Film and TV picks: Martin Scorsese classics, Creation Of The Gods, Wes Anderson short films
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Robert De Niro in a still from Taxi Driver.
PHOTO: COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES
Scorsese season at The Projector
Ahead of acclaimed Hollywood director Martin Scorsese’s new movie Killers Of The Flower Moon’s release in Singapore cinemas on Oct 19, indie cinema The Projector is holding limited screenings for three of the auteur’s most famous works – Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and Goodfellas (1990) – in a retrospective cheekily termed “Scorseason”.
All three movies star veteran actor Robert De Niro, who shares a fulfilling cinematic bond with the film-maker.
Taxi Driver (M18, 114 minutes, Saturday, 5.30pm), a neo-noir classic about war veteran and New York City cab driver Travis Bickle (De Niro) on the brink of insanity, took home the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976.
De Niro went on to win Best Actor at the Oscars for biographical sports drama Raging Bull (NC16, 129 minutes, Oct 11, 8pm), in which he played real-life boxer Jake LaMotta.
Fans can also catch the gangster flick Goodfellas (M18, 145 minutes, Oct 15, 4.30pm), a biographical film about the rise and fall of mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his associates including Jimmy Conway (De Niro).
Where: The Projector, 05-00 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road str.sg/icXY
MRT: Nicoll Highway/Lavender
When: Till Oct 15, various times
Admission: $15 for a standard ticket
Info:
Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms (NC16)
148 minutes
Chinese blockbuster movie Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms stars Fei Xiang (left).
PHOTO: MM2 ENTERTAINMENT
Catch yesteryear superstar Fei Xiang, also known as Kris Phillips, returning to the spotlight in the new Chinese fantasy period blockbuster Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms, based on the ancient Ming Dynasty novel Investiture Of The Gods.
The 62-year-old Chinese-American singer-actor plays the fabled King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, a villainous emperor whose favourite consort is Su Daji (Narana Erdyneeva), a bewitching fox spirit disguised as a woman.
Their dalliance incurs the wrath of the gods and threatens to unleash chaos upon the mortal realm.
To save the world, the gods send Jiang Ziya (Huang Bo) on a journey to seek out people who can help to take down King Zhou.
Now showing in cinemas, Kingdom Of Storms is the first in a trilogy. Two more films are expected to be released over the next two years.
Wes Anderson adapts Roald Dahl’s tales
Netflix
The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar stars Benedict Cumberbatch (left) and Ralph Fiennes.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
Those who love director Wes Anderson’s whimsical and colourful style cannot miss out on his collection of four short films that recently premiered on Netflix.
The four films – The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar (PG), The Rat Catcher (PG), Poison (PG) and The Swan (PG13) – are adaptations of British writer Roald Dahl’s short stories.
Anderson previously adapted Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox as a 2009 critically acclaimed stop-motion animated comedy.
The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar (39 minutes, five stars), based on a 1977 tale of the same title, is a picture book that is a blissful marriage of Dahl’s prose and Anderson’s aesthetic. In it, English actor Ralph Fiennes appears as Dahl.
From his Buckinghamshire cottage, he introduces the audience to the rich idler Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch) of 1950s London, who in turn reads aloud from the journal of Calcutta doctor ZZ Chatterjee (Dev Patel).
The remaining three shorts (17 minutes each, four stars) have their shining moments too.
On screen, Dahl’s writing comes to life when it is at its most sinister.
Of the four stories in Anderson’s collection, two are about horrible people who are horrible in peculiarly English ways. The Swan and Poison are, in fact, included in a Dahl collection of short stories titled Cruelty. The Rat Catcher seems to be a description of an eccentric before it also takes a macabre turn.
