When you walk into a videostore or check up on your Netflix queue, it’s generally a crapshoot finding new movies you haven’t heard much about. Here at The Filmsmith, we’ve made a habit of letting you in on some of the underground releases every week, movies you might not have heard of otherwise. But we typically can only get to one a week, and there are dozens of others making their way to home video, some for the first time. Here’s a list of a few DVD companies who have consistently put out good films – to such a degree that if you see something released by them, you can bet it’s probably top notch stuff. Continue reading
The Filmsmith- Antlers Holds Up a Monster Mirror to America’s Ailments
- The Place Beyond the Pines vs The Cool
- George Romero: More to Him Than Zombies
- The Florida Project: True Movie Magic
- Lessons for 2017 Superhero Films: Spider-Man (2002)
- mother! is the Allegorical, Social Commentary Horror Film 2017 Deserves
- Fire, Flashbangs, Filmmaking: Inauguration 2017
- Star Wars: The Force Fights Nerds
- The Dark Knight Rises: The one where Nolan disappoints
- The Amazing Spider-Man lives up to its name
The Filmsmith 
Public Enemies was plagued by cast and crew tensions, technical blunders
A source at the Edinburgh International Film Festival said that technical details plagued the production of Public Enemies, thanks to Michael Mann’s mistreatment of the crew and poor management skills.
Crew members were financially and personally poorly treated and simple technological protocols (correct cables, lenses) were flouted. The results were disastrous: A production designer quit, Johnny Depp had Mann apologize to the crew for his behavior, and the studio spent “$20-30 million dollars” in post-production trying to save the film. Depp “hated Mann” for the way he ran the production.
It seems the crew got the last laugh though: The same source said that “thousands of dollars in office supplies” from Public Enemies were stolen and put to use for a film currently at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. “You could say it’s a Michael Mann financed film.”
I’m a huge fan of Mann’s Heat and Collateral, but was dismayed by the poor production values of Public Enemies. Though the film came out a year ago, I think it’s important to know the history surrounding a production so as to understand a film’s successes or failures. There is the possibility that the person I spoke to could be some disgruntled crew member out to tarnish Mann’s image, but this person’s comments seem a reasonable explanation for the unusually bad quality of such a major Hollywood film.
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Posted in Edinburgh International Film Festival, Filmmaking, News
Tagged Cinema, Edinburgh International Film Festival, EIFF, Film, Filmmaking, Gossip, Insider, Johnny Depp, Michael Mann, Movie, Production, Public Enemies