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Cloud Atlas Is As Risky As Inception, Says Tom Hanks

By Joe Wilde in Movies / TV / Theatre on 21 October 2012

Tom Hanks Christopher Nolan Lilly Wachowski Halle Berry Jim Broadbent Jim Sturgess Doona Bae Zhou Xun Hugh Grant Hugo Weaving Susan Sarandon

With his upcoming film, Cloud Atlas ready for release later this month, one of the film’s stars, Tom Hanks, has alluded to the deep plotline that runs through the book adaptation and said that the film is as “risky as Inception” was when it was release in 2010.

Hanks was plugging his new film during a chat with Canadian paper The Montreal Gazette, when he brought up the Christopher Nolan film, suggesting that it was the closest thing to compare to his latest movie outing. Cloud Atlas follows the intertwining lives of a massive cast that drifts between centuries both past and present, examining the impact of fate on good and bad behaviour.

In his discussion, he not only had praises to sing for Brit-director Nolan, but also his three “bold” directors for the upcoming project; Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski. And if three directors were a lot to take on board, then the number of characters the actors have to transform themselves into throughout the film will take some effort to get your heads round too, with Hanks alone taking on 6 different roles.

Continue reading: Cloud Atlas Is As Risky As Inception, Says Tom Hanks

Beijing Bicycle Review

By Norm Schrager

In 1948, director Vittorio De Sica made The Bicycle Thief, the quintessential blueprint of neorealism, a drama widely considered one of the greatest films ever produced. It was shot in the streets of Italy with non-professional actors, and tells about the haves, the have-nots, and the desperate. For the uninitiated, the classic tale is motivated by the theft of a poor man's bicycle, an item which he must have in order to work. Fifty-three years later, Chinese writer-director Wang Xiaoshuai (So Close to Paradise) presents another story about class differences, shot in the streets of Beijing with non-professional actors, about a young man who needs to retrieve his stolen bike to keep his courier job. Homage? Theft? Gentle borrowing? What difference does it make when the result is delivered with too heavy a hand, and is just too slow to be involving?

Beijing Bicycle is introduced with a captivating style -- young men, mostly from poor farm families, appear on-camera individually and address the audience as they are interviewed for prestigious bike messenger positions. We hear an interviewer off-screen, but only witness these nervous, determined, sometimes blank faces, telling their stories in return for a chance at urban success. The narrative then follows one staffer, Guei (Cui Lin), as he zips through Beijing making deliveries to upscale office buildings, saving his earnings so that he can own his company bicycle.

Continue reading: Beijing Bicycle Review