Bastarden movie (The Promised Land) with Mad Mikkelsen was nominated for an Oscar.
The Bastarden - "Promised land" in english - Denmark has announced its nomination for the 2024 Oscars, which will take place next March. Bastarden (Promised Land) with Mads Mikkelsen and Gustav Lindh in the lead roles received the nomination. Bastarden (2023) movie was based on Ida Jensen's book "The Captain and Ann Barbara" and was shown on August 31, 2023 at the Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion award.
The public presentation will take place on October 5, 2023 in Denmark. The historical drama tells the story of Ludvig Kahlen.The poor soldier, Ludvig Kahlen, arrives in the Jutland wilderness in 1755 to follow the king's call, cultivate the land and gain wealth and honor for himself. But Kahlen quickly makes enemies. But the ruthless landowner believes that the land belongs to him and not to the king.
So gone are the almost parodically sexy nuns from the first, who prayed with the intensity of Christ's bride to keep the demon out of our world.
The visual attraction instead consists of a more subtle creative play in the shadows among old memories, merciless internal hierarchies, and winding alleys, where a scene in a southern European newsstand stands out as an aesthetic exclamation point.
But that doesn't mean, of course, that the film as a whole is particularly fine-tuned.
No. Rest assured that the red communion wine gushes, the devil is a goat, and that evil is destroyed only with female power and a light-bearing Saint Lucia at the head.
If we didn't know better, I would have guessed that it was Christmas Eve already.
The demonic Valak has already appeared in Demons and Annabelle, but now he really shows off his white teeth.
We are in an alternative time plane, the date is 1952, the location is Romania, within it the Transylvanian Fogarasföld, where there is no communist dictatorship, instead there is a terrible, terrifying demon in a nun's dress known from the movies Among the Demons, Valak! And since there is no Cold War and no persecution of the Church, an ancient monastery works happily here, cut off from the world, that is to say cheerfully, because already in the opening sequence, the evil one attacks them, causing one of them to throw himself out of the equally ancient window, so that his body will be eaten by crows. And although the neighboring village doesn't even know about the case, the news reaches the Vatican, from where they send a specialist who deals with "special cases" with his special skills.
No, it's not Liam Neeson, but another Irishman, Demián Bichir ( Alien: Covenant), who as Father Burke already exorcises demons in German-occupied France, but as I said, this is an alternative universe, the realm of James Wan , who contributes here as a producer. between Demons and the world of Annabelle spin off films. And the background character of this hugely profitable world, which can be expanded at will, has so far been the demon dressed as a woman - more precisely, dressed as a nun - who takes the main role here, and the good priest fights with him, along with the student nun (Taissa Farmiga ), Vera Farmiga's little sister among the Demons), and a completely random, fun-loving French-Canadian guy (the Belgian Jonas Bloquet) also living in the nearby Romanian village.
And the thing could have gone well, since the creators mentioned the Hammer horrors of the fifties and sixties and Umberto Eco's bestseller The Name of the Rose as inspiration, and Valak is quite a scary figure. However, there were problems with both the concept and the implementation. At best, the reference points are echoed in the setting, and a demonic nun works as a surprise everywhere except in a nunnery. Not there. Although horror movies are famous for their characters making the most stupid decisions, here they really, really overdo it. After a nightmare, you don't go into the dark forest at night after a figure whose death you talked about a few minutes ago, you don't follow a dead nun among the trees, and I could go on and on, because it happens all the time here. For an average horror, let's say, two similar moments still fit.
It also doesn't help that, with the exception of a few scenes, all of this takes place in a single location, the old monastery, which is already so overdrawn as if you were a Scooby-doo! episode, and you can always see Bozon and Scooby around the next corner! However, Valak lurks in the dark, appearing too many times, losing his mystery, his threatening existence, his right to exist in general, and when he finally springs into action after so many bogus scares, you simply cannot be afraid of him. However, in a horror film, it is not a negligible aspect to be afraid of the evil! However, anyone with an eye can spot Lili Bordán as a Romanian peasant girl - and this is also an aspect.
The Equalizer follows the story of Robyn McCall, an ex-CIA agent who helps those who cannot defend themselves. Robyn is out to help the underprivileged and uses her powers to defeat people who run afoul of the law. The series is more than a stand-up action drama as it carries the emotional undertones that make it a refreshing show. Robyn's exploits and turning away from her troubled past are rooted in reality.
The film is a reboot of an eponymous series created by late TV veteran Richard Lindheim and writer Michael Sloan. Both pitched the story as an evolution of the 1950s "Have Gun – Will Travel" series. Michael Sloan wrote the pilot episode of the series. The series is about Robert McCall, an agent of a CIA-like agency, who is increasingly detached from the expediency of his work. He quits his job and advertises himself as The Equalizer, who helps protect the helpless.
McCall must also deal with his son's alienation as his life now becomes a path to redemption. Robert McCall is brought to life by British actor Edward Woodward, whose natural charisma makes McCall's character terrifying yet admirable. The series ran for four seasons between 1985 and 1989. Michael Sloan returned to the franchise when he released a novel in 2014 that tells the story of Robert McCall in present-day New York. In the same year, "The Equalizer" was made into a movie of the same name, starring Denzel Washington.
On the other hand, the reboot of the television series departs from the canonical form of the franchise. Robert McCall is replaced by Robyn McCall, a lady with the same abilities as the character she was inspired by. However, Robyn has a teenage daughter, Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes), unlike Robert McCall's son. The series is written by Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller, with Queen Latifah serving as an executive producer on Robyn's character. Richard Lindheim was also a member of the reboot's development team.
Robyn struggles to come to terms with her past and is haunted by guilt over those she failed to protect in her early days. Regarding the difference between the characters of Robyn and Robert McCall, Queen Latifah said, "In Denzel's version and in the original version, these characters were much more stoic and withdrawn. Robyn doesn't have that luxury. She has a teenage daughter. She has to figure out how to turn off the soldier , and turn on the mother." The reboot definitely calls for some drastic changes, but McCall stays true to his support of the underdog.
Antoine Fuqua Talks Reuniting Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in The Equalizer 3
Twenty-two years ago, Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington came to an agreement that neither has forgotten. "Right when we started working together on Training Day, we agreed to never tie each other's hands," recalls the filmmaker. "We agreed to always be open to crazy ideas, and to always be willing to play within each scene."
To date, the duo has made five movies together, beginning with 2001's Training Day, for which Washington won his second Oscar. Their other collaborations include the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven and three Equalizer movies, a franchise which has spanned nearly a full decade. At this point, their appreciation for one another's work is inarguable.
Their latest, The Equalizer 3 — in theaters Sept. 1 — is the "final chapter" in the saga. Arriving five years after the second installment, it follows former government assassin Robert McCall (Washington) as he attempts to settle down in a quiet town on the coast of Italy. When the village's peaceful existence is threatened by the arrival of the Italian mafia, McCall is forced out of retirement as its vigilante guardian angel of death.
"It's just trust and respect, really. I think trust has always been an important part of our relationship," Fuqua says of their more than two-decades of collaborations. "He knows that I'll handle what he gives me with care. He doesn't have to worry about that."
With The Equalizer 3, the two have not only made the first threequel of either of their careers, but Fuqua says they have crafted a movie that is more concerned with "the moral dilemma of violence" than any of their previous films. It is, in other words, not just another sequel, but something completely new for both the director and the star.
A.frame: This film feels more meditative than the first two Equalizers. When you and Denzel set out to make it, what kind of story did you both have in mind for the film?
The first Equalizer was really about Robert McCall finding his purpose. The second was about him dealing with his past and being betrayed by someone he trusted. This film is about him finding a place that he can call home. It's about him finding some peace, but also struggling with the violence he's committed. At what point are you enjoying it so much that you've become the monster? That’s really what he's struggling with this time.
Why Italy?
Richard Wenk is the one who wrote it into the script, but it really began with a conversation that Denzel and I had years ago around the time of the first Equalizer. He's been going to Italy ever since his kids were little, and I know how much he loves it there. I was actually there with him once when we were promoting The Equalizer, and a crowd of people came just to see him. It was so many people. I was like, 'Get me the hell out of here,' because he was just surrounded. But I saw how much they loved him in that moment, just as an actor, and I thought, 'It'd be cool to actually bring Denzel Washington here to make a film.'
I talked to Todd Black, the film's producer, about it, and then Richard went off and wrote the script with that in mind. We really scouted everywhere in Italy, too. We looked all over the place, and then, when I finally found Atrani, the little town in the film, I just fell in love with it, because it immediately felt right.
The film has a very specific look: There are moments where it almost looks like a black-and-white movie that was shot in color. What did you and your cinematographer, Robert Richardson, want to evoke with the film’s aesthetic?
It was all about highlighting old-world beauty. When we found Atrani, it was like going back in time because of all the textures of the town — all the white walls with the peeling paint and the cobblestone streets. It really became about communicating and recapturing time, which is what the movie is about, too. The film's all about time and about Robert running out of time. Visually, the town gave us the chance to make something that feels like an old painting. So, when Bob Richardson would walk throughout it, he would just send me stuff.
Neither of us would ever really sleep at night, and I would get images from him all night. It'd be four in the morning and I'd be like, 'What are you doing awake?! Why are you calling me?' But he'd have an image that he'd have captured or come up with, and I'd look at it and go, 'You're right. That's it.' He would get up and wander around Atrani in the middle of the night and come back with these beautiful ideas and images.
Denzel is an actor who is capable of really filling the frame. There are moments where you juxtapose him with stained glass windows and other religious iconography, and it works because Denzel feels that powerful on-screen. As a director, how freeing is it to have an actor who can be that formidable and commanding in front of the camera?
There's nothing like it. There's a lot of symbolism in the film, and you have to be able to trust your actor's ability to play that and communicate it subtly. The film incorporates images of, for instance, Saint Michael stepping on the devil's head. Those images are there, and you need an actor who can help you connect and sell those metaphors without thinking about the fact that they're doing that. Denzel can. He's never thinking about that stuff. I am, but he's not.
This is the first time Denzel has worked with Dakota Fanning since Man on Fire. Where did the idea of reuniting them in this film originate?
I got a call one day from Todd Black, and he was like, 'Do you like Dakota Fanning?' I was like, 'Uh, yeah.' He told me, 'She's interested in doing the movie,' and I said, 'Nah, really? I gotta meet her today then! Right now. I want to have lunch with her.' He called me back a few minutes later and was like, 'She’ll have lunch with you.' So, we did. And, you know, we've seen her in so many movies, but it's just impossible to get the image of her as that little girl in Man on Fire yelling for Creasy out of your mind. So when I saw her, I just said, 'Please do this movie.' We talked about it some more, and then I called Denzel and he started laughing right away. He was like, 'Absolutely. I love Dakota!' Then when I saw them together, it really was like going back into Tony Scott's movie. Just watching them together was really special.
Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua on the set of 'The Equalizer 3.'
Speaking of Man on Fire, there's a moment early in The Equalizer 3 where Denzel puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger, but the gun doesn't go off…
[Leaning in, smiling] Yeah?
Is that a Man on Fire reference?
I don't know, man — is it? [Laughs]
I'll take as a yes. You've been making movies for many years now. How has your personal creative process changed throughout your career — if it has at all?
It's definitely changed. Hopefully, it's matured. It's definitely slowed down a bit. You know, I've always put a lot of thought into everything I've done, but I feel like I'm putting more thought into it now. It's like an athlete when their game slows down a bit. You can suddenly see things you didn't see before. You always stress out over things at first. And then I think you reach a point where you just realize, 'I don't need to worry about that. I'll deal with it later.'
When I was younger, I was always yelling and obsessing over certain things, and then the audience would basically say, 'Oh, we don't care about that.' Gradually, you learn to recognize that and find a balance between everything. And I've matured, for sure. I've learned quite a bit, and I've gotten much more patient than I used to be.
I know you're busy working on Michael, but do you and Denzel have any more plans to work together?
Yeah, we've got a few things we're talking about. I hope we will. Honestly, I just love working with him.
The music industry is full of ups and downs. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to success in business, and for whatever reason, things can get dark very quickly. It always depends on what kind of company you keep and whose interests you have at heart.
Unfortunately, for many artists, navigating the industry comes at a cost, and it's never monetary. Artists pay with their morals and mental health no matter what environment they work in. For those outside the spotlight, it's hard to understand what life is like while building a career you've always dreamed of in the arts.
When it comes to a rapper's music career, the road to success can be complicated. Diego (Maciej Musialowski) has always been in bad company and tried to get out of it with music. But the road to a music career is complicated when one grows up as the son of a cabal-wielding gangster boss.
Diego "succeeds in getting rid of cocaine addiction with rehab" and wants a career in music.
The true story of 'Whipped Peter' in Will Smith's new film
A photograph of an enslaved man who survived a whipping that left his body mutilated and scarred helped to reveal the brutality of American slavery. Actor Will Smith stars in Emancipation, a film that recounts the story of "Whipped Peter" and his journey from slave to soldier.
Though his skin had been flayed open dozens of times by the sting of a whip and then painfully scarred over, Gordon, an escaped enslaved man, posed defiantly for a portrait in 1863.
At the height of the US Civil War - when facts about the horrors of slavery were often decried as false propaganda - the gruesome photograph revealed the undeniable truth.
Abolitionists dubbed the man in the photo "Whipped Peter", and while historians have debated his real name, there is little doubt about the impact his image had on the American psyche.
The photograph showed "these were real people with real experiences. It was taken to present a visual narrative of the horror of slavery during the Civil War," said Barbara Krauthamer, a leading historian of US slavery and emancipation, and Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
"What often gets lost is the focus on the man himself - the story of this man who understands that the Civil War is an opportunity to literally take ownership of his body and his life."
Will Smith's film Emancipation is inspired by the true story of Gordon/"Whipped Peter" and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Smith told reporters at the film's premiere that he hopes the movie will reveal the power of the human spirit.
"This is not another slave movie. This is a freedom movie," Smith said. "I think it's a story that we all need to see, hear and feel."
A harrowing escape
In April 1863, mere months after enslaved people were declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, Gordon stumbled into a Union soldier encampment just outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Exhausted, near-starving, and wearing only rags, Gordon broke down at the sight of the freed black soldiers who were fighting to end slavery in America, according to a December 1863 column in the New-York Daily Tribune. He immediately asked to enlist.
During a medical examination, Gordon told officers he decided to escape after surviving a brutal whipping that left him near death and in a coma for two months. After 10 days of being chased through the Louisiana swamps and bayous by bloodhounds and slave catchers, Gordon finally made it to the Union encampment and freedom.
He then revealed his "scourged back" as proof. Photographers embedded with the soldiers took the now infamous photo of Gordon posed, bare-backed with his hand on his hip.
The Tribune notes the sight of his mutilated body "sent a thrill of horror to every white person present, but the few blacks who were waiting … paid but little attention to the sad spectacle, such terrible scenes begin painfully familiar to them all".
According to the National Gallery of Art, one New York journalist remarked that the image should be "multiplied by 100,000 and scattered over the States".
Gordon's portrait was taken at a time when the country was debating whether the war effort was worth it, and if black men - enslaved or freed - should be allowed to enlist as soldiers.
In their book, Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery, Prof Krauthamer and her co-author, photography historian Deborah Willis, describe how advances in photography enabled the image of Gordon's whipped back to be affordably reproduced on small notecards and shared widely.
Abolitionists sold reprints of his image to raise money for their efforts. But, Prof Krauthamer said, reactions to the portrait were mixed.
"It was entirely common for people to say, it's fake, I don't believe it," she said. "White people did not think black people were reliable witnesses, even to their own experiences."
On 4 July 1863, the popular magazine Harper's Weekly reprinted an etching of Gordon/"Whipped Peter" alongside images of Gordon in Union uniform. The accompanying article was headlined "A Typical Negro" and described Gordon's harrowing escape from slavery and valiant record of service in the Union army.
Even for an article that was anti-slavery, historians have noted the undertones of racism as the writer takes pains to describe Gordon's "unusual intelligence and energy".
'Whipped Peter's' legacy
The Civil War was on of the first conflicts to be documented through photography - but very few pictures capture the horrors and the brutality of slavery as clearly as the image of "Whipped Peter".
Though his images became an effective tool for anti-slavery messaging and propaganda, Prof Krauthamer said very little is known about Gordon's life and legacy after joining the Union Army.
"There's an argument to be made, that [the portrait] was just another way of objectifying a black body," she said, adding that modern-day discussions about Gordon's portrait underscore the power of photography to document the truth.
Less than a century after Gordon's portrait was taken, Emmett Till's mother, Maime, held an open casket funeral after her son was brutally kidnapped, tortured and lynched because, in her words: "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby."
That photo of Till's mutilated body also shocked the American conscience and revealed the enduring legacy of racism in the United States.
Prof Krauthamer said that as a historian, she tries to centre not just the pain but also the joy of the black American experience in her work.
"I think much of the scholarship has sort of focused on 'what's the true story?' And I just want to know, what was his life like? Who did he love? What did he hope to achieve?"
"My hope is that that's what the Will Smith movie and this photograph opens a portal on to - our ability to imagine that story and that humanity."