New British Feature Films (Fiction) Released in 2009 – 68 [19% of total film releases]
Total Film Releases in the UK in 2009 – 352
The UK film release schedule for the week commencing 2 October 2009 is:
Army of Crime (FRA)
The Beaches of Agnes (FRA)
District 13: Ultimatum (FRA)
Driving Aphrodite (US/SAP)
Ghost In The Shell 2.0 (JAP)
The Invention of Lying (USA)
Ip Man (HK)
Pandorum (USA)
The Spell (Owen Carey Jones, 2009, UK) #67 British feature film release 2009
Surviving Evil (Terence Daw, 2009, UK/SA)
Toy Story 3D (USA)
Vinyan (Fabrice Du Welz, 2009, FRA/BEL/UK) #68 British feature film release 2009
Zombieland (USA) 7 October
From the jungles of Burma to the coffee shops of Leeds – quite a geographic scope for contemporary British horror. Vinyan, as mentioned in a previous post, reaches cinemas after a live online streaming screening on Lovefilm last week, and almost simultaneously on DVD. The Spelljust hits the streets with some awful reviews. Demons and hooded spirits in Leeds? Are you having a giraffe?
New British Feature Films (Fiction) Released in 2009 – 66 [19% of total film releases]
Total Film Releases in the UK in 2009 – 339
The UK film release schedule for the week commencing 25 September 2009 is:
Born In 68 (FRA)
Creation (Jon Amiel, 2009, UK) #62 British feature film release 2009
The Crimson Wing (USA/UK) Documentary
Fame (USA)
The Godfather (USA) Reissue
Heart of Fire (GER/ITA/AUS/FRA)
Jack Said (Lee Basannavar and Michael Tchoubouroff, 2009, UK) #63 British feature film release 2009
Management (USA)
The Soloist(Joe Wright, 2009, UK/USA/FRA) #64 British feature film release 2009
Surrogates (USA)
White Lightnin’ (Dominic Murphy, 2009, UK) #65 British feature film release 2009
Morris: A Life With Bells On (Lucy Akhurst, 2009, UK) #66 British feature film relaese 2009 27 September
An avalanche of British films this week, including five features, but only two of which are playing in Leicester – Joe Wright’s attempt to raise the importance and value of sound in the cinema, The Soloist, and Jon Amiel’s historical biopic of the events in the life of Charles Darwin leading to the publication of ‘On The Origin Of Species’, Creation. Both look like serious and worthy efforts that would expect to get wide distribution.
Not so for the other new British films this week. It might be enough to say that Jack Saidstars Danny Dyer, but it is probably more interesting than that suggests since it it is a crime noir adaptation of a graphic novel reminiscent of the style of Sin City. It will quickly be available on DVD (5 October).
Dominic Murphy’s debut feature film White Lightnin’is an intriguiging biopic set in the Appalachian mountains about the ‘dancing outlaw’ Jesco White, and has been shown at festiveals such as Berlin and Sundance. One to look out for I think.
Lastly, and maybe leastly, Morris: A Life With Bells On, a comic mockumentary about Morris dancing. It has to be funnier than Blackball doesn’t it?
A useful application on the film’s website allows you to find out ‘Where you can see the film’ – nowhere in the East Midlands, but in several places in the West Midlands (Derby?) and elsewhere. Lucky escape or diabolical liberty?
New British Feature Films (Fiction) Released in 2009 – 61 [19% of total film releases]
Total Film Releases in the UK in 2009 – 327
If you want to see new British films, the UK film release schedule for the week commencing 18 September 2009 is:
31 North 62 East (Tristan Loraine, 2009, UK) #58 British feature film release 2009
The Agent (Lesley Manning, 2008, UK) #59 British feature film release 2009
Away We Go (Sam Mendes, 2009, USA/UK)#60 British feature film release 2009
Birdwatchers (IT/BRA)
Blind Dating (USA)
Chevolution (MEX)
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 3D (USA)
The Firm (Nick Love, 2009, UK) #61 British feature film release 2009
Je Veux Voir (FRA/LEB)
Three Miles North of Molkom (UK) Documentary
Wanted (IND)
A tale of the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ in the British feature film UK box office opening weekends of 18 September 2009. The first surprising aspect is that Nick Love’s The Firm was given a wider release than Sam Mendes’ Away We Goby more than a hundred cinemas (265 and 152 cinemas respectively). Thus, even though Mendes’ new comedy (and his second American co-production release of the year after Revolutionary Road) outperformed Love’s retro ‘football casuals’ movie with a higher site average (£1,170 and £1,646 respectively), it finished just below The Firm in gross terms (£250k compared tp £310k).
Does this mean that Nick Love has more box office clout than Sam Mendes?
While The Firm and Away We Go are quite widely distributed, The Agent (in 3 cinemas) and31 North 62 East(in 29 cinemas) are on very limited release. The Agent, a virtual two-hander, was only made for £26,000, and is much less ambitious than the political thriller 31 North 62 East which has all the bravado of a Hollywood major supported ‘indie’, but none of its kudos.
The British co-produced horror film Vinyan(on general release 2 October) will today be available as a live online streaming on Lovefilm from 7-10pm. During the stream, viewers will be able to post questions and the top three questions will be asked at the Q & A screening the same night at the Prince Charles Cinema (in London’s West End) attended by the film’s director (Fabrice Du Welz) and lead actor Rufus Sewell. Details about the Prince Charles screening can be found here.
Vinyan will be released by Revolver Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray on 5 October.
New British Feature Films (Fiction) Released in 2009 – 57 [18% of total film releases]
Total Film Releases in the UK in 2009 - 316
The UK film release schedule for the week commencing 11 September 2009 is:
Adventureland (USA)
Baabarr (IND)
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009, UK) #55 British feature film release 2009
Julie & Julia (USA)
Miss March: Generation Penetration (USA)
Morning Light (USA)
Reckoning Day (Julian Gilbey, 2002, UK) #56 British feature film release 2009
The September Issue (USA)
Shank (Simon Pearce, 2009, UK) #57 British feature film release 2009
Whiteout (USA)
The Thing (USA) Reissue 15 September
Katie Jarvis as Mia in Andrea Arnold's new film Fish Tank
The ‘tasteful’ literary adaptation of Dorian Gray creeps effortlessly into the local multiplexes, but in this regard it does not typify the majority of new British feature films. More typical is the low budget social realism of films such as Fish Tank and Shankor the ultra-low budget films such as Reckoning Day heading almost immediately to DVD, that are all released this week on very limited schedules. Of these, Fish Tank, a family melodrama set on an Essex council estate,has the highest profile thanks to the critical success of Andrea Arnold’s previous CCTV thriller Red Road. In contrast, the teen gang film Shank with its gay sexual themes has struggled for publicity and recognition.
As yet I have not uncovered any reports of a controversial campaign for Dorian Graywhere young Londoners are putting portraits of themselves in their attics in bizarre anti-aging experiments. Have the distributors missed a trick here?
New British Feature Films (Fiction) Released in 2009 – 54 [18% of total film releases]
Total Film Releases in the UK in 2009 - 305
The UK film release schedule for the week commencing 4 September 2009 is:
Big River Man (USA)
Bustin’ Down The Door (USA)
Coffin Rock (Rupert Glasson, 2009, UK/AUS) #53 British feature film release 2009
District 9 (USA/NZ)
Gamer (USA)
Greek Pete (UK) Documentary
Passchendaele (CAN)
The Red Baron (GER)
Tricks (POL)
Chess In Concert (UK) Documentary 6 September
Dorian Gray (Oliver Parker, 2009, UK) #54 British feature film release 2009 9 September
Sorority Row (USA) 9 September
A milestone this week in terms of reaching over 300 films released in the UK in 2009 and British feature films holding up around the 18% mark. Coffin Rock is an Australian co-production from the producer of backpacker slasher Wolf Creekand promises us ‘infidelity, harassment, terror and murder’ – but doesn’t look like it has attracted wide distribution. Not so the other British feature film release this week – Dorian Gray, and maybe hopeful of an auspicious release on 09/09/09. But how can you go wrong with Colin Firth costume literary adaptation nonsense?
