World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
A packed Friday at the cinema, TCM’s new home, China’s Golden Week, Nana Patekar is mourned & The French Connection turns 55.
Morning, all. After yesterday’s Elsinore love-in, today is all about the new releases, and it’s one of the busiest Fridays we’ve had in a while.
New in UK and Irish cinemas: Paul Greengrass’s The Uprising arrives a month after the US, with Andrew Garfield leading a rebellion against Richard II, in the story of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The US distributor, Focus Features, abruptly – and bizarrely – began marketing it as a Robin Hood origin story, without the UK distributor’s approval, which caused plenty of backlash and confusion. Elsewhere, Jessica Chastain stars in the horror Other Mommy as a mother threatened by a paranormal entity that takes on the appearance of a child’s mother, directed by Rob Savage and produced by James Wan. Aaron Sorkin directs The Social Reckoning, which follows Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, with Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg. Apple’s Tenzing tells the true story of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s first summit of Everest, with Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe and Caitríona Balfe. Four films I really want to see, which is bad news in the middle of the LFF!
The rest of the day’s openers:
- The Yellow Tie: Ben Schnetzer and John Malkovich play the conductor Sergiu Celibidache in youth and old age. (That’s a double dose of Malkovich for me today, with Wild Horse Nine at the festival.)
- The Lost Children of Tuam: Frank Berry’s drama about Catherine Corless, who uncovered the mass burials of children at the Tuam mother and baby home.
- Re-releases of 24 Hour Party People (24 years on, in 4K) and The Craft, plus Comédie-Française and the Indian film Udta Teer.
The Queen concert film Queen Budapest also played on Wednesday for one night only. On Netflix worldwide, Ben Affleck’s kidnapping thriller Animals also arrives today, with Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun and Gillian Anderson, alongside a limited cinema run.
New in US cinemas only: The big one is Neon’s Fjord. Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a couple facing scrutiny after moving to the wife’s Norwegian home village. UK readers will have to wait for 13 November, when Picturehouse releases it in the UK and Ireland, although I’m also soon to see at the LFF. Distributor Well Go USA is also giving the war drama and Chinese home-territory hit Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, starring Teng Shen and Qiming Jiang, a select release. On Wednesday, Aura Entertainment opened the horror Vampire Carnival in limited release, starring Nell Verlaque and Jason Isaacs (a “hello” to him if he’s reading).
TCM finds a home: Classic film fans can relax slightly. Turner Classic Movies will sit within Skydance’s film group, run by Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson taking an active creative role, and executive Charles Tabesh staying on. The news follows fan anxiety over the channel’s absence from a graphic of the new company’s properties. Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz has also promised that job cuts will be handled respectfully and transparently, which is the sort of sentence that always sounds better in a press release.
China’s Golden Week disappoints: In mainland China, crime drama Traces of Justice topped the National Day holiday with RMB 423 million ($63 million), in a market that fell short of last year’s eight-day holiday, which grossed RMB 1.835 billion ($274 million). Analysts blamed the lack of a blockbuster-scale title, and Maoyan forecasts final mainland totals of RMB 670 million for Traces of Justice, RMB 550 million for Resident Evil and RMB 390 million for Mr. & Mrs. Pardon.
Nana Patekar, 1951–2026: The Indian actor died on Thursday, aged 75. He died of a suspected cardiac arrest at his home in Goa, and his son Malhar said he died of natural causes. He won three National Film Awards and received the Padma Shri, and made his debut in the 1978 film Gaman before earning acclaim for Parinda and Krantiveer. He was a hit as the good-hearted gangster Uday Shetty in Welcome and as a politician in Raajneeti. He could do more with a glare than most actors manage with a page of dialogue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his intensity and presence, and he had appeared at a theatre event in Goa only days earlier, speaking about the importance of keeping the performing arts alive. Rest in peace.
Fifty-five years of The French Connection: Cheering things up, William Friedkin’s grubby, brilliant New York cop thriller The French Connection first picked its feet in Poughkeepsie cinemas 55 years ago this week. Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle chases a hijacked elevated train through Brooklyn in his car, in what is still one of the greatest chase sequences ever filmed. It won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Hackman. If you haven’t seen it in a while, it’s well worth a revisit; it’s a film that makes most modern thrillers look like they’re driving with the handbrake on.
Birthdays: Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro turns 62 today, Steve McQueen, the director of 12 Years a Slave, turns 57, and Tony Shalhoub of Men in Black and Galaxy Quest turns 73.
That’s all for today.
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