Mao’s last dancer (Australia) Opening April 28 Drama. Directed by Bruce Beresford. A drama based on an autobiography by Li Cunxin. Eleven-year-old Li (Chi Cao) from a poor Chinese village is taken to Beijing by Madame Mao’s cultural delegate to study ballet. A few years later, Li is invited to perform with the Houston Ballet by its director. As the first Asian to be invited, Li soon becomes a s...

LOS ANGELES ― As far as tightly wound actresses go, Reese Witherspoon tops the list. She insists upon a strict sense of order in her life. Her production company is called Type A, a moniker her latest costar, Robert Pattinson, says fits her strong sense of self perfectly. And even when she appears to be having a spontaneous moment, lamenting that her well-orchestrated career built around an avoid...

LOS ANGELES ― Hoping to transform one of its few successful film series into a top-tier global franchise, Universal Pictures has refueled “Fast and Furious” with an international backdrop, a bigger production budget and a new genre. Audiences will witness the results of that strategy Friday when “Fast Five” debuts as the first of Hollywood’s summer season releases. The movie abandons the world o...

VIENNA (AP) ― Hollywood actor Jude Law is among the stars of “360” ― a new movie partly set in the Austrian capital in which the British heartthrob plays a man whose marriage has hit a lull. The film is directed by Fernando Meirelles and inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s play “Reigen,” or “La Ronde.” While storyline specifics are being kept under wraps, screenwriter Peter Morgan told reporters Tu...

Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movie series, is to put her studying on hold. “I’ve decided to take a bit of time off to completely finish my work on ‘Harry Potter’ … and to focus on my other professional and acting projects,” posted Watson on her site Emmawatson.com, explaining her decision. “I will still be working towards my degree ... it’s just going to take me ...

LOS ANGELES ― I’d almost forgotten what an unabashed liberal Sidney Lumet had been until I read an essay by New York Post critic Kyle Smith, an unabashed conservative who has little good to say about Lumet’s signature work, seeing it as emblematic of the weak-kneed moral relativism of lefty do-gooders. Taking apart Lumet’s “12 Angry Men,” Smith dubs it an “ur-myth of liberal fantasy,” saying “one...

Norwegian Wood Opening April 21 Drama. Directed by Tran Anh Hung. Upon hearing the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood,” a Japanese businessman reminisces about the intense romance of his university days in Tokyo, set against the turbulent student riots of the late 1960s. Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), an aloof university student at the time, had lost Kizuki -- his best friend in high school -- a...

LOS ANGELES ― When Max Winkler set out to make a movie, he made one thing clear: He didn’t want any help from his Hollywood veteran father, no matter how tempting the prospect. Editing his directorial debut, “Ceremony,” out of his boyhood bedroom put Winkler mighty close to Dad ― Henry Winkler, still remembered best as the Fonz from “Happy Days.” “I would walk down the hall and I would have a s...

“The Journals of Musan” will be shown with English subtitles at Cinecode Sonje in Samcheong-dong this week. A scene from “The Journals of Musan” (JINJIN Pictures) “The Journals of Musan” is director Park Jung-bum’s debut feature, about a North Korean defector Jeon Seung-chul (Park Jung-bum) who originally came to South Korea to live a better life, but finds it difficult to be happy with his def...

The short film “Ghost,” directed by Lee Jung-Jin (a.k.a. Ma Dahci), has been selected for the Short Film Competition of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. “Ghost” is a 10-minute thriller about a criminal hiding in an empty house in a deserted town where gentrification has been discontinued. “Ghost” by Lee Jung-jin The Short Film Competition is an official competition category that highlights young...

Canadian director brings film about artists with Down syndrome to Women’s Film Festival Canadian animation director Shira Avni makes films that are “in between genres.” “Animated documentaries don’t fit into doc festivals, nor do they fit into anime festivals,” Avni told The Korea Herald in Seoul last week. “But they get invited to both.” Her 2009 animated documentary, “Trying Your Own Shoes,”...

Norwegian Wood Opening April 21 Drama. Directed by Tran Anh Hung. Upon hearing The Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood,” a Japanese businessman reminisces about the intense romance of his university days in Tokyo, set against the turbulent student riots of the late 1960s. Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), an aloof university student at the time, had lost Kizuki -- his best friend in high school -- a...

Horror movie fans haven’t had much to scream about lately, but that may be about to change. With “Scream 4,” which opens Friday, director Wes Craven pumps fresh blood into his landmark horror franchise set in the not-so-sleepy town of Woodsboro, Calif. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, veterans of the three previous “Scream” movies, return along with original writer Kevin William...