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Spread

Hold me. Thrill me. Kiss me. Kill me. The films of David Mackenzie envision life as a never-ending whirlwind of experience, a cyclone of emotion constantly spinning out of control. These feelings are heightened and externalized through melodrama, yet they can also simmer under the surface like hidden secrets waiting to explode. While his exhausted characters never fit into one social class – pop stars, artisan chefs and thuggish bruisers all take center stage – each sees the world in a similarly warped way. They are confused by inadequacy, defined by repression, purposefully solitary, and bordering on self-destruction. But most importantly they are also eager to transcend this unhappiness, especially after finding inspiration in another equally tormented individual. One must simply desire the opportunity to grow, to live, to survive.

Mackenzie’s key battleground is the romantic relationship. Incited by knowing eye contact and waged through a sensual collision of skin,...

Jesse Armstrong and Gunhild Enger are amongst the ten film-makers/animators highlighted by Ecounters Short Film and Animation Festival as rising stars.Scroll down for full list

Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival has unveiled the ten film-makers and animators selected for its Future Encounters strand.

Launched in 2011, the Future Encounters strand aims to highlight ten upcoming filmmakers and animators whose work demonstrates a distinctive, cinematic and artistic vision that makes them ones to watch at this year’s festival.

The list includes Jesse Armstrong, the co-writer of TV series Peep Show and Chris Morris film Four Lions, who has made his directorial debut with No Kaddish in Carmarthen, a short comedy drama about three teenagers who find themselves in a love triangle.

Other on the list include actor Jonny Philips (The Last Great Wilderness) and Chloe Robichaud, whose debut feature Sarah Prefers To Run is in competition at the BFI London Film Festival.

Gunhild Enger from Norway...

Oh man! You take Eva Green (Camelot, and soon to be in Dark Shadows) and Ewan McGregor (Star Wars, Trainspotting and one of my fave movies Miss Potter) and put them together, I am sure it's going to be greatness! Here's a bit about the movie for you all.

Perfect Sense is directed by British director David Mackenzie, who previously directed Spread, Hallam Foe, Asylum, Young Adam and The Last Great Wilderness. The screenplay was written by award winning Danish writer Kim Fupz Aakeson, of films like Okay, In Your Hands, Pure Hearts, Little Soldier and A Somewhat Gentle Man previously. This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and was picked up by IFC Films for distribution. However, they haven't set the Us release date yet, as far as we know. Stay tuned!

Here's a synopsis for you all and then the trailer.

Green plays Susan, an...

David Mackenzie's an interesting sort of director. Ever since his debut a decade ago or so with the British indie "The Last Great Wilderness," he's created a series of solid, consistently interesting dramas, none of which are bad (though "Spread" comes close), but none of which are truly excellent either (the underrated "Hallam Foe" is the next best thing, however). But he's always had interesting taste, been able to get strong performances out of his casts, and marched to the beat of his own drum, and we've always believed that he'd knock something out of the park one of these…...

Today we have the trailer photos and poster for Perfect Sense, starring Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) and Eva Green (Casino Royale), about an epidemic that robs people of their sensory perceptions. This British movie that reunites McGregor with Ewen Bremner for the first time since Trainspotting will premiere at this years Sundance Film Festival on January 24th.

A poetic and magnetic love story about two people who start to fall in love just as the world begins to fall apart. Green plays Susan, an epidemiologist recently out of a relationship gone sour; McGregor is Michael, the charismatic chef who sweeps Susan off her feet and shows her that not all guys are a-holes; except for one tiny problem: pandemic is threatening to change the face of humanity forever.

Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner, Perfect Sense

Eva Green, Perfect Sense

Perfect Sense is directed by British director David Mackenzie, who previously directed Spread,...

By Neil Pedley

This week's trip to the multiplex offers a jaunt around the globe where, amongst other things, there's a case of mistaken ethnicity in Boston, Nic Cage gets another wig fitted in Thailand, there's whimsy and surrealism in Scotland and Matthew McConaughey is right at home in Malibu, where he might finally have found something he does well, maybe.

"August Evening"

Strained emotional bonds and the transitory nature of the life of an illegal immigrant provide the backdrop for Chris Eska's quietly affecting family drama that stars Pedro Castaneda as an aging farmhand who loses his job at a chicken farm in a sleepy Texas town, forcing he and his devoted daughter-in-law (Veronica Loren) to relocate to San Antonio to stay with his older children and the grandchildren he never knew he had. As Alison Willmore pointed out in last week's Lunchbox, Castaneda is a first-time actor...

CANNES -- Magnolia Pictures and Red Envelope Entertainment have jointly acquired all North American rights to writer-director David Mackenzie's Hallam Foe, starring Jamie Bell, Sophia Myles and Ciaran Hinds. A 2008 release is planned.

Bell plays the titular Hallam Foe, whose knack for voyeurism reveals his darkest fears and his most peculiar desires. Driven to expose the true cause of his mother's death, he instead finds himself searching the rooftops of the city of Edinburgh for love.

"Mackenzie has skillfully crafted the first-ever Oedipal rom-com thriller," Magnolia head of acquisitions Tom Quinn said. "It's sexy, adventurous, intimate and delightful all at once."

Mackenzie's films include Asylum, Young Adam and The Last Great Wilderness.

The deal was negotiated by Quinn and head of business affairs Jason Janego with Ana Ayesta and Andrew Orr from Independent.