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5 Great & 5 Disappointing English-Language Debuts By Foreign-Language Directors

  • By The Playlist Staff
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  • February 28, 2013 11:01 AM
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  • 11 Comments
Features
This Friday sees the release of the much-anticipated "Stoker." The melodrama would probably be of note just because it stars Mia Wasikowksa and Nicole Kidman, but it's even more so because it marks the English-language debut of acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook, the man behind "Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance," "Oldboy" and "Thirst," among others. The film lands hot on the heels of "The Last Stand," from Park's countryman Kim Ji-Woon, and a few months from the English-language debut of another Korean filmmaker, Bong Joon-Ho's "Snowpiercer." The three are only the latest international filmmakers to seek wider audiences and acclaim by making a film in the English language.
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More: Features, Feature, Stoker, Wong Kar-wai, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Walter Salles, Chan-wook Park, Fernando Meirelles, John Woo, Alejandro Amenabar, Michelangelo Antonioni, Lars von Trier

Scott Cooper Out, Walter Salles In To Direct 'The Man In The Rockefeller Suit'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • January 31, 2013 3:17 PM
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  • 0 Comments
News
For a while there, riding in the wake of the success of "Crazy Heart," director Scott Cooper put his name to a not insignificant number of potential projects, before finally mounting "Out Of The Furnace" last year. And it looks like one of those movies is moving on without him.
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More: Walter Salles, The Man In The Rockefeller Suit, Scott Cooper

Walter Salles Talks The Influence Of Fathers In 'On The Road,' Working With Jose Rivera, Writing A Book About Jia Zhang Ke & More

  • By Erik McClanahan
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  • December 20, 2012 12:26 PM
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  • 2 Comments
Interviews
On the fifth floor of the Hotel deLuxe in Portland, Oregon, Walter Salles seems content to talk at length about cinema. But alas, two publicists, worried the loquacious “On the Road” director will miss his train up to Seattle for another round of press and screenings of his latest film, a long-in-the-works adaptation of the seminal beat novel by Jack Kerouac, had to cut the conversation off. As I packed up my recording equipment, Salles took the opportunity to politely discuss the proper sound levels for projecting the film to the two publicists.
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More: Walter Salles, José Rivera, On The Road, In Search Of On The Road, Zhang Ke Jia

Review: Beat Classic 'On The Road' Comes To The Screen In Lustrous-But-Long-Winded Fashion

  • By James Rocchi
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  • December 18, 2012 6:34 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Reviews
Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" has been heralded for decades: an important novel, a cultural signifier, a sociological landmark, a cracking good read. It's also been considered "unfilmable" -- but now Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries," "Dark Water") brings the novel to the screen, and "The Motorcycle Diaries" turns out to be a pretty good template for understanding how Salles has shot his adaptation. "On the Road," like 'Diaries,' is scenic and episodic, full of youth's passion but with a shade of the future yet to come dimming the brightness of its vision, as a charismatic young man travels with another young man, saying little but watching everything along the way.
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More: On The Road, Review, Walter Salles, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley

James Franco & Joseph Gordon-Levitt Auditioned For The Leads In ‘On The Road’ & More From Screenwriter José Rivera

  • By Rodrigo Perez
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  • October 29, 2012 4:19 PM
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  • 16 Comments
Features
While the screenings were canceled last evening because of Hurricane Sandy, BAMCinematek’s IFC Sneaks was in full force on Friday and Saturday nights. Playing seven IFC Films pictures that won’t be in theaters until later this year or 2013 (Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone In Love" and Olivier Assayas' "Something In The Air” for example), on Saturday night, BAM and IFC Films unveiled the New York premiere of Walter Salles’ “On The Road.” Salles’ long-time-coming adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s seminal Beat Generation novel was a five year work in progress, and on Saturday evening BAM screened the newly edited 124 minute version (the iteration that ran at Cannes was 2 hours and 20 minutes and some of the main criticisms of that version was its longwinded approach) that will open in theaters in December.
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More: José Rivera, On The Road, Walter Salles, James Franco, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

New, Shorter Cut Of 'On The Road' Will Premiere At The Toronto International Film Festival

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 28, 2012 1:49 PM
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  • 5 Comments
News
Decades in the making, the Francis Ford Coppola produced, Walter Salles directed "On The Road" finally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to a mixed response. The adaptation of Jack Kerouac's seminal novel of a generation was never the easiest thing to bring to the screen, and our review by James Rocchi from the Croisette called it "lustrous but long winded." And indeed, running nearly 2 hours and 20 minutes, this writer was definitely checking his watch during the film. Now as it heads to TIFF, it looks like Salles has hit the editing bay one more time for a new, slimmer cut.
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More: On The Road, TIFF, Walter Salles

Cannes: Walter Salles Talks The Long Journey To Make 'On The Road'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 27, 2012 1:17 PM
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  • 4 Comments
Features
Given that the source material was once described by Truman Capote with the immortal epithet "That's not writing, that's typing," and is a generally unruly thing to adapt, it's not surprising that it's taken the best part of half-a-century to make a film of Jack Kerouac's beat classic "On The Road." Plans were in the works as early as the publication date in 1957 (Kerouac wanted to co-star in the film with Marlon Brando), and documentarian D.A. Pennebaker came close, but it's Francis Ford Coppola who's been the driving force, developing the project since the release of "Apocalypse Now" in 1979.
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More: On The Road, Walter Salles, Cannes Film Festival, Interviews

Walter Salles Working On Two New Screenplays, 'Terra' With Gael García Bernal & One With His 'Central Station' Star

  • By The Playlist
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  • May 26, 2012 1:31 PM
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  • 1 Comment
News
Brazilian director Walter Salles' path to adapting Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" has been a long and winding one that's taken about seven years to come to fruition. And while reviews out of Cannes about his new picture starring Garett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart and more have been decidely mixed (read our review here), the film will finally arrive on U.S. shores in the late fall.
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More: Walter Salles, Terra, On The Road, Gael García Bernal

Cannes Review: Beat Classic 'On The Road' Comes To The Screen In Lustrous-But-Long-Winded Fashion

  • By James Rocchi
  • |
  • May 23, 2012 7:29 AM
  • |
  • 15 Comments
Reviews
Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" has been heralded for decades: an important novel, a cultural signifier, a sociological landmark, a cracking good read. It's also been considered "unfilmable" -- but now Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries," "Dark Water") brings the novel to the screen, and "The Motorcycle Diaries" turns out to be a pretty good template for understanding how Salles has shot his adaptation. "On the Road," like 'Diaries,' is scenic and episodic, full of youth's passion but with a shade of the future yet to come dimming the brightness of its vision, as a charismatic young man travels with another young man, saying little but watching everything along the way.
Read More »
More: Cannes Film Festival, On The Road, Review, Walter Salles, Francis Ford Coppola, Sam Riley, Garret Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Terrence Howard, Elisabeth Moss, Tom Sturridge

Plenty Of New, Vibrant, Sun-Kissed Images From Walter Salles' 'On The Road'

  • By Simon Dang
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  • May 20, 2012 9:17 AM
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  • 7 Comments
News
It feels like we've been tracking Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's seminal Beat Generation work, "On The Road," for years now, but come this Wednesday we'll finally have word on how the Brazilian director has fared with the cult favorite. Everything we've seen so far has been highly promising, a notion personified by the young but talented cast led by the duo of Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund.
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More: On The Road, Walter Salles, Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Stewart

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