CLOUD ATLAS: Lana Wachowsky & Tom Tykwer & Andy Wachowsky: OCT 26

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cloud-atlas-poised-international-comeback-389267



Cloud Atlas
  Poised for International Comeback

 The fantasy epic grosses more than
 $10 million in its first international
 berths in Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.

  by Scott Roxborough
  6:39 AM PST 11/12/2012

   



COLOGNE, Germany – Cloud Atlas  may have fallen to earth domestically but the fantasy epic could be reborn oversees if its performance in Russia and Ukraine is any indication.

The ambitious multilayered drama directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and German helmer Tom Tykwer grossed $9.71 million in Russia and Ukraine over the weekend, the first two territories on its international roll out. Together, the two Eastern European markets outperformed Cloud Atlas ' U.S. bow, where the Warner Bros. title earned about $9.6 million on its opening weekend.

The film's impressive $9.1 million (RUB 282 million) opener in Russia, on more than 1,400 screens, was enough to secure the number one slot in the territory. The film beat out all competitors including Ben Affleck's Argo,  which knocked Cloud Atlas  into second slot in its U.S. debut. Cloud Atlas ' Russian bow, is blockbuster size for the territory. The new James Bond, Skyfall,  opened at $8.6 million in Russia.

“I always believed in the film...we treated it like a blockbuster in Russia and tremendous support from the exhibitors and and our studio partner 20th Century Fox Russia,” Alexander van Dulmen, whose A Film Russia released Cloud Atlas.  “It was a tremendous marketing achievement. Personally, I'm extremely pleased that a brainy movie like this one has done so well in Russia.”

Van Dulmen also praised Ukrainian distributor B&H Film who bowed Cloud Atlas  on 120 screens.

Cloud Atlas ' strong performance in Russia bodes well for the film as its picks up its international roll-out. X Verleih, the distribution arm of Cloud Atlas ' Berlin-based producers X Filme, will bow the film on around 600 screens in Germany November 15. The release, which X Verleih is handling together with Warner Bros. Germany, is a tentpole equivalent in the territory. Sony Pictures released Skyfall  on 789 copies in Germany.

Commenting on Cloud Atlas ' strong international start, the film's producers, Stefan Arndt and Grant Hill, said they were “delighted that our the first international  releases are repaying our belief in this special film.” In addition to Russia and Ukraine, Cloud Atlas  pulled in an additional $1 million from Turkey.

All eyes are now on Germany, where Cloud Atlas  will have to face off against Skyfall.  The new Bond has delivered the best first and second weekend ever for the franchise in Germany and has sold some 4 million tickets so far in the territory.

Argo,  which debuted at number six in Germany on 150 copies, looks less threatening to Cloud Atlas  here.  The German release of 3-D actioner Dredd,  which Universum is bowing together with Disney next weekend, however, could siphon off a few German sci-fi fans that would otherwise end up in the Cloud Atlas  camp.

In the U.S., Cloud Atlas  has so far grossed around $23 million after 17 days.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Cloud Atlas
   Release dates


Canada 8 September 2012 (Toronto International Film Festival)
Canada 26 October 2012 
India 26 October 2012 
Turkey 26 October 2012 
USA 26 October 2012 
Pakistan 27 October 2012 

Netherlands 5 November 2012 (Amsterdam Film Week)

Belarus 8 November 2012 
Kazakhstan 8 November 2012 
Russia 8 November 2012 
Bulgaria 9 November 2012 
Iceland 9 November 2012 

Germany 15 November 2012 

Czech Republic 22 November 2012 
Greece 22 November 2012 
Hungary 22 November 2012 
Slovenia 22 November 2012 

Lithuania 23 November 2012 
Poland 23 November 2012 

Netherlands 29 November 2012 
Portugal 29 November 2012 
Thailand 29 November 2012 

Estonia 30 November 2012 
Sweden 30 November 2012 

Brazil 25 December 2012 
Norway 26 December 2012 
Chile 27 December 2012 

Hong Kong 3 January 2013 
Argentina 3 January 2013 
Italy 3 January 2013 

Denmark 17 January 2013 
Singapore 17 January 2013 

Australia 21 February 2013 

Ireland 22 February 2013 
Spain 22 February 2013 
UK 22 February 2013 

Belgium 13 March 2013 
France 13 March 2013 
Japan 15 March 2013  

[Front-Ranger]

I'm enjoying the book. The first story was a bit of a slog, but once I was 20 pages in it became engaging, when Autua appeared. I love his use of I: "You kill I."

Here's a lovely passage from the second story where Bruges is being described:

"Sixsmith...arrive in that six o'clock in the morning gnossiennesque hour. Lose yourself in the city's rickety streets, blind canals, wrought iron gates, uninhabited courtyards--may I go on? Why thank you--leery Gothic carapaces, Ararat roofs, shrubbery tufted brick spires, medeival overhangs, laundry sagging from windows, cobbled whirlpools that suck your eye in, clockwork princes and chipped princesses striking their hours, sooty doves, and three or four octaves of bells, some sober, some bright."

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

I'm enjoying the book. The first story was a bit of a slog, but once I was 20 pages in it became engaging, when Autua appeared. I love his use of I: "You kill I."

Here's a lovely passage from the second story where Bruges is being described:

"Sixsmith...arrive in that six o'clock in the morning gnossiennesque hour. Lose yourself in the city's rickety streets, blind canals, wrought iron gates, uninhabited courtyards--may I go on? Why thank you--leery Gothic carapaces, Ararat roofs, shrubbery tufted brick spires, medeival overhangs, laundry sagging from windows, cobbled whirlpools that suck your eye in, clockwork princes and chipped princesses striking their hours, sooty doves, and three or four octaves of bells, some sober, some bright."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnossiennes_(Satie)

Gnossiennes (Satie)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Gnossienne" is the name given to several piano pieces by the French composer Erik Satie in the late 19th century.


Characteristics

Satie's coining of the word "gnossienne" was one of the rare occasions when a composer used a new term to indicate a new "type" of composition. Satie had and would use many novel names for his compositions ("vexations", "croquis et agaceries" and so on). "Ogive," for example, had been the name of an architectural element until Satie used it as the name for a composition, the Ogives.  "Gnossienne," however, was a word that did not exist before Satie used it as a title for a composition. The word appears to be derived from "gnosis"; Satie was involved in gnostic sects and movements at the time that he began to compose the Gnossiennes. However, some published versions claim that the word derives from Cretan "knossos" or "gnossus" and link the Gnossiennes to Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur myth. Several archeological sites relating to that theme were famously excavated around the time that Satie composed the Gnossiennes.

The Gnossiennes were composed by Satie in the decade following the composition of the Trois Sarabandes  (1887) and the Trois Gymnopédies  (1888). Like these Sarabandes and Gymnopédies, the Gnossiennes are often considered dances. It is not certain that this qualification comes from Satie himself – the sarabande and the Gymnopaedia were at least historically known as dances.

The musical vocabulary of the Gnossiennes is a continuation of that of the Gymnopédies  (a development that had started with the 1886 Ogives → Sarabandes → Gymnopédies → Gnossiennes ) later leading to more harmonic experimentation in compositions like the Danses Gothiques.  These series of compositions are all at the core of Satie's characteristic 19th century style, and in this sense differ from his early salon compositions (like the 1885 "Waltz" compositions published in 1887), his turn-of-the-century cabaret compositions (like the Je te Veux  Waltz), and his post-Schola Cantorum piano solo compositions, starting with the Préludes flasques in 1912.


(and etc.)

[Front-Ranger]

Great word! I'm just POed that I can't use it in Words With Friends. Too many letters. I discovered another great word today...wartycabbage. Don't you love it?

Suddenly I think I understand why Cloud Atlas underperformed at the box office recently. It seems like many of my friends were saving up their movie watching time for Twilight Zone. Eventually it will find its audience I'm convinced!

[Front-Ranger]

Congratulations to the Wachowskys and Tykwer for the Golden Globe nomination for Best Score!

[Front-Ranger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnossiennes_(Satie)

Gnossiennes (Satie)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Gnossienne" is the name given to several piano pieces by the French composer Erik Satie in the late 19th century.


Characteristics

Satie's coining of the word "gnossienne" was one of the rare occasions when a composer used a new term to indicate a new "type" of composition. Satie had and would use many novel names for his compositions ("vexations", "croquis et agaceries" and so on). "Ogive," for example, had been the name of an architectural element until Satie used it as the name for a composition, the Ogives.  "Gnossienne," however, was a word that did not exist before Satie used it as a title for a composition. The word appears to be derived from "gnosis"; Satie was involved in gnostic sects and movements at the time that he began to compose the Gnossiennes. However, some published versions claim that the word derives from Cretan "knossos" or "gnossus" and link the Gnossiennes to Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur myth. Several archeological sites relating to that theme were famously excavated around the time that Satie composed the Gnossiennes.

The Gnossiennes were composed by Satie in the decade following the composition of the Trois Sarabandes  (1887) and the Trois Gymnopédies  (1888). Like these Sarabandes and Gymnopédies, the Gnossiennes are often considered dances. It is not certain that this qualification comes from Satie himself – the sarabande and the Gymnopaedia were at least historically known as dances.

The musical vocabulary of the Gnossiennes is a continuation of that of the Gymnopédies  (a development that had started with the 1886 Ogives → Sarabandes → Gymnopédies → Gnossiennes ) later leading to more harmonic experimentation in compositions like the Danses Gothiques.  These series of compositions are all at the core of Satie's characteristic 19th century style, and in this sense differ from his early salon compositions (like the 1885 "Waltz" compositions published in 1887), his turn-of-the-century cabaret compositions (like the Je te Veux  Waltz), and his post-Schola Cantorum piano solo compositions, starting with the Préludes flasques in 1912.
(and etc.)

This should have been included in the infographic Emotions For Which There is no word in English.

[Front-Ranger]

Wow, I thought this would be sure to get some Oscar nominations, for Best Makeup if nothing else. What happened? 

[serious crayons]

Wow, I thought this would be sure to get some Oscar nominations, for Best Makeup if nothing else. What happened? 

You're not alone!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/01/11/oscars_nominations_2013_the_true_true_snub_is_cloud_atlas.html


Slate
This Year’s Real Oscars Snub? Cloud Atlas.
By Chris Wade
Posted Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, at 11:12 AM ET

Following the announcement of the 2013 Academy Award nominations yesterday morning, Oscars pundits rushed to round up the year’s biggest snubs. Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow wasn’t nominated for Best Director. Neither were predicted nominees Ben Affleck and Tom Hooper. Matthew McConaughey wasn’t honored for giving the performance of his career in Magic Mike. But no one is talking about what I think is this year’s biggest omission: Cloud Atlas got screwed.

What makes this especially frustrating is that no one, not even the people who financed the film or those who put it in theaters, appears to be fighting for this movie, which is easily one of the most ambitious and arguably one of the most cinematic films of the year. At this point it seems to exist purely in some fever dream; it was unceremoniously shuffled in and out of cineplexes by an apparently embarrassed distributor dealing with one of the year’s biggest box office flops. It was largely derided by critics who, save for some notable exceptions, seemed unwilling to engage with this mesmerizing film, at best finding it a goofily endearing “big weird mess,” as Slate’s own Dan Kois argued in our Spoiler Special.

Though it is impractical-bordering-on-impossible to summarize the plot, the film weaves together six stories across 500 years, elliptically connecting them through themes of bondage, freedom, passion, and jealousy. It features a diverse collection of characters played across race and gender by Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, and others, often so heavily transformed by makeup it’s hard to tell who’s who. It asks how our actions resonate across time, and many segments transition through clever thematic juxtapositions that seek to comment on the cyclical nature of human suffering and joy. If it sounds heady, it is—and also thrilling, romantic, frustrating, funny, enigmatic, and, most of all, sincere.

That sincerity is, as I argued with regard to the Wachowskis’ previous work, one of the things that turns people off most about this movie. The three directors adapted David Mitchell’s incredibly elaborate novel with an earnest dedication to its questions. That those questsions are not then answered might be easy to interpret as artistic failure.

It’s true that the Oscars often ignore the most artistically challenging films. The Master was only nominated in the acting categories; Holy Motors was shut out altogether. There’s an irony in seeing the Academy celebrate the dreamlike power of the movies at every one of their ceremonies and then pass over the films that actually draw on that power most brilliantly. But it’s particularly disappointing when they ignore directors, like the Wachowskis, who do so in the language of Hollywood, with Oscar-friendly stars and terrific action sequences along with heartfelt emotional storylines. What I suspect is unforgivably missing, as far as the Academy is concerned, is the thematic hand-holding that will make sure every audience member knows “what it all means.”

If there’s one thing the Academy hates, it’s mystery. Films that underline every emotional payoff and moral truth get recognition, but movies that indulge at all in the weird and the sublime get snubbed, even when they have Oscar pedigrees, even when they try to do everything the Academy otherwise celebrates. It makes Oscar Nominations Day a frustrating affair every year. But clearly I’m just one little Old Un, yibberin’ and yarnin’, sivvyin’ for the true true.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Yes, they certainly have been snubbed, but then again it is the "Academy" so they should take that as a badge of honor.