A few images from Danish film-maker Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising which premièred at The Venice film festival and plays at the London BFI festival in October '09. Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre in Casino Royale) stars as Harald.

Refn is best known for the cult Pusher trilogy and more recently directing Bronson.

Mute slave Harald escapes his Scottish masters with the help of 10 year old Are, torturing and killing them before joining a band of dispossessed Vikings. They go to sea, determined to return to Scandinavia to fight the spread of Christianity, but for Harald the journey is also a personal one to discover his own origins. Caught in a terrible storm, the group drift for 40 days until, on the verge of death, they find themselves in a freshwater river. The land seems at once strange yet familiar.

When they come under attack by unseen assailants, the groups' quest for their homeland takes on a bitter urgency as one-by-one they succumb to the onslaught, dying at the hands of the invisibles. Worse, they are no clearer about where they are or if this place even exists outside their imagination. Have they finally reached the new world, or Valhalla?"

Valhalla Rising - Promo Trailer

quietearth.us has a couple of trailers that are worth checking out as well.

Trailer for 2009's Dorian Gray direced by Oliver Parker (St. Trinian's - remake) an adapted from Oscar Wilde's classic tale "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

Dorian Gray stars Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Maryam d'Abo, Emilia Fox,Caroline Goodall and Ben Chaplin

Dorian Gray - Images

Oliver Parker (St. Trinian's - remake) directs this adaption of Oscar Wilde's classic tale "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

After having his portrait painted by the artist Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) no longer seems to be effected by the ravages of time. However the painting is a different story, Dorian's debauchery is reflected in the ever increasing ugliness of the painting.

Dorian Gray stars Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Maryam d'Abo, Emilia Fox,Caroline Goodall and Ben Chaplin

Dorian Gray - Trailer

Images from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which stars Brad Pitt, Shosanna Dreyfus, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Jacky Ido and B.J. Novak.

In the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as “the basterds,” Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own....

Inglourious Basterds - Trailer

www.inglouriousbasterds-movie.com

Images from Michael Mann's (L.A. Takedown, Heat, Ali, Miami Vice) Public Enemies.

The Feds led by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) during a booming crime wave in the 1930s. Marion Cotillard stars as John Dillinge's girl Billie Frechette.

www.publicenemies.net

Gustav Deutsch is a maestro of found footage filmmaking. In this enterprise, he travels to film archives worldwide, researches, and excavates clips from obscure films, and reassembles them into montage sequences that create compelling visual narratives organized around larger thematic concerns.

In FILM IST. a girl & a gun, the director weaves together a stunning array of color-tinted images from a variety of genres, including scientific, erotic, fiction, and actuality films. Deutsch also obtained privileged access to the film archives of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, enabling him to incorporate sequences from especially rare erotic and sex films into his latest oeuvre. Deutsch adroitly assembles a precisely constructed, mesmerizing ebb and flow of images into extraordinary montage sequences divided into five acts: Genesis, Paradeisos, Eros, Thanatos, and Symposion. 

- notes from Jon Gartenberg Tribeca 09, if your attendig the festival you still have one more chance to see the film Sat, May 02, 11:45AM.

First still from director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) upcoming movie Away We Go, featuring Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph).

Synopsis: A couple who is expecting their first child travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover "home" on their own terms for the first time. (IMDB)

Away we go also features Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight) and Jeff Daniels (Dumb & Dumber) amongst the cast.

Images from X-Men Origins: Wolverine which is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Will.i.am, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, Dominic Monaghan and Ryan Reynolds.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Trailer

www.x-menorigins.com | www.xmenoriginswolverine.co.uk | MySpace

A small van pulls up outside a recently vacated Château. The occupants carry barrels of industrial waste down into the catacombs beneath to dump. While down there, two of the men decide to rob the coffins of the houses former occupants, the recently deceased Catherine Valmont and her mother. While they pry jewels from the bodies a barrel of the waste tips over and the contents run towards the body of Catherine, releasing gas as it does so. The waste it seems has the unexpected effect of resurrecting the dead, now Catherine is back and she is terribly hungry!

Jean Rollin’s (Les Demoniaques, Requiem pour un Vampire), 1982 cult classic La Morte Vivante (The Living Dead Girl) finds him firmly in territory he loves, with yet another tale of lesbian vampires. This film how ever lacks some of the visual style and inventive locations of some of his other work. How ever the story itself is slightly tighter and more controlled, so while it loses in some area’s it gains in others.

Perhaps Rollins most visceral film, as it’s more definable as straight horror than his other more expressionistic, surreal, dark erotica. With simple yet fairly effective gory effects from Benoît Lestang who would go on to work on films such as Christophe Gans Brotherhood of the Wolf and Lars von Trier's Manderlay. The gore effect here are actually quite nasty as Catherine’s vampiric tendencies are surprisingly for a Rollin film anything but erotic (Unless you’re the kind of person that likes fried penis in garlic butter). No discrete puncture wounds in the neck here, Catherine’s blood lust has her desperately chewing and ripping you to bits to get at your blood.

The tale is a simple one taking place for the most part in and around the Châteaux which was Catherine’s former home. On awakening from the dead disorientated Catherine instantly falls upon the men dumping the waste chewing out there blood. She then wanders upstairs driven partly by memories of her former life and partly in need of a snack. Finding a young female estate agent and her lover sexually compromised Catherine one again indulges her new found taste for blood. It’s not long before Barbara, Catherine’s childhood friend, turns up and after getting over the mild surprise of finding freshly chomped bodies in the house she quickly renews their friendship. Barbara quickly decides to help Catherine live on by luring victims for her to poke to death with her very long fingernails and them munch on. Meanwhile a couple of meddling Americans (mainly the wife) decide in true 80’s cheesy style to investigate the strange girl they catch a glimpse of.

The Château itself is an imposing building, although Rollin refers to it as a castle, its more akin to what we in England would call a stately home or large manor house. The interior decor which is forms the majority of the films backdrop, looks like the kind of place where many and 80’s pornographic magazine shoot would have taken place. The acting is pretty reasonable for a Rollin outing with the lovely Francoise Blanchard adding and outstanding performance in the films final scenes. The one jarring downside in the way the special effects are edited in, with a drastic cut to special effect each time, but the effects themselves while very low tech practical make-up stuff are really fun.

While I did miss some of Rollins more stylish touches from some of his other work, the film itself is one of, if not his most enjoyable and you have to love those fingernails of death.

www.encore-films.com

Buy It: hkflix.com

A car flees from pursuers through the narrow roads of the French countryside. Close on it's tail are unknown occupants in a second vehicle. Shots are fired from both cars, the fleeing car escapes down a hidden track and the pursuers are lost, but the male driver is fatally wounded. The cars remaining occupants step out of the vehicle, set it on fire and the leave the scene dressed as clowns.

Welcome to the world of cult French exploitation director Jean Rollin (Les Demoniaques, Levres de Sang, La Morte Vivante). A world seemingly populated by an endless supply of lesbians, piano players, cannibals, vampires, clowns, twins and very pretty young woman who feel restricted by having to wear clothing.

Marie-Pierre Castel stars as Marie and with twin sister Catherine not available; Mireille Dargent co-stars as her friend Michelle. The two girls who flee the car dressed as clowns at the start of the movie. So with his two young nubile female leads in place Rollin sets off on making a surreal Gothic sexploitation movie with an artistic edge.

With a run time of two hours the plot is surprisingly thin (or not when you consider it’s a Rollin film). The story sees the girls wander the country side, stealing food, a motorbike and being accidentally buried in a fresh grave. Finally after about 25 minutes (but seems like an eternity) of dialogue free "action" the girls stumble upon a seemingly deserted castle and the fun begins ...

Unfortunately for the girls the castle is not as deserted as it seems, in fact it is the home of an ancient vampire and his acolytes. After slipping out of their clown suits for some naked action the girls are disturbed by a noise and go to investigate. Its not long before they cross paths with the vampire's minions who naturally decide the best course of action is to strip the girls naked and abuse them (Well this is a sexploitation film, it’s not like they where going to offer them a cup of tea). After witnessing the drawn out abuse of two other unfortunate girls Marie and Michelle decide to flee. The problem is Marie has been bitten by a female ghoul and which ever way they run it takes them back to the castle. It appears there is no escape, at least not until more firm bosoms have been squeezed to bruising point anyway.

The plot is far too threadbare to sustain the running time, even with the sweet flesh on display (Weird to think those cute young actresses are in their 50’s now), the film drags. Normally that would be a nail in the coffin for an exploitation film, they can be crap yes, but boring is a step too far. How ever Rollin has a fantastic knack for finding brilliant locations to shoot, a great eye for the artistic and a wonderful ear for music to fit his films. Requiem Pour Un Vampire is undoubtedly a film atheistic pleasing way beyond it limited budget should allow. Rollin's surrealist and expressionist cinematic touches lift it above the dross it could have been. With great touches like moving from the outside of a castle on a beautiful French summer day to the contrastingly dark and gloomy interior where Michelle is forced to whip her friend Marie into submission. For many fans one of the most memorable scenes features Louise Dhour (Les Demoniaques) playing a grand piano in the middle of a remote graveyard.

Requiem Pour Un Vampire is both artistic and exploitative in equal measure, but there’s just not enough going on to justify its length.

Trailer | youtube.com

www.encore-films.com

In City Of Men, producer Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardner) returns to the Brazilian favelas of his Academy Award-nominated film, City of God. Growing up in a culture dictated by violence and run by street gangs, teenagers Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) have become close as brothers. With their eighteenth birthdays fast approaching, Laranjinha sets out to find the father he never met, while Acerola struggles to raise his own young son. But when they suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of a gang war, the lifelong friends are forced to confront a shocking secret from their shared past.

City Of Men- Trailer

September Dawn is the new film from Christopher Cain who is best known for the western Young Guns which strred many of the 80's young and upcomming stars.

Based on actual events September Dawn is a feature length drama that depicts the tragic encounter between a party of innocent settlers and a fanatic Mormon militia 150 years ago. This was called the Mountain Meadows Massacre. A Romeo and Juliet love story takes place against this long hidden and shameful episode in American history. The religious terrorism depicted in the film resonates in many ways with acts of mindless violence occurring across the world today. "September Dawn" is a dramatic recreation of historical events that occurred in the fall of 1857. The religious fanaticism, betrayal and subsequent massacre that serve as a background to the fictional Romeo and Juliet love story are a tragic part of America’s history.

The film stars Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Jon Gries, Taylor Handley, Huntley Ritter, Krisinda Cain, Shaun Johnston, Lolita Davidovich, Dean Cain and Terence Stamp.

The film will have a wide theatrical release in the United States and Canada on  24 August 2007, through Black Diamond Pictures.

View the trailer

www.septemberdawn.net

More sexy stills from Requiem Pour Un Vampire ...

The Review

Buy the 3 disc SE from hkflix.com

Black Sheep - trailer