A heavily-redacted biopic about Freddie Mercury that omits a substantial part of the singer's life? Yes, that is possible—in China (among other countries). Morally cleansing the story of “Bohemian Rhapsody” to conceal some uncomfortable (for some) truth is unfortunately part of the orthodoxy in this otherwise grand, wonderful, but sometimes perplexing, country that is China. But this could've happened in Russia, Pakistan or around Mike Pence's dinner table, to be sure. Before its release, the biopic, which is devoted to Queen's vivacious lead singer's life

Agnès Varda, gone? Is this even possible? Wasn’t she the one renewing herself with every decade, with every year, always growing new skin, always morphing into a new language, another mode of expression, breaking barriers, making art forms flow into each other? Wasn’t she the little lady with the funny hair who started out as a photographer, commissioned by no less a luminary than Jean Vilar to document the

Korean cinema was born at a time when the peninsula was still under Japanese control (since 1910). It immediately became a tool of resistance, with communists, especially, seizing on this opportunity. Na Un-gyu directed, in 1926, the first known (but since lost) film, “Arirang.”And yet, cinema as we know it today was borne of the civil war (1950-1953), a conflict that resulted in the country being split. North Korean cinema

Labaki rising. Last year she won the Jury Prize at [...]

Narendra Modi now has his own biopic. It will come out early next month. Modi is played by actor Vivek Oberoi, with Rajendra Gupta, Prashant Narayanan, Zarina Wahab, Barkha Bisht Sengupta, Boman Irani, Darshan Kumar and Yatin Karyekar, among others, in the supporting roles. This biopic was directed by Omung Kumar, who has earlier helmed films such "Mary Kom," "Sarbjit and Bhoomi," two of which were based on

It’s 1920 and Ireland is at war with the British during the War of Independence. Gypo (Victor McLaglen) snitches on a sinn fein militant, eventually getting fingered, and attacked. He stumbles into a church and dies. Directed by John Ford, "The Informer" was made in spite of the producers (RKO Pictures) having major doubts about its commercial prospects. And yet, the film was hailed, at the time of its release

(TV/Netflix) "Twin," a much-anticipated drama series that includes the dramatic and picturesque settings of Lofoten in Norway, will be shown at Series Mania, a festival that's launching in Lille France, tomorrow. The lead actor is Kristofer Hivju, best-known outside of Norway for his role as Tormund Giantsbane in "Game of Thrones." Besides starring in the series Hivju, also co-created it. Series Mania is a festival