CHE!

Boom. What a fucking image.
Criterion has announced it will release Soderbergh's CHE starring Benicio Del Toro. Given a limited theatrical release through IFC Films, this underappreciated epic will hopefully get the audience and awareness it deserves on this new platform.
(BELOW) Poster for the original "CHE!" starring Omar Shariff (with Jack Palance as Castro).

SERGE SILBERMAN

"You shouldn't rush things and produce too many movies. Otherwise, you become a slave to commercial projects in order to cover your overheads. Most of my work was through friendships. A film is not made in an office but in a meeting of the minds, an understanding with the director that goes on at all times, day and night, with real passion and that streak of craziness without which the cinema would never be able to exist."

Independent Serge Silberman produced such landmark films such as Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob Le Flambeur, Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, and Akira Kurosawa's Ran

ROCK HUDSON AT CANNES

Rock Hudson as Antiochus "Tony" Wilson in Seconds
Official Selection 1966 Cannes Film Festival

JCVD - HARD TIMES IN THIS CRAZY TOWN

This movie is for me. There we are, you and me. Why did you do that? Or why did I do that? You made my dream come true. I asked for it. I promised you something in return and I haven't delivered yet. You win, I lose. Unless... the path you've set for me is full of hurdles where the answer comes before the question. Yeah I do that. Now I know why. It's the cure, from what I've seen here. It all makes sense. It makes sense to those who understand. So... America, poverty, stealing to eat... stalking producers, actors, 'movie stars', going to clubs hoping to see a star, with my pictures, karate magazines. It's all I had. I didn't speak English. But I did 20 years of karate. 'Cause before I wasn't like that [points to flexed bicep]

This... This is me today. I used to be small and scrawny. And I took up karate. Hence the Dojo, hence respect, thou shall believe people who say, "Oss!" It's Samurai code. It's honour, no lies. So this guy in the US, it's not the same thing. No one says "Oss" to you. Sometimes people in show business say, "We're gonna' fuck em'". I believed in people, in the Dojo. I was blessed and had a lot of 'wives'. I always believed in love. It's hard for a woman with three kids to say, "Which one do I love more?" A mother... If you have 5, 6, 7, or 10 wives in a lifetime, they've all got something special, but no one cares about that in the so-called media. What about drugs? When you got it all, you travel the world. When you've been in all the hotels, you're the prima donna of the penthouse. And in all hotels the world over, travelling, you want something more. And because of a woman... well, because of love, I tried something and I got hooked. Van-Damme, the beast, the tiger in a cage, the "Bloodsport" man got hooked. I was wasted mentally and physically. To the point that I got out of it. I got out of it. But... it's all there. It's all there. It was really tough. I saw people worse off than me. I went from poor to rich and thought, why aren't we all like me, why all the privileges? I'm just a regular guy. It makes me sick to see people... who don't have what I've got. Knowing that they have qualities, too. Much more than I do! It's not my fault if I was cut out to be a star. I asked for it. I asked for it, really believed in it. When you're 13, you believe in your dream. Well it came true for me. But I still ask myself today what I've done on this Earth. Nothing! I've done nothing! And I might just die in this post office, hoping to start all over here in Belgium, in my country, where my roots are. Start all over with my parents and get my health back, pick up again. So I really hope... nobody's gonna' pull a trigger in this post office... It's so stupid to kill people. They're so beautiful! So, today, I pray to God. I truly believe it's not a movie. It's real life. Real life. I've seen so many things. I was born in Belgium, but I'm a citizen of the world. I've travelled a lot. It's hard for me to judge people and it's hard for them... not to judge me. Easier to blame me. Yeah, something like that.

FRANCO SOLINAS

Politically conscious writer Franco Solinas' most recognized collaborations include The Battle of Algiers, State of Siege, and Salvatore Giuliano.

THE US AND PREVENTING A NUCLEAR IRAN

Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them. Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”

There is only one sustainable solution to the imminent threat that IS a nuclear Iran. It is not a military option, it is not economic embargos, and it is not Obama's confused populist diplomacy. It is regime change in Iran. Only when a rational, peace-loving republic is put in place of the Islamic dictatorship will there be hope. The answer does not lie in UN sanctions, or Official Condemnations. The necessary action is to support, nurture, and create faculty for the opposition in Iran.

STRANGER

"He can detach like nobody I've ever seen. For a man that emotionally powerful to be able to detach the way he does...its like Mikey Corleone. That's why Francis understood that character."

-Al Pacino, on Francis Coppola

2009 UN SUMMIT

"Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium.

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of six million Jews while promising to wipe out the State of Israel, the State of the Jews. What a disgrace. What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations."

-Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel

NIGHT FEVER

GORILLAS/JUNGLES