By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

CARMEN AND DOLORES CHAPLIN, GRANDDAUGHTERS OF THE MOST LEGENDARY SILENT FILM STAR, CHARLIE CHAPLIN, TO HOST A SPECIAL SCREENING OF THE ARTIST

Hosts to be joined by “The Artist” Writer/Director Michel Hazanavicius and Cast Members Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Uggie the dog and more

Screening to be held Monday, November 21, 7:30pm PST at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills

LOS ANGELES, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 – The Weinstein Company celebrates the critically-acclaimed new feature film, THE ARTIST, with a special screening hosted by Carmen and Dolores Chaplin, international actresses and the granddaughters of Hollywood icon, Charlie Chaplin, days before its November 25 theatrical release. Together, they join writer/director Michel Hazanavicius and cast members, who will arrive in style in vintage cars from the film, Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller and Uggie the dog in celebrating a film that pays homage to the Silent Era and captures the essence of Old Hollywood. The screening will take place on November 21, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

The screening will be followed by a reception and Q&A conversation which will offer insight into the production of the film as well discussion about the silent film era.

“THE ARTIST holds a special importance for us because we had the privilege of intimately experiencing the culture of black and white silent films which forever left its mark upon us as artists,” said Carmen and Dolores Chaplin. “The film has a universal dimension crossing boundaries of language, challenging our expectations, and breaking commercial convention by returning to the purest form of film-making.”

The Chaplin sisters are thrilled to host the evening commemorating their grandfather’s craft and its contribution to the film industry and artists today.  One of the most celebrated artists of his time, Chaplin was dedicated to his craft and his talents as an actor, writer, director and composer have been an inspiration to filmmakers and artists of following generations.

Winner of the prize for Best Actor at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Michel Hazanavicius’s THE ARTIST is a heartfelt and entertaining valentine to classic American cinema.  Set during the twilight of Hollywood’s silent era and shot on location in Los Angeles, THE ARTIST tells the story of a charismatic movie star unhappily confronting the new world of talking pictures.  Mixing comedy, romance and melodrama, THE ARTIST is itself an example of the form it celebrates: a black-and-white silent film that relies on images, actors and music to weave its singular spell.

The Weinstein Company presents THE ARTIST, written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and produced by Thomas Langmann.  Starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle, Beth Grant, Ed Lauter, Joel Murray, and Ken Davitan. With Uggie as The Dog.

ABOUT THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

The Weinstein Company (TWC) is a multimedia production and distribution company launched in October 2005 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films in 1979. TWC also encompasses Dimension Films, the genre label founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, which has released such popular franchises as SCREAM, SPY KIDS and SCARY MOVIE. Together TWC and Dimension Films have released a broad range of mainstream, genre and specialty films that have been commercial and critical successes, including Tom Hooper’s THE KING’S SPEECH, winner of four 2011 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture.

Since 2005, TWC and Dimension Films have released such films as GRINDHOUSE; I’M NOT THERE; THE GREAT DEBATERS; VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA; THE READER; THE ROAD; HALLOWEEN; THE PAT TILLMAN STORY; PIRANHA 3D; INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS; A SINGLE MAN; BLUE VALENTINE; THE COMPANY MEN; MIRAL; SCRE4M; SUBMARINE; DIRTY GIRL; APOLLO 18; and OUR IDIOT BROTHER. Currently in release are SARAH’S KEY; I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT; and SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN 4D. Upcoming releases include MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, PIRANHA 3DD; THE ARTIST; W.E.; and THE IRON LADY.

TWC is also active in television production, with credits including the Emmy® nominated and Peabody Award winning reality series Project Runway, the VH1 reality series Mob Wives, and the critically acclaimed HBO comedy/crime series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency which also received a Peabody Award. The company is currently producing After The Runway, Project Runway All Stars and Project Accessory. The company currently has 17 series in different stages of development, including Marco Polo, a scripted historical series about the great explorer; and The Nanny Diaries, being adapted for ABC by Amy Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls).

###

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon