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{"id":2824,"date":"2005-05-09T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-09T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/popcorn-movie-arthouse-fare\/"},"modified":"2005-05-09T18:07:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-09T18:07:00","slug":"popcorn-movie-arthouse-fare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/popcorn-movie-arthouse-fare.html","title":{"rendered":"Popcorn movie? Arthouse fare?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Four months ago, I noted a Studio Briefing<\/a> item on the recent boom in Russian movie-ticket sales, which stated: \u201cThe most popular film of the year was a sci-fi thriller titled Night Watch<\/a><\/i>, which set a record for a Russian Film, $30 million. The highest-grossing foreign film in Russia was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/i>, which took in $14 million.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a sci-fi buff, I was intrigued to hear of this film \u2014 which is not<\/i> to be confused with either the 1994 Danish thriller<\/a> of that name or the 1997 remake<\/a> starring Ewan McGregor and Nick Nolte \u2014 and it occurred to me that this might be yet another example of how North American theatres often get the artier films from overseas (like Alexander Sokurov\u2019s Russian Ark<\/a><\/i> or Andrei Zvyagintsev\u2019s The Return<\/a><\/i>) but don\u2019t always get the more popular films.<\/p>\n

Well, it looks like we\u2019re going to see this film after all; it opens in \u201cselect cities\u201d in July, and a trailer for it is now available here<\/a>. Alas, I can\u2019t say it grabs me, but I\u2019m still intrigued enough to want to give it a look when it comes out, if only to see what sort of films the likes of Sokurov are competing with when they complain<\/a> there is currently no place for \u201ccinematographic art\u201d in their theatres; it would seem they are not only competing with \u201cAmerican\u201d films (or whatever nationality The Lord of the Rings<\/a><\/i>, Troy<\/i>, Harry Potter<\/a><\/i> and other recent international blockbusters might be).<\/p>\n

JAN 27 UPDATE: It will open in mid-February, now. Click here<\/a> for a trailer that compresses the entire movie into three minutes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"