Justice” was briefly released in Denmark in the fall before theaters shut down and will be brought back in local cinemas on time for their reopening on May 6.

You’re producing Thomas Vinterberg’s TV drama debut,...

A post shared by Doc Rivers (@docriverstattoo) on Jul 14, 2015 at 1:08pm Pdt Jeffrey Dean Morgan might come off as a bad boy, especially thanks to his villainous role as Negan on The Walking Dead, but he's actually a big softie. In fact, one of his tattoos (he has about 10 total) is dedicated to his dog, who passed away, and the story will melt your heart. After his longtime pet, Bisou, passed away in 2015, the actor decided to honor her and their long journey together with an intricate, script-style tattoo of her name on his forearm. Even though some time has passed since he lost his dog, when telling the story about why he got the new ink to Hudson Valley News Network in April 2017, he still got choked up. "She was a dog that I got 19 years ago, that I rescued. It's going to make me tear up, I suck!

The Kardashains have stepped up to the plate in a huge way to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Sources with direct knowledge of the situation tell us Kim, Kris, Khloe, Kendall, Kylie and Kourtney gave $500,000 to The Red Cross and The Salvation Army Tuesday. We're told the money will be wired and will be split evenly. The Kardashians were touched by the courage and bravery of those in Houston battling the storm and those helping with relief efforts.

MaryAnn’s quick take… There’s genuine fun here, but the humor is cynical, the heroics are tinged with regret, and it’s all delivered with a cold smack of — yes — political relevance. I’m “biast” (pro): massive Star Wars fan, don’t even get me started

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Damn.

Did we think, at the end of the very first Star Wars movie, that Luke Skywalker was a hero? He was nothing. Nothing.

Did we think Luke Skywalker was a hero? What he did was nothing to what we see here.

Okay, not nothing. But, as Rogue One reveals with brutal clarity, Luke’s lucky Force-assisted like–bulls-eying–womprats bombing run at the Death Star was only the final link in a very long chain of people doing way more brave and way more daring things.

MaryAnn’s quick take…

Relentlessly dull. A tour of a strange world and “characters” little more than their “peculiar” abilities isn’t enough to whip up fantastical excitement. I’m “biast” (pro): I was a peculiar child, and I remain a peculiar adult; love the cast

I’m “biast” (con): mostly disappointed by Tim Burton lately

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

So it’s Harry Potter Lite. Very lite. No, wait: It’s X-Men Babies. In the land of Groundhog Day, or maybe in a Doctor Who-ish timey-wimey chronic hysteresis. Where they’re haunted by Slenderman. Later, there is a Bill & Ted reference. Remember the days when Tim Burton made movies that took your breath away with their originality? Where has that Tim Burton gone?

Okay, so lots of things are derivative. That’s not necessarily a dealbreaker.

There is much black humour and people getting hit with stuffed animals in this macabre comedy from the writer of In a Better World

Anders Thomas Jensen is the Danish film-maker and screenwriter best known for his script collaborations with Susanne Bier on movies such as In a Better World, The Brothers and Love Is All You Need – he also co-wrote Kristian Levring’s western The Salvation. Here is his latest credit as writer-director: a gamey, tangy and strange gothic horror comedy carried off in a deadpan macabre style.

There is something distinctly nasty in the woodshed. Mads Mikkelsen and David Dencik star as Elias and Gabriel, two middle-aged half-brothers with weird mannerisms and what can charitably be described as undiagnosed learning difficulties. From a videotaped message left to them by their late father, they discover that they are adopted, and are the progeny of an elderly geneticist living on a remote Danish island.

Exclusive: Production underway in Africa on drama from Searching For Sugar Man executive.

Production is underway on commercials director Juergen Bollmeyer’s debut feature 3 Way Junction, starring Tom Sturridge (The Hollow Crown, Far From The Madding Crowd), Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 & 2) and Tommy Flanagan (Sons Of Anarchy).

The five-week shoot will include South Africa and Namibia.

Bollmeyer, who has directed adverts for Toyota, BMW and Coca-Cola, won a Cannes Silver Lion in 2014.

Inspired by real events, 3 Way Junction follows a London architect who travels to the grand dunes of the Namibian Desert to escape. But when he finds himself stranded alone, desperately waiting for a ride that never comes, he must embark on a bitter rite of passage.

Writers are Don Bohlinger (The Experiment, Elles) and arts and travel writer Jessica Hundley.

Maggie Monteith (Searching For Sugar Man) produces for Dignity Films alongside Michael Auret for Spier Films (The Salvation) and Oliver Stoltz. Chris Reed, Thembisa Cochrane...

Most of the time, we're used to seeing Mads Mikkelsen doing serious or villainous turns in projects like "Hannibal," "The Salvation," "Casino Royale," or "Charlie Countryman." But for the Danish picture "Men & Chicken," the actor lets his absurd side fly, and after doing the festival rounds last year, the movie is gearing up to hit cinemas. Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, and co-starring David Dencik, Nikolaj Lie Kass, Søren Malling, and Nicolas Bro, the movie follows a pair of adopted, oddball brothers who travel to a remote island to meet their biological father. Here's the synopsis:  Men & Chicken is a darkly hilarious slapstick comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen ("Hannibal," ingeniously cast against type) about a pair of socially-challenged siblings who discover they are adopted half-brothers in their late father's videotaped will. Their journey in search of their true father takes them to the...

Translated as ‘Desert’, debut director Jonás Cuarón’s new heated action thriller, Desierto, starring Gael García Bernal (Rosewater) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Salvation), is an impressive and energetic affair, as well as remaining chillingly topical in today’s global migrant crisis. A group of Mexican illegal immigrants, including Moises (García Bernal), become stranded in the desert

The post Lff 2015: Desierto Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.

While Steven Spielberg recently suggested that superheroes will eventually go the way of the western, he wasn't suggesting that comic book movies would die forever. He was simply observing that the boom would subside, and a new trend would take its place. Indeed, westerns continue to be made, even if not at the pace they were during the genre's golden age of the '40s, '50s, and '60s. This year alone we've seen "The Salvation" with Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green, "The Keeping Room" with Brit Marling and Hailee Steinfeld, "Bone Tomahawk" is around the corner, and of course, Quentin Tarantino is gearing up "The Hateful Eight." And on the horizon is "Jane Got A Gun," and a batch of new images have arrived. Read More: Natalie Portman's 'Jane Got A Gun' Slated For February Release I'll spare the recap of the rough and tumble...

Exclusive: Completion guarantor has six films at Toronto including Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise.

European Film Bonds has revealed the company has now bonded more than €1bn ($1.1bn) of production finance.

The completion guarantor, which has its head office in Denmark and has been in operation for seven years, has six films screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 10-20).

These include premieres for Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, Matt Brown’s The Man Who Knew Infinity, Alexandra Keining’s Girls Lost, The Salvation director Anders Thomas Jensen’s latest Men & Chicken, and Catherine Hardwicke’s Miss You Already.

Other recent titles include Cannes competition entry Louder than Bombs from director Joachim Trier and awards season candidate Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, which received its world premiere at Telluride 2015 and is released on Oct 23 in the Us through Focus Features.

Efb has recently expanded its operations working in Australia and China as well as securing a long-standing relationship with South...

I guess killin' all those Indians for us must have addled his mind.

The title of The Salvation (2014) is inapt. There is no salvation here. Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring has, instead, created another entry in the how-living-in-the-west-really-sucked-probably subgenre of Westerns. Things get so grim, in fact, that one questions the plausibility of the exact brand of misery Levring and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen establish here. The story begins with Jon Jensen (Mads Mikkelsen) waiting at the (implausibly busy) train station for the arrival of his wife and child from Denmark. Jon and his brother left Denmark after the Second Schleswig War and set up as hunters in the new West. Before nightfall, Jon's wife and son have been murdered and Jon has taken his revenge on the culprits. Little did he know, one of the perpetrators was the brother of the local psycho-land grabber, Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who then...

While Mads Mikkelsen is no stranger to blockbuster movies, having roughed up Daniel Craig is in his first Bond outing "Casino Royale," it's only recently that he's really become a major player. He'll be taking a role in the upcoming "Star Wars: Rogue One," and it seems Disney's other world-beating fantasy factory is interested in the actor. Variety reports that Marvel wants Mikkelsen to play the villain in "Doctor Strange." Early talks are underway for the actor to join Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Chiwetel Ejiofor (holy geez, that cast!) in the movie playing an unknown antagonist to the titular sorcerer. Any guesses? (Ed Note: Yes! Baron Mordo.) Read More: Interview: Mads Mikkelsen On 'Hannibal' Season 2, 'The Salvation,' And The Scandinavian Filmmaking Renaissance    I'd wager Mikkelsen's participation will depend on his scheduling for "Star Wars: Rogue One," and whether or not he wants to sign a multi-picture.

Kristian Levring looks like one of the characters in his new film The Salvation (2014) - a distinct face, long dark hair, you could imagine him taking out someone with a rusty Victorian sniper. But the Danish director, who lives in North London, is more the intellectual than the aggro marksman, a former Dogme 95 signatory with a cineaste's mind and a political brain. That political edge comes out because his revenge western has a dynamic, multicultural element, led as it is by Mads Mikkelsen's Jon, a Dane who moves to America to start a new life - like many of his generation in the late 1800s. "The western is a weird thing for a European to do," he explains, "even though there have been good European directors. When you read about the West, the frontier was inhabited by Europeans, by immigrants."...

To mark the release of The Salvation on 24th August, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray. The 1870s, among new settlers and outlaws, Danish immigrant Jon (Mads Mikkelsen) has been waiting for years to bring his wife and son to the United States. When he finally succeeds, moments after their arrival they

The post Win The Salvation on Blu-ray appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Exclusive: Danish director Kristian Levring (The Salvation) is set to make a new Prohibition-era drama.

Devil’s Lake is set to shoot in the Czech Republic next spring.

This will mark the latest collaboration between Danish outfit Zentropa and Sirena Film, the Prague-based prouction company that has also worked on such recent Scandinavian projects as A Royal Affair, The Shamer’s Daughter, 1864 and Us film Serena by Oscar-winning director Susanne Bier.

TrustNordisk will be handling sales.

Levring’s revenge western The Salvation, starring Mads Mikkelsen, was a Midnight Screening in Cannes last year

The new project was confirmed in Cannes by Sirena’s Kristina Hejdukova.

Thanks to Madman, we have 3 copies of The Salvation on DVD to giveaway to our Australian readers. Directed by Kristian Levring and starring Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the film is described as a "terrific piece, a gobsmackingly enjoyable time at the cinema that also happens to be one of the best films this year" by our own Jason Gorber.  Synopsis: 1870, America. Danish immigrant Jon (Mads Mikkelsen) has been waiting for years to bring his wife and son to the United States. When he finally succeeds, moments after their arrival they fall victim to a horrific crime. Out of grief and despair Jon kills the perpetrator, triggering a chain of violence and revenge. The victim's brother is the ruthless Colonel...

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

★★★☆☆ The first film in over eight years for director Kristian Levring, The Salvation (2014) was a much-needed outlier on the festival circuit. A rare genre piece in a field of arthouse heavyweights, it served as a timely reminder of cinema as the ultimate medium of pulp. Outside of this context it may not prove itself to be as much of a palette-cleanser, but it's still an enjoyable, down-and-dirty western. Though it talks loftily of Westward expansion and the pioneer spirit, it is in essence a picture in thrall to the masters of pulp; from the combustible Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone to the unfussy American grit of Walter Hill, no reference point is left unchecked. The Salvation is, like so many of its predecessors, a tale of revenge.

Nearly Blazing Saddles without the jokes: all genre conventions with none of the fun, just your inescapable expectations met around every sun-blighted corner. I’m “biast” (pro): love Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

There’s clichés in them thar hills. A motherlode, even. Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring’s (The Intended) Western is so unabashedly crammed with stereotypes and contrivances that it’s hard to see how anyone involved kept a straight face while shooting. (The character who is both preacher and sheriff is a particular unintended hoot.) The Salvation is nearly Blazing Saddles without the jokes: it’s all genre conventions with none of the fun, just your inescapable expectations confirmed around every sun-blighted corner. It’s 1870, and cartoon villain Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan: They Came Together) is running a protection racket in a...

Set in the 1870’s in North America, The Salvation tells the story of a Danish immigrant Jon (played by Mads Mikkelsen) who has toiled for seven long years with his brother to finally have the means to send for his wife and son to join him. Taking the long journey home by stagecoach they run into trouble with two other drunken passengers, a recently released prisoner and his companion. When they try to molest his wife Marie, Jon retaliates and is thrown from the moving carriage leaving his wife and son unprotected. By the time he catches up with them, they have been murdered and grief-stricken Jon shoots both men dead, not knowing that one of them is the brother of the local gang leader Colonel Delarue (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan). When Delarue hears of his brother’s demise he demands the local Mayor (Jonathan Pryce) and Sherriff (Douglas Henshall...

Director: Kristian Levring; Screenwriter: Kristian Levring, Anders Thomas, Jensen; Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Eric Cantona, Jonathan Pryce; Running time: 92 mins; Certificate: 15

Every now and then a western will come along that threatens to revive the genre, but The Salvation - although stunningly photographed with cutting-edge technology - isn't one of those. In many ways it's resolutely old-fashioned and although putting a Dane (Mads Mikkelsen) at the heart of the story is an unconventional move, it's also an act of defiance, or indifference - a refusal to pander to a modern, mainstream audience. In short, this is a western strictly for people who love westerns.

Revenge is the spark for a traditionally simple plot that uses archetypes and clichés like a sort of cinematic comfort blanket, except that shocking bursts of violence keep it from being too warmly nostalgic. The worst of it comes at the beginning...

There’s a rich (and bloody) tradition of avenging angels in Westerns, from Harmonica in Once Upon A Time In The West to Ethan Edwards in The Searchers and Josey Wales. Add Mads Mikkelsen’s character in The Salvation to that number. He’s all cold-blooded business, as this exclusive new clip from the film reveals. brightcove.createExperiences();Mikkelsen’s prairieland badass is a Danish settler, Jon, whose family is brutally murdered by a crew of rowdy horsemen during one ill-fated stagecoach ride. Jon exacts instant revenge on the perpetrator, only to discover that, like Old Man Clanton in My Darling Clementine, there’s more badness where he came from. Cue Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Delarue, the gang leader’s and now also on the hunt for revenge. Basically everyone here is on a revenge mission, hardly the recipe for a relaxing afternoon in an up-and-coming part of the Old West.

The Salvation is a revenge film so obsessed with the “revenge” part of its plot that you can practically feel the filmmakers salivating to get to the cathartic final shootout. (And yes, a better title for it might be The Salivation. This writer is self-respecting enough not to lead with that zinger, but not above putting it in a self-aware aside.) In so doing, the film makes for a rather pointed lesson in making a good revenge movie: sure, the revenge itself had better be big and it had better be bloody, but it needs to be truly cathartic – a release of emotional energy for an interesting character. In The Salvation, it’s just one particularly concentrated explosion of cold-blooded cruelty to cap a movie that’s already dished out cold-blooded cruelty to spare.

The film opens in the 1870s, when a Danish settler’s (Mads Mikkelsen) wife and son...

Eric Cantona is to lead a new comedy film about a synchronised swimming coach.

The former Manchester United footballer will star in The Mermaid Man as Franck, a widower who sets up a swimming group made out of unemployed men as they struggle through depression and poverty.

The Full Monty-style film will be set in the Thatcher era of the 1980s, with Cantona's men hoping to win an international competition in honour of his late wife, a former swimming champion.

Stéphane Giusti will direct the film, while David C Barrot will produce with a British film crew.

Since retiring from football, Cantona has had a successful acting career, with Elizabeth and Looking for Eric among his most high-profile projects.

He will soon star in western The Salvation alongside Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green, which releases at cinemas on April 17. Watch a trailer below:

Watch a trailer below:...

Taking place April 4-19, the festival will feature over 200 films, including recent world premieres from Sundance and Berlin.

Istanbul Film Festival has unveiled the lineup to its upcoming edition, taking place from April 4-19.

This year will feature over 200 films from 62 countries, as well as free talks and workshops by film-makers and masterclasses. New sections at this year’s festival include a special focus on cinema of the Balkans and a focus on German animation.

The festival’s international competition includes the likes of Cédric Kahn’s Wild Life, Quentin Dupieux’s Reality, Francesco Munzi’s Black Souls and Thomas Vinterberg’s Far from the Madding Crowd, while the national competition will screen Ali Atay’s Lemonade, Selim Evci’s Secret and Mehmet Eryılmaz’s The Visitor, among others.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, Jc Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years and Matthew Warchus’ Pride are among this year’s Akbank Gala screenings...

April 3

Fast & Furious 7

Director: James Wan

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson

Running time: 140 mins

Certificate: Tbc

The Water Diviner

Director: Russell Crowe

Starring: Jai Courtney, Olga Kurylenko, Russell Crowe

Running time: 111 mins

Certificate: 15

While We're Young

Director: Noah Baumbach

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Naomi Watts

Running time: 97 mins

Certificate: 15

April 10

The Duff

Director: Ari Sandel

Starring: Bella Thorne, Mae Whitman

Running time: 110 mins

Certificate: Tbc

Cobain: Montage of Heck

Director: Brett Morgen

Starring: Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Courtney Love

Running time: 132 mins

Certificate: 15

Force Majeure

Director: Ruben Östlund

Starring: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli

Running time: 119 mins

Certificate: 15

Good Kill

Director: Andrew Niccol

Starring: Ethan Hawke, January Jones

Running time: 102 mins

Certificate: 15

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Director: Steve Pink

Starring: Adam Scott, Craig Robinson

Running time: 93 mins

Certificate: 15

John Wick

Director: Chad Stahelski

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist

Running time: 101 mins

Certificate: 15

Lost River

Director: Ryan Gosling

Starring: Saoirse Ronan,...

Festival will close with Michel Hazanavicius’ The Search and runs March 25-29.

A Little Chaos will receive its Us premiere as the opening film of this year’s Sonoma International Film Festival (Siff), which runs March 25-29.

Alan Rickman’s directorial debut sees him star alongside Kate Winslet.

Michel Hazanavicius’ The Search, starring Annette Bening and Berenice Bejo, will close the film.

This year’s Siff will show over 100 films from 25 countries across eight venues. Highlights include Kristian Levring’s The Salvation, Franco Lolli’s Gente de Bien, Kim Seong-hun’s A Hard Day and the world premiere of Barnaby & Matthew O’Connor’s California High.

Kevin W. McNeely, executive director, commented: “We are very proud of this year’s program celebrating the best in film, food and wine. Films ranging from thought-provoking documentaries on environmental and social issues, to the best in animation, world cinema, art and music, coupled with panels, parties and our...

The new Film Comment features pieces on Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Virgil Vernier's Mercuriales, Riley Stearns's Faults, Guillaume Nicloux's The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, Kornél Mundruczó's White God, Robert Kenner's Merchants of Doubt, Noah Baumbach's While We’re Young, Rupert Goold's True Story, Richard Laxton's Effie Gray, Kirby Dick's The Hunting Ground, David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Kristian Levring's The Salvation and more. Also in today's news: Sight & Sound on women film critics, Adrian Martin on Ernst Lubitsch, David Bordwell on Strange Interlude (1932), the Paris Review on John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and lots more. » - David Hudson...

The new Film Comment features pieces on Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Virgil Vernier's Mercuriales, Riley Stearns's Faults, Guillaume Nicloux's The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, Kornél Mundruczó's White God, Robert Kenner's Merchants of Doubt, Noah Baumbach's While We’re Young, Rupert Goold's True Story, Richard Laxton's Effie Gray, Kirby Dick's The Hunting Ground, David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Kristian Levring's The Salvation and more. Also in today's news: Sight & Sound on women film critics, Adrian Martin on Ernst Lubitsch, David Bordwell on Strange Interlude (1932), the Paris Review on John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and lots more. » - David Hudson...

The new Film Comment features pieces on Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Virgil Vernier's Mercuriales, Riley Stearns's Faults, Guillaume Nicloux's The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, Kornél Mundruczó's White God, Robert Kenner's Merchants of Doubt, Noah Baumbach's While We’re Young, Rupert Goold's True Story, Richard Laxton's Effie Gray, Kirby Dick's The Hunting Ground, David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Kristian Levring's The Salvation and more. Also in today's news: Sight & Sound on women film critics, Adrian Martin on Ernst Lubitsch, David Bordwell on Strange Interlude (1932), the Paris Review on John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and lots more. » - David Hudson...

The new Film Comment features pieces on Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Virgil Vernier's Mercuriales, Riley Stearns's Faults, Guillaume Nicloux's The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, Kornél Mundruczó's White God, Robert Kenner's Merchants of Doubt, Noah Baumbach's While We’re Young, Rupert Goold's True Story, Richard Laxton's Effie Gray, Kirby Dick's The Hunting Ground, David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Kristian Levring's The Salvation and more. Also in today's news: Sight & Sound on women film critics, Adrian Martin on Ernst Lubitsch, David Bordwell on Strange Interlude (1932), the Paris Review on John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and lots more. » - David Hudson...

Mads Mikkelsen is on a mission of vengeance in the trailer for The Salvation.

The period drama casts Hannibal star Mikkelsen as a Danish settler in the American Old West, who seeks revenge for his family's murder.

Jon (Mikkelsen) takes on a violent criminal gang all on his own when townspeople refuse to take a stand in the wake of the murders.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays the ruthless gang leader responsible for the vicious crimes, while Eva Green appears as the gang leader's sister-in-law.

Eric Cantona, Jonathan Pryce and Michael Raymond-James also have roles in The Salvation, which was shot on location in South Africa.

The Salvation opens on April 17 in the UK.

Westerns have been very few and far between over the last few years, and with the exception of Django Unchained, they haven't really found a place with modern audiences. That could all change with The Salvation, a tribute to classic westerns of years past, that perfectly captures the classic and mythic nature of this beloved genre. The above trailer does a great job of showing exactly what director Kristian Levring wants to achieve with The Salvation, and couples a strong lead performance from Mads Mikkelsen with an impressive supporting cast, including Eva Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Eric Cantona (yes, really. He's proven himself a competent actor since he gave up football). I have a feeling, years from now, this could be said in the same breath as other classic westerns, like Once Upon a Time in the West, Tombstone, and Unforgiven. Released: 17th April Synopsis: In the 1870s, among new settlers and outlaws,...

Will Smith, star of numerous blockbusters over the course of his career, re-established his box office draw, as his latest feature Focus won the box office over the weekend, finishing with $19.1 million. The film marks Smith’s first prominent role since 2013’s After Earth, as he has been largely absent from the big screen since then, save for minor roles in Anchorman 2 and A Winter’s Tale. This is also Smith’s first no. 1 opening weekend since 2012’s Men in Black 3, adding to a number of commercial successes to the star’s credit in a filmography that includes Independence Day, Wild Wild West, and Hitch.

Barring the entry of Focus in the top spot, the weekend’s top 3 remained unchanged, as Kingsman: The Secret Service and The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water held on to the second and third spot respectively, finishing with a difference of less than a million,...

One of Denmark’s greatest cultural exports, actor Mads Mikkelsen, has been dazzling (and frightening) North American audiences for more than a decade. He is best known domestically for his portryals of Le Chiffre in 2006’s Casino Royale and his chilling turn as Dr. Hannibal Lecter on the NBC drama, which is heading into its third season this spring. Foreign film lovers likely know his face from a variety of movies that have found modest success here, including three Danish Oscar nominees: After the Wedding, A Royal Affair and The Hunt.

Mikkelsen’s latest effort is a gritty western called The Salvation (you can read our review here). In the thriller, which premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the actor plays a Danish settler out for retribution against a gang leader after his family is brutally murdered.

Earlier this week, we sat down with Mikkelsen to discuss his new role.

The Salvation

Written by Anders Thomas Jensen and Kristian Levring

Directed by Kristian Levring

Denmark, 2015

Westerns have never recovered from the oversaturation of the genre that killed off viewer interest decades ago, but every now and then a gem pops up. Recent successes like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2007’s 3:10 to Yuma and the Coen brothers adaptation of True Grit all did well because they tweaked the genre slightly, but director Kristian Levring goes with an old school approach. A faithful recreation of those revenge Westerns made so popular in the 1970s, The Salvation envelopes many elements of previous Clint Eastwood classics and wraps it into a tidy package.

The Salvation starts in on the central dilemma, joining Jon (Hannibal‘s Mad Mikkelsen) at the train station where he awaits the arrival of his wife and son. Jon and his brother, Peter (Mikael Persbrandt...

I’m always ready to watch a Western—even if it comes from Denmark and was shot in South Africa! That’s the pedigree for The Salvation, which stars Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Jonathan Pryce. This handsome, widescreen movie doesn’t try to reinvent the genre; in fact, quite the opposite. It’s a ritualistic morality tale that foreshadows its conclusion in the opening scenes. Some might call it a parade of genre clichés, but the film is less about the destination than the journey. Were it not for good performances and visual flair it would be easier to dismiss. The year is 1871. Mikkelsen and his brother (Mikael Persbrandt), having fought for their...

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With his tough, chiseled face, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has one of world cinema’s best mugs. The actor carries so much of the weight of his many characters in his face, whether it be Hannibal Lecter’s suave cunning on television or anguished despair in his triumphant role in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. Naturally, as a stoic settler trying to get retribution on a bloodthirsty baddie in The Salvation, a pastiche to the westerns of John Ford and Sergio Leone, Mikkelsen is magnetic, expressing deep hurt and pain with just a glower or grimace.

As recent Danish immigrant Jon, Mikkelsen’s bloodied and blistered face is a wall to show just how resolute he can be. Jon crossed the Atlantic with his brother (Mikael Persbrandt) in the 1860s with the hopes of making a living in a frontier town. He learned the customs and language, as did the...

As much as we love the western genre, it appears Danish director Kristian Levring, (who was the fourth signatory of the Dogme95 movement, film history fans) loves it more. His "The Salvation" is a testament to that — a loving and in fact overly adulatory genre film which is not so much a take on the revenge Western as a deeply faithful recreation of it — is at times so faithful as to veer dangerously close to pastiche. Despite the casting of 2012 Cannes Best Actor Mads Mikkelsen, who is as effortlessly compelling and committed as ever in the central role, there is something inauthentic about the whole endeavor, as the film wastes its one true claim to originality — the Danish angle — in favor of mouthing the words, wearing the clothes and walking the swagger of the John Ford, Howard Hawks and Sergio Leone movies Levring and co. clearly worship. And so, as intermittently fun,...

Two Bond villains and Eva Green walk into a western, and they emerge with a rugged — if far from revolutionary — old-school horse-opera throwback. Having long since ditched the Dogme 95 precepts that guided his breakout 2000 feature, The King Is Alive, Danish director Kristian Levring employs a bounty of CG-enhanced Sergio Leone–isms for The Salvation, the story of a Danish soldier-turned-settler named Jon (Casino Royale's Mads Mikkelsen) who's reunited with his wife and child in 1871 America, only to have them raped and murdered. Jon exacts bloody revenge for this crime, which in turn makes him the target of a bandit leader (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in league with a mayor (Tomorrow Never Dies' Jonathan Pryce) and in love with ...