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Events, offers and releases 24/02/14

This week see’s the release of bible drama Son of God, the new Liam Neeson thriller Non-Stop and the emotional Bottled Up, starring Melissa Leo and Marin Ireland.

Thor: The Dark World (12), The Last Days (15), Safety Not Garunteed (15) and One Chance (12), a film chronicling the life of Britains Got Talent winner, Paul Potts, starring James Corden are all released on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Lincoln’s own Ritz Cinema launched it’s Bogart Season on Saturday (22nd February 2014). The season will run through February and March, with titles such as the Big Sleep and the Maltese Falcon being screened. Tickets are available online or at the box-office. For more information, please visit www.ritzcinema.org

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Inside Film Podcast Episode 1

Pictured are the winners for this years BAFTA awards for the film, 12 Years a Slave

Image via independent.co.uk

The very first episode of our regular podcast has just been uploaded to our Soundcloud account. In this episode we discuss the Baftas, the impending Oscars and a few of our favourite films.

Too busy to listen to it all? The podcast is available for download if you prefer to listen to it on the go. Perfect for the morning commute.

Want to have a listen? Visit our Soundcloud

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This week in history: 17th February- 23rd February

The actor Alan Rickman.

Image via: http://seveninchesofyourtime.com/

This week’s TWIH post showcases the births of three fantastic actors and actresses.

On the 18th of February, 1954, John Joseph Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey. In 1977 he starred as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, and in 1987 he starred as Danny Suko in Grease. Since then, he has starred in a number of fantastic films, including 1994’s Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino.

On the 21st of February, 1946, Alan Rickman was born. Originally from Hammersmith in London, Alan Rickman has starred in a number of fantastic films, including Love Actually and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Most famously, Alan Rickman starred in all of the Harry Potter films as the ambiguous Professor Snape.

Lastly, born on the 23rd of February, is Dakota Fanning. She was born in Conyers, Georgia and starred in her first film role at the age of seven, in 2001’s I Am Sam. Her performance in this film gained her a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, making her the youngest ever nominee. Since then, she has performed in War of the Worlds (2005) and Charlotte’s Web (2006).

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Her: Who did it first?

Written, directed and produced by Spike Jonez, Her proved to be an unsettling, yet enthralling film about a man who develops a loving relationship with a computer operating system.

Receiving widespread critical acclaim for its direction, power and absolute relevancy to our own society, Her is nominated for five Academy Awards at this year’s 89th annual celebration, including Best Film and Best Writing – Original Screenplay.

Compared by critics to the Truman Show, in impact rather than context, Jonez portrays a future not far from our present, stunningly, through Joaquin Phoenix and the voice of Scarlett Johansson. Comparisons are also made between Her and Lost in Translation, with both films providing an uncomfortable yet equally infatuating love affair which compels the watcher throughout.

Described by Empire magazine as “Jonez’s most significant film yet”, Her will leave a lasting impact on all those who watch it. But did Jonez really think of it first?

Introducing, the internet…

As Her continues to receive acclaim for its originality and innovation, loyal fans of the NBC sitcom Community, have been cooking up a storm on Reddit. An adaptation of the Her movie poster has surfaced on the websites Community “Sub-Reddit”, replacing Phoenix with an image of co-star Danny Pudi (Abed), with the caption reading “Community did it first, Abed deserves an Oscar”.image via imgur.com

The mock poster refers to an episode in which the “socially disadvantaged” Abed falls in love with Hilda, a character he meets inside a virtual reality video game. The poster was soon pushed to the Reddit front page and fans discussed how writer Dan Harmon, also acclaimed for his creative story-telling, covered the topic of artificial love a full eighteen months before Jonez, albeit a little more light hearted and fun.

However, the real investigators of our good old internet had more. Robot Chicken, already often disregarded for their Star Wars parody, which Family Guy took their inspiration from (openly mocked by Seth Macfarlane during an episode, for how blatantly he stole their idea), also had a similar storyline back in 2006.

Lisa is a short that focuses on a man developing, and then destroying, a relationship with his satellite navigation system. Not only is the story line very similar to that of Her, the voice of the computer is played by Scarlett Johansson. I know, it makes you feel dirty doesn’t it?

Lisa – Robot Chicken (2006) – (WATCH HERE!)

With the Oscars soon approaching, it is not likely that these revelations are going to have much impact on Her’s award winning credentials. In fact, Jonez and his film are both still very popular within the online world. Lisa is fun and does bear striking resemblance to Her, but it does very little to capture the love and romance between man and machine.

It is hard to answer who thought of the idea first, but we can say this. It wasn’t Spike Jonez.

image via replygif.net

image via replygif.net

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Inside Film at the Baftas

Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron, director and writer for the blockbuster film, Gravity are pictured with 2 of their BAFTA awards.

Image via empireonline.com

This years Baftas ceremony is all but over and after an incredible year for British film there was certainly some deserved winners and surprises on the night.

If you didn’t join us for our liveblog of the 67th annual award ceremony, or maybe didn’t even watch the awards at all, never fear as the nominations and winners for each category are as follows (lengthy list imminent):

Edit: Just in case you can’t be bothered to read it all, here’s our podcast instead.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Philomena – Winner
12 Years A Slave
Behind The Candelabra
Captain Phillips
The Wolf Of Wall Street

Best Leading Actor
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave – Winner
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Film
Despicable Me 2
Frozen – Winner
Monsters University

Best Leading Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench, Philomena
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine – Winner
Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Best British Short Animation
Sleeping With The Fishes – Winner
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody

Make-Up and Hair
Behind The Candelabra, Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin
The Butler, Debra Denson, Candace Neal, Robert Stevenson, Matthew Mungle
The Great Gatsby, Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn
American Hustle, Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell, Kathrine Gordon – Winner
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater

Best British Short Film
Island Queen
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Orbit Ever After
Room 8 – Winner
Sea View

Best Original Music
Gravity,Steven Price – Winner
12 Years A Slave, Hans Zimmer
The Book Thief, John Williams
Captain Phillips,Henry Jackman
Saving Mr. Banks, Thomas Newman

Best Cinematography
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

Best Original Screenplay
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
American Hustle – Winner
Nebraska

Best Costume Design
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Behind The Candelabra
The Invisible Woman
Saving Mr. Banks

Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Peter Greenway

Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity – Winner
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Paul Greengrass,Captain Phillips
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf Of Wall Street

Outstanding British Film
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom|
Philomena
Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
Gravity – Winner
The Selfish Giant

Best Documentary
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish
Tim’s Vermeer
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
The Act Of Killing – Winner

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Kieran Evans, Kelly + Victor – Winner
Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks
Paul Wright, Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril
Scott Graham, Shell

EE Rising Star
Dane DeHaan
George MacKay
Lupita Nyong’o
Will Poulter – Winner
Léa Seydoux

Best Production Design
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Behind The Candelabra
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Gravity

Best Editing
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Rush – Winner

Best Sound
All Is Lost, Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur
Captain Phillips, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney
Gravity, Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis, Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Paul Urmson
Rush, Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse

Fellowship
Dame Helen Mirren

Best Film
12 Years A Slave – Winner
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena

Best Special Visual Effects
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3, Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick
Pacific Rim, Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner
Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny – Winner
Star Trek Into Darkness, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton

Best Film not in the English Language
The Act Of Killing
Blue Is The Warmest Colour
The Great Beauty – Winner
Metro Manila
Wadjda

Best Supporting Actor
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Daniel Brühl, Rush
Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips – Winner

Best Supporting Actress
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle – Winner
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine